tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28132605572584335242024-03-05T05:41:33.415-05:00Daddy's Little MenA Miniature Wargaming Blog inspired by my kids and what they call my hobby.Mark E Kinseyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17778916868725777982noreply@blogger.comBlogger271125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2813260557258433524.post-33455187115764344752022-11-20T15:55:00.003-05:002022-11-22T12:51:28.336-05:00Etsy Store - Grognard Terrain (15mm Cyberpunk)<p> Recently I launched an Etsy store (Grognard Terrain) which seems like something that was bound to happen.</p><p>I've been a big fan of Lazy Forger's sculpting work for awhile and when he started selling 6mm scaled Battlefields of Tomorrow buildings I knew I had to try scaling them up to 15mm. His work is so detailed that even scaled up the buildings don't look cartoony and turned out great. I inquired about a license to print and sell them but only recently purchased one and set up shop. These are fantastic near future and Cyberpunk future Asian style buildings.</p><p>Here are some photos of the buildings and a link to the shop. You'll spy some of my more well known Cyberpunk 15mm figures posing with them for scale (not included!). I can add more to this line if these sell well. I'll be adding painted pictures of the terrain as I finish them.<br /><br /><a href="https://www.etsy.com/shop/GrognardTerrain?ref=seller-platform-mcnav">https://www.etsy.com/shop/GrognardTerrain?ref=seller-platform-mcnav</a></p><p><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhms2GRPr8zCDgV5NctdWo10d0TouOsK0juWs24N28ByYhw1NUscvPrQts6rAR-bAmAS65xe-_ZBbzFicgilK8TGrWGXBBYJsW3VdLw9qlZ12dfYXz8sLdEvp5DJDFovagUmXBF0lwNhexqK74tt4Emxua_l3RJ0hG9Nrqb10sM4bt9z2xZyJLSstjJNw/s2848/DSCF0858.JPG" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2136" data-original-width="2848" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhms2GRPr8zCDgV5NctdWo10d0TouOsK0juWs24N28ByYhw1NUscvPrQts6rAR-bAmAS65xe-_ZBbzFicgilK8TGrWGXBBYJsW3VdLw9qlZ12dfYXz8sLdEvp5DJDFovagUmXBF0lwNhexqK74tt4Emxua_l3RJ0hG9Nrqb10sM4bt9z2xZyJLSstjJNw/s320/DSCF0858.JPG" width="320" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; 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I've had a bunch of life changes but I'm committed to bringing Daddy's Little Men back to life starting by sharing what I've been up to since my last post a couple of years ago. Today I copied all the blog photos into a Google Photo album and it was jaw dropping to see them all in one place.<br />
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<a href="https://photos.app.goo.gl/YnST2xEo4oUmp6cK6">Google Photos Album of My Toys</a><br />
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Secondly my good friends at Army Group York in York, PA are launching a new YouTube channel on July 12th, 2018 (in two days). The first episode is on Antietam and includes a short battlefield tour. They already have an entire season filmed. I attended a viewing party and saw the first 4 episodes and they were top notch. They talk history, play out a well designed game that tries to capture some of the difficulties and decision making on the battlefield, and goof around a bit and drink some scotch. They also have terrain tutorials and blooper reels to keep it light.<br />
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They have a website<br />
<a href="http://www.littlewarstv.com/">Little Wars TV</a><br />
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And the <a href="https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCD6gPsr1xdvT9F4dntRAJ5g">YouTube Channel</a> has a teaser trailer, an introduction to Little Wars TV, and a quick history of Wargaming which is humorous, concise, and educational.<br />
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<br />Mark E Kinseyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17778916868725777982noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2813260557258433524.post-81604638077962209112015-12-06T19:02:00.000-05:002015-12-06T19:05:50.292-05:00Operation Martlet Game One<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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Made a long overdue visit to see my friend <a class="profileLink" data-hovercard="/ajax/hovercard/user.php?id=100000163250869" href="https://www.facebook.com/jonathan.yuengling" style="color: #3b5998; cursor: pointer; text-decoration: none;">J</a>on today. We played the first game of the Operation Martlet "Pint Sized" Campaign using the Chain of Command ruleset. The 11th Royal Scots Fusiliers pushed on through the morning fog past the 3rd battalion of the 26th SS<br />
Panzergrenadier Regiment as part of their probe into Fontenay.<br />
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<span style="line-height: 15.456px;">The British managed to get their jump off points well down the board before the action even started but then lost a Section and a 2" Mortar team in the morning mist. One more lost Section and the attack would have had to be delayed 4 hours. Luckily the British lost no more Sections in deploying to the battlefield.</span></div>
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British losses numbered 1 dead and 2 wounded from their PIAT team who will return later in the day. German losses were roughly 3 times t<span class="text_exposed_show" style="display: inline;">hat amount as the Germans had difficulty bringing their forces to bear after the early morning British bombardment.</span><br />
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Now on to Rauray! Onward Barker's Bears!<br />
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2813260557258433524.post-68005803298065866532015-05-25T16:34:00.002-04:002015-05-25T16:41:15.626-04:00To my friend the Sand Pebble on Memorial Day<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
Today for Memorial Day the usual war films can be seen on the usual channels. One film however grabbed my attention. "The Sand Pebbles" is a film that brought to mind my old Supervisor Jimmy Williams. Jimmy was a Navy Vietnam Veteran who served on a Destroyer off the Mekong Delta. I asked him one day what movie best described his experience. He said "Apocalypse Now, but if I'm not constrained to Vietnam movies I'd have to say "The Sand Pebbles."<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjhr8rwHMl4CmoVZQSH8pYaFz2L3_bWHxaoTwIjipEJ-OemdoA6Cvu0xjU0qqAV3hB8uumDibiMd6EMqu1TZOeTZIwP-zlB5VC_mUEU0EBkprUO1sosmuI128P5RgO9bqHNUfDRbG2wNeXh/s1600/sand_pebbles_01.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="272" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjhr8rwHMl4CmoVZQSH8pYaFz2L3_bWHxaoTwIjipEJ-OemdoA6Cvu0xjU0qqAV3hB8uumDibiMd6EMqu1TZOeTZIwP-zlB5VC_mUEU0EBkprUO1sosmuI128P5RgO9bqHNUfDRbG2wNeXh/s640/sand_pebbles_01.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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Besides being an absolutely gorgeous film with a fantastic soundtrack starring Steve McQueen, it makes a powerful point about morality and gunboat diplomacy. It's about an American gunboat patrolling the Yangtze River in China in 1926, but came out in 1966, and makes a clear point about American involvement in Vietnam, This wasn't the intention of the author or director, but there you have it. It was a movie I often had on in the background while I wrote papers in graduate school. It moves slowly and has a few actions scenes interspersed throughout that made great study breaks.<br />
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But for Jimmy, while "Apocalypse Now" spoke to his experience in interacting with PBR River Boats at the mouth of the Mekong, "The Sand Pebbles" was a better look at his time both on his Destroyer, and his shore leaves in Vietnam and Olongapo City, Philippines.<br />
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Jimmy was a good friend who passed away from Liver Cancer, possibly from exposure to Carbon Tetrachloride. He was a radio repairman who spent long hour on the Destroyer enclosed in a small cabin using Carbon Tet to clean electrical parts. Jimmy was a man of strong opinions and I loved him for it. Like my wife's father who died from Cancer after the Vietnam War from exposure to Agent Orange he's one of the many we should remember today who died long after their war was over.<br />
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2813260557258433524.post-80243223831506330512015-01-30T11:56:00.000-05:002015-01-30T11:56:32.963-05:00Israeli M3 Halftrack Force 6 Day War<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
I'm no Battlefront Flames of War basher. I think they've done great things for the hobby, particularly 15mm. Tons of 15mm terrain has been made available from other manufacturers because of the popularity of FOW and I use it for 15mm SciFi and Moderns. I've played their rules and while I'm not a fan, they are okay. One of my favorite games I've ever played was a WW2 Crete scenario using FOW. I liked it so much I played it twice and I always stop to say hi to the GM when I see him at conventions.<br />
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That said, tournament play isn't my thing, so I don't see myself ever getting into that side of things. (Playing Desert Italians vs. Russians in the winter is speculative fiction and not the good kind either)<br />
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What I really want to talk about though is some of the painting advice on their website. As I mentioned a few posts back, the advice on painting Israeli vehicles and uniforms is a bit off. Go with Vallejo German Camo (821). The green for the uniforms should be a 50/50 mix of Vallejo 888 Olive Grey and 886 Stone Grey. They also state that all the bumpers should be painted black. Well if you look at photos from the period instead of a single photo from the Latrun museum you'll see that it is not uniform. Many are the same color as the vehicle. I've chosen to do 2 out of 6 with black bumpers. They also show the halftrack road wheels and hubs of the front wheels as black, which in addition to looking awful also is only seen on museum pieces.<br />
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Much of their website is quite good, with excellent painting and terrain building articles that I refer to for non-WW2 projects. They did one on <a href="http://www.flamesofwar.com/hobby.aspx?art_id=1744" target="_blank">desert basing</a> that I'm a big fan of. I'd like to see Jeremy Painter cover some other regions of the world with some 4 tone painting advice. Seriously though, how awesome is it that his last name is Painter?<br />
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The biggest problem with building an Israeli halftrack force though is the fact that you are using the WW2 American model and then buying a stowage set to modify it. Subsequently the driver and gunner figure are 'Merican. The retail on each vehicle is $13 and then the Stowage is another $13 (for 5 vehicles) I found a better way to go in that I bought the Sayeret version on discount for $10 and it comes with the stowage, and an appropriate crew member to fire it. </div>
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If you're building a Jordanian force of M38 jeeps and 106mm recoilless rifles jeeps you'll have some extra Israeli drivers and sitting troops with Uzis. They are a little big to sit in the front seat of the M3 properly, but if you massacre their bottoms and thighs along with trimming their feet down you can get them to sit in the front without their heads sticking up to high. This provides enough figures that the vehicles don't look empty.</div>
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I've looked at around 3 dozen images of the M3 in Israeli service and I've never seen a pintle mounted M2 Browning Machinegun. Particularly one with a gunner with an M1 steel pot helmet.<br />
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Instead, inspired by this and other photos I modified two prone gunners by notching their flat undersides and bending them so that they are firing their FN MAG's from inside the vehicle. I also mounted a .50 Cal on one, but with a more realistic mount and using the Sayeret 20mm gunner. I've also used this same figure to man a side mounted .30 Cal. </div>
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Also, I have not seen the tarp and poles as part of the rear stowage in period pictures, I ended up clipping them off on a couple of the models. Overall the stowage they provide is very nice, and combined with their excellent decals it really makes the models look sharp. A piece of advice when building the vehicles though, trim the bits of raised hood and rear hatch where the decals will go. It makes placing the decals down so much easier.</div>
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In the end I built a halftrack force I'm really happy with. Four models to transport a platoon of Infantry, and a 20mm and 90mm DEFA version for support. I wasn't going to get the DEFA, but I found it on Amazon for $6 with free shipping. How could I resist?</div>
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2813260557258433524.post-36341180573208042032015-01-25T09:36:00.000-05:002015-01-25T09:36:30.631-05:00Jordanian Infantry- 6 Day War<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
At this point you might be asking yourself where the troops to fight all these Israelis are. Never fear, for I had two platoons of Mid-War British just lying about. These are the same figures that Battlefront has rebranded for the Jordanian forces. Trained by the British, the Jordanian Army utilized both British and American weapons. As such they wear a British Brodie helmet, British webbing and a locally manufactured uniform. They are armed with the American Garand, and Thompson Submachine Gun and British Bren Gun for squad support. Support weapons included the M20 Super Bazooka and M2 Heavy Machine gun and Vickers Machine gun. I have not been able to determine which MG was in use on Ammunition Hill, but I'm currently painting two of each.<br />
