Turn 15 Results

Yes that time of the week again. So what has happened! Well the turn sequence was a healthy balance between Red and Blue, British and Spanish actions. As always I will start with the turn sequence then the view from the step ladder and then work around from left to right round the table. Nearly everyone is involved now, I think we just have 2 frigates looking to get involved, but they will be soon I think.

 Closest I can get to an Ariel view. Yes from the top step on a step ladder hanging onto a roof rafter. Not few yet so I will wait until snow is on the ground and the shed door open just to make you all say nice things on the blog! (while I recover in hospital) That will probably not ever happen!

 The Spanish Frigate "Meccedes" races into range of the British ships but so far out of arc that nothing should bother her this -next turn. Unless of course you know better!
HMS Inconsistent looses another mast (How careles) from the combined shooting of El interceptor, San Francis and even the Frigate Unicornico.. Three on to one lads hardly fair!

 Unicornico nearly stern Rakes HMS Inconsistent but moves so far in and out of arc that the rake was missed. HMS Agamemnon manages to put a fire out and then it gets restarted by gunfire. An  HMS Cutlass is just out of arc so does not get to shoot at a 64 gun Spanish ship of the line. San Francis fires with great accuracy into HMS Inconsistent but wastes a shot firing at a mast that has just been destroyed.

 The Spanish ships have now mostly burst through the British line scattered as it was. but seem unconcerned with getting away in damaged ships (some very damaged  some UNTOUCHED!) but more concerned with destroying the British fleet. But the British will not sink too easily and their return fire is quite telling.

 SS Guarno's fire is still burning as she heads towards the Spanish ship SS Pina Colada (which has struck her colours) and HMS Challenge which is still in the game but intent on taking the Spanish ship as a Prise, yet for some reason is not engaged in any boarding actions. Both players know the reason for this but the rest of you don't!

 HMS Challenge has sent a signal message of flags into her rigging asking any nearby allied ships for assistance. The closest British ship is HMS Pachyderm and they are sailing away from the encounter and towards Loki's "Revenge of the Mermaid".

Big Lee does manage to fire on Loki this turn, but at extreme range only achieves minimal damage. It might has slowed Lokis quaffing of fine red wines for a moment. Little more.


That's it for today folks. As always if you want more Pics send me an email and as long as they are about the game I should get them back to you within 48 hours. I will try for 12 but you know what life can be like at times.

I will send out individual damage reports this afternoon. But just to say several ships are now in trouble. Deadline for the next turn orders is 8am (GMT) 15th November.

Thanks for having a look today and I hope to see you all soon. All the best Clint.

5th Analogue Painting Challenge

And the message is out! Curt LINK has started to accept people on the 5th Analogue Painting Challenge. I was lucky enough to participate last year and have put myself forward again this year.

I have yet to be officially accepted but as I had some fun last year I thought that I should try again. It really is a huge amount of work for Curt as well as his wife and I really do appreciate it. If I am not accepted this year I would at this stage like to rip out the hearts of all the other challengers. Erhm I mean I would like to wish all the other challengers the very best of luck in reaching there personal goals within the challenge. (Ok that bit did stick in my craw!)

The Challenge starts on 5th December (12:01 AM cst). ends at 12:01 Central standard time 20th March 2015. I really did have a Huge amount of enjoyment doing this last year and am now looking forward to it immensely.

The Target.

I am setting a target for myself of 1250 points. And for me that is a lot of points. Higher than last years target as I do want to push myself hard this time. No resting on laurels and I want to wear a brush or two out.

The Hard Way

I am calling it the hard way as I am not accepting any bonus points from the fortnightly bonus rounds. If I entered each of the bonus rounds I could accept extra points each fortnight. But last year while they were fun I am shirking that part of the challenge. I found them a distraction from the real endeavour of painting figures. If by chance I finish something that coincides with a themed bonus round I will delay sending it to Curt just long enough not to be in the bonus round. While this may sound to some of you like some self flagellation I feel it is important to set some rules and then FOLLOW them.

The Hit List

Ok so what have I got lined up ready to paint? Well I have the following that I want to get done.

•  10mm Zulus. (Newline design and Pendraken mixture)
• 15mm Sci Fi (Brigade)
• 15mm Sci fi (GZG)
• Full thrust ships (GZG)
• 28mm British 25 lbs (West Wind I think)
• Possibly a 15mm Ancient army  (Magister Militum) Destined for eBay I think.
• 28mm Medieval peasants (make unknown)
• Anything else that takes my fancy! Really could be anything!

Additionally I will need to paint up some form of ANTI HERO or dastardly being for Curt's entry fee. I already have a few ideas, maybe a gangster maybe I'll get a better idea! How knows.

