Henschel HS129 B3

Finished my air support for Flames of War. A flight of HS129 B3.

 

Got a platoon of German Grenadiers to paint next and then it's back to Malifaux with a vengeance!

Firestorm Berlin - 2 Days In To Turn 1

Our Firestorm Campaign for Flames of War has kicked off now at my gaming club. We've had two days worth of battles and the frontlines have already moved quite a bit. The Allies have pressed their advance and so far for this turn have won all of their battles. Hopefully that trend will be corrected on Day 3 of the battles for this Turn which will see the defence of Köln and SS Totenkopf attempting to break out of the 'Amsterdam Encirclement'.

Some pictures of the campaign map so far then:

 

The two Axis Firestorm Counters out in the sea represent those that have been destroyed and are now in the Reinforcement Pool waiting to re-enter play at the end of the turn. The SS breakout of the Amsterdam Encirclement will be the first game so far in the campaign to use the Out of Supply rule. The grey supply lines have to travel unbroken through friendly territories to keep an area in supply and since the Allies control both Zuid and Noord Holland Amsterdam is completely cut off. The potential results of being Out of Supply are quite interesting...

Morale Reduced: For the duration of the battle all Fearless platoons count as Confident, Confident platoons counts as Reluctant and Reluctant Platoons only pass a Motivation Test on a roll of a 6
Strength Reduced - Before adding Firestorm Counters to your force you must reduce the size of your force by 20% e.g. if you would have fielded a 1500pt force, you now have only 1200pts for the battle. Firestorm troops are not affected by this and are chosen as normal in addition to the adjusted army points total.
No Effect - The boring result
Fight To The Death - For the duration of the battle all Reluctant platoons count as Confident, Confident platoons count as Fearless and Fearless platoons pass all Motivation Tests on a roll of 2+

Obviously, I'd love to see a Fight To The Death result as the men of SS Totenkopf accept their fates and launch their attack. I'm sure the Allies are hoping for Morale or Strength reduced...

Campaign map made with a great deal of assistance from the awesome Battle Chronicler software!

Marder III M Tank Hunter Platoon

Now that the Panzerjäger Platoon is finished I'm trying to decide whether to paint my Sturmtigers, Henschel HS192B3s or some Panzergrenadiers.

Marder III M Platoon - WIP, Nearly Finished

Working on the crew at the moment but except some finishing touches (and decals) the Marders are very nearly finished.

Trying to decide what to work on next. Sturmtigers, Henschels or the Infantry...?

WIP Tank Hunter Platoon - Marder III M

Still got a lot to do on these but a WIP picture of one of the platoon.

The camo scheme is based on this one from the Panzer Colors series of books.

Hopefully pics from a more advanced stage soon!

3. SS-Panzerdivision Totenkopf - SS-Sturmbannführer Kurt Lindenau

A pretty much finished SS-Sturmbannführer Kurt Lindenau. A couple of little tweaks to make but otherwise done. I've used a little creative licence on the base and put him on his own. He and his 2iC are going to be based alone just so its clear with teams are which and also because whilst I've painted the other two men for his base it left very few options. It's difficult enough getting the ruined Warsaw bases looking good on the small bases as it is without removing all the surface area to work with and replacing it with minis!

The MG teams etc on medium sized bases will be better as there'll be a bit more interaction with the minis and the base if that makes sense.

Lots more to be getting on with now. Suffice to say, one of these platoons are no longer in blisters and are half way through getting a coat of dunkelgelb!

3. SS-Panzerdivision Totenkopf - Getting Started

I've started building and painting my 3. SS-Panzerdivision Totenkopf Mechanised Company. To start with a few WIP pictures of what I'm making a start on. Me being me, I will of course start with a character!

SS-Sturmbannführer Kurt Lindenau

I'm quite pleased with him so far, few tiny bits to tidy up and then the rest of the HQ to paint and base! For my first painted figure at this scale I think he's come out quite well and I'm pleased with the pea dot camouflage even though most of isn't especially visible on him.