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These figures are armed with the British Lee Enfield rifle, but I've clipped off all the distinctive bayonets. At 15mm the difference isn't that large except for the fact that the Enfield is bolt action. But good luck finding British figures with Garand Rifles. You'd be better off using American WW2 infantry and doing a Brodie Helmet headswap on *every single figure*. Now I like headswaps more than most people, but no thanks.<br />
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Here are some "in tray" pictures of my two Jordanian platoons (because I was too lazy to take them out and put them back in for a couple of pictures). Not pictured are the M20 Super Bazooka and MG teams which are still in process. Twice this many Jordanians fought on Ammunition Hill, but I don't think I'll need more than this in combat at any one time so it should be enough to fight the entire engagement.<br />
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2813260557258433524.post-91436474475291217092015-01-25T00:25:00.001-05:002015-01-25T00:27:35.556-05:00Israeli Armor Refresh for '67 and '73<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
I improved my Israeli armor collection recently as part of my new 6 Day War enthusiasm.<br />
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Here are my new M51 Ishermans from Battlefront. They are painted using German Camo Beige (followed by a black wash and drybrushing) which is the alternate color they list in their <a href="http://www.flamesofwar.com/Default.aspx?tabid=53&art_id=4168" target="_blank">painting article</a>. I think it looks much more accurate than the Green Grey they paint all of the Israeli tanks you see on their website.<br />
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Here are the old ones from Quality Casings, which I have since sold. As you can see, the big difference is the turret which is squatter in the QC version.</div>
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I used some of the spotlights from the Ishermans to improve my Sho't tanks which are a combination of QRF chassis and a Quality Castings turret. I wish I hadn't tossed the QC chassis (which are horrible) and I could have sold them and replaced them with the Battlefront version. I think these look pretty good though. I touched them up a bit after adding the spotlights. </div>
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2813260557258433524.post-41195817460823289232015-01-24T23:41:00.001-05:002015-01-24T23:41:35.178-05:00New Period 6 Day War - Israeli Infantry<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
After years of protesting and saying I wasn't going to game the 6 Day War I suddenly realized that both the war and myself were going to have an anniversary in a couple of years. Both the war and yours truly are going to be 50 soon.<br />
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I've been eying the Israeli figures Battlefront makes for '67 (which would work for '73 as well) and during a trip to my FLGS I picked up a platoon. While painting them I acquainted myself with infantry actions I could use them in and the list is a good one and starts with <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Ammunition_Hill" target="_blank">Ammunition Hill</a>, part of the Israeli assault into East Jerusalem. The Jordanians put up a stiff defense in a fortified position and the Israeli's took a large number of casualties. Jordanian strength was a reinforced Company and the Israeli paras attacked in Battalion strength. Because of the size of the position though the attack was never more than roughly a Company in strength.<br />
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The battle even had a song written about it.<br />
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<iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.youtube.com/embed/dM1L-ovPEOE?feature=player_embedded' frameborder='0'></iframe></div>
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Other uses for my new infantry include; street fighting in the Old City and places like the Rockefeller Museum, fighting in the Gaza strip, and mechanized combat against the Egyptians in El Arish or other places in the Sinai. There is also border fighting against Jordan just prior to '67, the Suez Crisis in '56, the War of Attrition (1967-1970) and of course the Yom Kippur War in 1973.<br />
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You might recall that I had some '73 Israelis made using headswaps from Peter Pig.<br />
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I tried mixing them, but the Battlefront figures are chunkier, slightly taller, and more problematic.. the heads are much larger. In the end I decided they just weren't going to mix. So I sold these.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg8yDxtG_ipC0LmIns9UnxrisEv3wDN5J3jwNZzwoOBtX9iP5bSPg4loA3cjXbKp8UOub8A02JEqkXeSDuhzN1gNmP8w2ZikEWDLN09-Qisqy-f4z7T2M6hAHsb5NGVpIu6n77Mk2rBfmen/s1600/DSCF0635.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg8yDxtG_ipC0LmIns9UnxrisEv3wDN5J3jwNZzwoOBtX9iP5bSPg4loA3cjXbKp8UOub8A02JEqkXeSDuhzN1gNmP8w2ZikEWDLN09-Qisqy-f4z7T2M6hAHsb5NGVpIu6n77Mk2rBfmen/s1600/DSCF0635.JPG" height="300" width="400" /></a></div>
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They've been replaced. Battlefronts advice on painting these is a bit off. The uniform color they suggest is closer to the modern look you see in 1982 and beyond. In '67 they were using whatever they could get their hands on and the variation in tans and greens is quite large. The paras used French camo, but if you look at pictures from the period you see few soldiers that were wearing it head to toe. Often you see soldiers either wearing a top or bottom in camo, but not both. I'm working on painting a unit in camo now and I plan to intermix them for '67 where they will represent the Israeli 55th Paratroopers Reserve Brigade that fought in Jerusalem (and a few days later in the Golan). So I'll have two platoons for '67, and one in plain green for '73. </div>
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The green is a 50/50 mix of Vallejo 888 Olive Grey and 886 Stone Grey. The webbing is 884 Stone Grey. You could also use Buff or German Camo Beige or a 50/50 mix of both. Battlefront has all of their painting samples with helmets painted in Green Grey, but Israeli helmets from this period are covered in burlap sack fabric. Their additional suggestion of 821 German Camo Beige is a much better choice. The white stripe is for station keeping at night, but not every soldier had it, and it doesn't always go the same direction either. Here's a hard to find color photo of some paras from '67. </div>
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I've since found that a wash of brown ink followed by a dry brush of 50/50 German Camo Beige and Buff looks pretty nice. The black band around the helmet is usually made using an old bicycle tire. I painted mine black but have since found out that a dark grey looks better. I'll be touching these up soon. </div>
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2813260557258433524.post-32729504937582156522014-10-24T23:40:00.000-04:002014-10-24T23:40:11.561-04:001983 Bellport, NY: Fireworks Accident and the Cold War<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">I was chatting with some friends about the Cold War and the Cuban Missile Crisis last weekend and it reminded me of my own minor brush with at least momentarily thinking the world was ending.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">1983 is generally recognized as one of the most tense years in the Cold War. It was proceeded by the very volatile year of 1982 with the Falklands War and the Israelis launching "Operation Peace for Galilee."</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><i><b>Here's a timeline of 1983</b></i>.</span><br />
<ul style="background-color: white; color: #252525; line-height: 17.9200000762939px; list-style-image: url(data:image/png; margin: 0.3em 0px 0px 1.6em; padding: 0px;">
<li style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">January: Soviet spy <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dieter_Gerhardt" style="background: none; color: #0b0080; text-decoration: none;" title="Dieter Gerhardt">Dieter Gerhardt</a> is arrested in New York.</span></li>
<li style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">March 8: In speech to the National Association of Evangelicals, Reagan labels the Soviet Union an "<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evil_empire" style="background: none; color: #0b0080; text-decoration: none;" title="Evil empire">evil empire</a>".</span></li>
<li style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">March 23: Ronald Reagan proposes the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strategic_Defense_Initiative" style="background: none; color: #0b0080; text-decoration: none;" title="Strategic Defense Initiative">Strategic Defense Initiative</a> (SDI, or "Star Wars").</span></li>
<li style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">September 1: Civilian <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Korean_Air_Lines_Flight_007" style="background: none; color: #0b0080; text-decoration: none;" title="Korean Air Lines Flight 007">Korean Air Lines Flight 007</a>, with 269 passengers, including U.S. Congressman <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Larry_McDonald" style="background: none; color: #0b0080; text-decoration: none;" title="Larry McDonald">Larry McDonald</a>, is shot down by Soviet interceptor aircraft.</span></li>
<li style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">October 25: U.S. forces <a class="mw-redirect" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Invasion_of_Grenada_(1983)" style="background: none; color: #0b0080; text-decoration: none;" title="Invasion of Grenada (1983)">invade</a> the Caribbean island of Grenada in an attempt to overthrow the Marxist military government, expel Cuban troops, and abort the construction of a Soviet-funded airstrip.</span></li>
<li style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">November 2: Exercise <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Able_Archer_83" style="background: none; color: #0b0080; text-decoration: none;" title="Able Archer 83">Able Archer 83</a> — Soviet anti-aircraft misinterpret a test of NATO's nuclear warfare procedures as a fake cover for an actual NATO attack; in response, Soviet nuclear forces are put on high alert.</span></li>
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<span style="color: #252525; font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="line-height: 17.9200000762939px;"> -Wikipedia</span></span><br />
<span style="color: #252525; font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="line-height: 17.9200000762939px;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="color: #252525; font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="line-height: 17.9200000762939px;">As we have learned more about the Soviet response to Able Archer 83 historians have concluded that it was the closest the world had come to Nuclear War since the Cuban Missile Crisis.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><i><b>Also...</b></i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><b>June 3</b>: "WarGames" premiers</span></div>
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<span style="color: #252525; font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="line-height: 17.9200000762939px;"><b>Sunday November 20</b>: "The Day After" airs on Network Television</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #252525; font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="line-height: 17.9200000762939px;"><b>Saturday November 26</b>: Grucci Fireworks Factory explodes in Bellport, NY. Two people are killed, twenty four are wounded. The blast creates a mushroom cloud that many mistake for a nuclear explosion.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">My home town of Bellport, NY was home to a 13 Acre Fireworks factory. We were treated to regular tests of fireworks on a nearby Golf Course and on the Fourth of July we would watch a display that was out of proportion to the size of our sleepy town. On a Saturday morning 6 days after watching "The Day After" on television I was taking a bath. I was 16 and really was too old to be taking baths, but my mother would yell at me if I didn't completely wipe down all the tiles after taking a shower. I was lazy, so I was taking a bath. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Suddenly there was a huge boom and the whole house shook, I looked up to see the bathroom windows flex in and out. I stood up and as I stood there naked I saw a 300' high mushroom cloud about 3/4 of a mile away to the northeast. For about a second I thought the world was ending. Then I realized that at that distance I'd definitely be dead if that were true. I quickly got dressed and went outside. For the next 20 minutes or so there were a series of smaller explosions as more buildings on the site exploded. Except for the two people who were at the site at the time of the explosion people nearby were for the most part lucky. The explosion went upwards and created an implosion effect. When windows on nearby houses broke the glass was pulled out onto their yards instead of into their houses where people were relaxing on a Saturday morning.</span><br />
