Kleinepanzers Outing

 

I took my EW Leichte Panzerkompanie out for a run yesterday against clubmate Chris' French Escadron de Cavalerie in a game of Crossed Horns. 

Being throughly outgunned, I deployed conservatively:

but having won the roll to go first, I started a redeployment across my front to my right flank to try and pressure the front objective, which was lightly defended. My first shot of the game: 

was a spectacular 15cm direct fire shot into an H39 and BOOM! The return fire from 

Chris attacked up my left and the centre with his S35s while another platoon of H39s reinforced the front objective. 

 

The S35s made a risky run between the forest and the building in the middle of the picture and got caught by the Panzerjager Is and were outflanked by the Leichte Panzer platoon. In the centre, my Panzer IIs and IIIs found a gun battle with a platoon of S35s and a bunch of H39s and while a bunch of stuff got bailed, not a helluva lot happened. A Panzerjager I went down in a hail of fire from a 75mm artillery barrage. 

 This is where the game wound up:  

 

 The left hand S35 platoon went down to the Panzerjager Is and the Panzer IIIs concentrated fire and I surrounded the remaining French tanks and threw so many dice, Chris had to fail enough saves eventually for me to destroy the second S35 platoon. Those things are TOUGH. A Light Panzer platoon went down to the consistent fire of the H39s after six turns or so but once all the S35s were gone, we called the game as the H39s wouldn't be able to take the German mediums. 

In the end, I was reminded of the joys of playing Early War. A lot of shots got fired, most of them didn't connect and the ones that did caused bailed out results. I tell you what though, 2cm armed Panzer IIs into H39s and Somua S35s is a hiding to nothing. Thank goodness for some Panzerjager Is, that's for damn sure. The different between the tough French and the very mobile Germans was really interesting to play. 

I'm now having thoughts about dusting up the entire army after some pics from a Reuben Tarragosa post on Bookface made me think I could definitely lighten up the whole army so I might have to paint my one spare Panzer I and see if I can get a dusty finish that I like.  

 Next Time

I've got a plan but also a lot on. Let's see if it pans out...  

Justus Eterna

 She's done. 

Justus Eterna, Baneblade 052 operating in command of a squadron of Cadian Leman Russ tanks. 

That's it. 

It's a great kit, I loved building it and painting it. Nothing else. 

Next Time

No idea. Something not immediately related to Cadians I suspect... 
 

Slacking in my absence?

 Not at all. Just making such slow progress on so many projects, and forgetting to take photos at club days, have left me somewhat bereft of content of late. 

But the weather's been terrible so a bit of a catchup on things that were waiting to be done has been done. First off, I finished my Rough Riders: 

Blogger Pelarel came through at the right moment with some new Cadian transfers that fitted the much less impressive pauldrons of the Rough Riders! 

I also made some progress on the Green Machine:  

  

 She doesn't have a moniker yet but it's been a great project to work on so far. I've got a bunch of detailing to do and then some monstrous tiger stripes but she's coming along an, honestly, it's almost good enough to go on the park in this state, which I'm pleased about. 

 I've also finished up painting way too many 15mm Fallschirmjager and started getting my Early War Germans ready for the table by sticking Balkenkreuzes to every surface known to man. A little more work to do getting the tank numbering working and then a little bonus project to find a way to make removable demolition charges for my Panzer Is when they go out in support of EW Leichte Pioneers which, with the new mission book finally out, might be a goer....

 Next Time

Club Day in which the Baneblade will get her third outing...

A brand new American (?) army...

I've been AWOL for a couple of weeks - the painting journey has been ongoing but she's also been slow going. 

But I have been making progress on my force for the Flames of War event at this years annual club competition. The genesis of the whole thing was a pair of M8 Greyhounds, messing about in my collection of Germans. 

I was given these by Blogger Pooch at some stage in the dim dark past when rthe 4e Bulge book dropped: 

They've been sitting around painted for a while and I'd never really thought about whether or not the 150 Panzerbrigade force in the Bulge book was worth trying. Given we're taking on an infantry-forward, armour limited set of restrictions on the list build, now seemed like the time! 

So I decided to crack on and paint a couple of new infantry platoons and give my only other late-war German infantry a bit of a facelift!  First off, a platoon of Fallschirmjager:

 

They're a mix of Assault Rifle and Rifle FJ so they can run in DDay and in Berlin just as easily. I didn't feel like painting umpteen different platoons so just munged all this together. 

 

Then I zhuzhed my old tank rider platoon and gave it a repaint and rebase. They've been knocked around a bit over the years but they came up well:

 

 

In this list, they'll be playing the part of a platoon of Volksgrenadiers, mostly to get a couple more cheap Panzerfausts on the park. Then, the only artillery support I'm taking for the event, some 12cm mortars: 

 

 I didn't have room for an OP so I'm either going to have to hang them out in the wind or use the M8s to do a bit of sneaky spotting. Finally, I'll be taking some *cough* M7 Priests *cough:   

 

 I'll be running all the 150 Panzerbrigade nonsense for the event. It's had one test game so far and when some Finns took a look at the M8s and wondered what those Americans were doing there, I was sold!

