Drunken Samurai Painting Blog

Kampfgruppe: Normandy A Panther Hunt Scenario

2012-01-08T21:16:00.028-07:00

Today Tim and I got together to try out the Kampfgruppe: Normandy rules. I picked up the rules from Warhammer Historical a few weeks ago as part of their 50% off sale. The rules were designed with 20mm models in mind but we are using 28mm models and figures. We played the starting scenario, A Panther Hunt. This scenario calls for a British force versus a German force. I did not have all the stuff for the British so I changed the scenario to an American force.

The Americans had an infantry platoon with a medium MG team. They also had a Sherman tank platoon with three tanks and an M10 tank destroyer. Not a bad little force. The morale value (MV) for the Americans came out to 17 with two command units.

The German force consisted of an infantry platoon with an 80mm mortar and a PaK40 anti-tank gun. The Germans also have one PZIVH and one Panther. The germans had an MV of 15 with only one commander.

It is interesting to note the differences between the German infantry platoon and the American platoon. The American platoon has three squads of infantry with 10 men in each squad. The have a BAR light machine gun and a Bazooka in each squad. The German infantry breaks the LMG teams out from the infantry squads so there are three infantry squads with five men in each. There are three LMG teams with three men in each.

This difference in unit configuration can really change how the two forces are played. More units will generally mean more flexibility in selecting targets as well as more maneuver options. Fewer units are easier to activate, therefor, more likely to actually do something.

Tim took the Germans and I played the Americans. Tim always plays the Germans...

Here is a point of criticism of the rules. There is an army roster that you can download from WHW. This roster sheet is pretty much useless. I could not figure out what information should be on the roster and thinks I thought should be on it had no place. In the end we just made notes of vehicle stats on note paper and referenced the gun stats from the book. I need to see if someone has made a better roster or I might just need to make my own.

Anyway, back to the game. The American deployment can be seen above. The battlefield had a dog-leg road on the right flank running across the table. In the American center as a field edged with bocage. On the American left as a large wooded area. The Americans deployed two Shermans to the right of the road along with one infantry squad as well as the infantry platoon HQ. On the road was the M10 and the .30cal MG team. In the American center was one Sherman and one infantry squad. On the far left of the American line was a single infantry squad behind the woods.

The Germans side of the battlefield had a large wood on the extreme left. Next to that is the other end of the dog-leg road. This road is lined with bocage with only a couple of gaps. In the center of the German side is an orchard surrounded by a stone wall. On the German right is a second road that runs diagonally and exits the table on the short table edge. This road is line with low hedges. To the right of the road is a farmhouse.

The Germans deployed most of their infantry on the right along the diagonal road or in the farmhouse. In the gap between the orchard and the diagonal road was the Panther. In the orchard was one infantry squad and one LMG team.

We rolled off for the first turn. This would actually be an important roll as we had both deployed armor on the road. Whoever went first would have a huge advantage. I got lucky and got the first turn.

The Americans started off with a big push on their left flank. One Sherman and one infantry squad moved up quickly on the left while the M10 cautiously moved up the road and fired on the PZIVH. In KGN direct fire can be tricky because you must spot your target first. If you fail this spotting check you cannot fire. Fortunately, vehicles in the open are extremely easy to spot (for me anyway, Tim would have lots of trouble with this early on). The shot from the M10 was on target and the PzIVH was destroyed. I thought this a great way to start off the game but Tim was not impressed.

In American center one Sherman and one infantry squad moved up and the Sherman attempted Suppressing Fire on the LMG team in the orchard. Suppressing Fires differs from Direct Fire in that no spotting check is required so it is much easier to do. The down side is that you are not likely to damage the unit you are firing at. The Sherman was able to suppress the LMG team so Tim would have to draw a morale chit in order to rally the unit.

Throughout the game there are certain events that require a player to draw a morale chit from the cup. These chits mostly have numbers on them. These numbers are subtracted from your MV as noted above. Once a force is reduced to zero MV their force breaks and the battle is over. The most common reasons for drawing a chit are when a unit is destroyed or to remove a suppression marker from a unit.

The Germans were taken by surprise and where very slow to react the American attack. The Panther moved up and attempted to fire on the advancing Shermans but with no success. The suppression was removed from the LMG team so they were already starting to feel the morale hit.

The American quickly secure the dog-leg road and began to pore fire into the Panther as well as the infantry in the orchard. Most of the was of little effect.

The German fire from the orchard hit home against the American infantry and they started to take casualties.

The Panther has several good shots but either failed to spot of failed to hit.

The American were able to get one Sherman on the Panther's flank. Faced with two Shermans and one M10 to the front and one Sherman to the side things were looking grim for the Panther.

A lucky shot to the side and the Panther was aflame.

A this point in the battle the Germans had lost both tanks and had only managed one killed American infantryman. The Germans had already collected a few morale chits. Tim was just about ready to throw in the towel. Bad dice rolls and a dislike of the rules meant he was not having much fun (I was also giving him a ration of shit about his whining so that was not helping either). We took a little break to talk over the rules and check a few items in the rulebook.

We decided to press on with the battle and soon the Americans were taking a pounding in the center. A series of suppressions and direct fire damage was taking a tole. In addition, another big push by the American infantry to flank the orchard would get severely bogged down trying to cross the bocage.

All of this drama was capped off by the Germans infantry squad moving out of the orchard to engage the tank platoon commander. The Panzerfaust hit and the Sherman brewed-up. This was really bad news for Americans. This was not only a lost tank and a chit for loss of a unit, it was also a lost commander. This would make the command phase a bit tougher.

The Sherman supporting the commander eventually destroyed the German infantry squad but the damage had been done.

Just eight German infantry hiding in the walled orchard had held up my flank attack and done real dame to my center. The good new was that there were only two of them left. Time to press harder one the German positions along the diagonal road.

For most of the battle the American had been ignoring the main German force to their left. By the time they were ready to attack this line the M10 was out of ammo and had retired, one Sherman had been destroyed and another was stuck along the dog-leg road attempting to cross the bocage. The American infantry on the left had been suppressed and taken a couple of casualties but was still combat ready. The American were attempting to shift the infantry from the center to wards the left but they were taking a beating.

In order to support the attack on the left the Shermans from the center swung around to engage the Pak40. This gun had been an annoyance most of the battle but had done no damage. It was time for it to die. The Sherman fired HE at the gun team but the shot went wide!

The Pak40's return fire was true and the Sherman went up in a ball of fire. In addition, the Germans were able to destroy the two American squads attacking the diagonal road. This was the end of the battle with the Americans broken. Germans win with 20 points to 14. The last couple of turns were very closely fought.

I really had a great time with this game which is something considering it was the first time we played it. After out mid-game break the rules started to click for Tim and he really started to get into it. What helped was getting to more infantry action. I do not think the A Panther Hunt scenario is a very good first game. If I were to setup a scenario for an introductory game I would not include any armor or vehicles. I think you get a better feel for the rules by playing infantry. Having said that, I thought the armor rules worked fine and are fun.

I have a few more thoughts on the rulebook. The actual rules only take up the first 70 or so pages of the 350 pages of the book. Those first 70 pages are pretty well laid out and the rules are pretty easy to follow. The remaining 3/4 of the book is comprised of the army lists, scenarios and background/historical information. This part is divided into a British sector and a US sector. Each section includes scenarios, army lists and a campaign. The problem that I have is that finding the information in these sections is a major pain in the ass. The layout of the book would have been better served by putting all the lists in one place, all the scenarios in another and the maybe just splitting the historical and campaign stuff by zones.

The book is very beautifully done and includes some really nice model and game photos as well as some historical pictures of the Normandy campaign I have never seen. On page 242 is something I have never seen in a rulebook for a miniatures game before - a photo of a dead American soldier (I actually cannot recall ever seeing a game with a picture of a dead soldier for any nation). This was actually a bit of a shock and I found it distasteful. I am probably over reacting but I just thought that was fairly classless. Sometimes, as historical gamers, we forget that the games we play, or write, are about events that actually happened. People actually died. I understand this, I just don't need to be reminded of it in the rulebook. I will step off the soapbox now, sorry.

All-in-all I liked the game and I plan to play it again. I thought the 28mm models worked fine with no modification to the rules. I would love to see additional periods and theaters of the rules covered and I understand that some may be in the works. Knowing how long it takes WHW to put out a book it may be a long time before we see anything else for this game.

Thoughts on the Year Ahead

2012-01-03T09:48:00.003-07:00

2012 is here and it time for me to ponder the gaming year ahead. This is an exercise that I, and many others, indulge in every year and it is generally a pointless exercise. This is a terrible time of year for me to be thinking about the future. I am totally burned out from the holiday madness and I have yet to get any inspiration. This means that this is all just a huge guess.

Even though this is a guess there is some thought and reason behind it. This year will be a tough one for the hobby budget. My wife is returning to nursing school and that will soak a lot of the mad money for the majority of the year. That means that new projects might be tough to get started. With that said let the pondering begin.

Terrain

This is going to be a major focus for the new year. I have a great love of a beautiful table. Probably even more than my love of nicely painted figures. To me, miniature gaming is the whole package; figures, terrain and rules. Lately I have let the terrain projects slip. In fact, it has been a couple of years since I have worked on a serious terrain project. There a a few categories of terrain that I hope to make progress on this year.

28mm - The first area I want to work on is 28mm terrain for WW2 games. I will be working on some Normandy terrain. I really needs Bocage, French builds (farms, town and churches) and some good roads. This will probably be the first project I work on.

15mm - Flames of War has inspired me to expand my terrain collection to include 15mm elements. I got rid of lots of this stuff years ago when I got out of 15mm gaming so now I must start from scratch. Since most of my gaming for FoW is North Africa and Mediterranean that is where I will start. I am planning to do some items for Tunisia with hopes of getting use out of them for other areas. I need mostly buildings and roads.

GW Terrain - I have quite a few GW terrain kits I would like to build and paint. Since I already have these I am sure I will be working on them as it will be cheap to do.

Hex Terrain - I have been thinking about this for a long time. I was a huge fan of the old Geo-Hex system and have always wanted a nice setup. Years ago I built a lot of the 4" hexes from GHQ fo use with micor-armor. I really loved that stuff. My friend Mike has a jig for cutting hexes and he made some very cool terrian hexes. I want to do this badly but I need to figure out what kind of terrain and for what scale. Right now I think this would be a great addition to the 15mm Flames of War collection. Stay tuned for this one.

Lord of the Rings SBG

This is has become the old standby game. I have no major plans for this game this year other than playing in the Gathering in the Desert GT in February. I know that I will be playing it and since I will be playing I will be painting. And since I have a large collection of figures to paint it is an easy area for a tight budget.

Flames of War

Flames of War got a lot of table time and painting time last year. I had a lot of fun playing and the painting was quick. I want to keep going with this game this year. There is a new version coming soon and the rules will be free to those who have the second edition rules book. Free fits in the budget. I don't have any major new army plans but I am sure I will sneak in some new Plastic Soldier Company models. If I were to start a new project it would be a mid-war Soviet tank force for Kursk, otherwise I will just keep addint to the 8th Army and Fallschirmjagers.

I would like to do an Infantry Aces campaign with my usual gaming group but I am affraid that most of them have cooled on FoW (if they were ever really hot for it to begin with). There seems to be a lots of different reasons why they are not feeling it. Maybe the new version will help spark some renewed interest. I will just have to keep working on them.

28mm World War II

Oh how I love thee 28mm WW2! I know I talk a lot about this but it seems I don't do much with it. That is because I do talk a lot and I don't do a lot. I am always whining about rules and such and I expect that to not change in the year ahead. I have great hopes that Warlord games will release there WW2 rules this year and it will be everything I have ever wanted. As the saying goes "Hope is the first step on the road to disappointment."

I have been reading the Kampfgruppe:Normandy rules a lot lately and I really like them. I was a but put off by the army lists as they are strange but I think I can get past that. I plan to get in a couple of test games soon.

I would also like to get a couple more games of Rules of Engagement in. I liked the rules but they got poo-poo'ed by my usual opponent. I my have to try them out with someone else to get a fair assessment. Likewise, Rate of Fire needs to see more table time. The first test of these rules left me a little flat but I think they can be fun with a better understanding of the rules.

The good news is that the painted collection is big enough to be able to do just about anything for rules testing and gaming that I would like. I also have lots of unpainted to keep me busy. I made one last order from Crusader USA, at the end of the year, to fill in a few gaps. Expect to see some newly painted stuff throughout the year.

I realized when I was doing the summary post for last year that I have never properly documented my 28mm collection on the blog. I have done some posts on the new items I have added but nothing on the entire collection army by army. I plan of doing some posts to correct that oversight soon.

It is my secret hope that 2012 will be the year of 28mm WW2...crap I just told the secret.

Warhammer 40,000

I am not even sure what to say about this. Rumor has it that there is a new version (6th) due out this summer. Whoopidydo! I can honestly say I couldn't care less. I really like 5th edition and I don't see any reason for a new version. I say that as a player who only plays against friends and never in tournament so I really don't know much.

I have shit-gobb-piles of figures and models. I have enough Orks to do several thousand points. The same is true of IG and Space Marines. I am sure one of my four armies - Orks, Space Maries, Dark Angels, Imperial Guard - will catch my fancy and I will go on a painting/modeling binge. Last year I was sure I would work on Orks all year, instead I painted a pile of Catachans.

I do not envision any purchases related to this game this year but those GW b@&%^s will probable get money from me for the new rules. Isn't this great? I have regrets about something I have yet to do...I am such a fool.

