Friday photo: Cheese(?)

Come along with us as we go off to battle in the premier Sydney miniature wargaming event of 2018. Spending the weekend at MOAB "Mother Of All Battles" (not to be confused with a mother who constantly asks about your homework or Mother-In-Law) Will Dan's tropical Fallschirmjäger flown in from Sicily and Rex's Fallschirmjäger hurried redeployed from off the line from defending against operation overlord save the day. 

Will the fuhrers fire brigade prove up to the task or will they be pushed back licking their wounds. Pull up a sandbag, pass around the bully beef (or sauerkraut)... and listen in as we talk about the MOAB 2018 Bolt Action event and bring you (almost!!) up to date on what we have been doing wargaming wise... almost-ish!!

Subscribe to us by searching for valhallagames in your podcast app. You can also play this episode in the web player by clicking the image.

Friday photo - North Africa 8th army

Friday photo (on Sunday) "never surrender", um anyone know what this is about looks like wallpaper? Perhaps in a museum somewhere?

Friday photo - join up...
 

I'm about to buy the new Kings of War - Vanguard rule set. It's on special half price about $20 for the next few days however before I bought it for use by my sons gaming group I thought I would have a quick look through and just make sure that it's a sort of game that I would like to play. As I began to read through the individual units with their classes, statistics and abilities, moves, attacks and "armour class" it began to remind me of the 1980s in the 1980s there was this little product called Dungeons and Dragons

I was given my first copy of Dungeons and Dragons by my mother who has I have mentioned in a previous podcast thought that it might suit me because Dungeons and Dragons was apparently appropriate for "boys that walk to the beat of a different Drum". Yes I'm still not sure what that really means however from the moment that I open the red box and looked at the bazaar dice and began to try to work out how to actually play this game I was hooked.

So that was 5 years or so of my life that went by in a heartbeat. Along with ending school, getting my first job, going on many real adventures and expeditions, I also spend many, many nights staying up late with friends going on grand imaginary adventures gaming magical items and learning to work together and sometimes even how to work with the monsters rather than "just spooning them over" as I was reminder of the other day.

As I thought back to Dungeons and Dragons and the great times we had and the near impossible puzzles that we solved I began to compare this to the new version of Kings of War Vanguard I begin to wonder why it was that I was buying another game to really do just a cut down version of the existing game that I have, that I have purchased (and repurchased(and repurchased)) but I don't actually have any time to play. I began to ponder on ways The Dungeons & Dragons could be cut down somewhat from the all-encompassing monumental game that it can be to something more manageable that would be akin to the Kings of War type product and it occurred to me that this would be very easy just make it RPG light or RPG 'none at all'. (continued...)

Now I'm a computer guy and in my job I use lots of different software packages I often see cheap products that will do photo editing or video editing or do any manner of other things that I need to do on a daily basis however where possible and where budgets allow I always buy the full on professional product even though I only will be using a small part of that product to achieve the results that I need to achieve. This has held me in good Stead for many years as it has allowed me an entry into a new product or technology that I wouldn't otherwise have had experience with more often than not I will get the opportunity later to reuse and build on. Buying a full commercial product gives me something that has "legs" meaning that it will certainly suffice for my basic needs but as my needs grow and my expertise grows I don't find that I run out of whatever it is that makes that product good and have to go and repurchase and relearn another product from scratch. When I apply this though mentally to gaming I think I would rather play D&D at a reduced level than another product and be found left wanting if I decide to push on into greater depth of gaming.

This brings me to another consideration and that is the sticky question of motivation. What motivates someone to do something commercially vs. what's "best".

Friday photo - Row, row, row your boat:

"An infantry section from 'B' Company, 1/6th Queen's Regiment try out their collapsible boats in a farmyard in preparation for crossing the Volturno river, 8 October 1943" more details here
 

The next project, 28mm British 8th Army by Warlord games. Some quick images... Waiting for paints to arrive for the next step... Comment and subscribe to this *post* to get updates on this project.

A quiet place to sit

 Battle For France - New Bolt Action Campaign book. Available for pre-order now on various sites and probably at your local games store, due out 29 Nov 2018, see below for table of contents page preview.

Fortress Budapest - New Bolt Action Campaign book, Pre-order now on various sites, due out 21 Mar 2019 (or so they say)

No further details that I have found.

Friday Photo... woof...

Bolt Action tournament/event at MOAB in Sydney October 2018, the last game... 

www.motherofallbattles.org

 Tank riders. Doesn't seam like a great place to take shelter to me, being that other tanks will be shooting at these tanks but what do I know.

Podcast EP3 (parts a & b) are live now: Operation Fustian & The Battle for Primosole Bridge, this should appear in your podcast app if you have subscribed (Search for valhallagames podcast in your app) or you can click on the image below for a web player (for part 1).

Battle for Primosole Bridge reference material can be found here

Episode 3a:
In this episode, the first of a two part history-to-wargame special, we discuss the build up for a key WW2 operation in Sicily, 1943.
Operation Fustian was the British airborne operation to seize and Hold Primosole Bridge, a strategically important gateway to the Catania Plain and vital for the advance of the Allies and the success of the Sicilian campaign.
Facing the British paratroopers were their deadly adversaries; the veteran German airborne troops of the 1st Fallshirmjager Division.....

Episode 3b:
We return- in this, the second installment of a two part history-to wargame special- to Sicily 1943 and the Battle for Primosole Bridge.
This second part continues the story of the bloody fight for the control of the bridge between the British and German paratroopers.
We also discuss some wargaming ideas around this historical action and how you, like us!, can get some ideas to play this as a scenario in your WW2 wargames.

Enjoy, and your feedback is always welcome.

Preparing a model for Operation Fustian planning. Don't know what Operation Fustian was? Watch this space...

Here is the latest installment of my Bolt Action Fallschirmjager. Finished except for basing this is a quick look there were 12 in total. Unlike my current Panzer IV project I'm pretty happy with these guys. How would you like to see a squad of those coming out of the orchard towards you? Thanks Dan for the super secret face paining recipes, I'll do some close ups when I have a chance so you can see the stubble. 

I have something to say about camo and washes at 28mm scale that I have learned along the way. To get the detail on that "comment" on this post and that will subscribe you to further updates on *this post*. That way I can just go on and on about it without generating extra main posts (and notifications) on the web site for others that may not be interested in this specific topic. This takes advantage of the web sites ability to subscribe to the whole site vs. the ability to subscribe just to updates (comments really) on a single blog post. And keeps all the updates and comments together.

I hope you like them, miniatures from Warlord Games and Artizan Designs (the chunky ones).

 Friday Photo - the Fallschirmjager bear as discussed in a recent podcast episode. I'm taking this to my next tournament! If anyone knows the story behind this photo we would be keen to hear it.

Work in progress on the latest batch of vehicles