US/Brits take on a Bunker

Friday the young one wanted to have a game of Bolt Action. What started out as a US/British "training exercise" got a lot more entertaining when Jim showed up with those Grenadiers I'd done up for him. He'd been working his ass off all week and needed a break. 

Since he only has 3 squads at his disposal at the moment, and he's never played a game, we'd decided to play with 3 squads each and a tank. 

So we plopped down some terrain, all of which is a work in progress. Jim's Grenadiers defended the bunker. The US took the right flank, the British the left. 

Round One was rather uneventful. Minor casualties all around. Round 2 however, started with a bang. The stand in Panzer IV knocked out the young one's Sherman right off... oops. The British attempted to take revenge, the Cromwell, firing from behind cover....... missed.

Turn 3 resulted in the defending Germans taking heavy casualties on both flanks with the middle squad laying down heavy suppressive fire. A squad of paras being wiped out after assaulting a German squad. The pride of British armour rushing in to knock out the German panzer. 

The gunner, Carl, missed... the Fritz didn't.....

Fortunately, after having lost 2 of 3 squads and 5 allied squads closing in the reaming Grenadiers withdrew......

Basically it was getting late ;)

In other news work continues on the sandbag fort....

Latest additions to the European Theater.....

After many years of working weekends the end is finally in sight. What does that mean for me? Regular war gaming returns to my life. Huzzah!!

So, to get things going I've been painting up Panzer Grenadiers for my fellow tread head, Jim...Its a start.

In return he supplied me with some armored support.

and thanks to Hirst Arts we''ll eventually have something to fight over.. :)

Stay tuned folks.... The Imperial Guard .. er.. um.. Astra Militarum .. gets some Valkyries...

Just a little fixer upper

Huzzah!!! School has started again... More time for Dad's.

This little shack has been sitting on m desk for months. I finally finished it this weekend.

and of course my cat has been absolutely no help.....

Its been a long time...

Ok, a really long time....

Time to resurrect this slumbering beast and get back to enjoying myself again.

My goals are simple and order is not important:

1) assemble and paint my armies
2) build some terrain
3) game
4) post at least once a week

What started all of this you ask? Well you may not but I'm gonna tell you anyway. ;)

My son is finally old enough to really start taking an interest in gaming. Which is really no surprise given that both his parents are sci-fi geeks and gamers. Let's face it dad's toy soldiers are still cooler than his.

So here are some of our armies:

Bolt Action:                              My Brits

                                                   The kid's 1st Infantry

Dystopian Wars:

Family fun for all ages, The  Kid's CoA, The Boss's Japanese group and of course my Brits..

And last but not least.....WH40K

a very well concealed Catachan themed assault group.. bring on the apocalypse!!!!

RULE BRITANNIA.......!!!!!!

Yes boys and girls I've branched out to Dystopian Wars. Thank you Spartan Games! As I was already looking for a naval based game, it wasn't much of a leap. Let's face it, GW is becoming quite the bully of late and I am not all that impressed.

So after seeing a game or two turn up at Marscon this past January I decided to take a look. I liked the Brits and my buddy Aiden jumped over too the Russians. My wife is even curious, she's trying to take over my fleet..lol

So far Aiden and I managed a short game to work out the mechanics of the game and had a rather good time of it.

I'm liking the consistent scale of the miniatures, they look great and paint up fast. No more excuses for playing with unpainted figs. The squadron activation game mechanic keeps things moving along nicely and the whole exploding d6 concept can lead to some very interesting outcomes for the smaller "weaker" units.

Will I stop playing 40k, nope. Now I have a nicer option and I like options...;)

Now presenting my WIP KOB: Task Force Indefatigable:

Battle Report... IG vs IG (almost)

Its going to a  great night, finally have work schedule worked out, have authorization from the family. Jim's on board, ready and willing.

First game with 6th edition rules, actually first game in in about a year..oiy!

1500 points My Catachans vs Jim's Steel Legion. We just thru lists together and went for it.

Deployment: Vanguard Strike
Mission: Emperor's Will

Can my grunt list fend off a more mechanized list.....

Turn 1

Well Jim got to go first after deployment. He was going to attempt a two pronged rush up both flanks. He was going to have to skirt some hills to avoid my waiting autocannons. Sgt. Harker and his boys were in position on the left to intercept Jim's plasma cannon armed sentinel squadron tasked with escorting his chimera mounted stormtroopers.

Harker's squad came under fire from the sentinel squadron. Luck being a fickle witch that she is... Harker was the only casualty thanks to a couple of lucky plasma blasts and cursed dice.

Now it was my turn... I was determined to avenge the fallen Gunny....

After moving to secure the right flank (hopefully) I unleashed a torrent of fire upon my enemy...

