20mm Gamer

6mm Titans

2012-01-27T09:55:00.003+13:00

Good morning,

Here are the last efforts of my holiday before I go back to school. Some old Nexus 6mm Mechs, back from when I used to sell 'em - though for some reason, didn't list them!

(It's a bit of an orphan site now. I marked it up as part of an ICT paper I did a while back, and then passed on the "business" (for the lack of a better term!) to Stan when I started teacher training. (He's doing much better at it than I - I never had the capital to get in the stock) Before I passed it on, I updated it to Stan's [old] email address and then switched ISPs. Now Stan's using another email address, and I can't get back into the site to change it!)

(Sorry about the cloth, I don't have the time to set up anything better - heck, I shouldn't even be doing this, I've got a heap of planning to do for next week!)

I loosely based the colour scheme on Sgt Scream's Battle Tech walkers. Brilliant stuff!

All of mine are Epic Armageddon Scout Titan proxies, with one being slightly heavier than the others. And one considerably more dead than the others!

And for the 'heavy'. I'll make some additions to it's armour/shield stats to reflect it's slightly gruntier look.

And here is the other one (two of each in a box, plus a 'chicken walker' which I'll use as a light medium titan - sort of a small Epic Reaver). Dead. I actually used it's arms to, well, "arm" an Ork Gargant, so it's body I thought might make a good objective marker. Or an interesting piece of terrain.

Here are what the look like against the other 6mm kit...

Right, I really must get back to work.

Nick

And Now For Something Completely Different!

2012-01-23T11:31:00.005+13:00

6mm Epic Armageddon Space Marines!

Good morning,

Over these holidays, as well as those Skellies and German support weapons, I've plodded away with these 6mm Epic Marines and Ruins. I now have about 2000 Epic Armageddon points painted. (And about 1500 points worth left unpainted including a couple of Titan proxies.)

What's this got to do with 20mm plastic figures, I hear you ask? Easy. They're plastic (well, apart from the Predators (those smaller tanks)), and cheap. Real cheap. Like, apart from the aforementioned Predators, I was given all of the Marines and over half of the opposing Orks (the other half I got dirt cheap), as well as all of these ruins, plus some.

The rules are free too and they play a fun game - tanks, giant stompy robotty things (Titans), tiny infantry and aircraft - what's not to love?! (Apart from the 40K background. Far too dark and occulty for my tastes - and more than a little ridiculous, hence me painting these in subdued greys rather than the clownish bright hues of most other Space Marine chapters.)

First up, the Supreme Commander (General) and a formation of Terminators (heavy, like really heavy, foot).

I didn't have enough figures for the regulation 5 figs per base, but I quite like having just four. It's as if to say "We're so tough we don't need no stinkin' fifth figure!"

Then we have two formations of grunts, your average Jo Blogs tactical Space Marines, including Rhino transports.

Then the Marines on bikes.

Good for assaults. (Got me some Assault Marines too, in the painting tray waiting for some attention).

Now for some armour.

The heavy tanks, the Mk II Land Raiders.

The Mark I Land Raiders, I always thought, look remarkably similar to the back end of Judge Dredd's Land Raider, as featured in The Cursed Earth.

Then we have the medium tanks, I guess you could call them, the Predators.

Two types. Annialators (with the two barrels), which are anti tank, and Destructors, which are best for anti personal. These are metal, all the way from the UK, and the only part of this army that I actually paid for!

And finally we have some Whirlwinds. Mobile 'artillery', though they are surprisingly short ranged.

I've also got some Dreadnoughts to paint up, but so far I have found them to be quite ineffective. They stomp along sooo slowly that they can't keep up with the Tacticals to whom they are attached when the Tacs are mounted up in their Rhinos. So the Rhinos have to crawl along at walking speak so's the Dreads can keep in formation.

Might use a house rule that says that although the Dreads are attached to the Tacticals, they don't have to keep up!

And that is about that. So far. 40 odd 'elements' plus a dozen ruin bases.

Now to arrange a game with my son and his mate Andrew...

Nick

Second Spearhead Stouch

2012-01-19T21:29:00.005+13:00

Good evening,

Just back from a very relaxed and enjoyable afternoon at Robin's for a second Spearhead stouch.

Robin set up an encounter battle with equal forces - his forces (+ my tanks). Three infantry battalions each, plus a regiment of amour each.

Four objective markers - BUA in the east, two hills in the centre, and bridge in the west.

I took the Brits, coming in from the north.

As it happened, my deployment was pretty much mirrored by Robin.

Well, 'cept my central infantry battalion was in front of my armour, and Robin's was to west of his.

As we advanced, I ran to get behind the walls of the eastern field...unfortunately, it didn't really help...

...as Robin started pouring in a significant weight of fire...

Still, while I sat and took it, so to speak, in the centre, I managed to advance on the Eastern township...

...while my armour slowly came forward.

In spite of having a company suppressed as they went in, two other companies of the battalion carried on in to assault the town anyway.

With some considerable success.

'Specially since I was attacking three companies with but two!

Right, enough hanging around in the back, time to swing the armour to the west and then north.

In the meantime, my central battalion was getting a hammering.

(Not as much a hammering as my eastern battalion had though, but they survived a double moral test and vowed to fight on to a man!)

As the Shermans continued East (minus one that went down to a Pz IIIL - how rude!) the afternoon slowly drew to a close, so time was called.

Adding up victory points in relation to the initial objectives, Robin was declared the winner and 5 VP to 3.

And a good time was had by all. A jolly good time.

Thanks for the game Robin, and the coffee. And biscuits. And coversating. And stuff.

Cheers,

Nick

Why Daleks Don't Dance...

2012-01-18T13:16:00.001+13:00

...or the Hitch Hikers' Guide to the Galaxy's guide entry re: The Daleks.

Brilliant!

Nick

More WW2 German Heavy Weapons

2012-01-08T16:46:00.005+13:00

Good afternoon,

During our great Christmas Crossfire Conflagration I noticed that Stan (like, I - he was using my figures) didn't have enough mortar elements on board. I know, they don't have to be modeled on board, but they look so cool! They're also useful to remind you that you've got mortars, and to have something to keep the number-of-fire-missions-left-to-fire die besides.

So, since still had enough for two more stands from last time, I pulled them together.

Along with two more tripod'd MG42 HMGs.

These camouflage patterns take so much longer than the Kiwi's Khaki. (And I still haven't really got them right). No wonder the Germans lost - apart from biting off more than they could chew (and the regime being so very evil), they made stuff unnecessarily complicated - just look at their later tanks.

(Actually, it would be interesting to see if anyone has done a study on the relative effectiveness of WW2 camouflage/battle dress - was the extra effort really worth it?)

Nick

Completed 20mm Skelly Army

2012-01-03T16:03:00.004+13:00

...well, so far, anyway.

Good afternoon,

Here, in all their pretty much completed glory are my Skellies @ ~1000 Warmaster points worth or just over 2 and a half HOTT armies worth. (Could spin them out to three armies with some appropriate allies.)

Skellies for both HOTT and WMA

	HOTT	@Pts	WMA	@Pts	HOTT	WMA
1	Gd	4	Skull Chucka	85	4	85
2	Mg	4			8	0
1	Dr	4	Sphinx	150	4	150
1	Bh	4	Bone Giant	125	4	125
3	Kn	2	Chariots	110	6	110
3	Rd	2	Cavaly	60	6	60
3	Bs	2	Hounds	30	6	30
1	Fl	2			2	0
3	Bd	2	Guard	45	6	45
3	Sh	2	Bowmen	45	6	45
12	Hd	1	Skeletons	30	12	120

					64	990

1			Tomb King	130		130
2			Wizards	90		90

Well, I finally finished them by polishing of four more horde elements...

...two more Shooter elements...

...one more Rider element...

(which are atop of a couple of Newline Ancient Brit chariot horses!)

