31 March, 2014

Armour/Armoured Build Winners

The polling booths for the Armour/Armoured Build closed on Saturday night over on The Guild. I didn't have a chance to enter, but an amazing 53 members submitted 73 entries!


So, without further ado, the winners' podium!


Wiking & Piers came in joint 3rd place with
A desert veteran

and From East & West


Keith in 2nd place with his German tank hunters

Mausmann finished in 1st place with his Stug III's

My personal favourite was 6mmfan's Nuclear Missile Silo




Enough of that, part iii of my Rogue Spear campaign will be up by the end of the week...

27 March, 2014

Lead Painters' League - Season 8 has started!

Round 1 of Season 8 of the Lead Painters League is underway over on the Lead Adventure Forum.
If you're not familiar with it get yourself over there to see some fantastic eye candy (as well as people going through their lead mountains at a cracking rate!)


In summary, paint up a team of miniatures, you're randomly paired off with another contestant, everyone votes for their favourite in the pairing and then onto the next round. There are ten rounds after which a league table of sorts has been established. There are bonus points for matching themes in three of the rounds. The theme from round 1 is 'The Realms of Fantasy'.

I'd urge you to join up, take a good look and vote - you've still got a few days to do so.

Like previous years, I won't be telling you any of my favourites, but I will highlight a few match-ups where I reckon the opponents are very closely matched:

Heroes of Crystalia vs. Hear Me Roar


Chaos Marauders vs. Germans



Adventurers vs. Second Breakfast


Wonderful selections to be seen elsewhere of course, definitely looking forward to seeing what's in future rounds as well.

24 March, 2014

The Checkpoint

As the lead element of Team Two are making their way back to base, Yuri Orlov and his bodyguard are stuck in a traffic jam right ahead of them crossing a bridge at a roadblock.



The mercenaries must get through the crowds away from the chasing Rainbow team and through the checkpoint, keeping Orlov safe.

The logjam at the bridge has been caused by a new checkpoint - swiftly set up to look for terrorist suspects 
Orlov's bodyguard get out of their cars - they'll look to hijack other cars at the far end of this traffic
Orlov's in the Mercedes and he urges his men to advance quickly across the bridge
Three well-armed police officers await at the far end
As the engagement begins, civilians start to pour out of their vehicles. Near the back of the traffic jam, they get in between Rainbow and the second mercenary group, making life difficult for the counter-terrorist team. 
Orlov's men force their way through the civilians and take control of the truck at the far end of the bridge
Rainbow work their way around the civilians and annihilate the mercenaries taking cover behind their car
The police gain reinforcements as another patrol has arrived, and they square off against Orlov as they get the truck in gear. The police officers' fire forces the mercenaries 
However, the two late arrivals are actually working for Orlov they gun down their fellow officers, allowing Orlov and his men to run to the checkpoint
The Rainbow team get through the panicking civilians without too much trouble and have almost caught up with Orlov
Their fire takes out the mercenaries, as the traitorous police dive into the checkpoint hut for cover
But before Rainbow can follow up and capture him, two of his bodyguards recover enough to escape! 
Rainbow fail to catch their quarry, but only by the skin of his teeth!

19 March, 2014

The Factory

Intelligence gathered from a warehouse raid has disclosed several locations which have been used as a weapons manufacturing facility. Team One and Team Two have been sent to the most promising locations...


Rainbow will try to secure the main factory buildings and bring outlying buildings and any parked vehicles under control. No materiel is to be allowed to escape.

The ruined factory complex was a perfect base of operations for the arms dealer
But lax outer security allowed the Rainbow team to approach along a wall...
...while a mercenary group gathers in the main factory building's courtyard
Orlov's main technical expert, Ivanov is taking a break in the factory annex, away from the dangerous materiel in his care.
As the assault element continues up the wall, the sniper and fire support teams cut across open group to take up position overlooking the main factory 
The assault element opens up the attack wiping out a mercenary machine gun team in a ruined generator house. However as they contemplate their advance, they notice a well-situated IED against the wall
A mercenary group, racing inside the factory annex grabs hold of Ivanov and engages Rainbow outside. They're biding their time to make a run for the car to escape up the road
Rainbow's assault element races away from the exploding IED - somehow they escape with just nicks and cuts
A mercenary group in the woods is giving the sniper team a hard time, but the Rainbow machine gun team puts them down 
They decide to reposition back to the generator room (possibly to the 1st floor above) but are taken out from the Mercs in the factory
Two mercenaries turn up in a car on the road; instead of heading up to the factory to help out there, they see an opportunity to capture the two Rainbow operators who've just been shot down
Rainbow pour fire into the factory annex, preparing for their assault 
The newly-arrived Mercs capture a Rainbow operator, despite the attempts of the sniper team to stop them
Having set C4 to the materiel inside the factory, destroying the evidence, two mercenaries race out of the explosion's radius
They pick up Ivanov on the way out, avoiding any engagement with Rainbow
A nail-bitter for all concerned. It looked like the Mercenaries were being wiped out with impunity, but a little loss in focus by Rainbow resulted in the Mercs having a second bite at completing their mission.

The Rainbow team commander critiques his approach in the postmortem

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