My Awesome Historicon Adventure, Part One

Historicon, it's been a convention I have been going to since 1987 when it was still at the Penn Harris hotel in Camp Hill, PA. Boy that has been a long time. I have been going a lot more frequently since the con came to Fredricksburg.

It was a bittersweet convention for me, as I realized this was the 11th Historicon I have attended in some form or fashion, and for me, there was a lot of faces I do miss. We're graying as a hobby, and it was evident this year. I am 43, and I was used to being the "baby" at a lot of tables. Now, I see 3rd and 4th generation wargamers, and it's good to see, but I do hope there are enough of them to keep us a going concern.

Sadly, I did not see Covert Intervention Games there, but there was a lot of positive comments about my Twilight: 2000 related T-Shirts. I also spread the word of "500 Miles.." far and wide.

Anyhow, enough of the wool gathering and shameless plugs..I saw a lot of games, including a few PA games, mostly of a zombie nature, but there was a "Mad Max" game as put on by Stan Johansen of Stan Johansen Miniatures. Vendors were a plenty, but this year, my best finds were in the flea market (it tends that way sometimes, some years, the flea markets rock, some years, not so much).

There was a TON of Roco minitanks stuff for sale, both in the flea markets and the dealers area, 15 year old me would have been in heaven, 43 year old me? *meh*.

I didn't see ANY specific Twilight: 2000 stuff for sale, which was a rare thing in the flea market, we always see something. There was some box games, Air War, Air Cav, even a copy of Next War. I did pick up some items of interest to everyone here though.

I managed to get my hands on an Esci original M48A2G2, these will go well with my Germans for when I do territorials. I presume these would have been brought out of the reserve armories as replacements for the Twilight War.

As for games of interest, I did play in a couple of games of interest..the first was called, "SOCOM and Sorcery", on the Friday I was there (He had a WWII version as well that I did not play in, but the moderns version was a hoot none the less). Think a mashup of Ghostbusters, The Mummy, and stir in a LOT of modern firepower. There were a ton of factions, Chechens, Russians, Taliban, Somali Pirates, US Marines and Rangers, British, Australians...all after a Dr. Bakr who was playing with "things man was not meant to know". Fnord. (You could also win by getting gold, but I think everyone was like "screw that", except for the Chechen player). This game was excellent Twilight Nightmares fodder.

Here are some photos from that!

I played the hapless (and I do mean hapless) Russian commandos. First, we lost our BTR-80..to a rhino with an anger management problem...we did put a satchel charge on it...and that badly wounded it until our Chechen "allies" managed to put it down with fire from a recoiless rifle. This then led to a happy massacre of the centaurs behind it with automatic weapons fire. All the while, the Somalis were RPGing to death a really big red dragon..with many of them being eaten in the process.

We then got into another fight with some pretty tough werewolves armed with some really big swords, and then shot down some temple guardsmen. So far, not too bad, our casualties were light, except for the BTR, and we got into the temple...then we ran into some mummies..who were around a corner..We threw several grenades...which kept bouncing all over the place...and not at the intended target. I then got tired of this...and had a man RPG the undead bastards...then finished them with AK fire. We then moved towards the temple room, where we massacred more mummies. But the Aussies beat us there. How you ask?

The Australians had found a direct way into the sarcophagus chamber, where Dr. Bakr was again, involved in very dark rituals. They grabbed him, only to have all these nasty horrors come out of the walls! Many Australian commandos died getting Bakr out, but got him out they did, and as the young lad said who played them "Objectives take casualties." He managed to get out of the temple and was rightfully awarded the win.

The next was the "Blackhawk Way Down" on Saturday. It was a game run by Pete Panzeri himself. He was quite the showman...as always, complete with funny hats. I was nominated by Pete to play Aidid himself after I volunteered to play the Somalis. (A lot of kids were there, and I remember being that age, not wanting to play the Somalis, so what the heck?). It was a hoot, we were doing a lot of fun, crazy things, my Somali gunmen inflicted some casualties on the Rangers, we damaged a Little Bird with RPG fire, shot down a Blackhawk, and at the end, ambushed the convoy just short of the gate and took out a truck full of Rangers and Delta. Yes, I was awarded the "Golden Assault Rifle" for my actions that day! (It's a neat little pen).

