Weekend at a Painting Workshop

On Sunday I attended a very interesting workshop to improve my miniature painting techniques. This was organised at Villa El Pedrete, a new business initiave launched by two of my club mates: a space  dedicated to weekend wargames, workshops and many other non-hobby related events (seminars, working group gatherings, small celebrations, etc).

The fact is that after 30 years in the hobby, I've never been totally satisfied neither with the quality of my painting  nor with my efficiency to finish  a new project involving painting a large amount of lead (I'm so slooooow!). And when the workshop was announced, I jumped into it without a doubt, specially because it was taught by one of our club's best painters.

And what I did learn?  Nothing revolutionary but overall evolutionary.

Our maestro on Sunday shared some interesting painting tips. He has developed an efficient painting technique by which he does not spend a lot of time in details (like for example eyes or very ellaborated cammo schemes) but compatible with a high quality figure painting and excellent visual effects when on the table.

Chain of Command Pre-Order Period Starts

Just hot form the press!! The pre-order period for Chain of Command just started at the TooFatLardies website. There are different bundles of products combining the rules hardcopya  and pdf editions, specially designed jump-off point markers and other game materials at a substantial discount of the retail price that will be set on the release date (21st August), so don't miss the opportunity!

US Army WW II Pictorial Book

I bring today a truly fantastic freebie: the European Theater US Army Pictorial Book in eBook format published by The US Army Center for Military History, a well of information for any military history aficionado from the AWI to the modern conflicts of Afghanistan or Irak. Caught a glimpse of the book at the Arkie Gamer blog, incidentally another one to add to your favourites list.

The 450+ pages long work spans from the build-up period in England (1943) to the final months of the war in May 1945. If you plan to build a US force for Chain of Command, here you have tons of inspiration to personalise your army!

Really worth downloading, but it takes some time so don't be in a hurry or use a slow connection to attempt it.

Chain of Command: A Diary # 5

The fifth (and probably final) entry of my Chain of Comand Diary series, occasional posts commenting my impressions while testing the incoming set of skirmish II WW rules by the TooFatLardies.

Topic today: shocks, moral and units resilience...or how every single of your toy soldiers matters  
Those acquainted with the TooFatLardies games know that the moral system in the rules is based on the concept of "shocks", reflecting the level of beating that a unit can take before "breaking" away.


Shocks explained
The TFL system differs vs other popular rule sets in the market in two different dimensions:

• Units do not start with a fixed absolute level of moral  (points) that is gradually eroded by combat until breaking. The impact of shocks in the fighting ability of the unit is measured against the remaining men in the unit after casulaties.

• Shocks are part of the "friction" philosophy underpinning all TFL rules, in the sense that these cause deterioration to the combat efficiency (in the form of restrictions to movement, penalties to fire or close combat, etc) and resistance to comply with orders.

200 Followers Reached!

My blog has reached a new milestone, with the number of followers now at 200. Thanks for joining  and welcome to this space of relaxed wargaming discussion... though  I must admitt to be somewaht frustrated by the short number of comments (on average) left in my posts (come on guys, say something specially that you don't like)!

Let me introduce now briefly our last 5 partners:

Lehr Recon - A Chain of Command Game

Last Chain of Command game of this season (and probably until the rules are finally released on 21st August), as most of my gaming mates will start their holidays from next week onwards. I chose the "Lehr Recon" scenario from the "Heroes of Omaha and Panzer Lehr" Skirmish Campaigns book.

It involved a halftrack mounted platoon attack in July 1944 to some elements of  of the US 9th Infantry division in the rearguard line. The latter are in fact a hastily collected melange of clerk and security units with a bazooka tem and an MMG as all support, of green quality, but that I decided to leave as standard moral. Quite unbalanaced at first glace and, as expected, they were totally overrun buy the veteran Germans in a few turns.

Breaking War - German Army Painting Guide

Breaking War is one the most popular wargame magazines in Spain and has recently launched a special issue with a detailed painting guide of the German II WW army. I thought interesting flagging as there is a version in English of potential interest to the anglo-saxon readers of my blog. You can find more information here