6MMRPC Week Nineteen: D&D Terrain Scenery

I finished the Dungeons & Dragons scenery bits from Baueda that I primed last week, and worked on a few other things as well.  No zombies though.

These were pretty simple to paint up, I airbrushed them with Tamiya colors and then painted the details in with Vallejo acryllics.  A quick thinned-down wash of Secret Weapon's Dark Sepia, a drybrush of Vallejo Iraqi Sand, and a quick spray of Matte Varnish seaded the deal.  These should look nice mixed into the other items I painted up several months ago, or in the back of a wagon.

All of these are from Baueda except for the large chest on the right.  Got that in a pile of bits at a swap meet.

I also got some work in on the Great War landships, masking and painting their identification stripes was a pain, so many rivets and other odd bumps wouldn't let the masking tape settle.  I'll need to touch them up later.

I hope to get these finished up this week.

 I even got the base color down on the Ki-45, though it came out a bit green.

Making some progress on several fronts!

I finally get to check something off as finished!  Three piles of terrain taken off of the Mountain!

6MMRPC Week Eighteen: Some More Great War WiP

A few days late this week due to a power supply failure, but I have a little bit of work to report.  Not as much as I wanted to get accomplished, but a cold will do that.  

I managed to finish assembling and priming all of the weapons for the Great War commission, the male sponsons for the Mark IV landships, four OQF 18 pdrs and their caissons, seven Vickers HMGs, and four 3" Stokes mortars.  I also primed some bags, boxes, and chests for Dungeons & Dragons scenery.  

Great War bits from Battlefront, except for three Peter Pig Vickers HMGs.  D&D bits from Baueda.

 I plan (plan!) on airbrushing the Great War armor and weapons now that they're all primed this week.  I also want to get some other WiP items finished off and get these bags and chests knocked out.  The Ki-45 is also ready for paint.

While organizing my hobby space I stumbled across an old binder full of old gaming stuff, mostly D&D and WEG Star Wars character sheets.  I even found my first ever character, a 2nd Edition D&D Cleric named Red Bear, and realized it had been 21 years since I created it and rolled my first dice in anger.  I even found four survivors from my first set so long ago.

My first D&D charcter is old enough to drink...

2 vs. 1 Flames of War in El Paso

I made the hour drive down to Jon's house last weekend to get a game in.  This time Alex and I would team up to stop Jon's Soviets in Encounter.  Alex and I both made 1900 point companies, while Jon also had two 1900 point Soviet battalions.  We also each had an extra Higher Command team to represent a regimantal commander.  Jon had a pair of Rota Razvedki lists, one with cossacks, pioneers, T-34s and Spetznaz, the other with pioneers, T-34/85s, Emchas, and Spetznaz.  Alex had an SS Charlemagne company with 10 platoons, two SS platoons with attached HMGs, a Hitlerjugend Platoon, a platoon of Volkssturm, 15cm Nebelwerfers, 7.5cm PaK40s, Hetzers, Wirbelwinds, and Kleinpanzer Wanze.  I brought a company from Schwere Panzer Kampfgruppe Bäke.

We played on a longer table than standard, about 9' x 4'.  Each of our companies would need to keep half of our platoons in Reserve, Jon electing to deploy Pioneers, Cossacks, and Spetznaz from one battalion, and Pioneers, Rota, and Spetznaz from the other.  This would leave three Rota, T-34/76s,  T-34/85s, and Emchas in Reserve.  

Alex would deploy two SS platoons with attached HMGs, Volkssturm, Nebelwerfers, and PaK 40s, while I would deploy my Panthers and Sd Kfz 10/5s.  This would leave the Hitlerjugend, Wanze, Hetzers, Wirbelwinds, Tiger Is, and Sd Kfz 250/9s in Reserve.

Alex surveys our extra-large battlefield.

Jon started his My Little Cossacks and Spetznaz on his right, deployed in a wood bordered by a stream.  Jon found some plastic horses in a box and couldn't help himself!

My Panthers and HQ would deploy in support of Alex's Volkssturm and SS Grenadiers, opposite the ponies.

Jon infiltrated the Cossacks and I used Bäke to recon-move the Panthers.  They wouls move to oppose the brightly-colored Communists.

On the other side my 2cm FlaK deployed to support Alex's SS, PaK40s, and Nebelwerfers.  Jon deployed a Rota company, pioneers, and Spetznaz, infiltrating the Rota.  2cm FlaK would move to counter the attack and protect the PaKs.

