Gaming goals - November update

After October's nadir, thing are looking better in wargaming terms.

In terms of playing, I got off the second game in our Chain of Command 29 Let's Go! campaign. The American platoon managed to take the enemy rearguard post with some difficulty as the attack was not very well planned or executed. Good thing the Germans were still hurting from their previous engagement.

Again many useful things were learned and maybe at some point in this campaign I get a feel for marshalling my resources. Until then, firepower will gave to provide the solutions.

And a game of What a Tanker, introducing three young ladies to the rules (one of whom who has helped to build some of the tanks earlier this year). By the second game they were quite good against their dads.

I played a few board games but nothing on the list.

Painting wise, this was a good month. Made a solid start on the 1672 project, with four foot units near completion, and a dragoon unit in the works. Those are planned to be finished this year. But there's still some decisions to be made about painting technique.

So far just basic colours and decided against a generic wash (ie Army Painter). Not sure I actually want to do shading/highlighting. I also experimented with painting horses in GW contrast paint, which I'm okay with. All that to save time and improve chances that I actually finish this project.

Also painted up a few Italian bunkers with French Renault turrets that a friend printed in 3D.

I finished my Yankee reinforcements for Chain of Command: extra BARs and a gun team.

In terms of projects: 1672 is on, with the painting started, but haven't done much reading or terrain building yet. The other participants are off the mark as well.

To keep you up to date on my mad scheme to cycle 4000 kms this year: I managed to get beyond 3800 kms. That means I'm in a realistic distance of making it!

Gaming goals - September update

A bit more modest month in terms of gaming goals.


Playing

Started a TooFatLardies pint sized campaign on the 29th Division pushing inland from Omaha Beach after D-Day using Chain of Command. I was able to achieve my objective, mostly by whacking every German that stuck his head up. It won't be so easy next time, I'm afraid.

My 81mm mortar barrage raining down on the Germans

And later I staged two introductory games of Muskets & Tomahawks. The first I only umpired, the other we played, mostly making up our own scenario around the canoes provided by my opponent. It looked fantastic and the liberation of captured hostages provided an interesting dynamic. But not sure the amphibious rules are the best part of M&T.

There was some fun boardgaming as well, but not the ones on my to do list. I'll have to prepare better to get them on the table.


Painting

My friend Dick had assembled a number of artillery guns for me from our SHQ order, which I immediately set out to paint. I also painted up the TooFatLardies jump off points.

And a 57mm AT gun that I ordered from Grubby Tanks, from which I ordered my WW2 Americans. I can't recommend them enough.

Decluttering

No stuff out of the door, but bringing in a new IKEA Ivar allows me at least to stack up my army bags rather than leaving them on the ground. Cleaned up my hobby table as well, so I can actually work on it again.

A fair bunch of hills from Total System Scenic came in, but I haven't gotten them on the table yet.

Projects

As you can see, a lot of Chain of Command stuff. Also guiding my reading.

But I've also been distracted by WW2 commemorations, such as the one at Arnhem. To come in October: Battle of the Scheldt and the liberation of Noord-Brabant.

Hardly any progress on the 1672 front as I try to get other stuff out of the way and think about the way I'm going to paint them. I have no set system yet, although I was reasonably happy with Army Painter.  But with the French grey uniforms, I'm wondering if that's the best solution. GWs contrast paint looks inviting too. So I've been testing different washes and varnishes on white and grey base coats. Not settled on a method yet, though.

And there is yet a new project popping up: a TooFatLardies day in Arnhem for October 2020! Might organise itself to a certain extent, but it will need a venue and some financial arrangement. Stuck my finger up.


PS I crashed through my 3,000 kilometer target for cycling this month. So 4,000 seems doable. A terrifying thought for next year...

Gaming goals - August update

A good month, gaming wise.

Playing

Month started good with a brutal game of Gaslands... (note the excellent 3D printed terrain!)

Followed the next day by Chain of Command. My 20mm GIs were attacked by a reinforced platoon of 28mm Fallschirmjaeger, who seem to have a harder time advancing than defending.

Then there was a game of Muskets & Tomahawks, bringing out my FIW French to introduce a club mate to the system. Mission accomplished there.

And a game of Dux, hotly contested and narrowly lost, but that proved a phyrric victory for the other Saxons.

There was some board gaming, with my 20th game of Blood Rage the most notable.


Painting

I was trying to get some projects to finish before I embark on the 1672 painting project. So there were the CV33 Italian tankettes and the monks to give spiritual guidance to my late Anglo-Saxons.

And the last few Prussians that belonged to the lot that I sold earlier this year.

And then I finished a bunch of 1:72 tanks and M3(A1) halftracks for the Chain of Command and What a Tanker forces.

Decluttering

Not really, eh? Although those Prussians will leave the house at some point.


Projects

Chain of Command is going to turn into a pint sized campaign (29th, Let's Go! in commemoration of D-Day). Although I have quite a few support options already, in these pint-sized campaigns the support options can be quite specific, so I have ordered some additional men and materiel.

And the 1672 miniatures have arrived (plus some books...) offering me the opportunity to join the ranks of Turenne! First goal: four units this year and another before a first demo game in February of Sharp Practice tuned to the 1672 period.

But I also need to get back to the Big Project, so that limits my hobby time for September. This may have been the high point of this year.

Gaming goals - July update

Painting

In terms of painting I got off to a good start to paint my 47mm and 88mm Italian anti tank guns for my 15mm Italian desert force.

Testing which colours best match the spray painted base coats plus highlights

I also did some good work on my allied 20mm tanks but the decals are still on their way, so not finished yet.

At the same time I started to paint some more Italians but decided that I don't like to paint charred bodies of burned tankers and to have those on the table, so I'm going to give those away to somebody who enjoys that more.

Also started on a few Dark Age monks to finish off my 1066 Anglosaxon force for Dux Brittaniarum.


Playing

A bit of a catch up month in terms of playing miniature games! There was a game of Dux Brittaniarum which went down hill very fast and is surplus to the goals set for this year.

My FOW desert Italian force also didn't fare too well despite the newly added AT capability. It might have had something to do with attacking...

Then there was a big battle of For Reign or Ruin that went quite well. My skeleton cavalry made a big initial impact, but the rats were able to claw back their way into the fight due to superior leadership. At the end I held the advantage with uncommitted reserves in hand, but those weren't shock troops.

And finally an evening of What a Tanker with Harald's new entries: Valentines and M13/40s and two JS II, which were pitted against Michiel's King Tiger. The JSII are the first tanks that could actuallz take on the Tiger II with some chance and they did well in that respect. It means I've reached my goal of WaT games for this year.

There were some board games as well, including Mr Jack and the travel version of that game that I played with Nick for the first time. Good fun. None of the stuff on the goals list though.


Decluttering

Well, rather the opposite with an order out for the new project.

And I received some late but excellent birthday toys: Renault R35 tanks by my self printing friends. There's enough to build an Italian 1941 and a French 1940 platoon!

Also some additions came in for my Chain of Command yankees. Especially some support options. I hope to paint a few of those before I embark on a pint sized campaign this autumn.


Projects

So, the die has been cast on the new project so I can reveal what it actually is. We're going for a 1672 version of Sharpe Practice by TooFatLardies. It focusses on the petit guerre of Louis XIV's Dutch War from 1672 to 1678. I've gone for the French side, inspired by John Lynn's Giant of the Grand Siecle and their surplus of dragoons. That will be a major addition to my lead mountain.

My aim is to finish (mostly) some of the other projects before that time, such as my 20mm tanks for What a Tanker and Chain of Command, and Italians for Flames of War. It also means the Skavendome and Space Hulk plans are on the backburner.

Gaming goals - March update

Of course, March looked like it would turn out as bleak as February...

And it did. Other, more important, stuff to do. But some bits happened:


Painting

I did make a start on a bunch of allied and German tanks for What A Tanker.

Also finished the King Tiger for the birthday boy. That will come in handy with future bouts of WaT!


Playing

The new 20mm tanks got an outing mid-March in unfinished state, but what the heck...

I also managed a game of Dux Brittanniarum. And thankfully, it was a win. I think I am getting the hang of not putting myself out unnecessarily exposed, and with two lucky card draws (an Evade to have my thegns retreat to safety from a flank charge by the Viking elite, followed by a Carpe Diem so I could charge my fyrd into the flank of the Viking elite with good effect) I reaped generous rewards.

And my WWII Italians had another but not very eventful night of Flames of War.

No boardgaming at all though!


Decluttering

And in mid March, also arrived the 7TV Apocalypse and Killer Rabbits kickstarters! So a net 'lead' pile growth (certainly in weight!)

And a boardgame I thought I had given away was returned to me.


Projects

No work done and won't be until June at least before action picks up again in general.

A little ray of light though, because in my non-gaming goals for this year, I have clocked over 800 km in bike rides for this year already. I'd set myself the goal of 3000 km as I just missed out on that one last year. Given that I hardly did any cycling in January and February in previous years, I am some way ahead of schedule.

Gaming goals - February update

February has been a bit slow in ticking off boxes on my games goals chart.


Painting

Finished the fyrd! In time for the next Dux game later this month.

Had a pleasant evening of glue and plastic as the local What a Tanker gang seeks to increase its 1:72 options for the next battle: added: 2 T-34s, 2 Stug IVs, a Lee/Grant and a Semovente 75/18. Next episode: spray cans

Also got a bunch of 15mm tanks built and sprayed: Crusader, Shermans, Stuart and Matilda. Can be used to oppose my Italians in What a Tanker,

Got some work done on the Italian 47mm antitank guns for Flames of War.




Playing

Got in my game of Dux Brittanniarum, with the fresh fyrd doing as well as they could be expected. Still, it's a tough campaign for my warlord, Wealdhere, while the Vikings seem to have all the fun. The tables will have to turn somewhere soon or Wealdhere will lose his king's confidence.

U-Boot arrived early in the month, so that's now on the list to play. I put it on the list for the holiday in early April. Given the size of the rule book, it will require some homework before I can set sail.

I did play some board games, but none from the list.


Projects

PolderCon happened, and it seems a lot of the 140 participants enjoyed it. That's good. Given that I want to spend less time organising and more time playing I decided that I would step down from the organising committee.

Now wondering what game to host next year. I noticed a lack of games using 15mm minatures or smaller, which I think is a shame. On the one hand Hordes of the Things might be good to introduce people to the De Bellis Antiquitatis family, and I don't have to worry about painting. DBA itself is also interesting, but that would require painting (there's 6mm Carthaginian army lying around somewhere) and finding an opposing army.

An alternative would be U-Boot or 7TV since those kickstarters should attract some attention because of newness. The latter also requires painting, but probably more terrain as I can use some near future stuff I already have.

But I also made the brave decision to go ahead with project Skavendome (although not setting a deadline). To prevent my slow painting proving a bottleneck, this has been avoided by buying up a sizeable collection of painted Skaven. It will also ease development of rules and playtesting.


Decluttering

I managed to sell my Prussian Napoleonics to somebody who will actually use them, so that's a win-win. There's still a few stragglers that I need to finish.

However, I did buy some more stuff at PolderCon: a couple of 1:72 additions for What a Tanker, some palm trees as desert terrain for my FOW Italians. And some other stuff helping out Bad Squiddo's move from general shop to focus on her own miniature lines.

Gaming goals - January update

[Skips obligatory excuses for not blogging enough]

So there was a challenge for playing boardgames at Therewillbe.games and although it was silly to expect me to play 10 games 5 times, I thought I should manage to at least once play 10 games that I received/bought over the past few years and were gathering dust on my shelf.

