Battle Report: USMC vs Taliban (FoF)

Well I christened my new double sided grass mat this morning, as well as the middle eastern building I built over spring break. I realized that my Taliban still hadn’t been played with yet, so I threw a quick solo game down to freshen up on my Force on Force rules. I decided on a simple scenario, and then proceeded to annihilate my Taliban, quite unintentionally… but then again, can I help it if Marines are simply the best warfighting organization in the world, evidently even when they’re only 20mm tall?

SCENARIO:

2nd Lt. Hicks joined two of the fireteams from his second squad while they conducted a patrol through a small complex of buildings. As they passed through the complex initially, they only saw a few old farmers who gave the passing marines a dirty look. The lieutenant didn’t like the feel of the place, but decided against searching the buildings, as that might have only further served to irritate the locals. Two hours later, the patrol has completed their route, when the lieutenant decides that perhaps they should check that farm complex one more time…

SETUP: I randomized where my taliban went by rolling a D6, the result placing them on the table below (A roll of ‘6’ placed them in the farm, another roll decided which building they’d be in):

The Marines were supposed to fight their way across the table and off the far side. I decided to give the Marines a cobra gunship on call, but stipulated that it would only become available after 2 or more Marines had become casualties.

 

 

BATTLE REPORT:

As can be seen from the picture above, evidently the farmers hadn’t been just farmers, as 5 Taliban began right on the edge of the complex waiting for the Marines. Reinforcements flocked towards the complex from the surrounding area. A failed USMC reaction test meant that the first fireteam walked along the path into the village without noticing the crouching forms on the rooftop. A hail of poorly aimed AK47 rounds quickly alerted the Marines to the presence of hostile forces. The second fire team plunged into the plowed field to the right, and immediately began to return fire.

That Taliban continued to move towards the complex as the first turn drew to a close. The Marines barely managed to maintain the initiative at the start of turn two, and proceeded to take cover in the poppy fields, and start laying down some fire upon the Taliban. Meanwhile, three Taliban attempted to rush through the a clump of trees on the left flank and assault the 1st fireteam, but a hail of gunfire put two of them down, and the remaining RPG gunner was so shaken that he sent his RPG sailing harmlessly over the heads of the marines.

As more Taliban tried to move in from the north, the first fireteam continued to keep up an intense fire that prevented them from moving across the open ground. In the exchange of crossfire, a Marine from the 1st FT went down, seriously wounded, but the Marines were definitely giving more than they were getting.

 

 

 

 

 

The Taliban cell leader ran up behind one of the buildings with 6 of his henchmen and prepared to rush into the complex and seize the commanding position that the rooftop would offer.

 

 

 

1st FT pinned down the reinforcements from the north yet again, while 2nd FT eliminated the threat in the building to their immediate front, though they took a serious casualty in the process. Suddenly the cell leader and his 6 jihadists, rushed into the building on the left flank. Distracted by the Taliban to the north, the 1st FT failed to do anything against the freshly visible threat. A hail of gunfire struck the 1st FT’s position, and within seconds every Marine had been hit, two seriously. Hearing his intercom squawk with the news that his Marines were taking heavy casualties, Lt. Hicks got fed up with the situation and called for the Cobra. Responding promptly with a vicious gun run, the cobra pinned or wounded most of the Taliban.

With more than half his force down, and realizing that it wouldn’t be long before the cobra game back, the cell leader sounded the call for retreat, and the few remaining Taliban slipped back into the hills.

AFTER ACTION:

A fun game, that probably would have gone differently if the Taliban had rolled better. The helicopter certainly helped seal the deal for the Marines, but I’m not sure it was necessary, as they were pretty much holding their own against superior numbers (I had both sides rated the same, giving the Taliban the benefit of the doubt). I think a better tactic for the Taliban would have been to bring the scattered groups together sooner, and close assault the Marines.

As for the Marines, they should have stayed together, and pushed to secure one of the buildings immediately. Those poppy fields simply weren’t providing the necessary cover, and it was luck that saved them, not tactics. Lt. Hicks needs to pull his head out of his ass in the future.

 

 

All in all a good game, and I do really enjoy the rules, I just haven’t gotten to know them well enough to develop strategies and tactics yet, though I’m sure this will come in time. And now, back to painting, as I strive to be productive before I leave.

28mm Saxon Fyrd (Wargames Factory)

My Dark Age project continues as I progressively work my way through painting around 200 Viking and Saxon warriors. I was unhappy with my Old Glory Saxon Fyrd, so I ended up ordering around 96 plastic Saxons from Wargames Factory, and I must say they are some lovely miniatures! I’ve been speed painting in order to get as much done as possible so I haven’t painted their eyes or highlighted the hair and beards yet, but since I was snapping pictures today I thought I’d take a few of the Saxons. These are just the WF Saxons, I left the OG chaps out of the picture.

They haven’t come out too bad, and since they’re rank and file troops that will eventually be part of a horde I’m not too worried about them. As far as the actual miniatures go it is a great set with an endless number of options which makes your force extremely unique. I eagerly await the future releases from this great company!

10mm Thirty Years War Swedes

It’s getting down to the wire, I leave for The Basic School in Quantico, VA in two and a half weeks and I’m still madly working to try and get my Thirty Years War projects playable. I’ve got a Protestant Saxon regiment on my painting table, but in the mean time I snapped pictures of the 4 Swedish regiments of foot, and a horse regiment I had painted up. I’m also toying with some new photography techniques so we’ll see how this goes.

First off is a picture of the Swedish regiments… under Father Tilly rules these world normally only be 12 infantry figures a unit, now represented by 30. I went with the blue and yellow brigades to start off, and made them fairly uniform since they were a mainstay unit.

First up is the Blue brigade… haven’t decided which flag to paint on the second regiment yet.

To point out that this is the Yellow Brigade kind of seems to be a statement of the obvious. I attempted to blackline the flag of the first regiment, but it just made it look like I hadn’t fully painted it so I’m going to repaint the banners.

 

To be completely honest I am not very happy with this first regiment of horse… Overall the painting kinda feels sloppy to me, and I’m not entirely sure if it’s just that the castings are rather rough, or my technique needs to be refined…

15mm WWII Marines

One of those side projects that has slowly grown is my 15mm WWII Pacific (and Korean War) stuff. Initially a plan to buy a company of marines, I now have about a battalion or so per side of unpainted lead plus a lot of support as well. Since it was a lazy Sunday afternoon and I had the camera out I snapped some pictures of my 15mm Marines to throw up here.

10mm ACW Union Infantry

While going to school at the Citadel I took a class on the American Civil War (a period dear to my heart and my first wargaming period) with my best friend Andrew. After three classes we decided to paint up two armies, and went with 10mm because it was cheap… sadly the project never really got off the ground, but I did get a few regiments painted, and photographed them today to show them off. If anyone is interested in trading some 28mm plastic ACW infantry for these and some other units I have let me know.

20mm (1/72) North Koreans

As an update, I’ve based and finished up a bunch of my Imex 1/72 North Koreans for the Korean war, so here are a few photos.

10mm Thirty Years War Catholics

Any of you that have gamed with me at some point, or read my forum posts across the various wargaming sites, have probably heard of my desire to game the TYW. Initial plans were to add to my 28mm Renaissance armies with some more Old Glory miniatures, but I just wasn’t too happy with the appearance of a unit of 8 pike-men flanked by 12 musketeers. After thinking about it and toying with the idea for over a year I took the plunge and bought some (a couple thousand) 10mm miniatures from Old Glory. I’ve painted three Tercios, and am quite happy so far, and the armies have only begun!

Pictured here are the three tercios, one Bavarian and two Imperialist. While I doubt the actual soldiers of the TYW had anything near the uniformity seen here (I tried to give each Tercio and overall visible color), I like the unity each formation has.

 

The miniatures are based with plans to use them for Father Tilly or Warfare in the Age of Discovery with each base of ten 10mm miniatures in place of four 15mm. Suddenly my Tercios go from being 24 figure units to 60 figure units… and I think they look pretty good.

20mm Force on Force USMC (Afghanistan)

One of my first 20mm forces was a platoon of US Marines for Afghanistan. While I haven’t completed the entire platoon yet, I have finished two squads, and wanted to post them and show them off a little bit. Painted in desert MARPAT camo, these are 20mm Liberation miniatures, and all very nice sculpts!

                                                             

28mm Ancients: Roman Legionaries

One of the big issues with being a wargamer while a history major is that on a regular basis I listen to accounts of different interesting wars, campaigns, and military forces. I then find myself wandering back to the barracks to see what miniatures are available. Well this semester saw me in a class on the Romans, and I made it a whole three weeks before I wanted to order some legionaries and barbarians. I talked my classmate Andrew (he’s normally a WWII tread-head with a soft-spot for Panzers) into joining me in my descent into ancients (It wasn’t too hard… he’s doing ancient Germans under the pretense that they’re the predecessors of the Wehrmacht haha). We each ordered a box of Ancients, and I got the Romans. I’ve only painted five, but they turned out well so I thought I’d upload them.

Force on Force: 20mm Korean War (WIP 1)

During my second or third FoF game with my friend Pat back in Montana, he made an offhanded comment in regards to how the rules would make for a good set to play the Korean War with. I have painted up a lot of 15mm Marines and Chinese, but for FoF I’ve really liked my 20mm moderns. With the upcoming release of HBO’s The Pacific I began to think about painting 20mm marines, and the Imex Korean War box sets appealed to me as a cheap and easy way to get communist forces done. Around the time I found several diecast 1/72 T35/85’s for $7 bucks a piece I decided that I’d at least make a small foray into 20mm Korean War gaming. As a result I’ve been doing some painting:

 

These are Fantassin miniatures WWII Pacific Marines. I wanted my Marines to be suitable for either Korea or WWII, and I was especially drawn to the extra equipment on these miniatures. I bought the Boxed set and then an additional six riflemen, and I’ve been pretty impressed with the miniatures. The helmet covers have turned out especially well.

Up next are some communists, miniatures from Imex’s Korean War Chinese boxed set. I was initially planning to do North Koreans instead, but a sale of $5.00 for a box of 50 Chinese changed my mind, and I grabbed two boxes. They’ve painted up decently, though the faces have been a pain in the ass, and I’m still not that happy with them, but that’s one of the disadvantages of plastics.

Finally, here are the T34/85’s I picked up (Forces of Valor models). I’ll be repainting them so that they’re more generic communist tanks with just a red star (because I have a sneaking suspicion 20mm WWII Russians may be in my future), and I may remove one of the tank commanders if I can get the hatch to close. From what I’ve read the Chinese never had armor, but the NKPA did, so I’m going to assume that perhaps the Chinese got a little support for the time being and at $7.00 a vehicle they were hard to pass up.

Now to get everything painted.

28mm Viking Progress

After a long absence due to a lack of camera and the minor inconvenience that college life presents, I’m finally getting another post up here. Near the end of last semester I ordered some 28mm Vikings from Old Glory 25s intending to use them with LOTRs rules variants. I painted about six and burnt out, but this semester I found some more motivation, and got 24 done in the first half of the semester.