First taste of Charlie Don’t Surf

And so, more than two years after I decided to dive into this project, the day finally arrived – yesterday, I’ve run my first game with ‘Charlie Don’t Surf’, Too Fat Lardies’ company level ruleset for Vietnam war. T. took charge of Americans, L. run the local VC forces, while yours truly took upon the ungrateful role of game-master.

While ‘Charlie Don’t Surf’ has a full-fledged scenario generator, I’ve decided to keep things to bare minimum for this first try and put together a simple scenario without any bells and whistles – a reduced strength U.S. company with 3 x platoons with two squads each and a weapon platoon of two M60’s was to perform a search of a village suspected to contain a VC store. Local VC company of two platoons (3 squads each), an MG and a recoilless rifle stood for the opposition.

The game

Once again, I’ll rely on the pictures for the ‘meat’ in the AAR, with supplementary text providing the details. Quick comment about the pictures; for this first game I wanted as little distractions as possible, so I didn’t take any pictures while it played out. Instead, the pictures were ‘arranged’ today, while my memory of the game was still fresh. Mistakes were however committed, the most serious one consisting of me forgetting to deploy MG bases that were attached to two of U.S. squads, thereby augmenting their firepower. Furthermore, I didn’t bother with placing the ‘shock’, ‘pin’ or ‘suppression’ markers that were present during the game.

The picture above shows the terrain where the engagement took place. Once again, with goal of keeping things as simple as possible, the jungle was designated as ‘light terrain’. Clumps of vegetation are also ‘light terrain’ although they do block LOS. Elephant grass is designated in CDS as ‘light terrain’, but I’ve read multiple personal memoirs of how exhausting it was to get through them, so until further notice I’ll regard it as ‘hard terrain’.  Rice paddies, hills and houses are self-explanatory.

The game started with L. deploying his forces. 1:st platoon and recoilless rifle took up position in the woods and on the height above the village. 2:nd platoon was deployed in the woods on the other side of the road, while the machine gun was placed on the height nearby, guarding the flank (I guess).

In CDS, units of platoon size initially have to be placed under so called ‘blinds’, effectively disguising the type and strength of the units. Furthermore, each terrain feature can act as a ‘blind’, thereby making units placed in such manner totally hidden – so in our game, initially there was no indication of 1st platoon and recoilless rifle at the beginning of our game.

Additionally, each side has the right to deploy a number of dummy blinds. Number of such dummies varies depending on ‘fraction’, with local VC being the extreme case. They’re authorised to deploy one dummy blind for each real unit in their OOB. Transparent red rectangles indicate where L deployed his dummies (although I do believe there weren’t as many as in the picture! :-).

Finally, L. marked a grand total of five tunnel entries on the board, or rather on a snapshot of the board I took before the game and printed out for this very purpose; isn’t modern technology grand?!! Four of those secret entries were in the area where his 1st platoon was hidden. One entry was placed just beside the lone house near the road.

With L. ready to receive his ‘guests’, we were ready to start! Events of initial four or five rounds are shown in the picture – T. entered the board from the right, with two platoons above the road and one below. T. had to spend some time on spotting and removing of fake blinds L. placed in path of his advance. This was done without problems, but T. had to disclose content of his own blinds while doing it – false blinds can spot as well as real ones!

Meanwhile, the local villagers minded their own business, doing their best to ignore American patrol.

Contact! In fifth round, L. took advantage of the fact that T.’s 1:st platoon came into close range of his own 1:st platoon hidden in the woods at the end of the turn. This gave him the right to open fire and he blasted forward squad of T’s exposed platoon with massed fire from two squads that were in range. This could have had fatal consequences, but luckily for T., L.’s ‘famous’ bad luck with dices restricted the casualties to one KIA and some ‘shock’ points.

T.’s luck held in round that followed, with his 1:st platoon being activated before its assailants. His return fire managed to cause several ‘shock’ points on one of VC squads, but no casualties. Next, he called on 2:nd platoon for support – the rushed at top speed into the woods, their goal clearly being the flank of VC position.

