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Made in at
Posts with Authority





Vienna, Austria

I'm currently finishing a few things I can't post about, so I'll do some more catching-up on stuff I've done during my hiatus:




Yup, it's Super Dungeon Explore minis!










As I had gotten a few of those batches done, I took a little group shot. The people of Soda Pop Miniatures/Ninja Division (the company who made/sell Super Dungeon Explore) saw it and put it on their twitwall and facebook page along with a little shout-out. Rather satisfying.




...and another one:



...aaaaaaaand then some more:
























These minis are quite a load of work, as each of them is a completely separate character of course (and they got rather prominent mold lines. But they're board game figures after all.). Anyway, there's a bunch more to come. Hope you like them!

This message was edited 2 times. Last update was at 2017/09/29 16:20:54


   
Made in us
Decrepit Dakkanaut






Madison, WI

I'm not a fan of cutsie stuff... but I love the NMM on the weapons.

Anvildude: "Honestly, it's kinda refreshing to see an Ork vehicle that doesn't look like a rainbow threw up on it."

Gitsplitta's Unified Painting Theory
 
   
Made in au
Chaplain with Hate to Spare






I'm not sure how to put this comment into words but i'll try, while those mini's look simple and the schemes aren't overly involved that cartoon style look takes a LOT of skill, to use large predominately flat areas of colour in a an almost cartoon inked style with subtle shading for features is not easy at all, the addition of the nmm on parts also is astounding, not because it's nmm but because the way it's painted actually suits the models, it's painted in a cartoon nmm style the contrasting colours throughout are perfectly done and always complimentary. I'm just totally in love with the way you've done these all being able to dance from your beautifully detailed collector style paint jobs to this is a talent for sure!

Flesh Eaters 4,500 points


" I will constantly have those in my head telling me how lazy and ugly and whorish I am. You sir, are a true friend " - KingCracker

"Nah, I'm just way too lazy to stand up so I keep sitting and paint" - Sigur

"I think the NMM technique with metals is just MNMM. Same sound I make while eating a good pizza" - Whalemusic360 
   
Made in us
Decrepit Dakkanaut






Madison, WI

I didn't mean to suggest that Sigur's painting of the figures wasn't masterful... I just don't like the style of figs.

Anvildude: "Honestly, it's kinda refreshing to see an Ork vehicle that doesn't look like a rainbow threw up on it."

Gitsplitta's Unified Painting Theory
 
   
Made in au
Chaplain with Hate to Spare






 Gitsplitta wrote:
I didn't mean to suggest that Sigur's painting of the figures wasn't masterful... I just don't like the style of figs.


Oh god no Gits' I wasn't trying to make any suggestion in regards to your comment I'm not a fan either of the models but I like to inspect things I normally wouldn't be interested in to see how others approach the painting of them. I'm kind of teaching myself in case I ever need to paint something similar!

Flesh Eaters 4,500 points


" I will constantly have those in my head telling me how lazy and ugly and whorish I am. You sir, are a true friend " - KingCracker

"Nah, I'm just way too lazy to stand up so I keep sitting and paint" - Sigur

"I think the NMM technique with metals is just MNMM. Same sound I make while eating a good pizza" - Whalemusic360 
   
Made in gb
Gargantuan Great Squiggoth





Not where I should be

They are truly stunning and inspirational work. I LOVE THEM!

Personally like them, seriously thinking of getting some. Looked at the game a dozen times, thinking of the kids getting into it, as they are mad for this type of game electronically.

I know what you mean Nerdy, I am always wandering off looking at other minis and the techniques used to try and better myself. Kinda given up on my painting , but often see something like this so magnificently painted and wonder if any of it can be transferred. A lot of what I see in this batch I would like to do on a Dwarf or squat army, less grim dark, more fun.




 
   
Made in gb
Mastering Non-Metallic Metal







Really well done on capturing the cartoon look to these.

I especially like the Princess Mononoke rip-off on the wolf. I might have to get that one and make it more Mononoke-like.

Mastodon: @DrH@dice.camp
The army- ~2295 points (built).

