Disposable Hero's second try.

We gave Disposable Hero's another try last Thursday. Matt pulled out all the buildings he had to set up a dense cityscape. We were under a strict time limit and I could have spent an hour just admiring all the terrain and photographing it. We started the game with Matt as the attacking Germans and me as the defending GIs.

Matt's tiger waited at the end of the street while his infantry cleared the houses down the block. My 50 cal kept pressure on the tank while the infantry slugged it out.

When Howard arrived he took command of two Shermans. One became bogged down while attempting to cross the river the other fell to the Tiger.

We had to call time before much else happened. The game moved along well. I'm enjoying the rules and feel they hit the right level of detail for me. The question now is do I buy a used copy of the first version or spring for DH2.

Old is new.

We met last week for a WWII game and used Iron Ivan's Disposable Hero's rules, not the new version but the older set. Last year we had played Chain of Command six times as part of the 6x6 challenge and when done decided that although it was a good game it didn't hit all the points that we were looking for. I was a bit reluctant to drop $40.00 on DH2 having never played them. Matt had the first version and having played them often a few years back broke them out and ran us through the game. He did say he had streamlined a few thing but for the most part it was rules as written. I must say it was a fun game easy to remember the mechanics and gave s good result. Matt has let me borrow the rules and I think this is a set that needs more exploration.

The scenario had Howard and me taking a US platoon supported by two shermans and attempting to capture a crossroads defended by Matt's German platoon and the new Panzer I had bought a few weeks back. It was tough going for the Americans but in the end we raced forward and captured two of our three objectives.

US jump off point

Americans start their advance.

Defending the village.

LMG and the mortars FO.

Sherman approaches the village

Out pops the Panzer

looking good on the table.

The Sherman gets knocked out.

A great game played out just under two hours. Check out Matt's blog for more.

Displaced Miniatures closes.

Way back when a site was put up to host photos of miniatures. A fan site of sorts it was set up to allow people to upload their photos and have other view and comment on them. All this and free to boot. The site was called Displaced Miniatures now after 13 years it's now closing down. As the owner says there are many new ways to host photos and share them with others also regulations and customer views have changed.

I used the site for some of my photos and always enjoy purusing it to see others work. I think with facebook, blogs and forums the site lost some of it's input and traffic. I'll miss it and I thank Brad for hosting it.

Here's a few of the pictures that I had up there.

These are from a display I had done at the local Historical Society.

Here are some Front Rank and Perry First Nations and Militia.

Front Rank

Front Rank

Perry and Foundry Militia

Perry

Foundry Street Violence

Camo Girl

Lepard Girl

Punks

Wild West

Shadow Forge

Foundry

Shadow Forge

WWII

Foundry Germans

Thanks for looking.

Loot.

Went to the Toy Soldier show down in New Jersey today. Howard is on the mailing list which is good because finding out about it is difficult as there's not any online presence. It's a nice show about 20 vendors packed in a small area. As with most of these shows going is sort of a bit of nostalgia, drooling over the St. Petersburg collection and treasure hunting. Todays show hit all the areas. There were plenty of plastic figures from the past, superbly painted flats, and things I didn't know I needed.

So what did I get?

Britan's B range Scots Greys?

Comparison shot

Kubelwagon, Warlord Sherman, Solido Panzer

out of sequence today's loot 

Black Tree germans for scale. the tanks a little big for me but painted and assembled trumps that minor quibble.

So a successful day. I hadn't planned on getting anything but decided it would be good to have some original toy soldiers and now I have some vehicles for my yet to be completed 28mm WWII Germans. Here's the info I saw on the Hobby Bunker site for the show.

New Jersey Toy Soldier, Military Miniature and Figure Show--

The Hilton Hotel, 650 Terrace Ave, Hasbrouck Heights, NJ 07604

Sunday 9am-3pm. March 11* *New Date

Admission:  $6, Children 10 and under FREE with paid Adult

Marching into March

March is off to a good start. Continuing to refine A Gentleman's War AWI we fought a scenario based on Bemis Heights. The Patriots objective was to capture the two redoubts while the British were charged with stopping them.

The British right redoubt.

The Patriot left

The Patriot right

The Americans got off to a slow start and the British moved up to prevent any assault.

Finally the Americans on the right were able to close on the redoubt with the Continentals followed up by the Militia.

   

                                     

3rd NY assaults redoubt

On the British right the Brunswick Grenadiers and Rangers moved to push back the Americans. However after defeating one regiment the Grenadiers were attacked from behind by the Patriots and destroyed along with the Brigade Commander.

A decent victory for the American forces. 

The game took about three hours including set up and part of breaking down. 

Matt has some more on his blog.  http://saltflats1929again.blogspot.com/

Howard has started a new blog for A Gentleman's War here https://thegatlingsjammedandthecolonelsdead.wordpress.com

February review

This month seems to be a mish mash of unproductivty, random thoughts, painters block and very little gaming. The succes for the month was not buying any lead, only painting three figures didn't help captilize on that. A game of Battle Troll to kick off a campaign  was lot's of fun and I'll be looking forward to more action there. The random thoughts have come to me while at work best shown as pictures

Looking forward to a better march.

The picture I had in my mind.

Not everywhere you go is as you expect but Oslo met my preconceived expectations. Snow,sun,clouds, water and tall people. First stop the Viking ship museum. Though not large it has three grave ships that were dug up and reassembled in the museum plenty of artifacts giving a glimpse into Viking life.

A small cart.

                                        

                                                        The longest of the ships.

A sled.

Next door was the Norwegian Folk Museum. Inside were exhibits of Folk Art, Sami culture and Norwegian farmers and craftsman which also covered a bit of 17th and 18th century military history. Outside was the larger part of the museum a display of buildings from various periods and sections of Oslo's history. 

Boardgame from a toy exhibit.

Stave Church.

House used to entertain.

Fencing so I get the right look on the wargames table.

The plan for the next day was sledding for an hour or so and then off to the history museum. We never made the museum sledding was too much fun. Toboggan-run-Korketrekkeren.

Preparing for the 2Km ride down the hill. The public transit brings you back to the top.

At sunset we took a quick ride on the ferry around the harbour and then a stroll around the Akershus Fortress.

Defending the city.

The grounds were open but the buildings closed.

View through the gate.

Another successful trip. Then to top it off back in Stockholm wandering the old town we came upon the Royals.

Princess Kate

Crown Princess Victoria and Princess Kate.