Artizan Late War Germans in Winter Gear

  I recently competed a couple packs of Artizan's 28mm Late War Germans in winter outfits.  I plan on using these figures for the club's traditional New Year's Eve game day, and again for Cold Wars, in a GASLIGHT Pulp game called, "Santa Claus vs the Nazis."  Here is the game description as submitted to the Cold Wars PEL:
   "Bent on obtaining fabled and occult objects from across the globe, Hitler sets his sights on the magical factories of Santa’s North Pole workshops. If these factories could be turned to munitions production for the Third Reich, nothing would be able stop the Nazi war machine. The Fuhrer dispatches a team of commandos to capture Santa’s workshops. Can Santa, his elves, and toys stop the invaders, or will evil prevail? Children under 14 with playing adult only."

You can click on any photo to see it larger.

The figures will of course also  be very useful for historical scenarios too.  And will probably see service in the Bulge, and on the Russian Front.

 

  The figures were fun and easy to paint. I first sprayed them with gray Krylon primer, then drybrushed them with successively lighter shades of gray, working my way to white.  The baggy outfits have lots of great folds and creases to pick up the dry brushing.

The bases were painted white, then flocked with a mix of Woodland Scenics snow flock, white sand, and some old mica glitter.  Some were then detailed with either twigs, or rope fibers to represent dead grasses, or small white stones.

GASLIGHT at Origins 2012

This past weekend, Buck Surdu, Dave Wood, Greg Priebe, and I, traveled out to Columbus, Ohio for the Origins convention.  Out goal was to showcase our "G.A.S.L.I.G.H.T." and "Look,Sarge, No Charts" rules systems to a different set of gamers other than the regular folks we see at the local HMGS East conventions.
   Buck and I each ran two GASLIGHT games and two LSNC games, and Dave Wood ran three additional LSNC games.  The two GASLIGHT games I ran were a Fleet Battles by GASLIGHT scenario and a regular Basic GASLIGHT scenario.
  We arrived Thursday evening, and Friday morning I set up my first game which was my Fleet Battles by GASLIGHT scenario called "Hunt for the Valkyrie on Mars."  The back story for this scenario was that a large German aircraft carrier on Mars had been caught in a Martian storm and blown off course and badly damaged.  It was now lost in the middle of nowhere and crippled.  The German and British fleets were searching for her, the Brits wanting to destroy her, and the Germans wanting to save her.

The German Aircraft Carrier 'Valkyrie' launches two fighter groups in an attempt to fight off a pair of attacking British patrol ships.

A player moves his ships.

A view of the battle, as ships from both sides swarm around the Valkyrie.

Two players check the range for ship to ship firing

The fighter groups attack again.

In the end, the Valkyrie's engines failed her as she suffered a series of failed Sustain rolls, leaving her susceptible to torpedo attacks from the British.  She eventually took a critical hit, and broke apart and fell to the Martian surface.  All the players seemed to have  good time, and i really enjoyed GM-ing the game.

That evening I ran my "Lost Legion of Venus" GASLIGHT game.  This game has a French force consisting of Foreign Legion and regulars which is lost somewhere on Venus and has become surrounded by hordes of local Parrotmen and Lizardmen.  The French must survive the battle and beat off the attackers to win.

A view of the table near the start of the game.

The French form what the players dubbed the "French Question Mark" formation

The Lizardmen's pet dinosaur moves to attack a French Walker

A view of the French defensive perimeter.

The dinosaur attack on the walker damages it's gun barrel and the player controlling the walker coincidentally rolls to Shoot and jams the gun (a roll of 20). The dinosaur, however falls down (roll of 20 on a melee attack) and our heroine, Victoria Hawkes seizes the opportunity and rushes forward to attack the beast while he's down.

Meanwhile, at the other end of the French line, the second walker has succumb to a shot from one of the Parrotmen's big guns, and is destroyed. It's crew however survive and bail out of the wreck.

Another view of the table as a player measures their rifle range.

A brave Foreign Legion officer, his company destroyed, fights off two lizardmen and the Lizardman King.

The French defenders are slowly overwhelmed.

The game was declared a marginal Venusian victory at the end.  The French forces were shattered, and their walkers destroyed or disabled. Though surprisingly, Victoria Hawkes, usually a bullet magnet, survived!
  All the players seemed to have a good time, and really got into the spirit of the game.  For me, the great players and the way the battle unfolded, made it one of the best runnings of a GASLIGHT game I have had the pleasure to run.

Scratchbuilt Aeronef German Aircraft Carrier

When I was playtesting the Fleetbattles portion of the GASLIGHT Compendium at HMGS-East conventions over the past few years, I met Bob Seitz, a fan of the rules, and an avid modeler. He generously gave me a scratchbuilt German aircraft carrier he had made, after we had had a conversation regarding the lack of such a carrier in the Aeronef range and my use of a French carrier painted in German colors to fill the bill in one of my games. The carrier Bob made was based on the Blucher Dreadnought design, and is constructed from plastic sheets and tubes. I am very honored to be the recipient of this beautifully executed model, and have painted it up to use in my Fleetbattles game at Historicon this Summer.

Here is the carrier with a gray spray primer applied.

Here is a view from the stern.


For the first step of painting I applied a dark gray color to the hull, and then washed with black ink, and then dry-brushed with light grey.



Next I painted all decking a medium brown and then washed with dark brown ink.




Then I began the detail painting.

The finished aircraft carrier.

Another view.

