tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-168543052024-03-07T21:54:00.859+13:00Richard's MusingsRichardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00974055540062290284noreply@blogger.comBlogger81125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16854305.post-24801890591654602652024-01-02T11:10:00.000+13:002024-01-02T11:10:01.500+13:002023 Retrospective<p>2023 has been another relatively quiet year for me hobby-wise. I started the year with five goals</p><p><b>Have a good clear out of the random junk in the hobby cupboard.</b></p><p>This I achieved. I had a really good tidy-up in October, bought some new storage solutions, and offloaded some old bits and pieces.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjtwEOD66oscbZbW_vxtIWH86WEyl9F0U8Ppv_6DIHbEHd_1j4S96TI-5zr5NwVCcBh-GhRB8lenYXFJOqWr8MH-dFjMzXI0yp6uk35Mt16XDmhYDOP1b7Z9aKEMGxAxCPu6nzyG0MhGH41DFOcMyLLI2wNV8iiRADf0ErxHyFuCbtZHdHgUy4G/s1280/IMG_0832%20(1).jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1280" data-original-width="960" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjtwEOD66oscbZbW_vxtIWH86WEyl9F0U8Ppv_6DIHbEHd_1j4S96TI-5zr5NwVCcBh-GhRB8lenYXFJOqWr8MH-dFjMzXI0yp6uk35Mt16XDmhYDOP1b7Z9aKEMGxAxCPu6nzyG0MhGH41DFOcMyLLI2wNV8iiRADf0ErxHyFuCbtZHdHgUy4G/w300-h400/IMG_0832%20(1).jpeg" width="300" /></a></div><p>The remaining objectives weren't met: I didn't play any non-FOW games, and didn't make any progress on my ALDG projects.</p><p>I played in three FOW tournaments during the year.</p><p>ValleyCon was 111pts Late War held in April. I painted a new army for it: a Soviet Rifle Regiment from <i>Berlin: Soviet.</i></p><blockquote class="tr_bq"><b>Rifle Regiment - Berlin: Soviet</b></blockquote><blockquote class="tr_bq">Regiment HQ</blockquote><blockquote class="tr_bq">Rifle Company (mid strength with panzerfaust and 1 x Maxim)</blockquote><blockquote style="border: medium; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;"><p>Storm Group (full strength with panzerfaust, Maxim and flamethrower)</p></blockquote><blockquote style="border: medium; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;"><p>82mm Mortar Company (6 x 82mm mortar)</p></blockquote><blockquote style="border: medium; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;"><p>120mm Mortar Company (3 x 120mm mortar)</p></blockquote><blockquote style="border: medium; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;"><p>Heavy Tank Killer Company (4 x 76mm gun)</p></blockquote><blockquote style="border: medium; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;"><p>Armoured Car Platoon (3 x BA-64, with 2 x PTRD)</p></blockquote><blockquote style="border: medium; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;"><p>M4 Sherman (76mm) Tank Company (5 x M4 Sherman (76mm)) </p></blockquote><blockquote style="border: medium; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;"><p>IS-2 (Late) Guards Heavy Tank Company (4 x IS-2)</p></blockquote><blockquote style="border: medium; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;"><p>Unditiching Logs command card (IS-2)</p></blockquote><blockquote class="tr_bq"><b>Total Cost: 111 pts</b></blockquote><p>The list was great. It was my first time playing Soviets in FOW since 1st Edition, and while you can argue that <i>Careful </i>troops aren't exactly the classic Soviet experience in FOW, it was still a nice change from Western lists. I won three games, drew two games, and finished tied for 4th place.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjXv9lkE6M6s4KxUxgFEgVlvSy_WHV4_Ra2cKCKXZ1BSRE1Xz5DeLEibO583KZkVrpE_MqhFsaW8GttHOLzySzSyifcg5fUILyzWeuzS-txXlUiPDeqX6-FJhNgI_hr7tALxlH3OzED6nL3c3OhHX-e_5zYPE6uHk6pz8qmZDUoChysRKyrOqa0/s1280/IMG_0264.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="960" data-original-width="1280" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjXv9lkE6M6s4KxUxgFEgVlvSy_WHV4_Ra2cKCKXZ1BSRE1Xz5DeLEibO583KZkVrpE_MqhFsaW8GttHOLzySzSyifcg5fUILyzWeuzS-txXlUiPDeqX6-FJhNgI_hr7tALxlH3OzED6nL3c3OhHX-e_5zYPE6uHk6pz8qmZDUoChysRKyrOqa0/w400-h300/IMG_0264.jpeg" width="400" /></a></div><p>The second tournament was Panzerschreck, held in July. This year it was 140pt Late War doubles. I partnered with Bede again, running lists from Berlin: German. My half of the list was four 10.5cm FlaK39 railway cars, and a formation of Fallschirmjager from Fortress Europe. We tied for third out of 18, but lost the dice-off so finished in fourth place again.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgVg_Xgv3swFMqAwT6VRM720w3hJka-38WdaF3QkHDcA6WE0tuZTu21NOwvhVT_XQKnAPs3eaS5V41QjfTxf8ovxG4tfnDIzvb2BE19e1jH7gk5agAy77jYZXLbm_tzrF3Izv2DEPz8_8wAv4GvaCD9bmPmwMYjBO9ILjHZqHP2Kkx6wBD8wZqG/s1280/IMG_0511.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="961" data-original-width="1280" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgVg_Xgv3swFMqAwT6VRM720w3hJka-38WdaF3QkHDcA6WE0tuZTu21NOwvhVT_XQKnAPs3eaS5V41QjfTxf8ovxG4tfnDIzvb2BE19e1jH7gk5agAy77jYZXLbm_tzrF3Izv2DEPz8_8wAv4GvaCD9bmPmwMYjBO9ILjHZqHP2Kkx6wBD8wZqG/w400-h300/IMG_0511.jpeg" width="400" /></a></div><p>The final event was Remember December. This was 60pts Mid War, book points, no Top Armour 2, and only one Support unit. I ran a British Rifle Company:</p><blockquote class="tr_bq"><b>Rifle Company - North Africa</b></blockquote><blockquote class="tr_bq">Company HQ</blockquote><blockquote class="tr_bq">Rifle Platoon (full strenth)</blockquote><blockquote class="tr_bq">Rifle Platoon (minimum strenth) </blockquote><blockquote style="border: medium; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;"><p>Rifle Platoon (minimum strenth)</p></blockquote><blockquote style="border: medium; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;"><p>Mortar Platoon (4 x 3-inch mortars)</p></blockquote><blockquote style="border: medium; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;"><p>Anti-tank Platoon (3 x 6-pounders)</p></blockquote><blockquote style="border: medium; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;"><p>Universal Carrier Patrol (3 x Universal Carriers)</p></blockquote><blockquote class="tr_bq"><p>Universal Carrier Patrol (3 x Universal Carriers)</p></blockquote><blockquote style="border: medium; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;"><p>Valentine III Death or Glory Troop (3 x Valentine III)</p></blockquote><blockquote style="border: medium; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;"><p>Captured Tank command card (Rifle Company)</p></blockquote><blockquote style="border: medium; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;"><p>Cavalry Commander command card (Valentines)</p></blockquote><blockquote class="tr_bq"><b>Total Cost: 60 pts</b></blockquote><p>I started pretty well with two wins, but fell apart in the final game. The Rifle Company played well- I definitely needed all of the infantry, but the Valentines weren't quite as tough as I'd hoped they'd be. The Captured Tank card was a bit of fun: I managed to capture an AB41 in Game 1 and a Stuart in Game 3.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhsqGMCM7gSJ6lXxqWIq3bvo2PQbKhICJLnRxRTxxTtqGDwyRbfReXjkVuuUpB4ap5I7dkB5_gaQu1AG_i1pgeULkJLdzBxtSYYNveR1BWnxRD8cYn_F-nWlWlFF8d95fh_YAeDx6Ezp-dpSuTkI8Mjt3aHiW20673ZQAp9DWMBr0iB9p93RqQ4/s1280/IMG_0919.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="813" data-original-width="1280" height="254" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhsqGMCM7gSJ6lXxqWIq3bvo2PQbKhICJLnRxRTxxTtqGDwyRbfReXjkVuuUpB4ap5I7dkB5_gaQu1AG_i1pgeULkJLdzBxtSYYNveR1BWnxRD8cYn_F-nWlWlFF8d95fh_YAeDx6Ezp-dpSuTkI8Mjt3aHiW20673ZQAp9DWMBr0iB9p93RqQ4/w400-h254/IMG_0919.jpeg" width="400" /></a></div><p>I've continued writing for <a href="http://www.nodicenoglory.com" target="_blank">No Dice No Glory</a>, but my output slowed during the year due to work pressures:</p><p></p><ul><li><a href="https://nodicenoglory.com/2023/01/27/berlin-flames-of-war-soviets-reach-the-reichstag/" target="_blank">An overview of Berlin: Soviet</a></li><li><a href="https://nodicenoglory.com/2023/05/25/mike-target-an-exercise-in-list-building-for-flames-of-war/" target="_blank">An article on my Canadian Rifles list from ValleyCon 2022</a></li><li><a href="https://nodicenoglory.com/2023/02/24/flames-of-war-sexton-ram-kit-review/" target="_blank">A review of the Battlefront Sexton/Ram kit</a></li><li><a href="https://nodicenoglory.com/2023/06/06/assembling-battlefronts-10-5cm-railway-aa-gun/" target="_blank">A piece on assembling the Battlefront 10.5cm railway car</a></li></ul><p>For 2024, I'm going to keep over a couple of the goals from 2023.</p><p></p><ol style="text-align: left;"><li>I want to paint my ECW Royalists for ADLG-R.</li><li>I want to play two rulesets that aren't FOW.</li></ol><p></p><p>FOW has a couple of new things coming out this year, with "Late War Leviathans" adding prototype and 1946 tanks to the game, followed by "Clash of Steel" as an alt-history spinoff. The models look cool, but I'm not sure how much interest there will be locally. </p><p>Tournament-wise, ValleyCon is likely to be Mid War FOW this year, so I'll be looking to put together a new army for that. I can't play at Panzerschreck this year, but hopefully I can make an appearance at Call To Arms in August instead.</p><p><br /></p>Richardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00974055540062290284noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16854305.post-5044776543455779342023-01-01T18:12:00.011+13:002023-01-07T13:59:37.688+13:002022 Retrospective<p>I was flicking back through the photos I'd taken during 2022 to try and remember what I've done throughout the year. It turns out that a lot of what I thought had occurred in 2022 was actually from 2021. In effect, the last two years seem to have blurred into one. Matters haven't been helped by not having written a retrospective at the end of 2021, so I don't have a convenient marker to separate the two.</p><p>Looking back to the end of 2020, my goals for 2021 had been to run a T-80 company in Team Yankee, play through the Smugglers' Run campaign for Black Seas, paint 1500pts for 40K, and organise a FOW ladder tournament for the club. Of these I only achieved the first: a single game with T-80s against Pelarel's Challengers in December 2021. The 40K setting simply hasn't captured my interest as much as it would need to for me to devote that much time and money to building an army and learning the rules, and it turns out FOW isn't played often enough locally to support a ladder.</p><p>Moving on to 2022, I didn't play a huge number of games during the year. Most of my games were focused around the two Flames of War tournaments that I played in.</p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg6WT_zt1rZW4cVNQVVkv8zLS6F_HG52j6OQB_8ljFToNOdEZZESw6DFrEufV7D3myxLuz-oQwwFM9Baas32TBzvhYWlQ6hOgtmy49oUylEQ_PvBOvxAj34Nq1yJMDgKlTS_Uwut1kxzj2J3bgq6FvglHU76JYtuPG8kD0mtaX8Hl97Ycrtow/s3749/IMG_1139.heic" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2499" data-original-width="3749" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg6WT_zt1rZW4cVNQVVkv8zLS6F_HG52j6OQB_8ljFToNOdEZZESw6DFrEufV7D3myxLuz-oQwwFM9Baas32TBzvhYWlQ6hOgtmy49oUylEQ_PvBOvxAj34Nq1yJMDgKlTS_Uwut1kxzj2J3bgq6FvglHU76JYtuPG8kD0mtaX8Hl97Ycrtow/w400-h266/IMG_1139.heic" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Priest Kangaroos</i></td></tr></tbody></table><p>ValleyCon was 100pts Late War held in June. I ran a Canadian Rifle Company from <i>D-Day: British,</i> themed on Operation Totalize, with the gimmick being trying to run it as an artillery-centric "Always Attack" force.</p><blockquote class="tr_bq"><b>Rifle Company - D-Day: British</b></blockquote><blockquote class="tr_bq">Company HQ</blockquote><blockquote class="tr_bq">Rifle Platoon (full strength)</blockquote><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;"><p style="text-align: left;">Rifle Platoon (full strength)</p></blockquote><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;"><p style="text-align: left;">6pdr Anti-tank Platoon (4 x 6pdr)</p></blockquote><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;"><p style="text-align: left;">Wasp Carrier Patrol</p></blockquote><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;"><p style="text-align: left;">Universal Carrier Patrol</p></blockquote><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;"><p style="text-align: left;">2 x 25pdr Field Troop (4 x 25pdr each)</p></blockquote><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;"><p style="text-align: left;">M10 SP Anti-tank Platoon (4 x M10 (3-inch))</p></blockquote><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;"><p style="text-align: left;">Sherman OP</p></blockquote><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;"><p style="text-align: left;">Relentless command card (two Rifle Platoons)</p></blockquote><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;"><p style="text-align: left;">Kangaroo Transport command card (two Rifle Platoons)</p></blockquote><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;"><p style="text-align: left;">Carrier Transport command card (6pdrs) </p></blockquote><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;">AGRA command card (eight guns) </blockquote><blockquote class="tr_bq"><b>Total Cost: 100 pts</b></blockquote><p>I never wrote a review of the event, but the list was an interesting challenge. I won two games, drew two, and lost one, placing 9th out of 14. Funnily enough for a list that I had intended to attack with, my two wins were when I chose to defend due to facing large numbers of light vehicles. It definitely could attack, but really needed a third Rifle Platoon and the 17pdr version of the M10s. I'm tempted to try again at a later date, using a similar list built using <i>Bulge: British</i> that incorporates those lessons.</p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjhECys3LN10jGXN8_yXJODKVpk-nf52DfiUhKdsho9TZbfs-XrTvwk6LvIaFLGYyVPy9i1bAseusADysPbzLoJt5RULjNX6up-WEenRIHDolEbF69WDlJfsejiDn62J5plNdlwNEl4a3PAdKevOJe-INNjVGiE0KOYQ7As_wE8_i31Ijf8Ew/s3155/IMG_1144.heic" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2103" data-original-width="3155" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjhECys3LN10jGXN8_yXJODKVpk-nf52DfiUhKdsho9TZbfs-XrTvwk6LvIaFLGYyVPy9i1bAseusADysPbzLoJt5RULjNX6up-WEenRIHDolEbF69WDlJfsejiDn62J5plNdlwNEl4a3PAdKevOJe-INNjVGiE0KOYQ7As_wE8_i31Ijf8Ew/w400-h266/IMG_1144.heic" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>6pdrs</i></td></tr></tbody></table><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEihBTJEeI6jOY9mmGo7ywIq8DS3ELzmphP0sXjWBQhvM66LPpuhXo8e0ycIGKOctmBTiBzgB6yAinBVtO1Xo3Jum_rdWwGMO-fNc87m30fP1ztAvtgQvGDM7VmrTxWlcHQ0Bll-JfoQeOKjQtZ-dXV0jHke51Sl3EiRfavBlR290o5vMSokHg/s3715/IMG_1193.heic" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2477" data-original-width="3715" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEihBTJEeI6jOY9mmGo7ywIq8DS3ELzmphP0sXjWBQhvM66LPpuhXo8e0ycIGKOctmBTiBzgB6yAinBVtO1Xo3Jum_rdWwGMO-fNc87m30fP1ztAvtgQvGDM7VmrTxWlcHQ0Bll-JfoQeOKjQtZ-dXV0jHke51Sl3EiRfavBlR290o5vMSokHg/w400-h266/IMG_1193.heic" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>A 25pdr Battery</i></td></tr></tbody></table><p>The second tournament was Panzerschreck, held in July. This year it was 140pt Mid War doubles. I partnered with Bede again, and we chose to run German Panzers, built around Borgwards and Hornisse. We had decided not to take the event too seriously, hence a force deliberately built around the inefficient long-barrelled Panzer III while avoiding the underpriced Marder, however we placed 4th out of 12.</p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhnMX2D8YKgxrzHx2Yf7ihE59CgtOgnJw0J1O_yIlXE1n1MNefcYRt3SCDaE1VCEcInCTUxpQq93Fp2dB4HOH3SCPRwl59Oc-ZGoLGgcEC9G9I8ckdyIkXrliaQjy8VZqnpDFwRF2efj_YzuFrbMjA5NNDxChL4YG80YkFko9FuHHpYID-wzg/s4032/IMG_1303.HEIC" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3024" data-original-width="4032" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhnMX2D8YKgxrzHx2Yf7ihE59CgtOgnJw0J1O_yIlXE1n1MNefcYRt3SCDaE1VCEcInCTUxpQq93Fp2dB4HOH3SCPRwl59Oc-ZGoLGgcEC9G9I8ckdyIkXrliaQjy8VZqnpDFwRF2efj_YzuFrbMjA5NNDxChL4YG80YkFko9FuHHpYID-wzg/w400-h300/IMG_1303.HEIC" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>My Panzer IIIs in action at Panzerschreck 2022</i></td></tr></tbody></table><p>I didn't do anything for Team Yankee during the year. The Russian invasion of Ukraine removed all enthusiasm for doing any further work on my Soviets. I also have concerns about the balance of the game, which heavily favours ATGMs and 1960s equipment at the expense of the 1980s/90s technology that was the main attraction of the game in the first place. The release of <i>Nordic Forces</i> and <i>Free Nations 2</i> in 2023 might restore some interest, but until the <a href="https://www.flamesofwar.com/Default.aspx?tabid=102&art_id=7638">Dynamic Points</a> philosophy is extended to TY, there's not much that can be done to fix the balance.