Ja vi elsker dette landet ... (more about Forsvaret Skandinavias)

Following my rather abysmal attempt at a photo yesterday, I decided to take a few detail shots of Forsvaret Skandinavias. These have come out rather better than yesterday's attempt. So, without further ado, I present to you the troops that defend the Scandinavian nations and maintain their neutrality throughout the problems that afflict the 31st century. In the description of the following pictures, I have linked the names of each vehicle to the codes on the appropriate manufacturer's website. Remember to click on the pictures for larger images.

A tank section with a self-propelled anti-tank section behind it:

The typical tank section consists of 3 Thor MBTs, a medium hover battle tank. The chassis of the Thor MBT is used for many variants, such as the Thor Salvo Missile Tank section behind the MBTs. The Thor SMT provides effective close support and a devastating punch for taking out enemy armour.

Armour is good for blasting holes in the enemy battle lines, but only infantry can really hold the objectives. A typical FS platoon consists of one infantry command squad carried in a Lynx IFV (front right in the picture), four infantry squads carried in standard Lynx APCs, and a Lynx Mortar Carrier to provide additional fire support. The infantry all carry standard FS Assault Rifles and wear uniforms reinforced with Kevlar in vulnerable areas, heavy Kevlar jackets and a Kevlar helmet (infantry by Baccus).


The Recce Section is an essential part of any armed force. You can't fight the enemy without good intelligence and these guys get the info at the sharp end. This section consists of two squads of infantry carried in a Lynx APC and a Hyane Armoured Car with 20mm Autocannon. The recce infantry are armed in the same way as the ordinary infantry but their role is not really to fight. The armoured car and the APC have weapons primarily so that they can shoot and scoot once they have the intel that they need.


Supporting arms of the FS include artillery and the Luftvern (air force). Here we see two artillery batteries. All artillery in the FS is self-propelled. At the front of the picture is a battery of Sigurd SPGs, another variant on the Thor chassis, and beside them is a Forward Artillery Observer with his comms vehicle, a Thor Command Tank. Behind them is a battery of Lynx Salvo Rocket vehicles, with an FAO in his Lynx Command Vehicle. These chaps provide the occasional artillery stonk when it is needed to encourage the enemy to vacate positions that the FS does not want them in.


The Luftvern provides both air support, in the form of Wespe Light Attack Aircraft, and air defence such as these Lynx AA Gatlings. The Forward Air Controller is carried in a Lynx Command Vehicle, much like his artillery counterpart.


Finally, someone has to take charge, so you have the headquarters unit. Here we see the overall commander (centre) carrying out battlefield analysis and conceptual modelling of the situation in front of his Thor Command Vehicle. His ADC is helping him, while the comms teams relay urgent information from their Lynx and Thor Command vehicles as needed.

Forsvaret Skandinavias (June progress update)

In the 31st century, the world was rocked by natural disasters and economic collapse. Countries went bankrupt by the score and only those with oil survived comparatively unscathed. With their economies in ruins, Denmark and Sweden were left floating dead in the water until the Norwegian government threw them a lifeline. At an historic meeting, the three countries united in the New Kalmar Union. Each retained some devolved power, but ultimate power lay with the Norwegian government.

With the growing unrest in the world, Scandinavia needed to beef up its military power. It is only really possible to maintain neutrality, as they wished, by having a strong defence force, and so the armed forces of all three countries were united and rationalised. Thus was born Forsvaret Skandinavias.



Click the picture for a bigger version, although I admit it is rather a rubbish photo. I shall try to get better pictures when we play. I have only painted about a dozen vehicles for this force in June, but I thought it all looked better with the whole force present. By finishing this lot off, I have now painted all of the 6mm sci-fi figures I have.

At the front of the formation is a recce troop with three scout cars and the recce infantry. Behind them are several ranks of infantry platoons, each with APCs, an IFV for the commander and a mortar carrier to provide support. Behind that is a battalion of Thor MBTs, two AA vehicles and an SPAT section. The back rank consists of three SP artillery batteries (Two batteries of Sigurd SPGs and one of SP Salvo Missile Launchers). On the left of the photo is a flight of Wespe aircraft with their FAC.

We plan to play Dirtside 2 (freely downloadable) and FutureWarsCommander with these figures. We may also play Iron Cow when it is re-released, and it would not surprise me if Steve knows of other suitable 6mm sci-fi rules too.

The vehicles are all Brigade Models' ONESS Germans, while the infantry are from the Baccus Command Horizon range. I really like all of these figures. They were all pretty much flash free when they arrived and they have all painted up well.

