Germans vs American Bolt Action!

So,

This past weekend Robert and I got together to play some Bolt Action up at Imperial Outpost games. We decided to play 1000 points and try out the Top Secret scenario. We set up a pretty generic table as seen below.

 For those that do not know the scenario, both side start off of the table and you place an objective marker in the center of the table. Then both sides are basically racing to reach the objective and then carry it off the table very much like the Seize the Prize or Bilbo's Treasure scenario for LotR. Here is the objective placed in the center of the table.

Well Roberts side of the table was pretty wide open, while mine had only a few lanes of clear open ground, the fields were considered rough ground. So saying that Robert advanced his Americans as fast as he could towards the goal and by turn 2 he was along the hedge line. Meanwhile I was stuck crossing the wheat fields in the center. To make matters worse Robert decided to call down an artillery strike in the middle of the board which made it really tough for me.
 

Once Robert had taken up position along the hedge he started to hook around to take the objective by turn three. 

 I started to send my tank after his M10, but got caught wide open as I crossed over a fence and soon my Panzer IV was a smoking wreak.

 I tried to rush the objective with two squads, but I got caught by the Americans and the two squads soon went away in hand to hand combat.

 The start of turn 4 saw things go bad for me, I was starting to take loss' and Robert was quickly heading for his side of the table with the objective. Unfortunately I was not able to stop him and by the end of the turn I was in bad shape. I only had a few units left.

 Turn 5 & 6 saw Robert heading for his side and by the end of turn 6 Robert was only 4" away from leaving the board.

 
 The Top Secret scenario can go one more turn and you roll a D6, if you roll 4+ the game goes one more turn. As luck would have it, he rolled a 5 and the game continued. Now it was down to who got the next order and Robert drew one of his dice for orders and moved off the table for the win!

All in all this was a great game and Robert and I are very excited about playing more games in the near future. In fact we are planning on doing a few Crete games in the near future. So stay tuned for more Bolt Action games...

TK

Black Powder Hits the Table!

So,

Today, Robert, Tom O, Joe and myself threw down a game of American Civil War using Warlords Black Powder rules. This game has been in the works for well over a year now and I have to say it was well worth the wait. We met up at Imperial Outpost and set up a 8' x 8' table and did a very generic looking table.

 Robert and I took command of the Union troops, while Tom and Joe took the Confederates. The Rebels were to hold the bridge in the middle of the board, while the Union was trying to take the bridge themselves.
For the life of me, I can not remember which units were represented on the board, but we each had about four units plus a gun. I will leave the more formal descriptions to Robert when he posts up his battle report. So for now, here are some pictures that I took while playing the game.

So we played for about 2 hours and had a blast! I really like how the game played out and looked on the table. Everyone that stopped by enjoyed the way the game looked and we had a lot of complements, the best one coming from a 8 year old girl who said, "That's Cool"!

Needless to say, I am already planning to start building a few American War of Independence armies for my own big game. Hell I am even thinking of building a Napoleonic army as well, we also talked about using the Black Powder rules for some early WW1 games! So in a nutshell, I really really liked the game and will be spending my money to build armies for this game.

So long Games Workshop, I'm off to bigger and better things!

TK 

I'm A Winner!!!!

So,

It seems that I have won an award, yes that's right Cursed Treasures fans, we have won the coveted Liebster Award! It seems that a few friends from the Blog sphere have nominated my little space on the old Internet! The basic concept of the award is to recognise fellow bloggers that have less than 200 followers, it also is just a nice way to recognise folks for their blogs.

So first up thanks to the following friends and bloggers:

John over at Plastic Legions, next up Aaron over at Dulce et Decorum Est and Mike at Da Green Skins

Now before my Nominations, the criteria for the award:

1. Copy and paste the award on your blog linking it to the blogger who has given it you.

2. Pass the award to your top 5 favourite blogs with less than 200 followers by leaving a comment on one of their posts to notify them that they have won the award and listing them on your own blog.

3. Sit back and bask in the warm fuzzy feeling that comes with knowing you have made someones day!

4. There is no obligation to pass this onto someone else but its nice if you take the time to do so.  

Now my nominations in no particular order:

Rob Jedis Miniatures Blog

 

I have been following this talented painter for some time now, Robs work just blows me away as you can see from the above picture from his blog. Rob is all over the hobby map, very much like myself and he is a guy that I would love to play against.

