Categorie: WW2

Europa, Rome en zo nog wat wargames op zomaar een zondag

Gepost op door JurjenB in Ancients, Club News, Fantasy & SF, Horse & Musket, WW2

We zijn eigenlijk niet zo’n bordspellen-vereniging – zegt uw lokale Amsterdamse miniaturensnob, tevens webredacteur van uw eigenste wargameclub Amsterdam6shooters. Maar dat is niet helemaal waar, of eigenlijk: helemaal niet waar.

Neem om te beginnen Blood Bowl, gisteren een mooi toernooi van gehad, prachtige miniaturen: maar wel op een bord.

X-Wing, oude klassieker, nu niet op tafel, eigenlijk een vet wargame: een bordspel.

Rommel, ooit nog eens spelen, een echt wargame voor echte wargamers: maar toch eigenlijk wel op een schaakbord.

En vandaag hadden we dus (en trouwens niet voor de eerste keer) Europa Universalis, Risk grand scale, Diplomacy voor sluweriken, iets met kaarten en fiches en figuurtjes – de schaal is indrukwekkend.

Om je mouwen bij op te stropen.

En om je vingers bij af te likken, ik moet zeggen dat ik als miniaturensnob best geïnteresseerd ben in dit soort spellen, juist omdat ze hebben wat ik in wargames mis: multiplayer en grand strategy. Desondanks blijf ik nog even doorgaan met figuurtjes schilderen :-). Snobisme stopt niet op een zondagmiddagje.

Er was ook Team Yankee, Warhammer 40K en Mortem & Gloriam:

M&G ging mij en mijn tegenstander nog niet vloeiend af terwijl de ontwerper dat wel belooft. De beweging snap ik nou wel, de volgende hobbel is de combat die net wel maar toch weer net niet DBx is. Het is wel soort van wennen aan een systeem met kleurendobbelstenen en subfases die het spel dynamischer en tegelijkertijd ingewikkelder maken. Recensie volgt later dit jaar.

Amsterdam6Shooters Now On YouTube With Wargame Video

Gepost op door JurjenB in Club News, WW2

The famous Little War TV wargame channel started a couple of years ago and is managed by a group of creative American historical miniature wargamers who make very professional battle reports and vlogs. I studied how they do it and with Maarten, Eltjo, Carlos and Ruben I made our first ‘official’ video battle report. See below.

Earlier this year, I made a few simple clips as tryout, first only family and holiday, later a few club clips. Making videos is fun, it’s a newly discovered hobby, that’s my main reason: it can be just as satisfying as speed- or slowpainting an army. I was not planning a wargame vlog. Not really.

But LWTV presented an official ‘challenge‘ this autumn to to stimulate vlogging. They published a detailed manual, as well. Hmmm – I thought. Useful. Let’s get ambitious.

The results are satisfying. What I’m most satisfied about, I thought, when editing the vlog, is that it reflects what a nice club we are. Eltjo, for example, brought wonderful scenery (“I loved the little trees”, as Bob Ross would say). Alois, Eltjo and Maarten helped me with playtesting the scenario.

D-Day itself was enjoying, Ruben brought a few extra houses and although the recordings ran a little longer than expected, Carlos stayed until the end. The atmosphere was fantastic, as you see in the video. I wish to thank everybody who helped making it.

I’d like to do more club or personal wargame vlogs, now. The 1672 Woerden battle is my next video project, planned next months. Feel free to join, and feel free to share ideas about future video battle reports. With the right planning we can, just like LWTV, produce wargame clips now and then and have fun together, planning, plotting, preparing and wargaming.

Next month a jury of wargamers from Little Wars TV and a celebrity cast from the wargame business (Richard Clarke from 2FatLardies, a studio painter from The Army Painter, the president of the Historical Miniatures Wargames Society, and several acclaimed YouTubers) will vote which vlog will get the Best Quickstrike AAR Caesar Award 2021. I hope they will like this video from our smalltown club in our tiny little country.

Anyway, no matter the result, remember, we’re the best Amsterdam wargame club in the world! Merry Christmas, happy New Year, hope to see you all in 2022!