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<a href="http://s003.radikal.ru/i204/1409/2a/15a29a443a1e.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://s003.radikal.ru/i204/1409/2a/15a29a443a1e.jpg" height="300" width="400" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">You can read about it <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/1983/11/27/nyregion/2-are-killed-and-24-hurt-as-blasts-rip-through-li-fireworks-plant.html?pagewanted=1" target="_blank">here</a>. I never took any pictures of the mushroom cloud and I can't find any on the internet. The above picture is a still I found from an NBC news report on the accident.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">So that's my story, not that remarkable. 3000 or so other people could tell you a similar or more dramatic story. Much of the blast went East for some reason and people who were twice as far away as I was in that direction had broken glass and pictures knocked from the wall. People in the immediate area were injured and as many as 100 houses were damaged. Those houses immediately surrounding the plant had their foundations cracked and had to be rebuilt. Had the accident happened on a weekday the death toll would have been very high.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">In the weeks that followed the Red Cross held workshops for those who were traumatized by the event. For me I remember that for the next month or so I would get a bit nervous whenever the heat in the house kicked on because it created deep rumbling noise. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">I have a History Professor friend who says that trying to explain the Cold War to his younger students is a nearly impossible task. For me, g</span><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">rowing up on Long Island between the major targets of the New York City area to the West and Brookhaven National Lab and Calverton to the East and nowhere to run was a frightening prospect. Our Presbyterian Minister was active in the Anti-nuclear movement and would relate some frightening facts to us during his sermon.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">As a teen I watched apocalyptic movies like "The Road Warrior", and "Terminator" and many others with much smaller budgets. I played post-apocalyptic role playing games like "Gamma World" and collected games like the "Morrow Project"and "Twilight 2000." I heard President Reagan's tough talk, including the famous "Star Wars" speech and it frightened me. There was always a sense of uneasiness or dread that would creep in from time to time when you thought about it. For me there was also that brief moment when I thought the world was coming to an end.</span></div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com12tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2813260557258433524.post-78597754885555543782014-10-24T15:19:00.000-04:002014-10-24T15:19:07.461-04:00Historicon 2014<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi5ehGZz-l-1_AArZhDjKYOi17MW05SUrzAMu-nBFkI5nlXvrzhnEpuLEbL7X0_m6w_r7l44Cthir5RFa-ZNOhEbQIPgbiLBl0Fs-N4c6suo9QOxYUqWZFLmh3nGsm7lz-9hcDuzd0ScBjP/s1600/IMG_3382.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi5ehGZz-l-1_AArZhDjKYOi17MW05SUrzAMu-nBFkI5nlXvrzhnEpuLEbL7X0_m6w_r7l44Cthir5RFa-ZNOhEbQIPgbiLBl0Fs-N4c6suo9QOxYUqWZFLmh3nGsm7lz-9hcDuzd0ScBjP/s1600/IMG_3382.JPG" height="300" width="400" /></a></div>
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WW2 Burma game. I was in charge of the recon and tank elements charging forward to try and take a town. There were two infantry companies coming up behind controlled by two of my teammates. </div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgC6vw5D-zQa1rO1mSv-60kHyRulepNNaKASEVc44xjq8lc1nDGSnMTEhvGlOd45g8t_hKGCTGfMu7gS7-RBq2wEHmby7gu0iH019A9iyJS2KUWPBe96fOWQz-yzo5gqt0ZRFAtl9V-lJdr/s1600/IMG_3395.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgC6vw5D-zQa1rO1mSv-60kHyRulepNNaKASEVc44xjq8lc1nDGSnMTEhvGlOd45g8t_hKGCTGfMu7gS7-RBq2wEHmby7gu0iH019A9iyJS2KUWPBe96fOWQz-yzo5gqt0ZRFAtl9V-lJdr/s1600/IMG_3395.JPG" height="300" width="400" /></a></div>
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We've made good progress and taken out all the larger anti-tank elements. I have to say that as a team the British side coordinated very well. </div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhjL1E1ro3DCovwl_shYACKgE8Kilv1Z4byScc6YGb26lkxaDrcrGYhb6Wav5anXWUetPCths6cq5LFbr7CtlVicEhollLBLsEQWh2ZY4dAC_OBVoVhX33MiTCa_lF7vXvvmaTP3sHJFkvV/s1600/IMG_3399.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhjL1E1ro3DCovwl_shYACKgE8Kilv1Z4byScc6YGb26lkxaDrcrGYhb6Wav5anXWUetPCths6cq5LFbr7CtlVicEhollLBLsEQWh2ZY4dAC_OBVoVhX33MiTCa_lF7vXvvmaTP3sHJFkvV/s1600/IMG_3399.JPG" height="300" width="400" /></a></div>
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As the terrain reached a bottleneck there was a great deal of close quarters fighting. I lost a tank and some recon vehicles (which don't count towards victory conditions). We managed to push through and take the edge of the town before the game was called for time. If the game had continued the Japanese had very little left to oppose us. We did take heavy casualties pushing up to the edge of the town so it was a bit of a barroom brawl at the end.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgqMCJlJSUn_5gOre5Hb_bnktMdNDv2Ng3RFpYBUCF1QexZewYLzzgsLhlYdzu_pcyzxjokCQnPxVP0B60wfyYzvML_E4eHQET7CaKGkclps71VaW18LMozrEeMiIZrMOZLfA_a8LEInqc3/s1600/IMG_3401.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgqMCJlJSUn_5gOre5Hb_bnktMdNDv2Ng3RFpYBUCF1QexZewYLzzgsLhlYdzu_pcyzxjokCQnPxVP0B60wfyYzvML_E4eHQET7CaKGkclps71VaW18LMozrEeMiIZrMOZLfA_a8LEInqc3/s1600/IMG_3401.JPG" height="300" width="400" /></a></div>
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Because of HMGS' new policy that you can only pre-register for one game I was booted out of several games I registered for since I didn't read the small print. The system let you register for them but then when I picked up my badge I saw I only had a a couple of games for the whole convention. I went to watch the Doctor Who game put on by the H.A.W.K.S. and mentioned this to them and it turned out that one of the players was in the H.A.W.K.S. and bowed out so I could play. Really nice guy and we chatted quite a bit during the game. This would be the first of two H.A.W.K.S. run games I'd play at the convention. Not sure why I haven't played more of their games.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgLJRw2RM7qjwtaVAYF7k5V90AEWibZP59bj0p5fXWxVMKwhlExTt2PmA5iqHz7npeuDh0H219undLexXWAE-rhLYuitxvGbi9Bm_csizEg1xBFm6HQYF_Cm1Ql9JHbZMgqCitYLtIumqXd/s1600/IMG_3404.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgLJRw2RM7qjwtaVAYF7k5V90AEWibZP59bj0p5fXWxVMKwhlExTt2PmA5iqHz7npeuDh0H219undLexXWAE-rhLYuitxvGbi9Bm_csizEg1xBFm6HQYF_Cm1Ql9JHbZMgqCitYLtIumqXd/s1600/IMG_3404.JPG" height="300" width="400" /></a></div>
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I played on the Dalek side. Here UNIT is trying to hold back our assault on a mansion containing some peace delegates. </div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiNm3HTor7CO8LDzTWyNXwhg3BXTRUKWhryGxp4XVygRhPJtuji3rlFP5mCAbWMyFBFMgRsDvhnGpP_4ZX0zGOABRh6fIsdk0p7U5GAOAbHSRaSajBY1BBc2RDnYHqTn7dFaTG6dZ6t5usl/s1600/IMG_3406.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiNm3HTor7CO8LDzTWyNXwhg3BXTRUKWhryGxp4XVygRhPJtuji3rlFP5mCAbWMyFBFMgRsDvhnGpP_4ZX0zGOABRh6fIsdk0p7U5GAOAbHSRaSajBY1BBc2RDnYHqTn7dFaTG6dZ6t5usl/s1600/IMG_3406.JPG" height="300" width="400" /></a></div>
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Dalek units fan out. The units in the barn have blown a hole in the wall and are taking a shortcut. They proceed on and manage to kill Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart. It's a great victory for the Daleks, but it also makes me a bit sad as he is one of my favorite Doctor Who characters</div>
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Sarah Jane takes a car and rams it into a tree. She manages to land the tree on a row of Daleks but does not destroy any. 2 of the 4 are tangled up in the tree for a few turns but still have a clear shot at a nearby group of UNIT soldiers, so no big loss. Sarah manages to run away and take shelter in the Mansion with the delegates.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi3EemneD08FMtaXA5pE9EhiEKxGU_Bjlhv_NOIOoydswIJBuLZvlykoLWIRSIVKbL9DRnJkZhZSETlVUoQE3vTAHObty2zuAKkCuR5bVAkqh-0ypuI222K38hHT9MBX8frU59ViCiKqRQe/s1600/IMG_3410.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi3EemneD08FMtaXA5pE9EhiEKxGU_Bjlhv_NOIOoydswIJBuLZvlykoLWIRSIVKbL9DRnJkZhZSETlVUoQE3vTAHObty2zuAKkCuR5bVAkqh-0ypuI222K38hHT9MBX8frU59ViCiKqRQe/s1600/IMG_3410.JPG" height="400" width="300" /></a></div>
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We called the game at this point. There was no stopping the metal monsters at this point. They were going to get inside the building and exterminate the delegates before the Doctor could build a device to counter them.</div>
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DropZone Commander game. Love the setup.</div>
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Pickup game of Chain of Command run by my friend Malcolm.</div>
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Steve, Malcom and Bubba. Steve and I played the British Paras and managed to win the day. CoC is a game where if you can get the other player reacting instead of acting it's very hard for them to win, just like in real conflicts. Wait, is that three wins in one day for me? Unheard of.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgz1A4KbvolDX-CR4dm0SfcIpqkfGiJNs6U_AC7asiRRRnAr3A9LjfHyLC-ncTKgQA4MA5T6nC-jvbS_Y3Cd9PykggxONPk7DELnQF2LyXMjATQAhZsFX91ch6I4eRvEjWpF5l2K5ZPh9jq/s1600/IMG_3429.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgz1A4KbvolDX-CR4dm0SfcIpqkfGiJNs6U_AC7asiRRRnAr3A9LjfHyLC-ncTKgQA4MA5T6nC-jvbS_Y3Cd9PykggxONPk7DELnQF2LyXMjATQAhZsFX91ch6I4eRvEjWpF5l2K5ZPh9jq/s1600/IMG_3429.JPG" height="300" width="400" /></a></div>
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The following morning I ran one of my two games of Operation Colosseum. Here things have heated up quickly with one of the South African Recce elements getting into a fracas in the SWAPO vehicle park. After losing a team they drive off the SWAPO platoon and throw hand grenades into several vehicles.</div>
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SADF Casspirs work their way into the base.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEixqYQXis6sQnrpL6oKykWi7sjvLJz6JoabN4nIUDVGxK7Fritj0bODSj0aAvOpjZANg67GEZ4iGz5GOWCwQvBbnA29pEP8Fel4wC6DrbOEQbb1TJ52adVCE_Yimbeo29YX2Dxrhfn1VQbo/s1600/IMG_3433.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEixqYQXis6sQnrpL6oKykWi7sjvLJz6JoabN4nIUDVGxK7Fritj0bODSj0aAvOpjZANg67GEZ4iGz5GOWCwQvBbnA29pEP8Fel4wC6DrbOEQbb1TJ52adVCE_Yimbeo29YX2Dxrhfn1VQbo/s1600/IMG_3433.JPG" height="300" width="400" /></a></div>
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The SADF commander weighs his options.</div>
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A longer view into the base from the east. Only two paths into the base by vehicle existed, the east and south. The dark area is a seasonal river. Although the rainy season is only a month away the ground in this area is far to soft for vehicles and they have a good chance of bogging down here. Best to stay to the bridges and paths.</div>
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A unit of Buffels moves into the base from the south and lose one of their number to an RPG team. This is a costly loss for them. In the end the base is destroyed, but when the victory points are counted it is a very narrow win for SWAPO. Because of the massive losses of personnel on their team though the SWAPO players are disheartened and never felt like they were winning. SWAPO has a number of assets to take out vehicles including HMG's, mortars and two RPG teams, but the SWAPO players kept losing track of where these assets were hiding.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiA5SjXtd4JlNyzgCnGCJj58aJDZ53S9My9Z0PnREoeb1X-ZXXfivhLhHlw65F9XbTDFQWfxNg7ACXR9c1RD_XgRFLnX1mJi2wpCDTe_nPKmJmrzehdMb9Q8-GBO1A4WYUMjDQBFs_vyEj1/s1600/IMG_3443.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiA5SjXtd4JlNyzgCnGCJj58aJDZ53S9My9Z0PnREoeb1X-ZXXfivhLhHlw65F9XbTDFQWfxNg7ACXR9c1RD_XgRFLnX1mJi2wpCDTe_nPKmJmrzehdMb9Q8-GBO1A4WYUMjDQBFs_vyEj1/s1600/IMG_3443.JPG" height="300" width="400" /></a></div>
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After several games last year of playing the Herrero in a series of Herrero Wars games I decided to try my hand at the Germans. Our task was to gain a hill in a desperate charge. Things went well at first and we lost very few in the charge to the hillside itself. We also did a better than average job at spotting the enemy.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjn56kvroILtKZ1H5rFPCh5QcSz7IGuf3qW2qGFdsp7rl8zYaOrgGd1RuU5v-D6OcBoa2C_iNv70YnTSm_PRkhjuRvRZBCa7RPS2rJOJdSAMujQ3frtXHMz5biwBtAdfkg5KC1lKcThf24r/s1600/IMG_3446.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjn56kvroILtKZ1H5rFPCh5QcSz7IGuf3qW2qGFdsp7rl8zYaOrgGd1RuU5v-D6OcBoa2C_iNv70YnTSm_PRkhjuRvRZBCa7RPS2rJOJdSAMujQ3frtXHMz5biwBtAdfkg5KC1lKcThf24r/s1600/IMG_3446.JPG" height="300" width="400" /></a></div>
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However in close combat we had several good chances snatched from our hands by a series of failed die rolls. Any one of these would have seen the Herrero thrown from the hill. The German's desperate charge was a bloodbath for both sides, but a bloodbath that was lost by the Germans.</div>
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Malcolm plays a Napoleonic game on a gorgeous table.</div>
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My second game of Operation Colosseum goes more smoothly. During the setup for the game I'm approached by a man who assisted UNITA during this time period. I asked a few questions that convinced me he was a Green Beret. Here a South African Recce unit approaches from the West on foot. </div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjsiq4CtEmFz60VutLIhjYD7YeqpZSO2-oMR-BkjkjZha9kvoaG3RiN86eR87FYOaMNoiorinUfZYCEHfDKc3FCeEhtdIiKLgenXmaiMozlDW2Twv9X7KPGd8KL5IsrVcXL5vcEJKvps-ac/s1600/IMG_3460.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjsiq4CtEmFz60VutLIhjYD7YeqpZSO2-oMR-BkjkjZha9kvoaG3RiN86eR87FYOaMNoiorinUfZYCEHfDKc3FCeEhtdIiKLgenXmaiMozlDW2Twv9X7KPGd8KL5IsrVcXL5vcEJKvps-ac/s1600/IMG_3460.JPG" height="300" width="400" /></a></div>
