It can't have been 6 months!

It's hard to believe that it's been 6 months since I posted here. I have been a bit down and struggled with being ill again, a continuous run of infections around my stoma have really knocked me and I have taken a while to get through it. Not everything has stopped, I have still played a few games and still painted a few bits, it's just been the social side of things that have taken a hit.

But just to upset you all I have returned. And by "you all" I mean the one person who reads this tripe.

Gaming has primarily been boardgames of several types. Zombicide, Blood Rage, Mythic Battles Pantheon etc. Wargames have mostly been Chain of Command, with the occasional foray into Congo and Death in the Dark Continent. 

As for painting, I did very little last year, but after having a break I have managed to get a bit of my mojo back. Not a vast amount but at least a bit of it has returned. So I have finally painted some 15mm Germans for Ian at the Exeter club, which inspired me to paint some German vehicles that have been sat in my plastic pile for too long.

Ian's German Infantry

Ian's infantry were a mixture of Battle Front and Peter Pig, 94 figures all told based for IABSM.

Early War Sdkfz 251s and Panzer 38ts

Next up are some early war German armour. Five Sdkfz 251 halftracks including a command 251/10 with it's mighty 3.7cm pak gun. These are supported by a trio of Panzer 38ts, ready for France or Russia. The half-tracks are Plastic Soldier Company while the Panzers are Zvezda models

Later war Sdkfz 250s 

Some more half-tracks were then stuck together and slapped with paint. A box of Plastic Soldier Company Sdkfz 250s were made up as a mixed recce force. A command 250/11 with it's 2.8cm Pzb leads a pair of 250/1 infantry carriers and a pair of 250/9 recce tracks with 2cm cannons. A decent mix of vehicles that can either add support for Chain of Command games or be recce elements for Battlegroup games.

Late war Panzer IIIs

A trio of Panzer IIIs wereadded to the line up, picked up at a bring and buy somewhere some time ago. Pre-made but unpainted, they will now be part of my late war German force. Who needs Panthers or Tigers? Also, see if you can spot the error in construction. I didn't notice until after I had painted them and don't know if it is worth fixing.

Late War Sdkfz 251s

Finally for today is some more 251's, Battlefront models this time. A quartet, painted up to mechanise my German infantry.

All told that's 20 vehicles, so it's been not too bad.

I have painted some other bits for WW2, but these will appear tomorrow hopefully as the varnish isn't dry yet. Later folks.

Well, that went by a bit quick.........

I didn't realise how long it had been since I bored you all with the inane and dull crap I get up too.  I'm STILL waiting to hear from the hospital about the operation, I'm still on a mainly soup diet and I'm still feeling like crap.  Apart from that it's all hunky-dory.

Gaming has still been limited, I have managed a few board games and I did get a trip in to the Devon Wargames Group last month, although I didn't last too long.  It was nice to get out for a bit though.  We have played a bit of Zombicide:Black Plague now, having finally got our kickstarter package through.  I also received my copy of Shadowstar Corsairs, which is a fun game and plays nicely.  At least it did the one time we played it, second try tomorrow night.  In fact it's been a good month or so for kickstarters, I have received the two mentioned above, plus some 28mm German trucks from Anyscale Models and some lovely 15mm Cold War British from Armies Army.  It's been like Christmas and birthday all rolled into one. ;)

The 15mm British are beautiful figures and vehicles, I really cannot express how nice they are.  I am planning to start painting them up as soon as I can find my mojo again.

 My pledge was for an Infantry Platoon in 4 Fv432s, plus 3 Chieftains, a Spartan, a Landrover and some support weapons.  The vehicles are as nice as any I have had, nicer than Battlefront's latest efforts and easier to assemble as well.  Hopefully that will enough for the level of games I plan to do, but as usual there is bound to be more I end up with.......Scorpions, Scimitars etc

 To face off against the Brits I was planning to get some Team Yankee figures and vehicles, but did a quick internet search as £30 for 5 plastic models seems a bit pricey to me.  I found a little gem of a trader in Butlers Printed Models, who do printed vehicles in scales from 6mm to 28mm.  They do a small range of modern Soviet types for £3 or £4 each.  So I plunged in and ordered myself some, 4 BMP-1s for £12 and 4 T-64s for £16, enough for a platoon of each for less than the cost of one box from Battlefront.  Happy days indeed.

