Gladitaorial Combat.

Sorry, but no pictures.   I got to participate in a Gladiatorial contest today at the South Bay Game Club.   Scott was running the game and Andy, Charles, Dave and I were the owners of the gladiators.

Dave bought an exceptional gladiator and the rest of us bought average ones.   Dave got to roll four 3-sided dice for attribute points and the  rest of us rolled three.   Dave scored 9 with no additional modifiers and I scored 8 with a modifier of plus 1.  Charles and Andy scored less.

The first round had us paired off in individual combats.   I faced Charles and Dave faced Andy.  My first move was a cautious walk forward and to my left.   Dave charged his opponent, scored a fumble and found out his sword was defective.  Andy then struck back and also fumbled dropping his net and trident.   Eventually, Andy was able  to overcome Dave's Samnite.  Charles charged me and after a couple of rounds I defeated him seriously wounding one of his legs and giving him the nickname "Stumpy".   I also had a Samnite and Charles had a gladiator with two swords.

Andy was the victor of that round, while I placed second.  Andy, Dave, and I all earned experience points which we were able to use to attempt to increase our abilities.   I was fortunate with my die rolls raising my size to the maximum of 6 and also adding to two other traits.   The size increase was to play a major part in the following rounds.

The second round had Dave and I paired against Andy and Charles.  Again, I made a cautious move forward and left and Dave advanced forward also,  Andy advanced and attempted to net Dave's Gladiator, but ended up seeing Dave deflect the net causing it to land five spaces to the right rear of Andy's fighter due to a fumble roll by Andy.   While Andy went to retrieve his net, Charles advanced.  I charged Charles and dispatched his Gladiator with a mighty blow to his neck.  A D6 roll of 6 plus my strength of 6 saw his head severed from his body and flying across the arena.   If a hit is scored, how much damage that is done by a sword is determined by a D6 die roll plus the character's strength less any armor protection.  Dave then charged Andy causing some damage and I followed up with a charge of my own knocking Andy's Gladiator down. ending the second round. I placed first and Dave placed second.   I earned an additional five experience points  which I used to increase my sword, shield, and grappling abilities.

The final round was every man for himself.   The first turn, I again moved forward and to my left heading towards Dave's man.   Charles was to my right and Andy was at the opposite corner.   Dave charged Andy for little effect,   Charles came to Andy's aid and attacked Dave from the right flank injuring Dave's right arm and causing Dave to drop his sword.  Dave was netted by Andy and was badly wounded and out of action by the time Charles and Andy were done with him.   While they were fighting Dave and Charles both rolled fumbles.  Dave tripped over his own feet, while Charles was hung over from the night before halving his attributes for the remainder of the contest.  Meanwhile, I continued to walk towards Charles.  We engaged in a brief exchange ending the turn with minor damage to Charles guy and no effect on mine.   I did deliver a blow to his head that was deflected by his helmet.  Andy had advanced, but was not able to make an attack.

 I received an extra card for the second turn.   Anyone being dealt an ace got an extra card for their hand.  Aces are wild cards and may be played as any card during a turn.  Cards are played from King down to two.  Others got an extra card during the first two rounds.  I used my first card to move and attack Andy's gladiator.  He attempted to block my attack with his net and my sword left it in shreds and wounded his left leg.   He lunged at me with his trident piercing my shield and wounding my left arm. I followed this with another attack, but he blocked with his trident causing some damage to my sword, but fortunately not breaking it.   I blocked his next stab with my shield receiving no damage.   I attacked him again with my third card cutting through his right leg and putting him out of action.   For my final card I moved back to Charles cutting through his left leg, causing him to collapse. and ending the combat.  When a hit is scored a D10 is rolled to determine the part of the body hit.  For some reason most of my winning attacks during the contest were leg wounds.  Three of my opponents ended up missing part of a leg.

Scott said that the contest had the most fumble rolls that he had ever seen in any contest.   When fighting both players roll a D10.   A roll of a natural 1 is a fumble causing the player to roll on the fumble table with a  D20.

More Leopard 2 Revolutions for the Federal Union of Buena Vista

Spent part of today painting the latest batch of Leopard 2 Revolutions.   Sprayed them with green primer, then added black, followed by red/brown.  These are available on shapeways at https://www.shapeways.com/product/F2QMAGMJ6/6mm-leopard-2-revolution-x3?optionId=65587045&li=ostatus

 all twelve

 Right side

 Top

Left side

Dunkelgelb Imperial Marines Strike Team 13

The highly decorated Strike Team 13 of the Imperial Space Marines.   Decided to name them for characters in a TV series.   These are the old Grenadier Traveler Imperial Marines with an extra figure from the Grenadier Traveler Adventurers set.   These are for use with Fistful of Lead Galactic Heroes.    There is one leader with three traits in addition to the trait for the entire crew, two specialists, with two traits, and nine regulars with one trait each.

The team is oversized and would normally count as two teams (crews) in the game.   I might change Pvt. Burkhalter to either impervious or steady as a rock.  Other forces posted at https://18clovehamhock.blogspot.com/2019/01/fistful-of-leadgalactic-heroes.html

Fistful of Lead:Galactic Heroes

After seeing some games of Fistful of Lead: Galactic Heroes at the club I purchased a copy of the rules and went looking for my old 25mm scifi figures.   Note these are actual 25mm figures from the 80s.   I found the box I was looking for and another box that I forgot I had.   The one that I forgot about had a bunch of Star Guard figures from McKewn miniatures (now carried by the tin soldier company.  The ones I was looking for were a mix of Grenadier Traveler Imperial Marines and others.