3rd platoon's 4th squad managed a luck hit on a chimera, destroying its turret multilaser.

The hell was unleashed as 9 mortar teams opened up, lobbing their high explosive shells into the middle of Jim's small infantry formation. The Steel Legion's 1st platoon command was decimated

Turn 2

Well, Fate being an even more fickle witch than luck and having a warped sense of humor, stepped in.....

Had to pack up and take wife to ER.... 

Fortunately she's going to be just fine:).




...but I'll be responsible for cleaning the house for awhile. Thanks Fate;)

But it's an organized mess.....

My wife is a neat freak....

She can't help herself, its the way she is. It is for this reason that I commandeered my oldest son's room after he moved out. Finally I had a home for all my stuff, she no longer had to deal with my hobby space trying to take over the living room. She was much relieved.

However, we have been skirmishing over how neat I keep my room ever since.

So far I think I'm winning.....

I know where every thing is....... I swear..;)



 

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!!!!

From Strike Group Damocles....

"Straken's Own" (for as long as Inquisitor Rex says so...)

2012 has come and gone, so whats ahead for the coming year?

Well,

I am going to post more often for starters, 5 posts was really rather pathetic!

Let's how far I get with this list this year:

finish 3rd platoon
assemble/paint: 2 Valkyries, 4 chimeras, 4 leman russes, 2nd platoon(that's that gap in the photo)
add a second vulture gunship
try my hand at scratch building sabre gun platforms
restructure my hobby room
keep hobby room neat before my wife's head implodes

learn how to use my airbrush ( thanks Mary ;) )
figure out just what to do with all the Dark Angel's marines I received ( thanks JD )
build gaming table
build fortress for said table, bout time these guys got to have a home to defend....

maybe and I do mean maybe, add some Grey Knights...

Raghnall out.......

Incoming.. part 3

Just a quick post today. The ordinance group for my Catachan company is finally done, not that I'm going to stop with just these. I've got an entire platoon to get painted up.

Enjoy!

So I did the math......

Well hell...

I've been trying to get my little corner of the house organized lately, mostly because my wife has been getting twitchy and threatening to do it for me. Which would absolutely destroy MY brilliant sorting method of "pile it here". She doesn't believe me when I tell her I know where everything is, I have no idea why?

Anyhoo...

I haven't been playing a whole lot this past year thanks to life in general, but I've still been gathering, collecting or whatever they call it these days. All this organization clean up has led to the inevitable head count.

and the grand total is:  Imperial Guard 7987 points (give or take for wargear choices)
                                     Dark Angels 1500ish points ( my oldest dropped these off, he has Chaos
                                                                                     marines and Space wolves)

Anyone up for an Apoc game......;)

Incoming.. part 2(progress)

 Yes boys and girls I am actually making progress on the artillery support...

Fluff wise manticores are long range weapons that are not supposed to sit on the front line. So, with that in mind, I decided to go with the olive drab paint job. Griffons got the camouflage treatment being the close support tanks that they are. All the basic paint work is done. I hope to be able to get on with the more detailed stuff this week.

Raghnall, out....

Incoming.... part 1

Ok, so it took me long enough....

I'm finally getting around to painting the manticore and griffon batteries that have been cluttering up my shelves for the past eon.

I've also got 3 earth shaker cannon to work with. Those are slated to be set up as fixed positions. I'm just not sure how I'm going to do that just yet, but have a couple of ideas.

Meanwhile, enjoy the WIP....

I'll update this a bit more as they get worked on.......;)

Ok, so its been awhile..... I haven't been completely idle. I finally got around to finishing off the Baneblade that's been sitting on my shelf forever. Hope you like the result.

Forgeworld: A love/hate relationship

Forgeworld, resin crack of the Warhammer 40k/Fantasy gaming community. There stuff looks great and makes for nice additions to any existing army. I've build a Vulture, Rex and his boys, Ramilies Class Starfort and have started in on a second Griffon Mortar.

My only complaint, their quality can be a bit off. I don't mind bent and twisted parts, that's easily taken care of with a bit of hot water. Now if they'd get their act together and get some consistancy between the kits. The gaps then need to be filled are a pain in the buttocks.....

The below photo illustrates this point. Mortar on left went together fairly well. The right one, you can see the 5mm strip of plastic card that had to be inserted to cover the front gap. Additionally, there is a 3mm gap along the right side off the upper and lower portion that no amount of hot water flexing is gonna fix.

GET IT TOGETHER PEOPLE!!!!!!

Thank goodness for cammo-netting!

Finally finished.....

May I present.....

