Painting Challenge Week 9 Submissions

This week saw me complete another dozen Woodland Indians for our FIW campaign.  Alan routinely fields two dozen of these bloodthirsty braves in our Sharp Practice games and seeing them bear down on my loyal Colonials gives them the heebie jeebies - hopefully my having a reciprocal amount will give his French equal pause!

These are really lovely sculpts by Bob Murch from the Flint and Feather range, aimed at early contact/pre-contact period, thus the myriad of traditional weapons.  Again I spent a bit of time on authentic warpaint as I think it really makes them look savage!

To command my 2 units of Native Allies I have added a Sachem leader and I really like his commanding pose.  This is another figure from the Flint and Feather range. 

Next up, this beast is the M8 Grizzly Assault Walker from Warlord's Konflikt 47 range.  As this Allied walker is fielded by both US and British forces, I have pained it in the colours and insignia of a British Armoured Division and added a British tank crewman; so now it can support my British paratroopers when I want to weird them up a bit!  I really like this sculpt and had a lot of fun painting it, but putting it together was rather a pain and it required a lot of cleaning up and some parts needed work to bend them back into shape.  Regardless, I'm happy with the overall outcome.

The Grizzly is quite a sizeable beast and dominates the tabletop. Accordingly, I wanted something imposing for the base and agonised over that for awhile.  I've tried to convey it smashing through a small forest and crushing everything in its path, both natural and manmade obstacles with the barbed wire.

A panzergrenadier's view - rather imposing!

Added to my Russian Spider Mechs from the Armour Bonus Round, this makes three Weird War walkers I’ve completed during this challenge – time to order some more!

This entry is at the AHPC blog here: https://thepaintingchallenge.blogspot.com.au/2017/02/from-paulog-even-more-indians-and.html

These submissions netted me 85 points, pushing me almost to the 800 point mark with a pleasingly consistent productivity line:

And just because Miles hasn't done this spreadsheet analysis yet (actually he probably has but just hasn't advertised it), here is what my average points per week look like over AHPC.  Soon to dip as some work travel takes a bite out of my time:

And so I have now officially upped my AHPC VII target to 1000 points - this will be a personal best for me and I will an attempt to avoid "abject failure in all aspects of life" as infamously decreed by the Dux last year before the challenge started...

Click here if you missed it...
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0Bxd3rhwHuBthSE5Yc3JMaHRub2M/view

Fall-In: The Confession

Its been a few weeks so I can finally try and face up to my lack of restraint at Fall-In.
Plus SWMBO has gone out for a few hours so the coast is clear to take some pics...

"Mistakes were made"

To move through the stages of grief, I could offer rationalisations such as bargains, needs projects planned, past and future, the bad influence of an enthusiastic offspring and the fact that some of this horde arrived by mail and wasn't technically purchased at Fall-In.  Instead, lets just admit that mistakes were made and move onto the shiny.

You can never have enough trees and terrain can you?  I didn't think so either.  The Lad did amusedly note though, that I have perhaps bought more trees than figures in the last few years.  Each day at Fall-In he also teased me about going to go off to buy some more trees because we didn't have enough yet.  Cheeky bugger!

Lovely 15mm terrain for Battlegroup Kursk - by Mark IV Miniatures: https://markiv.company.site/

More Mark IV Miniatures, this time for Fall of the Reich.  These are for the Dux actually! The damaged Cathedral (lower left) is rather spectacular.

6mm terrain for our ECW Project by Monday Knight Productions http://www.mondayknight.com
The big fields are very nice too - they are by Battlefield Terrain Concepts  http://battlefieldterrain.com

Goodies for Flint and Feather, and Muskets and Tomahawks -  British Wilderness Force, 3 packs of the beautiful F&F minis, an Indian long house and a frontier log cabin.  Plus the M&T rulebook and activation cards.

Pulp Figures.  The Lad said he needed Hooded Minions.  Who was I to argue with such logic? Plus if you bought 5 packs, you got a 6th one for free.

More obscure: LAF Post Apoc Russians.  Yep.  But has you seen what Curt did with these minis?
http://analogue-hobbies.blogspot.com/2014/01/from-curt-28mm-post-apocalyptic-neo.html
C'mon, I'm only human!

These goodies, I am delighted to say, were raffle prizes from attending the WWPD podcast - thanks lads!  The MK IVs will be built as early models for service in North Africa.  No plan for the Comets at this stage though

And while I'm confessing, my Strange Aeons KS goodies arrived a month or two ago as well :-)

And that all makes me feel better.  Except that I just remembered we also bought all this stuff (plus more not in the picture)

So in summary - Look at the postage I saved if I had waited to order it all back home in Australia!

Happy Thanksgiving to my American friends!

Flint and Feather

The lovely display figures at Crucible Crush's vendor stand at Fall-In!

As I said in our Fall-In Games post, the Lad and I had the opportunity to play Crucible Crush's new Native American skirmish game "Flint and Feather".  Its a small scale, up to a dozen per side game set in the immediate pre-colonial and early settler period in North East America.

Players build a War Party led by A Great Warrior who is assisted by a Companion, bulked out with War Bearers and with one or two novices (aka Striplings) along as well.  Keeping your Stripling alive is important in the campaign game too.  Consider that the War Party is from a small village and the stripling is your sister's 15 year old son learning how to be a warrior.  Bad things happen when you don't adequately look after him...

A small and beautifully painted War Party prepares for action

The figures are by Bob Murch of Pulp Figures fame and they are really quite beautiful sculpts.  Currently there are three packs available but a Kickstarter project is planned soon which will expand the range and add canoes and villagers as well.

In the meantime you can see some pics on Bob's website here, including his pdf on how to paint up the Iroquois and Huron warriors:  https://pulpfigures.com/huron_iroquois_war/


The game itself requires only a low model count - we played a quick game with just 6 figures each but war parties can be up to 15 figures, so along the same lines as Frostgrave, Empire of the Dead or In Her Majesty's Name.  Being forest wilderness you also don't need a lot of terrain or playing space - 4 x 4 feet would be most adequate and I suspect most gamers have enough goodies to provide enough concealing terrain already.

So how does one say No to a boy who says after the game “I think we should get some Indians and continental militia so we can do some skirmish gaming in the early American colonial period like King Philip’s War and the Last of the Mohicans." Well you don't, obviously.  I really didn't need another new genre but the enthusiasm is awesome.  Needless to say, purchases were made..

The War club is awesome, I really like the variety of weapons available

Thanks again to Lee and Howard to putting on the test games and running some fun events.  Read more about Flint and Feather here: http://www.cruciblecrush.com/flint-feather/

And follow their playtestting blog here, with pics of our Fall-In game by yours truly - though the game report narrative is a little off, while outnumbered I actually defeated Reilly's warriors and scalped his Companion :-)
http://flintandfeatherplaytest.blogspot.com/2015/11/susquehanna-playtest.html

Fall-In: The Games

From the outset, the Lad and I planned to try a raft of different games and over the 3 days we certainly did that!  We started Day 1 by participating in a great 8 player Ancients game with over 1200 figures on a 20 foot table.  Four barbarian players tried to smash their way into a Roman stockade and Centurion Reillius was defending the fort's right flank against my horde...

Romans under the command of Centurion Reillius

Part of my Barbarian Horde!

20+foot table layout for 8 player

Part of the rather nasty Roman defences takes aim

Steady Lads!

Enemy at the Gates!

The hordes wash up against the wall

After much bloodshed I force a break-in!

But am thrown out by the Roman reserve as both sides fight to exhaustion

That afternoon, we both took to the air over the Western Front in April 1917.  Our two Fokker DrI Triplanes were escorting a Rumpler to bomb an airfield behind Allied lines. Against us was a Camel, an SE5 and a Bristol, though others got thrown in later as we cleared the skies.

Dad and Lad out on patrol (Wings of War models)

The modified Wings of War system added some nice complexities but that did slow down game play

The German planes set out for the Allied lines

Take this Tommy!  Moments later the Allied plane went down in flames under my twin Spandaus!

In the end the Bomber was caught in a death spiral with the Camel and ran into some nasty Archie which took it out.  The Lad, it ruined out, was the only player not shot down that day!  Take an Iron Cross my son!

One of the Kaiser's best!

The next day we started out with a bit of fun playing a very silly and very fun game of Gnome pirates. Yes, Gnome Pirates.  6 different pirate teams had to clamber onto a island, find the two different maps to the fabled lost treasure of Captain Flowerpots, find the treasure, defeat its undead guardians and get off the island.  Oh yes, and there could only be one winner...

Swarthy Gnome Pirates approach the island

Reilly's favourite figure "Hooky"

The island beckons

Gnomish Captain!

Searching the island for the treasure map

Mass Skirmish breaks out over the treasure

After much fun I managed to kill off my last opponent, dispatch the undead Captain Flowerpots (taking four wounds in the process), and get down to the Lad's beckoning ship.  With one wound left and clutching the treasure chest we setoff for a shared Victory

The zombie Captain Flowerpots!

...or would have if the boy had betrayed me and stabbed me in the back, literally.  My Gnomish Captain was surrounded by his crew and stabbed to death while Captain Reilly sailed off to Victory.  I was both horrified and proud at the same time :-)

Betrayed by me own flesh and blood...

From there we played a Beta test game of Flint and Feather, a Native American Skirmish game by Crucible Crush. I REALLY liked this game (Shiny Alert) so I'll post about this in more depth at a later time.  Here are some pics of our two small war bands going at it.  My favourite bit was where my Great Warrior mortally wounded one of Reilly's Companion Warriors and then spent a subsequent turn to scalp him - my Gnomish Captain was avenged! :-)

One of the lovely Huron figures

War parties skirmish in the woods

A Scalping!

Our next game was to be a tank heavy Kursk Scenario using Battlegroup's rules, but unfortunately that got cancelled so we played X-Wingall afternoon and evening instead! (see here).  The next day we partook in a great Napoleonic Naval action - British vs French Fleets off the Cape de Gata in 1741.  What was fantastic was to have more than a dozen ships per each, each with their own Captain, with designated Admirals for each Fleet's Van, main and Rear.  Signalling was allowed at 5 words per turn, delivered 1 turn after they were written.  So cool.

The large playing area being setup

1/1200 Navwar ship models

The British bore down upon the French, isolated the centre and rear and started to inflict damage.  The Lad proved very adept at manoeuvring his ship and his plotted movement was spot on - better than me for sure (maybe I am too reliant on gas turbines...)

My HMS Warwick and the lad's HMS Pembroke close the enemy line of battle!

Make to Flagship: "Enemy in Sight!"

The young Nelson in action!

...as he deftly manoeuvres his ship of the line for a stern rake on the Eole

And with that we had to duck out for the drive home.  Overall, an awesome set of games over the 3 days and it was very hard to narrow it down with so many great options of offer.  Thanks again to all!