Horizon Wars - First impression & shopping for a British Battlegroup

I just bought Horizon Wars...

The rules seem promising and I actually have other interested parties in my gaming group. 

One thing I like very much is that the small scale hasn't lead to an explosion of mini count.   

In most games, the smaller the scale the larger the scope: 28mm is for platoonish games, 15mm for company-sized games, 6mm for battalion and so on... Table size, number of elements (bases with either a single or several minis on) and game duration remain more or less constant around 4' to 6' by 4' (120cm to 18cm by 120cm), 30 to 50 elements and 2 to 3 hours a game.

After having been exposed to games like Mordheim and more recently X-Wing, I've come to appreciate games with a limited number of elements (a dozen) and short games (around one hour, allowing for two or three games on ), but have been missing the miniature diversity (infantry, ground vehicles, "air"-crafts all together on a table) of larger scope "combined arms" types of games...

Horizon Wars goes for a more "skirmish" (from a number of elements point of view) approach which should allow to enjoy varied "combined arms" miniatures while remaining in the realm of fast paced "skirmish" games... 

 

Pictures from the author collection... "A 'typical' Horizon Wars force (less airframes), it has a mix of infantry, armour and mechs; and elements can be dropped to create smaller lists or manipulated to create a list up to ~30 points, what I consider to be a large game that would take about 2 hours to play out."

Delta Zulu Six - A (6mm proxy) Dropzone Commander UCM army

I'm not too found of Hawk Wargames: I wrote about this before but I'm not sure where or when anymore, so here I go again (feel free to skip the next paragraph, the good stuff is underneath)...

When I first heard (well, read probably) about Dropzone Commander I was very eager: air-mobile-centric game, beautiful and original models (the Post Humans and United Colonies, that is; the Scourge goes from OK to "hey look, evil flying CD-rack at 3 o' clock" and the other aliens gear looks like a mix between Native Americans headgear and BDSM accessories)... And then I found out it was all going to be 10mm-scaled! I came over to 15mm for the sheer pleasure of freely mixing and matching whatever toy form whatever manufacturer, so I'm not about to buy into another scale that's compatible with pretty much nothing else, thank you very much! I'm sure there are plenty of arguments for that specific scale (air-mobile tactics need a lot of space; but then why not go 6mm, another widely accepted standard?), but that choice of scale seems a very GWish "let's make sure if they taste our product they can't go anywhere else to get their lead - or resin or whatever- fix" move to me. Not meant as a compliment. End of ranting.

Recently I read a blog post about using 6mm proxies to try out Dropzone Commander rules without taking on a new mortgage... Nothing new so far, I thought about it before but the idea kind of broke down with dropships (and other flyers): they are a key component to the game and each faction has several different very specific ones; not that easy to source in 6mm. But Raskal just used suitably sized Firestorm Armada ships (he had, I assume, laying around) for the different dropship. 

6mm not-UCM proxy army by Raskal over at Raskal Central.

Sure they're not the correctly scaled next to the 6mm infantry and ground vehicles, but...

• Visual scale clues are usually pretty limited on spaceships model;
• A bit of scale wiggle room is apparently allowed when two scales are not in the same plane (i.e. air versus ground à la Flames of War 15mm ground forces with 1/144 airplanes).

I think Raskal intended this experiment as a crude placeholder (he ended up buying the official stuff), but I think it could work as a permanent solution... Especially if you go for spaceships that stylistically match your ground vehicles and blend them further together with your paintjob...

So here we go with yet another project (as usual just a gedankenexperiment, I probably won't go very far with it)!

I'll call this project Delta Zulu Six: "delta zulu" for "dropzone", off
course; "six" for 6mm but also for the commander call sign in military
radio procedures, so "DZ6" can actually mean "dropzone commander";
the triangle is both the Greek letter delta and the APP-6 symbol for a
dropzone... I'm quite proud of this ;-)

15mm GI Joe - Snowcat

Comments on TMP about my previous "New Guinea War" post highlighted how the Antarctica War briefly mentioned in the chronology could also be an interesting setting! Here is just a random idea that popped-up while thinking along those lines...