...and three WMA command stands...

...as well as adding some very dried looking static grass to the bases of the whole army. The painted sand by itself looked...flat...

I could possibly add some Zombie elements using the 20mm zombies from Zombies!!! the tile/board game (though we ran out of them at one point in our last game and had to bring them over from the unvisited part of the city - everyone was racing for the helicopter at the other end of town!), or try to find two more elements worth of Skelly flyers but for now I'll concentrate on other things.

Nick

The Emperor Dragon Trophy

2012-01-01T16:30:00.003+13:00

Good afternoon,

I'll start 2012 with my wargaming highlight of 2011 - my winning of the much coveted (!) Emperor Dragon Trophy!

I finally picked it up from Robin yesterday!

Cool!

Nick

Christmas Crossfire Conflagration

2011-12-25T11:42:00.007+13:00

Merry Christmas,

Yesterday Stan and I got together at his place for a Crossfire bash. He set up the terrain - lots of line-of-sight blocking hedges, a couple of walls, some buildings and roads.

Normandy, thought I. Time to break out the armour.

Two Shermans and a Firefly for me (my Kiwis playing the part of the British), a Tiger and Stug III for Stan. Plus two full infantry companies per side.

Stan wins the initiative, brings up his southern infantry company forward, while consolidating the rest in the rear to the west. He then moves the Stug down the road to take on my armour, so I try to initiate some reactive fire from first the front Sherman (which goes no-fire), then the second as he lines up for a shot.

My second Sherman also goes no fire...

...so Stan brews up the front one.

Bother. The first casualty of the day...

Stan moves out the Tiger, with intend to do grievous tankerly harm, so, before he can, I take a pot shot with my Firefly. Success! Huzzah!

(Sorry, Andy, you may notice that the 50 cal from the Firefly is missing. I kinda knocked it off a minute before this shot...)

In response, Stan's Stug takes out my Firefly! Bother!

"Well, that didn't work," said I to myself, so I send two platoons up the centre, with the spotter for one of the 3" mortars and a Vickers HMG squad taking up residence in building near as no matter in the centre of the board.

I advanced a platoon across the northern half of the battlefield with aims to menace the north west corner, threatening the German flank. Unfortunately, as I tried crossing the open between a patch of rough and a wood the entire platoon got suppressed by reactive fire. The whole platoon!

And so for the first smoke of the game. Well, apart from that generated by burning tanks! I popped smoke to cover the suppressed platoon, successfully rallied all of them (an unexpected result in itself!) and ran them to the wood.

A good old stouch developed in the south (my left flank) as Stan and I traded shots across an open field from, respectively, some rough ground to the west, and a patch of wood to the east.

A lucky shot with my southern-most 3" mortar sees not only an HMG squad wiped out, but the two adjacent stands suppressed as well.

Finally, Stan's squads across the field are suppressed (or destroyed!) - in we go with the first close combat assault of the game. With a quite positive result. For me, at least!

Which left Stan a F/O-less mortar!

Consequently, Stan regroups around a hamlet in the centre.

I drop smoke and run the platoon to the east of this picture (like, below the photo) across from the north of the battlefield into the centre.

I also thought to move my remaining Sherman out and work around to the south. Stan's Stug reacted to the movement and, well, blew it to pieces!

So here's the situation. I've pushed through in the south, got plenty of bods in the center, lost my armour...what to do, what to do...

Ok, I'm running out of fire missions (and time) to try to suppress everyone before assaulting, so lets just drop smoke, charge in and hope that extra numbers will carry the day.

And so they did.

Excellent. A successful assault that put paid to a full platoon to my front, and now I've got an excellent chance of taking out that suppressed squad with a simple follow through. +4 advantage to Stan's +2. What could possibly go wrong?

Oh. Bother.

On my next initiative I said "Let's try that again. I mean, what are the odds that I'd be so unlucky again?"

Pretty good, as it turned out!

So here is the situation as it stands before the final acts. Stan's moved the Stug to cover his south east, I'm lined up facing west in the south and centre, wondering what to do next with a fairly isolated platoon in the north, facing a German platoon across the road with British support kinda cut off by another German squad with HMG support hiding behind the wall.

Once again that squad to the east of Stan's south facing platoon becomes suppressed (mortar fire, IIRC). Right, in with another assault, say I. So in we go, I'm at +4, he's at +2 and, well...

...arghhh! Not again!

I finally managed to take out this jolly super squad with my Vickers gun...

...so Stan took out the said HMG with his Stug - so effectively that two adjacent squads (well, ok, an infantry squad and a F/O (whose mortars had run out of fire missions anyway!)) were suppressed as well!

I tried again in the centre, bringing in another squad but this time keeping them out of close combat and letting loose with some shooting. To no effect.

As my smoke was blocking the view down the road to the south from my northern flank guard, Stan sends the platoon that were up against the west wall across the field up to the hedge to the north of where the slow battle of attrition was happening in the centre.

Alas and alak for him, I was able to suppress two of his squads as they were coming up to the hedge from my bods in the centre, passing the initiative to me and allowing me to send in squads waiting in the field to the east of said advance and successfully assaulted the whole lot of them!

Seeing as my smoke was blocking the view of the Germans to the south to my flank guarding platoon (which had given occasion for Stan's above advance across the wall), Stan planted smoke directly in front said platoon, and assaulted them.

I kinda had overlooked the fact that one of the squads was suppressed (the disadvantage of using a casualty figure for a suppression marker rather than a brightly coloured ball) and was unaware of the rule that if combat is lost in a building, everyone on the loosing side dies!

Opps!

Having taken out my flanking Platoon to the north, he then swung round the marauding Huns into my fresh from the firefight Tommies, and, well, wiped them out!

At this point time was called, and we decided that it was pretty much a draw. As night fell both sides would have most likely withdrawn to re-group and think things through.

Talk about a turn around! I had pushed through on my left, was holding my own in the centre, loose my right flank and all of that hard won ground suddenly looks really dicey to hold on to. Great move Stan, that'll teach me to cover my arse more effectively!

And a good time was had by all.

Thanks for the game Stan,

Nick

Destroyed Vehicle Marker

2011-12-24T18:22:00.002+13:00

Good afternoon,

Just back from another thrilling Crossfire game with Stan. Report to follow over the next couple of days. But before I start that, have a look at this...

...created thusly...

:-)

I'm using it for both Crossfire and Epic Armageddon.

Nick

WIP December 2011

2011-12-23T15:02:00.011+13:00

Good afternoon,

Just for the sake of a new post (!), here is what I'm working on at the moment. Specifically...

Four more Skellie Horde elements, two Shooters and another Rider for my HOTT Skellies to push it out to 1000 Warmaster Army Points. 1100+ if you count the Skellie Dragon as a Dragon, and not a Sphinx.

Also some 6mm Epic Armageddon Space Marines and terrain.

I painted that company years ago but I've only now come to some sort of conclusion as to how to base them.

I'm also pottering away with four 6mm Predators.

But the big news is that, not but an hour of so ago, my PSC 20mm Pv IV (H)'s arrived!

And here are the two reasons I went with the PSC Pz IVs instead of HaT's offerings - crew and Schürzen skirts for their sides and turrets.

So I've got plenty to while away my time off. So long as these large earthquakes over the last hour don't bring the house down around our ears...or, more importantly, biff the new TV off it's perch!

Merry Christmas one and all,

Nick

For Stan...

2011-12-19T10:31:00.002+13:00

:-)

Nick

Thomas the Tank Engine...

2011-11-27T11:57:00.009+13:00

...and his Army of Sodor!

Yesterday Stan revealed his latest army, Thomas the Tank Engine and his Army of Sodor!

Consisting of...

