We played a Force on Force game last night. The game involved USMC/Delta rescuing two pilots from a downed helicopter and extracting them to a safe LZ off the table. The enemy were African militia with a tank and some trained soldiers arriving as reinforcements on the right dice roll. Ian and Steve played the USMC/Delta, Leigh and Chris played the militia and I umpired. The militia were poor quality and could not do much in a face to face fight with the USMC/Delta but they did not need to do much more than get in their way and slow them down. There was a time limit to the game which was known to the USMC/Delta players but not to the Militia player. The game opened with the militia appearing and various 'hotspots' and moving to engage the USMC. The results of this were the militia being shot up with no USMC casualties. More and more militia kept arriving and moved to confront their enemies which did encourage the USMC to slow down to tactical moves. The militia players then rolled the right dice score for the tank and some trained soldiers to arrive. This added some serious fire power to their side. The tank had an effect very quickly when it began pounding the Delta position in a forest with its main gun and MG fire. The Delta failed their reaction twice which was very slack of them! This meant they could not bug out and get out of the LOS of the tank. Even though the Delta were every good at taking cover the number of dice being thrown at them over two turns eventually resulted in a casualty and when this was rolled for it was a KIA - ce le guerre! The game ended before the pilots could be extracted due to real time constraints on the night, but if we had kept playing the USMC/Delta had just enough time left to get the pilots away if they concentrated on doing so. It was a nice close game and good to get back into playing Force on Force.
The Marines move past the downed chopper.
Some of the militia. These fellows were real heroes. Even when they were down to the last man they simply refused to run. The last man standing - the one in the boonie hat - had to be eventually taken out by a USMC sniper team.
The big bad tank arrives.
Militia taking cover in the bush and wondering what to do next.
The Delta boys - 'Bob' the figure closest to the camera was the KIA.
The tank again!
Still debating how to get a shot at the enemy and
remain intact for more than one move.
The tank moves out to engage the enemy.
The object of the exercise, two pilots wait by their downed bird.
I have been home casting 28mm Romans using Prince August molds. Here are the first results - the first cohort finished and based for Hail Caesar. I have been very pleased with the PA figures. They are large 28mm, nicely robust and excellent for wargaming. The detail is good and they paint up well. I have used Black Tree characters such as the Centurion and Signifier as Black Tree figures are compatible in size to PA. I have painted these fellows as Legio XXX Uplia Victrix whose shields carried the Neptune's Trident with dolphins motif. I made the shield designs myself using MS Paint and Photoshop and then printing the design onto a sheet of water slide decal paper. I think that the finished result does the job very well and I will make a lot more use of this method in the future.
