I got my Army Painter Speedpaints 2.0. Or at least, SOME of them

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.

But I found 2 Youtube videos - one of English uniforms 1937 pattern that I read the 6th Division was wearing, and another one of a Tobruk reinactor . 

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.

All my usable paints in one place

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!  :(

Units and terrian I need for Bolt Action 1941

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!)

Destroyed buildings

Palm trees

Scrub bushes 

Small oasis

Sand colored rocks

Sand colored hills

Sand colored cliffs

Scrubby trees

Dried out wadi's

Desert roads

Telegraph poles

Desert bomb craters

Minefields

Barbed wire

Anti tank ditch

Fox holes

Slit trenches 

Gun Positions

Reinforced trenches 

Concrete entrenchments

A desert airfield

Goals for 2025

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.

My bookshelf

 After having all my stuff in a storage shed I've moved indoors and can just fit all the wargaming books and nearly all the magazines I have.

Note in picture: some Warhammer magazines that came with figures, and a lot of old military modeller magazine. Also a lot more militarily history books, mostly WW2. 

The Imperial Armour books are 2cm's too tall to fit

What I was able to get ready after staying up till 2am for the GiF tournament

Build 2 redoubts (build, undercoat, paint, flock) - Got the base painted.

Base and Paint 8 skirmish figures (Some rifle, light, British, Portuguese and Spanish) - got 6 done.

Base and paint 3 competent Division commanders with one figure on the plate. - Not done

Paint and flock the bases of a a brigade of British Infantry  - Done!

Buy(!) 16 figures, undercoat, paint, base and flock a brigade of Spanish Guerrilla infantry - Done!

Took 3 hours or so. Glory awaits!

Things I need to paint before next week

 So my first GLORY IS FLEETING (aka FoG 3rd Edition) is next week, and I really want go.  I got my army together last night and discovered a tragedy: my Litko chips showing unit names have been stolen by a Corsican Rogue and cannot be found. I am heart broken.

However, I've ordered more (I doubt they will arrive in time) but I worked out what else I had.

Part 1: Clean enough space to work on stuff!

Part 2: So to get my army to a good standard, I need do the following:

    Build 2 redoubts (build, undercoat, paint, flock)

    Base and Paint 8 skirmish figures (Some rifle, light, British, Portuguese and Spanish)

    Base and paint 3 competent Division commanders with one figure on the plate.

    Paint and flock the bases of a a brigade of British Infantry

    Buy(!) 16 figures, undercoat, paint, base and flock a brigade of Spanish Guerrilla infantry.

    Write unit names on the underside of every unit so I know who is who! I spent an hour just trying out    which battalion belonged to which brigade and still ended up with 6 mismatched units I don't know who they belong too.  Maybe I'll do 3 colours to show them?

    Paint some civilian figures, base them on the LOC and paint and flock that.

    And I need to do it all on Sunday. I  doubt very much I'll actually finish it.

State of FOGN 3rd edition draft rules after 1 battles experience

As an aside, are those Scenics.co.uk hills and rough ground?  Have you found a way to stop bases sliding off the hills? It sounds like a fun battle - do you have any comment on the mechanics of FOG:N? It's not a ruleset I've come across before.

I think so, I didn't provide them. The hills didn't cause a problem, but the only troops on them didn't move either, we're only using 15mm.

This was played with the 3rd edition draft rules - I expect the rules will be out later this year. The 1st edition was based I believe on the FOG: Ancient rules. The 2nd ed was converted by a few lawyers so it was very precise but had some flaws - skirmishers weren't their own thing which has now been fixed, so combat now goes much more smoothly but also more Napoleonic, and a lot of the edge case rules have been removed as have a lot of the "dodgying out of arc of fire" that makes sense at the company or battalion level but are stupid at the brigade level. I've been told the 3rd ed will get an index that the 2nd ed really needed and did not have. The 3rd ed is much improved over the (current) 2nd ed.

The game is written for club and tournament play so games typically only got for 2-3 hours (this game took about 3.5, and it was my first one). The army lists are flavorful and cover everyone from the French Royalist rebel's in the Verdee to the War of 1812.

You have 2-6 divisions of a corps, each div and corps commander based on their skill has ADC's you can use for complex movement (like double move, form square when charged, or limber up artillery) and units are based on weapon and size/ability/elan/training/guard at the brigade scale (so one unit is 4-6 battalions moved as a brigade- each stand represents a battalion). Some armies can attach brilliant battalion commanders (Sharpe for example), artillery batteries, extra skirmisher companies or a cavalry squadron. 2-4 people can play a historical battle (we did 3 a side for Taravala), each with 1-4 divisions under their control. It's designed for a 6x4 foot table and 15mm armies, but you could play with bigger or smaller.

