tisdag 17 december 2013

The great Penguin giveaway, part 1

My buddy Laffe is holding a giveaway to celebrate 200 posts on his blog. Go there right away and sign up, there should be something for everyone interested in WW2 at least.
http://figurfanatikern.blogspot.se/2013/12/200th-post-giveaway.html

My other gaming buddy Jocke is busy planning his giveaway, so stay tuned.


fredag 8 november 2013

RtR, first play test

I will start off with a small test, just a few units running at each other to see what happens and get a feel for the system. Note that there is an entire pre-game component where leaders can challenge each other to single combat, give speeches, distribute Dutch courage and such, but I will skip that the first time.
  Here is the starting disposition:
Grishnak, L2 and Bolg, L3 L top, Boromir, L3 and Faramir, L2 bottom.

Turn 1

First card of first turn is Grishnak, the Warg Rider commander. He has 2 points. He spends 1 point activating his unit to move straight ahead. Being cavalry they get 3D6+3 when doing a full move for a total of 15cm, as I am playing in cm rather than inches to match the scale better, and because my desk is small.He ends his turn by drawing Beloved of the Gods from the Fate deck. 

Second card is a L2 Seize the Ring.

3rd card is a L2 Seize the Ring. I promise, I did shuffle the deck thoroughly!

4th card is a L3 Seize the Ring!

5th card is Faramir. He now has access to two StR cards so he picks them up and uses the two Intiiative points to purchase two cards from the Fate deck,Accuracy and Beloved of the Gods. He activates his group of archers and wants them to form a line and fire at the Wargs. I found no specific rule for formation changes so I just played it as 1D6 spent on movement to bring the rear base up in line with the front base. Having moved, they will shoot with a -1, but Faramir plays Accuracy to counter that.
He now has 28 archers shooting longbows at the AC2 Warg Riders. Base To Hit is 2, but the long range shifts one column and I decide that the ruin that is partially blocking the LOS is another shift, so two columns, meaning a To Hit of 4. My trusty TFL dice give me 13 hits. The Warg Riders are Warriors so it's 4-5 to Shock and 6 to kill. 

Three Kills and two Shock. Not too shabby. And yes, that is an official Dicetower Podcast dice tower, best friend of spatially challenged gamers everywhere.

6th card is the Turn Card which I put in in case I wanted to add reinforcements, should not really be in the deck from the start.

7th card is  Bolg, the Orc leader. He grabs the L3 RtR card, buys 3 Fate cards, Accuracy, Rally and Fury, and spends one point activating his Group to move full speed ahead, 3d6.

Bolg and his boys rush forward 17cm.

8th card is Boromir. He spends two points buying two fate cards, Fury and March. He spends his last point activating his group and ordering them forward 2D6. They roll 7.

Last card of the turn is the second L3 StR card.

End of turn. The Warg Riders have 2 Shock but they are still 5 plus Grishnak so no tears.


The situation at the end of turn 1.

Turn 2

1st card is L2 StR.

2nd card is Faramir. He grabs the Ring card and buys two Fate cards, March and Beloved of the Gods, the spends his last point activating his archers. Same again, 28 men, 4+ to hit and 4-5 Shock and 6 to kill. 2 kills, 3 Shock. A bad day to be a Warg!

3rd card is L3 StR

4th card is Bolg. He grabs the Ring card and buys 3 Fage cards, Take Charge, Fear and Rally, before ordering his troops full speed ahead, 11 cm.

At this point in the game, I got some feedback from the author, Jeremy, who reminded me of the five card hand limit for Fate cards. I have decided to simply allow both sides to play the cards they have but not to go beyond five cards from now on.

5th card is L2 StR

6th card is Grishnak. He grabs the StR card, spends 3 points reducing Shock and the last point to activate his troop to move full speed ahead in a charge that would make Lord Cardigan shake his head. A total of eleven impresses no-one...but it does bring him inside Short range for Faramirs archers...

7th card is Boromir. After seeing what the archers did to Grishnak, Boromir feels his flank is secure and orders his men to charge at Bolg. Seven is a pretty weak move for 3D6, but they are closing in.

8th card is the Turn card and I start thinking about sending one side reinforcements.

9th card is L3 StR.

End of turn. Only Grishnak has any Shock, three points in his 3 figure Warg Rider unit so no problem with morale. I realise that I have forgotten to drag Fate cards of both Grishnak and Boromir. Never mind.

Turn 3  


First card is L2 StR.

2nd card is Bolg. He takes the L2 StR card and buys the top Fate card, Carpe Diem. a shot at charging and activates his Group. The run forward using 3D6, 8, just over half of what they need. Bolg plays Fear as the enemy s now within 6cm from him. The human Warriors take 1 Shock. Blog is left with a few points he was saving up for the close combat that never happened, but they are wasted now that no contac was made.

3rd card is L3 StR.

4th card is Boromir. He grabs the StR card and uses it to remove the point of Shock on his Group. He then spends a point activating them, and to make double sure he plays two March! cards. His troops now have 5d6 to move 8 cms! 15 and the lines clash! Boromir chucks in a Fury card as well, giving +1 to hit in the first round of combat.


Bolg counters by playing his Carpe Diem card, allowing him to play three card during the ongoing activation. The first is Fury. Time for combat!
Boromirs side have spears, meaning the first three ranks fight, meaning 42 dice! Add 3 for Bormir and another 2 for his remaining points spent on fervour brings us to 47. The dice are rolled against 4+ to hit for 1-handed weapons against AC3 with a +1 on the roll. 22 his are rolled against Warriors, ie 3-4 to Shock and 5-6 to kill. 8 kills and 6 Shock!

The orcs hit. Same deal, 42 warriors with spears, plus 3 for Bolg but no added points. The humans are AC3 and Bolg has also played a Fury so the roll is against 3+. Seems like that Fervour made all the difference, or maybe the orcs were just unlucky. 4 kills, 9 Shock.

The orcs fall back 6cm. Both sides roll a D20 for leader kills, no problem. Bolg plays a Rally card and reduced Shock to 1. Activation finishes with Boromir drawing Fleet of Foot.

5th card is the turn card, time to seriously think about chucking in some more Orcy stuff.

6th card is L2 StR

7th card is Faramir who draws Accuracy using the StR card and plays it right away along with the Fleet of Foot card. He activtes his group to move forward 2D6 to make sure they are at Short range and shoot at the Warg Riders. They advance 6cm and shoot at 14cm range. 28 dice against 2+ as the range is now Short with no cover. A waste of an Accuracy card as odds can't get bettet than 2+, but shit happens. After rolling 9 1's on the To Hit-roll, they manage 2 kills and 8 Shock. Suddenly Grishnak is commanding 1Warg Rider with 11 points of Shock! I rule that they will simply leave the table never to return.

8th card is Grishnak, but he has left!

9th card is L3 StR.

End of turn, no Shock levels that threaten any units, but the orcs must roll for morale. The roll for the loss of the Warg Riders and I rule that a routed hero counts as killed. Both rolls are 1 so the orcs lose a total of 2 force morale.

End of turn 3.
Situation at the end of turn 3. Grishnak has left, Faramir has advanced and Bormir has pushed Blog backwards.

torsdag 7 november 2013

A day in the desert with the world's littlest war correspondent

A few weeks ago we did a trial run for our upcoming convention game at FlemCon 2013. To amuse my GF who would be spending the entire day working on an essay, I decided to bring Serah, the World's Littlest War Correspondent along and have her report her day.
This was not Serahs first outing, she joined me at work for the charity event National Odd Socks Day of Adventure for Harrys Fund a while back.

Odd socks for Harry



This time we packed a bunch of Long Range Desert Group vehicles and an AA gun instead of odd socks.





Upon arrival, Serah immediately found a new favourite tank, or rather tankette. 


She was also mightily impressed by the plane Jocke had built.

The battle the commenced. The scenario is an attack on an Italian air field by LRDG vehicles intent on hitting hard and fast before vanishing back into the desert. The LRDG attack from the opposite end of the table and blow their way through the gate.

 Faces have been masked to protect the guilty.
 Hitting the gate. The LRDG slam through, blasting the AT gun and guards with MG fire
 A fierce fire fight breaks out near the gate where Italian MG teams knock out a jeep

 
 A fuel truck and a bomber go up in smoke after heavy MG fire

 Second bomber meets the same fate


All in all it was a great day out for both me and Serah. I look forward to running this game at FlemCon in December, as well as playing many other games of Chain of Command in the future. Serah looks forward to joining me again as she really enjoyed the strange looks on the faces of the rest of the gaming group.


torsdag 31 oktober 2013

It's not that kind of doll!

My missus collects dolls. No, not that kind of dolls. Different dolls. This kind of dolls.



Today, her favourite company release a Halloween limited edition doll based on the Jack the Ripper mythology. He makes ME want to start collecting.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9SA5jGVU0K0&feature=youtu.be

And here he is!
http://www.ringdoll.com/product/RingSpecial/img/jack/040.jpg


tisdag 29 oktober 2013

Truly bad-ass giveaway!

Look at this. Just look at it!
It can be yours! No it can't , because it will be mine, but you get the point.


Go to Lokis blog http://napoleonicwargamingadventures.blogspot.co.uk/2013/10/lokis-200-followers-competition.html and follow the instructions and one of us will get this wonderful mini. Better me than you!

måndag 28 oktober 2013

Simo Häyhä by Baker Company, WIP 1

Simo Häyhä, known to the younger generation as The World's Greatest Camper.

He was the subject of the first figure to come out of the Baker Company Winter War Kickstarter and I have started painting him. Here is what you get. Simo himself, a base, a tree stump and some foliage.


Simo primed, tree stump attached and base primed. The plug on the bottom of the tree did not match the hole in the base very well so I just cut it clean off and superglued it.

Block paint and some high-lights applied. Next up, washes.


It's a really nice figure that can be painted to a nice level easily but that will also reward a really good paint job, not that it will get that from me, I have neither the skill nor the time to go all Dallimore on it.

tisdag 15 oktober 2013

A giveaways and some coasters

First one: a bunch of books about WW2. Thanks to my buddy Chris for letting me know.
The giveaway can be found here:
http://www.hittingonadouble1.blogspot.co.uk/2013/10/25000-hits-ww2-books-prize-draw.html
Go there and register you wish, but stay away from lot 3 because that is the one I want!


Also, it was a while back that I bought these but I just had to show them off:

Yes, they are beer coasters,or possibly tea coasters. Noting says His and Hers like a Sherman and a Tiger.

fredag 11 oktober 2013

Ride to Ruin part 2, One small step for Grishnak

I had a little bit of spare time last night. I also had my hobby desk full of Italians in various stages of completion so no space to play around with the RtR minis, instead I decided to start painting the troops for RtR, that way I can get something done for this project each time I sit down.

First out is is Grishnak, the Goblin Wolf/Warg rider commander. Only block paint and a quick dry-brush so far, washes, touch-up and basing still to come.



måndag 7 oktober 2013

Ride To Ruin!

For a while I have been reading a new set of rules from the Lard Approved stable called Ride To Ruin. Lard Approved means rules that are either based on the Lardy principles or written by someone in the Lard community with the assistance of the rest of the community in general and TooFatLardies as a company in particular.
These rules, written by Jeremy Short, are intended to be the next step up in scale from Dux Britanniarum and to also include magic, monsters and other fantasy aspects of battle. As I am already using Dux to play battles in Middle Earth, it was a perfect fit for me.

I intend to use my 28mm GW LOTR figures, mixed with the likes of Gripping Beast and Warlord, to play these games, but for play testing I need small figures that take up less room and can be quickly taken out and put away. Enter The Battle of Five Armies!



I've had the boxed set laying around for years but never got around to painting any of it. Today, that is a good thing. I can simply pick troops out of the box, stick them on bases and go, mixing and matching as needed.

