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A few more characters done.

I still haven't finished the second limo, but everything else is done. Spent most of my time for two weeks painting a single figure for a discord painting comp which I have posted below this entry.

I've kind of stayed out of the Slow Grow thread as i usually go through fairly extreme bouts of hobbying, and doing nothing, so i didn't want to jinx the strides i was making - but i've reached a kind of lull after getting so close to the finish line that this is where i'm going to try keeping myself on task. so - i want to finish the basing for my Warhammer Quest 95 collection. the heroes (plus a handful of bonuses) are done: just leaves me with the monsters: I plan to paint their bases black (i didn't do so with the heroes, but i wish i had) and then some Base Ready Basing (probably City Rubble, though some might get Volcanic Soil), and then sealing it all with the sealant. I do wish i hadn't based the Snotlings and Rats (and maybe even the Minotaurs), but i don't think i can get those off again now. Anyway - hoping this will motivate me to finish the project, now that i'm so close to the line. 🙂

The rest of the Summers family done.

Mer-man, Evil-Lyn, Beast Man, Teela and Ram Man.

The name is Gambit, mon ami. Remember it Also, Logan

Well, just as i had hope - getting the models (and materials) out the other night, even though i didn't have time then and there to base them, gave me the motivation to base them over the last couple of nights. Here's all the models in the storage box: As you can see, i decided against basing the bats. I did dunk one in the basing dirt, and i just thought it looked a little naff. And some pics of individual models - Heroes (plus a couple of other Chaos models i painted recently, just to balance the image): Minotaurs and Orcs: Goblins and Snotlings (sadly missing one Snotling 😞) : Skaven and Rats: seems i forgot to take a pic of the Bats or Spiders, but since they didn't require basing, weren't part of this Slow Grow thing. 😉 But all this does mean that my Warhammer Quest 95 collection is now complete. As i said, i am missing one Snotling, and one Gate, but the prices of these aren't worth it, imo, so i doubt i'll ever fill those gaps, but i do hope that GW will add the Heroes i'm missing to the Made-to-Order list when they get to those armies for The Old World - so far, they did the Bretonnian Knight, but they haven't yet announced plans for The Troll Slayer in the Dwarfs army release, or any others. Finger's crossed though.

Finished my first large scale model today. A change of pace from the usual, but super happy with how she turned out. She'd been sitting on my desk half finished for a long time, so I'm glad I finally got around to finishing her. Part of an effort to try and finish the myriad of projects I have under way. Planning on taking better / proper pics with my DLSR and lightbox at some stage, hopefully soon.

Got distracted from the tomb kings again... But my slann are ready for some blood bowl sevens on Sunday!

My latest batch of Texan Scrunts, with the paint still wet but it is before the deadline! Just needs the bases flocked. Photos done with the figures still on the holders I use for painting. This squad has red hat bands as their unit distinction. Bases are numbered for use in games such as Necromunda.

Finally put the final touches on these five. Hopefully will be able to finish more models this month

Nice work Jyggdrasil. Feels good to finish something right? For me I managed to smash out my ACW lads a bit earlier (sleep was sacrificed tho) so now have some time to think on what for next month. Not the prettiest but they look veteran and good enough for tabletop and I had fun putting static grass, tufts and train clump foliage which makes ordinary painted fig pop a bit. That makes 56 more rebs now added to my force. Probably a match for my union force now . Only 2 boxes of Perry ACW infantry and 1 of artillery to go lol. And I am not going to talk about 20 odd boxes of War of the roses, WW2 and Napoleonic Perrys I have in the shed - nope not going there. Sanity check due I suspect. Good luck for everyone and I hope you get some paint on your models. Can't always hit your goals but enjoy when you get the time. Its a great hobby (bit of a time sink tho). take care chaps / chapettes

Done - Happy CBR Day 😉

Bit late to start this month so see how I go but I did do a bit of gluing and base coating black for some Perry 28mm Confederate artillery so got that out of the way. You get 18 crew in a box with 3 caissons and a bunch of cannon barrels (like 12). SO I will be a cheapskate and go with 4 crew per gun and I know I have 2 spare painted somewhere so that will give me enough for 5 crews. I also found a local supplier (Battlefield Accessories) who make some cool MDF artillery caissons for all the spare barrels the Perry's provide (3 in a pack and I order 3 packs so going to have quite a few) plus I got some 50x100mm bases to put them on. I am aiming to at least finish off one gun and 4 crew given we are nearly half way thru the month already. Good luck to everyone for this month. looks like plenty going on and a lot done already. Happy hobbying.