Finnished! Our Umpteenth German(s) Added To The Club Pile

Gepost op door JurjenB in Club News, WW2

First the sad news, although old. Two years ago one of our members quit the historical wargames hobby. Quitting is hard. It’s harder than quittting smoking. But he did!

He’s now a member of Infinitics Anonymous – he quit Bolt Action, but he moved to the Dutch clan of Infinity players. We wished him luck. Friendly guy. Bolt Action was just not his game. Infinity is a very smart designed miniatures game, btw. A classic. Addictive.

Now the good news. When he left, he donated his 14 unpainted leftover Finnish WW2 figures to our club. Finland and the USSR were at war in 1939, and the Finnish troops fought in German uniforms against the Russians (Democratic Finland never was a formal ally in the Nazi pact, but the Finns were supported by the Germans). Until 1944, when they changed sides.

So the Finnish miniatures are ‘Germans in light grey uniforms, longcoats and white winter parkas’. These 14 metal miniatures hid themselves in my painting room. No urgency. We have a German club army already, painted 3 years ago.

But now the even better news – I rediscovered these lost figures this weekend and finally, finally, finally gave them a quick –  German – paint job. Not a true bleak grey/ white ‘Finnish’ uniform because a 14-figure Finnish battlegroup is too small as independent unit on the table. Nobody will notice. Ready!

I painted them carelessly, hastily, as fast as possible and covered all mistakes with quickshade Army Painter dip. Umpteenth German. Game models, not museum miniatures. I fully admit: they’re neither the most detailed nor the best painted miniatures that I ever – finnished – forgive me the bad pun.

At least the Nazi Schweinhunde have extra cannon fodder. Sturdy metal, some interesting poses, engineers, sharpshooter, good for the club pile.

I also found a lost US army mortar team that I will add to the club reserves.

I. Will. Beat. That. Lead. Mountain!

Bolt Action Arnhem Memorial Game

Gepost op door JurjenB in Club News, News, WW2

Our British friend Chris Brown yearly visits Holland to organize and umpire a Grand Table Bolt Action multiplayer game in the NH Rijn Hotel in Arnhem. We joined a game in 2016. About his annual game in 2021 he wrote us:

We are running another wargame event over the commemorative weekend at Arnhem – 17/18/19th September.  We have set up a Facebook page (link) where you can find more information and/or PM me if you have any questions.

These events are not like tournaments or conventions/shows. We prefer smaller, informal atmosphere so we limit the number of players to 50 at the very most.   Naturally the general theme is Operation Market Garden. The venue is the NH Rijn Hotel which incorporates the old Rhine Pavilion, which was a battle location in its own right in 1944; it is the Art Deco building you can just see behind the Stug, so it is right in the middle of a major axis of the battle. We can arrange rooms at the hotel at a very fair price — where else can you have your breakfast in a former battle site? The general idea is that we will have games in the evening so you can explore the battle areas by day, but if you want to spend the whole time playing that’s OK too – the gaming room will be available from about 1030 each day.
Naturally the theme is Operation Market Garden and there will be a lot of Bolt Action going on. Don’t worry if you do not have a suitable army; we will lend you one.  There will be tables for ‘standard-sized’ BA games, but also a number of large multi-player games too. We also hope to have some Rapid Fire and Battlegroup and also a demonstration of our own company-level fast-play game ‘Fire for Effect’.  The player fee is UKP 70.00, preferably by Paypal, but we can make other arrangements if necessary.  

More on his Facebook page. We heartily recommend this event!

Club Army Addition: Power Ups For Paratroopers and Allo Allo Germans

Gepost op door JurjenB in Club News, WW2

This weekend Maarten & I played a WW2 wargame at a club day, with the Crossfire skirmish rules. For those new and uninformed: since some years we have a WW2 club army for Bolt Action and similar 28mm skirmish games. Like a chess club, we think we must have our own chess pieces. Feel free to join games, use, borrow the club figures. We have our own Lend-Lease Act to fight WW2.

We recently added 2 small support units (MG, mortar, officers, forward observer, medic) to the German and British sides, as advised by our BA specialist Robert. Painted last month. The German and British club armies are really versatile and complete now.

The game was Crossfire. I have posted a Crossfire review. In short: mixed feelings. Meanwhile a few pics of a good game. Gentlemanly wargaming: I love it!