Broken Promises, Shattered Dreams

My rules of Acquisition are not those of the Ferengii, who have loads.   But it's basically that expenditure is only allowed in order to further or finish works already in progress.

So I have broken the rules big time on two occasions so far this year:



I got myself Betrayal at Calth for Christmas (well, no one else was going to buy it for me....)



And then they released this, which Obviously I also had to buy.  Another broken rule.

Now, Black Templars aside, my plan for a Spaze Murheen force has always been for one where every marine was from a different chapter.  I had trawled references and made a list which runs to eight squads or something.

So this should give you a flavour:

Tactical Squad	Detail	Reference
Imperial Fist		P27 SM Codex
Crimson Fist		P29 SM Codex
Red Scorpion		Br Junt, IA9, P87
Fire Hawk
Salamander	Heavy Bolter	Br Arion, IA10, P75
Raven Guard	Sergeant	Sgt Aibek IA8, P108
Exorcist		Br Baeliastus IA10, P129
Raptor Legion		Br Loa, IA9, P103
Grey Knight		Br Asaph, IA7, P102
Red Hunter	flamer	Br Zlatico, IA7, P106

Now the is nothing in the SM codex which says that all of your marines have to belong to one chapter, that's just how people do it.  People read the fluff and I suppose invest in the fluff and then before the know it they have a dining table full of Howling Griffins or something.

But I'd do it with a sort of rainbow chapter (see what I did there ?) With all of these marines from different chapters.  Now you can do this with a Deathwatch detachment, but these all paint their armour black, except for one arm left in their original chapter colourscheme.  Which sort of defeats the point of having all those different marines.

So 'fluftastically' if I did them in their full chapter regalia, they'd be guys who just turned up at an Ordos Xenos induction and had to quickly react before their initiation.  Or I could do one black arm (possibly with the OX shoulder pad) and they could be a section of Deathwatch about to go back to their parent chapter.  But not the full on the black.

So with a load of left over Mark IV bits from the Black Templars, the Betrayal at Calth dudes and the actually Deathwatch guys from the Overkill game, maybe it's time to revisit my grand plan.

But.  The latest Horus Heresy book provides for Black shield and Shattered Legion forces, which means that I can paint up the Betrayal at Calth guys up in any number of chapter colours (in enamels), roughly overpaint them in black acrylic and then wipe a load of it off,  Hey Presto !  I write my own licence to add in all of those gorgeous FW chapter specific squads, and fold them into the force.

Hummm.  What to do ?  What to do ?  

And sticking with the broken rules, one of these:

Lovely model, and I'd bought a pack of helmet crests for the Blood Pact officers.  So clicking and adding this was sooooo easy.  

And there's these:

To go with the cult from Deathwatch.

And a bunch of laser cut bases and a few odds and ends of paint and varnish.  So now I have to update my mid year update.  Hummm. 

Overlord 2016 Three of Three

There was a small display of new products from Thundercloud Miniatures; I did have a chat with the guy there.  The range is small at the moment, but they are doing more.  The photo does not do it justice, but the Easterling/Kislev type archer on the polar bear was getting a great deal of attention. 

And no sign of a kickstarter.  Yet.

And moving swiftly on, a highlight for me was the absolutely not a genestealer cult from Macrocosm Miniatures.  Macrocosm do squats as well.

So there are is a big enough range to throw yourself together a decent scale cult.

No limos though....     But with the release of Deathwatch, these guys should see some more love.  The man I spoke to did say that he'd already noticed an interest in hits on the website.

I did indulge, picking up a pack up hybrids ('cos they're nice minis), which is breaking a rule. I plan on comparing and contrasting these against the Deathwatch ones fairly soon.....   I also picked up a handfull of 25mm and 60mm laser cut bases, which are are allowed under the rules as they are to enable finishing up things in the bitzbox.

I also picked up a box of Frostgrave cultists.  Which I am allowing under the rules under the 'using up weapons' and therefore allowed.  No really, that's a genuine and great reason.

There was also a naval game in a unusual scale (for a naval game).  It was actually based on a real Italian torpedo boat raid on the RN in Crete in the early war.  But all I think of was HMS Troutbridge.  If you follow that reference you're probably, well, you know.

But "Yea !" for scratch built models.

Abingdon Wargaming club has a facebook page and already has a date programmed for next year (Sun 05 Mar 17)

And of course the last picture has to be real Godzilla vs Robot Godzilla.

Overlord 2016 Two of Three

One of the things I like about these occasions is that you can see all most any sort of game next to each other.  So ancients - Romans (what have they ever done for us ?) vs Carthaginians.  Gotta love an elephant or two.   

These gents had played this morning and the Carthaginians won.  They swapped sides and the man I spoke to said he thought that the Romans were going to win,  Equity for the little men, but not the players.

And on to Napoleonics.  These were large scale figures, 54s.  One of the things here is that for Napoleonic battles, at this scale, you're either fighting a capsule within a larger battle (the ol' 40K "It's the crux of a larger battle" thing).  Or the figures each represent tens of men.  Neither of which is really satisfactory, to my mind.

