More Infinity - Holiday style!

Here are a couple more Infinity Battle Reports from over the holidays. Enjoy! And the second game: PART 1 PART 2

Wait what? Stuff happened after 1945? (15mm Modern)

A real life BTR-80

Well, I made a weird New Years Gaming Resolution, and that is to not buy a single model in 2013.  So just my luck that on Dec 27, 2012, my gigantic 15mm Modern Soviets army shows up!    A few guys and I decided that we should branch out into the Cold War what-ifs, and when deciding on scale, 15mm had a number of benefits, chiefly that we already had western european and desert terrain in this scale, and when I laid eyes on that pic WWPD Steve took of the NVA tanks, I was sold.    I decided to run generic Soviets, which can be used as Syrians, Egyptians, basically any Communist country from late sixties to the 2000's, so long as you don't rivet count, as BTR60/70/80 its really only the turret that differs, and the T-54-T90 pretty much look similar.   The actual models I got represent mid 80s Warsaw Pact stuff. 

First test models, left is Red Dawn style Spetznaz, right is more generic 3 tone camo.  I picked the one on the right.  The spackle when wet is pink, white when dry, so you can tell these are "fresh" pics!

Here is a comparison shot of a brit jeep, T34, BTR-80 and the infamous Mi-24 Krokodil (aka Hind-D)

Battlefront WW2 russian test models in 3 tone, based on pennies, in front of their ride (QRF Miniatures' BTR-80A).   Force on Force is a very loose ruleset, where the individual guys can be based like this or in fire teams of 3 or 4 (BMP squads are 2 fireteams of 4, BTR squads 2 of 3 men each, 3 others man the BTR)     After seeing many folks using the Flames of War style bases, and even the FoF rules, individual model facing doesnt matter, you add up the fireteam firepower and roll dice, I think I will go with 4 man fireteams per base.   In my case, QRF miniatures sells a Motor Rifle Squad as Lead, PKM machinegunner, RPG7 AT guy, and 5 AK74 guys.

RKelly is doing Canadians, and QRF Miniatrures is the only way to get a few Cdn vehicles, while Mark is doing West Germans.   Yes, they kept WW2-sounding names, like Luchs PanzerSpah vehicles, Marders, but have moved up the feline tank name tree to Leopards!

Below is a little video I made just before Christmas (and before all this loot got here) of my test models.


For those that like to know these things, here is the full list of what I got (weighs almost 3 kilos)

Command BTR, Company Command squad, 3 x AT Guided Missile teams.

BTR 80 platoon: 3 BTR 80s, each with 2 fireteams
BTR 80 platoon: 3 BTR 80s, each with 2 fireteams
BTR 80 platoon: 3 BTR 80s, each with 2 fireteams

Command T-72
T-72 Platoon (5 tanks)
T-72 Platoon (5 tanks) My order was expensive compared to the other guys' because I wanted to be able to run either full armored, full Motor, or a mix.

BRDM scout car with Anti tank missiles x 4.  Not going to lie, its weird seeing your anti tank assets mounted on such a flimsy vehicle!  I am used to beefy ISU-122s.

ZSU-23-4 quad AA vehicles x 3.   This is more for show, as I love the models, and I wanted something to go with..

"Straight Flush" mobile Anti Aircraft Radar station (my objective piece)

And the Mi-24, probably the second objective, though some rulesets (Cold War Commander) allow them.  Again, badass looking vehicle and was a must-have.

So there we go, my football pool winnings blown on Soviets :)

Infinity Battle Report #1

Chris and I got our new starter sets out and had a couple quick games. We recorded them so we can review all the things we did wrong. I decided to post it anyways, to kick off the blog covering a new games system.

Enjoy!

Infinity comes to DDGC!

I started looking for a small scale, sci-fi skirmish game a couple weeks back. Why? I think it comes from the desire to paint something other than 15mm for a change (been working on FoW almost exclusively for over 2 years) along with a vehicle to set up casual game nights, with a game system that can be used to play out campaigns and quick scenarios in 60-90 minutes.

I know, I know, FoW affords us this luxury also with Tank/Infantry Aces. But I am planning a full Market Garden campaign to coincide with the new book releases, and I still wanted to change up my painting. Hence my search.