28mm Ancients

One of my first major gaming obsessions was 28mm Ancients gaming using the Warhammer Ancients Battles rules. Man I loved that game! I built several armies and play tons of games. We had a great local group of players and held an annual tournament. It was great. But all good things come to an end and interest in WAB slowly died out. Some people might say it was killed off but now is not the time to dwell on this. WAB 2.0 almost renewed the interest in the period but, saddly, WAB 2.0 sucked and you could only get it from the UK. The good news is there are a couple of new rule sets out that could get me back into the period.

The first is Clash of Empires. I picked these up last July and have read through them. I have also watched a couple of games locally and the game seems to be just what the doctor ordered. It is very much what WAB 2 should have been and then some. I think this game could just what I need.

The second is Hail Caesar. I was really excited when I heard these rule where coming out as they are based on the same base mechanic as Black Powder and I love those rules. My mom bough these for me for Christmas and I have yet to dig into them yet but I will very soon. So far, all the reviews of the rules have been positive.

The good news, from a budget perspective, is that I have the rules as well as two painted armies. I also have a third army in the process of being painted as well as lots of unpainted figures. This means little to no expense to get back into the period.

Black Powder

This game is turning into a myth. I have had the rules for nearly two years and I GM'ed one test game. It is another project that I talk a lot about but never seems to materialize. The good news is that I have made progress on the figure collections for the game and I should be able to continue that this year. I still have lots of ACW figures to paint so no new purchases should be required to finish that period. I also have some Victrix French left to paint so I should be able to finish off my starter French Napoleonic force. As for playing, this should be the year where ACW hits the table. My fingers are crossed!

The Great War

Here is another Warhammer Historical game that I would really like to play and a period I have always had an interest in. Late last year the guys and I discussed making this the group project for the year. A few of us were very interested and others not so much. My limited budget for the year may make this a non-starter and I certainly will not able able to do a force of Renegade or Great War figures like I dreamt of. I might be able to purchase an Old Glory late war army to get me started. I don't hold much hope for this project but I am not ready to give it up just yet.

Other Games

Here is the catch all bucket of the forgotten games.

Last year's Poncho Villa project might get some more painting time as I already have the Mexican figures. I will not have the $$ to add in the Americans or the Federales this year. It seems like some of the other Old West players have moved on so I don't expect that we will have our campaign day like we have done the last couple of years. That is too bad as I really like those events.

Legends of the High Seas...hmmm...what should I say about this? I have some unpainted pirates that I might be inspired to paint this year. Again, I have the figures so it is a cheap project.

Blood Bowl was the first game I played this year. I had never played it before. I had a good time and the games seems pretty solid. I could see myself playing again but I will not be building a team.

I wonder if this year might be the time to pull out the Zombies and do some Zombie Apocalypse games? I have tons of cool figures I could paint for this. Something to think about.

I am sure I will get in a few games of BANG! and maybe some other card and board games. I keep thinking about Descent (that is about as far as it will go). Maybe I should play some Space Hulk...I paid enough for the dumb thing.

Blogging and the Blog Community

I have never really thought about my blog and my interaction with others in the miniatures game blogging community as part of my hobby but it really is. I spend more time working on my blog and reading others blogs than I do playing games or painting models. With this in mind I need to take this a little more seriously. I have a bad habit of not replying to comments to my posts and I don't do as much commenting on the post on others blogs. I need to be a better member of the community. I really believe the feedback that you get from the blog is a great motivator.

In the five years I have been doing this blog my posts have mostly been documenting my painting and modeling projects. This is fine and it really is the main focus of the blog but I would like variety. This year I will try and do more writing and not just posting of pictures. I would like to do more battle reports, how-to articles and maybe some book reviews.

Painting Totals from 2011

Here are my final painting numbers from last year. Not a bad year.

Lord of the Rings - 93 (3 mounted)
40k - 104 (1 Vehicle)
Old West - 18
Flames of War - 168 (39 vehicles, 4 guns)
28mm Napoleonic - 28
28mm ACW - 34
28mm WW2 - 16

Total YTD - 461

2011 Gaming Year in Review

2011-12-21T09:46:00.003-07:00

With Christmas and New Years just around the corner my gaming year is basically done. Oh, I might sneak in another game or two and I might even paint a few more figures but nothing that will alter my impressions of 2011. So, it is time to look back, as I do each year, and evaluate what I did for the year.

To start off I will go through my plans and ideas for the year that I published back in January. It is always fun to see just how far off of my plans I get by the end of the year.

Lord of the Rings: SBG - Funny, this one turned out pretty much as I thought. I played in The Gathering in the Desert in February as I planned. I had to finish up a few Rohan items for the event. In the summer some friends and I decided on a painting challenge to get a new army ready for GiTD 2012. I was already planning on a new Dwarf army so this became the focus of the painting challenge for me. I painted up a 700 point force in just about 4 months. As a matter of fact all four of us managed to stick it out and finish our armies. We didn't get in as many games as we had planned but the point was to paint and paint we did. All in all this was a good year for this game and was probably the second most played game of the year.

Legends of the Old West - I had some big plans for this game this year. Tim and I were planning on doing a Mexican Revolution/Poncho Villa project using these rules. I did manage to order some figures from Old Glory and I got about 13 of them painted. But, it was not to be. Turns out Tim totally forgot about this and didn't do anything for the project. Oh well, no great loss I guess. If I had been really serious about this I would have made more progress.

Legends of the High Seas - I had some fancy ideas about using these rules for some French and Indian War skirmish but this never got past the idea stage.

Black Powder - This game is still a huge motivation for me but I did not get to play it this year. I still have plans for this and I am still working on the figures collection to be able to play it. I painted more ACW (not as much as I had planned) and I also painted my first Napoleonic French unit.

Flames of War - As fate would have it this game turned out to be the major focus for the year. I was planning to play in a tournament this year but that did not pan out. I did paint three armies (two were mine) and played several games. It have really turned a corner with this game and really enjoy it. I have cooled a bit on the rules. As it turns out they are not as well written as I thought but I still think it is an excellent game. This may have been the most played game of the year. Oh, I still detest 15mm but the game is good enough to get me past that.

Warhammer 40K - I played a few combat patrol games and a couple of 1500 point games but that is about it. I had planned to finish painting the Orks and I failed to paint any. I did paint nearly 100 Catachans and I am close to having a new IG army. I still love this game, the models and the universe they have created, but I can't afford the GW hobby. I did acquire lots of models this year but they were all second had/used stuff. I just cannot see myself purchasing anything new for this game.

Other Games - I finally gave up on my dreams of Warhammer Fantasy Battles. I sold off the Beastmen and all the books. It seems that the game is universally despised and all the people I was likely to play against either never jumped in or bailed out quickly. Selling the army might have been as mistake as I really liked how it was turning out and the models were cool. But it was just a distraction that was likely to soak me for lots more money for no gaming return. Did I mention that I can no longer afford the GW hobby?

I picked up the Clash of Empires rules and read through them. The game looks excellent and there are a couple of guys locally that are already playing. I see good things in the future for this game. It just might get me back into ancients gaming.

Over the summer I picked up a copy of Rate of Fire for 28mm WW2 games. The game is pretty simple and straight forward. I did manage to get in one test game and it was OK. I was hoping for more than OK but it was just OK. I do need to play it a couple more times to give it a fair chance. A few of the guys and I pulled out the Legends adaptation for WW2 and played a game. I like that much more than RoF. All of this thinking about rules did inspire me to paint some more 28mm WW2 figures so that is a good thing.

On the blog front I did manage to meet a personal goal of averaging one post per week. I have also attracted a lot of followers and return viewers. I just want to thank everyone you stops by to see what I am doing and to comment on my projects. I am not very good at replying to comments but I do read and appreciate them all.

So, there you have it. Not a bad year of gaming, painting and collecting. Now I have a couple of weeks to think about what I want to do for next year.

More 28mm British Paras

2011-12-16T18:32:00.005-07:00

Last weekend me and the guys got together to play some 28mm WW2. We were trying out our Legends of the Old West adaptation that Tim and I experimented with last year. Just the thought of playing some 28mm WW2 was enough to inspire me to do some painting. My British Paras had not gotten any love for nearly four years even though I had made several purchases. So I decided it was time to expand this force a bit.

This installment has 16 figures that are mostly Crusader with a few Foundry leftovers. My previous batch of paras used a painting guide I found online. This time I used the painting guide from the Flames of War D Minus 1 book. I like hoe these turned out but they are different from the other figures.

Here you can see the three different painting styles side by side. The figure to the left was painted by a friend years ago and is the starting point for my collection. The figure to the right I painted about 4 years ago. The one in the middle is the new one.

In the back view the difference in the Dennison smocks is more noticeable. Even though these are fairly different paint styles and colors there is enough in common that they look good all mixed together in the same army.

I have a few weapons team left to paint for this army. I am also planning one last Crusader USA order to flesh out a couple more squads.

Flames of War Schwere Panzerkompanie

2011-12-04T09:34:00.009-07:00

There is something about Tigers. If you love tanks it is hard not to hold the Tiger as one of the greatest tanks ever to roam the battlefield. When I picked up three Tigers at the recent gamer's garage sale a few weeks ago I just had to paint them. These are very nice models and they were fun to build and paint. These Battlefront miniatures are the resin and white metal type and they have more parts than the Plastic Soldier Company PzIV kits.

Naturally, having three Tigers it is very tempting to think about playing them in a game. These three tanks are nearly 1200 points of a 1500 point Flames of War mid-war army. That leaves very little points for suppot and I am still not sure what I should take. I have never played Tigers in FoW and I have also never played against them. The look to be a tough nut to crack and seem like they would be fun to play. I am not so sure they are as much fun to play against, especially in mid-war. There are very few allied units that can deal with these tanks.

First we have the Company Commander. This single tank is 395 points, ouch!

Next is the first Tiger platoon. Again we have a very expensive single tank - 385 points.

Finally we have the second platoon. Another 385 points.

There you have it 1165 points for three tanks. I just wonder how long three tanks will last in a game...

Flames of War Panzerkompanie

2011-11-20T19:59:00.006-07:00

I have, more or less, finished up my Tunisia/Italy Panzerkompanie for Flames of War. This project started off as a few tanks to support my Fallschirmjagers. The Plastic Soldier Company Panzer IV kits are so I nice I have to keep buying them and building them.

First up is the Company Commander in PzIV G (the long barrel) and the 2ic in a PzIV F1.

Next we have the PzIV G platoon. This is a full platoon of five tanks. These guys are the long range anti-tank punch of the company.

The second platoon can be seen in a previous post. The second platoon are PzIV F1 with the short gun. These tanks are shorter range and lower AT than the G's but they have the ability to fire direct fire smoke as well as bombardments.

Finally we have the entire 1500 point company of 12 tanks. I have a few more tanks to build and paint so I will have a few other options. Once the PSC PzIII kit is out I will add a few of them for even more options. There are many more tanks to come.

More Union for Black Powder

2011-11-13T19:48:00.002-07:00

I just finished another Union regiment for Black Powder. These are Sash and Saber figures. I have not decided what unit this will be and I don''t have any more flags. This puts the Union collection over 200 figures and 2 complete brigades. I think I am done painting Union for a while.

Gamers Garage Sale

2011-11-12T20:49:00.010-07:00

Today was Imperial Outpost's Gamers Garage Sale. This is a fun event where you can rent a table and sell off your old game stuff. Last year I made a few hundred dollars and I hoped to do as well this year. It was not to be. I sold a few things but spent more than I made. Here are a few pictures of the setup.

Here are the items I acquired. First we have some trees that I painted for a friend many years ago.

Here we have a few Germans tanks for Flames of War. I understand that you cannot play Germans without playing Tigers.

This is a nice little Basilisk. It will make a nice addition to the Catachan army.

Everyone needs a Baneblade that is why I bought another one!

Last we have a selection of Osprey books on the Napoleonic Wars. One is an out of print book I have been trying to find on eBay.

It was a great day of buying and selling. I can't wait for the next one!

Catachan Heavy Bolters and Autocannons

2011-10-30T21:35:00.003-06:00

Just a quick update on the Catachan project.

Zvezda Opelblitz Truck Painted

2011-10-28T23:27:00.006-06:00

As promised, here are some pictures of the Zvezda Opalblitz painted. It is a very mice model. The basing is a requirement as it is a very delicate model and the base should help prevent damage.

It is certainly worth $5.

Plastic Soldier Pz IV F1 Platoon

2011-10-22T21:11:00.003-06:00

This is a platoon of Panzer IV F1 tanks built from the excellent Plastic Soldier Company's Panzer IV kit. The kit allows you to build PZ IV variants starting with the F1 and going through the H. These tanks will be providing much needed armor support for my Fallschirmjagers in Tunisia. This platoon will eventually be the foundation of a DAK Panzer Company.

I am really impressed with the quality of these kits and will be buying MANY more boxes for all sorts of FoW projects. I just cannot wait for the STuG and Pz III kits to be released.

Zvezda Opelblitz Truck

2011-10-20T12:26:00.005-06:00

I have recently purchased a few Zveda model kits. They have a nice line of 1/100 scale (15mm) models for their own WW2 game. The models cost about $5.50 and are made of a medium grade plastic. This is the first kit I have built; an Opelblitz truck.

These are pretty nice kits and they match well with 15mm figures. Assembly was easy but some the the parts are delicate. I will make sure I post some pictures of the painted model.

