28mm WWII: German Reinforcements

Last year I picked up several packages of Crusader WWII Germans in 28mm.  It is a good thing that I did, as the Crusader line is no longer carried in the US and the price to get them from the UK is ridiculous.  I made another order in December last year, but those were for Russians.  I got this batch around October with the intent of beefing up my anemic model count of Germans.  Now I can put a full strength platoon with command onto the table.

I've had the itch to paint recently, but no idea what to work on.  I feel adrift, in between projects.  My time is so limited now with new responsibilities at work, I have to ensure I'm working on something I really want as well as something where I can see results fast.  Filling in gaps in my WWII Germans fit that bill.

Here are twenty more soldiers, with LMG teams and leader models.  I just pushed them together on my painting table and snapped a photo.

They came out nicely, even better than my original paints.  I guess repetition has improved my technique with these models.  I added a few more support options as well.  Here's pack of German Engineers.

I imagine the flamethrower might see table time.  The other three are good models for scenario play or fill ins for other roles.  I'm not even sure what the guy on the left is doing.  Maybe it's a flare gun?

I also added in another machine gun team, just so I could field more than one.  This time, I mounted them all on a single base rather than keep the spotter separate.

There you have it.  I'll have to find another line that mixes well with Crusader models if I want to add any more. For now, I have more than enough for the games I've been playing.

Gathering in the Desert 2012

I attended the 5th annual Gathering in the Desert (GitD) this weekend.  This is one of the best gaming tournaments you'll ever attend.  It's two days of Lord of the Rings gaming on some incredible tables. The scenarios are fun and the competition is tough but friendly.  I'm lucky to have this event happening right in my backyard.  We have people come from all over the country to participate.

Well, despite having a camera phone in my pocket the entire time, I took exactly no pictures (unless you count the picture I accidentally took of my nostrils while messing with my phone).  I attribute the lack of pictures, honestly, to the fun I was having and the concentration on my games.  I never thought of photography.  Keep an eye on the blog link above, and I'm sure Tim will have pictures posted.

Overall, I came in 8th place.  That's the best I've ever done.  I played a 600 pt force of Far Harad supported by Corsairs with spears.  They are a "one trick pony" style of army.  When I can pull off the trick, they perform fantastically.  Otherwise, they don't do so well.  They can, however, get punched in the face for a while.  That's why I had so many drawn games.  I tallied up three draws, one major victory, and one minor loss.  I did solidly in sportsmanship (I didn't swear or throw any punches) and appearance (wore fresh clothes each day), which helped cement my spot in the top ten. Not having some serious out of town competition around also let some of us mid-listers float up a bit this year.

With the changes in the new books, this was probably my Far Harad army's last ride.  I'm OK with that, as I'm tired of it at this point.  I want something different.  Let's review the games that formed their farewell tour.


Game One:  This was "The Artifact" scenario played on the Osgiliath table.  I faced High Elves.  This is a modified "Seize the Prize" scenario from the Legions of Middle Earth book. I had to dig up and carry the artifact off the enemy table edge.  My army got the artifact first, and the Elves sealed off every avenue to their table edge while I did that.  A huge brawl ensued and in the end my army broke and the Mahud King died.  He dropped the artifact and the Elves picked it up.  But time was called, and it was only a draw.  Whew!

Game Two: This was a straight up game of Domination on the Balin's Tomb table.  If you followed the above link you'll see the board and think that it's wide open. Believe me when I say that's an optical illusion.  There's very little LOS on that board.  I played it last year too; so I speak from hard experience.

I faced Gimli and his Dwarf buddies.  I unwisely tried to contest three points and ended up having to concede one and try to shore up my other two holdings.  I was able to retreat because the Dwarfs move slow.  But I had to feed them troops to allow me to do so.  That was all wasted resources.  When time was called, we ended in a draw.  That was a hard game.

Game Three: This was "The Emissary" which is a modified "Storm the Camp."  We each had to escort an emissary into the enemy's camp.  I faced Dol Amroth and Prince Imirhil on the so-called generic table #2.  It was basically both our lines clashing together and doing a meat grinder.  My opponent expected to walk through me like a revolving door.  But Far Harad excels at busting up stuff in close combat.  We fought to a standstill. The Far Harad broke and so did Dol Amroth.  A random die roll ended the game at that point, and so I got my third draw.  In all honesty, if we continued I had a serious risk of losing due to low courage.

