Painting Frostgrave

Hello Folks,

Got a bit more painting done on the Frostgrave stuff, Duncan and I are going to give it a go tomorrow, and I got my fancy bases in so I had to get a few things polished off. First off I put those 3 guys I had done last time one their new bases,

They are resin bases from Micro Ars Studios, they are a bit thick, especially with the magnetic bottom I added, but they look cool. I got some fancy ruins ones for the important characters with red wizardy writing, and some more plain ones for the soldier types.

Since we are going to be playing a game I also banged out the set of treasure tokens that came free with the Nickstarter. These are pretty cool if you ask me.

The big treasure chest one is supposed to be something else, it had a hole for something to plug into, but I guess I lost it. Luckily you also get a few extra bits so I tossed the big chest on there. So now we have some stuff for wizards to fight over!

I don't have any of the plastic guys done yet so I am going to use some Saga troops to stand in but that's ok.  I am excited to try this game out so you will surely be reading about it in a few days.

Pledge Status 2015:
Bought: 218 (24 Frostgrave)
Painted: 114 (6 Treasure Tokens)
Total: -104

Thanks;
Mike

Painting - Le Meut and Frostgrave

So this week I got a decent bit of painting done. My stuff from the Frostgrave Nickstarter came in so I was excited to get going on that, and also eager to get Le Meut painted up.

Armand Le Meut:
Infinity

So first up I have the much sought after Le Meut painted up, available in the tournament winner pack. He is an alien mercenary that is willing to work for anyone. Pretty cool model with allot of details, I like the skull and Rest in Oblivion that is written on the back of his jacket. Pretty happy with how it turned out.

Paints Used:

GW: Black Spray, Dawnstone, Leadbelcher, Mordian Blue, Iron Breaker, Chaos Black, Baneblade Brown, Palid Witch Flesh

Vallejo: Black, Flat Red, Natural Grey, Dark Grey, Ivory, Flat Earth, Dark Sand, Brown Violet, White, Deck Tan

Warpaints: Soft Tone, electric blue


Chronomancer & Apprentice:
Frostgrave

I also got some guys done for Frostgrave, the set came with a set of wizards, 20 plastic guys, and a few metal guys and odds and ends. So I started off with the wizards. This picture didn't come out great for some reason but oh well. I like the apprentice on the left the most of the pair. They are not based yet as I have decided to order some fancy resin bases, so not quite done, but I thought worth having a look. The face on the lady in particular is not great.

Paints Used:

GW: Black Spray, Dawnstone, Leadbelcher, Mordian Blue, Iron Breaker, Chaos Black, Baneblade Brown, Gold

Vallejo: Black, Natural Grey, Dark Grey, Ivory, Flat Earth, Dark Sand, Brown Violet, White, Deck Tan, Wood Grean, Orange Brown, Gold, Japenese Uniform, Chocolate Brown

Warpaints: Soft Tone, electric blue

Foundry: Flesh Triad

Crusader:
Frostgrave

I also got my first of the 8 soldiers to support the wizards finish the Crusader, just a Knight with a big sword really. I decided to copy of Stan's scheme for his Knights since it seemed easy and looks good. The plastic set comes with lots of extra parts bags and all kinds of stuff so I glued a pouch from that on the front of his leg there so he can stash some treasure.

Paints Used:

GW: Black Spray, Leadbelcher,Iron Breaker, Chaos Black, Dark Red, Wazdaza Red

Vallejo: Flat Earth, Dark Sand, White, Wood Grain, Orange Brown, Gold, Japenese Uniform, Choclate Brown

Foundry: Flesh Triad

So these are the guys I got painted this week let me know what you thing. I should be able to get another bunch of Frostgrave and another Infinity guy done for next week.

Pledge Status 2015:
Bought: 218 (24 Frostgrave)
Painted: 108 (1 Le Meut, 3 Frostgrave)
Total: -110

Thanks;
Mike

Battle Report - Waterloo Campaign - Lasalle

Hello folks, this past Friday our club had it's second day for the on going Waterloo campaign. This time I was to once again command the Prussians and fight the French at Wavre, hoping to do better then a decisive loss this time around. I was joined by John and James.

So here we have the table all set up, we are the defender and the church in the bottom is the objective. I borrowed some cavalry and a couple of infantry units from Tod to make up my army. So we have our cavalry on the far end to fight the French cav commanded by John, James has the center, and I have the far flank. Our task is to defend, but this game heavily favors the attack so we are going to do that by just attacking.

