Goodbye 2018, Hello 2019

G'day All,

I'm a little late with my annual looking back / looking forward post this year because I've been on hols. It's something I enjoy though as I always find it motivating and it helps kick me into gear for the year ahead. Here we go...

This year has seen the Distractability Index at close to an all-time high and whilst that has got loads of stuff done, it means a LOT of it wasn't from Glorious Plan Millsy 2018 (or maybe it was?).

Focus! Focus damn you!!

The plan for 2018 consisted of three main goals...

1. Continuation of the 55 Days at Peking Project

This one stalled big time. Too much of a good thing proved to be a bit of a killer for the enthusiasm but I did still manage to knock out a unit of Japanese Infantry.

I also managed to get a couple of games in which was great fun.

On the plus side I jumped on the Warbases Boxer Rebellion Kickstarter and will be shortly receiving another 8 beautiful building kits in the post. Add those to the table plus a few unfinished items and it will really look the duck's nuts! Enthusiasm restored.

2. More Warhammer Fantasy Empire

Great progress with the Empire in 2018, largely thanks to the first Old World Army Challenge spurring me on. It's back again this year and I'll be continuing my Empire so there will be a lot more stuff completed in 2019.

3. Other Stuff Yet to be Decided

I hinted that SAGA Crusaders might make an appearance and they did. Well, the start of them anyway... The rest are prepped and will be appearing over the next few months in AHPC IX. I'm also tray basing as you can see for use in To the Strongest!

Now I mentioned earlier that the Distractability Index played a bit part in 2018 and here's proof...

Konflikt '47 United States Army

Unplanned and not even on the lead pile. One beer, a chat and suddenly I have a large (but painted!) US Army for Konflikt '47 and Bolt Action.

Kill Team

Another "where the hell did that come from" effort means I also have a Heretic Astartes Kill Team, the Half Dozen Second Cousins of Chaos...

Fantasy Skirmish Warband for Frostgrave

If Evan gets his finger out we might actually play a game one day...

And quite a few randoms as well...

For King and Parliament

Finally, Simon Miller's For King and Parliament got designed and laid out. It's proved a huge success and I'm absolutely stoked for him!

Glorious Plan Millsy 2019

Finish the SAGA Crusaders
Already started, fully prepped and I'm keen as mustard to get these done.

Konflikt '47 Germans
Yep, I bought another army. Double face palm.

To the Strongest Later Medieval
TWO armies for this, of which I already have approximately 60% of the material in the Cupboard of Shame - Burgundian Ordonnance and Italian Condottieri.

Warhammer Fantasy Empire
There's another 1000 points to be painted for OWAC II.

More Commission Design Work
I currently have another two projects on the go, both well advanced. One is for an existing client and the other a new one.

Plus goodness knows what else!

Happy New Year people. Looking forward to seeing all your stuff and welcoming you here in 2019.

Cheers,
Millsy

The Chester Flying Column, British Union of Fascists 1938

Hello All,

I've been rather quiet of late but I've not been resting on my laurels. Firstly, I don't have any laurels. More importantly, I've not been resting anyway.

What I have been doing is beavering away at my BUF project for our VBCW campaign. I finished the painting and basing tonight and thought I'd throw a few quick photos up to keep things ticking over.
I'll take some better ones this weekend, but this will do as a teaser...

The force consists of a HQ, two flying squads, two transports with drivers, a HMG team and some armoured support.

Hot on the heels from painting Nug's BUF force for his 40th birthday present I'm pretty much over painting these right now as you can possibly imagine. Once I regain my composure and have a couple of games under my belt I'm considering a couple of additions - most likely some cavalry and maybe a heavy mortar.

Comments and criticisms welcome as always.

Cheers,
Millsy

Bolt Action AAR

Played on the weekend and had a major win, major loss and a draw.   All against Germans and my opponents were Rob, Neil and Jason in that order so you can check their lists.  Attached are photos from my first game and the table from the ill fated second game from the German side of the table. 

First game was on the yellow desert terrain with lots of building and I managed to go really well with my sniper, mortar and just general shooting.  Rob did not have any AT so my churchill went well killing his infantry gun early and then also killed his panzershreck team.  He advanced with his 3 infantry platoon on the left flank but I had troops on place to hold him and did some damage.  I won the sniper war killing his and ending up killing 5 of his units and got 4 of my units in his table half for a 17-4 win.