Game Four: This was played on day two of the event.  We started with "Bilbo's Treasure."  I faced an Arnor list on the generic table #1.  There are five treasure markers on the table.  You randomly determine which number marker is going to be the treasure.  Then whoever gets to the marker first flips it and sees if they have the treasure.  I got to three markers after a few turns of movement.  It ended up being in my possession and right at the table edge.  I had two guys rush it off the table for a major victory.

But we still had two hours to play.  So we just continued on with a "kill 'em all" scenario where we fought to 25% forces remaining.  Arnor and their dwarf allies put up a great fight.  But Far Harad was in good form for this "fake game" and ripped Arnor into bits.  I felt bad dealing a horrible defeat twice, but we were just killing time.  The men of Arnor would be avenged during.......

Game Five: The final game of the tournament proved to be the most suspenseful of all my games. I played on the incredibly modeled Prancing Pony table.  I faced 59 Woses (Wildmen of Druadan), all with spears and blowpipes.  These were not the shitty Harad blowpipes that are move OR shoot.  These allowed a half move to shoot.  The scenario was "Head of the Snake," which meant my Mahud King had to kill the Woses leader Ghan-buri-ghan in combat to get a major victory.  This wouldn't be so bad but for Radagast floating around the back ranks casting Aura of Dismay and also Transfixing my tough guys.

Well, the Woses lined up a firing line and I dutifully walked into 30+ blowgun darts for three turns.  He couldn't always get all 59 blowguns on me at once, but managed quite a bit.  At first I doubted S2 blowguns would be much to worry about at D5/6 on the Mahud.  But the Woses player was rolling hot and I saw 6 after 6 after 6 come up.  By the time I got to the line, 16 of my men were dead and almost all were Mahud.  I had 5 left to break point.  It was fucking brutal!  I thought the game was done.

But my opponent had miscalculated my Mahud King's wounds, thinking he had already dealt one to me.  So we ended up in a dance with Ghan-buri-ghan and the King each seeking advantage.  There was a lot of nail biting at this point, and I'm not doing the tension any justice in this write up.  In the end, Radagast was out of gas and my King got on Ghan-buri-ghan and slammed four S5 attacks on his naked ass.  He only did two wounds and GBG rolled his Fate to save one.  Then the Mahud hit the break point.

The Mahud King failed courage spectacularly and left.  While I would've thought that to be a draw, since GBG didn't kill him, it was ruled as a kill for the Woses.  I ended up with a minor loss.  It really came to that last Fate roll of GBG.  Despite the loss, it was probably the most satisfying game I played in a while, coming from almost total loss to a real chance to win.  Oh and for what it's worth, when the surviving Mahud and Corsairs hit the Woses line, they tore them to shreds.  So it didn't feel too bad!

So overall it was a great two days.  I thought I'd be tired of LotR but just like last year this event reinvigorated my enthusiasm for the game.  While the new army books have screwed some armies, others got a nice boost.  It's time for me to do something different in LotR.  I tried Elves and detested their pansy play style.  I'm thinking Orcs and lots of monsters.  I want big monsters and ugly evil for my next list.  That's where I'll be headed when my gaming group is ready to pick up LotR again.

Hammer and Anvil Book Review

Hammer and Anvil by James Swallow

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


I enjoyed this book, though not as much as the first one in the series. We get to see characters from the first book appear again in this one.  While that's nice, they remained the same characters they were in the first book.  You would think their experiences would have changed them.  The plot was much like the first book, also. None of that was really a deal-breaker for me. 

My largest complaint is that subplot threads were introduced and never tied off or even developed. I don't want to reveal the story; so I won't mention what those were.  But keep your eyes open and you will see that some things promised at the start were not delivered at the end.

Overall, I can recommend this story as a fun, light read.  If you enjoy the Warhammer 40,000 universe and the Sisters of Battle in particular, you won't be disappointed.  I particularly enjoyed the Necrons, the Terminator-style of enemy in this book.  Getting to see the Necrons up close was enjoyable.



View all my reviews

Elves of Another Kind

This week I finally took the plunge into my bag of unpainted lead and came up with a ton of Reaper miniatures that I've been intending to paint.  These models were to be my Elven warband for Song of Blades and Heroes.  I was originally going to model them after World of Warcraft's Silverwing Sentinels.  The Sentinels are supposed to have all female Elves as their warriors.  But that was about as far as I got. Once I realized how much conversion would be needed to make them look like "WoW standard" I gave up the idea.

