Tally Ho! Crusaders

I finished my Crusaders for a MW Light Armoured Squadron a while back.  Two platoons and a HQ with the option to field the CS variants. I did get to use them on the table at my FLGS EW Operation Crusader Campaign even though the camo is more MW than EW, I believe.  Digging out infantry was quite the challenge.  More deck-turrets? (Doesn't quite work for my MW Crusaders, though) The campaign was great but I was unable to attend as much as I wanted due to work commitments.  Great bunch of guys and I had a blast!

North Africa Motor Platoon and 37mm Bofors Portees

I have recently made some progress with my Crusader Armoured Squadron, having completed a Motor platoon and four 37mm Bofors Portee's.  

For the first time in a while the weekend didn't have anything social planned, so I made good use of the time by declaring the weekend an official hobby weekend.  All I had to do was take my wife out to lunch on Saturday, stare at her all googly eyed, and then take her to our favorite coffee shop, Dripp, and I had just enough frequent flyer miles accrued for a round trip ticket to FOW paradise.   I happily cashed in all my points.

I have been especially motivated by a couple of things:  first, I'm reading Steven Pressfield's Killing Rommel and I'm thoroughly enjoying it, which is putting me in the desert mood.  Second, Ben on one of my favorite blogs, Breakthrough Assault, is posting about EW North Africa and is working on an Operation Crusader Firestorm campaign--very cool.  I have to admit, Hellfire and Back! is my favorite FOW book.

Next in the painting queue are 10 Crusaders, two of which are the CS variant for the HQ.  They are assembled and ready for primer and are my July project--we'll see.

As an added bonus, I found myself at my FLGS, GMI Games, purchasing the new D-Day books; some hobby weekend icing on the cake.

Motor Platoon:

Gonzo Journalism FOW Update

I surfed a wave of prolific gluing and painting, crashing headfirst and hard onto my Omaha beach of life.  I've been spitting out it's sand since my last post.  I'd happily eat the the tabletop sands of 1942 North Africa, if only the dug in, artillery barrage feel of everyday work hadn't somehow x32'd me into March, 2013...a rich and hypnotic newsreel grainy black and white into dull, boring high definition color of an 8:00 am until done work life. Now, faint echoes of Olivier's narration in my head, followed by a blunt realization tonight of trenched paced accomplished on the FOW front.  I'm pinned.  Gom jabbar pinned.

Not even a post.  Send me your boats across the Channel becuzzz I long for my own Dunkirk.  I write this post.  What would Patton do?  A Dirty Jon podcast voice from the past..."reinforce success": 1.5 year old grandson, Conner, said, "Papa".  Some good sand...Jeeping in Calico, Odessa Canyon with my Band of Brothers.  A great FOW deal on eBay.  An un-nested family I hobby love.  A rationed few nights of accelerator taste in my mouth, followed by morning drive teeth scraping super glue off nails.  Grants already done but added to, with 3 Lee turrets for North Africa Sandworm spice.  Honey dripped with sherm...man. Newsreel grey driving into my blue-eyed 1080p:

DAK Pioniers

I finished basing my DAK Pioniers over the last month, with enough bases to run a Pionierkompanie if needed:  16 Pioneer Rifle/MG teams. 6 Flame-thrower teams and Command options.  There are few extra Rifle/Mg teams due to the new DAK Pionier blister being released with new figures during the build.  But looking to the future, I'll have enough Pionier Rifle teams to run a Lietche Pionier platoon from Hellfire and Back!, grabbing a rifle team from a Schutzen platoon if I'm not running Flame-throwers.  EW North Africa is probably in the far future, though.

Rifle/MG Teams

Flame-throwers

British 8th Army Field Batttery

Activate hobby mode...It's good to be back.  It has been a while between blog posts due to my studying for another work related quality certification. The good news is I passed.

I recently found time to finish basing an 8th Army field battery with two gun troops:

Eighth Army Recce Complete - First Decals

I was able to finish the Eighth Army recce and the 25pdr support vehicles this week:

I finally got around to adding some decals for the first time, having some approach avoidance in the past but thinking I could use the decals to help differentiate platoons in order to avoid confusion during the fog of battle.  I was hoping to avoid using a high gloss coat for the decals and after some research, I found some videos on YouTube for using Microscale  Industries, Inc.  Micro Set and Micro Sol.  I didn't have to give the model a gloss coat and considering this was my first time, I was very happy with the results.  The two step process seemed quick and easy.

A good tip is to label the Micro Set and Micro Sol lids to remember the order of use.  After accidentally switching the lids, a better tip is to label the bottle as well:

I'm a somewhat quick and dirty painter, settling on table top, playing quality due to limited time and, well, I'm not that great of a painter.  I mostly use dry brushing techniques:

Using a tip Dirty Jon posted on the WWPD forum, I starting adding radio antennas using brush bristles. Finding the right brush was harder than I anticipated since the  bristles tended to be bigger than I liked, bent in a wavy pattern, or some color other than black.  I'm pretty sure I would like to go with a thinner antenna but I seem to be having trouble finding something.  I'll keep looking.

Overall, I'm very happy with the results.  I'm especially motivated since I found out the next WWPD campaign will be in North Africa.  I was unable to participate in Operation Sea Lion since I didn't have any European troops completed.

Next, I'll finish basing the additional four 25pdrs to give me a full battery of eight.  Then I'll start working on the Heavy Armoured Squadron of Grants I had glued before realizing I have to adjust the tracks slightly.    After that, the much anticipated Bersaglieri followed by an Eighth Army Light Armoured Squadron of Crusaders.  Can't wait!

Fleshing out my British Eighth Army - Recce

It's back to basics this week, fleshing out my North Africa British Eighth Army.  There are a few transports I'm missing for my 25 pdrs, a Jeep and two 15 cwt trucks.  I also picked up two blisters of Marmon Herrington IIIs armored cars for some much wanted Recce.  There are three in a unit and two to a blister, so the fourth one I assembled with a captured anti-tank gun.

I've never really had a thing for the looks of this vehicle but after assembling them and taking a good look, I have to admit they are really growing on me.  Can't wait to get them on the table.  I've developed a romantic connection to the desert over the years, and if I was ever to get into reenactment, it would be the LRDG for me.  Especially after seeing them in person at the local Air Show (pictures here).



I set up on the dining room table with the vehicles I glued this weekend to beat the heat out in the garage.  Surprisingly, though, it's relatively cool tonight, but I have a few TV shows to catch up on.  Mostly dry brushing, anyway.

My painting setup with my old and faithful MDF paint tray from Games Workshop:

A brew would probably have been more appropriate, but after a long day at work, a cappuccino did the job:

This last weekend there was an interesting lecture at the local air museum about the P51 Mustang long range bomber escorts.  Listening to the veterans talk about their experiences flying these planes was quite an experience.

The gentleman on the left is the son of the pilot who flew the Mustang named Dolly and the museum unveiled the plane with Dolly newly painted on the nose.  The other two gentleman are Veterans that flew the P51s during WWII.  True heroes in my mind:

That's is one beautiful plane!

North Africa Practice Game

I was able to get in a quick practice game in this Saturday morning.  I spent most of the week studying the rules and taking notes.  I starting to think I'm getting the hang of it for the most part.  I've invited over some friends and regular players to play Friday night.  Work has been very busy and I'm hoping I won't have to cancel.  We'll see.

We played 1000 point lists, with the British infantry list having two infantry platoons instead of the required three.  Since it was a practice game, I figured it didn't matter.  The game went well;  a little slow, but the emphasis was on learning the rules.  It started to get pretty hot in the garage so we called it draw; it is getting to be that time of year.  I snapped a few pictures below.

The bocage I ordered from Luke at WWPD showed up this week.  Looks great.  See below.

On a side note the England vs Italy game was terrible  We lost on penalties again.

Notes and play aids:

Lucage looks great! (Luke's Bocage):

FOW Rookie Game Report

My anticipation had been building up all week for the game I had planned with my son, Curtis (graduated with a bachelor degree last week--very proud).  I spent a few evenings during the week getting ready and setting up the table.  My wife made pulled pork tacos again -delicious.  The North Africa, mid-war game started off well, but our second game was cursed with a sophomore jinx; we made some glaring rules errors and spent too much time looking up rules.  Too long since our last and first game.  I had placed more terrain on the table this time, bogging the game down somewhat as well as our vehicles.  We were a little shaky on the terrain rules.  The fog of war was thick and so were our heads.  We resigned ourselves to using the game as a much needed training session, therefore no battle report.  We had some good laughs as rules were remembered on my son's turn since I thought more on his turn due to not having to concentrate on moving and shooting.  This was an obvious disadvantage for him.  Plus, my die rolling was on fire.

The great news is we learned a lot and will now be playing on a more regular basis.

Lessons learned:

• Know the rules.  We need to study more.  The obvious good thing about playing is knowing where your rule knowledge is weakest.  I took notes of the questions we had.
• Practice with smaller armies.  Starting off at 1500 points is probably not a good idea.
• This game is fun.  Even with our issues, we still had a good time.  I want a game that's not too complicated and not too simple: this game is right in there.
• Use the turn sequence steps at the beginning of the rule book chapters.  I think I'll type them up and print them out.
• Have the terrain summary handy:  Page 30.  I emailed Battlefront a few months ago requesting this page as a PDF game aid. Hopefully, it will happen.
• Have the 'Concealment Status Summary' on page 89 readily available.  Also understand what 'dig in' and 'go to ground' does.
• Continue to use this great tool: assault phase flowchart.  Great tool for the new player.

The proud family from left to right: my mom, me with my Luke from WWPD mask on. Curtis, my beautiful wife and taco maker, and our favorite professor:

Our first game!

My son was on spring break last week and we able to get our first game in Friday night.  Mid-war North Africa.  I had spent most of the week leading up to the game painting three Valentine II's and three Matilda II's, making lists, reviewing the rules and getting the table ready.  I wanted to do an after action report with Batrepper, but it quickly became apparent learning how to play would make that difficult.  Hopefully, next time.

We loaded up on Tacos my awesome wife cooked and headed in the garage.  We had a lot of fun!  The game was quite competitive considering it was our first even though the rules presented some challenges at times due to our inexperience. We played Free-For-All, a good place to start we thought.  I played British and my son the DAK.

I tried to make well rounded lists that would give us an opportunity to learn.

The lists:

My son on the right was the attacker.  Our setup:

My plan was to dominate the right flank and grab the objective but the Panzer III J's were in the way. Initially things were going my way as I had some success against the German tanks.  It went downhill from there with the confident veteran tanks having an edge over my confident trained tanks.  It seemed like the Germans may have been a little luckier, or was it Rommel's superior tactics?  Our artillery were pinning machines.  We didn't smoke once which I thought was a little odd, I'll have to think about that more.

 Trust the Italian truck to get stuck in the only deep sand in the area:

Oh yeah, it's going my way...

 I loose a Matilda II...

 Not much action on the left flank:

It's not looking so good for me.  I've lost the ability to destroy tanks.  But the platoon on the left has Sticky Sticky Bombs and I'm going to assault the Panzers to win the game!  I pass the tank terror test, yes.  Out comes the assault flowchart from the WWPD website.  Defensive fire--what 15 shots from three veteran tanks.  Six hits and I look two feet shorter and my unit is two inches further away.  Is that right: main gun ROF 3 and then 1 for each MG?  What was I thinking?

 I try a different approach but get shot up:

 The Universal Carriers fall victim to the Pak38:

I get shot to pieces and the Panzer III's finish off my tanks and take the objective.  We had a blast with some good laughs and trash talking.

A few rules we had issues with (I'm hoping I have these right):

• Does a 2iC re-roll motivation tests?  No he doesn't as far as I can tell.
• Observers.   We forgot they can't spot for other platoons without both having staff teams.
• The Panzer III defensive fire shot count. Is it really five.  The rule book on page 111says use machine guns against infantry?
• Thinking sixes always hit with the Pak38s but they are not artillery.  
• The difference between Dug in and Gone to Ground.  Still confused.

Can't wait for the next game.

Man on Fire!

I've been on it like white on rice on a paper plate in a snow storm.  I completed the first phase of basing the 8th Army using a 50/50 mix of the Coarse and Fine Pumice Gel from Michael's:

I mix German Camo Medium Brown (826) into the pumice gel jar to remove a step.  I got this idea from the Tom Wise 101st Airborne painting PDF.  I then highlight with Desert Yellow (977), Yellow Ochre (913), and then Iraqi Sand (819).  The base is painted with Tan-Earth (874) which I find, as I have said before in  a previous post, a good match for the Battlefront desert terrain.

Here's my first article:

I'll add a conservative amount of Silfor tufts and some static grass on some of the bases, eventually.  I found I over did it on the DAK bases, particularly with the rocks I added to match the Battlefront Desert terrain.  Sometimes less is more as the saying goes.

I also found time to assemble the infantry in the 8y Gvardeyskiy Strelkovy Korpus box set, plus an extra blister of Flame Throwers to add to my existing soviet figures:

Now that's done I can focus on getting ready for the fully painted North Africa game which, if all goes well, will be in a couple of weeks.

I was also able to find time to read the new V3 rule book but that will obviously be an ongoing project as I learn to play the game.  The assault phase is the most intimidating for me.  I was very excited to find an assault phase flow chart has been created by members of the WWPD forum.   Great job!

Next, paint the North Africa British tanks.

North Africa, DAK Poser Shots

Well, as usual, nothing goes as planned.  With the revelation that FOW V3 will be released in February, I thought it best to delay our first game in order to use the one rule set to avoid confusion.  As it turns out, that works out well since I haven't finished basing the British yet, anyway.  The good news is I have finished basing all the painted DAK figures with only the new Pioneers to be finished.  Also, I need to add transfers to the tanks which seems a bit intimidating since I have nearly no experience with it.  

I had a few hours spare this morning so I set up the table and a few pieces of terrain, and took some poser shots after I stared all googly eyed at it for a while...

I am very happy with the current Battlefront desert terrain, and I am looking forward to getting the newly released desert buildings I ordered.  I am especially happy with the theterrainguy mat I bought a while back. Originally I had thought the color was a bit too monotone for my liking and I was going to dry brush it this weekend, but after laying it out and putting some terrain on it, it looks great; matches the new terrain quite well.  As you can see in the immediate picture above, I finally settled on Tan-Earth (Vallejo 70874) as the base color.  This color works well with both the mat and the terrain.  Again, very happy with how it is all coming together.

I bought the 8'x4' theterrainguy mat since my table is that size, and then I have the option of using an 8'x4' table for larger battles.  This worked well with Warhammer 40K.   Most of the time a 6'x4' table is used and the extra two feet is used for staging the armies, supplies and casualties.

Next, the British and the much anticipated new rule books.

It's good to be back...

Good news, I passed my certification exam for work so I'm able to spend time on Flames of War again. Woohoo! It's good to be back and focus on something recreational for a change.  It has been almost three months.

I spent the day continuing to base my DAK army, and hope to have it completed by the end of next weekend.  In between, I'll start basing the 8th Army.  The DAK pioneers are going to have to wait since the new Battlefront figures came out and I would like to use them.  I originally had used a combination of DAK Grenadiers and Heer Grenadier Pioneers, but I'll incorporate the new ones somehow.  I'm hoping to have two armies painted for my first game at home with my son, and my first battle report to be posted during the week between Christmas and New Year.  I plan on giving Steve's at WWPD Batrepper software a try.

In the future for North Africa:

DAK:   Finish basing and add vehicle transfers.  Glue and paint new Pioneers.
8th Army:  Finish basing and paint tanks.  Glue four more 25 lbrs and paint so I can Stonk and Murder.
Bersaglieri:  Finish gluing tanks and paint.  Base figures.

Work Bench: