'Nam Project - an AAR of sorts

 I have not played a game for a while due to 'real life' being busy, and wanting to make some extra scenery before playing my next game.

 I was able to play a game this weekend which was quickly thrown together for one main reason: my copy of the "Bolt Action" rules arrived a few days ago and I wanted to play test them to see what they were like.

 I had to do a bit of prep before playing as a) the rules were intended for WW2 Platoon plus level of play and not the Vietnam war, and b) I was playing them solo at 1:1 skirmish level.

 It was also the first time I had used my printed game cards, and they added to the game a lot.

 With these adjustments in mind I have the following AAR to share, complete with dodgy photos:

Mission: the LRRPs were to patrol to a small village and conduct a search for signs of the enemy.

 (Note - this is not the type of mission LRRPs would normally do, but I wanted to use the new buildings I had made).

 The LRRPs approached the village and made for the huts by crossing over the rice paddy.

 It was while half way across the paddy field that the first signs of the enemy appeared. These were spotted, and one was just a false alarm, but the other was the LMG detachment from a VC squad.

 The VC fired at the LRRPs, but the shots were in no danger of hitting the LRRPs. One of the VC charged the lead scout, but was dropped by one of the other team members before the VC could charge in to melee.

 The other VC were quickly dispatched by the LRRP team.

 Making it in to the village unharmed, the LRRPs spread out to search the village when they are again attacked.

 One of the VC fires an RPG towards the team, but the shot goes wide and explodes harmlessly beyond the LRRPs.
 The LRRPs make short work of the VC RPG team and again continue on with the mission.

 Having searched two of the four huts, the LRRPs are again interrupted by the appearance of a VC command group.
 Two of the VC are quickly dispatched, but the leader was pinned and took a few turns to deal with.

A random event sees the appearance of a cobra on the scene. Fortunately for the LRRPs it appears a good distance away from them, but it did make things tense for a few turns until it moved in to the jungle and out of sight.

 The mission continued with a few random shots winging their way at the LRRPs from the jungle, but there were no more interruptions while the team completed their search and then called in for extraction from a near by helicopter.


Game Notes

 I made a few changes to the rules to allow 'Bolt Action' to be played as a 1:1 skirmish game.

I used the weapons list from the rule book with no problems, adjusted the distance allowed between figures, and used counters instead of order dice.

 Overall the game played very smoothly and the game flowed quickly as there wasn't much need to keep referring to the rules to look up what the procedures were.

 I did have to re-read the melee rules to make sure I was reading it right as it is very nasty to those involved.

Having played the game using the Bolt Action rules I will continue to do so, as they are very easy and produce a good result for a game.

I will need to type up my rule adjustments and additions for future games, and if anyone is interested I will be happy to share my notes with them.

'Nam project - reinforcements

I have finished painting up some extra figures for my Vietnam campaign - some extra VC figures to increase the size of their forces to two full squads, and a HMG for use in scenarios or just when they need extra fire power.

I also purchased some extra figures for my LRRPs, bringing the total up to twelve figures.  This will allow me to have "interchanges" for missions when one is injured, and to allow me to field a "Heavy Team" for missions that need more fire power.

 To get the extra figures I ordered some TAG Special Forces and used the figures with back packs only so as to give them that "LRRP" look. I can now add the following weapons to my LRRPs' arsenal: M-60, M-79, Shotguns and AK-47s.

My apologies for the poor quality of the photos - I am using my small digital camera after the better one I use kind of died and wont let me adjust any of the settings.

A light rant

It is not often that I will make a post on my blog that is a rant, but I am going to make an exception and post a mild rant about a kickstarter project.

the Impact Miniatures Ice Hockey players.

But first a little background.

I enjoy watching the ice hockey, and follow a team in the NHL, and there is even a Victorian state team here in Australia that I have gone to watch play.

Back around the turn of the Century I put up a figure request for Ice Hockey* players at Eureka Miniatures 100 Club.

 This came close, but never stumbled over the line, so I was never able to see figures for the set of rules I wrote for an ice hockey game.

 A few years ago the idea of Ice Hockey figures was raised again as part of a secret deal (which I won't go into), but that never eventuated.

Fast forward to the present day.

Impact Miniatures has started a Kickstarter project to have Ice Hockey figures made. Great!

But, I wont use Kickstarter due to it needing a CC to help back. As some of my readers might know, I refuse to use a CC online after loosing $10,000AUD to credit card fraud.

Fortunately the bank repaid the money otherwise I would be living on the streets and not ranting about kickstarter and Impact Miniatures.

The nice gentleman at Impact Miniatures offered for me to back the kickstarter project through him directly using Pay Pal. Awesome!

So I waited until the project was up and running so I could see the prices. Not so Awesome.

For those who don't follow Ice Hockey, each team has six players on the ice at any given time, short of players being in the sin bin.

This means you need twelve figures to play a game.

So this is what Impact Miniatures have on offer for their kickstarter project:

$10 (plus postage... all of these need postage added to backers outside of the U.S.) gets you one figure.

$25 gets you four figures.

$35 gets you one whole team. This works out at $5.83 per figure.

$60 gets you two hole teams, which works out at $5 a figure.

Plus you can add $8 to get a goal net, and you need two of them, so that is $16.

Plus postage.

I was going to take up the offer of using Pay Pal to back the project until I saw the cost of the minis.

To put this into context, I can buy the following for:

33 metal Bolt Action miniatures for $60

20 Eureka Miniatures Moderns for $60

35 Front Rank Napoleonic firgures for $60

and so on. And that doesn't include the cost of the two goal nets (which will be 3d sculpted plastic by the way).

The figures look good, but a bit out of my budget.


This kickstarter project was funded in the first day. It only needed $500 to be fully funded, and they have raised $2,600 with five days to go.

I can't help but wonder if they would have raised more if they had more reasonable donation levels and incentives.

 But, looking at the Impact Miniatures web site, it appears they are always expensive. Who knows, they might even have more customers if they dropped their prices.

 I just hope someone comes along and offers to make Ice Hockey players in plastic like the Warlord Games etc plastics that are out their on the market.





* I use the term Ice Hockey because where I come from, and in many other countries, Hockey is the name for Field Hockey played on grass.

Sneak preview of my next 'Nam campaign game

In the last few posts I have been talking about a Dungeon crawl game, but rest assured those that follow my 'Nam game will be happy to know that I haven't stopped playing my LRRP campaign.

I am in the process of making some more scenery, some of which has come to a halt because I need to buy some more polyfilla.

 I am also painting up some minis and probably need to focus on that like I did with the VC and NVA I painted earlier this year. To this end I have some civilians, extra VC and some more LRRPs to paint up.

With all of that in mind, here is a photo showing a sneak preview of the set up being planned for my next game:

 

The photo isn't the best as I am having camera problems at the moment, but it gives the general idea of what I am planning.

 Note the three extra huts I have finished making, and the two sampans in the small river to the right hand side of the photo.