Zombicide, a few tanks and off we go

Sorry but I'm here again, just when you thought you were safe.

I have done little in terms of gaming or painting since I was last here, hence the lack of updates.  I have played a couple of games of Zombicide with the lads on Monday nights and last week we had a bash at Lion Rampant again, but that's been it.  I don't have any plans for anything major either.  I am missing this Monday and probably the following one too, so gaming is going to be really light for the next few weeks.

I have managed a small(very small) amount of painting so here are some dodgy looking pictures of some averagely painted figures and vehicles.

First up is some Zombicide figures, 15 assorted zombies that I needed to get finished. There are 9 walkers, 4 runners and 2 fatties, which finishes my share of the group purchase for seasons 1 and 2 of Zombicide.  I now have season 3's zombies to do, but that's going to take a while.

 Then we have a few of the survivor figures.  I painted them to look like they do on their cards, at least as closely as I could anyway.  They are based on (left to right)
Steven Seagal in Machete, Nick Frost in Shaun of the Dead, John Goodman in The Big Lebowski, John Cleese in Fawlty Towers, Simon Peg in Shaun of the Dead and, at the back, Jack Nicholson in The Shining.  Nice enough figures as usual, my favourite is John Goodman. 


The rest of my efforts have been aimed at my ever expanding 15mm WW2 collection.  The recently finished Russians have some reinforcements in the shape of 3 BT-5's and a massive KV-2, all made by Zvezda and easy little kits to make and paint.  That is it for the Barbarossa Russians now, I don't need anything else for them.

Finally I painted up a Plastic Soldier Company Tiger tank that I ordered in a sale they had.  I usually prefer the more common Panzers but it is nice to have some options available for the Germans.  I need to add some more weathering to it but I am happy with it at the moment.  I need to get a new pot of MiG powder to dirty it up so it'll have to wait until I get into town.


So that's it for wargaming over the last month.  Not much to report and it's looking pretty rocky for October too. 


I am off to Chelmsford tomorrow to see a consultant surgeon in the upper GI department.  Quietly hopeful that he may be able to at least alleviate my problems if he can't cure it.  Appointment is on Monday, but we are staying up there as travelling wipes me out.  Most things wipe me out at the moment, so I hope he can do something about it.

Well, that's it.  I'm off now to prepare for the England-Australia game.  Not saying who I'm supporting but I won't be too upset if Australia win.

More bad nights means more figures painted

It's been another week and I'm still here.  A few bad nights again resulted in me painting and basing various things.  My Napoleonic mojo has left the building now and I give fair notice, I will never ever paint Napoleonic Highlanders in 28mm ever again..........EVER!

I only had 23 to paint, trying to match the already painted one that was here.  That was all, just 23 figures.  Doesn't sound like a lot does it, but they nearly broke me.  Bloody tartan, stupid patterned socks, damnable bonnets!  I hates them I does.  I thought they were bad in 15mm but I was wrong. 

Anyway, here they are in all their misery. 

 They are supposed to be the 79th "Queens Own Cameron Highlanders", which served in Egypt, Denmark, Portugal, Spain and France during the Napoleonic War.  Busy little beggars weren't they? 












I also cracked on with some basing of other figures that I have had here for a while.  I believe this lot are French Tirallieurs Grenadiers of the Young Guard, but don't quote me on that.  Again there are 24 of them, but I just based these ones as they were painted when I got them.

As were these 20 Austrian infantry.  So I have based these up as well. 

Other news is I have been to my first show of 2015.  Four of the Chuckadice crew made the trip up to Crusade in Penarth and a fine time was had.  Thanks to Nathan for driving us up the wall to Wales and the members of the Penarth and District Wargames Society for putting on the show.  Caught up with a few people, looked at some games and browsed the traders.  Sadly there were a few no shows from the former regulars, such as Dave Thomas, which meant that nobody had any Flames of War stuff or Perrys Mounted Men-at-Arms.  This was a problem as my shopping list consisted of 2 things, some FoW PAVN infantry and a box of Mounted Men-at-Arms.  Borrocks!  So instead I bought a box of Plastic Soldier Company M4 Shermans and a pack of 4ground Rendered Walls, both in 15mm.  See the similarity to my list?  No, neither do I.  Here's hoping for better luck at PAW on Saturday. 

Monday night was spent fighting off a Dervish horde in Nathan's Sudan campaign.  Colonel Pingers was in charge, ineptly assisted by Major Blunder (aka me).  Despite Nathan's best efforts the Brits managed to hold off the Dervish masses and seized the town, so things are looking better for the Empire this week.  Hopefully Nathan will put a report on his blog at some point.

I have also cracked on with some Vietnam period armour, but it's not quite finished yet so no pictures just yet.  Tomorrow night will mostly be spent shouting at the TV as the 6 Nations kicks off in Cardiff.  Catch you all later, I am off now.

No pictures this time

Because I keep forgetting my camera!  Some things never change.......