* -=]_,=-eague Spruemeister General. * A (sprue) Hut tutorial *
Dsteingass - Dr. H..You are a role model for Internet Morality! // inmygravenimage - Dr H is a model to us all
Theophony - Sprue for the spruemeister, plastic for his plastic throne! // Shasolenzabi - Toilets, more complex than folks take time to think about!  
   
Made in at
Posts with Authority





Vienna, Austria

@Gitsplitta: Since I only did the stuff you praise and don't feel responsible for the mini design I get all the positive vibes! Woo! Nah, I get this on many occasions I post these minis. It's an acquired taste. I like it, but I like most minis I paint, even though I don't like the sculpts. I actually would think of getting into that game or one of NinjaDiv's games, because they're said to be really good board games. But the thought of having to paint these figures again, and just for personal use... I'd never find the time. Same reason I don't get into Guild Ball: I paint all the teams anyway and most of the figures. And I don't like painting the same things again for myself when it comes to elaborate fantasy figures. And these chibi minis are quite a lot of work to paint.

@nerdfest: Oh, thanks very much for the very flattering comment! When ever I start a new batch of these Super Dungeon Explore minis I often suffer a little 'painting style whiplash', but after a few hours I find my way back into that genre.

@Camkierhi: Thanks for the comment! Well, you know where to find me in case you want your SDE figures painted. SDE is said to be a really good board game; same as that Ninja game they released last year. However, if you're looking for something along those lines (dungeon crawler with nice and cute miniatures) to play with the kids - two friends of mine reported Mice and Mystics getting over with the daughters and nephews respective really, really well. Not as expensive as SDE either and easier to paint.

@Dr H: Cheers! Yar, my job was 'paint them like they're on the character cards', so I didn't have any leeway in terms of colour scheme.

Back on Guild Ball figures (wip):



Quite a lot more to come with this batch (Veteran Katalyst and Crucible for the Alchemists and Locus for the Engineers). On top of that - the new plastic Farmers Guild box (plus limited edition Tater). Yar, Steamforged went plastic on a bunch of sets now. And bloody heck, why do those companies always go with super soft, trashy plastic with mold lines from hell? I Mean they finally figured out that their metal minis have to work in the real world as well rather than just in their bloody digitial drawing software and their metals are glorious now in terms of quality. Okay, the 3d print marks are just ridiculous, but that's the latest fashion now, so we have to deal with that. But casting and fit are great. But yeah. The plastics feel a bit like a step back in terms of quality.

   
Made in us
Decrepit Dakkanaut






Madison, WI

I understand fully Sigur. And I don't have anything against the figure designers or the people who like them... it's just not "my style". There's room for everyone in this big, nerdy pond we all swim in!

Anvildude: "Honestly, it's kinda refreshing to see an Ork vehicle that doesn't look like a rainbow threw up on it."

Gitsplitta's Unified Painting Theory
 
   
Made in gb
Mastering Non-Metallic Metal







 Sigur wrote:
@Dr H: Cheers! Yar, my job was 'paint them like they're on the character cards', so I didn't have any leeway in terms of colour scheme.
Ah, the pains of the commission painter.

We'll see soon enough as I have my Mononoke-in-potentia on the way to me. Sorry Gits', you'll have to see one of these in my blog soon.

Good work, Sig'.

Mastodon: @DrH@dice.camp
The army- ~2295 points (built).

* -=]_,=-eague Spruemeister General. * A (sprue) Hut tutorial *
Dsteingass - Dr. H..You are a role model for Internet Morality! // inmygravenimage - Dr H is a model to us all
Theophony - Sprue for the spruemeister, plastic for his plastic throne! // Shasolenzabi - Toilets, more complex than folks take time to think about!  
   
Made in at
Posts with Authority





Vienna, Austria

@Gitsplitta: Absolutely. There's a bunch of minis range I just don't like or would want to play with, but I'm sure the designers are perfectly nice people

@Dr H: Yeah, it comes with ups and downs. I don't have to bother with coming up with something myself, but on the other hand my work will have to measure up with all the other stuff people painted in the same colour scheme.

Okay, some more catching up on the fantasy side of things:













Tabletop World Townhouse II. There's a reason why these cost quite a lot of money - they're brilliant. It's funny how we all always want to save money on terrain, but will readily spend much more on say a big FW model which is unlikely to see a game very often. These TTW buildings are to be viewed like that kind of model, but you can put them on the table very often.

