First FoW battle of the season!

People have returned from holidays at work... and I've succeeded in convincing one to paint more of his Russians for late war, and the other has started Mid-War Brits (MID WAR?! WHY?!!)

So, here I shall share you my latest game and my thoughts -

For this, I brought out a little KG Peiper list:

We were playing a 1780pt game and while in the end it took FAR too long (we're still novice at the rules thing... and thus is took a while), I brought the following to the table:

Command Tiger II
x1 Tiger II
x3 Panther Gs
x4 Panzer IV Js
x2 Sdkfz 251/9  7.5cm
x1 Gepanzertepanzergrenadiers platoon
x1 Sporadic Me-262 support


I haven't played Flames of War since last year, so I was incredibly rusty.

DEPLOYMENT / TURN 1

I wasn't really sure what to do - so I decided to go for the standard military operations tactic - delaying operations on the left flank, and effort on the right with my Tiger IIs and Panthers.

TURN 2

My opponent was attempting a pronged attack approach, so I decided to use the Tiger II's advantage in the open fields facing the T-34/85s. As the T-34 are incapable of penetrating the Tiger II's front armor, I simply held ground and poured shells down range... great effect other killing the platoon commander, and bailing one. The skillful company commander's Tiger II would prove to be the decisive Tiger Ace as the other one ended up being wholely worthless for the rest of the game (missed about 80% of its shots.....). With the commander killed, the Russian T-34s could no longer move - meaning that as long as I stayed hull down and firing, it would be a one-sided fight.

 TURN 3

Opponent continues to advance, and double times his T-34s on my right flank to envelope me. I use my Panzer IV Js to fire back, bailing 3 of the 5. Not very useful, but enough to hold back any further daring attacks on that side. Meanwhile, my Panthers and Tiger IIs combined fire takes out the scary SU-152s at the back, killing 2 of the 3.

TURN 4

The opponent's motor rifle infantry attempt to assault my infantry in the woods, but the sheer amount of MGs as well as MG support from the Sdkfz 251 half tracks simply moved them down. I counter attack, killing all but one team. I try to press the advantage with my Panthers in the center to surround the enemy, but poor shooting bogs down the attack.

At this point we realized that we were shooting on +4s (Veteran), instead of the +3 (Trained) that our armies were rated at. No wonder things were dying so slowly! So we continued playing as if we were all Veteran. Lesson learned!

TURN 5

The Panther's prowling in the town definitely cost me. Not only did the attack bog down, they got surrounded and I lost one Panther to that. Ugh. I got my revenge, but... costly maneuver on my part. The lone SU-152 attempted to flank my Tiger II, and was promptly denied and turned into a flaming hulk.

The T-34s that I ended up ignoring my left cost me as well, destroying my Panzer IV platoon. Here I learned how flimsy these Panzer IVs are! At this point I pretty much realized that the game was lost - there was no way I could defend my objective now, as I have been surrounded.

TURN 6

The opponent has full control of my objectives now, and my Tiger IIs are stuck fighting defenseless T-34s.... who due to poor shooting on my part are STILL alive. Ugh!

At this point in an action of pure spite, I snipe the opponent's command T-34 with my Panther and turn that into a wreck. Take that, dirty Russian!



CONCLUSION

Well, it was a fun game for sure. It did end up taking about 5 hours to full play through due to us not really knowing the mechanics, and while as expected my Me-262 did cause a few frights, it was wholely underwhelming and did no damage. Similarly, I think my opponent's aggressivity paid off as I was still bogged down in the center of the battlefield getting nowhere, and my objective contested.

I think the game in itself is quite interesting. There was a distinct lack of terrain which I felt was rather disappointing, but I also felt that the lack of a certain amount of realism was disappointing. I think that that's really the plague of wargaming - especially when in a "I go, you go" sort of system. I also have to admit I dont like the Flames of War scenarios. It just feels so arbitrary.

My opponent and I agreed that we'll be fighting more 'historical' / 'realistic' scenarios next time around, ie "seize and hold the village" or "fighting retreat". I think it was maybe the terrain that made the game disappointing - there simply wasnt enough of it.

It almost made me question why I painting so much Flames of War and that I should maybe continue working on my10mm Napoleonics, who's "linear" style of battle has a bigger sense of realism. I suppose time will tell, but it certainly did make me think about continuing my 6mm and 10mm napoleonics for precisely that reason.

Can't seem to choose though - the 6mm look great when assembled together in divisions and corps, but I think the 10mm could look just as good.... if only I could bring myself to paint them more.

Finished Leman Russ

I finished my Leman Russ yesterday so thought I'd post a quick update.

