Trying to get some focus

So the year is half gone and I've got stuff all over the place that I've started and I really want to knock on the head. The to-do pile is getting noticeably smaller (I can nearly fit the whole thing on my painting desk!) but I'm not sure where I'm starting or what I'm doing with it so I figured I full catalogue of all the things would help me scope it and get to work on it since the best motivator is making a list.  But before we start on the list, I might have painted the last thing on it: a Beholder for Dungeons and Dragons. 

Readers who are in my regular RPG group might wonder why and my answer is no reason. No reason at all....

Small Stuff

ADLG-R

Early days yet but I have managed a couple of the mounted General bases and will probably have to get into the Tercios ASAP. 

 

To do:

• 1 Tercio 2 Tercios
• 4 Gendarmes
• 3 Caracoling Pistoliers
• 1 General
• 3 LH and 2 Medium Cav Mounted Arquebusiers

And at some point I'll get the last little bit of the list, a Landsknecht Kiel and some baggage!

Flames of War / TY

This is looking much better, but with the release of the Flames of War Bulge book, it's likely to expand again once I can make a dent in the larger pile.

To do:

• Greatcoat Grenadier platoon
• SdKfz250 transports for one of about three or four Aufklarungs lists I want to run
• Two AH-1 Cobra Attack Helicopters
  

Big Stuff

Silver Bayonet

This one is easy although I'm currently trying to resist the urge to buy a whole new French collection with some Perry French Camelry...

To dos:

• Monsters: Changeling, Living Armour, Ghosts
• 4 more Frenchmen
  

40K 

To dos:

• 3 miscellaneous Deathwatch models (a Terminator, a Firstborn Marine and an Outrider)
  
• 10 Tempestus Scions
• Imperial Priest
  
• Another (!) Inquisitor
  
• 5 Grey Knight Terminators (that I still haven't gotten the paint off!)
  

I'm also expecting the release of the 9e Imperial Guard Codex some time in the next couple of months so that'll probably add a few new things to the pile as well. 

Necromunda

I'm keen to get back into some Necromunda later this year and I have a few bits and bobs to finish for that. One of the Gangers still needs building as I've been in a fight with a Forgeworld sawnoff for ages...

To dos:

• 3 Redemptionists
• 2 Cawdor Gangers
• Stig Shambler
  

Kings of War

I probably just need to organise a game or two with a few weeks notice so I get off my butt and base my Ghosties army!  I know what I want to do, I just have to do it.

Miscellany

I've got a bunch of 28mm stuff sitting around for various things and reasons that I will eventually use for things and reasons...

To dos:

• 11 random DnD characters for my limited palette set
  
• 3 old Malifaux models for DracAm
• 2 random Warmachine models I just want to paint
• 2 mounted Elves - a Silver Helm and a Hero
• Ogre Mage
• Ogre
  
• 1 Great Eagle 
  
• 1 Beholder
  

 

So there's a lot to do for the rest of the year but I thought that documenting this pile would give me a the impetus to clear the deck. Let's see how we go eh?

Next Time

Some things off this list eh? I'd like to call back to this at the end of the year having struck through everything on this list and a few other things as well. 

Bigger and smaller?

 I thought I'd take a break from painting tiny models for a bit and do some bigger stuff. I've had a few 40K projects sitting around waiting to be done so I started working on those:

New Imperial Guard

First off, I finished off the Rescue Russ. It came up pretty well and fits in nicely with my existing armour:

I also finished the assembly of a squad that's been waiting for parts FOR ever:

 

They've finally arrived so what will become a squad of Cadian Stormtroopers (none of this Tempestus Scions BS) and I'm just going to hope this will work in the 9e Codex! This is another one of the really cool GW multi-part kits and TBH, I have no idea why it's getting a resculpt for the 9e Codex although  I'm of that opinion of almost all the revealed new designs so far. Why new Sentinels?

And other stuff!

Despite the break, I have also gotten moving on some of the smaller stuff. First off, platoon-a-month mortars for Flames of War:

The release of the Flames of War LW Bulge German lists (especially the Volksgrenadiers) has reignited my enthusiasm for this work so with these done, its just the Grenadiers to go. I gave a Volksgrenadier list a test run against Blogger Scotty yesterday and oof. Reluctant/Trained/Aggressive infantry is very....brittle. The theory I wanted to try out sort of works - being really aggressive and trying to concentrate some fairly rubbish troops at a point - I just did it very badly.

