First batch of painted minis for the New Year

Finished up these 6mm tanks, paper buildings, and paper bridges a couple days back.  Not going to be as much painting this year as last year but I hope there is more gaming with them!  The games I hope to play are FFT3, IABNM, IABSM, and Sabre Squadron (and heck, anything else that fits!)

The tally is

10 T54
10 JS3  (not sure I would ever need that many for WWII but just in case)
5 Bishop
5 Panther G

All of the above are GHQ

2 Paper Terrain buildings (with a damaged inner building)
2 Paper terrain bridges.  One with 3 ridges, one with 2

T54

Bishops and Panther Gs

Panther Gs

JS3s

Buildings

Bridges

Big batch of Microarmor Tanks, Guns, and troops completed

Finished off the Painting Challenge with one last gasp of miniatures painted.  A mix of GHQ Ultra-Moderns and WWII.  With a few odds and ends thrown in.  Most of these have been on the painting table for months waiting for some inspiration to finish them off.

2 SU-152
2 SU-122
4 2lber portee
5 T-55 MV
10 FV 432
6 CMP carriers for 25 lber
6 25 lber limbered
6 25lber unlimbered
60 individual ultra-modern US (20 3 man squad stands)
34 individual ultra-modern US riflemen in standing and nealing poses
5 Individual Ultra-Modern US troops sitting and firing (regular rifles I think)
5 Javelin launchers
15 Laser Designators
14 leaders
24 MG crew (12 2 man teams)
12 Mortar crew and mortar (6 2 man teams)
9 LMG men  (SAW I imagine)
10 Snipers with what appears to be Barret 50 cal sniper rifles

WWII (green based infantry)
12 leaders
12 standing riflemen
12 grenade throwers (why do companies insist on making so many of these?)
16 SMG armed troops (appears to be Thompson)
12 Kneeling Riflemen


Totals
29 Vehicles
12 Guns
252 Infantry

The "Squad/Platoon" stands.  These are based for Fistful of Tows and the modern version of Fireball Forward (whenever it is released).  Also very useful for IABNM.

Detail shot of a squad stand.

25 LBers and transport.

CMP transport for the 25lbers and FV-432s for IABNM.

FV 432 and T55MV

T55MV, 6 lber Portee, SU152 and SU122

Laser Designators

Ultra-Modern US Riflemen.

Barret Sniper rifles.  Probably some others in there but my eyes have enough trouble making out the difference between a sniper and an LMG at this scale...

SAW gunners

Mortars

MG Teams

Leaders.  GHQ's normal over-abundance.  Better too many than too little though.

WWII US SMGs.  I went with the lighter color jackets for this batch vs my earlier attempts.  All of these guys are based for Skirmish gaming so I wanted them to have a little more pizzazz (Chain of Command in 6mm Anyone?)

The mandatory grenade throwing guys.  I generally dislike them, a few is OK - 6 total would have been good...

Standing Riflemen

Kneeling Riflemen

The commanders once again.  Unlike the Grenade guys extra commanders almost always come in handy.

Plans for next year, paint the remaining (considerable) lead pile, put together the paper terrain I purchased in a sale a couple months back, and play play play...

I Ain't Been Nuked Mum Playtest at SJCW club meeting

Played another playtest round of IABNM at the club on Saturday.  There was only one other game this month, a game of Angriffe that ran after the IABNM game was finished, I had to miss out on that one so only one picture of that being setup.

For the IABNM game it was the same scenario as I played last time but the result was VERY different.

The board being setup, should look familiar.  This time I placed the woods close to the Soviet entry edge and left a larger open area.  The US forces would setup anywhere to the left of the cards you see on the table.  (roughly).

The playing card is a blind, further back (in the blurry picture, sorry!) is the Soviet pre-game smoke barrage.  On the right hand side the Soviets are charging right out in the open!  (they did not see the results of the last game!)

Hard to see from here but the Soviet blinds are spotted (as Phil looks on...) and the M1A1s make short work of a bunch of them (the M1A1s are in the town just beyond the bend in the river).  Further back a batch of M2 Bradleys opened fire with Missiles  and took out some more T80s as well, things are going very badly for the Soviets.

