Sunday, December 9, 2012

Bat Rep! 11th AD vs Panzer Lehr

Still my favorite propaganda poster of all time
It's like, "Kilroy was here, but EVIIIIL"
Ahhh, another weekend another battle against fellow WWPD Forum Pyrrhic Victory. This time he's posting up with the famous 11th Armored division. The FlamesOfWar.com website describes them as:

"A flashing rapier that cut into the heart of the German defenses." 

And yeah, they kind of did that during this bat rep as well.

I, on the other hand, will be taking a new iteration of my trusty Panzer Lehr Panzergren's.

The Run Down

Mission: Cauldron
Points: 1780
Attacker: 11 AD (From Taurus Pursuant PDF)
Defender: Panzer Lehr (From Earth & Steel)

The Lists!
11th AD:
HQ: 1IC Sherman V with .50 Cal, 2IC Sherman V with .50 Cal
Combat Plat 1: 3x Sherman V 1x Firefly with .50 Cal
Combat Plat 2: 3x Sherman V 1x Firefly with .50 Cal
Recce Patrol: 4x Stuart 5 Jalopy
Brigade Support: Rifle Platoon
Div Support: 4x M10
Div Support: 2x Daimler 1x Sawn off Daimler

Panzer Lehr:
HQ: 2x Cmd w/Track
Combat Plat 1: Full Panzer Lehr Platoon
Combat Plat 2: Full Panzer Lehr Platoon
Weap Plat 1: 4x Heavy Mortars
Weap Plat 2: 2x Pak40
Weap Plat 3: Full Panzerpio Lehr with 3 extra Half Track & 2x Stuka ZuFuss
Div Support 1: 3x Puma, 3x Puma
Div Support 2: 4x Panzerwerfer 42 w/extra Crew

German Deployment and British Objective Placement


British Deployment

Thursday, December 6, 2012

First Impressions of Bolt Action

All images stolen from Warlord games (Thanks!)
So in my last blog post you'll find that I got to do my first real play through of the Bolt Action rules. I wanted to spend some time today looking at the different bits of the game and what I like and don't like about it. Overall, It's a great fun beer and pretzels sort of game that will motivate me to get some 28mm Dubya Dubya 2 mini's painted. Something I've wanted to do for a while but haven't had any excuse to get started on. Mostly, I think the rules are good and the game play is loose, fast and fun.

For those of you who haven't checked it out yet, Bolt Action is the new 28mm wargame from Warlord Games. It focuses on the concept of the "reinforced platoon" as the primary format for building your armies. This means that you'll have in every army 1 foot hq of 1 to 3 guys and two footslogging units of (normally) around 5 to 10 guys. Each of your basic platoons can be geared up with all the gubbins you'd expect from a nationality. Germans get a bevy of AT and machine gun assets, Americans get the BAR, the Tommie Gun and what not. After you've figured out your base units you get to pick from a pretty comprehensive list of additional assets to reinforce the basic two squad structure. Everything from snipers and medics to infantry guns and artillery piece armored cars, jeeps and tanks are yours to choose depeding on the list/army you're going for.

Armies are built with the traditional point value system and you can expect a 1,000 point game to have anywhere between 5 and 10 units.

Tuesday, December 4, 2012

Bolt Action Bat Rep: Rangers Vs. SS (Noobtastic!)

Today, we re-enter the NEWB ZONE as I am very excited to bring to you our first attempt at a Bolt Action Bat Rep. Me, and new Throck of Warfighter (and very old friend) Amok decided to throw down 750 points of SS vs. Rangers and just fight over victory points to test out the rules and the feel of the game. Bolt Action seems fun, and is certainly a lighter lift than Flames. But, after a couple of reads through the rule I'm a little worried about the abstraction of the rules.

For the uninitiated, Bolt Action is all about the "reinforced platoon" as its basic unit. That means a solid core of a couple of squads of PBI (with about 5 to 15 dudes each) with an HQ and then support elements like a tank, machine guns, mortars, armored cars etc...