On to the unpainted and still being built things starting with 1 of 3 half tracks (this one being Lindenau's wheels).

A WIP Panzer IV H got a couple of little details to add on to this one before its ready to be painted.

WIP Sturmtigers, got a few bits to do still to each of these before they're ready to be painted.

Any and all feedback appreciated seeing as I'm a FoW Noob Painter!

A List To Collect To - FoW SS Totenkopf

I often like to collect an army to an army list. It gives me a clear goal and keeps my purchases vaguely productive otherwise I'd just go into an endless spiral of buying characters or units I can't actually get into an army. Whilst those things are great they aren't helpful when it comes to time to play a game. The great thing about collecting to a list is there's usually so much time between getting each entry on the list bought, built and painted that I can change the list plenty and there's never the feeling of being trapped. So I've written a 2500pt list for my new Flames of War army: 3. 'Totenkopf' SS-Panzerdivision. It'll probably take me a while to collect up the minis for this and even longer to paint them I'm sure but I'm going to Smoggycon 2010 next month (there'll be more on this in another post in the not too distant future) and I'm sure to part with some money there so having this army list might make at least half of my purchases useful to me! Here it is for those that have an interest in such things!

Panzergrenadier HQ
2 Command Panzerfaust SMG Teams
2 Panzerschreck Teams
2 Snipers

SS Panzer Platoon
Biermeyer's Panzer IV Platoon
5 Panzers

SS Panzergrenadier Platoon
2 Panzergrenadier Squads
Command Panzerfaust SMG Team
Panzerfaust SMG Team

SS Panzergrenadier Platoon
2 Panzergrenadier Squads
Command Panzerfaust SMG Team
Panzerfaust SMG Team

SS Heavy Platoon
1 Machine Gun Section

SS Scout Platoon
3 Squads
Schwimmwagens

SS Armoured Anti-Aircraft Gun Platoon
3 Sd Kfz 7/1 (Quad 2cm)

SS Tank Hunter Platoon
3 Marder III M

SS Aufklärungs Platoon
3 Aufklärungs Squads
Command Panzerfaust SMG Team
3 Additional Sd Kfz 250

Heavy Assault Howitzer Platoon
2 Sturmtiger

SS Armoured Car Patrol
Sd Kfz 223 (radio)
2 Sd Kfz 231 (8-rad)

Sporadic Air Support
Hs 129B

I quite like the idea of the list (although in practice only time will tell!) it's an Infantry Company so will quite often be on the defensive but with the Aufklärungs and Biermeyer's Panzers I've got a strong counter-attacking element to strike at the enemy whilst the two squads of Panzergrenadiers bunker down on home objectives and protect my Sturmtigers and Anti-aircraft guns from enemy infantry. The Sturmtigers will provide a suitable distraction and whilst they're far from reliable with their shooting they'll force my opponent to make tactical decisions with them in mind and when they do hit they can cause a lot of damage. The air support is much the same, when it works it'll go after enemy artillery and anti-tank guns etc. The Marders will support the counter-attack by helping to neutralise any armoured threat. The scout platoon will pretty much always be used as Tank Hunters, they'll bunker down somewhere in the way of an armoured advance ready to set to work with their Panzerfaust tin openers! The Machine Gun teams will make Combat Attachments to the two Panzergrenadier Platoons and the armoured cars will help keep enemy teams from going to ground to give my Sturmtigers a chance to hit something and harrass as neccessary. The Anti-aircraft guns will do exactly what it says on the tin and will most likely be deployed near the Sturmtigers as that's where I'd personally send any of my attack aircraft as their top armour is their only real weakness!
Sounds easy in theory! Can't wait to get to work painting these! I already have the Panzergrenadier platoons and their quite high on my to-do list once The Gorewing are all done and dusted (hope to finish them in the next couple of days!)

All Images Property of Battlefront Miniatures