[Etranger]

Blitzkrieg Commander (IV)? Although it’s usually played at the 1 base/vehicle = 1 section/troop, it can also be played at the 1:1 figure/vehicle ratio.

[Etranger]

From Buck Surdu’s Blog http://bucksurdu.com/blog/?pu003d2971&paged=41

[Etranger]

Dan Kennedy wrote:

Hi,

Can’t find anything online about this, I’m putting together a homebrew scenario for Red Storm, involving NATO aircraft crossing the EGB before hostilities started to conduct pre-emptive strikes.

Question – does anyone know if there was actually any likelihood of that occurring? Obviously contingency plans of all manner existed, but how likely was it that NATO would actually be the one to shoot first?

Thanks.

Dan Kennedy wrote:

What about a situation where both sides had been sabre-rattling for some time and TTW was in effect, is it possible that NATO might’ve decided to launch strikes across the IGB while they had the chance?

The scenario I’m writing theorises that GSFG are plainly ready to jump off, and NATO decides to try and blunt them while they can. It occurred to me that it might be implausible, not least because of the intact anti-air environment; the only place I’ve ever seen such a thing theorised is in Clancy’s ‘Red Storm Rising’, which says a lot about how likely such a move might be.

There’s also Able Archer 1983 when the Russians thought that NATO WAS about to launch a pre-emptive strike, before someone fortunately worked the right answer out .. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Able_Archer_83

[Etranger]

Paint it Pink wrote:

Just caught this. Always late, me.

This reminds me of my favourite boardgame from back in the day…

The Wreck of the BSM Pandora from SPI.

Which had a companion game from SPI called, The Voyage of the BSM Pandora.

Anyway, sounds like a fun project.

Goodness, I think I might even have that in the stash somewhere. There was also a Traveller Adventure on much the same theme.

[Etranger]

Mike wrote:

It totally is. Make sure you take some grenades this time.

Sound advice in any situation.

[Etranger]

12 pounds would be the top end for most manufacturers & vehicles often cost significantly less than that. There are often bulk packs eg Brigade Models platoon packs with vehicles, stowage and crew for less than buying the individual vehicles. Often you need fewer AFVs than for eg WW2. I’ve bought a lot of both WW2 and sci-fi kit over the years and can’t say I’ve found a lot of price difference over that time.

Where WW2 scores these days is in the economies of scale that manufacturers can achieve when with large numbers of sales, to the point where they’ve been able to introduce plastic models in lieu of the older metal & resin equivalents. That said, the price per vehicle doesn’t seem to have dropped.

If all else fails there are very cheap option eg converted Matchbox vehicles at a couple of quid each. Now I can’t buy WW2 kit for that.

If you want expensive sci-fi AFVs look at GW models! That tends to colour pricing anyway.

[Etranger]

Plenty around: Khurusan, Rebel Minis (‘bugs’ in particular), Alternative Armies (HOF are just one of their ranges), GZG, QRF (for “Aliens” aliens), RaL Partha Europe (the ex-Critical Mass range), Eureka (Ventaurans & ‘Space Germans’) Darkest Star (Ventaurans, compatible with Eureka but slightly differently equipped), RAFM (the original Trwaveller range), Clear Horizon and Bluemoon to name a few.

12mm and 20mm ranges can also provide smaller and larger aliens.

At the end of the day ‘a man in a space suit’ looks a lot like ‘a Humanoid in a space suit’. Non suited ‘civilian types are harder to find, but do exist amongst the ranges, GZG and AA are particularly good for that.

I have Venataurans as my ‘Humanoid’ occupying powers in my setting. (Basically taller, thinner slightly higher tech humans). I’ve got figures from all the other ranges except for Bluemoon.

[Etranger]

Tradition had a bit to do with it too…

Further to Willz points, the Flower class corvette was basically a lightly adapted whaler design, down to the single screw and old fashioned engine layout. They must have been extremely uncomfortable to sail in but were very seaworthy and reliable ships.

[Etranger]

willz wrote:

I know several years ago a single injection mould sprue cost about £10,000 – 12,000 to produce. How many figures do you have to sell to get a return on your investment.

Which is of course why hard plastic ranges (multipose or not) are usually limited to the bigger selling periods & eras. Even with multiple figures on a single frame there is a large investment cost in producing them.

[Etranger]

It never bothered me, perhaps because I’m a modeller as much as a gamer. At least you don’t have to get the banana oil out these days.

[Etranger]

He’d more or less dropped out of circulation. It was a small post on LAF or somewhere. I can’t find it now.

[Etranger]

The owner of Stronghold (who had the SDD range) died after a long illness, so perhaps it’s understandable!

[Etranger]

It’s almost impossible to define a fighter’s quality in terms of a single number from 1-5, unless you’re also dividing up the selection criteria too. For example take the Brewster Buffalo – a dog of a fighter in USN/USMC or RAF/RAAF/DEI hands against the Japanese in 1941-1942, perhaps 2/5. In Finnish hands against the Russians in the same time period? 4/5. Granted it was not exactly the same model of aircraft, but to divide it up further would be extremely granular.

