Ponape: A Pacific Island for Colonial Gaming

Like the Gunboats in my previous post, my island setting of Ponape is a caricature of features ranging from Australia to China through Melanesia to Micronesia.  Some of it is pure fiction, some things out of place, but all things in the spirit of the game.

The island started as a list; a port, a coast, a fortress, a town, some rough terrain, a native village.  Quickly it evolved into a map designed to fit on a large game table.  At a minimum, the table would need to be 10'x5', preferably 12'x6'.  The features of the terrain dictated a modular design, though less flexible than my typical game terrain.  In its initial form, Ponape featured a Spanish fortress at the "west" end of the island, overlooking a bay with a dock and small town.  As you moved "east" from the town, you would encounter the jungle.   The island was cut in half by rocky jungle covered hills and a river.  Beyond the river were the natives, sometimes friendly, sometimes head-hunters, sometimes in need of a sacrifice for a festival.  To the north was the coastline, and to south, room for new adventure.

Here is the early version of Ponape:

The Spanish governor usually tried to impose his will (whether it be the Spanish will or not) from the fortress in the distance.  The native village can be seen in the foreground.

A view of the town and bay, better showing the fortress.  The town featured Madam Ophelia's, a trading company, and a black-birder auction.  Local business was overseen by "The Boss" with help from his henchmen and working girls.  Foreign navies would sometimes visit.  Sometimes they could be burdensome, as above, where he bay is blocked by the French ship, the Dunois.

The natives above are preparing for one of their many celebrations.  A festive people, in this case it appears that the antiquarian explorer may have lost his daughter, as she is being assisted in preparation for the native celebration.  Converting the Foundry Africans into Micronesians was only partially successful, as the natives all looked like they had a steady diet of steroids.

Strange alliances often formed.  Here German troops are assisted in leaving the jungle by the natives with Austrians in hot pursuit.

Above, natives invite an English explorer to dinner.  The natives were very friendly that way.

 After the first couple of games, the island suffered some geological activity, which made transit on the island  a little tougher. 

Phase two of Ponape featured more dramatic rocky cliffs cutting the island in half, and the addition of a swamp (not depicted above)  in the jungle.  The natives got a more secluded, less accessible village, and proper place for the their rituals.

A view looking from the fortress toward the new cliffs separating the island natives from the Spanish side of the island.

A view of the dock.

A couple of views showing the northern coast and the river.

Spanish troops looking for ...trouble.  The dramatic height of the new cliffs is demonstrated

Views of the "native" side of the island

 

Eventually the fortress got a minor face lift.  A lot of additional plans were made for the island including detailing existing structure, adding a docking station for the airship, and a small railroad between the mine (yes, there would be a mine) and the dock area.  Only the face lift and some of the minor detail items got completed before Ponape's last game.

The fortress received some battle damage, weathering, and various other details, most of which are not visible in any of the photos that I have. This is how the game looked at its last convention presentation.

 

Ponape proved to be a success, with players contacting me prior to conventions and arranging to bring their own colonial factions that would be worked into the storyline.  The games flowed more like a "B" movie than the typical wargame with homebrew rules that catered to the light-hearted flow of the games.

Ponape also proved to be a bear to transport, requiring about 90 cubic feet of cargo room with very careful planning and packing.   The cargo room problem was the primary reason for developing the next stage of Ponape, Mission to Pingalap, which used many of the components of  the original island, but reduced cargo volume.

Mission to pingalap is up next.

The Ships of Ponape: 28mm Colonial Gunboats

Some years ago, probably sometime in 1999, I began working on a 28mm colonial adventure game set in the South Pacific.  The idea was born roughly 17 years earlier, while watching the the movie Nate and Hayes.  The game was conceived as a Victorian adventure with miniatures, incorporating roleplaying, set generally in Micronesia.   The game, a sort of Darkest Pacifica,  included military contingents from various navies, shippers, traders, natives (both cannibals and not), antiquarian explorers, black-birders, gun-runners, pirates, jungle critters, mad scientists, dinosaurs, and anything else I could think to through in.

Players would run a faction (could be pirates, military contingents or various civilian groups) with around 12-25 figures, with a unique objective, and cooperate/trade/cheat/kill each other as required in an effort to achieve their objective.   Games would be loosely set in the 1880-1900 time frame, and most took place on a Spanish controlled island in the South Pacific.  I called the game "Ponape" after the island identified in the movie by the character, Ben Pease.

