New game, new forces and more fun

Hello again folks, as you may or may not have spotted their is a new page on here about a game called Muzzle Flash, which is being developed by a good friend of mine. I'm very keen on it. It is for any post 1870 setting, and features action based gameplay. The page on this blog gives more information.

November 2015 - Week 1 - Colonial Marines and Some Corner of a Foreign Field

Hello again folks,

Well, I have started to attack the contents of Aliens vs Predator: The Miniatures Game. It contains a board game, which seems so far to be very similar in style to Space Hulk (which, in turn, has always reminded me of the film Aliens, so the circle just keeps going).
In the box you get a spaceship layout, featuring several air-vents, corridors, rooms and doors. Additionally, you get 5 colonial marines (3 with Pulse rifles, 1 with a flamethrower and 1 with a smart gun), 3 Predators (armed with a variety of their equipment from the film series) and 15 Aliens (5 being Stalkers, which are like the dog-spawned variety from Alien 3) and 10 Infant Warriors, which are the traditional smooth headed creatures from the majority of the films.
Although Prodos Games are adding to this range, with a Queen Alien, Powerloader, Predator Hounds and Warrior Aliens (ridge-headed variety from the Aliens film) already available to pre-order from their online store.
I have already assembled the Colonial Marines, and even started to paint them - I intend to add graffiti to their armour to add a bit of individuality to them. At the moment, I've built the Smart Gunner, a marine with tracker and a marine with an incinerator, plus one alien warrior. I'll add pictures of these once some more progress has been done on them.

Last night at Dice and Decks Gaming Club, I played a game of Some Corner of a Foreign Field, which is now under the name of Danger Close and is owned by Empress Miniatures. The game was 8 British soldiers vs 12 Taliban insurgents. At first, this went well for the Brits, who have extra actions and activitations due to being better in terms of "skills and drills", which we quickly found was a ridicolously high advantage. However, a bad dice roll for throwing a grenade meant it scattered and blew up 5 of my own soldiers, leading to some slightly unorthodox rescuing by the remaining 3 of my troops. My opponent and me decided whilst the rules are not bad, they are missing rules for reloading rocket launchers, as nothing stops you firing three shots a turn with a British soldier, and serious injuries unless the casualty falls unconcious, have little impairment bar some slow moving. It didn't seem to affect the injured man's ability to fire in any way. The action system was also built on upon the "skills and drills" with a British Soldier being given 3 actions, and the British player was able to move 3 men per turn due to Skills and Drills 3, whilst the insurgents were Skills and Drills 2, meaning 2 insurgents per turn could act, and do up to 2 actions. This proved to be a problem when moving and spotting soldiers, as this used up all their actions and thus stopped them firing as well. These shortcomings seem to be a part of the rules or lack thereof in some elements, although they could be misinterpretation, but given the rules were 2 sides of A4, this is unlikely.

The available forces for Friday night's game.

1st British Section

2nd British Section

SAS Team

Insurgent Force

 Prepare for more posts soon folks.....

November 2015

My apologies for a long hiatus from blogging. Been a busy few months with many changes, which I'm not going to go into, I'll just add in content that's new.

The end of November 2015 marks the release of Team Yankee - a cold war gone hot game from Flames of War - using 15mm models. I already have 15mm Americans and Chinese from an aborted run at the end of last year at modern wargames in that scale. So I am painting my T72 battle tank, M1 Abrams tank and building and assembling T54/55 tanks and M113s in readiness for the Team Yankee release at the end of the month. I now have Flames of War bases to enable me to use previews to attempt to build the teams of Americans ready for the game as well!

A couple of the example unit cards for Battlefront's Team Yankee - as featured on their Breakthrough Assault blog page.

I have also bought the Flames of War main rulebook in the time since my last post and now, and today I also got the Fate of a Nation book and Tour of Duty book - both add-ons for Vietnam and the Arab-Israeli conflict in the early 1960s for Flames of War. 
This evening I also played a World War 1 Flames of War at Pegasus Hobbies and Games in Monmouth. This is the first time I've ever played Flames of War properly - and I enjoyed it greatly - I can't wait to see what vehicles do to the gameplay - as this WW1 game was infantry only, supported by machine gun teams and artillery.

