Mountains!

It's taken me a while to upgrade my desert terrain with mountains.  Last summer I cut and coated the bases and painted the peaks in the reorganised workshop.  With warmer weather I have used evenings to finish the texturing - I think I could do more but I've got the look I was wanting to achieve. 

The terrain for the next Thursday night try out for the Iran-Iraq War is ready.

I'm only half way through creating enough terrain to go fully operational but I should have it completed by the end of Summer - I might organise a half table operational game just to make sure the mountain rules work effectively.

Saddam's Mig 21s bomb suspected Kurdish positions in Northern Iraq.  Change the markings and it could be Afghanistan. Change the armies and it could be the Northwest Frontier, Tunisia, Italian East Africa......

Meanwhile I need to concentrate on JoS and then hopefully we might get some temperate terrain completed.

Just in case you wondered how it was done - I like to think it is therapeutic.

The Iran-Iraq project is moving along nicely and the mountain terrain allows me to put on another further Thursday night game.  Thanks to everyone for bearing with me as I develop new formations, rules and scenarios.  This is helping me create an operational game that has the unique flavour of this war but should give us a balanced game between two quite different armies, in-spite of all the 1980's equipment.  Although the scenarios are quite brutal for one side, I do think this is the nature of modern combat - I'm planning on the operational game giving us more pause and sense that either side can win.

Mark does have good ideas!

The first of 22.  This represents a British Infantry Brigade with HQ, 3 x Infantry, 1 x AT and 1x mortar.

A few weeks ago Mark and I pretested the operational game for the JoS.  He suggested using a large movement tray on which a number of individual bases can be temporarily stuck to quicken the game and give a better impression of a unit that will be representing a brigade.  I initially pooh-poohed his idea as this would require extra prep which I was trying to avoid.

Well, I gave it some thought and came around to agreeing with him.  I had some mounting card which I cut to 6" x 4", glued on some sandpaper, painted, dry brushed and washed - and there you go!

I think this might be a good process for doing town sectors, minefields etc.

.....and the moral of that story is never pooh-pooh Mr Shakespeare!

Help!

I'm trying to put together  a more thematically organised blog as a build up to JoS but I'm struggling with the layout.

The heading picture is too big and my attempt to put a profile and blogs I follow on the right hand side has got in the way of the post.

The address is operation-wargame.blogspot.com

Please help!

Cretan War - notes to myself.

I've been reading up on the Cretan War of the 17th century and thinking about the operational gaming opportunities.  This was a 27 year conflict between the Venetian and Ottoman Empires over the island of Crete and its valuable resources and trading links.  The Venetians were aided by a number of Christian allies whilst the Ottomans often employed Dutch and English pirates.

This was a largely naval war with amphibious landings and sieges which was decided by the fall of Candia, Crete's capital, a Venetian stronghold which was besieged for the whole duration of the conflict.  Ultimately, the war was about who could maintain the siege with supply lines from Constantinople and Venice witnessing naval battles, sieges and amphibious assaults.

This sounds a bit like operation Nostalgia, the WW2 operational game Mark and I have been contemplating for years.

It also sounds like a similar concept for a WW2 pacific operational game.

So, I could develop the terrain and have a number of other gaming periods as spin offs - always a plus when putting in the effort of terrain/army building.

I could get the fleets in plastic or metal/resin.  This is a 1/450 model from Revell which is close enough to fit in.

                     
The idea of doing the naval side of the game in 1/300 is appealing and who wouldn't want to fight an amphibious game with Venetians and Turks?

The operational game would follow the traditional set up with the Turks as attacker.  3B would be Candia and its fortified port.  3A would be the outer walls and the Ottoman siege lines.  The other tables would be small islands or larger ones depending on whether they are open or close terrain.  1C would be an outer Venetian fort.  Lines of supply will be crucial.  I may have one axis of attack from Constantinople and the other from North Africa.

Each side would have points to allocate for ships/troops/supplies.  The CinC's would allocate the forces with an opportunity every half hour to reallocate points on the hour.  If both sides choose to reallocate on the hour then a campaign year has concluded and the forces are reset but the positions remain held by the occupiers.

If one side feels it has an advantage then it can push on past the hour.  I may have to have an obligatory reset at lunch or if one side is just sitting on their positions then the umpire calls for a reset.

Just some ideas for me to refer back to in the future.