Orctober Challenge

 So, gaming friend Chris (Mister C of 'the Periodic Painting Table') was looking for a theme for his Orctober Challenge. After swapping a few ideas we came up with painting 500 points of 6mm Irregular Miniature fantasy figures to pair up with our existing 6mm armies based for the excellent 'Fantastic Battles' rules. We also decided to make a piece of Elf or Orc themed 6mm scenery for our gaming tables. Chris went with his idea of Orcs (seeing as it is an Orctober challenge) but I opted to paint up some Elves, (Elftober?). Chris has already painted up 1,000 pts of Dwarves and I have painted 1,000 pts of Dark Elves.

Here is a link to what Chris wrote about this project. https://periodicpainting.blogspot.com/2024/09/orctober-2024.html

Here are some of my 6mm Irregular Miniatures Dark Elves.

I added a dragon (baby dragon from Reaper Bones) and a giant spider (an old GW model). 

Here are the 6mm Dark Elves in their transport box. 

Next job was to look in my box of unpainted 6mm figures (many of which were donated by Chris). There is a mix of Dark Elves Elves, Lizardmen and Amazons in there. 

Here is a piece of suitable Elf scenery that really belongs to my 10mm Elves but I reckon it will do fine with 6mm. I am not sure yet what piece of scenery I may make for the challenge, maybe some elf houses, a small castle or a bridge? I could also do with some better 6mm river sections and trees as my current box of 6mm scenery was all made in the 1980's!

(Only a true elf nutter would have elf armies in 6mm, 10mm, 15mm and 28mm and yes, that nutter is me!)

When I looked in my box of painted Dark Elves I found a few bases of Wood Elves I had already undercoated black (top of this photo). The rest of the figures are mainly a mix of High Elves and Wood Elves with some ents and eagles. More than enough for easily over 1,000 pts so I will need to narrow my choices down to get a nicely balanced force of 500 pts to paint over the next few weeks. Work on this will start on October 1st, let the challenge commence!

 

28mm Macedonians: progress report

 Nine months into painting 28mm Macedonians I thought it was time for an update as to how well I have done so far. Progress has been slower than I hoped mainly due to the fact that I always seem to work on too many projects all at once but that does keep my painting mojo fresh and enthused. Having a stroke in February did not help and resulted in several weeks when I could not paint at all. Happily I seem to be on a steady improvement and I am now capable of painting figures again (and most of my other hobbies too). 

Fresh off the painting table, a unit of javelin armed skirmishers. 

The first unit painted back in January, skirmishers with bow. 

Peltasts.

Pikemen, commanded by Philip of Macedon himself.

Light cavalry with javelins.

Mercenary Hoplites.

The army so far.

Next up will be some Companion Cavalry and another unit of pikes plus Alexander himself. 

Rapid Fire in 20mm: The Battle of Lebisey, June 1944: part 1

 Today we all went over to Nigel's house for another game of Rapid Fire but this time using Nigel's extensive 20mm collection. The game was designed around the British £rd division trying to break through the 21st Panzer's defences in the Lebisey Woods. Nigel put Ian and I in charge of the British and he took control of the Germans.

British reconnaissance reported a strange sighting in the woods!

(Nigel's grandson got there before the us!).

Undettered, the British advance.

(I have a new phone with a better camera so hopefully my photographs will be much improved from now on?)

The Germans take out an advancing British MG.

I tried to get my British forward as fast as possible before more Germans arrived. 

The British are arriving in force now.

More British advance on the left flank. 

German forces start to reveal their positions as they open fire. 

Ian was very happy when his Sherman's arrived. 

and Nigel was just as happy when his Panzer IV's arrived. 

I was even happier when I destroyed them both. 

A lone heroic British infantryman gets caught in the open by a sneaky German officer who shoots him with his pistol. 

The view from behind the German line as turn 10 came to an end. 

We continue the battle next week. 

Rapid Fire, US v Germans at Belle-Fontaine 1944

 For our latest game of Rapid Fire I adapted a scenario out of a recent issue of Wargames, Soldiers and Strategy Magazine. The scenario was actually written for a different set of rules so it needed a few tweaks to suit Rapid Fire and also match our figure collection. The game was based around a German counter offensive against the US forces deployed in the small hamlet of Belle-Fontaine. Ian was in charge of the Yanks leaving Nigel and I to command the Germans. 

The scenario starts with an early morning advance by the first wave of German forces, their advance covered by a mist that lasts the first 3 turns. Using the mist to their advantage, the Germans rush forward soon followed by their second wave of troops. 

