Campaign Team Tournament 2015 - AAR

Hello All

A few weeks ago myself, Cid and Alex represented Breakthrough Assault at the annual Campaign FoW National league. For those of you who don't know the National League is a yearly event with a round-robin league that has promotion and relegation between three divisions. Division One has some of the best players in the country and is always hotly contested. Our 2013 performance (we wasn't able to attend in 2014) meant that we were now in Division Two. Our aim was to get a spot in Division One for 2016...

Within the team you all play a different period and then play the opposing player of the other team who is also playing the same period. I was playing Early War and took my trusted Japanese Infantry, Cid was playing Mid War with his Romanian infantry horde and finally Alex was playing Late War with Motorstrelkovy from Desperate Measures.

Early War AAR - Japanese Infantry Vs Soviet Heavy Tankovy Batalon - Free For All

Hello All This weekend is Campaign, the yearly flames of war team league. Each team of three players are split between the 3 different periods and play all the other players in the same period. There is promotion and relegation and this year myself, Alex and Cid are representing Team Breakthrough Assault A Team (the B team is Marc, Matt and Steve). I'm playing Early War with my Japanese and as the format is 1500 points for EW I needed to change my list up from the one I took to the Art of War. I was struggling to find time to practice when I got an email from Army Dave asking if I was free to play a game at Entoyment. So off I went to try out the list, I turned up expecting to face Army's infamous Confident Conscript Soviet Infantry but instead I was facing 8 T-35's (gamesmanship Army?) which I knew I was going to struggle against with my great AT of 5... Still he would struggle to dig me out.  We rolled up Free For All and we would have tried out our changes as talked about on episode 29 of Beyond the Foxholes if this wasn't a tournament practice game. I won the dice off to attack and so I choose to make it a night fight so I could manoeuvre without getting shot at in the first few turns.  Quick note guys, this game starts off slow but gets bloody fast towards the end.

Japanese Hohei Chutai (7th) - Fearless Veterans HQ + Regimental Banner Full Infantry Platoon + Banners Full Infantry Platoon + Banners 2 Type 41 75mm 2 Type 97 Chi-Ha (Fearless Trained) 4 Type 89 Chi-Ro (Fearless Trained) 4 Type 89 Chi-Ro (Fearless Trained)

Heavy Tankovy Batalon HQ T-35 5 T-35 2 T-35 9 KhT-26 Full Unarmed Sappers Sportadic I-153 Chaika

Banzai! - Road to the Art of War Part Four - Tournament AAR and Photo Dump

Hello All

As you have probably seen I have been collecting a Japanese army for the Art of War Early War Tournament (click on the links to see parts one, two and three). The event was just over a week ago and I thought to round off the series I would post up an AAR of the event.

After a stop over at Alex's place in Northampton (and a few too many beers) we rocked up nice and early at the Sanctuary Gaming Centre. The day started with a bit of a shock as the Scottish team for the ETC (including Adam and Alex from Breakthrough Assault) turned up in full Scottish dress (not what I wanted to see at 8am!).

Banzai! The Road to Art of War III - Part Three

Hello All

As this post goes live it's the day before the Art of War and I only finished the army two days ago. In the last post I had just finished the infantry and I had hoped to get two more posts in before the event, as you can probably tell things didn't go to plan and so this post will be it.

I have been busy and also have a little playing on easy army one night at work I found a list I loved, it did mean buying some more Japanese tanks to be able to run it but I think it will be totally worth it in the end.

Banzai! The Road to Art of War III - Part Two

Hello All

Last time I spoke about this project I had just picked up my first box sets and blisters. Since then I have been very busy building, painting, writing new a list, rewriting the list, re rewriting the list (still not 100% happy with it...), etc, etc. But what I have done which was successful and a solid fixture in all the list writing is the first two infantry platoons.

As you might remember from the last post I'm painting up my Japanese as the Special Naval Landing Force, this seemed like a simple task thanks to the work Mike Haught had done on his blog, but it wasn't quite as simple as I had hoped. The uniform seems to have changed quite a bit over the course of 1939 to 1943 and I wasn't able to find the an exact uniform to work off. With this in mind I decided to paint the infantry as I thought was best and chose the colours I liked the most out of the options available.

