SCW game

 Well a couple of weeks ago we at the club had a Spanish Civil War game. But I did not take ant photographs so I had to wait intil this aircraft had been shown on the Analogue Painting challenge.

Let me first talk about the aircraft. This is my only aircraft (so far) for the 10mm SCW armies I have. Mostly because they are just so fiendishly hard to acquire the right aircraft in the right scale or this conflict, but also because they do not figure so much in many of the battles. Yes I do know about the bombing of Guernica. But generally most battles not so much! Anyway this is a 1/200th (10mm) scale Zvesda kit of a Ju 52. Painted in civil livery of the period the aircraft did see extensive service in WW2 in military use. The kit went together perfectly, no problems at all. Seldom do you get such good kits. Yes I grant you that it is small and only about 18 parts but still it was a joy to build. Only the 2nd Zvesda kit I have built but they have both been very good indeed.

Back to the battle. (No the plane was not used.) We did use a slightly modified version of my own 1 page rules and they worked well. There had been a few tweaks from last time but as rules they work well for a fun uncompetitive type game.

I say uncompetitive and this is the twist. I set an overall objective and give a single random objective to each player. Which are not revealed until the end. There are a total of 30 objectives, and if players choose they may take a second secret objective. And the objectives will give (OR TAKE AWWAY) victory points. From the player with the card. And you just don't know until the card is drawn. Quite often they are contradictory to the main objective, or your allies or even each other. It is all the luck of the draw.

In This Game one player had to take a set building and not advance beyond it. Another player had to use a certain Phrase to insult an ally, yet another player had to suffer less casualties than any of their allies.  One of the Objective cards is -10 Victory points just because the Ref (me ) is having a bad day and someone else has to suffer as well. These cards worked really well.

In so many wargames it is a case of lining up troops against each other and fighting head on. With this set up you just do not know how your allies will react. This creates a level of doubt and it is entirely possible to lose the battle and yet come out as the winner on the day.

And Below are the results of the day's Game.

Defenders
Peter +41 VP
Richard -18 VP

Attacking
Graham +15 VP
Matt -10 VP
Tim -13 VP

Victory Points are a combination of Overall objective, The Number of bases you loose, the number of bases you kill, and the secret objectives.

Overall it was a Defenders victory on the battle field and for Peter in particular as he overwhelmingly achieved his secondary objectives while taking less casualties and allowing Richard to soak up as many casualties as he could.  Which meant that Richards 3 Platoons were all but whipped out. But this was because Peters secret objectives were to ensure that he took the least casualties in the battle. the result was while Richard was feeling supported Peter never had to push for an advance on the battle field. While Graham failed to complete his secret mission yet did inflict a substantial amount of casualties. Tim did complete 1 secret objective and with his second secret objective being that he would loose victory points every time ANYONE on his side fired artillery, he did also loose an armoured car and 2 Tankettes (fled from the table) Withdrew from the table in poor Order.

Wibble

Well here are a few more figure that I have painted for the Analogue painting challenge.

You may(or may not recognise them). I would have posted them a few weeks ago but then the very talented Michael A painted them and did a better job of them and I just did not want the direct comparison. But If you want to see how they should be painted and not how I managed just clink the link I promise it does not send you to a penile erectile dysfunction web site in a pique of spite. (LINK). But If it does it serves you right!


I have included a couple of work in progress photos, just because they were taken and it seems a shame not to pad the post out a little!

It may surprise you all to know I have never watched Blackadder! I really am expecting to be vilified for saying that but As the "Young ones" were banned by my parents as I grew up Blackadder fell in the same category and was never watched either. Do not bother telling me it is not the same, my respect for my parents even though I am over 50 years old is such that I just will not watch it no matter what you say.

I do not, of course, blame anyone else for watching it just that it is not for me. And I hope you will respect me enough not to try to coax me into watching it in a peer pressure moment! Soap box well and truly stepped off of. All the best Clint

Hole in the ground

There was a bonus round on the Analogue hobbies painting challenge (AHPC) called "defensive terrain". As I have decided NOT to spend any money on new figures for the challenge, but just to slowly reduce the lead mountain I was a bit stuck as to what to do for Defensive terrain. And being a cheapskate I decided that I would actually make some tunnel entrance markers for my Vietnam collection.  2 MDF round bases with rectangular tunnel entrances painted black. And yes they are hard to see deliberately.  Then just painted to look like all my other Vietnam bases. So just some very simple indicators of where the tunnel entrances may be. I will not actually be building the tunnels so I only need a marker for the entrance, As you can see in the first picture they are quite small and very well disguised as the lady in question holds a trap door over her head and once in place would be very hard to tell from the jungle floor.

