PIP (FOW); Back to Bases

The basing problems at the Dominion of Steel event brought me back to my current FOW project namely creating a Herman Goering (HG) panziergrenadiers company.  I have a love/hate relationship with the Germans in FOW particular around painting/modelling. It started with the SS panziergrenadiers apparently their camo pattern is Pea-dot and it is considered one of the hardest camo scheme to paint. I didn’t fancy that in 15mm so I went for one of their alternative which turned out to be really hard to do in 15mm. Laborious and time consuming are not words I like to use about the hobby but that’s what painting the SS guys was. When it was over it was a “thank &*^% for that moment”.  

The HG guys are going the same way this time it’s about the bases. FOW and to a lesser extent WHFB offer a great opportunity to go to town on the models bases to create little narratives /storys /displays. I forked out and got some of Kerr and Kings urban bases to create an image of the HG battle worn company fighting in the ruins of town somewhere in ww2. The models are great the bases are cool the problem is getting the little guys on to the bases. If I use a snips I damage the model but it is quick if I use saw the model is safe but it takes ages to cut off the base.  Plus filling in the gaps with green stuff doesn’t seem like it will last on a games table.  Here is what I have so far.

 

Company HQ with AT section.

 1st platoon

 2nd platoon

40k (WIP); extra armour

Extra Armour

With the Dark Eldar Codex out with their numerous fliers the Old Breed are getting some much needed Anti Air support in the form of a third Hydra.  And since someone asked how I made the extra armour for one of the Breed's manticore I thought I might as well put some extra armour on the hydra and do a tutorial on how it was done.

Materials

0.5 mm thick plastic card (real thin, almost like paper)

1 mm thick patterned plastic (I used 4mm tile card)

I beam plastic strips (optional)

Sharp Knife

Steel Ruler

Pencil/ graph paper

Imperial eagle bits from the IG vehicle sprue.

Method;

Before doing anything I did a bit of research on different types of extra armour, browsed the internet looking at historical and gaming sites where vehicles had extra armour looking for a interesting pattern for the armour. In the end I went for WW2 schutzen based on the FOW German panzers. I used the pattern because I had already done something similar with some of my FOW tanks and because it did not have a right or left side so when I do inevitable mix up the left and right sides it won't matter too much.

Using the ruler I measured the side of the hydra. The measurement where transferred to the graph paper. The pattern was then drawn on the paper. Once satisfied, the pattern was cut out of the paper to form a template. For a reality check the template was placed on the hydra side to ensure the fit looked good.

The template was then transferred on to the thin 0.5mm plastic card and drawn twice. The two new templates were then cut out.

The paper template was then transferred to the back of the textured card and drawn twice. The new templates were then cut out.

To make the armour a bit more interesting a section in the centre of the textured cards was cut out to fit in the imperial eagle.

Plastic templates

The textured template was glue on to the thin card template and the imperial eagle was glued into the gap in the textured template. The edges of the templates was trimmed to make them a better fit.

   

All the parts gluded together

 

To attach the armour to the rivets from the hydra's side skirt were shaved off and the thin card side was glued to the levelled side skirts. Alternatively the side skirts could have been removed all together and I beam strips could have been used as spacers.

finished extra armour

Sitrep (40K); Dominion day three

Dominion day III

round one Vs Jan Karnowski (aka roadkill)
mission; annihilation
deployment; Spearhead

