Who do you think you are... Ross Kemp? Force on Force AAR

Saturday I got to host a fun game of Force on Force by Ambush Alley Games.  It was just a fun learning game between my Modern British Army against the dreaded Taliban somewhere in the Helmand Province of Afghanistan.  

The premise of this scenario was that a curious group of reporters had made their way into a local village and wanted to interview the town elders.  Accompanying the reporters is the platoon commander with his HQ elements.  The commander wanted to learn more about the town and try to create a relationship with the villagers.  He brought his medic along to help treat any villagers that might be suffering from injuries and disease.  For safety reasons the commander has a squad sweeping the town and and quick reaction force available for extraction.

Unbeknownst to the commander, the local insurgency has an insider among the town elders and plans to ambush and capture the civilian news reporting team to take hostage and use as a bargaining chip.

Fairly moderate Afghan Village.  The reporters are deep into the interview process as the commander stands by to ask questions and understand the village's needs.

Taliban start positioning themselves around the village to ambush and hopefully capture the news crew.

Quickly after the first rounds of gunfire the quick reaction force responds and races through town to extract the HQ element and news crew.

Elements of the squad that was sweeping the village find a weapons cash.  They quickly clear the area and disable the cache.

Insurgents attempt to storm the compound containing the Platoon HQ and news crew.  The Platoon Sergeant takes a serious wound, but the HQ element manages to hold off wave after wave of insurgents.

The MRAPs continue to race to the HQ element while the top gunners start to verify enemy contacts and neutralize them.

More Taliban making their way through the village to surround the British Forces.

Wave after wave attempts to breach the compound.

MRAPs are slowed down by a stray donkey cart.  Wary of a possible DBED (donkey born explosive device), they wait till the cart passes by.  Meanwhile Taliban attempt to flank the MRAPs and fire off a round at the rear armor.  The round flies through the air, hits the MRAP and doesn't explode.  Apparently the Taliban's arms dealer supplied them with some duds.

Combined firepower from the MRAPs and British units take their toll on the Taliban.  Most of the Taliban flee the battlefield instead of becoming casualties.

Elements of the first British squad flank the exposed Taliban and unleash a torrent of firepower

Just a few of the Fog of War cards that were dealt this game.  Both players had a god given talent for rolling 1s.  Lot's of random civilians which really made it feel like the players were fighting in a real village.

Was a very fun game.  I have not played a game of Force on Force for quite some time.  Still my favorite rule set by far when it comes to asymmetrical warfare.  Needs some fine tuning still for two trained forces combating each other and the rules are definitely in dire need of reorganizing.  Only thing I couldn't figure out was exactly how to resolve was an IED hitting the bottom of an MRAP.  I just used side armor values plus all the benefits the MRAP gets against IEDs.  What does everyone else use?

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.

When will it end? More Taliban...

I seem to always be painting Taliban! I have been slowly making some progress on the last of my Taliban forces.  It is a mix of some civilian types, more generic militants and a few more specialized guys.  I do have some actual heavy weapons to base up too.  There is a Technical and donkey cart in the background too.  As you can see there are quite a few guys.

The hardest part about the Taliban is getting them to look like a rag tag group of individuals while maintaining a unified feel.  I essentially lump a bunch of them together and paint their shorts and overdress the same color, then paint any other clothing apparel they have a different color.  I try to stick with earthy tones for the most part, but I have seen some blues in pictures.

For those of you that have viewed my blog before, you probably know that I already have quite a few Taliban.  They do need some touching up and will get that treatment once these guys are done.  They also need their bases finished.

56 guys in trays.  It will take about 4 trays to transport all of my Taliban not including the motorcycles, technical and donkey cart.

I also managed to play some Force on Force: Cold War Gone Hot today.  Mostly mechanized units of BAOR vs Soviets.  Was pretty fun.  Was mainly a learning experience as I am not 100% familiar with the vehicle rules in Force on Force and I am running through them to see what I need to work on.  I didn't take any pictures because my forces weren't painted and looked a little tacky, but as I said, was mainly a test game to learn the rules a little bit better.

FoF AAR: Sangin Ambush

Thursday was our weekly meet up at one of our friendly local game stores and I had prepared a game of Force on Force.  I have sort of found a new favorite scenario out of the Enduring Freedom companion book called Sangin Ambush.

I slightly modify most scenarios to cater to the models and terrain I own.  In this case there are suppose to be Viking APCs, but I like to use my MRAPs.  Some terrain placement is also different, but the overall feel of the scenario is still there.

The idea of this scenario is that the 3rd MRAP in the column has been knocked out and the Royal Marines need to rescue the crew and passengers and get back to base out of the Ambush Zone.  However the Taliban are heavily armed and have a different plan in mind.

 The Taliban have pushed a truck in the way of the second MRAP.  Coalition forces are weary of a suspected Vehicle Born IED.

12.7mm DShK HMG teams are on the left side of the column ready to ambush any troops that get out of their MRAPs

British Forces take some unlucky hits early from one of the DShK teams.  This resulted in the death of the Medic and the JTAC becoming a serious wound.  The MRAPs used their GPMGs to neutralize the DShK, but the damage had already been done.

The lead Land Rover WMIK suffered from a mechanical failure and found itself immobilized.  AK and RPG fire also managed to immobilize the other WMIK.

Concentrated firepower from the Land Rovers did a good job of neutralizing the Taliban cells near the front of the column.  ISTAR discovered a person of interest in the area and the Land Rovers not able to capture him, decided that destroying him and his reinforcements was a reasonable alternative.

British forces manage to pull all of the passengers and crew out of the disabled MRAP unharmed, however their firepower was not capable of stopping a massive cell of insurgents to pour out into the street and kill most of the platoon's HQ element.  These Taliban were dealt with, but not without great cost.

I stumbled with a few rules as I had not run a game in a while, and probably gave some fatal tactical advise for the players controlling the Brits.  As usual was a fun game and it is always nice to get my friends playing.  Kurt and Gary didn't disappoint with the plethora of 1s rolled for reaction tests which caused a large amount of Fog of War cards to be drawn.  First time playing with Jayme and it was a blast.

I plan on working with my friends in writing some fun new scenarios to play.  We are also trying to come up with some fun what if scenarios.  Will probably run a game or two at Tacticon in September.

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!  

Tacticon 2012

Back in September of 2012 I attended one of Denver's local conventions called Tacticon.  As usual I ran some Force on Force games (3 to be exact).  These were based on actions in Afghanistan involving the British in the Helmand Province roughly around 2006.

The scenario involved a  British convoy of 4 MRAPs and 2 Landrover WMIKs.  One of the MRAPs had hit a rather large IED and had been disabled.  The convoy had to rescue the crew of the MRAP and head back to base to treat the wounded.  Taliban forces in the area swamped the convoy and attempted to kill as many infidels as possible.

This is how the board was initially set up.  The Apache was not on the table, but was an asset that the British force could call in.

British Troops attempting to create a perimeter.  

This building became Taliban central command in every single scenario.

Overall a very fun scenario.  Very tactically challenging for both sides.  Sorry about the delay in getting this one up.  Will try to be better about posting.

I am finishing up a post about this past weekend's GenghisCon that I ran a bunch of games at.  Was a pretty good convention.  Will probably post it up Friday night.  I took some pretty good pictures and I am just combing through them.