Battle Group Northag - Red3 Miniatures BTR

I was looking to fill the gaps in my Northag Soviets and generally scanning around for alternate models in 10/12mm when I heard a new company had entered the fray recently - Red3 Miniatures. They had some models that were not available elsewhere so I thought it would be interesting to put in a small order to check them out.

What I ordered was a BTR60 Command version, and some Gaz Jeeps . Turnaround was quick, and I have to say I am impressed with what I got.

Red3 BTR60PU and PSC BTR60PB comparison

Models are all white metal. Casting is clean and sharp with a minor sink hole on the rear of one of them which I expect will be invisible to the eye when in use.

The BTR60 Command looks to be a BTR60 PU minus the frame aerial. Having assembled a 15mm version of this particular machine I can understand why they decided to omit the aerial in 10mm - or it could be one of the many sub variants. The model itself comes in 2 parts - the hull and the turret \ generator \ aerial. The 2 part thing seems an excellent idea as it allows the model to share the hull with the standard BTR60 PB personnel carrier with a straight turret swap. Detail and proportion are excellent. All in all it is a very nice model.

The BTR60PU is probably a bit higher up the food chain than you would usually see on a Northag table and you wont need many - mine will be a Battlegroup Tac Command hauling around my ECM capability.

Will it mix with PSC? Not wishing to open the "10 mm isn't a scale" argument but the Red3 model is marginally bigger than the PSC ones, but I expect once they're  on table they will mix well enough.

All in all I like these - and expect I will be picking some other  models from them.

Check them out here : Red3 Miniatures

Battlegroup Northag BTR 60 "Bloody Tricky Resin???"

Box has arrived. Lock down slippers and vaguely interested cat

So I've spent a chunk of my hobby time over the last couple days assembling the models on my Soviet starter army for Battlegroup Northag from Plastic Soldier Company. The army arrived two days ago, so I've had some rather nice lunchtime sessions in the garden armed with a craft knife cleaning up the vehicles.

First thing that needs to said is that contrary to the name, these are NOT hard plastic. They're in a grey plastic \ resin which PSC are calling "Ultracast". To the uninitiated eye like mine this seems very similar to Warlord's new resin. This has some pro's and cons. For the gamer it is lightweight and holds detail quite well. Allegedly it takes paint without undercoat too, but I'm nothing if not a rebel so I'm going to undercoat mine - if only to keep Halfords in business in these hard times. Apparently it also resists chipping and paint rubbing off - the bane of any models in this scale. It sticks together with superglue - though in my case I must admit some bits took quite a time to cure. It is also a bit flexible. I know some people are worried about bendy barrels but mine seemed mostly ok and straightened out where needed with a quick hot water bath, and I suspect you will really have to try to actually snap one of these gun barrels. The other pro on this material is that it doesn't have the massive up front costs injection moulding carries with it, which I'm guessing is one of the reasons it is becoming more common.

Now the cons. I hated cleaning mould lines and flash on these models. My previous experience of similar - ie Warlord resin on Blood Red Skies models, was relatively pain free. They were mostly flash free, and where there was flash and mould lines these were on smooth and regular surfaces so could be carved off with a sharp Xacto. This stuff doesn't like scraping or filing - it just frays, so the best way to deal with it is to carve the flash away with a knife. The PSC BTR60 is a collection of bloody awkward shapes with mould lines in about the most inconvenient places - ie around the top of the wheels and around the turret at the mid point. It was made worse by there being rather a lot of flash between the wheels too on some of them - I got the impression PSC were rushing these through and QC may have taken second place to quantity. The turrets on the BTRs and BRDMs were equally frustrating due to the shape and position of the mould line -  ie half way down the conical turret sides. After cleaning 88 wheels and 12 turrets I was ready to stab someone - thankfully Social Distancing saved me. In fairness I have had the same problem with metal conical turrets but they seemed easier to fix.

