Some Big Presentation Changes!

So me and AMROTH (Daniel McCoy) have been discussing things off-line and he's done a kind of Pilot of a Force List just like his excellent Israeli 6 Day war stuff.

As you can see, Dan has taken what I have done and built on it considerably.

This is experimental, it's a pilot, unofficial and it's available here for a look, so you can critique and make suggestions.

CLICK HERE TO HAVE A LOOK

So why aren't we doing this to everything right now, right this minute!!

COST

In doing much of this, Dan is incurring cost as we don't want to use Copyrighted pictures and leave ourselves exposed legally so he is doing new, original art work.

I give my time for free, through choice as this is something I believe in and want to do. Dan is a busy man, and as a Graphic Artist time is money, even if it isn't normal full cost even a minimal amount is a bit of recompense for the investment in time he gives to the benefit of the community, Something I have asked him to do and don't mind paying for myself.

SO HOW CAN YOU HELP

I will not charge money for this, it's immoral and legally wrong as this is based on Battlefronts Flames of War Rules and their Intellectual Property, this is a homebrew rules set for the community. I will not profit from this project and don't want to, other than the feel good factor of delivering something of high quality to the community.

So if you want to help you can...

1. You could also make a donation if you see fit, my details on PAYPAL are the same. (mwnciboo@gmail.com).

2. Spread this site around the web and get some more elements out there. There are some area's of the internet and communities I am unknown in, especially things like 15mm Sci-Fi and I think the content I provide is useful to those who may want to buy modern vehicles.

Overtime, we will bring the Force Books and Rule Book (Hopefully) upto the standard piloted above.

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)

Thoughts and Feedback

I'm getting alot of great feedback and some even more amazing suggest force lists coming back at me for other forces which are formatted and well thought through - . There is always space for tweaking and improvement, but more significantly expansion. 

My intention is to change the Way I am doing this and to follow a little more of the "Intel Brief" type methodology. By using the Rules as they are but releasing PDF books and with all the forces in for a Theatre.  So with this in mind here is how I am breaking it down.

1. Germany (e.g what I have so far in the single book) - Stopping the Red Tide.

2. Scandinavia (e.g. USMC, UK Marines, Norway vs Sweden / Finland vs WARPAC)

3. Iceland / Greenland (US, UK, Iceland, Danes vs Soviets)

4. Alpine (e.g Austria , Switzerland, France Italy vs WARPAC)

Anyone who can help with Orbats for 2,3,4 based on 1986 please get in touch. 

Special thanks so far goes to :- 

Vander, Strelkovaya, MaahisKuningas, KlashnikovMarine, Robert Kelly,

Many of you are helping behind the scenes and credits will be given in the Final documents!

ZVESDA now doing stuff for Cold War in Plastic?

I came across a thread on Dakkadakka.com.  and it looks like this stuff is going to be launched this year.

http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/506923.page

This will be great for 15mm (1/100) and 20mm (1/72) Gamers across the country.

 Available here apparently.

http://models2u.co.uk/Shop/contents/en-uk/d2121.html

So what do you all make of it? I'm pretty pleased. 

HELP ME, HELP YOU!

RULES & NATO LISTS Back up - WARPAC LIST to go live today

I'm getting alot of useful feedback from the community and I need this to refine the lists and Orbats/ TO&E to be more realistic or closer to the real forces.

If you have a suggestion please fire it over to my e-mail mwnciboo@gmail.com

I cannot guarantee it will be incorporated, because there are many different elements I am juggling but about 70% of suggestions do make it in there. Things to be aware of :-

1. I won't do anything other than 100pts or multiples thereof, the reason is that it makes lists restrictive if I have 50pts here and there and this means a massive overhaul of all points. Keep it Stupidly Simple (KISS) principle is inforce so sometimes points aren't perfect and a degree of compromise is needed. 

2. Significant mechanics changes are a no-go for now. Things like Overwatch are a good idea, but it will take me far too long to sort it out, write it, test it and Balance it and it diverges from the FOW Ruleset too far (How would Overwatch affect Eyes & Ears, Recce units etc). I may decide to change this in the future. 

3. Sometimes I have to say no, not because I don't like it, I might love the idea but the implicit workload might be far too large or not be suitable for Cold War Mechanised Battle in 15mm. If I was ever to write my own Ruleset from Scratch many of these ideas maybe relevant. 

4. First hand experience from those who were there is my gold dust - So if you want to share how you did things back in the day, let me know, better to hear from the horses mouth than from Crusty Historian Arm Chair Generals who usually get the big picture right, but never get down in the weeds. 

NATO LISTS RELEASED 27 YEARS TO THE DAY THE CAMPAIGN KICKED OFF!!!!

Finally after hours and hours of effort over the last 5 months I've got the NATO Lists to a point where I am happy with them. 27 YEARS LATE by the Narrative of the Campaign......For those of you who missed it - Here is the start of the fluff.

The Narrative of the Campaign

I am aiming to get the WARPAC ones proof read tomorrow but with everything when ever an error comes up it can take me ages to go back to the original, check it, correct it, PDF it, and then re-integrate into the lists. 

Thanks for the support, in the Last few months, it's kept me on track despite everything else in my life going on. 

Also if anyone wants to make donation feel free, but these rules are free to download and do what you like with just please give me a bit of credit because this is like 200hrs plus work. 

Mike  (mwnciboo)

(Donations to mwnciboo@gmail.com via Paypal  XD ).

SSVC 

I've just been pointed in the direction of some brilliant SSVC video's on Youtube via COLDWARGAMER's Blog. This stuff is so mesmerizing to someone like me who is fascinated by this period.

LINK TO YOUTUBE VIDEOS

Right, I'm off to drink some whiskey and enjoy Wales kicking the crap out of Ireland tomorrow in the Rugby!

LISTS:-

Working on the lists currently to get them upto standard. The following template will be what I use throughout. 

It still needs tidying up, and I'm trying to stitch together 8 PDF lists into one Volume. There will be two volumes one NATO and other WARPAC, although I may yet make just one super-list volume.

Once done I will put them on the Blog and allow everyone to grab them. The amount of hours needed to get this done is pretty Staggering. Looking to get this done over the weekend...

Version 2 of my Custom rules

Now available to anyone who wants it. Just click on the big book to the right. 

To play you will need a Copy of the Flames of War v3 Rule book and a Copy of Tropic Lightning Rule book if you want to use any Helicopters. 

Any feedback or suggestions send me an e-mail to mwnciboo@gmail.com

ARMY LIST'S for NATO and WARPAC will hit the streets in the next few days. Have fun....

Appeal for help! 

I have been searching books and the internet trying to find a definitive reference for British Tank Markings in the mid 1980's specifically 1986. 

Thus far I have got OSPREY ELITE 026 - TANK WAR - Central Front NATO vs WARPAC

It's a Great book, and I can recommend this to any Cold War Era Wargamer, most of it is Black and White but the central 12 pages have colour prints of Vehicles in various Camouflage and colour schemes.

ARMOURED ACORN Website http://www.armouredacorn.com/as reference Sites.

I would like to know the Squadron and Platoon marking systems for the Royal Tank Regiment at this time. It's essential so I can use the TL-MODELBAU Decals I've got effectively on the British Vehicles and finish them properly. 

Any help would be appreciated!!!