Christmas 2020 Swag post

I hope everybody had the best Christmas they could in these unusual times and managed to get a good pile of new shineys. 

I don’t think I did too bad this year. 

New X-Men and Brotherhood of Mutants for Marvel Crisis Protocol.

Necromantic and Undead Bloodbowl teams.

The British 5th Infantry Division book (my Granddad served with them all through WW2)

Finally (after many many years) got a copy of the (very hard to get) 21st Panzer Division book.

And (Osprey) always a good read and a bit of research for my forthcoming 15mm Luftwaffe Field Division additions to my 15mm German 'O' Group force.

A Merry COVID Christmas 2020

As a Christmas Day like no other begins, I would like to wish you all a Merry Christmas.

2020 has been a challenging year for us all, with everybody affected in some way by Covid-19.

My thoughts go out to everyone who has been affected by this pandemic, be it though the illness directly, or as a result of the associated financial, social and emotional strain.

This year however has also been filled with fantastic stories of kindness and creativity and personally during this year in my own struggles with the pandemic; extra duties and commitments in my military career, not being in the mood to blog much and chasing the black dog away occasionally, a message out of the blue by friends and members of the gaming community has helped me no end.

So regardless of if you’re a festive Grinch, a staunch Santa supporter or a devout religious believer.

HAVE A MERRY CHRISTMAS

 and i hope you and your loved ones are safe and well.

15mm WW2 British - O Group

So to make this Second National Lockdown a bit more bareable I thought I would try and complete a full 15mm WW2 force for the forthcoming ruleset - O Group by ReisswitzPress (Two Fat Lardies)

I had a large amount of British 15mm Armoured vehicles already which I used for TANKS and What a Tanker so with a few more purchases (always need to buy more shineys eh?) I assembled a large force and went to work painting them. 

O Group works along the lines of Battalion Command and uses the Company (made up of Platoons), with Company Commanders  as the main combat element. Added to this are Battalion and Company support, i.e attached Tank Platoons, Anti Tank Guns, HMG sections etc.

I have based my efforts on elements of the 11th Armoured Division and although my infantry will depict the 4th Battalion Kings Shropshire Light Infantry of 159th Infantry Brigade, in game they could be used to depict any Battalion from any Brigade/Division.

These are the results of this frenetic project, now onto a German force!

2 x Churchill Tank (6th Guards Armd Bde)  and Achilles (75th Anti-Tank Regt RA) 

6 Pounder Anti-Tank Guns and Carden Lloyd Carriers (4th KSLI Support Coy)

Universal carrier Platoon (4th KSLI Support Coy) HMG Carriers (Independent MG Coy) and RA FOO

RA FOO, (4th KSLI) Battalion Command, Battalion Mortar and HMG Stands

Infantry Company x 3 (4th KSLI) with Company Command and PIAT stand

Sherman Troop with Firefly (23rd Hussars)

Sherman Troop with Firefly (3rd RTR)

2 x Cromwell and 2 x Comets (2nd Northamptonshire Yeomanry)

11th Armoured Division elements

The whole force

 

Traders Galaxy Bot War Skirmish Game

Being of a certain age and loving the old toys and cartoons from the 80’s I was stoked to see on a few gaming groups what looked to be Wargames Miniatures similar to Autobots and Decepticons from the Transformers franchise. However these were not said licensed products but a range of miniatures from the Australian company Traders Galaxy - for their 2nd edition version of their skirmish game - Bot War.

I quickly went to the Bot War Facebook page and group (check them out) and was amazed at some of the outstanding work people have already posted.

Okay so what is Bot War - It's a roughly 8mm scale skirmish game pitting (Transformer) Bots and vehicles from a number of various factions against each other

You don't need many models as in most games you will probably only have about 5-10 models depending on faction and (unless you and your opponent decide otherwise) 80 points to build your force.

Each Bot/Unit etc in your force gains you 'energy cubes' and the system itself starts with a strategy phase where you assign these ‘energy cubes’ across your force, these then act as activation points to allow your Bot to move, make a ranged attack, use it's special ability etc.. added to this is that each bot has a strategy rating - this is sort of the initiative value but with Bot War the higher the rating the later in the game that model with activate. Smaller weaker Bots have a low strategy rating and go first whilst the big boy's tend to go last. 

It seemed a bit weird at first but the game can be quick and deadly - so allowing the smaller Bots to activate early on allows them the opportunity to get some shots in, maybe gain an objective etc before being vaporized by a Optimus lookalike!

