June Games

 These are the games we played in June 2025! 

Sunday, 1 June 2025

It was really warm the last weekend in May/first weekend into June - soaring to +30°C on Friday and then the air turned yellow-brown from all the smoke from wildfires in the northern part of the province... The inside of the house felt like the inside of an oven on the floors above grade and so we retreated into the basement to play a game of Warhmmer Quest: Cursed City! 

This game the Heroes went on another Decapitation Journey to take out the Ven Alten cousins - a trio of extremely dangerous and murderous vampires! 

Luckily by the evening the air had cleared up enough we could open up the windows and let the house cool down a bit! 

You can read the full game report here:

Warhammer Quest: Cursed City - Session Twenty-Four - Family Ties

Tuesday, 3 June 2025

Tuesday afternoon Orion swung by to play a quick game of Bolt Action in the ruins of Stalingrad! There is a full report on the action here:

Bolt Action - Streets of Stalingrad!

Wednesday, 11 June 2025

Back to playing games on Wednesdays! This week was a Hunt Journey - to lower the influence of Radukar's Court and start gaining experience towards Level Four (and presumably gather clues about Radukar's phylacteries!) - so they could take on Radukar the Wolf himself! 

You can read the full game report here:

Warhammer Quest: Cursed City - Session Twenty-Five - Hunt Journey

Wednesday, 18 June 2025 

Another Wednesday evening, another Hunt Journey - this brought the four they were playing to Level FOUR - ready to take on Radukar the Wolf! (but maybe not quite yet... it was decided they should play two more regular journeys to bring Octren Glimscry up to Level Four as well!) 

You can read the full game report here:

Warhammer Quest: Cursed City - Session Twenty-Six - Hunt Journey

Wednesday, 25 June 2025

Another Wednesday, another round of Warhammer Quest. This week we played a Deliverance Journey - mostly to gain Octren Glimscry some experience. One more successful Journey and he will be at Level Four like all the others and any of them will be able to take down Radukar the Wolf... but that will have to be next month! 

You can read the full game report here:

Warhammer Quest: Cursed City - Session Twenty-Seven - Deliverance Journey

So... four games of Warhammer Quest: Cursed City, and a game each of Warhammer 40,000 (Tenth Edition) and Bolt Action (Third Edition)... Not a LOT of games... but more than we played in May!  

May and June were pretty busy for all with... well.. other stuff going on... Maybe July will be less busy for some of us.

Mind you, I did just get a new kayak, so... 

Game Plan 2025 - Q3 will be posted shortly after this! 

Bolt Action - Streets of Stalingrad!

 Orion had a free afternoon, so I set up a quick scenario in the Streets of Stalingrad (or, really, it could be any ruined city on the eastern front... Orion pointed out it would work well for the siege of Budapest when she gets enough of her Hungarians done!) 

That matt is newer, but those that have been following some time will recognize these ruins from many a battle from.. Stalingrad to post apocalypse to Frostrgrave. 

I provided both forces and, because we were using a smaller matt, built them around 500 points. 

The Germans, which Orion took, included:

Platoon Commander (Regular) + 2 men + 2x SMG + pistol = 57

First Infantry Squad (Regular) NCO + 9 men with LMG and SMG = 119 points

Second Infantry Squad (Regular) NCO + 9 men with LMG and SMG = 119 points

Third Infantry Squad (Regular) NCO + 9 men with LMG and SMG = 119 points

Medic (Regular) = 23 points

Sniper Team (Regular) = 52 points

Total = 489 points

The Soviets, which I played, included:

Platoon Commander (Regular) + 2 men = 50

First (Heavy) Infantry Squad (Regular) NCO + 7 men with 2x LMG and SMG = 114 points

Second (Heavy) Infantry Squad (Regular) NCO + 7 men with 2x LMG and SMG = 114 points

Third (Light) Infantry Squad (Regular) NCO + 8 men with LMG and SMG = 109 points

Fourth (Light) Infantry Squad (Regular) NCO + 8 men with LMG and SMG = 109 points

Total = 496 points

The basic scenario was that the area had been vacated by both sides during a particularly heavy bombardment and when the dust settled, both sides tasked a platoon with reestablishing control of the area. 

We used Battle Scenario rules: Seek and Destroy victory conditions, Meeting Engagement deployment type, and Long Edges deployment zones.... except we used the short edges and played across the length of the matt... but that's because the matt is HALF the size of a regular battlefield (and playing with forces half the size of a regular force) and so the distance across was essentially the same... 

Soviet forces infiltrating into the area on the first turn.. 

Teh Germans cautiously enter the mission area. 

the two sides spot each other. 

A German sniper team takes a shot at an approaching Soviet patrol and is pinned by the return fire. 

