Loosing sleep over which gun to mount on your PZ4? K&J Magnetics to the rescue!

Hi Kids,  Here's one of the tanks I've been pretending to work on lately.  I think I primered it about 2 years ago.  Yeah, I must be in a rush!  It's a 1:60 West Wind Panzer 4 which can be made as a F1, F2, or early G variant.  Naturally, the Chuckster can't be bothered to actually make a firm decision.  We play a lot of early war around here, so the stub barrel would be good.  But there's also that June 6th D-Day Gameapalooza coming up, (Disposable Heroes of course!) and those longer guns would no doubt come in handy when you're trying to stem the beachheads.  What to do, what to do.....???

 Here we have a work-in-progress shot of the partially painted tank with the three different guns from which to choose.  All metal all the time!  And if you're an Old Glory Army member this is ~US$20!

Order some magnets!  That's what you do! Partially submerged in a bath of glue is a K&J magnet towards the back of the hollow turret.  I drilled out the backs of the guns and glued in some piano wire, or any other wire that works with magnets.  At first I was afraid that the force would not be strong enough and the barrels would droop, but no fear there.  Even the long barrel has no problem.

 

Meanwhile, the Basement has revealed some more items from a bygone era, some Easter Island head statues (called "Moi" I believe)!  I've been looking for these things for quite awhile, and am thrilled the terrain for KneeCap Island is at least getting closer to the workbench. Armorcast makes some great stuff!  I'm thinking about getting more of their craters, too.

Just when you thought it was safe... Pax Limpopo!

Hi Kids,

Yep, just to show everyone it's not all ultra-serious hardcore monster games like "Le Bataille de Whatever,"  "Highway to the Reich," or double blind "Flattop," those Monday night lads sometimes let their hair down and dig up the weirdest stuff imaginable. This should really come as no surprise from the lads who brought you "A Fistful of Turkeys" and "Globbo" con games!  (Converted to miniatures of course!)  Last week it was the ole "Pax Limpopo" game "Pig Tickler" from Eureka Miniatures.  Its a game of Lancers riding unicycles chasing a steam powered pig all over the map.  Of course, the pig can fight back, and there's an ump and a stoker to get in the way and interfere as much as the other players can make them!

Your humble correspondent was the manager of one team, and managed to crush the competition by a 10 point spread!  I owe it all to my time riding a Yamaha V-Max motorcycle! My opponent failing to activate 3 turns in a row might have had a very slight effect on the game too.  You never know...

All this stuff came in a numbered box signed by Nic and Dave. I'm telling ya, those lads at Eureka can come up with some awe-inspiring stuff when they have a mind to do so.  I might just have to paint my all my Eureka dinosaurs! And I still have my "Native Women With Chicken on Head" miniatures too, if the Basement ever decides to reveal their whereabouts.

South Dakota Grudge Match! Flames of War CLT vs. RDU!

Hi Kids,  Ok, ok, I know two Flames of War groups based in North Carolina (Charlotte and Raleigh) have absolutely nothing to due with South Dakota, but ever since I first heard that term (South Dakota Grudge Match) I just can't resist using it whenever I get a chance!  Anyway, on with the story:  The CLT lads and the RDU kids decided it would be fun to set up a meet on Neutral Ground to have some fun and meet some new opponents.  High Point NC is roughly halfway between and had a store (Gaming Underground, or Underground Games, I can never remember) with lots of table space, and so it was on!
RDU had 8 guys turn up, CLT had 4 until two of us Winston-Salem gaming pariahs showed up to join the CLT side.  The plan was to have 1:1 games in the morning and after lunch play a big honkin' game of Total War with CLT vs. RDU.  Each player made a late war 1750 pt. army for the single games and modified it to 1000 pt. for the Total War game. Since RDU had a two player advantage each CLT player got extra points to make up the difference; 8000 pt. per side. Here are some shots of the 1:1 games.  A lot of them are from my game and the games near me. I didn't have time to wonder around and take pictures of everything since I was busy getting stomped!

