Back to our work in progress this week and we start with Mark J and some Microart Studio MDF buildings for a future game of Chain of Command.
Next up and Tony F has been scratchbuilding 6mm storage tanks from IKEA doorknobs.
Moving on and Stephen has been covering a few genres, first by finishing his sci-fi cantina, complete with droid server.
And some resplendent 15mm medieval knights, a great chance to add some bright colours to miniatures.
And with that we will see you next week.
Club member John reports on a game from a lesser known historical conflict.
Introduction
Our youngest daughter lives in Chile and she gave me a copy of ‘Andean Tragedy’ a history of the Pacific War 1879 – 1884. This detailed book covered the war between Chile and the allied forces of Peru and Bolivia, a war which started over mining claims in the Atacama Desert. The area was an important source of Nitrates for explosives and fertilisers and when the Bolivian government sought to tax Chilean mining companies mining on Bolivian soil, war was inevitable.
It was impractical to march a Chilean army by land through the Atacama Desert so the initial campaign was a Naval one (itself a good subject for wargaming) where Chile gained control of the sea and could then launch amphibious operations initially on the Bolivian coast and later the Peruvian coast. These were successful with Lima being captured and resulted in Bolivia being land locked (still contentious today). A later Guerrilla war took the fighting high into the Andes before Peru was finally defeated.
I started to paint up forces from Pendraken intending to use ‘Principles of War’ as the rule set but in 2020 a new rule set ‘It’s Getting a Bit Chile’ was launched and I decided to use this period specific set. This required more troops and a gridded cloth. The project stagnated then Stephen kindly donated me a cloth, the reverse side being ideal for a desert, it was the kick up the backside I needed and within a few weeks I was ready.
Pendraken 10mm Range of 19th Century Pacific War Figures
Review of ‘It’s Getting a Bit Chile’
I was attracted to this set of rules for its period specific nature which I felt was merited after reading ‘Andean Tragedy,’ I didn’t want to use any generic 19th Century rules. When I received my copy, I realised it was more than just a rule book. The book includes a history of the war, a uniform painting guide and a bibliography, it is well laid out and the rules are easy to follow with diagrams to help with explanation, there is a scenario included with the rules and a quick play sheet is included. I also discovered that the author had visited the same location in Peru which was his inspiration, the previous year to us.
The rules are army level where each army can be organised into divisions, though these are smaller than European armies. The rules are I go – you go. The lowest organisational unit is an Infantry battalion or Cavalry Regiment consisting of four bases, Artillery are a single base. Unit formation is determined by how the bases are aligned in a grid square.
Each formation has a different number of firing bases, support bases and melee bases and is a specific target type if fired at and a separate melee target type. For combat a dice is rolled for each eligible base and the sum of the dice rolls is compared on a “To hit multiple” table to determine how much damage is dished out. This avoids the 6 to hit method of casualty calculation and damage is instead noted as disorder. A fresh unit with no disorder fights using a d8 per eligible base, a unit with one disorder uses d6’s and a unit with two disorders uses d4’s. If the target formation has a support base, a disorder marker can be absorbed by the support base allowing the formation to fight unaffected if all disorder is absorbed. Changing formation can reduce the number of support bases and hence increased unabsorbed disorder, reducing fighting capability. Disorder can be rallied off by the unit itself or an adjacent Divisional or Army Commander and this is key to maintaining fighting capability.
The “to hit multiple” table and disorder mechanic are very neat and set these rules apart.
Play Test
As usually happens with a new project, there was lots of last minute stuff to do which meant I hadn’t spent much time on planning a scenario. I decided to have three objectives on table, two minor ones were to secure water supply either at a village or Nitrate mine.
The main objective being capturing the hill. The Allied forces had an extra infantry battalion and an extra Cavalry unit, this last tied down some Chilean artillery as it threatened to outflank.
In the centre, the Chilean assault on the hill ran out of steam and in true style, the Chilean Cavalry followed the routed Bolivian cavalry off table.
Thanks to Tony Gibbs and Jon Roche for helping. The rules played very smoothly with hardly any queries. Afterwards, I read through the rules again and posted some queries with the Author. I received an e mail back within 24 hours so excellent support.
Next Steps
I have three Peruvian battalions ready for painting and artillery limbers have arrived this week. I’m considering the small dice holders and dice to keep track of disorder. Whilst the card buildings are OK from three feet away, I’m considering making some better alternatives. Finally, I’ll need to put some time aside to consider scenarios, perhaps working those into a campaign.
As we get closer to our open day let’s have a look at some of the games being put on.
