"15mm Troops by Eureka for French IndoChina" Topic

All,

Yes, I'm embarking on another long-term campaign project. I'm going to follow a fictional platoon of the French Foreign Legion in action against the Vietminh in northern French Indochina, generally west/northwest of Hanoi. I'll be trying out "Troop, Weapons, and Tactics" for rules (but actually closer to platoon-level "I Ain't Been Shot Mum" as I'm not clear on the 'Tactical Initiative' concept and really don't understand the point, which is not a shot at the authors, merely a paen to my own thickness), and playing solo using Joe Legan's "Platoon Forward" system which, after years of using pieces of it, I'm finally committing to going for it full bore with Platoon Forward as written.

This is a Legion platoon, of course, because… why not!? They'll have a native born French (as in, born in the actual country France) platoon commander, and everyone else will be foreigners, but rather than a bunch of European castaways I'm throwing in a bunch of, essentially, Colonial troops, because I want to ;) I'm also basically using American ranks, because I don't feel like worrying about stuff like Caporal and Ajutant, and I added a platoon Guide because I'm worried about not having enough Big Men once the shooting starts and the platoon begins taking casualties. I'm also setting up both the French and the Vietminh with 10-man squads with a squad leader, a rifle group of six men, and a gun group of three men, because it's easier for me.

In any case, you're not here for all that nonsense, you're here to see all the beautiful troops from Eureka Minis, so let's get to it!

So here's the whole mess. Oh, yeah, there's more than just the troops (everyone is at left), there's also some rice paddies from Battlefront and some markers for Platoon Forward I made.

Some Frenchmen advancing, M-1 Carbines at the ready.

A couple officer-types, with MAT-49s.

A pair of Vietminh riflemen.

And a bazooka team.

If you read my 'Two Brothers' batreps you've seen these rice paddies, but I decided to put some grass on them to spruce them up a bit.

And for you guys that use Platoon Forward, I took some poker chips and made some markers.

To see a bunch more pics of all this stuff, please check the blog at:
link

And then, for Christmas I went and got myself a bunch of jungle terrain off of Ebay.

Here's a shot with some 15mm troops to show you the size/scale.

To see more pics, please visit the blog at:
link

Well, everything is set, so here's to hoping I can carve out some time and actually play a game sometime soon.

V/R,
Jack

Some nice terrain pieces there.

Jack, those terrain pieces are awesome. You could also treat
some of those as cave pieces for WWII. As to the Eureka
French Indochina figs…I don't wanna hear it. LOL.
I bought some when they first came out and with old eyes
are going to be hard to paint. Local gamer friend of mine
and I have had the idea of a project probably for the last
10 years. I have added to what I first bought, but haven't
put a brush to them. My fellow gamer has done about 50
Legion paras and is working on more. He even did a nice
camo on them. They are small, but he tells me they paint
up quickly. The ones you did are great!

Now tell me, is Korea 1950 next? :-)

have a good weekend,

Sam

Excellent looking project!

Jack,
Those look great! Never thought of making up formal markers for Platoon Forward; now I have something else to do!
I love the FFL as you know. I have 2 platoons going. Sgt Bomba in africa and also Johnny A, Sgt Anderson in Vietnam. Just to be different you really should go with a 12 man french squad. They were authorized 15 men but rarely had that many. To balance it out you can always add one extra "A" blind to the scenarios if you want. I actually made a chart as to the nationality and reason why all the leaders joined the legion. I will email it to you.
Again great work as always!

Joe

Everything looks great. I love Eureka 15mm but I don't have any Indochina figures yet. I'm sure Eureka will look fine alongside Peter Pig. In fact, P.P. has packs of VC and NVA armed with bolt-action rifles that can be mixed in as more Viet Mihn as well as still be used during America's fiasco.
On my table are IJA from Eureka, Peter Pig, and Skytrex. They look fine together.

Very nice looking collection! Love the scenery as well. When embarking on my French Indochina project I was split on whether or not to go with Eureka's awesome rane in 10mm ot Pendraken's awesome range in 10mm. I opted for the latter as I am partial to the 10mm scale. Either way would.have been a good choice.

Thanks everyone, I appreciate it!

Sam – I don't wanna hear about your old eyes, get off your ass, Marines! I'm telling you, the figures are sculpted such that you don't need to do much work: go to Walmart and buy some Krylon Camo Green and Desert Yellow. Spray the French green and the Vietminh Yellow, paint weapons and flesh, then put a dark inkwash on them (I use Army Painter strong tone or dark tone) and they're done. And you know I've done a lot of thinking on Korea, both temperate forces for Pusan to Inchon, and winter for Chosin!

Joe – Yes, I am quite clever ;) And yes, your Legionnaires have been quite inspiring, particularly the good Sergeant Bomba. I'd love to see that chart, thanks!

RVandusen – Yup, I've got a bunch of the Peter Pig NVA and VC, used them extensively in my 'Two Brother' campaign.

Prince – To demonstrate my (hopefully limited to wargaming) stupidity, I actually had large French and Vietminh forces in 10mm from Pendraken, sold them, bought them again from Pendraken (still sitting on the painting table), and then bought and painted these… I love the concept of 10mm for reinforced company/smaller battalion-sized action using "I Ain't Been Shot Mum," I think it works great for IndoChina.

V/R,
Jack

Aye Aye, Sir!

Sometimes us old jarheads need some motivation.

Semper Fi, Jack.

Sam