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.