With being sick and being very busy with my new job I haven't had a lot of time yet this month for the blog or for gaming (though hopefully there will be gaming on Sunday) In an effort to kick-start some progress I will set down my plans and goals for this year.
Team Yankee
This is going to dominate my painting time (and hopefully, at least to some extent, my gaming time) for the first part of the year. I put together 2 starter boxes of Soviets when I got back from Halifax and a handful of Americans and have been planning to start painting them since then. With any luck that will get started this weeekend -- the Soviets should go quickly since they are one colour (I plan to try a bit of "colour modulation" with the airbrush to give them some depth) and then I will follow up with the US. I plan to get enough of both forces so I can do both a mechanized and a tank force. The real test here will be to actually get the infantry done.
SAGA / Dragon Rampant
Here I want to get the rest of the Islamic forces from the SAGA starter boxes painted up. After we play a few games of Dragon Rampant I will get a better idea of how many I HAVE to paint but to be honest, I enjoy painting these. Once they get done I do have some plastic cavalry to paint up but they are not currently in the "official queue". I also want to play more games with the 3 SAGA factions and get good at at least one of them!
I am also going to paint up a force for Nick's Trojan War campaign but it will likely be the smallest force possible i.e. all hearthguard. I think I will go with Foundry Greeks for this but I haven't decided yet.
Frostgrave
I want to have two relatively coherent warbands for this and paint up most of the stuff I got from the Nickstarter. I foresee this being a useful break from the Team Yankee painting.
Bolt Action
I would like to paint my Canadians but my only real goal is to finish the basing of the Germans and to play a game with them.
Hail Caesar
It didn't look like there would be any Romans in my immediate future but Ed want's to try out his siege rules that he developed for the French and Indian war in a (much) earlier period so we are dusting off our plans to do some Dacian war battles. I am planning to paint up 4-5 Roman siege engines for this and maybe a unit or 2 with some Aventine figures (since I have to get the set that has Trajan and Decadulus' head)
Terrain
Weirdly, the terrain I most want to do is for my Ortona campaign for 28mm WWII for which I don't have any inspiration to paint the figures! I want to do a river bank type terrain, a piece with the gully and a cityscape.
I have some ideas for Frostgrave and Team Yankee terrain and I should probably get more 28mm terrain suitable for SAGA.
I think that should keep me busy for the rest of the year and I am going to make a real effort not to get anything that is not on this list
Showing posts with label Bolt Action. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Bolt Action. Show all posts
Saturday, January 23, 2016
Saturday, January 2, 2016
2015: The Year in Review
Looking back over my blog posts for this year it was a pretty good year for playing games but it wasn't all that great for painting (but it wasn't really terrible for that either). I will divide the year up by game rather than time and take a look at what was (and wasn't accomplished)
Descent 2nd Edition:
After having this game for over a year (and buying more expansions than I would care to admit) I started playing this in the summer (we are about halfway through the Heir of Blood campaign now). When I bought this my plan was to paint all the plastic figures and that way I would get something out if it even if I didn't play that much. I did manage to get a reasonable chunk of the base set done when I first got it and I thought that once I started playing it, I would be frantically painting but the reality is that nothing got done (but the game is a lot of fun!)
Flames of War:
We played 2 campaigns at the club in 2015: Firestorm Lorraine and a Fate of the Nation Escalation campaign. Both were a lot of fun and I did a fair bit of painting for both.
For the Fate of a Nation, I painted a bunch of T-55s, SU-100s, PT-76 and and IS-3s for the Egyptians and some Ishermans and AMX-13s for the Israelis. On the downside I bought some M48s and Sho'ts as well as infantry for both sides that didn't get painted (though some of the infantry is primed!)
For Firestorm Lorraine, I had posted my painting goals here and I think I did a pretty good job of getting through that stuff. The PZ IV/70s, the PZ IVs and the Panthers all saw action during the campaign and I think the halftracks got assembled. I also didn't buy anything new during the campaign which is a victory of sorts.
