"Look at the size of that thing..."

Lego... birthday gift from the other half.

Guess that's Winter sorted (or the next lockdown!). Better clear a space in the garage.

A Taste of Victory

Hot off the presses and straight through my letter box came this latest tome from the League of Augsburg, A Taste of Victory.

Penned as ever by Mr Barry Hilton this is a scenario book for Beneath the Lilly Banners third edition (though I'm sure could be used for any rules set covering the late seventeenth century).

Its my birthday this weekend (I'm not going to say which one) and I have a couple of days off work. That should provide an opportunity to curl up on the sofa with a good cup of tea and let Mr Hilton's battle plans fire the imagination.

The book can be found for sale on The League of Augsburg website.

Battle of Britain - Campaign Rules

 I didn't want to be mired in bookkeeping during the campaign so opted for a simple roster of 12 pilots and planes. This wasn't exactly accurate for the RAF at the time, squadrons tended to have a few spare aircraft and more pilots than aircraft when at full strength.

ME 110

A key part of Blood Red Skies is the pilot rating which can range from Rookie to Ace and has an effect on the order planes move in and the number of dice when shooting and avoiding hits.Having named the pilots, given them ranks and even the odd back story I rolled a single die for each pilot. I decided that pilot generation would be handicapped for the RAF (not so for the completely randomised Luftwaffe). Nobody could start as an Ace so a d6 -1 was rolled with the most likely outcome being a Regular. As the Battle rages on into August and September the modifier on the dice grows to -2 and then -3 to simulate new recruits with minimal training time.

Junkers 88

Two of the squadron rolled as Rookies and the rest as Regulars. Experience was going to be very simple, for each five sorties the pilot would get to roll a die, on a 5 or a 6 they would move to the next pilot ability level. Alternatively if they scored 5 kills then they would automatically go up a level.

327 Squadron ready for action

On the flip-side I felt I also had to simulate combat fatigue. So for each full week of active service the pilot rolls and on a 6 temporarily drops a level until their next leave or period of inaction caused by bad weather.

I also didn't want an aircraft being shot down in a game to automatically mean the end of the pilot, so another simple table for shot down aircraft was created. The results ranged from shot down and killed, to wounded (with a further roll on another table to see the effect), to minor damage and everything alright. Aircraft that were damaged would be inoperative for a period based on another roll. There was also simple d6 rolls for replacement pilots and aircraft.

Stukas

So with all that organised all I needed was a couple of sources for weather and typical sortie types. I used battleofbritain.com which has a timeline and the book Battle of Britain: A Day by Day Chronicle by Patrick Bishop.

Planes painted, campaign set.. Green Section scramble!

Battle of Britain Campaign - Introduction

I like airplanes or at least I like the idea of airplanes. Never really been that keen on flying or at least the type that most of us get to do which is akin to taking a cramped bus; right up to the point something goes wrong.

Warlord Spitfires

I've also long had an obsession with the Battle of Britain. The first book I had on the subject was published by Remus and I was given it at age five. Although it had a fair amount of text it was lavishly illustrated in the Commando book style and came with a simple wargame.

Unfortunately, I don't have any pictures of it but I remember the British counters were orange the German an olive green and basically the Germans had to knock out four RAF stations and the British had to knock out the bombers. It was easy and quick to learn and I was still playing it five years later.

ME109s

What I've always wanted to do is track the fate of a RAF squadron through the Battle itself; recording sorties, kills and mourning losses. The closest I have come to that experience was playing the campaign mode of 'Their Finest Hour' a Lucasfilm computer game published in 1989 on my then state of the art Commodore Amiga. If you remember it (and I do fondly) then there is the opportunity to download it and run it on an emulator from a number of abandon ware sites (I don't remember it that fondly) or see just how far things have come on YouTube.

I have attempted in the past to run this campaign but time restrictions have got in the way along with a bit of social life.

Which makes it sound as if I have the time now as I don't really have a social life... this could be true sadly what with age and lockdown(s). So, let's rev up those engines and see where it takes us.

Early on in the piece I decided that although I would try and stick to encounters based on real events, the squadron itself would not be one that fought in the battle. I chose a number which has some personal meaning, 327, and a little research revealed this to be a designation given to a former Vichy French squadron in December 1943.

Hurricanes

The next question was which rules. They are plenty out there but I wanted something that was quick, I estimated that even a sortie a day would mean 50+ games, and didn't rely on shooting down every aircraft to determine a winner. The RAF had a high attrition rate but I was looking for a realistic one. Finally it had to be suitable to a bit of solo play. Eventually I decided to try Warlord's Blood Red Skies particular for the boom chit system which gave a mechanic for squadrons being dispersed, running out of ammunition or nerve without much bookkeeping. In addition boom chits in BRS can end a game with no aircraft shot down. The Facebook group for BRS also had a useful download for an enemy AI to help with the solo aspect.

BRS was part of haul purchased at Warlord's store in 2018

So next thing would be to introduce some campaign mechanics...

Indomitus Box Set

What's in the box? 