Jan's army army consisted of
HQ1 : 1 Big Mek (35) kustom force field (50) - [85 pts]
HQ2 : 1 Weirdboy (55) Warphead upgrade (30) - [85 pts]
Troop 1 : 30 Boyz (30x6) 3 big shoota (3x5) Nob (10) power klaw (25) bosspole (5) - [235 pts]
Troop 2 : 30 Boyz (30x6) 2 big shoota (2x5) Nob (10) power klaw (25) bosspole (5) - [230 pts]
Troop 3 : 30 Boyz (30x6) 3 rokkit launcha (3x10) Nob (10) power klaw (25) bosspole (5) - [250 pts]
Troop 4 : 30 Boyz (30x6) 3 rokkit launcha (3x10) Nob (10) Power klaw (25) bosspole (5) - [250 pts]
Troop 5 : 10 Gretchin (10x3) Runtherd (10) - [40 pts]
Troop 6 : 1 Deff Dread (75) 2 Skorcha (2x5) grot riggers (5) armour plates (10) - [100 pts]
FA : 2 Warbuggies (2x30) 2 twin-linked rokkit launcha (2x5) – [70 pts]
HS1: 3 Killa Kans (3x35) 3 grotzooka (3x10) - [135 pts]
HS2: 3 Killa Kans (3x35) 3 grotzooka (3x10) - [135 pts]
HS3: 3 Killa Kans (3x35) 3 grotzooka (3x10) - [135 pts]

This was a grudge match with Jan looking for pay back for the beating he got at Gaelcon. We decided to play annihilation regardless of the actual mission for the round since this seemed to be to only proper way for Orks to settle their disagreement, Fortunately the first mission rolled was annihilation so we could get down to the scrap with minimum fuss. Scott was trying out his Orks for the first time and was on the table beside us commented he was looking for tips on how to use the Orks properly. Considering my plan and Jan's plan involved rushing forward and pummeling each other, I'm not sure what kind of tips he picked up :)
Jan deployed behind his Kan wall while the real boyz deployed behind their buggy wall.  The game started well with the real boyz stealing the initiative and rolling forward. In response the fake boyz shuffled about and generally acted like grots while the Kans advanced creating gap in the lines. The battle wagons rolled in and destroyed a couple of kans but this time the wall held. A forlorn hope sally killed the big mek and Weirdboy at the cost of a warboss and a unit of orks. The fake orks surviving kans scuffled about while their boyz stumbled forward. The deff rollas hit the kan wall again this destroying all the walkerz bar one. Unfortunately this meant they moved less than 6" Jan declared a Waaagh and 150+ attack later all the wagons were toasted.  This left three big mobs of fake Orks bunched up ie a burnas boyz wet dream. Eleven template weapons fired and toasted 60+ boyz much to Jan's disgust and my amusement. The survivors attacked the burna boyz and meganobs and wiped them out.  The game end in a draw with both sides on eight kill points. I would have liked another turn to bag the last killa kan but we were out of time.

round Two Vs Scott(aka copycat)
mission; seize ground
deployment; Dawn of War

Scott's army consisted of
HQ1: Warboss(60), Eavy Armour(5), Big Choppa(5), Attack squiq(15), Bosspole(5), Cybork Body(10)-[100]
HQ2: Big Mech(35), Cybork Body(10), Kustom Force Field(50)-[95]
Elite1: Nobz in Dedicated Transport 1- [310]
Nob A - Painboy(50), Cybork Body(5)
Nob B - Nob(20), Cybork body(5),PowerKlaw(25),Bosspole(5)
Nob C - Nob(20), Cybork Body(5), PowerKlaw(25)
Nob D - Nob(20), Cybork Body(5), PowerKlaw(25), Waaagh Banner(15)
Nob E - Nob(20), Cybork Body(5), Bosspole(5)
Nob F - Nob(20),Cybork Body(5)
Nob G - Nob(20) , Cybork Body(5),Kombi Shoota,scorcha(5)
Elite 2: 8x Burnas-[120]
Troop 1: Nobz in Dedicated Transport 2- [310]
Nob A - Painboy(50), Cybork Body(5)
Nob B - Nob(20), Cybork body(5),PowerKlaw(25),Bosspole(5)
Nob C - Nob(20), Cybork Body(5), PowerKlaw(25)
Nob D - Nob(20), Cybork Body(5), PowerKlaw(25), Waaagh Banner(15)
Nob E - Nob(20), Cybork Body(5), Bosspole(5)
Nob F - Nob(20),Cybork Body(5)
Nob G - Nob(20) , Cybork Body(5),Kombi Shoota,scorcha(5)
Troop 2 : 20x Ard Boyz(200)- Nob(10), Bosspole(5), PowerKlaw(25)-[240]
Heavy 1 : Battlewagon(90), Armour Plates(10), Deff Rolla(20), Grabbin Klaw(5), Grot Rigger(5), Red Paint Job(5), Stikkbomb Chukka(5), 1x Big Shoota(5)- [145]
Heavy 2 : Battlewagon(90), Armour Plates(10), Deff Rolla(20), Grot Riggers(5), 1x Big Shoota(5)- [130]
Dedicated Transport 1 : Battlewagon(90), Armour Plates(10), Deff Rolla(20), Grabbin Klaw(5), Grot Rigger(5), Red Paint Job(5), Stikkbomb Chukka(5), 2x Big Shoota(10)- [150]
Dedicated Transport 2 : Battlewagon(90), Armour Plates(10), Deff Rolla(20), Grabbin Klaw(5), Grot Rigger(5), Red Paint Job(5), Stikkbomb Chukka(5), 2x Big Shoota(10)- [150]

