Friday 26 December 2014

Happy holidays from the Skirmish Sangin team

Just a quick little note, to wish all of you a happy, safe and enjoyable holidays. I had written this message a week or two ago, but neglected to send it. So for all those wondering where your semi-regular Sangin updates have gone, Colin and I are taking a break for a couple of weeks, heading back to our respective families and recharging our batteries.

It has been a big year for us, Despatches II has been released, our range of Taliban, we attended Salute, have shared our game with people all over the world and have had an absolute blast while doing it!

Next year promises to be even bigger. The ground work has been made for our next wave of book releases, we have talked before about Mogadishu, about Despatches III and have mentioned that we have other, secret projects in the works. While the time is not quite right to share those with you all yet, please do not think that we have been idle.

Personally, I have really enjoyed the feedback that we have received about Despatches II, it is so encouraging to hear that you are having a go with what we have created, and are enjoying the developing game that is Skirmish Sangin. There is more to come, we promise!

Since regular communications won't be back online until the new year, I will leave you with a blog shared with me recently, from a chap called Neal. He is using Skirmish Sangin to play a series of games of an insurgency in Amsterdam.

The blog is here. There are some interesting things here, I for one am going to be keeping an eye on it.

In the new year, I will try to coax Colin into letting me share some of our plans, but until then, we hope you have a good break.

Pooch

Saturday 13 December 2014

Dish Dash Taliban- Packs 1 to 3

We have finally received some copies of our 28mm Taliban miniatures (some of you got them before we did!). Naturally we thought we would paint up a set, to show off how good they look. As Craig and I are more than a bit busy at the moment, we passed over a set of 15 to our good buddy Ray (you have seen his French up here before).

He dutifully painted them up, and made an absolutely cracker job of it! In fact, I am confident I couldn't have done any better!

So here they are, our first three packs of Taliban

The whole group!

Taliban pack 1

Taliban pack 2

Taliban pack 3

And now for some close ups....







So the first two packs are available now, with the third pack on it's way soon. And I know that there are yet more on their way- so more than enough to create a great Taliban force. Especially using the Taliban ORBAT from Despatches II (also available now!)- I look forward to hearing some feedback on what people think!

Pooch

Sunday 7 December 2014

Posts from the Sangin Community- Matt's Marines

Now, back to our regularly scheduled programming!

I must apologise to all of those people who have been sending me images and blog links over the past few weeks. I have been more than a bit snowed under with my actual work (which sadly is not Sangin!). However, I will endeavor to get all of your hard work up here on the blog, and I am sorry this has taken so long.

Anyway, here we have another post from the community, showing off some of the excellent Empress US Marines and the Empress MRAP, painted up by Matt. He did them all in a single sitting, which is just making me feel far too easily distracted when I paint. Probably doesn't help that I am always painting 2 or 3 things at once....

Anyway, on to the pictures!




Keep sending through the cool things you have been working on, send them to chris@skirmishsangin.com.

Pooch

Sunday 23 November 2014

Skirmish Sangin at the Movies! Part One: Iron Man Mk 1

Following on from yesterday's introduction, here is the first part of At the Movies!.

Presenting what was I think my favourite Marvel comic character when I was growing up, Iron Man!


The Ironman Mk1 Suit!


Please note, Iron Man is entirely the property of Marvel Studios. Radio Dish Dash Publishing respects their rights as owners of the Iron Man character and design.

From the Iron Man wiki


The Mark I (1), was the first Iron Man suit built and created by Tony Stark.

It was featured in the movie Iron Man, and first appeared when Tony and Ho Yinsen were held captive by the terrorist group known as the Ten Rings. While they were held captive, Tony and Yinsen devised a plan. In the cave, they created blueprints for the Mark I.

The suit was very crude, due to the limited tools and resources that were available.Its successor was the Mark II, built inside the Stark Mansion.

The suit has several notable functionalities and weapons. It is equipped with a Manually Deployed Rocket Launcher, a Flamethrower mounted on right arm, Jet Boots equipped in its soles, an exposed Internal System attached to its back, and the very first Miniature Arc Reactor. The reactor powers the entire suit. Later, Tony created an upgraded version that would power almost every other suit to date.


Using Iron Man in Skirmish Sangin:

The Iron Man Mk 1 operates like a normal character in Skirmish Sangin, and has the following statistics.


The Iron Man Mk I suit

Massive Bulk- Due to the large weight, mechanical strengthening and by its very design, the Iron Man suit cannot go prone, either by choice or because of being knocked down by the enemy.