Jon presses the Cossacks forward, and tries to get around the Panthers.  Many of the ponies are cut down by MG fire.

Fire from the PaKs and 2cm FlaK would hurt the Rota bad, causing them to break and run on Turn Three.

The Cossacks would fail their attempt to flank the Volkssturm, losing more half of their number to the Panthers.  The Panthers continue to press their counter-attack.  

An assault by the Panthers on Turn Three would see the Cossacks flee.  The Spetznaz are also reduced to one stand.  Panthers consolidate backwards to wait and see where Jon's armor would arrive.

Jon's T-34/76 (proxy Shermans) company would arrive on the far right and put fire into the PaK40s, destroying one.  However, on our Turn Four I would luckly get my Tiger I platoon from reserve.  Not only were they double-aces with re-roll misses and 2+ motivation, but they arrived exactly where they were needed to counter the Soviet armor.  They would roll onto the board, onto the wooded hill, and knock-out one T-34, while Bailing one.  Other Bails were from the PaK40s.

The remaining Cossacks would fall-back to defend the Objective.  My Bergepanther would chase them down.  The remaining Spetznaz team fails it's Sole Survivor check.

The Panthers would make their push to the now very open Objective.  Alex's SS would assault a Soviet Pioneer company just off-camera to the right, and the panthers would assault the three teams from the Pioneers that were on this hill, destroying them all.

On Turn Five Jon would get his other armor on the board, all in the same location.  The Emcha company would arrive directly in front of the Tiger Is, losing five tanks to the accurate fire of 8.8cm guns.  On Turn Six he pushes their flank, but only gets one hit, which is bounced.  The T-34/76s and Spetznaz would continue concentrating on the PaK40s.

Jon would assault the Paks with his Spetznaz, knocking the platoon down to a single gun.  His T-34s go in for the assault as well, but fire from the gun and several SS Grenadiers would halt it, Bailing four tanks.

On Turn Seven Jon would get a Rota company from reserve on the left side.  They would save the Cossacks from the aggressive Bergepanther.  

Alex's SS Grenadiers would easily assault the Bailed Out T-34s, destroying five.

Jon attampted to sneak a company of Pioneers up the middle through woods, but the arrival of my 250/9s and fire from the 2cm FlaK would keep them at bay.  Alex's Wanze tried to get to the tank abttle, but couldn't get there before the game ended.

On our Turn Eight the Panthers would assault the Soviet Battalion 2iC in this building, destroying him and capturing the Objective.  The two remaining Cossack stands were too far away to contest.  

Jon did get his revenge on the Bergepanther, a flamethrower would end his wild ride.

This was a really fun game, Panthers and Tiger Is can still be nasty when the Su-100s stay home.  The Panthers were able to blunt the Cossacks' attempt to flank the Volkssturm, break through a thin line of Pioneers, and claim an Objective by smashing through a house.  Bäke would only miss one or two shots all game, those on the 2iC in the house.  They would also knock out a pair of T-34/85s that arrived late from Reserve.  The Tiger I platoon would destroy an Emcha company and five T-34/76s while holding the right flank.  Alex's SS Grendiers were constantly moving to either support his Volkssturm or assault Soviet Pioneers that were trying to sneak up the middle and divide our forces.  His PaK40s were also instrumental in holding the right flank against twenty tanks plus infantry.  

The Germans would take a 4-3 victory, losing the 2cm FlaK to long-range T-34/85 fire on Turn Seven, and the PaK40s in Jon's final turn to the Spetznaz.  Jon's poor luck with the location of his reserves really was the difference in the game.  If one unit had rolled a 4 or 5 for location, they could have defended the Objective I captured.  Thanks again to Jon for hosting us!

6MMRPC Week Seventeen: Skeleton Warriors WiP

In preparation for October I finished assembling these skeletons.  I wrote up a little side dungeon for my D&D group and these will be the main enemy in an abandoned keep in the hinterlands of the Sword Coast of Faerun.  One of them will be a leveled Big Bad at the end, the former officer in charge of the now cursed keep.  These have been partially constructed for months, but with the holiday coming it's time.

Skeletons are Challenge Rating 1/4 Undead, the leader will be a Challenge Rating 2 Undead.

These minis are really cool, I wanted the bits-of-rusted-armor look for them.  I think they're Kings of War from Mantic.

The officer.  These plastic minis came in multiple parts and let you swap arms, torsos, etc.  Options for weapons too.

October is almost here!