Author: Brigadier Tony

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Engagement At Tuy Hoa

Engagement at Tuy Hoa – March 1968

After the casualties taken fighting in and around Dak To in the final months of 1967, 2nd Battalion of the 173rd Airborne returned to barracks in Tuy Hoa to rest, refit, and train replacements.

Throughout February 1968 key towns and cities in Vietnam have been rocked by the Tet Offensive. For the most part, the 173rd Airborne have not been involved in the offensive. However, intelligence has come in that units of NVA with VC sappers are planning an assault on Tuy Hoa Air Base. To prevent this your company has been deployed north of Tuy Hoa to block the enemy advance. You will take up position in the area of Nha Long village. As such, this is NOT a free fire zone – all support fire (that includes company mortars) will require authorisation. Additionally, you may not fire small arms at targets within 6” of any village building without authorisation.

The enemy are expected to be arriving from the North West.

Report from Cpt P Smith CO of Alpha Company 173rd Airborne
The Battle Rages

Intelligence had confirmed that Communist forces were advancing towards the US Airbase at Tuy Hoa. The 173rd Airborne Division were tasked with blocking and destroying the enemy in the vicinity to the north and west of the village of Nha Long.

The 1st Platoon, led by Lieutenant Francis, and the Weapons Platoon were deployed to the east of the village and advanced immediately to the west. The squads of the 1st Platoon took up positions to the north, south, and within the village, while the Weapons Platoon advanced westwards, north of Nha Long. We soon made contact with enemy forces to the west in light cover and to the northwest in light cover on higher ground.

I promptly requested authorisation to activate our company mortars to lay down a barrage on the enemy troops to the northwest.

Lieutenant Francis’ 1st Platoon engaged VC sappers to the east of the village. The Weapons Platoon’s M60 machine gun teams provided long-range fire against an NVA platoon to the west. As the engagement intensified, the villagers in the adjacent paddy fields quickly sought cover within the village. Meanwhile, the company’s Dog Team was dispatched to the village at a rapid pace to search for hidden caches of food and ordnance. Thanks to their diligent efforts, a substantial quantity of rice and several satchel charges were discovered.

Lieutenant King’s 2nd Platoon and Lieutenant Claridge’s 3rd Platoon received orders to deploy via Huey transport helicopters in succession. The 2nd Platoon disembarked in open terrain to the north of Nha Long, despite encountering some ineffective small arms fire from the ground. The gunship escorting the transport Hueys provided covering fire to ensure a successful landing and inflicted heavy casualties on the enemy to the front of 1st Platoon before taking evasive action to evade more intensive ground fire from adjacent enemy units.

As the 2nd Platoon commenced their advance from the landing position, the mortar barrage was promptly authorised and initiated on the enemy positions to the west. This stalled the enemy’s advance by pinning them down. The barrage was halted to allow Lt. Claridge’s 3rd Platoon to deploy in a Hot LZ in open ground closest to the enemy.

As 3rd Platoon rapidly disembarked from the Huey transports, they took one fatal casualty as they came under enemy small arms fire, RPGs and sniper fire. Again, the Huey Gunship delivered sustained heavy fire on the enemy positions on the ground. As a consequence, the VC sapper platoon was broken and dispersed from the field.

Shortly after an NVA platoon withdrew from the field as it took heavy casualties from the Gunship and all three of our company’s platoons. An air strike was requested and authorised to attack enemy positions on the high ground to the northwest, but the enemy withdrew before the aircraft arrived.

Along with the food and ordnance caches, a high number of enemy bodies were recovered after the engagement which indicates how the enemy dispersed from the field in disarray.
Although, regrettably, our company took 3 fatal casualties, overall this was an outstandingly successful mission.

Report from Lt T Francis 1st Platoon
1st Platoon Walks Down The Road

Acting on orders from my company commander, I deployed first platoon either side of the main highway, with two squads up and one in reserve. The weapons platoon and company HQ were to our left flank in the open ground. The platoon advanced steadily, keeping an eye out for enemy troops both in the village and on the ridge line beyond the huts, although no definitive sightings were made.

When the weapons platoon were engaged by enemy forces, I ordered first squad to lay down fire in support of them and third squad to advance to take their place and enter the village. Local Vietnamese non-combatants generally kept their distance, although one pointed third squad to a place where he told them that VC forces had stored supplies – this turned out to be a red herring and nothing was found.

First squad continued to engage enemy forces on the edge of the jungle to the north west of the village in support of the weapons platoon, with several hits claimed. Meanwhile, second squad had spotted what turned out to be NVA troops to the east of the village beyond the paddy fields. Judging that they were outside of the restricted zone around the settlement, I ordered them to open fire. Third squad moved through the village and engaged further NVA forces directly north of their position with immediate effect.

The platoon consolidated its position, all squads continuing to engage the enemy, until the aerial insertion of third platoon swiftly alleviated any pressure from NVA forces to our front. I advanced first and second squads in line with the north of the village, at which point it became clear that the enemy had broken.

First platoon’s advance to, and defence of, the village ensured that enemy forces were unable to emplace themselves within it and create a stronghold from which it would have been difficult to eject them. That the operation was carried out without casualties is testament to the skill and professionalism of the American soldier.

Report from Lt A King 2nd Platoon
2nd Platoon Advances Down The Ridgeline

2nd Plt under 2LT King was inserted by UH-1 helicopters on the left flank of the company’s advance, near the edge of a lightly wooded area and close to a patch of elephant grass to the west and northwest of Nha Long village.

On approach to the LZ hostile forces were spotted on a hill within the woods and in the elephant grass. The platoon’s gunship escort engaged the enemy in the Elephant Grass with machine gun fire, causing a number of casualties. The pilot requested approval to use rockets on the hostiles in the woods, due to the mission Rules of Engagement, but this was not received.
1st and 2nd squads, the latter with the platoon LT, disembarked from their slicks and hunkered down, engaging the enemy to their front, pinning them down. 3rd squad disembarked and moved rapidly into the woods, with the intention of advancing on the enemy flank.

1st and 2nd squads came under fire from approximately platoon strength forces, causing some shock and one casualty KIA in 1st squad, Pfc Simms.

3rd squad advanced through the woods and, on reaching a slight rise in the terrain, hunkered down to engage the enemy forces on the wooded hill to their north.

As the slicks lifted off to collect 3rd Platoon, the Huey Gunship repositioned to engage the enemy, but was driven off by some lucky shooting by the enemy.

The enemy in the elephant grass was hit by mortar fire called in by other elements of the company, this, together with the steady fire from 1st squad caused them to lose their nerve and withdraw.

1st Squad had not come through this firefight unscathed, in addition to the KIA they suffered they also had suffered some shock. 2LT King moved up to 1st Squad to provide encouragement, they then advanced onto the vacated enemy position and through diligent searches uncovered a punji pit the enemy had left behind, with no further casualties suffered.
2nd and 3rd Squads, having suffered no casualties, advanced through the woods towards the enemy on the hill, but these troops fell back, perhaps due to casualties inflicted on other elements of the enemy forces by the rest of the Company.

1st Squad was about to police the remains of the enemy they had been fighting when elements of 3rd and Weapons platoon took the position.

2nd platoon’s deployment between the 1st & Weapon’s Platoons and the woods helped tie down around 2 platoons of enemy troops and helped prevent enemy forces, later discovered to be a mixture of NVA and VC Sappers, from reaching Nha Long village.

Report from Lt J Claridge 3rd Platoon
Apocalypse Now

The engagement at Tuy Hoa had been in full swing for a while. 3rd Platoon were on standby having just watched 2nd Platoon take off and head for the landing zone. As the radio traffic became more frantic the order finally came to go.

Embarking on the UH-1 transports and accompanied by a Gunship it was clear this was going to be a rough ride. More radio traffic told of a NVA sniper causing trouble and several hits from a concealed RPG team.

