From The Painting Table #19

Another collection of my recently completed minis today, lets start with a couple of randoms;

Wargames Foundry have this absolutely fantastic of throwing in a free mini or two with orders and here we have two of my recent freebies from them.  On the left we have an armoured skeleton painted up for use in warhammer quest and/or dungeon saga and on the right we have what I think is supposed to be father Christmas, but I've painted him up for use as a druid in my Forces of Nature army for Kings of War.

A bit of a impulse buy from ebay here.  These are three WW2 flames of war Churchill tanks, converted according to the previous owner into flame throwers for use in the Dieppe raid.  I don't know enough about the history to ascertain the arcuracy, but they're a nice addition to my collection and I got them at a good price.

Onto Deadzone now, starting with this Strider that has been captured by the Plague.  This is the third strider that I've painted and I'm a big fan of them, I've still got a rebel captured one to go at some point as well.

Finally we have a squad of Enforcers, also for Deadzone, based on the hard plastics with additional resin shields and guns.  I've got a lot of the Enforcer plastics and they're very good.  In fact all the Enforcers that I have for Deadzone are actually enough to make a small army, which is quite convenient as there's a Warpath Kickstarter about to start......

Wargames Illustrated 322 - The Great War for Flames of War

I stopped doing a monthly look at the wargaming magazines I was buying a while ago, I can't really remember why even, but like many things it slipped by the wayside, but this month I'm bringing it back as a one off to look at issue 322 of Wargames Illustrated.  This is because I was really impressed with it and wanted to recommend it to my readers, especially those with an interest in gaming WWI.

The big news this issue is the release of battlefront's Great War Flames of War supplement and the magazine come with a 36 page booklet which provides all the rules for playing this new version of flames of war.  This means of course that the main magazine also has some articles around the background of this supplement with a look at some of the myths of gaming WWI and a look at great war tanks, which lets be honest are of course the main attraction when gaming in 15mm scale.  What I've always liked about wargames illustrated is that although they are promoting the latest flames of war release there is always plenty of other varied content as well.

The magazine also features a couple of Napoleonic articles, the first a fascinating overview of the Polish armies of the era, the second a look at one groups take on the battle of Quatre Bras.  Some eye-candy is provided courtesy on the salute 2014 painting competition.  The other stand out articles were on the history of the Russo-Japanese war and it's implication for WWI and a look at the new 'The Crescent and the Cross' which is the expansion of the 'Saga' gaming world into the era of the crusades.  I haven't played any Saga, but it's something that I've been keeping my eye on for a while, maybe one day.

The booklet that comes with the magazine takes the familiar flames of war rules (which you will still need a copy of) and gives them a new twist.  It starts with a brief overview of the great war and then moves onto all the special rules for fighting in this era and for using the great landships.  There are then late war lists for the British and the Germans and finally three scenarios to play.  This supplement is of course for the western front in Belgium and France from 1916 onwards, I'm hoping the French with their FT-17's will get added at some point as well.

I haven't decided if I will be buying a flames of war WWI army yet, but I have to admit that I'm very tempted.  the other option that I'm considering is using the rules in the booklet, but using all the 1:72 scale figures and tanks that I already have lying around.  Only time will tell, but I do want to do some WWI gaming over in the near future and I now have a ruleset that I could make a start with.

More For Flames of War #2

It's been a quiet month on this blog, but it's been sunny and I've been enjoying myself outside a lot.  However that doesn't mean that I've got no hobby done, we've played some good games and I've painted a bunch of minis, I just haven't felt the urge to write about them for some reason.  Today I finally photographed the latest batch of minis for flames of war, as usual from a mix of companies, not just 'official' Battlefront ones.

 

Lets start with this British TOG 2* which I bought after seeing the real one at Bovington earlier in the year.  It's a true beast of a tank, ridiculously big and impractical, but I think fantastically cool, I'm rather proud of the camouflage paint job as well.  The TOG 2* wasn't used in combat and was an experimental tank which is included in the Mid-War Monsters book.  We're playing and collecting late war, but can't help adding a few of the nuts vehicles from this book into our games, just because we can really.

These are two infantry command stands to act as company HQ and 2inC stands for when I field a British infantry list.  I think that they're from the Italy range, but look generic enough to me to fill in for almost any formation.

Switching to the Germans now for these two armoured cars.  Here we have a Sd Kfz 223 (radio) from battlefront and a zvezda Sd Kfz 222 (2cm), I already have one of these cars so can now field a recon platoon.

The next four tanks came as a single lot off of ebay, the auction said they were made by 'peter pig' which isn't a company that I'm familiar with, but they came at the right price and I now have four more tanks for my German force.  Starting with this Tiger, which is awesome just because it a Tiger.

The bulk of the lot were these Panzer IV's.  They're not the best minis ever and the side plating seems to be attached at a slightly off angle, but they will do their job.