Warhammer Historical Games

2011-10-17T21:22:00.004-06:00

Warhammer Historical Wargames is having a 50% off sale on all their rulebooks. Since WHW was rolled into Forge World I have had little interest in ordering expensive books from the UK. I had resigned myself to never having the latest, greatest stuff. The WAB 2.0 fiasco also soured me on WHW. But then they had to go and have a great sale. I took a chance and ordered some stuff. I ordered Over the Top, Waterloo and Kampfgruppe: Normandy. I am impressed with the fact that I ordered on Oct. 6 and received the package today, Oct 17. Not bad from the UK to Arizona in eleven days.

Since I have only just received these tonight I cannot do a proper review. I will do reviews at some point in the future but I can give you my first impressions. First, I am surprised at the size of the Waterloo book. I did not know that this was a nearly 300 page book and hardback. The production quality is extremely high and the full color book is filled with amazing eye-candy. Kampfgruppe Normandy is even bigger checking in at nearly 350 pages. It is also a lavish full-color book. My only criticism is that the hardback is a little thin.

With nearly 900 pages of new rules to digest it will take some time. All three of these books are very inspirational and even if I never play the games I am sure I will get my money's worth out of them. I do plan, however, to play them at least once. Stay tuned for more.

The Never Ending Catachan Pile

2011-10-16T09:47:00.006-06:00

Time for a break from painting Flames of War. I jumped back into my Catachan IG project with some much needed command elements. First are a couple of Commissars. In the old days Catachans used to shoot these guys but I guess now they are OK with them.

Here we have Col. 'Iron Hand' Straken. This is a pretty cool old model and I actually have two of these. I painted one a long time ago to use as a Necromunda character.

These are a bunch of Catachan officer types. These can be army commanders, platoon commanders or even vet sergeants.

Last we have an assortment of old metal Catachans. I am not sure but I think I now have all the original metal models. I need to check one of the collector sites and see what I might be missing.

As if I did not already have enough of these collected, this week I acquired more stuff from a local gamer. With all the painting I have been doing on this army I still have more unpainted than painted. The pile is growing...

Even More Fallschirmjagers

2011-10-08T23:16:00.003-06:00

I have a few more Fallschirmjagers for my Flames of War army. First are three Stummelwefer teams that are part of the company HQ. I had painted a couple of mortar team from Old Glory to use as Stummelwefers but these Battlefront minis are much better.

Next we have an FJ light gun platoon. These are the LG40 75mm recoilless guns. These will be very useful for anti-tank and against dug in infantry.

This just about finishes the first 1500 points for this army. I have a tank platoon to finish that will go with these guys. They are nearly done and I think I may get these on the table tomorrow.

Fallschirmjager Additions

2011-09-30T23:30:00.000-06:00

Time for a couple more units for my mid-war Fallschirmjager company. For this installment we have an FJ mortar platoon equipped with GW34. These are the full size mortars and not the Stummelwerfer. These guys are only usable for mid-war and maybe early war if we ever get a FJ list for early war.

Next we have the second combat platoon. This unit allows me to finally field a legal army. I have enough figures to build a third combat platoon and when it is done I will us my original combat platoon, which is Old Glory and Peter Pig figures, as a Pioneer platoon.

So all I have left to have my first 1500 point force ready is the LG40 platoon, which is only two guns, and my Pz IV F1 platoon of three tanks. I might be able to finish this army this weekend...

More Sash and Saber Union

2011-09-22T22:51:00.006-06:00

I added a couple more pieces to my ACW Union collection. First up is my second brigade commander. This figure is from Sash and Saber, as are the artillery crews.

This gun was neat to do as the the crew is loading the gun. This takes a bit more space on the base.

As I was prepping the pictures I realized that I forgot to weather the gun. Oh well, it looks OK.

Both of these models are a little shiny. I ran out of Testors Dulcoat and just have a coat of Krylon Matte which is not flat. One I get a new can I will dull these down.

Catachan Missile Launcher Teams

2011-09-19T20:41:00.003-06:00

I played a few 400 point combat patrol games a couple weeks ago and I discovered my lack of heavy weapon options was a major issue. Since I am planning on lots of patrol level games I decided to go with missile launchers. Missile launchers are the best option for low point games as they can be either anti-tank or anti-personnel.

I have dozens more heavy weapons teams so stay tuned.

French Battalion Complete

2011-09-12T22:50:00.006-06:00

Tonight I finished my first French Battalion for Black Powder. I must say I really enjoyed assembling and paint these figures. All of the time I spent working on them really made me want to play Black Powder but I am a long way from doing a Napoleonic battle. So that means I need to get back to my ACW project. I am very close to having the Union up to two full brigades.

Anyway, here are some pictures of the completed unit. Thanks to the comments on my test paints for keeping me in perspective on how to paint these. I went for a nice looking unit rather than nice looking individual figures. In the end I may have accomplished both.

French Test Paints

2011-08-31T22:18:00.005-06:00

Here are the first three painted examples of my Victrix French. The painting itself I am pleased with. I used the GW Badab Black wash rather than my usual Minwax Polyshades dip. I am not very happy with that decision. As usual, these look much better in person. I still can't seem to get good photographic examples of my work.

The first is a line Fusilier.

Next is a line Voltigeur.

Last is a line Grenadier.

The good news is these will be much easier to paint than I thought. I should be able to make good time on the rest of the battalion.

Flames of War Fallschirmjager Reinforcements

2011-08-30T19:51:00.006-06:00

After more than 10 months I have finally gotten back to my Flames of War Fallschirmjager project. This time I am adding a second HMG platoon and a PaK36 anti-tank gun platoon.

I still need to add a couple more combat platoons in order to have a legal army. I really can't wait to get this on the table. It should be a lot of fun to play.

More Catachans

2011-08-28T10:21:00.006-06:00

I continue to make good progress on my Catachan IG project. This installment has 27 more figures ready to go.

First up is a converted Sgt Harker. This was built with Catachan and Space Marine Scout bits. I think it is a pretty cool take on this character. I did not build this model.

Next we have Catachan Veterans with shotguns. Most of these were built by someone else and have cut-down lasguns as shotguns. The conversions look good. The two with the Necromunda shotguns were built by me a long time ago and I think there were meant to be Necromunda figures.

Next is a selection of special weapons. There is a demo charge, a grenade launcher chick and three converted meltaguns. The metlaguns are made from plastic flamers. These are handy conversions as meltagun models are always in short supply. These were built by my friend Tim several years ago.

Finally we have a bunch of standard troops. Most were acquired already assembled. There are a couple of figures I built using plastic Necromunda bits mixed with Catahan parts and other bits.

This now puts the painted collection well over 100 figures. I got in a few 400 combat patrol games yesterday and the figures looked great on the table even though my game-play left a lot to be desired.

Stay tuned for more. Next up are lots and lots of heavy weapons teams.

Re-based IG Stormtroopers

2011-08-27T10:24:00.002-06:00

This is the first of three units of stormtroopers that I am re-basing to use with my Catachan army. I had a hard time making up my mind whether to strip and repaint these figures to more closely match my Catachans or just re-base. In the end laziness won out and I opted for re-basing. I figure as elite troops they would not have to look like the Catachans, besides, these are pretty good paint jobs.

I am making pretty good progress on the project.

Victrix French Line Battalion

2011-08-23T17:47:00.008-06:00

All of the Dwarf and Catachan action lately had me looking for a change of pace. I have been doing lots of thinking about various historical projects that i would like to do. To help sooth the urge I decided to build some of my Victrix French Line Infantry that I purchased a few months ago. I bought these because they are cool and I have been wanting to do some Napoleonic games. I intend to use them for Black Powder but I might also try some other rules for the period.

Here we have the first battalion assembled. This is a 28 figure unit and will be based on 50mmx40mm bases from Renendra. The bases did not come with the figures. They actually came with my Perry plastic ACW figures but I am using Litko bases for that project.

These are the line Fusiliers. They are a mix of covered and uncovered shakos. I really like the variation that is possible with this kit.

These are the line Voltigeurs. I went with the tall plume on the shakos for these guys because they look cool. I also based them on the 50mmx20mm bases so that they can skirmish.

Lastly we have the line Grenadiers. These are wearing the bearskin cap. I love the look of these guys and it makes me want to get some of the Old Guard Grenadiers...soon.

I have enough figures left in the first box that I should be able to build a second battalion from that box. That means that each battalion costs about $20. That is an unbeatable price for 28mm figures! You really can afford to do very large armies for prices like that. To make things even better the models are some of the best I have ever seen.

Now I need to paint them. I really am not very knowledgeable on the whole Napoleonic uniform thing. Victrix has made this a little easier as there is a nice painting guide on the box and some good color artwork.

Stay tuned for more on this project...

Re-based Catachans and Ogryns

2011-08-19T10:45:00.007-06:00

I finished up the re-basing of my Catachan Veterans and the Ogryns. These guys now match the rest of the Catachans and this gives me 80 completed Catachans and 6 Ogryns for this project. I still need to re-base my IG Stormtroopers and I have about 30 more Catachans on the paint table. THings are moving along nicely with this little project.

700 Point Durin's Folk Dwarf Army Complete

2011-08-17T17:20:00.007-06:00

I have finished the last 12 models for my Tale of Four LOTR Gamers challenge. This means the army is DONE! For this last batch I added a Dwarf King and more warriors and archers.

Here we have the completed army.

The army now consist of:

Dwarf King

Dwarf Captain

Dwarf Banner

9 Khazad Guard

15 Dwarves with 2 handed axes

16 Dwarves with bows

16 Dwarves with shields

This give me a solid core of a Dwarf Army and from here I can switch out a few models to make a different army. I still have several models in the collection to paint and I will be posting them as I get them done. For now, I am done painting these guys.

Catachan Jungle Fighters

2011-08-08T00:17:00.008-06:00

Tim and I have been talking and planning a 40k Combat Patrol event. Part of the planning has been ideas for themed tables. One of the tables I have been wanting to do for a long time is a jungle table. I came up with some cool ideas and I got to work. When building terrain I always keep a figure model around to test the fit and the look. For this project I had a Catachan figure. That was a mistake. You see it was unpainted and just did not look right. Before I knew it I had 50 Catachan figures on the table and the jungle terrain was pushed aside.

I had no plan for this I just grabbed some unpainted figures and jumped in. Most of this collection is old. I have had most of it baking in my garage for 10+ years. Most of these figures were acquired through various trades and purchases. All of the figures in this post were assembled by someone else. Many already had some paint or primer on them.

I didn't do anything special, I just dusted them and cleaned them a little and started to work.

Since I had no plan when I started painting I have not put these figures into units. There are enough to do a good sized infantry platoon with a heavy weapons squad.

I will still have several commander types as well as special weapons left over.

These guys have been painted to match my Imperial Guard Veterans from an earlier post. The Vets will need to have the basing completed to match the rest of the army. My Ogryns will also be added to this army and will also need some basing work. With the demise of the Daemonhunter's codex I now have 30+ stormtroopers that will be pressed into service with the Catachans. These stormtrooper figures are in a blue uniform and will need to be repainted green. I am not sure if I will do a full paint strip or just paint green over the blue.

I am working on a deal to buyout some extra stuff from a local gamer and Tim has a few extras to chip in. I still have 20 more Catachans on the paint table and parts to build dozens more. I also have 3 sentinels, 3 Leman Russ and a Hellhound. Oh, and a Valkyrie. Lots more to do on this one...lets see how long it take for burnout to set in.

What is Wrong With Game's Workshop?

2011-08-02T09:35:00.003-06:00

Let me start of by saying this is not just some 'I hate GW' rant. I am a long time customer of GW and I am a fan of most of the stuff they do. Having said that I am starting to see a major shift not just in what GW is doing but also how the local gamers are responding.

As I said I am a long time GW customer. I started with Necromunda in about 1997 and then gradually moved into Warhammer 40,000. With the release of the first Lord of the Rings box set in 2001 I jumped into that game. I have never been what GW might consider the ideal customer and I have never been part of their target demographic (I started with GW games in my 30's). I have generally been a gamer who has been on a tight budget and so I have had to be creative about how I acquire new models and items for my collections. I buy new or used. I buy from local stores, GW stores, eBay sellers and online retailers. I also purchase from local gamers. Even with the frugal approach I figure I have spent thousands of dollars on new product in the last 14 years. I don't feel I am an unusual GW customer but I am they type that GW feels is not worth their time to make happy. Oh well.

During the entire time I have been a 'GW Hobbyist' a few things have remained constant:
1. New versions of core games get released every few years
2. New versions of the rules spawn new codex releases
3. New codices make units or models obsolete and new models and units are released
4. Prices are increased just about every year

For the most part this business model has never really concerned me. I hate price increases just like everyone else but the fact is since I started playing GW games I have never been able to afford to do all my gaming purchases for full retail. This is true even though I make more than three times as much money as I did in 1997. GW prices have kept ahead of my wage increases which means I still buy used and trade as much as ever. Oh well.

It seems that this business model has been working just fine for GW and certainly the last few years have seen huge increases in their growth. But something does not seem right to me. I have been thinking that GW has been making some huge mistakes for the last year or so. I recently looked over the financial statement, like most gamers, trying to find a clue as to what is bothering me. I will not try and go into the details of the report as much more knowledgeable people have already done some good work with this. I did see a couple of things; one was pretty obvious. Revenues and profits are down but not a lot. The other thing I noticed, and the thing that is really the point of the post, is that GW seems to be obsessed with quality.

