Cold Wars! 2015 - Day 1

So back again from Cold Wars, had a great time. Thought it would be a good idea to put up a blog post of what I got up to down there. Basically there are 2 main days of the convention Friday and Saturday, so I figure I will do 1 post for each day and put up maybe some brief reports of the games I got into, and also just some random pictures of games, I took while walking around, that looked cool or interesting for whatever reason.


WW2 Naval - General Quarters 3

The first game I got into was a WW2 Naval game, I don't recall the exact name for it, but the general idea was that I was to take some Japanese destroyers and try to slip off the table before some American destroyers could destroy to many. To complicate things it was a night battle, and the American vessels all had radar. So it was to be me and a fellow named Kenny vs Chris and another chap.

We had a force of 5 destroyers in a group of 3 and a group of 2. So we decided to hedge our bets, and have the group of 2 commanded by Kenny run straight at them to create a distraction, while I made a B line for the table edge at maximum speed. Now the Japanese destroyers were pretty fast capable of 35 Knots, so I should have been moving 17.5 inches at the start. Unfortunately I misunderstood or was just stupid and ended up moving just 17.5 cm for 3 turns basically.

The main form of combat is taking shot with large caliber guns, or launching Torpedoes. I decided to try a long shot with some torpedoes early on to see how it worked in this game, and since the Japanese had very long ranged torpedoes. I managed to get a nice hit in which is what this picture was off. (Sadly I just remembered to take 2 photos).

 
Here is a wider shot. The discs hide what direction you launch torpedoes in. So our force of 2 advanced straight out and got pounded pretty good, they eventually both sank, but crippled one of the Americans and we got a few hits on some of the others here and there. Unfortunately my mistake had cost us the whole point of this endeavor and I didn't get far enough along for it to be super useful. The Americans chased back over to my ships and started hammering them, Chris got off a niec shot with some Torpedoes doing allot of damage. In the end I didn't loose any before I got off, but the last in the line was crippled and all had taken fair damage. So basically 3-1 for the Americans. Frustratingly I ended up not much more then 18" from the endge so if not for my mistake it may have been possible to slip off, but who knows.

Painting Class

After that we attended a class at the painting university on Skin Tones. Basically on how to make good use of the painting Triads (1 dark shade, 1 mid shade, 1 highlight), how to mix colors to get the needed tones, and where to apply highlights. Got some good tips and advice (use make up websites to find out where to apply highlights and shading). So was a good class.

Great Swamp Fight - Muskets and Tomahawks

Finally on Friday night I played in the game I had pre-registered for, which was a muskets and tomahawks battle. People have been talking about this game for about a year, seems to be popular in Kingston, and the terrain at the tournament last year was really cool. So I figured it was about time to give it a go.

This battle was a part of King Phillips War in the late 17th century. This was part of the on going struggles between the settlers and the Native Peoples. On December 16th, 1675 a force of colonials guided by Indian allies attacked an Indian fort deep in a frozen swamp, in what became know as the Great Swamp Fight. I took control of a colonial force with a few regulars in red coats, a bunch of irregulars and then some angry milita with club and pitch forks. The basic idea is that cards are drawn from a deck and when a troop type comes up they all get to do 1 action, reload, move, shoot, charge ect..

The Indians where all asleep except a few guards so we got the jump on them. Our task is to kill as many as we can and burn down the village. First turn had us trying to squeeze through a break in the palisade, while our allies the praying Indians charged right in.

The basic idea seems to be that colonials have lots of powerful muskets so can shoot up the Natives, but the Natives move faster and if they get into a melee bad things happen to the colonials. On the plus side the Natives have bad morale so don't like to take casualties.

For some reason the guys controlling the Natives insisted on charging our Indian allies with there defenseless villagers, so with the Game Master shaking his head these were killed. Starting to wonder if I am being tricked into a massacre.

Seems I was being deficient in taking pictures again. But we kept up the pressure closing in. When all the Indians in the huts finally woke up and charged out we had a bit of problems and lost a few units to some melees. But then the god of the cards decided that on turn 3 all of the colonial cards would be drawn before the Natives so we got to shoot them all up and prevented any effective counter attacks. So in the end we broke their force and burned out a hut. I lost all my Regulars and a few Irregulars, and we also lost almost all of our Indian allies, but still a solid win.

I really liked this game so am looking forward to trying it out again, I figure I can just use my Beothucks that I had done for Saga last year. I need to get a model to use as Demasduit (Mary March), and maybe a game in the Exlopits River with Captain Buchan could be arranged.

