Bloody Bolt Action Game at a Friend's Place.

Played some Bolt Action this Saturday. I had a good time playing the Germans, but man, my tactics were pretty bad and I deserved the spanking I got. That said, the terrain my buddy, Dave Luff put out was nothing short of awesome. I always enjoy going over to his place as his wargame room is the one a lot of us envy.

The game was simple, both sides had a small force of infantry and armor and the idea was to get control of the crossroads. Seems simple enough. But, well, things got complicated.

First I tried a coup de main on the crossroads with my Puma...not a good idea. It was soon fireballed by a Sherman. After that, the rest of the Germans entered on the American flank, and for a time, it seemed (bad dice notwithstanding) that we might carry the day. Alas, I got too aggressive after we fireballed 2 out of 3 American Shermans and sent the remaining one packing. (I also got a halftrack, which was pretty fortunate for a time, those things have an ungodly amount of machine guns). I lost my Stug and Mk IV and my tiny Renault and Halftrack spent the rest of the game stuck in the crossroads, until they too, were blown apart.

After I tried to hang in there with my infantry, my side fell apart, and we packed it in when the German infantry squad was wiped out.

Considering we began at Noon, and ended by 2:30? I'd say well done playing to a conclusion!

I'd like to thank my opponent Cory for a fine game and Dave for putting it on! Special recognition should go to my Panzerschreck team, who killed two out of the three vehicles we managed to get, and drove off that third Sherman!

And what do you know? It's post #25!! This seems an apropos post to have up for such a milestone!

Been a Lot Going On, and I Simply Had to Post This Painting Tutorial, and Also a Look at Good Places For Tutorials All Around.

It's winter in most of the Northern Hemisphere these days, and with thoughts of such things, we're staying inside more, painting a lot of figures and getting ready for 2018's "campaign season". So, with that thought, I thought I would do this short post on something I found on Warlord Games's site.

This just, well, gorgeously illustrated and well laid out tutorial on painting their new Winter SS line. To be honest, even if I do 20mm, I think this is still very, very useful indeed. It makes the figures really pop and is useful for late war SS from Budapest to the Bulge.

But I also wanted to mention, Warlord puts out other tutorial PDFs, free of charge, which is a really nice thing for all gamers, and they're pretty well done IMHO.

But they aren't the only show in town...another good place to look for tutorials is Artizan Designs, their guides are VERY exhaustive, and they even have bibliographies, a plus for this history grad.

Again, it's meant for 28s, but I have done many of my 20mm Russians in the colors suggested, and I have more than liked the results I have gotten.

Some other great tutorials, which are more...20mm focused can be found on Guild Wargamers (need to be a member of the forum to access, it's free, so join if you can!). The "Work Bench and Resources" section is simply full of ideas, including a large number of tutorials (I have borrowed many of their ideas).

And hey guys, reach out with your own "must see" tutorial sites for painting 20mm WWII or even if it's not 20mm, if it's proven useful to you, chime in and let us know!