29 April 2016

A look behind the scenes



Since we are just beginning this journey I thought it would be nice to show you, the reader where the physical side of the Zangali project comes to live. This is my work station. This is where I build and paint the models and scenery. I like to keep everything at arms length so I can just sit down and work. My work station isn’t always as tidy as you see it in the pictures. When I start a new project, say a unit, tank or some bits of scenery I try to start with an empty desk but during the project I tend forget my Clean Desk Policy and there are bottles of paint, glue, sprues, etc, etc everywhere and I end up with a working space of about 12”x 12”. I have bought a lot of different hobby tools over the past 10 years and not in this picture is the mountain of stuff I have accumulated to use one day for a special project, a bit of scenery or just can’t part with. 

I currently use two types of paint. I still have a lot of citadel paints from the time I did a lot of Games Workshop but in the past 3 years I have made the transition to Vallejo paints. I have about 100 Citadel pots and about 150 Vallejo bottles I use. I have an airbrush that I use for priming and base coating infantry models, vehicles are painted mostly with the airbrush (Harder & Steenbeck evolution silverline) but I use a normal brush for the details on infantry models.


In these pictures you can see I’m doing a lot of Bolt Action. For the past 3 years I have made a couple of gaming tables, boxes full of scenery and 4 different armies. I have a British, US Marines, Germans and Japanese army and all armies range from 1200 to 3000 points. I have two Ikea Detolf cabinets in which I keep some of my painted models. Not really clear in this picture but at the bottom of the cabinets you can see my 40K Orks, my first love so to speak and they are still very dear to me. 

27 April 2016

RAZ Forces Moving North

Machete wars
In recent weeks we received multiple reports of violence in the northern regions of Zangali. Human rights watchdogs have voiced alarm of a series of attacks that can no longer be classed as "incidents". The Northern regions have a history of clashes between rival tribes and warlords. This doesn't seem to be the case right now. When rival tribes clash or when feuds between warlords are fought out there are hardly any civilian casualties. These "Machete wars" always have been fights between tribal soldiers from one region against tribal soldiers from another.

In the past few weeks several small villages have been attacked. Each time the attackers came armed with rifles and guns and seemed very organised. They have been quick and deadly, like a military operation. The attacks are carried out at night when everybody is asleep. In the morning the men in the village are either captured or killed. No one knows why they have been taken or where they are now. 46 men between the age of 16 and 50 have been captured and 17 killed.



President Anan has announced he will end the attacks and kill those responsible. A convoy of military vehicles has been dispatched to the North. They are on their way to the small city Nabali where they will set up a forward base of operations. Nabali itself has not been attacked but some of the small villages nearby are at risk. Patrols in the region should track down the criminal gangs soon.

25 April 2016

Africa Cup 2017 News




In order to qualify for the African Cup of Nations 2017 in Gabon our Zangalions need to book results quickly. The first 4 matches of the qualifying stage have all been lost. Our neighbors in Liberia hold the best cards for going to the tournament.

Stade d'Olympique in Abate
Last nights game vs Zwasiland was the best opportunity to score our first points but unfortunately we lost the game 1-4. The President who was watching the game from the presidential lounge, met with the players after the game. He did not blame them for the disappointing loss. Our Zangalions still play all home games in the old "Stade d'Olympique" in Abate but the new Stadium in Batongo is almost finished. Once we get a decent stadium the results will come.
Qualifying stage standings Group B

the Zangalions
The 1-4 loss was another setback for our hopes to go to the Africa cup in Gabon next year but the positive to take from the game is that we scored our first goal in the qualifying series. Our striker Abousa Dembebe managed to score the penalty that was given in the 81st minute. The decisions to give the penalty was contested by the Zwasiland players. They did not think it was a hand ball and in the argument that ensued the referee from Mali gave the centerback defender Dibi Amasous his second yellow card. Unfortunately there wasn't enough time for the Zangalions to come back against the 10 Zwasiland players. After the match our supporters were disappointing with the loss but were very happy with the first goal, the first of many to come...

In this mornings news show our president Ime Anan said that last nights game was the perfect example of how peaceful the country is now. Anan: "Even when we lose a game we don't lose control. No riots have been reported, no arrests were made. I hear people say we should be concerned by the recent reports of violence in the north but saw nothing to be concerned of last night. We are one nation, one people, loving our country. The people can sleep safely, no need to worry"


In our next show: Troop mobilization in military base "Port Espoir" have been reported but are  yet unconfirmed.




22 April 2016

The start of an Imagi-Nation

Black Ops demo by Guy Bowers
It was only a couple of months ago when I was at a Dutch wargaming convention called Poldercon that the seed of creating a fictional nation of my own (Imagi-Nation) was planted. I have always been thinking of cool scenarios and rules for wargaming in a modern setting but I just never started writing things down, I didn't even had any modern range miniatures. For the past three years I have been really busy with Bolt Action and promoting it in the Netherlands. I have a few demo tables, a ton of scenery and four different armies but all WW2. Before that I played a few different games and all in all I have been wargaming for nearly ten years.
Osprey - Black Ops

At Poldercon I was doing another demo for Bolt Action and I got talking with Guy Bowers who was doing a demo game of Black Ops for which he wrote the rules. The game looked fun and eventually I sat down for an hour and let Guy talk me through the rules. Boy it was fun! I went straight to the Stand of Imaginative Miniatures who were also at the convention and were selling the Black Ops rulebook. Of course I asked Guy if he could sign my copy which he did.

In the weeks that followed I started doing some research to see what modern rule sets were available and during my search I also found some blogs about these weird African Imagination countries. Bongolesia, Zugando & Natonga to name a few. I thought this was a wonderful idea, you just make up your own country and regime and throw in some cliche characters with a unique background story and place your wargames in that scene for which you can use multiple rule sets.

Then I also received my copy of the Wargames, Soldiers & Strategy magazine (issue 83) which was all about modern wargaming and even has an article on creating your own Imagi-Nation. This issue came at precisely the right time and I started thinking about my own Nation, I had to think about names, places, characters and a complete story and the more I got into it the more I enjoyed it.

As a result I now have a ton of raw material for stories and scenarios for the following months. A lot of modern 28 miniatures to paint and I have already built a complete Jungle table including mountains, a river, a guerrilla camp and a lot of jungle terrain. I can't wait to get playing and tell you guys all about it.

Make sure you visit Zangali once in a while to keep up with the News, Battle report, scenery building, tutorials and loads more.

Guy Bowers vs Richard Clarke
Here's a funny picture I don't want to keep from you. Guy Bowers (black ops) and Richard Clarke (Chain of Command Fighting season) were talking about their games. Both telling eachother their games were the best (tongue in cheek). well let's say it was a very amusing hour seeing these guys duke it out and just having fun. Great lads!


19 April 2016

Welcome to Zangali !!!

Here's the very first post of what's hopefully going to become a fantastic journey. Here we start our trip in the Imagi-Nation "Zangali". A place full of history. We will fight many battles here using a couple of different rule sets for modern wargaming. I will build a couple of gaming tables, some scenery and of course paint a lot of models. Join us, here in darkest Africa!
President Ime Anan of Zangali
It is only fitting that you, the first guests here in Zangali are welcomed by our beloved President Ime Anan.

Please come back soon because we have many stories to tell and people you should meet.
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