The rest of the Soviet force is spotted and fire erupts across the board in both directions.

End of the game (which only lasted for 3 rounds of cards).  Anti-Tank combat is VERY deadly.  All of the M1A1s were destroyed in two turns by 10 or so T80s while the M1A1s managed to kill 10 or so T80s in return.  A couple of M2 Bradleys were also destroyed.  For their loss the US managed to destroy two ZSU-23-4 vehicles, the Forward Soviet forward observer vehicle, and nine or so BMPs.  At this point I called the game for the US.

Scenes of devastation.  Three dead BMPs and shocked surivors, further up are the two ZSU-23-4s, another BMP and behind the woods three BMPS running for cover.  Further up from that is another platoon of BMPs, one of which was destroyed.

US losses are not so bad.  Up front an M2 Bradley is destroyed and another one (in the open) no longer has functioning armament and is shocked.  Back in the woods another M2 is down.  The last bit of woods has a group of M901 tow vehicles.  Arty was going to be brought down on them but the spotter was destroyed before it could be brought in.

The Soviets charged down the road in the open which allowed them to be spotted by the US dummy blinds (all of them spotted in one turn pretty much).  After that the real US units had a turkey shoot.  Armored combat in this game is very deadly and quick (no buckets of dice) so getting spotted and fired on is usually decisive.  For my next game I will have to try a mostly infantry affair in tighter terrain - using inches for measurement rather than CM as was done for these past two games (for seeing how missile combat worked out - it is deadly but tank guns are deadlier).

I Ain't Been Nuked Mum!

Played a playtest of IABNM again yesterday.  Soviets attacking a US position circa 1989.  I am planning to run a similar scenario (with modifications based on this run through) at the SJCW group meeting on May 9th.

Soviet Forces are attacking to seize 2 of 3 bridges across some river.  Lots of tanks and a group of BMP infantry vs 2 platoons of Americans in M2 Bradleys, an M901 AT Company, and a platoon of M1A1s.  It was a slaughter...

Prepare for Battle!  The table setup 4' by 8' and we will be using CM for measurements.  The US will setup on the far side and have to stop the Soviet steamroller.

A little closer in with the blinds in place (I use playing cards as blinds.  This is the center of the US defense.

A pre-game arty attack puts a hurting on the US right flank!  (I could not find the word stonk and used a regular barrage rather than the IABNM stonk rules - found the correct rules today and will be using them in the game on the 9th).  Black squares are "built up" areas of hard cover, buildings are simply for show.  The 4 M2s have suffered a loss of action (orange) and most are shocked (white).  

A T80 Company (I used a single card per T80 company, need to make more cards) destroyed two M2 Bradleys after passing by the woods.  M2s try to fire back on their card - OOOPS, no firing Wire Guided missiles over water!  (first change for the game on the 9th noted.).  One of the remaing M2s dashes for the bridge to shoot across it with the ITOW (can not shoot and move so has to hope he lives)

Soviets move up in the center, US Blinds card did not come up for 4 straight decks allowing the Soviets to move up without being spotted.

The US Blinds finally appear and the M1A1 platoon opens fire!  They destroy 3 T80s on the right flank including one on the bridge - see the picture 2 down from here.

T80s in the center (another Company) activate and destroy two of the M1A1s.  The last two manage to fire a bit longer.  The T80s also managed to destroy two of the M2s from the HQ platoon (City on the left).  At this point we called the game.

The remains of the US right flank.  The Infantry were pummeled by the T80s firing HE and only one Bradley was left alive.  Changes for the next game are to move the river further back and have the US allowed to setup on either side, to put the off board AT missile card in the deck right away (was waiting for the HQ to unmask and call it in), and allow the soviets to start in a woods line rather than come in from off table - this will allow the action to start a little sooner and allow the Soviet arty into the game along with the US missile strikes from off-board Apaches.  

The IABNM rules will be published by Too Fat Lardies and are currently in Playtest.  I can't say for sure when they will be done but they are very far along now.

