AAR: Impromptu Chain of Command 10mm and Stalagbite!

I was up in Yorkshire the orther weekend seeing the brother Gharak. As usual these days we hadn't planned any gaming, but I'd thrown the 10mm WWII just in case. And lo, we found the time for not one but two game of Chain of Command on a 2'x4' board on the dining room table. All ranges were played as cm. 

The first, while tightly fought, saw Gharak's many MG42s seeing off my British platoon. For the second, I remembered to dig the camera out! 

After the patrol pahse. We were playing a flank attack, one that I've never played. I was very concerned about being pinned in on a hill from two sides, but just about managed to force a JOP near cover on the near short edge. 

The first sections deploy on facing hills and trade fire. Thankfully, Gharak hadn't indulged in panzergrenadiers again- I'm not sure I could have faced eight MG42s once again! 

Shock still starts to mount, but I'm winning the firefight - with fewer units on the table I could more reliably spend my order dice on trading fire. With two senior leaders, I could drop one down to take the worst of the shock off - Gharak didn't have that luxury. After a few phases, his section was forced off the crest of the opposite hill. 

Gharak pushed mechanised units down the table length and packs the woods with more troops. I manage to snatch an undecided JOP on the near left table edge and use my third section to occupy the woods on my hill. 

The stalemate broke when Gharak made a bold (c.f. rash) move on my right flank - barrelling a mechanised section towards the nearest JOP, which was undefended. This would have enabled him to capture a JOP and roll up my flank wi a fresh section. 

Except it wasn't undefended. To their misfortune, I rolled a double-phase at this most I opportune moment and out popped my platoon's PIAT. 'Thunk'....missed! Phase two: 'thunk'...kaboom! Direct hit! 

The half track exploded, taking out half the section with it. Stranded in the open, one phase of fire pinned them, then I was able to rake them with more fire, with little that could be done to extract them. 

The inevitable rout...

...and my saved CoC dice ended the turn and the fame as the German morale tumbled. 

Heroes of the day, the plucky (and rarely used) PIAT team. 

And for something slightly different to make a true gaming weekend, Gharak's little daughter (3) had been tempted into the hobby with her own game: a cute dungeon crawler called Stalagbite! From Midlam Miniatures and sourced at Vapnartak, it uses MDF tokens for dwarves exploring a hex-based randomly generated dungeon full of treasure. Obviously, the dungeon is also full of biting stalagmites and 'Jeeping Creepers' (or was it Creeping Jeepers?!')

Of course, Gharak being a true gamer, those MDF markers were quickly replaced with painted miniatures, and stalagmites made from DAS clay. The dungeon fully painted and tokens in bright child-friendly colours. And those naff dwarves replaced with sneaky goblins - plastic GW Knoblars I believe. I reckon Gharak has spent more time painting this than anything for a good few years! 

Well, the diligent fatherly work had paid off - it was a blast. A neat little game, simplified rules to make a dungeon crawl fun for two adults and one little lady - a born gamer, surely! 

Dining Room Table gaming: 10mm Chain of Command

This weekend Gharak and I got together to try out the popular new ruleset 'Chain of Command' by Two Fat Lardies. We dug out my fairly extensive collection of 10mm WWII British to face his Germans. Rolling out a 2' x 4' mat on the dining table and playing in centimetres gave us well over the recommended board size, though terrain was a little scant.

First Game
We rolled 'Attack and Defend' with Gharak attacking with 10 support points. I got half that - eek!

The Jump Off Points

After the Patrol phase, Gharak seemed to be set up to attack one flank, with me occupying the village and hilltop we dubbed 'Hill 42'. Gharak's infantry quickly filled the hedges and woods around his jump off points, covering the hilltop with a worrying number of MG42s.

With the tree line quite exposed, I take to laying down smoke with my 2" mortar...



...to no avail, as my lead Section is cut to ribbons by the combined firepower of two full German sections, with the survivors thrown back in disarray.



German armour arrives! My support was a Staghound MkII armoured car, which though fast and packing a fair punch against infantry, was well outmatched by the Panzer IV.

The first German assault on the hill ends badly, shot down as they reached the tree line by the sheltering Brits, who spent a Chain of Command action to withdraw out of sight.