Now this is a good thing right? There is tons of talk in the financial report pointing out that GW makes the best figures in the industry. How FineCast models will revolutionize....something. The report is full of this stuff and you know they are right. Game's Workshop makes the best game models out there. What was missing was any reference to making the best GAMES in the industry. Strange, the name of the company is Game's Workshop but they are being run the company as if the their name is Citadel Miniatures.

Several people have written articles on their blogs about different types of gamers. You know the ones 'there are x types of gamers and they are...' They generally point out there are people who like the games, people who like the models and people who like to build and paint them. Why is this important? Well, it seems that GW has decided that the model collector and painter is their target. These are the folks GW thinks are the primary consumers of their products. I see myself as a collector and a painter first but I do love the games. This is where I think GW is making their huge mistake.

I believe the game is the most important product GW makes. Without the game there is nothing to drive the sales of the models no matter how cool they are. Without the game a collector would not need more than a couple of Space Marines. Without the game who would need more than one or two Minotaurs? Without the game how many Ring Wraiths do I really need? As further proof of this idea consider my attempts to get into Warhammer Fantasy Battles. I had been collecting Beastmen for some time and had the WHFB 7th edition rules and codex. I had never played and then 8th edition came out. I spent more money on a new rulebook and codex. Then I discovered that 8th edition was generally hated and that players were jumping to Warmachine. I had no one to play against. So instead of continuing to purchase the cool new Beastmen models and continue to paint what I had collected I sold the entire collection and moved on. It was the models that got me hooked but the rules that lost me.

In the local game community this has happened dozens of times. Long time WHFB players are getting out of the game and selling off huge collections so that they can play a better game (or at least a game that they enjoy more). For the first time I can remember GW has real competition for the gamer and they don't even know that they are a game company. For additional proof of this remember that most of the best game designers for GW are now gone and most are still writing game rules for companies that are going straight for GW's market. And these game designers are doing good work.

So what does all this mean? First I think it means that people who claim that GW manipulates the rules to drive sales may be giving them too much credit (or are taking a very simplistic view). Second, if you think that GW cares about the quality of the game-play you are mistaken. To GW the rules are very similar to the White Dwarf - an advertising tool.
I do not think that any of this means that GW is on the way out but I do think that things may be changing. They have competition and they seem to be losing customers. This will force them rethink their business model. Hopefully, they will realize that the game is the main product and they will work to improve the quality of the rules to match the quality of the models and the richness of the background.

Oh well...time will tell I guess.

Dwarf Army Phase 3 Complete

2011-07-25T14:02:00.008-06:00

The next batch is done for my Dwarf Army. There are 16 more figures and are mostly the same as the other phases. I did add the banner this time. This brings the project total to 525 points.

Dwarf Army Phase 3

2011-07-14T10:28:00.005-06:00

Well it is nearly the middle of July (OK it is the middle) and I am just getting around to picking my next 175 points of Dwarves for our 4 gamers challenge. This batch will get me to 525 points total. I am adding a banner (which is mostly a points sink), 5 Khazad Guard, 5 Dwarves with shield and 5 Dwarves with two handed axes.

Sixteen models should be doable before the end of the month but I have got to get cracking now.

We have entered the point in the competition where it is very hard to maintain focus. Our group of competitors all suffers, to a degree, from gamer ADD. I know that Tim was the first to fail to get a monthly painting project completed and I have not seen any evidence that he is still painting. Mike seems to still be in. Jerry painted all 700 points the first month so his focus is elsewhere. To cap it off we have only played 1 game each and that was at the 175 point level. So far this month we have not played any 350 point games that count (though I did get in a game last weekend and managed to trash a new guy, oops).

I just need to keep pushing and get this batch done. I am sure the rest of the guys will still be in for the long haul. If I slip now I will just give up and I will not be the first one to drop out.

The cool thing is I will have the core troops for a Dwarf army done well in advance of the Gathering in the Desert 2012. This will allow me to try several different list ideas before the event. I am starting to feel pretty good about the army and my prospects for next year.

Mexican Irregulars

2011-07-11T21:44:00.003-06:00

These are the first 12 models for my Poncho Villa project. I am working on Mexicans for the 1916 US intervention into the Mexican Revolution to capture Poncho Villa. I was inspired to do this project after watching The Wild Bunch which is set in basically the same period. The plan is to use Legends of the Old West for most of the games but I might use a WWI or WWII set for larger battles.

These figures are Mexican Irregulars from Old Glory. They are from pack PIM-20 and are large 28mm. I really like the sculpts. I used a white base coat for the first time in many years. Doing this reminded me of why I don't use white as a base. They are just block painted and then "dipped" in Minwax Polyshades Antique Walnut. This is a reddish-brown stain and works well for a desert look.

These guys will see table time as bandits, irregulars, armed civilians and as part of Villa's forces.

Flames of War Late Germans Part 7

2011-07-07T21:32:00.003-06:00

I finally finished the last unit for Tom's late war German Panzer company. It only took me 6 months (I think) but is it all done. Now I just need to deliver it.

Brookhurst Booty

2011-07-05T21:00:00.002-06:00

I just got back from my annual trip to Seal Beach and the required stop at Brookhurst Hobbies. I didn't get a whole lot this time but I still managed to spend a good chunk. I will have more detailed posts on most of these items in the future.

Flames of War Late Germans Part 6

2011-06-27T22:34:00.003-06:00

Tom's Germans are almost done. I have finished the first of two Pz IV platoons. With this one done I now only have 4 more tanks to complete the army. The last unit just needs decals and washes and I can deliver this to Tom.

Since I am going on vacation in a couple days he will have to wait until after the 4th for this.

Next Batch of Dwarves

2011-06-22T23:16:00.007-06:00

I just finished July's batch of Dwarves for the tale of four gamer's challenge. These guys painted fast now that I have worked out the scheme. It is good that I finished these early as I am going on vacation at the end of the month.

This gives me a few weeks without having to thing about or paint dwarves.

Flames of War Late Germans Part 5

2011-06-17T14:23:00.006-06:00

Last weekend I made a big push to finish up Tom's army but things didn't workout the way I planned. I did make huge progress but I only managed to finish the Company Command. I am SOOOO close to being done. Those damn decals are killing me. I already screwed up on and had to paint the tank number on by hand (and not I am not showing a picture of this).

Flames of War Late Germans Part 4

2011-06-12T16:00:00.004-06:00

The Panther platoon for Tom's army is now complete. Now I just need to finish the MkIV's and this thing is done.

Ork Deff Dread

2011-06-10T23:27:00.005-06:00

I needed a break from painting Panthers so I decided to finish my Deff Dread. I got this model last year as part of a large trade. It was already assembled and I started painting it months ago. It has been sitting on the paint table 90% done. This thing is so damn cool I may have to get another one just so I can build it.

Durin's Folk the next 175 points

2011-06-06T21:22:00.006-06:00

I have finally selected the next 175pts (actually 178) for our tale of four gamers challenge. My first 175pts played really well but now it is time to beef-up the numbers. I am adding 4 Khazad Guard, 6 Dwarf Bow, and 10 Dwarves with two handed axes. This will give me a 347 point army with 31 figures and 10 bow. I think it will do well in the next round.

On an unrelated side note, I spent last weekend repainting the office/hobby room and I cleaned off my paint desk. Here is a picture for proof.

Plastic Soldier T34 76/85

2011-06-03T12:52:00.012-06:00

Ever since I started playing Flames of War I have wanted to do a mid/late war Soviet tank army but the high cost of Battlefront tanks kept me from jumping in. A few months ago I found out about Plastic Soldier company and the 15mm plastic tanks and infantry they are producing. I saw some pictures of the T34 set and was really excited. This was especially true with the price per tank about half of Battlefront.

Recently my local game store, Imperial Outpost Games, ordered in a few boxes and I was finally able to see these in the flesh. I was hooked! These things are amazing.

As you can see the kit will make 5 T34 models as either the 76 or the 85. The first tank I built was the T34 76. To be more accurate this is the T34 Model 43. It is the hardedge turret and the all rubber road wheels and lack of the box fuel tanks put this as a late 43 production. I would have loved to have seen the steel road wheels and the box fuel tanks as an option in the kit but it is still very nice.

The back of the box has the assembly instructions and a painting guide with Vallejo paint colors. The modle only has about 16 parts.

The sprue is very clean and well molded.

As you can see the finished model is very nice. I think it may be the best looking T34 in 15mm. My assembly is not the best and I found the tracks to be a little fiddly. I am sure this will improve as I build the remaining four tanks.

I will be buying several more boxes of these tanks and I will also be buying the PZ Mk IV for my Germans. I am really excited about the news that they will be producing a Sherman kit. The future of plastic kits for my hobby projects is looking bright.

Flames of War Late Germans Part 3

2011-06-02T09:32:00.003-06:00

I finished Tom's Tiger platoon last night. This project is slowly coming together. Next up is the Panther platoon and then 10 Pz IV.

175 Pt. Durin's Folk

2011-05-31T22:04:00.007-06:00

OK! I just made it! Tomorrow the first 175 points is due to be painted. I have it on good authority that some participants in our tale of four gamers have already painted all 700 points. This means that I have to get all these done on time.

What happened to Tom's FoW army you ask? (Shhh) I am making progress and I am hoping he does not notice this little distraction.

Now I just need to pick out the next 175 points to paint. I figure I have a few days to work that out. A soon as I know I will post the next batch. Now I get to see how these guys do in our 175 point games.

A Tale of Four Lord of the Rings Gamers

2011-05-05T19:52:00.004-06:00

My friend Tim has conned a few of us to join in a LOTR army building challenge based on the White Dwarf article from many years ago. Basically, we are building 700 point LOTR armies in 175 point increments. There will be some kind of scoring and maybe some one will get some food and beer. I am a little fuzzy on the whole thing but I decided to jump in anyway. If you are really interested in all the rules check out Tim's original post on his blog. Now I should have done my introduction last week I guess, so I am hoping I don't loose points for that.

Anywho, the army I will be building is a 700 point Durin's Folk army. This is a generic Dwarf army that will have lots of models - 59 to be exact. The first 175 points (actually 169) consists of the following:

Dwarf Captain with shield and throwing axes

7 Dwarf warriors with shields

4 Dwarf warriors with bow

Twelve models - not bad. I have until June 1 to paint these models. Ordinarily, that would not be an issue but I have a problem. Technically, this army does not belong to me yet. You see, I got this in trade for painting Tom's FoW late war Germans...which I have not yet finished. This means that I cannot start on this project (in good faith) until I finish the FoW project. This is a problem.

The answer is simple, I just need to finish Tom's army. OK, easy. This means that I may be a couple weeks behind the other guys but I will not fail. Stay tuned...

Flames of War Late War Germans Part 2

2011-05-02T21:27:00.003-06:00

I have finally finished the next unit in Tom's late war Germans. Here we have a platoon of Old Glory Sd Kfz 10/5 2cm AA guns. These are pretty nice models and like the rest of the project they came to me assembled. They don't look like they would be to bad to build.

Oops! What is that in the back-ground? No peeking, Tom. Now I just need to finish 15 tanks and this project is done.

New Project - 1812 French

2011-05-01T23:15:00.009-06:00

Ever since the release of the Perry and Victrix plastic Napoleonic kits I have been interested in starting a collection. After acquiring a copy of Warlord game's Black Powder I knew it was only a matter of time. I kept telling myself that once plastic Russians and Plastic Austrians were available I would jump in. Well, the Perrys, Warlord and Victrix are working on plastic kits for Russians and Austrians as well as Prussians. So I decided that before the armies I really want to do are released I would start my collection with the French. Basically, no French no Napoleonic wars so it had to be done.

Today I picked up two boxes of Victrix Napoleonic French Infantry 1807-1812. This is an amazing set of multi-part figures. Each box contains 60 figures and I paid $40 per box (I am sure I could get these cheaper but I was supporting my local shop). The kit allows for a wide range of poses as well as command figures. This set includes parts for Fusiliers, Voltiguers and Grenadiers.

There are two different sprues on the box and you get four of each sprue. There are over 100 different heads in the set which is pretty cool. I will have no trouble modeling very unique and interesting units.

The set also includes a very simple set of rules which I doubt I will read. On the rules booklet are eight regimental flags. These flags are very nice but they are printed on the back of the assembly instructions and I am not sure if the text will show through to the flags. I may make color copies of these.

The bad news is that I will not be working on these any time soon. Before I can start on these I need to finish Tom's FoW later Germans, I need to get started on my LoTR Dwarf Army (more on that later), and I need to paint some Poncho Villa Mexicans for some LoTOW games. Oh yeah, I need to paint up a few more units of ACW so I can actually play some Black Powder games. I will post of more as I get to this but for now I am just buying stuff.

Proof

2011-04-24T12:56:00.002-06:00

A friend and I were having a discussion the other day(OK, maybe a month or two ago) about whether the Fellowship leaves Balin's tomb from the rear, as in the book or out the door they entered through. Here is the proof that I was correct.

