First game of OSC

Oscar Sierra Charlie by Evil Bear Wargames is the first of four related games to be brought out by that company. It's a skirmish game for between six and sixteen figures in a modern or near future setting. The other games will allow bigger battles, more scifi games and a campaign system.

I don't intend to review the rules at this point, rather, I'll just talk through the main points of tonight's game with Matt Slade.

Before the game, we struggled with the rules a bit. They're simple enough, but there are plenty of choices to be made each turn and the rules are spread awkwardly through the slim 52 page A5 book. They really could be laid out better. After the game we had a pretty good grasp so this shouldn't be a problem again, but a QRS will be made.

Anyway, the game. First, the forces.

In the brown corner, from Ground Zero Games, the NAC. Weighing in at level 4 (trained soldiers) with superior ballistic protection we have one RPG, one LMG, three assault riflemen and a commander with an assault rifle. 99 points worth.

In the red corner, from Armies Army, the SKOV! Hitting the scales at level 3 (untrained militia) with no armour whatsoever, are one RPG, two LMGs, six riflemen with assault rifles and a commander with an SMG. 100 points.

The site of a terrible crash will be the venue for tonight's rumble. The main objective is in the centre of the board and cannot be moved, only claimed and occupied. Four other objectives lie scattered around, probably the Colonel's CD collection from his crashed car. These four objectives start in the centre and scatter d10" in a random direction before the game.

Deployment points were placed and missions rolled. We both rolled the same mission, number 3. It seems that as well as collecting personal effects and securing the wrecked car we'd be after each other's commander. 14 points Alive or 7 points dead if we can recover him to the deployment zone. 

We start to deploy...

A lot of the fighting took place around the grouped objectives. We rolled low when they scattered!

  

First objective quickly returned to my DP. It's safe there for now but not necessarily out of the game.

An opportunity arose. A long shot in both senses of the phrase. Could my RPG fire across the board and take out Matt's commander? It's worth a try.

That's him laying down top left. I also killed two other riflemen but we leave the commander on table so that I can bring him to my deployment point if possible, whilst Matt defends him.

The crack shot RPG trooper with his bright reload marker (a hastily commandeered 7TV token):

It got a bit exciting after this and I forgot to take photos. Notably, I drew a land mine card and saw off a few more militia, whilst an RPG duel ended up as a pistol duel due to reduced range. I managed to clear the central area but time was running out and I wouldn't be able to recover any more objectives. I did however claim and occupy the unmovable objective in the centre, despite having a jammed rifle.

A lot of manoeuvring later and a lone rifleman on my left flank threatened my commander and the recovered objective. Things got worse when in the last turn Matt played a card that saw my Commander cracking up about something 'Kevin' said and unable to activate! 

Superior firepower and armour saw me through against superior numbers and unfamiliar rules. When my commander stops laughing I'm sure he'll be asking why we didn't recover all the CDs, but we'll try again. 

An enjoyable game with plenty of depth to the rules and a system that we'll certainly try again.

I will write that QRS though.

Man of the match thanks to one awesome lucky shot:

ClearHorizon HADES Ghost Team

A few shots of the HADES Ghost Team from ClearHorizon Miniatures.

ClearHorizon Covert Ops War Drones

A lovely pack of three war drones with controller from ClearHorizon's Covert Ops range.

The drones come in at about 23mm to the top of the head whilst the controller is 17mm.

There's some very fine detail here. Most enjoyable to paint.

Available here;

http://clearhorizonminiatures.com/shop/shop/15mm/vehdroneanddrop/drones/covert-ops-war-drones/

Armies Army/Khurasan comparison

Kull asked for a comparison of the Khurasan Neo-Arabs and Armies Army SKOV.

Who am I to refuse a character from one of my favourite author's works? ;)

I put the unpainted miniatures on the same bases as the finished minis for a proper height comparison:

New GZG Kra'Vak

On Monday morning I discovered that Ground Zero Games had released re-sculpted Kra'Vak miniatures. Better still, for a limited time each pack of eight minis comes with two bonus support chaps.

