More Chechen Fighters....

A day on the brushes and a chance to get more Chechen fighters finished for the Chechnya project.

I had originally opted for 4 man regular fire teams within Chris Peers - At Close Quarter rules but given recent "Zikanga" games opted for 6 man sections, each containing 1 RPG/AT weapon and a squad LMG, supported by an NCO and 3 riflemen. This should give the Chechen's comparable fire power to the Russian fire teams.

I am thinking that a full company may be somewhere near 40 figures, with a scattering of support weapons, a very loose formation depending on what turns up on the day.

I have started pulling together a few scenario ideas together and perhaps a limited campaign based on a Russian column and it's push into Chechnya and the Capital Grozny, more on that in the coming weeks.


Next up heavy weapons and more militia types.

Zikanga Campaign AAR #7 - The Wild Turkey's....

I should have got this posted up several weeks ago, but the holiday period has provided me the time to finally start to catch up, besides unlike Christmas morning it's gone 11 and no one has risen from their beds.....

Another campaign outing in the hinterland of Zinkanga.
For followers of this blog you will recall President Okoye's troops were being pushed back by the rebel forces under the command of Charity Nsithlan.

In an effort to reverse the situation President Okoye has hired a South African mercenary - Jan Muller to capture Charity's money man - Lowdsa Doollar, the mission went without a hitch and Muller and his team were soon back on the civilian transport heading out of the country all they had to do was get through the UN checkpoint....

Zikanga is no different to the UK - Traffic everywhere - sit and wait or make alternative plans. Decisions, decisions, decisions....

Muller and his team are hidden on the grey bus, caught between the UN checkpoint and Nsithlan militia who are hunting for them.

Every village is checked and if no weapons are found, the vehicle will be allowed through the checkpoint... The UN have strict orders only return fire if fired upon and defend the border from insurgents.

If only Muller was aware of that.

Never a shy man - Muller drags Lowdsa from the bus, firing a burst at the UN border guards sending them diving for cover.... Wow what a start.....

Meanwhile Mullers recon section bursts from their holding position in the village looking to help sneak their valuable package across the border. The locals run for cover seeing the Nsithlan forces entering on the table at various points.

"Get yer lovely arses out of here! I'm just holdin' the fort!" - MO Arthur Witty - The wild Geese.

Nsithlan militia are poorly trained but have plenty of heavy weapons to throw about, the recon section is instantly under fire from the militia rushing on to the table and advancing through the village.

Man down - The volume of inbound fire increases and one of the recon team is knocked to the ground with a blast injury, a taste of things to come????

Meanwhile on the highway, Muller is counting the cost of his rash burst of fire into the UN patrol, pinned by fire from the checkpoint and now facing fire from the Nsithlan militia and their numerous RPG's.
An orange Renault 5 proves to be of little cover in a fire fight.

Needing to make a swift decision Alpha squad rush towards the checkpoint but are stopped in their tracks by a burst of aimed fire from the UN contingent.

Swinging right Muller pulls his remaining forces together and rushes a gap in the wire seeking to burst through, he knew he would take casualties but if he could get the package across the border he could find safety in the bush.....

What follows was a blood bath..... needless to say Muller never reached the wire the only good news was Lowdsa Doollar was killed in the same hail of bullets as the rest of Mullers team.

Sadly no pay day for Muller and another loss for President Okoye.

Yorkshire Falls - Campaign Game #7

The last game of the year and it turned out to be a cracker....

Encouraged by their last victory the Human forces pushed on.

Generals Furphy and Dane gave orders to advance on Yorkshire in three flying columns, the Martian invader was already restricted in their capacity to reinforce as their cylinder had been destroyed a few weeks earlier, but being not of human mind and knowing no fear vowed to fight to the death.

Out numbered 2:1 it was always going to be difficult to hold mankind at bay.

The table layout, two of the human columns can be seen, but no Martian is in sight, only the clinging red weed, which was rapidly expanding across the English countryside.

