Side by side converted French regular vs AOG French para

A quick side by side comparison of one of my converted USMC and an Age of Glory French para. The Warlord plastic USMC body is slightly larger then the pewter paratrooper but I feel like it's only noticeable if they're right up next to each other like this. The pewter figure has better/ more noticeable detail though there's more I probably could have done with my conversions but the Indochina range from Age of Glory is just fantastic and I won't miss an opportunity to say as much.

Back to Indochina

I've owned Warlord's Pacific Theater book for a while and I decided to put it to use, by using the Chinese army list and totally forgetting all the other nifty rules that would have made the game interesting. For this scenario a small force of Vietminh guerrillas has encountered a platoon of paratroopers who are waiting for a column of reinforcements to arrive and extract them. The guerrilla cell has requested assistance from a local force of Giap's regulars.

The militia platoon on the right consisted a 2nd Lieutenant with an extra man regular, a scout team with SMG's veteran, 3 squads of 8 guerrillas with 3 SMGs each inexperienced, a light mortar regular, and a bazooka regular.

The reinforcement platoon on the left consisted of a 1st Lieutenant with 2 extra men one with flag veteran, a 3 man scout team with SMGs veteran, a 10 man X and Y force squad with 2 SMGs and an LMG veteran, 3 rifle squads each with 8 men with 1 SMG and 1 LMG regular, and for support they have a light mortar, bazooka, MMG, and a 75mm recoilless rifle all regular

The French para's who would be holding off the horde has a 1st Lieutenant with an extra man, a medic, 4 squads of 10 paratroops with SMGs and an LMG, a light mortar, and a 75mm recoilless rifle with the entire platoon being veteran. Their relief force is a 1st Lieutenant with an extra man in a bren carrier, a 5 man engineer squad with flamethrower and 2 SMGs in a bren carrier, and 2 squads of 10 "marines" with 2 SMGs and a BAR in a halftrack. Everything is regular.

The French Paras set up in the middle of the table with the guerrillas deploying just outside the outskirts of the village hidden in the jungle in hidden setup.

French infantry keep watch over the jungle, they know something HAS to be out there.

A squad of Para's moves out into the jungle and into contact with the VM scout units

Hearing their comrades being engaged a guerrilla squad launches an assault to try and relieve the pressure  

The guerrillas are killed to a man but at a costly toll for the French squad

The scout units attempt to fight their way out with fists and butt strokes from their weapons 

The guerrilla leader was coming to render assistance

but decided to assault the remainder of the squad in the longhouse

and the French platoon commander

Even with him holding such a precarious position reinforcements are moving up behind him

With plenty of light indirect weapons to cover the assault

Killing medics is against the Geneva convention, butt he guerrilla leader didn't sign the Geneva convention, or even really know what the Geneva convention is. Fortunately for the medic he has no compunctions with killing a man and proceeds to do so accordingly.

The VM wave has started to hit the French positions

The French launch a hasty counter attack and buy some respite

but a second wave hits

By this time the French platoon has suffered over 50% casualties, the survivors regroup by the rice paddies as the sound of engines has started to be heard 

The relief force is making a mad dash to try and extract the stranded platoon

While the main force was engaging the paratroopers several AT teams moved to the most likely avenue of appraoach

The last VM squads are moving in for the kill

The VM make a dash for the house killing several Paras with their sporadic fire on their way

The house won't protect them from the retribution brought by the survivors

French engineers slowly work their way up the road eliminating the AT threats

Having lost almost his entire platoon the VM Lieutenant launches into a charge with his two men in a last ditch effort to take all the paratroopers with him

While several do go down five men from the platoon manage to fall back to the relief column as the VM artillery falls on the village behind them

Building and painting a Legionnaire for Indochina

When I first bought some of Redstar's French paratroopers for Dien Bien Phu I was completely taken by the awesome quality of the sculpts. From there i rapidly expanded my collection of troops for the conflict. Redstar put out some Viet Minh which I quickly acquired and then supplemented with figures from The Assault Group. Expanding the Viet Minh was easy because there's so many ranges with Vietcong armed with rifles and submachine guns but the French are another matter. Looking at my reference books I found that the French used everything and anything they could get their hands on which led to a huge mix of uniforms and equipment. The easiest thing to do to make some French Legionnaires or generic infantry would just be to buy somebody's line of  WWII figures and paint them up accordingly but that route is for sissies. I wanted to make some troops that were armed appropriately and had a mixture of equipment and different headgear than regular helmets.

