Bobs Fictional Countries

Whilst painting my M60’S from the starter box I added to the mix a lone PSC M60 I brought at WMMMS in March ( unaware that it would be the only show we would be able to attend).

How do they compare?

The Battlefront is a lot easier to build, think I built all 4 in time it took to do the one PSC.

For the Warren’s of the world the BF feels chunkier than the PSC.

I think the PSC has slightly better detail,  but at lot of fiddly work to add it.

Yet the finished models look rather similar when finished.

The PSC one has the MG removed from mini turret Vietnam style  manly as I broke the one in the turret Post build  pre painting.

I leave it to you decide which is better  I like both results   its the build time that slightly puts me of PSC version.

Finished these bad boys a couple of weeks back , but other projects and life got in the way.

Whether you can make it out  I did put cammo using GW Zandri Dust.

For the above I decided I would go for a simple scheme. It would be a series of GW Zandri Dust Blobs over an Army Painter Army Green base coat.

Before I tried it I had done an GW Agrax Earthshade wash . On most of the Volgan line Units I had used Nuln oil, but this tends to darken the base colour , for the Guards I hoped it would give a different finish.

I didnt want to lose the shading the wash had given, so I intende to virtually dry brush the Cammo on using a very short bristled flat ended brush I had picked up from a £ shop.

I have made the 1st Trial Run on the BMP3’s as they had large flat surfaces and thought they would be the easiest to try it on.

Overall I think it worked quite well.

Capalist pig dogs beware I announce the formation of the ‘The Volgan Heavy Guards ‘

This is a special recognition of our Glorious men and women who fought so valiantly to ensure the Liberation of our Friends in Arabistan.

I firmly believe they will bring terror to the Capatalist lackies in less happy lands.

I only did above as my one picture had gone black and white!!

Basically I brought 3 boxes of the new starter set from OTT   a bargain at £28 each (Buy Merch, @warzan put the cheque in the post)

The Americans in it will be added to the Mercians

But for the Volgans

This gave me 8x T80’s

4x BMP3’s and 6 x T64’s.

Now I had mentioned  the Volgan Guards in my Battle report, so thought lets use these to build the unit.

I’m going to actually experiment with adding a Zandri Dust cammo on them . I’ll update how I get on.

So all above go into a bar……………

Actually no, but as I was playing and writing up the battle report , I was working on adding some Fench equipment to my little universe ( see timeline below or above depending on how you look at it).

Why?

I like the look of the AMX 30 and the armoured car and that’s it!

So far I have only got the tanks.

Anyway they were painted fairly easily,

Base of GW Zandri Dust Spray

Wash of GW Reikland Flesh

Dry Brush of Zandri Dust

Yup so far how I had done the Mercians.

Now the cunning part.

Although I had begun experimenting with thinning down contrast paints , @warzan was ahead of me , so I followed his idea and thinned out , 50/50 mix approx of contrast medium and GW Contrast Militarim Green to put on cammo blobs all over the tanks.

I then did the usual block painting and washing of tracks etc, the only difference being the use of  P3 paints Pig Iron  purely as I’d run out of both velljo and Army Painter gun metals.

Xfers were a mixture of Battlefront U.S. for names and id no’s and for the insignia , unused Griffin insignia from Titanicus sets from GW. I did them in a rush when I did them so didnt notice a couple are reversed, but will live with it.

Although I had built them before the French as I may have mentioned before ‘I hate painting Helicopters’.

I finally Wednesday afternoon began my 2 Apaches from the American starter set.

I must say I found them fairly easy to paint. I did them as East Riding British Longbow versions…..why because I wanted too and its my Universe , neaghhhhh!

I again used Zandri Dust and Reikland Flesh for the base colour wash and Dry Brush.

Apart from detail left it at that.

Decals where mainly Battlefront British, with appropriate names and WW2 11th Armoured Division tabs.

Watch the next entry for a special announcement from the Volgan Government!

