"Victory at Waterloo" arrives.

As part of my on-going attempt to replace the games I rashly got rid of when I quit gaming years ago I bought a copy of "Victory at Waterloo" on eBay. It arrived this morning and I wasted no time setting up a game.

 

On the surface it's a very simple game (the rules only run to four sides). It takes minutes to set up and the combat is fairly basic. However it requires a lot of thought to play well. The French have a limited time before the Prussians start to arrive so have to move quickly and decisively. The British on the other hand have to dig in and try to hold on. The optional rules add a lot of nice features which enhance the game, particularly the command & control rules which limit the amount of units you can move each turn. Plus it can be played solo and still give you a fun game.

 

Turn 2. The French are trying to flank the British while the British
on the other flank are trying to draw troops away from the
Prussian entry points.

I quickly set up the game and played a few moves to get back into the swing of things. I made a few mistakes but the memories came flooding back and I look forward to playing a full game soon.

The first of my 1/72 Germans

I've made a start on painting up the Valiant 1/72 Germans I bought recently. I'm aiming to use these for both Bolt Action (BA) and Chain of Command (CoC). So here is a photo of my first squad. The painting isn't great but it looks ok on the tabletop, which is all I aim for these days.

For those who want to know how I painted them here's the details. First I sprayed them with Army Painter grey then block painted the details. Next up was a coat of Army Painter 'Strong' tone dip followed by a light drybrush of white and then a spray of Army Painter Matt Varnish. The bases I did with Coat D'Arms 'Sandy Brown' Brushscape (which is a textured paint) topped off with GF9 Green static grass. I'm always amazed how much better the models look after a coat of dip. Makes even my painting look ok.

Like lots of old school wargamers I'd used a ton of Airfix figures for gaming but for some reason I've never thought of going back to that scale until recently. But now I've picked up these I'm a convert. The detail is good and the above squad only cost me 97p. So two complete 500pt armies for BA will have only cost me about £5.50, that's less than the price of one 15mm tank!

The spending continues!

I've been a busy boy this weekend and bought yet more toys I probably don't need. I finally succumbed and bought the Chain of Command WW2 skirmish rules that I intend to do in 20mm to cut costs (yeah like that will happen). I also bought some 40mm round MDF bases to use as Jump off points/Patrol markers for the game.

Next up is the old Attactix board game 'Victory at Waterloo'. I've been after a copy for a while as I used to play it years ago and it was good fun, if a bit simple (a bit like me). So when I saw one on eBay I bid and managed to win it.

I also decided to buy some more Valiant 1/72 figures to give me two forces so I can demo games of Chain of Command to conjure up some interest at the local club. I've finished painting my first batch of Valiant Germans and I'm pleased with how they've turned out. I'll post up some pics later in the week.

I need  more 28mm terrain so I also bid & won a bunch painted MDF terrain. Twelve painted ruined building corners for £4.99 the lot inc p&p, a bargain.

Lastly I splashed out on a magnifying visor as I've finally admitted that my eyes need some help painting smaller figures. I just hope that it doesn't show up my poor painting on the existing models!

What am I up to?

Just a quick update about what I'm working on at the moment. First up I have a HOTT AAR to finish writing up. I needed to scratch an itch to play HOTT again so I dug out my Dwarves & Lizardmen.

The start of the battle

I have all the pictures loaded I just need to finish up the text.

Next will be my thoughts on the new fast play Battletech rules Alpha Strike. I took the plunge and bought the PDF (not bad value at £10). I've played a couple of games of the introductory rules to get a feel for things and now I'm ready to move onto the standard rules. Initial thoughts are that things are much quicker but I'm not sure you get the same 'Battletech' feel from them. However the intro rules are very basic so that may change as I delve deeper in things.

Lastly the Bolt Action videos over on Beasts of War rekindled my interest in the game so I've ordered a bunch of new figures. The twist for me is that I've moved to 1/72 from 28mm. There's a few reasons for this change. First is price, I bought a box of 68 German infantry which included mortars, panzershreks, MG42's etc all for £8.24 inc p&p. A 500pt force only uses about a third of a box so they're great value. Plus there's lots of cheap 1/72 vehicles available to add to your force if you want to go that route. One of the other benefits is that most of the figures are in one piece so no more fiddly assembly. I've already started painting up some Germans so should have some piccys of the finished models done sometime next week.

I'm also looking at pre-ordering Too Fat Lardies new WW2 skirmish rules 'Chain of Command' (CoC). Although I have Bolt Action there's something about CoC that appeals to me. Plus you can never have too many rulesets.