Japanese Crossfire force

Last of the Crossfire Japanese for the Pacific for now is the completion of the solitary Type 97 Japanese medium tank. This entire project has been a bit of an impulsive one. It began with inspiration from Brett Simpson's work exhibited on the Crossfire Fb page, was fuelled by the impulsive purchase of a box of Airfix Japanese infantry, and then supported with some Eureka support weapons, and an Airfix Japanese Type 97 tank, all in 20mm. Finally I took the time to create the terrain scatter pieces to give a better table to aesthetic.

There would be a lot more to do if I wanted 'go the whole hog', but this will do for now. There are five Crossfire platoons (if I used them for Spearhead -which I am tempted to do - that would be not quite two battalions), three HMGs, three 50mm Grenade Launchers, and the tank. Who knows when they might actually see action on the table.

The completed selection

The Type 97 Chi Ha tank

Volley and Bayonet to the fore

This week's 'gaming brought to the fore the flexibility of my fave war games rules set: Volley and Bayonet, with two games over two nights.

The first game was an historical scenario from the Nine Years War (League of Augsberg), using Adrian's beautifully painted 15mm figures.

This second game was a simple introductory American Civil War scenario for potential new player  Murray, using my own 15mm armies.

The point here is that despite these two conflicts being 170 years apart, and despite the Nine Years War taking place in the decade preceding what was intended to be the start of the period covered by Volley and Bayonet (1700-1900), the rules cope astoundingly well using those small 'sub period' tweaks we often talk about, giving great games that seem to have the feel, and produce the historical outcomes, that are all plausible and reasonable.

Just 'love 'em'....

Japanese support weapons

Another small step forward in the 20mm Crossfire 'Pacific Theatre' project: some Japanese support weapons. I'd originally intended to buy some of the SHQ infantry sourced from 'Grubby Tanks', as these were recommended as the best fit with the Airfix Japanese infantry I have painted with respect to size. However the comms lines went dead after a couple of emails (I hope everything is alright for him) so I looked around and finally settled on the Eureka 20mm figures, which are not too bad as an overall fit. I'd just put in a plug for Eureka here .. when the figures arrived they must have ranked amongst the best packaging for despatch for figures I have ever received.  I write and told him so!!!

So, three HMGs, and three small (50mm) mortars ( called 'knee mortars' but actually more of a grenade launcher from what I have read so far.. always open to correction!!). The mortars theoretically don't need to be on table in Crossfire, but.. hey.. who can resist.

Next up, I bought a Japanese tank for Crossfire... as they are an infantry rules set pitched as the squad/platoon/company level of command, there's not much need for tanks, but they can be incorporated so.. what the heck.