With their overall commander gone, the two M901’s and two M1A1HC’S , still facing overwhelming numbers really had no option but to fall back.

Its a moot point if the M901’s could have escaped the avenging company of T55’S  but I reckoned Keithsoloplos would want to re group.

Butchers Bill

Mercians

2x M1A1HC’S

1x M1

4x LAV- 75 assault guns

2x M901’s

3x HMMV’s

Volgan’s

2X T64’s

5x T72M’S

3x BMP-2’S

3x Spandrels

So virtually the same in lost vehicles but the Volgans way a head on points.

For the Dunheep campaign the Volgans have chalked up their 1st victory,  a great boost to the morale booster over ther hated Mercian opponents   plus they have gained a central island objective in capturing Bigpaulonople.

Now was the game an accurate representation of modern warfare  no in that I limited it for game learning to armour and vehicles, but despite that Team Yankee rules did provide an excellent base and gave a reasonable feel with out a lot of phaffing.  I found the rules index a boon and using it found finding rule queries easy. The unit cards made life easy as well.

I may need to tweet a couple of rules for my amended activation .

I am in two minds at moment as to whether to allow a reserved fire option (on +1 to hit chance) though it rarely came up during game. Also may change the remount time for bailouts.

As for was it fun……….a resounding yes!

Even with the move delays caused by my wanting to write down the moves actions for this report before my aged brain forgot them.

Was I biased to one side  , yes possibly a bit to the Volgans post move 2 as at that point they were getting chewed.

To be fair to the Mercians their initial deployment left them severely out of position   and they may have been able to at least delay the Volgan advance if they had been able to move into the built up area before the Volgans.

The M1A1HC’S were nice  but they took up so much of the 100pts . I probably would only take 1 or 2 in future for either seizing or holding vital areas, and would phaff list out with cheaper M1A1’s or M1’s.

I’d be interested to see what Justin (Captain Alpha strike) would have come up with for Mercians.

For your next thrilling instalments I will have French and more Volgans.

Well fight fans we are at round 5 what was to be the final round.

After rebagging with 4 Green and 6 Red  the writing was on the wall , the Volgans had taken beating getting into position but were at last in potential positions to dish it out. They had already gained most of the objectives that I hadn’t put out (Particularly the cinema it was showing Under Seige and they all wanted to see the cake scene).

1st dice was red which was put on the BMP-2’S,  both had a line of sight on the LAV75 Assault guns  two whooshs but only one dull clang   which was enough to force the crew to bail.

The crew failed to get back in on their activation which was next (May have to amend that rule for bolt action style activations)

So the other opened up on the two T72M’S it could see

The round failed to penetrate  but did force a bail out. Missing the one it clobbered last move.

Next was Red ,I placed it on the T72M’S for what turned out to be the possibly the winning activation.of the game . Managing to keep unit cohesion, one of the bailed out crews got back in.

Two of his compatriots moved on to the hill to engage the Assault guns , the other two swung round to engage the Mercian command tank. It was then that I spotted they had a side shot on the M1A1HC that I had finally managed to get in the woods the previous move. So targets changed . The returned crew opened up on the undamaged LAV 75 AG  blowing it to bits.

Of the other 4 potential shots  1 engaged the disabled remaining AG   , 2 the Mercian command M1  and one on newly sided exposed sid armour on the M1A1HC’S , the 1st 2 targets were an 4’s to hit and the M1A1HC’S on a 5. I think the Volgans blood was up ( who are you , and what have you done with Bob) as all bit one shot (on the M1) hit. Only the M1 got a saving roll and failed miserably.  As it was the 2nd hit on LAV 25 the firepower check was academic. The rest were 5 and 6 respectively for a dead M1 and M1A1HC.

Now to add insult to injury another red came out , which went on the T55’S  , but they could not move far enough on tactical to engage the M901’S.

Next a Green , with no targets from the back of the woods and their overall commander gone  witn no ability to fire on the move  withdrew off table.

