Merry Xmas!

Wishing you and yours good health, a full glass, and lots of wonderful gaming!

Song of Blades and Heroes Demo Night

Some shots from my Song of Blades and Heroes demo at a local game night.

The game itself went pretty well. I had a mother and her two children playing; the Brass Dwarves sat out the game (which is just as well considering that they are the ones I've got most personal ownership over). The game's objective was to steal treasure tokens from my 295 point White Dragon and possibly kill him. The dragon went largely unmolested during the game as these inexperienced players weren't able to set up a good combination attack to wound him. The mother and daughter both picked up the game pretty well and were able to tie the game; both the Greenskins and Romans did pretty well, probably due to being fairly balanced warbands. The Undead did not fair so well, largely due to their player forgetting to activate high quality models first (one turn he started with a zombie, rolling all three dice). I may have to run this game again, but I'd really like to get some serious (and adult) players who don't mind running a campaign game.

This night's efforts... figures for Song of Blades and Heroes

I'm running a game demo for Song of Blades and Heroes tomorrow, and I spent tonight painting up some Heroquest and metal figures for it. I'm rather unhappy with the mummy, but the Chaos Warriors, Sorceror, Dwarf Sorceror, and Chaos Dwarf Bazooka turned out pretty well.

I'm running a fairly simple scenario: four warbands try to steal treasure from a GM-controlled dragon; whoever gets the most of the board wins. Brass Dwarves, Undead, Romans, and an Ogre-lead greenskin warband will be competing against my scary white dragon. I've still got to get warband rosters and two more reference templates printed out before I head to the gaming hall.

Blackmoore's Dragoons finally finished...

I'll be entering these guys in the Tomorrow's War Strikeforce competition. Too bad I don't really have a a big enough table for me to use them as a full platoon in most games.

Roule-bacon's Finest - SWAT

The best that Roule-Bacon has to offer, at least 'til I decide on a HOST unit. These two units fulfill the requirements for the SWAT entry on the 5150:NB Law Enforcement generation tables.

Khurasan SEAL DEVGRU team

Along with the Locusts I also received a pack of SEALs, which were quite wonderful to behold. No flash, no moldlines, just a few burs on their bases to sand off and one or two on the SEALs with Rifle-GLs. Here's some photos of the SEALs in bare metal; I doubt I can do much to review them since moderns aren't really my thing.

The four rifle armed members of the pack, apparently in CQB configuration rather than the stated bullpup configuration. The goggles are what sold me on using them as my sci-fi SWAT team, and their short-barreled weapons didn't hurt either.

Two team members were armed with Rifle-GLs. The springing into action pose is quite convincing.

The sniper and SAW gunner will be the hardest for me to use; I suspect they'll end up in the 2nd team to arrive to the scene of the crime. The box magazine is the only thing that makes the SAW gunner stand out, so a strong contrasting color will probably have to be used. The sniper rifle arrived bent (as they are wont to do) but was easily bent back into place without damage.

The SEALs come with separate, fairly nondescript packs that are nice enough, but I'm leaving them off. At some point I'll probably trade them or stick them on some OCLF or JNDF figures.

Khurasan Locust Patrol Truck

I received my order of two Locusts Patrol Trucks and a SEAL DEVGRU team yesterday, and I was rather pleased with my order. Service was quick, as usual, and I was eager to dig in.

The complete Locust kit in parts.

The Locusts are pretty neat little kits, though they're a little smaller than I thought they'd be. There's very little flash or gating on the models, though there were gate remnants on an acceptable part of the wheel suspension.

The Locust's unique suspension. I'm guessing that each wheel has is independently powered.

The only significant problem I ran into during cleaning was a bit of mold slippage (which appears on both trucks). This is pretty easy to file down in general, but the rear door has given me a bit of trouble (it turned out better on the second kit).

Assembly was pretty easy; sand down the flat parts of the suspension, slot into the main body, clean out the top hatch and glue it down; bam! it's done. The kit comes with three top options (hatch, flush, and double turret), but I opted for the hatch since this will be a police vehicle.

(I went back and cleaned it up better after the picture).

All in all, good on Khurasan for bringing these beauts into the world. I probably won't need anymore for my SWAT cops, but the Orange Country Liberation Front might find some use for them (and the guns), so we'll see.

