A bit of painting and some club games

I've finally got some more of the Seven Years War Austrians painted.  Painted, but not yet finished. Still I'm pleased to have got them done.  This was something I had planned to do sooner, but too many other games and activities meant they progressed slowly.  Now only the basing and flags to finish.    

Some pictures of recent club games. First, my mini mini Kursk scenario. I had planned to do this last July, to commemorate the 75th anniversary, but life got in the way. Each vehicle or stand in this version represents a company of 12-15 vehicles or battalion of infantry. My original planned big version was to have everything at platoon level.  

And just in case anyone wonders, the scenario is from the Spearhead rules, and represents the action on 12th July between the SS Totenkopf and elements of 5th Guards Tank army. This is after the earlier breakthrough and the Germans are now trying to complete the destruction of the Russian forces and advance off the top of the table towards the rail-line to Kursk.

First pic is a view of the initial Russian defence; then a view of the Germans advance, and then a view of he Russians racing forward their reserves.   

This game was also interesting in showing the style of the players. When I initially ran through the scenario, I had formed panzerkeils, and advanced the armour and left the Russian infantry to the panzergrenadiers.  However, when the panzer fans at the club took command, they formed what was essentially the "windscreen wiper" of doom, a line of armour across the table and they plodded forward, firing at everything till they'd destroyed it. They didn't actually make it more than halfway up the table. Hey-ho, such are different styles of play.  

Last Thursday we played Cruel Seas.  One chap brought the boats and the rest of us just played. Here's a picture of close to the start. This is a British escort to cargo ships. At the top of the picture are the e-boats. 

And views from the German side. Torpedoes in the water! Also, please note the smoking boats at the top left. 

The torpedoes reach the cargo ships. I needed to roll 5 or less to his the first ship. Then the torpedo passed under to strike the second ship. I rolled to hit and the torpedo was a dud. 

And finally, a classic episode worthy of a British film of the era, the 50's or the 60's. A badly damaged British boat deliberately rams the e-boat, sacrificing itself to stop the e-boat  attacking other British boats or the transports.  

The British losses. All in all, a fun game, but greatly enhanced by the 'go for it' attitude of the players.  This game also benefitted from being played on a small 4 foot by 4 foot table. 

And finally, a picture of some more of my attempts at some AB Napoleonics. I bought these already undercoated black, so I had the choice of stripping the undercoat or just starting. My first step was to do a light dry brush of white over the figures, just so I could see the detail. I'm afraid that when I look at black undercoat I can't really see a damn thing to paint. I then painted a bit more white on the drum major and some blue on one of the infantrymen. I'll see how this way of painting goes.  

Cheers for now …