Free Scenario 8 - Missile Hunt

Ok well this one took a while longer that it was supposed to... This was supposed to be September's free scenario but with illness in the team and trying to sort out our Kickstarter as well as both of us holding down full time jobs everything seems to be slowing down. But enough excuses we hear you say! So without further ado, here is the Missile Hunt Scenario.

DOWNLOAD HERE

Free Scenario No. 2 - Sniper Hunt

So here is the second of our free scenarios. This one features the US marines hunting a Taliban sniper. This is an ideal game for our new Taliban sniper figures armed with the Dragunov.

yes that's a merciless plug but how else are we going to sell them, if we don't write scenario's to sell specific figures and you have to admit its a great figure :-)

Anyway I digress The PDF can be downloaded here

USMC - Sniper Hunt Download PDF

Here are some screen shots so you can see what your getting for Gratis, Nada, Nix, Free.

 This should give you hours and hours of fun as you try and hunt down " The Mouse".

Posts from the Sangin Community- Matt's Marines

Now, back to our regularly scheduled programming!

I must apologise to all of those people who have been sending me images and blog links over the past few weeks. I have been more than a bit snowed under with my actual work (which sadly is not Sangin!). However, I will endeavor to get all of your hard work up here on the blog, and I am sorry this has taken so long.

Anyway, here we have another post from the community, showing off some of the excellent Empress US Marines and the Empress MRAP, painted up by Matt. He did them all in a single sitting, which is just making me feel far too easily distracted when I paint. Probably doesn't help that I am always painting 2 or 3 things at once....

Anyway, on to the pictures!

Keep sending through the cool things you have been working on, send them to chris@skirmishsangin.com.

Pooch

Adam- MARSOC Update

Adam has sent a whole host of pictures, along with his plans for what to do with his force. Additionally, he has provided some great MARSOC and Afghan Commando images.

Hi there, Adam here, back with an update finally.

I’ve got my awesome Eureka Afghan National Police minis and they look great. My initial plan is to take a couple of the guys with ‘Fidel’ (Actually called Ridgeway, and later patrol or Ranger) caps and turn them into berets. Mostly because Afghan Army Commandos look cooler! They could also use a few more random pouches and packs but I will green stuff them up. They will still have the Hungarian AMD’s, but I try to be less of a pedant these days. I’m not joking, really, I am trying! (What some may call an obsession for accuracy makes Adam our go to for firearms related questions. Which is probably not helping him be less of a pedant, but it gets our questions answered accurately!- Ed)

Thanks to Pooch I have a Ford Ranger to paint up like an ANA truck (Cheers mate!)

I plan on being able to field a force of three or four Marines and five or six ANA Commandos.

For my MARSOC operators, I can use some of my existing Marines, but I will certainly be taking the opportunity to give them a repaint with some Woodland Camo to match the ANA.

A full team is similar in size to an US Army Special Forces A team of twelve, and has similar training and capabilities. Lately they have mostly augmented SF on the Foreign Internal Defense mission in Afghanistan, training and mentoring ANA and ANP units. Like a lot of special operations forces they have used a lot of motorcycles and four wheel ATV’s to help with their tactical agility as well as hauling gear for long patrols.

One of my new minis is on an endure bike, with a headswap and woodland paintjob coming up.

Anyone interested in MARSOC should check out the upcoming Level Zero Heroes book and documentary. (which I really want a copy of!- Ed)

Next project will be a couple of ANP’s

Adam

Looking forward to seeing the beret equipped commandos! You have some great source material shots there- you are going to have to get out the greenstuff to make sure your marines have beards!

Colin - Marine Recon

Marine Recon

Well here is my first update:

USMC Force RECON

“The mission of Force RECON is to conduct amphibious reconnaissance, deep ground reconnaissance, surveillance, battle space shaping, and limited scale raids in support of the Marine Expeditionary Force (MEF), other Marine air-ground task forces, or a joint force.

US Marine Reconnaissance units are tasked with providing the commander of a larger force of Marines with information about his operational area. Their missions usually focus on specific information requirements, which due to their changing or unique nature, cannot be obtained by means other than putting a man on the ground to observe and report.

Recon Marines are, by nature, capable of independent action in support of the larger unit's mission.”

When starting to research anything, I used to hit the books and read everything I can get my hands on. Now I narrow my research first with Google and Wikipedia. Yes I know it’s sometimes unreliable but it’s a great start.

I then jump onto YouTube because there is nothing better than real footage.

So this is what I found from wiki:

“Historically, the Force Recon companies, detachments and platoons performed both deep reconnaissance and direct action (DA) operations. Some missions are now shared by the Marine Special Operations Teams (MSOT), due to the establishment of the U.S. Marine Special Operations Command (MARSOC) in 2006.”

Deep reconnaissance is where I want to go with these guys. 

Now our resident former marine tells me that the Boonie hats are out but I am not sure I can bring myself to go for the whole team wearing helmets. Especially as I like the Eureka team so much.

The majority of pics on Google still show the Boonie see example a.

 But there is no doubt Adam knows what he is talking about and I have found these:

 

 So figures wise I will be using Eureka’s Marines and I will just have to speak nicely to some of the guys here about some small alterations. I am sure I can persuade some one to help me.

