Playing Point Blank from Iron Ivan

Just this past Sunday a group of came over to my house and we played a game of the new Iron Ivan WWII squad level rule set Point Blank. Franz ran the the rules and played the German Navy and Mike over at http://dreispitz.blogspot.de/ ran the German Grenadiers and Michi at http://tableterror.blogspot.de/ played the French resistance and I played the British agents. Please go visit the blogs I listed as they are both really great!

I know the first question on your mind is who's awesome figures and terrain is that! I wish I could say they were mine, but in fact they come from the very talented Michi's collection. That's right folks others provided the rules and fantastic figures and terrain and all I had to do was provide my room, roll dice and eat! Wonderful!!

Not only did Michi provide the superb figures and terrain, but he also designed the scenario we played. Everybody should now applaud. The scenario timeline was 1940/41 in occupied France where British Agents and the French resistance were attempting to sabotage vital shipments or better yet the ship itself that was due to leave the port .
The allies had a few agents/resistance members planted at the docks with the rest starting at the opposite side of the table.

We had to stop before we could finish the game, but it was clear the allies would not achieve their objective with most of the British Agents taken out and the French out classed and outnumbered. The German MG 34's and the difficulty in command pretty much did us in. The game was a great deal of fun and hindsight being everything we would have done a few things different, but I think it still would have been a tough road for the allies. Well done to the German players for using sound tactics. I want a re-match!(Lol):-)

The rules were not played in the conventional ways, but rather were used to enable us to play the scenario and so it's hard to accurately judge how good they are. I think they are good set of rules and I for sure want to try them again.

Some of the pics came out blurry and a bit dark which was my fault and I advise you to go to Mike and Mich's blogs for better pictures.

A special thanks to Franz, Mike and Michi for coming over and giving a great day of fun and enjoyment and on such a beautiful table!

Enjoy and thanks for viewing!

El Cid Impetus style!

I spent the whole past week and a half or so converting my WAB El Cid Christian Mercenary army to Impetus (very happy with the new look) my game of choice for Dark Age/Medieval wargaming. Also I can use this arrangement for Hail Caesar another game that has captured my attention and can count these as standard base size for that system which is convenient. The impression I'm trying to give is one of the army riding across an open Savannah which I think Impetus basing helps to convey and that I hopefully succeeded in doing.

A quick re-cap behind the army concept. It 's a Christian Mercenary army with a heavy Moorish influence that finds itself employed by Muslim Taifa Kings ,but more often then not in the employ of the Christian kingdom of Aragon between the years 1090(King Pedro) and 1135(Alfonso I) covering both El Cid's period and the early Reconquista under Alfonso I "The battler".

The army so far gives me a hefty 300pts in cavalry which is substantial in 28mm. but not unusual for Christian Spanish armies of the period. With that in mind I figure that's plenty cavalry for now and I should probably add some foot slogging support. I think about 100pts or so of heavy infantry, formed missile support and some skirmishers are in order to give me a solid base for my army.

As far the pics go no scenic colour background on this one, but I'll have some at later date. One thing that has ticked me off is the new photo bucket which IMHO is not at all as good as the old one and getting a decent picture is much harder to do then before. Also, if you make any size corrections it sets it all the way back to the start! As it stands my own computer is just as good or better then photo bucket which wasn't the case at all before. Please photo bucket go back to the previous set up!!!! Currently I pretty much do all the photo work on my own computer and use photo bucket merely to distribute pictures.

My foreseeable future looks to be Samurai, ACW, Spanish Reconquista dominating with some AWI and SCW here and there. 
Thanks for viewing!:-)
Miniature Company- Artizan, Perry, Crusader, Conquest miniatures

 

Samurai charging again,but now with scenary

Working on lighting and background and thought I'd show it using the Samurai from my previous post. Photography is always the area I'm most unsure of myself. What looks better a white background or scenery background? White background helps show detail, but scenery shows more colour.
Do you think I should in the future:

1. Keep the white background.

2. Go with scenery backgrounds.

3. Mix it up with both white and scenery backgrounds.

Thanks for viewing and your help.:-)

Samurai Charging with Katanas

Next base for my Shimazu Impetus army is Samurai charging with katanas. I painted my Samurai in strong individual colours which is in contrast to my Ashigaru's more neutral uniformed look in order to distinguish them as the true elites of my army. However, I still wanted them to look like they belong to the same army and so the shimazu mon(heraldry) remained on the sashimono's(back banners) and Nobori(large Banner) and also in the same colour which I hope succeeds in tying them together.

I won't beat around the bush and will simply say these guys were flat out the hardest miniatures I've ever painted and made the Ashigaru seem like a walk in the park. That said, I'm pleased with the results and feel the time spent was really worth it. Now that I know what is required of me in terms of time needed to complete Samurai bases I really need to pick up the pace when painting Ashigaru bases to make sure I meet my goal for 300pts by September which is roughly 11 bases plus a camp.
Thanks for viewing!:-)
Miniature Company-Perry Miniatures