As a stretch goal, I'll also add the 3 remaining Advanced Heroquest heroes - which I had made a start on whenever I had the right paint out, and I remembered them: Not really sure why I had these, as I never had AHQ, but I must've picked them up somewhere. I did finish the set by picking up the Fighter a few months ago when I was ordering from Troll Trader and it was there for only £5 (no shield - but I had plenty from my 90s Warhammer days), but I knocked him out when painting the Bretonnians:

Had to happen eventually? Have also finished Magik, sibling to Colossus. I feel she looks better in person than in the photos though

Colossus done and dusted. Working on his sister, Magik, atm

Asked my kid which model to paint next and he said Wolverine. So I managed to finish him in one sitting

Many thanks for following through to a conclusion on this project! I've been reading along since early days and found it inspiring to see such a large project being tackled. Well done! I especially want to thank you for writing about the various issues encountered along the way. I want to attempt a couple of big projects in future, and your progress reports have provided guidance on pitfalls to avoid and what works. I suspect you have saved future me from a lot of frustration and so greatly increased my overall chances of project success. Thank you!

No surprises - More Battletech for April. Another 3 stands of infantry and one mech. All will be painted in the same back and red scheme I used last month.

It's a miss from me this month. I started well, and got unit fillers done early in the month, then I've made magnetic trays and magnetised all the infantry. And since then I've been playing Skull and Bones, and working on blood bowl Slann. And this weekend I'm finally back to work in the games room after sufficient physio to let me do plastering again.

For the past few weeks I have been sorting out and rebasing my 25mm Napoleonics. Many years of buying bits and bobs, including numerous second hand lots, had resulted in a jumble of boxes and bags stashed around the study and the shed of holding. So far it has coalesced into 14 large plastic storage boxes, with the remainder sitting on shelves awaiting rebasing before going into about 4 more storage boxes. I knew I had a big French army, but was pleasantly surprised to discover I had just enough for playable armies for British, Prussians and Russians as well. Now I know what gaps I still need to fill, so can direct purchases instead of just saying "Oooh, bargain!" and buying random stuff. Much of the collection needs to be repaired and painted. Finally I can get back to painting figures instead of looking at them and trying to match them up into specific historical units.

haven't started yet on the Bretonnian Knight that originally came out for Warhammer Quest, but i have knocked off a few other models in my old/middlehammer collection. Grumlok and Gazbag from the Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning MMO Limited Edition: Tomb King i ordered in the MTO period because i wanted a cool undead Egyptian: i gave the shield a wash with a white wash to white-line the decoration, which looks great IRL, but i can't get a good pic of it – but basically i took a 1:1:1 ratio of Apothecary White Contrast Paint : Water : Airbrush Flow Improver, then went back over the bird in blacks and reds. and finally, a couple of the very first models i ever bought, as part of my Chaos Army for 4th/5th edition: I've also got a couple more that i found after priming all these guys, so will have to see how motivated i am once all these other Oldhammer models are finished. i really need to sort the basing for all this stuff... the majority of what i've done this year is for Warhammer Quest, but i just can't land on a basing theme that i like... might just get some rubble basing materials and take the easy route. But i'm also not sure if i'll try get an Orc and Goblin army together for The Old World, so that Grumlok would make for a good Warboss (he's not glued to that base, so i could get him on a 30mm square.)

