15mm Battle Report - Control Battalion vs. GZG NAC

A couple weeks back we played an enjoyable game using our house rules, "Red Storm!", updated for use in a sci-fi setting. Greg brought out his awesome "Control Battalion" army and I used some new figures I had gotten from a German TMP member - some very nicely painted GZG NAC and APCs - along with a few I painted especially for the game. The action centred around a sludge production facility on (where else) Toxo IV....

A team of NAC engineers started the game at the sludge plant. Their goal was to retrieve the production data slates and take them off board. I guess the wi-fi was down - but why would they have that giant dish??

The engineer figures are from Rebel Miniatures and their transport is actually a repainted Matchbox vehicle found at Wal-Mart :-)

The rest of the NAC force arrived in transports (mildly converted 1/87 "Fuchs" APCs from Siku). Their goal was to protect the engineers from the approaching Control Battalion forces and facilitate their escape off-table.

NAC transports approach the sludge plant.

But Control Battalion has gotten there first! Cleverly, they fire on and destroy the engineers' transport.

As the engineers scramble to retrieve the data slates, the supporting NAC force hurriedly deploys. A Control tank has just destroyed one of their transports.

View from the Control side. Riflethings are taking cover in the cactus while their armour lights up the helpless softskin truck...

... then blows sky high! What happened??

It was Brian's cleverly deployed NAC heavy weapons team. Brian turned out to be the star general of this game. After dropping off its section, his transport cruised around for a bit, then positioned itself to retrieve the retreating engineers and secure a NAC victory. But we're getting ahead of ourselves a bit...

The situation at the sludge plant. Control has broken through the perimeter and the NAC tries desperately to stem the tide. The few surviving engineers are in full flight.

Brian's section moves up to provide fire support.

Endgame. Brian's APC has made its way to the ad-hoc rendezvous point to pick up the engineers and data slates. Control has been pinned in the middle due to some hot fire from NAC anti-tank weapons.

The APC high-tails it with its iron-ring wearing passengers ;-)

Quite a fun game - thanks to Greg for bringing his awesome Control guys and to the lads for coming out. I'm becoming more a convert to individually based 15mm figures with each game we play...

Another Control Battalion Vehicle

Control vehicle for Control Battalion

Another random bit from the painting table finished off, and another piece for Control Battalion's motor pool.  Keeping with my whole "The Future Is Now" approach to Control Battalion vehicles, this is an IDF Nagma Sho't, a converted Centurion MBT (see here for what these are supposed to look like). It is essentially the chassis and body of a Centurion MBT with the turret removed and a new superstructure put into place. The model is from Peter Pig's excellent 15mm collection.

Mobile community outreach for Control Operational Groups

I believe the IDF intended this vehicle to be an extra tough IFV/APC, and they saw some action during the invasion of Lebanon in the 1980s. Although it is an old vehicle, I thought it looked sinister and made a good candidate to join Control Battalion on the gaming table.  This will serve as a command and control vehicle, assisting Control Battalion columns with their various community outreach tasks,such a mobile water-boarding of trouble makers, on-site lobotomies, and providing roach-food-pellets for the Control Things themselves.

This model is from Peter Pig's 1980s IDF line of 15mm figures

Once again it is great that Khurasan made tank commander figures for their Control Battalion line - really helps to "sell" the model. It already looks a little creepy, and popping a "Tankthing" only enhances that appearance.

Riflething assisting the Tankthing in keeping a lookout for trouble

I don't know how well this vehicle performed for the IDF, but they seemed to approve of the general concept of switching over old MBT chassis into IFVs - check out the Achzarit.

Peter Pig does a great job modelling stowage etc. on to these vehicles

I am still looking for the right kind of model to serve as the IFVs for my Control Battalion forces...stay tuned for further random entries on that!

Control Battalion Armour - 15mm Sci Fi

Control Battalion armour - 1/87 scale fun for the table top!

