Terrain Blitz

I’ve been on a bit of terrain blitz over the last few weeks as I’ve recently realised that my painting table and project area has become overrun with unfinished projects. Like many of you I game a number of periods and systems and flit from thing to thing like some kind of demented giant butterfly.

So I’m going to aim to finish things over the coming months rather than have stuff lying about in various states of completion. With that in mind below are a few hobby projects that I’ve completed over the last two weeks:

Rocks

These are the ultimate in budget terrain solution and were pretty much free (apart from time). Ok well maybe not free as such however they are very very cheap to produce. Firstly a visit to the local park to collect some wood bark chippings that the council scatter over the flower beds, then a detour to the kids play area for some sand. After that I had a rummage in the recycling bin for some thick card which was duly cut into some random shapes. I ran out of card fro the larger pieces and had to utilise some 5mm foamcard however this was my only real expense. Zap the wood bark in the microwave to make sure there’s nothing nasty living inside (my better half was not impressed with the burnt wood smell that lingered for days in the kitchen - oops!), then liberal use of PVA to glue the sand and bark down. Once dry base coat in black (I used cheap poster paint that I keep for terrain projects). Block colour in mid grey, highlight in various light greys. Scatter some flock and you’re good to go.

Big River

Yes, that’s right a really big river, not one of those piddly little things that meander across the board but somehow manage to stop your ranked up Roman Legionnaires from crossing even though its jumping distance across! No this river is roughly 8” wide and far too big for my bridge. It’s made from black vinyl floor tiles that were deemed unsuitable for my paved gaming board. I first gave it various coats and shades of acrylic blue and edged the banks in artists’ acrylic and polyfilla. There then followed many coats of varnish, this being the most awkward part as the stuff stinks and the weather has been rather changeable in the UK of late so outside drying has been a problem. Also it appears that small flying insects love the smell of drying varnish, and with the stuff being rather sticky you end up with all manner of unwanted creatures in your river.

I then painted the edges in PVA and liberally sprinkled on my flock mix. Currently I only have 4ft of river however I plan on picking up some more tiles to expand on this with a few corners and fords planned. Luckily I currently only need 4ft for my gaming needs as this river represents a certain water course featured in a very well known book, which leads us on to …….

The Brandywine Ferry

As my LoTR journey continues I’ve been slowly painting up the various elements required to play the Fellowship Journeybook scenarios. I have most of the basic terrain features such as hills, trees and the like however I don’t have access to a river the right size (see previous comment regarding “piddly”). Obviously if you’re going to make a river to represent the Brandywine you may as well build the ferry so I set to with all the components listed in the Fellowship book and proceeded to build said ferry.

So that’s most of my terrain activity over the last few weeks, my model painting update shall follow shortly (Hobbits, Riders, more Ringwariths and some Germans!).

More Warriors of Rohan

Following up on my previous post regarding my fledgling Lord of the Rings Battle Company I based out a few more Warriors of Rohan to bolster my force should I be lucky enough to actually win some games and roll for extra troops. These were painted exactly as before, and just as before I am completely and utterly bored of painting different shades of brown. On the plus side I think they look pretty good.

As we (meaning myself and Andy at the club) progress with our forces we’ll move some of our games from skirmish level to formation style games, either using War of the Ring or Hail Fantasy (the Hail Caesar mod developed by Scott at http://scottswargaming.blogspot.co.uk/) which has some nice army lists and adaptations hosted at http://games.groups.yahoo.com/group/HailSauron/

I thoroughly enjoy the skirmish style game as it tells the story of the books very well, however it would be nice to have the grand strategic view you get from larger formation style games with the attendant “gods eye view” of the battlefield, the greater emphasis on command and control (see my earlier ramble on lines of sight ) providing a different challenge to smaller individual model type games.

Sheffield Triples 2014

This is one of my local gaming shows and also one of the larger ones in the north of England so I dutifully attended on the Sunday (it’s one of the rare two day events!). After having a rather pleasant drive down in the sunshine, listening to the new one from Fish (ex-Marillion bloke), I arrived at the English Institute of Sport in a cheery mood and parked up the road rather than be ripped off in the “official” car park.

