Call to Arms preperation- Pooch's Taliban Army List

Time has almost run out on the Insurgent painting competition, last chance to get your entries in!

Yesterday I posted up my plans for my Australian force for the first Skirmish Sangin Tournament at Call to Arms in just two weeks time.

For the tournament, you have to provide both an ISAF and a Taliban force, to game over the weekend. With my ISAF sorted, I need to sort out my Taliban list.

I find making a Taliban list a lot harder than making an ISAF force- basically because an ISAF force writes itself! With strict fire team organisations, high points costs and limited options, the 1000 point lists all have a similar base.

Not so for Taliban. The only impositions Colin put on me were:

- 1000 points
- No off table assets

All in all, pretty darn flexible!

Colin also sent out the forthcoming Taliban ORBAT to the competitors (released very soon in Despatches II), but I have decided to keep my force simple and from the main rule book. Don't worry, I am sure during the reports of the tournament some snippets of what is in the forthcoming ORBAT will be revealed!

I decided to give myself one more rule- that I am not going to include any IEDs or Booby Traps. Mainly because last time I had a game with Colin, he told me a Taliban force needed them to win. Wanting to prove Colin wrong and because I am an argumentative sod, they are out.

After all of my self imposed restrictions, what does that leave me with? Well, lots actually. When making a Taliban force, I like a mix of qualities, and a mix of cool upgraded guys, as well as having some novices with AKs (who can be scarily effective, as Craig H found out!).

But the first step I need an inspirational leader for the force.

I have opted for a Veteran, with an AK and the Warrior Imam upgrade package.

The other Taliban upgrade package I will use in the force is the Sword of Allah, giving a massive bonus to rifle skill to one of my fighters. I will put this on a veteran armed with a Sniper Rifle. Hopefully I will roll a high BODY rating, giving him a very high Rifle skill, combined with a 4d10 damage weapon will help me punch through the ISAF Body Armour!

Next, I will add some heavy weapons in the form of two Average Taliban with RPG's. No Taliban force would ever leave home without an RPG or two, they are just so darn effective! With 6d10 damage if it hits, 1 d10 damage if it hits near you, the RPG is one of the great levellers that the Taliban have against the ISAF. After adding another Average Taliban, this time with a PKM, it will give me another guy firing with a 4d10 damage weapon.

Not wanting to have lots and lots of heavy weapons, it was time to bulk out the force with some normal Taliban with the good ol' AK. 1 Veteran, 2 Average and 5 Novices will fit the bill nicely!. While you might look at the humble AK you may think that it will only have a limited effect (2d10 damage against 1d10+4 body armour) especially in the hands of a novice with a rifle skill ranging between 32% and 50%. But, this is a dice game, and having a lot of AKs will have a much greater effect. They might not all the time, but sometimes, they will! (That's right. 50% of the time, they work everytime....)

The last thing I am going to add to the list is a technical. The technical should give my Taliban a mobile firebase, capable of zooming around and causing mayhem with the heavy machine gun mounted on the back. Either that, or it will get slotted by a Javelin or AT-4 before it gets an opportunity to do anything. Either way, it is going to be entertaining! The technical is also a good opportunity for me to finish a piece of modelling I started a while ago, converting up one of the Airfix Landrovers into a Taliban technical. I am going to put a .50 cal HMG on the back, mainly because that is the weapon I have spare!

Now, I eluded to yesterday how much painting I had left to do on my Australians. Now, if I was intelligent, I would use my already painted Empress Miniatures Taliban. But given I am clearly not intelligent person, I have decided that this is a good opportunity to get my Eureka Miniatures Taliban painted.

So, this is where they are at:

Yep, definitely ready to go

Plus I haven't built the technical fully yet.

Hopefully tomorrow I will have an update with some painting. Right, enough blogging, now I really have to paint!

Pooch

Call to Arms preperation- Pooch's ISAF Army List

DON'T FORGET TO SEND US PICTURES OF YOUR INSURGENTS FOR A CHANCE TO WIN A SET OF OUR BRAND NEW TALIBAN MINIATURES! ENTRIES CLOSE VERY SOON.......

The first Skirmish Sangin tournament is only a few weeks away at Call to Arms in Wellington, New Zealand. I managed to win the rock/paper/scissors competition between the three writers, and so get the opportunity to play, while the other two are being the generals for the ISAF and Taliban sides and have to organise the whole thing, while I just get to have fun playing games (suckers).

In keeping with my traditional style with tournaments, I have only organised myself two weeks from the start. Having now sent my entry, the first port of call is making a list.

Deciding on which ISAF force to take was difficult, too many cool ideas, too many cool lists, Royal Marine Commandos, Afghan National Police, SAS, Kiwis, DEVGRU, Parajumpers..... But in the end, I have opted to bring my Australians. It will be a good wee kick to get them done, the Empress models have been sitting half done on my table for a while, so getting them finished will be a double bonus.

An Australian armed with an HK417 with some locals in the Urzgan province

This is what I plan to bring for my 1000 point list....

Veteran- F88,1 Grenade
Average- F88 with UGL, 1 Grenade
Average- Minimi, 1 Grenade
Veteran- HK417, 1 Grenade

Veteran- F88, 1 Grenade
Average- F88, 1 Grenade
Average- Minimi, 1 Grenade
Veteran- HK417, 1 Grenade

Veteran 2-man Javelin Team

So two standard fire teams, and support from a Javelin team. With a mix of Veteran and Average soldiers this would represent an Auzzie force towards the end of their deployment, supported by the Javelin to do some serious compound clearing! To make it easy on myself to remember, I gave everyone a grenade, otherwise I would very quickly get confused as to who had thrown what.

The HK417 is a Designated Marksman Rifle, so I will use the stats for the Light Support Weapon (LSW) found in Despatches I, doing 3d10 damage at a range of 600m (300").

And with that, I have a list.

But how ready are they to go? Er... Let's just say they aren't painted.

The two fireteams have got most of their camo done, the Javelin team is undercoated. All of them need a fair bit more work done. So I had better get cracking! Tomorrow, I will show my plans for a Taliban list, and hopefully will have done some painting on these Australians....

Pooch

Insurgents Competition ending soon!

Entries have been rolling in for our Taliban competition, both in 20 and 28mm and from a variety of manufacturers.

We have been really impressed with what we have received, so keep them coming in!

You have until the end of the month to get your pictures in to us. All you need to do is to send us a picture of your painted insurgent models, then we will collate them all and then get them put up on the Skirmish Sangin blog. We will be choosing our winners at random too, so make sure you get your pictures to us!

All the details you need are here, so get your entries in!

Chris

The Germans side of the battle of the Arms Cache

As promised, here are Craig H's images from the game we had last week.

Below: So this is what it looked like from the german edge of the table, crops and compounds everywhere.

Below: The early German moves were to secure the first compound and get their Marksmen on the roof, ably supported by his team members as they secured the first building.

Below: The marksman scanned looking for  the enemy but failed his spot roll. Unfortunately he was too mush of a target and was killed with a RPG round from the Taliban in the corn/poppy field

BELOW: In the meantime the Taliban Olympic sprint champion had crossed 36" of terrain to move into hand to hand combat with the German NCO. A vicious fight ensued that went on for a while.

BELOW: On the opposite side of the table the Germans were gaining ground, fast moving toward the second building, Each man covering the other.

BELOW: Unfortunately one German was a little too eager and was hit, his team mate quickly running up to administer first aid, rolls a 00 a fumble, so he actually made the wound worse and the screaming German now made everybody in his team take Morale rolls.... they made them as they are made of stern stuff.

BELOW: In the middle of the table, the more cautious Germans used all available cover to move towards the enemy.

Unfortunately that's all the images we have, but the Germans did well for over 3/4 of the battle when eventually their casualties began to tell, as they moved men to the rear for CASEVAC. It was a narrow victory for the Taliban.

More on Historicon

Here are a few pictures from Historicon, now its all over I think Chris will be having a few days rest but thought you would like to see what went on.

Above Chris working hard to demo games to people, below more eye candy of the table

The stand in all its glory

Game last night

Last night as part of the preparation for the Wellington Warlords - Call to Arms narrative competition Chris, Craig H and I had a game of..... yes you have guessed it Skirmish Sangin.

Craig H fielded his Germans, a group of hardened Bundeswehr troops on a mission. While I sneakily prepared the Taliban for Chris to play.

Having promised Craig, the Taliban would cheat and take a gun to knife fight, Craig came ready to do battle. The terrain looked like this:

The scenario was:

ISAF acting on Information has been received and confirmed by ICOMS chatter that the Taliban in the village of Musa-musa has hid an arms cache. ISAF decides as to launch a raid against Musa-musa, knowing that any raid carried out over land will result in the Cache being moved before they can close the answer is to chopper a squad into Musa-Musa to find and hold the cache until vehicle assistance can arrive on the scene.

The Taliban in the mean time seeing the Mosquito (Pashtun slang for Helicopter) race back to protect their cache.

Basically a meeting engagement with a difference.

Now I only have Pooch's pics at the mo and as he played Taliban we only have the Taliban side of the story.

Below: The game started with the Taliban sprint champion of the world piling across the board and running through the tall poppy field, I can almost hear his giggling as he ran with his RPG into the cornfield closely followed by a few others. This guy later, went on to kill the German sniper with his RPG.

 Below: Other Taliban raced for the high ground with their heavy weapons (PKM)

Below: The above shows the concerted effort to move up by the Taliban. It was a running counter bonaza

Below: The best shot of the game came from a running German, he spotted and fired while running, for a successful hit. Scratch one T.

Taliban reinforce the high ground.

Below: Towards the end of the game the Taliban bring out their novices knowing full well that only numbers will count.

Hopefully more pics to follow when Craig H sends me his pics which I presume will tell Germans side of the story.

So in the end it was a small victory for the Taliban, although the smaller german force really held there own right to the end.

Sneak peak at the Historicon Demo board

Chris from Phalanx Consortium our USA distributor is just about ready to roll to Historicon and posted us this sneak peak of his demo board, and this is just half of it, he is keeping us in suspense about the other half.

It looks fantastic, the detail is out of this world and I bet it looks even better in the flesh, I so wish I was going, I am absolutely sure its going to be a real hoot. So if your one of the lucky ones going don't forget to rock up and have a chat with Chris and even play the demo on that beautiful table.

He is going to have all of our goodies for sale, so it will be a great place to stock up on books and figures etc.

Over the next few days he is going to be sending us some pics of the con, so we will post them up as we get them.

Taliban available now, and a Competition!

Our gorgeous new Taliban Painted by Craig Watterson

We promised that our Taliban were not too far away, and they are ready NOW!

All you need to do is head to our good friend Empress Miniatures website or our own skirmishsangin.com, and pick yourself up a set (only available in the UK at present but soon to be available in the USA). They are also stocking our range of Kiwis/Auzzies, so you can pick yourself up some of them too!

To commemorate our first set of 4 Taliban, we thought it time for a competition...

SHOW US YOUR INSURGENTS!

We don't show enough pictures of painted Taliban miniatures on this blog, so with the release of our Taliban miniatures, it is time we corrected that!

What do you need to do?
Simple, send us a picture of a single figure, group or vehicle from your Taliban force- any manufacturer welcome! Once we have received the entries, we will collate them all and post pictures up on our blog of the entries. Winners will be chosen at random from our entrants, all of the winners will be sent a free set of our first four Taliban!

Where do I need to send the pictures?
You need to send them to me, chris@skirmishsangin.com

How long have I got?
Entries need to be received by the 31st July. Plenty of time to get something painted!

Now to tantalise you even more, below are the first of the next set wave of Taliban, these will soon to be in production.

And there are more than that on the way!

Get painting!

Pooch

The Phalanx Consortium is bringing Skirmish Sangin to Historicon!

Chris from Phalanx has this to say...

The Phalanx Consortium will be at Historicon 2014 (July 17-20th). We'll be at Booth 110 in the Exhibitor’s Hall and will be featuring Skirmish Sangin Modern Warfare Rules, who we are now the exclusive distributors for in the USA and Canada.

We’ll be running demos at our booth during hall hours. We’ll also have copies of Skirmish Sangin and Sangin Despatches No.1 and the full range of Modern Aussie/Kiwi 28mm figure range available for sale at the booth. So now is the perfect time to build up those fire teams for your battles in Afghanistan and other modern theatres.

In addition to those great products we will be sneak previewing future releases from Radio Dishdash both on the supplement and figures side.

So please drop by and say, “Hello!”, and pick up a copy because in the words of one reviewer, “If you want a modern-period skirmish game, it is worth picking up a copy. You will not be disappointed …” – Paul Burkin – Wargames Soldiers & Strategy (Issue 66).

See you there!

Dougie- Renedra 1/56th scale 28mm Mud Brick House

I know that Colin wasn't the only one drooling over the Renedra Mud Brick Houses. How do I know that? Because Dougie has sent through some lovely pictures of his finished version. There are some more pictures up already on his blog (here) be sure to check them out!

Haven’t done an update in a while due to work, however the good news is I started my pre-retirement leave on June 21st and I’m officially retired on 18th July, Woo Hoo!

My second PARA fireteam is progressing well but in the meantime thought I’d show what I’d done with Renedra’s new 28mm Mud Brick House, its fine for Afghanistan as well as other locales, injection moulded plastic and there’s also an accessory frame with domes, extra walls, a canopy and some useful pots and bowls!

Here’s a shot of the box with some of my other Salute purchases!

Is that an M-ATV I spy back there Dougie? If so, you should head to Queeg's site to see his ones....

Assembly takes a couple of minutes then greenstuff to fill the gaps, you can do this quite roughly as this adds to the ramshackle look of these buildings

I cut a 2mm MDF base and primed it grey

Painted and based using my normal method of layering and washes, a distressed green door and a few tufts added.

I’ve ordered some detail items from Black Cat Bases here in the UK, farm implements and tools etc, but these haven’t arrived yet so in the meantime I’ve added a couple of pots and an AK!

A couple of close ups:

In theatre:

Next update will be the completion of my 2nd PARA fireteam then either some Eureka Talibs or a Javelin Team.
Dougie

Looking really good Dougie! Doesn't take much to convert a 20mm table of terrain into a 28mm table does it? And as for the Renedra houses, you have made it look really good, I just hope I can do the same on the set I am starting!