Some Normandy Action

Today me, James, Dave and Ian fought a D-Day+1 SS counterattack against a dug in but understrength Canadian infantry company. Whilst not a truely istorical battle, James as always based it as close to an action as possible. I was in overall command

The battlefield - 12ftx6ft

I had the crossroads, 1 platoon in the buildings, 2x3inch mortars and 2x6lb AT

Ian had the right with a platoon in and around a walled farmhouse

Dave had the left, another inf platoon and couple of Vickers, Ian and I have 1 each

The germans arrive - platton of infantry in Hanomags approaches Dave

I have a platoon of Hanomags and 2 Panthers advancing towards me - wich is lucky as we have nothing at all that can even scratch the front paint of a Panther

But we will be fine as Ian has 3 more Panthers facing him

The germans debus and assaults Dave. It is a close run thing

But Dave kills them and the bug out

The germans inthe centre advance enter the edge of the cross roads. I drop smoke

One of the Panthers advances and I open fire with a 6lb in it's flank. Miss and it kills by 6lb. This is going very well

The german infantry swings to our right and debuses. We have artillery. Our 105s are stuck on the beach but we have contact with HMS Belfast and it's 6" guns. Well we would have if we could get our radio to work. Luckily we do and I clobber the germans in the woods

Which is good because the next wave of germans arrives - loads of PzIV

Just in time so do ours - 2x6lb AT - great

and 2 M10s, now these can kill Panthers but as they are made of chipboard they need to shoot 1st

The germans have advance towards Ian and his PIAT pops out, opens fire and does sod all

Still better than mine in the wrecked building who refuses to move

More reinforcements - some shermans and 2x17lb AT - now we are talking

James' infantry keeps trying to advance but this happens a lot

James' Panthers advance and take out one of M10s

However the 17lb ATs take out 2 of the Panthers and stop him dead onthe right

The PzIVs advance through the orchard and my 6lb reinforcements kill them with menaces

I have 2 more M10s and at the crossroads the PzIVs advance and I kill them

Even a PIAT hidden in the village pops up and takes out a PzIV

That we it, James had no on map infantry and only a handfullof tanks left.

We still held all the objectives and had only lost 25% of our infantry and a couple of tanks.

It was a fantastic game, James runs these really well and they are great fun. it was a tricky battle and could have easily gone tits up.

Christmas Presents and more painting

So it is the eve of New Year's Eve and time to review the year.
It's been a weird year, my blogging has decreased, death of Google + dramatically reduced my traffic and removed all my comments, my painting has slowed down, although I have painted an entire early WW2 French army, plus loads of stuff in Analogue Painting Challenge IX. I have actually run out of lead mountain, OK so that is a lie but it will be gone by the end of Challenge X.
I have a very large 10mm 7YW project with Matt (inspired by the Battle of Blenheim display at 2018 Battleground Show, and I have just started a Samurai skirmish campaign that I plan to leave set up for the next 12 months in my painting room. More of that in the next post when I have finished the village model. James is running a noble charitable campaign, For Joshua, and so far I have contributed a 10mm Lizardman army  but I expect to paint more for him.
Gaming wise I've done a bit less than other years as life has interrupted the plans of some of my gaming mates. Hopefully there will be more in the next 12 months. I have still managed quite a bit with highlights being the dungeon battles with Matt, the D-Day battle on 6th June was probably the best battle I've ever been involved with. I've also got the To the Strongest bug, despite the fact it looks like you are playing bridge the rules work really well with no stupid things that ruin it (so far), it usually only takes one dumb ass rule to taint a game. I also put on my 1st participation game at Hammerhead and it went well, tropical island, sea plane, dinosaurs and giant spiders - what could go wrong.
The highlight of the year was the trip to Paris with Dave and James to make a film for Netflix - how cool is that.
It is now a tradition for my to buy some of my own Christmas presents at the Battleground show. i went this year with no real plan and it was a mistake. I ended up buying things for the sake of it

Picts - Newline and Black Tree via Col Bill

The Banana Splits - Crooked Dice - how cooll will these be

10mm Prussians - Pendraken

Some Ashigaru and Koreans 2nd hand

Finally Challenge X has started with a bang and I've painted loads including finished the 2nd army I bought in 1987 - a viking army called Auden's Ravens

Won't win the Challenge - either Miles will pip me onthe last day or Noel will win by a million.

Hope you all have great 2020 and see soon

Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge X

For the last 6 years I've spent my winters taking part in the Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge, so I've spent the last month prepping. This is my 1st post of  Challenge X and true to form I've painted an entire 10mm Lizardman army. This is part of the For Joshua project set up by James of this parish and MadTin Hatter fame. The link to the project can be found here. This is a very noble cause and I would like you all to go and visit the site, please.

The project will build a massive 10mm fanatsy battle using Pendraken 10mm figs and will tour the shows in 2020 before being raffled off.

For my part I decided on a 10mm lizardman army from Pendraken, who offered us a generous discount.

The whole army - note I still can't take photos

So I primed them green, I even used spray paint, and started painting them yesterday morning. Today they are finished and varnished.

3 wizards on brontosauruses. These dinosaurs didn't come from Pendraken but in a cheap bag of dinosaurs for a friends daughter

The missile troops, archers, slingers and crossbow lizards

The cavalry, lizards on Allosaurs

Spearlizards

Lizardmen warriors

These were great to paint and the casts are really detailed. for this bunch of beauties I got 200pts

It's that time of the year again

The 10th Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge is due to start just before Christmas

I haven't signed up as I've been "promoted" to the Thursday minion. It is a great honour to serve the Snowlord and may even be one up from being one of the Daves in Paris

There are some differences this year including a map that the challengers have to navigate through by painting figures. Cooke's Crevase features and I think that geology will be involved.

Overall it will be 3 months of mad painting.Only one problem. My lead mountain only contains 10mm figs and the figures at the bottom of the pile that I don't want to paint. On the upside it is the Battleground Show on Saturday and it has become a tradition that I buy my Christmas presents their and then tell my family what they owe me. Can't wait. Helps that we are putting on a game - 28mm North Africa Bolt Action. I've also been spying out Carnivale rules and there is a participais that a reason to play hte gametion game on so I may sneak off and play that. I do fancy the terrain -