Project Cold-War Chain of Command

Hello again.  Yes, I'm back after surviving the madness that was Salute.  No pictures, as so many others already do it and I can't be bothered with doing it as well.  I bought very little, a box of Victrix new plastic peltasts, half for my eldest son and half for me, a nice mdf gate from Warbases, a copy of Charlie Don't Surf from the Lardies and, erm, that was it.  I know, a poor effort all round, but I was there more to deliver some of Gus' collection than to get things for myself.  That's not to say that I couldn't have spent a lot, there was so much there that I could have quite happily bought, but I restrained myself.  I doesn't help that I had dropped a big chunk of change on Battlefront Anzacs in their 40% off sale(more on that in a bit).

Anyway, back to the point of this post.  Chain of Command, I really like these rules and they have quickly become one of the first games of choice amongst my local gaming buddies.  I got to thinking about the old, loved but underused figures I have here, sat idling their time away in drawers and boxes.  Now I can be quite mercenary with figures, usually thinking that if I haven't played with them for more than a couple of years I may as well get rid of them.  So why do I still have my Cold War 28mm collection then?  Because I love 'em, that's why.  Some lovely figures from Mongrel Miniatures and Mo-Fo Miniatures, supported by some awesome vehicles from Sloppy Jalopy and the now sadly defunct Chieftain Models. 


I have enough to do a platoon of British in either Spartans(RAF Regiment) or Fv432s(Infantry), supported by Scorpions, a Sultan, a Samson, a Ferret and a Chieftain!  Almost all are painted, except the Fv432's, whose dastardly tracks were just too annoying to finish off and the Ferret.

 They have a Milan, a tripod GPMG and some Carl Gustavs as well










Against them I have enough Russians for a full platoon, with RPGs and the like.  They also have vehicular support in the shape of 3 BMPs and 2 recently acquired "toy" T-55s, from the James Bond Collection.

I also have a small force of US Marines, but not enough for a platoon.

So, my plan is to do an easy variation of Chain of Command to allow me to use this collection.  Most of the rules don't need changing as the small unit tactics don't seem to have changed all that much.  Weapons seem to fire a bit faster and there are better communications now, but the squad/platoon still appears to work in much the same way.


Now, I must admit that I have been a bit cheeky here and stolen, ahem, borrowed some of the following information from another blog, Sapper Joes Wargaming & Toys.  He has worked out most of the weapon clarifications already and his thoughts match mine pretty well, so thank you Sapper Joe.

L1A1 self loading rifles / Semi automatic rifle

L42A1 or SVD rifle / Sniper rifle

AK47 and M16A1 rifle / Assault rifle

L2A3 Sterling / SMG

L4 Bren or RPK/D  / Magazine feed LMG

L7A2 or PKM GPMG / Belt feed LMG

L7A2 GPMG (in Sustained Fire mode) / Tripod mounted MMG

M79 grenade launder / Rifle grenade with a minimum range of 10” (30m)

M16A1 & M203 grenade launcher / Assault rifle with rifle grenade (Min. range 10”)

L9A1 51mm mortar / Light mortar

L16A1 81mm mortar / Medium mortar

I need to work out stats for vehicles, armour, gun effect etc.  Also details for AT weapons, as the infantry have RPGs, LAWs and Carl Gustav rockets.  Then there are the ATGWs, as the Britis have a Milan team and the Russians have AT-3 Saggers and AT-5 Spandrel missiles on the BMPs.

The other part of the plan is to also do a "What If" using my new 15mm Anzacs and my old AK-47 figures.  I like the Anzacs, with the Centurions and M113 Beast with the Saladin turret, so I got some and plan to do an Australian Intervention force in Africa.  Don't know why, but it seemed like a good idea at the time, so I now have 3 platoons of Anzac infantry, 6 M113s with MG turrets, 2 M113 Beasts and 2 Centurions.

More to follow as hopefully I may get a small playtest game in tomorrow with Nathan.....hopefully.  Keep rolling those dice.

Stupid insomnia

Well its 12.45am and yet again I can't get to sleep.  Dropped off for about 30 minutes and now I am wide awake again.  Let's just say I am not impressed.

Anyway, I might as well update this just to annoy all of you (well, the few who read it anyway).  I have finished some more figures, again for Nathan rather than myself.  After painting some Zulu's last time, it's now the turn for some British infantry to face them.  A mixture of Black Tree Design and Empress Miniatures again, these came out pretty well I think, although the trousers look brighter in the picture than they do in reality.  Well, I hope he likes them anyway.