Soviets approaching in the distance

German and Soviet squads start exchanging fire as they encounter each other moving amongst the rubble. 

Advancing Soviets encounter a German squad that's fortified itself in a ruined building and begin exchanging fire

So... I needed fives to hit... 

More Soviets spot Germans across the way and begin exchanging fire with them as well. 

A general firefight ensues, mostly between squads hunkered down in the cover of the brick and concrete rubble. 

Germans attempt to maneuver closer. 

A German squad is caught in the open and... not entirely wiped out due to continued terrible dice rolls! 

Soviets taking casualties from accurate German fire. 

Germans maneuvering again. 

So the Soviets that had caught the German squad in the open, got to go first in the next round and desperately wanted to light them up before they got to cover - or assaulted their position. As they had pin markers they had to make an order test... 

FUBAR... 

...and so they ran! 

Right past the Platoon commander!?

Luckily the Platoon commander and assistants took up their positions and fired on the Germans in the open! 

Another Soviet squad moved out into the open to get a line of fire on them and light them up. 

Another Soviet squad taking serious casualties. So many that they needed to make a moral test... and failed and fled the field of battle! 

Platoon Commander continues to pour fire on the Germans in the street who'd become pinned down at this point. Flanking fire from the squad that had panicked and fled the building but rallied and returned on the pinned units flank. 

Soviet squad that had been shooting on the Germans in the street ran for the cover the wiped out platoon had been in.

The German platoon command team tried to assault the Soviet infantry squad!? The Germans did manage to take out two of the defending Soviets... but were themselves wiped out!? 

Positions at the end of the game. 

 The game ended at the end of the sixth turn. I was ahead by a victory point but not enough to win. Really could have gone either way if we'd played another turn...  

I also had a hat! 

Good fun. Fairly quick game and I didn't COMPLETELY forget ALL of the rules... (even though we hadn't played for a month and a half, so... there's that!) 

I never did finish the battle report from the last game.. and.. honestly... I'm not sure I'm going to get to it at this point!? I do plan to finish up the last three Warhammer Quest game reports (They're mostly done!) 

Not sure if we're going to get in too many more games until July... Hopefully Orion will have enough of her Hungarians done that we can play with those! 

STUG!!!

In early May, while working on those Fallschirmjägers, I got to thinking about what else I'd like to have as options for the force and I thought a Stug might be fun and I happened to find a good deal on one with reasonable shipping... and I ordered it... 

and it wasn't until TODAY, when it arrived, that I remembered THEY NEED TO BE FIELDED IN PLATOONS (of at least TWO!?)

DOH!!

Ah well... I'm probably not going to get to it for a bit... I guess I'll worry about it then. 

I know... I COULD use just about any German AFV (including a kubelwagon with a machine-gun!?) I'm not fond of not-so-historical mixed platoons. I know, scratch forces of whatever's available happen... but I feel like that should be the exception, rather than the norm... 

I haven't been doing much in the way of hobby stuff... I've been a little overwhelmed by stuff. I have spent a little time working on organizing the hobby area. Hopefully I'll get back to cranking stuff out at some point! 

WW2 - MOAR Gurkhas and Fallshirmjäger

Not a lot going on here, hobbywise, the last week or so. I've been... distracted by other things. 

I did start rebasing all the old Noise Marines... well... eighteen of them that I can use. Not sure what I'll do with the new ones. I'll probably assemble and paint them at some point for funsies. Maybe just one squad of them and sell off the others?  I don't know. 

A few weeks back Orion was heading to Calgary to play in a Warhammer Underworlds Tournament (a qualifier event for the World Championships with multiple Golden Tickets available!) so I had a perusal of the Sentry Boxes online catalogue to see if there was anything she could pick up for me while she was there! 

In the end I found a BUNCH of older stock that I could not pass up... so I ended up just placing an order to have it mailed to me (it was three squads of older Bolt Action METAL Italian infantry - that came with separate head with helmets, sun helmets, bersaglieri helmets, and others - a pair of Breda Machine-guns and a squad of Gurkhas) all considerably less than the current suggested retail... 

Unfortunately with the Mail Order Minions went looking for these things they could only find the Gurkhas and figured the other items were ghosts in the machine - old data that had not bee purged... I didn't want to pay for shipping for just that... so I asked Orion if she would pick that up for me... 

And she did... 

More Gurkhas.

This is the third squad I have of Gurkhas making a full platoon... 

Unfortunately... I had THOUGHT these would also be older stock and thus the same metal ones that I already have... but they are NOT!? Somehow I'd missed that, despite being the same models, they are now made out of resin.... Ugggghhhhh... 

