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.

I'm back! - Which Hobby(TM) do you play?

Well it's been a little while as the family and I had a little holiday over the Easter break, getting out and about and enjoying the great British weather (it rained!). There has been a little time for painting however very little time to take pics of anything, I'll rectify that tonight I think, so watch this space.

However I shall wax lyrical on something that has been bothering me for some time. If you read some of my archive posts you'll have noticed that my gaming is primarily done at my local club, with a group of guys that I've known for over ten years. Like many gamers we've tended to play the more mainstream games that were freely available (by freely available read "GW available") with a smattering of the odd and weird thrown in (board games and those weird CCG thingies).

Then something amazing happened - we discovered the internet! Yes I know it's been around a while but like most ageing groups of men playing with toy soldiers change comes slowly, if it comes at all (gratuitous film quote!) And that's what seemed to happen to the "fantastical" wargames industry as well, as the internet became more of a tool for our hobby so the industry changed with small companies cropping up or growing exponentially and quite successfully. At the same time the giant of the hobby released new versions of their core games that were not very well received (at least by me!), profits dropped and they began to consolidate. Hooray for the historical or small fantasy games company who could now market via the web at reduced cost, at the same time new manufacturing solutions were arriving (print on demand) and thus overheads and market entry barriers were reduced.

Woohoo, great for us gamers you'd think. And in general I'd say yes...... and no. Because I've seen a rather unpleasant illness inflicting quite a lot of us ex-fantastical gamers, the dreaded hobby butterfly!

We have more choice and lower cost, therefore were being drawn to whichever new and pretty thing is out there, playing for a few weeks and then moving on. We've became quite transient in our tastes, not really focusing on, and developing anything enough to try and improve on the original release, and thus support future content.

But wait, do we need future releases. Do we need the next new rulebook (v8) or campaign supplement, the hobby support and specifically branded paints and limited edition models. I'm sure you can read between the lines and see that I'm not so subtly having a go at GW however if it wasn't for them I wouldn't have been exposed to this daft obsession with toy soldiers and buildings made of plasticard. So I'm not ashamed of my entry to this hobby. But one thing that does concern me is the the title of this post - which hobby do you play. Do you wait for the author, publisher, manufacturer to tell you what to do or do you make up your own mind. Do you write your own rules, make your own models, use what looks right or do you wait for the commercial entity producing the hobby material to release something that supports your interest. Either is fine by me and going back to the start of the post there are members of my gaming group that do ascribe to the latter. But one thing that we all agree on is that the hobby will only stay healthy if we're open about our preference and do not descend into elitism or name calling.

I recently read an article in a popular wargames magazine where the author referred to the "GW Generation" of gamers. Ok, doesn't sound too nasty really, however earlier in the article he name dropped all the founding fathers of wargaming as his inspiration and whether he meant it or not this smacks of elitism. By doing that he inferred that because I didn't have access to Featherstone and Grant at the start I'm not a proper wargamer. And scarily I've found myself doing the same thing and looking down on others (in my immediate gaming circle) because they play the Hobby(TM).

So after that rather rambling rant I'll conclude with the statement that I play the hobby, whatever that may be. Be it corporately spawned monster codex or cottage industry limited print run homebrew rules. And hopefully I'll keep asking myself and others what they play, and keep questioning why they save on a 5+!