For each list you pretty much need to buy an HQ (1 to 3 dudes) and the two squads of grunts and then add on whatever else your army list allows (although, no more than 1 tank per platoon). There are all sorts of ways to pimp your basic guys such as giving them SMG's, Panzerfausts, Assault Rifles etc... Also, with the new German Army book the level of vehicles to choose from runs the gamut from early war to late. I'm looking forward to the rest of the army books to get everyone on an even footing. The good news there is there isn't that long to wait. The new Wargames Illustrated has these coming out every two months between now and November 2013 with the Americans in January and the Brits in March.

I feel very much like this when ever I open a new rule set.
To be honest, I love painting in 28mm and so that is the biggest draw for me for Bolt Action. That, and you get big tanks, much bigger than their 15mm equivalent. There is something cool about pushing that Sherman or Puma around the field on the 1/48 scale.

Another great bit about the 28mm form of the hobby is that there are so many great companies making excellent mini's for the WW2 period. The BoltAction.Net forums have a good list to get you started. But today's bat rep features a Puma by Italeri, SS by Victory Force and Warlord Games and Rangers and Shermans also by Warlord.

For this first game I'll be playing the SS (why do I always get stuck with the Bosche?) and Amok will be handling the 2nd Rangers with Sherman support.

Lastly, apologies for the unpainted-ness of the models. I'm working diligently on getting both armies painted up (in fact, since this bat rep was photographed the rangers are now almost half done and the Sherman is nearly complete!) So without any more ado, the Bat Rep!


Saturday, December 1, 2012

Aaaaaand, we're back! (with Bat Rep!)

The Throck of War Team, back from some needed R&R
I'm that saucy minx in the center.
Well, hello there stranger! It's been a good long time since I've been able to do anything with my humble blog, but I'm very happy to say ThrockOfWar is back in action! Having navigated an election, a super storm, getting my car totaled, the holidays part 1 and a pretty nasty illness it's taken me a bit longer to get here than I would've liked. But here I am, nay here we are! The Throck of War team is still in tact and we've even gained a few members.

Over the next couple of weeks I'll be posting up a backlog of stuff I've photographed over the last couple of months including:

~An Afrika Corps photo study for my mid war army, with WIP pics of the actual army to follow.
~WIP Picks of my 101st Para's & Welsh Guards for some upcoming market garden fun
~A pic dump from a Tournament at Huzzah Hobbies from late September where I got housed but Loon actually won the darn thing.
~Bolt Action Learn to Play fun and WIP pics of my SS and Ranger armies
~And hopefully much much more!

But first up I bring you a most excellent Bat Rep as last night my boy from the WWPD Forums Pyrrhic Victory and I threw down an epic 1780 point late war battle.

Scenario: Counter Attack
Points: 1780
Attacker: 99th ID by Pyrrhic Victory (Confident Trained from Devil's Charge)
Defender: 12. Volksgrenadierkompanie by Throckmorton (Confident Vet's from NUTS!)
Place: Our FLGS Eagle & Empire, Alexandria, VA.

The Board:
The Board with objectives. I deploy bottom right, Pyrrhic deploys top right. 
Read on for the list's and the actual bat rep!


Wednesday, October 3, 2012

Please Stand By. We'll be back I promise.

Please excuse the silence.
As you've probably noticed, we've not been posting much at all these last few weeks. Election season is extremely busy for me with travel and long hours and all sorts of other craziness.

I and the other guys who help out around here are still playing, painting and having much FOW fun, in fact I have a few blog posts on the back burner that will be coming out in the next few weeks (hopefully).

But please do excuse the absence, I've had a hell of a lot of fun growing this blog over the last 6 months or so and will continue to do so once that whole Presidential election thing is over.

Until then I urge you all to do two things: First, HAVE FUN! And...

If you're in the states do as the nice lady says on November 6th.

Sunday, September 16, 2012

Barrage Con!



Well hello there Throck's and Throckette's! This weekend Crazed Loon, me and a buddy of ours headed up to beautiful Harve De Grace Maryland for Barrage Con 16 to participate in the 1575 LW Tournament held by the fine gentlemen from I-95 gamers.

It's about a two hour drive up I-95 from Throck HQ and it was, I must say, well worth it. First of all, most importantly, and I can't stress this enough.



