Dispatches from the front XXXV - Getting stuff done.

February already...

Whilst real life can often get in the way in the final quarter of the financial year, thank heavens for a hobby that keeps me occupied outside of work.

Sticking with the theme of getting stuff done it looks like February is shaping up to be another Crusade month, after the Cotswold day I still have a pile of Arab and Christian forces to get done. But first up a Sarissa Radio Station, a gift from a friend from his to do pile.

The Sarissa kits go together really well and a swift paint job and a bunch of posters to make it suitable for a number of games for Modern Africa and the Visitor mash up in Zikanga.

The Arabs are prepped and based over Christmas so time to get them on the paint table.

Meanwhile another year older a whole pile of inspiration for the year ahead.

So many plans so little time.

Zikanga - The rescue

Welcome to Part 2

With the Warlords militia firmly in control of the village, intel has reached command that the UN prisoners are still being held in the village - Strike Force Dagger have orders to infiltrate the village find the missing Blue Helmets and get them out.

8 Buildings but which one was holding the prisoners? - The mission started well with the silencer armed spec ops men taking out several guards randomly patrolling the village, the operators peered into a number of the buildings. No hostages only sleeping militia men.

Guards are taken out very often at close range, before any alarms can be raised.

Strike Force Dagger went on over watch on several of the huts just in case any of the warlords troopers awoke. Each hunt contained between 1-4 men.

5 Huts down and no sign of the UN men, at the far end of the village a guard spotted a trooper (double 6) and shouted an alarm.

The militia man went down under several silenced rounds, but the village was starting to stir.

Finally X marks the spot and Hut 7 revealed the prisoners....

The alarm was sounded and a number of the garrison spilled into the street, several never made it as the operators on overwatch fired a burst into the militia men before heading out into the early morning mist.

Slipping out of the back window of hut 7, the UN men were escorted away as a trooper kept the heads down of the militia men.

Several rounds whizzed past the escaping hostages, one wounding a special ops man in the arm, but they made good their escape.

At the far end of the village the main force fell back drawing many of the garrison with them, allowing the hostages to slip into the hinterland.

Mission accomplished.

Not a bad encounter, a couple more tweaks to the rules adding in over watch and the ability of the SF teams to improve their targeting. 

I also split the models into NPC's and Characters only recording location of wounds for the leaders of the militia and all of the SF Team which made the recording of wounds simpler and made the militia men far more expendable.

The body count was 12 militia men for one wounded SF trooper which felt about right.

Old is the new, new - back to Zikanga.

It's been a while since we took a trip to Zikanga, I was wasting a few hours on the web when I came upon Joe Legan's Grunts Forward rules a variation to his Platoon Forward rules these are for isometric warfare and come with a whole bunch of new scenarios and adjusted blinds for irregular forces.

We got chatting about about rules for modern skirmish games and some of the rules of the past and how some of the older rule sets seem to be coming back into fashion - Warhammer Historical, Rapid Fire even some of Charles Grant rule sets...

One that cropped up was Foundry's Rules With No Name for Westerns games, then we remembered that they did a modern variant and what do we know they are still available and for free on the Foundry site...  Street Violence – WargamesFoundry

Giving them the once over they needed a couple of tweaks around activations and a couple of other ideas pinched from other rules sets but we had a reasonable rule set across a couple of pages.

A UN Outpost in a village in the hinterland, no Visitors this time but they are not always needed when the whole world collaborates.

With the UN in control of the village, order was starting to return to the region, several gang members were arrested.

But trouble was only a phone call away.

The local Warlord's gang members burst into the village pouring fire into the peace keepers.

The blue helmets stood little chance with militia members appearing from every nook and cranny.

A fun quick game giving these rules a run out, the wound rules were interesting rolling to see where you were hit, in the hope that elements of the cover protected you from the flying lead.

Despite the UN professional soldiers being a better class, quantity had it's own quality and the militia were able to force enough of the defenders to dive for cover, whilst other gang members got close.

Dropping the cards initiative to a quality level approach allowed us to get more figures on the table, but we may need to slim down the counters and markers, all in all a fun game with poor quality troops very often pinned down by the fewer better armed troops.

Let's see how a team of special forces get on next time?

V the Mini Series - Knock Knock #5

Over the years I have switched between several rules sets and this outing is no different. In low level games I like the idea of ducking back and being pinned by fire, Chain Reaction by Two Hour Wargames really captures this well and strikes the balance between 'Stars' and regular troopers.

Back to the depths of Zikanga where the Visitors have been struggling to suppress the local population, it just goes to show not every mothership was sent to major US and European cities. 

Intelligence has led to resistance leader Soloman Mohah who is located in a village protected by a group of militia men. The Visitors need to capture him, whilst keeping casualties to a minimum.

The Visitors can approach the village from any of the access roads, the militia man the main check point and have men in most of the huts. The militia outnumber the Visitors by 3:1 but they are poorer quality. 

Picking the right access road Diana and the Shock Troopers rush in with the heavy laser cannon pouring fire into the militia men who stumbled from the first hut. The intention to attract the defenders and draw them out of their defensive positions.

Having drawn the sentries away a fresh detachment of Shock Troopers advanced up the main road using the concrete pillars as cover. 

As the firefight at the front of the village continues, further Visitors land at the rear of the village, which is largely undefended.

The Visitors get the drop on Soloman, taking out a number of his guards who were unable to react in time. Caught in the open they are cut down where they stood.

A lowly technician rushes round the corner to grab Soloman but is shot down, he would not get a second shot as another technician sets her blaster to stun and Soloman is down.

Visitors fill the village while the remainder of Soloman militia hide in the huts unwilling to risk more of their number in a firefight with the Shock Troopers. 

A fun encounter which delivered the right result. One person of interest captured, 15 of his militiamen killed for the loss of only two troopers. The Chain Reaction rules work really well, with the lower quality militia were often unable to react and fire in the same turn. The Visitor Body armour protected many of the troopers unless caught in the open at close range or from higher calibre weapons of the militia.

The reaction rules worked well, the threat of the heavy laser cannon and the blasters forced many of the militia to keep their heads down when better trained troops might be inclined to return fire....

Episode 6 - Can Soloman Mohah be rescued?

V The mini-series - Yet more Visitors.

A break from all the khaki and back to some Crooked Dice Miniatures which I picked up last March at Hammerhead. The latest 'not' V troops were modelled on the Security Troopers of the original 80's mini-series. They were distinguished by a gold-coloured helmets.

However, I had already created a number of these before the extras appeared in the Crooked Dice catalogue, so I opted for Charles Elite Guard - Only seen in the later TV series which followed a few years after the series mini-series.

Commander Charles was a high-ranking Visitor who served as The Leader's special envoy. He is sent to take over military operations from Diana, his guards had white uniforms in a style similar to the shock troopers.

Other entrants making appearance from the TV series were the Visitor jeeps, first up a Laser Cannon manned by Shock Troopers, the second is manned by a V technician. I still need to add the Visitor decal, but they look the part.

Don't forget 'not' Willie. Willie was a Visitor technician who was originally scheduled to be deployed in Saudi Arabia - Played by Robert Englund they have really captured his likeness.

Quite a force with a lander proxy.... Feels like a fresh outing is required soon.

V the Mini Series - Outer World Encounters #5

Not every encounter takes place on earth.

The Visitor reach stretches far beyond our solar system, the outer worlds are populated by various species, with various levels of technology. In an unnamed Jungle world a party of shock troopers landed with orders to secure the processing plant, but they were not alone, a private military company was also racing for the resources to make matters worse the planet was infected by a terrible disease which turned the locals into zombies. 

The compound was defended by mobile robotic defences programmed to attack on sight anyone crossing the fence.

Both Shock Troopers and the PMC's made use of the available cover and set about cleansing the locals.

While the PMC had their hands full Diana and here troopers rushed for the security gate and the hard cover it gave the defenders.

True to 'TV' form the Shock Troopers fired and missed which enraged the PMC who made short work of the remaining infected and turned their attention on the Visitors.

Smoke had covered Diana's advance but it also served to allow the PMC's to get in close. One private burst through the smoke killing one of the troopers who was engaged in a long range fire fight with the advancing PMC's only to be killed before he could make good his escape.

Within the compound surprisingly the engineers were able to destroy the sentrybot and as the battle raged at the gate they were able to disable jammers and call for reinforcements. 

Game Over.

Great fun and nice to get in a big game of Stargrave, the random locals made for a good mix forcing both players to think about each move as each round of fire brought more encounters onto the table.

Dispatches from the front XXII - Projects old and new.

A rather eclectic mix of games and projects.

First up club night and over at the Wyvern's a 4 player Stargrave outing, using anything we can get our hands on, just simply turn up and play.

One of the chaps dug out the Core Space playing board, despite it only being 2x2 it did make a fun encounter with lots of laser blasts and Aliens popping out of the walls and floors. Warlords Algoryn took the bragging rights on the night.

Meanwhile the Visitors from the 4th planet from the Sirian Star make hard work of picking off the local inhabitants.

After months of nagging I finally relented and let my young nephew play with the grown up toys. King Arthur has to travel the table visiting various way points picking up recruits and defeating any nasty's along the way. We picked Songs of Blades and Heroes as a great introduction to proper gaming. 

My young padawan  picked up the rules really quickly, even if  he did play fast and loose with the measuring stick :-) After slaying numerous enemies.... Arthur was victorious.

I fear I have created a monster.

A fun encounter besides it gave me the excuse to finish off a couple of odds and ends such as the Warbases Gibbet and the mighty Excalibur stuck firmly in a stone. 

Having given the Sudan a well overdue outing I saw a post of on Tales From GHQ: The Battle of Tettenhall Green with an excellent game of The Very British Civil War. It's been a long while since Worcester was a flame... so maybe time for another outing.

With the King residing in the County at Madresfield Court, Worcester has stuck to it's long held motto of "Civitas in bello et pace fidelis" - The City Faithful in War & Peace. The City maintains a moderate pro government stance with reluctant support from the regular royalist forces and local Worcester City police.

Whilst largely peaceful as the crisis in the country unfolds a number of opposition groups have sprung up, notably armed elements from the Severn Riverside, Wharf, Labours Federation (SRWLF) with an enclave in the Diglis area. This group is supported by communists out of Birmingham and armaments being shipped over the Malvern's from the Anglican's based in Hereford. 

Just need to find where I packed the figures away now.

That's an old project now for a new one - Coming soon in May.

For years I fancied turning the excellent Standard Games - Outremer/Cry Havoc game to miniatures, with the new Baron's War range it might just make it to the table.

Until next time.....