Team Yankee: First Defense of the Fulda Gap

Hey Folks, 

After reading about Adams blogpost about using 6mm models for Team Yankee Andy (of  http://andysarmies.blogspot.co.nz/) decided to try it out as well. 

Sadly we had no rulebook for Team Yankee as yet so just went with what we had gleaned from the net and from our rusty memories of how Flames works. Or we just made it up. Good times! 

We went with small 50 point forces where I had Bundeswher (counting as Yanks) and Andy had Russians 

German Panzergrenadier Kompanie

• Command with Marder (M113) 
• 2 Short (5 stand) Panzergren Platoons with Marders and 2 Milan (Dragons) each 
• 2 Platoons of 2 Rakete Jgadpanzers (M901 ITV's) each 
• 1 Platoon of 2 Flakpanzer Gepards (M163 Vulcans) 
• 1 Platoon of 4 Leopard II's (M1 Abrams) 

Russian Red Banner Tank Battalion

• Command T72
• 7 (?) T72s
• 5 T72s

We decided to just halve the distance in inchs and this worked pretty well! Gave a nice visual on ranges and movements. 

Mission was Free for All as it was easy :) 

We played on a Winter table with some suspiciously tropical looking buildings...

 3' by 4' was equivalent to an 6' by 8' board so a heap of room to deploy. We played across the 3' 

 The Russian have siezed the town and the woods on its outskirts 

Turn 1: The German Leopards bound up the center why one Panzergren platoon flanks towards the top left of the town. Long range missile fire from the Jadgpanzers on the ridge line and in the central woods only succeed in Bailing a T-72. The Soviet Tank Company in the town moves up and tags a Marder...one team survives and bails out. They also bail a Leopard at long range.

Turn 2: The Leopards move up to support the Panzergrens (who are now cornered on the outskirts of the town) and engage the T-72s to no effect. Soviet return fire is devastating with  one Leopard destroyed and another bailed. With only one active Leopard the platoon retreats and leaves the Panzergreens to their fate...

Turn 2 - Continues to be painful for the Germans...with one platoon of Jgadpanzers knocked out after Andy rolls the 6 he needs to hit one at range (and concealed, with GTG) and the remaining vehicle retreats. 

Turn 3: The Soviets continue to press the attack while the remaining Jagdpanzer platoon just cant scratch the T-72s in the fields. Return fire destroys one and bails the other (who then scarpers as I cant roll courage tests it seems!) The Panzergrens desperately try an shelter in the buildings but massed 125mm HE rounds are starting to cause casualties. 

Turn 4: The Panzergrens in the town manage to bag the enemy CO with a MILAN before finally succumbing to the guns of the T-72's in the town. 

Turn 5: The Germans are holding on to the bitter end and a lucky MILAN shot from the Panzergrens on the ridge takes out a T-72. Its too little to late as the Soviets drive on the central objective...

Endgame: The Soviets smashed the Germans and the advance into Western Germany Continues! 

Overall Thoughts: Fun - I love playing Moderns and I used to play ALOT of Flames of War so it was quite easy to pick up. It was somewhat hard without a rulebook but seemed to flow pretty well. 

Andy and I are quite keen to stat up the Middle East as we have buckets of Israelis, Jordania/ Iranians and Iraqis between us...and we don't have to make a whole new terrain set! It shouldn't be too hard to extrapolate from Team Yankee stats back to the other units available. Having a small points system also makes costing things alot easier.

Cheers
Jason

Terrain: 1:48 Modern Civilian Vehicles

Hey Folks, 

Quick post about my latest find: cheap as plastic 1:48 scale plastic toy cars :)

These are cheap as (I paid $35 for all the vehicles except the Bus, which was $10) and are quite well detailed for the price. Hit with a light dusting of grey spraypaint, some brown ink wash and a quick and dirty dry brush they came up pretty nicely! 

Boom. Some modern vehicles for Moderns/ Zombies/ Post apoc or even Infinity. I also have this helicopter

Which I May Infinity up and convert or leave it for less Scifi games. 

You can by these at the warehouse in the Kids Toys isle NZ Peeps :) 

Cheers

Jason 

Force on Force: Battle Report: Kiwi SAS vs Insurgents

Hey Folks,

The other night I played my first game of Force on Force in a while. It was a pick up game on Andys super cool new printed terrain (he's printed everything, even the baseboard and it looks amazing! It's more scifi but all good for a third world zone as well) 

My Kiwis were D10 troop quality and D10 morale and rolled on the advanced medical table so were pretty damn tough. 

Andys Insurgents were D8/D8 so pretty good as far as insurgents go but quite weak as they died on anything but a "6" for the casualty role.

