WAR SHORES

Last friday night at The Club we enjoyed a very though naval engagement, between my British Home Fleet and W.'s Hochseeflotte...
We did it with Naval Thunder: Clash of Dreadnoughts (http://navalthunder.com/), a ruleset we really like for WWI sea wargaming, and GHQ 1/2400 micronauts range (and I really do not have to tell you how beautiful are these models).
It is amazing to see how fluid and challenging could be a naval battle with miniatures.
we started on the short end of our sea table, 2 division each side, mine formed by a battleships division (BB Queen Elizabeth, Ajax and the old and slow King Edward VII) supported by 3 Light Cruisers (CL Waymounth, Bristol and Aurora) and a Battlecuisers division formed by 3 Battlecruisers (BC Lion, Tiger and Inflexible) flanked by a single Armoured Cruiser (Good Hope) and a Destroyers Flottilla. on the other side the Huns fielded 2 Battleship, 3 Battlecruisers, 3 Lightcruisers and 2 Flottillas of Destroyers.
Then we had 2 fast turns of manouvering in order to achive a good firing angle, and after another turn to close the ranges, we started to hammering targets with steel...
In a naval wargame you have to consider a lot of factor when moving your units: formation and division's coherence, firing ranges and target bearing. Not last you have to keep and eye opened every move to avoid torpedoes... and that was our game. Simultaneously planned moves, trying to keep targets under range with as many turrets was possible and trying to guess were those damned destroyers were heading to.
The outcome, after 3-4 hours of funny hits and miss on the Critical Hit table, was... well... unsatisfactory. but quite historical too: a Draw. a lot of minor unit losts (I've lost my destroyers and most of my light cruisers and, on the other side, both destroyer's flottillase were sunk and only a single cruiser could head home safely) but all the main units were sailing home safely (with some scratches...).
I do not count this result as a fault in the rules. they are clever and well written, fun, simple to manage and to play, with a lot (really a lot) of suspence on each "critical hit" roll and they are absoluting more on the simulation side, with a lot of details to consider when moving or firing... (the only minus, IMHO, is the 90° turning angle... I really cannot swallow it).
The problem is hidden in the period.
During WWI, sea battles were maily draws, ending with both sides performing "strategical withdrawals". So, with these rules simulating so neatly every (or almost every) factor of a WWI naval engagement, you have to consider as a major victory when you can blow up a capital ship or a new Battlecruiser, a draw when both fleets head home with all the big ships still afloat.
Maybe, WWI naval wargaming can be fully enjoyed only with a campaign setted, where you have to consider each loss on a prospective.

DELIVERY TIME

this week I've got delivered two different shipments from Warlord Games and Magister Militum.
both were small orders, paints and bases from Warlord guys and some aircrafts and 10mm prussian from the latter.
what's different is in delivery time... the first order took more than 3 weeks to arrive. Magister Militum order was placed at 11.30 last wednesday and at 17.11 I've got an e-mail from them communicating they have already dispatched the order and I got it at my door in 5 days.
I love to buy from both these company, but Magister Militum service is really outstanding...

OFFENSIVE MINIATURE 28 MM GERMAN FALLSCHIRMJAEGER REVIEW

One of most often searched topics on the web , by me at least, is figure reviews and comparison.

When I start with a new project, or simply decide to give a try to a new miniature maker, I search the net to have an idea of what I'm buying and, most important, how do the miniature looks aside other brand's I already own.

I have to say I never have been so lucky to find a complete review, with comments and comparative charts... but several fellows wargamers have done a nice job.

Now, I have to give something back to the community...

at Salute, last April, I've loitered a little bit around Offensive Miniature stand and I had a very nice chat with the owner, a friendly guy with whom, I'm sure, it would be a pleasure to spend time with in everyday life.

I was looking specifically for his products, having read so well about them on magazines and around the web, so I asked some clarifications about the scale he uses for his minis.

In fact the miniatures appear to be a little bit tiny respect other competitors.

This question started a very well argumented discussion about the 28mm scale problem and the two main philosophies on the matter: 1/56 true scale VS 28 mm as a scale.

Try to figure out: we are used to see as good miniature reproduction not a scaled and anatomically correct man, but a chuncky figure with big hands, big head, bracing some weird and overscaled weapons...

Yes, it's true. GW style 28mm is a standard now and some of the most beatifull pieces here around (front rank, warlord, artizan etc) won't pass a scale modeller exams. But we like them anyway because they are, well, as we think a wargame miniature has to be.

Offensive Miniature policy is to get more close to the scale and anatomically correct side. Therefore the more correct human proportions (expecially hands, head and weapons) make them appearing "tiny" aside to a more conventional 28mm miniature...

On other side, if you try to fit your conventional 28mm miniatures on your 1/56 halftrack you'll have to cut and file a lot to have them seated in or, even, standing on it... Offensive miniature's will fit them perfectly...

