Bank Holiday Games Day - Game 1, Warhammer 40k

As I have said previously my friend who has been working in the States came back to the UK to be demobbed before heading to work in Australia. Richard is responsible for me getting back into WH40k, he is also responsible for me getting into moderns back in the 1990's, along with WAB and Warhammer. More recent years he nudged me into Flames of War, Warhammer Historical WW1, and Dead Mans hand (The latter by just giving me some figures he had painted).

Mr Friend Richard, with my other friend Scott in the back ground

He has also Kick started several off my armies including my Grey Knights, 1914 French and the dreaded  Cowboys (Grrr). We have enjoyed playing in the past playing Moderns, Twilight 2000. Flames of War and many, many ,many more games.

He's been busy on a whistle stop tour of relatives and friends and took the time out to spend some time on the bank holiday Monday with me in the games shed. So we started with a small 500 point Warhammer 40k game with the new Rules that had just come out, followed by Jugular and then a 1500 point 40k.

Our first game was the 500 point 40k and Richard used his Imperial Guard from the new Codex and I used my Grey Knights.

Imperial Guard 500points
HQ - CO with Power fist, Veteran with Banner and 3 Veterans with hotshot rifles.
Two 10 man Squads each 1 Sergent (Las Pistol and Close Combat Weapon), 1 Flamer, 1 Plasma Gun, 7 veterans with Hotshot Rifles.
1 Commisar

Grey Knights 500points
Imperial Inquisitor
Chimera

1 henchmen squad with 2 Servitors with Heavy Bolters and 4 Dudes with Bolters and Power armour
2 Grey Knight squads each 4 knights and 1 Pyscannon
2 Paladins

This worried me a little as I had quite a sizable force facing Richards 2 squads. I kept wondering what he had up his sleeves, It turned out that they were a form of poor man Marines, AP3 weapons which fired twice and 4+ saving throws.

General view of the table

 We set the table up as above and then placed the objectives. I hid my Grey knights, one squad behind a wood and another in some ruins as I knew that if Richards Guard got to shoot them they would have no saving throws due to his AP3 weapons. I chanced the Chimera in the open mounting the Inquisitor and his retinue, so that the servitors could fire their heavy bolters from the rear hatched. My Paladins were held in reserve so that they could deep strike in.  Richard set up in the corner of the board behind the hills with one squad in the ruins.

At this point we made a slight mistake in the issuing of the psychic powers, The errata came out after we played the game the way we did. Each Grey knight squad received two random powers, and I felt this went against what the narratives of the army told you about the Grey Knights.

Grey Knights looking at hiding in the woods.

 My Grey Knights above are poised to take objective number 1 which happened to be my first objective card objective. I really liked the way the game now uses random objective cards which allows you to stack up those objective points. Your oppo may well blast you back to the stone age but if you achieved your objectives you could still win.

Inquisitor Chimera

 My Chimera caused a few casualties amongst the Guard hiding in the ruins, and the return fire from the Guards Plasma gun was a 1/4 of an inch out of range, The next two turns saw the chimera take 2 hits but both failed to penetrate.

Imperial guard hiding behind the hills

 The Guard in the corner skulking decided to move out and take a few objectives, which left them open to attack from my Chimera, I couldn't decide whether to finish off the squad in teh ruins or go after the one in the open, I chose the latter.

Paladins Teleport in

 With a flash my Paladins arrived and pored bolter rounds into the command squad and nothing happened, The Guards turn to face the new threat and the Paladins shrug off most of the volley fire but take one wound.

Imperial Guard try some Hot shot death.

Above the Paladins look a bit surrounded. The command squad charges the Paladins and in the resulting melee and wiped out (I forgot to take more pictures), The Chimera deposits the Henchmen who start to whittle down the Guard squad, eventually only 2 men were left and they failed their moral test.

My squad that was hiding behind the wood, had moved through the wood to then move across the open to take another objective, the Guards in the ruins had been almost wiped out and  they too headed towards the same objective, flaming my squad they kill one knight before being mowed down by a psychic power that cause 6 wounds. The ruins was now held by the Commissar who succumbed to several Psycannon hits. And there endeth the first game. a GK victory 7 - 5.

two more game reports to come

Sheffield triples purchases - Jugula and 15mm Falklands

Whilst at Sheffield triples I made a few purchases.

