Buying the Farm

With my better half staying at her mothers overnight while our bathroom is rebuilt (I miss plumbing!), managed to get a WWII game in tonight, to try out using Fast and Dirty for the period. The plan is to play some linked games as a mini campaign from the point of view of a single platoon. Taking my cue from computer games like CoD and the excellent (but under appreciated) Brothers in Arms, I thought I'd start with something simple, then make the games more difficult over time, with the Axis opposition governed by the solo play rules that are available through the FAD site.

FAD includes a rather neat scenario generator, which I used. You start by choosing a stance (Offensive, Neutral or Defensive) and attitude (Aggressive, Cautious or Passive). For the first game, the US would be on Offensive and Aggressive, and rolled up an Assault mission; with the Germans Defensive and Passive and getting a Hold mission.

"Lootenant, get yourself over here! Some Frenchies say they've seen Krauts setting up in a farmhouse up the road. Hustle your platoon over there and kick 'em out. Rest of the battalion'll be coming up behind you so don't take your time about it!"

US forces:

HQ - 4 models, M1, regular

1st Squad - 1 thompson, 6 M1s, 1 BAR

2nd Squad - 1 thompson, 6 M1s, 1 BAR

3rd Squad - 1 thompson, 5 M1s, 1 BAR

German Forces:

MG42, 2 crew, regular

1st squad , 1 MP40, 3 k98

2nd squad, 4 k98

To represent the bolt action k98s, I decided these would use the lower of 2 D6s instead of the higher to represent the lower rate of fire over the M1s.

The US will be entering from the left, aiming to seize the farmhouse. The Germans need to last 3 consecutive turns with no enemy nearer than 15" to the farm.

The US deployed 2nd squad on the road, and used a recon point to push the squad up another 6". 1st squad hugged the north side of the hedgerow with the HQ and third squad in the field to the south of the road.

The Germans deployed the machine gun in the upper window of the farmhouse to cover the junction, with the two rifle squads providing security.

As the US second squad pushed up the road, the MG42 revealed itself and opened up, wounding two of the squad members. Dragging their wounded with them, second squad took cover on the other side of the hedge to treat the wounded, one of whom was only lightly wounded and able to carry on. While 1st squad continued along the hedgerow, 3rd squad took cover in another hedge to form a base of fire and returned fire on the farmhouse, dropping the Machine Gun loader outright! The gunner continued on, killing a member of 3rd squad in return.

1st squad move up the left flank

3rd squad appeared to be charmed, another high die roll seeing them finish of the MG gunner in turn 3, while squads 1 and 2 moved to flank the farm to the north and the HQ squad to the south. The German squad with the MP40 consolidated into the farmhouse, trading shots with 3rd squad behind the hedgerow, but to little effect. 3rd squad had no such problems, immediately killing one of the new arrivals. 1st squad made a dash across the secondary road to get around the north side of the farm, but a low move roll left part of the squad hanging and one of the squad was wounded by the German rifle squad and had to be dragged behind the a wall by his squad mates, who were now in position to open up on the Germans in the farmyard with good effect.

The 2nd German Squad, led by their NCO, set up in the farmhouse

The US HQ moves up on the right flank to put fire on the farmhouse

2nd squad prepares for the assault on the farmyard

1st squad flanks the farmyard to support 2nd squad assault

While 3rd squad and the US HQ kept the Germans in the farmhouse under fire and suppressed, 2nd squad assaulted the remaining German in the farmyard. Not only did he survive, despite being outnumbered 6 to 1, and losing the assault and falling back, killing one of the US soldiers in the process; he also survived a second assault from 2nd squad, falling back again! With US soldiers in the yard, the remaining soldier in the farmhouse also broke and ran.

The GIs go in!

A clear US victory, who were left in control of the farmhouse having lost 2 of the platoon with 2 more wounded. Sorting out the post-battle bits and pieces, the platoon received replacements for the killed and wounded and 2 campaign points. One was used to raise first squad from conscript to regular (having acquitted themselves well in their first action), the other to give third squad the 'trigger happy' trait (+1 fire effect) in recognition of their stirling work as a base of fire (these guys are going to need to carry more ammo)!

Objective completed!

In all, a good game. The solo play rules are simple to use and effective, and the main rules don't distract from the tactics. Speaking of which, proper fire and movement tactics work well in FAD. After a hairy start when the MG42 first opened up at close range. The US 3rd squad did an excellent job of providing a firebase, reducing the effectiveness of the forces in the farmhouse and allowing the remaining squads to outflank the defences. If they hadn't been so successful (rolling three 6's in a row for fire effect), the MG would have been a major headache.

I do wonder if the tweak for the K98s underpowered the Germans a little (although they certainly did rely heavily on their MGs, as happened here); I'll have to think about that a bit.

