Battlegroup Explained

Today I visited the Iron Fist Publishing site again. What I found there was a only recently placed video of an interview with Warwick Kinrade. As mentioned in my previous article, mister Kinrade is the writer of the Battlegroup World War Two miniature wargames rules. He explains the specific game mechanics and what it is that makes this Battlegroup system stand out as a World War Two set of rules. The video is made by Model Dads Blog.


The day Mr Warwick Kinrade came round for tea…

 

What's Up Doc

Since the announcement and publishing of the Battlegroup Kursk rule book, I've been busy gathering forces in 1/72 (20mm and 1/76) scale for creating a Russian army as well as a German army. My German army is going to consist of a Leibstandarte part and a Wehrmacht part. I have also been collecting terrain and scenery items. For that I found a lot of inspiration in the rule book as in the many articles on the internet. You can also follow the Blogs from rule book writer Warwick Kinrade and co-writer/modeller Piers von Brandt.

There is a lot of support for the Battlegroup Kursk rule system as for advise regarding available figures and models too. I frequently visit the Guild Forum, the Plastic Soldier Company and the Iron Fist Publishing site with additional and supporting comments and downloads.

 
Most of my figures and vehicles are plastics but in order to complete the opposing miniature armies I also bought some metal and resin items. The pictures show only part of both Russian and German troops, that is the parts I have almost completed building.

 

Many of my infantry figures are placed on 20mm washers. It is my intention to complete building up my forces first and I am quite far by now. When this is done I will start the painting (including weathering & pimping) plus basing job. I must confess that it has been a while since I have painted vehicles, making it quite an exiting challenge!

 

I will keep you informed about the progress from time to time. For now I'm going straight back to the hobby and working table to have another look at some additional stuff that I bought at Crisis (120mm mortars + crew, Late War Russian decals, explosion markers plus one Vallejo Russian vehicle paint set) for my Battlegroup Kursk project.  
  

Additional Crisis

Today, the day after Crisis Convention day, I read many great blog articles of fellow Dutch and other miniature wargamers (see below). They all inspired me to do an extra picture report article to let you have a further idea of how fantastic Crisis 2013 was and hopefully to grasp that feeling of fun and joy I had that day.

 

Some other blogs with articles and pictures of Crisis 2013:  
Rear Guard Action
Paint-In
Pijlie's Wargames Blog
Modus Reg Magni Momenti
dhcwargamersblog
Peter's Cave
Monty's Caravan
And a message board with some photo's:
Gungnirs Stuff

VISITING THE CRISIS 2013 CONVENTION

Today I visited the Crisis Convention in Antwerp. It was fantastic and even overwhelming. First I went for my planned new acquisitions by following an especially prepared map with traders and floorroute. It worked a bit like a batteplan for I succeeded in obtaining all but one of the wanted goodies.

 

After three hours of visiting stands, talking to traders and some acqaintances it was time for me to enjoy a well deserved lunch with homemade 'broodjes kaas' (yes, I'm Dutch). This break proved to be the energizer I needed for the following participation game. Building the Wrath of Heaven was the name of this Samurai-themed game. My roll was to be one of four Ninja's. One of the other players was my young nephew Joshua! All Ninja's received a special mission and we all completed it with honour, fighting off local peasants, Ashigaru, Ronin and those fearsome Samurai's (even one with blind fury). I must confess that I fullfilled the required Ninja stealth with cowbell precision. It really was a fantastic game and if you are interested in it too you can find an article with the gamerules in issue 67 and some more on the website of the Wargames, Soldiers & Strategy magazine!
 

Succesfully completing the participation game I now had time to catch up with more old friends and to meet a lot of new ones! In between all my conversations I had just enough time left for a few photo's of other games going on at Crisis 2013.

There was a large amount of beautiful eye candy, too much to show here anyway. So when you are a miniature wargamer, a diorama builder, a military modeller or just interested you should certainly pay a visit to an upcoming edition of the Crisis Convention in Antwerp! Many thanks to the Tin Soldiers of Antwerp, "you did it again!" And to my hobby friends I say "see you soon and otherwise 'till next year at Crisis 2014".

 

CRISIS, WHAT CRISIS

I do not know of a crisis being fun but the yearly Crisis convention event from organizer Tin Soldiers of Antwerp sure is a lot of fun. Aimed mainly at miniature wargamers, Crisis in my humble opinion is the best convention on the European continent.

At Crisis there are a lot of traders selling their goodies and showing much of the new stuff on the market. It will be a gathering of very many miniature wargamers (most traders are themselves too). A lot of them are demonstrating games but most of them are buying all kinds of wannahaves, participate in one or more of the many demogames or just are busy chatting with other enthousiastics and sellers.

I am very much looking forward to this fantastic miniature wargames event! Will meet a lot of hobby friends there and sure will be extending my collection with new acquisitions that day! Furthermore I will take some pictures of the hobby related eye candy and place them in an upcoming blog article.

CRISIS 2013 will be held on Saturday November 2nd at the Hangar 29 Waagnatie, Rijnkaai 150 in Antwerp Belgium. Doors will be open from 10 AM to 5 PM. Entry fee is 10 Euro's and Parking is Free!  
   

Fantastic Fantasy (Part 2)

Last time I told a bit about the Warhammer Fantasy game I played and about one I observed for a while. In this part I will start by reporting on my second engagement of the day. This second battle was versus those heraldic Bretonnians bringing back good old Knighthood and Chivalry into Warhammer Fantasy battles.

Dice rolls decided the kind of scenario and the different scenery items we used as well as who would start our game. This honour fell upon the Bretonnians but their vows committed them to start praying first. My Orcs now took initiative, yelling " let 'um pray fur bash by choppa" and after a few minor but noisy internal squabbles they eagerly advanced straight on towards the nearest enemy troops.

 

Now in my humble opinion the real strength of the Bretonnian army lies in their units of mounted Knights. These guys are almost unstoppable and with their multiple save abillities prove very tuff nuts to crack. We had a lot of combat going on and the fight went from one side having the advantage swinging over to the other side being on top. Gigantic rocks fired by stone throwers crushed many a units' rank and file. On one flank of the battlefield combat consisted of firing hails of arrows on each other, sometimes to no avail but with deadly effect in other turns.

 

On our battlefield lay an enchanted river and when a unit crossed it risked being cooked to the bone by boiling water. In fact this terrain piece split our field of glory in two seperate fighting areas. The struggle between my greenskins and their knightly opponents was a very close call. In the end however it were the Bretonnians that came out victorious! My Orc Big Boss wandered off in shame due to yet another battle lost.

This was my final action with the greenskin Waaagh I brought along for the Fantasy battleday. It also meant that I had time left to visit a few battles held by some of the other players present. I observed two different engagements of the Wood Elve army that I had previously encountered. These Elves first took on a Chaos Warrior force followed by combat against yet another greenskin Waaagh, this time consisting mainly out of Savage Orcs. The cunning wood fellows were utterly beaten by the might of the Chaos Warriors but the outcome of the clash versus those powerful Savage Orcs was in their favour again.

 

I really had a most wonderful time playing miniature wargames. For me it was several months ago that I practiced a few Warhammer Fantasy battles, and those were based on the 7th edition rules. The ones of last Sunday followed the 8th edition rulesset. I lost both of my engagements but the one feeling that prevails is that I had a great hobby experience with other Fantastic Fantasy enthusiastics.