As 3rd Platoon flew over the LZ orders came through from the CO of the 173rd to land in a forward position almost on top of the encroaching VC forces near the village. 3rd Squad disembarked into a hail of enemy fire suffering a casualty in the process and becoming pinned. The squad had no choice but to hunker down and return fire.

Meanwhile the supporting gunship peeled of and laid down a devastating fire against the VC.

Receiving further orders from the CO to step up the rate of fire the VC were routed bringing a much-needed reprieve.

The supporting gunship searched for other targets and managed to destroy the RPG team. This was the last straw for the NVA and VC, they began to withdraw from the field leaving our forces to lick their wounds.

A Mars A Day

The last meeting of July saw another outing of my ‘Space:1889 – Cloudships of Mars’ game.

For those who don’t know it, it’s a game based on a 1988 Frank Chadwick design for GDW, set in an alternative ‘Steampunk’ late Victorian timeline on which Earther scientists have discovered a war to get to the planets using the ‘ether waves’ of space (this was actually a theory for a long time!). When the explorers arrive, they discover that the inner planets already have their own civilisations, at different stages of development.

In the case of Mars, the ancient society has stagnated (or deteriorated) back to the level of our own late Renaissance of Italy or India, with rival City-States using gunpowder weapons – along with the odd ‘ancient device’ like a La-serr…. By the 1889 of the title, several Earther nations have established both colonies, trading and mining facilities on Mars, sometimes with a City State as an ally, sometimes as enemies, exactly mirroring the colonial experience on Earth of 1850-1900.

And whilst ground-based forces certainly play their part, as on Earth it is the naval dimension with projects power across the vast, hostile wastes – using flying ‘Cloudships’ which rely on a rare anti-gravity liftwood to allow them to float. The Martians tend to rely on larger, wooden galleys, propelled by sail or giant flywheels; but the Earthers have been quick to develop their own strange craft, powered – of course – by steam engines, producing some very different designs rather akin to the ACW. In 3D… Anyways, there is a large body of RPG, tabletop and boardgame reference material (see links at the end), plus some ‘reimaginings’ of the various planetary sourcebooks.

The Set-Up

For this outing, I decided to have all the actual players as a combined ‘Earth Fleet’, with the Martians run by yours truly as umpire using the ‘fast play’ system developed for when we ran this at several Open Days a couple of years ago. This is always a fun way to arrange things, as I can vary the enemy ‘teeth’ according to how players are doing (as well as how many turn up on the day), and they can have a lot of fun simply trying to co-ordinate the actions of these sub-units via another human, not a dice or card system.

With one player per ship and a, ah, wide choice available, the fleet consisted of:

  • Jon – Royal Navy, HMS Tempest (1890 Improved Typhoon Class destroyer, with quick-firing main guns [2x shots instead of one per turn])
  • Tony – Imperial Russian Navy, HIRMS Volga (River Class strike bomber)
  • Eric – Imperial Austrian Navy, SMS Prinz Eugen (Hero Class light cruiser; only one built…)
  • Stephen – Imperial Japanese Navy, IJN Akagi (unclassified multi-role cruiser, refuses to discuss how many being built, where, when…)
  • Alan – French Navy, FS Massena (new Maréchal’s Class destroyer; like the RN Tempest – but more panache…)
Game 1 – The Bridge At Rik-I-To

The scenario here was that war was brewing with two of the Martian City States who had put aside their normal differences and were about to combine forces to sweep the accursed Earthers from the face of Holy Mars. Or something. Anyways, as their plan hinged on having one force cross the giant canal network, the combined Earther response was to pool their Cloudship forces to strike at the key bridge at Rik-I-To. If that could be destroyed, it would take weeks or months to effect a temporary repair. Of course, as it was an important spot, the Martians would be guarding it, not just with part of their fleet on standing patrol, but also with large deadly ground-based rockets…

[And yes, the plot was another semi-historical ‘steal’ of the main action in the Korean War film ‘The Bridges At Toko-Ri’. Great film of F9 Panthers, if you’re into that sort of thing…]

Now, being a simple soul, I rather expected the smaller ships to zoom in and take-out the rocket batteries before helping to distract the slower Martian ships? Yeah…. Anyways, plan B seemed to be that Jon, Eric and Alan engage in a general melee with all the Martians they could possibly reach, while Stephen and Tony ploughed in low and slow to maximize their bombing accuracy, with occasional pot-shots at any Martian who happened to get in the way!

So, with rockets and gunfire going in all directions and at different heights, the fight split into two sectors:

  • The ‘top cover’ proceeded to knock large chunks out of the three Martian ships, Jon using his bigger guns to deliver deadly jabs from a series of fast, slashing runs whilst Alan deftly manoeuvered to rake one guard ship which effectively dis-masted it! Eric meanwhile was in the thick of it trading broadsides between two enemy ships but seemingly unable to hit with any big guns! He was revenged however when finally ramming one of the larger galleys which Jon’s close rake with a rocket broadside had brought to a halt!
  • The ‘bomber’ boys meanwhile braved both rocket flak and the attentions of a, ah, ‘spare’(?) Martian ship to bore-in, line ahead along the canal. Stephen on Akagi led the charge, shrugging off a number of critical hits to boiler, crew and gun position hits to deliver his two sticks bang on target, with no deductions for speed:height differences. His score with eight d6 was a very respectable 24 points – but the bridge still stood teetering! However, close behind was the majestic Volga with even more majestic (=sloshed) Kapitan Tony, who proceeded, slowly, to ignore all the incoming hits and demolish the remaining structure, closely followed by the tailing even more irate Martian which the others now noticed! So that’s what those signals from Akagi meant…….

In all the dust, explosions and rocket trails, there was some confusion on the Allied side about who should get the most credit in the Official History for destroying the bridge (you know, the objective thingy…). So, I thought the easiest – not to say funniest – method of adjudication would be to ask the so-called ‘neutral’ captains. To a man, they had no hesitation in awarding the lion’s share of the credit to Tony and the Russians, with no national bias at all (except that Alan did waver in thinking the French should vote the other way to whatever the British did!). I thought Stephen as the Japanese took it very well, considering. All the talk of sabotage and revenge was just banter……

Game 2 – Get Marshal Mo-To-Ya

The second thinly-disguised scenario was based on the amazing operation in 1943, when the Americans sent very long range P38s (a fab a/c) to intercept Japanese strategic genius Admiral Yamamoto, who had planned and executed the Pearl Harbour attack (which only really failed because they delegated command to an old school ‘battleship’ admiral; but I digress…).

So, our 1889 version had the Japanese player (Stephen) brief the others that they had broken the Martian codes, and that the brilliant leader Grand Marshal Mo-To-Ya would be reviewing the various fleet detachments before hurling their combined strength blah, blah, blah. The key thing is, they knew where and when he would be at a certain city. Normally, this would be beyond effective range of Earther Cloudships, but the Royal Navy (Jon) then revealed that, apart from building the enormous HMS Thunderbird, they had also been quietly developing long-range re-coaling systems, a series of liftwood barges which could be towed then ‘parked’ at high altitude for later collection – like WW2 drop-tanks! I also took the opportunity to allow each ship 1x ‘elite’ gun crew – only a +1 to hit, but it soon became apparent how even a small adjustment to probabilities affected tactics!

The Allied flotilla thus set-off and arrived just as the Martian fleet hove into view through the clouds. The rather larger than expected fleet…. Ah. Yes, what confronted our intrepid floating heroes was not one Martian ‘Skylord’, one of the biggest Cloudship classes ever built, but two. As even one Skylord was estimated to carry the firepower of more half the Allied Flotilla, this was seen by the more tactically astute players as “…bloody serious…”!

Not only that, but the Grand Marshal also had three of the newer Martian ‘hybrid’ cruisers as escort, Martian built but incorporating Earther technology supplied by less scrupulous nations: big breech-loading guns and steam-power rams (although the latter were in fact clapped-out US train engines, refurbished and resold). Nevertheless, such an opportunity to cripple the enemy war effort before it got fully started was too good to miss, so as the Martians headed for the exit (off the far end of the table), the Allies resolved to sell their lives dearly (or lease them dearly, in the case of the French. Well, you get more return that way, and….).

  • As the giant Skylords were primarily sail-powered, Jon and Tony were among the first to point out that – at some point – these lumbering giants would have to tack (zig-zag), which meant there was more time to get them.
  • Learning from the first scenario, the players all kept saying to each other that the Grand Marshal was the objective, nothing else – so slip past the escorts if possible and pound the two Skylords with everything to hand!

Overall, the plan went quite well – Alan ‘stalked’ one of the escorts using cloud cover to get close before taking any return fire, while Tony and Stephen seemed to be competing for how much explosives they could throw at one ship! Meanwhile, as Eric took on the other Skylord with his now elite Skoda howitzer, Jon was perfecting his ‘left jab’, using his speed and longer, harder reach to knock seven bells out of an escort which was blocking his view (and in the process eliminating much of the bridge crew, thus making control much harder – not that they knew this immediately).

Stephen at one point sailed straight through the middle of the Martian Fleet, partly as his ship had good firepower in the armoured forward arc, but little else – except….. Yes, although he exchanged some withering fire with one Skylord and an escort, his master plan was revealed when he launched the rear-facing torpedo straight into the escort which was turning onto his tail! At that range – just outside the safety zone – the hit was inevitable, and the Martian visibly shuddered and began to lose height (that’s not all it lost, but again full damage was secret).

One great aspect for me with such games is how players learn to ‘read’ a battle, deducing both strengths and weaknesses from observable data. Such was now the case as the battle entered its critical phase, when first Alan then Eric mentioned that one of the Skylords, although damaged for sure, was not firing anywhere near as much as the other – which might mean that it was a transport, not the ‘battleship’ version?

Quickly deciding that the Grand Marshal would use the most powerful ship, the Allies now concentrated their fire. Jon now took quite serious personnel casualties from cannister rakes when closing to deliver a point-blank rocket barrage into the side of the enormous ship, while Eric also pounded it from the other side, starting numerous fires – bad news for a wooden ship! As Tony narrowly avoided a deadly ramming attack from the only functioning escort (sadly, the one with almost no directional control!), Alan and and badly-damaged Stephen sent the transport and the other escort into uncontrolled descents (the escort could probably crash-land ok, but the transport was not so lucky). As the Allies regrouped, they could see that only the smaller escort still had enough height (and control) to escape, but their initial fears about the other Skylord joining it were finally settled as the giant vessel, wracked with multiple fires and with key commanders dead on the bridge, made a long, lumbering dive just outside the city, in the manner of the Hindenburg………

So that was that. Another excellent outing for a genre which deserves a helluva lot more exposure, whether it be the RPG system, pseudo-colonial ground games, or this fabulous ‘Cloudships’ offshoot. It’s not the ‘flying WW1’ of Iron Skies, nor the Aeronef and Dystopian Wars – although the latter two did provide a lot of scratch-building materials! But if you like the idea of ‘3D ACW’, with the ability to construct your own range of peculiar vessels, then this is for you.

My thanks as ever to my long-suffering friends at Maidstone Wargame Society for playing, and The Werelords for resurrecting a brilliant game.

Click on the thumbnails below to see a few shots of the action.

Tactical aside – the Wrong Side of Technology?

There was a lot of discussion afterwards about the merits of the different ship designs – were the fast, sleek British and French (with only a handful of big guns, smaller hulls and crews), better than the rugged, somewhat slower Russian and Austro-Hungarians, with a lot more but smaller weapons? And what of Akagi, with an armoured nose housing all of its big ship-smashers in fixed forward firing casemates, akin to an Me110, but little else?

This all reminded me very much of similar historical arguments along similar lines both in the Victorian period (when turrets first came along), and then later about battlecruisers. In the latter case, they were great when used in their original role, chasing-down and destroying enemy cruisers, but were a disaster when used to bulk-out the main battleship lines “…because they look like them…”?!

In the end, both historically and with Cloudships, there was no ‘correct’ answer. The beauty of the system is that you can let your imaginations rip and, within the spirit of the game (the main rules have a sub-section devoted to ship design, with weight and armour affecting speed – and cost), create your own range of ships and models.

References & Links:
  • Background to ‘Space:1889’ on Wikipedia
  • More about the various games and RPG systems via Boardgamegeek
  • Several of the Cloudships books are on eBay, and some are now old enough to appear on some cheap download sites as PDFs!
  • The first outing of this – in 25mm no less – is still viewable here on the Werelords site.
  • Superb 1/1000th scale scenery (and lobbying to print some 3D Cloudships?) via Tony at Brigade Models. Go on, you know you want to….
Scratch-building 6mm Cloudships

A lunatics’ guide to building your own fleets…

HULLS & MAIN BODIES

1. Brigade Models – their rightly-famous ‘Imperial Skies’ range has some useful hulls and other pieces. And even though they are technically 1/1200th, you just have to look beyond that to possible uses… Recently, I have also used several of their vast range of very nice spaceships to provide the basis for things like ‘assault ships’, carriers, even resupply barges and landing-craft!
2. Peter Pig 1/600th ACW Naval range – A great source of whole or partial hull elements. By using ‘N’ gauge wooden planking as a main deck, you can use various waterline models as the upper and lower hulls. Also, some of the Union monitors come with metal decks, and these make for great ‘advanced’ Earther ships like the medium/heavy British ‘Macefield’.
3. DeAgostini ‘Star Wars’ die-cast models – given the wacky nature of several Martian ships, with a small degree of effort several of these models can be used to great effect. And as die-cast, they’re (a) good to take glue, and (b) damn-near indestructible!
a. I started with the various ‘bikes’, just used upside-down to help disguise their origin! The ‘prongs’ on the front of many of them look great as rams!
b. I also cannot recommend highly enough the ‘Jabba Barge’ (makes a great heavy Martian ‘Hullcutter’ type) and the equally fab ‘Desert Skiff’ (again, makes for a wonderful range of medium vessels)
c. But do check out the MTT transport and some of the other AT* tanks. The ‘Turbo Tank’ makes for a great ironclad (minus the wheels, naturally!). And the ‘chicken walker’ main body is a perfect Martian ‘leading chin’ design.
4. Eaglemoss ‘Star Trek’ die-cast models – not quite so many useful hulls here but still worth checking. For example, the early USS Antares, used inverted, makes for a fabulous small Earther French ironclad, in the same class as the RN workhorse ‘Aphid’. And some of the alien shuttles or freighters can make a good basis for more Martians.
5. Mechwarrior – the various tanks from the miniatures game (minus their tracks) have provided several very handy hull extensions.
6. Star Wars Starship Miniatures – no, not ‘X-Wing’ (unless you have a private income); I mean from the original game. These have provided a lot of the ‘tail controls’ for various ships, the Boda Slave 1 and Sith Infiltrator being particular favourites.
7. Galoob Micro-Machines have a very good Star Wars Jabba Sail Barge, which has provided, umm, ‘quite a few’ Martian landing craft, torpedo boats and even – cut in half – useful prows or flying bridges for larger ships.
8. Heroics & Ros 1/300th – Their WW2 armoured trains are a great source of cabins, armoured hull-extensions and side sponsons. Likewise, their Crusades range of siege equipment and superb armoured Hussite wagons provide great ready-made wing/sponsons for the Martians.
9. Irregular Miniatures – do a great couple of ACW ships actually in this scale, especially ‘Monitor’, which formed the primary hull for the RN ships.
10. ‘Dystopian Wars’ – again, nominally a different scale they have several ships which I have used for hulls or engine pods.