Seems I have more to show (or at least a tiny bit). The next addition to the Eldar army is a unit of Dark Reapers. Now I must confess that five of these models were painted many, many years ago (in excess of fifteen I would guess). So I needed to try my best to match another two to the rest of the unit as I am still all these years later quite taken with the paint scheme of these guys. The two "new" recruits are the two with no 'rocks' on their bases, they are on the far left and right in this picture. They aren't perfect reproductions, but they are close. Funny note, the new Reaper on the right I had the body, but no launcher, so with a bit of greenstuff I made a mould off the other launcher and then used a bit of polyester resin to cast a replacement for the missing one. It holds up to scrutiny pretty well, but up close the detail is a tiny bit 'soft'. Of all the variations of the Dark Reapers that have been available, I think these are definitely the ones I like the most. I just think they embody the sinister and dark aspect of the Dark Reapers backstory better than a lot of the other options. You can see how old these models are as I haven't washed the dust that they have accumulated off of them, it is very obvious in this photo from the back. My next squad for the Eldar is my all time most used Aspect, Striking Scorpions. I remember back in the day they would almost be the first unit I would include in an army (may have been that they for a long time were the only Aspect I owned). It got so bad for my regular Imperial Guard opponent he asked me to take a break from the Scorpions. I have yet to decide if I will do a total repaint, modify the existing scheme or just do some paint repair and call it a day. I may take a photo of where they are currently at and see what peoples opinion is. Thanks for reading.

It has been far, far too long since I popped through and made some rambling comments with some random pictures to accompany them. So I managed to motivate myself to wander in and time to throw some randomness around.... I have been plodding along with painting, nowhere near as much as I would have liked. But life has gotten very busy and I have been allowing computers to suck up too much of my free time. First up in the finished pile is some Dire Avengers for the Eldar army that is currently in progress. I have gone with a pretty traditional scheme of blue and white, although the Craftworld colours of green and purple have made themselves known just so you don't forget where these noble warriors hail from. I didn't have a suitable weapon (or shimmershield) for the Exarch, so a short rummage in the bits box and a few odd pieces of metal and I have a passable setup, probably not as useful as other Exarch options, but due to the short range of Shuriken weapons it is likely they will end up in combat eventually. I have another squad of Avengers in this army and I am debating reversing the colour scheme to differentiate the squads, but I am also wary since there is already so much colour in the army that it could be even more distracting and all that white could be horrible. Glad to have finished them, hope to have the Dark Reapers finished very soon (I did only need to paint 2 from bare metal and clean up the other 5 so hope to have another update soon). Onto something more random, my first attempt at a Battlemech. I call this Catapult 'The Bumblebee' I wanted to play around with painting it slightly differently to the standard base/shade/highlight, it looks a little rougher in the close ups than it does in the hand, but overall quite happy with the result. I tossed around painting the 2 lances that I have (from the starter box) in two different schemes. But I have always liked the idea of a Mechwarrior mercenary company after my love affair with Mech Commander so have settled on the idea to paint each mech as a unique scheme to show the Mercenary's are not really unified in their efforts. I started with very little plan for this model, apart from the initial thoughts of yelllow and he kind of developed from there. Not as much black as I was originally intending, but I figure there is enough to provide details. I figure that the ostentatious paint job doesn't matter as the victims of the Catapult rarely actually get a look at it before they are bombarded by a hail of missiles. Next up I think I will do the locust, but can't decide if I should do it green or brown... Thanks for reading.

How many points is the league going up to? Looks about as brutal as I remember Warhammer being.

"Never say never..." I may be all Napped out with Borodino but there's a host of other battles during the Russian invasion. Planning a smaller engagement - Battle of Swolna (11 August) - fought between the Russian I Corps (Wittgenstein) and a Franco-Bavarian force commanded by Oudinot - French II Corps (Oudinot) and Bavarian VI Corps (St-Cyr). The hard part is already done: having sufficient figures. Will conduct the game mid-year and post batrep for it. Cheers.

Appreciated the feedback from yourself and others; it really did matter to a solo gamer like myself over the life of this project. Yep, the modelling bench can become quite loaded at times. Here's hoping you get through your bucket list of interests. All I can add is keep plugging away, one foot in front of the others. It's never a race unless you make it so. Take care.

Sweet but ouch with the Westphalian cuirassiers bearing down from high ground. That's gotta hurt right? Good luck with the the ECW stuff. A period I am interested in but don't know a lot about. Too many temptations and I am trying to finish stuff I know about and some Kings of War fantasy. Plus am fighting my 3d printer currently and its winning (damn thing). So engulfed in fantasy currently but I do love me some historical action (got lot of ACW 3d printed and Hastings 1066 10mm figs to paint) . Sounds good, take a break from Nappy's but please do come back again later. I have found its an era that keeps piquing my interest over the years. History is a very rich source of hobby entertainment with some fascinating stuff out there. Got to get to my Belgian brigade of AB 15-18mm fig from waterloo painted. Only been about 5 years lol. Take care out there, happy gaming, enjoy what life offers and thanks heaps for the posts. I think a fair of us read them but not everyone feels comfortable commenting (unlike me lol but it took a while to do so). I really do appreciate the effort you put in to do your games and share with us unwashed masses haha! cheers G

