Getting WaT 15mm tanks in Australia

 Getting WaT 15mm tanks in Australia 

https://toofatlardies.co.uk/product-category/what-a-tanker/

What a Tanker in my area (Canberra Australia) uses 15mm (1/100) miniatures to play this great 'beer and pretzels' level miniatures wargame.

One of my friends asked how to get miniatures, and I am the sort to head off being asked a questions a few times by making a blog post. (Hi Mr C!)

The game only needs a few tanks per side to get going, and on your first game and large team games, you may only need a single tank, easily borrowed from your teacher or game runner. After that, you will naturally want your own collection. 

STORES

http://store.aetherworks.com.au/

Super Biased first pick! Aetherworks are my friends of 20+ years and I have even done bits of work for them. I declare my bias :)   

An easy start point would be the "Fury" boxed set with three US and two germans.  

You can drill down in the store to Miniature/ Flames of War/ country and then pick the miniatures you want. This is a very easy way to get what you want miniature by miniature. They are located in Sydney, so postage is fast. For example, this link should go to the German vehicles. Vehicles this way are about $15 each. 

If you want to start a collection in one box and don't want to paint, you could get the World of Tanks Miniatures game and get four base coated tanks and a whole other rule set for $71. This is a rebrand of Gale Force 9's (GF9) old "Tanks!" game adding in the basecoat painting and bumping the price. Singles are not out yet, but look like they are $22 each. Great if you have no interest in painting, or if you only want to detail the tanks yourself.

https://www.warandpeacegames.com.au/15mm_Plastic_WWII_s/2469.htm

War and Peace stock a few different companies than Aetherworks. they link above goes to 15mm WW2. The bargain of the moment seems to be that they are clearing their GF9 TANKS games miniatures for $7.50 each. Good price! Limited Stock.

https://www.mightyape.com.au/brands/zvezda

Mighty Ape stock Zvezda models. They are inexpensive models, recently endorsed by Jygdrasil. He was very happy with them arriving in a couple of weeks at very, low prices. He put his toe in with s $20 starter order and order #2 at $40 is underway.

https://www.ebay.com.au/sch/i.html?_from=R40&_trksid=p2380057.m570.l1313&_nkw=15mm+tanks&_sacat=0

Everyone knows ebay. You can watch carefully for bargains @ $5 a pop, or go spend $250 on someones complete pre painted collection of everything you want. Search 15mm tanks or 1/100 tanks

http://www.thecombatcompany.com/categories/miniatures-historical/plastic-soldier-company/15mm-world-war-ii.html

The Combat Company main differentiator here is stocking Plastic Soldier Compoany brand miniatures. They came through ompeteing with Flames of War by offering inexpensive simple pose plastic miniatures. They sell cheap tanks in boxes of five to match the FoW ruleset. 

3D PRINTING

Down at the 15mm level, 3D printing is just fine. If you have a friend with skills in the area, the polite thing to do is for you to make all the tank decisions by picking what you want from https://www.thingiverse.com/ and sending them the links. Then, offer them about $5 per tank for filament and setup labour. I have 6/25 3d printed tanks, and unless you have a good eye you won't be able to spot them from my plastic and metal tanks until you pick them up.

 

29LetsGo! Campaign Turn One

Setting the scenery:

The Blokenstein boys got me a fantastic terrain kit as a wedding present, and a pile of Dead Man's Hand stuff for the blushing bride. I set it up on a table to have a look, and thought "I need a game!"

The river is excellent, and look great close up and far away. My photography was not up to reducing the glare - trust me, it's awesome.

I was wondering what to play, and had a few on again, off again bookings. The man who finally came through was Nathan. Nathan is part of a little Facebook group of those in Canberra interested in 15mm Chain of Command games. We love the price of an army ($40 or less woohoo!) and we love the system. More games needed to be played. 