There is No Museum in Harve De Grace Maryland.

They Just want you to think there is. 
I'm telling you, they're cagey. They really want you to not think there is a museum, and there isn't, despite their attempts to convince you that it's there, do not believe their lies. It's not a decoy, it's simply not real.
Although, the Blues Brothers have taken up residence... I always wondered where they went after the movies...
A little worse for wear, but still keeping it real. 
But you're not here for the travelogue are you! You want to hear about all the war gamey goodness and see a ton of pictures of games in action. Well, I aim to please, so let's get down to the nitty gritty. First off, here's the list I took:

Thursday, September 13, 2012

28mm SS from Warlord Games

The new 28mm WW2 Mini's Game from
Osprey Publishing and Warlord Games
So, Bolt Action officially launched Monday (I think) and I finally got my copy of the book yesterday. Needless to say, I'm pretty jazzed and like what I've read so far. It also got me motivated to finish those SS troops I post up earlier in the week.

These figures come from the Warlord Games Waffen-SS box set and will be the veterans in the German army I'm building. Why did I go for Waffen-SS? Because I'm painting Fallschirm's for my mid-war flames army, I have no plans on doing a 15mm SS army and because they get the coolest toys and the best looking camo, in my humble opinion.

Fantastic Movie about the Hurtgen Forrest
After some research I decided to have them be fall based (think post-Market Garden, just around the time of the Hurtgen Forrest) which mean a brown oak leaf camo scheme, although I may do some in green as well in future batches. And honestly, I think they turned out pretty well.

The one thing I'd change from the paint job right now is the pants. I think I'm going to keep them field grey throughout the rest of what I paint. It may not (or may) be strictly accurate, but in terms of breaking up the model, I think it will help.

One of my original complaints about the Warlord Games models, that the faces look cartoony, turns out to be a bit over blown (I'm willing to admit when I'm wrong!). It all comes down to how you paint them, and even the more stoic faces turned out pretty nicely in end.

I've clearly got some more work to do on my eyes, but after being away from the larger scale for awhile I think they've turned out OK. Overall, I'm quite happy with both the quality of the models and my final product.

As always, I'm looking for ways to get better, so let me know what you think!


Here's the pics!


Wednesday, September 12, 2012

Late War Tourney at Dropzone Games with tons of pics.

(I finally set up the google follow thing, so you know, follow me!)

Hey all! On the heels of my 2 win 3 loss drubbing at NOVA open a couple of weekends back I decided to pick my self up, dust myself off and head out to another tournament.

This time, joined by one of my partners in crime, Crazed Loon, we headed out to Dropzone Games a new "destination" store in the hinterlands between DC and Baltimore.

It's bigger than that. But here's the front room
It's a little shiny, but Ironheart Artisan's is
their own local goodness. 
Dropzone is set in the ashes of the old Games Workshop Battle Bunker, which was a huge store, so we figured it would be a large space but I have to tell you we were wow'd when we got there. In the front room alone there were at least 12 6x4 tables, and there were 2 other rooms in the back, one with 4 and one with 7 tables. And that wasn't all, there were at least two other large spaces they are planning to expand into. In other words,

this place had a ton of space. Enough, in fact, to accommodate not only our 18 man tournament, but a Kings of War tourney as well.

Even though they've been open about a month (I think) they had a ton of really quality terrain! Clearly the owners have put some epic work into the thing. Mad props to them (do kids still say "Props"?)

And wait, there's more. The guys actually do their own casting of bases, movement trays, and smoke markers (for us FOW folks!). And they do it in house. Check them out online at Ironheart Artisans

Needless to say, I was quite impressed. They've also got a ton of FOW stock and a good start on some Warlord Games stock.

If you get the chance, GO TO THIS STORE. It's worth the trip. In fact, I think it might be the location of the next Throck of War tournie, if they let me and I get my ass in gear.

But what about the tournament? To start, they had a cook out, which is awesome. Grilled meat and wargaming always go well together and props on them for thinking ahead on that.

