Tartarian Air Support

MiGs flying NOE hunting Mantovian armour

I used the clear plastic flight stands to hold onto them during painting. I wish I had thought of that with the J29s!

The Aviation Defense Forces of the People's Democratic Republic of Tartaria (a Tartaria Népi Demokratikus Köztársaság légivédelmi erői) or LVE began hostilities with a collection of piston driven Yak fighters, Sturmovik ground attack aircraft and Pe-2 light bombers. 

A Pe-2 attacks Mantovian positions during the initial border clashes

I seriously considered just repainting the markings on my Soviet Pe-2 and leaving things as is, since it's probably going to see more action with the Tartarians than the WW2 Soviets, or even getting them (and the Soviets) a Sturmovik. But it's the early 50s and the Cold War, so the flashpoint between the PDRT and Mantovia would attract Soviet foreign aid, so getting them an upgrade meant I could add the iconic MiG-15. And Don is very generous with the printing. 4 models arrived with the latest delivery of printed goodness, handed over at Hotlead.

Hunting for the KML

I had been wrestling with wing markings. Thinking maybe a red triangle would be easy enough to paint. Finally, a political cartoon gave me the inspiration for the LVE aircraft markings. Which I executed freehand. I should have attempted masking, even if some paint did peel off. But from three feet away they look fine. I painted three, since I'm undecided how to paint the fourth model. And honestly, I only need one in a game. I suppose I could play Bag the MiG? Or Check Your 6! Jet Age.

My flight stands are heavy wire epoxied to thick, heavy washers

Second Batch of Gloam-Hyyn

There have been some distractions, real life and other hobby projects, but a second group of Gloam-Hyyn have rolled off of the painting desk.

This group includes a Medic, made from a rhyfler who's carbine broke during shipping. So I cut the stock off and gave him some Crusader small packs. Along with bandages and pain killers, he's got jars of salves for treating the various bites, parasites, and infections that soldiers everywhere get fighting in jungles and swamps.

A Messenger Squirrel Handler.

An officer who has "Gone Native." In the fluff, officers are attached from the Coftyran Crymuster, much like British officers attached to the Indian Army during the Raj. So they wear their blue Coftyran uniforms and rubber hip waders. Don had printed me extra officers, and I had a rhyfler who had a broken rhyfle, so I thought "why not put an officer torso on rhyfler legs and add some camouflage netting and neck curtain?"

The camouflage netting is made from cheese cloth and tea leaves. The neck curtain is made from shop rag.

Easier said than done. The join was a mess, and required me to use Miliput, not just superglue. So at the back I hid it with a scabbard, small pack and small bed roll. In the front I made a big tasseled knot from embroidery thread and tried to make it look like a sash.

In retrospect, I should have swapped arms, and put officer arms on the rhyfler body. Although I can't remember if the rhyfler body I started with had its arms away from the body. Most of the poses don't, so it would have been impossible if that where the case.

Another broken weapon resulted in this rhyfler getting an SMG with drum magazine from the Tolly-Maeryn figures, which just required trimming the cuff a bit. He will probably become the QM Yawdryl and mind the Ganga pack beast I've built for this force.

Finally 6 more rhyflers with carbines and a rhyfler with cryfen LMG. I forgot to grab a Yawdryl for them to complete the squad. Oops. Although I guess the fellow above could be their Squad Leader too.

Up next is the fourth and final squad of rhyflers, some more HQ figures, and the start of their Scout and Tracker Section.

Fast and Furious!

I have just finished another Play By E-Mail Napoleonic campaign. Which ended very abruptly!

It was set in the frankly horrific 1807 winter campaign that historically ended with the Battle of Eylau.

Fortunately for our virtual soldiers, this campaign only lasted for I think four days.

I was Davout, the "Iron Marshall" with his veteran 3rd Corps.

Starting bright and early on 22 December 1806, I bridged the Vistula and marched north from Plock, covering the main force's left and providing a link with our distant left wing (Lannes and Bernadotte).

The changing weather complicated matters. Snow or mud caused extra fatigue. Even standing still on a muddy day added to fatigue levels. So it was slow, laborious, going. 

I made for Soldau, hoping for a rest day in the town, before marching to Mlawa and reinforcing Ney and Napoleon's left in a build up around Pultusk. 

I bumped into the Prussian Auxiliary Korps (commanded by the Mad Padre) at Soldau with my 4 divisions. They, occupying the only shelter for miles, were to be evicted.

I defended with my right, where the biggest Prussian division was, pinned in the center around the village, and attacked on my left with my biggest division and my cavalry. It was hard slogging, but I decided it was a "victory or death" situation and kept pushing.

