28mm Italian Paratroopers - Bolt Action

Like my gaming, my painting has also been doing ok for the year.  Just today I completed my first force for Bolt Action - a 28mm Italian Paratrooper force.  Completing this puts me on a good path to getting more painting done this year than last; quite an accomplishment in my book since it's still February.  Though I've only played one real game of Bolt Action, and I've never used this force before, I'm going to use it in a 1000 point tournament this weekend.  I figure it will be a good way to learn.  I've painted up more than I can use at 1000 points, but it does give me flexibility to configure the army several ways.  I have a commander with 2 riflemen, a medic, a forward observer team, a sniper team, a flamethrower team, 5 squads of 8 men, a medium MG team, a 46mm mortar team, an 81mm mortar team, and a Semovente 75/18.  All of the infantry are from Warlord Games; these are metal figures that painted up quite nicely.  My only criticism is that a few suffered from mold lines down the middle of the face...that's something I never can understand, no matter who makes the figures.  I am modeling the force after the Italian Para's that stayed fighting with the Germans after the invasion of Italy.  The Semovente is a model I purchased years ago as part of a collection and sold to Drunken Samurai only to get it back recently in another trade.  It is a resin model from NZWM, and I believe it was a limited production run as it is numbered "6" on the bottom.  I believe the NZWM line was sold to Army Group North, but I could be wrong.  It is a nice model that was basic grey; I've added the camo and some more detailing.

Up next for me on the painting front is some more 15mm WWII along with some 28mm Ancients and Medievals.  I hope to keep my painting momentum going and posting more frequently here too!

Shifting Sands 2014 - Kursk

My posting has definitely been slow this year, but my game playing certainly hasn't.  I've been playing a ton of Flames of War, starting with "Shifting Sands 2014 - Kursk"  that was in January.  "Shifting Sands" is a great event put on by the Arizona Desert Rats Flames of War group and this year focused on Kursk.  It was fun playing in an event where it was Germans vs. Russians (no blue-on-blue) which isn't something you always see when it comes to Flames of War.  I took a balanced Russian force with two companies of T34s, a tank rider company and a battery of heavy mortars; I ended up finishing 2-3 and well out of the running but I still had fun.  One thing I noticed (sadly) is that with the exception of a couple of StuG companies and a few Panzer IIIN's supporting Tiger's, there weren't any forces based on Panzer IIIs or IVs for the Germans.  There were German forces with Panthers, Tigers, Ferdinands and Brumbars a plenty.  I did manage to kill a Tiger in I game...when my best AT can only bail it from the side/rear, I consider that a huge accomplishment.  Thanks to TJ and crew for running this year's event & I look forward to participating next year.

One of the tables I supplied...

 The other table I supplied...

 Robert's table (Drunken Samurai)

 Tim K's table (Cursed Treasures Blog)

 I think this is Cliff's table...

 I think this is Mark's table...

 The first army I faced...SS T34s!

 Nice large venue...

 Another shot of the venue...

 The rest of these are shots of some of the armies.  I took more pictures, but some didn't come out so well.

A few weeks after Sands I participated in another themed FOW tournament, Market Garden, and used my 1st Polish Independent Parachute Brigade force.  I ran it as all infantry and hoped that the Night Attack rule would help me out; no such luck as I got swept...I have to stop bringing knives to gun fights!  Mercifully, I didn't take any pictures so I don't have to relive the drubbing I suffered.  Themed events are a fun way to get in some historical based games and I really enjoy them; the next one on my "to do" list is the D-Day event for Fortress Las Vegas that's happening in June...I love Vegas, so I'm definitely going to be there.

2013 - Looking Back; Looking Ahead

Well 2013 is now in the rear-view mirror and it's time for the obligatory year-end review of what I did gaming-wise for the year as well as what the Magic 8-ball is predicting for 2014.  I entered 2013 with increased optimism that I'd have another great year painting, like my 2012.  As you can see by the numbers to the left, that didn't happen.  Not to make excuses, but I did a significant remodel/make-over of 3 rooms in our house that stretched over close to 4 months; when I was done I just couldn't get back into the groove of painting.  I hope to change that this year.

I played over 50 games in 2013; averaging just about one a week.  I think this was a positive for me.  It cut into my painting time, but aren't we part of the wargaming hobby to play games?  So that's a success.  I played games of: Flames of War, Might of Arms (15mm Ancients), Command and Colors Ancients (both the boardgame as well as with 28mm figures), Black Powder (28mm ACW), SAGA (28mm Dark Ages), Combat Commander: Pacific & Europe (great boardgames), Hail Caesar (15mm & 28mm Ancients), Pike & Shotte (15mm), and one game of Bolt Action.   I think this shows how wide my interests are; I will continue to play these games into 2014.