Despite the number of figures I painted this week, it really was not too difficult to complete.  I kept to basic color schemes an kept the word "forest" in mind as I worked.  That solved most color choice problems.  The rest was just slinging paint.  Here's what I got done.

These are both female, but not sure if they're Elves.  The left one is a ranger type, while the other is an obvious rogue.  I kept the rogue in really dark colors, since she's supposedly stealthy. I gave her an accent of dark green to tie her into the rest of the elves. You can't see it too well in this picture.

Here are a couple of Brittany Spears wanna-be elves.  The left is a Pathfinder mini and the right is from Warlord.  These two lines scale well together, at least for elves.  But the Dark Heavens models don't fit so well.

Another Ranger type to the left, while the elf on the right is the closest I came to World of Warcraft types.  She closely resembles a Blood Elf, though lacks the gigantic ears.  I know Blood Elves have nothing to do with Silverwing Sentinels.  But at this point I didn't care.

So here's something different.  I picked the model on the left because of her gigantic chest.  Is that wrong?  I thought I could work her into the list as a forest nymph or fauna of sorts. She is supposed to be a Hellborn warrior, according to Reaper.  Next to her is the standard caster elf.  I really liked the way she came out.  I also picked different colors to break up the incessant green of everything else.

On the left we have the iconic rogue figure from the Pathfinder line.  Next to her is the only "dude" in the group.  I picked this model because I really liked the way it looked.  You can't see it at this angle, but he wearing chain mail under his surcoat. 

Back when I thought this was going to be a Silverwing Sentinel force, I picked up this model to make a Frostsaber tiger.  I still liked it enough to include it as a part of the list.  It will pair nicely with one of the bow armed models.

That's what I got painted this week.  There are a few other models for this SBH list that I painted earlier but didn't document. Now I present those below.

 The left model is from the Warlord line, a paladin type.  She's human and doesn't really fit the warband theme.  I liked the pose, though, so I got it anyway.  The right model is another elf.  I painted her clothing in very light tans and beige colors.  It almost looks like she's wearing nothing.  But she does actually have some clothes, more like lingerie really.

Finally, I picked up an Avatars of War vampiress model to lead my undead warband.  I painted this one a while ago, too.  Despite the awesome look of the model online, I was unimpressed with what I actually got.  There was a disfiguring mold line or some sort of defect that ruined her face.  She does not scale well with any of my other models.  It was just a huge disappointment.  I painted her anyway, and tried to do what I could with her ruined face.  Overall, it's not too bad; but the scale problem is so obvious that I can't really use the model.

That's all for now.  I really love painting these Reaper minis.  I love fantasy more than any other genre, and working on these models has me wishing I had more.  I do have some centaurs I picked up to go with the elves.  Maybe I'll work on those next.

Finishng Up With the Sisters of Battle

This week was my "mop up" campaign with the Sisters of Battle.  I managed to snag a few more deals on eBay about a month ago.  I wanted to get these off the painting table and be done with them.  I'm still flush with "New Year's Resolution Fervor" and plan to stick to the goal of keeping down the count of unpainted miniatures I acquire this year.

Without further ado, here's what I've got.

I spotted this pair of Stormbolter Sisters on eBay as a buy one get on free special.  Couldn't walk away from that.  Too bad they're the same pose.  But I've given up on pose variety for this SoB force.

 I added another Veteran Superior so that I can now have three squads of ten or so Sisters each.  I also found a Heavy Bolter Sister.  I'm not sure how good one is on her own.... but what the heck!

Here come the flag wavers.  These were both donated by Tim over at Cursed Treasures.  I have to make a flag for the actual standard bearer.  That's a project for another day, like when I actually might need that.

 At last here's my helpful Sister Hospitaller.  You can't really see it in this picture, but I painted eyebrows on her.  I have a pet peeve with figure painters who brush in these enormous, over-sized eyes on their models but fail to put on eyebrows. The Hospitaller shown on the GW site is expertly painted, but the poor girl had her eyebrows shaved off.  Why?  Some day take a look at a person at a distance.  The person's eyes are nothing more than dots with no details visible at all.  Why paint your minis with more detail than you could actually see?  It not only makes eyes disproportionate but also makes the model look like it suffers from Graves Disease.  Figures look better, in my opinion, with small understated dots in proportionately sized whites.

Well, that was a digression.  I feel better now.  Here's the picture.

