Upcoming Aussie FOW events

Feel like playing a few games? Today I look at upcoming events for the rest of 2017.

It has been a quiet gaming time for me recently. I haven't had a lot of opportunity to play. However there are a few events coming up and I am aiming to play in a couple. Lets take a look:

TY Big game from MOAB 2016

MOAB - September 30 to October 2.
This is Sydney's big one. MOAB has been a fixture on the Sydney gaming calendar for a number of years. It is also the only 3 day event left in Sydney. The event boasts a number of tournaments, demonstration games, vendors and a well stocked canteen.

A Demo game at MOAB 2016

This year I understand will be the biggest ever with a huge player turnout expected. This is welcome information after a bit of a dip last year. For the first time I remember, registrations closed early. You can find details of the event at this link.

Part of the main hall for MOAB 2016

After many years of being LW, this years MOAB FOW will be 3 separate events (one day each) of MW v4.  Day 1 and 2 are 80 points. Day 3 is 100 points. There will also be a grand tournament title contested by all that play 3 days. Details of the event are on the FOW forum. A great opportunity to try the new rules. Probably too late to register but I understand there is a slot available on the Monday.

I had several blog posts on MOAB last year. Check out my posts.

Mid War Grand Tournament - December 2 to 3.
The Hall of Heroes in Campbelltown has run 3 GTs a year for the last 4 or 5 years. MW is usually June but was swapped to December this year to allow for the new V4 release. Ken has stepped up to run this event. The format will be 5 games of 100 point MW over 2 days. Players can spend up to 10 points on the new cards.

A photo of the Hall of Heroes from their website.

The Hall is a friendly place with a cafe inside. There is no shortage of coffee and bacon and egg rolls. There is likely to be a dinner on the Saturday night but there are no details just yet. Details can be found on the Hall of Heroes web page.


Days of Decision - November 4 to 5.
Days of Decision has been run for the last few years in lots of different guises. This time around the event is at the Games Cube in Parramatta. "The Cube" is a small but well located and well stocked store in the heart of Sydney's 2nd CBD - Parramatta. There are a number of cafes and restaurants just meters from the store and there will likely be a group dinner on the Saturday night. Details of the store can be found on their website.

A game at the Cube from their website

Scott has stepped up to run this one and the event will be 1600 EW. Details of the event can be found on the FOW forum. The only V4 tournament I have played in so far was EW and it was a lot of fun. This one is shaping up to be a great event.


ACT Grand Tournament - November 11 and 12.
This is a new event in our Nations capital. Three D6 are hosting this event and the format will be the same as the Hall's event in December. 100 points MW V4 with up to 10 points of cards. This is again 5 games over 2 days but the rounds are each 3 hours. Entry is via the store. The player pack wont be available until early October. I suspect this is in order to incorporate feedback from MOAB. Entry is via the store and details of the event can be found on the FOW forum.

I have not visited Three D6 yet so I cannot provide any detail about the store. I believe it is a licenced venue though.

Well, that it. These are the events I am aware of. They are NSW and ACT based. If there are any I missed, shout out.

So, if you are interested, get down to an event!

Unboxing and Review: Battlefront Factory (BB192)

Another review rolls off the factory production line.

Box Art

Battlefront's factory building is a nice addition to the Battlefront's range of buildings. The factory is a Team Yankee piece and provides a good 1980's industrial building to create a cold war period table. The building is a large feature, measuring 16.5 cm (6.5") by 8.5 cm (3.5") by approximately 8 cm (3"). It comes standard with 2 levels, the bottom with shutters, doors and windows. The upper level is just windows. Finally, the building also has a black removable roof.

Box Packaging

Like all the Battlefield in a box stuff, the factory is well packed in a dedicated foam container. This is sturdy enough to be used to store and transport the building. There is a compartment for each piece to prevent any damage from pieces colliding during transport. My building arrived in perfect condition.

The building is available on the Flames of War site on this link. They retail in Australia for $73.50. This makes the factory one of the more expensive pieces. Like the church and the manner house, the factory is a center piece for the table. You should only need one.

In game terms the building can hold 6 medium bases per level. I.E 12 in total. There are openings on every face so the building makes a great fire platform.