Knight General - Gordon

Hero - Thomas

Cleric - Annie and Clarabelle

Knights - Henry and James

Riders - Berty, Mavis, Percy and Toby

Flyer - Harold

Lurker - Signal "11 Min. Delay Norbiton"

Utterly, utterly brilliant! All from a boxed set delivered to his work (you know, bundled up with the cook books and bits and pieces that companies drop off for a week of so to see if they have any takers - actually, there's one at work at the moment).

Part of his brilliance was the cutting up of the play mat for the bases!

Here are some shots of Thomas and his gang in action.

First up, Thomas being a very helpful engine by putting paid to my own VSF Brit Steam Zappy Gun Magician General, flanked by Edward and James, Knights of the Turning Table, while Annie and Clarabelle give Clerical support in the rear.

Next, Harold the Helicopter assists Mavis to take down Gordon's Dwarven Knight General. Jolly big dwarves in comparison to steam engines, but there you go!

Later, The Army of Sodor takes on some 15mm Colonial Brits. Note, some Brit Tommies have just walked into (and brushed aside) an 11 minute delay [badger ate the junction box] at Norborton...

Lastly, Harold the Helicopter bravely fends off the new fangled Air Wing of Robin's own VSF Brits while Thomas and the lads (and Annie and Clarabelle) deal to the rest of Robin's army.

Truly inspiring!

Well done Stan,

Nick

What a Time to Forget the Camera!

2011-11-26T16:21:00.004+13:00

Good afternoon,

Just come back from another wee HOTT tourney? Competition? Well, round robin series of five games. Anyhow...I CAME FIRST! Ha! If I remember correctly...

Drew with the VSF Brits

Won with the Skellies

Won with the Early Germans

Won with the Raetian Goblins

Won with the Numidians

That last game was probably the best - Numidians (Hero General, God, Behemoth (Elephant), 5 Riders and 2 Lurkers) against Gordon's 28mm Zulus (Blade General, Blades, Couple of Shooters, Magician and his own Behemoth Elephant).

At one point I rolled a 6 - did I bring on the God? No, I did not. Instead I took advantage of the tactical situation which took out one element, turned Gordan's flank and set up the rest of the game. All with only 18 AP on the board. The God and the Lurkers never did get deployed!

Robin with have some shots of the day on his blog, including a complete write up of my Early Germans against his own VSF Brits.

All in all a great time was had by all! Lots of fun.

Nick

VSF Martians

2011-10-24T13:06:00.003+13:00

Good afternoon,

Here are my VSF Martians to go up against my VSF Brits.

They are actually Light Alliance Elves.

Tall, skinny, a bit bow legged, I think they make quite good VSF Martians.

These dudes, being spear armed, are now armed with VSF Martian Staff Weapons, just like in the Star Gate universe.

The squad leaders are armed with slashy, samurai like swords and daggers. Very lead-from-the-front.

I really enjoyed painting these.

The skin tone is actually Snakebite leather over a black undercoat, with Vallejo 118 Middlestone highlights and a Middlestone-mixed-with-Yellow highlight highlight. Which turned out so subtle, that you can't actually see it (I was hoping the the camera might be able to pick it out...)

Ah well...

Now for some comparison shots.

Here a column of VSF Brits, supported by a Steam Tank and a couple of Steam Jumpers advance to contact said Martians.

See, they are taller!

The rest of the figures in the box are armed with bows (as well as a few more blade armed bods). So I figure, these staff weapon fellows are like the Royal Guard (or something), and the rest are just regulars, or even town militia.

Cool!

Nick

Oh yeah, and yay! We won! Very hard fought game, a great test rugby match.

Mark's Second Crossfire Game...

2011-10-15T21:25:00.011+13:00

...within the space of 24 hours!

Good evening,

Just finished up a second game of Crossfire, and a great game it was. 'Twas our second try at this scenario, but this time done more proper like. Still no engineers (though each of the German platoons and two of the three Kiwis had an anti-tank weapon), and I upped the squad numbers, but we did use the minefields (blimin minefields!) and the big gun!

Kiwis

One Infantry Company with...

1 - CC (+2)

1 - 3" Mortar

1 - HMG

1 - SMG squad

3 - Regular Rifle Platoons, each with
- 1 - PC (+1)
- 3 - Rifle Squads

With the support of one Sherman.

Germans

One understrength Infantry Company with...

1 - CC (+2)

1 - 75mm Infantry Gun

2 - HMGs

3 - Veteran Rifle Platoons, two with
- 1 - PC (+1)
- 3 - Rifle Squads
one with
- 1 - PC (+1)
- 2 - Rifle Squads

With the support of one Panzer IV-G

Here is the set up.

Mark opted to deploy his squads unseen.

Kiwi objectives - take the town, take out the gun.

And off we went. One of my first moves was into the forest across from the north west corner of the town. Straight into a mine field. Two pins...bother...

...and one outright destruction of a Platoon Commander!

My next movement draws reactive fire from the platoon in the building at the other edge of the town.

Fortunately, the newly revealed platoon (who was actually still in the building, but, well, you know...) proved themselves initially inept when taking on the platoon that I had sent to outflank the town.

And still my Company Commander and an entire squad languishes in the minefield!

Unfortunately for my flanking squad in the west, Mark pops out his Pz IV-G and promptly takes out one squad, just like that.

The centre platoon tries to edge their way out of the minefield, only to receive two suppressions and an additional pin!

So, the West is pretty full on, lets try our hand in the East, say I. I move the Sherman out onto the road with infantry support...

...which promptly gets cut down by a newly revealed HMG from the building at the north east of the town.

On my next initiative, I decide to take a pot shot with the Sherman...

...with some success!

I then brought up the Sherman so as to use it as cover from the HMG for an infantry squad, with ideas to take on that remaining German squad in the building.

Ahh, alas and alak, the Sherman inadvertently drives into the corner of the second minefield and gets pinned.

Worse than that, the jolly gun misses it's target and the great hulking, well, hulk goes no-fire, loosing me the initiative. Rats!

Mark keeps blasting away in the West, until he goes no fire with the entire squad (!), so I lay down smoke (first of the game) to mask the [now two] HMGs so's I can close assault the remaining squad in the building right ahead.

Would you believe it - the assault was a draw!

After more ineffective fire fights, the initiative passes once again to me, so I lay down smoke and pulled back the remaining squad (and PC) right across to the other flank (seeing shelter behind the tank) in preparation to reinforce the platoon in the town. Which had just successfully wiped out the squad and it's PC...

...which, next initiative, with the help of some well placed smoke, went on to successfully assault the [suppressed] HMG to the east of the town...

...but stopping short of running out into the line of fire of the waiting Panzer!

And still my centre platoon is stuck in the minefield!

Next initiative, Mark moves out his centre platoon with intent to do grievous bodily harm to my own HMG.

Which duely it does.

So, he brings forward the Panzer to support his next intended drubbing, this time of my centre platoon. Unfortunately for him, my Sherman was able to take a pot shot first!

With the back door now clear of big nasty Panzers, I dispatch a couple of squads to dispatch the gun.

Which duely, they do...

...and then assault the remaining German HMG.

In the meantime, the Sherman takes on a nearby Panzerfaust armed squad...

...and wins!

Next initiative, Mark moves the remains of his centre squad behind my own centre squad...

My next initiative I take out another German squad with the Sherman...

...and Mark conceeds.

And my centre squad never did get out of the mine field!

Making Active Smoke

2011-10-15T11:33:00.002+13:00

Good morning,

I had a quick look around the 'net to see how best to make a destroyed tank marker to sit atop the hull of, well, a destroyed tank, and I came across this...

How cool is that?!

Dunno how practical it'll be for 20mm tanks (the lights look like they'll be too big), or indeed if I can source these lights at all, but...how cool is that?!

Nick

Crossfire Game...

2011-10-14T21:54:00.020+13:00

...attack and defense.

