New Year Old Ideas

When I had finished my Airborne Americans for Historicon this past year, I had full intention of getting some more games in with them to finish out 2013. Playing with more of an 'infantry' based list allows you to try more things in both defensive and attacking roles. I learned a lot more about the game and my abilities to come up with tactics, deployments, strengths and shortcomings of my 82nd w/ Guards. The biggest thing being talked about at tournaments in 2013 has still been 'Sitzkrieg', which is still an issue for some. I've always been of the opinion, you can not win as an attacker, unless you do EXACTLY that. Sitting back and using artillery or aircraft to win a game is not going to happen, and sitting around until turn six waiting to lose is not an option either. Look at it like you have already lost unless you do something about it!

In November, a few of us went up to Petawawa for a Late War tournament. My goal was to come back and have a writeup of my games and post some pics, but the holidays were fast approaching and having some renos of my own to do, I simply did not have the time. Though I did take some pics of the games I played. Using the new 1650 point limit that has come down from Battlefront, my list was fairly balanced.

I will likely work a little more on this list after I decide what else to paint this coming year. I only have two resolutions I want to concentrate on in 2014. The first one is to assemble and paint an armored list, something like Canadians, heavy armored Brit squadrons or maybe even a German Panther Company. We've talked about an all out 'tanks only' list tournament. I'll have more on this when the time comes, for now here are some of the pics from the Nov. 17th tournament that was hosted by Perkins' Hobby's. With the temperature dipping down to nearly -40*C with the wind this week, stay inside, play some CoD:Ghosts and do some painting! Talk to you soon.

Sherman roadblock crushed by Tigers!

All aboard!!! Next stop, El Alamein!

Captured for victory!

All the best in 2014!!

 

Warmachine games on FnF

This past Friday saw our group get together for our FNF - Friday Night Fights. "RoyalFalcon" and myself brought our Warmachine and got 2 games in. The first was only 15pts, allowing Royal to try his Farrow out and get a feel for them before we moved up to 25pts. I ran Cygnar. Here is the report on the first game:




The second game was at 25pts and saw Royal's Farrow (Minions) against my Mercs - and I got to try Ashlynn out for the first time:


We called the game at the end due to time(it was approaching midnight) and it was going to be cat and mouse for a while. Overall we learned a lot about Command Checks and terror, and it was a fun, bloody game.

Cheers,

Ca$h

Worth a read....Flames of War- Seven Things That Went Wrong With Version 3 - My thoughts.

Interesting read - posted today on House of Paincakes :

Flames of War- Seven Things That Went Wrong With Version 3

http://www.houseofpaincakes.com/2013/11/flames-of-war-seven-things-that-went.html

I recommend any FoW player should read it through.

This article got me thinking. This may be why I only want to run scenarios or historical based games these days.......we were talking about getting something specific going over the winter at our Friday night games. I am enjoying Warmachine immensely right now, and I don't want to stop play FoW, but tournaments hold 0 appeal to me know. I kind of feel like its a "been there, done that" kind of thing. Not all tournaments in general, just FoW to be honest.

I have always been more interested in campaign/league play. I think some of the appeal to Warmachine for me now is the way Privateer Press runs leagues every quarter, along with regular "Journeyman Leagues" for new players, or people wanting to start a new faction. This is something Battlefront and Flames of War, arguably, is better suited to. Their infantry/tank aces ideas were awesome, if not fully fleshed out. But alas....

Our group, while still mainly a FoW group, has always seemed driven by the next event - a tournament. This is not a "bad" thing. We all know the motivation that comes with having to get models built and painted in time for an event. This coupled with wanting to "test" lists leads to many games getting arranged and played - these are all great things. The rut that this can lead to (speaking about myself here) is always pushing for the next event means one of two options: 1) Take the same lists/army - one that I know works, and I can expect to place well with or 2) Take the new "hotness" that is stronger than option 1, and may make option 1 obsolete. Talk about a choice....
I am not some power creep mad competitive type (at least I don't think I am) but I like to put a good fight, not get rolled over. Flames of War, since version 3, has some clear issues with power creep, specifically in Late War (the most popular time frame, where most events take place). Late War also has most of the gear and models people want to paint and play. Hence the issues mentioned in the article posted above. 

Do I have the answers? No, I have but a few ideas, and they all stem from the mindset of league/campaign player. I think Flames of War really shines when everyone is playing out of the same area - the same setting, locale, lists, and "Front". The game just works better. But it isn't that easy - there is no guarantee that everyone wants to play armies from the books for a specific theater of war.....so it makes it tricky to build a campaign all will want to play in. We were actually discussing this very thing this past Friday, so Dice Devils may be kicking off something soon....

I am also playing more Warmachine, and other games, on a regular basis. I see this as a positive, as it expands my gaming and I am meeting other gamers that are in the area. Infinity is also a solid game that deserves more of my time. All this to say, expect this site to start showing coverage of different games going forward.

Cheers,

Ca$h

MOAR Warmachine!

Man I miss this game....

