Buck's Blog

A few weeks ago I received my box of Reaper CAV figures in the Bones material from the Kickstarter.  I really like the look of the vehicles, as they have a near future vibe that I find plausible.  I didn’t purchase any of the stompy robots, because I think they would be silly, impractical, and expensive on a real battlefield.  Last night while watching a movie with my wife, I finished the first battalion.  These look to me like M-1 tanks with some kind of rocket launcher on the top.

This signals the imminent start of development on the near future and science fiction version of Look, Sarge, No Charts.  Each base represents a platoon, so in the picture above, the heavy tank battalion has three companies of three platoons.  The single bases represent company and battalion HQ.  You can see that I have left space on the back of the bases for the characteristic Look, Sarge, No Chart data labels.

I sprayed the vehicles with Krylon camouflage paint that is supposed to bond to plastic.  I didn’t find a specific camo and Fusion product, but these camo paints are supposed to work on plastic.  These paints did not result in the common tackiness that many experience with the Bones material.  Though they dried with a nice, flat finish, they felt a little damp, not tacky per se, but damp.   They almost felt like suede.  After painting on the camo pattern and a few other details, I overrated them with Army Painter matte finish.  If find the large cans of Army Painter matte finish convenience, but as you can see in these pictures, it is not as matte as the Dull Cote matte finish.  Anyway, after spraying them with the Army Painter matte finish the damp feel is completely gone.  I think I may hit them with a light coat of Dull Cote to dull them down.

I don’t know if we’ll try to build our own back story and fluff, so there really is no guidance yet on organization, sides, or painting schemes.  At this point, I have two partially completed battalions of vehicles that I kit bashed from various sources.  I am painting them in straight olive drab.  The Reaper units I plan to paint in different camouflage schemes.  This battalion got a 1980’s US woodland paint scheme and the Desert Storm “V.”  I’ll be doing more fanciful painting themes on the next battalions.  While not 100% realistic, it is sometimes true that different units in the same Army have different painting schemes because they are habitually associated with a specific geographic area or terrain.  In Desert Storm, many of the deployed units had olive paint schemes, because they had been earmarked for deployment to Europe.  Anyway, the different camo schemes will help players keep their units separated on the tabletop.

For the near future, my focus will remain on Combat Patrol(TM), but I will begin development of Look, Sarge, No Charts for the near future and science fiction genre.  Between turns, there will be a cyber phase in which players use their cyber forces to get into the enemy’s command and control networks.  This will result in the winning side of a cyber phase drawing some number cyber action cards that can be used during a turn to impact enemy spotting attempts, activations, and other actions.

Last weekend was Cold Wars in Lancaster, PA.  Due to family commitments, I was only able to attend on Saturday, when I ran three back-to-back Combat Patrol (TM) games.  In addition to my games, Zeb Cooke ran a Winter War game with 28mm figures, Dave Wood ran two Boer War games, and Duncan Adams ran his Napoleonic game (see previous posts).  Running three back-to-back games on Saturday had the benefit of limiting the amount of time I had to spend money in the dealers’ hall, but it also limited my ability to take pictures.  The picture above is the only one I remembered to take of the Poland 1939 game.

In my first game a Russian column was pushing up this road through the snow, but the Finns had other ideas. The Finns began the game hidden in the various wooded areas.  In addition to some satchel charges and Molotov cocktails, the Finns had a single anti-tank gun.

The Russian tanks were mostly road-bound, as they had to suffer bog checks if they left the road.  The Finns had also mined one of the frozen lakes.  The Russians immediately spread out their infantry to try to clear the wooded areas.

The hidden anti-tank gun brewed up one of the Russian light tanks.  By the end of the game, most of the Finnish infantry had been badly mauled, but the Russians had also taken heavy casualties.  I called it a narrow Finnish victory.

My second game was based on a scenario from the Skirmish Campaigns book on Poland 1939.  The Poles launched a local counter attack to knock the Germans on their heels.  It was a bloody affair with nearly every tank on both sides wiped out.  While I was running this game, Zeb was running his Winter War scenario.  I understand it went quite well, but I was busy running my own game and didn’t get a chance to see it.