I selected Secret Weapons of the Third Reich, Gothic Invasion, Bioshock Infinite, Mighty Empires, Quarantine, Bemused, Blood Bowl Team Manager expansions, Who's She? (a kickstarter then still to arrive), Mission Red Planet, and U-Boot (another kickstarter yet to arrive). Secret Satan then gifted me 5 Cucumbers, Dairyman, CIA vs KGB and Nyctophobia, which I added to the challenge.


And in that kind of coincidence that isn't really coincidence, I already had a shortlist of painting projects lying around, which I then included into a range of wider gaming goals. So I added a number of miniature games that I wanted to concentrate on playing this year (you'll notice some resemblance with the painting projects):

• a Flames of War 15mm desert campaign with my colleague and his friends
• Dux Brittanniarum AD 789 (Anglo Saxons vs Vikings) at the club
• For Reign or Ruin (15mm fantasy rules) at the club
• Muskets & Tomahawks, French and Indian Wars or American War of Independence at the club
• What a Tanker with friends at home.

In terms of painting I had a few units for my middle war desert Italians for Flames of War that I bought at Crisis last November and wanted to add to my small army while we are still playing.

Late last year I also had bought a bunch of Footsore's nice Anglo Saxon levies to build up proper fyrd units for Dux Brittaniarum. The Gripping Beast Frankish warriors that I have used so far are fine, but not based very practically for Dux.

The Prussians are a small lot that would finish a Fusilier unit that I have sold to a friend participating in the Great Game: Waterloo Replayed charity multiplayer event in Glasgow next June.


The French and Indian War French regulars are to round off my small French force that I could use for Muskets & Tomahawks. And the 40K Harlequins are supposed make a basic team for Necromunda or a similar sci fi skirmish game that I have started on but not finished. These three should not take much time to finish.

Then there's three kickstarters that I supported lately: 7TV: Apocalypse which would combine well with postapocalyptic stuff I already have, the wonderful Killer Rabbits by the same guy who did the brilliant Triumph of Death Pieter Bruegel skeletons (shown above) and Galloping Major's Allies on the Frontier provincials for the French and Indian Wars. All should arrive this year.

And finally there's a bunch of projects that I might take up as I please. Stuff for What a Tanker would expand the possibilities of what I already have (like some 15mm British tanks to face my Italians). Overall way too many plans to actually finish it all.

I also decided to include my larger gaming projects. First the PolderCon convention I help organising, and second elusive idea that I have which would become an eclectic MODOSG (Multiplayer One Day Offline Skirmish Game) blend of Frostgrave and Warhammer Fantasy Battles. But that's still very vague and will take shape in the second half of the year.

And finally there's the ongoing projects of decluttering (or rather, making room).


Results in January:

Painting

I managed to finish my Autoblindas for the Flames of War desert campaign with my colleague and his friends. They have already seen the elephant as well! My Anglo Saxon fyrd for Dux Brittanniarum AD 789 are almost done as well, in time for the next game.

Playing

I've now played Bemused, Who's She? and Mission Red Planet. All three fun games to play in friendly setting. Had interesting conversation on the ladies in Who's She? with my girl so that's doing what it is supposed to. My friends loved the premise of Bemused that to take your adopted virtuoso to eternal fame it is better to get his competitors to succumb to doubt and dread.

So 3/14 after the first month on this track.

Managed two games of Dux on one Saturday at the club, 3 games of What a Tanker and one Italians vs Brits in Flames of War. That's also gotten me some way towards my goals (which I may have set rather unambitiously, forgetting that you sometimes can get multiple games in a day).

Projects

PolderCon is almost upon us (Sunday Feb 3rd) and it's been a real handful. Some last minute drop outs and the long run up (I've been cajoling hosts since September) leave me a bit deflated, but at least I've got my stuff done. Let's hope it all turns out well.

Decluttering

No real movement on shedding another games, books or miniatures, although I've lent out King of Tokyo to a friend who has been playing it with his daughters to great success. So I won't mind if it stays there.