Bolt Action: United States 'Sherman M4A1 76MM'

I was able to squeeze in one more model for the month of February.  When my son and I first got into Bolt Action three years ago, he always wanted a 76MM Sherman for his United States Army.  We took most of 2015 and 2016 off from Bolt Action and we both recently got back into the game.

A few weeks ago while at the Las Vegas Open, Trenchworx was onsite selling a few of their models.  I myself picked up their soon to be released German Wirbelwind, but my son saw a M4A1 76M Sherman  sitting on their table and he had to have it.  Seeing how the box is not that big, I knew I could get it to fit in my suitcase with me so I can get it painted for him in time for this years AdeptiCon.  I also want to add, that these Trenchworx models are beautiful.  They were easy to assemble with great instructions and not much flash had to be cleaned off of them.

As I mentioned yesterday, when I got home from Las Vegas, I realized all my decals were still in storage back in Arizona.  So I had to do a quick order for some new ones.

Last weekend I airbrushed the basecoat of the tank, then late last week finished up the rest of the tank.  My new decals arrived yesterday and I applied them last night.  This was also my first time using Vallejo Decal Medium and Vallejo Decal Fix for applying decals, and I am quite happy with the process.

My decal order was also screwed up.  I had ordered a set of 'ringed stars' and just 'stars'.  I was shipped the 'ringed stars', but instead of normal 'stars', the second set was the 'broken ring stars'.  So I had to do my best and cut around the broken circles.  I had to use a little touch up paint where I could not get as close, but I think they turned out alright.

Now my son will be for sure adding this tank to his 1250pt US Nationals list for AdeptiCon 2017.

United States: Sherman M4A1 76MM 

 United States: Sherman M4A1 76MM

 United States: Sherman M4A1 76MM

United States: Sherman M4A1 76MM

Painting Points: 10

Battle Report: Hordes 2/27/2017 Minions vs Trollbloods (50 Points)

Last night I headed out east again to Kalamazoo to meet TJ at Odyssey Games for another game of Hordes.  I met TJ the previous day on Sunday, but we did not get a game in so we schedule one for Monday night.  Even though the store is 41 miles away, it only takes me about 40 minutes to get to since it is all interstate driving for me.  I am just going to have to watch my number of miles driven on my new leased car.  We were planning on getting a game at his house, but a last minute change we decided on the store.  TJ wanted to place an order for his Trollbloods.  While I was there, I also picked up some tokens for Fire damage and such (since on Sunday I realized I had no Fire tokens).

Since I am still getting a feel for Hordes (I am used to the Warmachine playstyle) and learning what my Minions can do, we elected for another 50 point game.  I was using the same list I played on Sunday.  The more times I can play with those models, hopefully the better I can learn how they play.

I setup the gaming mat and terrain and TJ rolled for the scenario.  We were going to be playing 'The Pit' from SR2016.

 

 

I (Minions) ended up losing 5-1.  At least Rask stayed alive and was able to secure a point for me.  I still made some mistakes.  Forgetting to use his Feat  on my first turn (to prevent all the shooting damage I took in Turn 2), and sending my Croak Raiders around the forest terrain which took a lot of time.  I managed to kill some of his warrior models and a lot of damage on his Bomber beasts, but not enough to kill him.  The shooting he had from his Warcaster and the Bombers were incredible.  When his Warcaster hits with shooting, it causes a Knockdown, which them made it easier for his Bombers to hit.  I was contesting the Pit for quite awhile, then he managed to kill my second Wrastler and cleared out my remaining Posse in the Pit.  So a loss to the Minions.

Using my Feat would have helped.  But I though my Veil of Mists could have protected my Wrastlers, but some of the base was still visible.  If I could have kept them protected, I could have gotten charges in on his Bombers on Turn 2 and the outcome may have been different.

Just need more practice.

TJ's Trollbloods 

 My Minions

 Final Outcome (Rask at bottom left securing my Flag)

Daily Chronicle: Weekend Roundup 2/24-26/2017

Since nothing was actually completed this past weekend, I thought I'd do a recap of the progress for the some of the projects I am working on. 

On Friday night I was able to mostly finish my sons US 76mm Sherman Tank for his United States Bolt Action Army.  He was hoping I was going to conplete it in time for this years AdeptiCon (at the end of March).  Well it's all completed minus the decals.  I realized last weekend that I did not have any of my decals with me, so I had to do a quick order for some.  They should be arriving today.  The plan is to get them on tonight, let them cure for a day, then I'll dullcote the tank and snap some pics.