Scott's army was dictated by what he could paint in time and what was the exact opposite of his Tau army. Scott won the roll and opted to roll on turn one with all his wagons grouped around the big mek. In response the real boyz rolled on in two groups the first was the wagons grouped around the Big Mek. The second was the buggies of to one flank. Night fighting and Bs2 meant nothing much happened in the first turn.  Scott continued to roll forward.  The buggies swooped in trying to get side shots on his wagons with no effect. The response was typical Ork with the fake ork wagons deff rolling the buggies destroying eight of the nine vehicles. However, the buggies sacrifice was not in vain since the fake Orks were in deff rolls range of the real Orks. One battle wagon was destroyed by a deff rolla attack while the warboss and a nob bagged another two in close combat. With Scott boyz losing most of their mobility things were looking grim. His nobz destroyed a wagon before between tank shock and deff rollas they were destroyed.  His remaining wagon decided to go down fighting and destroyed another wagon before his entire force  was wiped out.

round one Vs Shane (aka emperors champion)
mission; capture and control
deployment; pitched battle

Shane's army consisted,
Emperor's Champion - 140, Accept Any Challenge
Sword Brethren Terminator Squad - 215, 5x Terminators, Furious Charge, 2x TH/SS, 3x LC,
Sword Brethren Terminator Squad - 215, 5x Terminators, Furious Charge, 2x TH/SS, 3x LC
Dreadnought - 173, Venerable, Tank Hunter, ML, TL Lascannon, Smoke, EA
Crusader Squad - 105,5x Initiates,Meltagun, Powerfist, w/ Rhino, EA, Smoke, Searchlight - 59
Crusader Squad - 105, 5x Initiates, Meltagun, Powerfist,w/ Rhino EA, Smoke, Searchlight - 59
Crusader Squad - 91, 5x Initiates, Flamer, Frag Grenades, LRC - 294, Blessed Hull, Smoke, Searchlight
LRC - 294, Blessed Hull, Smoke, Searchlight

Shane was looking for pay back for Conclave. The last time we fought he used tactics and points denial to suffer a 15-5 loss. This time he was up for a scrap. The terminators/landraiders deployed on his objective opposite the battlewagons, while the dreadnought deployed the opposite flank trying to get a side shot. Turn one saw the battle wagons and landraiders move towards each other while the buggies duelled with the dreadnought.  The buggies immobilised the dread at a loss of two buggies they then spent the rest of the game trying to shoot it in back and failed miserably. The wagons hit the landraiders destroying one before a wagon was destroyed by Thunderhammers.  The burna boyz went in and took out a squad of terminators before the second squad destroyed them.  The mega nobs broke though the line and destroyed a newly arrived squad of initiates.  The boyz swarmed the surviving terminators to bring them down with sheer weight of attacks.  The game ended in forty minutes with the boyz holding both objectives.

The day ended with the real Orks tied on battle points Jan's fake Orks at 45 battle points for third/fourth place. It came down to Vp's ie who had done the most damage on the day. Happily the real orks were more desturctive and picked up a bonus prize for most destructive army as well as a spot prize for quickest victory.

