689 - Painting Chart Updates (Part 2 - Ancients)

Hullo, All,

I shall keep this one brief as it's once again self-explanatory...

...except that I've not really covered my recent dive into 'Ancients' very much.

Suffice it to say that

1. I was given a bunch of 'Hail Caesar' Vikings;
2. I bought a bunch of 'Saga' Anglo-Danes cheaply;
3. I was given a bunch of 'Mortal Gods' Thebans, and
4. I was given a bunch of 'SPQR' Gallic-Celts.

The rest - if you'll pardon a weak pun - is history. 

Where it is I plan to go with all of this is for a future post; for now, here are the collections...:

TTFN,

- Drax. 

688 - Painting Chart Updates (Part 1 - WWII)

Hullo All,

Well, I'm back at work (which sucks) but I'm also partway through a pretty productive summer!

I thought I'd mark this by updating where I am with all of my forces and projects, starting with the WWII 28mm stuff. Next post will be the Ancient and Dark Ages stuff, which has been...er...expanding rather rapidly of late!

So without further ado, this is where I am with my...

British 4KSLI (11th Armoured Division): 

(Here's the key, by the way)

The British Indian Army in the Desert:

British Paras:

German Early-War Heer:

German Late-War Heer Grenadiers: 

...and finally, the RAF Regiment and the (as yet unbuilt but nevertheless expanding) US Buffalo Soldiers:

Cheers,

- Drax.

633 - Drax's Painting Charts - Now Available in Print!

Hullo All,

Great news! I've had an article published in the latest edition of 'Wargames, Soldiers & Strategy' magazine! 

WSS 95 - I'm there, baby!

Long-term readers will be aware of the way in which I track the progress of my modelling and painting: the fabled Draxian Paint Chart [there's usually a link on the right sidebar], which uses simple colour-coding on a basic Excel spreadsheet.

It's a self-explanatory system, but rather pleasingly I've been able to share it with the wider wargaming world through my article - here's a link to the entirely excellent magazine [link here] ...and here are the rest of my painting charts, as they stand in March 2018:

My Main Guys!

Their Late-War Foes (and the key again)

The Early-War Germans (late-1940/Sealion theme)

My Rock Apes, for Italy/NW Europe

And of course, my (recently expanded) Desert Rats

...and in 15mm, the discovery of Battlegroup has led me to revisit and start to slightly expand my old Flames of War models - also 4KSLI:

It should be noted that I do also have a small15mm Bolt Action reinforced platoon, with the troops on separate (fivepence) bases, but they've not got their own chart yet.

Until next time, then...

- Chris

597 - Bolt Action - 4KSLI, 11th Armoured Division - Group Hug!

Hullo, Folks!

I've got a really rather pretty battle report coming up (and some bits for Zzzzzz), but real-life keeps getting in the way. In the meantime, here are some group pics of my first love in Bolt Action: some of the lorried infantry of my 4KSLI collection, with some of their inevitable support elements (of whom more later...!):

"Smile!"

NB: That nearest truck - on the right - was not quite
finished at this point. No-one cares but me.

Well, I guess that'll need to do for now. There's much news from this Draxian neck of the woods, and I've just realised that I'm not too far shy of 600 posts now...

...but we'll see what comes up, eh?

TTFN, and happy hobbying,

- Drax.

558 - Bolt Action Game: 1500pts Brits Vs Germans

Hullo All,

I said I'd cover my most recent game in a little more depth and so I shall...although it won't be in much depth because I don't like taking photos of games when I'm using unpainted or unfinished minis, and this was a game for trying things out.

The table. Gorgeous.

My two-platoon list was essentially as follows - all regular - (and again, this was designed (and okayed) to try out a few new units, so please ignore any apparent cheesiness...):

1. Lieutenant
2. [Free] Arty Observer (naturellement!)
3. 10-man Rifle Section with LMG
4. 3-Ton Lorry
5. 10-man Rifle Section with LMG
6. 3-Ton Lorry
7. 3" Medium Mortar + Observer
8. PIAT
9. Sniper
10. Staghound Armoured Car
11. Cromwell
12. Second Lieutenant
13. 5-man Rifle Team 
14. Universal Carrier
15. 5-man Rifle Team with LMG
16. Universal Carrier
17. 4.2" Heavy Mortar + Observer
18. Cromwell CS (95mm medium howitzer)

...That's a whopping eighteen order dice: very handy against the high-cost/low-dice lovingly painted veteran SS troops I was up against!

