Hi all,

In a miniatures game the number and types of miniatures you can field is limited. However, when playing Irregulars you get random reinforcements at hot spots continually throughout the game, the number and type of which depend on a dice roll and a lookup on the reinforcements table. This could easily result in situations in which you don't have enough miniatures to bring on as reinforcements.

What do you do in these situations?

Well, first, I try to have lots of irregulars. 10 of each special weapon (and leaders), and at least 100 basic dudes.

I'm working on a new project, and have just ordered over 150 models for my irregular forces. I'm planning on having more than that later, but costs (and painting time) are preventing me from

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Platoon Sergeant to his new 1stLT:
Sir, I like to do things the easy way, and I hear you like to do what works... Let's just toss the book now!

I knew the first suggestion would be 'buy more miniatures'

I would pop down a die (a D12 if you have spare) next to each unit to keep track of the real total in the group - just spread out the figures a bit more than usual to give them a reasonable 'footprint' for their true size for line of sight and cover issues.

Alternately, just get the regular player to roll higher and get rid of the insurgents quicker!

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My Wargaming Blog Land War in Asia

Proxies and substitutes

Proxies - use a die as was mentioned, or tokens or even D&D figures, anything to represent the extras. Paper figures can be obtained cheaply as well.

Substitues - replace that RPG team you don't have with a technical. or a sniper, or a suicide SUV or whatever else you may have in your collection. As long as the fighting strength is roughly equivalent and it fits within your scenario's theme, you should be okay.

Just some random thoughts.
Mike

Thanks for your suggestions.

Buying and painting more miniatures? Well, admittedly that is the simplest option but it has already taken me far too long to paint the 16 Taliban I already own, so if I buy more to make up a force of 100-150 figures I doubt I will ever get to play FOF this side of Christmas! Painting Taliban is much slower than painting regulars (for me anyway) as they all have slight variations in clothing, different coloured turbans, etc. Compared to the Taliban figures, my British Infantry figures were finished in under a week as they all wear the same uniform.

Substituting D&D figures? I do own some 28mm orcs and the like, but don't fancy mixing them with my 20mm modern figures. For one, there is the scale difference, and secondly, my table would end up looking like a scene from some bizarre horror movie like "The Hills Have Eyes II". Thanks but no thanks!

I quite like the "use a die to show number of figures" suggestion, which is certainly doable as I have about 10 d12s.

The "substitute" idea is also a good one, which could even work in conjunction with using d12s to represent missing figures. I only have AK, LMG, RPG and Leader figures at the moment so I could work out some sort of conversion between these types and any others I don't have such as snipers (e.g. 2 AKs = 1 Leader/Support)

Then again, as has already been said, I could just splurge on more figures. It may be time to reach for the credit card again, and to cancel all engagements for the next few weeks so I have enough time to paint them!

I'm avoiding scenarios with Irregulars until I get my troops done. Even the micro-scale guys take time to paint, but at least I have pretty much as many as I need.

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Tom Oxley
OD Green Old Fart
FoF: RtB, EF, AV, CWGH, DotR, BW, DMA, Fal, C-SOM, SOG

For painting mobs of irregulars, I borrow a page from the Ork players (who have to field 150+ 28mm figures):

batch paint and assembly line.

Batch painting is when you grab a set of (primed) figures, and paint something on every single mini one color. Then grab another color and paint something else on every single mini. Repeat until the only stuff left is weapons and any 'military' gear.

All the military gear gets painted in an assembly line, though I don't recommend doing more than 40 minis per line. Paint rifle stock on every model in the line. Go back and paint web gear. Go back and paint metals.

Ink to create shadows, let dry 24 hours. Seal.

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Platoon Sergeant to his new 1stLT:
Sir, I like to do things the easy way, and I hear you like to do what works... Let's just toss the book now!

