Western Desert Rapid Fire

I'm currenyly spending my enforced at home time (due to the snow) painting up some things for a Western Desert Rapid Fire game. I'm a huge fan of Rapid Fire and don't play it half as much as I should. Colin recently released the supplement with lots of army lists in the new computer graphics style, which are all very useful and interesting! http://www.rapid-fire.uk.com/

I've had a battlion of Braitannia Brits with an attached company of Punjabi's waiting to go into action for some time. Here are some heavy weapons, the rocks are cat litter and the sandbags were made from milliput. Metalic paint was added to helmets for a scratched look.

I unearthed from the lead mountain a battalion of German's made by Raventhorpe, there is about a company or so of Afrika Corps and a full battalion of regular infantry which can be painted as Afrika Corps as above. These are nice and simple figures with good poses, they paint up well and I have satin varnished them for a bit of extra strength to the paint work and to give them that retro Rapid Fire look like you see in the origional books. The Sdkfz is from the Ready to Roll range. I bought a whole load of these along with the Raventhorpe figures second hand many years ago, don't know why I waited so long to paint them. I'm hoping to order a few more. 

Ready to Roll Panzer III's (50mm gun) trundle past the Italian fort. These are some of the best models in the RTR range I think, good solid models and nice detail. There is a nice weight to these when you pick them up, better for gaming than fragile plastic kits.

Under the Bed enterprizes make some nice and cheap vehicles and have some quite origional subjects too. They are made from a light resin which is quite brittle and glueing would be best done with a 2 part expoxy resin, if you have it. I don't and have used super glue gel which works ok if you leave it to set a good while. Always a joy to chat to these guys at war games shows! http://www.underbed.co.uk/

Vickers Mk IV Light Tank one of the Front Line models made by Under the Bed Enterprizes. This is my favourite model from their range, nice detail and paints up well.

Germans make use of Italian trucks left behind. The Afrika Corps was always short of transport and used whatever they could forage, including many British trucks. These are Ready to Roll Fiat Dovunque trucks. To see the Ready to Roll range click the Rapid Fire link above.

Britannia Daimler Dingo, great little models these!

I'll add more pics of Rapid Fire games and models when I can. I have another battalion of Kelly Hero's 8th army on order from Grubby Tanks and some more British vehicles SAS/LRDG jeeps & chevrolet's and a Crusader tank all Britannia. Also have some Fallshirmjager in the post to use for a Crete scenario, which I hope to use the 8th army for also, possibly mix in some standard uniformed Brits in for that 'Medierainian' look of the troops of that theatre.

Berdan's Sharpshooter

I am painting up a few of these at the minute, they are supposed to be Union 'Coloured' Infantry made by Call to Arms but the long frock coat lends itself very well to them being painted as Berdans Sharpshooters too. I need to get the Iron Brigade from Call to Arms too. These will be used in skirmish roles in the forthcoming horse and museket toy soldier rules.

Timpo 8th Army machine gunner

I had a couple of these from my youth lying about and managed to get some from ebay too. There is a good Bren gunner pose in the Timpo set too.

Afrika Corps

Finally got the first one done after about 3 boxes lying about primed and waiting for a painting for the last year. If can get enough done and also get some scenery made in time there might be a Western Desert toy soldier game at the next show!

Play testing the firing system

We used the marker chips from the origional Toy Soldier game that denote if a figure is 'walking wounded' or 'seriously wounded' this helps keep track of the damage to the formation. It worked really well and these markers are very useful when you have a number of figures on the table.

Rebel cavalry smashing through the Union line. At this point we realised we didn't know what we should be doing once through to the other side? Ended up turning back onto the rear lines but this proved fatal for the cavalry who suddenly foung themselves staring down a lot of unfired musket barrels.

Working on the Horse and Muskrat rules

Had a very good evening last night with Peeler, Richie and Dave trying to work out how to appropriate the Toy Soldier rules we have to be able to fight horse and musket era battles. It turned out to me more complicated than I thought it would be. The use of cavalry is going to need a lot of thought and play testing. There were quite a few issues with movement and melee but we tinkered about and have some ideas to try next time. We also had artillery and have some good game mechanisms for the use of shot and canister, these also need some more play testing. The most important element will be how bodies of troops move around in line formation, how many should be in formation and what effects will breaking up from formation and fighting as individuals would have on firepower. That probably needs to be the starting point and we can build everything else around that. We had a good game despite figuring things out as we went, I think this adds to the enjoyment sometimes. The day was won by the Confedaracy after making good use of massed infantry and a daring, if not slightly suicidal, cavalry charge into the main Union force at the start of the battle.

Extra hot jallypeenoes pizzas and pies were consumed. Peeler brought me some fantastic 1/32 WWII figures and some vehicle kits a Sherman and some Bren Carriers. The figures had in them the Italeri 75mm gun and the TSSD German Cavalry, which I didn't have! Also some Conte Germans that I haven't seen before. So lots of painting to do now. We will be at a couple of shows soon so hopefully will get the new figures done and ready for those.