Anyway, while trying to reduce the number of old CDs and DVDs stacked around my computer, I recently came across a bunch of photos of the Ponape games and of the ships that I built for the various factions in the game.  Since I'm not really working on anything blog-worthy at the moment, I've broken the photos up by subject, and will post them in three or four blog entries over the next few days.  Here is the first, my 28mm colonial gunboats, ships,  and floaty things for getting around the Pacific.

The ship models are all caricatures of real ships.  Most are scratch-built from styrene sheet and/or bass wood.  I tried to make most spaces above the main deck, the bridge, and fighting areas of the ships accessible to players and figs.  The first ship was the Spanish gunboat, the General Concha.

The main gun was scratch-built from styrene sheet, strips, and tubing from Evergreen Plastic.

My version of the General Concha had a single 4,7 inch gun forward,  quick firing 3 pounders each broadside, and machinegun aft.  This is a picture of her in the first convention run of Ponape at Drums Along the Maumee 2000 in Toledo, Ohio.  I had forgotten my "water" drop cloth, so the bay featured a lovely wood grain  pattern. 

Possibly my favorite ship was the Euterpe, an Italian  torpedo boat, that I built for one of the guys.

The Euterpe is shown next the the General Concha.  She was so small that she  is actually just about a full size model in 28mm.  Besides the two torpedoes (made by Jack Shaw), she had a twin barrelled 25mm Nordenfelt, which I added after the initial delivery of the model. 

Shortly after building the Spanish boat, I added an American gunboat, and a French torpedo boat destroyer.  Unfortunately, I don't have too many photos of them.

This is the French torpedo boat destroyer, the Dunois, under construction.  My version would feature four 9-pounders.  She was heavily damaged while in my trunk, when my car was rear ended several years ago.  She has silently set on my workbench awaiting repair for at least six years.

Here are a couple more pics of the Dunois and the American gunboat, whose namesake I cannot remember at the moment.

Though they don't show up in the photos, the American ship (black hull with white superstructure in the foreground) has two guns forward in sponsons in the hull.  The entire main deck lifts off to expose the compartments below. 

The sailing ship was a quickie model slapped together from bass wood, and loosely based on a ship from Nate and Hayes.

Last is the German airship.  She never received proper detailing and was the first step into VSF for the Ponape game.

That is my daughter proudly presenting the airship many years ago.  The ship could be armed with two guns, either machineguns or 1 pounders.  The gondola was designed to be detached and could be affixed to a winged flying affair that converted it into the world's first seaplane.  The winged structure sets in a box, somewhere in my basement, never completed.

That's it for the ships.  Next up will be the island of Ponape.

My Turn at Painting 15mm ACUs

Well, here is my first squad of 15mm US Army figs (Rebel Minis) in ACUs.  I went to the local surplus store and looked at used and new uniforms and gear,  made notes and took some pics, but it didn't help.  I picked the colors closest to the most common colors (there was variation, even in new product), painted a couple of figs, and it didn't look right at all, did that a couple more times before giving up on doing it right.  So here they are, right or wrong, good or bad ( mostly bad).

I ended up using Vallejo 987 Medium Grey for the base coat, and Vallejo 886 Green Grey and 830 German WWII Green for the grey/green camo, applying with a stipple method using a beat up brush.  They appear slightly darker in person, though it doesn't help much.  I may just finish the platoon in ACU, rather than the whole company, and give a try to multicam for the next platoon.  I don't know.  Right now I'm just frustrated.  Digial camo is just killing me.

My First Company of Cold Warriors

I just finished my first company of 15mm US Army Mechanized Infantry troops for the 1978-1981 time frame, and thought I'd share a few pics and a little psycho-babble.  I still need most of the M113s, M150s, and M125s; but the dudes are done.

I found a number of variations of possible TO&E for these guys, and got some great input from the guys on the Yahoo TO&Es e-group to clear up some of my fuzziness ( http://games.groups.yahoo.com/group/TOandEs/ ).  I ended up with PHQs with 9x figs, 2x M60 MGs, and three squads per platoon with 11x men, 1x M60 MG, and 2x GLs.  As these guys will be defending Europe from the tank heavy "Red Menace", two out of three squads have a Dragon anti-tank missile launcher. 

