Thursday, 28 February 2013

Spanish Houses Project III

Yay! The first four buildings are finished; filler on the bases, a slap of paint, some tufts, some static grass and some clump foliage. Voila! They've probably cost me about £1.50.









I think next up will be another batch of Spanish style buildings and then I'm going to go all adobe.

Club Night 22nd February - Blitzkrieg Commander

The game that was cancelled last week finally happened. Late WWII BKC in 10mm; British v. German, mostly Pendraken I think (they're Keith's figures). Keith (Vile Hun) v. Barry (More tea Vicar?); me umpiring (again!).

Germans:

CO (CV9), Recce Sdkfz 232, 2 x JgPz IV, 2 x Pak 40 w. Maultiers
FAO (CV7), 2 x 105mm batteries (off table)
HQ (CV9), 3 x Panther, 3 x Pz IVH
HQ (CV8), 9 x Rifles, 2 x MG, 1 x Mortar

Brits:

CO (CV9), 2 x 6lb ATG w. Carriers
FAO (CV8), 2 x Priests (off table)
HQ (CV7), 3 x Fireflys, 6 x Cromwells
HQ (CV8), 9 x Rifles, 2 x MG, 1 x Mortar

We only played 4 turns due to a late start, we'll finish next week. We played Encounter and the Brits struggled to get on to the table; for the first two turns they only had the FAO! The Germans had no such problems and swept on to the table and over the half way line with no opposition.

When the British armour finally made it onto the table it was heavily engaged by it's german counterpart and got the worst of the exchange. Both 6lb'ers were quickly detroyed and after two failed attempts to call in a strike the FAO was over run and fled. Oh dear...

The CV7 really hurt Barry until he learned to use his CO to help. He rolled crap all night too!

Some random photos from the game (we don't have any 10mm terrain!). I forgot the camera so they're phone quality.








Thursday, 21 February 2013

Spanish Houses Project II

I managed to move this project on a little further today; corrugated paper roofs and quick paintjobs.



Basing and fancy detailing tomorrow to finish...

Wednesday, 20 February 2013

Spanish Houses Project

I'd been doing a little every now and again on my 15mm SCW stuff (I really ought to post a few photos to show where I'm at) and I was conscious of the fact that I don't have any suitable 'Spanish' buildings. I always planned I'd buy some but a trip to 'The Range' has changed that...

I came back with 5 A4 sheets of white 5mm foamboard and a new project was born. I need 15mm buildings that I can use for SCW, Mexican-American War and modern skirmishes in Central America. So pretty generic white buildings with terracotta pantiles it is then.

Everything so far is cut from just one of my 5 sheets.


 
 


I nearly forgot the chimneys; I found some inspiration for them on the Empress Miniatures site, "Rustic Chimneys". I just need to stick on the corrugated paper to represent the pantiles and then I can paint and base them.

Saturday, 9 February 2013

Club Night 8th February - Saga

This week was supposed to be the start of a FoG game but we put it off because the club is having roof work done and we didn't want figures left out on our table while builders might be traipsing in and out. When we want something quick that needs no planning we normally turn to Malifaux or Saga. Saga it was then.

We've only played Saga perhaps three times before, with months between each game, so we can never remember the rules. (We abandoned one game because we cocked it up so badly!) To keep things simple we went for a 4 point game.

Keith (Viking filth) and I (noble Anglo-Danish) both went for Warlord, 2 Hearthguard and 2 Warriors for 6 dice. I took one lot of Hearthguard (Huscarls) with Danish axes.

We think the terrain generation rules in Saga are the biggest pile of crap ever so we just agreed on a table set up that was pleasing to our eyes. This meant that we'd ruled out a couple of the scenarios so we chose the standard 'Clash of Warlords'.

I won the role off to start deployment and here's what we ended up with...

Whole table from South


Anglo-Dane left flank then right flank



Viking right flank


Whole table from North (showing Viking left flank)


At that point the batteries ran out in my camera... Bugger!

The Vikings went first and swept forward along the whole line (though rather slowly through the wood). This allowed one of my Huscarl units to hit a Bondi unit in the flank but although the odds were in my favour some freaky defense roles led to a draw and the Huscarls falling back. It was my Anglo-Danes who made most of the offensive actions throughout turn two too but no real advantage was gained either way. The Viking Warlord hung back and hid like a big girl and would continue to do so for the whole game.