Jerry's Big Picture

Jerry is a local gamer and a good friend, besides being a great painter, he is also an author like myself. He self published his book Fates Needle and can be purchased on Amazon. Jerry is an avid miniature gamer and in the last few years he has started to throw the GW shackles off and has branched out to other games.

Chef of War

Jeremy Williams, what can I say about this kid??? Well for starters, he is an awesome chef! I met Jeremy a few moons ago while out at Adepticon, than Jeremy came out to Gathering in the Desert. What caught my eye was his converting and painting of LotR figures. He is a great guy to play against and a all around great guy to just hang out with.

Independent Painters

This blog is run by Wojtek as well as another guy. Wojtek does an amazing job with painting LotR figures and is always worth a look for inspiration. I think one reason I like this guy is that he is Polish, like myself (although 4 times removed).

Blackwarden

I found Scott's blog about a year or so ago and I check in every time I am online. Scott does some amazing work and is pretty focused on fantasy miniatures right now. He is also working on some LotHS stuff and I have to say I approve of his choice in costumes for Halloween.

So there you go, I am passing on the award to a few talented bloggers who would love for you to stop on by...

TK

The Hobbit - An Unexpected Price Hike!!!

So,

Like many on the Internet I have been waiting for the Hobbit game from GW. I have seen and heard the rumors and have been holding my breath as to how much GW was going to charge. Well the wait is over and OMG, I just about fell out of my chair!

Come on GW, what the hell are you thinking???? I saw the Ultimate bundle deal on their site was a staggering $745.00!!!! What the hell???? Really, you think this will get folks to play a game you have run into the ground? So after seeing that and crossing that off my list, I took a look at the rulebook, thinking if anything, I would buy that. But what is that price? $85.00 Frickin dollars!

ONCE AGAIN, WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU THINKING GAMES WORKSHOP????

I'm sorry, but GW has jumped the shark on this and they are never going to get the sales like they did during the Lord of the Rings movie years. With the economy still in the tank here in the states, I just do not see this stuff being your financial win fall like before.

So where does this leave me, well I will tell you, I am heading back into Historical gaming! Warlord Games has a bunch of games that I am interested in (Bolt Action, Black Powder) and I can see my hobby money going to Warlord and even Mantic (Dreadball). Hell for the price of the Hobbit Rulebook, I can buy a ton of Perry Miniature Plastics or Victrix Models or even Warlord miniatures.

So, I am sorry GW, but I will not be getting my hobby money anymore. This was the last straw, you have finally sent me packing, I am sure Warlord Miniatures will appreciate my money more than you!!!

TK

Pulp Game on the Horizon

So,

For some time now I have been planning a Pulp Egyptian Mummy game, and finally after about 4 years of working on it, I am about to unleash the first game. I am using LotR/Legends as the base for the rules. I have looked at many rules but always come back to the LotR/Legends rules, maybe it is because I am so familiar with them.

Well any way I have planned three games or scenes if you will and the first game is all about four groups (Nazi, Chinese, British and Americans) all looking for the Mummy' tomb. Scene one will have the four groups racing around a town looking for informants to find the location of the Mummy' tomb.

So here are a few pictures of some of the intrepid adventures, all are West Wind figures from the Gothic Horror line.

Besides the adventurers, I have a few surprises for the characters, like these deadly Asps, very deadly! These are old GW snakes from the Lizard man line, I do not think you can get these now.

In order to spring my surprises, I need some containers. I looked but could not find anything that looked "right", so I decided to make a few out of beads. These are from the local Wally Mart and all I did was make a few container tops out of green stuff. Here are the results, I think they came out rather well.

One last thing was this Genie, I have had this model for a long time, it is an old Ral Partha AD&D figure. I figured that I would use him sometime in some game, just did not know it would take almost 20 years!

Just to give you scale on this guy, here is a picture with a standard 28mm figure in front of him. I really like how this picture came out, it fits the theme of Pulp too me.

Anyway I will be posting up pictures of the game from this coming weekend as well as some of the rules that I came up with.

TK

Bolt Action

So,

Last Friday, I picked up my copy of Bolt Action from Warlord games from my local store. I have been waiting for this book for some time now and I am glad that it is now out. You see I have a pretty good collection of WW2 figures and over the years have played many of the WW2 rule sets that are out there. The problem was nothing ever seemed to be "just right" for me. So when I heard that Warlord was working on this, I had hopes for the game.

