The war on terror continues

   As my November painting has been almost non-existent (definitely nothing to write a post about) and it doesn't look like there will be anything post worthy for at least another week I thought I might dedicate a post to a couple of the cool looking games of Sangin Skirmish I have played over the last two Monday evenings.

   The first was a two-part mission for the British regulars. Seek and destroy the weapons cache and clear a path through the town for a safe withdrawal. I didn't get an overhead shot of the board but I took a few close-up photos as the game went on and I have included a few of the better ones below.

The two British fire teams advance into the town to sweep for the weapons cache aware that any building or group of civilians might be hiding a Taliban fighter.

I had spent the first few turns moving the civilians around to either look slightly suspicious or as though they were interested / scared of the British troops coming into their town depending on how I felt the people would act. The guy in the red hoodie was the only civilian that was stop checked and turned out to be a complete red herring.

The first shot of the game - my concealed sniper had lined up a perfect shot and killed his target outright.

   The game ended with two dead British troops compared to a lot of dead Taliban, but the weapon cache had not been found and the road through the town had definitely not been cleared.

   The next game carried on from the last one but we used a mission out of Dispatches 2 - Hold the Ford. The British's mission was to get their wounded, starting off the board on the town edge, to safety on the river edge of the board (the line of sandbags*), while the Taliban do everything they can to stop this from happening. To make it possible, the British get access to a few toys - the wounded are transported in the husky from the last game, which is supported by a warrior tank and the ford is being held by 2 fire teams of British Commandos.

* We couldn't find any river sections!

To stop it being a quick game the convey only gets to come on from turn 2 (in Sangin Skirmish each turn is made up of 10 phases with models activating for 4 phases per turn - determined at the start of the game) and Taliban can place a road block and a medium IED anywhere on the board*.

* The sofa represented the IED in this

game. Something the British 

player came to regret.

The Taliban machine gunner sets up in heavy cover on the Mosque and opens fire at the advancing Commandos, wounding his target and killing the man next to him.

As the warrior appears on the board the Taliban scramble for cover.

The warrior managed to get a single shot off, killing the Taliban hiding behind the well before two hidden RPG armed men came out of hiding to take it out*. New toy syndrome strikes again.

* Playing the Taliban takes

a lot of self-control!

   While the husky made it home carrying the wounded men from the last game, the cost to the British was massive. One dead Commando, one destroyed warrior tank and two men who were so wounded they won't make it home without their comrades coming back for them, while I had lost 11 Taliban. This game while technically a victory to the British was pyrrhic at best.

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Zomtober 2016 - Week 3

Zomtober zombie count: 8

    This week I dug through my lead mountain, properly this time, and resurrected a few half painted or just sprayed models from last year. So this week's contribution to the challenge is another 5 zombies and 2 survivors, plus a bit of scenery I plan to use for both zombie games and Afghanistan.

     Zombies are a mix of Wargames Factory's Zombie Vixens (I still have another sprue to go) and a Studio Miniatures zombies, all bought for Zomtober 2014 . . .

     The first of 5 planned survivors, both are from Studio Miniatures. As you will see with the next 3 as well, I am trying to put together a group who feel like they might be fairly normal people. No swat teams for me just yet.

      Lastly, a quick bit of scatter scenery I thought would work for both zombie games and games set in Afghanistan.

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More scatter terrain for Afghanistan

    My on-going attempt to fill my Aghan table with interesting scatter terrain has been a really fun project to keep me occupied. All the bits in this post have been built and painted over the course of a few weeks, basically, whenever I get an idea, I don't want to get to the point where this is ever forced.

The first bit is less scatter terrain and more added detail - in this case, 

the teddy bear in the doorway.

This second bit is the second road sign in the pack from Empress Miniatures. I wanted something that looked like it was from an election and didn't want to offend anyone or do something set at a particular time - so I created my own using various images from the web. 

The bin bags are from TT Combat.

This next bit is, at best, charitably counted as cover. I doubt a pile of cardboard boxes will save you from a bullet but they might let you sneak up on a position. Boxes are TT Combat.

