Friday, 11 November 2016
Online Store Open!!
As I think I mentioned in a few previous posts, I have opened my own Wargaming business as an independent trader!
This is all very exciting for me - I've always wanted to work or myself and decided to combine this with the hobby as a second job in addition to the day job that pays the bills.
At the moment, I only carry Warlord Games prodcuts but at what I believe to be a great discount of up to 24%! It's early days but it seems to be going really well. I offer a friendly bespoke service so you can get your Warlord Games goodies for the best price possible.
So go and checkout cardboardfortressgaming.com and let me know what you think! I am adding products as fast as I can so keep checking back for more items.
On the hobby side I do have lots more stuff to show off - it's just finding the time to photograph it all! Hopefully a couple more blog posts coming soon.
Wednesday, 19 October 2016
Polish Medic and AT Rifle
Not a fantastically long post, but part of my catching up with what I have panted recently.
In my quest to work my way through the Battlegroup Polish list, here's two more options for the infantry platoon I am currently building.
A Polish Medic:
I couldn't find much on what uniform the medics wore so I coped out and added a simple armband to mark him out.
Also, an AT Rifle:
A nice simple model and quite a pleasure to paint. Although out of date by mid war, AT rifles could make a mess of the early panzers.
All the miniatures are Early War Miniatures. In order tocomplete the infantry platoon I am still waiting for Capitan games to put there Polish back into production so I don't have too many similiar poses.
Thursday, 6 October 2016
Polish AT Gun and Catching Up
It appears that I have been very neglectful of the blog, but all is not as it would seem. I have in fact been busier than ever in the hobby. I've been painting and gaming at quite a decent pace and I have managed to make quite a dint in my Polish force. But more of that later.
The big development is that I have set myself up as an independent wargaming trader. I am initially selling Warlord Games products, with a focus on Bolt Action 2.
This is a part time buisness for me but one I am excited about. First of all, all my profits will be put back into more products so if things go well the range I stock will only grow. Second, it gives me the chance to potentially grow my hobby in nurmerous different ways.
At the moment, I have a small selection of things on eBay and people are welcome to order through me for Warlord items as I submit fairly regular orders. The best way is to head over to facebook and like my page as I am managing it through there in the first instance. Research has started into an online store so I'll keep you updated with progress. I currently offer a 22.5% discount on most of Warlords range.
But back to the hobby. I have completed a Bofors AT gun along with limber for my 20mm Polish. Here they are.
The gun itself along with three crew:
The three assistant gunners:
And finally the horse limber (actually from the Early War Miniaures french range):
I've got a few other bits finished that I will upload in due course and try to bring this blog back up to date.
Friday, 2 September 2016
New White Dwarf Review
It seems that Games Workshop have been changing lately, what with a return of the specialist game department and their return to facebook. Another seeingly retrograde step is to move back to a monthly White Dwarf magazine.
Quick reminder: A few years ago they moved to a weekly format for White Dwarf. Up to this point, it had been monthly and I had loyally bought every issue since 130, way back in October 1990. I used to love it, but towards the end it had deteriorated badly. I never got into the weekly format, mainly because it was the time I was losing interest in GW and also it was hard to get hold of unless you were quick!
So when I found out that GW were moving back to a monthly format I decided to check it out. I duly went down on release day and picked this up:
First impressions were good. It came in at £5.99 against say Wargames Illustrated at £4.95, so it's normal magazine price. It seems heavy and good quality, clocking in at 148 pages. It comes with a free mini - useless to me as I never liked Chaos even in my GW days, but free toys are never a bad thing. So far, so good.
Into the magazine the first two pages are the editorial and staff photos, followed by two whole pages just for the contents list.
After this there are 16 whole pages of whats new. It's all very glossy, goes to great lengths to point put how awesome everything is, and covers the whole GW universe - miniatures, books, terrain and computer games. What I then have a small problem with is after 16 pages of this, we then go into two pages of adverts. It reminds you we still have in our hands a GW catalogue and promotional magazine.
