World War III: Armageddon

Okay, here's my pretty much finished WWIII wargame rules. I say pretty much finished because, as any rule-writer knows, there's always room for improvement, and I'll probably make some modifications at some point. But for now, they're pretty playable rules. Be warned, however; this game is conducive to heavy casualties. No protracted slugfests here; whole units can be wiped out with a few unlucky rolls. The basic combat system is easy enough: each figure rolls 2D6 against his Accuracy to see if he scores a hit; then roll 1D6 to determine the extent of the damage. Activation tests, reaction tests and morale tests are also used. No revolutionary game mechanics.
I've included pdfs for the core rules, reference sheet, and two sample army help cards at the bottom of this page. Feel free to download (and adapt, if you want) all or any of the documents.The army help cards are meant as examples of the type of army lists you can create; you'll probably want to create your own, unless you happen to have modern Russians and British available.
This game is supposed to be played using scenarios with specific objectives and troop placement. Make up your own (its easier than you might think) or look in some other wargame rules for scenario ideas.
Please note that I have revised and updated these rules several times, so if there is a slight discrepancy or mistake in the rules, forgive me.
Here are some pictures from a test game.

WWIII: Armageddon Core Rules

Cover

Reference Sheet

Russian Army Card

British Army Card

A Small Wargame

A few days ago I whipped up some simple, fast-play modern skirmish rules. I adapted parts of Chain Reaction 3.1 and Fireteam Tactical Combat (which you can find at Freewwargamesrules Wiki) and blended them up with some ideas from my own imagination to create World War III: Armageddon. Ostensibly, these will be the working rules for my WWIII wargame, though they work just as well for WWII or other modern conflicts. The system is easy to learn and requires only 1D6 for all tests.
Here are some pics from the first test game. I used 16 of my WWIII Russians against 8 Modern British and 8 US WW2 Paratroopers, since I didn't have enough Brits painted up. The game was fun, but it definitely needs some revisions. Once I have a system of playable rules, I might put them up on this blog.
It started off badly for me, with my opponent wiping off my entire raw unit in the first turn and then bagging my elite officer in the second. I managed to strike back late and take out some of his bolt-action rifles on my right flank, but it was too little, too late. 

Next Batch of Modern British Infantry

I like the camo on these ones a little better than on the previous batch. I think it matches the early 2000s
pattern of DPM better.

These figures are a little disappointing to paint,  because their PLCE (Personal Load Carrying Equipment) webbing is made of the same camouflage material as the rest of the uniform, thus making it hard to distinguish. So, in effect, these figures end up looking a bit like camouflaged blobs.
Also, Caesar did a pretty poor job on the L85A2 rifles. If you ask me, these are some pretty boss

assault rifles, designed in the unusual bullpup layout, with the magazine and action behind the trigger group. This allows the rifle to be shorter without sacrificing accuracy.
However, Caesar turned this rifle into another indeterminate mass of gray plastic with almost no detailing. The SUSAT scope becomes a cylindrical blob, the barrel a pathetically droopy little pipe.

This pose is visually interesting, but is a lot less useful for wargaming purposes. Where did this guy find a wall to suddenly jump over? And the wall looks pretty narrow to me - I mean, couldn't he just walk around it? Sometimes tiny plastic men just aren't that bright.

I hope this officer is telling his soldier to stop screwing around on that wall and start doing something useful. 

The full infantry section (8 soldiers), made up of two four-man fire teams.

Caesar Modern British Army

So I got these guys a while ago, and just got around to painting my first batch of them.
They are meant to be a part of my still-under-development WWIII wargame, and need to be dated no later than 2008. Thus, they are wearing the temperate DPM camo as opposed to the newer MTP camo which was phased in starting in 2010.
I still don't quite know which rules system to use for my WWIII wargame, but I'm thinking about using a modified and revised version of Chain Reaction by Two Hour Wargames.

