Update time

 So, it's been a while since I've updated, and in that time, we've been in a pandemic, stuck in Lockdown. So I've been using my time productively and painted, a lot. You can see the Footsore Minotaur to the left, which is one of my more recently painted models. At the time of writing, I've been able to paint over 10% of my miniature collection this year. 

You'll understand how big a number that is when I tell you that I've painted over a 1000 models this year, and I'm on track to hit my target of 4 models painted for each day of the year. 

What have I been painting. A whole mix really, my Russian Napolenoic's have come along nicely. In fact, I had the nasty shock of finding that I had 2 more units that I was aware of. It's a nice find, up until you add them on to your spreadsheet. 

I've had some Warlord plastic ECW, which I brought as part of a bargain at Salute a few years back. I've had a Scott's force for years, but I'm now painting up a royalist force to add to our combined troops.

Finally, I've been painting a lot of Lord of the Rings and making a good headway on the Pelennor Fields project. Haradrim, Riders of Rohan, Corsairs all painted, and ready for the table top. 

2020 has been a bad year, but being able to get so many models finished, has been a highlight. 

Coming soon to a 40K table near you..... Necrons

 So, like a lot of you, earlier in the year I was able to pick up a copy of the new 40K big box, Indomitus. I was one of the fortunate few to get a copy in the early release and didn’t have to wait for it to arrive under a Made to Order (well done GW for sorting out that issue). In the box, you get some Space Marines, which, like my Dark Imperium boxset I brought a few years back, will be converted up to be more Space Wolf-like. 

You also get Necrons, quite a few Necrons, in fact, a good start to an army. Which, is of course how new projects come along. In the box, as well as a variety of cool new units, you get 20 Necron Warriors. Which can either be built with a Gauss Flayer of Gauss Reaper. So, knowing that GW is soon to be releasing these models individually, I built them in two squads of 10. One squad having the reaper, the other the flayer. I intended to pick up another box to flesh them out to units of 15. That will give me a good core of an army to start with.

From there, I'm going to add a Lord to lead them. This will be using the model from the Indomitus boxset. A squad of ten Immortals, an Annihilation Barge. This will bring me to a nice force of 750 points (give or take) I'm going to add the three Skorpekh Destroyers that I got in the Indomitus boxset for a further boost to my army and then either some Tomb Blades or  Destroyers to round it out to a 1000 points.

I've gone for a dirty metal colour for the warriors, to represent them getting dirty and mucky during their long sleep. When I paint more elite troops like the Immortals and Lynchgard. They'll be shinier to represent a better level of care whilst in the deep sleep.

Now I just need lockdown to end, so I can get some gaming in with them.

March update

So, March, is done and really not a lot more gaming happened after my last post. Covid has struck the UK, and since my last post and game, I'm now working at home, and gaming has stopped full stop. 

However painting has not hampered by the pandemic, and by the end of March, I had painted up 225 models this year. It's a good haul, and has seen me paint a unit of Russian Grenadiers (Russian and Crimea Grenadiers), Uruk Hai swordsmen and pikemen that I've had on the bench for at least a decade, and a unit of Chaos Marauders dedicated to Khorne. These last were built from the Blood Reavers that game in the first AoS box set. 

So, the pile of unpainted lead has decreased by 2.54%, which is awesome. So, April is now in full swing and I've set myself a target of trying to paint up the Mordor Orcs I brought from GW last year in one of their made to order weeks. This is a nice 36 models, and try and make sure that I've painted everything I've brought this year. 

This year, I've purchased 60 models (manufactures closing has helped stem the purchasing) and so it's not an impossible task to get through. At the time of writing, 20 of the Orcs are now done, and 14 of the purchased models are done. Things can look up. 

The longer the work from home continues, the more likely I'm going to be at exceeding this years target. I was aiming for over 500 models, or to have painted two models every day (732 models) but I'm wondering if I can get to a 1000 models painted this year. 

We'll see how it goes.

Taking Bardia

Another week, and another game in the Desert Campaign. This time, I would be the brits, trying to take the fort from Terry's Italians. Having seen how Terry had attempted to retake the fort. I took four squads. My plan was to use them to try and capture the various objectives, and two matilda's and a Vickers, to run rampant and destroy as much as they could. I also took an Artillery observer and a mortar. The Artillery Observer was risky, considering how poorly Terry did in the previous game wiping out two of his own units, but we'd see how they did.