</p><p>I've continued writing for <a href="http://www.nodicenoglory.com" target="_blank">No Dice No Glory</a>, and have averaged a post per month over the course of the year. A number of my pieces were related to release of the <i>North Africa</i> compilation for FOW:</p><p></p><ul style="text-align: left;"><li><a href="https://nodicenoglory.com/2022/01/21/north-africa-revisiting-the-british-lists-for-mid-war-flames-of-war/" target="_blank">Comparing the British lists to their V3 versions.</a></li><li><a href="https://nodicenoglory.com/2022/02/04/north-africa-support-for-your-fow-desert-germans/" target="_blank">Exploring the changes to the German support tree compared to V4's <i>Afrika Korps</i>.</a></li><li><a href="https://nodicenoglory.com/2022/04/22/death-or-glory-reconfiguring-the-fow-crusader-squadron-boxed-set/" target="_blank">Looking at a more competitive build of the Crusader Squadron boxed set.</a></li></ul><p></p><p>Another couple of posts related to the release of <i>Bulge: British,</i> digging into the details of<a href="https://nodicenoglory.com/2022/10/07/the-infantry-of-bulge-british/" target="_blank"> the infantry lists</a> and <a href="https://nodicenoglory.com/2022/11/25/only-the-enemy-in-front-late-war-british-reconnaissance-in-fow/" target="_blank">the reconnaissance Command Cards</a>.</p><p>While I expect to keep using NDNG as my main writing platform, I intend to keep this blog open as it gives me a place to post things that don't fit well with NDNG.</p><p>2022 marked my first foray into board wargaming. <a href="https://nodicenoglory.com/2022/04/20/malta-survives-alone-a-review-of-malta-besieged/" target="_blank"><i>Malta Besieged</i></a> arrived just in time for me to play it while recovering from Covid, and I also picked up a copy of <i><a href="https://www.compassgames.com/product/the-african-campaign-designer-signature-edition/?sfw=pass1672519952" target="_blank">The African Campaign</a></i>. I can see myself playing more hex-and-counter games in future, subject to being able to find games with a strong solitaire mode. It has a significant nostalgia element, as it reminds me of the hours I spent playing <i>Allied General</i> as a teenager.</p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEggcFf7aGc0AKZeLZ5wNKt0w3Es5MFxneoS6lBhDAyoGETQA1fKfnaI8Hgwt_cJmsDfGKC8cThfRRcJpvOr0-OOQ-soz2xpqFsJqgb_AJSvsyL4aN23g7d2H8M2QA2HawGHNuOLZVkk21R63btA4R6x_FdooBG9nxnqsRpN2SIuveajSH3kMw/s2171/IMG_1011.heic" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1628" data-original-width="2171" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEggcFf7aGc0AKZeLZ5wNKt0w3Es5MFxneoS6lBhDAyoGETQA1fKfnaI8Hgwt_cJmsDfGKC8cThfRRcJpvOr0-OOQ-soz2xpqFsJqgb_AJSvsyL4aN23g7d2H8M2QA2HawGHNuOLZVkk21R63btA4R6x_FdooBG9nxnqsRpN2SIuveajSH3kMw/w400-h300/IMG_1011.heic" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Malta Besieged</i></td></tr></tbody></table><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEisoKZjN19LoeaFbCzSNtVCZTE6RXpZmIW4xcpyyjcfGcAQ5eD_BThxl7SQzJNgFtTSfbGEc0wuyAIISJy6d7FyBfWtzvocTkCf47yCL3hHxpY6j3cY_sjEwAHx9Cyf1Q-dXbExHWXk5YkGgQoglBUjqaZwmrRssX0Qkr5kHme4fw9_MEBYSA/s2019/IMG_1389.heic" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1514" data-original-width="2019" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEisoKZjN19LoeaFbCzSNtVCZTE6RXpZmIW4xcpyyjcfGcAQ5eD_BThxl7SQzJNgFtTSfbGEc0wuyAIISJy6d7FyBfWtzvocTkCf47yCL3hHxpY6j3cY_sjEwAHx9Cyf1Q-dXbExHWXk5YkGgQoglBUjqaZwmrRssX0Qkr5kHme4fw9_MEBYSA/w400-h300/IMG_1389.heic" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>The African Campaign</i></td></tr></tbody></table><p>I will start 2023 by running FOW for Remember December 2022. This event was delayed by a month due to many players being unavailable for the usual date of the first club meeting in December. This is going to be 85pts Late War, with forces to be built using the <i>Bulge</i> books.</p><p>There are a number of other events occurring during 2023, with Charicon in February (100pts Mid War), ValleyCon in April (111pts Late War), Panzerschreck in July (Late War doubles), an ADLG event planned for October, and of course RD coming around again in December. I won't be able to play in all of them, so I have a decision to make about which ones to prioritise.</p><p>The most important thing, though, is that I need to have a serious think about what I actually want to play, and try to find some focus. I've got lots of random stuff lying around, and a number of rulesets that I've never played, There are games that I'd like to play more (<i>Fate of a Nation</i>, <i>ADLG</i>, <i>Seven Days to the River Rhine</i>), and games that I'd like to try (for example, <i>Lion Rampant</i>, <i>Blood and Steel</i>, <i>Iron Cross</i> could be a good option for 28mm WW2, <i>O Group</i> in 15mm might provide a different experience to FOW).</p><p>With this in mind, my plan for 2023 is:</p><p>1. Have a good clear out of the random junk in the hobby cupboard.</p><p>2. Play games of two rulesets that I own but haven't played before.</p><p>3. Rebase my 28mm Impetus Italians to give me 200pts for ADLG.</p><p>4. Paint 220pts of 15mm ECW Royalists for ADLG-R.</p><p>5. Consolidate my FOW/TY collections: tidying up and offloading any forces that I'm not passionate about, and finishing off the ones that I want to keep.</p><p>That is a relatively short list that should be achievable. Let's see how we get on.</p>Richardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00974055540062290284noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16854305.post-17382646260872720872022-04-27T15:46:00.017+12:002023-11-01T14:43:59.436+13:00The Origin of 17th/21st Lancers' M3 Lees<div>I recently wrote an article on <a href="http://www.nodicenoglory.com" target="_blank">No Dice No Glory</a> about <a href="https://nodicenoglory.com/2022/04/22/death-or-glory-reconfiguring-the-fow-crusader-squadron-boxed-set/" target="_blank">using the British Crusader Squadron boxed set to field a Death or Glory Squadron</a> for <a href="http://www.flamesofwar.com" target="_blank">Flames of War</a>. The article touched on the history behind the Lee HQ option for that force, but NDNG wasn't really the place to expand on this so I am writing it up here.</div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiQ8AFpZjQjTWVCyx7ldfeYxJxl4tijkXf-DJ5Bb7yNkFLHQAgvqfVBJa3_c0BGqXPmDNpredjM9oNHvwTZbIz6MOPPOWuPzflbOxvX4ZOl4VC8u5rWP0kebHxh8EagoHspIy4CMZEjm4U2b9Xj3BgC1LUsgJqmTxcf-4jwBbS78rcoMa8fMQ/s650/Death-or-Glory-Sqadron.png" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="446" data-original-width="650" height="275" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiQ8AFpZjQjTWVCyx7ldfeYxJxl4tijkXf-DJ5Bb7yNkFLHQAgvqfVBJa3_c0BGqXPmDNpredjM9oNHvwTZbIz6MOPPOWuPzflbOxvX4ZOl4VC8u5rWP0kebHxh8EagoHspIy4CMZEjm4U2b9Xj3BgC1LUsgJqmTxcf-4jwBbS78rcoMa8fMQ/w400-h275/Death-or-Glory-Sqadron.png" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Image: FOW North Africa (2022)</i></td></tr></tbody></table><div>The story presented in the FOW books is that 17th/21st Lancers had three M3 Lees in C Squadron HQ while they were in Tunisia. It is said that the tanks were salvaged from those that had been abandoned by 1st Armored Division in the retreat from Tebourba. </div><div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhwmVl_TtmaIP7qvVhhkrG1VYrU8gWSdAAn2lcCjMguBbY-CfKiKDAnUYVkKsEdW1pVgqKggNY4If4TLxXBPj52TVBbt9nSeD2YrnDgkqEWF_U5mfJiDLaywd03NVZnvFnxIKDUraO_PjHsALqBa_UFZUcRMxWhZ290BdFXD9_8iN87loZS-g/s690/CaseyDGB-03.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="249" data-original-width="690" height="144" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhwmVl_TtmaIP7qvVhhkrG1VYrU8gWSdAAn2lcCjMguBbY-CfKiKDAnUYVkKsEdW1pVgqKggNY4If4TLxXBPj52TVBbt9nSeD2YrnDgkqEWF_U5mfJiDLaywd03NVZnvFnxIKDUraO_PjHsALqBa_UFZUcRMxWhZ290BdFXD9_8iN87loZS-g/w400-h144/CaseyDGB-03.jpg" title="Photo: Battlefront Miniatures" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Photo: Battlefront Miniatures<br /></i></td></tr></tbody></table></div><div>I have not been able to find the origin of that story. The actual history of these tanks is as follows. </div><div><br /></div><div>It was announced at a 26th Armoured Brigade 'O' Group on 28 December 1942 that each regiment was going to be receiving 10 Grants for "close support." This was in preparation for the brigade being completely re-equipped with Shermans, with General Anderson, commander of First Army, advising during a visit to 26th Armoured Brigade HQ on 31 December that this was intended to occur within six weeks. </div><div><br /></div><div>The Grants were intended to be allocated with two to each Squadron HQ and four to each Regimental HQ. Those going to Squadron HQ were to replace the Valentine 2pdrs, with those tanks being sent to the Valentine troops, making them four-tank troops.</div><div><br /></div><div>Training was provided by the US Army on 1 January, with three Grants being handed over to 17th/21st Lancers “filled with rations, extra sweets, rum, and a bewildering assortment of ammunition.” The other regiments in the brigade, 16th/5th Lancers and 2nd Lothians and Border Horse, received one Grant each.</div><div><br /></div><div>It was announced on 7 January that those Grants were the only ones that the brigade would be receiving. No reason is given in the war diaries, however ffrench Blake speculates in his history of the regiment that this was due to the losses the Americans had suffered over the preceding weeks.</div><div><br /></div><div>Where the histories refers to “Grants”, in FOW we would call them Lees, being the US version of the tank with the cupola MG. I am not aware of any photos existing of these three tanks, but it’s clear from the description that this is what they were: "like a wedding cake" with three layers: 75mm, 37mm, and Browning MG.</div><div><br /></div><div>The Lees' first and only action was at Two Tree Hill on the morning of 13 January 1943. Two of the tanks were destroyed, with ffrench Blake being badly wounded in the third. Ken Ford’s “Mailed Fist” describes the Lees as being in “ffrench Blake’s C Squadron” for this battle, but ffrench Blake had taken up the role of regimental 2iC from 8 December. The orders for the operation and ffrench Blake's writings make it clear that at Two Tree Hill the Lees were part of RHQ and operating independently, supported by A Squadron. There is no further mention after this of Lees or Grants in any of the histories I’ve read. </div><div><br /></div><div>To reflect this in Flames of War V4, I would be tempted to use a Death or Glory Squadron with a normal Valentine HQ and a Grant Troop from Formation Support, instead of the Lee HQ version of the list. The alternative is to run the Lee HQ version anyway, as this is close to the way the Grants were intended to be used had they all been received.</div><div><br /></div><div>Regarding painting, without photos it is impossible to be certain what the Lees looked like. They might have been repainted in British colours since they were intended to be part of the standard equipment of the regiment, or they may have been left in their original US olive drab, possibly with disruptive patterning applied in dark brown. The tactical signs on the turrets, if applied, would have been yellow diamonds, and the arm of service markings would have been Red 52.</div><div><br /></div><div>To summarise, 17th/21st Lancers did have three Lees for a period of about two weeks at the start of January 1943. These were part of a delivery of tanks to 6th Armoured Division that was never completed, and the story of them being salvaged is a myth.</div><div><br /></div><div>Sources:</div><div><ul style="text-align: left;"><li><i>The Royal Lancers & Nottinghamshire Yeomanry Museum</i></li><li><i>WO 175-292</i>, The National Archives</li><li><i>WO 175-210</i>, The National Archives</li><li><i>A History of the 17th/21st Lancers 1922-1959</i>, RLV ffrench Blake</li><li><i>Mainstay - A 20th Century Life</i>, RLV ffrench Blake</li><li><i>Death or Glory - The 17th/21st Lancers 1922-1993</i>, Keith Shannon</li><li><i>Mailed Fist</i>, Ken Ford</li></ul></div>Richardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00974055540062290284noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16854305.post-67533946453236538602021-08-21T08:23:00.004+12:002021-08-21T08:24:55.052+12:00A New PlatformIn April I started writing for <a href="http://www.nodicenoglory.com" target="_blank">No Dice No Glory</a>, a historical wargaming blog. I’m not sure what this will mean for this blog. Most likely it will lie fallow for a season unless there is something that I want to write that doesn’t fit with the NDNG theme.<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgy9KsClAxcvBx5rcY06pLVwnE8RhjfGvyP1acd7Tocm-RP3kZxto0CxecChjDNJzcn2EqhA5NuPzF-qmolEczSShc_QucvQXUmDKIGdS1fgBzf6XVns4YiROM5xFB2xIThU2jn/s400/cropped-NdNg_Masthead_2.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="169" data-original-width="400" height="135" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgy9KsClAxcvBx5rcY06pLVwnE8RhjfGvyP1acd7Tocm-RP3kZxto0CxecChjDNJzcn2EqhA5NuPzF-qmolEczSShc_QucvQXUmDKIGdS1fgBzf6XVns4YiROM5xFB2xIThU2jn/s320/cropped-NdNg_Masthead_2.png" width="320" /></a></div>
<div> Here are links to the posts that I have published there to date: <div><ul style="text-align: left;"><li><a href="https://nodicenoglory.com/2021/04/02/fun-for-the-hordes-multiplayer-flames-of-war/" target="_blank">Multiplayer FOW - reflections on our D Day game from a few years ago</a> </li><li><a href="https://nodicenoglory.com/2021/04/05/flames-of-war-missions-pack-update/" target="_blank">Thoughts on the FOW Missions Pack update from April 2021</a> </li><li><a href="https://nodicenoglory.com/2021/05/21/white-death-mid-war-finns-in-flames-of-war/" target="_blank">A preview of the Mid War Finnish booklet for FOW. </a> </li><li><a href="https://nodicenoglory.com/2021/07/30/panzerschreck-2021-tournament-report/" target="_blank">A review of the Panzerschreck tournament that was held in July 2021.</a> </li><li><a href="https://nodicenoglory.com/2021/08/20/modeling-the-priest-kangaroo-for-flames-of-war/" target="_blank">Modelling the Priest Kangaroo for FOW</a></li></ul></div><div>I want to thank the people who have visited this site. I just checked the site statistics and my posts have had over 10,000 views since I started posting here in 2015. Many of those visits would have been bots, but hopefully some of those visits were by real people who have got some value out of what I have written.</div></div>Richardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00974055540062290284noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16854305.post-56064734064091106172021-01-31T19:01:00.008+13:002021-02-01T19:04:11.791+13:00Soviet AA Revisited - The Tunguska EditionA couple of years ago I wrote a post looking at <a href="https://rdsteer.blogspot.com/2018/11/soviet-anti-aircraft-options.html">the cost-effectiveness of the various Soviet anti-aircraft options in Team Yankee</a>. The new WW3: Soviet book has introduced the 2S6 Tunguska to the game, so this is a good opportunity to update that earlier analysis.<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://www.team-yankee.com/Portals/0/all_images/TeamYankee2/Soviet/Spotlight/TS139.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="502" data-original-width="690" height="291" src="https://www.team-yankee.com/Portals/0/all_images/TeamYankee2/Soviet/Spotlight/TS139.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
In the game, the Tunguska differs from the other Soviet systems by having two anti-aircraft weapons, cannons and guided missiles. Its guns are better than the Shilka's, with greater Range, ROF, and AT, making it the best AA weapon available to the Soviets. Despite only being able to use one of its weapons per turn, it carries a hefty price penalty for having both, costing twice as much as a Shilka. Yes, it's expensive, but it's guaranteed to always be able to shoot at something, whereas the Shilka is limited by range.<div><br /></div><div><b>Note: </b>There's an interpretation of <a href="https://www.team-yankee.com/Default.aspx?tabid=878&art_id=4846">FM-101</a> that says that if you fire one of these weapons in the enemy turn, you cannot fire the other weapon in your own turn. I don't agree with this reading, so have written this post assuming that my interpretation is correct, and will update the numbers if FM-101 gets clarified to say that I'm wrong.<br /><br />
I updated my AA spreadsheet to include the Tunguska stats, and reran the cost-effectiveness calculation: which unit will do the most damage to a flight of typical NATO jets per point expended (click on the chart to get a higher resolution version).
