British Army in Ulster Vol 3

Found the following book at a local market and picked it up.

It looks like quite an interesting read.
Essentially its a bit like a diary of events in Northern Ireland from late 1975 to early 1978.
It details units deployed over that period and significant events in more detail.
It's going to have to go on the pile for after the Falklands material, but it looks like a good reference for Northern Ireland during this period, or if you are looking to game an alternate timeline ala Winter of 79.
On the subject of the Falklands reading list, I've started "The Battle for the Falklands" by Max Hastings and Simon Jenkins.  I'm finding the early chapters very interesting, but it is a little heavy going on my current sleep levels.  Good detail on what happened that lead to the conflict over the islands.  Still to get to the actual conflict itself at this point.

Falklands Reading Material

Whilst up late one night before I finished up work last year, I ordered a number of used books on-line relating to the Falklands War. 
While I was away, the packages piled up at work, so I actually had a reason to come back to work this year (mortgages and feeding children aside....).



Most of these were selected for their relative cheapness more than anything else, although I believe "Goose Green" by Mark Adkin was recommended in one of the TFL Specials.

The two larger format books I ordered because I figured that they would have a number of pictures that would be useful in envisioning men, machines and terrain for the conflict (I was only 5 when the war took place).  Having a quick skim, this certainly appears to be the case. 

There are a few more books that I would like to get, including "No Picnic" by Julian Thompson, but I'm going to have to wait until I can save some more money.

Keen for any recommendations that others may have on this, particularly for good texts presenting the Argentinian perspective.

I also picked up a couple more Don Featherstone books (Battle Notes for Wargamers and the Victorian Colonial Warfare book on India), as I've been quitely collecting many of his books over the last 6 months.

Now to sneak them home without my wife noticing........

New Addition

First Post for the new year, and it's actually a catch-up on the big event from just before Christmas.

Things have been pretty quiet here on the blog for a number of months now, mainly due my pre-occupation with the preparations for the arrival of our second daughter.  I had a lot of work to do renovating our bedrooms to make room for the new addition, that was only just finished in time.

On the 15th of December, Abigail was born and since then I've had even less time for the hobby between my family visiting for Christmas and adjusting to a new member of our immediate family.
I'm back at work now and imbued with the spirit of the new year ahead, I'm hoping to post more frequently, particulary since I've now gone and committed to getting my Falklands project done this year!
More on that soon.....

2012 Project

Normally I would shy away from any commitment to a given project in a given year. The demands on my time from work and family are such that hobby time is always difficult to find.
That said, there us one thing I really want to achieve in 2012. The year marks the 30th anniversary of the Falklands / Malvinas War, and I really want to run a couple of games this year that revisit some of the events during the conflict.

Rules will be "We'll have to bloody walk" by TwoFatLardies. Scale will be 6mm.

I may also do some of the special forces operations using Force-on-Force.

Focus will be on the land war, but if time and budget allow, this may expand to the sea and air.

More bulletins as events warrant, but I have a lot of reading ahead of me to get properly up to speed...

2mm Moderns

Recently, on a whim, I spent the last of my pocket money for this year on a 2mm Modern Battlepack from Irregular Miniatures.  These are packs with two opposing forces, plus a set of rules.
I wanted to match Brits up against Warsaw Pact in the 1983 timeframe, so Ian from Irregular was very helpful in ensuring that my future BAOR (British Army of the Rhine for the uninitiated) forces were equipped with FV432 and mainly Chieftain tanks (just a couple of Challengers) rather than the Challengers and Warrior IFVs of later years.
Below is a quick comparison picture I took of some of my 6mm Irregular NVA (painted for my AK47 games) against BAOR mechanised section with their FV432 APC. 

As you can see, these are tiny figures, but they create a real glee in me.  I can't help but smile when I pick them up and look at them.
The infantry section comes in a single long strip with 8 figures, but a pair of side cutters very quickly gave me two groups to provide more variety for basing.

Painting will be the trick; I'm hoping to give that a go some time this week.
I also have a conundrum on whether to pursue 2mm or 3mm - more on than later....
Hobby time has been very short over the last few months as we prepare for the arrival of our second child next week.
I'm not going to fool myself that I'll have a wealth of time available after number two arrives.....

Quick Review: FoF Ambush Valley

A day or so ago I received my copy of the Ambush Valley sourcebook for Force on Force by Ambush Alley Games / Osprey. This is the revision of the earlier AAG Ambush Valley offering, to fit into the new Osprey mould.  Despite what it says on the cover (1965-1975) it covers the Vietnam conflict from the advisory period (1963 onwards) and could probably be used through to the fall of South Vietnam in 1975. It is a lovely looking book, paperback with full colour pages, and quite thick (176 pages plus Fog of War Cards).

