Catch Up 3 - Weird War II

 

I was the first person to bring Bolt Action to our club, early in first edition, but as usual I had to go about it differently and I did it in 1/72 scale. When others developed an interest they all went full Warlord and my poor British and Germans got left behind. They've seen a few games of Iron Cross or Chain of Command over the years but things have been quiet for them. Until now...

I flirted with the idea of Konflikt 47 and Weird War but it wasn't really doable in 1/72. Until now...

Enter stage left my 3D printer and a ton of free (or at least cheap) Weird War STL files. Add to that an awesome set of rules in the shape of Xenos Rampant and it's full steam ahead!

I was nearly sucked into K47 second edition, but the new fluff / lore is awful so the idea was swiftly rejected, and I'll create my own narrative for scenarios and a campaign kicking off in '44.

I found a lot of free STL files intended for Dust-48 and a few weapons that looked the part that could be sliced in, starting with some Pz IV's and a Panther. All of them have historical turrets that can be swapped in anytime.

3 Pz IV's, two with rail guns and 1 with a gravity projector

Closer look at the gravity projector

The panther with a gravity projector, in a heavily converted turret

The last vehicle for now is a spider Panzer with auto-cannon. The crewman is plastic from Valiant. In common with all the other vehicles here, it needs balkenkreuz (?) adding to finish.

It's not all about the vehicles of course! Occult forces are at play and the Dead are restless... Here are my Wehrmacht zombies from Kyoushuneko Miniatures.

This weekend I'll be statting up two simple Late War forces without Weird War assets for Xenos Rampant to give the rules a try. Then the weird stuff will trickle in over the course of an escalating narrative campaign. Next time, the German's achieve interesting results tampering with DNA!

Catch Up 2 - Middle Earth Wargaming (MESBG and SOBAH)

 If I'd restarted this blog a month earlier, Middle Earth wouldn't have even featured. Mourning the loss of Forest Dragon STL files on Patreon, I spent an evening looking at where else I might  spend my money and was drawn to Davale Games who do a wonderful range of proxies for GW's Middle Earth range.

I haven't played MESBG in a long while. I'm not sure if I've totally skipped one or two editions of the rules but my last game was definitely pre-Hobbit and possibly even pre-blog!

Regardless, I had to (re)start somewhere so I've bought the latest edition of the rules and found an excellent online army builder. Despite the fact that I have fully painted Dwarf, Moria, Rivendell, Minas Tirith and Mordor armies I have decided to hit the ground running with matched forces for Arnor. I have the very old supplement from eons ago and I'm currently putting together the forces to be able to play all of the narrative scenarios within.

I'm also looking to downscale and play small games using Song of Blades and Heroes, and possibly upscale as well, to play games with Midgard and/or Dragon Rampant.

Needless to say, I've gone in to this with all guns blazing but I'm only sharing figures I've painted. The grey resin mountain in my wargames room is my business, not yours!

First up, Buhrdur and his buddies. The scenarios I want to play needs three Hill Trolls and their leader Buhrdur (Arathorn slayer!). GW produce lovely models covering everything I need but at £72 for three figures it was never going to happen! Enter stage left Davale Games and their wonderful proxies...

This is my Buhrdur proxy...

And these are his two Hill Troll buddies that the scenarios demand...

I'm pretty stoked at how they turned out. 😁😁😁😁

About 20 years ago, no exaggeration, I bought a bunch of  GW Dunedain / Rangers of the North (RotN) at a wargames show, getting there about 5 minutes before my mate Sean who would have snapped them up. No problem if I slap some paint on them and get them on the table so we can both use them, right? Yeah, that never happened, but 20 years later I've got the first six done (and the rest undercoated).

The latest edition has combined RotN and Dunedain into one profile. Fair enough, as the only difference was armour (+1 Df to the RotN). To differentiate between them I have chosen to depict the RothN with grey cloaks with chain mail and the lower Df Dunedain in green.

I present, 20 years after purchase, the first six Dunedain...

Well, it's a start... Time for a little scrap using SOBAH!

Catch Up 1 - Kings of War

 So most of my gaming activity these days seems based around Mantic's fantasy rules, Kings of War.

I started around the time 3rd edition launched and mainly focused on the Undead and more recently, Abyssal Dwarfs. I've dabbled in the Trident Realms on the way too. Other armies are sitting in boxes and drawers but haven't seen the table yet. My first tournament is just around the corner! I'm also running a 6 player map campaign, which I'll be posting about in the near future.

I had big plans for KoW but the imminent launch of 4th Edition has caused me to rip them all up. The army that I'm playing in the Campaign, the Herd, is almost certainly going to be trashed in the new army lists. Also the army I wanted to play in the tournament will not be possible under the new composition rules so a rethink is needed! There's already Undead and Abyssal Dwarfs in my Campaign and I don't want to double up, so the quickest thing is probably going to be boosting my Trident Realms to 2300+ points.

https://www.manticgames.com/kings-of-war-4th-edition/

More on all of this shortly!

AND HE'S BACK!!!

 For real this time, honest!

I've tried getting this blog to lurch into life a few times over the last few years and it's never happened, but I have a slight advantage this time. I've gone part time / semi-retired since I last blogged so now have a little more time on my hands.

It's difficult to know where to start? I certainly can't pick up where I left off as almost nothing from my old projects has come to fruition and much of it has been sold on.

Best I start with a series of Catch Up posts I think...

Panzer March! TANKS 15 mm skirmish game

Well, I'm away on holiday in my caravan for three glorious weeks! I've brought plenty of painting with me but a long painting queue was never a barrier to further purchases. We popped into Taunton for the day and I found a fantastic hobby shop, Krackers. I've rarely seen so much crammed into such a small space, with the possible exception of my wargames room back home. As usual there was the psychological battle when faced with RRP prices and the knowledge of the savings available online but decency prevailed, the wallet came out and I did my little bit to keep a bricks and mortar store open.

I walked out with the starter set for the tabletop game Tanks. I tried to purchase this at a show when it was first released but they'd sold out when I returned to the stand later in the day. To increase the replay value I also purchased the Pz IV and StuG III expansions. It took a couple of evenings to assemble the models and although they're not painted I'm looking forward to my first game. The models went together very well and really look the business.

The starter set includes a Panther and two Shermans with enough spare parts to allow them to be fielded with 75mm or 76mm guns. There's cardboard terrain included in the set and the only disappointment was that there was no play mat.  I'd convinced myself that there was a cheap paper one included, never mind. More soon...

More Ponsonby's.

The last two trays/companies of infantry for my ECW regiment were finished this afternoon. Ponsonby's Regiment of Foote might not be their final name but as a working title it'll do for now. Once I get these home I'll base the whole regiment and sort out a standard.

I need to assemble the cavalry now...

Ponsonby's Regiment of Foote

A project embarked on since my last real post, English Civil War in 28mm. My son-in-law is a recent (and enthusiastic) convert to wargaming and I agreed to join him in this endeavour, ECW being something he's always had an interest in.

We went halves on a Warlord Games starter set and a few extra command figures. He painted his very quickly but sad to say I have kept him waiting... :( Still, I have my mojo back, have started to paint again (enjoying it!) And have made some good progress.

Initially at least we're planning on using File Leader as our chosen rule set. Infantry are on 'trays' of six figures representing a company. Our simple regiments will have four trays of musket and two of pike. Officers are based separately.

I painted the first two trays months ago but things stalled as they always do. Anyway, today I finished the musketeers for the other two trays and started the pikemen. I'll base them all at the same time at the end.

I'll get onto those pikemen right now!