2010 Gaming Year in Review

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

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

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

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

More 8th Army FoW

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.