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Another Recce unit approaches from the North and after some hard fighting takes the SWAPO weapon pit.</div>
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Casspir column from the East again.</div>
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The Casspirs rushing to the aid of a pinned down SADF unit on the far edge beyond the motor vehicle park.</div>
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The SADF unit is pressured by two SWAPO platoons.</div>
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At this point the SADF commander peels off a unit of Unimog trucks with ZPU-2s mounted on them to chase down some SWAPO units trying to leave the battlefield. At this point the SWAPO spring a trap and the column is ambushed at close range by two SWAPO platoons! The fighting is desperate and several trucks are destroyed but both platoons are driven off by the remaining vehicle with heavy losses.</div>
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Here the pressure is finally taken off the SADF platoon. Didn't I tell them it was just a stopper group? In the end, SWAPO wins again, but by the tiniest of margins. While the truck ambush was not a military loss, it was a political disaster that lost the SADF the game.</div>
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Lastly, a Starship Troopers game put on by the <span style="text-align: left;">H.A.W.K.S. using home grown rules. While it used some bugs from the Mongoose game and Clone Wars figures for the Mobile Infantry it really had the feel of the book or Avalon Hill game. The scenario was "Operation Royalty" where the M.I. have to capture a brain bug. This is the above ground board. </span></div>
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I was on the bug side and had a blast. We quickly learned that the bugs don't want to come above ground. We used our underground nukes to great affect, killing some key M.I. carrying some of their more critical pieces of equipment. </div>
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Here the Mobile Infantry players try and find the brain bug but find their way blocked by the cave ins caused by our nukes. This was not our intention initially, but when we discovered that we could kill 2 M.I. and block the path of the remaining troops if we set off one of our nukes we drew them into a trap and set it off. Here they are bumbling around looking for an entrance they won't find. Their Listening Device and last breach charge are also destroyed so there is no way they can win at this point.</div>
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Malcolm and his gang of back alley card players in a game of "Legendary" I just hung out giving them a hard time. Overall I had a great time, but HMGS's new registration policy is probably their best attempt yet to destroy a good convention.</div>
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2813260557258433524.post-85591301034099280712014-10-03T22:48:00.002-04:002014-10-03T22:48:59.466-04:0015mm Eureka Ventauran and Darkest Star Games Venturians<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
Ages ago I contacted Chub Pearson at Denizen figures to see if I could get his permission to start a Eureka 300 Club 15mm version of his 25mm Ventaurans. Chub was very gracious and with the help of Nic Robson at Eureka the process was begun. It languished for several years and other people deserve the credit for the final push over the goal line because it had frankly taken so long I'd lost a bit of interest.<br />
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I purchased 6 sets when they became available and primed and basecoated them along with some Khurasan Federal troops which are similar in size and weapon design. The helmets are a bit different, but it's not glaring, and the armor and weapons are similar. The Khurasan figures have canvas backpacks as opposed to some sort of space age metal on the Eureka figures.<br />
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Darby Eckles over at Darkest Star games is the U.S. license holder for the Ventaurans having purchased the Adler line which is 6mm. The spelling is different (Venturian) but they're the same other than being in a different scale. Well recently through a Kickstarter he expanded the line into 15mm. Today I received the first Venturian infantry through a pre-order (now that the Kickstarter is complete).<br />
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The question I had was how compatible they would be with my existing figures.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi7y7BHcusk6TNtkViVen55atXnRczOlzIy_2fngrArYubmkF1crbg22WesuOYQ41LH6RhVyL3JwDauJoa0REHl9NMkrXBk2eUYn7pgvLIdJdKPBHOQGprNcJqpkcALf7nVOKmxa4oqr-E1/s1600/IMG_3796.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi7y7BHcusk6TNtkViVen55atXnRczOlzIy_2fngrArYubmkF1crbg22WesuOYQ41LH6RhVyL3JwDauJoa0REHl9NMkrXBk2eUYn7pgvLIdJdKPBHOQGprNcJqpkcALf7nVOKmxa4oqr-E1/s1600/IMG_3796.JPG" height="300" width="400" /></a></div>
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Here you can see I've mixed them in with three squads of 9. The article "Zhodani Military Organization" in the Journal of the Traveller's Aid Society #11 states that "Each rifle squad contains one NCO, one gunner, one vehicle commander, and eight infantry" Assuming that the NCO dismounts with the squad that means a squad of 9. They are equipped with combat armor and gauss rifles with RAM shoot through grenades. One infantryman in each squad is armed with a PGMP-14 as a support weapon. A platoon is made up of three squads.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiUGthruZMPFaXcbAb6DmegZx7otKWkUnNCGuiuB_rO1AS70VfFAYN1AlhF9Z6BZfxMXMRmpem4HD62TQydpEY-0L1Xj9jjFp8eADe05DT54SF8EduLKvh-29gQw2XU_br_04X65R13RMUg/s1600/IMG_3797.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiUGthruZMPFaXcbAb6DmegZx7otKWkUnNCGuiuB_rO1AS70VfFAYN1AlhF9Z6BZfxMXMRmpem4HD62TQydpEY-0L1Xj9jjFp8eADe05DT54SF8EduLKvh-29gQw2XU_br_04X65R13RMUg/s1600/IMG_3797.JPG" height="300" width="400" /></a></div>
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Hmm... Not sure how I started talking Traveller, but anyway here is a closeup. I think they're a very close match and only the most pedantic miniature gamer would have a problem mixing the two. The Darkest Star version is in bare metal and has a helmet that most closely resembles the old clamshell design.</div>
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Another closeup. Note the Eureka PGMP gunners.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhuUwfaRfBkAj79kTYP3ognLC7MJThn_8tY0klpEWcNaJXMJ0Iz7j5ai80XwqVM9jPbQtt4x6vJqgHGLVwLz2Zy3nOHuPWjtHKpxykJ3kMAVPZMdvtSotTbHfcZEqT-M8x8yNiJRPUEf0jv/s1600/IMG_3804.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhuUwfaRfBkAj79kTYP3ognLC7MJThn_8tY0klpEWcNaJXMJ0Iz7j5ai80XwqVM9jPbQtt4x6vJqgHGLVwLz2Zy3nOHuPWjtHKpxykJ3kMAVPZMdvtSotTbHfcZEqT-M8x8yNiJRPUEf0jv/s1600/IMG_3804.JPG" height="300" width="400" /></a></div>
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<span style="text-align: justify;">Even the backpacks are a pretty close match. The Darkest Star weapons are a little more slender, just like the figures but very similar in look. Note how dynamic the Darkest Star poses are, really helps to give the platoon a bit more character. Any differences can be explained away by some hand waving and talking about minor variances of the Lift Infantry combat armor and weapon versions. </span></div>
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<span style="text-align: justify;">I figure it's hard to get everyone in a unit using the exact same version of everything across the vastness of space, as long as all the weapons use the same 4mm ammo and power packs it all works out. Worrying too much about the details that don't matter could cause a Quartermaster to have a nervous breakdown (as happened to one in British East Africa in WW1).</span></div>
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<span style="text-align: justify;">The eagle eyed among you might have noticed a few command figures. They are a mix of Khurasan and Eureka with some Peter Pig head swaps. You really don't think I'd build a platoon sized unit without doing some head swaps, do you? Anyway I think the Darkest Star figures are a great addition. The next time I place an order I'm going to get another group of 11 and mix them in with the other 3 squads of Eureka figures I have. And one of these days I'll get around to finishing the unit.</span></div>
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2813260557258433524.post-40062817627536144912014-09-27T19:32:00.000-04:002014-09-27T19:32:06.069-04:00Lebanese Army M113<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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I'll post my Historicon and GenCon picks shortly. I know they are way overdue, but I wanted to show off a completed project. Back when Battlefront had its big Vietnam sale in the Spring I couldn't resist a few items. One of them was the M113 which was available as an ACAV version. It's a plastic model so there are a lot of different options on the sprue, plus with 30% off it was super cheap.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjMV_KTJp-PnjAIiUxtoHiTm8pskjp0fyeXl276Ya98ao96ubXW9SF1auNXTuYt3PlK-NsvZ4qDw4jMQrBwCVWAWjd2NcYUVrzlTpUsFxKsNy9Lf2DbNatfGprrnvx5sYCLjXBrtuFhbZZo/s1600/DSCF0599.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjMV_KTJp-PnjAIiUxtoHiTm8pskjp0fyeXl276Ya98ao96ubXW9SF1auNXTuYt3PlK-NsvZ4qDw4jMQrBwCVWAWjd2NcYUVrzlTpUsFxKsNy9Lf2DbNatfGprrnvx5sYCLjXBrtuFhbZZo/s1600/DSCF0599.JPG" height="300" width="400" /></a></div>
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This platoon was inspired by a few photos.<br />
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As you can see from the watermark, all three pictures come from the Military in the Middle East Blog http://milinme.wordpress.com/ which has a ton of Lebanon '82 photos.</div>
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I haven't put any Lebanese flags or Arabic Script on them, but I think I did a passable job. I want to be able to use these in other theaters in the 80's as well.</div>
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If I did it over though I might have attempted the configuration in the first picture where the bow plane is down and backfilled with sandbags. Overall the M113 is not an exciting vehicle, but somehow the ACAV version with Cadillac Gage Turret and Browning .50 Cal is just a little more interesting. I couldn't resist adding the 106mm Recoilless Rifle to one of them. The other three found a use this Summer at Historicon on my SADF Unimog trucks. </div>
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I put fenders on 3 out of the vehicles because I've seen them both ways. Also I left off the M60's on the side but left on the gun shields as I've seen them this way in many photos. Jon tells me they were probably demilitarized after service in Vietnam and then had the .50 Cal added back on when they went into service in Lebanon. Seems likely.</div>
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2813260557258433524.post-55286760488484452462014-07-06T16:00:00.002-04:002014-07-07T12:10:34.525-04:00South Dakota Rhodesian Bush War Air Force Museum<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
Wait, South Dakota USA has a Rhodesian Air Force Museum? Well no, not really. But, the South Dakota Air and Space Museum just outside Rapid City has enough of the aircraft that it almost qualifies.<br />
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First, the primary reason I went to this display, the Canberra bomber.<br />
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As the plaque states this is an electronic warfare version the U.S. Air Force used to test North American air defenses. </div>
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The O2-A Skymaster is a militarized version of the Cessna Model 337. In Rhodesian service the militarized version was called the Lynx. They were smuggled in via a Spanish fishing company and then modified with a .30 Cal on the top, rockets and bombs below the wings (including "Frantan" which was a code for Napalm).</div>
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They also have a Dakota.</div>
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They also have an Air Force Huey (UH-1) that in Rhodesian Service was referred to as the Cheetah. 8 of these were smuggled into Rhodesia late in the war from Israel (via Lebanon).</div>
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Okay, so what else would they need to make this Rhodesian Air Force complete. Well a Hawker Hunter and a Vampire would be nice, as would the Alouette III in both the G-Car and K-Car versions. But since this is a U.S. Air Force Museum, that is not going to happen. I'll have to be satisfied with seeing 4 out of 7 in the same yard. </div>
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If you're ever out to South Dakota, the museum is well worth an hour or two of time. Admission is free but there is also an $8 Air Force base tour where they take you inside Ellsworth Air Force Base next door. There you can go inside a Minuteman II silo. Totally worth the price of admission. I'll write about that and my visit to the Minuteman Missile Historic Site in another blog post.</div>
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2813260557258433524.post-63591656081753207882014-06-10T22:48:00.001-04:002014-06-10T22:48:53.288-04:00SteveCon 2014<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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For the second year I made the trek to York, PA for "SteveCon", a now annual gathering of the Army Group York Gamers. </div>