Lol. Karpov got caught up with the fleeing unit he was attached to. It was not really an issue if you think about how fickle light cavalry were in those times especially given they were confronting Westphalian cuirassiers bearing down from high ground. He was too far away to flee to the one remaining Cossack unit anyway, not that it mattered in the end as they also fled as Rozniecki's brigade bore down on them. Ney just doing what Ney alway did throughout his military life - being brave to the point of obstinacy; he chose to gamble when he ordered his Corps cavalry (lights) to charge the Russian Lifeguards, and lost unfortunately. It happens. As for speaking French, it might interest you to learn that many English words in our vocabulary have their origin in French. Blame it on Wiliam the Conqueror therefore and not Ney. Lol. Fortunately the group I am now hanging out with have given me plenty to ponder away from the Napoleonic period. As for the collection? I honestly have not given any thought other than issue a hefty sigh of relief it's over, and start packing away so I can reclaim my Mancave again. But the entire 1812 campaign is there to choose from - Borodino was just one of several major engagements that happened as Napoleon strolled about the Russian landscape admiring its vistas and pleasant weather. It's just a matter of switching flags on the Russian units as required. Will contemplate a follow up action at my leisure. But not right now...I'm all Napped out at the momet. I have a new interest - English Civil War. Just ordered my New Model Army (1645 onward). 25mm Hinchliffe. And it's on its way from the UK; it should be here in a couple of weeks. With the personalities ordered from the US, I should have a decent enough smallish army of New Model Army veterans ready to smack a few Royalists around the model earhole. Take care.

Bloomin' impressive for sure. what a great narrative for this campaign. So much effort put into it from a hobby perspective and yes years of effort. I salute you sir. Never tried Solo but it is appealing to me as I get closer to retirement (well ok, still at least 6+ years away but still unless lotto comes to my resuce lol) and most of my gaming buddies are a lot older. Karpov ran away ........noooo. And Ney copped his whack ....again........nooooo.. Ney need to hang on to screw up Quatre Bras and Waterloo. You may have just changed history so much we suddenly all start speaking French! Sure you will have great memories of the effort and ebb and flow of this refight. T'was a monumental effort for sure and I thing very impressive. You can always use all the painted naps minis for other battles down the track when you have had a break from Naps stuff. Thanks again for sharing. I really should finish off my AB Belgians I got 4 and a bit years ago (on a positive I did paint up my Brit heavy cavalry brigades)

Thanks for the continued interest. I know I would never have followed through to its current conclusion if not for the continued support and interest shown over the YEARS for this ballooned project. As a solo gamer (primarily), the pitfalls are much the same as multi-player games but with a different emphasis, if that makes sense. And it's the obstacles and failures that add colour to your triumphs, as you well know. Some of the main solo problems I've endured getting this happening: Rules. Are they adaptable, ie is tweaking possible without making it into a house rules adaptation? You have to weigh this up carefully. I've used FoGN/FoGN2 now for over nine years (on and off) and I am accustomed to it. I have adapted myself TO USING IT rather alter its main design tenets even though, for a great many others, it's one of the worst Nap rules out. In other words, as you already know, stick with rules you choose - warts and all! Finding a main reference source to centre your project soldiery is crucial, ie OOB, commander's names. Without it, what are you aiming for and who are you referencing? Have you heard Nafzinger? Famed US author who notated most historical OOBs from recorded history (where available). Numerous online sites provide them for free. Period sites also have a wealth of information that needs filtering to your needs. Books (still relevant these days). Many OOP editions are still useful. Historical research sites. Most establish museums and collections have online libraries. Local historical societies also offer good source material. Primary sources (if you can hold of them) are a go-to. Their distance from the actual event is useful insofar as they provide details often overlooked or ignored by modern interpreters; the closer to the event is great but be warned that analysis will be distorted/biased. Scaling historical numbers (talking tens and hundreds of thousands here) down to manageable tabletop size relates back to the rules you will use. Stick to it once sorted out. You can always adjust your figures numbers to suit a change to the scaling system, not the other way round as that can lead to gameplay dissatisfaction or distortion. Gaming table size. I used my mancave only because I knew I would be leaving the game set up for a VERY long time and I needed some place where they could not be disturbed. But large-scale projects considerations are very important. Accessing the middle of the table is often forgot when designing game table. Maintaining a battle record of the game is handy if that sort of things moves you. I keep records as it helps improve my English literacy. Long ago, I only communicated in grunts and clobbering. Now I can articulate at a Year 10 level. 😁 Be flexible in your approach with the overall aims of the project. Nothing is written in stone. If it doesn't work, toss it. Finding solutions has ALWAYS been part of the enjoyment I get from tabletop wargaming over the decades I've been involved. And my numerous blogsite posts attest to this course change. To misphrase a popular cartoon show, "...be the water, flow where it goes, wherever that may be...." Wishing you great success in your future plans for any large-scale game.

