FoW - Walt Assaults Endor

I ran another teaching game of Flames of War in the basement this past weekend, this time with my old buddy, Walt. I didn't put quite as much time into the table for this one, so its not quite as fancy, but it sure was dense! Probably a little too dense, but hay, he's the one who out out all the tree stands. We played "No Retreat," from the Firestrom: Bagration book. I did a good bit of coaching aside from just teaching the rules, so Walt learned a bit more about what works and what doesn't and I still got some valuable insight into how to run a paratrooper army.

As the German Panzergrenadiers hastily prepared their support positions...


...the paratroopers of Easy Company dug into the woods through the center of the table.


Finally, the German attack was ready to begin.


Breaking his force up into two columns, each with a Panzer platoon and a Panzer Grenadier platoon, Walt began his advance with one group going up the center, the other through the woods on his right flank, and scouts advancing along the high ground to his left. My boys laid low, and I tossed a few artillery templates at him, to no affect.






By Turn 2 he was ready to kill him an observer.




Meanwhile, my boys explained to his tanks the concept of the 3+ infantry save, plus fox holes, giving the impression that Flames of War does, in fact, love infantry.


It wasn't a bad idea, going in tanks first, and he tried it on both sides:


I tried to tell him (OK, I tried to imply and suggest, without coming right out and saying it,) but these tanks don't know how fucked they are:


They learned.


After Turn 2, there were tater tots and pizza bites. My wife rules.


He was doing basically right, trying to hit me with his tanks while he got his infantry ready, he was just waiting way too close. The StuGs in the woods got mugged by infantry hiding in the woods and cave. The Panzer IVs up the middle got shelled into oblivion (two died and two ran away), and the Pumas never found anything better to do with themselves.



I think he'd been planning on assaulting my rear with them, but after seeing what happened to the StuGs they sort of hung back and watched the objective for a while.


Turn 4 was where the real action was. It started in the woods on Walt's right flank, as the halftracks scraped paint against burning StuGs to get at my men and give the ol' Mounted Assault rules a try.


Suffice to say, they work better against pinned targets (I was really enjoying being Fearless in this game, I passed every moral check and he couldn't keep me pinned down.) Half his initial assault bogged down, either on the way in or after failing a moral check to counter attack.



I was sliding teams into the fight every chance I could get, even running up Lt. Speers for a little action.



It was a massacre, with fleeing Germans shot down in the woods and only halftrack crews surviving long enough to surrender.

In the center his now unsupported infantry gave it another try, but the results were largely the same.



I didn't take a picture of them, but only a few German teams managed to get out of this fight.



And all that was in his 4th Turn. At the start of mine, I rolled and got all my reserves at one go, like the US Army finally got into the war (and no, the bombers are just for the picture).




At this point all he had left was his artillery, the Pumas, and a few halftracks pretending to be a platoon, and we called it a night.

Liquitex

Artists Acrylics for WarGamers

This is something of an expanded answer to a question from the local game forum, where someone asked me which of their bewildering array of products I used as the basis for mud on vehicle fenders. Since I use a decent handful of their products, I figured I'd comment on a few of them and how they might be useful for the wargamer and miniature painter. Liquitex has been making artist-grade acrylic paints since 1955, and are pretty much the standard in that industry. Their products are commonly available at artist supply shops and the big retail craft stores; I tend to get mine from Hobby Lobby. It seems they've removed most of them from the shelf displays, but they used to post little samples of each product next to the price tag, so you could see what you were getting into. Made picking the right medium a lot easier. Oh, well.

Lets take a look at what I've got and what its good for. All of these are non-yellowing, clear-drying, water-clean up but not water soluble when dry (so you can ink over them and such). Note that I'm quoting the product names directly from the labels, which have been redesigned since I got some of mine. For instance, with the new label designs the older "Natural Sand Texture Gel," is probably just called "Natural Sand," as "Resin Sand," is also a texture gel, it just doesn't say so on the new label.

Fluid Mediums:
Both brush-painting Mediums have nice leveling properties, which means you don't see the brush strokes nearly so much when you've mixed them in. You can also drybrush with paint mixed with these without getting that "chalky" look so bad. You'll probably want to thin your paint a bit with water when using these, as they both tend to thicken things a bit, which can also be a good thing. Basically, paint will go on smoother and with greater transparency, but you might want to thin it for better flow, which will further increase the transparency (which may itself be a good thing).

Airbrush Medium
A nice thinning fluid for airbrushing acrylics in general, the Liquitex offering is interesting to us because, if memory serves, it is the only thinner out there that will thin Vallejo model color for airbrushing without forming those stringy little boogers that give away the paint's latex origin. In general I airbrush with the paint manufacturer's thinner, and I'd recommend you go with the manufacturer's recommendations over this product when applicable, but with Vallejo you'll probably be special ordering that stuff, and this is handy.

Matte Medium
This stuff is basically acrylic paint without any pigment. You can extend paint with it, and it reduces transparency, but its not really a glazing medium. If you've got need for a thickening agent, something to just bulk up the paint at make it much more viscous, this is the ticket. It dries with a flat finish, but its not very good for glazing.

Glazing Medium
You'd think this would be obvious, but it wasn't to me (how do you think I ended up with Matte Medium?). This is the stuff you want for painting glazes, even though it says it dries glossy. It does, very glossy in fact, but a clear spray coat takes the shine right off. I've been experimenting with this stuff on the Space Hulk figures I'm painting, and I love it. It takes a lot of time, but you can really build up a nice color fade that feels like it has depth.

Gel Mediums:
The Gel mediums are really what attracted me to Liquitex in the first place, and they are what we were talking about on the forum. These are not intended to be brushed on at all: they are quit thick, and will hold much of the shape you give them - not enough to sculpt with, but instead of helping level out your brush and knife (you'll mostly be smearing these, I use ancient crappy brushes) the gel holds the shape you put it in. The dry slow, and stay a bit flexible when dry, so they won't chip off, and they have quite a bit of "body" to them, which stays somewhat bulky when dry. You can add colors to them, or use them clear. If needed they can be thinned with water, but you'll usually want them pretty thick.

Resin Sand
Thick, course sand (multiple size grains) suspended in gel. I haven't used this one very much, it was an idea for a project that went no where. But if you wanted to you could use these as basing pastes, either by adding paint and spreading it over the finished piece, or by applying it before priming and painting.

Natural Sand Texture Gel
I love this stuff, and use it for all manner of "add some light texture there," jobs. The sand is very fine and very uniform, so it come out much less lumpy when dry than the Resin Sand.
Vehicle Mud: Mix with a medium brown color -- the "dirt" on my miniatures is typically a 3-color shade (paint dark brown, drybrush middle brown, highlight with light brown) and to match the vehicles to the troops I mix just a dab of the middle brown into the Natural Sand gel, then apply it to fenders, etc. where mud would collect. When dry, I lightly drybrush with the army's dirt highlight color.
Snow: It wouldn't do the job alone, but nothing else would, either. Natural Sand acrylic gel is the base for my custom snow paste mix (I add water, paint, and flock as well), but I'll be talking more about that later.

Airborne Assault

My buddy, DJ Dildonic, has taken an interest in Flames of War, and we've been playing a few little games, but it was finally time to roll it all out and play big. So we went all out on the table lay out, and he pushed around my Panzergrenadiers while I got some advanced training in parachute assaults. We played using whatever they call the Airborne assault mission in D-1, "Seize and Hold," or something like that.

Oh and hay, I usually don't say this any more but I kinda like some of these pics, so "right click, view image" to see it full-size.

For extra flavor, the objective models we used were in fact the guns from an 88mm AA battery, pointed skyward. They were not to fire in the game, but, "Secure the town and silence the guns," sounded to us like a very Paratrooper thing to do.

Ariel reconnaissance provided the following photographs before the battle:




.



Local resistance fighters also supplied useful, ground-level views of the town (executed here with buildings from The Miniature Building Authority.)









Just before the opening rounds were fired, my Pathfinder was inserted at the proper position, referred to by the troops as "Corner 4." This man knows his job, too, as 100% of my force, and about half the enemy reserves, entered play via this corner. It got crowded.



As planes flew over head and angels fell from the sky, the Hun was quick to rally his troops and move them into position (they'd been fooled my counter-intelligence, and the removal of one objective.).



The first few turns went fast and furious, with all the action centered around Corner 4, with a battery of quad 2cm rolling in on Turn 1 and a Panzergrenadier platoon showing up in the same place on turn 3. This is what it all looked at by the end of my turn 4:





Leaving the guns to fend mostly for themselves, 2nd and 3rd platoons started moving into position, with 3rd making a flank move around the farm and 2nd moving past the bogs towards the objective.


2nd Platoon encountered light resistance:


But were soon in position to threaten the nearer of the two guns:


A few tanks threatened a counter attack, but were destroyed by combined artillery and close assault, forcing a failed moral check by the rest, who left the field. And with that, I had technically won the scenario.



But we didn't feel finished, we both still had a bunch of crap on the table, and hay, it was only 1:30 am, right? The solution was obvious: just keep playing, and fight over new objectives that made sense. There were a few loose teams that could have annoyed me on the way to the other 88mm, but they were clearly not going to stop me. So the Germans abandoned the town, and right then and there we started a second game: could Dildonic get out of the town? More importantly, could he blow the bridges before the Allies could get across? This was a very achievable goal, as I had the whole town and most of his force between my men and the river bridges.



