Review - Crusaders Over 'Nam

Crusaders Over 'Nam - written by Roxanne Patton. Published by I-94 Enterprises, March, 2017.  $18.00.

As many of you already know, I like obscure and different periods of history to recreate on the tabletop. While the Vietnam War is certainly not obscure, Vietnam air combat is not that prevalent in the gaming world, so when I came across a Check Your 6! scenario book for Vietnam on the I-94 website, specifically one that deals with the F-8 Crusader and MiG kills I was curious. So, I placed my order via the I-94 Raiden webstore, and within a few days I received my copy. While the booklet is not an official SkirmishCampaigns production, it is designed for Check Your 6!

Let's jump into what I felt left me less than satisfied. First, the price of the scenario booklet is $18.00. Unfortunately, the number of pages doesn't warrant such a high price tag. The 8.5" by 11" booklet comes in at only twenty pages. The cover is color cardstock, while the interior is black and white. Unlike the other Check Your 6! scenario books, this offering does not have a data table showing the plane stats needed, which I find very useful in the other books and wish could have been added here to avoid having to refer back to the Jet Age version to obtain plane data. And there are a few typos and missing information, both within the scenarios themselves, and in the rules modifications section. Example - Page 4, second line states "range is reduced to eight (8) hexes for targets at." At what?

Okay, those were my sticking points. My positive takeaways are the vast majority of the eleven scenarios are ideally suited for four players, perfect for a small gathering of friends or a convention setting where the smaller number of players makes teaching Check Your 6! an easier task. The scenarios are also well researched and clearly written indicating that the author knows her subject well. The bits of typos and missing info within the scenarios is easily overcome with a bit of common sense.  The eleven scenarios, with F-8s featured in every one, also includes A-4s and a lone A-6, while for the "bad guys" all one needs are only MiG-17s and MiG-21s. This is a simple mix of planes for the player to obtain.

Overall, Crusaders Over 'Nam fills a niche for Vietnam War air combat, while providing more scenarios for jet age gamers, especially those who use Check Your 6! You will have to be the judge in deciding if a twenty page scenario book priced at $18.00 holds value for you.

Plum Run Point - Part the Next: Confederates!

Picture from Pithead Miniatures' website

Thank you, Pithead Miniatures!  In such timely fashion they have released the Confederate Mississippi River Defense Fleet, in 1/1200.  These are of course, or maybe not of course for those who do not have knowledge of Plum Run Point, the ideal opponents for my burgeoning fleet of Thoroughbred's Cairo class river ironclads.  

I was tipped off by a post on The Wargames Website that these lovely resin castings had been released, so I immediately rushed to place an order, cost before shipping being about $50.00.  Phil Ireson, the owner, contacted me to let me know if I didn't mind a bit of a wait that he would send me a corrected version of the CSS General Bragg, as the first casting he offered was actually the Bragg that the Federals captured and modified and not the version used by the Confederates.  Of course I did not mind a wait for the correct model!

After a couple of weeks I received my order from the U.K.  While these Pithead castings might not quite on par with Thoroughbred's gorgeous models, they are darn close!  As mentioned, they are mostly resin, with metal guns, stacks, and masts, to go along with resin hulls and superstructures.  

I have started putting a few of them together.  Four of the smaller vessels have separate superstructures that need to be glued to the provided hulls.  The four separate hulls are identical  The guns are tiny and a bit fiddly to work with, but that is because I do not have quick setting superglue to hold the guns into place.  Once I pick up some different super glue mounting the guns by using tweezers should be a breeze.

In summary (for now, more as I build, paint, and rate up these vessels for Smoke on the Water), this range from Pithead is not only a nice addition to the 1/1200 scale offerings currently on the market, but they really fill in an often overlooked area of the Civil War, the early battles on the interior river, like Plum Run Point!

Plum Point Bend - Part I: The Union

A multi-part series for my first foray into 1/1200 Civil War naval gaming....

I have settled on the Battle of Plum Point Bend as the basis for for my Civil War naval gaming.  

While the new range of Thoroughbred 1/1200 scale American Civil War vessels is currently a scattered mix of brown water and coastal offerings at the moment, I do want to start focusing my efforts on the first project I will work on using these ships and Smoke on the Water rules.  I have already purchased seven Cairo class ironclad gunboats from Thoroughbred, and using these as the basis for scenarios, will start a Plum Point Bend project.  Plum Point Bend sees six Cairos in action (Mound City, Carondelet, Cincinnati, Pittsburgh, Cairo, and the St. Louis). Of course I am going to need a lot of other ships for this battle, and there are other companies offering some proxies for the various Confederate gunboats and the USS Benton, but I would hate buying other ships to only replace them in the future with further release from Thoroughbred.  I do have a few of the Titan resin ships, and they are rather inexpensive if I need to purchase more to fill in any holes until Thoroughbred releases the appropriate castings.  I would need to pick up their Benton, and that would complete the Union vessels needed for Plum Point Bend.

Titan's USS Benton