So this is what I am after so far all from Eureka:

So that's a start, obviously more to come, it looks like RECON is popular they even make Actionman/GI Joe figures.

Semper Fi people.

Armies of Afghanistan- Brent (USMC)

Who am I?
My name is Brent and I’m better known as Queeg on a few modelling forums. My brother (little - in more ways than one) is Craig and he helped design the Sangin ruleset.

I model more than I game but I do enjoy thrashing my brother with my lucky dice on occasion. Armour is really my passion though and it’s the large part of what I build and paint on a daily basis for both ourselves and customers (see Craig, another shameless plug worked in lol). As such I think it’s up to me to bring some balance to all the footsloggers here and produce some of the really serious firepower utilised in the conflict, in this case a 1/48th M1A2 from Gasoline.

How many points is this you ask ….. well generally I’m not really a point guy (2000+ 4 crew, so at least 2200!- Ed) as I prefer to game around scenarios. Vehicles can be used either as traditional fire-support or as centerpoints in a larger story. They could be damaged by IED/mine attack and be in the process of being recovered for instance. Bogged, isolated or damaged vehicles would make an attractive target for the opposition whether it’s Insurgents, Taliban or regular forces.

One of the big AFV stories from the Iraqi war Operation Telic 1 was of a British Challenger 2 from the Royal Scots Dragoon Guards which when reversing away from enemy fire got stuck in a ditch throwing both of it’s tracks. It was subsequent estimated to have been struck by around 14 RPGs and a missile reported to be a MILAN. The crew fought off the attackers and survived shaken but unharmed when rescue and recovery forces finally arrived. Perfect background for a gaming scenario.

So for my games with my brother I intend to have a selection of armoured and light armoured vehicles available to choose from . . . . .

What Army am I playing?

Generally speaking I don’t play one army, although I tend favour British in all scales and periods. For the purposes of the Armies of Afghanistan series though I’m flying the American flag and specifically (with a favourable cross wind) the Marines . First up is the M1A2 Abrams to which later will be added a section of Marine HMMWVs (think Generation Kill for inspiration), maybe an M-ATV (Empress are releasing a tasty looking one soon) and I’d like to add some chopper support in the form of a Marine Cobra (Well we did decide 2000 points-ish.....-Ed).

I have also started work on a British vehicle based force for our own collection based around the new Airfix 1/48th Operation Herrick range, you can check out my (slow) progress if interested on my modelling blog here.

What am I getting with my starting funds?

The funds bank was broken on this one but thanks to Craig’s fiscal support to begin with I am getting the 1/48th M1A2 Abrams from Gasoline Models in France. There’s also a few additional goodies to add to it coming from various parts of the globe including a Blackdog stowage set from White Ensign Models and some crew from Propaganda Kompany, also in France but they’re being sourced from their E-Bay sales arm. Why get the bits from all over, partly because none of it is available in NZ but it’s also a test of online sales service for future purchases. I’ll be reporting in due course if it all arrives in good order and in one piece!

My loose plan is to depict a heavily used vehicle and use it as a chance to go to town with contrasts and weathering. My reference pic below is this tasty looking USMC vehicle pictured from the Iraqi conflict though current Afghanistan deployed vehicles have been upgrade with newer equipment.
Some of the upgrades applied to the Abrams include SEP (Systems Enhancement Programme) and TUSK (Tank Urban Survival Kit) which include the following components, a Thermal Imaging sight for the loader, CROWs remote weapons station for the tank commander, Armoured Gun shield for the loader, rear mounted Tank/Infantry telephone and an improved armour kit comprising reactive armour tiles and rear mounted slats. Recently DUKE anti IED jammers have also been fitted to the service fleet. Note I don’t intend to add all this stuff . . . . though I might . . . . add . . . . some . . . . .

Well that’s all for now apart from waiting for the bits to arrive. Feel free to comment on the build once I get going and ask any questions which I’ll be glad to try and answer (except the dumb ones you’re thinking up Craig!)

Brent
Aka Queeg

Armies of Afghanistan- Colin (USMC - Recon)

Who am I?
Well I am Colin Phillips one of the original authors of Skirmish Sangin. I am the designer, photographer, general dogs body and the guy who keeps Craig and Chris in check both in print and sometimes in real life… but not in a biblical way I leave that up to their wives (Let’s be fair, we a full time job- Ed).

I have been playing wargames and role-playing since I was 12, I am now 47 and before that I played with toy soldiers. I have been Army mad ever since I could remember.

Deep down I think I am still trying to play Donald Featherstone Skirmish Wargaming, I just updated it a bit along the way. I'm skirmish all the way, see my Facebook page skirmish wargaming.

What Army am I playing?
After much thinking and the fact that Ray stole the “cheese eating surrender monkeys” (AKA French Foreign Legion) that I love so much I have gone for the USMC Recon. Why? Well I brought a set originally from Eureka and love them but I didn’t do too much research and the paint job isn’t the best so this time I want to do it right.

What am I getting for my starting funds?
Eureka miniatures USMC Recon