Mid War 71 points Desert Rats vs German Pzr's Counterattack

Marder III with wounded on board, last survivors of their unit.

So let's dive in to Game 2, where hopefully I don't botch too many more rules!   As always, Video Battle Report at the end!  So we rolled up Counter-Attack, with me defending.  We used the same lists as Game 1,  and we both used Spearhead liberally, as this mission allows good movement.  Matt Spearheaded everything into No-Man's Land, deployment is below

"Afrika Korps Units ready, Mein Herr!"

88, fresh off the boat in Tripoli

So, 6 weeks ago I finished off my Team Yankee Soviet stuff I had been working on, and since then I have been pretty busy. Went to Arizona for 2 weeks, so what have I been up to?   Painting old DAK units. I had a box of 88s that I bought 5 years ago, Panzer IIIs I had from 2012, and Panzer IVs from the first release of Plastic Soldier Company. With this weekend's Petawawa MW tournament, it was a good time to get cracking and get these guys finally on the table. Pics after the jump

March of Tanks

Getting some stuff done is what 2016 is all about. I purchased a Grex airbrush a few years ago and have not had the opportunity to scratch paint some armor with it yet. I usually take the shortcut of priming my tanks in their base coat color using any number of the pre-mixed spray cans for models. Whether it's the Armor Spray by PSC or Warpainters lineup of great paints, I wanted to paint an entire platoon using just my airbrush.

Just one of the many Panthers on the table getting some work done to it. This one is an older one I had used some of those shortcuts I was talking about. Could I make the others look like this after the models from the rest of the box set were still in pieces? Let's find out......

Nyet This Time!

There's nothing like blowing up Russian tanks on a weekend. This past Sunday, we had a great but quick game of Flames of War. We rolled up 'Hasty Attack', and taking the opportunity to teach a new player the ropes, Patrick and I took my Schwere Panzerjagerkompanie list from 'Fortress Italy' and battled it out against 30 Soviet tanks!!

Painted Panzers

I've had a few tanks lying around and have not been painting very much lately. I decided to break out the airbrush and some Pzr IV/70 tank destroyers that came in one of my German army boxes. We'll look at the tank and how it's represented in FoW.

Weekend Gaming and Painting

Saturday saw a few of the guys get together at my place for a little bit of gaming and a quiet refuge for Dennis to paint his Italians. With lots of food, beer and some video games to pass the time. Weather up here is starting to get colder and the leaves are off the trees, so no more gaming in the workshop until 2015!

Painting?? Nope. I ended up playing a game of 'Fighting Withdrawal' against Andrew instead.

Historicon 2014! Might as well buy new shhh....er.......STUFF!!

Historicon 2014 is upon us! Just a few more weeks until my army will be complete and packed up ready to clear customs. Hope you had a good Canada Day and all of our friends down south, we hope you have a safe and fun July 4th! I've been trying to figure out what to bring to this years tournament. At 1485 points, it's easy to make a list with enough options to make it competitive. As for me, I look forward to just playing some games and making the most out of my second Nationals. I may not play in the I-95 Doubles Flames of War event on Thursday. SO....hopefully that will lead to a few more hours of checking out some of the other games and making the most of the shopping by picking up some more terrain for my home tables.

Now to what I've been working on. I had a list put together and was ready to just pack up models I already owned and painted to take with me to Historicon, but where is the fun in an army you had no hand in painting? When I decided to take a German list, my Panzergrenadiers are not painted by me, and for some reason I feel compelled to try and make my army look good for this one big event. I figured because I played my 82nd Airborne last year for the LW Nats, and my Australians are not a real fun list to play at 1485, I thought about a totally new list from scratch.

Sorry mate, no HE makes me CRAZY against Infantry!!

Below is a picture of just a few of the 15-16 tanks I am currently assembling and painting for this year. The one on the left is simply assembled and has two primer coats of grey, wondering whether or not to leave them that way took a little bit of research. I found that during the 1941-1942 time period, Germany was starting to use different color and camouflage schemes to better hide their armor against the Soviets. This leads me to the tank in the center, it's been painted with Plastic Soldier Company spray paint. In this case, I used the 'Dunkelgelb Yellow', it's a little different than the other color that is popular for this period, which would be DAK brown, or tan if you prefer.

PEW PEW!!