Good evening,

Just finished a game with my mate Mark, a Crossfire newbie. So, thought I, lets have an attack/defense scenario. Bit like this, but without the minefields and infantry gun. 'Cause I'm not sure how they work...

The set up. Town to the East, Kiwis coming in from the west.

Kiwis

One Infantry Company with...

1 - CC (+2)

1 - 3" Mortar

1 - 2" Mortar

2 - HMG

3 - Rifle Platoons, each with
- 1 - PC
- 3 - Rifle Squads

With the support of two Shermans.

Which, now looking at the Army Organisation Lists seems a little generous...

Germans

One understrength Infantry Company with...

1 - CC (+2)

1 - 81mm Mortar

2 - HMGs

2 - Rifle Platoons, each with
- 1 - PC
- 3 - Rifle Squads

With the support of one Panzer IV-G

Umm, I'm pretty sure you can guess the outcome just by crunching the numbers...

Anyway, as I was trying out hidden deployment, Mark advanced the Kiwis, up until I decided to pop up and try my luck.

Three no fires, first dice of the game! Oh bother.

So Mark continues his advance, 'till, somehow, the initiative passed to me. (No fire result for a group fire, I think it was). Right, time for some action. I pop the Pz IV around from behind the rise to try to take a shot at one of the Shermans, but...

...the Sherman reacted first. Into the flank armour of the Pz. Stink! (Gotta make me some sort of smoking, flaming, busted tank marker to go atop where the turret gets pulled off...)

Mark continues to advance, pinning and suppressing two of the three squads of the platoon on the flank.

Initiative finally passes back to me, so I bring out one of my HMGs. It survives reactive fire...only go to no fire the first time it throws dice!

In the meantime, I manage to pick off a squad that had been suppressed in the open during the advance, managed to be rallied, carried on advancing only to get cut down during the same initiative through German reactive fire from the hill!

I advance my remaining squad up to the crest of the rise in front of the town. Again, only to suffer no fires, and at best a pin, while the Shermans come rolling forward. (With my Panzerfaust squads either suppressed or out of LOS...)

From the centre, Mark sends forward a squad, with PC, to assault the completely ineffective and [by now] suppressed HMG. The results were a forgone conclusion.

To the north, Mark finally suppressed the exposed German FO. Finally. Like, he'd been shooting at it with all he had for most of the game so far!

On the other flank, my remaining HMG, which was actually in the building (but wouldn't sit on the roof), gets gunned down by their Kiwi counterparts on the hill across from them.

With the inevitable demise of my FO, I decided to bring my mortar crew into LOS - only to have it suppressed by reactive fire from the rise!

To the north, Mark assaults the suppressed squad in the building, while the pinned squad behind it manages to at least pin one of the Kiwi squads as it pops around the edge of the building (that't what those little black dice are - one denotes the squad is pinned, two that they are suppressed).

One assault won, they carry on to assault the second German squad. With more success!

More success!

And so, they carry on into the isolated PC. Who manages to fight them to a stand still!

As that was an example of a squad not managing to do what they set out to, we decided that the initiative passed back to me, so I opened fire in the centre, with some success. Down goes one Kiwi squad, at the cost of a no fire...

...so I try again. Again, another no fire, but this time for no payback.

At this point, I conceded the game.

Still, Mark enjoyed it, which was the whole point of the game. Now to find out how minefields and infantry guns work...

Nick

The Sarge's Naps

2011-10-14T13:18:00.007+13:00

Good afternoon,

Here, in all their rebased-for-DBA-HX-and-possibly-Volley-and-Bayonet glory are the Naps that were gifted me by JackSarge.

First up, a shot of the whole shebang...

Next, the lights. I especially like the dead Frenchie!

Then the line infantry. Note the detail on the Scots.

And last, but by no means least, the cav and command elements.

He's also given me a heap of unpainted French to oppose them. As Stan has some French already based up for DBA-HX, they will slot in the painting cue somewhere...low...

Thanks again mate,

Nick

For the Sarge...

2011-10-13T17:51:00.011+13:00

Good evening,

A while back JackSarge asked me how I base my elements. Well, this is how I do it. Please keep in mind I did not paint these! These were given me by the Sarge hisself...

First up, I glue down the figures with PVA and paint the element (and figures) base(s) with an earthy brown.

This is actually a mix of two browns - one that was too dark, one that was too red.

Then I PVA some coarse sand in a semi-randomish way...so long as the sand goes up to the edge of the figures' bases.

Next, paint the sand in a lighter brown (Beasty Brown, to be precise. Not the most economical use of model paint...cheap poster paint would be more cost effective...)

Highlight with an off white...

...then apply more PVA, this time mostly between the mounts of sand (spread thusly with an old brush)...

...before dunking the base in a container of flock...

...and PVAing on the artillery piece.

Cool.

Thanks again Sarge for the minis, they are fantastic.

More tomorrow - the whole army, no less.

Nick

For Paul...

2011-09-26T20:31:00.011+13:00

...and you other trackheds out there!

Italian bound Kiwi Armourfast Shermans, painted and gifted to me by Andy Gorman.

And a shot with the boys! A platoon of the second Crossfire Company with HMG support and an F/O.

Arghhh! A giant mutant rat!

Benny looks a touch guilty as he investigates his surrounds!

Crossfire Kiwis Complete

2011-09-25T17:28:00.007+13:00

Good evening,

Here they all are. Two full infantry companies with mortar (including FOs) and HMG support (and a squad of SMG infantry for each), as well as six Shermans (two 75's, a 76, a 105 and two Fireflies - painted as Kiwi tanks for the Italian campaign by Andy Gorman), two Company Commanders, six Platoon Commanders and eight suppression markers. That'll do for the time being.

Just gotta get me back that Jug (Thunderbolt) from Andy.

In the meantime I have begun re-basing Jack's Naps - this time on 60mm by 30mm bases, not the 60 by 20s that I thought they should be on.

2nd Crossfire Kiwi Company...

2011-09-04T16:06:00.008+12:00

...almost complete. Just need to add the mortars and FOs.

Here, in their underbright near completeness, is the culmination of 6 weeks work. In between work 'n stuff...

Sorry for the lack of illumination, I took these outside while the PVA was drying this afternoon and it got a bit overcast. Pity, 'twas lovely earlier!

Happy Father's day and one year anniversary since the first 7.1 earthquake here in Canterbury (which didn't cause any fatalities), and it's subsequent aftershocks (which, unfortunately, did). What a year, eh?

Nick

The Sarge's Generosity - 3

2011-08-06T10:45:00.004+12:00

Good morning,

Just a quick post before I get down to the drudgery of [school] planning for next week (the children I love. The time sink that is all the other stuff...not so much).

Anyway, after a bit of humming and harring, counting and re-counting, I decided to rebase the Sarge's figs for DBA-HX (Humberside Extension, that brings DBA out so's you can play with armies up to 1900 A.D.). If Stan remembers correctly, 60mm by 20mm bases can also work for Shako. I can also put them on a sabot base (two elements per base) for Volley and Bayonet, so...cool!

DBA-HX suggests four figures for Musket elements, but Sarge's three figures to a 30mm by 20mm base looked too cool, so I decided to base them at five figures. For me, this gives more of an impression of shoulder to shoulder mass musketry.

Obviously I haven't finished the bases yet, and in fact have only really started pulling Sarge's bases apart to rebase them, but I'm pleased with the results so far.

Thanks again Sarge,

Nick

The Sarge's Generosity - 2

2011-07-30T10:26:00.007+12:00

Good morning,

I should be planning for Monday (back to school...ho hum...still, at least we're going to the Air Force Museum on Thursday for a lesson on the principles of flight (program 3) as part of our Flight Inquiry, which I have tentatively titled Birds, Balloons and Bombers!), but instead I'll quickly post these.

Again, the flash wouldn't work, and then the batteries ran out before I could get any more shots, but for what they're worth...

