Roll 5s. Then it's an easy game for babies.

So due to an administrative error somewhere along the way, the event I was scheduled to attend has had to be postponed. Blogger Scotty offered to host the nerds for a couple of the games we were planning to play. 

In my first, I played Blogger Pel and his Hero T34/85 company in Covering Force.

I leaned heavily on the left hand objective but figured I'd leave my StuGs out wide and if Pel aggressively redeployed they, and the Ostwinds, might have made a cheeky grab for it. As it was, he shifted his infantry towards my shove but left some T34/85s and his ISU122s comfortably holding it!

The middle turns of the game were largely dominated by Pel's redeployment of his infantry and my infantry's steadfast refusal to move at all, especially not to remove the minefield I needed to remove to get the Jagdtigers able to push forward. I got Pel's T34s on my left flank but was struggling to figure out how this was going to work and what I could get onto the objective.

Suddenly, in turn six-ish, the whole game blew wide open. With a shot at taking the far objective in the offing in my StuGs raced forward into the T34/85s flanks:

The Jagdtigers chipped in the first two T34s and the StuGs promptly missed. GAH! Chris' ISU 122s hit back and destroyed a StuG but the realisation that I was going to be unlikely to remove them (and risking breaking if they got killed), I swung my efforts back to the left flank. 

I also sent the Jagdpanthers forward about the same time, inadvertantly preventing an easy ambush in my flanks to try and knock out the T34 CO (unsuccessfully, I might add) but it did let me finish off the SU76s that were also there. Pel finally popped his ambush (you can see it in the cornfield at the top of the picture below) and the CO who wouldn't fricking die knocked two of them out over a couple of turns. I passed one last stand but didn't get the second one I needed!

 In the end, it came down to my trying to work out how to break Pel in the last turn. I had to kill two T3/85s and one stand of infantry to at least make him take a bunch of tests. I got one T34, failed on the infantry alltogether, giving Pel the win in what was a very good and very close game. In the end, for an army that I expected to have very little go-forward, she did okay. If I hadn't spend several turns pinned behind a minefield, I might have been able to push the Jagdtigers up instead of the Jagdpanthers and had a better result. Lessons learned!

I had a second game of Counterattack (not a mission I wanted to play, TBH) against Blogger McBeth and his Soviet Forward Detachment in which I took precisely this photo before the first turn:

This was one of those games where things just landed, especially things that shouldn't. McBeth removed my StuGs with a cunning ambush in his first turn. I got some blitzes and moves off and the Jagdtigers and Jagdpanthers removed the ambushing platoon in response. 7 shots on 5s shouldn't yield that result. It is one of the things I have noticed with the AT 17 amd 18 shots on the Jagds - when you hit, it's just all over. It's weirdly quite satisfying. 

Anyway, McBeth's reserves arrived in turns one and two as well and rolled up to the centre of the table to stop me shoving my Panzersturm through his Strelkovy.  The centre got really congested and then the game got silly. I pushed my Jagdtigers a touch too far ahead and the remant T34s and Strelkovy snuck round their flanks. Things hit and I made SO MANY saves. And then withdrew my Jagds in good order. McBeths IS2s and my Jagdpanthers got in a scrap and it was another one of those, I roll 5s and everything goes bad. 4 shots on 5s shouldn't get 3 hits and destroy 2 IS2s. The conclusion, in the end was that on my turn 4, my 250 Recce arrived from reserve and the 20mms just went to town. Their first round of shooting removed two of McBeth's .50 cal quad halftracks holding the objective and their second and third rounds removed the BA64s contesting the objective, despite the BAs PTRD armament winning me the game. It was patently absurd.

Next Time

Some workbenchery I shouldn't wonder. I've got a lot of primed and partially started things on the desk at the mo...

Pre-event Testing

So I'm spending next weekend at a local Flames of War event and figured the army list I'd decided to run should get a test or two because I had no idea how it would run. It's first game was against clubmate Chris and his also Clausewitz army - I had StuGs, he had Panzersturm. We played Dogfight. 

Chris blocked a bunch of good routes with minefields and deployed on both objectives with the open ground in the middle of the board dominated by 4 Luftwaffe 88s:

I decided to move my Panzersturm platoon up to the two minefields on my left where I could remove those in relative safety while I sent my Jagdtigers off to go 88 hunting and oh boy, did they ever:

They got basically one 88 a turn for 4 turns - it was kind of awesome. Anyway, Chris' StuHs (how? How is this platoon 8 points? Like seriously?) managed to clip a single infantry stand and pinned my infantry, making sure they couldn't lift the minefields:

They stayed pinned for THREE turns, despite having the CO there giving rerolls every turn. Radical redeployment became annoyingly necessary as my StuGs and Jagdpanthers had to move through the town. Not, I admit, where I want my assault guns, but the enemy infantry that was guarding the town centre was kept head down by three Ostwinds who just slowly blitzed their way through the platoon.

Chris did me heaps of favours and kept his reserves off while I tried to sneak through the town and aside from a cheeky attempt by his recce to get flank shots on my StuGs and a bit of shot trading with the dwindling 88s and the PaK40 251 ambush (that arrived on turn 4) I felt like I was starting to make headway up the middle. My infantry had removed minefields and seen off the enemy infantry and we had crossed half way in Turn 4.