[Etranger]

Rocking the Viking look (TV series version) there Mike!

[Etranger]

I just put a spray matt varnish over all. It stiffens the foam up, & perhaps more importantly, stops it coming loose again.

[Etranger]

John D Salt wrote:

Surely the best method would be to take a bunch of dry sand, and sculpt the dune shapes with a leaf-blower?

For some very small value of “best”.

All the sand,

John.

No less a personage than Don Featherstone suggested using a sand table to replicate the Gallipoli battlefield, using dampened sand to make the hills and gullies etc, in much the way that you’d make a sandcastle. This looks like the article here: https://www.amazon.com/Donald-Featherstones-Battle-Notes-Wargamers-ebook/dp/B00U9PU9CK

[Etranger]

David – there are a few useful shots here http://www.thelongridehome.com.au/lieutenant_colonel_barry_petersen_mc_mid Barry Petersen was an interesting character & the book gives a real insight into the irregular war being fought.

[Etranger]

Nice looking game. It’s a treat to see autumn/fall scenery on the table.

[Etranger]

Our group uses Carnage and Glory for our SYW games & find it excellent. There’s a bit of setting up required pregame to get the rosters into the computer but once that’s done it flows smoothly. One player acts as an ‘Umpire’, entering the data as required. He can take a side, but often we have 3 or 4 players. We’d expect to fight a Corps level battle in 3 hours using C & G. We find the results plausible.

We’re an experienced group including a well known and much published rules author & we find that C & G fits our purposes. I’ve also got the ECW set but haven’t tried them out yet.

[Etranger]

John – there’s a bit of subtleness in the Wings of War cards though, as different aircraft types use different manoeuvre decks, which helps to reproduce eg the ability of rotary engined ‘planes (WWI variant, I haven’t tried the WWII version) to turn tighter than other fighters, or the more sedate two seaters to maintain a stately progress straight across the table. It limits the players ability to perform impossible acrobatic feats & means that they do have to plan a few seconds (in game time) ahead. Sure, there’s a bit of second guessing involved, but there are mechanisms to enable more skilled ‘ace’ pilots (not players) to react more quickly than the run of the mill pilot, or the novice. I find that the mechanics provide for reasonably realistic outcomes, unless you’re flying against my younger daughter, who’s a natural born killer in the sky & shoots down Se5a’s for fun!

[Etranger]

Yes indeed, interesting!

[Etranger]

50 years? It can’t be! I’ve got the much younger (“only” 46 years old) Panzer Leader & even today it can give a good game, even with the flaws documented above..

[Etranger]

Jemima Fawr wrote:

John D Salt wrote:

a depressingly high proportion of WW2 tactical games I see don’t seem to include artillery at all. All the best, John.

Real men wargame with AGRAs…

But that’s cheating according to those playing the Germans ….

[Etranger]

Thuseld wrote:

What is it about Firefly that connects to so many of us Sci Fi gamers? Also, I am looking at ways to combine Firefly and Mass Effect. Like Mass Effect in the core worlds, but Firefly out on the Fringe? I don’t know.

Lots of us played Traveller back in the day, as allegedly did Joss Weldon.

[Etranger]

I like the idea of deploying the entire production run of the Char 2C. I’ve only got 3 alas. A decent gun (basically the same 75mm as used in the Sherman,all derived from the famous 75 of WWI), paper thin armour & poor mobility. But how many tanks have their own sous-chef?

[Etranger]

Jim Jackaman wrote:

Etranger wrote:

Oh, and if you’re looking at 15mm, then Gomi Designs, (a sponsor of this site) have US riverine craft, some of which might be able to stand in for their French predescessors. https://gomidesigns.co.uk/Vietnam

I had originally planned a 15mm platoon level project using the Eureka figures and vehicles from QRF etc but it didn’t get off the ground.

I think 1/600th has a lot more to offer for this.

That’s the way I went in 15mm.

If 1/300 is an option then GHQ have an American Riverine range in 1/300 & there’s a decent selection of WWII landing craft from Heroics & Ros and from Scotia Grendel. Warlord do separate weapons sprues for the Cruel Seas models to allow kitting out of modified LC, & also a Fairmile, although it’s the long ‘Dog boat’ rather than the Fairmile B used as a HDML which turned up in Indochina.

[Etranger]

grizzlymc wrote:

Jemima Fawr wrote:

Etranger wrote:

It reads well & looks good Mark. Eagerly waiting for the next part!

………………………… I never believed it, as it was physically impossible anyway. ………………….

He was younger and more flexible then!

Now I showed you the photos in the strictest confidence…

[Etranger]

Oh, and if you’re looking at 15mm, then Gomi Designs, (a sponsor of this site) have US riverine craft, some of which might be able to stand in for their French predescessors. https://gomidesigns.co.uk/Vietnam

[Etranger]

Jim Jackaman wrote:

Just found my copy of Buckle for your Dust including the riverine warfare rules by Paddy Griffith – Mouth of the Dragon. At first skim through (there’s only six pages) they look very promising…just have to swap out helicopters for fixed wing air support and work out the French equivalents for the various landing craft, monitors, gunboats etc. ….this might actually work!