I'm switching up my hobby focus to Marvel Crisis Protocol. I finished Cyclops yesterday. This month I'm hoping to get several more xmen painted

I'm putting the Texan Scrunts aside for the next three months. Younger daughter wants to put on a miniatures game of goblin geese at an upcoming game day being run by her roleplaying club. The previous game theme of goblin geese running riot at King Arthur's court was a big hit. This time, the goblin geese are travelling the Egyptian Underworld. (Obviously these are in no way normal geese, apart from their attitude.) So, I am now assembling and painting the Stygian Barge by Reaper Miniatures. It's a lot of grey plastic with many parts and did not come with any build instructions. The pile of parts does not photograph well, so instead I am providing a search engine link to some built examples so you can see what I have got myself into. https://www.bing.com/images/search?q=reaper+miniatures+stygian+barge&qpvt=reaper+miniatures+stygian+barge&form=IQFRML&first=1 The model was one of the big items from a Reaper Kickstarter some years ago. Fortunately a Reaper fan has posted a helpful build video, which has already saved me plenty of time and frustration. To accompany this monster model, I have a box-load of ancient Egypt themed miniatures from Dark Fable Miniatures, with the range now sold by Dragon Bait Miniatures. There were five Kickstarters for those ancient Egypt models and I went big on some of them, including ones for the Underworld. The range has some historically attired but not safe for modern Human Resources figures, so be careful when browsing. I have already painted some and have no idea how many, or which ones, I will try to paint over the next three months. https://www.dragon-bait-minis.com/product-category/miniatures/dark-fable/ancient-egypt/ I already have plenty of Egyptian skeletons from Eureka Miniatures painted up, plus rather a lot of mummies from various companies. Some Anubis Warriors from Eureka Miniatures will be in an upcoming buy. (I already have some, but they are multibased for Kings of War.) I already have a set of the Egyptian walls painted up. https://www.eurekamin.com.au/index.php?cPath=87_126_144_137 Just to round out the fun, I have plenty of Mage Knight fantasy monsters and characters. They had an entire set that was based on adventuring teams trying to loot a monster-filled Egyptian pyramid dungeon. One of the models is close enough to Thoth, and combined with Ammut the Devourer from Dark Fable, those geese might be honking at more than they can intimidate. 🙂

I still have clan invasion stuff waiting for painting... Maybe this year. This month I will base and undercoat the tomb kings.