Skraag the Toothless begins his life anew in Roule-Bacon (formerly New Hope City)

Skraag the Toothless
Rep 5 Star, Trader(Gun Running), (Fit5, Pep3, Sav4,Sci0), Vicious, Armored Hide, Stone Cold.

Blue Lights in New Hope City

I recently purchased a copy of Two Hour Wargames: New Beginnings, and truthfully it is a thing of beauty. It provides more role-playing opportunities than D & D 4th edition and certainly has a more realistic combat system. I've already got plenty of 15mm characters and civvies painted up, but unfortunately I was not in possession of the police officers or vehicles that the rules call for. As of now I at least have transportation for them, thanks to Mattel.

I now have four of these sleek, futuristic police cars (though one still has to be painted, and I've got a ways to go in general), all at a $1.07-1.09 a piece, not terrible. The little plastic rivets on the bottom were easy to drill out, after which I primed the body and painted the whole black with white doors. I'll be following these up with painted headlights/tail lights as well as Space Wolf transfers on the doors. The cars themselves are a little oversized, but don't look bad next to 15mm figures as compared to actual Matchbox patrol vehicles.

The toy car used is Ultra Rage, 15/15 from the Track Stars '11 Hot Wheels line. I picked it up because it was shorter than the other cars and it put me in mind of the Antenociti's Workshop G.O.T. Police Cruiser. While it's a little more high tech than most of the equipment that is used in my Imagi-nation, I like to think that Itor's government would be just as likely to buy new, shiny equipment as it would burnt-out rust buckets.

There's also a call for a SWAT van in the rules, and I'll probably pick up Khurasan's Locust Patrol Truck for that purpose. As for the police officers themselves, I'm not sure... at the moment I'm favoring either Rebel Miniatures Riot Police or perhaps 15mm.co.uk's Megopolis Police Patrol.

More 15mm goodies

I just finished the basing on a few of my random projects, and here they are:

A different take on the Cnidarians... lots of blue and Tamiya Clear Red.


Coalition Spider-skull Walker pictured with a pair of SAMAS PAs for scale.

Side view: The railguns are indeed cut-down golf tees.

15mm Sci-fi Vehicle Exchange Entry

Here's my entry in the 15mm Sci-fi vehicle exchange, a GZG Chariot APC and Hammer's Slammers infantry squad. These were part of my first 15mm sci-fi purchase, one that was intended to test the waters, and I was certainly pleased with them, but ultimately they're not an integral part of anything I'm currently working on. The APC was eventually used to test out my Blackmoore's Dragoons tank camo scheme, and really it turned out a lot better than successive tanks (I abandoned my attempted at digital camo for a simpler one). The Slammers themselves were block painted and dipped, but I'll be repainting them to match the APC before they're sent off.

New Acquisition - Hot Wheels City Sets Garage

While wandering through the Wal*mart clearance section I chanced upon this little gem for $5.00:

Unfortunately all the stickers were applied at the factory, but I've managed to remove all of them. The smaller sign is absolutely useless for most applications, but I kind of like the larger one. The interesting thing is that it doesn't really scale with anything (well duh, it's Hot Wheels), but I think it looks nice next to both 28mm and 15mm figures. If I'm lucky I'll be able to make it work with both. Here's some out of the box pictures:

Top view of the Blue and Red buildings.

The "garage"; I've already removed the car platform (the clearest indicator of any intended scale). There are actually doors on both buildings, but one was the sticker and the other doesn't stand out much.

A good view of the garage glass windows. I rather like them, but I'm not sure if I'll be able to preserve them (since it seems impossible to disassemble the building without breaking it).

The red building, whatever it is. The protrusion is part of a car launching mechanism that I'll probably dress up a bit.

Scale pic with a 10mm Mechwarrior Jade Hawk, a 28mm Urban Mammoth Triad Boss, and a 15mm GZG Alien Mercenary.

I don't know where I'm going to go with these buildings, but I at least expect they'll see some use in my Janitoria games.

Micro-armor!