A lot of the US riverine craft followed on from their French equivalents. Some actually were veterans of the French war. A lot of the French stuff was actually of WII origin, LCM’s, LCVP’s. LCA’s and the like all featured. Their monitors were LCMs with the turret from a Coventry Armoured Car on the forward section of the (covered) hold. Most of the conversion work was done in in the field. My Dinassaut features modified LCMs and LCAs, & there are some LCVP in the stash somewhere.

If you haven’t seen it, this is Croziat’s original report on the French Indochina war – he went on to write extensively on the riverine war. https://www.rand.org/pubs/research_memoranda/RM5271.html My books alas are all packed away.

[Etranger]

It reads well & looks good Mark. Eagerly waiting for the next part!

[Etranger]

Unless the terrain is up to the standard that I can make for myself, then I’ll do it myself. That said, there is a local scenery firm that does just that, so I tend to buy trees etc from Barry as he handmakes them for less than I’d be paying for the components. Since we use the same suppliers for scenic scatter etc, there are no issue with colour incompatibility etc.

[Etranger]

Muerto wrote:

Old Glory Miniatures
Product ID: CD-200 M4 Sherman $27.00
15mm scale – 3 Tanks

Okay, as noted above the need for a Sherman photo is debatable, but I do like to look at the tracks

From a modelling viewpoint that Sherman is a bit dodgy, (that turret is squashed for one thing) but that may be due to distortion in the photographic process, rather than in the model itself….

It is however, recognisably a Sherman (as was the Airfix one..)

[Etranger]

MartinR wrote:

I prefer pictures but I can live without them. I mainly buy historical stuff so it matters less. What pictures don’t show you is whether manufacturer As figures are a head taller than manufacturer Bs. Thank goodness for those dedicated people who put together comparison sites.

All of this a million times better than the good old days of sending off postal orders to dubious companies advertising in the back pages of Military Modelling.

You should try doing it from the other side of the world! COVID has returned postage times to the 1980’s….

[Etranger]

Muerto wrote:

I’ve seen similar threads elsewhere where manufacturers come on and with great indignation list the reasons Guy mentioned (which I assume you’ve seen before too, Guy).

There are parts of my job I don’t like either. If I don’t do them, there will be consequences.

When there are parts of my job I don’t know how to do, if I don’t learn them there will be consequences.

When there is equipment necessary for my job that I don’t have, if I don’t get it there will be consequences.

If your job, or side hustle, is running a small business and you don’t run it to the reasonable expectations of the clients, there will be consequences for your sales.

The problem is that a lot of these companies are 1 or 2 man bands, possibly running as a sideline to a real job. It takes time, effort & equipment to take professional standard photographs, all of which costs money. In the case of old ranges, there may be minimal change to sales. I’ve got plenty of sympathy for those with massive back catalogues from pre flashy website days, where there really isn’t any incentive to do so. Mike’s example may well be a case in point. New releases on the other hand need to be shown properly …

That said, I’m sure that there are plenty of customers who would be willing to provide photographs of the finished figures to those pictorially challenged manufacturers. (and if not, why not?).

Or they could just charge more….

[Etranger]

Looks like an entertaining game.

[Etranger]

Decals that include white are trickier as it’s apparently hard to put the white down without a very expensive device. If you’ve got a colour printer, you can get white decal paper and add the red stripes.

It might indeed be worth trying one of the custom decal people but I don’t know any either!

[Etranger]

Assuming that you mean the RWR RAC flash, it was also used in the UK and in Sicily/Italy. Battlefront have them in their British and Commonwealth pack. They also do the WRW ‘Crusader’ marking in the North Africa pack https://www.flamesofwar.com/online_store.aspx?CategoryID=9940 I’m not sure if any of the other suppliers have them offhand.

[Etranger]

Not a Funny but a great photo nonetheless from http://silverhawkauthor.com/ironsides-canadian-armoured-fighting-vehicle-museums-and-monuments_268.html

I haven’t seen the RAC flash on a Centaur before! and having said that I find a whole batch http://panzerserra.blogspot.com/2013/03/centaur-cs-mk-iv-royal-marines-case.html

[Etranger]

Jemima Fawr wrote:

..

Fantastic! I used to have that book, but foolishly loaned it out. IIRC, it was the only place I ever saw a picture of the deck that was added to Buffalo IIs, allowing them to carry 17pdr AT guns and trucks on top.

David Fletchers ‘Vanguard of Victory: the 79th Armoured Division also has a (? the same) photo. Page 70 in my edition.

The photo in my book has the gun facing backwards.

[Etranger]

Giant statues of the Elders, eg Easter Island. Of course the elder aren’t necessarily human…

[Author]

Posts