C-in-C Miniatures is a pretty long lived company with its ups and downs traveling muchthe same ground as GHQ with some unusual offerings like ancient ships in 1/1200 scale.
C-in-C
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Oddzial Osmy
Working on down to the itsy bitsy scale, there is Oddzial Osmy from Poland. I know little about this manufacturer other than that they specialize in 3mm 1/600 figures along with ranges in 15mm and 20mm. Detail is reasonable. Painting is a challenge. A lot depends on how far you want to go. The 3mm figures are available through Pico Armor.
OKB Grigorov
Some unusual 1/350 scale tanks made by OKB Grigorov, a European company specializing in 1/72 armor and 1/350 submarines. They also produced a range of 1/350 armor, mostly eastern front WWII vehicles. The items are still listed on their website though they do not appear to be for sale at the moment. The packages include PE detail pieces so expect to do a little work to make these pieces look good.
Tacforce
Tacforce is a game that was published in1980 under the dual banner of GHQ and GDW though the rules were designed and written by Frank Chadwick lending more weight to the GDW side with regulars like Marc Miller, Loren Wiseman, and Greg Novak along for the ride. The rules have a current incarnation as Tac II. The rules cover then contemporary tactical land combat with 1/285 miniatures.
The 3 book format was still in use. The rules seem reminiscent of the other 3 book tactical combat series of the moment written by Chadwick, Striker for the RPG Traveller.i
As a quick aid, information on vehicles and weapons is carried on a series of cards. Organizational material necessary to approaching the scenarios is included in book3, the scenarios and advanced rules are foundin book 2, and basic rules in book 1.
There is also a banal set of counters, and some charts and organizational sheets.
Scale is 1 to 1 for vehicles and guns. Infantry units represent squads or fireteams. A turn represents a minute of actual time. An inch is 50 meters. A turn consists of a movement phase and fire phase, first for Soviet forces, then for the US. Morale is effected by fire. Close assault also occurs as a portion of the fire phase.
As with so many GDW rules sets, rules appear in the oddest places. The rules for basing for example appear on the very last page of book 3.
GHQ
GHQ has been around for a long time carving an extended niche with their own eccentric 1/285th scale for armor. Additional ranges include 1/1200 and 1/2400 naval miniatures, and as illustrated above 10mm miniatures. There is also a range of vehicles in n-scale for model railroads.
North Star Military Figures
This is a range new to me, from England of course. They present an eclectic assortment of figures from a number of different ranges as well as expanded entries on these ranges and some of their own. The package above, part of the North Star 1672 range, was originally part of Copplestone’s Glory of the Sun range. The company also produces ranges for Osprey’s rules.
Red Star White Star
Tactical Game 3 had an impact that reverberated for years. SPI and Avalon Hill batted the concept around for years. Here is an early entertaining but flawed iteration from the early 70s as the system is applied to then contemporary warfare in western Europe. The game would ultimately be replaced by the ambitious Mech War 77.
As suits a game of this sort where scenarios are ahistorical, the game relies heavily on contemporary military documents and organizational layouts. Scenarios explicitly list on-paper elements as well as idealized conflict situations meant to illustrate doctrine.
The game is a remarkable change from the series games up to this point. Most noticeably, the board is large, with few hills, divided into a number of sections. Infantry and artillery include their vehicular component in a single counter. Ranges for HE weapons can be as large as 72 hexes. Helicopters can move swiftly across the board with relative immunity. TOW offer enormous AP attacks that can guarantee destruction of armored units.
There are also odd rules. TOW units disappear after firing. Units may also triple their fire for single turn then disappear as well. There were a bunch of other complaints addressed in a sheet of errata including the unpardonable sin of missing a counter for a scenario. One complaint was that the Russian forces were modeled on outdated and incorrect data that left the Russians far too weak.
The game of course hints at changes to come. Soon, SPI would introduce their SiMove system while covering a range of WWII theaters. The final iteration of the system would be October War designed by Mark Herman who would go on to rewrite the system as Mech War 2.
Goodbye, Hello
I read today that Model masters paints are gone. Put out by the Testors Corporation for many years, they were a guilty mainstay of the hobby. But as colors became scarce, new paints came to call. I had never been a fan of Krylon but now I have cans. And I have begun trying out Tamiya lacquer spray.
When I travel to Asia, I am always confronted with how much better they have things over there in regards to plastic model building. They seem to have everything imaginable and some things I never thought of all at a fraction of their price in the US. Want 1/700 scale WWII tanks and trucks? They have got them. Plastic 1/72 figures? Easy to find.
Which brings me to Tamiya. They offer quality materials and studied assistance that is never available in the US. Paint pens and markers, extensive weathering and masking supplies are easily found and not only from Tamiya.
But I feel bad about Model Masters. Just like I feel bad about the Mecca of modeling in Carrollton, Texas, Squadron, Inc. strolling through the warehouse was a dreamlike experience. Changing times. I guess we all change with them. Squadron was bought up by a company in Georgia and I sprayed my first batch of tanks with Tamiya dark yellow.
Save the Children
1957 and the biggest literary threat to merry olde England was a group of overgrown toddlers with the ability to say no and the means to back it up. Children were to be seen, not heard, and if they got hit by a car or attacked by an animal, who were they to complain?
Of course, the children grew up and gave the world abominations like the Mersey Beat and the British Invasion. We had been warned. The warnings went unheeded. Without death and destruction to thwart them, children make demands.
in 1957, the response was obvious. Smuggle a brief case full of dynamite into their classroom or test fire a new super cannon with nuclear shells on the town where they live. Precocious toddlers must learn to play by the rules.
Did we? For the most part, I remember staying quiet when we went to the movies, keeping a respectful distance when the elders were talking, and having such mundane hobbies as model building, stamp collecting and of course gathering small plastic armies who patrolled the living room and were occasionally missing in action.
So what was the problem? Well, no one else was following the rules. They hated Jews, hated smart little kids, and did not look kindly on any child who knew the difference between a Spad XIII and an S.E.5-a. They did not come after me with sticks of dynamite but did put me in a class for slow learners and memorably to sessions with the school counselor. Which is to say that childhood was a difficult experience papered over with the illusion that it was a normal childhood.
So how does my child fare? She explores the minefield of childhood at a distance. The pandemic has kept her a step removed. Is she too bright for her own good? Doubtful. Will she say no? Hopefully. Will they bring her a suitcase full of tnt? They better not.
Call of Cthulhu
Yet another in an endless series of rpgs, this one offered an appeal that others did not. After many printings, the game is still in play. Simply put, the players take the role of various characters battling unspeakable evil in the world of the1920s. For H.P. Lovecraft, the great pulp writer, there were unspeakable monstrosities lurking just on the edge of reality and ready to manifest themselves to destroy the sanity or physical being of any who dared to confront them.
I bought my first copy at The Compleat Strategist on 33rd Street in NYC. The cashier that night assured me the game was focused more on shootouts between investigators and cultists. Happily, he was incorrect. The monsters are well catalogued and as readily sap the sanity as life from the players.
The quality of an rpg can often be judged by supplements and expansions in which case the game stands third only to Dungeons & Dragons and Warhammer. Of course, this means lots of miniatures, first from Grenadier, and currently from RAFM.
So it is time to look at the combat system underlying encounters. What I find is likely the simplest of combat systems with figures exchanging blows until one succumbs or flees. The 7th edition expands on the basic combat rules but the system remains simplistic and heavily dependent on the presence of a keeper, a sort of referee and author of the adventure. Unlike many other RPGs, this one stresses avoidance of combat. The close combat system offers limited interest as a game in itself.