The first game I tried was MERCS. Diragi was kind enough to play out a couple games using the free quick start rules from their site (http://www.mercsminis.com/). While enjoyable, the "card based movement" felt restrictive to me, and the forces seemed to favor, for lack of a better term, gimmicks. The setting was great, but the models were definitely 1st generation - I wasn't overly impressed with them.

Then I tried Infinity (http://www.infinitythegame.com/infinity/en/). Take a minute and go look at their model line.

Ok, now go back and REALLY look at those models. They are 28mm - TRUE SCALE. They are proportioned. They are not "heroic" - or GIANT GOOFY HANDS/HEADS scale.

I was immediately drawn to the Yu Jing. They look amazing. So, without knowing what their play style is, I bought this :

The dynamic poses, along with the diversity of model style made me pick them out. Did I mention the box set was $37.75 at our local FLGS http://www.boutiquefdb.com/en. Suffice to say I was stoked when I read on the "Beginners" forum that all the factions can be built out to play in any style. Like heavy armored troops - they have em! Light, fast moving - check. Close Combat focused - Yu Jing have FREAKING NINJAS! Like mechs/bots/drones - they have them in spades also.

The glorious part of this whole thing? Low model count. That's right - low count. Quick games are ~150ts, that's about 5 models. Fully supported international tournament games? 300pts. Roughly 10-12 models, regardless of faction.

This game hit all the criteria I had - before I even tried the rule set. Oh, and I am not sure I can get into a gushing, sappy explanation of how amazing the rules truly are - suffice to say this.....the fact that I can react, on my opponents turn, to any of his moves/actions, means I am always playing - not waiting on your turn, taking hits, to only then react on my own turn. A better example can be seen here : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RUMTSj3EHPA

So I have started painting the models, and I have played a few games, and I am loving it. Several of the guys have picked up starter boxes also, so you may see more posts on their progress also. Expect some pics of my models over the coming days!

Also, check out the DDGC forums for more discussions on Flames of War, and now Infinity also. You can click the link at the top of the page, or go directly to our forums here: http://dicedevils.forumotion.ca

CA$H  out!

Soviet Tank Army Build: DONE!

Crazy how a different colored cloth can turn an old table setup into a winter one!!  Ca$h's place

Well, they are done!   With 2 days to spare, I had time to spruce up objectives and do up a plane for Matt.   Even though this army faced many King Tigers at the tournament, I think it was a decent choice.. certainly thematic, though not having: Infantry, Artillery, smoke, AA or planes sure didn't help!  Detail shots below

ISU-122's sitting in cover

IS-2's out in the open

T-34s ranging forward, messing with the opponent's plans

Crashed YaK-3P  I had a spare British Objective after making Monty's Humber, so I repainted this one to be a YaK-3 (inline engine like the Hurricane/Typhoon, so looks similar) and I was looking up pics, turns out Free French (of the communist persuasion I am sure) pilots flew Soviet planes in the Normandie-Niemen squadron.   Given I have Free French army, I kinda had to paint the wreck in this scheme!

Behind the '24' note the 2-tone mud effects.   This is a large splotch of drybrushed US Tan Earth 874 then stippled on smaller patches of the darker, Flat Earth 983.   I did these on the road wheels as well, but its tougher to see when not on the faded white.


Click here to see the previous build posts for my Tank List:
Part1:   http://www.dicedevils.com/2012/11/painting-my-soviet-army-part-1test.html
Part 2:  http://www.dicedevils.com/2012/11/soviet-army-t-34-winterizing.html



As usual, final build video is below, enjoy.   Next up, I have to decide whether to go guns blazing on my DAK for MW tournament in April, or to finish my Brits, which would entail repainting the following:  8 Crusaders, 6 Grants, 3 Recce Carriers, 4 x 25lbr battery.  Tough choice.

America! Part 1

So, this is the start of a journey. A journey to the World War 2 American experience (kind of). I am embarking on Late War Americans.

I was looking to start an Allied Late War force, and wanted to play something "different". Not nessesarily different from the whole meta of Late War, but different from anything anyone locally is playing. That meant armored cars, or recon.

So, with the new books having tons of cool toys for Americans in late war, I hitched my wagon on to the Cavalry Recon train! I plan to run more than the minimum recon requirements, and really play a fast and brittle list. I am artificially restricting myself to ONE (1) Tank Destroyer platoon, to keep the list fun for my opponents to play against (I also don't see the need for more than one to be effective - unless all you want is 2 turn Alpha Strike games).