Some of my newer, W-i-P bits. L-R from top: Cromwell CS, 3-Ton trucks, 
3" mortar, 4.2" mortar, Staghound, 
3" spotter, 4.2" spotter, Lieutenant.  
[a reference pic I took for my own purposes to limit confusion.]

The mission was (as it always seems to be) Hold Until Relieved and I chose 'Attacker', as being British, that gives me the opportunity to use one of my special rules to choose the best of two rolls for preliminary bombardment.

My talented opponent, David, had laid on an absolute visual feast for scenery when I arrived: an 8'x4' board of wonder, complete with a whacking great escarpment in the top-right corner (see above - this is the view of my right flank).

The house to the top-left corner of the crossroads here was the objective. 

I shan't go through the whole game, but suffice to say that my numerical superiority inevitably won through in the end, helped by a few fun moments in particular, viz:

• In my first turn an opening salvo from my new heavy mortar ranged in with its first round and absolutely minced one of the two 5-man squads sat on the objective
• One of my nippy little bren carriers shot along into his lines, shot-up another SS squad and was immediately shot in turn by his big-ass Panther tank. The carrier was blown to dust, but the rifle squad inside it escaped miraculously unharmed and lived on to harry David's flank for another two or three turns!
• On the other flank, my new Staghound armoured car bimbled along and ended up just sitting on the escarpment, surrounded by small German teams with no ability to hurt it, and slowly gunning stuff down (It looks SO much cooler than my boxy and brutal AEC Mk III). It felt kind of weird seeing it sat between an SS sniper and an SS mortar with complete impunity, I must say.
• ...and maybe the Germans were a little spooked by this too, for next turn the mortar rolled a FUBAR! on its order test and to David's bemused disappointment rained HE down on the remaining Germans still holding the central objective. They all died, much to the relief of the brave Toms on their way to seize it!
• Next, a vicious tank duel erupted...with all the bile and anger of a wounded flamingo accidentally stepping on an over-ripe banana. Yup, the Tiger and my Cromwell wafted their hankies at each other whilst my PIAT and his panzerschrek tried to show them how it should really be done. To their credit, both of the A-T teams did themselves proud.
• My new-and-almost-finished 'Mickey Mouse' trucks did exactly what they were paid to do and then even stuck around, as their drivers selflessly used the two vehicles to simultaneously block the enemy's route and provide their erstwhile passengers with cover from the enemy's view! The transport platoon will definitely get a Mention in Dispatches for that.
• Finally, one of my favourite moments of the game was when David's Lieutenant jumped over a wall to make his final stand of the objective, little realising that my Lieutenant was about to do the same thing! They traded ineffectual shots and (as David conceded shortly thereafter, hopelessly outnumbered and swamped by Toms) I'd like to think that they traded drinks too, the German officer having obviously decided to do the honorable thing.

My OC  (top-left) closes on his SS counterpart
(behind the top of the objective building, near the black dice)
as the Toms swarm home past the stranded Puma

And that's just about it. We got a bunch of things wrong (sadly, mostly in my favour), but ultimately I think it was only ever going to end with a British victory - even if I'd been defending. I soon realised his only real threats to me were his medium mortar and his Panther, and I had mobility and firepower enough to counter them well enough.

Clash of the Titans. Not. My PIAT is watching from the wall behind that order dice!

A dual mortar list is fun (those of you who've ever played me in 40K know how much I love mortars) and both of our snipers achieved absolutely nothing all game...so all in all it was fun!

Mickey and Minnie fly along the road...

...whist 'Pieter', my new Cromwell CS W-i-P, snipes at the sneaky wee Puma.

Unit of the match? I suppose it'd have to be my heavy mortar: losing an entire 'hidden' squad with the first shot was brutal for poor David!

Thanks for following along, folks,

coming soon, a focus on my Mickey Mouse lorries and an explanation of what the hell's been going on in real life for me...

Yours aye,

- Drax.

POST 500 - "Why Am I Here?" - A glance fore and aft.

"Why Am I Here?" was the title of my first post, seven years and four days ago, and it seems apt to bring it back for today.

But first, 

POST 500! 

Hooray! 

...and thank you for swinging by!

It seems crazy to think that we're still doing this, seven years in; it seems crazy to ponder how many hours I've spent on this blog and how many friends it's brought me. Thanks, everyone.

