I have a computer! Well a chromebook, but it will more than do for this.

I have been wanting to post as I've actually got quite a lot of painting down since January but my phone for whatever reason wouldn't allow me to upload photos onto here so it seemed like a waste just doing very wordy posts.

You may have seen some of my posts on facebook and twitter (@EnigmaRawsy) and if not then why not. I have been painting a fair variety including a sudden surge in 10mm models - in fact the only thing really holding me back is a lack of bases!

So expect many photos to arrive soon!

10mm WW2 British Commandos

Rommel Updates

I've not had much opportunity to get out to game recently but I'm really motivated to be modelling at the moment. As such I've decided to make myself a Rommel playkit which can be transported easily including scenery, baseboard and minis. I've no pictures for you today so you'll have to use your imagination for now.

I picked Rommel as the grid format reduces things I need to transport as well as meaning that I have a Rommel setup for the future without having to mark it out each time. I have decided to have a play at making desert scenery which I hope to make available soon at Board and Sword and online. There are also a large amount of scenarios on Sam Mustafa's website for the desert.

For the board I have taken two 2'x4' sheets of mdf and hinged them together. I then marked 4" squares across them and I've painted these using various shades of sand from tester pots. I may need to remark my grid, for most scenarios I won't need the entirety of the board but its a good space that I can always cover in a green cloth to play Bolt action etc upon.

For hills I have made some small tokens using polystyrene and filler. I finished by coating in my black paint and PVA mix, overbrushing yellow and sprinkling with sand. I also made a few with rock faces (having a play with cork boulders for first time).

I lied - I found a picture

For minis, I am going to be using some counters for now - however I cam looking at getting some armies made up using either 6mm or 3mm - whichever is the more cost effective. I'd love suggestions on this - specifically for desert usage as I am going to continue using my 10mm collection for NWE and Eastern front.

So hopefully I'm going to catalogue everything I have made this year over next couple of days. If anyone likes what they then see and would like some then contact me and I can see what I can do. If you live in North Lancashire then we can arrange to meet up and you can see my samples in the flesh.

Juno Beach - Rommel Battle

So this Tuesday I played a game of Rommel using the Juno Beach scenario. Few points on this; I know it is a beginner scenario, but why is it 21st Panzer counterattacking - should it not be 12th SS? Also why are the 716th's artillery deployed so far forward - seems unnecessary.

Assault Brigades Advance

The game played well albeit we forgot plenty of rules. The counterattacking forces in the form of the Panzers were very effective in their assaults although the were all fairly spent through attrition by the time we called it. I also feel that I didn't assault very well once past the frontlines and allowed myself to be caught tipped a few times.

Panzer Reinforcements

The order sheets worked nicely, with the interdiction taking out 2 of Alex's artillery batteries which hindered massively his defence.

Allied Command Board

I think this will require a few more games just to get the hang of it but all in all enjoying it.

I have got a lot more Fallschirmjager painted and will get them all posted together.

Oh So Close

So I genuinely am making progress and I have now just got 3 stands of cavalry left, as well as about 5 command bases. I've even cut the bases for the town sectors. Pictures will be available soon...

Also news about Morecambe Bay Storm, we finished the season 5-4-1, I've got to admit I was out injured for the last few games and in our play-off quarter final we lost to an excellent team in the Shropshire Revolution. All in all an excellent season and we hope to bounce back even stronger next year (albeit I personally need a lot of work still doing on my shoulder). If you want to give it a go then we have a rookie day on the 8th October - come try it out.

In other news I have also got arriving soon Flashpoint: Fire Rescue. This was recently on Tabletop (although they didn't seem to last very long?). SO I'll review this and show you pictures in action.

Finally (in this fast paced piece) I am also looking to buy Rommel by Sam Mustafa when it is released. I already have a good amount of 10mm WW2 models and if it works it could be possible to build up to some of the huge battles of WW2 including Operation Market Garden, Leningrad, D-Day or the Bulge! Already looking at a grid marked battlemat (although unsure which sized squares to buy).

Canucks vs Green Devils

Last night I got out and played a Spearkrieg Commander game at House Lancaster to introduce DW to the rules. He'd played Black Powder before so knew roughly the command system and we were playing a basic scenario without recce or artillery support.

View from the German lines

3rd Canadian Infantry Brigade were attacking with a Regiment of Churchill IVs in support. In defence were the 2nd Battalion of 1st Fallschirmjager Regiment (with promise of StuG support).

Canadians begin to advance

DW advanced slowly initially as he got to grasps with the rules. As indirect fire was called in and my PaK 40 screen was deployed, casualties were mounting on both sides.