 And then everything went sideways - I realised I had to get closer to the objectives to keep the game going so had to push an armoured spearhead forward in my turn 5 in order to make the run on turn 6. I reckoned I had a reasonable shove on both objectives with a little luck.  And you can just see in the photo below that Chris' reserves arrived in just the right spot: 

 

 

 Yeah, that's three Tigers. They punctured a pair of Jagdpanthers and the last couple of PaK 40s gave my StuGs some regrets. A series of failed remounts and last stands later, despite the COs presence, effectively ended the game as I didn't have anything that could get close enough to the objectives to take them. 

So what did I learn?

 

Jagdtigers are irritatingly slow but they are also immortal. I should have been shoving them straight up the middle from the getgo. I don't hate my logic of clearing the 88s so I could move unmolested across the board centre but that plan required lifing those minefields in turn 2, not turn 4 and having to waste a turn moving horizotally was not desirable at all. But it was fun! And I love how the army looks and I love how it is and I'm sure it's going to be dreadful but I'm going to enjoy playing it. 

 

I had a second game against clubmate Ric's British Airlanding in Valley of Death which is not the mission for an assault gun company. So despite powering through his platoons of 6pdr and 17pdr guns, I really struggled to finish off his infantry due to poor deployment of my Wespes and not managing to keep the Panzersturm platoon intact enough for long enough to do some heavy lifting. It was close, but I couldn't quite get there. 

 

Next Time

Highlights from the event, almost certainly late since they won't get posted till after I get home!  

Bringing a sword to a gunfight?

 Admittedly. it's the Dark Sabre so it's pretty effective. I've finished up Moff Gideon for Star Wars Legion:

It's a stunning model and I love scenic base of the Moff standing on the top of his wrecked TIE from the end of Mandalorian season 1 (spoilers? If you haven't watched it by now, I expect you have no idea who this is anyway!) Like many of my Imperial models for Star Wars Legion, he's a lot of black cloth and armour and so it didn't take long to shade and highlight! I'm not super sure I have the edge I want on the Dark Sabre but he's ready for the table. 

Secondly, I painted the Armiger Helverin I put together last week:

 

 

Styled like my two Armiger Warglaives in the style of House Cadmus, he's come up really well. I spent a lot of time matching the yellow (turns out it's an odd mix of GW Balor Brown and Averland Sunset in the end) and honestly, you wouldn't know it's taken me this many years to paint the third one. Quite pleased. 

 

Next Time

I'm testing my Berlin force for an upcoming event so will try and do a decent report of that game. Hopefully also some more Inquisition nerds and maybe some Dark Troopers....

Pooch's August update

Wait, where did August go? I swear it was just here a minute ago.

Well, at least I  got some painting done?

1. Paint a platoon for Flames of War

Back to my Late War US, this time with not one, but TWO platoons!

First up is 3 60mm mortars

And an L-4 Grasshopper AOP!

Next month needs to keep me on the "paint more infantry train", doing a batch of bases each month- I have a lot of infantry to work through....

2. Add something to armies I have already painted

First up here is a brand new warband for The Silver Bayonet, this time, it's the Swiss!

Made from the awesome Perry Plastics, with a number of little conversions and changes, then with a couple of the awesome Northstar metal models to round out the force.

Sapper, Officer and Heavy Cavalry

Three Voltigeurs and a Grenadier

Highwayman, Artillerist and Occultist

And sticking with the red theme of the Swiss, I also finished up a Marvel Crisis Protocol figure too- this time another iteration of Iron Man!

The metallic red is a PIG to photograph, this was the best I could do. I promise that it's better in person, and I'll do a better job of the photo next month... because this Iron Man is linked to yet another Iron Man model....

3. Finish up a piece of terrain

Sticking with the Silver Bayonet theme, I finished up a tomb from the Saxonia range, printed by Battlekiwi. It is a cute little model, and fits perfectly with the Silver Bayonet aesthetic.

I'm sure nothing evil will come out of this tomb.....

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

But wait, there is MORE Silver Bayonet!

I borrowed James' French, to play a game against McB's Austrians.....

Vindivaniere vs Dhampir

Dragoons getting it done

Well... maybe not this dragoon....

I do so love Silver Bayonet, and it'll be next month's games too I expect!

5. Paint a Hundred Years War French Army for ADLG

Paint one base for ADLG

This month was a good one for ADLG, finishing up a bunch of smaller bases, which significantly less glamourous than knights, are quite important for the whole "army functioning" part of the game....

Two bases of light infantry

I also had Potbelly Miniatures  print up a Ribauldequin artillery piece, to give me some Light Artillery. The crew are converted from Perry Miniatures infantry, using some pieces from other Perry kits, and good ol' kitbashing.

Little organ gun!

A better view of the cannon

Ok, so maybe a single Light Artillery piece isn't actually a part of making the army work well. But it's just such a silly piece, how can you not want one?

Paint one Knight for ADLG

Another Knight!

