Week In Review: Wait... Where Did The Weeks Go?!?

So as I previously mentioned, there had been a lot of packing as I moved back home for a few weeks.  On top of that was a ton of driving with me heading down to Boston one day, back to home the next, then back again, then home again... So much driving! On top of that, there has been snow storms, birthdays, medical things... it truly has been interesting times!  That said, I have been able to squeeze in a tiny bit of hobby so let's take a look!

Eastern Reinforcements From The West!

I picked up the last of the vehicles that I need for the 12th Company... a GAZ-AAA from Rubicon Models!

Yay for generic box art photos... since I threw my box away too soon.  Whoops!

Now for those of you with some knowledge of WWII (which didn't include me until recently BTW), the GAZ is a truck that was built by the Soviets which means it's in entirely the wrong theater for me to include with the 12th, right?

Nope.

The GAZ-AA is actually a version of the Ford Model AA that was licensed to the Soviets by Ford motor company.  Besides the USSR, the Model AA was also produced in other European countries including France.  So yes, in this case, I can field a GAZ-AA... I just decided to go with the Rule of Cool and slap the extra set of wheels on it as well.  The rivet counters are just gonna have to deal with it.

This was also the first Rubicon model that I've purchased and overall it's pretty nice.  There is a bit more detail than you typically find on Bolt Action models, plus their range actually covers more vehicles as plastic kits.  In fact, the only downside that I could find was gluing them together.  All I had on hand was Testors glue in the blue bottle.  This works great for Warlord stuff but Rubicon... not so much.  It still works, but the time that it takes to get a solid bond is much longer. Once I realized the issue I did a search to see if this was just me or if this is just something I'd not realized. Apparently Tamiya plastic glue is the recommended type, so I'll have to try to get some of that in the future.  As it was I made it work with the Testors with only a minimal amount of swearing so that seems like a win.

And with the Ford assembled, it also means that I have all the vehicles I need for the 12th to be fully mechanized and ready to go!

My motley mechanized force. Can't wait to finish painting them up!

I have no idea how this motley assortment will fare but even unpainted I love the feel that it gives.  The two trucks have MMGs attached to their roofs like they were pressed into service, and I swapped out the MMG on the from of the Hano for an HMG more fitting for the US M3.  I'm hoping that I can start painting them this weekend, plus I still need to make sure that I have all my ground pounders sorted as well.

The Building of Decks And More!

Other than picking up and starting to assemble the GAZ, there hasn't been any mini related progress.  There were boardgames though!  Dominion, Trash Pandas, Radlands, Splendor, Clank! Acquisitions Inc... so many games which has shot me up to 35 games this year!  Soooo much better than last year and the best part is the time that I've been able to spend with friends and family.

And that has been about it! I will be heading back out to the field soon which will in theory mean more time for hobby, but I'm starting college a week after that so... yeah, more interesting times. Still, I want to focus my hobby more while I am away so I'm going to narrow down the things that I bring down to work on. Variety is good, but too many options mean nothing gets done. I have some ideas that I want to try out for Core Space, plus I have all those minis that I painted! I also picked up the Outlands Delta Garrison terrain set from Battle Systems which I think will add some interesting variety to what I already have for Core Space. Oh, and there's a dragon that I want to paint. Until next time...

Week In Review: Hanos And Heroes!

Things happened this week!  In fact, I even managed to play a game!  Shocking, right?  So without ado, let's dive right in!

Harry the Hanomag

The first bit wasn't painting but it's a step forward for the 12th Company!  Introducing their captured half-track, Harry the Hanomag!

Going with my theme for the 12th Company, I had to include a Hanomag in their force.  I have always loved the look of the Sd.Kfz 251 and this is perfect excuse to put one into my army.  In this case, it will be as counts as M3 since the stats for the two vehicles are very similar but it will still let me run with the German version.  This leaves me with one more vehicle to buy but I've already got my eye on one that will give the 12th a wonderfully ragtag look that I am going for.  More on that soon, plus it's time for me to get to painting these guys!

Daqan vs Latari in Song of Blades and Heroes

Next I finished painting that one dude I needed for the Daqan force so it was time to dust off Song of Blades and give it a go again.  I stated up the two forces, set up a table, and away I went!

On the Daqan side, we have three Outland scouts, two crossbowmen, and a single spearman.  This gives the Daqan a good variety of units; the scouts are light while the crossbowmen and spearman both have heavier armor.  Not necessarily that relevant in SoBH given the high level view the system takes of things but I think I was able to capture the different feel of them?  Maybe?

Meanwhile, on the Latari side there are a whole two swordsmen and two bowmen.  That's it.  Nothing else.  When I did their stats I gave them all Forester but... yeah, we'll see how that plays out.

So with the forces set, it was time to hit the table!

For this battle, I decided to just go with a basic meeting engagement; two forces are walking through the countryside and stumble into each other.  Obviously, only one of them can leave here alive.

So... I actually did play through almost the whole game.  I even took pictures of each figures actions going back and forth across the table.  It sounds great, right?  Unfortunately it wasn't.  The lack of any real forests meant that those points were wasted on the Latari and left them at a numerical disadvantage.  Add that to a bunch of horrible dice rolls... yeah.  Back to the drawing board.