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<span style="text-align: left;">This year they have a new classy clubhouse (more on that later) and a bit more organization. Witness the official program!</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhqZRrTuPJQG57tH6GD1Zf8IUntKZ7_h18SIGhqB4fP-vw4Dk5sScj-kNiuh6GeCh8WflhO7Q6mJoBWThStl5hP5OFnJ2t91FDDoMWIWFi3XL-4C69b-3RN-08zhyS80jQ2NZh9dS5Te_3f/s1600/IMG_2979.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhqZRrTuPJQG57tH6GD1Zf8IUntKZ7_h18SIGhqB4fP-vw4Dk5sScj-kNiuh6GeCh8WflhO7Q6mJoBWThStl5hP5OFnJ2t91FDDoMWIWFi3XL-4C69b-3RN-08zhyS80jQ2NZh9dS5Te_3f/s1600/IMG_2979.JPG" height="300" width="400" /></a></div>
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I spent the morning playing in a 6mm Civil War battle of Saylor's Creek. Believe it or not I've never played a Civil War miniature game. Gregg's games are gorgeous.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEja0DWjT1xEbBG-uZPggSHSzrkXCMr7hUDXbCcEWfLOenSuU0iMdvGvROufPXk_AYSTrDZPXTJBxkcwDhyphenhyphen_a25kvEVIPg98lznaAsRqwWEY4xAtHrpMQPeVSZyvQv-Bm1rMNRHwgMKIh1at/s1600/IMG_2994.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEja0DWjT1xEbBG-uZPggSHSzrkXCMr7hUDXbCcEWfLOenSuU0iMdvGvROufPXk_AYSTrDZPXTJBxkcwDhyphenhyphen_a25kvEVIPg98lznaAsRqwWEY4xAtHrpMQPeVSZyvQv-Bm1rMNRHwgMKIh1at/s1600/IMG_2994.JPG" height="300" width="400" /></a></div>
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Here Gregg reinforces a point about the rules with a handchop to Jon. Jon and I played the Union forces against Steve and Tom as the Confederates.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEia9yeANyGAhtNoIi81wuUGz6EnykI5rmI5MJiBF6xMYsfs3IgecAAXBbTeS9c9lZH1tt0C3ILcjm3qbxlw8veW7LSjfJ_1p-QAvd7b6tOhaovm8ekeDig7NGt6AmK8jdHuST10pox6_Fu9/s1600/IMG_2984.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEia9yeANyGAhtNoIi81wuUGz6EnykI5rmI5MJiBF6xMYsfs3IgecAAXBbTeS9c9lZH1tt0C3ILcjm3qbxlw8veW7LSjfJ_1p-QAvd7b6tOhaovm8ekeDig7NGt6AmK8jdHuST10pox6_Fu9/s1600/IMG_2984.JPG" height="300" width="400" /></a></div>
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My Union Cavalry engages. We were trying to either find and destroy the supply train or break the Confederate Army. In the end the later goal was more likely, but still out of reach. I'm surprised at myself that I didn't take more pictures. I had several great cavalry charges that broke a few units and fatigued many more. We came up short of our goals, but it was a great game. I'd love to play again.</div>
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Meanwhile on a nearby table, there was a Battletech throwdown. The Geographer in me cringes that every single piece of terrain has to be labeled. I think I can tell the difference between light and heavy woods without them being labeled *every* *single* *time*. Incidentally, Battletech is another game I've never played. I should fix that.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjuHoUtGBNbwXCXTApyVY1xZxTwnwGD0gGhIP2ixbPy5A2kYyYcy019AaOp04L_aV5amW0TnOUGXBXGmnRMguHfCfysFCAA_OSR5lI8GrywLRaL1VnZ-mDgSDetlNmrPpEx__CyhWg88nUW/s1600/IMG_2993.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjuHoUtGBNbwXCXTApyVY1xZxTwnwGD0gGhIP2ixbPy5A2kYyYcy019AaOp04L_aV5amW0TnOUGXBXGmnRMguHfCfysFCAA_OSR5lI8GrywLRaL1VnZ-mDgSDetlNmrPpEx__CyhWg88nUW/s1600/IMG_2993.JPG" height="300" width="400" /></a></div>
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Jayson (Doc Merkury) is using his hands to explain something as his daughter and Chal plan their next moves. </div>
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Did I mention how classy the new digs are?</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjOgj_aNvY0Txt1nIUKji9HbxgqtDILjIn1gS5g_2f0f5TqsbPvsWKtM_CqqvdTF3czA-O0UAU-3ZHWtQ5ApX5sySJYm1v92vLKyqLdnYstpPojhfWZteuEaewRMv2FRnESHcNkGdGSdHHW/s1600/IMG_3012.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjOgj_aNvY0Txt1nIUKji9HbxgqtDILjIn1gS5g_2f0f5TqsbPvsWKtM_CqqvdTF3czA-O0UAU-3ZHWtQ5ApX5sySJYm1v92vLKyqLdnYstpPojhfWZteuEaewRMv2FRnESHcNkGdGSdHHW/s1600/IMG_3012.JPG" height="300" width="400" /></a></div>
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Initial setup for my game (Operation Colosseum) that I'll be running at Historicon (twice!). This is the left side. </div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjKUkMRvnzJs7VdpyfU0OwQX-YyB-NW3K7LSWUlKkhfjCbQxk-hXRxcOOrhpTm1AejIY_-maZBrhW1z6WRThr_WjxaFDBWhjKF3zo-dzrWrB53NlyPJCpi7y8NBkiFQ4ZytV_OrWXYI6PQ1/s1600/IMG_3014.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjKUkMRvnzJs7VdpyfU0OwQX-YyB-NW3K7LSWUlKkhfjCbQxk-hXRxcOOrhpTm1AejIY_-maZBrhW1z6WRThr_WjxaFDBWhjKF3zo-dzrWrB53NlyPJCpi7y8NBkiFQ4ZytV_OrWXYI6PQ1/s1600/IMG_3014.JPG" height="300" width="400" /></a></div>
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This is the right. I guess I should have taken a panoramic picture.</div>
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Buffels and Unimogs race into the camp and cripple a SWAPO platoon but they let the remnants bombshell and get away. Two Buffels have their MG mounts destroyed and a Unimog is taken out by a 60mm Mortar.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiXGaVQBwz0NlmrcM5H9PzShlsAVegjRz147tvwWTrvIqNBPzMnKzBJpqkYfd0rehUTzj60u6-P4XwtKjwZVutAoKvSyM3y86LMvIjfzPdYT5lAfGcOoN37RHAEKQTupIFJMG9k43_V2Un7/s1600/IMG_3019.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiXGaVQBwz0NlmrcM5H9PzShlsAVegjRz147tvwWTrvIqNBPzMnKzBJpqkYfd0rehUTzj60u6-P4XwtKjwZVutAoKvSyM3y86LMvIjfzPdYT5lAfGcOoN37RHAEKQTupIFJMG9k43_V2Un7/s1600/IMG_3019.JPG" height="300" width="400" /></a></div>
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Casspirs tear into the camp from the other river crossing and engage multiple mortar and machinegun teams.</div>
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A close range firefight erupts between SWAPO and one of the Recce Stopper teams.</div>
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And another fight develops back at the river with the Casspir platoon. SWAPO is caught in the open, but manage to destroy a Casspir, the Casspir with the Major on board!</div>
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We called the game for time so we could get in a big Naval battle. I messed up a few things in the rules, but I don't think it affected things too badly. The result on Victory points was very close, 36-30, a very narrow SADF victory. One more vehicle hit for SWAPO would have changed the outcome. I'm going to tweak a few things for Historicon, but I'm pretty pleased with how it turned out.</div>
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I'd go into more detail, but I don't want to ruin any surprises for anyone who might turn up to play at Historicon. There were several other games going on in the afternoon, but since they were going on at the same time as my game I didn't snap any pictures.</div>
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After I cleaned up, Steve went to set up his enormous Naval game and found out that he'd left all the ship records at home over an hour away. I wasn't anything he could replicate, so with a heavy heart he had to cancel the game. We chatted for another hour and then called it.</div>
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Steve showing me how their custom Panzerfaust bathroom plunger works as Gregg looks on in amusement.</div>
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So it was unfortunate that I didn't get to play in a third game, but it was a great day with a great group of gamers. I also managed to make the 2 hour drive home in time to watch my daughters softball team play at home under the lights. </div>
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2813260557258433524.post-19645306554602557552014-05-02T22:24:00.003-04:002014-05-02T22:24:42.731-04:00I Gamble - And Win!<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
As a kid the family once flew from New York to visit relatives and my parents old college roommates in California. Due to poor weather we were forced to layover in Las Vegas for a few hours. There was a slot machine in the airport and my parents let me take an advance and gamble away several months of my allowance.<br />
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At that point I was getting 75 cents a week. I donated a quarter to the Church, saved a quarter, and spent the last quarter on comic books. That was when I could convince my family to stop at the "5 and Dime" in town on the way home from Church. Losing that allowance pretty much wiped out my chances of buying a comic book for some time. I was a huge Fantastic Four fan, but when they weren't available I bought anything Marvel I could get my hands on.<br />
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So this event had what was probably the desired effect. I don't gamble. Oh sure there's been the occasional office pool during March Madness, but mostly I just say no thanks.<br />
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At Cold Wars just prior to my Rhodesian game I got to talking with one of my players and we started talking about books about Bush War African conflicts. He recommended "Silent War: South African Recce Operations 1969-1994" by Peter Stiff.<br />
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Well for some time Peter Stiff's books were out of print and quite expensive. The topic also put me off a bit. I'm more interested in platoon to company sized engagements I can play in 15mm. I didn't want to spend big bucks on a book about 4-5 man team operations.<br />
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I read a few reviews and found that it is 600 pages and touches upon a large number of actions both small and large in both the Rhodesian and Angolan Bush Wars from 1969 to 1994 as the title suggests. After finding out that the only source on Operation Colosseum was "Silent War" I became determined to find a copy. Galago Press is still printing it and it looked like the cheapest place to get a copy. The cost is $42 USD plus $17.50, total cost $59.50, significantly less than the $100-150 you'll see listed on Amazon and Ebay.<br />
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I was still unsure of paying this much for a book without knowing more about its content, so I looked around a little bit more and found a copy on a Dutch booksellers website for 5 Euros (they specialize in selling secondhand English language books). Above is the picture of the book from their website. They didn't seem to offer international shipping, but I figured it wouldn't hurt to send an email. They respond that they had looked into it but it was quite expensive, 18 Euros without tracking and insurance, 24 with. I gambled and bought it without tracking and it came a little over a week later looking exactly as pictured. The total cost was $31 USD. </div>
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The book is much better than I could have expected. It provides an overall perspective and individual details I haven't found anywhere else. Since the South African Recces were involved in a wide range of operations (including in Rhodesia as 'D' Squadron of the Rhodesian SAS) over a long range of time there is a large amount of detail on a wide range of operations. Operation Colosseum is covered in 6 pages, which if you haven't tried to do research on this era might sound like very little info. It is in fact a gold mine. </div>
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In short I feel pretty lucky. I'm halfway through the book and it will be providing me with information for scenarios for quite some time. One of the best military history purchases I've ever made, especially for the price I paid.</div>
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2813260557258433524.post-61646889258802088072014-05-01T17:10:00.000-04:002014-05-01T17:10:17.860-04:00Playing at Military Photo Interpreter<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
Recently I made a comment to a friend that I was really enjoying playing at being a Military Photo Interpreter because I was doing it 30 years after the fact and no one could get hurt. While funny, it's also very true.<br />
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Back when I was in college I had the opportunity to meet Dr. Joseph Van Riper who was a Professor Emeritus of Geography at Binghamton University. We had a little party and Dr.Van Riper was in attendance. From across the room I heard him talking to two other students about Tarawa. Now I have a Great Uncle that died at Tarawa, so I strode across the room and mentioned this to him. A wave of grief and guilt came over him. His voice quavered a bit as he responded that he had worked as a photo interpreter during WW2 and that there were so many things they didn't know about before the battle. Many of the Japanese log and sand MG nests were nearly invisible to them, but later they learned a few tricks that made them easier to identify.<br />
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I've often wondered what it would take to do that kind of work, how demanding would it be, and what were some of those tricks. It would be nice to do this in an environment free from regret and guilt.<br />
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Recently I found a website that has quite a few examples of WW2 aerial photos from the Pacific and instructions on how to interpret them. The <a href="http://www.allworldwars.com/Photo-Interpreters-Guide-to-Japanese-Military-Installations-Part-I.html" target="_blank">Photo Interpreters Guide to Japanese Military Installations</a> It shows how to look for a wide variety of military installations and equipment. Often the key is to look for signs that indicate the presence of the equipment, rather than the item itself. For example, when looking for artillery, you look for the tracks of the supply trucks rather than the well camouflaged field pieces themselves.<br />
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The section on trenches was quite useful to me, showing me how 2 man foxholes are often built and then later connected together into a line. You can see this quite readily in the photos of Cassinga during the battle, note the trench lines that are a series of connected circles.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjJtp85dm3rM1ANsP0NjAO9iTRih25Aho5jvWTMDB7uxGM9gDgf3GHKiWt08sJRD2n8ix8nf46IH1nFzRTNOMkGW79Y53eRzWE7HXZCDLBT_zpR5a8HaxMIBt3zXJDi5rLgXppvSDQZXdso/s1600/poststrike2a.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjJtp85dm3rM1ANsP0NjAO9iTRih25Aho5jvWTMDB7uxGM9gDgf3GHKiWt08sJRD2n8ix8nf46IH1nFzRTNOMkGW79Y53eRzWE7HXZCDLBT_zpR5a8HaxMIBt3zXJDi5rLgXppvSDQZXdso/s1600/poststrike2a.jpg" height="400" width="298" /></a></div>
