I got a £25 Amazon voucher for Xmas and I blew it on a pair of 15mm LVT-4 Amtracs from the Flames of War range for use in the French Indochina war. This may seem a bizarre divergence from my current wargaming pursuits but, in actual fact, is something I’ve been interested in for years. I already have loads of the Pendraken 10mm range for this but that’s waiting for a suitable set of company level rules to appear, so the 15mm stuff is destined for platoon level skirmishing. I have a number of rules that would be ideal for this, with Nordic Weasel’s No End in Sight as the front runner.

The plan is to use the Eureka range of 15mm figures for the French and Vietminh, a stash of which I found on eBay years ago. These will be based individually so that I can use them alongside the amphibious vehicles for skirmish scenarios on a small, custom made 2′ x 2′ terrain board, with a focus on the operations of the Groupement Amphibie. This has always appeared to offer a lot more than the ubiquitous Diem Ben Phu set up which seems to dominate any wargaming approach to the French Indochina War. It’s a different take on my Britain’s Small Wars idea but I will be re-using the terrain for all sorts of things, so it won’t be a one off or dead end.

I have also taken advantage of the QRF sale to grab some M29 Crabes, so that I have enough transport for a decent platoon sized patrol or raiding force. This is what finally persuaded me to get this project to a point where I can kick it off as, until fairly recently, no one made a Weasel in 15mm. These were pretty ubiquitous in the conflict and almost essential as transportation and fire support for amphibious operations. I may have to do a bit of conversion work and find some crew for both the Alligators and the Crabes but it’s a pretty good starting point for the project.

Bof!