HAWKS

Chris Palmer     This past weekend, a group of five of the HAWKs: Buck Surdu, Geoff Graff,  Greg Priebe, Don Hogge, and I, headed down to Nashcon in Franklin, TN.  We rented a mini van to carry us, our figures, and the terrain we would need for 6 games.  It was a bit of a challenge squeezing everything into the vehicle, but we managed it somehow.  Part of the plan was that we would re-use the same two sets of terrain for the 5 different games.  Thursday afternoon we headed out and arrived at the con Friday morning.

Figuring out how to fit it all in, so no one had to ride on the roof rack!

Our first game, Friday afternoon, was Don Hogge’s (In the blue shirt) “Island Raid Pt 1”  game, using Battleground rules. This game featured American Marines and Paratroopers trying to seize a Japanese radio installation.

A close up of the game as the Americans approach a Japanese emplacement.

Here’s a long view of Don’s table, and a general look at the main gaming hall. In the end, the American’s won, having destroyed the Japanese radio hut with a white phosphorous round.

After Don’s game, Buck Surdu (in blue shirt) ran “Island Raid Pt 2” on the same table using the same terrain.  This time it was a Japanese counterattack into the compound that the American’s had just captured, using Combat Patrol rules.   The American troops were left in the general positions they had ended the game in the first session.

A close up of the table at the start of Buck’s game.   You can see the radio hut and bunker are still burning from the first game.

Saturday morning. Buck, Greg Priebe, and I ran a large “Battle for Paris, 1814” game using Fate of Battle rules.  In theis game, and allied coalition of Russians and Prussians are attempting to seize the Montmartre Heights outside the city of Paris to force a French surrender.

A close up of Russian troops charging the French hasty fortifications.  Their initial success put the whole French line in jeopardy, but stiff French resistance eventually drove them back.

Buck (in blue shirt) helps players with a melee as the Russians desperately try to maintain their foothold on the heights. In the foreground, the Prussian troops can be seen putting pressure on the French right flank.

Saturday afternoon, Buck, Greg, and I ran “The Battle for the Elven Capital”, using the same terrain and basic troops deployments as the “Battle of Paris” game.  This time though, Elves replaced the French, and an alliance of Insectmen, Dwarves, and Beastmen were the attackers.  We used Bear Yourselves Valiantly rules

A look at the Allied left, as Beastmen prepare to storm the Elven right flank.  A force of Elf Knights desperately tries to hold the bridge over a canal.

In the end, the Insectmen, and Dwarves drove a deep wedge in the Elven lines, and had reached the second level of the heights.  With very little left to stop them, the game was called as an Allied victory.

Saturday night we re-set the “Island Raid” terrain from Friday for Greg’s “The Lost Soldier” game using Dr Who Miniatures Rules.   In this running, it was 15 years after the battle featured in the earlier games, and now a developer is set on turning the island into a luxury resort.  But all is not as it seems, and the Doctor and his companions have arrived to investigate.

The game was a lot of fun, and I was lucky enough to get to play.  There were Daleks, Autons, lost Japansese soldiers and all kinds of baddies lurking on the island.  Also Bob Hope, Bing Crosby, and Dorothy Lamore happened by, as well as some lost boy scouts, and perennial HAWK Pulp hero, Duke Morrison.

The HAWKs had a great time as always at Nashcon.  It is a really well run show with a lot of great folks attending.  We look forward to our next trip back to Tennessee!

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Half of the female space pirates in the WSD Dirk Garrison line

From reading recent posts, you can see that I have been at two convention recently, one in Newark, Nottinghamshire, England, and the other in Franklin, Tennessee.  That hasn’t given me much time time to paint, but I did manage to finish these ten figures.  The are from War-games Supply Dump in their Dirk Garrison pulp science fiction line.  I ordered these and a few other figures when I was ordering sprues of retro science fiction weapons for figure conversations.

Half of the female space pirates in the WSD Dirk Garrison line. I call the one on the top left Hannah Solo.

These were a fun diversion.  My schedule over the summer is typically pretty busy with family activities and work, so it is unclear when these will get on the table for the first time.  The are good sculpts and painted easily.

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Chris Palmer

   Knowing that I would be short of painting time last week with my trip to Nashcon near Nashville, TN, this past weekend, I prepped one of the easy to paint figures from the Townsfolk II Set; the Blacksmith.
    I prepped the figure in the usual way; soaking it in a dish of water with a couple drops of dish- soap added, then giving it a light scrub with a soft toothbrush, and then rinsing and drying it.  I then glued the figure to a black-primed 1" fender washer with Aleene’s Tacky glue, and then glued the washer-mounted figure to a tongue depressor with a couple drops of the Elmer’s glue.

