Poll Results - the New White Dwarf(s)

Our last poll question was: Last week, it was announced that the White Dwarf would not continue as Games Workshop's monthly hobby magazine. It will be replaced by four weekly mini-magazines and a larger monthly publication called "Warhammer Visions". Is this a good thing? Here's what you thought: 9%             Yes - White Dwarf was a stale catalog and it needed gone. Best to chuck it and start over with  something else
15%           No - WD should have been saved to continue as a monthly mag. So much history there
50%           No - flush the lot. I don't need to buy a monthly catalog for $10
24%           No - don't play the games, don't buy the WD, don't give a rip Me, I tended to think the old Dwarf, while needing drastic improvement, was worth saving. However having bought a few weeks' worth of the new weekly organ, I like the new direction. The new weekly Dwarf seems to have a lot more focus to its content and there's certainly much less overt advertising. The mag isn't wrapped in plastic which makes it easier to pick up in the shop for a flick through to determine whether it's worth taking home. I quite enjoyed the previous two issues with their exclusive focus on the Imperial Knight for 40K - however, I dropped by the store on Saturday, had a look at the latest number with the latest awful plastic hell-thing for Chaos Space Marines, and put it back on the shelf. As for "Visions", I bought the first one, thought it was very pretty but with very little compelling content, and haven't bought another.

15mm Sci-Fi Battle Report - Nova Respublik vs. Euro-Coalition

This week the lads came over for a 15mm sci-fi game. We set up a pretty straightforward scenario - seize objectives. The backstory was a bit more fun:

The Republic of Bezerkostan, former satellite of the Union of Nova Respubliks, is in turmoil. The government has been overthrown in a quasi-military coup and unrest is everywhere. The Nova Respublik, alarmed and emboldened by this turn of events, considers military action to safeguard the security of the Respublik-speakers living in Bezerkostan...

Setting: Vladimir Putin Memorial Sludge Reclamation Facility, Republic of Bezerkostan
In the interests of promoting their "peace-loving agenda of universal order for Respublik-speaking-peoples" (PLAUORSP), the Nova Respublik has dispatched a team of Spetnaz troops to secure the Sludge Reclamation Facility.  A detachment of Nova Respublik Motor Rifle troops has been sent from the nearby population centre of Putinograd to reinforce them.  Conflict looms with the well-equipped observers from the Euro-Coalition for control of the Facility, determined by occupation of three different locations on a 6' x 4' table...

Nova Respublik troops... or maybe not. They've removed their insignia and the Nova Respublik officially denies all knowledge of their activities ;-)

Euro-Coalition armour: Leopard 4A2s MBTs and Fuchs 3 APC near the eastern sludge towers.

In the centre, EC Fuchs 3s and another Leopard 4A2.

Across the table, Not-Nova Respublik tanks and APC.

Some hapless worker/observers near the central objective.

Sludge maintenance technicians keep an eye on the western objective.

Meanwhile, the "not-Nova Respublik" forces seize the eastern objective marker.

A long-range shot from a NNR tank blows up a Euro APC.

NNR tank destroyed in retaliation. It's a shooting war now!

Euro troops move on the central objective. We used our home-brewed "Red Storm!" modern rules for the game and it really rattles along. Stuff blowing up every turn!

Euro heavy weapons deploy in the centre; another APC blows up :-(

Zoom out... NNR attacking from the top of the photo.

A nice image of the scrum in the centre with Euros pinned down by NNR firing.

Euro Leopard brewed up... where's the rest of our tanks? Over on the left flank with Jim. "Come in Jim..."

Here we go - Leopards on the move.

Will it be too late for the guys on the centre objective? Here come the NNR...

Epic fail on the spotting roll by Jim. In the rules, armoured vehicles need to spot a target before engaging. The player rolls 2d6 and adds the Training value of the troops and any modifiers for moving or obscured vision. An adjusted roll of "10" or more means the target is spotted. This was Jim's third roll of snake-eyes this game... my basement drywall suffered accordingly from thrown dice. Easy Jim!!! ;-)

NNR about to take their second objective for the win. A fun game! I always like playing 15mm sci-fi and with a larger game like this one, the Red Storm! rules work well. Not too complicated but with a dash of modern design flavour in that they're not strictly IGO-UGO. Good times!

15mm Battlefront "Egyptian" PT-76

So Greg's finally sucked me into his crazy Yom Kippur war project. I've agreed to do some Egyptians. The plan is for a couple platoons of tanks, some tank destroyers, and a platoon of infantry. The models are mostly bought (Khurasan T-55s gifted from Greg, Battlefront SU-100s in a trade from Greg, and Khurasan infantry as encouraged by Greg ;-) but this is the first I've painted.

It's a Battlefront PT-76 from their Vietnam range and I have to say it's as sweet as a nut. Slick assembly with a resin body and turret (magnetized!!) and metal tracks and gubbins.

I laid on a pretty basic paint job using GW paints.

I did some "chipping" with GW Mechanicus Standard Grey on a tiny bit of sponge. I like the effect.

Tactical numbers added in Arabic.

All in all I'm pretty pleased with the model and I'll be painting the rest to the same pattern. Quick and easy.

30 Seconds Over New Rynn City: Aeronautica Imperialis Battle Report

Last Thursday I wanted to set up something we hadn't played for awhile. But I also thought it would be cool to do another game in keeping with our current and long-running Rogue Trader "Invasion of Rynn's World" campaign. The solution was "Aeronautica Imperialis", the short-lived aerial combat game from Forge World, set in the 40K universe.

I found a suitable scenario in the AI rulebook. An Ork air fleet is tasked with taking out some ammo supply bunkers on the outskirts of New Rynn City. Imperial interceptor aircraft and ground defences must defend the targets. The Orks had a Blasta Bommer, two Fighta-Bommers, and two squadrons each of three Fightas. The Imperials had two heavy flak guns and two squadrons of Thunderbolts, one of two and the other of three aircraft.

The models I have for AI are mainly the old Epic aircraft, cast in white metal. They're great models.
 

The Ork Fighta-Bommers are converted Imperial Marauders from Epic. I greenstuff'd on some Orky looking engine covers and rivets and gave 'em a red paintjob.
 

The Blasta Bommer is a resin Forge World piece. A gorgeous model but a bit of a challenge to assemble as the resin on the rear stabilizers was pretty warped. Lots of fiddly little gun barrels too, and unfortunately some were casualties of our recent house move :-(

Fightas are Epic pieces and are super-fun to paint. Very characterful and Orky little models.

Here's a nice shot of the beginnings of the furball. Aeronautica Imperialis uses clever little "maneuver cards" that also act like templates for the maneuvers. Pre-plotting is limited to choosing a maneuver for your plane for the next turn. Speed is set at the start of each turn (shown on the red dice) and altitude is a function of maneuvers picked (green dice).
 

The two sides dice for initiative at the start of each turn and the winner picks one plane to move, and play alternates back and forth. Shooting alternates too, with the initiative winner picking the first plane to shoot. Fighters generally take two points of damage to bring down but some weapons can do more than one point per hit. Ork big shootas, for example, roll 8 dice at short range! Hits are scored on a 5 or 6 if the target is at the same altitude as the firer - if they're one range band apart it takes a roll of 6.

A Thunderbolt catches one of the Ork Fightas in a deflection shot. Conscripts Greg and Mike ran the Imperial side, and if it wasn't for bad luck they'd've had no luck at all. Usually Mike can be relied upon for hot die rolling but not this night. Both Greg's and Mike's dice were appalling.

The Orks drew first blood with a shootdown of a Thunderbolt. Kills went back and forth for a bit but the Orks had more planes in the air so could absorb more losses.

Fighta and Fighta-Bommer

The Orks left the heavy lifting to the Blasta Bommer and it obliterated one of the bunkers on its first bomb run. Then the huge Bommer ended up flying off the table! A Fighta-Bommer hit the other bunker and although the doors were blasted off, the ammo inside failed to detonate.

