More Playtesting

After a period of illness, I finally feel well enough to condense the in-game events from saturdays game into a small battle report.

I hosted a presentation of Code Red on a regional convention to get a bit more publicity. I decided to play the usual US vs. Insurgents deployment but gave the insurgents organized fighters with a solid command structure for ease of play.

Again the US Army strike force had to get in and extract important personell from the battlefield swarming with Insurgents. Their deployment included heavy support by a Bradley AFV.

The Americans deployed one squad mounted in their Stryker and advanced into the center of the battlefield to occupy key positions. The Bradley cleared the way by detonating an anti-personell IED hidden between the rock formations. 

The Infantry dismounted under the watchful eyes of the stryker gun crew....

At some point, an Insurgent RPG hidden in the compounds hit the Bradley up front but failed to do any damage. The crew chose to withdraw out of sight before maneuvering in once again to support the infantry in driving the Insurgents out of the building.

The infantry then started skirmishing towards the buildings....

The US commander, dissatisfied with the progress of his troops against the Insurgent RPGs, ordered a full frontal assault on the compound. Without properly suppressing the Insurgents, the Americans ran into a hail of defensive fire and were repelled in close combat.

The bloody result as the dust settled: 3 KIA.

Determined to secure victory before the Insurgents got to know the margin of their success, US forces advanced to secure the objective. They succeeded in making contact with the missing soldier but were soon flanked by a small group of Insurgents and driven off (taking the VIP with them of course)

The Insurgent leaders, finally realising their success of killing three American servicemen - bad press was certain - made contact with their superiors and got clearance to melt away from combat, leaving the field to the badly mauled American Task Force.

An Insurgent victory, mainly due to the hazardous assault on a well entrenched position that was not properly suppressed... and a shit-ton of bad luck.  Assaulting can be deadly, better try outflanking the opponent next time or drive them away by sheer firepower.

Code Red - Playtest Impressions

We had another session of Code Red yesterday, testing a few more features, tweaking some infantry issues and developing some interesting concepts for rules in the vehicle section of the rulebook.

Here are some impressions from our testing session, no full BatRep though as we didn´t play until the bitter end.

US Fireteam makes contact with their objective, a Special Forces member that has to be extracted

Russians are closing in on the right flank

The Bradly IFV on the left flank is destroyed by an RPG hit after suffering a mobility hit earlier on (the crew had already bailed out)

Russians close range and prepare to push through...

Pop Some Smoke!

I built some very quick and cheap smoke marker, started yesterday evening and finished today.

The green smoke looks a bit darker than it does in reality - I´ll try to take some better pics on friday during our test game, maybe I need to touch it up a little with lighter green.

Basic construction:
-Form the basic cloud shape out of tin foil, glue it to the base
-Mix acrylic caulk with water and baking soda, let it bubble up a bit as the soda reacts with water and apply to the tin foil.
-Let it dry thorougly
-Paint it up in the color you like (I used my airbrush to enhance the subtle color changes in the cloud - best seen on the blue smoke)

In the background, the next bits of terrain - more rocks in the making!

French and Insurgent

Another quick update on some recent work. I´ve just finished the first test miniature for a French infantry unit modeled after the Operations in Mali and CAR. Probably not going to appear anytime soon, but I´ll be building up the masters bit by bit and push release them when ready.

Also added another Insurgent to fill the next mould with more eastern european rebels - so he´ll be available soonish (early may?)

Meanwhile, I´m in the last stages of finishing the Chinese squad and preparing to move on to British and German units - mixing in a Portugese every not and then to fulfill my commitment to the kickstarted project. :)

On a completely unrelated note, we´ll have another playtest for Code Red scheduled for tomorrow, which will inevitably result in another playtest report...

Seeya soon!

Portugese Colonial Troops - Update

After some more work in the secret vaults of Enfilade Figures (i.e. on my desk) I can present you the latest masters for the Portugal Colonial Wars range:

First up, a Rifleman on patrol:

Second new addition: A Grenadier firing an Energa Rifle Grenade:

 

And third, another Rifleman, kneeling and weapon at the ready, as if spotting for possible adversaries

Note: I´m not exactly satisfied with the photos, the angles are not ideal so you can´t see all detail.

Together with the already existing figures we´re not at 8 out of 10.

If you want to support the project, please consider pre-ordering the packs at www.enfilade-figures.com. Your pre-order will guarantee that you´re among the first to get these (with a discount on their final price!) but also help me create a second squad of Portugese!

Thanks!

The Task Force - Part 1

After doing the first batch of Insurgents for my Mountain Warfare mini-project, I decided to switch to the first batch of Rangers to start the US Task Force operating on the Mountain Peaks.

At first I was not quite sure which camo scheme to use. Plain BDU didn´t appeal to me and I started thinking of doing a fantasy mountain camo pattern with similar overall appearance but different details. I started off painting the main uniform in Medium Grey with vest and webbing in green. Doing the helmets in black was one of the must-haves, as I think it gives them a much more badass look.

In the end, after painting the first stripes of my camo pattern, I decided that the result looked decent, so I resisted the urge to add streaks of dark brown and left it as it was, realising that I ended up with something very very reminiscent of BDU...

If I find a suitable surplus mini, I might try adding some streaks of dark brown to create a more experimental pattern - I can always add them later to the rangers, removing them is much more difficult...

Enough talk, here´s the first part of the rangers:

I also finished the rock on the right. The snow is modular by the way, so I can play with the same terrain pieces with snow or without - whatever suits my needs.

Next up:  New pictures of the latest sculpts of Portugese Colonial Troops.

More Mountain Warriors

Continuing with the snowy mountain warfare theme as I have more than sufficient "standard" islamists. I decided to design a snow scenario for two convention demos of Code Red in June, very loosely based on the events on Takur Ghar. Rangers and Special Forces have been purchased to form the core force of my western units.

But first, we need more Insurgents. So, right in time for the "Brown" Easter theme on the Guild, I painted them... brown:

Two of them have camo schemes (fantasy schemes) which are hardly visible, so here´s a rearview:

British Armed Forces

Hey folks,

a short update for today, but an update nonetheless:
As I´ve got no FAMAS ready for mass production of Modern French and got sick of doing more Chinese after finishing 7 out of 9 guys for a basic infantry squad I switched to doing a British soldier, as these would be next in line:

 

More Easter Eggs tomorrow...