A web log of my historical wargaming. Mostly devoted to Field of Glory Napoleonic 2nd edition, Glory is Fleeting, OATHMARK: BATTLES OF THE LOST AGE, Rangers of Shadow Deep, Black Powder, Bolt Action and BATTLETECH.
Google is fucking useless these days so I have not found anyone who used Speedpaints 2.0 for what I want them for.
What I worked out from watching the Youtube video's 2 posts below this one.
Bold is items I already have.
Battledress: Warrior skin (will swap out for Vallejo English Uniform primer)
Leather Jerkin: Hardened leather
Shirt: Pallid bone
Ammo pouches: Pallid bone
Boots: Fire Drake
Puttees: Ruddy Fur
Helmet: Pallid bone (Will swap out for Vallejo Bone White primer)
Socks: Algae Green
Gas mask bag: Howling Sand
Backpack: Pallid Bone
Water bottle: Camo Cloak
Bayonet Handle: Grim Black
Rifle: Dark Wood
Rifle metal: Broadsword Silver
Skin: Crusader Skin
Also Needed: Speedpaint Medium
I'm not really happy about using Pallid bone for so many items, but they shirt probably won't be visible and the Helmet will be lighter due to the Zenithal shading I plan on doing. I should use different shaders on them too.
After much forethought and planning I decided I wanted to replace all my (so far unused!) Army Painter Speedpaints for Army Painter Speedpaints 2.0, which don't have the re-activation issues of the mark I's.
I spent a lot of time trying to find somewhere in Melbourne who sells them, without too much luck :(. Army Painter themselves does NOT list anyone in Melbourne who has them. This is fucking useless - I WANT TO GIVE THEM MONEY
I had searched the internet for sometime to try and find the colours other people use for 1941 Australians and came up with nothing because Google is fucking useless now.
I knew The House of War has them, so instead of waiting 2-3 WEEKS for delivery (that was the estimated time span!) I headed off in the rain to get some.
And found they only had HALF of the Speedpaint 2.0, and none of the mediam I would need if I want to use the Speedpaint Mk I's :( :( :(
I got what I could, but they didn't have the Army Painter spray cans.
I asked why and was told a strange story. Apparently, they blow up.
What I said? Blow up!? How?!?!
Apparently multiple customers were just standing there and suddenly the can would open and paint would explode everywhere. So they don't carry Army Painter spray cans anymore.
I carefully avoided the Citadel ones and looked at the Vallejo. And wouldn't you know it, they have English Uniform in a spray can! Exactly what I needed! This way I can spray paint the figures and just block in the rest and do Zenhital shading from above with a sand colour to do the helmet at the same time!
So that worked out for me.
I also got some beach sand as I'll need some kind of sand for the bases. They didn't have a darker sand but I can wash this afterwards to make it more orange red. I was disappointment they didn't have Sand from North Africa,, they seemed to have it for a dozen other planets. I actually have ACTUAL SAND from both Utah AND Omaha beaches! And I got some objective sized oil drums and THE BRIEFCASE I need to paint as red and blue. We must protect the briefcase of intelligence from the enemy spy you see.
I needed some glue too. I asked the person behind the counter which of the DOZEN Superglue's I need for metal, I think they picked one randomly.
I asked when they might get more Speedpaints:
I can't tell you.
You can tell me, I'm a customer.
No I mean I don't know.
You don't know if you're getting more Speedpaints?
No I mean I don't know when they might arrive.
How can you not know, didn't you order more?
Yes but it's up to the distributor when we get might them.
I would like to give these people money but they make it very hard to do so. I took the wrong day to not try drinking. Looks like I need to order online anyway. :(
I need to write down what I got and I want I still need.
And after all that, I got home and it's raining too much to do undercoating anyway.
There is a very old review system that says the sooner you see a crate in a game, the worse it is.
Game developers
have known the answer to the first question since the early 1980's: ammo and health can be
hidden inside crates or sometimes barrels. As often happens, the answer to the
second question was hidden in plain sight within the answer to the first. All games
contain crates, therefore all games can be judged empirically on those crates.
Once we came up with that insight, the actual formula for the
world's first completely unbiased review methodology was a trivial matter of
applying our many hours spent watching actors portray scientists on television to our
hatred of crates. Games can be rated and compared based on the shortest amount of
time it takes a player to reach the first crate, which represents the point where the
developers ran out of ideas. This number is measured in seconds and is called
"Start to Crate" or "StC". The smaller the StC, the worse the
game.
