More Soviets for Team Yankee - Hinds, Shilkas, Acacias and Infantry

Unfortunately my painting (as well as blog posting) hit a bit of a dry spell over the summer, but I'm trying to make an effort to turn that around. This starts with picking up a paint brush. This week I've finished some models for my Team Yankee Soviet forces that I wanted to post. Conscript Greg has more Soviets than we'd ever use in one game, but already having painted West Germans and British, I wanted to have a small "opfor" that could ally with Greg's in a large game, or that could even stand for itself if Greg's models aren't available. I started with the excellent Yuri's Wolves boxed set and have continued from there...

I picked up two Hind attack helicopters, just because Hinds! The Battlefront models are awesome of course and embody the extreme menace of these Soviet death machines!
 

The anti-aircraft defence role for the battalion is filled by two ZSU23-4 "Shilka" vehicles. These models aren't from Battlefront but are some excellent and inexpensive models from Zvezda. It's somewhat fiddly to assemble the guns, but other than that the kits are great, and represent excellent value for money, especially when compared with Battlefront's premium pricing.
 

The latest addition is a battery of 2S3 "Acacia" 152mm SP guns. I'm a sucker for SP artillery and knew I wanted to add either these or the smaller "Carnations"... the sheer size of the pieces, plus the availability of special "Krasnopol" ammunition tilted the choice in favour of the 2S3s.

Wicked!!

Of course the big hump to get over when painting the battalion was getting the infantry company done. Awhile back I'd bought Battlefront's "Motor Rifle Company" pack to paint. These are really nifty models. They come on sprues and are made of semi-hard plastic. Downside is that they can be slightly bendy, but this is outweighed in my mind by the fact that they require NO cleanup, they're lightweight, and they are relatively inexpensive. You get enough figures in the pack to make a whole Motor Rifle Company with attached AA, plus a significant number of extra figures - the Company is 79 figures but I reckon you get nearly 90 in the box.

The company includes nine RPG-7 stands.

A large base with the attached SA-14 "Gremlin" AA missile team.
 

Large bases also accommodate the two included PKM light machinegun teams.
 

 

 Ten AK-74 assault rifle teams make up the bulk of the company.

Plus the battalion commander brandishing his pistol of course!

The infantry received a basic paint job as I really wanted to just get them done. The base uniform colour is GW XV-88 (ugh) with web gear highlighted Zamesi Desert. Helmets and ordnance is Catachan Green. Rifle furniture is Mournfang Brown. Skintone is Cadian Flesh. After the basecoating the whole model was washed with Agrax Earthshade.

The models were glued to popsicle sticks for painting and once completed, were superglued to the supplied bases. I really like how Battlefront now mold their bases with holes to accommodate the round figure bases, making it much easier to position the figures and do the groundwork on the base.

Of course, being that these are "motor rifle" troops they do require "motors"! I picked up two boxes of BMPs last weekend on a Black Friday trip to the States and that should give me just enough, when added to the two I've already done up. After that, another five T-64s (also Black Friday booty) should pretty much finish up the battalion.

PrairieCon XXXIX (yes that's "39")

This year, in accordance with ancient tradition, we loaded up the wagons and headed out to PrairieCon in Brandon, Manitoba. Conscripts Greg, Byron, and me each ran a game, and we were pretty chuffed to meet up with Original Conscript Curt who came out from Regina to play in our games and run an amazing game of his own just for us!

Here's a view of the Assiniboine Community College gym, which hosted many of PrairieCon's miniatures games. Fortunately for us, our games were tucked away in a quiet corner of the cafeteria upstairs :-)

First up on the weekend menu was my Battlestar Galactica fleet-scale game using the Colonial Blattlefleet ruleset. Due to a bit of confusion in the convention program, some of the people who signed up thought they would be playing the BSG boardgame which is... quite different from Colonial Battlefleet (they assured me that they had fun anyway).

The scenario fit into the general PrairieCon theme this year, which was "It's a Trap." The Colonials had grabbed a breather to refuel and refit but were surprised at anchor by a Cylon fleet and had to make good their escape.

The Colonials were deployed roughly around the planet with the Cylons split between the long table edges. The Colonials had to escape from either or both of those long edges.

As in the TV show, once the fleets were engaged the missiles began to fly fast and furious!

Battlestars launched their Vipers!