I might as well mention my Vietnam stuff here as well-- there was almost no progress. I based some and primed some infantry but nothing that really gets me close to a game. Again I resisted buying anything new (especially the Riverine stuff which I am still tempted by)
Hail Caesar:
The beginning of the year was good for Hail Caesar as I painted a bunch of Roman Legion as well as archers and slingers for the game I ran at Cangames in 2015. The Romans are still my favourite army to paint. I had plans to paint up zombies, skeletons and Beastmen for a Hail Caesar Fantasy game based on the Teutoburg Forest to run at Cangames this year (I had a weeks vacation in September where I was going to paint up a large chunk of it and ended up playing Destiny on the PS4). I would still like to do this but it is on the back burner.
Frostgrave:
This got played a few times and up to the end of the year, I managed to keep to my plan to play this with the figures I already had. Then this happened. I didn't plan to paint these this year so I don't consider that a negative (yet!).
Bolt Action :
This has been my painting millstone around my neck. I have a lot of good ideas for games based on the Canadians fighting in and around Ortona at the end of 1943. I have discussed terrain with Ed and he has even made me an Italian Farmhouse to try and get me inspired. The idea of running and playing the games is very appealing and even making the terrain should be fun but I just can't get myself to paint the figures.
The number of pieces for each figure in the Warlord Games army box was daunting to start with so I put off putting them together. Then once I had them together I really didn't want to paint them. I wanted to get them painted so I kept them on the painting table and put off starting other projects just so I wouldn't be distracted (the result of which was that nothing got painted for several months). With some prodding from Ed the Germans are mostly painted (but they all need their bases worked up and the halftracks need some weathering and decals.
For the Canadians, I have put together a mortar, a vickers MG and an AT gun and maybe 5 other guys. I am not thrilled with this but I pushed them aside to paint SAGA stuff and hopefully when I come back to them I will be more inspired.
SAGA:
The year did not begin well for SAGA. I had bought a Frankish Starter army and the Gripping Beast plastic medieval guys to paint over the Christmas holidays and I ended up being sick so they are still in their boxes.
When the Saracen set came out for Crescent and Cross as I was pretty good and got that painted up quickly and played a few games with Mike but then the Bolt Action block got in the way. I have managed to catch up and have played with both a Mutatawwi'a warband and and Moorish one but there is still a lot unpainted (my ultimate goal is to have a genericish Arab/Islamic army for Hail Caesar).
I did also pick up the SAGA revenant army in the thought it could also be used in my Hail Caesar Fantasy game and I have done nothing with it.
Other:
I played some Fistful of Kung Fu this year and finished painting the figures I had for that (well, to be honest, Ed painted most of them). I based and primed a Transylvanian army for By Fire and Sword. And I bought a lot of stuff for Team Yankee at the end of the year but that is definitely a 2016 project.
Descent 2nd Edition:
After having this game for over a year (and buying more expansions than I would care to admit) I started playing this in the summer (we are about halfway through the Heir of Blood campaign now). When I bought this my plan was to paint all the plastic figures and that way I would get something out if it even if I didn't play that much. I did manage to get a reasonable chunk of the base set done when I first got it and I thought that once I started playing it, I would be frantically painting but the reality is that nothing got done (but the game is a lot of fun!)
Flames of War:
We played 2 campaigns at the club in 2015: Firestorm Lorraine and a Fate of the Nation Escalation campaign. Both were a lot of fun and I did a fair bit of painting for both.
For the Fate of a Nation, I painted a bunch of T-55s, SU-100s, PT-76 and and IS-3s for the Egyptians and some Ishermans and AMX-13s for the Israelis. On the downside I bought some M48s and Sho'ts as well as infantry for both sides that didn't get painted (though some of the infantry is primed!)
For Firestorm Lorraine, I had posted my painting goals here and I think I did a pretty good job of getting through that stuff. The PZ IV/70s, the PZ IVs and the Panthers all saw action during the campaign and I think the halftracks got assembled. I also didn't buy anything new during the campaign which is a victory of sorts.