Mark J is putting on a large Vietnam game, complete with tanks, helicopters and a whole host of miniatures. Mark has been putting on a number of Vietnam games at the society, this game will be a good example of that. If it’s a period you’ve been thinking of getting then the open day will be a good chance to see a game in action.
Next up Marcus has repurposed his award winning 3D Labyrinth game into a Frostgrave / Fantasy Adventure game. If you fancy a treasure hunt this will be a good game, Marcus’ set up is a huge selection of 3D dungeon tiles. There will be adventurers and monsters galore.
Next up and we have a Lord of the Rings games being put on by Tony F and Phil, who have an extensive range of miniatures. This time round we are promised the battle of Azanulbizar. So it will be a clash between Dwarves and Orcs/Goblins, with no doubt the odd troll or two. If big fantasy battles are your thing, they often appear at the society as either Lord of the Rings or Dragon Rampant. Or any other fantasy rules we feel like giving a try.
And the last game we are show casing is Stephen’s Medieval Barons War game. Stephen has an impressive collection of scratchbuilt terrain for the period so expect an almost model village feel to his game with plenty of armoured knights running amok.
We have two other games members are still putting together and will post details nearer the time.
Details of how to find us on the day are on out About us page. The open day runs from 11am to 4pm and is a good day to introduce yourself to the society, re-ignite your passion for miniature wargaming or to find out what it’s all about and if it’s the hobby for you.
Our Open Day will be on the 28th June this year. We’re open to the public from 11am – 4pm on the day.
This is a great day to come and see the society in action and throw some dice in one of the various games we will have on the day and chat to the membership about the hobby and the club.
This year we have an eclectic selection of games on offer, which might just be the incentive you need to either get back into the hobby or to find a new home for your own armies and games.
| Name | Scale | Period |
| Vietnam | 28mm | Vietnam |
| Technicals | 15mm | Modern/Alternative History |
| Battle of Azanulbizar | 28mm | Lord of the Rings |
| Second Barons War | 28mm | Medieval |
| Catacombs | 28mm | Labyrinth/Frostgrave |
| Spearhead | 6mm | World War 2 |
Pictures and more details of the games will be appearing on our blog as we approach the day.
Details of where the club meets and location of the Open Day can be found here:
https://www.brigademodels.co.uk/mws/directions.html
It’s Wednesday and this week we have a small offering of progress for you. I blame the sudden nice weather, always slows down the members projects.
First up we have a wonderful picture from Marcus of a bunch of aircraft miniatures for the RAAF and their New Guinea theatre of war.
Next we have an Age of Sigmar miniature from Tony F. Sigmar is not something he plays but was given a freebie miniature so decided to paint it up as a statue.
Moving on and Mark J has started on some 10mm WW2 German Panzers, I think he may be going full company on this one.
And lastly for this week, I’ve managed to paint up a 3mm Spherical dropship. I originally sculpted the dropship for the 3mm range some twenty years ago, but now that the moulds have worn out Brigade Models have redesigned it as a one piece resin miniature.
And that’s us for this week, see you next Wednesday.
It’s Wednesday and the progress continues with some 10mm 3D printed Orcs and Trolls from Phil.
We follow that with Mark J and progress on building a Huey helicopter.
Next up and Eric has been painting up more Mechs for an upcoming game of Alpha Strike. This time it’s a group of Clan Mechs.
Marcus continues to be busy with various aircraft projects, the first being some Mirage F1’s and a Buccaneer.
And some G4 Betty’s for the Japanese.
And that’s us for this week, we’ll see you at the next one.
Colin, John Le and Paul L had a try out game of the new Eisenhower rules from Sam Mustafa. The rules were released earlier this year and are ww2 strategic / operational in scope.
Players control up to 6 divisional formations across a table representing a ground scale of 24 by 16 miles.
Our game was a home brew eastern front Barbarossa type scenario pitching 2 Panzer divisions and a motorized infantry division against a Soviet defence of 2 infantry divisions with a reserve tank corps.
The armies were made up from 2mm Irregular ww2 models with bases of 4x4cm representing battalion strength units.
The table is gridded in 6×6 inch squares and this controls placement and movement of the units.
This works well for this scale of game where the players represent corps commanders. At this scale its not mm placement of units which count but key decisions such as which areas of the front are you attempting to break through in, which units are you structuring your offensive with and are your reserves in the correct position based on the timescales of the offensive.
The rules feature a number of innovative mechanisms including an objectives based victory point mechanism where the objectives move once they are secured so ensuring a dynamic game of movement for the two sides, each of which takes the role of strategic offensive or defensive.