 This is how they arrived, which at first glance is a bit disconcerting. 

 From underneath they look even worse.





However the extra bits are very easily removed and it takes only a few minutes to turn them into a much nicer model and I am very pleased with how they look.  They are also surprisingly strong, none of the gun barrels broke or bent, which is more than I can say for a lot of other 15mm vehicles I have had over the years.  There is also a lot less glue needed, ie none.  No fingers stuck to little bits of metal with these.  I did use a file to clean up some of the edges though, it took all of about a minute for each vehicle.


 
As an idea of how they look compared to the Battlefront ones, here some pictures of a T-64 next to a T-55 from the Vietnam range.  The T-64 is longer, wider and lower, which seems to be about right. 






Another pair of vehicles snuck into the order, although not for me.  Nathan and Andy have Winter War Russians on the go and each wanted a T-28 to support them against the nasty Finns.  So here it is in all its glory.  Really nice and a bargain at £20.  The three turrets are all removeable and there is no glue needed again.



Anyway, that's it again for now.  I am off to do something less useful.  Catch you all later.

Not much to report

No news is supposedly good news, but not so much when it's the hospital your waiting to hear from.  Ah well.  Onto the important stuff.

Gaming has still been limited for the same reasons.  I popped in to the Devon club and saw some fun looking games.  I couldn't stay as long as I would have liked but it was good to get out for a bit again.  The games are reported on the blog so have a look and see what they get up too.

I managed to run a multiplayer game of Chain of Command for the Monday night lads and it seemed to go pretty well.  It lasted a couple of weeks as I struggle by 10pm but the Germans were eventually defeated by the raiders.  It was a bit "different", with two forces competing with each other whilst attacking a German camp.  I will eventually put up the scenario and some photos but not until I have played it a bit more and sorted a few things out.

Painting is going on slowly.  I am waiting for a delivery from Firestorm Games after the Royal Mail lost the original package.  I can't recommend these guys enough, their customer service is exceptional and they are my go-to online store as well as getting an in person visit anytime I am in Cardiff.  While I am waiting for them I have been painting some odd bits I have got here. 

First up was a 28mm Morris CS9 armoured car that I have had in a drawer for years gathering dust. By adding a couple of Perrys 8th army figures I now have a decent addition to my VBCW force, espescially as it has a Boys anti-tank rifle and a Lewis MG to suppress those damn rebellious types.



Then there was a bit of an oddity.  Some time ago Northstar sold off their Studio Miniatures stuff cheap and I grabbed a box of German WW2 zombies.  No idea why, it seemed like a good idea at the time.  They sat in a box until this year when the Too Fat Lardies Christmas New Year Special came out with additional rules for Chain of Command.  What did these rules cover.......German WW2 Zombies!  So out came the figures, glue was liberally applied and paint was slopped over them.  Voila 30 German zombies!

MDF has really made an impact in wargaming, first with buildings and terrain and now with vehicles and ships.  TT Combat appeared on the radar recently and have some really nice models and very decent prices.  I stumped up some pennies and bought a Cargo Ship and very nice it is too.  Measuring nearly 20" long and over 5" high it is really good value.  I spent a day putting it together and filling in the bow area to make it smoother, then out came the cheap craft paints and away I went.  Then I dirtied it up with some chalk powder and the like as it supposed to be a tramp steamer type of thing rather than a nice, clean ship from a merchant company.  I am really impessed with this company and I will be getting some of their buildings as soon as finances allow.

Now I had a ship, but no crew.  I also wanted to use it for my VBCW force of Royalists based in Torquay, so it would need to defend itself from the Fascists/Communists/Commoners etc.  Northstar again provided the figures with an impulse purchase of a couple of packs of Pulp Figures crew.   A quick paintjob and there they were, ready to sail into harms way.  But they will need some guns to protect their valuable cargo, so HLBS to the rescue with a really nice model of a 6pdr Hotchkiss  gun. A couple of Lewis guns on the bridge wings and it's ready to go.  The guns are all magnetized with magnets also hidden under the decking of the ship, so they are removeable.


 So, that's it for now.  I am off to do something less productive.  Have fun folks.

Zombicide, a few tanks and off we go

Sorry but I'm here again, just when you thought you were safe.

