Friday 31 July 2015

We apologise for the interruption to your regularly scheduled programme....

McBeth called it despairing futility but I reckon while you have a mad team mate who's prepared to use coconut shells and make horse noises to get a laugh out of a hall full of people then it might be futile but it's bloody hilarious.

And from that tenuous segue, we launch into the post proper. For once my army was painted for Panzerschreck well in advance. Like, crazily well in advance. As a result, I've struggled to pick up a brush after the painting-fu left me in early June. Since then, I've managed to get this guy done:

Anson Durst, Biscuit of the Faith, Wielder of Menoth's Cocktail Umbrella

which is good. It was nice to get something finished. Anson Durst, Rock of the Faith (affectionately known as the Biscuit) got finished for our club "Reckoning" Warmachine and Hordes release event last weekend (and he's good!) Getting him over the line (no easy task, I admit) at least helped me find some painting-fu again so I've lined up this next lot of projects.

I'm finally starting on my Teutonic Order. These 8 models are the first base of 5/1 FP Long Spear. Note very long spear for future affixation of enormous flaggery.

One of the many uses for old milk bottle tops! 


From here I need to get back to the incredibly painful job of gap filling horses for these guys so I can try my hand at a base of Knights. *cue impending music*

The next project is this little collection is some several-generations-old GW Warhammer Savage Orcs and Forest Goblins. I bought them originally to play Mordheim back in the day but the balance wasn't there with many of the core rulebook warbands so they never really got finished. With the recent release of Frostgrave, these guys look like they might just be able to slot in amongst all the humans that seem to be abounding in among the collections of my fellow magpies.

Some Orcs. There are many more! 

Finally, Pelarel showed off his character, Nevyn the Nyss, for our current IKRPG campaign (and a stunning model it is!) so I thought I'd drop mine into the mix:

I have a man for that. 
The Honourable Okeforde Fitz Paine, 3rd son of the Marquess of Llaedry. All around wastrel, terrible influence and absolute snob. Also a closet Thamarite who scoffs loudly at, well, everything. The party members don't seem to have minded his occasional vampirism....yet....but they are getting sick of hearing that he doesn't do anything to help out because he has a man for that.

It's good to be back.
McZ.



Saturday 25 July 2015

shiny shiny painting projects

OK, I did say we were a group of Magpies but even I'm a little surprised as to how many projects I've started in the last couple of weeks!

First up, I'm going to show you the only thing That I've actually started AND finished in the same period:



loyal followers, meet Nevyn the Nyss my character in our current RPG group. The group of us Regimenteers on the blog play the Iron Kingdoms RPG from Privateer Press. the game system is based on their Warmachine and Hordes tabletop wargames so all of us have a reasonably solid foundation in the mechanics so we can kick back and enjoy the stories. Prinny is currently running a camapiagn for us which sees the group on a smugglers ship on the way to The Protectorate of Menoth to deliver some stolen Military Warjack Cortexes. However, our ship's captain has just made a short stop on the Isle of Cryx and we left the last session as the nasty necromancers sprang their trap!

The skin tone on the Nyss is supposed to have a 'slight' blue tint, unfortunately my first attempt at this left Nevyn looking like a very pissed off Smurf! I do think I've gone too far the other way with this repaint but Nevyn is stuck with the slightly pinky look as I can't be bothered to repaint his skin again!


next up was some more terrain for Infinity. I was inspired by those HDF buildings I reviewed a few weeks ago and started making some similarly styled buildings out of 3mm Styrene sheet. First up, a two storey apartment building


then an 8" square objective room

this one is going to get some pearl blue spray on the interior to give it a lighter, more 'sciencey' feel...

then some walls, about a dozen of the tall ones and 20 small ones

and, what would the future be without a couple of dumpsters and small raised garden

the buildings and walls are all waiting for the airbrush treatment to bring them into line with the other buildings and the dumpsters are still waiting for their basecoats. these I'm picturing and red and yellow to get the functional look. and ,make them stand out on the table.

next up was a little side project to get me painting something different. This is Witch Hazel from Hasslefree. She's not for a game or RPG I just liked the mini :) I have a custom base I made for her out of Fymo, that's been baked hard and is waiting for painting before I fix Hazel levitating above it..


