Big Guns

Gun and prime mover

 I wanted a change from zombies and Samurai and as I still have a couple of things for ww2 (by Couple I mean a load). I purchased some peter pig ww2 US artillery crew at the SELWG show a couple of weeks ago. Surprise of all great surprises I managed to get them painted and based in (for me) double quick time. So today I have finished 2 pieces of artillery there crew and two prime movers.

Both guns

The two guns , another eBay Bargain, are 155mm howitzers, used by the US army in WW2. I am not sure of the manufacture but as I do not believe they are QRF I am happy to think they are Battlefront, although being honest I am not 100% sure. They were already painted and assembled, and while I think his choice of green was totally accurate it did not fit in with the rest of the force. Additionally there was some very minor assembly issues resulting in bent wheel positions. Therefore I chose to pull it all apart and reassemble and re-paint as well as re-base. And here are the results, Two guns with crew and bases all of which marry up with my other troops.

Both High Speed Tractors

Also in the eBay order were 2 M5 High speed Tractors. These were also repainted to match my US troops. I must admit I do like the term "High Speed Tractor" it brings tractor racing to mind and that just sounds like too much fun not to enjoy! Anyway these add some totally unnessercary heavy artillery to my PBI company. While I do not know if they will ever get used they do allow me another option on the table top and have taken me away from what I was doing and as such were a welcome change.

That's it for today, thank you for looking. I plan my next update on Sunday and yes it will be a Zombtober post! So until then take care, have fun and slap some paint about!

Cheers Clint

"All for One and None for me!"

 As I had yesterday off work I was able to travel down to Sittingbourne and put on a game for "Milton Hundreds Wargames Club " (MHWC). I had put on a game of "Three Musketeers" for them before and as they enjoyed it last time I repeated the trick again. In this write up of the nights activities expect a few "in-jokes" several unsavoury activities (mostly by Alan) a little bit of swearing (mostly by Andy) a couple of stern looks (mostly by Mark) and a natural victim..... hellos Steve! One player who had booked in for the game failed to show and he shall hence forth be known as "Vivianne!" (In Joke No:1 I won't label the rest). Having mentioned all the players above with myself as the ref just to balance the sides I had best define the sides, Alan and Mark were Cardinals guards with an appetite for the unsavoury, while Andy and Steve were Musketeers and on the whole rather more wholesome! It is also fair to say that Mark supplied the buildings (purchased from a German company, he did tell me the name but memory like a sieve I have of course forgotten it. I supplied the figures and between Mark and myself we supplied all the fixtures and fittings. The rules are a free download (CLICK HERE). They are very simple a huge amount of fun and worth a go if you want to kill an hour or two without having to think too hard. If you have ever tried those rules you will know just how hard it would be to write any kind of accurate AAR simply because each figure will carry out several things in each turn and Turns can move very quickly!


Steve started the game and entered the building and started climbing some crates to reach the chandelier. Before Steve reached the top of the crates Mark through a large box at him and knocked him off. He then jumped off of the balcony onto Steve's stomach  and tried to "duel" the prone Steve. Andy interceded by throwing first one barrel and then another at Mark and then jump onto the table but then failed to convincingly Attack Mark. Alan ran the length of the board and stopped at the market stalls out side and selected an earthenware jug failed his action roll stopped there giving other players a combination look of "Life's not fair" "I hate dice" "just you wait until I can get involved" All that took about 7 minutes of real time and as we played for 3 1/2 hours you might imagine how long and detailed an AAR might become. Therefore I will condense it just to highlights.


Andy took the first wound from Alan's swordplay just a scratch and nothing to worry about.

There were several barrel throwing competitions among all the players at various times throughout the night.

Steve threw a pie from the market stall outside the building hit Alan's character in what amounted to a critical and took one of his 3 wounds. (Alan got miffed). Each character only had three wounds and as a house rule every wound they loose reduces there combat score by one.

Mark spent two turns "fluffing" His feather. Surprisingly this was not a euphemism. And cleaning his Tabard.

Steve tried to pull Marks Tabard over his head to temporarily blind him.

Alan swung from the chandeliers and attempted to kick people as he spun in a circle. Which lead to the phase of the Night (From Andy) "So there is enough room to swing a c*nt!"

Andy (who speaks French) hurled some cutting insults so severe that he was able to stun Mark and make him drop his weapon. Andy was also the first to die so we restarted him at the edge of the board and carried on. Life in musketeer town is harsh and cheap.

Being temporarily all on his own Alan and Mark decided to pick on Steve. There was much talk of capturing him and taking him to the cellar and chaining him to some kind of torture device (although they did claim it was a "Gimp Machine", ) Steve did die but took Alan out about the same time. So they restarted.

Lots more barrel throwing from Mark and Andy. Alan stent a turn "Pouncing about on the street corner" (yes that was his declared action. ) while Steve selected some rotten tomatoes from the market stall ready to use as missile weapons.

Andy Jumped onto a table and mark picked up a bench and tried to swat him off. He did make contact but not with sufficient power to affect Andy. Andy then kicked the bench out of Marks hands.