By 1952-53 most French troops had begun receiving the M1947/52 uniform. Nobody makes figures with those specific uniforms but from eye to tabletop distance when painted as such the herringbone twill uniforms fit the bill nicely. Warlord has a box set of plastic USMC that i used as my starting point and i ordered some of the heads in slouch hats from Red Star as well as Mas-36 rifles from The assault group.

First step is always removal of mold lines and during this step i also like to make the neck hole go a little deeper. Warlord plastic heads have a rounded fitting on the head while the Red Star heads have more of a peg so by drilling a slight hole the head fits in much easier.

Assembly is fairly easy although if the rifle doesn't sit in the arm just right there tends to be a gap but that's easy enough to fix. In the photo below I just filled it in with some glue then smoothed it with a file when it was dry. For this particular figure I didn't go crazy on the amount or type of webbing like I have on others. This guy just got some US ammo pouches and a canteen straight from the box. 

Another thing I do with these figure is score the base so that there's more for the glue to cling too. Then it's just a matter of sticking him on the base and priming grey.

Below are all the paints I used as well as GW tallarn sand.

First step is to paint the uniform in Gw castellan green

Tallarn sand for webbing

Flat Brown for wood and leather

Pale flesh, gunmetal grey, and bone white for the hat

Hit the whole thing with a watered down sepia wash

drybrush the everything but the skin with khaki and then drybrush the flesh with ratskin flesh

then just base and flock accordingly

A walk along the river

The platoon advanced steadily towards the river. Lieutenant Bertrand moved into a patch of jungle and surveyed the area ahead. His company was on right flank of the battalion and his platoon was on the far right flank of the company, which meant Bertrand got the dubious honor of making contact with elements of 1 REC.  Just beyond the two houses was supposed to be a platoon from 1 REC but Bertrand couldn't see any movement. The 75 team set up beside him, he was glad they had been attached to his platoon, if things got bad that gun would give them much needed support.

 The LVT ground to a halt throwing up dust all around. Lieutenant Robichaud gave the dust a moment to settle then brought up his binoculars. He could just see some paratroopers beyond the houses. Platoon dismount and take up defensive positions the paratroops are on their way. First section lead off i want that flamethrower trained on those structures ahead. Private Adler hefted his flamethrower and moved down the ramp. His assistant nudged him and pointed at a small hill, Adler nodded his assent, the hill would give them good view before they moved forward. Just as he crested the hill he saw them, about ten or so sitting down and in various states of rest. In his haste to back up off the hill Adler pulled the trigger on his flamethrower killing one of the Viets and sending him tumbling backwards down the hill.

 The Viet Minh wasted no time. With a blood curdling yell they charged around the hill. In seconds the Legionnaires lay dead and the Viet Minh took pause to reload and prepare.

Robichaud seized on the delay and ordered his second section out to assault the Viets in their moment temporary vulnerability but a second Viet Minh squad was waiting in ambush. Hoping to emulate their comrades success they also let out a scream and charged but they were all fresh conscripts and the Legionnaires were battle hardened veterans and they were levied out a terrible beating.

Sometimes though veterancy matters for nothing, especially when on the receiving end of a PPSH-41. The conscript looked upon the bullet riddled bodies. His hands were shaking so bad he almost dropped his weapon.

Robichaud was livid. In the space of a few minutes he'd lost almost his entire platoon to a bunch of filthy, untrained, Vietnamese. He jumped over the side of the vehicle and fired his SMG at the figure standing over his men's corpses. He missed every shot but the filthy Viet dropped his weapon and hit the dirt to retrieve it.  

The other squad, having readied itself, charged the LVT with grenades and a satchel charge. The combined force of the explosives blew the vehicle on its side.

Robichaud blew his top. He charged forward and began beating the man in front of him. Robichaud's radio operator stood by and watched in horror as his CO went to work. At some point the wodden stock of the SMG broke but it didn't even slow the Lieutenant down. Once he was done he fired off the remaining rounds in his SMG then threw himself and his adjutant behind the wreck of the LVT to reload. He then curse his superiors who said the area was clear and that there were no VM units in the area. There had to be at least a company here.

Not only was he correct about there being a company present but he had just severely mutilated the company's good luck charm. When the reaming Viets caught up with him they were not kind with their reprisals.