Finally here are some random pictures of interesting games:

Very nice set up for Song of Drums and Tomahawks

Search for King Solomon's Mines

Thanks;
Mike

Painting - Blitz!

So lots of painting in the last week or so. I had to finish off some M113s for our Arab Israeli War game, and a few more Knights for Cold Wars, and I have been busy for a few weeks actually on a secret project to re-base some of my 15mm Samurai Stuff for a Pike and Shotte game at Cangames.

M113:

So first up I have a platoon of M113 Armored Personal Carriers to carry around my Jordanian Infantry in style. Had to get these done to make the 900 point size for the last day of the campaign. This is the plastic Jordanian kit from BF, but I don't think anything is different about it other then 4 guys to stick out of the hatch. They were super easy to put together and the parts fit almost perfect, and easy to paint so very happy with that kit.

So there are those guys, happy with how they came out. Luckily I had written down the colors used to paint my last batch of tanks so I could go back and look it up!

Vallejo:
Black
Khaki Grey
Desert Yellow
Dark Sand
Reflective Green

Liquitex:
Transparent Raw Umber Ink
Black Ink

GW:
Leadbbelcher
Chaos Black Spray

Teutonic Knights:

Next up I have the last for knights from my Fireforge box. Gives me the option to not use the Bishop if I so desire, plus it's good to actually finish off the full kit finally! I ran out of the Desert Yellow I was painting the bases when it came time to do the rims, so I just painted them black for now. Pretty standard now but here they are:

I did half and half on the lances and melee weapons this time so I would have 6 of each. Running out of helmets that don't have fancy attachments now so I had to use some bigger ones, but that is ok.

Games Workshop:
Leadbelcher
Mithril Silver
Chaos Black Spray

Vallejo:
Black
Dark Grey
Natural Grey
Deck Tan
White
German Camo Beige
Ivory
Woodgrain
Dark Sand
Chocolate Brown
Japan Uniform WW2
Smoke
Orange Brown
Flat Earth
Desert Yellow

Foundry:
Flesh Shade
Flesh
Light Flesh

Decals from Battle Flag

And there is a shot of the full box of 12 completed and all ready to crush my enemies at Cold Wars (or so I hope).

Finally just for fun here is a shot of my full milites christi force so far, 12 mounted Brother Knights, 8 foot Knights acting as Warriors, 8 Brother Sergeants with Spears, 8 Brother Sergeants with Crossbows, a Knight Commander, and a Bishop of War. Looks like a bad time to not be a Christian!

Samurai Re-Basing:

So the last project I have been working is re-baseing some of my Samurai from DBMM over to something I think is better for Pike and Shotte/ Hail Ceasar in 15mm. Since each unit is now 1 base instead of 4 it's easier to move them around, they look better (I hope), and fewer figures are needed to make a unit.

This has really re-invigorated my taste for painting 15mm Samurai stuff, and I ahve a TON of them unpainted so that is really good. So far I have just been working through my Useugi Clan forces, and have 3 units of Ashigaru with Spear, 3 Skirmishing Ashigaru with Ranged Weapons, and 1 unit of Samurai Cavalry.

So there is a group shot and a single shot. The bsaing is 100mm x 25mm. So far I have painted 2 Nage-Yari (pike) previously, is now 3. For the basing I have just used the Baccus basing set which I find to be excellent and a few different kinds of flock and small rocks. On the Skirmish bases I have put farious different items of supplies and such from Museum Miniatures. Really happy with how this one is going.

Pledge Status 2015:
Bought: 32 
Painted: 40
Total: +8

So at +8 for now but I am about to buy a bunch of stuff at Cold Wars.

Thanks;
Mike

Weekend of Battle - Saga and Fate of a Nation Thoughts

So had a busy weekend playing wargames this time around. Played some SAGA with Duncan on Saturday, and then we had the last day of the Arab Israeli War campaign at the club.

Duncan has already put some battle reports up on his blog so instead of repeating the same thing I am just going to through up some pictures of the battles and give some general thoughts on things. Here are some links to the relevant blogs with the reports:

SAGA:

http://intermittentre.blogspot.co.uk/2015/02/saga-saracens-vs-milites-christi.html

Fate of a Nation:

http://intermittentre.blogspot.co.uk/2015/03/fate-of-nation-final-round.html

SAGA:

So the main goal of the SAGA day was for me to try out my army that I am going to use at the tournament next weeked at Cold Wars, and also to test out the custom scenario that the guy running it has created. Basically you have 3 treasure tokens in the middle of the board and the players have to go get them and take them off the edge. However this is complicated by it being quite order intensive to move them as you generate allot of fatigue.

