Don't Shoot? Theres a war on don't you know?

So another week has disappeared into the warp and the Angels are slowly coming together. I will be able to show some photos of the first squad soon. However back to the war torn streets of Arnhem 1945. At my local club I manged to get a game of Flames against a very nice New Zealand chap. He was using German Fallschirmjägers from the Casino period of war. This was a great opportunity to learn the new rules. As I mention before Flames is a very slow burn game. Unlike 40k or Warmachine sometimes it is preferable not to fire with your platoons. This is because, as in real conflicts during the time, troops where keen not to alert the enemy to their positions. If you fire in the game you become easy to target in your opponents turn. I learnt this the hard way when my machine-gun platoon open fire early only to be pounded again and again by artillery.

This got me thinking... Does 40K rely to much on the "wipe them out, all of them", metallity. Surely if there are giant 8 foot tall, boltgun wielding, monstrosities hunting you, you might think twice before opening fire and waving a big flag saying, "Look, look I'm a filthy heretic and I'm over here!" Personally I would like to see more use of pinning in the next ed of 40k, as currently only Tau can use this as a viable tactic. Even then they struggle with it. What do you think?

(Back to 1945) We played the mission fighting withdraw which on paper looks complicated. However, this turned out to be one of the best games of anything I've played. The attacker has to assault enemy objectives which gradually are withdraw as the game progresses. Eventually, this leads to the defender grimly fighting against an entire company with just a few platoons in an increasingly small area. After a hard fought, nail biting battle the British managed to hold on to their objectives long enough for the rest of their army to withdraw.
I'd thought I post some pictures of those brave men that held the line against all odds.

Red Platoon giving the enemy a damn good thrashing.

Six Pdrs Ready and willing.

Objectives

Propaganda! 

Flames of Win

Battlefront minis you have done it again. Being an avid history buff and a wargamer does have its perks. Let me explain. Arriving in our hands this month is the long awaited Flames of War 3rd ed. For those of you who have never heard of this game I strongly suggest you try it out if your interested in 1939-45 periods of military history. It isn't a fast paced game such as Infinity or Warmachine but does have that attrition feel that a WW2 game should have. I'm currently painting 1st British Airborne and have researched the men who landed in Arnhem during opperation Market Garden. This game has even made me book a holiday to Holland to visit the area in which the battle was fought (who said wargaming wasn't educational). Anyway thats not the best bit. For those of you with a copy Flames Mk 2 you can take it back to where you bought it from and get a FREE copy of Mk 3. However do this soon as this offer only lasts till the end of February. It is not often the words free and wargaming go in the same sentence so while you are recovering heres a link to the Flames of War web site.

http://www.flamesofwar.com/
Also check out this armoured trains....

Rules of Engagement

First post ever, so I'd thought I'd write about stuff I'm painting at the moment. The problem for me is time and painting is something I try to fit in around everything else. Job and social exploits are massive parts of my life, finding time paint and play games is difficult. So for me armies tend to be completed at a snails pace. This blogg is intended to help me set little deadlines (if anything I can have a new army finished by the end of this year).
Anyway I digress...
So up to be finished by Christmas are my Blood Angel Sanguinary Guard Army. Oh I forgot to mention the army has to be completely painted in non-metallic metals...ah.
For those of you who have no idea what that is, it is a technique used mainly in 2D painting to show reflective surfaces. Doing this in 3D can be tricky. Here are some of my first attempts with Commander Dante and a Sanguinary Priest.

Commander Dante

Sanguinary Priest