Plastcraft Games EWAR 15mm ColorED Review

When I started gathering terrain together for my CoC Normandy projects, I faced a big decision to make regarding the buildings to choose for my tabletop. While there are loads of options for 28mm gamers and, thanks especially to flames of war, a ton of great 15mm options (including pre-painted ones), my choice in using 20mm figures found me a bit limited. Sure, there are plenty of HO scale model railroad buildings that could fit the bill, but at least from what's available in the States, these looked better suited for a 1950s suburb than a 1940s French battlefield. Both Sarissa and Charlie Foxtrot offer 20mm ranges, but they are quite limited and I wasn't keen on painting the buildings myself (at least not yet, anyway). 4Ground has some nice agricultural buildings in the scale, but not much in terms of residential buildings, which I knew I was going to need. Then I heard about Plastcraft's EWAR ColorED range of printed PVC buildings and my curiosity was picqued.

I had seen the company mentioned on a few forums and on the Plastcraft website, but the the only reviews I could were for their other ColorED ranges or for their unpainted WWII models. Thankfully a number of participation games at Fall In this past November featured the 28mm EWAR ColorED buildings and I was hooked. The detail on the models was fantastic, they seemed rather easy to put together, and the price seemed extremely reasonable for the quality, so when I found out that my boss at the bookstore could get them through his wargame distributor, I promptly ordered the 15-20mm Building set, an additional two-storey building, and the Saint-Mère-Èglise church (the latter was not required for either of the two CoC campaigns I am putting together, but just looked cool!).

I had to wait a few weeks to get all the models in from the distributor, but they all came before Christmas and thankfully my fiancée was gracious enough to help me put some of them together one evening.

Here a some pics of the finished products:

The "Two-Storey Buidling"

Second and third floor interior of the same

The ruins/base for the "Two-Storey Building"

The "Semi-Detached Building"

"Semi Detached" interior. I love that the two buildings have markedly different floors 

The "Town House" and its base

The Saint-Mère-Èglise church

Stained glass windows

Bellfry interior

Lovely details inside the church

The buildings arrive packed flat in cardboard boxes (the 4-building set came in one box) and most of the parts were rubber-baneded together. Some of the parts in the big set had become separated in shipping, so I had spend a little time sorting those pieces out, but it wasn't much of a problem. Regrettably, the large window for the grocery was missing (I can just pretend it's been blown out), but otherwise, all the kits were complete. Unlike the 4Ground kits, printed directions are not included, but the instruction sheets can be found on the company's website.

In terms of actual assembly, these models are pretty straight forward. Since they require superglue and not the PVA of MDF kits, they go together pretty quickly. The downside of this, however, is that these buildings are less forgiving when it comes to making adjustments. A few pieces, especially some of the roof tiles, needed to be forced into a dry fit before gluing to ensure they would sit properly, but for the most part the pieces assembled easily. It took me a few tries (and very careful prying) to adjust the doors to fit over the ruins base and stoop. Though the first building took me about an hour to complete (it took a while to work up a system for installing the windows), I completed the last small building in about 20-25 minutes and did the whole church in about 45. No waiting for interior walls to dry, no need for rubber bands or clothespins to hold everything together.

As you can see in the photos, the printed exteriors are full color and are wonderfully illustrated and the interior floors are exceptionally detailed. The windows add a nice touch to the realism (especially with the church).

They are styled as "15-20mm" which I assumed would mean they would be a bit on the small side for my 20mm figures, and they are, but not by much. This is also partly due to my preferred 20mm figures being on the bulkier side of the spectrum. Since CoC's ground scale is truly fit for 15mm anyway, I'm not too concerned. For anyone using 15mm  or the popular brands of 20mm, these pieces should fit in with the miniatures just fine.

A 20mm modern British soldier from Elheim Miniatures outside the "Grocery"

The same figure inside the "Two-Storey House"

Outside the church (and a bit out of scale)

So for my residential building needs, I think I made the right choice. Since Plastcraft has yet to release any farm buildings for the EWAR range, I've opted to go with 4Ground for those (review to follow), but for my Norman villages, these will do nicely. I've included photos of all 5 buildings from the 15mm-20mm range. The same structures (with some variations in color) are available in their 28mm range, which also includes a warehouse model. For anyone looking for an affordable, pre-painted  scenery option for Chain of Command, Bolt Action, Flames of War, or any other WWII game, scenery option for Chain of Command, Bolt Action, Flames of War, or any other WWII game, I can't recommend these kits enough

New Year's Gaming

As I've mentioned previously, I currently work part-time at military history bookstore in downtown Gettysburg, PA. My boss's son is visiting while on a break from school, and since he's an aspiring wargamer, I offered to host a game for them. One of his favorites is Force on Force, so I decided to blow the dust of my modern Brits and Taliban fighters for the occasion.

I chose to run Scenario 16 from the Enduring Freedom book, "The Battle of Danaweh II." Modeled after a pitched battle between Marines and Taliban forces in 2009, this engagement presents the ISAF player(s) with three objectives to complete. First, they must come to the aid of a wounded comrade who has been caught in the open by enemy fire. Second, they must evacuate said injured marine back to a designated HLZ to be evacuated from the battlefield. Finally, their EOD team must safely dismantle an IED on the opposite corner of the table. All tall order indeed, especially since the Taliban forces in this scenario are rated as regulars and have all kinds of nasty support weapons they can bring to bear. Though the scenario is based off a USMC action, I don't have enough American figures to field the complete force, so my Brits had to stand in for their Yank comrades!