But it is very visually engaging, The 54s do look good and make for quite a spectacle.

Whatever rules these people were using, it involved painting the leaders in block colours for some reason.  But they still good good.  weird.

Another large scale game.  WW1, with a good looking board.

And it's suitably scaled flyer.

And "Age of Sigmar"  the figures look attractive enough and if this hadn't been what it is, might have got a bit more attention.

But all I can think about is that they blew up the Old World.  I'd wanted to see Kislev, Nippon and the mercenaries return.  Not the whole place blown to smithereens.  Oh well.

Holding the event in a school is OK, there are three large main rooms (school halls, obviously) but the school is largely hidden behind the trade stands.  You could buy just about anything (my haul will be in post three) including Deathwatch and so on.  The bring and buy even had a Game of Thrones game in it, but it had been reserved or sold already.

Overlord 2016 One of Three

So Abingdon Wargaming Club host 'Overlord' every year.  Who knew ?!  It's not that far away so, despite it being Mothering Sunday, I was let out for a couple of hours (the numbskulls and I having excelled at making the morning a success). 

Knowing how popular Bolt Action is these days, I could not resist a gorp at this beautiful North Africa game.  The 1942 military hardware really brings home the massive leaps in military technology and production capacity that happened during the war.

And whilst wargamers tend not to paint things like they're entering golden demon competitions, I'd be more than happy with these armies.

Coupled with the well done table, it made for a really engaging spectacle.

25pdr detachment.  Hurrah for Royal Artillery.

Command Sections.  More important than actual fighting power, but it's a bugger to turn that into something that feels like it on a table top.

The rotating monsters vs mecha game; you could rock up, take a mecha or a monster, wander into the city, have a fight and bow out gracefully as a winner or be carried out as a looser.

Mr Lee (of Mr Lee's Painting Emporium)'s eldest progeny was getting really into this.

Whilst Mr Lee himself was giving this game a bit of attention.  Nazi dwarves and Brit Orks.  Impressive board for their cockleshell orks game.

And some impressive terrain for a 'Skirmish Sangin' demo game.  With the increasing quality of ultra moderns and near future (although for near future games, the loss of Pig Iron is a blow) figures should mean we see more games like this.  And it was a good looking game, using the same figures with some 4Ground or Sarrissa ruins could quite easily be Syria or somewhere in the Ukraine.  It does feel a bit weird to be writing that, but we havn't been out of Afghanistan for that long.

The event was held in a school.  There was free on site parking, which is great.  A good bring and buy and loads of trade stands.  It was in three rooms and the refectory was open for most of the day.  It's not Salute, but if you only live a half hour drive away, it's gotta be a winner.  More in the next post.

Armageddon Steel Legion Heavy Armour

So these babies are now done.  I may add some little extra bits of stowage around the turrets before they hit the boxes, but they're pretty much done.  Perhaps some sooting around the muzzles of the battle cannon.  But that would have to include the other eight, so it'll wait. 

So on with a few picts. 

And they were being watched...

17 Korps Recce Assets

17 Korps protects itself by deploying elements from its constituent formation’s recce units in a screen; pickets when stationary and outriders when moving.   Not all of each recce unit is used like this; SOPs are to detach sub units on a rotating basis.  This rotation is to both rest sub units who have been some time ‘at the sharp end’ as well as ensuring that skills are practiced and experience – exposure to the Devos IV Operational environment, reaches those important ‘first contact’ sub units.

Recce of objectives in 17 Korps is normally done by a ‘Wide Patrol’; ususally a platoon sized detachment, often with elements from more than one parent unit.  These Wide Patrols have to be self-sufficient, sometimes for more than a month, ranging ahead with a degree of independence of action not usual for the Imperial Guard. 

Wide Patrols can be resupplied and replenished by the Imperial Navy.  Additionally, should one of these recce elements end up in a fight it can’t win, they can be covered by air and their withdrawl safeguarded.  This level of cooperation requires and is facilitated by a Forward Area Controlled (FAC) provided by the Imperial Navy’s close orbit command.    These individuals, with the equipments they carry, can contact standing Combat Air Patrols, Imperial Guard Drop Regiments and the Navy’s Close Orbit Command.

But in the final analysis, the highest value STAR information is provided by skilled infantrymen conducting close target reconnaissance, on foot, on their belt buckles, in the dark, penetrating the target’s defences and withdrawing with the vital information which will make future operations a success.  

902 Div

5^th Saranian Light Infantry

337 Death Rider Squadron (Det from 11^th DKK Uhlan Regt)

 

Recce Tp (Det from 19^th DKK Armd Regt)

903 Div

Cadian 144^th Long Range Recce Regt; Wolverine & Tauros

905 Div

22 Rough Rider Coy (Det from Mordian 7^th Iron Guard)

Humm, you can see the Mordian 7th Iron Guard at the right of the picture, but it doesn't look like the rough riders are in the picture.  I'll have to get one done.

What this post is intended to do is primarily to inform and entertain you but also to spur me to dig out the DKK Salamanders and actually finish them.