Painting Updates - Napoleonic Forces

So, over the last few days and for the next few I'm trying to get a few more Napoleonic troops painted, so far I've managed the following (pictures to come!):

- Painted and finished the officer and accompanying Soldier for the British Regiment of Foot (I base them in pairs)

- Started painting the French Dragoon Officer

- Started painting the British Regiment of Foot Sergeant

- Started painting the British Highlander Standard Bearer (1 of 2)

Dystopian Wars - 4th Battle.

Today I played my regular opponent, Neal Barton at Dystopian Wars, utilising all the new models we acquired at Fly Another Day on Saturday. Most of my fleet still needs painting - so bear with me on that.

The game was played on a 4' by 4' board, with two small islands roughly 2' up each side of the board.

The Board mid-way through Turn 1

I started well, with both set-up and intiative falling to me first. 

Well, too put the whole event down to a few words, I got slaughtered. Neal managed to get 2 Magazine Explosion results, the worst thing that can happen as a result of a critical hit. One was on a Cruiser in the centre of the board, and damaged another. The second was on the Ruler Class Vessel, HMS Cooke.

My Ruler Class Battleships - HMS Wellesley and HMS Cooke

Neal's cruisers floated up my left flank, on the far side of the one island and I sent a few tiny flyers and my Capital Ruler Class ship; named HMS Wellesley, and two squadrons of 3 Frigates. 

The troublesome left flank!

Centre of the board, Torpedo bombers, along with a squadron of Frigates and HMS Cooke, close-in on what I consider to be certainly one of more deadly of Neal's squadrons, a Battleship and two cruisers in escort.

A few disasters then helped seal my fleet's fate; I didn't notice potential collisions and so lost 2 Frigates from one Squadron to my Ruler Class, and a Cruiser to my Avenger Class Fleet Carrier, the two of which had been moving up the centre of the board.

My Avenger Class Fleet Carrier, not just a supply platform for Tiny Flyers, these things pack a punch with Torpedoes and Turrets on the flanks!

HMS Wellesley collides with a squadron of Frigates, the game requires you to watch where your heading, as well as watching your opponents, thinking ahead is key, as I found out to my utter disdain...

The board as the first of the collisions occurs on the left, the right side of the board was much more free of ships compared to the left

HMS Wellesley at all stop, as the Carrier collides with the surviving Cruiser later in the game, the Frigates in the background were rammed by the approaching French Dreadnought!

One success belonged to my Olympic Class Troop Ship, the Merchant Navy Vessel; Collosus. It managed to fly up the board to the opposing island on the right flank and steal a Frigate in a boarding action, taking minimal fire from Neal's escorts and battleship, which were on the centreside of the island. The closeness of the second of my Ruler Class Vessels; HMS Cooke, helped deal with the three other frigates and damage Neal's Battleship.

The Collosus, Olympic Class Troop Ship

The Collosus swoops on it's prey! It suffered a few HP of damage en route, as shown by the counters.

HMS Cooke - My second Ruler Class Battleship

Overall, I believe Neal having ships as escort squadrons to his Capital ships, such as his battleship and Dreadnought, helped him win a decisive victory. The lucky critical hits that caused the magazine explosion results didn't help, and neither did the collisions caused by my poor navigation. It was still a highly fun match, and full of laughs at vessels destorying their own side by smashing them aside.

Dice and Decks Charity Event 2012 - Fly Another Day - What went on!

Yesterday (14th July), saw Dice and Decks Gaming Club run their second all day charity event for the West Midlands Air Ambulance and Macmillan Cancer Support. The day consisted of a 16 player Warmachine tournament, a Magic the Gathering Tournament, and a variety of demo games from the likes of; Bushido (which I got a starter set for - really nice models), Infinity (Ran by Square Orange Games, who were also selling a variety of products), Heaven's Fall by Casket Games, Kings of War and others besides.

The day started off around 9ish with players arriving, with organisers being there from around 8 onwards, despite a late night of organising and set-up the day before.

