Dark day

Dog day afternoon

Had to put the old girl down this afternoon. Rocked up to the vets with the family, wife had to take her in.
Didn't know an old fossil like me could get so emotional.  Tried not to blabba in front of the kids but bloody hard, must be age thing.

Going to miss her.

See ya in the next world Jessie.  (12yrs) whatever that is in dog years.

Whats on the painting desk

Winter is heading our way, days are getting shorter, nights are getting cooler and beer is changing from wheat to dark lagers.
Hopefully these means more gaming as I prefer to sit in the pool and drink when the days are 35 and above.

Anywho .......... whats on the desk at present...................

A 28mm laser cut French Chateau - just needs to be painted up.

15mm trench/dug-in markers for "Blitzkrieg Commander". Was going to purchase latex or molded trench systems but thought I would try making some myself. 1/4 round wood cut into assorted lengths and covered with ballast. We'll see what they paint up like.

2 x 28mm Carthaginian commanders and starting the last unit of Carthaginian troops.

Cheers, Guido.

40K Apocalyptic Game

40K Apocalyptic Game

Just to carry on from the last post re 40K, my son arranged a small 40K Apocalyptic Game between his associates and mine. As it turned out it was 5 V's 4, mind you the 4 would be well fortified with beer and whiskey. (I know, looking at that shirt you can really tell this would be a serious game.) 

The good guys (us) were Imperial Guard, armoured and infantry companies,  Marine Raven Wing and Necrons. Yeah I realise Necrons are usually bad guys........But!!!

The board was set out using two 6 x 4 boards connected by a 2 x 4 "bridge". Actually it was a good excuse to get a huge amount of figures on the board. I was going to give a turn by turn account of what occurred, (lots of arrows and inserts)(see picture 1) but this is 40k after all and not real war-gaming!! 

Anyway, the good guys deployed and moved.

Then all hell broke loose, as we thought we had run out of beer!!!. .....err I mean the evil Grey Knights conducted a 'deep strike' behind out forces. I think they lasted two turns.

Don't ask me about the head wear, obviously an English and South African thing!

 Back to the game, Eldar, not to be outdone by the Knights also landed troops in our rear zone and quickly spotted a brave Imperial Guard commander hidden in the shadows. (It was in shadow before the flash of my camera revealed him)

 Lucky for him an Imperial tank drove onto the board and dispersed the evil blue feathered creatures.

 The Tyranids tried the same trick but were also vanquished.

 The Orks couldn't help themselves and stormed the crossing presenting a perfect target for the Imperial artillery. Meanwhile in the skies overhead raged multiple dogfights between the fliers.

 All I could say was "I glad someone knew all these rules!!)

Imperial aircraft lining up for strafing runs. The goodies were having fun.

 Yep, I even got to use the Imperial Baneblade to smash a few more Orks.

A great night had by all with a heap of laughs..............I think we finished about 1.30 in the morning with a win for the good guys.. Not bad for a 4 o'clock arvo start. After going over all the photos this lot were the least offensive.

Probably a good thing that this ran dry.

Cheers.

I'm back!!

Well, believe it or not I'm still around, haven't blogged since Dec 2014 so Merry Christmas and Happy New Year for 2014 and 2015.

I had been keeping an eye on the multitude of blog entry's over the year but didn't manage a single entry myself. (age, lazyness, family, life, etc take your pick).  This didn't mean that I wasn't purchasing, gaming, purchasing, painting and a wee bit purchasing throughout this period.  I'll touch on this a little later.  

I managed to apply some paint to these two figures belonging to my young bloke. Not being a huge 40K gaming, they were a small change from what I have been working on.

Played a few games of 40K recently and the best thing is I don't have to consult the rules as my recently turned 18 year old can rattle them off at the drop of a hat. I'll post a few pictures of a recent game we had a crack at.

This year my main concentration has been trying to complete my Carthaginians, again I'll post what I have completed in the near future.

Cheers, Guido.

Volscians

Volscian miniatures from Aventine, shield designs from LBM.

The Roman-Volscian wars were a series of wars fought between the Roman Republic and the Volsci, an ancient Italic people. Volscian migration into southern Latium led to conflict with that region's old inhabitants, the Latins under leadership of Rome, the region's dominant city-state. By the late 5th century BC, the Volsci were increasingly on the defensive and by the end of the Samnite Wars had been in incorporated into the Roman Republic. The ancient historians devoted considerable space to Volscian wars in their accounts of the early Roman Republic, but the historical accuracy of much of this material has been questioned by modern historians.*

* From Wikipedia

This unit should really be used against my Romans but I think I will be using it as a Roman ally against my Phyrrics.

 I guess they could be utilised as a generic medium infantry unit in my 'Command & Colors' games.

American Civil War 'Fire & Fury'

Battle of Stones River Dec 31, 1862

As we hadn't had a get together at my place for a while, (work, family etc),  I organised an impromptu gathering with a couple of the lads for a game of Fire and Fury. (I don't any ACW rules or figures).

Very special thanks to Cookie who provided ALL the figures and scenery as I could only manage the boards and location. With a few lads we had 2 Union commanders (Paul & Sam) and 3 Rebel. (Cookie, Beccas and myself)

Early start with Cookie arriving at 8am, by the time the figures were in the starting position, people arrived and first round of coffees were made, kick off was 10.30. lunch with at 12.30 for an hour and we finished up at about 4pm.

I believed we completed about 4 turns as Cookie was the only person who had used these rules before. They played very well and it didn't take to long to pick them up.

 The mission was to force the union troops off line X - Y - Z, as per the above illustration.

Beccas led off with the rebels across and open field towards the union troops sheltering behind a fence line in a wooded area.

The union delivered a vicious volley causing many casualties and disordering the rebel line before the rebels returned fired but they couldn't hit the side of a barn, let alone the union troops in cover.   

 As the rebels couldn't shoot straight they just headed in with cold steel and a rebel yell, through the maelstrom of shot, over the fence line, through the woods and and up the hill forcing the stunned union troops back all the way.

My brigade followed behind Beccas waiting to fill in the gaps when Beccas's units faulted, but they never did. I never fired a shot all day and when I caught up to him I just provided support in the melees that occurred.

 Meanwhile Cookie was beginning to put pressure on the union left flank.

 It was looking like a rebel victory as only 2 union units still manned line X - Y - Z but the playing day had come to an end. The scenario  still had and number of turns to play and we all appreciate what the dice gods can do to any army.

Hopefully everyone had a good day and we can do it all again in the future.

A short video can be seen on Beccas's site https://www.youtube.com/user/pbeccas/videos