A close run battle on a muddy Christmas Day followed, with me finally routing the Prussian right hand division just before nightfall. The next morning it took a couple of turns to get organized and pursue. I then hooked right to march towards the ongoing mighty battle of Pultusk. 

I had just bumped into the worn Prussians at Mlawa, who had bumped into Ney (my friend Scott), who had a shattered Russian cavalry division on his other flank... when the game ended.

The division I routed, added to Russian divisions routed that day at Pultusk, got us enough VPs to win the game.

And it was only 26 December 1806.

Definitely an interesting experience. 

Up Ship!

Had some time last week at work, while watching machine control panels, to start brain storming my Quar Diesel-punk Airship Fleet Combat Game! idea.

Royalist battleship and cruiser with some kites flying past

I've wanted to do a diesel-punk alt-history airship game for quite a while, but got held up by not being able to source enough drop tanks etc to make the ships from and brutal reality. There being rather good reasons why aircraft quickly overtook airships in warfare. Alt-history doesn't let you ignore physics.

But along come the Quar with their thicker atmosphere, and presumably more readily obtainable helium, and voila!, suddenly fleets of airships fighting it out don't seem as impractical or belief-stretching as human crewed ships would. 

The lack of models were readily solved by Don and his resin printer. A quick tour around Yeggi and Wargaming 3d (search "airships" and "zeppelins" for more models) for airships came up with lots of models, some of which Don was able to scale down for me. An 8 inch long Hindenburg would make great air support for 15mm Quar though, just sayin'.

Crusader kite carrier launches two flights

I was looking at converting Nimitz or Full Thrust, but I want lots of ships, whole squadrons in fact, and I did not want to be managing ship damage cards for EVERY ship model on the table. So something where I could mark minimal critical or systems hits with pipe cleaners and record basic damage points on the ship itself (or micro dice by the stand) was desirable.

Royalist Cruiser

Ships will be divided into 6 classes:

Class A- Aircraft Carriers 8 Damage Points, 4 light batteries, 4 flights of kites (aircraft), SLOW 0-3, MEDIUM 4-5, FAST 6-7 hexes

Kites 3 Damage points, 1 firepower per kite (3) SLOW 4-10, MEDIUM 11-15, FAST 16-20

Class B- Battleships, 8 Damage Points, 4 heavy batteries, 4 light batteries, SLOW 0-3, MEDIUM 4-5, FAST 6-7 hexes

Class C- Cruisers, 6 Damage Points, 2 heavy batteries, 4 light batteries, SLOW 0-4, MEDIUM 5-6, FAST 7-8 hexes

Class D- Destroyers,  4 Damage Points, 4 light batteries, SLOW 0-5, MEDIUM 5-7, FAST 8-10 hexes

Class E- Scouts, 3 Damage Points, 2 Rocket pods, 1 light battery, SLOW 0-5, MEDIUM 5-7, FAST 8-10 hexes

Class G- Transports, Merchant shipping, 6 Damage Points, 2 light batteries, SLOW 0-2, MEDIUM 3-4, FAST 5-6 hexes

Note that airships can choose to not move at all in a turn, using reversed engines etc to hold position in air currents. Kites however must move at least 4 hexes or stall.

Heavy batteries are 37mm to 50mm quick firing breech loading cannon with explosive shells. Light batteries range from 9mm light machine guns to 20mm magazine fed autocannons.

Crusader battleship

Turn Sequence

Dice for initiative. Winner decides if they want to move first or second. Player who held initiative last turn wins a tie.

Movement

Player with initiative moves first ship or formation of ships. Players alternate moving formations or single ships. All ships or formations moving in their SLOW speed band are moved. Then continue alternately moving all formations or ships in the MEDIUM speed band. Finally all ships or formations moving in the FAST band are moved.

Class A and B can make one hex facing turn every 3 hexes moved.

Class C, D and E and can make one hex facing turn every 2 hexes moved.

Kites can make one hex facing turn every hex moved.

Class G can make 1 hex facing turn every 3 hexes moved.

Formations do not need to move together, but they won't count as a formation in the shooting phase or in the next turn.

Shooting

The side that moved first then shoots first. Shooting is alternated between players again by ships and formations. A formation can shoot at different targets. But all batteries on a ship must fire at the same target, except light batteries directed to anti-kite fire.

Arcs of fire: 1 light battery can fire through the bow or stern hex facing. All batteries can fire to either flank.

Kites have a range of 0-3 and hit on a 5+ they start with 3 firepower but lose 1 for every damage point they take. Kites arc of fire is through their front hex facing only.