Somehow this means I seem to have acquired a German army without particulary intending too.  If I take out the tiger I get a list coming in at just under 1500ptsusing the SS panzer division list from Atlantik Wall.  I've no idea if this is a reasonable list, but lots of tanks is fun.

A Quick Update: SWM SSB Collection Complete & Wayland Games vs Battlefront

It's been a very busy week since I got back from my holiday and I've managed to get almost zero hobby activity done in the mean time, however I still have a couple of bits I'd like to share with you.

Firstly I have a new addition to my Star Wars Miniature Starship Battles collection; which is this droid control ship shown above.  They are a key part of the separatist fleets and feature in the prequel film trilogy.  In the game they are a useful capital ship that make all your droid fighters better.  I wouldn't normally bother showing something like this off in a post, but as I mentioned when I talked about this game a couple of months ago, this was the only ship that I was missing from the game, which now means of course that my collection is complete!  Which is a surprisingly good feeling.  All the playing of X-wing recently has made me want to have another go at playing a few games of starship battles as well, and you never know one day I might make my intended victory at sea mod for these cool Star Wars ships.

Next up are some new minis that I've bought for flames of war, a British TOG 2 experimental heavy tank, a German armoured car and a couple of command stands.  I initially ordered these from Wayland Games some time before I went away and when I got back from holiday and still hadn't received them I emailed Wayland to see what was going on.  They stated that I'd misunderstood their 3-9 days dispatch on the products was a guideline only and sometimes it takes longer, fair enough to a degree but rather annoying.  I then checked the products and the TOG 2 was now showing as unavailable, which would imply they weren't even sure if they were going to get any more!  What annoyed me is that at this point they hadn't bothered to contact me to explain the delay or problem.  I wonder how long they would have sat on my money not fulfilling my order if I hadn't contacted them.  Anyway I did get my money back and placed the same order from battlefront (at admittedly higher standard RRP prices) and it arrived 2 days later.  I will definitely be wary of ordering from Wayland again after this.

And finally it's been nearly free Lego week this week if you buy the daily mail (all quickly sent to be recycled) in WH Smiths.  Whilst it's not really relevant to this blog as such I really like the style of Lego and especially when they turn already cool stuff (like Star Wars or Lord of the Rings) into Lego my inner geek can't get enough of it.  The highlights from this little collection are definitely the two Star Wars ships and the Spiderman Minifig, although I can't say I'm too impressed with Spideys glider thingy.

Flames of War - Overwhelmed By Overlord & Atlantik Wall

As anyone who pops by here regularly will know I've recently been painting a lot of tanks and other minis for flames of war.  I've played several small battles and have been expanding my mini collection in a quite random way.  I decided it was time for a bit of structure and managed to get the 'Overlord' and 'Atlantik Wall' sourcebooks on the Normandy invasion from ebay at a good price (£30 for the pair, when normal RRP is £30 each).

I was expecting something akin to a 40K codex book (which retail at the same price), but boy was I wrong!  Whilst these have the same RRP as a GW codex they completely blow them out of the water in sheer size of book and quantity of content.  The quality is pretty amazing too, each book contains many, many lists representing all the different formations that fought in the campaign as well as loads of historical detail on the formations and a whole bunch of historical figures that fought in Normandy.  The books are hardback, have a bigger footprint than a GW codex and come with a much more substantial page count (240 for Atlantik Wall and over 300 for Overlord).

The problem is it's almost too much information, I really don't know where to start.  It's difficult enough trying to find formations that work with what I've got, let alone thinking about future additions.  I can see why it's done this way, but part of me wants an all singing all dancing 40K style list which isn't based on any particular historical formation.  Hopefully a bit of time and a lot of flicking through will help me make sense of it all.

From The Painting Table #12

Here we go again with another collection of newly painted minis for your perusal.

Starting with this classic Dwarf Lord min for Warhammer fantasy.  Covered in Runic Gromril armour this is one tough cookie.

Next up we have these three objective markers to use with my 40K space marine army.  I believe they were originally from the 3rd ed boxed set, although I got these with some other bits off ebay.  The little side coils were painted with boltgun metal, like the rest of the piece and the given a thin coat of blue wash, it's not something that I've tried before, and I'm quite pleased with the final effect.

Moving away from GW and to Mantic games now and another merc for deadzone.  This time the kickstarter exclusive Project Oberon.  Project Oberon belong to the species 'the nameless' who are among my favourite races in the warpath universe, hopefully we'll see a few more of them in deadzone at some point.

Onto flames of war now with this Soviet T34/85 obr 1943 from Battlefront.

