ACW - Day Four

Sadly, a picture less update today, as my phone and mac are not talking to each other. Or, the computer is not talking to the blog site. Who knows, I hate computers.

So, despite the lack of updates, Day two went very well. With 12 models being painted. Day three, was just as productive, with a further 8 models painted. Day Four, we scraped through with the bare minimum. 4 models being painted.

This leaves me with, after four days of painting, 28 models painted. Progress is going to be slow over the next few days. I should hit my target for tomorrow. However, with the start of a Saga campaign, where I'll be looting and pillaging with my Rohan come Saxon warband. Day six will be a right off. Hopefully, Days 7 and 8 will allow me to catch up. Three bases over two days should be doable.

I'll see you on Friday, where hopefully, there will be photos.

See you soon.

ACW - Day one

So, the challenge is now into its second day, and day one went well. Despite an impromptu pub trip, the first four models, the first base, got painted. In fact, I even got time to start the second base and got the various shades of grey done on them.

Here's a photo of the first four. Let's see what day two brings.

From this.... 

To this.

July, the month of painting

So, at the half -way mark, I'm looking good to hit the year's painting mark. I'm aiming to have 732 painted models, or two for every day, by the end of the year. Having been unemployed for two and a half months has helped this total, and I'm 4.64% ahead of where I should be and I've now painted 400 models.

Which meant, that as June came to a close, I've had to do some basing, quite a lot of basing actually, as this photo shows.

Though you may not be able to see them, there is a good mix of models in there, from the Napoleonic 79th Cameron Highlanders to Iron Man, to High Elf Archers. Having hit 400 models, it's time to turn my attention to that American War. In previous posts I've talked about playing games and the rather large amount of models I've purchased this year, roughly 100, plus the 36 I already had, well it's time to get painting.

So, with a hundred plus models, one commander and 4 cannons to go. I feel a challenge needed. For the month of July, I'm aiming to paint at least one base of models a day. A base for me means four models. So by the end of July, I could have a 100 plus models painted.

 As I'm painting Confederates, which are a mixture of Grey, brown, grey, butterscotch, and more grey, this should be  an easily achievable target. In the past, I've painted a Scottish force for the English Civil war, and so I have a lot of grey paint. 

In the photo above you can see a box with five units, undercoated, waiting to be painted. There are five units worth built, and I have parts for another three, if not four, waiting to be built. 

So stay tuned, I hope to post updates daily, but we shall see. See you tomorrow. 

That American War

So, it’s been a while, and I’m sorry for that. I’ve been busy with work, and painting, the total is increasing towards having 4000 painted models. I need to do more basing, but that will happen, at some point. 

Recently. We’ve been gaming in the American War. Jim has had a number of models for this period, and last year we had a game, that had been several years in the making, and I’ve had a box of Perry’s plastics which were brought upon their release several years ago. 

Then a month, or so, ago, Warlord released Glory Hallelujah and things changed. A few purchases of Perry Battle in a Box later, and we all had models and rules to use them. My models are still on the sprue, waiting for some space to appear on the workstation. Once it appears, the Confederate forces will be marching from my painting table to the battletop. 

We’ve had two games so far, and each was and enjoyable affair. The one thing that Glory Hallelujah does is provide a new selection of special rules, to help give the flavour of the period. So for both games John S and I were Union, while Jim and Terry were Confederate. 

Both games happened very similarly and so I won’t be producing a battle report (that and I’ve not got any notes) with both sides approaching until they were in musket range, and then opening fire, till one or the other broke. 

However, playing in this period was refreshing. One of the special rules introduced was to make it harder to charge. Apparently, and this is a period that I’ve not done a lot of research into, that American War didn’t really feature a lot of combat, the two sides would blast away at each other until one side fled. 

With this in mind, at no point did I ever feel like charging, as I was quite happy to sit back and fire away. There are other special rules, which we’ve started to use and I look forward to getting more done. 

