Farpoint: AK-47 Republic

 Hi!

I've been on holiday this week and have been to the Christian Aid book sale in George Street in Edinburgh. We've been going pretty much every year for over two decades now and its a family tradition, especially as we're all bibliophiles and this year was pretty awesome and I spent probably too much money on books I probably didn't need but the addiction is strong!

I've also received my copy of Mutant Chronicles Siege of the Citadel which is a lovely brick of a box which I spent yesterday rummaging around in and the rules seem pretty simple and entertaining. They feel a bit Space Crusadey which is good and there's a really interesting card mechanic for solo players too. 

No doubt I'll be kept entertained with it for some time, especially as the room tiles and figures will see double duty in games of Planet 28 but thats not the reason for todays post. Instead I'm looking at the classic wargame AK-47 Republic.

Aimed at playing warlord level battles in Africa in 15mm scale, I picked up the PDF of the game recently after reading quite a few battle reports and assorted bloggage about the classic edition being a rather fun game. While playing historical games in post colonial Africa isn't really my cup of tea, I did think that it could be useful for playing a quick, simple and characterful low tech sci-fi game set on a backward planet such as Farpoint.

With this in mind, I created a map of the unsettled region:

The primary foes will be Governor General Laars von Dorn with his government troops in Farpoint City who currently controls Toreday and Freiburg regions and Count Cassitor of Rdunrundt who is a despotic dictator who controls the Rdunrundt and Felvar regions.

Next up, I've created some flags for the two main factions:

The Blazing sun of von Dorn

The Black Hand of Rdunrundt

At this point I've become a bit obsessed and decided that I wanted a somewhat hapless peacekeeping force to try and stop each faction from killing one another so created the Galactic League Peacekeepers (I had been tempted to use the Imperium but felt it doesn't quite fit with the idea of a peacekeeping force...)

The Noble Galactic League

The rules provide you with several different types of forces to choose from which will effect the build of your army and with that in mind I settled on making von Dorn a Superpower backed client force and Rdunrundt a dictatorship. I'm seriously considering picking up the supplement for more inspiration for the Galactic League who won't immediately be making an appearance as hostilities between the dastardly Count and the noble von Dorn heats up.

One of the most interesting elements to the game is the Political Manoeuvring chart that you roll on which can radically alter, supplement or even hinder your forces but it makes for a really unique sort of an experience and I'm looking forward to trying it out.

Similarly, you must roll to see which of your units actually turns up for the game with reinforcements possibly never arriving and forcing you to try and make do with what you have. While this isn't the sort of thing that I imagine tournament players would enjoy, it does lend itself to some really characterful scenarios where one force could be caught flatfooted by an enemy attack and the border guards desperately trying to hold out until reinforcements arrive.

The plan is to put together the forces slowly over several months before expanding into adding the Galactic League peacekeepers or any one of the dozen or so other factions I've got floating around in my head.

I also plan on using primarily historical figures from Peter Pig for my armies, supplemented here and there with Laserburn bits and bobs and whatever other gubbins I've got lying around to provide vehicles and whatnot.

Count Cassitor

This will mean that no actual games will be played for a while but I do have a bit of a framework to work towards and we shall see how I get on going forwards. 

I have been rummaging around and have found quite a few odds and ends that can be put into use and am looking forward to seeing how I get on with the project and have some hopes that this will get my hobby mojo back as this year seems to have been a bit of a non starter thus far.

I'm also conscious of budget so will be limiting myself to the bare minimum for each months attempts and will be placing a small order with Peter Pig come payday for the initial unit as well as some much needed bases from Warbases (I'd originally thought of using 30mm round lipped bases as it would look nice but would struggle to get heavy weapon teams onto such a small surface and have settled on getting some 30mm round MDF bases instead).

Hopefully I'll get the first unit done for the end of June and will be able to keep the momentum going so until next time, All the best!