The Forester ability isn't worth the points sink that it became and I think that the Latari needed a bump to the Quality.  I had them at Q3+ but I want to kick them up to Q2+.  This will still leave them at disadvantage but the high Quality should help to balance it out better.

And... yeah, that's about it really.  I've been recalled for a few weeks so this week will be focused on packing and moving.  Hopefully there will be some mini time in there as well but... just gonna have to see how this plays out.  Fingers crossed!  Until next time...

Week In Review: Frosty 12th Heroes!

This week I managed to finish up a project that I've been working on for a while now.  It started as something simple and then... yeah, I might have gotten carried away but I'm really pleased with how it turned out.  What is it?  Let's find out!

Auril the Frostmaiden

Yep, that's right.  It's another Auril, but this time I think that she is a bit more impressive.  Here she is in all three forms.

These are a set of figures that I purchased on Etsy from Light And Luck Minis, and they did a really good job with this.  Nice and clean prints with very good detail as well.  The biggest difference between this set and the official set is... well, they're bigger!  The third form on the right is mounted on a 25mm base but the first two forms are both on 40mm bases.  This technically puts them out of the medium size category but it's still shy of the large so hopefully it works out for my friend.

Of course since I painted up this special set of minis I decided that I needed to make a box to put them in as well.  I could have just gone with a plain old box but what fun would that be?  Time to get creative with foamcore and hot glue!

I used the glue on the foamcore to give the box a frozen look to it, which I tried to emphasis with the blue white paint scheme.  My daughter suggested putting the window in the top, and I love how the frosting effect turned out to make them look like they are inside a block of ice.

The cover goes almost the full depth of the bottom and I lined it with some white felt as well.  This should protect the icy detail that I did on the bottom plus it gives the box a bit of friction so the bottom doesn't just fall out.

I've been working on this project for a while so it's good to see it finally complete.  On to more projects!

Daqan Knights for Song of Blades and Heroes

With my elves done, I pushed on to get my Daqan knight troops done as well.  First up was one of the missing crossbowmen.

I didn't write down my process on this one so I was kind of winging it, but I think I am close enough to have it consistent.  I did decide to paint the helmet and torso armor as well, which I hadn't done with the spearmen but I really like how it makes the figure pop.  In fact, I liked it so much that I touched up one of the spearmen so that it would match.

This change will help to tie them together and gives them a more finished look.

The other troops for this little force will be the Outland scouts that I already painted up.

When I looked at the artwork later, I realized that they did the chest armor as metal instead of leather, but I like the hardened leather look.  Not sure if I'll do the rest of them with leather, but I'm happy with these guys so far.  Once I finish up the one remaining crossbowman then it will be time to get back to some Songs!

The 12th Company for Bolt Action

The date for the upcoming Bolt Action event was finally announced so it's high time for me to start working on the 12th company again!  To that end, I decided that I needed to dirty up the Opel Blitz that I'd already painted.

A little bit of rust and a lot more dirt, and I like how worn it looks.  I still need to mount a machine gun at the front of the bed, but that should be a quick addition.  For vehicles I still need to pick up another truck and I'd really like to grab an SdKhz 251 instead of just running the regular M3 half-track.  It's not essential, but I love the idea.

And that was it for this past week.  Things are going to be getting... interesting... as well.  Shorter week for me this week, plus I'm looking to come home from the field for a couple of weeks to help with a project at the office.  Perfect timing since I just got my hotel work station set up just the way that I want.  LOL.  Is what it is, right?  Until next time...

Bolt Action: The Making of the 12th Mechanized Infantry Platoon

After more list building, I figured out a 750 Bolt Action list that I think will be fun to play without being cheesy at all.  The core that drove the shape of this force is the story that I came up with.

The 12th mechanized platoon is one of the units involved in the push through occupied France in1943.  As they went deeper into enemy held territory, the unit came under fire and lost their transports but were able to capture German vehicles and continued to push forward.

Is this historically accurate in anyway?  No idea.  I did some cursory research for to figure out a time and location but the rest of it I made up on the fly.  I might flesh it out more as I build the unit, but for now this gives me a solid framework to hang my concept from.

I also started working on the new paint scheme and so far, I'm really pleased with it.

The base is Vallejo US Army olive drab primer which I then hit with Citadel Agrax Earthshade to give it some depth.  Once this was dried, I tried to pick out the raised areas with some P3 Traitor Green to give it a little more depth.

Rather than leaving the helmet the same color, I painted these with P3 Thornwood Green to make them slightly darker, and I also hit the handle of the shovel with the same color just to mix things up.  Next came the brown pants, in this case P3 Gun Corps Brown and the shoes which are P3 Bootstrap Leather.  Once these were both dried, I went over them both with a shade of Citadel Seraphim Sepia.

The last step (so far) was some Citadel Rhinox Hide for the weapons.  I'll probably go back and pick out some of the hardware on with Citadel Abaddon Black eventually, but for now the Rhinox Hide is so dark it might not even show.

Once this was all dried, I coated them with Vallejo Matt Varnish to give them a bit of protection.  Then it was time to finish dressing up the bases, which in this case just meant painting the edge with Abaddon Black to give it a more finished look.  Once this was sealed as well, I took a white ballpoint and wrote BAR on the appropriate soldier to make it easier for me to see who has what.  I'm going to do this with the NCO's as well.  The labeling is only on my side so it doesn't disrupt the visual of the mini too much when you are looking from the front

There is still more to do with the 12 Platoon but I like how they are starting out.  The details that I added are nothing major but I like how they break up the solid green uniform and make them a little more interesting to look at.