1st platoon, Company A, 2nd Catachan:

Ok, so not quite finished. It took me six months to get to this point, but all that's left to do is a bit of work on the bases. There were 69 of them after all. Oh, and a couple of Chimeras still need to be finished. Really that's it for these guys...:)

Now at the rate I'm going its gonna take another year before I get the other two platoons finished. The second platoon will pretty much mirror the first. The third, well that's a whole different matter. The third will be the support platoon, loaded with heavy weapons. That platoon is actually completely assembled and slated to be painted next. The second, well, one word:boxed.

Finishing tip: 50/50 mix future floor wax/water, let dry about 5hrs add second coat of Vallejo Matte sealer. No more smelly aerosol sprays. Makes the wife and pets happy!

The grand scheme of things.......

Well, with all the grand ideas I've got cluttering up the old attic, its about time I started putting thing in order. Everyone seems to like background fluff, organizational charts, graphs, etc. Besides having stuff written out at least keeps things on track, right?

My friend Jim and I were sitting around painting awhile back an came to the rather shocking realization that between the two of us we are well on our way to being able to field and entire combined arms Imperial Guard regiment. I've got the foot slogging Catachans and Jim has the Steel Legions well represented. Jim has also managed to scrounge up a number of Titans, at last count 5, if i recall correctly.

Anyhoo...to keep myself on track, I had decided that Col. Stracken would be charged with command of a augmented infantry battalion something along these lines:

BN HQ consisting of its command squad, supported by ogyrns, stormtroopers and at least one commisar. A squadron of vendettas and vultures for air support.

Company A: rifle company: HQ squad, 3 veteran squads(scouts, sort of) and 2 rifle platoons of 4 infantry squads, 2 heavy weapon squad and 2 special weapon squads. Support platoon: 4 squads w/hvy weapons, maxed out heavy weapon squads. Supported by Chimeras and an attached valkyrie squadron.

Company B: refer to above

Company C: Just gonna go for the veteran air assault group......ala Apocalypse Now!!

Company D: Tank company

Company E: Recon company: Sentinal HQ Sqdrn, 2 Sentinal sqdrns, 1 Hellhound Sqdrn

Company F: Artillery: HQ, Griffon Battery, Basilisk Battery, Manticore Battery(maybe)

After that, through in a smattering of Grey Knights and Salamander space Marines...OH MY!

Remember boys and girls, for me its all about the modeling and fluff. :)

So life gets in the way......

Ok, so like most everyone else I have a real life, a very busy life. Thus, my hobbies get pushed to the back burner. I may not have been getting much done lately but I have been keeping track on the goings in the 40k world.

Thanks to those of you out there who do post quite regularly. I have picked up quite a bit of useful paining/modeling tips that I am now beginning to put to use. Again, my thanks to all of you out there. Especially to Admiral Drax, that paint chart idea...outstanding!

Now for what I have been working on.....

Hector and the boys were finally finished. He'll get a full retinue in the future. I may even add in some grey knights, maybe.

1st Platoon Co A 1/2nd Catachan is finally getting some much deserved attention.

squad 113

"By the authority of the Immortal Emperor of Mankind..."

...comes the Inquisitor.

Inquisitor Lord Hector Rex and crew. I've had these guys sitting around since Gamesday last year, figure its abut time to finish them. I'd been waiting for the new codex to come out before doing anything with them. Now I just have to pick-up Grey Knights codex and sort through the new changes to the Inquisitorial Retinues. I'm undecided on weather or not to add any Grey Knights in with the Catachans, but a small force of marines may be in the future. Just have to wait and see.

Too many projects so little time. Besides can't have a Grey Knight force wiping out all my hard work just to keep a secret now can I.... I guess at some point I'll have to develop some kind of fluff for my growing collection.

Now I have to admit that Rex here has been the most detailed mini I've attempted to paint so far. While I have some touch up to do here and there, I think he turned out pretty darn good for my 3 foot rule.

And a commisar shall lead them........

That is until the second squad sergeant frags him, but then you take your chances with Catachans...;)



Well so much for my New Years resolution of posting once per month. Anyhow, I finally finished painting my stormtooper squads. Quite the swarmy looking bunch aren't they! The Commisar Gaunt figure was a last minute addition. He's been lying around in a box for awhile and with 5 squads of stormtroopers running amok I decided to draft him on in. I think I'll refer to him as Commisar Worden. Not to worry I've got a Catachan Sergeant leading the second squad to keep and eye on him.

I painted a camo pattern onto the the armor plates of the first three squads, but, after painting 30 of these guys that was getting got old rather quickly. The last 2 squads were completed in good old Catachan green.

Up next...

A squadron of Hellhounds. These will give me a chance to play with my new set of weathering powders:)

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!!

From the 2nd Catachan RCT