The Busy Wargamer

I was off work last week and despite a bit of a slow start, I got a lot done while I was off. I managed to get in a couple of Solo games, film them both for my YouTube Channel (the first will be posted for viewing on Friday) to get some painting completed and I've had a big reorganization of my room to make more space for some new terrain.

Wehrmacht Checkpoint

The latter items were prompted along by the fact that I wanted some of the pieces for my most recent Chain of Command game. In particular, I needed a German checkpoint with a gate and guard hut.

I bought these from Peter Pig a few weeks ago but I didn't get time to finish them for the Painting Challenge. The models are metal and very nicely cast so there was little work needed cleaning them up. The set comes with the Guard Hut, the swing bar gate, and the sandbag wall. There is also a small drum stove but I haven't painted that yet.

Polybian Romans

I have also been busily rebasing some of my 6mm ancients figures. Actually rebasing isn't exactly true, I have changed the size of the bases the figures are mounted on. Madness I hear you cry, and you'd be right. This picture shows the Hastati, Principes, and Triarii of my Polybian Roman army as there originally based (on the left) and the new compact basing I have moved towards on the right.

The Romans had a line exchange maneuver that allowed them to swap fresh troops into the front line and the To the Strongest! rules have a new way of representing this in the game. I still needed to be able to move the lines of troops forward and back but they are now a single deep unit and the original basing gave them a massive footprint on the table. By cutting the empty half of the base off, and placing the strips on a movement tray, I can swap the lines around as needed in a much more compact and visually pleasing way.

Solo Wargaming

As indicated in my introduction I have managed to get a couple of solo games completed and filmed for Battle Reports, the first of which will be on my YouTube Channel on Friday. Both games were exciting to play out and have reinvigorated my enthusiasm for solo games. I'm still looking forward to getting back in the Shed-o-War for face-to-face gaming, but that is still a few weeks away.

The Fictional Punic War game The Battle of Aquilla will be available to view on Friday.

..and the equally fictional Assault on Morris Battery (a Chain of Comand game) will be available to view next week.

And there's more!

In addition to solo wargaming, I'm currently hip-deep in two remote games that are more about overcoming the fog of war and command and control than pushing mental figures around the table.

The first game is a Seven Years War clash being organised by one of the Rejects. It's being managed via email and our job is to issue the orders with the mechanics and movement being handled remotely by the umpire.

 

The Battle of Stoliboz has been as much about fighting the fog of war as it has the enemy but everyone taking part is enjoying the game immensely. Check out the game updates on the Don't Throw a One blog if you want to know more.

The other game is with another group entirely (flirting with other gamers!). I was approached by a long-time reader of this blog and author of Vultures Wargaming Blog to join in a game of What a Tanker using WhatsApp to issue orders. We are still early in the game but it's been another excellent lesson in trying to see through the fog of war (literally!).

 

This is the grainy B&W Aerial Recon picture of the battlefield we all started the game with. It's littered with the wrecks of vehicles from earlier games and has been largely blanketed in early morning mist up till now. I'm one of the two Allied players and somewhere on this map the enemy is lurking.

The game is still at an early stage but it's been great fun so far. We get updates in the form of photo's from the tank commander's perspective so figuring out even where my co-player is has been a challenge.

I'm back at work this week so I expect things to slow down a little but the remote games will keep me busy for several weeks and I'm working on some more 6mm figures for ancient gaming, so keep your eye's peeled for updates on this next week.

Covering Fire Markers (and other things)

I seem to have had a burst of productivity in the last week and got quite a lot of little projects completed in a relatively short period. I'm really enjoying getting into the Chain of Command rules and have been working on various projects to expand my options in the Normandy / NW Europe Theatre of WWII. I will be buying some new troops - possibly to work on in the next Analogue Hobbies painting Challenge which starts in December - but for the time being, I decided I needed some extra terrain.  

Last weeks Chain of Command game (Sgt O'Reillys Charge) made me realise that I needed to get some covering fire markers to show when an area of cover is being targeted. I did find some commercial markers (by Likto) but they were already expensive before applying international postage so I decided to make my own instead. In all likelihood, there may only be one or two areas being targeted in this way in the average game but I made enough to allow for covering fire from three whole squads (each covering 9" of terrain). That should be ample, but to be honest, they were so easy to make I could knock up more quite quickly if needed. 

My base material was the humble lolly stick, cut into roughly 2" lengths. I then sanded the ends and corners to make them smooth. Using a Dremmel I drilled a series of shallow bullet holes in each piece and then base coated in Flat Earth (983). The ground was then dry brushed with Reflective Green (890) and Olive Green (967). I then went back and dabbed in some black to emphasise the bullet sholes using a fine nibbed art pen. The last step was a little flat earth around the bullet holes. When all of this was dry the usual Gloss then Matt varnishes were applied. The whole thing took about half an hour to make and paint and another hour for the varnishing. 

