Painting Lord of the Rings. (Wood Elf warriors)

I am almost done with my painting of Lord of the Rings/Hobbit stuff. Here are some pictures of my Wood Elf Warriors. I bought them in a bag of left overs from FDB. Not expensive at all.

Spears

Archers

Swords

Painted: 19
Total for 2017: 384
Working on:  Hunter Orcs, Fimbul, and Jovian wars space ships

Flames of War Firestorm BAGRATION Turn 4

Ok so the next club night we will be playing the final turn of the BAGRATION campaign.

Now Mike mentioned that I have not been doing the results of battles correctly. After re-reading the rules I have to admit that Mike was correct. In this version of Firestorm the location of the battle is decided by the winner of the initiative, but both who is attacker and what territory is lost or won is based on the normal rules of FOW and the outcome of the battle. So for turn 4 we will be doing this.

So to select your game decide if you want to be the attacker or defender in secret, just like a normal game. The winner take the territory of the loser.

So with this in mind I had to look at what happened during turn 1 and 2. Luckily in turn 1 all the attackers won their games, so there were no changes. Turn 2 the Soviets won all their games so the map changes a little.

Turn 3 was advantage to the Germans as they won 4 of six games. The following maps shop the start state for turn 4.

As can be seen the Germans have manage to push of the Soviets from Mogilev.

So the next thing to do was the rolls for battles.

Battles 1 and 2 went to the Soviets, followed by German, Soviet, Soviet, and finally Germans.

So the Soviets get 4 battles and the Germans 2. Do not forget that if the Soviets lose the battle they lose their territory, so the campaign can go anyway. Right now the Germans have 110 victory points.

These are the battles.

Please let me know if you can make it. I will try to assign games so that you do not play the same player.

Serge

Painting Lord of the Rings. (Palace Guards)

So it seems that I have been on a Lord of the Rings painting spree. FDB were selling so left overs so I picked up a bag of Palace Guards and Wood Elf Warriors. I tackled the Palace Guards first. The picture I was trying to match comes from Games Workshop.

My bag only came with 6 of the ten models. My next step was to see if anyone had advice on painting these miniatures. I found the following website.

palace-guard-painting-guide

This was a 37 step painting guide that I mostly used.

This was the results.

Some closeups

Again I mostly used Vallejo paints even though the guide uses a mixture of many types.

Painted: 6
Total for 2017: 365
Working on:  Wood Elves, Hunter Orcs, Fimbul, and Heavy gear space ships

Flames of War Firestorm BAGRATION Turn 3 Battle report

Well it was another exiting Club say. During the first two turns the Soviets had won 9 battles and the Germans just 2, so it was important to make a better showing. Hitler must have given one if his sterling talks as the Germans fared much better. Out of the six battles fought the Germans one 4 and the Soviets 2.

This is the coloured map after three turns. The Germans managed to recapture 2 areas, but the Soviets captured another city.

As can be seen the Germans are no longer out of supply. The victory point are 110 in the favour of the Germans, so still an operational victory for the Germans.

The Russians must absolutely capture more cities.

Here are the results.

Battle 1 was John (Soviet) versus Jeff (German). It was suppose to be a city attack. Not sure how the terrain was decided. The Germans had a 20% reduction in force with Engr and STUG as Firestorm and the Soviets had IS-02 and air support. The mission rolled was a Free for all. This was a German victory. No indications of the level of victory, but the game only lasted 30 minutes so probably a 8-1 victory. Here is the map.

Battle 2 was me Serge (Soviet) versus Chris (German). We both brought Infantry forces with tanks and arty in support. The Soviets had a SU-75 and air support as firestorm and the Germans had Engr and a Train. The mission rolled for was No Retreat. The terrain was city, so I actually took buildings.

This was the start state.

The red dice is my spearhead move from my recce. This allowed my troops to be placed 8 inches from the recce team. The two objectives are indicated by the round circles.

Here is my battle plan. My small platoon of 15 teams was going toward the centre to take out some Guns and my larger platoon of 22 teams was moving for the far objectives. My Guns and Arty were mainly to try and take out guns and to do some attrition. My ISU 122 would be doing a slow left attack on the front left objective

The following pictures shows turn 1 complete. I have taken out his reconnaissance vehicles and moved up my infantry. The German rocket launchers open up on the Infantry and kill a couple of stands. The remaining Germans stay gone to ground making them hard to hit.