Having given up on trying to write a company-level sci-fi game, I've come to the conclusion that there's very little reason to write a game for that level of play. You may as well just add some extra detail to a micro-armor game, like Dirtside II (which apart from having boring infantry is perfect). With all that being said, I plan on having a go at writing a Chain Reaction-based micro-armor game that will not only be used with 6mm figures, but 10mm and 15mm figures as well.

We'll see where I'm at at the end of September...

Star Army Playtest 2 - Space Stunties on Patrol

For my second playtest I opted to use my new Scrunts list with my Shinmeiche and put the little guys on Patrol. While in my previous game I had an NCO as my Star, this time I opted to make Team B's SAW gunner my Star, Brag Ironballs (love the name). I rolled up a fairly decent squad with Rep 5 Leaders and Rep 4 squaddies and the terrain was mostly clear apart from a jungle and a field at the far end, and a cluster of buildings in my starting zone (which were unfortunately very hostile). The weather was good, but apparently Shinmeiche Air Recon isn't what it once was, and they didn't bother to send me any. Blue Squad walked in with Bad Intel and immediately the shit hit the fan: My First Contact result yielded Unexpected Resistance (Nice job intel wizards!) and an additional 3 PEFs appeared on the table.

Turn 1
The two PEFs in section 4 activate, and the active PEFs trigger an In-Sight test from Team A, which is immediately resolved. One was fake, the other proved to be an Orc squad in a defensive position, Rep 4. The Shinmeiche take their In Sight test: Pass 2d6, they opt to fire, though only half of the team is able. The orcs receive 3 hits, one of which is their NCO. One orc is OOF, whereas the NCO and other target got splatted. The orcs then proceed to take their reaction tests, passing 1d6. The orcs, bloodthirsty and uncaring creatures that they are, opt to return fire with their messy weaponry, resulting in 5 hits, including the NCO.
The NCO and infantryman behind him are taken out of the fight, forcing a reaction test from the Team A: pass 1d6 forcing a Cohesion test. All pass 2d6, and the remaining figures act on the results of their Received Fire test, Ducking Back.

Section 7 Rep 6 PEF doesn't move, Section 8 PEF moves into LoS and proves to be nothing. Section 9 PEF is resolved in the open; the enemy passes 1d6 but receives no reinforcements. Section 7 PEF moves out of the palm forest.

Turn 2
The Orc squad in the defensive position becomes active. The middle section of the squad was cut down, so the remaining groups act separately, passing 1d6 and 2d6 respectively. They are on a Defend Mission. The right orc group fires on Team B. Two hits are inflicted on Team B, resulting in two Knock-Downs, one of which is Brag Ironballs. The infantryman is stunned, but Brag bounces right back up, ready to return fire. The rest of the team decides to Duck back into cover, but Brag decides to put a few parting shots into the Orcs with his SAW. He misses with all shots; the orcs take their test, pass 1d6 with the Rifle Orc opting to keep his head down and the LMGunner to return fire, scoring a hit on Brag and the NCO and causing KD tests on both, they Carry On and take a Received Fire test. Two hits are scored on the LMGunner and one on the Rifle Orc. The LMGunner is dead, forcing the Rifle Orc to take a reaction test; as he is thoroughly outgunned he Halts.

The bar then activates and fires upon the Shinmeiche, inflicting 3 hits, OOFing my Rocket Trooper and killing one infantrymen outright. All Carry On.

Team B activates and attempts to suppress the bar. The bar passes 1d6 on Rep 4, but 13 dice vs. its 4 Dice have succeeded in suppressing it. Team A activates and occupies the bar, concluding Turn 1.



Turn 3
Some PEF movement in the palm forest... nothing interesting there. The remaining Rifle Orc from last time opens up on my NCO and Brag, failing to hit anything. They return fire and he gets splatted. The other Orc group fires upon the bar. The structure is not suppressed.

Team B fast moves towards the shacks. They attempt to suppress one of them and are successful.

Team A in the bar opt to fire on the orc defensive position; 4 hits are scored. The orcs are smacked down but get right back up. I'm not really sure if the Orcs are outgunned or not (since FV isn't actually a proper weapon) but one of the guys in the bar has a mini-gun, so I decide that the Orcs pass 1d6 means they're ducking back behind cover for now.