     I began by painting his skin with Americana “Shading Flesh”.  I then painted his pants with Folk Art “Dapple Grey”, and his apron with Ceramcoat “Territorial Beige”.

       Next, I painted his boots with Americana “Bittersweet Chocolate”, and then did the soles and the tops with Nicole’s “Brown”.  After that, I painted his arm guard with Americana “Terra Cotta”.  I then worked on the stump, painting the interior wood with Americana “Khaki Tan”, and the bark with Americana “Asphaltum”.

     I then painted the metal pieces with Americana “Zinc”, and the handle to hammer with Crafter’s Edition “Spice Brown”.  I thought I’d experiment with doing some arm hair on this guy, so I mixed some of the “Shading Flesh” with some Black and painted his arms and the backs of his hands with a series of short hashmark strokes.

    I next painted his tongs and hammer head wit Folk Art Metallics “Gunmetal Grey”, and the anvil with Accent “Princely Pewter”.   I let the figure dry for a while, and then I gave the entire model a heavy wash with GW “Badab Black” wash.  I wanted him to look real dirty and sooty.  When the wash was dry, I painted his hair black, and then highlighted it with  a mix of the “Zinc” and Ceramcoat “Denim Blue”.  I then painted his eyes, and afterwards highlighted his skin with the base “Shading Flesh”.  I realized I did things out of order, as I should have done the arm hair after I did the highlights.

     It was now time to finish up the rest of the highlighting.  I highlighted his pants first using the base “Dapple Grey”.  I then highlighted his apron using Folk Art “Butter Pecan”.  Next, I did his boots with Folk Art “Dark Brown”, and the soles and tops with Americana “Sable Brown”.  I also used the “Sable Brown” to highlight the hammer handle.  I decided the stump looked good as it was, so didn’t add any highlights to it; and then wrapped up by doing highlights on the anvil, tongs, and hammer with the “Gunmetal Grey”.  Lastly, I painted the white base with Ceramcoat “Walnut”.
    After everything had dried overnight, I gave the figure a coat of Ceramcoat “Matte Varnish” and, when dry, used some white glue on the base and sprinkled it with some fine gravel.  Another overnight dry, and I sprayed him with Testor’s Dullcote".

   I like how he tuned out, though he ended up appearing a little startled looking! 🙂

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Packing the rental minivan for Nashcon

Greg, Chris, Geoff, Don, and I constituted the HAWKs expeditionary force to Nashcon in Franklin, TN, this past weekend.  Our adventure began Thursday afternoon, when everyone converged on Rally Point Surdu to pack the rental minivan with terrain, drinks, snacks, and HAWKs.

We got it all in there somehow – and we didn’t need to leave anyone behind.

As a group we ran six games at Nashcon.  In order to fit all the terrain and figures for this many games into a minivan with five gamers, we had to be quite clever about planning.  This meant re-using terrain between games.  We ran three games on the same jungle terrain (two WWII Pacific theater skirmish games and a Dr. Who game), two on the same Paris 1814 terrain (Paris 1814 and a fantasy battle), and one with its own terrain (British march from Concord to Lexington).

It’s a game of Tetris.

We set off a little before noon, stopped outside Lexington for the night, and arrived about 1000 on Friday — plenty of time to set up out first games, go get Chinese food for lunch, and return to start our games on time.

Don and I used the same terrain to run two WWII skirmish games.  Don used Battleground WWII by Easy Eight for an American raid on a Japanese radio outpost.  The raiding force consisted of Marine raiders and Army paratroopers.  Despite heavy casualties, the American seized the compound.  Then I ran a Combat Patrol™ game featuring a Japanese counter attack to recapture the facility.

While Don was running his Battleground game, I played in Bob Duncan’s excellent Spanish American War naval game, using his Gunboat Diplomacy rules.  Below are a few pictures of this game.  Bob scratch built all of the ships in this game.  It was fun, but we Germans were soundly defeated.

