WW II Soviet Infantry

Last year, I took the plunge into painting and playing WW II with Chain of Command and Bolt Action. I enjoyed both rules enough to start a Warlord Games Soviet army. Assembling 60+ plastic figures was a tedious experience that reminded me I'm a painter and not an assembler.  Right after finishing these, Black Tree Design had a 50% off sale on Soviets, making the cost of their metal figures nearly the same as the plastics. D'Oh!  At that price, I bought enough BTD metals to paint up a 2nd Soviet army.

I was looking for shortcuts to get a large Soviet army on the table quickly and after a few tests, I settled on the following:
1. Prime with Plastic Soldier Company's Russian Tank primer (dark green).
2. Block paint in everything but the uniforms
3. Heavy wash with Army Painter Strong tone.
4. Highlights over the top including the uniforms and skin with 2 highlights.  Fast but effective, it got the job done quickly.

  

Tank riders and some odds and ends figures. 

The ZiS-3 looked too boring so I subsequently brought in some railroad ties piled up as cover. 

I was reading about Soviet composer Shostakovitch and his 7th Symphony, composed during the siege of Leningrad. Shosty's story is riveting. After experiencing early success, he was nearly swept up in the purges. It all started when Stalin left one of his performances early.  From there, Pravda denounced his work and other artists were forced to criticize him. Shosty slept on his porch so his family wouldn't see him hauled away in the middle of the night. The war and the 7th Symphony turned things around for him. The symphony was played in Leningrad under the worst of conditions. It remains one of the most famous performances in the history of classical music. 

Since I was doing a Leningrad-themed army, I decided my objective marker would be shout out to Shosty and his Leningrad Symphony.  The piano is by 4Ground.  The cobblestone is roughly done greenstuff.  I used a copy of the 1st page of the 7th Symphony and a picture of Shosty himself.  He's a dead ringer for Harry Potter to boot!

I previously discussed my 2 highlights and a wash technique for painting the Soviet Naval infantry. On the tabletop, I mix the helmet and cap fellows and deploy them as two squads.

Last up is a Warlord Games limited edition female sniper.  I searched high and low for this figure until Rick Davis donated the figure to my army for free.  Thanks Rick!

So how does my Soviet force do on the field of battle?  Well, let's just say I run them about as proficiently as the early war Soviet officers.

Note:  Google + comments  disappeared off my blog this AM for no apparent reason. Troubleshooting this for hours in HTML, I managed to destroy  my blog .  I reinstalled an old template but I've lost my links to everyone's blog.  I've turned on the in blog comments and I'll rebuild my links to all of my fellow bloggers sites in the future.  So sorry!  I'm so tired of this nonsense.  Having a 5 year old blog has caught up with me with lots of crap and errors under the hood.

Forged in Battle Pontics

I'm back to playing ancients with the excellent L'Art de la Guerre rules. ADLG succeeds where Field of Glory (FoG) ancients stumbled.  ADLG creates a fun and decisive 2- 2.5 hour game with lighter figure requirement.  Needing half the figures of FoG, you can paint an army in half the time.  For my first ADLG army, I used Forged in Battle's superb War & Empire figures. They have 30 (!) ancient armies to choose from and many more coming.  FiB sells a Pontic army but I built mine using individual packs. Bonus, the Pontic starter army is 22% off for the month of June. 

So how did the figures paint up? Using "Monty's Method" I finished them in just under two weeks. That's fast by even my standards and a big thumbs up to FiB.  I've used Old Glory 15s almost exclusively for the past 4 years.  With FiB deep bench, variety and crisp detail, I won't be going back to Old Glory.

Conquest Games Medieval Archers

I'm planning to run Normans in a SAGA campaign and needed 24 levy archers to finish my warband. I considered Gripping Beast's archers but with only 4 poses, I took a pass.  I eventually chose Conquest Games medieval plastic archers. You get 28 plastics for about the cost of 12 metal figures.

My experience assembling a Warlord Games Soviet army put me off plastics for a time. This was quite the opposite of that experience. With 4 parts per model, I got them glued up in 2 hours.  I build them generic enough that I can run them in other Dark Age warbands and Frostgrave too.  I moved these from sprue to a game in less than a week. Thanks to Conquest, I've renounced my silly "no plastics" pledge.

I like how Conquest put loads of extras on the sprue and I've now got lots of spares for headswaps. Detail are well molded and the figures painted up nicely, especially the faces.  For variety, you can make left-handed archers and command figures too.  They're well worth a look if you want to create your own Storm of Arrows! Here's a quick summary for Smartphone readers...

Pros:
28 figures.
Lots of options to customize.
Price is right at $1 a figure.
Lots of extra heads and bits.
Work well for Frostgrave and other fantasy games.

Cons:
Some assembly but its simple.
I couldn't find a US distributor but I did find a UK eBay seller with affordable international shipping. You can order them straight from Conquest Games too. 

