Here Come the Polish - Part the Second

Looking back at my 3-3 run at Showcase Comics, I thought I had done well with my Polish Kawalerii list. Of my losses and wins, I fought against two armor companies of similar composition, and went 1-1, so I felt my list was solid.

As it turns out, that tournament at Showcase qualified me for Nationals - a very unexpected event, and my first qualification ever. I looked back at my list, and wondered if there was any thing I might to change - maybe subtract some infantry, and throw in some more AT, or something along those lines. And it was mighty tempting to do that - I could have taken four 75mm Horse artillery batteries, as opposed to just two, and packed that much more AT into my list. In hindsight, I should have, but at the time, I didn't have the inclination or energy to model up those guns for nationals. I was hobby'd out, after an exhaustive 90 days of straight Polish painting, I was just done.

So, enter U.S. Early War Nationals at Historicon, where I didn't do well at all. I should have gotten off my lazy behind and put those extra artillery pieces together, the AT would have been valuable. In early war, tanks are truly king, and my poor cavalry are darn near worthless against them. The mighty Polish train did as well as it could, but could have done better. Truth be told, it was doing too much of the heavy lifting for the list, since many of my games were against armored companies.  I ended up only going 2-6, much to my dismay. But nationals was an eye opening experience - you'll see so many quality players and lists there, it truly pays to scout the meta game out, and bring a list that won't leave you lacking in any one area. If I'm fortunate enough to go again, I think I'll be much better prepared.

The weekend wasn't a total wash though! I got to hang with some cool dudes, and I got a ton of compliments on my army and my train. It always pleases me to see folks appreciate the hard work that went into putting my army together. All of my opponents were also really good guys, and I was happy to share a few beers with'em.

So enough of my belly aching - on with some pictures!

All photos taken by my opponent of game 5, Chris Langland.

Here come the Polish - Part 1

For posterity's sake, I'm going to hop in my Time Machine, and write about something that's old news, but will tie into the next post after this, my recent trip to Early War nationals for Flames of War.

Many months ago, when I got my copy of Battlefronts Blitzkrieg early war book, I was immediately taken by the Polish as an army choice. They didn't have any of the razzle dazzle that other armies had, like powerful tanks or planes, but they did have plenty of character and chutzpah.

The lists that intrigued me the most were the Polish infantry company and Cavalry company. Cavalry as in 'horses', and not motorized. Poland was a rough place terrain wise, horses were still quite common around 1939, even though their tactical advantages were....limited in real warfare, as well as Flames of War (more on that later). I flipped a coin, and decided that a Polish cav army would be pretty cool.

My target was have this army done in time for the Showcase Showdown, in Media PA. Battlefront was hosting a Doubles Tournament in mid May, and I wanted in!

I started this army around April. It was a simple list, which I'll roughly post here.

Polish Kawalerii: 1750 points
1 Polish Train w/ 2 artillery cars (packing those 75mm)
2 platoons of mounted cavalry (12 bases per platoon)
1 Anti-Tank Platoon (4 37mm guns)
1 Horse Artillery platoon (2 75mm guns, staff team)
1 Cyclist platoon, 12 bases, including 1 AT rifle, and 2 LMG's (14 total)

Little did I know in April, what I was setting myself up for in May. This would be a monumental project, with a lot of hobbying to meet the mid-May deadline. For every mounted horse you make in this army, you have to create a dismounted representation. That means twice the work that a normal army! As a indicator of how long it took me to assemble and paint this army, I used netflix as my clock. Netflix was on every time I was working on this list, and here's that list.

 Season of Spartacus: Blood in the Sand, Season 4 of Futurama, Up, The True Glory, Blade Runner (Directors cut), The Hunt for Red October,  Season 1 and 2 of Sons of Anarchy, Battle for Warsaw, Demolition Man, Super Size Me, Season 1 of Farscape, Hiroshima: BBC History of WWII, Operation Barbarossa, Talibanistan, Ken Burns: The War, Ken Burns: The Civil War, Hamburger Hill, Full Metal Jacket, National Geographics The Battle of Midway, Auschwitz, Layfette: The Lost Hero, and Toy Story 3.


So enter the month of May, and I show up with my Polish cav and a train. Showcase is a fantastic place to play at, they have an impressive store, and even a huge battle bunker. The owner is also a really nice guy, and even cooked for us both days for lunch. My team did well, coming in third, with both my partner and I going 3 and 3 for wins and loses respectively. We also took best armies as well, which was based on hobbying, not playing scores. My army did well in tipping 'best army' to my team, having received quite a few votes. I was proud of that, as a ton of work had gone into it to get it ready for that tournament.

So, here are some pictures from that tournament. All pictures were taken by my teammate, Chris Hecht.

 

The tournament was great, well run and hosted, and fun to play. I got a lot of complements about my army, and it was great to show off all the hard work.

I also wanna give props to the last minute help I had getting everything together. Chris Hecht, Brien Dulaney, and Jon Osborne helped me with some last minute painting to meet my deadlines.

Heroes of Armageddon!

Photo: Dave Taylor. Painted: By me! :)

A few months ago, the superlative hobbyist (and all around great guy) Dave Taylor e-mailed me, and asked if I would join up with Team Taylor for the Heroes of Armageddon project. For the uninitiated, the Heroes of Armageddon project is a gaming community charity effort for Doctor's Without Borders, an amazing charity with a much needed global mission.


Truth be told, I was wondering if he'd e-mailed the right guy - maybe he knew another Joe who was a decent hobbyist! Alas, Dave doesn't, and lo' and behold, I gladly enlisted to paint 10 Steel Legion imperial guardsmen. I'd never painted a guardsmen in my life for 40k - I was more of a space marine guy, but I think the 10 I slapped paint on came out alright. They're simple models to paint and assemble, and the Steel Legion sculpts look really good.

Had I known I was even going to start a hobbying blog, I would have done WiP pictures, but alas, I didn't.

It was a genuine pleasure to be a part of the project, and who doesn't love doing good works for charity?