That shrinking feeling.

For most of my war gaming life I have played 15mm and 28mm table top gaming. But now I am venturing into 6mm or 1/300 scale war gaming. At the moment it is for WW2 but may venture into modern area as well at some point. I have also got some 6mm Napoleonic Prussian troops to do that myself and some mates are getting into.

I haven't played any 6mm games yet but when I do it will be using the V3 Flames of War rule set. I have an army planed out as fellow blogger and good friend Warren ''find his blog here'' have a game planed for when we both finish our armies. We are both going to use lists out of the Bridge at Remagen book and being 6mm size terrain and armies we will be using 2500pts lists.

Here is some pics of some of the figures so far.
From left to right the scales are - 6mm (1/300), 15mm (1/100), 28mm (1/56)
6mm - Heroics and Ros.
15mm - Battle Front.
28mm - Warlord games/Italeri and Rubicon.

US infantry

105mm artillery

Willy's Jeeps

M5A1 Stuart's

M20 utility

M3 Halftrack

M4 Sherman's

M26 Pershing's

Panzerschreck 2018 Bolt Action

After missing Panzerschreck last year due to Flames of war moving onto V4 rules which I haven't liked, Panzerschreck this year had Bolt action on offer. It was 1000pts single reinforced platoon armies I finally had a chance to use my Soviets for the first time but more importantly my T-35.

Just 5 days out from the event the organizer and his 2ic helping him pulled out dew to personal reasons and the event was to be scrubbed. Not having ever ran an event I decided to take on the running of the event. With two people now pulled out that left just 6 of us so this seemed like a good chance to see how running a tournament was. As the person running Flames of war side of the event had already organized the hall and other bits all I had to do was sort prizes for our small comp.

Some laser cut trophies had already been done for 1st, 2nd, 3rd, best painted and best sport. I would like to thank Scott Bowman who runs the Paraparaumu Beach pharmacy. He was kind enough to give some prize support for our little comp. So I gave him the honor of choosing the best painted army. I Also want to thank my brother Shane for the use of his 3D printer so I could make some bolt action blast templates with Panzerschreck 2018 on them.

As there was only 6 of us we played 5 games. Each player played each other once there was 3 games on Saturday and 2 on Sunday.

Game 1 - No mans land.
Game 2 - Key positions.
Game 3 - Meeting engagement.
Game 4 - Sectors.
Game 5 - Demolition.

There was a good mix of armies being used

Myself - Early war soviets - ( Hordes of SMG infantry and a T-35 )
Craig - US Airborne - ( With no armor but lots of AT )
Mark - Early war Finns - ( Sissi ski troops, Vickers 6 ton and BA10 )
Warren - Late war US - ( M26 Pershing and vet Paratroopers  )
Ken - Japanese - ( Lots of infantry)
Andrew - Winter Germans - ( Nasty nebelwerfer and Panther )

Games in progress.

Warren and Craig fighting over the V2 facility.

Warren and Andrews heavy armor clash.

Mark and Ken thinking over their next moves.

Warrens forces adopt a defensive posture.

My 45mm At gun is in a bit of trouble.

Hello say hello to my mass machine gun fire.

The Japanese ready to launch their banzai attack.

Try as he might the Bazookas eventually got the panther.

Airborne troops fight in the rail yard.

The Finns massed armor. ( If you can call it that ).

3inch At gun in over watch.

M26 Pershing looking for trouble.

The two horde armies face off Japs and Russians.

Finnish Artillery controlling the open ground.

Snipers take the high ground.

Charge!!!

Fire again !!!

Recon in force.

Everyone had a great weekend even though it was a small field of players. Everyone said they would be keen for next year and with a bit more time I should be able to get more people entered.

1st - Andrew
2nd - Mark
3rd - Warren
Best painted - Andrew
Best Sport - Ken

I look forward to running another event it was a fun and different experience and very satisfying to of pulled it together in short time. 

New American Equipment

With the rubbish weather some fresh US equipment has finally rolled off the production line today. I had started my M26 Pershing and my M20/M8 Greyhound a while back but only just got around to finishing them today.

The M26 Pershing. There is a friend with a Panther tank this this would like to meet.

M20 Greyhound with .50cal HMG

M8 Armored car with 37mm At gun and .50cal HMG

All my armor. M26 Pershing, M4 Sherman, M3 halftrack, M8 Scott/ M5 Stuart and M20/M8 Greyhound

Look forward to using these soon maybe in a practice game for Panzerschreck which is next month on the 14th and 15th of July.

