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.

I missed the last night but got a game in over the holidays

Sadly no report from the last games night I wasn't there and the camera I loaned out had dodgy batteries.

Instead for your consumption was my first game of FOW3. During the holidays I was lucky to meet up with an old friend and one of his newer opponents. I have had FOW3 since it came out but the club gamers that play Flames of War have not been coming for quite some time so World War Two has had a back seat except for a test run introduction to the club some time back,

I played on a beautifully buit table (made by Richard) with some rather nice prepainted buildings. If any one knows who made them please leave a comment as I would like to get some my slef and Richard can't remember who made them.

I played a 1500point German Grenadier force with Artillery and Marders in support.
Matt played Russian Strelkovy and well steam rollered me. Not since CanCon 3-4 years ago had I lost in FOW so badly. Nothing like lots and lots of infantry and 10 Matilda 2s Ouch.

Before the battle

You can see my Germans throught he centre, Russian hords to the right and 10 Matilda2s and 4 Su76s to the left. Just hold out I thought, use the artillery and the Marders to smash the armour.

 

Bit dark I know but you can see the useless artillery (only becasue of my poor placement). Mind you the Marders did no better, so many 1s rolled argh!

I concede when the horde eats me. Oh well fun was had by all. It was great seeing only slight changes with the 3.0 rules and well it is always good to play someone new. Thanks Matt and Cheers Richard. Matt deserved to win and well as they were Richards Germans I put it down to this not my lousy generalship.

Just the place to bury my honourable dead, the buildings on the board were just fantastic. Any idea who?

 

Early April meeting 2013

Not much time to blog as holidays took over and a trip to the barrier reef and catching up with family and friends ensured that games remained firmly in second place.

 

We seem to have become a defacto Friday night magic centre, to be honest this is rather good as at least it grabs a few of the more gently members of society into the games.

A couple of games of Malefaux were had.

 

Wings of War or Wings of Glory take your pick. A good game with a nice bomber scenario that led to it being shot down I believe.

I got to play Spear and Shield in 15mm. An older set of Australia produced rules (yay) playing 15mm War of the Roses. No real victor as it was really to get our heads back into using the rules and teaching me the basics.

It was similar but different to WRG 6^th and not really like any other set at the moments. The game had a nice old school charm about it but I still have not found my perfect set. Resilience maybe close, Hail Caesar for bigger games (lots of people), DBA hmm still a favourite but I would really like to give Impetus a go. FOG seems to have fallen way out of favour and no one, absolutely no one plays WAB or any of the Clones, pity as many of the lads play WFB.

I’ll miss a couple of games nights but the lads might take photos for me. Game on.

endofmarch2013

Yep another month has come and gone and another decent roll out. Huge numbers of kids playing MTG or Magic the Gathering, seems we have become the defacto Friday Night Magic centre. This is a good thing and better if I can convince them to get into minatures.

So on with the games.
Malifaux was off again with a nice little 3 way battle.  A minor victory to my son, yay!

 

 



Game 2 with Barry and Chris playing a 40K sisters of battle vs space marines (Ultramaarines). Barry's sisters win again but a very close call.

Well I had a chance to fight against one of our best painters. Brendan has a real talent and his Space Wolves are some of the niceset I have seen outside of the Games Workshop competetions. He does do commision work for people. One day, when I win the lottery, I will employ him on a permanent basis to get my toys onto the table. Sadly his Wolves died in droves to my old style Dark Angels successor force.

What is nice is when you get family members into your hobbies, be they girlfriends or cousins or if you are really lucky your own sons, hehehe.

Next time we plan on reviving 15mm historicals using a set of Rules Written in the 80s-90s called Spear and Shield. I wait with baited breath.

Friday the 8th of March 2013

Unusually we had a fairly quite night. Around 10 lads playing Magic The Gathering outside in the cool night air, Barry and I played Wings of Glory, and a couple of lads played a quick 1500point Warhammer Fantasy game.

Barry's efforts to assist my Hun aircraft in gaining a well deserved victory!

Yep a mid air collision. One plane collected 0 damage the other 10! Shortly there after I shot his Ace to the ground and then his rookie pilot decided to collide with me, needless to say my plane was quickly sent spiralling to the ground in flames. But my last aircraft the float plane in the picture remained in the air, to score a well deserved victory. Please note the mat. A shot from google earth of an island to the north of Australia and its small airfield not in the photo. The image was downloaded at the highest resolution taken to officeworks and printed on a very large piece of high weight paper. $30.00 later and you have a really cool bit of coast to fly your float planes on. Thanks to Karl in Qld for this mat!