Well, the game proved the old adage "a plan only lasts until it makes contact with the enemy" true. Instead of going for the two objectives nearing me and the big one in the middle, I sent a squad up to the objective in the top of the table. The game came to an end, at the end of turn 6, which meant that the objective was still being contested by a single man from one of Terry's squad that I had failed to wipe out. 

However, on the flip side, the tanks did a great job. I lost the Vickers, having moved across the whole of the board, to a well place mortar shell, but the Matilda's did their job, as long as the Vickers, were able to do plenty of damage, the Vickers even took our Terry's very large, truck-mounted artillery piece. Being able to take two of the tanks was really quite fun, though they were unable to destroy the Autobalinda, that had snuck down the side of the board, and putting fire onto one of my objectives hogging squads. 

 

In the end, as I was unable to gain control of the main obejctive, in the middle of the table, the game was a draw.

The next game, is back to tanks which I can't wait for.

Defending Bardia

It’s a bit late writing this one up, but Terry and I have played the next instalment of our Desert Campaign, with Terry trying to capture the water plant within Bardia. Defending the fort was going to be hard, as I could only take inexperience troops, which were easy for Terry to kill, and difficult for me to get to do things with once, they’ve got a pin or two on them.

As it’s been a while, my memory has got a little shaky on the specifics, but I was able to get a win. Somehow, I was able to keep hold of the three objectives and halt Terry’s troops. It was helpful that Terry was unlucky with his Air and artillery support. The Air support wiped out his Matilda, before it was able to do anything and the artillery took out his Vickers. Very unlucky.

As I had so many units because of Inexperienced rated troops being dirt cheap, I was able to keep throwing squads on to the objectives and keep pouring fire on to Terry.

Now, it’s my time to get the water plant.

Wednesday night fun.

So, the Wednesday before my trip away, we had another game of Bolt Action. This week, John was away so Terry and I had a quick 750 point Bolt Action game. Terry was bringing his Long Range Desert Group force, who was raiding an Italian outpost. Terry brought a number of Chevrolet, jeeps and a Bently. I had three squads, a machine gun, mortar, a howitzer and to round of the force, the M13/40. It’s the first time for the force. 

The game was played at night, and so it was hard to see each other. We were also using the sand rules, which will see vehicles taking double pins. 

The game was fun, I managed to achieve something that I have never achieved before, which was taking out one of Terry’s vehicles by pouring Pin’s onto it. That was fun and a real highlight. The game as a whole was a close run thing, which I won by killing four of Terry’s unit to two of mine. If we had another turn it would have been a different story, as several units were wavering and getting close to being wiped out.

I also really liked Terry’s LRDG and now I really want another force. If I am not careful I’m going to end up getting lots and lots of Bolt Action forces.   

February update.

So, this is written a bit early, as I’m out on holiday for the final week of February. Don’t worry, I’ll be taking plenty of models with me to build. Key projects are a ton of metal LOTR Orcs, that I picked up on the recent Made to Order and Baron’s War models, that I got from the recent Kickstarter. 

This month has been a quiet one in terms of purchasing. Last month, I brought 31 models, this month, I’ve added a further 10. Highlights include an Autobalinda for my Desert Italians and winning the Voyage of the Dammed boxset of eBay, for a bargain price.

I also purchased, the new Lord of the Rings Models, Helm Hammerhand, (foot and mounted) and Snaga and Grishnak. I love these sculpts and can’t wait to build them on my upcoming holiday.

In terms of painting, I’ve had a really productive month and got another 55 models. I’ve still got ten more in process, but I am well past my effort to keep at an average rate of 2 models a day. The build of these are the Corsairs of Umabar, painting the plastic box of 24 plus a couple of command models. 

Durstien in Action

I’ve been able to finish the majority of my Italians, which if I’ve not mentioned before are awful models. I don’t know if it’s poor sculpts or the facts that the moulds are old, but they have not been enjoyable to paint. I’ve also started my Perry’ plastic British Desert Rats, and boy, after painting Italians, these have been fun to paint. I’ve completed one squad, and a second squad is currently being painted. 

Due to going away I won’t be able to get these models based, which will done at the back end of March, but that’s not too much of an issue. 

In terms of gaming, it’s been a mixed bag. I’ve not done so well at Bolt action, having played three of them, at the time of writing. We won the first Napoleonic game, and then the main highlight of the month was the battle of Durstien, which though technically is still ongoing, and is due a write up, which I’m going to do on my holiday, was tremendous fun. 