Here are some photos from that insanity!

Another game that deserves mention is a game called "That's my USAID" on Friday, set in the the Congo in the 1960s. It was a damn hoot, even though I got slaughtered as the Belgian-trained Congolese Paratroopers (having three out of 14 figures left by the end), we had done a number on the militia that had overwhelmed us. We ran off one of their squads, captured one jeep, and sent the other running and killed a lot of his RPGs and MGs. The militia player had decided from the start that he wanted to massacre me...didn't go all his way, and when the Bandits were stalemated with the UN, though the did control the ship with a good portion of the supplies, he cut a deal with us and the ANC (National Army of the Congo) to split the supplies three ways and cut the militia out. So, I call that a moral victory, if nothing else.

The last game was part of a new set of rules coming out called "Wars of Revolution" and it was a very good, fast play set of rules that did what it needed to. It's meant for wars in Africa, but with a few tweaks, you could use it for a variety of modern settings IMO, it should be hitting sometime around August, according to the designer.

And here are some photos from that:

I also got some photos of some Team Yankee stuff that well, looked incredible, including a really neat display someone put out of 3-505th Airborne ca. 1985 as organized for Team Yankee. It was a really great display.

There will be a lot more about Historicon on my other blogs, with part 2 being found on Festungplatz, as those items will be of more interest to readers of those blogs there, but I really did have a good time. On to 2018 everyone!

Module Suitability Review - Kidnapped

Image taken from Amazon.com/IP is GDW/FFE

Kidnapped is another Twilight: 2000 adventure with a McGuffin at stake, only this time, the McGuffin is a person. That person is none other than Carl Hughes, leader of the fascist organization known as New America, now a contender for power in the post-apocalyptic United States. It reunites us with some NPCs we first saw in Allegheny Uprising (namely Rodger Caldwell) and introduces us to some new ones, some of whom, the adventure could have done without (and some where a little research might have helped, "Lance Sergeant"? Uh, yeah).

The mission is simple, find Hughes, who is holed up in a bunker that is half fortress and half pleasure palace for him and a few hundred of his closest friends, which happens to be smack dab in the middle of one of the largest New American cells this side of St. Petersburg, and bring him back to Civgov and Caldwell, alive.

May I just state, that while the idea of this adventure sounds cool? It's guaranteed to be what they call in role playing to be a TPK (Total Party Kill). Not to mention? There is this totally unnecessary side trip and additional dungeon crawl through an abandoned New American facility that has almost zero intelligence value, except to confirm "Nope, Hughes, he isn't here!" The displaced social studies teacher makes a better way to find Hughes and his not-so-merry band of sleazeballs.

Oh, and did I mention the marauder band that is practically an ethnic slur to Native Americans, in the foot hills of Appalachian Virginia? Um yeah...

And did I mention this was all about to happen while the most controversial event in Twilight: 2000 canon, "the Drought" was about to begin and Civgov and Caldwell are pulling up stakes for the Midwest?

In short, nobody thought this through really well at all.  But, desperate people do desperate things, even if those desperate things border on military insanity? But no, this adventure needed some better writing overall.

But how does it fare as miniature scenario fodder?

Skirmish Games

For skirmish games, Kidnappped has a few possibilities, even for an adventure as well, badly written as this. Many of the potential encounters make good fodder for man to man games, but some of the really good ideas are these:

• Dealing with the Trolls outside Sandy Hook, one restriction on using firepower is that the locals need the bridge intact.
• Launching a raid on the New American supply depot at Bolivar (this one should be no picnic for the Civgov raiders, as the adventure description makes the place sound like a fortress).
• Clearing the Makado Computer Corporation building from either a New American patrol...or an unaffiliated marauder band.
• Rescuing Roy Masterson from a New American raid on his farm meant to silence him, and recover the papers he has come into possession of.