I had just downloaded the 29 Let's go! Campaign from Too Fat Lardies, and Nathan had a basic US Force, and I had a basic German Force, so that worked out well.

I purchased the campaign and read the whole book, so I essentially had to be the Germans as I know the surprises. Nathan was fine with that.

I printed a couple of copies, and cut one down in campaign notes for Nathan, with what he needed in a folder, and kept a folder for me.

The evening before, I decided to set the map, and realised that I needed a LOT of hedges. I've been looking at lots of terrain YouTube videos and guides, and I had really like the idea of tongue depressor bases with scenery on top, so I had already purchased a box of 100 of them. Below is a map where I try to set the table with all the tongue depressors where hedges will go.

You will also notice the change from using lots of craters for the ploughed fields, and instead using some yellow fabric. I didn't have brown fabric or felt available. I won them - I couldn't find them.

Scenery frenzy: 

About 26 full hedges, and eight half size ones. Clip 13 ice cream sticks in half, and glue them to a full one with one edge cut off. Glue to tongue depressor. Paint base with brown texture paint. Paint top with dark green paint/ pva glue mix, flock.

To the game:

Prelininary

Nathan rolled a six on the patrol phase, and with his quick advance, seized the Chateau, and used it's top floor as an excellent base of fire all game. Naturally, the 29th scrounged up extra BAR's. I deployed with German precision, and was able to pour all my fire all the time from phase two. Nathan cam out a bit more piecemeal, and was not as effective.

Turn One

The shot below was was the end of turn one. I deployed my anti tank gun and a rifle team in an entrenchment, a minefield on the road, and barbed wire across the front of the trenches.

Here I had bloodied a rifle team that tried to advance, punished the team out the front of the white house, and taught the chateau team to duck. My senior leader had been busy keeping the anti- tank gun motivated and in the game.

Turn Two

My leftmost section were in trouble. The cost of wiping Nathans rifle team was the loss of my rifle section and the MG team were retreating in disarray.  The centre section had their heads down, and my senior leader was just about to get across and gee them back up. The Team in the building were safe as a bug in a rug, and pouring it on. The pin markers on the team in the white building tell that tale. 

My disappointment of the game:  I invested a lot of support points into the anti tank guns. Nathan had three Shermans rolling at my boys. I trusted in this gun, the panzershreck team, the panzerfausts and the 'campaign surprise' to get a bit of the job done. My gun had 6 unimpeded shots at the Shermans, hit four times, and only dazed a gunner once. The tanks never came into range of the infantry based toys, and the 'campaign trick' never came into play.  

Turn Three

I could see the game was up. The anti tank gun had failed to do the job I had planned for it.. The 'campaign trick' was used, but failed to do anything. The white building team was whittled down to just it's junior leader, but the men in the chateau never looked like moving. My men were falling back in disarray, and the anti tank gun was going to be captured, as the crew had fled. It was time to leave the field to the invincible Shermans, and pull back to the next line.

Post Battle:

29 Lets Go!
After Game One
US Post battle:
Bouyed by the victory, Colonel Goode sends the men forward. However, he was shaken by an attack on his men by American ground attack planes. He disposition has moved to Troubled. With manpower to burn, Colonel Goode throws a fresh platoon at the next problem.
German post battle:
Ernst Blatt is commanding the Platoon. Having been injured and promoted on the Eastern front, he is a veteran at age 21. Command are too busy with their own problems to worry about Ernst. The men had heard the guns and know the invasion is on. They did not like the losses, but understand, he was one of them. Ernest's faith has not moved. He is only concerned.
CO opinion of the leader: (-1) Men (-3) Personal - Concerned.
The composition of the forces will be 'special' in the next engagement to cover the casualties.
Everyone escaped, no captures.
Two replacement NCO's. 1 Command Point, 3 inch command radius.
7 lost, 4 will return next scenario, 3 return straight battle.