Its been an interesting couple of weeks since my last post.  I have been pretty rough for the majority of it, yet again missing gaming days and other planned excursions.  It's been pretty crap, but things are improving hopefully.  We have had a new boiler fitted which only caused one leak, which was good as it was least than expected.  Unfortunately it was above the living room, so we may need to redecorate sooner than planned.  We also had a leak from the bath when the new bathroom was fitted, so we now need a new ceiling in the hallway.  Hoo hum and all that.  At least we now have hot water all the time and the radiators heat up in about 5 minutes!

The one downside was the lack of heat in my work/lounge about room.  It used to have the hot water tank in the cupboard, but now its doesn't and the drop in temperature has been considerable.  The end result is that things had to be moved so the radiator wasn't blocked off, so I am now in the process (sort of) of going through all my "old" projects and things are going to be sold-on or given away.

Painting has been slow as I feel so crap.  I have finished some more zombicide figures off, but that's been about it.  Napoleonics are still ongoing, I have some more WotR figures to paint up etc.

The poll came out in favour of doing platoons for CoC in France 1940, so that is the plan.  I want to get the following platoons, each with some support options.
1 - German Infantry (40 figures) with HMG, Pak 36, 75mm IG, PzI, PzII, PzIII, Pz38t and Sd222 support.
2 - British Infantry (28 figures) with HMG, 2pdr, 25pdr, A9, A10, A13 and CS9 support.
3 - French Infantry (40 figures) with HMG, 75mm, R35, H35, S35 and Char B support
After these I will consider getting Belgians, Dutch and possibly Polish too.  So, that's the plan for my next project anyway.

Gaming wise we finished the game of Zombicide, with Zob also getting munched but Andy, Panjo and I got away ok.  Soon we will playing the next game in the book.  Last week we had a couple of games on, Colin and Zob tried out an ACW variant of CoC that Colin is tinkering with.  Looked pretty good, but playing it showed that it needed some changes.  Panjo and Nathan played a battle in out ongoing Dux campaign.  Nathan's raid on the church did not go to plan, basically because he couldn't hit anyone.  His plan looked pretty good, but fell apart on contact with the enemy.  The end result was that Panjo won by 4, gaining 2 more warriors, a priest and some loot.  Despite some niggle between the two of them, I think they had a good game.

Tomorrow myself, Tina, Michael and Gemma have tickets for the Wales vs Tonga game in Cardiff.  I am looking forward to it, but a bit worried about being sick!  Ah well, think positive, hope for the best but prepare for the worst.

Right, off to go through all the crap that has come out of the boxes, drawers and cupboards and sort out stuff to get rid of.  Catch you later.

More random musings and thought-type things.

Yet again it's been longer than I had planned since I have posted here, but I am back....again.

First things first, I have managed to get a little bit of painting done, so things are not all bad.  More Napoleonics have been done, with the third unit of French Old Guard Grenadiers getting covered in paint, as well as a unit of Battlefront US HMGs.  Currently on the sticks are 15mm Highlanders, being painted up as the 42nd "Royal Highland" Regiment of Foot, aka The Blackwatch.  Yes, I am painting tartan on 15mm figures and yes, it is a pain.  However, it has been quite nice to be fair, as I have experimented and played about until I have a method that works for me and seems to give a fair representation of a kilt, at least to my eye.  Once I have finished the unit I will take some piccies and bung them up here.

Of course, there is no guarantee that my enjoyment of painting Napoleonic 15's will continue, as I have another 2 units of Highlanders to do after this one. The 79th(Cameron Highland) and 92nd(Gordon Highland) may well push me from enjoyment to chore, but at the moment things are going well.

Wargames wise, it has been a washout.  Zob spent a few days redecorating the room we use at his house, so we had a break of 2 weeks in gaming.  Gus' hasn't been feeling too well, so no gaming there and Nathan found another job after being made redundant earlier this year, so he is now busy through the week.  And I missed the Devon Wargames meet as I had to take No2 to Devonport so he could injure himself playing rugby.

After feeling reasonable last week, things went downhill on Friday and didn't really pick up until yesterday.  I don't know what I ate that upset me on Friday but having a kebab on Saturday didn't help.  Sunday was supposed to be a day of rugby, but No2 son managed to injure his knee again playing on Saturday, so we spent Sunday morning in A&E.  Back there today to find out how bad it is, but it's not looking good.  As he has had ACL reconstruction already on his knee, if he's done it again then his rugby career is over at 19.  Not good, but he is doing his best to stay positive.  Tina has also injured herself, tearing a muscle in her shoulder, which makes it hard for her to do lots of things that she still tries to do.  All in all its been a good few days in this family.

I am gradually getting my Longstreet armies up to strength.  Many, many years ago, when Peter Pig first brought out a 15mm ACW range, myself and a couple of friends (from the long defunct Torbay Wargames Group) decided to get some armies.  I have since had a small force of painted, but not based, Union troops sat in a box.  They are now on bases ready to get sand put on them.  Unfortunately there are not quite enough to do a full force as I have about 25 bases of infantry and 6 of cavalry, so an order will be going off to Peter Pig as soon as I get some spare cash.  My only concern is that the entire range has been redone and I don't know how they match up with the older figures.  I also have the start of a Confederate force, as I bumped into one of the old club members two years ago and he sold me his force as he doesn't game anymore.  Again, not enough for a complete force, but its a start.