The Staghound takes a battering and while not destroyed outright, the Panzer's fire eventually forces its crew to bail out. Not ideal, though its tenacity stopped the Panzer from joining the attack on Hill 42.



A second wave of German infantry soon followed up the hill and an ill-judged counter assault by my Brits brought my morale to zero and game over. We found Close combat to be brutal on the attacker, best reserved for sweeping up pinned and routed units.

Second Game
We also got a second game in the following evening, Brits probing German lines. Gharak played very aggressively, seizing the table centre with sections split. Fearful of the MGs, I played cautiously, keeping more in reserve and used the lee of hills and woods to avoid any crossfires. Eventually, an assault down the far left flank and deploying a second section to threaten the same on the right forced Gharak to give chase to head then off, while I used a double-6 double turn to deploy from reserve and open up with my Vickers team on an exposed team. With his morale dangerously low, Gharak conceded he couldn't prevent me from reaching my objective on one or the other flank. One game each!

Closing thoughts
In Gharak's words: 'this was the ruleset we were looking for when we bought the 10mm WWII'. We last tried 'Baptism of Fire' second edition, which was fun and had a solid core but the rules were sometimes felt vaguely written meaning we spent lots of time conslting the book and trying to decide what the most suitable result would be. Both games feel quite realistic, but CoC is more streamlined and the rules are much easier to understand and remember. The CoC PDF is well worth getting as it is well-seeded with hyperlinks to relevant sections (I got the hardcopy rulebook too).

Chain of Command didn't suffer at all from being played in smaller scale and multi-based units made it easier to handle, if anything making deciding which units could see easier. Also, being able to throw a flocked mat down over the dining table after dinner was very convenient.
We found the two forces played slightly differently, Gharak splitting his sections into teams more often while ai kept mine together  and focused to focus firepower and avoid crossfires from MGs.
We had a quick tester before this game to thrash out the game concepts, which was worthwhile as

CoC introduces a few new mechanisms. I particularly like the pre-game Patrol Phase and slightly random activations, which simulate the fog of war without being too restrictive and force you to adapt your plan as evens unfold. We didn't find the Chain of Command points to be particularly powerful. Yet the core of the fighting are quite simple which is ideal for us playing infrequently, the similarities to Sharpe Practice are an advantage too!

All in all a very worthy addition to the rules stable, and one I think we'll play semi-regularly. I look forward to getting a few more games in - I'm eyeing up a small platoon in 15mm so I can grow down a few games at Wyvern Wargamers.

WWWII characters, last of the 10mm WWII

I sent my first Challenge entry to Curt well before Christmas, but my own posting has had to wait s few days. I managed to get two more Weird World War II characters finished just in time for a couple of games over Christmas. Last year, I went away for the holidays before even picking up a brush, only to be left watching others rack up points for a week. Not this time! 

On the left is a British army Chaplain taking up arms to confront the German monstrosities. A really characterful, if slight, Warlord Games miniature. I've named him Padre Jonathan Harkness. On the right, 'Mad' Ross of Erracht,  an Infinity miniature that I though would serve perfectly well as a furious claymore-wielding Scot from centuries earlier.

I couldn't resist adding a little Saltire on his backpack and decided on a simplified 'Cameron of Erracht' tartan, as the green base echoes my Commandos' berets and the flash of red that also features elsewhere in the WWWII force.

Full dress of the Queen's Own Cameron Highlanders in 1940, 
wearing Cameron of Erracht tartan. Courtesy of Wikipedia

I supplemented these two with a few 10mm WWII from Pendraken, which pretty much finish my British force for Blitzkrieg Commander.  Two stands of mortars and two of  Commandos. 

I haven't decided if I will blog all of my entries, in a way it is a repeat of what Curt puts up, but also gives me a chance to ramble a little more and preserve my entries on my own corner on the blogosphere. I suspect it will come down to whether I have time to or am back at the painting table!

Digging in for the winter

In more sense than one. As well as assembling every scrap of metal and plastic in my cupboard, starting a  batch of Weird WWII which need to be finished before Christmas, I'm also finishing up as many half-finished and non-historical things as possible. 