After that there are two pages of readers letters. Sounds great, but a lot of these letters seem along the lines of "wow, you guys are doing a great job," without any real fan engagement. It left me a little cold. The next two pages are "Eavy metal" spotlight, and are photos of new minis.
It is only at this point that we reach the first real article - The Tale of Four Gamers. A style of article used in the old White Dwarf, four gamers collect armies over several months, and document it. I like that idea, but each collector only writes two paragraphs, so it likes a real in depth analysis.
The next chunk I really did like:
This is a readers army section. It features great photos of the army and plenty of text from the owner describing how he collected it. Also, a four page pullout of the army all nicely laid out.
We then have a large chunk of extra, and to my understanding, new, rules for several of GW's games. Thumbs up for this - it's far more like supporting the hobby. For me personally I can't use this but if you play these games, you're in!
I won't bore you with the rest in any great details. We have a very flashy battle report, some backgroud for Imperial Knights, a feature on terrain at Warhammer World and Blanchitsu. There is an article on various staff members Kill Teams for 40k, and a converting article (all GW pieces only of course), along with a painting guide. It finishes with some really nice photos of readers models, along with a side box contianing tips on photographing mini's.
Let's boil this down. I am not unbiased - I fell out of love with GW a few years ago. I like the direction the magazine is going, and I imagine if you do all or most of your wargaming in the GW unuivese, there is plenty of stuff for you here, the extra rules being a good example.
But I can't help feeling it's a tired and souless effort in some ways. Monthly battle reports SOUND good but I feel its too much of a good thing. Back in the day they were once or twice a year and eagerly anticipated, and came with tactical maps etc. Now, they are every single issue, so the magic is gone. I also think Tale of Four gamers need more substance but has been done before and one bug bear for more is Blanchitsu. I know John Blanche is a hobby god and has some serious skills, but do we really need a regular monthly article showing yet more of his drab and dirty style miniautres, nice as they are? Not really.
I found myself wanting more words. A quick flick thorough and I can't find a single page of just writing, or even mostly writing. The most you get is two thirds of writing and the vast, vast majority of pages are half or less. It's very clear that this is desgined to further GW's mini sales, and the abundance of flashy photos support this.
I would also have really have liked to see some sneak peeks, and maybe at least a very small mention of Lord of the Rings and the other games, but the magazine exsists in a GW only, 40k/Age of Sigmar bubble, which I think is a shame. GW is a massive part of the wargaming hobby (like it or not), if only as a gateway, and it's a shame GW doesn't capitalise on this.
Final verdict: Good, but could do better. I will only buy this again if there is an issue with something for me in it, such as the upcoming return of Blood Bowl, but I will not be resubscribing as it stands. But, if you live and breath the GW universe, it's worth cover price.
Wednesday, 31 August 2016
More Polish Infantry
Managed to get another 10 standard rifle infantry done for the ongoing Polish army project.
All rifle armed and destined to bulk out the platoon's rifle squads, they are all from Early War Miniatures.
Once more I can't seem to get the photos right, one has come out very dark despite some editing and the models being under two massive daylight lamps! Oh well, you get the idea.
As I previously mentioned an order has fallen though for a large chunk of Polish stuff, which was needed to complete the infantry platoon and HQ. I can get the minituares from elsewhere but I am awaiting a webstore to reopen to put the order in.
What that means is that I have an Bofors AT tank gun with horse limber and an AT rilfe to go and I'm done with what I have. Good job the general back log is big enough to keep my busy!
Friday, 26 August 2016
Polish Light Mortar Support
The Polish forces are continuing to grow, very slowly, but I am getting there.
I have managed to add some light mortar support to my forces. In keeping with the Battlegroup Blitzkrieg force structure, I am trying to work my way through and cover all the options. A platoon can have up to two light mortars so I have bought two and painted two. Each has it's crew of three and then the option for three assitant loaders, which I have also painted up.
Here are the photos (some have come out a little dark for some reason).
Team 1:
Team 2:
These are all from Early War Miniatures. There isn't a great deal of variety in posing, especially amongst the 6 extra loaders, who were all the same pose bar one. I had hoped to get some more minis from another company but that order has fallen through, so it's all Early War Mini's at the moment. I don't suppose it's a major issue as they are an extra that might not see much use. They can always double as infantry in any case.
