All Quiet on the Martian Front: A Battle Report

Back to Earlswood for another of Dave's amazing games (some Dave who brought us Dead Man's Hand in the last Blog post). This one is the excellent All Quiet on the Martian Front. Dave bought heavily into this game when it was just a Kickstarter, and was very disappointed when the company making it when bust before they had a chance to release all the figures. Luckily it looks like another company might have pickled up the rights and plan to revive the game. 

Dave has made his AQotMF terrain with the idea that it would look dramatic. this includes massive explosions, melted tanks, destroyed tripods, fleeing civilians and other general signs of war. This means that as the battle progresses we accumulate more smoke and chaos, which not only makes the game lots of fun it also means in photographed like a dream. 

On the subject of photocopy, I had to use my son's camera for this game, and I am not great with it, so please forgive any photos that are a little less than perfect. 

This game features a large force of US tanks, supported by infantry and artillery. The humans must protect a vital oil production plant from the martians. All the martians have to do is destroy the refinery and the oil reserve, however this is protected by a trench line and a very high anti-tripod electric fence. 

The first the Americans know of the attack is when the Martian Scout Tripods appear on the horizon, stalking their way through the trees!

"They're coming! The Martians are coming!"  Panic stricken civilians flee before the advancing war machines, trying to reach the safety of the American defences

"Ohh Laaaaa!" The scouts are followed by larger, and more deadly war machines.

The American soldiers prepare to hold the line. the oil reserve is vital to their war effort. The Martians must be stopped!

The trench line is protected by an anti-tripod fence, any war machine touching it will be in for a nasty shock. 

The US troops have access to the big guns- Tom, Dick And Harry! When they fire as a battery they are more than capable to bringing down a Martian.

The desperate Americans have even deployed a Clamp Tank- the brave crew risk almost certain destruction as they try to slow down the advancing Tripods. 

The US tanks advance past the wire to bring the battle to the advancing Tripods

The scouts break through the cover of the trees. The Red Weed from Mars can be seen spreading through the forest like a vile plague. 

The larger Tripods move in to attack the  US tanks. 

A Heat Ray hits one of the armoured cars, but lucky for the crew does not inflict major damage. 

Now its Tom, Dick and Harry's go. The American big guns open up- badly damaging one of the tripods

The armoured cars fire their 6dpr cannons at the damaged tripod, and finally bring crashing  down.

The armoured cars dart back out of range of the Tripods. 

The Martian heat ray reduces one of the M1 battle tanks to molten slag

  The Clamp Tank dashes forwards, its engines staining at it tries to engage with the Tripods legs- it misses its target and the crew desperately try to reverse for a second attack. 

The surviving M1 tanks take down one of the scout tripods.

 

Meanwhile Tom Dick and Harry open up on the larger tripod- causing it to explode. Unfortunately the resulting explosion was powerful enough to destroy the Clamp Tank

Things are looking up for the Americans as tripod after tripod are brought down by their disciplined fire. The Martians, undeterred by their losses continue to advance, their heat rays sweeping out in front of them. 

An armoured car is reduced to a brunt out shell and the other cars in the squadron have seen enough and turn to flee the advancing martians. The infantry in the trenches prepare to fight the Martians in close quarters.

The Martians turn their heat rays to to the Electric fence, destroying it with apparent ease. 

 The tripods continue their unrelenting advance, despite the best efforts of the American infantry, whose grenadiers fail to inflict significant damage to the last scout Tripod. 

The scout Tripod sweeps the infantry aside and crosses the last line of the Americans defences. It's heat ray cuts through the thin skin of the Oil tanks like a hot knife through butter, and in second the entire oil refinery is ablaze. 

The Americans inflicted a great deal of damage to the Martians, but ultimately failed to secure the oil refinery. The loss of half a dozen Tripods is a trifle to the Martians when compared to the effect of losing such a factor that was so significant to the Americans defence strategy. 

The talented and modest Dave with his brother Dean (sporting a lovely new wig). 

Dead Man's Hand Report: The Jail Break!

