Just Cruising.....

Continuing with the Dystopian Wars theme, here are my three Cruisers, HMS Colossus, HMS Warspite and HMS Vanguard.

Not the greatest of pictures, but you get the idea. Hulls are a lovely shade of rusted Battleship Grey! More pics later on today hopefully, my camera just ran out of charge.

In terms of the game, the Kingdom of Brittania cruisers are underwhelming. They have two main turrets which have the same firepower as battleships, torpedo ports and a broadside capability. However, they sink anytime anyone looks at them funny. To prevent that, they have the option of a shield generator, which comes in place of one of their primary turrets- but to my mind, losing a primary turret means they become altogether more useless. So these three all have both turrets, and damn the consequences!

I am also looking forward to our proper Market Garden game next week (Oct 1st). My force will be representing the various ersatz Luftwaffe kampfgruppen, hastily thrown together in an attempt at blocking the allied advance around Nijmegen. So, it will be a challenge! I will be defending the centre of the table against both the 101st and the 82nd Airborne divisions, and holding out until the SS can counter-attack. All this with Reluctant Trained troops; assure the Furher that my old men and boys from the flak batteries will hold!

I hope.....

Next on the painting table is more Dystopian Wars ships, I am hoping to get enough done to start having some games in a week or two! Plus there are a few more things I need to sort for my Luftwaffe...

CP

6 Day Para Challenge- The end...

So, the challenge has finished last night, when we had our practice Market Garden Total War game.

The table itself was suitable massive, representing from JOE's bridge, right to Arnhem, with Nimejen and Eindhoven in between. The Welsh guards started at the bottom right of that shot, and their goal was to cover the 12 feet to link up with the Paratroopers. So how did the game go? For the allies- poorly.

This was the best that the Welsh Guards looked all game, from here, those nasty Fallschrimjager of Jason did nasty nasty things to the poor tankers.

As for Arnhem? Well.. the british paratroopers didn't have enough troops to hold of a massive Grenadier Horde (von Tettau), and so eventually capitulated.

As for the middle? Well, the 82nd achieved all of their objectives!

First objective secured after some house to house fighting!

The inevitable German counter attack- which was met by the might of the Beep Beeps! 50 cals do nasty nasty things to halftracks- actually to that end, so do Paratroopers with gammon bombs....

The Beep Beeps, holding the centre of Nimejen.

Well, the challenge is over, my Paratroopers are painted. Well, 1200 points of them are! I need to adda few things to both them, and to my Guards Rifles. But... I don't really want to do another challenge for a while, that was too many late nights painting.....

Thats the whole lot of them! So, none of that was painted this time last week....

CP

Para challenge 5 -end in sight!

Another day, another update!

But no pictures this time, mainly because I have very little to show for myself. The painting challenge goes on, and I am still not done.

I got a good bit of painting done last night a jason's, which puts my final platoon at about half finished. They are inked and based, but the highlight colours need to be done. Which means? A good few more hours to go. Luckily I think I will have time to finish them off after work!

So hopefully a better, picture filled success update tonight, then pics of the game tommorrow!

CP

6 Day Para Challenge 4- Finishing stuff to make me feel better...

Well, as the title says, rather than start new things and get me to being at the point of having lots of works in progress (like last update), I thought that I would actually get something fully done and dusted! So by something, I mean I managed to get my first Parachute Platoon based, along with my Company HQ, along with the Mortar platoon and along with Beep Beeps.

So a mildly blurry morning shot of last nights efforts! This just leaves me with 11 stands from my 2nd para platoon to finish, the only issue being I haven't even started painting them, or based them, or really done anything other than stick them onto a base. Oh well, 2 nights to get them done!

Actually, seeing that photo makes me feel alot better!

Beep beep I am in the lead?

Teams Completed: 29
Teams WIP: 0
Teams to Start: 11

CP

6 Day Para Challenge 3- Beep Beep!

Well, I managed to get a good few hours of painting in last night; and the question you are all asking, how much is finished? Well... nothing.... but I have one full platoon and my company HQ ready to base (I just haven't worked out how I am going to do that yet), my mortars are about an hour away from done, as is my Airborne Recon Platoon.

Enough talk, more pics.

There is the army as a whole, 2 Para platoons, one painted one not, the Company HQ with attached bazooka, and the 4 tube mortar platoon at the back.

And this is the Airborne Recon Platoon- with the crew out on the bases so they get painted properly, with the armoured bathtubs in the background. The jeeps were a bit of a pain to assemble, the armour plate comes in 3 very fiddly parts, but now that they are done, I really like them! They are basically Universal Carriers but Fearless, with armour 0 all around, and armed with a .50cal, these guys should be awesome!

Right. Plan for today? Go to work. After that? Finish the mortars and Recon, base the 2nd para platoon so I can start painting them tommorow....

Not much right?

CP

6 Day Para Challenge 2- Paint!

Well, I took a very important first step yesterday into completing this challenge, I actually bought everything I am going to paint!

So, along with that, I began with getting the whole first platoon based, and the second at least glued to their bases. I wasn't really sure how I was going to paint them, so when it came time to paint the first platoon there were some definite teething issues, with me having to go back and cover up issues etc. Not ideal, but probably was always going to happen!

So, the question of course is, how much did I get done yesterday? As always, not as much as I had hoped! I managed to get half of the first platoon basically done, barring their bases, and a little touch up on their faces, which I only realised I needed to do this morning when I looked at them.... As well as that, the rest of the platoon, plus the Company HQ is about half way done, I should be able to knock them off before lunch!

So, thats the first platoon at its current stage, half done!

Today's goal? Get everything assembled, and hopefully get to work on the Mortars and the Jeeps- as well as finishing the first platoon!

Teams Finished:     0
Teams WIP:          16
Teams to Start:      24

That counter depresses me slightly.....

CP

6 Day Para Challenge- Madness?

A local at the club has been pushing doing a big game of FOW to represent the Market Garden campaign in September of 1944. It was (at that point) the most adventurous airborne operation, a mission which had a vital time schedule and what turned out to be unrealistic goals.

The main allies were the British Paras which landed and held the bridge at Arnhem (that was the one which was too far), the 101st Airborne which was tasked with capturing the bridges at Eindhoven, the 82nd Airborne which captured Nijmegen, and finally 30 Corps, which was rolling up the road captured by the Airborne troops.

So, we had many, many emails between Jason, Simon (the organiser) and myself only to realise that no one had US Paras or Fallschrimjager. Plenty of people had parachute armies at home, unpainted, sitting crying in the dark but none painted. So, in the spirit of the success of the Snow Challenge Jason challenged me to get 1200 points worth of Paratroopers painted.

So, the rules?

1200Pts of Paras painted by next Thursday.
No tracks
No pre painted models

DNC = you buy the winner a jug

Obviously a vicious penalty for failure!

My list will probably be something like this...

HQ- 1 Bazooka
Parachute Platoon- Full Strength, SMG Command
Parachute Platoon- Full Strength, SMG Command
Parachute Mortar Platoon- Full Strength
Airborne Recon Platoon- 2 Sections

So, all up? Alot of Fearless Veteran infantry! I am undecided whether to go mortars or 75mm guns, I like the mortars ability to be ranged in by command teams, but the 75mms are AT 3 on top armour, enough to scare some tanks. Both have smoke, so there is that!

Right, no pics for now, the first platoon plus HQ is currently being undercoated, will post some pics tonight!

CP