LPL 7- Round 6 -Getting back on track.

Round 6 has begun over at the LAF for Lead Painters League Season 7

Above is my 5 round entry, "Warwick_WotR.  Which was supposed to be "Warwick", a.k.a "The Kingmaker" or Richard Neville, the 16th Earl of Warwick staring down both York and Lancastrian troops in a scene from Englands War of the Roses. If you remember anything about the man, he switches sides about half way through the war. So I had planned about 7-10 troops on each side starring each other down with him in the middle, it being not obvious to which side. This was also the big bonus point round. In the comedy of errors that went on that week, not only was I totally slammed for time, only completing a small portion of the planned entry, but my regular camera broke, I had to rush the photos with my unfamiliar back up camera I hadn't touched in years, then I go a typo the guys name as "Warrick" instead of "Warwick", and don't notice all week, then to further the comedy of the whole episode, I win by a 3 to 1 margin, with what was to me, my worst entry of the contest. all the way from my paint to photograph.

Sucking up this embarrassment, I had just come off a great time learning, playing and building my British Airborne "Red Devils" for Warlords Games Bolt Action game. I was jacked up to paint these guys and had a week to paint 5 models which was doable, with some crisis management on my real life work project well in hand, I got my entry submitted no problem on friday morning with a re-submit later in the day when my wife pointed out that while she really liked the photo and minatures there was big ol' screwdriver on the table in the background that I didnt ever notice..(Ooofff)

Anyway I am happy with the way these guys came out and am really digging painting some WW2 in 28mm, I am going to bang out the whole army this summer which is only about 40 models with 3 vehicles and some heavy weapons.  So check out my Red Devils this week and go vote, I am holding a comfortable lead as I type this so I am hoping I can still salvage this thing with strong entries the next four rounds.

Next week, back to some generic fantasy stuff...should be fun to paint!

LPL 7- Round 5, I barely make it!

Round 5 has begun over at the LAF for Lead Painters League Season 7

Above is my 4 round entry, "Red Devils 15mm"  Which again, lost. I briefly talked about 15mm having a tough time in this thing in my last LPL post, and a combo of that and I guess the photo not being good enough did it in. .

This round was a disaster for me..first of all my good camera broke (older Canon G9, apparently suffers for an internal short circuit) No idea when I'll get that fixed but pictures with my back up are definitely tougher to do. Then this project I am working on for work spiraled out of control
and I went from planning 15 figure for the Historical Civil War bonus round, to 10, to 7
finally settling on one team of 5, and they're pretty mediocre to boot, I just didn't have the time to do them justice and then had to rush photos to meet the deadline I couldn't get the right lighting with my old camera.

The kicker is, so I hastily enter my mediocre entry and I am kicking myself how this just isnt my year for this thing and then I go to vote and see I am winning by over 100 votes?? my biggest margin yet! Sometimes I can't figure out peoples tastes in this thing, for instance my Red Devils above should have been a way tighter margin in  round 4, than margin I currently have in round 5, your guess is as good as mine.

I still managed to get half the bonus points..I am going to really need to knock it out the last 5 rounds if I want to even stand a chance and beating my score last year.  So check out my Historical Entry
Warwick_WotR  and check out this weeks entries some really cool stuff in there.

Next up Bolt Action , Red Devils 28mm WIP, and Painted for round 6...

A Bridge too close

That was the moniker my pal Aaron put on our first game of Warlord Games "Bolt Action", last evening at our 80th Club meeting since we moved our semi monthly club night to my basement back in 2009.  While I have tons of miniatures my mother in fit of early senility sold all my old 70's Airfix plastic models I had that were my first miniatures. (although back them they were just my expensive "Army Men"). in a garage sale while I was away at college. Thankfully she never got around to selling my fantasy miniatures or I probably wouldn't be writing this.  Anyway I think I've seen the film "a Bridge to far" probably 25 times over the years..its my favorite WW2 film and why I started playing Flames of Wa,r I went with British Airborne and when I want to get some 28mm ones a few years ago, I went with Warlord's Red Devils box.

When I got my 28mm Red Devils there wasnt really a game to support them, there were some other WW2 skirmish games out there but I never got around to it. Now that WG has me hooked with their quality rules sets, and great lines of figures. The jump to BA was inevitable.