Next up for these guys are a chunk of ten infantry and a 37mm AT gun with Limber. I am hoping to get the infantry done before the end of the month.
Oh, and if you haven't already give the blog a follow or pop over to my facebook page to give me a like, as there is some news coming soon.....
Tuesday, 16 August 2016
Epic Reinforcements
I have returned from a rather nice two week break away in Cyprus, enjoying the sun, pool and more than a few cold beers. I am now off work on my shared maternity leave for a few months. I am hoping, as I have said before, to get stuck into the hobby as a result, as much as two small children will allow. The only down side is I am not getting paid whilst being off, so new purchases will be more or less none exsistant. Its a good job I have plenty to be getting on with, though basic supplies are running low! Never mind, I have a cunning plan to boost income....
Anyway, a few months ago, I had a game of Net Epic scheduled, and decided to expand the force some what. I was lacking dedicated anti tank as my Leman Russ company, whilst a very good all round company, does not possess any real hard hitting anti armour punch. I added a support detachment of Vanquishers as a result. My army overall was also lacking in AA cover as I as relying on my Thunderbolts for air support, but they needed to be freed up for ground attack duties. I therefore added a detachment of Hydra's to the ranks.
I was lucky enough to have bagged a few of the old FW models for these two additions so I painted them up:
They were a rush job, so not my best work. The FW models also lack the stowage of most of the epic models I use, and I am not confident of scuplting in 6mm, so they stay basic in appearance. Sadly, the game never happened due to illness so they will have to wait for a while to see action.
In other hobby news, I will now be cracking on with my 20mm Poles as they remain my priority. Sadly, an order from a supplier has fallen through after waiting three months, so I am looking to order from somewhere else to fill the gaps. Updates soon.
Thursday, 7 July 2016
Polish Preparation
Still trying to refind that elusive mojo that I had a few weeks ago that had me wanting to paint every spare moment I could find. I suspect it's just the normal summer malaise and it hopefully won't last too long. The good news is that I am not totally disinterested like normal, and still getting bits and bobs done - albeit not at the pace I was before.
To that end, the other day I managed to muster a little but of enthusiasm. I put it to god use, and assembled a big bunch of 20mm Early War Miniautres Polish for the next phase of the army:
Two light mortar teams:
A 37mm Bofors anti-tank gun team:
And their horse and limber tow. This is actually a french team but I figured I can get away with it:
A chunk of infantry:
And a final, lonely chap to be a medic:
I'm trying to cover all the options as I go, so each of the weapon teams has 6 gunners. Three will be mounted to each base, and the other three on individual bases. In Battlegroup, each weapon team has three gunners and you can purchase three to make the team more effective. I hope that doing this, I can cover most options in the book.
Just got to find the time and motivation to undercoat and paint the lot.
Friday, 1 July 2016
2016 - Half Way Point.
You may remember I tried to set myself a few goals for the year ahead back around Christmas. And since the 1st July marks exactly six months gone and six months to go, I decided to look and see where I was.
Here are my goals for the year and how I think I've gotten on with them so far.
- In terms of points using the above scoring system, I am going to aim for over 1000 points of painted minis.
Using the Analogue Painting system I wanted to hit 1000 points of painted miniatures. Sadly, at the half way point I don't think I've quite hit 400 yet. I've also noticed a dent in production now the summer months have rolled around the little boy has got bigger and more demanding. Still, with three months off work coming soon over late summer and autumn, I might yet catch up. Either way, I suspect I will beat last years total. So I count that as a work in progress.
- To complete at least two full 28mm Napoleonic battalions (so that's 48 miniatures done.)
Exactly half way on this one with a single battalion done. I am not sure when the second one will make its way up the painting queue but there is time yet.
- I have my shelves of doom (full of unpainted minis, mainly dead projects that I refuse to sell) in my painting, taunting me from the corner. The total currently stands at 93 minis, so I shall aim to reduce this to under 60 miniatures by years end.
