Barbarian warband

I haven't painted anything for my Song of Broken Legions game so far this year. Nor have I played any battles. But I've had these beautiful Celtos figures sitting around for ages now, and before I finish Craig's next wave of stormtroopers I thought I'd get them finished.

The full warband

The hero (reminds of Slaine), and a battlemaiden wearing next to nothing.

Druid and chap with a magic spear.

A couple of champions.

Some expendables with spears.

Some more expendables, but this time with a bit of armour and shields.

These are perfect to face a Roman expedition into the heart of druid territory in order to recover some mystical object or other. I'll try and get a game with them soon.

In other news, The Perry Zulu Wars figures have proved too tempting for me to resist. I'm putting together a couple of forces for the Men Who Would Be Kings rules, and here are a couple of test elements that I've done so far.

All the black on the figures are actually German grey washed with a black wash.

The skin colour is chocolate brown with army painter dark tone ink wash and then highlighted with chocolate brown.

I went with the blue facings of the 13th Light Infantry, rather than the usual green of the 24th. I'm looking more at Woods' column to base my forces on.

I'm quite pleased with how they've turned out to far.

I'm going to add some Natal Naval Contingent and the Natal Carbineers (because of their cool spikey helmets) to the Brits. I still need to get one more box of Zulus so I've got 6 units.

We played a game at John's a couple of weeks back as well. The first Team Yankee game since our little tournament in April. My Soviets went up against the Brits and John's yanks took on my West Germans commanded by Paul. Both of my armies lost, which just shows how crap I am when it comes to the meta of any game. I hate list building and just tend to take what I like. Mike has a habit of hiding for most of the game, and I need to learn to be a bit more patient. My natural inclination is always to move forward, but in the open the Russian tanks don't last long.

The only picture I took shows my hinds doing damage, but not fast enough for my army to survive.

I've currently got some stormtroopers and ACW heavy artillery on the painting tray. There's 2 weeks of holiday coming up and I'd like to try and use it to get all of Craig's Star Wars legion and my 15mm ACW completed.

Nate

Team Yankee weekend

It seems like an age ago, but last Saturday John, Mike, Craig and myself got together to play several games of Team Yankee. We did it as a mini-tournament with 100 point forces each, Craig taking Soviet T-72s and Afgantsy; John running a US armoured company and Marine LAV company; Mike a British Armoured company; and me with my West Germans.

We all met at John's place at around 9am where he had two tables set up. Of course the games didn't manage to kick off for an hour and so I was worried we wouldn't be able to fit all three games in. I needn't have been concerned. We actually finished before the planned time of 5.30. Team Yankee is fun, and quick.

First round was Myself vs. John and Mike vs. Craig. Mike and I both had minor victories.

First game against John saw half his forces in delayed reserves. He deployed his Abrams HQ far too forward, especially when I used Spearhead to deploy my Leopards up close.

First turn saw me brew up his Abrams

I shot down a Warthog, but its mate took out one of the Leopards.

All the fighting started to converge around the objective marker that I'd placed.

By the end of the game it looked like a parking lot was on fire. My Jaguars and infantry in the buildings secured the win.

Over on table 2 Mike and Craig battled it out.

Mike, get out of the picture!

Game two saw me fighting on table 2 against Mike in an encounter scenario - everything on the board. Mike basically sat this game out in ambush while I banged my head against him. It didn't help that he was testing morale at 3+, not 4+. One day I'll forgive him...

Refused right falnk with an exposed objective just trying to lure Mike out of cover where my Jaguars and Leopards could mince him. He didn't fall for it.

On the left flank my Leopards were hull down, but some good shooting by all of his at assets wrecked my platoon.

Hull down isn't much good against Harriers... Mike is planning to replace this 1/72 model from John's collection with Battlefront ones.

 In the end Mike narrowly won. No pictures of Craig vs John, but let's just say it was the only 5-2 win of the day.
Craig obviously had his blood up for the next game after his great victory. He and I both had delayed reserves in this scenario. In the first couple of turns I had wiped out a T-72 company, killed some infantry and was charging over the hill to secure an objective before reserves could appear. In so doing I exposed my side armour to a Carnation Battery (I didn't think about them moving and firing with direct fire). My attack was torn apart and when my reserves were slow to arrive, there was little more I could do. Thanks to my early efforts this was a 4-3 victory to Craig.