Next up was a project that McBeth and i have had on the back burner for quite a while. We've played a few games of Ambush Valley with some 20mm plastic figs but really wanted to give it a go in 15mm to take advantage of the range of minis available so I'd picked up an NVA infantry box many months ago and finally gotten around to putting them on bases!


With a local Warmachine Tournament coming up in mid September, I've also been bashing around with lists and putting a few minis together...

Three Brute thralls up first - think steam powered zombies with 'roid rage and you're there.

I have restarted these guys since this photo - I think i went way too heavy on the purple in the base for the flesh and they just looked like walking bruises. They're currently back down to a base coat and a much lighter purple wash.

finally my Kraken! this guy is on a 120mm diameter base to give you an idea of scale. the 'mini' has had all of the highlighting and detailing finished but I'm toying with the idea of weathering and chipping to give it that well used look. The base is still a WIP, the concept is a woodland stream with steep banks and a couple of trees. I'm taking a step back at the mo and looking for inspiration - I really want to get this right!

It started out life as this:


And is currently stalled at this stage:


a wee bit of work yet but I need to pick up a decent water effect product and look into some more varieties of flock. I'm also looking a making a tree to go on the right hand side of the base as you see it in the picture.

well, that's me done for now!

churs

Chris

Monday 20 July 2015

Welcome Followers!

Well, a thing I never thought would happen has well, happened. We actually have followers to this blog!

We have seven followers now (and I can confirm that none of them are the contributors to this blog...) and they MUST ALL be VERY interested in our ramblings.

Harae Mai and be welcome fellow geeks, nerds and gamers from The Regiment blog crew.

Painting updates to come from some people, new projects started, and I'm looking at running the Flames of War competition at ValleyCon next year. All stuff to (possibly) look forward to!

Photo of Avon.

Because, Avon.

Monday 13 July 2015

Its not the winning that matters, it's the absolute dispairing futility that counts!

Or, Chris and Simon's 2015 Panzerschreck experience.

For the upteemth year in a row the Regiment tramped up to Palmerston North for Panzershreck. 5 games of 2000 point Late War doubles. This year I resolved to take some photos to prove that we were there and record some of the games. Then I realised I am a shit photographer with a shitter camera so I then quickly resolved that this would be a 'one take' weekend. No redo's on the photos.

What you see is what you get. To be fair, I gave up pretty quickly.

Chris and my lists are recorded here.

Friday Night

All six of us piled into the Mormon Assault Vehicle and travelled up to Palmy at about 4pm. With much laughing and jocularity we mercilessly mocked the abortion that is the Age of Sigmar. Scott brought some coconut halves with him to use when he needed some rerolls :)

We checked into the motel (the Avenue Motel on Fitzherbert - always our local) and headed off to Korean BBQ at De Koree. Its just across the road from the motel. Spicy food and a couple of beers later, we headed back to the motel is the freezing cold.

We watched Kingsman (great movie) and then Edge of Tomorrow (not so great movie) and signed off at after midnight with a 6am start to look forward too. The several scotches we had aided in getting to sleep (but not waking up)!

The Regiment Travels:



Scotty (left) and McZermof (right)

Lintman (left) and Prinny (right)
Beardy no.1 (Pelarel)
Beardy no.2 (Moi)

Saturday

Saturday morning dawned cold and dark. After scraping the ice off the Mormon Assault Vehicle we headed over to our regular breakfast spot; The Cuba CafĂ©. Six Eggs Benedict later and the sun starting to rise, we then drove to the school venue. Table set up was pretty quick as the hall was fecking cold and the controls to the heating were locked in behind a temporary wall that the builders working on the school's renovations had made to hold their tools.