So, here is the list I have been toying with out of Devils Charge:


Confident Veteran USA Late-War

Headquarters
Cavalry Recon Troop HQ (2nd Cav)
2 M8 armored car

Combat Platoons
Cavalry Recon Platoon (2nd Cav) - 2 Platoons
2x M8 armored car
2x Mortar Jeep
2x Recon Jeep

Cavalry Recon Platoon (2nd Cav) - 2 Platoons
2x M8 armored car
2x Mortar Jeep
2x Recon Jeep

Weapons Platoons
Light Tank Platoon (2nd Cav)
4 M24 Chaffee

Support Platoons
Tank Destroyer Platoon (Veteran)
1x .50 cal Recon Jeep
2x M20 Scout Car
4x M18 Hellcat GMC
Improvised Tank Armour(4)

Armoured Rifle Platoon (Trained)
Confident Trained

1x Cmd Rifle team
5x Rifle team
2x M3 half-track with .50 cal AA MG
3x M3 half-track with AA MG
1x M2 60mm mortar
2x M1919 LMG team
2x  Bazooka team

Armoured Field Artillery Battery (Veteran)
1x Cmd Carbine team
1x Staff team
1x M4 Sherman OP
3x M7 Priest HMC

Company Points: 1655


This is just a jumping off point. The idea is that I get some "basics" that I can then roll into either a dedicated Armored Rifle Company, or Tank Company later on!

This is what I managed to get assembled last night, while hanging out with Matt Varnish and Diragi:

So the ARP and Hellcats are assembled, and as can be seen, I have the urban bases from BattleFront for all my infantry - it's still undecided if I will make the winter urban bases - we'll see.

So stay tuned, I plan to chronicle all the assembly, painting of the army, and any list changes. You may also see the AARs as I learn the play style as I hope to post them as well.

The Cavalry recon units are in the mail, so expect a post in the coming days when I receive them!

Cheers,

CA$H

Light Tank Sweat Shop

As with every new book, come new ideas and experimentation when it comes to building a list, buying new models and painting an army. Clearly with all the work my Light Tank Company list is burying me in, I should have re-evaluated which direction I wanted to go when Devils Charge was released. I was excited about adding to my expanding arsenal of Australian and German forces. My last project was my PAK-40's a month ago, so I had a clean hobby area that was ready to take on a new project. I had my eye on the new Chaffee platoon, they're a light tank with a serious anti-tank punch that should bring some serious opposition to anything that can be tabled against them.

After cleaning them up, I had 15 new tanks to assemble and paint all in the few weeks before our club heads down to Petawawa for a tournament on the 25th of November. None of the chassis had any major issues and the casts seemed to be pretty good for the most part. The tracks took a little longer to prep than what I have been used to in the past, but with this many Chaffees on the go at one time, I had to expect it. The one good thing about painting US tanks, is that they are one color....green! I also decided they looked a little too plain, so I started experimenting with mud! I came up with my own mix of white glue, a very small grain of ballast and paint. I mixed about 1-2 oz. of this muck and applied it to my primed Chaffee, and M-10 Tank Destroyers. After an application of varnish to harden the mud, I let them dry overnight. You can see the changes being made in the pictures below.

First coat of paint!

Muddy and freshly varnished.

Mud/Varnish dry, fresh dark wash applied and drying.

 

 

 

 

 

Just have to work on the dry brushing, adding some decals, antennae and they'll be ready to take on their next opponent. The hull mounted MG was giving me a bit of an issue and the particular turret you see in the picture has an issue with the .50 CAL mount on it and can not take a gun without some careful repair or messing around. Once the wash had dried, they really make the hull details pop and bring out the definition of these great casts from Battlefront. The M-10's that will be complimenting this army on the table are the new ones with the plastic tracks. They actually have plastic .50 CAL pieces as well, and this is the first boxed platoon that I have opened that has stickers included. An easy set to glue, crew and paint! I'll be sure to get some more pictures up once the entire army is ready to hit the table and take on all comers this weekend.

Soviet Army: T-34 Winterizing.

 Now that the IS-2's are done, time to tackle the tiny (see above) T-34s

 Close-up of the IS-2 slogan-age, or is it slogan-ry?

Hey guys, with 10 days left, I have to paint 12 T-34s.  So tonite I use my trusty test model method (this time using an Objective) to come up with a scheme that looks something like the following:

 I've seen black and white photos, but this one is color to show what it will look like.. winter, very weathered.

