Some Scenery

I have continued to plod on with getting the half finished scenery projects completed- with the addition of theses resin pieces. The first is a wrecked car from Ainsty, It's a single piece resin casting- nice and crisp with no air bubbles or mould lines. It should be good for a number of different scenarios (like the contractor's care in 'Contracting Troubles' and as a general bit of scatter scenery in the slums of Zugando. (It will probably see some service in zombie games too).

The next one is a photo I have already posted on my other blog (Four Colour Super Minis) of some scenery I painted for my WW2 Burma Campaign, but I think it is worth including here as it will be just as useful for Zugando.
I hope you wont mind the repost, but I am not sure if you regularly read the other blog. I am also hoping you will overlook the WW2 figures in the photo- they are there just for scale really. 
I haven't a clue who made these pieces- or even if they were made by the same manufactures. I soaped them with someone of Lead adventure Forum. 

More Buildings for Zugado

Firstly let me begin by apologising for the absence of any resent posts. Readers of my other blog (Four Colour Super Minis) will realise that I spent October furiously painting zombies and survivors for 'Zomtober'. Having painted, with my son, some 41 figures, I just wanted a change of pace. To that end I decided that I would dedicate November to getting some half finished terrain and building projects realised. I am a bit of a bugger for starting buildings and alike, but never getting round to finishing, and so my loft is usually crammed with half-completed projects that just need a bit of time and TLC. 

This is a strange thing, because when I get round to painting them, I am always surprised to find out how much I like painting scenery- What is all that about?

To that end, I have added some more shops to my Zugandan village, again using Warbases exceptionally inexpensive Modular Buildings. There were very quick and easy to do- the two story one cost £3.50 and the smaller one £2. I had them finished from beginning to end in an evening. 

You can see an article on how I made these by clicking on the new Work in Progress tab at the top of the page, or clicking HERE

AAR: Contracting Troubles

My regular gaming buddy, Pulp Citizen,  and I thought we would get on and do some gaming in Zugando. We used the mission 'Contracting Troubles' straight out of the rule book, only we substituted Zugandan Militia for the 'insurgents' and Nigerian Army(NA) for the USMC. 

Because we are new to FoF my son Charlie offered to step in and play the NA while I refereed the game, which was a great help as it left me free to concentrate on remembering the rules. Even so, I still managed to miss out some crucial rules.

Mission Background

In our Zugandan inspired interpretation of this mission, the background is that Rex Saddler and Lance Waverly, two intrepid war correspondents,  have been trying to track down wanted war criminal Henry Gwapondi in order to get the scoop of the year. Unfortunately they upset some of the locals, who are actually supporters of Mr Gwapondi. They decided to beat a hasty retreat back to Victoria Town, but unfortunately their van broke down before they could reach safety.  The reporters managed to get off a satellite phone call to their office in Victoria Town, who alerted the UN.

Luckily for Rex and Lance the Nigerian Army had a patrol in the area. They tasked a section to bring back the reporters. The NA patrol had to abandon their truck because of a road block, and had to proceed several blocks on foot. 

The mission starts with Lance and Rex hunkered down behind their broken down van, while a hornets nest of local militiamen begins to gather around them. 

After Action Report

The first run through of this mission went very well for the NA, commanded by Charlie. Charlie got very lucky on the Fog Of War cards, while Pulp Citizen rolled badly for his reinforcements. Charlie moved Fire Team One into a commanding position for over-watch  and sent Fire Team Two towards Rex and Lance. Fire Team Two got shot up, and were forced to take cover in a shack. Fire Team One moved forwards to try to complete the mission.

Throughout the game Charlie was amazingly lucky with his first aid rolls, and his Fire Team was lucky to walk away from a hail of fire with just one lightly injured casualty. 

Charlies luck held, as the Nigerian platoon commander decided to send reinforcements in the form of an anti-tank team with an RPG7. Pulp Citizen's militia had no tanks, but the RPG's added plenty of firepower, forcing the militiamen to keep their heads down. 

Fire Team One managed to make it to Lance and Rex, thanks to another Fog Of War card that made them immune to the effects of moral. Then they hot-footed it at rapid move back across the street.  The militiamen attempts to stop them were hampered by confusion in their command and control (another Fog of War card), and the Nigerian Peace Keepers manged to extract themselves, and the two reporters,  out of the village and back to safety.  They only took two light casualties, and has killed six militiamen- A great success for the Nigerians!