The time period represented in the game is between 4 to 6 days with each day consisting of separate rounds which allow formations to move and combat across the table. At the end of each day is a night phase where supply is checked with potential attrition of units. Exhausted units can also be recovered to a worn status.
In our game we had the Soviets dug in with prepared positions across the table. The panzer divisions lead the attack with mixed success in achieving objectives early on and forcing a breakthrough. We ended up concluding that in our scenario the Soviet reserve tank corps was too powerful when placed on the table at the outset. A more balanced game would probably be achieved by holding it as reinforcements off table which is catered for within the rules.
Future scenarios we will explore include France 1940 and a Normandy amphibious landing.
Welcome to another work in progress Wednesday. We start this week with Stephen and a right bunch of scum and villainy, getting ready for a future game of Stargrave, and a were wolf that we are hoping won’t be making an appearance in the same game.
Next up we have Felix who has been painting orcs from his Isengard battlehost.
Following on from that and Tony F has been preparing for a forthcoming 6mm Hammers Slammers. He has been working on some roads.
And some power pylons.
And lastly for this week Marcus has continued painting up his planes, adding some tiny decals to them.
And with that we will see you next week.
Welcome to another work in progress Wednesday. I think the rest of the membership are still recovering from attending the Salute wargames show on the 12th April. This week we only have a few bits of progress and all of them from Member Marcus.
Above we have more progress on his divers, complete with loot boxes.
Next up Marcus has been busy on his ever growing collection of aircraft from a number of eras. Members have been trying to identify all the aircraft on Marcus’ painting table.
And finally from Marcus for this week we have two female protagonists soon to be spy’s in some James Bond themed game.
That’s it for this week, hopefully the rest of the membership will have recovered (myself included) and making more progress on their projects for next week.
Stephen takes us through a recent game of Charlie Don’t Surf.
Throughout 2024 I put together a collection of 15mm Vietnam stuff. The Vietnam War was one of the first historical wargaming periods I ever gamed, back in the early 90s. This was, of course, because of the spate of Vietnam War films of the late 80s and early 90s and because the music of the period was so good. All of which I loved.
However, like things do, it fell by the wayside and I sold it all on. But last year I joined in a game of Pete S’s ‘Charlie Don’t Surf’ and Pete M’s Vietnam game, both of which I really enjoyed. This re-kindled my interest in gaming Vietnam and so I started collecting models and miniatures.
I also enjoyed ‘Charlie Don’t Surf’ so I decided that would be the rules I would use.
So, having put a game in the club diary for May, I decided I would run a solo game so I could refine my knowledge of the rules. I decided on a simple meeting encounter.
It is late 1967. Military intelligence is bringing in lots of reports of large communist troop manoeuvres in the south. Something is clearly going to be happening in the run-up to the Tet holidays. Two US infantry platoons have been detailed to perform a blocking action to prevent troop movement of local VC elements in the locality of the village of Boc An. This village is known to have communist sympathies and, as such, the provincial authorities are keen not to alienate the locals any further. Therefore, this area is not a free fire zone and any use of indirect fire will require authorisation.
On the opposite side are two platoons of Main Force VC infantry. They are armed with AK47s and so will count as assault rifle squads. Their objective is to exit the table on the opposite side they enter from. The VC are operating on blinds (with two dummies). Since this is a solo game I decided that I would dice to see which blinds are dummies and which are real when the need comes.
The table was set up with the VC blinds on one edge and the US platoons deployed within 6” of the opposite. The US forces had two Big Men (God, I HATE that term!) as platoon commanders, one Big Man is company command with a medic. Company mortars are available but will require authorisation. I set the US platoons up in standard formation – one squad on point with the other two squads behind. All US squads would count as machine gun squads (the M60s having been distributed amongst squads rather than as a separate weapons squad).
The US forces would have a slow advance because they were soon having to wade through the rice paddies. I had them avoid the village just in case anything happened that would antagonise the villagers. The plan was to spread out once they’d passed the village to stop any VC slipping through the net. Similarly, the VC also had a slow advance through the jungle – still operating on blinds, so still unsure which units were real and which were dummies. The two central dummies advanced up the hill with the two flanking dummies moving around the flanks to create a dilemma for the US forces.
The US 1st Platoon rolled badly for movement through the paddies so the squads started bunching up. Meanwhile, 2nd Platoon did quite well and so managed to move up to put them in a position should one of the flanking VC units turn out to be real. Mind you, 2nd Platoon would also have a patch of elephant grass to wade through as well, so making a bit of time through the paddies was a bonus. As for the VC, two of the blinds had reached the summit of the hill with the other two making slightly slower progress on the flanks. It would soon be at the point where the US platoons could start making spot rolls as the VC were now on the edge of the jungle.