Well after looking through the book and getting to watch the game in progress last Friday night, I have to say this game is what I was looking for. It is a pretty simple system that gets results and I think that Warlord has another winner on their hands. So I am pretty excited about this game and the chance to bust out my 28mm collections again. (So look for pics coming soon of my collections).

There is another reason I am glad this game is out and it ties into GW's 40K. You see I have been wondering if I wanted to jump into 40K 6th edition. I have a huge Sister of Battle army and a growing collection of Orks that are waiting in the wings. I had toyed with dropping the cash for the new 40K rulebook, but the $75.00 price has kept me at bay since a Sisters codex is a long way off as well as an Ork codex. And this week GW announced the new Chaos codex at a staggering $50.00 for the book had got me rethinking 40K. I am not sure about dropping that much cash on a book that will only be good until the next edition comes out. So when Bolt Action came out at $35.00, I was all over that! So it looks like my Sisters and Orks will sit for a while longer and the WW2 collection (that has been sitting for years) will be coming out.

So anyway, look for more 28mm WW2 action here on the old blog in the very near future. In fact I can see FoW possibly cooling down for me since it has only been a fill in for my 28m obsession. So as I said above, I am really excited about Bolt Action!

TK

Blitzkrieg!

So,

Next weekend my local shop is holding a Early War Flames of War Tournament and somehow I was talked into playing! Now, Early war is not too popular out here in Phoenix, it seems that most players here are more interested in Late war FoW games. Personally, I prefer Early War since you do not see all the big Cats (Tigers, Panthers) and all the other big armor that the end of the war was famous for. There is something about light tanks that is just more appealing to me.

So with being talked into playing I had to decide what to take, I could take a DAK army and that would only mean having to change out a few units and vehicles. But when I think early war, I think of the fall of France and Poland. Also I just love the early war German tanks (well most German tanks really!). Now some intrepid readers will recall, at the beginning of the year I bought a ton (well more like 7 packs) of Old Glory 38t's. I have always wanted to build a Czech platoon tank list envisioning Rommel leading his 7th Panzer "Ghost Division" across France. So it seemed that I had the models and I just need to get them painted up.

So now the next thing was to build a list, I am not a huge tourney player and I tend to build armies around a historical theme. This leads to a problem since most historical builds for FoW just do not behave like there real counterparts. But I wanted to do the 7th Panzer and I wanted a lot of tanks. So thanks to my buddy Robert pointing me to this awesome blog FOW Lists which allowed me to quickly build a list.

So here is the army above and the list I will be taking below:

Compulsory Czech Panzer Company HQ - 1x CinC Panzer 38(t) B, 1x 2iC Panzer 38(t) B (175 pts)
- Recovery - 1x Sd Kfz 9 (18t) Half-track (5 pts)
- Rommel - 1x Rommel in Panzer 38(t) (must have other units with Panzer 38(t) (130 pts)

Compulsory Czech Panzer Platoon - 1x Command Panzer 38(t) B, 4x Panzer 38(t) B (440 pts)

Czech Panzer Platoon - 1x Command Panzer 38(t) B, 4x Panzer 38(t) B (440 pts)

Czech Panzer Platoon - 1x Command Panzer 38(t) B, 2x Panzer 38(t) B (260 pts)

Air Support - Priority Ju 87B Stuka (Schwerpunkt) (175 pts)


1625 Points, 3 Platoons

So you may notice that this is 16 tanks, all 38t's and Air Support. Will the army do well, I do not know, but I will sure have a blast playing it. It also fits with Rommel's "Ghost Division" with Rommel being so far away from his other support as he raced across France, with only air support being able to help.

So next up was building and painting, I wanted to get the Battlefront Rommel 38t model, but two things held me back, first up, the BF 38t would be a bit larger than the Old Glory model. Secondly I could not find the model anywhere here in the Valley of the Sun. So I improvised and use a Plastic Soldier tank Commander to represent Rommel. Now in fact the only Battle Front items in this army are two German Tank Commander heads I used for my Company Commander and the 2IC, all the rest of the items are non Battlefront models. This event is not using the crazy "Have to use 50% BF Models" ruling that BF came out with a few months ago and even if I win this event (yeah right!), I would not go to a BF National anyway.