We also had a quick game of Napoleonics, where we were joined by Lorenzo from Warlord Games. It turns out he can really roll dice, and the French nearly won. It was a good job, John S and I, allowed them to go first, so they broke first :)

In model news, I’ve just taken delivery of a bunch of German Grenadiers to get ready for the D-Day landings we’ve started talking about wargaming. A nice 20% off from warlord helped out. I’m also purchased a few beastmen. I saw on Facebook that Paul Sawyer is redoing his Tale of Four Gamer warbands, and a few eBay purchases later I have a Beast Lord, a Shaman, and Minotaur Lord. I have lots of plans, and not enough money.

I’ve also just finished painting up my Black Widow model, that I purchased from Salute, an easy model to paint, and a good job as well. I’ve also recently painted up Commander Vimes, and that model, was, even more, fun to paint. 

I've also found a new blog about skirmish games, mainly the DC and Marvel games from Knight Models, which I've put in the side bar. Go check it out. 

Right, back to the painting table (well to World of Warcraft at least)

Can't see the trees for the Germans.

So, it’s been a while. I’m sorry about that. At the beginning of April, I started a new job, which has taken up a lot of my time. Combined this with a few weeks of not playing games for various reasons, and you don’t blog. It's also up to a nearly 1000 views which I find quite exciting. 

Games were played with giant floating space triangles

However, this is now resolved. My painting has been going on, much as it always has, and I’ve now passed three hundred painted models this year. I’m currently 34 ahead of schedule which is nice. Other recent highlights of the year have been a trip to Salute and an influx of models for that American War*

The trees are alive with the sound of war.

And the reason for this next post, the second battle in Warlord Games’ Hail Caeser supplement, Germania. Escape from Aliso. The two John’s and I were the Germans, whilst Jim, Ben and Terry were the Romans.

As you can see from the photos’ we had a road running, more or less, straight through the diagonal of the board, which the Romans would advance through. Whilst the Germans waited for the opportune moment to jump out and give them a good bashing.

Turn 1

Right lad, at the double, quick march.

The Romans set off down the wooded path, careful of what the night time shadows may hold. Terry, commanding Lucius Caedicius, made a quick dash down the road, leaving his two other divisions far behind. Jim lead his men through the thick undergrowth, hoping to find the Germans and give them a good taste of Roman steel. 

Meanwhile, due to a misunderstood order, Ben's troops milled around at the back, until we remembered that the Romans were drilled and on a road, and so were able to make one move.

Meanwhile, the Germans moved forward. The scenario is all about a surprise attack of three German warbands. To do this, the scenario gives you six cards, one for each warband and three fakes. To try and give the Roman players the element of doubt.

Turn 2

Deep in the heart of the forest, Terry became a bit cagey and, jumping at shadows, ordered his men into battle lines, with the veterans, showing the less experienced troops how to do things, moved

forward.

Wait, did you hear that!

In another part of the Forest, Jim moved his troops forward, hampered by the low hanging branches. Ben rolled well and his men moved forward, hoping to catch up with Terry before it was too late. 

Sadly, Ben had missed the opportunity and Jim had moved forward, bringing John S and my warbands into play. We held back, not ready to charge, but letting off our best blood-curdling scream and in John's case a flight of arrows, none of which did any damage. 

Turn 3

Caedicius got his men ready to charge in. He ordered his regulars to reform and charge forward. Whilst the veterans, were eager to charge forward to put the Germans to a quick end. However, a serious of bad dice rolls left Terry with only the regulars reforming to face their foes. In other parts of the forest Jim and Ben advance forward, but were delayed and so Caedicius was left to face the Germans on his own.

And on 3, charge. 1... 2... 3

However, he had a secret weapon. A battery of Scorpio's that opened fired on my skirmishers, causing two wounds. 

The Germans charged. It was a simple plan. After much discussion, John S was going to charge his cavalry was going to charge the recently reformed regulars in the flank, whilst I charged into the front. John got

his cavalry in, but I fell short, only able to shout abuse at my victims. There was some good news in that one of my units was able to support John in his combat. Probably by shouting some obscenity at the Romans.