Below are some pictures from my Combat Patrol ™ game.  The players seemed to catch on to the unique mechanics of Combat Patrol™ without much difficulty.  The game went well.  We started where Don’s Battleground game left off.  The Americans had just seized the radio facility and had not consolidated on the objective when the Japanese counter attacked with a platoon of infantry and a Chi-Ha tank.  The Chi-Ha quickly suppressed the airborne bazooka team, but the Marine bazooka team was able to get off a good shot that brewed up the tank.  Two squads of Japanese were being chewed up by an understrength Marine squad in the jungle, but then the Japanese launched a very effective banzai charge that nearly wiped out the Marines.  A funny movement (for me as GM) arrived when one of the Japanese players called for mortars on some airborne troops.  Then the player who called for the mortars decided to charge the Americans — in the blast radius of the mortars he had himself called.  When the mortar shells landed, the only figures in the blast zone were the Japanese who had called for the mortars in the first place.  About half the Japanese squad caught in the burst radius was wounded or incapacitated.  In the end, it was determined that the Japanese were unable to recapture the facility, despite having inflicted many casualties on the Americans.  I think the game went well, and the players seemed to enjoy it.

Part of the setup for the Combat Patrol ™ game

Paras searching a Japanese hut

The Japanese radio shack was still burning form a white phosphorus round in Don’s game

A bazooka shot finally took out the Chi-Ha tank

While I was running this Combat Patrol ™ game, Geoff played in a terrific looking pirate game.  The guy running the game had purchased these fully rigged models.  Then he told me he floated them in a tub of water and dye to find the waterlines.  He then used a Dremmel to cut off the bottoms.  The result was fantastic.  According to Geoff, the game was a lot of fun.

Beautiful sailing ships for a pirate-aganza

Geoff preparing to demonstrate his sailing prowess

Below are three shots of other games at Nashcon that caught my eye.

A huge 28mm fantasy game

A naval game involving a shore fortification

A bocage game using Battleground and 15mm figures

Saturday Greg, Chris and I ran two Look, Sarge, No Charts games.  The first used Fate of Battle and was the Napoleonic battle of the defense of Paris in 1814.  Russians and Prussians advanced to take  the heights around Paris.  The second game used Bear Yourselves Valiantly.  It was a replay of the Paris game.  The Russians and Prussians were replaced by humans, dwarves, giant ants and swarms of other creatures.  The French were replaced by elves.  The Russians and Prussians were unable to get over the heights and into the outskirts of Paris.  On the other hand, the “allies” were able to breach the elven defenders and get into the outskirts of their capital.  I think the players enjoyed the games.  As usual after a turn or two, we game masters had little to do as the players were doing everything themselves.  We just had to call off activation cards and answer questions.

Initial disposition of Russians columns

Prussians advancing against stiff French resistance before the heights

Prussian players advancing

Russian assault on the French positions on the outskirts of Paris in 1814

Closeup of Russian columns advancing up the slopes

Elven defenders on the heights outside their capital

A view of the fantasy version of Paris 1814 in which various forces (Russians and Prussians) are arrayed against the Elves (French)

Saturday evening, Geoff, Chris, and I played in Greg’s Dr. Who game along with several other folks.  The scenario involved a group of developers that were turning the site of Don’s and my WWII games from Friday into a luxury hotel on a jungle island.  While doing so, they run into Japanese who do not know the war is over as well as a Dalek in the jungle.  Hilarity ensued.  I had Duke Morrison from my various Pulp games, and I eeked out a victory over Boss Ebenezer McSneed (Geoff) and the Doctor.

The remnants of the Japanese radio post from our Friday games. The jungle has begun to encroach on the area, and the developers have constructed temporary shelter. Note that the blow-up Chi-Ha is still there.

Ebenezer McSneed orders his men to investigate.

This is something you don’t see all the time: civilians, a blown up tank, and a roadster in the jungle.

 As usual, the HAWKs Expeditionary Force enjoyed Nashcon.  We thank the convention organizers for running this excellent event.

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Since I was in England for business the weekend before Partizan, I stayed an extra couple of days to attend my first UK gaming show and also run two participation games of Combat Patrol.  Bottom line:  I had a terrific time!

My trip to Partizan began Saturday morning at the King’s Cross train station in central London.  75 minutes later, I was in Newark on Trent at the Newark Northgate train station.

I left my mammoth suitcase with suits and other business attire in my London hotel and just travelled with a small overnight bag.  An hour’s walk from the train station brought me to my hotel.