The Institute is a rather large building, and appropriately so as it houses a Judo Hall, Combat Hall, Netball and Badminton Halls, Multipurpose Hall and a 200m Indoor Athletics Arena. The Triples event occupied one of the large halls with a small overflow hall that was badly signed to say the least and a further small part of the athletics hall for the Bring and Buy and some gaming event/tournament stuff. Others have critiqued the “bring and buy” so I won’t blather on about except to say that it was just another traders area for second/third/fourth hand goods, some prices being silly, others being fair. If you haggle you might get a deal however I didn’t see anything worth haggling for.

There were a selection of games being demoed however they didn’t seem particularly inviting, other than the EoTD table which had a number of youngsters getting stuck in to some good old gothic horror goodness. My main reasons for going were to pretty much soak up the atmosphere, look at new shinies and pick up a few weird bits that I haven’t been able to find anywhere else. So below is my haul, a couple of Osprey’s on the Peninsular War, another Ringwraith missing from my collection (only one more required!), Renedra barrels, FoW Burning Empires to support my burgeoning interest in North Africa (I’m using it as a sourcebook and at £6 brand new a steal), a pack of Ironmen from Black Pyramid for my VSF collection and a Stug III G from Warlord.

I also had a good chat with the guys from Timeline Miniatures who make some very affordable and interesting buildings suitable for VSF through to Modern. They also do some dark ages huts etc and their public house is excellent. I may have to invest.

Anyway here's the picture dump:

I'm not sure what this was however it looked really good,
even at 6mm (I think)

A war of Spanish Succession game that looked great. I spent quite a
while watching this one.

Empire of the Dead. Very visual, some great terrain simply laid out and popular with the young uns'

Love the detail on the greenhouse in the garden!

Huge Muskets and Tomahawks game. Made me want ot join in however I was flagging at this point and wanted a cuppa!

 

Bolt action, nice small board

A little reminiscent of Saving Private Ryan!

Not sure the system but an excellent LRDG raid in 28mm. Those Junkers looked huge (and rightly so!)

As Promised - Competition Time!

I promised a competition and so here it is. After rummaging in my various mountains of stuff I've decided to theme the competition on material in much the same way that wedding anniversaries are celebrated - Cotton (1st), Flowers (4th), Copper (9th), China (20th), Ruby (40th) and Stone  (90th ……..weird!)

So for my first anniversary competition I’m going to use plastic, thus all the prizes are plastics!

1. Space Marine Sergeant

I still love the look of Space Marines however I’m really not taken with the newer editions of the game. Anyway I have a nice little Space Marine force packed away for a later day however this little chap has decided to forge his way in the dark dismal 40k universe alone. He’s kit bashed from various sources and is looking for a kind and loving home, preferably without pets.

2. GW Savage Orcs

These were purchased for a painting project that never got started, mainly because I hated the sculpts. Don’t get me wrong there’s nothing wrong with them however I have fond memories of earlier versions of Orcs that had a sense of humour to them and these models are just too serious looking. These angry little chaps are not looking for a kind and loving home and would love to eat play with some pets!

3. Gripping Beast Anglo Saxon Thegns

Left overs from my Saxon army for WAB/Saga. There’s ten in total and make pretty good warriors for Saga with either a thrusting spear or hand weapon option. These guys will accept any home and will be bringing their own pets (lice etc).

4. Non-themed back up prize - A dog eared copy of Band of Brothers.

I’ll include a non-themed prize everytime I run a comp and this time round its this rather interesting book. It covers a lot more than the TV show it spawned and is quite nice read and intro to WW2 factual accounts.

Ok so here are the rules:

1. You must comment below so I know you’re interested. List what you’re interested in or get a random pick if you’re one of the winners.
2. Write a line or two about this giveaway on your own blog, with a link to this post, for an extra chance to win.
3. If you’ve linked from your blog, then tell me (and the world) so, and give us a link to that post in your comment.
4. You have until Sunday 15th June, noon GMT, to apply. Then I will randomly select the winners and update the blog accordingly.
5. Once I’ve posted the winners please contact me via the contacts bit of the blog with your address and stuff and I’ll post out your goodies. Please note if you have a preferred prize and its been won by someone else I’ll randomly choose from the remaining items

IMPORTANT NOTE

This is a bit of fun, I clear out some stuff I don’t want anymore, you get something for free and it costs you nothing. There is no commercial spin to this, I don’t make any money from this blog and I’ll be covering the postage costs. So if you fancy any of the above just say so in the comments. You don’t have to share this with anyone and you may get something for free!

