by Jeff Flint
I reviewed one half of the units in the Local Resistance Company (VPABX10) box set released by Battlefront for Flames of War in this post. Now, I get to talk about a cool addition to any army of the communist menace...I mean freedom fighter...I mean...never mind....we get to talk about the Resistance Teams!!!! Again, for matters of full disclosure, this boxed set is one that I purchased from my FLGS.
One thing that makes these figures cool is that they are non-military sculpts (at least non-military sculpts that serve a gaming purpose :-/ ). We have farmers, Grandpa taking rice to the market...Grandma carrying a basket...and a young mother with a little baby in her arms. Talk about a different color palette!
These teams represent the nastier guerrilla fighters...the punji stake diggers...the IED planters...the Booby Trap Bubba.
From "Tour of Duty" you can get up to 6 Resistance Teams:
The "Resistance Fighters" Special Rules (page 116 in "Tour of Duty") add a lot of flavor and suspense to any game. With this, each Resistance Team stand is an Independent Team and is considered to be "Friendly Teams" by the opposing side. They can be deployed anywhere on the table as long as they are 12"/30 cm from all table edges, other Resistance Teams; 6"/15cm from ANZAC teams; and 2"/5cm from other Free World teams. They can start the game right in the fight....or just plant rice...whatever.
These cannot be shot at...assaulted...or be the aiming point for artillery. They can be under the template and hit as an Infantry team. If they are within 4"/10cm of a team that is Charging into Contact, whether assaulting or counterattacking, they are automatically destroyed. This is big...It is not the 4" from an assaulting team or where the assault is happening...it can be up to 16" as a team Charging into Contact first has to be in the 12" for "Quality of Quantity" and then 4" away from that team...or 12" from a Free World team (8" bubble then 4" added to that). DON'T BE CAUGHT UNAWARE!!!!!
These teams move a random distance in each player's turn...yep...you heard me. In the Nationalist's player turn he can move all or none a random amount between 2-6". In the Free World Player's turn they can move 1 team a random 2-6". On top of all of this, they get some very cool special abilities...
- They can guide a Local Force Company. On a 4+, a Local Force Force Company can skip rolling for Reserves and deploy where the Resistance Team is located. Replace the Resistance Team with the Local Force Company Commander and then deploy the rest of the company in command, following the Guerrilla Reserves rules. Sadly you lose the Resistance Team if he fails the roll.
- A Resistance Team can move the enemy's objective. If the Resistance Team starts within 8"/20cm of an enemy's objective (not his LZ one), make a die roll. On a 4+ you can replace the Resistance Team with the objective. If you fail the roll the the team is destroyed.
- They can "Locate the Enemy". On a 4+ they can either use the "Eyes and Ears" ability and lift Gone to Ground or they can spot for artillery as an observer. If they fail the roll nothing happens to them!
- You can even shoot with them. On a 4+ you can make one attack using the following stats: (Range 4"/10cm, ROF1, AT3, FP4+). Whether they pass this check and fire at the enemy or fail it...they are removed.
There is one more way the Capitalist Running Dogs can remove a Resistance Team....they can attempt to Question it. A Free World Platoon (not Helicopters or Independent Teams), within 4"/10cm of a Resistance Team, may attempt to question a Resistance Team. On a successful Skill Test, the Resistance Team is destroyed. Any teams questioning Resistance Teams lose Gone to Ground.
Accuracy: Can't find any fault with accuracy here...the figures were proportional (none of my pet peeves of over sized hands or legs). The clothing looked very close to pictures I have seen of Vietnamese farmers. I think these represent true ethnic Vietnamese...they don't look like any Hmong or any of the other Montagnard tribes.
Rating: 10/10
Quality: Again, very nice figures. There was even less flash on these figures than there was on the Local Force figures. Bottoms of the bases were very smooth as well
Rating: 9/10. Knocked off a few points for the minor mold lines. in annoying places (straw hats) where when you clean them you can very easily lose some of the underlying detail
Versatility: You can only use these figures with the PAVN, but the mix of poses is very good...12 figures and none are duplicates! Versatility is high here in that you can mix to get several different scenes. The other use for these figures is as objectives or even as "fillers" in a Local Force Company.
Rating: 10/10
Paintability: These models have the same crisp and clean detail that the Local Force Company had...to include the shallow facial detail on a few figures making it a LITTLE more difficult to paint those figures.
Rating: 9/10 A slight dock for the shallow detail on several figure poses. I used roughly the same paint plan I used for the Local Force Company, except for the clothing where I let my highly refined fashion sense take over...(I channeled my inner Tim Gunn).
The Paint Plan below is really for the Local Force Company, but it does give you a starting point...the civilian color palette was just whatever colors hit me at the moment.
Overall Rating: 9.5/10 just for these teams.
Again, this is an excellent boxed set. The inclusion of the Resistance Teams and a complete Local Force Company moves it up to 9.75/10 in my book. This is still one of my favorite boxed sets. The only down side is that you can only get these guys in the Local Force Company box set...hopefully they will become a special order item in the future..nudge, nudge...wink, wink...enough of that silliness, now on to something COMPLETELY different....
Now on to the pictures....(it's not COMPLETELY different, but at least its not more poor Monty Python ripoffs)
I tried a little more of a dry brush technique with these guys as an experiment....not as happy in some spots....but a good experiment, I think I re-learned some of my 28mm painting techniques that have been dormant. And discovered where to use each for painting 15mm figures.
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| Planting rice (or booby traps?) |
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| Waiting along the side of the road (Counting troops maybe? Hmmmmm?) |
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| Walking to the paddies (Is that an AK in that stack of straw?) |
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| Missed a mold line on the dude in blue....grrrrrr. |
Now get out there and make something happen on the battlefield! These force multipliers can do just that.
SonBae (AKA Jeff Flint) is a long time gamer and painter and runs a blog at Journey Back To The Table where he posts photos of his work, reviews, BatReps and the “Painting Miniatures Declassified” modeling and painting tutorials.