The actual models seem reasonable. Proportions are good, detail is good, and parts fit is mostly excellent. There are a couple of models which have sink holes - I assume where the resin has contracted for some reason, but I would guess these will not be that obvious once painted (fingers crossed). The BTR 60 is a four part model - hull, turret and two sets of wheels (4 each). I wasn't sure if these were supposed to fit a certain way round - one slot on the hull is slightly different to the others and there was a corresponding tooth on the wheel frame, but they did fit either way around. In practice I didn't have enough of the corresponding wheels to be picky and once assembled I am unable to tell which had been assembled the "right" way anyway.

The T64s went together smoothly and are rather nice - again 4 parts, hull, turret and 2 track units, and the BRDMs were similarly straightforward.

Overall I am happy with them. I would much have preferred the hard plastic that PSC are famous for, but on the whole they are nice models. IF however I decide to do another Infantry Company, they will be in BMPs so I don't have to face those bloody wheels again. I have not looked at the infantry beyond a quick glance so I will deal with them later - I'm praying they are relatively flash free.

No pics as yet - everything is out in the garden drying off from the undercoat, but I will do a follow up post "soon" once the paint is on.

Cheers

Battlefront Northag - Back to the Future ?

I was always a great fan of Cold War \ What if? games. Being around at the time I was fascinated by the prospect of "Modern" warfare, and now I fondly remember the excellent WRG and Challenger rules. When Team Yankee came out a couple of years ago we gave it a try (there are a couple of blog posts way back if you are interested) however for a couple of reasons it never took off here.

Last year Plastic Soldier Company started talking about doing a version of the "Battlefront" series set in the early 80s, and they were planning to do it in 10mm scale. This peaked my interest. I've always found 10/12mm to be an attractive option for tank battles. This was reinforced by my experience with Dropzone Commander. It went on pre order at a time when I had a bit of spare ££££ so I thought "why not". The game was originally planned for release around Salute in April, but the current situation has forced that back. The new release date is today (3rd May) so I'm hoping the toys will arrive soon. In the meanwhile PSC sent a pdf copy of the rules to those who preordered, so I've had them a couple of weeks and given them a read through - or two, and I'm pleasantly surprised. I've not read or played any of the Battlefront series of games. I've nothing against them, but just not had the time. Having read these, I may well have a look at some of the others.

Battlefront Northag is set in 1983. This is an interesting and deliberate choice because it predates most of the West's new tanks getting into service. Games are going to be something more than a few un-killable super tanks versus a horde of junk Soviets. There is the usual Cold War goes Hot intro, then rules, and finally a couple of army lists for UK and Soviet forces that would have faced off in Northern Germany - other armies are planned. Thankfully artillery is very much an off table thing, and the infamous "Team Yankee" tank park would also seem to be absent - all good to me!.

PSC are supporting the game with a full list of vhicles and infantry in 10mm. I already have a stash of 10mm \ 1:144 models waiting for paint. I bought them to use with Team Yankee, but as I said, the urge was not there so I have something of a head start. I'm going to be playing Soviets, so having the odd tank Company spare may not be a bad thing!

T80 in 1:144 from Takara

I'll hopefully go into more detail in another post, but  for now I think this is looking like a great little game. Rules are £20 and the two starter armies are £30 for the Brits and £70 for the Sovs - but you get your Rubles worth as that Soviet set includes 22 vehicles and over 100 infantry. The starters are up for sale on the PSC website now, with support units to follow "soon".

Worth a look.

Blood Red Skies - First Sortie

High over Kent, a pair of Spitfires are directed onto a pair of 109s on a Frei Jagd. Both pairs consist of an Experienced pilot with a Rookie wingman, and are closing at the same altitude, head on. “Tally Ho!”

Initially both sides grab altitude but neither gain an advantage. 

Then as the range drops the Spitfire leader decides to try and outmanoeuvre his opponent, and succeeds in dropping the lead 109s status to neutral. The Brit’s wingman has a chance to shoot at the lead 109 but declines as this would result in a straight exchange of fire and instead moves to get a better position. 

