'The fate of Admiral Kolchak'

I recently purchased and read this interesting book 'The fate of Admiral Kolchak', (ISBN 1 84158 138 0). Written by Peter Fleming (brother of Ian Fleming, of James Bond fame) it was first published in 1963. My copy is a 2001 reprint.

The story of Admiral Kolchak, former commander of the Black Sea fleet, and Supreme Commander of the White Russian forces, is interesting but tragic. The book provides an overview of the circumstances that lay behind the Allied intervention in Russia in 1918-1920, and hence the circumstances behind Kolchak's acession to power (albeit very briefly). The style of the writing and the vocabulary might seem to the modern reader to be a little dated, but the book rewards perseverance with a reasonable understanding of the events that lead to Kolchak's ultimate demise. The book is short on detail in some areas, and provided little coverage of the campaigns of Kolchak's forces in Siberia. That however was probably never the writer's intention. Fleming does however succeed in painting a brief picture of the barbarity that epitomises civil wars in general.

The book is worth reading if you have an interest in the Russian Civil War.

EpicA Air support

Imperial Thunderbolt fighter bombers recruited in support of the Space Marines, these Citadel aircraft came off the production line last night. I'm not that happy with them, so I may even reblack them and start again.

Two Thunderbolts painted up for ground support, although I am considering repainting in a proper camouflage pattern that might better fit their role.

These next two Thunderbolts are meant to be used in the CAP role. Again, I'm not convinced about the look, or maybe it's just the poor execution.

DBR at Natcon 2011

Finally from the Natcon 2011 weekend, four photos of a couple of tables in play in the DBR competition.

I really liked Brian's Ships ...

ACW Volley and Bayonet in 6mm

On the second day of Natcon 2011 Andrew and played a casual Volley and Bayonet game using Andrew's 6mm ACW armies. The difference here is that Andrew has based his 6mm figures on full sized (3"x3") bases. These look grand on the table top!!

Here again are just a few assorted photos. The game was set in 1861 (after all it is the 150th anniversary this year). The Confederates got the better of the day.

DBA at Natcon 2011

A few assorted photos of my games in the one day 6 round DBA tournament at the New Zealand Natcon 2011. The camera batteries failed on me so just a few photos from early in the day. I was using my II/39(b) Celtiberian army.

These first few were from my first game against Stan's Carthaginians.

I managed one photo from my game against Jim's Ptolomaics ...

And then the camera batteries died. I managed 3 wins, 2 losses and adraw for the day, and was happy with that. Those Spanish are hard to use, and we spent a lot of time working hard on steep hills and in woods. The tournament was organised by Keith, and the results can be found here on his Blog.

First New Zealand Natcon 2011 photos

Before I get started on the very cool DBA tournament that I played in this year, here are just a few photos of some of the wonderful armies that were in use in the WH40K tournament, no commentary needed really,  just worth enjoying I thought.

Epic Armageddon .. the Squats

Adrian, Andrew and I got together for our second EpicArmageddon game for the week - we are all learning how to play the game, so we thought that we ought to strike while the iron's hot and play this second game as soon as we could. I also had another agenda: Adrian has had his Squat army for many years, I reckon it's a fantastic looking army (both the figures AND his paint job), and I wanted to put some photos up on the blog.

Here's the battlefield with initial deployment, Space Marines on the right and Squats on the left.

I placed a SM formation in Garrison on one of the objectives on the SM left flank.

Adrian similarly garrisoned an objective on the same flank, and also this one in the centre. In the background.. gulp, you guys may be short, but you certainly have some very big guns!!

Deployed in the Squat centre was an airship, and a unit of tunnellers... oooo darn, where are they going to come up? Blitzkrieg perhaps, taking the SM baseline objective?   Surely not...

Squat bikers...

Andrew pushed a tactical formation forward on the SM left.

They took fire from the squat formation garrisoning a town close by, and in overwatch.

That formation however took a lot of fire, even though it was supported by one of those REALLY BIG Squat guns!!!

Adrian brought his second really big gun across in support and it put down a lot of fire on a supporting unit of Landraiders on the SM left - this many hits, but Andrew managed to save them all.

We were pretty determined to make our play on our left flank, and moved a unit of Devastators (mounted in Landraiders) across to provide even more fire support.

That's a lot of blast markers for one little formation, and the Squat formation that was the centre if attention broke.

However fire then came down on the Devastator formation from the other BIG GUN (you can see it in the background)!!

In the meantime a Black Templar detachment had pushed ahead and grabed another objective in the centre.

On the SM right flank, a second unit of Devastators had pushed across and caused some anxiety for the unit of Sqaut bikers by firing into their flank, but was then itself hit by a unit of Squat Trikers (well I suppose when you are that little...) ... all very confusing!!

The Trikers were accompanied by a Gyrocopter.

The result was that one unit of devastators remained from the formation, seen here broken and having pulled back!! Yep, we know that when they break you remove the blast markers, but we left them there for effect..

The Trikers were however then hit in the flank by the SM's Blood Angels flank guard. I don't think the Blood Angels were that happy about having been left out to guard the right flank, and when they hit the Trikers they tore them apart.. ouch, that hurt if you are a Squat!!

Adrian started to make his play for the centre objective, and began to move forward to menace the Templars.

On the left Andrew pushed forward aggressively against the Squats. His flanking tactical formation got around their flank and lay down some pretty heavy fire in preparation for an assault.

Finally Adrian had one of those 'moments in the sun'. The Tunellers came up next to the SM baseline objective.

The Tunnellers assaulted the Whirlwinds sitting on the baseline in their firebase.

Result: four dead Whirlwinds., and the baseline objective at least contested. The last remaining Devastator unit from the earlier assault had rallied, and pulled back into the trees to be close to the objective just in case this happened..

We had managed to play two full turns this time, so the game was still incomplete when we had to call time, but we are getting noticeable faster at the whole thing.  We remain fascinated by the interplay created by the alternating unit activation within each turn, and anyway.. this one was all about the Squats. Hopefuly someone will enjoy the photos of some great figures and Adrian's wonderful paint jobs.

There were unpainted Space Marine models on the table (not something I'd normally do), but they won't remain unpainted for long. There's a wee list of equipment that is being based and painted over the next few weeks, and I am looking forward to fielding a more balanced force with air and AA assets as well.