Wolfen...

So, looking like the Wolfen will be prowling again...  Time to break out the wolves...

So, here's some bad pics of the lads as I revive them from deep storage...

So a BUNCH of half painted Wolfen, and entirely too many for 3/3.5 games, but pretty broad selection of the lads...  OK, there are 2 females in there, Irix and Ashan'tyr...  So, a powerful mage and one of the really weird LE figs...  Mine is somewhere in the 3000's of 5000, "neat" figure, but honestly not all that powerful, and she really does not fit with the rest of my Wolfen's play style...  So, hopefully our old Confrontation group will start getting back to gaming...

Back to painting and the basement of DOOM...

A bit windy, but the motorcycle is running great...  I think I've gotten the basic maintenance stuff down and I'm REALLY liking the ride in to work.  I need to get the seat recovered, and it looks like an e-bay purchase as I've found someone out there making custom ones for my model (1981 Honda Silverwing GL500)...  Not so sure I'll be able to find a radio/MP3 player for it, but thinking that something in a CB/headset for my phone...  Need something to keep in communication in the event I wind up on the road for longer trips...  Or maybe not, really kind of liking the idea of being off the grid for a while...

Painting a bit, it is kind of amazing how much more quickly the 15mm stuff goes...  In just a few minutes I was able to get a whole platoon of Mortars uniforms and helmets painted up...  So, the about half of the base coat up...  Not a lot of vehicles at the moment, but did find another "Platoon" of them...  M8 GMC's, but only 3 in the Platoon...  Light tanks with 75mm Howitzer, pretty sure they are not an option for my Parachute Rifle Company, but...

For 40K, I am DEFINITELY looking at something simple for my complete redo for my IG force...  Thinking that the "Brown Violet" like look to match the US paint in WWII...  Not sure if I'll actually play my Praetorians  any time soon, but...  Since I know with almost absolute certainty that I WILL play them again, might as well have them painted...  I have some ancient Marine Scouts that are going to become my Veteran Grenadiers with Shotguns...  Will convert one of the Heavy Bolters and some other lad to be a heavy weapon team...  I know I'm in the minority, but I consider it a bit of a waste NOT to have a heavy weapon on a squad with BS 4, especially given how cheap the weapons are...  :-)  Another holdover from my own time in...  I REALLY liked having lots of options... Just not really feeling THAT into the whole 40K thing right now, so I'll probably just keep things moving here and there.

So, Confrontation 3.5 is looking like it will be coming back...  Have to admit I am WAY more excited about that than 40K or frankly any other wargaming at this point...  Have to dig up my Wolves I think...  Get back to painting a lot of wee Gunn tartans for the kilts I've added on all the lads...

Flames of War, what next?

So, reading the big book o rules (Thanks Dave!)...  Not sure what AT support I should be bringing for my Parachute Rifle Company...  I can massively overload with Bazooka teams, but I suspect that will not work nearly so well as it did in 1st edition...  So, I can bring Glider AT Guns (57mm) or M10 GMCs...  The Tank Destroyer Doctrine (forget if the rule is still called that) with the security teams starting on the board and the TDs just appearing from ambush looks like one of those "when it works, awesome...  If it doesn't work, you die"...  And since looking over the German and Soviet lists it does look like I'd best be able to stop tanks.

Artillery, yes...  I have some set up now and I'll be setting up more...  Now, the way I was taught was that the Infantry holds and calls down Artillery.  Dealing with the tanks is hard without Air Support, and why I;m concerned...  Air Support seems really random, and Artillery just isn't going to stop a tank horde in time...

:-)  Probably time to start painting again...  Been hitting the weights more recently, and just not as much time painting....  But I am looking at the "Army Painter" stuff to knock out a few armies quickly...  Grey Knights, etc...

1500 Point North Africa, Parachute Rifle Company

So...  I happen to have a full Platoon of M3 Lee tanks...  And since that's where my Grandfather started out, I'd really like to use them...  So a mid war Airborne company with M3 support...  Might work :-)...  Yeah, probably not, the M3 wasn't a particularly great tank, and Mid War, the US Infantry wasn't exactly at their top form yet...

