9th Reconnaissance Battalion heads to Bolt Action Nationals! (Part II)

Adepticon is less than one week away and  I’d be remiss if I didn’t do the usual and post my current army finished and ready to for the Bolt Action National Championships next weekend.  Aaron and I actually got a test game in last weekend,  I was quite happy with how these guys played even with our game being a draw.

a whole squad of these guys are the SS Charlemagne Models who come with cast on patches, did my best to make them fit , authentic or not.

For my 9th Recon Platoon incarnation of my Hohenstaufen, I had to paint 4 new vehicles and about dozen troops plus a flamer team for this current  version of my German army. While I still have some boxes on the shelf  (mainly vehicles) that need built  at this point I can field well over 2000 points fully painted on the table.

Painting this current crop of models took me awhile and a lot of  late nights, I went a high as detail as I could via my skill set, most models have at least 2 some 3 layers of highlights. I also painted a lot of badges on the new guys something I hadn’t done before and used some individual decals on the some of the plastic models that snuck their way in. With the vehicles with the weathering and decals are a patience drill, rush it and it doesn’t look right.

Despite my Best Appearance award with my Brits in the singles last year, I have no disillusions of winning it again, I am sure it being a sponsored by Warlord Games as the  “U.S National Championship”  I’ll see a pretty diehard group, I know a couple of local multi Golden Demon winning players that are now Bolt Action players, not sure if they are playing but if so there will be some serious models on display I am sure.  I’m just looking to have some fun and win some games, because unlike WFB, I am actually a pretty decent player when I roll with a decent army.

The only hiccup in my list is can’t run my Captured Humber as an actual Humber, as Warlord has had the model out for years but has not released any rules for captured vehicles, which I think is a balance issue over an oversight. So my Humber MkIV will perform as a 6 Rad German Armored car which really means I just lose the Anti Tank gun and get another Autocannon.  I hurts me a bit as I only have one AT gun besides my Panzerfausts but its should be ok. I’m not expecting a lot of big tanks,  from any experienced players.

This is SdKfz 251/10 which mounts a Pak 36 and has the command special rule my HQ roll in this

As for Bolt Action, after this I’ll be on a break from that for awhile, There is new summer tournament in July I wont be able to attend, but I’ll be back for Operation Sting in the fall, with my Germans or possibly my British, with two squads of Gorgon Miniatures excellent British Infantry waiting to be built and both a Sherman and Cromwell tank, I definitely need to give them some attention. What ever I run it will have a new display board..I wanted to do one for this event but just didn’t have the time.

HQ getting dastardly

I’ll be at the hotel hanging out at Adepticon as of Thursday night my kids are with me so Friday we are going to play some games and hit the vendor hall, and probably some demos, I am bringing my Frostgrave board and a couple of warbands for that along as well so  I hope to find some pickup gaming space since both my Daughters and a couple friends expressed interest in playing that . So if you know me come on over and say hello, and since I am not playing anything until Saturday, I might actually get some blogging going on from the event as well, its been years since I have done that. Of course I’ll be back with full write up on my exploits the week after the event.

I love this vintage filter almost looks like it could be a real picture, almost

Kradshutzen Squad!

Viktor Grabner leads the column in his Captured British  Humber MkIV armored car

Group Shot

Operation Sting 2015. 9th SS Panzer Division

Operation Sting, my favorite fall tournament is back for its second year as Bolt Action event (its seventh year overall as it spent 5 years as Bilbos Birthday Bash, a Lord of the Rings event.) This a continuation of my Waffen SS force from last spring I built as my Axis rivals to my British "Red Devils"

 Now rolling as sections of the 9th SS Panzer Division I added a few new units notably the Panther Ausf G , but also a new half track as a transport for a full squad plus the tow for the Flak 38. Infantry got a boost of another assault rifle but at 1000 points this list is very trim but packs a punch.

In the few games I have played with the Panther is absolutely dominating and with only 7 order dice one of which has no weapons, it better be. I'll be relying on the "Big Cat" to take out any other tanks and last long enough for my veteran infantry to do its job. The Flak 38 is the one thing that can actually shoot down incoming planes with 3 planes shot down to its credit in Adepticons team tournament early this year.

 The German checkpoint on the large base is required objective for the event , no idea how thats going to come into play yet. Overall I am really looking forward to the weekend, I am dubious about my low order dice but just looking to have good time and see my gaming pals most of whom I see twice a year.

I'll have a full write up of this event coming sometime next week, I have had much to blog about this year due to moving and work, I dont see alot changing in the months ahead as my time is super limited much more so than I had thought  I've got another Squad to do and three tanks for events at Adepticon next year, between that and playing Frostgrave with my daughters that is about all the hobby I have time for its seems.

Sorry about the blurry pics..

Off to Adepticon 2015

The Vintage filter in my photo program gives miniature shots great effects especially for WW2  scenes

So I wont bother with excuses on why I havent posted in 6 weeks, life is hectic.  we're  moving in a couple of months and that's kept me hopping along with everything else in life. I did manage to complete my team for the Bolt Action team event this Friday, Aaron and I even got a handful of practice games in with our German forces.  

I spent a ton of time on these guys, and I look forward to finishing them off to 1500-600 points or so

where I can run an armored platoon and as well as two other regular platoons. I had hoped to finish off my Panther Ausf A, for the singles but time wouldnt allow it so its my Brits in the singles and the Germans in the doubles. I'll surely keep working on these guys thru the fall so I run some version of them at this years Operation Sting.

As for Adepticon, it is bigger than ever this year, at new location with alot more events. I ma really looking forward to new digs and see what it all about, I certainly will make an strong effort to do some write ups on the goings on there this weekend as personally I love the fact the Adepticon has expanded to full on gaming convention not just the Games Workshop fan convention it once was, huge showing by Warlord, Mantic, Privateer Press..etc as well as games like Infinity and Saga with multiple sold out tournaments. I am sure I will find time to comment on the various goings on this year as there is alot new going on that is interest to me

My Sniper team needed perch for haivng such a big base, so I had to make a whole building to match for the display

Vintage shot, they're undoubtedly looking for Aaron's Soviets...

Adepticon for me has become just as much about catching up with people I now see once a year for almost the last decade as it is about gaming, With my relocation about 2 hours away from the new venue site this is my last year being a local, I'll be fighting for hotel rooms with the rest of the folks
after this year, I expect no less of the late nights in the bar, and the prerequisite gaming, but this year I do aim to get in some demos of games I want to try as well as checking out two big games on the schedule, Fistfull of Seamens, epic Pirate game, and Rich's Battle of Arsuf. The latter featuring some of my terrain and models, but both games with gigantic amount of figures, terrains and of course amazing Pirate ships. This also the first year, my kids are old enough to come out for a day and check things out they are dabbling in gaming a home already..I hope to get them in a demo of something kid friendly and get the bug in them.

I'll leave it here for now with shot of my Waffen SS, heading out to meet their fate on the battlefield, Im thinking they'll be meeting their well deserved historical fate, based on what I am hearing, and reading about army lists. As the game becomes more popular the tournament meta becomes much harder. So where Aaron and I initially thought our list was perhaps too tough, its pretty clear we are going to just be hanging in there, I really have no idea how we are going to do, other than he and I have spent the majority of our gaming time the last year playing this game, we will see how that pays off.

As far as gameplay,  SdKfz 7/2 the Quad Flak is a must have in German lists as it actually does shoot down enemy planes as well as shred light vehicles and infantry, its not worth the Tank slot in 1000 point singles, but in bigger point lists or even as a static artillery piece alone or with a Tow, for sure!

The Run up to Adepticon- Waffen SS Squad One

 Pictured L-R: NCO w/ Mp40, Rifleman X 2, Lieutenant, his Driver, (NCO with Russian PPSH41) MG34 Team, STG44 , 2 more Rifles all models by Warlord games., scratch buildings by Aaron Schmidt.

Better late than never, here my first Waffen SS Squad and HQ, for my Adepticon Team Army for Bolt Action. Aaron and I are running Waffen SS along with Panzer Pioneers, truth be told, I think our list is very tournament specific- as in Hard, Were running a Panzer IV, the brutal Flakveirling 38 AA gun, which forget about its AA prowess is an absolute infantry shredder,  consider things like Panzer Pioneers can pack multiple flamer throwers, and standby's like the Puma which is one of the best vehicles in the game...our list just kind of came out this way with any forethought about being hard. In a 800 point test game, my half of the list faced a Soviet List lead by a T-34 which outnumbered me almost 4 to 1 in bodies and the SS won it handily as Veteran Infantry with multiple Assault members is super tough on top of the big German guns.  I hope we can do it justice on the table as Aaron and myselfs tournament record is admittedly very sketchy, but at least we will look pretty.

I spent way too much time researching German Uniforms and seeing other peoples designs, and test painting guys.  in end I went a simple design, that while not 100% historically accurate I think it echoes the historical look, while making the miniatures look good. Some of my test pea dot, and other camo designs ended up just way to busy looking.

On the Hobby front, besides Aarons usual crazy awesome approach of "I am custom sculpting parts on basically every model in my army" (which certainly plays well against my limited to no conversion approach which has only hurt me in appearance scoring last few years) We got a great display in mind, with new terrain, with usual bells and whistles. I'm on track for finishing end of February with my army painting, Vehicles are all ready in the base coated stage, special teams and second squad are well underway. I recently ordered a Panther AUSF A from Warlord...and if I have time I am also going to try get that done so I can run my Germans in the Singles Saturday...it might be a rough go with only 7 Order dice..but its a lot less to manage and bring out, especially since I am bringing my Table out as well for the events., if time fails my Red Devils will be in the Singles...nice to have a back up plan.

As for my table, go a few new pieces already done to jazz it up a bit...and if I hope to get the resin water poured as well, all in all, I feel less exasperated than usual getting ready, I've had no nights where I had to force myself to paint when I didnt feel like it, (we all know how that goes)
I'm really looking forward to my 9th return to Adepticon!