Started on the Combat Cars and got some custom decals

I am proving to be very productive of late. I am working on the Hammers Slammers Combat Cars, and I should finish them by next week at the latest. They are a fast paint job, being monochromatic. Heck, I think the weathering and the stowage add some color to what would be some very drab vehicles otherwise. But, that's the way Drake wrote them, and they seem to work for the unit. But, I gotta say, the next unit I paint is going to be a bit more lively.

I am working on color scheme ideas for both the Caliph's Army, as well as the Emir's. As i got custom decals to go with the flags I worked up. They're roundels that match the flag colors. I am liking the shape and unique scheme of the roundels, they have a sci-fi look to them for sure.

I have also been working on detailed TOEs of late, and I'll post them as soon as I have the time. I promise to keep more coming with Djazlah. It's proven to be a popular idea and I want to game it as soon as I can. I have and am getting the figures for the place. 15mm Sci-fi is proving to be quite the place to be in wargaming these days. That's all for now.

Djazlah, a Primer, Part 2

These are the positions of the combatants on the inhabited Eastern continent on Djazlah. There are small, independent settlements between and outside these controlled areas, and all combatants range outside their home areas into both the uncontrolled areas, and each other's "secure zones".

The Western continent has not been settled, and the only expedition that set out for the land mass was lost ten years ago just before the outbreak of civil war. Rumors of intelligent indig life or prehistoric monsters aren't seen as realistic by any scientific authorities, but the French Light Cruiser in orbit sends a recon drone or three over every couple of weeks to be on the safe side.

Flags and Armies of Djazlah, Part 4

French forces on Djazlah:

12e Demi-Brigade de la Légion Étrangère (Provisionale)

I/Regiment Etranger de Aero Infantrie (from Regiment Etranger De Aero-Infantrie)

II/1e Regiment Etranger Parachutiste (from 2e REP)

III/1e REC (from 1e Regiement Etranger de Cavalrie)

II/5e REI (from 5e Regiment Etranger de Infantrie)

1 company from II/6e REG (Regiment Etranger de Genie)

1 battery from II/1e REA (Regiment Etranger de Artillerie)

The II/5e REI and the III/1e REC spend most of their time running patrols and convoys along the roads and wadis of the lowlands on Djazlah. The I/REAI and II/1e REP are held in readiness as strike forces against enemy concentrations and often work in conjunction with teams from 1e RIPMa against identified targets in the highlands and northwest lowlands.

Equipment is French Army standard, including the blueish-gray "combat bleus" but the troops wear the "Kepi de Combat" which is a dark green instead of the conspicuous "Kepi Blanc". However, many units still stubbornly wear the Kepi Blanc, even in action. The helmet is the standard Mle 2200, with flip down HUD goggles and "Net de Tactique" tie in.

Flags and armies of Djazlah, Part 3

The Sahadi movement on Djazlah is a new sect of Islam with shadowy origins amongst the Af-Pak refugees living mostly in the highlands. These people were never very open with outsiders either back on Earth, or here on Djazlah, and this recent development hasn't changed anything.

What is known is this. They are led by a man only known as "The Sahadi". He is surrounded by a dozen members of his "Black Guard", men, and surprisingly, women who have sworn loyalty to the death to him and to the tenets of the Sahad way.

The "way", as it is referred to often by believers, seems to be made up of the following tenets:

1) Equity of all before god, this includes women. However, all good Muslims must recognize Sahad as continuing the work of Muhammad and Ali, Muhammed's first cousin. Therefore, Shia are considered fellow believers, if a bit deluded. Sunni are despised. Other religions are treated with benign neglect, as dhimmitude is frowned upon as "unworthy of the people of Sahad".

2) Jihad against apostates is the highest form of service to God, however, the time of your sacrifice is fixed by God, not by you, or someone else, therefore, suicide is considered an act of apostates.

3) Djazlah is for the faithful. Others of the book may live here, but they must acknowledge and respect that the world is for the faithful.

Oddly, for a guerrilla army, prisoners are often treated well and are released unharmed after a time. The Sahadi are often compared more with the 19th Century desert tribes than more modern terror groups. They do not surrender themselves, and will often fight to the death when cornered.

Uniforms tend to be long flowing cloaks with goggles and respirator masks. The colors tend mostly towards browns and grays, but the "Black Guard" wears blacks and greys and often carries pistols, shotguns and blades, and excels at infiltration of enemy positions. Weapons are a mix from several sources, but predominantly Manchu, Russian and Japanese of Caucasian War surplus vintage.