The event was a 1650 Late War 3 round, 2 hours a round, tournament with 18 players. Luckily, the play field was much more diverse this time around, with plenty of German, Russian, American and Brit players to go around. This made me very happy indeed. However, the two hour round was a bit short I think.

Monday, September 10, 2012

Bolt... Action? Yep!

The faces on the models kind of look like that.
Wacky right?
Well hello there dear readers! Man I have been sick the last couple of days. Bad for work, but good for you! I got a solid start on some Bolt Action figures I picked up a dropzone games (a fabulous store you should try and get to if you're ever in the DC/Baltimore area).

But! You say "Bolt Action Throck? I thought this was a flames of war site!?" To which I heartily respond "Look to your right good sir! See that blog description? We are primarily Flames but other stuff too!"

Why Bolt Action? Because I like World War 2, the look of the uniforms, the scope of history, the amazing stories. And it's new and shiny. And who doesn't like that?

If you don't know what bolt action is, well, it's a 28mm World War 2 miniatures game. It's published jointly by Warlord Games (who'll make the mini's) and the venerable historical publishing house, Osprey Publishing. Intriguingly, there was a whole line of mini's from Warlord before there was ever even a rule set, in other words, we can buy all we want without the wait! Score!

For those of us chomping a bit more at the... crap... bit. Head on over to BoltAction.Net to check out the WWPD guys take on the game it is, as always, quality. Either way, I was inspired by what I had read and seen to start collecting a couple of small forces. In this case, I'm going to do US Rangers (I'm told they lead the way or... something) and Waffen SS (cause every good guy needs an excellently dressed bad guy to kill).

Sunday, September 9, 2012

NOVA Late War Tourney: Capstone 3

The only reason this is here is because
I saw it today and it looked cool. Enjoy.
(YEAH I KNOW, I'm a little late on this one, I was travelling for work then we lost power last night. I'm sure those of you in MD share my hatred for Pepco.)

Welcome to the third in my capstone series of posts. The purpose of these is to explore, six months in, how I'm finding Flames of War in terms of hobbying, list building, game playing, and rules mongering. Part 1 dealt with the list building. Part two (amongst multiple other hobby posts) dealt with the building and painting and now, in part three we get to throw down for real!

Last weekend I had the opportunity to go and get trounced at NOVA open at a 1750 late war tournament. And I have to say, to start, that all of the people I played against were pure gentlemen. This is the first time, and I've played and lost in many tournaments in my time, that I've been in a tournie where I actually wanted to keep playing the game when we were done.

There's something about the other systems I've played in the past (mainly Warhammer/40k and Warmahordes) that are so fiddly and "gotcha" that I just get annoyed. And while I'll get more into system comparisons in the last capstone post, I think it needs to be mentioned, that the Flames of War rules really strike a solid balance for tournament play with just a few exceptions.

There are a couple of reasons why I like the concept of tournaments: You get to play other people than your normal group, you really get a solid handle on the rules, you get to (occasionally) win cool stuff. Now, in previous systems tournaments it's been the people who have turned me away as much as it's been the rules, the meta and tricksy nature of the games. This isn't to say that there are great and fun people playing other games, it just seems I always ran into that minority that would rather win at the cost of personal acrimony rather than play the stinking game with the guy across the table from them.

Wednesday, September 5, 2012

NOVA Open, Early War Fun

Can you see what is wicked cool,
possibly "metal" about this pic?
Kay, so, I'm on the road today. Up in good ole NYC. For those of you who were wondering, yes it's hot a sweaty here as well.

WWPD did some great picture dumps (here and here) today of the NOVA Open fun, and I thought I'd join along with my second dump.

This is the early war pic-o-rama. I was lucky enough to get to be the ringer for this. My first early war games ever, in my first tournament ever! Despite all of that, I couldn't keep from winning one game (SORRY KEVIN! I didn't know the laffly's would hurt that much!).

As I'm on the road I'll keep it short and to the point. It was a small tourney, run by a great dude, your friend and mine Scott of Itty Bitty Soldier fame. He and the NOVA folks ran a great series events with extra awesome prize support. So I say HUZZAH! to them.

Without any further ado, I give you the early war pic dump.