WEAPONS

Mainly dear old Heroics & Ros. Not only are they immensely friendly and helpful, but they have a vast range of kit which is spot-on for what you need:

  • WW1 guns (German 77mm etc)
  • WW2 guns (British 25lbr, German 88mm, 17ldr – all suitably ‘trimmed’)
  • ‘Oddities’ like the WW2 German Nebelwerfer; makes a great ‘Martian mortar’
  • WW2 Armoured trains (AA guns etc)
  • ECW, SYW and Napoleonic (French) guns, with the double-trail
  • ACW and FPW Gatlings, Mitrailleuse MGs
  • Colonial Landing Party Nordenfelts
FIGURES

As for crews, I have used the following H&R packs:

  • Colonial types and Franco-Prussian for Earther regulars, Boers & Confederates for armed civvies and ‘security personnel’
  • Gun crew figures (from the ECW & medieval)
  • SYW ‘Iroquis’ Indians (the light clothing and ‘Mohican’ hair-do is just right for Martians)
  • Ancient Greeks (again, the helmet + crest is spot-on for Martians)

There are some wonderful little vignettes in these packs – I love the guy with a wheelbarrow loaded with cannon-balls! And even the colonial gun-teams have a pair of riders who remind me of a couple of gunners on their break…
I did see some other interesting ranges in the USA – some ‘post-apocalypse’ types make for great Martians. Likewise, if anyone knows of any LOTR ‘elves’, they too would be good.

DETAILING

If even a klutz like me can do this, please give it a try – just adding a few crew figures and the odd pile of coal sacks really brings even these small ships to life.
Model railways have (especially in ‘N’ gauge):

  • packs of coal sacks, bales (cargo) etc.
  • some great ‘signal gantries’ which provided not only some great wing/sponsons, but also (cut down to half height) the ‘brass railings’ for the posher Earther ships.
  • Packs of wooden fences, which make for cheap railings on Earther or Martian ships

Mechwarrior
Not only hulls but most of the rocket pods came from these (the tanks are VERY well-equiped!). I also used some of the smaller weapon turrets as rail-launchers for Martian fire bombs or anti-personnel spikes.
DeAgostini die-cast models
Things like the Ewok ‘hang-glider’ and various solar-sailors provide a variety of strong, ready-made plastic sails for Martian kites, some with rigging!

Pond Life

Tony F goes dumpster diving and makes some water features from scrap materials.

I spotted a couple of commercially made ponds on a table at a recent club meeting, and was struck by the sudden desire (one of Terry Pratchett’s raw inspiration particles maybe ?) to make something similar of my own.

A while ago I came across some scrap pieces of clear acrylic in the skip near my workshop. They were reasonably large bits with the protective film still in place – I assume they were just leftovers from someone else’s job. They’ve been languishing in my shed for the best part of ten years waiting for the right project, and this was finally the right time.

I started by drawing out a couple of random curved shapes on one piece of the acrylic with a Sharpie, and cut them out with a coping saw (which was harder than it should have been – I probably needed a finer-toothed blade). I tidied up the edges and removed any burrs with some sandpaper, taking care not to touch the main surface.

The next stage was to spray the side without the film on. The plan was to use a two-tone effect to give the water depth. Wanting a stagnant, algae-choked look to the water, I started with a very light coat of Citadel Death Guard Green – this was deliberately patchy and light enough to see through when I held it up to the light. In the photo below you can still see the pattern on the protective film through the paint. I then followed it with a much more solid coat of Army Painter Angel Green which would hopefully represent the murkier depths of the ponds. Once this was dry I covered the painted side in clear sticky-back plastic – this would be the side that touched the table and I wanted to protect it from scratches which would be almost impossible to repair.

Turning them over and removing the protective film, I was pleasantly surprised to see the effect – certainly as good as I’d hoped for. I then coated the edges of the ponds with a mixture of brown emulsion paint, sand and PVA glue. When dry this was dry brushed with a couple of lighter shades. The final stage was to decorate the ground texture with lots of different grass tufts, bushes and flock, representing some heavily overgrown banks.

So there we have it – for not much more than an hour’s work (excluding drying time) and a few pence worth of materials (probably the most expensive bits were the various grass tufts), all of which I already had, two small ponds which would work for anything from 15mm scale upwards – the figure in the final photo is a Diehard Miniatures 32mm elite bounty hunter.

I’m tempted to use the same technique to make some river sections, maybe with brown paints for the water instead of green. Ideally I’d paint the edges of the water in a paler colour then spray the centre of the water in the darker tone. This would need a bit more control than that offered by spray cans, so I’d have to break out the airbrush. Watch this space to see if I actually get round to this project…

Work in Progress Wednesday

Jeremey is on holiday this week, so he’s left Tony the keys to the WIP Wednesday post…

We’ll start off with Chairman Mark’s fine collection of 28mm Shermans that he’s been working on for a while, building up towards a big Nijmegen game later this year. There’s been a bit of rivalry at the club over who has the biggest Sherman collection – we suspect Phil is still ahead, with Dave also a strong contender, but Mark’s catching up…

He’s also added a British half-track (likely an M5) and Daimler armoured car, a German bunker and some anti-tank guns (type unspecified, but some internet research points at them being 50mm Pak 38s).

Eric has been turning yet more Matchbox cars into wasteland warriors for a Gaslands game with all manner of add-ons and accessories. The one on the right with exposed wheels looks especially cool.

Stephen has made some 15mm objective markers for Vietnam games, which should also serve for WW2. I suspect a few of us will be hunting for those in an upcoming game of Charlie Don’t Surf.

And finally, I quickly turned out some individually based figures to act as Big Men (NCOs and officers) for a game of TFL’s Quadrant 13. They’re only 6mm, so really they should be Little Men. Or Little Big Men ?

Jeremey will be back next week, you’ll doubtless be pleased to hear !

The Stairway to Heaven

Stephen takes us through a Stargrave adventure based around some weird dreams…

‘All that glitters is gold’

Recently a bout of Luna flu has been doing the rounds of the bars and cantinas of many-a-starport. And the less salubrious ones at that. It’s a highly contagious virus but not dangerous – sufferers mainly complain of nausea, tiredness, and delirium.

It seems that some space crews had recently been hit by the virus and the wild dreams sent them on a wild goose chase – and the Galactic Commission intercepted three messages. These come from the Rhythmic which is on record as being an ex-military freighter and captained by a veteran soldier, Gloria Fuster (Charlotte). The other is from captain Garo Braven (Tony) of the Cepheid Variable – a crew made up of mercenaries and mystics. The last is from the Serenity, captained by Mal Reynolds (Andy), and crewed by a prolific group of smugglers, murderers, and pirates.
We’ll let them speak for themselves…

THE RHYTHM: SOLDIER GREEN’S LOG

COMMENCE ENTRY

The Rhythm did not go looking for trouble, but it sure found us.

This morning, we landed in a strange jungle on an unfamiliar planet, home of a fabled Stairway to Heaven. Captain Gloria was convinced the ancient structure was hiding something valuable following a strange vision. Our mission was simple: find the item and bring it back.

Two rival crews from the ships Serenity and Cepheid Variable seemed to have the same idea. Worse, Gloria recognised the gunner of the Cepheid as the same man who’d insulted her mother a few planets over. Even worse than that: there was a shapeshifter in our midst.

Was it the inexperience of working with the Rhythmics, or was Gloria too distracted by her greed? We received orders to take out the gunner and rival crews and loot what we could while Gloria searched for the valuable item. Things soon escalated and became a free-for-all, although whether the Serenity and the Cepheid had an accord is uncertain; this soldier notes that they did not fire at each other for the duration of the battle.

The Rhythmics split at the southern hill, with half going after the Cepheid’s crew and the others facing Serenity. After two bouts of searching for loot under fire, the shapeshifter posing as Mintz made itself known. A Rhythmic duly took it down, and another killed the Variable’s gunner. That’ll teach him to call Mrs Fuster a [AUTO-CENSORED].

