Canadian Armoured Recce vs Fallschirmjagers – Free For All

Hello DrCox here

So another Saturday evening, and another titanic fight between myself and Winner Dave. I felt like returning to my Canadian’s and more importantly trying something new, for this I decided to try the new Armoured recce, they looked an interesting beast to tackle, with the potential to be very very hard to hit!

So we played 1750pts and our lists were:-

DrCox's Canadian Recce

Hq – 2 Shermans

Combat platoon – 2 shermans, 2 fireflies

Combat platoon – 2 shermans, 2 fireflies

Recon – 2 Stuarts

Rifle Platoon

AA – 2 bofors SP

4 Sextons

Winner's Fallschirmjagers

VDH and 4 traps

HQ 3 Schreks, 2 mortars

FJ platoon with Fausts

FJ platoon with Fausts

1 HMG sections (combat attached to FJ platoons)

Heavy Mortars (2 sections)

Scout platoon (2 sections)

4 Pak 40’s

Which Mid War Army Should I Collect? - Poll

Hello All,

Ben here looking for help! Some of you may have seen the poll I posted up yesterday (it should be to the right of this post). Basically I'm going to 2 Mid War Tournaments in the Summer (The Welsh Open and Devizes Attack!) and I need to collect a new Army for these events as I currently own no Mid War armies (or models really!). So after a little reading, planning and the like I have come up with 2 different armies I'd like to do. The problem is I can't do them both at the moment because of time and cost but I like them both!  So heres the deal, I will choice which ever army you all vote for! And I promise I will! So what are the two different armies? Well I'll do a run through of that I have planned:-

11th Armoured vs Fallschirmjagers - Breakthrough

With the new Market Garden Books out me and Winner Dave decided to have a game using the new books. I dug out my 15th/19th Hussars and Dave was using his Fallschirmjagers. We were playing 1675pts as thats all I had. We rolled up Breakthrough as the mission, so I would be the attacker. Please Note:- Dave would like to apologize for the terrain, he is in the middle of making more of it and a few bits weren't finished. For Example the bits that look like walls are in fact hedge rows. Also half way through the game my camera's batteries died so the second half of the games pictures were taken with Dave photo, these pictures came out a little darker. Also most of the turn 3 pictures didn't come out very well as I lost some important pictures, sorry about that. I'm still learning how to write AAR's, hopefully the next one will be a lot better!

15th/19th Royal Hussars 2 HQ Cromwells 3 Cromwells + Challenger 3 Cromwells + Challenger 3 Cromwells + Challenger 3 Universal Carriers US Para Platoon 4 Heavy Mortars

Fallschirmjager Von der Heydte + 4 Trap Teams HQ with 2 Panzerfausts and 3 Mortars Fallschirmjager Platoon with Panzerfaust Fallschirmjager Platoon with Panzerfaust 4 Pak 40's 3 StuHs 4 Heavy Mortars

US Paratoopers for Market Garden

Hello All, Ben here with another  painting update,

I took the day before the Brighton Bash off work to paint up any models I needed to get done. The problem was I finished my US Paras the day before!

So what to do with my free time? Well instead of getting ready for Corrivaly I decided to paint up some US Paras for the new Market Garden book (not like me to get distracted....). I really enjoyed painting them, in fact I enjoyed them more than my Winter US Paras.

Von der Heydte and Trap Teams

Hi all, it's Winner Dave and no word of a lie...I have my very first painted wargaming army.  With the final installment below of Von der Heydte and the infamous trap teams.

As these were the last platoon (ish), that I needed to complete I decided to take my time and do as good a job as I can.

With that in mind, I went with the layering technique.  So each colour you can see is at least three layers working from dark to light shades.  This is different to my normal style which consists of base layer, dark ink wash and then if I can be bothered a highlight.

Sorry the photos are a bit duff.

Breakthrough Assault's 1st Birthday!

