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!