For a more in-depth look at this, have a look at my review:

http://www.battlebrushstudios.com/2016/07/review-tabletop-world-townhouse-ii.html




Then there's the Skaven warband:


Thanqol, Plague Priest, Boneripper:


Assassins:


Yeah, they are a bit cool models, aren't they.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
Then there's this:



Don't even pretend you didn't miss the sight of that!

Yes, Dreadfleet once more!






Third DF set I painted, never got bored of it. Great models. Much work as each ship is so very different, but boy do they look nice.























This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 2017/10/05 14:17:12


   
Made in us
Decrepit Dakkanaut






Madison, WI

Those ships are spectacular Sigur. Wow. I think the black one with the blue on the sails is my favorite.

Anvildude: "Honestly, it's kinda refreshing to see an Ork vehicle that doesn't look like a rainbow threw up on it."

Gitsplitta's Unified Painting Theory
 
   
Made in at
Posts with Authority





Vienna, Austria

@Gitsplitta: Thanks very much! The stuff on the sails isn't freehanded, but ever so slightly cast on. As I said before - pretty darned nice minis, pretty darned nice game.


A quick snap back to today - here's the latest WIP of the new Guild Ball minis:



All of them are pretty much done, apart from basing of course and the lady in the back right. I'll see that I finish her quickly and then I'll get to paint the Farmer's guild!



Just in case anybody's in Vienna next week - I'll do a painting workshop on October 18th. You can sign up until the 15th. You're more than welcome to bring your own minis and paints and whatnot, or use the stuff I'll bring along.

http://nerd.homeip.net/?page_id=45

A dude from Portugal signed up, so it seems like I'll do the thing in English and German. So no excuses not to join us! I promise to bring my funny accent.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
..oh and one more thing, because I really, really like those minis:











Yup, another full batch of Super Dungeon Explore minis. Those pets are especially lovely.

This message was edited 3 times. Last update was at 2017/10/06 09:58:11


   
Made in ca
Fixture of Dakka





Surrey, BC - Canada

Sigur,

Beautiful painting as always. Love the Skaven and the ships.

Cheers,

CB

   
Made in gb
Mastering Non-Metallic Metal







Great work on the terrain (nice wood), and the little ships, and the little cartoon people/pets.

Mastodon: @DrH@dice.camp
The army- ~2295 points (built).

* -=]_,=-eague Spruemeister General. * A (sprue) Hut tutorial *
Dsteingass - Dr. H..You are a role model for Internet Morality! // inmygravenimage - Dr H is a model to us all
Theophony - Sprue for the spruemeister, plastic for his plastic throne! // Shasolenzabi - Toilets, more complex than folks take time to think about!  
   
Made in at
Posts with Authority





Vienna, Austria

@Captain Brown: Thanks very much, Sir!

@Dr H: Cheers!


Okay, I skipped finishing the two still-WIP figures from the latest batch of Guildball figures for now and got to working on the Farmers instead:



Jeebus, the details on those figures...


   
Made in us
Decrepit Dakkanaut






Madison, WI

Love the turnips!

Anvildude: "Honestly, it's kinda refreshing to see an Ork vehicle that doesn't look like a rainbow threw up on it."

Gitsplitta's Unified Painting Theory
 
   
Made in ca
Fixture of Dakka





Surrey, BC - Canada

Those are some heavily armed farmers.

Cheers,

CB

   
Made in at
Posts with Authority





Vienna, Austria

@Gitsplitta: Cheers. There's turnips on those dudes like there's skulls on a Space Marine!

@Captain Brown: Yeah, it's very odd. On the end they're supposed to play football after all, but I guess sculpting fingers not holding something is hard and "weapons are cool".


Hullo.

Finished the GB figures now.





Hope you like them, pictures of the Farmers to follow!


Also: Update on the 1/16th cuirassier!






Here's a pic of the sabre's basket WIP:

This message was edited 2 times. Last update was at 2017/10/25 09:04:11


   
Made in gb
Mastering Non-Metallic Metal







Nice work on all the GB miniatures.

Great progress on the cuirassier. The metal on the breast plate looks excellent.