About half of the figs are figs from Old Glory's CDVN-01 "US Infantry in Helmets",with most of the remainder from Peter Pig's Vietnam range (M60 gunners and grenade launchers, plus a few riflemen).  The GLs are all M79s, until somebody releases the appropriate figs with M16/M203s. The  Dragon gunners from Quality Castings "Modern 1980's Infantry AT/AA Weapons" pack (technically the wrong helmet/uniform discussed here in a previous post, December 2011).


I settled on painting them in OG107 green uniforms and ERDL camo helmets, matching Vallejo paint as best I could with period gear that I own.  Here are the Vallejo paints that I used:


Uniform - 893 US Dark Green.
Equipment - 1:1 of 893 US Dark Green and 890 reflective Green or 1:1 of US Dark Green and 886 Green Grey.
ERDL Helmet Cover -  base coat 2:3  893 US Dark Green and 886 Green Grey with camo of 889 US Olive, 890 Reflective Green, and Black.

Old Glory figs above.

Peter Pig figs above

A mix of Quality Castings (Dragon gunner), Peter Pig (LAW and M79), and OG otherwise.

Probably the most important thing that can be gained from the photos above is that the figures mix pretty seamlessly with none particularly standing out due to size or sculpting style.

A Few Soviets for the Cold War

July 4th turned out to be a pretty open day for me, so I hid from the summer heat and got some work done in the basement. I decided to try to clear some of the half finished stuff off of my various work spaces and did a bunch of painting, including a few vehicles for my Cold war Soviets.  Paint jobs are basic, but I figured that I'd share some pics as a lot of these aren't shown on the manufacturer's (particularly Old Glory's) website.

Here are three shiny new T-72s ready to protect the USSR from NATO aggression.  These are from Old Glory pack number PW-706.

The T-72s consisted of pretty clean castings and went together with out too much fuss.  A little filling was needed around the gun mount, and the commanders hatch was just a touch fiddly.  The hatch can be attached open or closed and mounted crew figures are included.


Next are some BRDM2 with AT5 anti tanks missiles, also made by Old Glory from pack number PW-732B.

These consisted of very clean castings and take minimal assembly work.  The tires are cast in place, and the missile launcher only adds two pieces.

Last of the independence day batch was a lone BTR60PB (item no. MSVI04) and a few Soviet troops (item no. MSI01 Motor Rifle Infantry) from QRF.

The BTR60PB came in five pieces.  Assembly was quite simple with minimal clean-up of light flash on the hull.

Here are a couple more Old Glory models that I had done earlier this year.   BRDM with SA9 anti-aircraft missiles (PW-732C)

The BRDM/SA9 was similar to the AT5 variant with minimal clean-up and assembly.  A very nice model, though I need to give mine a little more painting attention.

And, the PT-76 light tank (PW-735).

The PT76s required a little filling of recesses in what should be flat hull sides, but otherwise were easy to assemble and make for nice looking models.

Next up will be my US Army Cold Warriors, as my Soviets currently have nobody to spar with.

Roll Call II: Light at the End of the Tunnel

Back in January, when I wrote my original "Roll Call" post, I knew that it would take awhile to finish my infantry project, but I still didn't understand the scope of what I had gotten myself into.  As it turned out, instead of needing 200-300 figs to round out the various units, I would need five times that.  In a year burdened by health issues and a crazy work schedule, progress has been slow.

It started out with this:

There were 38 cardboard trays with 3757 figs waiting for attention.  Since then I've added (as near as I can figure) 631 more infantry on about 8 more trays.   The figs took over my main gaming and work table in addition to my normal painting space, and basically brought a halt to any other gaming activity.

I've been squeezing in painting sessions whenever I can, but like I said above, there have been some prolonged and frequent  interruptions.  My typical painting session only lasts 10-15 minutes, and I've only had a few days when I could work as long as an hour. 

Yesterday I painted my 1100th figure of the year and put away the 40th tray of figs.  I need to add about a hundred more figs, but am down to six trays (with only about 100 of 300 figs needing paint), and got my big table back yesterday.

The project isn't done yet, but finally, I can see the light at the end of the tunnel.

Those First Steps...