Changed the conditions for this refight. Planned for twenty-three turns but at the present rate of commitment, it would be 2028 before I finally finish...or expect to. The new victory conditions require either side to gain at least three of the five Game Victory Points objectives. Each side have different objectives. More about it on my blogsite. At Utitsa, Tuchkov's defence has collapsed rapidly. And Tuchkov. commander of the III Corps, himself becomes a casualty caught in the pursuit by Polish light cavalry as they break Foch's grenadiers. Elsewhere the French cavalry are racing up the unguarded Old Post Road completing one of the new Game Victory Points (GVP) objectives; the other, as mentioned, is eliminating Tuchkov. The French only need one more to claim outright victory. Unknowingly (at least until I remembered) the French already have their third GVP when Karpov (commander of the Cossacks on this flank) retreated off the table two turns back with his Cossacks. Now only one cohesive formation remains but its fate is inevitable given it's surrounded on three sides; retreating deeper into the woods will likely see them clash with French amassing to assault the fleches. The Russians start the turn with three units of infantry but lose two in quick succession thanks to the Polish cavalry. Stroganov's division is lost but he still is active while Konovnitsyn's lone infantry unit is all that remains of Tuchkov's corps. On the main table itself, at the fleches, the French have consolidated their hold on two of the three fleches. They soon realise there's a third and are now preparing to attack it. Fortunately for them, it's empty within reach. The Russian Lifeguard cavalry, meanwhile, are causing the French all kinds of concern as their presence is preventing the French from pushing forward to attack Semenovskaya village that is still defended by Starvitsky's infantry who are aided by half of Voyeikov's Jagers. The ruined village is now serving as Bagration's battle HQ. The French heavy cavalry of Nansouty and Montbrun are too far away to do anything so Ney orders his Corps cavalry (all lights) to charge the Russian elites. It's a sacrificial gamble on Ney's part. And ot fails badly as the Russian Lifeguards easily deal to the French/German lights breaking one formation and causing the other to retreat in a panic. Unfortunately the LIfeguards are unable to finish the job halting short of the retreating French/Germans. And as the defeated Corps cavalry flee, that's when Ney fell. Yes, the Bravest of the Brave becomes the first major commander casualty giving the surprised Russians their first GVP of the game. Two more to go though. It was at this point that the game is interrupted by an urgent family matter. But the French had done enough to win the refight based on the revised objectives. Next batrep will either be an English Civil War one or another Canvas Eagles dogfight. But no more Napoleonics for a while. Cheers.

I'm looking forward to my Mercenaries Kickstarter stuff to arrive

Now that I have the miniatures for a Pig Tickler Tournament I will be needing a play field. The rules say you should go with a 60cm diameter 'oval' or 'square' area but anything really goes! Being a 'Pig Stickler' for detail I have decided to go with the 60cm diameter circle! Having seen while researching the Pig Tickler rules another player make some cricket sight screens presuming the game would be played on cricket ovals I decided that was an idea worthy of use! I scratch built two sight screens and an old fashion small cricket ground style scoreboard and sourced some suitable picket fencing on eBay! Pig Ticklers in 'the thick of it' on the hallowed grounds of Bacon Field! The overall look of the Oval and gaming components. See more pictures and details of the Oval accessories on Captain Darling's Blog... TSOG Blog Link

