Rush for Berlin 13: Further reinforcements arrived

Ok, it's been quite silent round here for longer than I had anticipated.
I was renovating my hobby room and this proofed more of a challenge than I had expected. Especially as missus Moiterei had the brilliant idea to do the sleeping room as well when we're at work already.
But I'm proud to announce this task is done and I'm up for many new and old projects.

First of Chris from Bunker Hill Blog asked me if I had some cattle for our next games of Dux Britanniarum.
As he's always putting that much effort in preparing the table for our games I was happy to answer the call and paint up some cattle from the 1:48 Farm animals set by Pegasus Hobbies.

Fall of the western Empire 15: Flavius Pulcher & Turpiculus Ater

After Chris and I still are continuing our "Dux Britanniarum" Campaign we had another game last week.
(Pics will follow shortly...I hope^^)
To anticipate some events a bit, during the battle I lost my two nobles and the champion. The champion was in fact killed during the pre-game phase as Christophers champion 'Wolfhead' challenged 'Gildas' and as a result of a fierce fight he killed him... well, 'Gildas' didn't even deal a scratch to 'Wolfhead' but he was courageous till the end.

During the following battle my first noble 'Eckfrith ap Ynys' called the Bastard and his compagnion 'Eliffer' also known as 'Dungbreath' were killed also. This left my leader facing the saxon onslaught on his own and so he decided to leave the field of dishonour to fight amother day.

This result left me with a tough decision. Wether to play on with my 'killed' nobles or follow the spirit of a campaign and recruit (read paint) new ones.
As I grew somewhat acusomized to 'Dungbreath' I decided to let him life. I think he pretended beeing killed during some hand to hand combat and crushed down between the actually killed. Later the night he shambled into the british camp telling a crude story of a severe blow to the head (a minor scratch was visible at his forehead) and how he escaped the looting saxons. So he was promoted to first noble.

Now what happened to the 'Gildas' the champion and 'Eliffer' you may ask? Well, I'm pretty sure Christophers champion 'Wolfhead' knows his job so 'Gildas' remnants were gathered after the battle and burned to enable his soul to join his ancestors. Despite nothing of 'Eliffer' was ever found he is to be believed beeing killed just as he saved 'Theodosius's' (My Leader) life. It's perfectly possible that the saxons, despite beeing a bunch of dirty dogs, acknowledged his bravery and (after having stripped his corpse from everything valuable) burried him.

So I urgently needed a new champion and a new second noble. And here they are!

May I introduce to you Flavius Pulcher (Second Noble) and Turpiculus Ater (Champion):

Flavius Pulcher (left) & Turpiculus Ater (right)

Rush for Berlin 12: Heavy machine gun, Forward Observer & Footsloggers

This week I've been quite productive, finishing almost 2 miniatures a day. I'm still working on my Late War German Luftwaffenfelddivision but the end is within reach. After having finished this batch there are just 8 figures still to do.
 At least when I stick to Bolt Action, as after having bought the "Chain of Command" by TooFatLardies this week, I realised there are too many automatic weapons in my Platoon. So if I want to expand to CoC I'll have to paint up another batch of 12 Riflemen... though these are things I give a thought sometime in the future.

Ok... and there's still a Puma, an Opel Blitz, a SdKfz. 251and a Kübelwagen to do.

First again the whole bunch I finished:

Rush for Berlin 11: Assault rifles & Panzerfäuste

This week I'm a bit proud on myself as I finally managed to get my ass back on the painting table.
As a result I got some new men for my Bolt Action late war Germans ready for battle.

Rush for Berlin 10: New riflemen & a bit of conversion

I'm not painting that much at the moment but I'm not totally lazy. I spent the last view days converting some of the German Infantry by Artizan Designs. As I don't really like the tiny weapons they have modeled on, I had to replace them, using the new metal StG44's and spare weapons from the german plastic weapon sprues by Warlord Games.

Rush for Berlin 9: Ferdinand & friends

Last day of july and I actually managed to finish some stuff. As the heat finally ebbed away, or at least for now, I felt able to get some painting done.

At some point this year I want to try out the 'Bolt Action' ruleset from Warlord Games and therefore I need some more Germans and definitely some more armour.

Dux Britanniarum Campaign: II & III Game

 

 For more than two weeks I didn't even see my painting table. It was simply to hot to even take up the brush and my profession as an "Airconditioning & Refrigeration" craftsman led to me running round in circles at work. But after Chris writing up a short report about our last games of 'Dux Britanniarum' over on his Blog, I had to get my arse up too. As I can't remember the details correctly I'd recommend to you to check back on his Blog for further details.

