Coffee Table Diorama of The Alamo

A little war to go with your coffee?

Looking for that special something to spruce up the family room?  Want to instill a bit of history and tradition into your happy home?  Wife just skipped town and you're finally free tackle the interior decorating yourself?  Well what you need is a full blown Battle of The Alamo diorama inside your new wicked cool custom coffee table.

 Tom with his pride and joy.

Although originally posted by Tom Young on his blog Tides of War and even featured in the news section of Wargames Illustrated #310, I just had to pass along this amazing piece of furniture and miniature diorama.  This amazing labor of love by Tom measures 42" x 62" and includes 1400 15mm miniatures.

From Tom's blog post:

"I tried to capture the final glory the Texans had in the battle, and not focus so much on the slaughter that came after. The date is March 6th, 1836 about 5:45 am or close to. The battle ended around 6:00 am or there about. I had them standing their ground outside of the long barracks before they pulled back into the fall back positions located inside of the long barracks. This area of the battle is where most of the vicious hand to hand combat took place."

These pics are but a tease of the incredible 74 photos found on the Tides of War blog site.  I've kept this post brief on purpose so not to steal any of Tom's well deserved thunder.  So be sure to check out the wonderful eye candy as well as ALL of the details right HERE.

"Remember the Alamo!"

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Der Feldmarschall is getting more Social

The last few weeks I've been trying to get back into the blogger groove with a few posts that will hopefully lead to more regular updates and hopefully the return (and creation) of certain weekly features (hint, hint).  At the same time I've been making more time to get around to visit and support all your lovely blogs once again as well (Sorry about my absence).

While that's been going on I've also taken steps to more closely tie in my Google+ account and also create a Twitter account that's directly associated with Der Feldmarschall and my gaming interests.  My hope is to not only pass on updates from my own blog, but use these accounts to help support my fellow bloggers by giving more exposure to their fine posts as well.

Also I'm excited to use them to share news and information that probably doesn't warrant its own blog post, but interesting enough (to me at least) to pass along.  Of course the final result is more social exchanges with my fellow gamers, hobbyists, bloggers, etc. which is really the point to all this and the most fun.  :-)

Question:  I haven't totally connected this blog and replaced my Blogger profile with my Google+ account, but I'd like to hear from those of you that have.  Why or why not??

In the future I'd even like to incorporate my YouTube account and try out some videos, but one step at a time for now.  I have to save some time to paint!  Anyway, enough blabbing, below are the addresses to my Google+ and Twitter accounts.  I'd appreciate it if you'd give me a "follow."  Thanks!

https://twitter.com/DerFeldmarschal

https://plus.google.com/+JasonMeyers17

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Venegence is almost at hand! - Sam Mustafa's Blücher

As fans of Sam Mustafa's rule sets will know, his addition of Blücher to the HONOUR series has been in the works for quite some time.  To those a little less familiar, he has written a number of well received Horse and Musket era rule books including:  Grande Armée, Might and Reason, Lasalle, Maurice, and Longstreet.  Or just check out his website HERE.

I believe Blücher was in development even before or alongside Lasalle, and originally intended to be the next release in the series.  Something caused Sam to go back to the drawing board and scrap the original version.  Even though Maurice and Longstreet were released in recent years, Blücher, like the great man himself, refused to stay down for long.

So we now know Blücher is set to be released sometime in 2015 as the next game in the HONOUR series. Each of Sam's games have had some sort of "gimmick" (for lack of a better word) that set them apart from other period rule sets. I'm not sure what will be Blücher's "thing," but the newsletter described it as "the game of great battles in the Napoleonic Wars." Perhaps it will be set at an operational level or two higher than Lasalle, but the biggest clue might be in the cards... Unit Cards will be included that can be used to play the game entirely without miniatures.

We'll have to wait until 2015 to see what the real deal is. Until then here's a few snippets from the newsletter (below) and more lengthy introductory PDF can be found HERE.

Napoleon Beware:
Blücher is Coming

The New Game From Sam Mustafa

Sam Mustafa Publishing, creator of Grande Armée, Might and Reason, Lasalle, Maurice, and Longstreet, is delighted to announce the next game in the HONOUR series: Blücher, the game of great battles in the Napoleonic Wars.

Blücher will be available in 2015.

Blücher is a tabletop game that can be played with miniatures based to any system, including Grande Armée and Lasalle. (As in G.A., a single large base of figures, of any size, is one "unit" in the game.)
 
As with all HONOUR games, Blücher's scales and unit sizes will flex to meet the needs of your collection and space.