They were stupidly hard to put together. I went through 4(!) tubes of old and blocked up superglue bottles to do them. I tried wood glue but that was a complete failure.My fingers are covered in superglue.
One of them (the top one) is not square and I couldn't get the lid on correctly, but it does add some character.
I would rate these 3/10 of to put together and 8/10 for looks once done.
I haven't even started my first army but I know what I want to do for my 2nd. A mid-war Commonwealth army of the 2nd battle of El Alamein.
What draws me to it is I can use some of my 1st Bolt Action army, and it's a combined army of nearly every Commonwealth nation. Australia, New Zealand, Indian, Scottish, British, Polish, Free French, American Armour (including Sherman's(!), Crusaders, Grants and Matilda's) and others. I feel like I would need 1 platoon of each for a full multi-national army. Not very historical, but it would work as a theme.
This is the best TV documentary I've found of it - made 50 years afterwards and on location. Gives a great demonstration of the actual terrain of the battle. There is video of the actual buildings like Rommel's headquarters I can copy and build, the trees, ground and villages.
The pieces to camera of the soldiers is a bit naff but I hope/assume they are actual writings from the battle. It could have used some Axis accounts but it goes through a lot.
I give it a 4 out of 5 starts. 5/5 for a TV doco, but You Tubers can do it better, but can't go on the actual location!
After much digging I'm put all my (non-citadel base/layer) paints into my newly built Warlord Games Large Paint Rack. They just fit.
I have not sorted the colours yet, but I have done them by type.
Top level: Uncommon Citadel drybrushing, Army Painter mediums and varnish, spare Army Painter wash, citadel gold base and texture.
2nd level: Commn Citadel drybrushing
3rd level: Army Painter paints black, dark and brown, Army Painter Metallics
4th level: Army Painter paints other colours
5th level: Army Paint Speedpaints V1, spare Citadel Nuln Oil
6th level: Army Painter washes
Bottom level: Citadel washes, Paint Brush cleaner
Left side: Army Painter brushes at the front, old worn brushes behind, tweezers
Right side: Large brushes, modeling tools
I do want to swap the Army Painter paints and Speedpaints V1 with all Army Painter Speedpaints V2 - I am not a good or patient painter and I just want to my troops on the ground as soon as I can. I got the Army Painter Speedpaints V1 but never got around to using them before the V2 came out which apparently do not have the problems the V1 do.
Most of the Army Painter paints came in the starter pack, the Warlord games paint set for Black Powder Civil War, and Warlord games fast deployment set.
I put away my old Citadel Base and Layer paints. I always hated and was not good at using layers, and using a wash (and dry-brushing important figures) is more than enough for me, so I kept the dry brushing ones. I suspect they have all dried out though. Also I don't have gold metallic base in Army Painter so kept those ones too. The Citadel pots are very messy to use and dry out way too easily compared to the drop bottles too.
I liked using the Games Workshop ink washes, but they are probably too thin compared to the Army Painter washes. They are more colorful though, so kept them in the rack.
What sucks: I seem to have thrown out all my spray paint undercoats, so can't paint anything! :(
Many years ago I got the Warlord Large Paint Rack. Now I need somewhere to keep all my paints and brushes instead of an old GW citadel project box. The GW one seems to no longer exist, or at least the horrible no good bad GW web site (which is impossible to navigate) seems to no longer list it. It IS handy as it's portable but won't fit all the army painter paints I have currently.
I just needed wood glue and some tissues to remove excess glue.
One piece broke off that didn't matter, and I broke one of the side brush stations but it's connected in many places so should be OK. I broke it when I was test fitting a piece and stopped trying to fit things. Uh oh.
The big mistake I made was the instructions say the BOTTOM level is blank, but does not say the TOP one is blank too. So I glued the wrong one right at the top. It shouldn't matter much though, but it was annoying to find that out at the end.
Review:
The instructions weren't clear at the start and I put one part in the wrong place. Beyond that it's ok. I just hope it's strong enough for all my Army Painter paints.
Apart from breaking 2 pieces and the one unclear instruction, it was fun to put together and a lot easier than trying to get plastic (or oh god metal) figures together. I would like to get some MDF North Africa campaign buildings and do them too.
8/10.
Tipped sideways. The bottom most layer is the wrong one and should have been the 2nd blank one.
The very top one should have been swapped with the 2nd top one. The top one has two notches for the base plate with holes in it, but I missed that in the diagram :(
In a tournament, history needs take a bit of a back seat. I've been watching a lot of battle reports on YouTube, but one of the best is here from Lessons from the front.