Nice additions to the sabre too.

Mastodon: @DrH@dice.camp
The army- ~2295 points (built).

* -=]_,=-eague Spruemeister General. * A (sprue) Hut tutorial *
Dsteingass - Dr. H..You are a role model for Internet Morality! // inmygravenimage - Dr H is a model to us all
Theophony - Sprue for the spruemeister, plastic for his plastic throne! // Shasolenzabi - Toilets, more complex than folks take time to think about!  
   
Made in at
Posts with Authority





Vienna, Austria

@Dr H: Thanks very much! Wasn't quite sure about the breastplate, bue I guess I'll keep it that way. Well yeah, the sabre can't stay without a basket. IIRC there were variants without, but I think the kit's meant to have the basket added.



Hej, here I am again with Sci-Fi(-ish) things, and Space Orks at that!

When it comes to 40k I own 3 armies (and probably always will): Sisters of Battle (because they're cool), Imperial Guard (of various kinds, because it was my first army) and Orks. Those are one of my pet projects. As a young'un I owned 2nd edition codex Orks and been gawking at the photos a lot. It was all metal though (except for the monopose ones from the 2nd edition starter set), thus unaffordable for young me (well, at least next to Imperial Guard, which of course also were all metal, except for Stormtroopers). In 2006 I started doing this army of my dreams by collecting second hand Orks and Gretchins off ebay and collectors. Back then this was possible (I also collected a sizeable force of Squats). These days ebay is just insane when it comes to prices for ANTHING GW that's OOP.

Anyway, with the help of this and the excellent 1992 multipart plastic Orks I got together quite an army over the years. All models from between 1987 and 1995 because them's the good old days of proper Orky Orks. Great models, great background, great artwork (love Paul Bonner's Orks drawings!), great books.



I really should take some more photos of my old orks again. Lost most of the pics in a hard drive crash and now with the photobucket disaster (btw: screw you, Photobucket!).

Most of my Boyz (and Nobz. And Skarboyz. And Buggies. And some guns. And the Dreadnought.) are Goffs, Looterz of course Deathskulls, Kommandos are Blood Axes, Meganobz (and some boyz) are Bad Moons and so on. Vehicles are a bit of a problem. I do own a Battlewagon, but nowadays that model probably rather qualifies as a Trukk.


AAaaaaaaanyway, of course I also own a rather large bunch of 1998 style Orks. Never used them all that much though to be honest. Between 2011 and 2013 I painted a rather large army though for a gentleman in France. Despite my preference of old-school Orks, I also do like the new-style ones a ton. To cut things a bit shorter - I'm working on an Orks army for a gentleman!

Here are the 10 test minis; a bunch of Goff boyz:





I did miss painting Orks. In fact, I missed painting 40k models. Hope you like them!

   
Made in us
Decrepit Dakkanaut






Madison, WI

Those were the days, eh? Really great seeing those old models with such characterful painting. Nicely done Siggy. You do Gork and Mork proud.

Anvildude: "Honestly, it's kinda refreshing to see an Ork vehicle that doesn't look like a rainbow threw up on it."

Gitsplitta's Unified Painting Theory
 
   
Made in us
Blood Angel Captain Wracked with Visions






I always love catching up on this plog because it is always so inspiring.

 
   
Made in gb
Decrepit Dakkanaut







Some great work in here, Siggy - that SDE cat!

2021-4 Plog - Here we go again... - my fifth attempt at a Dakka PLOG

My Pile of Potential - updates ongoing...

Gamgee on Tau Players wrote:we all kill cats and sell our own families to the devil and eat live puppies.


 Kanluwen wrote:
This is, emphatically, why I will continue suggesting nuking Guard and starting over again. It's a legacy army that needs to be rebooted with a new focal point.

Confirmation of why no-one should listen to Kanluwen when it comes to the IG - he doesn't want the IG, he want's Kan's New Model Army...

tneva82 wrote:
You aren't even trying ty pretend for honest arqument. Open bad faith trolling.
- No reason to keep this here, unless people want to use it for something... 
   
Made in at
Posts with Authority





Vienna, Austria

@Gitsplitta: Oh, thanks. Yeah, I guess I should take new pictures of the old Orkies.