Saturday saw me do a little paint room house cleaning and some prep work on some models.  First was the house cleaning.  When I was in Arizona a few weeks ago, I brought back all my P3 paints with me, but I was not able to bring with me the nice paint rack I had purchased for them last year.  So I had ordered a new MDF one from Gamecraft Miniatures (like the one I use for my Valejo paints) and some 5" risers I saw on website to raise my Valejo rack.  I was able to get the new racks assembled/glued and all my paint organized.

 

 

While I was waiting for the glue to dry on the paint racks, I decided it was time to assemble my Guild Ball Engineer's starter set.  I have an intro game lined up for this Wednesday night so I was hoping to get all my models assemble, but only was able to complete the three.

 

Then on Saturday night, the last item on my agenda was to prep my third Infantry Section for my British Army.  I was able to get the sand applied to the bases and primer my models.  When time allows this week I will start working on them.

 

Sunday morning saw me organizing my Guild Ball tokens and dice in a new tray in preparation for Wednesday night, then a little relaxing before I headed out to Kalamazoo to meet some new players for a game of Warmachine/Hordes.  I do not have any gaming stores super close to me, but I am in the middle of 3 stores that are all about 40 miles from me.  I have Heroes and Havens to the West in Michigan City, IN (where I play Bolt Action), Fantasy Games to the South in South Bend, IN (large WM/H crowd, and some Guild Ball players), and to the East is Odyssey Games in Kalamazoo, MI.   Odyssey Games is mainly a 'Magic The Gathering' store, but they have 4'x4' tabletops to be placed on the card tables for miniature gaming.  Their selection of miniatures is weak (unless you like X-Wing)(Fantasy Games has the best selection of miniatures, probably one of the best selections I have ever seen in any gaming store).

 

In the afternoon I headed out to Odyssey Games to meetup with two players I met in a local Facebook Group.  Since it seems like I only play WM/H like once every six months, I am always having to re-learn what my models do.  So to keep it a bit fast, we elected to play just a 50 point game.  I brought back my Minions with me from Arizona and I was going up against Thomas who was playing Cryx.  I also wanted to play with the death clock so I can work on the speed of my play (though we were not using it to 'end' the game'.  At 50 points the clock was set to 42 minutes per player.  I thought I was actually playing pretty fast, but the clock still expired on me (seems to happen every time I play with the clock).  I was also losing on Control Points when the clock expired 4-0.  We played the game to the end and I lost 5-0.  I made some mistakes and I am still learning my Minions (and Hordes in general).  I was to wrapped up in my game that I forgot to take any pictures.  I did get a picture afterwards of Thomas (Cryx) playing TJ (Trollbloods) while I watched to see how those two played.  The Tablewar gaming mat and Broken Egg terrain in the picture I had brought with me.

 

Well that was the weekend roundup.  I am hoping to get another game of WM/H in this week along with my Guild Ball intro game.  I think next weekend I will stay in to complete some models.

Bolt Action: Great Britain 'Infantry Section 2'

This week I continued working on my Brtish Army.  For now I will have 4 Units of Infantry Sections, with one of them being completed last week and now the second one being completed last night.

Like I mentioned with the first Infantry Section  I modeled these Units with 11 men (max for a Unit is 10).  I wanted to have an extra SMG weapon in case I use them as Late War Veterans.

 

After I finished with these guys, I decided I wanted to find out how many points I have completed for the British.  With just using a Morale as 'Regular', I have 985 points completed.  This is spread across 2 Platoons at the moment (since a lot of Units are classfied as 0-1).  I think once I get around to completing all the vehicles I have for this Army, I am guessing it may be over 3000 points of British.

 Great Britain: Infantry Section 02

 Great Britain: Infantry Section 02

Painting Points: 11

Hordes: Minions Lanyssa Ryssyl (Solo)

Since the release of MKIII, more and more Minion players are playing with the Solo 'Lanyss Ryssyl'.  I am not always up to date with the latest 'metas' of the game, but I believe it has to do with her 'Hunter's Mark', allowing friendly models to Charge or make Slam Power Attacks without being Forced or spending Focus on the target she 'marked', plus they also gain +2" Movement.

When I visited my son a few weeks for the LVO, I was able to bring back with me my Minion army.  While we were gathering my models to take back with me, he mention that he had a Lanyssa model that he was not using or had any plans to use.  So instead of spending more money, I asked if I could have her.

Today was suppose to be reserved to finish my sons 76mm Sherman for his US Army, but I am waiting on some decals.  So instead of having some down time, I decided to paint up Lanyssa.  (I have noticed with this can of dull coat, it seems to make my models a bit more dull than usual, oh well).