A Bit of a Ramble - Alessio said something that struck a chord!

Whilst reading an issue of Wargames Illustrated on the way to work I was taken with a statement made by one of the regular columnists Alessio Cavatore (he of GW, Kings of War, Bolt Action and Loka fame!). In the article he discusses the problem of defining line of sight in a wargame and the two schools of thought - Abstract and True Line of Sight.

So in Abstract it is assumed that your toy soldiers occupy an area denoted by their base, and if that base is then grouped into some form of regiment then the regiment denotes line of sight. In addition all terrain features are assumed to be abstract representations of real world objects (woods, hills and buildings) and therefore define areas of effect. Therefore when drawing line of sight you are dealing with a set of rules that define the tactical options.

Example: My unit of 24 Saxon Thegns wishes to charge the rather annoying Welsh Combrogi that are shaking their bits at me. However as my unit is representative of a larger formation their line of sight is not simply 360 degrees signifying them looking around, but rather 90 degree arc to the front representing not only line of sight but also command and control of such a large unit of troops (to a degree). The naughty Welshmen are outside this arc and therefore I cannot declare a charge because I cannot “see” them.

Now in the example given above the line of sight is abstracted to allow the tactical movement of large blocks of troops that may be difficult to manage and thus is not just what someone can eyeball but rather how effectively the formation can function. The fact that they cannot see just indicates that the formation cannot initiate a charge into combat due to poor positioning and the unwieldy nature of a large group of angry Saxons with sharp stuff!

Now with true line of sight you do get down and eyeball things, taking the models eye view and making a judgement of whether (if you were the figure) you’d be able to fire/throw/charge. This works very well with skirmish games where the effectiveness of a model is related to the single models attributes but once you increase the model count and start to assign attributes to the (now) unit and what benefits they acquire due to there being more of them it becomes a little weird. The larger asset now has different effects on the battle but also different limitations. If you were to allow 360 line of sight then how would the guy at the back know that some of his mates are charging off after a briefly spotted enemy in front of them, after all he’s spotted some guys behind them and wants to charge them. So as you can see once you structure the individuals into a group they become more predictable but also more constrained, command and control is the dominant factor however their combat effectiveness is greater due to the effect of the mass!

"Ere Brian, can you see that Jerry hiding behind the truck?"

I have played both ways of defining line of sight and I have to say that abstract is a great way to play large unit/regiment/battalion actions, where it is not the effectiveness of one stat line versus another that matters but rather whether you can get the “asset” into a position to achieve some form of battle objective.

Now here’s where I get to the point of the post, Alessio then goes on to say that when play testing true line of sight he had a bit of a revelation in that by getting down and eyeballing it he became immersed in the game. He acquired the “Hollywood” feel of it and thus was playing out the story rather than rolling dice and playing a wargame. This is the bit that struck a chord with me, primarily because for most of my wargaming life I have always pictured myself as the General. I loved picturing giving orders to the troops and “eyeballing” the table and enjoying the diorama aspect of the game.

I have taken part in many forum discussions on the topic of line of sight, in fact I’ve abandoned whole systems due to changes in this aspect of the rules because I felt that it detracted from what the system was trying to represent. In one of my most recent rule sets (Bolt Action) line of sight is defined as “True” however many players have put their own house rules in place to mix elements of abstract into it to allow clearer play (area terrain for defining trees etc). And this it the bit that I don’t like, I want to get down and eyeball if my Tommy can bag the Hun hiding behind the tree. If said tree was actually a piece of green felt denoting a copse or wood then it begins to be a bit pointless eyeballing the target and thus that immersive element of the game is lost. If that is gone then I want something else to keep me excited and involved but as Bolt Action is very much a “Hollywood Movie” type game it is built around this mechanism and therefore if altered there isn't as much reward. Furthermore the models are static and therefore how do you handle true line of sight if the target is lying down and you can't actually see it! And thus the indefinable, unwritten and unquantifiable element of wargaming comes into play - Common Sense.