Aaron and I have recently accumulated our 1000 point armies, my British and his Panzer Grenadiers. so we were chomping at the bit to play. A bunch of other guys I know are into the game and we are trying to get some the other boys at club night to get on-board. We had great fun last night  and I'll leave you with Aarons write up on our forum about last nights game

"John's Paratroopers faced off against my Panzergrenadiers as I tried to wrestle an derelict but strategically important bridge away from the allies in our first Bolt Action game!

The objective of the game was a bridge in the very center of the table, nestled in the in the middle of a village. The Brit platoon's first squad had captured the bridge and was desperately waiting for the rest of the platoon to link up with them before the German armored infantry could launch their assault and force them off of the bridge.

We did a small game (550 points) to familiarize ourselves with BA's rules.

John's first squad held the bridge while a sniper team hung out in a small building nearby. His second squad, Vickers MMG team, some HQ support (Medic and Forward Artillery Observer), and his 1st Lt. were coming in to reinforce the pathfinder unit. A recon jeep also supported the British attack on the far right flank.

The Germans approached the bridge through the village, darting in and out of cover. The platoon's 2nd Lt lead 2 Panzergrenadier squads with LMG teams through the center of the village in an attempt to boot the small British unit off of the bridge!

The German plan ran into a major snag when a jumpy machine gunner mistook the Lieutenant and his escorts as an ambushing paratrooper unit! After seeing his NCOs cut down before him, the Lt. decided to flee the field to fight another day! If you have played Hail Caesar you are probably familiar with 'fumbled' orders. BA has a similar mechanic that can, rarely, result in friendly fire incidents. "Das ist nicht zer gut!"

British Paratrooper reinforcements began to show up in force, advancing through the village while the squad holding the bridge exchanged fire with one of the Panzergren squads across the river. Some light casualties were suffered by the limeys, but that didn't mar the Englanders fighting spirit! The sniper in the building was able to claim some kills against the Germans approaching the bridge as well.

Eventually all of the forces of the belligerent forces made their way to the battlefield. The Paratrooper recon jeep splashed across a shallow spot in the river and attacked the flank of the Germans positioned in the village with twin vickers MMGs! A SdKfz 251 Halftrack rumbled up the road while spitting fire at the Brits hiding in cover on the opposite side of the bridge. The 2nd platoon of Paras made their way around the opposite flank of the village attempting a pincer move with the Jeep, laying down suppressive fire all the way. The Germans deployed a Granatwerfer 42 heavy mortar which quickly eliminated the British squad holding the bridge!

The halftrack's attack on the bridge foundered initially while the flank attacks began to take their toll on the Germans hidden amongst the buildings south of the river. Panzergrens opposite of the British left flank stormed out of their cover to face the paras advancing up the bank of the river. The British Platoon leader valiantly rallied his nearby comrades, and assaulted the Halftrack which was forcing it's way across the bridge, only to be scattered by it's occupant's counter attack (we did this part wrong - John should have won the combat - "Oppzee Doopzee, Herr Humphrey. Mein bad!").

Assaults aimed at kicking the enemy off of the bridge by each force were running out of steam! Short range firefights began to whittle down each opposing platoon, and at the end of the game the bridge was not clearly controlled by either side. The game was a draw!

There was some interesting ebb and flow in this game, especially in terms of which side was able to gain the initiative over the other. In the end each side dug in and waited for reinforcements to arrive to renew their assault! We played about half of another game with the exact same forces, and scenario, only with the attacker/defender roles reversed. It was initially more bloody and we each seemed to lead our troops with a bit more direction. The only thing stopping us from finishing game #2 was the fact that cars were going to start to get towed at midnight! "



So there you go we are retooling for an actual 1000 point game next week, I really like the game flow, love the orders system and well as the individual mechanics...I felt the rule balance "just right" in the  not too light, not to heavy rules department (where HC can get a little overwhelming)

While I work on my Brits, think about some Germans to oppose them. I have soft spot of course for my own countries troops. In a bit of personal history, My mother's father, was CPL Lawrie Montgomery who served under Mark Clark in the US 5th Army in WW2 , He was in both the North African Campaigns and Operation Avalanche from Salerno to Rome, wounded by a landmine post Rome and that was the end of the war for him, but he lived until the ripe old age of 86 passing away in 1999. He was awarded a Silver Star, Two Bronze Stars and at the one Purple Heart that I know of, why or what for I don't know because he would never talk about the war much, saying things like "War is hell"," It's best forgotten" , Clearly we don't forget -for good reason Pop.

