More PBI Yanks.

Just a very brief post today. Here are my latest lot of 15mm US Infantry for PBI. The figures are a Mixture of Battlefront and Peter Pig. Three Bar stands, one Bazooka Stand and a Garand Rifle stand. All painted and based in my usual way. I have been lucky these last few days and found some that I had put aside. You know what it's like you put them somewhere safe and forget where. Anyway I have found another 6 stands worth of infantry. Not as good as winning the lottery but it did put a smile on my face.

Club day tomorrow and at this stage I think we are trying SAGA for the first time. Anyway that's it for today. Very quick. I'll post again on Tuesday, all the best Clint.

PBI Yanks

I have struggled to get much painting done this week. I did manage to get these two MMG stands done for PBI. The miniatures are from QRF ( http://www.quickreactionforce.co.uk/ ) Nicely sculpted and cast (some of their vehicles are less well cast If I am honest, but not badly cast as I will keep buying more). The guns are 2 piece castings with a separate tripod and gun. Attaching the belts to the loaders was a little fiddly but worth the effort. They were easy no fuss to paint with deep enough folds in the clothes to be able to hold a wash. As the first US troops I have purchased from QRF I must say I am very happy with them. Most of my other US troops are Battlefront and a smattering of Peter Pig. Now though having used these I will look here in the future as I like the sculpts and the delivery speed is pretty good as well.

As you can see there is a mold line on the helmet, second picture, loader on the left. It only really shows on the picture and hardly at all in real life. It just shows what a flash will reveal. As mentioned above I have struggled to get much painting done, a lot of the reasons were that I was waiting to get some basing materials which I managed to secure at SELWG. I can no longer use that as an excuse. Since SELWG I have started to re-base the mechs, as I bought some proper bases for them. I have also started the next few stands of US PBI Infantry (only 6 but still it needed to be done.)

That's today's post. Thanks for reading take care and I shall do my next blog post on Saturday. All the best Clint.



SELWG Zombies!

As I mentioned a zombie game at SELWG yesterday I thought I should cover it in more detail. The game was in the main hall and run by the SEEMS club (South East Essex Military Society, Web site: http://games.groups.yahoo.com/group/SEEMS/) Only met them in passing, but they were very approachable on the day. And as it was a Zombie game I thought it deserved a special mention. Firstly the two I did talk to were not aware that there was a Zombie Bloggers Association (ZBA), but at least they do now.

The game was a participation game set in an alternative WW2 where Britain had been invaded by the Germans and somehow zombies had come into being. They did not have any hand outs or I would have nabbed one, but they had a very brief historical recap of how the Zombie Virus and Germans had managed to arrive in England. Not that I was so keen on the details I just wanted BRAINS! If you have very good eyesight you should be able to pick up some details from the history to the right. If like me your eyesight is not so good or if you don't want to read it that's OK I did not on the day either.

I am not sure of the rules they were using but it was a "you-go-I-go" Mechanic and being participation was bound to be quite simple. The game, like so many participation games, suffered from the Wargames creche syndrome, by that I mean younger players were playing perhaps dumped there by parents who wanted to spend their cash without being pestered to buy "Chaos spiky ninja space troopers" or some such. I mean no offence to of GW games, oh who am I kidding yes I do!.

A nice board, obviously using things from other club games, which I applaud. The buildings for example are from PCM (PMC I forget which) that you can get straight from eBay at a reasonable price and do a very good job. You can see by the bases of the trees that they are from another game as well. Let's be blunt we all use what we have and what we are familiar with so I think it's really good that they did not go overboard and instead represented a more achievable looking game.

Most of the action, (when I was stood at the game) seemed to be centred around the ruined buildings with the forces of Good (the British of course) both exploring and defending the area.

A couple more close up pics just to show a little more detail and to prevent eyestrain.