@Dreadclaw: Cheers, much appreciated.

@Dysartes: Thanks very much! Yar, SDE is always a source for smiles.

...and that's why I'll start with this.


Happy Halloween y'all!







Next point of order - Update on the Orks. I started painting the rest of the Orks for the Goff commission now. did the skin, the red armour, basic metallics and black shirts and trousers so far.




I like Orks and I like painting 40k minis. I didn't build those Orks, I only paint them and got them sent built and primed. The really cool thing the guy who built'em did is make every single Ork unique. Not a single Boy consists of the same parts; there's always a subtle weapon swap, a resin head, or something like this. Really good.



Now on to something I've been meaning to post for a while now. It's the finished Guildball Farmers team:





Also rather Halloween-themed, aren't they.



Last night I based a bunch of 28mm WW2 British Paras:


First time I'm painting Paras since my early teens when I painted some 1/35th Revell ones. So these are on top of the painting list at the moment; the Orks have to take a backseat for now.



In non-commission news - I played quite a lot of games recently!

It started with a game of 40k! (shock and horror!) Yup, my first game with the 8th edition rules, Virago's Blood Angels vs. Nikfu's Death Guard. Nikfu owns quite a lot of 40k armies, but Virago is the kind of player who owns one army and one army only. He's fully committed to his BA, has been for decades and even though we play once every three years there hardly ever isn't a Blood Angel of some sort on his painting table. Sadly none of my own minis on the table, but I quickly slipped out of my role of umpire and onlooker as I fell to the allures of chaos and the promise of my own command on the ever-prestigous right flank. My platoon turned out to be two squads of 10 chaos cultists each. Nikfu saved the Death Guard Marines and Terminators for himself.

Blood Angels:
1 Captain
1 Assault Squad
1 Tactical Squad
1 Devastators Squad

Death Guard:
1 Lord
1 Sorcerer
1 Death Guard Squad
1 Squad of very big Terminators with very nasty scythes
2 Squads of Cultists

It was clear that I had to drive my men on to superhuman feats in battle to prove my worth in the eyes of Nurgle and become a true Champion of Chaos. :p Here is my impartial report:



The first big chance of showing my boys' value in the eyes of Papa Nurgle came in the shape of 10 Assault Marines and a BA Captain hopping my way. Scary. Remember that short story in which PDF pinned down a bunch of resistance fighters in a building and BA Assault Marines are called in to get them out? Probably the most graphic thing I ever read when it comes to 40k fluff (outside of the Space Marine novel). So my guys hung back and fired their exotic array of firearms at them, to limited effect.



Luckily the big Terminator guys also popped up on my left and decided to help out.



Not that my boys would have needed the help, but it sped things up and as the dust settled the Assault Squad was no more. I had lost one cultist in the defensive fire (you will not be forgotten, Thorston), but otherwise my boys had proven chainsword-proof in the mêlée. It also helped that the Blood Angels directed all attacks at the Terminators or course.

While the heavily armoured Legionnaires of the Death Guard cowered around the citadel at the centre which shielded them from the lethal impact of the BA Devastators' missile launchers...




...it was up to the heroic Cultists (and their DG Terminators tag-alongs) to take the battle to the enemy lines, driving the battered BA captain before them.



The Boltguns of the tactical Marines roared, but, by the will of the dark master, they barely grazed the brave Cultists. It was as if the shells went in entirely different directions altogether; as if the BA were not even aware of the presence of the legions of 20 cultists. Nurgle vult.

I took the opportunity to liberate two strategically important craters from the totalitarian oppressors and while my heroic Cultists set up a forward HQ in the craters and took a few shots at the tactical BA. They weren't supposed to hit at all, but only harass the enemy, so the plan unfolded beautifully. It bought the DG Terminators some time to get into close combat...



... and in the end prevailed (barely, and with the help of their Chaos Lord).



