Who ever said imitation is the highest for of flattery? I guess I just did. So, I thought it was time we started our own forum, accessible by the public, to talk all things TableTop Tactician. Lists reviews, events/news, anything people want to chat about - so have at it!
So hope on over the to the Forum table and introduce yourself and get posting!
Welcome to the Dice Devils. Enjoy the musings of some misfit generals.
27 February, 2012
Desktop Tactician: SWTOR edition
Just a few fun pics.. I was looking for Datacrons on Tattooine, when I saw a curious ledge below me in a Republic quest area. Since I reckoned that Datacrons are hard to get, and this ledge seemed "too perfect" I dropped in, and went along the ledge for quite a while. It required me to make a few jumps, further reinforcing the idea that I was on to something, until it led down to an open area of sand. Turns out, I was "off the grid" and could see laterally into the next area, the Dune Sea, and could see UNDER the dune sea. Pic below
You can see the Sarlacc Pit way off in the distance, but from the inside out.
And turning around, this was the view, again, the map designer put all this stuff out here, the rock, sand etc, so that when you looked out from the Republic Landing pad in north Jundland, you would see wasteland. He didnt bother finishing underneath or behind, so left it as "edge of the world" Look at my minmap, you can see the hard edge of the map "border" My map said I was just generically on "Tattooine"
Hilarious, reminds me of GTAIII where you could fly underneath the world in the Wingless Dodo.
You can see the Sarlacc Pit way off in the distance, but from the inside out.
And turning around, this was the view, again, the map designer put all this stuff out here, the rock, sand etc, so that when you looked out from the Republic Landing pad in north Jundland, you would see wasteland. He didnt bother finishing underneath or behind, so left it as "edge of the world" Look at my minmap, you can see the hard edge of the map "border" My map said I was just generically on "Tattooine"
Hilarious, reminds me of GTAIII where you could fly underneath the world in the Wingless Dodo.
Early War Escalation League Extravaganza
Starting right after the Path to Glory MW Tournament at Petawawa, I will be running an escalation league for EW. Details below
Early War Campaign “BlitzKrieg”
What: Escalation league style campaign to get folks into their EW-era armies. Finally we can see France and Poland fielded, and armies like Italy actually do alright!
Who: Anyone can play, whether you are in Trenton, Ottawa or Petawawa. Just get games in, which is the whole point.
When: April 23rd to May 13th , 600 points (only 1 combat platoon needed)
May14th to June 3rd, 900 points
June 4th to June 24th, 1200 points
June 25th to July 15th, 1500 points
You will note this is 3 weeks at each points level, and that it begins right after the Mid War tournament.
How it is going to work.
Each player will play Early War games at the appropriate points levels, and use standard tournament scoring from v3 of course. Any EW book can be used, we are not limiting to one region. Raiding forces CAN be used, so long as they are not the Mid War lists. You can play blue on blue if you have to, but I will keep track of nation wins as well. Unfortunately, the Pre-BK Soviet playtest list will not be used, it is too old, and was derived from 1st edition.
Each player will submit scores to me, to mattvarnish@gmail.com or post on the GameSummit Forums in the Flames of War section. The loser of the game will get +1 point if they provide a quick little batrep or synopsis, in order to generate some AARs out of the deal.
I will, at the end of each week, post the standings, and link the batreps, photos, what have you for everyone’s enjoyment. I will also show the current national standings, which will be percentage based, IE if one guy is playing Poland and has 10 points total, this is worth more than Germans having 12 points total, but with 4 guys among them. Exact calculation to follow.
At the end of each 3 week points tier, the average score for each player will be shown and posted. Tie breakers go to more games played. This is to discourage someone getting their 3 x 6-1 wins and never playing again. *Will probably take best 3 scores or some such, tweaks still*
There won’t be any fancy maps or territory, I am notoriously bad at organizing things like this, so I want to keep my first one manageable. I feel we can try that in LW with the number of campaign boxsets given away as prizes in the past year, Market Garden will work best.
In Ottawa anyways, I plan on having a Total Battle style game (v2 book) for the countries. Other areas can do what they like, but it would be cool if at some point we could all get together at the end.
I will have prizes for best general, best presentation (this is from pics, cool write ups, whatever) which will be voted by the players, and then the best nation. Might do more, like “Most assaults”, Most Armour saves, assuming stuff like this is mentioned in the AAR’s.