So I am doing something about it. I just ordered in and received :

Alexia Ciannor and the Risen - Mercenary unit

A sweet addition to my fledgling Mercenary army. She can raise fallen warriors to join the ranks, and it adds some cool, creepy flavour to my Mercs. From BattleCollege: "Alexia is essentially a mini warcaster with the risen as her "focus". She can sacrifice a risen to pawn off damage as well as boost attacks and spells. She can also bring living models back as part of her army of undead. She is fearless and the risen are undead so there is no fear of abominations or terrors." How cool is that?!?!!

I am also looking to start Menoth. Having bought, painted, and played the Khador, Cygnar, Legion and now Merc sets, I have a hunch the "BURN THEM ALL!" mentality and synergistic play style of Menoth is something I will enjoy. I also really want to run "jack heavy" and Menoth is the faction to do that with. So I am taking the plunge on yet another faction!

I plan to to keep going with the Mercs as my second Warmachine army, and stick to Legion for when I want to play with Fury. I hope to track my progress on these pages.

Last night I hosted a "let's get back to play this game some more" night and a few of the lads showed up. Joyous Oblivion with his Cygnar, and "TheRoyalFalcon" with his Khador. Pripyat also swung by to check out the action (he has yet to get into the game) and I snapped a couple pics :

It was a close fought game, with both sides loosing all their infantry and leaving just Irusk and his Demolisher chasing Captain Kara Sloan around with only an immobile Hunter for support. Great game guys!

So if Warmachine is something you have even a passing interest in, stay tuned for the upcoming coverage! And trust me, despite all the starter sets and small forces I have, I am still a n00b, and we will be learning all the hard lessons together.

Cheers,

Ca$h

Quick Painting Update: DAK

 Hey guys a quick quick update, Over the past 2 weeks, I've been painting like a madman on my EW- MW Germans.   I have quickly blasted through the infantry and got them to a playable state:   In this case, Feldgrau, skin tones, steel, buff coloured helmets.   This is my pre-wash and then hyper detail phase, as seen below.

 Also got this parking lot of armour spray coated in the darker brown scheme.   You see either the very light coloured german desert stuff or the darker brown.  Figurd as my Desert Rats are already teh bright colour, to tone these guys down some.

 For fun, I washed and hyper detailed th HMG platoon.  As usual, all the interesting bits to see are on the back of the models: straps, equipment, etc.

The list I'll be using for Early war practice games is 1550 points (Historicon next year Pt Value)

Schutzen Kompanie HQ

2 units of Schutzen, with AT RIfle, Lt Mortar

1 unit of MG-34s, to be combat attached out if need be.

5 Panzer II Cs

2 units of 8-Rads

2 7.5cm Inf Guns

4 10.5 cm Arty

This is by no means the list I'm going to take to Historicon, as I think it will be a Kradschutzen Kompanie, but I can play around with the stuff I have assembled and in the case of infantry, in a playable state.

Expect a few Batreps up later this week, from RObK's Jock Column and ThunderST's Panhorde!

Never to early to start a new Army: DAK

Achtung, Was is Los?

Yep, its been pretty quiet for me on the hobby front since July's excellent trip to Historicon.  However, with next year's Historicon already being announced that it will be Early War 1500 points (maybe 1550), why not start EARLY and get stuff done?  Enter, the Deutsche Afrika Korps, or the DAK for short.  I've actually had a lot of these models for years, for when I wanted to make a Mid-War opposing force for my Desert Rats, but just never got around to it.. things like my Free French project came up, as well as the 21 Pzr army for Late War amongst other things.   The DAK is a great army in that most of the models can be used for both EW and MW.

 Iconic pic of an observer kfz250 from a 10.5cm battery

I'm going to try and document the building and painting of this army as much as I can, some for selfish reasons:  I can never remember what I use down the road, so if I document the steps and colours used, I can add units as I need them.  

I've been pretty busy assembling, see below, my towed 10.5cm arty behind my 2 objectives..

Pre-based, base-coated, awaiting Wash.

Whilst in this pic, we can see I have opted to do the grunt-work of Infantry first.  I always find the infantry is the toughest hurdle for me.    Above are 2 units of Schutzen, with added AT Rifles, Panzerknacker, Light Mortar, and either a pBz41 AT gun or Puppchen.   Add in combat attached MG-34s, and we get some beefy veteran platoons which can form the nucleus of pretty much any list.  I have yet to nail down the colour scheme for my Infantry, though for Basing, I followed the desert basing guide from the FoW site.   I still have to do a wash then highlight with the proper colours.  But for now, they are playable!  And thats what matters.

Catch you guys later this week with an update.. it may or may not have anything to do with FbB getting my order of Pzr IIs in earlier this weekend!

Matt Varnish

X-Wing Picture Dump!!

Ok so a few of us have finally got on board the X-Wing bandwagon and are loving it. Relatively cheap to get into ($39.99 CDN) for the starter set makes it very attractive...and lets not be kidding ourselves, who doesn't like to collect cool little ships ;) The game plays smoothly and set up and take down is a breeze, much much faster than most boardgames and infinitely faster than any wargames. Not sure where it got labeled as a game with a long set up time... Anyways, here is some hot X-Wing Action, brought to you by Dice Devils!