The lead 109 tries scissors on to the lead Spitfire but the British pilot counters and remains in the advantaged position. The second 109 tries to cover the tail of his now vulnerable flight leader, but doesn’t quite manage to get into position. The lead Brit seizes the chance and burns his advantage to brake hard and drops in behind the lead 109 in a tailing position, immediately reducing the German to a disadvantaged position. Eight .303 Browning’s spit fire but no hits are caused. Both 109s desperately twist and turn, and the Spitfires try and stay with them. This continues for several long seconds with neither side gaining a significant advantage or viable shooting chance. Then a burst of MG fire comes close to the second 109, only a deft flick roll saves him, but in doing so he becomes detached from his leader, who is again disadvantaged, and now out on his own. 

Lead Spitfire lines him up, and this time rakes the 109 from tail to cockpit, and the Messerschmitt suddenly rolls into a vertical dive, never to recover. 

The remaining Luftwaffe pilot decides to run for it, and the Spitfires are suddenly the only planes around.

The surprising thing is that pretty much sums up the game we just had using the basic Blood Red Skies rules. What really impressed me was the sheer narrative energy the rules generate. It really did feel as though every decision counted and that fight to gain advantage. Freed from all the charts and order writing we got to play a fast and quite exciting game - which is just what air combat should be.

Couple of caveats – we were only playing the basic rules and we only had a pair of planes each as we wanted to start small. This is partly so we can get a better grasp and partly because we could only scrape together a few planes at short notice (and yes the 109s are not Emils but it was all we had at the time) The planes in the pics are 1:144 scale and on magnetic gimbal mounts, which are rather a nice idea we pinched from playing Wings Of War and are pretty good for marking advantage status in the same way as the "official" bases.

Tally Ho!

Grab for altitude

Closing pass

Throwing the kites around

Killing shot

I’m going to avoid the hyperbole and just say I was rather impressed at both the fluidity and the execution of BRS. There’s a very good feel to the game unlike anything I’ve played on a tabletop for WW2 dogfighting. The way each action can change the all-important advantage status is really something – make a mistake and let the opposition get behind you and you better have either a competent wingman or a lot of luck.  

I'm not sure how it will play with six planes or more a side, but I don't think there is anything in there that will inherently change the game plays - which is, as I say, quite good so far. I think Andy Chambers deserves a pat on the back and if Warlord manage to deliver this without too much faffing and don't bloat it, it could be setting the standard for some time to come. 

We did have a couple of questions about the rules, but its early days and I'm sure some clarifications will follow.

So Tally Ho!

Thanks to Paul Davison acting as opponent \ Guinea Pig. I happen to know a certain Geordie is painting up some ore planes so between us we can try a six v six "soon"

Is there such a thing as Painters Block?

I think if there is, I had it.

And the culprit was this little feller.

This is a MT-90 Jackson Armoured Personnel Carrier from the Resistance faction of Dropzone Commander, parked in front of a suspiciously 1950s looking LiftHawk dropship. It looks a bit brighter than in real life - me being lazy and using a flash on my camera rather than get the light right. It is a strange vehicle, supposed to be a military leftover from before the alien Scourge invasion. As far as APCs go it is fine, however it is not used very often in the game, mainly because there are usually better ways for the Resistance to deliver their infantry to the battlefield. You get three of them in a Resistance Starter Army set. This is quite important in that I have two starter boxes of Resistance troops, meaning six in all. Having painted three up in fairly standard military colours I was searching around for inspiration on the other three and read in the fluff that the Jackson was also quite common in Police forces, particularly with SWAT units. So I decided to paint it up as a Police vehicle taken over by the Resistance.

And then it happened. Painters Block. I could not for the life of me finish the model. I got so frustrated that I put the damned thing away and left the Resistance stuff to gather dust as I fluttered to other projects. Then earlier this week I volunteered to loan out the Resistance to a friend who wanted to play Dropzone but had no suitable toys. I was a bit rash as I could not for the life of me remember what I had painted. When I checked I was relieved to discover I already had painted to one degree or another enough toys for now, but there, staring up at me like a lost grail. was the "Police" Jackson. How hard could it be? Actually not hard at all - whatever caused the block was gone and I ran up the little number in short order - and I was free! So I'm now looking forward to painting yet more Resistance - probably another blue & yellow M90, but also maybe a black SWAT version, then a Police LiftHawk and then....

