Scavenging for terrain

One is always on the look for terrain opportunities and when I spotted this in my workplace I could not resist it. The principal caught me snatching some of the stuff and gave me a weird look but did not say anything.

Back at home I quickly shaped them with a break knife and kitchen scissors.

The I polished them with a cutter and a bit of sanding.

After that I gave them a coat of cheap dollar store spray paint.

And finally flock them with a mixture of sand from the beach and some turf from Ali Express at voilá!

These four hills are gentle and keep the right measures for playing DBA, but they can be used for any other wargame really.

Painting 15mm WWII

I have been busy on Christmas Holidays but I still have to paint many more tanks, guns and buildings.

I always wanted to have an 88. This is from 28mm Eskice miniatures, scaled down. The crew was a bit tricky to print but I am happy how the set turned out.

 Sdkfz 250

Sdkfz 251

Free Pz IV STL and a metal Battlefront Pz III

I think I am improving at painting camo on German tanks.

Firefly, Sherman and Stuart.

Another house from Sarissa.

This is what I have painted so far.

Sherman Solitaire

Mike Lambo, the author of Sherman Solitaire, has been releasing a lot of solo pocket wargames to everybody's delight. I have been always interested in solo wargames with miniatures and was quite intrigued by the works of this author but the format of his games put me slightly off until now.

The Spanish version fixed all these minor issues for me and also it first released the game I was more interested in, so I ended up getting one of his games to try. This version from a Kick Starter has got A4 size, spiral bound, hard cover format that lays completely flat, with thick card board counters and great quality paper and print.

Moreover, it has got two new missions up to a total of thirteen, plus rules for co-operative and player vs player games.

The game comes with little box to store all the counters. The KS had the option to get models to use instead of card counters but I did not buy them.

The game is played with d6s that you can use for different actions and even combine to get specific results like shooting, loading, repairing, moving, reversing, etc. in a similar way to Too Fat Lardies' What a tanker war game.

You have everything you need to play on the sheet next to the map you are playing, and after the first game everything is fast, smooth and very fun. The part I like the most is how the enemy's AI is handled with its dice being used in ascending order and depending on the terrain the tank is.

My first game lasted two hours but it was terrific. I could destroy all tanks from the initial deployment plus two more Panzer IV. The turret of my Sherman was damaged and could not fire so I had to play cat and mouse for three turns until I got it fixed. I was lucky to finish it at the first try.

In the second mission, the hunt of a Tiger, things got really crazy. I lost count of the times I hit that Tiger's thick skin to no effect as well as the terror of being hit by it. This game was much faster than previous mission. After damaging the Tiger for three times I finally destroyed it together with the rest of enemy tanks, but on my way to exit a mine on the road blew out my tank! On the second try I finished the Tiger and just when I was in the exit hexagon a Stuka attacked me. My commander failed 6+ with 2d6 and the Stuka pilot hit me with 8+ and then penetrated the armour. I was pulling my hair as I was not going to make it after so much work but I had luck in the damage table and could escape in the next turn.

In the third scenario my commander was shot by a sniper and also the tank got fired but in the end I managed to end the mission. Now, I am about to play mission 4. Good night and Happy New Year!

15mm WWII tanks and a house

I have resumed painting WWII in the hope of being able to play a game or two during the incoming Xmas holidays. The tanks are free download STLs and the two floor house from Sarissa.

IV/19c Spanish and Tlaxcalan army for DBS 3.0

As I printed the Conquistadors for the Canary Islands I thought I could use them as well for the New World, so I have painted some Tlaxcalans and a few more Conquerors (crossbowen and artillery) to build the army of Hernán Cortez.

Full army: 1x 3Kn Gn, 1x4Bd, 1 Cbw and 1 Art from the Spaniards, and 4x3Bw, 1x4Bw, 2x3Bd and 1Ps from the Texcalans.

Tlaxcalan Fast Bw.

 Eagle warriors

Jaguar warriors

Solid bowmen with shield bearers (4Bw)

Crossbowen and arquebusiers (4Cb)

The camp 

 

IV/68g Castilian Army of the Conquest of Canary Islands 1478 AD - 1496 AD DBA army list

This is it. I have finally painted my non official army of the Royal Conquest of the Canary Islands, and soon you will see a video batrep on my youtube channel with Conquistadors vs Guanches.

Full army: 1 x General, the royal apointee and his small mounted retinue (3Kn), 2 x some gentlemen adventurers (4Bd), 4 x Castilian infantry from urban militias (Sp), 2 x urban militas (Sp) or native allies (Gomerans used in Gran Canaria and Grancanarians in Tenerife) (5Hd), 1 x Jinetes (LH) or native allies (Hd), 2 x Crossbowmen (Ps). Terrain type: Litoral. Aggression:4. Enemies: I/65.

These are the spear urban miitia, done with only three poses, so mirrored all models and Iswapped some head as well.

Close up of knight General and LH.

Close view of 2x4Bd. The first from the left is got more vegetation because it is going to be used in the IV/19c Spanish and Tlaxcalan army that I am already painting.

This church is going to be either a Camp or a BUA (Edifice). The fort that came with the KS will be painted together with the Spanish & Tlaxcalan army.

DBA battle reports in Spanish on Youtube

Hello, this is a project that me and two friends have started with the idea of spreading DBA into the Spanish speakers community as well as getting more players in our city. 

As you know, DBA is written in English and mainly played in UK and USA and moreover, it is written in Barkerese, so it is really difficult for non-native English speakers to understand and play this game, and even more difficult to reach new players, being DBA so niche and with that format as opposed to other modern rulesets.

In Spain there is a great community of DBA 2.2 thanks to the wonderful translation and support with many annual tournaments from the guys of La Armada forum, but we play 3.0. 

When I started to look for videos of DBA 3.0 battles, I could only find games in English, so I thought we could do the same as some people from La Armada are doing with the 2.2 version, a Youtube channel for Spanish speakers in which we are going to share our games as well as some tutorials for beginners.

Although it is in Spanish, everybody is most than welcomed to our channel as you can easily switch on subtitles and then set your mother language. As an extra bonus, you can also practice and learn some Spanish when listening to the reports ;-)

Our first video is not very good as we have never done this before, but the second is better and third which we are releasing next Sunday will be better.

Thanks for visiting us and for your support!

DBA español Youtube channel

First video. Roman Republican II/33 vs Galatians II/30b

Second video. Syracusans II/9a vs Galatians II/30b

Ps. We have also created a Facebook group to help us with the spreading of DBA in Spanish that you can visit here: DBA español Facebook group.