The Empress figures are nicer, being more realistic in proportion and detail than the the Black Tree ones, but both are very good figures and, too be honest, the Black Tree figures are much easier to paint.  The nicest figures are probably the Defenders of Rorkes Drift set,with Hook drinking brandy and Colour Sergeant Bourne being my favourites.  Next up are some Empress gun crew and 2 Boer types to lead his NNC troops.

In other news, I have started listing Gus' remaining stuff on eBay. More will go on every time that eBay have a free listing weekend, but we are getting through it now.  Now if anybody who reads this is interested in a mass of unpainted 6mm Napoleonic Allies and/or French for Waterloo, I can do you a deal!  There appears to be enough to do the entire Allied and French orders of battle here, all unpainted except for the Brunswickers.  I have never seen so many unpainted 6mm figures.

It is now less than a week until Salute and must say that I am looking forward to it.  I have missed the last few years, either through working nights or being skint, sick or otherwise engaged.  It will be nice to get there again and have a look at all the traders new releases.  Planned purchases are limited, a box of Victrix new plastic Peltasts and hopefully some Cataphract types to complete my Ancients cavalry horde.  This plan will probably last about 5 minutes once I am in the place, something will jump out at me and I'll fold like a wet paper bag, but for now at least I have a plan. 

Ah well, its now gone past 1am and I am going to go and watch some crap on the TV in the vain hope that it will send me to sleep.  Catch you all next time and keep rolling those dice.

Zulus! Farsands of 'em.........

Well, 18 to be exact.  Nathan asked me to paint up some for him so here they are.  My first "native" figures and they were actually more fun to paint than I expected.  They will be off to him for basing soon, so they will match in with all the others he has already. There are 8 experienced warriors, with headdresses and leopard skin tabards.  Then 4 younger warriors with not much decoration.  They are supported by 5 foot and 1 mounted figures with rifles or muskets.  

The only other things I have got painted have been 10 Gripping Beast horse archers, but they were put to use before I could photograph them and are still on the table at Zobs.


The Devon Wargames meet was a few weeks ago now, but here are some random, blurry photos from it.

First up is Steve's game of Saga, put on at the last minute to cater for the large number of people.  Over 20 players were there, including several new faces.  The 2 on the right are my sons, its nice to see them getting on!  They played several games, not sure who won but they all seemed to enjoy it.

Steve also put on this game, with one of the the other Steve's.  Steve's Romans were fighting Steve's Germans............using Hail Caesar.  The Romans scrapped a marginal victory, despite taking heavy losses.  The Germans were hindered by the inability of the left flank force to move.  It took them forever to get in on the flank of the Romans and, by the time they did, the center tribes had been slapped about and were falling back.  Oh well, we enjoyed it.  I am not sold on Hail Caesar, I still prefer Crusader Ancients rules, but would play these again.  I still have to try War & Conquest at some point as well.  Thanks to Roman Steve for running it and German/SAGA Steve for providing his troops to be butchered.

The third game was Nathan's Colonial game.  Anglo-Egyptians advancing in the face of hostile native Sudanese and Fuzzies.  From the look of things it was a black day for the Empire, with squares breaking and units being butchered all over the place. 

In other news, our Salute tickets have arrived so we are definitely going now.   I have several tons of painted Napoleonics to deliver, plus a few things to pick up for myself.  I also folded under the pressure and ordered some of the Battlefront Vietnam stuff while they have a sale on.  I have liked their ANZAC figures for a while, so have a platoon of them, plus some M113s and conversion bits to make the fire support version with the Saladin turret.  The plan is to do a what-if setup based on ANZAC support going to Africa, utilising the under used AK-47 figures I have in drawers here.  I am still toying with the idea of getting a few more bits, like Centurions and maybe some more M113s.

Anyway, that's it.  I am off now to contemplate painting some British Colonial infantry types.  Keep rolling those dice.

Salute

As Salute is rapidly closing it was decided that we needed to get the tickets, so they have been ordered. There are 3 of us going from down here in wet and windy Devon, catching the train this year so we don't have to worry about driving, parking and speeding!

The 25pdrs are closer again to completion, with the basing about 50% done now. I am still waiting for the decals for the Stugs and Panzergrenadiers to arrive. Apart from that I have had a day of assembling models to paint later this week.


Here are the "heavy support" for my Luftwaffe troops for PBI2. Mighty and impressive are they not? What do you mean, Not? They are two former French Army R-35's although they have been joined by some H-35/39's with rockets on the side as well now.

Ho hum, back to the grind.