And thus, the race was on. I made liberal use of Truscot Trot as my boys hauled ass around and through the town to get into position to stop Dildonic's demolitions attempt.



As 1st Platoon ran around the church they were intercepted by a platoon of Puma scout cars, of whom short work was made.




Aircraft (Skytrains subbing in for P-47s) made a constant, if irrelevant, showing in the fight.





In the end, it all came down to his attempts to blow the bridge -- the one bridge blown would, in our minds, win the game for him. After all, what goods a town if you can't advance an armored column through it? For this part of the game, we adapted the rules for blowing bridges from the Firestorm: Bagration campaign rules. Basically, you need a guy to pass a skill check at each corner of the bridge, then back up an make one more to blow the thing. One team failed the first check, leaving him hanging there for that one more turn I needed to sneak something up there.



The combat action ceased with my scout's acceptance of the German surrender on Turn 10.


And hay, it was only 5:30 am!

New Music --- Viking Metal

OK, so right off the top, some folks call this kind of thing "Folk Metal," but I'm going with the more generic and open term "Viking Metal," by which I mean heavy riffs and heavy armor, the sort of band best suited to the nexus between metal and LARP.

I'm personally not too into the lighter Epic Metal, stuff like Blind Guardian -- too much hair metal in there, not enough brutality. It is nice stuff, and I do like it, I just don't listen too it much. Mostly while playing Lord of the Rings games. But I like chainmail, I'm descended from northern Europeans, and I'd like to go a' Viking, so what sounds like that to me?

I could have included these guys in the Chick Metal post, but what the hell, they call their male lead a freakin' Uruk Hai! I dunno, maybe its the all-Tolkien inspired lyrics, watch a video or two, and you tell me if Battlelore LARP:
Journey to Undying Lands
House of Heroes
Storm of the Blades
War of Wrath
Sons of Riddermark

This would be a great time for me to thank whoever it was that hooked up the metal bands with the kids making LOTR fanfilms. The two are definitely stronger together than apart. The Hunt for Gollum is a really good one, by the way.

OK, I didn't want to do them first, but it would be pretty hard to talk about Viking Metal for long without mentioning Amon Amarth, the closest to a big name band as the genre sports (hay, they're big in Europe.) but then they are kinda custom made for a pissed off suburban kid who thinks he's descended from Vikings like me.

Twilight Of The Thunder God
Guardians Of Asgaard
Runes To My Memory
Cry Of The Black Birds
The Dragons' Flight Across the Waves

I'm actually pretty taken with the whole Folk Metal/Viking Metal thing. Some of these bands are just too much fun, like drinking songs outta be!

Korpiklaani sings a song of drunken midgets!
Wooden Pints
Beer Beer
Hunting Song
Keep On Galloping

FINNTROLL... what's not to like? If Conan was a comedy, this would be the soundtrack.
Trollhammeren
Nedgang
Solsagan

Kivimetsän Druidi call themselves "epic fantasy metal" from Finnland. Lovely, classically beautiful blond on back up vocals here.
Jaassa Varttunut
Burden
The Tyrant

Villieläin seem promising, and pretty new. Not as heavy as some, but kinda nice all the same.
Voittamaton
EI MINUA

So far, I've been enjoying all this new brutality I've been finding, and there is a ton of this stuff out there. Then I started thinking about the Viking Metal and figured other white kids in metal bands from other countries might be trying to resurrect their barbarian past, too, so I looked around for Celtic metal.

ELUVEITIE seem to be a bigger act, and they speak in galic some, which is nice. They also benefit from some rather bonnie lasses.
Omnos
Thousandfold
Your Gaulish War
Slanias Song
Brictom

Waylander do it with a "lord of the river ass whippin'" vibe, with extra flutes and bagpipes.
Born to the Fight
Beyond the ninth Wave
King of the Fairies

So, there you go. Savage barbarism at its finest. Looks around, and let me know if you find anything good. Later on I might get out of metal mode, maybe plug in some power tools and post a few links.

New Music --- METAL!

I haven't kept up with music like I used to since I got out of school -- the Rave thing was dieing out, Industrial was stuck in a rut, and NuMetal sucked, so for a while there I just kept listening to the same old CDs. I eventually got bored with them and music listening kind of petered out over all, aside from my habit of picking up a new Goth band at every big convention I go to (I always did manage to keep this up, which is a Good Thing.) Well, a few (ok, several) years later and I realized I wasn't listening to much of shit. It was time for some new tunes.