I've got a whole raft of things I want to say and do in this post, but that'd get silly, so I'm going to limit myself here to three significant things, and then use the rest as content over the coming couple of weeks. The three things are as follows:

1. Issue the 'competition' to win a star prize;
2. A brief look back at each of the four previous centenary posts, (and this week's goodies) and,
3. An announcement.

Firstly, then: the competition. 

Actually, it's not a competition so much as a draw, and it's really simple (because I've little to offer as a prize): please leave a comment at the end of this post, and if you'd like to be in with the chance of randomly being picked as a winner, then just mention it. I won't take offence if you don't! The prize is as follows:

I will paint up a unit for you - free of charge - and cover the postage too, as best I can. You know that unit that you really cannot be bothered to paint? I'll do it. You know those models that you need to be finished at some point but they're right at the bottom of your priority list? Send 'em to me. The caveats are: (1) I'm not brilliant at painting - I'll do a serviceable job, but it's not pro-quality, and (2) it'll take me a while. I promise I'll give it my best shot, though...

There you go! Free painting for one unit. Not a bad prize, if you just need stuff painted!

Next, a brief look back at previous centenary posts:

Post 100 - Drax's Guard Army [link]:

This was the first group shot of the glorious 2/24th Cadian. Ah, glory days indeed! This was almost a year after starting the blog and about seven months after moving from Norwich to sunny Devon.

Post 200 - Drax's Army Painted [link]:

By this point, we'd had the first addition to our family - our eldest daughter - but I still managed to describe the 2/24th as "my pride and joy!" Incidentally, this shoot is the one my current blog header comes from!

Post 300 - Drax's Whole Army [link]:

In June 2012 I was lucky enough to be frequenting the now-defunct Giant's Lair in Plymouth: the only time in my almost 25 years of wargaming that I've been able to play regularly. By the way, if you weren't around during this period, I recommend checking out this post: there are some cracking pics! I really like this one: 

Post 400 - Day 4/14 - the 400th Post [link]:

Wow - this is truly mundane! I did genuinely enjoy bashing out fourteen posts over the course of a fortnight though: it was a fun (and very popular) challenge, the 'Forced Fortnight' - it also got me to plough through a lot of hobby work. By this time, I'd had another child (Daughter #2, the tubby ginger one) and I'd taken a demotion at work, to give me more family time. Great decision! 

The sprue, by the way, is from my Matilda II, which I've yet to paint properly...it's waiting in the wings, trust me. I've got plans for it. This is symbolic, really, of my move away from 40K and towards historical - in this case, Bolt Action in 15mm.

That leads me, as it happens, to where I am now: I now have my core force assembled in 28mm Bolt Action...and there's more on the way! Here's a pic of my core, legal 'reinforced platoon' - with luck I'll have about 1000pts' worth by the end of the month when I nip up to Kirton Games for my inaugural Bolt Action games!

L-R; Front-Back: Cromwell, Sniper & Spotter, 2Lt, FOO, PIAT & Loader, 1 Section (in two teams so as to be force-legal) and a Recce Carrier with pintle-mounted Bren. 

There'll be far more posts about these puppies over the coming weeks, trust me!

Finally, an announcement:

I think it's time for me to quit 40K. I've not played with my army for literally over a year...and even then I had to dust them off. It was an absolutely blinding game against Gravis, but it was a last hurrah under the old Codex, and before GW went properly, finally batshit crazy. 

I've played 40K since - I played Zzzzzz-style, chez Zzzzzz, and it was a thoroughly enjoyable game, but I didn't need 4500pts' worth of Guard to play it - in fact, I didn't even use a single one of my models. And still had a blast. 

Now, I love my army, but they take up room...and I not only haven't kept up with the pace of change in 40K (I can't afford to!) I've also realised, on a fundamental level, that I don't want to. I just don't want to play their games any more. Literally AND figuratively. I strongly dislike the recent shifts in aesthetic, and I don't even like where they've taken the fluff these days: something GW's always done well. No. Alas, there's simply no part of the GW hobby that still attracts me. 

Except Zzzzzz-style gaming, because that's really fun.

So I'm left with a sprawling, painted, uniform, outdated, archaic Cadian Imperial Guard army that hasn't even been reworked for the current codex. I will probably have to sell it, and I cannot imagine for a second that I'll get a good price for it. I also have the issue of the couple of units I'd wish to keep...just for the memories, y'know...but I suspect this is all a post for another day.

Anyone want to buy a Guard Army? One very careful and loving owner...