In the mean time the rest of the Death Guard had taken the elevator up to the top of the citadel and cheered (and possibly jeered) as they spotted the remaining BA unit (the Devastators) flee the scene. The day was won, and, if I may say so, all due to the heroic efforts of the Chaos Cultists. I'm sure the DG Marines did some other things as well, but I didn't really pay attention. :p



On a more serious note, we basically stopped the game due to time, and because it looked like the thing was pretty much done. The BA had lost more than two thirds of their force while the Nurgle force only lost a handful of cultists and most of the terminators. Oh, and the Lord was quite unwell at that point too. But still - the BA were in a bad spot. Not the least because Virago displayed some abysmal dice rolling early in the game. The spent the rest of the evening arguing about the correct size of figures for playing Napoleonic battles and started planning out 28mm Wild West scenery things.

Some things became apparent while playing:
.) 40k 8th edition is fine. It's good fun. The rules got a very, very clever make-over. I'm rather happy that my initial impressions of the rules (back when I reviewed them) turned out to be correct.
.) Nikfu brought these new Nurgle dice.



When they were released of course I made fun of them. They can't be balanced in any way. Despite some random internet guy's (who rolled them like 1000 times and posted the results on some facebook group. Bless him.) I couldn't comment on that. That being said, I thought it was just two kinds of hard plastic stuck into one another. Boy, was I wrong. The lighter green parts actually are soft gooey/rubbery and I'm not ashamed to admit that they are incredibly fun to use. It's very silly and it probabyl can't be explained, but I think they tap the same region of the brain which is ever-fascinated with bubble wrap.

These dice are the perfect allegory for 40k as a whole I think.


Anyway, despite the fact that sadly I didn't see any of my own minis on the table it was a fun game. Yup, 40k's good. Oh, and those tablet version codices are good too. A medium well used.



A few days after that it was time for the big event - Too Fat Lardies Games Day at WoW/Keepers club in Vienna. We are a group of avid fans of the rules sets by Too Fat Lardies. Basically their rules sets merge the challenges of making people in combat do what their commander wants them to do and heavily stresses the actual on-the-ground experience of combatants through the centuries. At the same time they flow really well and are just good fun, while each game develops a unique narrative. Cpt.Shandy decided to put together a full day of demo gaming at the local games club to display our love for these games and invite people to get to know these games. Here's my report: http://www.battlebrushstudios.com/2017/10/show-report-too-fat-lardies-games-day.html

Virago and I showed Dux Britanniarum (covering the Saxon invasion of Britain right after the Romans left), Cpt.Shandy demoed his favourite, Sharp Practice set in the ACW and Lynx and Annatar showed "Kiss Me, Hardy!" (Admiral Nelson's alleged famous last words) which deals with naval battles in the 19th century. Later in the evening Shlominus and I did a demo game of the brilliant Chain of Command (platoon-level combat in WW2).



Last point of order today - I'm moving house. This means I have to look through my collection/ lead/plastic/resin mountain. I started last week and thought it wasn't that bad, but it turned out that this was just the top layer. This is going to be a bit more work.

...and that's it for today. Go out and have a brilliant Halloween.

   
Made in ca
Fixture of Dakka





Surrey, BC - Canada

Sigur,

Great stuff as always.

Cheers,

CB

   
Made in au
Chaplain with Hate to Spare






Love it! great little rep dude, armies look cool and your opinion of the Nurgle Dice was quite interesting :-) I want to roll those bad boys now!

Flesh Eaters 4,500 points


" I will constantly have those in my head telling me how lazy and ugly and whorish I am. You sir, are a true friend " - KingCracker

"Nah, I'm just way too lazy to stand up so I keep sitting and paint" - Sigur

"I think the NMM technique with metals is just MNMM. Same sound I make while eating a good pizza" - Whalemusic360 
   
Made in gb
Decrepit Dakkanaut







Looking good, Sigur - though I have the sneaking suspicion were a fair few points down on the forces of Nurgle.

2021-4 Plog - Here we go again... - my fifth attempt at a Dakka PLOG

My Pile of Potential - updates ongoing...

Gamgee on Tau Players wrote:we all kill cats and sell our own families to the devil and eat live puppies.


 Kanluwen wrote:
This is, emphatically, why I will continue suggesting nuking Guard and starting over again. It's a legacy army that needs to be rebooted with a new focal point.

