Delta 6

I am a member in a Fb-group called 'Super Cheap Wargaming', which is right up my alley regarding my interest for wargaming on a budget. Earlier this year another member of the group and game designer, Adam L. Dobbyns uploaded some very easy rules called 'Call of Plastic'. At first glance I thought these rules looked just too simple to be interesting, but I was curious and tried them out for a small skirmish wargame. The game revealed some few shortcomings, which I noted in my wargame review. Shortly after I registered that Addam L. Dobbyn had posted a new but more advanced version of the rules addressing many of my initial 'Cons'. This version of the rules was named Delta 6. I liked the simple 'Call of Plastic' so much, so trying out 'Delta 6' was a no-brainer to me and my expectations were high. Besides, after posting a battle report and wargaming review of Call of Plastic where I hinted that there also was a more advanced version of the rules, it was clearly in the comment-section that many readers were looking forward to them. -So here they finally are by popular demand:

The rules

The rules was posted in the mentioned Fb-group, but was soon removed again, as the designer only publish them temporarily for a short time at a time. I was lucky to save a copy, and the designer suggest you copy them when published. Click on the icons for larger images. They can be saved and downloaded to your computer:

The scenario

The Delta 6 rules is designed to be a very easy and fast play scenario based wargame based on smaller units. It doesn't actually tell you how many soldiers you can activate each turn, but in Call of Plastic which this game derives from, you can activate only 3 soldier each side, each turn. -So I decided to play it that way. Since it only allowing to activate 3 individual soldiers each side each turn, rather than several larger units I think this calls for a skirmish scenario and game. 

It's tempting to use 'modern army men' as the Delta 6 very graphical rules suggests use of modern weapons, some (Kevlar-) protection and 'modern (movie-) Heroes'. I've decided to interp the rules to be basically about ranged combat with generic weapons of different types, close combat and savings, and use them for what ever period I like.

I would also like to something to compare theses rules with, so I've decided to replay the scenario I've used for the wargame reviews of Chain Reaction, One Hour Skirmish Wargames and Call of Plastic. So again I've placed this skirmish to the United Nations largest mission in both scale and operational scope during the Congo Crisis 1960-65, when UN troops 'peacekeeping' was more offensive 'peace enforcement' with force. 

Situation: 

To secure the main supply route (MSR) between the UN-bases in Kamina and Albertville, The United Nations temporary deploy several traffic control  posts (TCP) at critical points along the MSR a head of the convoys and other priority transports, to avoid and handle 'disruptions'. This service are conducted by the Military Police, and each TCP are usually manned by a single Military Police patrol with a few members.

Place:

A head of several planned supply convoys from Kamina to Albertville at the 29th of May 1961, several TCPs are established by UN Military Police along the route. One of these Military Police patrols are securing the junction between Manono and Kitotolo located in the self proclaimed state of Katanga.

Forces:

On the contrary to the 'Call of Plastic' rules, what kind of weapon each member is armed with has importance in Delta 6. The M1 Garand is a very accurate semi automatic rifle, so I'll just use the same stats as for the 'assault rifle'.

• UN:
• 1 MP Patrol/ Traffic Control Post of:

• 1st. Sgt. Hicks with SMG
• Sgt. Wayne with pistol 
• Cpl. Dreyer with M1 Garand rifle
• Cpl. Cord with SMG

• Katangese:
  
• A small squad of 5 Katangan Gendarms:
• Cpl. "Crazy Gali" armed with a rifle.
• 3 members armed with rifles and 1 private with a SMG.

Mission:

• Katangese: To interrupt the UN presence and possible capture some of that UN equipment or weapons. I think they'd really like that Jeep too.
• UN: To hold and secure the junction so the UN convoy don't get lost on the wrong way and ends up in areas controlled by Katangese forces.

