Force on Force - books and videos

Force on Force

I’ve been shopping on books as they say, reading and watching videos..

Firstly Osprey apparently re-released some older titles, including Russia’s War in Afghanistan (1986).  It is clear from the text that this was written whilst the war was ongoing (Russia withdrew in February 1989) and information (as is probably the case with anything involving the modern Russian military) is somewhat patchy.   From a modelling viewpoint then enough to paint Russian troops.

The other Osprey to drop though my letter box this month is Russian Security and Paramilitary Forces since 1991.   I ordered this in advance of publication so it has only been out for a week or so, but it looks like a good one on a first glance through.   

 

The Book Depository had a  bit of a sale (around 30-35% off) Force on Force titles and I took the opportunity to get a couple more of the expansions:

Day of the Rangers – the cattle raid scenario in this is what I played at a convention that got me first interested in Force on Force as a set of rules, whilst the movie Black Hawk Down has long since been a favourite. 

The other was Enduring Freedom – The war in Afghanistan.

Of the others that leaves the following which are of little interest except possibly the Vietnam book, which having had the chance to look through and hear reviews on may be the weakest of the various books:

Ambush Valley - Vietnam –

Road to Bagdhad – Iraq 2003

Fallujah – Iraq 2004

Cold War gone Hot – Mid 1980’s Cold War

I've only had the books a couple of days but have already been through Day of the Rangers listing the scenarios and figures needed.   Often this comes down to a US Platoon of assorted composition but say 30-40 figures and lots and lots of Somalis, especially with the random Somali reinforcements rule.   I think this may be a somewhat longer term project than I first thought, probably to provide some variety on the painting desk.  

Which brings me to some videos I ended up watching....

Part 1 (of 3) sets the background to the French in Mali in 2013 and the "live action footage" starts at around 2 minute 30 seconds.  All three parts are worth watching I felt and some of the scenes like the Malian soldiers relaxing and then in combat bring home that there - in the African context - then mixed camouflage uniforms and equipment are very much the order of the day.   

And then this - Danish Soldiers fighting the Taliban...

Gutsy stuff to be running anywhere when there are bullets flying around, and the sound of the Squad Assault weapon opening up at 2 minutes in...   Not hard to see why the Germans regarded the rest of the squad as ammunition carriers for the MG42.  

Lastly, another book. £1 from our local Poundland (where everything is £1) - where the author brings home the reality of TOE lists which we gamers are so concerned with - he is charged with forming a platoon from scratch which never seems to be fully up to strength and gets the wanted and unwanted, never seems to have enough equipment to fully go round and ends up with some very grubby jobs..

Attacking the lead and paper mountain

The last two years have seen me buy stuff but generally not much chance to paint it or read it.  Now that things have quietened down on the domestic front and I'm no longer so tired from lengthy car journeys to and fro the Midlands I've started to sort it.

First the lead and resin mountain:

Bins labelled - Samurai, VBCW, ECW, FIW, Force on Force, Ancients and Scenery pretty much reflecting my current interests.  I remembered buying most of it - the exceptions being some of the Ainsty resin scenery when I was in my "scatter scenery" mode, and some barricades from Fantascene and some FIW Indians from AW Miniatures

Then onto the book mountain:

I've skimmed through some of these but that's all.  Again, the rules and reference books pretty much reflect the miniatures buying.  

Too hot to paint currently but clearing the painting desk is next.  

Muskets and Tomahawks Inspiration and a pleasant surprise

I said a few posts ago that I was starting to try and sort things out and decide what periods did I actually want to game.  I think I'm currently at 15+ different genres with not really a fully painted army for any of them.  Lots of bits of armies, and lots of unfinished armies at the "8 colour" stage so that they were competition legal (flesh, bases, trousers, jackets, armour, weapons, hair, shields) but not really very detailed.

The French Indian Wars is one of those that's going to be staying due to the appeal of the Muskets and Tomahawks Rules from Studio Tomahawk although largely promoted by Gripping Beast and North Star Miniatures in the UK.

The interest goes back much, much further but what it needed was a set of rules to capture the flavour of early books and television.  I had bought "Ranger" from Partizan Press but the emphasis was on larger battles (with regiments of say 24 figures) with regular troops alongside the Indians and Rangers.  I wanted the enlarged skirmish game that is the subject of Muskets and Tomahawks.
 

I must have been nine or ten (we moved around my tenth birthday) and I had the book at the 'old house" when I got a rather super book.

