Blast from the Past

One of this years main projects has been sorting stuff out in the pile of shame. A lot of stuff has been sold on as I have been honest with myself about what I would actually get around to.

The main pile of stuff that has been cleared out has been my 40k stuff. As a former GW boy I had a lot but I have fallen out of love with the game itself despite several attempts on my behalf to reboot myself in the game. As a result over the last year or so I have purged most of my 40k.

Which leads me to this short post. The other day I was clearing the last few things out when I found these two at the bottom of a box:

My old paint scheme was fairly basic and these were already pretty much done. I almost put them on ebay but figured I may as well finish them off since it wouldn't take long. Here is the final result:

I stuck to the basic scheme and the simple basing that 2007 me used to use so they fit with the rest of the army.

This now means I have no unpainted 40k in my collection anymore. Actually, I think I have a half finished ork vehicle somwhere that I really must get done.

Progress wise the desk is awash with Bavarians from the War of Spanish Succession, some 15mm Republican Romans and a couple of Orc and Goblin Spear Chukka's. There all coming along at a fair pace so hopefully there should be some more posts this month. Fingers crossed!

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! 

Epic IG and Sentinels

I have been a little remiss with my blogging of late, nearly three weeks since the last post! Being at work full time was fine, and then being off work with a newborn was fine. However, put the two together and it's getting complicated. It's not so much the lack of time to paint, as I am actually getting quite a lot done, but finding time to blog is a little trickier. I do hope to get a few more posts up before the end of the month though.

Enough of my lamenting. My expansion of my epic armies continues. I have managed to add a second platoon to my mech infantry company, so may I present yellow platoon:

Whilst I was at it and because the paints were out, I added a sentinel squadron to the force as well:

I made a little more effort with the bases to add some character, think it came out quite well. Some ruins and a tree were little added effort, hopefully to make the models pop a little more than they would ordinarily.

There are no more epic in the painting queue at present, so will be a while before I do the rest of the mech infantry company. I also suspect I am short a few chimeras but they are one of the more plentiful epic models on ebay so it's not big deal.

I have a couple more posts due this week and I am currently working on some more Napoleonic British, as well as mulling over both 15mm and 20mm World War 2, so plenty to come.

Epic Imperial Guard Platoon

Epic was always my favourite of the Games Workshop games, back in the day when it was one of the three main systems. I have dabbled on and off with getting back into it via NetEpic, so have quite a lot to paint, nearly all Imperial Guard with some Titans.

I recently got the bug to paint some, and pulled this small infantry platoon off the shelf. There are 30 men, all organised into groups of five, one of which is marked as the platoon command by the dude with the little banner. You probably can't see it but they are marked as white platoon. Here they are:

And a close up:

And finally with their transports, which I painted an age ago:

They follow a red and bone scheme, which matches my 40k guard, and translates quite well into 6mm. I enjoyed doing these, they are quick, and I can see more getting done soon, at the very least I need to paint the other two thirds of the comapny. 

Imperial Guard Command Squad

Just a small post to tide things over. I am still working hard to try to finish the whole box of Warlord British infantry in one month, which is my personal goal at the moment. It's still touch and go if I can make it in all honesty.

Anyone, in between Bolt Action and musing over new projects, I have been tidying up unfinished stuff. Part of the many half done minis on the shelves was a Warhammer 40k Imperial Guard Command Squad. Started around two years ago as an attemp to reboot my interest in 40k, it failed, and two of the five minis have stood uncompleted since. The plan was to push my painting skills and also conversion skills - each mini is converted in some way, either poses, or custom torsos or both. They still didn't fire my imagination. 

Over the last week I dusted them down and finished off the officer and vox caster, which were the only two outstanding:

And here is the squad as a whole.

 

Apoloigies for the awful pics!

I am so out of touch with 4k that I am not even sure if the squad compisition is legal, but still, they are done. They will be added to the 6000 odd points of guard I have. I should sell them to generate funds, but I've made the mistake of selling stuff before then getting back into that very game and having to start all over again, so for now I shall keep them. If I ever need more cabinet space, then who knows, they may go, but for now they stay. 

More updates to follow soon. As always, stay tuned via my facebook page, The cardboard fortress