Coming soon-ish: A Force On Force campaign

I spoke to a few people at Trumpeter Salute about starting a Force On Force campaign. I'm going to have to miss the May game night, but I would still like to start it up in June. I'll post more details later, but here's the basic idea:

- The campaign will centre around a (fictional) platoon of Canadian soldiers fighting the Taliban in Kandahar, Afghanistan, around 2006-7. We'll be using the Force On Force campaign rules.

- We'll be tracking the progress of the 'characters', not the players. So anyone can drop in for a game, or miss a game, or even switch sides from game to game if they like, without interrupting the continuity of the storyline.

- For the first little while, the games will be small. We may even be able to get in several games per session, depending how things work out. Later, the battles could get larger with more support options (like when I get my LAVs!!).

- I'll post AARs here, on my photo log, and on Facebook, in case people who aren't playing in the campaign are still interested in watching the progress (and/or decline) of the soldiers and the insurgency.

A few photos from Trumpeter Salute

Here are a few photos from my "Busy Day In Kandahar" game from Trumpeter Salute. Unfortunately the battery on my phone died before I could get any photos of the second game, "Bomber In The Bazaar."

Busy Day In Kandahar was notable mainly because it's the first time in any of my Force On Force games where the Coalition forces were able to eke out a win! We didn't play through the full 8 turns, but by the time we finished almost every Taliban fighter on the board was dead or had fled. Canadian fire was very effective, having wiped out both Taliban MG teams and one of their sniper teams in the first turn.

Another major factor in the game was Fog Of War cards, causing mayhem for both sides all over the board. I really like the cards. They add a lot of the unpredictable and random elements you read about, but which are hard to replicate in a game. Radio problems, IED and old Soviet mine strikes, interference from higher command, low ammo, random mobs of civilians, and all sorts of other events had a big influence on the game.

Canadian section commander and medic position themselves to watch over both the rescue of the wounded soldier and the EOD team.

The EOD team, supported by a 2 Section fire team, wait for the area around the IED to be secured before getting down to business.

A Tier-one Taliban team arrives near the IED.

1 Section, having pulled the wounded soldier into the cover of a nearby building, lay down fire in three different directions at the Taliban. The small building in the upper left was the scene of several bloody assaults, after a Canadian fire team was captured by Taliban and subsequently rescued by their comrades.

Canadian sniper and GPMG teams, with help from an infantry section, watch over the HLZ.

Also, Magnum.

UPDATE: Courtesy of fellow Trumpeter Tony, here are some photos from the Bomber In The Bazaar game:

Force On Force Pre-Convention Playtest

I had some friends over for a game of Force On Force last weekend, ostensibly to play test one of the scenarios I have planned for Trumpeter Salute, but mostly to give myself a refresher on the rules before hosting two public games. We played Bomber In The Bazaar, from the Operation Enduring Freedom source book, somewhat modified to make it a bit more winnable for the Coalition forces. As it turns out, the game was still really hard on the Coalition - I'll have to adjust it a bit more to make it fair for the tournament.

Here are a few random photos from the game.

Civilians mill about in the Bazaar.

Just another quiet market day...

The view from NE.

A Canadian fireteam and their Human Terrain Team enter the bazaar to disperse the crowds.

A group of Taliban get ready to cause mayhem in the market.

Despite having seen his compatriots mown down by a Canadian fireteam, the lone survivor of a Taliban cell remains defiant! (from behind a compound wall)

CHOMPBOT update: Headlights

I was able to get my hands on some clear white LEDs and a AAA battery holder, so this afternoon I wired everything up and finished the electronics part of my CHOMPBOT build:

The red square is a push-button switch for turning the lights on and off.

I have all the parts sanded and ready for assembly, but I need to get some styerene rods to use as the pins in the hinges of the CHOMPBOT's knees, ankles and elbows. Once that's done I can dry-assemble the whole thing, make sure it all works, and then start painting.

Starting the CHOMPBOT

After finishing my Tiger I wanted to do another scale model, but I wanted to do something a bit more light-hearted, and not as grim as another war tank. After some searching around, I found the CHOMPBOT at the Industria Mechanika site. It was one of many, cool models available there (and only one of the two I bought... more on the second one, some day in the future). It is silly and super cute and I expect it will be a lot of fun to make.

I started construction a few days ago. It's a resin model and there are a few small flaws in the cast, but nothing too bad, mostly mould lines.

There is a series of posts on Industria Mechanika following one modeller's progress with building his CHOMPBOT. He drilled out the two front lights and installed LEDs. I think I'll do the same, but I also thought it would be cool to add some recessed lighting under the control panel in the cockpit.

So today I went to Lee's Electronics and picked up some 1.8mm LEDs and a few other bits (which I later found out were not the right bits, so back to Lee's I will go next week). This evening I spent some time drilling and filing and soldering, and finally just installed the lights and tried them out. It's alive!

I have 6 white LEDs in there. The lights by themselves were a bit too sharp, so I put in a roll of white paper to act as a diffuser. I think it's going to be awesome when I get everything painted up!

Some Mar Quar

I finished the squad of Crusader Quar, half of which I posted earlier, and painted all of my Partisans.

First, the Partisans:

 

I had a blast painting these guys. The poses are good, and each one has its own unique character. After the last few projects I've worked on, it was super fun to take 8 related-but-distinct miniatures, come up with a different colour scheme for each, and take the time on each one to try and do my best work on it.

I had a few snags when working on these guys: the shoulder strap I added to the lantern guy's rifle (which you can't really see here) didn't quite work out as nicely as I would have liked, the guy with the green cloak was painted to look like he's wearing a curtain but the pattern kind of disappeared when I washed it, and the plaid I painted on the molotov thrower's vest worked out better than most I have done, but not as well as I would have liked. That said, I am very happy with them as a group, and I think they are some of my nicest minis.

Next, the Crusaders:

These photos include the five guys I posted earlier, plus the other five from the squad, and their ax-packin' leader. These guys were fun also, though a bit more monotonous to finish up than the Partisans. That's the nature of painting uniforms, I guess. I think these guys worked out really well also, and they look good as a group.

Bolt Action Time-lapse

I had a game of Bolt Action with a few friends yesterday. It was a similar scenario to last time: Red Devils Paras, plus a Cromwell, trying to destroy a German artillery battery. We had 2 people playing each side, and I was the only person who had ever played a miniatures game before! The game went long (and the battery ran out on my GoPro before the end of the game) but we played it to a razor's edge conclusion, where it pretty much came down to the commander of the German forces trying to hold off the commander of the Paras before he finally surrendered.

The time-lapse isn't very informative, in that you can't see the figures or really tell what's going on in the game, but whatever. Here it is.