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.

A Village in Andreivia

Tom D came over on Saturday and I ran a small Arc of Fire scenario to introduce him to the rules in preparation for the Crisis Point game in April.

The scenario was a simple one.  It's 1918 and a small Turkish force (four-man HQ, 15-man rifle section, LMG team, and five-man "bomber" team) have to capture an Andreivian village.  The village is held by a small Andreivian army team and, unbeknown to the Turks, a temporarily immobilised Renault FT light tank.

The above pic shows the table from the southern (Turkish) edge. A brick-built warehouse dominates this side of the village but it has only two windows on the south side so it's not readily defensible.  Tom elected to advance to the right of the road, across the recently harvested wheat field and either side of the small copse of trees.

Pretty soon the Turks came under ineffective rifle fire from the back of the warehouse.  The Turks returned fire and were sure they'd achieved some solid hits.  In fact the first fusillade wounded the Andreivian forces commander, effectively ending his involvement in the fight.  The second round of firing from the Turks killed his second in command outright and the Andreivian HQ unit ceased to exist as a fighting unit!

As the Turks closed in on the village I knew that I'd have to move the only remaining Andreivian infantry unit (a six-man rifle section) from the graveyard to the central square if I was to buy time for the tank driver to repair the engine.

The tank driver was reasonably lucky with his TAC rolls.  As the Turks approached the village square they heard an internal combustion engine splutter into life (I was going to say roar into life but come on guys, this is only a Renault FT) and heard the grinding of caterpillar tracks.

The FT managed to get off a shot from its 37mm Puteau cannon.  37mm HE is not very ineffective and the commander (the FT has a two-man crew) was firing while the tank was moving.  Even with a densely packed infantry target the shot was ineffective.  It would prove to be the tank's only shot of the game!

As the tank commander tried desperately to reload, a firefight developed across the village square.  The Andreivian infantry scrambled to take what cover they could but they were severely out-numbered and once the Turkish LMG came around onto their flank, their days were numbered.

It came down to race to see if the Andreivian tank could extricate itself from this unsuitable tactical situation before the Turkish bomber team could get close enough to use their grenades against it.

In the end a single Turkish bomber launched two heroic close assaults on the tank but he was unable to prevent it wheezing and clanking its was off along the northern road towards safety.

So that was Tom's first AoF game. The Turks had sided the village to a win for them.  The Andreivians had also met their aim of extracting the tank to safety but the loss of both commander and sergeant in the first few moments of the action took the shine off this achievement.

A fun game. We got done in a leisurely couple of hours and AoF again showed that new players can pick it up within a very short time.