Born to English immigrants in the late 20th century, Anthony Watts has gone from drawing pictures of dragons in the small town of Sarnia, Ontario, to designing web sites in Toronto’s blossoming internet industry for over 10 years. When not constantly checking his email, Anthony spends his time with his lovely wife and energetic three year old son, Harry. When they are all asleep, Anthony goes down into the man-cave and paints tanks while making machine gun noises with his mouth.
Sieze and Hold vs. Peter Something, Motostrelkovy
No chance in this one... my reserves were on vacation and the objective was just too close to his deployment zone. I did manage to kill two platoons in this 4 turn game though. 3-4 loss.
Clean Sweep vs. James Smith, US Airborne
Owowowowow! This list is made to repel infantry. Way too many MGs to deal with. I attacked at night and managed to do a lot of damage to a bunch of platoons but I didn't manage to kill any outright. 1-6 loss.Envelopment vs. Juan Murillo, SS Tigers
This was a tough one for the heavy tanks. I was holed up in ruins the whole game staying Gone to Ground and smoking his recce with my mortars. Juan tried to assault me near the end but to no avail - there were simply too many Commandos in the way. I even killed Wittman... almost. Juan used his Overlord reroll to keep him alive. 5-2 victory.
I have been working on a web site for a couple of months now, and it's getting ready to launch soon! Pass this around to all your wargamer geek friends:
I am so screwed.
I am going to paint the front rank of all eight Grenadier units first. Here they are ready to prime, except for one unit that still needs cleaning.
I hate playing with miniatures that I am currently painting. I am also a sloooow painter, so when it came to playing Lasalle I just made some counters. Here are a few photos of the ones I made for my Russian Grenadiers. All I did was design them in Adobe Illustrator, print them out, then glued them to some black foamcore with spray glue. They are the same dimensions as the Lasalle bases and have a red stripe one side to indicate the front. Now at least I can get some practice in before Historicon.
Done! Although this project was frought with peril in the form of a "helpful" 3 year old, I managed to get it done in time for our Battle of the Bulge game tomorrow. The snow is pain in the ass and I think I will look for something else to use next time. The Glae Force 9 snow particles just look too big at this scale. I also planned on writing the slogan on the side in white pencil, but of course I couldn't find it... so I sucked it up and painted it on. Looks OK I think. Anyway... glad to be done. Now I can focus on Lasalle until July.
I came across this on Bell of Lost Souls today. It looks like Peter Cushing (most of us probably remember him as Grand Moff Tarkin in Star Wars) was a bit of a Napoleonics fan. I doubt he would have played 40K - he's far too distinguished for that ;) The video below is from British Pathé.
Just a quick update... yes I have been painting! Our big Battle of the Bulge game is coming up next month and I am playing the elements of the American 4th Armored Division that broke through to Bastogne and the 101st Airborne surrounded there. This model represents the lead tank of Company C, CCR called "Cobra King" - a Sherman Jumbo commanded by 1st Lieutenant Charles Boggess. I have the hull done except for some mud that needs to go on. Next up is the tracks, then the details. The lettering is a bit out of scale but it's close enough. I had to cut out those damn letters by hand on the US Tank sheet by Battlefront to spell out "Cobra King" and the serial number - luckily the real thing's numbering was a little wonky looking so I didn't have to spend forever lining it up perfectly! I also had to paint most of the air recognition star on the engine deck (not pictured) since it is mostly covered by stowage. After the track and details are done, I have the base left to do, and obviously adding "First in Bastogne" on the side! It should be easy to do with a white pencil and a steady hand.
I just wanted to share some handy tools I made for playing Lasalle. I had these laser cut at Ponoko.com out of thin playwood (although I wish I had used acrylic now) out of a design I made in Adobe Illustrator. I recently used them for the first time and the wheel gauges are very handy, especially if you want to wheel a long distance. There are two ways you can make these: 1) Make them at Ponoko like I did. I have offered the template for free which you can get here. I made mine out of birch veneer plywwod, but I would suggest the 3mm acrylic instead. 2) Download this PDF, stick them to come thick card and cut them out with a ruler and x-acto knife. The PDF only has the gauges, not the rulers and markers. Enjoy!