Our shooting phase was a mixed bag. I tried to damage the artillery with my skirmishers but failed to get past the armour. Meanwhile, John was able to hit and wound Terry's veterans. Twice. Terry rolled his dice and got a double 1. Good and bad news for the Romans. Terry's role had damaged and disordered his veterans but had brought on a unit of cavalry, which appeared behind my warband. 

The combat was a quick and brutal affair with John causing four wounds on Terry's unit to his one in return. The unit broke and was destroyed. First blood to the Germans. 

Victory Points

Romans: 0 Germans: 7

Turn 4

Terry tried to charge his veterans into combat, but because of their disordered nature, they were going nowhere. His other units, including the recently arrived cavalry, were helpless to do anything. Meanwhile in the darkness of the forest, Jim's orders became confused and his division began to discuss what to do. Meanwhile, Ben, seeing the peril of his comrades, raced forward, but was still too far away to do any help.

Parley.....

With a lucky shot, taking the head of one of my skirmishers clean off, Terry added another wound and had now disordered my skirmishers.  It was now time for the German turn, and for the Romans to form ranks and wait for the inevitable onslaught.

And come it did, with John moving two of his three units into combat with the Veterans. With his cavalry charging into the side, taking my supporting unit with them.

I manoeuvred my units under initiative whilst hoping that my commander, would be able to rally the skirmishers. However, a bad d

ice roll later and they were left in their unhealthy state. John M carried on advancing under, the cover of darkness, towards Jim.

Despite being disordered, my skirmishers were able to wound and disorder Terry's Scorpio's. I feel that this is fair recompense. 

However, all eyes turned to the combat in the centre of the table. Terry's closed ranks. The Romans were pelted from all sides with attacks, with 17 hits getting through. However, Terry's dice rolling was good and he managed to save 11 of them. However, in return, he was only able to cause one wound on John's warband. The Romans were cut down to a man, and Terry's division was now broken. John's warband, buoyed by their success, moved forward, getting ready for their next encounter with an enemy.

Victory Points

Romans: 0 Germans: 21

Turn 5

Being broken, Terry's division began to retreat. The recently arrived cavalry retreated off the board edge, leaving no sign of their presence behind. With the other units heading towards the nearest board edge. 

This is my line, there are many lines like it. But, this one is mine

Hearing the screams in the wood, orders were given and Jim and Ben's division formed a line in the wood. Despite retreating, Terry tried to shoot my skirmisher again, but in the retreat the sights had taken a knock and the bolt landed harmlessly in the woods somewhere. Jim was also able to shoot at John S's cavalry which hit and disordered them.  

At this point, John M's forces appeared, and the three German players moved their forces towards the two remaining divisions. John S shot at the archers and was able to score a disordering hit on them. 

Victory Points

Romans: 0 Germans: 28

Turn 6

In an act of cowardice, Ben and Jim both fell back, increasing the gap between the two forces, and making the Roman line more compact. Meanwhile, Terry kept retreating towards the board edge. Still taking the pot shots with his Scorpios. This time, one of my warbands had strayed into his line of sight, and he was able to disorder them. 

This was it, the turn for the mass charge. The three Germans players got together and planned who was going where, and we let John S start, as he had the bigger division. One blunder later and our plan ground to a halt.  Though I was able to move my skirmishers forward for a better line of sight. 

Victory Points

Romans: 0 Germans: 28

Now, one three lads, we charge.

Turn 7

There was much discussion between the two Roman commanders about what to do and in the end, knowing that the Germans were over one move away, they held their ground, waiting for the enemy to come to them. 

Meanwhile, Terry's division was now nearing the board edge, and his civilians, worth ten victory points to us, left the table. However, his Scorpio's and Jim's archers did try to shoot at us, but the darkness was playing havoc with their shots and they fell short.  

This time, we decided to play it a little safe and moved forward only one move. Jo

hn S let rip with his archers, hitting Jim's archers again, and causing another wound on them.

