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".