That's all for now.  My mind is wandering to other things, having now thoroughly scratched my itch to collect and paint some Sisters of Battle.  At some future point, I'd like to add some Repentia for flavor, and maybe a Rhino or Immolator.  With the next edition of 40K sure to be a topic of hot debate and intense dislike, I bet these girls won't even hit the table.... at least in a 40K game. 

Sisters of Battle Seraphim

Toward the end of last year I picked up a bunch of Sisters of Battle Seraphim models from eBay and Chaos Orc Superstore.  While still expensive, this collection came in at half price!  Some of the models had paint or missing parts.  I was able to fix all that, thankfully.  My only complaint, if I can call it that, is that I ended up with two squads of five rather than one squad of ten. The lots I got both had Veteran Superiors, meaning I had either enough models for two squads of five, or one squad of nine with a throw-away.  It's not a big deal, especially since they probably will never see a game of 40K anyway!

Here's a close up of a Veteran Superior (with power sword) and a Seraphim with two hand flamers.  The Vet Superior didn't have anything to attach the model to the base.  I had to use brass rods to mount the model.  It actually looks better than the others.  If I were more ambitions, I'd have done all ten that way.

The following shots show one squad, and then the two squads together.

Again, besides the great background stories of the Sisters, what attracts me to this army are the awesome sculpts. If I had to complain, it just seems there's a severe shortage of poses for these Seraphim.  There's only two poses in my ten models.  It might just be the luck of the draw.

I have a few more Sisters of Battle to do. A friend of mine donated two more and I have two Sisters with Stormbolters and one with a Heavy Bolter.  I picked up a Hospitaller model as well.  She'll be my medic when I use these models for 5150.

After I complete these, it will be time to move on to something else.

2012 Focus and Some Predictions

I thought it would be interesting to jot down what I want to focus on and what I think might happen in the gaming world this year.  At least it would be interesting to me.  I'll check back here at the end of the year and see what actually happened.  Wow, my first year long project!

Adjusting the Focus
Last year was the "Year of Unpainted Lead".  I produced a lot, but also bought a lot and didn't do anything with it.  That is the total bane of my existence.  Unpainted models are my kryptonite.  They sit in my painting room, emanating their weakening force on me.  Before long I'm laying on the floor, clutching my head and screaming.  So I want to get back to my happy space in 2012, completing a project before buying a slew of models for the next "big thing."

Well, that was relatively painless.  I think it's good to select a single focus and work on that.  But here are a few other things I want to get done in 2012.

• Dust Tactics: I really liked this game and the models.  I want to get these painted and play more games. I hope to expand my collection too.
• Terrain: I did more terrain last year than I expected.  But this year, I want to add more and varied pieces to my collection.
• WWII in 28mm: I've put this aside for a while.  I expect it will pick up again for me this year.
• Warmachine/Hordes: I've been saying I love those models and want to collect them again.  Let's see if I can make that happen.  Maybe I can even play a game.
• 15mm: This scale is appealing for solo gaming and even non-solo games.  Some friends are considering HOTT this year, and I want in on that.  Terrain becomes a slight problem, as I don't have any buildings or trees at that scale. But storage and cost is delightful.
• Skirmish Games: I'm almost cheating by putting this here.  I'm not really entertaining the "big game" anymore, with exception of maybe HOTT. 

  Now as for predictions, well, I'm sorry to have strung you along this far only to reveal that I don't have any great insight into the gaming world of tomorrow.  I know, it's just like that scene from the Wizard of Oz.  But let me share my hunches, seeing how you worked your way this far down the post.

• The new edition of Warhammer 40,000 will totally ruin the game and render it unplayable under any circumstances whatsoever.  You'll never play it again.  Evah!
• The new 40K rulebook will be about 10 pages of rules and 380 pages of fluff and painting instructions. Someone will drop the new rulebook on his foot, crushing it, and sue GW for an undisclosed amount.  As a result, model prices will be increased.
• The new Hobbit movie will rekindle interest in the LotR SBG.  This will hopefully result in more models and updated or reissued rulebooks.  It will hopefully also result in a shorter name, like "The Hobbit Game".
• The update to LotR SBG will totally ruin the game and render it unplayable under any circumstances whatsoever.  You'll never play it again.  Evah!

That's it.  We'll see if the results of my vision quest to bring you 2012 predictions holds any water come December.  Have a great 2012 everyone!