LPL 7- Round 4 is on!

Round 4 has begun over at the LAF for Lead Painters League Season 7

Above is my 3 round entry, "Heroes of Helm's Deep"  Which scored me my first win by 50 votes, So if you voted for me thanks, and if you bothered to vote at all thanks again.  As it seems to be a  developing pattern my round 4 entry Red Devils 15mm is losing to some cultists flashing some skin, the exact same thing that happened last year with my 15mm Red Planet entry. 15mm is tough nut to crack with people for sure in the LPL .If you've painted 15mm before, you know how tough it is to paint cleanly for close up photographs in the scale.  Checking entries going back a few years across the board it seems if a tough scale to win with period, so in retrospect I should have went with my Saxons, although I didnt think they looked as good. Anway this one is lost cause at the current vote totals but if your so inclined please vote as you still get leaderboard points for the votes.
 
I am currently working on my round 5 entry which the theme round for Historical civil war..this prompted me to finally get painting on my Perry Brothers War of the Roses figures. I am doing a small diorama and already I took some WIP photos so I'll shoot for getting this entry its own "development" post for something different later on in the month after round 5 is complete. Unless something else comes up, until next Sunday!.

Foam Wars III !!!

I know, some of you are saying Holy Sh&t!!, Foam Wars III?? , I kid you not. Our favorite toy soldier man bag manufacturer is back at it again using the legal system like a horde of 5 year olds clubbing a pinata.

My traffic has been justifiably down since I dropped off the WFB bandwagon and the resulting gaming punditry a couple years ago. So I was a little surprised when I saw the big spike in traffic the other day in my blogger tools. Investigating this,  I was amused to say the least, that the current coverage by a well put together blog  had people in the comments and some other connected links using my original "Foam Wars" post from back in 2010 as background information on the subject.

Basically the current situation revolves around Battlefoam's owner accusing another blogger of libel, slander, defamation, etc of his character on his blog. The blog in question. Blood of Kittens  is one of those 40K blogs (and there are bunch of them) whose point seems to be excelling at the very things its accused of -so I dont see what the big deal is. Especially as Mr. Battlefoam seems to have numerous posts incriminating himself  (Dakka Dakka,) in the very behavior he's being accused of too.

While no one likes to or really deserves to be slandered unjustly on the internet. The kicker here is manner of Battlefoam's CEO legal response. As an armchair lawyer who rocked his LSAT but never took the next step, I have to say the Battlefoam lawyer was not really looking past the fact we were talking about bags to carry your toy soldiers in. Because the severity and hamfistedness of their legal response, allowed the writer of  Blood of Kittens, to seek out first class Pro Bono legal help from some nationally recognized 1st Amendment specialists. How this one is going to shake out I can't say but going thru life spending all your time suing people is no way to build a business eventually the rubber is going to hit the road as they say . I must say I feel for the Blood of Kittens guy because despite scoring free legal aid, it cant be any fun having to deal with this kind of nonsense.

 I've tried to keep it straight and to the facts in regards to Battlefoam and its antics, and this will be no different so I'll return the favor and redirect you over to the excellent analysis at Popehat.

Foam Wars will surely carry on, I'm afraid.

LPL 7, Round 3 begins!

Round 3 has begun over at the LAF for Lead Painters League Season 7

Above is my 2 round entry, "It's got two heads! (old lead)"  Which again, lost in a just about a 60/40 spread to some GW eldar of all things, Not the the best photo I submitted with the guy front and center being slightly out of focus. The photo's here are so very important in peoples perceptions this thing ends up a miniatures photography contest all most as much as painting contest.  I didnt have alot of time for photos with my initial submission with my Adepticon prep. Things get tough from here out as I am basically working a submission a week..my round 4 entry should be submitted today, giving me until May 11th to work on the Historical Civil War bonus round which is minimum 10 figures if I want all the bonus points. I'm torn as I am ready to dive into painting my new Bolt Action stuff, but the 20 bonus points is tempting with going 0-2 so far, with me being only 13 points down from the top leader board is pretty tempting.  Anyway this week is more of recent figures I did in preparation for Adepticon, familiar faces in "Heroes of Helm's Deep"  check it out and go vote!

