Saturday 17 February 2024

February Game Night

 Hi all,

Another month goes by with little movement on my miniature painting. I don't have "Bronze Green" so feel I can't make progress on my British armour. The US, Soviet and German armour can all be finished, I just can't be bothered. My British infantry are languishing unpainted, even though I have the colours for them. I feel like I have played games with people and need to figure out the next step for playing Battlegroup with another person again. I love this game. 

I also got distracted with painting of another kind. My lounge was in desperate need of a paint. So we spent a few evenings sorting that out...which took hobby time away.


Anyhow, I went to the February meet up of the game group and it was great. I messaged ahead to try and make sure I could play Cascadia and someone said they had it and would play it with me. I won, although kept forgetting to take photos of my setup. 

Another game was Quacks of Quedlinburg. It was a hilarious game of making potions, trying not to let them explode on me. I lost soundly, but it was really fun. A great theme, and it actually felt thematic.




Saturday 20 January 2024

January Game Night

 Game Night.

I met two nice guys in the same line of work. We played three games together. The first game was Nidavellir - a fantasy dwarf themed game where you are going around taverns hiring up mercenary dwarves. The theme was kind of cool but to be honest it had very little impact on the game. There was no big battle at the end, there was no impending doom that we were scrabbling to prepare against. Each round we just blind bid on dwarf cards in order to maximise scoring potential. I managed to win by about 30 points and was pretty chuffed as I feel like I haven't won a boardgame in quite a while. I was pleased with my victory. The guys said I was doing pretty well and felt I was going to run away with it, even though I was concerned. There is a mechanic where you can trade in one of your coins to get a higher value coin and thus guarantee yourself first pick of the three dwarves on offer. I was consistently lagging behind in this, but managed to get two good heroes who helped, and then I got three heroes who acted like the train stations on Monopoly where having more of them multiply their value significantly. 

In conclusion - fun game. Dwarf theme was cool, but not super relevant. I had a really good time with it though. Downside - setup was kind of a PITA, and the rules seemed really complex at first.


Two other games were played - my traditional game of Citadels where I lost again; then we played Forbidden Island. I had played Forbidden Desert years ago, so it was nice to revisit this subset of games. We ended up not finishing but were pretty much two turns away from winning by the skin of our teeth but the night was ending and everyone around us was packing away. 

Neither game made me immediately want to go out and buy it, unlike Cascadia from last month (still not purchased, but I keep coming back to it). Cascadia has remained in my head and I am doing the boardgame equivalent of the tattoo 5 year test with it. If you still want the tattoo after five years then get it - with boardgames I am giving it a few months. I don't really buy them and think I can probably get a copy over at UK Games Expo probably...

I didn't win the raffle, but was going to take the Citadel Age of Sigmar painting set if I had won.

The guy I played with last month won a second time in a row. That guy is lucky. 

Here is to February - that is in halfterm so I can see my leaving during a film night in order to get there. 

I had to park up the road it was so rammed.

Monday 15 January 2024

Christmas Haul - The ground sloggers have arrived!

 I have been anxiously awaiting the arrival of the following purchases:

1x late war German infantry (new casts)

1x 1944 British infantry (new casts)

1x 1944 British infantry support weapons (new casts)

1x US infantry (new casts)

1x Soviet infantry (new casts)

a few Achilles TDs, GMC trucks, M20 car, Whites scout car, KV1s and a KV2. 

This was to fill a few holes in terms of vehicles, and having transport for command units etc. 


The quality and poses of all of the infantry are top notch. They really are gorgeous. Some flash, but not much. They are also easy to clip off from the sprues. Now, having begun the process of attaching British figures to bases for painting - I immediately regret this decision. I should have painted them on the strips and clipped them off for basing. Oh well. It has been a few years since I have really painted any H&R infantry en masse. 


I also had the following situation - the British infantry (and all other nations) are in strips of 5. The infantry pack came with 10 strips. There are no indentifiable Bren guns on these strips, whereas in the old US infantry packs there is definitely a BAR armed figure. I panicked! How was I going to properly equip my infantry sections? I have soviet infantry who are armed with generic looking small guns which I am happy to fudge into rifles. But in reality I want the Bren guns to be featured. Then I opened the support weapons pack and there are a few teams that I thought were sniper teams...but maybe the scope is actually a top feeding magazine? So I decided that these are my Bren teams and that will be that.

