Banzai! - Road to the Art of War Part Four - Tournament AAR and Photo Dump

Hello All

As you have probably seen I have been collecting a Japanese army for the Art of War Early War Tournament (click on the links to see parts one, two and three). The event was just over a week ago and I thought to round off the series I would post up an AAR of the event.

After a stop over at Alex's place in Northampton (and a few too many beers) we rocked up nice and early at the Sanctuary Gaming Centre. The day started with a bit of a shock as the Scottish team for the ETC (including Adam and Alex from Breakthrough Assault) turned up in full Scottish dress (not what I wanted to see at 8am!).

Beyond the Foxholes 28 - The Road to Art of War

Hi all

Welcome to Beyond the Foxholes Episode 28, we join Adam, Fez and Ben. 

In act one we join the guys in Adam's car on the way to The Art of War EW tournament. The guys talk about there armies and what they hope to get out of the weekend.

In act two Ben and Adam interview all the .different player who are going to the ETC )European Team Tournament. These include New Zealand, USA, England, Scotland, France, Northern Ireland, Wales and Finland (Check out the achtung painter blog). They also chat to the Tim and Steve who ran the event and Rich the owner of the Sanctuary Gaming Centre

In act three the guys are back in Adam's car with a full AAR of their games, a run down of the event and a few other random bits and pieces.

Avoiding That Wooden Spoon! (FOW Survival Guide)

Follow Matt aka Papa Bear as he covers all things FOW for the beginner in his fun, light hearted survival guide. So if you are new to the game, or simply enjoy the idea of learning by someone else's mistakes instead of your own, then this is the place for you!

Hey guys!

Today, in the FOW Survival Guide I would like to talk about the tournament wooden spoon - or more to the point, how we can avoid getting it! This breakdown guide is aimed at beginner players, attending perhaps their first event - however to be honest I still use most of these points even now... My first objective at any given tournament is to avoid last position, (2nd task is not to lose 6-1 and 3rd is two wins overall). 

Tale of Four Gamers month Three - Fez

Holy crap. Its the Midnight before Salute as I sit here writing this, (which is why I couldn't go to the LW One dayer) and I have to get up in four hours to drive to the show - But at least I have my priorities right in getting this post done first, as I know I won't be in a fit state tomorrow night!
But look, I made an army:

Finally!

 Its done, its finally done...

Tale of Four Gamers Month Three - Andy

Hi All,

Its the final day of the challenge and its pretty late but I did it. Well 99% done. I haven't finished in style like Ben having painted loads extra too but I have done what I set out too do and finished an army in three months. For me thats unheard of! It's been quite tough, especially right at the end and in some ways it has taken a little of the fun out of it, but overall its been good and at least now I can look forward to some gaming and adding more to the army.

Tale of Four Gamers Month Three - Ben

Hello All

So the tale of four gamers is coming to an end and I have completed my objective of getting my British army painted. In-fact I have painted more than I needed to with extra Shermans, Stuarts, Comets and currently on my painting table a battery of Land Mattresses. Plus I'm hoping to get enough blisters of SAS for my birthday to run the new SAS list and I'm looking forward to the new plastic Cromwell when that hits the shelves.

You might be able to tell that although I have finished the challenge and I do feel the achievement of having done so, I also feel as though I'm just starting to get to the half way point with this army. Anyway back to the focus of this post, what I have painted to finish the painting challenge. This month I have painted up 4 Archers and 6 6 Pounders.

Building On Your 'Open Fire' German Grenadier Army (The FOW SurvivalGuide)

Follow Matt aka Papa Bear as he covers all things FOW for the beginner in his fun, light hearted survival guide. So if you are new to the game, or simply enjoy the idea of learning by someone else's mistakes instead of your own, then this is the place for you!

So you've made the rather splendid decision of picking up the Open Fire boxset. You love the models and now want to build on the core forces you now have to develop them into a winning army? But perhaps you simply can't afford to go out there and buy all of the options off the bat? Or maybe you find the vast amount of choices overwhelming? There are certainly a lot of options out there and so I hope this guide can help point in you the right direction. Your spouse/partners and parents alike will be thankful that you're not spending ALL of your months income on toy soldiers again, and you get to build your army in an efficient, organised and (most importantly) nag-free way! - Everyone's a winner!

