Saturday, July 21, 2012

German Panzer Pioneers vs The First Special Service Force in Dust Up


FSSF sneak through the woods and make short work of the Panzer!

This was the last battle of Summer Siege 2012 put on by the Dice Devils (DD) gaming club. It was 1500 pts LW and my last opponent was Twinlinked from the DD who I've played against many times and is a great sport. One of the armies that I've started to collect but haven't finished is the FSSF so I have an idea just how devastating they can be. The mission was Dust Up, and it promised to be one!


First Speacial Service Force
  • OC and 2IC
  • Platoon FSSF
  • Platoon FSSF
  • Platoon FSSF
  • 4 x 105mm guns
  • 4 x 155mm guns
  • 2 x AA guns
  • AOP
German Panzer Pioneers
  • OC and 2IC with Fausts
  • Full Pioneer Platoon with HT and Faust
  • Half Pioneer Platoon with HT and Faust
  • 2 x Tiger IE
  • 3 x Nebs
  • 3 x Panzer IIs
  • 4 x Marder III Ms


Thursday, July 19, 2012

German Panzer Pioneers vs Russian Infantry in Hold the Line

Half-track MGs pin a Russian assault!

This was round two of Summer Siege 2012 put on by the Dice Devils. I was again pitted against a Russian Infantry horde (played by Nic) this time the mission was Hold the line which had us playing the long way on the table and as luck would have it there was a massive run way (ie road) right down the middle.


Russian Strelkovy
  • HQ, 2IC, Kommisar and a ton of Pioneers and AT rifles
  • Massive Infantry Coy
  • Small Infantry Coy
  • 3 x IS-2s
  • Priority Air
German Panzer Pioneers
  • OC adn 2IC with Fausts
  • Full strengthen Pioneers with HT
  • Under Strength Pioneers with HT
  • 2 x Tiger IEs
  • 3 x Nebs
  • 3 x Panzer II Ls
  • 4 x Marder III Ms


Friday, July 13, 2012

Panzer Pioneers vs Russian Infantry in Break through


German 2ICs are not to be messed with!

This was round 1 of Summer Siege 2012 put on by the Dice Devils gaming club in Ottawa. The venue was a Legion in Barrhaven and it was outstanding! We had air conditioning, plenty of room to move and sit, good lighting, immediate access to both the facilities and a burger and pizza place and best of all a bar that was fully licensed and less than 30 paces from any table. My first match up was against Richard who was rocking a massive Soviet Infantry horde supported by guns and assault guns. The first mission was Break Through.


Strelkovy Batalon
  • HQ with Kommisar, 2 x 45mm guns, 5 x Pioneer teams and Pioneers supply carte
  • 22 Strong Company with Kommisar
  • 9 Strong with Maksim HMG
  • Anti-tank Company with 6 x 45mm guns
  • 4 x SU-100s
  • 2 x 85mm guns
  • 1 x God of war artillery battery with 4 x 76mm and 4 x 122mm guns
German Panzer Pioneers
  • HQ and 2IC Panzerfaust
  • Full Pioneers in HT with Faust
  • Under Str Pioneers in HT with Faust
  • 2 x Tigers
  • 4 x Marder III Ms
  • 3 x Panzer II Ls
  • 3 x Nebs



Building a Western European Battlefield the easy way!

Battle Front moves into real estate

Battle Front has just come out with a new subscription offer which is outstanding!  Basically for roughly $21 USD a month you get a new house (pictured above).  The houses come once a month and are shipped free to you.  In addition to the houses you get a bunch of extras like a fountain, walls and extensions for the buildings you can see them all here.  Now I just need to get some roads and and I have everything I need for a battlefield.  As the buildings come in I will be doing a review on them and they will start being featured in upcoming AARs.

Monday, July 9, 2012

Summer Siege 2012 in Ottawa!

88's enforce a no fly zone at SS 2012

This Saturday the Dice Devils held the Summer Siege 2012 in the Barrhaven legion, it was outstanding!  The prize support from Perkins Hobby House, FDB and the Hobby Centre was far and above what you see at most tournaments.  The venue was outstanding, air conditioned, beside pizz and burger places and it had a bar!  This was also the first time I've gone to a tournament that started after noon.  Thanks to Pripyat and RKelly for running the event.  I have a bunch of pictures (if you've already checked out the Dice Devils gallery you will have seem them already) but I've cut out the ones from my games so there will be three new AARs coming over the next couple of days.  Congratulations to the winners:

Overall - Ca$h
General - Big Willie (combined/axis)
Allied General - Louie
Best Army - Matt Varnish
Best Sport - Matt M

Enjoy!

Be warned there is over 100 pictures!

Saturday, July 7, 2012

Extra Tobruk Pits

I recently bought Hellfire and Back!  the FOW early war in the desert book.  Pretty fun stuff, especially all those silly light tanks flying around.  Anyway I've been looking for a way to modify my Australian MW Div Cav force to an Early War force.  A "morph" if you will, since all the equipment except the Grants is usable EW.

Since I'm not going to buy a another infantry platoon and command for them just yet, I figured I could make a decent Tobruk Defense force.   Since my other favorite tank, the Matilda II features in that.  Haven't bought the Matilda yet, but I did buy a pack of "Tobruk Pits", which are MG nests in a small concrete bunker like thing.

The blister comes with 2 nests, and 2 of each nationality that uses the pits, 2 brits, 2 aussies, 2 french, 2 italian, and 4 German (2 early, 2 late).  It seemed a pity to waste the extra guys, so I measured and created on a 3D printer 2 more pits.  These will be usable for my Germans if I do any Beach/dug in type scenarios.  So LW of course.

Here's a pic of the finished pits.  The printer isn't SUPER high res, so I had to do a bunch of priming and sanding to get the surfaces smooth.  The "ground" doesn't matter as I will cover that with pummace anyway.  Anyway they came out really nicely.  Hopefully the paint will last the test of time.  The originals are on the right, the new ones are on the left.


And while I was doing 3D printing, I figured I would finish the turret ring for my 28mm Matilda II tank for my jungle Aussies.  I might want to change the gun from a 2lbr to a "Frog" flamethrower but it'll be fine for now.  The turrent just never fit on correctly, but its nice and snug now.  Can't wait to get this guy done.  And it will probably inspire me to pick up a few 15mm versions for the FOW Aussies.

The original tank:

Bottom of the sanded turret:

New turret Ring.