Dust Warfare: Axis Laser Grenadiers

 

Terribly busy at the office and running some chores at home....apart from getting distracted playing

World of Tanks!

But I managed to paint up another squad of Laser Grenadiers.

Dust Warfare : Axis Gorillas

 What do you get when you put a human brain into a gorilla's body?
Well, you won't get King Kong out of it.
More like Donkey Kong on steroids and there's a whole bunch of them!

Dust Warfare in the alternate WWII setting has some weird technologies inserted into the game based on Paolo Parente's weird WWII world.

And no...the Axis army will not accept any cute Gorilla by the name of Donkey Kong into the Blutkreuz Korps!

Ermm Nope...not Donkey Kong...

Dust Warfare : Heavy Kommandotrupp

 

Painted up several miniatures since my last update but I wish to post in this blog consistently, therefore I will be spacing out my posts for each of my minis that are painted.

The Schewer Sturmgrenadiere Command Squad are the command troop of Schewer Grenadier list aka heavy infantry list of the Axis army.

They are Soldier 3 encased in heavy armor, armed with twin MG44 machineguns as well as a Fliegerfaust (i.e. an anti-air weapon which launch six missiles to aerial targets).

Heavy Kommandotrupp

Dust Warfare: Axis Specialist (Sniper and Beobachter Teams)

Painted up my Special Ops Grenadiers for my growing Axis army.

As per my previous comments on this Fantasy Flight Games product, it comes pre-primed in grey.

The mould is in good details and comes packaged in nice box art and inner plastic packaging.

The plastic used is a soft type which protects the models from the rough snap if it falls from the gaming table or when your small kids (like mine hehehe...) decides to play toy soldier with them.

Dust Warfare: Axis Battle Grenadiers

Got my first Dust Warfare models painted up.

The Battle Grenadiers is one of the basic infantry blocks of the Axis army. They are meant to be the Jack of All Trades equipped with a Panzershreck and Panzerfausts for anti armor, couple with Stg47 assault rifles for the rough and dirty anti personnel role.

Dust Warfare : And They Are Here!

Drop down to my LGS and decided to get myself the basic building blocks of an Axis.
I purchased a box of the PBIs (Poor Bloody Infantry) or to be precise the Kampf Sturmgrenadieren Squad.

Poor Bloody Infantry!

Dust Warfare : Choosing my Army

I have read through the Dust Warfare Rulebook since my last post and was quite excited with playing the game.

Post-"Reading the Rulebook" thoughts...

But of course you need to start with a faction which currently fields Axis, Allies and the newly introduced faction, SSU (the Soviet Union, China and other Communist blocs).

And this is Dust Warfare time line which means we can throw out the history books of WW2 after 1943 since in this setting, Adolf Hitler (the Fuhrer of Germany) was assassinated and a whole revamped Germany started kicking Allied butts and forced the Soviets on a stalemate in the Eastern Front! And all thanks to the mysterious VK power source!

Dust Warfare

My local gaming group is hooking up Dust Warfare a game created by Fantasy Flight Games with the fantastic storyline and artwork by Paolo Parente.

One thing strikes me as the coolest thing in a miniature gaming game....Alternate WW2 Walkers!

Yeah! I have a fetish for WW2 walkers...

FOW Tournament May 2012 @ SPORECON 2012

Apologies for the long hiatus...I was away to serve up my Nation and managed to get some time off to update my blog since I last updated.

It was a good tournament held at Pasir Ris East Community Centre in conjunction with SPORECON 2012, a yearly convention of board-gaming and miniature gaming. There were other folks in other games such as Warhammer 40K, Settlers of Catan and many more.

May Tournament List - Kampfgruppen Balck (Part 2)

I was sprucing my army list and decided to present a flavorful army organisation chart to the judges.

I always had been a Grossdeutschland Division fan and impressed with their nickname "The Fuhrer's Fire Brigade" for their actions in the Eastern Front.

