End of November/Start of December 2015

Hello again folks,

This Friday just passed (27th November) I played another game of Bolt Action against one of my regular opponents. My German army vs his British army, this time, the forces were a standard selection of both infantry and armoured vehicles. Highlights from this game included, my Officer unit once again destroying more than their fair share of enemy infantry, and my heavy howitzer, which was critical in stopping the enemy advance on the right flank, destroying half an infantry squad in the first turn, and then blowing up an enemy tank in the third turn. Although as seems to be a regular occurrence, my Tiger tank was destroyed by a Cromwell tank, but this was then destroyed by a 5-man SS unit which assaulted it in retaliation! Photos showing my force and parts of the battle are shown below:

The 20mm Flak Autocannon covers the advancing Infantry

A view from the left flank

Infantry stand ready - with the heavy howitzer behind them

My SS follow behind one of my Infantry squads

My Tiger tank

I have also finally bought myself my first units for my brand new 10mm Napoleonic army, all courtesy of Magister Militarum. I have ordered a set of 4 Line Infantry battalions, 1 General and an artillery battery, in addition to this, I have also added a battalion of Highlanders, for an infantry unit with a bit more of a kick to it, and a unit of Dragoons for my Cavalry element so far. This in my opinion is a great starter to my force, and gives me 7 battalions already, 5 infantry, 1 cavalry and 1 artillery. This is a project I am looking forward to greatly as mentioned in my last post as it is something I have been trying to do for some time now, and it'll be an interesting challenge for my painting skills.

For the 10mm Napoleonics, my potential opponent has suggested we use Black Powder by Warlord Games, a ruleset I have owned for some time and never used. So this is no issue for me, although common sense now suggests I add their supplement for the Peninsular War of 1808-14 to my collection as well, as this is the area of the Napoleonic Wars which interests me most. 

I have also bought a new model to stand as my Necromancer for my Frostgrave warband - I'm using the Silence miniature from the Guildball Mortician's Guild, as he looks like just what I'm imagining for my Necromancer as well as being a great centrepiece miniature, I was hoping to try and get my Vampire from Empire of the Dead into the warband - he may have to take the role of the apprentice for gaming purposes. I'll come up with some background so that things for this band are more complicated then things would first appear. The Necromancer is now based and ready to be painted, with some warband members already to join him - a couple of spare Arthurian era soldiers will suit as mercenaries in the Necromancer's employ!

And that's all I have to say for now folks..... until next time!

Part 3 end of 2013: My Romans and Historical Wargaming News

One of Tribunes, my division commanders in Hail Caesar

The Dice and Decks Miniature swap Scorpion, nearly repainted for my colour scheme

I've had a month or two of Dropzone Commander and future based wargaming - but I'm know back building more Romans, with even more to do now Christmas has passed, hopefully in time for my first game of Warlord Games' Hail Caesar.




My army will hopefully consist of 8 units of Legionaries, with a two small units of archers, and a couple of Scorpion artillery pieces, with my opponent planning to use Ancient British Celts.




My birthday has recently passed and I have another Games Workshop Realm of Battle Gameboard - which I'm going to use as a grass board for the game. Although my brain is still trying to work out how to lengthen the game so that it doesn't consist of a first turn charge, second turn, fight, third turn win/lose scenario, as 6 foot by 4 foot might be a bit small for game when infantry can potentially move a mighty 18 inches per turn, as they can get 3 x 6 inch moves per turn on a good order dice roll.




I've been assembling more Legionaries, with nearly three units now assembled, I have been painting more of them as well, finishing one with injuries that looks like a grizzled veteran, although he just stands in the back of a pilum armed unit. I also have been painting a Scorpio, given to me as part of Dice and Decks Miniature swap - a secret santa style event of painting a miniature for someone else and then giving it to them at a set date

1st and 2nd Centuries, still on the table

Centurion for the unit in the picture directly above, midway through painting

One veteran Legionary, ready for action

 
The army is being painted as the famed 10th Legion, Julius Caesar's favourites from the campaign in Gaul (59bc) to the end of the Civil War and his murder in 44bc. My 1st Century with Eagle Bearer is modelled to contain Warlord Games' Pullo and Vorenus miniatures, and the rest have helmet crests which the rest of my force doesn't (unless I go even more nuts and build an entire legion plus, which even by my mad collecting standards, is alot of troops).

 

I've also got a box of Mantic Games; Deadzone, a game of Sci-fi Skirmish, but I also have extra scenery for the game, as well as a partially assembled box of Enforcers, so Mantic's bigger Sci-fi game of Warpath could be next on the cards with Enforcers being my force, so farI have nearly finished one Enforcer in a green colour scheme, where I painted each armour plate seperately. 

Nearly there

So there we are folks, back on track with updates up to the present moment, Happy New Year and I shall try to keep more up to date, as three months of catch-up isn;t great

September 2013

Hello again folks,

I've beavered away over the last few weekends, athough this week has been a bit slower and so will most weeks now as I am now employed from around 8.30am till 4, and tend to be a bit tired when I come back. This unfortunately impacts on my speed of posting on here.

Anyway, Dice and Decks has said it's goodbyes to Neal, who has moved to Australia, he will be missed. As a Mantic pathfinder, Neal introduced Kings of War and Dreadball to the club, as well as Privateer Press' Warmachine and Hordes. Kings of War is a major part of this week's update here on my blog.