Lastly for today, I would like to thank Fran the angry (hedge hugger) Lurker for giving me one of the "Posties Reject" d6. I am told that I have been entered in the draw, for both his a Rays, competition despite the fact that I asked not to be. They both said tough and that I was in it. Which is really nice of them and I do appreciate it. So thanks guys. I am sure you have already come across their blogs, but just on the off chance that you haven't. Fran at
http://theangrylurker.blogspot.co.uk/  and  Ray at http://onelover-ray.blogspot.co.uk/


That's it for today I shall do a very brief post tomorrow, just to get back into the rhythm I had established. This was a special post for the ZBA.
So that's it for today take care roll dice, laugh and avoid hedges.

Post Script: Postie has asked me to mention Hedge Hugging and Fran a few times on different Blogs. And a promise is a promise so I consider it done now, at least until Fran posts next!

All the best Clint

Selwg 2012

 

As many of you will now on Sunday I went to SELWG. AS my eyesight is "borderline" I don't drive for fear of accidents. I was therefore very grateful that Ray, (http://onelover-ray.blogspot.co.uk/) Fran (http://theangrylurker.blogspot.co.uk/) and Postie. I must say sharing a car with them was actually a pleasant experience (Perhaps I should get out more). They all have a wealth of knowledge and put me at ease quickly and it turns out Fran can navigate as well. Cutting a long story short we arrived Early and were joined in the Que by Lee (http://www.blmablog.com/2012/10/selwg-2012-part-1.html) who has already published a comprehensive show report in four parts and I would recommend checking it out. Moments later David Crook (http://awargamingodyssey.blogspot.co.uk/) Joined the crowd outside and the time passed very quickly until the doors opened.


The Above Picture was taken at 12:30ish and is a good judge of the crowd and show attendance. It did seem that numbers were a little down, but until I speak to a few traders and see their view on the crowds spending habits it is hard to judge. Some traders I know did very well, and it is inevitable that some did not meet their expected targets, such is always the way at shows. As already demonstrated I was very reserved in my spending this year, As I have a number of projects in the planning stages which have not reached the wallet opening level just yet.

Here are the pics of the games at the show, not all the games of course, check Big lees blog ,above, for a MUCH larger selection. These are just the ones that for some reason caught my eye. No captions or descriptions, just random pics of pretty games. There was a Zombie game as well and I shall post about that at another time. Just for the Zombie Bloggers Association. Most of the games have had outings before as show games are the showcase of the clubs that put them on so if you have been to a show in the south of England the chances are you will already have seen them, so this is just a visual reminder.
I should have payed more attention to the table I was getting a pic of so I could label them and put them in some sort of order. My day consisted of talking to traders and fellow wargamers, I was even introduced to Tamsin, (http://wargaminggirl.blogspot.co.uk/2012/10/more-selwg-some-gossip.html) and can confirm the GZG gossip she put forward in her blog today, Jon having said the same to me as well. Then having wandered away from the table chatting failing to return until later. This is just how unorganised I am. Maybe it will be different if I ever grow up.... don't hold your breathe!
Clubs can't afford either the time, money or effort to host a new game for each show, that would be ridiculous we would never get to play games. As such many games fall into the pre Salute and post Salute category. Overall the standard of the games was incredibly high, in fact I cannot think of a single game that I would not be proud to have worked on. It just goes to show how many talented people are drawn to the hobby. Anyway I hope you enjoy the photos and find something of interest. As mentioned before I will talk about the zombie game another time.

Anyway thanks for reading, or more likely just looking at the pics. I shall try to get things labelled and identified next time. Yeah right!

All the best Clint.

SELWG Loot 2012

Just a very quick post to show my SELWG loot. Very meagre haul this time. I was not really going shopping this year, and came hoe with more than half my money.  Here's what I actually bought and reasons why.