First turn everyone moves up as predicted, and a few cannon balls are exchanged but no significant effect. We are keeping our 2 units of Landwher in the rear as their morale is unpredictable and we don't want them running off right at the start.

A few turns later we get into the real action, various units charging away at each other. On the far flank the cavalry are taking turns charging each other trying to get a decisive result. While in the center our lines are starting to smack together and we are getting a few combats. Our mounted units are not having an easy time as the French units are just a bit better.

Now we are starting to get into some trouble, a French cavalary unit has broken through, our cavalary is starting to falter, and the infantry battle is not going as well as hoped. I think at this point we are close to breaking and have only killed 2 French units, so we need to collect another to prevent the decisive win.

Sadly we had a round of bad dice and lost a few units, now the French are heading for our church and we are taking army morale tests.

James made a heroic last charge and managed to break another French unit so we are not going to loose decisivly, despite having very few units left. We were then able to keep running around the church with the horse artillery to keep the objective contested. Sadly our army morale broke before the game ended, on turn 17 I think it was we rolled a 17 so that was another loss for the Prussians.

But a fun game never the less, lasalle works very well with multiple players so that is great to have.

Thanks;
Mike

Tournament Report - Infinity

So last Saturday I went to the Infinity tournament that was held at Fandom, which was allot of fun. I thought I would through up so pictures and a bit of a report on how things went. This is a science fiction game which some people may not really be into, so just give it a skip if you are more into historical games.

Here is a link to the army I used on drop box:

https://www.dropbox.com/s/b7ovqrhhnp2tcu9/list_PanOceania.pdf?dl=0

I went with a Pan Oceania army typical of what I have been using at Fandom on Fridays for the last few months or so.

I was a bit lazy about taking pictures it seems so I only have a few to show.

Game 1:
vs Nomads in Emergency Transmission

Being a skirmish game with allot of terrain this game doesn't really make for great pictures really. But in this mission you have to connect various antenna objectives (the round token), and then connect and control the central one to make a transmission, and you get points for how well you do that. In this case I was able to put my sniper on the green building in the middle and have allot of control, and then bring forward some other guys to accomplish things. The Nomads had some trouble taking care of the sniper and some of my other units so I was able to keep control of the objectives for a win.

Game 2
vs Qapu Khalqi in Antenna Control

In this mission there are 3 objectives along the center that must be activated, and you get points for each one, and additionally there is a secret objective. This table was a bit harder to deal with as there was a bit less terrain making it dangerous to move around. Also  my opponent had a TAG a bit armored unit that can be dangerous (red guy by the hand).

In the end I spent allot of the game trying to kill the big guy and he did some real damage to my guys so I was not able to get as may objectives. But in the end we both controlled the antenna close to our side, and no one could control the center. On the last turn I was able to run a guy up to the black pipe and control the VIP on the other side so a slight advantage for me.

Game 3
Vs Qapu Khalqi in Cold Sleep

We were playing strict Swiss rules so winners always played winners even if they faced each other before. This meant I would play the same Haqq force again. This mission has a bunch of tech coffers that you need to open and additional the 2 middle ones have to be controlled, along with a secret objective.

This game went much more my way, I got a bit lucky and the great sniper was able to kill the TAG early without spending to many orders. This left me free to move up and start working on the objectives.

My opponents fire team moved up on the left flank, and I had most of my better units there, so they had a great fire fight, I lost my commander, and most of my better troops, but also got rid of the fire team. This left me mostly free to go for objectives in the other side.

So luckily I was able to achieve all of the objectives for another win. That left me as the winner for the tournament so I was able to walk away with the special miniature you can only get by winning a tournament, or just buying the tournament pack but it's a bit pricey.

In the end it was really fun to play some games of Infinity, but it was the hottest most humid day of the year which was not really great for me!

Thanks;
Mike

Battle Report - 15mm Pike and Shotte, Samurai

Hello Folks,

So I had the guys over to play a 15mm Samurai game at my place over the weekend. I wanted to get another game in with my stuff, so we played a very rough version of Mimasetoge, the Takeda army is withdrawing from some failed seiges in 1569, and the Hojo have attempted to set up an ambush for their army in a mountain pass. I have done this battle previously, but decided to try it again for various reasons.