I still have my Warmaster Orc army, but it didn't see the table in 2013.  As I do have space constraints this army and game is "under review" as to whether I'm going to keep it around.

Looking ahead into 2014, I still have many projects to complete.  In 15mm I have: 1) additions to my Flames of War Germans including an early war Panzer Kompanie and miscellaneous late war units (I'm just adding more so I can have options when I compose my armies); 2) an English Civil War Scottish army that I'll use for Pike & Shotte (completely unpainted); 3) a Polish army for Pike & Shotte (again, unpainted); and 4) a few additions to my 15mm Sassanid force.  My "to do list" in 28mm is much more extensive: 1) reconfiguring my 28mm armies (Vikings, Successors, Mitanni, Poles) to be used in Hail Caesar (including new sabot bases and adding figures/units if necessary); 2) completing my Byzantines and Andalusians, again for Hail Caesar (basing, horses and spears to do along with possibly adding figures and units); 3) Italian Paratroopers for Bolt Action (this is my first force I'm painting for this game); 4) Napoleonic Prussians for Black Powder (part of a group project - I have some of the figures for a full brigade but likely won't get to this until late spring at the earliest); 5) Soviets for Bolt Action (I got into the Kickstarter run by Baker Company and will be getting my force in bulk in April when it is complete.  Initial pictures I've seen have me very optimistic about this line and that company will be running a Balkans Kickstarter sometime in April, so I look forward to that.); and 6) 2 more regiments of Confederates for Black Powder (finishes up Kershaw's Brigade).

So that's quite the list...lets see if I can make more progress on it in 2014 than I did in 2013!

Oh, and I still continue to search for a stand-alone project that I can do on my own (build both sides and put on games for my friends). I have a project I'm leaning towards, but haven't fully committed to it.  When/if I commit to it, I'll post about it.

Too Long...

Well looking at the calendar I realize that it's been way too long since I've last posted.  It makes it appear like I haven't done anything...while that's true on the painting front, it's not true on the gaming and overall hobby front.  I haven't painted much...just finished up some 15mm horses for a Marian Roman army is all.  Next up are some 28mm Dark Ages figures for my friend Mike and I.

That said, I've been busy with my collection since the last post.  I acquired rather large 15mm WWII German and Soviet forces which has allowed me to get rid of some excess (I realized I didn't need 54 T34s!) and work on building out these armies for Flames of War to cover all periods of the war with different options.  I have some additional units to purchase, but I should be fairly set after that until the Barbarosa book comes out and I end up doing early war tank forces for both sides (currently working on completing infantry based forces). 

I also got rid of my 15mm DAK and picked up a nice 15mm Italian force suitable for the desert; I've added to it and can use it for early war through mid war.

I've been playing Black Powder and got in some games of Hail Caesar and Pike & Shotte and I enjoy those systems, so I'm going to be working on converting my 28mm ancients armies for use in HC.  I'm also going to work on a couple of 15mm armies for Pike & Shotte.

I've also decided to build a couple of forces for 28mm WWII skirmish.  A lot of the locals are playing Bolt Action and I'll be giving that a try, but I also want to check out some other rule sets that I haven't tried before.

That's it for now...look for more updates soon...hopefully!

28mm Black Powder American Civil War Battle 5-26-13

After a few weeks of planning and coordinating, 7 of us met up at Crusader's Retreat (a local game store located at 40th Street & Thunderbird in Phoenix) yesterday for a large ACW battle using Black Powder rules.  By large I mean both the size of the table and then number of figures.  The game was played on a 12' x 6' table and pitted 3 brigades of Confederates against 4 brigades of Union.  The total figure count for the game was around 770! 

Robert and I supplied all of the miniatures and Tim K, Robert and I supplied the terrain.  My contributions for the terrain were the church, camp, store, farmhouse and the vast majority of the fencing (all by Renendra...great stuff!).  I won't give a running commentary as this was really an introduction for us to see how well the game played with 7 players (no problems), with that many troops (again, no problems), using such a big table (wonderful, though Tom F did need occaisional assistance reaching the middle of the table as the tables were a little high), and that much terrain (definitely needed for ACW as it helps control movement and helps reduce the effectiveness of shooting).  We knew the Confederates would be hard pressed from the beginning as they were outnumbered 4 to 3, but two of their brigadiers seemed to be plagued by poor command dice and that really sealed their fate.

I believe that everyone had a great time and we will likely play again in the next couple of months.  For our next game we will be introducing some variability to unit size, unit quality, special rules, armament, quality of commanders, etc. as well as having the game be more scenario driven with objectives. 

The pictures below show the layout as well as the battle at different stages.