Masking off a few random areas on each tanks leaves some grey underneath once dry and gives a camo effect without the use of an airbrush and cuts down on the chances of imperfect lines if you use a paintbrush. Let's face it, I have a few weeks to get this done and on the table! Still working for a few more weeks before taking a much deserved holiday.
 
The last tank on the right is the one that is 99% complete, all I need to do is add a few markings and numbers. From beginning to end, once the dunkelgelb is dry. I might be looking at 20 minutes a tank. There really is no need to go overboard on these. Armor is simple and should be treated as such, large surface area with very few chances to be creative color scheme wise. I used the following in completing these: Black (Villejo) road wheels, 'Vermin Brown' (Citadel) for the tracks, Gun Metal Grey (Villejo) on the tools, box latches, machine guns and a light-medium grey drybrush once they have been washed with CGR 'Magic Mud'.

With any luck, I'll get them all done!

It looks a little darker up close, the fluorescent lighting in my shop is not the best for final photos. Once the wash goes on, it brings that yellow down to a nice 'sun-faded' look. You can also see that the 'perfect' lines that were masked off now look a little better as well. I think with a slightly feathered look to them, they look a little more realistic. Thanks for reading as always, and look for a short video in the next few days for a breakdown of this entire process.

Italian Campaign Round 1 AAR - FSSF v. Germans

Hello all, thought I'd drop in a quick AAR I had with fellow Dice Devil Diragi today as part of our day long Good Friday Hobby/painting/gaming/bad movie day at CA$H's place.

Since this is the first tier of our campaign we had 750 points to play with and we only had to have 1 of the 'mandatory' combat platoons in our armies. The next tier is when normal lists are required. I'm running my FSSF as I managed to make a list that will help me clear a tonne off my painting queue as this campaign draws on. Note, I am running these out of Dogs and Devils due to not having the new books yet!

"I will read 500 posts, and I will read 500 more.."

500 posts man.  Wow.   What have I been up to?   I did a painting blitz (pun intended) on my DAK, now that we have a MW tournament coming up in Petawawa in April.  5 weeks away <gulp>

Here is some pics of what I am working on:

Brit Paras Air Landing AAR Part 1

Brett and I got together to play a "themed" game, the video explains it all. Sorry for the format, I used my phone, and was not paying attention and holding it the wrong way! Part 2 will be much better I promise!

Part 1:

Paras, Tigers and Fights, Oh My!

This past week has been pretty busy with everyone scrambling to get a list or two painted for an upcoming tournament in Petawawa, Ontario. I had some down time from work, which is a rarity for me and I took it as an opportunity to paint some US Paratroops. I thought when I got into FoW a little over a year ago, I would be staying away from painting and modelling any type of infantry stands. I think it had something to do with not wanting to paint hundreds of individual boots, camo, weapons and get them all based while trying to make them not look like a rush job.

Lead from the front!

There are tons of blogs dedicated to 1944-45 US 101st and 82nd Airborne schemes and techniques, I found a few that looked half decent and managed to find a few color photos as well. After Band of Brothers was released some time ago, interest grew in the history of the 101st and particularly the 506th. After seeing the US, Canadian, and British cemeteries in the area surrounding Normandy in 2007, I had seen the landscape and even Sainte-Mère-Église. Many different men from many different units and elements of the military gave up their lives for history and ultimately the stories of heroism and sacrifice. All of this gives us an opportunity to play Flames of War with the hardships that they endured during WW2. For me, it was part of the reason to take on building a fighting force using the US Para Coy box I had sitting around. I was going to use these as Rangers of the 2nd Ranger Battalion, but decided not too for now. I'll wait until the new books get revamped a bit and I'm excited about the 'Bastogne' books, Devils Charge, Nuts! and the Market Garden lists for late war.

Painted and inked, just waiting a few more details.

Fresh Air and Natural Light!

Basing has always come first for me, I do not take the time to glue/tack them to nails, or sticks and would rather just have them arranged on the bases. I'll be adding a little more grass to these once they're all complete. I like the train ballast as a base with whatever paint and drybrush. Throw on a few tuffs of GW and mix in some GaleForce9 turf to give it more depth. Sometimes when you base first, it makes it a little harder to get right in there to paint, but all worth it in the end once you get used to it and take your time. Unlike tanks, painting figures on bases should not be something you do a week or two before an event unless you know you can crush them out quickly. With a few stands done so far, I have about 1 more boots to paint and taking my time so they turn out they way I want them to.