L. had opportunity to continue the engagement, but decided that discretion was the better part of the valour. When his platoon was activated later in same turn, he broke contact and directed his troops to the tunnel entrance conveniently placed behind his position. In subsequent round T. managed to drop one of the retreating opponents , but that was all he managed to achieve before the VC platoon disappeared from sight.

With VC vanishing into thin air, T.’s 1:st platoon headed for the edge of village. As soon as one of the squads got inside the hutch, L.’s recoilless rifle pumped couple of 57mm shells into it. Yet again, the results of the fire were limited to couple of points of ‘shock’, although one of the civilians taking cover inside the hutch was instantly killed.

T:s response was rapid and similar to that of the reaction to the initial VC attack – concentrated fire from two squads suppressed the gun’s crew and caused two casualties. Next, 2:nd platoon came into firing position, opened up and killed two more crew members. With single VC soldier remaining standing, we removed the gun from the play, even though there are rules in CDS for handling such situations with a bit more detail.

This ended the game in this sector, even though T. took advantage of the lull in combat and tested the rules for interrogation of civilians. The peasant in question was however, as the ruleset expressed it, ‘not interested in conversation’. :-D

Meanwhile on the other side of the road, T.:s 3rd platoon advanced slowly forward against one of L.’s dummy blinds after another, until they unwittingly got in range of L.’s hidden machine gun. It opened up on one of the squads and managed to kill one American soldier before extremly effective return fire from his comrades almost instantly eliminated machine gun’s crew to the last man.

With 1:st VC platoon skulking in the tunnels and 2:nd never being able to get into position, we decided that it was quite enough excitement for this time and called it a night.

Musings after the battle

What did the ‘combatants’ think of this first experience with ‘Charlie Don’t Surf’? Well… T. has never been a big fan of rulesets from Too Fat Lardies and ‘I Ain’t Been Shot Yet, Mom’ in particular has become something of his pet peeve during the years when we used it for our WWII games. So, considering the fact that CDS is a derivative of IABSM, it’s hardly surprising that his impression of the ruleset was lukewarm. As far as I understood it, his initial opinion could be summarised with single word –overcomplicated.

L.’s initial impression, while restrained due to the basic character of the scenario, was definitely more positive.

As for me, the goal of this game was for me quite simple and clear – I wanted to get familiar the core rules for command and control of troops, basic infantry combat mechanics, and if we managed it, get a taste of some of the rules specifically designed to handle peculiarities of Vietnam conflict. I feel that this little scenario gave me what I was looking for, but at the same time it hadn’t provided me with enough ‘data’ to form a definite opinion about the ruleset. Of course it won’t stop me from writing another, more detailed post about my initial thoughts of ‘Charlie Don’t Surf’ in next couple of days, so stay tuned! :-)

Flashpoint Miniatures Vietnamese villagers

The other day I finished my final blister from Flashpoint Miniatures. The dozen or so Vietnamese villagers will certainly come in handy. I must admit though that even in the case of this blister, the choices of sculptor made my scratch my head in bewilderment.

Alright… now that the paint is in place, we can see clearly what’s included in this pack. First of all – four piglets. Together with the one already included in farmers pack that’s five little piggies. But wait, there is more! Sixth piglet is actually hiding in a basket that the guy in blue shirt is carrying on his back. Seems like guys at Flashpoint Miniatures sure like them some napalm-roasted bacon!

Next up, we have two ladies of the night. Considering the fact that this is a villagers pack, those two minis certainly seem far away from home. But who am I to judge, maybe they’re visiting mama-san and the cousins. At least that’s what the remaining minis suggest.

My personal favourite in this pack is the cyclist. Not only is it a useful figure, but it also has some character. And then there is that story about Carlos Hathcock, who supposedly shot a cycle from under a VC porter – there is a real world scenario background for you, if I ever seen one.

