New Figures & Finished Figures

SO WHAT'S FINISHED?

   7 of these Italian CV3/33 tankettes for my Early War Flames of War Italian Army. Normally they are armed with twin MG's, but some had the MG's removed and replaced with a 20mm Anti-Tank Rifle for a little extra punch.

These in the bottom photo have the 20mm ATR.  These really are sardine cans (very little armor) with treads and have hatches only the top. Thus turning them upside-down, you couldn't get out. Against infantry they are OK, but against anything with a gun bigger than a MG they are toast! Next in line are the M11/39 tanks...

M11/39

   In this rare color photo you can see one, twin MG in a small turret and a 37mm gun in a hull placement. Again, good against infantry and maybe very lightly armored vehicles but not against a proper tank. Still, it's what they had and one must make the best of it.

NEW FIGURES

  Some figures from Mega-Miniatures at: http://www.megaminis.com/   I got these from the FANTASY Town Folk, with the exception of the "Aging Wizard" from the FANTASY- Human NPC list. I wanted these figures for village types for some of my Lord of the Rings games.

 

                                From Left to Right: Yelling Man - Woman with Bucket - Bar Keeps Wife

 Left to Right: Aging Wizard - Traveler with Staff - Farmer with Pitchfork

Left to Right: Boy throwing Rock - Boy with Sling - Child with Toy Horse

   The Child with the Toy Horse is great! After all, every Rohan child should have a toy horse, if not a real one. Have to get these painted! I plan to do a playtesting next month of my scenario for my LOTR game for the May game con. It is based on the 1st scenario from the "Scouring of the Westfold", Rohaners defending a farming stead from Uruks & Orcs from Isengard. I have a couple of adjustments to make in forces, as the 1st time I did this it was not right. With wall, ect. the defenders have alot of cover to take into account so I need to adjust the Evil forces up (that's what playtesting is all about!)

TTFN

What's up?

Ok -I have been out of touch for awhile (had a sinus attack for over a week) but I am almost back to normal and have been getting back to painting. Since my last post we have started a new project "Tanga 1914" playing skirmish level WWI in German East Africa. I have the figures and have started to prime & paint (blog to follow)......

  In February on 17th-20th was Orccon Wargaming Convention presented by Strategicon. On both Saturday and Sunday I ran Lord of the Rings Strategy Battle game "The Siege of Minas Tirith".



  In the above photo the wall is shown as the forces of Mordor (2 siege towers, orcs and the Witch King on Fell Beast) advance toward the wall under fire from the Gondorian trebuchet and siege bolt thrower. The game had a 12 turn limit and the Evil forces had to get 2 of 3 objectives to win, one of which was to kill Gandalf.

In this photo the Witch King has gone after Gandalf ("I am your death old Man...") and the trebuchet in the left of the picture has taken 2 points of damage.

  Now the forces of Mordor are storming the wall trying to get a foothold....

  The siege towers are at the wall and the orcs have gotten on to it but time runs out for Mordor. All these pictures are from Saturday and Gandalf ended the game with 1 Might, 1 Fate and 1 Wound left. Mordor lost as well on Sunday but Gandalf limped away with nothing but 1 Wound left. He spent most of the game running away from the Witch King after he got to the wall and kept trying to get the Fell Beast to eat Gandalf for lunch!

  To see all the photos I took go to:

http://s207.photobucket.com/albums/bb44/juggernought57/Strategicon%20Game%20Convention%202012/Orccon%202012/

  I had 8 players on Saturday and 7 on Sunday, which was a good turnout. Now what LOTR game to run for the May Con....

TTFN

What's Up for 2012

The year is just about over, so What's Up for 2012? Well, finish projects that were started in 2011. A partial list might be:

1. Add more 15mm Colonial for "Patrols in the Sudan 1885" and possible use them in a yet-to-be-determined rule set for large battles.
2. Finish the unit of 25mm Dervish Camel
3. Finish 15mm ACW I am painting for pay
4. Finish painting 25mm Saxon for my WHFB army
5. Finish my Early War Italian CV33 tankettes

Figures to paint up for use could be:

1. 25mm Native forces for "The Sword in Afrika"
2. 25mm Highlanders for the "The Sword and the Flame"
3. Put together & paint all the plastic Dervish I have
4. Do up the Early War Italian M11/39 tanks I just got

Also something I will do is keep track of figures I finish in 2012. See how good I am REALLY doing. I am trying (and it is difficult) to finish more of what I have vs. getting more stuff as I see "A Shiny!!" (or a squirrel)
I have a LOT of Pulp figures to do. WWWeeee.......

TTFN

More Terrain!

Not much to report on as the Christmas Season is busy, with little time for gaming and as the winter weather has set in, my garage, which I paint in gets too cold to use, a least at night.  However, I have gotten two new terrain pieces from a seller on E-Bay, scuzime at:

http://www.ebay.com/sch/scuzime/m.html?_nkw=&_armrs=1&_from=&_ipg=25&_trksid=p3984
These pieces are well worth it, being made of a some heavy, strong material (Hydrostone?)

 

 Bust of the Pharaoh

 

                   Shown with 2 Old Glory Dervish (25mm) to give an idea of scale

Side and front view of Sphinx

Either of these are great for Ancients, RPG's, Pulp or Colonial games. I plan to use them when I run the Battle of  Hamunaptra (from the Mummy -1999) which I ran a couple of years ago at the local wargaming con (Strategicon). So if you need something like this or have other terrain needs, please go visit his site at the link above and see his wares!

My painting for my Lord of the Rings game in February continues (slowly) of which I will report on next time.

TTFN

HMGS game at the Muzeo

   OK - I posted the last draft I had done, now onward! An Italian L3/33 tankette, found in Iraq I believe. Normally it was armed with twin 8mm MG's. What a small vehicle!!!

Some were modified as shown with a Solothrum 20mm anti-tank rifle.

   In the new Early War Flames of War book the Italians can have one of 5 in platoon modified with this anti-tank rifle. I have 5 almost finished armed with the twin 8mm MG's. The one with the ATR I need to modify as the gun that the tankette model comes with is too soft a metal and bends way too easily. A small wire should work, with the mantlet done in green stuff.

   On Saturday, November 12th, I did a demo game for HMGS at the Muzeo museum in Anaheim in conjunction with their Victorian Art and Steampunk presentation's. I ran a "The Sword and the Flame" game using a scenario I had ran before, "The Zariba" (taken from the 1939 The Four Feathers movie.)

The players split the cavalry unit (12 figures) into two 6 figure units (one with the Sergeant the other with the Lieutenant) in order to better deal with the Dervish....

   As you can see however, the Dervish doubled up on one of the units to try to crush it in melee. All the photos taken can be seen at:
http://s207.photobucket.com/albums/bb44/juggernought57/HMGS%20at%20the%20Muzeo%2011-12-2011/
   It ended up that the British and Dervish were both badly mauled but, as can be seen in the last photo on Photobucket, that the Dervish still had a unit of riflemen still relatively intact. If the game had continued and the Dervish Fire Phase was a good one, it would have been all over for the British but still a "Phyrric Victory" for the Dervish as most of their units were routing and under 50%. Also the casualty rate among the Sheik's was high and the British lost their overall Commanderas well.  Lots of people came by and checked it out, took flyers about HMGS and loved it. Many compliment's on my paint jobs and board (blush).  I might run another game next month...have to think about it.

   Also my Dervish tried to escape just before set-up....both boxes took a header and some spears and shields came off. Have to fix that up. I also need to check on the number of figures, I think a couple of the disappeared into the Muzeo after the boxes hit the floor.

TTFN

It's been WAY....Tooo...Long!

Ok - it's been a while since I have put anything up.  So let's see....

Mid-War FoW Italian Light Tanks-L6/40's are done!

   So that's out of the way. The Gondorian Rangers are finished (HUZZAH!) as well as Beregond (Black Tree Figure) and Gandalf the White (GW) and Pippin in his Gondorian outfit (GW). I should post some photos I guess. I have also been adding a magnetic base to my LOTR figires in order to carry them easier in a plastic tray with a lid. I just attached a sheet of metal to the bottom of the tray for they to stick to.

   Still working on my WAB Saxon army but not a lot right now. Need to kick it into gear. Need to finish my Dervish re-basing project. Also working on Italian CV 3/33 tankettes

TTFN

EPIFANY

Well, that what happened at Strategicon - Gateway 2011 over Labor Day weekend (Sept. 2-5) here in Southern California. I have not planned to run anything as my Colonial games were not being well received as well as I liked, I thought I would just play. However, a friend of mine gave me the “puppy-dog eyes” and asks me “pretty-please” to run a Lord of the Rings Strategy Battle Game Saturday night.

So I did.


I dusted off a scenario that I had run with 2 other friends in 2006 and ran it again. The 3 of us ran LOTR-SBGames every year, 3x a year at Strategicon’s for a few years before one of them moved to Las Vegas, being offered a job. A while later I started on my Colonial kick but it never had the draw LOTR did…..

I didn’t expect what I got, which was 7 players, 2 of which I remembered from when we ran LOTR all the time at the Con. And I was asked if I would run something again at the next con (Orccon) in February 2012. Looks like I will…but WHY?


Because it seems that LOTR goes over better at the Con than The Sword and the Flame does. Orcs & Elves are more interesting than Fuzzy-Wuzzys and British soldiers. And people remember the games we ran not so many years ago. And it's not like I don't have the figures, terrain and whatever else I need to run a game. So it's time, all tho I wish the Colonial had gone over better, I guess I have to "play to my audience".
Still, I am alittle sad....but I can still run Colonial games now & then.

TTFN