The 2*4 board. I have a three man team in full armour investigating the crashed police Van...

"No sign of the prisoner or guards - it looks like the insurgents hit the van and have freed their buddies"

"Contact!" - Insurgents with an RPG and PKM open up on the squad by the van and cause light wounds on them

A UAV- eye view of MORE insurgents moving to close the trap...

Meanwhile a SAS squad moves up to cover the Van

The Squad by the Van are pinned down and are badly injured but not out. The other SAS squad moves up to cover the. While the Sniper Team cover the approach and start to lay down hideously effective fire...

"Surprise!" an insurgent squad appear in the building across the road and hose the SAS squad by the containers knocking them all down...it's not looking good...

Until some lucky Medical Table roles later and the support of the the other SAs squad on the bushes blows them all away.

In the end I had nailed 3 of Andys squads (out of 4) and while my Sniper team and the team by the Van were pinned in place and badly injured nobody had actually died yet so Andy would have had a tough time of it to try take the Van.

Cheers for the Game Andy! You needed maybe another squad (or Regulars!) or I needed one less said but it was still cool.

Terrain is AWESOME too!

Cheers

Jason

Force on Force: Kiwi SAS

Hey Folks,

A few models I traded from Andy, these were part painted so I finished them off and based them today. Been fun figuring out how to shade Maori skin tone.

This is a ten man Kiwi SAS Patrol on Afghanistan, broken down to two 4 man fire teams (each with a SAW and a few grenade launchers) and 2 man Sniper Team.

I also have a 3 Man fire team in full chat armour, they are generic troops at the moment but I might paint them up as Canadians or something :)

I also picked up from Andy a really cool 1/48 scale Apache, I need to convert this up to be a British Apache at some point!

And finally no, my squad leaders name is not Willie! (Though he is Maori!)

Cheers
Jason

Conflict '89: The Defense of Latakia; Part 1

Hey Folks,

Ive been stupidly busy with work recently (hence the long delay between posts) but we managed to whip together a massive game of Moderns for Pooch's leaving game (as he is soon to depart for windier climes).  This used our work in progress rules for Conflict '89...a micro armour game set in, you guessed it the 1980's and early '90s

I was running my newest army: Bundeswher - cause Ze Germans are cool no matter what time period you are playing (I have Ancient, Napoleonic, WW2 and now Modern Germans)

In this we are playing 3000 points EACH, with half on (rounding down) for a MASSIVE 6k per side.   So my part of the force looked like;

Defence Force; (deployed)

• Full 3 Platoon Fallschirmjager Company with 3 MILAN ATGM teams and 2 Stinger MANPADS
• Raketjagpanzer Company: 8 Jaguar-2 (MILAN armed Tank Destroyers) with a Flakpanzer Gepard (as this is the coolest SPAAG ever)
• Panzermorser Battery: 4 M125 (120mm) Mortar Carriers with a Command Marder 1

The Reserve Force;

• Leopard 2 Panzerkompanie: 9 Leopard 2 MBT's with a Flakpanzer Gepard
• Panzergrenadierkompanie: 2 Platoon Panzergrenadiers (9) with Battlaion Command (2) in 11 Marder IFVs
• Aufklarungs Platoon: 5 Panzergrens in 5 TpZ-1 Fuchs
• Spahpanzer Patrol: 4 Luchs Armoured Cars

The Lufwaffe (can engage from 1st turn)

• 2 F-4E Phantoms (staging out of Turkey)

The scenario was based around the UN Defence of the port city of Latakia following a breakdown of negotiations between Lebanon and Israel.  Andy whipped up an amazing table on very short notice!

The Port City of Latakia: This is two 6*4 foot boards cunningly balanced and built up with bits of wood around my garage to cobble together an L-shaped table with a diagonal harbour section.  This diagonal cut out worked really well as we could reach into the center.  There are three objectives on the approachs t the City and a Blitz on the Docks (its the chopper)

The Air Field: The other Blitz is by the bridge.

Panzaermorsers (left) and Raketjagpanzers (right) lurk in the Wadi's outside the city

6 (!) Companies of Soviet  Tanks (T-72's and T-55's with supporting ZSU-23's) and a  sole company of Infnatry form the North-East threat...

While a sole Full Company of Fallschirmjager are dug in around the objective to try and delay them

The Syrians approach from the South-West.  3 T-72 Tank Companies., Infantry, BMP Recon and supporting 120mm Mortars.  Two artillery Batteries are deployed to the rear with MiG-29's on CAP

US Navy Air Support inbound: A A6 Inturder on a Weasal mission while two F-14 Tomcats fly cover...note also a  Trafalger class Attack Sub:  This counts as a MLRS Battery and is representing a British Navy sub firing Cruise Missiles in support!