 Here is another color shot.    Looks like the turret white was touched up, as it isn't worn at all.  Note to Lothlann, I guess not ALL Soviet tankers wore blacks!

 Whats the deal with the "track marks"?   I have seen many pics of this camo on Winter War (Finland) T-34s..

This pic is the closest to what I am aiming for.

Video below to show my progress and methods.. (currently uploading)

Not quite finished, but I REALLY like it, AND it was quick enough to do 6 of these to this stage in an evening!! (note, green stippling, black wash, re-drybrush white have NOT been done yet..but still)

Painting my Soviet Army Part 1:Test model, 1st platoon

Howdy guys, since I am a sucker for punishment, instead of taking one of my LW armies to the Petawawa tournament in 2 weeks, I have decided to paint a whole new army, and film the steps taken.

I'll simply let the pics and vid do the talking:

 Test hull: Inked and drybrushed

 Test hull with white camo, chip stippled then inked then drybrushed with a hint of white

 Close-up of the weathering effects, I am now happy with the test model..

 1st platoon, 3 x ISU-122s

 The white final drybrush brings out the rivets even on the green.

 Repairs:  This trackpiece was miscast..

 ..so I used a Zvezda T-34 and the Hobby Choppa to help out..

 Good as new

The gap here will be filled in with dirt and mud effects.

Here is the vid:

Part 1:  Getting stuff assembled, test model ideas.









Part 2: Test model Success!  Fixing the IS-2 track and gunning forwards with the IS-2 platoon.    1000 pts complete (the easy, 8 model 1000pts mind you!)

2 Tournaments,6 days: OMG Doubles and Fall Fubar

Hey guys, I have some coverage of two tournaments we just had, which brings to a close some frenzied painting..  We had the OMG doubles tournament, which was LW 1000 pts each player.   It was a great tourney, and I don't say that only because we won or anything!    Big-Willie from Covering Fire was my teammate and we rocked King Tigers and Panthers and a ME-262.  There was guys with crazy armies, like 16-gun 25lbr army, and so on.

                                                                  Jeff's Aufklarung BMWs

                                                               How many 25lbers?!?!





Here is the OMG Doubles Video

                                              This hurricane is so good at gunning Panthers...

Next up, we have our own Fall Fubar at the Barrhaven Legion (MW 1625 pts).  Normally we would have had this closer to Nov 11, but it got pushed up, as the Legion understandably had Veterans Events planned out.   I worked night and day on my Desert Rats Kingforce army, and they really turned out well, so I was happy about that.  Here are a few pics and the Vids.

                                                        Rob's Canadians win Best Painted

 Ca$h would win overall with the supposed useless Brummbars.   I'm sure the Ferdinand helped!

                        Stef came up from Toronto to play, here is his sweet German force.

Enigma codes have been hacked!

                                               (Kingforce Churchills going up LongStop hill)

 Hey guys, I got a bit of bad news. Long Story Short, my gmail acct got hacked because it was the safe email for my Blizzard acct. Turns out it was some d-bag from China (IP was from there) who was trying to gain access to anything that could make money, luckily for me, my Diablo III acct has no Real Money attached to it, I hadn't played WoW in over 2 years, etc, but I guess they tried to reset my Youtube account to monetize it or something? So he deleted all my videos. And of course, I didn't keep very many on my drive, sending most of the big raw vid files to the recyle bin. I have a FEW, which I will upload this week and renumber haha. In a way, its almost a blessing in disguise, because it means I can 'do-over' a few things, namely my How-To vids. I had planned to post up the rest of my How-To paint a Brit army after the tournament, but now I am trying to speed paint Soviets, so I will document that instead.

Expect the quickvids of Fall Fubar and OMG DOubles tournaments, which occurred within 6 days of each other, tonite sometime.

Cheers

Matt V

GameSummit and Dice Devils

Great news!

I am pleased to announce that our club will be running the Flames of War Tournament at the upcoming GameSummit 2013!!

Registration will be handled by GameSummit, which can be found here: http://www.gamesummit.ca/

It will consist of 24 players, be a regional qualifier, and most likely Late War, but expect more details to come shortly!

Kick on over to our forums for more information and discussion.

Cheers,

CA$H out.

