Tourists of Duty or My Time in Vietnam

Before he left Halifax, Rob Swan ran a fun series of Vietnam war games. I think they were partly inspired by the Tour of Duty TV series and were mainly played with the Gi'ac My rule set. I recently was reading my copy of Charlie Company and reflected fondly back on those games. Like the Charlie Company rules, the scenarios that Rob ran were based upon time spent in-country. My character was a US Infantry sergeant who survived his 12 month (game) tour, and was finally on his way home.

Sgt Rockwell, due to his good luck, and seemingly invulnerability started to be referred to as Sgt Rockwell, the latest product of Rockwell Industries. After each game, if your character survived, you received a D6 die roll (1-3 = +1, 4-5 = +2 and 6= +3) to augment the character's stats or skills. I was fairly lucky with my rolls. Victor Charles was not happy that I had survived my tour, and I was a recipient of a personal scenario. A VC hit team was waiting for me at the airport as I prepared to return to the World. These games were long before the digital camera and little, if no record exists of them.

 

Sgt Rockwell leads his squad out of the jungle.

As my contribution I painted up an US Infantry Platoon. I had over forty figures from the Charlie Company line by RAFM. They were divided into three ten man squads, accompanied by an under strength weapons squad and a HQ squad. I built four M113 plastic APCs and a M-48 Patton tank, all ESCI models, purchased from Squadron Shop. I later obtained two 105mm howitzers, which were never assembled or put into the field. Last year when I started to Blog about my WW2 Japanese I dug out the howitzers. I wanted to see how easy they were to assemble compared to  the B.P. Cast model guns. In two words, No Contest.

 

Two 105mm Howitzers with Camp and M-48 Patton Tank

 

Heavy Weapons Squad with M113 APC

(2 Hvy MGs, 2 M-79s, 1 LAW and I Sniper)

 

Understrength HQ Squad. Doc runs towards the Lt.

 

Shavetail used for scale 

(Above M-48 Patton Tank and Below M-88 ARV)

Having the guns on my painting table inspired some eBay purchases, all from the same seller. I won a M-88 Armoured Recovery Vehicle and a fifth M113 APC. I also gained two Roco M113s, but there is such a noticeable difference in scale compared to both the 20mm figures and the other M113 models that I will put these two APCs up for auction. Since there is no other piece to compare it to, I decided to keep the ARV, even though it too is by Roco Minitanks.

I finally painted the arty crews this past weekend and then decided to photograph the complete unit.  I dug out my box of GW plastic palm trees to provide a jungle like back drop.

 2nd Squad exiting a jungle trail. M-48 at the rear of the column.

Ave, Caesar, morituri te salutant

At one point I decided that my Roman Army needed an ancient equivalent of the Army Show. According to Wiedenmann (Emperors and Gladiators 1992) "the military were great aficionados of the games, and supervised the schools. Many schools and amphitheatres were sited at or near military barracks, and some provincial army units owned gladiator troupes".

 I won these twelve figures in an eBay auction, about  five years ago. I do not know the manufacturer but they were made for slot bases.  After getting them half way painted they were put aside and forgotten. (Note: March 14 Today I was looking on-line at the Gladiators sold by Black Tree Designs and I am pretty sure the figures I have are from their line)

Recently I was going through one of my storage bins and found two items to reignite my interest. The first was the SPI Ares game Arena of Death. Arena of Death was a tactical combat system for Dragonquest, the SPI fantasy RPG System. 

The second was an old beat up rule booklet from the early 1980s called RVDIS, The Wooden Sword. rules for Gladiatorial Combat written by Ian Beck. Both sets depend upon a  hexagonal tactical display. RVDIS describes the various gladiators by there weapons and armour.

Cimachaerus: Gladius in each hand.

Dimachaerus: Long dagger in each hand.
Gaetulian: Heavy throwing darts.
Hoplomachus: Thrusting Spear and Gladius
Laquearius:: Lasso in right hand, may have a trident tied to left wrist.
Provocator:Spear and gladius
Pugiles: Armoured boxing gloves.
Secutor: Gladius in right hand.
Tatierius: Net inright hand, trident in left. It may not be thrown.
Thrcian: Sica in right hand (Curved sword 40 to 45cms in length)
Velite: Javelin in right hand tied to the wrist. Can not be thrown.