 Here is a shot of my beginning forces, five ISU-122's and two 100mm ATG's (Proxy!).  Everything else was a scattered delayed reserve.  Bummer, I know.  Turn one, here comes the Luftwaffe!  Yeah, that was a bummer too! I don't even remember the last time I played late war, and I made the fatal error of loading up with Tiger killers!  Unfortunately Rate of Fire 1 just doesn't put enough hate mail down range to crush normal armies. I brought a plastic spoon to a gunfight! ISU-122's are Old Glory and the 203mm tracked guns are also available from them, but from a different manufacturer.

 The Finns charge across the table!  If you want to win, employ a Finn! Two T-34's pop their tops with 122mm hits!

 One of the CLT lads brought some Big Guns, too!

 It's Panthers-a-go-go! on the table next door!  Special rules about flank shots and bad luck with the dice lead to the Panthers destroying about 75% of the Russian army they faced.

 Meanwhile on my table my heavies are getting systematically crushed by the Finns.  My CO never did get a single hit, even while stationary!  Bummer!

 Some of my reserves arrive in the corner, three JS-2's!  They manage to blow the infantry to atoms!

 But meanwhile over on the objective its a different story!

 Some madman from RDU brought Cav!  I think they were Hungarians.

 Man, those are some Big Guns!

 I knew there'd be some Tigers around here somewhere!  One RDU army had 4 of the wee beasties.

 Some hardcore ammo carrier brought nothing but arty! Eye-yi-yi...

 Getting ready for the Total War game, a 6x20 foot table!

 My lads are set up!  Once again they would basically do nothing the entire game, blasting massive shells everywhere except towards the enemy!  Then again, the enemy wasn't foolish enough to come out of hiding anywhere near them...

 A tiny bit of the grand battery in the center of the RDU position.  I thought this kind of set up went out of style after the First World War, but by golly it was ugly being on the receiving end of all those muzzles! It's a wonder the table didn't collapse!

 The center of the CLT deployment, nowhere near as intimidating!

 Turn One, Shot One, One Dead ISU-122!  Aw crap!  Arty with AT5 barrages? Gee whiz! And I didn't even get a turn yet!

 The horsemen arrive in our deployment zone, turn two!  Things are heading south in a hurry!

 But one of the CLT (W-S auxillary) guys had a mean infantry list!  Soviet Combat Sappers!  Trashing tanks, ATG's, infantry, cavalry; they spank everybody one at a time or all at once!  None Shall Pass!

And with that it was all over.  In all the excitement some of us didn't get a third turn, but the CLT side was getting crushed so comprehensively I really don't think it would have made any difference if we had.  The objectives were still pretty close, RDU being ahead by one, but the CLT armies were so badly hammered we packed everything up and called it a day!

 

Maybe I should've gone with the T34/85 list...

 

 

Barbarosa!!!!! No, not the Willie Nelson movie. Although its worth seeing.

Hi Kids, Around here we've been talking about Barbarosa for the past couple years. I'm intending to build some forces for 25mm Disposable Heroes games, and some 15mm stuff for Flames of War too.  If it's good enough for one scale, its good enough for two!  I decided to go whole hog and get some big honkin' units for the smaller scale, especially when I discovered The Warstore carries Zvezda kits! These BT-5's were only about $3.60 each!  Only about 5 parts so they go together in a freakin' snap! I didn't bother checking the unit sizes in FOW Barbarosa, so instead of maxing out at 16 tanks I only ordered 15.  Oh well.  Guess I'll be ordering at least two more, one to be #16 and another to be the HQ tank.

 Here we have a shot of the first batch of BT-5's!  Although Commie tanks tend to be green, I'm a sucker for camo.  And in this scale it's a snap!  I'm undecided whether I should paint the tanks a steel or grey color.  Usually I do but that's a lot of work.

With this many tanks in one unit I decided to at least make an attempt to avoid confusion and number the damn things.  I ordered some Soviet AFV numbers from I-94 Enterprizes. For $3 you can get two sheets loaded with numbers. I think they look pretty good! Highly recommended!  I only had one misbehave, flip over and become unusable.  In the future, if I ever build another BT-5 unit, (unlikely since they are about 1000 points for this many) I will put the decal on the flat part of the turret side. And these kits have only been lurking in the Basement for about a month or two!