So I opened up a thread or two on a few forums I'm on (like this thread) and the results have been great. Turns out in the last few years Rave is gone but a lot of folks still like to dance all night and Goth has made a big come back. Industrial is still (mostly) stuck on the ol' 4-4 beat but there's some nice metal/industrial cross over stuff, especially in Europe. And (I think Metalocalypse for this) metal has made a full-on fucking come-back, with gimicks: chick singers, Folk metal, and epic LARP soundtracks abound. Lots of chaff among the wheat, but its always like that. I found a few things I really, really like so I've decided to start cross-posting some of this action here. That's right, the workshop is gonna start recommending music!

First, best band name ever:
Cock And Ball Torture - Anal Sex Terror. God, they sound like shit.

Now, a few bands I found because they got used in movie trailers:
The Used - The Bird and The Worm which was used in the trailer for Clash of the Titans
Coheed and Cambria - Welcome Home, appearing on the "9" trailer.

Old Stuff:
Maybe worth including, some links to heavy Death Metal stuff I enjoyed so much in high school:
Strapping Young Lad
Napalm Death (who the hell didn't listen to Napalm Death?)
Morbid Angel (I wore this out so hard, in highschool I called my Space Marines the Morbid Angels)
Deicide (if you play it backwards, you get a communion wafer)
Sepultura (when this came on Head Bangers Ball, me and my buddy were instantly transformed into Beavis and Butthead on the couch, and Metallica was forever relegated to the "not that heavy" slot.) another song.

So, I think Metalocalypse sort of got me back into new music. They showed me that, with a sense of humor, I could enjoy metal again. And I love them for it.
Go Into the Water
Bloodlines
Dethharmonic (featuring Emilie Autumn, of whome we'll speak later.)
Laser Cannon Deth Sentence

I just thought of this, but how fuckin' cool would it be for Deathklok to make a guest appearance on the Venture Brothers?

CHICK METAL
I like a good gimick, especially when it comes to metal. You know, gimmicks like a cartoon show, female vocalists, and vikings. Now, when I say "metal with a chick singing," I'm NOT talking about Evanescence. Even if they hadn't lost me on the christian lyrics, their whole sound was just too produced, too pretty, not brutal, and basically they ain't metal. At all. Lacuna Coil is good, but not really metal, either. Here are some bands, playing actual metal, with some brutal bitch belting it out:

The Agonist: modern (slightly produced) death metal with a girl up front, alternately singing and growling. Young America at its finest.
Business Suits and Combat Boots
Thank You Pain
Their Eulogies Sang Me to Sleep

SIRENIA is a good bit cheesier/more produced but its not too bad (more goth than metal)
The Path To Decay
Save Me From Myself
Meridian

UNSUN is also pretty produced and a bit "Hot Topic," but they might go somewhere:
Whispers

ARCH ENEMY is like Iron Maiden, but not lame. And this chick is brutal: if you didn't see her you might not guess it was a woman, and she's NOT just eye candy out front. Their sound is much more an old 80s speed metal, not a bunch of over-processed synth stuff. This is actually what I'm listening to while I post all this.
My Apocalypse
Nemesis
We Will Rise
Ravenous
Enemy Within


Austrian Death Machine
No chicks here, but I'm gonna link to it anyway. Most band have a gimmick, a shtick if you will. But the prize for most-nerd-rage-inducing gimmick just might go to the band whose inspiration comes entirely from Schwarzenegger action movies. How can you go wrong with titles like, "Come with Me if You Want to Live," "If it Bleeds We Can Kill It," "I am a Cybernetic Organism," and, "Get to the Choppa?"
That's all I'm going to post just at the moment, but there will be more: I've still gotta tell y'all about the new Industrial and Folk Metal acts I've dug up.

Oh, and I'm still working on those Space Hulk figures....

Space Hulk test figures

As promised, Space Hulk test figures. These are me trying to remember how to paint red, only this time so it looks good (not like when I'd try and paint colorful shit in highshool). I always did my own colors back in the day, but for this go around on Space Hulk I wanted pure, as per the fluf, GW Approved Blood Angel Space Marines, just like on the box cover. So here we go, First Edition Space Hulk plastic Terminators!



The decals on these things are from a sheet printed in 1993. I can't believe they still worked.


I got fancy, and used masking fluid to hide the fire shape from the black paint on the heavy flamer.


Bugs! Bugs! Bugs!


After getting used to 15mm, 28mm really does feel kinda huge. Woo hoo so much room! (Gestures wildly with brush in the air).




Why yes, these are why I'm not done putting snow on Easy Company... And it only took until February for me to post something in 2010!