20th Century Rampant?

Irish War of Independence

I wrote here about adapting the Rampant Colonial Rules, The Men Who Would Be Kings, for the early Twentieth Century, particularly for the Russian Civil War, Irish War of Independence and Mexican Revolution.

I had quite a few original (and stolen) ideas about how to do this but never got round to trying them out. The publication of the Sci-Fi Xenos Rampant set, replete with vehicle rules, now seems to provide not only a more suitable starting point but may suffice without adaption.

Have Daniel Mersey and Richard Cowan developed the killer app of skirmish wargame rules? I see indications that XR is absorbing games that were previously played with other rules...Games Workshop beware!

Anyway, here are some examples of my very provisional take on some relevant unit definitions. Some are straight from the suggested army lists.

IWI Auxiliaries
Heavy Infantry
Increased Squad Size
Heavy Weapons (Lewes Gun) 

IWI Regular British Infantry
Light Infanty
Increased Squad Size
Heavy Weapons (Lewes Gun)

IWI RIC/Volunteers
Light Infantry
Increased Squad Size
Undisciplined

IWI Shotgun squad
Light Infantry
Close Quarters Doctrine
Undisciplined

HMG
Support Infantry

IWI Lancia armoured truck
Transport Vehicle
SMU
Transport (10)

IWI Crossley Tender
Soft-skin Vehicle
SMU
Civilian
Transport (10)

RCW Cavalry
Berserk Infantry
Increased Squad Size
Mobile

RCW Heavy Tank
Fighting Vehicle
SMU
Anti-Personnel Specialism (Female)/Armour-Piercing (Male)
Slow
Unstable

RCW Light Tank
Fighting Vehicle
SMU
Anti-Personnel Specialism

Armoured Car
Fighting Vehicle
SMU
Anti-Personnel Specialism
Light Armoured Vehicle

RCW Tschanka
Soft-skin Vehicle
SMU
Civilian
Technical

Russian Civil War in 28mm

Copplestone Ragged Whites

Lockdown was to have been a period of consolidation. It started well but there was a hiatus in hobby activity in May followed by the usual Summer distractions. And so my only wargaming-related activity in recent months has been the purchase of some 28mm Bolsheviks and Whites from the Copplestone 'Back of Beyond' range using my Wargames Illustrated/North Star monthly discount and a couple of books. This is another slow-burn project as it will take me over a year to collect the figures before I feel obliged to base or paint anything.

The RCW has long been on my wishlist and I eventually decided to go with the characterful Copplestones and The Men Who Would Be Kings rules. There are many other rule sets I could use but I already know and like these Rampant rules, and extending them to Interwar skirmish ought to be fairly easy. An adaption of TMWWBK to the RCW was discussed here and using them for the Mexican Revolution here. A further mention of using them for interwar colonial skirmish can be found here.

The main issue is how to accommodate vehicles and the most useful inspiration is Pierre Aymeric's WW1 Foch extension. The original version appeared on the Wargames Illustrated website here but a newer, fuller version is available from the author's blog here. I've yet to try these out but I also have ideas of my own having already been thinking of extending TMWWBK to cover shotguns and armoured trucks for the Irish War of Independence.

Anyway, these are just thoughts and I'm in no rush. Winter is coming and it's going to be a long one...

28mm Victorian Terrace in Foamboard for Irish War of Independence

Auxies come knocking at the door

Most of the scenery I made for my Irish War of Independence game is explicitly rural but I constructed this Victorian terrace which could represent the edge of a small town. I Googled for real-life pictures of Ireland, though the building is equally typical of Irish or English urban development of the period and could be used in other contexts. The footprint has been 'bath-tubbed' to some extent but the building is still vertically in scale with the figures.

Construction proceeded in exactly the same way as my foamboard 'Crossfiregrad' (Stanlingrad) buildings, albeit in a larger scale. Designing the pieces so they fit together is the key. The roof and top storey are detachable.

Irish War of Independence FUBAR game

British Army Lewis team moves up to hedge.
Next time I intend to field the Lewis Guns
within the rifle sections.

Back in September of last year I played my first game of FUBAR using my 28mm Irish War of Independence forces. FUBAR was originally written and is mainly intended for Sci-Fi but it's very extendible.  The figure/model scale is 1:1 but it's not really a skirmish game as some would understand it. It's really a squad level game comparable to Force On Force or even Crossfire.

The rules certainly worked and my gaming companion was positive about them, but they have a very distinctive feature which perplexed some of the onlookers. Subject to troop quality, players can choose whether to take casualties as suppressions or kills. This seems to represent a trade off between allowing yourself to get pinned down or pressing forward at the expense of taking losses. It makes sense to me. However, kills or suppressions are things that are usually imposed, and it's novel, even disconcerting, to put this choice so literally into the hands of the victim.

28mm IWI conversions with Greenstuff

When I first started collecting 28mm miniatures for my Irish War of Independence project I didn't have enough figures for the Republican side so I pressed these Empress Miniatures Spanish Civil War Assaltos to which I added overcoats and bandoliers using Greenstuff. I wouldn't want to model hundreds of figures in this way, but it's certainly an option for 'skirmish level' forces.

28mm Irish War of Independence

After a very long haul and in between showers of rain I finally managed to Ardcoat my 28mm Irish War of Independence figures. These pictures show most of them. The core figures are Musketeer but they have been supplemented by others, notably Canon Fodder, and some conversions. They aren't going to win any painting competitions but they took long enough to do as it was. The figures are going to be used with the FUBAR skirmish rules. I hope to post some pictures of a game in due course.

Auxiliaries. The CO is sporting a leather coat and shotgun. Lewis guns in the rear. The building is a scratch-built barn made from foamboard with stone cladding from Antenociti's Workshop.

28mm Irish War of Independence 1919-1921

I've recently taken an interest in simple 1 or 2 page rules, especially FUBAR and this has prompted me to extract my stalled 28mm Irish War of Independence project from the lead mountain. It's a pleasure to be painting fewer, larger figures but I'm going for the same 'magic dip' approach I use on 15mm ones rather than three-coat shading and super detailing. The figures are mainly Musketeer and Cannon Fodder. I'm using overscale diecasts for vehicles and my figures are on high bases to compensate. Controversial, but the fudge works for me.

For scenery I've made some buildings from 5mm foamboard and some dry stone walls from cat litter and PVA. I also bought some JRM dirt roads, some Tiger Terrain craggy hills in polyurethane resin (company regretfully no longer operating), and a box of K&M hedges. Here are some of the buildings. I've also made a Victorian-era terrace with back yards. They are all based on photos I found on the Web.

Thatched cottage. Walls are faced  with  Natural Stone styrofoam sheeting from Antenocitis Workshop with bits of card stuck on to represent the larger corner stones. Thatch is teddy bear fur from a haberdashery so no teddy bears were harmed in the production of this model.