Banzai! The Road to Art of War III - Part One

Hello All,

As you may know from listening to the podcast myself and Adam were picked to play for team Scotland at the ETC. We set about planning armies for the event and looked at which tournaments we could go to to get some much needed practice in. Well unfortunately I'm now not going to the ETC for personal reasons, but I still have a Japanese army that needs painting! So the new focus (if you hadn't worked it out from the title) is the Art of War III in April.

While I have always thought the Japanese army looked a lot of fun to play, Bournemouth has been overrun with a number of Japanese armies my regular opponents are using. So I wanted to do something different, something that would make my army stand out from the rest - while researching the Japanese I came across Mike Haught's post on the Special Naval Landing Force on his blog. From this I picked up the Osprey Men-at-Arms book on them and I had found my army!

EW AAR - Finnish Jääkärikomppania v Japanese Hohei Chutai - Breakthrough

So myself and Winner decided we'd have a small early war game, he was using his Japs, I was using my Finns - this is a highly non historical match up!

We rolled up breakthrough and Dave elected to night attack. Our lists were.

Making a Display Board For My Japanese Army

Today I finished making this display board for my 7th Hohei Chutai, keep reading for the steps involved.

AAR - Early War - Japanese Hohei Chutai V Soviet Heavy Tankovy Batalon- Fighting Withdrawal

As you may have seen I painted up 9 T-35's for our good friend Army Dave for the Welsh Open. Having got them finished and having never used a T-35 before it seemed rude not to have a quick game before they were packed up and sent to Dave. So myself and Winner Dave (yes we have a lot of Daves) continue our Japanese-Russo battles, we rolled up Fighting Withdrawal and set about playing the game.

Japanese Infantry (FV) HQ + Banner Full Infantry Platoon Full Infantry Platoon 3 Type-89 Tanks 3 Type-89 Tanks 2 Type-38 75mm Guns 2 Type-41 75mm Guns

Soviet Heavy Tank Batalion HQ T-35 4 T-35s 2 T-35s 2 T-35s 9 KhT-26 Sporadic I-153

AAR - Early War - Japanese Hohei Chutai v British Jock Column - Encounter

Alex and I got together for our first Early War game together, making it my third in total. It was nice to face something other than Ben's tank horde and I was really hoping to get to use Japanese in the style they were intended. As I'd just finished my Italian buildings they featured...Japanese v Brits in Italy...that happened right? We rolled Hasty attack, I chose to attack and attack at night...nice :)

Hohei Chutai Company HQ with Regimental Standard Full Hohei Platoons Full Hohei Platoons 3 Type-89 Tanks 3 Type-89 Tanks 2 Type-38 75mm Guns 2 Type-41 75mm Guns

Jock Colloum HQ Motor Platoon + 2 AT Rifles Motor Platoon + 2 AT Rifles Carrier Platoon Carrier Platoon 3 Crusadiers 4 47/32 Portee 4 18/25 Pounders 2 Bofors Guns

The board and with objectives.

AAR - Early War - Japanese Hohei Chutai V Soviet Light Tankovy Batalon - Dust Up

Winner Dave had just finished his Japanese Infantry list for the Welsh Open so we thought a rematch of our first EW AAR was a good idea. Dave had changed his list since then and had a few more artillery pieces, I had also planned to change my list but my new unit hadn't turned up yet, so I used the same list I had last time. We decided to play Dust Up so Dave could have a chance to attack my tanks, something he hadn't been able to do so far as my list also auto attacks. I arrived at Dave's and we set about playing.

3rd Japanise Division HQ with Regimental Banner Full Infantry Platoon Full Infantry Platoon 3 Type-89 Tanks 3 Type-89 Tanks 2 Type-38 75mm Guns 2 Type-41 75mm Guns

Soviet Light Tanks HQ T-26 8 T-26 + Rear MG 8 T-26 8 T-26 10 KhT-26 6 BT-7a 5 DshK AA Guns Sporadic I-153

Generated by WWPD's BatRepper Software.

Japanese Type 38 and Type 41 Guns

Good morning,

Today I finished off my Japanese list with the addition of a Regimental Gun platoon and a Field Artillery battery.

Both platoons get the "fire bursts" national rule, so I don't have to re-roll hits when bombarding. The Type 38, is a heavy gun with a gun shield.  It can fire bombardments (AT3) or be used in direct fire (AT8)

Type 38 75mm Field Artillery

Japanese Medium Sensha - Type 89 Chi-Ro

I've had these tanks knocking around ever since they were available from the shops.  In true winner Dave style I've only just gotten around to getting them painted.  That said I'm planning to stop putting pressure on myself to speed up, I'm painting at my own speed and in my own time from now on.