That was the casualty pile in turn three of a game where Scotty didn't shoot meaningfully on turn one. I learned that I don't like Tigers as much as I thought I did, never use Follw Me! when you're Reluctant when you could just Blitz and it's less bad and 2 Panzerschrecks and Panzerfaust 2 are awesome. Also 30cm Nebelwerfers are very very scary.

I've also done a little bit of painting on my ADLG-R Spaniards:

I hate painting horses in ways I can barely begin to describe so I thought I'd start with the cavalry in this army. The generals were a nice place to start learning about how Khurasan sculpts come out. They are stunning and I love how they're coming up. I've done the grind work on the horses for my caracoling pistoliers too so they'll be the next task for this army. 

Next Time

I'm working on a plan to get through the backlog for the second half of the year so that''ll be next week - with a bit of an idea of where it's going.

 

Pooch's May update

Ok, so last blog I was early, this blog I am even later than my usual late blog posts each month!

But I hear the question you are asking, did my lateness translate to progress?

1. Paint a platoon of DAK each month

I ended up having a very busy month of painting all of the things for Silver Bayonet (read on dear reader if you want to know more about that!), so I opted for a simple painting project for this month, a Bison platoon, comprising of 2 Bison!

"Just the two of us, we can make it if we try...."

They are neat models, with a 15cm gun, married to a lengthened Panzer II chassis. Will they be effective? Maybe? But do they look good? Heck yea!

I'm pretty close to the full completed army for Panzershrek army, assuming I don't change the list again!

2. Add something to armies I have already painted

In deciding to make the Silver Bayonet my game of the month, I decided that I should have enough monsters to play any of the scenarios in the rule book. Handily, somebody had built an excel spreadsheet of exactly what was needed for each scenario, so then I got to work sourcing miniatures! The models came from a variety of sources, some from Games Workshop, some from the excellent Nulzor's range, some from Oathmark or Northstar or just from the spares box I have at home. I didn't manage to complete the whole list, but I did manage to paint a whole lot more....

 

12 Bandits- 3d Prints from Highland Miniatures

Demon (GW), Possessed (Northstar), Changeling and Living Scarecrow (both Nulzors)

 

Vampire bats (GW), Ghoul (Asgard Rising), Black Dog (Zenit), Living Armour and Pixie (GW)

Ghosts (GW) and Vampires (Highland Miniatures)

Wolves (Oathmark) and Hobgoblin (GW)

I still have a few more things to do (more wolves mainly, plus some goblins and another werewolf), but I will finish those up when it comes time in the year to work through the solo campaign.

3. Finish up a table of terrain

And what would Silver Bayonet month be without a table of terrain to go with it? I have had a couple of old-timey wooden frame buildings for the better part of three years sitting there unpainted, with one in need of some serious repair. I painted them up, adding a fountain and trees from my spares, then adding on walls and cobbled roads from Battlekiwi, and then the scatter terrain from Warcradle Studio's Gloomsburg terrain too.

The net result? A great purpose built 3x3 Silver Bayonet table!

The table (this is a 4x3)

A closer look at the fountains and the buildings

Creepy tree is creepy

How do you know we are in France? Because the village has a guillotine

Wagon stuck in a swamp... hope there is no Black Dog around!

Wanted posters, painted by me on some Gloomsburg terrain

So, that's a brand new table of terrain painted in a month. I am really enjoying painting terrain, maybe I am sick....

4. Play a game a month, that was different to the last month

I promised a solid plan this month, and it was Silver Bayonet!

I have managed to do the write up for two games so far, but there were two more games that I have potential narratives for....

Game One

Game Two

I'll likely play through the solo scenarios as one of my month's later in the year too!

5. Paint a new historical army

To round out Silver Bayonet month, I did also finish up a bunch of new figures for my Prussian forces, with most of them being historical, albeit with a couple of exceptions....

The historical ones: Musketeers, Sapper, Officer and Jager

The less historical ones: Hussar, Veteran Hunter, Swordsman, Supernatural Investigator, Doctor, Occultist

I am really enjoying Silver Bayonet. It's FOR SURE going to feature again this year!