Watch "The German War Files - Panzer - Germany's Ultimate War Machine (1/4)"

You might be bored painting up your FOW minis and need a break.

Watch a video about panzers would be a good way to ease off. Or get the motivation to paint.

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MILITARY ART OF DMYTRO ZGONNIK

I normally troll around the Internet and read up nice blogs.

But I am quite impressed with MILITARY ART OF DMYTRO ZGONNIK whose author is based in Bila Tserkva, Ukraine.

He is one of the military artists for Concorde military books and he is DAMN good!

Here's some of his works below.

May Tournament List - Kampfgruppen Balck

I will be playing in a local FOW tournament on 27 May 2012.
There will be 3 mission in all which each round decides your next opponent and ultimately the winner.

The missions are :

1. Free For All
2. Hasty Attack
3. Encounter

I have always been an infantry player but since majority of the missions are quite mobile in nature, I have decided to play a Panzer Kompanie List from Grey Wolf sourcebook.

I decided to create a fluff history for my Kampfgruppen based on one of my favourite German unit, Grossdeutschland Panzergrenadier Division.

MapSymbs Homepage

I was looking around on how to spruce my FOW army list for my tournament.
And I had always loved looking at those Osprey books with those military symbols on the map.

So it struck me that I should try to find out where I can get my hands on it somehow.
That's where I stumble Tom Mouat's website MapSymbs.

I absolutely loved it! It has many military symbols which includes WW2 German map symbols.
I am using it to spruce my submission of my army list!

I'm adding the website to my links as well....you can click HERE

Completed PSC Panthers (D, Mid Production)

It's been a short while and I did complete the second box of PSC Panthers.

I had modeled them as Panther D (Mid Production) this time and this platoon will take part in my upcoming May FOW Tournament.

"Panzer" Dan Larson Tactics Articles

I just loved "Panzer" Dan Larson's (AKA Jenka) articles from the FOW threadlists.

Therefore I want anybody who's interested to improve their FOW battle skills to read up his articles.

German 75mm Infantry Guns & Tank Turrets

Completed and painted a 75mm Infantry Gun platoon and finished up my leftover tank turret defenses.

The IG platoon is quite a cheap way to bulk up your platoon count as well as providing valuable defensive fire during a charge by enemy units over their screening units.

Red Bear Goes to War! May Day Battle Report

I was supposed to post this on 01 May 2012 (May Day) but alas work commitment had swarmed on me. So much for Labor Day : (

But yes, had my opportunity to try out my Udarny list in a Total War Scenario with Tim and aided by another Soviet player, Melvin. Tim ended up playing the whole 3500pts of Germans while Melvin and myself played 1750pts each.

Soviet Bear Resurgence Part 6

Painted up my Soviet Mortar platoon.
Equipped with the universal 81mm (or 82mm for the Soviets) mortar, its main purpose is to pin down enemy guns and infantry before the Udarny company charge into close combat.

I'm too used of having two observers for a mortar platoon if I'm playing Germans. So a single observer will crimp my style a bit and worse they have no smoke shells to cover my infantry approach. We shall see their effectiveness in coming battles for the Motherland!

They are equipped with the 82-PM41developed during the Second World War as an infantry battalion mortar, and which begun production in 1941. Design improvements were subordinated to the technological possibilities of production and directed toward the reduction in the weight of mortar, labour expenses of its production and improvement in the manoeuvrability characteristics.

The Great Patriotic War Posters

Something for those FOW players who wish to have some inspiring WW2 posters to decorate their otherwise sparse display shelves or walls.

Chanced upon this website which had nice quality Soviet WW2 posters that you may wish to print out.

Art and Faith, Too gives an eccletic collection of art pieces and posters for diverse groups.




Pavel Sokolov-Skalia. The Mother of All Russian Cities… Kiev is Free! 1943


You can view it using this link. HERE.

And the Soviet Bear continues to grow....

My brother passed me another batch of Soviets for me to paint up after seeing surge of "Red" energy.