Cold War UK 6mm figs

As threatened I finished up my 6mm Cold War UK figs today.  All the troops I should ever need for fielding the UK.  I now have to focus on adding more vehicles since I only have a handful of tanks and APCs for them.

The counts are
87   Riflemen (3 per stand)
13   LMG
8     Anti-Tank  (Milan)
23   Command  (one stand missing a radio guy who fell on the floor never to be seen again)
13   MTR
8    Stinger
7    FO
36  Individual Riflemen

First Playtest Test Game of IABNM

FINALLY got the group together yesterday for a Playtest of IABNM.  Long story short the entire group had fun (despite the scenario being an unbalanced dog and my forgetting about fire and move - NEXT game at Fall-In will take care of that).

Below is a pic of the table layout from the attacking Russian Viewpoint (up to the tree line is all woods)

Opening card rounds of the first turn - Russians tried to spot the US (far tree line) and managed a single spot to see the Blind (hey! those look like IABSM cards filling in for IABNM cards...)  In return the US side spotted two platoons Russian tanks.

And the Russians score the first kill!  An M2 Bradley is taken out by a 125mm round from a T80.  The Bradleys had previously fired on the T80s and missed - the tanks were within 18" of the TOW's minimum range and combined with the targeted tanks moving back into the woods made it a very bad chance to hit.   Vehicles that have not yet had a turn can react to missile fire - those with held actions can fire back before the missile attack strikes home.   Before the tanks were done all 4 Bradleys would be toast.

The infantry part of the Bradley platoon were in the next woods line over, they opened up with their Dragon missile launchers - and also missed.  A single Russian tank returned fire on a bonus card and managed to Suppress 3 stands (all within 2" of target) and killed a single figure.

Soon after the previous picture a Platoon of M1A1 tanks gets a turn and it puts a nasty spin on the Russians.  They managed to destroy 5 of 10 T80 tanks on the field.    (Final pic shows that.).  The Russians get two AGS-17 auto grenade launchers into action and they chew up the US infantry platoon in the woods...  One squad totally gone and another so badly off that it can't do anything.

Some real fun starts here.  The Russians use their smoke dischargers to create a smoke wall and run up their left flank.  (I ruled the smoke blocked even the TI imagers of the US - experimental hot smoke - I could not find the rule for TI in the rule book when I needed it, unprepared Umpire strikes again).  The US HQ platoon and second Bradley platoon respond by repositioning and chasing after the T80s!  Two Bradleys managed to get on the rear of the straggling T80s and managed to annoy one (it had to stop and fire at the Bradley that shot it) and the other one was suppressed and suffered 2 shock - which would leave it with no actions on it's next activation).  This pic also shows the remain of the US Infantry platoon.

At that point we called it a game.  The Russians were in a very bad way - below is the remains of the starting lineup - 5 tanks dead, one of them stuck (I forget why), one of the AGS-17 launchers blasted by the Abrams tanks and the other one with 2 dead crew and suppressed.  Oh yeah!  That batch of white smoke slightly off by itself from the rest - a Russian heroic leader card allowed that APC to break cover and try to fire at an Abrams's exposed back side (normally no moving and shooting a missile) but another Abrams was on overwatch and blasted it before it got off the shot (I allowed a roll-off to see if the Abrams shot first and the Abrams player hot dice stuck again).  This pic also shows the smoke screen made by repeated firing of Smoke Dischargers.  Russians did this till the M1s view was blocked by woods...

This was an easy first game to get used to Missiles really, which are an interesting take in IABNM vs the regular fire rules in IABSM.  Too close and they can't fire, and you need to be a ways beyond that for them to be effective.  From now on our group is going to use centimeters rather than inches in order to allow the needed distance and still have room for maneuver.

Combat is DEADLY in IABNM compared to IABSM - the guns are bigger and the smaller ones usually come in the autocannon variety.  The armor penetration has been revamped - you compare the armor value (with separate stats for front, side, rear, and top - very nice!) and then roll two dice on the effects chart using a modifier.  All the players in our group liked that change from IABSM.

Next up is another game in 2 weeks at Fall-In.  This time with Arty and Helicopter thrown in to the mix and using Centimeters instead of inches.