Miniatures enthusiasts all have them, those first steps down the hobby path of military miniatures.  For me it started in the late 1960s, but would be the late 1970s before I played a proper wargame or miniatures game. 


"The hobby" in its earliest form came to me during my fifth Christmas by way of Marx Toys' Fort Apache and Viking Castle.  The fort, a vinyl carrying case that folded out into an old west fort filled with cowboys and Indians, and a similar metal castle/carrying case filled with plastic knights and vikings.  There were no rules in those days, and the "good guys" always won.  Unfortunately, the popularity of these toys was short lived, as they had to share time with Toggle Blocks, Billy Blastoff, and Matchbox cars.  A handful of the Knights and Vikings currently reside in my attic, while their former companions were lost in a move in the 1970s.


The following summer, I was given some "old", lightly used, early 1960s G.I. Joes.  These 12 inch tall G.I. Joes were received with less excitement than the Cowboy and Viking sets, but managed to stay with me a lot longer, being one of four staple toys that would prepare me for the future.


While a couple of G.I. Joes and their M1 rifles grew into a squad with heavy weapons and a Jeep with a recoiless rifle, the interest in knights and vikings was rekindled by Marx toys.  Christmas 1971 featured the arrival of the Brave Knights, featuring Sir Stuart the Silver Knight doing battle with Eric the Viking.  A resurgence of interest of the earlier toys  resulted in the smaller plastic Knights and Vikings doing battle a few more times, while G.I. Joe dominated the time not taken up the the Brave Knights. 

Unfortunately, my G.I. Joes were sold off to support my sports card habit in the later 1970s, only a few weapons remain, sharing space with those few knights and vikings in the attic. Eric the Viking suffered a catastrophic structural failure after some years of battle with his arms and legs falling off, but Sir Stuart still protects the realm.

Christmas of '73 brought the last portion, and probably the most important,  to the pre-gaming training program.  A boxed Marx World War II set with Germans and Americans opened up a whole new battlefield.  A battlefield mightily encouraged by films such as Patton, and Battle of the Bulge. 

The Marx playset consisted of US and German troops, M26 tanks and M3 halftracks for the Americans, and Panthers and six-wheeled APCs that looked more like Soviet BTR-152s, than SdKfz 251s for the Germans.  The vehicles were in a smaller scale than the infantry, something close to 1/48th I would guess.  Of all of the military toys, these brought the most intense period of play, and would eventually inspire my first thoughts of rules for playing war.  The rules were incomplete and unrealistic, but were the first hint at a rich future.

My WWII Marx set would grow to over 500 troops, and eventually include die-cast P47s, a plastic Sea Stallion, Saladin armored cars, and an assortment of other similar toys over the next couple of years.  A significant number of Vietnam era infantry would reinforce their WWII counterparts in the war against the Germans.

In addition to these toys, the period spanning the early and mid 1970s would also feature "playing army" with toy guns.  My friends and I would run around the neighborhood shooting each other with various old west and, WWII, and modern era toy guns for hours on end.  Getting shot consisted of falling down in the most dramatic fashion, counting to ten as fast as you could, and rejoining the battle.

Christmas 1973 was also when I was introduced to the names Chamberlain and Ellis with the first of my "tank books".

These two titles would also be accompanied by Beekman's History of the World Wars series book Tanks and Weapons of WWII.  These three books would launch a reading frenzy from the public and school libraries of the books by C.B. Coby and Robert Leckie.  Along with the reading, movies ranging from Kelly's Heroes to Battleground would continue to cultivate my interest, until I would make the jump from children's toys to a proper wargame during the summer of 1976.

Like so many other gamers, Avalon Hill would introduce me to the  hobby of "Wargaming".  A $2.00 purchase at a garage sale would land me a copy of France 1940 and begin a love affair with French armor that has lasted to this day.  About three years later, my friend Mark would introduce me to Heritage's Panzer Troops.  It was designed for use with 15mm metal figs, but we used 1/72nd scale Airfix and other plastics. 

Though I would play other boardgamesfrom Avalon Hill, Yaquinto, and others, and explore role-playing via Dungeons and Dragons and Twilight 2000, before diving completely into miniatures, I knew from my first Panzer Troops game, that miniatures gaming was the path for me.  Or maybe, I just began to recognize that it was the path that I had always followed.