Fistful of Lead Reloaded Kickstarter Update

The Fistful of Lead: Reloaded Kickstarter is now fully funded, which is great news and no surprise given the popularity of the rules and the excellent stretch goals, which are available to add to the basic pledge if you don't want to go all in at the top end. The freebies are also great, from extra scenarios to terrain bits, tokens and even a sheriff's badge for the umpire to wear. I'm a fan of the rules so I'm really pleased that the Kickstarter has been such a success, especially as it will encourage some of the club players to get on board, making a club campaign a real possibility next year. Excellent!

Bolt Action Volksgrenadiers [5]

 

A couple of years ago I started to gather together some assorted Artizan Designs figures for a Bolt Action Volksgrenadier platoon to use against my late war US infantry. These ended up being stashed away in a box and I moved onto other things. I'm now thinking of making this a small painting project for 2016, especially as I have my nice new snow terrain cloth to use as a backdrop. I have other things to get done before the end of this year but the Volksgrenadiers may well be started in January, with three eight man squads plus a command group as the core of the force, alongside a sustained fire MG42, a mortar and a PaK40. This will make a handy skirmish level unit that can stand alone and be added to with some armour and transport later on.

Cigar Box Battle of the Bulge

 

The Cigar Box cloth arrived today and, at first, I thought it was just far too arctic, with vast acres of snow and only patches of ground showing through to break up the icescape...more Battle of Hoth that Battle of the Bulge? On second thoughts and after playing around with some figures and tanks on the surface, it's actually not that bad and would work well as a deep snow covered landscape somewhere in the Ardennes. It will also be spot on for the Russian Front, the Russian Civil War and anything deep and crisp and even. All I now need is some terrain to plonk on top!

Bolt Action Battleground Europe

 

I've been wanting to dust off my late war US infantry platoon for another game of Bolt Action for ages but somehow this always got put off to a later date. Yesterday we were having a chat about Bolt Action as a skirmish level game with a cap of about 600-700 points, so we decided to set up a game for next week along these lines. I'm hoping my new tundra cloth will have arrived by then, so we can set the scenario in the Ardennes or around the Siegfried Line in the winter of 1944. I've been flicking through the relevant rule books, including the Battleground Europe: D-Day to Germany book, to see if I can find a suitable scenario, so will hopefully have a better idea about how to organise my forces. I'm really looking forward to giving Bolt Action another go after a very long break from my previous game at the club.

Maurice

 

I enjoyed an excellent game of Maurice this evening at the club, playing as the French against Mike's British and using his superb collection of Foundry and First Corps Malburian figures. The game was really close in the end and at several points swung in my favour but, in the end, the perfidious British managed to wear me down and outflank my defenders, forcing them to rout from the field with their tails between their legs. I've only played Maurice once before and thoroughly enjoyed it, so it was great to have another crack at this really interesting period and innovative set of rules. It also looks stunning and I'll have to seriously resist the temptation to scramble into the loft in search of my bargain boxes of plastic Wargames Factory figures!

Cigar Box Tundra Mat

I spotted this in the Northstar bargain basement just now, so snapped one up for fifty quid, which is a decent discount from the full price. I have a gaming chum who has several of the Cigar Box mats and they are really good, so this one is a great addition to my assorted pile of bed sheets, shower curtains and end of roll leftovers. I plan to use it for a variety of projects including my 28mm Bolt Action Late War Winter US infantry platoon, 28mm Commando Raiders and 15mm Lion Rampant War of the Roses, for example, so I'm sure it will be good value for money. It also adds a whole range of possible options for future snow terrain based projects in a variety of scales from 10mm, through 15mm and 28mm, so very useful all round!

Ronin [8]

 

I didn't have much time for shopping at Warfare yesterday but I did get a few more extras for the Ronin project. The main purchase was of four packs of Perry Miniatures figures including a couple of Ikko Ikki packs, a set of armed peasants and some townsfolk. The first three packs will be split up to form the nucleus of a bandit gang, adding to the figures that I already have that are suitable for this, while the townsfolk will mostly be used as civilians with one or two perhaps 'disguised' ninja.

 

I also splashed out on my most expensive mdf building kit to date, in the form of a Samurai tea house from Sarissa Precision which I had my eye on for ages but couldn't pluck up the courage to order on line. It's a really impressive kit just in terms of weight and the number of sheets included in the pack, so it should look pretty amazing when (?) I get it glued together. I just hope it's worth the outlay, as it meant that I had to forget any other spending plans for the day, including some longhorn cattle for the cowboys to rustle and some terrain stuff for the Black Ops project.

Warfare Fistful of Lead: Reloaded Game

The Warfare game was a big success today and I am sure will be equally popular tomorrow. In the end we ran five games, two using the gold mine scenario and three with the scenario in the town. The players all enjoyed the games and the feedback was really positive, both about the rules and the terrain. I also met up with loads of fellow bloggers and some old gaming friends, so enjoyed a good chat about all things wargaming throughout the day. If you are visiting the show tomorrow I won't be there as I'm helping out with a rugby tournament but the game will be in full swing, so please drop by and try it out. I'm sure you won't be disappointed. A big thank you again to Jaye for the rules, cards, tokens and inspiration!

A Fistful of Lead [42]

This was glued together yesterday then quickly painted up this evening, ready for the Warfare game on Saturday. It's a Warbases kit and very nice too, taking no time at all to undercoat, assemble and spray paint in bog standard grey primer, with a light dry brush over the top to pick out the detail. The dollar signs are a bit of a clue about the scenario but you'll have to wait and see what that's about until the show. I still have to paint Dobbin, which is another Warbases model, but he can be done tomorrow after work when I have a couple of hours to wrap things up.

Warfare Playtest

We had a very last minute playtest of the Fistful of Lead Reloaded game at the club yesterday.

This was a bit fraught to start with when we realised that the terrain boards we had planned to use just wouldn't work, for various technical and logistical reasons. A very quick re-think resulted in the decision to use a terrain cloth, which we then realised we hadn't actually got in the club scenery collection. As a result,  I've had to quickly prepare and paint up some mdf boards instead, which are a bit basic but will do the job and will at least match the rest of the scenery. The playtest just used what we could grab from the club scenery box.

The playtest itself went well and involved a run through of the first of the three linked scenarios. It ended up a bit too long but only because of some terrible dice rolling and a few stops along the way to think about the rules. We are now ready, give or take some final little extra bits, so will be heading off on Saturday morning bright and early to set up everything before the hordes arrive at 10am. I think the scenarios will work really well and I hope the terrain will draw people in to ask some questions, take a few photos and maybe even play a game or two?