Hello All,

Ben here, today is the 1st Birthday of the Breakthrough Assault Blog. I will be honest I didn't think the blog would get this far! I only really set it up to help me keep focused on painting after my daughter was born. But it has, it's still going strong with 3 of us posting and we have some great stuff planned for 2013.

Panzergrenadierkompanie - Heavy platoon

Hi everyone

Dr Cox here with another platoon, this time it's the Heavy platoon for my Panzergrenadiers.

In many ways I view this as the most useful platoon in the army, it gives the infantry platoons more firepower (and bases) and the mortars can smoke to cover my advance. Painting these guys was not fun for some reason, whether it was the fact they were the 4th infantry platoon in a row I'd painted I don't know, but either way, I was less then enthusiastic about painting them.

8 Rad's Scout Platoon

Hello, Dr Cox here.

Well another platoons is here for your amusement and viewing, this time it's the Recon from my Grenadier list.You get 2 options in the list either 222's or the old trusty (or rusty) 8 Rad, which is what I went for. It's a slightly odd vehicle, I'm not overly sure that I like it,and being wheeled means that in snow and difficult terrain (good places to have your recon) it'll be moving slower than the infantry.

Bridge By Bridge Compilation Review

Hello All,

Dr Cox here with a review of the Axis Market Garden Book, is going to be different to the Allied one, mainly as I haven’t played the axis forces in the book, or really any axis forces, so any comments will be appreciated!

Again I like the layout of the book, and unlike the allied book, I think it really has a lot of new lists, and for that reason alone I’m happy I bought this!

Fallschirmjagerkompanie (vet and trained)

Well I do have a fair amount of experience killing these guys thanks to Winner playing them. Firstly with VDH they get to ignore the allies rule which is brilliant, and those Panzefaust traps are an annoyance as always!

I like the fact these lists can access all manner of interesting support including some older panzer models, and the inclusion of rifle recce, should also help them out a little bit. All in all though I think FJ will continue to bring the best that Fearless Vets (and at times fearless trained) have to offer, but still so pricy once you add fausts!

Brighton Bash 2013 - Late War Tournament AAR

Hello All Ben here,

so this weekend I went to the Brighton Bash, me first ever FOW tournament. I took my US Paras that I have been working on for the last 3 months a head of this tournament. The event set up was simple,  Late War 1750pts with no Special Characters and 5 Games over 2 days, also every game was to be Allied vs Axis. I really liked this as I enjoy more traditional games than blue on blue games. This is not to say I'm a historical purest, but I like my games to have that this could have happened element to them.

Being my first tournament I set myself some goals. Firstly I wanted to try and win 3 out of the 5 games, I did think this might be a bit ambitious but thought it was best to aim high. My second goal was to not get 1-6 in any of the games and my third goal was to have fun and have a nice time. My prep for the tournament didn't go as well as I hoped as on the Friday night I got about 3 hours sleep thanks to my 13 month old daughter having a chest infection and waking up every 1 and a half.... I gave up trying to sleep at 3am and played a couple of hours of Halo online and drank a few letres of coffee before Dr Cox picked me up. The journey there was also a nightmare as the rain literally hammered the car and an points we also had thunder and lightning! But we turned up in rain hit Brighton in one piece and found the pub the event was being held in. After a little debrief I found my way to table number 2 and my first opponent.

My list for the event was US Paras from Nuts!:-

• HQ
• US Para Platoon + 1 Bazooka and 2 rifle teams turned into Bazookas
• US Para Platoon + 1 Bazooka and 2 rifle teams turned into Bazookas and rifle "downgrade"
• Veteran Sherman Platoon with 2 M4A3 Lates and 2 M4A3 76mm
• Tank Destroyer Platoon with 4 M18's
• Glider Artillery
• Glider Artillery + Jeeps
• AOP

Sd kfz 251/21 - Triple 15mm, review and painting

DrCox here

I thought instead of just showing off some of my painting I thought I'd have a look at this little model.

the pieces

the instructions

It's been one of those models which I though just looked 'cool' when 'Blood, Guts and Glory' came out. And when I started working out my LW German lists, it seemed a good choice to include this unit, so with my ToWG list done I ordered 3 from Triple Helix. The components are as you see them, there was one which had a lot of flash on the metal, and 2 of the 3 had quite bad casting on the side of the main gun, but a bit of green stuff and a file helped. 

