Miniature Musings - The Invasion of Poland, 1939

While I've had hobby projects planned for this year, it seems that they've been usurped by my promise to fellow SJGA member Sam to participate in a campaign based on the 1939 Invastion of Poland at the outset of World War II using Bolt Action.

Sam has apparently already amassed quite the collection of Polish infantry, guns, and vehicles, so I will need to put together a matching company using both my own miniatures and those from fellow commanders.

Luckily, Warlord has a good range of Early War Germans, and there are plenty of other manufacturers as well.

I've also put together a simple three linked game campaign chart that we could use, inspired by Steve Balagan's work:

It's fairly straightforward. The only concern is that the rules for Bolt Action assume a "fair fight" of equal points value, which may be difficult to do if we're going to make this a fight between two companies. I'll be discussing this with other club members. 

There's also the potential of using the ladder campaign system from TooFatLardies' At the Sharp End supplement for Chain of Command. It probably wouldn't be too hard to adapt to Bolt Action.

Another idea I've had is to add certain elements from Platoon Forward, written by Joseph Legan and also published by TooFatLardies. It's a system-independent set of rules to "add personality to your tactical level games" - perfect for Bolt Action. There's command traits, in-game events, and simple reinforcement rules to add a little flavor to the games.  

Also, I've been looking into reading material to cover the campaign:

Case White: The German Army in the Polish Campaign, William Russ
Case White: The Invasion of Poland 1939, Robert Forczyk
First to Fight: The Polish War 1939, Roger Moorhouse
Poland 1939: The Birth of Blitzkrieg, Steven Zaloga
September Campaign + Poland in Flames compilation, Alexander Kawczynski

So look forward to seeing plenty of 1939 German infantry and equipment in the upcoming painting updates!

Painting Update - Battletech, WWII

Here's whats come off the painting table since last time.

A lot of the fiction coming out of the Battletech universe at the moment is set in the "current" era, which is moving from the Dark Age to IlClan. Inspired, I wanted to paint a lance of mechs from this era. I wanted a mixed lance of medium and heavy mechs, since I find light mechs too fragile and assault mechs too boring.

From left to right, the mechs are: Carronade CRN-7M, Kheper KHP-7R, Lament LMT-2R, and Gauntlet GTL-1OB.

The local hobby shop is starting a Bolt Action slow grow league, and I decided to join with some Late War Germans.

If you haven't heard of slow grow leagues, they're ways for a community to build up collections for a game. Players start with small forces, and purchase and paint new miniatures over time. Hopefully this encourages fully painted forces by the end of a set period, maybe with a tournament or other big event.

Now, you may be thinking, Didn't you already have 28mm Germans for Konflikt 47? And yes, I did. But I ended up selling them when I lost my enthusiasm for the game to someone in the local community.

Plus, this lets me put together a platoon for other games like Chain of Command.

This also gave me the opportunity to use different basing materials for a better visual element to the miniatures, and I think they look a lot better compared to my Konflikt 47 Germans.

I'm aiming for a standard platoon (according to Chain of Command) with plenty of options, like a mortar, a medium-machine gun, panzerschreck, flamethrower, etc.

Lawn Care - Warhammer Fantasy: Renaissance AAR

With restrictions lifting in the state, I was able to head out to the local game store and finally get a game of Warhammer Renaissance with my Orcs & Goblins. 

So with mask on and hand sanitizer in my pocket, I packed up my minis and tape measure for the first game I've played in three months!

Nick and I decided on a 1,500 point game.

My Orcs & Goblins warband had six regiments, with Orc Boyz, Black Orcs, Night Goblins, Boar Boyz, and Wolf Riders. They were accompanied by a couple Black Orc heroes, a couple Goblin shamans, and a spear chukka.

Nick's army was much smaller, with most of the points going into a very scary unit of Chaos Warriors of Khorne and a Chaos Warlord. There was also a unit of Bloodletters, a Chaos Chariot, and a Chaos Spawn.

We used the Take the Field scenario, where one of use would need to control the forest in the center, or have the most troops in each four quadrants of the table.

Most of the fighting went down in the middle of the table. Nick's Bloodletters reach the forest first, but I managed to charge them in the rear with my Orc Boyz after they were moved by the Hand of Gork.

My Night Goblins survived long enough to deploy their Fanatics, which killed the Chaos Spawn that lured the mushroom-frenzied loonies out and even killed a few Chaos Warriors. But the regiment was routed by the Chaos Chariot, and two Fanatics killed each other when they unfortunately collided.

The Chaos Warriors went through my Black Orcs like weed-whackers, sending dark green chunks flying everywhere.

The Bloodletters sent my Orc Boyz fleeing after the General was killed in a challenge, which left only my second unit of Orc Boyz and my Battle Standard Bearer to contest the forest. They were quickly flanked by both the Chaos Chariot (which had dodged the spear chukka's poorly aimed bolts) and the Chaos Warlord.

With the Bloodletters joining the fray, it wasn't long until the last of the greenskins were obliterated, and the forest was solidly in Nick's control. We didn't need to tally up the victory points to know that Nick had won a solid victory.

This was my first game in over three months - my last game were at Cold Wars back in early March. I had been worried that I was approaching a hobby burnout and I wasn't enjoying any of the games I was playing. I had planned to take a multi-month break, which just so happened to coincide with the lockdown.

Turns out, it's exactly what I needed. Even with the rules referencing, I was glad to be back at the table, rolling dice and moving my toy soldiers again. I'm looking forward to more gaming, depending on how the pandemic turns out. This may or may not be wishful thinking in hindsight!

Painting Update - AWI

The painting continues! Here's what I've been working on since last time. 

Any British force in the Horse & Musket era will need its flank companies. So to accompany the regulars are a unit of Grenadiers, with combined facings to match their parents units.

I also used the same color scheme to paint the light infantry.

And that's a project completed! The only thing I can think to add at the moment would be limbers for the artillery, but I think this offers a good representation of British and American forces for use with Rebels & Patriots. Now I just need to actually play the game!

Of course, any wargame could use some terrain, so I had previously ordered some buildings from Stone Mountain Miniatures. This is where all the miniatures for my AWI project came from, so I thought I'd go back for the buildings.

At around $7-$15 apiece, these 15mm buildings are pretty well detailed and only required minimal cutting and sanding to make them ready for priming and painting.

With these and some handmade snake rail fencing, I've everything I would need to make an 18th century American battlefield.

Painting Update - FIW, Warhammer Fantasy

It sounds like, in the area in which I live, some lockdown restrictions are going to be eased to allow non-essential stores to allow customers to come back into the building. This means access to the local game store, if they decided to open. This should also hopefully mean more gaming! I'll have to find a comfortable mask to wear. 

However, in the absence of games, I've continued working on various projects. 

AW Miniatures recently had a sale on their site, so I bought a couple packs of French and British Regulars to round out the units I have. I finished the French first, since I've got the foam to store them in. I'll get around to the British when their foam trays arrive.

Also finished were a unit of Goblin Wolf Riders and two Goblin wizards to support my Classichammer Orcs & Goblins army. I'm so close to finishing it! There's three units - Boar Riders,  Black Orcs, and Trolls - and a few characters to paint and I can call that project complete.