RFCM

All,

This is the third fight in the initial trading of blows on the DMZ between Communist guerillas of the Fédération Socialiste Nationale de Leon and the Marines of Task Force Fulgencio.  Amid almost a month of monotonous patrolling in the sweltering African heat there have already been two short, sharp fights between the two sides, resulting in moderate casualties for both.  In both cases the Marines carried the day, though 2nd Platoon's fight (the more recent) was in less than exemplary fashion.

It is now 10 June 1990, and Lt Rodriques leads his 3rd Platoon on yet another patrol through the jungle, hunting guerillas which have infiltrated across the border between South Leon and FSNL.


Sgt Garcia hops in the streambed for cover and begins laying it down with his M-14 on full auto.  To see how the fight went, please check the blog at:
http://cubalibrewargame.blogspot.com/2016/09/south-leon-dmz-prelude-iii.html

Thus ends the three fight initial flurry of clashes between the Cuban Marines and FSNL guerillas.  Like I said, I've got some modern Middle East stuff going on currently, and I'm working on a raid in the Caribbean and some paratroopers in South Leon's capital (using 'Boots on the Ground,' a boardgame recommended by the good Mr. Peter Cooman), but then I'm planning on coming back to these Marines on the DMZ.  My plan is to base the next round of fights on platoon fights based on the Vietnam War's "Operation Starlite."  I'm doing some research right now.  If this goes as planned, the Marine war on the DMZ in South Leon will culminate with my Dai Do project, which I believe I'm going to do in 6mm.

V/R,
Jack

Hmm, I'll see what I can do about a tutorial.  The only issue is time; every minute typing is a minute not playing or painting

V/R,
Jack

Thanks Colonel, I appreciate it!

Yeah, the reason I did up the terrain tile (I have more, but this is the only one of finished; lotta work) was specifically to have 'below ground' features such as the paddies, stream, trenches, and fighting holes.  I'm happy with it, just wish it didn't take me so much time.

The fight was indeed fun, hope you enjoyed it.  I should be posting the last fight of this operation this evening.

V/R,
Jack

All,

This is the second fight of a three-fight series for the opening round of my South Leon campaign, which is actually a thinly-veiled Vietnam campaign being used to keep my Cuba Libre story going.  Task Force Fulgencio, comprising a company of Marines, a company of paratroopers, and various intelligence, special operations forces, and combat support detachments has deployed to prop up the fictional country of South Leon, which is suffering from guerrilla war begun by domestic Marxists and supported by its Communist neighbor, the Fédération Socialiste Nationale de Leon.

1st Lt Ordonez' company of Marines was dispatched to the border with FSNL, while the parachute infantry company was sent to the capital of South Leon.  The Marines have been aggressively patrolling the DMZ, and the first real contact with infiltrators from FSNL occurred several days ago.  Lt Peres' 1st Platoon met the enemy in an abandoned village, where the guerrillas sprung an ambush.  Both sides were bloodied, but the Marines ultimately carried the day.

It is now approximately 1045 on 7 June 1990, and Lt Lupe's 2nd Platoon has been on patrol since the wee hours of the morning.


The Marines fan out and enter the village, contact is imminent.  To see how the fight went, please check the blog at:
http://cubalibrewargame.blogspot.com/2016/09/south-leon-dmz-prelude-ii.html

What a fight, I'm exhausted!  I've got one more to write up and post, then I change gears for some modern Middle East fights.  My boy and I played most of a game, and have two more to go in that operation, playing co-op with SOF against insurgents.  Sorry, my wargaming butterfly-ness simply won't allow me to stay focused on any one arena for too long   Stay tuned.

V/R,
Jack

Nothing?  Well, here comes another one.

V/R,
Jack

All,

Well, it has started, my campaign in the fictional African nation of South Leon.  For background, please check here:
http://cubalibrewargame.blogspot.com/2015/12/south-leon-on-slow-ride-down-aka.html