Least said about this the better. I haven't yet painted anything from the shelves this year, and I actually think one or two more models may have found their way out the painting queue and back onto the shelves so the numbers may even have gone up. Still, never say never and if the bug bites for some Skaven, High Elves, Orks or Tau, the number may go down.
- General 28mm wise, I want to progress my two Bolt Actions armies, and move into at least one Ancients force alongside my napoleonics. I'd like at least two complete units for this ancients project.
So no progress on the Ancients, even though I have plenty of minis for them and I've only added one unit to my Bolt Action armies this year. But I am regularly gaming with a friend at BA so I may get the motivation to paint some more.
- I want to start to gather 20mm forces for battlegroup games. No real targets on this, just want to see me making siginificant progress here.
I think I can call this one a success so far. The Poles are well on their way, and I have some Germans bought so that's all good. If I end the year with a singe painted army (i.e. The Poles), I'll call this complete.
- 6mm wise I have two rough targets. In Epic terms, to buy no more until what I have outstanding is small enough to fit in to one box. Second, to move into historical 6mm. I know it's not for everyone, but it's a scale I have always had a soft spot for. It should also be fairly quick and easy to get armies together.
This is one with little progress. Some purchasing of historical 6mm has occurred but no painting. I haven't quite stuck to my promise of buying no more Epic stuff, but what I have bought is only small, so it's not all bad. And I've recently started getting the odd game of Epic in so the motivation might be sparked up.
- Finally, bring my gaming table into action that I have in the garage. I've had this a few years and still not used it.
The only one I'd call complete at the half way point. I'm pleased to say that the gaming has been fairly regular and steady, and more importantly nothing of mine that has touched the table has been unpainted! This is a big sea change for me, and I've promised to myself not to use any incomplete minis on the table if at all possible.
I think you'll agree that progress is being made all round. I can't grumble too much when all said and done, the wife puts up with having a painting room and a gaming room, so I am blessed. And at least I do get some things done. Sure, I'd like more time for the hobby, but real life is demanding and has to come first.
I have noticed my schizophrenic painting style seems to be calming down a bit. I am intending to work on projects rather than leap around all over the place. So at the moment, I am working on the next big chunk of 20mm Poles. Occassionally something will get pushed the front but they will be my focus - expect to see lots more of them this month.
Tuesday, 28 June 2016
More Modern Brits
Once the test figure was down, I was happy to plow on with the other seven of these guys.
I found the camo quite time consuming to do in a batch, and I have to admit it sapped me of a little bit of motivation at one point. However, I soon realised that once you've done the camo on these guys, your pretty much done, and they didn't take too much time after that:
I have to say again, and I've said it lots of times before, the Empress Miniatures are lovely - so much detail. I am sure a very skilled painted could have a lot of fun with these!
These guys were one of the last few things on the desk before I go back to 20mm WW2 so it will unfortunatley be a while before we see anymore of these.
Wednesday, 15 June 2016
Modern Brit Test Figure
One of the many projects that I have on the back burner is to play Force on Force games set in Afghanistan. I mainly want to focus on the British fighting in and around Helmand, as I think it will make for some cracking games.
To that end you may recall I bought a load of Empress Miniatures last year at Partizan and then painted up the Taliban contingent fairly soon after. The Brits themselves took a while longer due to me trying to figure out how to paint multi-cam.
After some advice from a chap on one of the forums I populate, I had a go with various greens and browns and came up with this:
Not too shabby an effort I am sure you will agree. The technique I used gave and overly pleasing result, athough it certainly falls within the three feet rule of miniature painting. I was also going for a slightly less orange look on the glasses, but oh well, I guess everyone in my force will be wearing Oakley's!
Another seven of these to get done, along with another 8 Taliban and Insurgents I got at Salute.
Monday, 6 June 2016
Boom, Boom, Boom! German 10.5 Howitzer.
In the ever going quest to one day beat my Bolt Action nemisis Steve, I have finally got around to adding some heavier firepower to my 28mm Germans.
I have gone for a leFH 18/40 10.5 cm Howitzer to hopefully blow a few infantry squads off the table.