Larger Games

For larger games, there would not seem to be a whole lot here, but the fact, it..any assault on the Country Home bunker would take a far larger force than the typical band of role playing characters. I personally would think it would take a company sized force or larger to do it right..there's simply too many New Americans there. So, you could say Civgov had an attack of the smarts, and sent a force in to do it right, but that would entail that force fighting it's way all the way through to Country Home in the first place, which I suppose, could make a good campaign...but then again, with the drought on the way, could such a force hold together under the circumstances?

Well, next on the list is Return to Warsaw, which should have some folks wondering if the Baron Czarny really is the Twilight: 2000 answer to Darth Vader? 

In the coming days, I also will be reporting on my upcoming trip to Historicon. I am leaving for Fredricksburg this Thursday, and I will check in with Covert Intervention Games and see what they are up to, as well as look about and see what else is going on of interest to anyone with a hankering for wargaming in the world of Twilight: 2000. Look for the paunchy fellow with glasses, brown hair, and eyes wearing a black t-shirt with a Twilight: 2000 1st Edition or module cover on it! That will be me!

Until next time everyone!

Plastic Chariots of the Nuclear Dawn – A Review of Plastic Model Kit Manufacturers for Twilight: 2000 Wargaming

 In the past, we’ve discussed 20mm figures and manufacturers in general, but there is a plethora of kits out there, some are pretty good for wargaming…some, not so much. So, we’re here to talk about those kits specifically, and while I won’t manage to get to them ALL today, I will do my best to cover the biggies and see if we cannot manage to help you folks out in trying to make your gaming dollars go further.

 One thing to keep in mind. Many of these kits are model kits. They aren’t specifically designed for wargaming, per se, but many of them are easily adaptable. That means you can leave hatches open to put lead crew figures in, or add stowage, or even have parts that aren’t going to fall off if you look at them funny. Some, however, as nice as they look (and some look really nice) are fragile as a Faberge egg, and you’d do well to go elsewhere buy that particular vehicle.

 Another point? Many of the Soviet bloc stuff is made, naturally, in Eastern Europe, and the quality of kits from those manufacturers is dodgy, to say the least, but with some work and patience, (and a whole lot of sheet styrene, putty, and paint), you can make a passable model that will look good on the table, such as this ACE BMP-2:

This ACE BMP-2 caused me a bit of heartburn, to say the least. I had to make tracks from putty, as well as to fit the hull halves together. I also had to do quite a bit of filing and shaping to make the turret ring work. God bless the fact that I managed to make the Liberation Miniatures half-crewmen fit.

 Apologies for the lousy pic, but you get the ideas, I added some Libmins Soviet tanker figures I had after leaving the hatches open, and with a decent paint job and some weathering? It looks pretty good for a half-baked Eastern European kit, doesn’t it?

 But what is good about these kits? They are easily modified, or “kit bashed” and made into some really creative ideas as mentioned in my article on the subject of vehicles in Twilight: 2000. They’re also cheaper than specialty resin vehicles or specialty wargame kits one finds out there. Now, it is $10-11 for a 1/72 AFV these days, but that’s still not shabby as compared to a resin kit, and if the resin isn’t up to snuff for whatever reason, it is harder to fix that than a plastic kit that has too much flash, or bent parts, or that won’t mate properly. Even there, those kits are becoming rarer with better manufacturing technology and the kits of today are very much better and easier to assemble than even the ones found some 20 years ago.  In short, the kits for what you are looking for are out there, you just have to find them.

So, let’s now discuss some manufacturers of 1/72 scale kits and what you can expect from said manufacturers in terms of general quality and ease of assembly?

Revell

Image taken from Revell website

  Revell of Germany is pretty much the largest and most prodigious producer of 1/72-1/76 plastic kits out there. Simply put, if it’s a modern vehicle, chances are, they make it. Their kits run the good and the bad, with the T-80 kits being superb in my opinion. The bad, well that depends. As much as I like Revell, I do hate their separate plastic track links thing. Got to be honest, I can never make it look good, and it takes a lot of patience and manual dexterity, neither of which I possess in spades.

  That said, their website is so-so, they have a webstore, and it is searchable by scale and type (look under Revell of Germany for the military kits) but the fact is, the results are still difficult to pick through with all the 1/35 and 1/48 scale stuff. It can be a bit aggravating and to be honest, there is a lot of third party websellers out there who sell Revell kits who have much better organized websites.

  But that, said, they are prodigious, and they are good, solid kits that take well to wargaming!

Model Collect

Image taken from Model Collect website

 Model Collect is a small, but seemingly prodigious company in China that makes some neat stuff of interest for Twilight: 2000 miniature gamers. They practically make every known variant of the T64, T72, T80 and the T90s, as well as BMP-3! Yep, they have you covered on Soviet armor. They even make T-62s which is exciting, especially since nobody made them after Esci left the scene, unless you bought them in resin from Britannia. (I thought S& S made them, but Shaun corrected me on that, he said they never did, but they do have plenty of diecast and ready made T-62s for sale.)

  Now, the downside, having assembled these kits, I can tell you. They are designed for the master modeler. I think I did a pretty good job with them, and I like that the reactive armor aren’t individual blocks (looking at you, Revell!) and while the metal lower hull can be an intimidating prospect, a little super glue (I recommend Loctite or Gorilla Glue, my go-tos, but rehearse how you are going to assemble the pieces before you put them together!), and you got it assembled. Not to mention? That lower hull gives the model some neat heft. The hatches can be opened with a little work, so S & S and Libmins crew figures can be used here quite easily. And they do one piece tracks (warning, they don’t melt as readily as the old Taimya tracks, so be ready to staple.)

  In short, the kits while expensive, are a good buy if you are doing Twilight: 2000, because, you don’t need a ton of vehicles for them! The website is clear and easy to order from, and considering the kits are coming from China, the shipping is lightning fast. And they take Paypal, which settles my anxieties about unknown websellers (they are known to me now, but I would always prefer doing business with a website that has secure HTTP or does Paypal, then one that does not in this day and age).

 In short, a solid, but fiddly series of kits, and a bit on the expensive side, but worth what you get.

Plastic Soldier Company

Taken from Plastic Soldier Company website

  Plastic Soldier Company is one of the many fast build plastic model companies out there churning out kits for wargamers. Up till now, they have been sticking mostly to the World War II market, producing kits in 15mm and 20mm. But the recent release of the above T-55 in 15mm has kicked off a demand for the same in 20mm, and they’re throwing a “Willstarter” to see if they get 200 orders for the 20mm version, which will come three to a box. Perfect for a platoon, or Twilight: 2000, as many divisions by 2000 are lucky to HAVE three tanks. They are also doing a Leopard 1, which makes me excited, as I can always use a few more of those.

  I have built a lot of Plastic Soldier Company stuff. For the most part, it’s solid, easy to build, wargaming models that have a lot of extras and just are plain fun to build, even for this fumble fingered idiot (having only screwed up one Mk III), In short, I am just plain loving these kits, and my only real complaint? The track assembly often leaves gaps between the two halves. Its nothing a little putty does not solve however, I personally enjoy the fact I can churn out whole platoons in a sitting and they take paint and kitbashing exceptionally well. The extras they often include are just downright cool, and I just hope they do M113s, their ACAVs would be something to see.

  Their webstore is solid, easy to use and their communication with the customer is something a lot of other companies could stand to learn from, in my opinion.

S-Model

Taken from Plastic Soldier Company website

 S-Model is another Chinese-based company, and it’s a bit between the master modeler and the fast builds we see entering the market from companies like Plastic Soldier Company. They have a small range for moderns, mostly concentrating on BMPs, BMDs, and BRDMs, which are all hard to get in plastic, but at two to a box, you can build platoons pretty quick, but as I also mentioned, for Twilight: 2000, how many do you really need?

  The kits themselves are a bit fiddly, especially the metal parts, but overall, they are a fast-ish build. I cannot complain all that much, heck, I got BMDs to go with my Soviet airborne for cripes sake! And I didn’t have to go the resin route, which, all due respect to the fellas at S & S, but it’s not cheap, especially if you factor in shipping from England!

 Now, I have seen US distributors for S-Models, but they don’t carry a lot of the moderns. I assume you could probably get them to special order, but that might take a while. That said, these are also solid, well made kits of value to a wargamer!

