Modern Rules Playtest

Sorry I’m a day late- those who know me would not be surprised that my virtual time keeping is as bad as my real world efforts.

Right, as to where I am with the rules (they really need a decent name so answers on a postcard [or comment] please), the rule amendments are all done and playtested, and I’m working through a campaign, Evan is running a 2010 onwards British platoon for me and hopefully Brian will start a similar one, though this time with Germans later this week.

The games have been platoon sized (where I’ve pitched the game) and I’m trying to get the balance right when it comes to what the PEFs turn into. I want the game to be easy for the Western/ Coalition/ NATO player until something goes wrong then the really challenge starts. That said I’m tempted to add more variation to the reinforcements table already. Another thing I’ve been experimenting with is large numbers of PEFs, the game below featured 16 (to be fair the table was 6 by 4 and I rolled for activation in groups of 4 and that worked fine. However given that the EAL was only 2 the majority turned out to be false alarms… It remains to be seen how this works when the EAL is significantly higher.

‘Right enough waffle Pete’ I’m hearing your say ‘on to the pics’… The basic set up was to have Evan’s platoon set up in the middle of the board and defend the large compound for the required number of turns, 12 in this case. PEFs surrounded him and then didn’t really do much, I was hoping for some viscous assaults from multiple sides to really test his deployment of forces but the dice didn’t choose that path. The activation dice didn’t give the insurgents a chance for 4 turns on the trot at one stage.

The randomly generated table with the defended building in the middle.

Tooled up Brits prepare for what could be their Rorke’s Drift.

Taliban appear and move up.

A brief firefight ensues.

Given the fire power that a modern platoon can bring to bear they were often one sided.

Evan got lucky with the dice and received a squad of ANA as reinforcements.

Some civilians wander through a field at the edge of the board.

The ANA adopt a roof top fire position and get the Taliban in a cross fire. Just after this the game ended at the conclusion of turn 12.

Apologies that there are so few photos, running the game took a fair bit of time. It was a fairly quite engagement really, though it gave Evan a gentle introduction into the mechanisms. Hopefully tomorrows game will provide more excitement.

Cheers,

Pete.

A few terrain items.

Been chipping away in the shed as usual- I’m not documenting all that I’ve done (though if you want to see my WW2 Polish that I’ve been working on please shout out) I have been getting some scenery finished. I’m a big believer in having plenty of terrain, both in your collection and on your table.

Having plenty in your collection allows yous to ‘theme’ each table, as you might have seen in my previous post I’ve organized my terrain into old fruit boxes based on rough geographic areas. That way I try not to have nominally ‘French’ buildings for the Normandy battles of 1944 masquerading as down town Grozny in 1994; I think it adds a lot to the effect of a Toy Soldier game. It is something of a luxury I know but I’ve always found terrain building the most enjoyable part of the modelling side of the hobby.

The more terrain you put on the table the better game you’ll have. More so in a skirmish game- blocking lines of sight and hindering movement as well as giving cover from fire all the fun stuff that gives you the choices that make a game fun.

Anyway enough of the pontificating… on to the pictures.

Two Vietnam buildings in resin from Britannia.

The same from a higher angle with the roofs removed.

A pair of Falklands buildings from the Timecast range- though sold as 15mm they will work fine with my 20mm collection.

The ‘Top Malo’ house from the same range, surprisingly small, even given the scale difference, more so when you read about the action that was centered on it.

See here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skirmish_at_Top_Malo_House

Dapol fences- not particularly exciting but rather useful nonetheless.

Game-wise it has been a good week. Tuesday I ran through another playtest of my modern rules with Evan (AAR and pics coming tomorrow), Wednesday I popped down to Sheffield to see Tim Gow ( of Megablitz and More fame) and to play a map game of the Indo- Portuguese clash over Goa, Friday saw Brian and I look at the classic board game ‘Druid’. To top off the week an Osprey arrived, the new one on Russian Paramilitary and Security Forces- I’m hoping it will prove useful for when I expand my moderns rules to cover Chechnya.

Cheers,

Pete.

Local Military History Society- Public lecture schedule 2013/14

There is a local history society that give regular public talk that are open to everyone. I’ve just received the program for the rest of this year and the first half of next year.

I wouldn’t bother with the March 19th one- the guy is an idiot 😉

Cheers,

Pete.