First look at Flashpoint Miniatures Vietnamese Villagers blister

May just as well post a quick snapshot of the content of the other of Flashpoint’s blister with Vietnamese civilians. Another varied mix of figures and with only one repeat from farmers blisters. At first glance it is actually a bit hard to see what poses are included in this blister. Two of the miniatures seem to be ‘ladies of the night’, perhaps a bit suspect subject for a ‘village’. A trio of mothers carrying kids on their backs strikes me as a more suitable choice, as do the generic peasants and the elderly gentleman with a cane. The repeat from farmers set, a mini that I’m already habitually calling ‘the village idiot’ is also appreciated; guess my village will have two of them. Finally, the most innovative sculpt of them all – the cyclist.

Minis are relatively clean and will require minimal cleanup before painting.  I’ll get back to you with the end result as soon as they’re done, maybe even this weekend.

Flashpoint Miniatures Vietnamese Farmers

To be frank, in my personal opinion 2015 has so far been a real SOB. Between serious illness in immediate family, shedload of work and me personally catching a rather nasty flu variant, wargaming was the last thing on my mind over last couple of weeks. Still, somehow I did manage to find time to finish this handful of Vietnamese farmers I’ve previewed in december. With paint on, they’re much nicer than initial impression would indicate.

Content of the blister is both thematic and useful from games perspective. Here’s how they turned out.

First look at Flashpoint Miniatures Vietnamese Farmers blister

Flashpoint Miniatures has two blisters of civilians in their range – Villagers and Farmers. Both packs seemed interesting, so I grabbed both of them at the time I’ve placed my order. Now that both U.S. and Local VC minis are painted, it’s time to paint some VC locals.

First up, the blister called Vietnamese Farmers – a very nice and useful set indeed. It consists of eleven minis in very useful poses as well as two-wheel wheelbarrow, a buffalo and a little piglet. Sculpts are simple, but clean. I am quite pleased with this set, it will be very useful for ‘Charlie Don’t Surf’ ruleset I intend to use in my games and which uses civilians as an inherent part of scenarios.

FlashPoint Miniatures VC Local Force Unit review

Seems to me like it took forever, but I’m finally done with the VC Local Force and VC Local Force HQ blisters. The final ‘product’ is presented in pictures below.

The main reason why it took me such a long time to get those minis ready for the gaming table is that I don’t like them all that much. They fulfil the function, but they’re not very exciting to work with. There is one fun figure – the old guy, the rest of the sculpts are serviceable, but oh so bland.

Next up, jungle terrain and buildings.

VC Local Force Combined Weapons Platoon from Flashpoint Miniatures

After a couple of diversions it’s time to return to the Vietnam project. Below you can see the content of Flashpoint Miniatures’ VC Local Force combined weapons platoon. Not much to say really about this blister, you get what it says on the package – two each of what looks like Browning heavy machine gun, a generic looking recoilless rifle and medium mortar, along with crews and couple of other miniatures I’m already familiar with from rifle platoon blister.

The sculpt quality is adequate, but far from superb. There is some flash and they need to be cleaned up, but I can’t see any immediate ‘duds’ in this batch. As with previous batches, I expect for those minis to look much better once painted.

Flashpoint US Infantry– Unit review

Well, they’re finally done! Actually, they’ve been done ever since November last year, but I didn’t get to basing them until last weekend. Also, I couldn’t find time for a decent photo shoot until now.

Anyway… the basing. Usually I run with the usual procedure, sanding the base, maybe a wash and finally some flocking, if needed. This time around I tried something new. Instead of sanding, the texture of the base was provided by a layer of fine grade carpenter’s filler. Once dry, I painted it black and then used a mixture of MiG Vietnam Earth pigment and Testor Dullcote for earth color. When mixed together, those two become in principle a very dark reddish paint. In fact, it was so dark that some additional pigment had to be applied once the mixture was dry to provide some highlights. The final result is certainly different from what I’m used to and I’m not completely sure it’s 100 percent to my liking, but… there it is.

The final stage of flocking was done in traditional way. Various types of flocking – 2mm grass fibers, tiny bits of Woodland Scenics bush foliage and grass tufts were fixed in place with thinned out white glue and cyanoacrylate glue, as needed.