Next month really needs me to paint more Knights- 3 bases is not enough!

Paint up an army of 15mm Celts

Well, if you are going to bring Chariots for a Celt army, you can't just have 4, so this month I doubled that number, as well as finishing up four bases of javelinmen skirmishers.

Zoom!

More Zoom!

Less zoom, but still useful!

I'm very short of Medium Swordsmen for the list, so I really should paint more of them...

And that's what I got completed in August- on to September's painting!

Pooch

Seeking the tomb of Marcea Lupul

Into the Lair of Marcea Lupul 

The penultimate game of our six-game Silver Bayonet Carpathian campaign saw the French unit, under Colonel Jean-Hippolyte Gavreau de la Framboise, marched into the ruined dining room in Lupul's castle searching for clues to where the evil Vampire King was buried only to be set upon by Living Armour which the French, and their Swiss opponents, were wholly unequipped to deal with. The Spanish, on the other hand, and their trusty Father Antonio were ready for it...

The French advanced into the centre of the dining room avoiding staring too much into the glowing green flames of the enchanted firepit! They were a bit slow in their discovery though  and the Spanish recovered one of the important relics and the Swiss the other two...

The French aggressively went after both the Spanish and the Swiss to try and get their hands on those treasures but singularly failed to do much of anything. Colonel Gavreau de la Framboise then started on some outright vindictive revenge and his Spanish and Swiss opponents happily waded in to do the same...

This last photo is where the vindictiveness was at it's absolute height. Zhantomeir the Cossack (henceforth known as Fancy Hat after he discovered a magic helm) charged into the Spanish swordsman and flattened him and his magic shield in a single mighty blow. The Spaniards Juan and Esmerelda shot him down!

The Swiss ran off as Hussar Olivier Cheveaux and Elodie the vivandiere tried to run down their two treasures too after a couple of their soldiers got absolutely clubbed to death by the Living Armour (and I totally forgot to take photos of that!)

 In the final game of the campaign, Zhantomeir felled the Vampire after a lunatic highlander woke it up...or at least thought he did. Then the monster stood himself up and Colonel Gavreau de la Framboise sabred the great beast. It was a glorious victory! Of course, on the other side of the park, a Swiss Grenadier shot down Georg Bitterlich (as Blogger Pooch rolled a double-10 reacting to Bitterlich's attempt to shoot him first!) as he defended the French exit from the crypt. Mercifully, it was just a nasty scratch and Georg will be up and running again in future! 

Thoughts?

It's a really really cool campaign. We replayed mission three as we absolutely stuffed it up quite badly on the first play through but it was SO much more fun getting it right. At the end of the campaign we mostly had second level characters across the board too. It gives out a lot of extra experience with artifacts and mission XP so we all moved through it pretty quickly. Definitely keen to play it again with a different crew.

And some workbench as well...

I started working on the Inquisition crew in advance of a planned Kill Team so did the first model. Look at me go! :) I have no idea what it'll do in game but it was cute so I did it.

 I spent some time clearing some of the backlog of assembly that's been sitting on my shelf so I dug out my Dark Trooper box and put them together. It's definitely one of the cooler kits I've done:

The box comes with with every option the unit can have - 4 Dark Troopers and 3 heavy weapons to pick from - and holy moly are they big. They're comfortably a head taller than a Storm Trooper and carrying some fairly beefy kit. They look really interesting in game too, with no ability to move at speed (although they can fly and reposition!) but they get two activations a turn to reflect their relentless nature. Should be really cool!

I've also finally got off my chuff and built this Knight Armiger Helverin too. It's been sitting on the shelf for a long time waiting to be the third Knight in a Lance of Armigers. It's a super sweet model too and will go well with my other Warglaives.

Next Time

More Inquisition work and the Dark Troopers and Moff Gideon will join the Scarif Beach Party.

More finishing!

 First off, apologies for the terrible photos. I'm still working on how this setup works in the new house and big photos don't often come out all that well. But here goes something.

 We begin with the final product of the last few weeks preparing for a local event at the end of the month. This Berlin Clausewitz tank company is a collection of models that I felt would be hilarious to run out together. Is it any good? Unlikely.

The last task to get it done was to remove the summer foliage from the Wespes (now routinely displaced by Hummels in my summer lists) which went surprisingly well. A bit of a paint touchup and some whitewash and boom.

Then we have a finished 15mm ADLG Wallachian army:

 You can see in the second rank on the left hand side, the two bases of 'Crusaders.' They're the only things in the army that aren't totally a mishmash of red, brown and black and I kind of love that. I need to find some transfers to flash up the shields a bit more but mostly pretty happy there.

And finally, the thing I promised I'd do, a test model for a new 40K army:

Blogger Pooch threw me a Mini of the Month Jakhal to do a test paint of. I started in the GW scheme but added in some extra red because you can't be a Khorne cultist and not right? It's a nice model and I wouldn't hate painting a full unit out of the Combat Patrol box. Some time this year I suspect. 

Next Time

The further and final adventures of Captaine Jean-Hyppolyte Gavreau de la Framboise in Carpathia!