Confirmation of why no-one should listen to Kanluwen when it comes to the IG - he doesn't want the IG, he want's Kan's New Model Army...

tneva82 wrote:
You aren't even trying ty pretend for honest arqument. Open bad faith trolling.
- No reason to keep this here, unless people want to use it for something... 
   
Made in us
Decrepit Dakkanaut






Madison, WI

Brilliant update Sigur. Orks are coming along well and I really enjoyed the battle report. A few photos and well-crafted words go a long way. Sounds like you've been leading a very rich gaming life as-of-late, I'm envious!

Anvildude: "Honestly, it's kinda refreshing to see an Ork vehicle that doesn't look like a rainbow threw up on it."

Gitsplitta's Unified Painting Theory
 
   
Made in at
Posts with Authority





Vienna, Austria

@nerdfest09: Cheers! Yeah, I was rather surprised by these dice. :p

@Dysartes: Thanks, Sir! Yeah, I think so too. It was really just a very simple testing of the rules and Virago usually brings just this regular one-of-everything force for those.

@Gitsplitta: Thank you. Yeah, makes up for the fact that I played very little in the spring/summer.

Back for another battle report!

Thursday two weeks ago I had the honour of playing a test game of Rommel by Sam Mustafa. That thing I wrote a droning introduction to in this thread a few weeks ago.



The scenario we played was based on Operation Brevity, available as free download on Honour Games Website here: https://sammustafa.com/downloads/

Very quickly summarized Operation Brevity (May 15th, 1941) was the first of a series of British counter-attacks against Italian/German forces in Libya. Rommel's Arfrika Korps had thrown Commonwealth forces back behind the Egyptian borders shortly before. Only the important supply harbor Tobruk still was in the hands of British and Australian forces, but was besieged. Now German supply lines were stretched painfully thin and large chunks of Rommel's force was back at Tobruk.


Here's a map of the area the operation (and our game) took place in:


The objective of Operation Brevity was to recapture terrain which would serve as a jump-off point for future operations to relief Tobruk ("Operation Battleaxe" a few weeks later). For this the following strategic points were important: Hafid Ridge, Fort Capuzzo and the city of Sollum.




The German force

The forces involved on the German side were KG von Herff (KG = Kampfgruppe / Combat Group) sitting at the ready in the North including German and Italian motorized forces and tanks, and some more Italian forces in Sollum to defend the town. Later on the Germans would receive reinforcements in the shape of KG von Esebeck (infanry, some artillery and medium tanks).



The British force

was set up in three groups. One was drawn from 7th Armoured Division (including a bunch of Cruiser tanks, Australian light tanks and some infantry), the second group from the 22nd Guards Brigade (Scots and Coldstream Guards, Matilda II infantry tanks, etc.) and the third group, named Coast Group, featuring 2nd battalion The Rifle Brigade (successors to the famous 95th Rifles of Sharpe fame of course) and artillery support. On top there was unattached 25pdr gun support from the Corps for general support.


Setup

KG Herff sets up along the northern long edge of the table, while the Italian group (formally part of KG von Herff) are sitting in Sollum. KG von Esebeck would appear at the end of German player's turn #4 along his long table edge.
British forces start long the opposed long table edge and get to go first.

The game runs for 16 player turns (each player goes 8 times), after that it's nightfall and the battle ends. If the British player holds two of the objectives he wins, otherwise it's a win for the Axis player.

I played the British and Commonwealth forces, honourable Mr.Virago slipped in his usual role of playing the Axis commander. He owns a lot of 15mm Afrika Korps figures of course and I supplied Italians who in this game got their first outing. I had a few Cruiser tanks too few, which I substituted with looted Italian medium tanks, while Virago was a few Panzer III and Panzer II short, which were substituted with early Panzer IV and recon vehicles. In Rommel miniatures are completely optional, but we had the terrain and figures, so why not use them. To be honest, they proved to make the whole affair look more atmospheric, but also added a bit of chaos and made the game less clear looking. Not to mention the troubles of trying to put a single-based 15mm figure on a laminated piece of paper on a slope.

All infantry units were motorized with the exception of the Italian infantry sitting in Sollum. The Bersaglieri units attached to KG von Herff of course were motorized as well.