To the east, the Rhythmics took on the Serenity’s crew. We wounded one of their crewmen, angering them so that they took out both soldiers Yellow and Blue.

All crews fought fiercely, while Gloria focused on transferring the data loot she’d found to Simmons, fearing that the Serenity’s drone had already taken what she really came for. Soldier Squid was killed instantly by the Serenity, but we retaliated and took out one on their side.

The Cepheid crew continued their own search for loot, but took down Gloria after she’d shot at their Captain. Her first mate Estefan was not far behind her. A brave Rhythmic attempted to climb the Stairway in a last-ditch effort to find the gold and a vantage point. He was eventually killed after his carbine jammed and left him vulnerable on a rocky outcrop, not long after his good friend Han also fell to the Serenity’s guns. Remarkably, the Rhythmics survived the fearsome native creatures that kept appearing to torment the other crews throughout the battle.

The only Rhythmics left standing were Simmons and myself, who returned to the ship with data loot and physical loot respectively. There we found the real Mintz waiting for us. Gloria, Estefan, and two crew members eventually regained consciousness and returned to the ship after the battle. We head on to our next mission, to be confirmed once the crew receive medical attention. I have advised Gloria to take caution before committing to visions in future. After all, there’s still time to change the road she’s on.

ENTRY ENDS.

Gaden’s Log Begins:
Kal Gaden quickly exited from the Cepheid Variable’s tail ramp with the rest of the crew while the autopilot held it in a stable hover a few inches above the surface of the clearing. A quick command on the Captain’s wrist comlink and the ship took itself up into a parking orbit, ready to be recalled when the mission was done.

This was more like it, Kal thought – a well-trained, professional disembarkation with a bunch who looked like they knew what they were doing. Granted, some of the crew were really inexperienced, their only previous venture being the mission on the snow moon to rescue that old man in the red suit. It had turned into a bit of an easy turkey shoot (or more accurately a penguin shoot), but that was exactly what the crew had needed to shake out some of the rust. And they were looking like they had learnt from it – not like that shower of amateurs that he had been caught up with a couple of orbits ago.

As luck would have it, they came down just off of their intended position. The target, an ancient set of giant steps which apparently had a pretty fancy bit of treasure at the top, was on the wrong side of a fast-moving jungle stream. But the Captain led them towards it in close order, and they advanced with their eyes peeled. Sharal, the fastest of the crew, went ahead and hacked into an old data terminal that she almost tripped over, probably kit left behind by a previous expedition. It turned out that she had unlocked a set of plans for some pretty advanced alien armour tech – that alone would make the trip worth it.

At that point the local fauna began to make itself apparent, with a giant scorpion-like creature emerging from the undergrowth. Koor Vane, one of the newer recruits, took it down with a few well-placed shots.

Kal found the entrance to what looked like an old crypt and told the crew he was going to check it out. The inside was full of a blue-ish mist which, as he entered, congealed itself into a form which, if he was superstitious, he’d have called a ghost. But he wasn’t, and instead he peeled off a volley of shots – that went promptly straight through it. Instead he pulled his combat knife and by slicing it repeatedly through the apparation he somehow manged to dispel it, although he didn’t feel any contact with anything solid, just a sense of cold. It was worth the struggle however, as further inside the crypt was a military issue chain gun – a bit grimy, but cleaned up it should work a treat, and Kal knew that Tan Gariss, the crew’s specialist gunner, would appreciate it.

He stepped outside, and only at that point realised that the thick stone walls of the crypt must have been blocking his comms, as all hell had broken loose. The Captain had taken down some menacing bat-like creature with a single giant eye that had appeared over the watercourse, and now there was a full-blown firefight going on. It seemed that a rival mob (the Rhythmics) who held a grudge with a few members of the crew had landed nearby. It stemmed from some long-forgotten bar fight he was told later – and Gariss himself had gone down from a single nasty one, and didn’t look good. The crew was returning fire and Kal could just about make out several figures moving through the foliage a few tens of yards away. Fire from Rook and Kyorla smacked into one of them – it looked like a droid from the way it was moving – but it didn’t go down. The Captain organised the main bulk of the crew into a firing line and they slowly advanced into the jungle, blazing away as they went. Keeping tactical discipline, Sarai took down the leader of the other crew and the Captain himself accounted for their first mate. Kal had to admit he was impressed.

In the meantime, the diminutive first mate Gerbo had disappeared inside a giant stone head. No one followed him and he was vague about what he found inside, but after what sounded like numerous swipes of his void blade, he emerged a few minutes later clutching a fancy looking power sword and nursing a headache – ‘powerful it was, but conquered it I have’ he said in his weird reverse dialect.

The Captain had meanwhile been monitoring the site remotely using the Cepheid’s sensor suite and had found that a drone belonging to the Serenity – nobody had even realised that ship was on the planet – had made it to the top of the spiral stairway, and figured that the treasure was probably gone. Deciding that discretion was the better part of valour, the ship was recalled from orbit and the crew began to make their way back to the clearing. The indigenous wildlife had woken up by that point and tried to make life interesting – Jaon Rook was bitten by a poisonous giant river wyrm which required treatment from Gebro and his medikit, then a troop of what looked like rock apes crept in from their flank – Kal took out two with well-placed blaster rounds, Sarai and Jaon the others. Just as they reached the clearing the jungle itself came alive, and a weakened Jaon was dragged down by creeper-like appendages. Kyorla, the sniper, found her range and the plants’ weak spots and rescued Jaon and the others.

As they rendezvoused back at the grounded Cepheid, Sharal and Koor emerged panting from the other side of the clearing clutching another abandoned data terminal. In the confusion no-one had noticed them slip off into the jungle after more loot, but their diversion again proved fruitful.

The ship lifted off with Jaon and Gariss strapped into the med-bay – both were out of danger thanks to the robo-doc’s ministrations. Although the main prize eluded them there was still a decent return from the mission, and Kal looked forward to a spot of R&R somewhere a bit more civilised with his share of the bounty from the haul.

**SERENITY LOG**
“OK Wash, get us off this goddam planet, I’m headin’ down to sick bay to see how Kaylee’s doing” Mal said as he turned and left the flight deck.

“How’s Kaylee, Doc?” Mal asked as he entered sickbay.
Simon looked up from the MedSuite controls “It was touch and go, but due to the Advanced Medical Suite you had installed last year, she’s still with us.” came the reply.
Mal turned to look at Kaylee lying in the MedSuite, bandaged and with an arm in a sling.
“Well Captain, I cain’t say I’ve never been better, but I think I’ll pull through.” she said, “but I ain’t gonna be much use till this arm’s healed though.”

Mal cast his mind back to the day’s events…
He had had a series of incoherent dreams, but a constant feature in all of them had been a rock pile known as “The Stairway to Heaven” on one of the nearby planets. He was convinced there was worthwhile loot to find on or near the Stairway.

On orbital insertion the Serenity’s sensors picked up two other ships in nearby orbit, the Cepheid Variable, a ship and crew Mal had encountered before, and an unfamiliar ship, the Rhythm.
The name of the second ship prompted Mal to remember a rumour he’d heard about that ship, that one of the crew had been found unconscious on a space station, recounting a tale of being attacked by some form of alien, and seeing said alien walk away transforming into an identical copy of the crew member. Mal had dismissed this account as the ramblings of a deep space afflicted mind, but on the off chance that the crew member was telling the truth, he sent a personal “Your Eyes Only” message to the Captain of the Rhythm, recounting the tale, just in case there was a polymorph hiding amongst the Rhythm’s crew.

The shuttles landed in one of the few jungle clearings south of the Stairway, Mal lead Wash, Kaylee and Derrial towards the Stairway, while Zoe, Jayne, Inara and River headed towards a stream. Simon, Tracey and the Repairbot followed behind.

The jungle was very thick, visibility was restricted and the Stairway itself out of sight, but its position had been locked into the nav units, so they knew they were on the right track.

