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!