1/72 US Infantry in Vietnam, Mid-war

 I was a gen-X kid, and the Vietnam War seemed a very recent event growing up. Many of my friends' fathers had served in the war. One of my childhood friends was one of the "boat people" who escaped the communists by sea in 1975. When I served as a soldier from 1991-9, the training seemed focused on the guerilla war in southeast Asia.

The US's misadventure in Vietnam was too recent and too personal for me to want to game. Over the past decade, my attitude has softened a bit, thanks largely to two books: "Vietnam: the Necessary War" by Michael Lind and "Steel My Soldiers' Hearts" by David Hackworth. Both of these books forced me to confront some of the myths that surround the Vietnam War, and both got me thinking about the conflict in a more critical way.

A few years back, Jon Freitag gave me "Front Toward Enemy" as a Christmas gift. It was the first Vietnam War game that I actually enjoyed playing, and I started to envision converting it to miniatures.

The figures I will use are from Orion in 1/72 plastic, and I like the sculpts quite a bit. These were block painted and followed by the dip.

The next box I am painting is Viet Cong. I hope to have enough to play a small scenario very soon.

28mm Gauls: Medium Cavalry and Generals

The last bits of my Gallic army are the medium cavalry and the commanders. The cavalry are some of my oldest completed figures, dating back to 2005. I had the perfect amount of figures to field the three units needed.

The generals are all recent paint jobs, completed this summer.

And that is it. The Gallic army is done! 

28mm Gauls: Light Infantry and Cavalry

The Commands and Colors system rewards a general who can make good use of his skirmishers. They are highly mobile, with the ability to move and shoot AND evade close combat. They cannot provide a killing blow, but they can wear down the enemy with missile fire and slither away from most attackers. I consider CCA's treatment of light troops to be the best I have seen in any game system.

The Gauls have a variety of light foot troops. Archers and slingers act just the same in the rules, with a range of three hexes. Javelinmen and light cavalry have a range of two.

The slingers were the only light troops I had painted for my first army. Everyone else here has come across the painting desk within the past two months.

28mm Gauls: Chariots!

 My old Warhammer Ancient Battles army had four chariot models in it. Commands and Colors does not call for many Gallic chariots except for one scenario, Caesar's landing in Britain, when the Britons field seven units of chariots, or 14 models!

The first picture shows chariots that I painted away back in 2005. To my eye now, they look too dark, and the paint does not have enough contrast between layers.

The models I finished this summer pop much better.

All my Commands and Colors troops get stored in these 12" x 9" plastic cases, each labelled with the contents.

28mm Gauls: Auxilia

 One of the more interesting troop types in Commands and Colors is "auxilia." They are a hybrid of light and line infantry, able to use missile fire or fight in close combat, but lacking the full mobility of skirmishers and the full striking power of line troops. That description makes them sound underpowered, but as always with Commands and Colors, a good player can find ways to make them a devastating force. 

These seven units all use Old Glory figures. I painted these this summer and finished basing them in September.

Auxilia get the light green base sides of light infantry with the white stripe to denote auxilia.

28mm Gauls: Warrior Infantry

 Another long term project that is coming to a close is my ancient Celtic army. This one started as a force for Warhammer Ancient Battles back in 2006. I had expanded the army for Field of Glory, which were a little fiddly for my group's taste. Now I have completed the army and can play any scenario in Commands and Colors: Ancients. 

Most of these warriors are leftovers from the first two iterations of the army. The base scenarios call for up to eight units of warriors. I have enough for 11 3/4 units here (47 bases).

Warrior units count as medium foot in Commands and Colors, but they have a couple of tweaks. They can charge two hexes into combat, they ignore one retreat flag, and they fight with reduced dice after they take their first casualty. The blue base edges denote "medium," and the white line in the middle marks them out as warriors.

Most figures are Old Glory, but there is a smattering of Gripping Beast in there. The Gripping Beast sculpts are no longer available, which is a shame, as they painted up very nicely.