Death in the sand

Friday nights game was a shameful total defeat. In some ways it was very realistic in that 4 British officers (me, Shaun, Tom and Paul), thought we'd march a troop each, in column, towards a British outpost, casually dealing with any Arab-types we saw along the way. Then we subsequently got slaughtered by inferior armed, poorly trained enemies.

The rules set used was "A Good Dusting". We used the solo play so that we could all be British officers. The Arabs were concealed by using the vegetation markers to randomly place possible unit locations. These were randomly revealed by a combination of dice rolls and proximity of the British units. Considering the random nature, it was surprising that the Arab tactics were perfect. They even let 2 units of the column pass before flank attacking, and also attacked simultaneously.  

So here's the abridged version of events, and because I'm still lost for words over what happened, its mainly told in pictures.....

The objective.

The route. Come on from the near end. March to the objective at the far end.

The column got half way to the objective, before Arab tribe units appeared on 3 sides.

Considering all Arab unit placement and start times were random, it was a perfectly co-ordinated group ambush!

No time to form a square. The Highlanders and the Sussex form back-to-back. The Marines and the red jackets formed??

The Highlanders and the Sussex firing lines inflict minimal casualties as the Arabs move in.

The Marines cover the Arab left flank attack, while the red jackets cover the right flank.

The red jackets only got a single volley off, inflicting minimal casualties, before the Arabs got into hand-to-hand combat.

Back-to-back, there is nowhere to retreat. The Highlanders and the Sussex are overwhelmed.

 

Coming over a nearby hill, meant the Arabs were only ever in the Marines line of fire for 1 volley.

The Marines broke and fled. Sadly the Arabs could run faster....no survivors.

The dismounted officer rallies the last troop section to try to use bayonets to repel a 2 sided attack.

The remaining Arabs, plus a newly arrived superior Mahdi group, swarm around even deeper.

The horrific, bloody end. 

Little Heroes

The Heroes

Last night I played a 20mm scale WW2 game with some regular gaming friends (Paul, Shaun and Tom). Myself and Shaun commanded a German infantry force against a Russian infantry force commanded by Tom and Paul. The objective of the battle was to take and hold a large church on part of a large island land mass. This involved a race to get to the objective (cut off by a wide river), and battling for key positions including 2 bridges and any building near those bridges. There were no tanks, but there was heavy artillery guided by forward line spotters.

The objective

Rare Praetorian Guardsmen for sale

The blister pack for sale

A painted Praetorian from my collection

On Ebay I currently have a rare unopened blister pack of  2 40K Praetorian Guardsmen. This blister pack came from the Praetorian box set that was a limited edition release in the 1990's.

Its nice to have a whole regiment of them, but that would cost a fortune these days. However, they look great as part of a command squad along the lines of chosen men or hand picked elites who accompany the senior officer etc. The 2 figures have great poses. One has the rifle ready for close combat with a fairly serious bayonet fixed. The other has grenade launcher. Both have parade dress tunics with epaulettes and "tassels".....and of course the pith helmets!

Happy bidding.

20mm Scale - Less is more

I've finally succumbed and started to play 20mm scale WW2 wargames. It's probably the correct decision for some types of games, especially the larger tank battles. I'll still prefer 28mm for the infantry close-quarters and skirmish games. I also love the amount of detail that can be painted in 28mm scale.

Rare Limited Edition Cadian Standard Bearer for sale

I currently have a very rare Limited edition Cadian standard bearer listed on Ebay (link in top right of this page while auction is active). this miniature is brand new, and is taken from an army box set I purchased in 2003. Pictured below are the item for sale (left) and a painted example (right).

 

Woody's now selling Games Workshop products

If you play Warhammer Fantasy or 40K and live in the Mid-Sussex area (or just fancy a trip to Burgess Hill), then you'll pleased to know that Woody's in Burgess Hill, are now selling this range.

Woody's is an independent retailer situated in the Martletts Shopping Centre in Burgess Hill, Sussex, UK. The Martletts is 2 minutes walk from the railway station, and also has lots of car parking. the owner is a guy called Peter Woodhams. He is very friendly, and will give you all the help and advice you need for whatever hobby you enjoy.

Mention my name or "petesminiatures", and Woody's will give you a 10% discount.

Independant Wargames Shops

Woody's, a thriving model/gaming shop in Burgess Hill, Sussex

Sadly, these have almost become extinct over the last 10 years. A lot of this was due to the mentality of gamers who thought it acceptable to look at the products and use the game tables in the smaller shops, but do all their actual purchases online. The same gamers then moaned whenever "their" local shop ceased trading!

Thankfully, some of the larger manufacturers and distributors have changed their supplier agreements in the last couple of years. In many cases it is not possible to sell certain ranges (Warhammer being an example) through an online shop, unless you also have a physical "bricks and mortar" store. Many suppliers also restrict the levels of discounts available online. This is a good move, as it now means physical (and ofter smaller) independent stores can now be viable again. Its just a shame that big companies like GW took several years to realize that although online sellers with no overheads could sell masses of product on narrow margins, the lack of physical stores killed of the next generation of gamers (example - most kids get into Warhammer by visiting and playing games at a local store).

