08/02/15 Iron Forest Club Day: Armageddon Begins

Another sunday... another day of gaming at Iron Forest Games :)

After over sleeping from the night shift, I groggily got to IFG later than usual, thankfully Jonno was already prepared to come to my rescue via Rockstar blueberry goodness. Once the elixir had done its magic it was onto gaming. John and Jason had already opened the club three hours earlier so everything was well under way before I got in.

Dan, Leigh and Jay were already well into a game of bolt action on our new (in progress) WW2 layout. The game was pacific themed (even if the terrain says otherwise lol) with Dan's US Rangers vs Leigh and Jay's Japanese.

The game looked a blast and I was told they were implementing a lot of on the fly house rules to heighten the more potential cinematic moments of the game - once I get more details of these will feature them in a rules tinkering post. Also Jason was taking some pics and doing some brilliant Photoshop effects to really bring them to life. Will be posting these pics later in the week so stay tuned ;)

Also at the same time Faction Ray was running the next instalment of his Mecha RPG campaign. Regrettably I did not track the sessions progress but I heard something of Jonno's character trying to woo a princess and ended up with a beating...

Meanwhile I had begun my first game of the clubs 40k Third War of Armageddon Campaign. It was my Ork force led by Big Mek Orkimedes vs Tony's Sir Tomund Eyre leading an Adeptus Mechanicus force. We was playing a standard maelstrom of war game - except on a 4x4 board with objectives 5,6 removed. The fluff of the game is a Ork incursion into the lower levels of Hive Hades looking for steal-able Imperial tech with Sir Tomund ready and waiting for them.

My plan was to use the Looted Wagon to hopefully whittle down a hull point or two while Orkimedes and his retinue charged in to finish the hulk off. If that didnt work than after the Killa Kans, Cybork Slasha's (custom unit of my creation for the campaign - will post rules at a later date) and Dakajet after dealing with the Thallax, Vorax and Thralls would than move in on the Knight. With at the whole time my Boyz staying back grabbing cheaky objectives. As ever that was the plan....

I took first turn and did...nothing. Not intentionally mind you,  just managing to either fail every dice to wound or it being successfully saved. On the other hand Tony's Knight just gave my looted wagon a dirty look and it blew up. At the same time the rest of his force pushed forward, holding the two objective markers.

My next turn began as badly, with failure of bringing in my Dakajet (I know, flyer in hive, but hey - he is a damn good pilot ;) ) but the shooting went better, managed to knock a few wounds off the vorax and thallax with concentrated Big Shoota fire. But Tony returned fire and killed Orkimedes...

Meanwhile knowing my right flank was in peril, I moved the retinue of the now deceased Orkimedes to intercept the advance of Sir Tomund.

My fortune faired better when my Cybork Slasha's assaulted the vorax, killing one in the process.

Tony as ever matched the pain output....

His Thallax jetpacked up onto a building and blazed away down upon the Killa Kans, knocking hull points of two of them.

Meanwhile the warlord-less retinue met there fate under the foot of Sir Tomund.

Turn 3 and finally got my Dakajet! Calling a Waaagh I unleashed hot metal Orky lead into the Thralls and managed to only kill one... bloody feel no pain...

But the Killa Kans did better, charging and felling the remaining Vorax.

But Sir Tomund was into my deployment zone and shot the Trukk to pieces. My Boyz charged out of the building they where holding with their Nob managing to knock off 3 hull points in the process but couldnt survive the backlash and was reduced to green paste.

With just my Kans left (the Dakajet soared off for another pass) they tried to make a last stand but were wrecked under the combined assault of the thallax and thralls. A Ace game ending with a 10-2 score to Tony, ouch!.

Lastly and during our game Leigh was running a demo skirmish game of Bolt Action for Ray, Phil, Alex and Ian. I did not follow the game, but I know it ended a victory for Ian who burrowed Leigh's Japanese force.