 

Next Time

More FJ I hope. Then the army will be done and I can go back to working on my EW Germans!   

Kleine Panzertruppe!

 My EW Germans press on! I've finished painting all the tanks (well, I think I have a spare Panzer I that'll get painted for use in my Leichte Pionier Kompanie and a couple of Panzer IIs that, if I can find a third one, will get repainted for some LW Berlin stupidity) and so, aside from crew for the SPGs, this army is close to done! I'm pretty happy with how it's come out and especially with the brown stripes. It's a little bit over the top but it shows up, which I think is the most important thing! 

Leichte Panzers first - I've always enjoyed the mix of Panzer I and Panzer II and the new v4 book offering up the option of Panzer 38(t) and Panzer I has me also weirdly enthused. These platoons, along with the 4-tank HQ, are there to be a hard-to-stop assault force given that they're not really that much chop as anti-tank weapons! 

 

The 8-rads aren't in the core list at this stage, they're just too pricey but then they are nearly tanks after all.  

Mittlere Panzers second - I wasn't going to leave a platoon of Panzer IIIs out - they're iconic, provide some more mid-range AT and can see off many of the things they're likely to run into in the wild. 

 

Self Propelled Guns - the Panzerjagers are just necessary in EW given the paucity of affordable mid-range AT otherwise. I've done a bit of foliaging as they are, after all, ambush weapons! 

 

I've definitely been hit or miss with the army building in V4 (love the freedom, miss some of the more difficult choices and hilarious builds) but I do appreciate being able to get my Entes into this list. One, for some artillery support and two, because it's still AT7 and FP 1+!  

Un-self Propelled Gun? Yeah.  Gotta have the requisite 88. This one (and it's pair, still in the box) are cobbled together from a pair of BF scenic objectives and a bunch of old gun crews. They're Luftwaffe (because of the lack of gun shield, among other things) and they're pointed just perfectly to slot into the army. 

 

 I think I've cracked the marking plan but that's a whole pile of effort I'm not ready for yet so that'll happen some time in the next couple of weeks alongside the gun crews. Probably once I book in a game to get them on the table! 

Next Time

Some club day goodness. Not sure what that'll be at this stage.   

Scaling back after the Baneblade...

 Slowly working through lots of things on the desk to make room for the rejuvanation of the last of my Late War Germans in advance of a local Flames competition in May. 

 First, some Panzer IIIs for my EW Germans: 

Markings are still to do, but we'll get there. I'm having a bit of a think about how I want to do that still.  

I had 4 8-rads in my EW collection and I'm unlikely to ever use all of them so I decided a couple could be redone in dunkelgelb:

 

This has opened up the hilarious proposition of doing KG Graebner from the LW Bulge book, a list I never got around to in FoW 3E. I have looked at it in Forces and it might be hilariously terrible. 

I've also getting started on list building for the competition in May and so I'm painting a platoon of Fallschirmjager - I started with the CO and 2iC bases that I could make up from the blister as a test of painting camo smocks: 

 

They're cool. The camo is quite loud in person, but I think it works well in 15mm at tabletop scale. They open up a number of list options for the comp as well as a number for me generally that I haven't been able to run, especially now that LW Dynamic Points have made the D-Day FallschirmStuGs a much more interesting list than it was. 

Next Time

More random stuff, I expect....  

IT IS THE BANEBLADE

My 3D print parts arrived over the weekend so I have enjoyed the satisfaction of finishing the Baneblade build so here she is:

 

The 3D print parts were to turn the a four-sponson build into a two-sponson build with double the guns. The key parts were the quad-heavy flamers and the double mount for the lascannon. I hadn't been able to preview the flamer parts in the STL and, in person, I did not love them. So, some aggressive filing and chopping later and the four GW flamers were trimmed down to fit into the gunshields from the 3D print kit. I played around with the GW kit mounts but decided I liked this one better. 

 There's still a bit of filling to do around the seams on the sponsons but I'll let all the glue on the heavy flamers cure properly and get the sponsons completely assembled before I do that. 

But I tell you something for nothing, she looks SO DAMN COOL. The kitbashed heavy flamers have given me the look I wanted (looking not dissimilar to a Hurricane Bolter) and the double lascannons look badass. 

 Fingers crossed (and a bit of dedicated painting time) I'll get this Guard army ready to go at a club day in March. 

Next Time
Some more Early War armour, finished Rough Riders and some WIP of the Baneblade... 

Going back in time?

 I decided to take a break from painting horses for the far future (because the horse is still a fine weapon in the 41st Millennium) and start clearing the decks so I can get to work on my secret tech for this year's club competition for Flames of War. The assembly is underway but until I've made some serious progress, you're unlikely to find out what that secret tech is... 

So in an effort to make room for the prep to begin, I needed to move the EW from the staging place next to my painting desk to my ACTUAL painting desk. Painting EW armour isn't especially difficult so I thought I should just crack on, platoon by platoon, until it's done. 

