Battle of Britain start of campaign

We started the campaign from the BOB rule book tonight at Sheffield Wargames society,with John Grayson taking command of the Luftwaffe and I led the few , very badly I might add .The luftwaffe carried out a wonderful bombing campaign even though they suffered high losses .The Luftwaffe stole the first game 53 points to 41 .This is a really great game only marred by the awful service from PSC ,which I learnt my lesson from and have not dealt with them since . 

BattleGroup Tobruk -British Infantry division

With our first game of Battlegroup Tobruk being played this week at Sheffield Wargames Society ,I thought I would dig out my army ready ,I added a few bits so i have a choice for the 600pt game we have planned .Toys are amix of SHQ;Anyscale;psc;early war miniatures ;armourfast and diecasts. A after action report will follow

Forward HQ

Dispatch Rider &Forward signals team

Infantry Platoon =H.Q 3x rifle sections and a light Mortar

Support a HMG,Med Mortar and ATR

captured Italian ATG and loader team

2 x 25pdrs ,loader teams and transports

Forward observer in a dingo

3 x Vickers with 15mm

3 x Valantines

Valentine 

3 x Matilldas

assorted transports

Scout teams =infantry patrol ,sniper team and armoured car

Air Support

Battle of Britain board game

I have now eventually recieved decent hard plastic aircraft from Plastic Soldier Company for the Battle of Britain game , they are very good quality especially compared with the rubbish they tried to palm everyone off with originally ,so late delivery ,very poor quality ,very little info from the organisor then after waiting months the final insult was its cheaper retail than the kick starter price ?. Ive not purchased any ting from them since and wont again .Thankfully it didnt put me off kick-starters and ive had some great experiences since .I will post pictures later when I have some paint on them .

Battle of Britain board game -first game

If you have read my earlier posts about the disgusting kickstarter run by plasticsoldier company you will not be surprised that things have got worse ,the non exsitant quality control used on this game continues as anumber of errors in the rule book have now surfaced and to show utter contempt for their backers PSC have now released the game at retail cheaper than backers paid for it with all the "exclusive kickstarter only items" thrown in for free ?.

Having eventually recieved the game I ran it out at Sheffield Wargames Society last night and it is very good ,nice easy game play ,fun but with a lot of tension we played 2 player and got to a finish in 3 hours , a definate 10 out of 10 for game play .Im not sure it will last many outings the quality of some of the card items is doubtful .The game recieved a lot of comments and interest from SWGS members with lots of interest in the game but disgust at the quality of the plastic aircraft ,such a shame really this could have been a fantastic product .Playing again next week now we have the rules under our belt so a more in depth game report to follow.

the shape of things to come -the dice were not kind to the RAF

John rejoices in the Luftwaffe victory 

Battle of Britain Board Game Kickstarter ---the ongoing saga

As mentioned in an earlier post regarding kick starters I was ann

oyed about ongoing poor service and communication regarding the plastic soldier companies battle of britaion game . I backed this last year and also paid for some add ons for the updated game including plastic aircraft rather than the old style counters ,the game was due to be delivered in Febuary 2017 . Everything looked great it was fully funded in 5 hours and the target of £1,000 was passed and waas only afew pounds short of £91,000 ,it sort of went down hill from here .In Feb this year we recieved a up date saying it would take alittle longer ,no issues with this it happens ,in march we had a update saying its getting there ?. May brought a nearly there message and the promise of a complete plane decal as sorry for delay offering ,I was not too impressed as 1 decal for 20 +models meant having to buy more to match them up ,later in may we got the offer to purchase more extras for the game that was alread late ,I declined .June another nearly done message ,then another saying late August delivery .August yippee its ready to ship ,then anotther message headed GRRRR DELAYS ,it appears every one in the world is against this being shipped on time ???. September brings we need to repackage before it can be shipped . Late September its again ready to ship..October and some issues ,the all over decal that was free for us being messed about was not available so tough luck really and the croupier sticks that were included in the game were not coming either but these would be replaced with a 1/144 scale model sent at random ? no idea why as the other models in the set are 1/300th ,I guess there was apile of unselling zvesda 1/144th kit stuck in the back of the warehouse .October 16th after the first boxes were being delivered we had a sorry the plastic planes are crap and all deformed but stick em in boiling water and then bend them it will all be ok ,oh and the decals we paid extra for are rubbish as well ? the next day after a few disgruntled comments on kick starter a message appeared saying that "they were going to bite the bullit and have more aircraft made for us and we could keep the crap ones at no charge .So the quality aircraft we were promised and paid for (including the extra ones) were being made to the standard promised and would be sent to us as soon as produced which would be roughly March 2018 over ayear late . As you can tell im not happy , I appear to be alone in this as people are posting on face book how nice it is for them to admit they got it wrong and were sending us extra planes , personally I think if the original claims did not mention quality this would be ok and if delays had not been blamed on checks etc it would all sit right with me ,maybe Im just an old grump expecting too much for my hard earned cash but not having what I Paid for until next march (or later ) is really pi****g me off . 