I'm also taking a different approach to how I am painting them by only doing them one at a time.  Typically I would try to do blocks of troops but I'm really liking this approach more for some reason.  I'm also trying to mix up the skin tones a bit as well, instead of the ghostly white that I'd originally used.

Next will be more of the troops for the 12th, plus the first of their captured vehicles should be arriving this week, a Warlord Games Opel Blitz.  And I've also started some work on a couple of old Vor the Maelstrom Neo-Soviet rad troopers that I've been thinking of using for Zona Alfa.  Lots of fun stuff in the works and hopefully I can get back into my hobby streak by working through them one at a time.  Until next time...

Bolt Action: The Green Machine

I was planning on posting about the Green Machine before our Combat Patrol tournament but... better late than never!  See let's take a look at just what the Green Machine is and just how it did at the tourney.

A couple of weekends back, I was able to make some good headway assembling the minis I need to make the Green Machine a reality.  Thankfully I already have a good chunk of the minis on hand, but one of the things that I was lacking was a engineer squad... or more specifically, the flamethrower team that can be part of an engineer squad.

Yeah, it was that kind of list.

I did a bit of hunting around locally to see if I could find the flamethrower team mini in stock but no such luck.  Instead, I had to resort to bashing one together and overall I'm pretty pleased with the results.

In case you're wondering, Sparky is the one in the front to the right of center.

I'm the first to say that it's not perfect; the "flamethrower" should have a nozzle on it, not to mention the complete lack of a hose attaching the weapon to the fuel tanks.  That said, I'm quite pleased with the results and I was looking forward to terrorizing people... I mean, fielding this unit at the Combat Patrol game.

Along with the engineers, there was a 2nd LT with minder, three six man infantry squads (each with a BAR of course), a medium machine gun team, and Stewie (AKA an M3 Stuart light tank with LOTS of machine guns).  And since I was just looking for quantity over quality, everyone except the engineers and Stewie was inexperienced... hence the unit was "The Green Machine".

Brownie points if you've already noticed what I did with the paint scheme!

As the curveballs kept coming, I realized that I wouldn't be able to paint them up the way that I wanted so I did the next best thing; I painted all of them green.  Yep, the Green Machine went from being a Bolt Action army to being a bunch of plastic toy soldiers in a matter of minutes and it really made me happy.  People also got a kick out of it at the tourney which is a plus in my book.  I wasn't going into the event to be uber competitive, I just wanted to push around some minis a goal that I was able to achieve readily.

Doing even vaguely well in the ranking?  Not so much.

At the end of the day, I managed to lead Stewie, Sparky, and their buddies all the way to 12th place our of fourteen players!  What made it even better was I scored lucky 13 for my point total and I had a good time in the process.  There were a couple of "Really?" moments as one of the players introduced some house rules to the event but whatever; it was the last game of the day and I just wanted to kill stuff so I rolled with it.

So will Bolt Action possibly become a thing again for me?  Quite possibly.  My LGS will be hosting another event this fall and I want to try to field a real army for it.  Not real as in list building minutia but what that has a story behind it.  I'm thinking the mechanized platoon that I've always wanted to run, except I'm going to pick up a couple of SDKFZ's instead of using M3 half tracks.  I prefer the look of the SDKFZ, and I like the idea of a late war US force that was been pushing into German territory.  Their own vehicles were damaged or broke down so the did the next best thing; steal from the Germans!  Of course before I can do that, I need to buy the models which is all the more reason to pace things out.  I believe the earliest that they are looking at for the next event is September so I should be able to get some practice games in plus start making my minis look like a real army.  Until next time...

Random Updates: Curses! Foiled Again... Plus a Cyber Samurai!

Well, it looks like I might have to run Stewie and his green companions.  I was called out on a post for the event so it's time to take another look at the US list I was considering.  All in all, it is a very basic list.  An inexperienced 2nd LT with a minder, three inexperienced infantry units, and Stewie... plus a medium machine team and an engineer squad with two BARs and a flamethrower.

Yep, very basic.

To be fair, it wasn't this bad before.  I originally had just inexperienced squads with a bazooka, plus Stewie.  Then I saw that the engineers can take a flamethrower, and things quickly escalated.  Add another couple of BARs just to make them really ridiculous.  Drop the bazooka like a bad habit and slap in a cheap MMG...  It's so ridiculous that I really feel like I need to run it. LOL

And as for the Cyber Samurai... he would be another mini from BrushFu Studios.

The front view of the mostly finished cyber samurai... still need to finish up the base, plus add some other color to his right hand.

Very clean print that needed almost no clean up.  The only negative thing I can say about this mini is the sword was bent when I received it.  What's that?  Which sword?  Oh... the one that broke of when he did a kamikaze leap out of my fat fingers at the floor.

And the back view of the same.

Unfortunately the material was extremely thin and the floor won the day, but I still like how he looks.  I'd thought about clipping off the rest of the hilt, but it has a nice, ornate feel to it so I decided to leave it on instead.  What's it supposed to be?  Who knows, but it works for me!  Overall, another figure that I really recommend from BrushFu for the printing, and I'm looking forward to working my way through the rest of my order.  Until next time...