Monday, September 3, 2012

NOVA Open Recap, Thursday

Wrong year, but I needed a logo....
(First a note: 10,000 page visits in 3 months! WEWT! My deepest thanks to everyone who has been reading and let's shoot 10,000 more by December! ~Throck)

Well hey all. So the next couple of posts are going to cover NOVA open, first here is going to be the pre Late War tourney stuff. Today is just going to be Thursday, because, it turns out I took a TON of pics, which is directly proportionate to how much much the weekend was.

And wow, was fun had. I got the chance to hand out and drink heavily with the illustrious Steven of WWPD fame, Scott our tourney organizer and owner of the Itty Bitty Soldiers Blog and Tom of WWPD and Building a Better Wargame. And I must tell you, shenanigans were had.

Let's just say that ain't just diet Coke. Also, props to Steven
on the MacGyver stir stick. 





First I give you a word: 
Vagilyons (vag-eye-lons)
That's for you Scott.

Nuff Said



Second, after the break, I give you Photo dump of an Early War game played by Tom and Steven with Steven playing the Russians out of Wargaming Monthly and Tom playing Polish Cavalry and Train!

Monday, August 27, 2012

Lehr in Winter: The Army Painted (Capstone 2)

Well hey there dear reader. Today I'm going to bring you the second part in my capstone series. Why am I calling it a capstone series? Because it's been 6 months since I started playing flames of war, a little more than 4 months since I started blogging, and a major of goal of my early FOW hobby life is about to be reached. My first tournament, NOVA Open which is run by the keeper of the fine blog Itty Bitty Soldiers.

In the last post in this series I went over how I came to decide on the army I'm going to run for the tournament. Now for the fun part. The army itself.

As I said I went for a winter scheme which I created on the vehicles by priming the models in the early war version of German Armor Grey, then essentially washed with a very wet Menoth White from the PP series. This created the opposite of a capillary effect, with the paint shrinking up on it self and creating some cool looking patterns. Over this I did a heavy dry brush of white, followed by fine lining in black ink. The I did the details to taste.

Below is my first real attempt a an army with a cohesive look and theme. I've been painting for a good long time at this point, but flames is my first 15mm game and Late War Germans were my first 15mm army. So, while I think it turned out well, very well in some parts, there is certainly room for improvement and I'm all about constructive criticism.

So there it is, 1750 Panzer Lehr winterized. 

Sunday, August 26, 2012

Stuka Pt 2. or, Wow do I hate this model. (Rant Warning)

I'm going to be short and sweet here. Painting this model made my soul hurt.
No, worse than that. It made painting this:



Feel like I was painting like this:

Me, circa 1989


Feel my shame. Stare it in the face. 
This is, undoubtedly the least fun I've ever had painting a BF model. And here's why: The details were just, completely awful. I can only conclude that Battlefront Hates Airplanes. I really have no other reason to understand why they would choose to build a model the way they did. So. Much. Hate. It fills my soul and keeps me warm.

Anyways. here are the pics, based off of Hubert Polz's Stuka squadron from early to mid Africa, made famous by the snakes they painted on their airplanes:

Read on for more images

Lehr In Winter, The Evolution of an Army. Throck of War Capstone Part 1

(So, I'm coming up on 6 months of being in the Flames hobby and the first big milestone I set for myself, the NOVA Open Tournament, is quickly approaching. As a part of that I'm going to do a series of blog posts looking at how I thought about the army I'm bringing. What I did to paint it up. The Tournament itself and my thoughts overall on the game 6 months in. I'm calling this the Capstone Series as it caps off the first chapter of my FOW gaming life)

The first big goal for this blog was to showcase how me and a group of my friends discovered Flames of War, learned to play, paint and enjoy the historical WW2 war gaming hobby. 

A major part of that for me was setting some goals in terms of painting and competing. I made NOVA open  a major benchmark in my early FOW path, because for me, competitions give me goals and let me get out of my local meta, get drunk and meet cool people. So, I knew I'd need to choose an army, paint it, test it and get to know and love it.

And I've finally done it. I've figured out, bought and painted my 1750 late war army for 2012 NOVA Open.