On the sculpt side, the poses are not exagerated. People are doing what do you aspect from them, not trying to have a cast for an action movie...

Uniforms and weapons are intended more for Normandy '44 than Cassino...

ok, let see the minis:

this is a whole view of the bounch, in the blister there are 11 different poses

 facial expression are little bit grim and worried... maybe they had heard of an allied landing on the beaches?

 in the squad there are 2 MG42 and 2 ammo carrier, and it will please both historical OOB addicted and Bolt Action players...

 the central figure is a little bit stupid... what is he thinking to do? to call a friend why he has found two seats in theater? to point out to the enemy where is his platoon? or is he minded to take a lift on a passing by sdk fz 251?

here, at last, come the comparison.. on the left side the offensive miniature and on the right side the artizan design one's. I have to say I like them both, but Offensive's one is really more realistic... I would not misc them on the same squad but I'll misc them on the same army...(I've bought a lot of artizan's...)

TARAWA AND BEYOND

How can I resist? when I started a new Bolt Action project, last october, I was minded to paint just a couple of squads of US paratroopers and a bounch of vehicles, in order to get my 1000pts army list without much efforts at all...

Then I find out that I really enjoy to paint 28mm miniatures! in less than 6 months I've got 2 squads of paras, a HQ with medic, radio operator, captain, sarge, and bystanders, a squad of recruits from 1st armoured div. (sicily '43), a couple of MGs, 2 mortars, bazooka team, a M8 Greyhound, a M3 Halftrack, a Sherman and these lovely marines! 

I know, they are misplaced amongst the other fellows in the list above, but they are just waiting that someone, among my club pals, is willing to paint a platoon of japanese, before to disembark in a quiet and sunny beech, lets say, in Tarawa ;-)

I'm really proud of the herringbone twill result, a bit less of their camo helmet covers...

But, most important, I really love these sculps. They come from Warlords' bolt action range and they have some really nice poses... details are extremely crisp, and you can really feel how hard has been their life since they disembark somewhere in the pacific. I've found them really interesting to paint. every brush stroke, I litterally find out a new, small, detail. I can grant you, these minis really tell their story...

1/72 British 1st foot guard

as first entry, I really have to pay a (figurative) tribute to the old esci 1/72 plastic soldier.

They were my first approach to wargames (it was a double set, depicting the battle of Salamanca), and I've got them from my parents in the late 80s (I was 13 or 14 yo, I'm not sure).

From them I started my painter career. Therefore, as this blog would be a track of my life as wargamer, painter and modeller, I owe them a tribute.

the picture below are from my last Lasalle project' unit: a British guard battallion (coldstreamers?) I've painted to reinforce my british division. the miniature comes from Esci (a couple, not so many, indeed), Revell (a wonderfull set, really accurate) and a call to arms british infantry set (which I like a lot for their covered shakos). As you can see I had to squeeze the battallion in 6 bases (a big unit for Lasalle terms) hence, there are a grenadier company base, a light coy base, 3 centre companies and the colour party with a beautifull mounted colonel (a major, I think).

Actually, I find plastic soldiers more difficult to paint respect 15mm, as they have a lot of thin details which tend to disappear as soon as you prime the minis. Moreover, every plastic weapon will bend very easily and the paint will flake off (out?). I just decided to consider it appropriate and I will not bother anymore about it when playing.

regarding the bases, I've done them 4x4 cm cardboard (plastic is very very light, I do not need to pay for MDF or plastic bases ;-)), covered with white wall putty and some debries. I've not flocked them yet, as I'll do it for every unit in the division at once. flags are still missing...

BLOG STATEMENT

wow, a whole new blog related to... wargames! again...
OK, ok, I know... there are so (too) many blogs on the net, I've more then 35 bookmarked on varius PCs and I visit them only once-twice in a year. most of them.
But there are some (a bunch, a fistfull, a score), that I visit more often. weekly or, even, daily.
I was wondering about this peculiar idiosyncracy (why, in the hell, I'm so fond of same blogs instead of a healty pornsite...?), and I managed to find the answer: they are inspiring.
And I mean, really inspiring. visiting some of those, I've been sucked in whole new projects, periods, rulesets. I've found buckets of beautiful pics of wonderfully painted miniatures, right when I was in need of them.
therefore, I've decided to start my own blog, in the hope to get the same quality level of those.

another, quite important, reason is related to my need of record keeping. I've so many open projects (and no one truly ended, I'm still adding units to my 1/72 plastic napoleonics which were my first step in wargaming, 25 years ago), and I feel the need to track them and to give them some nice labels on the bottom bar of this page.
So, keep following and, please, comment, comment and again comment. even if only to remark a grammar error on a post (not joking, as english is not my mother-tongue, I'd really like to be corrected any time you'd feel it necessary)