Its Hammer Time!

Mt Maunganui Club - great venue!

Back in June I headed down to Tauranga with some old friends to play some Warhammer. I haven't played for something like five years and I have a bunch of armies gathering dust and I keep finding excuses to not play. Luckily for me NiCon (North Island Convention) did not have a Flames Of War or Warmachine event, so with no excuses left I had to dig out a 'Hammer army.

A quick read of the 8th Edition rules revealed that GW had done a nice job of tidying up a few things, streamlined a few more, and added a bit more randomness with the changes to charges and movement (and removed the guess from guess weapons... now I wish I had stone throwers for my Dwarves). Taking a step back from any internet based preconceptions I'd picked up over the preceeding years I really liked the look of the rules and I can honestly say I was excited to give them a go.

My two gaming buddies for the weekend (Reid and Mike) are long time friends and 'Hammer players. We have spent a lot of time road tripping round New Zealand and flying over to Australia for conventions "back in the day" so it was great to get the band back together. Of course a lot of the meta discussion over the weekend was above my head but it was fun to get back in to the groove.

I wanted to keep the weekend fairly low stress and thought that the easiest option was to take my Savage Orcs. They are so random I could not be grumpy when I made stupid mistakes and instead I could just focus on the fun of just playing. After a few internal debates I settled on:
Savage Orc Shaman (lvl4)
Big Orc BSB
Savage Orc Shaman (lvl2)
Night Goblin Shaman (lvl2)
24x Savage Orcs
25x Savage Orcs
23x Big 'Uns
5x Spider Riders
20x Night Goblins with Fanatics
20x Night Goblins with Fanatics
20x Night Goblins with Fanatics
2x Goblin Wolf Chariots
2x Goblin Spear Chukka
2x Snotling Pump Wagons
2x Mangler Squigs
Giant

I wont go into any depth about the games (frankly because I cannot recall them in much detail anymore) but I had a great time, played some people I have not played in a long time, used some figures that have not seen daylight in even longer and had a "lads weekend". 

Tall gaming tables! These are amazing to play on because by the end of the weekend you don't feel like your back has been beaten up by Mike Tyson!

The only thing I had a bit of a niggle with (in hindsight) was the ETC scoring system. If I was a serious competitor going for a tournament win there were a couple of games where I would have been better off bunkering up behind a hill and just not engaging my opponent to force a 10-10 draw. It just seemed odd to me because in the past (when I took it all pretty seriously!) if I had been trying to win a 'Hammer event I would be going hard to crush my opponents, knowing that I would need 17-3 or 20-0 results in most, if not all games to take out the top spot... 

So, without much further ado here are some deployment photos from each round and a very short synopsis...

Round 1: Blair was running what looked like a fairly cav heavy Empire army with a STank. He did a great job of drawing out my fanatics then throwing in Cavalry charges, whilst showing me that the Version 8 Tank is pretty awesome. If my Empire are coming out of the carry case I'll need a tank and Demigryph Knights for sure!.... and some Light Wizards since I hear they are pretty legit. 10-10 draw.

Round 2: Will had (what I am assuming anyway) a fairly standard VC build. Lots of casters to rebuild units, Terrorgeist and a wall of various flavours of flesh. He was feeling under all sorts of pressure early on but I knew that he already had the upper hand. Once he beat the frenzy out of me he rolled up the line cleaning out units hand over fist. 19-1 to Will.

Round 3: Playing against my road trip buddy Mike I knew I was in some trouble as he is still a pretty serious Warhammer player and gets in a lot of games against quality opponents. I foolishly thought I had the upper hand until his Doombull started to power up and started cleaving through my entire army. 17-3 to Mike

Round 4: Ken is a Kiwi, working in Australia, who comes back for Warhammer and FOW events every now and then. I'd never played him before but I'd seen him round. Round 4 was in the evening and I was shattered (too much thinking during the day) and his list was a Dwarven gun line with all the toys. My Dwarves come across the pitch to "get some!" and I knew that walking into a wall of enemy gunfire was not going to be too fun. Bit embarrassed to admit it but I bunkered up, we killed a few things and that was the end of that. I was happy with a 10-10 draw and back to the motel for pizza, drinks and watching some rugby!