As you can tell by the name of the post and the giant image, I've settled on Panzer Lehr Panzer Grenadiers.

Why? Well a bunch of reasons. First off, they've got a ton of cool history and were one of the key units of the Normandy Campaign. Secondly, they get all the cool toys. Rockets, tanks, flammtracks, recce you name this mechanized list can pretty much be built to taste. Finally, I think it's a stronger "all comers" list than a standard PzrGren list do to the addition of the tank hunter teams as organic elements in each platoon.

This is my first fully painted, cohesive army. I've only been in the hobby for 6 months and I've painted up a bunch of dudes, King Tigers, Stug batteries and a slew of panthers and panzers. But, this is the first time I've tested and winnowed down a list to what I think I'd like to play and will be most effective.

A classic image from the Korsun Pocket and a key influence in
the visual theme of my army. 
That's a critical balance for me. I could go out and buy and the coolest new toy on the block, paint it up and play. But is that as fun and figuring out my own play style, how to best implement it and then researching the history on the units that best fight that way? To some, sure, to me, most certainly not.

Back to the army at hand. I went with a winter scheme, partly by necessity and partly because I think there's something about German's in winter that just looks sweet. It was by necessity because my original army was going to be a straight Gepanzerte Panzergrenadier army out of Grey Wolf, and I wanted to set it around a Korsun Pocket theme.

Because of that many of my early models were painted in a winter scheme with long coats and unless I wanted to buy new grenadiers/Lehr infantry I was stuck. But that's ok, like I said, winter is fine by me. At first I was a little nervous because, historically, I wasn't sure of Lehr's operational history after summer of '44. But after some (very little :) digging I found they fought under Manteuffel during Wacht Am Rhine/Battle of the Bulge and actually were involved in the fighting around Bastogne.

So while they were not going to be painted in a classic, summer '44 Lehr scheme, they would be at least arguably accurate in a winter look. Having decided that, it was time to build the army.


Friday, August 24, 2012

Totally Jazzed for the new Open Fire Set (Updated)

So if you haven't been over to the Flames of War website yet since yesterday, do so.

They've got a pretty excellent teaser of the of the new Open Fire starter set.

Now I can't find a cost anywhere but all in all the set looks pretty darn cool.

Update: Wayland Games has this up on their website for 50 Pounds UK, or about 80 bucks here in the US. (thanks to the WWPD forums for the tip!)

Here's what you get:

A starter German Grenadierkompanie (Heer) from the V3 Fow Army Book which I pointed out to around 810 points as:

That's not a bad starter german list at all. And the models on the site look great! (I'm posting them below as well)

Well, I'm less enthused about that. I've always wanted a billion shermans... No really, they're totally quality in their pre-BG&G form *headdesk*. I know the points look like they're skewed in the Allies favor here but really?

Updated: My partner in crime Rotny makes a good point. You can build a similar list to the Hell's Highway one out of V3 FOW List Book for 870 points if you give all the tanks .50 cals (never a bad option). Thanks!

I think to equal players would see the Germans win out.

You'll also be getting a sweet looking V-1 rocket set, 20 dice, the rule book and *GASP* Terrain! I HEART terrain. Really, I know it's made out of cardboard, but I can always use more terrain. Yeah, I'll have two and sell the tanks, thanks!

Stolen from www.flamesofwar.com
Seriously, if anyone wants the StuG's, Sherman's, or Firefly's let me know. I have like no use for them.

And I gotta say, the back of the box says "finely detailed models" and at least for the infantry that absolutely seems to be the case. These guys look awesome in the pics I've seen so far. Have a look:
GAH! So cool! (Stolen from the wwpd forums)

I mean, those look straight up awesome. (All images from this point forward blatantly stolen from www.flamesofwar.com, I mean I didn't even try and hide it...

Wednesday, August 22, 2012

BF Stuka Unboxing, Model Review and Build

I'll be painting mine up to look like this. It'll be a challenge
But I think it will be worth it. 
So I did it, I finally figured out what my first list is going to be for mid war: Fallschirjagers! To get started I picked up the company box of figs and one of the new Battlefront Stuka's.