Lanyssa Ryssyl, Nyss Sorceress

 

 Lanyssa Ryssyl, Nyss Sorceress

Painting Points: 1

Bolt Action: Great Britain 'Lieutenant 1 & 2'

After I finished painting up my Blackhide Wrastler model for Hordes the other night, I had a little time to spare before the weekend arrived when I will start to work on my son's US 76mm Sherman Tank.

I did not want to get deep involved in a full 11 man Infantry Section for my British, so I thought I'd get to the Lieutenant Teams I have.  I already painted an Officer Team last month for my British Army, but that was the metal Command models and they were not armed the way I would like my Team to be.  Since I had some extra men from my Warlord sprues, I put together two Lt. Teams armed with SMG's.  I decided to build two Teams in case I decide to run two platoons in the future.  More and more events are now allowing 1 or 2 Platoons in the Tournaments.

Basically these two Teams were painted like twins.  I did 'mark' them with the static grass I used.  1 stripe for Team 1 and 2 stripes for Team 2.

 

Lieutenant Team 1 

 Lieutenant Team 2

 Lieutenant Teams 1 & 2

Painting Points: 4

Hordes: Minions Blackhide Wrastler 2 (Warbeast)

Back in late 2015 I painted the original sculpt for Blackhide Wraster.  This past Summer they re-sculpted the model with the options of either assembling Blindwalker or Blackhide Wrastler.  When my oldest son originally purchased the model for me on Father's Day, I elected to assemble that model as Blindwalker (since I already had an older Blackhide Wrastler).  I am usually not the one who likes to lay with two different sculpts of the same model, but my thinking has recently changed.  Now I honestly think it is kind of cool to see both sculpts on the battlefield, and you can easily identify which is which.

Since the release of MK3, a lot of the Minion players have been playing with a double Wrastler list and since this is the army I brought back with me last weekend from Arizona to Michigan, I thought it was time to add another Blackhide Wrastler to my army.  I picked this guy up (along with some other models ) at a local game store in South Bend, IN this past Friday night and got him assembled on Sunday (while I was wrapping up my British Infantry). Monday night he saw the painting table and I was able to finish him up last night.

I wanted to get him painted just to give me a change from painting Bolt Action.  I have A LOT of Bolt Action to paint this year, and it is a nice change to throw in a Warmachine or Hordes model every now and then (and I really do love Privateer Press Hordes models).  Even though I do not get to play much WM/H games, the models are a joy to paint.

Blackhide Wrastler 

Blackhide Wrastler 

Blackhide Wrastler 

Blackhide Wrastler 

Painting Points: 5

Bolt Action: Great Britain 'Infantry Section 1'

I finally got some models completed this month after having last weekend off attending the Las Vegas Open. Just before leaving to the LVO, my additional sprues from Warlord Games finally arrived so I could finish modeling my Infantry Sections.

Each Infantry Section can consist between 5-10 men, I decided to model my Sections with 11 men (an extra man carring an SMG so I could also use them as Late War Veteran Infantry Sections.

These 11 men are kitted as follows: NCO (SMG), 2x SMG, 1x LMG, 1x LMG Loader, 6x Rifles.

My remaining 3 Infantry Sections are also kiited the same. The plan is to get them completed later this month or maybe even in March.

The plan this week is to work on a Hordes Minion 'Wrastler' model, then next Saturday I am going to start on my sons US 76mm Sherman by Trenchworx that he picked up last weekend at the LVO. Then next Sunday is our local Bolt Action gaming day. So I do not think I'll be seeing any more British Infantry this week on the painting table. We shall see what is in store for next week.

Great Britain: Infantry Section 01

Great Britain: Infantry Section 01

Painting Points: 11

Guild Ball: Getting Started With Engineer's

As I mentioned the other day in my recap of the Las Vegas Open, I decided to get into the game of Guild Ball. I was looking for a "beer & pretzel" third game for me. Bolt Action is my favorite game to play for the ease of the rules and the history of WW2. Warmachine/Hordes, well I have a lot of models for this game, and honestly I do love the sculpts from Privateer Press, especially with the Hordes models (though I prefer the gameplay of Warmachine). Plus with WM/H, there seems to be more gaming in my area for this game. So Guild Ball will be used to fill in any time in between. This past summer there seemed to be a pretty decent local group that played the game, I am just hoping that the game is still going. Otherwise the state itself has a good Guild Ball turnout.

