November Historical Games Day AAR

We had an excellent turnout this past weekend at the PDX historical games day. Special thanks to the guys who drove all the way from Seattle! The action was all SAGA and Bolt Action:

A German platoon faces off against an American force over a bombed-out village.

Welsh take on the Vikings

Byzantines and Vikings compete to capture an Anglo-Dane village

Vikings versus Normans

Defending the fort

The next game day will be December 20th. There's also a game day down in Salem at Haven Gaming on the 13th!

Painting Update: 15mm Blitzkrieg Germans

I didn't get a lot of projects done in October, because I was working on one big project: A 15mm 1940 German infantry company based for Flames of War, for a client through CGR Painters. I'm rather pleased with how much I painted in five weeks, and how it turned out.

The whole thing: 3 infantry platoons, 2 gun platoons, mortars, and machine guns.

Infantry Platoon

Heavy Infantry Gun Platoon

80mm Mortar Platoon

Machine Gun Platoon

PDX Games Day - September 27

I organized a historical games day at Guardian Games yesterday, and got a pretty decent turnout. Thanks to everyone who attended!

We had some SAGA...

Anglo-Danes repulsing a Viking assault

Some Flames of War (my Russian infantry battalion lost to the Germans)...

Russian infantry watch their armored comrades fall to German anti-tank guns

Some Blitzkrieg Commander II...

German defense of the village of Anatevka from the Red Army

And Ivan (Nordic Weasel Games) demoed Five Men in Normandy for a few folks:

A Soviet patrol mixes it up with a tiny German roadblock

I'm planning on another games day at Guardian on October 11. (Sadly, I'm missing out on Tactical Solutions out in Spokane...)

Battle Report: Patton's Desert War...

Peter, Jared, and I decided we'd take a crack at Blitzkrieg Commander II, as an alternative to Flames of War. I refereed, since I have the most (two games) experience with the system, and set up a North African table for Jared's Red Army tanks to assault Peter's 101st Airborne. (I dunno, Alien Space Bats must have done something...)

This was quite a small game, actually, but it still took almost three hours before we called it - all that fumbling with new rules.

The US defended a hill with a half-company of Airborne backed up by a 57mm anti-tank gun, a pair of MGs, some off-board artillery, and a single 81mm mortar. The Russians came in through a village just north of the hill with five T-34/85s, an ISU-122, and some tank riders; unfortunately, they'd placed their single mortar too far away to effectively receive orders...

At first we thought the Americans would simply be steamrolled by the Russian tanks, but they proved to be surprisingly durable. BKC II's command system provided significantly more randomness than we're used to with FoW, especially since the Americans only had one commander; when he failed his command roll, that was it for the turn!

Second-to-last turn

One question we had was the command penalty for multiple orders to a unit. We're not sure if it applies to the entire formation that contains the unit, or only to that unit itself. Still, overall it was a good game. Next time we'll have to bump it up to around 3,000 points to a side...

Cog Collective Summer Painting Challenge, 2014: Week 1

The Cog Collective runs a painting challenge every summer. This year, I'm in.

This week, I'm attempting to finish these figures:

Essex Miniatures 15mm ancient horse archers

Privateer Press Skorne Mortitheurge Willbreaker

Privateer Press Skorne Nihilators

Spartan Games Firestorm Armada Dindrenzi Cruisers

Battlefront Miniatures 15mm World War II German Armored Cars (SdKfz 222 and 223)