We can play games with toy soldiers representing actual real life people and events however they don't actually shoot or run or shout orders. And yet I have played games against people who will categorically state that I cannot eliminate more models than I can see because the majority are behind a wall. How did they get there, didn't they just run past my troops. We to have apply common sense and a good deal of imagination to the game to make sure that its an enjoyable experience and thats where true line of sight adds benefit to the experience. Yes that trooper is lying down however if the models counts as prone surely it cannot move, nor see anyone else? Or do we apply our imagination to the toy soldiers and picture them carrying out our orders?

Don’t get me wrong I am not saying either way is better than the other, in fact I would argue that both ways have the same level of importance but to different aspects of the hobby. If my group of Saxons Thegns were on a raid into the Welsh hills then they’d be in some form of loose formation rather than a prepared shieldwall facing down hordes of angry Combrogi bent on revenge. In the raid I’d be eyeballing whether I can sneak around the side of the wattle and daub shack to steal the sheep, when in Shieldwall I’d be using the eagle eye view to assess where to commit my reserves should my line break, the abstract view allowing me to estimate the effect of terrain on said reserves getting in to position.

So what I’m trying to say is don’t get frightened by true line of sight, if you have a enough terrain then play it as exactly as is, hide your troops behind the trees or walls then take a models eye view of the board and picture the action. It’s quite rewarding.

Walls, walls everywhere and not a drop to drink!

Obviously this is a very poor pun on the Rime of the Ancient Mariner however it felt like this when I decided that it would be fun to have some walls to block line of sight in my various gaming pursuits. So I set to with glue, plasticard, hardboard and a very sharp knife, taking a few cues from Rich over at Two Fat Lardies and his Salute terrain build. Much like Rich I ended up with some very exciting hot glue burns and paint smeared fingers from a cheap spray can but thats another story.

A couple of evening later and I've got a box file full of walls that at 28mm ground scale equates to about 7 foot high. Perfectly fine for compounds and walled gardens I'm hoping and they've already featured in a game of Bolt Action, providing some much need cover for my homeguard.

Unfortunately I ran out of hardboard so the corners and intersections are based on artists mountboard and thus sit a little low when next to the walls, I'll have stick some more card underneath to raise them up a bit.

Laters
Ste

An Anniversary (of sorts)

Wow

101 posts and 10,000+ views!

I started this blog as a way to motivate my painting and gaming as I found I'd hit a bit of a slump. The weird changes to GW's core games and marketing had put me in a bit of negative mindset when it came to the hobby and I needed something to pick me up a bit. After reading many blogs I came to the sudden realisation that most bloggers seem to post articles, pictures and content simply because it keeps them going in the hobby. As you acquire more readers you start to become driven to provide a bit more quality in your posts, and as the content is the result of your hobby activity you become more driven to meet your targets.

In a way a blog becomes a job, however unlike an actual job (which can become a bit of a bind) it forms part of the hobby and provides its own reward (for me at least).

As is tradition for most Blogiversaries I shall have some form of competition, I just need to organise a few prizes and think of how to run it.

Watch this space

Oh and thanks for reading!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Ste

"Wraiths, Wraiths on.......err feet"

At least thats possibly what Gollum would have said if Frodo and Co had encountered him between Bree and Weathertop. I really like the Peter Jackson interpretation of the Nazgul and have always wanted to collect the Nine when GW released them in support of the LoTR SBG. So I finally bid on these five on eBay, they're the models from the Weathertop boxset (I think) and I'm quite happy with how they turned out.







Now I just need to get the other four and I'll have all I need, oh and the Nine mounted as well, and maybe a couple on fell beasts, and maybe the Witch King at Pelennor...... the list goes on. One thing I won't do is collect the ones that GW named (the Betrayer) as that's when I think they started to lose it, nice models but for me they don't add anything to the Tolkien world in a way that adds benefit to me. I want to play out the War of the Ring, the story as written and filmed (I love the films!!) and not explore things that Tolkien only hinted at.

Warriors of Rohan

Some additions to my growing painted LoTR SBG collection in the form of Warriors of Rohan. When I started this I thought to myself “Rohan, they’re cool models and should be easy to paint”. Wrong!