The ISAF forces cautiously advance to the aid of a wounded leatherneck

The ISAF forces (played by my boss, "Big" Larry, and his son, "Little" Larry) began with some rather cautious movements, but took care of the first few Taliban ambushes without incident. Big Larry's squad got to the wounded marine quickly and began working their way back toward the HLZ, dispatching 2 large Taliban groups and a PKM team in short order. During this strategic withdrawal, a series of unfortunate die rolls meant that several of my Taliban groups failed to spring their ambushes on the unsuspecting ISAF troops, whose own miserable rolls on spot checks meant that the lurking insurgents went unnoticed. Once their whereabouts were successfully pinpointed, not even a sudden windstorm (brought about by fog of war card), which eliminated the Americans' advantage in optimum range firing, could save the Taliban forces from the withering fire laid down by the marine squad and its support weapons.

A horde of Taliban fighters in an alleyway overlooking the IED.

Meanwhile, Little Larry's men advanced with no opposition until they got just within sight of the IED, when a massive Taliban group ambushed the fire team and machine gun team escorting the EOD men. A number of casualties were taken, but the bomb disposable tech was able to reach the the IED unscathed. Little Larry rolled the TQ check to defuse the device, but failed, causing it to explode. Remarkably, neither the disposal tech nor anyone in his team were harmed by the blast. With their objective taken care of and more Taliban reinforcements rushing to the group in that intersection, Little Larry made the wise choice to begin pulling his squad back and consolidating with the rest of the platoon at the HLZ.

This decision brought an end to Turn 3, and we actually decided to call the game early. We had started later in the evening than we had planned, so it was getting close to midnight. Also, near the end of the turn, a fog of war card was drawn that gave the ISAF forces a UAV which would fly over the battlefield and help reveal hidden insurgent units. Seeing as ambushes from the two or three groups I still had hidden were my only hope in inflicting more casualties (it was pretty clear at this point that Big Larry was going to successfully get the wounded marine to the LZ), this really ended any chance I had at a significant victory. Overall - indecisive, but advantage Coalition forces.

Less than 48 hours, I hosted a second game for my father. My friends at Dishdash Games and Phalanx Consortium (their US distributors) are premiering their new platoon plus-level modern ruleset at Cold Wars in March and I've agreed to run two demonstration games at the show. I was given a draft of the rules a few weeks back and since my dad's factory was on shutdown this week, he offered to come down and be the opposition for my playtest.

The draft didn't have much guidance in terms of force composition or scenario design, but I figured I'd try some different things in the playtest and see what worked the best for the convention. I must confess that I've never considered myself very good at scenario or map design, but I was pretty pleased with what I threw out on the table:

After giving my father a brief overview of the key mechanics of the rules, we jumped right in. Unfortunately, the draft rules I had were very much a rough draft and though we were able to push our way through a full game turn, some confusing sections and missing parts of the rules made it a frustrating playtest, but that is what playtesting is all about. In the aftermath of this run some conversations with the game designer have already led to a number of clarifications and additions. I look forward to the next test!

The next evening, the Larries came over once again for another Force on Force game. This time, I ran one of my go-to scenarios from the Enduring Freedom book, Scenario 10 - "Sangin Ambush." I've run this game with friends, clubs, and at shows, and have seen completely different results each time, so I was anxious to see how it turned out.

The dramatic opening to the scenario

The scenario begins with an RPG strike to a British vehicle column, resulting in the brewing up of a Bv10 Viking. The British players are then tasked with rescuing the crew and passengers in the burning vehicle (and either putting them safely in another vehicle or to a casualty clearing point), "winning the firefight," and extricating their over-strength platoon from the ambush.

Unfortunately for the Brits, the situation immediately went from bad to worse as before their first vehicle could move, a Taliban DShK team opened up on the landrover, reducing its movement by half for the remainder of the game and incapacitating the entire crew. Though returning fire sent the insurgent fleeing from their machine gun, they had certainly earned their pay for the day. With two vehicles in need of first aid checks, the British began dividing their forces to deal with the two crises. A number of Taliban ambushes were sprung, resulting in more first aid checks, but these new threats were quickly dealt with, largely due to effective fire from the Vikings' .30 cals.

A well-aimed burst from a Taliban DShK team wreaks havoc on a Land Rover WMIK

The next turn saw nearly all the British casualties come out of their first aid check OK or with light wounds (only the driver of the destroyed Viking was killed). The next turn proceeded much the same as the first. A round of fire from some Taliban RPGs incapacitated all but the driver in the other Land Rover, forcing one of Vikings to drive up to their aid. By this time, the fireteams in the unharmed Vikings had disembarked and were beginning to clean up the Taliban resistance. A number of insurgent leaders and support weapons were neutralized, though a fog of war card gave one of the insurgent groups a cover boost and made them a little harder to move.

The British infantry rallies around two of the Vikings

Near the end of Turn 2, a British fire team arrived at the rear cab of the damaged Viking, setting up a very import first aid check at the start of the new turn. Miraculously, all six of the cabin's passengers well were pulled out with either no or light wounds. More firefighters followed and the ISAF forces seriously whittled down the insurgent resistance. By this point, all but one of the hidden Taliban groups had been located and all but one of those had lost their leaders. Things were not looking well for my irregulars. By the time we reached the end of the Turn 3, it was getting clear that the Taliban forces would not hold much longer, even if my remaining reinforcement roles were exceptional. A brief look at the scenario's victory conditions, however, showed that though the British had rescued the men from the destroyed Viking and would probably evacuate the force from the table by the end of Turn 8, they had suffered enough killed and seriously wounded that a successful result for the ISAF forces was mathematically impossible. A Pyrrhic victory for my Taliban fighters!

After going quite some time without a miniatures game, three games in a week was nice treat, though I am looking forward to having more gaming options beyond my modern and SAGA stuff. Only two more months until I pick up my painted WWII minis at Cold Wars!