La Guerre d'Indochine

I bought this book today while browsing in a local book shop. It's a bit pricey but packed full of fantastic full page photographs and text. It also comes with a DVD of the documentary. I'll be reading this for a few days and absorbing as much as I can with my limited French linguistic skills.

Excellent!

Back of Beyond Turkish Army

I've kicked off the first stage of the Back of Beyond campaign for 2011 by posting the nuts and bolts of the campaign set up on the club yahoo group. So far I've had two players signing up and interest from several others, although I'll need at least five plus myself to make it work properly. I'm pretty confident that I'll get the numbers I need, so it's now down to me to do my bit.

The first thing I need to do is assemble and paint up my Turkish army. This will consist of the following units, which together make up a small but not inignificant pile of lead:

1 Commander

1 Staff Officer (50 points)

3 units of 10 Regular Infantry T4 / M5 stubborn, with bombs (330 points)

1 Maxim Machine Gun T3 / M5 (64 points)

1 65mm Schneider Field Gun T3 / M4 (42 points)

1 Erhardt Armoured Car (60 points)

1 Albatros CII or DIII Aircraft (150 points)

This lot adds up to just under 700 points, which is a bit on the light side, so I may well add a few extra figures to the infantry units or even an allied contingent of Basmachi militia using the Copplestone ragged white infantry as a best fit option. .

I'll need to get cracking straight away if I'm going to get this lot done and dusted for June!

Back of Beyond Again

Well, the Darkest Africa idea didn't go down very well with the club, so it's back to the Back of Beyond. I've decided to stick with Contemptible Little Armies with a couple of rules modifications to keep things as simple as possible.

I have, however, decided to use the full terrain and weather rules from the supplement to add a bit of a change to the usual way of doing things. This will be tied into the campaign map so that there's more of a geographical fix to the campaign as it progresses.

I've also narrowed down the campaign to Russian Transcaspia c1919, in order to bring a historical flavour to the proceedings. This means that one of the two Bolshevik players will now be the SR / Menshevik Transcaspian Government army, which should be an interesting diversion from the usual and give me the opportunity to play around with the army lists to come up with a suitable variant.

I know that we have a British Indian army, a French Trans Asian expedition, a British Museum archaelogical team, a Bolshevik army and a Turkish and/or Basmachi force. After that, it's a bit sketchy although there are some Cossacks and a few Bolshevik stragglers knocking about. I need to get everyone agreed on what they're going to bring to the campaign before I get started on the planning and organisation.

Fingers crossed.

Back of Beyond or Darkest Africa?

I've been thinking about the Back of Beyond options, with regard to rules, campaign systems and figures. While I'm still up for some BoB games, I've been debating wether it's worth re-inventing the wheel for another full on club campaign.

I've looked at the Triumph and Tragedy rules and, while they look OK for one off small skirmish games, I'm not sure they'd dovetail with the Back of Beyond set up and the supplement. I've also been looking at various campaign systems and haven't found anything that quite translates over to the rather non-specific nature of the Back of Beyond.

However, I have re-discovered a good mini-campaign system and rules for colonial Darkest Africa in the Foundry Compendium, re-printed from an old article in WI 132. As a result, I've been about running a mini-campaign built around exploring Central Africa, either using these rules or the full blown In The Heart of Africa rules.

The Foundry Compendium campaign, In Darkest Africa,  is based on a map system with up to six players taking part. There would be four expedition parties and two 'native' armies in the campaign. The rules feature one European expedition, one Zanzibari party, one Tribal Herdsman force and one Native Warlord army as the key players.

However, I could easily adapt the system so that the four players could all be Europeans of different nationalities, which might be more appealing. This would have the added advantage of requiring fewer figures, as the European armies have only 16 - 24 figures on average, so not too much in terms of outlay or painting.

My initial thoughts were that this would be more popular than the Arabs, Herdsmen and Warlord armies, but I could be wrong. The latter need more figures (30 - 65 on average) but might be interesting for someone who wants to try something a bit different.

Anyway, I would provide all the terrain, the two large native 'non-player' armies and possibly one of the expeditions. I'd also do the background umpiring and campaign organisation, using the system in the Foundry Compendium or the full on In The Heart of Africa rules, depending on the preference of the players.

Either way,  the full In the Heart of Africa rules could be used as a follow on for club games. So, rather than a BoB campaign, I've proposed a Darkest Africa campaign for the Autumn, for between four and six players.

I wonder if anyone will sign up?

Back of Beyond Books

We arrived in Brittany on Saturday and spent most of yesterday getting things sorted out, so I've had no time to post anything here over the weekend. However, I have organised a bit of reading for the holiday, including a copy of Shooting Leave by John Ure, which looks like excellent inspiration for the Back of Beyond campaign.

