Progress

I wasn't getting much hobby or gaming stuff done between work and the ongoing kitchen renovation with a washing machine break down thrown in there for good measures.

But in the last week I did get in some catch up gaming and painting in. Tristan and I played a game of Dust Tactics. This is the first game I have played in awhile and the first with the new rules. The game plays almost as quick as the previous edition. You do have to throw a lot more dice for combat resolution and there seems to be more incentive to use reactive fire.

I also started running a new Star Wars Edge of the Empire game. The first session was played using the Beyond the Rim adventure with new players and new characters. I think they had fun and quickly moved through the first few encounters. The next session is planned in a few weeks.

I also painted some miniatures finishing off the Woodland Indians for the French. My friend Eric picked up some regular French soldiers and is going to paint up a unit allowing us to get in a 200pt battle soon. The fact that Eric is painting up the last unit required gave me the incentive to finish them off. I will work on my other figures for Muskets and Tomahawks after we have had a few games.

I also received a replacement track section from Warlord Games for my Churchill tank that I had purchased awhile ago but came with two right track sections and no left side. I put the kit together and I am glad they sent both sides as the new ones where slightly smaller than the original. I assume the new sides must have been made from a resin that shrank more. I had to modify the pegs as well to get the sides to attach properly and in the right location. All assembled and primed it looks fine.

And finally I painted up a unit of Viking warriors for Saga. I will paint up a few more figures before having a basing session for Saga and Muskets and Tomahawks.

Dust Tactics underway. Our first time with version 2 and with a "big toy" on the table.

The Allies getting the advantage. We called it shortly after this.

I was rolling well, the Allied star is what I was looking for.

A Woodland Indian warband allied with the French.

My first Viking warriors ready to join my painted Berserkers.

The Bolt Action Churchill Mk VII together, primed and ready for paint.

Getting Back to Some Painting Projects

The family went on a camping trip to Cape Breton and we visited Fortress Louisburg like we usually do when we are in the area. Though it has been a few years since our last visit. The weather was cloudy with a few showers but overall it was a pleasant visit. The point of this is that when I got home, newly inspired by the visit, I started back into painting my French & Indian War figures from Conquest Miniatures. I finished off the first French unit, a unit of Compagnie de la Marines and started a unit of Woodland Indians which should be finished this week. That leaves one more unit to paint, do the bases and then ready for a fight using Muskets & Tomahawks.

Tristan and I also finished putting together our Saga forces after which we played a 4pt (the size of our forces at present) battle. We played the first scenario which has the players trying to kill each other's warlord. The game was quick and was deadly and was a lot of fun to play. Tristan won on points as our warlords killed each other in the same combat. We did do a couple of things wrong dealing with the special rules for the warlords which we now know and it was an easy game to pick up and play.

Tristan and I also put together a small Planetary Empires map for 40k and are starting a small Imperial vs. Orks campaign. We our using our own campaign rules but keeping it very simple. We are ready to fight our first battle after maneuvering our forces on the map.

I almost forgot that Ian had dropped in on his way to the airport and we played a game of Vikings by Z-Man Games. A fun game that we picked up pretty quick and though Ian won it was a pretty close game.

The role playing games have been on a short hiatus but will be starting up soon. I have to make up a new character for Call of Cthulhu and will be starting up a new Star Wars game with the group I play D&D 3.5 with as well as restarting Dragon Age.

I picked up the new D&D players book and after a quick read I think I will like it much more than the previous edition. I also finally got the new Dust Tactics rules and unit cards which the retailer was having a problem getting in.

Fortress Louisburg.

The main gate.

The boys on a cannon.

I thought this would make a great wargames room!

Playing Vikings with Ian and Michelle, Ian looks impressed with Michelle's next move!

The setup for Saga, one primed hoard vs. another!

The first completed French unit.

The French Officer.

The Woodland Indians in progress.

Another 3 underway.

Getting some paint on my Saga Viking Berserkers. I think these minis will paint up pretty fast.

The new D&D and Dust Tactics books.

More Miniatures

The next few posts including this one are going to be a little different than my usual in that I am going to post the (hopefully) weekly work on the two projects I have going on, Muskets and Tomahawks and Saga. For M&T I am painting up two 200pt armies, one French and one English and for Saga I am working on a Viking 4pt starter army. 