Gladiators were typically picked from prisoners of war, slaves, and sentenced criminals. Criminals were expected to die within a year but could earn release if they survived three years. Despite the low social status held by gladiators, there were also volunteers who fought for money, and the possible celebrity status, a successful gladiator could achieve. 

Who knows how much of the combats were choreographed or scripted in advance. Most professional gladiators were only expected to fight three combats per year. Alas that can not be said for the condemned criminals who fought to the death nor the helpless Christian martyrs, among others.

"The overall death rate among gladiators is unknown, but few survived more than 10 matches or lived past the age of 30. One (Felix) is known to have lived to 45 and one retired gladiator lived on to 90. George Ville calculated an average age at death at 27 for gladiators (based on headstone evidence), with mortality "among all who entered the arena" around the 1st century CE at 19/100. A rise in the risk of death for losers, from 1/5 to 1/4 between the early and later Imperial periods, seems to suggest missio was granted less often" (Futrell: A Sourcebook on the Roman Games 2004)

The following link has something to say on popular gladiatorial myths and the possible rates and causes of death. One argument presented here is that the death rate was caused more by injury and infections,  with euthanasia being a hammer blow to the head.

http://www.abc.net.au/science/articles/2007/09/20/2038358.htm

Suetonius, in the Twelve Caesars, recorded that after receiving the salutation, used as the title, at the start of a mock naval battle on Lake Fucinus that Claudius retorted back "Aut non!" (Or not!). I read somewhere that the combatants took this as a sign that they would not have to fight. Oars were stowed on the galleys and it took a threat of force to get the games to begin.

Note The Army Show was originally a CBC radio show developed in Dec 1942, featuring Wayne and Shuster. The show later toured overseas to perform for the troops.

For those who may not be familiar with Wayne and Shuster  I offer this skit with a Roman Flavour: Rinse the Blood off my Toga 

TAU Empire Gun Drones

I will go on record, that I have not played Warhammer 40K, since I left Halifax in 1997. I have a Space Wolves army and I have on occasion bought some WH40K figures with the idea of using them for possible Traveller or Snapshot scenarios. It was with this idea in mind that I purchased a used pack of Tau Empire Drones at the Librairie Donjon Montreal last year. I learnt Thursday evening that Librairie Donjon closed last November and another game store has opened in its place.

 Tau Empire: Gun Drones by Games Workshop

There were seven drones in the package I purchased but there only enough pieces to fully build five models.  According to the Games Workshop website they sell them in squads of  four, and they appear in the 40K universe as units of 4 to 8 models acting in conjunction with a unit of Tau Empire Fire Warriors.

I have designed this as a unit of five drones centered around a command sensor drone. There are two sets of senors mounted on the unit, so that it can provide stereoscopic imagery to a command centre. It is armed to defend itself, while the other four drones can act on seek and destroy orders. I imagine that these figures can be used in either 15mm or 25mm scale games.

 
Note:
The Game Keeper 
http://www.gamekeeper.ca/
10810 LAJEUNESSE,
MONTREAL, QC
H3L 2E8

Elephants? 25mm RAFM & Ral Partha

Since I was painting an undead war mammoth, I thought I would continue with an elephant theme. 

The first is an RAFM Ancient Indian Unarmoured Elephant. It has been very hard to track down any information about this piece. I honestly haven't got a clue as to how long it has been sitting in my collection of figures. When researching Asian Elephants I read that they can rang in colour from dark brown to dark gray. I even read somewhere elephants that some may appear to be pink. I originally gave the figure a white base coat and went with a brown wash for it's skin. It had a similar effect to some photos I saw of elephants after bathing, before they become covered again in dust.. I suspect that the model came with two crew, but I only have one in my possession.

 

RAFM Unarmoured Indian Elephant

The next elephant is an African elephant with a sole crew member. I believed that it should be a two man crew (rider/driver and javalin/bowman). I am pretty certain that this figure was by Ral Partha.The model has easily been in my collection for 25 years and was recently rebased. It always hung out with my Roman Army. I found a photo of one for sale with a Later Carthaginian DBA army at GAJO.

 

 Ral Partha Unarmoured Catthaginian Elephant 

And finally a photograph of these two elephants next to my Undead War Mammoth to provide some idea of how large it really is.