In Airsoft news I have a new loadout; Soviet Russian from 1980s Afghanistan, using the video game Metal Gear Solid V as a reference, due to the variations in uniform, which enable a more interesting choice of equipment. This also means a new airsoft rifle - an ICS AK74, due to arrive shortly.

Lastly, I have the Aliens vs Predator game from Prodos Games, and am thoroughly pleased with the quality and detail I have seen so far - a gameplay review will be posted next weekend.

Bear with me readers, I'm back again, and need to work out what to post once more.

December 2014 and January 2015

Hello again folks,

I hope everyone has had a good Christmas (if you celebrate said holiday).I offer apologies for such a long wait since my last post.

I have been doing a mixture of painting some of my 15mm modern Americans, and assembling and painting my Warzone Resurrection Imperials, which I am enjoying, except for a broken banner on one of my officers and a broken bayonet on one of the rifles for the Trenchers. Which is annoying as I will have to try and remove the remaining part of the bayonet from the rifle without causing further damage, for the officer, I will have to smooth the flag and hand area and make a pin to replace the broken top half of the flag-pole. However, I can show you my results so far on one of the Officers and also on one of the Trenchers.

I have also purchased and painted an Orc Banner Bearer for Kings of War to be the model I use for the Dice and Decks Gaming Club Christmas Miniatures Swap, a sort of secret style event where you fill out a form with a few armies and games you collect, what force you collect for the game, and in what colours you roughly paint them in, then this is swapped and you go out and have a £12 budget to purchase a model for that person. The results of the Orc Banner Bearer are shown below.

I also have been given two models kits by my work, an Airfix 1/72 scale Harrier Jet, and a Revel 1/1200 of a Nimitz Class Aircraft Carrier. I have started assembling the carrier, and it seems to be relatively straight-forward.

For Christmas I got an addition to my 15mm Americans for the currently test stage game of 3rd Generation Warfare, an Abrams tank from Quick Reaction Force miniatures, the thing is enormous in comparison to the other vehicles I have so far! Dwarfing the M113A3s and the Stryker APC that it will be supporting! I also got a T-80 for the Russians, but for now until I get some Russian Infantry to support the vehicle, I will be using it as part of my Chinese force. On a related note, I have finished my Medical M113A3 Armoured Personnel Carrier. The pictures shown below show these vehicles and the finished Medical APC:

I have also painted a 15mm US miniature as a US Army trooper in ACU camouflage, well, as near as I could manage given the size of the miniature. Results shown below:

In Airsoft news, I'm re-designing the kit I take with me, so it matches the USMC uniform I wear (as in the UK, it's not a particularly common camouflage scheme), which means I need to find webbing etc and a plate carrier in Cayote Brown and not the Olive Green I have started off with for the last few months. I chose a suitable plate carrier, a Cayote Brown Condor Exo Plate Carrier, which arrived in the wrong colour, but this was negotiated so I would get the right colour delivered and the incorrect one picked up, and a free pouch would also be delivered as an apology for the mistake. I also bought more Condor pouches, which has all had a test run a few weeks ago, and other than the need for one extra pouch and a re-sort of where they are, all is well.

I am also having a big Bolt Action sort out now, at the end of January, having been given a bag o 4Ground scenery for Dice and Decks Gaming Club, which I have been asked to build. So I have started on the Cookhouse, whilst repairing my own 4Ground house, which has slowly been getting damage from travelling to and from my club. I also painted the front door and window sills blue to stand out away from club scenery.

I have a new army for Bolt Action - Italians. As they are quite a characterful force, and I had a relative that was part of the British force that landed in Italy in WW2. So these provide a nice addition to my collection, I have the 500 point stater force - two squads of 10, an officer and his attendent, a forward artillery observer and attendent, medium mortar team, medium machine gun team, and as an addition, a Semovente 75/18 assault gun.

I also, due to a visit from Square Orange Games visit to Dice and Decks in late January, now own a copy of Star Wars Imperial Assault. 

My final game before posting this was last night (Friday 30th January), and was a game of Bolt Action, my British vs a German Panzergrenadier company. I won, I'm thankful to say, as some lucky rolls of the dice at the start of the game put my opponent on the back foot before we got really into the game. 