With a quiet and mild Sunday, I've also caught up on a backlog of varnishing. As I was doing so, I realised I hadn't posted these resin emplacements for armour and artillery. Hopefully they will protect my 10mm WWII British from the usual hammering they receive!

They are from Timecast, each pair a reasonable few pounds. They are nicely sculpted and detailed and needed no preparation, so I'd definitely recommend them. 

BKC - with photos!

I managed another game of BKC tonight, down at CLWC with Jesse. I found myself defending again, but gave myself a disadvantage by making it a counterattack rather than a scenario where I could take field defences. No full AAR to offer you, but I did remember to take some photos!

Setup
The Germans outnumbered me still, and I had a fright when nine Panzers IVs appeared on flank deployment. My motley four tanks cowered behind a strategically placed wood (itself full of infantry). To top it off, twenty stands of German infantry swarmed on the opposite table edge. My loose plan - pin the infantry with artillery and hunker my infantry down in cover until I could bring combined firepower to bear on the Panzers.

Mid game, our armour spent much of the time hiding from each other behind the aforementioned wood. Especially after my reaction fire took out a handful of Panzers which poked their noses out. Very good rolling to blame there.

Game end, I did bring some armour round to pin the Panzers down, with limited success. By now, my artillery observer (by the red building) had used consistent and accurate gunnery to flatten a lot of German infantry, while his German counterparts spectacularly failed to do much at all. Note my small flanking force in the top right, it never really got into the game. Fear of my big guns led to the Germans hunkering down much as I had, allowing me to nibble away and take a victory - 12 units destroyed by me and the Germans at break point. Somehow, I lost just one AT gun.

While I stuck with a plan and took the victory, I must confess I had some blinding luck, so can't take too much credit for my strategy. Jesse took my artillery firepower with good grace, even when I flattened 30% of his infantry in one artillery barrage.

Lessons:
-three batteries of 25pdrs firing on infantry in the open is just impolite.
-placing troops on the wing can take them out of the game entirely.
-hiding precious tanks behind woods isn't bold, but gives them a chance of influence and surviving the game!

Next time, we agreed to try bringing the game to 1943 to move away from the 'big guns' and I might attack some dug-in Germans. I'm looking forward to it!

Smokin'

I'll admit that I'm increasingly become a gamer who is happy to buy something rather than make it myself. I do some of my own terrain, especially bits which are easier to make (no water effects for me!), but more often than not I'll check first what I can buy for a good price. Perhaps because I've currently a fair disposable income to finance my hobbies. One of the things I've noticed is the increasing market in wargaming accessories, from companies like Litko and Gale Force Nine.

But this isn't a post about my recent shopping (though I have just put a few bits on order). No, it is something I built, with the outlay so far of £1.63. That being some small 12mm counters (like 'tiddlywinks') - they come in a choice of eight different colours too! A few minutes cutting up the wool that Perry Miniatures used to put in their metal packs and voila:

Yup, we've black, billowing smoke to signify vehicle markers on the right, and some more 'useful' smoke on the left. These are small (see with 10mm armour below) and were made for BKC, where you can lay down vast field of smoke, but I think I can use these to mark the edges, or use them in in other games.

I know a lot of people use cotton wool - it is cheap and does the job. But I find the Perry packaging wool has a better colour and less fluffy texture. You need to carefully pull the two sheets apart and ease out some loose strands. These were from just one sheet, the blacker ones from half a sheet dipped in black ink.

Rejoice - you need imagine no longer. This is what the British armour looked like by the end of Monday night.

Nothing earth-shattering here, but thought I'd share my latest distraction. I've also been doing some terrain, I was in the mood for it. I need to focus now though - Gharak is coming to visit in three weeks, and the secret project will need to be done then. Back to work for me!

Blitzkrieg Commander AAR (lots of oops)

So, I got a great game of Blitzkrieg Commander with Madaxeman at CLWC last night. My late War Brits getting their first outing with BKC against those dastardly Germans. Tim used his 50% bonus points for being the attacker to field an eclectic force of big tanks (in fact, a veritable zoo including one each of Tiger, Elefant, Bison, Jagd-something and others). I spent my 2000 points unwisely, including buying the worlds most incompetent commander, pitiful artillery support, the world's squishiest AT guns and and pointless transports. Oops.