I hope you enjoyed this review.

Review: Battlefront Lorraine Schlepper

Today I schlep a new unit for my DAK force.

Box Art

History:
The Lorraine Schlepper was created in 1942 as a self propelled heavy artillery support for the Afrika Korp. The chassis was from a Lorraine Carrier, captured from France in 1940. The Carriers were converted to accept the 15cm sFH 13. The superstructure was made in German but installed on the vehicle in France before being shipped to Africa in 1942. The vehicle provided much needed artillery support that could keep up with the mobile Afrika Korp.

Schlepper in North Africa

Due to the weight balance and recall from the 15cm gun, the vehicle was fitted with a distinctive spade at the back. This spade was retractable and was lowered when the Schlepper was fired to prevent it from moving backwards.

Captured Schleppers (background) in a British depot

The Schleppers first saw battle on 30th August 1942 with the 15th Panzer Division. Three were lost in this action. The remainder of the vehicles were lost and captured at El Alamein.

Back of the box

Review:
This is one of the new v4 box sets that accompanied the release of the new German list book. These new unit box sets now seem to be the standard for Battlefront. Rather than releasing individual blisters, Battlefront have packaged up enough vehicles for the whole unit and added the new v4 cards. I really like this new packaging. Gone are the days of needing to hunt up enough blisters for a unit.

Cards

The box contains 4 Lorraine Schleppers, 2 of the new plastic crew frames and 2 unit cards - a Schlepper card and a Panzer II observer card. Sadly no decals.

Parts arrayed.

The Schleppers themselves are resin and metal. I believe these are the old sculpts previously seen in the old blisters. These models went together well enough but needed a bit of cleanup. Each model is made up of a resin body, 2 metal tracks, a metal 15cm gun and the rear trail. The contact points for the spade is very small. I scored both contact points of the chassis and the trail in order to provide the best possible bond. The gun mounting points needed to be slightly bent in order to fit correctly on the vehicle.

Assembled

The crew are new. They are the new soft plastic range from battlefront. Whilst I like the move to plastic, I think there is a little room for improvement here. The face lack some of the detail we have come to expect from the old battlefront metal models. I hope that Battlefront will continue to work on these plastic models and end up with a product as good as the old metal figures.

Forward Hans.

Painting:
I followed my standard Afrika Korp scheme for this unit. I painted the crew separately. This is a departure from my normal process. I normally paint the crew after sticking them in. Separately worked much better. Despite some of the feedback I have seen from others, I had no problem with paint adherence to the plastic figures. They accepted paint and a wash really well.

Crew Painted

With my painting area still a work in progress after moving house, I haven't yet located my box of decals. Rather than delay this review, I have snapped the photos without decals. I will apply some once I manage to locate them.

Conclusion:
Overall I like this box, the real positive is that it contains a whole unit worth of models complete with cards. It would have been nice for some decals to be included but these can be sourced from the standard DAK decal pack. I also think the plastic crew is the way forward. However I think these crew will benefit from some more development from Battlefront. I look forward to building some more v4 box sets.

I hope you enjoyed this review!

Pimp My Ride 3 - Battlefront Daimler I

It has been a long time between posts. Real life has got in the way of hobby time of late. I have been overseas for a few weeks and then moved house! The good news is that I have cleared out a little space in my study and I have picked up the painting brush for the first time in a month.

A while back I shared a review of the Battlefront Daimler I. In summary, this is the cutest armoured car in toy town. The review covered 4 blisters of new Daimler Is. I also had some of a mates that needed pimping to match. You can check out the earlier cut and shut articles here and here.

So like the earlier repaints, these models needed some modelling attention before a repaint. After a brush off to remove dust, here is how they looked:

The hatch and commander were missing from the command vehicle. I found some in the spares box. Next I had to remove the side panel which was glued to the front.

I then removed all the wheels, cleaned up the old glue, flash and mount lines. Finally I glued in the commander, hatch and side panels.

The painting was fairly straight forward and I followed the same scheme that you can find detailed in the links above.

Here are some pics of the finished models.

These will be used along side the other 2nd Household Cavalry.

Sadly I didn't have enough decals for unit markings but they do have guards markings.

I hope you enjoyed this article. It is good to be back..