Its a few years since I did anything with this project. I started gaming ultra modern around 2009 primarily building US expeditionary forces which included a US Army Strkyer Battalion and a USMC MEU in 20mm, when I started the opposition were mainly insurgents in Iran and Afghanistan. Dragon Rising kicked off around 4 years later when I wanted to examine the Pivot to the Pacific and possible future conflict with China in and around the South and East China seas which seemed to offer some interesting scenario options along with fledgling ranges of figures and vehicles from S Models, Elhiem, S&S and the Hobby den. Sadly despite the success of some notable Chinese model makers such as Trumpeter and Modelcollect the 20mm options on modern Chinese equipments were and still are very limited particularly in the field of IFVs, APCs and Self Propelled Guns.
The theatre and potential flash points still interest me and there is a lot of information available on the web for those interested in modern/ultra modern/near future and what if scenarios involving a variety of players in the region. So I decided it was time to kick things off again but due to the limitations outlined in 20mm I decided to look to look at other scales which might better support both the period and the theatre.
It didn't take long to whittle the choice down to something around 6mm:
- Good representation of AFVs from all the major regional players
- Good representation of Aircraft and Helicopters
- Brilliant representation of Naval Assets at a size that can be accomodated
- A rich selection of terrain options, although more limited than 20mm a lot more easy to manage
- some good rule sets accommodating the major players and equipment.
- and a significantly reduced storage footprint, essential given the size of some of my 20mm projects.
So here I am, embarking on the second 6mm adventure of my life although the last was around 40 years ago. It was good to see that all the manufacturers I was familiar with then are still going strong today. I am kicking the Project off with some US force options.
The first will be the US Marines and US Navy with a focus on over the beach operations, followed I suspect by some OPFOR (Chinese) and then some US ARMY representation with a Stryker battalion. All that will need to run along side some serious terrain production.
The Pacific theatre both in WW2 and today is mostly wet, and Naval elements play a dominant role, ultimately my interest lies in the Land battle but I think this needs to be set in the context of the Naval operations which have tended to dominate the recent history of the region. I have kicked off the purchasing and will be following this post with something on the composition of USMC Marine Air Ground Task Forces with a specific focus on the Marine Expeditionary Unit Special Operations Capable and its associated Naval assets. In addition to that I will share my experiences in building the force, if only to record what I do so I don't forget, hopefully people who read this will find it useful.
"...although the last was around 40 years ago..." I remember those days (and still have the old Soviet gear in the closet)!
ReplyDeleteAs do I :), sadly I have none of my armies left and the Cold War is as Historic now as WW2 was than, at the time I recall it was the cutting edge of ultra modern
DeleteFortunately, my once ultra-modern Soviet stuff does OK forty years later as clapped-out third world stuff. My microarmour collection thus maintains its relevancy through the sheer brutal robustness of Soviet/Russian engineering...
Deleteone of the joys of the world, the brutal robustness of Soviet engineering. Its good to think the models are still useable after all that time and a few moves
DeleteLook forward to following this project Andy as I am in a similar position in that I started a project called 'Dragonstrike' after reading the book of the same name. Sadly the project has laid dormant for several years now. Maybe now is the time to resurrect it as I have quite a large amount of lead bought over the years with this project in mind waiting to be painted.
ReplyDeleteCheers, Richard P
Sounds like a good idea, The challenge with the Pacific does seem to be where to do the Land combat as you don't really want wall to wall jungle, paddy fields and cities, some of the smaller Taiwanese island look like they have potential. Not seen the book Dragon Strike will look it out. Must admit it was looking at a lot of your stuff that got me focused on 6mm as an option, so thanks for that
DeleteFunnily enough it was vice versa for me with your 20mm stuff :-)
ReplyDelete