Turn 4
Team B rushes out and gets shot by the Orcs. Brag takes an OOF, but uses his Star Power to stay in the fight, but he's now down to Star Power 4. The NCO gets hit 3 times and gets splatted. The squaddie next to the NCO opts to Carry On. Brag opts to fire back with two hits, and the infantryman also returns fire. Two hits are scored, OOFing one, but the Orcs then return fire, OOFing the infantryman and knocking Brag over again, who just gets back up and fires again. One Orc is killed and the other gets scared off by Brag's SAW.

The guys in the bar shoot at the Orc in cover again, ultimately to no result. The Orc in cover fires at Brag, who after getting knocked over shoots him in the face.

The shacks fire, putting the remaining non-Star of Team B out of the fight.

Turn 4
Rep 6 PEF in the palm forest doesn't do anything interesting, but Rep 4 PEF moves into view of the bar. It turns out to be nothing. The shacks fire again;

One shack and the bar are suppressed. Team A moves out of the bar.



Turn 5
Random Event triggered: Sniper targeting my mini-gunner; he's dead.

Brag attempts to suppress the shack. and is successful.

There are now two Rep 6 PEFs in the palm forest.

The shacks fire. Brag is stunned and now at Star Power 3; nother squaddie dies.

Turn 6
There's a new Orc squad in a defensive position just outside of the Palm Forest. Brag holds his fire, for the moment. The other PEF turned out to be another Orc squad. Deciding that the necessary resources just aren't there, the Shinmeiche decide to bail.


Thoughts:

• I want to get platoon-sized forces on the table; the bad guys keep getting the reinforcements whereas my luck has meant that I was stuck with what I started with. Also, I want more toys. Time to buy some more figures.
  
• I'm not sure I'm actually taking the right tests... am I supposed to be taking a Received Fire test after a Carry On result?
• As a general rule, instead of allocating dice as I want, my figures with multiple Target dice walk their fire back and forth amongst targets, ensuring that most figures will not receive more than two dice from a single figure.
• I *love* the new 5150, it's perfect for individually-based fire combat. I just want to do some larger games.
  

I just don't even...

So tonight my wife picked up a clicky-turner ring from my Mechwarrior: Age of Destruction starter and described it as my "magic ring of dorkness". I'm not really sure how to feel at this point...

Painted Sons of Thunder - Shinmeiche Bronzo Company's 1st Platoon

I've just finished painting up an entire pack of Rebel Miniatures' Sons of Thunder (sculpted by Adam Gayford), and overall I'm fairly pleased. I intend to use them with the 5150 Scrunt list, and as a result had to convert some missing weapon options, namely the mini-gun and SAW. Since the Scrunt list uses 12-man squads I was able to get two squads out of the pack, but that didn't leave me with enough figures to add platoon assets or the platoon command team. That being said, two more packs from Mike and some support weapons from GZG or someone else should allow me to field a full company with all the trimmings. From now on I will be referring to these guys as the Shinmeiche, the dwarf guys in the Aetherverse rulebook; it just flows much better than Sons of Thunder and is less weird then saying Space Dwarf, Spwarf, Scrunt (they're not Bob Olley sculpts, so that would be rude), or anything else. Featured here are the Shinmeiche of Blue Squad (Red squad is pretty much identical, so I won't bother posting pics).

The Scrunt list splits squads into two 6-man fireteams; Team A contains the NCO (denoted by a red helm and shoulders), a rocket trooper, and 4 SMG-armed Shinmeiche.

Team B contains the Jr. NCO (a gesturing fellow with identical livery to the other squaddies), a mini-gun trooper, a SAW-armed trooper, and 3 SMG-armed Shinmeiche.

Some WiP on Sons of Thunder support weapons

I'm trying to build a force for a 5150 SA version of the Scrunts using my Sons of Thunder (a purpose for them at last), but I needed SAWs and Mini-guns to complete the squad. As is, one pack makes a whole Scrunt platoon minus the command/platoon assets.

Crude work with paperclips, Orca Assault Warrior Mini-Guns, and some weapon swaps. They don't look completely terrible.

Orcs vs. Dragoons - Star Army Playtest

Well, I thought I had taken more photos (like the one of my initial table set-up), but apparently these few iffy photos are it. Anyways, here's the results of my first play through the 5150 Star Army rules using custom Orc and Dragoon lists.