The Napoleonics are currently based for Shako. I'm probably going to re-base them for DBA Humberside Extension, double based for Volley and Bayonet (on a sabot). Question is, how many infantry per base. Four is standard, and would net me about 20 elements, but three on those 30mm by 20mm bases look fantastic! Perhaps a compromise - 5 per 60mm by 20mm base? I'll have to go over my numbers again...

As for the ECW, well, in spite of the heap of unpainted ECW figs that were also sent over, Stan's already got a couple of ECW armies on the go so I passed them on to him. He was very grateful.

Thanks again Jacksarge, they are amazing!

Nick

The Generosity of Friends

2011-07-28T21:27:00.015+12:00

Good evening,

I have been extremely fortunate of late. Andy Gorman gave me more German vehicles and a Thunderbolt...

...and JackSarge sent be over a heap of figs that were surplus to his requirements. A good proportion of them already painted. Naps, ECW and Vikings - 18 of which all painted up and rearing to go!

Sorry for the awful photos, I'll try to get some better photos in the daylight. The flash on the camera doesn't seem to be working...

Cheers boys, I'm very, very greatful.

Nick

Mr Grant's Term 2 Break - Part 2

2011-07-24T12:33:00.016+12:00

Finally, some Sarmations are painted!

(Osprey reference here)

These dudes have been waiting since 1999 to have some paint applied to them.

They are a mix of Italeri Mongols (horse and riders - the green and blue horse armour is supposed to be laminated lacquered horse horn/hooves), Evolution Sarmations (though I separated the riders and horse to mix the army up a bit) and Revel Praetorians, heavily converted.

This is one of the Evo Sarmations, hacking over his shoulder.

And here are the basis of my whole Sarmation idea. A Revel Praetorian that looked just like the dude in The Armies and Enemies of Imperial Rome. ('Cept the helmet. Ah, well, at the time there was nothing else even close...).

So, I chopped off his shield, chopped his torso in half, glued on some Esci Napoleonic cav legs, made a cloak of tissue paper, and...ta daaa...

This one also had a head swap from an Italeri Celt.

And this one is the other Praetorian pose I used. Sufficiently un-Roman looking to be chopped up and placed atop a horse. (Yes, I know it is highly unlikely that one could thrust with a 12' contos like that, but, well...it looks dramatic!)

And thus, my week's break came to an end. Back to school in the morning. Team meeting...ho humm...

Dead chuffed to get these fellows done - only nine more elements to go!

Nick

Mr Grant's Term 2 Break - Part 1

2011-07-23T13:04:00.011+12:00

Good afternoon,

Well, I've finally done it. I've finished another HOTT army! Behold, my Early Germans!

Warband General

3 Warband

1 Hero

2 Lurkers

6 Hordes

1 Dragon

The basic idea behind this army is that these dudes are the remains of the Roman revenge over the Battle of the Teutoburg Forest, with the Hordes being all the ghosties of the Early Germans that the Romans took revenge on.

The Dragon was just something the Germans found deep in the forest and convinced to fight alongside them!

I've also pulled together a Rider element from bits and bods I had lying around so's to swap out the lurkers.

Specifically, a HaT Gaul, a Revel Gaul, a Revel Anglo Saxon, a Zvezda Persian horse and two HaT Alexander's Companion horses, plus some old Esci Napoleonic cav legs from ages back!

So there you go.

I have another five Warband elements almost completed to make either a DBA II/47(d) Batavi army in 69AD, a II/47(e) Other Batavi or II/47(e) Cherusci armies.

Sweet!

Nick

VSF Brit Stronghold

2011-07-21T10:56:00.007+12:00

Good morning,

Here, in all it's undersized glory, is my first iteration of a Stronghold for my VSF Brits.

It's a [free PDF] paperware product from the Wargame Vault. I scaled it as per the instructions, but it's a tad too small. Probably right for 18mm, but not 20. Still, it's a PDF file, so's alls I's haz to do it reprint it...sometime.

In the meantime, it'll do the job.

"I say, Ogilvy, come have a look at this..."

(My 25mm Ground Zero Games Gun Spider. Cool wee model, but I'm still trying to figure out how to highlight it properly.)

HOTT Winter's Day - Game 5

2011-07-12T14:24:00.007+12:00

My 20mm EIRs vs Stan's 20mm Conquistadors.

I took 2 Heroes, 6 Blades (three elements of grunts and three elements of Praetorians) plus a Behemoth. My first outing for my Foot Hero, so it was.

Stan was quite happy to stay where he was, which gave me more time to redeploy from column to line.

(That's my tortoise Behemoth on the end)

And so Stan's shooting began, as well as the push and shove between our heavies on the right. My right. His left.

What's missing in this photo below? Stan's Artillery piece, that's what.

And so my tortoise meets his Cleric. (Way cool wee element there Stan!)

Recoiled, the Romans were. How rude!

So they responded by chipping down the monks.

And then moving on to Stan's Hordes.

In the centre, the Roman Blades did the biz and took care of Stan's Knight General...and that was that.

And a good time was had by all.

Cheers boys for a great day's gaming,

Nick

HOTT Winter's Day - Game 4

2011-07-11T18:43:00.006+12:00

My 20mm VSF Brits against Gordon's 28mm Zulus. Zoo lose.

I was defending again, so, as he had big nasty blades (with a Hero, some Shooters a Magician and a Horde), I threw in as much terrain as I could. As well as another river. Yay!

And so it began...

First contact - my water lurker pounces on his Hero.

While on the other flank, my lurker pounces on his Behemoth.

Seeing as he was disadvantaged by the terrain, my lurker recoils his Hero. Yay!

So I fly over my Air Boat to lend a helping hand...

...and bingo, bango, his Hero goes down! Yay!

Now here's where the dodgeness begins. My sub gets recoiled by his Shooter, fair enough, but then his Magician takes a pot shot at my Air Boat. Ok, fair enough I thought at the time, but in the cool light of the evening I realise that Gordon (or I, for that matter) didn't take into consideration the effect of the water on a magic attack. Gordon used the Magician's non-effected factor of 4 against my Air Boat when he should have been using 4 -2 for magic across the water. Ok, so it just caused a flee on my 'boat, but this would prove a critical oversight later in the game...

Anyway, I fly the boat across to his other flank...

...hoping to catch is elephant in Bad Going. Which I did.

Although a fat lot of good it did me!

And here's where I 'lost' the game. Gordon fires a magic attack against my Magician General, at factors 4 to 5...or so we thought...

...and my General lost, losing me the game. As indicated previously, it should have been factor 2 to 5, which would have instead cost him his Magician, and put me well on the way to winning the game.

Which in turn would have put me well on the way to winning the Tourney, as that would have given me four wins out of five games, the same as Robin, yet I lost fewer elements than he...

Still, had either of us realised and corrected these combat factors, Gordon would have done something else, so...

C'est la vie.

HOTT Winter's Day - Game 3

2011-07-11T16:28:00.007+12:00

My 20mm VSF Brits against Robin's [undefined scale] Spiders. Yuk, spiders! Lots of them too - 10 Hordes worth, plus a Hero (a Katapo - NZ's only native poisonous, well, anything), a Behemoth (urggh, that great big Tarantula) and a God - who other than Spidy himself.

And so...advance!

As soon at the Naval detachment entered the wood, they were sprung upon by a couple of lurkers. Creepy spiders...

The first was beaten off, which left the second high and dry in the open, to be run down (flown down?) by the Air Boat, with the flyer in support - sort of. Due to Andy's really cool design for the Air Boat, the wings kinda got in the way - we just pretended that the Air Boat was in corner to corner contact with it.

In the meantime, a second deployment of the remaining lurker pushed the boys in blue out of the wood. Well, they were going that way anyway...

...after they had dispatched said lurkers...

My Steam Powered Electric Zappy gun started zapping away at Robin's Katapo Hero, but to little effect.

