Santa sent to me 2021

 The perfect gift for Covid Lockdowns when you can't go anywhere:

This sums up my year.

SomethingAwful Secret Santa arrives

 Something got delivered, and it was for me and I wasn't expecting it.

It's a big box and it rattles.
 
There's a hand written card!

And a personal message from the commander of the KGL!

And an entire Perry Miniature BATTALION OF INFANTRY TO COMMAND!

I have the Waterloo Boxed set, but I didn't have a unit I could use as the KGL. Now I do! Not sure how I can equip them, with the Baker Rifles that the 2nd Light Battalion King’s German Legion had, but I will need to try.

And the ENTIRE buildings and courtyard to fight one of the most iconic battle locations of all time! Terrain that has it's own Wiki page.

La Haye Sainte (named either after Jesus Christ's crown of thorns or a bramble hedge round a field nearby[1]) is a walled farmhouse compound at the foot of an escarpment on the Charleroi-Brussels road in Belgium. It has changed very little since it played a crucial part in the Battle of Waterloo on 18 June 1815.

La Haye Sainte was defended by about 400 German troops during the Battle of Waterloo. They were hopelessly outnumbered by attacking French troops but held out until the late afternoon when they retired because their ammunition had run out. If Napoleon Bonaparte's army had captured La Haye Sainte earlier in the day, almost certainly he would have broken through the allied centre and defeated the Duke of Wellington's army.[2]

The capture of La Haye Sainte in the early evening then gave the French the advantage of a defensible position from which to launch a potentially decisive attack on the Allied centre. However Napoleon was too late - by this time Blücher and the Prussian army had arrived on the battlefield and the outnumbered French army was defeated.

La Haye Saint after the Battle by Talliou

I was just expecting a hill or a tree or something, but this is way above what I expected! Thank you NT RABBIT!  Nothing is broken 

This page goes into great detail of the battle and fighting that happened- if you've seen Sharp's Waterloo, when the Prince of Orange ordered a Battalion to reinforce and retake the building, and twice let them get cut to pieces by French Heavy Cavalry...this was that building complex.

Useful for any 28mm battle, historical, fantasy, The Silver Bayonet, World Wars or 40k. The roofs and stories come off so I can do interior battles. The buildings were 3D printed from https://www.printablescenery.com/product/the-farm/

Thank you, Goonsir!

Starting a new army - Bolt Action

 With the pre-ordering of my Epic scale Waterloo armies (and not going to arrive for 3+ months) and getting another full British and Spanish army of someone, I've got nearly the entire Peninsula army I want. I still need to base/wash and do a lot, but the figures are all there. 

So I got this this week. Started planning a AIF 6th division platoon for use in Libya/Greece/Crete.

I had a Great Uncle who fought the entire war

So I spent all of last night deep in a rabbit hole tracing a great uncle who joined the 6th Australian Division in 1939. He was a sapper who spent most of the war in the 2/2 Field Company Royal Australia Engineers - the guys who build up and blow up bridges, clear mines and build everything from latrines to POW cages. I found his war records under VX13952 and his unit records which go for 100's of pages.

He went to Palestine, Egypt, Libya (I think - the division was there to take Bardia/Tobruk vs the Italians), Greece (vs the Germans), Crete (German Paratroops), back again to the Middle East, Ceylon (I think, the unit was there and he got a medal for it), back to Australia in the NT and SA (where he trained as a radio operator) then to Wewak (whose airfield they built) to fight the Japanese. Came back via Brisbane and demobbed in 1945. 

In Greece they were blowing up bridges to slow down the Germans AFTER the rear guard had passed them. In the Pacific they were using Flame Throwers and throwing charges into Japanese bunkers (and getting bombed by the USAAF) at the front of the advance.

 I've found one mention of him in the unit records driving a truck onto a boat to go to Greece. 

The one war story I have is that he told my mother he got off a boat onto Crete and met a lot of very friendly(!) Germans who treated him very well(!!). He died in 1988 and I never met him.

He was awarded a medal for being "Mentioned in dispatches", though I couldn't read in his record for what. He also got dinged many times and got busted for being AWL and other issues about a dozen times. 

 Ch 1 Order of Battle - Army S 1 The 6th Australian Division

2/2nd Field Company

Embarked — 14 Apr 1940 — Melbourne

Disembarked — 18 May 1940 — Kantara

30 Jun 1940 — Palestine

14 Sep 1940 — Egypt

6 Dec 1940 — Libya

29 Mar 1941 — Maryut

10 Apr 1941 — Greece

27 Apr 1941 — Palestine

25 Sep 1941 — Syria

30 Jan 1942 — Palestine

Embarked — 19 Feb 1942 — Suez

Disembarked — 28 Mar 1942 — Australia

28 May 1942 — NT

15 Apr 1943 — Adelaide

Embarked — 19 Nov 1944

Disembarked — 26 Nov 1944 — New Guinea

Now I want to build a Bolt Action army based on the 6th Division in Greece and Crete and attach a squad of Engineers armed with shovels.

