Battlefront UK visit

Whilst I was staying in Long Eaton, I decided to  kill some time by going to visit Battlefront UK. Imagine my surprise when I found out that it was in Beeston and not near GW in Nottingham, making a lot more closer then I thought.

As I arrived I was unsure whether I was at the right place as there was very little signage. I pressed the bell to gain entrance and tentively asked if I was at the right place for the Gaming centre and shop, and was reassured that I was indeed at the right place. I was shown upstairs into the Gaming centre to the cries of we have a customer and received a very warm welcome.

View of the Gaming area and shop. If you are thinking that you will find the blisters of old, you will be disappointed as they are now long gone, although I did notice that the on line shop still does them.

I was shown the products on display and talked at length about NAM and FOAN, whist they were rooting out some blisters I needed for my NAM ANZAC project.  I found the staff to be helpful and happy to listen to what you had to say. Unfortunately the new Team Yankee products that I had read would be on display were not, these had been delayed by a few weeks and had not long arrived, not even giving the staff enough time to look at them themselves.


A few of the old books on display, they are still setting up the shop so expect a few changes.
 
 

The goodies on display are what you would expect to see in your local game stockist, so don't expect anything out of the ordinary. They also had a smattering of Gale force products from the various ranges. Battle field in a Box products were thin on the ground, a smattering of D&D, some Star trek and a little bit of Firefly.  They did have some great looking armies on display and the D&D stuff in the cabinet were beautifully painted. Although I do think that they should also stock the blisters for the older ranges as a direct buy only.
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 
Within the gaming centre as you would expect their are several gaming tables set out for you to use, but mainly on a Thursday evening when they run a gaming club. I am not too sure that you could just turn up on spec to play a game, so suggest you speak to them first. There is also a room set aside with  a table where you can play  board games in peace from us more noisier table top gamers. 
 

 
 

 
 

 
 
Along one wall near the window was a work bench where the staff were assembling armies which were also dotted around the shop on window shelves, book shelves and the odd table hidden in the corner.
 

FOAN what I suspect are Egyptian T55's hiding on the window sill.

 

More Egyptian FOAN T55's.

 

FOAN Syrian T55's with an Israeli force hiding behind it.

 

FOAN Israeli M60's and Centurions lurking on the window sill.

 

This FOW Russian army was so nice I took two pictures, I also just realised I did not take a picture of the German Panzer force (sorry) hiding on the book shelf, although he hadn't finished painting the sole tank commander that was just painted in RAL 7016 so did not deserve to be photographed in any case (Cheeky Smirk) LOL..

All in all, it was a enjoyable trip, short but sweet. Having got what I needed for my ANZAC force, which will be written about later, and hope at some point to join in on the Gaming night.  One thing I did get wind off, is that they will be redoing the FOW WW1 lists into a compendium in line with NAM and FOAN, So I will be looking out for that in the near future.
Thanks
Jon

Three Posts in One - FOAN, Cold War Danish, and Star Trek Attack Wing

Well this is a bumper post to bring you up to speed on what I have been painting recently.  With my 6mm Moderns another army done and another started. Star Trek Attack Wing Gets a new piece of terrain to fight over. So on with the posts.

Fate Of A Nation 6mm Israeli's

With the purchase of the rules, I have started looking into making up some Middle East Armies on the cheap, re-purposing some of my Nato and Warsaw Pact vehicles.  With a new purchases arriving, meant that some Danish Centurions which were actually Scotia Israeli Centurions became Surplus and were available for re-allocation.  Also after a bit of routing through the boxes I found some Davco M60's and a few GHQ M113's. Giving me the following forces:

FOAN Israelis

 I can either field the Centurion 105's in two under strength companies or one full strength company. With a Mech Platoon and a Mech Mortar Section making up the core formation troops.

Scotia Models Israeli Centurions

I have had the Centurions for a few years now and did not realise at the time that they were Super Centurions with the updated engine decks.  Originally assigned to my Danish force (Ops - Some of the Danish colours are still visible) I am pleased how they came out, and it also goes to show how much detail that on the miniature.

GHQ M113's

 The Mech Infantry Platoon is a little under strength, only being 4 Sections strong. Comes in at 10 points and for another point another MAW AT stand can be added.

H&R M125's and Scotia Jeeps

Additional support is given by the Mech mortar section of two M125's, and a Sayer Platoon of four Jeeps giving that Spear head option to the list.

Davco  M60's

Additional armour support in the form of the M60's, gives the force a little bit more firepower. Soon there will be additional support from some Ground attack aircraft and 105mm Howitzers, which I have recently found hiding in a box. I also plan further reinforcements but that will be a few months off yet.  But first I need to sort some Arab forces out first.