Undead War Mammoth by Grenadier Miniatures

War Mammoth of the Undead Legion, Model Number 5501, went in production by Grenadier Miniatures in 1984. The company itself ceased to exist in 1996. There are a couple of variations of the model that I have seen photos of on the internet.  The miniature is old and was sold on eBay without it's original packaging. I tried to work with the metal but the two front legs proved to be very brittle and fragile. The armour trunk, and the tail had broke in transit. After my experience I decided to leave the tusks in their current position. I would prefer to have them pointed more forward instead of at 90 degrees to the head.

 Notice: 15mm Skeleton next to foreleg for scale.
The angle of the tusks are better view in the 3rd photo. 

The model is 25mm scale and came with three skeletons for crew members. I found the quality of these pieces to be rather poor and decided to "man", the Mammoth and it's double howdah with 15mm figures by Black Raven. Two riders are located on the neck, with two figures in each half of the howdah. In addition there is a kneeing crossbowman, next to the command banner and a swordsman standing near the left foreleg of this undead behemoth. It was armed with a catapult which fit on it's back between the two halves of the howdah. I choose to disregard this weapon system, as I felt it did not add to the overall effect of the model. The howdah halves are decorated with large scale (compared to the 15mm crew) skulls and shields. These trophies can be explained to be ogres or giants that were vanquished by the Undead Legions.

Bone Coloration caused by high iron (pyrite) content leaching into the soil.

The model when completed was unstable. I drilled a hole into it's body and mounted the model on a clear 60mm Game Workshop aerial base. The mammoth no longer falls over and I like the effect of the round base. I feel that this figure fits nicely into my large scale HOTT Undead Army. The actual base size for the behemoth under the HOTT rules should be 60mm x 60mm. The diameter of the base is 60mm so when positioned in combat I feel there shouldn't be any problem.

Undead HOTT Part III

This is just a quick posting on two additions to my HOTT Undead army. The first is it's camp. The camp consists of a resin representation of an open mass grave. Numerous bits of skeletons, skulls and ribcages are exposed to the elements and other, more malevolent powers.

Open Pit Grave, with 25mm Undead (Plastics)

Note: Photo revised Feb 21st

The resin piece is 100mm x 90mm, and is supposed to be for 25mm scale. I have added some broken 15mm Irregular Miniature Undead as well as a number of broken 25mm Plastic Skeletons that I received with a Undead Mammoth, that I have yet to paint. It would appear that the first troops of the next horde are starting to assemble.

The second is two elements of flyers. Both are Bat Swarms (Model 03355) by Reaper Miniatures.

Roman Siege Equipment Update

Last November I posted some photos of Roman Siege equipment. At that time I identified in two photographs Warlord Games Scorpions and Crews. Those figures are more likely by Foundry. These two elements are the figures by Warlord Games. I was looking at the Warlord Games website recently when I realized my mistake.

Warlord Games Scorpions and Crews 

(Note: Musician by Foundry from Emperor Trajan Pack)

In Memorial: Harris MacPhail and a 25mm Sassanid Persian DBA Army

It has been just over five years since Harris passed away. We were room mates, on and off for almost ten years, first meeting at the Dalhouise University war games club in 1975. By the end of the school year we were sharing a three bedroom, war game drop-in centre on Carleton Street in Halifax. It was the start of a long friendship, as well as years of gaming competition, in many different fields. The two most pronounced, were 1/300th micrarmour. Harris had the Germans, and I, the Soviets, and of course WRG 5th and 6th Edition Ancients.

In the beginning of our Ancient gaming, I had a plastic Airfix Roman Army but the time came to make my first purchases in metal. There was a small craft and hobby store located on the bottom floor of the Delta Barrington Mall. I no longer remember its name, but they carried a tiny inventory of Heritage Miniatures. I made a purchase, of some 25mm Sassanid Persian Cavalry. I do not remember why, but I was talked out of continuing with the Sassanids, and to allow Harris to build it instead. He received the figures that I bought and I returned to Rome.

 

25mm Sassanid Persian Elephants (Heritage Miniatures)

I have in my collection of figures, two of the elephants that he painted for this army. Late last year on eBay I saw twenty 25mm Sassanid Levy Infantry by Heritage Miniatures for auction. I thought of my buddy Harris and made a bid. I hoped to have the figures painted earlier but it was only in the past week that I finally worked on them.