Sounds like good times. I need to start figuring out how the hecll I am going to do Caunter Scheme for my EW Cruisers, Stuarts and Matildas!
Early War Campaign “BlitzKrieg”
What: Escalation league style campaign to get folks into their EW-era armies. Finally we can see France and Poland fielded, and armies like Italy actually do alright!
Who: Anyone can play, whether you are in Trenton, Ottawa or Petawawa. Just get games in, which is the whole point.
When: April 23rd to May 13th , 600 points (only 1 combat platoon needed)
May14th to June 3rd, 900 points
June 4th to June 24th, 1200 points
June 25th to July 15th, 1500 points
You will note this is 3 weeks at each points level, and that it begins right after the Mid War tournament.
How it is going to work.
Each player will play Early War games at the appropriate points levels, and use standard tournament scoring from v3 of course. Any EW book can be used, we are not limiting to one region. Raiding forces CAN be used, so long as they are not the Mid War lists. You can play blue on blue if you have to, but I will keep track of nation wins as well. Unfortunately, the Pre-BK Soviet playtest list will not be used, it is too old, and was derived from 1st edition.
Each player will submit scores to me, to mattvarnish@gmail.com or post on the GameSummit Forums in the Flames of War section. The loser of the game will get +1 point if they provide a quick little batrep or synopsis, in order to generate some AARs out of the deal.
I will, at the end of each week, post the standings, and link the batreps, photos, what have you for everyone’s enjoyment. I will also show the current national standings, which will be percentage based, IE if one guy is playing Poland and has 10 points total, this is worth more than Germans having 12 points total, but with 4 guys among them. Exact calculation to follow.
At the end of each 3 week points tier, the average score for each player will be shown and posted. Tie breakers go to more games played. This is to discourage someone getting their 3 x 6-1 wins and never playing again. *Will probably take best 3 scores or some such, tweaks still*
There won’t be any fancy maps or territory, I am notoriously bad at organizing things like this, so I want to keep my first one manageable. I feel we can try that in LW with the number of campaign boxsets given away as prizes in the past year, Market Garden will work best.
In Ottawa anyways, I plan on having a Total Battle style game (v2 book) for the countries. Other areas can do what they like, but it would be cool if at some point we could all get together at the end.
I will have prizes for best general, best presentation (this is from pics, cool write ups, whatever) which will be voted by the players, and then the best nation. Might do more, like “Most assaults”, Most Armour saves, assuming stuff like this is mentioned in the AAR’s.
Sounds like good times. I need to start figuring out how the hecll I am going to do Caunter Scheme for my EW Cruisers, Stuarts and Matildas!
23 February, 2012
Desert Rat Australians
So when I was deciding to create an army I wanted to chose something different. There were lots of Brit players, Americans and obviously Germans. Being Canadian meant I could go with a Canuck army as well, but I was finding the table was already crowded with Canadian armies as well eh. After reading about Australian and other Commonwealth nations I thought something along those lines would be fun and different enough where I was not going to run into too many Aussie players.
Getting my hands on the 8th Army Desert Rat box before it was all but gone from store shelves was essential in wanting to create my Australian list. They're fearless vets, they have access to 8th army assets from the period and they just sound like a good place to start when getting into building my first army. The Divisional Cavalry Squadron is just the right balance of armor and artillery that I was looking to play and has some flexibility if I want to change it later on and add some ground troops or swap out the heavy armored platoons for something else like air support.
My first game playing with this list was a learning experience and exposed weaknesses and strengths of the platoons that made up the Company. I played again this past Saturday and managed a win, I was lucky enough to close distance fairly quickly my last game and came out on top. Whereas the first time I played with this list using one of the new missions in V3 I got stomped pretty effectively. Suffice it to say nothing went right and being the attacker in that mission, I should have played far more aggressively. A mix of errors from me and hot dice from my opponent all but wiped me out. This first game, I had very little painted, some sad looking Crusaders, guns on bases with no teams, just the guns....and not one ounce of paint. I just wanted them to get some shells down range and use them during play.
After a hard honest opinion about my painting and seeing what other people were doing was an eye opener and learning some new tricks I now have my entire army painted and ready to roll out. I look forward to Friday as I will have them all on the board at some point and I no longer have to borrow 2 Crusaders from MattV to make my list complete. This past weekend I was able to table this list and play a game and received some nice feedback about the paint and what I had accomplished in such a short time. I can not thank MattV and Ca$h enough for the tips and Pripyat for allowing me to help with some of the terrain and miniature painting on some of the buildings used at GameSummit2012.