Opting for a very mobile force to counter the artillery of HM land forces, the Martian invader is forced into action as the left hand column brings it's guns to bear, the Martian scutlers, scamper forwards looking to destroy the weaker column before it can become established in the village.

One order to far!!!

The Scout machines are caught in the flank as the local yeomanry line the walls and windows of the nearby village, a savage volley destroy's one metal monster and sends the other back towards the Martian lines.

The Militia advance, but the creatures from Mars stand firm firing their heat rays and launching cannister rounds of the terrible black smoke, the militia waiver but recover their nerve as supporting artillery fire damages a number of the war machines.

Facing advancing infantry on both flanks the Martian smoke projectors fall back to seek shelter on the reverse slop of the hill as more of their number surcum to the rising rifle fire.

Meanwhile for a brief moment the smiles are wiped from the faces of the human commanders as their field artillery look to flank the main Martian force, they stubble into the last Martian force, hidden in an empty farm house, they destroy one of the guns, before they were silenced by shell and bullet.

 

The final Martian machines are cornered and destroyed....

The north is free from the out of world invader... but the Martian invader is due to take the offensive next, so things could change very rapidly.

2016 is looking like a very busy year.....

Merry Christmas all.

Chechen Fighters - Eureka Miniatures.

Back in November a few of us over at the Wyvern's got drawn into a new project, largely due to Furphy's long held desire to game the 1st Chechen War, he got off to a cracking start. (see here.)
While I finished off the Cavalry Brigade for the Martian invasion campaign.....

Any how a gap in the run up to Christmas, finally a day to get some paint on lead and give him some opposition.

We agreed on 15mm in order to utilise some of our existing Russian Front terrain and urban buildings, besides the supporting vehicles gives us more scope for larger games. 

The Eureka mini's are small compared to others on the market, but they are well sculpted and take paint very well.

I have given them a mix of urban and regular camo, with a few civilian clothes thrown in for good measure.

First up a regular Chechen squad, the plan was to use Chris Peers - At Close Quarters Rules and have the Chechen's formed into squads of 6 men, 4 AK armed troops together with an LMG in support and an RPG.

More senior officers were based on 2p pieces, with the regular fighters based on pennies.
In order to identify NCO's. I added some smaller bricks on the bases.

I am really rather pleased with how the 1st squad has turned out.
They should given the Russians a run for their money.

Next up more Chechen's.

Zombicide - Black Plague - Christmas comes early......

Working from home this time of year can be a little tiresome, it's seems that almost every hour there is another knock at the door with various parcels, my wife is actually on first name terms with the Amazon man....

Then out of the Blue...... finally a brown box with my name on it..........

I only played the Modern Zombicide once, but found it to be great fun.
Although the club won't let me play any more after rashly triggering an increase in the zombie levels that got everyone killed.

Perhaps it will be difference as we step back in time. Black Plague takes us back several hundred years, this time around, death stalks the land as Necromancers summon the undead to wreak havoc upon the world.

Gone are the guns, knives, baseball bats, now you can set about the undead with steel, arrow and magic spells...... for me it has a real old skool D&D feel to it....

 

The game comes with some lovely dashboards to hold all of your items and track your Experience/Danger Levels which makes it easier to organise your characters. Each character is stored in it's own holder with place holders for weapons and equipment.

 

Well presented and very well put together. Zombicide has restored my faith in Kickstarter's.... Alien Dungeon take note.....


Forget Christmas palour games.... A real game for all the family.....
And as we are all on the same side no arguments...... let's hope I learned the leasons from the last club outing !!!!!

England Invaded - The Charge of the Heavy Brigade.

Finally after weeks on the paint table the Heavy Cavalry are finished, the urge came due to the desire to beat last years figure total.
A mere 30 mini's needed to beat last years paint tally.... childish I know, but hey if it gets figures on the table.

Another unit by the guy's down under - Eureka from their Crimea range, far to much detail for me to get the best out of them, but the dynamic poses are just what I was looking for, charging across the battlefield looking to send the evil Martians back to the Red planet.

