Thursday 28 September 2023

Painting Update - The Walking Dead

Howdy folks,

Hopefully all is well on your end. Over the summer, I tried to make an effort to get back to some figures that had been on the bench for quite some time, and Mantic TWD figures are some that have been waiting a while. Now it has been a while since I’ve gotten in a game of TWD, but I do have a few boxes of figs still waiting to be painted.

The thing that I really like about these figs is that as I have continued to branch out and see other rulesets and game settings, it is handy to have a bunch of non-military or historical figures that can fit into several genres. So one of the side benefits of these figs is that I have this vision of doing a progressive campaign for Zona Alfa and these figs will work well as noobs to the Zone…so a bit more on that to follow in the medium term.

Anywho, the figures themselves are solid…they paint up quite nicely and have some great expressions. Looking at the TWD graphic novels, they definitely follow the novel over the series. Not much else to say on these fellas except, hope you enjoy the pics.

The way I figure it, these figs will be great as introductory newbies to the zone, I have some nice plans for the gent with the long rifle and lens. Will also work really well for some rando armed civilians in a modern setting.




Painted 

15mm            93
28mm+          42, +3

Bought         131

Progress      +4


Saturday 23 September 2023

Team Yankee/Red Dawn - New NATO Forces book - quick thoughts!

...is that an update or are you just happy to see me?!?! Cause HOT DAMN! I'm pretty happy to see you!

Thats right folks! If you're living under a rock like me, you may have just seen that Battlefront are set to release their next Team Yankee/Red Dawn book that updates troops & kit available to NATO and Free forces for the pseudo-WW3.


There have been a few videos so far, I really like the review from Fog of War, as well there is a great blog post from Big Lee over at Breakthrough Assault:


Now, I remember watching the videos and post with much anticipation almost a year ago when Red Dawn was being announced and we were getting snippets to mull over. Seeing the invasion map and route through the Prairies as well as the map symbol with Canadian Mech Troops in Grizzly/Cougar was really cool to see. Having reread the posts and videos that I have seen so far, I'm even more pumped...now, I'm not going to say that I can see into the future, or have influenced Battlefront in their design...but I like to think that maybe someone has heard me or even read a few words that I've dumped into the internets.

However, I did post that one of my pet-peeves was that Battlefront went with the short barrel 1970s M109 for the RCHA even though we were sporting the longs in the 80's... 1 RCHA battery for 4 CMBG

And, I may have said that with the push Red's push into the Prairies and axis of advance going past Edmonton and into Calgary...along with the new Airborne Assault rules...that maybe this would be a good time for the Canadian Airborne Regiment to make an appearance... Red Dawn North



So yeah, a lot to be pumped about...in Edmonton you had the Airborne jump school, 435 Squadron and their Tactical Airlift School, 1 Brigade Headquarters in Calgary, and a bunch of various Militia regiments along with the Regular force regiments that can make for some Force Mobile Command goodness.

I'm looking forward to the Cougars and Grizzlies, but gotta admit I'm really excited for the Iltis jeeps and TOW carriers...maybe odd, but I may have cheered when I saw them, lol.

We'll see what comes downline, the pre-order timing looks to be 21 October and there are a few pre-order deals offered for Direct Order from Battlefront. I just jumped on the book, cards, and objective deal which nets you an objective (and maybe 10 figs) for free...the deal is $35USD and the book and cards separately are $25 and $10 respectively...so...

There is also a Canadian Mech Infantry deal that comes with upgrades for 3xM113 to the new TUA carrier. All in all, its 2 x infantry platoons (with Carl G or Eryx), 2 x M113 transport boxes (for 10 x M113's), and 2 x M113 frames (for 2)...all coming in around $160 USD. If you do the math, I think you'll end up saving about $10-15 vice buying everything separately. Not an insane amount of savings for buying a 'starter' collection, but that gives you either a pizza or a few beers while you put all the models together.

Anywho, looking forward to the breadcrumbs being thrown out over the next few weeks to see what is what. All in all, pretty happy to see what comes...hopefully the Canucks can get their own partisan/militia types as well (Cobras/Badgers/Bisons/Bears ?!?), there were definitely motivated folk who would've been happy to shoot at a Red or two.

Take care folks.