The Grange Hotel in Newark was very nice.  The woman running the hotel was extremely helpful.  The hotel was clean and well appointed.  The included breakfast the next morning was excellent!  The room was small, but it had a private bathroom with a shower, and it came with free internet.  I relaxed in my room for an hour before walking to the Newark showgrounds.  I was supposed to meet Chris and his wife there at 1600 to help set up their booth, so that we would be ready Sunday morning when the convention began.

Partizan was held at the George Stephenson exhibition hall at the Newark showgrounds.  It was a very nice venue.  I thought it was going to be a 2 mile walk to the showgrounds from my hotel.  The GPS on my phone, however, took me on a circuitous route, across areas of busy highway traffic with no pedestrian walkways, and to the wrong side of the grounds.  I had to then set out cross country to get to the open gate to the showgrounds.  I left at 1400, thinking I would grab something light for lunch along the way and still arrive early.  I passed no food opportunities, and it took me a full two hours to get there.  Still, it was a good walk, and I enjoyed it.

I helped Chris set up the terrain for our Combat Patrol participation games while his wife, Ann, laid out the booth.  This was my first chance to see the Sally 4th buildings in person, and I think they are very nice.  I bought one to bring home and assemble.  They have photorealistic sheets to apply to the buildings.  These give a very nice look and also hide the exposed tabs on the MDF buildings.

After setting up for the show the next morning, Chris, Ann, and I had curry, and then they dropped me off at my hotel where I watched an episode of Foyle’s War and went to bed.

The next morning, I had a full English breakfast and walked around the hotel’s traditional garden while waiting for my cab to take me back to the convention.  I highly recommend The Grange.

Below are three wide views of the Stephenson hall during setup Sunday morning and later in the day.  Partizan ran from 1000 until 1600 on Sunday.  It was a very short event that was very fun, but it didn’t give folks time to play in more than one participation event and also do any shopping.  It was over before I knew it.

The food during the convention was different than what we would be accustomed to in the US.  Instead of hotdogs, meatball subs, and the like, the caterer had pasties, curry, sausage rolls, and other more traditional food.  They also had a beef burger (a.k.a. hamburger), cheese burger, chili chips (fries), and cheesy chips (again, fries).  I was pretty busy and didn’t try any of the food.  At one point Ann offered me a salmon and cream cheese sandwich on a roll that hit the spot and tided me over until dinner.

Combat Patrol Participation Games at Partizan

A major reason for me to attend the show was to promote Combat Patrol.  Chris has been a huge advocate for the rules in the UK.  He provided all the figures and terrain — in fact crashing to paint a platoon of American armored infantry in the ten days leading up to the event.  Participation games are relatively rare at UK shows, where the focus has traditionally been on the trade stands (vendor booths) and clubs running demonstration games.  Partizan is trying to make a large number of participation games their trademark feature.  There was an area off to one side, labelled the “Participation Zone,” where a number of game masters set up games.  Also, in the UK, since participation games are relatively rare, it is also uncommon for folks to sign up for a participation event before the show.  For the Combat Patrol game, however, we had three people signed up ahead of time.  The down side of this informal approach was that it appeared a number of the participation games did not take place.  They were set up, and GMs were standing by, but there didn’t seem to be a set start time, so I think many of the GMs never got a quorum at any one time to begin.

I ran two participation games.  The first was supposed to begin at 1000, but a lot of folks wanted to get into Partizan and do a quick sweep of the vendors before starting a game — including me — so we didn’t begin until 1100.  The first game involved German infantry trying to dislodge American paras from a French village at D+2.  The second game had the Germans occupying the town and a unit of American armored infantry with halftracks trying to push them out.  The scenarios were more about showcasing the rules and letting folks give them a go than about a carefully crafted and balanced story.

We had four players in the first game, and we had three players in the second game.  In some cases the players were folks who had already purchased and read the rules but thought the participation game would be a good jump start.  In other cases, the players had seen the Web discussions and wanted to give them a try.  I have to say that I was happy to see a number of folks buy sets of the cards and rules as a result of these games.

The Sally 4th booth was right on the edge of the Participation Zone.  Ann was doing a brisk business much of the day selling the excellent Sally 4th terrain products and the equally excellent Combat Patrol game.

While I was using half the table for the participation games, Chris was on the other end of the table collaring passers by.  When people walked up, he would give them a few-minute briefing on the rules and demonstrate small arms fire resolution.  This was a very good model, because it enabled Chris to reach those folks who weren’t able to devote three hours of a six-hour convention to playing a game.  Apparently the concept that really resonated with many of the Brits was the idea that the figure hit by a shot is randomized across those figures in the target area, preventing someone from sniping at the forward observer, key weapon, etc.