• Ground Zero Games, one 15mm infantry squad (Federal states Europa) and one hover APC, (Command Variant) I bought this to finish the platoon, so it can be a finished force all ready to play.
• A box of Green Toxic Dice. This was an impulse buy but it gives me some dedicated Zombie dice, which ia always good.
• 3 packs of hex stands, suitable for Mechs/Battletech. A bargain if you ask me.
• 2 Packs of Peter Pig 30mm square bases. I had run out and buying them this way is just so much easier.
• 2 Packs Peter Pig Figures, 1x US Artillery crew, 1x 105mm Field gun. This will flesh out my US PBI company.
• 2 foam Trays for figure storage.

As you can see quite a small haul, but for once everything has a purpose. My impulse buys were a real minimum only £3.60 in total. Which means the pile of lead which is my life is not growing too much larger this week. If I look back at the spends harshly I could have gotten all this Mail order, cheaper than the travel and entrance fee, but that would not have been as valid an experience. I could and very nearly did buy more, but while I did enjoy the show there was nothing that really grabbed me as a must have.

I shall post a show report on Tuesday, just to get back to normal. Thanks for reading and have a good couple of days.

Horde.

Given that some people had expressed an interest in seeing the Horde I thought I could be lazy and not finish painting anything just this once. These two pictures are the same figures in the same positions (I did say it was a lazy Blog day). The top one has been cropped while the bottom one shows all the horde. Many people have a larger zombie Horde, but as a relatively new zombie wrangler this one , for the moment, is big enough for my needs. I do have two more Wargames Factory Zombie Sprues so I do anticipate the horde growing, possibly with a box of Vixens just for variety. In addition I do have a couple, only a very limited number, of special zombies. At the start of the campaign special zombies will not be encountered, indeed it is possible at this stage that they will not come into being as it will depend on the actions (or inaction's) of players in the pre campaign. This is not the time to talk about that though.

Back to the horde. As you can see everything painted in grey tomes. I was inspired by the Left 4 Dead computer game in my colour choice. I could so easily have drenched them in blood but have decided against that approach for now at least. I could add some brown (dried blood) or red (fresh blood later if I choose, but I have grown to like the very simple colours. None of them are painted well, if I am honest it takes me as long to assemble and undercoat them as it does to actually paint them. This lack of painting time is mostly because when I needed to get them done I had only 12 days to knock out 45, which I did. Since then I have actually grown to appreciate the hap hazard paint jobs, they have an atmosphere all of their own.

The background was the result of a quick goggle Image search using the words "Empty Street" and then scrolling down until I found one I felt suitable. I Did not want it so terribly dark, nor did I want many (if any) lights on. I am not suggesting people will worry about turning the lights of in a zombie apocalypse, I for one will have better things t do. But maybe power generation will be restricted!

 

The SELWG show is in two days time and I shall be going with the Posties Rejects thanks to Rays very kind offer. As I would normally post on this blog on that Sunday I shall most likely miss a post and post again on Tuesday. There are a number of items I want at the show, but no new projects and the haul of swag is most likely to be very uninspiring.

 

With that note I shall finish for today, thank you for reading (or looking at the pictures) wish you a very good weekend and post again on Tuesday. All the best Clint.

Zombies

Here are a few more for the horde. I don't spend any time painting zombies, as they are not really the stars of the game. You will also no doubt remember that I  paint them in Black and White (monochrome). I only use four shades of grey, straight from the pot. I don't feel they need any more they are after all a horde. I will be adding to the horde of zombies in the next few weeks (unless I get sidetracked), but with such a limited colour palette they can be churned out in next to no time.

These last two are Mantic Ghouls. I just got the two from eBay and again went with the usual colour palette. But with these I added some bright green eye dots (GW Scorpion Green). I am though relying on the poses to show they are "Rage Zombies". As with all the zombies I have added a tuft to every other one, this allows me to have two different activations for zombies, those with tufts and those without. The reason for this is that in some games once the zombies had moved certain players were exploiting this to make sure they could not be attacked in the following turn. This is diminished using this method, but does not totally eliminate the problem. But it does help to make the games less predictable, which does help to make the game less predictable and therefore more tense.