In May 1990 Cuba sent a task force to South Leon in order to prop up the democratic government there against its Communist neighbor, the Fédération Socialiste Nationale de Leon, or FSNL, and against the Marxist domestic rebel group, the Free Leon Army (FLA).  Task Force Fulgencio, named for its leader, who is also the commander of the 8th Commando Battalion, is comprised of one company of Marines, one company of paratroopers, and various intelligence and special operations troops.  The parachute infantry company has been sent to the center of South Leon, to the capital city of Pendrakenville, to quell the growing insurgency there.  Meanwhile, the company of Marines has been dispatched to the northern border with FSNL, a Demilitarized Zone (DMZ, created following their war in 1949), to stop the infusion of men and equipment across the border into South Leon.
**Okay, I'm not gonna hide it.  The part about the Marines heading to the DMZ to stop infiltration of South Leon from FSNL is a poorly disguised attempt at some Vietnam-era gaming.  While I'd probably be better off just doing some 'straight' Vietnam gaming, many of you know I have somewhat of an aversion to gaming real life stuff, preferring to make up places and names, or at least units.  The other reason I'm doing it this way is that it allows me to keep my Cuba Libre series of wars/campaigns/deployments moving forward.  So two birds with one stone, if you will.  I hope that doesn't raise anyone's hackles.  But for all intents and purposes, my war on the DMZ of South Leon is USMC on the DMZ in Vietnam.  Hell, for that matter, my paratroopers in South Leon's capital are probably going to look a lot like Israel's war in Lebanon circa 1982.

In any case, the company of Marines (officially the 24th Seaborne Shock Infantry Company; they're quite esoteric/eccentric about their unit names in the Cuban Expeditionary Force) under 1st Lt Ordonez (he and most of his men are veterans of the War of Liberation) arrived in South Leon on 3 May 1990 and soon thereafter moved to their Area of Operations on the DMZ.  Lt Ordonez immediately set his three rifle platoons (under Lt Peres, 1st Platoon; Lt Lupe, 2nd Platoon; and Lt Rodriques, 3rd Platoon) on an aggressive schedule of daytime combat and reconnaissance patrols, and nighttime ambush patrols.

It is now 3 June 1990, and to date contact has been minimal, though casualties have not.  There has been a rash of Marines lost to the occasional sniper, booby trap, non combat injuries, and the worst offender: disease.  The Marines, still becoming acclimated to the wilds of Africa, have suffered from various ailments such as malaria, dengue fever, Ebola (sorry, couldn't help it), dysentery, and jungle rot.  On an average day the rifle platoons are down 15 to 20% of the paper strength, but the patrols continue.

At approximately 0600 this morning, Lt Peres led 1st Platoon out on patrol.  The aim of the patrol is to hump all day, visiting a number of villages, before holing up at approximately 1730 in a platoon-sized night defense position.  The day has been long and hot, the Marines toiling under the weight of their gear and anticipation of enemy contact, and twice the column has already halted to perform MEDEVAC: once for a Marine that stepped on a toe-popper near an abandoned village, and once to evacuate two Marines with heat exhaustion.  Peres' platoon is now on the cusp of entering what looks to be another abandoned village.


The table, 2' x 2', north is up, using the one terrain tile that I've actually managed to finish.  The village is at top center, and the Marines will enter from the bottom (south) of the table.  From up here you can see various fighting positions have been dug, those these are not yet apparent to the Cuban troops.

A quick word on rules: as always, I'm using Ivan's excellent 5Core series.  I'm basically running "Five Men in Normandy" activation, but with full firing dice on reactions.


Having lost several comrades already, a lone Lance Corporal goes berserk and charges an enemy fighting hole.  To see how the fight went, please check the blog at:
http://cubalibrewargame.blogspot.com/2016/09/south-leon-dmz-prelude-i.html

Well, I hope you liked it as much as I did, I've got two more fights just like it to write up and post.  And I hope the Vietnam/South Leon thing doesn't bother you.  Like I said, time is at a premium, and so being able to do Vietnam gaming and knock out Cuba Libre campaigns is really a great deal for me.

V/R,
Jack

Thanks man!

"If they run, they're VC!"
"If they stand still, they're well disciplined VC!"

V/R,
Jack

All,

Next up in my Vietnam stuff is some Peter Pig NVA and VC.  Now, please recall I've already shown you pics of a bunch of Peter Pig VC rifles, RPGs, and RPDs I'd finished awhile back.  But I decided I had too many VC, so I took some VC I had lying around, and some VC I'd already finished, and painted them up as North Vietnamese Army (NVA) regulars.  Then I took some NVA heavy weapons crews I had lying around and painted them too, splitting them between NVA and VC.