The valley of death - first for the Soviets and then for the West Germans

At the end of the day Craig took the most points with 12, Mike had 11, I had 10 and John had 9. So relatively close scores, and I learned a few things about all of the armies.
On Sunday, before Craig returned home I did a deal with him. I exchanged my West German army for the British, German and French Great War armies, not because I didn't enjoy Team Yankee, far from it, but because I wanted to concentrate on Soviets. I'm the only local Red Army player so I figure I'll be fielding these guys most of the time. Saturday night I devised a T-64 list and on Sunday morning Craig and I played another game.

The initial set-up

I didn't take photos of the entire battle, as it didn't last long and I spent an inordinate amount of it getting clobbered! I put my BMP recon forward and used spearhead to get a company of T-64s close to the Germans on the right flank. I knew I was attacking and wanted to maximise the first turn. So I charged the T-64s onto the hill. This had the double bonus of bringing the Jaguars inside missile range so they couldn't fire back, and causing Craig a nasty shock as he didn't realise T-64s could go 35cm in a move.
But then I discovered the achilles heel of the Soviets - their skill rating. I had assumed I'd line up o nthe hill and manage to kill both leopards in front of me, but my tanks failed their skill checks and bogged down. I ended up with 4 barrels rather than 6 facing the enemy at point blank range and the best they could manage was a bail result. Needless to say that by the next turn my attack was in pieces. With no air power in my list Craig used his Gepards to come around my flank and kill my BMPs and then my Shilkas. Somehow the HQ Leopard sat in the open and saw off 3 T-64s before succumbing. The bright spot was my Geckos (in black in the above photo), which took out the German helicopters very quickly, and the RPGs that took care of the Pumas. Aside from that, it was a sorry performance. So what did I learn?

1. Choppers are fragile, but air power is important, and preferably in units of 4 so that they don't have to take a morale check in the first turn if they lose a buddy.
2. Poor Soviet skill ratings make artillery useless for indirect fire. Either don't bother, or expect to be making direct fire shots.
3. Stay away from moving through terrain when you can. Again, the skill rating of 5+ will see you get stuck 66% of the time.
4. Keep your BMPs back so that they can survive to get a shot away. To this end, I plan to make them my infantry carriers, instead of recon, and I'll use the 1 point of the BRDM scouts to give me a Spearhead deployment if necessary.
5. A second anti-air option is always useful, especially if it can also fire at infantry and vehicles (which the SAMs can't).

I've ordered 4 Hinds and a couple of Shilkas to supplement the army now, based on my experiences and the lessons learned over the four games.
Despite my decision to concentrate on Soviets, I sold some figures and ordered some more Leopard 2s (love that tank). This time I'm intending to build a Dutch army. I've started it by getting two boxes of the Kampfgruppe Muller box set, so I'll also have 4 choppers, as per note 1 above. I'll be getting Free Nations as soon as it appears, and, I hope, unit cards for the Dutch Army. I'm thinking that Gepards, infantry in YPR IFVs, armoured cars and some Leopard 1s (love these tanks too) will fill out the 100 points.

It was great to have Craig come to stay. In the past couple of years I've painted for him and chatted a couple of times in person, but its the first time we've actually played games together. I'm hopeful that we can do it again later in the year. As for team Yankee - I'm hooked!
And just to finish off, some pics of the British Infantry that I painted for Mike:

Nate

Liberation Time (now with extra vodka)!

Yes, the glorious Soviet Army is finally ready to liberate the Western world of capitalism, imperialism and their denim jeans!

Doesn't seem that many...

Craig arrives on Friday, and Saturday will be our inaugural Team Yankee tournament, between him, me, John and Mike. Mike's army will hopefully be pretty much painted; Craig's is now finished; with typical German efficiency mine was the first one completed; and John's should hopefully be glued together by the weekend😆!

The games will feature some Blue on Blue unfortunately, but that can't be helped. My Soviets are put together but I wouldn't dare field them naked! Besides, I really want to take the West Germans for a run.

