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23 Feb 2015

Brigade Models More 10mm SF Buildings


This week, we have three new buildings in our 10mm SF range. The Munitions Bunker in particular is one that has been requested from the existing 6mm and 15mm ranges, and we always aim to please.

B10-103 – Large House/Shop – £3.00 
B10-126 – Munitions Bunker – £2.25
B10-127 – Primitive Dwelling – £2.25

Brigade Models

19 Feb 2015

Fife & Drum AWI Rules For Free

Der Alte Fritz have posted his Fife & Drum rules for the AWI on his new website. A great one page rule set for free.

Sources

Fife & Drum AWI, Download
Der Alte Fritz Journal
Fife & Drum AWI Rules, TMP Discussion

Light Bobs Rules

Light Bobs Rules

INTRODUCTION
Light Bobs: a nickname for the British light infantry, first used during the American Wars of Independence, and commonly applied to the Light Division during the Napoleonic wars.

If you are familiar with the Day of Battle, you’ll notice a partial resemblance to them in these rules. I really enjoy the Command, Personality and Battle Line Morale parts of Day of Battle and knew I could use them for other eras.

Light Bobs is meant to cover actions where hundreds, rather than thousands, of soldiers are deployed. I feel that Light Bobs is written to be at battalion level, meaning the player commands four or more units called Companies. Companies are small (4 to 12 figures). This scale is larger than a man-to-man encounter, but below a brigade or multiple battalion engagement.

A basic game is between two leaders called Leaders of Worth with each commanding 4 to 6 Companies. Action is fast and sharp with the different Companies being of mixed arms and varying moral types. This is the scale of small units led by individual officers: a scale that I feel is sorely lacking in rules offerings. To bring out the individuality of the scale and the period I have used the personality rules from Day of Battle. These rules allow you to fight your Leader of Worth from battle to battle and watch him grow as a commander. This system is a sort of paperless campaign.

Finally actions are now broken down into theaters so you can move from one to another to fight different actions with different types of armies. The theaters provided are Boston, Saratoga, the Mid-Atlantic States and the South.

I hope you enjoy playing Light Bobs as much as I have writing them.

Game Scale
These rules are written for 25/40mm scale figures. The figures (preferably painted) should be mounted on as small a base as possible. A 1” round stand is recommended for infantry and a 1 x 2” rectangular stand for cavalry.

The basic maneuver unit of the game is the Company. The two terms, unit and Company, are interchangeable in the game. A Company is composed of between 4 and 12 figures. Companies include British and American regulars, Tory and Colonial militias, Indians, dragoons, and artillery. The lists provided in the appendix are for small engagements, not armies.

Disorder
Companies can accumulate Disorder (DIS) markers during a game turn. Once a Company exceeds its maximum number of DIS it is exhausted. Exhausted Companies cannot perform any other action other than reorder or defend in melee. DIS markers can be removed by spending action points on your Company (see Command, see also Company Characteristics and Disorder Limit Table).

Elite can take 3 disorders, Veteran, and Average can take 2 disorders and Poor can take 1 disorder.

 Company Size
A Company must always be of made up of the same figure type as listed on the Company Characteristics Table. At the start of a battle, during the deployment phase “like” Companies may be split apart up or joined together into smaller or larger Companies of the same type. Company strength may never be greater than 12 figures (see Company Characteristics Table)

The First Company
Each Leader of Worth (LoW) has a First Company, which he may choose from any in the game. This is the unit to which he attaches himself at the start of the battle and which will define the position of his Battalion Line. LoWs may leave their First Company and the Battalion Line will still exist. However, the LoW will not be able to issue any Battalion Line commands if he is not attached to the First Company.

Leader of Worth
As a player, you will take on the role of a leader, referred to as a Leader of Worth (LOW). Your LOW is responsible for raising, organizing, and commanding the army. Light Bobs encourages you to use your LOW from battle to battle. This will give each battle a common reference point and enhance the thrill of recreating battles of the era. If one does not exist, the player generates his LOW before a battle begins.

Military Rank
In the 18th century every person had a place on the military social ladder, usually determined by birth although inspired individuals could sometimes rise on their own merit or luck. Warfare was one of the best ways men could change their social rank. In Light Bobs ‘, you will find yourself as concerned with winning a battle as you are with surviving.  All new LOWs start at Military Rank 3, Captain (see Military Rank Table)

Personal Skills
A LOW has four Personal Skills. These are tracked and may improve from battle to battle. A newly commissioned LOW starts with 3 uncommitted skill points plus a randomizer card to place on his 4 skills. The color of the card is ignored. Jokers allow one skill to be raised by 1 point regardless of the cost to do so. A LOW may carry forward unused skill points however he must commit them to a skill (see Personal Skills Table).

Chris

Sources

Light Bobs Rules

Hitler's Swedes: A History of the Swedish Volunteers in the Waffen-SS

Hitler's Swedes: A History of the Swedish Volunteers in the Waffen-SS

Sweden was neutral during the Second World War, but despite this, thousands of Swedes wanted to participate in the war - the largest group in Finland, where over 10,000 Swedes applied to fight against the Red Army. Another much smaller group, which saw action against the same enemy, was the Swedish SS volunteers. While the Danish and Norwegian SS volunteers are fairly well known today, their Swedish counterparts remain more unknown. Still, they saw action on both the Eastern Front and NW Europe, and participated in some of the bloodiest clashes: the initial stages of Operation Barbarossa, the winter of 1941/42, the battles of Kursk, Arnhem, Normandy, Narva, the Warsaw uprising, the Cherkassy and Kurland pockets and, finally, the end in Berlin.