Initial Setup

I wanted to give the Bishop of War a try to see if that option was worth doing, so I took a warlord, Bishop, 2 units of 4 knights each, and 3 units of 8 warriors 1 with crossbows. In the first game I attacked early with the Knights and thought I could try and cut back on the Saracens ability to move off with the treasure, while my foot guys came up and got the treasure.

The Bishop and his Knights bring some pain to the  Arabs in the Holy Land

This plan did not work out very well, the way the Knights battle board works it is better to build up piety for a few turns so you can make better attacks with your good troops in the late game. But I did quite like the Bishop, his Warlord lite ability is useful to have. Basically you can activate the Bishop once per turn for free and he can take a unit along, and they can charge together. He also has a cheap SAGA ability to gain 3 attacks and become respectable in combat. I still think he is likely to be a bit fragile, but the resilience rule usually seems to discourage him being attacked. So I do think the Bishop is a fun unit to have around.

Not so many Knights left now!

The other big winner for me was the Crossbow unit which was surprising. The Normans can also have a unit with crossbows, but I have found them to be kind of crap and generally not worth having. The Knightly Order cross bow unit thou is much better, there is a SAGA ability that gives and number of attack or defense dice equal to you piety level +1, which can be used to shoot. So generally you will end up at 3 or 4 extra dice before long, this doubles the effectiveness of the cross bows in shooting. So instead of killing 1-2 models you are getting 2-3, which is huge. The knights are allowed to get more also, you are just limited to now having more crossbows then mounted knights. So I think another good way of running this army would be to have 3 units of 4 Knights, and to big units of 12 warriors 1 with crossbows. I am working on getting this set up painted now so I will have a few options.

In the end I lost this first game, Duncan had 2 Treasure tokens for 4 points, and I had 1 and more kills for 3 points. The second we played was 'Clash of Warlords', I did a bit better there and managed a win so 1 for 1 so far hah.

So basically I am finding the Knights to be a fun and interesting army to use, am hoping to do better this time around then I did at Fall in with the Beothucks!

Fate of a Nation:

So the other big thing was the Arab Israeli game. I had a bit of a wurh to paint up some M113s (will post later), but managed to finish them and have 1 900 point force. I was quite looking forward  to trying this out again with the new book so everything was re-balanced. The Jordanians in particular were given quite a boost.

Initial Set Up

We rolled for a mission and got Pincer, since the Jordanians are Always Defend this meant the Israelis would have to attack. I was a bit worried at first, as we had 2 3 platoons armies in our combined Egyptian-Jordanian force and could only deploy 3, that we would get broken on company morale very easily. But in retrospect a big platoon of 10 T55s is not so easy to get rid of!

In the end the opposite happened and the Israelis were broken. It seems that the key yo success with the T55s Egyptian force is to keep them stationary, as long as they sit still they are a powerful and dangerous force, but as soon as they have to move, there chance to hit goes way down as they have both Hen and Chicks and Rate of Fire one. This means that they need a 6 to hit the Israelis in the open at short range, and can't hit at all if they are concealed or at long range. So the Israelis have to play a high stakes game of cat and mouse, ducking into and out of cover, and trying to mass on 1 platoon at a time.

Round 2 Start

In the second round we decided to try Free For All, so everyone would get to use all their stuff, and there wouldn't be such a huge advantage for the defender as there was no defender. My plan was to come around the hill at the bottom of this picture and kill everything around the objective to the north of the back building, while my infantry in the fast APCs snuck around to capture it.

Carnage

This kind of worked, but with so many big tanks on the table, stuff was dieing all over the place. This time we felt the pain of Air Support and took a couple of good hits from the Israeli Air Force, meanwhile our Egyptian MiG was no where to be seen. I found the Jordanians much more fun to use this time around, with the handicap of Hen and Chicks removed I was free to maneuver around and actually play the game which makes all the difference.

I think the only mistake they made when redoing the book was not also removing Hen and chicks from the Egyptians. They can make all the excuses they want about play balance, and using it to make them cheap so they get tons of tanks. But the fact is that this rule is not fun for either side (no fun if you can't move, no fun to fight a huge hoard of tanks), so this is a rule that makes the game less fun to play and therefore is bad.

I was quite happy with how things work between Jordan and Israel thou, I got 7 tanks with good armor, and some infantry, and they got 4 tanks with weak armor and 2 with good armor, and better training. So I think this is pretty balanced and some real games can happen. I really liked this period so I will eventually be expanding up my Jordanians to 1500 points, and may get some Israelis as well who knows. I still have to paint the infantry, and then have a second mechanized platoon to do so I could maybe try out that army as well.