Both players get to choose some terrain but the dice roll (and if your army won the dice roll for what part of the world you're fighting in) works out where on the table it is, with some placement based on the mission each player chooses. There's 6 missions: Positional defence/Mobile defence/Probe/Flank attack/Deliberate attack/Frontal attack and if you're got a good corps commander you can prevent your opponent taking some of them. Once you choose it dictates who deploys what where and you You Go-I Go movement but both sides shoot each turn, but the active player gets to go first and assault too.

Each turn the active player allocates ADC command points, and you'll want to save some for counter chargers and if you need to form square unexpectedly.  Then both players fire their artillery (corps level artillery brigades have to limber/unlimber but brigade attached guns don't) and try and degrade the enemy (or force them to flee if you can do enough hits to a wavering unit). Then both sides do a skirmish phase and try to win the skirmish battle -if you do you get a point of skirmishes on the enemy that also degrades their firing and end of turn morale. Finally if you're at close range you do a round of volley fire and try and break the enemy.

You then go to the assault/movement phase, declare and move into charges and move your units. If you're outside skirmish range you can do double moves or even a 3rd or 4th forced march, but if you fail a command test the unit gets disrupted.  This makes the early maneuvers relativity fast before the battle slows down to gunfire range which is good. The non-active player can make counter chargers and form square if they pass a command test.

Then the non-active player gets some defensive fire first (I hope you degraded them first with bombards or skirmishers first!) and then both sides fight at the same time. The attacker might bounce, fall back, keep fighting or break and purse the enemy. Assaulting an enemy line that has not been disrupted by bombarding it, or winning the skirmish battle or hitting already degraded units will mean you probably won't be able to charge home, but high elan/large units/Guards have a better chance. Heavy cav will win vs lighter cav, but the light cav will probably have better flank and rear support.

Finally you move commanders, take a morale test if you're still under skirmish fire and use your corps and division commander to rally a single unit from their division (corps do one in the army). Units go from Fine->Disrupted->Wavering and then break, with drops in combat ability at each level. Once a unit breaks it will make other friendly units make a test which of course can cause a cascade route of an army. Army's can break at 50% or less if they haven't done a comparable amount of damage to the enemy.

So the battle starts with both commanders trying to pick the terrain they prefer to fight on but not being able to ensure it's going to work. Then you choose a mission based on the terrain and you're army (which you've chosen via point buy in an excel spreadsheet) and go each turn, moving brigades and divisions into position. if you can  get the better position or ground you then maneuver in closer to first bombard the enemy and/or try and win the skirmish fight and then go in close for a volley and if needed then charge in. Weaken the enemy first and if done across a front you can cause a chain route of weary troops, but a better general will have reserves to throw in at the right time and place. If you can break the enemies Line of Control you still have to cause damage but it becomes much harder for them to rally.

I have the rules for Grande Army/Grande Brigade/Black Powder that I have yet to play, and I'm now much more familiar with FOG:N after a dozen games or so, but reading the rules now it's much clearer than the other books. It IS more complicated than the old rules I have from the '70's that removed figures but I think the rules have much improved in both a readability and Napoleonic feel compared to the 2nd edition too.

The game will need some YouTube video's later I think to better explain some of the rules (like 2nd ed has), but the firing and combat is easier to work through now, and I still have trouble working out where to put my ADC"s - much like a real battle, a good general will be 1-3 moves ahead. Pursuit after combat still uses a flow chart to work out though. 

The amount of things you can do that count as a "complex move" that needs a ADC command point is also...a lot. Not many per phase, but the table takes up an entire page of things you can do you might need a command point for.


Also, it's the most popular game in the gaming clubs in AUS and NZ (where the authors live)...and getting a chance to play against lots of different players and armies is the key thing.  The disadvantage of that is that a lot of the guys have years of experience and can pull you into a trap that Napoleon would approve of. I should make an Austrian army for the the full Napoleonic experience of that....

Epic Scale Napolonic has arrived

 So I just got 5 kilo's of 13.2mm Napoleonic armies (British, French and Le Haye Sainte). Reminds me when my brother got SPACE MARINE the original Epic scale boxed set of 6mm Space Marines, Rhino's, Land Raiders and buildings - it kicked of near 20 years of playing GW games. Sadly, Warlord hasn't added a tutorial mission pack so you can start small and work your way up to a full corps level battle - trying to read the A5 rulebook isn't as easy as reading a much better (if otherwise simpler game) like an A4 Oathmark manual.

For some reason the French box wasn't shrink rapped, hope it's not missing anything. 

 

My Plan: Use them for solo battles- I have 2 armies now. I need to buy the Waterloo table mat too. 

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.

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.

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).

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.