Cold War Gone Hot - 1985'ish Danish Landjut Forces

Cold War Gone Hot to paraphrase another Blogger. My 6mm Modern forces have been brought up to speed with the near completion of my Danish Army.  When I first started out in moderns back in the early 90's, my first purchase was a box of the bring and buy stand for £10, full off vehicles painted up as Israelis. Lots of Merkava's, Centurion's, M113's, RAM recce, and Soltam Artillery.  So much that I could not only make up the Challenger 2 army list, I had enough over to make another army, which became a Danish army.  As time went by this became a full strength list with 4 Centurion Companies, 4 Leopard 1A4 Companies, 4 Mech Infantry Companies, 2 Motorised Companies and the Recon Company. In the Late 90's I sold this army off as I was short of money and have regretted it ever since.  When my interest in Moderns resurfaced I started to reassemble my Danish, which was featured in an earlier post.

This is how you last saw my Danish Forces.

Recently H&R released some new models and among them were some M41 DK and Centurion DK, which I had to have.  The re-purposing on the current Centurions to an Israeli army gave ne the excuse to but the missing companies.  I originally had planned three companies but scaled back to two.  So my Danish is 95% complete and is only awaiting a few more vehicles, but atthe moment it looks like this:

 As you can see I still got to re-base them (I've ran out, so need to buy more). I have redone the Green which looks a little bit more like pictures I have seen.  The total force consists of two Jutland Tank Companies equipped with Leopard 1A3 and two Zealand tank companies equipped with Centurion 105mm DK. Two Mechanised companies and a Motorised company give infantry support, whilst Reconnaissance is supplied by a RECCE M113 platoon and the Close RECCE Squadron equiped with M41 DK.

 The HQ Centurions are old H&R models from which have survived from my original army. THey are old Mk13's which I had snipped of the search light.  Again the HQ's are based for numerous rules.

The two Centurion DK Companies now make the army start to feel unique.

 The New H&R model of the Danish Centurion is really nice. The detail is superb as shown in the pictures above and below. The model also comes with a .50cal HMG to fit to the turret roof, but I ran out of super glue and was starting to find them too fiddly, so they went onto my parts draw.

 

 The two companies of Leopard 1 A3's are from H&R and allow me to form a Jutland formation.

 The three infantry companies allow me to field either an Infantry Formation or support one of the Tank formations.  M113's are a mix of H&R and Scotia.  The Motorised company is equipped with Bedford RL's and a MAN Truck with a command Land-rover. I wanted to give the Danish a feel of the mixture of vehicles that they used.

 For the Mech companies, I had originally used for the Anti-tank section M151/TOW's but later found out that they used Land-rovers mounted TOWs. As no suitable model was available I did some quick modifications and ended up with four converted land-rovers.

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 The Close Recce Squadron equipped with H&R new M41DK further enhancing the uniqueness of the army. The Squadron is still missing its Recce Jeeps that should be in the post to me as I type. I have gone for H&R open topped Iltis, again this is to represent the different vehicles the Danes use.

 H&R M151/TOW form the Divisional Anti-Tank Platoon.

AOP/MOPS using various vehicles. The Dodge is a nod to the various Dodge's that the Danes use, along with the Land-rover and Iltis.  Further support is awaiting in the wings to be painted in the form of M109 Howitzers, Towed 155mm Guns, Air support and a section of M150/TOW.  I am really happy how this army ahs come out and really like the colour scheme which I used Reflective green with a slightly under 1/3 Yellow added.

STAR TREK ATTACK WING

STAW gets a new piece of scenery. The K7 Space station.  Now gives some of the Original series ships something to fight over.

6mm FATE OF THE NATION

A few years back,  Battlefronts  Flames of War  was one of my biggest games,  I was amassing forces faster then I could paint... Early War,  Mid War  and then a toe dip into Late War,  this came  all crashing down when I experienced some nastiness at one of  the  Derby Worlds competitions,  and the further introduction of late war books which featured ad-hoc and unheard off Allied formations  verging on fantasy.  With the  release  of  Early  War,  it rekindled my  interest only to be dashed by  poor army lists and then the release of the  v3  rules and new army list books on the horizon, to which I had the month previous purchased hammered in the last nail into the coffin now labeled FOW. It was consigned to the reserve game list.

Then game Team Yankee and all its hopes and dreams,  I dived heavily into the pre release hype and euphoria which surrounded the game.  Based on the Fictitious novel by the same name,  it succeeded in rekindling the Modern period in most people.

One thing I vowed was not to buy the Minis as I had a large collection of 1/300 Moderns already.  I succeeded in that goal and also did not jump at buying the Army books either.  Some of my friends were not as strong minded and succumbed to the tempting coolness of the minis in 15mm.   With the slow release of the Army books,  I have decided to wait until a compendium has been released.

Then came the release of  NAM.

Vietnam has been on my Radar on and off for over twenty years,  I have had forces in 20mm before but no rules.  This set of rules which is a compendium,  not only containing the rules but also all the army lists and information required to paint your armies and lots of eye candy.  I plan to do NAM in 10mm and cover the forces and book at a later date.

