AAR - Desert Rats Lorried Rifle Company Vs Volksgrenadiers - Hold The Line

Hi all,  Dr Alex here. This is the first outing my British Lorried Rifle company have had. I started getting this army together late last year when Dr Cox gave me a rifle company box for my birthday. I've been building them up and painting them as I go and for some reason (mainly due to Dr Cox bailing on me two weeks ago) I have ended up with an army I have completely painted (sans decals) before using. As such I fully expected this entire army to suffer from Shiny Model Syndrome and die horribly. Anyway, Dr Cox finally turned up at my door in the rain, clutching a scrap of paper and a box of toy soldiers, begging forgiveness for standing me up and because I'm a sucker for a cute face, I let him in...

The Desert Rats - Lorried Rifle Company (Reluctant Vets) HQ - 2 command teams with a jeep as they are cool Full Lorried Rifle Platoon with transport Lorried Rifle Platoon Lorried Rifle Platoon Lorried Carrier Platoon (1 squadron) Lorried Anti-tank Platoon (6 6pdr's) Lorried Heavy Mortar Platoon Armoured Platoon (3 Cromwells, 1 Firefly) Self Propelled Field Battery (8 Sextons) Air Observation Post

Dr Cox's Volksgrenadiers (Confident Vets) Hq with 2 extra panzerschreks Volksgrenadier Sturm Platoon Volksgrenadier Sturm Platoon Volksgrenadier Schutzen Short Scout Platoon Mortar Platoon (2 sections) Infantry Gun Platoon (IG37 4 guns) 3 Pak 40's 2 Sturm Tigers

Generated by WWPD's BatRepper Software.

Firestorm: Operation Crusader - Draft Rules

Hello All,

Ben here with something I have been working on for a month or so now. One thing about wargaming I have always had an interest in but never really done more than dabbled in is writing rules. From making up new units to campaign rules sets to whole new house rules I have enjoyed coming up with ideas or rules with word of mouth but never anything solid. Well I'm now hoping to get that changed!

Being inspired by the great work Jokull has done with the Greece, Lorraine and Caen Firestorm campaigns (if you have not checked these out I highly recommend having a look) I have decided to have a go at one based on Operation Crusader. I decided on Crusader for a few reasons. The most important reason to me is I have an interest in the EW Desert era which I see as a big important part of the process (I would like it would be quite hard to do a campaign based on a battle you weren't interested in). Secondly it's about the first none one sided battle of the war, both sides launched attacks and counter attack which should mean both players get to attack in the campaign instead of one player defending most of the time. The last reason is it links in nicely with the Just Deserts challenge myself and Alex are currently taking part in.

Overlord British Airborne

Hi everyone,

I was excited to get hold of the new and instantly started checking out the Para's to see how they improved are they 'better' than my Market Garden para's and their fabulous 'medium support'

So for those of you who remember the old book why not check out my review of para's from there first.

Overlord and Atlantik Wall - Spoilers and Book Overview

Hello All,

With the new D-Day books turning up on my door set on Friday morning, I thought it would be a good idea to write a little review and quick overview of the books. This is not going to be the most detailed overview of the lists as the books are massive and I'm sure there will be a load of little gems and changes that we will find as we use the books over the next few months.

So a quick review of the books. Firstly as I have said able they are massive! Overlord is 300 pages and Atlankic Wall is 240 pages, this compares 240 and 216 pages that the previous two were. Secondly I was surprised by how different the books looked from the old two, I was expecting the core of the books to look the same with a few pages added in, not the case at all. Yes a few pictures and background pieces are copied and pasted from Earth and Steel, Turning Tide or even the older individual books, but a lot of it has changed and looks new and fresh.

Mark I and OKE Churchills

Hello All,

A second update up for my Welsh Open Churchill Army. This time I have a platoon of Mark I Churchills and my first FOW conversion, a platoon of Oke Churchill.

I had decided to give the Dieppe Churchill list a go as laugh, one of the most interesting units in the list are the Oke Churchills. They are interesting as they are not normal flame tanks. They can assault, counter attack and do anything a normal tank can but with the added fun of having a one shot flame thrower.