Almost immediately Zoe and Inara were ambushed by a couple of mobile, carnivorous plants, Zoe received a savage bite, but Inara despatched her opponent. They reminded Inara of something she read in an old novel from Earth-That-Was, “Triffids” she thinks they were called.

Zoe beat off the surviving Triffid, and Inara put it down with a well-aimed shot. Mal reached some physical loot, and unlocked it, but Jayne was less fortunate, rustling in the undergrowth revealed a Bileworm which attacked and stunned him.

Jayne somehow managed to fight off the Bileworm, Mal and Zoe opened up on it but both their guns jammed! Simon, Tracey and Derrial also shot at the Bileworm, Derrial getting in the fatal shot. Meanwhile Kaylee’s Repairbot trundled up to the loot Mal had unlocked and picked it up.

With the Bileworm dead Jayne used his medic kit to neutralise the poison coursing through his veins. Zoe’s team saw movement on the far side of the stream, and came under fire from the crew of the Rhythm.

Mal and Wash reached a Data loot near the Stairway and Mal unlocked it, as some type of rock ape appeared on a butte above them. Zoe launched a Drone and sent it towards the top of the Stairway, but Kaylee was shot by one of the Rhythm’s crew and wounded. Jayne and River returned fire and took down two of the rival crew.

More of the crew of the Rhythm appeared across the stream, firing at Mal & Wash but missing. Mal threw some smoke grenades to block the line of sight, while Wash downloaded the data Mal had unlocked. Although wounded Kaylee took a shot at the ape above Mal, but missed. The Ape descended the butte and attacked Mal.

River crossed the stream to reach a Physical loot, Simon reached Kaylee and treated her wounds. And two more Triffids appeared!

Before River could try to unlock the loot, she was shot and KO’d by one of the Rhythm’s crew. Mal fought off the ape, killing it, and Derrial despatched another Triffid. More gunfire was heard to the north, perhaps from the crew of the Cepheid Variable, but they didn’t come into sight.

Zoe crossed the stream to aid River, while Simon shot and killed another Triffid. Kaylee was slowly making her way back to the shuttles when she was attacked and KO’d by a Wraith-like creature, a swirl of blue mist. Zoe’s drone had made it to the top of the Stairway, and picked up the Treasure of the Ancients.

Mal avenged Kaylee by destroying the Wraith, while Jayne laid more smoke to block the Rhythm’s crew’s line of sight. The Drone laboriously made its way down from the Stairway with the Treasure, heading slowly back to the shuttles.

Zoe hosed down one of the Rhythm’s crew with her RFG, putting him down. The Repairbot safely returned to the shuttles.

More of the Rhythm’s crew appeared from behind the smoke screen; they shot at and took down both Zoe & Jayne.

Yet another of the planet’s fauna, resembling a Velociraptor from Earth-That-Was’ prehistory, appeared, attacking Tracey. After a sustained fight the Raptor took Tracey out of the game.

Derrial spotted one of the Rhythm’s crew climbing the Stairway (not sure why as the drone had already liberated the Treasure of the Ancients). This crewman took a pot shot at Derrial, missing him. Derrial fired back taking him out.

Inara killed the Raptor, but was in turn KO’d by a Ryakan that had been flying around seemingly at random.

As the crew fell back, they lost sight of the remains of the Rhythm’s crew, but the Ryakan still posed a threat. Fortunately, Mal managed to bring it down without it causing further injury.

Given the number of aggressive indigenous fauna and flora the crew had encountered at the start of the mission, surprisingly the remaining members of the crew made it back to the shuttles without any further encounters and returned to the Serenity.

Although over half of the crew were casualties during the mission, most only had scrapes, bruises and concussion, except for Kaylee. Whether the Wraith like creature that took her down had some lingering toxic after effect, Simon didn’t know, what he was certain of was that it was only the Serenity’s Advanced Medical Suite that let Kaylee pull through, even if she would take weeks to fully recover.

**LOG ENDS**

BATTLEZONE: MWS 2025 Show Game

Stephen takes us through the creation of this year’s retro-futuristic show game.

For 2025 the MWS Show Game is a table-top version of the arcade classic from the early 80s, BATTLEZONE.

This used to be a favourite of mine and I would get through pocketfuls of 10p coins playing this. It featured a stark black landscape with wire-frame graphics. You took control of a tank and manoeuvred around geometric obstacles trying to shoot enemy tanks.

So when we started to think what our show game for 2025 should be I suggested we create a table-top version of Battlezone.

There are a few things to keep in mind for a show game. Yes, it should be playable and quick and easy to pick up. We aim for a game to last about 45 minutes – that gives players a good taster and also means they don’t have to commit too much time and can get back to enjoying the show. We also need to think about transport – getting the game in and out. Ideally it should disassemble so those attending can carry it in and out rather than get stuck in a queue to unload and load. And there’s also cost, especially for games like this which will have components with little use outside of the game.

The good thing about our Battlezone game is that it would tick all these boxes – there’s no intricate scenery or terrain (but what there is, is bespoke for this particular game), as such it all breaks down so it is easy to transport. And with Too Fat Lardies’ ‘What A Tanker’ rules (which we decided we would adapt) many gamers will already be familiar with the concepts behind the rules.

It was obvious that we would not be able to buy the tank models. Back in the day, that would have meant scratch building with plasticard. But in these days of 3D printing it was obvious what was needed. Fortunately, Phil and Tony of Brigade Models are both club members and both are very IT literate with a 3D printer. I’ll leave Tony to explain how they went about this:

Tank 4 (the ‘Brigade’) at design time in Wings3D. As you can see, the basic designs are suitably minimal.

We started by searching the internet for images of the original tanks in the game. Finding images was easy enough, although a bit more work went into finding ones that were directly head on or side on so that the dimensions weren’t too distorted. Eventually I found enough information to draw up the basic outlines of the two tanks that looked about right using a 3D modelling package called Wings3D. I also designed the UFO (which didn’t make it into the final version of our game) and missiles, although we drastically scaled these down from the tank-sized killers that they appear to be in the original. We went through several iterations of the designs with slightly different details until we were all finally happy. We toyed with the idea of making them wireframe models but in the end the consensus decision was that they’d be too fragile on the tabletop. So we went with slab-sided models with the wireframe outline etched into each side to help Stephen with the painting process. The tank hulls were one piece, with the guns printed separately (it made the print process easier). Phil then printed them on our Phrozen 8K resin printer in grey resin and handed them over to Stephen for painting.

Three tanks plus a bunch of missiles arranged in our printer software ready for printing.
The same collection of models coming out of the printer.
And finally, those three tanks after cleaning in isopropyl alcohol.
The basic tank – ‘Atari 1’ – printed, cleaned and ready for painting.

We wanted a four-player game. There were already two tank designs that featured in the original arcade (we designated them Atari 1 and Atari 2). Tony also uncovered an interesting bit of trivia – that the US army used the Battlezone game engine to train drivers for the (then) new Bradley IFV, so that was another natural choice (and we designated that one Bradley). The fourth tank was an original design by Tony, keeping to the Battlezone aesthetic – and this final one we called the Brigade (note from Tony – the basis for the fourth design came from a suitably old 1980 sci-fi book called “Tour of the Universe“).

Memory messed with me a little when it came to the missiles. I wasn’t sure the original Battlezone had missiles in it yet at the same time I do remember a tank game that had missiles, just unsure whether it was Battlezone or not.

But what the hell! It’d give an extra dimension to the game so missiles were in! As it turned out there were missiles in the game.

‘Atari 1’ with a coat of satin black and the painstakingly (not to say painfully) applied neon green outline.

Now on to terrain.

There’s not much of it, just pyramids and blocks. We did discuss 3D printing these as well. However, Brigade’s 3D printer was naturally busy with printing items needed for the business. So I decided that I’d purchase some 1.0mm thick plasticard and make them – not the world’s most complicated modelling job! I made squares, pyramids, and rectangles in various sizes to give some variety.