  I don’t know if S-Model itself has a website, but I do know Plastic Soldier Company carries their entire line, so I would recommend ordering from them.

 

Dragon Models

Taken from Dragon Models website

  Dragon Models is a Hong Kong-based company and is very prodigious, or at least, they were last I checked. Their kits are clearly more based for the modeler, but I have built a pair of their HMMWVs and a T-34/85 and while their kits have a lot of fiddly parts, they are very kitbashable. The T-34, for example, had an AB crew added and I had to pin most of the road wheels in place due to an assembly accident, it worked out very well though, but that said, go into it aware, these are not the easiest kits to assemble.

 You can find Dragon kits pretty much at any hobby shop, and I personally have, they are pretty easy on the wallet, especially the HMMWVs, as they come two to a box. You could do worse as a source of HMMWVs, to be honest.

Ace Models (there is a reason I am not giving out the link, read the blurb)

Taken from the On The Way website

  Ok folks, I know, ACE has a nice, prodigious line of kits doing a lot of Eastern bloc vehicles, and more than a few from everywhere else. Trouble is..a lot of these kits, when I built them, downright stank. They were often hard to put together, with misleading instructions, missing parts, or lousy ones, and often a need to fix the kits with generous helpings of styrene, putty, and patience. I often had to do a lot of work to salvage the kits I bothered to assemble. (exhibit No. 1, the BMP pictured at the beginning of the article.), and well, it left a bad taste in my mouth. Now, they are saying the Gen 2 kits are much better, and I am willing to give that the benefit of the doubt…but the reputation lasts to this day. (I know some fellas on the Guild, and these are some master model builders, who will not touch ACE kits with a ten foot pole and a gun to their head.)

 But then, I go to the ACE website to link it to the article (as I have done for everyone else), as well as get a nice screenshot for their portion of the article, and I get a virus alert, this is a major fail on the part of ACE. Why in the world would I buy their sub-par kits and also risk getting a virus where someone might steal my money? In this day and age, all companies who have a web presence of any kind should at least pay lip service to a thing called cyber security? If not, they are not getting my money. Yeah, not happening ACE..just not happening.

Esci

Taken from D & D Models

 Esci was for a long time “the 1/72 scale armor manufacturer” out there. If they didn’t make it, chances are, nobody did. They made so many kits, there are still many out there for people to purchase second-hand (even if the kits are showing their age at 30+ years old). I recently got my hands on quite a few of these kits at a con. The only complaint I have about these gems? It’s the same one I have about the Revell Germany kits…separate track links. I know, some people like ‘em. I don’t. They are a pain to put together, but I have found, with a little effort and patience, one can usually get the job done, even if I am left wondering why I spent so much time on this. Right now, Italieri is putting out the kits, and doing a fine job of it. 

Trumpeter 

Taken from eBay

  Trumpeter is, in my experience, midway between the Plastic Soldier Company kits, and the Model Collect in terms of complexity. They do a decent job and the kits are not what I would call rocket science, the hardest kit I ever built of theirs was their LAV-25, as the suspension was a bit complicated, but even that wasn’t THAT hard. I have two built and I rather enjoyed the experience, and would build more if given the chance.  I have also built a T-55 and an M4/76 of theirs, and all of them came together very easily. Moreover, they had solid tracks! One thing that bugged me? On the T-55, the instructions to assemble the hull pieces were a bit unclear..and screwy to say the least...(You actually needed to use a pair of screws to screw the two halves of the hull together). 

  I cannot say it is too difficult to get Trumpeter kits in your local hobby shop. They are a prodigious manufacturer, and they do a variety of subjects of interest to anybody doing Twilight: 2000. Their LAV-25 is especially of value, as it seems to be a favorite vehicle of player groups…and if you’re going to use miniatures as part of your RPGing? Then at least one LAV is a must. I would also get some after market RB Models turned metal barrels for the 25mm chaingun..trust me, it looks killer on the LAV.

PS: Happy birthday to me! And what a gift..we have crossed the 17K followers mark and I could not be prouder of this blog and my readers! Thanks, guys!