My original plan was to start playing with the Brewer's Guild (why not, it's a beer & pretzel game for me) and I liked the way models look for this Guild. But after speaking with the Steamforged Games folks at the LVO about the styles of gameplay for each Guild, I wanted a Guild that can score a little bit more. The Brewer's Guild is know to bash the other team.

I decided to go with the Engineer's Guild. They are a pretty versatile Guild and has plenty of potential to score a lot of goals.

Here is a list of models that the folks at Steamforged booth recommended for to get started with.

Engineer's Guild Starter Set:
Captain: Ballista
Winger: Salvo
Striker: Velocity

Additional Models:
Captain: Pin Vice
Mascot: Mainspring
Central Midfielder: Colossus
Attacking Midfielder: Hoist
Defensive Midfielder: Ratchet

Guild Ball Engineers

They recommended the second Captain Pin Vice who is a bit more aggresive so I can use her against matchups that are high scoring like the Fisherman's Guild.

While I was the LVO I did watch plenty of games, took part in a very short demo game, and also spoke to some of the players. Two of the player's I spoke with are actually also here from Michigan (although from the other side of the state), but one of them also plays the Engineer's Guild with the models that I had purchased. So he gave me plenty of insight on the playstyle of my new Guild.

Now the question that remains is, when will these models hit the painting table (besides for the photo op above). I have PLENTY of Bolt Action models that need to be completed. Just before I left for the LVO, my sprues arrived for my British Infantry, so I need to start painting those this weekend. I would like to also add another Wrastler to my Hordes Minion army, and I have a lot of Airborne (both British and American to paint for AdeptiCon 2018.). I will probably start painting these guys in between painting my Bolt Action (when I get tired of painting a lot of browns on my Infantry) I'll throw one or two of these guys on the table.

Daily Chronicle: LVO 2017 Recap

 Well The Las Vegas Open (2017) is now officially over. Although I did not partake in any 'official' event, I still had a pretty decent time. I was actually doing really good with the vendors hall too, until later in the day on Friday (more on that below). This will be just a brief daily recap and then some photo dumps.

Thursday February 2nd, 2017

Thusday was juat a travel day for us and early badge pick up for LVO. We arrived in Las Vegas around 3:00 PM local time and went straight to our timeshare for check-in. Once we checked in, we frshened up a bit and then headed over to Bally's Hotel (where LVO wa taking place) for early badge pick up and then off to dinner.

One thing to note is that this year the LVO doubled in space. Last year at Bally's, LVO just had their Events Center. For 2017, they had their Events Center along with their Grand Ballroom. Warhammer 40K and Age of Sigmar were taking place in the Events Center, and the rest of the gaming and vendors were in the Grand Ballroom.

All packed for the trip.

Events Center and early badge pickup.

Grand Ballroom setup.

Grand Ballroom setup.

Ballys Host Hotel

Ballys Host Hotel

Friday February 3rd, 2017

Friday was going to be an open day for my son and I, get some shopping done and play a small game of Bolt Action so he can get re acclimated with the rules and Version 2 rules.

Along with checking out some of the smaller vendor areas and chatting with our friends at Broken Egg Games, we had to visit the Privateer Press area. They are known to sell their pre-release items at events like this. LVO was no exception. PP was selling the upcoming Command books for Circle and Cygnar (Cygnar is not releasing till March). My son passed on the Command books, but he did pick up a new Warbeast for his Circle army, "Loki". I just picked up a Circle coffe mig for my son and a Minions one for myself.

When we came across the Trenchworkx vendor (WW2 tanks), they had 3 of their new Wirbelwind German Tanks on hand. I just had to grab one of these to eventually paint for my Germans, it just looks too cool to pass up. My son who always wanted a 76mm Sherman for his US Army, was able to grab one of these.

Trenchworx German Wirbelwind

I thought shopping was going pretty good for us........(before I arrived at the LVO, I had the plan that I wanted to try the Guild Ball demo), well my son and I took the brief 15 minute demo of the game, and I thought that this is a game I'd like to try out. There is a local store in South Bend that occasionally plays Guild Ball, along with some other stores a bit farther away. I originally thought I'd be buying into the Brewer's Guild, but I like to score, so the Steamforged Games crew set me up with models form the Engineer's Guild that are scorers (plus I also liked the models for the Engineer's). My son ended up picking out the newer Hunter's Guild (since the theme and colors are close to his Circle army and he is familiar with painting those). So $300 later we had 2 new armies and a Classic Pitch. Then of course I had to head back over to Broken Egg Games for some of their Guild Sticks, and Muse on Minis for their official Guild Tokens. Guild Ball really started to add up.