So what does everybody think?  Should I paint the tracks or leave them black?

Oh yeah, the Chuckster's a typical wargamer, all right!

Hi Kids,  How can you tell the Chuckster's a hardcore gaming fool?  Its easy, and here's the proof.  You know how people find stuff in the pockets of their winter coats when they wear them after hanging in the closet all year?  Most people find lint, spare change, maybe a $10 bill...
What's the Chuckster find in the coat he hasn't worn in 5 or 10 years?  You guessed it, Miniatures!

The Basement of Heaped Miniatures is getting sneakier by freakin' minute!  Hell, I don't even remember ever buying these guys, much less ever intending to build a Slayer Dwarf army for W$Fantasy.  In fact, of all the armies dwarves are probably the least likely I would ever build.  I haven't even played W$Fantasy in 5 years. It's a long story, but back in 3rd ed for about 10 years solid I lost to dwarves all the time.  I could go into further detail (such as my opponent taking 80 troops with magic seeking arrows ("just to see what would happen" sez he), 5-10 siege machines (aka cannon, bolt throwers, catapults, organ guns etc), or how he demanded that all armies be separated by 36" instead of the legally intended 24," ("because it makes more sense for the troops to have room to deploy" sez he), or even how we had to insert "initiative rolls" to see which army went first each turn (guess who was stuck in no-man's land for an extra turn?).

But maybe that would just be crying over spilt milk....

How did we get on this topic anyway?  Oh, that's right! I found these slayer dwarf command figs in my coat pocket!  Wooooo Hooooooo!!!

Warmachine and Dust Bunnies

Hi Kids,  Super B (aka Bryan) and I decided to get some of the lead out last Sunday, and the perfect game for us (due to ease of play, ease of transportation, ease of terrain, and ease of dice) was WARMACHINE!  Yes, they tell us we can't just type Warmachine. Its gotta be all capitals.  And who am I to argue? I don't agree with Check Your Six! either.  Why not just use Check Your Six without the exclamation point?  Go figure. Anyway, turns out we had a free afternoon so I headed over to Wargames West (aka Super B's house) in Elkin NC for some weight lifting. With Khador, it can be a lotta weight!

 I'm the first to admit these pictures suck, they were taken with a ten year old cellphone since I forgot to bring along my camera.  Bummer, huh?  So this is the army I choose; Scorcha (as we pronounce it), a Jugg, a Destroyer, a Demolisher, a Behemoth and a Kovnik. Had to use my gal Scorcha, that mini is the only reason I bought into this freakin' game at all!  (When this game first came out the only way to get her around here was to buy an army starter of her and two jacks. I thought the Khador jacks looked silly, but after six months gave in and had to have Scorcha!  Anyway, the jacks grew on me and I ended up buying about $1000 of PP stuff.  Last thing I bought was a Khador Colossus for $100!) This was the baptism of fire for my Behemoth, it's been sitting in the basement for about 5 years, the last one or two painted.  Yes, I know those are the wrong guns on the Behemoth. He came without them, and PP wanted about $18.00 shipping to replace them, so I just got some guns that were lying around and made do.



Here we have a shot of the final moments of the game, when my opponent's warcaster got body slammed by the Demolisher and about 3 bombard shots.  You can see the Demo's path of destruction through the unit of infantry. Huzzah!!! Remember there are only two rules in life; 1: Never get between a hippo and the river, and 2: Never get within 7.5 inches of a Khador jack!

Here we have a similar shot of the end of the second game, where my opponent's warcaster got crushed by the Jugg.  Cowabunga!!!

Turns out Warmachine (yeah, I'm a rebel, no caps!) wasn't that easy to transport as three of my jacks were broken in transit, and not so easy to play due to some cards I lost.  And as far as ease of dice, I doubt if Super B would agree on that score.  (I already checked, PP wants $9.83 shipping to replace the $1.50 worth of missing cards!  Sheesh!  Wonder what their profit margin might be...)  I'm gonna have to search the Basement of Heaped Minis for the damn things!