Victory Points

Romans: 0 Germans: 38

Turn 8

I say, Sir, there are quite a lot of them.

On one part of the table, the Romans were unmoving, playing a game of who will break first and charge, with the Germans. In other parts, they were high-tailing it off the board as quickly as humanly possible, when stopping to take pot shots. 

However, this waiting game carried on. Each side, waiting for someone to blink. However, my skirmishers were now close enough to lob some javelins at one of Ben's unit's which caused a wound. Whilst on the other side, John M did the same trick, but went one better, and caused a disordering wound onto one of Jim's units.

Victory Points

Romans: 0 Germans: 38

Turn 9

Sensing someone was going to break, and charge forward, Jim pulled his lightly armoured archers to the back ranks and moved forward a unit of Legionaries. Whilst Terry moved further and further towards the board edge. 

This can't go wrong, can it?

And in a blink of an eye, the Germans charge forward, John S and I were able to make contact with the enemy units led by Ben, but John M fell a little short. This allowed his units to throw a variety of missiles at Jim' causing four hits, two of which got through the tough Roman armour, and disordered

the unit, twice.

John S also allowed his commander to join the cavalry and was able to rally them. But with that, it was time for combat. Ben ordered his men to form ranks, but against John it was not good enough and he lost 4-3 and retreated disordered with John following up. However, against me, Ben had better dice rolling, and my units were beaten off and I retreated disordered with Ben hot on my heels.

Victory Points

Romans: 0 Germans: 38

Turn 10

Thier was precious little movement from the Romans, with the enemy close at hand, but Terry carried on towards the board edge and with his last shot, finally got the final wound on my skirmishers, breaking them. 

Ben's troops slammed into my disordered warbands, and when the dust had settled down, had destroyed two of them and the third was hurrying away as quickly as possible. Remember that they had left the gas on. The centurion was heard muttering, "tu tantum vivere bis" 

It's getting tense down there.

Jim, also shouting out this new latin motto had charged into John s's forces and was able to hack their way to a victory, but the combat carried on. 

With a broken division in my hands, all I could do was fall back. Things had, in the last turn, gone from looking good to looking decidedly iffy. However, fearing no interloper, the two John's charged forward into combat. 

In this whirling mass of combat, John M took on Jim and won, with Jim holding his ground and muttering something about "this is my line. there are many lines like it, but this line is mine". Jim fought John S. This time, Jim comes out on top and wins the combat, shaking John S's unit and causing them to retreat. 

Finally, Ben fought John S and lost, retreating in good order. The Romans were starting to fight back but were not moving towards the exit point and the victory points that it brings. 

Victory Points

Romans: 0 Germans: 38

Turn 11

An important turn for the German Tribesmen as Terry finally retreated off the board edge, giving us another 22 points. Meanwhile, having taken some damage, both Ben and Jim decide to use their commander to rally some of their men. Ben was able to make this role, but Jim was unable to. 

The ongoing combat between Jim and John S carried on, with Jim gaining the upper hand, but John as going nowhere.

As I continued to head home, my job done for the day. John M charged into Jim and was also able to get a flank charge in the ongoing combat between Jim and John S. Meanwhile, John S, seeing the vacant hole, from where I had been, charged into Ben's forces, which his commander was hiding in,  with his commander led cavalry. 

In the three-way combat, Jim closed ranks, and by doing so, was able to win the combat, however, the Germans were going nowhere. 

Jim then lost horribly against John M, taking many hits that left both of his units shaken. With the benefit of charging in John S, was able to hurt Ben's unit with Ben unable to do much in return. Both players were unable to kill each other's commanders. However, both sides then retreated in good order.

Victory Points

Romans: 0 Germans: 60

Turn 12

The final turn was here, the Romans were hanging on, but it was getting to the wire. Both Jim and Ben were able to rally their units, with Jim taking  a wound of a unit that was now no longer shaken. 

