Armies of Afghanistan- Alex McE (Qud)

Who are you?
I’m also Alex! I’m probably the relative newcomer to Sangin here and I find myself working with Colin, Craig and Pooch as their proofreader. Most of this work seems to be deleting unnecessary punctuation and hunting out the devils in the details! Modern warfare is a relatively new experience for me, other than some 6mm, and I find Sangin a nice balance between detail and relaxed and enjoyable play.

What army you are playing?
Asking me to be involved in this project was always going to involve some kind of fairly insane scheme and I had set my heart on some Italians. I really love playing Italians (Doctors say it is terminal- Ed). Sadly, the only manufacturer of modern Italians isn’t likely to be able to produce any until early next year! So I went for a new plan. I’ve had a dozen Empress Insurgents that I picked up last year to play as Iranian Qud for a scenario that I was proofing as a possible entry for Despatches 1. That’ all I’ll say on that score! (I think we might put it up on the blog here, but Alex has to paint some Qud first- Ed)

I primed them but thanks to the humidity or temperature in my basement over the winter the primer cracked badly on almost every flat surface. Here they are at time of writing:



One of my chief goals in picking an army is that it has to be thematically interesting. I don’t care if it’s any good but it has to sound cool and it has to look cool. So I’m going to be using a list that the lads are working on at the moment for Al-Qaeda. The Insurgents will be Foreign Fighters brought in by a local al-Qaeda leader to stiffen the combat ability and resolve of his $10 Taliban troops. Visually I’m looking forward to breaking out every kind of camo I can muster the skill to paint and I’m hoping to be able to share my experiences translating some of the more outlandish schemes I can find for these Foreign Fighters.

What are you getting with your starting funds?
I’ll be picking up some of the lovely Empress Taliban to provide me with the core of the force as well as a sweet, sweet model to be my al-Qaeda leader.

Armies of Afghanistan- Alex McC (NZ Army)

Who are you?

I’m Alex, and got involved with Skirmish Sangin after getting the PDF after I found the link through TMP. We had a few questions about the rules, and it all went downhill from there. I helped write the Canadian ORBAT based on my experiences (found in Despatches No 1- Ed). I’ve been gaming for years, and would prefer not to keep count, as it reminds me of all the unfinished projects…but modern, especially Afghanistan is my favourite.

What army you are playing?

Maybe it’s homage to the guys that wrote the rules, or just because I didn’t want to paint Multicam or Digital camo, but I’ve decided to go with New Zealand as my nationality for this project. Plus, who can say no to the lovely figures from Radio Dishdash!

I’ve done some digging around, and managed to confirm that there will be no digital camouflage, so I’m sold. It’s also a nice change from M4’s. I plan on going with proper rank and file boots-on-the-ground types, maybe with some off-board support. I haven’t quite figured everything out yet, but this will get me 2 full squads. With the release of Despatches 1, I think a Military Working Dog (MWD) team should be included and I am looking at some possible conversions to a few engineers/ATOs for dealing with those pesky things that go boom.

What are you getting with your starting funds?

I plan on getting the 3 other packs released in the line, since I got the first one the minute they were announced. Since my assets will mostly be off-board, I think I’m covered off for the 2000pt goal.

Armies of Afghanistan- Adam (MARSOC)

Who are you?
Hi I'm Adam from Panzerfaust Nostalgia, I've been gaming for ages and just recently wrote a couple articles that are included in the new Despatches 1 (He is Smitty - Ed).

What army are you playing?
As a former Marine I've been following the expansion of the Marine Corps into special operations command closely for over a decade. After the success of Det 1, (2003-6) in Afghanistan it was finally decided to join the party.

With the new Marine Special Operations Battalions taking on some traditional Army Special Forces missions including, "Foreign Internal Defense". Which is what the papers refer to as mentoring or training foreign militaries to help them defend themselves from insurgencies, ala Vietnam, Malaya, Philippines, Columbia and of course Afghanistan.

I have a few minis already that I have painted up as MARSOC so I just needed a few Afghans a couple hiluxes and maybe a motorcycle.
The ones I have for the Marines are Empress' excellent US special forces, either the light weapons or the fully armed up raiders.

For the motorcyclist I had to go with Eureka, they have a couple great ones to choose from. I'm keen on the one with no helmet for some impractical reason! (We are working through Motorcycle rules at present- Ed)

For the Afghani troops I decided to go with Eureka again and ordered six each of their Afghan National Police, with and without helmets. Now from what I've gathered the majority of the troops that MARSOC has trained and advised have been Afghan Army Commandos. However there isn't a good mini for them. So I'm just going to go with the fog of war and assume that these Marines are embedded with the Police.

This should give me the ability to run small skirmishes with a couple Marines and a fireteam or two of ANP. Or go with a full on raid or larger combat patrol of several Marines, a dumvee, a couple hiluxes and twelve cops.

