16 July 2017

Battle of Tanga 1914 Refight

Mark put on another one of his sumptuous games, this time a WWI Ost Afrika game using Games Workshop's 'Warhammer Historical Great War' (basically Warhammer 40k without all the silly stuff).

This was the battle that more than anything was the foundation of the von Lettow-Vorbeck legend. You can read more on the battle here:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Tanga

The game would see the Anglo-Indian force attempting to take the town of Tanga, while the German Schutztruppe and Askari force would do their best to defend it. The British was something of a mixed bag in terms of troop quality but had numerical advantage, along with their opposition not being quite the grizzled veterans they would later become. The game had the blinds for the Germans, with a dummy counter for each company or command unit (see the yellow counters below). There were also secret bonus points for  the British if they were able to capture the Hotel Deutscher Kaiser in the centre of town (bottom right in the photo below), while the Germans would be rewarded if they captured the supplies at the docks (top middle in the same photo).


The view from the German right flank:

Matrosen Kompagnie infantry defending the Hotel Deutscher Kaiser:

British tourists disembarking their cruise shipping, thinking that this was a package holiday in Dar es Salaam:

Leutnant zur See Hammerstein with a bottle of Hefeweißbier Dunkel getting ready for the fight:

More British rats crawling through the jungle:


The sailors (who were my wurst quality troops) charging (okay they shuffled forward, then shuffled back before shuffling forward again) ahead to meet the British threat:

My army's elite Schutztruppe showing the sailors how it's really done:

Before they were wiped away by the Bengal tigers:

The Löwe von Afrika himself, Paul Emil von Lettow-Vorbeck, holding it all together (well it's me holding him):

The game was tense (the Germans were outnumbered 3 to 2 and my firearms were old and therefore had shorter range), with the balance shifting a few times as fortunes charged, I was able to grab victory when my Askaris held off the British assaults on my right flank:

All in all a great game, that looked good and was a huge amount of fun.

15 July 2017

Conversions - Mantic's The Walking Dead Liam, Sandra and Patrick

Here are some quick conversions of Mantic's The Walking Dead Liam, Sandra and Patrick from the base game.


Liam has a Games Workshop Warhammer 40k Kroot bag and Green Stuff strap, as I wanted him to have a weapon. Sandra has an added Warhammer 40k Cadian weapons belt (to house her knife and make her look more like a runner), and Patrick's bat has been extended with Green Stuff are it looked way too short.

09 July 2017

Conversions - Lead Legion Space Marines

The Lead Adventure Forum decided that it would be fun to create our own chapter. Further information can be found here:
http://www.lead-adventure.de/index.php?topic=102072.0

I decided to join in, as the 8th edition Warhammer 40K had actually got me to pull out the unpainted 40K miniatures and maybe even paint something. Or, crazy, buy something new.

The previous post was a colour test, and I think I'll stick to it (but first I'll test out how Vallejo Khaki and Buff look side by side). I was originally thinking of just painting this guy (apologies, black doesn't photograph well):


He was originally just left over from my Space Marine army, so I made a Space Wolves ronin-type character (as a proxy Cypher). He's been unpainted for... never 20 years 😲

Then on Friday I walked into the Melbourne store at lunch time, as I heard that Games Workshop was giving away the new Primaris Marine as samples (to see how they paint up, etc). The dude (he was pretty chill) said he'd unfortunately run out of them, but broke open a set of the Space Marines + Paint Set to give me the three Marines in them. I have been out of the game somewhere between 3rd and 4th edition, a lot has changed (I've seen the bad models over the years).


These guys were quick to put together, and I couldn't help converting them with some Chaos and Kroot bits to make them less Ultramarines and more Space Wolves/White Scars. Hopefully some paint in the next few weeks.