Another Project

It's true what they say about wargaming, you can never have too many projects. Or, if I paint all of my lead pile, I'll die. So, following the battle of Durstien, I've got the Napoleonic's bug again.  

Durstien in action

Once, you get started in the world of Napoleonic’s, you go down a rabbit hole of gaming fun. They say that Napoleonic’s is game for 40 somethings, however as a man in his mid-thirties, I’m really enjoying Black Powder and Napoleonic’s. I love the models on the table, especially, once they get flagged. I love the fact that I can say, 1^st division of the 5^th Gloucester moves forward.

 So, having played Durstien, it’s made me want to paint more. I’ve still got plenty of Russian to paint. I’m taking another regiment with me to my upcoming Lakes, which will be the 1^st  brigade of the Odessa Regiment. I also want to paint up more British. We really want to do Waterloo, and so, I need to get my skates on.

I’ve painted several regiments, which means that I’m able to command the 5^th division in its entirety. So I’m going to get a move on and work on the 6^th division. This will see me paint some more British regiments, three in total. As well as four more Hanoverian units, which is easily doable.   

Pelennor update 2

  So, February has come and go, and though there is a week to go, I’m going to be out on holiday, and so I won’t be able to do much painting. However, I will be doing much building. I’ve been storing models to build on this holiday, and so I’ll be building some metal Orcs, that I picked up from the recent Made to Order. Several Mahud Riders and warriors on Foot. I’ve got the King of the Dead in plastic as well. 

Lots of riders in a box.

I’m also thinking about taking a mumak to build. It would be great to get that built, but it’s a huge model, and bringing it back might be difficult. 

In terms of painting, I got the Corsairs of Umbar done, which was nice. I also added a couple of characters, a bosun and a captain, which has reduced the number of models by 26. I wanted to get some Rohan Characters painted, but this has not gone to plan. I did do some sorting out, and all of my Rohirrim cavalry, are now in one very large box, as you can see from the pic to the right. 

So, March is coming in, I’m going to be concentrating on Orcs. I’ve got 35 metal models, plus another few character models with drums and whips, and so I want to get these done. It’s a big task, and I’ve got to get these undercoated, but the nice thing about Orcs, is there great to batch paint. Choose a brown, painting model 1 trousers, model 2 can use the colour for its flesh and finally model 3’s armour can be the same. 

After that, I’ve got to think about bigger things. I’ve got two mumaks, four fell beasts and plenty of riders of Rohan to get through. A further two week holiday in May, won’t help either. 

If you’re wondering, I’ve got 84 models to paint for my Gondor force, and 124 for Mordor.  Plenty to keep my self busy with. 

Attacking Fort Nibeiwa

So, following last Wednesday’s Desert fight, Terry and I returned to refight the Fort Nibeiwa scenario. Seeing, how successful Terry’s Matilda was last week, I elected to take two platoons, so I could take two Matilda’s. I also had a unit of engineers to break through the walls, a few team weapons, and hopefully, we can get through. 

The game began with the British barrage going up and shelling the Fort. Terry’s troops took a heavy pin count. I got excited when I hit Terry’s Mortar team, causing damage. Precisely what Terry had done last week. I hit all three men, and then promptly rolled 3 ones. No one died. That was really annoying.

Turn 1 and 2

These two turns, saw my British rushing forwarding, under the cover of darkness. I elected to send two squads up either flank in the cover of Matilda. The plan was to get the Matilda through the wall and cause as much havoc as possible, whilst the squads slipped through unnoticed. 

What I hadn’t planned on, and this is a lesson to learn for the future, that had elected to take some veteran rated paratroopers and defend the wall with them. Though we did very little damage in combat, I had a nasty suspicion, they were going to be hard to shift from their fortified point. 

Turns 3 to 6. 

And I was right, I tried to get through the holes that the Matilda’s had made, which was a difficult task, as they kept getting pinned. But, Terry was able to rush a tiny Tankette down the middle, which used it’s twin machine guns to keep several squads at bay. More, frustratingly, despite having a clear shot at the side of the Tankette with a 2 pounder anti-tank gun, it took three turns to destroy. 