Now, I have other resin models and I don't love them, but I've made peace with them... but I generally only use them in plastic armies... I even have a few Bolt Action resin, but they are mostly solitary weapons teams... there is something about having a full squad of infantry made out of resin when the others are all metal that bugs me, though... 

I had thought I might just knock these out right away and have that force COMPLETELY DONE!! But now I am so dismayed by the fact that they are resin, they've moved waaaaaaaaaay down the interest/priority list... 

I might get to them at some point... 

I did base them the other night. Only one was really warped and it was only the bayonet, so I just carved if off that one. 

Also in the last week or so, some Fallshirmjäger support elements showed up..

I knew when I ordered them these ones were going to be resin... but they were cheap and this shipping was free... so...  

WW2 Fallchirmjäger

 I've been working on Fallshirmjäger over the last week... I'm not entirely sure why...? It's a force I've had for a while... but haven't really painted many of them!? Mostly because I got stuck on how to paint them!? Early blitzkrieg or Operation Sealion - with Luftwaffe blue uniforms and plain green jumpsuits? Tan uniforms with camo jumpsuits for Operation Mercury or North Africa/Sicily/Italy!? Or feldgrau uniforms with camo jumpsuits for later war in Northern Europe... 

I've since decided to paint them for use in the Mediterranean. I even ordered ANOTHER squad for them in tropical uniforms!? 

Nineteen newly painted minis! 

Adding them to what I have painted, so far, I have a small force of 738 points... It could look like:

Fallshirmjäger Rifle Platoon 

Fallshirmjäger Platoon Command (Veteran) +2 men, +1 SMG, +1 assault rifle, + Stubborn = 78 pts

Fallshirmjäger Medic (Veteran) + Stubborn = 31 points

Fallshirmjäger Light Mortar Team (Veteran) + Stubborn = 40 pts

Fallshirmjäger Forward Observation Team (Veteran) +2 men, +SMG, + Stubborn = 125

Fallshirmjäger Squad (Veteran) +5 men, +3x SMG, +1x LMG = 167 pts

Fallshirmjäger Squad (Veteran) +1x SMG, +1x LMG = 89 pts

Fallshirmjäger Weapons Platoon

Fallshirmjäger Weapons Platoon Command (Veteran) +2 men, +2 SMG, +1 assault rifle + Stubborn = 82 pts

Fallshirmjäger Medium Mortar Team (Veteran)  + Stubborn = 60 pts 

Fallshirmjäger Medium Machine-Gun Team(Veteran)  + Stubborn = 66 pts

Enough for a small game! I could give anti-tank grenades to the two Fallshirmjäger Squads for another 30 points...? 

All the minis I have - painted and still-to-be-painted... 

When these are all painted, I'll have:

Fallshirmjäger Rifle Platoon 

Fallshirmjäger Platoon Command (Veteran) +2 men, +1 SMG, +1 assault rifle, + Stubborn = 78 pts

Fallshirmjäger Medic (Veteran) + Stubborn = 31 points

Fallshirmjäger Light Mortar Team (Veteran) + Stubborn = 40 pts

Fallshirmjäger Forward Observation Team (Veteran) +2 men, +SMG, + Stubborn = 125

Fallshirmjäger Squad (Veteran) +5 men, +2x SMG, +2x LMG = 178 pts

Fallshirmjäger Squad (Veteran) +5 men, +2x SMG, +2x LMG = 178 pts

Fallshirmjäger Squad (Veteran) +5 men, +2x SMG, +2x LMG = 178 pts

Fallshirmpionier Platoon  

Fallshirmpionier Platoon Command (Veteran) +1 man, +1 SMG, +1 assault rifle, + Stubborn = 64 pts

Fallshirmpionier Squad (Veteran) +2 men, +1x SMG, +1x LMG = 124 pts

Fallshirmpionier Squad (Veteran) +2 men, +1x SMG  = 109 pts

Fallshirmjäger Weapons Platoon

Fallshirmjäger Weapons Platoon Command (Veteran) +2 men, +2 SMG, +1 assault rifle + Stubborn = 82 pts

Fallshirmjäger Medium Mortar Team (Veteran) +SMG, +LMG + Stubborn = 60 pts 

Fallshirmjäger Medium Machine-Gun Team(Veteran)  + Stubborn = 66 pts

Total: 1314 points!? 

Yikes! I haven't even added AT grenades to any of the squads!? 

(I also have a few things en route, which will add another 235 points! Panzerschrek Team, Sniper Team, and two more pioneers with a Flame-thrower!) 

STILL TO GET?

Looking at the points for the stuff above... I don't really NEED ANYTHING at this point... but I would LIKE a few other things?!