I will post another painting report later this week when my painting Blitz is over.

Thanks;
Mike

Painting - Bishop of War

So finished painting my Teutonic Bishop. This guy turned out to be one of my favourites for some strange reason.

Maybe it's the hat. Anyway same basic colors as the rest of the Teutonics, and I also put him on a fireforge horse instead of the metal one he came with. This guy also being from Gripping Beast. I might go back and add a shield, I am conflicted on that one. Some how it doesn't seem right for a bishop to carry around a big giant shield, but I would like to get something that has the Teutonic symbol on there.

You have 2 options with how to use this guy, he can replace your warlord, which makes you loose some attacks but can 2 special SAGA abilities basically, or he can join in addition and act as a mini-warlord for 1 point. I don't think either is really worth it, but I might try out adding him as an extra on Saturday to give it a go. At least I technically have 6 points painted now, although I am still hoping to get another 4 knights done in time for Cold Wars. Would be nice to get another 4 cross bow guys as well but you can't have everything.

The next project is a quick paint of some M113 APCs for my Jordanians. The next day of the Arab-Israeli war campaign has snuck up on my and I need a few more things to make the points. Basically just an infantry platoon, so my plan is to cheat a bit and paint the rides and use some Americans for the infantry as there isn't time for that.


EDIT:

Forgot to add Pledge Status and Colors:

Paints Used:

Games Workshop:
Leadbelcher
Mithril Silver
Black Spray
Khorne Red

Vallejo:
Black
Dark Grey
Natural Grey
Deck Tan
White
Woodgrain
Dark Sand
Chocolate Brown
Japan Uniform WW2
Smoke
Orange Brown
Flat Earth
Desert Yellow
Flat Red

Foundry:
Flesh Shade
Flesh
Light Flesh

Pledge Status 2015:
Bought: 32 (15mm Warrior Monks and Ikko Ikki from Museum Miniatures) 
Painted: 31
Total: -1

Thanks;
Mike

Painting - Teutonic Knight Commander

So yesterday I put the finishing touches on my Teutonic Knight Commander, as previously discussed it's a Gripping Beast guy mounted on a Fireforge horse. The retainer is also from the GB pack, and the banner is from Battle Flag.

I was not real keen on these guys at first, but they have really grown on me, so now I am quite happy with the final result. I didn't have any round renendra bases that were big enough for both guys, the 40mm plastic ones are just big enough from the rider alone and I didn't have any others, so I just out them on a big square one.

I tried putting one of the decals on the chest of the retainer, but the material used for these decals is a bit thicker then normal, which is great for banners, but makes it impossible to get it to lie into those folds. I tried the softener but it was not working at all. Not a big problem thou, it worked fine on the flat part of the bosses helmet.

Next up is the Bishop of War, but I am also hoping to get another 4 mounted knights done to finish off that box of knights before Cold Wars as well.

I am kind of planning to get the Templar Infantry, Men at Arms foot, and Men at Arms mounted sets at Cold Wars to add on, but will see what I am thinking then. I am thinking about doing a smallish Northern Crusades game at Cangames so I would need to get working on some Russians as well. Gripping Beast have some nice looking ones to cover that but time to paint them is short.

Paints Used:

Games Workshop:
Leadbelcher
Mithril Silver
Black Spray

Vallejo:
Black
Dark Grey
Natural Grey
Deck Tan
White
Woodgrain
Dark Sand
Chocolate Brown
Japan Uniform WW2
Smoke
Orange Brown
Flat Earth
Desert Yellow

Foundry:
Flesh Shade
Flesh
Light Flesh

Pledge Status 2015:
Bought: 14 
Painted: 30
Total: +16

Thanks;
Mike

Battle Report - SAGA Crusader Knights vs Normans

So time for another war gaming Wednesday. I just about have enough of my Teutonic Knights painted to play a game of SAGA so I decided that we should try a game so I can get a bit of practise before the tournament at Cold Wars, and see how this army works out. Try to find the best strategies before Game 3 of the tournament this year!

I didn't quite have my warlord finished, but I managed to get him on a horse and a base, will have to finish his retainer and base latter this week. Hoping to get the War bishop done as well. Was a bit short on troops as well so I used some dismounted knights as warriors, and added in a few Warhammer Bretonnian Knights I had painted a few years back in a Templar theme.