Avalon Hill's gaming magazines, in PDF format

Found here. 32 Volumes. Amazing history. I never really bought any copies of it, much to my regret. I had an uncle who died before I had a chance to be old enough to talk to him about the games her had, like The Russian Campaign, France 1940, Blitzkrieg or Rise and Fall of the 3rd Reich. I still have his copies and will probably never get a chance to play them. 

100 Ways to Annoy a Wargamer

I do rule 56 ALL THE TIME.

An army update- more divisons added

There was an offer on Facebook for a Anglo-Portuguese + Spanish Division army and I was able to get it. 

I should now be able to go to war with the army I wished for, not the army I had.  I havn't made ANY progress during all of COVID lockdown, but this will give me enough units to have choice now in what I use for a standard FOGN game. 

I really need to get the flags on my existing units to match the nice ones these came with.

Non Historical commentary on GW's Warhammer+

I watched the one episode of Warhammer+ that's released for a day, and was not impressed. If that's the standard they are going for, it's not getting many new people into the hobby.

 

Shows that Games Workshop should do for Warhammer+ but will never do:

News: Do Not Buy Anything from Broken Token

Broken Token is a company that sells inserts for the biggest and most popular boardgames. I had considered getting it for Gloomhaven and Frosthaven, but being MDF you need to glue it, and it was very expensive. 

Two days ago, this post came out

Content Warning: Sexual assault, Sexual situations, Cheating, Mental Abuse, Emotional Abuse, and Stalking

In response,  several different people confirmed something did happen.

 

The CEO and Owner then responded with this admission. Companies that licensed to him are now fleeing in horror.

I do not recommend anyone buying anything from Broken Token. I'm looking at https://www.foldedspace.net/ for Dune, Pandemic and Gloomhaven.

The top 25 wargaming blogs (oh rly?)

 I submitted my blog to https://blog.feedspot.com/wargaming_blogs/ and I'm actually number 22 of

Top 25 Wargaming Blogs and Websites

Review: Battle Systems: Village Ruins

 I've finished putting together the Battle Systems: Village Ruins.

 

 I did not follow the suggested guide on building them, but made my own ruins. You get 5 pieces of thick cardboard that allows to make them as you see fit - 3 are the same and 2 the other type.

RPG news: The Mystara Player’s Guide released

Mr Welch has grown tired of WotC and decided to release: The Mystara Player’s Guide

Get it from https://rpgmp3.com/

I've been following his Youtube series for a long time. My first RPG was the red boxed set of D&D.  I sent a small amount of thank you money for it. 

Starting my Rangers of Shadow Deep party

 I've been getting my terrain organized and almost have everything I want. I need to push the trees from Amazon on plates of some kind, and get maybe get some bigger one, put together the Village from Battle Systems and paint the miniatures from Fantasy Series 1.

But I have all the books I need!

I think this is all of them

My comment on "Battle write-ups. What do you like to see?"

 Posted on Dakka Dakka

Korvessa

 

Direct Link This Post

I would like to make my battle reports more appealing/interesting, so I have some question

What makes a good battle write-up?
What makes a bad one?
What would you like to see more of?
What have you seen enough of? 

My answer:

Where can I find your battlereports? I'd like to read more. Mine are on my blog but I always feel I should be doing them better.

I know adding arrows and label's would make things much clearer on what's what doing what, but the extra time to edit the photo's seems to outweigh the time. I don't recall seeing many that DO have labels, and I actually find them more distracting to the picture itself. Does anyone have some good examples to share of what you like to see?

What makes a good battle write-up - a description of the armies, some pictures of the units, the actual army list, lots of pictures.A map of the battlefield (if an overhead picture can't be provided). Some 3rd person story is fine at the start and end (and as captions for photos) but I'd rather read the battle report without story time coming into the middle of it. An initial plan or strategy guide. A description of the battle - it does not need every turn or combat, but I should be able to follow it based on pictures, text or map. Most of the pictures should be showing the table or units, with some action shots of dramatic occurrences and characters. A final conclusion, and some analysis of the army list (what was worth it, what was not), how the strategy worked (or did not) and lessons learnt by both sides. A final story time from the perspective of the armies or characters if you want.

What makes a bad one - nearly every video battle I try to watch :(. I understand the idea of them, but they nearly all seem to be shaky cam showing me dice and telling me how many hits/saves happened. I don't care! I want to know if that unit of tactical marine's succeeded at stopping that Ork unit coming across, not the individual rolls or distance moved. Don't show me someone moving figures either, it takes forever. Ideally some computer graphics with arrows or a before and after shot will do it. The best video one I've seen was a slide show with a voice over of the battle. Also, the analysis is either missing completely or devolves to the level of a sports event- "We I rolled better on the day and my opponent did not, so I won". I want some conclusions. No talking heads except at the beginning (as an introduction) and end. And they need to be less than 30 minutes for me to have the time to read them. And I understand completely the amount of editing this all requires makes it just a dream, it would be a huge investment of someone's time.

What would you like to see more of - slide show video's with voice over. More historical battles with background on the armies and people involved. More written blog battle reports. More comments on my own battle reports

What have you seen enough of - too many battle reports on Youtube I can't stand watching.