I chose to do a standard Patrol mission for my first playtest, with a single squad of Orcs (6 Orcs with BA Assault Rifles, 1 w/LMG, and their NCO, Commander Nosh; all Rep 5) attempting to recon the far side of the board. The Orcs were contesting this area with an Investment Level of 3 (not that it did them much good), there was no Inclement Weather or Aerial Recon. Intel Level was 4, but it turned out that it was Bad Intel, not that that made a difference.

I generated three PEFs (Rep 3, two Rep 2) in table sections 1, 4, and 6. The Orcs won the first activation with a 6, but were unable to act apart from walking onto the table. The Rep 3 PEF was able to act and opted to move towards a Rep 2 PEF in section 4. After that there's some meandering around by the various PEFs until turn 3.

The prior turn the Rep 3 PEF decided to move into the woods in Section 9. I opted to resolve the PEF and sent one of my rifle Orcs in to poke at it. The Orcs begin to move into section 9 to see what the enemy PEF looks like. I pass 2d6 on the First Contact table, and thus the PEF is resolved normally. Enemy investment level is 3. I pass 1d6 for the PEF resolution, resulting in an Enemy Defensive Position. It calls for 2 squads and an asset in a Defensive position. Dragoons do not have assets as such (I'll make up my own assets at some point), and the Dragoons are fairly nasty, so I'm just allocating a full Dragoon squad with attached Medic/NCO.

The Dragoons (all Rep 4) take an In Sight test. They pass 2d6 and fire on the poor Orc. The Rapid-Fire Laser gunner scores an OOF result against the Orc, resolving that investigation.

The Orcs then take a Received Fire test and pass 2d6, opting to charge into Melee. The Orcs head into melee while the Dragoons fire upon their chargers. The orcs have two go OOF due to shooting, but continue on anyways, taking one Dragoon OOF; the Dragoons opt to go prone in place instead of running away.


Turn 4
The Orcs win the activation with a 5, and all remaining PEFs/NP units (having rolled a 1) will be able to activate this turn.

The Orcs opt to continue the melee, but first dispatch the OOF Dragoon in front of them, provoking a Man Down test from the other

Dragoons. The Dragoons opt to Carry On. The Dragoons win the melee by four and succeed in injuring Commander Nosh, but the innate toughness of the Orcs (Grath Recover from Knockdown) keeps them in the fight. A Man Down test is taken, but the Orcs opt to Carry On.

The Dragoon squad in the woods breaks off of the melee, provoking an In-Sight Test. The Orcs pass 2d6 and fire upon the Dragoons.

Nosh's BA SMG fails to hit anything. One Dragoon takes an AR round and goes down, but ultimately the Dragoons are successful in moving away, dragging the wounded man with them. They then proceed to open fire on the Orcs in cover. The Orcs are outgunned by the Dragoon Plasma guns, and after one Orc's tragic disintegration they proceed to Duck Back further into the trees.

The remaining PEFs move through cover.

Turn 5

I roll doubles for activation, and as a result Nosh's squad becomes the victim of Mortar Fire. The resulting barrage OOF'd and Killed the remainder of the Orc squad with Commander Nosh having to use his Cheat Death rule to survive 'til the next game (though as this was a playtest more than a campaign game, I wasn't too worried).

An interesting side-effect of the barrage was that half of the Dragoons were Stunned, and the remaining half were splatted everywhere. Here's a vote for reducing Blast circles while using 15mm figures; the 10" blast circle was absolutely disgusting.


Conclusion: I love the way Star Army flows, and all the extra stuff (Inclement Weather, Reinforcements, Insertions, etc...) really make the game shine. Melee is a bit of a crapshoot, but I'm mostly ok with how it turned out (+2d6 for using rifles as 2-handers is gonna be a no-go in my games though... I actually have figures with dedicated close-combat weapons, and an extra 2d6 just for using a rifle doesn't sit well with me). I look forward to trying Star Army out with multi-based figures.

Thoughts for the future:

*Be careful to execute tests in order and allocate fire before rolling. I find myself wanting to do unit vs. unit firing and its working against the individualized targeting.