The sound of gunfire snapped Bertrand's head to the right. It seemed the Legion was close and so was the enemy. No sooner had he finished that thought then the squad in front of him opened up on a Viet Minh unit charging their position. Those that survived the barrage of bullets were quickly put down with viscous butt-strokes from the paratroopers rifles. A few of them managed to get in some good shots before they went down.

Sergeant Morue looked to his left at the sound of gunfire. He saw what was left of fourth section regrouping after an assault by a VM unit. Lieutenant Bertrand signaled the platoon to continue its advance towards the river. Morue saw movement ahead as two enemy squads tried to leapfrog their way towards his position. Enemy units 30 meters ahead fire at will. His section opened up dropping several figures and sending the rest scrambling for cover.  On his left Sergeant Renaud led his section into hand to hand with an enmy squad

 

The 75 loaded a shell and let fly at some Viets that had fortified the house ahead. Bertrand couldn't tell if the shells were producing casualties but the combined 75 and mortar fire from his mortar team had caused enemy fire to slack off considerably. Rifle and machinegun fire told him Sergeants Morue and Renaud had engaged the enemy. He looked at the section waiting next to him Sergeant Chastain, take your section and join Morue and Renaud. Tell Morue he is to hold the right while you and Renaud flank those hardpoints.

Sergeant Morue and his squad krept through the bushes towards the Viet Minh. When they got within several meters they opened up and made short work of the Vietnamese taking cover there. A figure moved up behind them, Morue recognised the form as Chastain and turned to greet his fellow sergeant. Orders from the Lieutenant, your section is to take up positions here while Renaud and I clear these houses. Before Morue could respond Chastain had moved off to deliver orders to Renaud. Morue looked across the river where he saw a smoking vehicle and number of Vietnamese moving around. He cursed silently to himself, that meant the paratroops were cut off from the main units in the area. His squad fired a few rounds their way to disperse them then took up defensive positions.

Several rockets flew from the house to Morues left sending pieces of his squad flying in different directions. The platoon medic picked up a MAT-49 from one of the fallen paras and charged into the house. His burst took out the first team but before he could engage the second a large metal tube hit him in the back of the head knocking him out cold.

Sergeant Morue burst through the door weapon at the ready. Before the the medic could be finished Morue dispatched the two man rocket team and moved to one of the windows to ensure the area was clear.   

Captain Ngai watched as his company slowly lost ground to the French dogs attacking his position. He needed to act fast to rally his company and drive the imperialists from his country. He moved to the edge of the bond to get a better view when suddenly a French squad charged him. Ngai took careful aim and killed what looked like the squad leader and his two men gave good on what they received but it wasn't enough. Corporal Descoteaux looked over the man he had just killed. It looked like he was someone important, Descoteaux reached down and ripped the rank pins from the uniform and tucked them in a pocket. A machine gun started firing over their heads.

Bertrand heard the machine gun but couldn't draw a bead on its location. He moved up behind the Renaud but found only a corporal and another man pinned down. Sergeant Chastain was trying to move up but the machine gun was pinning them down

 

A direct mortar hit gave Chastain the respite he needed to get his men moving. The lone man still manning the gun was to shell shocked to put up a fight and was put down with a single rifle shot to the head.

Descoteaux took the initiative and attacked a large crew served weapon manned by some Vietnamese too distracted by Chastain's attack.

A small defian pocket of troops continued to put resistance. Chastain engaged and suppressed them as best he could but still they were resistant.

Bertrand was tired of the Viets spilling from every nook and cranny of this god forsaken jungle. His platoon was badly beaten and still they couldn't seem to get any respite. He led his radio man and adjutant towards the last pocket and tore it to shreds with fire. He didn't know if they killed them but no more fire came from the scrub.

It had been an hour since the paras had secured the area, Bertrand was relaxing in the shad of a house when Morue approached him. 

What is our situation sergeant?

The platoon has taken roughly fifty percent casualties. I've re-organized the men into two squads led by myself and Chastain. we were able to scavenge some ammo off the dead Legionnaires across the river so the ammo situation isn't as bad as initially thought and we recovered a flamethrower operator who was knocked unconscious at some point in their skirmish. We've dug into the area around these two houses but I don't know how long we can expect to hold against a determined attack.

Don't worry too much sergeant, we managed to raise the rest of the Legion on the radio. A relief force should be here in two hours at most.