Back when I was 6, I got the GI Joe Snow Cat toy as a present from my grand mother...


Picture from YoJoe.com.

New Guinea War (2099) - Pacific Federation versus Indonesian Republic - 15mm Sci Fi

ADHD strikes again... Here I was browsing miniatures porn on Brigade Models website and minding my own business when I clicked on "6mm" and found a link to the "New Guinea War" campaign on Wessex Games website... Take a few oldies but goodies add a pinch of new releases, google some paint schemes and roundels et voilà!

Quick background summary:

• 2005: coup in Indonesia Republic (IR) & IR takes over Sarawak and Brunei;
• 2020: uprising against France in New Caledonia, rebels supported by AU & NZ;
• 2026-27: IR takes over Malaysia;
• 2027: AU, NZ, Papua New Guinea & various Pacific Territories forms South Pacific Treaty Organisation (SPTO);
• 2031: IR takes over the Philipines;
• 2048: Hawaii and US Territories join SPTO that becomes the Pacific Federation (PacFed);
• 2048-2051: IR (with covert Japanese support) and China at war over Cambodia, Laos, Thailand & Vietnam; peace treaty mediated by PacFed; IR gets Cambodia, Thailand, South Laos and South Vietnam, China gets North Laos and North Vietnam;
• 2065-68: Antarctica War I: PacFed & UK versus Argentina & Chile; statu quo;
• 2078-79: Bengal War: IR versus India; IR gets "considerable territory" on India eastern seabord including Calcuta and Madras;
• 2082: IR takes over Burma;
• 2083: Antarctia War II: Brazil sides with PacFed & UK, Argentina territory split between Brazil and PacFed;
• 2099: IR and PacFed at war over Papua New Guinea...

Quick and dirty map of SE Asia & Oceania by 2099: PacFed in blue,
IR in red, China in yellow, India in Green and flash zones orange...

Game design thoughts - A drone-centric sci-fi game...

Delta Vector recent post got me thinking... Enough that I'll write it down in a post rather than just making a reply to his.

One of the newer GZG drones, armed with missiles... Pictures from manufacture's website.

So starting with these specific ideas (just a few of the one in Delta Vector post, go and read it, in fact while you're at it, go and read all his "game design" posts)...

• In an EW-dominated battlefield, an unhackable human (with a gun aimed via a Mk.1 eyeball which can't be fooled by EW chicanery) still has an important place;
• Remotes are powerful, but can be jammed and have vulnerable operators, vulnerable to EMP;
• Hackers act like "wizards" who can hack (...) robots (...);
• Combined arms might be a balance of robotic and conventional humans, rather than the armour-infantry meaning it has today; 

And adding a few of my own (whithout much of a structure, brainstorming here)...

Royal Salamander Navy (RSN) & Marine Corps (RSMC)

I'm (re-)reading (and enjoying!) the Honor Harrington (HH) books and, of course, toying with a "not-" version of its various military forces...

The Star Kingdom of Salamander is thus your quintessencial "Brits-in-Space" space nation... Relatively small but controling an important space nexus, its strategic value is backed by a powerful navy (and an extensive merchant marine) which traditions go back all the way to the 16th century (British) Royal (Wet) Navy!

A quick sketch of a RSN roundel...

Brigade Models Belgians (or Syldavians)

I used to fairly uninterested by the whole "Hammer's Slammers" and air-cushion tanks meme... Without going into why I have a more difficult time suspending my disbelief about that specific technological path, I always found HS tanks aestetics to retro for my sci fi taste...

Too retro for my tastes!

And then came the latest batches of Brigade Models 15mm!

Some of the newest Brigade Models products: three variants of the AmRep APC...

