AAR: Bolt Action: Italian Vs. British: Easter Game

       My wife played another game on Easter with our friend Chris. We have known Chris for years, but somehow, my wife has never played a game with Chris. Who knows why, but this game happen! Now, when Chris said he was going to come over and play, we thought we were going to play Flames of War, since he still plays a lot in the tournament scene. To our surprise, he want to test out he Italians. So they played a 1250 point list of desert warfare. The Italians even looked like they belonged on the table. Plus, this was Chris's first test run with his Italians.

      With that in mind, Kalissa and Chris played the "Meeting Engagement" mission. Right away, the Italians drew first blood! One of the British infantry took a long distant tank round. And from there, it went down hill for the British. Kalissa was able to hit well, but never was about to kill. I believe she took out eight figures the whole game at the lost of eight units. It happens to us all with rolling. However. despite the loss, Kalissa had fun and is wanting a rematch. That is only after she has a major talk with her commanders who did not believe they were in an actual battle. Here were the photos of the game. 

AAR: Battlegroup: 15 mm Tank Fight: Germans Vs. Canadians

      Since I was on the inspiration of 15 mm terrain, I figured that Kalissa and I could whip out some of our Battlefront tanks we used for Flames of War for a Battlegroup game. Now, I have not played too many games of Battlegroup, and my wife has played less. My whole interest into to the game started after 4th addition Flames of War had left a rather sour taste in my mouth with all of the changes, especially with terms that were unnecessary. But to be fair, Kalissa and I were expanding to new horizons at this point in our wargaming adventures. The UGIG system was fading towords some of the more chaotic game styles like Bolt Action, Muskets & Tomahawks, and other games. Battlegroup has some of those elements which was proven today.
    In our game, we had a Battle Rating of 48 with the Canadians versus the German 39. Kalissa mentioned the unfair BR values, but I had the better tanks. Half of Kalissa's Canadians crossed an open field in normal Kalissa fashion. "You cannot kill them all" seems to sum up her motto! This, of course, did not stop me from doing so, but by turn four. To be fair, it occupied a lot of shots. To play a more simple game, we did not count ammo. I think that would have been too much for the both of us to keep track on a quick pickup game. I happen to loose a lot of Panzer IV in trade for the lot of Sherman tanks. I, also, lost two Panthers in the process. Needless to say, the pictures I took did not match the deaths that later accorded. The game was more of a draw. Either way, here are some pictures. Enjoy!

  

A Terrain Day: Modifying the Killing Fields Fur Mat

    This post is of a terrain day before the previous post. I have no idea how I forgot to post it, but I still managed to post it all over Facebook. So slightly related to the other 15 mm post, I had a commission for a 15 mm Flames of War mat around this time last year. Part of the payment was for X amount of money and two Killing Fields Terrain mats. As you can see throughout this blog, that I kind of do not need these, but I took them anyway. I think I was planning on making a Mirkwood mat for Lord of the Rings as a mental plan, instead on buying a whole bolt of dark brown fur just a mat or two. Honestly, with that much fur, I would have found a project for it some way of another.
    Anywho, I finished another commission and felt compelled to try out a modification. One of the Killing Fields was in my way to another fur section I was after. So I felt like making a board for someone for a game scenario he had come up with. Seek the Battle of Prestonpans 1745 for the mat I was making. Our friend, Eric was running this game at Siege of Augusta 2020 that I played in. He has mentioned how he would like me to make him certain projects, but he never seems to get around to committing to a project or even gaming at our house when he is less than an hour away. He is one of our gaming friends that my wife is described as a member of the cats that she has to herd at conventions. So is this mat really free, no! This is purely a bribe to get him to come over a play. It has not worked so far, but I am about to lay it on thick in this post about my trials and tribulations I have gone through on behalf of our gaming friendship.
     For those who have already seen my work and know the basic premise of how I do what I do for fur mats, I usually use the following tools: Wahl Dog Grooming Shaver, a 99 cent comb, scissors, and a basting brush along with paint. With the Killing Fields mats, these tools do not work for their mats. At least not all of them. When you look at their product, they use a dark chocolate brown base for their fur. Then, they have a lighter green as their highlight color. In fact, it looks a little darker that their website has it, but they are consistent. Both  fur mats I have of their is exactly the same. Another plus is that their is very little excess fur to their product. These are all plus for a basic mat that you are not modifying. However, the fur that Killing Fields uses is thick and not as receptive to paint. My Wahl Shaver took 25 minutes to get through four inches of fur to make a road. I accomplished what I needed to do with scissors. And for a moment, I thought I broke my Wahl Shaver. Since I have been making fur mats, I have gone through $250 worth of shavers.
     After cutting to where I was happy with the fur job, I went to painting. When you use a dark fur, you tend to have to go with brighter colors for base color and highlights. The darker color tends to be a base for wet ground like for a wet Spring or Winter. The lighter the color, the more it will pop for color. Most of the fur I have dealt with has been pretty forgiving for absorbing colors. The Killing Fields mats do not do so well. I had to cake on colors and comb it out. In other words, use actual elbo grease to get my effect. It was not the end of the world to do so, but it was a longer project than it needed to be. It was about two days worth. Anyway, below are some more pictures of the results. If you are reading this, Eric, the bribe still stands!