Bolt Action: The Return of Stewie... Or Is It?

I just found out that we are having another Bolt Action Combat Patrol tournament!  The one and only other time that we have played this format was waaaaaaay back in July 2019.  There was supposed to be another one last year but, well... COVID.

You know how it is.

Thankfully that is now somewhat in the rearview mirror (fingers crossed!!!) and we are getting together for another combat patrol!  I jokingly mentioned bringing Stewie and was told that people would be disappointed if he wasn't there so there you have it.  I started list building right away, working around Stewie as the center of the formation with a good sized number of supporting infantry.  This would let Stewie draw the heat while the infantry did their job.

This sounds great on paper and in thought, but I was having one problem with it; it felt really bland.

I like playing the US in Bolt Action, but they do have some limitations that I wish there was an easy way around.  The lack of an LMG in their formations has always seemed like a pretty serious handicap IMO, and the fact that the only anti-tank the US uses consistently is the bazooka.  Now this is historically accurate, I'm not questioning that, it's just from a playing prospective it doesn't feel like a lot of spice there to make things more interesting.

Days went by and people started asking if a tank of some kind would be common in such a small list, and one of the organizers immediately piped up that most people would most likely be fielding one.  Which got me to thinking, maybe I won't field any.

And thus the Die Panzerjager was born.

With grinding gears and screeching tires, I have decided to field a small force of German Grenadiers instead of dear old Stewie.  This force consists of one leutnaut with a minder, four six-man Heer grenadier squads, one chaplain, and one flamethrower team.  In addition, two of the grenadier squads are equipped with LMGs and all of the squads are carrying two single shot panzerfausts.

This is the concept sketch for my flammenwerfer 41.  I don't think I'll be able to order one and have it arrive in time so I'm just going to take a chance and sculpt my own!

This gives me two squads that can lay down nine shooting dice out to 24", another two that can lay down six shooting dice, plus the whole force has a total of eight single shot attacks against any vehicles I might encounter.  On top of that is the flamethrower team which I think will throw in a psychological effect beyond the damage it might be able to do, and the fact that no one would expect me to be fielding a completely different army.

How will it fare in the tourney?  No idea!  Heck, I don't even know if I'll be able to field the list since I won't get the minis until the 23rd and the tourney is on the 10th.  That gives me some time, but given how little hobby I've been able to squeeze in lately, it does leave me a little nervous.  Just to be on the safe side, I'm going to have the Green Machine available as well in case I need to do a last minute switch.  Fingers crossed I won't have to!  Until next time...

Random Update: Digging Out Yet Again!

It's been forever since I posted and longer since I've had a chance to hobby!  Argh!!!  I've been slowly making progress cleaning out my office/hobby space yet again so I should be able to start painting again soon.

Thankfully we have been more active with our board gaming recently though, largely because a friend of ours and his girlfriend have been coming over for game nights!  Been a ton of fun breaking out some games that haven't been touched in a while, plus we have been working our way through Betrayal Legacy!

So far we have finished six of the chapters (plus the prologue) and it has been so cool to see the story of the house take shape.  We enjoyed the original but this really makes the whole thing a more organic experience that has been a blast.  There are also aspects that have been added to the game which are providing some cool twists.  For example, as you draw items you might have the option to make them heirlooms for your family which gives you a bonus when you use them.  Then there are background cards that you draw right at the beginning of the game that give your character a unique bonus.  Maybe you are a war veteran, an occultist, or well-to-do.  All of these add to the flavor of the game and more are being added as the story continues.  I can't wait to see what other twists and turns we will run into as we try to unlock all the secrets the house holds, the trick will just be working out way through it before the end of the month.  I see some marathon Betrayal sessions in my future!

I'm also very slowly making some headway with a short campaign using the Frostgrave rules to explore a desert wasteland looking for an ancient treasure.  My daughter and I will be playing this one but I want to incorporate some cooperative elements to it as well.  The wastes are a harsh land after all, and sometimes you need all the help you can get just to survive.

Here is the board for our first scenario, still in progress at the moment.

We talked about incorporating clue markers into this adventure to represent us searching for information to figure out where the final location is, the idea being whoever finds the most clues gets to decide what the next scenario will be.  She likes the idea and I think it will be fun to craft our own campaign story together.

And last but not least, I was able to meet up with a friend of mine at our LGS and play a game of Bolt Action.  I'll admit that Bolt Action isn't my favorite game (I blame Antares for this even though I haven't played it against a live opponent) but it was great to hang out with him and push around some minis.  Of course hilarity ensued as well, with both of us taking a bunch of inexperienced troops and I just had to squeeze Stewie into my force too.  Lots of fun but I think the best moments were when my lieutenant and his minder walked onto the board next to my friends mortar team and gunned them down.  This was followed by the same dastardly duo spraying the truck my target was hiding inside, only to have it go up in flames and letting me pull out a draw on the last turn.  Pure action movie stuff!

Hopefully I can squeeze in some more cleaning this weekend so I can finally get back to painting again.  Wish me luck!  Until next time...

Bolt Action AAR: Spinner and Dinner Bolt Action Event

As I mentioned, we had a special Bolt Action event this past weekend for my friend who is moving out West.  I had no idea what to expect but I really wasn't expected a massive 4 v 4 game on a 12' x 4' table.  It was AMAZING!!!

The view looking west down the table...

...and the view back to the east.

The table was a beautiful set up with lots of interesting terrain for us to deal with.  As luck would have it, I was on the same side as my friend Matt and paired myself off against my friend Chad, the organizer of this and most of the other BA events at the Greenhouse Games.

My fiend Chad pretending he's a pirate as he looks for a target.

To try to put some order on the chaos of having eight players, there were sixteen order dice put into the bag, eight for each side.  When a side's order die was drawn, all the players for that side of the table would active a unit and mark it with their own order dice.  If a player lost a unit and dropped below the eight we started with, then they had a pass they could use instead of activating a unit.  A really elegant way to handle the situation and the game really moved fast, especially on the first couple of turns.

The Big Cheese rolls onto the board, attacks its first victim... and rolls a 1.

There were also four objectives along the length of the board.  The building up on the hill in the above picture was one of them, along with some drums of defective super serum next to a barn, a mule leading an animal uprising by the farm, and a spire in the town square.  Controlling these objectives at the end of the turn would give the side one point for each.  As an added twist, each side also got one of eight special "power ups" the first turn they held an objective.

With my infantry sprinting across the board, I managed to get into the barn next to the serum and pulled the first special power...

It says "Traitor" even though it looks like "Traπoc"

With this power, I rolled a die (in this case a d42 due to casualties the other side had suffered) and counted down the board to from east to west.  The unit that matched the number I rolled was now a dirty, stinking traitor.  Thanks for the flamethrower unit Chad!  Jumping out of their Bren carrier, they lit up a nearby Centurion that was threatening Matt's tank.  The flames didn't take out the tank but they add to the pins and helped keep them out of action for a bit.

I was also able to make ample use of my cheesy pin tokens.  The other side dropped an artillery strike right on top of the Big Cheese and would up putting pins on all of my troops except for the mortar team.

It's raining death... and cheese!

The crazy part was that with all of that death raining from the sky, not one of my units took a casualty!

By the end of the game, our opposition on the eastern side of the board had pretty much collapsed while the western edge was on its way to doing the same.  Big Cheese was the center of attention from Chad's forces which was perfect as it left most of my other units untouched and let Matt and I focus on mopping up the lighter units we were facing.  In short, our side dominated the game, giving Matt the send off that he deserves.

Matt's Afrika Korps storming the hill to take the shrine!

All in all, this was an amazing game and I loved the format.  The other BA games I've played have always been one on one but this larger game gives this great interactive dynamic that you just can't beat.  Chad really enjoyed running it and said he's going to try to put together another event like it soon which will be awesome!  Until next time...

Random Updates: A Bon Voyage With A Bang!

Today we are having a going away Bolt Action game day for my friend Matt.  He is heading west to enjoy the amazingly temperate weather of Arizona (slight bit of sarcasm... just checked the weather and it's 84 degrees out there at 6 in the morning).  For this game, the limits are 750 points and 8 order dice... and that's it.  As I mentioned before, I had to take the cheese road for this one and built my list around my brand new 395 point heavy tank, an M26 Pershing.

Yes, it's ridiculous.

For the rest of the list, I was going to field a 2nd Lieutenant with a meat shield... I mean assistant, two 6 man squads of regular infantry with two BARs in each, a regular medium mortar with a spotter, a regular medic, and two inexperienced MMG teams.

The only problem that really sticks out for me is those regular infantry squads are pretty small.  Their firepower is pretty good at 8 dice but I can see them getting broken pretty fast.  Hopefully keeping the medic close will help but I suppose only time will tell.  No idea what kind of scenarios we will be playing either so I think I'm just going to go for blowing stuff up instead of objectives.  I mean really, I've got a super-heavy anti-tank gun... what else am I supposed to do?  Fingers crossed and cannons loaded!  Until next time...

Workbench: More Terrain and More Cheese

Well, craziness for work has really pushed my release schedule off but I think that things are getting back to... "normal"?  Is that the right word?  Guess it'll have to do for now, but without further ado, let's take a look at what's on the workbench!

A couple of weekends back, I decided to pop into Michael's to see if there was anything cheap I could use for more terrain.  I feel like I'm making slow progress in that department but I really wanted something I could use to visually fill out the board more.  Luckily enough, they were running a 70% sale on spring floral so I grabbed a floral mat along with another 20 wooden discs for terrain basing.  A little bit of hot glue, some plants, add some fabric to cover the wood and bam!  Instant plant cover!

These pieces will work great for filler terrain on the larger discs plus I can use these as scatter terrain as well. Can't beat the price either; the mat was regularly $20 but 70% off knocks that down to $6 and I can make about 25 of these from the one mat.  Plus I like how they look together with the other terrain I have.

Here is a 2' x 4' section of table with most of the plant cover I have with me. A pretty good density overall and I'm liking the variety of plants too.  Gives it a nice organic look by not having to too structured.

In addition to this, I'm also working putting together some "buildings" that I have had lying around for years.  I'd seen these dirt cheap cups and bowls at Wally World back when I was demoing Starship Troopers for Mongoose Publishing.  I'd grabbed a bunch of them to use for some Skinnie structures but the bottom fell out of the game before I did anything with them.  Fast forward a decade or so and I've finally started working on them.