 

As mentioned previously I want to start a zombie campaign, it's still in the planning but has at least started to be jotted down. I have roughed out the map, It will get detailed and populated later possibly with the help of other bloggers and the ZBA (Zombie Bloggers Association). When the campaign starts it will be "In Media Res" by which I mean I shall skip the first days of the out break and later run them as "Flash back" scenarios. This is because none of us are actors and table-top play is very very different from real life. It will allow a realistic detachment and stop the players having to do things like shoot family members which in real life would be for most of us very difficult but all to easy on the tabletop.

 

If I can manage it I will run the "Outbreak" of the zombie campaign as an on line discussion with different bloggers and followers taking different roles like Police Chief, Mayor, Hospital CEO, etc, but this is a way off yet. I see the benefit of running it this way as being that it will generate the "History" for the players taking some of the control from both them and me. It will also (I hope) create certain areas of the city and surroundings reputations. Time will tell if I can pull this off but it is in the planning as I type this.

 

Thanks for Reading, all the best Clint.

 

PBI US Attack.

I played another PBI game at the club yesterday. To the right is a picture of my initial deployment. My force was 2 platoons of U.S. Infantry (only one arrived in time to actually fight), a support platoon (3 light mortars and 2 HMGs) and 4 M10 tank Destroyers. As it turned out my opponent had no armour, but did have 2 pak 40's so all the points on the Tank destroyers was pretty much wasted All I could use was the speed and machine guns they had. Still at least they got an outing and it did scare my opponent. I was attacking the dug in Germans and the terrain generated was so tight that there were very few clear fields of fire. The fields of fire were easy for me to identify though as they had an anti tank gun in heavy cover at the end of them. The game started well for me and I reached one objective in my first turn. My light mortars did a brilliant job and managed to drop rounds on the German Company head quarters and actually killed the company commander. What a brilliant start I thought. (It was not to last.)

Given that I seriously out numbered the Germans in the first turn it was hard for them to shoot back but when they did they made it count. I must admit I was concerned about the German Flame thrower in the HQ section but it never got to fire in the whole game. It was my number one bullet magnet. To the right is the centre objective surrounded by dense terrain. I grabbed it in the first turn, as mentioned above, but my primary objective was on my left flank as far as I was concerned this was a bonus, but not what I was actually after. My infantry platoon which were my only real attacking asset, the tanks were struggling with the terrain and support platoon is just that a support platoon, were taking quite a beating but still pressing forward.

The tank destroyers had no choice but to try to take the Pak out head on. The main guns just could not hit it but after 5 bursts from the tank MGs I did put it down which opened up the objective. This is where I made the big mistake! The major mistake in the game was that I took a turn to prepare instead of biting the bullet and pushing on. I took my foot of the Gas. Not all my force the German sniper had pinned my closet troops to the objective. But still I should have been more decisive. The result of the delay was that the German reinforcements started to arrive with more Light Machine Guns than anything else. Facing a hail of lead my infantry platoon was reduced to half strength and was in danger of withdrawing. At this stage it was pretty much game over for the attack. I could have used the support platoon to try to take the position but with only heavy weapons they were never going to melee well. So All in all I conceded the game, being unable to force the objectives. Oh well next time....

 

Other news: No one has objected to any of the three proposed show games. So I have the go ahead to get them started. Mentioning no names, but you know who you are, one club members face lit up when I suggested a Zombies Attacking Gypsy's show game. The role play guys from Friday night also want to play this game, as long as they can be Zombies for a change. But We shall now do a WW1 game, I shall start on it soon (after SELWG) and it will be blogged so you will get to see all the work involved.

 

That's it for today, thanks for reading and take care. Next post Wednesday. Cheers Clint

 

 

.

He looks How I feel!