When I got into actually sitting down and applying wet stuff with a brush I noticed just how detailed they are in places whilst in others they seem to just blur together with very little definition between clothing and anatomy.

Additionally I completely forgot that mounted models can become dismounted. Thus requiring additional figures to represent said two legged warriors. Grrrrr

Anyway once I’d done a test figure and applied the rather laborious shading method I’d chosen for their cloaks (Vallejo heavy dark green, Russian uniform, Russian uniform and Goblin green, Sepia Wash, then repeat) I crunched through enough figures for my Battle Company. So that’s 3x Throwing Spear, 3x Hand Weapon & Shield and 2 x Bows.

We haven’t actually started the campaign yet as a couple of the guys have been on hols however hopefully we’ll get going towards the end of May.

Andy and I did have a very enjoyable game of the Wrath of the Rohirrim scenario published in White Dwarf the other week. 15 riders with Eomer and a captain try and destroy the Uruks/Orcs near Fangorn whilst hopefully allowing Merry and Pippin to escape.

No pics unfortunately, which is good as my riders aren’t quite finished however it was one hell of a game, trying to catch up to the fleeing Orcs/Uruks while they leg it for the forest (bad idea going in those trees!) proved to be quite tricky, especially when Andy kept throwing Uruk speed bumps in front of my riders.

In the end it came down to Eomer trying to run down the last Orc carrying Pippin before he got into the forest (Merry already being freed by some rather lucky bowfire!). After a tussle with Grishnakh that saw Eomer use up his might pints it came down to who got priority in the next turn, and unfortunately Andy rolled highest. If I had just had that last might point I could have called an Heroic Move as Emoer was close enough to do some serious damage to the hobbit toting Orc but it was not to be. Cue Andy gloating as his Orc runs into the forest, sticking up two fingers to the “B**stard of the Riddermark” (as Andy has taken to calling him!).

We’re going to run through it again in a few weeks when I’ve finished some more riders and hopefully I’ll get some pics.

Anyway here's a few pics of said Warriors of Rohan in all their glory.

Warbases Dark Age Dwellings

I can't actually remember if I posted these however I finished them off some time ago. These were part of a big order I placed with Warbases that included the modular buildings I've already blogged about however these took a little bit more work due to the toy dog vivisection I had to carry out for the thatching. My wife was rather disturbed as I gleefully sat on the floor with my hand stuffed down a toy Labradors neck pulling out the poly fibre stuffing (great smoke effect for WW2 games by the way).



I did add a little extra detail in the form of timbers and textured walls out of coffee stirrers and polyfilla although I haven't based then yet, not sure if they need it or not. I've also still to do some wattle fencing to provide the all important sheep and goat pens, these will be sourced from Warbases as well as they recently launched some new lead accessories.

Should do nicely for a Rohan village about to be attacked by the marauding bands of Sarumans Uruj Hai.

Bolt Action Battle Report - Home Guard vs Heer

What if an enterprising and patriotic Home Guard unit decided to take matters into their own hands and join in on the invasion of Europe? Well that’s what Andy and I based our most recent game of Bolt Action on. In fairness I played this game for the laugh. The club is running a small 500pts escalation campaign that I opted not to join in on having decided to focus on LoTR SBG with t’other Andy however I needed a break so volunteered to be the 6th man to allow Andy to play this week.

Me - Home Guard 500 pts

2nd Lieutenant & NCO (inexperienced)

Free Forward Observer & adjutant (regular)

7 x Home Guard (NCO with SMG, 5 rifles and LMG)

7 x Home Guard (NCO with SMG, 5 rifles and LMG)

7 x Home Guard (NCO with SMG, 5 rifles and LMG)

7 x Home Guard (NCO with SMG, 6 rifles and Lipton Teas Van!)

Sherman III (inexperienced and nicked from the repair depot!)

Andy - Heer 500 pts

Leutnant (regular)

10 Heer (NCO and 9 rifles)

10 Heer (NCO and 9 rifles)

10 Heer (NCO and 9 rifles)

Medium Mortar with Spotter

Sdkfz 222 Armoured Car

We rolled up the mission and got Top Secret, the only mission in the rulebook that sucks! The objective is placed in the centre of the board and the winner is the one that manages to get it off their board edge. Unfortunately due to the wording of the mission you can “daisy chain” the objective from unit to unit, the result being that by turn three you can have it off the board.