I was finally able to get a squad through and to contest the building on the la flank, but it was the last turn and though the dice didn’t give us another turn, they would have been destroyed if we had. The right flank didn’t go so well, with the squads being either obliterated by artillery fire, or engaged in a close-range firefight with a veteran paratrooper squad that refused to die.

In the end, Terry was able to get a decisive win and fended of my attack.

In hindsight, what I think I should have done was taken less artillery and team weapons and more squads in trucks. The key is to get the squads moving fast into the compound and let them go roaming and destroying to their heart's content. 

Oh, well on to the next scenario

Back to Wednesday night Bolt Action

   Having finished the Battle of Durstien, our regular Wednesday night gaming has shifted to playing Bolt Action, so that we can get up to speed with the rules ahead of our next big game. Terry and I have been working through a number of the Bolt Action campaign books. Firstly, the Battle of the Bulge, then Operation Sea Lion, and more recently The Western Desert. From this, we’ve got a good grasp of the rules, even some of the smaller ones that everybody forgets such as Dawn Assault or how infantry can assault tanks (good fun if you get it to work).


    Jim and John have not played as much, and so we brought 500 points a piece, and had a game. I brought Italians and allied with Terry’s Germans. Opposing us was two Brits, including a Cromwell. The Germans were deployed around a number of vehicles, which were the objectives that the Brits were trying to capture or destroy. The Italians, had gone ahead to scout, and would be arriving, on turn 2.  

  All in all, we only managed to play through four turns, but it was a good fun game, lots of brutal, short distance firefights, which decimated Terry’s Germans, though he did inflict a lot of damage in return. 

  I’m getting to the end of my Italian project. I need a few more units. A squad of Bersagelieri, an auto Berlinda are the two main things, I’m after. The army is coming together, I’ve got a few team weapons and artillery options to go and the army is done.

I'm moving onto look at my Desert Rats, which have already been started as I've been painting vehicles, which has been great fun. 

Fort Nibeiwa here, sorry to report but were under attack.

So, time for the next battle in the Western Desert book, after the raiding in the night, this time the British were attacking Fort Nibeiwa to take it from Italian hands. To keep the Brits out, I was taking four squads of troops, plus a fifth of elite Bersaglieri men. These were backed up with machine guns, a mortar and an Elefantino Anti-tank rifle These were accompanied, by an M13/39.

As Terry was trying to break in, and capture two objectives, I deployed two squads, one on each building, and then did my best to split the rest evenly around the two buildings. I deployed the Mortar and Elefantino on top of the buildings, given a good line of sight. The tank went in the middle.

Finally, before the game began, Terry rolled for his preliminary bombardment, for the most part, most of my units took some pins. Worse, my freshly painted mortar team was obliterated before the game had even “officially began”.

With that, the game began.

Turn 1 to 3:

Now, the first three turns were interesting, we were playing a dawn raid and we had to roll, each turn to see if the sun had risen, and we were able to see each other. If the roll failed, we would then be using the night fight rules.

Well, for three turns, I spent most of the time trying to remove pin markers, which the Machine Gun team failed for several turns, whilst Terry crept forward and got ready to break through the perimeter wall.

He did, this in two places. On the left, a Matilda 2, the queen of the desert, came charging through, destroying the wall. On the other side, the walls were broken down by a team of engineers. 

Turns 4 to 7:

With the walls breached, the British squads came charging through. Sadly for me, though I had put up a spirited defense, my dice were not really not rolling well. For the most part, most armies were filled with normal rated men, but I could not roll higher than a three to hit, wound, even in combat. 

However, there were some highlights, Terry had an artillery officer, who managed to miscalculate and landed a shell on his own troops. Again, I was only able to kill one or two, of them. The Elefantino gun was able to score the scalp of the Matilda. 

But in the end, Terry’s weight of numbers was able to grind out a victory, as he contested both buildings, and I had barley damaged his army, whilst he had wiped my army out. 

It’s soon my turn to attack Fort Nibeiwa, and I’m wondering if I can take two platoons with truck-mounted squads and a couple of Matildas. We shall see. 

The Imperium of Man must burn.

So, after making my decision about my new 40K being Chaos Space Marines, I’ve been thinking about how I want to do them. Do I go for one of the traitor legions, if so, which one. Do I go renegade and make my own homebrew Warband. 

I went through the Legions and the ones’ that I like the most are Iron Warriors, Night Lords and the Alpha Legion. Out of the three of them, I prefer the Alpha Legion, however I’m going to do them in 30K and after thought I couldn’t be bothered to paint the yellow and black stripes or lightning bolts on numerous models. 