Some riflemen to swap out a few of the assault rifles for earlier war options... or maybe just some troops with submachine-guns? And... maybe a few more of the FG-43 Assault rifles for Later War options! 

A proper command team for the Pioneers, and a few more pioneers. 

A COMPANY command team?

Also a command team for an artillery platoon and a LG40 75mm Recoilless gun and/or a sPzB-41 anti-tank gun...

Maybe some Stugs or other assault guns...? 

But considering I already HAVE over 1500 points... and the majority of them aren't even painted... I think these are all a long way off... 

Will I continue to paint Fallshirmjäger in the coming weeks...? I don't know. Maybe? There is a part of me that wants to power through and get them ALL done, now that I have some momentum... but also, I have cleared off all the Fallshirmjägers I had on the workbench and there are Gebirgsjäger still on the workbench... so... 

Also, I'd kind of like to get back to finishing up desert tanks... or the few 1940 French things I've picked up... or...? So many other things!? 

WW2 USMC Fliers

 Well... since I finished up the USMC Forward Observers/Forward Air Controllers... (and I was coveting the P-51 Mustang that Orion recently built for her Americans!) 

I decided I needed to pick up an American aircraft I could paint up as a Marine flier. I picked up a Corsair because I know it was used in large numbers by the Marines and it was used as a fighter-bomber... Though I was just reading that this role came a little later in 1944... AFTER the Marine Raider battalions ceased to be! 

Ah, well... 

All games are fictional playing pretend!  

Will I be building this up and painting it right away!? Probably not... This week my brain has decided I should really work on Fallschirmjägers!? Probably once I'm done a small batch of those, I'll get back to working on tanks for the desert war!  

April Games

 Here is what we got up to in April... 

(Usually with any miniature games I provide a link to the game report... but I'm about a month behind on most battle reports... so.. maybe in May I'll get the April game reports done...?)

Wednesday, 2 April 2025

Back to Warhammer Quest! We took a week off while Finnegan finished up some school work for the end of term, but now he is done and we are free to continue our weekly game unabated! 

This week was a simple hunt, but saw the first appearance of Torgilius the Chamberlain... who isn't TOO much of a treat, if dealt with quickly! 

Wednesday, 9 April 2025

Another game of Warhammer Quest. This one was a Deliverance Journey. Same characters as the previous week. The Journey was a success and now half of them are at Level Three. 

Thursday, 10 April 2025

Thursday Orion stopped by and we played some more Bolt Action! 

Tuesday, 15 April 2025

Since the Soulbound game kind of fizzled, I started a NEW sort-of-role-playing campaign on Tuesday evenings! I'm using Advance Song of Blades and Heroes for the action and maybe a mix of campaign elements from Advance Song of Blades and Heroes (ASOBH), Song of Deeds and Glory, and Five Leagues from the Borderland... 

Amanda is playing an assassin named Megan, Finnegan is playing an apprentice wizard named Ralores, and Orion is playing a knight named Lady Ismira! With them were a few other attendants and warriors in their retinue! 

We made up the warband and played a quick encounter to learn the combat rules this evening. You can read a brief game report here:

Journey to the Vale of Ravensflight

You can find the Campaign Page here (to see the most up-to-date status of the adventuring party and find links to all their adventures...):

Campaign for Ravensflight

Wednesday, 16 April 2025

This week's Warhammer Quest game saw Radukar the Wolf show up for the first time... 

It... did not go well... 

Eventually I will write up a game report and you can read all about it.. 

Tuesday, 22 April 2025

We played the second adventure in our new fantasy sort-of-role-playing campaign this week. It was mostly role-playing, actually!? Which kind of set things up for a battle the following week! 

Tuesday, 29 April 2025

We played a third session of the Song of Blades and Heroes campaign. The Heroes defended the small hamlet of Gromlet against a horde of Ratlings bend on revenge after the heroes had slain a number of their kin along the road to Gromlet in the first session! 

Wednesday, 30 April 2025

Back to Warhammer Quest... 

And that was it... 

WW2 USMC War Dogs and Handlers

I finished up the two USMC War Dog and Handler teams last night...

USMC War Dogs and Handlers

Will I ever even use these? I have no idea... 

In the Marine Raiders audiobook I listened to earlier this year, they did mention the dog teams being VERY handy at rooting out Japanese Snipers. That's what these do as well - spot a hidden enemy unit at 24" rather than at 12"... but the hidden units rules are such weaksauce... I don't know if I'll bother... 

I guess If I set up a scenario with better hidden units rules! 

This is the current Marine Raider force.

I can't really think of anything else I need to add to this...

More pictures of the USMC Raider Force and their Bolt Action force list can be found on the Gallery Page:

WW2 - USMC Raiders (PTO)