Cold Steel at Gamers Armory in Cary North Carolina

Hi Kids, Last weekend was another game day in the RDU NC area.  The RDU lads chose a Saturday at random intervals to get together and play a few games, this time the chosen locale was Gamer's Armory in Cary. About 12 of the lads showed up for the games, while there were about the same number of other guys playing other stuff like 40K, Warmachine, Battletech, Infinity, or Magic.

 The Bitter End for the Illustrious. Massive wings of torpedo bombers send the 50 hit point carrier to a watery grave!  The guys told me this 1/300 carrier had never been sunk in 4 previous games.  All I can tell ya is they must not have had the same overwhelming mix of Axis bombers those other times, cause even though I was rolling hot with my 4 Seafires there were about 25 bombers lined up to blow that boat clean outta the water!  The Illustrious went down so fast half the bombers didn't even have a target!  Rats!

 Some of the kids playing all sorts of fun stuff!

 The other side of the room.  They're setting up a Napoleonics game back there.

Gamer's Armory, a spiffy store in Cary NC.  If you haven't been there yet, go and check it out!  They even offer discounts!  I got $10 as the "gamer who drove the farthest."  (About 95 miles each way, in case you're wondering.)

 The massive air wing waiting to buzz the tower. 1/300 aircraft.  Rules: Black Cross Blue Sky, IIRC.

 Of the 8 defending Seafires, my bud's 4 take on a squadron of Ju-87's.  I think they shot down about 3 of them.

 Looping in behind the Huns!  Engine critical damage shown by yellow pipe cleaner.  Take that Jerry!

Some captured Beauforts serve Il Duce!



My lads close in for the kill at wavetop height! Critical hits-a-go-go as I smack 'em down with a fuel tank hit which blows up a plane and a cockpit hit on another! Too bad it couldn't last!

3rd, 4th, 5th groups of bad guys jockey for position to get in the killing blow! Sm79's, Ju-88's, oh dear!  My four Seafires have already been crushed by the defensive firepower of the torpedo bombers and the 15 or so escorting fighters. And I did manage to shoot down about 4 or so attacking planes! Those Stuka's were too slow to make it to the party.

Still a damn fun game though!

 A nearby ancients game, 25mm Teutonic Knights vs. Pre-Commies.

 Unwashed masses?

Or Knights Templar?  It's just like a salad bar, take what you like and leave the rest!

 After all that WW2 naval action, lets set the WayBack Machine for the 12th Century!  Time for some Cogs!  Nothing can maneuver like a Cog!  No worries about tide, wind, currents, any of that crap!  These boats are just too powerful to worry about that stuff!  Here's my Bengal Tigers boat!

 Jockeying for stern rakes?  Why bother, we don't have any cannon!  Just get closer and smack em with a sword!

 Closer, I said!

My poor Cog was the first to get boarded, and my crew promptly forgot how to swing a sword.  Bummer!  Although my team attempts to save me, its too late!  Is that a storm on the horizon?  Or just some gamer moving too fast to be seen?  Maybe that's why his rolls were so hot...

 Let's finish up with some shots of the store.  They play Advanced Squad Leader every Monday night, boardgames, every Wednesday night.  I forget what happens every Tuesday, but it was fun!

 ASL?  Oh yes!  More than I realized existed!

 Flames of War?  Got that!  I picked up Barbarosa for $18.00!  SCORE!!!! They had about 4 racks of this stuff, including Fate of a Nation and Vietnam!

 Don't have a copy yourself?  Loaner games!  WOW!

 Holy Cow, a game of Carnage and Glory Napoleonics!

 Store terrain!   Remember what I said about the salad bar?

 Don't know what this thing is, but its pretty honkin big!  Warmachine Colossus!

Old School Battletech!

Stores like the Gamer's Armory remind me how lucky those stiffs in Raleigh truly are!  Here in the Black Hole of Culture 95 miles away we don't have anything like this!