You will seeing them painted soon...

Stay tuned Comrade! ;)

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Soviet Bear Resurgence Part 5

Completed my Soviet snipers that came with the Udarny Strelkovy boxed set.

Snipers had their rules revamped in V3 which improved their utility rates but with a limited deployment capability. At 50 points per sniper, it's a tad too expensive and you can just pin/kill infantry stands.

But I painted as an added insurance if I need to have a grunt match with another infantry list.

Soviet Bear Resurgence Part 4

Completed a platoon of Soviet HMG last weekend as I chat up with an old friend who came by to my home till the wee hours of the night (or was it morning?)

As I was reading up on the standard issues HMG during WW2, I'm quite bemused by the long long Russian names given to these weapons.

Soviet Bear Resurgence Part 3

Completed the Second platoon of my Udarny Strelkovy company about two weeks ago but can't just find the time to update my blog about it.

My surge in focus to paint up my Soviet army had been good so far and I hope to have more of them painted up.

I had decided to upgrade the four squads in both platoons as SMG squads to give the useful additional dice to assault up their enemies. 

Soviet Bear Resurgence Part 2

Managed to complete my PTRD / PTRS AT rifle section for my Udarny Strelkovy HQ.

It's still a mystery to me for an army that utilized the Katyusha rockets, the Soviets did not create a similar anti-tank capability.

Panzerkompanie (Grey Wolf) VS Soviet Heavy Assault Gun (Red Bear) [PROLOGUE STORY]

For those who have read my Battle Report :

Panzerkompanie (Grey Wolf) VS Soviet Heavy Assault Gun (Red Bear)

I have decided to write a prologue to the battle report as per below. I hope some readers will enjoy this!

Location: Somewhere in Belorussia
Date: Mid July 1944

Obergefreiter Hans was despondent, most of the news they had been receiving through the radio network were of desparation and despair. Units were surrounded and destroyed by the gigantic Soviet armored offensive that had opened up in June 1944.Vitebsk, Orsha, Mogilev and Bobruysk had fallen to the Soviets and the Wehrmacht was still trying to cobble up effective defense. And now Hans had heard that Soviet tanks were seen approaching Minsk despite desperate German resistance.

Blood Guts & Glory Reviewed! ~ WWPD: Your Source For All Things Flames of War!

Blood Guts & Glory Reviewed! ~ WWPD: Your Source For All Things Flames of War!

The guys from WWPD had received their Blood, Guts & Glory book.

It's a good review which illustrates tons of USA goodies available!

It sure makes any American Players salivate! And German players sweat since there's now US tanks that can penetrate the valuable Panthers.

Now the King Tigers looks awfully tempting as a security net!

Have fun reading the review!

Soviet Bear Resurgence!

Had a spurt of determination to paint up and complete the rest of my Udarny Strelkovy company set.

Some pics of the first platoon. I still need to complete the second platoon and the AT rifle section.

Panzerkompanie (Grey Wolf) VS Soviet Heavy Assault Gun (Red Bear)

As promised here's my battle report of last Sunday 25 March 2012.

My army comprised as per last blog here

I was playing against our regular Soviet Player, Tim Miller.

Ju87 Stukas 1:144 Scale

With V3 I decided to have some Stukas battle ready in FOW. These stukas were purchased from a Hong Kong online gift website.

Bought at a reasonable SGD 45 for 3 Stukas, it's a good buy without painting them up!

So let's see how they fare....

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Flames of War V3 is mine!

A picture holds a thousand words....

Ok...I don't have a thousand words.

But I am sure as hell excited to have it in my hands.

Footnote: the mini rulebook bindings are not up to the task. Pages are coming off, so a rebinding job needs to solve the problem.

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YouTube Video - Kursk 1943

A video montage of German action at Kursk 1943 billed as the largest tank battle in WW2.

It's interesting to note the numbers of Panthers and Tiger Is deployed were minuscule but their propaganda impact was huge.