Valleycon 2018 day 2

Day two kicked off at 930 am already very warm and with 2 games to play

Game 3 was vs Paul Goldstone he was using the army he ran last year a German reserves (old men on bicycles) army backed up by a Tiger 1. last year the tiger walked all over me this time I was determined for it to be different.

As order dice were drawn for deployment luckily I got the last dice so my Sherman could avoid the tiger and cause havoc on the left flank.

The rest of the army kept the Tiger 1 busy the half track was first to die. My AT gun put round after round into it doing no more then just pinning it.

My Vet squad of infantry WITHOUT any antitank equipment at all pass the tank terror test to assault. They scored 4 hits so I needed a 6 followed by a second 6 and for Paul to fail a morale check. Well we were both stunned by what had happened. Right before the assault my exact words were oh what the hell ill assault.

Although the tiger was dead Paul's mortar killed off my Vet infantry in revenge and there were still panzerfausts lurking around.

The game ended with Paul conceding as he had very little left and I had 3 of the 4 objectives secured.

As usual with Paul a good game was had very laid back and relaxed.

Game 4 was vs Reg Newell. I hadn't played him before its good to meet a new face at the table. He was running British infantry backed by a Churchill VII.

Most of our forces where at this side of the table.

The Churchill, mortar and forward artillery observer wait for a Juicy target to present itself.

My men advanced under fire from sniper, MG and mortar fire but pressed on.

On the left flank my sniper, hafltrack and vet infantry squad advanced vs one of Reg's vet infantry squads dispatching it very quickly. Then these 3 were able to move off the table for 9pts. 3pts for each squad moved off table.

Meanwhile my men hold their ground killing off his observer. And my Sherman finally managed to kill something.

The Churchill was dead even though I had an immobilized tank with a jammed turret I still got it.

The game ended on turn 6 with me winning with 13pts to Reg's 3pts. Getting squads off the table is defiantly worth it in this mission. Reg was good to play agents for a relaxed quite game no stress.

I was surprised to get best painted army something I had never accomplished at all before so was happy with that. I won an IS2 which will go well with my soon to be started soviets and a $10 mighty ape voucher.

I was also browsing all of Scott Bowman's fine wares of his Paraparaumu Beach Pharmacy Hobby corner which he had set up for the weekend at the hall. So got myself a M26 Pershing heavy tank for my Yanks so they have a bit more punch. I managed to sell quite a bit on the bring and buy table as well so a good weekend all round.

Valleycon 2018 Day one

Valleycon 2018 has come and gone for another year and once again was a great event. I was playing Bolt action this year using my US forces the points limit was 1000pts. Three of my four opponents were new to me this year 2 of which came down from Napier. Here is what I ran.

Game 1 was vs Ethan Phillips he was one of the two Napier boys he also has a blog make sure to visit www.facebook.com/anempirefallen . He was running Japanese I had never fought this nation before and boy was I in for a shock.

Two suicidal Jap AT bombs the Sherman and At gun made quick work of them.

His army didn't look that big but when you have to kill them to the last man they just keep coming.

This Squad was the first to die. Taking a lot of fire just wore them down.

I kept my half track and vet infantry squad in reserve but they didn't turn up till turn 4. By then he was right on top of them when they came on.

My M4 Sherman was the last man standing and survived the game no matter what Ethan threw at it.

Ethan was a great opponent and got a well deserved win 9pts to 6pts.


Game 2 was vs Chris Stewart he was the second guy from Napier he was running British with a AVRE Churchill heavy tank. So buildings were a no go zone with that around.

My Vet infantry and Sherman went up one flank and everything else stayed central.

My sniper and At gun meet resistance at the hedge.

On the right side my .50cal and .30cal do their best to hold back the infantry advancing through the bushes until help can arrive.

My flanking maneuver on the right had gone well. AT gun and squad of infantry dispatched with.

The next turn though my flank march came to a grinding halt. I fired first but missed Chris didn't make the same mistake.

With my last AT asset gone the Churchill had free reign on the table but luckily the game ended before too much was killed.

Second game second good opponent. Good win Chris 6pts to 4pts.

Even though I had lost my first two games I quite enjoyed playing them vs so new opponents. But it was time to get out of the heat in that hall not helped but one of the event organizers turning on the heating thinking the controls were for air conditioning. Oh well home for the evening.