But some were found and the US army had a specialist unit (which I will not be representing on the battlefield) of "Tunnel Rats". The Latin motto is in no way rude and does not include Rat or arse in it WHEN translated. But I will leave it to you to translate.

On a side note I have really struggled with Blogger today to the extent I was about to start the whole blog again. But luckily some luck and a little patience has seen it restored back to how it should be. Morale of the last paragraph is do not click buttons too fast! But Panic over and "Normal service is restored!"

get your motor running

 Well the Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge continues to soak up almost all of my spare time. And here today is another submission for the AHPC.

Bothe the motorcycles are from 1st Corp Miniatures in the 20cth century range under WW1.

They will of course be used for A Very British Civil War, but they could equally well be used for anything WW1-WW2 from Irish civil war to Chinese warlords in the back of beyond.

They were not however easy to put together. There were no instructions  so I was just forced to study the pictures on the First Corp web site and jump wildly to conclusions. Worse yet the casting had filled in any holes for the plugs to fit and there was no indication of where the holes should be. So some head scratching later I did finally assemble them both.

I cannot say that everything is proper and correct as I do not know motorbikes of this period well enough to judge but they look right to my uneducated eyes and at the end  of the day what else can you do.

Obviously they are intended as WW1 vehicles so have been painted to reflect that. The gun shield seems very small and does not offer very much protection to the operator and none at all for the bike rider so I suspect it is only really of psychological use as I do not see it being any good in a battle what so ever!  The other version carries a very uncomfortable looking senior officer. And in truth I imagine he would be as I do not think the suspension would be very good at all.

As an interesting side note. I have not seen any motorcycle/sidecar combinations in England for at least 10 year. Not that I have been looking for them, just that they have not been noticed by me.

The metal was OK and the casting was Ok (except where noted above) but I would not relish doing any more of these. But if you do get them and do them I do wish you the very best of luck and I would love to see how they should turn out if properly modelled.

That's it for today. Another post on Sunday and I will try to get back to a more normal schedule soon after that.

All the best Clint

2 thugs

 Two Foundry street thugs. "8mm and now all ready for support in my "Big trouble in the Little Dojo" zombie game idea.

As mentioned before I need to play more Zombie games this year as they have kind of slipped off of the game schedule for me and the club.  Which is a shame and I need to rectify it.

So two non martial artists' to help the defenders should they need it. And I think they will.

Thanks for looking I hope to have something again tomorrow.

Cheers Clint

Nurse Docerty!

 A little while ago on the painting challenge I painted up Nurse Docherty. She is by Scarab miniatures and intended to look like one of the Black adder crew. As such she should be in khaki! However as her clothes are similar to a interwar period Nurse travelling either to or from the wards (perhaps to another part of town or the accommodation block) I decided to paint her as a VBCW nurse. The figure was a joy to paint and far more realistic than many wargames female characters. She is not a "Dolly bird" type!

She was called Nurse Docerty as the Challenge adjudicators contain a certain Dave Docerty who sometimes calls himself Nurse Docerty! She may indeed be related and she may have told me a fib or two. Who can say.

Dragon Rampant trial game

Last Sunday at the club, (has it really been a whole week already?) I put on a game of Dragon Rampant. (The fantasy version of "Lion Rampant" rules by Osprey).

The problem came in that so many people wanted to play and I wanted to try the rules. When I say "problem" it is actually a joy, but the first time you try any rules you do want less players really. I Had set it up for a max of 5 players, 2 each side with me as a ref. But ended up with 7 players and at least one more wanting to pay.  The rules suggest 24 army points for each side based on 2 players. So foolishly I went over the top and dished out 22 army points to each player and a couple of spare units to give to each sides commander to distribute as he saw fit. I did point out that feudal Japan was not a democracy and that he could keep the spare units for himself to command. But the troops did tend to get distributed  anyway. This amount of troops did stretch my samurai figure resources. As I said 4 players would have been better as IT would allow me greater control of what was going on.

