Urdovnya: the setting

Urdovnya is my fictional Eastern Europe setting for my 40mms.  I eventually decided to ditch Chernarus and keep everything pretty fast and loose. It exists only to give a framework to games, and I may modify things to keep it flowing.  It is inspired by all sorts of things;  from the break up of Yugoslavia, Chechnya,  Georgia in 2008,  Operation Flashpoint, Rainbow Six and Ultimate Force.  A major source of inspiration has been Chris Peers' article on ACQ campaigns,  set in the Shirvan Republic...
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Urdovnya is an outlying province of the Shirvan Republic, lying between the Black Sea and the (Russian) caucases. The population is devided between the mixed religon (Christian and Muslim), Shirva speaking, Shirv and the predominantly Russian speaking, Orthodox, Urdov. Since the collapse of the Soviet Union, things have been tense with occasional riots and civil unrest. Trouble has escalated and Russia has been flexing its muscles about the safety of the 'Russian' ethnic Urdovs.  The Shirvan Government has moved troops into the region,  amidst reports of Urdov milita groups forming...

Chernarus Slogans & Grafiti

Having seen some of the Russian tanks in Chechnya & South Ossetia covered in grafiti and slogans, I thought I'd get some slogans suitable for my Chernarus games translated into Russian cyrillic (although, I think I may have done some of them into Ukrainian cyrillic...) Expect to see these on various vehicles (and possibly some scenery pieces) in the future... Death to the oppressor! = Деатх то тхе Опрессор! Freedom = Фреедом Sword of Allah: Сворд оф Аллах ChDKZ = ЧДКЗ CDF = ЦДФ NaPa=НаПа CMB (chernarus moslem brotherhood)= ЦМБ Free South zagorian = фрее соутг заґоріа! Down with the rebels = довн вітг тге Ребелс! Unite Chernarus! = Уніте чернарус!

Some Uniforms, Flags and vehicle markings of Chernarus

Although I gave folks a couple of links to background fluff/visuals for the Cernarus setting, I thought I'd collate a bit more info/original insperation for the Fictional Forces:

Chernarussian Movement of the Red Star (ChDKZ - prounounced "Chedaki")
Emblem:

Flag:

Assorted uniforms:

The ChDKZ  unsuprisingly has no set uniform, although they do have relatively good supplies of ex-soviet camoflague patterns and have recently suceeded in obtaining quantities of the russian 'Urban Reed'  pattern. Additionally, the occasional Ex-NATO pattern turns, usually bought from army surplus suppliers. Webbing is a similarly adhoc affair. Most fighters wear red patches on their upper shoulders to differentiate themselves from irregular fighters from NaPa and the CMB. 

Vehicles Types & Camo: As a general comment, vehicles are often ex-CDF (although some vehiclesh ave been bought of the blck market, these are often old and generally in short supply), with additional 'spray-can' camo and redm arkings to destinguish their new ownership. A black circle with containing a red star, the ChDKZ 'emblem' and red stars with out surroundings are comonly used, as is a red cross over the turret. The use of improvised vehicles by the ChDKZ has also been reported, and a full report will be compiled at some stage

Chernarus Defence Force (CDF)
Emblem:

Flag of Chernarus:

New Style CDF uniform:

The uniform was introduced to replace the older soviet-era fatigues which Chernarus had been using post independance, and which for many are strongly associated with the Civil war. Currently based on the Swiss alpenflage, the camo does works well enough in Chernarus' varied terrain, however plans are afoot to introduce an alternative scheme, based primarily on browns, but this is still at the design/acceptance stage.

Vehicles Types & Camo:

Nationalist Party of Chernarus (NaPa):,/b.
Embelem:

Flag:

Assorted uniforms:

NaPa have limited supply chains, and whilst the ChDKZ can atleast put the vast majority of it's fighters into the field in some sort of camo gear, NaPa lag behind. Fighters wear what ever they can get hold of - often army surplus from neighbouring countries - and make up the rest with civillian gear. The main identifying features of NaPa guerillas is their prefernce for face coverings to preserve anonimity when they return to their day jobs. The same limited supply lines apply to NaPa's armamaents, and as such a much wider mix of small arms is seen compared to some of the other Milita groups operating in South Zagoria.

Vehicles Types & Camo:

The T-34 shown in the picture was 'liberated' from a museum, but NaPa are known to have several which they have reconditioned from various monuments. NaPa's infrastructral limitations have enforced a more covert level of work, and their limited AFV resources match this.

Chernarussian Muslim Brotherhood (CMB):

Chernarussian types... Chernarussian Police

The only figures that I'm likely to do for these guys - they are based around 2 HLBS US Police officers. The only real conversion work was removing the sheriff's badges, and adding a mustache to the shotgun figure. All the rest was paint based. In an ideal world, I would have sculpted police caps onto them, but alas my putty skills aren't good enough. As for the shotgun, it seems most Eastern European Police forces seem to jump straight to the AK when extra firepower is needed... Still, it looks good and is not out of the realms of possibility. I've a 1/43rd police car turning up for these guys at some point...

A modern Eastern-European Imagi-nation...

I started thinking about doing a modern eastern european setting quite a few years ago; inspide by a mix of Operation flashpoint, the Rainbow six games, a recent trip to the Ukraine and vague memories of news reports from Chechnya & the Balkans. It's an idea that simmered for a while, with me picking up a few (28mm) figures here and there. At times the project was incorperated with my now long gone Near future games, at others it was seperate. Then Russian & Georgia had their falling out in 2008, and it all seemed a little to close to home and a tad tasteless.

I'm not sure what started the idea back off. What matters is that something did. 'Back in the day' I had always fancied the HLBS 1/48 figures, but I had decided to stick to just 28mm scale as it would make scenery accumulating etc easier. Having accumualted (and sold off....) a reasonable number of 28mm figures, and seeing that Airfix were planning a schlew of 1/48 releases over the summer, I decided to go for 1/48 afterall (especially as I'd read that they fit quite nicely with most 28mm scenery, especially if you squint, and that they'd also go well with 1/43rd scale cars of which there are an abundance). Except that HLBS had stopped making the figures about 6 months before I made this decision. Not only that, but the shelves were bare! A few great folks on the LAF rallied round, and so I've managed to accumulate some figures to use - not all ones that I would have chosen, and some are duplicates,  but it's going to force me to get creative... I've got a few 28mm figures for the setting too - mainly they are remenants from 'the last time', and a few figures from other projects which are usable. definitely not my focus, but every now and again there might a couple of them appearing as tests for camo-schemes and the like.

My original setting was going to be Urdovnya:

This Caucasian state became independent during breakup of soviet block in 19991, although it retained pro-Russian pseudo-communist government for 5 years before a peaceful revolution led to the introduction of a democratic government in 1996. Following this, Urdovnya was wooed by both NATO and the EU, which has led to an increasing westernisation which in turn has led to a growing resentment in the ethnic Russian population in the north of the country. In the summer of 2003 this boiled over into a series of riots and general civil unrest, however it was quickly contained, and through a series of measures to increase the representation of the Russian minority in the Urdovnyan congress. Tension continued to build, until in 2006 the Russian ethnic minority attempt to stage a coup to overthrow the existing government and press for a merger with Russia. Within weeks of the campaign starting, a rogue Russian General (Striorvich) sympathetic  to the cause and with hopes of reuniting Russia with its breakaway satellite states had crossed the border, bringing the weight of his forces in on the side of the rebels. The government forces, which had been holding their own until that point started to break up under the external pressure, with a changing emphasis to guerrilla actions on the part of the government and the much more dramatic involvement of militia forces.  External pressure eventually halted the Russian supported rebel forces, before they could fully occupy the country, but as things stand they hold the northern 1/3 of the country and rebel militia units and ‘technical advisors’ are still fighting in central Urdovnya (Caminsk region). The governmental forces have not been left solely unsupported however, as a flood of volunteer fighters  and mercenaries from across eastern Europe and the caucuses have rallied to their cause, including veterans of the conflicts in Chechnya and south Ossetia. There are rumours of NATO special forces teams being involved in an advisory capacity, aiding the Governmental forces. As a side note, there has also been an uprising in religious fundamentalism amongst the Islamic minority, which whilst not pro-government (instead preferring to see the institution of an Islamic state) are decidedly anti-russian (perhaps due to the realisation that if Urdovnya is integrated into the Russian Federation, the possibility of being able to set up an Islamic state becomes completely unattainable).

I even fleshed out some (28mm) figure lists as this was developped inbetween getting the idea and the support of the LAFers

Urdovnyan Regular army – Mix of TAG Russians and Mongrel Soviets to give an older, more rag-tag feel to the army. (Regulars equipped with soviet weapons and equipment, but have some NATO gear – EG a couple of ‘gifted’ M113 APCs). Cammo uniforms old ‘sun-blotch’ pattern and US woodland.  Wood sotcked AK-74’s + M16s

Urdovnyan Volunteer reserve – Not equipped to fight a mainstream conflict, the Urdovnyan volunteer reserveforce is non the less a paramilitary formation and has been drafted in to hold back the encroaching russianl army. Mongrel Afghan army,  Reserve uniform. Also include Police militsia in a different uniform, supporting the government forces.

Russian army – Mix of Red-star, TAG & Ratnik modern Russians, mixed modern camo (see below – Black-stocked AK derivatives

Rebel ‘regulars ‘  militia – as Russians, Wod stoced AKs, red arm bands . Preference for balaclavas, more military uniform elements than Urdovnyan militia

Urdovnyan militia – Red Star, TAG, Ratnik Chechen militia, TAG militia with western weapons, Mongrel Congo mercs, WW2 soviet partisans, a few Taliban for Muslim fighters , Maybe use some baker Co US special forces to add to the rag-tag ‘east meets west’ feel of the militia?. White arm bands. Lots of civllain gear mixed in

But i wasn't completely happy with it. Then I stumbled across the setting for the video game 'ARMA II' - Chernarus.

http://community.bistudio.com/wiki/Chernarus

This is effectively everything I had thought of, springing fully formed into my mind - complete with camo schemes, mocked up newspapers and video footage.

So Urdovnya was sidelined, and Chernarus chosen. I'm going to have to add an Islamic faction to use the Islamic militia I've aquired in 1/48th, but that won't take much work. I'm currently toying with calling them the 'Chernarus Moslem Brotherhood' AKA CMB AKA Mujahadeen.