Every time GW release a new version of Warhammer 40K I immediately pledge not to get sucked in again. I have books that go back to the original Rogue Trader tome from 1987 and given I've only played the game a couple of times in the last decade (solo at that) it should be easy. But... then GW publish another new box set with another collection of fine sculpts and there goes this months spend.

There is no doubt, like countless others, I am addicted to the plastic crack that GW are pushing.

The latest box set proved no exception. It sold out in minutes on release in July and GW nearly had a customer relations disaster having promised that anybody who wanted one would get one. But GW are not the company they were ten years ago and within 48 hours announced that they would take orders for a few weeks and then do a second run.

Mine arrived last week and as is usual with GW the standards are very high.

The back reveals the potential for a moulded plastic Nirvana.

The GW Trolls like to tease with gorgeous cardboard sleeves before you reach the actual riches beneath!

Finally the heavenly sprues are revealed in all their intricate glory.

These are push fir models which GW have gradually been getting better at over the years. It does cut down the pose options but in general GW's figures are pretty much unique this doesn't matter. Hopefully a combination of quick assembly and the Contrast paints I drone on about incessantly will mean getting them to a table top won't take long. There are two armies Primaris Space Marines (as always) and Necrons.

In addition there is a scenario book:

 And a limited edition version of the new rules:

Guess I'm off to the Grim Dark Future, again.

Empire Crossbows and Great Swords

 Finished these units up a couple of months ago. First up some crossbows:

And an elite unit of Great Swords:

As the norm with me now when painting GW stuff, everything was done in Contrast paints under a white base coat for clothes and cream base coat for flesh. Metallics were finished off using standard acrylics. It's fast and good enough for my tabletop.

6mm Prussian Infantry

Before I got distracted by the Great Game, various Blood Red Skies aircraft and the odd Seventeenth Century Dutch ship  I was busy building some 6mm Napoleonic armies. Many of these I actually had commissioned but the Prussian army is all my own work.

Last weekend saw the final touches put to the basic Prussian Infantry.

There are 22 regiments in all, based on the assumption of three stands per unit, which should allow some major engagements to be fought.

Next up are twelve Landwehr units (one already completed), a few pieces of artillery and then a huge amount of cavalry.

All figures are Baccus. 

Aerial Fields - Deep Cut Studios

 Just received a mat from Entoyment. Its a Deep Cut Studios' one designed for aerial wargames. Six foot by four it neatly covers most of the living room floor (fortunately the garage is available!).

The full map

ME 110s and a JU88

Close up of the planes

Dutch Fleet

That rarity of rarities on the Khaki Blog -a finished project. This fleet will hopefully soon see action as part of the naval campaign over at the League of Augsburg - Covid 19 restrictions allowing.

The main fleet in the campaign consists of:

Ship	Vessel Type
Reiger	2nd Rate
Dom van Utrecht	3rd Rate
Kampen	4th Rate
Harder	5th Rate
Asperen	5th Rate

Flag ship Reiger

All models are from a Tumbling Dice starter pack. There were more ships than I needed as well as some Cromsters and Heokers. 

Empire General and Pistoliers

Some troops and a general to do Karl Franz's bidding. Nothing fancy with these, just straight Contrast on everything except the metallics.

The Empire force is really starting to build now but I still have a few foot and mounted companies to complete before I can go for a force selfie.

Karl Franz on Deathclaw

This is the Emperor of the Empire contingent from the Warhammer world that was (and will soon be again given the previews coming out of Forge World). Terrific model, plastic allowing the sculptor to do something to a true scale (as far as you can with mythical beasts) whilst keeping the price low (in GW terms) and ensuring the gamer doesn't have to reinforce their table to deal with the weight.

The warhammer carried by Karl, which I believe is THE Warhammer, seems a little superfluous as I doubt he could reach anything from the back of Deathclaw.

Still it's the look of the thing that counts. Feathery and metal bits are done in acrylics, the eagle claws and lion rear end Contrast.

More Chaos Marines

Some reinforcements of the psychic kind. First up a Dark Apostle and his damned attendants.

Then a Master of Possession from the Shadowspear box accompanied by a couple of his experiments.

Base colours are Contrast, metallics are standard GW paint.

Imperial Fists Scouts and Psyker

Seems to be a theme this month and that theme is Warhammer 40K. Not deliberate, just got on a roll with the Contrast paints which make churning out fantasy troops very easy.

These guys are from the Shadowspear box set released in the middle of 2019. I'd always wanted yellow marines but had avoided them due to the difficulty I always had with yellow. In these guys it simply a base coat of Wraithbone followed by a coat of Iyanden Yellow taking care to avoid pooling.

The only non-contrast colours are the red trim which is traditional acrylics.

Ju 87 Squadron

The Stuka's reputation didn't survive the Battle of Britain and it was withdrawn from the campaign in mid-August. But it did play a major role in the initial battle, particularly Kanalkampf, the opening phase, before losses became too heavy.

These models are not accurate for the 1940 campaign being Warlord's JU87D box and the plane which actually took part in the Battle of Britain was the B-2. However, I was unaware of the distinction at purchase and decided they would still make good proxies on the battlefield.