Naval Wargaming Splash Markers

During the Battle of the Denmark Strait anniversary game I realised I really wanted better looking splash / blast markers for naval wargaming. Nic suggested Irregular Miniatures' 'Two explosions and two shell craters' (code GWV14) which are also available from Eureka Miniatures (code IRR-GWV14).

Designed for 6mm WWI wargaming, these are perfect for naval games and were very easy to paint up (black undercoat, heavy grey dry brush, light white dry brush, white highlights).

I have another 10 (in both sizes) that I'll paint up black to use for land warfare. Really happy how easy these were to create. With the current lock down due to Covid restrictions, I have no idea when I'll get to use them.

American Civil War Union Skirmishers and Walking Dead Zombies

A quick painting session as I had recently placed a large order with Perry Miniatures, including a box of their plastic Confederate infantry and I hadn't finished their first box set I had bought years ago. In addition to them I also had some of Sash & Sabre's Federal Infantry Skirmish or Firing Line (also bought around 2010) that I started painting a few years ago and then put on the back burner.

The photos below show my typical undercoat technique of raw umber craft paint (over a black spray painted undercoat followed by a ~5/1 highlight dry brush of raw umber/white. Then paint as normal (also with highlights, etc).

A simple job, but I wanted these done. There will be a whole lot of Confederates that they will face (an army for Rebels and Patriots) and some of them can be seen in the background of that photo above.

While I finished painting these, I also completed the Walking Dead zombies I had got from Jack at Christmas.

These will be used for a Flag of Our Zombies game I plan to have in the near future.

Flags of Our Zombies Chapter 3: Running into Trouble

Derek and Patrick decided to brave Pine Creek once more, and head into the town to try and find vital medical supplies for Liam. Covering themselves in gore from downed Walkers, they sneak through the heart of infested territory.

Both Derek and Patrick had gory clothing, Derek with his hatchet and small knife, Patrick with his trusty baseball bat, (and Bitzer Maloney along for the ride again). The group would need to travel from the bottom right back to their car (top left) on the bird's eye view of the board below.

There are no supplies in this scenario (page 10 of 'Days Gone Bye'), but one of the five markers a is the "Munitions Store Special Objective" marker. Instead of using the markers on the board, I shuffled them and would flip one every time I searched an objective.

Started off slowly (though 'The Hunger' were the first two Event Cards I drew, increasing the Threat level), I had both of them sneaking and attempting to reduce the Threat Tracker (only being successful after four rolls). The first two objectives yielding nothing, but the central one was what I was after. Now to get off the board.

The only combat was when I ran my group into "Release the Kraken" Joe, as I couldn't see a gap. I failed my Noise roll (as I had run with my Gory Clothes) with Derek, so there was a second walker joining the combat. This wasn't a concern, as combined they rolled six hits (with a head shot) to take them out.

In between this I had drawn the 'Escaped Livestock' Event Card again. This time the chickens weren't so lucky...

Sneaking up to the car to avoid the herd around the chicken bones, the group managed to avoid a 'Mega Herd' and 'Fire!' Event Cards that signalled it was time to leave.

I'm planning to run this as a story based campaign using the scenarios from the first three books, and the characters and equipment that I started with, the scenarios suggest or what I find in supplies (but will have to pay for when put a group together for a scenario). So far I have:

As Derek and Patrick drove back to their camp, they were hoping that they would be able to stop Liam from turning into one of those things...

Flags of Our Zombies Chapter 2: City Slicker

(* Well should really be "Small Town Slicker".)

Leaving his friends behind, Derek undertakes a short journey to Pine Creek to search for other survivors or a working car. Forced to travel on foot, Derek is initially overwhelmed by the Walkers outside a Walmart. Now he is trapped in an unknown town crawling with the walking dead...

As I had won the previous scenario, I was able to load up on what I imagine (to maintain the story telling element of the campaign) what was in the police car.

Derek dropped the screwdriver and scythe for a hatchet and small knife, a Colt 1911 pistol, ammo and a small keepsake. I would aim to only use the hatchet and small knife to prevent any Mayhem being caused. Bitzer Maloney would accompany Derek, but would have (for now) no impact on game mechanics.