*Orcs are pretty nasty (Carry On on a successful Recover from Knockdown test), but the Dragoons are absolute beasts with their Plasma Guns and HB armor. I need to make a note of what Assets Orcs and Dragoons can take. I think I'll make Brathairn a platoon asset and make another one an extra P-gunner or something along those lines.

*I failed to use the Non-Player tables. I was instead making tactical decisions for the Dragoons without realizing it.

*I will also probably reduce movement ranges; I'm happy with the actual weapon ranges on the 15mm tabletop.

Blackmoore's Dragoons for Star Army

As it turns out I was not as productive as I'd hoped. I did however manage to create a list for my favorite creme de la creme private contractors, Blackmoore's Dragoons.

Blackmoore's Dragoons (use Star Army reaction tables)

Attributes: Agile, Fast, Subject to Fear

Dragoon Infantry Bloc (3 per platoon)
4x Dragoons (Rep 3-5, HB armor, Laser Rifle)
2x Dragoons (Rep 3-5, HB armor, Rapid-Fire Laser Rifle)
2x Dragoons (Rep 3-5, HB armor, Plasma Gun)
1x NCO (Rep 3-5, HB armor, Shotgun)
1x Medic (Rep 4, HB armor, Laser Carbine)

Brathairn Infantry Bloc (1 per platoon)*
4x Dragoons (Rep 4-5, HB armor, Laser Rifle)
2x Dragoons (Rep 4-5, HB armor, Rapid-Fire Laser Rifle)
2x Dragoons (Rep 4-5, HB armor, Plasma Gun)
1x NCO (Rep 4-5, HB armor, Shotgun)

*All Brathairn have received advanced life-saving training and are treated as Medics

Dragoon Vehicle Table (+1d6 to Vehicle Reaction Table rolls)
1-3 Chariot IFV
4 Chariot IFV, or if an Attack mission, a Chieftain HBT
5-6 Chieftain HBT
Dragoon Vehicles

Chariot IFV (EXO, Capacity 1, Medium Projectile Cannon, 2x LAW, Tracked, 24/18 speed)
Chieftain HBT (BTA, Roof Capacity 1, Particle-Plasma Gun, Small Beam Cannon, Tracked,
24/12 speed)

Insertion Table
# - Controlling Contesting
1 - Walking In Walking In
2 - Walking In Chariot IFV
3 - Walking In Chariot IFV
4 - Chariot IFV Chariot IFV
5 - Chariot IFV Chieftain HBT
6 - Chieftain HBT Dropship

Maximum Investment Level in Controlled or Contested Areas: 3

For all other relevant tables see the Gaea Prime/Star Army Tables

5150 Star Army Lists - Orcs and Dragoons

This is just a placeholder for now... my recent employment at a produce processing plant has worn be out, but I'm hoping that tomorrow night I'm feeling energetic enough to post my altered lists. Suffice it to say that the Orcs are mostly based on the in-universe Grath entry, whereas the Dragoons are a Free Company that is equipped and trained similarly to the Star Army (but at the same time, support weapons are typically not platoon assets in the Dragoons, they're fireteam assets, which means that there are an awful lot of Repeating Lasers and Plasma Guns compared to the suggested lists).

Again, hopefully something concrete will be developed tomorrow.

Commander Nosh and the Bad Moon Lads

My Bad Moons in all their glory:

Next up, either Garn or my GZG shanties.

More 15mm Orc Vehicles

My painted fire support vehicle and its accompanying orc tank.

I've opted for a 2nd Ed. style Bad Moonz look with these, but painting anything yellow has proven challenging. On the plus side, it looks better than my Orc Battlewagon. I've got four more Shermans, but I'll probably convert them into Kangaroos instead of swapping turrets.

Note: I noticed the offending lightning bolt decal after I took the photo and have touched it up with paint.

My complete Orc vehicle fleet. I need to actually finish up some orcs to go with them.

My brand new painting desk (which is apparently of the "Secretary" type). It's quite nice, as there's plenty of storage, room for a lamp, and it's a fair step up from my previous TV tray.

Now that I've got the vehicles cleared off my desk I can get onto my next set of projects: The Fortified Manor and my 28mm Urban War gangs for MDRG.

Something for the 6mm crowd - A Landship!