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEghwHEvZ97OAyo-jjpCqHzw4B-RYDxwZSMlvEnoVbL40qB8hrli4QoxYbxG-PBZOGfezBT63XI4xqDkXxxU4Pf9rXz5HAFyeXL4Phz5Ng021fgEjoW6TOm1mJDAEaxpTdSKh7v3/s1529/2pt+Soviets.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="999" data-original-width="1529" height="261" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEghwHEvZ97OAyo-jjpCqHzw4B-RYDxwZSMlvEnoVbL40qB8hrli4QoxYbxG-PBZOGfezBT63XI4xqDkXxxU4Pf9rXz5HAFyeXL4Phz5Ng021fgEjoW6TOm1mJDAEaxpTdSKh7v3/w400-h261/2pt+Soviets.png" width="400" /></a></div>
The Tunguska's guns come in as the third most cost-effective form of air defence, but suffer from occupying the same unit slot as the Shilka. If you are looking for long range air defence, the Tunguska's missiles on the other hand are terrible value for money - costing as much as a Gecko while losing a point of ROF.<br /><br />
This ability to fire both weapons at helicopters in sequential turns raises the question of which weapon should you fire in the enemy turn, and which in your own. The specific scenario I have looked at here is a pair of Tunguskas shooting at a pair of hunter killer helicopters (making the heroic assumption they are in range of both weapons), and compared it to an equivalent cost unit of Shilkas. In the turn which the helicopters fire, you shoot against a Concealed and Gone to Ground target, while in your turn they are only Concealed. Assuming the helicopters are in range of both weapons, is it better to fire the guns needing 6s and the missiles needing 5s, or vice versa?
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj7bwgxBxg3sxxNICNJCLUSyluA9ZD3C5Eb-3cpC7fKf7w2f3uQsF1AHcGzfnE1nFSni3m7rFYaR66LKpq5FdUVE7vHukhtxXVJlILaw-RVCZL1oi8uibXKOxlUFICM9gLvFdAP/s1529/TunguskaShilka.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="999" data-original-width="1529" height="261" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj7bwgxBxg3sxxNICNJCLUSyluA9ZD3C5Eb-3cpC7fKf7w2f3uQsF1AHcGzfnE1nFSni3m7rFYaR66LKpq5FdUVE7vHukhtxXVJlILaw-RVCZL1oi8uibXKOxlUFICM9gLvFdAP/w400-h261/TunguskaShilka.png" width="400" /></a></div>Overall it's better to fire the missiles at the Gone to Ground target, because the guns are just so much better at killing stuff that it's best for them to be hitting on 5s rather than 6s. So the question then becomes: can you afford to lose the teams that the helicopters are targeting? If yes, fire missiles then guns in order to have a higher chance of killing something across the two turns. If not, either fire the guns first to try and kill them before they get you, or better yet just spend the points on Shilkas.
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi-t1C4HRxn7NFwwKatOS4EFGiRPyArtg4MBrpSl-X1RYiToLqhA4m7MnZlUA-hwzfzfdhp0HkKq5sWJ52qcZUzvMiJCTohns7MnVDQ5zMkSc5VmE5V8byFm0-lewuffNRhoP6_/s2582/Screen+Shot+2021-01-30+at+10.02.21+AM.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="438" data-original-width="2582" height="68" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi-t1C4HRxn7NFwwKatOS4EFGiRPyArtg4MBrpSl-X1RYiToLqhA4m7MnZlUA-hwzfzfdhp0HkKq5sWJ52qcZUzvMiJCTohns7MnVDQ5zMkSc5VmE5V8byFm0-lewuffNRhoP6_/w400-h68/Screen+Shot+2021-01-30+at+10.02.21+AM.png" width="400" /></a></div>The final question I wanted to answer was how many points should I be spending on AA in my Soviet lists? Or more specifically, how much air defence do you need to be able to defend against four A10s?<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgwxJRRBGQFgGc_Owch-TyV0_Bg_FqezWOVKfWL9U3lqAaxeuBveMsf9RDzYn4xcbPYgM4UEapbJ0wETUVp6MyHOfC2KnuILG-CfE8q4iIVY4s4fZg-5rh-7KvqhwC_yqsVv6pF/s1529/AAMonteCarlo.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="999" data-original-width="1529" height="261" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgwxJRRBGQFgGc_Owch-TyV0_Bg_FqezWOVKfWL9U3lqAaxeuBveMsf9RDzYn4xcbPYgM4UEapbJ0wETUVp6MyHOfC2KnuILG-CfE8q4iIVY4s4fZg-5rh-7KvqhwC_yqsVv6pF/w400-h261/AAMonteCarlo.png" width="400" /></a></div><div>Having braved your layered air defence, how many of your teams will the surviving A10s kill in return? For consistency, the target in the model is one of the armoured platoons, with the massive blue spike in the following chart at "Destroy 4 Teams" being when the unarmoured Gecko is the only target. Of course, that may not be the way things play out in the game, with the US player just as likely to take a run at the Geckos as the softest target whenever they're present, or split their fire to try and chip teams off multiple platoons.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjzaT-h3-VpQVfhSX_vVKJA5tvgxAxdo3TjCl3nxcDDIyIndbiCPDc738pF-gQP09U_HNEsxolxAo_fQbOXBE2VTVvIyaZL76UCbnm52vrLUzjlDTac0ihEo4P2MjIC620UUyLR/s1529/A10MonteCarlo.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="999" data-original-width="1529" height="261" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjzaT-h3-VpQVfhSX_vVKJA5tvgxAxdo3TjCl3nxcDDIyIndbiCPDc738pF-gQP09U_HNEsxolxAo_fQbOXBE2VTVvIyaZL76UCbnm52vrLUzjlDTac0ihEo4P2MjIC620UUyLR/w400-h261/A10MonteCarlo.png" width="400" /></a></div><div>There are a few conclusions coming out of this. <br /></div><div><ul style="text-align: left;"><li>If Geckos get shot at, they die. Keep them concealed as best as you can.</li><li>It's no surprise that the best protection comes from spending the maximum possible points across your three AA slots for quartets of Tunguskas, Gophers, and Geckos.</li><li>For a given number of points to be spent on AA, it is more effective to spend those points on more platoons of cheaper weapons, rather than fewer platoons of better weapons. For example, four Shilkas and four Gophers are a more effective use of 8pts than four Tunguskas.</li><li>My pick from the choices available for the best AA combination available to the Soviets would be a platoon each of Shilkas, Gophers, and Geckos.</li><li>If you are simply looking at their AA performance, the Tunguska is too expensive, and the marginal increase in protection it offers is simply not worth the additional four points over a unit of Shilkas.</li><li>Maybe they could have a role as an ambush unit? It would be kind of interesting to see what 28 dice at AT10/FP5+ would do to a LAV company. Apart from that, with Armour 1 they are not something that you should be relying on to kill ground targets unless you're desperate.</li><li>I would only use the Tunguska for fluff reasons or because the model is cool. Which of course means that I need to get some Tunguskas. </li></ul></div></div>Richardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00974055540062290284noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16854305.post-1035925110852040682021-01-17T17:17:00.000+13:002021-01-17T17:17:45.578+13:00Seven Days to the River RhineIn a spur of the moment decision during our lockdown last year, I purchased the PDF version of 'Seven Days to the River Rhine', a WW3 ruleset by <a href="https://www.greatescapegames.co.uk/online-store/seven-days/sdttrr-pdf">Great Escape Games</a>, and this week I played my first game of it with local blogger <a href="http://regimentnz.blogspot.com/search/label/Pelarel">Pelarel</a>.<br />
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The game is designed for 15mm and to suit Team Yankee basing. It's a smaller game than TY: set at reinforced platoon level, with activation by team.<br />
<br />The rules are brief at about 30 pages. The Facebook group has a FAQ/errata sheet, which is essential because there are a couple of places where the writing is a bit loose - particularly with shooting. There are embedded QR codes that link to tutorial videos on Youtube, which I think is an excellent touch.<br />
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Points are provided for a wide range of teams and nations, but apart from that there is no structure to support list building. Unit stats are relatively homogeneous across all of the nations, e.g. all infantry teams have the same stat line except some nations have slightly better morale.<div><br /></div><div>A few scenarios outlines are provided, but these leave a lot to the player. Deployment zones and the process for placing objectives need to be agreed with your opponent.</div><div><br /></div><div><div>
The best aspect is the initiative rules. Each turn, both players get one command token per team (excluding APCs/IFVs), plus an additional two tokens for the battlegroup commander. The players dice off to see who starts with the initiative, then spend these tokens to activate teams, or to react to their opponent's actions. The initiative can pass from player to player during the turn, a process which continues until all the tokens are spent, at which point the turn ends. You can activate a team more than once, but each activation makes the next one harder to achieve. The chance of activating is also affected by the accumulation of morale markers, generated when the unit takes fire. <br />
<br />We played 500pts on a 6x4 table, and completed the game in about 2.5 hours. This gave me six infantry teams, six BMP-1s, three T-64s, and two BRDMs. Pel had two Chieftains, two Swingfires, two Scimitars, three infantry teams in FV432s, a Milan team, a Marksman, and a Lynx. This was a good amount of equipment for the table size. Having more variety in his list seemed to work out well for him, and next time I’ll definitely run fewer infantry and a wider range of units.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjhBP8b_QFFNYypqJsFauAf2u5ipS6c4zbEBANcBJSKnE5tmmUrvM90JkPYKot57mmxdo6vEPIdKgbprF_yMdBPp5V98veuNClnS2lHON40bKGNhgAIeaNKtnMHieyrf9bzuE45/s2048/18F6FFC1-A9ED-4699-B937-BB72963A0ACD.heic" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1536" data-original-width="2048" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjhBP8b_QFFNYypqJsFauAf2u5ipS6c4zbEBANcBJSKnE5tmmUrvM90JkPYKot57mmxdo6vEPIdKgbprF_yMdBPp5V98veuNClnS2lHON40bKGNhgAIeaNKtnMHieyrf9bzuE45/w400-h300/18F6FFC1-A9ED-4699-B937-BB72963A0ACD.heic" width="400" /></a></div><div>
My thoughts from the game are:<br />
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<li>The initiative rules create a fantastic ebb and flow across the turn.</li><li>Tanks die really easily.</li><li>Infantry on the other hand are hard to kill. They can only be removed through the accumulation of morale markers, which takes either a long time or a significant concentration of fire.</li><li>You never really have enough command tokens to do everything that you want, particularly when you start to lose teams. You need to think really carefully about what you want to do in the turn and concentrate your command tokens on doing that, rather than spending them reacting to your opponent.</li><li>It gets really hard to do things mid game, as the accumulation of morale markers makes activation harder. Things just don't do what you want them to, which I think is a great mechanic.</li>
</ul><div>I really like it. I don't think the game would replace TY as my WW3 game of choice, but it is a very different experience and an enjoyable change.</div>
</div></div>Richardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00974055540062290284noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16854305.post-34665142515940790482021-01-04T19:04:00.001+13:002021-01-04T19:04:45.727+13:002020 Retrospective<p>It's hard to do a hobby retrospective for 2020 without mentioning the pandemic. In New Zealand we were blessed that our remoteness gave the government time to put together a heavy-handed but effective response, combined with a whole lot of luck, which eliminated community transmission of the virus and allowed us to have a normal Christmas.</p><p>I managed to keep up with monthly posts until June, after which I totally overwhelmed with work and lacked the motivation and energy to do anything. In that time I did however manage a total of 13 posts, which was a significantly better effort than the year before.</p><p>The year was bookended by 100pt TY at ValleyCon and 60pt FOW-MW at Remember December. <a href="https://rdsteer.blogspot.com/2020/01/valleycon-2020-review.html">I ran T-64s at ValleyCon</a>, placing fourth, and Afrika Korps panzers at Remember December, also placing fourth.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEglz2v2pnPoVpR0QWHY2NSpSqPtS1R9kcjimnxZag0Rg52fNZ_eD15kVo6ZSNZMPFOvsygqI4wIScknNN-r2L7DODdr2qZOw3P0vLM0I9S-Snemv6mJxQ8EdrjYwyoNMPA0vZhD/s2048/FC2526C6-B86D-4E42-BC1D-E16E16DFA297.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1536" data-original-width="2048" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEglz2v2pnPoVpR0QWHY2NSpSqPtS1R9kcjimnxZag0Rg52fNZ_eD15kVo6ZSNZMPFOvsygqI4wIScknNN-r2L7DODdr2qZOw3P0vLM0I9S-Snemv6mJxQ8EdrjYwyoNMPA0vZhD/w400-h300/FC2526C6-B86D-4E42-BC1D-E16E16DFA297.jpeg" width="400"></a></div><p>I didn't write about Remember December, nor take any photos, but as usual it was a great day. I ran a Panzer III company:</p><blockquote class="tr_bq"><b>Panzer III Tank Company - Afrika Korps</b></blockquote><blockquote class="tr_bq">Company HQ - 2 x Panzer III (short 5cm)</blockquote><blockquote class="tr_bq">Panzer III Tank Platoon - 3 x Panzer III (short 5cm), 1 x Panzer III (long 5cm)</blockquote><blockquote class="tr_bq">Panzer IV Tank Platoon - 2 x Panzer IV (short 7.5cm), 1 x Panzer IV (long 7.5cm)</blockquote><blockquote class="tr_bq">Panzer II Light Tank Platoon - 3 x Panzer II</blockquote><blockquote class="tr_bq"><b>Total Cost: 60 pts</b></blockquote><p>I thought the list would be terrible, but it was felt pretty good. I lost my first game against a US Rifle Company - I made the error of choosing Attack rather than Manoeuvre, which forced me into a No Retreat, losing because I didn't know that the newest version of the mission requires you to remain within 8" of an objective to keep the game going beyond Turn 6. I won the next two, against US Lees/Stuarts in Free For All (by the skin of my teeth and some very lucky Unit Last Stand tests), and a Panzer IV company in Encounter (confirming that the short 7.5cm is terribly over-costed).</p><p>I had a good spurt of painting FOW in the middle of the year, finishing most of the remaining models I had left for my Mediterranean British - two more platoons of armoured cars and platoons of Mk VIBs, Carriers, Vickers MGs, and 4.2" mortars. I didn't touch my TY Syrians.