Next game was a top of the table clash against Neil and it was on the other desert table which had three hills on one side and not much cover on the rest.  I lost which side to deploy on and as a consequence everything I had was pretty much visible.  My mortar could not deploy out of sight, the palm trees in front of me provided only light cover and none of the buildings were in my deployment zone unlike all three of his hills.  I called in my bombardment at the end of the first turn and again it miscalculated.  I was running 3 miscalculations out of 4 games so far rather than 1 in 6 and it was redirected onto my forward centre section which had just got into a building and on my MMG and HQ.  All went up in a cloud of HE and so rather than landing on his unit in the open in his centre it blew apart mine.  That unit of Neil's went on to take the centre objective untouched.  My mortar was pinned by his mortar fire, my Churchill got off a couple of shots only for some pins on his StuH and then between the StuH and AT rifle I fluctuated between 1-2 pins but failed my morale tests 3 time so it was effectively out of the game.  I had a section in a position on my right and was attempting to storm out of a building but failed my morale with 2 pins in place and in the subsequent turn the StuH smashed the section with HE.

On my left I had advanced a section into the palm trees to position myself for a dash to the objective but I got pinned from fire from two of his squads, Sdkfz 222 and Pak 40 over the remaining turns and just spent the entire time collecting pins and casualties and not passining any morale tests so go wasted away.  It was a game where almost nothing went right and the only small highlights was I won the sniper war and my PIAT actually did something but dashing up to the 222 and rolled 2 successive 6s to kill it.  In the end I lost about 8 of my units for something like a 19-3 loss.  Not that balanced a table in my view and terrible luck.

Last game was on the Stalingrad table against Jason's Waffen SS.  Big squads of 10 with generally 3 SMGs, 5-6 Assault rifles and one squad had 3 panzerfausts.  Jason also fielded a half track and the mission was to get troops within 6" of the opponents table edge and you had half your force in reserve (after the 2nd turn you rolled morale dice to enter from the back and FUBAR rolls don't count sadly.  Jason had loaded his HQ, MMG, Medic and something else in his so 5 scoring units and Rolled a FUBAR -12 on 2 D6 - this was deemed not to count which is a shame as it was these that scooted to my table edge in turn 5! - even so they only just turned up on turn 4 because if they hadn't turned up then I would have got the won the victory points for them)  Jason advanced with his 3 squads down the left flank and had his Pak 40 on his right.  I had my mortar, sniper, Churchill, MMG and two section on and pretty much form the start I started to inflict pins and a few casualties on him.

However the SS are pretty tough and when they did get stalled they were only about 18" away from my table edge.  Loaded with SMGs and Assault rifles I wasn't going to try and mix it up with my basic rifle sections so I stayed in place and fired doing some good damage when combined with MMG, Mortar, Churchill and section fire.  Jason came to the edge of one building and I had advanced my Churchill within 12" so he launched an assault out of the building with his squad that had 3 panzerfausts - the AT weapons mean they didn't have to pass a tank fear test and Jason had an unerring ability to pass morale tests even with 3-4 pins on his units!  Tank assault was interesting and I shot at him with my 8 MMG weapons and managed to kill 4 of the 8 assaulting troops.  There appears however that there is no morale test at this stage although perhaps there should have been as I had inflicted 50% casualties but in the heat of battle you can miss these things.  He went into the assault and got a couple of pins on me and that that that.  Seeing as he was down to 4 men I launched an assault with section of 8 and inflicted 2 casualties on him but in return I lost 3.  Having lost the combat I was wiped out and his sodding squad was still in play albeit with 2 men left.  Following turn the Churchill killed them with MMG fire but it was a nasty fight for me.  Jason's other 3 squads came under fire and I eventually killed them with my combined fire which also included a good bombardment.

On my far left I had sent my PIAT team forward to see if they could steal into his deployment zone and the half track gave some quick fire killing my loader but then continued past.  I managed to get my PIAT into his deployment zone in the final turn and Jason then had his 4 Pak 40 crew move across to try and kill him but only inflicted a pin.  As he had left the gun I tried to drop my mortar on them and hit with a 6, got 6 hits and then killed all 4 so that was very nice.  My sniper did little other than pin his Pak 40 at various stages.  I had killed some 4 of his units and lost my MMG and a section of infantry and Jason had lost 3 squads and his Pak 40 but had 5 scoring units to my 1 in the deployment zone.   Something like a 11-9 down for me as a result which meant a draw.  I queried Jason on why he didn't bother with a mortar as they seem to be a must have in any army and he responding that he likes an army to keep moving.  Makes sense as you need a 6 to range in on moving units.

