Adventures on the Wargames Table

Here's the latest addition to my BEF army for The Great War. (click for a larger image) This means that my support weapon tally is now two HMGs and a mortar. Painted and based as described previously on the blog.

I've been thinking of going along to the Bristol Big'Uns club for a while now. They're based in Iron Acton (35 miles away) so it's not exactly local for me. Club night is Sunday evening which usually consists of a quiet evening in front of the telly - or pehaps a bit of painting. Hence the lack of attendance so far. But with the Summer hols now a distant memory I met up with fellow Great War-gamer Dave (aka "Orange Dave" on the Scarab forum) for a game of TGW using the new Over The Top supplement rules. Now Dave has a pretty impressive collection of WW1 British figures whereas mine is somewhat more modest, so we decided to play the Storm the Hill scenario from the main rulebook using the OTT 1917 lists plus the rules for supporting artillery barrages, etc. As we both had British forces the "battle" would be a training exercise. Which is fine as all the main protagonists of WW1 made good use of such training before many of the big attacks. Dave dr...

Now that I've a chance to have an initial read through of most of the rules I thought it about time to say a few words... I'm not going to give away any particular details of how the rules work as I think that might spoil the enjoyment of others (not to mention being an issue of copyright, etc). As I mentioned in an earlier post I was a little surprised at paying £50 for a softback rulebook, 4 game boards, 16 dice and a figure. However, I can assure readers that I think it will be money well spent. The rulebook is gorgeously produced, full colour throughout, with plenty of pics of Dark Age types going at it hammer and tongs. The rules are described in a clear, easy to read manner with many good examples of play illustrating the mechanisms. After one read through I think most people will have a good idea how to play. I've heard others say that the rules are easy to pick up but will prove challenging to master and I would agree. The dice are used to determine what your ...

Look what arrived in the post yesterday! Along with two sets of Saga dice (Viking and Anglo-Danish) and the limited edition Sven Forkbeard figure. However, my initial reaction was slightly "oh, is that it?". I paid £50 for a 75 page softback rule book, 4 cardboard army rosters, 2 sets of 8 dice and a metal Viking warlord figure. Hmmm. So I hope the game proves to be as good as all the hype. I haven't had time to read it yet - only a quick flick through - but the production quality does look high with lots of full colour photos, graphics, etc.

There are many pictures from the Great War that show once leafy woodlands reduced to blasted tree stumps surrounded by mud, so with that image in mind I set about making some for the gaming table. Rather than steam ahead and make lots I thought I'd make a test piece to see if the finished result looked good enough. The stumps are made from bits of an old shrub I found in the garden. It was so tough I had to break the stems with pliers! I sawed some of the ends so as to give a good bond with the base. The base is simply a piece of 3mm MDF liberally covered in filler. Later it was covered in a mix of sand and grit. (click for a larger image) Here's the finished article. (click for a larger image) The base was painted in Vallejo Leather Brown and then liberally dry-brushed with Flat Earth. Then I added a couple of highlights with a light brown and a cream colour. After that came a light garnish of static grass and a few pieces of scenic foliage. Here's a few of my BEF making t...

One of the defining features of Great War battlefields is a great number of craters. Making them for a model battlefield is simple - especially if you make use of the GW 40K plastic craters set. Here's how they were made. Apply some PVA glue around the edges and add the odd splodge around the rim of the crater. Then build up the texture in layers starting with chunkier grit / gravel. (click for a larger image) Then add some sand. (click for a larger image) Painting is straightforward too; start with a good layer of Vallejo Flat Earth (983). It may need two coats to properly cover the grey plastic. Next, paint the crater itself with a darker brown, e.g. Vallejo Leather Brown (871), make sure you drybrush out towards the edges as this blends the two colours nicely. Then drybrush with the following colours, all Vallejo, Gold Brown (877), Tan Yellow (912) and Dark Sand (847). The crater should be drybrushed but more lightly. Finish off with a small amount of static grass around...

Even with all the War & Conquest excitement I couldn't resist playing a game of WHW's "The Great War". When Rob last visited he kindly brought along another batch of Great War Miniatures Late War Germans, which gives me almost 500pts of the fellows. Of course they're not painted yet which is why you'll only see a few of them in the following pictures. Hurriedly unpacking new figures, blu-tacking them to bases and getting on with a game really brought back memories of when I first got in to Warhammer Fantasy Battle many, many years ago. Anyway, before I go all misty eyed and start rambling even more, here's some notes and pics from our game. The basic scenario for the game is that the German Spring Offensive of 1918 has run out of steam and the Allies are vigourously counter-attacking, in this case somewhere near Amiens. A small force of German Stellungsbataillon have been pushed from their original lines on one of the quieter sectors and have hastily...