The Man Cave: Vietnam 28mm

Showing posts with label Vietnam 28mm. Show all posts

29 October 2024

October Hobby Update: Amerika Bomber

Its been a busy past 6 weeks, most of it away on a ship - and while rewarding, I was definitely not progressing any hobby projects. However, I did get to try a game I've long wanted to play: Amerika Bomber!

This game was designed by my friend Gregory Smith - we worked together on Zeppelin Raider (https://tasmancave.blogspot.com/2019/06/zeppelin-raider.html) and Silent Victory some years ago, though I had no hand in this one.

It's a dark, alternate history version of Avalon Hill's classic B-17 Queen of the Skies, where you fly the Luftwaffe's long range bombers from the Azores to attack targets along the US East Coast. Bombers are all real design/concepts ranging from the Foche-Wulf 300, Messerschmidt 264 and 6 engined Junkers 360 to flying wings likes the Arado E555 and Horten H.XVIII.

On the way across the Atlantik Ocean you are partially escorted by Me 262 fighters, but the US has not been idle either and has a range of US Navy and USAAF fighters, including early jet fighters, poised to intercept. Target types range and missions can vary from basic HE to pamphlet drops, HALO dropping intelligence agents, and dropping a low yield nuclear "Heisenberg device" (I told you it was dark!)

Anyway, I used a combination of Vassal and hardcopy to build myself a 'seagoing' travel version and got my first game in - here is my bomber "Faust von Freya" (Fist of Freya) setting off on her first mission, from my cabin at sea :-)

Any because I love themed music for my gaming experiences, I made a suitably period Spotify playlist, from Luftwaffe marches and Wagner, to the Andrews Sisters, Marlene Deitrich and Edith Piaff

If you'd like to know a bit more about this game, here is an interview with the author Gregory:

https://theplayersaid.com/2018/12/24/interview-with-gregory-m-smith-designer-of-amerika-bomber-evil-queen-of-the-skies-strategic-bombing-of-america-1947-1948-from-compass-games/

Time for my next sortie:"Immer im Einsatz!" (Always in Action, Luftwaffe motto)

BGG entry here: https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/286114/amerika-bomber-evil-queen-of-the-skies

Separately, I am looking forward to my preorder of Nam 68 to be delivered - from the great authors of the WW2 Battlegroup rules that we love. Potential/Likely to reignite my interest in Vietnam era gaming, probably in 28mm; yes another scale for this war me...

07 February 2019

AHPC 9: Mercenary Bonus Round

During the Vietnam War, North Vietnamese propaganda derided the collective Free World Military Forces (including US, Australian, New Zealand, Phillipines, South Korea and Thailand) as "Mercenaries" in the pay of the "illegitimate cronies" of the Republic of South Vietnam. In this vein, I have used this bonus round in homage to one of my favourite screen characters: Lieutenant Colonel Bill Kilgore - callsign "Big Duke 6" - Commander of 1st/9th Air Cavalry, in Francis Coppola's Apocalypse Now.

Kilgore is fantastically portrayed by Robert Duvall and delivers some of the most memorable parts of the movie including: distributing Death Cards, the 'Charlie Don't Surf!' beach BBQ scene, the Helicopter Assault playing Ride of the Valkyries and the iconic 'I love the smell of Napalm in the morning' monologue.

I have endeavoured to faithfully reproduce Kilgore's uniform from the film, though trying to get his flat jungle greens looking a bit more exciting was a challenge.

"You either surf, or you fight soldier!"

From start to finish I loved painting this figure and attending to detail like shiny spit polished boots, the orangy tint of the Vietnam soil, making the death card in front of him, and of course the pearl grips of his M1911A1 Colt sidearm.

"Big Duke 6" watches his boys in action

In addition to this Bonus round submission, I guess that I have now started a Bolt Action Vietnam force. Maybe just a few of those nice Company B grunts to watch his back in the jungle... :-)