You may also notice that I did some extra weathering on these models, I wanted them to look like they were out in the field and actually being used. One thing that bugs me is that many modelers paint up there vehicles so that they looked like they just rolled off the assembly floor. Tanks get dirty, so I weathered them up!

My Stuka is actually from Dragon Models and came pre-painted and all I had to do was mount it on a flying base. Even the flying base is not BF, I used an old GW flying stand and some plastic sheeting to make one that looks like the BF one.

The last thing I needed was some Objective markers. Now I have heard that BF released some large bases with National markings on them. Well I never bought any of those so I decided to do my own using their idea. Well to tie the army all together I decided that I wanted to use the 7th Panzer symbol which was easy to find on the old Internet. But how would I go about this?

Well I was watching a re-run of American Choppers and I noticed how some of the motorcycle painters use plotters and vinyl to mask their designs. So I made a call to a buddy of mine and asked him to cut out the 7th Panzer symbol and I would do the rest. So first I painted a standard Large base with German Yellow from Army Painter. Once dry I applied the vinyl and made sure it was seated down (so it would not bleed under) and then sprayed German Grey from Army Painter over it. I let that dry and them peeled off the vinyl leaving the symbol below in yellow. pretty simple really and I was really excited about it. (I know, I am a dork!)

So there you go, one 1625 Czech Army either ready to dominate the battlefield or to be dominated!

I will post up some after action reports and my personal thoughts on how I did and how my first FoW tourney experience was. If your in the Phoenix area next weekend, stop by Imperial Outpost games to see how the army is doing in person. Wish me luck, Panzers roll out!

TK

Pimp my Rides!

So,

I did these vehicles about a month ago and I am just now getting around to posting them here, better late than never right?

First up a few Old Glory Miniatures half tracks, which are a mix of M2's and M3's (with a jeep thrown in there.

I love Old Glory, too bad if I ever qualify for a FoW National tourney I will never be able to use these. Next up is the remainder of my DAK Fow army. It is funny, but I have not had a chance to put them on the table yet, hopefully that will change soon.

So there you go, better late than ever...

TK

Lessons from the Front!

So,

Robert from Drunken Samurai Painting Blog and I have been playing a lot of games of Flames of War 3rd edition. A few months back Rob talked me into playing some Infantry Aces sort of games (500, 700 & 900 points) and I have to say this is a great way to learn the rules. You can see Robs thoughts to the game here and I thought I would follow up his article with my own thoughts.

Objectives - Objective placement is huge! In more than one game I have blown my placement of objectives. It seems that there is an art to where you place them and I have been struggling with this and it has cost me the game more than once. You see, where you place the objective and either hinder or help you. What I find I have been doing is placing them where they would look cool on the table. While this looks good on the table, it does nothing to help me win games.

What I am finding is that you need to look at the mission and to think of what you and your opponent are going to do. If your playing a mission that means you only have to capture one objective, than place it closer to your deployment edge rather than your opponents. So in a nutshell, you need to think about where you place your objectives!

Army Special Rules - Read and learn your army special rules! For this series of games I started building and American Infantry army and unlike the DAK, there are a few rules that Americans benefit from. The first couple of games I never took advantage of the Truscott Trot (which allows US Infantry to move at the double 16"). In a few games I forgot to move troops and in this last game, I could have moved my Infantry up to 32" without being shot at. Learn your rules!

Today I also decided to take a few 105mm Guns, I just briefly looked at the artillery rules and thought I had them figured out. Turns out that I was wrong, I also forgot that the Americans have special rules for Artillery. So once again, read your special rules for your army!

Aircraft - Aircraft in 3rd edition is deadly and anti-aircraft capability is a must! Rob brought a Stuka to the battle today (I knew he would) and with Priority Air Support to boot. My only defense was AA MG guns on my Stuarts that I took. The only downside to AA MG on tanks is that they only get a rate of fire of 1, not too good. It is interesting that in this edition, Aircraft do not need to range in anymore, so unless you have decent AA or air power yourself, you are going to take it in the shorts like I did all day. So what is the take away, well you need to make sure you either take AA or aircraft your self.

So there you go, a few lessons from the front from your truly, hope this helps if your are getting into Flames of War. Once again, playing small point games is a great to learn the game are are a ton of fun!

TK