Back to Africa – Ztumsia revisited and more re-basing

by Derek · June 5, 2011

About ten year’s ago many of us at the South East Wargames Club (SESWC) were heavily involved in a campaign using the AK47 rules from Peter Pig. We played the game intensely, probably about every second week, and many of us built up large collections of models suitable for use in Africa in the 1970s or 80s.

The campaign, set in a fictional version of West Africa, was great fun, if somewhat juvenile (see “Big Bessie” the worlds first monster truck technical below) , and I set up a website devoted to following its progress (beware broken links and rather bad photography). As with most of these things the campaign eventually ran out of steam and we all moved on to other things – though occasionally someone at the club will still break out the toys for a one-off game of AK47.

My own troops, a couple of hundred stands of infantry,all based on 1.25” square bases for AK47, and about fifty vehicles have been sitting idle for at least eight years now.

Enter stage left Force on Force from Ambush Alley Games. I first played this game at Claymore 2010 (Claymore is the annual wargames show run by SESWC each August) when I took part in a demo game run by Rich Jones of Surf Shack Games. It was great fun and I resolved to buy Force on Force when the new Osprey edition was released earlier this year.

Well I bought it, it looked good and I decided to set about rebasing all of MY AK47 troops so that I could use them for both AK47 and for Force on Force.

The AK47 rules suggest you use three models on 1.25” base while Force on Force works best with single based figures, at least that’s what I think, but you can also use figures that are multiply based. I decided to rebase all the three figure AK47 stands (left) as shown here – each one is being turned into a single figure mounted on a 1 Euro-Cent piece (right) and a two figure stand mounted on a 30mm circular base (centre).

Doing things this way means that I will still be able to use all the forces I built up for AK47, which works just as well using the circular bases as it does using the square ones, and I’ll also get several hundred models based singly which I can use for Force on Force. If I ever really need to field huge forces in Force on Force, then I can use the larger bases as well as the singles.

I use the models pictured above as regular troops from the People’s Army of the Nation and Tribes of Ztumsia (PANTZ) but I have plenty of other options. One of the reasons I like Africa as a setting for modern wargames is the sheer variety of troops available – everything from really bad, but often extremely brave, militia to highly professional Western forces. You can also use vehicles ranging from technicals to modern AFVs and the variety is even greater if you use a fictional setting like Ztumsia, which can be a very silly place indeed.

The Presidential Guard, hand picked by “Papa Deek” Donunga, President for Life of the People’s Republic of Ztumsia.

Regular troops from the West African Republic of Trans-Ztumsia (WARTZ), a state which bears more than a passing resemblance to Rhodesia in the 1970s

“Ghost Warriors” – religious fundamentalists from the highlands of Ztumsia. Doped up to the eyeballs on Ju-Ju Juice and wearing warpaint which makes them look like skeletons these troops cannot shoot straight. But they do not fear death and are extremely dangerous if they can get into hand-to-hand combat. They have been known fight on the side of drugs barons who manipulate them using fake prophets.