DICE-DEVILS do it again!

A fantastic battle report from everyone's favourite Canadian Flames of War Group!

Just look at the battlefield, it's great! A rail-head, some small German villages, some Bundeswehr units holding out, with a huge amount of Soviet Armour pouring forth.

I am blown away by the contribution of these guys to this project, and also their support and on going suggestions.

Marders moving in to Position to use their MILAN's!

When I'm a bit fed up of it, I take stock, have a look at what these guys are doing and a couple of the other sites out there and I feel re-energised to carry on.

I would recommend you go to their site and have a look at the videos.....Their FOW WWII stuff is also a great read!

http://www.dicedevils.com/

BATTLEFRONT Canadians?

I recently got an update of some Force Expansion for Colonel Kelly's CMBG.

(Looks like a great Sunny Day in Canada - Cannot imagine anywhere more pleasant on a fair weather day!)

Once again we see the generous extra weapons on the BF M113's being put to excellent use.

He is working on his Infantry currently.  His gaming group is well worth a look, and has lots of fantastic FOW orientated content.

http://www.dicedevils.com/2013/08/bought-myself-two-boxes-of-battlefront.html

GENEROSITY

I've been quite surprised at the amount of e-mails and donations made, it's very humbling, and it will all be sent to Dan to help him with the Artwork side.

I'll be keeping the details of those who have donated and I think I will do something significant as a genuine Thank You from me, and also as bit of a Community based back and forth.

INTRODUCING 

It's been quite humbling to see people get involved in the things I've been doing on this blog. I really like the idea of others building on what I have done and taking it in different directions. It gives me an enormous sense of gratification to see others groups forming, using modified rules and fighting out Cold War Scenario's.   I don't own this, I merely rolled a snowball down a mountain and it seems to be gaining momentum all of it's own.

One such Group is based in Canada.....But I'll let them speak for themselves. I hope you all enjoy this as much as I did.

RKELLY's HEROES

There is a group of gamers here in Ottawa, the capital of Canada who have formed a group called the Dice Devils (www.dicedevils.com) . Most of us started off in Warhammer 40K, but now we are mainly interested in Flames of War. We also have a friendly rivalry with the Petawawa Miniature Soldiers club, located about two hours away from us ( https://sites.google.com/site/petminisoldiers/). Its located near one of our larger army bases and most of the members are either serving soldiers or retried military. I myself, spent 18 years in the Canadian Army reserves (artillery) and I’ve had a tour of Bosnia and one in Afghanistan.



A couple of months ago, one of our founding members, Dennis (aka Matt Varnish) said we should get into the Cold War. In 1986, Dennis lived in Baden, Germany when his dad was in the RCAF and fondly remembers seeing all the military vehicles and aircraft. Knowing that I like to do Canadian armies (even my 40K armies are based on the modern Canadian army) Dennis told me that I should do Canadians, knowing that he’d have me hooked. We then recruited Mark, (aka Sirrand) who is very slowly doing up a German/Danish unit. Mark is a lifelong civilian who’s still trying to get people to play colonials with him.



Dennis then offered to be the hated Soviets and we all sent in a very heavy order to QRF.



So, we ordered all this metal, but didn’t know what ruleset we were going to use. In doing some searches we came across Mike’s excellent site and we became intrigued. We already play FOW and this would make the transition easier, plus it would be easier to recruit new players from within our group. I’ve been helping him with his Canadian lists and as we are getting close to having our models painted we should start playing shortly. We’ll ensure that we send Mike a copy of our first battle report.

Rob (aka RKelly)

WINDS OF CHANGE:-

I'm now convinced after to talking to Piers and a few others online and doing some play testing that Force on Force is not a good ruleset for Battlegroup / Combat team/ Company level engagements. The final things that tipped the balance was the fact that 4 players have said if it was based on Flames of War or a modification they would be happier because they don't want to learn another ruleset. 

So I have started to write my own modification of the rules. The points lists remain extant. 

• Based on FOW v3 with modifications for Range (infinite range on anything GPMG and above because lets be honest a 6 x 4 board in 15mm is point blank).
• Extra special rules such as Fire Control Computers (negats the +1 for over 16" away).
• New HQ Rules - NATO Unbroken chain of Command killing a CO is less of an ENDEX.
• New Small Arms Rules.
• New Artillery Mechanics.
• New Observer Rules to represent more sophisticated radio command nets.
• New Vehicle and ATGM stats. 

