The Painted Thumb

One of my goals for 2016 is to complete a Mid-War US Rifle Company in time for the Mid-War FoWSA tournament on July 6th. My list will be a 1700pt US Rifle Company from the North Africa book. I've been documenting my progress as I've been painting and assembling each unit. The Field Artillery Battery with M2A1 105mm Howitzers is completed. I used a the Battlefront box set for this unit. It includes 1 Command Carbine Team, 1 Staff Team, 1 Observer Carbine Team, 1 Jeep, and 4 M2A1 105mm Howitzers. This was a really fun build. The box set was priced very high ($75). But, it is a critical component of virtually any US Army list in the game, so there is no avoiding it. The set came with pre-styled bases for the howitzers and the staff team. It was a nice perk and added some realism to the unit. For the Observer team, I found a fallen tree limb from my backyard, cut it to size and glued it to the base. In 15mm, the twig becomes a thick log to serve as improvised cover.

Blake runs a monthly Saga Night at our FLGS. This month, the attendance was light. I showed up and so did Martin. He brought along his own collection of armies. I have not painted my Anglo-Saxon force as of yet. Instead, I used a group of Lord of the Rings figures as a stand-in for a Welsh army. Initial Setup Initial forces Anglo-Danes Standard Warlord Monk advisor 8x Hearthguards w/ axes 8x Warriors 8x Warriors 12x Levies =======7 Saga Dice Welsh Standard Warlord 6x Hearthguard 5x Hearthguard Banner Bearer 8x Warriors 8x Warriors 12x Levies =======6 Saga Dice (I now realize that I should have been rolling 7 Saga dice) We chose to play the Clash of Warlords scenario. Martin setup his warriors and levies in a tight group in the right side. His warlord and monk advisor started right behind them, with the group of 8 Hearthguard bringing up the rear. On my side of the map, I spread out my units. I was hoping to push my troops to around the flank so I could draw

Carl and Wes showed up at the weekly LSHM Tuesday game night ready to play some Team Yankee. I have been looking forward to playing this game for a long time now. Carl had about 75 points of Soviets, Wes brought about 75 points of US troops The scenario was called "Meeting Engagement". It was a simple smash and grab scenario with two objectives per side laid out on each side of the table. The forces consisted of the following: USA Soviet Infantry and Carriers M113 APC platoon w/M47 Dragon team BMP-2 platoon M113 APC platoon 2x Bradley AFV w/chain gun Anti-Aircraft M48 Chapparral SAM launcher 2x SA-13 SAM launchers ZSU-23-4 "Shilka" Tanks 2x M1 Abrams MBT 5x T-72 tanks 2x M1 Abrams MBT 5x T-72 tanks Artillery 4x M109 Howitzer 4x 2S1 M-1974 Carnation M113 observer BMP1 Observer Anti-Tank Vehicles M901 TOW vehicle platoon M901 TOW vehicle platoon Rotary Aircraft 2x Hind helicopter Fixed Wing Aircraft 2x SU-25 Frogfoot Wes ran the US side; C