Another green and M1A1HC’S also fell back  front to the enemy with the one on the Right firing on the T72M’S dispatching easily its target with one of its 2 shots

This of course left his turret side exposed to the BMP1’s to his front that his retreat had put him line of site of . These promptly took the opportunity presented , though only on hit  it got the turret for a satisfying bang as can be seen above.

With the Mercian commander dead  there were only Red dice and fot the final action the Volgan Commander and the Remaining T64’S moved forward to exploit their Victory.

Well.so far its not going well for the Volgans , 6 tanks 2 BMP’s and 3 Spandrels lost for a single HMMV.

Anyway with the bag re’diced I began move 4 . 1st dice was Red.

I Put it onto the Col Keithsoloplos, I’d left him exposed to a hail of possible missle fire at the end of last move, and wanted to get him out of the line of fire.  I decided to take the risk of getting one shot in at the 2nd HMMV so rolled for scoot and shoot which he succeeded in passing , so another missile was fired, and scratch one HMMV. This immediately reduced the amount of incoming fire on his units and reduced the Mercians down to 5 initiative dice.

I drew another red  , not knowing what the Mercians may do I put in on the BMP-2’S scouts as I thought I might have a line of sight on the tail 2 Assault guns but on checking the line went through one of the ruins so they stayed put.

Then another red. I still wanted to hold back with the 2 main tank units , so I moved the T55’S up  I considered a dash move to get them out from behind the warehouse  , but this may have left them exposed to fire from the Assault guns with ther double fire rate fire for stationary. So I moved them into position for next move.

Then another red….I didnt want to move rhe T64’s at this point as they were a potential threat to the M1A1HC’S on the hill, preventing them from turning or moving to face the threat developing on the right flank.

I decided to be bold with the T72M’S and moved them forward so they could all fire on the 2 forward Assault Guns   6 shots on 5″s as they were in deffelade but 2 hit and 2 Assault guns were dispatched..

Well with 4 dice out of the bag it was time to pay the piper as the next 3 dice were all green.

I would have to move the last two Assault Guns to get a shot  so pulled them back as if they had moved them forward it would have left them  vulnerable to at least 4 shots from the T72M’S and 6 from the T55’s   pulling them back reduced it to only 2 potential T72M’S next move   possibly none if they hit them.

They did hit one but failed the firepower test (it failed it armour save) forcing a bailout.

I then made a mistake for the Mercian’s   I should have put one of the next two Green dice on the 2nd M901 platoon  ,(which will soon become obvious)but put it 1st Platoon , they had no targets and can’t fire and move so I pulled them back to behind the wood that the HMMV’S had been in. I them placed the 2nd on the M1A1HC’S   they had no targets so I finally succeeded on moving the one into the woods and then shuffled the other positions.

This is where the mistake became evident as I drew a red  with only the T64’s and the forgotten BMP1 scouts,  still wanting to leave the threat of the T64’s I went for the latter . On a whim I checked the line of site to the 2nd M901 platoon in the rear wood . I hadn’t checked it before  but the shuffle the move before actually cleared the 1st wood with the HMMV’s allowing a shot lousy on 6’s as they would count gone to ground. Well the Volgan luck held and one 6 was rolled, followed by another 6 for boom!

Not only that but the survivor failed its moral test and ran away.

The next dice was green, all that was left now was Kaptain Kevlin   who could charge forward to possibly kill 2 T72M’S   but would either get shot to bits by the T64’s behind him   or risk 4 shots ftom the T72’s and the 6 T55’S next move  so he stayed put. T64’S with the only remaining dice, carefully moved forward through the cover to there front without exposing themselves to potential M1A1HC’S fire.

Hmmn! That changed things    now it stands at 2 x Mercian units destroyed for one Volgan.

6 tanks  2APC’s and 3 Spandral for 2x LAV 25 Assault guns , 2x M901 and 2x HMMV’s, plus the Mercians now only hold the left Flank.