Finally Moved In!

Seven months' delay, but we've finally moved into the new place. And after a couple of weeks of sorting out stuff from storage, I finally managed to get my models in the shelves. Well, mostly.

What's on the shelves are my 40k and FOW armies, as well as wargames books and rules. What's not on the shelves yet are my 15mm Napoleonics, 15mm DBA, 20mm WW2, 28mm WW2 and BFG stuff. And some trophies, which need some repairs.

But I like how the new shelves are panning out. Neat and compact, though I must admit I have a slight paranoia of the glass shelves breaking and dropping onto models below. Doesn't help that the bottom two shelves are home to the AirCav detachment.

The cupboards below the shelves are where unopened boxes, bitz boxes and tools are kept. Other cupboards to the side have game box sets such as Space Hulk, Firestorm, etc.

I've decided not to have a permanent painting table as I'll be too tempted to sit out in the living room. So I'm in the market for one of those cool painting or project trays so that I can paint on the bar counter with the TV on.

I'll most likely be investing in a gaming table, and for ease of storage, use and to comply with Home Ministerial Standards on Neatness and Un-Messiness, I'm leaning towards one of those cool gaming mats, plus a mixture of GW and Battlefront scatter terrain. I'll need to figure out the platform for the mat though. Thinking of two 3x4 or 4x4 plywood.

Anyways, I'm looking forward to enjoying this new pad - after my vacations.

cheers.

Back In Action!

 
After 3 amazing weeks of exploring the deserts, valleys, farmland, mountains, lakes, forests, coastline, small towns, big cities and meeting some great people and food, it's back to Hobby Night! I haven't picked up a brush in over a month, so it was 100% dice-rolling glee, interspersed with some more great food and chats with the awesome Legio people.

Faizal had contacted me beforehand and said that he would like to have a couple of games of Flames of War with his US 82nd Airborne, in preparation for the Legio Malaysia Market Garden campaign coming up in October. We were both a bit rusty with the rules, having last played it in the very-FOW year of 2012 (I think we wrapped at least 2 campaigns, plus a league, or something like that), and while my favorite has always been the British infantry company, it was a good chance to try out my German infantry company.

I arrived at the Forge early, and managed to get a FOW game in with Alvin. We played a quick 1000-pt battle, his Battle of the Bulge-themed US Armored Company against my Grenadiers. It's quite amazing how quickly we were able to relearn the game mechanics (with a lot of pauses to refer to the rules), but the battle was one-sided, as his Confident-Trained Shermans went in unsupported and got massacred by the Confident-Veteran Grenadiers (not to mention the able support of the PaK40s battery and StuG platoon).

Amin came in with a scary 40k Deathwing army. At 1850pts, the army was led by Belial at the head of 7 Assault Terminators. A Librarian led another 7 Terminators, and there was another squad of 7 Terminators. They were supported by 2 Dreadnaughts with autocannons, and a squadron of 2 Land Speeder Typhoons. My 1850pt Tzeentch army was led by Ahriman, with 2 favored squads of Thousand Sons, a Land Raider, a Rhino, a Predator, a Heldrake, a Defiler, Lord Ka'Kaa the Lord of Change and a pack of Pink Horrors.

We played Purge the Alien - it was the first time I played an Eternal War mission in 7th ed, having been really loving the Maelstrom missions. The battle was hard- and closely-fought. The Deathwing aggressively Deep Striked into my lines. I was able to wipe out one squad quickly with a combination of firepower and charging with the Defiler and Lord Ka'Kaa. Ahriman's squad managed to kill most of the Librarian's squad, but was in turn charged by Belial's squad. Thanks to his Chaos compulsion to always challenge, he took on Belial. Thanks to Invisibility, he managed to last longer than expected, but when he finally fell, it was curtains for his squad too.

Seeing this, the rest of my army kept far away from Belial and his scary squad, and went on to destroy everything else on the table, before sniping at Belial's squad at range. The game ended with the Deathwing left with only Belial and one Assault Terminator left. I lost Ahriman, the Predator, a squad of Thousand Sons and 5 Pink Horrors.

After dinner break, Faizal and I set about for our appointed FOW battle. 1000-pts of his Fearless Veteran US 82nd Airborne vs 1000-pts of my Confident Veteran Grenadier Company. I had split my command into 3 parts - the PaK40s and 2nd Platoon dug in and covering the enemy objectives, while 1st Platoon and the Pionier platoon was to advance through town towards my objective on the right in a feint attack. The StuGs would barrel up the left flank in the real attack to seize my left flank objective.

His parachute infantry platoons proved incredibly reselient and tough troops, and soon my feint attack ground to a halt in the center of town - my troops forced to hold up in the church. The StuGs had to be diverted from their mission to lend MG support for my suppressed infantry. After a punishing mortar bombardment, the paras charged the church, pushing both 1st Platoon and the Pioniers back into my lines. I sent in 2nd Platoon to shore up the defenses while the rest recover. But the paras did not let up, and proceeded to follow up their advance, destroying the Pionier platoon, and routing both Grenadier platoons. I was lucky that my company morale held, and the StuGs were able to capture my objective in the knick of time.

That was a great game and simply an amazing reintroduction to FOW. I really need to paint up my German mortar platoon -any form of artillery support is just too necessary (as my British infantry know very well - they have a nice 25-pdr battery to support them).

Anyways, it's back to the hobby table. Hope to finish up a recovered OOP Hellhound for the Brandenburgers. Keep them dice rolling.