This Just In...! FUBAR 2012 Results

1 Tristan Cash (BEST OVERALL)
2 Drew Willis (BEST AXIS)
3 Louis Santerre (BEST ALLIED)
4 Rob Kelly (BEST PAINTED)
5 Dennis Campbell
6 Doug Petryk
7 Chris Moser
8 Duane Goodwin
 8 Mike Abbott
8 Jon Jeffrey (BEST SPORT)
11 Richard Fisher
12 Jay Williams
12 Matt MacKenzie
14 Marty Hartwick
15 Stef Grambart (DARWIN’S BLADE)
16 Aweysome Dude

AAR 76, Rock you like a Hurricane!

The last practice game before the back-to-back tournament weekends. OMG LW Doubles, put on by the Ottawa Miniature Gaming group (not, omg, a tournament!) and then our very own Dice Devils Fall Fubar MW tournament at the Legion. While I was painting a ME-262, Ca$h and Phantom played a game, and since I was painting, I didn't take any pics, but I got Vids, which as usual is below. After this weekend, I will put up a double tournament post, as well as the final few Hobby Articles for my Brits (don;t want to unveil until Fubar is done) so we have a few articles lined up in rapid fire coming up after this dry spell.

AAR 75, Aussie Aussie Aussie Oi Oi Oi

"Loading these 'ere guns is tough work, 'ey mate?!"

Well after a long hiatus, I have an AAR for you guys that I actually played in!   Phantom hosted a game at the Matt-Cave on his sweet felt desert table, and we did Brit 8th army vs Aussie Div. Cav, 1625 pts, in preparations for Fall Fubar (2 weeks away!)

My List:  

Motor Company HQ

Motor Platoon

HMG platoon in trucks

Carrier platoon

6lbr Portee platoon

4 gun RHA troop

3 Kingforce Churchills

2 Kingforce Churchills

Phantom took:

CIC, 2IC in Crusaders

Crusaders

Shermans

Shermans

4 guns RHA

Carriers

Hurricane D Model                                            

As usual a few pics, then video at the bottom, Enjoy

After my recce move, I was close to the town, and the objective in the wood at the end of the road (in the small woods)

Turn 2, you can see my carriers are just within 4 of the crashed Hurr'c, but behind the hedges enough to not be seen.   This forces Phantom to pitch models forward to contest turn after turn or lose the match.

Meanwhile, my unpainted Churchies take a pounding from AT 11 Cannons!  Hurray 'protected ammo' though

Phantom's ShermanIII's look like they have slogged long and hard across the desert to get to this town

Yes its childish, but Phantom's felt table surface leaves cool track marks as I dragged my Churchies forward!

I eventually lose my carriers, but by now my reserves are coming..

..including 6lbers who drive up and fire into the sides of ShermanIIIs..

Here is the video, folks...

You're Going to Need a Bigger Boat

So with the armor of most tanks I have been facing as of late, I decided to beef up my AT (anti-tank) abilities to enable myself to have a chance in later turns. Most of my games, my opponents have been fielding an abundance of tanks, to which I have no reply. My Marders have not been able to hit very much and the Panzer IV's are great, but once they are gone, held in reserve or find themselves in a US Tank Destroyer ambush, it's tough to recover from. PAK 40's seem to be the answer with a few modifications as far as chopping points up in my German MW Panzergren list. I had to make room for them, so out go the mortars and the PAK 38's for now and I'll likely be testing them out this Friday with the rest of their German brothers.

For prep, the usual filing and light scuffing was done in order to prep them for basing. I went ahead and kind of pre-placed my soldiers around the guns before basing them separately from the guns themselves. This step saved me some time as it was way easier to paint the guns alone before they were mounted. A step I did not take when I did my Australian 25 pound guns. Overall, I went with a mix of browns and greens for my camo and the yellow/orange ochre look for the guns themselves. They are not quite as shiny after a wash and ended up turning out pretty good, although not as nice as I thought they would have.

My buddy Dan built the walls you see in the pictures, they turned out great and really add to the bases. I would not recommend his 'brick by brick' method of assembly, as it must have taken him forever for them to get done where it started to look like a wall. I was messing around with some of the settings on my camera as I never like to just take a straight shot of something, I like lighting effects and other small features to make the painting and modelling more non-fake looking, if that makes any sense.

ACHTUNG!! The bricks are not as red without my bright painting light.

Eins...zwei...drei....vier PAK 40's ready for action!