A themed month? Let this madness continue!

Pooch

Post-con takeaways?

 Actually it was leftover pizza. 

Anyway, on to the event and it's outcomes. ValleyCon 2022 was a great weekend and, aside from having to move wooden tabletops in the midst of one of the worst winter storms I've ever seen, largely went off without a hitch. The Flames comp was so much fun and even though I took a tank destroyer company, and there weren't a lot of tank companies for me to destroy, it went better than expected.

Army Gallery

I thought I'd share the wide variety of armies that we saw for the event first: 

Blogger Triple T's Recce Squadron

Richard's Canadians

Regan's Princess Irene Brigade

Sofia's Russians

Chris' Panzergrenadiers

Pats's Kiwi Shermans

Shane's Kiwi Shermans

Octavia's Aufklarungs

Jonathan's Windgruber Grenadiers

Stu's Panzers and Panzergrenadiers

Blogger McBeth's Best Painted Russians

My Panzerjagers

Graham's British Armour

Blogger Tank's Finns

Games

I'm not going to do a full blown game by game, my memory is too hazy for that. So a highlight reel with some pictures.

Round 1: Regan's Princess Irene Brigade

I always enjoy playing Regan. He takes his games as seriously as I do (ie. not a lot) and we always wind up having highly entertaining and very stupid adventures. He wins the prize for the most historical and awesome force of the weekend, the Dutch Princess Irene Brigade.

 

I spent most of the game hammering this objective with Hummels because I didn't want to assault it with Hetzers. In the end, I had to bring up my Panzergrenadiers and get stuck into the Resistance platoon defending. Regan's M10s had a rough handling from the 4 Hetzers and 3 Jagdpanzer IV/70s but the carrier platoon that came on in the right place at the right time to defend it gave me a few scares right at the last. 

These Shermans arrived a turn too late to race to the objective before my Hetzers and infantry overran the last of his defenders.  If they'd arrived anywhere other than the 5/6 arrrival point, this would have been a very, very different game.

Round 2: Jonathan's Grenadiers

This game was always going to be interesting. Jonathan had a powerful Windgruber-led platoon holding the centre of the board and I was going to have to go through it. A first turn assault gave me the centre and an aggressive flanking maneuver with my Hetzers gave his mortars something to worry about and tripped a PaK40 ambush, allowing my Jagdpanzers to whip round the other side.

  

It was all going well till this happened. Jonathan's Tigers arrived and only bailed a single Jagdpanzer. I got excited! My return shooting penetrated both Tigers. Then I failed both firepower rolls. They remounted. Five shots, five hits, five penetrations four dead Jagdpanzer IV/70s. That's about when the game effectively ended. A little bit more luck and this game was all on. It was a very good match though and I was starting to think that this army might not be that bad at attacking. 

Round 3: Tank's Finns

 This game was a bit of a necessity given some organisational duties that required Tank's attention. We figured it might as well affect both of us rather than two of our guests so we played this game. Tank technically attacked in Contact but chose to defend once he cut a chunk of my army off with scouts in a building.

I spent most of the game trying to clear out those scouts so I could get my infantry moving and defending my Hummels so I could finally start dropping 15cm shells on the objective above (before having to send in the Hetzers against Finnish infantry. Yeah.) and that was almost the entire experience. I took too long to clear out his 10.5 howitzers and PaK 40s and didn't assault the Scout platoon in the centre of the board when I had the chance. In the end, a good mortar barrage dented my defending infantry platoon enough that I couldn't keep the Finnish infantry away. It was a great game.

Round 4: Triple Ts Carrier Horde

I knew this was going to hurt and boy oh boy did it hurt. Triple T doesn't play a lot of Flames but he had a few games under his belt by now and was running this army very well. It was a bit of a carpark given his tiny deployment zone in Bridgehead but he attacked with vigour and looked for the shots wherever he could get them.

In the end, I couldn't knock things out fast enough and he was passing 5+ Last Stands like a trooper. I would have been happy to take a 3-6 in this game but I didn't even get close. Once the Wasps flamed my infantry platoon out of existence, it was over.

 Roughly handled in the end. I picked Defend in this one looking to pull out a No Retreat or Fighting Withdrawl, but Bridgehead hurt me a lot. I was looking to avoid giving the PIATs easy flank shots and a corner mission felt like I was going to be in more trouble so I didn't Maneuver. In hindsight, should have just attacked and looked to get Contact or even Free for All so I could have all my guns on table ASAP.