Sorry if this feels like a betrayal to any of my few remaining 40K readers, but it doesn't mean I'm going to stop enjoying your posts (assuming the internet is functioning well enough for me to enjoy them...!)

So.

Here endeth the 500th lesson.

The Emperor Protects.

- Chris/Drax.

297 Three 1500pt Mixed Lists

Hullo All,

Here's three versions of a general 1500pt list in reverse order. The most recent is what I played with last week - a cracking game against some Chaos space marines which I lost after a good scrap. Please note, this is the only list in which I ever use 'chimeltavets'...out of principle.

Elements of these variants are interchangeable, but some go better with other bits. For example, the Company Commander is useful with all the heavy weapons, but the Primaris Psyker works well riding with the Str6 grenade launcher vets in the chimera. In the most recent game, I tried the bane wolf in lieu of my normal hellhound - it worked well against the filthychaosscum marines.

Hope all's well,

- D.

277 2000pt Tournament; List and Update

Despite the fact that I've forsaken tourneys, the excellent Jay at my club was after people to participate in a 2000pt contest, and as I knew things wouldn't get too competitive there, I figured 'What the hell - I'm on holiday, right?I've deliberately not documented the process, as (a) it might've been unfair to members of the club who read my blog and (b) I knew I wouldn't have time to take photos, but here is an overview, in case you're interested...

My List:

Coy Cmdr w. 4 snipers and chimera
Marbo
1 Platoon (HQ w 3 gren+1 flamer in chimera; 3 squads w. plas, melta+gren; SWS w. demo+2 melta; HWS w. a/cannon; HWS w. mortars)
2 Platoon (HQ w 3 gren+1 flamer in chimera; 3 squads w. plas, melta+gren; SWS w. flamer+2 gren; HWS w. m/launcher; HWS w. mortars)
Penal Legion
Hellhound w. h/bolter
Devil Dog w. h/bolter
Leman Russ MBT w. lascannon
Leman Russ Demolisher w. lascannon
Griffon Mortar Battery (2 vehicles).

Now, the astute amongst you will have noticed that this is not a 'competitive' list. In fact, some of the choices are just bloody stupid, like putting sinpers in a chimera, putting my mortars in separate platoons or fielding griffons, but here's why: Rather than starting with 'What will play well?' I started with my normal HQ and 2 of my platoons, and thought 'How might these troops be supported?'.

First, I gave all the command units a runaround. I know snipers can't move-and-fire, but if their boss is given a chimera what else are they going to do? Then I added the griffons, as they're cheap, fun, and no-one expects them. Next the Hellhound (always) and the Devil Dog...which you'd see everywhere if GW hadn't rubber-stamped vendettas and melta-weilding monted veterans, which I refused to field on principle. A couple of Russes to help my anti-tank capability and that just left a few points for the Penal Legion and Marbo, both of whom are always great fun to field.

Progress so far:

Well now. We've finished the first round (20 players in 5 groups) and the three games of round 1 were all the same: Pitched Battle with 5 objectives; tracking secondary scores for victory points (hooray!) and kill points (boo!). I played James's Blood Angels first, and after a great game I just pipped a win. Next was Josh and his generic (gold?!) marines - the game dragged a little and ended up an anticlimactic draw. Finally, last week I played Lee's superb Eldar: a really fun game which ended in a win for me, but only after he assaulted and destroyed pretty much half my army!

Result? I won our group, with Lee second, and as such we're both through to this week's 'Knockout' round 2. This will be hard for me as round 2 is 5 objectives with a spearhead deployment, and trying to usefully deploy a gunline guard army with 120+ infantry in the corner of a board is tricky. Ho-hum, we'll see.

Unit of the tourney so far?

Definitely the Penal Legion. In 3 games they've destroyed 3 units: Blood Angels lightning claw terminators, a whirlwind and 10 Dire Avengers. Nice. The heavy weapons teams have done an admirable job for once, and have even survived fairly well, and the mortars and heavy mortars have caused no end of casualties and pinning.

The main failures have been the HQ snipers (no surprise, really - they're really just there for anti-MC work) and my demo charges which have been uncharacteristically lame...although one did sail comically over the enemy landraider to blow up a bunch of Guardsmen!

The biggest thorn in my side has been a unit of Striking Scorpions. Gits.

More posts coming up!

- Drax.
PS: Sorry about the weird spacing. Does anyone know how to stop Blogger doing this?