Eureka ZANLA models and thoughts on Barras Playtest

Hello Again

I received my order of Eureka miniature ZANLA models from their Rhodesian war range. I picked up the "We don't won't to be vertically enveloped" deal and a couple extra Rpd gunners. I like the models and my only complaint was that almost every Ak-47 barrel was bent. It was a job but I managed to straighten them all with a minimum of damage and none breaking off.
The main reason I picked them up was to add troops to the Operation Barras game in January and eventually to fight against Chuckaroo's Rhodesian Light Infantry using the Man Among Men Disposable Heroes Rhodesian war supplement.

The assembled force so far freshly mounted on washers, along with a TAG Warlord with Druganov sniper rifle. In the Barras game we are using the ZIPRA list to field the West side boys and the "We don't won't to be vertically enveloped" deal gives you enough figures to field a command section and two minimum size Zipra Squads using the list from Disposable Heroes' Rhodesian war supplement Man Among Men. I plan to pick up more TAG african militia models with Aks and RPGs to build up a full Zipra Platoon with four squads but I will use the Eureka Rpd gunners to field one in each squad. I think we will use the TAG Warlord figure as a leader for one of the platoons in the Barras game if I get him painted up in time.

With these models and some Somali pirates Chuckaroo has recently painted we will be able to up the forces for the West Side Boys to two overstrength platoons instead of one full platoon and one understrength platoon. I have been going over the rules and found a few things we didn't remember or did incorrectly. It seems we might have to make a cheat sheet with certain rules we forgot to keep from forgetting them again. I have picked up a better understanding of the helicopter rules and looked up a few other things that may change the game. We have discussed adding some more detailed victory condition so that the attacker can't just ignore the one village and still win the game. We are also going to make the West side boys have to roll a three or less to activate the first turn instead of just a guts check like the first game, giving the British a better chance to get on the ground before getting shot up. We are still debating adding a T-55 to the game but might try it out to see how it effects the game.

The next Operation Barras play test game is planned for tomorrow, so these model just might see the table then.

ColKG