And after, reading Codex Chaos Space Marines, I’ve been really drawn by the Black Legion, and so I’ve decided to go for my own Warband, which has been drafted/merged into the Black Legion. I’ve even thought of a background.

Abbadon has unleashed the Great Rift, splitting the empire of Man. The 4^th company of the Knights Penitent, along with veterans from the 1^st company and scouts from the 10^th, were deployed to Groximia V to quell an Anti-Imperium uprising. The battles went well, but the Abbadon deployed Khorne Berzerkers and suddenly the Knight Penitent's was on the back front.

Surrounded, things look bleak for the Knights Penitent, and they gathered in prayer for a final fight. Let by Captain Laminus, they made their last stand. The Berzerkers charged forward, and the prayers of the Knights Penitent were answered.

Primarus Marines dropped in from orbit, and changed the balance, forcing Chaos back. The war raged on for another year. Despite, their salvation, the success of the Primarus rankled with the 4^thcompany. Seeds of discontent were sown, a hatred for the Primarus grew,until one fateful night. 

Groximia was hanging in flux. It could go either way, until Abbadon himself, teleported in. At this moment, upon seeing the incarnation of chaos, the fires of rage lit within the 4^th company, and they opened fire on the Primarus, caught off guard, the priamrus were wiped out and the 4^th company pledged themselves to Abbadon. 

They’ve repainted their once blue armour black, and joined in Abbadon campaign, searching for conflict against their Primarus counterparts to take out their vengeance. 

So, here is my background and I quite like it. I’m looking forward to painting up some models for it. Next up is designing a simple chapter badge.

Napoleonics again

So, our penultimate game of Napoleonic’s occurred last Wednesday and I don’t really have a lot to write up as from my point of view, the game was very one-sided. I was deploying against Terry’s French this week, and I had my traditional division of 4 line units and cannons. The Cavalry had been deployed elsewhere on the table this week. 

Wining the role to go first, I advanced forward and ended up with my units quite far forward, and a little surround by Terry’s forces. However, despite getting a couple of hits, mostly saved, he wasn’t able to disorder me, and so I was able to charge into combat. Combat went in my favour, but the highlight came in the next turn.

Terry had reordered his troops so that the Guard was to the fore. I, feeling foolish, brave, rash, insert your own word for stupidity, charged forward under initiative, and through a combination of good dice rolling, need 3+ to hit and having a single reroll in the first round of combat, I was able to inflict 5 wounds on Terry's unit. He rolled to save and came up with five ones.  Terry then promptly failed his test, and the unit fled. 

The battle carried on for a few more turns, and I broke Terry, however, his units were locked into combat, and so were not retreating. Which, as the combat’s carried on for several turns more I also subsequently broke, before I was able to rally my troops. Terry, was unlucky, the dice were not with him that night, and he really could have done better. However, on the flip side, I'm learning that Combat is our thing, and it's important to get the charge.

I'm really liking playing with the Russians, and it's gotten me hooked on Napoleonic's again. I need to get some other regiments. I've got two units of Jagers to paint, and now I want to get my own division of cavalry. So many projects, so little time.

January update

So January has come to an end and that means, we can do a quick count of what’s been painted this month. It’s been a good month, getting 65 models painted. This has seen me paint three squads for my Desert Italian force, quite a lot of tanks, and a unit for my Bonereapers army.

I’ve only painted 5 models for my Pelennor Fields project, but another 6 has been based which is good. I even got round to painting my Invisible Ringbearers, which I spent hours painting last year up, and now I’ve based them. 

Here’s a group shot of this month’s painting success. 

Desert to the left, grassy to the right

In terms of buying, I’ve brought 31 models, so I’ve been able to paint more than I brought this month, but I’ve not painted any of these models, yet. So it's seen the lead pile decrease by 0.75% but that is taken down by the models purchased and so only really 0.39%.

On the gaming side of things. I've played 6 games. Won 5 of them. Most of them have been with the Russians on the Napoleonic's front, but I'm happy with that stat, and looking forward to the next round.

Pelennor 2020 Jan update 1

So, after years of planning, we are moving forward to going for a large Pelennor Fields. I’m working on a scenario-based around one of the larger scenarios in War in Gondor. I’m not sure if we are going to be using a Hail Caesar variant or GW’s Middle Earth SBG and scaling it up for lots of models, but we’ll get there. 