Beamstrike - Battle Summary

We played Beamstrike using our 15mm sci-fi figures from April's challenge this week. Beamstrike is a set of rules inspired by Imperial Commander. The original intention had been to approach Richard Halliwell and Brian Ansell for the rights to produce a second edition of Imperial Commander, but that went nowhere, so Beamstrike was born. Beamstrike is more complete than Imperial Commander and includes additional rules for vehicles, tanks and aircraft that are not in Imperial Commander. It still plays similarly, but I am not sure that is enough to get past my Imperial Commander Nostalgia (tm).

For our game, we decided on a Patrol action. This is a simple meeting engagement set up with a view to both sides driving each other off. Our forces comprised 500 points of troops and we both had similar forces. The Bwendi patrol consisted of two tracked APCs, each carrying a section of Men-at-Arms, and led by Lord Knight Gladiolus himself. The rules do include heroes, but the heroes are not overpowering. The Albion Defence Force also had two squads, each in a hover APC, and led by their high commander, whose name is not really significant. The main difference was that the ADF had one Veteran squad and one Regular squad, while all my troops bar my hero were Regular. The game began well. My Anti-Matter Beamer nailed an ADF trooper, while my Heavy Gyrobolt Gun wounded another. That was the limit of my success. My troops advanced. Steve's troops advanced. My troops got shot up. Steve's troops did not. The APCs came into range of each other and I blasted his gun off the turret, but he brewed up my APC. My second APC advanced and was nailed with a single shot from a bolt rifle and brewed up too. It took Steve three shots to kill both of my APCs. I fired a dozen shots at his and completely failed to kill anything except the driver of one of them. Ouch! With my left flank shot to pieces, Steve ran his second APC behind me to try to take out my other squad. Meanwhile, his Veteran squad was advancing on my troops. With the death of my second APC, my army was 'shaken'. I only needed to roll a 7 or higher on 2d6 for them to be 'broken'. That did not happen before we surrendered. Still, being 'shaken' is a right pain. You cannot advance, so your only option is to hold the ground you already have, or to retreat. This means that the game is effectively over at this point unless there is a chance that your opponent will break shortly. Steve was nowhere near breaking.

Close to the end of our game (click picture for a larger image):



This was a good fun game, and will be helped when we work up a better QRS to suit us. Poor QRSes is a recurring problem we have had with games. They slow play up by being poorly organised and do not always include the information that you really need for the game.

We plan to play again, but I did not think it really felt like Imperial Commander enough to benefit from my nostalgia. That may change as I become more familiar with the changes. I look forward to finding out.

End of May Update

Well, it has taken me longer than I expected to get around to photographing the last of my Khemru. Here we see a unit of mace-goats, which was my final unit to paint in May. Victory! Remember to click on the pictures if you would like to see larger versions of them.



The mace goats are the main melee arm of the Khemru. Armed with sturdy bronze maces, good armour and a stout shield, they are able to wade into battle and get slaughtered by their enemies, while the slingers evade like mad and try to stay away from the enemy's archers, who outrange them.

The next picture is of an approximately 1000 point warband for Wargods of Aegyptus. As you can see, it comprises two units of slingers, one unit of mace goats, the harbinger, a beastmaster, a hero, a master of words and a priestess. I have put together this warband as a pure Khemru force to play in our game next week.



Although I have designed this force using solely Khemru figures, Wargods does not insist on uni-racial warbands. In fact, you can mix and match to suit your preferences for the main part. Some races will not permit others into their warbands, such as the Typhon (followers of Set), who hate the Heru (followers of Horus) with a vengeance. Because Set slew Horus, neither will work with the others. This mix-and-match mentality is brilliant because it allows you to use all the cool figures in your warband. I should point out that Wargods warbands are mostly governed by the need to have figures that look cool in them. Often these figures are not particularly effective, but that is beside the point. Some munchkins and beardy wonders do try to min-max but they are the exception rather than the rule and we do not share our Jaffa Cakes with them. Jaffa Cakes are the food of the gods!

Downsizing in June

June will be a month of small scale figures. We have decided to focus on 6mm sci-fi because I have been bellyaching for ages about playing FutureWarsCommander. Steve wants to play Dirtside 2. So, we have compromised and decided to play both games. I strongly suspect that each will provide a completely different gaming experience and that we shall want to play both again. The problem with 6mm sci-fi figures is that I already have most of mine painted, and I only have about 0.75 Victory Points of figures left to paint. So, what else should I paint this month? Well, I think that the month would be best spent painting the odds and ends that I have lying around from various other projects. Various 6mm options include:

Tusk - Tusk is a game of mammoth and dinosaur hunting from Irregular Miniatures. I have some 19th century types and some dinosaurs left to paint. I painted the mammoths and cavemen ages ago and am waiting for Steve's tribe to appear, now that I am an expert mammoth hunter in the solo game. As far as I know, Steve has made no progress on painting his tribe yet.
English Civil War - I need an army to oppose my ECW Parliamentarians (boo hiss!) so I should maybe crack on with the Royalists (hussah!). They are prepped and waiting to be painted but keep getting shuffled to the back of the queue.
Great Northern War - I still need to base the rest of my Swedish army and I need to base all of my Danish army. I have a Polish army to paint. I suspect that I have rather a lot of figures left to paint for my Saxon army too. Rebasing all of the Danes and the Swedes would be a useful job and deserving of victory points, even if it is not painting figures. After all, it is preparing them for use however you look at it.
Seven Years War - I have Prussians and Swedes waiting to be painted for this war and am keen to give them an outing at some point. On the other hand, they are not prepped and we have no immediate plans to play the Seven Years War, beyond those vague plans that have wandered around in my head for the past ten years.
World War Two - I have Russians and Germans waiting to be finished off. I plan to sell these armies to fund new purchases that I feel the need for, so perhaps I should focus on painting these and getting them on EBay to earn my victory points.

What does the crowd think? Any preference for what you would like to see featured on here? Or, should I jsut follow my whims and see what I can get painted in the month according to what I feel like painting? As long as I paint around £4o worth of figures then I have earned my 2 victory points, so does it matter what those figures are?

The Month of the Goat

This month's target was to paint my Khemru for Wargods of Aegyptus. The Khemru are the children of Khanum, an Aegyptian god of life. It was Khanum that created people, spinning them out of clay on his potter's wheel and then holding them up for Ra to cast his life-giving rays onto them, before Khanum placed them in the womb to be born. The Khemru are cast in the image of Khanum, being goat-headed, and revere life. They abhor spilling blood and will only use blunt weapons as a result.

So far this month I have painted one unit of Khemru slingers, two harbingers of Khanum, one priestess of Khanum, one Khemru hero, one Khemru Master of Words (wizard), one Khemru beast-master, one lion and one undead Khemru Crypt Lord. This amounts to the twenty figures I needed for the monthly target of 2 Victory Points. I have a unit of Khemru warriors on my painting desk at the moment and I hope to complete them this month to earn a bonus victory point.

When painting these figures, I used a simple technique of washing the mid colour over a white undercoat. This gives natural highlighting as the pigment settles in the folds and the white undercoat naturally highlights the raised areas. To further enhance the effect, I then used a magic wash coloured with Windsor and Newton Peat Brown ink. While it will not win any painting competitions, this technique is quick and effective. It leads to wargames standard figures that I shall not be embarrassed to place on the games table.

In addition to getting the figures painted, I decided to tart up their movement trays. Someone had commented that they did not like the black movement trays that I used at a demo game at Salute last year. Personally, I do like them. With slottabased figures, I always go back over the edges of the base with black to make the figure stand out from the table a bit. I also paint my movement trays black, so that they are like a display plinth for my figures. It is simple, quick and defines the unit. One thing that I had always intended to do, though, was texture the spacers in my skirmish units, so I have done that. I have also painted the base of the movement tray sand coloured so that it does not jar as much when casualties are removed. However, I have still retained the black sides of the tray. It may not be to everyone's taste, but it suits mine.

Click on the pictures below for a larger picture.

Movement tray

Khemru slingers on movement tray.

Khemru harbinger

Asar harbinger of Khanum

Khemru priestess

Khemru master of words

Khemru hero

Khemru beastmaster with lioness (I have two more lions ready and painted but they were not part of this month's project. The beastmaster is allowed up to four lions, so I already have one more lion on the shopping list)

Khemru crypt lord (I was pleased with the way his cloak came out so I have included front and back shots of this chap)

The good thing about the Khemru is that they actually have a multiplicity of uses. They can be Broo in Runequest, Beastmen in Warrior Heroes: Armies and Adventures, or Beastmen in any other system that uses Beastmen. These particular figures will feature in our Wargods games, and will almost certainly make an appearance in our pulp games too. I can envisage using them in Larger than Life, possibly featuring as the villains on my Larger than Life blog at some point, or as a lost tribe in .45 Adventures, or even in Broadsword Adventures. Perhaps I need to give some of them ray-guns so that they can feature in a Fantastic Worlds game too. Now there's a thought ...

Imperial Commander Nostalgia-fest

Last night we played Imperial Commander. It was a total nostalgia-fest as I have not played IC in 10 years or more but we played it all through my university days in the mid-eighties. In this game my Bwendi army was busily trying to duff up Steve's Albion Defence Force and doing a rather good job of it too.

The Rules
Imperial Commander is a set of rules for massed skirmishes of around 50 figures per side. IC is the big brother of Laserburn and is also the rules set that grew into the monster known as 40K. In these rules your figures are organised into squads, usually of around 5 troopers. You can have heroes and leaders in the game and there is some room for vehicles too, but it is primarily an infantry-based game. Most of the vehicles that feature in the game will be APCs and possibly the odd jetcopter or two. The action is fast and furious with troopers being killed fairly easily if they get hit. Pity the guys with no armour at all!