Joining the Great Finecast Debate

Much has been said on the 'net about Citadel's new finecast models. From GW's original, somewhat bombastic claims of the latest step in 'hobby evolution' through various debates on TMP and Wayland Games decision not to retail the stuff based on their assessment of flaws (some of which seem fair to me, others which I wouldn't have been surprised by in pewter).

Well, I just had to find out for myself, didn't I? I had some GW vouchers and, not really needing things for any of my main GW armies, thought I'd indulge myself with something that might be interesting to paint. So out of GW Chesterfield I skipped (well, tripped on the doorstep really...) with a Ludwig Schwartzhelm clutched in my eager little hands.

So, first impressions? Here's the inevitable pics...

It's a very light material, and slightly bendy (although not brittle). How well it will hold paint on thin items like swords and staffs? Will it flake over time like the soft plastic on 1/72 models. Compared to pewter flash seems to be a surprising issue. Partly it's because there are so many gates for the material to enter the mould, some of which are on points of detail.

However these do seem to be easily cleaned up without leaving noticeable damage. There are quite a few mould lines as well (multi-part moulds?), but no more than you'd find on pewter, and it's an easy material to work.

What I will say is that I've not noticed anything like the problem with bubbles that some have reported. One or two small ones but so tiny and in out of the way places that they're not worth worrying about. It also holds detail really well; just look at the detail on the barding, above.

Verdict so far? Not sure yet, I'm going to hold fire until assembly, but so far it's neither feeling like an improvement on pewter, nor as bad as some have said

I CAN'T HEAR YOU, I'M A LITTLE BIT DEAF!!!

Quick paintjob on some Empire Artillery Crew that I'd obviously started a while back and forgotten about. They've come out OK, although now I'm going to have to paint (and find) their cannon.

Forgotten Purchases

Having a bit of a tidy up the other day (I needed to make some more space in the cupboard for my wife's school textbooks), I came across a box of resin scenery pieces I'd forgotten about. I recall I picked them up at Salute some years back from (I think) a mix of Snapdragon studios and Ainsty Castings. Anyway, they looked like a quick win on the painting front so, hey presto, here they are.

You can never have too many crates to hide behind. Computer games have taught me that...

US and them

Finished the US Infantry Platoon (finally). All figs are from Caesar miniatures US Infantry Set 1 and I must say I'm really impressed with them. They take washes for shading very well. The Sherman is from Dragon Armour and very nice too.

Just need to get them on the table now.

Those Italieri walls have painted up well too! What I really like is that they fit together really flexibly but firmly.

And just to show it's not all been 20mm, Somewhere along the line I seem to have found the time to paint a couple of Hasslefree Townsfolk; the Village Idiot and Barwench.

I have a few more of these to do, and will be mounting them on some nice resin bases from Fenris Games that the lovely folks at Hasslefree included as a freebie.

Over the garden wall

Just a quickie tonight (if you'll excuse the phrase). I managed to pick up a couple of cheap boxes of Italieri's Stone Walls care of ebay. I know walls are the kind of thing I could easily scratchbuild, but given my notoriously slow progress on most projects I figured this was a cheap way to save time!

They come as two sprues to a box, with each sprue containing enough pieces to make just over 2 feet of walls, including gates and a variety of end pieces, and have a nice, simple interlocking design. So between the two boxes that's enough for about four and a half feet of stone walls on the table. The plastic is nice and solid and the detail looks nice and crisp, so they should paint up well using the same techniques I used for the same company's farmhouse.

Here's a pic of the sprue:

Once painted, they should be ideal for farm boundaries, orchards or just the sides of roads.

Hail Caesar!

Is it wrong that I still get excited when a parcel arrives for me? Well, right or wrong I was quite cheery when I got home to find my Caesar WWII British Infantry had arrived. Even though I've not finished my US platoon (nearly there!), I couldn't help but do a quick test on the Brits (flying the old flag for blighty!).

So what are they like? In common with the US Infantry, the detail is nice and sharp and generally clean. There's more flash than the US models, but the plastic is fairly tough so it cleans up pretty easily. The level of detail makes them a joy to paint though. The uniforms and webbing are nicely detailed, although the weapons are less defined (the US infantry have a similar issue), which is odd; it does have one advantage though, as the ratio of stens to rifles is high, but could be remedied with a bit of judicious trimming of magazines!

On the subject of the mix of equipment and weapons, as I mentioned, it's a bit heavy on the stens (12) compared to Lee Enfields (18), and there are 4 flamethrowers, which seems a bit much. But on the plus side there is a nice prone PIAT gunner and a great officer. I would have liked to see a Vickers HMG and more poses with the Bren though.

Size wise they're slightly tall, but fit well with the US models, and aren't so far out from other ranges that I wouldn't consider mixing and matching. Here's a comparison with one of the models from Caesar's US Infantry Set I and the matchbox British Infantry (which are 1:76 to be fair).