I went on to the defensive in turns three and four and a Bondi unit followed by a Hirdmen unit discovered the potency of Shieldwall combined with Hard as Iron. This left us both with one good unit each (he had more Hirdmen, I had Ceorls) and our Warlords as well as scrap ends of other units.

My Warlord had been left dangerously exposed as his Ceorl ablative shield died around him and finally succumbed to a charge by the Hirdmen, he took three of them with him but took five wounds himself (all in the front). Instant victory to the Scum from the North and their pansy hide at the back Warlord. Great fun and I don't think we got any rules wrong this time.

Only snag is I now have a yearning for some Byzantines...

Saturday, 2 February 2013

Club Night 1st February - Bolt Action

Three weeks in the planning, we finally managed our Bolt Action game at the club yesterday (Stoke Wargames Group). I left all my Last Valley bocage and trees at home by mistake so we moved the action to somewhere in Italy...

OOB's

Germans; Sean and Keith (Veterans):
PHQ
3 squads
2 MMG's
1 PzSchrk team
1 Pak 40
1 JgdPanther

British; Barry and Jim (Regular):
PHQ
1 FAO
3 squads
1 MMG
1 medium mortar
1 PIAT team
1 Firefly
2 Shermans

Both the British and the German defenders put as many troops as possible into Reserve. The Germans wanted to avoid the Preparatory Bombardment and to be able to rapidly deploy to hotspots; the British planned to send their Shermans on deep outflanking moves as usual...

German Deployment and Turn 1

 
The Germans deployed one MMG in the bunker in front of the southern objective, the JagdPanther and Pak 40 in front of the central objective and one squad with the PHQ in the building complex covering the most northern objective.

Someone FUBAR'd and the Preparatory Bombardment never came! The first wave of British came on in fine style over the whole front; the PHQ and FAO, all 3 squads, the mortar/spotter and the MMG.





Turns 2 and 3

As all the tanks were outflanking the only British Reserve unit to come on was the PIAT.  They advanced aggressively in the south but seemed to forget there was objectives to be accomplished in the north. The mortar spotter moved into the eastern-most building and started to look for likely targets.

The Germans waited until turn 3 to start their Reserve rolls to see how the action was developing. This led to the first shots being exchanged in the south between opposing infantry squads; the Germans coming off slightly worse.




Turn 4

The Firefly burst on to the scene in the south and wasted an awful lot of bullets on the nearest German squad to no effect (other than another Pin marker). The mortar spotter radioed in the location of the Pak 40 and it disappeared in a cloud of smoke; all four crew killed with the first shot.

The German MMG in the bunker opened up on a British squad emerging from behind the church, pinning them; they didn't manage to move again.

A German Reserve squad in the north took a burst from the British MMG who skillfully picked out the MG42 gunner at almost maximum range.



 Turn 5

The first regular Sherman arrived in the north, and also demonstrated the inadequacies of British MG training. The mortar spotter worked his magic again and his buddies annihilated a freshly arrived German MMG with their next shot.

The bunker MMG kept the squad in front pinned but another squad outside of its arc of fire continued to advance agressively. The JagdPanther brashly emerged from cover, driving into the river to take a shot at the flank of the Firefly... missing.

Turn 6

The Sherman in the north took the nearest objective as it's twin arrived in support. In the south the Firefly eliminated the JagdPanther in fine style. AT weapons were fired left, right and centre to no effect by both sides. By the end of the turn the Germans had very little left that could hurt a Sherman but were still holding two objectives and therefore winning... At this point the FAO (who had done sweet FA) came out of his coma and coordinated a barrage for... Turn 7. If there wasn't a Turn 7 then it would never come and the Germans would have won. 1-3 game ends, 4-6 play another turn...

Turn 7

As the bunker was assaulted, destroying the last German MMG, the Firefly took the southern objective claiming a draw; there was no way of getting to the central objective so surely that was it? No, we remembered the barrage and decided to resolve it before calling the game. FUBAR! The barrage scattered onto the Sherman holding the northern objective, if it could be destroyed then the Germans could rush the objective and win. The dice gods decided to let the Sherman off with a couple of pin markers however and the game was drawn.

Three games in now and everyone still LOVES Bolt Action! More soon...

(More piccies from no particular turn...)