The Above list is not restrictive, I may get some 10mm WW2 or some 6mm Arab Israeli wars stuff or even paint up a blood bowl team. At this stage the only Definite are the first 2 things on the list. As I have a hankering for Zulus!

The Rest of it!

If anyone comes up with a good suggestion for an anti hero they would like to see don't be shy and let me know. No Guarantees I will get it done, but nothing lost by suggesting it!

I think I came 14th last year, so I do not expect or intend to get in the top ten. (Without them all having some kind of accident, which I would not wish on them.). Yes I would like to come 1st but as I have my feet on the ground I had better take my head out of the clouds.

So good luck to you all. Thanks for looking and take good care of yourselves!
All the best Clint

 

10mm Sams

Well long time blog members will remember that I have been painting 10mm samurai on and off for a few years. It has been 10 months since I painted any. So yes here are a few more before I get the Paint Monkey to paint some more 28mm figures for Matt.

So here they are 10mm Pendraken Mounted Samurai armed with Yari. 13 in all and I have yet to do the sashimono back banners. Clearly these are destined for my red army. 4 Bases of 3 figures and a single figure on a 20mm square base to represent a general. I have an equal about to still do for my blue/grey army. They will be about the last of my figures done and there will be 2 armies (or else).

Thanks for looking today. I hope you are all well and happy take care and with luck, see you all soon. All the best Clint

Beaten by the potato clan!

At the club yesterday I had my first ever game of "Longship" by Peter Pig. I was playing against Matt (who was very pleased with the figures and not "Content" as I had speculated he would be. He thought that me calling him content was derogatory and It was not meant as such but I do apologise to him for thinking that! Please no one make any comments about this or I'll get an ear bent properly this time). Anyway Matt selected an Irish force, I think it was because they had war dogs), I had a Viking force!

I won most of the pregame and was the raiding force. This was my first mistake. I should have built up more pregame points and then defended! (Insert evil laugh of your choice here). Having now played the rules I now realise this would have been a better tactic! (Bet I will forget that next time!)

So here's how the game went. Yes Matt kept saying Potatoes in an Irish accent even though we both knew that they had not made their way to Europe yet. So the start of the game had most of my army on the board (I had to roll for a random unit to start off table..... yes it was my elite unit rolled for randomly). Matt started with a Random Unit as well as some skirmishers which were a real pain to me as they kept causing minimal but effective casualties on units throughout the game and they were hard to drive away.

My reserve of table unit arrived (which in most Peter Pig games is a feat unto it self). By this time my other units had captured 3 lots of loot. Some Livestock, some women and some strong ale that sounded like a beach party for the lads that night with people to do the cooking and tidy up afterwards.
Anyway my reserve unit started a long way up the table. (Green counters represent possible loot which I would need to search for. My second large mistake was that I set fire to one of the Irish villages. This alerted the surrounding aborigines and then lots more turned up. Lots more. let me say that again LOTS more! Seriously a LOT More.

Matt did bring a unit on close to my reserve unit who managed to beat them of in a single turn and send them fleeing off the board. But the middle of the bard became more of an area to squabble over. I did keep my weakest unit (which had the strong ale0 in the corner and out of the way formed into a shield wall to show that they were ready for action. (They never fought in the game).

 Here we can see Matt's most prolific unit. They were able to make one of my ultra butch Viking units from the field and they had to leave the livestock behind! Drat!

I was able to defeat Matts unit that had a general in it defending a hill. It was a tough fight as I was dragging some slaves along with me at the time and he was on a rough rocky hill. But win that battle I did and kept the slaves in order as well. But his Lord escaped and joined the unit above.

A second Unit came close to my elites (Now down to 4 bases. They did eventually beat me but due to losses we both had to flee the field in the end.

And then the game ended.
Matt and the Irish were declared the winner on victory points. But at the end I had 3 units still functioning and active while poor Matt had just 1. Still victory point calculations are victory point calculations. So just like the RCW game a few weeks ago victory did not go to the side that out fought the other. It's a strange Peter Pig rule so what can you do.

In My defence according to other club members (Graham as it happens) this was the most successful raid so far played at the club after 8 raids tried. Successful as at the end of the day I did have 2 loot counters (I lost the cows and was only left with the ale and the women) and I had a strong raiding force left, so I do wonder how bad the others must have been. Any way Matt won 60 VP to my 42VP.

I did like the way the rules worked. and would be happy to give this another go.

That's it for today all the best Clint.

Turn 14 results.