The second turn sees my left Infantry platoon taking out the Guns and my Right platoon taking out the German infantry in the building. Again the Germans counter attack with rocket launchers and start firing back with Infantry weapons, but all my infantry is in the ruins so with bullet proof cover not very many infantry are killed. The German 8.8 decides to shoot down a plan instead of being used in defensive fire or shooting.

Turn three I finish off the German platoon on the right and take the objective. I also manage to capture the two 8.8 guns as my consolidation moves within 2 inches of them.

Just off the map on the right I have been doing a right flanking with my SU-76 firestorm. The past their blitz move and opened up on the only Enemy close to the objective. With my troops holding the objective the game is over.

The game lasted 4 turns. The Germans had a lot of difficulty killing these large infantry platoons.
Both the German firestorm troops are captured and they have no where to retreat. The outcome was a Soviet stunning victory of 8-1.


Battle 3 saw Mike (Germans) attack Jay (Soviet). The Germans had a Panther and half-track as firestorm troops and the Soviets had a T34/85. Mike mentioned that the game was closer then the result indicated. This battle was fought in plains. The outcome was a German stunning victory 8-1. The Soviet firestorm T34/85 was destroyed.

Here are some pictures

Battle 4 was Martin (German) attacking Duncan M (Soviet). The Germans had a Tiger as firestorm and the Soviets had a T34/85 and Air Support. The terrain was hills. The outcome was a Soviet stunning victory 8-1. Here are a couple of pictures.

Battle 5 was Nick (Germans) with a 20% reduced force attacking Duncan A (Soviets). The Germans had a Tiger and half-track as firestorm and the Soviets had a T34/76. The terrain was plains and was really well done. The outcome was a German 7 - 2 victory. The mission was Rear Guard. Wonder why I give those sheets out. It is worth to mention that Nick won this battle with a reduced force on the attack. Not a small feat. No firestorm troops got destroyed. Here are a couple of pictures.

Battle 6 saw Stan (Soviets) attacking Bernhard (Germans) This was a city attack and it was a Rearguard mission. The terrain was a city and very well done. The German troops in the city were out of supply, but as luck had it there was no effect. The Soviets attacked with a Penal Company with SMG and IS 2 support. The Penal company was reinforced with a unit of SU 76.  The armor was on the left flank and the infantry spread out to the right, 3 massive companies. To defend, the Germans called on Otto Carius and his Kampfgruppe reinforced with a unit of Pioneers and Gepanzerete PzGrenadiers.  The Germans deployed awaiting the soviet attack , Carius on the left flank to counter the IS 2 and SU 76.

First turn, Soviets advanced and the soviets fire on Carius ( miss ) and a German squad in a building (hit and kill). Germans retaliate in their turn killing 1 IS 2 and bailing the other, the crew failed to remount and then decided to return to soviet rear areas.  The soviets advanced again, and Germans withdrew a unit, the SU 76s losing 2 of their number on this turn, the next turn, they lose 2 more and then the unit decided to leave the battle. On the right flank, the Germans were assaulted by hordes of Soviets, beating back the assaults without losing any units (dug in difficult to kill).  The Soviets after 2 turns of trying to assault succeed and kill a few German units but again, the Germans counter attack and push the soviets back (thanks to Windgruber, Assault units hit on a 2+).   As Otto Carius advancedd, he starts to fire on the Soviets pinned in the streets and the eventual fire from all sides causes the Soviets to finally concede. 

The Germans lost only 1 unit ( 6 stands killed out of 8 ) and 2 other stands (killed by HMG fire and IS 2 fire) while the soviets lost the majority to defensive fire.  Stan didn't have luck with saves, which did cause a large number of casualties but killing any troops in buildings is very difficult (Bernhard didn't fire at some times to get the gone to ground bonus, meaning Veterans are hit on a 6 and need a firepower roll of 6 to kill (this was/is very difficult)

In the firestorm roll, the IS 2 was lost and the Germans held the City. Total turns played was 5. 

Here are a couple of pictures.

So after 6 battles these are the locations of the Firestorm troops. There were no possible exploitation moves. An exploitation move happens after an attacking player is victorious and can move in an adjacent enemy area that is not occupied by firestorms. This was not the case.