A visit from Square Orange Games on the last friday of august has resulted in me spending money, as always, on more new stuff, including; what was meant to be a single 6-man box of Kings of War Ogres, but turned into the box of 6 Ogres and 25 more in an army deal box, giving me a roughly 1000pt Ogre army for Kings of War as well as my Dwarves. I have constructed three of these; two basic melee Ogres and the Captain, which are shown as always with my blog posts in the pictures below:

On the 6th Sept I played another game of Kings of War using my Dwarves, but also including two Ogres I had managed to assemble in time for the game. I managed to draw with my opponent, but on the higher number of points killed, just not enough for a outright win. This was despite several times during the game where things most definately were not in my favour, such as unit of "counts as" Werewolves tearing through my flanks, and were only stopped by the game's end.

The two sides face-off early in the battle

A small unit of warriors attempts to block some undead calvary from flanking my army, they succeeded for a time, but were destroyed by the Werewolves, represented by the three larger creatures behind the calvary!

My cannon is attacked!

Dwarves with Ogre backup go all out to clear some wraiths, only to find themselves attacked by the Werewolves, which tore up my right hand flank!

A brave Ogre attempts to halt the undead advance

My Dwarf Bulwarkers, with phalanx, block the route of advance for a unit of Goblin Spearmen, who also have the phalanx special rule, so it was unit quality which won this part of the battle, in my favour....

In addition to this, I also got a General Conveyor APC and a new Sergeant and Officer for my Dystopian Legions Kingdom of Brittania force. This makes my Dystopian Legions force a very respectable size and I'm hoping to get a few of these painted and into action in the near future. Having won the two games I played a while back, i'm interested to see how the addition of tougher vehicle units changes the way the games play.
So I have been beavering away on my Dystopian Legions - the new officer is nearly completed, along with some more work being done on a few of the basic infantry, my HMG team and the General Conveyor, which is being built and painted in sections before being fully assembled as I find painting some areas of vehicles beyond difficult after assembly. 

In other news, I've been painting a SWAT police team member from The Assault Group that I have had on my desk for a while. He is part of a pack of 4 that I've left for far too long, along with most of my painting table. 

Last Friday (20th September) I had a 4 player light-hearted game of Bolt Action, with me using my Commandos and the other players scrabbling together some small forces from British Infantry. The game was played on a 6'x4' table, with each player starting in a 12" curve from each corner of the board. The game didn't last long once combat began as each player had very few actual models on the table, although some interesting dice rolls led to some great war stories. 

The table at the start of the game, my force is closest, I advanced to the right, basically causing a pair of small skirmishes on one table.

My main squad of Commandos prepares to advance.

My British regulars, used by another player, they guarded this small farmhouse until the end of the game, taking on a patrol that tried to take it with little effort.

My main enemy in the battle, a small British force, inlcuding a PIAT, Vickers Medium Machine Gun and Sniper!

Another of the four players in the game, this force stayed out of the way until the more adventurous had finished each other off, before swooping in.

The Commandos which survived the advance begin to take revenge on the entrenched enemy force.

The terrain my Commando force advanced through to attack the enemy, as SMGs in Bolt Action only have a 12" range.

My British sniper team, so far they've succeeded in being worth their weight in my box, taking kills in every game I've used them in.

My lone Commando captain advances, showing the grit of british soldiers in the face of a rubbish set of enemy shooting rolls!

This Friday just gone, I deployed my forces back onto the (model) battlefields of World War 2, having started assembling my WW2 late war Germans. I took the Germans and my Sherman Firefly (which I've now named Cecil, after the character in the new World War 1 comedy show, Chickens), the Germans were a small Grenadier squad, and two different ranked officers with SMGs - one being a model of Oberststurmfuhrer Otto Skorzeny, the free metal model you get from Warlord Games when you order the Armies of Germany army book directly from them, whom I am using as a Colonel (which in terms of actual Bolt Action counts as a Veteran Major) armed with an SMG. Josh, another member of Dice and Decks Gaming Club, was on my side with my British under his command allied with my Germans against another British force (thus why I am quickly getting my Germans done - stops us having to use British against British). He had two officers, a Lieutenant (for my Veteran Infantry) and a Captain (made from a Commando, for use with my soon to be assembled Commando platoon, of which five and the Captain are built so far), oddly only two pin markers resulted during the game on the Captain, and led to 2 Fubar! results on a morale test, meaning the Captain spent the game running along the table edge furthest from the action as cowardice took over! (highly comical for a Commando Captain to do compared with a Lieutenant - who charged into combat with revolver in hand, again! Despite last time he did so ending badly). 

My Germans as of last Friday (27th Sept, a Lieutenant on the left, a squad at the sandbags and my Colonel, using Veteran Major's stats from the rulebook supervises them!

My force ready for the off, you can see my Sherman VC Firefly in the centre, with Germans in the foreground and supporting British infantry around the tank and in the background woodland.

The right flank, you can see part of a Churchill tank that was the main worry in this game, the infantry were shredded due to lucky shooting dice rolling.

The left flank was guarded by this small platoon, with Bren Carrier support, my Sherman destroyed the Carrier having shot and disabled a Churchill on the right flank the previous turn.

 My Colonel for my Germans has been painted, and I have assembled more Germans for Bolt Action since that battle. I have also been painting my British Sniper. Below are a few work in progress shot from this last week;

My German Colonel, the model is actually a named character from WW2 which is provided free to people who order Bolt Action: The Armies of Germany directly from Warlord Games. They also provide free characters for other nations if the army book for that nation is bought direct from them.

My Colonel with some of my other German soldiers mid-way through their own painting. The one to the left of the Colonel is my Lieutenant, to the right is an NCO with cap and STG44 Assault Rifle, with an MG42 Light Machine Gunner to the far right.

A few of my Brits, including my Sniper (centre, painted, kneeling whilst aiming soldier), and also my Germans so far.

Thanks for the patience if you've been waiting for a new post, I've spent far too long with this one and will try to update more frequently (at least one post per weekend) if I can. Until next time, folks!.....

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.