As promised, I mentioned Tigers!! Well, here they are and I tabled them against Matt Varnish (Dennis) this past Friday in our weekly Friday Night Fights. I like it when there is more than bragging rights on the line, this week it was Arnhem. Complete with a bridge on an angle through one half of the table and some destroyed buildings and fields in the other. 

I was tasked as the defender as we rolled up Cauldron. It started off simple enough with Varnish assaulting early on and his Marders taking out one of my Tigers and after two rounds of shooting. He whiffed on 8 shots missing them all early in the game and I was able to capitalize and assault his infantry, kill his HQ and then destroy and move through his Marders with my remaining Tiger. You can see him in the distance leaving wreckage in his tracks as he moves to find a new target.

Varnish's infantry ready to assault off the bridge!!

Later in the game, I got my reserve Marders in play but they were no match for the Panzer IV platoon he had on the far side of the table. They tried to take cover but were quickly disposed of, as you see in the picture below.The smoke is blocking the view of the other four Panzers lying in wait.

With my Marders burning, my infantry under constant siege at one objective, I was able to get Dennis below half and as I had killed his HQ early on, there was no way for him to check his Company morale. The victory went to me, but was earned only by the skill and gallantry of a single unit of 7.5cm infantry guns. They consist of two guns, one HQ and an observer. They're able to fire bombardments, smoke and have an AT rating of 9!! All this for 65-75 points I think in my MW list. Mix them into one unit of dug in infantry and you have quite a defensive line. I chose to bring them in reserve and deployed my PAK-40's instead in ambush. I figured because they had transports, I could get the 7.5cm's anywhere I needed in a hurry. They were able to hold off a late assault, passed a few 5-up gun shield saves giving me a turn or two to kill some more stands to put Dennis back on his heels, securing me the victory.

FSSF vs Schwere Panzerjagerkompanie; 1500pts LW, No Retreat

Infantry heavy FSSF vs big boy heavy Jagdpanther list.

FSSF
HQ w/ Bazooka
3 Full Strength FSSF w/ Bazooka and Mortar
4 x 105s
4 x 155s
Tiny Pio/HMG platoon
Bofors
FSSF mortars form an 8th platoon with 2iC

Jagdpanthers
HQ Jagd
2 Jagds
Noak Higher Command Panther
3 CT StuGs
3x Nebs
small Gren platoon
Mobile AA Quad

1500pts No Retreat with Germans Attacking with first turn.

Part 1


Part 2...

FSJ vs 3rd ID - 1500pt LW Free For All

Twinlinked vs Pripyat on a Saturday Night Fights.  The videos are a little shaky.  All apologies (I'll try the YouTube stabilize feature and see how that looks). This is the first one I have done, I'll try to do better next time.

Soviet Infantry vs 1. Fallschirmjägerdivision - 1500pts LW No Retreat

Lothlann's Soviet Horde vs Prip's 1. Fallschirmjägerdivision from Cassino

Newly painted FSJ arriving from reserves.

Prip's List
HQ w/ Knackers, Panzershrecks and 2 Mortars
10 Team FSJ w/ Knacker
7 Team FSJ w/ Knacker
10 Team FSPionier with Truck
4 Heer Marder III Ms
2 Pak 40s
3 Nebs

Lothlann's List
HQ
Co. with 2 platoons, Kom
Co. with 2 Platoons
4 Flamethrowers
6 45mm AT
3 Su-152
4 Su-85s
Arty with 4 Zis-3 and 4 122 w/ observer

No Retreat with Soviets on the attack.

Prip's OMG AAR - Finally

So its been two weeks since the 1500pt OMG LW tournament but not only are we having a hard time stopping talking about it but we are also way behind on the relevant posts!

Incoming!  BOOM!  Boom!  Where did the supporting sappers go?

I took a mixed Tankovy Battalion from Hammer and Sickle,

HQ T-34 85 w/ Cupola
Dedov
5 T-34 85s with Cupola
9 T-34 76s
3 IS-2 w/ Tanko
6 Sappers

Pionier vs Strelkovy - LW Hasty Assault at 1500pts

Friday Night Fights is over again for another week and I got enough photos for an actual report!