The fact that the Russians claimed their Tiger kills were more than the actual number of Tigers deployed were a testament to their fear of these tanks in 1943.

Nonetheless, the industrial might of Russia and the price of fighting against two industrial superpower (USA and Russia) proved to be the death knell of the German forces in WW2.

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Panzerkompanie - Grey Wolf 1750pts (25 March 2012)

After deliberating for a while, I decided to finalize below list.

HQ

2 X Panthers IC & 2IC

1 X General Von Saucken

Combat

4 X Panzer IVH

3 X Panther G

Weapons

Panzer Scout Platoon (3 Squads)

Panzer AA Gun Platoon

(3 armored Sd Kfz 7/1 w. Quad 2cm)

Divisional Support Platoon

JU87 Stukas (Sporadic)

So hoping for a fun game tomorrow.

Stug IIIg Platoon - Battlefront

This was a much delayed project which I had procrastinated for about three months!

I decided to paint it up as to assure myself my new FOW purchases was an excuse that I had no other FOW tank models to paint up...German tanks that is.

I decided on a plain vanilla plain yellow paint scheme to indicate the platoon as fresh out of the factory though the indication of improvised armor and stowage shows a veteran crew.

Footnote to this boxed platoon set, the decals were "crumply" since the decals tend to tear and seems to had lost its adhesive to stick to the assault guns.

Luckily I had spares :)

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Panthers PSC in Pictures

The completed Panthers from PSC.

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Panther platoon from PSC

Yup assembled and painted in 72 hours!! The PSC Panthers are quite easy to be assembled and its parts nicely moulded. My only grouse is the track parts had gaps which a small amount of epoxy putty solve this issue. But nonetheless the modular parts allows me to spray and paint separately the tracks and main chassis / turret.

My PC went dead...

Great...as I was looking forward to blog out, my PC just went dead.

No power...sent it to the DIY store where I had purchased originally. The technician it could be my motherboard gave out on me.

The good news if ever in this case, they may request for a replacement since it is within its warranty.

Hoping the best and missing all my PC games!!

Errr...I have more time to paint my FOW models?

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Panzerkompanie (Grey Wolf) FOW List 1750 points Part II

Still tweaking the list as the weekend approaches. My previous list was mentioned here.
I'm wrestling with the fact on how many Panthers shall I bring on the board. (unfortunately, I have only 4 painted Panthers and my strategy is limited by those numbers...)

Due to its high points, it's quite apparent I will be lacking platoon numbers and may become a glass fist instead of an iron fist.

FOW Lists Blog

Via FOW Forums, I stumbled upon a nifty piece of FOW army builder which impressed me.
I tried using it and it's user friendly and print friendly as well...you don't have to keep that ancient calculator around you build up the list.

I have added to my FOW references and definitely would recommend anybody to give it a try.
The FOW Lists blog host most of the FOW sourcebooks except Burning Empires at this moment.

Have a blast trying it out. Link is here.

Assembling My Panthers!

I'm going to assemble my first batch of PSC Panthers.

Still thinking of whether to apply a 3 color camouflage or just plain factory yellow.

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Panzer Brigades - The Shattered Mailed Fist

The Panzer-Brigades were created to deal with the mounting critical situations at the Eastern Front, especially after the collapse of large sections of the front and the staggering losses of the summer of 1944. Originally these units were designed for deployment in the East, but the lack of effective German tank forces and the urgency of the situation in the West were on the basis of the decision to move them to counter the fast Allied advance in September 1944.

Coming Soon : Blood, Guts, & Glory (FOW)

I'm looking forward to the upcoming FOW installment of TOE (Theatre of Operations Europe) campaign
Blood, Guts, & Glory: Tanks Battles in The Lorraine, September 1944 - January 1945

We all know what happened to those German Panzer Brigades as they were launched against Patton's armored fist. This campaign main highlight would be the Battle of Arracourt 1944.(Wikipedia)

So it was been said in FOW forums for this installment, German players will be able to field Confident Trained Panthers!