Alternately, Blücher may also be played with Unit Cards, an ideal solution if you don't yet have any Napoleonic miniatures, or if you want to save time and space. Each card represents one game unit. The HONOUR website will provide free sample cards and a free card template for Do-It-Yourself scenario creators. Professionally printed sets of cards will also be available for sale, with all the units you will need for a famous campaign.
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Battles in Middle Earth - Of Men, Dwarves, & Elves

Awhile back Eric and I got together for another Lord of the Rings showdown (hoedown?) between Lord Balin's Dwarves and the horses forces of Rohan led by Eomer.  If I remember correctly this was my first game using "The Hobbit SBG" rules, but without any monsters etc. the changes were not that noticeable.  Unfortunately due to the time lapse, this report is more about pretty pictures than battle details.  :-(

We set up a creek with some ruins and placed four objectives for a game using the Domination scenario.  Rohan was not alone however.  This time Eric brought some elves led by Haldir and the wizard Radagast.  The Elves would provide a solid defense of the river and their held objective beyond.  Radagast, when not fleeing from Dwarf Rangers was able to put some timely Binding spells on Balin to help Haldir and Company survive the Dwarf advance.

Deployment plus the first turn had allowed the Dwarves to quickly seize one objective and be within reach of a second.  I'm not sure of the points level (600-750?), but the already sturdy Dwarves would also lean on the strength in numbers (30+) to see them through.  As mentioned above, the Elves were able to grab the far left objective, leaving only the objective located in the ruins on the far right up for grabs.

Eomer and his Riders made a strong push against the Dwarf held objective on the right, and things were going quite well for the first few turns as Rohan held Priority.  The third Dwarf warband split sending aid to Balin and against Eomer.

Eomer split off some of his Riders to support the Elves, but soon felt the tide turn as the Dwarves started to gain the priority and men started to fall under their axes.  The Elves aided by Radagast had no problem holding the river, so Eomer's support ended up being unnecessary and fatally weakened his own attack.

All the Riders together might have quickly overwhelmed the defending Dwarves and then been able to split to support the Elves and try to grab the objective beyond in the ruins.  It was not to be, as the defense 7 Dwarves together with priority on their side became a juggernaut that would inevitably put to ruin all that stood before them.

To wrap up, here are a few shots of Eric's new (back then anyway) recruits.  To me this is one of the things that really adds to the enjoyment of this game and others like it.  With the warband structure to the armies, it's quite easy to whip up an new hero/monster and/or warband over the course of the week or weekend leading up to the battle.  Eric used our upcoming battle to motivate him into painting something new, and I was nicely surprised by the great new minis and also able to face some new foes.  Definitely a win-win.  :-)
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New Swag - Astra Militarum style

Imperial Guard!!

Way back when I first started this blog I was working on my Mordian Imperial Guard Army.  With the release of new "Astra Militarum" codex yesterday there's no better way and time to kick start things again.  I might cover my thoughts on the new book in a later post, but I will say although much of the changes seem more like a step sideways, I'm still left pretty excited.  Time to tweak and reorder the army list and wonder what other changes 7th Edition will do to my army.  Meanwhile the army is very much in the construction phase as I paint on some Prussians for my Napoleonic project (See below).

I was fortunate enough to get a deck of the order cards before they all sold out, and I also picked up a box of the new "stormtroopers."  I might build some Scions in the future, but for now this was purely a bits purchase.  The order cards will really come in handy as not only do you avoid wasting time looking in the book over and over again, but they should also help you to remember to issue the damn things in the first place.  ;-)

Sorting Mordians...

Around the time the 40k Apocalypse rules were released last year, I acquired a bunch more ground pounders to eventually add some descent bulk to my army eventually.  I also made some other plans and purchases that if successful, hope to make my force even more unique, but more on that some other time...  For now it's time to get an initial 1500-2000 point force put together and painted.

 Gaunt's Ghosts now in stereo!

Nothing speeds along a project than a good audio book,and although I've already read the book, listening to Salvation Reach should be right what the doctor ordered.  I've got a little stock pile of audio books on my hard drive, but I'm a sucker for a good Imperial Guard novel (and many other non-Space Marine related stuff and things).

 

Inspiration the old fashion way... you have to read it!

GW's Black Library doesn't do a good job promoting anything that isn't in power armor or involved in the Horus Hersey, but every once in a while they sneak out few pleasant surprises.  I'm a big fan of all the Gaunt's Ghosts novels, but last year saw the release of some interesting IG works in Iron Guard and Baneblade.  Right now I'm in the middle of Double Eagle an older aviation GG's spinoff that reads much like the movie The Battle of Britain (Good stuff).  I already tore through Iron Guard, and really looking forward to Baneblade as i got a taste for that sort of thing in Angel of Fire.  I might just throw up a quick review of some of these if the spirit takes me.  For now, they're all worth a read if you're into things Imperial Guard.

Prussian to get painted!

Back on the painting desk are my 1813 Prussians, but for more detailed blabbing about that and my new Andrea Color paints check out my latest post over at Immer Vorwärts!
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