The US company command as well as 1st Platoon all failed in their spot rolls and so when it came to the VC activation they had a choice – stay where they were and remain hidden or, with the US platoons in the open, take advantage of that and open fire. I went with the latter – it was going to happen sooner or later and so it made sense to let rip while they had the advantage. I rolled for the two VC blinds on the hill to see if they were the real units. And, you know what, they were! So troops were put on the table. This meant the game would turn into a straight fight rather than a hunt and pursue.
So the VC let rip with their AKs. US 1st Platoon were caught in the open. They’d crossed the paddies and were in the area of scrub between the road and the hill. The lead squad took a pasting and accumulated several Shock and became Suppressed. I was surprised at how lethal the game could be, but then the fire was at a unit in the open at close range. It wasn’t looking good for the US platoons. When the US activated they managed to give back a little of what they’d received, but the VC were in the jungle, so whilst it was at close range it was still a poor shot. Nonetheless the lead VC squads took two kills as well as being Pinned and Suppressed. Ouch!
The firefight now brewed up. The US 1st Platoon commander found himself in a dilemma – whether to get his squad returning fire before the VC went again or to rally some of the Shock to make them more effective. There was only one choice; with all the Shock they’d taken their fire would be ineffective, so he had to take the gamble and rallied some of the Shock on his troops. Meanwhile, the company commander recognised the potentially lethal situation he found himself in and called for the company mortars to strike the hilltop, but he would have to wait until authorisation came through. The VC fire came in once more and this time it was deadlier – two US killed! However, the Critical Wound card came up, meaning one of the killed was a serious injury. The Medic called in a casevac chopper and proceeded to tend to the wounded man and try to get him to a suitable LZ for evacuation.
Two things then happened. The US 2nd Platoon spotted and engaged the second VC platoon. The VC took one killed and a few Shock. Seeing the kind of fire-power the US could give out, the VC second platoon pulled back to the downslope of the hill, the intention being to disappear back into the jungle and find another way off the board. Also, authorisation for the mortars came through nice and quickly (clearly, higher command saw the urgency of the need), which meant the mortars might be coming in soon. 1st squad of the US 1st Platoon pulled back after the mauling it had received so the other two squads of 1st Platoon could engage the enemy.
Then it happened. In came the mortars. Only the shot hadn’t been as accurate as hoped. The barrage actually missed the VC and hit the side of the hill, which meant the barrage also fell on part of the village! The villagers well and truly copped it – not only Pins, Suppressions, and Shock, but four civilian fatalities! Not good. Not good at all. This caused the company command a dilemma – should he call off the mortars or would he be able to correct fire in time. If he called off the mortars then this may result in more delays as authorisation would be needed to resume firing, but if he couldn’t correct fire then the village would take another leathering. Such is the fate of war. Well, such is the random turn of cards. He kept the fire up and just hoped that he could correct the mortars in time.
And lucky him, because that’s just what he managed to do. Yup, his card came up before the mortar card came up. It’s as cold and simple as that. But he managed to correct fire and put it straight on top of the VC 1st Platoon. The effect was devastating.
The VC 2nd Platoon had pulled back, returned to a blind and, when the Di Di Mau card came up managed to bring on a dummy blind so it was hard to say which was the actual platoon and which was a fake. The two dummies split up and went back to the original plan of moving around the flanks. Meanwhile, the VC 1st Platoon moved to get away from the mortars, but the US company command just walked the mortar barrage with them to keep up the pressure. It was now starting to look unlikely for a VC victory. The US casevac also came in allowing the medic to pass on his charge and off it went with the US wounded.
It felt like things were coming to a conclusion. The US 2nd Platoon cleared the elephant grass and made a spotting roll for the VC blind that was moving around that flank. A successful roll, so now to see if it was the actual unit or a fake. It was real! This meant the US would have the VC trapped and their whereabouts known. The VC were not idle though. Whilst their 1st platoon was now stuck under falling mortars, their 2nd platoon opened up on the US 2nd platoon, causing a fatality as well as Suppressing them. It was far from over.
That said, the numbers were starting to tell. The VC 1st Platoon was really piling up the Shock and they were about to break. And with the rest of the US 2nd Platoon coming up to engage the VC 2nd Platoon and the ever-present threat of falling mortars, it was obvious what was going to happen. The result? The US had won a military victory, but with the casualties sustained and, more importantly, the mortar strike on the village, the VC had won a political victory.
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