I'm back!

Well I'm slowly getting back into the hobby after a few months out - mainly caused by work and uni study. To kick things off, I've started offloading surplus items on Ebay. But I've hit a little snag. They are restricting the number of items I can sell until I get some recent star ratings. So for the next few weeks, expect a small number of auctions ;-(

But, they will be bigger items....

 

Engineering works over.

I've redone the site blog layout using a dynamic blog template supplied by blogger. This means you can select alternative layouts from the first item on the left of the navigation (menu) bar. There are 7 layouts ranging from a standard blog, through to something that resembles FaceBook's TimeLine layout. I've set the default layout to "Magazine", but just select another layout if you like and the layout will take a second or two to dynamically change within the browser or viewing device. 

I've tested the layouts on a Windows PC running Firefox, an iPad2 and an HTC Wildfire phone. They look OK and are navigable. So consider this as my contribution to accessibility and usability on the web ;-)

Expect strange things.....

I'm trying to integrate a photo gallery into the site, so there may be some periods of non-availability or strange page views over the next 48 hours.

It's so cold......

 We had some good timing this week. The snow came down. We also happened to play a game based on a Russian retreat in the snow. Paul had set up his gaming table with snow tiles and coupled with the real cold (myself and Shaun had to wait outside when we arrived with no coats, and then the gaming room needed to have the fire turned on!), everything was very atmospheric. The picture above shows some of the Russians I was trying to retreat southwards. They got pinned and suppressed at the north end of the battlefield before they even made the first bit of woods. The German tank ignores them to chase after the bigger Russian group in the far distance (and the German tank support infantry were following anyway).

The retreat was chaotic, with German units actually getting ahead of some of the Russian units they were pursuing. This made the Russian units scatter, occasionally using the woods to make a stand. Any pinned or suppressed units were left behind to fend for themselves! As the German armour got further south, they did take a casualty, by fire from the 2 Russian artillery and a single tank. However, these also were retreating, and withdrew soon after their single tank kill. At one point, a German tank moved between Russian units only feet away, the tank being on a road sided by dry-stone walls which had infantry sheltering behind. The tank crew were lucky their vehicle was not assaulted.

All in all, it was a fun game. There was real confusion over large ordinance firing as both German and Russian troops looked near identical in snow smocks. We also used a snow rule requiring a dice throw to see if units within range could actually be spotted in the snow. This is how so many Russians held out even in open ground.   

Ethnic uniform variants

I'm currently modifying some German infantry to create Sikh Tiger Legion infantry. This will mainly involve simple head swaps, as most of the uniform remains standard German issue.

However, I'm getting distracted after watching the "Days of Glory" film, with French Algerians wearing ethnic variant uniforms. 

The film is worth a watch and for me it seems to be re-reinforcing lessons learned from recent gaming campaigns where I was trying to enter towns and take buildings. The clip below certainly reminds me:

• sub machine guns at close range are very effective
• hidden in a building, you can draw the enemy in close enough for sub machine guns
• Make sure you take out German MG42 and Panzershreck at the start
• Don't do a group move down the main street!

Fallshirmjager

I have added a few pics of the 50 Fallshirmjager to the Gallery. I painted them up quite swiftly for a the Arnhem campaign we are currently playing (we need a lot of them!), and will probably use them tomorrow night. They have the plain jump smocks as they are going to be used for my early war Seaford project at some point.

The campaign continues...

German transports hit at extreme close range by PIAT teams in the building they were trying to take.

Last night we played a battle in our "Bridge Too Far" campaign. The campaign is working well using the map and campaign board from Flames of War, and then selecting the most decisive battles to play on the tabletop in 28mm.

More distractions...

It's another HassleFree piece that I think I picked up at  show. It makes me think of the Hancock film where the delinquent super-hero sometimes did good deeds while he was drunk and improperly dressed.

If you are a super-hero called upon in the middle of the night to save lives, why waste time putting on your Lycra suit and cape? Dashing straight out in your Y-fronts could save vital life-or-death seconds.

Falshies progress

Base colours done for jump smocks and trousers.

Caught out by forgetting some officers and command had special tunics!

Distractions

It can get very boring working on 50 Falshies, so I feel this little bit of self indulgence is justified. I'm repainting this model. It used to have Space Marine shoulder pads and was a chapter standard bearer I used to put on the table at the start of 40K games to provoke my opponent.

I tried to paint the base with a disco/Manga or alien bar (a la Star Wars) feel. Not too unhappy for a first try with about 30 seconds of thought and planning!

Falshies....I made a start today

 

I managed to prepare, base and undercoat 50 Falshies today. 

A Little Milestone

OK. So it's not a Golden Demon entry. But this cute Foundry Ork is precious to me. He is the first thing I've painted using my new detail spectacles and after having a little bit of treatment on my eyes. Two weeks back, I couldn't even see the end of my paint brush.

The optician said start off with simple bright contrasting colours to begin with, and then progress at whatever pace I am comfortable with. As we have 2 long weekends coming up (Easter and a royal wedding/May day), I think I'll be starting on all my WW2 stuff. By that I mean falsmegger Fulscumugger Falchemeegs Falshimeggger German Paratroops.