Normal service will be resumed just as soon as we are sure what that is............

Team Yankee Game 2

Our first game went well enough - or rather about as well as the fairly restrictive scenario allowed, so we moved on to the second - the defence of Hill 214. This scenario pits a small US force defending a crossroads against a larger Soviet attack, and importantly this takes place at night. The Soviets have the option of attacking with an infantry heavy force or taking tanks supported by a single Company of Motor Rifles - given I only had enough infantry for the second option, it was an easy choice.

Here is the basic table layout. Victory conditions were simple - the Soviets had to capture the junction at the centre of the table, the US have to break the Soviets. The US were heavily outnumbered - 2:1 or greater, but they did have better kit, a minefield,  and could start one platoon in ambush.

Russian Deployment

Survivors from Scenario 1

In addition to a full T72 Company the Soviets also had the survivors from scenario 1 available, and these deployed on the opposite side of the US positions to the main attack.

Paul deployed his M1s covering two of the approaches to the wood, with his rear protected by a hastily laid minefield and his platoon of Mechanised Infantry in ambush somewhere.

Turn one started rather well for the Russians. They advanced at speed and managed to spot one of the M1 platoons. A ragged salvo of 125mm guns lit the night, and one hit the rear of an M1 which blew up spectacularly

Red "flash" markers indicate which tanks have shot - these are now visible at daylight ranges.

Burning M1

To add insult to injury the remaining M1 in the platoon failed a morale test and the crew promptly abandoned their tank!

On the other flank the two surviving T72s from scenario 1 tried to engage the remaining M1s but failed miserably - then quickly paid the price as both were killed in quick succession.

Back to the main attack. The T72s halted on encountering the minefield but the infantry worked around the edges and started to infiltrate into the woods to secure the objective.

At which point the Mech Platoon opened up with its Dragon ATGMs, instantly killing a T72 and putting quite a lot of hurt on the infantry. Return fire was ineffective mainly as the Yanks were dug in.

Holding the objective

(Paul is using sabot bases for his infantry until we decide if we want to rebase for Team Yankee)

The Soviet infantry try to assault the Mech position, but are beaten off by infantry fire supported by the M113s .50 cals

Meanwhile the remaining M1s swing around the wood to try and engage the T72s which turn to meet them

Again the superiority of the M1s is quickly proven, forcing the Soviet commander to commit more tanks to the flank.

Luckily for the Soviets the infantry battle in the woods swings in their favour - both Dragon missile teams are killled and a well aimed RPG hits and kills one of the M113s. Again the US morale fails, and the infantry start to withdraw, leaving the Soviets in possession of the objective and able to claim a victory

 So an interesting and quite tense game. Up to the US morale failures as the Soviet player I was not keen on my chances of victory, but luck was on my side. The night fighting rules worked well we thought, and on balance we think we're going to take up Team Yankee and expand our forces.

So two training missions down, one to go. This time it will be a Soviet counter attack in the face of both US armour AND air support - I expect it will be brutal :-)

Team Yankee Training Campaign scenario 1

So last night we played the first two scenarios from Team Yankee - Last Battle of tank 66 and Defence of Hill 214. These are the first two of three scenarios that form a mini campaign and are clearly designed to introduce the rules to two players. All are based on episodes in the book.

So without further ado here's what happened in Scenario 1

Scenario 1 is "The last Battle of Tank 66" and pits a single M1 Abrams against three T72s.

Here it is, commanded by my opponent "Big" Paul. Paul is looking unconvinced. He doesnt like FoW.

Paul had turn 1 and prompt;y showed off the merits of better training and fire control by hitting two T72s, but luckily only one was penetrated and exploded.

The remaining two then demonstrated the merits of good luck, advanced to close the range and hit the M1 twice. One bounced but the other did horrible things - Scenario 1 ended in a Soviet victory.

Not sure what we learned as we only had one turn of play - I suppose we had a grip on how tank fire works.

So one scenario down. Second one to follow........will Paul be convinced?