Quite a fun model to paint this, combining a different range of techniques. I painted the crew exaclty as I would my infantry which was a simple enough job. However, the gun got a similiar treatment to the vehicles in the force, and I made use of oil washes to hopefully give it a beat up look. Some pigments to represent soot and a matt varnish sealed the deal.
One thing that I did do different to this was to mount the crew on the base in a way that they can't be removed. I normally prefer to have them detachable, but for speed they were simply glued on to the base. I did leave the gun loose for ease of tansport.
Plenty of other stuff for my Bolt action guys sat on the shelf, but it's 20mm next up!
Thursday, 26 May 2016
20mm Polish Army So Far
I recently finished up the last five of my Polish infantry out of the initial orders I had placed. I figured that rather than show you another 5 Polish infantry, I'd do some group shots of what I have so far. Because everyone loves an army shot right?
It's not a large force yet, maybe a third of a platoon, but its got a good cohesive look and sets a good ground work for whats to come. I intend to make this force my focus over the summer, to try to get it playable. To that end, I've got enough stuff either on the pile or on order to complete a HQ element and everything else I need to make a full infantry platoon along with all the support options. Cavalry, vehicles and other stuff will all come later.
It's not a large force yet, maybe a third of a platoon, but its got a good cohesive look and sets a good ground work for whats to come. I intend to make this force my focus over the summer, to try to get it playable. To that end, I've got enough stuff either on the pile or on order to complete a HQ element and everything else I need to make a full infantry platoon along with all the support options. Cavalry, vehicles and other stuff will all come later.
Friday, 20 May 2016
45th (1st Nottinghamshire) Foot Complete
It's been a while coming, what with my hobby butterfly approach, and working on them in batches of 8 models at a time, but my very first 28mm scale Napoleonic battalion is complete! I am very happy about this as Napoleonics has always been near the top of my wish list of things to do, so to finally be making a bit of progress is great.
First up, here a couple of photos of the two command stands:
I think these came out pretty well, the drummer was quite tricky as he has his colours reversed and the flags are my first attempt ever at flags. I had ordered flags from Flags of War but I got impatient and usd the ones that came with the Warlord Games boxed set. I think they came out alright in the end.
On to the main event, heres the whole battalion:
I think they look pretty impressive en-masse. I have gone for a 6 base layout, meaning 24 men per battalion. This is the bottom end of a normal size battalion for black powder but it keeps it more realistic for me in terms of what I can achieve. If it was 9 bases per battation (36 men), I'd never get them done. I can always add more bases at a later date.
Things I have learned from doing these: Napoloenics are daunting at first but once you have a paint scheme down and if you concentrate, you can do them quite quickly. Each pair of bases took on average 8-10 hours, spread out over three or four evenings, and with life distractions. I imagine if left alone, I could knock this out in a week. Just need to quit work and evict the wife and children....
Where will I take this project? I have got a box of Perry British Line, and with the leftovers from the Warlord Games box, I think I can stretch another two battalions just by buying another command set. The Perry set also has four riflemen for a small 95th Rifles detachment. Painting wise I shall be altering things a little bit, mainly by incorporating different trouser colours for a more on campaign feel.
The only bad news is I wouldn't expect to get around to these next few units for a while - too much else on the go. I've got a few more projects to clear off the desk, then I'm going to tackle my 20mm Poles over the summer.
As always, all feedback is appreciated!
First up, here a couple of photos of the two command stands:
I think these came out pretty well, the drummer was quite tricky as he has his colours reversed and the flags are my first attempt ever at flags. I had ordered flags from Flags of War but I got impatient and usd the ones that came with the Warlord Games boxed set. I think they came out alright in the end.
On to the main event, heres the whole battalion:
I think they look pretty impressive en-masse. I have gone for a 6 base layout, meaning 24 men per battalion. This is the bottom end of a normal size battalion for black powder but it keeps it more realistic for me in terms of what I can achieve. If it was 9 bases per battation (36 men), I'd never get them done. I can always add more bases at a later date.
