Belgian Liberation Army : now w Dust Gorillas pg2 (8/22)

[Laughing Ferret]

Locally we've been gearing up for some Weird World War II, early years setting.  Aiming for character-centric largish sized skirmish gaming of 3-5 key characters, 2-3 squads and a choice of heavy weapons team or vehicle.

I came up with a lot of different ideas for possible obscure or under represented forces and finally decided on the Belgians.  Usually weird WWII seems to focus on the major forces of the war: German, Britain, Soviets & US. That's fine, but this seemed like a chance to do something different and develop my own background for the force.  

The Belgian Liberation Army (BLA) is a force from the colony of the Belgian Congo, invading Europe, hoping to help turn the tide & stop the war before it grows to a proportion that brings about a new dark age.  That is the belief of the commander, Professor Maximilian Poireau.  A genius in the fields of theoretical physics, energy fields and biology.  His goal is to find a way to improve upon the fundamental nature of humanity itself before it destroys itself.  However, the war is an immediate problem that must be dealt with, so he's created and trained non-human primate soldiers with comparable intelligence to man, to have a strong enough force to accomplish what must be done.

There is more background on the Blog, updates are under the Belgian Liberation Army label, of which the latest is the background on the Professor himself, here:  http://laughingferret.blogspot.com/2011/08/bla-professor-poireau.html  -Far more text than I'd want to fill the forum with  

Here are some pictures of the BLA so far:

The Professor, Octavian & Beatrix


Belgian Soldiers

Still to come: Monkeys, Apes, and finishing the Greystoke Walker:



The BLA: saving the world, for all of us.

[Belgian]

Just great!

[mysteriousbill]

I like this. It makes a lot more sense than Nazi Apes. I know they are in the WWWII literature because of a few that appeared in Hellboy, but how would the Reich ever get more than a few apes from Africa through enemy lines.

[Whiskyrat]

Great idea and Nemo Poireau is brilliant.

I'm looking foward to the next installment and to see what you do with the "Monkeys".



As a side comment you may want to "pimp" Octavian's gun a little - it looks a little too modern.

[Plynkes]

What's with the white guys in WWI French uniforms? The Belgian Congo really did send her sons to join the fight against Fascism.


They looked like this:

Force Publique askari, Forces Belges Libres.


For white Free Belgian Forces you might want to use British Commando figures:

4 (Belgian) Troop, No. 10 Inter-Allied Commando.

Or ordinary Brits for the Brigade Piron.

I know, I know, I'm being Captain Button-County again, aren't I? It's just pretend VSF WWWII.  

Trouble with Free <insert name of country> Forces is that they tend to just look like Brits or Americans, I suppose, as that's who they got all their kit from. Doesn't really make for a visually appealing, different-looking force from the normal "big guys", so I can see why you'd want to go in another direction with it. Still not sold on that French Horizon Blue, though.

[Mr.Marx]

M16 monkey aside, I think it looks like a lot of fun. I really like the warmachine chap.

great looking stuff.

[Laughing Ferret]

thanks for the feedback!

'Monkeys' ah yes.. I did grow up watching the show, so I often think of that too.. one of the monkeys will have to be named Nesmith 

I had thought about askari or commando-appearance troops, but I figured this is a small operation (we're doing just skirmish gaming) so the soldiers would be a select group of Belgians returning home & non-human primates accompanying them. Most of the Askari troops & Belgian nationals would remain in the Congo at this point.   As for commandos, I have always loved the look of the Adrien helmet, so I went with those instead.  I'd seen a picture of a Belgian WWII soldier in the faded blue, and it just seemed more interesting to paint than the typical military drab browns, olives & greys.. plus I figured the blue would help contrast with the monkey fur.  

[Laughing Ferret]

Speaking of the monkeys.. here they come.. (cue music)   (sorry, couldn't resist)


The monkey commandos.

More detail shots here:http://laughingferret.blogspot.com/2011/08/bla-uplifted-monkeys-of-congo.html

I've always liked monkeys so it was nice to have an excuse to pick up the Eureka minis.
Weapons are more modern, but Poireau is a genius, and a monkey would need a lighter weapon than a human, so new, lightweight weapons would need to be made.  Octavian's M-16:hadn't given it much thought beyond perhaps he's got a prototype weapon, seeing how he's a character and the only chimpanzee in the force

[Skrapwelder]

Great looking guys and they proved very formidable in combat last night. They gave my MI 13 boys a monkey beat down.

[infelix]

They look great, I've been considering buying some of them for a while but haven't found any good pictures of the until now, they will fit in perfectly with my SoTR Russians

[Laughing Ferret]

Great Song Skrapwelder: Zevon is very fun.. too bad your werewolves are going in the German army you're planning- if in your Brits you could have had Werewolves of London for their soundtrack.

The game went pretty well, I think it is striking a good balance between Squad & Character focus.
I got some good pictures and will do up a battle report later

[Laughing Ferret]

Finished the Battle Report here:  http://laughingferret.blogspot.com/2011/08/bla-battle-report-test-driving-monkeys.html[/b]
 More pictures & details there:  it's fairly long, so I won't put the whole thing up in here, but here are some highlights:


The British MI13 Commando Force with Union Jack and a Druid who I think was named Seamus.. or were they calling him "shaman"? was hard to hear over the gunfire.


The Beglians.  Now with more Gorilla in every platoon.


Wrecking Crew.


Belgians battling Druidic summoned smoke elemental


Clash of titans.  Watch were you point that cigar.


The final firefight: the British would take the brunt of hurt from this exchange.  The Gorillas finally got a point of damage onto Union Jack, but that looked like it'd be a long fight.  Seeing that the majority of British forces were out of action, Jack called for a retreat and the exercise was drawn to a close.

[Whiskyrat]

It looks like it was a fun game ...... nice re-cycling of Mentor Freezer. 

[Wachaza]

Love the Apes. Very nice use of the miniatures. Quality stuff.

[richarDISNEY]

Yea!  I had a blast!  Thanks for the loan of the squad!
I'd would have bought my own if Skrap told me not too...
Your apes really gave that walker a good ole fashioned 'rippage'.