JB MDF Farm - mostly painted

After putting the farm together it sat on the top of my Billy bookcase for a couple of weeks. This weekend I primed it and then put a lot of paint onto the buildings. I am pretty happy with the result to be honest. I would actually be happy popping this onto the table as is to be fair. 

To aid this, currently I am popping into B&Q every week to check their "free wood and offcuts" box to see whether they have any hardboard. I want the hardboard to use as a loosely okay cobblestone-esque section of the table. I want to be able to put the buildings on top of it. I found one to pay for: £8 for a big piece. £12 for a piece double the size but I would need to store it. I want to be efficient with costs but also have limited space for storing large sheets of wood. Bonus - I did find a section of MDF that is a good thickness for walls and is actually the perfect size to just cut into strips to make a variety of both man-height obstacles, and low obstacles for a little light cover. 

To paint these I took Vallejo Red Brown (I use it for leather) and watered it down then let it flow over the roof. You can see where I watered it down too much and too little.

The walls are simply a white heavy mix of white and a little black from generic craft paints from The Works. Doors are either Vallejo Beige brown, or Citadel Staken green. Windows are that same green. The black parts are just black. The door knobs are just dots of paint. 

The gaps between the roof and the wall is starting to bother me a little, but hopefully won't matter once on a table. I like the almost cartoony nature of the door - but this isn't 6mm so once the bullets start flying and my 20mm Brits are taking cover, I might get annoyed by it. Then I will give it a wash!

I still can't decide what to do with the doors on the end of the barn. Glue them open or closed. I will probably go with closed. 

I am pretty happy with this set of buildings though. Looking forward to putting the ruins together. I will have to break out my cat litter to make rubble. 

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. 

Holiday Shenanigans - Terraforming Mars

My brother and his family came over as part of our Christmas celebrations. That mean there were a bunch of kids unter 10 at the house and they needed structure. It gave me a chance to bust out my WotC Star Wars Miniatures. They covered the table with them and played with them making shooty noises. One of my favourite memories of visiting my grandad was getting his old airfix cowboys and native american figures out and play with them. 

After that the eldest couple wanted to play with my WW2 miniatures. They don't get a lot of action to be honest and I was glad to get them out. I made up some rules on the hoof and they enjoyed it. The rules were a mash up of Bolt Action (or what little I could remember of them from 10 years ago) and some vague dice mechanics. It encouraged me to perhaps put together some rules that are a little crunchier than my other attempts. 

My brother and his wife then came back over tonight to play my favourite game - Terraforming Mars. I was completely enthrawled. I love this game so much. It was my fifth play of this game and it was my best attempt yet. I have never won. But I managed to get very close this time round. 

( 

I am the yellow. I smashed it by dominating the map, but my brother had some insane victory point generation machines, while his wife has basically solved the game. They have played it around 150 times each, many of those times were against each other. 

Activities Day 2024 - WW2 homebrew rules.

 Well, it is official. My simple to read and understand, homebrew rules are dreadful. I will have to revisit them ready for next year. They provided a quick game, but it ended up boiling down to one German shooting it out with one Brit, with the German being the last man standing. The whole thing was kind of lame and the rules made no sense. We adapted them as we played. 

I want some kind of objective system in place I think. I feel like I want morale. I also think I want to have it divided into fire teams or something. 

I also forgot to bring my roads. I will have to look for them. Most of my 20mm terrain is boxed away, hidden though. 

My rules reward pouring fire onto one individual figure or gun team. New round, any hit markers are removed so you start again. I will see what I can come up with. Maybe you remove one hit marker at the end of the round. Also, NCOs/officers have literally no impact on the game other than having an SMG which has more firing dice at close range.

Target in cover? Remove one firing die from the firer. That was pretty okay. No impact on saving rolls though. Part way through the game we decided that if you are caught in the open then you have one saving die removed, that started people dying quicker and made us hug cover more. 

I forgot to bring my MG34 team who were already set up. That was kind of lame. The rules with MG teams meant they were hard to work with. I will rework them.

The last man standing. A pyrrhic German victory...

In reality I will put these rules away, then get them out in a year's time and forget every change we made!

Chain of Command - US infantry vs Panzergrenadieren

Last night at the club (I LOVE that I can say that now) we played a pick-up game of Chain of Command. A US platoon vs a Panzergrenadier platoon. I was on the Panzergrenadier side. It was a meeting engagement where there weren't really any objectives other than to break the enemy. 

I am unfamiliar with these rules. I have seen about them and have heard good things, but because it looked like they were marketed at 28mm I didn't really bother. I neither want to collect that scale nor play in it and was unsure that if I ever found a club whether they would go for 20mm. As it stands they play a bit of every scale in loads of different rules. I might have to invest in some more rulesets...something I never thought I would do. 