This is a shot of the first game of the day.  I got too busy to take any good pictures of the second game.  All of the players took the game in the spirit in which it was intended.  They were playing the game to win, but they were also interested in just trying out the rules.  They were friendly and amicable.  Before the second game, while I was explaining the rules to four players, one of them mumbled an obscenity under his breath and just walked away.  Apparently there was something about Combat Patrol that elicited a visceral response.  It was actually good that he chose to walk away before the game so that he didn’t ruin it for the others, but it was a little surprising — to me and to the other players.

A highlight for me came in the second game when I had moved over to walk a player through his first go at combat resolution.  We flipped some cards and went through the process.  Afterward he looked at me and said, “That was…”  I thought he was going to say “bad,” “complicated,” “odd,” or something negative.  Instead he said, “… really simple.”  The look on his face told me that he had had the Combat Patrol epiphany!  He and his buddy ended up buying copies of the game, and he joined the Yahoo Group before I got back to the US.

Other Random Photos

Below are additional pictures and some musings about Partizan.  I wasn’t careful to note the periods, clubs, rules, etc. for these games as I was taking the pictures.  I don’t know for sure, but I am guessing there were about 16-20 demonstration games and a like number of participation games at Partizan.

This game caught my eye.  It was a demonstration game, and most of the day it seemed to have just two guys playing with each other.  The figures are made from full sized clothespins and some horse silhouettes cut from MDF or thin plywood.

Recently there was a bit of a kerfuffle at Cold Wars in the US about perhaps sending someone to a UK show to figure out how to bring up the aesthetic standard of games at Historical Miniatures Gaming Society (HMGS) East shows.  I saw some terrific looking games at Partizan as well as some not so pleasing games.  On balance, I thought the aesthetic standard was about the same on both sides of the pond.  Those games put on by clubs as demonstration events were generally to a pretty high standard.

I think the thing that surprised me most about a UK show was how demonstration events were conducted.  My concept of a demonstration event is what we did as a club several years ago at Ft. McHenry.  We had five or six of us playing a War of 1812 game in a small room near the flag pole.  We had some posters on easels to describe what we were doing.  We had two of our club members hovering nearby to explain what was going on to interested people, answer questions, and encourage people to try the game for a turn or two.  When someone was interested, one of our folks handed over his command and then acted as coach/mentor to that person until he was ready to depart.  At that time, the club member would resume control.  For the demonstration events at Partizan, my impression was that it was largely guys in a club playing a game together, but in a public forum.  I saw very little interaction between the demonstrators and the passing gamers.  I stopped at several tables to take a photo or two, but no one stopped playing their game to see if I had questions or to explain what they were doing.  I supposed I could have interrupted them to ask questions, but that seemed somewhat awkward.  I didn’t want to be the rude Yank interrupting everyone’s fun.

I have always felt that naval games are at a distinct aesthetic disadvantage compared to land games, because there is relatively little you can do to provide points of interest on the table.  This game was interesting from the sheer number of ships on the table.  This game and the large game behind it were both demonstration games.  You can also see that the vendors were arrayed around the gaming area, which is something I really like.  A reason I have come to enjoy the smaller regional conventions in the US in the past few years is that  I like this model of the vendors being interleaved with games.  Players can pop over and ogle between turns, and vendors have something of interest to observe when their booth is not full of customers.  It somehow seems more collegial to me.

I thought the terrain in this participation game was particularly effective.  Having grown up near Detroit when the winters were harsh and long, I can say that deep winter can feel gray like this.

Below are a few random shots of demonstration games.

In summary, I had a terrific time at Partizan and thank the organizers for putting on the show.  UK shows are along a different model than US shows.  Given that I was there as much to sell my own product as I was to just participate, I found six hours too short.  I hit the vendors as a commando raid, but didn’t really get to browse and see if something jumped out at me.  Chris and his wife were tremendously helpful and friendly, as were most of the vendors and participants.  As someone who enjoys pub food, I found the selection of food items interesting and different.  The George Stephenson center was very well lit, and the high ceilings seemed to mitigate the game floor noise that we experience at many conference venues in US shows.  I would definitely return if my schedule and resources permitted.

For me Partizan was a tremendous experience.