The scenario requires Derek to move from the bottom centre, to the top centre. The primary aim for Derek is to find a car with a set of keys. The Audi at the top of the board with the backpack next to it would provide this.

I started off by sneaking to the supply counter to Derek's left, yielding an old gun (better than a walker or a bear trap!).

Event cards early on were not a concern for me ('Forest Walkers' and 'Fire'), and I engaged the Kekistan flag bearer in the centre of the table as I imagine he'd cause a problem later on.

Sure enough, after I engaged the walker at the car, I drew the 'Grim Recognition' event card - forcing me to roll for panic (something Derek hardly ever has to do), The 'Terrified' result meant I only had one action, but with the walker taken out I was able to search the backpack, gaining keys for the car and some bandages.

The 'Mega Herd' event was thankfully not rolled earlier, I don't think I could have handled this many walkers!

Derek whistled for Bitzer to get in the car, the fuel gauge was almost full, "Bonus" thought Derek as he drove quickly back to the others.

A successful mission (we'll never speak of the first attempt where Derek got swamped by three walkers and died...).

Game 3 can be found here.

Flags of Our Zombies Chapter 1: Gun Running

17 January 2021: Derek had just woken from a coma, finding the world a changed place. The coma was probably due to the Jägerbombs he had consumed the night before, having rented a cabin with some friends for the weekend. It was Liam's buck's and they were all happy to try and forget the horrors from a week ago when Trump's supporters had stormed the Capitol in Washington, D.C.. Reports had been coming in while they were staying at the cabin that after the rally a lot of the demonstrators had turned into things... like walking dead... the world was definitely getting weirder.

After an instant coffee to try and get themselves awake, Derek, Patrick and Liam set out for the nearest town to secure a stash of weaponry and a car with which to weather the storm...

I finished off my storming of the Capitol flags during the week (see here), and was keen to use them in a game. All year I've been wanting to revisit Mantic's 'The Walking Dead: All Out War' for some Covid-themed solo zombie games.

Although I've picked up a few things here and there since painting some of the core set a few years ago, I haven't painted anything since (though a lot of the scenery was painted in 2020). Getting some zombies from Jack for Christmas has been the kick I needed to finish off what I have.

Onto the games. I aim to play a story-driven campaign set in the area east of Washington in January 2021. I'll base it around Derek (the miniature reminds me of Bruce Willis for some reason) as the sort of Rick Grimes central character and his story. I'll add other characters as I see fit (hey - I might even paint something new!).

The first scenario (page 6 of 'Days Gone Bye') requires moving to the diagonally opposite corner and making a successful Smash roll. For this game the guns, etc would be in a looked highway patrol vehicle (top right), while the group start the game bottom left (I didn't take an overview photo to show the whole table unfortunately).

Derek was armed with a screwdriver, Liam a kitchen knife and Patrick with his baseball bat (perfect combination). Patrick moved off to the left to cover the old cabin side, taking down a walker and getting the ammo reload supply card, while Derek and Liam followed the road, taking out a walker and Derek gaining the scythe supply card. Full disclosure - for this game I forgot you can only use one weapon at a time, so all of Derek's rolls stack the scythe with the screwdriver. Must have been the instant coffee that made him so good in combat.

 

 

Liam joined Patrick in the middle of the board to take out a pair of walkers who were relentlessly waving Trump support flags. While Derek and Patrick are good at finishing off mindless walkers, Liam is definitely not suited and shouldn't be doing this on his own (I took a risk here and luckily it paid off).

 

 

Meanwhile the Event cards had been nothing too serious - slowly increasing the Threat level, and having me try and reduce it with the member's actions when I had the opportunity. At this point I drew the 'Escaped Livestock' Event and decided to place some livestock on the table (instead of it being just being represented temporarily by a terrain piece). The chickens were the first I came across in my collection and they share their storage with my 28mm dogs, so I picked my Bitzer Maloney to be the one that was chasing them (both are from Eureka Miniatures).

Bitzer moved towards the group (he didn't have many options as the next Event card was 'The Herd' that blocked off where the group had started from).

Liam searched a Supply counter (Flaming Brand) and needed rescuing by Derek.

Patrick was the first to make it to the highway patrol car, while Derek and Liam dealt with the walker that had gotten back up again, taking it down with a head shot.

Patrick wasn't successful in smashing open the patrol vehicle, so Derek tried (as Patrick was now dealing with walkers) and succeeded. Appropriately I got the 'Alarm!' Event card that causes mayhem, which meant Liam was now fighting walkers too. While he was successful in the first round, he got bitten the second time he fought the punk! Screaming, Derek threw him over his shoulder and Derek and Patrick jogged as fast as they could back to the cabin. Bitzer followed, barking at the trailing walkers.

As Derek huffed with slightly heavier than before Covid Liam, he knew that things were serious, there were so many walkers. So much had to be done before things returned to normal. At least he had a canine companion.

Game 2 can be found here.

Wargaming Flags for the 2021 Storming of the United States Capitol

I admit that I love flags in my wargaming armies. The ability to design something in Photoshop and then print, glue and touch up with acrylic paint is a small part of the hobby I really enjoy.

The storming of the US Capitol on 6 January 2021 in Washington, D.C. were shocking but not a complete surprise. My wargaming group joked that we should wargame the events (this was before the reports of fatalities) as either as a 28mm skirmish or riot game.

If you're looking for miniatures, any modern / zombie range would have suitable figures, but Offensive Miniatures' rioting mob and the law range is perfect and one I've eyed for years for such a game:
https://www.offensiveminiatures.com/rioting-mob-and-the-law

Seeing the crowds in Washington with all those flags made me think of a traditional zombie game, so I got to work.

Feel free to download and amend as required. The plan would be to print (sized at 3cm high), attach to brass rod and add them (temporarily) to my 28mm zombies for Mantic's Walking Dead All Out War.

This article on Quartz explains in part the allure of flags at such events:
https://qz.com/1953366/decoding-the-pro-trump-insurrectionist-flags-and-banners/

I hope they add some colour to your games.

Edit (20 January 2021):

Have printed and glued them to florist wire, just need to paint the edges.

Completed Downed MiG-19 and Some Brown Cows

Following on from my previous post, I painted the Mig (basically a random mix of Vallejo Natural Steel (70.864) and Army Painter Plate Mail Metal) and added decals (overpainting a 1/144 WWI RAF roundel and some numbers from Revell 1/100 Mil Mi-24 Hind kits). I'm not sure now what colour I painted the pilot's uniform in, I think Vallejo Khaki (70.988), but I gave it a heavy brown wash as the Albanian uniforms were more brown than green.

Images of Albanian MiG-19 / J-6s to see how run down they are:

https://www.google.com.au/search?q=albanian+j-6&sxsrf=ALeKk037V4Epky3FcatrMGvC6mt_Af6vjA:1608334389732&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjMhOu_2NjtAhVvwjgGHYJHBckQ_AUoAXoECAYQAw&biw=1920&bih=919

This was followed by cleaning up the edges of the decals, and adding weathering (brown and black washes). And then static grass and tufts. I think the Noch Spring Meadow static grass (50210) is a little too bright to replace whatever I've been using for years (Games Workshop or Gale Force 9 light green static grass), but it's definitely better than the Woodland Scenics Light Green static grass that is nice - but a very dull green / grey that I'll be using for desert / post apocalyptic settings instead and not for my temperate and tropical zone-centric armies. I've used it on these pieces to see what it looks liek side by side.

I then also finished off some 1/100 architectural model cows I bought years ago from an art shop, and painted them brown as Buša cattle (a Balkan breed of cow - noting they're a small sized breed) to add as battlefield tat or ambush markers/jumping off points (with 1, 2 and 3 standing cows on the bases to differentiate them).

Did you know there's a lot of breeds of cattle?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_cattle_breeds

Some simple additions to the battlefield terrain, but will add to the Balkan and Caucasus theme of my modern games.