The rules are simple to read through and easy to understand. It is a shame that they do not include the points costs for all the weapons described, but they can be worked out. Likewise, the points value of some of the units in the army lists is inaccurate. Another problem is that some rules, such as unit coherency, are hidden away in places that you would not expect them. Still, overall, there are few problems understanding the rules and the mechanisms are simple enough to follow.

IC uses d6s and d10s.

The turn sequence in Imperial Commander is fairly standard:
First player moves

Both players fire
First player moves again

First player conducts close combat
First player tests morale if the casualty threshold is reached.

Second player then follows the same sequence.

Shooting is done by rolling to hit for each figure firing and then rolling for the effect of the hit. The to hit roll is also used to determine if a trooper runs out of ammo / breaks their gun. You can fix guns / reload but that takes an action and you have to roll to succeed.

Hand-to-hand combat is even more deadly than shooting. Each player rolls 1d10, modified by weapons and troop quality. The loser dies. In cases of a tie, the attacker dies. Don't get into hand-to-hand unless you are confident that you will win!

Morale is only ever tested by a force that reaches 50% of its morale strength (shaken status), which is calculated based on the number and type of troops, number of leaders and number of vehicles in the force. Tip: picking off the leaders will reduce your opponent's army to shaken status really quickly!

Our Game

Set-up (my troops on the left, Steve's on the right)

We chose 750 points of troops each and played a straight encounter battle with the aim of driving off the enemy force. We each had a heroic leader in overall command of our force, but neither of our heroic leaders actually did more than wander around in their impervious energy shields. So much for being heroic. I had equipped my troops with jumpacks, so they were bounding forward like so many demented grasshoppers, while the Albion Defence Force trudged forward through the mud. This meant that I was able to occupy the buildings in the centre of table while Steve was still advancing through the woods on his side. Nevertheless, he still scored first blood, while my return fire resulted in a broken weapon that never got fixed for the rest of the game.

With my blood up after losing some of my heroic men-at-arms, I flew my jetcopter into position behind one of his squads and dropped a missile pod on their collective backsides, killing all bar one of them. From this point onwards, Steve's troops started forming circles at the end of each of his moves. Although my jetcopter only actually fired once more at another of his squads, and this from long range, it still managed to kill most of that squad too. What I found was that just having it on the table was enough to make Steve wary and helped me tremendously in directing the flow of the game.

A brave man-at-arms jumps into melee with the enemy's elite bodyguard

With Steve's entire right flank in tatters, and with my soldiers having picked off a lot of Steve's leaders, his morale was looking shaky. That said, my troops on my right flank were also looking rather poorly by now.

My right flank with only three surviving troopers in the building and one chap with a broken gun (he broke it with his first shot of the game and never fixed it before he was shot towards the end of the game)

So, I played a cheesy move and targeted what I thought was a leader in one of his squads. Killing this figure, and the figure's leadership status being confirmed, was enough to push his troops into shaken status. Steve needed to avoid rolling a 7 or more on 2d6 or his army would break. He rolled a 7. His men now had to spend at least one movement action retreating in each of his turns, which meant no advancing any further than the line he currently held. The game was effectively over.

Bwendi Knights deploy straight into close combat from their jetcopter. They have never been defeated!

At this point the Bwendi Knights flew forward in their jetcopter and deployed by aerial assault (jumpack deployment from a hovering jetcopter) to win the battle for my side. Steve's leader had rallied two of his troops, who would therefore continue to fight normally. The Knights piled in and killed these two in no time at all. At this point we called it a day and the Bwendi Knights retired undefeated once more and returned home for tea and medals all round.

Final Thoughts

Although this system was first published in 1981, it still works well. The rules are simple and can be expanded to fill the gaps as needed. With all the dice rolls for shooting, the system ought to be clunky, but our game flowed really well. I like the fact that both sides get to shoot each turn and that all shooting is simultaneous (with the exception of concealed troops breaking cover to fire). The split movement phase works well too. The only thing that seems a little slow is infantry movement. We might have done better to start closer together because the basic infantry foot-slogging movement is only 8cm per move, which is not very much.

It is a shame that it has never been updated for the errata but Richard Halliwell and Brian Ansell went on to do other stuff instead. Still, a free rules set based on Imperial Commander is available from Neil Cooper, so if you feel like trying these rules out, you could download them instead. You can also buy Imperial Commander from 15mm.co.uk, along with the range of figures that it was designed to accompany. You don't have to use the "official" figures, but they are still very nice sculpts, even nearly thirty years after they were first produced.

In our game, my figures were all Laserburn figures, while Steve was using figures from Ground Zero Games.