Imperial Commander - Chechen style...

Another distraction.
The plan was to try Force on Force for the larger Chechen encounters, but the recent nostalgic review of Laserburn Imperial Commander gave us an excuse/opportunity to go old skool and give them a try for ultra modern gaming.

The Chechen's are holed up in the local council house on the far side of town, the Russians are tasked with breaking through local defences and capturing the council house, they are attacking on the two main access roads in a mixture of APC's.

On the right flank the Russian's converge on the T junction, the Chechen defenders are nowhere to be seen, but the Russians know they are out there.

The defenders pop up and fire off a number of RPG and AT rounds, stopping one BTR70's in it's tracks it wheels shot out, a second one is destroyed killing over 70% of the occupants.

The second part of the Chechen move allows them to move away from the building front leaving on one fighter behind having been pinned by the Russian return fire.

On the left flank the Russian advance is blunted by Chechen artillery, firing over open sights it destroys the leading BMP, but it's crew are wiped out before it can take a second shot.

The Chechen front line is outflanked as the Russian AFV's race towards to the council house, forcing the defenders to fall back from their original positions.

All troops we classed as Armoured Infantry and the Russian's as conscripts but even so, being caught in the open is not a good idea the Chechen militia are caught in the road and are wiped out.

The Chechen's only AFV is unmasked behind the headquarter building, it fires misses suffers an ammo failure and loses a track to the return fire.

A Chechen HMG opens up on the advancing Russian infantry, before being silenced by the Auto-cannons of the Russian BTR's.

In the centre of town the Russian Infantry and debus entering into close combat with the Chechen defenders, a number of "lucky" 5 and 6's allows the attackers to throw a number of grenades and fire off several concentrated rounds of Assault Rifle fire.

The Russians close in on the council house, the Chechen's fire off a number of AT rounds, but are not able to hit home.

Russian infantry pour through the breached defences and wipe out the defenders, who are unable to stop the Russian close assault.

A cracking nights gaming, AFV's move swiftly around the table, Infantry are difficult to shift from buildings if dug in. The rules worked well and the two movement phases allowed the defenders to break off before they face concentrated fire.

A couple of tweaks are needed around burst circles for Assault rifles perhaps limiting the damage to a single figure, but overall it gave for a fast moving game with a number of figures and vehciles on the table but the game was wrapped up in 2-3 hours.

Laserburn - Imperial Commander - A real blast from the past....

It must be my age.
These has been a real hankering of late to go back to the early 1980's and swap the all glossly and background filled rule books for something far more simple. Back to the time when rule books were no more than black and white pamphlets, rule sets where you seem to paint loads of figures and removed loads in equal measure.

This nostalgic trip down memory lane took me back to Laserburn - Imperial Commander my first venture into miniature gaming, played on my mate Dave's living room floor, The Redemptionists badly painted in white, inspired somewhat by Mad Max 2 and the defenders of the fuel compound. The Dreaded Sun Gun killing everything that got within 10cm and the Black Guard I seem to recall who were painted in Black Gloss layered on so thick you could see little or no detail on the figures.

Over 30 years later and Laserburn is still available from the fine chaps at 15mm.co.uk,
The A5 booklet is now an A4 ring bound rule set.
The vehicles had been remastered in resin, boy that Lander was a serious piece of metal in it's day.
But little else has changed even down to having to cut out the Near Miss Counters and Weapon Templates yourself.


As tempted as I am to order a platoon of Power Armoured Troopers and Redemptionist Trikes, afterall I have more than £3.00 pocket money to spend now, I wondered whether I could get away with using the core rules for some of the modern Chechen stuff, I have struggled with finding a suitable rule set so far.
Plus with a few additions I could move the forces on 50 years or so for more sci-fi based encounters?

Imperial Commander is a set of rules for massed skirmishes of around 50 figures per side and half a dozen vehicles just the sort of size games I had in mind.

skimming over the rules at less than 20 pages, it does not take long. The following leap out.

• Infantry don't last long if caught in the open.
• APC's tend to brew up on a 5 or 6 spilling their occupants into the street if they get out at all.
• If you play out your ambush correctly you can move away before the enemy can return fire.
• Weapons break down just when you have the perfect shot lined up.

The turn sequence is rather nibble for it's time with a dual move each turn for the active player.
First player moves.

Both players fire.
First player takes a second move.

First player resolves any close combat
Test morale.
Pass over to the second player.

All very promising.
Who would have thought that 30 years later I would be back were I started...
Hopefully the painting has improved a touch.

Frostgrave - Chinese Style.

I guess I can't be the only one with a drawful of figures that come in a blister pack, that don't quite make the grade or fit with the army or faction that are currently on the paint table, the Water Margin Project is no expection - Just why did I order that extra pack?

Surely it always be to pack the postage up?

A few of the club recently talked about running a number of Frostgrave games, desperate not to get into yet another period, I could quite easily convert some of the latest mini's for an outing.....

Back at the foot of lead mountain were half a dozen Blackhat Chinese Wizards and Warlocks - Perfect for the job.

Frostgrave goes east.

The latest off the production line.. Various magic casters.

With the smell of varnish still in the air the Wizards took to the table in a three way Frostgrave encounter. Paul has been steadily building up his collection of terrain, so it was a great excuse to give the newest pieces arun out.

You can see more of his work here.

With enemies to my left and my right.

The plan was a simple one run in, grab the treasure before the statues wake up and head off the table.

The brave band about to embark on the treasure hunt.

Paul makes a frantic dash for the treasure reaching the centre of the table first, his archers keeping my chaps heads down, Dane is having a quiet game for a change one manning a barricade (top of the pictiure) and firing off arrows at anyone brave enough to stick their head out.