Team Yankee - Jury out

As Britney Spears said "oops I did it again". Yup I succumbed to another possible game and for all the right reasons - probably.

I'm talking about Battlefront (the Flames of War people) and their "Team Yankee" rules based around the book of the same name by Harold Coyle,

I always liked the book (Swordpoint is better). Battlefront have re-skinned the Flames of War rules to fit the modern period - or at least the mid 1980s when the book is set. In a moment of weakness I bought the rules, however as I already had some 10/12mm Soviets kicking around in a spares box I decided to just use them rather than the 15mm the rules are written for. More on that later.

I've not played them yet, so this is only an initial assessment based on a readthrough. I will be better placed after we play them tonight. The initial problem is that the rules are, as I said, a re-skinned or ported across version of Flames of War. That's a good thing, and a bad thing, depending on your perception of FoW. By re-skinning I mean the main core of the rules are there, but for some reason they have changed the names around a bit, so "Bunker Buster" now read "Brutal", however the wording is pretty much the same. This is not such a bad thing, as even a dyed in the wool FoW hater (like me) has to admit the main rules work very well as a turn up and play game, even if some of the details grate at my teeth. Whatever else, these are tried and tested systems that really deliver what they are aiming for, even if that objective is something I find unpalatable. Sadly this means a couple of more stupid and annoying rules from WW2 have also been ported across, so artillery is still deployed on table (really!) and vehicle crews possibly bailing out and remounting almost every turn, which is a ludicrous mental image that you can do away with by simply changing the phrase "Bail out" with something like "shocked" or "stunned". Possibly more of a worry is what is not there - ie no vehicle smoke dischargers, but the designers say they assume crews are doing all that so why micromanage - which is a fair point to a degree. I suppose if you like FoW you will like these, and if you don't, well there are others out there.

The rules book themselves are the usual sumptuously laid out photo and diagram laden fare we are used to - hardback as well, and include the now obligatory "how to paint" section, plus army lists for the two protagonists and a short campaign.

One change from FoW is the units are presented as unit cards which should contain all the stats you need - which should be quite useful, and I think the idea is the cards will be packaged in with the units.

There are a couple of problems here. Firstly the forces in the rulebook are very restricted - basically a cut down Soviet Motor Rifle of Tank Battalion vs a US Mech\Armour Combat Team. Battlefront seem to have restricted the organisations quite a bit to coincide with their model release schedule - so no BRDMs get mentioned even though they would be a common sight on the battlefield and appear in the books. In effect the US get only 6 vehicles - M1, M109, M901 , M113 M163 and M106, Sovs fair badly too - T72, BMP1 &2, SAU 122 and BM21. I'm not too keen on this approach, but the online community has already filled most of the gaps so its not too much of a problem, and I would imagine BF will expand with new force briefings as the models become available.

The campaign is a simple 3 scenario affair clearly designed to get players familiar with the rules, which is not a bad thing. As I said I will report back after playing.

So that's about it for now - hopefully next time I will have a better idea of how it plays plus some pics from the game. Cheers

Show Report - Teesside Wargames Convention - New DZC layout & Buildings

Just returned from Teesside Wargames Convention. The organisers were aiming for a low key local affair and I think they got it just about right. It was fairly busy through the morning and tailed off after 3pm. I was there doing a demo of Dropzone Commander, and to be honest I was so busy I never got a chance to have a proper look at the rest of the demos (sorry guys) but the 1945 what if game from Redcar did catch my eye, as well as the Mantic and Spartan demos.

The Dropzone demo was on a new terrain layout which was put together to be used in Waugh Games new Gaming Centre. They're moving to a much bigger venue and so will have more space, so they are having a some semi permanent layouts to play on (and run demos), one of which will be Dropzone Commander.

I have to say it was a treat to see and play on. All the buildings are from Waugh Games new mdf buildings range and they are just about in the sweet spot for detail and price. Not sure if they are on the website yet but hopefully some time next week.

Only problem is the klutz with the camera (me) couldn't get the settings right and the light in the hall was a horrible yellow which has pretty much screwed up the pics, however here are some of the better ones.