Round 5: Stu's Panzers

This game I finally got to do what I came to do. Stu was attacking in Breakthrough and with his infantry in reserve, spent a lot of the game making sure my easy kills on his arriving infantry would be dealt to quickly - notably the Quad AA and 251 transports. The salvo template on the Nebelwerfers was VERY effective. I'm glad I've got some in the box.

This was my favourite shot of the game where my Jagdpanzer IV/70s came from downtown and wrecked some Panzer IVs you can see on the hill in the distance. This game also presented me with only my second direct fire Hummel shot of the weekend. I hit a Panzer IV and, needing a 6 to save, Stu's dice came through! In the end though, I destroyed enough panzers to keep them away from the objectives and my infantry dealt to his when it finally arrived. 

Conclusions?

I like this army a lot and my refusal to Defend with it (except when I did) lead to really interesting games. It's actually very capable. I need to be careful the resources because it is very small and while having the quad AA as core helps the formation, other than my game with Jonathan, there was no real risk to my breaking so some 3.7mm AA might be more useful as lower ROF but higher AT could serve better.

 My SdKfz 251s got shredded in almost every game as people seem generally afraid of them which was interesting. I wasn't as aggressive with the infantry as I could have been and I would like to be better at that. There were a couple of occasions where a mounted assault would have been achievable and I didn't even think to do it. Given I can't really afford to send in the Panzerjagers at any point, it's gotta be on my option list! 

11/10, will play again. Also, I won Best Sport which is always welcome and I got at least one vote for Best Painted which, given my fairly utilitarian view of painting, was really cool. I am really pleased with how the ambush camo has come out and with the foliage on top, it just gives a cool texture on top of the paint job.

Next Time

Good question. I'm working on my 8cm mortars for platoon a month and a few other little projects so the next one will be a workbench of some sort. 

Infantry should look splendid, with little uniformity.

We're bearing down on our club's annual competition weekend and for once I'm not painting furiously in advance of the weekend. So far, finding my Hetzer stat card for my Flames of War army is the most complex thing I've had to do.

Since I'm not painting furiously for the event, I'm doing some other stuff...

A surprise? 

So the nerds have been playing a lot of ADLG and when someone (Blogger McBeth?!) produced the Renaissance rules, I might have gotten a touch excited. We spent a lot of time going back and forth about 15mm or 28mm until someone (again, Blogger McBeth?!) dug out Khurasan Miniatures. I had a wee nosey at their 16th Century range and discovered one of those armies I'd always wanted was suddenly a goer - Early Spanish Colonial and all it's Tercios!

I'm really impressed with the Khurasan sculpts. They're very slim and finely detailed, which is both amazing and challenging when I haven't painted a 15mm model thats not set in the last 70 years or so in a LONG time. I found a great painting resource and the first line of the description of the infantry is:

Infantry should look splendid, with little uniformity

 Yay, I said. That'll be fun, I said. So I painted some test models - my LF Arquebus Elite and my Medium / Heavy Artillery base and honestly, I think they do look splendid. 

But I look at the 96 infantry in three Tercios I have staring back at me and I am afraid! I know there's a stupid number of flags on the horizon but this is going to be a big job.

 Freeblade! 

And she is finished! My Freeblade Errant knight "Castellum Angelorum", the Castle of Angels. This was a really fun painting project - I spent a lot of time looking at models online and poring over my transfer collection to see what I could do with this one. I'll dig the Armigers out some time soon and start seeing what I can do with those now. I've got an idea for one and a half formed idea for a second but I'll need to come up with a third for a full Freeblade detachment for my Imperial Guard.

And a tank! 

 

This is my sanity project while I work on 15mm stuff. I'm on a real 'clear the decks of jobs' kick at the mo and this tank has been sitting around waiting for attention for TOO long. This tank allows me to put a Guard armoured detachment on the park so with the Guard codex for 9e being one of the last out, I'm keen to get them done in advance of that.

Next Time  

A very late blog in which I shall cover off how badly I did with my 'turrets are for chumps' list at Flames of War and post a bunch of photos of some other cool stuff I know I'll run across over the weekend.