At Earlswood Wargaming we are lucky enough to have not one but two super talented scenery makers. As well as Big Al, whose prolific scenery building gave us the Gettysburg and Battle of The Bulge boards, we have Dave, who mas made the most amazing scenery for Dead Man's Hand. Dave's scenery began life as a pile of Laser-cut MDF buildings but they have been embellished and weathered to perfection (as you will see). Playing on Dave's beautifully made board is always rewarding, as the narrative that develops is very rich, and the photos end up looking like a museum diorama. Sit back and enjoy a Saturday western matinee.

With the dastardly bandit leader in jail the citizens of the Old West town began to relax. The Circuit Judge would be arriving at noon and was sure to hang the criminal, and that would be the end of his reign of terror. Time for the good folks to get back to normal.

The bank clerk and the butcher swap tall stories about how they took on the bandits

The saloon keeper sweeps away the broken glass and looks forward to an evening of celebration in the town. 

Old Crazy Dean the balloonist takes his balloon out for a spin. 

But what is this... the bandits are not going to let their leader swing without a fight. They are going to try a jail break! One of the villains takes the clerk hostage!

Another deranged killer rides through High Street shooting up the town, terrorising the Good Folk!

The Marshal and his deputy spring into action. 

A concerned citizen takes out the killer on the horse with both barrels of his shotgun...

but is in turn gunned down by the Mexican bandit who had been hiding in an alleyway.

Another deputy takes up position in a half built house, and takes pot shots at the bandits 

while another prepares to defend the jail house

  

The Mexican charges into the jail with his six shooter blazing, but miraculously hits nothing

Outside a bandit and the marshal get into a shoot out...

and the brave marshal is killed!

Inside the jail house the Mexican is gunned down by the lawmen

The last bandit tries to beat a deputy in fisty cuffs but is overpowered and arrested!

With the bandits dead, captured or driven off nothing can stop the Circuit Judge delivering a healthy does of justice to the dastardly bandit leader, and restoring Law and Order once more! Yeha!

All credit to Dave, who painted all the figures as well as making all the scenery. 

Peninsular War: Spanish Milita

While waiting for more figures to arrive for my Mini-hammer and Soviets I chanced upon three Spaniards who were undercoated but not yet painted, so spent an evening slapping them, with the wet end of a paint brush. This is the result.

The figures on the left and the right are from Empress Miniatures, from their New Zealand Wars range. The New Zealand Wars were a few decades after the Napoleonic War but I am not going to let that worry me too much as I managed to pick these pair up cheep as they had broken or miscast bayonets. They are carrying English kit but that works because many of the Spanish were supplied by the British. 

The figure in the middle in from Eagle Miniatures and is sporting some elements of the Spanish Regulars uniform (in this case an artilleryman). As Spanish regiments were broken in battle with the French many of the regular troops ended up drifting into service in the irregular forces, were their training and expertise were welcomed. 

Pirates: Assassin and Standard Bearer

Here are two more additions to my Pirate crew, originally intended for On the Seven Seas. To be honest I think the chance of me ever playing On the Seven Seas is rather remote, so they are just painted for fun really. And because I had them based and sprayed, sat on the painting pile while I am waiting for more Russians to arrive in the post.  The first one is from North Star Military Figures and is obviously a nod towards the characters in Assassins Creed, one of my favourite games. I painted him appropriately. He has an excellent dramatic pose. 

The second figure is a standard bearer. I can't really imagine that pirates fighting on land bothered to take a Jolly Rodger standard along with theme, so this is something of a whimsy. The figure is from Redoubt and was a left over from my French and Indian Wars British. The originally had a halberd in his hand, so was a rather simple conversion. 

Stalingrad: First Russian Platoon

I have finished basing the rest of my Russian platoon for Stalingrad. I have more figures on order from Crusader Miniatures and, with the addition of some armour or some more support options, this will make two platoons. 

Stalingrad: Platoon Support Options

Here are a few more of my Stalingrad defenders. These are the support options for my Platoon. Were would the Defenders of Stalingrad be without their snipers? And the trusted Maxim machine gun can be very motivating for reluctant raw troops, if positioned behind them to mow down anyone trying to retreat! Also I have included a flame thrower as these are something of a must in Bolt Action, especially when clearing Nazis out of ruined buildings. To finish it of I have a  medical officer and Commissar to support the platoon leader. 

Deadly Snipers Wait to Strike

Burn out those Nazis comrade!