For now I have just painted them black so I can get them to the table.  Ultimately, there will either be a tan or grey dry-brushed onto them, and I still need to work out attaching some details to them but at the very least this gives me more terrain to put on the board for now.

And last but not least one of my friends is moving across the country but before he goes, we are having a Bolt Action tournament in his honor.  This one will be a more traditional 750 point list but it has to be exactly 8 order dice.  I'm sure there are plenty of viable options that can be fielded within the point limit but after the last tourney I just wanted more cheese.  In fact, let me introduce... the Big Cheese.

The core of this list will be an M26 Pershing heavy tank.  Yep, a heavy tank in a 750 point list.  In addition to the tank, there are the obligatory two six man late war squads with two BARs in each, a 2nd Lt with an assistant/bullet shield, a medic to patch the guys up as they get shot, a medium mortar team with a spotter to rain down on the enemy, and not one but two medium machine gun teams.

The real trick will be keeping the Pershing alive. Unlike Stewie, the Big Cheese is only rolling ten dice when I fire the MMGs but there is that super-heavy anti-tank gun that can seriously reach out and touch people.  Big Cheese is also more than half of my points so if someone gets lucky... game over, man... game over!

So why am I bringing such a ridiculous list to this tournament?  Well, I guess basically I feel the need to be a jerk, aka "That Guy".  Normally I am very easy going about gaming.  I spent a couple of years playing the Warmachine seasonal campaign which are basically tournaments and it just gets to be a drag.  I want to play for fun, something that I really struggled with at the BA Combat Patrol tournament.  I openly admit that I'm not strong on the rules for Bolt Action, but one of the "experienced" players I faced was making up rules and completely ignoring others, all the while really being an ass about it.  Honestly I was ready to just wash my hands and walk away, it was that frustrating for me.  So for me this tournament is about making things right.

I've been going over the rulebook and making notes of things that I wasn't aware of or that I know were just played straight up wrong, and I plan on slamming the rule book down on the table.  This will probably be the last Bolt Action game that I play but I'm going to make sure that I have a good time as I drive around the field with my ridiculous tank and blow the crap out of things.  Either way, I'll be sure to let you know how it goes.  Until next time...

Bolt Action AAR: Combat Patrol Tournament With Cheese

This past Saturday, I headed down to Greenhouse Games for their Inaugural Bolt Action Combat Patrol Tournament.  This event pitted eight players against each other over three rounds using a 450 point list.  Previous BA tournaments they have run were 750 points so dropping 300 points made for a very different list building experience.  In addition to the low points, there were also a couple of other limits just to keep the lists from being too crazy.

• maximum of 8 order dice
• no free units of any kind
• no weapons with HE 3" or HE 4"
• maximum of one flamethrower
• no vehicle-mounted flamethrowers
• maximum of three vehicles
• no vehicles with armor of 9 or higher
• no air force or artillery forward observers
• no captain or major

Nothing too extreme and it all really makes sense; this is supposed to be a combat patrol so it should be small forces of mostly infantry units.  To drive that point home even more, the two of the three scenarios in the tournament require you have infantry units to achieve their objectives.  All in all, a really good and balanced set up.

While I was researching units for my list (my experience with Bolt Action is still pretty limited), I stumbled across a unit that I believe was actually banned from other tournaments; the M3 Stuart.  Now anyone familiar with this tank might wonder why it would cause such consternation in the community.  It is a light armor with poor armor design, making it even more vulnerable to attacks from the sides and rear.  This is true, but the base design mounts a light AT gun, a coaxial MMG, and a hull-mounted MMG.  Still not horrible... but then you can give it recce, add a pair of hull mounted LMGs, and even add a pintle mounted MMG.  This means that this light tank is rolling 23 dice in one turn if it just fires its machine guns.

As luck would have it, I happened to have a Stuart that I had never assembled.  Given the low point limit, I was trying to find a light tank that I could fit into the list but there aren't a lot of other options for the US.  I thought about making it an M3A1 or M5A1, but the first couldn't have recce and the later had a gyro-stabilized AT gun which is a waste if you aren't taking a veteran.  So the only thing that made sense... the machine gun toting monster that is the M3.

I looked at other list options because this made Stewie take up a third of the points but nothing really jumped out at me.  I verified with the tourney organizers and they said it was okay, so machine gun monster it would be.

Now this is a lot of background but there's a reason.  The day of the competition, I was running the middle of the pack but had to leave because the whole thing was really running behind.  My parting gift?

Cheese pin markers for having the Cheesiest Army List of the day.  And I have to admit that this just made my day.  All thanks to good old Stewie, the biggest cheese of them all.  Until next time...

Workbench: Stewie, Objectives, and Ghar

This past weekend was a long weekend but that was family time.  Now that I'm back out for work though, I've been plugging away on a few projects.  I went overboard and brought a ton of stuff with me this time.  All of my paints, some Bolt Action to work on, all my Concord, Ghar, and Algoryn, and even a 4' x 4' table topper.  Yeah, things definitely escalated.

First and foremost is Stewie aka the M3 Stuart fielded by the US Army in WWII.  This is a light tank with the potential to mount a ridiculous number of machine guns.