Overall the day was a good 'un but driving up and down on the same day was a pain in the ass next time I'm going to over night either the day before or after and hopifully get a christmas shop in as well.


(what, no pics? In a stroke of genius I forgot to bring the camera with me. Its shame one of the best images of the day was were real Orks fought the fake orks on round one. There was a line in the centre of the table were the two armies met with wrecked walkerz, wagons and 150+ boyz beating the tar out of each while the rest of the table was untouched)

Sitrep; Gaelcon 2010

Game one: Vs Dave O’Leary (Aka Farseer Dave) Blood Angels

Spearhead Deployment. 5 objectives to be captured. One objective is placed in the centre of each table quarter and one in the centre.

Dave's army consisted of

Mesphsion

1 terminator (thunderhammer/storm sheild)

3 squads of bikes

3 10 squads of assualt marines or vets

Dave's blood angels, now in white, 

Three dice in a line what stage of the game was this at?

Dave got the first turn and used combat squads his marines to maximise the number of scoring units while terminators opted to go in reserve. The blood angels advance behind a screen of two bike squads while the third bike squad tried to out flank. The Orks responded by running over the bike screen before deploying a mob of orks to finish them off. A couple of rocket buggies tagged some bikes before the mob finished them and redeployed to screen the rest of the orks from a marine counter attack. The terminator reinforcements joined the out flank bike squad while mesphison and two squads when after some buggies that were trying to outflank to get a marine scoring unit. The rest of the blood angels charged into the screening Orc mob which predictably was wiped out. With all the marine units in play it was Waaagh time.  The burna boyz, an Ork mob and two battle wagons went after the out flankers, destroying them easily. Ghaz and the mega nobs took out the marine units that had destroyed the first mob. While the buggies made "phew phew" noises at Mesphsion battle group whittling down the numbers. By turn three/four it was pretty much over with the Orcs holding several objectives with all the marines bar Mesphison dead. Mesphison clawed some pride back killing Ghaz and destroying a battle wagon.

Centre objective just after the bike squads had gone to meet Sanguinius.

Game two: Vs Micheal Tangley's (aka eldritchstormer or nuts, its Mike) Eldar

Dawn of war deployment.. Annihilation (actually it was a modified annilation mission with two kill points need for a win)

Mike's army consisted of,

Panzies, lots of them

Eldard

Seer council

2 Fire prisms

2 Fire dragon squads

1 Falcon

1 wave seprent

1 bike squad

2 gaurdian squads

1 harle squad

Space Wolf thunder wolves.

Mike deployed two guardian squads in buildings while the orks all opted to roll on at turn one (except the grots which were told to stay in reserve for as long as possible then find a corner and hide in it). The Orks rumbled on trying to keep as much of their front Av14 armour between them and the Eldar. The Eldar unsportingly started using tactics to try to snipe the buggies and worked around to the sides of the wagons. A turn two assault bagged a guardian squad while the rest of the orks worked on herding the Eldar into a table corner. Eldar reinforcements arrived and were funnelled into one flank. The rest of the game was mostly manoeuvring with both sides trying to set up good match the Orc lost a couple of squads while the Eldar did the same. The highlight was probably one of the buggy squadron being reducing to a single weapon less immobilised buggy which took fire for several turns and did not die. While Ghaz battlewagon pulled off a long bomb deff rolling a fire prism to deff and destroying a guardian squad in the following assault to bag the win.

Game three: Vs Osisin Mac Cormick Daemon

Pitched Battle deployment, Seize Ground (3 objectives)

Peter Scott's landraider starts taking damage, lots of damage

Osisin;s Army consisted of,

Bloodthirster

Great unclean one

2 Soul grinders

Blood crushers

2 squads of Seekers

3 squads of plague bearers

Orks and Daemons don't get on, the Daemons can do what the Orks can do but are better at it while the best defence against daemons is shooting not exactly an ork strength. The plan was to kill all the scoring units while trying to keep one of the Ork ones alive.  Alas it was not to be. The assaults went in and killed all bar one of the plague bearers while in response the orks were pretty eaten alive. Towards the end there were only five buggies left against a sh*t load of daemons the buggies went after the last plague bearer for a losing draw three of them crashed while the other two missed before being eaten by blood crusher. With the army wiped out the orks had their first set back.

