Christmas game progress

In between all the Christmas festivities I've managed to finish the trees, although I may need more but I think time will decide that one. I have created the crash site and given it a coat of paint, after waving it over a heater for a bit as the PVA glue still hadn't dried properly. All I need to do now is work out of I can hide the join without spoiling the paint job. Ideally I should have hidden the join before painting but I didn't notice it so much until I painted it. I've also had a go at laying out the table and discovered that the white sheet is a little see through. This isn't a problem and could actually be an advantage. I will now layout normal terrain underneath which darkens the sheet colour and may all details such as a stream to show through. I will be experimenting more with the terrain before I decide final layout.

The crash site. As you can see I solved the possible issue of 5 year old modeling clay by not using it.  Having checked the clay it is actually still OK. However while making the trees I noticed that the off cuts of insulation  looked like a crater which gave me the idea to have the impact in to a hill.

It hit here ..

.. and made a big hole

.... that scattered rock everywhere.

The trees. The pines had their bases sealed with PVA the others didn't. You can just about see that the sealed tree bases are whiter. I was going to respray the none sealed bases but now that I know the sheet will not be such a brilliant white the contrast will not be as great. In fact if I get the bases whiter then I'll actually make them stand out more rather than blend in.

Impact crater with paint job. I sprayed the exposed rock black then  rock outside of the crater grey then  the areas I wanted as snow white. All paint so far has been from aerosol cans from various manufacturers.

Cliff face at the rear on the impact.

Inside the crater you can just make out the beads I placed in side  that I'll use to attempt to make it look like the rock melted and is still bubbling.

 So what's still left to do:

• Layout board 
• Episode(s) titles to be decided
• Decide which episodes to play - now more confidently looking at 3 played in different sections of the board.
• Create cast lists for: UNIT, North Pole Rescue Rangers and Moon Nazi's. Most of this is currently in my head, such as names the true work is to marry these up with stats. 
• Decide on which event cards and gadgets to use. These are a must as they will be fun.
• Paint the sleigh pilot
• Finish painting the crash site.
• Inform chums what figures they need to bring and provide Episode write ups pre-game.
• Remember for health reasons not to forget any of the none wargaming tasks because you're having too much fun with the wargaming tasks.

Christmas game

I am currently in  the middle of planning the Christmas game to be played between Christmas and the New Year. I follow the tradition that this should be a fun game and something to get excited about. In my youth I've played big games such as 15mm Gettysburg using Fire and Fury rules or 20mm Arnhem or Stalingrad using Rapid Fire. Last year it was a 15mm WW2 game using Kampgruppe Normandy rules.This year I wanted a lighter tone.

I've enjoyed playing 7TV games this year, which are TV and film inspired games using the rules of the same name. I've actually mainly played the 7ombieTV variant and had great fun. So I started thinking along these lines. My other choice was a Secret of the Third Reich game, which I haven't played in a while and I've some newly painted figures for it. My chums equally have some newly painted figures and Chris has a unit of US flamethrowers, who although have been in action haven't fired a shot yet. We've also never played Secrets of the Third Reich on a large board with loads of terrain.

Discussing the fun we could have it was suggested that a 7TV game where you needed to steal Santa's secret toy plans could be an idea. So a game of corporate espionage, creeping down corridors etc. I suspect this was a hint that I should get all my card terrain built for such daring do. However I judged that with all  the other Christmas activities going on that I wouldn't be able to get the terrain ready in time.

The Santa idea really stuck, plus the idea to use some Secret of the Third Reich (SOTR) figures especially at least one US flamethrower chappie. I've always wanted to do snow terrain, but time is against me this year until I thought why not use a white sheet.

My initial thought of a setting was the wilderness of Siberia, but if I use the US SOTR figures then Alaska makes more sense. I can use some of my Pulp figures for scientists. The idea of a United Nations Intelligence Task Force (UNIT) was born. Dr Who association intended.

The next deal clincher to go ahead and create a scenario or scenarios with a Christmas theme was the realisation which figures I could use for a North Pole/Santa cast. This thought led to finally finding a use for the Golden Compass toy carriage, handily in red which would look great as a Steampunk sleigh. I also had a figure I could use as a pilot, which I need to finish painting.

So in the 7TV world I now have 2 casts.  The sleigh and pilot gave me the idea of a search and rescue episode, with that in mind the Santa cast has been named The North Pole Rescue Rangers ( they will not be little mice!).

I need to decide how many episodes I'm going to be able to run in a day, and which ones. So far I have:
1. Search for the crash site - working title 'You better watch out, you better not cry'
2. Search the crash site - working title 'He's making a list, and checking it twice'
3. Rescue/recover the crash - working title 'Gonna find out who's naughty and nice'
4. Santa Claus is coming to town

I actually had more ideas but they all boil down to the 4 above. I've decided that all 4 will take place on the same board, perhaps in different sections. I've discounted the Rescue episode being at a science lab because it would take too much effort on the day to swap terrain over using buildings, and as already mentioned the card layout will not be ready in time.

Are these ideas enough to plan the final details. No!

I haven't found a use for my SOTR newly painted Germans. My thoughts wandered to the film Ironsky and so was born:

MOON NAZIS STEAL CHRISTMAS!

The working title has been released to the chums and has been met with approval.

So what's next:

• Plan board layout - either draw it or play about setting it up till it feels right.
• Create trees for snow terrain - one set sprayed today, 5 polystyrene bases created sealed with PVA and trees planted currently drying ready for painting. Further trees gathered to under go transformation if required.
• Episode(s) titles to be decided
• Decide which episodes to play
• Create cast lists for: UNIT, North Pole Rescue Rangers and Moon Nazi's. Most of this is currently in my head, such as names the true work is to marry these up with stats. 
• Decide on which event cards and gadgets to use. These are a must as they will be fun.
• Paint the sleigh pilot
• Create a crash site. I'm hoping 5 year old modelling clay is still usable.
• Inform chums what figures they need to bring and provide Episode write ups pre-game.
• Stop having more ideas that side track from finishing the above.

More discarded ideas:

The Wilderness Club a cast of a group of men who like hiking in the wilderness during the full moon. I was thinking of helpers for Santa.

Assault on Santa' Fortress

Moon Nazi flying saucer made from an old frisbee, cat food box and 4 toilet rolls

Finally painting up my dog sleds

I confess I am having a lot of fum with this. More details to follow.

Battlegroup Kursk - West of Oktiabriski Farm

Finished playing this scenario from the rule book with the chums this week, report to follow. Great game, lots of tactical options to think through. Best of all I won!

One all in the campaign so far.

Star moments in the game were a squad of Panzer Grenadiers single handed lay destroying 3 tanks in 3 turns, plus a T34 gun squashing fail where it over ran but didn't destroy.