Jugula and 15mm Falklands

Jugula rules and figures

 My First purchases was the Jugula game along with the 2 deck f cards you needed and 4 of the 35mm (40mm) figures you need to play. to play the game you actually need one deck of cards per player (up to 4 people can play at once, so you need 4 decks of cards) and 4 figures per side (Wish I knew that at the start I would have bought 4 more).

Jugula figures

The figures are 35mm foot to eye or 40mm if you prefer in old money and at the moment there are 4 types of figures and a equipment set.  Each figure comes in a fixed pose with separate hands holding weapons and separate heads, shields etc. The casts are very clean and there is very little flash if any on these figures and every one says how nice they are.
You can also purchase a gaming mat but you do get a paper gaming mat with the rulebook. You can just about play the game with 1 or 2 figures per side but you will not get the full effect.

So to recap to play this game you need:

• Rulebook
• minimum of 2 decks of cards
• minimum of 8 figures

This will set you back around £80 and if you purchased the gaming mat around £100+


My second purchase was from the Old Glory Falklands 15mm figures range .  Some of you may have seen my previous post about my MJ figures purchase and I wanted some of the old glory figures to fill in some gaps.

First up are the Argentinian figures.
I purchased a command pack, several infantry pack, a support weapon pack and the HMG pack, I thought I had the mortar pack, but that turned out to be the British pack (or not, see later).

Each infantry pack contains 12 figures in 4 poses. SO the infantry pack gets 12 rifle men, the command pack gets 2 types of officer (one with binoculars and one with a walkie talkie) and 2 types of NCO. The support weapon pack comes with 3 rifle grenades, 3 snipers?, 3 FN-FAL Heavy barreled LMG's and 3 No2's for the FN-FAL's. My fourth pack purchased was the Heavy machine guns, and I only noticed when I got home that they had been modeled back to front, with the .50 cal facing backwards on its tripod.

Argentine packs

School boy error by the sculptor. .50 cals facing the wrong way on their tripods!!!?

Next is the British, I purchased several rifleman packs, 2 of one of the two types of command packs available, Milan packs and what I thought was the Argentinean, I got the mortar pack. Again each infantry pack comes with 12 figures in 4 poses.

British infantry

 Again the riflemen pack comes in 4 different poses, the command pack I had had 3 NCO's, 3 NCO's with maps and 3 Radio operators, and 3 snipers. I really like the sculpts on this pack as they will make quite a nice 'O' Group. The Milan pack comes with 3 Milan operators and 3 No.2's. The Mortar pack comes with 3 mortars with 2 crew each.

Milan teams

 The Milan sculpts are nice but considering the Milan has a back-blast the operator is about to loose a leg. Now to the mortars...
I noticed that the mortars in the British pack are not British Mortars. When sifting through the packs I picked up the mortar pack, noticed the square base plate and bi-pods and said out aloud more to myself then any one as I thought I had picked up the Argentine mortars, "oh they are not British mortars", The main guy at Old glory said back "Yes they are!", I replied again that" they are not British mortars as the British Mortar had a Round base plate and a K configuration bi-pod".

The reply was "And I care...Why?! a mortar is a mortar in 15mm", I left it at that as I was unwell and I did not want to get into a heated argument. Good job I didn't spot that the Argentine .50 cals were wrong till much later.

Erm apparently these are British Mortars???!!!

Overall some o the sculpts are nice, but there is a lot of flash for a new range of figures and the Sculptor could do with doing that little bit more research. He obviously does not care for accuracy which is funny for a figure manufacturer of historical figures, could you imagine him producing a Napoleonic cannon the same as an Austrian cannon and claiming it to be French, Russian or British.

I did mention in passing that all I needed now was some Carl Gustav's and 2" mortars for the command squads to which I got the reply "They are next on my list to make, if I decide to get round to it"

Besides some sculpting errors and the flash, these figures are going to make a welcomed addition to my forces, especially the Milan's and the 'O' Group and I look forward to further additions to the range, but I will not be buying any more of the British mortars or Argentine .50 cals.