The last sight for many of the boyz :(

Game four: Vs the Usurper (aka Richard flood :) )

Pitched Battle deployment, Capture and Control

Floody's army consisted of

Fate weaver

2 Daemon princes

1 Bloodthirster (I hate that guy)

Blood crushers

2 squads of Seekers

3 squads of plague bearers

Daemon again

Great, daemons again. This time the Orks won the initiative and let them go first. The game started grim the Orks arrived okay but two battle wagons was lost to long bomb shots. With half the mobility of the army gone it was time for some slick manoeuvring, everything charged forward hoping to shoot or punch something in combat. The result did not go well against the blood crushers or daemons. However, the turn counter was ticking down. A sneaky Waaagh put a single mek boy is contest range of the daemon objective while the mega nobs stomped on to the Ork objective. With the Mek boy in need of a new pair pants the game end. Sometimes it is better to be luck then good :)

Guard with necron heads, not bad at all.

Game Five: Vs Jan's Ork

Dawn of War deployment, Seize Ground (5 objectives)

Jan's army consisted of

Orcs, lots of them

Killa kans, lots of them

DEff dread

Big mek

Weirdboyz

2 buggies

From a distance Jan's orks looked like grots :)

Jan opted to deploy two mobs in buildings with the rest of the mobs rolling on. In reply the real Orks rolled on in battlewagons.  The battlewagons moved forwards screened by buggies while the fake orks skulked in buildings and generally acted like grots. On turn three there was the first real clash with the battlewagons running over the killa kans while the real orks dismounted and started to beat-up the fake orks. Because there were a lot of them this took a while by the end of the game most of the fake orcs were dead or fleeing

Game six: Vs Merv's space wolves

Spearhead deployment, Annihilation

Merv's list consisted of,

3 long fang packs

2 rune priests

2 thunder wolf dudes

3 grey hunter packs

1 squadron of speeeders

1 pack of scouts.

Merv deployed his long fangs in his cover with the rune priests and a thunder wolf dude everything else went into reserve.  In respond the Orks packed their deploy zone with battle wagons and buggies.  Turn one saw the buggies and battle wagons advance into a torrent of fire destroying several buggies. The speeders and scouts showed up only to be deff rolla'd or assaulted.  The battle wagons took damage and could not get into assault range of the long fangs.  The game ended in a stalemate with Merv popping a battle wagon at the end just to annoy the Orks.

Overall the Orks came ninth with four wins, one draw and one loss. The event itself was great but I'm not keen on the annihilation modification it adds more pain than gain to the event and defeats the purposes of the annihilation mission. It should be a win loss result changing the margin need for a win means a draw is more likely which is not what is wanted for a final round of an event. Plus players tend to forget slight in-game event changes like victory conditions or unique deployments when they do forget and win/lose as a result in can be a bone of contention.

 

Sit Rep (40K); 40K at NWG 2010

So the dust has started to settle and the results are up on rankingHQ. How did Gorey's first 40K, and Ireland's first Forgeworld friendly event, go?

Wargamesfactory great coats make their debut (and the squad gets wiped out)

What went right;

The Craic

Hard to quantify, mercurial to capture I think the craic at NWG was awesome. I have been to nearly every event this year and NWG was one of the ones I laughed the most at. I'm not sure if it was because I was ref’ing therefore checking to see how folks were doing or if the fact all the players had travelled and so were stuck in the venue for the weekend. Everybody seemed keen to game I had little or no rules queries, none that lasted longer a minute.

Free stuff

I liked the idea of free gaming aids to players. The original idea was one of the 6" templates that Gale Force Nine offer but with the NWG logo printed on the sides. Time and budget hit that on the head.  The vehicle wreck markers are pretty cool, useful and hopefully when people use them they will remember the fun they had at NWG.