The next big job following the game was to work on expanding the existing Index from the rulebook. The rules are brilliant and necessarily detailed but the index for finding them isn't as good. I had a mare of a time trying to find the rules on covering fire for instance. I knew I'd read them but couldn't locate them in the book when I needed to check the wording. Thankfully I never had to do the index because Dick Bryant (of Kingston Irregulars) came to my rescue, offering to share an index he had. It's saved me several hours of work and has made navigating the rulebook a whole lot easier! 

With a considerable amount of time saved, I decided to make some progress on a few terrain items that I wanted to finish. First I bought a cheap MDF ruined building online which needed painting and assembling. It turned out the reason it was so cheap was that the laser cutting wasn't as precise as it could have been and required some on-the-job alterations to fit together. Considering it never came with any build instructions I don't think I did a bad job. I added some extra detail with rubble and weeds building up in the corners of the ruin and the end result is a very useful bit of terrain for CoC games. Slightly less challenging was painting a new set of field walls to match the ones I have already and rebasing some very cheap trees I found on eBay. The latter aren't brilliant quality (they were a bit top-heavy for a start), but at just a couple of quid for eight trees, I couldn't ignore them. I rebased the trees on some metal washers and after adding some turf and tufts they look a little better... and crucially they stand up now! 

The next project is already underway, with the arrival of some vehicles from Skytrex. I haven't bought stuff from this company in years and I'd forgotten how nice their models are. I'm currently prepping a Panzer III M and an Sdkfz 222 Armoured Car for the Germans, and an M20 Utility Vehicle and an M5 Light Tank for the Americans. I'm taking my time with these so expect to see them 'revealed' over the next few weeks. 

Jump Off Points for Chain of Command

I've been working away on several projects over the last week but the only thing I have completed is a set of homemade Jump off points for Chain of Command. These were constructed from some of the bits leftover from various kits over the years. I never throw away any stowage items that don't get used so I have a bit of a collection and at last I have a use for them. 

I need to make a few more but I have run out of the right size barrels. I have some plastic ones that are a little bit large, but the size difference probably won't even be noticeable if I don't put them alongside the correct ones. I have also been painting up some Peter Pig US infantry but these are still undergoing the varnish stage so they won't be finished until later in the week. 

Rebasing WW2 US Infantry for CoC

Many of us employ the phrase "a wargames butterfly" when describing our gaming interests. I'm realising that also applies to me, now more than ever, as I have recently purchased Chain of Command by the Too Fat Lardies. This isn't the first TfL games I have used - the other being What a Tanker - and indeed the first in some ways influenced the choice of the second. I have an abiding interest in the Normandy campaign and I have a lot of 15mm terrain for this Theatre, so it made sense to utilise it for two rulesets rather than just one. I am also a growing fan of the Lardies rules so when choosing a suitable infantry ruleset for the period I started by giving serious consideration (and eventually picking) of Chain of Command. 

Now I have a bit of a head start in the project aided by the fact that I used to play Flames of War for the same period and theatre of war. I sort of fell out of love with that ruleset, and I sold much of my figure collection (something I regret bitterly) but I still had some figures in storage. I dug them out recently and was inspired to re-use the models for a different game. The result has been a week of intense rebasing from teams to individual basing suitable for CoC. I've completed my US troops and later this week I will be starting on some Panzergrenadiers. Hopefully, I will be able to start playtesting the rules to learn them within just a few weeks of buying the rulebook.

Some of the US Infantry based for Flames of War. These and others were earmarked for rebasing. I had more than enough figures to make a Platoon for CoC but decided to rebase them all. 

First I needed to remove them from their bases. The plaster I had used broke away fairly easily and it was then easy to get the metal figures off the plastic base.

Once I had cleaned up the metal base of the figure I had to decide how to rebase them. In the end, I decided on individual infantry on 10mm round bases. Leaders on 15mm bases and weapons teams (or at least part of them) on 20mm bases. 

Here's the 60mm Mortar team with five crew. Two crew are based with the mortar on a 20mm base and the rest of the team are based individually. 

With the figures glued onto the MDF bases, the long process of adding new plaster began. I have run out of the dark wood filler I normally use (more is now on the way, so I used a medium brown version. This wood filler is pre-mixed, is easy to work with a wet brush and dries quickly. 

All the exposed 'earth' was painted dark brown (the colour my normal plaster comes in!). 

The final stage, application of static grass, tufts, flowers and stones. 

The finished Platoon

The HQ and HQ Squad with a Bazooka Team

One of two infantry squads

One of two MG Teams

The whole platoon -  There are a lot of spare figures not in this shot, enough to make an additional squad for support if necessary. 

Next on the table for rebasing are some Panzergrenadiers. Once I have these done I can start some playtesting to help me learn the rules. I'm hoping that by the time the German figures are rebased I will have received delivery of some new figures from Peter Pig (some support options for the US troops) but more on that in a later post.