Round 5: Dave and his son and a mirror match with two OG armies, although he had a massive Black Orc unit and big mob of Trolls whereas I had 75 Savage Orcs. Turns out Trolls are not as terrible as they once were! We piece traded for a little while, had a good fight over on the near flank as his Trolls gave a good accounting for themselves but it was all over without too many dead on the field. 11-9 to Dave

Round 6: Bobby is an old school gamer and since I have not been playing any Warhammer I have not seen a lot of him, so it was good to have a final round battle to end the weekend on a high. He was running a massive (and beautifully painted) Empire foot army. We had a good old fashioned stand up fight where the resiliance of the Orcs eventually won the day (narrowly) with a couple of his key units (Knights and Greatswords) getting mauled by Manglers and  sliced by Choppers. 12-8 to me.

I don't actually remember (nor do I care) where I came in the standings at the end. The only thing that mattered was that I had a great time and actually contemplated dusting off my Warhammer armies for some more outings. Of course I'll need to work out how I am going to fit that in... The OGs performed well and any faults were certainly the cause of their general and whilst they will never be a Tier 1 army they are great fun and the "new" army book for them is a nice improvement over the previous edition(s). Part of me is keen to get my Chaos Warriors or Daemons out but there was something fun about the low stress option. Time will tell what comes out of the cupboard for my next WHFB adventure.

JDS Kashima (TV-3508) in Port

Not every day you see a Japanese Defence Force Warship docked in the Auckland harbour where the Cruise Ships normally dock. According to Wikipedia: JDS Kashima (TV-3508) is a training ship of the Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force (JMSDF). Built to a unique design during the mid-1990s, Kashima is flagship of the JMSDF Training Fleet. The name Kashima comes from the famous Shinto Kashima Shrine in Ibaraki prefecture, located to the northeast of Tokyo. (so now you know!)

Full article...

And if you cannot guess I like Warships almost as much as I like tanks!

I'm Back... and I've been busy!

I've been a bit slack (I say that a lot) on the blog front over the past few months. Between work, home, hobby time... and some World of Tanks I have found it difficult to get act together.

Hopefully over the next few weeks I am going to get caught up as I have a pile of photos on my camera and a quickly fading memory of what I have been up to over the past few months. But to help jog my memory here is the short version:

• June - The Tauranga Open Warhammer Tournament with my Orcs and Goblins.
• July - Panzerschreck Flames Of War Doubles Tournament in Palmerston North with Jagdtigers and friends.
• August - no tournament but a lot of painting for a web Dust Battle Report (my intro, part 1, part 2).
• September - Lords of Ruin Warmachine Tournament in Wellington with pMorvahna.
• September - Wayne-Con - the Battlefront Staff Early War Tournament and my French infantry.
• October - FlamesCon (okay so this one has not been yet but I am painting for it...).
• And... we have been playing quite a bit of X-Wing at lunch recently.

First up will be the Tauranga Open and my first Warhammer game in probably five years, but in the meantime here are a few photos from the past couple of months...

Tauranga Open - high tables, no post event sore back!

Stopping at the Army Museum on the way to Panzerschreck

Road tripping in the big van to Palmerston North

Sean Lincoln (Lords Of Ruin organiser) and some seriously cool trophies!

Work in progress Somua tanks for FlamesCon

SSU 179th Steel Guards Battalion

I managed to get the first 100 points of my Steel Guard army finished prior to my big game with Victor for the Dust website. Really happy with how they turned out! Now to finish my captured Ludwig and a few other bits and pieces and I'll be at 150 points before I know it.

The 100 points for our battle

HQ section and Snipers

Matrioshka

Assault Squads

Fakyeli

A close up of my basing

The whole army with some special effects....

Dust Battlefield: Victor (Axis) vs. Chris (SSU)

Victor and I are getting ready for a big face-off...

