Ooo shiny!

The gloss has been applied and they look like proper soldiers now. 

If my phone has a white balance, I can't find it.

The thin khaki line.

In other related news, I have the map a bit further along. The shore line is not finished - right now it's still hex-y.

The original source map is accounted for and I have added what seems a reasonable terrain and island shape, but perhaps I'm constraining myself too much by filling in the unknown.

 It could, after all, make an enjoyable game in itself to play out the exploration of the unknown portion of Blueland.

The current map of Blueland

Farmhouse Assault!

The first game at my new place was an exceptionally brief affair, using one of my favorite small scenarios, which is from what to my shock is now considered an old set of rules (Two Hour Wargames's MG-42, a demo version of Nuts!, 1st ed. and thanks to the wonders of technology, available via the Wayback Machine).

 In this case, I fielded four British paratroopers, led as always by Lt. Hardcastle.

Hardcastle and company reach the edge of the woods and observe two German sentries.

The sentries are oblivious to what is about to happen.

I used One Hour Skirmish Wargames for the rules. It might seem an undersized game for OHSW, but multiple move actions by the same figure chew up points quickly, so at worst, the downside is two moves per figure, instead of one, or points unspent. 

 

Unfortunately for the Germans, their random deployment per the scenario had the MG team and NCO heading to the house from the woods, so no cover bonus when being shot, and then a poor card draw on their phase (an ace) left them stuck in the open. 

 

It turned out that the British were all skilled shots, drawing high cards, and the Germans were poor at avoiding damage: the British had downed the sentries, claimed the farmhouse (killing the sentries) and the small woods across the road, and also downed the machine gunner and the NCO, by the time the first Joker came up and the turn ended. 

 

I decided it wasn't worth checking the status of the remaining downed figures - they would have been in the open and that stretched my suspension of disbelief a bit too far.

For giggles, I tried MG-42 as written and then remembered why I had given up on the idea of trying Nuts! until the 2nd edition. 

 

It played fast -  a hallmark of THW - helped, in part, because I have played THW games many times and understand, to a degree, how it works.  If you're not familiar with their rules, you may not want to start with this old, and less clearly written, demo set.

 

I played three initiatives, but the Germans again had issues: failing In-Sight opportunities, missing when shooting, and being knocked out of the fight whenever they were hit. The base movement range is far more generous than OHSW, and so it took no time at all before the paratroopers were storming the one remaining German (a Rep 3 sentry) and I decided he'd surrender.

This scenario would probably work well with Fistful of Lead and I will give that a try soon.

The Grass is Greener

For the first painting endeavor at my new location, I finished up the solid green bases for my khaki British unit:

Men of the 2nd Popsicornia

In the next few days I hope to slop on the Mod Podge and then the acrylic gloss and call them done. 

Campaign Map Progress

Packing and driving my stuff to the apartment one carload at a time took up most of my free time outside of work the last two weeks. So, for those of you waiting for me to send you something, I'll be shipping items shortly (a benefit of the new place is that it's a short walk to a post office). There is still a sofa to move and the rest of my partner's belongings (which we'll bring over when I pick her up and drive her to GA) but those will happen later this month.

In the meantime, unable to game or paint, what with everything in boxes, I played around with creating my hex map of Blueland. Following Maudlin Jack's revelatory comment, I imported the picture posted previously, sans grid, and then made the terrain map in Hexographer. 

The Awful Desert (to the left of the mountain range) has some questionable cactus hexes (as in, I'm not sure I want cactus hexes) but for now, I have filled hexes based mostly on the original map (hiding underneath). I have added additional  towns and forts - they may be rearranged before I consider it done and the infrastructure expanded a bit with additional roads. There is also much labeling to be completed.

I am thinking that the desert won't play a role in my planned invasion, and I may instead clear most of the hexes and leave them to discovery - playing a modified version of Adventures in Jimland.