Unlike the "Enduring Freedom" book, which felt a bit "samey" compared with "Road to Baghdad", "Ambush Valley" is a different beast entirely.  The majority of the book in this case is detailed information on organisation and equipment of all of the various forces involved in Vietnam, Laos, Combodia and Thailand throughout this period.
After a quick introduction, the book launches into specific rules for Force-on-Force for this period.  As well as the usual complement of terrain, civilians etc. the book has a section on boats that enables a riverine game straight out of the box; a nice inclusion.

Then we begin the detailed TO&E info, which runs for most of the book.  There is a lot of meat here, however if you are an experienced Vietnam gamer, there may be very little for you here.  For me, the non-Vietnam stuff (Laos, Combodia, etc.) stuff was new and interesting, but the rest was not new.  As I say, it will depend on your pre-existing knowledge of the Vietnam conflict.

Once the TO&E section is done, there is space for a paltry six scenarios, a page or two on solo play, and then it's "roll credits" time.

To be honest I was disappointed by the number of scenarios, as that is one of the primary reasons I have for buying these books.  The TO&E stuff I can read and find, but the ability to have a ready-to-go scenario to play through is very valuable for me. 

This book has expanded the scope from the original Ambush Valley and substantially beefed up the organisational data included.  However this has come at the expense of removing the campaign system that was present in the earlier version, and there are still only 6 scenarios as there was in the first book.  This was a major shock, with this book following on from "Enduring Freedom" with its 20 scenarios.
I will still certainly use this book as it pulls together TO&E data that I have scattered over half-a-dozen sources into a single handy volume, and it brings the rules up-to-date with the new FoF.
I do regret the small number of scenarios, and the removal of the campaign system.  For those I'll be keeping by version one copy of Ambush Valley close to hand.

If you're new to wargaming Vietnam, this is a must-have. 
If you're looking to game Vietnam with Force-on-Force this is a must-have.
If you are looking for an excellent Platoon-level TO&E guide for the US involvement in Indochina, this is a must-have.

If you are already a Vietnam conflict wargamer, or own the original Ambush Valley, there may be much less for you here than you may expect.

Quick Review : FoF Enduring Freedom

A while back I received my copy of the Enduring Freedom sourcebook for Force on Force by Ambush Alley.  This is Force-on-Force's book on Afghanistan from the commencement of hostilities in 2001 to the current day.  It is a lovely looking book, paperback with full colour pages.  Some comment has abounded regarding the cover art.  Earlier placeholder art was in my view better, but Osprey / Ambush Alley have obviously decided to go with this one in the final release.  It wouldn't have been my choice.

From my perspective this book is "more of the same" when compared with the earlier Iraq book (Road to Baghdad).  There are 20 scenarios in this book, most of them seem to trend towards the larger size of game (Full platoons with support on both sides), rather than the earlier small forces we saw in the initial Ambush Alley product.

The format of the book roughly follows the same approach taken in "Road to Baghdad".  An overview of the conflict is followed by explanations of the specific rule elements for Force-on-Force that apply to the current conflict in Afghanistan.

After that we have the 20 scenarios, followed by details of organisation and vehicles for the various ISAF and Afghan forces.  A quite nice part of this book is a guide to uniforms, painting and model selection for the conflict.  It desn't suit my predeliction for 6mm all that well, but it's nice to see in what is essentially a hooby book.

If you've been a follower of Ambush Alley Games and modern wargaming for a while, there may not be a whole heap for you in this book, apart from the scenarios.  I had a vague feeling of "samey-ness" leafing through the book, but to be honest I have not found the time to invest in a cover-to-cover in-depth read.

If you're interested in Afghanistan, it's obviously a must have.  If not, then I'd leave it.
Maybe it's because it's Australian focused, but I think the older Operation Uruzghan book that AA Games issued before the Osprey partnership was a better book, with scenarios more suited to what I'd like to game in the Afghan conflict.

Roll a D6

I'm a bit late to the party on this one.
Just heard about out on the D6G podcast.
Hilarious!

6mm AK47 Game

I had a quick game of AK47 Republic with by brother, Thomas, on Sunday night.

Full After Action Report has been posted to the Angel Barracks forum as part of a competition Michael was running.
Check it out there!

6mm Fedayeen

Last night I had a crack at sculpting some "Darth Vader" helmets on some H&R Soviets to create Fedayeen Saddam figures. 

I'm finding that the "greenstuff" is drying out to much as I'm working with it - I'll need to look online for solutions.  Looking at the line-up you can tell that the figures in the middle are the ones I started with, and the I moved to the ones on the edge of the sprue.  As the putty dries out, I'm finding it becomes harder and stickier, resulting in worse sculpting.

My plan is to mix Darth helmets with balaclava'd figures (next conversion job!) to create my fedayeen for Road to Baghdad.

For those of you who aren't familiar with what I'm talking about, here is a google image search for "Fedayeen Helmets" : link

I couldn't find any images I could satisfy myself about ownership/copyright in the short time available to re-post here.