With my most mobile elements engaged in the West...

...Spidey arrives in the East...

...to only disappear again!

Robin was not best pleased with him, I can tell you!

(though just quietly, I was pleased to see him go - there are few things quite as disconcerting as having a God turn up on your flank!)

And so back to it. Shooting once again proved effective, as did, finally, my Zappy Magician against his Katapo Hero...

...though Hordes being what they are, just keep coming...

Finally, after a couple of aborted attempts at bringing my Steam Tank to his Tarantula, Robin brought his Tarantula to my Steam Tank, along with the rest of his line.

Which allowed me to slowly cut them down.

And that was it. Robin lost his God, Hero, a lurker and three Hordes, to my loss of...nothing!

Choice! This happened to be the only game that Robin lost the whole day.

Suffice it to say, he won the tourney.

Good for him. (Though, upon further reflection, I could have won it on points, since my next game had a couple of fundamental oversights in regards to Magicians casting spells over water...)

HOTT Winter's Day - Game 2

2011-07-11T15:30:00.007+12:00

My 20mm VSF Brits vs. Nick Sutton's 25mm Mythical Indian. Nick was bound to win this one. And lose...

I was the defender, so set up the terrain with a nice big river right across the middle of the board. Andy made a cool wee VSF sub as a water lurker and I wanted to use it!

Unexpectedly, Nick rolled for his edge and the whole table got spun so's the river ran north to south. So I deployed entirely on one side of the river. Like, to the West of it, rather than to the south as planned.

Thankfully, one of Nick's Beasts touched the water, so I was able to deploy my water lurker. Yay!

He didn't do much, but at least he showed!

Contact!

Nick brought up his Hero...

...so I zapped him with my Steam Powered Zappy Gun Magician (General)!

A particularly effective round of shooting also took out two of his three beasts.

Forward the Steam Tank!

Into the clutches of the enemy...

...to simply shrug them off. Right off the edge of the table, as it happened. And then to follow up.

In flies the Air Boat in support.

Another recoil, another follow up...

...another potential disaster...

...shrugged off!

And that was the game. Chur.

HOTT Winter's Day - Game 1

2011-07-11T14:45:00.005+12:00

20mm Skellies vs. Kevin's 15mm Cavemen

I thought to take the Skellies sans Hordes - Beasts, Blades, Flyer, Behemoth, Dragon and Magician General.

The Dragon turned up early...

...so I tried to apply pressure to his right flank before his Hero (on his left) came in to menace my right. For some reason I didn't want to send the Dragon unsupported up against his Hero, hoping for some quick kills on the other flank first.

Alas, 'twas not to be.

Note to self - don't leave your magician unsupported on the flank.

Just for Paul

2011-07-10T19:20:00.002+12:00

Here you go mate.

Nick

HOTT Winter's Day

2011-07-10T17:36:00.005+12:00

Good evening,

Just back from a fantastic day (ha! Get it?! Fantastic day playing fantasy games!) at the Woolston club playing a small Hordes of the Things tournament with five others.

I got me second! Yay!

I'll post some more pics later (at work - faster connection, and it'll give me something to do between parent teacher interviews...urggg...), but these ones here need drawing attention to.

Game three. My VSF against Robin's creepy crawly Spider army.

His God turns up...

...and promptly disappears at the beginning of the very next turn...

...resulting in a right good scalding!

Thanks Robin for arranging it once again.

Nick

Stylish Blog Nomination

2011-06-06T21:22:00.010+12:00

Good evening,

I've been nominated for a Stylish Blog award by Alan, from Dux Homunculorum. Thanks mate, right back at you!

Apparently I've got to tell youze about me, so...

...10 things I know about me...

I'm a Christian - that is that I acknowledge that Jesus is God, He came to Earth as a man, lived a perfect life, died to pay the price for my sins and was risen back to life by God on the third day (1 Cor 15: 3&4), and is now seated at the right hand of the Father. (Actually, the Nicene Creed - I was brought up in the Anglican church - kinda covers it...)

I'm married, with two children.

I teach Year 1 and 2 children (5 and 6 year olds) at an integrated Catholic school (though I'm not a Catholic myself - I attend Life Church (Pentecostal)). I love teaching, 'cept for the time it sucks up (55+ hours at school each week).

I've been wargaming since 1991, when I was first introduced to DBA with plastic figures by Mark Ottley.

About the same time, I started my first web site DE BELLIS LUDIS CUM HOMUNCULUS MOLLIUS, a GeoCities site...before GeoCities went down. All coded by hand. Hence, the spelling mistakes.

I started Canterbury Miniatures (I created that spinning kiwi gif! If I had the money, I'd like that logo as a tatoo (minus "Canterbury Miniatures"), but I really can't justify it to myself - there's a great big hole in my sneakers that needs to be attended to first!) before I went teacher training, but never had the capital to really make it work. Stan's doing a much better job that I ever did!

I love playing my electric guitar, both at school and at church.

When I was 10, I made the cover of a couple of knitting patterns!

I only went to Varsity (BA in History, after some fumbling around) 'cause I was rejected by the Air Force (athsma) - back in the day when there were no student fees...'cept for my last year. $1300, if I remember correctly.

Oh yeah, which means, as of 2011, I'm, what, 42 years old. I think. 2011-1969=42 doesn't it?

I'd like to recommend, in no particular order...

Plastic General, 'cause of his cool Warmaster armies in 20mm.

Plastic Warriors, 'cause of his prolific output, and he's a good Kiwi bloke,

Ferrous Lands, 'cause his 20mm figs are cool,

Men in Boxes, 'cause, well, likewise, and

Wargaming NZ, 'cause Robin's a top bloke with an ecclectic wargaming taste!

...as stylish themselves.

Cheers,

Nick

Andy's German's First Crossfire Game...

2011-05-14T20:40:00.008+12:00

...it didn't start so well.

I was playing the Germans, Stan, the Kiwis.

My first initiative, I move forward a couple of platoons, and the Stug, and...

...bang! Stan's first reactive fire from the [76mm] Sherman and he rolls double sixes! So much for my armor support!

Bother it, said I.

Right, move forward the FO so's he can bring some pain.

Meantime Stan brings up his armor, so I tried my luck with a Panzershrek. To no result...'cept a no fire.

My next initiative, I move forward the spotter for a better looksee, and Stan spread a sheet of lead towards him and stops him in his tracks.

Just a pin result, so I try moving up the squad in the centre, with the aim of threatening the Shermans from atop the hill. Stan sprays more lead from his other Vickers gun which stops the whole jolly platoon!

Bother it.

Not only that, but he manages to suppress the FO...

...and then kills it! Arghh, there goes one of my mortars.

Bother it.

Stan then starts to cut the centre platoon to pieces, caught as they were in the open...

...with this jolly chap here.

Rat-a-tat-tat...

...drat, drat, drat!

The view from the other side...

The boys across the pond take on, well, the boys across the pond. (By the way, we were using the green dice for going to ground, the red for no fire.)

...while I sniped away from the wings into the town in the centre.

(Blimmin tanks...)

What's missing here, you ask? My other jolly spotter!

Even after I sent back a platoon leader to help rally him. That's both mortars kerbroken...

bother...

And I still had seven fire missions left!

And there goes the platoon leader!

On my right flank, the platoon in the woods was slowly getting whittled down...

...but at least I got one of his spotters as he tried to move out of the depression!

So what's missing here? My entire centre platoon, that's what!

Stan moved the platoon over on his right into the depression to add their weight of fire into my centre.

It worked!

And so to the beginning of the end.

...all in the space of two initiatives!

Suffice it to say, Andy's early to mid war German's first Crossfire outing didn't go so well. Well, for them anyway.

Still, a good time was had by all.

During the debrief, we decided that we hadn't used enough line-of-sight-blocking terrain, which enabled the tanks to shoot across the board. Next time...