Well that was a messy one! Specially for some ships who were shot at by several participants. No one shot at Ray this time. But HMS Badger have now got all the fires out. Alas they don't have enough crew to sail the ship and the remaining Marines are trying to make a cuppa char (Most likely they are necking as much grog as they can find and squabbling among themselves over the last drops.) The Turn sequence allowed most ships that are close the opportunity to fire. There are notable exceptions of course but when aren't there.

 The View from on high. shows that most of the action this turn was on the left of the board.

 Mecedes Sailed by M Riedy is just entering range and has finally reached the engagement. Will this Frigate join the battle or sail to freedom and cause havoc in the Med.

 El Interceptor a "Fresh" Spanish Sip of the line is also entering the foray. And was just able to get a shot at extreme range.

 HMS Inconsistent captained by Edwin King is taking fire from both sides and unleashed 2 broadsides (both port and Starboard) Poor Unicornic!

 Capotain Seb on the San Francis also manages both port and starboard broadsides.

 HMS Agamemnon takes damage from SS Guano at close range and returns the compliment.  Fires are started on both ships (If the cards get drawn that way what can you do?) San Francis was even in range and arc before it moved. SS Guarno has now moved out of firing arc. But the close range battle was intense! Marines from both ships fired as well but they missed everything! Oh well.

 Even HMS Cutlass was able to get a sneaky shot of, but with only 3 dice at this range did minimal damage. But at least they fired.

And Finally HMS Pachyderm is closing on the " La Venganza de Sierra" of Loki and they are now  in range of each other so I expect either cleaver manoeuvres or firing to commence there next turn 

That is todays update. As always if you want more pictures drop me a line and I will get them out to you within 48 hours. (Less if I can make it so). next turn I will need the orders by 8AM GMT Next Saturday. I will send out individual orders this afternoon with damage reports.

Thanks for Looking. A BIG thanks for playing as I do enjoy this each week. And for those zombie players out there I will start a zombie game when this ends but all the places have already gone. So I can't Take any new players. Hobby worker is the reserve player.

Comments welcome and club day tomorrow so probly an AAR on Monday (No Idea what I will be playing) All the best folks and I hope to see you all soon.

cheers Clint

Mine Detector.

A single 20mm "Britannia" modern British mine detector.
I bought this at the Selwg show (I now have 2 of these). The reason I have two is that I know that more than one metal detector is available in a "Mastiff". I am the first to admit I am not any kind of expert on the British army but I thought to have a spare just made sense in a wargame.

Long time members of this blog will remember that I have a modern Afghanistan conflict set up (Both British and Taliban).So clearly this figure will join the rest. I did originally use the Ambush alley rules but for me they really were not what I was looking for. I mean they were good and they worked but for me in this type of game they were the wrong choice. They used squads and I wanted individual figures. WE are looking at small skirmish actions of just a few fire teams being ambushed, or 2 teams doing a patrol type games, or securing a compound. Not platoon or company type actions. Ambush alley was therefore for me aimed at the wrong scale of game.


So Having had a flick through the glossy rules (stocked by Empress miniatures at SELWG) I succumbed to buying the PDF version of the Skirmish Sangin rules by "Radio Dish Dash",  a New Zealand Company. In Retrospect buying the PDF might have been a mistake as it has cost me a lot to print out the 173 full colour pages. I am still reading the rules but so far I do like them they are clear and easy to follow. I may well do a review of the rules at a later time.

So at least you know one thing I am planning!

Thanks for looking today. I will post the next turn report tomorrow.
Until then take care and enjoy whatever the day has in store for you.

Cheers Guys.
Clint out!

Give him a nanna!

yes Paint monkey has finished this batch of now. 23 figures in all (20 painted and three used as a colour match!). So while you may count 23 in the middle photo there are really only 20 new ones painted. You don't have to count them but you can if you want!

Without blowing my own trumpet I am pleased with how they have come out. Which is not to say that they will win any prize but that I am happy with them.

They are all boxed up and will be given back to Matt on Sunday. I have no idea how many Matt has now, but I am sure when they are all assembled it will be more than I recall.

Not being into Vexillology (study of flags) I can make no guess if this flag is right. I was asked to put it on them so they now have a nice bright red flag. As well as a bright red drum as that ties them all together. I think it looks "Spanking in Red" so I'll say no more about them other than it's probably wrong but to be honest only a bean counter would truly care.

That's it for today EXCEPT:
Roy over at  http://rwhobbyblog.blogspot.co.uk/
Is planning a Wild West Play by Blog game.
The board he's making looks very good and if the game turns out half as good as the board it really should be a game worth being in.

So a few good men are needed there. I was hoping for a few naughty women but alas another dream shattered!

So that is it for now as I try to work out what I should be painting for myself. Take care all and Thanks for dropping bye.

