Great War US Brett's Brawlers (GUSAB01) Spotlight

Hello All

A few days ago we looked at the French Clavery's Chargers army deal, today we are going to look at the U.S. Brett's Brawlers (GUSAB01) box set.

The box set comes with 6 platoons with includes a HQ with 2x 37mm mle 1916 guns, French Flame-thrower Section with 3x Flame-throwers, 2x Rifle Platoons, Machine-gun Platoon with 4x Hotchkiss mle 1914 HMG teams, Light Tank Platoon with 2x Renault FT-17 (37mm) and 2x Renault FT-17 (MG) tanks, and a French Char d’Assault Platoon with 1x Schneider CA. Tank.

Great War Stosskompanie - List Discussion

Hello all

So when I first got the new Great War book I as happy to see that the original two nations had been bulked out to four with the French and the U.S. and while I wanted to collect a Entente army there was one list that stole my attention, The Stoss Company.

Why a Stoss Company? Simple really, how doesn't like elite troops? Add the imagery of these elite troops using ,at the time, revolutionary tactics to raid and take enemy trenches and break the deadlock of the Western Front.

Great War French Clavery's Chargers (GFRAB01) Spotlight

Hello All

Today we are going to have a look at the new French Clavery's Chargers (GFRAB01) set for Great War. One of our local gamers Robin Spence painted these for us and so I will hand it over to him to explain the rest.

First off the list, you get the options of either Reluctant Veterans or Fearless Veterans, the points jump a lot between the two and this box set can be anything from around 1600pts for RV and a whooping 2200pts for FV.

Beyond The Foxholes Episode 40 - Wayne and James Brown Interview Special

Hello All

Welcome to Beyond The Foxholes Episode 40, we join Ben and Winner Dave as they chat all things FOW

In act one Ben chats with Wayne about the new Great War briefing book. He cover all the lists, some of the oddities of the period and the worlds first transport tank that made all the infantry sick!

In act two Winner Dave chats to James Brown about the new Colours of War book before asking some general painting questions.

Great War Book Review

Hello All

In the tradition of Vietnam and The Six Days War, Great War is graduating from a Wargames Illustrated booklet to a full briefing book. Coming in at 74 pages and including two new armies, three new army lists, new missions and French Saint-Chamond tank (I love this tank!), Great War is now a full period with far more options. Battlefront kindle sent us a preview copy to read and it seemed a little rude not to review it and give you all a few spoilers!

First Impressions

The book looks great, what else do you expect from a Battlefront briefing book? Coming in at 76 pages the history sections in particular stands out and as normal do a good job of giving you an overview of the battles you will be fighting. There is quite a bit of reuse of the old Wargames Illustrated booklet for the German and British sections but if it ain't broke don't fix it.

Great War AAR - British Rifle Company Vs Germans Infanteriekompanie - The Big Push

Hello All  So after 11 months of no Great War games myself and Winner Dave got are second game within a week! As I talked about in the last game, this time I would defend in the Big Push against Winners British. Winner decided to change his list into a Veteran version of his old list. If I'm honest I had been thinking of doing something similar so I'd be interested to see how this works out for him. We decided to play at Entoyment, partly as it's halfway between are houses and partly to try and drive up some interest in Great War as a period. When I rocked up Winner had already set up the terrain so we got stuck in!

British Rifle Company (Veteran) HQ Full Infantry Platoon Full Infantry Platoon 4 HMG's  1 Mark IV Male 2 OQF 18pdr (Artillery Detachment)

German Infanteriekompanie (Trained) HQ + 2 Flame Throwers + 1 Granatenwerfer Full Infantry Platoon Full Infantry Platoon 4 HMG's (Turned into HMG Nests) 2 A7V's 2 Trench Guns

Great War AAR - Germans Infanteriekompanie Vs British Rifle Company - The Big Push

Hello All  It might have taken 11 months but myself and Winner Dave have finally got around to playing a game of FoW Great War together! We decided to play each of the core missions twice, once as the attacker and once as the defender. I won the first dice off and was the attacker in The Big Push, your classic assault on the trenches. For the first game we kept it to the forces in the army deals we got summer last year, we will propably change the armies a little over the next few games, I for one want to try out a Stoss Platoon or two! So here is are first battle report, that has been 11 months in the making. Note:- We got a couple of rules wrong (not surprise it being the first game) mainly trench reserves (Winner didn't roll for it) and shooting at damaged tanks.  Also I ended up having to write this post twice as Blogger went odd and deleted my post and my memory wasn't great the second time around. I think I got it right but I may have made a few mistakes. Sorry.

British Rifle Company (Trained) HQ + Sniper Full Infantry Platoon Full Infantry Platoon 4 HMG's (Turned into 4 HMG Nests) 1 Mark IV Male 1 Mark IV Female 1 Whippet 2 OQF 18pdr (Artillery Detachment)

German Infanteriekompanie (Trained) HQ + 2 Flame Throwers + 1 Granatenwerfer Full Infantry Platoon Full Infantry Platoon 4 HMG's  2 A7V's 2 Trench Guns

Great War German Commission - Beute Mark IV

Hooray my first minis painted since the big move.  Life has dramatically changed for me since the house and job move, but I can't tell you how glad I am that it's finally done.  Unfortunately I'm not able to paint in the kitchen any more, which is where I used to do my airbrushing as I found being near running water and a sink invaluable.