 
The building designer (Jez Evans) has tried to copy some real life buildings and some of them are particularly good - the cinema for one

There is also a rather nice US style Town Hall shown in this sadly yellow pic

Here's another of the whole table

I'm hoping to get a chance to take some pics of the layout once it is installed in the new centre next week, so keep an eye on the Blog :-)

Brigade to the Rescue! DZC Bunkers (3)

Happy to report my search for a budget bunker for DZC has finally borne fruit.

Tony Francis and Brigade Models are one of the more established companies in the fringe of sci fi wargaming. They have quietly and reliably been producing their ranges for over a decade and have a large fleet scale "Full Trust" compatible starship range, a rather nice line in 15mm and 6mm sci fi, and they were doing the whole Victorian SF thing years before all these Johnny come latelys with their glossy books and expensive boxed sets. 

Tony & co have recently been dabbling in 3d printing and have started to digitally remaster some of their 15mm designs, and damned impressive they are too.

When I started playing Dropzone I was eyeing up their 6mm buildings and wondering if they would work for DZC, but they were just a bit too small. Needless to say I (and I'm sure many others) dropped some hints, and Tony has just obliged with some 10mm scaled versions of their 6mm Sci Fi  Desert Buildings range. Initial releases follow the 6mm range quite closely, so what you get are fairly low buildings reminiscent of Tatoine, but with some modern \ sci fi touches. Of the initial releases one immediately caught my eye - a building going by the modest title "Small Dwelling #1"  . This seemed to fit most of my requirements and was priced at the princely sum of £1.75 ($2.62USD) each. I ordered five on a whim to see what they were like "in the flesh" . After all, they could always be used as other buildings if they turned out to be unsuitable for bunkers, and the whole order including p&p came to £10.75. A few days later they arrived, and I'm a happy little troglodyte!

The first thing I should mention about them is the size. You get a fair brick of resin for your £1.75. Detail is simple but sharpe. They are styled as a simple building with one fairly heavy duty door, no windows and a domed roof. The squat shape and buttressed walls all combine to give them a no nonsense ferro-concrete feel. I was not so certain about the dome, but I can live with it.

As I said I have five, so there are plenty of options to think about paint schemes. For the first I have settled on a weathered concrete \ grey scheme, which I think helps enhance the "bunker-y-ness". I'm planning on picking up some decals at York next week to number them up and add to the sci fi feel, and I suspect these will also benefit from some urban style graffiti in due course. Here is Bunker 1 with a Bear to give an idea of size.

I'm rather happy with these, so much so that I am ordering some more from the range in the near future. The real treat will be if Tony decides it is worth continuing to reproduce the 6mm range in 10mm I will be first in the queue for a 10 mm version of the Vtol Airfield and the Docking Bay  to name a few

DZC Bunkers (2) Wall to Wall

My search for affordable bunkers for DZC continued.

One early option was simply to use a card marker to show where the entrance was. The problem with this is it can easily get lost in the general clutter of the table, and looks naff. I discounted that.

So my next idea was to buy some more affordable 10mm wargames bunkers. This idea immediately floundered on the sad fact that I couldn't find any! Or rather the ones I could find were not to dissimilar in price to the ones from Hawk. Most of the available ones I could find either were too "Atlantik Wall" or didn't fit the bill in other ways, including the actual price. Hawk's set of five bunkers are £35, ie £7 each. I was looking for a significant saving, otherwise you may as well buy the Hawk version, so buying something for £5 that wasn't quite right wouldn't work.

One option would be to have a massive self build session. I thought about this - after all the shape I was looking for would be reasonably simple to cut from 10mm or 15mm hard foam. Possibly? In the mean time I stumbled on what has proven to be a reasonable interim solution - AT43 wall sections.

