MDF Farm - JB MDF Products - a review of sorts

 I spent a few days looking for sensible, cost effective options to quickly get some 20mm terrain onto the table ASAP. Across Ebay I was finding options where the cheapest looked to be about £10 for a single ruined building - 3D printed. In tact buildings were a little more. Then I came across this. A four building farm for £15 and a whole load or ruins for £11 all from 2mm MDF. I have put the farm together so far and wanted to give some initial thoughts. 

1. These buildings are meant to be thatched, but the thatching material looks better as hedges I think, and the roofs have a tiled pattern so I will be leaving them as they are. 

2. They came with access to online instructions - these basically said what parts go with which building. The instructions were fine, I didn't really use them mutch.

3. The windows came with an outer frame and an inner pattern. Both pretty cool and I reckon you could get away without the inner pattern.

Part 1: Walls. I put each building together in two pieces. I thought it would be easier to pop those two corner parts together once dry. I also put one or 2 of the corner strengtheners into each corner. The corner strengtheners were game changers. Very good idea. What I should have done is plan further ahead and attach the other corner strengtheners to the unconnected sides so I could just slot the two pieces together. As it stood, I was impatient and ended up not waiting that long. A few buildings fell apart a little. but in the end I had them all fully connected. 

You can just about see the single story farmhouse at the back. You can also see how the wall is bent outwards from the lintel on the door frame. That was annoying, but it was a natural weak point. I can't remember if I broke it or if it broke in transit. 

When the farmouse was fully glued together the damage is not noticeable and has absolutely no impact on the building. With a door in the frame it is even stronger. Phew. 

The rooves look good. There are also more doors than I need. Saving those for later.

Part 2: Windows and Doors. The doors and windows look pretty good to be honest. I am pleased with them. On my previous scratch built building the windows and doors were the thing that really let it down. A guy at the club scratch builds buildings but 3D prints windows and doors. Clever.

Step 3: The roof. The roof sections glue onto triangular sections that slot onto the top of the side walls. They fit pretty well. Any of mine that don't fit well are down to my poor gluing skills or lack of patience. I honestly don't care that they sit a bit strangely. I am just chuffed with the price and simplicity of these. It will be nice to have some 20mm buildings that look better than the awful creations I have knocking around.

I am unsure how I will do the doors on the below building. Closed or open. Closed means I don't have to paint it... Open might look better. 

Overall I am pleased with these buildings. I would recommend picking them up on Ebay for sure. I hope the guy comes out with more 20mm buildings. He has quite a lot available for 15 mm and 28mm. 

I have also picked up a large sheet of MDF from the free offcuts bin at B&Q that is perfect to make some walls. These will be simple walls, man height and lower that probably can stand on their own with no base. 

Chain of Command pick-up game: Brits vs German infantry

Last week I witnessed the sad destruction of some Panzer Grenadiere caught in a ditch of death. This week the campaign was not on so I asked for a pick-up game so I can concentrate on learning the rules. There were three of us. I also got to use my own Germans. My miniatures don't see a huge amount of use (e.g. none basically) so it was really cool seeing them on the table. 

Let's be real: I got my butt kicked. I am pretty sure I made a few tactical errors from the offset, but by the end of the night I was just trying things out to try and get to grips with the rules.

Now I am well aware that Chain of Command 2.0 is being released in "Spring 2025" and find it ironic that I waited until now to finally take the plunge. I recall it being 2013 as I was slowly getting back into miniature painting and wargaming (even though I didn't actually play a wargame for a long time) and I heard about Chain of Command. I was shopping around for a rule set to get into. Battlegroup, Bolt Action, Chain of Command. I also had Crossfire from ages ago, and still haven't played those rules. I eventually settled on Bolt Action and played a couple of games of it but decided it was too gamey. Then I went for Battlegroup and bought the rules, then did not play them for six years as I committed to 6mm Sci Fi. Chain of Command I rejected because it was 28mm, 6x4 table, and had less emphasis on vehicles. 

Discovering a local wargames club really helped, and having sat through some games I am convinced that these rules are pretty fun. The guys here also try not to play it in a too gamey way - so while leaders technically have a leadership radius, if you can't see a squad, you can't command them according to the guys here.