I might as well mention my Vietnam stuff here as well-- there was almost no progress. I based some and primed some infantry but nothing that really gets me close to a game. Again I resisted buying anything new (especially the Riverine stuff which I am still tempted by)
Hail Caesar:
The beginning of the year was good for Hail Caesar as I painted a bunch of Roman Legion as well as archers and slingers for the game I ran at Cangames in 2015. The Romans are still my favourite army to paint. I had plans to paint up zombies, skeletons and Beastmen for a Hail Caesar Fantasy game based on the Teutoburg Forest to run at Cangames this year (I had a weeks vacation in September where I was going to paint up a large chunk of it and ended up playing Destiny on the PS4). I would still like to do this but it is on the back burner.
Frostgrave:
This got played a few times and up to the end of the year, I managed to keep to my plan to play this with the figures I already had. Then this happened. I didn't plan to paint these this year so I don't consider that a negative (yet!).
Bolt Action :
This has been my painting millstone around my neck. I have a lot of good ideas for games based on the Canadians fighting in and around Ortona at the end of 1943. I have discussed terrain with Ed and he has even made me an Italian Farmhouse to try and get me inspired. The idea of running and playing the games is very appealing and even making the terrain should be fun but I just can't get myself to paint the figures.
The number of pieces for each figure in the Warlord Games army box was daunting to start with so I put off putting them together. Then once I had them together I really didn't want to paint them. I wanted to get them painted so I kept them on the painting table and put off starting other projects just so I wouldn't be distracted (the result of which was that nothing got painted for several months). With some prodding from Ed the Germans are mostly painted (but they all need their bases worked up and the halftracks need some weathering and decals.
For the Canadians, I have put together a mortar, a vickers MG and an AT gun and maybe 5 other guys. I am not thrilled with this but I pushed them aside to paint SAGA stuff and hopefully when I come back to them I will be more inspired.
SAGA:
The year did not begin well for SAGA. I had bought a Frankish Starter army and the Gripping Beast plastic medieval guys to paint over the Christmas holidays and I ended up being sick so they are still in their boxes.
When the Saracen set came out for Crescent and Cross as I was pretty good and got that painted up quickly and played a few games with Mike but then the Bolt Action block got in the way. I have managed to catch up and have played with both a Mutatawwi'a warband and and Moorish one but there is still a lot unpainted (my ultimate goal is to have a genericish Arab/Islamic army for Hail Caesar).
I did also pick up the SAGA revenant army in the thought it could also be used in my Hail Caesar Fantasy game and I have done nothing with it.
Other:
I played some Fistful of Kung Fu this year and finished painting the figures I had for that (well, to be honest, Ed painted most of them). I based and primed a Transylvanian army for By Fire and Sword. And I bought a lot of stuff for Team Yankee at the end of the year but that is definitely a 2016 project.
Monday, September 7, 2015
Bolt Action Assembly and Play
I played some Bolt Action at the club this weekend run by Jeff. We played a series of 2 linked games. In the first, we as the British had to intercept a hafltrack carrying a secret cargo before it ran off the table and in the second we had to attack a V2 launch site and capture or destroy the rocket.
I didn't take any pictures but to give a rough rundown of the action: In the first game we had 2 sections of infantry, 2 Bren gun carriers, a medium mortar and a 2nd Lt. The Germans had 2 squads, an armed Kubelwagen, the halftrack and their command unit had 3 figures. We were probably about equal in firepower with the British having more figures. We moved up towards the road and exchanged fire for a few turns and then managed to rush out a heavily pinned unit to capture the halftrack. The Germans counterattacked and killed the section that had captured the halftrack but in the end it was a British victory.
For the second game we had the mortar, 6 sections of infantry, the HQ and a Sherman. The Germans had a mix of troops, a PAK 40 AT gun an Armoured Car and a Haftrack. We were a bit hesitant about moving forward and probably concentrated too much on the AT gun so we eventually realized there was no way we would get our victory conditions. I am not entirely sure what the best choice would have been but we certainly needed to push harder.
We had some new people out to the club for this game so that was good as well.