Anyway, thats my ramblings done for now as I need to get sorted to take No2 up to RD&E in Exeter for the good/bad news about his knee.  Fingers crossed.  Catch you all later.

Busy busy busy

Its been longer than I had thought since I posted here.  I have played a few games since my last post, I have painted more figures and I have watched some rugby.  I have also been feeling pretty sick in between these, so things have fallen a bit behind schedule.

The table we played on

Games played since my last post have been many and varied.  Tuesday last week saw four of us gather at Casa del Stumpy again.  The usual trio of Nathan, Gus and myself were joined by the sizeable addition of Pingu.  ACW Black Powder was the order of the day, but I forgot my camera again.  I guess the only thing that could be worse than forgetting your camera would be to take it and then leave it there when you are going away on holiday on the Thursday, but who would do such a thing?

Rebs smash into the Blue Line

 Luckily Nathan managed to take a few photos, so I have nicked some from his blog.  The game went well, at least it did for Gus and I commanding the gallant defenders of the Union.  Despite being militia, untried and outnumbered, Gus' brigade managed to see of the rebellious Southerners despite their repeated charges and advantage of numbers.

Reb Cavalry vs dismounted Union Cavalry

What really happened was every time Gus fired or fought he managed to roll a 6, disordering the Reb unit.  Every single time.
 This meant that despite their superiority in capability and numbers, the Rebs tended to be fighting at a disadvantage due to the defender holding behind either a wall or fence.

Union reinforcements arrive

In addition to Gus and his jammy dice, Pingu managed to roll very low numbers for the Confederate generals, so they were failing orders and the additional brigades didn't come on it time to help.

So, the battle ended with the Rebs skedaddling back to their Southern homes while the Union boys held the ground and had some sippin' whiskey.

The quiet left flank

The game was enjoyed, but I am still not convinced that Black Powder does it for me.  I prefer Fire and Fury for ACW, Maurice for AWI and They don't like it up 'em for Colonial.  Nothing bad about the rules, they just don't do it for me I'm afraid.

Panjo looks at Gus with disgust after another 6!

 After the quick resolution of the wargame, we adjourned downstairs to play Pandemic.  This co-operative game requires the team to work together to counter the spread of nasty germs and virus type things.  We managed to win both games, the first with 1 card left in the deck, the second with 3 cards left, so we are getting better at it.

 
The next gaming was on Monday night this week, where the next round of the Dux campaign was taking place.  Nathan was still gathering replacements from the defeat he had suffered at my hands and the other Saxon lords decided to leave my lands alone and raid the other British territories.  Colin took on Andy, giving him a sound thrashing and capturing his Lord.  We are not sure what this means in terms of the campaign, but I am thinking either pay a ransom or get a new Lord for Andy.  Zob took on Pingu and, despite failing in the mission, managed to scrape a 1 point win.  This is Zob's first victory and finally gained him some loot.


Next Monday's game is Dux for me, with the most victorious Saxon lord (Colin) taking on the most victorious British lord (me!).  This could be a decider for Colin as he is rapidly gaining more men and has already gathered a large amount of loot.  I can see a Warlord appearing out of the Saxon mists, waging war on one of the British lords in an attempt to set up his own kingdom.  Unfortunately for me Colin has gained extra skirmishers as well as 2 extra warriors.  Things could be bloody on Monday night.

Saturday sees the ACW commanders gather again, but this time to go to Market Larden up in Evesham.  This gathering is being organised by members of the Wyvern Wargamers, with 30+ people getting together to play various Too Fat Lardies games.  I am looking forward to this as a day out with the lads doesn't come around that often anymore, due to work and family commitments from one or more of us each time.  So onwards and upwards, expect to see many photos (if I remember the bloody camera) and random musings next week.

Rugby has had a good few appearances in my schedule too.  No2 son and myself went up watch the Premiership final and a cracking day out it was.  Thoroughly enjoyed it, good entertainment and the boy went to the bar as he is now old enough to get 'em in.  Admittedly I was only on coke, but its still nice for somebody else to get the drinks.  The game was good too and I think the Tigers would have won even if Dylan Hartely wasn't sent off.  Last Saturday we went up and watched the first Lions match in the pub.  Another good game and he went and got the drinks again.  The cost of 2 pints and 2 cokes has prompted the (temporary) arrival of Sky Sports in this house though.  £25 for Sky Sports or £16 at the pub for each of the remaining 9 matches, the maths is easy.  So this morning we watched the Lions playing the Western Force team in Aussieland.  Not as good a showing from the Lions and I can only hope they get better as the week passes by.  Bring back the scrummaging master that is Adam Jones!  Dan Cole is good, but he's not that good.

Well that's it for now, off to paint some more Napoleonics.  I have now done over 1200 15mm figures this year, which is about as many as I did all of last year I think.   Keep rolling those dice folks, and support the British and Irish Lions......unless your an Australian.