While the Soviet and Syrian forces closed on the city from two axis of advance part of a USMC MEU Tank Platoon (Abrams)and LAR (Lav-25's with Humvees) was forward deployed into the port itself and a Bundeswher Fallschirmjager (German Paratroopers) Company held the northern approachs with supporting light armour (Mortar M113's and a Jaguar -2 Raketpanzerjager Company)

You can see the Syrian Commanders bat rep here: Syrian AAR

Epic Moderns: Iranian Battalion

Hey Folks,

Long time no post as usual.  I have been gradually working away on my Iranians for our Epic Modern rules adaptation and now have just shy of 3000pts.  I like the Iranian's as its an ecletic mix of British, American, Soviet and Chinese equipment, all in various states of repair.  The army will probably prove to be pretty rubbish as all the units are small (usually around 7-8 models) but it is 14 Activations!

The Battalion is based around;

• 3 Tank Companies (Chieftians, M60's and M48/M47's)
• 2 Mechanised Infantry Companies (M113's or BMP-1s - I still need to get the BMP's)
• 1 Pasdaran "Revolutionary Guard" Tank Company (Type 69's)
• 1 Pasdaran Infantry Company
• 2 Basiji Militia Companies

This is supported by various artillery, recon units and air support.

The Full Batallion

Armoured Battalion - 3 Tank Companies with supporting ZSU's

M47 and M48 Pattons

Mk V Chieftians

M60A1's and M48A5's

Iranian Infantry

Basiji Militia armed with AK-47's and RPG's

Pasdaran Commander with a Basiji Stinger Team

Pasdaran Type 69 Tank Company 

Mechanised Iranian Infantry (sans tarnsports) with AT-3 Sagger Anti-Tank Guided Missiles 

Pasdaran/ Basiji Companies

Pasdaran 120mm Hevy Mortars

IAF Fighter Support: 2 F-14 Tomcats and 2 F-4 Phantoms

Fighters inbound!

Keen to see how the army goes tonight vs Andy's Iraqi's!

Cheers

Jason

6mm Modern's: Israeli Armoured Combat Group

Hey Folks,

Long time no post, and very little work on my Man Barbie's as well. Real Life can be a pain like that and I took a job that involved commuting to another city about 5 months ago, and have been busy ever since.

A few lads and I have been getting into 6mm Modern using lovely GHQ miniatures, which while not the cheapest have amazing detail at this scale.  We have based the rules on Games Workshops Epic:40k Armageddon rules with some tweaks and self made army lists and unit stats.  These are continually evolving btu we are up to version 2.8 of the lists and we cover pretty much every Gulf State from Israel to Iran and most of the Western powers too (and Soviet Russia!)

Pooch has been busy: http://warpooch.blogspot.co.nz/search/label/6mm%20Moderns

So has Adam: http://panzerfaustnostalgia.blogspot.co.nz/search/label/6mm

And John too: http://than-aleaiactaest.blogspot.co.nz/search/label/Epic%20Moderns

One of our mates Andy has some awesome Iraqi's, and some awesome terrain too but he isn't the blogger type :)

I originally started with Israelis, and based my force around composite Combat Group from an Armoured Battalion that has been rapidly assembled.  This mixes Regular Army units (initiative 1+) and Reserve Army units (initiative 2+) backed up by some serious IAF Air Support!

So far its at around 2000pts but I have more to add on the painting table. 

The Combat Group so far. Left to Right: Merkava IV Coy, Cobra Gunships, Mech Infantry Company in M113 Zeldas, Chapperal SAM's, M125 Mortars, F-16'sand a Magach (upgraded M60) Company 

Magach 6's and 7's: Upgraded and Up armoured M60A3's

F-16's in IAF colours on Ground Attack Missions

Mechanised Infantry in M113 Zeldas

Chapperal SAM's and M125 Mortar Carrierw

Cobras!  Super cool :)

Merkava IV Company.  These are Bad Ass so I mainly use them as Merkava III's which are a bit more tame, but look very similar.

Close up of Merkava IV

Close up of the Magach types.  Magach 6 is an M60 with ERA while the Mgach 7 has added laminate armour.  I ahev added some stowage and flags etc made out of tin foil. 

Next up I have more Infantry and Azcherzit ("Evil Bitch!) Heavy APC's as well as a few more tanks and some Recon to add to take me to 3000pts.

Played a few games so far, and on the whole they preform pretty well and are heaps of fun. 

Next up: Iranians :)

Cheers,

Jason