Unique Snowflake Syndrome when painting armies?

So I'm currently on a week-long holiday (much deserved).

I have so far been rather productive, although this blog entry will have no pictures - as I'm not fully finished with my current work. Pics will be taken when I return back on friday!

So far, over the course of the past... 4 days, I've managed to paint up another line infantry battalion (3rd of my line infantry regiment), and currently I'm half way through a Chasseurs-a-Cheval regiment (these are awesome btw).

My stuff has indeed arrived from Pendraken (awesome service as always), though I have to say I'm greatly disappointed with Magister Militum. I'm going to have to write them an email regarding my order. I've ordered stuff about 3 weeks ago now, and I've sent a package to a friend living in Holland, and that apparently reached him... and not me. So whats up with that?

Anyhow, the stuff from Pendraken that arrived consisted of.... a couple additions of figures to complete my 3rd battalion of light infantry, 2 regiments of chasseurs-a-cheval, and then enough figures to make two large Austrian "hungarian" battalions and a regiment of Austrian hussars. Plan is to polish off my French army with these chasseurs regiments, a last light infantry battalion, and maybe a horse artillery unit and commanders... and that should be it for now. Going to be focusing on Austrians next as a change of pace. Going to be trying out a different technique using white undercoat spray and black ink. Might turn out good, or terrible... one way to find out.


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The Unique Snowflake Syndrome... when it comes to painting, does anyone else get it? By this I mean having super unique and cool units that aren't "regular" "of the line". Special units, special forces, elite super troopers and stuff. For example, I love painting light infantry for napoleonics... but they're meant to be a little more 'rare' than the common line infantry. But by having unique units everywhere, they're no longer unique. I don't quite mind painting line infantry, but it's just so... boring? If that's the word I'm looking for? They feel generic, and common. I suppose its why that should I paint another line infantry regiment (with 3-4 battalions), I'm going to have to mix them up with great coats for a more tattered look. Just like when I paint my current line infantry, I add some brown pants, shako covers and such to make them "different". Painting the hussars are definitely fun, but again, they weren't the most common units. I'm not sure I could bring myself to paint 4 regiments of dragoons... but maybe I could be wrong? Two regiments of Carabiniers and Cuirassiers to form a brigade.. could be possible if I'm careful not to overdose on repetition.

I think this search for unique units can be best seen in my 6mm Imperial Guard Division - just about every battalion is different and colorful. Was a blast to paint, I have to admit. But they do look and feel the part because the rest of the army is "generic"... well, as "generic" as it can be seeing as off the top of my head, it has about 5 battalions of line infantry, and 4 of light infantry.

Eventually I think regarding my line to light infantry ratio, I'm trying to make it about 2 line infantry regiments to a light infantry regiment.

Or am I completely over-thinking this?

Additions to Napoleon: Total War tabletop?

More units!

What? More units? More units!

This time around, finished up some Dragoons (not sure what regiment. . . shame on me), and finished up the 2nd Hussar regiment. I also finished up a second battalion for my line infantry, putting my little army at three cavalry regiments, and four infantry battalions. It's really looking the part.

Units left to do until army "completion":
- x2 Chasseurs-a-Cheval regiments
- x1 Line Infantry battalion (to bring the regiment to three battalions)
- x1 Light Infantry battalion (to bring the regiment to two battalions).

Oh I should mention, the flags on the new units are hand-painted.

2eme Regiment de Hussards

2eme Regiment de Hussards

Line Drgoons

The current Light Cavalry brigade, of the 1er and 2eme Regiment de Hussars

The army so far

Gaming and Battles all round - Flames of War

I have begun to play Flames of War fairly regularly now. Usually it's once every other week, and occasionally it's once a week on Fridays.

My gaming partner is in the same boat as I - that is to say, more painting, and gaming as a side entertainment. Lately, however, we've started to really begin 'playing' the game. Learning the rules, experimenting different army list compositions, different tactics. It's been fascinating, and it has shown me a way to appreciate the game that is Flames of War better.

I really enjoy the game, especially having battles on Friday evenings after a tiring week at work but I can't say I find the actual rules super engrossing, as I feel that its very... "generic" in a way.

I don't like how the game basically forces you to play and finish the game in under six turns. I understand that it has "2 hour tournament" play in mind, but I suppose I was expecting something a little more realistic. Its crazy how 3 turns to get reinforcements almost feels forever.

Not that I'm saying I don't enjoy it, because I do, but I understand more why I had begun painting more than gaming in the first place when I started to really get obsessed with the miniatures hobby. I used to game WH40K a lot back then (almost 8+ years ago), and I had found that the game was too abstract, and there were a log of rules munchers that would find some obscure loophole to screw you over. That's certainly not the case with the person I play with, but it'll take some time for me to warm up again and to really appreciate the gaming side of the hobby.

Meanwhile though! I have my own 10mm napoleonic rules I'm still trying to work on. It's taking its sweet time as I continue to decide how I want to do it, but there is some progress.

Still, I enjoy being able to bring out various armies due to my huge collection, and test out different tactics and just enjoy the game for what it is.



In the meantime... here are some pictures of my last FoW game:

SS panzergrenadiers defend the objective (truck), and fortifies the house, while being covered by a Tiger

Russian motor rifles advance through the field through machine gun fire

What is this? A T-34 advance? Excellent, come closer!

21cm Nebelwerfer battery and Tigers

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Napoleonics! The Brigade is taking shape....

Phew. Been painting some Flames of War lately for a Desperate Measures list, but I've been getting bored with the same old tri color scheme. There's so much dunkelgelb you can paint before you just get sick and tired of it.

And then there's Archeage, a PC MMORPG. Ugh. And that sucked in about 2-3 weeks of my time. Shame to me.

And then it happened, I randomly put on some French napoleonic marching songs from Youtube, and my Napoleonics bug hit me. Hard.

So I then started painting up some voltigeurs for my current 10mm Pendraken collection, and before I knew it, I finished up a new Infanterie Legere battalion.

A bit blurry, but the collection of what I have right now painted. A small infantry brigade, with an addition of a Hussar regiment.

The infantry. The closest Legere battalion is the one I just finished painting this week.

Artillery battery.

Close up of the Legere battalion

Ersatz Panzer III preview!

Some preview shots of my Panzer IIIs (well, one for now) for my future Ersatz Panzer platoon for either Market Garden or Desperate Measures list.

These Ersatz tanks were either replacement tanks, training tanks, or simply last ditch efforts to bring armor to the front.

Hence these look like as if they've gone through hell and back.

First time I've actually gone this far in adding battle damage in the form of wear and tear to the paint, and this being the preview, I've still got quite a few more details left to add - and I plan on adding as much dirt as I did to my Panzer IV Js.

Models are Plastic Soldier Company Panzer IIIs.

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.