The Iron Man Mk 1 may not run.

The Iron Man suit is simply too large to fit into standard doorways without the chance of damaging itself. Entering a doorway takes 1AP for Iron Man and has a 25% chance to do so without damaging itself. If Iron Man fails this test, roll on the Iron Man morale table to see the effect getting caught in the door has had.

Due to the Iron Man’s size, an enemy model attempting to SPOT or SHOOT the Iron Man has a +20% modifier.

Armour- Iron Man has a value of 3d10+10 for body armour, and gives Stark a BODY rating of 1d6+10.

Limited visibility- The Iron Man helmet is designed for protection, not for visibility. Iron Man only has a 90 degree line of sight, not a 180 degree arc. It will cost Iron Man 1AP to turn in place.

Iron Man in Hand-to-Hand Combat

The Iron Man suit may not make any special combat attacks in hand-to- hand combat. The Iron Man suit causes 4D10 damage when it hits in close combat. The attacks from Iron Man may not be parried, unless by a superpowered or armoured suit wearing opponent.

Hitting the Iron Man Mk I in close combat is at +20%, and reduces Iron Man’s armour value by 1d10 when rolling to save in close combat. This variant simply has too many weak spots!

Iron Man may not parry any close combat attacks.

Weaponry

Iron Man isn’t here to make friends. This suit’s entire purpose is to get Tony out of the caves and get to freedom. To assist with this, it is equipped with a variety of weapons.

Missile
The Iron Man suit is equipped with two external missile launchers. Lacking in a suitable firing mechanism, the missiles take 2AP to fire. Unfortunately, the Mark 1 suit has no reloading ability, and so may only fire 2 rockets per game.

The Missile uses the stats for an RPG.

Flamethrower
The Iron Man suit has two flamethrowers, one mounted under each arm. These nozzles are connected to high pressure hoses, allowing Iron Man to spray fire for a short time from both arms.

The flamethrowers fire together, and have a range of 15” and blast diameter of a KZ 5” (4d10) DZ15” (2d10)

Being hit by a flamethrower causes a morale test at -50%. If the morale test is successful, the model may attempt to put themselves out, otherwise they will simply run from the battlefield and are treated as killed.

Any model part inside the DZ of a flamethrower is treated as being on fire. This will cause 1d10 damage at the end of each activation for that model, unless they can put the fire out. Putting the fire out costs 3AP, and has a 75% chance of success.

The Iron Man Mk 1 has a limited fuel supply. After each time the flamethrower is fired, Iron Man must roll a 1d10, on a 1-5 it has run out of fuel. The chance increases by 1 for each time it is fired (1-6 on the second shot, 1-7 on the third etc)

Iron Man Morale

The Iron Man Suit may be exceptionally well armoured, but at the end of the day there is still a man inside the can. The Iron Man can be forced to take a morale test like any other model. If this is the case, the Iron Man rolls on the following table.

1-5 Stunned- Iron Man suit may only operate for 2 AP in the next phase
6-8 Shaken- Iron man suit may only operate for 1 AP in the next phase
9-10 Suit Damage- Lose 1d10 from suits armour and may only operate for 1 AP in the next phase

Iron Man Mk 1 in 28mm
I managed to pick up the Heroclix Iron Man Mk 1 very cheap from the internets, gave it a repaint and voila, Iron Man!



So there you have it, the Iron Man Mk 1! I think I might have to write up a scenario to use it, so bear with me on that. Big question is- what do you want to see next as part of At the Movies?

Pooch

Saturday 22 November 2014

Skirmish Sangin at the Movies! Part One: Introduction

The team here at Radio Dish Dash have a lot of ideas. Lots and lots actually. And although most of the time, we are able to put horse blinkers on ourselves and focus on specific projects, sometimes we allow ourselves to go off track and see where we end up!

Over the past years of working on Skirmish Sangin, we have had more than a few random ideas. Some of them will become books in the future, some were "Afghan-ised" to become part of Despatches books and others were released here on the blog. But there are some ideas which just didn't fit anywhere else, either because they were things we could never release, things which we didn't think were a whole book or things which were only really going to be fun to play as an individual game once or twice, not over and over again.

As a team, we decided that the best thing to do would be to not hoard all our (potentially genius) ideas, and so the idea of Skirmish Sangin at the Movies! was born.

So what is it?
So what is it? Well, Skirmish Sangin at the Movies will be a collection of odd rules, special characters and other things which we have created that we want to share with you, our community. They are things which are not really balanced, but that are going to make for really fun one off games!