I know everyone's on a plastic tanks kick at the moment, but I have to say as far as resin models go, these are absolutely gorgeous.  

AAR - Early War - Japanese Hohei Chutai V Soviet Light Tankovy Batalon - Break Out

Ben came round to mine for a game, it's was my first go in Early War and naturally my first stab with Japanese. Following a discussion on WWPD forum with Mike and Eric we had already decided the mission would be Breakout. I had laid the table out with just hills and crops, which is quite light in terms of terrain but hopefully a bit more realistic than Western European houses. In Breakout the defender chooses a short table edge. I was defending because Light Tankovy's always attack trumps my always attack. We both place an objective and then I decide on 2 full infantry platoons, and 1 platoon of tanks, to defend with. In reserve is another 2 platoons of tanks and the Regimental Gun platoon. Please forgive the unpainted tanks - hiding in the middle of the crops.

3rd Japanise Division HQ with Regimental Banner Full Infantry Platoon Full Infantry Platoon 3 Type-89 Tanks 3 Type-89 Tanks 3 Type -89 Tanks 2 Type-41 75mm Guns

Soviet Light Tanks HQ T-26 8 T-26 + Rear MG 8 T-26 8 T-26 10 KhT-26 6 BT-7a 5 DshK AA Guns Sporadic I-153

Generated by WWPD's BatRepper Software.

Vallejo IJA (Imperial Japanese Army) Model Air Paint Set

Hi all

Today I'm taking a quick look at Vallejo's model air paint set for the Imperial Japanese Army.

In the UK this set of 8 paints costs £14.50, if you were to buy these separately you'd be looking at 8 x £1.89 = £15.12.  That's a saving of a whole 62p, that's enough to get my juices flowing.  That's okay though because you get a guide with it...right. Well no you don't really.  You are told that 3 of the 8 paints you've just bought are applicable for 1942 onward, whilst the other 5 are for the typical early war scheme with the yellow cross.

Basing the Japanese Hohei Chutai

Ages ago I painted a Japanese Company, but I didn't base them, so they've sat in a show box covered in tissue paper on top of my wardrobe since October.

One of my new years resolutions is to get my Japanese army sorted out, so it's high time I got these bad boys based.

I've not used water effects before and have been looking forward to giving it a go.  I've also been stocking up on MiniNatur tufts, so I went for it.

Japanese Nikuhaku Teams

Good afternoon,

This weekend I continued painting my Japanese forces, this time its the infamous Nikuhaku teams.

I actually enjoyed painting these fellas, as there's a lot less of them than the Hohei Chutai, so it was less of a chore.

Painting a Hohei Chutai - EW Japanese Painting Guide

Hey guys,

Winner Dave here, talking about how I went about painting the all new Hohei Chutai.  I have an amazing ability to paint something, decide I don't like it and repaint it.  The Hohei Chutai is no different.  I got my hands on a new magazine called Painting War, which features my all time favourite painter Ruben Torregrosa, the guy is a legend and I've learned so much from him.  However my lesson this time round is that I have a style and it's not the same as Rubens.  I tried to copy Ruben's style but I didn't work out so I went back to my own style.  Here's how that went...

(Edit-quick pic of the finished product)



After the ever arduous task of cleaning the flash and straightening the bent bits, I primed and then undercoated  with Tamiya XF9 Brown.  After this I basecoated with Khaki Grey VMC 880, I used an Airbrush to speed the process.

Next I tackled the boots (Flat Brown VMC 984), then any wood parts like the rifle stocks and handles I used Beige Brown (875) and the bag Green Yellow (881).  So far these are the recommended colours you'll find in Rising Sun.

Rising Sun Review - Japs

Hello

Winner Dave here with my first book review.  I've been dying to get my hands on this baby and seeing others starting to get a hold of it before me has been painful.

Finally I got home from work and have spent the evening engrossed, which is bad because the in-laws are staying over.

I've also bitten the bullet and bought the new Japanese units, so thats a Hohei Chutai, the Nikihaku teams and Medium Sensha.

In preparation for the book, I've been reading up on Nomonhan the other battle and listening to the ww2 history podcast on this period, so the history section in the book is now becoming old hat to me.  However the maps are really useful and tie together everything I've read so far.