I intend to start play testing with two very small armies just to get a feel for how movement and combat works and I will report here.
 Would YOU like to know more? As the rules are still in playtest version, you need to contact Jeremy via the Yahoo group for Ride To Ruin. http://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/rtrplaytest/info

torsdag 3 oktober 2013

Tanks very much, Patrice!

This is yet another reason why I love war gaming:the people!

A while ago I took part in a group build on The Guild where I built a wrecked King Tiger. It turned out like this.

I am quite happy with it and would like to do more broken down tanks, but it pains me to pay full price for a model and then build it as broken. Suddenly I get an email from a gaming buddy. A friend of his, Patrice, has three Panthers that he has no further use for and they are mine at postage cost.
A few emails, 6 Euros and a week later, this drops in:

Suddenly, I have one for summer, one for winter and one for "sunk-halfway-in-a-Russian-swamp" at about a third of the cost of one new model.
A big thank you to all involved!

Next stretch goal:AA-trucks

We are five days from the end of the Winter War kickstarter and just £2000 away from the goal I have been most looking forward to, the truck with AA gun. For those who do not know, this is what it looks like.


And as you can tell from the pictures, we need a bunch of them!



These pictures are from the book "Striderna i Suomussalmi" (The fighting at Suomussalmi), written by Hjalmar Siilasvou who commanded the Finnish forces during the battle. It is published by Mendéns in Stockholm and printed in Helsinki in 1940. If anyone holds the rights to these pictures, let me know and I'll remove them.

And finally, the man himself, Hjalmar Siilasvou.


måndag 30 september 2013

Last week of the Winter War kickstarter








We are entering the last week of the Baker Company Winter War Kickstarter. 
When I signed up, this is what the basic deals got you. 


I pledged for the Border Assault set, meaning 1 Finnish and 1 Soviet platoon from the above charts for £120. Sounded like a fair deal at less the £2 a pop for metal minis and I was sure that there would be at least some stretch goals.

Painted Finns

Painted Soviets

Three weeks later, things have changed to say the least. We have unlocked a shed-load of stretch-goals. Compare the below list with the original list for an idea of how much stuff my £120 will get me now!





And there is more to come. Yesterday we unlocked Field Kitchens, but Gav has not had time to adjust the image I am using above. After that, a twin-turret T-26 and then a AA truck.
It is already one heck of a bargain and it will most likely get even better so stop wondering and jump onboard!






onsdag 25 september 2013

A nice giveaway from O'Leary and Hatt

It's giveaway time again.
Anne O'Leary is giving away bundles of nice stuff on her blog. The extra cool bit is that she is doing it in cooperation with scif-fi writer Patrick Hatt who is giving away one of his books. No word on if you can have it signed if you win, you'll just have to ask.

In Annes own words, to make it proper and offical:
"This give away is being sponsored in part by author Patrick Hatt. You can find Mr. Hatt's Amazon Writers Page at http://www.amazon.com/Pat-Hatt/e/B00AGFMYVC."

måndag 16 september 2013

SAS Jeep WIP1 and a lovely Kickstarter

So, I have finished the Ford LRDG truck from Milicast, time for something new, and by new I mean of course a different type of LRDG vehicle!
I bought two SAS guys along with the Ford truck, but as they are designed for the Milicast SAS jeep, they don't fit in the truck and I had to use other crew. Yet again, friend Daniel to the rescue:an Academy Jeep from him will work just fine as an LRDG/SAS jeep. There really should be a few modifications made to the jeep for desert service such as cutting off some bars in the engine grille, but I can't be arsed to go all Dremel on it for the sake of correctness, it is a playing piece not a scale model.


Here is the jeep being built with the crew being tested. It turns out that the steering wheel does not fit with the driver in place and I had to build my own. I cut away the steering column and drilled a hole that will take a regular pin, pics of this to follow.


The jeep itself is finished, note the added condensator can or whatever it is called on the front, the spare wheel mounted on the side and the field-improvised Lewis gun mount for the passenger. Next I need to figure out if I mount the .50 cal I have planned as a fixed part or if I put it on a removable board like I have done with the load on the other vehicles. Making it a removable piece will make the vehicle more versatile, make the gun mount less prone to breakage and make fixing it if it breaks easier. I certainly lean that way.