There was only one combat to be decided, and that was the swirling mass between the two Johns and Jim. The dice rolled poorly for Jim and his unit broke, only to find the Germans were faster and they were massacred to the last man. 

As we began our last turn, my men retreated again, but stayed on the table, which in the case of the skirmishers, was only just. John S charged his men forward, taking a unit of skirmishers and archers as support into Jim. And on the other flank, he charges Ben again with commander led cavalry. 

However, this was a wise choice, as the combat was a draw, four wounds apiece, but to John's Commander's horror, one of the Romans blows crashed into him, shattering the skull, killing him instantly. Which loses the combat to the Germans. 

In the other combat, the Romans get the upper hand, but the unit become shaken, and with that every Roman unit was now shaken. The game was over. The Germans had won.

Victory Points

Romans: 0 Germans: 67

It was a fun game, and could have gone very differently. Roman legionaries are very hard to damage in face to face combat. To do maximum damage, you really need to charge them in their flanks.

I also think that, by charging ahead, Terry let himself get separated and he should have waited for the others to catch him up. 

So, that's it for now. I hope you enjoyed the game. It was a lot of fun to play.

David.

* That American War: An alternative name for a war that took place between 1860 and 1865 and by planning to play it has seen the demise of two gaming venues. Its true name must now case of breaking the world. 

not be spoken in

The Italian Job

Pint's of coke with a pink straw give you a +1 to all dice rolls

So, after a brief foray into the Age of Sigmar, this week was back to normal and a game of Bolt Action vs Terry. For many years, I've not enjoyed this game. It's something to do with the pulling of tokens to determine who moves next. However, in the last year, breaking out my 101st Screaming Eagles has given me a new appreciation for the game.

So, we played a quick 1000 point game. Terry is busy painting a force of Italians for a forthcoming tournament. First time I've played against the Italians and they brought with them a few surprises including a plane, more of which will come later.

We rolled to see what scenario we would be playing, and the dice gave us scenario six, Demolition. We each had an objective and we had to try and destroy the opposition's objective. Terry used a vehicle and I chose my Anti-Tank gun.

We deployed half of our forces on the table and began turn one. It was a slightly uneventful turn as we moved forward and took up positions, ready for the scramble forward. The only thing of note happening was my sniper shooting the LMG from one of Terry's squad.

Turn Two arrived and so did Terry's plane. Having no flack to deal with this, it came in on my left flank and proceded to decimate an eight man squad. I opted to go down with this squad, but I still lost four men. The turn began properly and saw Terry land a mortar shell on the second of my squads. Again, I went down and Terry was able to do some damage to the squad.

In the rest of the turn, we began to bring on all of our reinforcements, and we were both able to bring on the rest of our forces. We moved up and I pushed a ten man squad as far forward as I can.

Hang on a minute lad, I've got a great idea

Turn three was the pivotal turn. Terry has moved his command squad out into the open and my ten man squad charged forward, and despite taking a casualty as they charged forward were able to engage them in combat, and wipe out Terry's commander. My men advance forward, and I could see his objective. One more turn, and I might be able to win.

However, Terry's veteran squad charged forward, from the nearby building where they had been hiding out and wiped out my men. I had seen victory and then watched it slip away. Worse was to go for me in this turn. Terry had pushed forward an armoured car down my left flank, threatening my troops. I tried to blow it up using a Bazooka and failed. I then tried to land a shell from a light Howitzer on it. I need a six, it was a long shot. I rolled to hit. It hit. I rolled to see if I penetrated. I rolled a one. It was a frustrating end to the turn.

Turn four arrived with the reappearance of the plane. It aimed at my fourth squad and did some damage to them. Again, I went down, and was able to reduce the damage caused, but it still did some serious damage to me. Having the next dice, I was able to fire my howitzer at the armoured car again. Having hit previously, I needed a 2+ to hit. I hit, with a dice roll of 2. This was it. I was going to blow it up.

Only to roll a 1 again. Two turns and two failed attempts to wipe out the tank. This was the main highlight of the turn. Terry approached one of his squads forward and wiped out the last few men from one of my squads and took cover in a building.

