Boy did May really fly on by. Seems like I didn't really get much done, oh wait I didn't. Here is a recap what I did do in May, along with what I hope to accomplish for June.
LoTHS:
As you can see, I finally did get my Pirate crew done for Legends of The High Seas. Unfortunately I was not able to attend the Pirate campaign that was scheduled for May 15th. Last minute our family had to go out of town for the weekend. I am really hoping that John invites me to the next one and that I can attend. At least my crew is done for now.
LoTOW:
Nothing to report here. No models painted yet, and I wasn't able to get any games in. Now that my "TV" shows are done for the season, I'm hoping to get some more weekday gaming in. "Hoping" is the key word. June is already starting to look pretty busy.
W40K:
Imperial Guard: I did manage to assemble all my Infantry for my 1750 point IG Army minus 2 Officer's. I still have 8 Chimera's and 2 Devil Dogs (Devil Dogs are due out in August) to assemble to complete my IG list. Currently I'm in a GW funk, so we'll see how much gets painted this month. My "goal" is to have my IG done by October in time for the
"Wild West Shootout" in Phoenix.
Six of us did start a W40K Gentleman's League in May. The games are all between 1000-1500 points and we are using the 3 missions/deployments from the main rule book. We get 3 points for a Win, 1 point for a Draw. The League will last for 5 Missions and 10 weeks. Each mission you have 2 weeks to schedule a game with your opponent. We are almost done with the second mission. I will get my second game in tomorrow night. My first game was a Draw.
Again, I'm hoping to start painting the IG Infantry this month, but we shall see. I have plenty of other 40K armies to play with in the meantime. I still would like to get my son's Redeemer done and another 10 man Tactical Squad for him. But they may have to wait till July/August.
FOW: (Flames Of War)
Here is a new entry for me.
Flames Of War. Years ago before I moved to Arizona I had built a US Rifle Company for Flames Of War. I never did learn how to play the game and ended up selling the army.
When I moved to Arizona, I still didn't know too many people that played the game. But I did like the models and I do love the WWII history. My Grandfather was a Major for the Royal Yugoslav Army and was captured in April 1941 and spent the rest of the war in camp. After the war, he was exiled from Yugoslavia (Yugoslavia became Communist after the war) and lived in Austria for awhile before coming here to the US. Anyways, I had decided to purchase some more models and hopefully learn to play the game. I purchased the models, but never learned the game. I ended up building a Mid War / Late War US Tank Company. I can interchange the US Tanks between both time periods. I finished painting all my tanks in Arizona, but stopped when it got time to paint the Infantry for my Rifle Platoon. Seeing those small (15mm) infantry got scary......
Anyways a few weeks ago, my friends in Arizona NOW decided to start FOW. This started to also give me the itch and on Memorial Day I decided to break out my FOW army. My son and I visited a local game store on 5/27 (Games Plus) where they have a large crowd that plays the game. We sat and watched them for the night playing a large battle and we started to pick up on the rules. I've got the movement/shooting down, but still need to understand the assault phase a little better. I decided to pick up some Soviet Tanks so I can also start a LW Soviet Tank Company so I have something to play against my son.
After watching the game on Wednesday night, I decided to start to paint my Infantry for the US so I can have 1500 in Late War complete for the US and about 2200 in MW (US tanks cost more in the MW). They were not as hard to paint as I had originally thought. I went pretty basic with just base colors and then used one of the new GW washes (Devlan Mud) to wash the entire model. They look pretty nice. I have most of the Infantry done. I'm shooting to get them done by the end of the week. Plus I need to get the Soviet Tanks assembled/painted. I put together one just to see how it goes.
My plan is to head back to Games Plus on Friday 6/5 for a couple starter games with my son so we can go through all the phases of the game. (My Mom comes into town today for the next 2 weeks, so its gonna be hard getting out to play, kids are going to want to visit with her. But we'll see what we can manage.)
Like I mentioned earlier, I always had a "love/desire" to play WWII. I am really hoping that I am going to enjoy this game. One of the problems is that Games Plus is about 15 miles / 30 minutes away and they are the closest indy store to me. All the other store are actual Games Workshop stores, so obviously no FOW there. So getting out to Games Plus on a week night is tough. Luckily they meet on Wednesday's and Friday's so I'm thinking Friday's will be my night for FOW.
LoTR:
No models built/painted last month for LotR. I did get in 2 games of SBG which were really fun. 2 weeks ago I played my son in a very friendly "made up" scenario, then last Sunday I played my friend Jamie (AWC LOTR club founder) in "Meeting Engagement". Both games were a blast and it was great to play the skirmish game. I have yet to feel the "love" for War of The Ring (WoTR)
Blue Max / Canvas Eagles:
A friend that I met at the Chicago Bunker when I first moved back kept on raving about a game called Blue Max which is about WWI aerial combats. A group of his friends meet up at his house once a month and play the game.
So last Sunday after my LoTR game, my son and I headed on down to check out the aerial action. What a FUN game and easy to learn. The game we played was on a 4x6 felt mat with 3" hexes, and the models that he uses are the WWI planes from the game "Wings of War". The planes are 1/144 in scale and come pre-painted. The models are then glued to a 6" pole/base.
The original Blue Max rules which were written in the 1980's does not use "altitude" in the game and all the planes can only shoot straight. It keeps the game fast and simple.
Others (Canvas Eagles) have modified the rules slightly and have added altitude to the game and slight modified some of the damage charts.
The rules for the Canvas Eagles edition (which is frequently updated/maintained) can be found here:
www.eaglesmax.com
I think this Friday night while I'm up at Games Plus I'm going to be picking up some planes. My plan is to start to play with the Canvas Eagles rules since they're site is updated with Plane charts and Damage charts (minus the altitude rules, we'll learn those later) and when we meet once a month with my friends, we'll then play by the Blue Max rules. If you know how to play by the Canvas Eagles rules, then playing the Blue Max rules is very easy.
The game is fun and very easy to learn. You can also play on a smaller scale (which I may do if I find the planes).
Thats about it for gaming for May.
Hopefully I'll get more updates for June. Sorry for the lack of them in May.