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgWczjh_-4ZowJpSUAl01Tqr0TE17gd9K2l36TnQqqqVq5MXMt5Dm2nMH1DyAIeiX0eTGd5xZlfVsgWWy7oM1Ofu9_k2f3yGXW07EYTr5awNU_XQqxMgEglohwtgxq-ZQ6TXGaI/s2827/F8F1640B-4BCF-4365-A147-FB7852AC0387_1_201_a.heic" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1112" data-original-width="2827" height="158" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgWczjh_-4ZowJpSUAl01Tqr0TE17gd9K2l36TnQqqqVq5MXMt5Dm2nMH1DyAIeiX0eTGd5xZlfVsgWWy7oM1Ofu9_k2f3yGXW07EYTr5awNU_XQqxMgEglohwtgxq-ZQ6TXGaI/w400-h158/F8F1640B-4BCF-4365-A147-FB7852AC0387_1_201_a.heic" width="400"></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgIRzwhLXawSOUu7Z5vzvPx89q-y1ojUkTIJqur8elZBbXlgZt0GMQJa3Wo-5nSwHvvh5bfwYFrdI77JT8IEhXHehlzk7100lWRTnWXQt8sxvS8CLpPava5kGJQ3APcu24FgXPL/s2936/CA54C00C-E179-4C25-8E7B-B0E65E51217F_1_201_a.heic" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1071" data-original-width="2936" height="146" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgIRzwhLXawSOUu7Z5vzvPx89q-y1ojUkTIJqur8elZBbXlgZt0GMQJa3Wo-5nSwHvvh5bfwYFrdI77JT8IEhXHehlzk7100lWRTnWXQt8sxvS8CLpPava5kGJQ3APcu24FgXPL/w400-h146/CA54C00C-E179-4C25-8E7B-B0E65E51217F_1_201_a.heic" width="400"></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjvQ8Nc7BMBRYwYh6R4Ck73T0Z05lifPjQcAf00fZr3Vl1G-fIgIqe894NU_fUL6Gu2YlrgeSML8p32-QlXmHcNVkhncd-T4dmxXeyOUduwDpGv8kMhnRE-hFcAeHWc1TNx7NtA/s2048/47BE0A59-209B-4C9C-B21E-46EB091DC2C6.heic" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1536" data-original-width="2048" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjvQ8Nc7BMBRYwYh6R4Ck73T0Z05lifPjQcAf00fZr3Vl1G-fIgIqe894NU_fUL6Gu2YlrgeSML8p32-QlXmHcNVkhncd-T4dmxXeyOUduwDpGv8kMhnRE-hFcAeHWc1TNx7NtA/w400-h300/47BE0A59-209B-4C9C-B21E-46EB091DC2C6.heic" width="400"></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiP-E_lZdZUomXp64ciYVkaBORuDXuHBwxuS9axIg0XKdMq7hp1I_LF2DbzsQVQ2oYRBFBmvalNSrq6Cl5cjTQXBkoY_soCm7p4dJC6h7-Dp_kKkKM7n-SL0_N5ju5oe-Sbsl3i/s2048/6D6695B1-0DF6-44EF-8DA3-755D355D660A_1_201_a.heic" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1536" data-original-width="2048" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiP-E_lZdZUomXp64ciYVkaBORuDXuHBwxuS9axIg0XKdMq7hp1I_LF2DbzsQVQ2oYRBFBmvalNSrq6Cl5cjTQXBkoY_soCm7p4dJC6h7-Dp_kKkKM7n-SL0_N5ju5oe-Sbsl3i/w400-h300/6D6695B1-0DF6-44EF-8DA3-755D355D660A_1_201_a.heic" width="400"></a></div><p>I had three goals for 2020 relating to 28mm - painting and playing. I painted two squads of Perry Fallschirmjager, but did not play any games with them, nor did I do any work on the 28mm Landsknechts.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhYcfztjxMpaLlviYK-KbjSFBcPyG5CQczlRHEfQRZXG6NXi3-Fg1EYZbuCqnUFBmLNIZj67yzoJqpOHAlpCOPeFG4SzJy52TdZsdH4e2Cwmyb-RKdycsgF0g0nmzz7eimxVY3m/s3007/IMG_0889.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1046" data-original-width="3007" height="139" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhYcfztjxMpaLlviYK-KbjSFBcPyG5CQczlRHEfQRZXG6NXi3-Fg1EYZbuCqnUFBmLNIZj67yzoJqpOHAlpCOPeFG4SzJy52TdZsdH4e2Cwmyb-RKdycsgF0g0nmzz7eimxVY3m/w400-h139/IMG_0889.JPG" width="400"></a></div><p>My most successful goal was to paint a Black Seas fleet box, which I changed during the year to be painting the Royal Navy ships required to play the Smugglers' Run campaign. I fell slightly short, needing just two more cutters to complete this fleet. With Warlord Games not having released a cutter model at the time (<a href="https://warlordgames.myshopify.com/products/black-seas-cutters-squadron?_pos=7&_sid=717d07f30&_ss=r">one is now available</a>), I ordered some from <a href="https://www.hagen-miniatures.de/naval-wargame/napoleonic-period/ships/small-xebec-2092-2096-2097-2098-2099-2100-2111.html">Hagen Miniatures</a> in June. Covid got in the way, with Deutsche Post spending much of the year not shipping to New Zealand, and I only received them in December.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhlOxVbkTrSezt4oKxg15Qw7N-h0MMEJ8lS-yFW4y4IBfEXZrpAcP2ntBAJHoZTlJPfhWCCAIY0Z4caR9wy1V82dGcjoBeZJKb-mj_IJctRGQoPe2Yx8kqvxjGDN3fNFIZgCAh5/s2048/9F9D2F5D-F07C-4C8D-A0CE-8B4A8280A776.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1536" data-original-width="2048" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhlOxVbkTrSezt4oKxg15Qw7N-h0MMEJ8lS-yFW4y4IBfEXZrpAcP2ntBAJHoZTlJPfhWCCAIY0Z4caR9wy1V82dGcjoBeZJKb-mj_IJctRGQoPe2Yx8kqvxjGDN3fNFIZgCAh5/w400-h300/9F9D2F5D-F07C-4C8D-A0CE-8B4A8280A776.jpeg" width="400"></a></div><p>I have decided to set fewer goals for 2021.</p><p>1. Field a T-80 company for Team Yankee. I have picked up the Soviet halves of a couple of <a href="https://www.flamesofwar.com/hobby.aspx?art_id=7057">the new TY starter sets</a>, which are great value for the number of sprues that they contain, so need to paint them up and get them on the table.</p><p>2. Play a 1500pt game of 40K. I painted up about 400pts of Adeptus Mechanicus this year, so there's a bit of work needing to be done first.</p><p>3. Play through the Smugglers' Run campaign for Black Seas.</p><p>4. Administer a FOW ladder tournament for the club.</p><p>So happy new year, and thanks for reading the blog. Stay safe, and best wishes for 2021.</p>Richardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00974055540062290284noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16854305.post-63920826364229171112020-08-25T07:34:00.000+12:002020-08-25T07:34:02.650+12:00And So It BeginsLast week I played 40K for the first time, but it didn't come about how I had expected. I was rushing to paint as much as I could before the club day on Saturday, when my 10 year old daughter Zoe asked if she could paint something as well. This seemed like a good idea, so we headed off to the nearest hobby shop to see what we could find. Her attention was caught by a poster of a Space Marine and a Necron, so we picked up a Recruit Edition starter box and she's been doing a very nice job of painting up both sides while I chip away at my Admech.<br>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgsdn2WD_7DoiwezFQECSo2tJztFBhzYlneuH-e9CSMTqmzgRWfBHP4WSqrzCZVRtr8eEVztIArKtqYlRnm8e1n3buf_Cc2lPU0rNpPKZgiPbF-TEZOzVII26zFhIwo4adIEHeg/s1600/554C30AE-C23D-4E77-A3C5-B82BA05710C1_1_201_a.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1200" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgsdn2WD_7DoiwezFQECSo2tJztFBhzYlneuH-e9CSMTqmzgRWfBHP4WSqrzCZVRtr8eEVztIArKtqYlRnm8e1n3buf_Cc2lPU0rNpPKZgiPbF-TEZOzVII26zFhIwo4adIEHeg/s400/554C30AE-C23D-4E77-A3C5-B82BA05710C1_1_201_a.jpeg" width="300"></a></div>
As well as some beautiful push-fit miniatures, the starter box includes a few basic missions to help learn the mechanics, growing in size and complexity until they use all of the miniatures in the box, and it was the first couple of these that were my first play through of the rules. As Zoe works her way through the rest of the box we will move on to the next ones.<br>
<br>
Saturday came around, so we headed to the club and played a basic 500pt game against <a href="https://regimentnz.blogspot.com/search/label/McZermof">McZermof's</a> Deathwatch.<br>
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As a learning experience it was great - we got to cover all of the basic rules, I got an idea of some of the shenanigans that are possible, and I was able to Neutron Laser a few Space Marines before I got overrun. There's lot to learn, but looking forward to playing again soon.<br>
<br>
Next time: I have impulse bought a copy of <a href="https://www.greatescapegames.co.uk/online-store/seven-days/sdttrr-pdf">'Seven Days to the River Rhine'</a>, so hope to offer a few thoughts on that.Richardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00974055540062290284noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16854305.post-70132926080763964112020-08-02T18:04:00.001+12:002020-08-02T18:04:22.332+12:00Richard's JulyI don’t know where July went. I didn’t paint anything or play any games, so there’s no point doing the full write up.<br />
<br />
I did however do a bit of reading. Late last year I found Shelby Foote’s “The Civil War: A Narrative” trilogy in a local second hand bookshop. I completed the first book at the start of this year before getting distracted by other things, but got back into it during July and am currently half way through book two, bringing me to the end of Gettysburg. Before picking it up I knew nothing of the period, apart from the Union winning in the end, so it’s been quite an adventure. It’s an incredibly well-written series, with the author skilfully weaving the events in the different theatres, and the political backdrop, into a coherent narrative. Recommended.<br />
<br />
To get back on track, I've booked in for my first game of 40K at the club on 22 August. I currently have all of 87 points painted and based and need to get to 500pts, so I will have to get cracking to meet the deadline.<br />
<ul>
<li>Models Finished: 0</li>
<li>Leadpile Size: Increased</li>
<li>Month Rating: Missing in action.</li>
</ul>
Richardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00974055540062290284noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16854305.post-8729589662518161702020-07-05T14:54:00.000+12:002020-07-05T14:54:09.719+12:00Richard's JuneI started the month thinking it was realistic to average a model a day for all 30 days. That hope lasted for about a week. During the month I switched from working at home to being back in the office. This change was pretty draining, presumably due to having to interact with people, and I struggled with energy and motivation to paint in the evenings. When I did finally get back into painting, I found myself only wanting to do 40K, leaving a bunch of half finished historicals on the desk.<br />
<br />
<b>1. Painting 28mm FJ. </b><br />
<br />
I had been planning to complete a squad of Luftwaffe troops, but in the end just managed two figures.<br />
<div>
<br />
<b>2. Find a set of WW2 rules that I enjoy playing in 28mm.</b><br />
<br />
We did have plans to play Battlegroup at the club, but life got in the way.<br />
<br />
<b>3. Paint a Landsknecht square for Impetus.</b><br />
<b><br /></b>No progress.<br />
<br />
<b>4. Complete a Black Seas fleet. </b><br />
<br />
I painted three schooners, which wasn't a very pleasant experience, so the second half of the box remains undone.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEidBF42eo9LkZNod6nZOflovTap1cI1hYhg9sgVvP3Q6EW9Gfo7iB5MMDIa4crtW5LYu_oze8eEx7vGTVtBKyLl2VX20VIG3PB9JjmmvEHwG0i19yc3Xp0trLVIUO0eiZEP5get/s4032/F4EABA12-E8F1-4959-BFFE-FA841887D0C1.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3024" data-original-width="4032" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEidBF42eo9LkZNod6nZOflovTap1cI1hYhg9sgVvP3Q6EW9Gfo7iB5MMDIa4crtW5LYu_oze8eEx7vGTVtBKyLl2VX20VIG3PB9JjmmvEHwG0i19yc3Xp0trLVIUO0eiZEP5get/w500-h375/F4EABA12-E8F1-4959-BFFE-FA841887D0C1.jpeg" width="400" /></a></div>
This leaves just two cutters to complete the project. In the absence of a Warlord product, I have ordered some from <a href="https://www.hagen-miniatures.de/naval-wargame/napoleonic-period/ships/small-xebec-2092-2096-2097-2098-2099-2100-2111.html" style="text-align: start;" target="_blank">Hagen Miniatures</a><span style="text-align: start;">, but Deutsche Post is not currently delivering to New Zealand so I am not sure when they will arrive. </span><br />
<span style="text-align: start;"><b><br /></b></span>
<span style="text-align: start;"><b>5. Try out Battlegroup: NORTHAG, and write a review. </b></span>
<br />
<div>
<div>
<br />
No progress, although my hard copy of the rules arrived this month.<br />
<br />
<b>6. Complete some of the random FOW platoons that I have lying around. </b><br />
<br />
A little more progress with the Mediterranean British, completing a platoon of 4.2" mortars.<br />
<br />
<b>7. Syrians for Team Yankee.</b><br />
<br />
No progress.</div>
<div>
<br />
<div>
<b>8. Put together an event or campaign of some kind. </b><br />
<b><br /></b>No progress.<br />
<br />
<b>9. Paint 500 points for 40K. </b><br />
<br />
I settled on the basing for my AdMech, decided to change the base colour that I was using for the Skitarii robes, painted four Rangers and updated the Vanguard to match. I still have two more figures from that first box, to be done as Alphas to make two minimum sized units, and then I've got a Dunecrawler to start.<br />
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<b>June Summary</b><br />
<ul>
<li>Models Finished: 13</li>
<li>Leadpile Size: Reduced, just.</li>
<li>Month Rating: Meh</li>
</ul>
</div>
</div>
</div>
Richardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00974055540062290284noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16854305.post-80684046303149730072020-06-02T20:12:00.002+12:002020-06-02T22:57:56.600+12:00Richard's MayLife is returning to normal here with the progressive lifting of COVID-related restrictions. It has been ten days since the last case was found, and it's likely that all restrictions except for the border controls will disappear in the next week or so.<br />
<br />
<b>1. Painting 28mm FJ. </b><br />
<br />
No progress.<br />
<br />
<b>2. Find a set of WW2 rules that I enjoy playing in 28mm.</b><br />
<br />
No progress.<br />
<br />
<b>3. Paint a Landsknecht square for Impetus.</b><br />
<b><br /></b>No progress.<br />
<br />
<b>4. Complete a Black Seas fleet. </b><br />
<br />
I finally finished USS Constitution, which was started in January, and then reflagged my Spanish ships as Americans. I also painted the last gunboat squadron I needed for my RN fleet. I have three schooners on the workbench, they would have to be the least enjoyable Black Seas kits I've made so far, and I'm worried about how sturdy they'll be on the table: narrow, all metal including sails, and very top heavy.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhRHk5ymLSWmEbPBeHbnKNYoVmsYmZZTRU_grFN0IdzR3PSe892yoYHi06vUysR2dLAVf4NL0JxZOYAIH7YG6X41g_3G3hRbdGvKh9N2g5H2kQuKFO3wly5_RIbIFAMUKxeNZOi/s1600/9D1171C5-CD47-473F-8C59-9E4EEDFDFB3F_1_201_a.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhRHk5ymLSWmEbPBeHbnKNYoVmsYmZZTRU_grFN0IdzR3PSe892yoYHi06vUysR2dLAVf4NL0JxZOYAIH7YG6X41g_3G3hRbdGvKh9N2g5H2kQuKFO3wly5_RIbIFAMUKxeNZOi/s400/9D1171C5-CD47-473F-8C59-9E4EEDFDFB3F_1_201_a.jpeg" width="400" /></a></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEivBHbiXqq-oHvZIOrDo1lVeP0GZcKT2v77aDEgS9rbK6Z-BR0KVbbdNIcfOGFZkpmUEVlx6iKidauMM93OkMc52Sgg8qdVbf5Cn7y8LGs2aggpfgmWPKWc7rOr-dajLVaflhwK/s1600/A70C60D7-2371-43BF-866C-E0DD3FEB3886_1_201_a.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="830" data-original-width="1600" height="207" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEivBHbiXqq-oHvZIOrDo1lVeP0GZcKT2v77aDEgS9rbK6Z-BR0KVbbdNIcfOGFZkpmUEVlx6iKidauMM93OkMc52Sgg8qdVbf5Cn7y8LGs2aggpfgmWPKWc7rOr-dajLVaflhwK/s400/A70C60D7-2371-43BF-866C-E0DD3FEB3886_1_201_a.jpeg" width="400" /></a></div>
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I also bought some Battlefoam trays for storage and transportation. These were BFL size trays for X-Wing, with packers made from some spare foam I had lying around.</div>