Grenadier had made four boxed sets of Traveler miniatures.  The marines, adventurers, aliens, and creatures.   I still had the two sets of marines and the adventurers that I had purchased.   I had passed on the other two sets.   Checking eBay I found a few listings for the marines and one for the adventurers.   All for $130US or more.   However, I did find one listing for a partial set of marines starting at $5US.   Two if the figures were missing.  I kept a watch on it and on the final day noticed that there were four others watching and one of them had bid $5.   Expecting a major bidding war, I set of a bid  and held off on bidding until the last minute.   Much to my surprise I got them for $9.  Taking into account inflation, I think I got them for the equivalent of about one-fourth of the original price.

I am waiting for them to arrive and spent yesterday painting the figures that were not finished.  In my previous post on 2019 projects I thought I had about a dozen figures to paint.   It turned out to be about twice that plus some additional touchups.   Other than the new imperial marine figures this project has now been completed.  Below are photos of the various figures, not including the Starguard figures or the adventurers.   One of the figures I found was John Carter of Mars with a radium rifle slung across his back.   I have no idea what company made him.    I'll have to join the Lead Adventure Forum and see if anyone there knows who made him. At the bottom are the rosters for the Waldheim team..

 Starship crew

 science team

 Federation team guarding scientists.

 Greenwood Marines

 Graustadt Stormtroopers

 Kama infantry

Dunkelgelb Imperial Marines

The roster is used to list the figures name, special traits, a common trait for all the team members, and weapon(s) carried.   It also shows the type of die to be rolled for shooting and close combat.   There is a space at the top right for a picture of the figure which I added by photographing the figures and then reducing the photo to fit.

Battleof Sebastopol 1942

Manny Granillo hosted a game of PanzerKorps at his home on January 5th featuring the Battle of Sebastopol 1942.  Sebastopol had been under siege for a while and the Germans and Romanians were about to launch their final offensive to take the city.  Victory conditions for the scenario were such that even though the Russians were likely to loose the battle they might still be able to have a game victory if they were able to hold enough of the city by games end.   I commanded the Russians with the aid of Alan S.   Several other players who were to be on the Russian side were unable to make it due to family illness.   Scott W commanded the Germans aided by Richard and a friend commanding the Romanians and Peter commanding the German amphibious attack.   Alan and I were able to delay the Axis juggernaut for a while thanks to our artillery driving back the Axis attacks.   The amphibious attack was also held for a while, but the devastating effect of a very large German siege gun rendered several of our battalions ineffective.  The battle started at night just before dawn.  A Romanian tank destroyer battalion was able to break through early in the battle, but was attacked from behind by the Russian infantry battalion that it had passed through causing it to panic.   It then came under flanking fire from our reserve T34 battalion which further disrupted it.   Meanwhile German artillery was pounding my positions on the northern edge.  Finally the German panzer force started to arrive from the North.   At this point our western bunkers were still holding, but the amphibious assault had started to wear down the coastal defenders and the northern hill was now being contested.   When the game ended it was a marginal victory for the Axis forces.  Following are pictures of the battlefield and some of the action during the game.

 North edge of the battlefield.  German infantry at right edge ready to attack

north central area looking west

 south central area.  bunkers on the top edge of the table.  what is left of Sebastopol on left half of picture

 central area looking north

 ruins of Sebastopol

 Russian cavalry regiment in reserve, 122 artillery battalion at bottom and T34 battalion at bottom right.

 another view of Sebastopol.

 the peninsula occupied by Russian naval infantry.

 Southwest bunkers with Romanian infantry just below.

 Northwest bunkers and entrenchments with more Romanians just below.

 Germans about to attack the northwest bunker

 Germans preparing to attack from the north

 map of the battlefield showing hills and the city of Sebastopol on south edge of map.

 overall view of the battlefield looking north.

 coastal defenses and ruined sea plane

 blue puff balls showing impact centers of German nebelweffer barrage.

 Russian artillery breaking up Romanian attack and also causing some collateral damage to a bunker.  Romanian tank destroyer battalion that broke through is near the center of the picture after being attacked from rear by Russian infantry.   The T34 battalion is at the left and will maneuver to flank the Romanian vehicles..

 German amphibious forces have landed and have come under fire from the defenders.  The pink puff ball marks the impact point of huge German siege artillery  Three of our battalions would be disrupted for a while due to the impact.   If it had deviated further south it would have also affected the Germans on the coast.

The Romanians had dropped smoke on the bunkers to keep them from firing at them.   T34 battalion at bottom.  Disrupted and panicked Romanian tank destroyer battalion in center.  T34s would move to their right to flank them.   The hill in the middle blocked line of sight and fire.

German panzers arrive from north

Projects for 2019

In no particular order I am planning on the following for 2019:

Finish Late Roman/ Byzantine army
Finish Sassanid Persian Army
Finish Warbands
Finish lace wars armies
Finish Napoleonic armies.
Purchase and paint modern engineering equipment after GHQ finishes releasing the vehicles for early this year.
Make 2mm towns and villages. (counted about 40 for one scenario)
Make some more 6mm towns, villages, and farms.
Finish painting 2mm armies.
Paint about a dozen 25mm sci-fi figures I dug out of storage.   (yes, they are actually 25mm figures from 35 years ago)
Make jungle.  Got some left over palm trees and bamboo to place on Litko hexes.
Make pine forest.   Bump chenille on Litko hexes.  

That will cover it for now.