(source North Africa c/o www.easyarmy.com)
Getting my hands on the 8th Army Desert Rat box before it was all but gone from store shelves was essential in wanting to create my Australian list. They're fearless vets, they have access to 8th army assets from the period and they just sound like a good place to start when getting into building my first army. The Divisional Cavalry Squadron is just the right balance of armor and artillery that I was looking to play and has some flexibility if I want to change it later on and add some ground troops or swap out the heavy armored platoons for something else like air support.
My first game playing with this list was a learning experience and exposed weaknesses and strengths of the platoons that made up the Company. I played again this past Saturday and managed a win, I was lucky enough to close distance fairly quickly my last game and came out on top. Whereas the first time I played with this list using one of the new missions in V3 I got stomped pretty effectively. Suffice it to say nothing went right and being the attacker in that mission, I should have played far more aggressively. A mix of errors from me and hot dice from my opponent all but wiped me out. This first game, I had very little painted, some sad looking Crusaders, guns on bases with no teams, just the guns....and not one ounce of paint. I just wanted them to get some shells down range and use them during play.
After a hard honest opinion about my painting and seeing what other people were doing was an eye opener and learning some new tricks I now have my entire army painted and ready to roll out. I look forward to Friday as I will have them all on the board at some point and I no longer have to borrow 2 Crusaders from MattV to make my list complete. This past weekend I was able to table this list and play a game and received some nice feedback about the paint and what I had accomplished in such a short time. I can not thank MattV and Ca$h enough for the tips and Pripyat for allowing me to help with some of the terrain and miniature painting on some of the buildings used at GameSummit2012.
So now I have the entire thing organized and all I have to add is the decals. I'm not willing to take too much time painting and attempt to paint any platypus and boomerangs symbols just yet.....anyways here is what I am currently fielding. See you in the middle.
| Platoon | Qty | Unit | Points | ||
| Headquarters | |||||
| 2 | Crusader II | 155 | ||
| Combat Platoons | |||||
| 3 | Crusader II | 230 | ||
| 3 | Universal Carrier with .50 cal MG | 145 | ||
| Divisional Support | |||||
| 3 | Sherman II or III with .50 cal AA MG | 355 | ||
| 3 | Sherman II or III with .50 cal AA MG | 355 | ||
| 2 1 1 1 3 4 4 1 | Cmd Rifle team Jeep Staff team Observer Rifle team 15 cwt truck OQF 25 pdr gun Quad tractor All Rifle and Gun teams equipped w/Sticky Bombs | 255 | ||
| Company Points: | 1495 | ||||
20 February, 2012
Game Summit Best Presentation pics
Serge B was nice enough to send me these pics of his Feldherrenhalle army. Check out that stuff. Great job Serge. Those Henschel's are superbly painted. Next event, more secrecy on my part though hahah!
WhiskeyTangoFoxtrot
Basically Who The....you get the idea.
Being the new(b) guy on the block has always been the tough place to be in when busting into a new game. I've been lucky enough over the past few weeks to get to know the guys who are associated with this blog and their circle of friends that play Flames of War. I just want to post up and let you know who I am and a bit about me.
As many others before me, I got into gaming during my teenage years. Never having played a lot of miniatures until I got into Battletech in the late 90's. I'm an avid PC and console gaming fan and recently picked up Flames of War after seeing the game being played at J&B Books in Trenton.
I used a donor army of Soviet tanks to learn the very basics of the game and was excited to learn a new version was about to change everything and this was the best time to get into FoW.
Poking around online and reading books, once again borrowed.....I found myself immersed in WW2 stories, strategy and paint schemes. I have always been a WW2 buff, whether family, movies or books, the history and mechanics make Flames a great game to play. Not only does any army on the field of battle have a chance to win, but you also pay for your mistakes as you would in real life should you ever find yourself not spreading out your T-34's for example and come under bombardment from 155's in your first game. Not that it happened to me, it happened to a friend of a friend.
I've been lucky enough to live all over the world in my near 36 years on this planet and I am looking forward to what the future of this game and hobby bring.
See you in the middle.
