2011 draws to a close and I realise that it has been a month since my last post. It hasn’t been time idly spent. Advances have been made with Flames of War and Dystopian Wars, so I’ll put up a few pictures and describe where I am at, give a brief rundown on last night’s game and look forward to 2012.
First up, Dan paid a surprise visit last week (he was over for his Nan’s funeral) and it was fantastic to catch up. I told him that I had decided to have a go at Blood Bowl, but all that I had was a Dwarf team and a downloaded rulebook. He said that he still had a human team in Oz and that he wasn’t going to use it so he would send it over. We then spent time in he shed constructing a Blood Bowl board. Just like old times! here it is with the dug-outs added, but not totally finished. I want to incorporate some spectators and signage yet:
and a close-up of the how the squares were done with the dug-out beside it:
I mentioned to Dan that I wasn’t sure that Dystopian Wars would actually get off the ground and did he want to take the Britannians and Prussians with him back to Oz where he an a few mates are getting into it. He said no, and I decided that what the heck, I’ll paint them up and game solo if I have to! So I painted up the Britannian fleet – the starter box plus an aircraft carrier – and here are the photos of the fleet in regatta:
I’ve decided that it will be the South Pacific squadron. The pride of the fleet is HMS Cassandra, the aircraft carrier:
Aboard the Cassandra can be seen Rose Squadron and Royal Squadron, ready to take to the air. Below is the Battleship HMS Semisure:
The 3 Cruisers are HMS Meticulous, HMS Miraculous and HMS Mediocre:
Last are the frigates – 9 of them: HMS Aardvark, HMS Armadillo, HMS Anteater, HMS Anxious, HMS Apologetic, HMS Apoplectic, HMS Avarice , HMS Annexation and HMS Assimilate.
I’m aware that boats are supposed to have the same first letter as their class, but I’m not particularly perturbed – these are supposed to be fantasy after all. So I’ll be tackling the Prussians next month – I want them complete by the time that school starts up again (and the new baby arrives).
Then there have been the Flames of War projects. With the Soviet and German Late War forces complete I decided that it was time to look at mid war. This means US and Italians. Although it was the undercoat-only Italians that I took to games night last night I have started the US tank company. I decided to get all of the Shermans out of the way at once:
These are a mixture of Battlefront and Plastic Soldier Company. The PSC tanks are a little smaller but when in separate units this is pretty much un-noticeable. In the background are two 76mm M4s, and I plan to get a box or two of PSC 76s to be able to morph this army for late war. Here is a close up of the company commander:
The armoured infantry are based for Tunisia, although the tank markings were left a bit more generic so that they could morph to Late War a bit easier:
A close-up of the command team:
I was really pleased with how these guys turned out, having used the army painter dip on them. I’m going to finish off the armoured platoon next and then onto the halftracks and mortar platoon. I painted these guys at the same time as painting John’s 28m US infantry. It was a good idea in terms of moving both projects along. The last of John’s figures are on the painting table with the rest of the armoured infantry platoon.
Not simply happy with mid and late war armies, I went through the Blitzkrieg and Hellfire and Back books trying to work out what a Panzerkompanie for Barbarossa might look like. As the rumours are that Barbarossa will be this year – possibly August as this is the same month that Blitzkrieg and Hellfire and Back were released in the previous two years – then I want to have armies ready to go. So I have been putting together a Czech Panzerkompanie with PZ 38ts. I already had some of these little beauties that I inherited with my Italian army but have repainted them as they were very poorly done in the first place. Most are missing their co-axial MGs and I haven’t tried to scratch build replacements. It doesn’t bother me too much:
Speaking of scratch building, I also inherited 5 Pz IVGs. Being a frugal kind of person, I decided to convert them into Pz IVF1s for Barbarossa. So I chopped down the barrels and produced the following monstrosities:
There are three of them, and I think that they do the job adequately. This will never be a tournament army so I am happy with a bit of ‘make do’ here and there. To round out the company I have artillery:
And plan to order 5 Zvezda Panzer IIs and 3 Stukas.
So there we have it, a busy couple of weeks since school finished, especially if you add in painting for John, three Tigers for Terry and an objective marker each for John, Chris and Terry as Christmas presents. Actually, I didn’t take photos of those – I probably should, they came out quite nice.
Last night was games night and I took an Italian Carri company. I was playing John’s British Heavy Armoured company and got snotted. M14/41s vs Shermans is a pretty cruel trick of nature. It was the first time I had taken Italians, so there were a few lessons. I was less than impressed that John’s Royal Horse Artillery Battery took out my Lancia da 90/53s with a bombardment before they really got the chance to do much. I keep telling Dan he needs 25pdrs in his army. I find that artillery bombardments usually account for quite a bit of damage in the game. They also wreak havoc on unarmoured vehicles. It was almost unbelievable how easy it was for John to kill off my best guns, and how easily I took out his 6 pdr portees.
We finished early and played a couple of games of Romans vs Gauls in DBA. John couldn’t remember the rules much so his Romans lost one and drew one. On the other half of the table Chris’ US tank coy was defeated by Terry’s Panzerkompanie, so it was pretty historical for the desert all round.
What are the plans for 2012? Well the first thing is to try to paint up stuff that I already have rather than getting into different periods and games. With this in mind this is how I see next year panning out:
- Finish US tank company (Flames of War)
- Finish Italian Carri/Bersaglieri Early/Mid war armies (Flames of War)
- Complete German Early War (Barbarossa) Panzerkompanie (Flames of War)
- Add KV-1s, T-34s, T-26s, T-28s and Katyushas to Soviet army so that it can be Early and Mid Tankovy (Flames of War)
- Paint up Prussian fleet (Dystopian Wars)
- Paint up two Blood Bowl teams and finish arena.
- Expand Punic Wars DBA armies. Unsure whether to go with Big Battle DBA or to aim for 15mm Hail Caesar armies.
- French Revolutionary Wars 15mm (Black Powder) French and Austrians. I have nearly everything I need for this to get underway. I do want to add some Lancashire games French infantry in Tarletons and Austrian Grenadiers. I also need a bit more cavalry for both sides.
Right, that must be a month’s worth of catching up so, see you later 2011, and roll on 2012.
Nate
NDC Wargames 