Light Batteries Range 1-3 hit on 4+, 4-6 hit on 5+ 

Heavy Batteries Range 1-4 hit on 4+, 5-7 hit on 5+, 8-10 hit on 6

Rocket pods 1-2 hit on 4+, 3-4 hit on 5+ 5-6 hit on 6 

Anti-kite fire, light batteries only Range 1-3 hit on 5+, 4-6 hit on 6, each hit causes 1 DP to the flight

For each successful hit roll 1d10. Heavy Batteries and Rocket Pods add +1 to the die roll.

1- No effect, passed through the envelope and missed anything important

2-6 1 Damage Point

7- Engines Damaged, no longer able to make FAST speed, second result no longer able to make MEDIUM speed

8- Steering hit, rudder jammed, must make a 1 hex face turn every 2 hexes moved Roll a d6. Odds turn left, even turn right.

9- FIRE! Fuel line hit. Roll again on this chart at the beginning of each turn.

10- ammunition hit, BOOM! ship destroyed

For each damage point the ship loses 1 shooting dice, players choice and they can change that decision each shooting phase, the damage is as much shock, chaos and crew casualties as it is destroyed guns. (Scouts can count expended Rocket Pods for this), at 25% damage the ship can no longer move FAST, at 50% damage it can no longer move MEDIUM

Terrain

Clouds block line of sight for shooting. Ships moving inside a cloud must roll 1d6 and roll again after every 3 hexes moved 

1-drift 1 hex to left keep moving in same direction

2-drift 1 hex right keep moving in same direction

3- turn 1 hex facing left and move in new direction

4- turn 1 hex facing right and move in new direction

5- stay on current course

6- stay on course but move back 1 hex

Mountains block line of sight and movement. 

Storms move across the battlespace in a straight line 2d6 hexes per turn. Move storm clouds at the end of movement phase. Ships caught in a storm roll on the damage table each turn they are inside the storm.

Royalist battleship with kites

First Squads of Gloam-Hyyn

 

Yawdryl Laf'ynt puffed on his pipe. "Jayzus t'underin' Ancestors bucko. Get to where ya be and sit der until I come to where yez at."

The young rhyfler trotted away, back up the jungle track, sandals softly slapping.

"Pashang Bossquar!" Lukey, one of the older rhyflers, a rugged backwoods quar and snail trapper, swore and spat a stream of tobacco juice at a beetle crawling up a stem. "Buckos na ken gloamy sassa-kay?"

Laf'ynt checked the magazine on his Doru. "Well, no time like the present for 'em t' learn, eh? An' they jus' needs to stan' where dey be an' all."

"You and Doh'n go right. Me, Syr'tte, an' Tafytte wit' da Cryfen will go left. We'll catch da Greenies in a crossfire."

Doh'n, another rhyfler from deep in the swamps,  laughed. "Ah, den we havin' fay dou dou!" 

Lukey nodded to Doh'n who checked the action on his jungle carbine patterned Harlech. "Soft, soft-sa baratna. Creepin' us like beetles, 'kay?"

Doh'n nodded. "Si si. Soft soft, mi pensa. No kitty mi."

The two veterans faded into the thick bush on the right of the track.

There are 7 unique poses.

Laf'ynt looked at his two remaining squad members. "Single file. Leadin' me. Tafytte you tail. Watch me signs. Maybe just a squad we facin', maybe no. Too many Greenies we allons couree. Sa sa?"

Look at their toes!

The other two Quar nodded silently. "Allez!" Laf'ynt said and plunged through the undergrowth.

4 different separate packs

With the thick canopy, and no sunlight to orient yourself with, navigation in the jungle was a challenge. Laf'ynt tried to keep in the right direction, but every time you stepped around a tree or over a log it was easy to drift off your bearing. He knew the track snaked and twisted off to his right and kept them moving that way as he pushed through the leafy undergrowth. 

Somewhere up there, his two youngest rhyflers should be dug in behind a thick log that crossed the track.

He stopped, holding a fist up. He listened carefully. Just off to the right he heard somequar softly humming the old sea shanty "Wellerquar."

Good. They weren't lost.

They soon came upon the enormous rotting tree trunk. It's ancient bulk was covered in fungus and vines and swarmed with insects.

Tafytte pulled off some rotten wood and grabbed a fat beetle, crunching it noisily.

Laf'ynt just looked at him and shook his head. "Zwah" he whispered. They scrambled under the trunk where a thick branch still held it up. He moved them up to be just ahead of the roadblock, where they could shoot down the track.

They settled down in the undergrowth and waited.

