Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas to all.
I hope everyone following this blog and the occasional reader of my ramblings has a wonderful Christmas.
 

Here's hoping I kept off the naughty list this year.... :-)

Best wishes.

Wargaming in a winter wonderland.

No not the Andrews Sisters - Nor I have been over come with festive merriement.

A good firend of mine donated several months ago a bunch of partially completed trees, knowing what I had planned for Russia, they sat unfinished in the box and I must be honest I was feeling rather guilty, however the recent surge in CoC games gave me the push needed to get these completed.

I have no intention to go for a completely white table, but more partial frosting when mixed in with brown base cloth and a light white matt dusting.

Chain of Command - Russian Armour..... Part 2

4.30pm Sunday and hardly a minute to spare and the Russian Armour is finished...

Perhaps I was being a little ambitous but the basing and under coating completed yesterday evening and left to dry overnight gave me a good solid start this morning, with finer detail and crew being finished around lunchtime, barely time for the varnish and static grass to dry.

This collection of vehicles should give me plenty of support options for chain of command, with the option to "go large" with 3 T34's and an IS2 in support.

 

I have opted for a light winter dusting giving me the option to blend with other Wyverners collections who the majority are based around the Western Front, but this gives me the option to add further winter troops if required.

 Anti - Tank options should I need to go on the defensive.

The scout options for those probe's into German territory.

 Tired of walking then hitch a lift with the transport elements.

13 vehicles in less than a day just hope the fumes from the varnish does not knock me out on the way to the club house.

 

What's the bet they suffer the curse of freshly painted figures on their first outing.

Chain of Command - Russian Armour..... Part 1

Sunday see's my Russian's take to the field over at the Wyvern Wargames club.
After several infantry games, time to roll out the hard stuff - assuming I get them finished in less than 24 Hrs.....

More to Follow....

Spectre Miniatures - Christmas Comes Early......

There seems to have been a steady stream of parcels over recent days, I can only guess the Christmas shopping is well under way, all of which are addressed to people other than me.... 

Then this morning the postie drops a gift through the door that's been worth the wait. 

Spectre Miniatures Kickstarter arrives....

These are a range of ultra-modern 28mm figures that cover both Private Military Contractors – modern day mercenaries, African militia and regular military forces.

I signed up for 9 packs, a mix of contractors and militia.

First impressions are very good, very few cast lines and little flash, the figures themselves are thinner than others on the market, but have more of a traditional African feel to them. 

Great attention to detail has been paid to the weapons which are small compared to the likes of MoFo (C) and TAG (L), but the differences in size will be hardly noticable once painted.

The models come packaged in very neat boxes, packed with wood shavings, a nice touch giving a real professional feel to the whole offer and it did the job of protecting the figures with zero breakages.

The whole Spectre range is littered with real characters, which will add some real diversity to the ever growing Zikanga militia.

Just as I thought I was seeing some light at the end of the tunnel.... Still never mind.

Chain of Command goes East - Far East.

After the recent spate of Chain of Comand games, I thought I would convert my existing collection of US Marines and Japanese to CoC, the good news is that I am only a few figures away from the right level of troops for the various fire teams and sections.

A recent trip to Warfare and the Warlord stand and I am now the proud owner of the two missing junior leaders and Artillery observer, great castings and a really good fit compared to the existing collection from Westwind, Battlehonours and Brigade.

With Chain of Command in mind I also picked up the casaulty pack, which I thought would make excellent shock markers.

As with many projects somewhere in lead mountain I had kept several extra's from a westwind order, which at the time were put into storage as painting the dead and the injured seemed a worthless exercise, however now with Chain of Command they suddenly became important and made it to the summit of lead mountain.

Red dice for the Marines.

Yellow dice for the Japanese.
The circular bases are from the guys at Warbases and the dice frames from Minibits.

There should be more than enough here for typical platoon games and it's utilises some of the extra's that have been languishing in the painting draw for several years.

War on the Eastern Front - Campaign Game 2

Having played out the opening salvo of the Eastern Front Campaign last week, time to up the anti.

I picked up a copy of "At the Sharp End" the Too Fat Lardies Campaign suppliment, this should add a little colour to the games, The setting is Koslin in early 1945.

The Russians have captured Bublitz and after a few days of build up are on the move again, looking to break thin German defences. Following the Ladder Campaign structure and having won the initial Patrol Game, we pushed on to Scenario 2 - "The Probe"

After the narrowest of victories last week, we moved north towards the village of Goldbeck, the Panzer Grenadiers had pulled back but were still strong in number they were sure to be blocking the highway, the most logical of stop gaps before Goldbeck.

Having experienced the amount of fire the Germans can lay down with their MG34's I opted to push through the Orchard on the left flank having managed to secure a Jump off point very close to the German base line.

The Germans once again deployed early occupying the brick built houses over looking the road, but I am confident we can break them having drafted an additional section into my platoon for this operation.

I decide to lead my comrades in person, sending two sections through the wood, killing many of the German defenders and pinning the remainder. Confidence was high.

We pressed on but the Germans were tougher than we first thought, they had entrenchments and were greater in number than our scouts had reported.

I ordered the men back deeper into the orchard, to tend to our wounded, victory had been so close.

With my troops broken and running for cover on the left flank, I saw a chance to still win this encounter and break through the German lines, I sent 3rd section off on wide flanking move.

The Facists can only summon a solitary team to block our path, we can still be victorious.

However luck was not on our side, the Germans rolled 6's and gained two turns they rush troops from the centre and flank my section, MG34's ripped through my men who took to their heels.

My force morale is shattered -3 to the Germans 9.

Defeat...

We fall back towards Bublitz my men's opinion of me is not great (German -2, Russian -3) and my force's morale is now -1 for all future operations, speaking with my commander he is far from happy but has given me a chance to redeem myself in the next encounter (Russian -1, German +2) whilst my German counter part is likely to receive both reinforcements and extra supports if things continue.

I will also have to make do with 6 men fewer... War in the East is tough.