So of course, I had to find them a niche in my imaginary world... I've been toying a lot with Franco-Belgian comic books inspired imagi-nations, like Tintin/Hergé Syldavia and Borduria... In my mind, I came up with quite a few iterations of a war between those two countries:

• The obvious: a fairly logical continuation of "King Ottokar's Sceptre"; an not-early-WW2 Blietzkrieg-style invasion of not-Belgium-Syldavia by not-German-Bordurian...
• And its implied sequel:  Late-WW2 liberation of not-Belgium-Syldavia from the hands not-German-Borduria!
• Various iterations of a (limited) Cold-War-Gone-Hot ranging for the fifties to ultra-modern (well, yeah: the Bordurian mustachist regime might have survived its soviet sponsor).
• And even a Napolenoic prequel involving French-inspired Syldavian and Prussian-inspired Bordurian.

Syldavian M113 in NATO three tone... I probably should figure something a bit
more tactical for the national markings... Black pelican with just a yellow outline?

Basicaly:

• Syldavia = Belgium with a layer of Balkans paint and...
• Borduria = (East) Germany with the same cosmetic layer. 

So back to Brigade Models models... Altough air-cushion tanks have grown on me, I still associate them with "70s/80s in space"! So I wen't digging in the Belgian late-Cold-War orbat...

Like many of its neighbours, Belgium used to gets armoured vehicules from three different sources:

• German MBT (Leopard and its AA, tank destroyer and engineering variants);
• US APC (M113 and variants) and SPG (M108 and M109);
• And UK recon (the CVRT familly).

So here is my Belgian/Syldavian Brigade Models pick (not all models are available in 15mm):

• German Thor MBT, Thor Gatling AA Tank and Fenrir Tank Destroyer;
• AmRep M-41 Baumann APC, including unique Belgian/Syldavian variants like an ATK not-M113-Milan using a US body (the Baumann) and a French missile system (from the EuroFed Tassigny or Catroux missile variants);
• Amrep M-88 Doherty SPG (not available in 15mm);
• And Brithis Hermes light tanks (not available in 15mm, yet?) as not-Scorpion/Scimitar and modded with the Artemis APC turret or some missile turret for not-Spartans and not-Strikers respectively...

APC, MBT, recon tank and SPG of the Syldavian hover-AFV inventory...

Not that I need (but which wargamer actually buy only miniatures he needs?) or intend to model the entire orbat (which is a good think since a couple of the vehicules on my list don't even exist in 15mm!): my scope of choice for 15mm sci fi is about a platoon (usually a rather small one to make room for a couple of vehicles that have nothing to do operating at that level) so I'll try to stick to a single MBT and a couple of APC! But I like making up extensive orbats so that my force doesn't exist in a vacuum...

What about infantry? GZG new Germans look uber-cool and I've been wanting to use them for quite a bit too... But I'd love to had some oversized-beret wearing guys for a Chasseurs Ardennais/Zymylpathian Rangers units... Headswap from Khurasan Sepulvedan Jungle Fighters?

And air support? Belgium fighter aircrafts at the time used to be French Mirage V and US F-16, while our only helos used to be liaison/observation French Alouette II. Something French would be a nice addition to the German-US-UK mix I've got so far... But I'm not too fan of the Caribou...

Gunners Painting Service

What it says on the lid: Gunners from Gunners Wargaming is launching his painting service! And his having a give away comp to stimulate us blogger talking about it!

GZG Crusties, painted by Gunners

So here's my part... 

I found out about Gunners during the Titanium Dropship Painting Competition I ran on Dropship Horizon last year and nearly refused his entry for being 28mm (DH has a strict "15mm only" policy!), then I had a second look and saw that his Blood Angels termies and his Leman Russ tank actually where insanely talented 15mm scratchbuilt models! I went on browsing his blog and found out he had entire scratchbuilt and painted entire armies of 15mm Space Marines, Death Corps of Krieg, Tau, Orks, Plague Marines... To mention only his not-40K products (or 20K as I call half-scaled 40K minis)!

15mm? You bet!