This is my Leichte Panzerkompanie HQ - a Panzerbefehlswagen, a Panzer I and two Panzer IICs. Excepting the Panzer IIICs, the rest of the army is either Panzer I or Panzer II hulls. Anything else would be fundamentally incorrect!  

They all still need markings and I think I know what I want to do given that markings in the invasion of France are kind of all over the shop. I'll do that once the army is done so that it's all vaguely coherent.  I am still tempted to put some foliage on them but I'm currently resisting the urge as anti-air defences were simply not a problem the Germans were faced with in this part of the war so that might get left for the Panzerjager Is, the PaK36s and the recce troops. 

I also decided I should paint a gun so herewith my first Luftwaffe 88: 

I have a pair of these, cobbled together from BF scenic objectives.  I appreciate how much more detail there is on the base! 

Next Time

More Early War? Maybe my finished Rough Riders? Maybe the finished Baneblade? Maybe what happens when my ADLG Minoans take on the might of Scotty's Warring States Chinese?  Some or all of that. 

Large lads!

 So while I'm waiting for my 3D print sponsons to get done so I can finish building (and thus paint) the Baneblade, I'm clearing the decks of the other Guard things I need to do. 

 First, moar beef. I picked up a second trio of Bullgryns after the new Guard detachment allows you to throw a Commisar into the squad. The whole image is slightly comedic (and feels a bit circus-conductor-y) but I think they'l lbe a fun squad to run.  

 

Second, I have completed half my Rough Riders. Being able to smash through three at once was quite pleasing and the fact that they've quietly come together as a squad in terms of how they look has made me super happy. 

 

It's a nice encouraging place to be to push through the last five and then have a bit of a think about how they're going to be decorated with decals to finish the whole squad off once they're done.  

Next Time

Potentially taking the Guard out for a run if I can line things up and doing some prep work for my secret tech for this year's club Flames of War competition.   

Tercios and their use in Renaissance warfare...

...or how, honestly, not to do it? 

 

 So I broke out my Early Spanish Colonial against blogger Scotty's Gustavan Swedish for a game of ADLG-R. This game has been a long time coming and finally getting those Tercios done over the Christmas break meant we could finally have it!  

This is where we started - Scotty looking to get into my refused centre and me looking to sneak around his right flank. The Tercios deployed in their traditional triangle formation pointed at the enemy but the much more rapid Swedes came on at pace. 

You can tell it was a good game when I utterly forgot to take enough pictures until we ended the game! Roughly, Scotty turned my left flank which left me dangerously exposed (enough to charge a Colour Regiment in the front with Gendarmes to stop them turning the flank of a Tercio!) but my light horse kept me in the game doing sterling work dinging up cavalry enough that I shot one off the board with heavy artillery. 

In the centre, the Tercios ground into some Colour Regiments because I was a little too hesitant and unsure of how well they could take artillery. Turns out, well enough. I was lucky to fight two Colour Regiments one-on-one and the power of the Tercio bore out as they made it through the devastating charge potential of the Swedish infantry. 

On my right, a stalemate between two Colour Regiments and my Landsknechts who, supported ably by some caracoling Reiters (who never got to shoot!) and some cavalry held on until a Tercio powered into the flank of a Colour Regiment and saved the day although with no way to stop the cheeky Dragoon who ran through a marsh and sacked my baggage!  

So here's where we finished up:

  

Scotty sacked my camp a turn before I got to his and  I broke. I had one round to finish off two of the Colour Regiments and ding one up a couple of other things to salvage a draw but in the end it was 22 - 19 (I broke on 19, Scotty on 20!) and a thoroughly good game! 

Do I like Tercios? Yes. Are they good? Maybe. In period, I can see they'd be devastating. I definitely wasn't aggressive enough with them and, faced with charging infantry like Scotty's, they didn't really shoot much of anything or take advantage of their weird, multi-sided nature.  

They're very slow and very tough and in this game, a musing Scotty and I had had during the week that if he could win big on a charge with his Salvo infantry he could beat me one-on-one but if he didn't, I'd grind him into paste, definitely proved to be true. And grind is the operative word - we had the same with the Landsknecht Kiel in a shoving match with a Colour Regiment that took me the whole game to win! 

And a couple of things off the modelling bench:  

Flames of War 

In the absence of some 2pdrs for my MW Pacific Australians, I present their air support:  

 

This is Alice, a PBY Consolidated Catalina flying boat and one of my favourite aircraft of the war. She's the right scale for Flames and is so much more fun than a couple of Kittyhawks.  I don't quite have a full set of markings but getting some RAAF roundels was what was needed to at least get her to a point where I'm happy to have her on table. 

Warhammer 40K 

I've also got on and finished another Rough Rider, and started three more, so they're moving along now I'm happy with the palette and the technique:

 The random pop of orange or green, depending on lancehead type and my predilection for painting melta bombs in orange (maybe a nod to the original Space Crusade? I can't remember...) kind of makes me smile against the relatively muted background. There's a lot more khaki than my regular Cadians but that's part of the charm.  

Next Time

Rough Riders and maybe some more Early War Germans...