My Hobbylinc Order Arrives

I placed a relatively large order to Hobbbylinc.com for a bunch of new miniatures for my various wargames that are in some form or other of progress. For my first DBA army, Italeri Gauls.

For a fantasy DBA wargame that I am going  to work on simultaneously (yes, this is in all probability more than I can chew) - Orion Light Alliance Dwarves Set #1.

For my ongoing World War III wargame, Caesar Modern British Army.

Unfortunately, the set does not come with many figures to begin with, and three of them are the relatively useless jumping-over-the-wall pose, in the center.

Most of the figures were gray, but some came in a light brown color.

This guy is completely baffling. He is not one of the poses listed on PSR, and looks like a mistake of some kind. His left arm is a rounded stump, and I have no idea what he's holding in the other one. In another modern set I got from Caesar, the Modern US Elite Force, one of the figures was a Navy SEAL from the Modern Special Forces Worldwide set. It seems to be a Caesar trademark to insert a random figure into each box! In the case of the Navy SEAL, he was a nice addition, but this guy is 100% useless. He doesn't even look like a casualty, otherwise I would use him as a wounded soldier. 

And lastly, Imex Confederate Infantry. These guys are for an American Civil War diorama that I have been commissioned to make for a middle school classroom. All expenses paid. The diorama is going to be for the battle of Hazel Grove. I'll post on the details of this project as soon as I can. 

So, if anyone is keeping track, I am juggling no less than four projects: an ancient DBA wargame, a fantasy DBA wargame, a World War III wargame, and a Civil War diorama. Chances are, knowing myself as I do, I will end up immersing myself in another project of some sort before I complete any of the current ones. Oh, well. I don't have a deadline of any kind, so I'll just keep plugging away.

Assorted Terrain and a few Modern Russians

I've not had time to do much in the way of modelling or painting lately, but I've started to work on some stuff these past few days. I made some new terrain, some of which I can use for my DBA armies once they're ready.

And a marsh.

I've also been painting some miniatures. As always, I've added to my armies for my World War III wargame (which is coming along slowly but surely).

Shopping list for WWIII Wargame

Here are all the figures and vehicles I will need for my World War III wargame. I will update this page as I feel necessary, and as I cross off sets one by one. It may take me several months (or years) to collect all these figs.

RUSSIAN FEDERATION AND ALLIES:
Russian Federation
72003 Orion Modern Russian Federals 1995
556169 Italeri Para Russian Spetznaz
03190 Revell T90 Russian Battle Tank
72911 ICM Models BTR60PB Armored Personnel Carrier
72121 Ace Plastic Models 2S1 Gvozdika Tracked Armored Vehicle

Sword of Allah terrorist organization and other Middle Eastern armies
72002 Mars Mujahideen Warriors
31 Caesar Modern Urban Resisters
63 Caesar Modern Militia
72002 Orion Chechen Rebels 1995

German Army (Bundeswehr)
62 Caesar Modern German Army (Bundeswehr)

UNITED STATES COALITION:
United States
556168 Italeri Modern US Soldiers
30 Caesar Modern US Army
7276 Trumpeter US M1A1 Abrams MBT
7255 Trumpeter Stryker ICV Light Armored Vehicle]
7245 Dragon Models HMMWV M1025 ASK w/LRAS3 & w/Loudspeaker (2 models)

Israel
57 Caesar Modern Israeli Defense Force
72040 Orion Modern Israel Army Set #2
7103 Trumpeter Merkava Mk III Main Battle Tank

Britain
60 Caesar Modern British Army
001 Caesar British SAS
07215 Trumpeter British Challenger II Main Battle Tank Iraq
7102 Trumpeter British Warrior Tracked MCV

First two squads of Revell British Paratroopers (Falklands)

I painted these guys up in two batches. The first batch I painted earlier this year, the second more recently. So far there's two squads of riflemen with a radio operator and two heavy weapons stands.
I don't have anything specifically in mind for these dudes; maybe sometime in the indeterminate future I will try to make some Argies through headswapping and other methods, as I have seen some other bloggers do (here and here). The world of 1/72 scale gaming has a sad lack of Falklands-era Argentinian forces, despite there being two good Falklands-era British forces sets - the A Call to Arms British Infantry of the 1970s and the Matchbox NATO Paratroopers. The Revell British Paratroopers I painted up are just a reissue of this set under the false label of 1/76 scale.

