Has it really been that long?

New year new you......

I have been distracted by social media the last year or so. As a platform for hobby content it has grown from strength to strength and is so easy to upload content to.

Around Christmas time I made a vow to update my blog a bit more frequently and to try and use it as a record of my hobby out put throughout the year. January really did not get off to a good start, but here we are in February and here is the first new post in quite a while.

So what is the plan for the coming year?

Top of the list is the Bloodbowl league that I am running. Throughout January I managed to get my team the Altdorf Gentrifiers painted up ready for the start of the league last week.

The starting line up for the Altdorf Gentrifiers

My Skaven team got off to a great start in the league and managed to lose their opening game 3-0 and have a thrower killed at the same time. This was against a human team as well!
Still at least one of my Blitzers has gone up by a point of Agility and I learnt a lot from this first game.

I also plan to get a couple more titans painted for my Adeptus Titanicus Battlegroup, I have done Legio Ignatum and so far painted a Warlord, Reaver and a pair of Warhounds. Plenty more to get on with.

These will go alongside my Epic 30K White Scars force. More on these in a future blog post.
Also more views of my titans on my Twitter: @chellicar and Instagram: b.ellicar

The other "big" project is to write a campaign for both Napoleon in Italy with my friend and use this system as a spring board for a campaign for an American Civil War Campaign.

So hopefully should be updating with a blog post once a week.

Some further reading and ideas

St Patricks day and there is a flash sale on at Lard Island. Who I am to turn down an opportunity to pick up some supplements at a discount.

I have picked up 'Surfs Up' for 'Charlie Don't Surf'. I figured this would be good for scenarios and some further reading on the subject. first impressions don't disappoint and I can see myself and my gaming group getting some use out of this.

The other supplement that I have picked up is 'Kampfgruppe Von Luck', while I don't play 'Chain of Command' I really like the idea of these supplements and they provide some inspiration for games of Battlegroup (even if the forces are on the small side). The other reason for picking these up is to do some research on supplements and what is available. Like 'Surfs Up' KGVon Luck doesn't disappoint and has plenty of background information before getting to the actual campaign rules.

Having finished my US infantry for Vietnam, I have pushed on and got the Volksturm painted and just got to finish the bases.
Next is to get some Chaos Rhinos painted for Epic and get some of my other Chaos units put together. Then it is time to push on with getting the VC painted up.

D-Day Adventures

I spent the weekend visiting sites related to the American sector of the D-Day landings including going inland to a number of the Airborne sites and actions around Carentan.

While near to Omaha beach we managed to find a way up to WN60 which was very worth the trek to the top.
Bunkers and crawl trenches are still there and you can spend a good few hours exploring these and the views from the top.

Pointe du Hoc was also worth a visit to see the power of Naval and Air bombardment.

Overall it was a great trip and plenty of ideas for the scenario book.

Pictures to come once I have had a chance to download them from my camera.

In the meantime I have made a start on my GIs for Charlie Don't Surf. They should be finished in the next few days and then it is on to the VC.

Some more photos from the game

The first group of shots are from the table set up. The buildings are painted up for a French village but we thought they suited the scenario fine.

The view looking towards the German positions and entrenchments around the village.

A crashed fighter

The crossroads where the road block was set up.

 The king Tiger lays in ambush.

German artillery hits the American advance

 The advance continues passed the burning wrecks.

 The Americans also try and rush the opposite flank

An American artillery strike misses its intended target but manages to destroy the Artillery observers ride.

The pressure builds on the German right flank

 An MG team attempts to advance across a field to reinforce the town.

 As a Stuart manages to break through the right flank it gets ambushed by two squads wielding Panzerfaust.

 The Americans finally break through and seize the trenches.

 German reinforcements are in a race to plug the gap.

End of the Rat Race

The first wargame of the new year was a Battlegroup: Fall of the Reich game. I based the scenario on the "End of the Rat Race" scenario from the book. I choose both forces with the Americans having a higher points total. However the American force was loosely based upon a recce style force so plenty of light vehicles and armoured infantry and an air controller. Due to not having enough Stuart's assembled and painted ( we both thought there was a squadron done) an M10 took its place.

The German list was based around a scratch holding company backed up by a King Tiger and some NebelWerfer and mortar support. They also had trenches to deploy in, which would make them less obvious that the buildings and there was also a booby trapped building thrown in for a little mischief.

As I had designed both lists I allowed my opponent to pick which force that he used.

The game was a lot of fun with the Germans initially managing to stymie and hold the Americans at bay. American weight of numbers and plenty of vehicles began to tell and they were able to start clearing the forward German positions.

German reinforcements began to filter on to the table but orders were a bit of an issue. However the final nail in the coffin was a turn which saw the King Tiger crew bail out and surrender ( after having had an Out of Fuel, Breakdown and finally another Out of Fuel chit played on it over a number of turns) and the artillery and mortars failed to be called in.

With the German over their break limit the remaining Volksgrenadiers withdraw leaving the bloodied American recon group occupying the village.

I think the scenario worked well and the forces for both sides worked well as neither had the exact tools needed. While an additional anti tankgun for the Germans would have been welcome, I feel that it may have been very difficult for the Americans to make much headway. They had their work cut out for them trying to deal with the King Tiger as it was. They also had to be careful about getting too close to German infantry as every squad had a panzerfaust. The trenches for the Germans proved very useful but the booby trapped building felt like a let down. I expected a bit of fun with this but it seemed really lacklustre. That being said it was a interesting addition to the German force.

The American force

The German Force

A couple of quick shots of the board that we played on. This was a 6x4 table. All of the buildings are scratch built.

Hopefully will get more pictures up tomorrow but the uploader seems to be playing up