In the meantime, I’m trying to paint up lots of models, so that we can have lots of models on the table. Quantity does have a quality of its own after all. I’ve created a spreadsheet of all the models that we could possibly use. I’ve got 97 models for the forces of Gondor still to paint, and 150 models for the forces of Mordor to paint. 

Black Guard of Barad Our

Warriors of Arnor, ready to fight

So, definitely doable, and I’m going to try to dedicate this year to painting models for this game. I’ll vary it up for some variety, but this is what I’ll be concentrating on. I’ve got a number of Fell Beasts and two mumaks to paint, as well lots of Riders of Rohan and Orcs to go.

So, January has been a quiet month, with only painting 8 models. 4 Warriors of Arnor, one that carries a banner. A Captain of Arnor and three Black Guard of Barad Dur. The Arnor models, I’m treating as a fiefdom that arrives with Aragorn on the corsair ships. The Black Guard are quite Uruk based, and so I’m just counting them as some sort of Uruks. 

Corsairs ready to go

February is going to be a shorter month as I’ve got a week of holiday, where I hope to build a lot, but I’m aiming to get through some Corsairs of Umbar. I’ve got 24, from when the models were originally released as well as the command models, including the Peter Jackson, look alike. I’m going to try and blitz my way through them as quickly as possible. 

In terms of models for the forces of Good. I’m going a little character-heavy. Gamling, Erkenbrand, Derowine, and Elrond’s sons, Elladan and Elrohir. For the latter, I’ve got the armoured and unarmoured versions and so I’m going to try and get them all painted.       

If, chance get’s I’ll try and get some Moria Goblins painted. Let’s see how it turns out. 

Ironically, as I started to write this post, the Battle for Pelennor Fields came on iTunes. Must be something there. 

Future Big Games

With our Battle of Durstien approaching, my thinking is moving towards the next of our big games. We’ve got a few planned. An ancient Dark Age battle featuring Saxons and Vikings, the Battle of Albuera, a Napolenic battle from May 1811. The Battle for Pelannor Fields and a WW2 Desert battle. 

Painted tanks and armoured vehicles

Terry and I are working through the Western Desert Campaign book and I suggested it would be nice to do a big game, with lots of tanks on a big table. This would allow for some long range pots shots from Anti Tank artillery pieces. 

I’m currently drafting up a scenario, that will see a combined force of German and Italians attempting to capture a number of British held objectives. I’m thinking a radio stations, water or oil encampment and somewhere with some top secret plans. 

Which means, I need to get painting and buying tanks.

So far, I’ve got the following

Italians

 3x CV33 Tankettes

1 x M13/39

1 x M14/40

Italians on the work bench

I want to get another one of each of the M13’s for the desert campaign. I also want to get some Trucks and an Autobilinda. As well as another of the M13's

British

3 X Matilda’s 2

2x A10

3x Vickers mark VIB

3x Humber CS9

2x Rolls Royce

It's a good start, and I want to add some more. A couple of A9 and A13's. Some Crusaders mark 1 and 2 and the M3 Honey. 

As well as that I'm painting up troops to carry on the campaign against. I've got an Italian force from Warlord Games, which I'm not enjoying painting up. The models are poorly cast, and sculpted which is making them not so fun to paint. 

I've also got a British Army from Perry Miniatures, and I'm looking forward to painting them. When they get built. I'll keep you updated on how things are going. 

Cannons to the left of me, cannons to the right of me.

   After last week’s success with attack columns, it’s time for another Napoleonic Training game. I was using the same force, though this week I had finished my Perry 12 Pounder, who were waiting to be based. I also had the Huassar’s again, who had underwhelmed me last week.

Terry was away, and so John and I took the field against Jim. Facing my division, was a division of four Dragoons units and a division of four line regiments and some artillery. I was a little worried about the cavalry as they could charge through and break me quite easily. 

We won the role, and went first. I was going to position my Hussars to try and stop any cavalry charges, to the horror of John. However, my dicing rolling was poor and there was going be no movement. My cannons opened fire and got a couple of hits on Jim’s front two units. I do like this ability for cannon balls to fire through units. 

In response, Jim, opened the floodgates and charged the cavalry forward.

But the dice were against him and he fell short, just in front of my cannons. As they had moved over my ark of fire, and I inflicted some more damage on them, including a disordering hit, which would soon off disappear at the end of Jim’s turn. 

