Late August at the club 2013 Old school game woo hoo

This is a quick training game to introduce a couple of new gamers into WFB run by one of the more knowledgeable if somewhat younger member of the club. It seemed to go off well as not too many points but much damage done to all and sundry.

The obligatory Magic The Gathering Game. Won as usual by Charles….. Hmm full time job, lots of disposable income and therefore plenty of juicy rare cards. Not that I am complaining hehehe.

A three way Malifaux game, got to give this another go but not get suckered into to many of the new miniatures.

Malifaux game number 2.

40 K game with one of the club regulars and his girlfriend. Now how did he wangle that! Another female wargamer, not so mythical after all. These are Mark’s Iron Warriors and very nice they are too.

His ladies Necrons, well on the way to being a formidable force.

The camera was closer to the Iron Warriors than the Necrons really wanted to be.

Seven Years War using Charles Grant’s “The Wargame” Bounce Sticks and Canister templates were in evidence, for those in the know. These are the Austrian and Russian combined force.

These are some of the French, enemies of said Austrians.

A closer view of the Austrians, I believe made by Eureka miniatures, nice and very reminiscent of Tony Barton’s figures. I think Mike Broadbent sculpted these.

Wings of Glory; and the Balloon popped on the second shot from the rockets.

I have to do a few more painting tutorials to get the lads adding a bit of colour to the plastic.

Finally,

An overview of the Church Hall with 7 card gamers, 13 miniature gamers and me, gluing together Perry War of the Roses plastic miniatures in a corner watching the SYW game, oh and taking dodgy photos at random.

Hopefully a few work in progress photos of Impetus Successors 15mm, DBA/FOG Crusaders 15mm and maybe some Dux Britanarium late Romans/Romano British 28mm. Yes I know, gaming butterfly. A friend of mine actually says "You Junky!" and don't I know it.

 

 

 

 

Friday August 09 2013 Lots of minis tonight

We had a great turn up tonight with quite a few returning to the fold and playing miniatures rather than roleplay games, mind you a small group chatted all night about starting up either a Vampire the Masquerade or a Star Wars SAGA game. Pity not the Studio Tomahawks SAGA I prefer. Oh well.

Inspired by our Man O War game our resident Chaos dwarf decided to build his own fleet rather than pay the exorbitant prices on evil bay.

Wings of Glory WWII with a Battle of the Bismarck Sea refight. I joined in later to see the Aussie and US aircraft snot all the ships in short order and even take down one of the Japanese fighters. I really enjoyed to AI Japanese planes using a solo rules mechanism from the Wings of Glory Aerodrome. Good Stuff.

AI driven (flown) planes.

A couple of lads attempting to paint in poor light, I had a quick chat and demonstrated a drybrush technique and blow me away they did a great job on a Necron lord.

MTG

 

Some of the lads teaching others how to play 40K in a quick and dirty skirmish, this is what clubs are all about, all of us helping each other.

Malifaux

I had no idea that the Malifaux minis were coming out in plastic, must investigate, no no must hold back, but they look so shiny……………………well they do, in a grey plastic sort of way.

Orc civil war,                       ummm the orcs won!

Near the end of the Bismarck Sea fight, lots of sinking ships and Japanese fighters wondering what just happened.

Late July 2013

Well July was sort of eventful; I missed one of the games nights wondering off to see David Attenborough in Canberra. Got nothing to do with gaming but was a great night never the less.

We had one of the club lads around for a game with one of my sons during the holidays so that was rather nice. Space wolves won but only just.

End of July meeting saw my first game of Man O War. An old GW ship vs ship game. Fun was had as the Skaven typically blew themselves up and the Brettonians shot all apart. Definitely going to play this more often but wow the second hand stuff is so expensive. Ouch.

 

Another club member wants to do Chaos Dwarves as a fleet but this is all he has, thankfully he is good at scratch builds so it will cost him a lot less.

The MTG lads at it again, it seems that playing this game does something to your looks when a camera is pointed in your direction. Quite a few more were playing too just the image was awful.

Space Hulk what a good game.

Just for something different played at home. A game of Battlegroup Overlord. I really like these rules but my mock up solo attempt, at home, on a mini board meant I had to alter the scale to centimetres not inches but to be honest it worked good enough for me. Now do I bring it to the club or not? Hmmm Your thoughts honest readers………………..

 

 

 

 

WinterCon Canberra July 2013

I could only make a single day this year to run around and look at the games. I thought there would be no demo/participation games as none were advertised. Fortunately there was and a happy few hours were spent playing someone else's game.

A great WWI game was being played but I was more keen to look elsewhere and sadly I did not get the chance to get a photo.

First was a great Aztec vs Conquistadors game that lasted 2 hours, run by a serious gentleman named Fred. My opponent was Peter, I have seen him around but never had the chance to chat. Well Cortez was unable to beat Montezuma (me), yet great slaughter was had as the Spanish horse ran down all in front of them.

An overview of the whole table.

 

Note the cavalry happily moving themselves into the rear only to reform and run me down again. Also note the dreaded Tlaxcala ally Frogs and Mousemen (from Eureka miniatures) these actually caused way more damage than I thought they would.

I do play 40K and love to see well painted minis this necron flyer was rather nice.

 Great eldar flyers and bikes

 

This was really really good when up close and personal. The pattern was made with a Bunnings mesh. You may find it hard to see the pattern but even at a distance the colours were fabulous. The whole army was painted in a similar way.