Whilst the BBC version of Last of the Mohicans was on TV in 1971 with Phillip Madoc.  The book has survived with its spine intact unlike the companion volume of "The Finding Out Book of Battles".  Both books were illustrated by Ronald Embleton who also wrote the Pioneers book.  The guy behind Galloping Major miniatures is also a long term fan of the pictures and also has the book.  What I've just realised as I've checked the web link is that he appears to have chosen the same picture as one of the favourites out of the book.  

Forty years ago America (I hadn't appreciated that we might actually mean Canada then) was still somewhat exotic - Jumbo Jets were relatively new and I had little realistic chance of actually seeing America.  I've still yet to see the Great Lakes area but have now visited Boston and the site of Bunker Hill, as well other Revolutionary War sites such as Lexington and Concorde and places on Paul Revere's ride.  

As part of sorting out then I've been taking stock of books:

  

Contents

Foreword · Part I: The French-Indian War 1754–1760 · Part II: The American Revolution 1775–1783 · Part III: The War of 1812 · Bibliography · Index

(This is a somewhat meaty tome that I've only really just dipped into, but seems promising

I bought this a long while ago because it was cheap and interesting.   Rather scholarly, its good at portraying Indian life and details but is short on what I want as a 28mm gamer - pictures of different types of warpaint.  The Galloping Major website has lots of useful information on painting Indians.   

These two were bought during my "Pirate" phase, out of sheer interest for what the Colonies had in terms of troops.  Given the time period covered then only of partial relevence, and volume 3, because of the Ranger Element has direct relevence to the M&T period.  

The Ranger book is one that no self respecting M&T enthusiast should be without.  The Raid book has lots of ideas, pictures and maps but is one to take slowly, probably with a map to hand to understand the relevence and locations.

A couple of very useful books and whilst the emphasis (especially in the French book) is on larger forts which are unlikely to appear on an M&T tabletop except as a backdrop there are a couple of very nice black & white drawings of smaller fortfied villages/hamlets which are very useful. 

The pleasant surprise was Redcoat, which was a book I'd bought from one of the online bargain book sellers that I deal with.  I'd never had time to look at it in depth (thing with the book clearance trade is buy it when you see it as it may not be there when you go back later) and had always put it with my Napoleonic books.  Sorting those out for storage though, I discovered (pleasant surprise) that it is a rebadged British Redcoat 1740-1793 and large amounts for the French Indian War and later the AWI. 

 

If  I had to rank them in terms of value for money (and I've taken to buying some books second hand now to save money) then:

1: Ranger book and Raid book

2: Forts books

3: Woodland Indians, Colonial Troops.  

No French Uniform book reviewed as I'm still waiting for that to arrive, and the redcoat book needs to be looked at in detail.  

Next, Movies...

Probably "The" movie to watch with its haunting Clannad soundtrack, although like me you have probably seen the best bets as short clips previously.  Lots of fighting, lots of redcoats, lots of Indians.  Touch of romance and some excellent shooting.  

Battle of the Brave is set in New France in what appears to be the Quebec area to judge from a siege scene.   First and foremost this is a tangled love story with betrayals and accusations.  Not much in the way of battle scenes or even shooting whilst I'm not sure I spotted a white coated French Regular in the entire movie nor a tomahawk.  Lots of Plot but not a great amount of action (other than brawling and sword fights etc), and lots of scenery to look at.  I got mine for a few pounds secondhand and at that price I felt it well worth it but pay more than £5 and I suspect you will be disappointed given the advertising statements made about it.  

Lead and book mountains: the way forward

In the last issue (no34) (as it is to merge with Miniature Wargames) of Battlegames, Mike Siggins was musing about too many hobbies, too little cash and too little time, along with consideration of what figures was he actually using of late.

On the Very British Civil War forum there was a post about plans for 2013.   I think its that "spring clean" mentality alongside that "so little time, so much gaming I want to do" issues.

I did see a picture once of Mike's lead mountain.   Here's part of mine:

To be far, much of the stuff in the bottom picture is part painted, since that is what I have gamed with and I found the squarish "really useful boxes" to be a reasonably cheap way of storage, since they would generally (lance upright and standard bearers excluded) take cavalry and a Warhammer Ancient Battles 1500 pts army would generally fit in one, or at most two boxes.  More expensive than level arch files, but somewhat more durable and infinitely more stackable.   Foam, whilst nice just takes up too much space.  This is most, but not all of the figures - there are others elsewhere, along with scenery. 

The other thing is the book mountain - rules and historical books.   I seem to have succumbed to various "offers" over the past year, and the following pile are books that I haven't really even glanced through very much.

