Star Wars day 2021

Happy Star Wars day to all you Darths, Leia’s and Padawans. 

Blood Bowl Ogre Team

So after a long hiatus due to mostly chasing the black dog around and been maxed out with real life and the military, I have finally sat down and completed my Ogre Blood Bowl team. 

Took me a while longer than I’d liked and still not 100% happy as my eyes are getting worse since turning 50, and painting Gnoblars was a struggle. 

However here they are. 

The Ash Mountain Stormers

15mm WW2 German - O Group

So here we are - The UK's 3rd National Lockdown. Seeing as during the second I competed my 15mm British force for the forthcoming O Group ruleset by ReisswitzPress (Two Fat Lardies) I used this 3rd Lockdown to smash through my German force. 

Again I had a large amount of German 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. 

As stated in my post for the British - 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 various German elements used during the Normandy and beyond Campaign. 

These are the results of this second part of my frenetic project, now onto a US Airborne force!

Panzer Mk IV A, Panzer 3,s and Panzer 38t's

Marder SPG's

Sd kfz 251 Hannomags

Stug H Assault Guns

Opel Trucks and Opel Maultier's

Tiger Mk1 From 503rd heavy Panzer Battalion

Sd kfz 231 from 9th SS Recon battalion

Jadgpanther and Panther

Panzer Mk IV

Mercedes Truck, Steyr Heavy Car and Kubelwagon

Battalion HQ and Pak 40 Anti-Tank

Panzer Grenadiers Company with Company HQ and Panzerschrek

Luftwaffe Field Division Jaeger Company with HQ and Panzerschrek

Battalion Mortar, 2 x HMG Sections and FOO

The whole force

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