Just so every one knows what the British mortar used in the Falklands looks like,  below is a photo.

British Mortar owned by the author, showing the round base and K configuration bi-pod.

 Thanks for reading
Jon

Sheffield Triples day trip

Sheffield Tipples was held over the weekend of 17th/18th of May and I trundled up by train then tram to the Institute of Sports. This was the first time attending this event for me at this location, the last event I went to in Sheffield was in the early 1990's when I think it was in the old crucible centre with an adjoining university.

The event was well attended and looked busy, the trade stands were spread over two halls and there was a plethora of demonstration and participation games.

I didn't spend as much time there as I liked as I started to feel unwell so cut my visit a little short. I enjoyed looking at some of the games and was especially interested in the Cowboy and Indian wars games. The 1/35th scale WW2 game was awesome and there were several games with beautifully painted figures.

I spoke to several of the traders about new releases and I informed Hawk games that I hated them for bringing out such a good game that I had to buy it. Although one manufacturer I was purchasing some figures of got narky with me when I informed him that a sculpt was incorrect, but that conversation is for a later post.

I made purchases from 3 separate stands and could have purchased more but I restrained my self, It was an effort NOT to spend money. My foray to the Bring and Buy left me feeling a little like I just visited some ones trade stand, as the amount of 40k stuff on offer was horrendously overwhelming. It looked more like several traders had not wanted to pay for a stall and treated the bring and buy as their private stall. There were no bargains to speak off and it looked like people were keeping their money in their wallets.

Compared to the events of the 1990's, although wargaming on a whole has moved on and the models on offer nowadays are of such high quality, along with the choices of MDF terrain, there were several traders missing and it felt the choices available by the traders were limited, maybe a sign of the times or the Internet is really having such an impact, either way I hope to visit again next year and hopefully in full health.

I suppose I better shut up and show you the pictures of the games.

Either Napolionic or Franco Prussian war - 6mm

6mm either Napoleonic or Franco Prussian war.

Samurai Vs Imperial Japanese  -15mm

Samurai Vs Imperial Japanese.. I think.

 15mm French Agincourt, Traders display

These are 15mm..!!!!! I love them.

Awesome 15mm painted Agincourt French.

 Steam Punk or In her majesties name - 28mm

Steam Punk?

 Weird civil war thingy in 25mm

Don't know, but guess some weird inter war thing??

 Ancients  - 25mm

Sudan - 25mm

Warhammer 40k

 Steam punk weapon

Indian Wars - Black Powder - 28mm

20mm Modern

I think I first saw these hills in the late 1990's

Sci-fi game, all 3D printer made models - 1/200th?

Command and conquer!!!!

Command and Conquer Tesla tank and a BMP 3?

 15mm (?) 3d printed models

Cowboys - Dead Mans Hand - 28mm

7 year war I think -28mm

Indian Wars - Tomahawks and Muskets - 28mm
WOW!!!!

 World War Two Brits Vs Germans - 28mm

World War Two Germans Vs Russians. Stalingrad? - 1/35th!!

World War Two Desert raid.

Hawk Games, Drop Zone Commander display tables, These were awesome.

20mm Modern
This game has a real retro look to it. Dapol (Ex-Airfix) railway buildings, telegraph poles and  HO train kits reminds me of gaming in the late 1980's and early 1990's. There was not much terrain wise you could get back then.

1980's Lima train

Dapol buildings!!!!

Wings of Glory World War 2

Wings of Glory WW1

HOW MANY PLANES!!!!!!!!!!!!!

World War 2 invasion game??

Cowboys - 28mm
These guys were using UNO cards and a deck of normal playing cards. The Uno deck was I think to determine who went when and the playing cards were acting as the dice for shooting.

Don't know whats going on here?

Samurai 28mm
The figures and terrain in this game were beautiful done.

Dystopian wars
this reminds me, I need to have a game soon.

Thanks For looking
Jon