WIP Cold War Soviets

I have slowly been working on my Soviets for a Cold War Gone Hot game that I will be putting on in February.  I have 52 infantry that I am currently working on, with a few heavy weapons still needing to be built that I might add to the force.  Here are a few WIP pics I have taken along the way.

Soviets on Pennies very early on

Based and Primed with a Black wash to help me see detail

Bases painted along with uniforms

Flesh, Helmet, base and uniform painted

Some T-80s, BTR-80s and infantry in various stages

Starting to look like a Soviet

I am at the stage where I will be painting 1 squad at a time to actually finish them.  Still have a ways to go, but these are definitely a lot more exciting than Taliban to paint.

I have 1 more BTR-80 on the way along with 4 T-64s and 4 BMP2s from Sandsmodels.  I have been taking pictures of individual soldiers along the way in hopes of making a painting tutorial at the end of this project.

Cold War Gone Hot Project

If you have been reading my blog you may be aware that I am going to host a couple games at Denver Genghis Con in February of 2014.  One of the scenario ideas I have is for a "What if" the Soviet Union invaded West Germany in the late 1980's.  For this scenario I will be pitting the USSR against the BAOR (British Army of the Rhine).

I started work on my Elhiem Soviets.  The idea is to have 2 mechanized platoons of infantry available for the players.  I might add a few more if time allows it.  I have cleaned and mounted my infantry, and sorted the 2 platoons.  As you can see I have some spare figures so if I want I can add a few more squads.  I have 4 T-80s built along with 2 BTR-80s.  I want to purchase some T-55s, BRDMs and BMPs.  I also own 2 T-62s and 2 T-72s and 1 more BTR-80.

(Photo taken from Elhiem.com)

For the BAOR I have a platoon of infantry mounted, based, primed and started on some brush work.  I have all of the special weapons, hq and extras coming from Elhiem right now.  I also have 4 Challenger 1s, 2 Scorpions, 2 Scimitars, and 4 Warriors built up and being mounted on bases.

My good friend Lee is going to be helping me with the terrain.  Lee is responsible for my Afghanistan terrain board and all of the buildings that go along with it.  Over the past year I have purchased numerous buildings from Gamecraft, Italeri and some other companies.  Lee will be making a full table for my two forces to destroy each other on.  I will be helping him as much as I can, but he is fully aware that my main attention will be on all of my infantry and vehicles.

So far some buildings have been built, and a lot of supplies have been bought.  We have done some preliminary sketches, and just from that I can say that this table will be awesome.  If you have not seen my Afghanistan Table I highly suggest looking through some of my old posts.  Lee has learnt a lot since then.

Just wanted to update you all as I haven't posted in over a week.  Hopefully I will have a post soon about some new shiny 15mm sci fi troopers from Clearhorizon.

Convention Scenario Ideas and Ramblings

In February Denver Gamer's Association will be hosting one of their 2 conventions called Genghiscon.  This is the larger of the two conventions they host every year and usually has a decent crowd for miniature games.  This year I wasn't motivated enough to put on any games at Tacticon in early September, although I did help my friend Matt out and helped run the booth of one of my friendly local game stores.  I have been brewing a few ideas and would like some input from the community.  All of my games will be done using the Force on Force rules by Ambush Alley Games as I really enjoy these rules and I feel very comfortable teaching others how to play.  I also have painted miniatures and terrain for this rule set.

The convention itself starts Thursday, February the 13th to Monday the 17th.  Not much goes on Thursday and Monday so I don't really plan to do anything those days.

Friday: I was planning on hosting a game set in Afghanistan.  I am just about finished with my last 60ish Taliban putting my total at over 120 painted insurgents and civilian types.  I also have an over sized platoons worth of British Army/Royal Marines fully painted and I am working on the rest of my British Vehicles which a full list can be found here.  I do have some USMC started, but only 1 squad fully painted so would require a decent amount of work to get to convention standards.  I also have tons of terrain already done for Afghanistan.  Haven't decided on a scenario yet, but was thinking some vehicles would be nice.

Saturday: Was thinking of doing two games based on Cold War Gone Hot "what if" situations.  I don't have anything painted for this period, but I do have a BAOR platoon cleaned primed and base coated along with a bunch of vehicles built and a ton of Soviets nearly prepped for priming with a bunch of vehicles built with others to be built too.  I also have an entire European style village's worth of buildings, schools and factories that are in random stages of being built.  This project would take the most effort.  I figure something grandiose would be best as I want this to be the game that attracts the most people.  Vehicles on both sides with lots of infantry to push around.  My ideas were anything from a hold until relieved, breakout, fighting withdrawal or a capture and control mission.

Sunday: Since I will be working on Soviets, and I have a ton of Afghanistan locale painted up, I figured it would be fun and different to do the Russian invasion of Afghanistan.  I already have the terrain for it as the country looks the same through out history.  I will have to dig up the scenario, but I believe someone wrote up one based on the movie The Beast.  I will have to look into this one some more, but I believe this could be quite exciting to play.

