Keith McNelly has added a campaign system for Volley & Bayonet to his website, to fight out the battles of The Estavian Succession.
The system was originally written by Martin Soilleux-Cardwell.
https://volleyandbayonet.wordpress.com/campaign-scenarios
A throwaway line in a comment in the Duc de Gobin's "Warfare in the age of cynics and amateurs" blog has prompted this post.
The original post was about the new version of Twilight 2000 (or TW2000) appearing after a kickstarter; those of us with a few grey hairs were around when the original came out when the content was set in the future!
Anyway, it was partly responsible for my nearly 40-year obsession with Roco Minitanks and other 1/87th vehicles. The pictures in the back of the TW 2000 US Army vehicle guide was what sucked me in. Once I'd seen a Bradley model in the flesh, I was hooked (the missile launcher can be raised and lowered!).
The discovery of Frank Chadwick's Combined Arms (ultra-modern version of Command Decision) with pictures of Frank's 20mm collection (mostly 1/87 vehicles but with 1/76 mixed in and Esci modern U.S., nominally 1/72 v Airfix 1/87 Soviets) took me down the 1980s actual v 1990s what if route.
Although I have continued to collect (hoard?) 1/87, most sits waiting glue and paint. I was fortunate many years ago to obtain large quantities of Petner Panzers Soviet armour along with ex-DDR diecast Soviet vehicles (especially BTR-60s) so can field decent sized Warpac forces should I wish to. Now of course with the advent of 3d printing almost any vehicle can be produced in any scale you wish.
I have found my mind wandering to using all the Soviet and NATO toys with Tim Gow's Megablitz (or NBC if he ever publishes it) or Bob Cordery's Hexblitz. Someone even wrote adaptations for a version of Modern Megablitz which used to be stored in the Yahoo group files (mainly EW as the core was the same).
Hence the train of thought to a mash up of TW 2000 and Megablitz, christened "Apocoblitz" without much thought.
The main issue will be supply; units are going to have to stop every few days to distill fuel and ammo is going to be limited but aside from that the only problem using MB or HB as written will be the small size of units with divisions of a few thousand men and 20-30 tanks (with other vehicles in a random assortment). I will have to give it some thought, but in the meantime, like Archduke Piccolo I have dug out my old CA/CD toys to see what they would look like.
The cloth is from Tiny Wargames (100mm hex Commands & Colors mat) and the toys are unbased apart from the infantry. I was short quite a bit for the Soviets but it would just mean more SPs for each stand. Working on a very rough 1 stand + vehicle = 1000 men or 10-20 tanks (more for others) I picked out some formations from the U.S. Army and Soviet vehicle guides (copyright GDW).
VII US Corps Central Germany 1 July 2000
1st Infantry (Mechanized) 5000 + 14 M1, 16 M1A1
36th Infantry 3000 + 21 M60A4, 10 M1, 4 LAV-75 (my crude conversion)
The Corp supply train is to the left of the picture
2nd Armoured Cavalry 100 + 2 M1A2, 6 LAV-75
Soviet 1st Western Front 1st July 2000 Poland
1st Guards Tank Army
9th Guards Tank Division 4000 + 24 tanks
To the rear can be seen 11 Guards Tank Div + 25 Tank Div (1500 + 7 tanks) combined
Completing the formation 1 Tank Division (Category II 3000 + 9 tanks) and nominal army support (artillery + AA)
8th Guards Army
39th Guards Motorised Rifle Division 3000 + 27 tanks
20th Guards Cavalry Division 1000 horsed (!) Cavalry (multiple recon stands)
131st Motor Rifle Division (Mobilisation Div) 2000 foot mobile + 16 tanks
Here are some sites for GDW's Soldier King:
https://mapandcounters.blogspot.com/2010/04/gdw-soldier-king-1982.html
https://boardgamegeek.com/thread/407001/soldier-king-two-three-map-discussion-image
https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/4794/soldier-king
Getting to grips with blogging using the new format.
Posted some pictures of a couple of projects, Soldier King Imagi-Nations using 30mm plastic Spencer Smiths (no photos yet) based on Games Design Workshop (sadly missed) or GDW's "Soldier King" boardgame of fictional C18th kingdoms on a fictional map. At present I've posted some photos of the Fimo / Sculpy personalities who make up the rulers and general's, mounted on toy horses. Since this "work in progress" they have received a black undercoat prior to painting.
I've also posted some pictures of my Arab-Israeli 1967 project, so far Israeli vehicles. I started this long before Battlefront came out with their 15mm "Fate of a Nation" stuff using bits from my large collection of Roco Minitanks and other HO/1:87th scale models. I intend using "20mm" figures with the 1:87 vehicles (heresy for some I know) aimed at replicating the whole armies of all the participants for Megablitz (1 stand = 1 battalion).
The IDF of course seem to have used few vehicles without alteration; even those that are unaltered, such as M48A2 and AMX-13 need the basic models improved. Most pictured models still need some details added. In the course of this I have become an "expert" on IDF armour as well as OoBs and ToEs for 1967, acquiring a large library of increasingly exotic subjects....
I'm hoping the Arab armies prove less of a challenge tending to use Soviet equipment as it comes. Of course I'm looking at ways to scratchbuild the external fuel tanks on Jordan's M48A1s and M52 SPGs.....at least their army is small!
Some Soldier King maps:
First from https://lohwand.blogspot.com/2013/04/e-is-for-estavia.html
Above, some made from scratch Trojan War galleys. All from the fertile mind of Pete Foggin.
Some more modified, converted and partly scratch built IDF vehicles.
Top to bottom: Centurion Sh'ot, M3 half tracks, AMX-13, Tomat SP 155mm, Mk61 SPG, M3 Alef D SP 120mm mortar
Top to bottom M50 Sherman, M48A2 Magach, M51 Sherman, M3 Alef D half track SP 120mm mortar
Not the most interesting of posts but one to prove to myself I am making progress after some non-productive weekends. This weekend I managed...