This was my first time using weathering powders and I think that I could do a better job. As the army is meant to be painted to a gamer's standard I am not too bothered. Below are some before and after photos.

 Before the weathering powder.

 And...

 ...after.

Bring on the Armour...

I've still not managed to get hold of any super glue so recently I've been working on my Vostroyan project again. This week was the turn of one of my Leman Russ Eradicators.

This is the first time I've attempted to do anything other than base coat with my airbrush. Up until this point I have also been struggling. Airbrushes are not so easy to use that anyone can get instant results! I've lost count of the number of times I have had the needle clog up and had to disassemble the entire thing to get it working again. However, after much experimenting I feel that I am starting to get the hang of it and now prefer to mix my paint myself instead of using Vallejo's model air range directly from the bottle. Below is a little snapshot of my usual set up without the airbrush stuff out. I have got a bigger desk to replace this one with soon which will allow me to have a permanent spray booth set up.

Anyway back to my Leman Russ. I primed the model in black before base coating it in Citadel's Karak Stone.

Once complete I washed the whole model in a mix of Nuln Oil and Agrax Earthshade, using a cotton bud to wipe off some of the wash from areas of the model to reveal the base colour.

I then masked off the front of the tank in order to apply some identification markings that will help to break up the dull primary colour of the armour. Annoyingly the way I placed my smoke launchers made this very fiddly!

I used Vallejo's Model Air White to block in the front section of the armour. The plastic pink thing on the right is a cheap fan to take away some of the paint particles and blow them towards an open window. I still wear a proper mask to prevent myself breathing in any of the paint. It is not good for you!

With the red added and the masking tape removed. I am very happy with the results. They are not perfect but that is fine as these areas will be washed and have weathering powders applied to them very soon. I ran out of steam there but should have it finished later this week. I'll post pics of the finished model soon.

Finally, I promised to talk a bit about the allies that I will be adding to the army. The Astra Militarum are renowned for their gun line armies sitting on one side of the table and unleashing everything at the enemy with little to no maneuvering. I wanted my army to be more aggressive and as the Imperial Guard really have very little in the way of hard hitting assault units this job would have to fall to some friends.

I initially thought of some Space Wolf allies as I had collected these in the past and they fit the whole aggressive assault element perfectly. They would look great on winter bases too! There are two things that I don't like about them though. The first is the fact that everyone seems to play marine armies and yet according to the fluff these are very rare. The second turn off for me was scale. GW's marines are not in scale with the rest of their model ranges. The Vostroyans with their bearskins actually make the marines look small! Marines therefore are out (I would like to one day do some true scale marines but right now that is too much for me).

What else would give me that aggressive unit capable of taking ground in conjunction with my guardsmen? Well the answer was staring me in the face really in the form of what in my opinion is the coolest model GW has ever produced, an Imperial Knight.

Work in progress on my Knight Paladin. As you can see he dwarfs my Vostroyan guardsmen and will add a suitable centerpiece to the army. It also helps that he will scare the hell out of any opponent I face, capable of striding towards the enemy lines unleashing a stupid amount of firepower whilst shrugging off anything short of a lascannon. They will eventually deal with him but the idea is that he is really only a distraction allowing units of guardsmen to move forward in his shadow and take up positions in cover. At the same time any guns firing at my Knight will not be firing at my more vulnerable armoured units. I'll put a proper update on this guy once more progress is made.

Well there you have it. I am loving painting at the moment and very excited about getting a playable army of Vostroyans on the table!

Banzai!

Wow, it has been a busy few weeks for me starting a new job and moving countries! I have been making steady progress on the hobby front however and one of the nice things about the move is that I now have space at home for a proper painting set-up rather than using the dinner table. I'll take you through my set up some other time, first a little project update.

I have spent the last few evenings putting stuff together ready to be undercoated. Below are the first of the Imperial Japanese force for my Burma game.

 Lieutenant and Bugler 

 Infantry Section

The models are from Warlord Games and look great. There are a limited number of leg/body poses, (I think there are six in total) which is a little annoying as a little bit of work is required to avoid similar poses especially as several of the poses are very dynamic (for example full tilt on the charge). However I am happy so far and am particularly impressed with the flag sheet included with the box. 

 These will look awesome on the finished models.

Unfortunately I have had to put the Chindits on hold as have run out of super glue! I can now pick some up from a hobby shop here which is great. They even play a lot of 40k which gives me some incentive to get my Vostroyans ready for the table. I have been working on some allies for them which I am very excited about but more on that next blog.

Finally, I'll leave you with my French artillery battery ready for painting. They will form some much needed support for my bridge builders in my Napoleonic game. Paint jobs to follow soon.

 Models by Perry Miniatures