Monday, September 19, 2011

Ferdi Take Two

Tried the Ferdi again, and it turned out ALMOST the way I wanted it.

Way closer then the first attempt.

I may need one more practice try.  but now its starting to look like Kursk Camo!

New camo
Old Camo
New Camo
Old Camo






























Just on a quick side note.  Just wanted to show everyone the glass cabinets I found at a garage sale.  $20 each.  I think they are worth around $100 each.  The one I have was from Ikea, and it was over $120 and not as good as these ones.  The Hobby Gods have smiled upon me!


Friday, September 16, 2011

Rules Nazi Episode VI - Basic Buildings

The reason I call this Basic is because there are two different ways to play buildings.  There are basic buildings, which should be used in most FoW games.  And then there is the more complicated street fighting rules.  I wouldn't use the street fighting rules unless you are very very comfortable with the rules.

If you do have a large factory or apartment building on the table you can simple use it as a giant piece of rubble.  The whole building gives concealment and bulletproof cover, and is very difficult going.  It will now be considered area terrain and you can only see 6 inches in our out, if the wall is higher then the troops.  It does not block LoS like a wall would if it were a building. 

These rules assume buildings only have one room.

Moving into Buildings
This is fairly straight forward.  You can't move into a building unless you START the movement step adjacent to an opening in the building, or a friendly team STARTS the movement step adjacent to an opening in the building.  This may seem silly but this is to simulate safety when entering the building.  Checking around corners and such.  You wouldn't just charge into a building with out checking it out.

Both Teams Can NOT enter
Both Teams Can enter
















AT gun is there for the entire game.
The one thing that I always forget is that you don't have to go through the door.  Take a look at the Russian front buildings.  I always get caught up on whether the door is on the "FAR SIDE" (those that follow my blog will get that inside joke") from my teams.  But there is also usually a window on the other sides of the buildings.  Teams can also enter buildings this way.

Only Man-Packed gun teams go enter and exit buildings.  Other gun teams can only be deployed into buildings.  But they then are stuck there for the rest of the game.  In fact they have to designate an opening and cannot move from that opening.  And they can't fire bombardments,  only direct fire.  And they must be on the ground floor.

For those that don't know Italians this rule is what makes the Italian 47/32 Gun one of the best guns in the game.  ROF - 3, AT - 7, and its a man-packed gun team.  Most guns with these kind of stats are light guns so can't move in and out of buildings.  But the Italian 47/32 gun can.

Not Fully Armoured
FULLY ARMOURED vehicles can also enter buildings.  Surprisingly most players don't know what a fully armoured vehicle is.  Yes even though a vehicle has an armour rating of 0 means you still make an armor check, but it is NOT fully armoured.  Only a vehcile with a top armour of 1 or 2 is fully armoured.

These fully armoured vehicles must also make a bog check when entering a building.  Keep this in the back of your mind.  This rule will come into play for assaults, and won me a game once.  And ZERO people know this.  I actually half except to get called out on it. 

Buildings and Shooting
This is fairly simple, except there is one way I see players try to cheat.  Only one team can shoot out of a single opening.  Unless that opening has enough room for 2 teams.  What I've seen players do is rotate teams sideways so that 2 teams have their short side facing the window.  This is a no no.  Remember my post about rotating to shoot. http://kagefow.blogspot.com/2011/05/rules-nazi-episode-ii-rotating-to-shoot.html
This technically goes for infantry teams as well.  Its just that no one ever does it becasue they have a 360 degree rate of fire and no armour facing.  So,you must have the long side forward towards the opening.

Can't shoot.
Can shoot.















Shooting into buildings is a different story.  Keeping in mind we are talking about single room buildings, if a team has line of site to an opening, that team has line of site to every team in that building.  this means if you shoot at a building, you still must apply hits to all teams in the building evenly.  Not just the team in the opening.

Teams in buildings have concealment and bulletproof cover.  In the rules it says "Unless the shooting team is adjacent to the opening."   But this isn't even possible, since you can't be with in 2" of a visible enemy unless you are assaulting.  And being adjacent to an opening means you are adjacent to all teams in the building.  So, during the shooting step, teams in buildings will ALWAYS have concealment and bulletproof cover.

Assaults and Buildings
Assaults in buildings work the same as any other assault with a few exceptions.

Both IS's must make Bog checks to assault.
Remember the fully armoured rule?  If an armoured vehicle is assaulting into a building, it must make a bog check AFTER charge into contact, and before Defensive Fire occurs.  Even armoured vehicles that only come with in 2" of the opening must make a bog check.  Which brings me to the other exception.

Only one team per opening (unless wide enough for 2) can assault.  But that team is considered adjacent to all teams in the building.  So, the defender could take a hit on a team away from the opening, and then the attacker would not be able to push through the opening.

Game Story
I guess I should add my game experience.  At my first tournament, I had my Konigstiger army going against the Russian Tank hoard.

There was a building on top of a hilll and I had some pioneers in and around it guarding an objective.
For some reason they were playing with hills needing a bog check.  He was having a difficult time damaging my KT`s, so he rushed his Stuarts at the objective in hoping overrunning my Pioneers.  He had to cross a river and come up the hill to do it.  I think he had 10 stuarts.  A few bogged on the river.  A few bogged on the hill, and by the time he could assault me in the building he only had 3 left.  So, because he was assaulting into the building he had to make a bog check, as Ive mentioned.  In an insane stroke of luck, he rolled three 1`s.  All 3 bogged down and the assault failed.  It was a great attempt, I was scared...but some insane bad luck.   

Tuesday, September 13, 2011

First Commission Job: Update 1

Well, I guess it was bound to happen. I've been "sub contracted" to paint some miniatures. Its a project that Shawn is working on. A D-day board. And for those that know him, we all know how much he loves to paint.

So, I will paint some beach obstacles, boats and tanks.

Should be fun and a challenge. Especially since everything I'm painting has to be destroyed. First thing I did is go out and by myself a Dremel. I was surprised how cheap they are. I should have got one a long time ago. You have no idea how many hours i've spent cutting away at resign with a hobby knife.

He also wants 2 destroyed Panzer IV's. I already had some of these started, so I will just use those.

Just did my first test with it, blowing a hole in a Landing craft. Took me like 30 seconds. With a hobby night this would have taken...well forever.

I will keep regular updates as to how this is going.

Not sure if this is really the path I want to go down. I have so much of my own stuff to paint. Maybe I could hire someone to paint my stuff? :)

Sunday, September 11, 2011

Flak Nests - Finally!

YES! I finally finished the flak nests.  As fun as this project was I'm so happy this is over.  Learned lots.  I was painting these for a tournament, which I wasn't able to go to anyway, and there is no way I would have been done in time anyway.

The one new thing I did, sort of...was putting a rare earth magnet on the bottom of the guns.  I've done this for tanks before, but was thinking about doing them on my AA sdkfz's.  So, I figured I might as well try it on these nests.  they work fantastic.  They stay in place better then if they were glued, and they still rotate.

One of the harder things I've done, is trying to fill in the hole where the infantry stand.  I tried using the same puddy I used for basing, but this was a disaster.  I had to peal the guys out and repaint a lot of them.  Instead I used green stuff, and they turned out pretty well.  I had  to put the floor lines in it.   With some practice I could get pretty good a this.  from a distance you can't even tell. 

Anyway, enjoy.  Pictures aren't that great.  My new camera takes almost too good of pictures.  May have to go back to the old camera, and/or get some better lighting.  The infantry are Luftwaffe blue but some of the pics they look gray.  Especially the ones with out a flash.

Stay tuned for Rules Nazi corner VIa - Buildings.


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