Turn five arrived, and I was able to wipe out Terry's squad in the building but the game ended with little fanfare. Due to the scenario objectives, neither of us had achieved our objective and so the game was a draw. Though, having done the most damage I feel that Terry takes a deserved moral victory.

To go left, when you should go right

So, what went wrong. Two things. Firstly, the airplane did a lot of damage. It did have a ridiculous amount of dice for its machine guns and quickly did a lot of damage to my men, who had little to do but die. It's an interesting unit, and one I'm going to be thinking about adding to my collections.

The other thing was my suicidal charge. I went against Terry's command unit, but on hindsight, I would have done this separately. There were three units behind the wall. The command unit, the tankette, and a medium machine gun team. I chose the command as it had the lesser amount of shots to fire. However, I think I should have charged the machine gun. I think, I would have been a bit further over and hopefully away from the veterans charge range. Then, I would have been able to make my way forward and get the objective.

Having said this, it has rekindled my interest in World War Two gaming and I'm thinking about starting a Desert Rat army. As I say a lot, to many ideas, not enough time.

Age of Sigmar - game one

So, I finally played my first game of Age of Sigmar and before I go into a short battle report. I have to say, despite playing against Liam, which meant an automatic loss, I really enjoyed the game. The rules are very different to Warhammer and come with the adage easy to learn, difficult to master. I like them. It's a game that is designed to a narrative theme. So the point of the game might be to capture a building and hold it for the rest of the game, or kill the enemy leader, instead of the traditional lineup and wipe up each other out.

There is nothing wrong with the latter game, and I often enjoy this. But the little something extra that makes me think a little different about how I play is a nice extra. So what forces played. Well, I took my High Elves and brought a Lord on a Dragon, which you can see on to the left. A unit each of archers and spearmen, staples of my High Elf forces for years. A unit of Dragon princes, a skycutter, and a repeater bolt thrower rounded up my army.

Liam took a Beastmen force and had two units of Minotaurs. A Shaman, a warlord, and some bestigors and a few razorgors. Liam won the roll to see who sets up first and then elected for me to go forward. I moved forward and tried to get my Dragon Lord into a place where he could charge. However, I was out and so the only damage that I did was a hit from the Bolt thrower, causing a wound on the minotaurs.

Dragon meat anyone?

In Liam's turn, he moved forward and my Prince and Dragon suddenly found themselves being brutally ripped apart by their giant axes. Minotaurs axes, as we both discovered, do three points of damage for each wound caused. My Dragon disappeared under a hail of axes. Liam was very apologetic about this, but things didn't look good for me.

On my left, his bestigors had charged into combat with my Dragon Princes, and had quickly killed three of them. I was able to kill a couple back, but the unit then disappeared due to battle shock. On the other flank, the Razorgors had charged the skycutter, and my spearmen were able to join in the combat.  I was able to get the upper hand in this combat and caused more wounds than Liam.

Surprise

Turn two was pretty much the same as before. Liam went first and behind my rear, some giant monstrosity appeared and charged into my Repeater bolt thrower crew. Surprisingly, he managed to leave it with one wound, and despite my best effort, the crew was not able to harm it.

The Spearmen and the Skycutter and the Razorgors carried on the battle and it went mainly in Liam's favour. Both of my units were not looking healthy but were still in the fight. Meanwhile, the minotaurs charged into the archers and decimated them. Though, this time, I was able to get some attacks in but caused little damage

In our third turn, the writing was on the wall and Liam finally killed off the rest of my forces and we called it a game.

So, despite carrying on my tradition of losing to Liam, I had a lot of fun. Age of Sigmar seems to be an enjoyable game and I look forward to playing more in the future.

Now, all I need to decide is if I want to buy more. I'm very tempted to get the starter set and go from there. I'm not a big fan of either the Sigmar force or the Chaos, but the new Dwarfs look good. So many ideas, not enough time or money.