Was is left to do as set up for Turn 4 is the strategic deployments. I will have a talk with the German General to see what he is planning.

Thanks for everyone that participated today.

Serge

Painting Flames of War Grant Platoon

I have been building my Mid-War forces so decided to add a Grant Platoon.

First time I have tried some aging. Used a foam piece with grey paint. Took most of the paint off then applied little amounts to high traffic areas to look like paint chips.

This is a close up to see the paint chips.

Painted: 5
Total for 2017: 359
Working on:  Heavy gear space ships, Palace Guards, Wood Elves, Hunter Orcs, and Fimbul.

Painting Lord of the Rings. (Cave Troll)

I tried to paint the Cave troll. I kind of add lib so it probably does not look like a Cave troll.

Basically a lot of highlighting a layering. I had to mix pink with brown for the light skin and I used Grey Green for the dark skin.

Painted: 1
Total for 2017: 354
Working on:  Grants tanks, Heavy gear space ships, Elves, Evil men, Hunter Orcs, and Fimbul.

Painting Lord of the Rings. (Giant Eagles)

Last week we went to FDB located in Gatineau, Quebec. In my opinion they have great prices. Usually the US dollar equivalent in Cdn dollars.

FDB

Anyway, they had a table of left over stuff for LOTR and some other LOTR stuff, so I ended up buying some Great Eagles. I will eventually need to buy the Beorn model and one more set of Eagles for my Radagast's Alliance war band.

Again there is a great 20 step tutorial on how to paint the Giant Eagles.

Tale of Painters

I find his tutorials extremely detail and very helpful for a beginner painter as he explains how to do pretty well everything.

Again I used a mix of Vallejo and Citadel.

Here are the eagles

This is Radagast's Alliance so far.

Painted: 2
Total for 2017: 353
Working on:  Cave troll, Grants tanks, Heavy gear space ships, Elves, Evil men, Hunter Orcs, and Fimbul.

Painting Lord of the Rings. (Goblins from Moria)

So as you know Mike and I have been on a Lord of the Rings painting spree. I have mostly painted goblins and Thorin's Company as this came in a box set.

Mike gave me some goblins from Moria to paint. Can't really beat that price, so I decided to keep on painting some Goblins. The goblins from Moria are very different than the Goblins in the Mountain, so I checked a couple of You-tubes and settled for this one.

Painting Goblins from Moria

I like to follow step by step approaches. Not much of a paint from a picture and guess the paints.

The biggest problem with painting Lord of the Rings is that all the how to files use Citadel paints. Kind of makes sense as Games Workshop sells these miniatures.

Anyway, I usually use a colour conversion chart in order to match the paints. If I can not get a match I just look up the citadel paint colour and mix my vallejo model color to as close as I can.

The paint I used for the Goblins are

Skin = Middlestone Vallejo 882
Armour = Dark Gunmetal from my Team Yankee collection. If you do not have then mix Gun metal Vallejo 862 with some black.
The undergarments are painted with Flat Red, Vallejo 957.

Once you have the model painted I used the Nuln Oil shade. This is basically a black shade. You paint the entire model with this shade. Kind of gives a dirty look.

The last step is to highlight. You highlight the highest point of each colour. The cheap way to highlight is to add white to the colours above.

Here is what it looks like

Again I just followed the You-tube link above. Not really hard.

Painted: 23
Total for 2017: 351
Working on:  Eagles, Cave troll, Grants tanks, Heavy gear space ships, Elves, Evil men, Hunter Orcs, and Fimbul.

Flames of War Firestorm BAGRATION Turn 3

Our next campaign turn is on 3 December. After turn 2 the victory points are 140 in favour of the Germans, So the Soviets need to start taking cities.

I am hoping to have at least 7 battles.

Here is the start state map.

As you can see the Germans have three towns that are surrounded. This could be bad or good depending on the die roll.

So the following map is the locations of the Units after exploitation and strategic moves.

The German commander needed to get some lucky dice rolls to ensure that they had more attacks then last turn. The first two attacks were won by the Soviets, followed by the next three for the Germans and the six and seventh Soviet and German respectively. So three attacks for the Soviets and 4 for the Germans.

This is where the attacks are located.

So I will need to know who is playing to set up the battles.