Some painted Star Wars Armada Y-Wings and A-Wings

Hey all!

Well, like a lot of folks, I look at the unpainted squadrons that come with Armada and see a wealth  of possibilities!  Now, the ships are AWFUL small, but still... they are fun to paint, because they are Star Wars... and because, you know, they are AWFUL small!:)

So here are the first few finished... the A-Wings and Y-Wings!

Next time I'll post some of the Imperials... I finished Vader, the bombers, and the TIE Interceptors... decked out as Royal Guard Interceptors!

The House of War: Shelf #1

 

Hi all!

Well, it has been a busy time for me!  Moving, a new kid, the end of a work year... but thankfully I have finally gotten my new war room all set up!  Thanks to the help of a buddy (and some kind donations from him) and of course for years of great gifts from friends and family... as well as many years of painting toy soldiers... it has all come together!

So over the next few weeks I'll share some photos.  First up?  The first cabinet of toy soldiers!

The cabinets are Detolf cabinets from Ikea, with shelves added (thanks, AesSedai!)  They really work nicely.  The only issue is that packed-together soldiers block the light from hitting the bottom few shelves effectively... but honestly the room is so well-lit it doesn't matter.

So, here it is!

All of the Shelf #1s have the tallest figures I own.  This one has a sampling from my X-Wing collection (including a Royal Guard Interceptor I converted and painted.)  It also has the commander for my old Warhammer army, my Empire General on Griffon.  In the back right I have my little Deadwood diorama that I did.  In the front row are my Space Wolf terminators, and then my growing collection of zombie survivors!

Next shelf is PURE WWII Flames of War Germans.  I made a LOT of sandbags for this collection!:)

The next shelf is another mixed bag... my Fellowship of the Ring and some assorted 28mm Confederate command stands (painted for a game that they weren't actually needed for!).  Then, in the back, I have my small group of 28mm ACW Federals and then a random standard bearer I made when I was a little kid... I figure a throwback or two doesn't hurt!:)

The next three shelves are pure 10mm Napoleonics.  First up?  The Old Guard!

I simply don't have enough shelf space for all the 10mm Napoleonics... a lot of them are still in boxes.  I only had one shelf to really put out 10mm French Infantry... so I decided to do a 1:1 French Battalion!

And finally, here is some of the 10mm Napoleonic French cavalry, ready to run some enemies down!

So!  That is cabinet #1  I'll have more photos tonight, including hopefully of the workbench, where I've just finished some Star Wars Armada ships and started in on another batch of Vikings!

Thanks for coming by!

The House of War is BACK!

Just a single photo, for now, as a teaser... more coming over the next day or two:D

SO nice to be back up and running... a LOT to share, including a ton of Star Wars Armada, some Aurelian, some Napoleonics... just a BUNCH:)

Cabinets for sale!

Hey all!

I am looking to sell off my two toy soldier cabinets to a good home!

200 bucks and they are yours!

Not shipping, unfortunately... You've got to pick them up.  I am in northern NJ, USA!

Anyway, if you are interested, shoot me an email at grenadierguardscampaigns At yahoo dot com!:)

My painted X-Wings from Star Wars Armada!

Hey all!

Well, I finally picked up my first copy of Star Wars: Armada!

And the day I got it, I started painting the smaller ships!  Here are the X-Wings, done up.  From L to R... Yellow squadron, Red squadron, Gold squadron (Luke & Co) and Green squadron.  I kept the formations very standard, except for Luke's squadron.  Overall I think they turned out pretty good.  Yeah, they don't hold up up close, but at ANY reasonable distance they look pretty sharp.

Looking forward to touching up the Rebel capital ships, and then onto the Imperials!

Some great 15mm Modern eye candy!

Hey all!

Well, went over to a buddy of mine's place last night.  First, some bad news: he is having his first child.  Which mean that this war-games room has been disassembled:

Thankfully, however, he isn't giving up war-games, and in fact he took a little while to set up on his dining room table his newest collection; 15mm moderns!

Here are his 15mm modern Afghan fighters.  I have a better shot of the motorcycles later on.

An American sniper team watches over a convoy.

He actually got real Saddam posters online, shrunk them down, and put them on buildings.

An American patrol moves house-to-house.  These buildings, along with a lot of his other stuff, is from Crescent Root.  Their stuff is AMAZING.  I'll have more photos of their product when I have my war-games room up and running.

A local fills up at the gas station.  Gas station courtesy of Gamecraft.

The convoy nears the market.

A shot of the market.  The stalls are presented out-of-the-box, and are also by Crescent Root.  I cannot recommend these guys enough!  Just buy a few stall sets if you can... or some medians!

Another sniper team, another great mural.

Here are those Afghans on bikes.  The Afghans didn't make it to the table, as this was an Iraqi setup... the Afghan setup is different.

An Arab on a camel slowly meanders past some stores; these are also from Crescent Root.  Not too expensive, and lord almighty they are nice.  This is them with no extra work done.

A Western politician shows up at the government building, security contractors in tow.

Another shot of the convoy.

Overhead an attack chopper provides security and a second set of eyes.

The chopper moves across town.

Another shot.  A few neat bits are visible here, including the bus stop and the well.

The House of War is returning!!

Hi all!

Well, some exciting news... We are moving!  And what awaits, in our new house?  The room above, which is the location of the NEW House of War!