Update on the refight.... Turn 9 saw a major event which perhaps precipitated a false assumption made on my part in terms of forward projection. Let me explain... The French turn began ordinarily enough. The situation at Utitsa was becoming dire for Tuchkov whose forces were being whittled down by the combined efforts of Poniatowski ably supported by Latour-Maubourg's entire IV Cavalry Reserve Corps. The remaining cavalry, remnants of Karpov's Cossack force, simply melted away into the Russian mists although a couple of units bravely tried to find conventionally, leaving Tuchkov to hold a ground with only three units remaining, one of them on the verge of breaking. Tuchkov was slowly being cornered, forced back into the woodlands north of Utitsa. This now left the way open for the Allied force to exploit along the Old Post road where the French could then seriously threaten the Russian rear and secondary defensive line without too much hassle or intereference. Only a militia force armed mostly with pikes and old muskets stood in their way and they would be no match for Latour-Maubourg's experienced Allied cavalry. Further north, the French assaults on the fleches brought gradual success. They ousted the last remaining defenders there and now began occupying the hard-won fortifications. At the redoubt however the situation proved different. The Russians fiercely stood their ground defending each assault with gusto and skill. But by the end of the French turn, combat was still joined (you can't oust defenders of a redoubt unless they're broken so the rules state) and yielded mixed success as they clung on to their position but losing another Russian unit/formation breaking and fleeing the defence leaving the outnumbered defenders there isolated. North, at Gorki, combat there was also fierce with both sides giving and receiving without quarter. And enduring as it too proved a stalemate for now. Perhaps it would change when the Russians enjoyed their turn was the forlorn hope? But it was in the area between the redoubt and Gorki that the greatest disaster befell the Russians. The area was tightly packed with many units/formations stationed there. Any sudden panic would have a disastrous impact. And this bad situation materialised as several front-line units broke triggering a domino effect in depth. When the tally was counted five infantry brigades, three cavalry brigades, and two artillery batteries worth disappeared as fast as I could remove them. I seriously believed the game was over at this stage. But the attrition differential told me otherwise. I would have to wait until the end of the Russian turn to properly determine if the game was indeed over as I expected. The Russian turn, like the start of the French turn, began innocuously enough. But this time the Russians decided to dig in and make a go of it. It began with Tuchkov who instead of withdrawing in good order chose to stand and fight. Much good it would do him though as he could not assault, and his shooting proved ineffective. But perhaps the surprising decision to stand and fight began the fortune reversal for the Russians. As a solo gamer, I gave Tuchkov three simple options: (1) stand and fight, (2) withdraw in good order, (3) flee. D6 roll: (1) - 6; (2) - 4,5; (3) - 1,2,3. To my surprise, "6" was rolled. Directly behind the fleches, v.Mecklenburg weathered the fire storm directed his way without too much hassle. Borozdin, his direct superior, thereby reshuffled the defensive line to better incorporate the newly arrived Guard units - two regiments of Guard infantry, two batteries of Guard artillery, and the Lifeguards part of the Guard cavalry. Borozdin II, commander of this Guard component, even chose to go on the offensive directing the Lifeguard cavalry charge an unsuspecting Westphalian light cavalry unit threatening Semenovskaya village. As predicted, the Germans broke upon meeting the heavy cavalry of the Lifeguards. Within Semenovskaya village Bagration was directing the few troops still stationed there. Sievers, now corps-less, attached himself the LIfeguard cavalry unit to give it direct command and add his leadership bonus for what he knew would eventuate. Three distinct French/Allied formations were in close proximity and ready to bear down on the valiant Guardsmen. And at the time of his act, the Guardsmen were the only cohesive cavalry force within a full movement turn of light cavalry (15"). At the redoubt, the Russians fiercely won the seesaw back-and-fro contest and pushed back repeated French assaults. Likewise, at Gorki, the Russians won out and broke St. Aubin's brigade. In the vacated space between the redoubt and Gorki the few remaining units left to Pahlen/Kreutz went on the offensive. But the lone assault attempted ended up badly as they smashed into prepared infantry squares. And retreated a fair ways back. But when the situation started looking like Tuchkov's plight over on the far left flank, help arrived. Firstly, Uvarov's 1st Reserve Cavalry Corps deployed behind the fleches and Semenovskaya village. Then Bagggavout, realising he wasn't going to make his luncheon date with Tuchkov, and perhaps moved by Raevsky's urgent plea for assistance, suddenly redirected his relief force to steer towards the fortification and "defend the redoubt at all cost!". Simultaneously, Osterman-Tolstoy's 4th Infantry Corps and Korf's 2nd Cavalry Corps also popped up behind Dokhturov's and Pahlen/Kreutz's beleagured line. Platov's Cossack remained in their original deployement watching and protecting the Russian far right. Anyhow, this situation means the Russians are not folding as easily as an origami sculpture. The arrival of Uvarov, Osterman-Tolstoy and Korf now gives the Russians who have now advanced the bulk of their uncommitted forces (still a few units remaining) a chance to re-establish their original defensive line. Or it delays the inevitable question simmering beneath the conscious awareness: Do the Russians abandon their temporary fortification on the lower ground and conduct a fighting withdrawl to reshape a secondary line of defence further east (as was done much later in the day historically) better using the higher ground and retake the Old Smolensk (Post) road? Any further major losses will break the Russians and leave Moscow open and unprotected. The third Russian army is too far away anyway. But I won't know until Turn 10 is played out. Cheers.

A few more terminators for the death guard. I think this might mark the end of painting infantry. I do have a few more dark imperium marines, but think this is probably enough. Next up will be a couple of dreadnoughts, a third party greater demon, then repainting some old death guard vehicles.

Yeah, they never do in these articles. I like the Tabletop Time channel, and they've been featured a few times, but it's always "Dave/Murray/Jenn of Its Tabletop Time", but no link to their channel/page. I was also actually surprised they just called him ZorpaZorp throughout, not Lachie. As an aside, he set up a separate chanell for his actual battle-reports - I think it's Zorphammer. It seems having battle reports on a hobby channel is a good way to destroy the metrics/algorithm. (I've seen several channels split them off like this.)

I love my 2 Tyrranofexes, they have never paid for themselves in a game, but I love big stompy bugs. Really like your paint scheme, the white skin in particular.