I apologize for the lack of posting. I was struck by a vicious man-cold (conveniently during a very busy week) and laid low.
I am feeling better now, but there hasn’t been much gaming-related work in the past week. I have managed to assemble the Warbases Late-Roman Church. It is a solid kit, but with many little parts dry-fitting is a must. Sadly, it must wait for finishing as I’m trying to get some terrain done for our upcoming Arnhem campaign.
The ChurchFrom the frontThe roof is removable, and there is a lot of room for people hiding in the shadows…
I’m excited for when I do have time to turn to this kit. The interior begs for some interesting treatments. It is a little small on the interior, but if you were to build this to scale there would be no room on the table.
Waiting in the nave…
I think they’ve done a good job at balancing the look of the building and playability. There are bound to be assassins waiting in the shadowed arches… Warbases has a done a great job with this kit.
I’ve also been slowly building Warbases low wall for WW2 wargaming. These are great little walls. They are quick and simple to assemble. I did wrap them with some weak elastic bands to keep their form.
Low stone walls with short columns
The walls are low enough for standing figures to fire over.
A good defensive position
These walls will be given a textured finish in the coming days. I have about 4′ of these so they’ll be giving definition to fields and yards.
The last bit of work I managed to get done, was finishing up my Frostgrave Cultists. These figures I’m using as Red Cap goblins in my RPG. I’ve had them almost finished for some time so last night I did a last overview and then a thick dark wash. I’ve purposely left them a little plain, so once I’ve finished flocking their bases they’re done in my eyes.
My Red Caps. Kitbashed from a Frostgrave Cultists, Warlord Celts and Greeks, and some Gripping Beast Late Romans
The kit itself is pretty good, and provides a solid variety of options. I have used the undead parts to make some undead Saxons/Vikings, and have added shields from a variety of Warlord and Gripping Beasts.
Lastly, I’ve continued to add some blogs. Miles (at Lair of the Uber Geek) has recommended The Man Cave. Please take a look on the side as I slowly get the wargames blogs organized.
I’m hoping to get a fair bit done in the coming days (including the promised post from Lucius about his Brits) as work has settled down, and my man-cold has finally fled.
I’ve been slowly increasing my terrain holdings and recently turned to on some of my Timeline Miniatures. I have never built any of their offerings, but I saw some great designs on their website and pleased to report that they are excellent in “the real.”
The outbuilding is excellent. It’s a great piece for northwestern Europe across a wide variety of time periods if you vary your roofing material. I’m intending on using it for WW2, so may be doing a tile roof on it eventually.
The product out of its bag
The pieces go together perfectly, and unlike some of their competitors, Timeline includes detailed instructions with every kit. They recommend, (and I always find it useful – even with such solid kits), to dry fit everything first.
The building dry-fitted but not gluedThe fully built building
The building is a good size for a section to take up cover, or for an objective if searching for downed pilots or resistance fighters.
Some FJs to show scale. The figures are Warlord (metal and plastic)
Overall, I’m very happy with this piece. It was only 9 pounds, and was a steal. It was simple to assemble, and has great detail. I will be ordering more of the modern line from Alan (his Normandy farmhouse looks amazing).
Next up, a simple fantasy piece: a well.
All of the Timeline products come in plastic Ziploc bags with instructions
The well is a good piece, but nothing spectacular. I forgot how much I didn’t enjoy sticking MDF parts in a circle formation (as with Warbases Celtic houses) and this was no different. I prevailed and the piece is nice. It was relatively quick to put together and will do the trick.
A 28mm Blacktree Saxon for scale
Last, but not least is the Timeline Watchtower.
The beautiful watchtower kit
I was trepidatious about ordering this as many of the late Roman watchtowers on the market look wrong. They are too squat, or the tower walk is too wide etc. This tower is great.
The nicely proportioned tower. Warbases low walls in the background. More on Warbases in a future post.
The tower walk is supported by 24 supports, which was worrying. They fit in so well that it was simple to affix the walkway. In fact, everything fit wonderfully on this kit.
The view from below showing some of the many supports for the walkThe watchtower has an entrance room with fixed ladder into a guard room on the main level of the tower
As you can see, the tower makes sense. There is a ladder to get into the tower, with a lower room that can be fought over. Then another fixed ladder leads to the guard house (with a cutaway for those entering from below). Then the walk itself with its nice railings wide enough for 25mm bases. This is a perfect piece for Dux or any fantasy/medieval gaming. I highly recommend it.
Having built Warbases, Sarissa Precision, and Terrains4Games, these are by far the best quality MDF kits I’ve seen. Each company has some good points and some points that could be improved upon, but Timeline’s attention to detail, design aesthetic, and price point are excellent and outshine their competitors. I shall (to my wife’s chagrin) be purchasing more of their terrain in the near future. I hope that you check them out!
It’s been 18 years since I moved to the Island and I consider myself well and truly a local now. It still hit home when my old city of Ottawa was hit by a big storm. The tornado hit outside the town and went along the river right by the capital and into the city of Gatineau on the other side of the river. This hasn’t made much of the international news, but CBC has a story that’s worth a look. Luckily, there are few injuries and no deaths reported. All of my friends and family are safe.
A tornado. Every area has its risks, but tornadoes aren’t something I associate with my nation’s capital. Frostbite and heat-stroke are. That city has a 100 degree Celsius temperature range from the summer to the mid-winter. It gets so cold that when I was in high school our school caught fire and the students, after evacuating, were put back into the gym as we’d freeze before we burned. Ah -40.