I'm very pleased with how the model painted up. If you want to see it in person, visit my "Hunt for the Valkyrie" game in the HAWKs room Saturday night at Historicon

EDIT: Thanks to those of you who pointed out that I accidently mounted the flag upside down on the mast. I will correct the mistake asap! :-)

Cold Wars Report Part Two: Saturday

On Saturday Buck and I met at 7:30AM to start setting up our 9:00AM "Look, Sarge, No Charts: WWII" game: The Battle of Lvov. This scenario was a 'what if' engagement based on historical circumstances that took place during the invasion of Poland in '39. The Poles controlled the small town of Zboiska near the center of the table and the Germans and Russians each started at opposite ends, both with the mission of capturing the Pole held town of first. The Russians and Germans weren't allowed to shoot at each other. We ended up being a few players short, so I pitched in and ran one of the battalions as well as assisting in GM-ing. The game resulted in a near Russian victory.
You can click on any photo to enjoy it larger.

The German battalions advance.

Polish cavalry moves to defend the river line.

The German Panzer Grenadiers race forward.


Meanwhile, the Russians have their own line of Polish defenders to deal with.

The fighting gets close and desperate in the woods around the river.

A small amount of Polish armor moves up to help stem the German tide.

Polish and German infantry engage.

Russian and German armor maneuver to attack the town of Zboiska

Saturday evening at 7:00 I ran a Fleet Battles by GASLIGHT game called, "He Who Controls the Canals, Controls Mars." The game pitted a British fleet against a German one for control of the airspace above an important Martian canal junction.

A British cruiser patrols along the canal. It was the first casualty of the game following a lucky shot from the approaching German battleship.

The opposing fleets begin to duel at close range.

Another shot of the battle as it swirls above the canal juncture.

German and British cruisers exchange fire.

The British battleship deals a crippling blow to the German battleship effectively ending the game.

Next up will be my Sunday report.

Cold Wars Report Part One: Friday

     I had a great time at Cold Wars this year. It was good to see lots of friends that I only get to catch up with at conventions. I arrived Thursday night and played Mag Blast and House of Betrayal with some friends until late at night, then I was up early Friday morning. I tagged along with Buck Surdu who had a 9:00 AM "Look, Sarge, No Charts" France '40 game. I figured I could help GM, or fill the place of any missing players. It turned out that Buck had an overflow of players who wanted to give the rules a try, so I offered to set up a quick game on a nearby table with some of Buck's extra figures and terrain, so everyone who wanted to would get a chance to play. For a thrown together game, it was alot of fun and all the players seemed to have a good time with the rules.

Afterwards, I checked out the Flea Market, but it wasn't opened yet, so I headed over the dealer hall where I picked up some basic supplies of Testors Dullcoat, some steel bases, and a Dystopian Wars deck of cards.

     After the dealer hall I went back to my room to rest awhile, then headed down to the HAWKs room at 5:00 PM to start setting up my 7:00 PM game: Victoria Hawkes and the Lost Roman Colony by GASLIGHT.

     All the player spots filled, and the game was a blast. Everyone had so much fun I think I will run this again at Historicon so more people can get a chance to play.

     The scenario story was this: In 1890, intrepid adventuress Victoria Hawkes had joined her Great Uncle, the renowned British scientist, Lord Harland-White on an expedition into deepest Africa. There they discovered a lost Roman outpost full of real living Romans. The Romans were the descendants of a Legion that was sent into Africa in the final days of the Empire with a portion of the Roman Empire's treasure to hide it and keep it safe until such time s they would be recalled to help Rome rise again. Over the generations the sons had been trained by their fathers to continue this mission of protecting the treasure. The expedition decided to stay for a while to study the Romans. Victoria and the Roman general hit it off, and a relationship developed. This infuriated the Roman Priestess, who had eyes for the general, and she went off to a nearby German garrison to get help in removing Victoria and her friends. The German garrison commander, hearing of the Romans' treasure trove, decided that he would attack the outpost and steal the gold for himself.

The Romans were supported by six giant gorilla guards. These could take four wounds. On the first wound there was no effect, on the second all the gorilla's stats went up by two, on the third all the stats went down by two, and on the fourth the gorilla was dead.

Below are photos of the game. Remember, you can click on any photo to enjoy it larger.

The German Sea Battalion Commander directs one of his steam-walkers and a unit of troops forward.

Two of the Romans' giant gorilla guards move in to attack one of the German walkers.

Overview of the table near the beginning of the game.


A unit of Sea Battalion troops.


The Roman Priestess delivers the death blow to one of the Gorillas, as the other continues to pound on the steam-walker


Several German Kriegshosen armored suits move towards the Roman fort, supported by native allies.

The Expedition's troops move up to meet the approaching natives. Great Uncle Harland-White lies dead near the fort's wall.

The Krieghosen move into position to start attacking the fort's wall with their circular-saw attachments.

The Krieghosen breach the wall as some of the Romans move bravely up to defend the gap.

One of the giant gorillas takes down one of the German steam-walkers

Another gorilla races through the compound and leaps over the wall to confront two of the Krieghosen.

Natives move up to attack the gorilla.

A unit of Romans rush to defend the wall.

A lone Roman officer faces off with the Krieghosen.

Meanwhile, the Roman Priestess climbs aboard the expedition's steam-tractor and begins trying to bash open the door with her staff.

A giant gorilla moves up to help plug the hole in the fort's wall.

A fierce battle developed at the wall.

Roman troops rush forward to engage the native troops as they advance into the fort.

Me, calling the next player's card.

One of the gorillas dispatches one of the German Kreghosen.

     The game was a real nail-biter. In the end, many of the Main Characters on both sides, including Victoria, were dead. The Romans still held the fort, but all of their giant gorilla support had been killed, and the Germans still had some working war machines and nearly two full units of rifle armed Sea Battalion troops, so the eventual outcome seemed dire for the Romans. The game was called a marginal Roman victory.

Tomorrow I hope to post Saturday's report.