The DBA II/69 Sassanid Persian (220AD-651AD) list consists of
1x3Cv (Gen), 1x4Kn or 3Cv, 4x3Cv, 1x2LH, 1 EL or 3Cv.
1x 3Aux or 3Cv, 2x7Hd. and 1x2Ps

25mm Sassanid Persian Levy Spearmen by Heritage Miniatures

2 Elements of 7Hordes

From the package of figures I produced two elements of 7 man hordes and three elements of 2 man psiloi. I know the list only calls for one element, but I was already using the same figures for two types of elements. I wasn't going to use them to also provide the  element of auxilia.So I based extra psiloi. I figure that I can use some of my later Roman, as well as some of my Saracen DBA/HOTT Arabian Cavalry to complete the other requirements needed to field the Sassanid Persians.

 

 25mm Sassanid Persian Levy Spearmen by Heritage Miniatures

3 Elements of 2 Psiloi

I hope that the figures will see battle early next month when I plan introduce a recent gaming acquaintance to the joys of DBA. Romans vs the Sassanids. May the best Empire win. After the clash,  I'll raise a glass of rum and coke in memory of Harris, and the many battles we had between these two old foes.

Incendiary Wagons

A couple of years ago at Cangames I purchased a set of Incendiary Wagons (OGSE-11) from Old Glory. The set is comprised of one large and one small wagon full of combustibles (but No Oxen).

Both wagons are mounted on a single 60mm x 120mm base and are shown in the above photograph to be blocking the entrance of my home made Palisade.

The Anatomy of a Small War Part 5

During the festive season I returned to the Soviet-Japanese frontier in Mongolia.  I picked up on eBay a HO-Ni Tank Destroyer and four 75mm Regimental / Pack Guns, all by SHQ Miniatures.

SHQ Type 1 Ho-Ni I Tank Destroyer

According to Wikipedia, the Type 1 Ho-Ni I was developed by utilizing the existing Type 97 chassis and engine, and replacing the gun turret with a 75 mm Type 90 Field Gun mounted in an open casemate with frontal and side armour only. The mounting for the 75mm Type 90 field gun allowed for ten degrees of traverse and elevation from -5 to +25 degrees.

The Type 1 Ho-Ni I carried 54 rounds of ammunition. This vehicle was produced in small quantities between 1941 and November 1943, until superseded by the Type 2 Ho-Ni II with its Type 91 105mm howitzer. The total number produced was only 124 units and they first saw combat in Luzon in the Philippine Islands in Dec 1944. As such, I really cannot use it in a 1939 campaign but I wanted to upgun my Japanese, with this great looking piece.

Improved Type 38 75mm Field Gun

(Guns by SHQ Crews by Waterloo 1815)

I also bought from the same seller four 75mm Infantry guns. Searching on-line I identified the miniatures as the Improved Type 38 75mm Field Gun.  SHQ markets them as 75mm Regimental / Pack Guns.

The original design was purchased from Krupt and produced under licence in Japan prior to World War One. After the war design changes were made as Japanese industrial capabilities advanced. Finally before the start of the Sino-Japanese War the final design of  what is called the "Improved Type 38" Field Gun went into production. About 400 pieces of this model were produced. The Japanese were never able to replace all of them or their earlier designs with the Type 90 75mm Field Gun. Thus the Type 38 Field Guns, though outdated, served until the end of WW2.

My complaint with SHQ Miniatures is they do not sell the guns with their crews. You have to make separate purchases. I found that Waterloo 1815, the Italian plastic soldiers manufacturer offered a box set of  WWII Japanese 70 mm Gun and Anti Tank Crews  (Number AP003) that would suit my purposes.  The figures are made of medium hard plastic, and are very easy to paint.

WWII Japanese 70 mm Gun & Anti Tank Crew  (Number AP003)

I utilised the gun crews for my SHQ artillery pieces and I also assembled the Type 92 70mm IGs and will mount them later. The guns assembled without a hitch. There is enough flex in the plastic that they do not snap when being put together. This may have been a problem if they were made of hard plastic.

Each box contains two guns and 16 figures (in 8 poses). The other figures are AT infantry or LMG teams. I have some Platoon 20 and Frontier Japanese WW2 Infantry that I need to paint. I'll add these plastics into the mix.

Type 92 70mm Battalion IG

From the above photo you can get an idea of the size of the guns when compared to the SHQ artillery in the background. All models are 20mm or 1/76th scale. I assembled two of the IG guns with the gun shield and two without. I found pictures of both on the internet and I like the varity, The Type 92 Battalion Gun could fire high-explosive shells , armor-piercing, and smoke rounds.