Mark IV and Mark VI Churchills

Hello All,

It's been awhile since I have done a painting post as I have been a little busy with "real life" stuff, but I have not been idle and I have been painting up Churchills for the up and coming Welsh Open.

I used the new PSC Army Spray on these guys and I'm happy to report that unlike the German spray it's a spot on match for the odd Battlefront Late War Spray. The first platoon on show is a platoon of Mark VI Churchills.

Just Deserts - The Road To Colours 2013 - Allies Plans

It's Dr Alex here, 

I'm going to give a very brief run through of my plans for Just Deserts, our early war desert army-athon
which only Ben and I were cool enough to be selected for. The plan is to do 500 points a month for 3 months and then play at Colours 2013. I have gone with the allies, in particular I'm putting together a British Crusader list. Now I have never played early war, and have only limited flames of war experience (of late war Soviets) so I've gone for what I hope will be the polar opposite of my existing army. As such I've gone for a tank list (also because it's North Africa it would be rude not to) and something that will let me use all the cool British rules like Tally Ho.

Volksgrenadiers - Nebelwerfers

Hi all

Adam again with more models for my volksgrenadiers - and barring a miracle, the last infantry I think!

I ordered these off ebay, but was a bit special and got the 21cm instead of the 15cm ones, but I think they'll more likely be those guys as i need the cheap smoke bombardment!

Mid War Mixed Tankovy List Discussion

Good morning chaps,

If you read this blog regularly you'll know that I winnerDave, collected a Russian army from a list Ben made way back when.  I took the list to campaign and will be taking it again to the Welsh open.

It goes something like this...
7 KV1E
8 T70
9 Matilda IIc with Tankodesantniki
5 BA10M
1 Sporadic Kobra

Just Deserts - The Road To Colours 2013 - Axis Plans

Hello All

Ben with details of my plans for the Just Deserts painting challenge.

Alex was pretty up for doing The Desert Rats, so I had to choice from the Axis options. I thought this would be an easy choice and I would just pick the DAK, but the Italians really spoke to me and I found myself on Easy Army writing more and more Italian lists. But there was always one problem, I'm not 100% percent sure how to paint Italian armour and with the lack of availability of the Battlefront Sprays I was stuck, this led me to the DAK (and of course Rommel!). I did a DAK army last year and although I sold it and really enjoyed painting it so would happily paint and collect another one. So army chosen it was time to write a list.

Panzergrenadiers - Flak 88

Hello all Adam here,

Is there a more iconic unit than these guys? I picked them up cheap of ebay, and after seeing another blister of winter gun teams at my FLGS, I picked them up and got too work.

AAR Volksgrenadiers vs US Rifle company - Fighting withdrawal

Hi all,

been a while since I did an AAR but I thought I'd brighten you're day with this one.

This is my Volksgrenadier's first outing!

Volksgrenadiers - List discussion part two

And welcome back!

This is the second part of my volksgrenadier list discussion, hopefully it'll provide some insight into my thoughts on the list.

This time I'm covering divisional support and a list idea.

Just Deserts - The Road To Colours 2013

Hello All,

and welcome to the first post of 'Just Deserts' Dr Alex and my monthly Early War Desert painting challenge. The name was better than our other suggestion which was 'CBeebies', the lesson from this was never ask a toddler an important question.

The goal of the challenge is two fold, firstly for each of us to get a 1500pts army painted for the up and coming Early War tournament at Newbury Colours 2013 and secondly to have a selection of Desert themed EW armies by the end of the year. We ummed and ahhed a great deal and then plumped for Ben doing Axis and Alex doing Allies.

Review - Plastic Soldier Company - War Sprays

Hi all,

thought that I'd do a quick review of Plastic soldier companies (PSC) new War Spray.

Like a lot of people I loved battlefronts sprays and was burning through their Dunkelgelb, until it ran out...

Then lo and behold PSC release some which seem to be the colours we need! Now they were made by army painter as well, so I had high hopes that they would basically be the same colour and I would have all my tanks fitting in.