My third game was based on another Skirmish Campaigns scenario and was set in France in 1940.  The French launched a local counter attack.  According to the scenario, the Germans had a 75mm gun, which in 1940 was a monster.  The gun took out two Somuas and two Char Bs.  The French continued to advance up the road into the teeth of the AT gun while pumping HE shells into the anti-tank gun’s position.  Luck was not with the French as after pumping six or seven HE rounds into the position and driving off the crew once, they were not able to knock out the crew.  The Germans had lost all of their tanks (35(t)s and 38(t)s) by the end of the game. The French objective was to push two vehicles across the table, but they only got one off the table, and their remaining Somua was still in the kill zone of the AT gun, so I called it a German victory, but it was a close run affair.

In all three scenarios, the rules worked well.  For a small number of players, there was a bit of not seeing the forest for the trees.  I have been working on an optional rules supplement to handle a few “corner cases” that are not fully addressed in the rule book, but in general, they held up well in a variety of situations.  In the France 1940 scenario, the French players were upset that they were unable to knock out the AT gun, which was a result of really poor luck.  Still, I think they came close to winning and could have won if they had done something other than continuing to charge up the road straight at the AT gun and had instead sought some cover.  Players tend to ascribe tactical mistakes or bad luck to the rules being broken.  An odd situation occurred that I plan to address as an optional rule, but again players tend to latch onto one tree and forget about the forest.  Also, in the Finland game, players kept wanting to gunk up the game with additional modifiers that favored them.  (They would likely have been just as vocal about opposing those same modifiers if they had been on the other side.)  While most of the players were very happy with the rules, a few folks didn’t appreciate the streamlined nature of the rules or the fact that a lot happened in a short period of playing time.  At the same time my France 1940 games was going on, I kept an eye on a nearby France 1944 game, and while the players had a great deal of fun, there wasn’t a lot of movement.  The card mechanic is really unique, and I have found that sometimes players really fight it and don’t try to get their heads around it.  Once they do embrace this new paradigm, they really see its benefits.

On Military Matters brought 16 copies of the starter set (printed rule book, one activation deck, and two action decks) and sold more than half.  Of course, I would have liked for them to sell out, but I think that was a solid showing.

I also recruited someone to start working on the modern Afghanistan and Iraq supplements for the game.  There are a lot of issues to work through, so don’t expect this in the next month, but it is definitely moving forward now.  So, while I am working on the South Pacific WWII, there are folks working on Napolenoics, British Colonial (Boers, Zulus, and the Sudan), the Falklands and other post-WWII British campaigns, and Modern Afghanistan and Iraq.  I am looking for someone who wants to go after Grenada and Panama, so I can concentrate on my favorite campaigns of WWII: Finland (done), France 1940, and Poland 1939.  I am also beginning to mull around a card-based scenario generation systems for Combat Patrol(TM) that will be equally applicable to other systems.

 

I had a busy Saturday, but this Sunday I had a chance to get some painting done.  Saturday I played in a Tekumel game run by Bill at Games and Stuff using GASLIGHT.  The game was quite fun.  While at the hobby store I finally found the Frostgrave sigilist figure I have been wanting to pick up for my party in Chris’ Frostgrave campaign. I chose a sigilist as my wizard because I like these figures.  I don’t know if they are any good in the game.  My first outing was less than stellar.  I really like the green paint scheme on the packaging for these figures, but I decided not to merely copy that paint scheme.  I am pretty happy with how they turned out.

A couple weekends ago, I stopped by Dave’s house, and we was cleaning out some of his unpainted lead mountain.  He had this pack that he said he would never use.  It is called 09-004 Kroger the Gorilla with Damsel in Cage in the old Ral Partha line, The Titans of Terror.  I have named these figures Dave (the gorilla) and Brenda.

Several months back, I bought into an Indigogo project from Dragon Bait Miniatures for a set of fish men.  I received mine a few weeks ago and painted them up this weekend.  Above is the publicity picture from the crowdfunding page.  Below are my version.

Chris and I are talking about another underwater GASLIGHT game in the foreseeable future.

Throughout the week I picked away at these a color here and color there, but I finished a bunch of Pulp Figures Villistas.  I purchased these at Historicon last Summer.  The picture is a little blurry, but I am happy with how they turned out.