Pauls theives reach the first treasure tokens, waking up the stone guardians, who go after the closest enemy insight, meanwhile his nasty ranger finds his mark taking out one of my thugs....

The theives true to their name pick up another bundle of treasures as more statues wake from their slumber.

I edge closer to the main courtyard dispatching a zombie with my oriental knight payment for losing my thug to the flaming archers.

My Construct makes it's way back to the base line a treasure token in hand as my Wizard and is attacked from behind by a pair of wolves who had wandered on to the table.

The final phases become a mad rush for the remaining treasure items. All three players are looking to grab what they can, the statues are tough are getting in the way of all our plans tieing up characters and inflicting a considerable damage on all our warbands.

Eventually I flee off table with two treasure tokens and a badly injured apprentice who goes on to die of his injuries.... Not the best day at the office.
The curse of newly painted figures strikes again.


A great fun outing a perfect club game for a Sunday evening....

Easter Paint Table.

Well the bank holiday may have been a wash out with Storm Katie battering the UK it did give me a chance to hide away in doors and make some serious in roads into the various projects currently on the go.

The priority had to be the Russian infantry for the Chechen Wars project, the vehicles had been completed a couple of months back and they were in need of some infantry support, espically given the planned force on force outing next week.

Three sections completed with their BTR 70/80's transport.

With Armies Army kickstarter, modern winter Russians due for dispatch in the coming months, it will be nice to recieve these knowing that the backbone of the force is complete.

I have a couple of BMP's to make up and some support elements, but they can wait a while.

Monday and time to up a scale.

A further bunch of Chinese militia have been clogging up the paint table for a few weeks, so these needed to be completed before moving on to more fanciful units.

The Avanced Songs of Blades and Heroes rules arrived last week, so these will come in handy when I give the rules a run out shortly. With 50 or so of these complete I can move on to more government types to give Lin Chung a run out taking on the evil Kao Chiu.

 

Whilst the paint dry's on the militia I used the opportunity to finish off some Cherry Blossom trees these should have been ready for Hammerhead but were delayed in the post.

I am not sure how they will stand up to regular game play, I seem to be losing blossom quicker than the real thing. A couple of coats of varish my hold some of the scatter in place - but if anyone has any other suggestions?

Still they do look the part and will give the table a more oriental feel.

And last but not least - The Products for Wargamers pond gets a make over, a new paint job and some extra tufts make it suitable for the Middle East.

Really pleased with the output this weekend.

 
Oh and the Kitchen was finished as well....
I might be in the good books for a few weeks to get this little lot on the paint table.

So many projects so little time.

Russian Infantry - Chechnya 1995

With so many projects, where to start?

Having completed the Chechen Infantry and the Russian Armour recently its probably best to get the Russian Infantry under way to give the Chechen's some opponents. Eventually I should have enough to complete a Full Platoon plus command.

The Russian uniforms of the war came in a variety of types ranging from the splinter camo schemes to the Urban Camouflage popular with the NVD units.

I wanted my Russians to look a little different to their Chechen counterparts and opted for the plain brown trouser and tunics.

The lighting has made them look yellower than they actually are, but I am pleased with the results, I shall probably look to lighten some of the troops smocks to give a more lived in look.

Uniform Guide

Smock -  GW Zamesi Desert

Helmet - Foundry 27A Storm Green

Webbing - GW Death World Forest

Fur Lining - GW Dann Stone

Rifle - Foundry 14A Tan

RPG - Foundry 30A Raw Linen

Boots - Black 

I based the squad on those for the BTR series:-

Squad Leader/BTR Commander, armed with a AK-74 plus Gren Launcher, BTR Driver/Mechanic, BTR Gunner, Machine Gunner, armed with a RPK-74, Grenadier, armed with a RPG-16, Senior Rifleman/Asst. Squad Leader, Rifleman/Asst. Grenadier, 2x Riflemen. 

2 more sections to go including support sections, command and a sniper unit.

The Easter - Lead Challange

Easter Bank holiday, 4 days off work, finally warm enough to varnish winters output and a chance to take stock of the recent flurry of purchases thanks to trips to Hammerhead and WMMS.

I have tried to restrict my interests in recent years to certain periods, but as I look over the latest purchases it dawned on my that the Wargames Butterfly has been creeping into my recent purchases.

In no particular order.

• More for the Water Margin project, with a War Wagon, Carts, Light Cavalry, Infantry and some Chinese Wizards to create a Chinese Frostgrave Faction.
• A whole bunch of Russian Infantry for Chechnya.
• Guardians for Lemuria - Just lovely sculpts.
• Various barricades from Anisty Castings.
• A Martian Blood pool for when the Human forces cross into Martian territory.
• A Pool/Oasis for the Ottoman project which is bound to rise up the painting list with Sharp Practice 2 launch in April.

Quite a to do list and with decorating the kitchen and reversing mother nature in the garden on the agenda. I am begining to think I should have stopped at work.

No promises but let's see what can be achieved this weekend.
Good job some of these tasks can be done between coats of paint and allowing glue to dry.

Chechen Heavy Support - Tilting the odds.

It's been a month or so since the last update from the Chechen front,

I picked up a pack of Eureka's Partisan Heavy Weapons Crew recently and armed them with a heavy artillery piece, not your typical support weapon, but useful in scenario's to send the Russians rushing across the table hunting down the artillery before it can limber up and leave.

I based the gun and crew separately as I am a little unsure of the rules that we will be using for future games. We have a Force of Force run through in the coming weeks, so lets see if they give a better feel that at Close Quarters which need not scale up to larger games.
 

Hopefully I should be able to get some brush time in over the bank holiday which will start to erode the increasing mountain lead which I have picked up from recent shows in March.

So many projects, so little time.....