Let Me See Your WARFACE - Grunts for The Nam

Howdy folks, 

 

I hope you are all fine and well. As the title to this post says, its all about the grunts on this one.

 

taken from YouTube 

Continuing my latest bout of inspiration and motivation around  gaming some of The Nam and fashion this around a Vietnam Aces campaign, I am finally getting to some additional combat platoons. Having a quick planning discussion with the guys, we are anticipating 20/40/60/?? as the point levels for this venture, and I think I've said before this is pretty consistent with the Aces escalation campaign format that BattleFront came out with.

Now, given my past interest in the era and original painting run with my Air Cavalry force, I was already prepped...my Air Cav was good to go for a few rounds worth of escalation. However, given that we will be having a random number of battles per round, I thought it would also be good to have some options and maybe another force on the field with some flexibility in deployment/back story.

 

You can see the summary of my previous painting for my Air Cav...I almost choked when I saw it was from 2015. To be honest, I still have some rotors to finish up...sigh.

 

Air Cav 

So, as you can see from the video above, my main inspiration for this force was around the Marines and the rifle company. I've already painted up some M60 teams to go with my combat platoons, but with this post, you will see that I now have 20 stands of infantry for 2 x Marine combat platoons - which is more than enough for round 1 and gets me part way to round 2. And, if I really look for flexibility, I can re-jig these grunts into an Airmobile or leg infantry rifle company with 3 platoons. Of course, to do that I will need to add in a few stands (another 2 x M60, maybe some 90mm antitank teams, and one more infantry stand) so that I could have 3 platoons with 7 stands each.

Anywho, here are my grunts for the Nam, 20 stands of combat platoon hell to unleash, and course 2 stands of formation commanding goodness.

Have a good one.

OOH-RAH MARINES!!! The combat power of the force... 

 

I have to say, the BattleFront Vietnam figures have really progressed over time from their initial Wargames Illustrated run to the AUS/NZ infantry figures. The poses have become more dynamic and the sculpting of individual kit got much better and improved. The AUS/NZ troops really are the Cadillac of the range.  You can see the mix of the range throughout the platoons, but really evident in the Formation Command stands. 

 

 

 

 

 

  

 

 

2 x Marine Combat Platoons, now becomes 3 x US Army Platoons. All I need now is to fill out the numbers with another Platoon Command stand, 2 x M60 teams, and 1 x Medic/Corpsman for the company.

Lead Mountain 2021

Painted:

 

Large scale              3

28mm                     23

15mm                   102, +78

Bought                  24

Progress               +104

Bringing the Pig to the Nam - US M60 teams

Howdy folks, 

I hope all is well on your respective sides of the internets. Thanks to Mike's suggestion of doing a Vietnam Infantry Aces campaign, I've brought some momentum to bear on my lead mountain. So, I have for you: some M60 machinegun teams for my US forces.

Within 'The Nam' ruleset the M60, also called the Pig (thanks to its size, etc...), shows up throughout almost every American formation. Depending on your force (either US Army or Marines) it can be brought to the field as a machinegun platoon and/or individual teams can be added to your infantry combat platoons. Any teams that you would add to your platoon would be in addition, not as a replacement, to your platoon troops. If I remember correctly, the only case that jumps to mind that is different is for Special Forces troops who can add M60 teams at no extra cost (but then these are based 2 figs/small base) so they don't really fit the platoon or 'infantry team' standard base size (I think Battlefront calls it a medium base).

Regardless of where it fits in, the Pig is a Vietnam icon and US player staple!

My immediate plan for these beauties is to max out their option for my main infantry combat platoons and chop 2 teams per platoon. At the moment I plan to have 2 combat platoons, and am painting enough figs to go either Army or Marines...and that includes enough figures to max out the Marine combat platoons (10 x M16 teams + 2 optional M60 teams vice the Army...7 teams + 2 M60 teams...if I remember correctly).

Anyway, that is the latest from the table. Take care, enjoy the pics.

Lead Mountain 2021

Painted:

 

Large scale             3

28mm                   23

15mm                   24, +12

Bought                  24

Progress               +26

The Nam - Lurps Up

Howdy folks,

 

Hello last days of summer, here's to the coming Fall and all that fun. Today's post is just a quick one to show off some progress I made on a new/old project. Back some time ago, I was working on an Air Cavalry unit for Vietnam and Battlefront's The Nam. Admittedly I haven't painted any Nam figures let alone many 15mm in some time. So with Mike's recent push to have a Vietnam:Aces campaign I thought why the hell not...it was time to paint up some more.

The Aces campaign is a scale up mutli-round campaign where you can develop your infantry 'ace' as they gain more experience. Originally rolled out with Monte Cassino as the main battle, the Aces campaign also lets you select specific skills as your 'ace' develops. And concurrent to this, the size of your force similarly scales up...from 1-2 platoons, to company w/some support, to company and support options. In current game terms, this means the scale goes from about 20pts to 40 to 60...or even 80 I think...depending on the number of rounds you want to have I guess.

 

But I'll have to capture these thoughts in an aces dedicated post in the future. Anyhow, in prep for this, I already have my AirCav unit coming in around 20 points...so I'm good for the first round. But while I have plenty of chopper-goodness to add to the force, I wanted some actual boots to add...so I thought I'd start with some special forces troops. In this case, Battlefront does not distinguish between the options available to US Forces in Vietnam; depending on the theme of your force, they can be SEALs, Green Berets, Force Recon, or even Long Range Recon Patrols (LRRPs..lurps).

In tiger stripes and boonie hats, I thought I would field a 6 team Lurp team...with free upgrade for 2 of these teams from an M16 team to a M60 team. I don't think I had tried tiger stripe before, and like I said it had been some time since I painted 15mm...other than random crewmembers for vehicles, the last 'real' 15mm troops I painted was my 4CMBG mech infantry.

Anyway, they painted up ALOT quicker than my recent Marvel Crisis Protocol figures, go figure that...and it was fun to get back to the scale that got me into this hobby. Oh, and if you’re wondering where the figures come from or have guessed already…Yes, I used Battlefronts Aussie infantry for this unit so I could get the boonie hats.

Enjoy the pics.

 

Same troops, just a little natural light added as we head outside for a shot of clearcoat.

Lead Mountain 2021

Painted:

 

Large scale             3

28mm                    23

15mm                  +12

Bought                  24

Progress               +14