I got to move first, so I swiftly sent 7th Division off to Hafid Ridge. 22nd Brigade was split into two forces: Infantry, supported by heavy Matilda II tanks took Fort Capuzzo. The idea was for them and 7th Armoured Division to take the objectives and be a nuisance to keep those nasty German Panzers in check. In the mean time the rest of 22nd Brigade and Coast Group would knock these Italians out of Sollum. "Shouldn't take long", "it's just Italians after all" and "we threw them out of Cyrenaika before without much trouble". Falling for your own propaganda is a slippery slope. :p


Elements of 22nd Guards Battalion take Fort Capuzzo (depicted by a recon vehicle and a camel).


On the right flank the bloody house-to-house combat for Sollum commenced. Motor Rifles of 22nd Brigade and Coast Group took turns in their attacks, but the Italians proved to be stalwart defenders.


...despite the best efforts of the Royal Artillery (and at one point the RAF as well).


At one point I ALMOST had them running, but then out of nowhere a company of Bersaglieri showed up and replaced an exhausted company. Yup, Italians rotating frontline troops. I was as amazed as you are, folks. No fair!


At the centre we had a proper tank battle in the mean time.



Hafid Ridge on my left was guarded by a well dug in company of Motor Rifles and not in real danger and the Germans mostly took off to relief Sollum. This presented me with the opportunity to start an attack on the German supply source. If I'd be able to capture that it would make things MUCH more invonvenient for my opponent.

In the Rommel rules the scenario always dictates one or more squares which are each side's supply source (which is either an airfield, a supply harbor, a railway hub, etc.) to which you have to be able to draw uninterrrupted lines to your units, otherwise activating them gets much harder, they are less effective in combat, and so on.

So I redirected 7th Armoured's tanks and 22nd Battalion's Matilda tanks to attack the German tank units protecting the supply source. But dang, German tanks are annoying. The game models the edge German tankers had on their British counter-parts at that point very well. 3-man turret crews, better morale and doctrine... it went OK, but after a while it became clear that the attack wouldn't be successful (not to mention bloody 88s hammering at my Matildas).

And then KG Esebeck turned up. Not as much as I had thought, but still. The defenders of Sollum still refused to give up and they got flank support by German Panzergrenadiers and tanks now who in turn threatened my supply lines.Time to dig in.



So Axis reinforcements popped up and they just had cleared their Ops board up to mount a counter-attack. However, time wasn't too plentiful. On the Sollum flank I was rather safe now, the Motor Rifles at Hafid Ridge were dug in and while not a big force they still would be bothersome to drive out, so the German tanks went straight (well, in a bendy side-ways maneuvre really9 for the currently undefended Fort Capuzzo objective. I only held one of the three objectives any more.

At that point we decided to call it a night due to time. The game was still rather open at this point, but it didn't look bad for the Axis forces. On the other hand taking Sollum or conquer Fort Capuzzo again wasn't out of the question. Hard to tell. Either way, the Rommel rules work like a charm.



The handling of the 15mm figues on the laminated cards wasn't too easy. Playing without miniatures altogether certainly is an option and probably looks much clearer. You can also make it visually appealing by using proper maps and adding the grids or drawing your own large maps.
The only thing I wasn't too sure about in the beginning was the Ops sheets each player uses to allocate their Ops dice. It seemed a lot like the Saga battleboards to me which are a cool mechanic, but I feel in Saga they a.) take up too much of the game, b.) you have to know all of them by heart, c.) they're bloody different for every single faction and last but not least just replaced too much of what should happen on the table actually. Anyway, my worries turned out not to be warranted. The Ops things work great and are a factor to the game rather than the be all end all.

So yeah, with just the investment of the rulebook itself you don't even necessarily need minis to play, but just a few chips of paper. Of course this is a thing we discussed after the game and which remained a plan for almost 24 hours, as the day after it turned out that a guy wanted to get rid of his 6mm US and German troops (for Normandy. Meh.) and we bought them off him and see what we cando with Rommel and these 6mm minis.

Anyway, Rommel is highly recommended, has the right period feel and the right feel concerning the challenges of this level of command. If you are in any way interested in the period and big, proper battles this should be checked out. Anddon't wait too long if you want a hardcopy as I know that Sam Mustafa's rules sell out very fast in physical form.

   
 
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