Needless to say I was totally jazzed. Fighters and Bombers are possibly my favorite part of World War 2. And, for those of you who know your history, you know that the Junkers Ju-87 "Stuka" was a superb dive bomber.

The Stuka served in multiple variants from the Spanish Civil War, as part of the famed Condor Legion, right up through the  end of World War 2.


Like much of German aviation this guy saw his hay day during the Blitzkrieg, the Battle of Britain and North Africa.

Before picking it up I hadn't yet had a chance to play around with any of BF's plane models. And... I kind of have to say, at least in this case, I'm a little disappointed. My first big complaint is the proportions on the plane are seemingly off all over the place. The tail is too short (based off a proportional measurement I did to the canopy height from fuselage), the nose/propeller cone is too stubby, and the dive flaps on the trailing edge of the wing are  too small. Oddly, they decided to add the struts on the rear on of the aircraft under the horizontal stabilizers (rear wings :) and the posts on the front wheels, but they omitted the rear gun, the posts on the wings and antenna post  coming off of the canopy.

BF puts plenty of small breakable fiddly bits on their models, why choose to remove a few pieces that define the silhouette of this one?

But my biggest gripe is this: The definition of detail on the model is just awful. For a company known for it's, what I think are great, over exaggerated proportions on it's infantry figures and mostly crisp detailing on it's vehicles, why on this plane are the details so understated? It seems that the lines that make up the panels on the fuselage and wings of the plane are just whisper deep and a hairs width thin, almost to the point where a few coats of paint will cover them up. The only place where this isn't the case is on the canopy.

Not only does this lead to difficulty picking out details but it's a headache to paint (as you'll see in the next Stuka post).

Perhaps I'm being overly critical and I'm willing to admit this. But, compared to what I've seen from BF's line of vehicles and infantry, I feel like I bought a model from another company.

Click on to get to the unboxing and (quick!) build.

Sunday, August 19, 2012

Throck Of War Charity Tournie, AAR

Who put this shiny odd Roundel in the middle of a battlefield?
That was awesome. Yesterday we put on our first tournament and I gotta tell ya I think it went off awesomely. We had 12 players (just enough!) with one guy traveling all the way from Ohio. Whodathunk right? I made a little exception that the armies didn't have to be fully painted but the ones that were looked great all around. And most importantly, not only did we have a great time, we made about $150 worth of donations to the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society.

Surprisingly, at least to me, is that the Brits were very well represented with Orne Commandos, 50th Infantry, Canadians, and Lorried Rifles all representing on the day. Germans brought it with KG Peiper, Sturmkompanie and 150 Ersatz Skorzeny Craziniess. We had two Russian Players both with forward detachments and a couple of yank Armored Rifle Companies and a Yank Tank Co. from BG&G.

Many thanks to Eagle and Empire for hosting and providing the prize support.

A couple of things I found out from running my first tournament:

1) Not everyone knows the rules all that well, be prepared to make a lot of judgement calls and look up a ton of stuff. But this was great for me as it really helped my own rules comprehension.
2) Not everyone has been to a tournament before and may not understand how scenarios work. I understand at the larger tournies this may be less the case, but I was running a friendly local thing and some of the guys here didn't even understand how to score a round. Which leads to...
3) Always bring enough copies of the scenario rules for each player. They're going to be flipping through their rule books enough anyways looking up stuff, this will let them have a quick reference for the current scenario right on the table.
4) 2 hours seemed to be a good length for the rounds, although I can see how 2.5 would be better. For each of the scenarios except fighting withdrawal people finished close to the 2 hour mark and it felt a little bit rushed. FW actually ended early in all cases but one.
5) I'm not super in love with I-95 scenario we used. I like the idea of tie breaker/domination points, we used front line domination and I'm just not sure how solid it is. The one thing I did like most about it though was how it pretty much forced folks to start a knife fight from turn one.

But what you really want to know is who won? AMIRIGHT? Well, read on after the break for the topline results and a ton of pics!


Thursday, August 16, 2012

STUG LIFE PT 2. And then they got painted

Yes, that hot. 
Howdy there boys and girls. I gotta tell ya. There's something about August that makes me lazy as hell. The number of posts is woefully low for the first half of the month and, well, I think it's because of the ball melting heat, i just kind of . Yeah I said it. But it also means I've spent some serious time indoors.