_________________________________________________________________________________
I finally have all of my original German figures painted. They just need to have the basing done and I may try to put the decals on their helmets (I will post some pictures soon). The support weapons are nearly done as well.
Once I got the last bit of paint on, I decided I should start assembling the Canadian troops. I had forgotten how much of a pain it is to assemble the Warlord Games figures. I generally prefer plastics to metals and these are nice figures just a pain to assemble. Each of the arms are separate and the weapon is another piece so getting all 3 of those together in a way that looks sensible is a bit of a challenge.
The helmets are also separate from the heads which is an extra step. In many ways this is a good thing but it is also a bit of a pain. This blog suggests that the best way to do this is to glue the weapon into the right hand before attaching the arm. I tried this for my Germans and I gave it a go for the Canadians as well but I find the best way is to glue on the right arm without the weapon (but checking how the weapon will fit so that it is in a reasonable position) and then doing the left arm and the weapon once the glue is set.
The legs for the kneeling guy are also a bit more trouble than they should be -- they really can only go together one way so if there had been a tab to keep things aligned it would have made the task trivial. I think that is my main complaint is that they didn't really think about what they could do to make assembly easier. I believe that they are getting better, the new German sets have the weapons attached to the arm (or at least the hand?) which should make things quicker.
I have managed to get 5 guys together so far (3 rifle, 1 PIAT and 1 light mortar) and I think I should be able to get the others down over the next week or so.
The little pieces in front of them are the water canteens and the bayonet scabbards. I didn't put a lot of equipment on my Germans because they are Panzer Grenadiers and they are on the defensive but I will load up the Canadians (which reminds me of one more complaint, the weapon sprue could do with more shovels and more rifle -- and a hand with a light mortar bomb would have been nice).
Despite all my complaints I do like these figures and the Germans were easy to paint up once I got past my painters block.
I also assembled some metal support weapons -- a vickers MG, a medium mortar and a 6 pdr AT gun
These were much easier to get together (but I think the plastics will be easier to paint)
I didn't take any pictures but to give a rough rundown of the action: In the first game we had 2 sections of infantry, 2 Bren gun carriers, a medium mortar and a 2nd Lt. The Germans had 2 squads, an armed Kubelwagen, the halftrack and their command unit had 3 figures. We were probably about equal in firepower with the British having more figures. We moved up towards the road and exchanged fire for a few turns and then managed to rush out a heavily pinned unit to capture the halftrack. The Germans counterattacked and killed the section that had captured the halftrack but in the end it was a British victory.
For the second game we had the mortar, 6 sections of infantry, the HQ and a Sherman. The Germans had a mix of troops, a PAK 40 AT gun an Armoured Car and a Haftrack. We were a bit hesitant about moving forward and probably concentrated too much on the AT gun so we eventually realized there was no way we would get our victory conditions. I am not entirely sure what the best choice would have been but we certainly needed to push harder.
We had some new people out to the club for this game so that was good as well.
_________________________________________________________________________________
I finally have all of my original German figures painted. They just need to have the basing done and I may try to put the decals on their helmets (I will post some pictures soon). The support weapons are nearly done as well.
Once I got the last bit of paint on, I decided I should start assembling the Canadian troops. I had forgotten how much of a pain it is to assemble the Warlord Games figures. I generally prefer plastics to metals and these are nice figures just a pain to assemble. Each of the arms are separate and the weapon is another piece so getting all 3 of those together in a way that looks sensible is a bit of a challenge.
The helmets are also separate from the heads which is an extra step. In many ways this is a good thing but it is also a bit of a pain. This blog suggests that the best way to do this is to glue the weapon into the right hand before attaching the arm. I tried this for my Germans and I gave it a go for the Canadians as well but I find the best way is to glue on the right arm without the weapon (but checking how the weapon will fit so that it is in a reasonable position) and then doing the left arm and the weapon once the glue is set.
I have managed to get 5 guys together so far (3 rifle, 1 PIAT and 1 light mortar) and I think I should be able to get the others down over the next week or so.
Despite all my complaints I do like these figures and the Germans were easy to paint up once I got past my painters block.