AAR

Time:    40 minutes

Turns:   7

Result:  Katangan victory as the UN MP's were forced to withdraw after suffering heavy casualties

When arriving to the junction Sgt. Wayne suggest that they take a closer look at the courtyard across the junction, as if it's safe it can eventually be used as a hold-and-turn area for those UN convoys passing later, to hold some of the convoys back, a place to do maintenance on them or turn them if needed. 1. Sgt Hicks agrees. As they have plenty of time before the first convoy are expected, they decides to have a closer look at the courtyard. The buildings looks empty:

Meanwhile the UN MP's are unaware that Cpl. Gali from the local Katangan Gendarmerie detachment are leading a small patrol approaching the same courtyard from the opposite side:

Cpl. Gali needs to secure both buildings to control the courtyard and road cross, and orders one of his Gendarms up on the roof on the building they're hiding behind. Then he orders 2 others to advance to the well to give cover and and supporting fire to secure the further advancement to the furthermost building of the yard:

As the 2 Gendarms reach their cover behind the well...

...they are spottet by by the UN MP TCP, and 1st Sgt. Hicks order his men to seek cover and open fire against any potential threat:

Sgt. Wayne, Cpl. Cord and Cpl. Dreyer immediately takes action and moves into cover and opens fire. They hit one of the Gendarms in cover behind the well, but none of the hits are critical:

Both the Gendarms behind the well return fire along with the Gendarm on the rooftop. They do not hit any of those UN MPs, but provide covering fire for one Gendarm whose making a run for the furthermost building:

1st. Sgt. Hicks advances and takes cover with Cpl. Dreyer. He fires and makes another hit on one of those Gendarms behind the well:

Sgt. Wayne and Cpl. Cord advances from soft cover to hard cover behind a stone fence. Luckily they just made it in time, as the Gendarm running across the courtyard successfully entered and secured the furthermost building, where he again spotted Sgt. Wayne and Cpl. Cord behind that stone fence. The Gendarm opened fire, but missed:

The rooftop Gendarm opened fire against 1st Sgt. Hicks and Cpl. Dreyer, but misses.

Cpl. Gali sneaks upon the corner of the building, takes aim and fires...

...and hits Cpl. Cord with a long range unsaved 'headshot':

The Gendarm in the building fires upon Sgt. Wayne, but misses again:

Sgt. Wayne runs towards his friend to check him out, but it's nothing he can do. Only being armed with a pistol, he grabs Cpl. Cords SMG...

...and opens fire and scores another hit on one of the Gendarms in cover behind the well. This Gendarm is starting to run very low on health now:

The Gendarm in the building makes another try to take Sgt. Wayne out, but misses anothertime:

One who does not miss is Cpl. Gali, who must be a skilled marksman and scores another long range headshot...

...which again is unsaved and takes Sgt. Wayne out of combat:

All the Gendarms concentrates their fires against 1st Sgt. Hicks and Cpl. Dreyer, while Cpl. Gali sneaks behind the building to get into a better position for another 'headshot':

1st Sgt. Hicks and Cpl. Dreyer gets pinned and both sides exchanges fire for a couple of turns:

Even if he improved his position, Cpl. Gali does not hit:

The Katangan fire is overwhelming, and 1st Sgt. Hicks understand that they have no chance of taking and holding this junction...

The MPs are pinned to their position by the Katangan fire, and moving out of cover will be very risky. 1st Sgt. Hicks orders Cpl. Dreyer to make a run for their Jeep, which they seeks cover behind and return fire:

The Jeep provide some cover from the massive Katangan fire. They have been heavily outnumbered, so if the UN MPs are going to have a chance at all, they'll have to try to get out of this situation:

They embark and starts up their Jeep and heads back towards the UN lines again while receiving heavy Katangan fire:

The Katangans missed and 1st Sgt. Hicks and Cpl. Dreyer will head back to their own lines again to warn their UN HQ about the Katangan ambush at the junction between Manono and Kitotolo, and stop any UN Convoys to get there. This is now a job for the UN infantry troops:

Pros

• The rules are free.
• The graphic rules makes this very easy and quick to learn and play. 
• You can play this game with any toy soldiers or readily available army men regardless of period or if they have modern guns and Kevlar or not.
• Rules for a generic selection of infantry weapons.
• The rules have an own appendix for different cinematic Heroes. I guess their skills can be transferred to any heroes.
• 'Fade to black' rule which gives your hero a second chance to re-enter the game if he's suddenly taken out by a 'head shoot'.