 It's true this morning I do feel just like he feels. Don't get me wrong I am happy inside, but very slightly hung over. Still enough about me. This is
an EM4 figure I impulse bought on eBay. It pretty much painted itself, it came ready undercoated and the colours were the obvious choices. Grubby white vest, dark blue jeans and dark brown/stained boots. He carries a knuckle duster in his right hand and a wrench in his back pocket. That is probably not the right choice for fighting zombies but for brawling against other humans might be enough, unless they have guns of course. This figure was a joy to paint, it has a very cartoon look to it when seen in the metal which I like. I shall look out for a few more like him as I do have an idea for a game or two using him. But more of that another time perhaps.

I did meet up with a couple of my old role-play buddies last night. One of the questions I asked them was Zombie games, Set in England or America? I can see advantages to both. The main problem being that an English setting is ripe for comedy. "Shaun of the dead" and "Cockneys Vs Zombies" out weigh "28 Days Later" or "Day of the Triffids" (triffids are so close to zombies you can easily use the same rules.). I will have a quick chat at the club tomorrow and see what the guys would rather. They might surprise me. This talk of Zombies is because I purchased "All Things Zombie-Final Fade Out!" (ATZ-FFO) yesterday. I am still reading them and picking apart the differences in the rules from their earlier edition. However as a number of club members like Zombie games I am seriously thinking of starting a "campaign" as I know it is a setting that they will warm too. If I manage to pull it together I anticipate playing it once every 2 months or so. Which will allow us to play other games and yet also not allow it to get too stale. That is it for today thanks for reading. Have a great weekend and I shall post again on Monday. All the Best Clint.

AWESOME!

No Huge surprise, another mech finished. This is an "Awesome" Assault mech. Stocked with 3 PPC (Particle projectile cannons) as well as a small laser which I tend not to worry about too much. The PPCs deal 10 damage each and have a a very good range. They do kick out some heat, but with 28 heat sinks the Awesome is not prone to running hot. But with only 3/5 movement it is one of the slowest mechs you can get. (The 3 is the walking speed and 5 the running speed). This lack of speed can be a major set back in some terrain. Overall though if you can get the Awesome to the battlefield, it will dish out a lot of damage. Having big guns is not in my opinion quite enough to make this a favourite of mine, I actually like the challenge of limited manoeuvrability, and with a quick torso twist you can usually bring the PPCs to bear. For me however, the big advantage the Awesome has is the HUGE amount of armour it carries. If you look at the record sheet (below) and look at the armour diagram (top right of the record sheet) You will see loads and loads of armour circles in each location. The armour weak spot is of course the head, as no mech can have more than 9 points of armour in that location. Which does mean that a lucky shot can fell any mech. That being the case is it a weak spot? If yes it is a weak spot for every mech in the game and for game purposes it is a good thing that no mech is invulnerable.

 

As with the Hunchback I have put the plastic and metal mechs side by side to demonstrate scale, size and compatibility. I can see no reason not to use them on the same battlefield.  There clearly are some differences, most clearly in the arm plates, shoulders and lower legs. These differences and not significantly different enough to stop me using them both. The thought of using 2 80 tom assault mech Awesome does make me pause for a moment and wonder if they will get used together on the same side. Time will tell, though I would expect not, so I do expect them to be used on different lances at best or different sides so I think the differences will not be clear from 2 foot away which is the view most players will get.

 

The record sheet is from the new box set, but seems identical to the other record sheets I have from 25 years ago.  New players should not be discouraged by seeing a mech record sheet, they do look complicated at first glance, but when you play the game everything makes sense and is clear.

Lastly as of last night I may not be going to SELWG. Which is a shame, but the guy who was going to give me a lift has had to withdraw so unless I want to spend 4 hours on trains on a Sunday, and spend £12 doing so I think it's a no go for me. A little sad, but maybe for the best and I'll save some money. That's it for today. I shall post again on Saturday. Until then take care and have fun. All the best Clint.

Berserkers (2)

About 4 weeks ago I picked up the "Gripping Beast" Viking Berserkers. Wanting a brak from mechs (there's plenty more of them to come), I decided to paint these, afterall it's better than watching TV in the evenings when I get home from work. (As I am sure we all agree.... absolute rubbish on most nights). Anyway 4 figures in a pack, I found the sculpting OK but not great, and the poses so similar on each one as to seem almost the same. Casting was acceptable, some flash and mould lines, but nothing major. Overall they are not something I took delight on, but at least they are done, and I won't be doing them again. When If comes to SAGA the game I will probably swap out the two handed axe man and add the Ulfhednar from Citadel I have already painted. I Painted their shields in black and white patterns. I remember when I was doing dark age re-enactment (about 15 years ago now) some woman, who was into textiles claiming that people in the dark ages probably did bot have a word for black as they could not dye it. I have never looked into it but for me common sense says that they did. After all just because they could not make a black dye did not mean that they could not make black ink or paint, or even just accept that the colour of coal could have a name. If we use her agrument today, it would mean we have no word for chrome, just because we can't dyd it. (SOrry went of on a Rant!

AS you can see these all have wolfskin "Cloaks" and the spear used overhand are quite long. I did not trim the spears and perhaps in retrospect I should have. While I am not overly impressed with the figures (or the painting if I am honest) they do round out my SAGA Vikings, so as far as I am concerned that's enough for me.

Thanks for reading, I shall try to post again on Thursday. All the best and speak soon. Clint

Changing course.

Firstly let me start with UPDATE: x/x. I am now putting The proposed 7TV game on hold. It came clear to me that at Skirmish it was very self indulgent of me to push 7TV at shows. I still like the game and will still support it. The problem is that the people who support the club at shows don't play 7TV. So after some soul searching I am moving away from it as a game at shows. I do feel sad about it and am not totally abandoning it but I can no longer justify working on a show game that only I know the rules and background for. Being a slow thinker it has taken a week for me to come to this conclusion.
At this stage I do not know what we will do, but I am open to ideas from the other club members who will support us at shows. The ones that don't support the club, much less so. As a club we do have a number of assets that I feel we should utilise. Graham is a rules Guru, he can read rules and understand them to a far greater degree than anyone else I have ever met. The other major asset is Tim, owner and proprietor of both Frontline Wargaming (http://www.frontlinewargaming.co.uk/) and IT MINIATURES (http://www.itminiatures.co.uk/). So it would be good to help support his business. Therefore the most obvious solution would be to do a 20mm WW1 game. This would not be my choice, but with about 12 weeks until Christmas I really do need to get my act together and get a game started. 12 weeks does sound like a long time but it quickly evaporates especially if I have to paint 2 armies and make the terrain. I have asked Tim and Graham to come up with a show game idea time will tell if they do. I hope they have come up with something by this time next week.

Moving on as mentioned a couple of days ago I have been working on a Hunchback mech. The Hunchback is a medium mech with a huge "Auto-cannon" on its shoulder which causes 20 points of damage every time it hits. With this level of damage also comes the problems that it has very little ammunition. It does have two medium lasers as well but people seem to forget the 5 points of damage these can each deliver when they know it can inflict 20 points from the Auto-cannon. I have shown it here with the plastic version from the Battletech 25th Anniversary Introductory set. I hope this clearly shows they are both the same (other than one is metal and painted while the other is unpainted plastic).

The final pic is the two "Finished" mechs together, Hunchback and Griffin. Two medium mechs for a total of 105 tons. I have found these two work well together The Griffin for long range exploits and the Hunchback for close in work. No two mechs will ever be ideal and a lot does come down to how you think of them and use them, but for me I did enjoy using these two, and that is far more important than trying to find the "right" mechs.

That's it for today. Thanks for reading, have a great weekend (what's left of it) and I will post again on Tuesday. All the Best Clint.

Post script: I have already started to think about SELWG show shopping list, looking at which traders will be there and both what I need and want. 2 Weeks to go and I am already feeling poor as I look at what I need.