I don't know what to think of these rules. I need to read them first. I think the scale is just below what I want. Two games and no vehicles so far, but even when we were chosing our support the options were only an Sdkfz 250 with MG team level of vehicle. No tanks. The US player brought no vehicles whatsoever. I would rather have a few tanks and an AT gun. Hence why I like Battlegroup so much. 

There is this initial movement phase where you move these tokens around the table, they must remain within 12' of eachother and as soon as they go within 12' of an enemy token they get locked in place. Then once all are locked down, you triangulate where the jump off points will be. Then and only then do you start bringing units on the table, but that all depends on the command dice rolls. You roll 5 and each number means something else. It is a fascinating mechanic and one I struggle to comprehend how the guys at Two Fat Lardies even came up with it. 

I think I like the rules. It makes for an interesting battle. But we do spend a lot of time checking with the rules. The QRS was like 4 pages long! FRONT AND BACK! I will probably end up buying the rules and having a peruse. 

The way the jump off points ended up we had one behind this bocage and intended to deploy and run up to the barn. Unfortunately the US had a jump off point behind the barn and got there first. We made a decision to not deploy anything there until the US squad was in the barn, then we would land a flamethrower team in the field and blast the barn. They would have no cover and we had 12 attack dice. We knew he would be exposed but thought it would be interesting. As it happened the rolls were dreadful and we had 4/12 dice hit. The US then succeeded the 4 saving rolls. No casualties, no shock. 

Luckily we also deployed a squad who had 21 attack dice. They messed the US team up, and the flamethrower team had another two attempts. We managed to wipe out the fire team in the building and kill the junior officer. In the whole game that was the only unit that got wiped out. There were no other US casualties. They had a lot of shock on this flank though. Our squad stayed behind the bocage just pouring fire into the barn and the rest of the team who were behind that low wall next to it. 

On the other flank, we deployed a full squad in the hope that they could rush up and take the US jump off point to help break their morale. We advanced under a lot of cover, dodging mortar shots. The game ended with the squad here, pretty much unable to move. They were firing into the building behind the high walls just at the top left of the photo. The US player deployed their final squad right in the middle to cover that area. We debated jumping out into the open and taking out the jump off point but decided against it. We had a squad in the middle also who we tried to run up the road to hit the rear of that large US squad in this picture, but the rolls were dreadful. 

We lost a couple of men from this squad. Our senior leader on the long rectangle base was rounded but came back into action. 

The game ended when we ran out of time. Our morale had dropped from 8 to 5. The US had dropped from 9 to 6. They were better off there. But in terms of position on the table, we had two full squads who were about to start flanking around the barn to get behind the remaining US forces. We called it a marginal German victory. The US team said that if it were a campaign game they would have started withdrawing a little while ago. 

Playing Flying Lead - Brits vs Wehrmacht

 So for our final game of his visit, Alexander and I wanted to get out the 20mm stuff. Table space isn't great, so this led us down the route of Flying Lead. A squad each, a tank each, and a ton of terrain.

My battle mat was awful. I mean, I like it loads, but it does not agree with my Cromwell's tracks. It was like velcro. When we started the game, I remembered how much fun I find the activation and measurement systems. But...that was where the fun ended.

Advancing and taking pot-shots was fine. My Cromwell fired on the Panzer IV, and destroyed it. However, this whole system of tank vs tank combat was dreadful. Like there were tables that seemed to have no meaning. There were steps that seemed confusing, then actually weren't even necessary. Together we had to read the rules through a few times before we got it. And in the end it was just a case of the dice rolls having already finished the combat. Wasted reading.

Here are some of my Brits. I miss playing with them. I think this game, and getting all of my 20mm toys out to show Alexander has inspired me to search out a new set of low figure count WW2 rules. A squad of infantry vs a squad...but fun. We had no actual objectives in this game, which made it just a slug fest, which was annoying.

The Cromwell got Panzerschrecked. The Brits conceded after a game that was far too long for what it was. We should have just played a third game of Battlegroup.

Any suggestions of low figure count, small table size WW2 wargame rules are welcome. I will, however begin painting up my 20mm stuff more.

The trouble with washing. (StuGs part 4)

Today the sun is out. It has been out all week, but today I am allowing myself a day of no work. No marking, no lesson planning, no essay preparation. Nothing. I even decided to bust out my paints and make some progress on the StuGs.

I dusted off my German Camo Brown and got to work, however, after a while I decided I would take the plunge and wash one of them. I didn't want to pin-wash, because efforts in that regard have been dismally disappointing. I just thought, I would paint the entire StuG with my Citadel "Weird named Oil" wash. I am not sure what to make of my results.

Something about it just seems off. It doesn't look, to me, like the wash has really pooled around the details. There seem to be large swathes of dried darkness. I will grant that it looks grubby. I just don't know what I was expecting. Maybe it is fine, and I am just over-thinking it. 

What do you guys think?

StuGs Part 3.