My entire army so far - two squads with heavy weapons teams in support

Note the face paint.

How to paint camo

I thought this subject is important enough to merit its own post, so here it is. I do not claim to have the own workable method for painting camo, but it's worked for me and I like it.

Do your research into the type of camo you are trying to paint. Look at various examples of the camo. Camopedia is invaluable for this. See if you can determine which color is most prevalent - the base color. Paint your uniform in this color. Exactly which color is the background color is debatable. Use your own discretion.

Most camo patterns have at least three different colors in them. After doing the base color, find the next most prevalent color and paint this color on top. Look closely at your reference pictures to see what the pattern is. Is it striped? Horizontally or vertically? Is it spotted? What shapes are the spots? Is it blotched? Are the blotches square, circular, or irregularly shaped? For example, below are three US military camouflage patterns. Left is the "chocolate chip" desert camo pattern, worn in the Gulf War. Note that the background color is buff, with large blotches in two shades of tan/light brown. It is spotted with black and white leopard spots.
Center is the ERDL woodland camo pattern, worn in Grenada and other conflicts. I would use dark green for the background color, followed by irregular, branched blotches of brown, then light green, then thinner branches of black.
Right is the ACU pattern, currently in service today. The pixels in this camo are very small, and tricky to paint. The backround color is dark green, followed by tons of little pixelated dots of gray-green and buff. Alternately, you could do the background color buff, and follow it with the two other colors.
Painting camo is a lot simpler than it might look. The trick is to do it in layers, and cover up some of the previous layers to create an irregular pattern.

World War III Wargame

Hey, everybody! This is my first post, and I hope you enjoy the site.
I recently started work on a World War III type wargame. The armies involved will be Russians, Iraq/Iranians, Syrians, Chinese, and other such countries on the one side, and a coalition of US, UK, Western European, and Israeli forces on the other side. The game will take place at around 1995.
I have to admit that I received my inspiration from this (rather cliched) idea from Steven at Sound Officers Call. I really liked his Orion and Esci/Italeri Russian minis, so I decided to buy both sets and start painting up my own post-Cold War Russian army.
The sets together add up to 96 figures, but about 12 of these are useless poses (there's even a guy peeing, though what Orion was thinking when they put this mini in the set is beyond me). I'm going to divide these guys into several branches: there'll be the VDV - Russian airborne - in blue berets and insignia; the Naval Infantry (marines) in black berets and insignia; the regular army troops (no special insignia); and the Spetsnaz, in special ops "birch tree" camo. I'll post painting guides for these various branches later on, just in case anyone's interested.
For this wargame, I am using the Counterattack rules by New Century Wargames (downloaded from freewargamesrules - a highly recommended site). I modified the rules slightly, and created new army rules for the Russian army.
I have no deadline for this wargame, and it's possible I'll never even finish it, but I'm just enjoying the process of painting up the figures.

Here are my first attempts:
This is my first squad of Naval Infantry (Marines). In my modified Counterattack rules, a rifle squad is made up of between 4 and 7 figures, including 1 officer and up to 2 machine guns and 1 heavy weapon, such as an RPG. This particular squad consists of 5 riflemen (armed with some version of the AK-74) and 1 officer, front, holding a pistol.

Here's my second addition to the army - a squad of regular army snipers. They are equipped with Dragunov SVD sniper rifles. 

I intend to pick up some Americans and Israelis once I have finished this Russian army, and then I'll get some armor: T-72s, Abrams tanks, and whatnot. Its a work in progress.