The random summer painting entries continue - now up is some armour for my 15mm sci-fi Control Battalion troops. I am one of those gamers that believes "the future is now" when it comes to vehicles for sci-fi gaming.  Some don't like that - they want all their sci-fi vehicles to look like floating pill bottles or glowing orbs or whatever.  But I still love the look of a current tank, hyped up with extra crap like reactive armour, jammers, retrofitted engines and optics, to fit the look of the future.  These models are painted with this in mind!

Control Battalion wants to work collaboratively with you...

I wanted some specific armoured vehicles for my Khurasan Control Battalion 15mm troops.  The Control Battalion are some of the coolest looking sci-fi troops in any scale - soulless and eerie.  They needed some tanks to match. In my recent entry on Khurasan's T-90A I explained how spooky the tank looked, so the T-90 was a natural for promotion to Control Battalion duty.  Throw in this f***ed up Russian thing, and I was sold!

A BMP-T - perfect for Control Battalion!

These are 1/87 scale model kits from Arsenal M.  I learned about them from the incredible TacoBat. I had been looking for a T-90 in 15mm scale for some time, and these popped up.  I ordered them from a retailer in Germany.  These were the only version of the T-90 and BMP-T I could find in anything close to 15mm scale at the time.  They arrived in due course, and naturally sat forever in my "pending pile" as I was busy with other projects!  Finally got to them this month.

The "T-900" - an ideal Control Battalion platform

These kits are model kits - not gaming kits.  They are NOT for the faint of heart.  They are not cheap (not Forgeworld level pricing or anything like that, just not cheap), and they are a f****ing pain in the ass to put together. I have the modelling patience of a gnat - and these take a lot of work.  The chains of swear words that came out of my mouth when these f***ing things were being built rival anything the hobby gods have ever been berated with at my place.

Got that?

Small pieces, anyone? F**K!!!

The box hides the challenge inside...

The BMP-T waiting for basing and primer...very thin guns on that turret

They came together slowly but surely.  Painting them was delicate - they are made of a fairly sturdy plastic-resin, a kind of what-if-Finecast-didn't-suck material.  But they are still delicate - the BMP-T in particular is really fiddly when it comes to some of the turret components.  I hope they survive some gaming...

The 125mm main gun is delightfully oversized for sci-fi purposes

I can't dispute the casting quality - the detail is superb, great edges and lots of details.  And in case of the BMP-T, you got some brass bits to represent some of the armoured grating!! Nice touch.

Armed to the teeth - the BMP-T

Twin 30mm cannons, four AT missiles, and two 30mm automatic grenade launchers.  Ideal for peaceful resolution of issues.

I find it easy to imagine the T-90 in Control Battalion service - a sort of "T-900".  Instead of firing "Refleks" ATGM rounds, they are firing 125mm depleted-unobtanium rounds, coated with baby-seal-liver residue for extra hitting power, at their enemies.  The "Shtora" system, rather than trying to jam ATGMs, would actually project harmful radiation flashes at Control Battalion opponents, radiation the Control Battalion troops themselves see no effect from thanks to their genetically engineered makeup.

Khurasan Control Battalion vehicle crewman in the commander's hatch

I added a Control Battalion tank commander (a thoughtful set available from Khurasan) to one of the T-90s to try and help make the connection between the tanks and the troops.

The BMP-T looks like it rolled right into a sci-fi game.  Designed sometime around 2005 as mostly a prototype notion for the Russian Federal army, it is armed with AT missiles, grenade launchers, MGs and 30mm cannons.  I believe the BMP-T was conceived in the wake of the experience of the Russian army in Chechnya, especially places like Grozny, which were hard on armour.  This is supposed to be a kind of "tank escort" or "tank support" platform.  I don't think it is in any kind of serious service with the Russian army yet.

Control section on maneuvers with the BMP-T

Screw the Russian army - this thing screams Control Battalion.  Like the T-90, this thing sits perfectly in my estimation of an awesome sci-fi tank.  It looks like exactly the kind of vehicle that would accompany Control Units on their missions to establish order through force.  You know, in case "negotiations" broke down...