I started work on these just after Salute 2014. They have been looking like this for almost a year now, but with my lack of modelling and time, I haven't shown how they look. I plan, over the Easter holidays, to devote a little time to doing some painting. During this time the StuGs might get some extra camouflage and dirt. I will also be priming a bunch of Reaper Minis so I can have some small projects to get on with in any down time I may find.  

Operation build a village part 4.

So this is what the house looks like so far. I painted the windows, which need some work. I added a cross frame made from tile separators. The walls have been dry brushed. But progress has long since stopped.

Flying Lead game 2.

Finding mself with some spare time again today, I thought I would take Flying Lead for another spin. I also remembered that I had acquired a Woodland Scenics grass mat this summer (house mate was moving to America and couldn't take it with him), so thought I would see if it fit over my table. It was a perfect fit, and is a noticable improvement from my big green felt sheet.

German force:

NCO with five rifle armed grenadiers.

Corpral with MG-42 team.

2 man Panzerschreck team.

British force:

NCO with four riflemen.

Corpral with Bren team.

Cromwell (medium WW2 tank).

The German objective was to hold the junction. Their original plan was to set up in the ruined house with the MG-42 coverint from the corner of the field. The British were probing the front lines to see what they could find.

The British managed to advance quickly up the field towards the ruined building.

After two turns each the British were at the farmhouse, while the Germans were making a risky move running across the lane. Their hope was to get into cover behind the hedge to provide a crossfire into the house.

Unfortunately they didn't activate very well (even though this game I remembered that their NCO gives them +1 to their quality roll) and the British put them under fire causing an immediate casualty and forcing one of them back behind the hedge.

He still had a shot at the British, but didn't hit.

Unseen by the British, the Panzerschreck team managed to move into position to try and take a shot at the Cromwell. The Germans couldn't afford to let the Cromwell live with its HE capabilities. It could ruin their day very quickly.

One successful shot later, and the Cromwell was just a pile of junk. At least something went the 

German's way. 

With  fire being exchanged by both sides across the lane, the scene was becoming a blood bath. The MG-42 was doing a good job of clearing the house, but the Bren team and the survivors in the house were pouring fire down on the Germans in the road.

So effective was the MG-42, that the NCO retreated back into better cover, leaving behind a good portion of his squad. Brave fellows.

However, the Bren team effectively silenced the rest of the grenadiers. With one shaken survivor, they were not going to be much help to anyone, especially no that he needed to roll 4 or higher to rally himself, which seems an impossible feat to these Germans.

The Panzerschreck team gets ready to lay down fire on the others. I don't know what to do with the guy armed with the Panzerschreck though. Can I use him as a rifleman? That is a question for the yahoo group.

The MG-42 team decided that without the squad covering their flank, they would be served better on the other side of the road. This proves a good decision when the Bren team rushes across the other road but their corpral gets caught in the open.

In this poor shot, you see the German final positions. The MG team can cover the house and road. The Panzerschreck team protects their flank.

In the final move of the engagement these Germans pick off another rifleman. Considering their positions, and the British losses, the NCO calls a retreat. This junction will have to remain in German hands for the time being.

This game was much better than the last one. I am enjoying these rules and am seriously considering getting some modern forces to play a Counter Strike: Globabl Offensive type engagement.

First game of Flying Lead.

I picked up the ruleset "Flying Lead" a while back, and finally got around to putting together a little game for myself. With my limited time, and very limited space, I was looking for something that could satisfy my gaming need without taking over the entire house for an evening. Tonight I was able to take over the table for 90 minutes and smash out a game (including set up time). The game did not last long, at all.

The burning Panzer IV was the objective. The German squad was supposed to set up a perimeter around the tank and look for survivors. They set up on the left with the plan of running up the open field to the road junction, then fan out.

The British were tasked with investigating the pillar of smoke. They intended to set up along the hedgerow on either side of the road.

The British managed to successfully advance up to the hedgerow with the bren team ready to dive across the road to try and cover the field from the left flank.

The German squad barely managed to advance on their first turn. Most of them were Q4, and it really seems to make a difference. The Q3 Brits seemed to get a lot more successful activations.

That being said, on the second British turn, only the bren team managed to activate, so they jumped the hedgerow and stormed across the road, getting ready to flank.

The Germans advance inexorably across the field. Will they get caught in the open?

Yes, they will. Two plucky Tommies have approached the burning tank, and one of them takes an aimed shot at the MG-42  gunner, taking him out.

Again, the German advance stalls. It just wasn't going to be their day.

Caught in a crossfire, the Germans start dropping like flies. Their NCO did, however, manage to shake a Tommy. I think this might have been the only shot they got off the entire game.

More failed activations and a couple of bursts from the bren team put an end to the German mission. The couple of men left standing retreated to call in reinforcements.

This wasn't the most interesting game in the world. The rules felt really simple, but deep enough to force me to think about my tactics.We will see what happens next time they come up against eachother.