I even remembered to take my camera. Sadly, I forgot to actually take and pictures until we'd set up the board and terrain, played 8 turns each and tidied everything away. Oops.

But whats that to stop me, I'll soldier on with an AAR! My plucky Tommies were deployed closely surrounding the German objective: a large hill commanding view of a (presumably) strategically important crossroads. The Germans surged on, three formations with plenty of infantry on foot and in transports and half a dozen terrifyingly large vehicles.

Imagine this is a hill with a town on the right, all crammed with Tommies in trenches, wire in the distance and a 6-pdr AT in a concrete bunker covering the left flank.

By turn three the Germans burst though the woods, engineers clipping my bargain-basement wire and bombardment from three German batteries disrupting my dug in infantry. Later, the same the German Forward Artillery Observer would earn his transfer to the Eastern front by repeatedly failing to call in targets. Alarmingly, the British AT on the hill was quickly neutralised by the German Armour. Not good.

Mid-game, the German, a Sdkfz 251/6 (probably - it had a flamethrower) caused havoc on my entrenched troops, while the bunker AT failed turn after turn to accept its orders to knock it out. The my CO blundered, commanding his infantry out of their trenches and onto the hill. Oops.

Using your powers of imagination, summon an image of stupid, suicidal Tommies fleeing their trenches, with German infantry and armour swarming in front some woods in the background.

With a dozen German infantry units rushing over open ground to the hill, it looked real bad. But my FAO put in a man of the match performance, landing every barrage of 25-pdr shells. As the Germans staggered onto the hill, sweeping aside my reserve units in their expensively pointless half tracks (why?), he called out 'Danger Close' fire to slow the advance and give my ragged troops a chance to knock more infantry stands out. Out of nowhere an engineer Stug launched its little Goliath, a bomb on tracks. The first attempt failed. The second couldn't reach it's target with infantry in the way. The third was picked off by a precise shell from the 6-pdr - the only thing the damn thing managed to do all game. The fourth (or perhaps it was the worlds most effective Sdkfz-whatever?), managed to knock out the last hunkered-down AT. Darn.

I've not mentioned my right flank. All too painful, see. After a lethargic start, the two German tank-hunters trundled on and spent turn after turn pounding my half dozen-strong Sherman formation. They were kept pinned and steadily hammered down by some fantastic CMD rolling. Not good - most of my tanks weren't even in range. Oops.

In your mind's eye, focus on a bleak landscape, liberally scattered with smoking wrecks, which you can just make out through the smoke were the distinctive shape of Sherman tanks.

Despite it looking like a hammering, time trundled on (helped by too-frequent blunders curtailing our grand strategies) and my single artillery battery and some careful use of my limited troops thinned out the German infantry to four stands. Three would need to stand on the hill, and survive, to win. The carnage among the Shermans was all a sideshow. I knew I should have 'done a Wellington' and parked them behind the hill.

By turn 8, I'd managed to knock out one stand. One more, and I could claim a technical victory. But the German armour swept my last troops aside, and with my 2000 points down to three command stands, one Vickers platoon, one M3 half track and my off-able guns, I conceded. A major victory to the Germans - 9 turns to take the hill with losses among the Brits unacceptably high.

All in all, a great game. I really like BKC, the mechanics feel right for the era, it encourages tactics from the time and has good 'fog of war' with the command rolls and blunder tables. I feel I've also learned some valuable lessons:
-don't bother with CMD 7 leaders
-as Brits, buy more off-table artillery. Lots and lots more artillery.
-Then use it to smash the German advance far more effectively than the infantry or armour ever will.
-two German big tanks will crush Shermans which are carelessly left in open ground. Hide British armour. Or bring Churchills - damn tough they are.
-only buy transports if you need to get somewhere in a hurry.

