Games (how's that for a generic title?)

Gaming for the new year has kicked off with a revisit of a game from Minden Games, Battle Over Britain.

As you can probably surmise, it's a representation of WWII aerial combat. Less obvious perhaps is that it's 1 on 1, is abstract, and plays quite quickly. There is a solitaire module which I own (it adds little to the existing solitaire rules but does give you more planes to choose from) and other air battles as well.

d12 are hit points, white d6 are ammo remaining.

It's an interesting little game that feels right even if it looks completely wrong. The rules are straightforward but there are enough special rules and optional rules to add flavor and variety.

The average game is probably less than 10 minutes, so it's a prefect space filler or you can play a longer campaign of connected battles, if desired, including one where you play a particular pilot through multiple (hopefully) encounters.

In the picture, I'm using my laptop as the playing space - I have been playing Verdun a lot on Steam and decided I need to shut the laptop down and enjoy some screen-free time (my son isn't the only one who needs to step away from the computer sometimes!).

Also of note, my copy of The Princess Bride Adventure Book Game arrived:

I purchased this on a whim on Black Friday - the price was something like $9.99 USD. Even if it's a terrible game, it comes with figures (I'll give the game a proper post once we play it).

Finally, some figures have entered the preparation stages:

Two things are probably worth noting about the picture.

On the human figures, the black that follows the mold lines is soot from a candle. It ends up on the needle that I heat up and run along the lines. I've mentioned using the hot needle before - it works well enough to smooth them out without marring the figure too badly, but I care less and less about mold lines (with the exception of the one on the helmet). Life is too short.

The gold figure is a Classic Toy Solders Carthaginian. I had no idea they had Carthaginians of their own until recently. Everyone always focuses on HaT (like the figure to his left). The shield is a little skimpy - accurate or not I don't know- but it'll do for my purposes

Italy Sends Bersaglieri to the Line!

Although greatly under strength, the Italian Bersaglieri prepare to square off against their Austrian foes!

The officer gets fancier black leather shoes.

These Waterloo 1815 figures painted up fairly quickly by my standard.

I attribute this to two things. One, there is an overall lack of kit with these figures - akin to Airfix WWII Soviets. The  other reason is that I discovered that if I take a little more time with each step, there is less need to go back and fix errors. Not no need mind you, but far less need. Who knew?

Sadly, there was some peeling when I removed the figures from their painting bases which you can see in the picture.

I will seal the bases with PVA and regloss the bases once I settle on what the final actual basing will be.

At present, I am leaning towards individual figures on the same size bases I use for my Great Game armies (I don't recall the size, so hopefully I have the order receipt from Litko so I can order more!). Trench Hammer works equally well either way, and H.M.G. which I would like to try, by default uses individually-based figures.

First of the 2020 Draftees

The post has been busy the past few days, bringing me packages filled with hobby joy!

Up first, a pre-painted 1/35 Can Do German MG team. This brings up my Germans to three MG-42 bases. I'm aiming for four eventually and will probably pick up one more of these sets in the not too distant future.

Two boxes of the much ballyhooed Waterloo 1815 WWI Italians arrived next. First, notice the box art - ordinary helments.

But the figures are Bersaglieri! I knew this going in, but nothing on the box indicates this.

The pictures below could not look more bland (grey figures on a gray-white background - white balance would have been a good thing to use I suppose) but you can at least see the poses. They'll obviously need some cleaning up - almost every helmet has a plume of flash.

Finally, what amounts to my biggest eBay score in awhile - five 1/32 Waffen SS figures (a mix of 3 Britain's, duplicating a set I already have, and two Conte figures).

I usually lose auctions on eBay (foolishly I bid the max I'm willing to pay and I won't increase my bid beyond that) and so I tend to stick to Buy-It-Now offerings, but this time I put in a reasonable bid, and won the whole lot for far less - just $28USD. At less than $6 for a fully painted metal figure, I'm pretty stoked.

I'll also probably never win another auction again.

These join the other five SS figures I already have and will see service against my British paratroopers and my "Big Red One" US infantry in small skirmish games using One Hour Skirmish Wargames, Five Men in Normandy, or Fistful of Lead (which I just picked up in PDF format after reading Reese's recent game report.)

When I'll get any of these on the table is a good question - I'm dying to kick off an OHSW campaign with my TSSD winter Germans and winter Soviets and so that will probably take precedence when the next gaming moment presents itself.