Konflikt 47: Rounding Out My US Army Platoon

The block of troops I got painted up in March gave my US platoon a solid foundation to build on and adding in the Sherman-T and a Coyote boosted it to a respectable sized force.  Since the average size game locally is 1000 points I went through my list to see what holes they might have on the battlefield and did my best to find solutions to what they were missing.  Surprisingly enough I was able to finish my force out by just adding six minis and all I had to do was pick up a couple of weapon sprues to finish them off.

One of the things that I noticed in my first game was the lack of any antitank weapons in my force.  Our game was very small (only 500 points each). Even so my opponent had a scout car and the only thing that I had that could even attempt to get through its armor at range was my Coyote.  Compared to the four panzerfausts he had running around the board I really didn't like my chances.  To try to offset this I decided that I had to add a couple of bazooka teams.  While these are dedicated tank hunters, their range isn't bad and it forces my opponent to deal with these two serious threats to any armor he might be fielding.  Combined with the Sherman T this means there are three units on the board that have solid armor piercing capabilities which should give me some good tactical options as well.

For my final choice I decided to take an artillery forward observer.  My first game I had also faced a German air force forward observer and while I can see how it could have gone very, very badly for me, the dice were thankfully on my side for that game.  One of the things that struck me as a possible weakness was just the potential for enemy flak to stop the attack.  I have no idea at this point if that is really a concern (heck, maybe no one around here plays with enough flak to be an issue...) but I decided at least for now to work around the problem by trying the artillery instead.  Only time will tell if it is a good choice but I'm eager to give it a try.

As for when that's going to happen, I'm thinking that I'll going to try to get in a game in the next week using some proxy minis for my new additions.  The online store that I have been trying out unfortunately told me eight days after I placed the order that they couldn't fill it.  I looked at the Warlord store and surprisingly enough I was able to find the sprues for about the same price and with free shipping.  It will potentially take a few weeks to get here but then again the online store that I was trying out isn't much better as far as how fast they fulfill their orders.  It'll be proxies until they arrive but I'm okay with that.

Frostgrave: Homemade Treasure Tokens

My daughter and I have been taking part in a Frostgrave campaign for a while now though I haven't said too much about it.  We both have really been having fun with it and we've slowly been working on expanding our warbands.  When I first started playing I was using glass beads to represent treasure but I decided I needed to make some actual tokens instead.  Here's the result of my first attempt.

Your typical assortment of fantasy treasure items... plus a keg of ale.

The stack of coins and the treasure chest are Hirst Arts pieces I grabbed from eBay and painted up while the other three are scratch built. Nothing too fancy but I really like how they pop on the table.  These were done when I had first gotten into the game but since my daughter started playing as well I decided to make another set that were themed for my second warband which is led by a goblin witch.

My gobbo assortment of treasure items; 'shrooms and yummy spider bits!

This set were a lot of fun to make and I really like seeing them on the table.  The two groups of mushrooms are made from epoxy while the dead spider is a Halloween party favor, all hot glued onto some bases.  Of course once I'd done these I was itching to make some more, especially for my daughter's werewolf warband. After all, everybody loves bacon, right?

The other white meat.

These were some HO scale pigs I'd picked up for a Battlefield Evolution scenario I was going to run years ago.  I'd based some on washers but never actually done anything with them until now.  Some epoxy on the base, a quick coat of paint plus a wash and voila!  Instant pigs!  I'm particularly happy with how the snow came out.  I don't have any snow for basing so I just painted the base with brown and then dabbled on the white paint to create a patchy effect.  I'm also going to make her another one that is just a pile of bacon for a special treasure token but I haven't had a chance to put it together yet.  We have Frostgrave this weekend so I'll have to see what I can do to remedy that this week.  And maybe I'll even try to get some pictures of the game.  It's been a while since I've done a battle report but we'll just have to see how many players so up on Saturday.

Konflikt 47: Finished... And Based Even!

I didn't manage to finish my army by the end of the month... instead I finished it on the 3rd of this month..  Still pretty happy with that progress as I really didn't think that I was going to get them all done so quickly.  They are only painted to table top quality but it works for now.  I'll probably go back and add more details as time goes on but my primary goal for now was to have a painted army to field.

 

My US Army platoon in all its glory.

Something that I did pick up that I was really impressed with was one of the shades from Games Workshop, something camoshade?  Don't have the bottle in front of me but basically its their green shade and it works amazing!  It really gave some nice depth to their uniforms without muddying things up and I love how the Tesla Sherman came out.  Very subtle difference but enough to really make it pop.

 

Sherman with a zap gun!

I also grabbed a pot of the Reikland flesh shade but I'm less impressed with this one.  If anything it seemed like it was just too thin for what I was using it for (flesh tones... go figure) but I'm sure I'll give it another go in the future.

 

The question now is where do I go from here?  Currently I'm at just under 650 points painted and ready to go so I'm looking at expanding to a full 1000 point list since that seems to be the standard locally.  My first addition is going to be the Coyote light walker.  I had tried fielding one in my first game and it while it wasn't great (stupid panzerfausts...) but I can definitely see the potential.  Equipped with both an HMG and an MMG, it can function as an armored version of either of those weapon teams.  It doesn't get the re-rolls that they have, but it is able to move and fire plus even just its advance is faster than walking troops.  Adding the armor into the equation and it just makes sense to me since it is only an extra 19 points above the veteran HMG team... plus the model is so cool!  That's always good reason, right?  It will take up an armored car slot but I still think that it will be a strong addition.

 

Beyond that I really think that I need to focus on getting some antitank weapons onto the field.  Currently the only thing that I have that can really threaten armored units is the Tesla Sherman which is potentially putting all of my eggs in one basket.  I could go for an antitank gun but I'd rather have something a little more mobile so I really think that a couple of bazooka teams will be my best option.  I was sorely tempted by the heavy bazooka team with their heavy armor but they are very expensive.  I know that I'll get some eventually (especially since I want to assemble a heavy armor platoon next) but for this list in think that a couple of regular bazooka teams will fit nicely.  This gives me three tools to use against enemy armor which not only gives me more options but also gives my opponent more targets to focus on which should increase their overall survivability.  Sounds good in theory, now I'll just have to see how it plays out in practice.