Then it really got fun - close quarters battle between man and machine! We found that the Battlestars were pretty impregnable though - the amount of point defense and flak they could throw out made it very difficult for the (admittedly far more numerous) Cylon Raiders and Heavy Raiders to deal them much damage.

However, as someone once said "quantity has a quality all its own" and if you get enough Raiders (red dice) into action...

...stuff is bound to blow up!

The ended as a Colonial victory... if you can count the loss of one of the three Colonial squadrons as a "victory". The fact is, every Colonial ship destroyed and crewman killed is a loss that can't be replaced. Cylons can always produce more robots and ships...

Conscript Byron ran a game of the Two Fat Lardies' "Through the Mud and the Blood":

The year is 1915, the Germans have just launched their first chlorine gas attack and pushed the Allies back.  The Canadian forces of the 10th and 16th Battalions have been ordered into Kitchener’s Wood in a counter attack in the middle of the night with no reconnaissance.  What could possibly go wrong?

Here we see the French holed up in a ruined farm, ready to defend against the German attack / bug out (delete as appropriate).

Byron ran the game with a masterful hand...

The accessories he made for the game are outstanding in quality. Here we see one of his custom cards. The unit blinds are also pretty striking.

Next up was Greg's game: Team Yankee based on the battle of Blickheim in Macksey's excellent book "First Clash":

The year is 1986, and the forces of the Warsaw Pact have invaded West Germany.  NATO allies respond, Canada among them.  The 4th Canadian Mechanized Brigade Group moves into position to counter the advance of the Soviet 1st Guards tank division.  Leopard C1s and infantry of the Royal Canadian Regiment will clash with T-72s and Soviet Motor Rifle troops! 

In keeping with the convention theme ("it's a trap", remember?) Greg's scenario had the Soviets advancing pretty much unopposed towards a town, only to be ambushed by a mighty Canadian armoured squadron! Here are a couple of photos but Greg has done a comprehensive battle report, found here.

One last thing... I was pretty pleased to be able to pick up almost 30 classic AD&D modules from the collection of an old buddy and his younger brother. Nice eh? They were expensive, but I'm sure I could get something back from the duplicates if I wanted (I now own three copies each of "Tomb of Horrors" and "Expedition to the Barrier Peaks") and buying them all in one go saves future time and effort in looking for the ever-elusive "bargains"... at least that's what I told myself at the time :-)

Prairiecon 2018 - Battle of Blickheim, a "Team Yankee" Game

Ouch! Tough outing for the Royal Canadian Dragoons at Prairiecon...victory came at a price

So another "Prairiecon" has come and gone! This is Western Manitoba's main gaming event, held every summer in Brandon, Manitoba.  Conscript Dallas has been involved with Prairiecon for...longer than I can recall, so I will leave origin content to him, but as a group a few of us have been going to Prairiecon every year for...wow, something like 19 or 20 years, with Dallas even more? It's a real tradition, one I look forward to every year.

This year I am pleased to share reports of a heavy Conscript presence at the event, with three different demonstration games.  Dallas ran a fleet-scale "Battlestar Galatica" game.  Byron ran an exciting "Through The Mud And The Blood" WW1 game.  Our great friend Curt came out from Regina to host a special game of "Spectre".  And if that wasn't enough, we also ran a game of "Team Yankee".  That's a LOT of gaming!

The table at the outset of the game...the peace of the village of Blickheim will soon be shattered...

For today I'll touch on the "Team Yankee" game that was played on the Sunday morning at Prairiecon. The game was an opportunity to put the new Canadian units I had been working through the winter into play on the table.  The timing was fortuitous given that Battlefront has recently "released" its new Team Yankee book, "Free Nations".

Soviet elements prepare to move out on the assault

The scenario is we played was derived from the battle reported in the (fictional) book "First Clash" by Kenneth Macksey, which features the 4th Canadian Mechanized Brigade Group in action against a Soviet ground assault set in a fiction Cold-War-Gone-Hot in the 1980s.  In Macksey's story, a moment in the battle arrives when the Canadian line starts to buckle, and the Canadian commander unleashes his reserve armoured Squadron, catching the Soviets by surprise, and blocking their breakthrough.

Soviet advance elements approach the McPizza king...they would soon learn the blue "objective marker" was, in fact, a NATO pre-registered artillery target!