In response, and being within initiative range, I charged forward. Jim counter charged, which dragged his unit forward, but annoyingly not out of support Range. I then inched the cannons forward, into short range and then moved my line regiments forward into support. 

My cannons opened and obliterated one of Jim’s cavalry regiments and inflicted damaged on the third. Combat ensured and a combination of the Hussar’s lancers rule, charging in, and Jim’s terrible dice rolling I was able to defeat him in combat, though I did become shaken in the process. Jim failed his morale check and the unit popped and was removed from the table. 

In response Jim charged his third unit forward, as I was shaken, my Hussar’s couldn’t counter charge,and as his units had to cross my cannons as they moved into combat, I could fire again. I inflicted another hit on them and they were now only one wound from being shaken, and that meant a broken division.

Despite, being at minus 1 for being shaken, I rolled five, fives and sixes, on my roll and was able to break the unit in combat. Jim didn’t disappear but was forced off, and I knew that I could turn my attention to the line regiments.

At this point, Jim changed his dice. They did a lot better from now on. However, turn 3, was here and in an two attack columns charged forward and into combat. I took three wounds from closing fire, and my unit was dangerous close to breaking, however, once again combat went my way, and I forced Jim’s unit back, shaken. I then changed formation, as Jim’s was about to charge. I changed to a line regiment, and waited. 

As expected Jim charged and I opened fire, causing two hits and one of them disordered them. Combat, again went in may favour, and I won, seeing Jim’s unit’s off. As a winner, and seeing the opportunity to shoot some enfilading fire down the flank of Jim’s unit I opted to change facing.

As you can see from the photo, the supporting line unit, still in attack columns could now charge a unit in the flank. I need two moves, but the dice failed me, I got one move. So, quick change of plan, and I opted to shoot.

My cannons took a pot shot at Jim’s opposite number, and did some damage. I then opened fire and broke at least of Jim’s line regiments, the division, and the army. 

I had a lot of fun, this week the Hussar’s performed marvellously, and so I’m quite happy with them, and am now thinking about getting some cavalry, both Dragoons and Hussars. We’ve got long term plans for Borodino, and I’m working on the 8^th Infantry corps. I think the 4^th Reserve corps, could be something that I get as well.

I do think that Jim was very unlucky with his dice rolls and couldn’t really get into the game, once the damage had been inflicted by the cannons.

Decision has been made

 So, in a previous post I was talking abut new year, new armies, and I was dithering between Eldar and Chaos Space Marines. 

So a decision has been made. 

Chaos Space Marines. 

Now, I would love to claim that after long deliberation of the pros and cons of each army that I’ve made a decsions. Nope, I’ve been attracted by the fact that I really like the look of Chaos Space Marines. 

Not the Horus Heresy, but that’s going to happen as well, I’m going to making a Chaos Space Marines. Now I’ve got to come up with a paintjob and a background for the army. It might be one of the Legions, maybe Night Lords of Alpha Legion, or maybe my own group of rebellious marines. 

I’m looking at the Vengence Warband on the GW warband. It will give me a good core of an army. One unit of Marines, Havoks and Terminators. Plus, a Lord and a Rhino. I’ve already got a unit of terminators, from the last time I started Chaos Space Marines and a terminator armoured Lord with Lightning Claws. I can use the second model to make a more shooty option maybe. 

I need to get a second squad of Chaos Space Marins, and a Maulerfiend or Forgefiend. A Helldrake looks fun, but it looks a pain to paint.

So, the forces of the Imperium are going to burn, before the onslaught of the Dark Gods. 

Sorry for the lack of pictures. 

Back into the Desert

So following up from the previous week’s victory, it was time to switch sides and play the British in the first scenario, Frontier Battle. To play this I took 3 Humber CS9 and 2 Rolls. Three ten man squads with LMGs in Trucks. All backed up by a MMG in a Bren Carrier. 

I think this, will do me well.

Turn 1:

As the flare went up, and the enemy spotted, we raced forward. The majority of this turn was taken up with getting troops on the board. I pulled up my CS9’s in the centre. I had a squad on the left taking cover in middle. On the right, another squad took the flank. In the middle, a third squad moved forward, ready to charge forward and take a postion in the centre. 