After that volley of gaming, the day ended with myself, Alex, Jason, Dan, Tony and Leigh having another game of Bolt Action, US Army vs German Heer. Regrettably no photos but played out something straight out of Brothers in Arms. The Germans tried to blitzkrieg into a hail of US fire, got pinned and then met a deadly crossfire as the yanks flanked their positions.

All in all it was great day at Iron Forest - hitting record numbers for turn out too! Its great to see the club gain in popularity :)

Thanks for your time - cya soon ;)

Production Line: Warlord US Infantry, Sherman and Panzer IV H

For anyone who has been following this amateur outfit of a blog would know that I have recently fallen in love with Bolt Action. I have never come across a rule-set that I have grasped so easily and effortlessly - mainly I think that the author was quite ingenious and made a rule-set that us 40k generation can move into without major teething pains.
The other reason is that this is the first historical game that my club; Iron Forest Games have got into with genuine enthusiasm. Now don't get me wrong, I love my sci-fi and fantasy gaming but historical s do scratch a very certain itch and am thankful it now has the chance to be given a proper scratch :P

So at the moment I am getting through the D-Day Firefight Starter Set, which at the moment they are chucking either a free sherman or panzer IV on top!

First up is my first batch of US Infantry; this was given a spray of black primer and basecoated following a guide I found for Flames of War. Once base-coated was given a wash of Agrax Earthsade and done!

This is the second batch (the third not pictured where 3 support teams but painted in the same manner) where painted exactly as mentioned above except they were primed with Plastic Soldiers Company's US Olive Drab War Spray. This sped up the painting time loads and made a quick job even quicker :). All thats left on the infantry is to base and find decals for the 1st Infantry Division which these chaps shall portray in a upcoming campaign at Iron Forest.

This Panzer IV Ausf. H was actually primed in US Olive Drab (The Horror!!!) as I am a cheap skate and after weathering and washing, the colours in my eyes seem to match (note I am partially colour blind). Again this isn't 100% finished - decals and extra weathering are still to be added.

Lastly is the Sherman - this isn't from Warlord but something I picked up many winters ago from Westwind Productions. Was in a pretty sorry state (my fault - let a six year old unleash its artistic works upon it) but after a quick lick of Lorian Forest, than a shade wash into the recesses with Agrax Earthshade and a quick bit of weathering - looks ready for war again :)

The Germans from the starter set are being painted as I type this by my brother in law Jason and will be sharing pics of them soon. Also am working on a battle mat for bolt action and will be posting an article on how I did it in the next few days.

Thanks for your time - cya soon ;)

Iron Forest Club Days 01/02/2015 - Banzai!!!!!!

So another weeks rolls by and no sooner than I can say "wow, that went.." it is Sunday - club day :)! After catching a quick bit of sleep from the previous nights fun shift at the local Super M (Discovered that Canvey Island consumes a ridiculous amount of ready to eat jelly :S please share theories) I made my way to Iron Forest Games.

John and Jason had opened the club for me earlier and had already squeezed in a couple of games of Mordhiem for Jason's campaign. The first game was Jason's Mercs vs Tony's Dwarves and I heard Tony got a bit of a kickin! Loosing three dwarves permanently in the process - ouch! The second game was Phil's Sisters of Sigmar vs John's Norsemen - I heard that Phil didn't fair much better than Tony either! Next week is the final games of the campaign and I believe Sir Rodric is due a game with Jason... wooden spoon anyone?

After I got myself sorted I accepted a game against a new visitor to IFG - Leigh who is one of the founding members of Blood and Iron - a Essex bolt action gaming group.  Naturally he invited me to a game of Bolt Action - my US army vs his Imperial Japanese. So after a quick ooogling of his figures, we set up and begun the game.

NOTE: Me and Leigh are both raising new armies so please excuse the unpainted nature of the figures - they will be painted soon :)

Deployment

Before the game begun Leigh versed me in the rules of the Japanese and their powerful banzai charge. Upon this knowledge I made the wise assumption that I couldn't afford to get assaulted and decided as a plan (Like those work :P) to approach the enemy until in long range and than making a fighting withdraw, concentrating fire on exposed units in the plan of pinning them down.