The Games

Game 1

Breakthrough versus Russell and Tony.

Russell Briant is another Regimenteer from our playtesting group. He and Tony were running auto defending Jagdtigers with Carius and a Volksgrenadier company. They auto defended - we Night Attacked!

Tony and Russell

The game went strangely well for us against a wily and skilled opponent. My Kiwis assaulted the RC VolksSturm platoon, destroying them and forcing the artillery back. The M10s swept slowly around the Jagdtigers flanks while our shermans, six pounders and a platoon of infantry were in reserve. The crunch came when the jagdtigers lost one tank and were pulled too far away to support the closest objective. Two British rifle platoons and the reserve Kiwi rifle platoon surrounded the VGs and lone Jagdtiger on the objective and threw in successive assaults under the fire of the 105mm artillery and the six pounders firing direct. The VG platoon was destroyed and the JT fell back. In trying to conest the objective the JT bogged on a hedge. We saw of the two single team assaults on the three platoons on the objective to take the game 6-1.

Game 2

Dust Up versus Brett and Rhys

Rhys (left) and Brett (right)
In the background you can see fellow blogger Paul (reddogofwar) and his partner Ste - in the black and white tees.

I don't like Dust Up. For me its more luck than anything and I don't often do well - especially with infantry armies. We opted to take one corner and deployed out 17lbrs, 6lbrs, a platoon of infantry each and the artillery. Rhys and Brett had two panzer companies, one with Veteran StuHs and a KT and the other with RT Panthers and MkIVs. The game did not go well for us. The StuHs gutted our 6lbrs covering the middle objective after a failed go at trying to kill the StuHs in our first turn. Our artillery was poor for the first 6 turns - getting nothing and sometimes not ranging in! The Panthers held the furthest object and in the end the most amazing thing happened. Two platoons of infantry and the shermans managed to get onto the objective which was in a wood. The shermans the artillery tried to knock out the panthers but failed and we lost the shermans. To contest the objective, Brett pushed the panthers nearer to the objective but was now within 4" of our concealed infantry. The one strike from the artillery we needed came in and killed a panther and bailed another. The infantry assaulted and destroyed the platoon and the CO of the Panthers. All that was left was the two remaining StuHs and a pair of Wirbelwinds to assault our two full platoons of infantry. the assaults did not go well for the Germans. We had lost the M10s and the Shermans for a 4-3 win.

Game 3

Fighting Withdrawal versus Nick and Tim

And then we played these cnuts.

Cnuts. These are them.

Four veteran Crocodiles with two minimum strength platoons of veteran infantry, a platoon of two Challengers and a 4 strong platoon of Cromwells with Tiffies. The Roundheads were aiming to destroy Christmas and make everything else fun outlawed.

We chose to night attack as I was not keen on watching the Crocs roll reasonably untouchably across the table to flame our troops (and Christmas) out of existence. This game went horribly wrong for us. Artillery could not range in, platoons could not unpin or pass morale tests to assault, the 17lbrs could not hit or penetrate. We managed to get a platoon onto one objective as it was withdrawn and we also managed to kill a Croc, but that was about it. My poor AOP turned up after dawn broke and was promptly mishandled by a flight of typhoons. We were done 1-6.

Saturday Night    

BBQ at the venue with those that remained behind. We also managed to get a game of 15mm Napoleonics in with Evan, Derek and Phil (from Battlefront). Back to the motel, exhausted for some more scotch, some Eddie Izzard and Bill Bailey.

Saturday, a photo montage by Simon McBeth

Scott's and my crotches. Well in hand. Fnarrr.

Alex's face

How Saturday was looking for me after a couple of scotches


Sunday

Sunday was not as cold as Saturday but that was all relative in Palmerston North. Breakfast again was at Cuba Café, but this time not Eggs Bene (we all wanted to have a crap at least once in the next couple of days!). Back to the venue for game four after the painting round.