All the best Clint

Paint Monkey Rides again

Ok there's no horse! But at least I am getting on with some commission painting for my fried Matt. I have already sent him some rush photos of the first batch and he's content with them. What a nice chap.

So what have we got today? Well a mixture of manufactures but all North West Frontier colonial types. Yeah OK you could use them for any late colonial British army, but as I have painted some other stuff for him I know where these are going.

I was concerned with putting some small lumps of cork on the bases to represent rocks. But seeing the finished results I have no qualms about doing it again as I think it works very well. I won't put them on many more just a handful. One does not want to overdo it after all.

There will be 3 batches in all, this being the largest batch of 28mm figures. The last batch will have the flags so watch out for them at the end of the week (well about). 10 in this batch, 8 in the next and then a final push to get the last few done before I hand them back on Sunday at the club. If I get the opportunity I will do a group shot before the weekend.

So that's todays (well the weekends ) painting out of the way. Thanks for looking today. Have a good week. And for me (if no one else) is that I have found a new song to sing along to while I paint. Hence the Youtube link.

Sing while you paint!

Ignore the link if you don't want to sing along.

Cheers Guys.

Lucky for Some Turn 13 Results

Once you have played this game a few times you soon get to realise that not all the action continues all the time. This was one of those turns. Due to positioning and moves only 2 ships got to fire at all. One of those was El Interceptor who fires at HMS Badger. As that ship has already struck it's colours and is now out of the fight that was a naughty act Bad Phyllion bad Phyllion! The only other shot was Captain King of HMS Inconsistent who was able to get a shot off at San Francis (Hard luck Seb).

Anyway here are some of the Pictures as always if you need any more just holler and I'll send you some. The Photos start with the one up the step ladder and then move from back left anti clockwise.

OK Here we go.

 Overall view from the step ladder.

A couple of Spanish Frigates. Meccedes on the left and Unicornico on the right.

Unicornico very nearly got a shot off this turn  I expect it will next turn.

IF it gets to fire before it moves at full sail.

 Clearly in range and Arch now and possibly set up to Rake . If the turn sequence works in their favour. But if the move first they may be out of arc. Only time will tell.

 San Francis avoided HMS Badger. A ram was on the cards but as they have now Struck their colours HMS Badger is no longer a combatant. As HMS Inconsistent was able to fire before San Francis moved. The firing was sufficient to drop one of San Francis's masts. Good Shooting Captain King and unlucky Seb.

And it will be telling for these two ships as well next turn.

You cannot ram front to front. But they may be looking at a boarding action.

Or they may just pass an blow the bejezus out of each other.

Stay turned to find out.

SS Guano is the bigger ship but HMS Agamemnon is less damaged.

I'll make no predictions on the blog.

 

 HMS Challenge and SS Pina Colada well that's interesting. SS Pina Colada wants to steer to the right but HMS Challenge has given no such order. So they will continue to bump along next to each other.

HMS Pachyderm is moving to intercept The Mermaids revenge of Senior Loki.

At present they are out of range but that should not be the case for very much longer.

I think these two vessels may get bloodied net turn (or at least soon)

 

That's it for today. As always I will need your turn orders by 9am (GMT) next Saturday.

A dull turn this time but maybe not next. 

 

Thanks for tuning in all players will get damage reports this afternoon (my time). As that task will happen after lunch. Thanks for looking have a good weekend and take care of those around you. they need it. Take care all.

 

Cheers Clint.

 

Lrdg (20mm) Chevrolet

Last week I started work on a Long Range Desert Group (Here) yes feel free to check. Well I finished the vehicle over the weekend. There are no more work in progress shots. Trust me you do not want to see my messy painting and nor do I want to show you how rough it was at certain stages. (On this I am firm and my mind will not change.)

On this side there was a bright green fingerprint on the vehicle. Where I picked it up after painting something else. Whoops!

Those that care of such things will not that I have added one more machinegun. For a total of 3. A Lewis gun for the driver, a Vickers K for the passenger seat and a m2 0.5 Browning in the rear. One for each of the crew members so while they may have trouble reloading on their own the initial firepower should be very intense.

Very observant people will not that the Chevrolet Truck is now a right hand drive. As an American manufacture I had assumed it was a left hand drive like all (OK most) American vehicles. Given there were no instructions I thought this was a logical and straightforward thing to do. Well I was wrong. I was looking at these vehicles on Google Images and to my surprise ALL the photos had the driver on the Right. So I had to rip him out and the front passenger and their guns and reposition them. It was a pain but I am learned now so will not make that mistake a second time (Crossed fingers)


 As you can see I have kept all the stowage in muted colours mostly different browns, tans and greens. Then dry brushing a desert sand colour over everything. This dulled everything down quite a bit. And then a watered down black in and flesh wash was applied to bring out the contrast between highlight and shade.