With any luck you should see these entering the campaign in the coming weeks, given the recent victory in Scotland - I just need to persuade the Human players to invest in a stable....

 

Next up something a little more modern....

News from the Scottish Front...... Campaign Game 6

Tremendous news from the north of Scotland, Highland forces scrapped together an assault column from the remaining garrisons and launched an attack on the martian forces still holed up in their Scottish enclave. 

The forces of war for both sides.

The human player had a slight numerical advantage and had made use of the recent reinforcements, selecting Artillery and both guard and regular infantry, the Martian player choosing mobility with two scutter fighting machines and two black smoke mobile artillery pieces....

Red weed had already started to take hold, springing up near every pool and water course, clinging to roadside verges and the sides of buildings.

The Infantry massed in a brigaded column and advanced towards the metal monsters, the Martians fired their inkey black cannisters towards the gallant red ranks.

The famous Black Watch deploy and let loose an early volley damaging one of the metal machines damaging its launching mechanism forcing the martian walkers to withdraw behind the buildings.

Sensing an early victory the Infantry advanced, pursuing the alien artillery, but in their haste they had left their own artillery far behind, who were pounched upon by two scutters, they came within a few yards of the limbered guns and fired their white hot heat rays.

The gunners broke and ran pursued over burnt ground by the Martian contraptions, this was to be a fatal move. In their desire to destroy the guns and gunners the machines were pinned by the infantry rushing back to aid the fleeing gunners.

Wave after wave of crashing volley hit the martian invader, who in turn fired back with their heat rays, several ranks fell, swept aside by the whoosh of the heat ray, but their morale held and slowly the cracks began to show in the martian armour, weopons were damaged and the walkers became immobile making them more vunnerable to the volley fire. 

The scuttlers green eyes faded as they died a slow death struck by volley after volley of well aimed rifle fire.

The Martian artillery rallied and rushed to their comrades aid only to be pinned back by yet more rifle fire, whilst they discharged their smoke cannisters they were no match for the Black Watch who were in no mood to let their prey off lightly..... A thunderous volley stopped the Martians in their tracks.

The north of England is free of the martian invader, now the action switches to Yorkshire, can victory be repeated?

One Battle down one to go.....

Wyvern Wargamers - All Dayer December 2015

Just back from the Wyvern Wargamers All dayer.....

It's always nice to put on a big game and get to play it to conclusion as opposed to the "what would have happened is....." conversations at the end of the evening.

4 Games today, 2 large Chain of Command games covering WW2 and the SCW, A very nice Sharp Practice outing hosted by the man himself Rich Clarke and one huge AWI using Black Powder.

 9.00am and the games are already in full swing....

 

Ade has really gone to town on the table layout,  plenty of buildings for the crafty Germans to hide in, to stem the Allied advance.

 

 The Wyverners put on a number of linked scenario's with the Nationalists looking to blunt the Republican advance taking out the Russian Armour.

 Rick Clarke hosted a run through of the forth coming Sharp Practice 2 - A far slicker affair with bonuses for the number of grasp the nettle cards in play - This looks like a must for 2016.....

 I had the honour of commanding the right wing of the Continental Army in Carl's huge Black Powder Game, my orders were simple hold the line while the army camp is broken down and escapes the table.

 Opening shots.

On the far left Flank light troops from both sides flood the wood, here they were to stay for the rest of the day.

 

Cannon's forward.

In the centre the British Artillery are man handled to fire on the opposing French.

  A good command roll in Black Powder can make all the difference, the British expand to line and advance steadily towards my waiting troops.

The French take the initative sweeping away the gunners only to be stopped by British Volleys.

 Meanwhile the wagons roll.

 

On the far left a thin line of militia, attempt to slow the German advance.

 Against the odds the American right flank holds, defeating the mased ranks of red coats including Grenadiers and the Black Watch and with the British Brigade retiring before them, even manage an advance towards the end of the day. The baggage is saved and the British are falling back.

A good day in the office for the Colonial Army.
Shame it's work on Monday - I am in the mood to paint AWI......