Bolt Action - Operation Galvanic first wave

Back to Bolt Action and this time with a campaign which I devised to mobilize our US Marine and Japanese forces in the club. So I designed a four game mini campaign based on events on Tarawa November 1943 during operation Galvanic. What I did I took the pacing and some interesting events from the actual fight and used them as themes of the games. The campaign starts with US first landing wave hitting Red Beach two at morning. Then second wave with some tanks will land on the shore. After the beachhead, fighting moves on to have some bunkers assaulted and finally all fighting will end with final japanese Banzai assaults ending also the campaign.

We started this week by having the first game, where US Marines started the attack by wading a shore in shallow water. While japanese on the shore poured murdering fire on attackers from good firing positions. This scenario used the amphibious assault rules from Warlord website. The game was ten turn custom scenario which turned to be quite interesting fight where both players had a bit different tactical challenges. After all the fight was bloody, as expected and at first it seemed to be a turkey shoot for japanese. But when the americans got some ground under their feet, their respectable firepower started to bring down the brave defenders. First game ended japanese victory because the Marines never reached their objectives. So next wave will have hard time to clear the beach defenses.

Barbed wire defenses on the killing zone on the beach.

Japanese defenders in the bush by the beach.

Imperial troops in good positions.

Sergeant organizing troops to man the positions.

Red Beach two from approaching Buffalo.

Buffalo have reached the shoreline.

Most of the US troops are still wading amidst the murdering fire.

The Leathernecks reach solid ground and start hard fighting.

Some are just so lucky, or is it skill?

Aerial view on the shoreline.

Victorious defenders pouring fre on attackers.

Nice game. Next will be the assault of the second wave with some tanks. Lets see how it goes.

The Crescent & The Cross - Crusaders and Templars

Crusades project grinds on and yet another batch of brave warriors of the faith got ready. I did some repainting to old Citadel men-at-arms to make them barons own warriors. They are quite historically, so they pass well for late crusaders, and it would be shame not to use these nice old jewels of miniature history.

And finally finalized all mounted late crusades Templar knights. Actually these are probably made by Perries too. They were sold as Bretonnian knights back in the day, and now they have gone off market, which is shame.

Here's a little update of progress.

One more Baron with trusty banner.

And the brave men of the baron. 

Strong group of Templars readying for charge.

And now there will be even more, some mounted sergeants for Templars and Saracen archers.

The Crescent & The Cross - More Crusaders

My C&C project flies on. Just got some more crusaders ready. It's still fun to paint these medieval warriors and these are more individual knights and warriors than the previous ones painted. Each have distinct livery. I painted some warriors as crusader allies from Armenia, just to practice a little different shield designs.

There is another related project I'm working with. I've found my old Citadel medieval warriors from late eighties and early nineties. I believe those are sculpted by Perry twins during their early days working for Citadel miniatures. They are actually for later medieval era, but work well for later crusades. Part that discovery was nice bunch of knights with lances and barded chargers, really warlike boys.

Next I'll be working with arab archers and it give possibility to paint even more delicate (and complex) fabrics since those arabs tended to dress up very colorfully. Let's see how it works.


And here are latest additions for The Outremer.

Baron with strong connection to Templars. 

From other side. 

Knights with spanish flavor.

Norman knights. 

Warriors from Armenia. 

Old Citadel men-at-arms for later crusades.

Warlike Templars still in VIP state.

Still very inspired!

Bolt Action - Bunker Assault

Bolt Action for a while. It was nice to get back BA gaming! As a preparation for our forthcoming Tarawa campaign, we had test run of special Bolt Action scenario Iwo Jima bunker assault, which can be found at Warlord Games site in Gaming & Collecting part.  The scenario is bit different from normal games you will find from the rulebook. It is special in terms of amount of troops on each side and how the game is played length wise of the table. The game is about US troops trying to capture three bunkers on three consecutive defense line. There is only half of the number of defenders, but they are really duck in bunkers and those lines. Attackers job is to rush through open ground from line to line and attack each bunker. So thats the name of the game in short. If interested please read the actual scenario, you'll get clearer picture. And when a fellow gamer made beautiful bunker models this game was must. The pictures of the bunkers can be found from Jari's Blog. I was too occupied by the game to take any pictures of then, which is a shame.

Well, after reading the scenario, I thought this would be murder, boy was I right! We had two US players with some sixteen units and eight Japanese units defending. After eight turns of fighting - the actual scenario if for ten - we had almost all our Marines shot up and the assault withered down. But it was not the fault of the scenario, we just didn't have our tactics right. We made critical mistakes and didn't realize the essence of this scenario. The scenario is actually good, as most Warlords ones are. There's nice tactical consideration for defender how to divide troops along the three lines. Attacker has to be careful to bring two waves in right. And after all it was good and fun game, though it ended US total loss. So we definitely will be including this in our Tarawa campaign, which I'm currently putting together.