Theodosius could almost hear the chatter behind his bag. "The simple" they called him nowadays when they thought he was out of earshot. 'Was it my fault that these drunken bastards didn't get up in time to catch the saxons before they could raid the church of Sheepsend?", he mused.

It was time to knock some heads together, Theodosius decided and went of to get his soldiers back on proper duty. 

"Maybe I should start with Ellifer the old crock...", Theodosius wondered quietly "...the boys don't call him Dungbreath for nothing."

Two weeks later Eliffer stood on a hill and tried to shirm his eyes from the sun. Far in the east he believed to see the towers of his (at least for the moment) kings castle. With a awkward motion he rubbed his head and turned back to the men this son of a humiliore Theodosius has sent with him to scout the western parts of the kingdom for any signs of the saxons. "Of course we didn't see anything near to a saxon" he muttered and spat out. "This dickhead wanted to make an example of me, wanted to silence me because I told the truth about his failure at this church." Caught in his own thoughts he didn't realise the blinking of speartips and the scratching of shields against chainmail to the north. Just as it was almost to late Brutus, his second in command, let out a nervous shout...

Fabula de primo bello:

The first game was about the saxons had to catch a noble, on his way back from scouting, for ransom.

The lay of the land. Maybe you, dear rambler, now get a concept why to fight for this forgotten piece of earth.

Rush for Berlin 8: German PaK40

Cheers Gents,

It's been a while since I last dipped my brush into some paint, but as we all know real life can sometimes be quite tedious. None the less my PaK40 is finally finished... at least I thought so. Having bought the "Operation Squad: Reinforcements" Supplement via the Wargamevault yesterday it took some time till I realized that I need a fourth man for the crew. Same for my mortar... :-/ Means I have to get back to my painting table to paint up at least two figures to bring my heavy weapons up to paper-strength.

Anyway here the pics:

Dux Britanniarum Campaign: First Game

Last week, ok well it's been 9 days since, I had a very enjoyable game of 'Dux Britanniarum' at Axebreakers mansion. Chris himself has written some words about the game.
As he already did the job of explaining the idea behind the game (and I go pretty much along with him) you should really head over to his blog.


Cyrric the Flatulent king of a small province in the outermost southwest of Britannia called Noviomagus Regnorum felt the cold creeping into his old bones as he was starring into the chilly spring night. He knew they were out there. Somewhere in the dark these vain saxon dogs were about to raid his kingdom.
After a rainy summer followed by poor harvest before a hard winter he knew his little realm was in no way prepared to meet the saxon threat. Just as he was about to leave the walls of his little stronghold he saw the luminous glare of burning huts in the otherwise deep black sky.

'Get ready you bunch of lazy bastards!' Theodosius Magnus bellowed at a group of drowsy figures.
This was one of these moments he asked himself why the hell he was here in this god forsaken part of the world.
Born in Rome as bastard of a high ranking officer in the field legions and a young slavegirl, he was part of the last Legions in Britannia as the Emperor decided to withdraw his troops to the continent.

Just hours before he had to embark, Cyrric this drunken piece of sheepdung, now calling himself king of Noviomagus Regnorum, asked him to stay and become leader of his despicable bodyguard. If it wasn't for this little girl having made eyes at him he would have refused the offer.

Now he was in the mud of a true british spring, his girl already in the hands of some other bugger, leading some dirty skits of soldiers to fight a band of marauding saxons. He knew he was already late as he had seen the fires of burning huts in the distance. Now it was all about swiftness to catch these saxons before they were to recover into the safety of the lost lands...

We played the first scenario 'Raiding a church' where I had to prevent Chris's Saxons from plundering the church and take the monk as hostage. The fight would be over when the troops taking the monk with them leave the table.

The real battle began after some rounds of aggressive maneuvering. As Chris's saxons had a headstart of three full movements I had to be quick to get my troops on the board and ready for action. Unfortunately most of the time my troops were standing in the way of each other due to my ignorance of the movement and formation rules.

First troops in contact with enemy warriors were a single group of levies...

Rush for Berlin 7: German mortar

After having suffered under the heat for several days now, yesterday was the time to rock the brush again.
I finally finished the mortar team from Artizan Designs to fit my other stuff for 'Operation Squad'.