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<ul></ul>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<b>5. Try out Battlegroup: NORTHAG, and write a review. </b></div>
<br />
With restrictions easing, I'm hopeful of getting a game in the not too distant future.<br />
<br />
<b>6. Complete some of the random FOW platoons that I have lying around. </b><br />
<br />
I made good progress on this one. I pulled a few things out of the stash and did a bunch of work on my Mediterranean British, including finishing my last two Early War Armoured Car Platoons, a platoon of Light Mk VIbs, a platoon of Vickers MMGs, and some carriers and trucks. I only have a few related models left for the army, so will finish those off and then post photos of the wider collection.<br />
<br />
<b>7. Syrians for Team Yankee.</b><br />
<br />
No progress.</div>
<div>
<br />
<div>
<b>8. Put together an event or campaign of some kind. </b><br />
<b><br /></b>On hold, but I’m thinking about what we could do for some multiplayer TY once we’re able to reopen the club.<br />
<br />
<b>9. Paint 500 points for 40K. </b><br />
<br />
No progress. I'm annoyed that I put off buying more for so long, as the AdMech Start Collecting box I was intending to get has been re-released, replacing the Dunecrawler with a Dunerider, which is a disappointing change.<br />
<br />
<b>May Summary</b><br />
<ul>
<li>Models Finished: 21</li>
<li>Leadpile Size: Reduced!</li>
<li>Month Rating: Productive.</li>
</ul>
</div>
</div>
Richardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00974055540062290284noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16854305.post-47381177004422423602020-05-03T22:44:00.002+12:002020-07-04T09:14:20.594+12:00Richard's AprilWe spent most of April in national lockdown, but the restrictions have eased slightly in the last week, allowing non-essential businesses to open. I'm continuing to work from home under the new regime, which is being reassessed on 11 May. Much of the month was spent finish off the company's annual Asset Management Plan (if you feel like reading 400 pages on electricity distribution network management practices, <a href="https://www.welectricity.co.nz/disclosures/asset-management-plan/">you can download your very own copy</a>), so I didn't get as much hobbying done as I would have like to.<br />
<br />
<b>1. Painting 28mm FJ. </b><br />
<br />
No further progress.<br />
<br />
<b>2. Find a set of WW2 rules that I enjoy playing in 28mm.</b><br />
<br />
A couple of us are going to give Battlegroup WW2 a go, so that will be first cab off the rank once we're able to get together.<br />
<br />
<b>3. Paint a Landsknecht square for Impetus.</b><br />
<b><br /></b>Nope.<br />
<br />
<b>4. Complete a Black Seas fleet box. </b><br />
<br />
I completed my Royal Navy First Rate. This was hard going, and I had to take a break halfway through to work on something else, but I got there in the end. The Black Seas resin/metal models aren't quite as nice as the plastics, and I was particularly concerned about the metal masts. They definitely won't take much punishment, but the rigging seems to stabilise them enough to be okay for use in games.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEisyoaAPcMoUVNWKPd3YPOdVwXYyqRzGAXP35FScmCDAx6SOSDBmkrUka70_EIaPiAY0QsT0WiG33plq10WSLHhkGcp1i9XmMw6wUh-qmIttyMSGmSys3RCM7RXSxB8zPepQuX6/s1600/D4F2FE50-7083-4C3D-B9EB-6F1E8ABDDCB6.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEisyoaAPcMoUVNWKPd3YPOdVwXYyqRzGAXP35FScmCDAx6SOSDBmkrUka70_EIaPiAY0QsT0WiG33plq10WSLHhkGcp1i9XmMw6wUh-qmIttyMSGmSys3RCM7RXSxB8zPepQuX6/s400/D4F2FE50-7083-4C3D-B9EB-6F1E8ABDDCB6.jpeg" width="400" /></a></div>
For my smuggler hunters, that leaves the following still to go:<br />
<ul>
<li>2 x Cutter.</li>
<li>3 x Schooner.</li>
<li>1 x Gunboat Squadron.</li>
</ul>
<ul>
</ul>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<b>5. Try out Battlegroup: NORTHAG, and write a review. </b></div>
<br />
I have written some first thoughts in <a href="https://rdsteer.blogspot.com/2020/04/battlegroup-northag.html">an earlier post</a>. I'm looking forward to the club being able to reopen in order to try it for real.<br />
<br />
<b>6. Complete some of the random FOW platoons that I have lying around. </b><br />
<br />
No progress.<br />
<br />
<b>7. Syrians for Team Yankee.</b><br />
<br />
No further progress, but I did paint a pair of Geckos for my Soviets.<br />
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<div>
<b>8. Put together an event or campaign of some kind. </b><br />
<b><br /></b>On hold.<br />
<br />
<b>9. Paint 500 points for 40K. </b><br />
<br />
A new one! I started painting my Skitarii during April. Only four figures painted so far, but I really enjoyed it. Now that we have moved out of lockdown I will order some bits to bring me up to 500pts of Adeptus Mechanicus.<br />
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<b>April Summary</b><br />
<ul>
<li>Models Finished: 7</li>
<li>Leadpile Size: Reduced!</li>
<li>Month Rating: Quiet.</li>
</ul>
</div>
Richardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00974055540062290284noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16854305.post-28088617179261555602020-04-05T21:10:00.002+12:002020-04-05T22:48:42.071+12:00Battlegroup: NORTHAG - First ThoughtsLast year I jumped on the kickstarter for Plastic Soldier Company's new Battlegroup: NORTHAG system, and this week they very generously sent a PDF of the rulebook to backers, ahead of the general release.<br />
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The game is set in 1983, with lists provided for GSFG and BAOR. It has been suggested that the West Germans and Americans will be covered in a second book at some point in the future.<br />
<br />
The game has been designed for 10mm to 15mm miniatures, and is being supported by a range of 10mm products from PSC. It could definitely be played in 6mm without any changes.<br />
<br />
There are three standard sizes of game: "Platoon" at 500pts on a 6x4, "Company" at 750pts" on a 6x8, and "Battalion" at 1000pts on a 6x10 or larger. For context, a troop of three Chieftains costs 129pts and a Soviet motor rifle platoon with BMPs is 80pts.<br />
<br />
Infantry basing is largely compatible with TY: the Soviet Motor Rifle Platoon has three AK74 Fireteams, three RPG teams, and three BTRs/BMPs with options for adding AGS17, SA7, PKMs etc. A British Mechanised Platoon has seven Fireteams and four FV432s, with options for adding a Carl Gustav team, GPMG, Milan etc.<br />
<br />
Activation is by team. You give a team an order, resolve its activation, then move onto the next team until you run out of orders for the turn. There are no command distances: teams function independently. A pinned team cannot be given orders, with rallying occurring at the end of your turn.<br />
<br />
There are two types of shooting: aimed and suppressing. Infantry can only be targeted with suppressing fire. Each team shooting gets one D6 to hit, targeting one enemy team.<br />
<br />
<ul>
<li>For aimed shooting with HE, the sequence goes D6 to observe the target, D6 to hit, and D6 cover save.</li>
<li>For aimed shooting with AP, the cover save is replaced by a penetration roll: 2D6 with a target of 7 modified by the difference in AT and armour ratings. There's a table for this, but I imagine it wouldn't need to be referred to after the first few times.</li>
<li>For suppressing fire, no observation roll is needed. ROF and HE rating modify the score to hit, the target gets a D6 cover save, and if that's failed, a D6 casualty save to destroy the team. Failing the cover save results in the target team being pinned.</li>
</ul>
<br />
All indirect fire is from off-table. Anything heavier than mortars is only available as a "timed strike" - before the game you decide what turn the barrage will arrive, and write down the location where it will land.<br />
<br />
Force morale is managed through the Battle Rating system. Each platoon in your list is worth a certain number of BR, independent of points, adding up for a total BR for the force. Each time you lose a team, you draw a counter from a common pot. Most of these counters specify a number of BR, and your force breaks when the BR from counters you have drawn (the details of which are kept secret) exceeds the BR of your list. These counters also include random events, so drawing a chit could result, for example, in being allocated a free helicopter gunship. A number of other situations also require drawing a counter, e.g. you draw a counter to rally D6 units.<br />
<br />
There is only one scenario in the book, a meeting engagement. The first two turns are played with the recce screens, on the third turn the vanguard unit arrives, and the main body arrives in turns five and six.<br />
<br />
Bearing in mind that I haven't been able to play a proper game, just a few test situations to try out the mechanics, here are my thoughts as a TY player who has never played the WW2 version of Battlegroup:<br />
<br />
<ul>
<li>It seems like a much more thoughtful game than TY, and I imagine that play could be quite slowly in comparison.</li>
<li>Mid game you will a lot of individual teams to keep track of, and many more teams on table than orders available to control them with. You will need to decide which units you are going to activate each turn, because you won't be able to activate them all.</li>
<li>I priced up a 500pt Soviet list from my collection, and it came to 41 teams, which I would somehow have to control with eight orders. A sample British list came to 26 teams with nine orders. There is actually no way you can have everything doing something once you move out of the recce phase, and order of activation becomes very important.</li>
<li>This could make it very tactical, and having the initiative could be incredibly significant: if your opponent has to burn orders responding to your moves, then they're not going to be able to do the things that they really want to be doing somewhere else on the table.</li>
<li>There is a bit of record keeping required (e.g. ammunition tracking for ATGMs, the target points for any timed bombardments), which would take a bit of getting used to.</li>
<li>Platoon orders are going to be important. These cost two orders, but apply to every team in the platoon. Only two of them are available: Move and Hold. The "Platoon - Hold" order is worth noting. This places every team in the platoon into Ambush (i.e. overwatch), and able to shoot in the enemy turn. Take a British Mechanised Platoon of seven Fireteams. It would cost seven orders (out of nine if it's a Platoon level game) for each team to fire during your turn, leaving just two orders for the remaining 400+ points in your force. Or you spend two orders to place them all in Ambush, allowing them all to fire at any point in the enemy turn.</li>
<li>It will be interesting to see what overwatch means for the amount of manouever in the game compared to TY.</li>
<li>Ranges are much longer than what we are used to in TY. A MBT gun has a maximum range of 70", and small arms usually have a range of 30". Careful terrain design will be needed to close off lines of sight, because otherwise there's nowhere to hide. </li>
<li>There are some nice differences between NATO and Warsaw Pact. For example, losing MBTs is a bit of a doom spiral for the British. The loss of each of the first three Chieftains requires one BR counter to be drawn. The loss of numbers four to six cost two BR counters each, and so on, meaning the British care a lot more about the loss of their tanks than the Soviets do.</li>
<li>It would have been nice to have an example attack/defence scenario as well as the meeting engagement.</li>
<li>There are a number of opportunities for conversions of kits to create equipment that doesn't have a role in TY - Chieftain bridgelayer, anyone?</li>
</ul>
<div>
I definitely think it's worth trying, and I'm hoping I can persuade one of the local TY British players to give it a go with me at the club once the lockdown is lifted.</div>
Richardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00974055540062290284noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16854305.post-63371989578314232832020-04-01T19:41:00.002+13:002020-05-02T15:28:21.466+12:00Richard's MarchWhat a crazy month. In New Zealand we are locked down for at least the next three weeks. All schools and businesses are closed except for essential services, and we are required to remain at home except for buying food, medicine, and other essentials, although you are still allowed to walk around your neighbourhood. Needless to say, there are more people out walking each day that I've ever seen in the past.<br />
<br />
I'm working from home, and Sarah has taken on home-schooling the kids. In a way it's a relief to have reached this point: over the last few weeks you couldn't plan even a few days ahead due to the rate at which the situation was changing. Now, we are on an island of certainty for four weeks: hunker down, stay in your bubble, and make do with whatever activities are already in the house.<br />
<br />
March is always a busy month at work, and I ended up working some pretty long hours before the lockdown, but I still managed to get a few things done on my list.<br />
<br />
<b>1. Painting 28mm FJ. </b><br />
<br />
I completed two squads during March. One had previously been painted but hadn't based, and the other had been base coated. I still have some support weapons and a squad of Luftwaffe troops to go.<br />
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<b>2. Find a set of WW2 rules that I enjoy playing in 28mm.</b><br />
<br />
Alas, games are pretty much off the menu for the foreseeable future. But at least it looks like I'll have an army to use once things return to normal.<br />
<br />
<b>3. Paint a Landsknecht square for Impetus.</b><br />
<b><br /></b>
Moving on.<br />
<br />
<b>4. Complete a Black Seas fleet box. </b><br />
<br />
I completed two frigates and a third rate. This means I've now finished the Master and Commander box..<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjHS66IiWVXpx83CyJ4hkzu-H6t-2iBD7dJ5CSVUl2YAHpZ1HJkrrPzZ0JSPxCWA4vCWN8jMpQGwjEiYGKkQ1Kg-xpo6E9A9OYoLwNsQ8_xR4AYMywTBLhOLdOH7GKkA_x9QZ4T/s1600/IMG_0883.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjHS66IiWVXpx83CyJ4hkzu-H6t-2iBD7dJ5CSVUl2YAHpZ1HJkrrPzZ0JSPxCWA4vCWN8jMpQGwjEiYGKkQ1Kg-xpo6E9A9OYoLwNsQ8_xR4AYMywTBLhOLdOH7GKkA_x9QZ4T/s400/IMG_0883.JPG" width="400" /></a></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiyHTXm3UHTHKEIprirDfPR1yl3cOf2tLqZHy7zVXRo41CVWgyGx1lvkdFR_zqt64kizn1JI1O1-wBuimT5UiIhId5-9l1EMEVeir9ZuH_QDy52-jT3ZnmxJYiTK8XUrezxdUeV/s1600/IMG_0876.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiyHTXm3UHTHKEIprirDfPR1yl3cOf2tLqZHy7zVXRo41CVWgyGx1lvkdFR_zqt64kizn1JI1O1-wBuimT5UiIhId5-9l1EMEVeir9ZuH_QDy52-jT3ZnmxJYiTK8XUrezxdUeV/s400/IMG_0876.JPG" width="400" /></a></div>