In any event, as for the blogs, I have a list that I routinely check and it’s out of date. I regularly go to a favourite site, check the sidebar and then peruse what’s being looked at (by the way, Anton’s Wargame Blog even has SPQVI on his blog list, thanks Anton)!
I noticed that there are wargaming sites that I do end up visiting several times but are missing on my list. So, while this list is still incomplete, please take another look at the side/bottom. Of note, The Tactical Painter, A Terrible loss of Lead and Wealth, Jay’s Wargaming Madness, Lair of the Uber Geek. I’ll be adding more in the coming weeks and maybe even organizing the list so it’s easier to navigate. Sadly, WordPress isn’t like Blogger, and doesn’t show which blogs I visit when I’m signed in with my account. Hopefully this will make up for that. If any of the multitudes that read this blog have your own blog and want me to add it, please let me know in the comments.
Okay, that’s a little confusing for a title. But here’s the conclusion to the 2nd delaying action that Lucius and I played.
We left off with my forces pulled back, trying to get re-organized to make a final push on the objective. My left flank was stable, with my field gun slowly moving forward, and 1 section with the platoon 2IC (unteroffizier) holding the line. On my right, 3 Section bailed out from the Hanomag with the Commandoes to the front. Unfortunately, I had left my platoon commander out in the open (where he was trying to encourage the 3 section weapons team before they broke), and the pinned Commandoes shot him, luckily only dazing him for the turn. My 3 section opened up on the Commandoes, killing another one and making the remaining 4 break due to excess shock.
On the left, Lucius brought on the Vickers and rallied yet more shock off using his platoon commander (who was so inspirational that he was gazetted Captain based on his performance).
Vickers on overwatch over the JOP
With my 1 section, I tried feinting right (pretending to want to go through the house) and then move back, but the Vickers was almost always active and able to face the direction of my attack. I’d have to get into hand to hand combat with the remains of the Canadian 1 section plus an MMG with 5 crew from the front after rolling 3 dice to charge in. Not good. It was time to pull back and let 3 section secure the flank to divide and conquer.
It took forever, but I managed to get 3 section up and moving (and rejoining with the scared remaining member of the wiped out weapon’s team). Lucius meanwhile managed to rally off shock and get the 4 commandoes back up to the fight.
The Canadian resistance circled in red. On the left 2 soldiers and the Vickers, on the right, 4 commandoes. My 1 section is waiting with my Unteroffizier on the left, while 3 section moves up to take a JOP on the right. I’m about to bring on my Panzerschreck team to try to force the Commandoes to move
I activated my field gun when I could, attempting to get 3 “6s” to blow up the building on the left flank (more for fun than for any tactical purpose, though I figured it would make my opponent guess). Meanwhile, it took a few phases to get my Panzerschreck on (as both my senior leaders were on the table).
The commandoes were guarding the wall ahead. So my 3 section moved right to take the JOP while my Panzerschreck team sprinted up towards the commandoes. I ended the turn on the most exposed JOP with a chain of command die, but Lucius played one of his and avoided the test. Drat. He then shook the Commandoes out towards the woods behind the house on the right and went on overwatch. I managed to get just outside the arcs and put a bit of hurt on him, but he returned the favour and wiped out an LMG and crew. Drat.
3 section pulled back but stayed close enough to threaten the last JOP on the right while the platoon commander made his way up. The Panzerschreck made it to the low wall where the commandoes were sheltering before. They were going to use their rifles to take a shot at the Canadian platoon leader but were engaged in close combat by the commandoes. I played an interrupt but the Kar98s missed. In close combat, well, once again everyone died. I rolled a 1 and avoided losing any morale but Lucius lost his JL killed and the section gone. Down to 1 morale and the JOP on the right flank was removed. Lucius was down to 2 dice but fought on.
I moved 2 section up to be ready to get into hand to hand combat, effectively fixing the Vickers to face me. Meanwhile, 3 section moved back up. The Canadian officer was exposed and was injured. Morale shot, the plucky North Novas left the field, unable to face an attack from both sides and with their beloved leader bleeding.
Conclusion
Quite the fight! The North Novas had forced me back twice before being finally overwhelmed, and a few chance dice rolls would have made things very different. Another close run thing and my first victory with this rules set (Lucius has won the other 3 or 4 games we’ve played).
Looking at “At the Sharp End” and the ending force morale, the FJs would have permanently lost 8, with 5 missing the next fight and 4 returning to fight immediately. The 34 man platoon would be down to 21 for the next fight. This would be only a full section plus HQ and a few extra men. Not a lot. Additionally, the Hanomag was a loss, and those were not always easy to replace. The delaying action fought by the North Novas cost the Germans!
The heroism of the North Novas was also expensive. 15 men were permanently lost, likely dead. 8 were out of the fight for the next battle, and 7 would limp into the lines ready for the next battle, leaving the newly promoted Captain to command 13 soldiers out of 36.
I think we’re happy with our knowledge now, and are going to do the Arnhem campaign in WSS 74 in October. Playing a full campaign will be fun and will add some complexity to the fights. Had this been a campaign game I would have likely conceded the field when I lost my Hanomag. Next time we’ll have to think about more than just the ground in front of us, and keep the overall mission in mind.
No more Chain of Command until next month. Priority now will be getting terrain ready!
After another RPG play report, I’ll be turning over the next WW2 post to Lucius and he’ll be showing his North Novas platoon.