What  NAM  did was give me a taste of what was to come with the release of  Fate of the Nation or FOAN for short.

When  FOAN was released I held back until I could see in flesh a copy which I managed to do at  HAMMERHEAD.  As with my purchase of  NAM,  I hit the internet and sourced my copy from a cheap bookstore.  Two days later it arrived.

From the first moment I opened the pages,  I was in love with the book.  Again this book is a compendium containing the Rules,  Army Lists,  and painting guides.
The rules are of the  TEAM YANKEE  format,  but also smack of including  v4  rule amendments.  It feels like  FOW,  Plays like  TY,  but there are some subtle changes.  The rules seem more basic and my only issue is how ground attack aircraft work once on table is missing.  The rules defently need a little tweak here and there but in our first test game worked very well.

What armies are Featured:  Well the book covers both the 1967 Six Day Way and the latter 1973 Yom Kippur War.  So you get Israeli,  Syrian,  Egyptian,  and Jordanian army lists which all allow you to choose from Armoured or Infantry formations.

Israeli  players get to choose from 10 formations:  6 armour,  2 Mech Infantry,  2 Special Forces. The Armoured Companies, allow you to choose from a wide range of armour:  Sho't,  Magach,  Magach 6,  Sherman,  Tiran 5,  and  AMX tanks.  With the Mech companies, you get to choose from either  a M3 Halftrack or M113's.   The Special forces are either a Sayer (recon) Company or a Paratroop Company.

Each tank company consists of a HQ and 3 platoons with an additional support platoon, which varies depending on the formation.  Infantry are the same.  All formations get to choose from a wide selection of supporting units.  Artillery consisted of towed 25 pdr's, 105mm Howitzers, and 155mm Howitzers.  Self propelled artillery is in the form of M7 Priests and M50 155mm.  Anti tank options are M3 Half-tracks with 90mm guns and either recoiless armed or TOW armed jeeps. 120mm Mortars are also available either ground deployed or mounted in M3 Half-tracks or M125's.  Ant-aircraft is limited to M3 Half-tracks with 20mm AA guns.  You also get to choose from three types of air-support in the form of Ouragan, Mirage and Skyhawk.

When it comes down to the Arab list, Between the Egyptian and Syrians, there is not much difference in equipment to choose from.  Both get to choose armoured formations equipped with T-54,  T-62,  and  T-34/85 tanks, with the Egyptians getting to choose from either IS-3 or Centurions to equip some of therir formations.  Infantry companies are again similar in that they get to choose BMP-1,  BTR-60  or  BTR-152 equipped companies.  Both also get to choose ordinary infantry companies,  with the Syrians getting a Golan Heights Defence company.  Artillery is basic with Mortars, 122mm Howitzers,  152mm Howitzers  and BM-21 Rocket launchers.   Various other support include  Recon units equipped with  PT-76 tanks,  BRDM-2's and BTR-50 with scouts.  Anti-aircraft cover is provided by ZSU-57-2,  ZSU-23/4 and 30mm AA guns.   Air cover is lacking with just MIG-17s.
Jordanians get to choose from either Centurions or M48's,  Infantry are mounted in M113's or you can choose a defensive posture using dug in infantry and fortifications.  Supports are minimal, with M-42 AA, 25 pdr's and 155mm Howitzers.  No AIR support either.

When it comes down to choosing which army to choose from the Arab lists, its down to personal preference and taste as there is not much to choose between them, although Syria has the edge Morale wise.
You will get a small compact Israeli force and a large soviet style army for the Arabs.  The Israeli's have good morale and better skill, 3+, so can make good use off their supporting Artillery and Air support.  Where as, there is actually no point in having Artillery or Air-support in the Syrian Army as you need 6's to hit anything, and only marginally better with the Egyptians needing 5+.  So you may as well spend the points on Saggers.  Jordanians are a poor mans Israeli army with bad skill and morale and no support.

Conclusion:  I find the rules inspiring and I almost purchased a 15mm army, but held true to my cause, and have started amassing the armies in 6mm.  The army lists allows you to mix and match your armies. So you can have equipment from the 1967 war fighting along side 1973 equipment. I would have liked to seen limitations on equipment and the army lists broken down into the two different conflicts  or even each selection marked with a symbol to denote what conflict it actually was used in.  So Israel can use M51 Shermans with M3 Halftracks along side, M60's and Skyhawks.  But the same goes for the Arabs, T34/85's along side T-62's.  Although BF have only produced data and lists for equipment that they only make, means that it misses out on some of the other equipment used.
Syrian Pz.IV are only available as a tank emplacements, No Hawker Sydney for the Jordanians, Israel miss out on a few support options and of course they are missing one complete country that participated in the Six day war...  Iraq.

But overall this is a good book for a stand alone period. I look forward to playing more games.