US Sniper team taking position on the far left flank.

I placed my Sniper Team hidden within a ruined cottage on the far left flank with the Sherman at the bottom of the hill.

Next along is a seven man team of veteran infantry, with one BAR and SMG. They deployed near the wheat field - hoping to make the most of the cover asap. Centre deployment of the battlefield was the HQ team - hiding behind boccage - ready to instil discipline where needed.

Than finally on the right flank was another seven man infantry team - same composition and a bazooka team.

Opposing me - from left to right (from my perspective) was a veteran Japanese infantry team, position behind a hill. Next along was his "tank bombers" not sure of the proper term and his mounted HQ who positioned themselves in the safety of the Mediterranean village.

In the ploughed field adjacent was another infantry team and a light mortar team - a pain in the arse for my sniper team! And lastly a type3 Chi-Nu was within the ruined hamlet on the far right flank.

As planned I pushed a steady advance, all my units take position in the cover they could find. My sherman pounded the infantry team as it moved from safety from behind the hill, causing little damage but pinning none the less.

On the right flank, the japanese mortar began to rain down on the unit in the wheat field but luckily not quite finding its mark. Meanwhile my bazooka team and infantry team moved into position within the ruined farmstead.

note the figs behind the tank are "dead pile"

The bazooka team opened fire on the Chi-Nu but only managing to drop a couple of pin markers.

Back on the left flank - the combined fire of the infantry and sherman made serious damage on the enemy infantry team. The Chi-Nu managed to land a couple of rounds on the sherman but no more than pinning in effect.

And from here is where it went wrong for me. The enemy infantry team who started in the ploughed field moved steadily up the centre of the board. My infantry team on the far right tried to pin them down but there fire had disappointing effect. This allowed the enemy to take perfect position behind the centre hill to BANZAI!!!!

Into the infantry team in the wheat field and my HQ - effortlessly wiping both out....

At the same time a lucky shot from the Japanese mortar landed bang on my sniper team... SPLAT!!!

Seeing everything going pete tong, I used my sherman to hurtle MMG fire into the Banzai unit but not enough as they managed to charge from the wheat field into my bazooka team, slaughtering them. 

The infantry team on the far right, sensing their peril and starting to get seriously suppressed from combined fire from the mortar team and the Chi-Nu, withdrew from the barn and unleashed crossfire with the Sherman tank into the unit that assaulted the bazooka team - wiping them out.

With only the mortar team, and Chi-Nu remaining the infantry hunkered down in the safety of a ruined cottage while the Sherman moved in to finish them off - only managing to wipe out the mortar team and rout the Chi-Nu. It was a great game - the sudden turn of misfortune for me only made the game even more tense and exciting and the close victory felt very satisfactory for me and Leigh.

At the same time to me and Leigh game, Tony and Alex was having a go at Infinity 3rd Edtion - I dont know the details of the game other than it was Tony's Nomads vs Alex's Yu-Jing. But did manage to get a few snaps of the game :)

After a quick break, we broke into a another game of Bolt Action, this time a multilayer team match with me, Tony and John sharing a US force vs Jason and Leigh who had a mixed German, Japanese axis force. I wont go into this game in depth other than it was an absolute massacre for the US - with only John's excellent use of the Sherman managing to retain any form of moral victory for our team :P

Lastly while this was going down, Phil and Alex had a game of 30k. Phil's Catachan Imperial Guard vs Alex's Sons of Horus. I didn't follow this game closely enough to report on other than they had a ton of fun and when the dust settled, it ended in a draw.

It was such a great day at the club, glad to see old friends and great to see the club being fully utilised. With all the tables being used and a vast variety of games being played down over the course of the day - nice to see we have come along way from May 2013 :)

Thanks for your time, cya soon ;)