Wednesday, August 26, 2009

Update

I was doing pretty good with posting for awhile there, but took a week at the beach so I've fallen off lately. Anyway, figured I'd do a little update on what I've been up to.

I've been working fairly steady on my 15mm WW2 figures for Command Decision. I painted up 3 Mark III's and 3 Mark IV's (the cool ones with the skirts) along with a couple of 75mm anti-tank guns. I'm just about done a big group of German Luftwaffe infantry. I painted those by undercoating in black and then airbrushing them all over with German grey. Then I drybrushed a lighter grey over that and now I'm picking out the flesh and equipment. Once that's done I'll coat them with the Army Painter shade stuff. A quick way to paint miniatures which suites me since I'm definitely the kind of person who paints figures just to get them into a game.

I bought NCAA 10 for XBox 360 the other day. Played around a little bit with it last night. Very fun, especially the phone calls you make to prospective recruits. But, I am a little annoyed at the way EA is trying to nickle and dime me by basically offering up cheats for purchase. Oh well, capitalism at work.

Nothing new on the board game front. Still waiting for Wars of the Roses to come out. I'm almost done the book I'm reading about it. A lot of people are excited by a re-release of Space Hulk, but I'm more looking forward to the Games Workshop games that Fantasty Flight are producing.

Saturday, August 8, 2009

Tuesday, August 4, 2009

London's Burning 4

August 16

Well, Jerry must have realized that they would never win the war with these high-altitude raids. Shortly before lunch a large raid (the biggest of the battle yet) was detected 10,000 feet over the Channel heading towards Manston. This time Fighter Command was ready and vectored in the fighters that were already up on patrol. The Spitfire intercepted the Germans directly over the airfield. Unfortunately, the radar was off a little and the Germans were actually at 5,000 feet. Since the RAF plane had climbed to 15,000 in order to be able to dive onto the Luftwaffe planes, it was too far up to spot the raid and broke off contact and headed for home. However, the Hurricane maintained it's original altitude of 10,000 feet and dove out of the sun onto an unsuspecting Me 109. Three bursts from the Hurricane's machine guns tore the wings off of the Messerschitt and it corkscrewed into the ground. However, two more Me 109's engaged the Hawker and its ace pilot, riddling the fuselage, engine, and cockpit with machine gun and cannon fire. Incredibly the plane held up under the fire, and was able to break off and limp home. Upon landing the ground crew pulls Kowalski from the damaged aircraft. He had a pieces of the shattered canopy in his face and a machine gun round lodged in his thigh, but otherwise he was ok. He vowed to take to the skies again to fight the hated Germans.

Unfortunately Manston didn't get off so easy. The Do 17, He 111, and Ju 88 had turned the airfield into a moonscape of bomb craters. Even after working through the night the field was still a scene of devastation the next morning.

London's Burning 3

August 15

A very uneventful day. My Hurricane and Spitfire spend most of the morning on patrol, but again due to fatigue are on the ground when a raid is detected in the early afternoon. Again the Germans are high, at 20,000 feet. The raid heads straight for Dover and the Do 17 and Heinkel 111 drop their bombs but do minimal damage since they're so high up. Fighter Command doesn't even get a chance to scramble as the raid turns tail and heads back to France. There are no more raids which is good since my pilots will be able to rest and ready to fight on the morrow.

Monday, August 3, 2009

London's Burning 2

August 14th.

Only one raid today at 2pm. Two Me 109's, a Dornier, and a Junkers Ju 88 approach from the southeast. Problem is they're at 20,000 feet. My Spitfire and Hurricane had been patrolling in the morning, but due to their increasing fatigue I had them sitting on the airfield when the raid was detected. So, by the time I had scrambled my fighters and had them up to 10,000 feet, the Germans had dropped their bombs on Manston and were on their way back to France. One positive was that since they were so high the Germans did minimal damage which was repaired easily enough that evening.

London's Burning

Punched out and started a game of this tonight. I bought it, oh I don't know, about 6 or 7 years ago. Better late than never.

London's Burning is a solitaire game depicting the Battle of Britain. I will be playing as the British defending England against the German Luftwaffe. You can also play this two player but for now I'm playing solo.

I figured I'd keep a little diary going of how the game goes. So...

August 13. Clear weather. At 7am radar picks up a German raid flying at 10,000 feet, approaching the coast a little to the west of Dover. I scramble my Hurricane and leave my Spitfire on the ground for now. The raid bypasses the airfields on the coast and heads inland. The Hurricane intercepts in Sussex. There are four German aircraft. The bombers, a Ju-87 Stuka, Dornier Do 17, and a Messerschmitt Me 110 configured as a dive bomber are at 10,000 feet, while the fighter cover, a Messerchmitt Me 109, is flying top cover at 15,000 feet. The Hurricane goes after the Do 17, but only gets off one burst which does damage the engine. The Do 17 jettisons his bombs and turns tail and heads back to France. However, the Me 109 dives out of the sun and gets off three bursts, of which two go into the Hawker's engine and the other hits the pilot. Even though he was wounded, he manages to bail out and lands safely. However, a 20mm cannon shell blew his leg off below the knee, so his flying days are over. Meanwhile, the remaining bombers reach Biggin Hill and do a fair amount of damage to the runways and a hangar. Their bombs dropped, the raid turns south towards France. But now the Spitfire is in the air and intercepts over Kent. He flys directly at the the Me 109, sending four bursts into it and the German fighter explodes. Next the Spitfire empties its guns into the Me 110, knocking out both of its engines. The crew bails out before the plane crashes. The remaining Stuka luckily passes over the cliffs of Dover and heads back to its airfield unmolested since the Spitfire was forced to return to its airfield and re-arm. The rest of the day passes uneventfully as there were no further raids. On the night of the 13th a new Hurricane and its ace pilot report for duty.