And finally this German Sd.Kfz.22 armoured car from Zvezda's art of tactics range that I will also use for flames of war.  I've bought a few kits from the art of tactics range over the last few months and although this is the smallest of those it was also the biggest pain to build.  This was clearly due to the difficulties due to the shape of the vehicle, but I wouldn't advise just 'snap-fitting' this together like they suggest is possible.  With a little work however you can get a good result out of this cheap little kit.

PSC Stuart Jalopy Conversions for Flames of War

In my post on my recent acquisitions for flames of war I showed off my new platoon of Stuarts from the plastic soldier company and highlighted the insane amount of spare parts that came with the kit and I asked for some suggestions of how to use them.  Luckily Red Dog came to my aid and suggested I tried to make some Jalopies out of them.  I have to confess that I'd never heard of a 'Jalopy' at this point, but after a quick bit of research I discovered what he was on about, turretless Stuarts found in some late war British lists (I've even found a list they feature in amongst the many I've downloaded from battlefront over the last couple of years), it seemed like I might just be able to make it work and decided to give it a go.

The first step was easy, stick the tracks to the chassis, but this highlighted the essential problem, whilst most of the parts to create a new tank were there, certain crucial bits were missing.  There was no bottom fronts, backs or bottoms.  The fronts were built from the spare ammo carriers from the late production model tipped upside down, the backs were just a bit of thick card decorated with stowage, and well who needs bottoms anyway.

I affixed another piece of thick card under where the turret should be and then added spare tank commanders and machine guns that I had left over from the Open Fire boxed set.  All that was missing then were the hull mounted machine guns which I created simply with a small section of stiff wire with a dash of liquid green stuff to cover the joint.

I know that these aren't perfect, but I'm really rather pleased with myself for creating what are essentially four free tanks!  Thanks again to Red Dog for such a great idea.  On a final note does anybody know what 'Jalopy' means?  Its seems like an odd name.

More For Flames of War

One of the advantages of playing a historical game, like flames of war, over a sci-fi or fantasy game is that whilst there will be an official range of models, there are no copyright issues and there is nothing to stop anybody else making cheaper versions of the same vehicles/troops at a compatible scale.  This post shows this with a number of new additions to my flames of war collection and whilst it includes a few official minis from battlefront also features minis from the plastic soldier company, zvezda, forged in battle and wizards of the coast.  This wasn't intentional, it was just the result of a bit of searching on ebay in an attempt to increase my collection and gaming options whilst not spending much money, I think it's worked out well.

lets start with this platoon of Cromwells for my late war British collection.  These were made by wizards of the coast for their now defunct axis & allies miniatures game, which like the star wars minis and D&D minis were prepainted randomised collectable minis.  They're not the best minis, but I did pick these up very cheap (£3.99 for the three) and the previous owner had already converted one into a command tank using a flames of war tank commander.  Although they were already painted I've given them another lick of paint to match the rest of my force.

This next platoon is the most exciting for me, it's a group of Stuart V's from the plastic soldier company.  This is important as this is the other option to allow my armoured squadron to field a 1000pt force when I don't think the Typhoon is appropriate.  They are also fast tanks and recce, and ultimately a whole other bunch of tanks for my opponent to deal with.

How many spare parts?

These are my first ever minis from the plastic soldier company, and I'm impressed, really high quality plastics with great crisp details.  Each tank comes with the components to make it either a early, mid or late production model.  I've gone for a mix, just because I can really.  One consequence of this is that this box of five has come with a lot of spares, anyone got any ideas on what to use 10 spare stuart chassis for?

Another cheap ebay job is this British rifle platoon, it was already based when I got it, but it was unpainted.  Most of the figs are from forged in battle, like my other British rifle platoon, but the command stand and one of the NCO's are from battlefront, and are in shorts!  Still nothing like an eccentric British officer to add a bit of variety.  As I've mentioned before I don't particularly enjoy painting infantry at this scale, but having this second infantry platoon opens up a lot more list options for me.

This is a KV-1 soviet tank from Zvezda's act of tactics range.  I've been picking up odd tanks from this range for a while now, I just can't help it, even when like this they have no obvious current use, I think I may be addicted.

Flames of War - Late War British Armoured Squadron

I've  now painted all my allied forces from my open fire boxed set for flames of war.  It came to a solid 830pts and a quick look at the army list provided and I spied an opportunity to add 170pts with a single typhoon model, which makes it a nice round 1K force with very little effort.

The core of the force are the Sherman tanks crewed by the British, with a HQ section of 2 tanks and 2 platoons each with 2 Sherman V's and a Sherman Firefly.  I've not played a real game with them yet, but the shermans look like quite passable infantry tanks, but not very effective at anti-tanks duties, which of course is where the fireflies come in.  These are great little models and I really enjoyed painting them, it was really quick and easy as well.

The British are supported by a platoon of American airborne infantry, whilst I enjoyed painting the tanks, I didn't enjoy painting these anywhere near as much as the tanks, but I'm happy enough with the end result.