The Orks had much better dice luck than the Imperials in the dogfight and after about 7 turns the Imperials had lost too many planes to continue - after taking 50% losses the remainder must bug out. So although the Orks only busted one bunker, we had to give them the win as they forced the other side off the table.

I really like AI for a straightforward aerial fight. There isn't a ton of record keeping required but the maneuver cards keep things flavorful and moderately tactical. The models are great too, and it's easy to put on a game. It's one of those Specialist Games that never should have died.

Sedition Wars Project - Progress Report #3

The Sedition Wars project continues apace, with the completion of the first five Vanguard Samaritans.

As I stated before, I started with zenithal highlighting; primed the figures black with P3 spray primer, then airbrushed highlights with Acryl flat white. Successive thin glazes of Games Workshop green and sepia washes allows the grey scale undercoats to shine through, emphasized the highlights and shadows of the armour and weapons.

The flesh tones were first done in Vallejo acrylics, then over-painted  with wet-on-wet tube oil paints, mostly from Weber and Winsor & Newton. The visors were also picked out using oils.



The bases were finished with various acrylic washes and oils, with some Vallejo rust wash for the man-hole cover.

To help keep track of the functionally-identical (game-wise) Samaritans, I affixed small etched brass numbers to their bases, sourced from Hasslefree Miniatures.



Next up, some more Samaritans, including heavy and special weapons...



...and one of the named characters, Akosha Nama, whose faces and hair I have already painted .



Edited To Add: These are the paints I used for the faces you see. First time I've used these Vallejo and Weber paint systems. As I indicated above, acrylic base, then oils on top. The professional artists' grade oil paints have pigments ground butter-smooth. Not having to mix up the various flesh tones means that I can work quickly from dark shadow to high highlight. The burnt sienna was used to emphasize some of the middle shadows, and the alizarin crimson was used to tint cheeks and lips slightly red. Working this way, it was 2-3 hours for the faces, easily half or less the time I usually take.

Check Your 6! - Breaking the Luftwaffe Campaign

Feb. 20th saw the latest installment of Bill and Jamie's Check Your 6! campaign. This long-running campaign has seen the 8th Air Force players winning the majority of their games against the hard pressed Luftwaffe.

Unlike our last several games, this scenario was a straight up dogfight, pitting 8 P-47 Thunderbolts against 8 Bf-109G's. However, only 3 of the German aircraft had 30mm cannons, the only weapon type amongst the involved aircraft that had a chance of destroying the tough P-47's.

Below, Glenn, DaveN, and Jamie contemplate the developing situation.






Brian observes over BillC's shoulder as two German rottes make the initial attacks; Brian and I each flew one of these two-plane elements, led by an ace (+3) pilot.



In a close-range exchange of fire, two American planes were shot down by the German aces'  heavy 30mm cannon, but Brian's ace was forced to take to his parachute.



My ace then ran out of 30mm ammo during another pass, as the Germans lost another plane.



Conscript Kevin flew brilliantly, setting up great shots. However, the dice were not with him. He missed by 1 pip on the dice at least 4 times, and the couple of times he did hit, he failed to damage the robust Thunderbolts. Meanwhile, the Germans kept losing plane...







...after plane...



Near the end of the game, my ace's wing man was trying to exit the board with a damaged engine. Seeing one of Bill's planes closing in for an easy kill, I invoked the "It's what he would have done" card and sent my ace head-on into Bill's guns, with only a pair of the Bf-109's mg's working. That German ace was lucky to just get knocked out of the fight with a damaged plane.



After that initial pass at the start of the game, the Americans didn't lose a plane. Conversely, the Germans ended up losing 6 of their 8 planes, with the majority of the German pilots surviving their bailouts. The Germans contented themselves with the thought that all these P-47's were stuck in with the Bf-109's, while somewhere else some FW-190's were tangling with the 8th Air Force bombers.

Byron's Mad Plan - Update

A while back I published a listing of my Mad Plan for the Curt's 4th Annual Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge. Well, since it is almost at the end of the challenge, I thought I should give an update on how it has all gone, and show off some of the entries

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My first goal was to get 8 infantry sections of Canadians and 3 infantry sections of Germans and 2 HMG's done for my WW1 force for Through the Mud and the Blood.  I currently have 5 Canadian Sections done, 3 German sections, and 1 HMG.  I will likely drop doing the second HMG as 1 has proved nasty enough to have to fight against, but we will see.  I have my doubts if I will finish more than 1 more Canadian section before the end, but I will still be happy with that and call it a win.

A section of riflemen from the CEF 16th Battalion.

A German HMG section with additional riflemen.

In total so far, counting casualty figures I have painted 93 WW1 figures since this started in December!  So if I miss the 8 sections, but get to 100 figures I will be happy.

Hey, we even played a game with them already: WW1 Take the Farm.

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My second goal was to get one unit of 28mm French Napolionic figures done, so that I can actually contribute (in a VERY small way) to Napolionic games that Curt brings our way.  So far, and I started late on these, I have 1/2 the unit done, and am feeling good that the rest will be done on time.  16 down, 16 to go.

The first base of French done.  OMG, why did the french have to be so vain? 
Wouldn't monochromatic uniforms have been easier?

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My third goal was to clean up a lot of the stuff sitting around gathering dust.  Kind of mixed results on this one, as I will explain later.  First the good news!  I did do a lot of little items that were sitting around.  I banged off a lot of 15mm germans that had been gathering dust for a long time, several solo figures that I kept meaning to get to, a Forgotten Seas fleet, some Warhammer 40k figures that I kept meaning to do, and even got a bunch of Dystopian Wars ships cleaned, assembled, primed and base coated.

A pair of 88's and transports I had sitting around primed for about 8 years!

A squad of Dark Angel Assault Troops, that sat primed for over 10 years!

Then the bad news, I got distracted by some new items like Rivet Wars and buying a laser cutter to play with.

Overall though, I got a lot done but collected even more new stuff to add to the pile!  Overall I got over 100 figures done and painted.  Unfortunately, in that time with Rivet Wars, Zombicide, some 15mm British for Chain of Command, and some Warhammer 30k figures, I have probably added 400 more figures to the painting pile.  Maybe I should talk to Curt about running another of these about a month after this one finishes to that I keep painting???

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My Fourth goal was to submit at least 5 entries out of the 7 possible for the different bonus rounds.  I am glad to say, I managed a perfect 7/7 even if 2 are not posted yet, they are done in time to send off to Curt.  Better yet, I even won one of the rounds with my Old Woman.

My old lady entry for the non-combatant theme.  One of the figures I am most proud of ever painting,
I really like how this turned out, and I NEVER like how my own stuff turns out.

• December 22: Non Combatant(s) – Old Woman 
• January 5: Villain(s) - Nurgle Demon Prince
• January 19: Vehicle – Some brand new and shiny Rivet Wars tanks
• February 2: Hero or Heroic Group - Dark Angels Space Marine Hero
• February 16: Casualty / Casualties - WW1 Canadian Casualties 
• March 2: Favourite Character - James Richardson - Piper for the 16th Battalion
• March 16: Last Stand - Zombicide in Grey Scale

A pair of "Vehicles" for the vehicle themed challenge.  Imagine that!

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Overall, so far it has been a blast.  I have painted far more in the last 3 months than I have in the 18 before it.  It has motivated me to paint different items, different styles, and learn new techniques.  It has also led me to bug and harass both Greg and Curt far more than in the past with questions on "those damn Frenchies", as the Napoleonics are something completely new to me and I am trying to do them some small level of justice. 

Better yet, I have even completed my initial goal of 1000 points already, and have since raised it to 1300.  Given the bonus points still coming for the last two theme entries, I may even hit 1500!  When I went it, I only planned on about 750 points, so not bad.

You can find all my entries with this link: ByronM Entries for the 4th Annual Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge.

I will post a final roundup once the whole challenge is over with my final numbers and thoughts.  Thanks everyone, now back to painting.