I think the weapons table was stolen from something I saw online a while back but it has been floating around in my ideas pile for so long that it had to be done, plus it can be the focus of a mission - stop the weapons dealer.

Barrels and boxes are TT Combat, board is the side of an afghan wagon I didn't use and various guns and ammo are from the Assualt Group.

Again, going for line of sight blocking more than real usable cover, I wanted the scenery to include real life bits not just properly defendable hiding places. So a pile of tyres felt like the answer. Again, the tyres are from TT Combat - what a great pack that was.

Our first test run of Modern Bolt Action. In the future, I would like a much denser board, but for the amount we are playing at the moment, this is perfectly adequate.

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Somali Pirates

    First thing, I want to mention that I didn't paint these figures, I am not going to claim credit for them but with a week of half finished projects, I've got nothing of my own painted so these guys get the limelight. 

    In a natural (?) progression from Sangin Skirmish in Afghanistan, we have decided to have a look at playing a game set in a different theatre that could affect our game and we picked a game based on how the Taliban get their supplies and materials. Somali pirates became the obvious go-to project.*

* Conversations about wargaming

should never be taken out of context.

     The models are from Eureka Miniatures and the paint job is by Daemontail Miniatures. This was my first foray into professional painters and one that I doubt I will make too much of a habit of but I am really impressed with the results.*

     I've had these sitting on my desk since Salute and I just couldn't get myself to motivated to start putting paint onto them, so as there we only twelve it seemed like the perfect opportunity to send them to a mate who kept mentioning about his painting studio. It was also quite good fun finding images of the football shirts I wanted knowing full well someone else was going to have to attempt to do them.

* Painting your own figures is

what makes the army feel 

'yours' in my head.

Now to sort out the ship. . .

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Normal life in a conflict zone

     I have been saving up the odds and sods that I have been painting up as part of my Afghan project and I definitely have enough to constitute a post, so here it is:

    First up are the civilians themselves. I've kept to the same basic colour schemes as I did my fighters as they are supposed to blend in. I reckon I still need some more but this is enough for the time being.

        Next up is the livestock; the two big bases of goats have already been used in a game but the others are new additions.

          These are the bits I am most pleased with. A spur of the moment Salute buy and what a buy they have turned out to be.

        This last thing is one of two road signs I picked up with the satellites and air-con units. I'm trying to find some election posters for the other one but as some basic advertising, I think this is ok. The real test is whether I've picked a coke sign with the right language on it.

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Little details

     After getting back from a quick trip around Flanders and Belgium I have found myself inspired to pick up the collection of Sarissa Precision French shops that I bought last summer and actually finish them, but that isn't what this post is about. That inspiration also got me started on a few other scenery projects that have sat half-finished or very nearly finished, the first of which is this one.

     I have posted about my Afghan buildings before and used them in a few games but they were always missing something, something that actually made them look lived in. I had known that Empress Miniatures was planning a range of modern building accessories for a while but when Salute came and went without any sign of a release I gave up hope that they would be out anytime soon until a couple of weeks ago a little message went up on their facebook page and the bits were live. A cheeky little order later and I had a pack of satellite dishes, some air-con units and some road signs.

      I've still got a few of each to use, plus the road signs to finish so there is more to come in the future.

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Filling a table

     As much as the stuff going up on this blog has been a right mix of different things, the game I have been playing the most in recent weeks is still Sangin Skirmish and I noticed while playing on Friday that I hadn't updated my blog with the most recent bits of scenery.

The board on Friday.

Two story building from Timeline Miniatures.

A rebased Timeline Miniatures with foamboard extensions. 

I've still got a little bit of work to do on this one.

Tinned-fruit compound.

Tinned-fruit single building.

Tinned-fruit compound.

Tinned-fruit row of shops.

     The Timeline Miniature buildings are MDF that I have covered in filler and painted to match my current scenery, while the tinned-fruit buildings are hand-made (by someone else) foam board buildings that I have, also, painted to match. The barrels and pots are all from Baueda that were picked up at Salute, while the coke machine was also a Salute purchase but I have no idea which company it is from.

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