Blame it on the Jeep

2011-04-12T22:29:00.002-06:00

What happened to all the posts? That is a good question. It has been several weeks since my last post. Not only that, I have not really done much painting in the last three weeks. About three weeks ago I bought a new Jeep and it has really captured my imagination. The Jeep is pretty much all I have been thing about lately. Check it out. It is bad ass! Sorry, I got a little carried away for a second. Anyway, I am blaming my lack of hobby production recently on the Jeep. While this makes a good story it probably isn't entirely true. The truth is I have been going through a bit of a hobby dry spell since the first of the year. This happens to me every year but by February things are usually back on track. It is not as if I have been completely out of gaming. A couple of weeks ago my friend Rob hosted a Legends of the Old West campaign day at his house. That was tons of fun but I was unmotivated to finish all the new Old West figures I had planned to take. The Gathering in the Desert left me wanting more LOTR and I have gotten in a couple more games since then. I really want to start working on my new Dwarf army but I have to finish the trade first. I have added lots of new figures to the collection but I haven't painted much. The good news in all of this is the Jeep fascination has given me a new perspective on the dollar side of the gaming hobby. Lots of people like to bitch about how expensive this model is or that miniature but it is nothing compared to the cost of the serious 4x4 hobby. Once the 'new' wears off I am sure I will be back painting and gaming full force. Enough of the bloggin' BS I got to get back to RUSH: Beyond the Lighted Stage...

Flames of War Late War Germans Part 1

2011-03-08T21:00:00.006-07:00

This is the first installment of a LW German Panzer Co for my friend Tom. I am painting this as part of a trade for paint deal for a large collection of LOTR Dwarves. The infantry will be based by Tom so these guys are done.

Crusader Cowboys

2011-02-26T16:11:00.008-07:00

Some of my game friends are planning another Legends of the Old West campaign day at the end of March. I am not sure what I want to play but I have been inspired to paint some more cowboys. Here er have some cowboys from Crusader Miniatures.

Grima Wormtongue

2011-02-24T10:48:00.003-07:00

This is my Grima Wormtongue model. I started painting this one about 5 or 6 years ago and the mostly black color was not working so he went in a box. For last weekend's Gathering in the Desert event I needed an emissary model for my Rohan army. I thought Grima would work so I dug him back out. Since I was running out of time I rushed the final paint. While I think he looks good in person high res photos show some flaws. He also looks a little dusty.

Rohan Royal Guard on Foot

2011-02-18T09:21:00.003-07:00

These figures are the last of my Rohan army for Gathering. Here we have three Rohan Royal Guard on foot. These may be my favorite models in the entire Lord of the Rings line. I loved painting these and I wish I had more.

Warriors of Rohan

2011-02-17T08:57:00.005-07:00

Wow...I am cutting this project close. Here we have 24 Warriors of Rohan that will be serving as dismounted Riders of Rohan for the upcoming Gathering in the Desert. These guys are quick and sloppy paint jobs on figures right out of the box. I am really glad these are done as they have been sitting around in primer for years.

OK, just a couple more pieces left on this project.

Eomer, Captain of Rohan and Standard

2011-02-14T19:58:00.004-07:00

With Gathering in the Desert 2011 happening this weekend it time for me to get this army done. I am taking an all mounted Rohan army and I needed to finish the heroes. Here we have Eomer, a captain and a standard. These are fairly quick paint jobs but they look ok I guess. I was having a hard time getting into this project.

I also finished the dismounted figures. These are a must have for the game as it is very likely the horses will get killed at some point. If you don't have the dismounted figures then the model is removed.

I still have a few more items to finish up before the event. I still need to finish the dismounts for the rest of the army.

Direction for 2011

2011-01-05T14:09:00.003-07:00

It is that time of year again. The time in which I sit down and try to imagine what I will be doing for the year ahead. This is generally a useless exercise but it is still fun. So without further ado here are the things that pop into my mind that I think will be fun projects:

Lord of the Rings: SBG - With the Gathering in the Desert coming up towards the end of February I really need to get moving on this. I need to finish a few mounted models for my Rohan army. I need to paint up about 24 dismounted figures. I have also committed to doing some terrain for the event. After that I think I will be working on a new Dwarf army.

Legends of the Old West - I had a blast the few times I played last year and I would love to get in some more games. After watching the Wild Bunch the other day I have been thinking about some Mexican Expedition games. Old Glory makes a nice selection of US Army and Mexicans for this period.

Legends of the High Seas - I am not thinking about Pirates but I have been wanting to do some French and Indian War skirmish and these are the perfect rules for this. I love the Conquest figures for the period and I am dying for a reason to buy some.

Black Powder - Work continues on the ACW collection and hopefully some games will be happening soon. I can't wait to see what periods they expand the game into this year. Almost any supplement for this game is likely to get me working on a new project.

Flames of War - I have a lot of plans for this game in 2011. First off I am planning on participating in my first FoW tournament/event this year. I will be working to complete my mid war Fallschirmjager company and I have plans for an early war French force. On top of all that I have a later war German force to paint as a commission. I need to do more terrain for North Africa and Italy. There is lots going on with this one.

Warhammer 40K - This year should see the completion of the Orks. Other than that, and playing some games, I have no major plans so far.

Other Games - I will be keeping an eye out for a good Ancients game. I am hoping the new rules from Warlord will fill this slot. I have no real thoughts on 28mm WW2 at the moment. The search for rules will continue. Warhammer Fantasy Battle has dropped off the radar and the army may go. Time will tell on that one.

That is all I can think of now. It will be interesting to see which of these ideas generates a spark. We'll see in December I guess.

2010 Gaming Year in Review

2010-12-28T09:02:00.004-07:00

Back in January I posted some ideas for 2010 gaming. It was just some random thoughts and did not constitute anything like a plan. Here is the original post. With the year winding down I thought would be interesting to see which of things I talked about in January actually happened. Plus it is an easy way to pad my posts since I have not painted for weeks.

Warhammer 40,000 - The plan was to keep building and painting Orks and that is what I did. I completed nearly 90 models and got in 6 or 8 games. I am enjoying them more than ever.

Warhammer Fantasy Battles - The new codex, new rules and new models all conspired to sour me on this game. I spent a ton of money on the Beastmen this year and painted a few models. I still have not played and the majority of my likely opponents have gotten rid of their armies. This was a major boondoggle. It may be time to cut my losses and sell this collection off.

Necromunda/=][=munda/Inquistor - I have done precisely nothing with this this year. It is still an idea that I like and I have lots and lots of ideas. Maybe 2011...

Black Powder Era - Things went better in this area than I really expected at the beginning of the year. I bought the Black Powder rules from Warlord games and really liked what I read. I managed to get a couple of friends to do a small walk-through game and I thought it was cool. It inspired me to paint a bunch of 28mm ACW figures and make a few more purchases. I now have 6 regiments of Union painted along with 2 guns and 2 caissons. I would love to get a big game on the table in 2011 but I have lots more work to do.

Warhammer English Civil War - This was another bust for me. I did nothing for this game or era. The release of a Black Powder book for the period would get me collecting the Warlord plastics.

Flames of War - This was a great year for this game but could have been even better. I finished my 1500 point 8th Army Infantry Company and painted enough extras to do a 1500 point 8th Army Infantry Tank Company. I also started a Tunisia/Italy Fallschirmjager Company that is about 1/3 painted. I got in several games this year and I an starting to get a good feel for the rules. It has been great fun with more to come.

Legends of the Old West - I had low expectations for this. It turned out to be a pretty good game this year. I painted only about 13 more figures but I did get to play in a campaign day that was lots of fun. This one is a keeper.

Lord of the Rings: SBG - I played a bunch of games for the GiTD and in preparation for the event. I traveled to Colorado for the Mayhem in the Mountains event. I played in a primer event last month for next years GiTD. I am starting the planning for next year's army and I am still collecting lots of minis for the game. Not much painting but after the New Year I need to get busy. This was the most played game for me in 2010, hands down.

28mm World War II - Not much happened this year with 28mm WW2 gaming. I got a copy of the Rules of Engagement and Tim and I tried out a couple of games. I liked the rules and thought they had some potential to be a regular game but Tim was not so sure. Other gaming stuff came up and we never went back after the initial test games. We tried out the Legends of the Old West/Legends of the High Seas/LOTR:SBG rules for some WW2 skirmish games and it worked really well. I need to do more experimenting in this direction. I added a bunch of new models to the collection but I didn't do any painting.

Other Gaming - I did manage to work in some general board games and card games with the family and friends. My daughter got interested in Magic: The Gathering for about 2 weeks. It was kind of fun to pull out the old Magic decks and get in a few games. Her interest died quickly, oh well. This area turned out to be a fun way to enjoy some social time with people who are not interested in miniatures gaming.

All in all 2010 has been a good year for games. I wish I would of had more time to actually play games but when I did the games were all fun. That is what it is all about.

More Orky Goodness

2010-11-26T22:18:00.006-07:00

I have been painting lots of 40K Orks lately. I just finished another 35 models for the army. First up are 5 more Nobz for the Warboss's bodyguard. These are all AOBR Nobz.

Here we have a couple of weapons Orks. These guys will see time as Meks in my Loota units.

I have painted up 6 more 'Ard Boyz to bring the unit total up to 20 Boyz. The Rokkit Launcha adds a bit of punch.

ANd finally we have 2 elven Ork Boyz Mobs. Each has a Nob and a Big Shoota. These are all AOBR figures.

I still have lots of stuff to do for this army. The Deff Dred is very nearly done. After that I have a couple of Battle Wagons and a bunch of Koptas to do.

76th Pennsylvania Infantry

2010-11-04T23:03:00.003-06:00

Here is my 76th Pennsylvania Infantry regiment. I still need to do the banners for the unit but it is done enough to show-off. The figures are Sash and Saber.

This is the sixth regiment I have painted for the American Civil War this year. My production has slowed down in the last few weeks. I am still hoping to get in another Black Powder game before the year ends. I thing it might be time to paint some rebs.

More FoW Fallschirmjagers

2010-10-28T14:10:00.007-06:00

Here is the first combat platoon and support platoon for my Flames of War FJ company.

More 8th Army FoW

2010-10-20T08:57:00.010-06:00

I have finished up a few additional units for my British 8th Army Infantry Company for Flames of War. With these units I now have the ability to make my collection into an Infantry Tank Company.

First up are the Boys Anti-tank Rifle teams. These guys will give my infantry platoons some much needed AT ability. They are not great but they are something.

Next is a platoon of Scout Carriers. This recon unit has actually been in the army for a while but I just finished the paint. It turns out these carrier recon units are very pesky.

I have finally painted up the platoon commanders and the extra tank to give me two full Matilda platoons. These things are tough as nails and fairly useless against most German tanks.

The next unit is actually the company command for when I use my collection as an Infantry Tank Company. Eight Matildas on the table should be interesting.

The Boys AT teams as well as the tank commanders are Peter Pig figures and the tanks and carriers are Old Glory. The crew figures for the carriers are cut down Old Glory and Battlefront figures.

This pretty much finishes my Flames of War 8th Army collection.

Ork Reinforcements

2010-10-16T19:04:00.013-06:00

Today I picked up some reinforcements for my 40K Ork army. A local gamer was getting out of Orks and I worked out a deal for the collection. The first picture is the various characters and Warbosses.

Next are the Nobs. There are several with power klaws that will be getting some paint and getting to the table.

The collection included more than 100 Boyz. Most are Sluggas but there are about 30 Shootas. I will be using some of these but I think most will be traded off.

Below are the Lootas, Burnas, Big Shootas and Rokket Launchas.

There are two assembled Battlewagons and a Deff Dread with 4 CCW. There is only one Deff Kopta assembled but there are several more on sprues.

We also have another Battlewagon as more Lootas still in the boxes.

There is several pounds of bits. There seems to be a little bit of everything in here.

As if the bits were not enough there is a huge box of Ork sprues that includes Trukk stuff and more Deff Koptas as well as lots of additional Boyz stuff.

All in all this deal will go a very long way to completing my Ork army as well as give me several other options. Today was a good day.

FoW Fallschirmjager Company HQ

2010-10-15T15:51:00.008-06:00

Today I finished the command section for my new Flames of War Fallschirmjager army. This army will be used primaraly for Tunisia and Sicily but could also do time for Crete and Italy.

First up is the Company command and the 2iC stands.

Next up are the 5cm mortar teams. These would be used for the earlier lists.

Instead of the 5cm mortars you can take the 8cm GW42 "Stummelwerfer" teams. This will be a standard unit for my army.

I don't have models yet for the standard ATR option. Below is the sPzB41 ATR team. This one will see time for Tunisia battles.

The other ATR option is the 8.8cm RW43 "Puppchen" rocket launcher. This thing packs a solid punch and will be used mostly for Sicily battles.

The figures are either Old Glory or Peter Pig.

October Funk

2010-10-07T20:56:00.005-06:00

Well, it has finally set in. I was hoping that this year would be different. For the last couple of years my hobby activities have taken a hit starting around this time. The reasons for this are all very good but I will not going into details.

I am finding it difficult to select a project and keep my focus for more than a few hours. Sometimes I just don't feel like doing anything. I do have several things in the works and I am getting a little done on these. Here is a short list of my WIP:

1. FOW 8th army. I still have a few bits to finish and I should just get this done.
2. FOW Fallshirmjager. I just started this one a few weeks ago. I have lots collected and the first platoon is nearly done.
3. 28mm ACW. I have yet another regiment on the desk and it is half done.
4. LOTR Rohan. I have a few selected items for my Rohan in order to make it a 600 tournament list.
5. Beastmen. I have been painting 7 minotaurs and a Doombull. I have also put some paint on the Beast Lord.
6. 28mm Varjazi. This is an elite unit for my WAB Rus army. They have been a WIP for about 5 years.

Anyway, time will tell what of these will get the most time. I am hoping to have some new pictures of one of these in the next couple weeks. I am afraid things will be slowing down for the rest of the year.