Since the theme for Prairiecon 2018 was "It's a trap!", I set up the scenario with some mild deception.  The Soviet players, controlling a T-72 battalion with some attached infantry and AAA support, were told they needed to clear the village of Blickheim (home, naturally, to a critical 'McPizza King' location) of a lingering Canadian rear-guard, that the NATO forces were in retreat.  They would have eight turns to accomplish this.

The Canadians appear! Leopards and M150s move into firing positions

The Canadians, on the other hand, learned they had the opportunity to arrive from a totally unexpected table edge at a turn of their choosing - they have been working themselves into position through the late hours of the evening and into the morning, with the Soviet forces unaware their flank was vulnerable. This was a great advantage - which the Canadians would need, as the Leopard C1 tanks do not dominate the tabletop the way other modern NATO MBTs would in games of "Team Yankee".

Soviet armour burning after the ambush...

The game was well-attended, with several guests and observers participating.  Dallas led the Canadian side, with help from Byron and Curt, while Dave V led the Soviet side, with support from a few convention-goers.

Leopards try to move out...the obstacles ended up being tough to overcome, due to some bad luck with the dice...and you can see the Soviet's put an artillery aiming point on one of the bogged-down tanks, causing Canadian frustration and knocking out a couple of Leopards

The Soviet column rolled up aggressively, and uncertain of the location of targets, started to hit the town with heavy fire.  On the third turn, however, the Canadians emerged on their flank, and opened fire. A pair of US Cobra helos came along in turn four to add to the carnage.  Under Curt's careful guidance, they picked off several T-72s with TOW missiles before the ZSUs finally got to them.

Many Soviet tanks and BMPs were lost, but critical morale roles kept the large Soviet tank company in play to the bitter end.  The remaining T-72s dished out heavy return fire, knocking out many Leopard C1s.  The Soviet infantry also struck hard, neutralizing a bold flank maneuver by a Leopard C1 troop with their RPGs.  As the number of losses on the Canadian side mounted, it was in doubt for NATO...

Soviet infantry prepare their AT weapons...

But in turn eight, the Soviet side finally broke...a real nail-biter, and a pyrrhic victory as the Canadians were reduced to a mechanized infantry platoon (which was a little low on the 'mechanized' part due to losses in the fighting), a pair of Lynx recon vehicles, and a pair of surviving Leopard C1s, all that remained of the 12 tanks which started the ambush...

A Canadian Leopard C1 troop shows the impact of losses from infantry AT weapons...

A big "thank you" to everyone who came out to play, particularly to our great friend Curt, who made the trip from Regina.  Work has been very, very busy over the past month and a half (and as you can see, the blog posting and painting progress has been very sparse) and it was SO great to dive into a bunch of gaming and see so many friends once again.

Yuri's Wolves and Luftwaffe Tornado for Team Yankee

Over at Conscript HQ we're getting ready to stage a big Team Yankee game at Legions Maxximus (nee Legio-Con) next weekend. So I've been motivated to paint a bit of Soviet armour to balance out the masses of lovely West German and Canadian models that Greg's been turning out.

I picked up the new "Yuri's Wolves" boxed set. What a bargain! Five T-64s, two BMP-1s or -2s, decals, crew, AND a mini rulebook for less than $60. That's gotta be a deal in anyone's book.

Here we go with the BMP-2s.

Great little models, easy to assemble and accurate enough for me.

The models were sprayed black, then basecoated with a spray of Krylon Camouflage ultra-flat green - just about perfect for Soviet armour. Wash of Agrax Earthshade, drybrush with Ushabti Bone... tracks painted rusty brown, dust weathering completed with more Ushabti, lenses painted, done.

If the BMPs are nice, the T-64s are AWESOME. These are the machines you want as a Soviet player: a few more points than T-72s, but better armour and the amazing range of the AT-8 "Kobra/Songster" ATGM make this tank the one to have.

Paint technique was identical to the BMP-2s.

Nice, eh??

Now let's balance things out a bit with some NATO love. Here's a Tornado attack aircraft.

This is a 1/144 scale plastic model kit purchased off eBay for a very reasonable price, at least when compared to what Battlefront want for their resin aircraft.

Not being an expert in ground attack loadouts I just assembled the plane per instructions. Swing wings were fixed in position as well. Paint scheme was cribbed from the excellent "Wings Palette" website with kit decals. Sorted!

Well, as noted, I hope to get these models into action next week at Legions Maxximus. See you there!