Learning by doing

torsdag 24 mars 2016

Việt Nam Độc Lập Đồng Minh Hội

That's "League for the Independence of Vietnam" or Viet Minh to you and me, the nationalist (later communist) movement for the unity and independence of Vietnam.

This is a mix of TAG and FNG (former Red Star) miniatures. The TAG ones are actually from their VietCong range so probably the sons of the VietMinh fighters they are being used as here, but the weapons and clothing work for this period too.

In my last post I added a French song from the period. My French is bad, but my Viet is non-existent, so I'll go with a French tune for the Viets too. It is actually fitting as this song was played over the radio by the VietMinh the night before the final assault on Dien Bien Phu. The irony was not lost on the French defenders, some of whom were old Resistance fighters.

onsdag 23 mars 2016

Un Bison Contre les Viets

My first tank support for the French Indo-China forces. This is a US M24 Chaffee light tank. Ten of these were disassembled, flown into Dien Bien Phu and put together again inside the base.

It is standing on one of the terrain sections we made for our game at GothCon. I think they turned out rather nice and can't wait to see them on the table. Four of us are building stuff and on Friday we will see it all together for the first time.
Last night I also finished the last Viet Minh. Hopefully I will have time to get them on the blog tomorrow.

måndag 14 mars 2016

First finished figures of 2016: VietMinh section

Not a by-the-TOE section, but pretty close anyway. The pic is rather awful and just intended as documentation of figures painted for the TFL Painting Challenge in 2016. I will get all the minis for Indo-China a proper photo session once GothCon is finished. This will include vehicles and some rather nice terrain, but for now, I can at least document that I have finished a few figures.

onsdag 9 mars 2016

The Dice Bag Lady strikes again!

We were not going to do Eastern Front in 28mm. We already have tons of stuff for it in 20mm. No need to reinvent the wheel. Laffe tempted us into doing Western Desert in 28mm, but East Front? No.

And along came Annie...
Annie, aka The Dicebag Lady, runs Bad Squiddo Games and is a very nice person even by the standards of the very friendly community that is war gaming. She has been producing female miniatures for a while and now she is launching her most ambitious project to date; female Soviet troops.

Yes, I will have to get a bunch and you should too. I mean, what other time are you actually going to get to read a Nobel Laureate as research for your gaming projects?

And on a less serious note, Katyusha approves this message!

måndag 7 mars 2016

Narrowest win ever! Zombicide games night

On Sunday I got together with Vicky and Icke for a game of Zombicide. I have played about a dozen games of Zombicide using various versions but V and I had only played once before. In that game we were incredibly lucky with the Spawn cards and basically walked through, the poor Zeds never stood a chance. This time, I promised, we would run a bigger game and there would indeed be a challenge.

We nabbed the first two objectives without much trouble and got tooled up in the process, plenty of SMGs and shotguns. Ned found a rifle and levelled up to an extra die in ranged combat, a lethal combo. We were in good shape, clear firing lanes and good unit cohesion.

Then things started to go wrong. Josh was going to use his Slippery ability to dodge the last few zombies and catch up with us...but a Walkers Get An Extra Turn card ruined that plan. Now we were five.

We moved at full speed towards the second-to-last objective and managed to grab that. Still sticking together with Wanda taking point we were still doing OK, but at Orange level, zombies were spawning at an alarming rate. It was make or break time. One objective left in a house with 8 rooms. There would be a loooot of zombies. Wanda broke down the door. Spawn cards came up. Fatties spawn in Sewers! Suddenly they were upon us. Fingers crossed, thumbs held and barely breathing we continued drawing cards. Walker extra move! Feeding time! Four of us died in a matter of seconds. Only Wanda was left alive, with a dozen zombies between her and the final Objective.

Icke and me were already swearing and moaning at coming so close to winning when Vicky said "I just gained Slippery, that means I can move out of a zone containing zombies at no extra cost, right? And Wanda moves two squares for each Move action?"
"Yes", we said, "but you still have to stop when you enter a zone containing zombies."
"Well, said Vicky, four actions. Count 'em"

"I move, I stop. I move, I stop. I move Double. I interact with the Objective...and we have won."

And we had indeed won. The goal of the scenario was to grab all Objectives. No need to have more than one survivor.

So, we are still leading the game 2-0. This was not an easy win, that's for sure, but it was a win. Already looking forward to the next game.