November 2014

Hello again folks,

I have been working on my 15mm modern miniatures, which arrived at the start of the month.

I have also got some bases, 15mm diameter and 3mm thick from Sarissa Precision in order to base these models. These arrived on the 6th November, so I quickly set to getting the models glued to the bases in order to try and get them ready for a game on the 7th November. Starting with one of my American packs, which was done within the night and ready for painting. Now I have based all the American Infantry, but want to label the underside of the bases so I can see without having to examine them in detail what country they are from before I start assembling the Chinese Infantry as well.

I had assembled both the Stryker IFV for the Americans and the Type 63 APC for the Chinese, with plans to stick these to 60mm square bases, which are big enough to hold them, but not big enough to take the eye away from the actual models. I debated using 40mm square bases, but these are not big enough and look odd. My bases for the vehicles are also from Sarissa Precision, and are the same thickness as my infantry bases, for the M113A3, I cut a 60 x 60mm base in half and used it to base the vehicle, otherwise the base took the eye away from the miniature.

I have also assembled and converted one of my four M113s from Flames of War Arab-Israeli War range into a current American M113A3, with plans to make it look like a medical vehicle, as it's my first attempt at converting a 15mm M113, so might not be the best looking, the other three will be a platoon transport section, with the lead and rear vehicles having variant weapon systems (an excuse to use the alternative gunner stations on the roof of the APC, so I have an Minigun in one turret, a .50cal on the Medical M113A3, probably another .50cal on the second transport, and I'm tempted to use the MK19 Grenade launcher on the last transport - the Flames of War Sets have alot of options in them). I have used the article in the October article of Wargames Illustrated to accomplish this -  adding the rear fuel tanks -  a combination of card templates for the sides and green stuff as filler, with a bit of metal rod as the rear lights. I also added some 1cm by 90mm rectangles as big red cross badges onto the sides of the vehicle, rather than just painting them on, as the sides looked rather plain -  and I have nothing with which to make (and a lack of ability to do so) the rails on the sides of the M113s. 

The Wargames Illustrated article that served as the basis of the conversion for the M113A3 from an M113

On Friday 14th November I played a game of Bolt Action, my Late War Germans vs another force of Late War Germans, and although the game finished prematurely, I felt that things were going my way.  My Tiger, having managed to corner around the house in the centre of the field, then rolled two 6s to hit and penetrate the armour of the opposing Panzer IV, and then a 4 to knock it out! My opponent rolled a Sdk Fz 251 with a squad of five "tank hunters" - Veterans armed with SMGs and anti-tank grenades to attack the Tiger, and these failed to do much to it, leading to them being pinned between their own transport, the Tiger and the house. Meanwhile, the Lieutenant of the enemy force, was also in the same transport, and stayed in it, meaning when a squad of 8 of my Veterans attacked it, he dismounted and fought them alone, leading to his quick demise! My medic saved my Officer, and one of my Infra-red sight armed Veterans, so he actually accomplished something. My ultimate success was the 150mm heavy howitzer, sighting and hitting a squad of 10 veterans with 12 hits, that cleared a squad off the board with no problems to my force! I felt it was a well balanced game, although as is mentioned quite often at Dice and Decks amongst us Bolt Action players, recce is a weird rule, a free reverse away from danger pretty much regardless of anything else! I have also tried a new and amusing way of writing these Bolt Action reports up, as "newspaper reports" of the battles, written from a British newspaper style of writing. I hope that the style is right. I shall continue to write them in a real world style as shown above as well, as these "newspaper reports" miss some details. Feel free to make comments and constructive criticism, here is number 1 (dated to suit the time news would filter home and dated for the war years), featuring Friday 14th November's game:

My Tiger takes out a Panzer IV having crept round the house my opponent felt would shield his tank from mine!

Some of my Germans, a 20mm Autocannon, Lieutenant and two infantry squads.

Infantry move in to support the Tiger.

Heavy Artillery supported by my Nachtjager Veteran squad.

The enemy on my left side.

The enemy commander in a half-track.

The same half-track carrying a small anti-tank grenade carrying Veteran unit, that failed to attack the Tiger, so my Veteran infantry attacked the half-track, forcing the enemy Lieutenant to disembark and fight 8 men alone, as per the Bolt Action rules! Need to be careful leaving single commander in a vehicle alone.

However, during the course of packing and unpacking my Germans for the night's game, I noticed some damage to my plastic Warlord Games WW2 British , much to my great annoyance. So I am debating on reinforcing them with some more metal miniatures to try and reduce the potential for snapped rifles and missing pieces! I have ordered some 16 metal Late War British from Artizan Designs, and the British Expeditionary Force metal boxed set from Warlord Games (this is to see size differences, and an excuse to get some more Brits! And I prefer Warlord at the moment for WW2 models, so was hoping to hide the BEF models in amongst the Late War Brits), hopefully this will lessen the amount of damaged models in my collection. I have also somehow suffered the great annoyance of my German artillery is warped, which in itselft sounds minor, except I have no idea how it happened as the metal is so thick I can't bend it back into shape.

 I have also started converting some British in short sleeved shirts or with sleeves rolled up on khaki shirts, as found in Osprey Publishing's The British Army (2): Middle East & Mediterranean. As I found a relative who served in the Cheshire regiment in WW2 was in Italy during the invasion in 1943/4, so my British are being converted to suit this theatre. I played a Bolt Action game using the British on Friday 21st November, which featured two British players against a Russian army. We won this game, using a Sherman Firefly to knock out the main Russian tank threat, a feat that apparently no-one else has managed to do before.

A picture of the mortar team in the ruined building, with officers on either side and a hill with a pair of Vickers MMG teams in front

My force, sniper team and tanks!

My BEF Vickers MMG team next to another Vickers MMG team, with an allied mortar team in the ruins, my officer is next to the pond on the right of the picture, next to the tape measure

My British allies! Alot of infantry with their commander stood next to the Dingo in the bottom right corner

Last night, Friday 28th November, I played a German force using my Brits in a Bolt Action game, and lost profoundly, the dice were not on my side. My only successes were immobilising a Panzer IV and taking out a German sniper with my own. 

I have also as a finale for the month, been assembling my Imperial Starter force for Prodos Games' Warzone Resurrection, which I am enjoying assembling and painting as they are incredible models, 32mm resin, crisp and solid.

My Imperial Officer - he has started being painted now!

My first trencher!

HMG Gunner - a loose term, as Imperial Trencher HMGs are actually Miniguns!

Rhino Tankette - a flamethrower equips this little thing.

 And that sums up the month folks! Hopefully some painted Warzone Resurrection models will grace my next post...

October 2014 - Mars Attacks! Star Trek, and 15mm Modern

Hello again folks,

I have finally got my hands on my Attack on Greenville Mars Attacks set from Mantic Games, and have started preparing this for games, undercoating and starting to paint the US troops as Marines in MARPAT camouflage.

Mars Attacks - Attack on Greenville pre-order set

I will say that the models are not made out of 'traditional' wargaming miniatures plastic, but a more boardgame style plastic, although the US troopers seem to be better than the rest in terms of feel. The two Martian commanders that came in my box both have extremely flexing weapons, capable of being bent in both directions and returning to shape, which is also an issue of some of the normal Martian's weapons. Which means if bent before unboxing they will return to their bent position if moved to a straighter shape.

I've played two small games, on Friday 10th October, and enjoyed it, the game playing very similiarly to Deadzone. A visit from Square Orange Games on the same day also led to me purchasing some more bits and pieces for Deadzone, including a Strider for my Enforcers (being built solely for them as I haven't the skills at present to assemble it so it can be changed out for Enforcers, Rebels or Plague), and a starter box for The Marauders, which rather than being the disorganised Orks of Warhammer 40k, these are greenskins, but organised, well armed mercenaries, and so I intend to paint them to resemble such, although I might use various camoufalge patterns to give them a more mercenary appearance  rather than a true army.
Below are some pictures of the Strider and the Marauders so far: 

Enforcer Strider

Enforcers

On Friday 17th October, I played a quick game of Star Trek Attack wing, using my "currently repainting" ships from the starter set, and enjoyed it. So a week later I ordered another ship to add to this growing collection - a Nova Class starship - small and quick.

Two of my starships being repainted

I have also received the beta rules to 3rd Generation Warfare, a set of modern wargame rules I am keen to try out. And having had a nose through the rules, I ordered some 15mm Moderns in order to play it, as the rules utilise large numbers of troops and vehicles, such as a tank company etc, so a smaller scale from 28mm has been chosen by myself as 28mm is too expensive and large for multi-vehicle games. I have found Quick Reaction Force, a 15mm modern miniatures retailer, and ordered my two first 15mm forces. I have based my introduction to this set of rules and 15mm moderns on the video game Battlefield 4, using the fictional War of 2020 between the USA, Russia and China as my background, although I will end up slightly altering to fiction to suit the purpose. So to that end I have so far ordered 40 US Army infantrymen, 1 Stryker IFV, 40 Chinese PLA Infantry and 1 Type 63 APC for these. These arrived yesterday morning (Saturday 1st November) and I have built the Stryker:

The 15mm scale Stryker IFV - hull is one piece, each wheel is seperate and so is the remote controlled 0.50cal machine gun.

 

Chinese Type 63 APC

In a trip to Hereford, I also bought a boxed set of 4 plastic M113 Armoured Carriers, intended for the Arab-Israeli War period of Flames of War 15mm miniatures range. I have decided these will suit my modern war collection of 15mm models, as extra transport and some specialist vehicles - I intend to use the first of the 4 models as a medical vehicle. First I intend to use the instructions in the October 2014 issue of Wargames Illustrated to upgrade the M113s to M113A3s - the modern upgraded version of the original APC. Pictures of some elements of progress are going well:

The bottom hull of the M113

The card I intend to use to build the fuel tank extensions on the rear flanks of the M113A3.

Two days ago, on Friday 31st October, I tried the 3rd Generation Warfare rules, using the Scenario 2 - A scenario based on Wireless ridge during the Falklands War in 1982. It features an Infantry platoon of Argentinians versus an Infantry platoon of British with a support element of a Scorpion and Scimitar. We used a mixture of Assault Group 28mm Moderns and Bolt Action miniatures to play the game, we didn't get very far, but started to get an idea of the rules, but the firing system is a bit complicated at the moment, with reference to various pages in the rules. I'll post how well gaming with these rules goes.

I also entered my Deadzone Plague Stage 1A as an entry to Dice and Decks Gaming Club Iron Painter competition.
 

My Deadzone Plague Stage 1A

Until next time folks.....

The Plan For The Next Year.

I thought I'd share my plans for my wargaming hobby for the next few months/year. 
Some of it's the usual hobbyist ideals, some of it is new stuff and ideas. 
So in no particular order or importance, we begin to examine the list:

1). Finish my Secrets of the Third Reich British Force.

This involves painting a few more men, the HMG and then assembling and painting the final 4 British Steel, which is going to take a bit longer than the rest, as I think some converting is in order to make them more individual, as befits members of an elite team. Plus it makes them look better on the table.

2). Get the Dystopian Wars fleet fully painted.

This is coming along, and I think I'm holding off on these painting projects a bit due to the number of models per force I need doing. I'm working on a cruiser, having just done a Frigate.

3). Paint the Urban War stuff.


I haven't mentioned this game on this blog yet, as I've not got alot to say on it yet. It came to light at the Dice and Decks Charity Event back in July (my summer has flown past), as Square Orange Games has a fair volume on show, so a club member bought some (a fine set of the Junkers faction - Futuristic Romans), and talked me into doing likewise with a different faction, so i selected the Viridian Colonial Marines, who reminded me alot of the guys from Aliens, crossed with Helghast from the video game Killzone. (All images from the Urban War website: http://www.urbanwarthegame.com/game.php). I got the starter set, a blister pack of 2 Snipers, and a HMG Team. So far I've painted a Sniper, and Three Colonial Marines, including the Sergeant, who doesn't stand out a great deal, except for a vaguely different pose and the addition of some Sergeant's stripes I've painted on myself. I'll update the pictures up this week.
 

4).  Paint and finish the Bolt Action stuff for a game.

I'm planning on this being done sooner rather than later since the game has been released early, and is now open for purchase. I'll be travelling to get some paint so I can crack on with this on Friday. 

5). New stuff planned.