So that's it for this day. I think the model will fit very well on my desert town terrain and do indeed look forward to seeing it played.  I have a strange feeling that my players will want to use it! The other vehicle I got at SELWG was an LRDG jeep. The bad news is that I have lost a wheel while assembling it (behind a cupboard and between some floor boards) So I will need to make an order to Andy at Grubby Tanks to replace the wheel and get one or two other things.

Anyway onwards and upwards. The Paint Monkey has started some 28mm troops so you may expect them early next week. Thanks for looking today my next post will be Saturday so anyone playing the Blog game get any relevant turns in by 9 AM Saturday Morning. The post will be in the afternoon for me as I will need to get some more ink/printer cartridges and that always takes most of the morning to do.

So take care, have fun and keep on trucking.
All the best Clint

"The Dead don't take morale tests!"

As mentioned on Saturday I played a Russian Civil War wargame on Sunday at the club. And the title of the post today was something that for my part of the game was really fitting. £ players to a side, Colin Matt and Peter were the Reds. Tim graham and myself were the white army supported or I should say back by Britain financially.

Peter and Tim at the far end of the table, Matt and Graham in the middle and Colin and yours truly closest the cameras. The Rules were square bashing by peter pig and the White army was defending. As you look at the picture my forces are on the right and everything in the first 6 inches is waiting to come on the board so is not actually in the game yet (Most did not actually arrive at all for me, and never made it onto the board at all.) So all the White army troops are to the left of the road as far forward as the ruined building which was an objective.

The Reds Got a free move before the game started and the first move. Which put them right ontop of the ruin (objective). I had a regular unit and a Machinegun in the ruins and a tank behind. to my right was a militia conscript unit to my left a single machine gun.  I had reserves so I was confident I would hold out until they came forward. Yeah Right!

Tim Had troubles of his own as Peter attacked his command bunker. Graham did not! That's Grahams Cavalry charging the Red Infantry. Tim was able to beat Peters fist advance off and as I was in dire need with several elite (Professional) units against my ruin I was in deep do do! So Graham and Tim Kindly let me have the off table artillery fire this round (Very kind of them). I was lucky that it turned up mostly where I wanted it. Which stopped the Red advance for a turn.

But that only stopped them for a turn and Colin took the objective with relative ease. (The rotter). My troops were forced to withdraw batter into the town sector with the tank. Unfortunately they were too battered to counterattack straight away.

So Colin pressed the attack whipped out my Tank (Told you he was a rotter). And kicked me out of the village as well. See all my dead counters! My single Machine gun was rolling good dice though and managed to repulse the assaults on it for two turns. It was close but I was still holding on.

My entrenched Militia unit was assaulted and they run as fast  as Redrum well actually more like Shergar! (for those of us old enough to remember Shergar!) Tim has a solid position on the far right and Graham is causing trouble with his cavalry in the centre.

 And while Graham did loose one of the objectives he did win it back by the end of the game and had an uncomfortable habit of charging artillery in the flank. So I think he was having fun.

 So with 2 armoured cars and three infantry units attacking my decidedly average battered unit that had been pushed out of the ruin, then the village. My unit was pushed off of the board.

My plucky machine gunners were still holding on though. And time ran out before Colin (and Matt) were able attack them with the full force of his army which they were now able to do. I kept saying we'll call the game a draw and they kept declining! (I can't Blame them for that) and at the end of the game I had A SINGLE Machine gun stand in the game....Yeah come on then!

SO as Far as I am concerned it was a crushing defeat for me! And that's fair. I can't complain about it. I was out played and had bad luck .

As we packed the game up Graham worked out the victory points. Did he have to it really was rubbing salt into the wounds. Thanks Graham (What a git)!

Red army 42 Victory points.
White army 109 Victory points.

So I won! Did I really or is this just some cheesy ploy to make it sound better than it was?
Well as far as I am concerned I was beaten. But it turns out that because we had so few troops turn up and because Tim and Graham did well the white army won. Yippee!

To be honest I think I lost! No matter what the points say to the contrary!
Well Done Colin. You beat me fair and square no matter what the bean counters say!

Thanks for Popping by today. I have gotten something painted for Wednesday (Just got to base it now) so expect something Painted on Wednesday.

Cheers Guys don't let Monday bring you down and think of Crabzilla. The 50 foot crab ! 25 Miles from my house.

Ok It was a hoax but......... IMAGINE
Catch you all later.