We have been painting up our 100 point Dust armies over the past few months and now it is time for us to throw down... I am expecting that his Wotan will be declared "man of the match" as it racks up the kills! I have one week left to finish painting my 100 points (Victor is already done) so we can get the Battle Report played next week, and up on the Dust website the following week.

Stay tuned for more developments!

Jagdtigers: the biggest of all the cats!

I’ve been thinking a lot about Jagdtigers over the past few months thanks to the development work on Nuts and Bridge At Remagen and have been quietly putting aside figures to paint up as I play around with some list options. I’ve written an article on the Flames Of War site that talks about some of the various strengths of Carrius’ 512. Schwere Panzerjagerkompanie as I see it so I won’t revisit too much, other than to talk about some of the options that I am either painting up currently, or have put aside to work on as time permits!

Carrius and the Jagdtigers
I’ve painted up six Jagdtigers and although I still have a little finishing work to do - Carrius’ tank needs to have the extra crew figures added to help him stand out on the table top, and I might add some foliage to the tanks – but they are all ready for the battlefield. My thoughts for doing six were simple…. Flexibility! I can run four tanks as a support platoon, I can play a big game

where I put 1605 points of Jagdtigers, or I can run a smaller company with plenty of support. Carrius will generally be taking to the role of “super cool Company Commander model”, rather than being the Carrius himself, but if I have the points I think he is an easy choice to include.

Weapons Platoons
Whilst I have not gotten around to assembling my Wirbelwinds or Ostwinds, they are definitely on the plan somewhere! After all every Late War list these days has them in some shape or form so painting them just makes sense. Plus I’ve used Sd Kfz 7/1 AA vehicles in the past as aggressive infantry hunters and assuming the enemies AT is busy they are great value. I really like the idea of the Panzer Scout Platoon as that gives you a pile of machine-guns to mow down infantry, then combine a smoke bombardment from some Nebelwerfers and you can probably get off an Assault with their Mounted Assault rules.

Armoured Support 
In the short term I am planning on running my Jagdtigers as the Reluctant Trained 2. Kompanie so I won’t need to paint any StuGs or Panzer IV Js, and I have some Tigers from my Panzer Ausbildungs Abteilung 500 that I can use, should I feel like adding them.

Infantry Support
I think you are setting yourself up for disaster by not running some infantry with the big cats. At Panzerschreck 2014 (more on this in a later post) I had 3 platoons of infantry supporting and

screening my Jagdtigers and they were great. A single platoon can effectively deny enemy tanks the ability to easily get around your flanks and given that this is the only way they are going to kill you it seems like common sense to stop them. I have my Panzer Ausbildungs Abteilung 500 infantry that will work nicely as either Panzergrenadiers (just need to paint up some plastic 251s) or Volksgrenadiers. I love the new Volkssturm infantry, I just need to come up with a cunning plan to get a platoon painted (and convince Mike that we need a “Volkssturm Kompanie”).

Artillery Support

I’ve painted up my Nebelwerfer platoon as that was all I could fit in my Panzerschreck army – plus no one ever regretted having a battery of 15cm Nebels. I did run a little short on time so I only have the first 3 launchers finished but I definitely think it is worth making the time to finish the entire Battery. My plan is to also paint up the 30cm Nebelwerfers as well because I think they are just so cool! I was thinking about making them appear as though they are about to fire so not having many crew on the base – it will also make them quick to do! Not sure that the Trained rating makes them worth it in game terms, but I come back to their coolness and the fact that if you fail your save… bye bye!

The other options that I have stashed aside to paint are the PaK40s and 15cm guns. Not sure which to work on first as they are competing with the Nebelwerfers in terms of what you can field in the army. Either way though they are good support options for almost any army and I’ve found that if you are outnumbered by enemy tanks, or if they are Veteran (and you are therefore likely to miss) you can find yourself swarmed and they are both add to your direct fire capabilities.

