Blotz Terrain

 Bought a couple of Middle Eastern style buildings from Blotz ,not bought buildings from this company before and I must admit I am impressed ,very cheap but very sturdy and fit together really well and the sevice is great less than 48 hours from ordering to arriving on my mat . The instructions are on the website and are really clear step by step pictures .These will take part in my crusadesgames and my Afrika Korps games as well .Blotz do a big range and I will be buying more 10/10

2 nice 28mm Buildings from a large range just added a bit of filler to give that adobe look 

M20 Armoured Utility Car

After my M8 made an appearance at Sheffield Wargames Society ,Tim Gow very kindly  gave me a couple of solido M20's to bolster my forces .I have painted the first up to join my winter U.S Infantry for Rules of Engagement  .The M20 wasthe recon version of the M8 with the turret removed it was equipped with a,50 cal for defence and the crew was issued with a bazooka for anti tank use ?. The 2nd Solido will appear with my late war US paras

The pair of M20;as donated by the very nice Mr Gow

All white washed for the Ardennes winter

with the Italeri M20 

a birds eye iew of the M8and M20 a slight difference in size but Im happy with it .

Battle of the Bulge -rules of Engagement style

A ROE scenario based in the Ardennes was played last night at the club , a vicious little battle using the Hold the Line Scenrio ,the US troops managed to stay hidden which meant the Germans had to advance almost to my lines before they could engage us , lots of firing then took place my medic performed some sterling work and my LMG made mincemeat of a Brave german unit which made a dash for my HQ . The Germans looked the likely winners until a round of bad saving rolls took them to their breakpoint when victory was in their grasp ,another cracking game ,my next army to get out and complete will be my late war US Airborne  "Currahee"...   Figures as usual a mix of warlord and artizan ,panther is a corgi die cast and trucks from any scale mat by Urbanmatz

The baattlefield from the US perspective

The Germans advance and a us off table artillery shell lands 

The US HQ group and a LMG come out of hiding 

A panther creeps into view to be annoyed but not damaged by abrave Bazooka team 

The US start to take hits....

...but a gallent medic , the US commander and some decent dice rolls keep casualties  down 

so close yet so near this turn the germans came close to my HQ  but horrendous casualties broke them snatching defeat from the jaws of victory .

The first bits and peices of 2019

A busy day painting , building and basing on the 1st day of the year gave me a  nice amount of wargaming goodness for at game at the club tonight ,again rules of engagement but this time the snow covered fields of Europe and the U.S infantry fighting those evil Nazis trying a sneak attack .Thought a Battle of the Bulge type scenario would be fun as at this time of year we always promise to take part in the battle of the belly bulge .My main infantry section was shown in my last post but much to my surprise (and hopefully my opponents ) I managed to build and paint 2 American vehicles a M10 and M8 ,I did both in a winter whitewash finish which I am quite chuffed with as its my first attempt at such a finish , the models were ok to build especially the M8 which was italeri it only took 30 mins to build, the M10 is warlord and as usual came with no instructions so had to trawl the internet to find some . I have also built and based a few plastic ruins from warlord games ,put them on pretty non descript bases ,hopefully representing burnt ground so they can pop up around the world in different time periods I have added little bits of rubble etc to the bases but not enough to stop figures being placed, also based a few winter trees I bought cheap on evil bay and finally 2 markers for Rules of Engagement to show how many hits the unit takes as the hits effect morale rather than the casualties so causing 10 hits but not actually killing anyone is devastating , the chaps on these are Blacktree designs , you dont need many as these as the effects are worked out at the end of each turn then the markers are removed .

Winter U.S Infantry for Rules of Engagement

Reorganised and finished painting the US infantry I originally bought for Bolt Action but as I have said before that set of rules put me off WW2 gaming in 28mm ,however ROE has changed that so I am finishing all my 28mm WW2 bits now ,we have a nice little following for ROE at Sheffield War Games Society now . My U.S infantry is a basic platoon with some support ,I still want to add a HMG and Med Mortor and maybe a couple of vehicles as well . The figures are a mix of Warlord and Artizan this allowed me to field a platoon where each figure is different , mat is as usual by urban matz

Platoon Command ,officer ,2 NCO's a Medic and a Rifleman

1st section rifle group .NCO , Bar Team and Rifleman 

1st Section assault group NCO and 7 Riflemen 

2nd Section rifle groups as per the 1 section

2nd section assault group , a rifle grenadier adds abit of punch 

LMG team 

Bazooka group

Artillery Observers

Christmas Game -Rules of Engagement

Sheffield Wargames Society always have aChristmas Games day which this year started at 12.30 and continued until 8pm allowing time to undertake a bigger game or games and enjoy the supplied buffet as well .This year we played a Rules of Engagement scenario .Brits v Germans in the desert ,the game was a christmas cracker , Both sides advancing the German 222 advanced and bravely fired on the British Armour to no avail and the infantry rushing to dig in .Turn 2 saw the Brit tank return fire on the German armored car only to miss wildly ,the 222 responded and caused minor damage but this resulted in killing some of the crew and the rest bailed out and legged it , things got worse for the Brits with a well aimed burst from a HMG taking out the British HQ and the Pziv catching a section of tommies in the open ,things started to look bad for the gallent tommies . Turn 3 started with a boys anti tank rifle  taking a shot at the Pziv to no avail what so ever ,next revenge was sought with fire being trained on my Hq unit and on my HMG and my infantry on my right flank ,poor shooting and some bad dice rolls resulted on only 1 hit on my HQ unit which was deflected by a cigar case sent over for Xmas to one of the young jerries . Return fire was more accurate and the Brits reached thier break point and started to retire from the battle . Figures a mix of artizan and warlord ,vehicles a mix of s&s warlord and others,  scenery airfix and anyscale plus other oddments

Rules of Engagement 3rd game

Our 3rd game of RoE , we added Hmg;s , medium Mortars and tanks ,all worked great really fun and created a lot of interest in the Bolt Actiion players at Sheffield Wargames Society we are putting agame on for them in a couple of weeks as they are looking for a replacement for Bolt Action .Everything runs smoother and feels more realistic than bolt action glad we discovered these rules.Figures a mix of warlord and artisan ,vehicles S&S and company B mat by urban matz

The DAK starting line up

Montys men set off

a rush to capture the village

the Brits advance

Ouch 

Tank battle , the Pz got a  turret hit on the Grant killing the gunner and causing the rest of the crew to bail out

Afrika Korps platoon HQ

Finished a few more figures for my ww2 desert Germans , all Warlord Plastics. They represent a platoon HQ for rules for engagement .

WW2 U.S Winter Infantry

One of my many projects was  a company of US infantry for the Battle of the Bulge ,I bought most of the required figures and then my disappointment with Bolt Action made me lose interest in finishing the many ww2 armies I had on my painting table .Finding the Rules of Engagement rule set has rekindled my painting itch and I grabbed a few of the Yanks and set about finishing them off.This first lot are amixture to add to the ones I painted about a year ago in the bolt action rules I had enough figures for a HQ team , 3 sections and a LMG team the ROE army lists are a bit more realistic so I have enough for a HQ ,2 setions the LMG team and a few spare figures left one which I will add to ,to make a understrength section .I love the ROE army lists and the way the units can be added to to suit the scenarios.

a mix of warlord and artizan 

Rules of Engagement 2nd game

We palyed our 2nd game of rules of Engagement last night at Sheffield wargames Society ,it was the bring and buy night so we had a good look round before we set up and managed to play to a conclusion ,a draw I had reached my break point but the Brits were in no position to capitalize on it , and we still packed up and left before 9.30 some thing we could not have done with bolt action .Firing is simple with realistic results ,morale is so much easier to deal with than BA as well ,we are both hooked on this ,in fact i have already bought some of the supplements .The books are not as flashy as BA but its the rules we are buying really not the eye candy .Next game a bit bigger maybe vehicles but definately our rules of choice.

Germans dig in as the Brits advance

in good positions but awful dice rolls sealed their fate 

Brits advance 

Rules of Engagement -goodbye bolt action

After months of persevering with Bolt Action for ww2 28mm games we decided to try aset of rules we have both had on our vshelves without trying for years ,Rules of Engagement from great escape games . Why we didnt try them beore I have no idea ,ok they are not the glossy games workshop style rules that Bolt action are but they play great ,simple realistic game .Goodbye Bolt Action .

all ttoys and scenery belong to John G 

mix of warlord plastic and artisan

evrything seems to work straight from the book and so simple