It is worth noting that this was our first run through of this mission and we made a few mistakes that would have effected the outcome of the battle. Firstly, we allowed the Nigerians to rapid move off the board, but they shouldn't have done that with dependents (ie Lance and Rex). Also we added two defense dice to the fire-team which Lance and Rex joined, but dependents don't add defense dice. This made the fire team very durable. 

Charlie's ridiculous luck was also a factor. The random nature of this mission, with variable reinforcements, and the variable Fog of War cards, played in favor of Charlie's Nigerians. When we had a second run through, with me playing the NA against Pulp Citizen's militiamen, I was badly mauled. I had three KIA,  and six seriously injured, and failed to rescue the reporters!

Pulp Citizen expressed concern that the mission was too random. With variable reinforcements  and Fog of War, it was really down to chance. We went through the Fog of War deck and took out a lot of cards we both felt were game changing, and both felt better about that. We really need to play some of the other missions, perhaps one with more symmetrical forces.

Over all verdict- lots of fun. Faced paced and exciting. 

African hut

The Victoria Town BiCyle Repair shop is one of many roadside shops catering for the needs of the local population- a common sight in the more built up parts of the country. 

This is a quick snap of a building I have just finished making. This one is a laser-cut building made from MDF by Warbases. It is from a range of generic buildings. They are very cheep indeed- this one cost £2.50. What you get for that is a basic shape, and a couple of windows and doors. All it did was assembled it, added a thin coat of ready mixed plaster filler, then painted it. The roof was made by cutting strips of corrugated card, available in the UK from hobbycraft. The hole thing took about 10 minutes to construct, and about 20 minutes to paint!

Given the simplicity, low cost and speed of this construction, I can see that I would be getting some more of  these buildings. They can easily represent the more built up areas of Zugando, as opposed to the shanty town scenery I have already built.  They have other possibility too: With a different paint job (and perhaps a thatched or tiled roof) they could be for North African and Afghanistan, or Tex/Mex cowboys, Caribbean pirates or as an out building on a European farm. There are loads of potential to use these kits for all sorts of settings. 

AAR: The Fanno Casa Raid

Followers of my other blog, Four Colour Super Minis, will have to forgive me, as this is a repost of an AAR from that blog from last year. For anyone who missed it, this is the Fanno Casa Raid. Enjoy. 


My son Charlie and I finally got round to playing our first game of Force on Force some 9 months after I started the project, building an African shanty town. We played the game out of the rules called ‘A Few Blocks of Hell’ but as it was set in my fictional West African country, Zugando, we substituted the US army for SAS and Delta forces, and changed the insurgents to rebel militia and Zugando Peoples Resistance Army.

Charlie took command of the coalition Special Forces, while I played the Zugandan rebels.

The main mission was for the SF to get into the target buildings (the watch tower and the ruined church) by the end of turn 4, and hold them until the end of turn 6).

SAS forces, under Captain Price, intercepted information that the PRA forces were massing for an offensive. The PRA has been stockpiling weapons and fuel in the village of Fanno Casa. Their intelligence suggests that the stockpile is in either the ruined church mission or in the guard station in the center of the village. A squad of PRA soldiers were protecting the site from thieves, but intelligence suggest that the village also has a sizable number of militiamen loyal to the PRA who will no doubt come out to fight too.

A combined force of 18 special forces men drawn from SAS and Delta Force were tasked to locate and destroy the supply dump to delay the PRA attack. They were supported by a SAS light mortar crew firing form the jungle. They would approach the village from the south, through the jungle under the cover of darkness, and attack just before dawn. 

PRA soldiers form the 'elite' part of the rebel army

Militiamen congregate in the market place of Fanno Casa

Spud is down!
Early in the battle the Delta Force took a casualty

Captain Price leads his men onto a roof top from where they provide
overwach and he directs deadly accurate mortar fire.  

An overview of the market place of Fanno Cassa. The church and
watchtower are on the left hands side in this photograph.

The local PRA commander directs the battle from the balcony of a  small hotel,
until he is shot and wounded by one of Captain Price's team.

Having fought their way through the market place of Fanno Casa, the Delta  Force fire team
stack up on the ruined church, ready to breach. 

Following a vicious street battle the Special Forces overwhelmed the PRA men, and captured the church and eventually the watch tower. The supply dumps were destroyed and the SF were extracted by helicopter  along with five prisoners, including a PRA officer. Unfortunately two of the Delta Force were KIA and three of the SF were seriously wounded, although by delaying the PRA offensive, their sacrifice saved countless lives.