Khurasan T-90A on the right - Arsenal M 1/87 T-90 on the left

I ordered these models well before Khurasan came out with it's own T-90.  Naturally going with Khurasan tanks for Khurasan infantry might make sense, but the Khurasan T-90 is smallish for sci-fi purposes - again, nothing wrong with the scaling by Khurasan - extremely accurate in my view - just small for sci-fi.  Plus it would not fit with the 1/87 BMP-T. So I stuck with the Arsenal M T-90s for this project.

Control section on maneuvers with a T-900

I find the 1/87 tanks look much more imposing beside the 15mm sci-fi troops, and whereas the actual Khurasan T-90A fits the compact design philosophy of the late Soviet Union/Russia, this larger model looks great with the ominous Control Battalion troops. On the 1/87 vehicle, the road wheels go almost half-way up the the height of the average Control Battalion infantryman - very cool!

But if you are looking for a 15mm T-90 for a modern project, go with the Khurasan tank.  I would only consider the Arsenal M kit if you want a larger tank for whatever reason, have a lot of patience and some money you want to waste...go for these suckers! They nearly made me snap my crayons, but it was fun in the end!

Another view of the T-900

I am still trying to find the right APCs/IFVs for the control battalion troops.  I have a few candidates in mind - stay tuned for details! And for more random summer painting...

Road trip! and 15mm Tomorrow's War batrep

Imagine Games & Hobbies, yesterday

So last Thursday, Conscript Perry hosted the weekly game at his part-time (and very cool) place of employment, Imagine Games & Hobbies in the Exchange district of downtown Winnipeg. Conscript Greg and I brought out our opposing forces (Control Battalion and Earth Force, respectively) as well as some scatter terrain for the game.

I was actually pretty impressed with the terrain board that we got to use at the store - it was a 6x4 board with beach on two sides. I'd just happened to bring out palm trees for the vegetation component so it worked out perfectly. We set up a small urban area around a chemical refinery which was conveniently placed to discharge maximum effluent into the local aqueous ecosystem... 'cause that's the way Binary Petroleum rolls ;-)

I brought out the rusty shanties - still very happy with how these came out...

 ... and Greg brought some very nice Miniature Building Authority middle-eastern stuff, it all looked very cool indeed.

On to the game... the scenario was that the Earth Force had been ordered to take control of the area. Unfortunately the Control Battalion had gotten there first. You can see the CB initial positions in the photo above - CB squad on the roof of the building at centre left, with their MBT behind that. The rest of the CB deployed to the northeast of that position. EF would enter on the road at bottom right. The EF had 10 turns to break the CB force.
  

EF Merka tank takes point on the drive up "Hell's Highway"...

EF APCs roll out behind the Merka. They take a hard right and cut across to engage the rest of the CB force.

In an exchange of fire with the CB tank, the latter is immobilized but on the next turn the Merka is destroyed as it tries to withdraw out of LOS.

 EF APC comes face to face with its CB opposite number...

EF APC engages not one but two enemy APCs... (second one visible at top right of photo).

Meanwhile the lead EF element's transport has been destroyed.

Dice come up big for the EF in a shot at a CB transport AFV...

... as it is comprehensively destroyed!

EF infantry are pinned down by CB defensive fire.

Meanwhile, EF infantry have deployed and close assaulted the lone CB squad in the building just in front of the CB tank. The assault was successful - the CB squad was outnumbered and already had suffered some casualties from shooting. Hot rolling by the EF carried the day. The victors then went on overwatch...

... to support their comrades across the way, who had set up an assault on the CB in the building at centre.

The CB force had suffered enough casualties at that point that their higher command ordered them to withdraw, leaving the objective to the EF.

Victory for the Earth Force! Kill the planet with toxic emissions!!  Thanks to Perry for letting us play at his joint, it was fun - and especially to Greg for running the scenario and for bringing out his scary Control Battalion guys!