My first three stands, one platoon command and two rifle squads, are painted. They are not glued to the bases yet, as I want to make sure I get them right.
I have gone for the 1941 uniform look but I will mix in some green horns with the 1943 uniform as well. The painting guide I have used is the one that can be found on the Flames of War web page.
All three stands
Platoon command
Rifle squad with BAR rifle
Rifle squad
I have been interested in Flames of War for quite some time now and earlier this year I found a fellow (same guy I have played some 40k with) who is also having an interested in this World War 2 game. He is building up a Fallschirmjäger company so I was juggling ideas back and forth between a Russian or US force. After a lot of consideration, I picked a US Rifle Company. I bought a box from Wayland Games about a month ago and this week I have managed to put some paint on the first ones.
Our goal is to have a first go at FoW after Christmas. We are going for something small, around 250 points, so I am going to paint up one HQ, one rifle platoon and one weapons platoon, like this:
HQ
1xCinC Carbin, 1x2inC Carbine (15p)
Combat Platoons
Rifle Platoon - 1x Command Rifle, 6x Rifle, 1x Bazooka (110p)
Weapons Platoon - 1x Command Carbine, 3x M2 60mm Mortar, 2x M1919 LMG (110p)
I had removed the flashing and mold lines earlier, washed them with some soap and put them up on their stands. The reason for putting them up on stands was that I wanted to start painting them a few stands at the time and not have a big bunch of unpainted minis making it look like I am not going anywhere. Now I can take 2-3 stands and have them separate and see my progress.
It is quite different to paint 15 mm compared to the 28 mm I have been doing before, no big surfaces to splosh a lot of paint on and the small details can easily be hidden if you are not careful with the paint.
Another new insight is Vallejo Paints, I really like their bottles which have a nice little dropper. It is precise and I can get as much or little paint as I want. I feel they cover nicely and another good thing: they are cheaper and contain more paint then GW's. What is there not to like? Might just be the first impression blinding me though.
Furthermore, I found another guy who had put up some work in progress of some houses he is building: Mike's Wargaming. He shared some nice printable house blue prints for 15 mm war gaming. So I have to try these out some day!
Had a game a few weeks ago so I needed to paint up my Death Company for that.
They are just primed and base coated with a simple wash of Payne's Grey, so quite a basic painting so far.
One of my Razorbacks got some base coating done and an assault cannon mounted. I bought the Dark Angels Ravenwing box, a really nice buy for any marine player. Lots and lots of bitz!
The list I used versus my friend's ork horde was as follows:
1000p
HQ
Reclusiarch 130p
Elites
Sanguinary Priest 50p
Sanguinary Priest 50p
Furioso Dread 150p
Heavy Flamer
Frag Cannon
Extra Armor
Troops
5 man Death Company 195p
3 Bolters
1 PW
1 PF
Razorback
10 man Tactical 265p
Melta Bombs
Flamer + ML
Razorback + TL Assault Cannon
5 man Assault Squad 155p
Melta Gun
PF
Razorback
My friend had one blob of sluggas (with Mad Dok), one blob of shootas, two deff dreads, 3 deffkoptas and a bunch of lootas (11 or something). Of course, I forgot to bring my camera so no photos from the game.
We rolled for the mission and came up with Dawn of War, annihilation, with the orks going first. The orks started with the two blobs up the middle, ready to charge me.
I put my tacticals behind their Razorback ready to shoot the oncoming green skins and my assault squad deployed in their Razorback in the other end of the table, ready to zoom away.
My memory is a bit clouded in some parts but the battle went something like this.
Turn 1
As predicted, the orks ran towards my lines in their turn.
In my turn, I rolled up the assault squad in cover to be able to shoot the heavy bolter on the orks. We forgot to apply the night fighting rules and I fired away with everything on the orks. The tacticals managed to down zero orks, alot thanks to FNP, while the assault cannon on the Razorback chewed away two hooligans (if my memory serves me correct).
Turn 2
In the next turn, the lootas entered the playing field, running for some ruins up on a hill in the orks right side of the table. The shootas and sluggas rushed closer to me and assaulted the Razorback belonging to the tactical squad (closest target for them and that is the way we interpreted the rage rule). They punched the Razorback in the front so it became a nice terrain piece.
In my turn the dread came on to the table, so I put him behind the Razorback, facing the shoota boys who were coming close to the tactical squad.
The DC-squad and the assault squad stayed in their Razorbacks, the assault squad popping smoke to get some
cover from the lootas who would probably start firing next turn.
In my shooting, it was time to try out the frag cannon and heavy flamer! The dread managed to kill about 10 orks in the shooting and then prepared to assault the shoota blob.
The tactical squad assaulted the sluggas, but didnt manage to kill that many thanks to the Dok's feel no pain. Damn they are hard to kill! In the counter assault, the tactical squad lost seven guys (I think) and fled the field.
The dread rushed into the shootas and killed off a few, the remaining orks panicked and got smashed up.
Turn 3
His deff dread entered the board, walking and running towards me. The deff koptas came in on his left flank and fired on my dreadnought, doing nothing.
The Razorback with the assault squad got immobilized from loota-fire in the middle of the field. The assault squad jumped out in cover, waiting for the deff dread...
My DC-Razorback drove towards the deff koptas and unloaded its payload of very, very angry marines. They shot at the deff koptas, taking off one wound on one of them.
I don't remember the order of things with the sluggas and my Furioso, but they ended up in close combat, with my dread killing their Dok (no more FNP!).
Turn 4
The orks got the second deff dread on the table, walking towards my immobilized Razorback in the middle.
Now the ork player made a grave misstake: standing still with the koptas, firing their rokkits instead of running away! They killed one death company marine, but the yummy target for the DC-squad is still there.
Lootas fired from the ruins, doing nothing to the Razorback. The bunch of sluggas and my Furioso pretty much danced the night away, with the orks just glancing the dreads AV13 and the dread killing a maximum of two orks per round of close combat. *yawn*
In my turn, the assault squad ran towards the deff dred, time to smash up some metal! They fired their melta gun, but no effect and then prepared to assault.
My black bunch of anger rushed up to the deff koptas, to put some hurt on them. They killed two koptas and the last one retreated. It was still the closest target, so the death company ran after them.
Turn 5
The lootas and the deff dread fired on the assault squad in the open, killing one brave marine.
The deff koptas ran off the table, scratching up one KP for me and making the DC squad turn around towards the bunch of sluggas.
I took some pot shots with the DC Razorback and the assault squad moved towards the deff dread but the game ended here.
4-2 in KP for me if we calculated it correct. He lost his Dok, one squad of shootas, one formation of deff koptas and one dread. I lost one squad of tacticals and one Sanguinary priest. I am not sure if the dedicated transport counts as one KP, then it would be 4-3 instead.
Lessons learned:
Don't stand to close to the table edge, even marines can wet their pants and run off the table.
Be more aggressive! Put those assault squads in close combat, especially versus things like lootas.
Use the fast army I have at my disposal, they can move from one end to the other very quickly.
Templates versus blobs of non armored targets are very nice.