Paint is coming

Opposite me were a number of Tankette’s. Some had double machine gun, a couple with anti tank rifles and scarily. Two had flamethrowers. Terry, got the best of the shooting, and three of my units. The squad on the left and the right, took two pin markers, as well as one of the CS9’s in the middle. Finally, pouring out of Terry’s trucks were two squads, an Elefantino and a MMG, which all took postion.

The flare gave out, and everything went dark as we went into the second turn.  

Turn 2: 

As the darkness descended, this boded well for me as Terry got the majority of his dice early on, and manouvered his vehicles forward. Not being able to get decent rolls on his visision rolls. I was able to move forward my truck on the left, to protect the squad from the impending Flamethrowe armed tankette.

Terry then moved the aforementioned flamethrower and flamed the truck to death. However, an advantage for me, it quickly ran out of fuel and began to limp it’s way homewards. More annoyingly, I wouldn’t be claiming any victory points for it. 

Finally, in the centre, Terry moved one of his Tankettes forward, and in response, I moved forward my CS9 forward and opened fire. However, I missed. In response, Terry moved another anti tank rifle and opened fire. Imobilising my CS9, gaining him victory points. 

In the lastfew dice roll, I ran forward my truck in the centre and pulled up in front of the Bagsarili, and then remembered, if I ran my truck, the squad in the centre wouldn’t be able to charge in. 

Oppps. 

The turn ended with the flares going up again. 

Turn 3:

I got the first dice of the turn, and my squad charged in against the Bagsilarie and died. They managed to kill two of the seven men out. Terry, killed five, winning the combat. On the left flank, two twin machine guns armed Tankettes, charged forward and opened fire on the squad. I went down, and lost a man. Meanwhile, on the other flank, the flamethrower came in and wiped out my squad. I had gone from three squads, to one heavily pinned and damaged squad. Whoops

In the centre of the table, the Tankettes began to change angle and move towards the CS9 and Rolls on the right of the centre. However, worse for me, the Bagelssaire moved forward, and charged the CS9, and wiped it out in a round of combat. 

Hum, things had turned against me. I was rolling poorly, and Terry was taking a commanding lead in the victory points. The only thing that was positive for me, was that the flamethrower tried to flame one of the Rolls Royce, and not only did it not hit, but it ran out of fuel, and began it’s way home. 

Turn 4:
On the right flank, my squad went down under a hail of Machine gun fire but despite the hail of fire, the squad survived. They may be pinned, but there fighting to stay in the game. 

IN the middle of the board, my commander, in a CS9, finally was able to pass a command test and moved forward and aimed a shot at the Anti Tank Rifle Tankette, and I missed. In response, Terry aimed his Tankette at my Rolls and immobilised it. 

Following on from this success, he turned the Bagisellir towards the Bren Carrier and charged in. However, they were not so successful and bounced off the Bren carrier. 

The flares came down and night descended again.

Turn 5:

With reducded visibility, I decided to through it all in, and attempted to charge the last squad at tankette to see if I can take it out in combat. However, I failed my dice roll. In response, Terry killed another two of the squad and added a pin. Taking their total to 6. 

In the middle, Terry tried to take out the Bren carrier, but despite another set of shots and around of combat, all he was able do was to drive it back. Which was great for me, as my machine gun could now see them, and it opened fire, killing two. 

On the right, my intact Rolls opened fire at Terry’s squad and killed another two. But they stuck around. 

Turn 6

The first dice was mine, and knowing that the game was not going to end well for me, I tried to charge the tankette with the last members of my squad. With six pins, I needed to pass a morale test on a 3. One roll of a 3 left and they attempted to charge in. I need to pass my tank fear test, and I rolled three and I was in. 

Until I failed to inflict any damage on the test (it was quite hard with three dice). The squad retreated and was then cut down into a hail of fire. It was worth a try. I then got another dice, and Terry’s Bagsellari squad was wiped out in the gunfire from the Machine Gun. 

The rest of the turn we traded fire, and Terry was able to wipe out the Bren Carrier, which had taken three turns to be destroyed and the game came to an end at this point. 

Terry had clearly won. 

Terry 18 victory points

David 4 victory points

  

Ouch, that’s all I can say. I don’t think I did anything wrong, but the dice were against me. I don’t the getting a number of pins, on squads on turn 1 helped me either. However, I gave a good go at it and was really happy that the squad that spent 5 turns pinned, were able to charge the tankettes, even if they did get wiped out.