I'd been waiting for the right time to buy some Kra'Vak, so it seemed like this was the time. At 10am that same day I sent off my order for four packs along with a grav APC for the Kra'Vak and a Paladin for my NAC.

That was yesterday. Today I got home from work to find them sitting on my doormat! I know Jon is quick, I sometimes think that he and Gavin at 15mm.co.uk are in competition to see who can get orders out quickest, but you really can't get quicker than that unless you live within walking distance. Yesterday morning I didn't know these had been released!

So what to do? They're not going to get painted just yet; there's a queue. Jon says on his site that the new boys are a bit bigger than the previous sculpts, so here are some hastily prepared comparison pics.

Above L-R: 15mm.co.uk Prang, CMG Protolene, new GZG Kra'Vak, Khurasan Neo-Arab, Armies Army SKOV.

Above L-R: Khurasan, Armies Army, New GZG Kra'Vak, GZG NAC, Clearhorizon HADES Ghost Team (sans head).

Above L-R: GZG, Clearhorizon, White Dragon Miniatures MTU, New GZG Kra'Vak, Brigade Games (former Armies Army).

The Kra'Vak APC came with a little guy to stick out the top, so here's how he compares with the new chaps.

Finally, here's a close up.

Lovely. 

Thanks Jon for your continued excellent service and these great little minis!

Tofar Longwanderer and The Controller

15mm.co.uk have a range called Self Help Miniatures featuring miniatures designed by aspiring sculptors to help them get experience in the hobby/business.

This SHM range has some real gems that are full of character and I recently took advantage of their free postage offer and ordered a selection that caught my eye.

The first couple to be painted are Tofar Longwanderer and The Controller:

Tofar

The Controller

Ideal for campaign driven games such as Five Parsecs From Home by Nordic Weasel Games or as civilian bystanders or evacuees with your usual scifi rules of choice, this is a range you shouldn't overlook.

http://www.15mm.co.uk/collections/shm-15mm-science-fiction

PMC2640 at Dragondaze

Today Matt and I ran a few demo games  of PMC2640 at Dragondaze in Newport.

The game seemed to go down well with the players as well curious passers-by. It seems odd to me that many of them thought that sci fi in 15mm was a novel idea. Hopefully they realised it's an extremely versatile and cost effective scale. I certainly tried to get that point across.

As we were sitting by the table as the venue slowly emptied and we were wondering if we should start to pack and leave, a group of 5 young lads casually asked how many players the game was for. I almost flippantly said "how many have you got?", adding that it's a co-op game with the bugs controlled by the game. So began the final, and biggest game of the day

Here is an account of what happened...

All was quiet. The local militia were investigating reports of large holes appearing in the vicinity.

The bugs and civilians appear at random during the game from random locations. Turn 1, and all three groups of civilians appear expecting protection from the militia, who are now engaged with the bugs.

The bugs start to go down easily, although the group in the bottom left need a bit of help from the colonists armed only with the odd pistol or rifle.

Women, children and vending machines first! 

The Private Mercenary Company appear and head towards the fleeing civilians to escort them to the safety of their stronghold from where they can be evacuated.

Their appearance doesn't go unnoticed by less human senses though...

The bugs are being taken down and good progress is made. What could possibly go wrong?

No sooner had the overgrown bug appeared than the militia and civilians open fire and take him down. Messy but efficient.

An all too familiar view. Nervous civilians pass the alien monuments and the cave where bug noises have been heard...

The militia on the right flank take a spray of acid and start to doubt whether they want to hang around.

Whilst the militia on the other flank flee from another large bug who gets finished off by the LMG team who have made superb progress to  come to their aid.

It all gets a bit much for the scientists, they try to make their escape through the swamp, covered by the LMGs.

The other two groups of civilians make better progress. 

But a group of bugs appear in the most inconvenient place; a bug hole on their unprotected right flank!

Off camera, the mercenaries react swiftly and deal with the bugs. The techs and the women and children make it to safety, but the scientists were last seen in the swamp.

All that remains is to decide whether to send a search party for the scientists, after all, it was their experiments that led to this situation. At least the robot vending machine is safe!