Bolt Action & Chain of Command

Fellow blogger Jason Meyers aka Der Feldmarschal is running a sharp looking Bolt Action event this weekend.  This set a fire under me to finish my Rubicon T-34/76. I had trouble with my airbrush splattering on my last highlight.  To cover it up, I had to go over everything a 2nd time and wiped out my panel highlights.  Ah well.

I put my 1000 point Soviet force out on my battle board for pictures. Now I need to read the rules a time or two and I'll be set for the big game day.

In other East Front action, my friend Hugh and I fired up a Chain of Command Citadel campaign. We finished the 1st campaign representing Gross Deutschland's attack at Kursk with his German's nudging out a minor victory over my Soviets.  The scenarios featured the early German attempts at a breakout. The Germans fielded a Tiger tank in 3 of the games and it was a monster!  In one, I stopped it only by popping an ambush with a flamethrower at short range.  The Tiger panicked and withdrew.  In another, my ZiS-3 and the Tiger traded shot after shot. The Tiger wised up and moved out of sight behind a building.  My crew manhandled the gun forward until they could take a shot at the beast.  And brewed it up. Epic! I was too engrossed in our games to get many pics but here is the showdown between the ZiS-3 and the Tiger.

We're going to start Part 2 of the campaign. After fighting Round 1 with no tanks, I'll be painting 3 T-34s for a scenario where I can field up to 4 of them.  Should be great fun and I hope to report back "The Tigers are Burning!"

Campaigns are the best.  I love the color, narrative, and story they bring. TooFatLardies always does a great job with their supplements.  I had only one platoon to see me through my first 5 engagements. I had to play conservatively to keep my force intact and that after all is the whole point of a campaign.  Bonus, this gave me the impetus to paint up a platoon of Black Tree Design Soviets to replace my Warlord plastics.

US Grand Melee

Our TOs Eric and Paul raised the bar again at the US Saga Grand Melee.We've got a core group of 30+ folks who turn out each year.  It's always great to catch up with old friends and make new ones.

Day1 in the doubles, I played Bill Thornhill and his lovely Goth army.  Bill and Ryan were kind enough to share drinks with us over our game. That was a theme throughout the weekend and I never did get thirsty.

In the Singles, my Goths were a wrecking ball. With 5 games under my belt, I managed to finish 2nd only to Andy Lyons and his Picts. In a Saturday night game, I beat Andy's Picts in 2 turns! Coming in 2nd was grand but beating Andy was, how shall I say this...sublime. Over the long weekend, I got in  a personal best of 14 games of Saga including a v2 game.  My brain was quite tired and happy by the time I started my long drive home.

The rest of my post is a bit of a photo dump.  My camera struggled this year so if your warband doesn't show up, apologies!

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Goths for the Grand Melee

We're closing in on my favorite gaming event of the year, Adepticon's SAGA Grand Melee. Friends, whiskey and 3 days and nights of SAGA. What's not to love? I got 11 games in last year and by Sunday, my brain was quite tired and happy. 

So, how did I end up switching to Goths at the last minute? After 3 months of playing and losing with my Early Saxons, I bailed on them. I just couldn't puzzle out the board. Winning isn't everything but losing all of your games is a letdown. I know because I used to run Gauls in Field of Glory tournaments.  Scrambling for an alternative, I decided my Saxons could pass for Goths. Bonus, I managed to win my first game with them! I rushed a warlord and 12 Footsore Goths through my painting queue. Once again, the Footsore sculpts are superb. I like these fellows so much I'll field all of them in Chicago. 

After the Grand Melee, our local Saga players will transition over to Saga v2. And I'll get started on painting a new Footsore Viking or Norman warband. Life is good!

Early Saxons!

After painting Late Romans and Picts, I decided to paint another "Enemies of Rome" faction for my Saga stable.  Bonus, I can run both sides in a Dux Britanniarum campaign as well!

I planned to take this warband to the Saga US Grand Melee at Adepticon in March.  Unfortunately, I've lost every game I've played with them. The Saxon battle board is composed of small, subtle plays and many of them are conditional.  Winning isn't everything but this has become a bit ridiculous! Looks like its back to the drawing board with 6 weeks to go.

I used a mix of Westwind Productions and Footsore for this warband.  The Footsore figures are stellar as always and the Westwind figures as well.  I liked the variety of headswaps Westwind provided.   It does work well to bring a nice amount of variety to the bunch.  Westwind figures are a bit larger/chunkier than Footsore but still mix well.  Sharp-eyed historians will notice the rugby shirts.  My Saxons have a raid and trade relationship with their Frisian neighbors.  They love to look stylish, what can I say?

The warlord is Penda the Pagan by Gripping Beast and his hearthguard are all Westwind.  

Below was my last drop of Saxons.  I went all in & added more Frisian striped shirts along with levy archers for an Age of Wolves campaign.  The archers and striped shirt warriors are Footsore.  The Saxon "killers" are Gripping Beast and the totem is from Etsy. I can imagine my Saxons yelling out from their storage box "I coulda been a contender!"  To which I'll reply, "Maybe in Dux Britanniarum, maybe in Dux B."

Thistle & Rose Gallic Army

A new owner is bringing Thistle & Rose (T & R) 15mm miniatures back on line. I haven't painted 15mm ancients in ages so it was a great opportunity to get back in the saddle by painting a T & R Gallic army for Triumph.  

T& R are true 15s, comparable in size with Corvis Belli.  Not too tall or plump and very detailed. I don't know how they managed such fine detail on 15mm figures.  Some of the shield work was so intricate I used washes and glazes to highlight the handiwork. The "Dying Gaul" figure is a great touch too.  

The T & R FaceBook page is up here.  When they go live, they'll have a deep bench of periods and armies.  In fact, I should have another round of 15mm painting in the Spring with Saxons, Normans and Vikings.  

This project was a good reminder that one can never paint too many Gauls.  I do miss the days of playing ancients with our disbanded ancients group.  One day!

Strathclyde Welsh Giveaway!

Just a heads up that Gripping Beast is giving away a Strathclyde Welsh starter box in support of SAGA THORSDAY! That is 25 MOUNTED metal models! All you need to do is go to the YouTube video page and comment on what you are excited about for Saga 2.0. (Although you can comment on this blog post, you need to comment on the video itself to get entered into the contest!)