So here are my ideas.  I have 4 1/2 months to get ready.  Any input would be appreciated.  What kind of scenarios do you prefer to play at a convention?  Would you do something different?  I don't want to venture too far from these time periods/regions as this is what I already own and have a decent amount ready for.

On a side note, I finally found and bought some Winsor and Newton Series 7 brushes.  I have always wanted to try these, but could never find a distributor once I had the money to buy them.  I have been using a #1 on my Taliban and have been really enjoying them.  They definitely hold a lot more paint than an Army Painter of Games Workshop paint brush and have a much nicer point.  In total I have a 00, 0, 1 and 4.

Hopefully I will have some finished pictures of my Taliban soon.  Also planning on finishing my Warriors very soon.

Chechen War

Hello everyone, I have had a pretty good last couple of weeks.  Went to Vegas for a Magic Tournament (and because it is Vegas) and did pretty well for a semi-competitive player like myself.  Placed 55th and 64th in the two days which was enough for making my money back and then more.  Also won some money gambling which was nice.  Overall was a very nice vacation with two good friends.

Anyways, I have been working on these pictures for a while and finally have another battle report for you all.  My good friend Matt has been working on some models for the First Chechen War.  We played this game sometime last year and since then he has finished most if not all of the buildings.  

For this scenario the Russian forces have begun the invasion of Grozny and are attempting to reach the presidential palace.  Grozny has taken a sever pounding from artillery and air raids.  The Chechen forces are well equipped and highly motivated to defend their home.

We used the Ambush Alley Force on Force rules for this game.  This is the initial Russian invasion force and is made up of mostly conscripts.  Their troop quality will be a low 6 along with their morale.  The Chechen force will be an irregular force with troop quality 8 and morale 8.  The Russian's have numerous T-80s, BMP2s and a lot of troops.  The Chechens have an old BMP-1 and dug in troops hidden in the buildings.  

Fighting started early with the Russians taking a devastating losses.  1 BMP went up in a blaze killing most of the crew and passengers and wounding the rest.  T-80s were being hit my AT weapons every turn.  The Chechens however were definitely paying for it though.  Most of their initial forces were systematically wiped out by machine gun fire from the Russians.

Chechens pour enough AT fire into one of the T-80s to knock it out.

Russian T-80 takes a hit from a ATGM launched by the BMP-1 and finds itself immobilized.

Russians manager to secure the right flank and begin pressing forward.

Russian casualties are becoming a major burden.

Russians were severely punished for their use of poorly trained conscripts and lack of tactics.  The Chechens suffered heavy losses, but kept the Russians away from the Presidential Palace.  Russian high command would have to come up with a better plan to take Grozny from the Chechens while minimizing anymore disastrous losses like this battle.

Hope you guys like the pictures.  Still brainstorming ideas for a guide on "How to play Force on Force".  

I have been working on a PHR force for Dropzone commander and magnetizing them.  Hopefully I can find time to take some pictures and post them up for you soon.

GenghisCon 2013

This past weekend was one of the local conventions called GenghisCon. My friend and I hosted numerous games, most of them using the Force on Force rules as a basis.

On Friday I helped my friend Matt run a near future game called "The War of Southern Aggression".  Was a fun little skirmish between two equal forces.  I believe the South one with some very aggressive tactics.  The North force seemed to be way too conservative and allowed the South to get much better fire lanes.

Saturday I ran 3 games of Force on Force based on the Cold War Gone Hot supplement.  The scenarios were sort of a 3 stage invasion by the Soviet Union.  Scenario 1 represented the initial invasion and the blocking/delaying forces that NATO would have to use in order to try to stem the Red Tide.  Scenario 2 was a retreat by NATO forces along with strategic town/city defenses.  Soviet companies would plan to surround and crush all resistance.  Scenario 3 was the NATO counter-attack into the overextended Soviet Forces.  These battles were very quick and bloody.  My first real dive into engagements involving multiple vehicles on each side.

Then on Sunday I hosted 1 game of Force on Force based in Afghanistan.  The scenario was for the British forces to escort a person of interest back to base.  Of course the Taliban had other ideas...

Was a very fun weekend, but I am glad it was over.  Work has been kicking my butt, so preparing for this convention was very hard and stressful.  I did not get nearly as much done as I would have liked to.

I will plan to write at least one blog post a week.  I have written out a plan for what I want to get done this year and in the next few months.  Going to set aside a few hours every week to work on miniatures.

I was curious if people would be interested in a detailed review of how to play Force on Force.  Basically it would be a multiple post guide that goes through an entire turn of Force on Force and the different aspects of the game.  I was either thinking pictures with explanations or maybe try to webcam it.  Any thoughts?

If you guys would like to see anything in particular let me know too!