Here's the big man being painted

So anyway on to the game, we decided to keep it simple and play the first mission from the Crusades book, which I believe is called Champions of God. Basically just a 6 turn game and who ever has the most Slaughtering Victory points (provided they win by at least 3) is the winner. So on to the game.

So here is the initial set up, We have a ruined fort of some kind on the left, a small stream, and then some forests and a low hill. I decided to spread my forces out quite a bit which turned out to be a mistake, especially I don't have many troops on the right flank. My plan here is to use the foot units to delay and weaken the Normans while I pray to increase my Piety and get some of my abilities more powerful.

Sadly the Norman plan was to attack fast and crush the guys on that side of the board, so they moved up with everything. I brought my bigger unit of 10 warriors and Banner in front of my knights to try and cover a bit and put down some defensive abilities.

The Normans then charged my hill with their Warlord and 1 group of Knights killing half of my troop, and then a second unit of Knights finishing off the rest, so that was not a great plan really. But I have 1 and a quarter points of troops trying to fend of 3 and a Warlord so not an unexpected outcome really know that I think on it. The Crusader Knights have a nice ability that gives 4 bonus defense dice that it seems I relied on a bit to much.

After the ignominy of  the hill my Warlord was left trapped over there with only 4 Knights to defend him, and unwilling to retreat due to the Warlords Pride rule. So decided to try out the ...My Blood ability which would let me activate 3 units at once and give them some extra movement. They will be kind of weak charges with not abilities to give me an advantage but I am hoping to thin out the Knights and save my commander.

First one goes onto the hill of blood, I loose all 4 of my knights but managed to kill 3 so not so bad.

With the second charge my knights plow across the stream and take out all but one of the Normans in the second unit, only loosing 2 in return. So the pressure has been relaxed a bit, but my Warlord now has 2 fatigues and almost no protection, so a bit of a better position but not great. With my third charge I got my Templars on the other side to charge the Norman infantry, I didn't really want to do this, but the 3 moves are not optional and you have to charge like a man or take a fatigue like a coward.

On the Norman turn they are able to load up Dex Aie which really buffs their Warlords ability to kill people and charge my Commander Bishop Ordo and another unit, which has a predictable result. So things and not looking super great for me.

Well at this point my phone died for a bit so a gap in the pictures, but I fought on and tried to turn things around, I killed a few more Norman knights with my crossbow men, and tried to hang on even with just 2 units of men at arms left. The crusader have a great ability to get more SAGA dice, and their attack pool ability is better then most when you get some piety. So I am finding the crossbow men where allot more useful then the Norman equivalent.

I got my camera charged enough for one last picture at the end, and the Bishop charged across the river to kill some Men at Arms along with his foot buddies. But don't worry he is using a club so he won't spill any blood!

We added up the victory points and it was 24-13 or something in that area at least so a pretty fair sized loss for me. But it was fun to get Teutonic guys on the table after so long painting them, and I did enjoy their battle board. Also got to put down the ruins I painted so good times.

It seems that Wargames Wednesday is going on a bit of a hiatus now for 3 weeks as Serge is going on vacation, unless I can find a new victim to fill in. But that is not likely. But I am going to play a game with Duncan next weekend and then will have some games from Cold Wars so you lot will have that to read.

Thanks;
Mike

Painting - Teutonic Knights

Finally finished off my next unit of Teutonic Knights, this time with lances. Took awhile, for some reason mounted units usually lead to procrastinating a bit for me. So here is a shot of those guys:

Happy with hose these guys turned out, the lances look super long, but I think it is more that they have them olding right at the end more so then that the length is to big. But they look cool anyway. 4 More guys in the set. I am short on commanders so I ordered a few characters from the Gripping Beast, they are not nearly as good looking but Fireforge don't make any characters unfortunately. So I have a Knight Commander and War Bishop coming up next. The War BIshop even has stats in the SAGA game which I find is really cool.

Paints Used:

Games Workshop:
Leadbelcher
Mithril Silver
Black Spray

Vallejo:
Black
Dark Grey
Natural Grey
Deck Tan
White
Woodgrain
Dark Sand
Chocolate Brown
Japan Uniform WW2
Smoke
Orange Brown
Flat Earth
Desert Yellow

I also have a couple of Infinity guys painted that I don't think I have posted on here yet. A couple of hackers anyway, I actually hat the look of the second guy, but it has a game effect I wanted for my army.

Finally to update my progress on the pledge:

Pledge Status 2015:
Bought: 14 (Teutonic Characters + More Infinity guys)
Painted: 29
Total: +15

Let me know what you all think.

Thanks;
Mike