More from me for once!

Of gaming... 
The festive season hasn't all been food and photo uploads this year (though there will be more of those later in the day), I've managed to roll a few dice here and there as well!

First of all there was the "Painting and gaming retreat". That is to say I had a few mates round during the day on christmas eve to play some games and do some miniature slaughtering before the family overdoses began.

Space Hulk Smash:
I played what can only be described as an epic game of space hulk. I was the stealers, and Simon and Mo took on a squad of terminators each. Simon was unlucky and I got to him fast, chomping both his flamer and his lieutenant within the first few turns. However, it was the evacuation mission and he managed to get one guy out so not a complete failure.

Mo on the other hand was indeed blessed of the dice gods on that day. Performing a perfect fighting retreat, he killed scores of genestealers in multiple locations. Giddeon (? thunder hammer dude..) himself was responsible for 60 xenos deaths - he simply couldn't put a (cautious) foot wrong. With plenty of snacking, chatting and festive tales intermingled, we managed to make one mission last about 3 hours!

The rest of the day was spent with the other guys, painting and chatting about festive hobby plans until we parted ways to head off to various pubs and family events for the evening. Its at this point I realise I've achieved none of those hobby targets except website updates.....

And FoW too:
But it doesn't end there. Once a month we meet up at a local pub for Hobbyists Drinks, and last night was the latest of these. Beforehand, Eddie came to my place to start a game of Flames of war. I fielded everything I have made up for my tank Company (2225points) ad he took a small selection out of his Estonian SS collections to face against me (his small selection also being about 2225 points... ). The grand plan had been to start the game at a ice relaxed pace, head to the pub, then finish it off sometime over the weekend.

There's no need to finish it off. It was a massacre!
My brave Yanks would be the attackers in the Hasty Engagement mission. Unfortunately they paid heavily for their lack of planning.

Before me was arrayed a single squad with attached HMGs and Pak 40, spread thin to be within reach of both objectives. The Pak40 stood facing mennacingly up the cobbled road through the center of the board.  On their left flank stood two .88's and on their right, the remaining two Pak40's.

Those fearsome, but stationary, AT emplacements were the least of my worries however, for as the attacker in this mission, I barely crossed the center line. The reason for this being 3 Panthers anchoring the center of the German line. Less Anchors however, more harpoons. The Panthers were immune to my fire from the front, and rolled forward in the first four turns to be within just a few inches of my base line destroying everything in their path, whilst my carefully surrounding fire bounced off from all angles completely inefficiently.

When I finally managed to get a few shots on target, and subsequently got some infantry in ready to finish the job, my battle weary forces turned around to be met by the german lines, almost untouched, before them. We attempted to move forwards once more, but a combination of the torrent of AT fire, the arrival of a Tiger reserve unit and some very fine Goliath Maneuvering left me with no units in Eddies table half at the end  of turn 6, and the battle was lost.

Great game, but I got to the pub with my head hung low.