Last time we looked at the British Armoured Squadron and how we can build on the core elements provided in the boxset. Next up we will be speaking to Dave Coombs (Army Dave) about the German Grenadier Company. He has taken this list-type to a lot of big events and has achieved some excellent results! Needless to say, he is the go-to man when it comes to building a German infantry army. Let's see what he has to say!

Tale of Four Gamers Nachtjer Challenge - Month 3 and Goal - Alex

Well it's been a long three months of busy modelling and painting but it's done. This month everything has come together and I received all of the stuff I had ordered and after a monster session of armoured vehicle painting everything is finished.

So at the end of last month I had some mostly based infantry for dismounted motorcycle teams. After a bulk buy of textured paint, they're done:

Banzai! The Road to Art of War III - Part Three

Hello All

As this post goes live it's the day before the Art of War and I only finished the army two days ago. In the last post I had just finished the infantry and I had hoped to get two more posts in before the event, as you can probably tell things didn't go to plan and so this post will be it.

I have been busy and also have a little playing on easy army one night at work I found a list I loved, it did mean buying some more Japanese tanks to be able to run it but I think it will be totally worth it in the end.

Comet Platoon (BBX30) - Review

Hello All,

As you will know from the Tale of Four Gamers painting challenge I have been collecting up a British Infantry company. Well that is coming to a close and I'm now looking at how to expand my British collection. I was looking at what to get next and along came a couple of boxes of Comets at Entoyment and like a kid in a toy shop (I guess you could say literally a kid in a toy shop) I had to buy them.

Beyond The Foxholes Episode 27

Hi all

Welcome to Beyond the Foxholes Episode 27, we join Adam, Winner Dave and Ben. 

In act one the guys talk about what they have been up to gaming wise before moving on to a new section called "Whats Awesome and What Sucks".

In act two Winner Dave talks about how to profile your models when you are painting them. Then the guys dive deep into Winner Dave's Mail Bags which today include a big parcel.

Rounding out the episode with act three the guys take a look at the FOW digital app and Forces of War now they have be out for a while and then end the episode with a run through of the new Barbarossa digital lists.

Building On Your Open Fire British Armour - (The FOW Survival Guide)

Follow Matt aka Papa Bear as he covers all things FOW for the beginner in his fun, light hearted survival guide. So if you are new to the game, or simply enjoy the idea of learning by someone else's mistakes instead of your own, then this is the place for you!

So you've made the rather splendid decision of picking up the Open Fire boxset. You love the models and now want to build on the core forces you now have to develop them into a winning army? But perhaps you simply can't afford to go out there and buy all of the options off the bat? Or maybe you find the vast amount of choices overwhelming? There are certainly a lot of options out there and so I hope this guide can help point in you the right direction. Your spouse/partners and parents alike will be thankful that you're not spending ALL of your months income on toy soldiers again, and you get to build your army in an efficient, organised and (most importantly) nag-free way! - Everyone's a winner!

I really wanted to cover the contents of Open Fire as part of my Survival Guide, because with exception to my first army (Finnish Jaakari company mentioned in part one of this series), the two armies I have ever taken to late war events so far have only been either German infantry or British Armoured Squadron, both of which stemmed from this boxset!

Brown Water Navy - Forces of War Review

Navy SEALS… Gunships… Patrol Boats… Jets… Amphibious Guerrilla Warefare!

So for those of you who have resisted Tour of Duty so far, I might have grabbed your attention with some buzz words, particularly SEALS but keep reading if your one of the people that hasn't got into the Vietnam theatre yet as Brown Water Navy is seriously good!

A lot of my friends don’t play Vietnam games and that might be because of a lack of historical interest in the conflict as we come from a tiny corner of the South of England but I’m hoping to convert a few of you over to this Flames of War expansion.

For those of you who are interested in Vietnam, the lists are on Forces of War, the book is on Flames of War Digital and Wargames Illustrated have done a fun article. Ben even got to see a demonstration copy of Brown Water Navy in Entoyment Store and I wanted to have a look at the lists, rules and why something that should catch your attention, even in the face of other new expansions in 2015.