Dong dispatch: My first post from Wodonga

New Contact Info:

Bart Beswick

36 Dalton Avenue

Wodonga Victoria 3690

Telephone: (02) 6059 8102

Texts: 0407 962 774

Mobile Calls: My mobile is unchanged, but please use a text in the first instance if possible. Reception is patchy around our house. I'm still me, and will call you back as soon as possible. It may simply be on the home phone from here.  

What is going on? Wodonga? 

Adelle has finished her Engineering degree with Second Class honours. The army have posted her to Latchford barracks, and we have a house in Wodonga. Adelle does like the army way. She is finding it a gentle period of absorbing everything, which is just the ticket after the intensity of the thesis experience.

What about your old job?

I have just finished my paid leave from ABS, and am on long term leave without pay for a year, with a possible extension of that period. We can just get along on one wage, but I want work to make things a lot smoother. 

The job I was keen on has been slow about responding. I called their office - they been very busy with other very justifiable work with a higher priority than running a recruiting process. I wish I was there to help. With that slower response, I have been watching the local papers, and will put in a few applications. I got proper broadband internet back last night, and intend to properly scan the internet and place my resume everywhere appropriate, and will register with job agencies etc Monday.

Why so quiet over the last month? 

Regional internets = very ordinary. The 3g USB wifi modem was vaguely usable, but unsatisfying in our gap week. Like the iphone, it was very low coverage in most rooms of the house. I'll be posting my home phone number as the suggested line to use from here on in. Texts are perfect, calls are not worth the dropout rate unless we are in town. 

Good bits?

Lots of stuff I like doing is much cheaper here. My golf clubs is $50 a month, squash is $2 an hour instead of $15- $20. The heated pool with spa and sauna is $6. Eventually I will get a spouse card. Cool thing there is access to a full gym and pool. Adelle and I are enjoying access to the Bandiana army cinema. The cinema seems very similar to the ANU cinema club - films roll along and you get set movies very cheap - $2. Shopping is a breeze - "All the shops you want with much better parking" is my quote.

How was moving?

I had a blah time after the movers came in and emptied the boxes on 'any flat surface' and a couple of the days seemed like all I was doing was moving things to put other things in their spot. That part is over, and seven of the ten major areas are working - only the garage, gaming room and office to go. The house is great, heaps of room, and our mantra has been "don't buy stuff to fill it." While we have a big house here regionally, it may be a lot smaller if we end up in a big city.

What about people - you are such a have-a-chat, what has the new town been like?

We had our first visitors "Jiss", who had bub and mum and dad along, and we took them to my golf club for dinner. Golf has been good. I'm still a very poor golfer, but I love it, and there is already signs of improvement. I did a competition round with some fine gents on Saturday, and one of them was a officer in the local cricket team. On the strength of our chat  round he is keen to offer me a Captaincy of C grade, where I would be the steady hand for the younger members, train them, and select the best to go through to B grade. It would suit me to the ground, and I hope it comes through. I'm pretty likely to be setting up a website for the team as well.

What about armoured combat and other SCA stuff?

It's all good. There are a couple of cool heavy fighters, Magnus and the recently knighted Sir Jon. Magnus is off to Darwin for a couple of months, so my house is the training venue for fighter practice on Tuesday night. Both guys are keen to recruit. I think i'll just get to know the guys over winter and settle in, and run a 10 week newcomer course in early spring.  We also went to the monthly bash, which was a Saturday event, with fighting followed by a pot luck feast. I caught up with lots of lovely folk i had met at border war, and have been signed up to quote for their storage area. Plenty to be done! I've also been talking to a few small business owners - there are some cute possibilities for feasts at small cafe's in town. Watch this space!

Cancon Apocalypse 2011 Facebook Group

Okay, I've got the facebook group rolling. I've got next week off for some serious terrain making. I'm fired up! January 2010 we blew the socks off the other tables with sheer scale. In 2011, we want our little slice of Baal to get people with scale & quality. Stay tuned...