New Project: Fallujah and Urban Iraq

For a long time now I have been keen to wargame urban modern combat such as what we see and read about in Iraq and in particular in Fallujah.

Having Force on Force and Ambush Alley rulesets gives me the rules to use and having a good collection of 20mm figures and vehicles gives me the figures.

However, I am in essence a 6mm gamer in that I love small unit tactics but with lots of figures on the table. Coupled with my inability to make good terrain and 6mm is a great option for me.

I have a good collection of modern 6mm figures as well due to a couple of decent purchases recently from GHQ and so have decided to do this project using 6mm scale.

To begin with I need to sort out my ground scale. It can't simply be 1/300 ratio because it would still make my table too small for the ranges and movement required to model in my games. So I decided to make my roads as wide as 1 x Amtrac or AAV7 with a line of troops.

My terrain will be my usual desert coloured cork tiles with sections of 6" x 6" square modelled terrain on top all joined together to form large areas of built up area. Each of these sections will have a road modelled along 1 edge.

This allows the flexibility to build roads with buildings along the sides as I go. These roads will be sealed with a pavement on the inside edge only so when it sits next to another section, the pavement on that 2nd section will made the edge of the road on that side. No section means that side of the road is unsealed or incomplete. No problem. If I put 2 x sections side by side with the road edges touching each other, this should model a double lane or major road.

Here are some pics of what I have been playing with so far:

The next steps are:
* to create a set of 4 x sections of city with road edges and place them down in different locations to test out some layout.
* paint up a platoon of USMC and AAV7s
* paint up a section of HMMVs

2nd ADF figure painted

After this 1st figure:
http://wardepot.blogspot.com/2011/07/my-1st-20mm-adf-modern-figure-painted.html

I believe the base "tone" of the figure resulting from the base colour used on the uniform before the pattern of spots is too dark and too brown.

I added more beige yellow spots to the 1st test figure (on left below) and then began the 2nd test figure with the beige yellow base colour over the black undercoat (on the right below). I think it looks better.

What do you think?

This is what is should look like

My 1st 20mm ADF modern figure painted

I finally got around to my test paint of my 1st ADF digger using my new Vallejo paints and the following tutorial:
http://www.ozwargaming.com/viewtopic.php?f=128&t=3761&p=29894&sid=131f4f7b1bfc7e044975c8e698aa94ef

I pretty much followed it to the "T" except for the colours used on the base which I used my normal Caramel and Beige to match my terrain and table.

Am I happy with it? NO. There is something not quite right. Maybe the brown is too prominent?

The tutorial says to use Iraqi Sand for the base uniform and then add the wash and then heavy dry brush Iraqi Sand back over. I think this is too dark. in the bottom photo I have a sample of the Iraqi Sand on the left, Pale Beige from my basing in the middle and Yellow Sand on the right. I think I will use the Pale Beige next time.

Let me know what you think.

Iraqi Sand left, Pale Beige middle, Yellow Sand right

Force on Force AAR from Brisbane Muster - June 2011

This past weekend I attended the wargaming day in Brisbane called the Brisbane Muster.

One of the many demo and participation games was a 15mm Force on Force game put on by Kevin and Mark. I joined this game as the insurgent player against a French force.

The scenario was that a small French recon team of 3 vehicles had been ambushed by a group of students armed with small arms and 1 rpg. One of the vehicles had sustained some damage and 2 of its crew were seriously hurt and in need of immediate evacuation. A QRF of another light vehicle and 2 x APCs with remote weapon systems were enroute to assist with the extraction of all from the site.

Meanwhile, the insurgents were attracking attention and numbers were growing.

The volume of fire the French were drawing made it impossible for the 2 surviving vehicles to man their fixed weapons and these remained buttoned up for most of the duration of the contact.

Soon after the ambush was sprung, the French QRF arrives on the right of the battlespace made up of another light recon vehicle with a 50 cal MG and the 2 x armoured APCs full of heavily armed French troops.

The lead vehicle hits some rough terrain and destroys its front end beyond repair, blocking the road for the remaining vehicles. The 1st APC veers left and into the creekbed and gets bogged while the 2nd APC moves north and around the carnage.

All newly arrived vehicles draw fire and soon all recon vehicles including the light vehicle from the QRF are either destroyed or heavily damaged. With the heavier armour of the APCs, the French begin to take the offensive to widen their area of control in order to get an evac chopper in for an increasing amount of seriously wounded soldiers.

More insurgents arrive and pretty soon the French are surrounded on all sides and fighting for their lives. The bogged APC gets itself out of the creekbed and up onto the southern bank and with infantry support, gains ground on the insurgents, clearing out a number of buildings and pushing enemy fighters back into a village.

The 2nd APC moving north spent a lot of time overwatching for any threats from the north but eventually needs to move. It pushes forward but is taken from the side by an awaiting enemy with an RPG. The vehicle is destroyed with all men onboard forced to fight their way into the cover of a high crop.

Enemy numbers are increasing and large groups can be seen approaching from the left. The French commander calls in a nearby Apache gunship which destroys a recoilless rifle coming into action and a number of insurgents. The effect of this is astonishing as the entire left side of the battlespace goes quiet from suppression by the gunship.

As more insurgents race through the village to get into the fight, the French begin withdrawing on foot along the road the QRF arrived on, leaving burning vehicles, and several severely wounded and 1 dead soldier.

As a gesture of goodwill, the insurgents take the dead and wounded to a Redcross site the next morning and disappear back into the mountains.



(more pics of a nearby Iraq demonstration by Bill)

2011 ADF in Afghanistan Guild Build TASK 2

April 30 at midnight UK time is due TASK 2 of The Guild Build. This year long project commitment can be seen on The Guild forums and my entry is to build the tabletop, terrain items and opposing forces for modern ADF operations in Afghanistan for gaming Ambush Alley and Force on Force.

TASK 1 was completed in time by the end of February and can be seen in an earlier post and was simply to build a 4' x 4' gaming area out of cork tiles.

TASK 2 was the completion of a large set of terrain items including a vehicle track, canal system, compounds and fields to represent settlements near or in the green zone which is the lush irrigated areas around rivers and creeks.

Everything is scratched built using cork tiles, plasticard, foamcore, balsa, sand, hobby paints, superglue, PVA glue, painters medium paste, grape stem trees, model trees, flocks and clump foliage and a few other items.

Here are the results:

Now onto TASK 3 due at the end of June. This will be the compilation and painting of a number of taliban fighters and civilians.

As usual, feel free to comment or make suggestions.