A very rough "Work in progress rules" has been circulated to get some feed back as I will begin playtesting this week.

I have 3 more players :-

1. A Polish Army (possibly Polish Guards Army), falls nicely into the Campaign structure.
2. A USMC Force (Tanks, AAV7 & Infantry + AH-1 Cobra) I intend as per SACEURS Signal to land the USMC Force in Denmark and they can drive South towards HAMBURG. 
3. A US Army Player using older Equipment from Vietnam Era with a few additions, I will probably say he is a National Guard formation about to flown Home after taking part in REFORGER and place him firmly in CENTAG.

TERRAIN AND MARKERS

One more Terrain piece nearly done...Need to base it on Fibreboard and then flock it... I was tempted to spray it metallic, wash it and dust it in ochre weathering powder.

I am after some realistic Artillery strike markers most are ridiculously comic in nature, and don't capture how they work... I essentially want in 15mm maybe cast in Resin or plastic that I can paint and use to show artillery strikes, Air-strikes/missile strikes or cannon strafing runs.

 Like this, I wonder if I could make this? I would need between 8 and 12 of them, any idea's anyone?

RUSTY'S CORNER

Again Colonel Rusty continues to crank out the beautiful miniatures which are rapidly becoming his trademark. He did say these are temporary Bases. Obviously this is an Observer Helicopter hence OH-58 KIOWA. Lovely stuff...

Soviet Motor Rifle out of Spray shop

Painting WIP 

Okay inspired by COLDWARGAMER and TACOBAT, I've smashed through the old Motor-Rifle Company. They have been primed Black and then Airbrushed Vallejo Reflective Green, washed in my own Wash mixture (1:8 Black Acrylic to Water with a few drops of Vallejo Glaze Medium). The Blue on the Vision blocks is a nod & a wink to TACOBAT's style.

Now I need to drybrush, weather and put on Soviet Decals.

Based on the Orbat below:-

I will be doing these FO Scale ORBAT's just so everyone is clear how the force will work.

Once I get 2 more BMP's I will re-organise the force into 3 Platoons of 3 BMP's with a  BMP's as a Company Command Element like so :-

So I will have a full 1986 Motor Rifle Company, then I will add in a 122mm Battery to them and some AAA but all of this can be added £30 here and there. But I will have the core of a strong 2000 point force which can be added to in the future.

These will be "Gucci as" when finished and they will be my personal force, the BAOR is my "lend out Army", as once upon a time I imagined I would struggle to get opponents but as it has transpired this mini-project at our Wargaming Club has grown.

CANUCK UPDATE

Colonel Rusty has sent over some more pics of his forces preparing for Operations.

Beautiful and Badass at the same time....

I have also been able to have a look at "Oberst Fischer's Panzer Grenadiers" they are shaping up nicely, as are "Colonel Tempest's Cav" Pictures will follow as I am hounding them constantly for pics for this blog ! (Everybody loves pictures.)

Some Shots from a Test Game last week 

Some gratuitous BAOR war porn, although the scenery is somewhat "Northern France" soon to be changed to more of a German Plains look (cannot get the staff these days).

"COLONEL RUSTY'S BOYS"

A quick visual update of the CMBG being painted up by Rusty of "Hurry Up and Wait" Fame.

http://falklandsctg317.blogspot.co.uk/

I think you will all agree that these look Ace! This is an Infantry fire team and a GPMG/MAG of the Royal 22nd Regiment R22eR "Vandoos".

BRAVO ZULU.

I have to say these put my efforts with my British DPM to shame, time for me to man up and up my game as Rusty has raised the bar with the quality of these miniatures (even the little Canadian Flags in the Corners makes me Jealous....)

This project is rapidly snowballing, I'm pleased with it and working hard to keep it on track.

MOTOR RIFLE CONTINUES:-

Almost ready to paint my Motor Rifle units, still putting off the Infantry struggling to raise the enthusiasm to tackle 16 odd Stands of infantry including basing them and priming them....Hey ho, to borrow that wonderful British Military saying "Head down, arse up, just keep going".