10mm Modern French Foreign Legion, and Help With Campaign

[Just Jack]

All,

I recently purchased some more modern French to base them up singly for a campaign I plan on running using “No End In Sight.” I built up a unit with HQ, Wpns (so far just SAM and 81mm mortar), and six 5-man rifle teams in both ‘green’ and ‘desert,’ with assorted vehicle support.

Here’s a photo of three AMX-10Ps I picked up:

And who can tell me what kind of an ATGM this is? Looks to me like a Javelin. Do the French use Javelins?

For about 15 more photos, check the blog at:
http://blackhawkhet.blogspot.com/2014/11/modern-french-foreign-legion.html

Regarding the campaign, I’m looking to start Tuesday (Veteran’s Day). I think I’ve got the OOB figured out. For the setting, I think I don’t need too elaborate a back story. This is the Legion, so they are available for worldwide deployment in service of France’s foreign policy objectives. I think I’ll stick with real-life countries, with real and imaginary incidents/conflicts. I’m looking at early/mid-90s, with lots of action in the Balkans and Eastern Europe following the break-up of the Soviet Union. I’ll be looking a lot at former French colonies, so we’ll also have plenty of Northern and Western Africa, maybe some Lebanon, Cambodia, and Laos, maybe some Caribbean, need to look into Central/South America, and the Pacific (terrorists in Tahiti/French Polynesia?).

Whaddaya think? If you’ve got ideas regarding OOB or campaign hotspots, hurry up with’em!

V/R,
Jack

[PaintingLittleSoldiers]

Hi,

I going to try the following in mine (Not sure of theatre\forces yet)

A game based on arms shipments sitting in a compound just as things in the country go pear shaped. Something juicy like a few crates of AA missles or APC’s , something that will the French Govt would like not to fall into idle hands. Either start off with the items being in a lightly guarded Govt facility (or the guards have done a runner) and the local troublemakers make a move for it. In come the FFL to secure the items (or demo them). (The typical 007 movie – stop the crazies getting the nukes).

For another game – At the same time a small team is off to rescue some important people people from some official place before it goes boom (Think Tears of the Sun). (You have to split forces between the two games both with rewards\penalties if the game is lost\won).

After that a few more games depending on what happens. Dominating the trouble makers or ending up in a Wild Geese style extraction.

Cheers

[Just Jack]

I continued to Google, because it looks thicker than a Javelin, and the hand placement is different than the Javelin (sorry, I need to get you guys some better pics of the figure), and I think it’s this:

the Eryx:

Although it’s still not perfect; the figure has a much larger targeting sensor/optic than any of the pics I’ve found (it doesn’t match the Javelin, either).

V/R,
Jack

[Just Jack]

Oh, and good stuff, Doc Jackson, Tears of the Sun is one of my favorites!

Any ideas regarding other geographical hotspots?  I was reading something about Venezuela contesting territory with French Guiana, but that didn’t seem right as there’s Suriname and Guyana between the two…  I’m also looking for reasons to get FFL into the Aegean and Baltic Seas.

V/R,
Jack

[kyoteblue]

Terrorist hijack a french cruise ship in the Aegean ??? Oh and Yuerbootie will have my FFL guarding it. It’s next door to Ifat. So look for the FFL to show up some time soon in my campaign. Er still need to paint them…maybe in a couple of weeks, if we get snowed in.

[Ivan Sorensen]

Fascists take over Greece and clash with fundamentalists moving north/west? Plenty of bad people around and plenty of places for the Legion to get stuck in trying to settle things down (which presumably includes bayonets and wine)

[PaintingLittleSoldiers]

Just Jack wrote:

Oh, and good stuff, Doc Jackson, Tears of the Sun is one of my favorites! Any ideas regarding other geographical hotspots? I was reading something about Venezuela contesting territory with French Guiana, but that didn’t seem right as there’s Suriname and Guyana between the two… I’m also looking for reasons to get FFL into the Aegean and Baltic Seas. V/R, Jack

There’s always Basque separatists taking over Andorra and taking French citizens  hostage. Or Corsica rebels from France for Independence (Helped by Putin) and a load of Libyan rebels float across to help them., Insurgents take over Lemos  and pile it with AA and AS missles to control shipping to Turkey (As they have now invaded Syria)

[Rod Robertson]

Just Jack:

Cosider FFLINT ops. Based out of Djibouti or Operation “Sparrow-hawk ” in Chad. Mauritania is another option.  Other operations are listed below: (Ripped off from Wilipedia)

1991: Evacuation of French citizens and foreigners in Rwanda, Gabon and Zaire.
1992: Cambodia and Somalia
1993: Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina
1995: Rwanda
1996: Central African Republic
1997: Congo-Brazzaville
Since 1999: KFOR in Kosovo and Macedonia

More recently the operations in Mali and East Africa might be interesting to game but they are too recent for the time  period you have indicated you want to limit yourself to.

I noticed you have AMX – 10P’s. I am not sure if the FFL use them. I may be wrong, but my sense is that the Legionaires would be more likely to use VAB’s, VBL’s and trucks rather than MICV’s.

Cheers.

Rod Robertson.

[Rod Robertson]

Just Jack:

My IPad  decided to be a pain and refused to paste this e-mail address into the above post. Here it is: http://foreignlegion.info/equipment/

Stupid Technology!

Cheers and good gaming.

Rod Robertson

[kyoteblue]

Got my FFL figures primed as winter is heading to Oklahoma tonight.

[Just Jack]

Good stuff, guys, thanks for all the ideas.  Sounds like I need to buy a 10mm cruise ship 😉

For some reason I really want to start off in the Baltics, like the Soviet Union is breaking up and Estonia wants to break away, but internal hard liners want to keep the country Russia-aligned.  Estonia’s interim government, headed by the cousin of the French President, asks France for help to crush the hardliners before the Russians are able to devote too much attention to keeping Estonia under its sphere of influence.  So the Legion is sent in.  Then I plan on a Northern Africa; as mentioned, maybe Chad, Libya, or Mauritania.  From there, the world is my oyster 😉

For those familiar with my previous FFL campaign, we were following the exploits of Major LaPieux, and his superiors, Colonel Louis-Louis and General Pouspous circa 2013, in the fictional former French colony of Perplakistan.  My intent here is to again follow LaPieux and Louis-Louis as they ‘grow up,’ with Louis-Louis as the task force commander and LaPieux one of his subordinates.

For my FFL campaign I’m going to put more guys on the table (both sides), a bigger (3′ x 2′) board, and 6″ reserve/out of contact movement.  I also plan on my good guys being qualitatively better (pro vs trained/irreg), and usually with the good guys having more troops.  I know it sounds backwards, but I like to win 😉

Actually, the point is not winning, the point is that I think this is generally a better concept of modern warfare for Western forces in most encounters: the Western forces are not in danger of being eliminated; ‘winning’ is based on accomplishing the mission objective(s) efficiently and with negligible casualties, otherwise the Western commander has ‘lost.’  I think this works well as a game at this level as you have to actually fight, not just sit tight (or fall back) and call in supporting fires.  Though I reserve the right to fall back and call in supporting fires if I’m really getting my butt kicked 😉

V/R,
Jack

[Guy Farrish]

Re the A/T – is it supposed to be Milan?

Or possibly the Milan 3?

Although the targeting array looks huge – what’s it look like on the model from the other side?

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