I also have one large mortar, a few 2" mortars, six PIAT teams, some men who look like they are throwing grenades? There is a strip of men lying down with binoculars - one of whom I have already enlisted as a sniper spotter. Flame throwers, mine sweepers, and a strip of figures holding long, thin explosives perhaps? Bangalores? I have honestly no idea what they are meant to be. 

I wish there were some command strip thrown in. I will remember this for my next order. As it stands I can make things work with infantry stands and hoping I can remember what stand is what when on the table.  



Friday 29 December 2023

Christmas Haul - British armour and support. German transport.

 I recieved a large lot of British armour and other support vehicles for Christmas this year. I also got some Chaffee tanks, some Opel Blitzes, Sdkfz 250s, an Sdkfz 222 and a few Kubelwagen. The idea was to get my already existing German infantry more mobile - they can now be Panzergrenadiers or just infantry in trucks. The trucks can also count as supply columns for my Tiger II. The 222 is specifically for recon for Battle of the Bulge. Chaffees are just because they look nice, but also for some more US light tank options. 

The idea behind the British vehicles was to go with the infantry I was hoping to get from my secret santa. Turns out they bought me some Lego instead. That will be fun to build, but now I need some British infantry. I will have to put an order in for some more I guess. 




You can see a couple of Sherman Firelies here, and then three each of Churchills and Comets. Plus a Challenger for funsies. I also got a Humber and a Staghound for recon. The Quad is to go with the 25Pdr that I haven't put together yet. The other vehicle, I can't remember what it is called is to tow things.


Here I have three Cromwells, a 95mm armed Centaur, a 17pdr and two 6pdrs. You can also see unbased Kubelwagens and Jeeps. I intend to base some of those with infantry in order to make some command stands. 

All of these are Heroics and Ros. I am largely impressed by the sculpts. The 17pdr looks absolutely beastly. 

Tuesday 19 December 2023

GZG Not-Xenomorphs

 I bought a few of these back in 2016 with my first batches of 6mm sci fi figures. I based a few up and then never did anything with them because I didn't like how they looked. I ended up buying different Xenos. However, now I have finally gotten around to paint them up, in order to get them off my pile of unfinished projects, they look pretty good. 


They have an interesting look to them. I think the remind me more of the original from Alien, rather than the more quadropedal aliens from Aliens. I will see if I can base any on a smaller base, but these are fine for now. The main question is will I ever actually use them? I think I have done just the one bug hunt game in my entire 6mm sci fi side of the hobby (since 2016).

Sunday 17 December 2023

December Game Night

 Two days ago I managed to get to games night, I also went in November. It was nice to get out twice in a row and solidify some relationships. On Friday night I arrived just late enough to have to wait for another person to arrive - who ended up being the last guy to get there. It was a night of two player games - which means I couldn't play any of the games I brought. Classic.

I was handed Cartographers to entertain myself until someone arrived. Part way through reading the rules the other guy arrived and taught me how to play. This game was a blast. I have been curious about it for a while now, after spotting it in the raffle. It has gone straight on the to-buy list. It is fun, light, and creative. I love creating maps, and while this is less about creating a real map, and feels a bit like Tetris at times, I enjoyed it emensely. I think I can play this with the children.


Next up was Set - it was nice to get a game of that in with someone who could play as quickly I can, not just the children.

Then it was Cascadia. I have been curious about this game for a while also, since it came up on an Actualol video. Pictures are constantly being posted on the BGG Facebook page asking about scoring. I enjoy tile-placing games as it is, and apparently I love wildlife themed games (see Wingspan). There was just something satisfying about trying to place pairs of bears, and making sure my eagles/hawks were placed appropriately far apart from each other. This is on my to-buy list also. I think I will start putting some cash aside from now until UK Games Expo. I hope to pick them up in the Bring and Buy if possible.



I also ended up playing Citadels again. This was nice. It always feels good to get one of my own games played...even if I lose every time.


This really fired me up to play more games. With the Christmas break here I intend to get playing. 

Wednesday 22 November 2023

AI Art

 I thought it would be fun to experiment with AI art. I signed up to Gencraft.com and get 10 free prompts each day. They are pretty cool. I thought it would be fun to create images to set the mood for battle reports. Well, words didn't really work to get WW2 specific art created. Have a look at these where I asked for WW2 Germans, Volksgrenadier, Battle of the Bulge, Panzers:


This looks like a T34 with a Chaffee turret all protected by Schürzen. Classic. 


US infantry with made up guns? Wonky guns! 


These look more Russian than German. Not accurate though. 


Then I went for a Cyberpunk style picture of a rag tag crew armed to the teeth. I like this one most.