Forgeworld

Strangely enough the world did not end when FW made its first appearance at an event.  In fact it was a rather timid entry with only two players opting to bring FW, the rest when with their tried and test lists. If it doesn't ruin the game should it still be banned? I don't think so, better for players have an excuse to use their cool models as intended then be told they are not allowed.

The bounty hunter and challenges

I like the idea of a bounty hunter prize offered for whoever beats the highest ranking player attending its a small gesture that adds a bit of fun to proceedings if its cost me a pint that’s fine.  The challenges were not part of the original plan. Jan suggested it when he was after the bounty hunter prize I thought it was brilliant idea. I think next year I would like to allow challenges for round one.  It’s a random round i.e. I don't particularly care who plays who and if I can make two players happy on the first round things are off to a good start.

 

Mark Frew's assualt terminator squad is considerably larger than a standard terminator assualt squad.

The venue

The hotel hall with bar is a big plus and it distinguishes NWG from a college run con.  That said it comes with an increased priced tag.  I would love to figure a way to separate the quality and price link. I know the Northern Waster piggy back their events in a rugby club and get to use the hall at a lower cost there must be something similar down south. That said how much extra would people be willing to pay for a cool location (in the US they have an event in a disused WWII aircraft carrier I would pay top dollar for that).

Paul (right) wonders why he did not take any blast weapons agnaist Jan's horde o' orcs

Areas for improvement;

-Comms

I need to work on the comms.  I like the idea of having all the relevant details on a single source like the W-ired forum. The down side not all the players may frequent the forum some may miss posts. I'm not sure how many players were aware of a post on W-ired for feedback asking how many rounds they would like to play using random rather than Swiss so they could avoid club mates in the early stages. Most votes went for 2-3 rounds, I picked two to be on the safe side but this should have been communicated better.

-Ref'ing

Being a one man show sucks. If Mike T had not have covered Saturday morning or the players less easy going things could have gone bad.  The ref/ringer is a no winner role. As a ringer you are being distracted by rules queries and generally looking around to make sure everything is going okay, in effect frequently interrupting your opponent's game.  As a ref you are under pressure to get a quick fix for everything since you have an opponent sitting around waiting for you to return to the table. I'm not keen on giving a player a bye to the next round he has paid his money so is entitled to his five games. Next time I think there will be a couple more refs floating about. 

-Pairings

I wonder if there is way to do the pairings better, keep it Swiss chess but try to incorporate a don't play club mates/past opponents offset.  Swiss chess is based on a win/lose model it doesn't do draws or see a sliding scale for results.  I wonder how far players can move up and down the scale without affecting the quality of the game. I think that is up to the players to decide.

  

IG face of aganist Bruce's Tau.

The highlights;

A couple of things will stick in my mind from NWG,

·                     Jan's mind games on Paul the night before their table one game.

·                     Gary offering to concede his final round game if his opponent could take out his Inquisitor lord.

·                     Kevin's perplexed look when Ralph's Nightbringer started to eat into his lines.

·                     John's shout for joy when his cauestus finally survived its frist, and only, game.

·                     Bruce's Tau text book deep strike defence against David's Daemons.

·                     Shane's tortured look when he realised he forgot to charge in a Black Templers squad into combat against an Orc mob in round five.

·                     Scott and Rowan's show down after spending the night before slagging each other.

·                     Patrick's look of anguish when his deep striking Land Raider suffered a second deep strike mishap taking 600+ points of units howling into the warp.

 

Gary (right) issues his challenge.

 

Rowan gets his frist ever win angaist Scott's tau.

Thanks to Paul, luke,Jan, Ralph, Gary, Shane, Rowan, Jonny, Kevin, John, Scott, Bruce, Alan, Mark, Patrick, David, Jason, Kieran, Mike and Nigel.

Mission Critical (FOW); Norvo bridge

Norov;  Somewhere on the Eastern Front in 1944

Design note: this game was drafted to introduce a new player to the rules for recon units in FOW

Introduction;
Kampgruppe O'Donnell is once more into the fray, this time they have been ordered to secure the Norov bridge. Without any tank support the grenadiers must rely on armoured reconnaissance units to clear the path.

