Hey,

 So a company called Khurasan Miniatures produces an excellent miniatures including a bewildering array of 15mm sci-fi ranges. In particular, their Nova Republik range is very well-rounded with infantry, tanks, APCs, and other equipment. I've been wanting to put together a full set of gear to form the core of my 15mm sci-fi collection.

Because the minis are so good, I was also determined that they should get a worthy paint job. A guy named Rich working at a company called Hobby Services regularly sells 15mm sci-fi groups on eBay. They usually get snapped up within a few hours of his posting them for sale. His work is great and he's been tapped by Osprey and Ground Zero Games to do the paint jobs for GZG's upcoming line of miniatures for Tomorrow's War (Osprey's sci-fi variant of Force on Force). So the guy has his chops down.

I got in touch with him and he agreed to take on the job. Earlier this week they showed up. So here's some little dudes I didn't paint, but I'm really happy I got someone else to paint for me.

Actually, his photos are better than what I normally do, so all these photos are by Rich as well. First up, the infantry:


There are about three squads worth of guys here, plus a couple of snipers and command staff figures. I wanted to go with a blue, urban-cammo kind of deal because, hey, it's me and I like blue. Let's get a close-up on these guys:


I think this really shows how good Rich's work it. The little details like the night-vision optics, black-line work and stuff really make these guys pop. Of course, these guys will want some back-up:


These are the heavy weapon teams. Plasma gunners, smart missile and smart mortar launchers all ready for action. In the front is a command base with holo-projector and staff runner. The holo-projector comes with a small square of acetate with a map on it. When you stick it in the slot, it looks like the projector is really causing the map to show up. It's a nice little touch.

Here's who you don't want to see standing next to that projector:


In the official range, this guy is listed as a political officer or commissar. My plan is to re-purpose the figures as a mercenary group called Thompson Security Products. So you're looking at the VP of Sales and Marketing for this sector. Too often, the long suffering company commander is just trying to run his operation when the VP shows up. At least the commissar would just shoot you for non-performance.

But how will we cart all these guys around?


With Hedgehog APCs of course. One for each squad. The photo doesn't show the small turret but you can see the spot where they go. So the Hedgehogs can provide some fire support.

When you need a bit more fire support, you can call these guys:


A platoon of Red Eagle tanks. Incidentally, the cammo pattern was adapted from zebra camouflage used on Allied ships during WWII. The tanks were a little bumpy for a straight zebra pattern, but I think he did a good job. It may seem like poor camouflage, but my idea is that this is the "rest pattern" of the vehicle's Cuttlefish Active Camouflage System. When in motion, the vehicle's color is constantly adapting to what's around it. It's some of the most advanced tech the company possesses and it lets me do fun things like this.

So that's pretty good. What about some artillery?


The Little Darling Semi-Autonomous Artillery Drone (SAD) platoon. As you can see, there are a variety of swap-out turrets for direct fire, indirect rocket barrage and anti-aircraft missions. It was probably a little bit of overkill fitting out all the turrets, but I was indulging myself a little bit and they look sweet.

 Last, but not least, what's a sci-fi army without some power armor?


A 2-man squad of Python power armor. These stand about twice the height of a man and provide heavy firepower in places the tracked armor can't get to. Again, a great looking batch of minis and I love the paint job.

So that's my group of professionals. They look even better in person than in the photos and I'm really jazzed at how well they came out. Now I just need to find some opponents and get them on to the table. Of course, the general rule of thumb is that the better a group of minis look, the worse they do when you play with them. Well, die in style I suppose.

Hey,

This weekend I ran a game of Force On Force for my usual gaming group down at Hobby Bunker. The scenario came out of the Enduring Freedom source book and was supposed to represent the fighting that took place in the early days of Operation Anaconda in March of 2002. That operation was marked by a number of snafus and screw-ups that could've spelled disaster for the Americans and it was only the bravery and determination of troops on the ground that got them home safe again.

In our game, the Americans were all out of luck.

Here's the initial set-up of the game:



You can see the Americans are all clustered together. They've basically just stormed off their Chinook helicopters unaware that the hills around them are swarming with Taliban.


This is a broader shot from the "south" end of the board. You can see the line of hills on either edge of the board and the compound that the Americans are supposed to take.


And finally, here's a high-angle shot from the "north" looking down over the compound and back to the American's LZ.

Here's what I thought was going to happen -- the Americans would take a pasting for two turns (by scenario rules, the Taliban go first on the first two turns), but their body armor and advanced medical skills would keep their guys in the fight. By turn 3 they'd have a chance to gain the initiative and rush the compound. On turn 4 the Apache helicopter air support shows up and after that the Americans would start to clear the board. Final point totals would be close.

 The Americans never made it out of their deployment zone.


This is the end of Turn 1. The enemy mortar team is rolling really well and causing casualties among the Americans. The only unharmed squad has had to break up and move among the fallen squad so that at the start of the next turn, they can make casualty checks to determine the status of all the troops.

At the start of Turn 2, almost all the Americans stand back up, only to be pounded back into the dirt by the Taliban forces ringing the valley (again, just phenomenally high rolls on lots of dice by the attackers that the Americans couldn't defend against).

 On Turn 3, almost all of the remaining Americans stand up, but they lose the initiative and they all fall back down again. The Taliban send out a couple of squads to try and finish them off.


Start of Turn 4. The only American still standing is the TAC officer. If he can survive the turn, he can call in an airstrike and possibly turn the tide of this fight. But again, the Americans lose initiative and the Taliban blow him off his feet.

With all the Americans down, there's no one left to apply first aid. The Americans are helpless and the Taliban swoop in:


Obviously that was the end of the game. By the end of Turn 3, the Taliban had racked up so many points in kills/serious injury that even if the Americans had accomplished all of their objectives, the Taliban still would've won.

It was an incredibly lop-sided affair. I know a large part of this was the monster die rolls the Taliban were getting, but the scenario gave a lot of bonuses to them as well and the Americans just couldn't get initiative or air support fast enough.

I apologized about the one-sided-ness of the game, but everyone did seem to have a pretty good time and they're interested in trying other scenarios so I guess that's a win. It's too bad, I was hoping to use this scenario later in August for the club's game day, but I might have to change it to something else. I really need to get more terrain put together. Being out in the open like that is killer, especially between two evenly matched opponents and most scenarios are a little more urban in nature.

Ah well, chalk one up for experience.
Tom