I also assembled some metal support weapons -- a vickers MG, a medium mortar and a 6 pdr AT gun
Sunday, July 19, 2015
Odds and Ends and Half-Finished projects
I managed to get in a few games in the past weeks. Last weekend I played in a Pike and Shotte Samurai game run by Mike (with his AAR here ). I like this game, the tweaks from Hail Ceasar seem appropriate for the period but it keeps the same basic system and uses the "useful rules" to apply some flavour.
Earlier that week I played some X-Wing with the guys that I usually play Imperial Assualt with. It is a fun game with a surprising amount of depth. I don't have any real urge to pick it up for myself since I don't think I would play it all that much (I did try to convince Meredith it might be fun since she is a big Star Wars fan but there was no interest). There also isn't much non-playing hobby aspect to the game and I spend more time doing that than playing at the moment.
Since Cangames I have been in a bit of a painting slump but I think I am starting to get out of it. Now I just need to finish some stuff before starting new stuff (which is not helped by spending this morning gluing a bunch of new stuff together).
My main focus at the moment are my 28mm Germans for Bolt Action (ultimately for my Ortona games but in the short term just to get enough that I can actually play). The half-tracks are nearly done and the basic infantry platoon is on the way.
This morning I assembled the support weapons and command which is all I am going to do before moving on to the British.
Speaking of which, I assembled the downed pilot and Mad Jack Churchill which were freebies with my latest Warlord purchase.
I put together the Khurusan order stuff which consisted of some modern vehicles (and M1A2, 2 M1114s and a HMMWV cargo carrier)
as well as Dirty Harry and Scorpio.
Since I knew that the glue I was using was going to likely seize up in a week or two anyway (it is "Hot Stuff" which is very good but tends to glue itself shut in fairly short order despite my best efforts) I also put together the Transylvanian force provided by Mike for By Sword and Flame. These are fairly nice figures but if you are designing a game where figures are based side by side, there is probably a limit as to how many riders firing their musket/matchlock/gun off the side you want to make.
As to other stuff I need to get finished, I have some NVA infantry that I airbrushed khaki and now need to finish up.
Some US self-propelled howitzers that need to be finished
a 28 mm Cromwell
and some Saga Camel troops
If I can get through the Germans without starting anything else, I think I will be happy!
Earlier that week I played some X-Wing with the guys that I usually play Imperial Assualt with. It is a fun game with a surprising amount of depth. I don't have any real urge to pick it up for myself since I don't think I would play it all that much (I did try to convince Meredith it might be fun since she is a big Star Wars fan but there was no interest). There also isn't much non-playing hobby aspect to the game and I spend more time doing that than playing at the moment.
Since Cangames I have been in a bit of a painting slump but I think I am starting to get out of it. Now I just need to finish some stuff before starting new stuff (which is not helped by spending this morning gluing a bunch of new stuff together).
My main focus at the moment are my 28mm Germans for Bolt Action (ultimately for my Ortona games but in the short term just to get enough that I can actually play). The half-tracks are nearly done and the basic infantry platoon is on the way.
This morning I assembled the support weapons and command which is all I am going to do before moving on to the British.
Speaking of which, I assembled the downed pilot and Mad Jack Churchill which were freebies with my latest Warlord purchase.
I put together the Khurusan order stuff which consisted of some modern vehicles (and M1A2, 2 M1114s and a HMMWV cargo carrier)
as well as Dirty Harry and Scorpio.
Since I knew that the glue I was using was going to likely seize up in a week or two anyway (it is "Hot Stuff" which is very good but tends to glue itself shut in fairly short order despite my best efforts) I also put together the Transylvanian force provided by Mike for By Sword and Flame. These are fairly nice figures but if you are designing a game where figures are based side by side, there is probably a limit as to how many riders firing their musket/matchlock/gun off the side you want to make.
As to other stuff I need to get finished, I have some NVA infantry that I airbrushed khaki and now need to finish up.
Some US self-propelled howitzers that need to be finished
a 28 mm Cromwell
and some Saga Camel troops
If I can get through the Germans without starting anything else, I think I will be happy!
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