Compared to many other groups of volunteers, there was never an official recruitment drive in Sweden, which is why only some 180-200 men enlisted. Those who wanted to recruit themselves often had to make their way to the occupied countries - a fact that makes those Swedes who joined the SS volunteers in the truest sense. As such, this book is as much a history about the units, which the Swedes served in, as it is a story about the individuals themselves. It also asks, who were they? What motivated them? What did they experience and how did their service end?

With the help of diaries, letters, interviews, police interrogations and German documents from both private and official archives, the history of the Swedish SS volunteers is reconstructed. The main focus is on those who served at the front, including volunteers in the 'Wiking', 'Nordland', 'Nord' divisions, minor units such as the Den Norske Legion, SS-Panzer-Brigade 'Gross' and the war correspondents of the SS-Standarte 'Kurt Eggers'. Also included are the Swedish non-combatants in the SS, such as the desk clerks within the SS-Hauptamt and security service personal of the RSHA.

The book lets us follow individuals such as Hans Lindén, who was the first named Swedish volunteer to fall in action aged barely 19 years old; the unpopular Swedish SS officer Gunnar Eklöf; Elis Höglund, who after several years on the Eastern Front deserted and returned to Sweden; Gösta Borg, who volunteered for the SS a second time as he was denied the chance of becoming an officer in Sweden; and Karl-Axel Bodin, the only Swede to be included in the list of suspected criminals at the Simon Wiesenthal Center, who joined the SD in March, 1945.

The book includes over 150 photos, everything from civilian photos, portraits from the men's time in the SS, pictures taken in the field, post-war photos and documents. Most are from the private albums of the volunteers and many are previously unpublished.

Thoroughly researched from primary sources, and providing plenty of absorbing detail, this book is a valuable addition to the history of the SS, and the men who volunteered to serve in it.

18 Feb 2015

Pendraken Acquires Blitzkrieg Commander Family of Rulesets



Pendraken Miniatures are delighted to announce that we have purchased the rights to the Blitzkrieg Commander family of rulesets from Pete Jones, including Blitzkrieg Commander, Cold War Commander and Future War Commander.

Blitzkrieg Commander
Since its launch in 2004, Blitzkrieg Commander has become the most popular ruleset for gaming WWII in 10mm scale. Pendraken's WWII ranges are the most extensive available on the market, covering ten nations with over 600 codes, so it made perfect sense to combine these rules with our miniatures.

Cold War Commander
Cold War Commander was launched in 2006 to cover the post-war period through to the modern day, and with our recent expansion into these areas, it will be great to have a ruleset to accompany these new ranges.

Future War Commander
Future War Commander was the final release of the three rulesets, adding a Sci-Fi version to the family. Pendraken have some ranges already in place, but we'd like to work on these in the coming years to really expand and complement this excellent ruleset.

The sale to Pendraken also includes the BKC website and forums as well, including the Battlegroups Online service. For the time being, we will be keeping everything in place as it is, so people will still be able to visit the Blitzkrieg Commander website and enjoy the fantastic resources and forum hosted there.

The rulesets are currently out of print, but over the coming months, we will be doing some work on them in preparation for a new print-run towards the second half of 2015. Keep checking on either the BKC or Pendraken forums for more news on this, as we progress.

For those wanting to purchase the rules in the meantime, we will be keeping the Lulu print-on-demand service up and running for those who are looking to get a hardcopy of any of the three rulesets.

Unfortunately, the PDF versions will no longer be available through the Blitzkrieg Commander website (due to the new PDF legislation), but they will soon become available through Wargame Vault. Again, keep an eye on either of the forums to hear more news on that.

Finally, all of us at Pendraken Miniatures would like to place on record our thanks to Pete Jones, not only for offering us the fantastic opportunity to acquire these rulesets, but also for the time and effort he has put into growing 10mm as a popular scale for gaming the 20th Century and beyond

Earthen Fortifications and Stone Bridges

I have recently added these images to my site in order to illustrate the utility of the earthen embrasures and stone bridges in Good Ground's Between the Lines range of buildings. Of course, all these models would be fine for use with 10-15mm figures from the Napoleonic period all the way up through the late 19th century. The bridges will work for even a longer period and would be appropriate for almost any period and arena for which such a structure is required.

Earthen Fortifications and Stone Bridges picture 1

Earthen Fortifications and Stone Bridges picture 2

The Stone 3 arch bridge is appropriate for such battles as Manassas or Antietam, but can be used for many geographic locations and a wide range of eras.

Earthen Fortifications and Stone Bridges picture 3

Earthen Fortifications and Stone Bridges picture 4

The same applies to the smaller 2 arch stone bridge.

Earthen Fortifications and Stone Bridges picture 5

Earthen Fortifications and Stone Bridges picture 6

Earthen Fortifications and Stone Bridges picture 7

Pictured here are a single AB20, two AB21 and one set of AB24.

The earthen fortifications are a set of five separate pieces. AB20 is a straight 3" long resin piece. AB21 is a 2.5" 45 degree angle. AB22 and 23 are both small metal pieces of 90 and 45 degree angles respectively. Finally, AB24 is a pack of two metal end pieces (Left and Right). The seams are very tight, and can be easily hidden with a small dab of putty or flocking gel. Employed above was the latter of the two.

Stop by my site for pricing and details.

Good Ground LLC