PaK 40 deploys

With no artillery it was a bit of a tough ask to weedle out the dug in Germans until the Canadians whittled them away and managed to get into combat.

Canucks charge in

The 2 lead Canadian Battalions were approaching breaking whilst the German reinforcements were yet to be seen.

Hole smashed through German lines

With the removal of the forces from the hill and the eventual capture of the village sector in the centre (thank you snake eyes in combat), the Canadians pushed on and I was getting nervous. A pair of StuGs arrived but had little impact.

Canadians reach the last village.

Finally the Canadians hit morale - one routed back whilst the other held but it was enough to stop them for now.

A good game with good ebb and flow - I'm going to try and get some more games going. I also really enjoyed the feel of the club - saw some games of Warhammer 40k (and variants) with actual maneuvering going on which was  a major reason I didn't get into it at school. I have a definite reason to get my Bolt Action force finished for a potential tournament. (Anyone got a 750 point concept army for Fallschirmjagers which is historically appropriate?).

Operation Barbarossa Battle

So for the first time in a long time I went down to Lancaster Wargames Club and made the debut of my German Cavalry with AE. Had a good fun game - tested some hypotheses and met up with people I haven't seen in a while. It was also good to get the models out on tabletop.

Cavalry Regiment Deployed

Although I don't have a battle report I can advise of my findings:

• As expected, cavalry just can't stand up and force its way through formed infantry, but it does seem to have the mobility to exploit gaps (the scenario didn't really allow for this). They are also really susceptible to artillery.

Kradshutzen Arrive to outflank

• Early war Panzer Grenadiers mince their way through Soviet Infantry (only casualties were caused by friendly fire).

Panzer Breakthrough

• Early War Panzers are really glad they have good command - they also can't sit in front of anti-tank guns. They also don't have great guns on them and really rely on the infantry to support them. Having said that they are monstrous when overrunning infantry in the open.

KV-2

• KV-2's are scary when they fire (this one stand blew away 2 Panzer 3 platoons) but are still vulnerable to mass flank/rear fire when unsupported. If the Russians had enough command to get the infantry alongside it I don't know how I could have taken it out. On a side note Panzerjager 1B are actually quite good as tank hunters in early war (Anti-Tank 4)

If I was to play this sort of scenario I would play the cavalry as an exploitation force or mobile flank guard - asking them to break through isn't something they are going to be able to do.

I also would try to move more - my back is killing me this morning and has doubly confirmed to me that I'm not going to be able to play football against Burnley Tornadoes. Having said that I should probably let you know what happened on Sunday! 

1/23 Grenadier Battalion, German Engineers and Mess

So as previously mentioned, on here and on Facebook, I was undecided as to how I was going to base my Grenadiers. Well I've decided to go for the column formation and here are the results:

1st Grenadiers have the white stripes on the helmets and red lapels whilst 23rd Grenadiers have the red stripe and no lapels. Both units had Silver Helmet faces. The lapels etc are based of the parent regiments colours from which they are drawn. For whatever reason this was standard practice throughout the armies of the Seven Years War - although there were some standing grenadier regiments in the Prussian Army.

I also finally finished off the last stand of 2er Reiter Regiment for 1941 - my Pioneer Platoon all ready for a game tomorrow.

Flame and Horse

Last but not least I also flocked the anti-tank batteries for Soviet Infantry I showed previously:

47mm ATGs

I keep plodding on but I really need to tidy my shed and work board (which I use to bring my work inside so I can listen out for kids).

Prussian Army Update and Soviet Anti Tank Guns

So last night I got a little bit of texturing done and thought I'd recap as to where I am with my Prussians - was a pleasant surprise.

Current Prussian Force

Considering that I'm just getting bits of time here and there - I think its starting to take shape.

Infantry Regiments

The infantry bases look awesome, especially when I've completed all 16 I currently have!

Close Up of 9th and 5th Infantry Regiments

And the heavy cavalry are done (for now) - just some more Hussars and the Dragoons to come.

Cuirassiers

1st Hussars

More Cuirassiers

On another note - I need to decide how I am going to base my Grenadiers - these are supposed to be shock troops so I've been thinking about basing them in a bit more dense formation. So if anyone has an opinion on which way to go between the two below it would be appreciated:

Line

Column

I have also got painted and based (not flocked) my anti-tank guns for my Soviet Regiment - so much to fear for my Panzers (this is early war remember!)

Plans and Commissions

So things are happening in life; kids are doing well, Morecambe Bay Storm's first game approaches and we're training hard. I'm starting to learn Java and starting a genuine saving plan with missus.

Yes I play with sleeves.

On the gaming front things are happening too, the other week had a session of DnD and recorded it - potentially looking to post this on youtube along with some artwork (hopefully) in the nearish future. Great fun was had and future games seem likely.

I also have undercoated the building you saw on the last post - I decided to put the gravel on before painting on this model then painting over and giving it a wash and dry brush - in hindsight I think I will leave the gravel until the end in future models. I intend to mass manufacture these with the intentions of selling them (part of saving plan).

I have got some of my models painted - some Soviet support weapons (120mm Mortars and HMGs) in 10mm, and some Prussian Seven Years War Cuirassier Regiments in 6mm. Once I've got all the cavalry painted I will post them all together as I want to do the bases all at once.

With regards to the Soviets, I don't think I'm going to be able to travel to play anytime soon so I'm looking at generating some solo play rules based on Spearkrieg - this will probably have to involve blinds, I think using a random deployment could work for 1941 on the Eastern Front with Soviet units in disorder and could explain some questionable deployments. Any thoughts - especially pertaining to support weapons would be much appreciated.

Finally, I also have plans to go through my old stuff especially my 20mm plastic Napoleonics - I have quite a lot of them - will either sell as a job lot or if anyone is interested in them painted I will do them in whatever scheme required and base for required ruleset as well.

Update (August 2016)

So I've painted all sorts of bits and bobs but aren't really massively moving forward with any. Really need to pick just one and paint that. Having said that - I've no actual planned games in near future so I guess its more about enjoyment at the moment.

To give you an idea of how disorganised my painting is at the moment I have painted the following in the last few weeks.

• Soviet 10mm Armour
• Soviet Heavy Mortars and HMGs
• German 10mm Armour
• 2 Prussian SYW Cavalry Regiments
• My Gronn Flamme Warband for Frostgrave

1st Prussian Hussars

Both my seven years war cavalry and my warband still need their based doing as I'm undecided how to do them (hence why their pictures have "snow" bases presently. As such their official posts will come when these are done.

And now I have got back to scenery. I've got plans for a few different things for my Frostgrave terrains and once I really get into it I'm going to start mass manufacture to sell a few I think. Here's my first (single storey) ruin's walls.

I will also be making towers, columns, archways, wells and larger buildings until I can cover a table. I'm going to make them fairly generic so that I can use them for other periods (Stalingrad perhaps or Skirmishes in Hue for my Tour of Darkness campaign).

Soviet Armour?

So I needed some early war opponents for my Cavalry so I picked up a regiments worth of Russian Infantry to play as counter attackers or desperate defenders! I also got my order of turrets for my German Armour and I decided to spoil myself with some Soviet Armour (Including one of the most ridiculous tanks of WW2).

So first of all I'll start with what you've seen before - another couple of Panzer III Shorts and 2 Panzer III Long. I've got 4 more to do but I've run out of bases :(

Panzer III Long

Panzer III Short

So this will act as either a breakthrough or a reinforcement column to my cavalry force. Want to get a few vehicles (transport) and infantry and eventually build this up into a Panzer Division.

I will start mass painting infantry so I can at least get a battalion and a half on table (with lots of support elements) - again I have a shortage of bases but they at least have some armour support (one platoon of which is just silly).

T26s were (officially) deployed as part of a the Rifle Regiment Divisonal Tank Battalion (4 Stands T26 and 3 stands of T37a as per Spearkrieg). I really like the shading - not so sure about the markings - apparently this is an official paint scheme.

From www.armchairgeneral.com

Finally I keep mentioning the silliness so here you go - a KV2. Pendraken models tend to be two pieces - hull and turret - but this is 3 for the hull and a huge turret. The detail is good especially the road wheels (better than normal to be honest) but as per usual with both of these tanks they are a bit squat.

Monster 152mm Howitzer - in 1941!

Definitely going to fall over - the KV2 could only traverse its turret on flat ground due to the weight of its turret!

Menacing

So due to its serious issues (and not having the stats line in front of me) I'm going to make a couple of special rules for the KV2. First it is Unreliable  meaning that for every move order past the first one there is an additional -1 to command. Secondly it is Restricted due to its issues over the turret movement meaning that instead of having a 180 degree view it has a 90 degree view as below.

So here is the combined supporting armour I have collected for the Russians - not massively rushing to reinforce - most likely to just make a Rifle Division and stop.

Spot the odd one out.

You never know, I might get the infantry painted and a game sorted out!