Here's some shots from our carnage.

One of the nice terrain pieces by Jari full of Japanese defenders.

This was taken by the US MArines and it was the only one.

The Marines return fire.

Sniper and spotter, clever base conversion or what?

And finally Japanese repelled the attack.

Bolt Actoin was nominated best historical game of the year by some authorities I noticed, and I have to say for good reason. It is good and fun game.

The Crescent & The Cross - Troops of Principality and Hospitallers

My C&C painting project proceeds, quite feverishly I'd say. The period inspires me really, so It's great fun to paint these knights and warriors of Outremer. Along with painting I've been reading C&C rulebook, and I have some reservations about it. I still have some doubts about the battle boards and sometimes the rules are written in very complex way. Well after a few games I'll know better, lets wait for that.

Now I have added more Norman crusading knights to the Crusading army and more Milites Cristi troops for my Hospitallers. I also wanted to paint some Normans who have settled in the Outremer and decided to go for The Principality of Antioch. That was ruled long by the Italo-Normans.  First troops are unit of warriors and the Baron. I decided to give these troops some uniformity, so the shield design is similar for all warriors and the baron himself.

Four more knights who took the cross.

Hospitallers colors flying.

The baron of the Antioch. 

Barons warriors.

There will be some more Normans to paint, so the next normans will be more individual warriors,
group of sell swords to for fight for the money.

The Crescent & The Cross - The Knights of Outremer

SAGA miniature game has been played in our Club for a while, but the period of the game is the dark ages, which is not up in the list of my interests. Though I have quite a lot of figures for the period both painted and to be painted. But the SAGA guys went to Crusades era and that's really something for me. I've always have had great interest for the period. So I got The Crescent & The Cross ruleset somewhere autumn, but I was very occupied with Bolt Action painting, so the book stayed in the shelf. And then came Christmas holidays and I picked the C&C rules and was immediately inspired! Not that much of the rules, but those fine knights and wily Saracens and all those colorful miniatures. I dug up age old set of Norman knights and soldier by Gripping Beast. I got those from my friend with an idea to paint them and play medieval fights. Well that never happened, but the figures were laying there until now.

I put immediately everything else aside and started planning theme for the armies. First was easy, one troop should be The Hospitaller Knights or The Knights of St.John. They have been always my favorite religious order, so it was no brainer. Second troop would be more generic Normans noble army since they went there among the first and were very influential power around Mediterranean during the times of the Crusades.

Painting the Hospitallers was easy, these guys wore mostly black, later they changed red, but not yet.
But the Norman knights livery was not that easy. It's at the same time nice but quite laboring to paint knights army, since you have to remember to change color theme constantly. No knight can be similar to man next to him.  Equally laboring was painting all shields and flags freehand. I didn't have any transfers and wouldn't like to wait to order, so I decided to paint them. It's funny how painting an army with no uniformity is actually harder than painting very uniformed army. Men at arms or soldiers are much easier, they can be wearing similar color theme depending their master.

But enough this story telling and on with main thing, the Outremer project so far.

First batch of crusading Norman knights who took the cross

Knights Hospitallers ride to protect crusaders

Warriors in the service of the Hospitallers

Hospitaller crossbow men

View from the back where cross livery is openly presented

Don't really how the actual game is, wether I like it or not, the battle board feels bit gimmicky.  But once again game gives good focus for this project. First I will do two four point Christian armies, one of Hospitallers and one of Normans which can be combined into eight point total. Later I'll paint Saracen army, because I already have some figures and even one figure depicting famous Saladin himself.

So there will be more coming...

Year 2014 on miniatures - brief look to the past

It's the time when everyone is looking back into the year lived, so I'm joining the band. And actually I have had this habit since my blog was born way back two years ago, so I feel obliged. It's been, once again, active year with this hobby of mine. Actually calling this merely a hobby feels somewhat understatement since painting miniatures is my passion, It inspires me and gives nice feelings of creativity and even those good vibes of flow.

And anyhow, it's always nice look back to the year you've been doing and when it's easy as this why shouldn't you. I think you are now convinced, so I move on... Oh by the way, this blog changed language somewhere during summer, so don't be surprised to find strange language when you follow the links (ed. that means stranger language than on this page).

About my passion - painting projects

... and some comments on gaming too


Wild frontier

The year 2104 was interesting year, because many new painting projects started and I ventured on many new ranges of miniatures. Year started working with French & Indian war era miniatures when I joined Muskets & Tomahawks -campaign in our club. Miniatures were great and I enjoyed painting them much. At the same project I painted a bunch of venerable Foundry trappers and mountain men, they are nice too. The game itself wasn't that impressive, nice card activation but in the didn't like that much It's only good for certain theater and too gimmicky to my taste, but it had it moments and was good reason to paint nice mini's.