I have done little in terms of gaming or painting since I was last here, hence the lack of updates.  I have played a couple of games of Zombicide with the lads on Monday nights and last week we had a bash at Lion Rampant again, but that's been it.  I don't have any plans for anything major either.  I am missing this Monday and probably the following one too, so gaming is going to be really light for the next few weeks.

I have managed a small(very small) amount of painting so here are some dodgy looking pictures of some averagely painted figures and vehicles.

First up is some Zombicide figures, 15 assorted zombies that I needed to get finished. There are 9 walkers, 4 runners and 2 fatties, which finishes my share of the group purchase for seasons 1 and 2 of Zombicide.  I now have season 3's zombies to do, but that's going to take a while.

 Then we have a few of the survivor figures.  I painted them to look like they do on their cards, at least as closely as I could anyway.  They are based on (left to right)
Steven Seagal in Machete, Nick Frost in Shaun of the Dead, John Goodman in The Big Lebowski, John Cleese in Fawlty Towers, Simon Peg in Shaun of the Dead and, at the back, Jack Nicholson in The Shining.  Nice enough figures as usual, my favourite is John Goodman. 


The rest of my efforts have been aimed at my ever expanding 15mm WW2 collection.  The recently finished Russians have some reinforcements in the shape of 3 BT-5's and a massive KV-2, all made by Zvezda and easy little kits to make and paint.  That is it for the Barbarossa Russians now, I don't need anything else for them.

Finally I painted up a Plastic Soldier Company Tiger tank that I ordered in a sale they had.  I usually prefer the more common Panzers but it is nice to have some options available for the Germans.  I need to add some more weathering to it but I am happy with it at the moment.  I need to get a new pot of MiG powder to dirty it up so it'll have to wait until I get into town.


So that's it for wargaming over the last month.  Not much to report and it's looking pretty rocky for October too. 


I am off to Chelmsford tomorrow to see a consultant surgeon in the upper GI department.  Quietly hopeful that he may be able to at least alleviate my problems if he can't cure it.  Appointment is on Monday, but we are staying up there as travelling wipes me out.  Most things wipe me out at the moment, so I hope he can do something about it.

Well, that's it.  I'm off now to prepare for the England-Australia game.  Not saying who I'm supporting but I won't be too upset if Australia win.

Big Chain of Command in Russia

Last week saw the annual "All Day Bash" by the Chuckadice group.  For once we were all in attendance, with 6 players and plans for a game of Big CoC.  The scenario was a meeting of forces in 1941, with the Germans advancing on Moscow while the Russians launched a counter attack.  The Germans, consisting of Oberst Panjo(CinC), Oberstleutenant Colin and Major Jason, had 2 infantry platoons(Panjo and Colin), aided by a mixed Panzer platoon of 3 PzIII and 2 PzII(yours truly).  Support units consisted of a pair of Sd222 armoured cars,  a Stug, HMG team, 37mm Pak gun, engineer flamethrower team, an AT rifle and  motorcycle squad.  The Russians, Polkovnik Nathan(CinC) with Majors Zob and Andy, had 2 rifle platoons(Zob and Andy) and an assault platoon with SMGs and flamethrowers(Nathan).  They were supported by 2 (yes, 2!) T-35s, 2 T-26s, 3 Comissars, 3 HMGs and 3 AT rifles.

The table set up, the German's are coming from the left and the Russian horde will be sweeping in from the right.  The terrain was fairly open, with the crops giving cover to infantry but not blocking line of sight.  Wooden buildings and the woods also gave light cover, the only heavy cover was the ruined industrial complex.

 The view from Colin's scouts as they advanced to locate the Soviet horde.

The Russians are revolting!  Especially the short grumpy type on the left.  Nathan, Zob and Andy look on as the German patrols are moved.

 Patrol markers locked down.  The Germans pushed forward quickly while the Russians were more sedate and seemed happy to consolidate in the ruins. 

 Each infantry platoon had two jump off points, so the German's had four and the Russians had six to deploy.  Panjo placed one on the far left, behind the farm right at the top of the picture.  His other was behind the top left hill.  Colin pushed one forward behind the farm in the center of the picture while his other was behind the hill to its rear.  Andy was on the Russian left and deployed behind the small field near the road and at the rear of the wood next to it.  All the other Russian jump off points were clustered in or behind the ruins.  Three were in one building while the other was in the wood just behind the ruined buildings.

 Panjo deployed some infantry on the far left farm to secure the flank and offer covering fire if needed.  He also rushed an Sd222 down the road, with some Panzers in support, to try and force the Russians into deploying so we could shoot them.  Colin deployed two sections on the farm while his motorbike section set off on a very short lived (and slow) flanking move.  Nathan and Zob deployed a few troops in the ruins while Andy deployed and then rushed forward to close with the Germans in the farm (stupid double 6). 

 "Urah" rang out as the Russians swarmed into the woods.  Two sections reached the Germans single section and, despite the movement, cover and quality defending LMG all adding extra dice, the odds were definitely favouring the green Red horde.

 Boom, bang, smash, dakka dakka rang out as dice were rolled and casualties were worked out.  The German squad had done well, killing many Russians and injuring both junior leaders.  Unfortunately for them the Russians were in a bloodthirsty mood and killed every German they could reach, wiping the squad out to a man.  Strike one to the Red horde.

 Colin then counter attacked with two fresh squads.  Although the Russians were still more numerous, they were shaken, lacking leadership and within handgrenaten range.  SMGs were emptied and stick grenades were thrown.  Russians died and the two previously victorious squads were routed, taking Major Andy with them but leaving both junior leaders behind.  It was at a heavy cost to the German's though as few soldiers were left to face the rapidly approaching Russian reinforcements.

 On the other flank Nathan had pushed a T-26 forward which fired at the Sd222, which was firing away at the troops in the ruins, only to see its mighty 45mm AP shell bounce off!  Bwahahahahaha!!!  As the PzIII rushed forward to try and get a shot in the plucky Sd222 commander calmly rotated his turret, took careful aim and then shredded the T-26 with a burst of 2cm cannon fire. 

 AT rifle and rapid small arms fire then rattled off the Sd222, causing some shock and upsetting the crew despite plenty more German armour moving up to support it.  The T-35s had now appeared behind the Russian troops and both were used as pillboxes, sitting near their base line and shelling whatever they could see.  A PzIII was damaged by a 45mm shell, causing it to take cover behind the church.  The other T-35 was shelling the recently revealed Pak gun in the farm.  Both shots were pretty feeble, with the Pak missing and the T-35 only killing a single German.  Bad news for Colin was Nathan had advanced an assault squad to within flamethrower range and routed another of the German squads.

 Then the Panzers took a blow as the newly arrived PzII was blown apart by a shot from Zobs T-35.  Seems 45mm shells are too much for PzII armour.  Oops.

 The Russians in the ruins were now taking sustained fire from several sides, with two PzIIIs, a PzII and some infantry all balzing away.  The fire was accurate, but largely ineffective due to the heavy protection provided by the ruined buildings.

Colin's platoon was now wavering due to it's heavy losses.   The Russians kept coming and shock was accumulating rapidly. 

 Suddenly "Urah" rang out again and hordes of Russians appeared in the woods.  Despite an ambush by a tripod MG34 the assault was overwhelming.  The Russians had three squads all assaulting a very reduced German squad and an under-crewed Pak gun.

The result was a foregone conclusion........but turned out to be a double edged sword.  Despite wiping the defenders out and breaking Colin's morale, the German's caused enough casualties to break Andy's final squad.  This caused his platoons morale to break as well.  Then it all went wrong as Nathan lost morale due to Andy's breaking, causing Zob to lose morale due to Andy and Nathans morale losses.  The end result was Andy and Colins platoons had routed while Nathan was on 2 force morale points and Zob was on 1.  Panjo was still on 5, giving him full command dice and I was on 4 so was reduced by 1 command dice.  The Russians capitulated at this point as they didn't have enough command dice to do anything meaningful and they were being outflanked by the Germans.

It was a cracking game though, everybody said they had enjoyed it and we all had a laugh throughout the entire game.  After packing it all away and having some nibbles we then went on to play a quick game of Zombicide before calling it a day and heading home. 

Thanks to Zob for hosting us all again, Nathan for helping provide the figures and scenery for the game and Panjo and Andy for playing in the spirit it was intended. 

That's all folks, I am off to chill and annoy the wife.  Happy New Year to you all.

Tis the night before.........

New Year!  I missed Christmas as we went down to see my mum and sister, but now we are back.  It's been a pretty ropey month health wise, but hopefully things will look up in the New Year! Sadly I missed the December meeting of the Devon Wargames Club, but should be there in January hopefully.

Anyway, I hope you have all had a good Christmas, I know I have.  I ate more than I should have, didn't drink anything I shouldn't and had a good time with the family in damp Cornwall.  Presents were exchanged and I did pretty well overall.  I got the Baby Blitz add-on for Duel in the Dark, the Sons of Anarchy boardgame, two 15mm Tigers, a uniform book on the French Army in 1940, a copy of Soldier, A Visual History of the Fighting Man and a set of Lion Rampant rules.  Plus other stuff that was welcome but nothing to do with wargames. In addition to that lot I also received a secret Santa present from parts unknown.  A trio of 15mm Pz35t's have joined my Early War German's and very nice they are too.  Thank you to however was my Santa, they are much appreciated.

The Secret Santa I sent to a chap in America was a US 60mm mortar with 3 crew by Bolt Action, pre Warlord.  Hopefully you/he liked it.


I did make it to the annual "All Day Bash" of the Chuckadice group, which had a 100% turn out for once.  We played a Big CoC game for the day, with the German's attempting to break through the Russians on their way to Moscow.  This was followed by a quick and fairly bloodless game of Zombicide.  Details of the CoC game will be in my next post as it was fairly busy and I took a few pictures.

Painting for December was very limited.  I did manage a few things though, so here are a few pictures.

 First up is a 15mm Seven Years War unit, painted for my mate Gus' widow as he never got the chance to paint them.  No idea of the unit, I used Gus' painting guide and the flags were with them in the box.

 Then there is a few additions to my BEF 1940 force for Chain of Command.  A 2pdr with 5 crew, 3 Bren carriers and a jump off point.  The 2pdr and figures are all Peter Pig while the carriers are Battlefront.  Can you spot the sneaky blighter in this photo?

There he is!  Damned sneaky Hun type listening in to the British chat as they have a cuppa.  The idea is based on the "Loose lips sink ships" slogan from WW2.


I also painted up 14 cowboys for Dead Man's hand, but posted them off to Germany without taking a photo.  D'oh!

Anyway, that's it for now.  Have a good New Year and I will post a batrep of the CoC game tomorrow.

Duel in the Dark plus more Zombies

The outin-laws were down for the weekend(3 extra women and a baby), so on Saturday I picked Pingu up and we went over to see Nathan for a few games of Duel in the Dark.  We managed 3 games, with Pingu and I being the Luftwaffe while Nathan was the RAF.  It's a deceptively involved game, it looks really simple for the German to win but it's not!  I kept running out of fuel in my night-fighters as the wind did it's best to screw us over in 2 of the games.  End result was 1 big win each side, with the decider being a 1 point win for the Germans. 

The Germans have 4 night-fighters and various "defence resources", such as flak, searchlight, fire trucks etc.  These have to be placed without knowing the objective, while the British have to preplan the bombing mission without knowing where the defences are.  Then there's the annoying Mosquito, which can score points by shooting night-fighters, can suppress defences or mark the target to give the Bombers bonus points when the reach the objective.

It is a juggling game for the Germans, as they can't catch the bombers if they get left behind, but also need to refuel at the most inopportune moment.

It's a cracking game though and is a good way to fill a few hours.  Well worth the £15 I paid for it.  The pictures are stolen from boardgame geek as I didn't take any while we were playing.


 I even managed to get a bit of painting done, mostly in the dark hours of the morning when I couldn't sleep as I felt too sick.  Nine "Toxic" and 8 normal zombies have joined the ever increasing ranks of painted Zombicide figures.  I quite enjoyed painting these in the dark and quiet hours as it gave my ears a chance to recover from the constant, endless chatter that the multitudinous women of this family make.  There were 7 of them here on Saturday evening and they can all seemingly talk without needing to breath in, ever!  They spent all day together, yet still managed to talk non-stop all evening.  My ears were bleeding by 8pm and they kept on talking until past midnight.

Today would be a nice, quiet day as they have left but they are digging up the road outside the house now, so it's a bit noisy with tarmac strippers and pneumatic drills going.  So today I shall mostly be wearing my headphones.  Have fun and I'll catch you later

More Survivors are needed.