The French have identified some 12 main force battalion groups amongst the guerrillas, and another three battalions of the Black Guard. The French believe there are also 15 more battalion sized local force groups that remain fairly static and defend the mountain strongholds against raids from the French and the Caliph's troops.

Flags and summaries of the major factions on Djazlah, Part 1

Flag of the Caliphate of Djazlah:

Banner of the Army of Ibn Hauk Al Mhazdi, the Munificent, the conqueror of Al-Hazi the wicked.




Al-Mhazdi is the puppet ruler of the French dominated colony. His main job is to keep the populace pacified and the French mines unmolested either by the remains of the Emir's forces, or the thick-necked Sahadi from the highlands. He has the following forces at his disposal:

The Caliphs Guard Brigade (Elite Hover Mech brigade of 4 battalions, one is on duty at the Caliph's palace at all times on a rotating basis, with the other three battalions rotating between the starport, the Caliph's summer palace and their barracks on the north end of the capital).

3 Armored Cav Regiments, named the Abd-El-Krim Regiment, the Ahmed Belbachir Haskouri Regiment, and the Saladin Regiment (3 squadrons of battalion size each) (Regulars) (Scattered in penny packets as QRFs to back up the scattered infantry garrisons along the lowlands and foothills bordering the highlands. Equipment is imported light tracked armor and APCs.

1 4 Battalion Motorized Infantry Brigade, 1st "Host of the Caliph" Brigade (Regulars) (Equipment is imported wheeled APCs from French surplus) (Unit is often deployed as part of the QRFs in concert with the Armored Cav Regiments)

3 Infantry Brigades of 5 battalions each, 1st, 2nd, 3rd Brigades (Regulars), the units are newly raised by the French and are equipped by them wholly, units are moved by impressed civilian trucks.

2 "Soldiers of the Holy" Reserve Divisions and a Motorized Brigade of reservists. These units have never been called up and their performance if they actually would probably be dubious at best.

Djazlah, A primer, part 1

Djazlah was discovered by the French fly by probe Boussole in 2165, with a more detailed survey by the Persian survey vessel Ahmad ibn Rustah in 2194. The world was considered somewhat marginal for colonization, as the climate is on the hot and wet side in the lowlands, but it's mountains are mostly arid, dry peaks, and the atmosphere a bit thin for Earth-normal standards, but the Hashemite Kingdom purchased the rights to colonize the world in 2205, and the first colonists arrived in 2210. Huge Osmium deposits were found by the Canadian based Bard Ventures Company in 2215, and they brought in labor from the Af-Pak region of Earth to mine the mineral for use in FTL drives. A caste system soon developed, as the Af-Pak tribes whose labor was surplus were chased by the government into the highlands, with thin air and arid climes where not much grew or lived. The prosperous Hashemites and those lucky enough to find work lived in the lowlands, where it was easier to breathe, and it was possible to farm or mine the Osmium without special equipment and where water was far more plentiful.

This new found wealth and the associated caste system brought trouble as the Hashemites and Af-Pak workers didn't get along at all, and local conditions exacerbated long standing differences of culture and religious outlook. It wasn't long before things broke out into open warfare, first taking on the form of an ever escalating insurgency on the part of the Af-Paks. The mines were abandoned by Bard Venture six years later as the political situation became unstable and open civil war soon followed. The local emir was deposed by a radical Hashemite Caliph who declared jihad on the Af-Pak "Pushtun heretics" and four years of bloody, confused conflict followed.

In 2225, the price of Osmium went up three fold and many nations and companies were returning to older strikes to see if they could get something out of them in the newer high priced climate. The French mining concern Eramet-SLN saw the data that had been collected by the fly by probe in 2165, and the reports by Bard Venture, and convinced the French government to send troops to pacify the situation on Djaszlah. Within two weeks, a Demi-Brigade of the FFL was landing in the three major cities on world and meeting ineffective resistance from the tired, weak combatants, mostly made up of rival Hashemite factions. The surviving Af-Pak tribes had retreated into the uplands and mountains to the north of the main continent and were getting money for weapons and equipment from the sale of Osmium to black market traders and quasi-pirates.

The French backed the Caliph, and brought in their own workers to run the mines, propping up the Caliph and his army to keep the mines and starports safe. They also cracked down on the illicit Osmium trade. But soon, a prophet arose amongst the Af-Pak tribes of the upper highlands...and he proposed the way of Sahad. A cleansing of the unbeliever....Another call came from the son of the dead Emir, calling the Caliph a "French puppet" and the Af-Paks "religious zelots". Interesting times had arrived on Djazlah.