As no one had played the rules before the battle did become a meat grinder. With Unit after unit being sent to the slaughter. the big problem was that several times (3 turns in a row for one player) low dice were rolled and no units could activate. In a smaller game a reff familiar with the rules could follow what was going on a lot better. But in this size game and with everyone NOT knowing the rules I spent most of the day calling out statistics and looking things up.

That said the rules did work well and I would be happy to use them again with fewer people and a little more control. Players did pick up the rules very quickly and seemed to enjoy the game as not needing to worry about things like wheeling or expanding formation or contracting it did speed up play.

But overall it was a classic case of too many cooks spoiling the broth. And fewer players all being able to learn the rules would have been a better solution. So that is all my fault and not the fault of the rules.

With 6 players all learning the rules at the same time what else did I expect.

The positives.

• The rules are easy to pick up and play and give a decent uncomplicated game
• It did give me a chance to get two seldom used armies out and onto the table.
• The rules are versatile enough to play historical and fantasy games
• The rules are easy to understand and interpret
• While a few things (as in every set of rules I find) were less than clear in the writing they made good sense in the playing.

The negatives.

• The only real drawbacks were my not being able to sort armies out before the day as I had no idea who would play
• Too many players on a first run through.
• Players not understanding the period and setting and treating certain units as they would any ancient units. Such as having the Hatamoto (Bodyguards) separate from their general. I had said they could go 12 away from the general to respond to threats to the general and players took that to mean they could go marauding all over the place as long as the general tagged along. So again you can blame me as for this as I should have just said NO. But then you get into the conversation "Why can't they do that if the general might commit suicide anyway if we loose?" And as they did not know the setting or period they did approach the games with an occidental bias.

Overall the rules did work well and all the drawbacks were mainly because I was too soft. Maybe I should have just said 4 players Max!

Still done is done and it did fill the day with a game we all enjoyed (or seem to enjoy)

Medevac

No not me personally I am in good health (as far as I know).

This was also done for the Analogue Challenge painting competition. IT had hung around for about 8-10 years without being touched so I was about time. The model is a Revel Kit that I think I purchased while in Germany. It went together easily and painting was very quick and simple. But as it came with no crew I added some Britannia/Grubby tanks crew. Luckily for me they do a Medevac crew. The crew pack consists of Pilot, Co-pilot, Medic treating a wounded soldier a dead body (shown in last post) and a soldier with a rifle. The figures are tightly chunky when compared with SHQ (Most of my troops) but I actually prefer that as it gives them a slightly Cartoony feeling to painting with deep creases in the clothes. Not so good if trying to paint camouflage but as My Vietnam troops are in plain green (except my south Vietnamese) I look on it as an advantage.

I did want to put the dead body inside, but it was just a little too cramped even when I stripped out the seats and stretchers. So he was left behind. I am happy with the arrangement as it is though as It is a medevac helicopter and really does need the medic involved.

Although I said it went together easily, it did involve me getting glue on the windows at every opportunity with my inept dexterity. The other problem of course was the decals which had decayed to the level where I could not apply them properly an some even just flaked off. The result was me hand painting 2 of the crosses, so do not look too closely as they will be noticed. If that is not shooting myself in the foot and drawing attention to them I just do not know what will!

As we all know, no wargames project is ever really finished but this is getting close now. Still a few more choppers to build, both for attack roles and slicks for air lift. But they do not stay on the table long so generally need not be represented.

I have taken to using plastic disposable wine glasses as flight stands. 8 for a £1 in my local pound shop they are clear, light easy to transport and to store and even replace. They can straddle terrain any put any helicopter about 5 inches above the table so work very well. If you do any 20mm Modern wargames I would recommend them for Helicopters. They work very well indeed.


That's it for today. Next post Monday and an AAR of my Samurai using the Dragon Rampant rules .  I hope. Well it should be unless I can get no players at the club or unless some kind of unforeseen accident and no body like that.

Cheers For looking, all the best Clint


 

Bonus round (Epic Fail)

I did come up with several ideas for an epic fail, unfortunately they all revolved around me spending money or making a diorama. Both of which I had decided not to do.