Pricing looks fair enough but Gunners is located in N.S.W. (Northern Southern Western?) Australia so shipping will probably make it unfordable for me... But check it:

Gunner Painting Services

And if you're blogging too, let the world now and try to win a free paint job!

Organization of Unobtainium Exporting Planets miniatures painted by Micropanzer

They took a while to get there (according to USPS, they went form Brussels (Belgium) to Nashua (NH) to Jamaica (NY) to Opa Locka (FL), back and forth three times between Opa Locka and Miami (FL), then to Kansas City before ending up in Blue Springs  (MO), the entire trip taking just under a month) but Jason at Micropanzer just finished the miniatures I commissioned him to paint for my Organization of Unobtainium Exporting Planets faction!

Units of the Robot Army of Organization of Unobtainum Exporting Planets

Tomorrow's Wars - Republic of Arden (RA) - Arden Rangers

LtCol Baugnée, current CO of the Chasseurs Ardenais.
Picture from Begian MoD website.

In Tomorrow's Wars (TW) official background, the Democratic People's Republic of Glory (DPRG) nemesis is Republic of Arden (RA) which maintain strong military but also cultural links with France.  

Most pictures in the TW rulebook seems to indicate that (just like most world visited by Stargate teams) Glory (the planet where both the DPRG and the RA are located) has a earth-like ecosystem with abundant evergreens...

Being Belgian, the obvious association is to the Ardennes region, a heavily hilled and forested region spreading across Belgian, German and French Frontiers and covering most of Luxembourg.

One of the most quirky units of the Belgian military are the Chasseurs Ardennais (litteraly Ardennes Hunters), a mechanized infantry battalion known (among other things) for their oversized Basque-style green berets and their wild boar mascots...

Sounds like a nicely characterful unit for a Glory based campaign! A while back, when I saw Khurasan Sepulvedans Jungle Fighters, I thought their berets to be a little too large... Sounds like I got just the right use for them, no? Meet the Arden Rangers, an elite (but not SF) unit of the Arden National Guard (ANG).

Khurasan Sepulvedan Jungle Fighters. Picture from manufacturer website.

The Sepulvedan Provisional Army Regulars can then either be used as alternate pose (Chasseurs wearing helmets) or as another ANG unit. Same thing for the Sepulvedan Resistance and horse-mounted scouts which will make good irregulars or militia!

Add your choice of vehicles, some French Foreign Legion allies (GZG's for example), the odd USMC advisors team and, together with a DPRG force, you've got everything you need for the Second Glory War!

Tomorrow's Wars - Democratic People's Republic of Glory (DPRG) - North Korean in spaaaaace!

One of GZG DPRG packs. Picture from manufacturer's website.

Having recently received By Dagger and Talon, and reread Tomorrow's Wars background... While I had initially pegged one of the main faction, the Democratic People's Republic of Glory (DPRG), as "Chineses in space", the concomitant release of Khurasan ultra-modern North-Koreans made me reconsider...

Ground Zero Games actually has an officially licensed range of Tomorrow's Wars miniatures, including some DPRG infantry. And although I'm pretty sure they'll be up to GZG standards and impeccable sculpts and casting, they don't "sing" to me and my feeling is "just another line of near-future infantry".

 The DPRG fields two main tiers of troops: the Democratic People's Army (DPA) is "a mixture of conscipts and volunteer and is haphazaedly trained and equipped" while the Democratic People's Guard is "comprised entirely of volunteers and soldiers cherry-picked from DPA's best units" (quotes from Tomorrow War's rulebook).

Khurasan North-Koreans in flapped hats, also available in helmets.
Picture from manufacturer's website.

See me coming? In my imagination, the DPA does now look like Khurasan North-Korean, while the DPG will equipped with the Nova Respublik Crimson Army equipment...