One aspect of the game that is different/interesting/infuriating is the Patrol Move phase. Games can be lost in this part. We both managed to get three half decent jump off points. Working out where these go has convinced me to buy one of those Army Painter laser pointers that lays down a red straight line along the board, showing line of sight. 

We sort of made up a scenario where the objective was to get one unit off the enemy side of the table. Alex concentrated on flooding the village and was going to storm through the woods to get to the edge. I was going to flank around the village with two squads and try to gun it across the fields. 

This is the squad I was using to lead the charge around the village. They performed well at first. I actualyl managed to roll 3 double phases in a row which was cool, but led to my downfall.

I lined a squad up in the woods, far enough in to not be visable but they also couldn't shoot out of them. I was just going to camp them there. I should have probably put them at the edge of the woods to fire out or maybe should have tried to advance to the village. 

The brits spent most of the time laying down smoke over my squad in the woods. I had them on overwatch for most of the game.

I loaded my final squad into the Hanomag and ran it up the road and across the field to try and support my other squad. But I also used my three double phases in a row to charge my squad up to try and take over the enemy drop point. I took no pictures of it but they didn't move enough and ended up JUST short of the drop point, leaving them exposed in the open while Alex deployed a squad behind the hedge. I had a CoC point so used it to interrupt him firing on me by charging into close combat and prompty had my entire squad wiped out. The game was over at that point basically. 

Soon after his PIAT team caused my Hanomag to have 2 shock, my senior leader was wounded and Alex then charged into the woods with two squads. I did a lot of damage to his squads and caused them to retreat, but my entire right flank was very vulnerable and Alex was about to run his Universal Carrier up the road and off the table for the win. 

I learnt a lot about the rules with this play through. I enjoyed it immensely. I actually liked not having tanks on the table. I am pretty happy with the idea that I actually have quite a lot of what I actually need to play this game. I will wait until the new version comes out and try to get a bundle with Chain of Command dice and the tactical/overwatch markers, maybe even shock trackers. 

The buildings are all scratch built by Andy. I cannot even begin to say how cool they are. He inspired me to look into how to make my own. 

Chain of Command - Diving in

Image taken from https://www.brigadegames.com/assets/images/rules/wr-tflcoc.jpg

 Last night I went to the club. I almost didn't go as the guy I played Memoir 44 with last time hadn't responded to my late in the day message asking if he was coming. I arrived late and almost walked off as I couldn't see an obviously WW2 table. But then I saw it, 7 guys around a table. They asked if I wanted to be Poles or Germans. I explained I have a German name so they kicked me to the other side with the Germans. 

It was Chain of Command again. I was not annoyed, but I was still undecided whether to jump into those rules or not. I had a PDF of them that I procured last year but I had not read it. I struggled to keep up a little with the command dice, but decided I would buy the book, only to find that Too Fat Lardies are working to release Chain of Command 2.0 this Spring and have taken the first book down from the website. Luckily I have the PDF.

I had walked into the second game of a short campaign - Polish airborne in Market Garden defending against a hasty attack by the SS. The crazy thing is that the campaign is that it takes place over the space of a few hours - probably shorter than it takes to play one of the games!! A platoon of Poles were going to occupy these buildings. The Germans were tasked with advancing over open, boggy ground. Ground overlooked by three buildings. It was going to be a bloodbath probably. The brown straight bits represent drainage ditches and provide light cover. The hedges provide light cover and do not block LOS.

We thought it would be good to put the half tracks on first and use their MGs to keep the defenders pinned while we tried to advance the two remaining infantry sections up the drainage ditch. The polish sniper in the attic of a building shot at one half track, causing the crew to bail and abandon it. Just ridiculous. Throughout the course of the game the remaining half track would keep pretty steady fire on the defenders though.

In the end, this is how far we advanced. The squads just got massacred in the ditch and our command points(??) slowly deteriorated until it hit 0 and we lost the game. We inflicted 7 casualties on the Poles and killed one junior officer, all of which were replaced immediately in the campaign. I think they will start the next game with one casualty and a slightly worse new junior officer. The Germans start with a brand new platoon but have no other reserves. 

So here we are. I decided to print out a copy of the PDF and bind it up for now. I will be reading it over Easter. My understanding is that the 2.0 rules are largely the same. I am committing. I am joining my fellow club members.