So, from the North Africa book:
Company Command  30
Parachute Rifle Platoon (2 rifle squads, 1 mortar squad, Bazooka team) 255
Parachute Rifle Platoon (2 squads, Mortar, etc)  225
Parachute Machine-Gun Platoon (4 gun teams) 100
Parachute Field Artillery Btty (6 guns)  210
Parachute Mortar Platoon (4 gun teams)  130
Field Artillery Btty (105's, 4 guns)  165



Tank Platoon (4 M3 Mediums, 1 w/ long 75)  360

1485 points...  And the best of both worlds :-)...  Lots of Artillery.  Starting to read over the rules (side note, GREAT book, well worth the money), and Artillery might be fairly random, but the US rules are still pretty good for their guns...  Random, but Airborne operations are always a gamble, even in "training".  So, I'm fairly comfortable taking big risks...  Yes, my luck will run out at times, but the lads are Fearless Vets, and we'll fight it out to the bitter end either way :-)...  And since most wargames reward decisive, aggressive play, I get to play Airborne the way we were trained to fight...   Might need more Bazooka Teams though...

It'll be a starting point for me, guessing I'll get stomped at first and will have to tweak it out some...  At least it gives me options to play Mid War should that be where the games are...  Most of what I WANT to play is Late War, but that does limit things a bit :-)

1500 point FoW?

Well, not sure the "real" point level things get played at, guessing 2000, but I'll start with a 1500:

From the "D-1" book, 82nd Airborne being one of the places I ended up briefly when I played Army...

1 Company HQ (+3 Bazooka Teams) 95

Parachute Rifle Platoon   (3 Rifle Squads) 365

Parachute Rifle Platoon   (3 Rifle Squads) 365

Parachute Machine-Gun Platoon (2 sections + 2 Bazooka Teams) 240

Parachute Mortar Platoon (2 Sections + 2 Bazooka Teams) 190

Glider Light Anti-Tank Platoon (3 Gun Sections, 57mm upgrade, 3 Bazooka Teams) 120

Glider Field Artillery Battery (3 Gun Sections) 120

Kind of min/maxing adding Glider stuff into the Parachute company I guess, but no real point bringing a 37mm AT gun to a late war fight I'd be guessing...  Loads of Bazooka Teams, and if they work as they did in 1st ed, kind of a nasty surprise for tanks getting ready to try and roll over my lads...  A little Artillery to keep things honest, a few Mortar tubes in there as well for smoke...  Mind, I have precisely zero experience with 3rd ed FoW, so this is just the way I would go having been trained to do this in "real life"...  I'll have to add in an Engineer Platoon just because that's where I started, and I'll want to use them...  No clue if they have any in game use, but assuming there are mines and the like... 

Digging more stuff out...

So, here's a bit of what I'm digging out...

'course my Airborne stuff is not in the v3 book at all...  A touch annoying, but I'll just use the "D-1" or "Stars and Stripes" book I guess...

On the 40K side, guess my Praetorians will continue, Vet squad, the boys in blue will hit the table to support the death chickens (Scout Sentinels)...  Shoot them lots being the order of the day...

400 point League list...

So, looks like I'll play my old Praetorian IG...

Infantry Platoon:
  LT and 4 SW troopers, either flamers or GL's in a Chimera
  2 Infantry Squads (MG, GL, 2 AC)
Sentinel Squadron (or 2 separate ones)  1 AC, 1 Multi laser
Hydra (+heavy stubber)

400 points of "We shoot things...  A Lot"...  On the plus side, it all fits nicely into one of the cargo racks on the bike (those ancient Armory figure cases fit perfectly) :-)  Up to 3 "Troop" sections in objective games, a crapton of Str 6/7 shots potentially...  But I still think it would die trivially to a lot of things locally...  Whatever, it will be amusing to field 4 vehicles...  I could field a Tech Engineer by dropping one vehicle...  Might be even more amusing overall...  If the Techmarines/Tech Engineers were IC's like the Grey Knight version, I would take them in almost every list...  But it is really hard to justify, especially since none of my "Marine" armies can field the new and improved "Thudd Gun"...  We'll see what happens, and how quickly I get wiped off the table :-)