Anti-Aircraft Support 
Once again I am heading back to my Panzer Ausbildungs Abteilung 500 to leverage some already painted troops and using the 3.7cm FlaK. I’ve already painted up a battery of three guns and plan to do another three as their extra range and AT wins out over the higher ROF of

the Quad 2cm. I’m not planning on doing any 88s in the near future, but it is on my “must do some time plan” – after all you cannot go wrong with some 88s in Late War! Plus I really want to do a Kampfgruppe von Swoboda at some point and you need many many many 88s for that!

The lists!These are the lists that I am currently playing around with.

945 points – Panzerschreck 2014 (my teams partner "borrowed"the extra 55 points)

512. Schwere Panzerjagerkompanie HQ
Jagdtiger	x1	270 points
512. Schwere Panzerjager Platoons
Jagdtiger	x1	270 points
Jagdtiger	x1	270 points
Volks Rocket Launcher Battery
15cm NW41 Launchers	x3	70 points
Light Anti-aircraft Gun Battery
3.7cm FlaK43	x3	65 points

1500 points

512. Schwere Panzerjagerkompanie HQ
Jagdtiger	x1	270 points
512. Schwere Panzerjager Platoons
Jagdtiger	x1	270 points
Jagdtiger	x1	270 points
512. Panzer Anti-aircraft Platoon
Wirbelwind	x4	150 points
Volksgrenadier Platoon (Reluctant Trained)
Full strength with Panzerschreck team		180 points
Volks Light Artillery Battery (Reluctant Veteran)
7.5cm FK40 (PaK40) guns	x6	295 points
Light Anti-aircraft Gun Battery
3.7cm FlaK43	x3	65 points

1750 points

512. Schwere Panzerjagerkompanie HQ
Jagdtiger	x1	270 points
512. Schwere Panzerjager Platoons
Jagdtiger	x2	535 points
Jagdtiger	x1	270 points
512. Panzer Anti-aircraft Platoon
Wirbelwind	x3	110 points
Volkssturm Platoon
Full strength		105 points
Volksgrenadier Platoon (Reluctant Trained)
Full strength with Panzerschreck team		180 points
Volks Rocket Launcher Battery
15cm NW41 Launchers	x6	135 points
Light Anti-aircraft Gun Battery
3.7cm FlaK43	x3	125 points

Hopefully you can see you are not short of options even though your Jagdtigers can take up quite a few points. It really is just a case of picking some lists and giving them a go!

Otto Carrius and his Jagdtiger Company

For a quick update I thought I would post the army that I took to Panzerschreck with Mike Haycock, along with the few extra bits and pieces I've painted up for the 512. Schwere Panzerjagerkompanie that I have been working on. I'll have a full event report (of sorts) up over the weekend but hopefully this will suffice for now.

The Panzerchreck 2014 Army

Carrius in his Jagdtiger (left) along with the 2iC. I still need to paint up some extra crew for Carrius' vehicle...

First Platoon of Jagdtigers

Second Platoon of Jagdtigers

15cm Nebelwerfer Battery

Nebelwerfer Command and OP team

Close up of one of the Nebelwerfers

Israeli Air Support!

I feel like I’ve been a bit quiet on the blog recently, mainly because I have not really gotten anything finished…. My Jagdtigers have been slowly pushing along the painting front with the 3 colour camo applied and pin washed, whilst the Dust SSU walkers and infantry are slowly progressing to the point where they would be ready for washing this weekend. Meanwhile I decided to take a little break and knock out an Israeli Ouragan for Fate Of A Nation. I’ve had this model sitting on my desk for goodness knows how long so I thought it would make a quick and easy side project so I could feel like I have managed to finish something this month.

I airbrushed it with a couple of different Tamiya silver paints, pin washed it, applied decals, then painted the bombs, wing tip noses (whatever they are called) and canopy. It was a really quick and simple job – so much so I am thinking about painting an Egyptian MiG-17 just for fun.

 

 

 

Pushing ahead with my Dust SSU

It has been a very busy month on the hobby front with lots of things pulling me in multiple directions and as usual not getting much finished. Last week though I managed to get the base coats airbrushed on my Steel Guard HQ squad and Matrioshka.