When will they be posted?
There isn't a schedule, these are random ideas remember! Between Colin, Craig, me and our other contributors, we think we have already got rules for maybe two or three movies fully written. But that isn't all we have, those are just the ones which we have finished! So every time you see Skirmish Sangin at the Movies! it will let you know that it is a Movies post, and although it uses many of the same rules for Skirmish Sangin, there will be a few things which are so odd as to need their own rules too!

But Pooch, I want to see (insert movie here) as a set of rules?
Now, that is the cool part. What we want is for you to comment on our posts, or drop us an email to tell us what movies you want to see as part of Skirmish Sangin at the Movies. We have lots of ideas, and lets be honest, these haven't been fully tested. They are designed for fun, not necessarily to be a balanced game! We want you to share your experiences with the rules, your ideas for changes and movies you want to see in the rules.

But will this be the only place we see these rules?
Now that all depends on you. We are enthusiastic people, if you want to see more, we can make more! So although what will be posted on the blog as a starting point, there will be lots of different places we can go with the rules for the movies. Our initial release may be small, but we will need your thoughts to make the rules, bigger, better and badder.

But, remember that some things we could never release as a paid product, simply because we can't afford the licensing. But other things, we may look closely at turning into a book if we get enough material. And perhaps, perhaps, there may even be a Skirmish Sangin at the Movies! book one day in the future. Others may just become a PDF download on the website.

The first article for Skirmish Sangin at the Movies! will be posted up tomorrow, so be sure to tune in!


Pooch

Tuesday 18 November 2014

Armies of Afghanistan- Dougies' Painted British

Dougie is back, with a further finished fireteam of British. While it may not have answered my call for different nationalities, they are too gorgeous not to post up!

Over to Dougie...

Second fireteam now complete so I’ve a handy little force to start with, same organisation and weapon mix as the first.



I’ve just ordered some of the latest Brits from Empress as well as the first pack of Dish Dash Talibs to have a crack at.

Later, Dougie


Proving that Dougie isn't just awesome at painting Multi-Cam, here is a Taliban from Eureka that he has painted.


I for one can't wait to see what he makes of our Taliban- don't forget to pick up your set from the Skirmish Sangin website!

Next post is something VERY different....

Pooch

Tuesday 11 November 2014

Posts from the Sangin Community- Painted Taliban!

So after complaining last week that all people send me is British in MTP (like that is actually a problem!), it is nice that people listened to my pleas. Since then, my inbox has been flooded with all sorts of different forces, which I will be sharing with you over the next wee while.

Let's get started with some Taliban painted by Steve, one of our competition winners earlier this year (remember his motorbikes? I do!). Steve sent through the set of our Taliban painted up, he has made a cracking job of them!



Don't forget, head the Skirmish Sangin UK or US website to pick up your full set of 15 Taliban, if only to give that horde of British we have been seeing something to fight!

I am loving what has been sent through, keep updating me on what you are working on at chris@skirmishsangin.com.

Pooch

Thursday 6 November 2014

Sangin Despatches No.2 - now available in the USA



This new supplement includes 7 new scenarios, additional rules for JTAC’s, Helicopters, Drones and Combat Engineers. Along with a 16 page Taliban ORBAT that includes everything you need to know about building a Taliban Insurgent force, including Chechen allies.

Lets take a look inside:





And why its late:

Thats a good question? Gosh what a busy few weeks we have had getting this Sangin goodness to you. We have been hit on all sides from adversity. Firstly the book was too big, we basically wrote too much... so now we have split it into two books. Not a bad issue really but it did mean a lot of reworking.

We had a rash of life changing events, I had Pneumonia for 3 weeks for the second time this year, which was as much fun as it sounds. Chris's Baby turned up, a beautiful bonny boy and we are still trying to wrestle a printer in the UK, for now the book is only available from www.skirmishsanginusa.com.

We hope to follow it up very soon with a release in the UK, just as soon as the printers do there bit and print the book.

Our apologies to the loyal British Sangin public but we loath to take your money until we can ship you this great product. So please bar with us just a tiny bit longer.

cheers
Colin




Saturday 1 November 2014

Happy Halloween!

Twas a dark and stormy night when the Royal Marines encountered something strange when out training around some old WW2 defenses...


We hope you enjoy your Halloween, thanks to Carvel for the picture, and watch out for Daleks!

Pooch

Tuesday 21 October 2014

Posts from the Sangin Community- More British in MTP, and Terrain!

