Adventures on the Wargames Table

Another January and another chance for this dynamic duo to strut their stuff!  Colin kindly asked me to join him on the Charlie Foxtrot stall. It was suggested last year that Colin and I looked like a slightly camp, ageing boy band... So Colin went for a new corporate look ... it certainly drew a few comments! :-D Colin also had a little present for Lard Supremo Big Rich. Here are a few pics of some of the demo and participation games on offer. Robber Knights using homegrown rules A fantastic AWI table Beautifully painted figures too The British hold the fence line The same Charlie Foxtrot kit (Tidewater) used for both buildings. A superb Star Wars Legion table The Battle of Omdurman - this was so good! An epic Age of Sigmar game The Lardies running a very enthusiastic participation game! Reinforcements! Saga v2 An astonishingly large and crowded Indo-China war table Skirmish Wargames - Normand...

The next step in our desert campaign is the Axis attempt to break through the defences surrounding Tobruk, the Battle of Ras el Madauur, which took place on 13th April 1941.  Dave's Aussies are heavily dug in on a trench line (represented here by a line of sandbags), in front of which were minefields, an anti-tank ditch and barbed wire. The field of battle Here are Dave's brave Aussies busily preparing a very warm welcome for Rommel's finest. After a quick 'command conference', Mike and I decided to throw everything in to an all out assault on the Allied lines.  The battle starts before dawn so the Night Fighting rules apply and we roll each turn to see if the sun has risen. The Panzers go straight for the centre! The view along the Axis lines! Now, silly Warlord don't seem to have actually specified the rules for anti tank ditches (if they have then please do let us know!) so as soon as the Panzers broke through the wire we had to think up ...

Good chum Dave has been busy with his brushes recently and asked me to blog about the latest addition to his North African British force... A smashing Matilda tank. The distinctive camo scheme is known as "Caunter". Dave's recipe is as follows - the colours are Portland Stone, Silver Grey and Slate Undercoat with Humbrol Dark brown Spray (which isn't very dark) Basecoat of GW Tallarn Sand GW Administratum Grey for the Silver Grey GW Fang for the Slate GW Brown Wash to pick out the detail Drybrush highlights for each of the base colours Drybrush the GW Fang with GW Administratum Grey Drybrush everything with GW Karak Stone NB - Dave asked me to point out that he's used the Tamiya painting guide which some have suggested might not be entirely accurate. Looking forward to getting this in the sights of my DAK gunners!

Following on from the desert style barbed wire here's some more up-cycled terrain.  Again these items were originally made for Great War games ages ago...  And again I've decided they're more urgently required in North Africa so I've given them a makeover. They're very simply made from blue styrofoam with balsa and coffee stirrer revetments. Additionally, I've given a couple of classic Games Workshop 40K plastic craters a bit of 'desert love' ;o) The basing recipe is the same as my figures: Americana Country Maple, then highlights of Americana Tan, VMC Dark Sand and Foundry Boneyard light.  Followed by a few clumps of dark green Woodland Scenics foliage and some arid looking tufts.