Maxim MMG- Venerable but Reliable

Medical Officer and Commissar Political Officer

Stalingrad: New ptoject

While I wait for more tiny 15mm figures to arrive I have been finishing off another project. This one is for WW2 Stalingrad. This project sprang out of a conversation with Big Al at Earlswood Wargamming club who made the stunningly beautiful Battle of the Bulge scenery and the boards we used for Sharp Practice. Big Al said he had always fancied doing a Stalingrad board complete with cellars and so on. While we were chatting I remembered that I had about a platoon of WW" Russians from Black Tree Designs in my Lead Mountain waiting for a now aborted Winter War project (aborted when I saw the poor standard of the Finnish figures being produced by Bolt Action and Baker Company). I started to paint a few and found they were so easy to paint it was so very relaxing. I was churning out 4-5 competed figures in an evening. I have based them up with suitable ruined urban bases. I have even more on order and I plan to built it up to two complete platoons. I am not sure when Big Al plans to make his Stalingrad terrain but I know I will be ready to defend it from the Nazis when he does!

My Junior Officers

The Black Death- Soviet Sailors fighting in Stalingrad

Red Army

Minihammer: Night Goblin Squig Herd

 Here we go, the penultimate unit of my 2000 pts Orc and Goblin army for Minihammer. This one took a bit longer because I had to sculpt the Squigs. I did manage to find a few proxies on line but none that really looked like Warhammer Squigs, so I thought I would have a go at sculpting them myself. I am pretty happy with the outcome- bearing in mind that they are quite tiny- blown up here on the screen they look a bit rough around the edges but bear in mind they are only about 1-1.5cm tall and you will see that they look fine. 
The eagle-eyed will notice that their is only nine squigs in the herd- there were supposed to be three squig hoppers (goblins riding squigs) in the unit but I cocked up a bit when sculpting them as I forgot that in Warhammer Squigs go on 20mm bases, unlike Orcs who go in 25mm bases. This mistake basically meant I mad them too big, so I compromised. The three squig hopper minis will be attached to the unit and hop off to cause trouble when the bad guys get close enough. 
Incidentally the rides for the squig hoppers are the same models I used for the fanatics in the last post. 

Minihammer: Da Red Eye Night Goblin Mob

 Last week I went away and managed to smuggle my paints in with the luggage and completed my Night Goblin mob. This band of wicked little critters was from Ral Partha Europe. I had to add a few red caps using Green Stuff to make them look more like Night Goblins. I didn't convert them all, as it would take too long but converted just enough to make it clear they are Night Goblins. 

I also made a unit filler that can take them up from 36 (six stands) to 60 (ten stands) for bigger games. This takes to form of a humongous spider the Night Goblins have found in a deep dark cave somewhere and have herded into battle by prodding it with big spikes. The spider is a Reaper Bones giant spider. 

The front rank of the Night Goblins have nets. This strikes me as something of a must have. They chuck their nets before the first round of combat and anyone struck looses an attack. This is vital in keeping the goblins alive long enough for their weight of numbers to make a difference. 

The other thing Night Goblins have that are really something of a must have is fanatics. These whirling loons can, on a good day, reap a terrible price on the enemy. Even if they don't kill anyone they are sure to disrupt they enemies plans. Or at least give us something to laugh about. These fanatics were converted from RPE's mosquito riders, with the addition of a dressmakers pin as a ball and chain. 

 Here is the horde of Greenskins so far. I want to add a Squig Herd and a giant next. That will take me to 2000pts. I have to say that I am loving painting these figures so much that I think I might just press on and go for 3000 points before I start painting another army- either Chaos of Vampire Counts. 

Minihammer: Guzzard da Smasha, Black Orc Warboss

Many have heard of him by reputation and legend, but few have stood in his presence (and survived to tell the tale). Here is Guzzard da Smasha, Scourge of the Badlands and Slayer of Princes. He is the Black OrcWarboss for my 15mm Warhammer Orc and Goblin Army. This awesome figures is from Ral Partha Europe's Demonworld range and is very 'warhammery' if you ask me. Who else better to lead my minihammer green skins. 

And here is a picture of the growing tide of greenskins Guzzard is preparing to lead out of the Badlands to ravage the Old World. It's not finished yet but it is getting there. 

And here is a sneak peak at something I am working on for my goblins...