Diragi's German Pioniers
HQ w/ 2 Fausts / Schreck / 2 HMGs (attached to Pios)
2 Platoons of Pios (Full) w/ goliath, maultier, cmd Faust
King Tiger w/ ROF 3
3 Brummbars
3 N41 Nebs
3 Recce Light Tank (Panzer II L Luchs)

German Deployment.  Nebs, Light Tanks and one pio platoon in Reserves.

Prip's Soviets
HQ w/ sappers
3 platoons of infantry, (2 R/MG, 1 SMG) Kom
2 platoons of infantry, Kom
3 Is-2
3 su-57s
2 45mm AT
4 45 mm AT
2 Flamethrower teams

Gepanzerte Panzergrenadierkompanie Done! Woot!

Part of the reason why I take on painting projects, and I'll go out on a limb to say that the reason why almost everyone takes them on, is because of the incredible sense of accomplishment that comes when you have finished a major milestone in an army's collection.

I have just reached that milestone and finished my 1500pt list for the OMG FoW tournament on

Oct. 16th. So with a full 16 days ahead of schedule I am finished my army and love the way that my Gepanzerte Panzergrendadierkompanie looks. I do have 2 German objective markers to work on but I don't really count them.

So here is how my army composition works:

Really knowing nothing about army composition for FoW or Germans for that fact, I kind of went for something that would feel aggressive and would have a lot of pretty toys to look at. Some troops, some vehicles, tanks and some finesse to the army.

I've loved playtesting the army so far. While sometimes it does feel like it is pretty light (to the point where I consider changing it up for a Lehr list by taking out the Brummbars and a

Panzer IV and replacing them with a Heavy Morter Platoon and some Pak40s for a more static list) it does seem to perform wonderfully.

Getting the camoflage right was a bit of a trick initially. I wasn't really sure how to go about doing to traditional late war German camo scheme for vehicles considering that I didn't have an airbrush, but Dennis had recommended Dirty John's post on WWPD and that changed everything. Thanks John, and Dennis!

It's hard to pick a favourite unit. Right now I think it would be the Panzer IVs, they look totally

awesome, but I love the aggressive nature of the Pumas and they tend to set the tone for my army; busting out of the deployment zone, headed gibbering and slavering for the enemy in a

wild fury (at least in my mind).

So far the Brummbars tend to be either totally incredible or do nothing at all. They are the slow, implacable advance element to my otherwise speedy, bloodthirsty army. My Panzer IVs have a great deal of firepower and the Panzergrenadiers are a very solid component to nearly any army IMHO.

Anyhow, so there we go. All done. Might modify but we'll see how the rest of the playtesting continues.

Stützpunked! (and other finished models...)

Schwerepunked, Stützpunked or what-the-punkt?  Pak40 nests to the rescue!  Made with MDF, pink insulation foam, textured gel, procreate and spare crew.  Magnetized so I can use 38s or 40s...

Three times hidden snipers or easy kills for the opponent?  Will find out Friday....

Close ups, new objective marker, mortars, turret after the break...

Thundercats Ho!

So excited! If only I could field more!

German Half Tracks

I really had to wrestle with getting down to painting today. Knowing that it was one of the last warm days of summer, I wanted to spend my Sunday outside but I was already 2 days behind on my fairly unforgiving painting schedule.

So instead I set up the table out on the front balcony and went to work. I managed to finish off

the rest of my half tracks belonging to the Gepanzerte Panzergrenadiers that I painted up earlier in the week.

I'm not completely happy with how they turned out. The varnishing process ended up highlighting the drybrushing more than I wanted it to and in a perfect world I'd like the camo effect to look more like what Ca$h did in his post, but that would have required an airbrush which I don't have at

the moment. So all told it worked out fine and they'll look decent enough on the table.

I opted for a darker look, painting them the German Armour Dunkleghelb from the FoW paint line and then giving them a decent wash with Gryphonne Sepia from the GW range to highlight the panel lines and bring in some relief on the detail. I then went over some of those lines again with a felt tip pen, I used Germain Feildgray from Vallejo and some Flat Brown for the other camo colour. I enjoyed the red hue to the Vallejo Flat Brown so opted for that instead

of any other kind of brown. I went over the tracks and wheels with black and then highlighted the tracks with Boltgun Metal from GW and then muddied them with a basic brown (Khaki I think). I did the detail work and then drubrushed the entire model with English Uniform to bring up some more detail.

Next week I get to do it all over again as I'll be painting another platoon of Gepanzerte

Panzergrenadiers and the accompanying half tracks.