The whole thing about Battlezone is that stark, neon, vector graphic look. This was going to be the main appeal of the game and central to getting it right. Now, on the surface of it this looks like it couldn’t be simpler – spray black and then paint the lines.

And, yes, that is exactly what I did. All the tanks and terrain got a spray of satin black. Nice and easy. And then on to the lining. This was a real ball-buster. What didn’t help is that the lines had to be done twice. I first had to do them in white as an undercoat (the neon wouldn’t take being painted straight on to the black) and then go over that with the neon paint. This got very tiresome. Very, very, VERY tiresome. I don’t want to see neon paint again for a long time.

The simple geometric terrain blocks, true to the original game.

Another important part of the game is the background. The horizon in the game is an endless border of mountains. So it wouldn’t be enough to just plonk the models on a piece of black felt, I also wanted to create that field of distance. There’s also a practical element to it as well, since it defines the gaming area. These borders were made from some decking bought from Wickes with a simple slot to link them together and then painted. I thought about the height – it had to be tall enough so that it looked like a barrier but not so tall that it became a faff to lean over.

A side-on of Atari-1 in the battlezone.

All the game components were complete, all that was left were the rules.

There was obviously only one contender – TFL’s ‘What A Tanker’. Now, this has been used in show games many times already so that was nothing new. One of our club members, Marcus, had created his own sci fi version which he called ‘What a Grav Tanker’. Since this had received some play testing I decided I’d adapt that. Truth be told, the rules we are using are not fully ‘What A Tanker’ but anyone familiar with that will see clearly where the inspiration came from and will immediately click with the logic behind the rules. This is our rough-housed version that is designed for show games that need to last a fixed amount of time.

With the kind permission of TFL, you can download the rules, battleboards and turn cards from the links below:

Rules

Battleboards

Turn Cards

Bradley (l) faces off against Atari-1.

Like all projects, there’s no way this could have been completed on my own. That’s the advantage of being in a club – you have the skills and abilities of gifted club members to help realise your original plan. For that reason I must express my thanks to club members Tony, Phil and Jeremey who all chipped in to help and without whose invaluable talent and knowledge the game could not have made it to the table. Thanks also go to Pete, Andy, and Eric who helped with the playtesting.

Atari-1 has Brigade in its sights.

So this is our club game that we will be bringing to shows in the south east during 2025. Currently we are planning on being at Cavalier (Feb 23rd), Salute (Apr 12th), Broadside (Jun 14th) and RE-Play (Oct 25th) but we could also find ourselves attending other shows in the year. You’d be more than welcome to join us for a game.

Work in Progress Wednesday – the Best of 2024 – Part 1

Merry Christmas ! Since it’s Christmas Day we thought we’d give you a run-down of our favourite WIP Wednesday items from the year, one from each month. So grab your eggnog and mince pies and join us for a trawl through the society’s makes and paints for 2024.

JANUARY

We started off the year with a few of us tackling some old Games Workshop figures for a retro painting challenge. We wanted these efforts to be worthwhile, so we submitted them to the charity table at Salute in April where they were sold off for a good cause. Taking part were Stephen, Eric, Jeremey, Marcus and Tony F who each painted two figures, most of which came from a big box of classic old GW figures that Tony was given many years ago. These were in a bit of a state, so we all had to clean them up, strip the original paint jobs and in some case do a bit of repair work before painting could start.

FEBRUARY

In February our new 2024 show game made its debut at Cavalier in Tonbridge. Phil as always left things until the last minute, so we saw several work in progress posts of his splendid 2mm scale terrain when he had time to drag himself away from the painting table.

MARCH

In March John La went all nautical on us with a selection of ships for a WW2 convoy game, both commercial models and scratchbuilds.

APRIL

April is Salute time, and Pete M showed off some 1/300th Victorian SF cloudships that he would be using on a game he was running with a number of gaming friends from another club. I’m not sure how we handle this downright treachery, but they’re too nice not to show.

MAY

In May Charlotte began working towards her game for the club Open Day, a Project Z game – this month she gave us a selection of terrain items.

JUNE

We’re past the halfway point of the year, and Chairman Mark J has been plugging away at his 28mm Vietnam kit for the past few months, so it’s high time we gave it an outing. All Hail the Chairman !!

JULY

In July, Tony F set out on a project that would take until December to complete (so everyone else was pretty bored of it by then…). It was a unit of 20mm late WW2 Belgians (yes, that’s right late war Belgians). So essentially all British kit, mostly motorised infantry with a heavy selection of support units. Just look at that weathering…

AUGUST

Stephen was prolific throughout the year so it was hard to pick just one item from him, but a standout was this magnificent conversion of a WWI Airfix tank into the Soup Dragon for his 28mm Quar.

SEPTEMBER

In September Jeremey resumed work on some 3mm sci-fi models that he’d been sporadically painting earlier in the year. Later on he also repurposed some 6mm models and even a 15mm tank as dropships to carry his tiny troops.

OCTOBER

Andy lost his painting mojo at some point in the year, but he found it again in October. Besides lots of scenery, he painted up some GZG 25mm Japanese Corporate Mercenaries for Xenos Rampant.

NOVEMBER

In November Sean gave us this rather marvellous 2mm mini layout based around a Ziggurat – he named it the Hanging Gardens of Cranbrook !

DECEMBER

Marcus rounded off the year with some vintage 6mm sci-fi tanks from the past.

Drums… Drums in the Deep

Pete M describes an underground encounter in Middle-Earth.

Background

The scenario is based on the encounter at the dwarf king Balin’s tomb, where the nine members of The Fellowship are trapped while making their way through the old underground Dwarven Kingdom known as the ‘Mines of Moria’, a massive complex of caves, tunnels & chambers, hewn out of the living rock itself!!! Sorry, slipping into Pythonesque ‘Tim The Enchanter’ mode again there…. Unfortunately, soon after discovering the tomb the party is discovered by the new tenants, namely a shed load of Goblins/Orcs & orcs, assisted by the odd mountain troll and a very, very grumpy Balrog. The objective is simply to hold-off the hordes until Gandalf secures a means of escape – to the fateful Bridge at Khazad-Dum…

The Game System

As with the previous outings (see credits), the home-grown system is partly based on the excellent but now sadly difficult to find Hasbro boardgame “Star Wars Epic Duels” (see links at the end). The key features of this design are that each player controls a small team, with one main character (say, Darth Vader), plus one or two little helpers (Stormtroopers in Vader’s case). Normal movement is fairly standard, although some variability is introduced by means of a die roll. However, the design really scores because teams also get a dedicated pack of cards which are used for both combat and any unique ‘special abilities’ – such an elegant, simple way to reflect widely varying attributes, and without resorting to thick books of charts and +/- tables!

The use of the dedicated card packs adds so much to the ‘period flavour’ of the game, hopefully reflecting the different combat options and other unique actions of the various Fellowship, Goblins/Orcs & the Troll. For example, the Goblins/Orcs can gain advantage by deliberately sacrificing figures in massed attacks or simply ‘shoving’ (the ‘active’ group drags one or more adjacent ones with it); whilst the Fellowship archery and spear-throwing are deadly. And whilst your immediate choice of tactics may be affected by the cards in your hand, like any ‘real’ historical combat, victory will go to the side which can maximise their peculiar advantages whilst exploiting the weaknesses of the enemy.

“Mines of Moria” was perfect for a straight adaptation of this team-based, low-figure count approach, with the four main players each handling one main character (Aragorn, Legolas, Boromir or Gimli) plus one Hobbit (Frodo, Sam, Merry or Pippin). As with previous games, having no cards at all left in your hand if confronted by a bunch of Goblins/Orcs etc could be bad news – but the Hobbits could also prove useful given their special abilities. And unlike previous games, the action this time is very claustrophobic, taking place within the confines of the tomb chamber. But this this does not mean it is any less intense, as nuanced tactical considerations of blocking, retreating, counter-attacking are just as vital as any big battle.