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In the last few years the quality of the satellite and air photos that are available for free of Angola and other places in Africa has improved substantially. It used to be that if you looked up an area in southern Angola using Google Earth you would simply see a mass of green. Now it is possible to make out some rather small features. I heard there was a South African Olifant tank that hit a mine in Operation Packer near Cuito Cuanavale and was never recovered.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhnAHGYK8DjV9y_xcellbiUkau3HTH55T5qAodIMBGOOUkoWaKgO3fCvfdHQXoYpV4yG8XIFTK-c4ioVG-PNwMQkedGcqceIbp_RZvSXc5ko8se2eaOrSVyfEzPsAoYTtIri1y40g9DGecF/s1600/Cuito+Cuanavale.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhnAHGYK8DjV9y_xcellbiUkau3HTH55T5qAodIMBGOOUkoWaKgO3fCvfdHQXoYpV4yG8XIFTK-c4ioVG-PNwMQkedGcqceIbp_RZvSXc5ko8se2eaOrSVyfEzPsAoYTtIri1y40g9DGecF/s1600/Cuito+Cuanavale.jpg" height="223" width="400" /></a></div>
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The dimensions look correct, but time has not been kind to this old Centurion. I think you'd be hard pressed to prove what type of tank this is just from this one overhead view.</div>
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However I did take a look to the west to get a look at the bridge the South Africans were so keen to destroy and the airfield into which the Soviets were flying equipment. It's not often you see a unused nearly 3km long runway. </div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjz4HCXXRpm-dX_c0TMzuikdNO9vJ2MO5YXrh7hZCx1iXt3ORdGee3vPSC5UhSR9OOfL2lGi-PmKtha8R7O0-AxtXZ0mXh2Kk5L0mtDDV-tpZ7I8ucBChqawYPJl5ry5Mg0kUW8PQENYdMt/s1600/airfield.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjz4HCXXRpm-dX_c0TMzuikdNO9vJ2MO5YXrh7hZCx1iXt3ORdGee3vPSC5UhSR9OOfL2lGi-PmKtha8R7O0-AxtXZ0mXh2Kk5L0mtDDV-tpZ7I8ucBChqawYPJl5ry5Mg0kUW8PQENYdMt/s1600/airfield.jpg" height="223" width="400" /></a></div>
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Still in use? You be the judge.</div>
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Near the runway I also discovered this.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgIeKEugjSb-eeuhyphenhyphen9DkMSp2pzgj-VVe1ryDODDe_SVUueObieex70lxkP9zplgDP6ZptcQ2Orrqssyx_v7lZ3dDKyi9bRrU-7NBOmFJ4YlgNR4iRiuQ2134O5AC2Teb2uvP5ZLT0fnQ76p/s1600/Mig23.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgIeKEugjSb-eeuhyphenhyphen9DkMSp2pzgj-VVe1ryDODDe_SVUueObieex70lxkP9zplgDP6ZptcQ2Orrqssyx_v7lZ3dDKyi9bRrU-7NBOmFJ4YlgNR4iRiuQ2134O5AC2Teb2uvP5ZLT0fnQ76p/s1600/Mig23.jpg" height="223" width="400" /></a></div>
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Two abandoned Mig23's. Thanks to Google Earth's handy ruler tool you can even confirm the length and width and check it on Wikipedia. It's just amazing what you can find lying around in Southern Angola. </div>
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In some places in Angola , it's still relatively easy to find signs of the war in the form of extensive trenches. Cassinga today looks like this.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjp5I5FKp97j_WsT8_Ho7t8bWYLBCgIY06or4z0lWTEiNlmLD-Kv7-rpvw14rPdx-vGdyHUh9asSZb4PtuZ296NHV1vVDFbJe8Qw7_fXnQDP1OihE1Uea4iZIfq0NWZb5c0t_BrdlqEefz2/s1600/Cassinga.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjp5I5FKp97j_WsT8_Ho7t8bWYLBCgIY06or4z0lWTEiNlmLD-Kv7-rpvw14rPdx-vGdyHUh9asSZb4PtuZ296NHV1vVDFbJe8Qw7_fXnQDP1OihE1Uea4iZIfq0NWZb5c0t_BrdlqEefz2/s1600/Cassinga.jpg" height="223" width="400" /></a></div>
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Other than some changes in agriculture surrounding the town it hasn't changed since the end of the battle. Note clear trench line in the top right hand area of the image.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhd4DlNQjPG_yozyE8RIYYUdgCdWOAJViSuVjkqnDDGeZ35jN7CNV50QwoAnJN1rrXZ5EB7WgjsoTJIU84aW_hLJUIuPpHZvib89mh7KyL-BAb6x3ncAhA8tH2eiP2YBbaRy0SNdQD-UQZf/s1600/Colosseum.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhd4DlNQjPG_yozyE8RIYYUdgCdWOAJViSuVjkqnDDGeZ35jN7CNV50QwoAnJN1rrXZ5EB7WgjsoTJIU84aW_hLJUIuPpHZvib89mh7KyL-BAb6x3ncAhA8tH2eiP2YBbaRy0SNdQD-UQZf/s1600/Colosseum.jpg" height="223" width="400" /></a></div>
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In the area of Operation Colosseum you can't find more than a few traces of the secondary inner ring of trenches because there is a village there now, but on the edges of the town near the dry river bed you'll find a rather extensive series of trenches. Note the communication trenches leading perpendicularly away from the main trench line. This information will be used to help me create a map for Operation Colosseum. </div>
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Just yesterday I found another large trench line. I was researching Operation Askari and found this just south of Cuvelai, Angola. </div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhrlPEVOGuxY2og1WVNZ8BaPvgm0v_OGLvKMaAnVVANzzwNgt0TyaIwun0Z5omo1lMn6oZDHrO68foLraayMv4GKcPS4P0qZRx9uItmXqWABYjR8EzP-kVeXcKojEjlxgrkV1ZGolQbW6XQ/s1600/Cuvalai.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhrlPEVOGuxY2og1WVNZ8BaPvgm0v_OGLvKMaAnVVANzzwNgt0TyaIwun0Z5omo1lMn6oZDHrO68foLraayMv4GKcPS4P0qZRx9uItmXqWABYjR8EzP-kVeXcKojEjlxgrkV1ZGolQbW6XQ/s1600/Cuvalai.jpg" height="223" width="400" /></a></div>
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There is a 1km long trench line that follows another dry river bed. Here at the end of 1983 a troop of South African Ratels got caught in a minefield and FAPLA attacked with a company of T55's, the first offensive tank action of the war by them.</div>
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FAPLA and SWAPO-PLAN's Cuban and Russian advisors sure liked to keep them busy with digging.</div>
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Expect to see more of this type of work from me. If you have any suggestions where to look I'd love to hear them.</div>
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2813260557258433524.post-89550367075505522892014-04-21T00:00:00.000-04:002014-04-21T11:01:18.517-04:00Cassinga Map Poster Session<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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A couple of weeks ago I participated in a "Poster Session" at a Spring GIS Day at my local Community College. Poster Session is a term I hadn't heard in over 15 years since my Geography Graduate student days. We were asked to show off our work from the last two semesters of classes. Instead of displaying something canned from our coursework I instead decided to show off my latest WIP map of Cassinga. </div>
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I displayed it on a poster to show the sketch map of the Cassinga Battlefield from the book "Borderstrike!: South Africa into Angola" by Willem Steenkamp and the methodology I used to arrive at my current map. I spoke for about 5 minutes as part of a team of 3 students that attended that day. It was a morning of presentations from ESRI, the Census Bureau, and an alumni of the colleges' GIS department. It was a well attended meeting of about 20 GIS professionals from around the region.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiohkqyNApvf2GkO_HBtAd6N0V6zJMH4-1CGmXmYXAKa8MiZzApYhuCwxRa39r-oQ1LbPQHHNNivaRkSrEJqQqUrfCdUlHJq78GVeUBok3rmeANgBnKZGzgHfHbeIXxtyPMzFtY-2PdFIfJ/s1600/IMG_2830.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiohkqyNApvf2GkO_HBtAd6N0V6zJMH4-1CGmXmYXAKa8MiZzApYhuCwxRa39r-oQ1LbPQHHNNivaRkSrEJqQqUrfCdUlHJq78GVeUBok3rmeANgBnKZGzgHfHbeIXxtyPMzFtY-2PdFIfJ/s1600/IMG_2830.JPG" height="300" width="400" /></a></div>
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The Poster</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiuQV-Re3O-kqbXi5tKG4zNZk-L4VadpbCwr7L_i8wxx0EXYSKQ9ETAl4XWLwtAJPmBskn5jWa8W14gOJL5FL_2iQkMU2uIM9WLQ6oEwDC32RMi5YInor8Ba1gYSeYDwULycsVZxjXd3-n6/s1600/Poster+Session2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiuQV-Re3O-kqbXi5tKG4zNZk-L4VadpbCwr7L_i8wxx0EXYSKQ9ETAl4XWLwtAJPmBskn5jWa8W14gOJL5FL_2iQkMU2uIM9WLQ6oEwDC32RMi5YInor8Ba1gYSeYDwULycsVZxjXd3-n6/s1600/Poster+Session2.jpg" height="400" width="310" /></a></div>
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The current state of the map.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgPdqSjQ5hDP6d0VclZUjMxu0sPxpthKAjoPEhdq1wnIUnn3-oqsK9JXUgmVkQr7JmKQnzKgMRVSJjp2O4E2i4p2NlV8z9PsM7KS1JaOiYqc7Q1mtf_QOsFX9_Ag9NDVRgmJD0O4Wi8BYR2/s1600/WIP.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgPdqSjQ5hDP6d0VclZUjMxu0sPxpthKAjoPEhdq1wnIUnn3-oqsK9JXUgmVkQr7JmKQnzKgMRVSJjp2O4E2i4p2NlV8z9PsM7KS1JaOiYqc7Q1mtf_QOsFX9_Ag9NDVRgmJD0O4Wi8BYR2/s1600/WIP.jpg" height="400" width="310" /></a></div>
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Since then I've managed to stitch together 4 higher resolution photos from the battle itself showing the after effects of the aerial bombing (the black circles). I'm using this to fine tune the location of the buildings, trenches and roads and add in the AA positions. </div>
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Then I'll add in some more of the trails on the edges and any cleared areas. In the end I'll produce a set of 3 maps, one of the overall area (useful for 6mm gamers), one of the town center to show the location of the buildings, trenches and AA positions clearer. Finally I'll redo the Cassinga Crossroads map that I used for my Cold Wars scenario and see if I can write it up and put it in the Lardy Christmas Special. All three maps will also be submitted to the warinangola.com website.</div>
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2813260557258433524.post-52337078015712199832014-04-20T17:36:00.002-04:002014-04-20T17:36:22.190-04:00Revisiting my RPG roots<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
Last night I played a game of Gamma World 4th Edition at Doc Merkury's place. You can see the full write up <a href="http://doctormerkury.blogspot.com/2014/04/gamma-world-4th-edition-aar.html" target="_blank">here</a>.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg8f3C_eRYXrzYKKm6N_igMSbymrV3pZA931HZfm1Ol_0GSpF7Uhco0EUbhMsa5JThQjZjaYgnb14wp9RCDZQm_c3ds-sN3YCuBvqhi8YeFVrKk7SHi1U3sb8GxMLu3jwOH6elH37nkz6VS/s1600/IMG_2880.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg8f3C_eRYXrzYKKm6N_igMSbymrV3pZA931HZfm1Ol_0GSpF7Uhco0EUbhMsa5JThQjZjaYgnb14wp9RCDZQm_c3ds-sN3YCuBvqhi8YeFVrKk7SHi1U3sb8GxMLu3jwOH6elH37nkz6VS/s1600/IMG_2880.JPG" height="320" width="240" /></a></div>
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At the end my Cyborg companion was knocked out and I pulled out my Omega Tech Laser Turret Helmet. The perfect time to roll a natural 20 for a critical hit! Soon thereafter the nasty Dragonfly was defeated!</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgurqiOr6uR0fTZ60dDZfEv4eiA_oU46XLt5L0LOu-iJuVb_r4AyN6ILY6agplOFglRaULLafrHPRaYCPhMOFVC2q7pKKxfcVnKruYjHN-qh14OVV4xkmFs4PMSDgD94sHdcIr1WITfTJRZ/s1600/IMG_2884.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgurqiOr6uR0fTZ60dDZfEv4eiA_oU46XLt5L0LOu-iJuVb_r4AyN6ILY6agplOFglRaULLafrHPRaYCPhMOFVC2q7pKKxfcVnKruYjHN-qh14OVV4xkmFs4PMSDgD94sHdcIr1WITfTJRZ/s1600/IMG_2884.JPG" height="320" width="240" /></a></div>
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A Group shot with my Mutant Tree Character, Cyborg companion and our slightly annoying robot. Gamma World 4th Edition is a lot of fun with a light hearted quirky nature that is easy to pick up and fun to play. It was good to do some role playing again, and Doc Merkury has a nice collection of fun figures to play with. </div>
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2813260557258433524.post-70582533319721568322014-04-18T15:24:00.000-04:002014-04-18T18:23:09.731-04:00SWAPO Base Defenders (Operation Colosseum)<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
After seeing all of the South African firepower you might think this scenario will be a walk over for the Recces.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEirKDoVOdISABdfwtBIwVXbKp-3q7Omkn5CQOk3qA9DOPeOye_DE4Px5hhzp6K2WoCYgX_GCpZjx0iDPt6XFeLGxhIV8smCATUz2kgQ7AuEoLlV8-X0YwyPRuZBWgNYakWF_gNm3EmUU-Rp/s1600/DSCF0278.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEirKDoVOdISABdfwtBIwVXbKp-3q7Omkn5CQOk3qA9DOPeOye_DE4Px5hhzp6K2WoCYgX_GCpZjx0iDPt6XFeLGxhIV8smCATUz2kgQ7AuEoLlV8-X0YwyPRuZBWgNYakWF_gNm3EmUU-Rp/s1600/DSCF0278.JPG" height="300" width="400" /></a></div>
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Not So.</div>
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I've pulled together all of my Regular and Militia Troops to created almost two full companies with support. I'll add a bit to this before the game, but this is basically it. Included are all the Russian Trucks and jeeps I could muster for the SWAPO Motor Pool.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjb9Sp_nu9UEihGWuwrPVkc7SNlgCZCulFQtOH73JsUnTgyL4w2luifQyI-qujdih9jkym_iHDpNAr1EtapYetca90_BmD04ESeNInfUJHTV6_HrUUKgue7xHuAm2ZVFFGjlw4W_-z7NXct/s1600/Collosseum1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjb9Sp_nu9UEihGWuwrPVkc7SNlgCZCulFQtOH73JsUnTgyL4w2luifQyI-qujdih9jkym_iHDpNAr1EtapYetca90_BmD04ESeNInfUJHTV6_HrUUKgue7xHuAm2ZVFFGjlw4W_-z7NXct/s1600/Collosseum1.jpg" height="310" width="400" /></a></div>
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Using a modern aerial photo as a base I've started work on an Operation Colosseum Battlefield Map using my new GIS skills. I've georeferenced the aerial photo and cited the major trails and where the trenches are still visible. I'm going to do several future blog columns on this map and the Cassinga Map I've been working on. </div>
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2813260557258433524.post-15982544484354936302014-04-17T16:35:00.000-04:002014-04-17T16:35:00.705-04:00Highway to Hell Campaign Begins!<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
