Sorry no painting!

Well you Know it has been hot! For me far to hot. I sit in the same place to paint and I drip! OK I have started some figures for Matt. So expect some Burpas by the end of the week.

Change of Subject 1

Yesterday at the club we gave "What a tanker" another game. They decided I was not to have a tank destroyer this time. (thanks Richard). They also for a change decided Russian front.  I started in a German Tank lasted a turn and a half and was shot and no save and as we had unequal numbers I was then started in a T26. The lowest level Russian tank possible. I think they may have regretted it 3 kills later.

Here are my Tank Crews

British A13                                 1 Kill
            A13 (Second vehicle)     1 Kill    

Russian T26 B                            3 Kills         

German Panzer 2 A-C                Dead
              Panzer 35t                     Dead
              Panzerjager 1                4 Kills

So I can always have at least 1 tank with at least 1 kill in future games OF THE SAME TIME PERIOD. Not boasting but few other players at the club have gotten more than a single kill in a game. So at present I have a target painted on me and ALL players are trying to get me to some extent.  I bet they get me soon and with much celebration.


Change of Subject 2

Due to ease of building I will be going for option B, the Hidden Valley for the "Pulp Alley" game board. But I also plan to float an airship over the board to emphasis the height! At this stage DINOSAURS will be at a minimum. (Sorry Michael) but this will allow me anything from Victorian explorers all the way back to Cro-Magnum man and everything in between. SoTim shall be allowed Aztecs and Matt shall be allowed British Royal Navy! And Kev can (if he chooses) have Undead Egyptians!

Who knows what everyone will pick!

That's it for now too hot to sit in the sun typing!

All the best Clnt




          

Blurry Photo time!

Yeah when I took these it was dark and they just did not come out as well as I hoped. Still never mind you can at least get the idea.

Two more Zvezda tanks. First u is the Panzer 38T.

The model kit was simple as they all have been so far, and straight-forward in that is you tried really hard you could put it together badly. That would however require a concerted effort, as itgoes together the correct way without difficulty.

German tank commander Otto Carius, did command one before progressing as the war went on to a Jadg Tiger (when captured by the Americans). Commander Carius is also reputed to have 150 "Kills" which makes him Germanys equal 2nd rated Tank ace. (Michael Wittman is either 4th or 5th depending on what you read.) Either way you look at it for the time it was used the Panzer 38T was still an impressive tank well up with it's contemporaries. In What a tanker this is one of the tanks I aspire to progressing to. fast and with a good gun the 38T was in its day a vey good tank.


And Tank 2. Well a Tank Destroyer, a STUG III, Based on the Panzer 3 chassis it was armed with a short 75 at the beginning of the war. This was still a very good gun but in mid or late war they needed more power and penetration so a longer 75mm gun was used. In game terms it has a LOW PROFILE so an extra acquisition dice is needed to acquire it. being a Tank destroyer it may also change one of its dice to a Aim dice which can make it very flexible. It also has very good armour so in early war great crew survivability. The main draw back is no turret so quite often you have to move in order to get sufficient options in aim. But as shown in the last game this is a lesser consideration as long as you have other tanks running interference. If we stick to early war I would hope after 15 or more kills to swap in to one of these as they can be quite deadly. Not a starting tank in the game at all but one to aspire towards.

As with all the Zvezda kits (so far tried) it goes together easily and is just about impossible to get wrong UNLESS you deliberately try to. So with almost no flash it is easy to recommend the 2 kits.

The last 2 pics are of them bother side by side. This clearly shows both the height and width of the 2 models. However both are very welcome in my collection as they were a joy to put together

That's it for today. I plan to finish reading the Maximillian 34 rules and review them next time. So with luck see you Friday and until then remember to dream big as it does not cost you any more!

Yesterday atthe club

My Tank
A Panzer 2

I was having a 5H1T day yesterday, everything I tried went wrong. And then I got to the wargames club. and things went right (at least until I left). Ahh the joy of a decent hobby.

I was going to play Matt at Aeronef, but I broke 2 models looking for the fleet and dropped a box of figures. So I phoned Matt and he was "Don't worry we can do something else!" We did do something else, we both Joined a game of "What a Tanker!" which was run by Graham.  This time it started with me and Graham as the Germans and Dick (aka Richard) and Matt playing the British.

The map from
my seat.

 Both the British were in A-13 Crusiers which I had used last game so I knew they were an OK  tank for the period I was in as already mentioned a Panzer 2 while Graham had a Panzer 35 T which is (game wise) exactly the same stats as the Cruisers. So it was even on points.

The map was a little more open than last time and having almost no armour and a little pop pop cannon I was going to be reliant on using any and all cover I could! (Gulp)

Das Hero Panzer(yeah right)



Dick Tank



Grahams Tank

Matt's tank

As Dick shot at me and missed. I was suffering
from cruelty to small tanks Syndrome.
Yes I ran away and tried to put a hill  between us.
It did not work and he shot at me again.
and again missed







Matt went hull down and Graham  started shooting at him

Richard felt confident and pushed forward determined
to persecute a small and weaker tank

But My tank had teeth.
I was able to circle around and By using the Building
as a covering piece of terrain
get behind him and fire into his weakest parts.
 

Despite being hull down Matt takes enough hits to drive him back
 and then destroy him.

Graham takes cover from the 2 new British tanks

Richard tries again to be needlessly cruel to small and cute  small tanks
 and pushes forward . Trapping me behind the building

Matt's Second tank dies easily on the next turn
having only been on the table 1 turn

The cruelty to small tanks continues and Richard sets me on fire.
Seriously guys there needs to be a law against cruelty to small tanks
 



The game did not end here 2 more people joined in. And now I took charge of a panserjaeger 1. (the weakest of all Tank hunters). Naff armour but a good gun for the period.