Cons

• The rules doesn't mention the turn sequence. As Delta 6 derives from Call of Plastic, I've decided to play it like the players roll for initiative, and move up to 3 miniatures each time. A turn is when all miniatures have had an opportunity to move.
• The rules are not clear concerning if a soldier can move + move or move + fight. Here I chose to follow the example from Call for Plastic again, and playing move + move or move + fight.
• There are no negative modifiers for moving over or through difficult terrain. A soldier will move as fast through or over cover as he would in the open.
• The rules suggests that the RPG has longer effective firing range than a rifle and a sniper rifle, which is not the case IRL regarding direct fire. This is a skirmish game (with limited ranges) after all.
• Regarding the available weapons these rules are 'soldiers rules', man vs. man, so there are no rules for vehicles etc.

Conclusion

This is still a very basic game, but slightly more advanced than it's predecessor. I think this makes the rules more interesting, challenging and playable. For wargamers not familiar with 'Call of Plastic' it would be easier to play this game if things like turn sequence, how many soldiers to activate and what they can do when activated would be included in the rules. With the available selection of weapons I think these rules will work for 19th, 20th and 21st century skirmish wargames.

Despite being only 20 small and very graphic pages, it also has a 'Hero appendix' for more scenario based and cinematic games. -I think I'll have to come back to these rules again. 

Remodelling a Permanent Way Department wagon

Last year I  bought a couple of really cheap wagons during a combined garden railway running session and swap meet. One of them was this closed gondola made by LGB. I liked it's design as it would stand out in my rakes and I thought it looked really nice with it's (working) hatches to keep it's cargo dry. I've seen wagons like these described as permanent way department tool wagons, sand wagons or salt wagons. In Norway a similar design was used as poudrette wagons. LGB also makes one of these models labeled for carrying soap. I'm not sure what it's made specific for except to carry bulk goods that needed to be protected from rain and bad weather somehow. I decided to use mine as maintenance of way wagon loaded with both sand and some few tools for emergency repairs, which seems plausible for railways operating under combat conditions. 

At first glance it looked grey and nice and something that would fit my grey-ish military G-scale rakes. At closer inspection it was clearly that the grey paint was applied poorly, too thick, built up in thick layers and was starting to flaking and the orange original color underneath was starting to show through several places. The wagon numbers was made with a vintage Dymo label maker.

Besides, despite all the hatches could open the wagon was not painted inside (where it was still all orange):

The inside of the wagon revealed that the previous owner probably had used this car for real sand loads:

This is how the wagon looked originally by LGB before being painted by the previous owner:

Some remodelling seemed necessary to bring this back to a what it was obviously intended to be; a grey 'Maintenance of Way' wagon. First I stripped as much of the old paint I could by soaking it in rubbing alcohol for a couple of days. The thick paint was really stubborn and it didn't have the effect I wanted:

Something more powerful was needed, so I soaked it in braking fluid:

It was so effective that it even removed the factory paintings and lettering underneath that thick coat of paint. Braking fluid seems to react with plastic and heavily stains it:

Then it was given a new coat of grey:

Since wagons like this has been used for tools and sand loads, I also 3D-printed some small details like different tools and 'sand inlays' I sourced from different free stl-files found online:

Some of the tools are from an old game my wife had as I kid, which I managed to salvage before it ended in the bin:

Then it was finally time to reassemble the wagon and paint it along with all the details: 

Still with a hint of 'orange'

Then it was time to bring everything together:

The sand inlays had a really thigh fit and I experienced some paint chippings when pushing them in. I usually do my painting this size with rattle cans and didn't have any matching colors to touch up the chippings. Then I remembered I'd read a tip by Mike at his Bunkermeister blog, which I decided to try out myself. -And viola; paint chippings fixed!

Taking a grey wagon and repaint it to grey and hide all the detailing inside doesn't call for the most spectacular before and after photo:

My wife was really thrilled when she saw how I'd used her old childhood game in this project. 

This weekend I'm up for a wargame, so next blogpost will probably be a battle report or a wargame review. Perhaps trying out the 'advanced Call of Plastic' by Adam L Dobbyn? Please follow this blog and get notification when there are updates. 

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Blog PostScript

Maudlin Jack Tar mentioned in the comment-section that the 'picking up tools'-game I've used also had a British equivalent. I found that there was a game named Jack Straws, which you still can buy replacement tools for. It looks like this old British version has the exactly same box-photo as the Norwegian one: