Back To Work

Or..............."not proper work" according to my wife, either way it means the paints are back out. So in between popping paint on the commission "work" I have been able to paint the trench piece I modified together with another couple of sections. You may note that I beefed up the sandbag protection at the front since the WIP photo posted earlier.

The Rear

The Front

In Situ With Other Sections

Already now to attempt to stem the German advance in the New Year.

May I take the opportunity to wish all my followers and casual readers a Happy and Prosperous New Year

Christmas In The Trenches

Well I did not think I would be posting again this year with all my painting equipment put away for Christmas and what have you. However I did not need  paint to do this

An Ironclad Miniatures trench section with overhead cover added, corrugated craft card with Miliput sandbags to hold it in place, underneath I added a dugout entrance with a gas curtain. This together with a couple more pieces are now primed ready to paint for our next Great War bash in the New Year.

Hope you all had a great Christmas and wishing you a very Happy New Year.

TTFN

Chain Of Command, Great War Style

We started 2015 with a Great War game, so it was only fitting that we should end the year with one. This time we would be using our much delayed second outing with Chain of Command, you can get the Great War modifications from here or here. The game would be a sort of follow on from our previous encounter Dawn Attack 1918, this action takes place behind the British front line. A platoon of Germans is probing on the flank, news of the breakthrough has reached British HQ who have sent patrols out to access the situation, we chose the patrol scenario to reflect this. This was a relatively quiet zone before the German offensive so the terrain is wooded and hedged, with a farm building only exhibiting damage from the fighting in 1914. There would be no artillery or vehicles involved in the action, reflective of the action and also to keep things simple while we got acquainted with the rules again.
The initial period of the game saw both sides playing cat and mouse amongst the hedgerows, both sides being cagey and unwilling to commit until they had sussed out the opposition, the British got things going by sending a couple of men to scout down the road, this led them behind the Germans who had entered the wood. The Germans had little choice but to fire on them, killing one of them, hearing the firing the British sent a section towards the wood, the sequence of dice however saw the Germans get to the edge of the wood before them catching them in the open with some withering fire. They were in a perilous position to high tail it away out of line of sight would need three movement dice but this would take their shock to double the men remaining breaking them so it was either charge or fire, they took a chance on firing hoping that they would get to activate again before the Germans it was not to be and they broke in the German phase. The Lewis gun section on their right were now able to fire on the Germans in the wood, eventually causing them to break in turn. Back on the other flank the Germans tried to break the impasse and charged the British ensconced behind the hedge, but they were soundly beaten back by good old British pluck.
Now if you read the last report you may remember the myopic British sniper, well it appears he has a brother, 3+ to hit, not difficult is it? well yes apparently, first four shots, four bloody ones. While all this was going on the British rifle section had got into the farm building, this was to be a two edged sword, yes they had hard cover but they could only get to fire four men each turn, with hindsight I should have sent the Lewis gun section there instead of having it covering the road. back outside the farm the section that had hurled the German assault back under terrific fire from the German infantry and granatenwerfer finally broke, their place was taken by the now free Lewis section, but they must have been low on ammo for despite the number of shots they hit very little, this combined with the little amount of fire from the farm did little to the Germans in the hedgerow, whilst their casualties began to grow until finally they broke, with this and NCO losses the British morale meant that they now only had two command dice. With the German firepower now also being twice that of the British it was only a matter of time before the British morale collapsed, which it finally did after three hours of play with a break for lunch.
All in all a rather splendid game, we did miss one or two things and had to check things in the rules along the way but they were equally applied to both sides so no advantage was gained by either side.
We plan to start 2016 with another Great War game using Chain of Command on the 11th Jan all being well, the first game of 2016 will be at GHQ, a French Revolutionary War game using Black Powder, until the New Year here are a few pictures of the game.

The Germans Infiltrate The Wood

They Also Line The Hedgerow

The German Assault Is Repulsed

A British Section Breaks

The Repulsed Troops Take Refuse

Another Section Breaks

End Game, The Von Byklenstein Offensive Continues

Merry Christmas

Joyeux Noël

Fröhliche Weihnachten

Buon Natale

Feliz Navidad

счастливого Рождества

      

A Pot Pourri

I thought that I would pop some pictures up of the latest figures I have done for my various projects, first up some communications for my British and German Great War forces.

Next the completed battalion of Navarre Guides for the First Carlist War.

And finally for the 3rd century Roman project I have left the latest Roman legionary unit to one side to start a unit of cavalry for the Gothic forces.

The last game of 2015 at OHQ will, all being well take place on Monday, a Great War game using Chain of Command. Look out for a report on this next week.

TTFN 

Where Did It Go Again?

Well we fast approach the end of 2015, have I been productive? Well I do not really know, I should really keep track of what I do complete, I could trawl back through the blog and check, but no I will list list here where I have got to
First Carlist War 
Six 20 figure infantry battalions a side plus a skirmish unit of 6 figures per side
One cavalry regiment of 8 figures per side
Three command figures for each side
The Carlists have a field gun whilst their Isabelino adversaries have a horse artillery gun and a rocket
Up next is another 8 figure cavalry unit for each side, target for completion by the end of February, this will leave two more Isabellino battalions and a cavalry unit to do plus one more Carlist battalion and a mountain gun for each side.
The Great War 
All the infantry are done, but I still have the odd officer and LMG team which may get done during the course of 2016.
Support weapon wise I have a field gun for the Germans and a 3" Stokes mortar for the British, I have just finished a Minenwerfer for the Germans and I have signallers for both sides in progress at the moment which I plan to complete by the end of January.
I also have half a dozen British cavalry to do at some point.
That covers the late war, for the early war project with Dave I am working on the battalion command to finish the third one, we decided to add another battalion so I also have that and another gun to do in the new year.

Arthurian ( for want of a better word ) 

Now you may recall I started these back in 2012 for use with Dux Britanniarum on the basis that as you only needed 40 - 50 figures a side I could get them done during the year, yes you guessed, still at it. Although I only need to paint another 18 figures now, so 2016 is a possible to complete. Although I did buy extra figures to double up the size of the units for Lion Rampant, we did in fact use what figures I had done to play a Lion Rampant game earlier in the year. I plan to keep plugging away at this.

Wars Of The Roses 

A bit of a saga this one, but I have decided to keep the figures and eventually paint enough for Lion Rampant games, this is still on the back burner at present though.

Third Century Rome

My retirement project which I have started on the basis that it is doubtful I will ever fully retire, again I will pop paint on these over the year. To date I have three Roman foot units and two cavalry units for the Goths I have two infantry units and I have started a cavalry unit.

Spanish Civil War 

Again a project on the back burner, although I have enough painted for the odd game. I have yet to find a set of rules to relight my enthusiasm, although Chain Of Command seems to be the set that may do it, for this though I need to paint more figures to make my different "factions" up to strength. Perhaps the threat by Empress Miniatures to release new figures may also do the trick.

World War Two

Probably my first love and a period that can never be really completed the odd one or two vehicles can change a game. I have bought several more vehicles, aircraft  and figures since the purchase of the excellent Battlegroup rules. I always have something for this period on the stocks and 2016 will be no exception.

So I could actually complete a project next year, but wait what's that fluttering I hear?

All being well back to gaming  next week, a further foray into Rhanzlistan I believe.

TTFN

PS. 

Forgot to mention all the terrain bits I have to do also, can I have 2015 back please.