Adepticon 2013

My Rohirim and the Sarumans Warg Riders in "Warg Attack" our 2013 Team Army.

Another short and sweet write up on Adepticon 2013 which took place last weekend in near Chicago western Suburbs. This was my 7th year at Adepticon, 2007 being my first year as a player..I was there in 2006 just checking it out as spectator. Adepticon began in 2003 and is now the largest miniatures only gaming convention there is.

I'm going to hit the bullet points here there are things people always ask me about when I talk Adepticon either with people curious who have never been there or those who has attended and missed it this year.



Organization: Adepticon occassionally takes criticism on it organizational prioritys. keep in mind this is a massive undertaking the majority of the work done by volunteers, these guys literary take about month off post event and launch right back into planning the next one..its that big.
Last year we had issues with that stupid Battle Foam free bag giving creating a massive log jam at initial registration. This year by expanding to Wednesday night, and Starting 40k events on Thursday
the huge registration rush was Wednesday night for the 40K tourney folk. So when I showed up at noon on Thursday..there was NO LINE..it was the smoothest registration to date. I just walked up saw two of my fellow LotR players and got my swag bag and off having fun. Overall any organizational issues boil down to specific events with their independent organizers, I wasn't involved in any so I wont speak to the criticism, as I know alot of these people and they are great folks that do what they can, I will say however that sometimes events can just get too big, and when they do you just have to say no. From the Adepticon staff and it coordination with the hotel to the meeting the needs of the attendees..If it was done any better than 2013, I wasn't there that year.

Swag Bag:  The infamous Adepticon swag bag. the full bag (i.e for the first 1000 attendees) sold out I think within 48 hours (or earlier) this year. having examined both my full bag and a "partial" ALL I could see different was the partial didnt have the Privateer Press Hordes plastic starter box that the full had meaning Privateer Press gave Adepticon 1000 boxes and thats it.  Considering I got the same one I got last year (Legionof Everblight) I have havent even be able to sell that one that still shrink wrapped sitting on a shelf, I sold mine to buddy for $20 , then bought a used plastic GW figure case for $20 from another friend..it was like I got that case in my swag bag!, win/win.  The contents of the bag weren't as good as last year, but that really depends on your taste..the miniatures weren't really to my liking, the new thing is vendor hall coupons for free miniatures or discounts..this was pretty cool and made me check out Mercs, Exodus Wild West, and Robotech, all interesting games with cool miniatures. Overall the swag bag, was good, but not as great as some in the past. I think in the future the dont sweat just getting the partial, unless the full bag is something you just have to have.

Vendor Hall: The Vendor hall was in its own ballroom this year as opposed to being in 1/4 of the main ballroom, this was a good thing, that kept the vendor traffic out of the gaming area. Alot of new Vendors this year, plus most of the older bigger ones. Cool Mini, or Not and Secret Weapon miniatures were out in force, as well as all the bigger regular names like GF9, Mantic Battlefront, Battlefoam, Armorcast, etc. At least two or three cool boutique miniature makers doing custom resin bases and figures. I didn't get a chance to check them all out close up but what I saw looked good. I was looking for Warlord Games Bolt Action stuff, and found everything I was looking for a about 15-20% off the Warlord website retail prices, good deal. The Forge World booth wasnt the usual debacle, either I just missed the giant lines of normal or interest is down, somehow I think its the former but I wish it was latter because they truly suck with the worst customer service of probably anyone in gaming industry but people eat their overpriced stuff up, like its last fresh food in the Zombie Apocalypse  so whatever. I dont think I saw more than a dozen people in the FW line at any point I was in hall all weekend.  Overall I though the hall was better that usual in content and execution.

My Games: I played in all three Lord of the Rings events this year, with the new "Hobbit" rules out there was a good turn out with alot of new faces.