Flames of War table. The guys doing FOW ran both Firestorm Market Garden and Firestorm Bagration. All the tables looked great and the ability to run both campaigns over a weekend is such a good idea. I really have to have a go at this one day.

My other participation game was Infinty, run by Brian and Nim. As the club moves toward more skirmish games this one really appeals to me. The miniatures are quite superb the game plays fast and the other advantage is that it wont cost the earth to get into it. Free rules download and 10 minis a side should cost less than $100.00. I can use all the club terrain to keep prices down too.

Haqislam force for Infinity, you have to have seen the painting up close to really appreciate what the guys that ran the demo put into their forces. This really adds to the quality of participation games.

X-wing sweeping the world by storm. Wow does this play like Wings of War/Glory!

 

I do like to play in the odd convention competition but also appreciate the efforts of those that run the demo games. The thing that holds me back playing more of them at conventions is that butterfly in me, I am too easily distracted into starting something new.

 

Was Wintercon worth going to? You bet.

 

Enough traders, 8 or so to spend more on the lead plastic pile.

Games to play.

Plastic and metal miniatures painted to a standard that belongs on a shelf but are instead on the table.

 

 

Why should you go, well there are demo games, FOW campaign, Bolt Action comp, 40K comp, DBMM comp, Warmachine/Hordes comp, you could even shoot Nerf guns and watch the real time roleplaying gamers swing large rubber swords at one another. Please take the time to go to the next convention near you it is worth it even if you are just looking. My thoughts are, don't look, play.

end of june meeting

Well we missed our big night and day apocalypse game as our venue the church hall was vandalised. A lot of the lads and lasses were disappointed none more so than the church community itself . Yet at the end of the month we were back.

My game, Wings of Glory with the chaps. A new scenario by Barry that sent 3 eindeckers against a Brit recce plane and its 3 escorts. Well our target as the Hun was the recce plane. We shot at it again and again yet it took its photos of the German build up in the town and flew off.

Notice the clouds, they added a nice dimension and Barry introduced a simplified altitude system that helped us think a little more tactically.

Well this is my eindecker with 13 damage, I only had 11. Barry caused the 6 when he flew into me taking 0 in return. The rest of our flight was equally successful. Yep all of us shot down with not a single Brit plane removed from the sky.

40K game with the Marines just, ever so just, knocking off the Tyranids.

Chaos Dwarves 1 Vs Ogres 0 another close game.

Roleplaying lads, Pathfinder System I think?

The game from today, at home. 2500points Space wolves vs Chaos marine and Imperial allies.

Wolves win, woo hoo.

Malifaux with the lads

We had a Saturday to ourselves and decided that the afternoon would be better spent playing a game we all wanted to have a go at. It is nice being taught a game by your own sons and luckily they are good teachers. A nice three way (Malifaux seems better as a two way game not with three)  A Marcus Crew, me, a Hoffman crew (no. two son) and a Ramos crew (no. one son who taught us both). 4 hours later, I lost no surprise there and no. two son won well done on his 2nd game. So onto the images.

 

the minis in the centre are markers

 

My Marcus Crew, purchased 2nd hand and prepainted at a decent standard and a great price. Not often the lead pile grows and gets to feel fake grass under their bases so early in their life.

Ramos' nasty walker thing against Hoffman and minion. Hoffman 1 Ramos 0.

My Rattlespike thing against two gunslingers with 2 nurses and an infinity mini as poison markers. snake won!

Fantastic painting by No. 2 son on his Hoffman and minion.

 

Watcher and Gunslinger by No. 2 son again.

 

I forgot to get No. 1 sons minis photographed so that must happen next game.

 

Well my thoughts. I really liked the game but feel that like all games it is who you play with that makes it all the better. I would like to give the a run in a 1 on 1 game.

 

Coming up will be our big Night day game session so 40K and Fantasy on a larger scale. No not 54mm but apocalypse styled games.

 

PSC Halftracks Work In Progress

Just a quick post to show the 5 M5 halftracks in the undercoat stage. Note two are M5A1s these are command vehicles so I can tell on the games table. They don't seem to be any different in most rule sets. Also if you wander around enough on the net you will find images of both the bumper styled front end and a large winch version. Seems the winch version happens later in the war rather than Normandy period, but then this is still probably my ignorance rather than fact. This will allow me do use them as Normandy and Operation Garden halftracks.

What I really like is the mass of baggage on the sprue. The halftracks should look rather good with the baggage. I look forward to the Cromwell tanks due soon.

Why not to build kits at 3.00am

A night not sleeping, the smell of Revel Cement beckons. I had 5 M5 Halftracks from The Plastic Soldier Company (PSC) to build. PSC helped to produce Battlegroup Overlord, my new obsession, which along with the nifty little Battlegroup Rulebook would rekindle my desire to game WWII. I had placed an preorder for the Rules and Army book along with the halftracks but unfortunately the halftracks were lost in transit. PSC very kindly sent another box as a replacement. Very Very nice people that run this company. Please support them. So how did I go with the build. Check for your self with the image below.

Now for those of you not familiar with the halftrack (including me), the track has the larger drive wheel at the front just behind the door. Not as I have it in this image. Also the front bumper/winch apparatus points down. Thus I label myself dopyijut. All this only occurred to me when I put the other four up against it and guess what most had one or the other of the above issues!!!!! Clever. So the moral of the story is do not build halftracks at 3.00am not matter how much that glue calls to you.

After reviewing both the M3 and M5 halftracks online and doing a double take I carefully ripped off the offending bits and glued them back on.

Soon you will see the work in progress shots.