Final result is can be seen below. Personally, I am quite pleased with those figures – this may very well be my best paint job of 15mm minis up to now.

Flashpoint Miniatures Local Force VC–First Impressions

Believe it or not, but I’m actually finished painting first batch of my US infantry for Vietnam project. Pictures to prove that statement will follow as soon as I’m done basing them.

With one side done, I have “swiftly” moved on to the opposition – the vaunted Victor Charlie. Flashpoint Miniatures sticks to historical facts and has split their offerings for Vietnamese troops into three groups – local force, main force and regular Northern troops. Since my project is in its infancy, it seemed prudent to start with the local guys.

As far as I understand things, local VC consisted of local population of Southern Vietnam, peasants at day, partisans at night. Thus, two things distinguished them from their brothers in arms – their clothing was civilian and their equipment was sub-standard. Flashpoint’s LVC Rifle Platoon blister reflects both of these facts. All figures wear ‘classic’ peasant pyjamas and are either bare-headed or wear some sort of civilian headwear – classical hats or bandanas. They’re equipped mainly with what I assume are bolt action or at best SKS rifles. Few AK-s and PPSH submachine guns are thrown into the mix for the sake of variety. Fire support is provided by a couple of figures with RPG-s and single figure blasting away with an RPD.

The blister has a good variety of sculpts – majority of figures are riflemen in different ‘standard’ poses. Five or six figures are unique and suitable for leaders. I also appreciated a dash of cliché in selection of sculpts – one of the figures is an old man with classical Confucian beard and I believe there are at least two female sculpts in the blister. People’s army indeed.

Quality of sculpts is adequate, I doubt however that they will make anybody outburst with wows and ahhhs. They’re on Battlefront’s level of detail and will perform adequately on the table, but  nowhere near the top standard set by AB and Eureka Miniatures. Facial features is one aspect that Flashpoint Miniatures could definitely improve upon.

Flashpoint Miniatures US HQ Blister–First Impression

Pheew… almost three months after opening it for the first time, I am happy to report that I am done with first batch of minis for Vietnam project. Three months to paint a little more than 30 15mm minis, that must be something of a record… and they’re not even properly based yet (that’s why there are no pictures of them here).

Anyway… immediately after placing finishing brush strokes on the last figure in the initial batch, I rushed to pick up the US HQ blister and check out its content. Sadly, I have to say that it didn’t take long for my enthusiasm to transform into a mix of disappointment and bewilderment.

There is a grand total of 33 miniatures in US HQ blister. Over half of them are “repeats” from the Platoon blister – with few exceptions, sculpts of the officers, NCO-s, riflemen, guys equipped with Thumper and LAW are the same as those in the Platoon blister. A slight let down, but understandable from economical perspective. The fact that they are there actually made me quite happy – together with the content of Platoon they will now allow me to field a complete company of 3 x 3 bases with four figures on each base.

Additional M60 gunner (different sculpt than the two gunners in Platoon blister) is also a welcome reinforcement to my heavy weapon platoon. Last, but not least, I very much appreciated the inclusion of two man scout/sniper team.

Over to the bewilderment and consternation part of this quick review. It was mainly caused by some rather peculiar choices in selection of the remainder of this blister. Let’s start with the fact that there is a grand total of five figures chatting over the radio – there is already a bunch of similar figures in the Platoon blister, so why include so many RTO-s in this one?

Even more mysterious is the choice of having two dog handlers… and a single dog. Finally, the decision to include two ammo carriers in particularly odd – as already mentioned, there is only single M60 gunner in this blister. The mystery grows when one remembers that the Platoon blister contained two gunners and a single ammo carrier. (???)

Two medic minis included in this set is sensible. The fact that one of them is carrying a wounded buddy over his back isn’t. This particular figure will be fun to paint and will probably make a very nice “one off” vignette, but on the tabletop it will be of limited use. Also (sorry if I’m sounding petty), sculptor’s decision to burden this guy with a belt of M60 ammo while he’s in the process of carrying his buddy to safety made me rise an eyebrow.