All told, this tank can potentially roll 23 dice on an attack which is just silly.  Of course this is the reason that I've been assembling it.  This Saturday I'll be playing in a BA combat patrol tournament and Stewie might be part of my force.

For those that haven't heard of this format, it's a 450 point tournament with some special restrictions for balance.  There are three specific scenarios which focus on infantry units so the most appropriate thing to do would be focus on the foot sloggers and pass on the tank.  Unfortunately I like crazy lists so I decided that I needed to build the Stuart that I've had sitting around just in case I want to field it.  I'm still really on the fence about it but it is really tempted.  I'll have to see once I get closer to the event whether I go with the tactically sound choice or Stewie and the gang.

Besides making my tank, the scenarios also call for a number of objective markers.

Since I had the Stuart kit with me, I scrounged up the various leftover bits and pieces and cobbled together four markers for the tournament.  Nothing too fancy but I like how they came out.  I think it's a hold over from Frostgrave; making "treasure markers" is just fun to do.

I also decided to make a drone objective for Antares.  I have a couple of Virai drones that I can use but I like the idea of a crashed Concord style research drone.

For this I used a C3D1 general purpose drone but cut off the arms from the subverter matrix (I used these to make my custom batter drones for my C3).  This keeps its profile familiar but makes it different enough looking to stand out.



To make it a bit more functional, I also made a crash site and the drone won't be glued to its flight stand.  This will let me place it on the "crash site" until it is reactivated at which point it can be popped onto its stand as its escorted off the table.

Last but not least, I've also taken steps to base the first of my Ghar force, namely the command crawler and some of the battle suits.

I still need to finish the three last battle suits and dig out the outcasts to slap some paint on them, but I like how these are looking so far.  It's definitely been a busy but productive week, and hopefully I can keep that momentum going into next week!  Until next time...

Workbench: Painting Machine... Kind Of... Plus I-Sores, and Combat Patrol

I had planned on getting a battle report up this week but I'm thinking that it's going to be delayed until next week.  I've been busy getting some more paint onto my Ghar and I'm pretty happy with how they are progressing.

The command crawler is the piece that is the furthest along though the squad of suits that isn't too far behind.  I still haven't gone as far as weathering yet but I've been adding some details; purple for the plasma generators, red for the sensors, and some black to break up some of the bare metal.

Once I get the squad of suits detailed, I think I'll hit the outcasts and see what I can do with them.  I grabbed the wrong color wash for the skin tones but the one it grabbed seems like it might work out.  It'll be easier to tell how it's working once I use it on a whole mini and not just the small flesh details that are on the command crawler.

I also went through the rest of my Therian miniatures and found some more that I can use as proxies for Isorians.

This gives me even more options for the regular troops though I still need to work out how many points I'm up to now.  Unfortunately it didn't look like there was anything that would really pass for support weapons or drones but this is a good start.

And finally, I've decided to take part in a Bolt Action Combat Patrol tournament next month.  I'd never heard of this format but it is a three round tournament with secret objectives for additional victory points, and a force limit of 450 points.  I'm excited to give this a try though I'm finding myself torn.  I'd planned on playing this one choosing the best combination of units to achieve the objectives.  Actually apply tactics and such.  Then I saw the M3 Stuart and my mad scientist brain started kicking in.

The M3 Stuart is a light tank from the beginning of the war but it can also mount a ridiculous number of machine guns.  One coaxial MMG, one hull mounted MMG, two hull mounted LMGs, one pintle mounted MMG, all with a light anti-tank gun for the icing on top.  This means this tank can lay down 23 dice just for the machine guns on a Fire order.  It's also a third of the total points, has weak side and back armor, and makes some of the objectives impossible to achieve since that can only be done by infantry... but it's still really tempting!  We'll just have to see if sound reasoning wins the day or the desire for more dakka!  Until next time...

Workbench: Machine Guns, Crawlers, and Critters

After the Bolt Action games this past weekend, I decided I should break out some of the US troops that I have laying around waiting to be worked on.  The first ones I broke out just had to be my medium machine gun teams.

The US version of dakka dakka!

This was the first one that I did and primarily as a test for the basing but I like it.  Rather than having the whole team on one base, I decided to piece them out so that I can easily remove casualties.  The positioning of the ammo feeder and the gunner are a little fiddly but I'm going to finish off the other two like this as well.  Might even redo some of the completed weapons teams that I "inherited" but we'll have to see how inspired I get.

I also put in some more time with my Antares stuff, though not the stuff that I should really be working on.

So cool! Wasn't going to get one originally but I'm so glad I did!

I still have yet to finish painting my Algoryn troops but I've been drooling over the Ghar command crawler for a few weeks now so I just had to put it together.  This thing is a beast let me tell you.  Very nice model though; some mold lines but it was a pretty easy clean up and I can't wait to get some paint on it.  I need to do the Algoryn first though; really want to have both armies ready to field by the end of the month.

And last but not least I started basing some more of my sci-fi critters, by which I just mean gluing them to bases for now.

The space rhinos are gonna getcha!

I can't remember which toy line these came with but I've got about a dozen beasties like this that I picked up years ago.  I plan on painting these up and to use them for random fauna for Antares games but I'm thinking I can use them for Operation Last Train as well, provided I have enough of them of course.  I'll have to get some more glued up to see what I can do.