You can get the models from Firestorm Games in the UK - but they seem to sell out really quickly, or order direct from Traders Galaxy in Australia, Just be aware of the dreaded customs on large orders and the possibility that it might take up to 3 weeks to receive you new shiny's

Talking of shiny's - these are what i have so far. The blue resin miniatures are the Valiants and Atlanticans that come with the 2 player starter set and then I have bulked the Valiants out with some extra metal miniatures as well as a starter force of metal Deceivers.

                                                                         Decievers

                                                                        Valiants

                                                                          Atlanticans

All for One and One for All

These are the very first 40mm miniatures I have painted in all my time of wargaming, and I must say I really enjoyed it. I was concerned that my basic painting skills would look a bit lacklustre on larger models – but not to be too modest, I think they turned out rather well.

Porthos, Aramis, Athos, D'Artagnan

Rochefort and the Cardinal's Guards

The models are Eureka Miniatures 40mm All for One line and modelled on characters and clothingstyles of Richard Lesters Three Musketeers and Four Musketeers movie’s from the 1970’s.

The miniatures obviously include the 4 Musketeers – Athos, Aramis, Porthos, D’Artangnan and his servant Planchet as well as the Cardinals Guards and his pitbull: Count Rochefort. Other characters include Constance Bonacieux and her husband (who could also be just a plain bartender type) as well as two serving wenches and some very angry geese!

Engarde!!

The range has a fantastic set of scenery with a very ornamental well as well as tables, chairs, plates, candlesticks etc and even the obligatory baguette.

One miniature I am missing is the Hired Blade who is a mercenary type character and I will be getting him shortly as well as a couple of extra Cardinal Guard miniatures which will be painted up blue for Kings Musketeers – just to vary up scenarios.

2 Pints and a Bageutter please

Water from the well

Plancet scares the Geese

Eureka have their own set of quick skirmish rules for these miniatures and you can find these here.

http://www.eurekamin.com.au/games/AndOneForAll.pdf - Main Rules

http://www.eurekamin.com.au/games/A1FASupplement1_6.pdf - Additional Rules

http://www.eurekamin.com.au/games/CaptureofConstance.pdf - Mini Campaign

Skyrim on the Tabletop - Elder Scrolls Call to Arms

My new project just arrived and I am absolutely stoked! The models are fantastic and the game really offers the feel and style of Skyrim.

The Elder Scrolls: Call to Arms, is a new tabletop wargame by Modiphius (who also do Fallout Warfare) based obviously on the most popular version of the Elder Scrolls video game series - Skyrim.

The game offers two different game modes, making it a more interesting type of game and sets it slightly apart from most of its conventional peers.

You have the traditional Battle Mode, where players pit opposing factions against each other after equipping them with spells, gear and abilities based on a points-buy system.

This straightforward mode still has extras including levelling up heroes, gaining treasure and NPE (Non Player Enemies) that can spawn and attack both sides.

The other mode is Delve. This is a Solo (or Co-Op) mode where waves of NPE spawn and try and stop your merry band of adventures from completing the Delve (dungeon crawling and treasure hunting) 

The NPE work on a AI type system, where they have a sort of flowchart of actions they carry out in relation to what the Delvers are accomplishing.

I cant wait to get some Tamriel terrain sorted and get these and my Dragon Born on to the table. 

Completed Project - 15mm Gruntz NAC Force

Well I say a completed project. I have finished my 15mm New Anglian Confederation force for Gruntz but I also have an opposing force of Federal Stats Europa sitting in a box waiting to be started.

These actually might not get touched for some time as my friend Nic is using FSE when we finally get to meet up and play some games again after these unusual times.

So here are the completed units for the:

 NAC 47th (Lancs) Mechanised Infantry Regiment, A Company

Platoon - Phalanx/C APC

Platoon - Phalanx APC

2nd Platoon Capt

Infantry Section

SAW Gunner

GMS-P

Platoon Medic

Platoon Engineer

Platoon Scout Section 

Platoon Scout Section Heavy Gunner

1st Platoon Power Armour Section

Support Coy - Heavy Weapon Attachments

 Bobcat Armoured Cars - 18th NAC Reconnaissance Regiment - Manitoba Dragoons

Paladin II Tanks - 22nd NAC Tank Regiment - Cheshire Lancers

 HAVOCK Class Mech - 9th NAC Hussars - Mech Regiment

The Whole Force