The Protagonists;
Kampgruppe O'Donnell
Reconnaissance force
Armoured car platoon (1 sd Kfz 223+2 sdKfz 222)
Armoured car platoon (2 sdKfz 231)

Main force
Company HQ (panzerfaust+jeep)
Aufklarang platoon (3 squads with HMG on motorbikes)
Aufklarang platoon (3 squads with HMG in trucks)
Motorised heavy platoon (2 HMG squads* and a mortar squad in trucks)
AA platoon (2 sdKfz10/5)
Pioneer platoon (3 sections in trucks)
*One of the HMG squads has been attached to the Aufklarang platoons

The Russians
Reconnaissance force
1st light armoured car platoon (4 BA-64 2 with anti rifles)
2nd  light armoured car platoon (4 BA-64 2 with anti rifles)

Main force
battalion HQ (in jeeps with attached DshK AA platoon)
1st Motostrekolky company (2 platoons+1 HMG in trucks)
2nd Motostrekolky company (2 platoons+1 HMG in trucks)
5th Mortar company (2 platoons in trucks)
2nd Sapper company (1 platoon in trucks)

Deployment;
See map.
Neither side starts the game with any forces in play.  Roll to decide who goes first.
The Reconnaissance forces start in reserve. The Russians enter from point A while the Germans enter from point B. The main forces are in delayed reserve.  Randomly determine which units arrive.

 

Special rules
There are no special rules for this mission

Victory conditions;
The first side to capture and hold the Norvo bridge with a combat platoon (Motostrekolky for the Russians and Aufklarang for the Germans is the winner). The game last for 6 turns starting from when the last combat platoon from both sides arrives after which it is declared a draw.

Below are some of the random, out of sequence but looking good, in game photos of the Norvo battle.

German advance on Norvo.

While to the east russian recon advances on the same objective.

Russian advanced viewed from Norvo bridge

Russian main body arrives

Russian recon clashes with German AA platoon while trying to cut the german road to Norvo

While the second platoon comes under fire from the German recon platoon.

1st Motostrekolky deploys to cpature the bridge

2nd armoured car platoon is destroyed by german fire.

1st armoured car platoon fianlly destroys the AA platoon protecting the german road into Norvo

And then goes after the motorbike Aufklarang platoon

Russian and German forces start to get serious around the village.

With the German recon platoon just holding on to the last building.

.

The corn feild beside the german road become a vechicle wreck yard with both sides vechicles burning in it

View from Norov bridge as the Russians try to take the village.

The last remaining russian armoured car finally works its way in to the German rear.

Under pressure the German recon platoons finally clear the village of russian forces. To bad neither side had any remaining scoring units :)

WIP/PIP; Guard reinforcements

At last, after year since wargames factory asked if I wanted alternative imperial guard models, they have finally arrived and are ready to go. For nearly the same price as the GW imperial guard squad I get eighteen dudes in three different poses with attachable arms and heads. The poses and heads are good if somewhat limited, the weapons are a bit crap (imo).

Assembly:

The bodies are clipped and cleaned.
GW guard arms and Pig iron heads were posed with blu tac to get some idea of what poses could be done.
Because there was a limited number of poses in some case the bodies were cut off at the waist and repositioned.
Once happy with the overall pose the arms and heads were glued in in some case green stuff was used to fill in gaps,
Micro art backs packs and GW and micro art belt accessorise were added to give the models a veteran look.

Painting

As painting challenge the plan was to paint the new recruits to match the existing guard army ie green and tan but in the style of certain renaissance painter (there is a small prize if someone actually figures out who).

The models were base coated AP bestial brown.
The great coats were painted V olive drab.
The belts and boots were painted G bestial brown.
The armour, guns were painted V russian green.
The Back pack was apinted V khaki.
The masks were painted GW snakebiteleather
The lens were painted V luffewaffe uniforms.
The models were given a coat of army medium tone then varnished.
The lens were then painted GW 'ard coat.

AP= army painter

GW= games workshop

V= Vallejo