Game 4

Free for All versus Scott and Bryan

Bryan and Scott confer with the mastermind of their team, Scott's son.
Did I just say that? Of course I did. It's me.
Our practice game, but not really. Scott and Bryan's lists had gone through a series of changes since we played way back then. We both set up reasonably defensively. This proved a problem for Chris and I, if we were more like our usual selves and were recklessly aggressive with our infantry, I think we may have taken this as a victory. As it worked out, we both lost (as there are no draws in Flames) but we managed to kill two of their platoons (some more StuHs and some Luchs) all for the loss of our 17lbr guns. The long range duelling with our Shermans and M10s and their MkIVs and Panthers was pretty static as we all needed 6's to hit and no one was pressing forward with other stuff. 3-2 loss.

Game 5

Surrounded versus Andrew and Mark

A twin. I'm never sure of which one so I just took one photo and you can imagine the other one looking exactly the same.
Beard no.1 looking relaxed. Probably just unloaded some Korean BBQ, Steak Sammies, Eggs Bene and some delicate French Crepes.

Andrew and Mark are also Regiment playtesters and have a well know penchant for taking armies with a massive pile of platoons and rubbish ratings. While most of the troops were Reluctant Trained there were some CT SturmTigers (broken) and a CV Train (really broken). We decided that we needed to defend to forced the roll off and 'won' the defender role. Surrounded splits the attacker at either short end of the table with two objectives for the defended to hold. There was already a train track placed on the table and helpfully (for the twins) it ran right through the board. We held off as long as we could and managed to kill 6 or 7 (including the train) of the 16 platoons the twins had but not enough of each company to force a break. The SturmTigers in particular were a bane as their rule for shooting is "roll a die and if you get a 4+, punch Simon in the balls'. The ST took out our 17lbrs in one volley and whittled down the artillery to force a morale check. My company was below half strength after some sterling bayonet work and passed one 5+ Company Morale check. The turn that gave us saw Chris going balls out to try and break one of the companies but some completely above average Defensive Fire saw off his assaults. My next Company Morale check was not a 5 or a 6. The game ended 3-4 to the twins.

Roundup

Chris and I ended up 9th overall, which was not too bad considering the Sunday games. Tim and Nick finished third and Scott and Alex brought up the rear (in a world where they did NOT save the world*) in last place. Alex and Scott did get voted Best Sports though. Not an unexpected award for two genuinely 'do not give a rats arse about the competition' guys!

Of the other Regimenteers, Russell came second with his partner Tony, The Twins were fourth, Bob and his partner Greg were eighteenth and Damo and Shep finished seventh.

Winners: Mike and Andrew Haught

Second: Russell and Tony

Third: These guys.

Best Generals: Scott and Bryan - well done!

Best Sports: Booooooo.

Panzershreck is always fun, and not just for the games. Next year the competition will be Early War and as Nick said recently, if you are making lists for next year the night you get back from the competition, it must have been fun. Germans and Vichy French next year maybe......

*weekend jokes are the best jokes. I guess you just had to be there

Sunday 12 July 2015

Done!

My first Napoleonics army is done.....ish. Are armies actually ever complete, well I wouldn't be a magpie if they were. However I have had the flags arrive for my British Guards and we are complete in this stage. I haven't put the artillery, heavy Dragoons or brunswickers in these photos - but focussed on the British (plus Highlanders - of course).
Chur T

Wednesday 1 July 2015

Panzershreck 2015: The Regiment Travels North

Every year at this time we all get in our cars and travel to Palmerston North for a boys weekend. There is lots of bad food, bad jokes and good scotch. Oh, and a Flames of War tournament.