Caissons

2010-09-25T17:53:00.005-06:00

Time for some more ACW stuff. Here are a couple of ammo caissons for my union forces. These don't really have any game function, they just look cool.

Return of Saruman

2010-09-23T21:31:00.004-06:00

Last weekend I traveled to Parker, CO for the Mayhem in the Mountains independent grand tournament for the Lord of the Rings Strategy Battle Game. Part of the event was a painting competition. I decided to dig out my unfinished Saruman model that I featured on the blog about three years ago. I cleaned it up and touched it up. It needed some highlights and the basing finished. I was pretty happy with how it looked heading to the event. Upon arrival I noticed a flaw and I knew it would cost me the win. There was no time to fix it so I would have to take my chances. Below is a picture of how the figure looked for the judging.

Sure enough I took second place out of six entries. I am happy but I am sure the flaw was the deciding factor. Can you see it? Once I got home i had a chance to look more closely and address the issue. It turns out the fix was so simple I am kicking myself for not taking a moment before the event to fix it. The picture below is after I fixed the flaw.

It turned out to be a small speck of sand or something that had been glued to he figure by some paint. Literally 5 seconds and a sharp knife and it was done.

WAB 2 First Game

2010-09-12T17:47:00.005-06:00

Joe and I got together today to try out the WAB 2 rules. Joe has the rules and has played one game already. I do not have the rules and have never played the new version.

Joe brought his Celt barbarians and I took my 2000 pint Northumbrian Saxon army. The table was mostly open. The terrain generation system seems to favor a table with little terrain. We play a simple pitched battle type game and since we both had foot armies we deployed 12" in.

The battle was very fast and very simple. Joe moved very quickly across the table and was in charge range on turn 3 (top). I only moved once and then went into shieldwall. The game consisted of one round of combat and that was it. We had 4 combats on turn three and Joe won 2 and I won one and the fourth was a draw due to a stubborn unit. The two units of min that lost combat were destroyed and the one unit of Joe's that lost was also destroyed. I lost a couple more units due to panic and the game was over.

My overall impressions of the game are positive. This game was much quicker than I would have liked but it worked to introduce me to the new rules. I learned quite a bit about the game. The first thing I learned is that skirmishers are not worth much. Because of the new army break-point rules they seem to be more of a liability now. The reduction of the rank bonus from a max 3 to a max 2 means that most of my units are now too deep. It seems like wider and shallower units are the new norm. Another change brought about by the change in the army break-point is the need for more units. Having a small number of large units is not longer an advantage - more small units is the way to go (I think).

So those are my impressions after a single and game and having not read the rules. I need to order the book soon so I can get a better feel for the changes. One thing is clear, this is a different game and your old armies and play style may not work.

Flames of War in 28mm

2010-09-10T15:48:00.003-06:00

I have been thinking about using the FoW rules for 28mm battles for some time. This is not an original idea as I have seen other blogging about the same thing. What is very hard to find is an actual conversion of the rules for playing at the larger scale.

On the surface it would seem that FoW would not lend itself to being played with 28mm figures and vehicles and this is true if you are looking to play the same size game in 28mm as you would in 15mm. Flames of War is a company level game and fielding a company in 28mm is huge task. If you drop the game size down one level so that the platoon is the main force then things are much more manageable. For my games I will be doing a platoon plus support teams as the standard battle size.

Before I go to far into this let me point out that I have not tested any of this yet. But I do plan to try it out because I have a huge collection of 28mm World War II that I need to get back on the table.

The Basics

First of all you will need a copy of the Flames of War rules (duh) as nearly everything in the rules will be needed. The idea here it to play FoW and not a new game based on the rules. All of the basic mechanics remain unchanged as do all of the movement rules.

Teams

One area where adjustments are needed is how teams are defined. In the basic FoW rules a team is one stand that represents a number of soldiers - generally 3-5. In game terms this stand, regardless of how many soldiers it represents, is a single wound. In 28mm these base sizes would need to scale up abut 4 times as large, so the basic stand would be 2"x4". This is doable but you would need to scale everything else as well and increase the table size. My plan is to treat each 28mm soldier as its own team. Since I am playing a platoon as the top level the squad becomes the unit of maneuver on the table. All of the rules that would normally apply to a platoon in the rules now apply to a squad.

Flames of War treats all the stands in a platoon as the same type with the possible exception of the command teams for the platoon. This means that a German infantry platoon would be composed of 7 stands all rated as rifle/MG. When playing in 28mm the squad will be composed of 10 men. The majority will be rated as rifle teams and the squad MG gunner will be an MG team. The squad leader will either be a rifle or SMG team depending on how the model is equipped. Generally speaking, the rifle/MG rating will not be used for 28mm games.

Weapons teams are a little trickier. In 28mm you will have a single HMG or mortar rather than an entire platoon. This will make them much more fragile if they only represent a single wound. It would be possible to break the team down into individual crew but then new rules would need to be created for weapons teams with missing crew. I am leaning in the direction of continuing to treat the weapons teams as a single stand with one wound but when they take that wound doing a skill test (or maybe motivation test) as a 'save.' This represents another member of the crew taking over or wounded teams sticking it out and continuing to fight. This will need some testing.

Ranges and Distances

The standard movement rates in the FoW rules should work fine for games in 28mm so I do not plan to make any changes here. The at the double moves should also be OK. The Command Distances also appear to be OK.

Weapon ranges are a different matter. The ranges fir 15mm are too short, in my view, for a 28mm game. I have increased the weapon ranges by 50%. See the conversion table below for the new 28mm ranges:

15mm Range 28mm Range
4........................6
6........................9
8........................12
16......................24
24......................36
32......................48
40......................60
48......................72
56......................84

As you can see the longer ranges quickly exceed the typical table size. This is not a major issue, you just need lots of terrain. The FoW rules apply a -1 to hit modifier for any shot over 16". I may keep this range for the modifier even though the base infantry weapon range has moved up to 24". If this becomes an issue just apply the modifier at 24" rather than 16 inches.

For the artillery template I am thinking of either increasing it from 6" to 9" or using the 9" template for the larger guns. Most of the larger artillery will be off-board in 28mm due to the enormous ranges involved. If they are used on-table then they will be part of a special scenario and used only in a direct fire mode. In this case the range will be the table size.

This is all I have thought through for now. I don't think there are any more obvious issues but I am sure that once I play it I will find a few other minor tweaks. If you try these ideas let me know how it works out.

Ungors

2010-09-02T22:55:00.006-06:00

The first unit of Ungor is done. This 28 figure unit was originally part of a combined Gor/Ungor unit from the previous codex. Sixteen of these figures were painted more than a year ago. Once the new codex was released and the new platic Ungors came out I had to redesign the units. I had to paint 12 new models to finis this unit. The new plastic Ungor models are just amazing.

Army Standard Bearer and Brey-Shaman

2010-08-29T21:32:00.005-06:00

For a little change of pace I decided to breakout some of my Beastmen. This has been an on again, off again project for a couple of years. Not sure if I will ever play. I was almost ready to jump in last version but I am not sure I will move to 8th edition. One thing is sure, I will continue to paint the army I have collected.

10th Indiana Infantry

2010-08-26T19:13:00.004-06:00

I have finished another unit for the Union! This time we have some Perry Miniatures plastic American Civil War figures. This is a pretty nice set. You get 36 figures for about $24-$25. In practice you can only get a 34 figure unit out of a box. This is due to the figures coming 12 to a frame with a commander on each frame. You really cannot use the extra commanders.

I have done this unit as the 10th Indiana Infantry. They are painted in the 1861 uniform that may have only been used by the three month enlistment regiment. The three year regiment would have been the standard Union uniform. I thought this uniform was a little more interesting to paint, but not much. This is a 24 figure unit.

Heat

2010-08-22T19:32:00.012-06:00

I live in Arizona and I know a lot about the power of the sun and the damage it can do. I have had cassette tapes melt into the car stereo. My dashboard has a large crack caused by excessive heat. I have seen the sun reduce plastics to powder and burn oranges while they are still on the tree.

Knowing what I know about the sun this post may come as a bit of a surprise. How can someone who has lived in Arizona their whole life have something like this happen? It is a good question and one I am trying to find an answer to. You see, after many years of storing my models in my garage I have had some melt. It was quite the shock to me as well. I have literally stored my entire model collection in the garage for 10 or more years and I have never had any damage whatsoever. This includes fully assembled and painted models as well as unassembled kits.

The majority of my GW vehicle models for Warhammer 40K are stored in these under bed storage boxes. I keep these under the game table in the garage. These boxes hold 20 or more models each. The location in the garage, does on occasion, get some direct sunlight.

In the picture above you can see, where the blue tubs are now located, the area where the vehicles were located. You can see the amount of sun this area gets at about 10 am on a day in August. This area, obviously, only gets sun went the garage door is open.

When I was gathering models for today's 40K game I had to get into one of these boxes. That is when I noticed something strange. One of the models looked like it needed to be re-glued. I looked closer and it was melted! A wave of horror swept over me as I saw more models that had melted. In total I found 4 models that were all grouped together on one side of the box that had some degree of heat damage.

Of the 4 models the Razorback above had the least amount of damage. This is enough to make the model unusable in my book. To make things worse, this is part of my Dark Angels army which is my first 40K army going back more than 10 years. The model was located on the end of the line of damaged models.

On the other end was this Chimera. It had even more damage than the Razorback. The back half of the top, as well as the rear door and tracks all have some heat damage. This model was part of a collection, that was painted by my friend Luke, that I purchased a few years ago.

This Rhino was in the middle of the line of damaged models as has lots more damage than the previous two. This one is also part of my original DA army... this is starting to make me sick.

Finally we have the Whirlwind. This is the one that first caught my eye. The damage is really unbelievable. What makes all of this so strange is that these were the only 4 models damaged in the entire box. This is good because sitting right next to the Chimera was my Baneblade!

How did these models get hot enough to melt and nothing else? Not even the storage box was damaged. As you can see from the first picture it is opaque and does not transfer much light. This was not the work of simply opening the garage on a summer morning and having the direct sunlight heat things to melting point. If that were the case then many more models would have been destroyed. This looks like someone took a magnifying glass or a heat gun and focused the heat on the specific models.

Then it hit me. I know what happened. The house across the street faces due West and late in the afternoon the sun reflects off the second floor windows. I have walked through this reflection many times and it is MUCH hotter than the air temp. I must of had the garage door opened late one afternoon and had at least one of the cars out of the driveway and this reflected light must have been focused on this box. It would of had a fairly narrow field and it would have been very hot. Somehow, knowing this just makes my decision to store these items in that location even more stupid. I am shocked that it took so many years for me to have this problem.

Expensive lesson learned.

Theoden's Host

2010-08-20T16:43:00.009-06:00

I have started planning for my army for the Gathering in the Desert 2011 and I have decided to pull out my first LOTR army - Rohan. I painted this army several years ago and recently realized I have never photographed them. So here they are. This is about a 500 point force and my 600 point GitD army will be slightly different. I am not sure exactly how different yet.

I will be adding a few new models soon. One of the huge weaknesses I had playing this army was the lack of dismounts. This meant that once the horse was killed the whole model was gone. In a tournament this will not do so I need to paint a bunch of foot.

I always loved playing this army and I am getting excited about getting it back out. Some people will say that this is a bad choice for a tournament army. It is just not competitive. I have been running some tougher evil armies but I have not won with those either. Turns out I am not such a good player so I might as well play an army that is fun.

I will post some updates as this project progresses.

Sash and Saber Union Artillery

2010-08-16T20:38:00.005-06:00

Progress on my Sash and Saber brigade is moving along nicely. Here we have the battery that will be supporting the 18th US Infantry regiment I finished last week.

I still have about three more Sash and Saber Union regiments, another gun battery and a brigadier to paint for this unit. This is going to be a big brigade.

More Cowboys

2010-08-11T22:48:00.016-06:00

I am playing in a Legends of the Old West campaign day this weekend and I decided that was a good excuse to paint up some more of the huge pile of cowboy minis I have collected. These are all from Blue Moon and to me they have an early old west feel. Sort of late 1860s to early 1870s. Many of these figures are more like townsfolk or lawmen rather than cowboys.

These were speed painted in about a day and then dipped. As usual they look better in person. I am not real happy with how the pictures turned out but oh well.

18th US Infantry

2010-08-05T22:08:00.006-06:00

I have finished the first regiment of my second Union brigade. This is a 40 figure unit from Sash and Saber. This is one of their regiment packs. I will likely never field this unit as a full 40 figures. It will likely be broken down into a couple of units. This brigade will be much bigger than the the Foundry brigade. When completed this brigade will have about 160 figures and 2 guns. I have a long way to go on this phase of the project.

The Foundry Brigade

2010-07-25T11:58:00.007-06:00

I have finished the first Union brigade for my planned Black Powder game. The last step in this phase of the project was to paint the second great coat regiment and the Brigadier. Below you can see the completed brigade.

The figures for this project were acquired as part of a paint for trade deal I made nearly 10 years ago. I did a quick price check with Foundry and this brigade would cost about $225 now. Ouch, I am sure I will not be doing any more Foundry units for this project, that is a ton of cash.

Below are a few pictures of the final elements of the brigade.

Next up on this project I am working on a large Union brigade composed of Sash and Saber figures. This next brigade will be nearly twice the size as the Foundry brigade.