The left hand side are reference books (along with one work of fiction)

The pile on the right are rules and pretty much reflect my diverse tastes:

Gladiator (Games Workshop)

Hail Ceaser (and army lists) (Warlord) (although you should also add the other big Ancient rules out there of Clash of Empires and War and Conquest).  

Song of Arthur & Merlin (Ganesha Games)

Dux Bellorum (Osprey)

Deus Vult (Fireforge)

Bloody Barons (Peter Pig)

Pike & Shotte (Warlord)

Cutlass (Black Scorpion)

Waterloo (Games Workshop)

.45 Adventure (Ratrap)

Force on Force (plus the supplements Bush War and Classified)

I think it is time to start a bit of a clear out.  Fantasy will be the easiest - I'm very unlikely to play Warhammer Fantasy (for various reasons) and my figures are now "out of date" anyway, although the more knowing GW types refer to them as "classic" I think, rather than "what are they?".  

So, what will I be concentrating on for 2013?

A) Deciding which of the mass combat Ancient's rules I prefer.

B) SAGA armies

C) Muskets and Tomahawks

D) Pike & Shotte

E) Force on Force (Lots of scenarios have small figure count and the rules have lots of interesting ideas).  

March 2013 Current Reading and is a love affair about to end?

So, what have I currently got on the go?

Current top of my list is a book that I got for £1 from Poundland:

This guy tells it as it is; often brutally honest.  I picked this up, given its cheapness and following my recent interest in Force on Force.  Its a tale of daily life in a combat zone, fighting a war that has yet to make it to the silver screen, and yet which at times we already seen through CNN etc.  Recommend for a £1. 

The latest issue of Wargames, Soldiers and Strategy (no 65) arrived on Friday.  I will say straight away that I write the boardgames column for this magazine. 

With a central theme of Biblical warfare then this would always be a weak issue for me, given that I don't go back beyond Imperial Romans - which really means around 40 AD and the invasion of Britain / 70 AD and the Roman Civil Wars.  Yet, there are reviews, painting help, columns by Rick Priestley, Steven MacLauchlan and Richard Clarke, some stuff with actual gaming stats (the AWI game, the chariot race) and other bits of interest (figure storage, in depth look at Deus Vult and a Battlefront thing amongst others),  So, after an hour I still haven't finished it.  

Which brings me to a love affair that may be about the end.   For a few months now I've been thinking that the magazine was going more "White Dwarf" ified, with a big Flames of War emphasis (current owners) battle reports, eye candy pictures, and not an awful lot of actual gaming, and then padded out with regurgitated history, when I would be better off buying the relevant Osprey or two in the first place ?  Is this the historical gaming magazine for the attention span challenged?  

113 Pages:

8 pages - 1066: battle report: lots of 15mm eye candy, but nevertheless a battle report for all that.  Army listings after a fashion(might be appropriate for the rules used) but no real map or starting disposition. 

14 pages - Battle for Hunner Park: lots of 15mm Flames of War Eye, but another battle report.  Map this time but no starting dispositions.  

18 Pages - 1069 - SAGA/Hail Ceaser battle reports, without even giving me the army listings, nor maps and starting dispositions to enable me to refight it.  

4 Pages - Scenery making - the wharf and some other boards.  

8 Pages - building Leonardo Da Vinci's tank.  Interesting enough if somewhat specialist. 

6 Pages - Scalp - FW wars - finally something with bit of gaming substance that I can take away and use rather than just look at. 

6 Pages - Battle of Kut Al MAra - potted history

2 Pages - Siege of Kut Al Mara - back to what I call proper gaming.  

4 Pages - Advertising FOW - back to Vietnam.  

10 Pages -Martinque - Eye candy.  Next issue the battle begins.  Will that mean rules, or a battle report that means more eye candy but little else? 

9 Pages - Egypt for the Egyptians - more potted history with a nod towards some gaming. 

4 Pages - Trip report to Battlefront HQ in New Zealand. 

Remainder will be advertising or editorial.    

Very Glossy but not an awful lot to return to after 30 mins of flick through or use in my own gaming.   Ultimately I want my gaming magazine to have things related to gaming that I can take away and use or learn from: something that battle reports with no maps, no army breakdowns, no starting dispositions don't give me, even they have lots of nice pictures.  And the love affair about to end?  Well, I bought WSS from issue 3 onwards after seeing it in a local newsagents.  Issue 2 was back ordered, and issue number 1 had sold out, although I have it from either EBAY or a bring and buy (I forget which). 

I think last month's was somewhat better I seem to remember