BLA: Of Men & Monkeys

We're nearly done playtesting for our 'Early Weird World War II character-driven skirmish' gaming, and my Belgians are nearly ready as well.  This Friday will be testing out the balance of the force-composition and activation sequence options. 

I've had almost no personal painting time: just too busy with work & other aspects of life, so I've gone for a very simple speedy painting style for this force.  I guess not everything can be top-notch or I'd have a lot less done. And I can't spare the time for higher quality, too many commissions to paint at higher quality.. and I can't afford to hire myself!  ;) But for all that, I'm pretty happy with the overall effect. 

The BLA, Belgian Liberation Army, is the invasion force heading to Europe from the Belgian Congo. 

At the outset of the war, the Congo has become a de facto autonomous entity under the guidance of Professor Poireau. More on him in an update soon.  In his experiments to better mankind he has sought to improve the intelligence of the apes and monkeys of the Congo.  He has succeeded. 

But the force is not all non-human primates: there are brave Belgian men in the army, fighting shoulder to shoulder with the apes & monkeys to save Europe and bring about a better world.  

So let's take a look at these men:

I easily have enough for one squad of 10, with 2 sub-machine guns.  If I do add a light machine gun (which our rules allow for) it will be crewed by a team of monkeys.  Inter-species cooperation is a sign of an enlightened society.  If I pad them, i can get an extra 5 man squad or even two squads of 10.  

Machine gun teams. Our rules allow a force to have either a squad of machine guns or a light vehicle. 

I'll likely take a vehicle most often, just because it is fun, but these might see play sometimes instead. 

The field officers you saw at the top. 

Our rules probably won't accommodate more than 3 infantry squads, and since I plan to have some point-heavy vehicle & apes, I'll probably be using one unit of human soldiers and two units of monkeys, which is a good reflection of the background fluff. 

Up next time: Professor Poireau.