ACW Union Great Coat Regiment

2010-07-17T20:35:00.004-06:00

Another Union Regiment is done. These are Foundry Great Coats and I have a bunch of these figures. This is a 24 man unit and I have another one on the paint table just like it. I still have dozens of extras. This is painted up as a generic Union regiment. Just something to get on the table. These are speed painted and dipped.

This makes two regiments complete for my first brigade. The third regiment will be done soon.

Black Powder ACW

2010-07-12T23:29:00.006-06:00

After reading through the Black Powder rules I have been inspired to work on my ACW collection. I am planning to run a large ACW game later in the Summer along with some other gamers. There is quite a large local collection of 28mm ACW and I would like to use some of my own stuff for the game.

The first phase of the project for me is to paint my Foundry brigade. This brigade is, oddly enough, comprised entirely of foundry figures. I have completed the artillery. This is a 12lb Napoleon with crew. This represents a single battery in game terms.

Next we have the first of the Infantry regiments. This is my 114th Pennsylvania Volunteers. I actually painted these figures a couple of years ago but I have finally decided on the basing and now the unit is ready for action.

The second infantry regiment is being based now and the third is being painted. Once complete this brigade will have a General, an Artillery battery and three Infantry regiments. I am pretty excited to get this project going.

'Ard Boyz

2010-06-18T17:27:00.006-06:00

This is my unit of 'Ard Boyz. Nothing too special. Just your basic Ork boys with some extra armor added. I reall love how these guys turned out. The unit stands at about 15 models but I would like to get them up to about 20.

Tamiya 1/48th scale T-34

2010-06-18T11:15:00.008-06:00

As part of the same deal with Tom that got me the sweet Tiger I also acquired these nice Tamiya T-34's. Even though I have a company of Soviet infantry in my collection I was sorely lacking in Soviet armor. These babies will go a long way towards filling that gap.

These models were assembled and painted by my friend Tim and his Saguaro Painting Service. These are good, solid and basic builds and paint jobs and they would be fine...but they look like new tanks! Soviet tanks never looked this good. As soon as they left the factory they would display the most amazing weathering and damage. Some changes are coming for these tanks (sorry Tim). They must get roughed up and grimed up a bit.

Check back to see how I bang these up some.

Tamiya 1/48th scale Tiger I

2010-06-17T13:54:00.007-06:00

This is a 1/48th scale Tiger I from Tamiya. It is the Early Production kit. My friend, Tom, purchased the model assembled and painted fron a seller on eBay. Recently Tom decided to get out of 28mm WWII and I had a chance to add this on to my collection. I could not pass this up.

I have a couple more of these models, one is about half built and the other has yet to be started. I am slowly working those. Not sure what I will do with 3 Tigers for 28mm gaming...you need at least 4.

Imperial Guard Veterans

2010-06-09T22:38:00.007-06:00

A few weeks ago I acquired some additions to my IG army from Kyle, a local gamer. Included in the deal were these very nicely painted IG Vets. There were 19 of these guys, painted and ready to go.

Kyle did some excellent skin tone work on these models. I needed to paint one additional model to complete two squads of veterans. I tried to match Kyle's style.

While I like how my one model turned out I was not able to match the smooth tones of Kyle's work.

This one model inspired me to paint a third squad so I could try and get the skin tones down. I tried several different approaches and colors but I was unable to get the smooth transitions. I really like how these guys turned out but they are just not quite right.

I really like trying to figure out how other painters do things. No matter how good a painter gets they can always learn something new. I certainly have lots of opportunities to learn about miniature painting.

Anyhow, all this has made me want to paint up a Catachan army. These figures will initially be used in my Cadian inspired IG army but I have enough figures (about 140) to do a full Catachan army.

More Ork Progress

2010-06-04T17:30:00.005-06:00

I have slowly been making progress on my 40K Ork project. I have finished the first mob of Boyz and decided on a basing style. I actually decided on the basing with the Killa Kans but I am now adding it to the rest of the army.

I have gone back and finished the basing on the Warboss and the Nobz.

So far this army is coming together. It is taking time but I am having fun building and painting the models.

Killa Kans

2010-05-27T21:38:00.008-06:00

The Kans are done. These are truely amazing models! I had a blast building them and I got in the first game over the weekend with them. They did pretty well. These will get lots of table time in the Ork army.

Ork Buggies

2010-05-25T20:13:00.009-06:00

More additions to my 40K Ork army. Here are a couple of Buggies. The first one is just the stock model that has been around for years. I got this one already assembled from a local gamer and just gave it a quick paint job. This model is a little dated.

Next is a custom built Skorcha Buggy. This started life as an old trukk model. The trukk was already assembed as was part of the same deal that got me the buggy. I decided I wanted it to be a Skorcha buggy so it was time for some conversion work. I won't give you details as the model speaks for itself. It was a lot of fun to build and did well in its first game

Matildas

2010-05-13T22:53:00.006-06:00

Here is the first unit of I-tanks for my 8th army infantry company. Now those German and Italian tanks have something to worry about...and those 88's have something to shoot at.

Video Blog Posts

2010-05-12T11:43:00.005-06:00

I don't like video blog posts. These are becoming more and more common. I can see that from the perspective of the blogger it seems to be an easier way to communicate a complicated or complex idea, and this is true to a point. I have a few reason why I don't like this approach to blogging, some of these are just my preference and others are more practical.

The first issue that comes to mind is the overall poor production values of these posts. Many of these posts lack a coherent script. They suffer from poor lighting and filming techniques. It seems to be thought that you can just turn on a camera and that is all there is to making a useful and interesting video. It is just plain laziness on the part of the blogger. If you are going to make a useful video you need to write a script just as if you were writing a blog post. You should also give real thought to the visual production...it is a video after all. Don't just ramble on in the dark with a shaky picture.

The next issue has to do with how I, personally, consume information. I tend to switch back and fourth from a linear style of reading to a more random access style. I will generally skim an article or blog post for things of interest and if something grabs my attention I will go back and read the entire post. I am not a quick reader so I like to know that my time investment will be worth it. Video blog posts are only a linear form of communication. You really can't scroll and skip around like you can with text. This means that you must devote your time to watching the video before you can decide if it is worth your time - a catch-22. Related to this is the fact that even though I am not a quick reader I am a quicker reader than most people can speak so what may take 3 min of video might only take 30 seconds to read.

Another problem is that of bandwidth and location. I like to check in on my favorite blogs at various times and places. Some of these access location are not conducive to audio or to high bandwidth traffic. This means that at times I just cannot access the info even if I think it is worthy. With the amount of new info out there I might not get back to these posts once I do get to a better access location.

Something that seems to be lost on the typical video blogger is the fact that information within the video, such as the dialog, are not available to Internet search engines which means that are harder to find. The author of the post must rely entirely on the name of the post/video as well as the keywords added to the post to drive search traffic. This is a very limiting approach. A text post with well named images will be found much more often and easier to search engines.

I know why these posts are popular with bloggers - they are easy. You just turn on the camera and start talking. Writing a blog post takes time and thought to make any sense, and even if you take the time it might still turn out to be a rambling mess (as evidenced by this very post). I am a slow typist and I also have a bit of a spelling issue, which is a bad combination. I understand how much work and rework goes into blogging. There is an appeal to anything that makes this easier. I feel that the video post ultimately does a disservice to your blog. I really hope this fad dies out.

Enough of this complaining, as you were.

1940 French Command and Support Weapons

2010-05-07T16:39:00.005-06:00

After playing a couple of games of Rules of Engagement I decided it was time to paint some more 28mm WW2 figures. These are 1940 French. This is an army that gets no love from history or from gamers but the Crusader figures are very nice. These can be used for the France 1940 campaign (obviously) but also for Norway 1940. They would even work as functional stand ins for Operation Torch, fighting the landings of US and British forces in North Africa.

First we have a couple of officers. I could not find a good reference for how to paint the officers so I sort of winged it. I think they look cool.

Next is an 81mm mortar team.

Below are a couple of HMG teams. A must have!

I have painted up a bunch more riflemen and will have some pictures soon. I still need to paint the rifle grenadiers as well as the 25mm anti-tank gun team. I will also post some pictures of my S35's. This army is nearly done.

8th Army Infantry Third Platoon

2010-04-16T15:44:00.003-06:00

I have finally completed the third infantry platoon for my British 8th Army project. I now have a legal army of about 1100-1200 points. I have plans to add a few more elements to get this to the 1500 point level. I am very close to finishing this project and once I do I will post pictures of the completed army.

Field Battery, Royal Artillery

2010-04-11T11:04:00.003-06:00

I have finally finished my Royal Artillery for my Flames of War 8th army project. This was one of the first items I purchased for the project a year ago. I feels good to finally get this done.

This is the entire contents of the Royal Artillery box set from Battlefront.

The first picture is the command teams and the FO team for the unit. Each has there own transport behind.

Next are the guns and the Quad tractors.

This kit has a huge amount of tiny parts and it was kind of fiddly to assemble. Because of all the little bits it was a project that needed to be assembled and painted in stages. I am not totally satisfied with how these turned out but they will work.

Now I just need to paint one more Infantry platoon to have a legal army under the new North Africa lists.

Second Ork Trukk

2010-04-09T18:57:00.006-06:00

Here is the second of my Ork Trukks. Like the first one, this one started life as the old style trukk but it has been heavily modified.

Flames of War First Game

2010-04-03T21:12:00.004-06:00

Last night Tim and I got together to try out Flames of War. We both had dabbled a bit with first edition but neither of us had played the current edition. A few months ago we had done a small walk through but that hardly counts as playing.

We decided to play a small 600 point battle. Tim has some German Panzer Grenadier force. He had a company command and two smallish infantry platoons. He also had a 3 tank platoon of Pz IIIs. I took an 8th Army Rifle Company. I had a company command and three infantry platoons each with 2 squads. I had an HMG platoon with one two-gun section. I also had a carrier patrol with extra hull MGs.

I will not do a full play-by-play battle report and I failed to get any pictures. Basically, the British infantry were able to pound the German infantry before Tim figured out how to get the tanks into action. Once the tanks engaged the Brits took a beating but by then it was took late and the Germans failed the Company motivation test and the game was over.

Over all we liked the game and had a good time. I am sure we did as many things wrong as we did right. We had to look up almost every rule for the first couple of turns. We did learn a few things. One is that we need to read the rules a whole lot more. Second, platoon movement and formation are really important. Third, infantry in the open are in trouble, even with the high save. Fourth, assaulting tanks is extremely dangerous.

I will be playing again and this has inspired me to get back to work on my army. I think I will be adding some Matildas for some armored punch.

First Ork Trukk

2010-03-24T22:06:00.009-06:00

This is my first Trukk for my 40k Ork army. This started life as the old Ork Truck but it has been heavily modified. The old Trukk model is just too small so I stretched it out a few inches. I build the cab to hide the fact that I am missing the drivers.

This one will hold a full 12 man unit on the Trukk. I have one more conversion in the works and then I think I will get the current model.

Rules of Engagement - First Game

2010-03-21T22:56:00.011-06:00

Today Tim and I got together in the garage game room to try out the Rules of Engagement. We were looking to try out the basic rules first, before trying any of the cools stuff like artillery or tanks. The game uses a unique army selection that does not use points. Your force is centered on an infantry platoon and you have required elements and optional elements. For most armies you must take a Platoon HQ and two infantry squads. To keep things simple we just used the basic force for each side.

I went with the US Infantry. The picture above is my force which had a 5 man HQ and 2 twelve man squads. The US gets a nice ROF from the M1 Garand but the BAR as a support weapon leaves a bit to be desired.

Above is Tim's German platoon. He had a 6 man HQ and 2 nine man squads. The basic German rifle only has a ROF of 1 but has a longer range than the US riffle. In addition, the Germans have a light machine gun in each squad which can really put out some firepower.

We selected the Advance to Contact scenario. This is basically a meeting engagement type of battle. It is supposed to use a hidden deployment but we opted for the quick - throw stuff on the table - approach.

The terrain was pretty basic with a few hills and some woods. Again, we just wanted to keep things simple.

The turn starts with the Discipline phase, which is where you do various checks and tasks related to morale. On the first turn there is nothing to do. Next is the Orders phase. There are four basic orders that relate to how you want each unit to behave in the following phases. Depending on the order selected you unit may move fast or slow, it might be able to shoot and assault or it might not. The orders aren't complicated but they add an interesting aspect to the game. In the order phase you must also declare your targets for each unit to shoot at in the Shooting phase as well as any units you wish to Assault in the Close Quarters phase. This declaration of targets is really different and takes some getting used to.

In the first turn we both just issued Advance orders and moved up and started shooting. The US was able to get in the first kill. Discipline is a big part of the game and it is mostly centered on how many hits are scored on a unit in a single Shooting phase. If you score a number of hits equal to the size of the unit after casualties are removed then the unit becomes Suppressed. If you do double the number of hits than the unit has models it becomes Shaken. The different levels have there own drawbacks and limit what the unit may do and how it may act. We quickly learned that the umber of hits on a unit is, in many ways, more important than how many kills are inflicted by those hits.

After a couple of turns of trying different orders and shooting away at each other we had managed only a couple of kills. Tim did manage to get my HQ to Shaken and it took the next couple of turns to get them back in good order and back in the fight.

On the US left, the Germans advanced behind a small wood and prepared to assault a US squad that was defending a wall. The US would get a turn of shooting before the Germans were in position so I tried lobbing some grenades. This did not work out but it was neat to be able to do it. Many games just ignore grenades or make up some sort of abstraction to explain them away but they were an important part of WW2 combat and really add flavor to the game.