Adam's sweet as Dumvee

What are you getting with your starting funds?
ANP and a motorcycle, both from Eureka Miniatures

Armies of Afghanistan- Ray (French Foreign Legion)

Who am I?
My name is Ray, I’m an expat Scotsman living in Wellington. I’ve been Wargaming for more years than I care to remember and have been playing Skirmish Sangin since being introduced to the system by Colin and Craig a year or so before it was published. The different approach to rules mechanics these guys had taken appealed to me and I have to say I haven’t been disappointed.
So far I’ve painted up a small British force and some Taliban to oppose them and have also been working on some terrain (some of which you will see in Despatches 1- Ed).

What Army am I playing?
Like most people with an interest in military history I’ve always been fascinated by the French Foreign Legion and the whole mystique surrounding them. This project therefore is a perfect opportunity to do a bit of research into them, fulfil a long time ambition and have some fun painting up a couple of units.
I have to say that, at this stage I don’t really know a great deal about the current structure or organisation of the Legion Etrangere but I intend to have some fun finding out.
I have read enough to know that I want to base my units on the 2eme Regiment Etranger de Parechutistes who were based in Afghanistan during 2010 and 2011 as part of operation “Altor”
And let’s face it, apart from anything else what’s cooler than Foreign Legion Paras! (I wonder how many readers have loudly disagreed with you- Ed)




What am I getting with my starting funds?
I want to start with the basics; initially I’ll be getting enough troops to do a couple of sections. Eureka do an excellent range of Foreign Legionnaires, so they are first on the shopping list Obviously I’ll need some support so after getting the basics out of the way I’ll be looking to add some of the excellent Gasoline vehicles including at least one of these babies!



La Legion Marche!

Armies of Afghanistan- Tom (NZSAS)

Who am I?
Hi I’m Tom and I am a Wargames Magpie (Buys all the shiny toys with no plans to ever use them-Ed). I have models and rules gathering at alarming rates (according to my wife at least). I have ecclectic interests in genres and when Skirmish Sangin was introduced to me I found yet another outlet for my need to collect cool models.
I enjoy many aspects of our hobby in particular I love creating terrain, although I am running out of storage space in my garage/gaming room- yes the cars are already parked outside! (and have been for as long as I have known you- Ed)

What army am I playing?
I decided to back the Empress Kickstarter last year and have picked up the New Zealand SAS model. So I await its arrival with great anticipation. This has inspired me to create a Kiwi SAS force as inspired by Willie Apiata VC.

Doesn't he look glad to see you?

The next step is to research what happened in the action that had the VC awarded.

What am I getting with my starting funds?
I am going to get the Empress SAS models with a mix of weapons but I particularly like the sniper figure.

Tom

Armies of Afghanistan- Craig W (SEALs)

Who am I?
My name is Craig and I helped to design and write Sangin. I’ve always been an avid gamer, be it wargaming or roleplaying. My aim has always been to play the games that resonate with my perceptions of genre. When it comes to working on games as an author/designer/modeller I take the same approach. If it doesn’t interest me it doesn’t get done! So when Chris, Colin and myself dreamt up the idea of a painting challenge it took me a while to think of what I wanted to do.

Why? Well I have a reasonably big collection of troops for Sangin – all British of course, because that’s what floated my boat when we designed the game. But I’ve got a lot of British. So after much internal debate (I would do modern Chinese or Russians but they are not in theatre.) I picked my next favourite thing - Americans.

What Army am I playing?
Due to the fact that I am very busy preparing troops (Kiwi’s and Aussie’s – from our own figure range) and terrain for Salute in April 2014 and writing my PhD (Slacker- Ed) I decided on a small force that would not take up much time and would still wet my appetite for gaming.

So I decided a small American special forces team would be it. Both Colin and Chris foolishly offered me some troops and thus my new nightmare has begun. Much internet research has led me to embark upon Navy Seal’s as my troop force with ultimately a bigger force later with accompanying vehicles (painted by my brother http://houseofqueeg.wordpress.com/ The Great QUEEG!-yeah nobody said I couldn’t get a ring in…)
So what are Seals – no they are not fish eating mammals that live in the oceans, hmmm maybe they are. Anyway the Navy SEAL Website describes SEALs as:
“Navy SEAL - Sea, Air, Land.
Navy SEALs are a unique breed of warrior who conduct special operations in any environment, but who are uniquely trained and equipped to operate from, around and in maritime areas. SEALs take their name from the environments in which they are trained to operate: sea, air and land. Their small highly trained teams usually work quietly at night conducting some of the nation's most important missions. SEALs are constantly deployed throughout the world to protect national interests.
Navy SEALs and their high speed boat driving counterparts, Naval Special Warfare Combatant-Craft Crewmen, form the operational arms of the Naval Special Warfare community, which is headed by the Naval Special Warfare Command. NSW acts both as the Navy's special operations force as well as the Navy component of the U.S. Special Operations Command, which is responsible for all U.S. special operations forces.
NSW training and preparation stresses an enduring commitment to individual initiative, personal responsibility and mission accomplishment. Naval Special Warfare goes to great lengths to ensure that its forces are capable and prepared.”


So I have ordered a few additional books to keep me warm at night while the paint fumes dry and booked some serious computer time to drool over videos found online.

What am I getting with my starting funds?

To begin with I am getting a couple of packs of Empress Miniatures (Delta miniatures to paint as SEALs):

Which I intend to paint as:

Then I intend to get one of these for my bro to paint for me:

Then its game on!

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