Wall Art for the Hobbyist

I've continued to work up some 10mm WWII, here we have some more punch for the poor bloody infantry - two 6pdr AT guns and one 25pdr Field Gun. A quick job as I only painted and based the guns themselves - the crew were already finished (mostly borrowed from a 17pdr actually). Note there is space on the back of the 25pdr base for a Morris Quad to drag it around. I've since noticed that the late war Europe list in BKC doesn't allow 25pdrs as on-table support, which is a bit annoying. So I've painted a pretty paperweight (or useful reminder of my off-table guns).






I mentioned the Capitan painting competition some months ago and as the deadline looms realised I haven't even started. Seeing Curt's lovely entry here, I've primed my entry and turned him around in no time. Looks like i wont evem need their recently-announced extension. I'll post a pic up in the morning. It was a welcome change to do just one Napoleonic - it seems like an age since I painted some!

I've also been doing quite a bit of sightseeing and thought this might interest in one of the room of Hampton Court Palace:

Can you tell what it is yet?

A closer look at one wall

Yup, this is wall art made of pikes, muskets, pistols, armour and so on, covering four walls with thousands of pieces. It was in fact was the first formal room of the Royal court of William III (1689 - 1702), a Guard room and something of a display of England's military power for the dignitaries visiting court. All of them were working firearms and were cleaned annually. Interesting stuff, I'm sure you'll agree.

More progress

With a very real chance of getting a game or two of Blitzkrieg Commander in at CLWC, I thought I'd finish off the few bits I bought at earlier in the year, at Salute and before. To support my Late War British, more armoured might: three Shermans including a Firefly, an Achilles Tank Destroyer and a pair of Staghound armoured cars. Bring on the German Armour - plenty of 17pdrs here!

I'm starting to really like 10mm as a scale for WWII, the tanks look really dinky. These are mostly Pendraken, though the Staghounds are from Pithead miniatures. I didn't realise how massive Staghounds were, nearly as big as a Sherman. And its not that classic issue of different manufacturers - they really were nearly as big! The tank commander was converted from a Pendraken radio operator, that will serve as a command tank as required.

They didn't photograph particular well, but they are mostly a dull green/brown colour so not that interesting! I also used plenty weathering powder to grubby them up nicely. You may note the lack of markings, I may add some later, or just leave them as they are.

Oh, look, another switch of era and scale.

I've also finished the second batch (of four) of the secret project. So some considerable painting progress in a week!

The Projects

It's time for a list. After considering my Salute purchases (as well as the pre-Salute purchases and post-Salute purchases), I thought it fitting to document my current hobby projects and predict where they're going this year.

I'll start with a Pie chart. Unfortunately it doesn't illustrate anything except that I'm balancing limited hobby time across a number of projects. But I do like pie charts (and it adds a splash of colour to what could have been a long rambling post).

1). 28mm Napoleonics
Definitely in a consolidation phase. After two years I've a fair amount painted up and while I do have plenty more minis and terrain to paint up I intend to take a break from the most of it. I will get the Colours sorted on all of my painted units before setting it aside completely. I think next year Gharak and I will come back to gaming Napoleonics and I'll be enthused to pick up the brushes again.

2). 28mm Vikings for Saga
Six point force painted, one point left to finish. In an ideal world I'd buy one more unit of Bondi as an eighth point for maximum flexibility. But I can always add that later, for now I'm content that it is mostly finished and is something I might actually get a game of every now and then with people who aren't Gharak.

3). 28mm Pulp
This will rumble on (especially as Gharak and I are mid-adventure). After my early 2012 drive we've plenty of encounters to play with perhaps just the odd extra miniature required. As a varied project means it is great to drop Pulp figures into a separate painting project to mix things up a little. It also doesn't need much buying for it at the moment. Happily it will get gamed again this year: we need at least one more session this summer to get our heroes out of their current pickle!

4). 10mm WWII British
Was finished (!) as a platoon plus support, then I picked up a few more bits at Salute but they should be quick to paint up. I'm in a bit of a quandary with rules, but those purchases should give me a small Blitzkrieg Commander-sized force. At some point I'll buy BKC and twist Gharak's arm into a game or two or grab a game in my local area.

5). New project 1: 28mm Greek Mythology
Gharak is in the driving seat for this one, creating a complete skirmish game with fluff, rules and sometime down the road it's own miniature range. Ambitious as always, my brother. The game will be a skirmish scale with suitably heroic combat, set in an alternate world taking its inspiration from Greek Mythology. And my role? A mix of advisor, rules collaborator, playtester, painter and who knows what else! We're working on test forces for each faction, so I've the start of a Minoan force on my paint table, Minotaur and all.

6). New project 2: 15mm SciFi
While I didn't really need a new scale (or a new project right now!), I've been tempted to dabble in 15mm SciFi by Samulus. I've an order in with Ground Zero Games for a platoon of infantry and I'll grab my pick of cool vehicles and air support to face his Autosentia. Ive set on a colour scheme and written some fluff for my faction, which was a fun way to spend an hour. Again, not set on any rules as yet, but 15mm seems popular for SciFi, so I've no doubt we'll find something fun.

7). Resurrected project: 28mm Wild West
One on the horizon, after backing Blackwater Gulch with 20 of my hard-earned pounds. Resurrected because a few years back Gharak and I bought a bunch of cowboys and Legends of the Old West. Gharak built some terrain and I got some erm...half-built. We played a few games and set it aside. Once BG is released in the autumn I'll paint some cowboys and finish my terrain.

In summary, seven projects, four of them current. Eep, plenty to be getting on with...

Two quick questions

After a few days off I'm ploughing back into the painting to keep that Challenge momentum up. Expect more updates.

But in the meantime I was wondering if any of my readers has:

-any spare round plastic shields for Vikings. Wargames Factory ones would be great (anyone assemble theirs with double-handed axes or bows?) Gripping Beast plastics would probably also suit. I need just four or six if anyone has any sitting around in their bits box. I can trade other plastic bits if you need anything.

-an unwanted copy of Blitzkrieg Commander V2 they would like to sell to me? I fancy trying it out with 10mm WWII but am feeling a bit cheap to fork out £20 for a new copy just before Salute. Not helped that WWII probably won't get played often at the moment so I'd prefer not to lay out a lot on rules. I reckon someone has an unwanted copy gathering dust somewhere.


In other news, I dipped my toe into Kickstarter yesterday with a pledge to Blackwater Gulch. Seems like a great project and cowboys are cool, right? Kickstarter seems to be a developing into quite a thing for both the wargaming and board gaming communities. Hopefully it will continue the diversification of both, without putting too many poor products out there. We shall see! I don't intend to get too into Kickstarter though - it could end up using a lot of my hobby budget.

Blitzkrieg Commander at SLW

So, went to South London Warlords again on Monday and got a demo of Blitzkrieg Commander. Using 10mm early war French and Germans borrowed from the hosts. All in all, i thought it was a light, quick and fun ruleset. It reminded me of the bastard love-child of Warmaster and Epic, with a dash of historical accuracy. Not necessarily a bad thing!

It seemed to work smoothly with minimal rules-consulting, all information in one table and seemed to have relatively good balance. Those German tanks aren't invincible - especially after a battering from my pair of Char B's!

Play time was about 2.5 hours including setup which is pretty much the top end of an ideal time to my mind. We played with quite a few house rules, though not having played the core rules I couldn't recount what they were. I did have some ideas for further streamlining of the system, by trimming the number of phases. Pity I struggle to play a ruleset without thinking of how I can 'personalise' it - especially given I've only played one game through!

All in all a great visit out to SLW and really good to get a game in - now to look at how to tweak (read: expand) my 10mm late war British without having access to the BKC rule book!

Just a little snap

To keep my post to picture ratio up, the aforementioned Churchill, Daimlers and Pulp Toff. On the latter's base you can find a new discovery to me - mininatur tufts. Layering them with flock can create really dramatic effects, perhaps pricey but I think it is worth it.

Busy busy (and not in a gaming way!)

Oops, no post for a fortnight. Reason being I'm gearing up to move house over the next fortnight, including lots of decorating and cleaning to do. I'm also moving posts within my job, which I'm excited about. It will be a busy month and so I doubt I'll get any painting in.

Having said that, I have managed to tidy up a few loose ends on the painting front, finishing the WWII bits I grabbed at Salute, including a beastly Churchill Crocodile. I also knocked out a new, as-yet unnamed pulp companion for when we pick that up again. Pics when I get chance. Finally, some progress on a small unit of Nap Spanish light infantry, though time is up to get them finished.