Looking forward to it and trying out the German lists! CT Panthers vs veteran Shermans?

Panzerkompanie (Grey Wolf) FOW List 1750 points

I'm thinking of a "fun" list to play since I had been playing infantry lists for quite a while.
In fact one of my basic list which I got hooked playing FOW was a Panzerkompanie list from Fortress Europe.

My local store Paradigm Infinitum (PI) will be having a demo game for newbies by end of March 2012, so I was thinking of a list which is :

a. Simple and easy on the rules to play with.
b. Basic FOW building blocks....TANKS!!

What is Miniature War Gaming?

For the uninitiated...this is what Miniature War Gaming is all about...

You can even ask your wife or girlfriend to watch it....ok...they may not understand our obsession / hobby the FIRST time.

Fallschirmjager in Italy

Another YouTube video.

Interesting portion of the video showing Fallschirmjagers from 1FJD in color defending Monte Cassino.

Does provide interesting references if somebody needs to paint up FJ models based on LW Italian campaign.

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Review of Flames of War Version 3

I have not received the hardcover copy of Version 3 but BF had announced the various changes to the game system.

http://www.flamesofwar.com/Default.aspx?tabid=109&art_id=3134

Firstly, my article is more a personal observation rather than a "rules lawyer" rant.

Secondly, I just felt to interpret the changes compared to Version 2.

I feel that some rules are timely and based on players’ feedback but some are more likely the “flavor” change. All in all, it’s a good to have Version 3 onboard!

Inspiration - Panzers

A YouTube video to inspire anybody to play Panzers! Ok...you need to paint them as well!!

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Panthers, O Panthers, Thou have arrived!

Well at least they arrived at my local gaming store PI. After my recent experience with PSC, I'm quite delighted to handle these babies!

With each box having 5 Panthers at such a good price (its 17.50 GBP per box as per PSC website) you can have a good LW Panzerkompanie in FOW by buying 2 boxes of them.

A feared tank on FOW board since they wield that goody 75L/70 gun that can pierce most Allied tanks and able withstand most frontal AT shots in return!

The cons?

Expensive comparable to most medium tanks and watch out for flanking shots. Oh...never try to assault bazooka toting infantry since all shots will be on its thin Side armor.

Time to try some Panther tactics!

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Sd Kfz 251D WIP

These half tracks are from Plastic Soldier Company which are churning good quality plastic 15mm vehicles.

Ever thought of playing a fully mechanized Grenadier army but was deterred by the cost of buying the APCs? Well the Plastic Soldier Company had conveniently solved my dilemma.

The parts are well moulded and had many spare bitz. I had assembled a box of them (5 vehicles per box) in about total 3-4 man hours in a leisurely pace.

I am going to attach the balkenkreuz first before I decide on the camouflage pattern. More pics to follow up.

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Flames of War Version 3

With all the hype of V3 is coming, I do wonder what changes will it bring?

I hope to throw in my judgement as well but here's the official link to the changes that are implemented in V3.

Have a blast reading!

Hobby

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FOW @ PI Fusionopolis 12 February 2012 (2nd AD vs 1st FJD)

After a short hiatus, I decided to bring my FJ army for a spin at my local gaming store PI.
Since I'm such a lazy git, I decided to use a similar list as my last FOW tournament albeit with some subtle changes. Here's the list played at 1750 points.

FOW @ PI Fusionopolis 12 February 2012 (2nd AD vs 1st FJD) Pictures

Here's the photos taken during the game. Sorry it was all taken in those adrenaline rush....

The "Italian" landscape for the game. Notice the Panther turret on your right...Top of the Hill!

Fallschirmjager kicks off 2012

It's been a short hiatus with many year end stuff and work... :(

So decided to go off for my first 2012 FOW session!

So to kickstart my FOW season, here's a Fallschirmjager training video from YouTube.

Will update you on the game later!

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