Military Fuel Crisis Averted

Military commanders in the North Eastern Military Region of Alcovia have overcome the fuel shortages faced by their mechanised formations through a field expedient conversion by Starshina-Corporal Rufuz T. светлячок.

Starshina-Corporal светлячок, a former miner from Haminskyz converted his tank platoon to coal fuel in a move which Alcovian Monarchist officials claim demonstrates the "flexible and forward thinking nature of our soldiery".  

"The coal fuellled tanks have more than proved their worth. With a top speed of 6Kph and a consumption of 3 tonnes to the mile, the 313th Tankinski brigade has been able to resume it's march on the break away region of Byzerk".

S&S Models Update

The T64s ordered from Shaun at S&S Models arrived today along with a UAZ Jeep and the Wrecked BMP. I'm in love with the T64s. 20mm Cold War Commander may well be on the cards later in the year, due solely to these excellent models.

The UAZ is functional - it's a jeep, aimed at set dressing mostly in my Alcovia games - nothing to get excited about - and then the Wrecked BMP, which comradeski, is simply stunning. I'm so impressed by the BMP model itself that I have no hesitation to pick up a platoon of BMP from Shaun sometime during the summer.

On the back of the Wrecked BMP, I'm going to order Shaun's new Pickup Defensive Position (£4.50). Another perfect terrain piece for Crisis in Alcovia. It's a checkpoint, a roadblock, an ambush position....brilliant!

I'm going to suggest to Shaun that he does something similar with a London Hackney Cab for Winter of '79, 2011 Urban Meltdown, Zombie Apocalypse etc.

All in all, a good bag of goodies.

Cheers
Mark
 

Under Fire Miniatures: Modern Russians

Contacted Bill at Under Fire Miniatures earlier this week regarding his range of Ultra Modern Russians.

Georgians in 'Fritz' helmets are in the pipeline and more Russians in 'combat' poses will be available later in the year.

Under Fire's Russians are 1/72 rather than what I would recognise as '20mm'. They are a good half to full head taller than RH Models/Liberation Miiniatures and similar ranges. The figure's heads themselves are smaller which gives the figures a more gangly look about them. Still, some good posing if lacking in 'warry' poses. The 6B7-1L helmet looks particularly good but the faces on the guys with 'OMON' helmets can lack detail.

I bought a pack each of ModRus7 (Mortar and AT14 ATGM) and ModRus8 (SPG-9 Recoiless Rifle and AGS-17 Plamya automatic grenade launcher) all lovely models and each weapon is a kit in it's own right.I felt these could stand alone regardless of minis I end up using.

Like Winter of '79, what was supposed to be a discrete project is growing arms and legs. Again like Winter of '79, my initial intention was to use Combat Miniatures (ex-Hotspur) from Stonewall Figures as the principal protagonists but have been let down in both cases by the poor casting of the miniatures.

Under Fire Miniatures have all been well cast and I like the clean lines of the sculpting - what Craig at Critical Mass Games would call a "painters' miniature". Ideally I'd like to see the range increase with a mix of weapons for both standard troopers and MVD/OMON to allow me to build a full platoon before I would seriously consider these for more than fireteam sized skirmishes.

Cheers
Mark

Generic Ruins

It's a common conceit on the tabletop to have pristine 'David Winter Cottage' style farms and villages. The unfortunate truth is that contested areas in any warzone see homes destroyed.

Whilst I'm keen to have a few buildings on the tabletop that reflect the Eastern European/sub Balkan nature of Alcovia's architecture. I also want to mirror the images of war torn villages I found on the net when looking at the wars in Chechnya, South Ossetia and former Yugoslavia.

Ironclad Miniatures produce a fine range of 20mm 'generic ruins' that can be used on their own or dressed with maybe one or two less damaged typical 'Eastern Front' houses, church and scenic accessories to create a more Eastern European image.

Looking at Ironclad's 'generic ruins' sets, I feel that 20-Ruin3 provides the best value for money. 20-Ruin3 comes with 20 ruined building sections and 12 shellholes/piles of rubble/debris. Being generic in appearance, the set will also be useful for my Winter of '79, British Civil War scenario and more.

Cheers
Mark

Area 9: 20mm Russian Front Buildings

I was very intrigued when I stumbled across 'Russian' buildings from Area 9 that look like they'd stepped right out of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare, and therefore perfect for my vision of Alcovia away from the beaten track.

Whilst I'm very tempted. Very, as I really like the look of these. I need to be convinced given that the buildings illustrated above are £19.00 (top) and £17.00 respectively. Though I can imagine being tempted to hand over some dosh at a wargames show.

Cheers
Mark
 

PaperTerrain: South Russian Village

Resting up today following yesterday's excitement (sic). I was scanning for more Eastern European building ideas for gaming Alcovia. Now,  I thoroughly recommend Scott Washburn's PaperTerrain. I bought the North Russian Village Pack in 15mm four/five years ago and remain really impressed.

Each building in the pack also has an inner 'destroyed' shell that allows you to 'reduce' them to ruins during the course of play. You can of course use the ruined and undamaged buildings separately, doubling the number of buildings on the table at no extra cost.

For Alcovia, I would personally prefer the South Russia Hamlet or Village pack (above). The architecture feels more Ukraine, Southern Russia, northern Balkans and just feels as though it has the right 'look' for a Call of Duty: Modern Warfare version of Alcovia.

The South Russia Village Pack is available in 20mm and includes the church, ten buildings, four barns and two types of fences. The Hamlet Pack has 4 buildings and 2 barns but can be increased to a nice sized village using the destroyed buildings.

My few Platoon 20 Modern Russians don't look too bad against the 15mm North Russian buildings at table distances but they are dwarfed by Under Fire Miniatures larger 1/72nd scale '20mm'.

Worth having a closer look.

Cheers
Mark
 

Eastern European Barn

Found this backwoods Eastern European barn as a free download: 

 2 opposing squads of infantry, a fence or two and gets yer started running missions in Alcovia.

Cheers
Mark