Another Salute!

Over the last couple of weeks, various bloggers have been recounting their Salute experiences. I am forced to live vicariously through them. (An expedition to London for the weekend is probably off the agenda for another few years...) I've enjoyed all the eye candy, hopefully you do too!

Shed Wars has only a single photo of this American Civil War game, but between the musket smoke and snake fences it's worth highlighting

A Wargaming Gallimaufry takes a nice photo of this enormous space ship from Dropzone Commander

Steve's Paintingshed highlights this amazing east African battlefield as well as other stuff

Four Colour Super Minis is envious of this early Vietnam game, I'd love this board as well! More photos

Trouble at T'Mill may have hung around the Too Fat Lardies game a bit!

Balkan Gamer gives us a great view of this magnificent Carlist War game

Tarleton's Quarter gets in close on the eastern front

Don't Throw a 1 does us proud with a few nice pics of this 1798 Rebellion game

Big Red Bat Cave shows off this beautiful piece from the Roman Invasion table

I am as enamoured with this artillery train as Steve's Random Musings is

Ancients on the Move showcases the great mix of ancient games on display this year

This Crusading game gets pride of place on History in 1/72, but wait, there's more on Arklow

Lone Warrior is attracted to this In Her Majesty's Name urban board

The Wargame Shed likes this huge D-Day table, and with good reason!

The Angry Lurker likes elephants - who doesn't!

Wargaming Girl has a few photos of a Lord of the Rings game - Orks, Oliphants and Fell Beasts, oh my!

Alley's of Distraction gives us a better view of that TFL game, which surprisingly included zombies

Level 2 writes up his participation in this Glorantha adventure game

Meeples and Miniatures does a good tour of some display tables, including this gorgeous one from 4Ground along with Too Fat Lardies and Gripping Beast

JimBibblyBlog is proud of his samurai table, and with good reason he won the Best Trade Game there

I've omitted all the swag posts - those are far too dangerous to my credit rating!

Lead Painters' League - Season 8 continues

Round 5 is underway over on the Lead Painters' League and I am increasingly gobsmacked at the high quality of painting on display, week-in week-out.

As before I'm not picking out my favourite pieces, but I'm hoping to highlight a few match-ups which are (or ought to be) very close - the round theme is 'The Ancient World'.

Italian Football 1.0 vs. You Don't Pay the Foederati

Greek Hoplite Mercenaries vs. Freebooter Mercenaries

Prize for the Arena vs. Romans

No Pain, no Cigarettes vs. Friends Romans and Countrymen

Some outstanding work there, so vote or just soak in the oodles of eye candy!

Hammer to Fall

August 1979. The Red Army is pouring across West Germany. The RAF is struggling to delay the advancing hordes and it's up to the much vaunted SAS to take advantage of the chaos behind enemy lines.

Take command of 'D' Troop as it seeks out high value targets to hamstring the Soviet war machine. Shoot first. Shoot straight. Be home in time for tea and medals in the ultimate test of 'Who Dares, Wins'.

Gaming compatriot Conrad Kinch is running a Cold War wargame based on the classic GW game 'Bommerz over da Sulphur River' which will be on the same table!

I'll be running this Force on Force mini campaign (of two or three scenarios) on the Saturday of Hobocon (on from the 30th May-1st June in the Teachers' Club in Dublin.

Collusion!

Intelligence discovered in Orlov's abandoned car has identified the location al-Zawahiri’s man in country is based. Rainbow launch an attack to catch the terrorist cells in situ before they can ship any weapons to their destination. But when Rainbow arrives, a rogue military unit, under Colonel Borokov is seen colluding with them.

Rainbow aims to capture the terrorist leader and kill, suppress or capture all terrorist forces in area. Getting hold of Borokov for intelligence purposes would be a further advantage...

The meeting site is well guarded - both Borokov and Al-Tabari have brought men to protect them

Rainbow is poised to strike behind a low ridgeline - they spring into action, virtually wiping out Borokov's squad behind the walls beyond

Al-Tabari's followers grab him and rush him out of the building, trying to avoid straying into the arcs of fire of the Rainbow fire support group 

Another group of Al-Tabari's men take cover in the upper floor of a house - and send well aimed fire down at the Rainbow team. The team leader takes a hit, blasted by an RPG round

Borokov's wasn't born yesterday! A team he'd sent out to patrol for any incursion has rushed back to the sound of battle and inflicts some casualties on the Rainbow team above

As night falls, the other Rainbow team rushes across the open ground to catch their targets before they can slip away. The advance doesn't go well for them, as three of their number are hit

Rainbow's body armour and expert medical training meant that those casualties weren't serious.
As Borokov's remaining men bundle into the APC, Rainbow assault it, taking Borokov prisoner.

It's all for nought though, as Al-Tabari has escaped...

That was it, despite wiping the floor with the opponents, Rainbow's failure to keep their main target 'Al-Tabari' in focus led to mission failure.

This was certainly a success, quite a few people have expressed regrets that they didn't get a chance to play, so I must look to run a sequel soon...