Market Garden Compilation Review - Allies

Hello everyone

Ben and Dr Cox here with a review of the new Market Garden book.

So the new Market garden book is out, and we thought we'd review it, as it's quite a chunky tome we've split it between us. Adam will be taking the British Para's and Canadians, I will be taking the British Armour and American forces.


First Impressions

The book is up to the normal Battlefront standard as the other compilations like Grey Wolf, Turning Tide, etc. The book seems a little bit smaller than the other Late War hardback books, but has a similar number of pages compared to the Early War hardback books so while not a surprise to me but I could imagine some people might be annoyed by this fact.

US Para Painting Update, Artillery, AOP, Jeeps and LMGS

Hello All,

Ben here with another US Para update. As you may know I have been on a painting mission of late to get my US Paras ready for the Brighton Bash this weekend. Well mission accomplished!

This week I have finished my second Glider Artillery Platoon giving me 6 guns in total, 3 jeeps for one of the Artillery Platoons, an AOP observer and finally a LMG platoon for my next tournament in February Corrivaly.

The 2nd Glider Artillery was far more enjoyable to paint than the first (I really don't know why!? The only thing I can think of is I'm getting faster at painting Winter US so they were a lot quicker to paint, so more fun?), they also give me a load more gaming options. With the US combined fire rules I can add both batteries together into one big bombardment for either a 12" by 6" template or a 6" by 6" template with re-rolls to hit, I also have the option of doing separate bombardments if needed. I'm hoping to make a lot of use of this option at the weekend in Brighton.

AAR - 1750 Frost's British Para's vs Von der Heydte's FJ - Hasty Attack

Hi all Adam here,

So with the new Market Garden books out this weekend, myself and 'Winner Dave' organised a game, it's only his second outing with his FJ, but he had won the 1st.

we set up the terrain as you can see, and rolled up Hasty attack, I elected to attack at night, so Dave went on the defensive. Dave choose to deploy his heavy Mortars on the back line, and one of his FJ platoons on his right flank/middle (+VDH). He left the HMG's in immediate ambush. I deployed my Light Battery and one Para platoon on each flank, one with Frost (left flank) and one with my IC (right flank). The HMG's then deployed on Dave's left flank and I took my spearhead moves.

View from my right flank

Fallschirmjäger Pak 40 Platoon

Good day,

I hope  your new year's celebrations and what not got off to a good start and you are keeping to your resolutions.

Having had a long break from work has been fantastic for painting, and I've managed to get these Pak 40s done.  I've managed to keep the theme going from the heavy mortars, which I am very pleased with.

I did my usual trick of painting the guns, deciding I don't like them, strip and paint again, typical!

A friend challenged me with regards to painting thin camo lines.  I assured him I could do it, then thought that was a bold statement and set out to try it.

Talk about frustrating...I got so mad and several times thought I was heading for a third stripping session.

I think I made the paint too thin, so that it kept running like an ink, but tip you read on the interwebs suggests you should thin the paint even more than normal if you are doing thin lines.  Bull tish, I think it needs to be a tad thicker so you don't get the ink effect especially when doing cylindrical shapes like barrels.  Oh and next time, screw freehand, i'm using masks :)

So without further ado here they are...

Thanks "Winner" Dave

Tale of Two Winter Gamers - Month Two - 101st Airbourne

Hello All

Welcome to my second months post for Tale of Two Winter Gamer. For my first month I just a platoon of Infantry pianted, so for the second month I need to paint up some HQ's for my company as part of my and Adam's targets. For this I picked up the Easy Company Heroes so I added Speirs and Lipton to the list. I love the set, they really got the character of the guys from the TV series down to a tea.