Alan decided that his character was going to sexually assault Steve with the market vegetables. Fortunately he was unsuccessful as that is not the kind of game I would choose to referee! Alan was known from then on as "the Radish man!" And trust me he has put me of turnips and sweedes for the next few weeks. In fact any kind of root vegetable! I am so glad there were no model marrows about!

Time started to draw near  but not before Alan carried the afore mentioned bench up the stairs ready to play "Piñata" with the figure (sorry cant remember who exactly) that had failed critically when trying to swing from the chandelier and had their cloak tangled and could not get free for a turn.

Mark tragically failed to leap from the balcony this time and again his cloak tangled him and also left him suspended. When he freed himself He died by Andy's sword having first been stunned by Steve.

Just a couple more turns and we finished. A side splitting game and both loud and boisterous but not all in the best possible taste! Again the second outing for these rules at this club and a very similar result with regard to the volume and laughter. It's definitely not the game you think of among wargamers, not at all stuffy and well mannered. No grand tactics and well thought out moves, no quiet decorum, no contemplation.

Thanks for Reading and I promise some painting next time.

All the best Clint




EDIT: Another report of the game here http://leofwinewargamerson.blogspot.co.uk/2013/10/all-for-oneand-turnip-for-steve.html (Alan's point of view, Alan is MHWC President.)

1918 Dog Fight

 Regular readers will realise that alternate Sundays is a club day for me. As we are trying to integrate a couple of new members (Ian and Matt) into the club we had a couple of very different games on offer. Tim, Pat, Graham, myself and Mat played a game of "Canvas Eagles" a WW1 aerial dog fight game. I am the first to admit that I have a love hate relationship with this game. I definitely have a reputation as one player who was absent today was texting Graham asking how many times I had been shot down! Graham showed me the texts! Yes I am rubbish at this game. Total Cack!

Anyway I started off in a Bristol FB2 "Brisfit" (the single Lewis gun option, so not quite totally awesome but still pretty good plane. We were 3 British planes against 2 Germans, my Brisfit and two Camels. While the Germans had an Attik and some kind of 2 seat contraption (I forget it's name). Lots of manoeuvring in the first few turns and then my tail gunner squeezes the trigger and gets a minor hit on Graham. A very good start for me. And then it started going wrong. I did get a couple more shots off then Tim seriously wounded my pilot and shot 90% of my tail away. So I limped of the board alive but barely flying.

I was then officered a Sopwith Triplane "Tripe". Patrick had been focused on Tim (his dad) and managed to riddle his fuselage sufficiently to make him leave the air as well and so he flew off of the board and prepared to bring on a Foker Dr7. Graham mostly with his tail gunner got enough hits on Matt to force him to more prudence. But with me back in the game and teamed up with Matt we were able to stop Grahams ambitions. The joy of the Tripe is that it could easily out climb the other planes on the table. This was a tactic that worked as I was able to put myself in a position for the German pilots to tail me and then put my foot to the flaw and climb so fast they could not follow. This allowed Patrick to fire a few times on Graham's "new" plane and (we found out at the end of the game) both wound the tail gunner so bed he could never reload his weapon and cause a fabric tear which reduced his planes manoeuvres. I should make it clear we do not tell our opponents what damage has exactly happened to the planes. They just know the number and type of (red or Blue) damage chits they have inflicted.
Tim's "New" DR7 lasted about 7 turns before he flew it from the board. A couple of lucky erhm I mean well placed shots ripped through the wings and made the plane unflyable in any meaningful way. So Tim bought on another plane.

Patrick managed to keep a single plane flying all day, but did eventually run out of fuel and left very much towards at the same time as my second plane. All the steep climbs burns up fuel very quickly! The last actions of  the day were Matt gliding off the table out of fuel with Patrick and myself on the British side. As the Germans also glided across their own lines.

Patrick did make his dad (Tim) play out the whole trip back as Tim was very low on fuel and at height 2 (see picture... that's Tim's 3rd plane btw.) This was because Tim's plane kept catching fire (hence the smoke) and at height two was subject to ground fire every time he crossed a trench hex! In the end he made it.

Although no planes were actually shot down we all ended up on 2nd planes (3rd for Tim,) This for me is a victory as I usually expect to be shot down twice often 3 times in a days play. Yay me!

 I have included 4 pictures of the "Dropship Commander" game that was also on at the club, just because it looks like a good game. I could be tempted into it, but not just quite yet. I do like the paper terrain though and think it would be excellent reused for other non dropship activities. Pendraken do some 10mm zombies, and that idea has immediate appeal. a Zombie meta game!

I will also say that my idea for the club Broadside game next year has been well received by other club members (well the ones that support us at shows anyway) and that to me is a big deal. I intend to start work on the two armies concerned as part of Curt's Analogue Painting challenge. Therefore over the winter months I will be painting some WW1 stuff!

Finally I shall be at a different club tomorrow night so there might be another game report on Wednesday or I might post up some more figures. Feel free to leave a comment it you have a strong preference.

All the best and thanks for reading todays update. Cheers Clint