Inn of the Prancing Pony by Jeremy at Wyrd Hobby services

Thursday was the March to Mount Doom singles event..single elimination tourney, I made it to round 3, before getting knocked out by the guy that eventually won it. tough, tough format, I mistakenly thought that with a 15 model count people would be trying to jam as much as possible into there 15 models , but the opposite was true most people ran 3-4 big guns, I saw very few armies with more than a half dozen models.  The winning army was "The Necromancer" paired with the "Shadow Lord" and The "Undying". Aragorn and the Army of the Dead on their highjacked corsair ship did well however, and I won the Best Appearance/ Theme for the event. all in all a good time, not sure I'd play in it again however. The format is somewhat limiting, especially if gravity is pulling people to run just a couple models..(I like the 15 model idea)..I guess it just depends whats going on.

Jeremy's custom "watcher" model converted from toy.

Friday was the Lord of the Rings Team Tournament,  You played separate games in this format but were scored as a team, I am in the minority in I like this better than paired play, which I find difficult if your partner isnt someone you play with all the time..plus it feels awkward and crowded in those conditions. That wasnt the case this year and we had single games, despite the fact my Rohan drew TWO balrogs back to back in my games..I still had a 2 Major wins and 1 Major loss, my partner having, I think 1 minor victory, 1 minor loss, and 1 major loss...in the end with soft scores  we came in 4th of 10 teams....but as luck would have it My Rohirim and the Warg counter parts again won the Best Appearance theme award..wining max votes/points.  Originally slotted for 12 teams. Four people were no shows...we had some really bad weather that week here specifically the day before but I find it odd four people no showed at the Team event, it just seems odd.  Anyway my partner chris is a great hobbyist and we built the army just for the event, it paid off as we were validated with the award..but not sure I would do it again..it really depends on the team format, its alot of work.

Another shot of out team display, it was too big, I couldnt get the dismounts and sign in the photo..what you get when you run 50+ cav models (too big), I hope I have some pics of my partner's chris freehand shields..cant seem here but they look great!

Saturday- Was the Lord of the Ring Championships. Last year I won the overall so I was just hoping to pull my weight again this year. I ran my Rohirim from my team army, as I just figured out how to play them on friday, so I would figure I'd run them instead of my Rangers this year. Not a bad idea but I didn't do that well.  I got crushed in round 1 in Reconnoitre of all scenarios with an all Cav list because I played the new goblin list, which the first thing I'd call "broken" in the game yet, lots of people told me, beware of asking for GW to support the game, you wont like what you get and this was it, Regenerating cheap goblins subject to 5+ ward save from characters and then Goblin King who has a 3+ ward save along with Might and Fate (if you dont play the game, no one has a 3+ ward, there are no ward saves in general, I am just using it for reference point, but thats the effect)
In short if you are running Thorin's Company (which doesnt make the point format) this is very difficult list to beat, In fact the kid running it, beat everything thrown at it, and with a sportsmanship ding for tussle with one player and basic paint scores he won best overall, he had that many battle points. This is not the norm for this game, so it was kinds of a drag, I am going to seriously bum out if this list shows up in masse at BBB in fall, its not at all fun to play against, win or lose.
My other two games were good, I had a minor victory in round 2 and took a major loss in the 3rd round that basically came to 1 model dying or not making the game a draw, it lived., It was a fluky situation based on whether you were broken at the end of the game or not that changed the scoring metric.  So in the end my battle points were low, I was pretty confident in my appearance scores..but appearance here is a combo of checklist and players choice...my Rohirm were tied again my friend Brents all eagle force. (which looked really cool being all eagles)  I won on technical points he won on player votes..it went to three tie breakers...and Brent won it, so it goes...I'm glad for him, but considering my crappy battle score, thats all I had going for me, so in the end not the best showing considering my luck last year. So I was close to all winning all three appearance awards which would have been the ultimate validation for the amount of work I put into LotR this year, but come on, I'm not going to complain I "only" won two of three events. I'm just telling you how it went down, I'm just thankful people like my stuff, there is ALOT of great stuff out there.

The twins I brought home this year.

Overall a good time, really looking forward to Bilbos Birthday Bash in the fall, especially this is the first year its a hotel and not at the GW battle bunker. I am already planning armies , display etc. I definitely want to try some other games next year at Adepticon, I'll hit at least one LotR event, but I want give Bolt Action or Empire of Dead, or Hail Caesar a go..no idea yet..there is alot of talk of Legends of the High Seas returning...we will see. another Adepticon in the books!

I've got alot more photos to go thru including some great WFB stuff, I'll get those up next..