Things I have learned from doing these: Napoloenics are daunting at first but once you have a paint scheme down and if you concentrate, you can do them quite quickly. Each pair of bases took on average 8-10 hours, spread out over three or four evenings, and with life distractions. I imagine if left alone, I could knock this out in a week. Just need to quit work and evict the wife and children....
Where will I take this project? I have got a box of Perry British Line, and with the leftovers from the Warlord Games box, I think I can stretch another two battalions just by buying another command set. The Perry set also has four riflemen for a small 95th Rifles detachment. Painting wise I shall be altering things a little bit, mainly by incorporating different trouser colours for a more on campaign feel.
The only bad news is I wouldn't expect to get around to these next few units for a while - too much else on the go. I've got a few more projects to clear off the desk, then I'm going to tackle my 20mm Poles over the summer.
As always, all feedback is appreciated!
Saturday, 14 May 2016
Review: First To Fight Polish Wz.34 Armoured Car
First to Fight are a Polish company and they seem to be concentrating on the 1939 Polish invasion in 20mm scale at the moment. A bit of research on the web shows they do both German and Polish kits, across infantry, vehicles and guns.
Now this pack was a single vehicle, in 1/72 of the WZ.34 armoured car. It came with two options to have a machince gun or a 47mm gun. I wanted it for the bigger gun.
First impressions were good. The box comes cellophaned together with a small A4 magazine. Sadly, this was all in Polish, so what looked like lots of text and background info was lost to me. The only real translation was the painting guide, where the Vallejo paints were named with their English names, so easy to follow:
Having finished looking at the pretty pictures in the magazine and lamented my lack of Polish, I cracked open the box. The kit was split over two sprues, and the instructions were fairly clear on the back of the box - there was no seperate leaflet on how to build it:
I found that the kit went together fairly quickly. It is somewhere between a gaming kit and a model kit it terms of detail. It has some things you don't need on a gaming model - such as suspension modelled underneath etc but goes together easily enough so that you aren't wasting a lot of time building something you want to use.
Once it was done, I was surprised at how tiny it was! Here is a shot next to some 20mm infantry and it's a tiny little vehicle. Still, it was only a two person armoured car, and a lot of ealy war stuff for all nations was tiny compared to what came later, so I won't labour on the scale issue. It will do for my purposes.
Overall, I think this kit is half decent. At £7.50 for a single vehicle it was perhaps a little more expensive than I would like. However, this is balanced with the fact that the company seem to be covering a lot of stuff you can't find elsehwere. There also is never going to be as much competition in this period as say 1944, so perhaps that's a factor. I also found the model a llittle bit flimsy in places, mainly where the wheels attached. I snapped two off during assembly, and whilst this is not a problem as it's a simple fix, it's a tad irrating and something I'll have to try to remember when moving the model around on the table top.
I would certainly consider getting other kits from First to Fight, but I suspect it may be the more obsucre vehicles. The TKS Tankette's for example I shall be looking around for, as at £7.50 each from these guys, and the fact I want four or five, make's those a tad expensive. But it's a company worth looking out for.
The model should be quick and easy to paint - I suspect it's too small to warrant even breaking out the airbrush, but that will be another blog post.
Wednesday, 4 May 2016
Polish Footsloggers
I have recently finished up a couple of sqauds of Polish infantry. I have enjoyed painting these, mainly because of the progress I have made. I very quickly realised that I can finish them in one evening if I work on batches of 5 or 6, and being able to see them done so quickly gave me the impetus to keep going.
The squads are configured for Battlegroup Blitzkrieg rules. A Polish platoon in this rule set is 3 squads of ten riflemen along with another 3 squads of 9 containing an LMG (a polish produced copy of the American BAR I believe). There is also the HQ sqaud and the support options.
Here are the pictures of the squads:
The models are a mixture of Capitan Games and Early War Miniatures. Close up the Early War are larger but at gaming distances, they all blend together ok. I will be buying from both companies to have plenty of variety.
For this project, I still have a long way to go. There are a few more infantry to paint, then the armoured car I got from salute but that is all. I do have a shopping list of stuff I need to complete the infantry platoon in full, which will be the next step once funds allow. I've got plenty of other things to be getting on with in the mean time.
Sunday, 24 April 2016
NetEpic Battle Report Guard-v-Space Wolves
As part of my ongoing effort to use my games table more I finally managed to pin down my friend Rich for a game of NetEpic - it's only taken about 4 years since our last one.
Back in the 90's, Epic was my favourite game of all the GW systems. At the time it was one of the main systems they supported with releases every couple of months. It was a good time. Of course, eventually they canned the line but Epic left me with a lingering love of mass battles and 6mm games. I always think it is a brilliant scale for large scale warfare, allowing hundereds of infantry and dozens of tanks on a normal table - all at a reasonable cost.
Back to Epic. NetEpic is a fan based spin off of my beloved 2nd Edition Epic. I've only played it once before and enjoyed it and always wanted to play more.
My army is Imperial Guard. In epic, you choose your troops using company cards as the main formation, each one of which allows you to take 5 support cards. So I chose a mechanised infantry company, a Leman Russ company and an artillery company. I added a detachment of heavy infantry to screen the artillery company, a thunderbolt squadron, a hellhound squadron, two sentinel squadrons and a shadowsword super heavy tank.
Rich ran a Landraider company, a grey hunter company, a thunderhawk, some attack bikes and a squadron of Thunderbolts as well.
Here is a picture of the board layout:
I would be deploying to the right of this picture, Rich to the left. We each put down three objectives and off we went. Deployment was alternated unit by unit. This was my left flank, where I planned for the main punch to come. The idea was for the Russ company with air support to move forward and push through whilst the artillery company cleared the way.
I deployed my mech company in the centre to push on the town and my two sentinel squadrons on the right as a delaying force.
In the first turn, things went slowly. As we gradually wrestled with the rules, it took a while to achieve anything. From a game perspective, my thunderbolts proved themselves by flying forward and strafing a few landraiders out of exisistence, something the artillery had failed to do.
In the centre we both sent mechanised forces forward and occupied buildings. The exchange of fire was fairly non commital, and the left flank was also fairly quiet.
In turn 2, things certainly heated up. The Russ company took loses from advancing Land Raiders, but more worrying Rich's Thunderhawk dropped a detachment of grey hunters in the middle of my artillery company:
In the centre there was more jostling for space and exchanges of fire, with both sides taking losses, though I had the worse of it. Over on the right there was more moving around, with the sentinels being engaged by the attack bikes, but holding their own.
The fight amongst the artillery company was short, brutual and one sided, with all three bombards falling. However, my screening platoon of heavy infantry did their intended job, about facing and destroying the attacking marines.
As a final note, I was realising how effective Thunderbolts could be so I managed to take out all three of Richs:
Turn 3 was all we managed to complete for this game, and we didn't quite finish this either. By the end of the turn, my Russ company was really suffering and not making ground, the situation in the middle was not much changed and the right my Sentinels were all but wiped out.
The left flank, where my Russ company is noticable by its absent. The ray of hope was was that Rich's infantry was running away from the hellhound squadron and its flamers:
The centre, I held two buildings and Rich only one, but his was the objective and in the top right you can see a landraider detachment advacing to cause issues:
Thr right flank. The only ray of hope here was my thunderbolts shooting accross the table and about to engage the Landraiders. Sadly, we had to pack up before they got to fine:
And that is how it was left. Rich held more objectives then me so was the nominal winner. Had the game continued, I suspect Rich had more heavy units than me and would have used them to push forward. However, he thought my superior numbers would overwhelm him, especially because he thought my Thunderbolts would wizz about taking out a detachment per turn, which they had done so far in the game to be fair.
Overall a great game. I need to get some anti air painted up to free my Thunderbolts up for ground attack - they were my stars. Also, my screening force for the artillery company worked well. Sure, they took losses but witout the them the marines would have rampaged through the artillery company with ease - wiping it out.
Both Rich and I are hoping to get a game a month in, and not just in Epic. We are both 6mm fans, and there is talk of Napoleonics, modern and WW2, so who knows!