Off the shelf...

The "finishing" bug maintains its momentum. Motivated by the fantastically enjoyable 1944 Spearhead game this weekend with Keith, and the realisation that there are some divisional elements that I hadn't added (and I thought I'd finished.. ha!) I've grabbed some 6mm equipment 'off the shelf', and based and added some reconnaissance elements (3 Staghound armoured car squadrons), some heavier tank support (three Challengers that can be used in place of the Achilles, if I recall correctly) and 3 Bofors AA stands.

A symptom of the 'wargamer's disease.. I've had the vehicles for years (the result of one of those 'aspirational purchases from 20+ years ago I think - love that phrase, thanks Andrew) and I was able to pluck the vehicles from the shelf and base them. The slightly frightening thing is the number of 6mm vehicles still sitting on that shelf, unbased and unused. I should get rid of them, but.. well,.. you never know, one day you may just need them, as I've found with the nine stands above.

Next 'finishing' project... some Imperial Guard weapons and vehicles. I don't play a heck of a lot of 40K myself, but this year my College wargames group has several players new to the hobby, so my collections are well used and need extending. I've had the models for quite some time, it's time to get them finished.

British boys bash the bosche!!!

A spokesman for 21st Army Group has reported yet another successful pinning attack by 7th Armoured Division to the west of Caen.  Designed to hold German forces in the area, a surprise attack in Brigade strength was launched soon after dawn. Several battalions from the division's infantry brigade launched a silent attack towards known German positions, pinning the defenders in place to allow British artillery battalions to wreak devastation. One of the limited aims of the attack, according to the spokesman, was to locate additional German artillery assets and bring them under fire in order to further weaken the defenders material and moral strength. Strong medium artillery units quickly located one of the rare German rocket artillery units, and destroyed these units in place. Other German artillery assets were also identified and neutralised. Moderate casualties were the price for the longer term strategic goal of forcing the German invaders form the continent.

The view east across the French countryside, Caen hidden in the distance by early morning mists.

German defenders entrenched in front of a small Norman village. German positions were well forwards.

Cromwells of 7th Armoured Division advancing towards the German flank.

Infantry from 7th Armoured working their way silently forward in the early morning mist.

A barrage of Nebelwerfer rockets fell on one of the infantry battalions.

The view from behind the armoured regiment positions as they engaged German Jadgpanzer IVs and Stug IIIs. The Achilles anti tank platoons are positioned in support of the Cromwell tank squadrons.

The effect of British tank gunnery on the defenders.

German left flank infantry positions feeling the weight of British artillery fire.

British infantry infiltrating through a gap in the German defences. German defenders are seen pinned as they tried to escape back into the village.

This was our first WW2 Spearhead game in far too long. Keith and I had forgotten far too much, and also managed to have a darned good yarn in the process of playing the game towards a conclusion. Truth to tell, my British undertook a deliberate attack against Keith's German defenders and, having forgotten to use a pre-planned bombardment (how stupid is that for a veteran WW1 general!!) my troops were actually pretty much 'hung out to dry' attacking dug in German defences. The defenders were thin on the ground, and both of us made a few deployment errors. We are hungry for more games, this was a huge amount of fun, with plenty of laughs!

Last Dwarf unit filler..

Last of the unit fillers finished, based and added. The pit pony and wagon (I have several) fills out the unit of Shieldbreakers (WFB miners). This allows me to create larger units.. a second IronguardHorde maybe, perhaps a horde of Shieldbreakers for the Dwarven Kings of War army.

Unless I decide to add some more Berserkers,  that's the Dwarf army f ... f ... f ... finished.

Finishing Fillers...

Still on the finishing spree.. some time  ago I bought some miscellaneous Fantasy figures (some GW Dwarves). They came with the spiders I painted recently. Not enough figures for a whole unit, so what was I going to do with them? I'd planned some unit fillers, figures I could put in the centre of a Dwarven block to pad out numbers. There were some Dwarf shooters (Ironguard in Kings of War terms), and some Miners (I'm using these figures as KoW Shieldbreakers). There was also the 'pit pony with wagon, I figured this could go in the centre of a unit of Shieldbreakers.

So here is the result. I have to base the pony and wagon, but apart from that ...

... here's another job 'FINISHED'... I love ticking things off lists. Only problem is that in hobby terms, I keep adding items to the bottom of the list faster than I'm ticking them off.

I just have to stop trying to tell myself that I'm any different from any other 'gamer!!!

Battles in fantasy lands

This week it was Kings of War again.. I'd added a unit of cavalry to the dwarves (Goblin Spider Riders as proxy 'fierce' berserkers. Andy fielded his Humans.. still only partly painted.. sigh!!

Andrew had joined us, and was very aggressive on the human left, pushing some Outriders in front while forming up for an attack with knights and archers.

ON the human right, the dwarven left as seen here, I sued a steel behemoth (the Gyrocopter) in conjunction with some Berserkers and Ironguard, to destroy a unit of knights.

In the centre the Dwarf Ironguard horde advanced, supported by an Ironguard regiment, to attack the human centre. We'd already weakened the human right sufficiently to eliminate any threat to our flank as we advanced.

However we exposed out right to another unit of knights, I'd kept the Dwarven cavalry in reserve to guard the flank, but simply got my positioning wrong.. oh well. someone's gonna get hurt ..

The knights were then able to take on the Berserker cavalry, but weren't able to eliminate them, and the game ended.. 6 turns just like that.

The game was a draw, even if Andy had got his points wrong, and fielded an under strength force.

The armies were meant to be 1750 points (well mine was, anyway). The buildings were scratch built by Andy.

French demise in Spain...

A few shots from last week's Volley and Bayonet game, set in the Peninsular, with French vs Anglo-Spanish. Adrian took the Allied forces, and I commanded the French.
I have to say that this was definitely not my most stellar performance!!

The French advanced in typical glorious French style (how else??).

They occupied the double town sector.. and that's where the trouble began,

The British forces, including some Scots shock troops, assaulted the town, and bounced the French right out.. ouch!!

I advanced the French centre against the corps boundary between English and Spanish.. I was sure I sensed a weak spot. The French attack bounced the Spanish and British units, but were left with their flank exposed. Adrian is always ready to come to the party when issued with any tempting invitation..

This flank attack was responsible for destroying n the French centre.

The French right had been advancing and pressuring the Spanish cavalry, exhausting the cavalry with fire. Adrian felt that the M4 cavalry was too weak to charge the French Brigades.

But with the French centre crumbling the fate of the French army was sealed .. as I said, not my best work!!

However for all that, another superb Volley and bayonet game. We fought using my 25mm armies. The buildings were scratch built.

F.. F.. F.. what??

Now and then we all probably become motivated by the 'f' word in 'gaming: 'finishing'. 'Finishing' has been my bye-word for the past few months, so those 6mm WW2 Brits have been painted to give me a full WW2 Spearhead British Regiment. The remaining few 1982 Brits bought to pad out the BAOR army have been painted and based, so the Milan teams have their FV432s, and the Blowpipe teams now ride in their long awaited land rovers.

And I finally got around to seeing Stan to buy that box of HaT Austro-Hungarian heavy weapons to finish the regiment of 1914 Austro-Hungarians for the Eastern Front Project. Now the AH regiment was never intended to be more than a nice visual supplement to the Germans, although I may be tempted to add some field artillery from the Hat Range, and there are the mortars in the box that could be painted up to morph the force into 1915/16. But at this stage the project has taken that next step towards completion, towards 'finishing'. There are now 4 stands of MMGs (I only need 3 for the regiment, but it seemed silly to only paint 3 of the 4 in the box) and a FO stand (and that in itself may be an argument for buying some AH artillery as well).

So here is the full regiment in Great War Spearhead terms.

There are more Russians to be painted to flesh out the first Russian division to full strength (and then another division to allow for an 'attack' force under the scenario generation system), but at least this is another milestone along the way. I am determined to play out some games set on the eastern front 1914 in which I don't use proxies in place of the correct figures.

And the 1944 British are ready to go (although there is the Typhoon air support, and another couple of AT guns, and the Sherman regiment to replace the Cromwells and.. ). But the BAOR army is pretty much there finally. It just needs an opposing force .....

Currently on the painting board though is a batch of assorted dwarf figures that I bought last year to act as unit fillers for the Kings of War Dwarf army. And this is all leading somewhere: last month I bought the figures to start a Kingdoms of Men army for Kings of War: some of those lovely Perry '100 Years war' infantry, and some Fireforge Medieval knights.

And I may have to do something with those very old painted but badly based 20mm WW2 Russians so that Nick and I can try some mid war eastern front Spearhead actions. Base the infantry, and, oh, there isn't anywhere near the amount of armour I thought I had, so a few more vehicles and AT guns etc....

Patience, grasshopper ....