Update - 2nd and 3rd Weeks of June 2013

Hello again folks,

As always, I've been busy on the hobby front. I have been beavering away with Bolt Action with another game in the bag, as well as the assembling of more 28mm British Soldiers.
Although on Sunday 16th June I took a few friends and had a crack at Airsoft - at a local Airsoft place called C3 Tactical near Longhope, Gloucestershire. It was a really great day out, despite the exhaustion it bought on. I would love to carry on playing it.

In project news, I have been busy building Commandos to try and help me win a game of Bolt Action, as my second game ended with another loss. I played a fellow British player, as we were the only two attending last week's Dice and Decks Club meeting with any Bolt Action.
 

The battlefield just prior to the start of my second game of Bolt Action by Warlord Games. The building in the centre of the field is mine and comes from a company called 4Ground and is a fine piece of terrain for any game.

 I took a Veteran list, and so was low on numbers, the game was a decisive loss, ending with both my officers dying when a Churchill tank rammed the house they were in and bought it crashing down around them!

My force for my second game of Bolt Action, I bulked some the numbers using models from West Wind Productions Secrets of the Third Reich 28mm game. Although the models are far larger than the Warlord Games models, they can certainly be used temporarily!

 I have decided to make 2 squads of 10 Commandos, using the remaining five men in the set to make officers/medics etc as needed.

I'll be updating as usual this coming weekend after I've built some more Dwarves for a game of Kings of War this Friday at Dice and Decks Gaming Club. Until then folks....

Updates - First week of June - First Game of Bolt Action

Hello once more,

I've been busy this week on one specific project this week.

Having been nagged - I have finally cracked on and built more troops for the 28mm World War 2 game of Bolt Action by Warlord Games. Focussing mainly on British to help get the hang of the game by providing some reinforcements during a game last night (Friday 7th June) between two fellow Dice and Decks Gaming Club members.

By last night, I had managed to get enough troops together for the following:
1 Regular First Lieutenant
1 Sniper Team
1 Regular 8 Man strong Infantry Squad with 2 SMGs and 1 LMG
1 Sherman Firefly Vc tank

Emergency army list planning on the night!

My Officer (near left) and the 8 man infantry squad

My Sherman Firefly

Sniper Team

These added up to 551pts, and the entire lot ended up on the battlefield. Along with the following from the other British player;
1 17 pounder artillery gun
1 Artillery Observer
3 x 5 Man Infantry Squads with SMG and LMG
1 Light Mortar Team
1 MMG Team


The battle was 884pts vs 889pts - Germans under one person's command, and the British, who were under mine and another's command, so a split force. With the German side of the game consisting of the following units;
1 Panther Ausf G
1Command Squad and Artillery Observer
2 x 5 Man Infantry Squad
1 Sniper Team
1 Light Mortar Team

A look at my fellow British commander's force (well, a bit of it)

Me and the other British Commander got destroyed - the Sherman failed appallingly in taking out a Panther Ausf G, and was subsequently destroyed, signalling a huge threat to my side of the board, which was split by buildings, hedges and woodland. In transpired that the 17pdr gun on my fellow commander's side was not in position and by the time the night ended we still had men on the one side of the board, but my side had been obliterated. Not helped by the Lieutenant being charged into a building and trying to take on 5 German soliders by himself and failing dismally in the process.

The board just as we got going

My Lieutenant makes a break in to take on the Germans inside

He finds the German squad on the second floor and enters Close Combat

The Sniper team provides support as the Panther rolls on unopposed!

My infantry squad tries to reach the building

Snipers move off across the board

My fellow Brit player's infantry goes to take on a German squad

The Germans scarper off road the board avoiding the majority of the British infantry ready to ambush

I did however, despite the loss, enjoy a great game and one that I got the hang off quite quick off the mark and was a great deal of fun to play - although scenery seems to be key to having a good game, and I think if the board hadn't been as scenery covered as it had, it would have been a much quicker and even more one sided game. I highly recommend fellow WW2 wargamers to have a crack at it from www.warlordgames.co.uk.

Updates on projects and Kings of War Battle Number 3

Hello once again folks,

I've finished University and am back at home and still assembling Dwarves for Kings of War, and a variety of other stuff as usual.

The Dwarves have been slowly cracked on with, with my first Ironclad unit now completely assembled, my big horde of 40 Riflemen is near completion and I've started assembling my Phalanx of 40 Bulwarkers, which are proving to be far more interesting than originally planned.

The unit is on a 10 wide x 4 deep movement tray, so it's a traditional looking wide frontage unit for spearmen, the spears are metal and come from Ebay, I have chopped them down so each comes out at about 5cm including the held section. The front two ranks are holding spears out to hold off attackers, and the back two are holding their spears up in the air.

The rest of the force still need to be assembled, two more units of 20 Ironclad or possibly a horde of 40, another cannon and then I'll need to start painting the whole force, which currently stands at around 150 dwarves (I think, having lost track somewhere last week).

Last night (24th May) I once again played Kings of War, against an Undead army consisting of a horde of 40 Skeleton Spearmen, 2 units of 20 Skeletons, 3 Units of Revenants, 3 Catapults and 3 Liche Kings. I was resoundly beaten this time, making my current tally, 2 victories to 1 loss. Which isn't overly bad, yet. The horde of 40 Spearmen really trashed my army, and nothing in my army seemed to be having a good day, as the dice weren't rolling the needed rolls, and so Cannons were missing, melee attacks were fluffed, and rifles were rubbish. A combination of bad deployment, regenerating Undead, and sheer volume of enemies with bad dice rolling on my part and good dice rolling on my opponent's part led to that disaster.

However, I continue to paint and assemble, hopefully having a fully painted and assembled force will lead to better luck on the tabletop, I have started painting more of the assembled Dwarves, including the now fully assembled Ironclad unit's champion, who unlike the rest of my painted Dwarves (which is around 4 or 5 at the moment), is Blonde, not Ginger/Brown as background describes, although I may Ginger-ise it a tad to fit in more later on.

However, as is standard practice with me, I have another project or several on the go at once, and this time I've actually planned what my next is going to be: 28mm Halo (based off the video games and sorrounding fiction - big fan of all). My inspiration came when I got some Mantic Enforcers from the open day two weeks ago, and found the armour seemed very similar except for the head area, but this has been rectified, Defiance Games USMC Marines look exactly like Halo UNSC Marines except for some very minor differences. 

They also come with enclosed helmets as well as open faced ones, and these enclosed ones are going to be used on the Enforcers to make 28mm Spartan IVs (since in Halo background fiction these are the most numerous and varied of the Spartan Supersoldiers and still have a future in the games, but the Enforcers look like Spartan IIs in term of height and bulk, much like the main character from the games, who is the last one in the fiction that the player has seen).
I have also ordered some extra Halo-style heads from Pig Iron Productions that I feel are suitable, which arrived a few days ago and so I have put one test model together:

Very Halo-esque, these will be mixed in theory to generate a more unique feel to each of the models

Bad focus, but you get the idea of what I'm aiming for

 So watch this space, I'm planning to have some fun with this one.....