Last Saturday Jon and I got together and played through two of the battles from the "Highway to Hell" mini-campaign from the Too Fat Lardies 2013 Summer Special. My son Evan was with me and did the majority of my dice rolling.<br />
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Jon soon found that beginners and little kid luck were hard to beat. Before the battle we rolled for a "Super Stonk" from the artillery that pounded the Germans before the battle. I instructed Evan to "roll a lot of 5's and 6's. This is normally done in secret, but for Evan's sake we wanted to give him the opportunity to roll a bunch of dice right off. Well I wasn't sure what was getting hit where, but from all the high dice rolls and Jon's reaction I knew that things were not starting off well for him. (After the battle we found that two AT guns, an MG team, his Big Man, and 2 out of 3 Panzerknacker teams were killed).<br />
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The three smoke puffs on the left are the two AT guns and the MG team (I didn't know this during the battle, I just knew it was significant). My squadron of 5 troops of tanks heads up the road. I send two out of three platoons into the woods and the other rides in on the tanks of the third tank troop. I can win the battle if I get 4 tanks off the close board edge but I wimp out a bit when I get the opportunity. I drew both a blind card and armoured bonus move on the first two turns, but didn't take my full move, cheating myself out of about 18 inches. </div>
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Jon's surviving AT team pops up out of the woods just ahead of the nearest British infantry platoon and takes out a Sherman tank. I rush my leading team towards the board edge to try and end the game before more damage is done and bump into two StuG III G's in the woods. At turns end we exchange simultaneous fire. </div>
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We lose the first tank and then return fire. Despite having a large number of shots we only take out one tank. (It seems that Evan's luck is faltering.) The following turn we lose another Sherman to the Panzerknacker team before it retreats into the woods. The turn ends. Our infantry finally get another move and they advance to contact with the Panzerknacker team which is wiped out. We advance our second Troop forward just far enough that the leading Firefly tank has a shot at the remaining StuG and it brews up and that is the last of the German forces. The British advance to the next of the four highway segments to Valkenswaard after losing only 3 out of 20 tanks in one of their 3 available Squadrons.<br />
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The next game we played after a quick lunch did not go as well. It was an infantry battle in an adjacent sector to the west with Devons D Company vs. roughly a platoon of German infantry. Jon lost 9 troops in the pre-game Super Stonk leaving him even more outnumbered.<br />
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Despite all the games of IABSM Jon and I have played, we've never used the rules for what they are designed for, Company sized games in WW2. Our Infantry blinds in Africa or the Middle East are for single squads, so when I deployed a platoon off a blind I deployed it much too bunched up (we were using small cards instead of 2" x 8" blinds, which didn't help). My platoon got cut to pieces by MG fire and couldn't recover, being suppressed for 3 turns in a row. I did manage to use my big man to separate them a bit, but by then it was too late. One of the lead squads had taken too much shock and lost its bottle and retreated *through* the one behind it, causing a chain reaction. The platoon had lost 7 men but was no longer an effective fighting unit. An object lesson in how the IABSM morale system works.<br />
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Meanwhile my other two platoons moved forward on the flank and Jon decided to withdraw since he couldn't do much more damage before being overwhelmed. The fact that Evan was totally bored by this game and our bickering over the rules (which I'm not proud of) had something to do with it as well. I hope Evan wants to play again, in general I'd say he had fun. In the first game he gave Jon some first class trash talking.<br />
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Jon and I have since sorted through our rules difficulties and we're looking forward to the next set of games.<br />
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2813260557258433524.post-70084223472773187952014-04-14T23:10:00.000-04:002014-04-14T23:10:38.026-04:005 Recce Commando Work in Progress<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
Based on the lack of comments on the last two posts, you folks aren't as pumped up about Modern Africa and my latest project as I am.<br />
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Talk show host David Letterman is retiring. Back in the early days of his show "Late Night with David Letterman" he would not accept when certain jokes failed. He would instead double down and keep telling and (more importantly) over explaining the joke, vowing to keep telling it until he heard a man on the street repeating it to someone else. At some point the over explanation itself would become the joke and be much funnier than the initial attempt.<br />
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In that spirit I'm going to just forge ahead. Pictures usually do the trick, so here is the latest on my Operation Colosseum project which I have decided to run twice at Historicon.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiXUEQGMial-Jk_9yGSMf-qx55I7b4KsxaC8geehNA4RdO1FhZEE9_bPDl7UTzZOVw9HMMGuslx8J8fE6TYxaKXaQlJ7rpN201h1kT68sAs7RYV6xrdOY2yhNiEt1SZCUEtg0NpOJC7PHvi/s1600/IMG_2854.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiXUEQGMial-Jk_9yGSMf-qx55I7b4KsxaC8geehNA4RdO1FhZEE9_bPDl7UTzZOVw9HMMGuslx8J8fE6TYxaKXaQlJ7rpN201h1kT68sAs7RYV6xrdOY2yhNiEt1SZCUEtg0NpOJC7PHvi/s1600/IMG_2854.JPG" height="300" width="400" /></a></div>
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5/1 Commando, 5/2 Commando, and 5/5 Command and their vehicles in the back. The force was about 130 men in size and would have been the majority of 5 Commando whose manpower was never more than 200. I have to paint the grey bases on 5/2 Commando Desert Yellow. </div>
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Strictly speaking 5 Recce would be outfitted in a variety of Camo patterns that were copies of Eastern Block uniforms, 32 Battalion did the same thing. But I've read that 32 Battalion would wear the standard Nutria brown to avoid friendly fire when operating with other regular units. It would not surprise me if the same was the case for 5 Recce on a big operation like this. </div>
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Both units also included many veterans of the Rhodesian Bush War, including Selous Scouts and Rhodesian SAS and were roughly 50% black. They often used AK47s and other Russian equipment as well, which is a wise choice on a deep reconnaissance mission. </div>
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Here I'm using what I have with my Peter Pig Professional troopers and PP Israelis in Nutria brown and a few Israelis in green armed with AK47's since I'll need as many of my PP Regulars and Militia to represent SWAPO and FAPLA defending the base as I can muster.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiNENeN5LFKLZGXlVTkSh1vD-GnF9aoyoRrdg53q0Sm0mNP0sXRRswnfGf8kmEpZOPSUvYZjtOf2Mtk_hrQ_Ny3ajB7AXaDli6F_m0NqYKHwyp4avKyP0KjNcCqrkv9vTSrlOTmWVenEVZ4/s1600/IMG_2858.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiNENeN5LFKLZGXlVTkSh1vD-GnF9aoyoRrdg53q0Sm0mNP0sXRRswnfGf8kmEpZOPSUvYZjtOf2Mtk_hrQ_Ny3ajB7AXaDli6F_m0NqYKHwyp4avKyP0KjNcCqrkv9vTSrlOTmWVenEVZ4/s1600/IMG_2858.JPG" height="300" width="400" /></a></div>
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I'm waiting on a copy of Peter Stiff's "The Silent War" to arrive in the mail, but the scenario from warinangola.com calls for 11 Casspirs. As I mentioned last time I've opted to go with 5 Casspirs and 4 Buffels since that is what I have. The Casspir in the center is new and needs a dry brushing and detailing. </div>
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I've added a 106mm RR to an existing Land Rover, I just need to add a driver. I already had two Unimogs with a .50 Cal and two .30 Cals each from my Rhodesian Armoured Corps troops. I bought 4 more Unimogs and 2 ZPU-1 guns to put in the back. I have 3 more 106mm RR left over from some Battlefront M113's I'm building. Due to an ordering mistake I'm actually one Unimog short. Leaving me with the decision as to whether I should order another or attempt to remove the canvas top glued to the Unimog in the back. I'm inclined to just order another.<br />
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Not pictured is the 4 gun battery of 81mm mortars. I plan to have these off board so I don't have to bother with painting them.<br />
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So what do you think? Do you need more convincing or should I over explain why this is a cool scenario? Next up, FAPLA and SWAPO.<br />
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com13tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2813260557258433524.post-5767100450206858312014-04-09T00:45:00.000-04:002014-04-09T08:19:37.879-04:00Operation Colosseum<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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Having done both Cassinga at the HMGS Fall In Convention last year and "Blackboots on the Trail" at Cold Wars I thought a bit about other scenarios I could do in Modern Africa for Historicon. Modern Africa always seems to bring out some fun and enthusiastic gamers. </div>
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The War in Angola website has several scenarios, but they are really designed for 6mm and are quite large for a 15mm gamer. Not that it hasn't been done. R. Mark Davies and some other wargamers did some of the Lomba River crossing games in 15mm using a modified version of the Battlefront WWII rules (<a href="http://www.fireandfury.com/conventions/lomba.php" target="_blank">see here</a> and <a href="http://s294.photobucket.com/user/Renko1917/library/Bovvy08?sort=3&page=1" target="_blank">here</a>).</div>
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While I have a platoon of Ratel-20's and one of Ratel-90's, I don't have entire companies. So I have been thinking of playing some of those scenarios using 3mm figures believe it or not. The cost would be very low and the ground scale more reasonable.</div>
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But one of the scenarios has always looked more attainable to me, Operation Colosseum. Colosseum was a raid on a SWAPO base camp in Angola 300km north of the
South-West Africa (Namibia) border. Eight years earlier Cassinga was raided
just 30km to the south by a large airborne force. In November 1986 a South African Commando Unit (5 Recce) had to accomplish a
similar goal using only a company of men in a column of Casspirs and heavily armed Unimog trucks. (<a href="http://warinangola.com/Default.aspx?tabid=718" target="_blank">here is the link to the original scenario </a>)</div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhnpEYU0vGMLEP71a2uU6OcVxxIBj2G8IxUZdN3gWqWGUAai7MCOYd1F2ErADgJUPFIynvr5eBzr-Ty8CYa698oNG8GbFr5jW3tQilEcEZaD4RsiZNluw6M5oPMit2CctoQFRxv_YOzkczR/s1600/galago_silentwar_opcolloseum.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhnpEYU0vGMLEP71a2uU6OcVxxIBj2G8IxUZdN3gWqWGUAai7MCOYd1F2ErADgJUPFIynvr5eBzr-Ty8CYa698oNG8GbFr5jW3tQilEcEZaD4RsiZNluw6M5oPMit2CctoQFRxv_YOzkczR/s1600/galago_silentwar_opcolloseum.jpg" height="295" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">This photo is from Peter Stiff's book "The Silent War" I have a copy on order. </td></tr>
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Now I don't have 10 Casspirs, but I do have 4 and one that I've almost finished painting. I also have 4 Buffels to fill in for the rest. I have two heavily armed Unimogs I've used for my Rhodesian external ops games, and I have all the troops I need for both sides. I have a Landrover with a 106mm Recoilless and an unarmed Unimog. So really I just needed to pick up 5 more Unimogs and put 2 ZPU-1's on them and 3 Recoilless Rifles on the others.<br />
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It was really the Unimogs with the 106mm RR that sold me on this. This is one seriously ballsy operation with a heavily armed but lightly armored flying column. It's like wargamer crack, and I've fallen hard.<br />
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I've already submitted it as a game to run on Friday afternoon and I'm considering running it on Saturday afternoon if I hear from enough people. It's a 4 person game since I've found that to be a sweet spot.<br />
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You'll be seeing some WIP photos in the coming week. </div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2813260557258433524.post-43502741279983482582014-04-07T17:46:00.003-04:002014-04-07T17:47:54.365-04:00Cold Wars 2014 AAR<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
Jon has already done a little write up on this since I've been a bit busy. Go check it out <a href="http://lebanon1982.blogspot.com/2014/03/cold-wars-report.html" target="_blank">here</a>.<br />
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Here's a few more pictures.<br />
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I ran a scenario from the B'Maso rulebook called "Blackboots on the Trail" which is a scenario I've wanted to run for several years. I was hoping someone would make a Rhodesian Crocodile vehicle or I could bash one together. The Crocodile is an early Mine Protected vehicle that evolves into the South African Casspir which I have several of so I decided to use them instead.<br />