I gave the models a quick clean up to get rid of the worst of the mould lines, then airbrushed them Tamiya Red Brown, with a directional spray of a 50/50 Red Brown and Dark Yellow mix. In some respects the results are a little subtle but I think they look quite good. If nothing else they help to make the real life lighting effects come out a little more.

I love the different backpacks for the HQ squad. Tossing around ideas on how to make it obvious which model is which. Currently thinking that the Officer (middle) will have a dark grey backpack, Mechanic (left) will have light grey, and the Medic a white backpack with a red cross.

The photos make the modulation appear quite subtle but I think in person they make quite a difference, especially on the armour panels on the side of the ams.

Next job will be to a little bit of detail work, then varnish and pin wash the models. However I have a few other tasks that need to take priority including getting my Jagdtigers ready for Panzerschreck as well as a little painting for a work project so I am not sure how long they will sit in this state....

2014 Painting Plans: Thinking about the Rhulic

Later this year a group of us will be heading down to Hamilton for the Annual Warmahordes Teams Tournament. We have put in some solid performances over the past few years, winning a couple of match-ups to keep us off the bottom of the table!

This year we thought we might try to theme our lists, each taking a different Rhulic caster and going for theme rather than substance. I am leaning towards taking Gorton as he is painted and I'm keen for any options to reduce my painting load..

I haven't really fleshed out the rest of the list yet, other than wanting to fit in a Ghordson Earthbreaker and (assuming I can convince my fellow Rhulic partners) Thor Steinhammer.

In preparation though I have begun assembling all of my remaining Rhulic models to I can pick and choose. The plan is to get everything built, based, undercoated and primed - that way I can start play testing a little later in the year and slowly finalise my plans.

Earthbreaker assembled and ready for action. A little tip: paint it in parts before doing your final assembly. I've made a 'Colossal' mistake fully assembling it as it is going to be hard getting into some spots

 

The rest of the assembled Rhulic boys. I have second units of High Shields and Forge Guard, as well as a Artillery Corps and Tactical Arcanist Corp still to put together.

 

 

I am currently thinking of a list that has an Earthbreaker, Thor, a couple of units of Forge Guard and maybe Brun Cragback & Lug. My intent is to begin painting some time after Panzerschreck (which is in July) depending on what other commitments come across my painting table.

SSU Red Tornado and Silent Death Finished

I've finally completed my first squads of Steel Guard, with two Red Tornado sections and two Silent Death sniper teams. This gives me a little over 60 points of painted troops, just need to get my HQ section done and a walker and I'll be close to having a fully painted Dust army!

I've decided to number the Steel Guard using some of the Flames Of War Vietnam PAVN decals. The big yellow numbers stand out nicely, and there are just enough numbers for what I need.
#00 - ?
#1-3 - HQ Squad
#4-6 - 1st Red Tornado section
#7-9 - 2nd Red Tornado section
#10-12 - ?
#13-15 - ?
#16-17 - 1st Silent Death team
#18-19 - 2nd Silent Death team
 
I am hoping that we will see a Steel Guard Hero (to take the 00 slot) at some point, along with some heavier weapon options (please be quad RPG launchers without limited ammunition!) so I can run a full 100 platoon without needing tanks or walkers.

Steel Guard ready for the tabletop

Red Tornado section

Silent Death team

Slow Progress on the Eastern Front

It has been a while since I posted anything about my SSU Army for Dust. Victor and I have been playing a lot of Dust Battlefield games over the past couple of months and really getting into it. Unfortunately on the modelling and painting front I have been splitting my efforts and making very little progress across a variety of armies, rather than any real progress on one!

However I did have a good “Thursday night painting session” and got most of my Steel Guard to the “almost finished” stage – just decals and 3 crewman left to paint on my first 10 figures. Once they are done I will get the HQ squad done, then move on to the vehicles.

That's big badda-boom!

Almost finished

What I am really enjoying is the fast and furious nature of the game. Things do stuff, things die, things come back, and a 100 point game (which seems to be the average "throw-down" size) can be played quite quickly, letting you get through a couple of games in an evening or afternoon.

Victor has also been making some progress on his Germans so hopefully we can get 100 points finished and put together a short battle report.