Steel Rain and Thundering treads

I've been working hard trying to get my entire army painted and here are a couple of pictures of progress so far. I've finished the 8 guns for the Canadian Battery and the newly re-painted Sherman IIIs. The next project will be the Anti-tank platoon and all the infantry bases for the battery (observers, battery and troop commanders and the staff team). For those of you with good eyes I am in the process of priming the remainder of what I need to have a Canadian Armoured Company made out of Sherman IIIs. I'm hoping I can have the next batch painted until for Friday night fights at Ca$h's place.

Canadian 8 Gun Battery

4 Guns facing the long side of the base 4 facing the short edge (is there a right way?)

Gun crews are in their tans but the guns are painted green allowing them to be from anytime and normal for the Canadians in Italy

There was only a single unit that fought in the colours I had initially painted the Shermans so I changed it up so that they could be used for late war as well as earlier war (I'm thinking of doing the Devil's Brigade for late war) so they are now the ubiquitous olive drab

Close up of the Troop commander

I just received the new tank commanders from Battlefront after a box I had purchased didn't come with any. I'm looking forward to painting them and getting them into the fight.

The RCR vs Americans in Hold the Line

This was a 1500 pt Mid-War game between my Canadians and Joyous Oblivion from Druken Gamers of Ottawa Americans. We played Hold the Line with me defending.

My Army

Coy Comd and 2IC

3 x Rifle Platoon with Piat

1 x Sherman III Platoon (3 x tanks)

1 x Carrier Patrol (3 x Carriers)

1 x HMG Platoon (4 x HMGs)

1 x Anti-Tank Platoon (4 x 6 Pdrs)

1 x Field Battery (8 x 25 Pdrs)

The Americans

Sherman III HQ (IC and 2IC)

Sherman III Platoon (4 x tanks)

Stuart Platoon (5 x tanks)

Tank destroy Platoon (2 M60s, 2 Jeeps)

Motorized Rifles (5 x Half tracks, 5 x LMGs, 1 x Anti-tank gun, 5 Mortars)

Recce Platoon (2 x Jeeps and 1 x Half track)

The Canadians managed to survive a couple of assaults because JO failed his motivation check and I was able to Mike target tanks that had fallen back, this allowed tanks that were bailed last turn to be destroyed.

My Shermans finally proved there worth by out ranging and hammering the 2IC and a couple other platoons. JO is still learning (not that I'm much further a head) and is going to be a very dangerous player in short order.

I also didn't like how my Shermans were painted (I liked the paint job but not for this army), so I'm repainting them the ubiquitous olive drab, pictures are coming soon.

Let me know what you guys would prefer, video or pictures for the battle reports.

Canadians vs Germans in break through.avi

A special thank you to Matt Varnish from Druken Gamers of Ottawa who filmed this and has it on his blog (check it out)!

I was lucky enough to head over to Ca$h's this friday to get in some FoW. We were playing Mid-War 1500 points with the Break through mission. Ca$h just got a bunch of new terrain in as you can see from the battlefield it looks awesome. This was the first time I played Break through and the game was much closer than it should have been, Ca$h was well a head and some unlucky dice rolls delayed his win (it could have gone either way about 5 or 6 times and the roll of the dice kept us in and guessing).

My list was as follows using the North Afrika Intelligence book

Infantry Company

Coy Comd and 2IC

3 x Rifle Platoon with Piat

1 x Sherman III Platoon (3 x tanks)

1 x Carrier Patrol (3 x Carriers)

1 x HMG Platoon (4 x HMGs)

1 x Anti-Tank Platoon (4 x 6 Pdrs)

1 x Field Battery (8 x 25 Pdrs)

Ca$h was running a Panzer Coy with (I think this was right, also from the North Afrika book, I believe)

Coy Comd and 2IC in Panzer IVs

1 x Panzer IIIe Platoon (2 x tanks)

1 x Panzer IIIb Platoon (2 x tanks)

1 x Stug Platoon (3 x tanks)

1 x Panzer Gernadiers (4 x half tracks and Infantry Platoon)

MVP for the game was a tie between the Artillery (who were incredibly good all game) and the Infantry Platoon holding the objective that killed the Stug platoon in assault.

Bone 'eads of the game for me was the Shermans who lined up facing the wrong way and were killed in the opening salvo of the game (oooopppsss!)

The RCR falling in for FoW

The group of guys that I normally play with from Drunken Gamers of Ottawa have gotten into Flames of War (FoW) in a big way. They turned me onto a podcast/blog called WWPD (What would Patton Do?) which is an outstanding resource and I would highly recommend taking a look. As always with gamers their excitement is extremely contagious so I suddenly had the motivation to finish painting A Company from The Royal Canadian Regiment (RCR). I've also finished the Heavy Machine Gun platoon and a Sherman III platoon that supports the Company.

Company Commander and Company 2IC

Canadian Rifle Company (Italy)

Heavy Machine Gun Platoon

Company with attached HMGs

Sherman IIIs Platoon

Closer view of Sherman IIIs

Platoon Commander of the Sherman IIIs

I'm hoping to do a Video Battle report of my next game similiar to the 40k I have done in the past. Next up will be the Arty Battery or the Anti-tank Platoon, not sure which!

FOW 88s Finally

So I'm shifting back into WW2 mode, and to celebrate, I've finally finished off a pair of German 88 guns. These babies should help bring the balance of power back to the center since my gaming buddy just got 2 platoons of Soviet JS2s! I'm told these things can shut down a whole flank, since they have the best range of any direct fire AT weapon in FOW. Add to that a great AT value (especially in mid war, but still great in late war). Only problem with them is they tend to get pinned by arty, so we'll see how they go in the next game...

FOW Armored Artillery

So after several FOW games, I finally decided that I needed something with longer range than mortars, and with more reliability than air power, so I invested in a battery of Armored Artillery, and a full 6 gun battery of Nebelwefers. The "moaning minis" aren't done yet, but the armored arty was finished a couple of days ago. I'll try 'em out with my Panzer company against Milton at some point and see how they do. I'm finally learning how to use armor effectively, but because we're Germans, the points get constricting VERY fast. Happily that won't happen with my US Paratroopers, since they can't really take much anyway. Either way, hopefully I'll be painting up 2 panthers for a Cobra Mission in a couple of weeks, another Tiger I, and just for the heck of it, I'm going to go for a Tiger II to see how he does :) Also got some magnets so the III Ns can be changed to III Ms at a moment's notice (right now, 2/4 are Ms, so I need to change barrels).

So my painted panzer force now is:

Command:
CinC Panzer IIIN
2inC Panzer IVG

Combat:
Pz III N Platoon
Pz IVG Platoon

Weapons:
2 Armored Quad 2cm AA in halftracks

Support:
3 gun battery of Wespes (10.5cm arty)
2 8rad Recon vehicles

The Royal Canadian Regiment (RCR) comes to the tabletop!

Hello All,

I started learning how to play Flames of War (FOW) a couple of months ago. For those of you that are unfamiliar with FOW it is a Second World War table top war game where the infantry are about 10 mm. for planes the scale is about 1/144. I have decided to make a Canadian Army modeled after The RCR 'A Coy' which landed in Sicily under the command of R.G. 'Slim' Liddell. It is a mid war force that was initally planed for 1760 pts but has ballooned to well above that. I'm still working on my Deathwing force in preparation for the Canadian Grand Tournament and will be posting finished units and details on the GT once I have them. If you haven't tried FOW I highly recommend it. It is quite possibly the best game system I have ever played.