On top of all of that I also had my Wrath of Kings order show up from Miniature Market.  Now I have almost all the basic troops, leaders, and specialists for four of the five armies in the game.  Think I'm done for now since I still haven't played the game but I'm sure I'll be good for a bit.  There are the named character specialists and leaders but those have always been less of a priority to me.  At this point I know that I can pull out a couple of armies and play the game with someone without them having to buy into a new game, and I do like the minis so I'm sure I can find something to do with them.  Until next time...

Random Update: Bolt Action Game Day!

It's been more than a year but I finally had a chance to dust off my US troops for a game of Bolt Action this past weekend.  The last time I played was against a German force with a couple of tankettes and motorcycles so it made me really want to field a vehicle heavy force.  Given my models available this translated into two Sherman tanks with a Greyhound armored car supported by two platoons of largely inexperienced infantry.  Across the table was a human wave more commonly known as the Soviets.

The first of my armored units destoryed

Things seemed to start out well but my dice quickly went cold and my opponents didn't so within the first two turns all of my vehicles were flaming wrecks.  I tried to push on and actually almost managed to squeeze out a win since all I had to do was get to the top secret package in the middle of the table and run off the board and I almost made it!  One of the deciding moments was when the remnants of the squad that had the package FUBAR'd their command check and ran away from the nearest Soviet... which is just about what I wanted to do in the first place.  Unfortunately this was just far enough that I couldn't pass off the package as I was hoping to so that I could relay race it off the board but what can you do.

Quickly followed by the rest of my vehicles

Overall still a lot of fun and hopefully I can get to my LGS on a more regular basis to get more games in.  No painting this weekend but I'm hoping to finish off my Algoryn this week which means I'll actually have two armies to bring down to the store so maybe, just maybe I can get some others interested in Antares as well.  I chatted with the store owner about the game and he had positive things to say about the game but it just never caught on locally.  Still it can't hurt to see if I can drum up some interest and at the very least I've been enjoying building and painting the models.  Hopefully I can get another couple of people interested as well but we'll just have to see.

The Holy Rollers for Bolt Action

Earlier this month I took part in the 2nd annual Bass and Curry Bolt Action tournament at my LGS, Greenhouse Games. Since I've only ever played Konflikt 47 (and even then not much of it), I thought this would be an interesting event and give me a chance to get my head around the original game... not to mention it was part of a trade I made for a ridiculous number of painted US minis.

I'd been to the store often enough that I thought I had a good idea what they could field for terrain but I was really impressed by the six tables they laid out for the event.

From the Far East...

...to the snow fields of Russia...

...to the hedgerows of Western Europe, there was a great range of terrain types fight over.  Unfortunately luck of the draw meant that no one wound up playing on the snow board but all of the other boards had at least one game on them.

For this event, I threw together a list using Easyarmy.com which is a great resource for both Bolt Action and Konflikt 47 amongst other games.  I must admit that I had no idea what to expect so I went with a list that I was hoping would be able to effectively deal with a good range of different opponents.

Mobility was going to be the name of my game since I knew that the tournament would feature two different scenarios, breakout and sectors. By fielding two 6 man veteran squads, I could load both of them into my M3 to taxi them around quickly and provide some fire support. Next were two jeeps, one to carry my Chaplain (hence the Holy Rollers) and the other for my 2nd Lieutenant. Finally I put in a Sherman with a heavy AT gun and pintle mounted MMG. I felt like this was the riskiest part of the list since this put all my AT capabiliy into one unit but I was hoping it's armor would be enough to keep it alive.

 

For my first game I was paired off against Cameron, one of the various Soviet hordes at the event on the hill table.  I believe that the other lists fielded at least some cavalry but he decided to go with lots of troops, and a T-34.

 

 

This was an intense but fun game as things really went back and forth between the two armies.  The T-34 got my fully loaded M3 in its sights early in the game but my veteran soldiers were able to withstand even its withering hail of machine gun fire.  I thought my Sherman was doomed shortly after that as an inexperienced mob of tank hunters charged it but the dice gods were kind; not only did it survive unscathed but it was able to decimate the unit the following turn as I opened up with all the machine guns!  Ultimately we fought each other to a draw by victory conditions but Cameron scraped out the win based on casualties.

 

My second game was against my friend Chad with his dastardly Germans fighting on the hedgerow table!  In contrast to Cameron's list, Chad was fielding two platoons in his 750 point list with each platoon containing two minimum squads, an officer, a Panzer I, and a motorcycle with sidecar.  Just to round things out he also threw in a Hanomag as well.  This meant that not only was I facing 15 Panzerfausts but also seven medium machine guns and four light machine guns!  Talk about a pinning machine!

 

This game was a lot of fun with things really swinging back and forth through most of it.  In the end, Chad was able to get one of his Panzerfaust toting squads into point blank and blasted the Sherman apart.  At that point I didn't have a chance since both of his Panzer Is were still on the table and I'd already lost more than half of my meager infantry but even so it was a great way to wrap up the day. 

 

This tournament was a lot of fun and I'm really glad that Chad talked me into going.  While I think I still prefer the tweaks that were made for the Konflikt 47 rules set, it was good to be able to take part in this event with the rules still being familiar enough that I could get in a couple of good games.  That said, I do want to get back to the Greenhouse soon to push around some more Konflikt.  I just can't help it; I love the big, stompy robots!