Finally we have limited air support from this Hawker Typhoon.  This is a very cheap model (£2.25 inc. postage from ebay) in 1:144 scale from the Revell microwings range (flames of war planes are in 1:144 scale not 1:100 scale like the rest of the range, I have no idea why, maybe someone can enlighten me).  It isn't the greatest model ever, the moulding is poor and there is no option to have the landing gear up, I had to improvise as a grounded plane wasn't much use to me.  However it does allow me to play around with the air rules for very little investment.

Flames Of War - Open Fire 2.0

So this time it's really going to happen, I'm going to start playing flames of war, yes, definitely!  Some time ago (2011 actually!) I bought the 2nd edition starter set for flames of war, it wasn't much, just 5 tanks and the rulebook, I painted the tanks and had a quick flick through the book and that was it.  Over 2 years later I've now purchased the 3rd edition starter set (somewhat lamely also called open fire like the 2nd ed boxed set) and I have a cunning plan to make sure I actually get to play some games.  I'm actually only keeping half this set and my friend Mike is taking the other half, so we both get a starter army and have someone to play against!  I've got the Allies and Mike has the Germans.  Lets have a look what we got in the box.

I'm going to start with the paperwork the box contains 2 books and two reference sheets.  The most important book is the full game rules, it's a A5 full colour format, much like the ones GW put into their starter sets, although this one is much thicker at nearly 300 pages!  Battlefront do produce a nice full sized hardback version, but I really can't see the need for me to go out and get it and I am very happy with this version, although I won't deny that nearly 300 pages of rules is a bit daunting.  The second book is the quick start rules this full size 50 page book contains the core rules in easy to swallow bites, considering the size of the main rulebook is this is very useful.  The best bit of this book is tucked away at the back, I was very surprised to find two army lists, not just the stats and points values for the troops you get, but actual army lists for a British armoured company and a German Grenadier company, which means you can start adding more models and expanding your game without the need to go out and buy an expensive hardback book straight away.  Finally the box contains two double sided army reference sheets which help new players to have their stats easily on hand.

Now onto the most important element of any set of this type, the miniatures.  The box contains two starter armies, one for the British (with American support) and one for the Germans, both are for the late war period and they both clock in at around 800 pts.  As I mentioned above I'm only keeping the Allies, so they're the only ones I've assembled, but it does actually feel like a real army and looks like we can actually have a proper game with what we've got in the box.

 

The bulk of the British force is 6 Sherman V tanks and 2 Sherman Fireflies arranged in one company HQ of 2 tanks and 2 platoons each with 2 Sherman V's and 1 firefly.  The British are also supported by a platoon of American airborne infantry that is made up of 9 stands including 6 rifle/MG teams, a command team a bazooka and a mortar.  The infantry is very good quality sculpted plastic's for such a small scale they really do look great.  The Shermans were a pain to construct, the joint didn't quite match up and I ended up having to place them in my mini-vice to get them to stay right as the glue dried.  However once stuck together they also look great, they retain the 'organic' look of the rest of battlefronts range and each sprue comes with a range of optional stowage parts that you can use to make all your tanks individuals.  I was also surprised to find the shermans came with little magnets which hold the turrets down and allow you to rotate them, they work really well.

Whereas the British force is a tank company with infantry support, the German force is an infantry company with armoured support.  The bulk of the force is made up of 2 platoons of grenadier infantry supported by a company HQ, 2 anti-tank guns and 3 StuG assault guns.  That's 4 platoons in total, which isn't a bad way to start a German collection.  the infantry are the same high quality as the Americans, I've not tried to put the stuG's or anti-tank guns together so can't really comment on these.

One thing that starter sets are often missing is any sort of terrain, it takes up valuable box space that could normally be better utilised by adding more models, but ultimately every wargame needs terrain of some sort or there really is no game.  Battlefront have worked out a good solution to this, firstly they've included a plastic V1 rocket launcher, which is rather nifty, unfortunately I said Mike could have this to go with his Germans, so I don't get to assemble it.  What I do get to keep though is a set of flat cardboard terrain that represents woods (4 lots) houses (3) and walls (4).  Now it's clearly not ideal to be using flat 2D terrain in a 3D miniatures game, but I'm really glad they included it, it's a good stop gap till I can get some more 15mm terrain sorted.  As another nice touch it actually has the rules for the terrain written on the card, this will clearly be great for new players as it's another thing that they don't have to remember.

Of course you also get a bunch of card tokens that you need to play the game with and some dice, it's a nice touch that you get allied & german coloured dice.

Overall this is an excellent starter set, and I'd like to see more like it, the full rules, two real balanced forces and enough terrain to cover a reasonable battlefield makes me a happy customer.  As I write this I've nearly finished painting the allies from this set, so expect to see them soon.