Tournament had some great tables and every army was painted nicely with some great pieces of kit. Good mix of armies too. There were some $700 worth of prizes!  Sponsorship was provided my Bolt Action and a couple of other and first prize, won my Neil, was an entire 100 point US army plus trophy.  14 players in all and umpire involvement was pretty minimal so the rules generally go well.  Interestingly the organiser, Paul, sent out a list of what everybody was taking, attached, so you had a good idea of potential opponents.  I hadn't seen that before but liked it.  Japanese player took out best painted army.  

Rick U - British Airborne – 9 Activations

• HQ -103pts
• Artillery FO - Free
• Airborne Squad – 165pts
• Airborne Squad – 165pts
• Airborne Squad – 136pts
• Light Mortar Team – 46pts
• Light Howitzer – 60pts
• Bren Carrier – 84pts
• Cromwell – 234pts

Adam S - British Army – 11 Activations

• HQ – 85pts
• Artillery FO - Free
• Infantry Squad – 110pts
• Infantry Squad – 107pts
• Infantry Squad – 94pts
• Infantry Squad – 110pts
• Vickers MMG – 50pts
• Sniper Team – 65pts
• Medium Mortar & Spotter – 60pts
• PIAT Team – 52pts
• Churchill – 265pts

Peter G - British Royal Marines – 9 Activations

• HQ – 116pts
• Artillery FO + 1 Man – Free/10pts
• Marine Squad – 176pts
• Marine Squad – 156pts
• Marine Squad – 156pts
• Sniper Team – 65pts
• Vickers MMG – 65pts
• Medium Mortar & Spotter – 60pts
• Centaur CS – 195pts

Steve B - British Infantry – 11 Activations

• HQ – 75pts
• Artillery FO + 1 Man – Free/10pts
• Forward AO – 103pts
• Infantry Squad – 84pts
• Infantry Squad – 88pts
• Infantry Squad – 66pts
• Infantry Squad – 73pts
• PIAT Team – 40pts
• Sniper Team – 65pts
• 6pdr AT Gun – 90pts
• Crocodile – 305pts

Sam Y - US Airborne – 11 Activations

• HQ – 91pts
• Forward AO – 90pts
• Airborne Squad – 117pts
• Airborne Squad – 117pts
• Airborne Squad – 113pts
• Airborne Squad – 113pts
• .30 Cal MMG – 50pts
• .30 Cal MMG – 50pts
• Medium Mortar & Spotter – 60pts
• Sniper Team – 65pts
• 57mm AT Gun – 75pts

Sean P - US Rangers – 9 Activations

• HQ – 103pts
• Forward AO – 75pts
• Ranger Squad – 168pts
• Ranger Squad – 168pts
• Engineer Squad – 108pts
• Sniper Team – 69pts
• Flame Thrower Team – 50pts
• M3A1 Halftrack – 99pts
• M24 Chaffe – 160pts

Chris K - US Army – 13 Activations

• HQ – 95pts
• Forward AO – 85pts
• Infantry Squad – 111pts
• Infantry Squad – 111pts
• Infantry Squad – 75pts
• .30 Cal MMG – 50pts
• .30 Cal MMG – 50pts
• .30 Cal MMG – 50pts
• Medium Mortar & Spotter – 60pts
• Sniper Team – 50pts
• Bazooka Team – 60pts
• Jeep – 21pts
• M24 Chaffe – 180pts

Jake G - Soviet Army – 11 Activations

• HQ – 95pts
• Infantry Squad – Free
• Infantry Squad - 142pts
• Infantry Squad - 142pts
• Infantry Squad – 142pts
• Infantry Squad – 176pts
• 2nd LT + 2Men – 70pts
• MMG Team – 55pts
• Medium Mortar Team & Spotter – 60pts
• Sniper Team – 65pts
• Flame Thrower Team – 50pts

Godfrey H - Finland Army – 8 Activations

• HQ - 116pts
• Forward AO – 103pts
• Infantry Squad – 146pts
• Infantry Squad – 126pts
• MMG Team – 65pts
• Medium Mortar Team & Spotter – 75pts
• Sniper Team – 65pts
• Stug III – 291pts

