I have been hard at work these last few weeks with my ShipWreck Iran-Dutch scenario. This scenario is based loosely off of Iran's posturing and bullying of US ships in the Med and other seas. Iran is very protective of their territorial waters. I imagine their navy might pull shenagians about foreign ships crossing their "line of death". My scenario involves a Dutch ship being accused of being in those Iranian territorial waters. A young officer on the Dutch ship looses his nerve and orders a warning shot fired at an Iranian missile boat. The round accidentally hits the Iranian ship and Iran retaliates by scrambling fighters and mobilizing their navy. It may be a bit of a stretch with how much force Iran would use in a real situation. Then again, they are the flash point in the Gulf. And the Dutch have done plenty of things to piss off the Iranian government.
I added lots of fog of war elements to the scenario. I won't ruin them though. You have to play the scenario to find out what happens!
All the ships you see are from ShapeWays stores "Objects may appear",
Here is the Iranian's newest ships of the Moudge (Mowj) class. There are several currently being built as well. The Moudge is a corvette with better tech than the aging Alvand class. I doubt it is a match for any US Arleigh Burke or an Israeli Sa'ar 5 (owwww, burn on Iran. Taste the chrome).
The other ship is the Chinese Liaoning class that they bought from the Russians.
This is the majority of the current French surface fleet. Included in this picture are the Horizon air defence class, the multi-purpose Aquitaine (FREMM) class and the stealth frigates of the La Fayette class.
This is all of the Iranian surface fleet. They have another Dutch yacht that they converted into a gunship...but I don't think that counts. Shown here are the older Alvand class left over from the reign of the Shah and the already mentioned Moudge Class. Iranian ship's decks and hulls are all the same grey color. It makes them pretty dull to paint (but fast too).
Iran has a lot of older 80's era US fighters. They must have lots of parts to keep them going this long. Here are some of their Russian SU-24 Fencer. It's a fighter bomber from the 80's. Analysts doubt it will perform well against the generation 4 F-22's or F-35's.
This is another weird entry in the Iranian inventory. The Iranian navy uses old Bell Hueys as observation and utility craft. The Moudge class carries one too. I really like the white chopper blades. [Super Tech Tip] Be sure to clear coat the helicopter and THEN attach the rotors.
Here are some Mig 29 Fulcrums in Iranian service. I suspect that these fighters will slowly replace the US stock.
If you want to get into modern naval warfare you need to embrace the missile. Missiles have replaced the massive gunships of the WW2 era. I made these guys by soldering a thicker brass wire to a more thin brass wire at a right angle. I then super glued poly fiber fluff to the small wire. The big wire was bent and glued to the base. The poly fiber was soaked in watered down white glue after it was attached to the circle base. Then it was primed, painted and clear coated. The water on the base was coated with "Modge Podge" after the clear coat.
I also painted up a group of Super Etendards and Rafale 3's. During play I put a small d6 on the fighter flight base. It shows how big the wing / squadron is. I do the same thing with the missiles. The ships are all 1/600 Pico Armor / Odzimal Ozmy.
Here are some closer shots of newest French ships in the fleet.
This is a French NH-90. I consider the NH-90 the EuroTrash version of the Blackhawk. It is used by many European nations.
A side project of mine is French-Indo China in 3mm. I will use Spearhead WW2 rules. This is a complete battalion of the 1 REC (1st regiment etranger coloniale). It is the special aquatic unit of the French Foreign Legion. It went through many changes after WW2 and came into it's own around '52 or so. This is the unit after the final changes are reflected. The Regiment eventually had 2 or maybe even three battalions. The unit uses M2 Weasels (the Crabbe) and LVT-4's. I love the unit symbol for the 1 REC. It is a crab. I want to add stand labels at size 6 font. I find that to be a good size for 3mm gaming. I regret that I didn't add a LVT recovery vehicle to the command stand. I decided that the recovery vehicle probably stays in the garrison unless needed.
The unit's strength are 12-14 LVT's, 20-25 Crabbes and at least 200 local Vietnamese Infantry men. The vehicle crews were French. This is something the US was reluctant to do. They really didn't use the local population as a fighting force. Well, not to the extent that the French did.
The French Indo-China war shows the differences in American troops and French troops. I will talk about that more on a later post. (I have a lot to say!)
In Spearhead game terms there are:
Battalion command stand
Crabbe Recon platoon
LVT-4A Fire Support platoon
Crabbe Mortar platoon
Crabbe platoons x 3
LVT-4 Infantry platoons x 4
The battalion has 11 units. It has a 6" command radius for operations. I believe the unit was used mainly for patrolling in watery areas. During combat operations it out flanked retreating Viet-Minh units to catch the stragglers. The French military gets a really bad name unfairly. They were a premiere militant nation from the time of Charlemange until the present. During the 20th century the nation was at a state of war for at least 30 years.
3mm gives you the option of making every stand a cool vignette. This battalion commander stand has the leadership stopping in the road to talk strategy. Their security escort is standing by to act as needed.
This is one of the LVT infantry stands. It is aquatic, the troops benefits from the track's protection and has it all the abilities of an infantry stand.
Some Crabbes on the move. The lead Crabbe is missing it's gunner. Someone must have overslept.
These are some shots of various stands in action.
Thanks for looking. I will try to post again soon.
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