Instead I started to assemble and paint a medevac helicopter. But that took to long and I did not finish it.

So instead I just put in a US soldier from Vietnam covered in a grown sheet as they did with the dead until they could be taken back to camp.

very simple to paint and rather than just miss out I submitted this as an epic fail.

very quick, very simple and easy to get finished. But at the same time although a little dark in subject a Total Epic Fail as far as I am concerned.

The figure is a Grubby Tanks/Britannia model in 20mm (1/72nd scale) and is part of the helicopter medevac set. (More of those in a few  days)

Thanks for looking and more in 2 days.

All the best Clint 

Ahhhh! M' Heartyies!

 At Salute this year I bought 8 Dwarf Pirates from Black Scorpion. 4 have been put somewhere safe and I Cannot find them. I know they have not been thrown out though.... well I think I know!

But here are the other 4. They have already been on the Analogue Painting challenge so if you follow that you will have seen the crew before. These have been the first Resin figures I have painted (I have done vehicles before) and I did find the details just a little soft. Nothing so bad as to stop me buying more just a little soft.

After years and years and years of not liking Dwarfs in games I am finally coming round to them and enjoying them.

I kept the bases as simple as possible. Just sandy beach for a finish. This would give them a versatile finish and let them be anywhere in the world. Well anywhere with sand so any beach or desert.

They were painted to help out my "Enchanter" in Frostgrave, but Frostgrave seems to have fizzled out at the club. It may start again, but it gets less likely with each passing week, which is a shame as it was a good game and in the campaign I was not last. (I know that makes a change!)

But anyway I hope you can enjoy the figures and If I do find the other four they will be painted for the Challenge and will turn up here in due course.

Have a good few days and another post on Wednesday.

Cheers From Clint

Maglach 2 Israeli Tank Company.

 Yep here we go again another catch up post. This is a 1/300th scale (6mm in wargames speak) Maglach 2 Tank Platoon circa 1967. All ready for my 6 day war project.

yes I keep promising to "re- cover" the desert but I think that can wait until the summer and it gets slightly warmer. So for now I will just put up with it.

The Company consists of 2 tank Command platoon and 3 platoons of 3 tanks each. They should be a very good match for my T55's (yet to be shown). I did struggle with the Hebrew lettering on the turret sides, but at that scale an going over a bumpy surface in lettering I am not sure of I can life with the result.

All the models are Heroics and Ross and each tank works out at 50p each so an affordable army to put on the table.

Rules wise I am thinking of Flames of War. As while I prefer the "Challenger 2" rules by Bruce Rea Taylor I think trying to explain the different ammunition choices to some of my club might be tricky. So Flames of war will be an easier option for a club game. I could well be wrong as I am sure there are some there who not only will understand the difference between HEAT and HESH DU (depleated Uranium) and AFPFDS many will just ask which is the best against Tanks or infantry or soft skins and to be fair it is the kind of thing that the commander and gunner would know.

More again in a couple of days.

All the best Clint

Big Trouble in the Tiny Dojo.

Yes I know I have not posted much recently. I have been busy. The painting has not stopped or even slowed down very much but I have been struggling with the blog posts as I hurry to get things done for the Analogue Painting Challenge.  These figures appeared on it Tuesday so it is safe to share them here now.

I want to play more zombie games this year and these are for that. 3 Dixon Yakuza martial artists that I picked up from Colonel Bill in the autumn. Anyway long story short. I am planning a zombie game at the club where everyone plays a martial artist survivor holed up in a dojo and the zombies attacking it. The zombies will not know any kung fu or if they do will not use it while in Zombie brain mode! WE can't have them doing flying kicks left right and centre, inly the survivors.

The idea is pure  "B" movie so the plot will of course be very naff. Yeah OKAY there may be a distinct lack of plot.... it is a zombie movie after all. Rules wise I did look at "Fist full of Kung Fu"  by Osprey but I think 7ombie TV will actually work better with each character stated as a co-star with some special martial arts skills. There will of course be no Gun, so no "Gun-fu" distance killing all very close and personal. (Giving the zeds more chance to bite!

Thanks for checking on the blog every so often I will try to post more frequently. And when the game takes place there will be an AAR>

All the best Clint