Fallschirmjager vs. US Infantry

This past weekend I had the chance to take my Fallschirmjager out for their first game of Flames of War against my friend Tyler's Americans. It was a great game and we already have another planned for this week. Below are a few pics of the action. I found that, not really understanding all the rules, I played my Fallschirmjager pretty defensively and when I did assault I was to spread out to be effective. The air support I had was fun but failed to really do much of anything. My standouts were my armour, especially my Marder II's. These guys took out a whole platoon of tank destroyers. I'm definitely getting 2 more of these! My Tiger did alright but I realized by the end of the game that I should have just kept him in place to fire as he would have been more effective.


The famed Luftwaffe seemed off their game this time around....but they still looked cool trying!

My Tiger I E taking out some Shermans.

The stars of the game, the Marder II's!

My Fallschirmjager hiding from the American tanks.

Supporting my Fallschirmjager

Since my last post I've been busy with summer trips and other non-gaming activities. But, with my first game using my Fallschirmjager coming soon I got back to finishing up my force for the big debut game. With my Fallschirmjager company completed it was time to move on to some armoured support including two Marder II's and a Tiger I E which is pictured here. The Marder's are getting their final touches and I'll get some pictures up soon along with a battle report from my first game with the new force.

Now for something completely different: Part II

After a couple of weeks of work I finally completed my Fallschirmjager Company! The force consists of an HQ with attached anti-tank gun and mortar sections as well as two Fallschirmjager Platoons. Even though I did not spend as much time on details like shading and highlighting as I might have liked, I'm pretty happy with the outcome. As I stated in the last post, I'm sure I'll be getting more detailed as I paint future FOW projects. I did take some step-by-step pictures and will put together a short tutorial on the painting process for these in the coming weeks.

Below you can see some pictures of the force:

Platoon I
Platoon II

HQ platoon

HQ command section

Mortar section

Anti-tank section

So, with my first full company completed it's time to get back to work on some 28mm projects. First up on the list are a couple of Gorgon Studio models. Then it's back to Lord of the Rings to paint a Dragon and build a Durin's Tower table for GamesDay Chicago. But rest assured, I'll be back with more FOW as soon as possible. There are two Mader II tanks and some Luftwaffe air support waiting in the Que.

And now for something completely different.

Well, I finally started on a project that has been on my to do list for sometime. Flames of War Fallschirmjager! Thanks to my good friend Dave I managed to score a nice sized collection of models to get this army started. I managed to play a couple of games and loved it but just never had the time or motivation to get my own force painted. I think some of that was my own fear of the great unknown (to me at least) in the form of 15mm models. As you can tell from my blog I pretty much exclusively paint 25-28mm stuff. Anything smaller has always scared me a bit. But, after much online research I finally started my first stands this morning. Here, they are in all their glory.

I basically followed the Fallschrimjager color scheme out of the old Ostfront sourcebook along with the color codes from the newer Eastern Front book. I definitely had to rethink my normal painting when it came to these guys. I found myself wanting to do multiple highlights and even eyes! Well, I think I've convinced myself that there was no reason to go to these extremes so I did a slight flesh wash and left them as is. I think the final result looks fine. I'm sure as I paint more I'll get more detailed. Considering the stuff I've seen for FOW I know I could go overboard if I wanted.

Before I go back to the painting table I wanted to share some of the online resources I've been scouring over the last couple of months. I haven't ventured far so I'm sure people can tell me of lots of other places I can check. But for me, the first stop was the FOW site and their forums. You can find them at http://www.flamesofwar.com/. In the process of getting their newsletter each week I found a link to their podcast as well as an independent podcast called "What would Patton do?" (WWPD). I now listen to both shows but I really enjoy the show the guys at WWPD put together each month. They do a great job of talking about tactics, armies and hobby stuff plus they are so enthused about the game that you can't help but get fired up to play. I strongly encourage anyone interested in FOW to check them out at http://www.whatwouldpattondo.net/.

So stay tuned as my force grows and I'll add plenty of new photos, painting guides and maybe even some battle reports in the coming months. Plus, for you history buffs I might even try and come up with a short overview of my force and the history behind it.

Adepticon 2011 in the books!

Well, it's been a few weeks since Adepticon 2011 and I'm finally feeling like I've returned to normal life. The excitement of Adepticon always takes me a few weeks to recover from. Below are some pics of the LotR Championship event including some of the new table surfaces we added this year. You can find the full set of pictures from the event here.I had a great time playing in my first ever Adepticon LotR event. My thanks go out to Brent Sinclair for taking over the event for me this year. And I should also thank Frank Brown, John Humphrey, and Tim Cornstubble who helped in various ways both before the event and during the event. Without folks like these stepping up to help I wouldn't have had the chance to play. So thank you guys!

I managed to finish my new Dwarf army for the event and was making a run at the best appearance award. But I knew this would be a challenge as great painters like Ty Finnochiaro and Marc Raley would be in attendance. Ty walked away with Best Appearance for his AWESOME Black Numenorian force. You can see some pics of his army along with Marc's Dwarves and my own Dwarf army. I was surprised to find that I had won Best Sportsmanship by tie-breaker (i.e. lowest battle score). So really, I won for doing what I do best....being not so great at playing this game I love. LOL!

Ty's Black Numenorians

Marc's Dwarves

My Erebor Dwarves With Adepticon in the books it's time to move on to new projects including a new LotR force for Bilbo's Birthday Bash, also know as B3. This great event is held in November and you can find more information or even sign-up here.

Adepticon 2011 fast approaching!

Adepticon is just about a month away and I've recently kicked my painting into high gear to meet the deadline of April 1st for the Lord of the Rings Championship. Here are a few pics of some work in progress models along with what the completed bases should look like. Thanks to my friend Brent taking over the coordination of the event this year I will finally get to play in one of the Lord of the Rings events at Adepticon for the first time!

As you might tell I'm very excited about this. Having run the events at Adepticon for the past four years I've watched some great games and even greater players playing the game. Now I get to join this fantastic group of Lord of the Rings hobbyists and compete against some of the best players around.

So stay tuned for updated photos and information. And as always, check out the Adepticon forums at www.adeptuswindycity.com for more information on Lord of the Rings and Adepticon.

Bilbo's Birthday Bash 2010

Last weekend I had my first chance to play in a LotR tournament by attending Bilbo's Birthday Bash. This event started last year and this year the organizer, Brent Sinclair, went out of his way to make it a huge success. With over 20 players, some from out of state, it was a top notch event.

Although my battle score was horrible I had a fantastic time and walked away with Best Appearance and Favorite Army. I was totally honored to win these as the competition for these was pretty stiff. My personal favorite army was John Humphrey's Grey Company. We actually tied for appearance score and I lucked out by getting a few more Favorite Army votes. John is a great painter and a great guy.

Below are pics of the event including a couple of John's army, Kyle Toth's Mordor force, another great looking army, and a few of the other forces in attendance. There were some really nice painted armies in attendance to be sure. In all the excitement I forgot to take some photos of my own force so I'll do that soon and get some up. Needless to say, with the likes of John and others I have to step my game up if I want to keep up at Adepticon 2011.