Another update, more buildings and yet more 28mm Germans

It's been a busy few weeks.  Things did not go to plan at the hospital, despite losing over 5 stone(32kg to you foreigner types) I am still too fat around my middle to have the op.  So the plan is too lose another 2-4 stone.  In the meantime I am stuck with the Ryles tube going down my nose.  It could be worse though, so I'm still smiling.  Sort of.

Wargaming wise, I have not played much over the last few weeks.  I did partake of a multi-player Dux Britannarium  game, where the Saxons and Irish allies saw of the Romano-British levies and stole all the loot.  No pictures and I can't remember the details, except that we discovered the raiders are a real pain for the fairly static R-Brits to deal with.

Painting has gone on, but not much for myself.  Two more platoons of 28mm Bolt Action Germans have been painted up, one sold privately and the other is on eBay now.

This one sold on to a chap in France.  It's made up from the Blitzkrieg period figures released recently by Warlord.  They are a vast improvement on the original plastic Germans  and came out pretty well, even if I do say so myself.

The other platoon is made of the new Grenadiers in plastic.  Again, they are much nicer figures than the originals and look good.  A bit more work to paint due to all the camo, but they are worth the extra effort.  This lot includes a tripod MG42 and a pair of MG42 LMGs in each squad. There are also two Panzerfausts per squad, making them a well equipped force.

Here is a closer look at the MG42.  I have added some spent shell casings under the weapon, I didn't realise that the MG34 and 42 ejected the casing through the bottom of the breech.  You learn something every day.

My own stuff has been 15mm buildings being touched up and based.  Similar the the ones in my previous update, I now have a total of 7 bases of buildings done and ready for use.  These latest are made up to represent a street, from left to right there is the grocers, hotel, 2 unsigned shops(I didn't realise until I was taking the pictures!), an antiques shop, a patisserie, the town hall and another patisserie.  They all have
individual back gardens/yards as well.

This is the rear of the town hall and corner patisserie.  The town hall has a large courtyard while the shop has a smaller garden with some flower beds.













The rear gardens of the middle shops are split by an alleyway.  The left pair have much nicer flowers beds and such than the other two.  Probably because they have signs on the front of their shops.










The other end has a larger courtyard area for hotel guests to park, while the grocers has a small garden given over solely to growing vegetables.















The final 4Ground building I have at the moment is a pair of semi-detached houses.  These I have based up slightly larger with larger gardens that come around the side of the house too.  One has a nice garden with paving stones, flowers and a vegetable patch.  The other is a bit overgrown and is obviously left to grow as it sees fit.

Lastly I have also started basing up some of the Landmark buildings I bought when the now closed Battle Honours UK first released them.  This is the farm, made up of 3 Landmark buildings and a scratch-built pig pen.  I am fairly happy with how it has come out, although I may repaint the shutters on the windows.
 
 Anyway, that's your lot for now.  I am currently waiting on some decals to arrive, along with some more fencing.  Then I can crack on with the last few bits I need to finish before next Saturdays  trip up to Evesham.

Anyway, have fun folks and thanks for stopping by.

Devon Wargames, painting, gaming...............

Back again with another load of old crap.

Saturday was the latest gathering of like minds, which is a scary thought,  at the Devon Wargames Group.  Three games were played, 28mm English Civil War, 15mm Napoleonics and 15mm WW2.

Things begin at Marston Moor

Marston Moor was the basis for the ECW game, catering for 8 players and involving much toing and froing.  It looked like a fun game and the players seemed to enjoy shouting at each other.  Look for a report soon on the DWG blog.

Contact in the centre

JJ put on a typically beautiful 15mm Napoleonic game using figures from his ongoing Talavera project.  The rules used were apparently called DBJ, not sure if that's for De Bellis Jon or Death By Jon.  Again the players looked to be having a good game, even if they did get their units a bit mixed up.

JJ's Talavera game

If you want inspiration on what you can do with 15mm figures and some spare time then check out his previous posts about the Talavera project, they are worth looking at.

These are not the gun's your looking for

Brits appear to steady the line

Unhappy Spanish Cavalry

German's advance through the woods

The final game was a 1940 Chain of Command game put on by me.  Four of us played it, Nathan and Christopher took the attacking Germans, Jack commanded the dug-in Highlanders and I took the French.

Each German player had a platoon of infantry (4 squads of 10 men plus a 5cm mortar) plus  2 Pz IIs, 2 Pz 38ts, 2 Sd222s, a tripod MG and an engineer section in support.  The British platoon(3 squads of 8, 2" mortar and Boys AT rifle) were supported by a Vickers MG team and a 2pdr gun while the French Platoon(3 squads of 12) were backed up by a Hotchkiss MG and a mighty 25mm AT gun.  The allies also had a carrier section(3 Bren carriers) and a single Vickers VI light tank as reinforcements. 

Defenders appear in their entrenchments

2pdr appears, not that it did much

French 25mm gun gets hit

The Germans had to break through the defences, but failed miserably.  The Brits were hard hit by the end, with two sections routed and the third pinned down.  All their support was still there though, although the 2pdr had run out of ammo without killing a single enemy vehicle.  The French were in a stronger position, with one squad at half strength and pinned.  The AT gun was slightly battered and the MG was pinned, but the remaining squads weren't even deployed.  The Germans took heavy losses due to remarkably accurate fire from Jack's Highlanders.  It did help that he managed several multiple phases during the game, one time he had 4 in a row!  This really scuppered the German's advance and prevented their infantry from ever getting going.  Low point was Jack's 2pdr firing 10 shots and only damaging a Pz38t once and an Sd222 once.  This was despite hitting on 5+ on 2d6 as they were in the open AND rolling 5d6 against 2 or 4d6 for penetration.  Not good at all, but the Boys AT rifles made up for it.  The infantry one knocked out one Sd222 and kept the other one and both Pz38t's pinned at the edge of the table.  The carrier one fired 2 shots and caused both PzII's to retreat off the table.  Fear the Boys, for it is mighty!  Anyway, the game went well, even if the German's never really got into the fight.

I have managed a bit of painting too, so things are not going too bad.  First things I have done were a couple of 4Ground 15mm terraced buildings that I have based and detailed to improve how they look on the table.  At least that's the plan anyway.  First one was a definite learning experience and took far longer than the second.  The buildings have been painted up to cover the scorch marks from the laser.  They were then attached to a hardboard base with some pavements and back gardens added.  I cut the board too big and was left with some space at the end(measure and check before cutting), so I added a small allotment to fill that.  The walls and fences are 4Ground too, with plants from various sources.  Some are just grass tufts while others are railway modellers scenic bits.  The garden paving is Wills sheets of various types.  they are a bit overscale but look ok and will do.  I think they came out well and will soon be joined by some more as I have many buildings that need doing.

 The second terrace was based on a correctly cut bit of hardboard and has more grass in the gardens.  As I said, it's been a learning experience.  It's been a fun exercise though and will be repeated soon(ish).

 I also managed some 28mm WW2 Germans, a 32 man platoon of Bolt Action plastic figures for eBay.  Got to pay for the MOT on the car, which cost a bit more than we hoped for.

Final things were some entrenched 15mm WW2 British and French infantry.  The figures are all from Skytrex, but the French are really Germans with Peter Pig heads fitted.  Nobody does dug in French troops.

Well that's your lot again.  I am off to paint some more on the French tanks I am doing before calling it a night and going to bed.  Off to Torbay Hospital tomorrow for the op on my stomach, assuming they have found me a bed as I have to stay in for a day or two.  Have fun while I'm offline, I know I won't.

Legionary 2015 and other random stuff

Been a bit tom-and-dick so apologies for the lax postings.  Luckily things will hopefully be improving in the sickness area as I am off to get fixed(hopefully) on Tuesday.  Wish me luck.

Last week was the annual Exeter wargames show, Legionary 2015.  Excellently hosted by the Exmouth Imperials wargames club as usual, it proved to be a cracking show and I spent way more than I planned too.  There is a nice set of pictures on the Wargames, Soldiers and Strategy website, so pop along and have a look at much nicer pictures than the ones I take.

Nathan and I put on a game of the forthcoming Cold War Chain of Command game.  This is in an early stage of playtesting and we are luckily involved to breaking playing them.  A small game involving a meeting engagement between to recce forces. A Russian mech infantry platoon with 2 MBTs and an engineer section in support bumped into a British infantry platoon with 2 Scorpions in direct support, plus a Chieftain enroute.  It played pretty well, the Russians pushed forward as fast as they could, nearly wiping out a British section as they got several phases in a row.  It didn't help that I couldn't hit anything with the Carl Gustav rocket launcher.    The Russian tanks pushed forward, laughing at the Scorpions 76mm HESH shells.  Then a BMP-1 exploded, hit by a mighty 120mm HESH shell from the Chieftain as it arrived.  Another BMP brewed up, then one of the T-64s exploded as an APDS round tore through its armour.  The rules worked pretty well, considering that they are in an early stage of playtesting.  Light armour is very very fragile, being bullet, but not mush else, proof.  I will probably end up spending a small fortune on 15mm figures and vehicles for this period to replace my small forces of 28's, as then I can use my existing terrain.  Plus I think the game plays and looks better in 15mm.



Other games at the show were varied and all looked nice.  Graham and Dave put on a 28mm Medieval battle.  Lots of stabbing and slicing occurred and much carnage was wrought.


Another large Medieval game, was also there.  War of the Roses I think.  It looked very nice and the scenario included a very large flank march by one of the forces, but there was only a small bridge for them to cross. 

 There was a beutiful 28mm ACW game that looked excellent with lovely figures and cracking terrain.

 Another 28mm game was played using Under the Lily Banner I believe.  Plenty of colourful troops contested a sizeable battlefield.

 Something different now, 1/600th ironclads from the Russo-Japan war.  The models were beautiful and it looked really good.  A fair few pounds had been spent on those ships.

 One game that I was interested in, but never got a chance to try, was Star Wars Armada.  It is nice to finally be able to command a Star Destroyer on the table, but I am loath to fork out £80 for 3 ships without first trying the game.  It does look good and I have heard and read some good reviews of it, but the price for the ships may be a killer blow at the moment.  Plus the Imperial Star Destroyer isn't out yet!

All in all it was a good day out.  I managed to last until after 4pm, which was good but I did pay for it over the next couple of days.  I bought a couple more 4ground buildings, 2 technicals in 28mm(WHY?), some bits and pieces for my 1940's forces from Peter Pig(nice to see them back), some 15mm Landmark buildings(too good a price to miss) and several books on the bring and buy.  I meet some old friends that I haven't seen for a while and meet some new friends as well.

That's it for now.  There will be another update tomorrow with my painting efforts and yesterdays Devon Wargames meeting.  Keep rolling those dice folks, they can't all come up on a 1........can they?