As the mist cleared it became easier to spot enemy troops. but the Germans had got themselves really forward to the edge of the village.   

Nigel had been bombarding the US troops deployed in the church.  

Nigel was in control of the Panzer IV's which also got forward quickly, although one suffered light damage from Ian's AT gun.  

The Panthers moving into the outskirts of Belle-Fontaine. 

The infantry move up in support. 

The much needed American reinforcements arrive.

The Shermans fail to damage the Panthers but one of the Shermans was destroyed when the Panthers fired back. 

The Shermans did destroy an advancing German halftrack, also killing a few of the troops it was carrying. 

The Germans are now advancing deeper into the village. 

The American M10's managed to damage a Panzer IV before Nigel destroyed one of them. 

Another Sherman was blown up and with the initial American infantry that had been deployed in the village now all destroyed the Americans opted to withdraw, leaving the Germans in control of the village. 

This was an enjoyable game and we certainly worked our way through the rules much quicker this week. Next week Nigel hosts us as we move up a scale and play Rapid Fire in 20mm. 

The Defence of Carentan: 15mm Rapid Fire

 We haven't played Rapid Fire for probably a couple of years so today's game was very much scaled down to be a learning game. The scenario pitted Ian's Americans (as 101st Airborne) against my Germans (as the 6th Fallschirmjager) and was based on the 'Defence of Carentan' scenario in the Rapid Fire Normandy Battlegames book. Ian and Nigel were in control of the Americans and I took on the role of the Germans in this all infantry encounter.  

We used numbered tiddlywinks as markers to try out the concealed deployment rules. With my Germans scattered around the small town of St Come-du-Mont Ian and Nigel had to both take the town and get at least one unit past a point on the far side of the table in 15 turns-we managed just 5 turns even with our reduced forces.

The Americans enter the table, heading for St Come-du-Mont, trying to spot the German defenders. Each numbered tiddlywink was part of the German force, the blank tiddlywinks were dummy's. It took an observation roll to spot the actual forces. 

Ian advanced quite rapidly whilst Nigel tried to work his way around the table edge to get a unit off the far table edge. Ian managed to knockout most of my forward command group apart from one figure. This figure opted to do an heroic action and with some excellent dice throwing he ran towards the Americans and threw a grenade over the hedge and killed 3 of them, a truly heroic action. The remaining Americans then shot the poor chap.

My Pak 40 AT gun was nicely tucked away behind a hedge and was doing some damage to Nigel's units. He retaliated by concentrating his fire on the Pak 40 and destroying it. 

Both forces had done a similar amount of damage to each other but the larger American force was able to absorb the damage without needing to take a Morale test. Sadly the Germans were getting quite depleted by now and towards the end of our gaming time they failed a Morale test and withdrew leaving the Americans to advance into St Come-du-Mont. 

This was a fun game, a bit slow at first as we kept referring to the rules but we gradually speeded up. Next week we aim to play again introducing a few vehicles this time. 

10mm Hail Caesar, Imperial Romans v Britons.

 We hadn't managed to get a game in for a couple of weeks so it was good to get back together again today. I had quickly thrown together a scenario based on one in the Age of Caesar book but using Early Imperial Romans instead of Caesarian ones and tweaked to suit our figure collection. A quick dice off decided that Ian would take control of the Romans who only had one Command figure in control of their six units of legionaries. That left Nigel and I commanding the Britons in three divisions. 

The scenario had two units of Roman Auxiliary units foraging ahead of the main army suddenly confronted by a large force of British troops. Ian also won the dice off to take the first turn and he quickly recalled the foraging units and formed his Romans into a long line of battle. So Nigel and I did what the Ancient British like to do, we advanced into range then charged! 

Initial deployment, British on the left, Romans on the right, with the foragers already safely recalled.  

Ian sent his Moorish Light cavalry off on a flanking manoeuvre, an act which I tried to counter with my skirmish slingers but they were not very good at following orders. 

On our left Nigel is advancing, our plan was to defeat Ian on the flanks then wrap up the centre. 

Sadly it didn't work. 

Here you can see the strength of the Roman line. In the centre my large Warband had heavily damaged the Roman cohort facing it, but had taken heavy damage themselves to the extent that Ian's Auxiliary Archers managed to finish them off. 

Off run the large warband. 

Nigel commits his left flank troops and after an epic tussle, his warbands were defeated and the division broken. Over on the right flank despite breaking a couple of Roman units my division was also broken so game over. This was quite an emphatic win for Ian and the Romans even though some of them had taken heavy casualties. 

Great game as always.