[FoF] A small raid in the Solomons

As some of you may know a couple years ago we got into Force on Force with the intention of doing WW2 28mm skirmish with Marine Raiders, Chindits, Aussies and of course Japanese Army as well as Naval Landing Forces.
Between SAGA, Bolt Action, our 6mm EPIC games, Skirmish Sangin and more we had a lot of other things to distract us.
Well Friday night Andy and I finally got in a game of it!
We decided on d8 quality and d12 morale for the Imperial Japanese Army and d8/d10 for the Marines.
I had 33 minis but left behind my flamethrower team as well as Chesty, I wanted it to be a good fight after all.;-)
Two squads of 9 with 3 BAR each, an MMG team, a Corpsman and a stretcher bearer, a sniper team, a 60mm  mortar team and the platoon commander with his RTO. Total 30
Andy had twenty-odd Japanese soldiers in four fireteams of five men including a couple LMGs, a separate HMG team of three and an officer.
We both started with half on the table roll to bring them on. My LVT's were for dropping off only and onl;y had two crewmen. Additionally the Japanese defenders were hidden.

The first LVT lands and plows inland before the Raiders debus 

We couldn't see anyone so we kept moving forward through the eerie quiet...

The half squads lurks well hidden and out of range

'We must stop them before they cross the river."

Empty bunker! Had me worried anyway.

This bunker has a 13mm HMG and a very tough gunner.

It was still quiet and I got my reinforcement roll! Woot!

The second LVT trundles up the beach cautiously.

I had planned on just using the LVT's as transports cus they look cool and doctrinally they wouldn't hang out on the beach really.

Before getting smashed by the HMG! Four of the fifteen Raiders on board get hit!

The HMG's roll was decent but my armor roll was a 3 on two six sided dice. Ouch! Dead vehicle and casualty check for everyone aboard.

My right hand advance has been whittled down to one good fireteam.

There was tons of shooting at this point but most guys were staying in cover and not getting hit. The hits came in dribs and drabs. I got my Corpsman up to support my advance on the right.

The Old Man brings up the Corpsman and takes over.

I actually got one pin on a fireteam! Only once though. Hard cases!

They are in a machine gun battle across the river.

The view from the Japanese bunker. Burning LVT!

This guy got shot to pieces so many times! But he kept making his morale checks and kept shooting until just before we were going to assault the bunker. Probably saved a few lives.

The team on the left does eventually work their way up and take the bunker!

Finally reinforcements! The Yanks are all over the beach and they've crossed the river!

In the end the Marines had a bunker and then the second bunker. There was no easy way for the Japanese to throw them off the beachhead. We had both had series' of good rolls and bad luck.
Rolling off for troop quality once shooting is declared were some of victories that kepy my casualties as low as they were. 7 killed and 5 other casualties were my total.
I like Force on Force quite a bit for this scale of full platoons facing off.
Very fun game Andy! Great table!
Stoked we finally pulled it off!
Huzzah!

[Sangin] MARSOC project for Armies of Afghanistan

Working on repaints and getting some hiluxes as well as figuring out what to do with what I have. Here are some of my research pics while I wait for mini's and models.

I'll be painting the ANP up in mostly old style Woodland BDU's but with a patchwork of webbing types. The Marines seem to have a few different types of uniforms before they got there own Crye Woodland pattern uniforms to help them fit in with the Afghan Army and Police. They used both MARPATs, BDU, DCU as well as some Coyote and plain Khaki gear as well. "Who is your commanding officer Marine?!"

Motorbikes, moustaches and mortars! or more officially; "Always faithful, always forward"

Unofficial Raider patch

I said put the PKM over there!

High angle hell baby

Do you even operate bro?

SCARs and dirt bikes, woot!

Textbook base plate setting; charge four!

ANA Commando obcerving. Splash, out!

I'll paint my hiluxes up like this

Where's our outriders? Where's our ANPs!?

Recon in Vietnam; Tiger Stripe Recipe

Well I've finally got these most of the way done. Just finishing basing really. I am in a bit of a quandary with the brush I've used and if it looks to cartoony or fish tank like. The minis are, The Assault Group and a mix of "Special Forces" and "SAS", meaning Aussie. They were pretty close to US LRRPs or other reconnaissance units. With an opportunity like this I had to go with tiger stripe as it was widely used and looks very cool.

The sculpts are pretty good but not great. The detail and poses are pretty good, better than most.

I really want EBob to do his...

I didn't feel like kitbashing but these need a couple RTO's. Three or more canteens each. Better sculpted rifles and a few more things but on the table no one will know except me. And you of course.

In practice these are close enough to be any of several units; US Army Lrrps, US Special Forces, USMC Recon, Aussie or Kiwi SAS, over the early period of the Second Indochina War. Say 1965 to 1969

Here is my recipe for advisor tiger stripe, a version of Vietnamese Marine tiger stripe.
German armor desert basecoat.
Kislev flesh
Green grey stripes,
Green brown stripes,
Black, lightened with khaki, stripes.
Weapons, black and gun metal, wood stock for the m79.
Russian green packs and webbing.
Green grey highlights.
Agrax wash.
Khaki dry brush lower half of body and onto pack.
Beige dry brush upper half

Now I just need some Vietnamese!

[Bolt Action] Marine reinforcements

After my first couple games of Bolt Action I realized that I needed bigger squads. I also realized that the M1919 MMG and my 60mm mortar were nerfed but that's another story.;-) I've been slowly collecting the minis and even more slowly painting them!

Chesty Puller was a helluva Marine

First up is Lt. Col. Lewis "Chesty" Puller, he came with the Armies of the United States book, and in fact was a real motivator for me to buy the book. (Thanks Jamie!) If you aren't familiar with him then read the wiki link, complete badass, and a true hero.

