2015- And So It Begins

New year, new resolutions, or so they say.
I never make resolutions, I cannot stand the crushing disappointment, when after two weeks of trying, it all goes to bits, so, I make plans instead, elaborate, in depth, grandiose, and suffer the same crushing disappointment when they don't reach their dizzying heights, but its fun trying :-)
   I am always harping on, about my grand Spanish Civl War scheme, the impressive game that will appear at a show near you, one day soon. Well this time round I have scaled down the operation, and instead have decided to complete a couple of forces for this, so what follows will be a series of postings abut the journey, to put together the two starting forces.

For those of you in the know, so to speak, "Chain of Command" are a WW2 based platoon level set of rules, from the TooFatLardies, an organisation which seems to be the Marmite of wargaming, you either love what they do, or hate them, as I am putting together forces for the rules, you can obviously see, I am a Marmite fan!! I like what they do, I find the rules a refreshing breath of fresh air, that I find is sorely needed in gaming circles. The people behind the rules are very supportive, and any questions are answered through their active Yahoo group, or through their own forum, they also have some very good instructional videos on YouTube, running through the rules, so you can see them in action.

Chain of Command Espana, is a series of articles from Rolf Grien and Jim Hales, that enable you to build forces for the Spanish Civil War, and pit them against each other using the CofC rules, with the added bonus, that they are FREE, yes, all you need is a set of CofC rules, then get your butt over to here 

http://toofatlardies.co.uk/blog/?p=2187

and grab all the bits you need, now how generous is that!!!

Jim, and Rolf have done a fantastic job with these additional rules, and they are an excellent starting point, for gamers to enjoy platoon level SCW games, in fact, you really don't need to do anything else, as they are quite comprehensive. I will of course, add my own touch, because I'm a tosser like that, and just have to tinker, and will include any little bits I have added on here.

So there's the basics, now lets start building the first force

Moroccan Regulares

If you want to play along at home, you will need to pop over to here

http://toofatlardies.co.uk/blog/?p=2261

and download the PDF

So lets get cracking

Dodgy looking bunch? they certainly are, and  rightly feared by the Spanish people , the Regulares came across as part of the Army of Africa, well trained, ruthless and efficiently deadly, they proved to be a very important asset for the Nationalist army. I will cover organisation and tactics in future articles, as this first little taster, is just around collecting some suitable figures, for the game.

Right kids, get that PDF I mentioned earlier, and lets have a dekko at the starting force required, to build ourselves a Moroccan platoon for CofC

Basic starting point, and we are going to require

4 command type figs, two LMG teams, and 34 Regulares with rifles etc

So far I have

Hmmmmm, not enough for even a basic platoon :-(

Not too far short though, which is good, so just a few additions to make up the numbers. Now most of my boys are from the good old days, when I ran Anglian Miniatures, and these lovely figures are part of the Empress Miniatures range, a great starting point for any budding SCW gamer.

I have a handful of conversions, using Artisan Goumiers, with suitable headswaps using Turban and Fez heads from Empress.

Of course I will want to add some more, I would use more Empress figures, but I like a challenge, and a bit of variety in my units, so its off a surfing I went, to find some more suitable figures (victims) to add to the force

Northstar Miniatures have Moroccans, they also have some of  the worst pictures around,

I cannot tell if the figures are nice, or horrible, but they look useable, so I shall get a pack.

Artizan have some stuff in their March or Die range, which may suit purpose

I can get away with these boys too, and no headswaps required here.

These two packs will make up the numbers, and give me a few extras to "experiment" with.

Basics, sorted, well sort of sorted, I will have to scratch a M22 Hotchkiss LMG to give to one figure, so i get the two required LMG teams, easy peasy really.

Now part of the fun with CofC, is the chance to add some support units to your force, so back to the PDF and. lets play about

Loads of cool stuff to pick from, of course its not a simple matter of "ooohhhhhh I'll have one of them, and one of them, and four of those" and I won't get into support choices, and how they work right now.

Some of these support options need litle more than a note on your force organisation, to say they have them, but others, well they will require a bit of lateral thinking, and a lot of lovely converting to get sorted.

Now I have a few of these options already, but want to add a few little bits of my own creativity to my force, and here is what I have planned.

On the left, "The Caid", he is simply an old Anglian/Empress figure I had laying about, I married him up with an eBob horse, and will add some more horse funiture to give him a more exotic look.

Next man along, the loader from the LMG team, the ammo will get removed, and replaced with a rifle, hey presto, instant sniper,  the third figure, well he is an old Mongrel Minis Afghan, he of course will lose his AK47, and instead will have an open hand to replace it, lying next to him, will be a wounded figure (conversion) and he will act as the medic, signalling for a stretcher team to come over to collect the wounded man.

A couple of the rifle armed figures will get scratchbuilt V-B launchers added

A little bit of brass tubing will suffice for this.

and lastly, well I want some Mounted Moroccan scouts, and this is proving to be a bit difficult

My solution? I am going to use these!!! From Footsore Miniatures, mounted BUF.

Yes, seriously, they will of course get executed, and have some suitably Moroccan looking heads added, and I will mess about with the rifles, and horse furniture, but I think they will look ok.

So, there we go, the build up begins, and next time, we shall have a look at uniforms, and a bit of advice on the paints to use.

until next time, keep painting