The Slammers are coming

The first of my miniature "meanest bastards who ever wrecked a planet for pay!"

Another weekend done

It was all in all a productive weekend. I am working hard on my Twilight 2000 items and they're really coming together. I anticipate that I will be done with the US vehicles soon, and then it's on to working on my Soviets, getting them cleaned up and to a standard I like. I really am proud of the work I am putting in thus far, and so far, all seems to be going overly well. Also updated the AA terminator rules..upped the defense dice and played with the movement rates. I think this will work better and hopefully, there will be more playtests.

Also, played CBT this Saturday with my old group. I think as much as I wanted to support the GM of this event...and I really did, I made a mistake going to the event. The company was well, juvenile. It wasn't everyone, and some of the members of my old group, I genuinely enjoy their company...others..let's say they need a Dale Carnegie book or three (and I can't stand the guy, but some of his advice is sound). Also, CBT is losing interest for me..the game is falling into the "Ok, folks are losing interest, let's introduce a new army with all new wiz-bang toys orders of magnitude more powerful than than what's in the game already!" trap that 40K wrote the book on. Not good. Worse, folks are fretting about the battle value system as it was supposed to give "balanced games"..there's a myth if I ever heard one...no damn such thing. If you make things totally equal, you get nightmares like Iran-Iraq or World War I. Battletech, last I looked, was supposed to be about armored warfare, of concentrating all available assets at the point of decision and smashing the other guy! Now, it's nothing more than a fanboy arms race with the "faction-de-jour". And now, they're throwing around tons of nukes to do it. I point out the last time someone did that in another game I love...Megatraveller. Dave Nielsen said it best, "have the cataclysm, then game the aftermath". People don't like their sacred cows becoming hamburger, and worse yet..having the ending resolved with an inferior product (Down in front Mechwarrior! At least it keeps me in cheap 15mm VTOLs and 'Mechs).

I know this might not make me popular with some. Know what? Don't care. I am pretty convinced play balance is achieved by giving out realistic victory conditions that both sides have a decent chance of achieving, and an even handed ref who isn't looking to screw one side or the other. Like I said..if you're doing the Seelow Heights in 1945, and you're bitching that you've got a scratch force of rear-area types, cadets and HJ for your Germans, with a pair of Stug IIIs and a couple of PaK 40s, and you're expected to hold off a company(+) of Russian tanks...well, that's the way it was, and perhaps you're playing the wrong game. One victory condition is for the Russians to exit X amount of troops off the table in a VERY short amount of time..or to kill or capture ALL the Germans? Not so easy no matter HOW many troops you have. See, balance? The Germans, they have it easier...knock off X amount of Russians or have X amount of their force still alive. Balance is possible, and points/values IMO, aren't a magic solution!

Welcome

I hope to use this site to chronicle various projects of mine...talk about ideas and things I have run into in my travels around the internet and just plain talk about my travels gaming wise and work on my never ending pile o' lead.

So, who am I?

I'm 34, married six years and living in downtown DC. Our apartment's small, too small to run a decent game in sadly, and one has to travel out to the VA burbs to find a decent gaming space short of a person's house. Shame really.

My periods include 20mm WWII, 20mm Moderns (With a PA Twilight 2000 bent and I may expand into Zombies as well, as Ambush Z looks like a lot of fun), 15mm Sci-Fi (Good skirmish potential and easy on the wallet, but I am torn between Future War Commander and Stargrunt II, have both rules, but basing decisions are a bit thorny), 1/285 Moderns (Fistful of TOWs II and I am building armies to do the usual Soviet threatened excursion to the Rhine, as well as you guessed it, the conventional phase of Twilight 2000), I also have some 6mm Sci-fi (including a few hundred 'Mechs) that I use mostly for Classic Battletech, but I'd love to run some Dirstide as well. I also have a few fleets for Full Thrust.

I also have a few of the HPS computer titles and am always looking for folks to game the modern titles with. Playing against the AI tends to bore.

I hope this turns into a grab bag with something for everyone. I am on the Guild and TMP often enough under this handle at the Guild and M1Fanboy at TMP. And, I stalk around quite a few other places as well.

I hope this blog is entertaining, and I hope that by looking it over myself from time to time, I can learn something. Hope you all like it.