For my smuggler hunters, that leaves the following still to go:<br />
<ul>
<li>1 x First Rate. Purchased.</li>
<li>2 x Cutter. No indication of when Warlord are going to release any of these.</li>
<li>3 x Schooner. On order.</li>
<li>1 x Gunboat Squadron: Primed.</li>
</ul>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<b>5. Try out Battlegroup: NORTHAG, and write a review. </b></div>
<br />
There was a post on the PSC Facebook page that they would be sending a PDF of the rules to all pre-order customers, so I should be able to do this in April with some solo play.<br />
<br />
<b>6. Complete some of the random FOW platoons that I have lying around. </b><br />
<br />
No progress.<br />
<br />
<b>7. Syrians for Team Yankee.</b><br />
<br />
No further progress.<br />
<br />
<div>
<b>8. Put together an event or campaign of some kind. </b><br />
<b><br /></b>In this time of physical distancing, this is on hold.<br />
<b><br /></b><b>March Summary</b><br />
<ul>
<li>Models Finished: 20</li>
<li>Leadpile Size: Reduced!</li>
<li>Month Rating: Productive.</li>
</ul>
</div>
Richardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00974055540062290284noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16854305.post-49227911109380198162020-03-01T20:33:00.001+13:002020-03-01T20:33:30.547+13:00Richard’s FebruaryHow did I go during February? Apparently not too well.<br />
<br />
<b>1. Painting 28mm FJ. </b><br />
<br />
No progress.<br />
<br />
<b>2. Find a set of WW2 rules that I enjoy playing in 28mm.</b><br />
<br />
Nothing happening here yet.<br />
<br />
<b>3. Paint a Landsknecht square for Impetus.</b><br />
<b><br /></b>I'm kinda regretting putting this one on the list.<br />
<br />
<b>4. Complete a Black Seas fleet box. </b><br />
<br />
I completed a third brig, a <a href="https://rdsteer.blogspot.com/2020/02/black-seas-conversions.html">sloop conversion</a>, and a gunboat squadron. That leaves the following still to go:<br />
<ul>
<li>1 x First Rate. Purchased</li>
<li>1 x Third Rate. Primed and ready to paint.</li>
<li>2 x Frigate. Also primed.</li>
<li>2 x Cutter. No indication that Warlord are going to release any of these, but I may have a plan.</li>
<li>3 x Schooner. On order.</li>
<li>1 x Gunboat Squadron: Primed.</li>
</ul>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgPxhkvRGPrre2hFoZU5EydAPm7he6ZLiqEu6ubnrvD-spsY53LmUErinRtwdxpGjpgi-NUC-lCXfCjmXd_vZwD4GOIRKhq81igIBKNEPrIzZGkdShDur-Mt4m8s2r0gQai_9ut/s1600/DB34ED94-6BC1-453A-BD08-D746CB7B9040.jpeg" imageanchor="1"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgPxhkvRGPrre2hFoZU5EydAPm7he6ZLiqEu6ubnrvD-spsY53LmUErinRtwdxpGjpgi-NUC-lCXfCjmXd_vZwD4GOIRKhq81igIBKNEPrIzZGkdShDur-Mt4m8s2r0gQai_9ut/s400/DB34ED94-6BC1-453A-BD08-D746CB7B9040.jpeg" width="400" /></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhFqXeCsL3Q-oCET4_7Pr8DXrVwtDiyQhVhwa_Ffg3agB1N2zZzeM-Ol_A7vHj3ZFcZY97f6ZDVCqnZgIdMqx9H_esUetYVBy8l0LGZqSrvGJzTyxc4agM9XwGlX3AGgXXjO1ME/s1600/DCF3E285-B594-4050-88A0-5F1228000B55.jpeg" imageanchor="1"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhFqXeCsL3Q-oCET4_7Pr8DXrVwtDiyQhVhwa_Ffg3agB1N2zZzeM-Ol_A7vHj3ZFcZY97f6ZDVCqnZgIdMqx9H_esUetYVBy8l0LGZqSrvGJzTyxc4agM9XwGlX3AGgXXjO1ME/s400/DCF3E285-B594-4050-88A0-5F1228000B55.jpeg" width="400" /></a> </div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<b>5. Try out Battlegroup: NORTHAG, and write a review. </b></div>
<br />
Waiting for its release in April.<br />
<br />
<b>6. Complete some of the random FOW platoons that I have lying around. </b><br />
<br />
No progress.<br />
<br />
<b>7. Syrians for Team Yankee.</b><br />
<br />
A lot of the interest went out of this one after seeing minor nations struggle at ValleyCon. One of the main reasons for going with Syrians was that they're Warpac-aligned with hunter killer helicopters, so to try and get back into it, this month I completed the Gazelle flight.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiSV_GtKZLWr22y4OtrdJBZIjUzoT3akW9cTDWlFVQF66ePpvPvd84QVPvRcwINe9cSwtTFTsysjXTCdjes-L68IlpqWHXGaBY2Gd0nvwoy7GkqSkncIVtKaUbc23F1LmSOQNzd/s1600/197FB4EE-FFC0-4D5D-A7EE-0685462E0EE5.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiSV_GtKZLWr22y4OtrdJBZIjUzoT3akW9cTDWlFVQF66ePpvPvd84QVPvRcwINe9cSwtTFTsysjXTCdjes-L68IlpqWHXGaBY2Gd0nvwoy7GkqSkncIVtKaUbc23F1LmSOQNzd/s400/197FB4EE-FFC0-4D5D-A7EE-0685462E0EE5.jpeg" width="400" /></a></div>
<div>
<b>8. Put together an event or campaign of some kind. </b><br />
<b><br /></b>Pencilled in to start in March!<br />
<b><br /></b>
<b>February Summary</b><br />
<ul>
<li>Models Painted: 5</li>
<li>Leadpile Size: Reduced!</li>
<li>Month Rating: Slow</li>
</ul>
</div>
Richardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00974055540062290284noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16854305.post-20572132010752119452020-02-27T21:26:00.000+13:002020-02-28T08:10:55.046+13:0015mm RoadsLast year I was looking at urban roads to add to my 15mm terrain for Flames of War. As nice as the Battlefield in a Box roads are, they're quite expensive, so I looked at making my own.<br />
<br />
I had tried a variety of materials for roading in the past. The most successful was railway ballast glued to felt as gravel, but I was after a sealed look this time. EVA foam looked okay, but curls with age and is so light that it blows away in the slightest draught. MDF is rigid so doesn’t conform to terrain.<br />
<br />
In the end I went with 1.5mm rubber sheet. This was $40/metre on a 1.2m wide roll from Para Rubber (<a href="https://pararubber.co.nz/industrial-rubber-strip/692-rubber-insertion-sheet.html" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;">https://pararubber.co.nz/industrial-rubber-strip/692-rubber-insertion-sheet.html</a>).<br />
<br />
I cut it into 3" wide strips, scuffed the surface with sandpaper (otherwise the glue beads up), brushed on PVA, and covered it with budgie sand. Once the glue was dry and the excess brushed off, I sprayed it with flat black to help seal it. Using an art foam roller, I rolled on grey acrylic paint. It would have been quicker to spray them grey, but the hope was a heavier coat of acrylic would help give the surface some durability. The total cost worked out to be about NZ$1/foot.<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhDGb5dBMyNBWaAywxFcOxJvL7dFAZaRgwyKlULJGKf8W0mVeLuiuQCCuQmuU_BBycSssFOtLu_sLADwfazQfkhcmEJvMFTy6O6If_0OiRv7G92mKWC11uGQ_K5CCUe79sitH6B/s1600/612B2EAD-0AE6-4473-B269-352E7FF9ECAD.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1200" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhDGb5dBMyNBWaAywxFcOxJvL7dFAZaRgwyKlULJGKf8W0mVeLuiuQCCuQmuU_BBycSssFOtLu_sLADwfazQfkhcmEJvMFTy6O6If_0OiRv7G92mKWC11uGQ_K5CCUe79sitH6B/s400/612B2EAD-0AE6-4473-B269-352E7FF9ECAD.jpeg" width="300" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The rubber scuffed up with sandpaper</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEib4v8MVQ1UE1pcPpZRmWN_0C7uuU6hHCqOUaiX0ml62UENPGI7xouipJQote4boh2-ycdmp9oidiEXDSlYZ9wVShfgaanhn4jBaxl11oobXEWuu6LqB4h-pks-WNuPaedoF696/s1600/B3FE89DB-D062-4A16-B6F7-979D6B6E4C89.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1200" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEib4v8MVQ1UE1pcPpZRmWN_0C7uuU6hHCqOUaiX0ml62UENPGI7xouipJQote4boh2-ycdmp9oidiEXDSlYZ9wVShfgaanhn4jBaxl11oobXEWuu6LqB4h-pks-WNuPaedoF696/s400/B3FE89DB-D062-4A16-B6F7-979D6B6E4C89.jpeg" width="300" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Gluing down the sand</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjOPxtnC9UJE_3nlMruFcVe1qq0488y3IOWauCqKKp_hp5kQx_GTkeQ_weViK_IABMdbsbuLjS7mf4MFy94j60OLFuWcdZKDLAfbFR65fkhh6SKXeav2_70PBpdPpw2kUIkdppH/s1600/AA10FD74-08AD-4882-82BE-2F6E1947FEB0.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1200" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjOPxtnC9UJE_3nlMruFcVe1qq0488y3IOWauCqKKp_hp5kQx_GTkeQ_weViK_IABMdbsbuLjS7mf4MFy94j60OLFuWcdZKDLAfbFR65fkhh6SKXeav2_70PBpdPpw2kUIkdppH/s400/AA10FD74-08AD-4882-82BE-2F6E1947FEB0.jpeg" width="300" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">After being rolled with paint</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjiAxw2KlHKOhkzgND4blCSVPIMA5g0TouWhbZ92a17PqDfpoa26X_YB_e9ePzlYdhPWj6fkAtDo2G9icGeGs3QbHZIt9S0rxYngYE1Y6FeFhD8rIBZPI9lM4kG6pr6Wtdzx3kH/s1600/D7EC1A82-1A7C-4369-83EB-1C9150AAB154_1_201_a.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1199" data-original-width="1600" height="298" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjiAxw2KlHKOhkzgND4blCSVPIMA5g0TouWhbZ92a17PqDfpoa26X_YB_e9ePzlYdhPWj6fkAtDo2G9icGeGs3QbHZIt9S0rxYngYE1Y6FeFhD8rIBZPI9lM4kG6pr6Wtdzx3kH/s400/D7EC1A82-1A7C-4369-83EB-1C9150AAB154_1_201_a.jpeg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The finished product</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
On the reverse side I am working through rolling on the grey paint without any sand, and adding centreline markings, for when I want a more modern look for Team Yankee.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhUKK9mtwKj5tumELZLDoieWfDtR4bc5VuoQG10fIDn1lVlysHMtNezgVwANkgMz_yNbqbgG1mOnzV4rW3Cwxih231u9ShWYdda6AnTsQuFF2J1b3KwlTmKqs820s1Eh9GBWkHe/s1600/00D3F371-5267-48DB-8A3F-1070DDADF25F.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1200" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhUKK9mtwKj5tumELZLDoieWfDtR4bc5VuoQG10fIDn1lVlysHMtNezgVwANkgMz_yNbqbgG1mOnzV4rW3Cwxih231u9ShWYdda6AnTsQuFF2J1b3KwlTmKqs820s1Eh9GBWkHe/s400/00D3F371-5267-48DB-8A3F-1070DDADF25F.jpeg" width="300" /></a></div>
Here are some photos of it in action in a game late last year.<br />
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Richardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00974055540062290284noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16854305.post-17710984442699691852020-02-09T20:59:00.001+13:002020-02-10T08:38:52.036+13:00Black Seas ConversionsThis is a post where I probably get a whole lot of nautical terminology wrong, but this week I’ve been working on a couple of conversions for Black Seas.<br />
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
The first is a Gunboat Squadron.<br />
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I decided that the boats in the stock kit looks a little too much like a trireme for my liking, so set about modifying them. </div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhJSp-YcpQorJYNwlZKndXCfpGYLY8lA01nEuUtdY4sK83FXRt_4bDCFsss3IkAA2fc70As92AIoLF8h_8OgOC5N2iLcKAUngVKMQl7ugHdK2cCFDAys8-OrPbzfFeOli4oIMi4/s1600/7E98729F-7F30-40FA-BE56-7B5068849FC7.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhJSp-YcpQorJYNwlZKndXCfpGYLY8lA01nEuUtdY4sK83FXRt_4bDCFsss3IkAA2fc70As92AIoLF8h_8OgOC5N2iLcKAUngVKMQl7ugHdK2cCFDAys8-OrPbzfFeOli4oIMi4/s400/7E98729F-7F30-40FA-BE56-7B5068849FC7.jpeg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">How the kit is meant to look</td></tr>
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<span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; font-size: 12pt;">I added bowsprits made from brass rod, removed the original mainsails and replaced them with gaff-rigged ones. </span></div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Modifications with 1mm brass rod</td></tr>
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The resin Warlord has used is quite ductile, so it drilled easily without fracturing. You may not see them in the photos, but there are 1mm holes drilled for rigging just above the waterline, on a line right between the two cannons. Apart from the metal topsail, the other sails were made from paper, based off the ones in the brig kit.<br />
<br />
The second conversion was a 12-gun Sloop made from the 18-gun Brig kit.<br />
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I sliced out the four middle guns with a razor saw, and joined the resulting halves together, while also removing the rear-most pair of guns and placing the mast slightly aft of where the main mast was on the brig. From the mast I removed the lower two yards. The result is a little bit fat, probably by about 2mm, but the surgery that would be required to remove that extra width from the kit doesn't bear thinking about.</div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjy1vpWDxGdrb9SvtRJ6EUm4g_2MqOdTmnJ2pNdzPbGVoNnr2BuGBI8N__bOgAn4HpxG3kaYOgbUBuelR9KfHzE8OjEsvccyHxfV1KFZFdFnAXom8JrzRWli-arKGMU90yKpIXN/s1600/3C19F468-6451-49B0-88D3-C0E9C9A4554F.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjy1vpWDxGdrb9SvtRJ6EUm4g_2MqOdTmnJ2pNdzPbGVoNnr2BuGBI8N__bOgAn4HpxG3kaYOgbUBuelR9KfHzE8OjEsvccyHxfV1KFZFdFnAXom8JrzRWli-arKGMU90yKpIXN/s400/3C19F468-6451-49B0-88D3-C0E9C9A4554F.jpeg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The hull after joining the halves together</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgCj4Um2ImUlkJ0DEea23xJ2tgIAbv54zm4GbeAZX27w7MzH-GcxNyJlGQph6mEQUfBuXzgFa7If5AjF_3OyQQZO40GWBk5s8uX16QiKWoO1IBI5zzhsvvKrHJv0Z50tAet_gR7/s1600/2D6FB5BA-3A82-4C0F-A20C-4D82A9BE7005.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgCj4Um2ImUlkJ0DEea23xJ2tgIAbv54zm4GbeAZX27w7MzH-GcxNyJlGQph6mEQUfBuXzgFa7If5AjF_3OyQQZO40GWBk5s8uX16QiKWoO1IBI5zzhsvvKrHJv0Z50tAet_gR7/s400/2D6FB5BA-3A82-4C0F-A20C-4D82A9BE7005.jpeg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The bits that were removed</td></tr>
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I’ve used the headsails and spanker from the Third Rate kit while keeping the Brig kit’s topgallant. With the spanker boons from the Brig being too small for the 3rd Rate sail, I could have used the ones from the Third Rate, but wasn’t prepared to cannibalise the kit to that extent, so the brass rod came out again to make new ones. </div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhPO08ywe-FSrqz3GnVvZL4-GVo68hsZksLQ95vcKgyFtj-aSpQPUTeX8pKlxQSEQRegQGHGGlo1P6x4YJXpYNjDGzyHfNsePPtkBdt-JHFuXgtog_8rPnycpHRLVktEaAFXhVg/s1600/DCF3E285-B594-4050-88A0-5F1228000B55.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhPO08ywe-FSrqz3GnVvZL4-GVo68hsZksLQ95vcKgyFtj-aSpQPUTeX8pKlxQSEQRegQGHGGlo1P6x4YJXpYNjDGzyHfNsePPtkBdt-JHFuXgtog_8rPnycpHRLVktEaAFXhVg/s400/DCF3E285-B594-4050-88A0-5F1228000B55.jpeg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Sloop next to a Brig</td></tr>
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Both the Gunboats and the Sloop should see action in the Smuggler’s Run campaign, hopefully kicking off in March.
Richardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00974055540062290284noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16854305.post-39015546525325145142020-02-01T23:12:00.000+13:002020-02-09T21:24:31.708+13:00Richard's JanuaryAt the start of the year I set myself eight goals for 2020, with the intention of posting my progress at the end of each month. So, how did I go during January?<br />
<br />
<b>1. Painting 28mm FJ. </b><br />
<br />
I painted the pants on another squad, and bought a StuG to support them. I guess that counts as progress?<br />
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<b>2. Find a set of WW2 rules that I enjoy playing in 28mm.</b><br />
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A couple of ideas for systems have been kicked around by people at the club, so I'm sure something will happen with this.<br />
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<b>3. Paint a Landsknecht square for Impetus.</b><br />
<b><br /></b>
I took a few figures out of their boxes, looked at them, freaked out and put them away again.<br />
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<b>4. Complete a Black Seas fleet box. </b><br />
<b><br /></b>
I've been a bit all over the place on this. Last year I was heading towards a Spanish fleet box, but then I received USS Constitution for Christmas, so began looking at the US version. But then Warlord Games released their '<a href="https://store.warlordgames.com/products/smugglers-run-black-seas">Smuggler's Run</a>' campaign, and it looks great. So rather than a fleet box, I'm going to change this goal to be the ships for the campaign, both my own company and HM Customs.<br />
<br />
My smuggling company will start with the two brigs and the frigate that I originally painted up as Spanish, and I will add to it when the Schooners and Merchants are released next month (assuming business is good and the company can afford new ships...), the incentive being that I can't add a ship to my roster until I have a painted model of it.<br />
<br />
For the British, I need the following to be able to field all of the combinations that the campaign can throw at you:<br />
<ul>
<li>1 x First Rate</li>
<li>1 x Third Rate</li>
<li>2 x Frigate</li>
<li>3 x Brig</li>
<li>1 x Sloop</li>
<li>2 x Cutter</li>
<li>3 x Schooner</li>
<li>2 x Gunboat Squadron</li>
</ul>
So, in January I painted and rigged two Royal Navy Brigs.<br />
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I still have have two Brigs and two Frigates left from the starter box, plus a box each of the Third Rates and Gunboats, so will continue by working on those in February. I will get the Schooners when they are released, and maybe even see if I can convert the second of my spare Brigs into a Sloop.<br />
<br />
<b>5. Try out Battlegroup: NORTHAG, and write a review. </b><br />
<br />
It sounds like this will be released at Salute in April.<br />
<br />
<b>6. Complete some of the random FOW platoons that I have lying around. </b><br />
<br />
I haven't painted anything, but I've had a good look through the pile, and have a bit of a plan.<br />
<ul>
<li>Early War British - complete this army by painting some armoured cars and Vickers MkVIb.</li>
<li>Mid War British - repaint and rebase my old 8th Army support weapons to match my more recent work.</li>
<li>Late War British - rebase my infantry company, and paint the kits that I have in order to make a 100pt force under the upcoming D-Day: British book.</li>
</ul>
<div>
I've also cleared the decks a bit by selling most of my MW British Armour, and may do another pass through the collection at some point because, to be honest, I have way too much FOW.</div>
<br />
<b>7. Syrians for Team Yankee.</b><br />
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No progress.<br />
<br />
<b>8. Put together an event or campaign of some kind. </b><br />
<b><br /></b>
This is going to be the Smuggler's Run campaign.<br />
<br />
<b>Overall Theme: Uncompleted Projects</b><br />
<br />
I've already failed here. I had toyed around with buying into 40K when the Chaos new releases came out last year, but in the end decided against it. Then this month I saw the Adeptus Mechanicus Pteraxii and Serberys Sulphurhounds that were announced at LVO, and I was immediately grabbed by the aesthetic.<br />
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Rather than going crazy and jumping straight in, I have picked up a second hand set of Skitarii Rangers sprues to see whether I like the models. They are my first ever GW models, never having played any of their games, and my first impressions are that they're amazing. The casts are beautiful, the sprues are packed with parts, and I'm looking forward to painting them.<br />
<br />
<b>January Summary</b><br />
<ul>
<li>Models Painted: 2</li>
<li>Leadpile Size: Increased</li>
<li>Month Rating: Poor</li>
</ul>
Richardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00974055540062290284noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16854305.post-60369463314695023992020-01-28T21:09:00.001+13:002020-02-08T16:34:20.050+13:00ValleyCon 2020 ThoughtsAs usual, the gaming year began with ValleyCon earlier this month. I played Team Yankee, which was 100pts on 8x4 tables using the 2nd Edition rules.<br />
<br />
I was originally planning on runnings Syrians using the lists in 'Oil War', and started repainting my T-72s for this purpose. The thinking here was that Soviet T-72s aren't a particularly strong choice relative to later books. In the end, the Syrian force was too large a challenge in the time I had available, so I painted up my remaining T-64s and went with Soviets instead.<br />
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<br /></div>
<div>
My final list was:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<b>T-64 Tank Battalion - Red Thunder</b></blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
Battalion HQ - 1 x T-64, 6pts</blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
T-64 Company - 3 x T-64, 13pts</blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
T-64 Company - 3 x T-64, 13pts</blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
T-64 Company - 3 x T-64, 13pts</blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
BMP-1 Motor Rifle Company - Medium size plus SA-14 Gremlin, 15pts</blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
BMP-2 Recon Platoon - 3 x BMP-2 Scout, 5pts</blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
SA-13 Gopher Platoon - 2 x Gopher, 2pts</blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
Shilka AA Platoon - 4 x Shilka, 4pts</blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
2S1 Carnation SP Howitzer Battery - 6 x 2S1 Carnation, 10pts</blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
Hail Rocket Launcher Battery - 6 x BM-21 Hail, 8pts</blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
BMP-1 Observation Post, 1pt</blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
Hind Helicopter Company - 4 x Hind, 10pts</blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<b>Total Cost: 100 pts</b></blockquote>
</div>
<div>
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The thinking behind this list was:<br />
<ul>
<li>I only have ten T-64s in my collection, and running them in three groups of three saves 5pts relative to having two larger units. </li>
<li>The Shilkas are a must have, and I went with Gophers over Gaskins due to the extra range being of use on the wider table.</li>
<li>2nd Edition gives a big bump to the effectiveness of artillery, so I decided to maximise this by taking both Carnations and Hails, plus the observer.</li>
<li>I have found minimum sized infantry units to be too small in the past, so have gone up a size. The Gremlin was a cheap addition to further boost my AA cover.</li>
<li>The BMP-2 scouts are extra AT-21, plus Spearhead for the few missions that can use it.</li>
<li>The big unit of Hinds was to provide an alternative to having to punch through the front of high armour targets.</li>
</ul>
In the end I placed second, with three 7-2 wins, a 2-7 loss, and a 2-3 time-out (after about 10 turns, so you can't accuse either of us of trying to play for a draw). There were a number of thoughts coming out of the event.<br />
<br />
The standard of painting was very high across the board, making it one of the best looking competitions I can remember playing in.<br />
<br />
This was the first Soviet build that I felt has worked for me. Largely this is because T-64s are good. Very good. That extra point of front armour, plus the 14" tactical move, makes them far superior to the Soviet T-72, and the three platoons of three definitely felt better than two larger platoons. The biggest problem I had was when I ran into McBeth's Stillbrew Chieftains - the 7-2 loss. Front 18 at range is tough for AT22 to crack. Ten tanks vs eight, but harder to hit and firing twice as many dice in return. That's a matchup that I'm going to need to rethink, even more so as we start to see Front 20 Challengers make an appearance.<br />
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I think the behaviour of NATO tanks (with the exception of the Chieftain) is something that TY gets wrong. It doesn't seem right for M1s and Leopards to be encouraged to knife-fight, but that's exactly what ROF 2/2 does.<br />
<br />
I had too much artillery. Over the weekend they killed:<br />
<ul>
<li>a platoon of Fliegerfaust (both batteries repeating on them for a couple of turns), </li>
<li>a couple of Sheridans (Carnations with lucky armour saves), </li>
<li>a platoon of T-64s (shotgunned in the back by the Carnations arriving from Reserve)</li>
<li>a landed Blackhawk (Hails), and </li>
<li>a few infantry teams caught in the open (Hails). </li>
</ul>
It wasn't a significant benefit for the 19pt investment. Carnations were more useful, and I would look to keep them at full strength and drop the Hails. The new artillery rules make them scary, but it was the wrong mix for my list.<br />
<br />
Getting the right quantity and mix of air defence is tricky. I had 7pts of it, and it simply wasn't enough in the two games where I ran into aircraft. This particularly relates to my final game against Pooch. He had brought 34pts of air: four A10s and four Cobras, and my air defence just didn't faze him. This was underscored late in the game when, hunting a company break, he rolled his A10s directly at my Gophers and GAUed them out of existence without even being scratched. I had benefitted in the same way in earlier games, ending up not too worried about Humvee Stingers, and I was even okay against Pooch's VADS, which I managed to get running from left to right throughout the game, minimising their shots and keeping rolling saves for my Hinds. It all came apart when they finally got 28 shots off in a turn, but it highlighted two problems: the short range of gun AA (which was a major factor on our 8x4 tables), and the number of dice you need to be rolling to make FP5+ AA effective. Playing the same format again, I would probably look to move another six points into AA: two more Gophers and a pair of Geckos, funded by dropping the Hails. It's 13pts that is wasted if my opponent doesn't bring air, but it's better than feeling helpless in the few games where they do.<br />
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So, here would be my revised list based on the experience of the weekend:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<b>T-64 Tank Battalion - Red Thunder</b></blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
Battalion HQ - 1 x T-64, 6pts</blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
T-64 Company - 3 x T-64, 13pts</blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
T-64 Company - 3 x T-64, 13pts</blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
T-64 Company - 3 x T-64, 13pts</blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
BMP-1 Motor Rifle Company - Medium size plus SA-14 Gremlin, 15pts</blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
BMP-2 Recon Platoon - 4 x BMP-2 Scout, 6pts</blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
SA-13 Gopher Platoon - 4 x Gopher, 4pts</blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
Shilka AA Platoon - 4 x Shilka, 4pts</blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
2S1 Carnation SP Howitzer Battery - 6 x 2S1 Carnation, 10pts</blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
BMP-1 Observation Post, 1pt</blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
SA-8 Gecko Platoon - 2 x Gecko, 4pts</blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
Hind Helicopter Company - 4 x Hind, 10pts</blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<b>Total Cost: 100 pts</b></blockquote>
It’s largely similar, reflecting how well I think it performed overall. I haven't really resolved the high Front Armour problem yet, with the temptation being to chuck in a platoon of Storms, but that's not a huge gain: two or three dice at 4s or 5s to hit, with Firepower 3+, so you would still be lucky to kill one tank a turn, and they're easily hit in return. And I would also like a few more T-64s, maybe upping the platoons to four tanks each, but that's 18pts that I simply don't think I can spare - everything else has an important role to play.<br />
<br />
Next week is the end of January, so I will post an update about how I am progressing with my goals for the year.</div>
Richardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00974055540062290284noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16854305.post-43890133284520360112020-01-05T22:33:00.001+13:002020-02-08T16:37:04.052+13:00Atlantic FleetOver the summer I've been back playing <a href="http://killerfishgames.com/games/atlantic-fleet">Atlantic Fleet</a> on iOS, a turn-based single player Battle of the Atlantic game. I've also tried it on Steam, but I've found the mobile format to be just as good while being a lot more convenient.<br />
<br />
The game runs from the start of the war through until the invasion of France. You have a strategic map covering the theatre, split into 44 zones. Each turn lasts half a week, with ships able to move one zone per turn. If Allied and Axis ships occupy the same zone there's a chance of making contact, and you will play out the resulting engagement at a tactical level. Any Axis ships in zones not occupied by Allied warships have a chance of intercepting an unescorted convoy, which results in automatic merchantman losses. You can purchase new warships using a currency called "Renown", which you earn by sinking enemy warships, with a large number of ships to choose from.<br />
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In the tactical map, you have a turn-based game where you move and shoot each of your ships, before the AI plays the other side. The graphics are pretty good, with the 3D panning and nicely detailed ship models.<br />
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As the British, you need to keep merchant shipping losses to below 300,000 tons per month until Pearl Harbour, and 700,000 per month after that. The timing of the invasion depends on shipping losses: on my first play though it occurred in mid 1945.<br />
<br />
I am now on my second play-through of the Royal Navy campaign. I did try playing the Kriegsmarine side, but the very first convoy I intercepted was escorted by HMS Echo, my grandfather's destroyer. This struck too close to home, and I immediately switched back to the Royal Navy game.<br />
<br />
There are a few issues I have with the game:<br />
<ul>
<li>Torpedoes are too accurate, making them the best anti-submarine weapon on the game. This is a combination of the targeting mechanism (either off the 2D map showing the location of the sonar echo, or using the ability to view from the perspective of the enemy ship in the 3D world), and how true they run.</li>
<li>The turn order goes Allied ships move and fire, Axis torpedoes run, Axis ships move and fire, Allied torpedoes run. Combined with the predictability of torpedo paths (running about 2000 yards per turn), this creates some opportunities to dodge torpedoes that wouldn't be possible in an RTS or with simultaneous turns.</li>
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<li>Airpower is very powerful, with very little chance to defend against it. There are no land-based interceptors, making the UK home waters a very dangerous place for the Royal Navy. Even if you have a carrier in the encounter, you don't get any kind of early warning, the fighters start on the deck and it takes a couple of turns to get them airborne. The AI always uses any aircraft it has available as soon as possible, so you get bombed before you have the chance to get any fighters airborne.</li>
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<li>The game gets repetitive towards the end. Early on, you run into a variety of German surface raiders, with the biggest challenges being Bismark and Tirpitz. Once they've been sunk, it becomes a game of destroyers and corvettes vs U-Boats.</li>
</ul>
<div>
Despite these, it's a game I've enjoyed picking up and playing again over the summer. It is an interesting subject, has nice mechanics, and beautiful graphics.</div>
Richardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00974055540062290284noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16854305.post-78198084947958905572019-12-31T23:52:00.001+13:002023-01-01T18:05:50.342+13:002019 RetrospectiveIt's been a pretty poor effort blogging-wise this year, achieving only four posts.<br />
<br />
As usual the year started with preparation for ValleyCon. The format was 85pt mid war. I completed my Italy-theatre British Rifle Company, and placed 4th.<br />
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My second goal for the year was to do something to mark the 75th anniversary of D-Day. We ran a multiplayer game of FOW at the Hutt Club on 8 June.<br />
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The remaining goals saw no progress. I didn't touch my 28mm FJ or Warmachine models. I did play a couple of games of Cruel Seas and bought the starter set, but it was quickly overtaken by Black Seas. I did actually buy some 28mm Landsknechts for Impetus (Artizan Designs, purchased through <a href="https://www.kapitihobbies.com/">Kapiti Hobbies</a>, the best hobby shop in New Zealand), but haven't started painting them.<br />
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For 2020, I'm going to steal an idea from <a href="http://regimentnz.blogspot.com/search/label/Pooch">Pooch</a> of The Regiment blog, and keep to a schedule of monthly posts, tracking my goals through to completion. The theme for the year is going to be focused on uncompleted projects.<br />
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1. Paint my 28mm FJ. I've completed one squad, with two more to go, plus an HMG and a medium mortar. On a related note:<br />
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2. Find a set of WW2 rules that I enjoy playing in 28mm.<br />
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3. Paint the Landsknechts!<br />
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4. Complete a Black Seas fleet box. I'm working my way through the Master and Commander set at the moment, and will look to add to it once it's done.<br />
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5. Try out Battlegroup: NORTHAG, and write a review. These rules are meant to be out early in 2020, and appear to be compatible with TY basing.<br />
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6. Complete some of the random FOW platoons that I have lying around. There are quite a few of these, so I'll come up with a full list over summer.<br />
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7. Syrians for Team Yankee. It would be fair to say that Soviet T-72s are suboptimal in TY, so I started turning them into a Syrian T-72M company, intending to run them at ValleyCon in January. I ran out of time for that, but will continue with the project and finish the army.<br />
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8. Put together an event or campaign of some kind. I'm not yet sure what this could be.<br />
