Bad Kitties and Friends

Its a new year and a new focus and enthusiasm for war gaming. Much of this can be attributed to the opening of a new game store in my area. Well, its not new but it moved to a new premises which is only 25 minutes away door to door. Its a big store with tons of space and lots of product. Its amazing just what those 2 things can do to your enthusiasm and to the contents of your wallet. The store itself used to be called Sci-fi Genre and is now called Atomic Empire.

What that means is that I am getting in more gaming and I have also met a few new people. Hell, I have even managed a few small games of 40k which will be part of my next post.

This post more concerns my small but growing Flames of War army. Over Christmas I went halvies on the Open Fire box set. I kept the Germans and my friend Kenny took the British. I was also able to aquire a few pieces of individual armour, hence the name of the post.

This amounted to a new Tiger 1E, Panther A and Konigstiger. Painting and assembly went well. I changed my method putting them together and used 2 part epoxy instead of super glue and I am very happy with the result. Those tanks will NOT be falling apart.

This brings my total up to 2 Tigers, 3 Panthers and 1 Konigstiger.

As mentioned I also put together the contents of the Open Fire Box set. All in all I am very impressed with what came in it. 2 full platoons of Grenadiers plus HQ, the 2 Pak40 guns and the 3 StuG G's. All went together well and look good. The infantry does have some issues with being single piece plastics but nothing thats noticable on the table top.

In a frenzy of hobby enthusiasm I assembled and painted everything in less than a week. I will say that doing the 81 infantry figues almost crushed my will to live.

 The 3 plastic StuGs. They look good and are a teeny bit bigger than the resin versions. I think the extra width actually makes them look better. Also brings my StuG count to 8

The 2 Pak40's: Lovely models and very easy to put together. 

Grenadier HQ stands 

 

Grenadier Platoon. There is a 2nd platoon but it looks the same so didnt take pictures.

Battlefleet Gothic Fleet and campaign

Its been some time since my last post. Life and a lack of game playing getting in the way as usual. That being said I have found time to complete my BFG fleet and start a campaign with my friend Kenny. His is running a Slannesh Chaos fleet while I am using my Imperial Navy fleet.

Being highly unorigional I have based my fleet on the British High Seas Fleet of WW1, specifically when it was involved in the Battle of Jutland. My Admiral is Jon Jellicoe and he is of course housed in the Iron Duke.

Thus far we have played 2 games of the campaign. Game 1 was a massive 2000 point battle. We decided to start off with this big game as we both wanted to field all of our new fleets. That ended in a solid win for me.

Game 2 was a Raid battle. During this game I managed to do almost 0 damage to my opponent and disengaged my whole fleet like a whipped dog. Resounding victory for the forces of chaos.

It has been an interesting experience as we have both found out and learned a whole bunch, especially when it comes to rules that we both misread or interpreted. Still, thats the whole point. To learn.

Anywho, getting back to my fleet since I am sure people want to see the pretty pictures. I have based my fleet off the Battlefleet Bakka fleet from the 2010 FAQ and compendium. Its a fleet based heavily on big guns and very very few carriers which I felt matched the whole WW1 aesthetic. I do have some flight decks in there but not many.

The whole fleet.

 

My escorts and light cruisers

 

Battlecruisers: The one in the front is a Jovian and its an almost pure carrier. Its specific to Battlefleet Bakka and according to fluff only 1 exists. Which is why I decided to use a different bridge on it to make it look more unique as well as more carrier-ish.

 

My cruisers. 2 Luna and 2 Gothics

 

And of course the big boy. The Iron Duke herself

 

I also decided to paint up some planets. I did an inhabited world and a gas giant.

As you can see I decided to paint them with a night and day side. That way its always easy to see which is the sunward side of the table.

 

 



Ultramarines: Back in Action

This Saturday I will play my 2nd game of 40k in a year. It will also be my first game of 6th. I will also play my 2nd and 3rd game as I will be playing in a small local tournament. Only 10 people but that will be nice to dip my toes back in the water.

Because its been so long since I have played I have a few issues. One of them is that I have forgotten a fair amount. Throw in having not played in 6th and well....

I have borrowed my friends 6th Ed rule book and will spend the next 2 days figuring out what the hell I am doing. Running scenarios against my own units - that kind of thing. This will allow me to work out the basics of close combat, psychic powers, flyers etc.

My biggest issue though is that the tourney is at 1500 points. My 1st Company Smurfwing (aka DA Deathwing) has always been run at 1750. I KNOW how to be deadly with it at that point level. In fact my list is so good for me that it hasnt changed in 2 years. That means I have to pry out 250 points from somewhere. The question is what to drop? One of the raiders - then I loose a bunch of my AT and mobility. One of the squads and I loose 25% of my troops.

Another issue is that with Deathwing is if I choose to take out a troops choice it doesnt come to 250 so something else has to go. That something is the dreadnought which causes its own issues as it also represents a fair amount of my AT.

After much debate I ended up dropping a squad of terminators and the dread and adding an Interrogator Chaplain. Is it the best choice? No, but its one that I am going to have to work with. Plus its always nice to play with models that I normally dont use. And the fact is that my Chaplain is just so good to look at :)

Terrain Madness

I have read that its like a drug. An addiction that has to be met. An itch in constant need of scratching and I have fallen prey to this scourge.

What I am talking about is the dreaded Terrain Bug!!!

Everywhere I look and everything I see now falls into 2 categories. Things I can replicate as scenary and things I can use to make that scenary. I am brimming with ideas and have been scouring the internet to fine ways and methods to bring those ideas into life.

It started with my roads that I posted about previously. Its now moved on.

First came the MG nests. These were inspired by and article on Modeldads and then from BigLee's Miniatures.

http://www.modeldads.co.uk/Life-at-the-Front/wordpress/?p=1524
http://www.blmablog.com/2011/03/scratch-built-mg-nest.html

My efforts:

Then came the trench line. I built roughly 24 inches of trench line. This was accomplished with nothing more than some packing styrofoam and coffee stirrers.

 In Progress. And no, the superglue is NOT what I used to glue the styrofoam.

Finished Product. Not all of it but enough to get the idea. No idea why it came out so dark in the photos.

Next was my stone walls. Again using styrofoam as a base and fish tank gravel I made 6 feet of walls in 6 inch segments.

Again, just a selection of the finished product. I am quite proud of the gate :)

Some of the walls next to one of my road segments.

And last but not least I was feeling whimsical and also wanted to do something quick and easy. So I did a well. This took me all of about 25 minutes to make.

 In Progress: Made from gravel and square toothpicks. They were from a party pack hence the colours.

Finished product.

And there we go. Some of the things I have made in the last week. Yes....its all one weeks worth. Like I said, I have the bug bad!

Zvezda 38(t)'s

Recently bought some Zvezda 38(t)s to add to my mid war germans. Have to say that for the price ($3.49 each) I am very impressed with them. Easy to put together, took me maybe 5 minutes to do all 3 and pretty detailed. No stowage or decals but luckily had some stuff laying about. The command tank is the one with the red stripe and the extra storage container welded to the back of the turret.

Really looking forward to seeing how they do on the battlefield.