On the German's turn they swung into position and opened fire. The scored 5 hits but no wounds and 5 hits were not enough to Suppress the unit. In the close Quarters phase the Germans launched their assault against the troops defending the wall...turns out this was a bad idea. The CQ combat system uses a target number that is then modified up or down based on a series of factors. Each soldier in base to base fights separately and the fights are resolved one at a time. Each side checks there modifiers, rolls the dice and modifies the score. The side with the high score wins and the looser is removed as a casualty. Repeat for each model in base to base. This is quicker than is sounds and much bloodier than you think.

The Germans launched the assault with 8 men, six of which made it into contact. They lost every fight and the two survivors surrendered. This turned out to be the climax of the battle as the Germans were reduced to their break point. We got in a couple more turns but it was over for the Germans.

The game played well and if you are familiar with Warhammer 40K or Flames of War you will quickly pick-up the rules. It is not the same as either game but it has enough in common to allow for points of reference. I can't wait to play it a few more times and try out some of the more interesting units and rules.

Rules of Engagement

2010-03-20T22:49:00.004-06:00

While on a recent vacation to Disneyland I made a quick stop at Brookhurst Hobbies. The last couple of times I have stopped in I haven't found much to get excited about, but to be fair they have been doing lots of work and the place has been in disarray. I did not have big expectations this time but I was very surprised to find a copy of Rules of Engagement.

This is a set of World War II rules for 28mm figures. The rules are published by Great Escape Games in the UK and are a bit of a bitch to get in the US. In fact, I was not aware that Brookhurst had these rules. The only place listed on Great Escape's site where you can get the rules in the US is On Military Matters. The main reason I did not order these from OMM is they want $65 for the book and a set of templates...ouch. Brookhurst not only had the rules, they were on sale for only $35! No templates but who cares?

Now, on to the good stuff. The book is a nice hardbound edition. The rules are fairly well written but have the typical English rules style that Americans can find a bit frustrating. There is a nice table of contents as well as an extensive index.

The rules section covers everything you need to know to play the game. The rules are infantry centric and seem to be inspired by Warhammer 40K 2nd through 4th editions. There are also some influences from Flames of War. There are rules for vehicles, fortifications, and artillery support. There are nine scenarios and well as a simple ladder campaign.

After the rules section there is a brief history of World War II centered on the Western Front from the Normandy invasion to the end of the war. After this there are several Orders of Battle for creating forces for the game. These include 5 different German armies, 4 British and Canadian armies, 4 US armies, and a French Resistance army. Each of these lists includes the weapons stats and support options. In the middle of the book there is a hobby section with some painting and modeling info. At the end of the book is a quick reference chart and the templates and counters for the game.

I have read through the rules and so far it seems like it will play well. As a fan of 40K I was really looking forward to trying these rules. The plan is to get in the first game tomorrow. I have been looking for a game like this for a very long time but have failed to find anything that I liked. It has been so frustrating that I started work a few years ago on my own rules. The problem with writing your own rules is you become 'that guy.' You know, the beardy git who carries around his rules binder. I never wanted to be that guy, so hopefully, these rules will play well and I can get out of the rules design business.

More to come...

2250 Beastmen List

2010-03-04T10:14:00.000-07:00

Back in 2008 I acquired a collection of beastmen models. I tried to get a painting and model building challenge going in by local game group. I managed to get a few models painted but thinks kind of tapered off. The rumors of a new codex for the Beasts of Chaos helped to slow my enthusiasm.

Now that the new codex has been released I have put together my first real Warhammer list. The primary design consideration for this army is to focus on the models I have in the collection. I also wanted and army that looked like an army. Many WHFB armies are nothing more than a few monster models and maybe a single unit of infantry.

Here is what I have come up with for a first try. I am sure the WHFB pros out there can pick it apart.

Characters

Beast Lord
Axes of Khorgor
Blade-Blunter Armor
235

Wargor
Heavy Armor
Extra Hand Weapon
93

Battle Standard Bearer
War Banner
Heavy Armor
129

Brey-Shaman
Level 2
Gnarled Hide
Dispel Scroll
Jagged Dagger
160

Total - 627

Core

28 Ungor
Spears
Full Command
183

24 Ungor
Spears
Full Command
159

24 Gor
Shields
Full Command
217

24 Gor
Extra Hand Weapon
Full Command
217

Tuskgor Chariot
80

Tuskgor Chariot
80

10 Chaos Warhounds
Poison Attack
Scaly Skin
100

Total - 1036

Special

20 Beastigor
Full Command
270

4 Minotaurs
Bloodkine
Standard
Great Weapons
292

Total - 562

Army Total - 2225

There it is. The beauty of the army is that it is built and the painting is well under way. I will take a few pictures and do some more work in progress posts. And I will certainly do up a Battle report as soon as I get it on the table.

Gathering in the Desert 2010

2010-02-26T20:17:00.013-07:00

I have managed to let nearly two months go by without a post. It is not as if I haven't been doing anything I have just been so busy that updating the blog fell way down the list. For the last several weeks I have been working on terrain and models for the Gathering in the Desert LOTR:SBG Indy GT. I have also gotten in a few practice games. The event was held last weekend at Empire Games in Gilbert AZ and was a huge success. I was not last and managed a record of 1-2-2 for the weekend.

Here are some pictures of the terrain pieces I did to support the event.

This creepy statue is from one of the Halloween village lines. I got it for about $1 a couple of years ago. I finally got around to basing and painting it.

The next four pictures are of a set of the LOTR ruins from GW mounted on one of the forest bases. I mounted the trees that should have been on this base to their own individual round bases. I used some of the extra limbs and leaves to tie the piece into a woodsy setting.

I also built a total of three sets of the Citadel Woods for the GiTD and painted them to match the set a did a few weeks ago for myself. I forgot to get pictures but they look just like mine. I painted two of the GW modular hills and two of the regular hills to match the Realm of Battle set I had already painted for the event.

After all the terrain was done I needed to do a few little projects for my GiTD army. This year I decided to take a Cirith Ungol army lead by Gorbag. Most of the army was Orcs which where already painted. I took Cirith Ungol because I wanted to use my Shelob model.

To round out this force all I needed to do was paint a Mordor Troll, Gorbag and finish the Banner Bearer.

Here are some links to more coverage of the event:

http://cursedtreasures.blogspot.com/2010/02/action-from-gathering-in-desert-2010.html

http://cursedtreasures.blogspot.com/2010/02/winners-of-gathering-in-desert-2010.html

http://cursedtreasures.blogspot.com/2010/02/gathering-in-desert-coverage-tables.html

http://cursedtreasures.blogspot.com/2010/02/results-from-gathering-in-desert-2010.html

http://theoldwestchronicle.blogspot.com/2010/02/gathering-in-desert-2010-army-displays.html

http://theoldwestchronicle.blogspot.com/2010/02/gathering-in-desert-2010-sunday-update.html

http://theoldwestchronicle.blogspot.com/2010/02/gathering-in-desert-2010-saturday.html

http://theoldwestchronicle.blogspot.com/2010/02/gathering-in-desert-2010-friday-update.html

http://thereandblogagain.wordpress.com/2010/02/26/battle-report-gitd-game-4-contest-of-champions/

http://thereandblogagain.wordpress.com/2010/02/25/battle-report-gitd-game-3-%e2%80%93-bilbos-treasure/

http://thereandblogagain.wordpress.com/2010/02/25/battle-report-gitd-game-2-domination/

http://thereandblogagain.wordpress.com/2010/02/24/battle-report-gitd-game-1-storm-the-camp/

http://thereandblogagain.wordpress.com/2010/02/23/battle-report-the-unexpected-party-travels-to-the-desert/

First Post of 2010

2010-01-02T11:52:00.007-07:00

Wow! It is 2010 already. How did that happen? It is hard to believe that I started this blog three years ago, almost to the day. In all the time I have been doing this blog I have avoided the whole "New Year's Resolution"/"Here are my grand plans" type of posts. This blog has always been about whatever I was doing/thinking at that moment. But times have changed. For the first time I think I will go on record with what I would like to do the for year ahead. Planning anything for me is usually a bad thing....

So here we go. The items listed below are in the order in which they entered my mind.

Warhammer 40,000 - From a player perspective this has been my main game for the last couple of years, and it looks like that will be the case for 2010. Over the past summer I started work on an Ork army and after a few games I am really liking them. So the plan is to expand this army over the coming year and get in a bunch of games with them.

Warhammer Fantasy Battles - A couple of years ago I acquired a Beast of Chaos army and I started working getting it painted. At the time I tried to get my friends to to join in...with limited success. With the new Beasts Codex coming out next month I will definitely be getting back into this project. It also appears that my game friends will also be building armies and playing games.

Necromunda/=][=munda/Inquistor - Tim and I started working on some small skirmish games based on the 40K setting. We have yet to settle on a rules set and will probebly use a mix of Necromunda and 40K 2nf edition (=][=munda). I would like to keep working on this in 2010.

Black Powder Era - This is a very broad and vague category. I have lots of interesting in games set in various battles from 1700 to 1900. I am mostly interested in the American Civil War and the Napoleonic Wars. I have the start of a large 28mm ACW collection but I need a reason to paint it. I would also like to build some armies with the new plastic Perry and Victrix Napoleonic figures. Rules for this period have always been and issue. I want something fun and easy and I am not sure there is anything out that fits the bill. The Warlord Games Black Powder rules look interesting so I may be checking those out this year.

Warhammer English Civil War - I played this game several years ago and really liked it. I started building an army using figures from Renegade and Bicorne. The figure were terrific but very expensive. I also had a huge block when it came to painting them. It took a long time to make any progress on the project and before I knew it everyone had moved on and sold their armies. I was bummed and eventually sold my army as well. Warlord miniatures has released a new line of plastic ECW figures that look fantastic! The prices are good and I may just start working on this again. This time I will do it for me and plan on both sides.

Flames of War - Last year I started building any army for FoW. I spent lost of money on an army and the books. I have painted up about 600 points of British 8th Army for North Africa. Sadly, I have yet to play and my dislike of 15mm minis is starting to take hold. I am not sure where this project will go in 2010. It seems to me it is about 50/50 whether I continue the project or sell it all off. Playing would probably help.

Legends of the Old West - I have lots of Cowboys and the start of a town. I would like to play some games and paint some more terrain and figures. This could be a fun distraction.

Lord of the Rings: SBG - Funny. I have no real plans for this game in 2010. I have a couple of figures to paint for the Gathering in the Desert in February. Other than that, I probably will not be doing anything for this game.

28mm World War II - This is my true love when it comes to miniatures gaming. I have a huge collection and a desire to do so much more. The last several years I have been working on a set of rules based, loosely, on 40K with some LOTR mixed in. I even sent it into Warhammer historical in hopes of getting it published. Alas, it was not to be. There were big changes at WHW and they now how their own plans for WW2. This was a very discouraging development and lead to my experimentation with FoW. You see, I don't want to be one of those beardy gits that plays their own, home-made, rules. This year will be the year of finding a published set of rules for 28mm WW2. Right now I am looking at the Iron Ivan stuff. I have played it a couple of times and it look like it might do the trick.

Other Games - I really want to get in some more games of Descent this year. I have played a couple of times and I really like it. I would also like to get into Wings of War, either WW1 or WW2. Memoir '44 is also looking interesting. I like the fact that they have so many expansions.

So there you have it. This is what is on my mind right now. In a while I will have something else on my mind and will probably end up forgetting half of this. Throughout the year I will try and come back to this post. Maybe it will help to keep me on track.

40K Game Images Part 3

2009-12-30T14:02:00.004-07:00

A couple of weeks ago a few friends and I met up at Imperial Outpost for a day of 40K. We had five players - me, Tim, Tom, Brandon and Lonnie. The armies that took the field were Tyranids, Sisters of Battle, Imperial Guard, Space Marines and Daemonhunters. We managed to get in three games.

The Sisters fought the Tyranids and...well...the Sisters got wacked. It was not pretty.

The Imperial Guard fought the Daemonhunters and it was a close game that ended in a draw.

The last game was Imperial Guard vs. Space Marines. This was another close battle that also ended in a draw.

It was good to get the guys out for a day of gaming. Two of the five players played their frist games of 5th edition. Everyone had a great time.

40K Game Images Part 2

2009-12-23T08:11:00.008-07:00

Today we have another collection of game images. This is from a game played at my friend tim's house in April of this year. The match was Sisters of Battle vs. Imperial Guard. This was a small 1000 point game.

I do recall that the IG captured the center building early and punished the sisters trying to turn the flank closest to the camera. I also recalled that he sent in his Stormtroopers to clear the building. I tried to get around the far building with mu Sentenels and got bogged down.

I think this game was a draw but it might have been a victory for the sisters. Either way it was a fun game. I realy need to remember to take pictures throughout the entire game and perhaps take some notes.

40K Game Images Part 1

2009-12-21T15:44:00.011-07:00

This is the first of a series of posts I will be doing of pictures I have taken in various 40K games. These posts will be of pictures for games that I should have done battle reports for and never got to or battles that I did not take enought pictures of to make it worth it.

The pictures below are of a game played in, I think, April of 2009 (maybe not, I really can't remember) between my Kinghts of Eden Space Marines and my friend Lonnie's Tau. Lonnie was breifly back in town after working for months overseas and we decided to play a 2000 point battle.

I remember that this was a good and close game. The Tau pulled out the victory on the last turn. The game was played at Empire Games in Gilbert, AZ.