The Panther - A New Prespective

I'm sitting here after 10 tournament games in 2015, and however many practice games, and I'm coming to the same conclusion repeatedly - panthers still have a place in a tournament list.

In all those games the Panthers have survived pretty much intact in every mission - in only one have I lost two, and in 7 all three survived!

AAR - Czech Panzer's vs French Recon - Cauldron

Hi all and welcome to another AAR. I traveled up to Matt's place for a few games, and we started off with an Early war game. I broke out the French Escadron de Reconnaissance against Matt's Czech Panzer's from Barbarossa, for some Art of War practice. We rolled up Cauldron and so Matt was the attacker. As you may know from listening to the podcast Cauldron is one of my least favourite missions. But it is a mission that is common at tournaments so it's always good to get some practice in.

Matt's Czech Panzer's HQ 2 38t B 4 38t B 4 38t B 4 Panzer 2's 2 8-Rad's 4 Nebelwerfers 1 Flak 88 with Extra Crew

Adam's Escadron de Reconnaissance HQ Hotchkiss Long Barrel 5 Panhards 4 Panhards 3 'Recce' Hotchkiss 4 Hotchkiss 'short' and 1 'long' 5 Renault AMR 4 Mortars 5 Laffly SP Anti-tank 4 105mm Artillery

Your First Army! (The FOW Survival Guide)

Follow Matt (aka Papa Bear) as he covers all things FOW for the beginner in his fun, light hearted survival guide. So if you are new to the game, or simply enjoy the idea of learning by someone else's mistakes instead of your own, then this is the place for you!

Hello all and welcome to a new set of posts I am writing to discuss my learnings after a year of playing the game (& several tournaments) under my belt. I hope to share some of my experiences with players relatively new to the game/event scene in order to assist getting you on that fast track to 'success' - well... not picking up the wooden spoon on a routinely basis at least!

This article covers my first army, lessons learnt, whether they were any good or not and of course, some suggestions on building your own first Flames of War company!

Five Shades of Panzer

Hi all Coxer here again with more ramblings for you, this time about LW panzer lists.

The ongoing problem I have is this, 'getting what I want, for the points that I play, and covering all the bases, is tough!' I'll start by going though my 'methodology' on a list, and then look at how that plays into the construction of a list.

Some of my new panzers, and other stuff I've been working on/updating

I look at LW panzers as a real rapier list, you do not have the luxury of hitting lots of places - you lack the numbers, your main aim is to hit hard and fast in one area and punch a hole though - whether that's to the objective or the soft underbelly of the artillery park. 

The FOW Centurion Challenge - March Update

In episode 22 of Beyond The Foxholes I set myself the rather bonkers New Years Resolution to play 100 games of Flames Of War in 2015! Follow and track my progress as I attempt to conquer the FOW Centurion Challenge!

Hello everyone,

March was relatively quiet on the gaming front by my recent standards - I only managed 8 games! This means that I have now completed 40 games of FOW so far this year and well on target to reach 100 before the years up. Given that there were no tournament games I set myself a mini objective to not lose 1-6 throughout the month. Here's how I got on...

So, trust Adam to spoil everything! He beat my Czech Panzers with his Panhards 6-1 and thus ruined my months objective! I was a little unlucky in this game that the defeat was as heavy as it was. I had some of his platoons wittled down quite a bit, but in the end I couldn't inflict enough damage. It was my first game against Adam actually and it was great to see how he plays. He is good at reading the game and seemed to have a highly effective reaction to everything I did! I got my revenge against his Kampfgruppe Piper list in the following games though - a highlight being a single Piat team sneaking up on his lone King Tiger in an assault and blowing it to smithereens!

Plastic Panther/Jagdpanther and Uhu's

Hi all Coxer here. 

I recently got my hands on the new plastic Panther/Jagdpanther (GBX84) Boxset, what a little beauty, Firstly I like the art work in the box, and again the QR code is there to take you straight to the instructions. Saying that the instructions on the back of the box were clear and easy to follow.