OK, maybe it is many.

Steel legions of the Red Army - T-72s.

The commander has dozer blades - probably to shift dead T-72s out of the way.

Afgantsy heavy weapons.

The Hind. Six of these babies in the army. Time to get the AA rattling!

Afgantsy company commander. The army includes 2 formations.

Shilkas. These little fellas are devastating to aircraft.

Carnations. What is a Soviet army without heavy artillery support?

So in a week I'll hopefully have a few battle reports for you. My next goal is finishing Mike's British infantry. They're already started so shouldn't take too long.

Nate

Bundeswehr is go!

So I've had my head down for a while trying to punch out Team Yankee forces for myself and Craig. but the first results are in and they are wunderbar!

The West Germans are my Team Yankee army. Ever since a kid growing up in the 80s I've had a weakness for Leopards, Gepards, Marders and Tornadoes (still to be bought unfortunately). And now here they are on the tabletop, 100 points of West German superiority preparing to blunt the Soviet invasion of 1985.

Anyway, enough talk - you want to see the models!

Compulsory family picture! Some of the Leopards don't want to be in the photo - just like all family portraits really.

My commander - leading the advance!

Leopard platoon - the most expensive tanks in Team Yankee. I can't wait to see if they are worth their price.

The infantry. A pitifully small group, but hopefully enough to have an influence

Gepards! And the PAHs. My box of Kamfgruppe Muller had no decals, so the helicopters are unadorned unfortunately.

Jaguars! I was a bit cold on these guys to begin with, but they really are great little models.

And the Luchs scout troop. At 100 points I can only take one of these, but I may eventually paint the other two when I get the Tornadoes and need to consider options.

With any luck, this time next week I'll have the last of Craig's Soviets finished and be able to put on another parade for you! I only have the heavy weapons team to paint, but this is still 54 figures, which is the equivalent of a DBA army. We'll see how we go...

Nate

First run of Team Yankee

In the middle of April we are planning to have a mini-tournament of Team Yankee with myself, Mike, John and Craig who will be coming up from Hastings. The plan is that our armies will be painted by then, fingers crossed, and we can really get to know the rules. In anticipation, Mike and I decided to play a small 'quick mission' with 60 points. I took the Soviets that I've painted for Craig, and Mike took his Brits in their 'night camouflage'.

Mike rolled up himself as the attacker and deployed in one corner. I lined the opposite edge.

A nifty line of T-72s supported by Shilkas and Carnations sat on the right flank.

Another group of four tanks was on the left flank. The objective can just be seen in the unoccupied quarter of the table.

Mike took advantage of the cover in his deployment zone

Which availed him naught when my Hinds turned up and got a clear shot. My T-72s on the right also did a good job of burning a Chieftain and killing some Scorpions.

In mike's turn the Chieftains advanced out of the smoke that the Carnations had laid, and took out one T-72 and the Battalion Commander's T-72. The only bright spot ws the 6 hits that the Rapiers got on the Hinds - they saved them all!

Then we did something wrong. Mike moved his Lynx helicopters and shot up the T-72s from the rear - except he can't move and fire with them in the same turn. They have to be halted to shoot. It probably did make some difference in the end, but it is all part of learning.

The next Soviet turn saw the Scorpions taken care of and one Lynx shot down by the Shilkas, but then Mike got his revenge with the Rapiers. If only I'd had the Hinds for one more turn... At least they managed to drop their infantry on the objective before being downed!

Mike starts moving his Chieftains to contest the objective, and there just aren't enough infantry to hold on.

The T-72s had manned the treeline with some good moments, but by this stage they were well and truly beaten. The infantry were destroyed by the Chieftains assaulting them and the Brits took the game.

It took 3 hours to play this 'quick' mission, but that involved pizza, rulebooks and banter, so it was OK to take it slowly. The rules proved to be bloody and enjoyable, and very simple, really. I think the only rules we got wrong was the use of the helicopters, but we know now and have a good idea of the Helicopter special rules. I'm looking forward to the next game - I might even have my Germans ready by then for a 'blue on blue' game!

Nate