Back to the WWII

After the glow of the war with Indians and French went, my interest turned into WWII and there was
very nice sale of Warlord miniatures on one of the local shop. So one thing followed another and I was there in the middle of a new project painting German Fallschirm jägers, Canadian infantry, German infantry and later on US Marines for the Pacific. This was actually going back to age old interest of WWII which started back in the day when I was little boy playing Airfix plastics, with what I learned how to paint in the first place. With Warlord miniatures I started playing Bolt Action game which I really like. The game is simple to learn and play but complex enough to give good "period" feel. I even devised a scenario for it and will run a landing themed campaign this year.

Modern continues

My never ending interest with modern warfare miniatures went on strong as I did quite many projects with them. I
managed to find some modern German kampaffscwimmers from Tactica. painted whole lot of Empress modern PLA marines with their funny blue camo and some modern street fighters and cops from Foundry and TAG. I also managed to have some gaming with Force on Force, which is still one of the best game systems there is.

Along with these so called projects, there was also some additional painting which I even haven't put on my blog. Some WH40K miniatures. Unsuccessful start with 6mm ACW union cavalry. Some scenery and little this and that. So I spent quite a lot time with my beloved hobby and enjoyed every moment.

Building something small

With miniatures and games there was also some gaming table projects and scenery building. With ever inspiring War Head team we built quite many gaming tables for the tournaments and Storm of Vengeance campaign. And I also ran one house building workshop on the club.

Happenings

During 2014 there was many happenings around miniatures and games that I was participating. At first, as an opening into year was Hamburger Tactica. Great show and exposition of gaming and painting. I could recommend that to anyone interested miniature games. Then there was demo games organized by a friend and fellow gamer where I once again demonstrated Force on Force game to eager newbies. It was fun and it was nice to spend some time and talk to people who aren't too deep in the "pit". Summer came and with it Ropecon 14, where we continued our tradition of Force on Force demo and table spectacle with other fellow gamer. Then there were two other expo's where I was on of our Club's grew when organizing demo table. They were Model Expo Helsinki and Suuri Snadi.

Even I don't play much in tournaments I was participating the teams organizing these during the year. These our club GW games based tournament Talvisota and War Head's 40K tournaments during the year.

Campaings

One of the highlights of the year was our Black Powder campaign in the club which I was game mastering and creating the scenarios. The Danube campaign went chronologically through 1809 war between Imperial France. The gaming went on almost for a year and some nice and big games were played Aspern - Essling and Wagram to mention few.

Many friends from the club participated the games and were initialized into 15mm Napoleonic gaming. Thank's once more for the generals!

The other, totally different, campaigns was the revitalization of the old GW campaign The Storm of Vengeance, which was nicely upgraded by War Head's proprietor Teemu. It was mini campaign where Charcharodons marines faced orc invasion. I was playing with my orcs. We had weekend's full of gaming and great fun.

The Club

During the last year we kept running games evening called "eccentric games" on our gaming club on Wednesdays. The ideas was to play games that are not that know or popular when compared with Games Workshop big ones. So there I was spending most of my Wednesdays organizing or playing some sort of miniature game in the club. Club is nice focal point of the hobby especially the gaming side. The club has reached now the size that one can be able to find fellow gamer to play with you in most of the rules and there's always some activity going on. So through that I started many of my this years painting projects. I was also nominated as one of the first "Fellow gamer" this year for my involvement and contribution for the club activities. A title I'm proud to carry and will pursue on living the title.

One of the highlights of these evening was to able to help fellow club member to develop new rule set for modern firefights. I commented the rules and test played them and finally this ended up with rules and pack of scenarios. The rules are called Heist. Thanks for the opportunity.

Departing thoughts for the year to come

This blog is mostly for me to keep record and follow the miniature painting I do through the year. Blog entries are about painting miniatures, or to be more precised showing painted miniatures and telling about that. But along that it follows quite nicely my activities with gaming, since most my painting is for games and when I start painting project, it will eventually lead into some sort of miniature game. Sometimes I like the game so much that I will stick to it and gaming goes on regularly, more or less. Some games are even that good and interesting that I dig more deeply in those by start organizing scenario games and campaigns in our club. Fine examples of the games I've liked and stayed is recently started Bolt Action or above mentioned Force on Force. Both are the ones I have been and will be organizing scenario based games. Some games I just leave, cause they are not for me. I'm not saying that they are not good games, but they just don't support my style and idea of good gaming, so why bothering. There's only this much time in the world. And still I try to up live principle I adopted last year, maybe less games but more quality in all of its' respects.

Funny enough I still haven't counted the number of miniatures painted during the year. It's just not my cup of tea, but I believe some 300 - 500 all together.

This year starts with definite plan to run landing campaign in the Pacific, where US Marines will
attack the coral island. And during the Christmas Holiday Season I started painting new range once again. This time I'll venture into Outremer with Norman knights, but more of that later.

Let's see what else 2015 will bring. Anyway I'll keep painting, that's for sure!