Tuesday 2 January 2018

French Indochina War Skirmish Starters


I got a £25 Amazon voucher for Xmas and I blew it on a pair of 15mm LVT-4 Amtracs from the Flames of War range for use in the French Indochina war. This may seem a bizarre divergence from my current wargaming pursuits but, in actual fact, is something I've been interested in for years. I already have loads of the Pendraken 10mm range for this but that's waiting for a suitable set of company level rules to appear, so the 15mm stuff is destined for platoon level skirmishing. I have a number of rules that would be ideal for this, with Nordic Weasel's No End in Sight as the front runner.


The plan is to use the Eureka range of 15mm figures for the French and Vietminh, a stash of which I found on eBay years ago. These will be based individually so that I can use them alongside the amphibious vehicles for skirmish scenarios on a small, custom made 2' x 2' terrain board, with a focus on the operations of the Groupement Amphibie. This has always appeared to offer a lot more than the ubiquitous Diem Ben Phu set up which seems to dominate any wargaming approach to the French Indochina War. It's a different take on my Britain's Small Wars idea but I will be re-using the terrain for all sorts of things, so it won't be a one off or dead end.



I have also taken advantage of the QRF sale to grab some M29 Crabes, so that I have enough transport for a decent platoon sized patrol or raiding force. This is what finally persuaded me to get this project to a point where I can kick it off as, until fairly recently, no one made a Weasel in 15mm. These were pretty ubiquitous in the conflict and almost essential as transportation and fire support for amphibious operations. I may have to do a bit of conversion work and find some crew for both the Alligators and the Crabes but it's a pretty good starting point for the project.

Bof!

7 comments:

  1. Jim,

    Dude, you're an animal, I can't keep up with all the posts! I envy you, and I'll look to start trying to catch up this weekend (the other day's flurry of posts notwithstanding, that was just a clearing out of the backlog).

    It's awesome to see this subject material; I had a pretty large setup for Dien Bien Phu in 10mm, two really beautiful armies, but I never got them on the table, and in a moment of pure foolhardiness, I sold them off!!!

    But right now I've got a number of bags of French and Vietminh from Eureka lying on my painting table, too, though first they'll get looked at as Israelis and Egyptians for the 1956 Suez Crisis.

    V/R,
    Jack

    ReplyDelete
  2. I just found out that Rubicon are making an LVT in 28mm that will allow my minis from FNG, TAG and Warlord to ride into battle in style. Time to leave the highlands for some Dinassaut action in the river deltas.

    ReplyDelete
  3. It's the last couple of days of my holiday, so I'm going full throttle to get things done before work slaps me back down again!

    I had an ARVN battlegroup in 12mm that was almost finished but sold that off too, as I found the rules that I intended to use with them weren't my cup of tea (Cold War Commander). I should've kept them in retrospect.

    You live and learn I guess?

    :O)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Not sure how much I’m learning; this 15mm WWII project is the third time I’ve bought toys in that scale/period. The first time I completed everything, played a few games, then gave it to my nephew, the second time I painted about 70%, played no games, and gave it to a buddy.

      Third time’s a charm?

      V/R,
      Jack

      Delete
  4. A 28mm LVT must be pretty big..and impressive!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. It is. I am building the Warlord one right now but I hate working in metal and resin so really looking forward to the plastic one from Rubicon.
      Then to get an LCM or some such for rest of the troops to ride in. I found this essay about Dinassauts, not read it but might be of interest.
      http://www.dtic.mil/dtic/tr/fulltext/u2/a404794.pdf

      Delete
  5. I really like you post good blog,Thanks for your sharing.

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    ReplyDelete

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