Paul Y - Imperial Japanese Army – 10 Activations

• HQ – 91pts
• Infantry Squad – 158pts
• Infantry Squad – 158pts
• Infantry Squad – 155pts
• Infantry Squad – 131pts
• Sniper Team – 65pts
• MMG Team – 65pts
• Medium Mortar Team & Spotter – 45pts
• 70mm Howitzer – 40pts
• HaGo Tank – 90pts

Jason C - Waffen SS (Normandy) – 10 Activations

• HQ – 50pts
• Medic – 30pts
• SS Squad – 163pts
• SS Squad – 175pts
• SS Squad – 134pts
• SS Squad – 139pts
• MG42 Team – 50pts
• MG42 Team – 50pts
• Pak 40 AT Gun – 110pts
• Hanomag – 89pts

Neil T - German Army – 10 Activations

• HQ – 78pts
• Heer Squad – 123pts
• Heer Squad – 123pts
• Pioneer Squad – 110pts
• Medium Mortar & Spotter – 75pts
• AT Rifle Team – 30pts
• Sniper Team – 65pts
• Pak 40 AT Gun – 110pts
• Sd.Kfz 222 – 95pts
• STUH 42 – 190pts

Rob Y - German Army – 10 Activations

• HQ – 116prs
• Heer Squad – 157pts
• Heer Squad – 140pts
• Heer Squad – 139pts
• Heer Squad – 119pts
• MG42 Team – 65pts
• Medium Mortar & Spotter – 45pts
• Sniper Team – 65pts
• Panzerschreck Team – 104pts
• Light Artillery – 50pts

Iian M - Fallschirmjager (Late War) – 10 Activations

• HQ – 113pts
• Medic 30pts
• Fallschirmjager Squad – 101pts
• Fallschirmjager Squad – 112pts
• Fallschirmjager Squad – 109pts
• Fallschirmjager Squad – 111pts
• Medium Mortar Team & Spotter – 75pts
• Sniper Team – 65pts
• LG40/1 Gun – 84pts
• Sd.Kfz 222 – 114pts
• Kettenkrad – 31pts
• Truck – 47pts

Cheers,
Adam

Bolt Action German vs. British AAR

Played first game of BA tonight and had a really good game. Very simple to pick up and the game flowed nicely. I had got my list slightly wrong and Neil's list was very strong but I blew away his centre with an outstanding artillery bombardment (I killed his AT rifle team, blew up his 222 and killed 5 of his 6 pioneers) and some excellent mortar fire. MMGs don't seem that effective and having veteran troops is very much a good thing. Snipers are really deadly and I did not enjoy getting one of my sections behind a hedge getting cut to pieces by him. Neil had small squads of 6 but they were veterans with 3 assault guns with them and a LMG which was a good and tough combination. Very much better than my Regular class sections of 8 & 9 with one SMG and LMG.

Our centres got wasted and Neil's right flank was far too strong for me to attack with a section of infantry, mortar, sniper and Pak 40 defending it. I managed to kill Neil's left flank infantry on the right and my Churchill managed to kill his Stug only after losing 2 squads of infantry and a PIAT team on my right flank into the bargain. At the end of the bloodbath I had a winning draw. If my bombardment hadn't have killed the 222 I might have been in trouble and the PIATs 12" range leaves you wanting a bazooka or two!

Overall an excellent and very cost effective game that I highly recommend. Thought something was missing and realised it was some hills. Still looked pretty good though and I got to use all my new terrain.

Neil had:

• Lieutenant and 1 man
• 1 x StuH 42
• 1 x Pioneer Vet Platoon with 3 Assault Rifles and Flamethrower
• 2 x Vet Infantry Platoonwith 3 Assault Rifles and LMG
• 1 x Reg Sdkfz 222
• 1 x Vet Pak 40 4 crew
• 1 x Vet Sniper Team
• 1 x Vet 81mm Mortar with Observer

I had:

• Capt and 2 men
• 3 x Reg Platoon with 8 men SMG & LMG
• 1 x Reg Platoon with 9 men SMG & LMG
• 1 x Reg MMG
• 1 x Reg 3" mortar
• 1 x Reg Churchill
• 1 x Vet Medic with extra man
• 1 x Reg PIAT Team
• 1 x Reg Artillery Observer

I should have taken a 2nd Leut as my HQ as the Capt apparently is additional. Changes I will make will be dropping HQ to 2nd Leut and 1 extra man and making my troops veterans although having fewer of them. I found the medic not that useful but it is hard to say based on one game.

Cheers,
Adam