Another Saturday of small battles

First Saturday after the great 12 hour paint-a-thon, and the College boys had a HotT game and a 40K game going on.

The HotT game saw the greeblie army taking on my own Spiders. This was the first game with the completed greeblies on painted bases.

It was a Greeblie victory.

Meantime two new recruits were introduced to 40K with small tau forces.

It's all good fun.

Warhammer 40K - in which my own incompetence is punished

Well, it's been a while but I finally got together with Adrian for a game. We chose Warhammer 40K. Why? We don't think the rules system is that flash but it is workable, and we love pushing the gorgeous miniature around the table. We have reverted to 4th edition, and are very happy with the games we get from the system.

I opted to field my Lost and the Damned army, while Adrian chose his Tau.

The scenario saw us set up in opposite table quarters, with control of quarters as the defining victory condition. Adrian managed to score first move, and the L&tD casualties kicked off straight away.

Some of Adrian's gorgeous Tau army.. a Hammerhead.

My Chaos Space Marines and Chaos Dreadnought advanced on my right flank, looking to take the table quarter to their front.

On my left I locked my flank with the ruins in the table centre, and pushed forward on my left looking for cover in a forest.

End of turn 1

Turn 2 and casualties were mounting rapidly

My mutants made it to the ruins in the quarter on my right.

My push on my far left was rapidly whittled down with Tau fire

The Tau right flank facing my left

Not a lot left of my left after another turn of Tau fire

My Defiler missed most of its shots, in my 3rd turn taking down a Tau hammerhead, but all too late.

By the end of turn 3 it was all over. My Traitor Thunderhawk Gun ship had failed to pass a reserve roll, and so never appeared, depriving me of some essential firepower.

Mind you, as we sat and dissected the game afterwards I realised I'd misread my own army lists and had failed to use two further Traitor squads. So I'd effectively had 1100 points against Adrian's 1500 points. Adrian had repeatedly said he couldn't understand how he'd managed to outnumber me so much. Good reason.. incompetence on my part.

But when it was all said and done, we'd pushed some cool figures around the table, and had a good yarn in which we'd solved a significant number of the world's problems.

12 hour paint-a-thon conclusion

Well, it's done. We didn't quite make the 12 hours, even we two adults flagged after 11 hours and packed up. So was it successful?

Not sure really. One of the boys completed his Greeblie HotT army, but none on the others managed this. They took on too much for a start. I ought to have advised them to start with a dozen figures and got them to finish those. The sense of accomplishment might have been far greater.
We'll see what their attitudes are like next week.

For my part, I completed the Sdkfz 222, and the Vickers Mk VI. The Sdkfz 232 is almost complete, but I face the lace-like radio antenna array with some trepidation. The PzI is partly done, but trying to assemble it in the time available was optimistic. The running  gear needed time for the glue to harden properly  (it is too finely moulded and brittle to take chances with) so that has been set aside for a while before I recommence work. I discovered that there was a Kubelwagon with the 222 kit (an added bonus), but again I had to leave that to allow glue to harden. However it will do nicely as an artillery observer element in the 1940 German army.

The Matilda II was base coated ready for assembly, but there it sits.

So, over all I think it was worthwhile. I learnt a few things (like how much pizza 14 and 15 year old boys can eat), but I need to get the boys to 'chunk' their projects much much more (in the same way that I teach them to 'chunk' content for learning .. and I thought I;'d done that with their painting plans). Obvious really, you'd think I should have known that.

I think we'll repeat the exercise next year. And now, a wine and some sleep.

Paint-a-thon progress

Seven and a half hours done... and here's some of the utput sio far.

Brit Para zombies (HotT) and French Napoleonic infantry

Tau

German infantry for Crossfire

LotR

Those Brit Paras again

The Greeblies with basing underway.. another coat of green to go

Colourful behemoth in the Greeblie army

And my own output so far .. I am putting off adding the antenna array to the 232 nearest the camera, but will have to confront it soon

12 hour paint-a-thon 4 hours in

Four hours in, and work is progressing.

For my part, two vehicles on the way. The Sdkfz 222 base coated and assembled, just waiting for everything to dry before I give it a wash, and do some lining. The 232 is proving a little slower. Still plenty to do with the other vehicles as well.

German 1940s vehicles in progress

More HotT Greeblies

A box of Perrys' French Napoleonics assembled about to be undercoated

British Paras heading towards zombie status for HotT

There's LotR stuff, and German troops for Crossfire/Spearhead on this table

And some Tau 40K

It's quite a nice mix of painting and interests being fuelled here.

It begins.. 12 hour paint-a-thon

I've been contemplating this for a number of years: a 'paint-a-thon' for the College boys, an opportunity to create their own armies. The idea came from a GW event that used to run, same principle, 24 hours.
24 hours? I don't think so, but 12 I thought might just be manageable. So, here are the first shots for the day.

My own temporary painting table

 I've set myself a goal to complete several 1/72 scale kits that came with the recently acquired Gerard Davey stash. These are 1940s vehicles for France 1940 Spearhead. First up are three German light vehicles

Wonderful 20mm Spearhead reinforcements

We had a visit yesterday from good friends Gerard and Marion, and their two 'children' Alex and Charlotte.

I write 'children' in inverted commas because they are both mid/late teens, and sadly the last time we met them both they were both under fives. As an aside, they provide yet more evidence to support my world view that young people today are extraordinary. These are two intelligent caring witty thoughtful human beings. Young people like this give me faith in the future of humanity. Well done Gerard and Marion.

It was great to catch up as it has been far too long since we last did, yet it was as if we saw each other last week. They say that's the sign of good friends. Our meet-up was too short, and as they left I realised that Gerard had placed a small pile of boxes on our breakfast bar. It looked like this:

And then this ...

Excitement building ... because when I opened the big box at the bottom it looked like this ..

OMG .. breathe Robin breathe!! 3 x T60s (or T70s??.. must check my vehicle ID)

And Cossack cavalry, including Gerard's take on a Russian Tchanka ...

And Cossacks both mounted and dismounted ....

"Just thought you'd like these Robin... I don't do much 20mm 'gaming these days" ... in Gerard's self effacing modest way.

OH ... MY... GOD ... how awesome are these???!!! Thank you SOOO much Gerard... I just have to get something organised to get these beauties on the table.

Wargames opponents beware.. destroy these on the table on pain of death.. they are .. A..MAZ ..ING!!!

By the way, Gerard.. we really have been saying we must pack up some armies and come across to Hokitika and spend a day 'gaming with you. Now we really MUST.

Thanks buddy!!