Watching his video's I've concluded you need two units of anything to shoot anything. One unit can pin something, but you need two to actually stop it. Granted, outnumbering your enemy is always a good thing to do, and one to avoid happening to you.
I've got two Matilda II's to work as a pair. With only light AT guns they can't stop mid or late war tanks but they can pin them. If I had a 1250 point army I would make them both veteran to ignore light penetration attacks. Enemies shooting at them need to be aware there are two of them and will be much more weary of them, more than they probably should be. Their slow speed means they MUST work with the infantry, which I consider a plus. You can't tear off and advance without your infantry cover if you can't move faster than them!
The Rifle Platoon is only 2 squads of 8, and lack a 3rd reserve platoon. I would get another one if I could, but it's a base line of infantry with the light mortar and medic supporting them. I regret not being able to get stretcher bearers but the medic is always going to be a low priority target. I need to keep him more than 4 inches away from the rest of the platoon but within 6 to have a 1-in-6 chance of saving someone. The mortar should be targeting enemy prepared positions like AT guns or MMG's on the line of advance, or popping smoke where the Bren Gun Carriers will be coming in from reserve on.
The sniper team should always be deployed in front of the Rifle Platoon - he is their scout and will allow them to move up into cover or objectives. I may swap it for a company commander, I need some practice games first to see if putting the Coy Co with the carriers and getting 4 units to move and attack is better.
Sadly it makes more sense for the Engineers to be in the Bren Gun Carriers as they are the best assault troops I can get early war anyway. With them with usually go the Anti-Tank Rifle team with their platoon commander. They will come in with their 3 carriers from reserve
If I had another 150 points for 1250, I would get a Company commander, a 3rd rifle platoon of 5 men to be in reserve and come on where needed, both Matty's becoming veteran and make the engineer commander inexperienced. The Coy Co would go with the engineer platoon.
Each platoon should have 2 units shooting at one target ideally. Hopefully having 2 units doing one thing at a time will help the command and control. Rifle Platoon advances, Tank Platoon supports then, Engineer platoon flanks the enemy and assaults enemy strong points at point blank range.
Problems I can see - I am low on infantry with only 4 squads (2 of which are small) and not many weapons teams either. I must use my armour as direct infantry support to allow them to survive long enough to take objectives and then hold them. The carrier platoon needs to move fast and provide support for the infantry but also avoid attacking tanks head on at all costs.My army is fairly mobile (if slow with the tanks) and needs to use that to it's advantage to get flank and close range shots on enemy armour. The engineer's will often need to debus at point blank range of the enemy position to get enough fire on the enemy too.
I need to get some practice solo games to see how it goes.
Video of a US reinforced platoon attacking a town in a training exercise
I finally found it: a video showing a reinforced platoon conducting an
attack. 3 squads (of 5 engineers as they have satchel chargers), 3 5 man rifle
squads (cover party for each assault squad with a light machine gun, a
mediam mortar squad (with spotter), MMG squad, Bazooka squad, 2 tanks in
reserve. Command by a platoon commander (by himself).
Turn by Turn Description:
Initial bombardment of the objective and then smoke (!) rounds before the infantry go in, Note: Smoke rounds seem to suck in Bolt Action.
1st squad in wedge formation, rest in column. Medium mortar deploys behind them.
Lead squad in the centre, one other squad on each flank.
Recoilless rifle between 2 of the squads, bazooka next to the right and the LMGs between them.
Smoke stops firing before the infantry goes in as all infantry units opens fire on the defenders in the buildings.
Medium mortar using a spotter does counter battery fire on enemy mortar.
Left squad runs into the first objective building (doing an advance and then a run), rest of the infantry shoot at other targets, they assault and take it.
LMG squad gets pinned so mortar fires smoke(!) to cover them.
Left squad shoots at one building and the LMG team shoot at 2nd from upstairs,
They switch to a new building as the other squad assaults the 2nd building, again doing an advance and then a run.
Platoon CO gets into the first building and goes to its roof.
One squad uses a Engineer demo charge(!) to enter another building.
Bazooka shoots at t the next building and left squads assaults it (with a grappling hook to the 2nd level!).
Bazooka fires smoke(!) and the LMG team come up to support the squad with the Bazooka.
Last squad and RR comes into town.
Squad attacks the next building from the roof and work their way down. LMG team covered the door.
Tanks come in from reserve and shoots the next building, Squad goes in and assaults the basement with an engineers charge.,
One injury gets a medic.
Last building surrenders when their army reaches it's break point.
Company commander gets 2nd platoon through to the next target.