I also got a very enjoyable evening of board games in last night, before packing them all up tonight! We busted open a new one I picked up by accident (honest! Story another time perhaps) called The Speicherstadt. A neat simple little auction game, which mixed concepts from a few Euro games I've played before.

Anyway, all the best to my readers, apologies in advance for the upcoming quiet period.

Gaming weekend, Battle Report

Just back from a long weekend with my brother, where we itnended to get some solid gaming in while the womenfolk knitted and gossipped. Unfortunately, fate was against us, with a two hour delay on the trains on Friday writing off any gaming then, and my brother coming down with something which although mild, was an unwanted distraction.

Still, we rolled out the 10mm WWII for two games using Baptism of Fire. Mostly, we were chuffed to both be using fully painted forces of the first time in an age. And they did both look mighty spiffing, if I do say so myself. I've added a few photos of the first game below - British attackers aiming to break through the German position.

The assault begins

The markers are for defensive hidden deployment of troops and defenses, as well as D6 dummy markers. Smoke and flames is for morale statue (one for suppressed, two for pinned) - these were from my initial bombardment.

Shermans crest the hill

The terrain is mostly scratch built, with Hovels Ltd farm buildings, which painted up nicely. Note the table has moved - kicked out for dinner to be served! A substantial benefit to being able to play on 2' by 4'.

Panzer IV knocks out the Firefly's turret

Enough said really - the Brit armour is in a fix, having lost their main firepower.

Endgame

We called it a wrap, with by brother unable to stop the start of a tide of Tommies flooding past his right flank. Although the Brits were losing the tank battle, they had succeeded at holding back the German centre for long enough to start acheiving their objective in numbers.


Lessons learned:
- The rules play well, but a turn takes 30 - 40 minutes or so and are very interactive so require a lot of attention.
- As we've only played a few times, and the rulebook design does leave quite a lot to be desired, there is a lot of rulebook flicking to slow things down.
- Bring plenty of transport - infantry is slow to maneuver on such a large board.
-Never underestimate the panic a single 2" mortar can cause with a good barrage.
- Armour is strong, but goes down fast to the heaviest guns, or is impossible to beat from others. We may need to tweak the armour rules to prevent armoured one-upmanship forcing us both to always bring some major AT firepower at the expense of everything else. The next game highlighted this perfectly, when the Tiger I showed itself...
- Fully painted figs and terrain are hughely rewarding

We also made a short trip to Triples on Saturday, to stock on on supplies and inspiration. More on that later!

A Little Progress

As mentioned previously, I've been working on some 10mm WWII, a pet project of my brother. Below are the first finished models, a platoon of Tommies and a couple of Vickers MGs They are Pendraken models, magnetically based onto custom-made metal bases, which should make them hugely adaptable.

They will be used for skirmish rules, so we tried magnetic basing so we could remove casualties.

Phone pic on the dining table once again, I'll update with a proper picture once I've painted up their transport and armour!

Over the weekend I also finished my second unit of 95th Rifles skirmishers, maintaining my Napoleonics output. No pics at the moment, though I did post the original unit the other week.

The Other Project

Last weekend I was back home to celebrate my Brother's birthday. We had chance to trial the rules for the other main project of the moment - 10mm scale WWII. The theory is that dropping rhe scale means more transportable and a smaller board so easier to play across a dining table. I was initially sceptical as I don't get as much joy out of painting smaller scales, but it does mean we can both get a sizable game with few cute-looking tanks onto a smaller table.

For rules we're using Baptism of Fire 1, which we once tried out with 20mm models. Despite a very badly structured rulebook, we did quite enjoy the rules after a few games getting them straight in our heads. It plays heavily on morale and can be quite brutal, but seems quite realistic. We plan to stock with it for now.

Been off this week and will be until Tuesday, using a little holiday to supplement all these Bank Holidays in the UK. So since returning home I've been applying paint to Tommies as well as some fortifications to keep them safe. I'll post some pics when I've done a small force. The deadline is 21st May for a fully-painted platoon, support and terrain for a few games.