The whole gang: there are 28 NVA infantry, six NVA heavy weapons crew, six VC heavy weapons crew, sixteen VC casualty figures (which I'll also use for NVA), and an unmanned 14.5mm machine gun and an unmanned 7.62mm machine gun (the two reddish brown bases).  Unfortunately I forgot to take closeups of those two.


A look at one of the NVA riflemen.  To see a bunch more pics, please check the blog at:
http://blackhawkhet.blogspot.com/2016/08/peter-pig-vietnam-15mm-nva-and-vc-with.html

Well, there's my bad guys, and I love the figs, just solid, well cast poses.  We'll be seeing these soon; we have to, because they'll face off against whomever I go with from the good guys, be they Marines, Army, or Special Forces of some type.  More to follow.

V/R,
Jack

All,

While Vietnam was largely an infantry war, there were, of course, vehicles present.  I've only got two helicopters, which you'll see later, but now you get to see what else I've got, and the cool thing is that I've got vehicles for both sides!  And I've got land and sea covered

The label says Peter Pig, which is a bit of a little white lie.  You see, it's almost all Peter Pig, but there is one lonely Zvezda vehicle in there.


Here's the group: a PBR (Patrol Boat, River), two LVTP-5 Amtracs, and M-48 Patton, a T-55, and a 122mm self-propelled gun (I believe the Soviet designation is 2S1?).  The T-55 and SPG are for the North Vietnamese, and will come in handy for some late war action, like the Fall of the South, the 1972 Easter Offensive, or Lam Son 719.  All the US stuff is in play for the entire war.

The 122mm SPG is the Zvezda model, all the rest is Peter Pig.  To see a bunch more pics, please check the blog at:
http://blackhawkhet.blogspot.com/2016/08/peter-pig-15mm-vehicles-for-vietnam.html

That's all my vehicles, and all I can see really needing in 15mm.  I'd like to have some more helos, some Hueys for the Army and some CH-34s for the Marines, but they're so big and expensive (and hard to find the -34s) that I'll probably live without them.  More troops and terrain to show ya, so stay tuned.

V/R,
Jack

Thanks Sean, I'm very interested in the rules.

Emphatz - Thanks man!  And you're right, but I don't think I can handle an Ontos!

V/R,
Jack

Thanks Colonel, though the last thing I need is more options!

Having said that, new 'Men of Compan B' for platoon level?  I'm all ears; any ETA on them?  Playtesters needed?

V/R,
Jack

All,

Well, it all started about a year ago now.  For some reason I'd decided to buy 'just a few' 15mm guys to do some skirmishing (actually, that's all Techno-Phil's fault: I wanted some 10mm Marines with M-14s but couldn't get them, so I looked to 15mm!).  As part of that I was on Brookhurst Hobbies' website and ordered a single pack of Peter Pig LRRPs (Long Range Reconnaissance Patrol, for the uninitiated) and VC (Viet Cong, or Varmint Cong if you listen to Bill Murray).  I painted and based both sets up, and a year later neither has seen the table.

But then I (virtually) met Jimmi over at Flashpoint Minis and, well, now I'm a Vietnam War gamer.  Previously you've seen me post my Flashpoint Minis US Marines (with M-14s, about 70 figures), then Peter Pig Viet Cong (about 30 guys), and then more Flashpoint Minis, this time ARVN (Army of the Republic of Vietnam, AKA South Vietnamese, about 50 figures).  And then recently I went nuts and bought a bunch more stuff.

This post is simply to confirm to the world that I am, indeed, a Vietnam-era gamer, and to give a quick overview of all the stuff I recently purchased and finished up.  I will be doing my 'usual' separate blog post for each subset of troops/terrain/vehicles, but I'm quite proud of myself getting all this done and so wanted to show it off in one grand post.  So let's get to it.


Here's everything, all my recent purchases painted and based, ready to play.  What do we have?
-Peter Pig NVA Platoon
-Peter Pig NVA and VC Heavy Weapons (mortars, MGs, and recoiless rifles)
-Peter Pig VC casualty figures
-A Peter Pig T-55 (for Laos and Fall of the South)
-A Zvezda 122mm SPG (ditto)
-A Battlefront US 'leg' Infantry Platoon
-Two Battlefront OH-6s
-A Peter Pig M-48
-Two Peter Pig LVTP-5 Amtracs
-Flashpoint Minis US tank riders
-A Peter Pig PBR
-Three Flashpoint Minis Sampans
-A village from Flashpoint Minis (four thatch huts, a wooden hut, a corrugated tin shelter, a fish pond, a foot bridge, a Buddhist Shrine, an animal pen, two wooden-staked walls, various pots and containers
-Flashpoint Minis Palm Trees
-Pegasus Banana Trees
To see pics of all that, please check the blog at:
http://blackhawkhet.blogspot.com/2016/08/apparently-ive-become-vietnam-war-gamer.html

Not pictured: Flashpoint Minis Elephant Grass, and Flashpoint Minis ANZAC Task Force, which I'm still painting up.