Note: The enemy seems to consist of about six, 5 man squads of infantry with LMG's and 1 mediam mortar.
Conclusion:
To win in a buildup area, use Surprise, firepower, good troops. Do an artillery barrage first, then a smoke barrage. Use engineers to assault buildings, rifle squads to cover them with LMG's. MMG and Bazooka to cover flanks and shoot into buildings. Mortar in the rear for support and tanks in reserve to come up later. Medic at the back for support.
The Army list:
It works out with early war Sherman's to be 1100. Have to get some extra platoon commanders but making the heavy weapons commander inexperienced makes it work! I do have to drop the Recoilless Rifle though and not replace it with another bazooka.
I've gathered nearly all my wargaming stuff (ignoring old sad 40K stuff from 20 years ago) in one place and looked through my Bolt Action units I have.
I also have all my board games in one place (not very accessible at the end of the table). Once I get another bookcase I can move all my table top wargames there too.
Current army list:
PickList
British 2-pdr Portee
1
British Anti-tank rifle team
1
British Bren Carrier
2
British Bren Carrier (Boys AT)
1
British Forward Observer (Artillery)
1
British Infantry (equipped as modeled)
3
British Infantry Tank Mk II Matilda Mk II
1
British Infantry with Light Machine gun (requires loader)
2
British Infantry with Rifle
24
British Light Mortar team
1
British Medic
1
British NCO with Rifle
5
British Platoon Commander
2
British Sniper Team
1
I need:
British 2-pdr Portee
British Medic and stretcher bearer
I only have 20 Bardia Australian infantry with rifles but I have another 52 metal and plastic 8th army and BEF figures I can use to use as them and one NCO with a rifle.
And EVERYTHING needs to be put together and painted! I could also use a 3-ton truck, a 30 CWT truck, another two Vickers machine guns, another two 3 inch mortar's, another Vickers light tank, another Crusader 1/II, three universal carrier's with a 2 inch and 3 inch mortar and a Vickers machine gun and an 37mm light AA gun on a portee truck,
Italian 10th Army OPFOR:
I have a box of 36 Italian infantry I can convert to different types
1 M11 tank
I need:
Another box of 30+ Italian infantry
2-3 more tanks
2-3 light armored transports
2-3 artillery pieces
2-3 anti tank guns
2-6 mediam machine guns
2-6 mediam mortars
2-6 light mortars
3-6 infantry transports and towing vehicles
Terrain - Everything :(
I do have some desert colored pieces of terrain I can use to represent sandy terrian and add some 3d effect to the battlefield, but that's about it.
A 6x4 battle mat for the desert
A collection of white washed and desert colored MDF buildings for North Africa (and can be used in Spain too!)
I didn't paint anything I think and didn't get much games in 2024, but I hope to get some moving in 2025. I did learn how to play Glory is Fleeting but that was the only wargame I played in 2025.
I have moved my gaming table to a location I can actually use it, and I've got all my terrain in place and painting supplies ready to begin.
I still need to get a new cheap bookcase to move all my RPG, wargame and history books to be close to the table in one room.
My wargaming goals for 2025:
1: Build, paint and deploy to the battlefield, a 1000-1250 sized Bolt Action army of the Australian 6th Division circa 1941 North Africa. Aiming for 1100 as that is the Cancon tournament size, though I won't make it, or have it ready for Cancon 2025. I believe I have all the figures and vehicles for it already.
2: Buy, Build and Paint an Italian 10th army 1941 as an Opfor. I have most of the troops and 1 tank.
3: Get some solo games running of both these armies and blog them.
4: Get a game or two at a local gaming club for Bolt Action
5: Far future - deploy the army to a tournament.
6: Get the Warlord Epic Waterloo figures out and play some solo games with them to learn some Black Powder.
7: Paint both armies. This is very much a far future thing.
8: Get my Glory is Fleeting Anglo-Portuguese army to some tournaments and get some games with Dave.
9: Actually GET my Battletech: Mercenaries box from CGL. I will believe it when I see it.
10: Start making videos of solo game play and get them uploaded to YouTube. There is a lot I need to learn, and I probably need a new phone and a stand for it. I hate shaking cam! Learning editing and effects is going to be very challenging too.
11: Paint some backgrounds for pictures and videos using Bob Ross techniques. This is going to take a lot of practice.
12: Get WW2 training pamphlets from Caviler books on how to do a platoon and company sized attack and defence. All the ones I can find on the internet involve a platoon attacking a single(!) enemy emplacement. I want to know and learn how a company attacks another company of equal size.