AT 43 was a 28mm Sci Fi miniatures and rules system by the French company Rackham. The hook was pre painted miniatures. In truth they were not bad at all, but Rackham had some production and supply issues and ended up choking themselves into receivership. They sold the infantry in units of 6-8, with vehicles (usually walkers) etc in singles. Most units were packaged with a piece of terrain, a shipping container (incidentally these are brilliant and now command silly prices on ebay) or some wall sections - a bit like Armco barriers about 2" long and an inch high, with two firing slits in them. I ended up with a fair few of these lying around. One of them was sat on the work table when the "bunker" mood was on me, and it got me thinking.......... in another scale, would it work as a bunker?

This seemed to be a possible winner, but it would need some doors. I quickly grabbed some pictures of blast door type doors I have on the rather spiffing "7TV Set Creator" and shrunk them down to the required size, printed them on stickers and stuck them to the walls. The results were (are) I think not too bad - or at least usable - this one has a radar dish added from the spares box.

A long way from perfect, but not bad for minimal outlay, and I do have quite a few available. At least until I find a better solution..........

Duck and Cover, Protect & Survive. Bunkers for Dropzone Commander (1)

I love Dropzone Commander. I love the dynamics, the mainly urban setting, the way each unit has a function. Well, almost. There is usually one unit that sits sad and alone in the box while the rest of the army is out there strutting it's stuff - the flamethrowers. Whether it is Mechits, Tormentors , Flameblades, or FireWagons, the specialist flamethrowers are, well, just too specialist. Yes they are the bees knees at clearing buildings, in fact my Tormentors have yet to fire a shot in anger as the enemy has always abandoned any building when they saw them approaching - pretty much the same effect Churchill Crocodiles were often reported to have had in WW2. The problem is that nine times out of ten the same overall result can be achieved by pounding the target building with standard weapons, or demo capable weapons, until it just collapses. The big advantage of this approach being the units involved can also do their normal stuff. Even against hardened targets, you are usually better off shooting them with tanks rather than including the specialist flamethrowers who are pretty useless at anything else.

Except for the Bunker Assault Mission. One of the missions in the Resistance expansion involves assaulting and holding five key bunkers. The name sometimes confuses players because they think of them as fixed defensive positions that units can fire out from, something like the bunkers on Omaha Beach,  when in reality they are simply the extra hardened entrances to deep underground facilities - think Cheyenne Mountain, MIB HQ or Der Fuhrerbunker. Troops in these cannot be targeted by normal weapons, you either assault them at bayonet point, or use those over-specialised flame units to kill defenders by filling the tunnels with your particular flavour of insidious death - acid, napalm, gas or whatever (Fort Drum Redux).

The Bunker Assault mission is very different from normal missions, and gives a refreshingly different style of game, particularly at tournaments and games days. The problem is you need 5 bunkers. Hawk do a Bunker scenario pack, One of our local players has a set, and I had a good chance to fondle them  and very nice it is too, containing 5 identical bunker entrances.

Like all Hawk products they are exquisitely detailed, but the set is £35. That is a large expenditure on something only used rarely. Worse, if you are organising a games day you need a set of 5 per table, so even a small event with 8 players would require 20 bunkers, or £150 expense. No Tournament Organiser can do that without official support, so the Bunker Assault mission gets rarely played.

I like Bunker Assault, so I have been looking for cheaper ways to allow it to be played on a budget. Next post will show some options.........

  

Plucky Little Belgium (4) Late war fighters

The last of my collection of Belgian fighters are far more "serious" and are more than capable of taking on any opponent.

First up, the Hanriot HD1. Another French "reject" the HD1 was a bit suspect after the Ponnier debacle, but in this case the suspicions proved unfounded. The HD1 had lost out to the SPAD and Nieuport 17 for French orders, but served both in Italian and Belgian service where it was found to be a nice and capable little fighter with good handling. Coppens modified his to take an 11mm Vickers gun for use in Balloon Busting. There is an "official" Wings of Glory HD1, but mine was bought from Shapeways before the WoG one became available, and I'm quite pleased with it.

The last of my Belgian fighters is a Sopwith Camel as flown by Jans Olieslagers. Its straight from the box Wings of War Series 1 model.

I still have a couple of models to collect for my Belgians, SPADs and N17 to name a few, but these will have to wait a bit while I get the backlog of other models painted.