Next up I wanted a little change so next up on my list was so Glider Artillery. I think these are a great little unit, you get a nice points break as the direct fire option isn't great, but I don't think you can complain about 115pts for 3 guns with a good firepower and smoke.

After these two platoons I focused on the 2nd Paratrooper platoons. I decided to use the metal US Paratroopers instead of the plastic models for this platoon and I think it was a better choice. While the metal models are a lot smaller they did suit my painting style a lot better than the plastic ones did, in my option I think the detail of stands out a lot better than it did with the plastic paras.

Overall I'm happy with how they turned out and thankfully they don't looking to out of pace compared to the first platoon I painter.

For the terrain I snowed up some Battlefront rural roads. They still need a second lot of snow flack on them but I ran out of the flock.... I'm burning through the stuff.

Well thats it for month two, my plans for the third month is a LMG platoon, some recon Jeeps and a second Glider Artillery platoon.

So until next time, thanks for reading.

Ben

Tale of Two Winter Gamers - Month Two - 25th Panzergrenadierkompanie

Good morning everyone

So month 2 has been and gone, how has it all gone?

For those of you who need reminding here are the rules and here is the first months results.

Platoon 2

This month the aim was my second platoon and their transports, and some scenery. Due to Christmas and other real life events getting in the way I actually found very little painting time, but I managed to get the guys done.

Platoon Commander

They were pretty much the same as the last platoon, my one big difference is that I swapped the side of the faust on each squad, that way I should hopefully be able to tell at a glance which bases belongs to which platoon!

The transports themselves were done in the same way as last time, and again i'm happy with the results, I tried feathering the edges, but it all ended up looking mucky so started over again.

Transports

As for my terrain, well I bought the Cobblestone roads with craters. They're well made, and though the colour is slightly different to my existing roads, it's not enough to warrant any repainting.

Some serious firepower hit here!

My biggest issue is actually using them in games! The whole reason for roads is to allow smooth transport, so having these and the bogging test and slow going nature really means you have to place them carefully, so that they have an effect, but not so that they make the roads unplayable.

How do we get past this road block?

I've recently tried using them to break up every couple of normal road sections. Either that or in the middle of a village to really encourage infantry fighting. I'd be interested on others experiences though.

Not a snow pic but shows how I've used these roads in a game

The only final thought, is that due to reading about Nordwind, I'm altering my list slightly so that there will be Flammpanzers in it, and only 1 platoon of 3 Panthers.

Until next time

Dr Cox

New Year Resolutions... Oh My!

Hello All

Firstly Happy New Year to you all, may 2013 be a great year. So a new year means it's time for new year resolutions! Lets see how well we do (being wargamers I bet we don't do well.....). 

Me (aka Ben)

So my goals this year are simple, keep focused and lets try and now waste money on models I will never use or paint! So here is my list:-

• Paint at least one platoon for my US army a month.
• Finish TOTWG challenge with Adam and get a Battle of the Bugle campaign started.
• Go to at least 5 FOW tournaments/events this year
• Play 52 games of FOW this year
• Not to start any new FOW armies.
• And the big one... I will only buy models for one new game system this year.

Winner Dave (aka Coopers)

• Paint a platoon a month
• On the gaming front I aim to play at least 3 times a month.
• Create snow gaming board (Have drawn plans for it)
• Attend a tournament
• Complete a brand new tank company (haven't decided nationality yet)
• Play someone I've never played before.
• Beat Adam

Adam (aka Doctor Cox)

Finish my ToWG army and start and finish a campaign with Ben
• Paint at least one axis unit a month, with the aim by the end of 2013 to have axis forces for infantry, mech and armour 
• Update my allied forces, the first of these will be my Para list
• Play more tournaments - really enjoyed my first one.
• Beat Dave so hard he rage-quits and takes up Dystopian Wars

Well thanks for reading and until next time

Ben