We also had enough time for a DBA game - my unpainted Parthians (led by Stan) up against my unpainted Later Selucids (led by me).

Just as my camera batteries ran out.

Just as well, as it happened. Stan rushed a horde of his light horse out to his left and enveloped my right flank. Two elements down (including general) to no loss of his own, and that was the game!

Thanks Stan,

Nick

Andy's Early Germans

2011-05-11T20:21:00.016+12:00

Early WW2 Germans, that is.

Good evening,

Young Andy Gorman has gifted me his 20mm plastic Early to Mid War Germans, all painted and everything. I just re-based them for Crossfire.

Here is one company's worth.

The Company Commander...

...the boys...

...HMGs...

(yeah, I know it should have, well, more than one bloke, but, well...)

...and the FOs with some cute wee bikes!

I'll flock the rebased second company soonish.

The Stugs and heavy guns (incl. a very menacing 88) look great too.

Go Andy! Cheers mate!

Nick

The Fourth Crossfire Game This Week!

2011-04-29T17:05:00.006+12:00

Good afternoon,

I have just finished my fourth Crossfire game this week, which is quite unprecedented.

Andy and Dave came round, Andy promptly wiped the board with his (now mine, thanks to his exceeding generosity) Germans against my Kiwis, and then he and Dave sat down, same set up, same forces, to see if Dave could have any more success...

Andy moved up one of his FOs in a cute wee Kublewagon and advanced towards and then entered the town, all in his first initiative...

...while Dave awaited the arrival of Andy's Hetzer down the western flank.

Which it duly did.

Andy pulled the Hetzer back so it couldn't be surprised in the flank, and then had to shoot through to look after his daughter so's his wife could go off and watch some wedding or other on the telly. Something about a prince and a commoner, future monarch of NZ or something.

Anyway, with Andy's departure, I stepped into the role of the German commander. Here was the situation.

(Those empty bases are my smoke stands at the moment!)

Dave laid down some smoke right in front of the Hetzer, and then snuck around its side...

...while he moved two squads of infantry to the edge of the hill, across from the town.

He then moved the 105mm Sherman to bombard the town (at 5 dice, minus one for the terrain the target was in), and missed, passing the initiative to me. The Hetzer lives!

I group moved my infantry to the edge of the town, so they could shoot out, but the 105 reacted to my movement and pinned my anti-tank squad.

During his next initiative, he duly dispatched the said anti-tank squad with the aforementioned 105.

He then moved the 105 to the edge of the town to shoot in. And again, missed!

However, seeing as my closet squad was pinned (and the next one suppressed) by the infantry to their front, I couldn't close assault it.

So I laid smoke in front of the other Sherman, and moved the Hetzer around to shoot at the 105 from the rear.

Dave threw for reactive fire from the 105...

...failed to penetrate the Hetzer's front armour and I was able to finish the 105 off. Cool!

I then wheeled the Hetzer around, drew more reactive fire from the 76mm of the other Sherman...

...which failed to penetrate...

...but then I missed!

The same was repeated over the Dave's next initiative, until I was finally able to finish the 76 off.

(The smoke should have been removed)

I brought up the squad from behind the hill, managed to suppress Dave's HMG on his eastern flank and pinned Dave's PIAT squad in the center with the Hetzer.

Wasn't enough to retain initiative though, so Dave laid down more smoke in front of the Hetzer and laid down some effective fire into the town.

His next initiative saw him sending in a HMG re-enforced squad to assault my suppressed squads in the town.

Against the odds, the assault was thrown back.

(Well, apart from where it wasn't!)

And that was the game. Dave had to call time, he also having to get ready to go round to watch the very same wedding as the one as Andy's wife. Though in different locations. The viewers, that is, not the wedding.

The game was still in the balance...the Germans would most likely loose the town, but they might well be able to win on the East and bring pressure into the centre. Specially with the Hetzer roaming in the West...

Just before he left I got some shots of his Americans.

Cool!

And a good time was had by all. Thanks for coming round boys,

Nick

Nick's Crossfire Day Game 2

2011-04-25T17:23:00.012+12:00

Good afternoon,

Again,

Soon after Stan left, Dave arrived for his first ever Crossfire game. Same set up as before...

...with the same objective (which was moved to the road).

Dave moved round to the cabbage fields under the cover of smoke (a lot of smoke was used in this game). I moved round a platoon supported by the Shermans.

I also moved into the centre, a threat that Dave quite quickly neutralized.

Well almost. More of that later.

In response, I moved my left most platoon back into the centre.

After a lot of swapping of initiatives, smoke screens, shooting and the like, a particularly effective strike by mortars and the remaining Sherman effectively nullified Dave's platoon in the cabbages.

So I switched my attention to his troops in the centre. Again, with some success.

(Notice the Stug lurking behind the hill? Dave was using historical shoot and scoot tactics...which would explain why one of the Shermans lived to tell the tale...)

In the meantime, he had brought up the platoon on his right across to just a smoke screens distance away from my centre rear platoon.

Rather than assaulting my waiting HMG supported platoon he planted smoke, assaulted and ran over my isolated FO and continued on with the intention of wiping out my remaining FO in the centre, the other side of one suppressed squad and a single PC.

The first assault succeeded.

The second assault succeeded.

Then he mobbed my PC...

...and got beaten back. For the loss of three squads!

After cutting down Dave's remaining squad that had traveled all the way from his right flank, Dave conceded the game.

And a good time was had by all. A great time, in point of fact.

Thanks Dave and Stan for a fantastic end to my holiday break.

Nick

Oh yeah, does anyone know...

Can mortars/FOs reactive fire?

Can mortars/indirect weapons target armour?

Postscript - this just in from Dave...

Now I've read the rules, I see we were missing heaps of things on Sunday:
too many fire missions per initiative, FOs observing for both mortars, tanks
firing at infantry when there were tank targets, loan PCs not being
immediately captured during assaults, smoke not lasting long enough...:-)

Just goes to show that I don't read the rules!

Does this mean my heroic PC's actions were invalid? Rats!

Stan's Stupendous Stug!

2011-04-25T13:33:00.014+12:00

Good afternoon,

I have just had a very enjoyable game of Crossfire with Stan. I took a company of Kiwis with a couple of Shermans in support, he took Andy's [Winter] Germans with a Stug. A Super Stug, as it happened.

And a good time was had by all. I was a very fun game, even though I got my ass handed to me on a plate!

We set up the table with an objective kinda in the middle and lots of terrain thither and yon. The idea was to get the IED before the other bloke!

I tried to sneak around the flank behind the burning Shermans, courtesy of Stan's Super Stug...

...but it didn't really work, seeing as I had to cross open ground between said wrecks.

So he switched his concentration to the Company's HMG assets on the hill, and then to the company commander himself.

So I switched to the other flank, trying to get across some more open ground to a depression. Stan's mortars kinda put paid to that...

At that point, only having one squad and one FO left...

...and having only killed one squad of Germans, I conceded the battle.

The men of the match? The Super Stug, who zipped from one flank to the other, laid waste to the two Shermans and then proceeded to menace the centre...

...and the German mortars, who pretty much wiped out my left.

'Twas a lot of fun!

Nick

Crossfire WW2 German Heavy Weapons...

2011-04-24T16:52:00.008+12:00

...supporting [what will eventually be] a Fallschirmjager company - hence the Fallschirmjager FOs and CC.

Good afternoon,

Again,

I have just finished painting and basing my first WW2 Germans. Its no wonder they lost the war, these camouflage patterns take a lot longer to paint than the Kiwis!

First up we have the said Fallschirmjager stands. Company commander and Forward Observers.

I know the blue is a bit bright, but I was tying to match the Revel painting guide for their German Paratroopers.

Next, the HaT German Mortar teams that the FOs are observing for.