Once we got our shopping done, my son and I finally got in a 750 point game of Bolt Action. I did not bring an army with me from Michigan, so we just used my son's US Army and split it fairly into 2. We ended up playing the Scenario 'No Mans Land' and my dice once again were not with me and he wiped me out 7-1.

After we got our game in we headed out to dinner. We decided to go to the same restaurant we ate at last year on Friday, Hofbrauhaus Las Vegas (they have one of the best dishes I have ever eater). Now that my son is also 21, he joined in on a German Beer.

Bolt Action: US vs US

Bolt Action: US vs US

Hofbrauhaus

Hofbrauhaus

Hofbrauhaus

Saturday February 4th, 2017

Today I was on stand by for the Bolt Action Tournament as a Ringer. One of my friends from Chicago (Jeremy) was running the event and I offered my services for the day as a Ringer if needed. He had 22 players register for the tournament but only 21 had checked in just prior to the evnt starting, so I ran out to my car to grab my son's US Army, but at the eleventh hour, the 22nd player had checked in. So Saturday was just going to be a relaxing day for me. I obviously checked out all the Bolt Action armies that were playing, but I also spent a good amount of time watching the Guild Ball tournament and asking some question when I could. I met 2 players from Michigan that were really helpful in answering a few questions (hopefully I will run across them again when I get back home). My son was registered in the Warmachine/Hordes Masters Tournament, so he was going to be busy with 4 rounds of WM/H's gaming. His final round of the day he got to play on one of the three very detailed tables that they had. I think it is because my son and his opponet each had nicely fully painted armies (this years Masters tournament seemed to have a lot less painted armies. I know it is not required for Masters, but if you are going to playing in a large tournament in Las Vegas, I would think you'd like to play with a painted army). Once he was done with his final game, we did a nice long walk over to the Luxor buffet for dinner.

Jeremy, the Bolt Action TO

Bolt Action Tournament

Bolt Action Tournament

Bolt Action Tournament

My sons Circle Army

Bolt Action Table

Bolt Action Table

Warmachine Hordes Tournament

Guild Ball Tournament

Guild Ball Tournament

My son Round 4 on a custom table

My son Round 4 on a custom table

Sunday February 5th, 2017

The original plan for Sunday was to get two games of Warmachine/Hordes in so my son can re-teach me the game and I can freshen up on the rulees. But since he had so much fun playing Bolt Action on Friday, we decided to get quick game of Bolt Action before we moved onto WM/H. I knew that would take longer so we started with Bolt Action and gave ourselves a 2 hour time limit.

We rolled for a Scenario and it came up 'Double Envelopment'. With this scenario, you score 1 VP for killing an enemy unit, 2 VP's for each unit you have in the enemies deployment zone at the end of the game, and 3 VP's for each of your units you ran off your enemies table edge. For my third straight game of Bolt Action, the dice were not with me. My so and I swapped lists from Friday (so I was playing the list he beat with me). Well I got another spanking with my son winning 10-0. For the three games of Bolt Action I played this year, it has not been good.....FUN, but not good for wins.

After our game of Bolt Action we grabbed a quick bite to eat for lunch (stayed in the gaming are, lunch meals are $15, but this year the LVO sold meal tickets for $10). Not cheap, but it was easy to do and we did not have to pack our armies.

Once we finished eating, we got our game ready for some Hordes vs Warmachine. I was going to play my Hordes Minion Army, and my son was playing his Warmachine Cygnar Army. We elected not to play with a chess clock since I was re-learning the rules and what exactly my army can do. Guess we should have used a clock becasue 4 hours later we still were not done. I was technically winning 1-0, but since it was going on for a long time and a lot of battling back and forth, I called it a Draw. I really need more practice with my army and what they can do. There is a League starting up next week close to home that I am planning to play in. I know I'll probably lose every game, but as long as I get some practice out of it, I'll be happy.

We wraped up our stuff and we said Good Bye to LVO 2017. We headed out to strip to Giordana's Pizza (Chicag style deep dish pizza), my son was craving it. We were able to order our pizza, a pitcher of beer and catch the second half of Super Bowl 51 (unbelievable come back for Tom Brady).

Will we come back next year for LVO 2018? As of right now, it is highly unlikely. Not that we did not have a good time, but we have a lot plans for AdeptiCon 2018 (which is then month after). But we'll know for sure next year.

Bolt Action Gaming

My last unit and FUBAR

Minions vs Cygnar

Giordanos

Giordanos