I'm still thinking about the campaign set up and the way the system will work. I have quite a lot of forces to accomodate, including a Bolshevik army, a British - Indian force, a British Museum expedition and a French Trans Asia exploration  and various other hangers on. I'm planning to add a Turkish or Basmachi type force as well, so it'll be a pretty crowded campaign to say the least.

I think that some sort of map related system would work well for this, with each player having a different objective and a seperate but interlinked path to follow. When forces meet thay could either ignore each other, join together or battle it out, depending on their common or competing objectives.

Back of Beyond Trans Caspian Campaign

I've decided to set the proposed Back of Beyond campaign in what is now modern day Turkmenistan. This is a great location, given the armies that we have available amongst the club members and the intersting post WW1 events that might have taken place in the region. It's a bit further West than the conventional Back of Beyond scenario which makes it a bit out of the ordinary.

It limits the number of potential armies that might be used but that makes it easier to fit things together into a logical framework. It also allows for some original armies to be included if there is an appetite for something a bit different. Finally, it gives me plenty of scope to work out a new campaign system based on an actual map rather than a turn matrix, with all the depth and detail that makes for a bit more 'derring do'.

I'll be working this out over the Easter holidays, so hope to have something a little less fluffy in a couple of weels time. Until then I'm doing some background re-reading and scrounging ideas from various existing campaign systems, from Darkest Africa to 1644 and back again. I'm hoping that it'll fall together without any major headaches?

Red Armoured Train [15]

I finished the flat wagon this evening, although it was a bit rushed and needs one or two final details before it can be undercoated. This means that the armoured train in 90% complete, which isn't a bad achievement for a week and a bit of work.

I need to complete the command wagon and then paint everything up but that'll have to wait until after the Easter holidays. I think a second artillery wagon is needed but I'll have to get hold of another toy carriage if that's what I decide to do.

Holiday Painting Plans

It's a couple of days before we're off to France for the Easter holidays, so I've been thinking about what I'm going to take with me for painting up. In the past, I've taken figures to clean up and base but all this leads to is yet more boxes of figures to be painted up, rather than anything actually being painted.

This time round, I've decided to do some painting instead, although this throws up all sorts of logistical problems in itself. To keep the number of paints down to a manageable quantity and to ensure I finish what I start, I've decided to take a couple of half completed or prepared projects with me to get wrapped up.

The first is the 1/2400th scale Victorian Ironclads that I prepared during activity week last year. I have a varied selection of British and French vessels assembled and undercoated, which only require a handful of paints to be tackled effectively. I'll also take Iron and Fire and Floating Castles with me, so that I can get some practice games in with the finished models. Neat, eh?

The second is the 15mm Dervish army for PITS that I have almost finished but which has been stuk in a box for a couple of years. This also needs only a handful of paints to complete and will be easy to transport. If I get it done, it will open up the possibility of an Anglo Egyptian army some time later this year. Good stuff!

For the moment, the Rapid Fire! project and Red Armoured Train are on hold but I'll be getting back to them after the holidays. I'm also going to start on the Iron Cow stuff as a mini-project in the extra bank holiday time that we've been given in May, so there's plenty to be looking forward to in the next month or two.

Back of Beyond Rules

I've been giving some thought to the Back of Beyond again. I ran a couple of campaigns a few years ago using the Contemptible Little Armies rules and with eight to ten players taking part. The campaigns were popular and resulted in some good games for everyone involved but somehow the all important narrative element was missing.

In fact, the campaign system was really just a mechanism for setting up a series of games between the different factions, leading to one grand finale big battle at the gates of Kashgar. The rules themselves also proved to be less than popular due to some of the mechanisms involved and the original focus of the system on the First World War rather than Central Asia.

Anyway, I'm thinking of another campaign but this time with a different set of rules and more of a scenario based skirmish level approach. The plan is to keep the Back of Beyond supplement as a focus but use a platoon or 1:1 level set of rules instead of CLA. There would be more of a storyline connecting the scenarios and greater emphasis on the 'derring do' aspect of the semi-historical setting.

I have three sets of rules as possibilities for this project, which might kick off in the Autumn if I get myself organised over the Summer. The frontrunner is Triumph and Tragedy, which seems perfect for the sort of thing I'm after.

The second option is Heroes of the Russian Civil War, which is based on Brother Against Brother and has the added advantage of being free.

The third and most recent addition to the equation is the Back of Beyond variant of Battlefield Evolution, which I've had a quick browse through today.

There are other rules that I've also thought of using but these three sets seem to be the most likely options at the moment. It needs a lot of time and consideration but I think this could get the Back of Beyond back on the menu at the club, at least for a few games in a row? At least I'll have an excuse to build another army.

Red Armoured Train [14]

I finished the armoured tender this evening and it's now drying, ready to be painted tomorrow along with the locomotive. I'll also try to get the command /machine gun wagon finished off and some work done on the flat wagon, so that I can wrap up this project by the end of the week.