I am hoping that by doing a weekly post then I will continue painting until the units are done and I won't drift off to another project. Then I can get the armies to the table reasonably quick and fight a few battles with them.

I managed to finish off a unit of Rangers for M&T and started work on some of the Saga miniatures.

The unit of Rangers.

And the start of my Vikings.

My Warlord, Berserkers and Hearthguard units prepped and on their bases.

And here they are with the painting started.

Bolt Action and More Projects

I have been continuing  to paint up a few more Canadians for Bolt Action including a Daimler armoured car from Warlord Games. This was the first model I have put together from Warlord and it was pretty good. My other vehicles have come from Die Waffenkammer and I think they are slightly better models. The detail is a little more crisper and there is less (if any) metal parts, well parts period, with Die Waffenkammer. That being said I would not hesitate to purchase the Warlord vehicles if Die Waffenkammer did not have the model I needed.

This weekend I played another game of Bolt Action. This time we played a 1500 point battle. The game played well enough but I think we both agreed that 1000 points makes for a better game. I started off missing my pre game bombardment by rolling a 1. I also failed to take out a Panther with a Sherman, a Firefly and a PIAT team.  I managed to put pressure on both the German flanks but could not create a breakthrough to push through to the objectives. We found that 1500 points was too much for a reasonably paced game as well as not leaving enough room to maneuver units on a 4 by 6 foot table. 

I have started to paint my starter armies for Muskets & Tomahawks and I really like the detail of the Conquest Miniature figures. Little to no flash on the figures and nice crisp details. I am looking forward to see how these figures turn out.

Next up will be Vikings for Saga as my son received the base game and the Anglo Danish 4pt warband for his birthday. I ordered the Vikings to play against him and also if any of his friends want to give it a try there will be two armies on hand. Tristan's arrived in time for his birthday which was great though I am still waiting for mine to arrive which is coming from a different source.

I have also been playing some rpg's getting in a game of Call of Cthulhu as a player and Dragon Age as a GM. Cthulhu is always fun to play and I started my new character for this campaign hopefully creating a character that will fill in some of the gaps in our party. The character is sort of an Indiana Jones type. Dragon Age was my second session of this campaign with two new players joining the game. One player joining in on Google Hangouts and the other two at the table with me. The game seems pretty fun to run and I am interested to see how it plays over a few sessions and levels. So we have an Antivan rogue, a Fereldan warrior and a Fereldan apostate.

I have also been playing The Last Of Us on the PS3. This was another great rpg game on the console. I found the voice acting and the digital acting to be fantastic and the story was also very good. The only down side was that you had no control over the story, you were just there to fight through the bad guys. It was like watching a good movie and I wanted to know what would happen next even though I knew I was having no effect on the way the story played out. But that is the nature of most console rpg games and I still enjoyed the play through very much.

This is the Daimler kit from Warlord Games.

Here is the kit put together and awaiting paint.

Here is the packages from Conquest Miniatures for the French & Indian Wars using Muskets and Tomahawks.

Thee first 2 units underway. 6 Rangers(in the back) and 6 Woodland Indians.

A close up of the skin so far. I will add some highlights next and maybe some war paint.

Here is my 1500 points of Canadians, a mix of regulars and veterans.

Here is the battlefield with the Germans defending the left side. There are some forces on the table while a Panther and 3infantry squads are in reserve. All the Canadians are off board awaiting turn 1 with a Sherman, a PIAT team and a squad coming on in reserve on my right flank.

My right flank. I was planning on going for the objective in this flank(white disk) as well as the centre objective.

The German centre around objective 2. The German sniper took out the spotter for my off board artillery, good job he was zero point cost for the Canadians.

My flanking reserves have arrived by the German Panther. My Sherman missed a point blank shot and then got brewed up while my Firefly stays hunkered down afraid to fire apparently. The infantry lines close up along the front.

Crossing the fields.

The infantry lines close up on either side of the road.

The other end of the road.

The Daimler is trying to get to the other flank were it will be a little more useful.

The casualties along the road mount up on both sides. The Daimler tries to threaten the objective before I checked the rules and found out that the armoured car cannot claim objectives, only infantry and artillery can. Oh well there goes my only hope for some points.

My first lieutenant holding his own!

The end of the battle on my right flank, not much left on either side.

And the middle where the Germans still held strong positions.