The box is nice ,colourful and sturdy

Nice looking rule book

well laid out and clear to read

the counters are nice and colourful but the display boards are very thin card 

very nice board

cards look good but the dice seem slightly mis shaped and do not roll right

deformed cheap looking aircraft

more of the same

really awful obviuosly no quality control involved here 

the decals are really weird they are raised up and blobby like cheap sticker 

KickStarters -My experiences good and bad...

At first I was little worried about doing kick starter ,which for those of you not in the know , involves you pledging money to a company so they can produce new items which they could not afford normally ,for your funding you usually get the goodies before they go on general sale and usually some freebies (Rewards )as well .I have now been involved in a few and so far only had one bad experience. So far I have been involved in the following :

AW Miniatures -Funded 3 of this companies endeavours ,a FIW ,Samurai and a Zulu all were completed on time and I recieved quite alot of stuff for my troubles ,there was constant feed back from AW until the items were delivered .

Product               10/10
Communication 10/10
Rewards             10/10
On Time              YES
do one again        YES


Tabletop Tyrants-just one for figure cases ,was a bit late but they kept us up to date and threw in some extras for the wait .

Product               9/10
Communication  10/10
Rewards              10/10
On Time              no about 2 months late
do one again        probably not ( I have enough cases now)


Galloping Major- FIW British Red Coats always been a fan of lances figures and own more than I need but couldnt resist these ,a bit late but loads of communication

Product               10/10
Communication  10/10
Rewards              10/10
On Time              no about 2-3 months late
do one again        yes depending on the items ,his current one is FIW French ,i have too many

Northstar    - not really a Kickstarter Nick does his own version but same principle ,I have done 2 now 1 direct from Northstar and 1 through the wargames emporium

Product                10/10
Communication   10/10
Rewards               10/10
on Time                YES
do one again          Yes

Plastic Soldier Company -This is the bad one ,it was to be delivered Feb 2017 and Im still waiting with very few updates ,no appologies really and I have asked for a refund with no answer

Product               ????? hopefully good when (if )I get it
Communication  1/10
Rewards              7/10  if delivered ( the 1 thing promised for the late delivery is very disappointing )
On Time              No so far getting on for 7 months late
do one again      NO

hope this helps ,overall I am happy with my Kick Starters and will do more just very disapointed with PSC .

Battlegroup Tobruk -more vehicles .

Another 3 trucks finished ,this time Tillys from any scale models and another Dingo from early war miniatures ,the transports will be for my heavy weapons teams and the Dingo will be my recon officer . I have ordered some more tanks from EWM and I'm still waiting for a order from SHQ (not happy with the service from SHQ this time) and then I should have every thing I need just need to get them built and painted along with my PSC 25pdrs and that'll be Tobruk finished .

8th Army

A little update on my 8th army stuff for Battlegroup Tobruk .

A few test figures all SHQ 

A few plastic kits to be going on with a mix of Airfix and plastic soldier

some di casts I got cheap off the internet 

new projects for 2017

Ive decided to try 3 new projects this year besides trying to finish off and add to my exsisting armies

Project 1 = 28 ACW ,after my visit to the ACW battlefields last year I thought about doing ACW in various scales 6mm,15mm and 20mm but decided on 28mm using the new edition of Sharpes Practice by too fat lardies ,I have picked the first battle of Bull Run for my armies so lots of colour and strange uniforms rather than the long lines of Blue and Grey .

Project 2 = The 8th army for the upcoming Battlegroup Tobruk rules this will be 20mm using Airfix ,plastic Soldier Company vehicles and SHQ infantry with a few odd items such as die cast aircraft etc .

Project 3 = 28mm WW2 skirmish using Bolt Action by Warlord games ,I had small forces of U.S Airbourne ,Germans and British bought me for christmas so doing very late war period  Arnhem ,crossing the Rhine etc

No doubt each project will expand and I will update hopefully on a regular basis ,wish me luck .

Raffle prize update

A bit behind with stuff I was rushed into hospital last monday and got out yesterday , Although not up to doing a lot thought I would update some of the prizes I have received so far.

The latest saga book from Gripping Beast , a box set from PSC and a bag of figures from Empress

Brigade Models 1914 Belgians

Donated by Tim Gow

From Warlord

Assorted figures from Rogue Miniatures

3 Prizes fromRH 2009SAS ,Spanish Civil War and insurgents





Add to these a £20. voucher from Elheim and a £15. voucher from Diplomatist books and the stunning witch finder General starter from Dashing Dice and we have some fantastic prizes with more promised. 

Raffle update 4 -UPDATED

Ok,the tickets are now on sale price 50pence each. You can get them by visiting the War Games Emporium in Sheffield ,I will also be selling them on line and I will put instructions up later on how to do this.

Prize donations promised or already recieved so far from these amazing People :
Dashing Dice Games
Empress Miniatures
Dipolomatist Books
Elheim
S&S
Northstar
Underfire
Ambush Alley
Brigade Models
Warlord Games
RH modles
Gripping Beast
Plastic Soldier Company
Rapier .
Tim Gow
Sheffield War Games Society
Rogue Miniatures

and hopefully more soon:
I have some of the prizes already and will go into more detail later .
Every Penny raised goes to the Royal British Legion.
War Games Emporium have as usual agreed to the use of their Sheffield Shop to be used as the venue for the prize draw and they will sell tickets through the Sheffield Branch .

B.A.O.R forward HQ

HQ sets up as a recce force moves forward

 A few pics from a test game of Force on Force -cold war gone hot  .

the recce units move away from the farm 

A infantry platoon begins to take up position

HQ vehicles outside the barn

The Ferret moves out 

A patrol in full NBC gear 

Guards in position

Tanks move up in support

Chieftans 

Vehicles are mainly S&S but a couple of RH/Liberation and a Airfix one are in there as well the VW,s are oxford die casts and the  figures a mix of Brittanis Rh and Elheim buildings are the 4Ground ones for PSC which are now discontinued and rules by Ambush Alley

B.A.O.R ,zombies ,survivors and other things finished in March

PSC Pz1V box set 3 models for £13.99 .

March has been a productive month for me , besides finishing my stags and modern police (see earlier post) for the guild painting competition ,I managed to complete 3 Pz 1V's  .some Zombie's and survivors and some B.A.O.R bits and even started my cold war Russians.

start of a Zombie Hoard

Various Manufacturers 

err...ok couldn't resist these 

St Trinians v Zombies ?

Scimitar 

S&S Recce Landies  lovely kits

F.O  and sniper

ZSU 23/4 S&S again  

Over all I am chuffed that I have done so much the PSC stuff is really good I am starting on their Late war german infantry now ,the S&S cold war vehicles are great ,I have had these since September and only just realised some of the crews arms and heads were missing so cut bits of other unused figures .The Zombies are Zombicide and Studio Miniatures for 7ombie TV rules and the Girls are the ones from Crooked Dice.The Scimitar is the Airfix one I mentioned earlier .