The Curse of Ivo Taillefer

Ivo Taillefer was a Norman minstrel, juggler and knight who earned immortality at the Battle of Hastings. There he asked William for the honor of first strike against the English.  William agreed and Ivo rode out alone. History says Ivo put on a show, juggling his lance and sword while singing the Song of Roland.  An enraged English warrior stepped forward and challenged Ivo to single combat. History doesn't tell us whether he too was a juggler but I suspect as much.  Ivo slew the challenger and took his head for a trophy.  Needing more heads for his next juggling feat, Ivo charged the enemy by himself.  Anyone who thinks this turned out well, raise your hand.  No-one? Quite right, Ivo was pulled from the saddle and hacked to bits.

Ivo's tentmates greased his scabbard to great effect.

After belatedly discovering Ivo, I decided to paint him as a hero for my Norman warband.  I used Gripping Beast's "William the Bastard" figure with a small modification.  I sawed off William's club-armed hand and pinned a sword hand in its place. After all, history doesn't say anything about a juggled club!

My decision to paint Ivo a bannerman activated the Curse of Ivo.  As I was finishing his figure, I knocked over a bottle of Elmer's glue that knocked Ivo right off the table.  I failed to catch it on its way down and the fall sheared his pinned sword hand clean off. Mildly enraged, I redrilled Ivo's stump, repinning & repainthing his hand.

With Ivo and his bannerman complete, I put them on a 60mm base.  Handling this heavy base was tricky and sure enough, the curse kicked in again while I was applying flocking.  I lost the grip on the base, juggled it for a millisecond and lost it again.  This fall broke off the pinned banner and bent Ivo's mount badly.  Many foul oaths were issued and I had to walk away from the painting table.

When I returned, a  few things were clear. First, I'm no Ivo.  I can't juggle a lance, sword or even a 28mm version of our hero.  Also, the 60mm base was too heavy and awkward for the frequent handling in a skirmish game.  Ivo fought and died alone and it seemed his ghost demanded single basing.  I pried the figures off the big base and rebased them, each alone.

The results are not as pleasing as the big base. Still, I'm hoping single basing puts an end to the Curse of Ivo and my poor attempts at juggling.  So far, I've gone 8 hours without dropping him.  I think that means the curse is lifted!  

Now try that with lead figures.  

US Saga Grand Melee

Adepticon's US SAGA Grand Melee is over and what an event it was! We played in a Great Hall on 20 themed tables with matching terrain. Our hall was decked with banners, shields and a slaughter chart covering an entire wall. We had loads of Gripping Beast and Kraken Skulls swag, event T-shirts, SAGA beverage glasses, Viking reenactors and a shieldmaiden too.  Eric Hagen managed the impossible and topped last year's stellar event.

20 teams participated in the Doubles and 38 individuals played in the two day Single events. To a person, everyone I played was a great sport and passionate about the game. My only regret is how quickly the weekend flew by.  Next year, I think I'll take up SAGA after dark.

Doubles was fun tune up for the Singles event.  After a big opening win, Brent and I faced the UK SAGA Grand Melee 1st and 3rd place champs running Irish. My Rus Princes were blockers while Brent's Irish rushed the hoard.  On the last play of the last turn and the last throw of the dice, they knocked us off the hoard. Snatching victory from the jaws of defeat is what champions do. So close, we could've earned bragging rights for at least a week. A wonderful couple and how lucky are they, traveling and playing SAGA together?  I really have to have a talk with my wife. 

I opened the Singles event with 2 crushing victories and Swiss Pairing promptly punished me with Andy again! His Irish featured Brian Boru & Ulf the Quarrelsome. Ulf was made for the Challenge scenario we played. While my warlord got smacked around by Ulf, his Irish camped in forest and rocky ground, winning the game on might points.  I enjoyed the opportunity to play and lose to Andy a second time. And I did get him to laugh which I count as a win of sorts.

Stephen the Viking rolled into the Great Hall with a Viking crew.  Stephen has raised my SAGA IQ in our email discussions about builds and strategies.  I couldn't believe my luck when I drew him for my last game. We laughed, shook hands and threw dice.  His Franks have the most difficult battleboard in the game and I was curious to see them run. Unfortunately, he couldn't throw a shield (a common die) for his battleboard and his combat dice left him entirely. I sent my Druzhina in; charge, melee, rally to the banner, repeat.  It was not clever or subtle but it was enough to steal the game.

I had to leave right after the game to start a 6 hour drive back to the Cities.  Thoroughly exhausted, I wanted as much  daylight driving as I could get.  Shortly after I left, I got a text saying I won Best Sportsman. I earned the moniker "Mr. 11 Minutes" because that's how much I missed the closing ceremonies by.  D'Oh!  My helpful friends Photoshop-ed me back into the event.  Lesson learned, I'll better sort this out next year.