I really like how Pike and Shotte works for this period, but I am still trying to hone in on what the best stats, and special rules are to use. Also I do need to paint a few more stands of various things, such as Samurai with Nage-Yari (pike), and various other things. But it's hard when working on many different projects.

So here is a shot of the army lists and stats that were used:

Mostly the same as at Cangames, but I have gotten rid of the Hatamoto which I didn't like, and used some of the arquebus stands as battle line. After this game I will have to think about getting rid of Brave, which I don't really like either and perhaps replace it with Valiant (one free break test re-roll), additionally I think the giving the Takeda cavalry Ferocious Charge may be too good, so I will ahve to think about replacing this with Heavy Cavalry +d3, which allows them to add that to the combat result when they charge.

I also gave out the objectives cards again, although they were less extreme due to having less players.

Takeda Shingen

While retreating from the latest campaign in Suruga, Shingen has received word that the Hojo are preparing an ambush at the Mimase Pass.

In order to complete this objective the Takeda forces must smash through the blocking force and exit the North Road with at least half of their units.

  

Naito Masatoyo

Tasked by Takeda Shingen to guard the baggage train, do not disappoint your lord by allowing it to be captured.

In order to complete this objective you exit the board on the east road with the baggage and at least one unit. If the baggage is destroyed then Naito Masatoyo will commit Seppuku.

  

Hojo Ujikuni

The Takeda armies have broken the Imagawa in a neighboring territory. Due to this aggressive action you have been dispatched to trap them at the Mimase pass.

In order to complete this objective the Hojo force must win the battle and retain control of the field.

  

Hojo Ujiteru

The second son of Hojo Ujiasu you are being given command of a large contingent in a major battle. This is the time to prove yourself a capable commander.

In order to complete this objective Ujiteru must be alive at the end of the game, with his force unbroken, and be in control of the Takeda baggage train.

So that is the set up for the game, the basic goal being that the Taekda forces must break through and proceed off the table.

So here we have the starting set up, the Takeda force is on the lower right, and the Hojo on upper left guarding the mountain passes. This is all very loosely based on the Killer Katanas scenario, but I mostly just did what I wanted / felt looked good.

The battle started off slowly as the command rolls were not the greatest, so several of the generals had trouble maneuvering their troops. But the Hojo brought up the majority of their ranged troops to block the pass, and used that advantage to get some fire onto the Takeda Samurai as they formed up. Unfortunately I forgot an important rule which penalizes bow fire, so some units were a bit more effective then normal.

This pre-battle phase went on for a few turns so some units started to get disrupted a bit.

Eventually the Takeda got their commands right and we got some cavalry charges into the light ashigaru missile troops.

They made an impressive go of it, and lasted longer then I would have guessed, but ultimately were broken through. On the upper side of the table we have a similar thing going on, but then main bulk of the Hojo foot are marching to meet the Takeda troops who have marched over the wooded hill.

Not long after this the battle really heated up, and units were fighting all over the places. The commanders also started to get involved and several duels were fought. (both players roll a dice, on a even total result no effect, on an odd number the lower rolling Samurai is killed). The Hojo cavalry made an impressive showing and broke a unit or 2 of the Takeda troops, but casualties were mounting on both sides.

We didn't really follow the rules for army break points in order to keep the battle going, but I think it would be fair to say that the Hojo force broke first, although there were significant losses on both sides. No one was really able to achieve their objective so we kind of agree it was an indecisive win for the Takeda.

So in the end I felt that this battle went pretty well, but I do plan to weaken the Takeda Cavalry and change the special rules for Samurai slightly as discussed above. I might give the superbly drilled Ashigaru an extra attack as well. I also want to add a few things.

Thanks;
Mike

Getting back into the Painting - Fusilier Spec Ops

Hello Folks,

So been awhile since I did any painting, been taking a bit of a break after the big rush to Cangames. So this week I thought I would start to get back into a bit. The next project for me is to paint the WW1 British set that I have, but I decided to start off small so this week I just painted a single Infinity model, the spec ops guy.

Nothing fancy going on here.

Well I thought I had posted this last week, but apparently I forgot to take it out of draft. In the mean time I have also painted the Fusilier Heavy Machine Gunner, so here is that:

I have also finally started to make some progress on my 15mm WW1 RNR army so should be some updates for that coming up sometimes in the next little while.


