Alternative DPM and UK Militia.

I have recently finished a small batch of figures from Under Fire Miniatures. The first lot were inspired by pictures I saw of British infantry wearing blue coloured DPM, apparently they have been issued for OPFOR purposes at BATUS (British Army Training Unit Suffield) in Canada. As I had some spare 2010 Helmand British that were surplus to requirements I knocked up this section.

Bill of Under Fire is in the midsts of developing a future timeline called Reiever ’25 as a setting for some civil distrubance in the UK games. The work so far can be found here:

http://www.underfireminiatures.com/page2.htm

The first new releases to support this are a pack each of armed civies for countryside and urban enviroments.

First up the Urban pack- all youthful armed with Pistol, Shotgun and MP5s:

Then we have the countryside pack, more older gents, with the possible exception of the AWOL squaddie. They come with 2 SA80s, a Lee Enfield sniper and a hunting rifle.

 

I look forward to seeing the project expanded upon and some scenarios released too.

 

Cheers,

 

Pete.

 

 

6mm Cold War game report. Part2- the game.

Following straight on from the last post:

After due consideration Brian decided to place his forces as below, all of the companies dug in or taking cover as appropriate.

Evan decided to have a broad advance, mixing the little mechanised infantry in and amongst his tanks. After his first turn, which he elected to take as a Scurry, his dispositions and intentions looked like this:

In 5core Brigade Commander a D6 is rolled at the start of a players turn: on a 1 the turn is a Scurry (all can move) on a 2-5 it is a standard turn (1 unit in 3 may activate) on a 6 it is a Firefight (all may shoot).

Evan put most of his effort into his right flank. A high number of activations (using his assets well) meant that he encircled the bottom wood.

At this point Brian rolled a Scurry turn and used it to withdraw from what would have been a heavy attack. Evan then took up the positions that the Soviets had vacated.

Focussing on the centre and his left flank Evan moved forward and occupied the hills for a commanding position.

As you can see Brian has started to lose his units. Unfortunately this seemed to be the high water point of the West German advance. Brigade Commander uses two different dice in its combat system, Shock dice produce morale results and Kill dice produce the losses (we just use blue and red dice respectively. Basically for the remainder of the game Brian was spectacularly lucky with his shock dice. As soon as Evan tried to advance Brian’s units firing on overwatch would send them scurrying back to which ever spot of cover they tried to emerge from. Thematically you could explain this by the fact that the West German forces were deeply unsettled by the Soviet offensive so much so their counter attack went in at something far below peak efficiency. Mechanically Brian just rolled a lot of 6s on the blue dice.

Though he was pushed back in the West German right flank Brian’s units did not break completely. Still inflicting losses on Evan.

Whilst artillery is very potent in the game, as it should be in a game at this level, it did not shift that many of Brian’s units out of their cover, it really wasn’t Evan’s night. That the right flank took all of his attention he failed to breakthrough at all in the centre of left.

With the attack completely stalled and the time getting late we decided to call the game.

 

It was a hard-fought game and at time a little frustrating for Evan his plan was sound but Brian’s luck was seemingly endless. Still next week will see the 6mm forces take to the table again, we shall see what happens.

 

Cheers,

 

Pete.

 

 

 

6mm Cold War game report. Pt1 the set up.

Earlier this week I umpired a game of 5core: Brigade Commander (by Nordic Weasel) for Evan and Brian.

I knocked up the following generic scenario:

Soviet Briefing.

Date: 1984.

Location: The Former West Germany.

Situation: The attack into Germany has gone well but the focus has shifted from our sector. Hold the line in the face of the counter attack.

Victory Conditions: Control the North/ South Road.

Initial deployment: Set up any where within 18” of the North/ South road.

Special Rules: The weather is bad until informed otherwise. Max visibility is 24”. No aircraft can fly.

Forces:

HQ Coy.

6 BMP Motor Rifle Coys.

2 Tank (T64 no ERA) Coys.

1 ATGM Coy (may be split into 2 attachments at your discretion).

2 AA Aetachments.

1 Light Recce Attachment.

1 Heavy Recce Attachment

1 Engineer Attachment.

You have the following Assets:

1 one use Stonk

1 Persistent Stonk

1 Persistent Deception

1 one use Shock Operations

1 one use Communications jamming

West German Briefing.

Date: 1985.

Location: West Germany.

Situation: The Soviet offensive seems to have stalled, now is the time to counter attack to regain some lateral movement.

Victory Conditions: Secure the North/ South Road.

Initial deployment: Enter from your board edge.

Special Rules: The weather is bad until informed otherwise. Max visibility is 24”. No aircraft can fly.

Forces:

HQ Coy.

8 Leopard 2 Coys.

6 Marder/ infantry Coys.

2 Heavy Recce Attachments

2 AA Attachments.

3 Engineer Attachments.

You have the following Assets:

2 one use Stonks.

1 persistent Stonk.

1 persistent Intel advantage

1 persistent Coordination

1 one use Shoot and Scoot

1 one use Tactical Withdrawal.

This was the set up:

Whilst we were discussing possible games a bit back Brian made the suggestion to make cards to to played for the assets. These assets are one of my favourite parts of the rule set as they allow you to add a large degree of differentiation between the forces. While a big advantage of the system is that it takes a relative approach to vehicle performance it does mean that some units feel a bit generic. An hour or so on the PC saw these knocked up. I printed them onto thin card then put them in the sleeves that Collectable Card Gamers use.

Next will be the pictures from the game itself.

Cheers,

Pete.

Some heavy metal comes forth from the Shed.

These were the last  of the 1/72nd vehicles that brought me up to my total for the quarter- see last post.

First up a Dragon Models M103 heavy tank. A great kit to build, and the single colour paint job went well too. Serving from the fifties to the early seventies it will make an interesting opponent to my IS3s.

A Model Collect TOS1, basically the Katyusha from WW2 updated with Thermobaric warheads and mounted on a tank chassis, in this case a T72. They first saw operational testing in the Soviet war in Afghanistan then further use in Chechnya.

Last but not least we have an S and S models Jagdpanzer Kanone in resin, I acquired this one from ebay a while ago. Seems like the tank hunters design lived on a bit longer after WW2, the 90mm gun of its was a rmed with soon became obsolete; the chassis were converted to carry Anti tank guided missiles instead.

This trio should make for some interesting additions to my post war games.

 

Cheers,

 

Pete.

2nd Quarter 2016.

In the past 3 months I have read 24 books, painted 46 20mm and 95 6mm figures. In terms of vehicles I have finished 8 1/72nd scale kits and 52 1/300th boats. In something of a departure I also painted 2 1/1200th boats.

 

Cheers,

 

Pete.