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Here the British South African Police have been called to answer an arson call at a Tribal Trust Land. Really it's just an ambush opportunity for ZIPRA. They've laid two mines on the road and are hiding nearby. The BSAP make a series of terrible rolls for spotting and then bumble right into both mines, disabling one of the Crocodiles. They do manage to not take any casualties from the mines and get the cards right for disembarking. Just in time too as one of the Crocodiles is destroyed by an RPG hit. ZIPRA burst from a nearby bush and inflict several dead on the near group in the picture, pinning it. In the rear where the Crocodile has exploded another groups takes two kills and a lot of shock. So much in fact that the survivors run off.<br />
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Another view of the ambush.</div>
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The players really got into the action as ZIPRA tries to both inflict more damage and run away to fight again.</div>
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A view of the whole battlefield. Arson damage to the left, local kraal on the right. </div>
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ZIPRA's only mistake so far is that they set up for both a near and far ambush. When the near ambush succeeds beyond their wildest dreams the reserve is too far back. By the time it gets to the front it is time to run because the BSAP is recovering quickly.</div>
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The tables are turning on ZIPRA. They find that the BSAP has a lot of maneuver elements and big men to get their units back in the game.</div>
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The knoll of death. Close range fire and a close combat by ZIPRA that was probably a bad idea. After this action the ZIPRA forces run like heck. Try as they might the BSAP is not able to run them down and the game ends with a strong victory for ZIPRA. They have inflicted enough casualties and destroyed one Crocodile and disabled another that the BSAP cannot get the 7:1 kill ratio they are looking for. Nor do they succeed in killing all of the ZIPRA troops since many of them got away, so they fail on that victory condition as well. </div>
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My Russians getting their clock cleaned in a Chain of Command game.</div>
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A Pegasus Bridge game in 28mm. It was massive.</div>
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Here's the full table. Quite the sight.</div>
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Next time, my Historicon plans!</div>
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2813260557258433524.post-74233146480548503842014-03-12T15:53:00.001-04:002014-03-12T15:53:46.586-04:00GZG ECC XVII Convention AAR #2<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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In the afternoon on Saturday I played in Stuart Murray's excellent Hammer's Slammers game. It included just about every vehicle from his enormous SciFi 15mm collection. The game starts in contact, and our side were the defenders, a group of various Mercenary units tasked with defending the city long enough for the civilians to escape.</div>
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I had a group of wheeled vehicles that had to stop a Recce group of Hover vehicles from approaching the City on the left flank. Since we started in contact there was nothing to do but close and unload our infantry and then try and get flank and rear shots with our light tanks. My die rolling was abysmal, but I inflicted enough casualties to slow them up.</div>
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I'm most disappointed in my Buzzbomb troops.</div>
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That's my troops burning on the left. City on the lower right.</div>
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Attacking mercenaries close on the right flank, their approach partially shielded by a ridge.</div>
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The defenders on the right are having a tough day as well.</div>
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The ridge is on the left, the area between it and the board edge became the attackers preferred avenue of approach.</div>
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As civilians flee, Martin's troops to the left of the city are in good positions.</div>
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Attackers Chris and Dave ponder their options.</div>
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Sheep, cows, missiles and burning tanks.</div>
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Run!</div>
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I'm given a new Mercenary group to command and then rush into the city to contest a block that the attackers have moved a tank into. Despite rolling a bucket of dice I can only immobilize it.</div>
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The game ends with the attackers contesting a single city block with their immobilized tank. </div>
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At the neighboring table, Aaron Newman brought out his fantastic scratchbuilt derelict spacecraft. Several gamers, including myself popped up like paparazzi to take photos of it. </div>
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Truly spectacular. </div>
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I hope to play an Aliens vs. Predators game in and around this terrain next year.</div>
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Sat night was for "Mars Needs Women III", a Victorian Science Fiction game. I was very excited to play with the Martian Manta Rays for the third time. </div>
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The Martian mothership had crash landed in rural England, our goal was to reclaim the ship and capture as many women as possible from the ship and nearby town. </div>
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Things did not go well for my Mantas, they took some casualties and could not remove their suppression the rest of the game. I only need to beat a 3 on a D8 and I could not get it done. Every turn I removed 1 out of 2 suppressions if I was lucky and then received another. </div>
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Did I mention that my ship was seized from me by crazed hang gliding Scotsmen?</div>
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My group of Martians on foot also became suppressed and also failed to get get into the battle. </div>
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The result was a magnificent mess aboard the Mothership that I couldn't help out in. It was hard to call it a victory for either side.</div>
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Meanwhile at a nearby table. OGRE!</div>
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Everyone was really into it, and I just loved the look of the table.</div>
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The following morning I played in a Check Your 6 Jet Age Korean battle, "Black Tuesday" Our illustrious leader and Convention organizer Jon Davis had a smile for me as we faced off. </div>
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I played Russians, I lost the most planes.</div>
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Our goal though was to stop the B-29's.</div>
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I did manage to shoot down the most B-29's and we won the game, a great end to a great Convention.</div>
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2813260557258433524.post-47650823177192204422014-02-28T19:58:00.000-05:002014-02-28T19:59:20.989-05:00GZG ECC XVII Convention AAR #1<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
For the eighth year in a row I travelled to the best convention for Science Fiction gaming in the Northeast. I carpooled up on Friday with my friend Jerry and then played in his Friday night Skirmish game "Welcome to Night Vale" using the FMA Skirmish rules.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;">Welcome to Night Vale. Lots of O gauge railroad buildings.</span></td></tr>
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We had our choice of several factions. Vague government agency, StrexCorp, Boy Scouts, Bowling League, Town Council and Sheriff's Secret Police. The goal was to recover as many missing artifacts as possible from a museum display donated to the town by StrexCorp. Each faction had its own goals, mine was to keep StrexCorp from recovering artifacts and get my leader through a portal to the secret dog park.</div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjGxj0j-AX-OB0anGlFqgWtwd7b_5Da21tC54HwofwloWnI-pmDaV2meb-A4_ILgqI30RYXkIayUwbYRfgVJUc_S5HBVcH28N9JEjACYMO5SdgDDBPJuuE_MuI-T49i0kb8D0A_SDK6vn6b/s1600/IMG_2730.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjGxj0j-AX-OB0anGlFqgWtwd7b_5Da21tC54HwofwloWnI-pmDaV2meb-A4_ILgqI30RYXkIayUwbYRfgVJUc_S5HBVcH28N9JEjACYMO5SdgDDBPJuuE_MuI-T49i0kb8D0A_SDK6vn6b/s1600/IMG_2730.JPG" height="300" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: small;">My Town Council robed figures fight it out with the Museum Curator and StrexCorp. I ignored the Creepy Kudzu for far too long and paid the price. Some member of the town bowling league tried sneaking up on me, but I took two of them out before they received reinforcements in the form of two more bowlers which I could not handle. Two of my three council members were taken out, one by the bowlers, the other by the Kudzu. But the third managed to take out the Curator and make it to the portal that transported him to the dog park for the win.<br /><br />Saturday morning was my 15mm Stargrunt 2 game, "The Other Side of Justice" which was a retelling of the finale to Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex 2nd Gig. The police and army attack Dejima City to try and recover the plutonium they think the Refugee Insurgent have. Meanwhile, Section 9 has brought a canister containing plutonium into Dejima by stealing a helicopter and sneaking past the army cordon. Just short of their goal, the helicopter is shot down in a small park.</span></span></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiviAL5YlcJN5J6mAHTBxYHUyt7HhEAoGJ8pNtvabjx_m65eDsbu0YyPWN2KvZnayj-RpYiph31LVAGelUNjW5B1fjpMiz-W82eROVH0jz26KS4gWjIOUmwVeZ3ZXcAhmBw9snOvLKsci0A/s1600/GZG+ECC+17+Indy+Photos+WWM-369.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiviAL5YlcJN5J6mAHTBxYHUyt7HhEAoGJ8pNtvabjx_m65eDsbu0YyPWN2KvZnayj-RpYiph31LVAGelUNjW5B1fjpMiz-W82eROVH0jz26KS4gWjIOUmwVeZ3ZXcAhmBw9snOvLKsci0A/s1600/GZG+ECC+17+Indy+Photos+WWM-369.JPG" height="265" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: small;">The initial setup. This represents the majority of all the buildings I own in 15mm. The road surface is the 10mm cityscape from DropZone Commander. The overpass is scratchbuilt. </span></td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;">Section 9 bailing from their damaged (stolen) helicopter, this picture was taken from the playtest.</span></td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;">The police have taken it on the chin with a destroyed armored transport and two failed close combats.</span></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhQ0-ZLqbv2-mzIWueCVg6YMThv7QjwJIj4Q-KWAJLKwwqxcZk_EmyF59P1ABN42qWshR-BCOwMSBeh7kB9mChFpyC8DvhnWBKTtL-V8J1kVYuSfMnjmgbRfCeD4MsAmu3vSy5PJOi2Hkju/s1600/DSCF0233.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhQ0-ZLqbv2-mzIWueCVg6YMThv7QjwJIj4Q-KWAJLKwwqxcZk_EmyF59P1ABN42qWshR-BCOwMSBeh7kB9mChFpyC8DvhnWBKTtL-V8J1kVYuSfMnjmgbRfCeD4MsAmu3vSy5PJOi2Hkju/s1600/DSCF0233.JPG" height="300" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: small;">Clearly I run an exciting game. Section 9 is deployed on the far edge in front of the yawning player with the container of Plutonium they need to get to the JGSDF NBC team to diffuse the crisis.</span></td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: small;">That's me with the Buffalo shirt. Mark Kochte took this picture and shot a timelapse of the game, hopefully it turns out ok and I can share it with you.</span></td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: small;">A view down RPG alley. Two of the police teams have used rope ladders to descend over the edge of the overpass. </span></td></tr>
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<span style="text-align: center;">Motoko has taken control of the Jigabachi helicopter by hacking the pilot and the insurgents are about to take out the construction bot (controlled by Gouda from the Cabinet Intelligence Service) threatening their homes by firing yet another RPG round.</span></div>
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The JGSDF has arrived and nailed a house with some 120mm rounds from their Type 90 tank, neutralizing the insurgents within. A Komatsu has launched a hail of CS canisters at the apartment nearest the bridge causing multiple suppressions on the insurgent squad there.</div>
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Without firing a shot, Section 9 manages to drive to the end of the bridge and make contact with the NBC team and turn over the plutonium. They failed to get Motoko to meet up with Hideo Kuze with the game ending about a turn before they would get together to have a long philosophical discussion and Motoko would confirm he was the boy who she knew in the hospital when she was a little girl. The boy who made paper cranes. </div>
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The game did get a bit bogged down in the fighting and I should have given Section 9 a squad of insurgents to fight on their end of the city as I did in the playtest, but overall I was happy with it.</div>
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com11