Nice wee vignettes, straight out of the box.

And then, the tripodded MG42s.

I tied to follow the Flames of War guide to painting Fallschirmjagers...with varying degrees of success. And varying mixes of paint.

Ah well,

Nick

Sarmations WIP

2011-04-24T16:27:00.008+12:00

Good afternoon,

12 years ago, I started to build a Sarmatian army (miss-spellings and all) out of some Revel Praetorians and Italeri Mongol horses.

As with my EIRs, pulled them together, then pulled most of the elements and figures apart (in some cases literally) and rebuilt them to more my liking (most notably with the addition of some Evolution Sarmatians and the application of tissue paper cloaks to most of them), I have finally started painting...some of them.

I was hoping to get these two elements worth completed before having to go back to school this week, but, in preparation of a Crossfire game I'm hoping to have tomorrow, I have been concentrating on some WW2 German heavy weapons, FOs and a Fallschirmjager CC.

Still, for what they're worth...

Nick

Poppy

2011-04-22T18:43:00.000+12:00

Happy Birthday to Me...

2011-04-19T14:27:00.017+12:00

Good afternoon,

Just picked up some goodies of late to celebrate my birthday.

First up, a P-47 Thunderbolt to aid my Kiwis in Italy.

A very simple model that I've made more difficult for myself by cutting out the one piece wheel well doors into three parts, and then gluing them back together so's one can see the three parts of the closed doors. I temporarily lost the point that this is a wargame model, not one for display.

This is the first aircraft model I have made in a long, long, long while.

Next up, a box of Caesar Fallschirmjager all split up as a Crossfire company (three Platoons with Platoon leaders, a Company Commander (and lackie) plus some grunts to act as Forward Observers) to compliment my Kiwis. They need someone to fight after all. First in Crete, and then again in Italy.

I heard somewhere that they had a grudge against the New Zealanders during the Italian campaign. Possibly something about the fact that the Kiwis shot them while they were still hanging helpless in their parachutes while they were on their way down to Crete. War's an ugly, ugly business.

I found a very good guide on how to paint them here.

The support weapons are for them, funnily enough.

Next, my last box of Skellies so that I can finally finish my Skellie Warmaster project. This'll give me my final four elements of Horde (making a total of 12 - four WM units), another two elements of Shooters (making one WM unit), and one element of LH (finishing one WM unit of Skellie horse).

Sweet!

Finally, we have the HaT Late Imperial Roman Light Horse box, which I'll split between four LIR LH elements (two for the West (Javelins), two for the East (Bows)), two Sub Roman British Cavalry elements, and five horses to be used in amongst the HaT Late Imperial Roman Medium Cavalry, if and when they come out. Some barding on these Medium Cav is fine. All barding, not quite what I'm after. So this box of LH gives me more than enough options to mix and match as I see fit.

Now all I need is a couple of Panzer IV Ausf G or Hs (did you know that Armourfast don't make any?! Most prolific German tank of the war it was...) and perhaps a Stuka or ME 110...

So many projects, so little time!

Nick

Lost New Hope Footage

2011-04-18T00:08:00.002+12:00

Good, well, morning now.

Things have been busy at school and such, but it's the Term 1 break now, and, since having just spent the last day and a bit in bed with a migraine, I can't sleep! So, I was spending some time on You Tube, and I found this...

Brilliant! Ties in with Biggs and Luke meeting up again on Yavin 4. Very cool stuff.

Cheers,

Nick

Mr Grant Shaves For A Cure

2011-04-07T18:38:00.003+12:00

Good evening,

It's all a bit self explanatory, really.

And for those for whom this You Tube clip is blocked...

Nick

Shave for a Cure

2011-04-04T20:04:00.003+12:00

Good evening,

Well, since I'm loosing it anyway, I've decided to go for broke - I'm joining Shave For A Cure to raise money for the Leukaemia & Blood Foundation. But I need your help. Well, your money actually! Please check out my page...

http://www.shaveforacure.co.nz/view_event_profile/4586

...to donate to the cause. If we can raise $500.00, I'll go to school on Friday bald. (Well, balder than usual...)

Tracy'll chop [what's left of] my locks with a razer using a number zero comb. $750, and I'll think of getting rid of the goatee as well...

In the meantime, back to the Sarmations.

Cheers,

Nick

Zombie Dogs 'N Stuff

2011-03-21T21:22:00.014+13:00

Good evening,

Here are my latest (and last - until I get another box of Skellies!) elements for my Undead HOTT/WMA/WM armies.

One unit/three elements of Zombie dogs, from the excellent board/tile game Zombies!!! Robin got a bag of these when he was over the ditch, and generously donated some to me, both for wargaming, and for, well, Zombies!!!ing. Thanks Robin.

They'll be HOTT Beasts or WM [Death? Hell? Zombie?] Hounds.

I tried painting the exposed bone a bony colour, with some blood atop that, with a liberal dash of watered down limeish green to really highlight the corruption of the rotting flesh. I'm pretty happy with them.

Next we have a Warmaster unit/three HOTT elements of...ummm...elite undead fighters? Three vampires flanked by scythe wielding, cloak wearing skeletons. Deaths? Cool looking minis anyway.

In HOTT terms they'll be classed as Blades. In WMA some elite type/hard hitting unit. What, with those vampires screaming round at super human speeds and all that.

And last, but by no means least, we have a HOTT flying element comprised of a couple of pieces from the Age of Mythology board game, said pieces having been purchased by Stan, and these two donated to me. Thanks Stan.

Unfortunately, the batteries refused to charge the flash, so...for what they're worth...

I may get round to retaking these pictures with full batteries at another time.

I'm really pleased with these guys, not for the least reason being that they've been sitting around for ages!

Nick

Early Imperial Roman Carroballista

2011-03-13T21:21:00.001+13:00

Good evening,

I have finished a couple more wheeled elements, this time some Early Imperial Roman Carroballista[s? - not sure of the plural when writing Latin...]

The horse and cart combination were made for me ages back by Mark Ottley, who also fashioned some really great little bolt shooters (out of GW Elven bow bits and card), however I kinda thought that they were a little heavy duty for the light mobile artillery that scooted around with the legions when in the field. So I just swapped out Mark's ones for some HaT [Punic] ones.

I also toyed around with a couple of darker skin tones, meaning to crew them with some North Africans...they've turned out a little more dark pink than I was expecting. Oh well.

Nick

Early Imperial Roman Carroballista

2011-03-13T21:21:00.000+13:00

Re-Crewed Airfix AB Chariots

2011-03-08T13:16:00.008+13:00

Good afternoon,

In between digging out silt (oh my, but there is a lot of it - on the other side of the city, mind...), I've been pottering along with some old Airfix chariots that I've been meaning to re-crew for ages.

A good number of years ago my sister, who was in the UK at the time, got me a 20mm Newline AB chariot. The chariot didn't really fit in with the rest of my [re-wheeled (with Freikorp 15mm artillery wheels)] Airfix chariots, but it came with two different sets of crew, and I thought "I can use those". And finally I have.

I think they work quite well.

The other two are much like one I did earlier. Re-crewed with Italeri Gallic command figures, with an Esci driver (and a comparatively boring Airfix one).

Trouble is, now I've got more chariots than I know what to do with!

Nick

Christchurch Earthquake

2011-02-23T14:58:00.003+13:00

As those of you in New Zealand will know, we had a rather large earthquake yesterday. My family and I are fine and extremely lucky - we still have power and water. Many, very many, still do not have water, and maybe only half of the city has had power restored.

There are still some trapped in the rubble of the CBD, and yet more people have lost their homes, over and above those who lost their houses in the September 4th quake.

It happened at lunch time, just after I had sent most of the class outside - all of our kids were fine, but our grounds have suffered from the effects of liquefaction.

Please pray for those still trapped and those who have lost love ones,

Nick