******************

The Gloam-Hyyn are a fan made faction, created by YouTube painter Mish Mash! who has added a lot of enthusiastic Quar content to his popular 40k channel, helping to boost Quar among mainstream 40k players. The Gloam-Hyyn have a decided Cajun flavor, living in a swampy bayou. But there are also notes of Viet Cong and to me, at least, since they're coastal dwelling fisher folk, Newfoundlanders. So in my head, poorer quar, from deep in the swamp or working the shrimp boats, talk with a thick patois that I've liberally coloured with Cajun and Belter slang. Better educated "townies" talk like Newfoundlanders.

The camouflage helmets and functional sandals definitely give them a jungle warfare vibe, so I took inspiration from WW2 Japanese for their uniforms, using Vallejo "Japanese Uniform" for tunics and trousers, and Tamiya "IJA Green" for the helmets. Then a lot of ink washes of varying intensity on their belts and packs. The big plants and tufts are from Gamer Grass. 

Like all Quar factions, there is no direct analogy with a human historical army. There are similarities, but a lot of mixing too, to keep things interesting. 

But these and my Toulmorese will take Quar and my wargaming from the Western Front of WW1 to Burma and the Pacific Islands of WW2. Because variety and all that.

Squirrel!

Of all the whimsical, goofy things that I love about Quar, Messenger Squirrels and their Handlers are probably my favorite. 

Phone lines get cut by shelling. Radios are too heavy to be carried by Company HQ and are unreliable. But the clever, agile pykpyks get through. 

So I'm quite pleased that my Coftyran Company HQ Squad now has their own Messenger Squirrel Handler and is complete as far as I'm concerned. 

Officially, the Company HQ Squad, or Caerten's Retinue, consists of himself, the Master-Yawdryl, Cook, Squirrel Handler, Musician, and Standard Bearer, and up to four Rhyflers to use for HQ Defense or Runners.

A Musician or Standard don't totally fit the WW1 vibe I'm looking for. Medics will fill in for one of those to remove shock etc.

If there were some Musicians with more whimsical instruments, like something Dr. Seuss would give a Who, I would probably change my mind however, but the plastic set appears to have a drum. Boring! Perhaps alternate musicians will be available through the MyMiniFactory Tribe?

I can only hope.

This fellow was made entirely from 3d printed components, except the left arm, which I made from a left over plastic arm and a clenched fist cut from a bent arm.

This Old Bunker

I had built these bunkers about 15 years ago when I was tootling around with a Second Anglo-Boer War project. They were made from air drying clay over a card board shell.

The Canadian Mounted Rifles chasing Boer bitterenders across the veldt project faltered on not finding a decent proxy for the CMR. So the bunkers sat in their tan paint. And later research revealed to me that Boer War bunkers were different anyway. Oh well, never mind.

I used the big one as a Afghan National Army/Police sangar a few times in my 20mm Canadians in Afghanistan project. I had vague thoughts of turning them into components for a Patrol Base. It turns out bunkers in Afghanistan were very different as well. Oh well, never mind.  Making all those HESCO bastions was intimidating and I shelved the idea.

QRF rolls out past an ANA checkpoint to rescue a LAV patrol hit by an IED.

Then I thought they'd look really good if I gave them a bit of a reno and incorporated them into my Quar trenches.

The small bunker originally had a flat roof painted to look like rusting tin, but I added coffee stirrer planks as a floor and built a parapet out of some extra plastic and greenstuff sandbags I had accumulated. I always try to shape any leftover greenstuff into sandbags instead of throwing it out. I had to get out the Miliput and make more to finish it off but that's ok. Ladders were made from match sticks to allow access to the roofs.

Then it was just a matter of spending a Friday night on Zoom with some friends and painting them. I used Games Workshop Dark Angels Green Contrast paint to go over all the sandbags (which had already been painted burnt umber then drybrushed tan), and then dry brushing with craft paint Antique Green. Any wood was painted burnt umber brown, then dry brushed grey, then hit with a sepia ink wash. I used the ink on any tan crevices among the sand bags that the previous four coats of paint missed. The ground, originally sand, was painted and flocked.

Small bunker

Interior view showing cardboard shell with skin of air drying clay overtop. Rhyfler Puwl demonstrates proper use of a firing slit.

Side view

Rear view

Big bunker

Interior view. An M2b HMG just reaches the firing slit!

Side view

Rear view. Wall of sandbags to protect the entrance on this one.

Action shots! 31 Combat Engineer Regiment assaults a heavily fortified Royalist defensive line.

About to put a grenade through a firing slit

Have a satchel charge!

Through the wire!