So it was a headlong rush to capture the objective, which was a box containing a Field Marshall Rommels prize begonia seeds and collection of English sewing thimbles that had been left behind in the retreat through France. Unfortunately Andy won the roll to choose board edges and picked the very convenient straight road leading to the churchyard containing said seeds. I’d have my work cut out trying to stop him as I was left with the board covered in my nice new walls that completely blocked line of sight. No units were deployed at the start of the game, each side needing to roll to bring them as per the reserves rule.

Turn 1

Andy advances as fast as possible with everything up the road. We ruled that the woodland on his side of the board was true line of sight and not area terrain, this meaning that his armoured car could drive through it. I on the other hand shepherded my Home Guard tourists through the walled compounds on my side of the board, also failing to bring on my Tank or lorried unit.

No casualties, no firing, just a little strategic shuffling

The board with my new walls and church yard. Lots of
blocked lines of sight

"Come on chaps. I think Jerry is down here!"

Turn 2

Andy pops his armoured car on ambush and takes a few pot shots at my units that he could see. As the Home Guard have the Green rule on the first pins I take I have to roll a d6. On a 1 they take an additional d6 pins and immediately go down, on a 2 3 or 4 they’re fine and carry on as normal and on a 5 or 6 they become regular. As they’re so cheap its worth I shot! Luckily I managed not to get pinned to bits with one unit but another took a hopeful dash through the doorway of the walled compound and got pinned to hell and immediately hit the dirt behind the church wall.

Bloody German AFV's

Turn 3

I’ve managed to get my tank on which manages to get some pins on Andy’s unit that has now captured Rommels Horticulture. Hopefully that should slow down the dastardly hun for a turn or two. Meanwhile I dash my other unit into the house opposite the church, if the germans will only stay in the graveyard I can poor fire on them from my now secure position.

 

"Oi tank bloke, shoot them over there"

Turn 4

I’ve managed to sneakily push my Forward Observer up the other side of the church and he now radio’s in the coordinates of the road that the Hun came in on. Hopefully that should deter Andy making his exit that way. They then receive some rifle fire but being the only regular unit in my platoon I’m not too worried (they’ve been in Normandy a while and were hastily assigned to my irregulars in the hope of reining then in!). I manage to bring on my trucked unit who drive as fast as they can to try and outflank.

Unfortunately Andy shrugged off his pins on the unit carrying the objective and proceeded to daisy chain the darn thing down the road. 1 more turn and its all over.

Turn 5

Andy gets first dice and starts to order his unit off the board with the Field Marshalls valuables when I cry “WAIT” (thirty plus wargaming heads turn to look at me with disapproval. It was like farting in a library!), I haven’t rolled to see if my artillery strike arrives. Dice are rolled, collective breaths are held and ……..BOOM the fabled British artillery range in  and decimate the unit carrying the objective.

“Woohoo” says I.

“Bollocks” Andy replies.

We then proceed with the turn, I advance the Sherman up the road as a convenient road block, after dashing my trucked unit up the road last turn they jump out and advance through the woods, taking down the German officer that survived the artillery barrage.

Staring down the barrel of a gun. The Sherman
lines up on the unfortunate German soldier
in the road!

Unfortunately it was all in vain as in turn 6 Andy manages to get his unit off the board and thus wins the praise and approval of his peers.

Grrrr

Summary:

A nice relaxing game against regular opponent Andy where I managed to try out an almost completely inexperienced force. In Bolt Action in experienced troops are at a disadvantage over regular or veteran troops as they suffer an automatic -1 when rolling to hit. Factor that in with a reduced morale value and they can be very fragile. By using Home Guard with their “Green” rule I am able to mitigate this (if I’m lucky) as I may end up with them becoming regulars once they suffer their first pin.

An interesting suggestion that we’re going to try out is including two coloured dice to the dice bag. Once both of these have been drawn the turn ends, thus simulating a further aspect of command and control. By not knowing when the turn ends you can’t count on every unit being able to activate, similar I believe to the mechanic in Chain of Command. We’ll see how it goes.