There was also a raffle and Charity auction ran by John/Von - who also played in the Warmachine tournament, and has a write-up here: http://kaptainvon.wordpress.com/2012/07/15/magnus-the-warlord/ 

Early estimates put the total raised for charity at around £1050, just £54 short of last year's total.

All in all, a highly successful day, I came away with yet more stuff to paint and build; including some Dystopian Wars reinforcements for my Kingdom of Brittania fleet; a Olympic Class Troop Ship (resembling the Titanic, and certainly a large ship in comparison to most of my fleet - and it has a massive number of windows for me to paint) these are troop carriers and so are premier at Boarding Assaults and re-supplying Assault points to other ships in the fleet, also purchased was another Ruler Class Battleship for a bit more of a kick in the fleet's firepower, and an Avenger Class Aircraft Carrier to hassle the enemy and provide support.

I also have as previously mentioned, a Bushido; Prefecture of Ryu starter box, and a few more British Steel Armoured Suits for my Secrets of the Third Reich.

Updates of the week.

This week I have been a bit slow on painting.
I've started painting more troops for Secrets of the Third Reich (one being the member of my platoon rifle squad carrying a Boyes Anti-Mech rifle).
In addition to this I have also finished another Infantryman for my Napoleonic force, and a Taliban insurrectionalist for my my Force on Force collection.
The Corporal for my first squad of the platoon that's started my Bolt Action collection has been finished, along with a rifleman. I'm very pleased with these miniatures and will add pictures over the weekend.

Secrets of the Third Reich - Update 2 of the week.

Last time I did an update on my Secrets of the Third Reich stuff was on the weekend, where I promised some pics, which are included here. I've done more than I thought this week so more models are done!

 I have also got at least two more of the Infantry Squad undercoated. It is worth noting I've named each model/character, and kept notes on which squad there are in and weapon they are carrying. This also helps with fiction and background storytelling (I'm in the process of writing a small bit of fiction for these guys as we speak.

Here's the pics, sorry about the focus, the lighting here at the moment is atrocious! (And I'm just rubbish at photo-taking!)

Here we have Sergeant Bryant of the Command Squad

One of my 2 Snipers (Very pleased with the camouflage!), not decided on which this is yet.

Lieutenant Everett, Commander of the force.

Private Moses, one of the most basically armed troops, with just a rifle!

Bolt Action - Warlord Games delves into WW2!

Having read the latest (July) issue of Wargames Illustrated and it's preview of Warlord Games' Bolt Action 28mm WWII game; I can honestly say that it took my interest. I then proceeded onto the Warlord Games site and had a nose around, I had noticed the game but never really paid enough attention before now.

The game looks very interesting; it is written by Rick Priestley and Alessio Cavatore, and features a main rulebook, followed by "army" books for each of the major partcipating nations; for example, Germany, Britain and the Commonwealth, America and Japan. I've read that each of these features a few variant lists; like Airborne and Mechanized forces as well as basic forces.

Having already got some 28mm WWII  miniatures for Secrets of the Third Reich, this game got my attention, and the miniatures available from Warlord for the game look very nice in my opinion, and feature a wide variation of vehicles and infantry sets.

The game rules come out in September and are swiftly followed by the army books.

I am very much looking forward to this game... now to attract some potential opponents....

Secrets of the Third Reich - Updates.

Hello again folks, I'd thought I'd go through some more recent updates to my venture into West Wind Productions Secrets of the Third Reich Weird WW2 Game. 

I've finished my platoon Lieutenant, and an Infantryman with Commando Carbine, gotten most of the way into painting the Sergeant in the Command Squad and started on a Sniper. I'll add pictures of these early next week.

Next Friday there is a demo game of Secrets of the Third Reich at my local club, and another game between me and my opponent from last week (if you saw my last post this will have been explained). This time we aren't holding back units and are deploying what we have; so Werewolves, HMG teams and snipers are all going to join the Infantry this time around....

Stay tuned for more updates soon.