Sure they've got 20th century AK-Something, but honestly, with the similarity between the 40s AK-47 and the 90s AK-101, it wouldn't stretch my disbelief too much to have DPA fielding a AK-200 or 300 and call it a re-chambered, polymer-made, possibly 3D-print low-cost high-reliability (no-so-)near-future weapon. Just paint them something less middle-of-the-20th-century (i.e. loose the wooden parts). Which is exactly the road Tomorrow's Wars takes: the Imperial Russians use AK-200 Advanced Combat Rifles and DPRG a local knock-off, the AK-400.

With plenty of near-future not-russians vehicles to choose you've got pretty much you need for a full DPRG contigent. Some favorites of mine: the variants of the Red Banner MBT will make great Chonma-Ho or Dear Leader, the new not-BTR is exactly what the DPA needs and the not-Hind doesn't really fit any official DPRG  vehicle, but it's too good of a model not to use!

Nothing ground breaking in all that rambling, but chalk it on sheer personal preferences, Soviets in spaces wasn't doing anything for me while North-Koreans in Space has me all excited... 

Khurasan Nova Respublik infantry.Picture from manufacturer's website.

I'll probably add a third tier of troops: irregular peasant soldier's, using some Vietnam-era VC minis (maybe those) as cheap canon fodder, or alternatively has insurgents for some internal policing actions.

What would be cool to go with those (John: hint)...

• A couple of Nova Respublik troops with the the NK flapped hats would be really cool and enhance (like it needs it!) both that range sexiness  on its own and it's compatibility with the NK.
• A couple of caracterfull VIP (Dear Leader and wife) would make great characters, objectives, pulp vilains... Something a bit like those excellent African dictator, wife and kid (28mm unfortunately) by Matakishi's Tea House. 
• And maybe a couple of female body guards (parading with leg above the waist would be funny, but not terribly usefull on a game table; I'd rather go for some sensible pose).

What's in the box? GZG Spider Drones

Another short review of minis I intend to use for the Organization of Unobtainium Exporting Planets before they proceed to the painting facility.

While the CMG RAL were an "of course" choice for a droid army, I wasn't too sure about what to use for not-destroyer-droids though... Most of the GZG range legged drones seemed a bit too near-future for this (plenty of use for other forces though!)

That is until I took a closer look at those little guys!

The Robot Army of the Organization of Unobtainium Exporting Planets

Mini Metal Mayhem logo for their
Interstellar Mining and Extraction
Consortium...

Another army idea for my 15mm setting, blatantly inspired by another trade federation robotic army! The Organization of Unobtainium Exporting Planets (O.U.E.P.) is nominally part of my "alien empire" meta-faction but do show a significant dose of separatist ambitions (we don't want to close any game option)...

The O.U.E.P. has always had a policy of preferring robotic military forces over living ones (something about cost efficiency and no moral dilemma about fighting over natural resources).

The goal here (just like with my not-Tau) is emphatically NOT to model a 15mm Star Wars Droid army, but to use readily available minis to create an army that plays and feels like it without going crazy converting and sculpting stuff (or pestering mini makers to develop my very own fetish line, that just happen to be heavily licensed) to get a perfect scaled down facsimile... I actually like the generic fell better: I don't mind mix-matching not-universes like I would the originals.

20K - A 15mm not-Tau battleforce for $55

The initial idea for this post came from an old (july 2011) article on Dropship Horizon about building armies from incomplete lines... 

Tau Battleforce (minus the drones) painted and photographed by Paul at theunrealisticartist.com,
all 15mm equivalent pictures from the manufacturers websites; 3 packs of Ygs, 2 of Meso Nai,
1 of  Gitungi, 1 Battlesuit and 1 Grav APC: $50 (add $5 for a pack of drones)

Near Infinity - Another 15mm Starter Army: Yun Jing

All pictures from the manufacturers websites (Infinity, Khurasan, Peter Pig, Critical Mass Games, Rebel Miniatures) except the Ground Zero Games Japanese Power Armour which come from Dropship Horizon.

Second instalment of my Near Infinity series: a selection of 15mm stand-in for a Yun Jing Infinity Starter Army: