Progress has been pretty good on the Gun Carriage. The carriage itself is 90% done leaving the base and crew as the next things to tackle. Hopefully I’ll get more done this week.

Owen

Peter and I are four games into our Infantry Aces campaign. Infantry Aces is an escalating campaign with three games played at 500, 700 and 900 points levels. So far we’ve played the three 500pt games and a 700pt game. Honours are pretty even with both of us going different routes for our Ace’s advancement. I’ve gone with leadership advances as the Hoch und Deutschmeister are only Confident/Trained. Peter has gone the tactics route, specifically the ability to call in some artillery support.

In the third game, set in a small village on the outskirts of Cassino, I ended up defending with a single objective on the hill amongst the buildings. It was a modified Cauldron scenario. I set up one platoon of Reichsgrenadiers (Rifle/MG) in the village and held another in ambush. As Peter’s rifle platoon approached the village I deployed the ambush and assaulted them driving them back, but not breaking them. Another of Peter’s platoons came on in reserve and my ambushing platoon again assaulted. This time my platoon was destroyed, but the Americans took a good few casualties. Peter tried one assault into the town, but decided without any way to pin my MG/Rifle platoons continuing would have been too costly and conceded.

For our fourth game we jumped to 700pts and I added some fortifications to my army – two MG nests, a Panzer II turret and five sections (40″) of barbed wire. We played on the same terrain as this time the scenario was No Retreat. I set up my fortifications before the objectives are placed. I did a pretty good job in placing them, but that was more luck than skill. This game played out in a very similar manner to the last. My ambushing platoon popped up in the village and slowed Peter’s progress. I got all of my reserve platoons early and was able to fend off the pioneers that moved up my left flank. Peter wasn’t tempted to assault my line and I wasn’t keen to move out of my fortified position. Another stalemate.

I’ll ditch the fortifications for the next game in favour of some more open play. I think both of our Aces can take advancements again – I’ll stick with the leadership track.

Until next time,

Owen

… that make all the difference. In a recent game against Anthony’s Trollbloods the centre of the battlefield was a mass of Legionnaires, Blighted Ogryn and Fennblades. These guys, however didn’t do the heavy lifting. There were three stars of the game, which was played using the Incursion scenario.

#3 The Shepherd that scored two control points on the right flank. Nothing particularly impressive about that – she had nothing better to do after the Ravagore was decimated (more on that below).

#2 The Swamp Gobbers who blocked a charge lane from eMadrak to Kallus and survived 9 missed attacks to effectively win the game for me. DEF 15 is pretty sweet!

#1 The shining stars of the game were the Pygmy Burrowers. Anthony dug them in on turn 1. When they popped up eMadrak put Blood Fury on them and then something amazing happened. There was a Carnivean with its animus up and a Ravagore in charge range, so four Digmys charged into each and showed what an extra damage dice can do! Both beasts were totalled. Later on they managed to put a load of damage on Kallus too. Not enough to win the game, but more than I expected. At 6 points they are severely undercosted!

The game went to me on scenario, but I only had four models on the board at the end of the game! It was the narrowest of wins.

Until next time,

Owen

It took a while to get these done, but here they are.

I just need to add some flock to their bases, but otherwise they are done.





Until next time.

Owen

We have a new wargames shop here in Maynooth called Gamers Hub. It opened a couple of weeks ago and stocks Privateer Press (Warmachine and Hordes), Games Workshop (Warhammer, 40k, etc.), CCG (Magic The Gathering and all that nonsense!), board games and plenty of other things. Ethan, the store owner, can order in anything you need, so just let him know what you want.

The shop is located just off Main St. near Equestrian World (just on the left from this Street View). The shop also has its own Facebook page, so check it out. They have two 4′x8′ tables, so enough room for four Warmachine/Hordes games at a time. There is also a small painting area for those looking to get some miniatures ready for the tabletop.

They are running a Warmachine/Hordes slow grow league at the moment, so now is a great time to share a 2-player battlebox with a friend and start playing!

Owen

I decided I’d scratch build some fortifications for Flames of War to use in my current Infantry Aces campaign with Peter.