I haven't quite figured out where my new painting spot is in the new gaff...but it didn't stop me from getting my Great War German commission finished.

Great War German Commission - Stoss Platoon

After my adventures in Polish armour, it's back to the Great War commission.
After painting tanks I always fancy painting some infantry and vice versa.

So without further a do, a direty bunch of Stossers.

Unfortunately my photography kit is packed in boxes so I had to free had these photos, meaning my already terrible shots are Ivan on the scale of terrible.

Great War German Commission - Blitz's Battlegroup

Hi folks

Today I finished painting the Blitz Battlegroup from the Great War commission I started this year.
This has been a very enjoyable project for me to paint and I can't even begin to add up the hours  spent painting this.  I've grown very fond of this force and it's going to be hard to hand it over.

Anyway, here it is and in a break from the norm I've made a little set up.

1st Platoon dig in for the incoming assault

Blitz's Battlegroup Finally Finished!

Hello All

It seems like almost a life time ago I started Blitz's Battlegroup, in all fairness I finished all but one infantry platoon in a short period of but that last platoon just sat on my painting table getting passed over for tournament projects, FoW Vietnam and more recently the Tale of Four Gamers Nachtjager Challenge (don't judge me you have all done it too!).

We it seemed like I got my figure out and finish the damn army so here it is all done.

Great War German Commission - A7V

Hi all,

I've pretty much given up on making plans, as it seems whenever I do, something else crops up and and knocks all those best laid plans sideways.  To this end I haven't bothered with new years resolutions and I'm scrapping the painting list.  The reason is quite simple, I find these things add stress and detract from the enjoyment of what is simply a hobby.

If you asked me a couple of months ago if I was interested in doing more commissions, you'd have heard a resounding "NO WAY!"  Commissions in the past have been more like work than fun and typically get in the way of my resolutions or prevent reducing the size of my to-paint list.

When I asked if I fancied doing a Great War German commission, I realised I actually quite fancied it and I'm not being constrained by resolutions and lists...so I accepted.  Now I'm quite lucky, in that my client is not in any hurry, which is lovely.

Shattered Battlefield and Large Craters and Ruined House Review

Hey folks

Recently I bought the latest terrain products from Battlefront designed with The Great War in mind.  I wanted these as I didn't think I'd find the time to getting around to making my own and as we all know by now, these come pre-painted ready to go.

Great War German Infanteriekompanie HQ (GGE701)

Hello All

Today I'm finally rounding out my Great War army with the final blister, the Infanteriekompanie HQ (GGE701).

Of all the blisters this was the most fun! The amount of option to paint up and use is massive! Flamer throwers, light (well if you can call FP 3+ light!) mortars and anti-tank rifles, this blister has it all.

The Great War - British Rifle Platoon - 2

Hello all,  I'm really pleased to have finally finished all the units from my Great War boxset.

For reasons I can't quite explain this last platoon has really dragged on.  Partly family holidays/Exams/Job interviews/Having to paint Soviet stuff/Lack of enthusiasm.

Great War Trenchline System (BB182) - Review

Hello All

This week I finally got my hands on the Trenchline System (BB182). I have been waiting for this for a while as I didn't want to start playing until we had the trenches. Yes I know you can play without them, but to me playing the first game without trenches would been like a Soviet army without a load of red banners or a German army without any Panzer IV/70's, just wrong! Anyway lets have a look at what you get inside the box!

The trench set gives you a four foot long trench with two foot long communication trenches. It is featured in the Great War rule book and is designed to be perfect for the two missions that use trenches (Through the Mud and Blood & Big Push). It comes fully painted and like all the Battlefield in the Box range can be used straight from the box.

Great War German Infanterie Machine-gun Platoon (GGE704)

Hello all

The next date on my Great War German project. The Infanterie Machine-gun Platoon (GGE704) is done and now the army deal is on the last leg.

The HMG's are what you'd expect, three man teams and a the gun. They are sculpted well and look a but more dynamic than what you normally use too.

Great War German A7V (GGBX01)

Hello all,

After a bit of a break to round out my US Armored Rifles I'm back with more Great War models! This time up the A7V (GGBX01) tanks. 

The first thing that surprised me was the size of them, they are massive! It does make sense for something that had a 18 man crew, but still it dwarfs a Pershing!

Imperial War Museum Great War Exhibit

Hello All

A few weeks ago myself and my wife were in London for her 30th Birthday, while we had to do many less than interesting things (really not a fan of musicals!) we did get a chance to go to the Imperial War Museum that had just had a big revamp and a new Great War Exhibit. With myself and Winner getting into FoW Great War and it being the 100th Anniversary it seemed rude not to have a look around.

My first impression was they have thrown a lot of money at this, so many interactive section and projections. It was very well done. As you'll see below I have tried to show the interactive sections as best as I can but it might not show up that well with photos.

The Great War - Tommies - Mark IVs and Whippet

Here's my next instalment for the Great War, the Tanks.

I found the mark IVs a little tricky to paint, they are very narrow and very long.  The panels on the side are quite nice though and give you plenty of scope for doing simple panel highlighting that's quite effective.

I used this opportunity to try shading and highlighting with oil paints, which is a technique MiG Jimenez teaches.  I bought some cheap oil paints off Amazon for £1.10 and set about trying it.  I definitely worked and worked well, I need a bit of practice with it to get my technique down but I could see how it would work...that's until I applied Matt Varnish...it had a bad reaction with the oil paint and looked really bad...so that's something I need to investigate.