Though not completed, I also assembled and primed a bunch of science fiction vehicles and figures I recently purchased from Pig Iron.  I will begin painting the figures this week, but I won’t be painting the vehicles until it gets warm enough for me to set up a table in the back yard and pull out my airbrush.  I have eight science fiction vehicles a 1:48 Sherman, a 1:48 Hetzer, three 1:48 SdKfz 251s, and a 1:48 German truck that are all awaiting warm weather.

In a previous post I showed pictures of Pig Iron infantry that I recently painted.  Soon after I learned about Pig Iron, they announced that they were going out of business.  So my planned slow purchase of Pig Iron infantry and vehicles turned into a leap.  Yesterday a box arrived with infantry I had ordered as well as four vehicles.  The quality of the casting is excellent.  There are no pits, chips, or bubbles.  The vehicles look feasible, unlike other science fiction vehicles.  You customize the basic hull by applying hatches, stowage, and turrets.

I purchased on tank turret as well as a bunch of bags of smaller machine-gun turrets, hatches, and stowage.  You can’t seem them in this picture.  I will post pictures soon of assembled vehicles.  I also bought a few extra bits beyond what I need for these four vehicles so that I can scratch build some other vehicles in the near future.

I recently posted a (free) supplement to Combat Patrol(TM): World War II to play games set in the emerging genre of political unrest and revolution in the UK in the Winter of ’79.  The supplement does not attempt to expand the back story but merely provides the stats and options rules for Combat Patrol to give it that Winter of Discontent flavor.  The supplement is available for a free download on the rules’ Web page.

I am getting a lot of feedback from players of Combat Patrol(TM) for supplements and optional rules for different eras and theaters.  For instance, I recently also posted a supplement for the 1939 Winter War.  As time permits, I will post more of these supplements.  Writing the supplement is relatively straight forward, but it can take weeks or months to do enough research to be able to know what optional rules are needed to provide the right feel for the era, campaign, or theater.

The one I am currently working on is for the south Pacific in WWII.  I am struggling with the best way to deal with Japanese morale and trying to balance the common gamer and Hollywood mythology with historical fact.  I have gotten a number of requests for modern Iraq and Afghanistan as well.

This weekend I had a chance to run, watch, or participate in three very different games using Combat Patrol(TM): World War II.  The first was Friday night at our normal club gaming night.  Zeb Cooke ran a Winter War 1939 game using the rules as well as optional rules from the recently released Winter War supplement (see http://www.bucksurdu.com/Buck_Surdu/Combat_Patrol.html).  I was actually playing a Regimental Fire and Fury Napoleonic game, on the other table, but I popped over several times and also had to answer the occasional rules question.

By all accounts this was a terrific game.  The attacking Fins didn’t fare well, however, in the face of a determined Russian defense of the cabins on the table.

The second game was set in France in 1940.  I ran this game as a play test for a scenario I will be running at Cold Wars next march.  Based on a scenario from one of the Skirmish Campaigns books, this scenario involved a French counter attack against the French.  Both sides had a few tanks as well as infantry.  The French objective was to advance across the table and try to get at least two vehicles off the German table edge.

A German anti-tank gun takes out a Somua.

Every French tank was destroyed.  The German made good use of the terrain.  The French got off several shots, but failed to penetrate, while the Germans seemed to be able to penetrate with every shot they took.  In the end, all five French tanks had been destroyed by the end of the game, and the Germans had lost three of five.  All three French trucks were blown up, but the infantry had dismounted beforehand and were working their way through the woods.  In the end, it was determined that the French couldn’t achieve their objectives, so the game was a German victory.

The third game was Duncan’s Napoleonic game using Combat Patrol.  In this scenario, The Battle Before the Battle, the game involves French and British skirmishers fighting as a French column advances toward a British line.  You can see the formed troops represented by images glued to blocks.  Each turn, the French column advanced six inches.  At first the skirmishers engaged each other, but when the formed units got close enough together, they focused their attention on picking off officers and soldiers.  The game turned out to be a very close run affair, with the French speaking out a narrow victory in points.

To simulate the skirmishers taking advantage of available terrain, Duncan fills the middle ground with bits of lichen and rocks.  Skirmishers touching them are protected by the low cover and stone wall cover icons, respectively.

