Chain of Command

Played my first game of Chain of Command today. Finally got to use those G.I.s I painted a few months ago. Bit of a learning curve but a fun and interesting game. My Yanks vs. Chris’ Krauts. The pre-game positioning and movement to contact is very unique and cool. I like the way this game does deployment.

Started off with a couple squads in the woods there. Another squad is in the back out of the frame. This was a basic patrol clash. I had three rifle squads and a 60mm mortar. Chris had the same plus a halftrack.

These Germans here shot the hell out of me the first few phases, but  I gradually wore them down with mortar and rifle fire til they broke at the end of the game.

A lot of the game was a medium range shootout between these squads here in the woods and the Germans. The Jerries and their MG42s put out ungodly amounts of fire. This was really hammering my squads here until my Lieutenant showed up to bolster their morale and keep them shooting. Think of the scene in Band of Brothers where Winters and his men are at Carentan and have to hold off the German assault, and Winters was yelling at his men to keep firing. Like that.

This halftrack rolled up and started spraying my G.I.s with bullets.

 

My mortar team is in the ruins back there. It did good work, and I kept it focused on the central German squad. The rifle squad there made it into that house, exhorted on by Sgt. Savales.

The filthy Nazi commander shows up with his briefcase full of god knows what and keeps his men fighting. The mortars managed to knock him down wounded for a few phases.

 

I eventually got these guys into a full firing line and began trading shots with the Krauts in the roadhouse.

The halftrack passes the roadhouse. The other German MG squad I was tradinf fire with the whole game is in that building.

 

The guy in the knit cap there with the grease gun is Sgt. Telly Savales. He had to boot these grunts in the ass to get them going, and they got going!

Cinematic moment here. The bazooka team took three shots at the advancing halftrack, narrowly escaped a bunch of fire thrown at them, and then had to rummage around looking for more bazooka rounds. Finally knocked out the halftrack on their fourth shot!

 

The Jerries that were here finally had enough and bugged out!

It was good to finally get a game in of this. The historicals crew has been playing for a while and their games always look pretty good. It was the first WW2 minis game I’ve played at 28mm scale and I did enjoy it.

 

 

Steam Tanks Roll Out

More progress on the All Quiet on the Martian Front starter set. Got all the tanks done. I need three more MkII’s to make a company. Also finished my test stand of infantry. Now to get those done and then paint the Tripods!

1st Tank Off the Production Line!

Finished the first of my All Quiet on the Martian Front MkII steam tanks. A pretty simple color scheme – Vallejo Russian Green for the hull and Hull Red for the tracks. You can see what they look like ‘clean’ if you look at the models in the back there. The rest was achieved with drybrushing earth tones, dabbing on some Oily Steel and Rhinox Hide with a bit of sponge, and some Secret Weapon weathering powders. The coal hopper was simply dusted with Secret Weapon Exhaust Black. I wanted this tank to look like it had been fighting hard in the fields outside St. Louis somewhere and I think it does.

I’m pretty pleased with how this came out and I’m ready to go full steam ahead on the others.

After that, I’ll do the human infantry, and then the Martian Tripods.

Finished my Daemon army

This Soul Grinder was the last model I needed to do for me to consider my Daemons “done” for the time being. Moving on to new projects!

Stencil and airbrush

I’m working on my All Quiet on the Martian Front minis now. For the tanks I wanted to use playing card suits to denote the company number. I looked around and there are plenty of makers of 15mm decals, mostly for WW2 French armor. But, they all cost a few bucks plus shipping and blah blah blah. I considered free-handing them but I really wanted a uniform look. Then I remembered I have a package of artist airbrush frisket (thin stencil paper with an adhesive backing), a detail airbrush and a very sharp x-acto knife.

So I cut out some stencils, stuck them on my tanks and went to work with the airbrush. I’m quite pleased at how these came out.

I’m gaining more confidence with the airbrush all the time.

Driving on!

When Mars attacks!

Lately, I have become enamored of this game, All Quiet on the Martian Front. I’ve actually gone quite mad for the minis, although I haven’t played the game yet. I do have the hardcover rulebook and it really does look fun. It’s designed by Rick Priestly and Allessio Cavatore, contracted to Alien Dungeon, so it does have a solid design pedigree. The idea is that 10 years after the Martians from H.G. Wells’ War of the Worlds destroyed London, they have returned in force for a full-scale invasion of Earth.

Set in the period from 1906 – 1914, the creators have expanded greatly on the idea, positing that this time, the Martians landed in the remote areas of the world, built up their armies, and then attacked. They’ve conquered most of the planet, and humanity is now just holding on. In the U.S. the Martians have advanced to the Mississippi River, where the U.S. Army finally managed to hold them. Undergoing a massive emergency mobilization, the U.S. is devoting every resource to fighting the invasion. Tanks, infantry and artillery are the primary weapons used. Because of the great urgency of this desperate situation, tanks are powered by steam engines, a proven technology that is easy to implement and mass produce quickly. Internal combustion engines exist in this period, but are not yet advanced enough to drive these big tanks (and they are BIG), and are mostly used in trucks and lighter vehicles.

The British have dispatched the BEF to the U.S. to help, and due to their being the first nation to fight the Martians, they have reverse-engineered some of the Martian tech and put it into use. Thus, the British equipment is more advanced than everyone else.

Bwah! This game has got me fired up! I love the idea, and the aesthetic. There are a lot of cool things going on in the background of the setting – President Teddy Roosevelt leads the nation in its darkest hour, Major George Patton is a hero character you can use, Nikolai Tesla and Thomas Edison are building mobile lightning cannons, all kinds of stuff.

Where did this game come from? It was a Kickstarter that funded last year and has finally made it into distribution this year. I usually don’t bother with Kickstarters but this is one that I wish I had! There are so many cool things coming for this, particularly the huge Land Ironclads! They’re also apparently working on other human armies, including the French, German and Japanese (I can’t wait to see those!) and some more alien armies, including the Venusians (!), Selenites (Moon Men) and the Underdwellers (the Morlocks, of course!). I really dig this blend of alternate history and science fiction (by H.G. Wells no less)!

So, I got myself the starter set and I’m working on the models now. The kits are easy to assemble and they have a lot of character. I don’t know what it is about them that has me so involved. A friend suggested they have a sort of whimsical Hayao Miyazaki feel to them and maybe that’s it. I’ve assembled them all and got a basecoat down on the tanks. It won’t be long before I have this game on the table! I can’t wait!

This is the MkII Steamer Tank. The mainstay fighting vehicle of the U.S. Army.

 

And the next step up, the MkIII tank.

 

Doughboy infantry. The motorcyclists are called Rough Riders. They use tow cables to entangle the legs of the Martian tripods to bring them down! Awesome!

There are also heavy machinegun teams. These are the human forces you get in the starter set.

 

 

These are the Martian Assault Tripods in the starter set. Armed with the deadly Heat Ray, they are nearly unstoppable!

 

 

The kits come with some weapon variants for the Tripods. In the middle is the Green Gas Grenades and on the right is the Black Dust Launcher.

Ah, sooo cool!