Like I said, I'll be doing separate posts for the various troops, vehicles, and terrain posted here, so stand by for that.  And stand by for some Vietnam games!  So let me pontificate on that for a moment; I know a lot of you out there in the ether-land love the photos of stuff, but I also know a lot of you enjoy hearing (and/or making fun of me for) my project plans.  So here goes.

First, I'm very conflicted on two accounts:

1) I am absolutely committed to fighting out a campaign for the US battle of Dai Do, where 2nd Bn 4th Marines (reinforced by C/1/3) fought an entire NVA division to a standstill.  I originally planned on doing this in 15mm, but the overall battle seems to me to lend itself to a series of company-level actions, and that's pretty big for 15mm (for me at least).  So, my issue is whether to do Dai Do as company-level fights (about a dozen of them) in 6mm, or do it as a series of platoon-level fights (about 35 of them!) in 15mm.

2) (and this affects Dai Do as well) I have quite a few ideas for Vietnam projects, but I kind of don't want to play them as Vietnam campaigns, I want to work them into my existing Cuba Libre alt-history blog.  That is, I'd be playing Vietnam fights with Vietnam figures, vehicles, and terrain, but for my campaign purposes the troops would be Cuban Expeditionary Forces rather than US Marines, US Army, or ARVN.  This is pretty much solely in the interest of time; I've got too many projects, and so this is a means of sorting of killing two birds with one stone.  I get to play some Vietnam gaming AND advance my Cuba Libre stuff.

So, what all do I have in mind?  This is a list of stuff I will get to (someday):
-Dai Do, USMC vs NVA
-Operation Buffalo, USMC vs NVA
-Operation Starlite, USMC vs NVA
-Lam Son 719, ARVN vs NVA
-1972 Easter Offensive, ARVN vs NVA
-The movie "Platoon," USA vs NVA/VC
-Some "Apocalypse Now"-style Air Cav, USA vs VC
-I'd like to do some Phoenix stuff, though the troops aren't ready for this yet
-I'd like to do some SF w/Mike Force stuff, though I don't have troops for this yet

I'm sure there's more, but that's all I can think of for right now.

V/R,
Jack

Thank you gentlemen, you are far too kind, and thanks for the warm welcome.

V/R,
Jack

All,

I figured I should come over and see what's going on.  So here I am 

Next up in my descent into 15mm skirmish madness is three packs of Peter Pig IDF troops.  These are "Modern" troops, but not "Ultra-Modern" troops; that is, they're armed with Galils and don't have the 'chef hat' helmet covers.  But the figures are great looking, very dynamic, great proportions, weapons, and gear.  You'll hear no complaints from me!  Unless Martin's listening, then I need a bunch of WWII American infantry in prone poses (BARs, Thompsons, and Garands) so that I can play out skirmish games where I have a standing, kneeling, and prone character for each man

But that's off topic, let's get to the troops.


There are twenty-four troops total, painted up in two different schemes.  I painted 15 troops as IDF soldiers (above), and nine troops as generic African Union guys (below).  The IDF troops my see action someday in some 1982 action, but they're definitely going to see action in the near future for my Cuba Libre campaign "The Fall of South Leon."  Egged on by Mr. Peter Cooman's battle reports, I recently purchased Worthington Games' "Boots On the Ground" boardgame, which I'll be converting for miniatures use.  The African Union troops will be used in some modern scenarios in northern Africa, maybe even make a cross-border raid into Ifat.


Pic is a little fuzzy, sorry.  In any case, I'm very happy with my quick camo job, they'll do the trick.  To see a bunch more photos, please check the blog at:
link

Well, that's it for now.  Standby for an operational pause on modern stuff for a minute; this weekend I've got a full docket scheduled.  One game of Panzer Aces (the boy and I face off against the Russian horde), one dogfight for Hakuna-Matata, and one ground fight for Hakuna-Matata. 

V/R,
Jack