It is not often I can have a before and after picture.

This was just a picture to prove that they were both the same color starting out. 

A Terrain Day: 15mm Hedgerows

      Since the outbreak of our lovely, Covid-19 virus, hours at work have been reduced by a bit. In fact, they furloughed half of the store. Somehow, I have escaped such affair with limited hours during the week. In a normal sense, one might sweat this, but am not. Normally, the retail world cuts hours during January and February. I tend to get a lot done during this time. The year of 2020 has been a little different in the Firearms world. After coming off Christmas, sales have soared with the plethora of anti-gun laws attempted in our surrounding states followed by this new threat. I have been working a lot. So having reduced hours has left me to my devices, which include annoying my wife more. For now, I still have fingers, hence the typing!
    Anyway, I gained a commission for 15 mm hedgerows recently. And to be honest, this was not a commission that was due anytime soon. This resulted in a somewhat half clean up of my work space and a curiousness on how I would execute this commission. I do have a need to upgrade my long and neglected scale of 15 mm over the years. I still have cardboard based forests that we use for Flames of War and such. I feel it is over due to up my game in other scales, so this was an opportunity to see how I was going to do this for my own projects later. After six hours later, this seems to be the results. I think they came out well.

AAR: Bolt Action: The German/Soviet Slap Fight!

     This was a home game of Bolt Action against a friend of ours, Matt. I would like to emphasize that this was a HOME GAME, because some people on the other media I have posted on have be a little upset about it thinking that we were running a public event versus a private home game in concerns to the Covid-19. Of course, would it matter if I was still going to work seeing over a hundred people per hour? I am not sure. I figure if it is going to kill me, than it is going to kill me. I am not worrying over it. Besides, worrying leads to stress, which leads to a lower immunity, thus making it easier to get sick. Just be advised that I am not going out in public licking my hands after never washing them and "Hi-Fiving" everyone I meet. But enough about that!
  I invited my friend over to play a game of Bolt Action. I wanted to test out my Soviet list to see if I could do as well as my wife did against me with said army. And what I have learned, not near as awesome. But there is something to say about running three IS-2 Tanks in a list. It might be over kill, if they were not listed as Inexperienced. Matt played a German Veteran list for the most part. He brought a Tiger I, which I can understand. I think that it the only reason it survived the game; it was a Tiger! It managed to take out one of the IS-2s, but was disabled and pinned for the rest of the game. We laughed about this, since it was on a fuel shortage, so no movement made not a lick of difference. The game ended with a draw, I lost two IS-2s, and my free inexperienced squad. I took out one half-track and one truck. Overall, it was a fun game. And here were the photos.
     

Our six foot social distancing did not keep us from Corona, even though, it was not the virus version.