The British skirmish line in front of the formed line at the start of the battle.  You didn’t get any points for killing enemy skirmishers.  All points were awarded based on hits on the formed unit beyond.  As the two formed units got closer, players had to decide whether to suppress enemy skirmishers (to top them from firing on their formed unit) or fire on the enemy’s formed unit to get points.

French skirmishers moving advancing toward the British line.  The tactic of the period was to be deployed in pairs in which one may was reloading while the other fired.  In most cases the players used this tactic.  You can see white pipe cleaners used to mark figures who had fired.  Sometimes players got excited and fired with more than half their figures, which could leave them vulnerable to an enemy advance.

British skirmishers taking cover in the “middle ground” between the two formed units.  A fun moment came when one of Chris’ units failed morale.  In Combat Patrol, morale failure is a lack of cohesion, not just figures running away.  In many cases, morale results have figures becoming stunned or pinned, running away, or seeking cover.  In this case, Chris’ unit got tired of taking fire and charged toward the enemy.  His bayonet charge pushed back the British skirmishers, killed and wounded a couple, and put him in a position to fire on the British line.

In this picture you can see the French column after five turns of play.

And now the French column has shaken out into line.

It was a good gaming weekend.  We did uncover one or two small areas of the rules that could be more clear.  For those who have downloaded the full rules from the DriveThru Cards Web site, I uploaded the updated version.  You should have gotten an Email from DriveThru telling you there is an updated you can download for free if you already purchased the full rules.

 

 

Last night at our club night we had a chance to put some science fiction figures on the table to test variations of Combat Patrol for that genre.  I made up unit stats that were based on WWII weapons.  The focus of the test was on how to handle body armor.   You can’t draw too many conclusions from a single play test, so I’ll want to try it a couple more times before making any changes.  We did have some hits on body armor; however, the attackers always “rolled” well enough to negate its effect, so the initial feeling was that it wasn’t effective.   Again, I need a few more play tests.  Also, it was unclear whether people were remembering to do take it into account all the time, so I need to think through that as well.

The forces were a mismatch of Woodbine, Pig Iron, Reaper, and Void figures.  The Marines (Woodbine) and Army (Pig Iron) were defending the compound along with some security forces (Reaper).  The attackers were mostly Void figures with some armored vehicles.  The defenders had no armored vehicles, but they had many anti-tank weapons.

Bruce’s machine-gun took out the anti-tank rocket launcher man, and the rest of the crew fled to get out of the beaten zone.  Chris was never able to collect the rocket launcher.  Greg fired at me with his rocket launcher five or six times — and missed every time!

Despite Chris and Greg being bottlenecked in the gateway, we were unable to get our forces into a position to push into the compound.  In the end, we called it a defender’s victory despite their having taken heavy casualties.

I dropped my Winged Commandos on Chris’ Army infantry in an attempt to clear a path into the compound.  Unfortunately my luck was poor and three out of five commandos were killed.  (I also forgot to add the +2 hand-to-hand modifier for submachine guns into my attacks!)

In addition to more WWII, I have been looking at adapting Combat Patrol(TM): World War II to science fiction.  The biggest hurdle was figuring out how to represent body armor, which I have done.  We are going to play a science fiction game at the club night tomorrow, so little by little, I have been painting up my recent acquisition from Pig Iron.  I am very happy with the figures.  They are a nice mixture of something reasonable with something a little bit Hollywood.  Other science fiction figures feature ridiculously large weapons.

Some of the figures have the visors closed and some have them with the visor’s open.  I made a ten-figure squad with the visors closed and will treat them as special operations types with better Guts, Accuracy, Morale, and Reaction attributes.

One of the things I like about the Pig Iron figures is that the weapon crews come with figures both moving and set up.

These guys will see action tomorrow, so watch for the battle report.

 

 

Greg Priebe is trying to get us started on Lion Rampant.  In order to get up and running quickly, Greg asked Chris and me to paint an army.  He handed us each a bag of figures to paint.  We decided to paint them generically and by color.  I have the blue army.  I have read the rules several months ago, but I haven’t played yet, so I don’t know what the distinctions between “fierce foot,” “foot sergeants,” and “foot knights” is.

While preparing the figures, I broke off one of the spears, so I replaced it with a flag.

While I was at it, I completed 20 28mm Cybermen.