15mm WWII German 12cm Mortars, PaK 43/41 AT Guns and Command Stand

A small 15mm WWII German painting commission of four 8.8cm PaK 43/41 AT guns (GE530), four 12cm mortars (GE799) and a command stand. All Battlefront miniatures and painted over 10 days.

While the PaKs and command stand were metal and what most of my Flames of War collection is produced in, the mortar stands are in Battlefront’s bendy ABS plastic (introduced after I stopped playing the game seriously), and it's the first time I’ve worked with it. In short it's terrible, mainly as it was hard to clean up and some of the detail was rough.

All and all I’m happy how this turned out - it’s been a while since I painted 15mm WWII and I tried splinter camo on the mortar teams (one smock and every helmet cover on each base), which I think came out pretty well (using Battlefront's painting guide in the back on one of the Late War army books). This was because that particular mortar pack is for SS, but I wanted them to be Heer. An easy soltution as nearly everyone in the German army in World War Two used splinter camo:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Splittertarnmuster

The unicorn, dolphin and rainbow flag is (obviously) not historical and was requested by the client (Andrew O). Apparently Flames of War version 4 doesn’t have command teams (as version 3 did), but you still need a marker or similar to indicate which gun team, etc is the platoon commander. Makes no sense to me either.

Practice Game of Brittania

A quiet night with Ara, Mike P, Nic and myself for boardgaming. Nic was keen to introduce to us the Avalon Hill "classic" Brittania (this version by PSC Games):

https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/280106/britannia-classic-and-duel-edition

Britannia broadly depicts the millennia-long struggle for control of England, Scotland, and Wales. The game started with the Nic's Romans invading in 43 A.D., continues through the struggles between Angles, Saxons, Picts, Norsemen, Scots, Irish, and other tribes, and would end with the Norman invasion of 1066.

We played about 1/3 of the way through (to when the lands are invaded by raiders from the sea) to get a feel for the game. It is interesting as through the time period shifts (that are subtle) over 16 turns, each player gets the role of major invader. As the blue player I would've had the Normans - Nic (purple) had the Romans - and he still ended up acting as a landlord (as in Lords of Waterdeep) with his forts that slowly expanded northwards.

First Game of Lords of Waterdeep

Or as Jack called it - "Monopoly for nerds".

Monday night board gaming with Ara, Jack, Mike P and Nic with a game not many of us had played - Lords of Waterdeep. Essentially a Dungeons & Dragons eurogame . This was a game Ara was keen to introduce us to.

I was given the City Guard (with no in game abilities, but for flavour) with Piergeiron the Paladinson as my Lord (gaining bonus for each Piety and Warfare Quest I completed). Again my inability to quickly learning which tasks I should be multitasking on saw me fall behind in scoring points, while Nic the Landlord was slowly buying up the real estate and the others completed more lucrative Quests.

I still had fun though, and like Scythe I didn't feel you were left out while other players had their turn. I definitely should look up some hints and tricks before playing these games to make sure i focus on the right things (at the right time).