I've got three major projects planned, as always, new stuff. 
One is to have a crack at a Vietnam era game, so I've made this easy, it involves the Vietnam supplement for Force on Force, called "Ambush Alley" and covers 1965-75. This has come about from a rather incredible game and board featured in the September 2012 issue of Wargames Illustrated. Models, I have already scouted for and come up with two ranges; West Wind, and as always for Force on Force; The Assault Group. West Wind I'm planning on using for their APC and Artillery, as well as some supplement infantry for variety.
Two, is to have a second "Black Powder" period set, at the end of the era, complimentary to the evolution of warfare after Napoleon, I'm aiming to get some models for either the First or Second Sudanese Campaigns, 1882-5 and 1896-98 respectively. More likely than not, I'm going for the First Sudanese Campaign, as I am hoping, in a money-saving operation, to try and convert Warlord Games Anglo-Zulu War British to match the uniforms and gear of the Sudan War, which is basically some leg alterations and cuffs of the jackets, and a pugaree on the Pith Hat.
Three, is to gear up and have a go at Dystopian Legions, a new game from Spartan Games, this is a 28mm game that represents the same era and universe as Dystopian Wars, of course, I'll be collecting the Kingdom of Brittania, whose troops are basically the same as for the Anglo-Zulu War/Early Sudan War in uniform, except for some slightly futuristic technology and a metal breastplate, but still Pith hats all the way.

Updates - All sorts.

Sorry readers,

Been a bit of a while since I last updated the blog.

So here's one heck of update, full of all sorts.

Update 1: Pictures from Dice and Decks Charity Event 2012: Fly Another Day

My Board for my first game of Force on Force on the day.

Mid-way through game 2 of Force on Force

What I decided to buy - A Directorate Fleet for Firestorm Armada.

The Contents of the above box, as they came, uncleaned and unfiled.

Update 2: Pictures of my latest Napoleonic Painting Spree.

These pictures go with my previous post: Napoleonic Painting Updates.

French Dragoon Officer, mid-way through painting.

British Sergeant, fully painted, and work in progress Private.

Update 3: Dystopian Wars, minor conversion work

The one antenna has come off and been misplaced, so I replaced it with a giant (in scale terms) flag, which will be painted as a Union Jack to match this mercenary ship to my Kingdom of Britannia Fleet. The Flag is a bit of Brass and a filed Warhammer 40k Ork Choppa.

Update 4: Scenery Building Day 10th August 2012

On 10th August Neal from Dice and Decks ran an afternoon of Scenery building for the club in order to try and match the requirements of scenery needed to get a good game of Infinity in, which as a game took off well at our club meetings.

Hopefully this will become a sort of Industrial/Landing Area style scenery piece. The result of an afternoon's building.

The above at a different angle.

Update 5: Bushido

I got some Bushido at the Dice and Decks Charity event, due to the presence of our good friends at Square Orange Games (http://www.squareorangegames.co.uk). So I got the faction Prefecture of Ryu, and I love the models, 32mm, so slightly larger than the rest of my normal wargaming collection, but really detailed and fun to paint.

Hanso, a Ashigaru Sergeant, finished now, this was taken mid-way through painting, he is next to another Ashigaru, whose in the background, and a Samurai.

Update 6: My new hat

Right, this one's going to take a bit of explaining. I've always like British Pith Hats, like the one worn by the British at Rorke's Drift (or in the film Zulu). So I was looking on Ebay for a Napoleonic British Officer's Bicorne (unsuccessfully I might add), and saw a replica Pith Hat for sale, and so I've nabbed it.... and it's awesome, tempted to get one or two spares. The idea of having it is to wear it at next year's charity event being ran by Dice and Decks, planned for the 17th August 2013, at the Larraperz Centre in Ross-on-Wye (there's subtle advertising). 

The hat as it looks on Ebay.

With that, there's another blog post done and dusted, I'll post new updates when something interesting enough to post is available, and dare I say, I'm starting to take an interest in the Sudan War for Black Powder (Struggling with what models to use, converted Anglo-Zulu War Brits from Warlord Games? Or something else?). Spartan Games has also announced Dystopian Legions, a 28mm Steampunk-ish One man to a model game to play smaller scale games in the Dystopian Wars universe, but that's not till October, plenty to update before then I expect! Till next time folks.....