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Chris Palmer

   This week I also finished up the Kobold Leaders from the Bones II, Expansion 1, Kobold Leaders set.  I referenced the Kobolds I had done back in 2014 from the Bones I Kickstarter for my color scheme.
       I prepped the figures in the usual way; soaking them in a dish of water with a couple drops of dish- soap added, then giving them a light scrub with a soft toothbrush, and then rinsing and drying them. I couldn’t get the mace on the Leader figure to stand straight after repeated boiling water treatments, so I finally decided to splice out the shaft and replace it with a short piece of paper clip wire.  I drilled out the Leader’s hand and the mace head and used Gorilla Superglue to attach the wire.   I then glued both figures to 7/8" fender washers with Aleene’s Tacky glue.  I then glued the washers to a tongue depressor with a couple drops of the Elmer’s glue each.

     I began by painting both figures entirely Black.  I hen drybrushed the leader’s armor and mace with Folk Art Metallic’s “Gunmetal Grey”.  Next, I painted their skin Folk Art “Barnyard Red”.  I then painted the interior of the Shaman’s cape with Ceramcoat “Territorial Beige”.

     I then painted the Leader’s shield with Americana “Cadmium Red”, and the Shaman’s staff with Crafter’s Acrylic “Cinnamon Brown”.  Then I did his shirt with Crafter’s Acrylic “African Violet”, and his gloves with Nicole’s “Brown”.  I also used the “Brown” to paint the grip of his dagger.  I then painted his loin cloth with Americana “Chocolate Brown”, and his belts with Folk Art “Barn Wood”.   At this point I painted their claws with Americana “Buttermilk"and  their horns with Americana "Khaki Tan”.

     I painted the stonework bases with Folk Art “Medium Grey” and the top of the Shaman’s staff with Ceramcoat “Bronze”.  Then, when everything had a while to dry, I gave both figures a complete wash with GW “Badab Black” wash using a wet brush.

   When the wash had dried, it was time to work on highlights.  I used the “Cadmium Red” to highlight the Leader’s shield and paint their eyes.    Then I used the base Barnyard Red to highlight their skin, and some Black to paint their noses.  I then used Crafter’s Acrylic “Storm Cloud Grey” to highlight the stonework bases, and the “Buttermilk” to paint their teeth. .  After that I highlighted the Leader’s armor and mace with some Folk Art Metallics “Silver Sterling”.
     The Leader was now done, so I turned my attention to finishing the Shaman.  I began by highlighting his shirt with Crafter’s Acrylic “Purple Passion”, and the exterior of his cape with GW “Shadow Grey”.  I highlighted his gloves with Americana “Sable Brown”.  Next, I highlighted his staff and loin cloth with Crafter’s Edition"Spice Brown".  Then I painted his dagger and buckle with the “Gunmetal Grey”.  I then worked on the flames in his hand and in the brazier on top of his staff.  I decided I wanted them to be green to look more magical.  I began by painting the base of the flames with Nicole’s “Neon Green”.  I also use this color to add some reflective glow to his left glove and the brazier.  Next, I blended in Crafter’s Acrylic “Holiday Green” into the flame, and then Americana ‘Forest Green", then finished the tops of the flame with  Accent “Forest Green”.
    After everything had dried overnight, I gave the figures a coat of Ceramcoat “Matte Varnish” and, when dry, flocked their bases.  Another overnight dry, and I sprayed them with Testor’s Dullcote".

I’m happy with these two, and am particularly pleased with how the green flame turned out.  I know I will be doing the green fire again, because I think it turned out pretty nifty.  As with the Goblin Leaders I completed last week, I’m happy to finally have some command figures for my Kobold horde from the first Bones Kickstarter.

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Chris Palmer    We are slowly gearing up to begin work on our latest rulebook in the “Look, Sarge, No Charts” series of rules.  This will be geared towards Near Future and Science Fiction battles.   Therefore, I have been busily working on assembling some forces to use during playtesting; and have just completed my first full tank battalion.

The entire battalion

    I used tanks from the Scourge faction from Hawk Wargames Dropzone Commander range.  Since I didn’t see needing a ton of Anti-Aircraft vehicles, which came with the Scourge Starter Sets I purchased,  I converted them to be HQ tanks for each company and the battalion.  I chose the Scourge becuase I like hover tanks, and I felt they had a cool alien look about them.

The Battalion HQ stand.

     I organized the battalion in a basic 3 by 3 arrangement of three companies with three platoons each.   I will probably eventually create an actual AA platoon stand to attach to the Battalion HQ once we start working on the aircraft support rules.

A company of three platoons and an HQ.

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