 

And I turned it around. even if I took no pics. Graham lost his tank and brought on a second 35T. Kev joined the Germans in a Panzer 3 and Tim joined the Brits in another A13 cruiser tank.

 

After a while the game ended.  and the battle field was strewn with tank wrecks. Some German but more British. The only survivors were Matts Bailed out crew on one kill. Grahams crew on no kills and my crew on 4 kills.

 

I know that next time we play they will all target me especially if I am in a Tank Destroyer. Not just for revenge, although I am sure that will be a factor, but as much to stop me becoming an ace tanker and getting an advantage or two. The rotters. (I am sure I would do the same though so I can't really complain). Either that or they will all start to take German panzerjaeger 1's so do not buy any more Graham.

 

 

That's it for now. As no pics you are free to believe I did not do so much damage and I will not blame you even to me it seems far fetched and unlikely! (And I was there, in front of witnesses)

 

Enjoy the day. Play if you get the chance and dream if you can't play

All the best Clint

A couple more tanks

yes two more 15mm tanks for "What the Tanker!" A panzer MK III and a T-60. The Panzer 3 is the big one (Not words I have needed to say before!). As we tend NOT to think of a Panzer 3 as being a large tank.

It looks like I have surcummed to peer pressure at the club, Or as others would say seen the light. As such this will be the last Russian tank for this project for a while.

Instead I will swap to Early war France for now and see how that goes. I did after all get 2 kills and would not just throw them away! The T 60 in particular while fast not fast enough to be rated as a FAST tank is interesting in the rules as it has a low profile. In the rules this means it will need an extra acquisition dice in order to acquire it. This is I my opinion and if used correctly quite a bonus.

 But As I will no longer be focused on the Eastern Front (no more snow for a while) I have re-painted the Panzer III to fit the colours of France (and the Low Countries) in 1940.

 Therefore this is the repainted Panzer 3 in a mid-dark grey. Now I find it interesting that the German tanks were repainted after the Spanish Civil War to be a Grey. As they fought the Russian tanks which were then Grey (I believe the Russian tanks were shipped via Mexico and they may or may not have been painted there!

As a side note Russian tanks were painted Green after the SCW so it seems that they swapped colours. What actually happened I don't know but to me it seems odd! There are 2 more Zvezda kits on the paint table. So it is likely that at least 1 more will be in the next post.

BROADSIDE SHOW: As a club we shall not be running a game this year. We have had a string of bad luck and were down to 2 peeps to run the game. Therefore with regret we have been forced to pull out! I shall still be at the show of course so either hide from me or say hallo whichever suits you best. I shall possibly be on a Flea market stall.

Until next time. Take care, have fun and get something done for the hobby. (AND NO EXCUSES!)

Yesterdays game

Board of play
Somewhere in Northern France 1940
All pics taken without me leaving my chair!

Before I talk about that I just want to say it is too damn cold in the bloody garage to build terrain. Feel free to call me a wimp but I do not want to be too cold to work properly! Therefore terrain post will get pushed back yet another day.



I had 2 A13's(White and Blue)
Graham and Tim were my adversaries
They each had a single Panzer 2 each.
Points were equal.

Ok here we go. Yesterday at the club we had a game of "What a Tanker!" by Too Fat Lardies. Graham had set it all up before I arrived so it was too late to through a hissy fit and say that I did not want to do France 1940! The electrician was supposed to be coming to the club to give us more lighting...... he did not turn up!

Realising that if I could divide them I stood a better chance
I went right to face Graham.

Tim started to flank me
so I countered as Graham was playing hard to get
the tease!

I was able to trap Tim with the terrain
and some bad dice by him and him not
knowing the rules at all.
Graham had read them, I just watched Youtube videos!



I was able to reduce his command dice at first.
all the while Buttoned up and Graham
using Rapid Fire with a 20mm auto cannon.
Tim reduced Blues command dice as well

But Tim was not able to move as much as he wanted
he was still acquired by both of my tanks
An Aim, a Fire and 3 hits (2 of which were crits)
and Tim brewed up



Graham spent several turns Moving out of cover shooting and
moving into cover BEFORE I could fire back
The result was that while he did nt penetrate my armour he did force me to retreat.
and I retreated backwards into a building
Tim finally arrived and with a Panzer 3 this time.
he fired at my blue tank.
It missed.
So I returned fire and he failed to save with any armour
dice. the consequence is that 2 turns on the table
And Both of my tanks were on one kill.

I was still taking "temporary " damage and losing command dice
But I was holding on.
Time was lucky and managed to bring on a Panzer 4
I was now up against it.



I managed to retreat back but was out flanked.
Blue had slipped down to only 2 command dice.

Things looked bad for Blue Tank!

Tim Fired and it was a Hit on Blue.
But not a penetration and I was forced to retreat yet again!
I did ask them where they wanted me to go
And they both said off the table!

So with 1 tank against 2 having lost 50% of my tanks I conceded the game
AND WON!
 

Conclusion: The British had destroyed 2 German tanks. While the Germans had only damaged 1 British tank. (Tracks and Optics) Yes I had conceded the French village but I had not taken sufficient damage to result in a loss of tank!

So each of my crews get a kill ring and if they each get 4 more (total 5 each tank) they become aces. A long way to go but a very good start.

Aftermath: Now I am faced with a dilemma. Do I Carry on doing the German and Russians, OR do I swap to German and British? 2 kills is not a start I would chose to give up easily. However Russian Zvezda tanks are cheap and to me that makes a difference. In the tying of this I think I have made my mind up but I would still like some input from you.

Until next time Take care have fun and paint if you get the chance. All the best Clint