Finally, I just have to mention the new Winter War in 28mm Kickstarter that Gav of Baker Company is running right now.
If, like me, you play CoC, you can get everything you could ever need for BOTH sides for £120, or go halfsies with friend and put in £60 each and get one side each.


måndag 9 september 2013

Another giveaway link

Yet another giveaway. People out there are so nice. I need to do one myself, I just need to find an excuse.
Todays event is over at The Blog With No Name and has some very nice stuff indeed.
Me, I'm in it for the powder or the brushes. Or maybe the Leven stuff.

onsdag 4 september 2013

First few Perry Desert Rats minis

The Perry Desert Rats plastic set was given to me by friend and fellow gamer Laffe some before the summer. I have now painted two of the figures and have half a dozen more assembled and waiting. This really is a lovely set, crisp detail, easy assembly and human proportions, an all too rare thing in 28mm.

All the figures in the set come with the regular steel helmet, but there are also a number of alternate heads provided, some wearing the iconic smagh of the LRDG and some wearing the commando cold weather cap.




 My very first figure. 

My second figure from this set got the the wool cap meaning he will work fine as LRDG as they wore most anything, or can be used as a Commando for a raid game. No points for guessing who we plan to use as target for the coming raid games. Clue:his first name was Erwin.





And here they are together.

I have a third figure on the paint bench right now with a head from the Warlord Celts set. It looks a little too large, but that might get better with painting, we'll see.

måndag 2 september 2013

Swedes in Congo- especially for Sapper Joe

Fellow blogger Sapper Joe is interested in the Congo conflict of the early 60's and as I have easy access to some stuff at the Army Museum in Stockholm, I offered to get him some pictures.
First an album containing some pictures of the two armoured cars parked outside. As I understand it neither of them served in Congo. The camouflaged one is a latter, improved version and the white one is simply one that was painted in UN colours for the Swedish Congo Veteran Association jubilee. However, they will give a very good idea of how the vehicles look. I have added a Coke can for size reference in many of the pictures of the white car. No captions since all the info I have is on the signs and they are in both English ad Swedish.
PK-bil

Second, an album with pics from the temporary display about the history of Swedish UN involvement. Here I have added some captions to explain where needed. Most pics are taken through the display case glass and are of varying quality. I have also taken a number of pics of weapons used by Swedish forces at the time, though I don't know if all were deployed in Congo.
Uniforms and weapons

I will keep digging around for Swedish sources and publish what useful information I can on the blog.


tisdag 27 augusti 2013

Gustavus Adolphus

I spent the day at the Army Museum. First set of pictures are for Owen who is a Gustav II Adolf fanboy.
http://s75.photobucket.com/user/Nissvik/library/Gustavus%20Adolphus?sort=3&page=1
There should be a short blurb about most of the pictures. There is also a short film clip:

Film

tisdag 6 augusti 2013

Another give-away, and a very nice one!

Mike is getting old. To help himself feel better, he has decided to wave some CoC around and not even his own! Go there, follow the instructions and you, too, could have a shiny new CoC come end of August!

http://troubleatthemill.blogspot.se/2013/08/mikes-50th-birthday-prize-draw.html

You can of course buy something other than Chain of Command if you win the prize, there is lots of good stuff from the Lardies.

tisdag 30 juli 2013

The CoC is out!

It is finally here!
Ok, so it's not actually here, it won't be delivered until 21 August, but since the files have now been handed to the printer Rich feels confident in taking our money for pre-orders.
The TFL website is here, the direct link to the bundle deal, the Complete CoC which includes 28mm Jump Off points, is here. If you play in another scale and have no need of those fancy resin Jump Off markers, go here. If you prefer to make your own markers all the way, go for the rules here.
If you just want the rules in electronic format, there will be a choice of plain PDF or hyperlinked PDF for tablets, but that option is not up on the web site yet as the PDFs are still being worked on.

The cover

The inside