Ultramodern Wargaming – Ukraine 2024
Recommendations: 13001
About the Project
Lately, I've been running war games every weekend with members of the community via web conference. Players log on and play wargames with each other in real time, regardless of location, and we usually have at least a couple spectators as well. Many times it’s been Darkstar, but we’re also running wargames in Panzer Leader, Arab-Israeli Wars, and now Valor & Victory.
BoW/OTT community members @brucelea, @damon, @davehawes, and @rasmus have taken the plunge, leading battalions across thousands of meters of desert, starfleets in pitched battles across the heavens, or vicious firefights in the jungles of Vietnam, all without leaving the comfort of their home.
Hard-core, old-school command-tactical wargames can now be run (complete with spectators and recordings) in real time, with BOTH PLAYERS moving pieces across THE SAME virtual game board, thus maintaining player agency, speedy and instant results (no play by e-mail), interwoven turn sequences, any questions / feedback instantly received and addressed, and with the game being virtually recorded as it goes, a ready-made battle report can actually be created as we go.
All of this without the players having to install any new software on their computer, on any platform (PC or Mac). All that's needed is to agree on a time, a handful of dice, and a bellyful of courage!
Every weekend can now be a boot camp! All without costing me thousands of dollars in airfare, too!
Related Game: PanzerBlitz
Related Genre: Historical
This Project is Active
IDF Armor & Light Vehicles (15mm)
Well, this is as far as they’re going to get before tomorrow’s game. I might come back later with small details like vehicle plate numbers, etc.
IDF Armor and light vehicles, some useful for 1967 Six-Day War. Some useful for 1973 Yom Kippur War.
15mm Old Glory (and some others), modified and tweaked.
Magach 2 / M48A2s
Magach 3 / M48A5s
M113 APCs
“Liberated” Soviet GAZ field cars, some with MGs or TOW ATGW
Painted for Sinai campaign as opposed to Golan.
Deadly Fallujah - Iraq's most intense battle (20mm Force on Force)
We have rounds downrange and Marines have been hit!
Join us for the conclusion of our tabletop miniature game of Force-on-Force, set in the epicenter of the Iraq War’s most intense single engagement – the Second Battle of Fallujah (Operation Phantom Fury).
Building IDF Armour (15mm Old Glory - Magach 3 and M113 APC)
Here is the replay from yesterday’s live stream, where I start building 15mm IDF tanks and APCs from Old Glory … for 1973 Yom Kippur War.
We tediously go over correct correct MG layouts … then I use a wrong MG layout 🙁
And I got some great 3D printed layouts from Butler Printed Models Company.
Finishing up Ukrainian BMP-2, BMP3s, Russian BMDs, BRDM-2s w/ AT-2
Rescued these “bargain bin baddies” for about 75 cents a piece. Fair amount of work to restore them.
Patch broken fenders
Patch broken roadwheels and tracks
New hatches & commanders
New scratch-built AT-5s ATGWs on the BMP-2s
New headlights
Stowage stratch built
New antennae and jacks
New muzzle brakes on the BMP-2s.
Mis of Russian and Ukrainian markings.
Fallujah - Iraq War's Most Intense Battle (20mm Force-on-Force Wargame) P1
Join us for a tabletop miniature game of Force-on-Force, set in the epicenter of the Iraq War’s most intense single engagement – the Second Battle of Fallujah (Operation Phantom Fury).
It’s November 2004, and the US Marine Corps, US Army, and Iraqi security forces have closed a ring around the city of Fallujah, one of the deadliest insurgent strongholds in the so-called Sunni Triangle. Near the “Pizza Slice” neighborhood of the Jolan District, the absolute heart of this pitiless engagement, a Marine M1A1 Abrams battle tank has been crippled by an IED blast.
Now an aging Marine gunnery sergeant has been given a pair of Humvees and a detached squad of 2nd Platoon, Kilo Company, 3/5 Marines, with orders to get to that crew, evacuate the casualties, and frag the tank before it can be looted by Mahdi insurgents.
Of course, the insurgents know about the crippled tank as well. Capturing it means prisoners to exploit, technology to sell, and 120mm ammunition to build into more IEDs.
Who will reach the tank first, and can the Marines save their wounded comrades in time?
Light Soviet AFVs: Rescuing Minis from the Wreck Pile!
Here is a replay of last night’s stream, where we work on some of those BMP-2s, BMP-3s, BRDM-2s, and BMD airmobile combat vehicles.
We talk about new Russian tank commander uniforms, plans for some upcoming US Vietnam and IDF Yom Kippur vehicles, and Oriskany gets himself mightily confused about Soviet antitank missiles.
Hey, what else is new?
Some other work I've been up to in the last week - including a lot more repair, scratch-building, conversion, and upgrade!
Seven Days to the River Rhine: Harold Coyle's "Sword Point" (US v USSR in Alternate 1990s Iran)
Join us as we finish up our game of “Seven Days to the River Rhine” (Great Escape Games) set in the events of Harold Coyle’s “Sword Point” novel, imagining a US-USSR conflict in an alternate 1990 Iran.
So far, losses have been steep on both sides. The Soviet tank spearhead is all but shattered, but honestly the platoon of American M1A1 Abrams has been largely destroyed as well. With the tanks smashed, it’s down to the Bradleys, BMPs, and even HMMWVs to decide ultimate victory!
Stream Replay: 15mm Modern USMC Vehicles
Here is the replay from yesterday’s live stream, where we start off talking about and working on modern USMC 15mm miniatures.
How quickly the stream goes sideways, with the topic ranging to Soviet Cold War tank evolution to the disposition of manuever-level fomations in 1980s Germany.
Through it all, however, we do get some miniatures actually *completed* in this stream. ?
