The radar station at Küçük

Yesterday we wrote another chapter in the history of Andreivia when Andy came over to give us both a chance to remind ourselves of the Arc of Fire rules and to playtest my alternative actuation system. The background to the game was as follows.

Southeast of Tcherbevan (in Andreivia’s Southern Hills region) the Küçük radar station stands on a low rise a little way south of the highway to Vani. Early in the civil war the station was captured by Andreivian Turk forces. 

The radar station seen from the north. The flag of the 
self-proclaimed Andreivian Turk Republic flutters in the breeze.

Andreivian Ministry of Defence sources have discovered that a hidden safe at the station contains vital information that could seriously weaken the government’s position in any post-conflict negotiations. As the Turks have not revealed the information, it is believed that they are not yet aware of the safe’s existence.

The station is within a No Fly Zone declared by NATO covering the corridor they control from the Turkish border to Tcherbevan. As such a bombing raid is not practicable even it could be guaranteed to destroy the safe and its contents.

The Government has ordered that a raid be mounted to recapture the radar station long enough to destroy the documents in the safe. This raid will be carried out by the Special Airborne Company, Andreivia’s elite special forces unit.

Andy played the Government force, high quality troops with Tac and Morale both a mix of 4s and 5s - the best in the game. I controlled the Andreivian Turk forces; actually made up entirely of foreign mujaheddin volunteers. These were mostly highly committed to the cause (Morale 4 and 5 with the occasional 6) but nowhere near as tactically competent (all units rated TAC 7). In addition I had plotted the starting positions of the mujaheddin before the game and decreed that they must start in confused mode. 

Andy was given the chance to make a TAC roll by his HQ unit for each enemy unit. He succeeded with three out of four so I revealed the locations of three of the mujaheddin units before Andy chose his starting positions.

Andy launched his attack from a rocky outcrop to the west of the station. Two SMG-armed squads led the way accompanied by a bazooka team. Fire support was provided by the HQ's light machine-gun team.

As it happened neither Andy nor I could to get our respective medium mortar teams into position to engage the enemy. I think we both learned a useful tactical lesson there.

Mujaheddin mortar team

Initially the mujaheddin were deployed outside the station but they rapidly took punishing fire from the Government machine-gunners. One squad was completely routed (a 'Destroyed' Morale result) before it could scuttle inside) and a volunteer RPG gunner was killed before he got a shot off from the roof.

2nd Squad advances towards the radar station

The paras' 2nd Squad and the bazooka team targeted the slit windows on the side of the radar station (a conversion of an old Airfix coastal emplacement) and managed to keep the mujaheddin machine-gun team pinned down. In hard cover and Defence Mode the men in the station were hard to hit effectively but sufficient casualties were caused to prompt a morale test on the defenders. An unlucky die roll saw them forced into Confused Mode and this reduced their cover modifier.

With the fire from the station dying off, the 1st Squad assaulted to front doors under cover of smoke fired by the mortar team (their only contribution to the action). A bloody hand-to-hand combat ensued. Both sides were reduced to just two unwounded men. The resulting Morale Tests saw the mujaheddin roll poorly and receive a Disrupted result. This led to the survivors surrendering to the Government Special Forces.

The activation system worked fine although by chance we never got to perform any additional activations using the "Dice Card" even thought there were some Elite and Aggressive units on both sides.

What I have decided to try is using different coloured mini dice to indicate both the Activation Number and the Mode of each unit. An order to The Dice Shop went in this morning!

Some new Andreivian characters

With Crisis Point just a few weeks away, I've been creating some commander characters for the Andreivian Armenian militia.

First up we have the fanatically brave (Morale = 4 in Arc of Fire terms) Dragan Draganian:

He's a figure from Templar Wargames and Miniatures of Scotland. He's meant to be an African but I think he's painted up nicely this way.

Dragan is commander of one of the Militia platoons available to the Armenian players in my game. He comes with a second-in-command who's not quite to impressive. With a morale score of 8 (the worst in the game), using this guy will be a last resort. Given the appearance of the figure, the name of Adam Husainian seemed appropriate:

He's a plastic figure from the Esci Nato Troops pack. Not sure what nationality he's meant to represent but he's a dead ringer for a certain deceased Iraqi leader.

And finally for now we have Aram Parajanov. He's tactical very astute (Tac 4) and committed (Morale 5) but he's also permanently drunk. If his headquarters unit is subject to the Dice Card, he must immediately make a Tac roll to avoid going into Confused Mode.

Parajanov is another plastic; a model from the Orion Chechen Rebels set.

Some recent additions

With Crisis Point coming up in four weeks I've been producing some new units. Some of them are specifically Andreivian, others are WWII types that can serve in the republic.

One of the latter is this IS-2:

It's one of three or four of the Russian-made die-cast models I bought when The Works had them going cheap a few years back. 

Obviously this meant that I had a number of tanks with the same serial number (and the same patriotic slogan on the front glacis plate) so a repaint was called for. This one was given a coat of my normal Soviet green colour (Vallejo Reflective Green) and a serial number from the spare decals box. Annoyingly I picked the tank up before it had dried properly and the decal on the left side of the turret came off so the 302 serial is on one side only.

The house is also new, one of a couple I've done as part of an Andreivian-Armenian village. It's made from foam-core with a tiled roof from Wills textured plasticard. The render texture is Quick Drying Polyfilla added with a pallet knife.

Another recent Russian addition is some Naval Infantry.

I've had these guys for ages, I think they may be by Elhiem or RH Models. I quite like the mix of hooded camouflage suits and black uniforms. The ones pictured here are part of a platoon-strength unit I'll be using at Crisis Point. They'll get flock and static grass added to their bases before they are used.

Not actually new but just upgraded is this Khmali armoured car.

This was a piece of kit-bashing by Ian Shaw using parts from the Airfix Scimitar and the Hasegawa Humber armoured car. I've tidied up the basing, removed a broken mudguard and added the hand-painted Andreivian flag to the side of the hull.

Also upgraded are my Andreivian paras.

Gamers of a certain age will recognise them as the old Airfix models, which were never really authentic as anything in particular so an Andreivian use seemed appropriate.

I've rebased the mortar crew and given their leader a slung rifle.

The platoon is mostly equipped with SMGs so their long-range firepower isn't great. An LMG team seeded like a good idea. 

I cut the barrel from a modern British infantryman and added it in place of the barrel of a prone figure's rifle. Attaching the modified guy and his loader to an MDF base gives strength to the conversion and helps distinguish them from the rest of the platoon. An additional SMG-armed figure completes the three-man team.

Finally we have an M1938 howitzer to provide the Andreivian Armenians with some additional firepower.

The emplacement is from foam-core, Polyfilla and Milliput.

Rogue officer

Fresh off the workbench are these figures created especially for an Andreivia 1918 game this Christmas.

Iskander Bey is a rogue Turkish officer who has become convinced that he is a reincarnation of Alexander the Great. Believing himself to be blessed by the gods he has established a personal fiefdom somewhere in the hills of Andreivia.

He's a 20mm plastic figure that I acquired, I think from Tim Gow, many years ago. Don't know the manufacturer but I guess maybe Esci or Italeri?

Iskander's bodyguard are also plastics from the same source. I've gone for a fictional black uniform.

Their leader (on the larger base) is a conversion from a European officer. He originally had a bare head and waved a pith helmet in his left hand. I cut away the helmet and transplanted on a turbaned head from another infantryman. I chose the one with the most impressive beard!

Andreivian Armenian Air Support

I've recently added this Hawker Hunter FB Mk6 to the Andreivian air fleet.

It's based on the Mistercraft kit, which is a complete dog. I strongly recommend that you give this manufacturer a miss!

CRISIS POINT 2018 - Richard P's AAR's

Links to the four parts of my Crisis Point 2018 AAR

http://atomicrenegade.blogspot.co.uk/2018/04/crisis-point-2018-part-one.html

http://atomicrenegade.blogspot.co.uk/2018/04/crisis-point-2018-part-two.html

http://atomicrenegade.blogspot.co.uk/2018/04/crisis-point-2018-part-three.html

http://atomicrenegade.blogspot.co.uk/2018/04/crisis-point-2018-part-four.html

Memorial to Andreivian Police 1918

For those players who took part in Crisis Point 2018 you may remember on Sunday the massacre of Tom's Andreivian Police at the hands of Mark J's Cossacks. At the time it was commented that I should make a war memorial to mark the occasion and to remember the brave policemen who defended Andreivia's capital against the invading hordes. So as soon as I returned on Sunday night I set to work. It's now finished and will be added to the Tcherbevan layout for subsequent games set it in 1992.