Recently I was trying to get some old projects off my desk so that I could return to painting my wife's WHFB Fortified Manor (which I had promised to paint several years ago), and amongst them was the 15mm Blower Tank-based landship. While I had initially purchased the tank just for its hull, it spent a year or so painted as an actual tank, and it was just this week that I finally decided to sand the top of the hull flat, lay down a piece of styrene and get down to business. This is the result:

Not terrible for something I more or less banged together out of a blower hull, some Old Crow 6mm turrets, BFG Imperial Cruiser bridge and cannons, some Sintra, and some EM-4 mech parts.

Size Comparison Left to Right: GZG Infantry walkers, Exodus Wars infantry, Mk.1 Land Raider

I had intended to have constructed one of these at some point during my old club's combined Dirtside/Starmada campaign, but the campaign resources never allowed for this design to be fielded, and I just never bothered. It may see some use eventually, if I can ever get another 6mm sci-fi army put together.

15mm Orc Fire Support Vehicle - Before the Paint

A potent combination of Tonka Happy Meal toy, GW gubbinz, glue-coated matchsticks, and GI Joe...

Firefight in Vindaloo AAR

I had deployed the Coalition forces in several groups: one SAMAS element was deployed on each flank, whereas in the middle I had a group of SAW-armed Dead Boys and Rifle Dead Boys led by Lt. Maximo, and two fireteams of Rifle Dead Boys on the right flank. Initial moves saw the boys in black moving forward into the fields of cabbage and corn squash on the right flank, and into the shanties of Vindaloo on the left flank.


Maximo's charges were caught by surprise when the Comedian appeared out of nowhere immediately in front of him, but he was quickly cut down by reactive fire.

One of the PEFs moved south towards the right flank SAMAS element, but it proved to be nothing but shadows.

And past that point I forgot to hit save... at least there are still pictures.

Maximo and his two groups of Dead Boys advance directly through the center of the shanties, looking for the stolen Coalition tech along the way. The left flank's SAMAS element moves towards the PEF by the ship wreckage.

Maximo's group comes under fire from the OCLF in the wreckage and one fireteam is put out of the fight completely.

Dead Boys on the right flank advance through the farm to draw a bead on the OCLF that have revealed themselves in front of the gas station.

SAMAS RPA Elites return the fire of the OCLF by the gas station. A team of Laborers is put down with HMG fire.

The left flank SAMAS element trades ineffectual fire with a small OCLF contingent behind the spaceship wreckage (I really need to paint DOOP markings on that ship at some point).

The larger of the two OCLF groups is forced to Hunker Down in and behind the small residential building, effectively taking them out of the game. At this point Maximo's team already has the tech (an incomplete SAMAS suit) and is headed off the board.

Notes and Observations:

• I really wish I hadn't lost most of my notes, but since some of the reaction tests create ineffectual firing loops, some of it is alright. I really should've been producing more Duck Back results than I did (guess I forgot).
• I'm not entirely pleased with the results I got. Trying to use a skirmish game as a platoon-to-company level game is kind of iffy, but it worked ok. I think the main problems I encountered had a lot to do with the specific THW sets I used. This is not Ed's fault; CR 3.0 is free, and ATZ is very individual oriented.
  
• The CR 3.0 NPC movement table just wasn't very interesting, and if I'd bothered to make up a tactical doctrine for the OCLF I could've had more fun.
• The size of the generated enemy groups made them unwieldy, and when combined with the limited NPC movement table the end result was that I had large blocks clumping together on a single terrain feature most of the time, often blocking the fields of fire of the better weapons that were available.
• I may go back to using the same Target rating as the weapons originally had; it'd make the big guns a lot more killy than they currently are. I still like using stand-widths instead of templates to allocate area fire (like Crossfire)
• I need to use actual armor rules or something to make characters scarier; the Comedian got shot up too quickly; I probably should've let him shoot before the Dead Boys to give him somewhat of a chance. Next time we'll use 5150, possibly Star Army, but I didn't want to crack out that book with its dozens of QRS at this point.
• I may cut movement distances down a bit. A fast move of 16" for a 30mm square stand representing a fireteam seems a touch too fast.

All in all, it was a good trial run, but before I get back to Janitoria I will probably focus on some games that require less table space for a while.