Panzershreck is run by the Manawatu Duellists Society and is the worlds oldest and longest running Flames of War competition. I think I have been to every one of them bar one since coming fourth in the very first competition. Battlefront's main sculptor, Evan Allen is a stalwart of the club and its always a good excuse to head over to Palmy and catch up with him.

 In recent years, Panzershreck has become a doubles competiton varying points between 800 and 1100 point per player and either Late War or Mid War. This year its 1000 point a player Late War and each of us here are teamed up with another; Me and Pelarel, Lintman & Prinny and McZermof & Tank Engine. Scotty will be the subs bench for the teams, so we can tag out and get a pie/beer/toilet break with out having anyone miss the action. Scotty may well be drinking all weekend (fair warning).

As we all are playtesters for Battlefront, you would think we'd do well at this tournament wouldn't you. Well, apart from Prinny and Lintman winning one year, we've all been rather bad at Panzershreck. That's not the point of the trip though - Korean BBQ and more scotch than is good for you are the main draw cards.



Pelarel and I are taking our lists from Road to Rome, the campaign book with lists for the Allied armies in Italy, 1944-45. I'm running Kiwi Rifles and Chris has a British Rifle company and our one and only test game is here. Both of us are comfortable being infantry commanders and are good enough not to make out turns drag out with lots of bases to move.

Team name: Italian Summer Holiday

British Rifle Company


Infantry Company, from Road To Rome, page 40


Compulsory Rifle Company HQ (p.41) - CinC Rifle, 2iC Rifle (30 pts)
Compulsory Rifle Platoon (p.41) - Command Rifle/MG, PIAT, Light Mortar, 6x Rifle/MG (180 pts)
Compulsory Rifle Platoon (p.41) - Command Rifle/MG, PIAT, Light Mortar, 6x Rifle/MG (180 pts)
Anti-tank Platoon (p.43) - Command Rifle, 6x OQF 6 pdr gun (late) (205 pts)
Tank Platoon (p.69) - Command Sherman V, 2x Sherman V (240 pts)
8th Army Anti-tank Platoon, Royal Artillery (p.93) - Command Rifle, 2x OQF 17 pdr gun (late) (150 pts)

985 Points, 5 Platoons

New Zealand Commonwealth Rifle Company


Infantry Company, from Road To Rome, page 46


Compulsory Commonwealth Rifle Company HQ (p.47) - CinC Rifle, 2iC Rifle (5 pts)
Compulsory Commonwealth Rifle Platoon (p.47) - Command Rifle/MG, PIAT, Light Mortar, 6x Rifle/MG (190 pts)
Compulsory Commonwealth Rifle Platoon (p.47) - Command Rifle/MG, PIAT, Light Mortar, 6x Rifle/MG (190 pts)
Commonwealth Carrier Platoon (p.48) - Command Universal Carrier, 2x Universal Carrier (100 pts)
Anti-tank Platoon (SP), Royal Artillery (p.93) - Command M10 3in GMC, 3x M10 3in GMC (300 pts)
- Replace one M10 3in GMC with a M10C 17pdr SP (20 pts)
US Field Artillery Battery (p.204) - Command Carbine, Staff, Observer Carbine, Jeep, 4x M2A1 105mm howitzer (185 pts)
Air Observation Post (p.98) - Auster AOP (25 pts)

1015 Points, 5 Platoons


Nothing too silly but then again, nothing to scary either. I suspect there will be a lot of tank armies out there so out PIATs will get a lot of work. And our 17pdrs, 105mm artillery, M10s, Shermans and 6! (yes, six) 6pdrs. I think we'll have an award for the most amount of tanks killed by a PIAT by our platoons :)

I'll leave the other teams to post their crazy armies.

Wish us luck (we will need it).

McBeth

Clearmont Revisited

Last August I ordered a gaming mat from Hotz Mats and after a few false starts it finally arrived today. This is has brought Clearmont alive for me.
So there's the town all ready to go - and here's the challenge - "yeehaa! Git down and dirty boys there's a shootin to be done!"