Now both squads have three BAR's, one shotgun and one SMG. 3 BAR's sounds good doesn't it?

These four BAR gunners and the shotgun armed NCO are from The Assault Group. I also got some Vietnam era minis, more to come later, WIP.

Setting up the 60

 Despite it being nerfed I bring one along but pay for a 81mm medium mortar and keep the grumbling to a minimum.

3 Browning M2 .50 cal MG's

This Water Buffalo is finally mmodelled with the MG's it would have had, haven't got around to the M1919 yet but I will. Now my force is right up to 1000 points and set up proper. Well a proper mix of realistic and gameable anyway.;-)

Tight 360, Recon in RVN

Something from the back of my mind, a haunting if you will, has always been the Vietnam war. It was going on when I was born and continued for years of course. In the Marines I was trained and led by veterans of the conflict. In fact we trained for it so much that we hadn't trained enough for the deserts and mountains that would dominate the terrain for the actual wars after I was out of uniform.
That said, there were a lot of lessons learned that shaped the modern military, including reconnaissance and scout sniping. Mission planning as well as employment changed a lot.

6 man Marine Recon team on my old trousers...

The challenge for me is really to make it work. I know the uniforms and equipment too well.
If that's possible. The camo scheme must be ARVN "Tiger Stripe", used by their Marines and Rangers, and so also used by our Special Forces as well as Marines and LRRPs, others especially advisors and journo's wore it as well.

I ordered a few minis from the Assault Group again, ages ago, they are actually ANZAC models but have the right webbing and boonie hats to make it work. I ended up with eight minis, two with M60 MG's which you usually wouldn't bring with you, and two with M79 40mm grenade launchers, which you would.

Marine Recon circa 1967

I'll have to do some customizing as well as a horrorshow paint job.

Rules wise, I might actually lean towards Skirmish Sangin since I can only bring five or six guys. For larger engagements I'll use Force on Force.
Urah!

[Bolt Action] On Sakhalin Island, there will be blood!

Had a good throw down with Jamie for the first time in yonks. He had just got the new Soviet book from Warlord games so he had a proper list for his awesome minis that he's been working on for some time.
These included the fearsome Soviet sappers, complete with flamethrowers and body armour. He had two short squads of them, plus a squad of my fave Razvedki, a sniper team, a 120mm mortar and observer as well as his officer and the free squad of conscripts.
I noticed that he had forgotten his T-34/85, I began to breathe easier.
I had my usual guys. I will continue to bring my AT grenades, and upgrade my 60mm to a medium mortar, but I will not forget to upgrade the Water Buffalo to HMG's. I am ordering a few BAR's to stiffen my squads up and I should probably get a bazooka...ahem. Shopping list post coming up soon.
Anyhoo roughly 675 points each.

Assault Engineers are as scary as they are expensive! 21 points each.

We rolled and I was defending in the same scenario as last time, defender gets half on, rolls to enter the last quarter, attacker goes all in! (I decided the other day when this was arranged, that we were fighting on Sakhalin island, trying to restore Japanese sovereignty to them, we suspected there was oil reserves...)
I plonked down a rifle squad on my right in a ruin. The MMG team went to the extreme left in a wood and my Scout Sniper team went right next to the objective. My Officer and Corpsmen units approached quickly thereafter.

The oft mentioned 'free' squad of conscripts. That's 12d of shooting folks!

His squad on conscripts was right in front with a squad of assault engineers on both sides of them and the sneaky razvedki crawling through a wood on right, aiming for the ruins as well.

My favorite Soviets, the Razvedki. This photo doesn't do them justice.

Sure enough, first move they edge further forward but are still out of line of sight.

Marine Scout Sniper team lurking and trading shots with their opponents.

The sniper duelling commences, getting multiple hits on each other but no kills other than a hapless Soviet flamethrower that we shot for entertainment purposes.

First squad holding my right flank. This would be the main point of effort.

I knew he was going to through a lot at my first squad, but they had to hold out! Second squad was on the way. In a critical move when they did arrive I moved them into direct support of the first.

These guys attracted a lot of attention from my MMG and sniper and would pay for it.

Jamie cheekily runs this squad of sappers right at me in the open, albeit at long range. We obligingly machine-gunned them  repeatedly. Eventually pinning them completely.

If my mortars would only range in.

While they massed for the assault I couldn't get my mortars to range in, they kept moving!

The Razvedki are my new sneaky neighbors

The Soviet recon boys moved in next door and then their sapper buddies flamethrowered first squad!

Last three standing in first squad after getting torched!

They held their positions though. At least until a direct hit from a 120mm mortar round killed them all!

Things were looking grim!

The 'old man' arrives to do his part supporting his brothers.

The Lt and his Platoon Sergeant and RTO move into the gap. Firing on the move from their Thompsons as they occupy another ruin and wait for the onslaught.

The flamethrower team gets their first kills of many for the night.

Seeing the opportunity Pfc Spunkmeyer runs forward of second squad and flamethrowers the razvedki to such an extent that the few survivors flee. (He may have been goaded into action by his A-gunner, Chesty;)

After this I got some dice one after another. The LVT moved up and MG'd the Soviet officer and his adjutant to pieces.
Then second squad moved into the smoking ruin that the razvedki had just fled.
Next turn this allowed them to assault the second sapper squad which had been whittled down by the flamethrower again! (Rolled to not run out of fuel twice.)
After that there was just the mopping up really. Including, yes, flaming the conscripts and machinegunning the mortar.

Fun game Jamie! I should remember to borrow your dice more often, as I will settle for ones that don't act in strict defiance of math.
Sadly I need to man my LVT in order to shoot it. It looks like my Corpsman will be cruising around with them in the future.