Chain of Command Game 1

I apologise for the poor photos in this post, but the crank handle on my tripod broke and it's only when I have to shoot without it that I realise how difficult it is to get proper photos of a game while trying to come to grips with a new set of rules.

Anyway, after several months of preparation, I finally played a game of Chain of Command with Martin this afternoon.

Martin's British are recently rebased figures from many years ago when we used them for Crossfire (remember Crossfire?) while my Germans are Plastic Soldier Company figures painted by Dragon Painting Service operating out of Hong Kong. I will get some clear photos of them the next session. Promise.

Anyway, Martin and I played the simple Patrol scenario. I think we got most of the rules right, the exception being the one regarding leader casualty.

The British at their Jump-Off points

A smoke round saves the British section caught in the open and in the sights of a German section.

The game played pretty much as promised: with a high level of tension as you can spend a few phases without having a go, and very often you will not have the die-rolls required to activate your sections in a coordinated way.

We both made good use of our "national characteristics" - I delivered deadly fire with my leaders directing LMG shooting, while Martin managed to save one of his sections from a crossfire by using smoke rounds fired from his 2" mortar.

We feel confident enough to have a go at it with vehicles the next game.

Schiltron!

This little project took me weeks to complete, but I am pretty chuffed with the results:

A unit of thirty-five!

The command figures are from Perry, while the rank-and-file are 50% Ebob, and 50% Claymore Castings. Of the two I prefer the Claymore figures, which are really full of character; the Ebob figures are not as well-cast, but while the Claymore figures have their pikes mainly at "porte", these are in attack poses.

Phalanxes look good from the side...

The rear view is more colourful...

To make sure that they all rank up, apart from the three command figures the front three ranks are actually based six to a 60mm x 40mm base: 2 wide x 3 deep deep on the flanks, and 3 wide x 2 deep behind the command figures. The rear two ranks provide "loose change" for casualty removal.

I bought an MDF movement tray to hold these guys, but instead of using the MDF base supplied I glued the top piece to a 1mm PVC foam card, which reduces the height and weight of the whole tray. The bottom piece will be used to represent the footprint of the unit once it comes into contact with other units, on account of the pointy sticks...

They will be fielded as spears under the WHFB rules. I do like the look of these, and were they easy to paint I might have been tempted to convert my entire army into a pike-and-shot army with just spearmen and handgunners. But for now, this will have to be it.

Romans vs Hellenics

It's been a while since Martin was able to come over for a game, so I am quite glad we managed to get a short game of our Dux Bellorum-Impetus hybrid this afternoon and knock back a couple of beers.

Martin used his Early Imperial Romans and I used my Pergamenes and some Asiatics as some sort of a Hellenistic army.

I tried to delay contact with the legionaries by sending my skirmishers forward on the flanks, hoping to win the flanks and then envelope the Romans.

Light cavalry on the flanks.

Once the Roman legionaries make contact, the contest is over!

The rules are pretty solid, but as we had small armies there weren't many tactical options available. On the plus side I think we remembered most of the rules this time!

Otherworld Female Human Cleric

I've always liked the way the Otherworld figures look, so when I wanted a leader for my flail-wielding female fanatics, I was happy to find that the female cleric from their range seems to fit the look.

I cut off the religious symbol she was holding in her left hand and replaced it with a chalice from a Blood Angel bit I had (knew those would come in handy one day!) to fit the theme of the unit. You can see her posed with the rest of the girls below.

I am also slowly "finishing" 60 skaven figures I bought off ebay. These came either partially painted or just primed, but already assembled. I started this project on the advice of my brother, who suggested that I might get to actually use my armies if I helped my opponents to paint theirs. Skavens are actually rather cheap on ebay, so I decided to follow his advice. The paint scheme is based on that chosen by Thomas, our skaven player. They are actually rather easy to do, and a lot of fun to paint too.

X-Wing 4 - More or Fewer Wings

I like X-Wing as much as the next guy, but I think that the new fighters are really just a copy of the original models with more or fewer wings...

Anyway, Thomas, fg and myself played a 150-points aside game this afternoon. I decided to fly the new TIE Defender and a TIE Advanced, since these have shields, and Thomas flew the Firespray, which I always thought was a silly design.

fg flew the E-Wing (really, guys?) and the Z-95, plus Wedge Antilles in an X-Wing, and a B-Wing.

fg picked some really effective upgrades, and dominated the battle. I get a feeling I am playing the Imperials wrongly... or maybe I am just bad at this game.

After the game we posed all of Thomas' models on the mat for a shot. I suspect he will be adding more models to his collection soon...