Send in the Marines!

Some time ago (five years?) I purchased some 15mm US Marines in the 1941 pattern uniform.  I had just finished painting a USMC E-series rifle company.  I have always liked the early war uniform, but after painting 150+ Marines, I was not enthusiastic about repeating that.

So these miniatures have sat in a box since then and I actually forgot about them.  I happened to pull the box of my shelf to look for something and there they were.  They deserved to be rescued from the limbo of my closet shelves, so I decided to paint them up.

My WWII game of choice is Flames of War (FoW), which does not have any Pacific supplements.  There is a FoW Yahoo group dedicated to WWII in the Pacific, but I have decided to 'build' the unit as a US Army rifle company from the FoW mid-war North Africa supplement.  That way I can use them in  regular FoW games.

So to start off with I will build a company command; two full strength rifle platoons; some mortars and a HMG platoon. 

The figures I have are made by Eureka USA (http://www.eurekaminusa.com/catalog.aspx?c=Wake%20Island%20Marines&cid=258&pageIndex=0).  They are very nice miniatures and I am anxious to get some paint on them.

Tim, they call him...

So last September, while going through the flea market tables at Gateway 2011, I ran across this little gem and its first expansion for $60.  I always wanted to give it a try so I picked it up.  It sat on my shelf until a few weeks ago when I got it down from my game shelf and arm-twisted a fiend in to playing it with me.

I have to admit we found the first game a bit frustrating mostly due to the command control card system.  You can't always get your troops to do what you want them to do.  At the end of the day the game 'felt' right.  Since then I have played a few more games and each once increases my enjoyment and respect for the system.  At first glance it would seem that the rules are too simple and the strategy is lacking.  What I have discovered is that the rules may be simple, but the strategy can be complex.

It can be a quick game and is very satisfying to play.  This is a new favorite of mine...

Tim, then call him...