Happy Halloween!

A few years ago, just before Halloween, I led my first 15mm Superhero gaming session.  It was called Rise of the Dead and used a number of zombies from Rebel Miniatures.

Herr Kürbiskopf has completed his dark ritual in an abandoned church near a small village, raising soldiers from the dead to be his minions.  Nick Fury has quickly assembled a small team of new superheroes to confront Herr Kürbiskopf and his undead horde.  The mission: to protect the villagers, stop the zombies, and defeat Herr Kürbiskopf.

The superhero team needed to call in some US Army (NPC) reinforcements, but the village was saved from the zombie horde and Herr Kürbiskopf was defeated!  Along the way, some Galactic A-Holes joined the fight....

Herr Kürbiskopf will return in... "The Dead Rise Again"!

"Painting" 40K Chaos Space Marines (Black Legion) with Sharpie Pens

Three 40K Black Legion models have been my latest experiment in speed painting miniatures using Sharpie pens and a limited number of acrylic paints.  After painting some Space Marines (Ultramarines) with this method, I decided I would try again with some Chaos Space Marines.  The Black Legion worked great with this method as their colors are black and metallic colors.

After priming them black, (with a zenithal overprime of dark grey), I used metallic Sharpies to hit their boltguns and armor.  Then I dipped them using Tudor Mixwax Polyshade.  I used normal acrylics to paint the eyes and the bases, and added some flocked foliage to complete the models.

I think the models turned out well for the level of effort involved, and I may be able to use them in smaller skirmish games, like Kill Team, in the future.

Team Yankee - Yugoslavian Army BTR-60s

I previously shared my attempts to make a JNA (Yugoslavian) force for Team Yankee (using the rules for the East Germans). I recently completed the 15 BTR-60s, including a model to act as a command model.

The BTR-60 transports are from Battlefront Miniatures. I primed them with Goblin Green from Army Painter, but primed the wheels black before gluing them on. Army Painter Dark Tone was used to mute the bright green. I painted on the details before lightly drybrushing on dust and dirt using a light brown color.

A force of BTR-60s in the JNA is ahistorical and I received a ton of information about this from nikolas93ts in a post on The Miniatures Page - his father had served in Yugoslavia and was knowledgeable about the subject:

Only two BTR-60PB were acquired by the JNA (for trial purposes) in 1967, and it was never adopted. A certain number of BTR-60PU was acquired with SA-9 Gaskin system as battery command vehicle.

Another vehicle, TAB-71 (a Romanian-made variant of BTR-60 with the petrol engine) was accepted for service in 1976, but exclusively for military and civil police forces. They were known as very unreliable vehicles for a myriad of reasons (including apparently low mileage per year and lack of purposely trained drivers) and MP vehicles were gradually cascaded down to federal and later republic police forces. While a total of 119 TAB-71 were brought, an operative number (including Soviet-made BTR-60PU) in the late 1980s was only around 60 vehicles. First JNA unit to receive them was the 282nd Military Police Battalion of Federal Secretariat for National Defense, which was also characteristic for having 20 vehicles in total, in the first and second company.  

Other seven MP battalions (in Belgrade, Nish, Skoplje, Zagreb, Ljubljana, Split and Sarajevo) included one TAB-71 company, each with 10 vehicles. There was also 99th Military Company, subordinated to Air Force and Air Defence HQ, with 3 vehicles in a single platoon. The rest went to police and Ministry of Interior forces. Army vehicles were gradually cascaded, and their role was taken by BOV M-86 armoured vehicle from 1986-1987. They were intended for mostly for internal and police tasks, like security, riot control etc.

Quartermaster General: Victory or Death – The Peloponnesian War

This weekend I played Quartermaster General: Victory or Death – The Peloponnesian War with my dad.  We found it to be a great two-player game and a good break from the original version of Quartermaster General (which is themed around World War 2).  This version is themed around the Peloponnesian War, where one side plays Athens and the Delian League - "the Demos", while the other side plays Sparta and Corinth - "the Oligarchs".  Each of the four has different strengths and weaknesses, and each gets a different number of cards and game pieces, which gives each a unique flavor.

Our first game was a learning game and we adjusted to the rules fairly well, being veterans of the original World War 2 version.  Victory or Death is similar to the original version in game mechanics, but allows for a little more variety in strategy.  We also found it a little more forgiving around a bad initial drawing of cards.  The more relaxed restrictions around supply were welcomed and allowed for more expansion without constant fear of losing supply lines to your units.  The addition of bribery tokens as a means to fix a broken supply line also was welcome, while also feeling thematic.

Each side won one of the first two games.  The components were of good quality and I learned more about the Peloponnesian War.  We also became more familiar with the geography of Ancient Greece after just two games.  I highly recommend it as a good, thematic two-player game that explores a time period often overlooked in wargames.