Following on from Matt's British last week, I got sent some pictures from Pat of his British, with yet another way of painting MTP!

Pat painted them using Humbrol Enamels (he calls himself "old school"!) I am sure if you would like the Humbrol list (for the other enamel-painting types out there), Pat will be able to share.

A big thanks to Pat for sending the pictures through, he had this to say...

As you can see I've got two moving Fireteams & one kneeling team, although I've got more figures to paint up, plus all of Empress Brit 06 so the exact teams will change. I saw the new Empress Brit 08 & 09 at the SELWG show, really cool especially the female medic and the vallon mine sweeper- but they weren't available, real shame but will order them later along with some of the new Taliban (good Christmas present, they will beat socks!).






So there you have it, another way of painting MTP! I like the nice mix of colours that Pat has used- it certainly looks the business!

Pat also sent through some WIP shots of his next batch of British, showing off some very neat greenstuff work!



Along with his British, Pat also sent through some images of a piece of terrain he is working on...





I for one, love how this terrain looks. It is made from 5mm foam board and are mounted on 3mm White Foamed-PVC (MDF works as well). Pat went with a pan-middle eastern white stucco paintjob, which has come out really nicely. For me, it is all about the fruit stands, the tiling, the white walls, I like it right down to the three colours of doors. Apparently it is a work in progress but I think it looks darn good as it is, and with the internal details (furniture) Pat is talking about it will look even better!

This is all just reminding me that I need to make more terrain.....

So now that we have three different ways of painting British MTP, so where is the love for the other ISAF nations? Surely you can't ALL be playing British... right? We must be due some other ISAF nations, or even some more Taliban? Send us through what you have finished through to chris@skirmishsangin.com, things like AAR's, ORBATs, Scenarios, Painting, Terrain and we will share them with the whole community.

Pooch

Tuesday 14 October 2014

Posts from the Sangin Community- British in MTP

We had been getting a few emails lately of things which people are working on. Keep them coming, it is always cool to see what people are working on for Skirmish Sangin!

Matt sent through some pictures of his Taliban a while back (we saw one at the weekend). Luckily for us, he has also sent through pictures of his British, along with a bit of how he did his take on MTP:

My aim was to give an impression of MTP, as fast as possible, and as easy to repeat as possible with my shakey hands and old eyeballs!

I did the painting on these in a day while wearing MTP trousers as a rough guide, then the next day was used to do the basing. So two days all up.

To start, I used a grey under coat, followed by a light green first coat liberally painted over all the cloth areas. I added some large dashes of light brown-always in horizontal lines where possible. Next up is thinner dark brown dashes near next to or through the light brown. Then with a khaki colour I put light dashed or splodges randomly here and there, hardly noticeable.

This was then followed by what I feel gives the multi-splodge/mtp impression- the palid flesh small dashes and dots often near where the other stripes are and the odd one randomly to kill any voids.

The rest of model (guns, boots, flesh and webbing) was worked on after this, once they were done the model was given a wash of GW's argrax earthshade mixed with games workshops medium so it flows nicer and avoids pooling.

I tried something a bit different on the guns too- they are painted a light tan colour then later dry brushed lightly with black to show where the spray has rubbed off, its becoming common now for troops out in the dirt to have coyote brown l85's












So there you have it, another way to paint MTP! The beret head comes from a Warlord Games WW2 kit (you can tell by his strong jaw!). I think Matt has done a great job on these, some great little detail touches there. Empress have just released a few new packs for their British, I for one will be picking them up to add to my forces!

Got an idea for a scenario? Or want to share some pictures of what you have been working on? Maybe an AAR of a game you have had. Send them through to chris@skirmishsangin.com and we will share them with the whole community.

Pooch


Friday 10 October 2014

Taliban Reinforcements on their way!

The next wave of our range of Taliban have been spotted on their way in to Helmand.


They are currently off with the casters, we are hoping to have the whole swathe of Taliban ready to go very, very soon!

And now for some close ups of the figures:








Now, in case you are wondering how the first wave of Taliban look painted up, here is one of ours painted by one of our Insurgent Competition winners, Matt.


Matt's Taliban have a real mix of colours, a mix of blues, greys, yellows and browns. They should be a nice contrast to the black ninja uniform of his ISIS commander!

Now, no excuses, off you go to the Skirmish Sangin website and order your Taliban now, and get ready to order the next set very soon! So soon in fact, that Skirmish Sangin USA actually has the first reinforcements now!