The disappointment part is mainly caused by what’s not included in this blister. First and foremost – it’s a HQ blister, where are the guys with binoculars? I know, it’s such a cliché pose, but couple of guys doing some recon would be a nice variation on RTO theme. Second obvious omission – what about the 60mm mortar team? It was used frequently in the field and would be far more useful than a dog handler without a dog.

Final conclusion – in combination with Platoon blister, the HQ pack will provide enough figures for a complete company and support. But its content could have been better thought out and leaves me wishing for more.

Flashpoint US Infantry–work in progress

Allright, time to show the trial batch of those Flashpoint Miniatures US infantry minis I’ve been working with for last couple of days. The paint choice is shamelessly ripped off from Head Under The Bed blog – the minis that come from under this guy’s brush are really something and one of my principles is never to re-invent the wheel unless I absolutely have to.

However, certain modifications had to be done, mostly to replace the colours that I didn’t have in my paint box, but also to adjust the palette to (dare I say this?) my ‘painting style’. I prefer to stack the shades, main color and highlights in that very order. Therefore here the first step was an overall coat of a mix equal parts of Russian Uniform 924 and USA Olive Drab 889. Next, Russian Uniform straight out of the bottle is applied to all major surfaces. Highlights consisting of watered down Green Grey 886 were added as last step in paint job for uniforms. Equipment and webbing were painted with Green Brown 879 and highlighted with Khaki 893. For helmet covers I decided to go with Green Grey as my primary paint, with patches of thinned Reflective Green 890, Russian Uniform, Beige Brown 875 and Vallejo Game Color Yellow Olive used for  camouflage pattern. In retrospect maybe I thinned them down too much, since the camo pattern is barely visible.

At the moment I don’t think all that much about the skin colors or the right shades for the shoes, I just want to get the feel for the minis and how they’re sculpted and what works/doesn’t work in regard of the uniform colors. I’m actually quite happy with this initial selection, but as I'll continue working with those minis, I will try to add some variation. As far as I understand, there could be a rather dramatic difference in color intensity of uniforms, mainly caused by exposure to light and elements. It would be nice to be able to show that effect and see which of my minis are 'short' and which are FNG's.

Couple of words regarding the miniatures. My first impression was rather ‘meeeh’, but I have to say that I’m slowly changing my mind. The detail is crisp, which makes them easy to paint and they certainly have their own ‘character’. I’m still wrinkling my nose at the sculpts of some minis and I don’t care about the number of figures with LAW included in this blister pack, but all that being said, there is no denying that they’re growing on me.

Flashpoint Miniatures US Platoon Blister–First Impression

Time for another update about the Vietnam project. The initial batch of minis has arrived from Australia at the beginning of this week – in other words, a bit over a week for a delivery to Europe. Quite impressive in its own right.

The figures… well, to be honest, I am less than impressed. Maybe it’s because I’ve been spending whatever time I could find for painting on excellent Xyston Spartan hoplites, but those Flashpoint minis seem awfully small. Also, not the most detailed 15mm minis I ever held in my hands.

As picture below illustrates, there are 35 minis in a US platoon blisters. Standard grunts are presented by 16 miniatures with M16, 3 with M79 Thumper and two with what I assume is a LAW launcher (although if that’s the case, then the tube is awfully short). Heavy firepower is added by two M60 gunners and one ammo carrier (a bit strange distribution). Then there is a total of eight minis for your lieutenant, non-coms, a medic and the poor guy who, judging from his state, has earned his Purple Heart the hard way.  I am totally clueless about three minis to the right in second lower row – they seem to be holding some sort of short tube, but your guess is as good as mine about what it’s supposed to represent.

I am rather pleased with the variation among the figures in the blister. The choice of sculpts should allow a bit of the ‘dynamics’ to the bases. At the same time, I am a tad disappointed that there aren’t any machine gunners in deployed (lying down) position and the fact that only a single MG assistant is somewhat baffling. Guess I’ll have to make a supplementary purchase from Peter Pig or Quick Reaction Force.

But overall it’s a pretty decent blister. Now, time for some painting.