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Thanks for reading, and happy new year. I will definitely be endeavouring to write more in 2020 than I did in the year just gone.Richardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00974055540062290284noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16854305.post-1307954630796672172019-03-11T16:21:00.001+13:002019-03-11T19:59:03.456+13:00Comparison of BMP KillersUntil Charicon, no one locally had ever run into BMP-2 spam in Team Yankee. So it would be fair to say that everyone who faced it (which included me) was a) surprised by its effectiveness, and b) defeated. This is partly my fault: as the resident Soviet, I have never inflicted a BMP Battalion on anyone, leaving people unprepared. As penance, I have been putting a bit of thought into things that might make a difference in future games, with the caveat that I have not been on either side of a game where a BMP horde was defeated, so am coming at it from a theoretical perspective rather than practical experience of what has worked in the past.<br />
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Part of the problem at Charicon was the game size. We were playing 60 points, and that probably favours light armour more than say 80 points. As the game size increases, I believe that while you will get more BMPs in total, their damage output doesn't increase at the same rate as they're more likely to get in each other's way, while their opponent's ability to kill them is also increased by having more shots on the table. This is a real dilemma. 45 points on a 6x4 table is a blast to play, as you have space for manoeuvre, and NATO armies built around Chieftains and M60s seem to do okay. 80 points as is being played at Natcon should help armies with Leopard 2s and Abrams be competitive, without totally overloading the tables with spam armies. It could be that 60 points is an uncomfortable level for game balance.<br />
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The second part is finding units that are cost-effective tools for killing BMPs, and to resolve this we must turn to some Team Mathee.<br />
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My basis for comparing the effectiveness of units is as follows:<br />
<ul>
<li>Ranking them by theoretical BMP kills per point of unit cost over one turn of shooting.</li>
<li>The target unit is assumed to be a unit of four BMPs at short range without concealment</li>
<li>Bailed out results are ignored. This makes the maths easier, but is also reasonable given their good Remount stat.</li>
<li>The comparison also includes template weapons, assuming six targets under an Artillery template, and 12 under a Salvo template, averaged over three turns of shooting with artillery, or one turn for aircraft.</li>
</ul>
And here are the unit rankings in terms of cost-effectiveness, showing the results with both halted and moving ROF, with the higher numbers being better:
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To clarify what the chart means, if you spend four points on a platoon of Scorpions, and are able to get them into a position to get halted shots at a platoon of four BMPs, you are likely to kill all four of them (one kill per point times four points). If you do it with a 9pt platoon of Leopard 1s, you are likely to kill at least three (0.37 kills per point times nine points).<br />
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The standout performer is the Scorpion. The combination of ROF2, AT14, and FP2+ in a 1pt/vehicle package is an absolute winner, expected to wipe out a platoon of four BMPs in a single round of shooting. The downsides are a moving ROF of 1 and a 6" tactical move, so making the most of their abilities requires careful play. A 13pt Scorpion Squadron as a screen for a larger British force would probably cause a BMP battalion a few issues.<br />
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The next best in my opinion would be the LAV-25. Their AT is high enough that BMPs don’t get much of a save, they get full ROF when moving, and they can be bought in large enough numbers to outweigh their FP 5+. <br />
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Luchs are a bit of a red herring: relatively high numbers of kills per point, but as they only come in 1pt platoons, they are not exactly a game-changer. The Scimitar competes for the same unit slots as the Scorpion. Gepards, Shilkas, and VADS are all pretty effctive, but generally have more important things to do mid-game.<br />
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The artillery was a bit of a disappointment. I thought it would be pretty good given the assumptions about the number of targets under the template and the number of turns that the. There are a couple of issues affecting it. One is their AT rating of 4, giving the BMPs a decent save, only killing on average one per turn. The second issue is their price: 10 points for four British M109s, giving them a low cost-effectiveness.<br />
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The final part of the answer is tactics. Don’t be an idiot like me in my game, sitting there taking fire, relying on being at 5s and 6s to hit to keep you safe. Your tanks will die and you will lose. Badly. BMPs can’t fire their missiles on the move, so you need to try to keep them moving. Try to find defilade positions that allow you to take them on a platoon at a time. Smoke can be used to achieve the same thing. And make the most of your movement orders to maximise ROF while reducing the number of turns of return fire that you face.<br />
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So that is my take on three things that could help take the edge off BMP spam. Game size is definitely not something that should be manipulated to give one side or other an advantage in matched play, but the way in which game balance is affected by size is a useful thing to know when planning games or tournaments. The other two things (knowing which specific units in my list will be tasked with killing BMPs, and looking at positions and tactics that will get the most out of those units) are certainly things that I will be trying to pay closer attention to the next time end up playing against Soviets.Richardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00974055540062290284noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16854305.post-47667781705588568422019-03-03T13:34:00.003+13:002019-03-03T13:34:55.393+13:00Team Yankee at ChariconAnd just like that, it's been five weeks since I last posted.<br />
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Last week in Wellington there convention named Charicon, conceived and organised by one of our club members. Over 100 players attended, with the systems represented being 40K, AOS, FOW, TY, Warmachine, DBMM, Guildball, and Bolt Action. The convention ended up raising over NZ$6000 for the Cancer Society of NZ.<br />
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I helped run the Team Yankee event. This was originally planned to be Saturday only, as I wasn't going to be available on the second day, but Pelarel offered to run the Sunday. A number of locals were only able to play on one day or the other, so in order to have the flexibility needed to get them involved we decided to make the weekend a Firestorm: Red Thunder event, rather than a traditional competition.<br />
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The format we went with was 60 point lists on 6x4 tables, with a total of five two-hour rounds. We had eight players on day one and six on day two, with three people playing both days.<br />
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While the flexibility that the format allowed was great for getting more people playing, it was a challenge to juggle red vs blue numbers across the two days. One player with multiple armies offered to play on either side as needed, we had to ask a Saturday player to switch from Warsaw Pact to NATO, and one Sunday player with a Berlin Brigade list played for the Warsaw Pact. It was further complicated by a late NATO entry for Sunday, so rather than Chris playing for NATO on Saturday, I ran his British list and he joined the Soviets on Sunday in order to accomodate this.<br />
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We generally followed the <a href="https://www.team-yankee.com/Portals/0/Documents/Firestorm/TeamYankee/RedThunder-Firestorm-Rules.pdf">Firestorm: Red Thunder document</a>, but with a few changes:<br />
<ul>
<li>We didn’t follow the three phases of the official campaign (Surprise Attack, Breakthrough, and Exploitation). For round one, all four Battle Arrows were placed by the Warsaw Pact team. For subsequent rounds, each team got as many arrows as their number of wins in the previous round, dicing off to see in which order teams placed arrows.</li>
<li>Once an arrow had been placed, the attacking team nominated one of their players for that game. The defending team offered up two players as potential opponents, with the attacking player choosing one of them to play. The defender chose to adopt a Counter Attack or Static Defence stance, then diced on the Mission Table to determine the mission. We repeated the process until all matchups for the round had been decided.</li>
<li>Hasty Attack was replaced in the Mission Table with Contact, which is similar but seems to be a much better mission.</li>
</ul>
We made two changes to the rules, taken straight from FOW V4: Reserves being 40% of points, and Unit Last Stand tests being taken in the starting step after remounting bailed out tanks. As far as I could tell, the players were accepting of the changes, and they didn't seem to have any negative impacts on gameplay.<br />
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The weekend ran really well, with all games being played with great spirit. As a player on the NATO side, it was particularly enjoyable being able to call a NATO Summit before each round to plan the matchups that we wanted. 60 points was good for the table size and time limits, giving space for manoeuvre and only one game (LAVs vs T-55s) timing out, but might have disadvantaged NATO compared to if we'd run slightly larger games. The main reason we went that small was for people who are still building armies, to provide a stepping stone towards the 85pts needed for Nationals in April.<br />
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I think the system of getting as many Battle Arrows as victories was good, giving a real sense of strategic momentum. In the event, NATO was always on the back foot, never securing enough wins at any stage to gain the initiative. It was interesting that they chose to expend most of their attacks in a drive on Berlin in order to get the Victory Points, rather than trying to cut off the Soviet advances. A potential future improvement might be altering the rules about where arrows can be placed, to try and encourage different behaviour. For example, this could mean needing to draw a supply line to your map edge (or to a North Sea port if you're NATO). Other tweaks could involve permitting airmobile lists that are the strategic attacker to take a defensive posture as a seize-and-hold type play, and letting Marines make attacks into coastal territories as amphibious landings.<br />
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This is where the campaign finished, with a solid Warsaw Pact operational victory:<br />
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Thanks to all those who came to play and support the cause, to Pelarel for running the second day, and to Bede for making the convention happen. We are looking forward to running a Firestorm: Stripes event later in the year.Richardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00974055540062290284noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16854305.post-46691199395610047512019-01-27T23:00:00.001+13:002020-05-24T16:34:37.683+12:00ValleyCon 2019 ReviewValleyCon this weekend was another excellent event, and a huge thanks goes to McBeth for organising it. I won three games and lost two, placing fourth overall. I won't go through a blow-by-blow account of the weekend, and I don't have any photos to share from it, but will just pick out a few key thoughts.<br />
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The weekend has established my faith in Mid War V4 as a good system. Up until now, MW has seemed incredibly bland, a way of biding time until the interesting lists come out with LW, but it surprised me how enjoyable it was. 85pts on a 6x4 was a bit denser than we’ve usually played, but it worked well. There was a wide range of armies represented, with the top three placings going to Armoured Rifles, Grants, and Honeys.<br />
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Using the Battle Plans mission selector was good. It added another layer of thinking about your opponent and what posture they would likely take, and what type of mission you wanted to face them in. It did limit the variety of missions played: I had two Bridgeheads, two No Retreats, and a Dust Up. One tweak might be having the TO specify which line to use. It should work well in a five-round tournament if you played lines 2-6 in a random order.
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The Rifle Company is a solid list. The fact that I won a few games, quite possibly my first FOW wins in over a year, speaks to how robust and forgiving it is.
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The cards I took worked out well. Artillery Expert and Diversionary Tactics are gold. Bagpiper, Sticky Bombs, and transports for the 6pdrs all helped at different times.<br />
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As expected my Reserves decisions were challenging. In each game that I needed to, I put two Rifle Platoons in Reserve, leaving another 8pts to find. In the first couple of games that was the 6pdrs, relying on their transports to get them where they needed to be. In the second, I switched that to being the mortars and the carriers, as I really needed to have all of my guns on the table. My Ambush platoon was always the Bofors, which gave me flexibility for dealing with armoured cars.<br />
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I had one bad loss that should have been avoidable. Ending up attacking in Bridgehead, I remember thinking "I should Night Attack in this", but then immediately forgot to. I also forgot that I had two batteries with smoke, which would have also made life a whole lot easier.<br />
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It was disappointing that I didn't end up running into either Honeys or M14/41s, as that would have been an interesting test of the list.<br />
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One thing that would be interesting to see would be how to get Churchills into 85pts. At 33pts for three, it's a tough ask as it would require running a much smaller core formation. No one brought heavy tanks of any kind, and apart from the three players with M10s and Marders, no one was really geared up to deal with them.<br />
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I left my painting really late, with a couple of really late nights leading up to the event, but was pretty happy with how they turned out in the end. They are painted in the colours of 78th Division in the Italian campaign.<br />
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Next time: I have received a copy of Impetus 2nd Edition, so I'll have a look at the changes, and update any progress on painting my light cavalry. Since it took me a whole evening to paint my first horse, I'm not that optimistic...
Richardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00974055540062290284noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16854305.post-64678130172913765962019-01-15T08:05:00.001+13:002019-01-15T08:05:51.745+13:00 ValleyCon 2019 Preview<div>
ValleyCon this year is a much smaller affair than usual, being club-focused and limited in numbers and scope, so that people who would travel to play are more likely to attend Natcon in Kapiti at Easter instead. The FOW event is 85 points Mid War, restricted to Mediterranean theatre lists. </div>
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One of my issues with mid war has been that very few of the lists are actually of any interest to me. Part of this I think is fatigue, I’ve been playing MW Flames since 2001, and it’s a very vanilla period without the variety that the other periods offer. There were only two lists that I felt I’d want to run this year: the “Death or Glory” Valentine/Crusader combination, or a stock British Rifle Company. Since I’ve had all the infantry figures sitting in a container for ages, I felt it was time to get them painted rather than buying a bunch of new tanks.<br />
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The list I have settled on is this:</div>
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<b>Rifle Company - Armoured Fist</b></blockquote>
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Rifle Company HQ, 2pts</blockquote>
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Rifle Platoon - Full Strength plus the 'Sticky Bombs' card, 13pts</blockquote>
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Rifle Platoon - Full Strength plus the 'Sticky Bombs' card, 13pts</blockquote>
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Rifle Platoon - Full Strength plus the 'Sticky Bombs' card, 13pts</blockquote>
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3-inch Mortar Platoon, 6pts<br />
4 x 3-inch Mortar</blockquote>
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6pdr Anti-tank Platoon, 13pts<br />
4 x 6pdr Anti-tank Gun plus the 'Softskin Transport' card</blockquote>
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Universal Carrier Patrol, 3pts<br />
3 x Universal Carriers with Boys AT Rifles</blockquote>
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25pdr Field Troop, 14pts<br />
4 x 25pdr Gun</blockquote>
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Bofors Light AA Troop, 4pts<br />
3 x Bofors 40mm AA Gun</blockquote>
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'Bagpiper' card</blockquote>
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'Diversionary Tactics' card</blockquote>
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'Artillery Expert' card</blockquote>
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<b>Total Cost: 85 pts</b></blockquote>
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It's a big list, partly because there are no tanks to soak up the points, but also because 85pts is larger than we would usually play here. Under V3 it would have come out in the mid-1400pt range. Some of the thinking that has gone into creating it is:<br />
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<li>I have gone tank-less due to the prevalence of Marders. They're popular due to being underpriced; with no high armour targets they become expensive machine-gun carriers.</li>
<li>Another popular type of list is the light armour horde, and it's one that I probably have the most concern about. Nearly everything I'm taking has some ability to kill tanks. The Bofors, for example, are there solely for their ROF3 AT7, not because I have much to fear from air attack.</li>
<li>The 'Softskin Transport' command card on the 6pdrs. I dithered a bit over this one. Would the points be better spent going towards another Carrier Patrol? Transport is highly vulnerable on a 6x4, but the penalty for having no tanks is that I have no mobile AT, so this at least gives me an option for repositioning them, or bringing them forward in support of an attack.</li>
<li>'Bagpiper' command card. My infantry are going to have to do all the heavy lifting when it comes to taking objectives, so this card that provides a 3+ Rally within 6" of the Formation Commander is to try and keep them moving in the event that I have to attack.</li>
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Apart from a chronic lack of mobility, a major issue I will face will be reserves: there is no natural choice for the 34 points I'll have to leave off in some games, and difficult decisions will need to be made.<br />
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I’ve left the painting my army far too late this year. Usually I’ve been proactive and have finished by the end of the previous year, but now with less than two weeks to go I still have some major gaps: a whole platoon of infantry, additional teams for the other two platoons, the actual guns for the AA platoon, and the artillery battery.<br />
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Next up: I'll post photos once all of the painting is completed, and review how it all went once the tournament is over.</div>
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Richardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00974055540062290284noreply@blogger.com2