So, come early May, I'll start posting photos of the room as it comes together:). Plans are for a single large table (maybe 8x4, maybe slightly longer, I've got to get a good measurement) and for a small table primarily for xwing and small skirmish games.  Cabinets are a must; I'll add two glass ones from ikea I think, and then play it by ear.  I am also considering a large magazine/book display cabinet, like the type you see in libraries... I saw that on another blog and loved the look.

I do plan on getting this coffee table, for in front of the sofa/TV...  I plan to do little 10mm scenes in each of the four drawer sections, so it is like little dioramas from above.

And then I'll get a few of these glass cabinets for the X-Wing collection and some other figures.

So!  Any advice would be very welcome!

A TRUE war-game released for the iPad... finally!

Hey all!

Well, just yesterday a game I was waiting for was released for the iPad, and I thought I would post about it here, because if you are reading this blog, you want this game!:)

The game is Ultimate General: Gettysburg.  It is a fairly simple war-game that sees the player take control of either the Rebs or the Federals and fight through the three days of Gettysburg.

The game is a bit simple; units don't run out of ammo, for instance.  But the controls are smooth as silk (nothing beats the touch-and-drag type of controls on an iPad) the research is decent and the graphics are really, really pretty; you will recognize every building on the battlefield, which is a great treat.  Elevation is crucial to getting your guns in the right place, and fog of war makes you send out scouts to make sure there aren't any enemy in that dead ground to your left!

Overall the game is a GREAT little war-game, with a lot of content and beautiful controls and graphics.  I highly, highly recommend it... so far it is the best war-game I've played on the iPad, along with Battle Academy from Slitherine.

So go give it a try!

"The Hundred Days" expansion for "Blucher"!

Hi all!

Well, I got my hands on a set of Sam Mustafa's new rules, "Blucher".  Most folks have started to talk about these rules a bit, but honestly I was just as impressed by the OTHER piece of the puzzle... the "The Hundred Days" expansion for it!

Now, the expansion consists of a pretty impressive (and sizable!) box containing 200+ cards, all the size of poker cards.  The cards are BEAUTIFULLY finished in terms of graphics, shine, and durability... they almost feel a touch weighty, and they are simply very pleasant in a tactile sense, if that makes sense.

There are several types of cards in the expansion.  The stars of the show are cards that represent (both in terms of stats/rules but also visually, with little pictures of troops from above) units in the Prussian, French, and British army during this time of the Napoleonic wars.  They are intended to be used if you do not have the miniatures, but of course you can just use minis instead.  What I think makes this such a cool purchase is that it is literally EVERY... SINGLE... UNIT, properly identified and with stats for the game, that existed in those armies at that time.  There are even some that never fought, but everyone has a Corps number and all the identifiers you need.  I honestly think that it makes this almost a must-purchase for any Napoleonic fan, not in terms of the game, but in terms of a sheer cool wargame/history swag.  It is just a great thing to have in a collection, you know?

There are other cards as well, including some to help you play The Hundred Days campaign in "Blucher", including various personalities who impact the game in other ways.  These are limited in use to players who intend to play the "Blucher" rules, but I would wager that would be most people who purchase the set in the first place.

And I do have to say... there are some neat toy soldiers in the "Blucher" rule book... :)

Anyway... thought I would share the photos and thoughts!

Some photos of the 15mm moderns game

Hey all!

My buddy came by and we played another game of my 15mm modern rules!

The objective we rolled up was a humvee that needed evacuation.  My buddy took an American squad of a humvee, four infantry including a medic, LMG, and officer, and a sniper team.  I took a Stryker and a squad of three infantry, including a LMG.

The objective square was about four "blocks" away.

Here is the first "block" which was a T-road junction.  We needed to turn right, but unfortunately there were TWO possible IEDs in the road blocking the way, and a TON of possible contacts in the far left corner (the tall building with the blue rail in the above photo.)

We put our sniper on the nearest roof, and send infantry to the right, clearing out one group of insurgents who popped up there.  We were a bit stuck, as we couldn't get a man to the possible IED in the road to check it with so many insurgents looking at us, so it WAS tough.  The insurgents flooded us a bit, but between the sniper team providing overwatch and the two HMGs on the vehicles we DID chew them up.  We took a single casualty, but we got him to the humvee and medevaced   And off we rolled to the next objective!

This was the second block, which was a right hand turn.  This was a problem; we needed to go LEFT.  So we decided that we would send the infantry left, and the vehicles would have to catch up.  In my rule set, your infantry can leave the "block" not on a road, and you "leave behind" the vehicles.  They are not available for the next block, but catch up with you on the next on.

We had a big open square to the front left, and a HUGE residential building to the right, with some possible targets moving into it!

Here are our two squads beginning to move up the street, but our infantry QUICKLY ducked off to the lefthand alley and GTFO.

We then hit a turn, which was perfect.  It sucked, because we didn't have our vehicles, but we didn't roll up too many blinds.  We rolled through some enemy contacts, but it was pretty clear.

And then we made it to the objective square!  It was a T-junction, with the wrecked humvee in the center of the intersection, right in front of a large government building!

We quickly rolled both vehicles up to the humvee, using the Stryker to cover the men trying to medieval.  In my rule set, once you start trying to evac the wounded, potential contacts start flooding in at random spots on the "block."  In a terrifying move, we had THREE different blinds move up on our left rear.  We immediately threw infantry in and hit the building they were in, but it turned out to be a BUNCH of bad guys, and the breach didn't go that well!  We took three casualties (one or two who were KIA) but we DID evac the humvee.

So!  Overall, a fun game!