Paints Used:

GW: Black Spray, Dawnstone, Leadbelcher, Mordian Blue

Vallejo: Black, Flat Red, Natural Red, Camo Beige, Ivory, Flat Earth, Dark Sand, Luftwaffe Green, Wood Grain

Warpaints: Soft Tone

Foundry: Flesh Triad

Also picked up a few new models, basically was the 6 point Zombie warband for Saga, and a couple of zodiacs with pirates in 15mm. Pretty much at the limit of what can be painted in a year so really going to have to cool it on buying stuff! But I just couldn't resist the zombie warband.

Pledge Status 2015:
Bought: 194 
Painted: 104 (1 Spec Ops, 1 HMG)
Total: -90

Thanks;
Mike

Battle Report - Trying out Blucher - French vs Austria

Hello good readers. So on Tuesday we decided to try out a game of Blucher, the new (ish) Grand Tactical Napoleonic wargame that seems to be making the rounds. There is allot of ways to play this game, but we settled on jumping into the full thing. So we have set up a 200 point game with the advanced rules in place and the mini campaign to start. Apparently I like to just jump into things randomly and see how all the bits working. None of this slow build nonsense.

Mini-Campaign

One way to go for a game of this is to use a pre-game map campaign to flavor and set up the resulting classic wargame. Effectively it is a more flavorful way of generating the random terrain you might use, and can add an extra layer of strategy to things.

Basically you divide your army into a series of march columns and they move around a grid trying to take over important towns and out maneuver the opponent. So instead of rolling to see who is attack what you can play a little game to find it. We kept things pretty easy and just put one corps in each column, at least I did.

The campaign represents 5 days, and a player can call for a battle when certain conditions are met.

So here we have the final layout of the map. As you can see we are fighting in Flanders, I am the Austrians in red and the French are blue. Serge has called for a battle in locations a-b 4-6, so everyone now has to get their columns into one of those squares or they will be in reserve. Sadly I have spent my time trying to capture the victory point towns, as you can see they are mostly red. So my second column has been forced into reserve, this is my main attack column with all th good units so that is not great. I was later explained to me that the points on this map basically don't matter so that is not great.

Each square is a 2'x2' piece of table so that gives you the terrain and where every unit starts, so that is pretty cool.

The Game

So then we set up the terrain and units as prescribed, the big road has an objective on each end of it. in this game your units start as turned over cards and then you flip them and put down some troops when people get close.

So here we are a bit into the game, like turn 2 or 3. The French are attacking across a little river and I am desperately trying to on until my next Corps appears behind them and they are crushed.

I set up some infantry to block one crossing, and then a bunch of cav to counter charge people as they came across the river. I started with my cannons way ahead to attack as a forlorn hope and disrupt the French a bit. By now they are getting charged by 2 units at once so end of the day for them.

This game has an interesting activation mechanic where your opponent rolls to dice and that controls how many units you get to move. But you don't get to know what he rolled until you run out. So maybe you can move one thing or maybe allot.

So here we are a bit further on, my guys blocking the bridge are prepared (in squares), and are a powerful Avant Guard division, so they have no problem sending the pesky French cav packing for awhile, but are building casualties. Meanwhile my cannons are dead, and the French cavalry Corp is pressing across the bridge while mine gets ready to hit them.

By now the Avant Guard Division has been beat up pretty bad so I pulled them back to save them from breaking. Sadly this has left a unit of conscripts to hold the bridge. on the left flank thou my cavalry units are doing very well, aggressively pushing back the French and even breaking up one unit.

Now you can see impending disaster closing in. My weak infantry units were no longer able to stem the tide so they have broken, and the French are rolling my flank. Meanwhile my heroic cavalary has pushed the French around but ran out of steam before they could break anymore units.

Around this time Serge explained that corps which are off the table don't count for army morale, so I was sadly left with a broken army. Meanwhile my other corps commander Johann von Klenau has had a grand olde time touring around Flanders, so at least there is that.

It was a pretty good game, I am not sure how much I like the map campaign, it's a neat way of generating a unique terrain, but I really don't like how some units an easily get locked out, especially if you don't know about that.

The idea is that you can play the big Napoleonic battles in a single sitting which is cool. I think it would be much improved with figures set up specifically for this with nice basing, instead of some Lasalle bases tossed onto a card. But look forward to giving it another try.

Thanks;
Mike