Each turn consists of two phases per player, movement then two actions (Fellowship can do in any order, Bad guys must move then do one action). Normal movement uses a modified die roll to generate movement points, albeit with new variations to account for the slow-moving and incredibly dim but tough Mountain Troll. However some ‘special moves’ are also possible, such as Hobbits ducking between groups etc! Play alternates in a random manner between one Fellowship then one goblin group, so it can be that not everyone is quite in the right place at the right time…

But what about Gandalf, I hear you ask? Well, the basis of the scenario is that the four main players must buy time for Big G to work his magic on the (only) exit from the tomb. By placing some of their ‘special action’ cards in the Gandalf ‘pot’, at the end of each turn these can be converted (via die-roll) to magical protection points.

The game ends when either:

  • The party think there’s enough to try and make a run for it (dicing for survival against the total less distance or any intervening groups of Goblins/Orcs) OR
  • Bernard the Balrog turns up at the entrance to the tomb (said Balrog makes it’s way along the outer passage in a slow but inexorable manner; makes a great ‘turn counter!)
How Did It Go ?

Well, despite only one player ever having used the system before, we actually managed two games on the day. In the first, the group did well taking out the fearsome troll by ‘suckering’ it further into the tomb so it could be attacked from it’s vulnerable rear. The waves of Goblins/Orcs came and went, but in the end only Aragorn caused some concern, having been left somewhat behind when the bug-out started with the summons of Boromir’s ‘Horn of Gondor’ (a special move which shuffles all friends a bit closer to him)!

In the second game the group tried a new tactic with the troll, namely letting it trundle forward then knock seven bells out of Legolas, Merry and Boromir (well, anyone in range), whilst Gimli tried not to attract undue attention – at least, that’s what seemed to be the plan…… 🙂 ). It was a good idea for Gimli to dart behind, just the Troll didn’t get the memo leading to several anxious turns of Gimli ducking and weaving (and cutting chunks off said troll), before the massive brute was finally finished-off – by a ranged slingshot stone from a Hobbit!!

My tremendous thanks, as ever, to a fabulous bunch of guys at the Maidstone club.

Credits

Rules and Card Decks
As with almost all my games the rules are home-grown stuff and, as such, possible to extend or amend as you wish (the mark of a good product/system in my view). Hopefully these will appear on the blog site ‘real soon now’. If not, come along to the club and try it some time!

Original game
Details of the original HASBRO “Star Wars Epic Duels” by Craig Van Ness (with assistance from Rob Daviau) can be found here.

Figures
The basic figures all from the fabulous “Armies of Middle Earth” (AOME) range by PlayAlong Toys and ToyBiz. This vast range of 1/24th scale (3.5” or 75mm), multi-pose figures covered everything from the RingWraiths (fabulous sculpts) and Fellowship, and includes no less than three different sets of Orcs/Uruks, five different Wargs and numerous Rohirrim (foot and mounted), as well as a number of special sets (like the great Uruk-Hai siege crew – the battering ram crew were the source of the ‘pikemen’, among others) and even siege towers! As they are semi-animated, it is possible to create different poses and even mix body-parts, Timpo-style! I have to say that, at this scale, a couple of hundred Orcs or 30-ish charging Rohan cavalry are quite impressive…

Unfortunately, as with many of my games their availability seems to diminish the closer I get to putting them on show! However, if you want to risk it a quick browse on eBay still pulls up a fair number of hits, which is OK to provide all you would need for a normal skirmish. Of course, you could also use those tiny 32mm ones some people prefer… 😊

The 7” Mountain Troll was a fantasy figure from PAPO toy range, suitably based and painted by Kevin Dallimore. Actually, AOME does a troll, but it’s the up-armoured one from Return of the King which is used to push the 16”-high siege towers in ‘Pelennor Fields’…

The large ‘Bernard The Balrog’ was another cross-range recruit from the extensive ‘MacFarlane SWARM’ range of fearsome, wonderful monsters – do scan this lot if you need any 8”-10” villains.

{As an aside, the hard-plastic figures have some advantages over their metal cousins, in that it is easy to make some bits transparent – there’s a version of Frodo with ring on, plus the MacFarlane monster is drooling clear yellow bile…..}

Other Previous Outings
  • ‘One Ring’ (Weathertop or Amon Sul): 4+ Ring Wraiths vs pre-Fellowship
  • ‘Fords of Isen’: ambush of Prince Theodred by massed Orcs & Wargs
  • ‘Pelennor Fields’: the charge of the Rohan cavalry vs besiegers, including 1/24th Mumakil!

For more pics and other rules, see here.

There is a great fan-following on the net as well (for this and the original Star Trek game), with lots of suggestions for other card deck, scenarios etc.

BTW, I am also in the process of using the wonderful character-specific card system for such diverse topics as:

  • ‘Seven Samurai’ (final battle in the village); objective for the bandits is to kill as many as possible (especially peasants), thus making it a challenge for the deadly, professional samurai to protect them!
  • ‘The (Roman) Empire Strikes Back’; a massed skirmish somewhere on the 1st/2ndC frontiers of empire between a mixed Roman expeditionary force/patrol and loads of Celts. This uses a base (I have 4-6 28mm figures) as the granular unit rather than individual figures, but the structure of the system will allow for both, or even 6mm. But then, as the sides are defined by their specific decks, the more devious umpires out there could introduce something much more weird in the woods as per Call ofCthulhu… You could even be tempted to adapt it to that fabulous David Drake book, ‘Ranks of Bronze’, in which a defeated Roman Legion is sold into slavery to – some aliens! All you need are the troop-specific cards and you’re away…

Stay tuned to this blog……

Maidstone Rampant

Tony F reports on the club’s first encounter with an alien ruleset.

The club has played a lot of Daniel Mersey’s Rampant rules, both the original Lion and the fantasy Dragon spinoff. So there was a lot of interest when a sci-fi variant, Xenos Rampant was announced. We wanted to see how well the game engine would translate to the new setting with (presumably) more emphasis on shooting than close combat. And to be fair, not everyone thought it would work.

Recently, four of us managed to finally get ourselves organised and gave the rules a try (yes, we know that the book came out months ago – the wheels sometimes turn slowly in Maidstone). Eric and Mike had 30mm armies derived from WH40K forces, while Marcus had a 15mm force of mainly Khurasan miniatures and I cobbled together a force in the same scale from my Hammer’s Slammers armies (you can see those in the header photo).

Mike and Eric ran each other very close in their game, with just a handful of figures left on table at the end (although I’m not sure who actually won!) – sadly I didn’t get any photos. Marcus on the other hand had some dreadful luck with the dice and got a bit of a thumping.

My command team (Brigade Models’ power armour) prepare to unleash all sorts of pain into Marcus’ tank (GZG).

We then switched round and I took on Mike, while Eric switched to a 15mm force of Brigade Models miniatures. Mike and I fought a very tight game, I just prevailed but with very little of my force left on the table.

Marcus’ luck improved a little but he still went down to Eric eventually.

So our conclusions? We felt the game worked well, there are plenty of options to customise units to give your army a unique feel. The familiar game mechanics helped for those who have played other games in the series.

All of our games were 24 points, and we managed two each with plenty of time to spare. Units, especially vehicles, are relatively expensive so none of our forces had more than 5-6 units, and the game ran pretty quickly. So we felt that 36 point games would be perfectly manageable. One thing we found odd was the limit of only one vehicle – none of us could see an obvious reason for this.

We’ve penciled in another session for later in the year, some sort of mini-campaign or tournament. These will be 36 point games, and we’ll ignore the one vehicle rule so expect to see a bit more heavy armour. We seem to have won over a couple of previous refuseniks to give the game a go, so look out for another report in a few months, along with plenty of work-in-progress reports as people build up their armies.