Being the new(b) guy on the block has always been the tough place to be in when busting into a new game. I've been lucky enough over the past few weeks to get to know the guys who are associated with this blog and their circle of friends that play Flames of War. I just want to post up and let you know who I am and a bit about me.
As many others before me, I got into gaming during my teenage years. Never having played a lot of miniatures until I got into Battletech in the late 90's. I'm an avid PC and console gaming fan and recently picked up Flames of War after seeing the game being played at J&B Books in Trenton.
I used a donor army of Soviet tanks to learn the very basics of the game and was excited to learn a new version was about to change everything and this was the best time to get into FoW.
Poking around online and reading books, once again borrowed.....I found myself immersed in WW2 stories, strategy and paint schemes. I have always been a WW2 buff, whether family, movies or books, the history and mechanics make Flames a great game to play. Not only does any army on the field of battle have a chance to win, but you also pay for your mistakes as you would in real life should you ever find yourself not spreading out your T-34's for example and come under bombardment from 155's in your first game. Not that it happened to me, it happened to a friend of a friend.
I've been lucky enough to live all over the world in my near 36 years on this planet and I am looking forward to what the future of this game and hobby bring.
See you in the middle.
Me in 2007, Normandy France
19 February, 2012
Game Summit Flames of War pics
(above) Louis' Brits.
(above) Scott Horodecky's SS StuGs
(above) Big Red One done up in Tunisia basing scheme. Don;t know whose army this was, but the crappy pic doesn't do it justice.More After the Break.........
17 February, 2012
Game Summit Tables, Pre-tourney
So pretty explanatory, we have 14 tables of FoW scenery done up for the tourney tomorrow. Turned out well. Check out video at the bottom. I HOPE someone has mountaineers tomorrow and tries to scale "The Eiger" You'll see in Vid!! Its one heck of a climb to the chalet.
Enjoy
15 February, 2012
Terrain for GS 2012
In place of playing prep games for the upcoming tournament, we have been building and painting terrain over the last 3 weeks. We have added a decent amount of new terrain to help us fill the 14 or so tables for the upcoming GS FoW tournament. Here is a sneak peak. In addition to the new stuff, others have graciously offered to bring their own terrain to help out. Thanks to all those who have offered to bring terrain to the event to ensure we have enough to go around (Matt's friends coming up from Trenton, Mike, and BJ/Perkins).
Forgot to mention Chris' trees; he bought and prepped a metric ton of trees so we should be good on that front. Marty also has a bunch of trees to throw into the mix!
Forgot to mention Chris' trees; he bought and prepped a metric ton of trees so we should be good on that front. Marty also has a bunch of trees to throw into the mix!
12 February, 2012
21 Panzer Beutes are done!
Whole Army done on my movement tray board thing.
'88s
Pak40 StuG 39H's (Hotchkiss)
15cm SP Howitzers
SOMUA Panzerwerfers
StuH 39H (10.5cm Artillery)
Other unit of StuG39H's
Full Gepanzerte Grenadiers with their French halftracksI'm done early, so time to... assemble EW Brits? DAK? French 2eme Div Blindee?
07 February, 2012
AAR 63 Beutes vs Tankovy
Despite the fact that these are Rob Kelly's Canadians, I got in a game with newcomer Matt aka PhantomR using my Beutes vs Brett's Tankovy list. Video is below, above is Rob's full army, below are his infantry and the bottom pic is a close-up of his Ram Kangaroo OP Shermans. They turned very nice Rob.
03 February, 2012
Deutsche Afrika Korps, test vehicle
Well, I figured I may as well work on some DAK guys, seeing as my Game Summit stuff is done (2 weeks away), and the MW tournament up at CFB Petawawa is in April, I should work on them before my Free French!
My list, NA book, MW 1500 pts:
HQ: PanzerIIIN OC, upgraded to Rettemeier, 2IC is a PanzerIVF1
PanzerIVF1 x5
PanzerIIIN x4
PanzerIIF x4
LeichtePanzerSpah patrol
1500 even.
These are the colors I used, yes I tried using the 'Steve' pen to do the sharp lines, but went nuts on the darkening, and you can hardly see them. Still, I like having more German Grey showing, though the squares of grey where the insignia are on got lost with the Iraqi Sand drybrushing..
Rear quarter shot. I'm sure that nazi palm tree will get easier to paint as time goes on.
My 1500 point army, awaiting stowage and antennas before the paint shop gets their hands on 'em.
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