Some trees from Amazon: OrgMemory Mixed Model Trees with Base. Ok for 18mm but too short for 28mm

 I got some cheap model railway trees from Amazon

OrgMemory Mixed Model Trees with Base, Diorama Supplies, Model Train Scenery, Woodland Scenics, (19pcs, 2-6 inch /5-15 cm), Ho Scale Trees, Miniature Trees with Base:

 They are a bit...smaller than I expected.

The Great Wargaming Survey

The Great Wargaming survey is running again. Some interesting qurstions and prizes (I won't win, but YOU might).

Apart from rolling dice, there seem to be few things wargamers like to do better than discuss the state of their hobby. The purpose of this survey is to answer some of those questions and publish the answers for all to see.

Thanks to our sponsors, we've got an unrivalled stack of very generous prizes to give away to some lucky winners, and everyone gets a €5 discount voucher for the Karwansaray Publishers website and a selection of WSS articles to download free of charge, upon completion of the survey.

Filling out the survey shouldn't take more than about 10 minutes, and we're taking responses until August 31st, 2021. Please tell all your wargaming friends to come take it too!

 

Also here are the results from previous surveys. 

For the benefit of any Necron's reading this blog - I am not a Necron

My blog was locked for being a spam site. It is now unlocked.

For the benefit of any Necron's, Terminators or Google Bots reading this- I am not a bot.

And yes, that is EXACTLY what a bot would say.

A layout of my current terrain, and what I need more of

Putting out all the kickstarter mats, FOGN trees, bushes, hills and rocks from Miniature Worldmaker and some of the ruined buildings from Battle Systems, over the Autumn battle mat from geekvillain.co.uk

 I need a LOT more trees, and much bigger ones for 28mm (the ones I have are for FOGN 18mm). I have some coming from Amazon but I think I'm going to need some of the more expennsive single sized big model railway ones (one tree costs as much as a single cheap and crappier Amazon 68 piece forest).

No Games Workshop fan material for you!

 

If I ever get back into 40K, I will need to investigate buying some Female and Male figures from Victoria miniatures. They are local too! At least until GW's decides to crackdown on "imitation models", even if they can't legally enforce that.

Review of Battle Systems: Bridge (updated with comparions to rubber 15mm bridges)

The second item I put together from Battle Systems is the Bridge. This involved...some gluing. 

Bridge and broken rowboat over Battle Systems Road & River, being crossed by some Elven Bowmen and hero.

Review of Battle Systems: Roads & Rivers (updated with sizes and comparisons)

With nearly all the terrain I need to start doing solo play FOGN and Rangers of Shadowdeep, it's time to start some reviews of the terrain I have acquired. First is Battle Systems: Roads & Rivers

Battlesystems Bridge, and Road & Rivers. The blue plastic is a river mat from a Kickstarter I will review in future.

If the Emperor had a Text-to-Speech Device

 

For those in the dark, Games Workshop has recently changed their rules and now FORBID any fan animation works. 

 

IT IS FORBIDDEN. 

 

 I did the things I could do easily.

- Send a complaint https://complaints.games-workshop.com/
- Unsubscribe from their emails.
- Post on my blog I would not be buying Games Workshop product.

And continue to send some money towards the creator of ITEHATTSD.

GW could fix this by removing the fan animations part. Someone at GW needs to understand the cost of them doing that out weighs the Public Relations Shitshow this is doing to their fans.


I might get over it if they ever release some new IG infantry (that's not Krieg, I actively dislike their figures and their background), though I presume that's years away.

Boycotting Games Workshop

Following Games Workshop banning of all Fan animations and video's, I have logged a complaint with GW and advised them I will not being buying any of their product at this time.

 

I advise everyone else to do the same.

Excuse the mess

I'm trying to re-do the blog so it works with Auto Ads - it would be nice to have some note for the time spent.

Hence the constant change. I'm not really happy with ANY of the default or suggested Blogger styles that work with the ad pages. And they don't seem to be displaying either!

Completed a Lockdown wish off my to-do list

Battletech Campaign Completed on IRONMAN

One thing that was on my COVID Lockdown To-Do list. The queen finished the final battle by doing an Alpha Strike from her ATLAS II at max overheat, into the back of the last and most evil traitor.  Very thematic.

I would give Battletech a 8/10. It's lacking combined arms/infantry/aerospace fighters and the "Mercenary Commander" is lacking "if I fire a 20 rack LRM, it's going to cost 15 more credits than that target is worth". But otherwise it's quite good. I need to do the FLASHPOINT missions but I'm not sure if I can bothered using a Stiener Scout Lance every time. Recommended for any fan of Battletech or turn based wargames. 

Not much news on the tabletop wargaming front. I have acquired enough terrain for a FOGN battle, and more than enough rough fabric to cover an entire table. I also have cardboard buildings, ruins and roads  and rivers for 28mm Oathmark and Rangers of Shadowdeep, though I need to put them together.

Next up, as it looks like LOCKDOWN is here to continue, would be to play some solo games of  Rangers of Shadowdeep. None of the figures would be painted, but we'll see.