Owen

This is more of a battle overview than a full report. Peter and I played out a massive 2400pts game with my Panzer Lehr taking on his 3rd Infantry Division in the Hasty Assault scenario. I was the attacker as I had a mechanised company. Both of us had to keep at least half of our platoons in reserve. This was a key element of the game. My reserves took ages to arrive, but despite having Delayed Reserves this had a big impact on the game, but I’m getting ahead of myself.

Peter dug his infantry in around the objectives (on the right flank) and placed his artillery (Priests and 105s) on the opposite side. I decided I was going to focus on that right flank and moved to bring a large Gepanzerte Panzergrenadier Lehr platoon, accompanied by my HQ, down it with five Panzer IV Hs in support. My plan was scuppered when Peter’s aircraft and artillery combined to decimate that platoon on turn two. He hit them with everything he had and the platoon promptly failed its morale check (twice!) and fled.

I decided to keep pushing my Panzers forward and succeeded in pushing two platoons back from the objectives, but Peter’s M10 tank hunters arrived from reserve and, coupled with some more effective artillery, pummeled my most valuable unit! Things were not looking good! Peter’s reserves began to arrive in force and mine eventually arrived, but I had lost momentum.
My Nebelwerfers were largely ineffective, but I did manage to destroy a Sherman platoon with some of my grenadiers. Their Panzerknackers proved very effective in an assault, destroying five of the American tanks. Unfortunately, that was the highlight of the German’s performance. A fierce exchange of fire on the right flank saw tank hunters from both sides left flaming. Eventually my force was reduced to half strength, forcing company morale checks. I passed my first check, but decided concede defeat. Peter held the objectives very securely and attempting to wrest them from his control would have resulted in my whole force being destroyed.

My attack was indeed hasty!

Owen

Ps Peter won!

Phil and I played the last game of the campaign a couple of weeks ago, but I’m only getting around to the battle report. It was a fun game. Here it is -

Enjoy!

Owen

I was tempted to call this post “Wyshnalyrr and I”… Anyway, I painted this guy for September’s Paint the Target (G’Day Bloke was good enough to include it, despite my late submission). I undercoated him white and then used washed to colour him. Quick and easy and the result is passable!

October’s challenge is to paint a SPD 6 (or higher) model. eAlexia or my Gun Carriage? Hmmmm…

Owen

Running the tournament yesterday was a pleasure – 16 enthusiastic and skilled players turned up and played four very competitive games each. Every game was played in a spirit of camaraderie and any questions I had to answer were genuine rules queries – the players made my job easy. I first advertised the tournament about a month in advance and it was great to see such a good turn out.

The players began appearing at around 10:15 at Gamers World and Stuart, another of our local PGs, was good enough to help me get terrain sorted while I registered players and checked lists. As far as factions go we had 4 Cygnar, 2 Cryx, 2 Trollbloods, 2 Mercs, and then 1 of Skorne, Legion of Everblight, Circle Orboros, Retribution of Scyrah, Protectorate of Menoth and Khador. My friend Phil (from the Subject to Stupidity blog) flew in from Hamburg the day before and used my Khador, rocking a Karchev list in all four rounds.

The first round kicked off just after 11am. I printed five different Steamroller scenarios and randomly chose one for each round. I rolled high for the random element of the round time and let the players know that the clock was running. About this time last year Stuart bought a load of cheap timers from eBay and we use them to track turn times. One or two of the games that round ran long (as people took time to get all of their armies sorted), but none reached the time limit. As the results trickled in I entered them into the (excellent) Dohyou software. It really made my job easy.

And so each round went. As there were 16 players we needed 4 games to sort things out and by 5pm (or so) we had a result (I run a tight ship). I had prizes for 1st, 2nd, 3rd, fully painted (randomly chosen) and also for last position. I decided to go with Minions and Mercenary blisters as the prizes.

Gerry scooped Calaban and a Minions token set as the top prize. He used Rhyas in every game and showed all of his opponents just how competitive she can be! He’s a great guy to play against and is a great example of how the game should be played. Jason and his beautifully painted Cryx picked up second place of Aiyana and Holt and Gorman de Wolfe (as well as the randomly assigned painting prize – 2 speciality brushes). Robbie picked up third and the Piper of Menoth! (I’m sure he has uses for Cygnar too). Conor came in last place and was a little unlucky having fought some tight games. Everyone who played him agreed he was a great opponent too, effectively making his prize of Eiryss a prize for sportsmanship!

Thanks again to everyone for making it such a good day.

Owen