After an almost reasonable sleep last night (I managed a massive 4 hours!) I feel almost human again. Saturday was pretty bad though, it's nice to feel reasonable again.  So, here I go again with the weekends efforts.

First up, I have added a Cold War CoC page, so all my ideas for playing Chain of Command in the 1980's period well be in one place.  So far there is a list of the rules amendments and a rough idea for a British force list to go on there, but for some reason I can't upload them at the moment.  When Blogger lets me upload them please have a look and give comments/ideas on anything that seems wrong.  It is very much a playtest idea at the moment and needs a lot of polishing.

Painting has also happened, some Wargames Factory female survivors this time.  A few of us chipped in and bought a couple of boxes of survivors last year and, although I painted my 10 male survivors quickly, the women languished in an unpainted state until Sunday.  A quick spray of undercoat and some playing about resulted in another batch of survivors to fight off the zombie plague..

Here are the 10 women, a reasonable mix of figures, although some of the poses are a bit awkward and you need to be careful which arms you use with which torso.





I will show the 20 survivors in pairs now, just because I can.

 Shotguns rule.......Well for these two they do.  She has a double barreled shotgun while his appears to be a semi-auto model.  His apparel leans towards a beach lover type of look, while she is more of a country gal, with her John Deere cap and knee length boots.

Nice enough figures though.

Kids can fight too, although I am not sure the ginger lad should have an SMG!  I changed the hands of the powder blue princess so she could have a semi-auto pistol rather than the revolver with scope that she is supposed to have.  Again, nice enough figures and she looks kinda cute with her part dress and big boots.

 This pair have obviously emptied their rifles and are now down to their backup pistols.  He has an M16 and wears jeans and a hoody with a backwards baseball cap finishing off his "youth" look.  She is in a more sporty shorts and vest outfit with an SA80.  Both look pretty good I think and will do.


 

 The "Punisher" and a more military looking woman. Jeans and a vest(emblazoned with a white skull) for him, while he aims with his SMG and holds a large knife ready.  She is wearing woodland camo trousers, a green/yellow tee shirt and a khaki waistcoat while a Springfield sniper rifle is on her back and an Uzi is in her right hand.  Not the best poses, he seems to lean backwards, but again they will do.

M16s are popular with these two.  He is in jeans and a white tee shirt with a red baseball cap.  An M16 is on his back while he holds a baseball bat and celebrates the tin of beans he has found.  She holds an M16 and is clad in chocolate chip camo trousers and a green long sleeved top.

 The RPG and the molotov.  Which is best?  She is a more chunky model and is holding the RPG in an odd way.  She looks ok though and matches the chunky man well, both is shorts and tee shirts and wearing flip-flops.  He is in an overall, so appears to be a mechanic.  Armed with a raised machete and a molotov, he looks like he is ready for action.

The cowgirl and the cop.  He is painted up as a state trooper of some state or other.  He has full belt kit but is using an M16 here.  She wears black trousers and a brown vest, topped off with a black cowboy hat.  Cradling an AK in her left hand while firing a Mac-10 with her right she looks ready to upset some zombies day.

 The bow and pistols.  Not overly happy with the bow armed women, but she will do I guess.  In a white miniskirt and blue bustier top she aims and is ready to loose at her target.  He looks more normal, wearing khaki trousers and a green vest topped off with a USMC cap.  He is using twin pistols, which seems like a reasonable choice.




The bible basher and the blonde.  He is in a brown trenchcoat over jeans and a tee shirt.  A bible is raised in his left hand while he readies a pistol in the right.  She is also in jeans, topped by a white vest top.  While firing a Mac-10 in her left hand she holds a hunting crossbow in her right.  I attempted to paint it so it looked sort of like this one, it's reasonably close but not great.

Sculder and Mully.  Suited figures with pistols, she is in a black suit and aims her pistol in a double handed stance.  He suit is grey and he has a machete to back up his pistol.  Closest I will get to having an FBI couple anyway.


So there they are, 20 assorted survivors ready for whatever game we can come up with.  I am out playing Zombicide again tonight, then hoping to paint some Napoleonics tomorrow, if I get any sleep tonight.  Catch you later.