I use a similar method to paint Taliban. Choose half a dozen core colours for the shalwar kameez- remember both top and bottom are the same colour- I use fairly muted colours; a white, a light grey, a few browns, blues etc. Take a manageable number of miniatures and use the first colour to paint the first miniature, then the sixth miniature, then the twelfth etc etc. Repeat with other colours.

Jackets and waistcoats do exactly the same way- pick say six more colours and rotate through. I add a woodland pattern jacket every so often to add further colour. Chest rigs- only need maybe three variations- khaki, faded green and tan for mine. I even use variant colours for wood furniture on weapons as you see lots of finishes on small arms in Afghan.

After all done, I paint on the Dip and give it 24 hours before spraying matt varnish.

It's a pretty fast process and makes painting insurgents far less boring and gives a good finished product.

Great painting tips!

I finished putting the final touches on my Taliban last night and will be applying varnish to them soon, probably this weekend. Once they are done I'll post some pics on the forum.

One other thing - I had completely forgotten about "Tier One Taliban". They aren't classed as Irregulars, so maybe scenarios including them won't have so many reinforcements. I'll have to check the OEF book.

you don't have to use the reinforcement tables...there are plenty of contacts that only involve 10-20 bad guys....One scenario is to limit the ISAF to a road and an area 3 inches each side. place a dummy IED in the road way when the ISAF stops to investigate hit them with an ambush .
or use a village and restrict thier ROE so that they must have a pos ID , dont allow them to fire up building instead make them clear them ...these type of games do not require large numbers of TB/AQA and allow you to recycle bad guys....Mikey

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"All Men for the rights of Every man, every man for the rights of all Men"

To reiterate what's been said above, I found that when I started painting irregulars it was also taking me forever, because I was trying to use every colour of paint I owned in order to emphasise the variety of clothing. But if you look at pictures of Afghanistan (or, if you're particularly unfortunate, look at it first-hand I expect), there aren't loads of colours on display; people tend to dress in muted greys, blues, browns, and black and white. Limiting your palette and painting, say, a couple of light grey shalwar kameezes and a couple of light grey waistcoats and maybe a light grey turban, then moving onto the next colour, you start getting results pretty quickly and it still looks great. You can bust out the other colours for stuff like scarves towards the end. I really quite enjoy painting irregulars now, rather than the same camo pattern over and over.

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Wargamer's Cleavage - Shane's wargaming blog

I read once that something like 40 irregulars will get you through most games. I have about this many African militia based and undercoated, close to being fully painted. One advantage that I have is that African militia can be very colourful to paint, and since there is no such thing as uniformity I don't really get bored. I have no doubt that I will eventually reach Lion's standards of 100-150!

The best thing to do with irregulars is if you see something cool, add it in. While you are painting a fun unit (like a bunch of naked guys with AK's) throw in a couple 'regular' irregulars in the batch to grow your list.

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When in deadly peril,
When beset by doubt,
Run in little circles,
Wave your arms and shout.

Lemme see

For bad guys wearing enough paint to put them on the table, I have

25 taliban
5 Iraqi insurgents
9 Chechens
16 NVA

They have all made it onto the table in the same game a few times. Needs must when the Devil drives.

Assembly line painting can get you through a lot of miniatures in a short time. Block paint the main colours, paint in the details, and rely on a brown-black wash to settle it all together and take care of your highlighting.

I'm doing my Taliban in 15mm so it likely goes a bit faster than 28mm, but the same principles apply.

Here's my results. They aren't spectacular but definitely good enough for the game table:

http://cameronstinylittlemen.blogspot.ca/

Could any of the experienced gamers please give a few examples of some irregular squads? eg. numbers, weapons, how many RPGs and MGs per squad?

I was thinkingsquad size of 6-8. 1 leader, 1 RPG, 1 MG and 3-5 AKs....do people run squads with more men? If so, more support weapons?

Thanks heaps

Nic

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Simo Hayha - http://www.badassoftheweek.com/hayha.html