Over the weekend you saw my first attempt at a StuG Batterie from Grey Wolf and I freaking loved it. I know it's not a perfect list, but it's fun and has StuG's, lots of them, so how could I go wrong?

The clear answer is I couldn't. Thanks to a sage buy by yours truly at historicon I came into 12 StuG's for right around $75 bucks. A great deal! That meant all I needed to get was the riders and I'd be off to the races. So I headed down to my FLGS and ordered me up some Beigliet Assault Company platoons, they came in yesterday and like that, I was ready to go.

I started on the StuG's on Sunday, and have focused solely on them over the last five days. Here, you'll see my first attempt at airbrushing and pea dotting with, I kid you not, a single bristle from a broom. Honestly, I think they turned out quite well. I'm very interested to know what you all think and remember, keep living the StuG LIFE.

StuG Batterie Assemble!

Sunday, August 12, 2012

Bat Rep: StuG Batterie vs. Peredovoye Otryad

From the fine folks at WargamingShirts.com
We're back with another bat rep! This time around I need to apologize first. Rotny and I both are trying out new lists with some new models so the bulk of what you'll see is unpainted.

Have no fear though, the battle is fast a furious and those models, especially the stugs for me and the infantry for Rotny are next up on the painting queue.













Well hello readers. We decided to try something different in terms of lists. I, throck, really have been wanting to try out a StuG battery, and Rotny is going for something a little more mech and speedy in with Pere Otry. We're fighting it out at 1750 points in a fighting withdrawal scenario.


Rotny's Peredovoye Otryad
  • HQ: 1x Cmd Rifle, 2x Jeep, 1x T-34/85, 1x Komissar
  • Combat Co 1: 7x T-34/85
  • Combat Co 2: 12x SMG Team, 1x Maxsim HMG, 1x Cmd SMG
  • Weap Co 1: 3x SU-122
  • Corps Support 1: 1x ISU-122
  • Corps Support 2: 8x Rifle/MG, 1x Cmd Rifle/Mg, 5x Capture Half Tracks
  • Corps Support 3: Spetznaz 2x SMG, 1x CMD SMG, 3x Capture Tracks
  • 1750, 6 Platoons
Throck's Stug Batterie (StuG LIFE!)
  • HQ: StuG G
  • Combat Plt 1: 3x Stug G w/Tank Escorts
  • Combat Plt 2: 3x StuG G w/Tank Escorts
  • Combat Plt 3: 3x Stug G
  • Div Support 1: 1x Konigstiger
  • Div Support 2: Short Sturm Platoon
  • Div Support 3: Short Sturm Platoon
  • Div Support 4: 3x Neb 41's
  • 1750 Pts, 7 Platoons



SETUP AND DEPLOYMENT

The Board

Tuesday, August 7, 2012

"Not One Step Back!" Rotny's Russian Rifles (Part 1)

(Throcknote: Rotny's first solo post! Welcome him to his big boy pants!)

Hello all! Rotny here, and after a sufficient does of shame from Crazy "Lightning Brush" Yank and Throck on the painting front, I decided this blog needed some decidedly less bourgeois miniature soldiers. So I bring you the first platoon of painted Russian Riflemen from my Strelkovy Battalion... one part of my ever growing 3rd Ukrainian Front themed army of a melange of Czechs, Poles and Russians... Lions, Eagles and Bears, Oh my!

These are made up of the Russian Infantry in Summer Uniform from PSC, and painted with a mix of ranges. Army Painter British Armour Italy basecoat (sprayed on), followed by a drybrush of GW Tallarn Sand (slightly lighter, gives a subtle highlight), then pick out packs and bags in GW Rakarth Flesh, Rifles in GW Boltgun Metal, and Helmets and Canteens in GW Castellan Green... then the obligatory wash of Devlan Mud/Agrax Earthshade.

I always welcome constructive feedback, so I'd love to hear your thoughts! Glad to finally join the 'Show and Tell' series!
Strelkovy Company, First Platoon on a stroll