Hott

Got a game in at home with the lads. HOTT, yep Hordes of the Things, 15mm DBA fantasy. I messed up a little using measuring sticks with the wrong movement on them. It still worked and as per usual when rekinddling a game from the depths of the vault I lost. Quite, I might like to add, convincingly even when number 2 son rolled aweful movment pips/dice. Made a few mistakes in the rules as we went along as though we have all played DBA we have had very few games of HOTT. Actually this was a really nice way to spend an afternoon.

The set up, Combined Orc army at 48 points run by the lads. Vampire fueled undead army by yours truly.

2 Behmoths facing off against the orc riders and general hero, a giant spider and non other than Thrud the Barbarian as my big beasts! Please note that the 15mm Ralpartha wolf riders started life as 25mm models. Ditto thrud the Barbarian. How things have grown.

My loses at the end of the game, both generals, my knights and the odd skelington or 3. Yep I rolled lower than the number of lost elements when the general fell and game over. I think I killed off 4 wolf riders and an enemy behmoth and that was about it. Note the Here There Be Dragon Rules, never played 'em! But they looked good with the models on top.

Late Feb meeting

Big night but I did not get around for the usual array of photos. Thus only a couple to grace the page.

A big 40 K game, necrons vs 2 marine and a Tau force. Using the old rules still as only the lads know how to play them as many of us oldies don't have the new rules yet. Necrons lost but destroyed a lot of the enemies forces. The ability to ally is not new but it is nice when you only have 10 models or 500 points or so and would like a game. You can join with others!

Ahh space hulk! I got to play in this one.

 I played the original way back when but alas had not had the chance to use the shiny new version, manily because I did not buy it and it rarely arrives at the club to use. We had a new chap turn up and as he has not really gamed much before but has 40K models we roped him into a game using the Space Hulk set another playerbrought. This would be just the thing to convert him. Sadly new chum lost, and I won. Now I know that this is not how one gains new bodies for the club and yet by the end of the game he was happy to leave with a smile on his face even after losing and so we hope to see him next time.

I do feel that these are some of the nicest models in quality that GW have produced and I really feel miffed that I did not have the cash to buy it at the time. I see it on fleaBay but at $300 a pop I am unlikely to purchase.

On the paint bench atm.......................
The last of a FOG late Roman 15mm army 1 more unit of Auxillia
A smattering of Swiss and Burgundians to bring old Big Battle DBA armies up to FOG levels,again 15mm.
DBA War of the Roses, you guessed it 15mm.
I must move back into 28mm soon, eye strain.......15mm............argh


Oh look shiny new toys 6mm SYW...................hmmm

Sorry no Photos

Well games day on Saturday was a little quite. 6 lads turned up for an enthusiastic fantasy role play. I set the tables but no miniatures to be seen. Ho hum. That being said I have a soft spot for fantasy roleplay, cutting my teeth on Rolemaster during the 80s and 90s. I still play Pathfinder with my lads and a couple of their mates, good game and with the DandD heritage it still feels like a good old fantasy hack and slash.

Mind you with a small turn out I was able to get some painting done. 16 X 15mm Late Roman Legionaires 8 X 15mm Archers for the Romans 6 X 15mm WOR Knights. Ah the joy of it all.

KOW

Kings of War

Well I got involved with the Kickstarter and now have the rules, stacks of unpainted miniatures and a strong desire to get some of my celts out to smash some high elves hmmmmmmm? Yep the joys of Kings of War. My sonhas played it a couple of times but I have not as of yet. So this was my first outing.

Great game, no I am not saying this because of any link to the game or the cash I have spent. It really is a great game. I lost (no surprise there) but as the game of 1500 points unfolded the units did what I thought they should, you did not have to take miniatures off the units, it plays fast and furious, magic does not overpower the game, or shooting etc etc. Even big units of knights are not unstoppable. The basing of the celts did not matter too much, they were one miniature too big across but as you play in units and there is meant to be a 1 inch gap between units it all worked rather well.

 

Small troop sized units evaporate fast unless you get nice flank attacks and the ability to use humans, using any humans was a real bonus. I can see me even thinking about using this for Historical games too, a la Neldoreth and His Hours of Wolves website. Mind you the cancon games of Hail Caesar may put paid to this idea.

 

Thanks Mantic keep it up!