Game This Week - Tomorrow's War

Tonight we go for round two vs. Tomorrow's War!

Well, our first go-round was a little rough, but we are not deterred, so this week we will be giving "Tomorrow's War", the sci-fi skirmish rules from Ambush Alley Games/Osprey, another try. I have heaped a fair amount of ranting/complaints on the rules, but conscript Mike A has doggedly suggested that the rules are actually much clearer when you read "Force On Force", the modern skirmish game from Ambush Alley, which uses the identical core system. 

I borrowed a copy of "Force On Force" from Mike A, and I think he's right.  Some things are still fuzzy, but the basics are much clearer in "Force On Force".  Armed with this (still possibly delusional) new understanding, I think we will have a much better time of it.  Or we won't, but it's still fun to push figures around!

Tonight's scenario will pit the sinister, menacing forces of Gün Schwarm against the sinister, menacing forces of FuturKom.  On the world of Dnieper VII, the FuturKom's 356th Guards Army has launched a major offensive and is sweeping all resistance ahead of it.  The 210th Schwarm Korps is trying to dent the advancing Kommulists where it can while falling back toward a new defensive line.  The spearheads of the 356th Guards have had to deal with spoiling attacks from mobile Gün units, the odd mob of "TruKom" rebels, and the occasional air strike by the LuftSchwarm.

One such Kom spearhead, stopped near an abandoned village, was the victim of a particularly hard-hitting air strike.  Their APCs and T-340s have been knocked out, and the troops scattered. The local Güns have spotted this confusion, and have moved in for a quick counterattack, hoping to finish off the column and grab some valuable intelligence from a T-640 that appears to been knocked out. Will the Güns get the job done? Will the Kom motor fuzileers rally in time to see them off? Will TruKom rebels try and join the fun? Lock and load on Dnieper VII!

Hope to see you tonight!

Belated battle report - a FuturKom Kristmas

Oh tannen-bot, oh tannen-bot!

The holiday season is upon us, and to mark it we gathered at Dallas' place last week for a game of SpaceKrieg, the wierd and wonderful 25/28mm sci-fi setting where in the unpleasant shade of the distant future, there is only armed conflict...and tanks with huge guns.

Dallas set up the table in a suitable Christmas theme. About 40 Kommulist troops - including some new armoured infantry, backed by a scout vehicle, an odious new Kombot (christened "O Tannen-Bot" for this game) and the devestating SU-3000 took on a platoon of 30 Gün grenadiers, who were backed by a mortar, a recon tank, an APC and the dreaded Space Hetzer.



Check out this great holiday candle guys - I'm sure it will inspire the public once they are properly "secured"

The objective of the game was to recover the majority of the objectives before the other side - three bomb-zombies on the table. Because otherwise the bomb-zombies would ruin Christmas, right? Mike F and Dallas rolled with the Kom, while Dave V and Cam joined me on the side that advocated peace through war.



Patience lads - need to be sure we get priority...

As the game progressed, it became clear the Futurkom side would have an even more devestating secret weapon than any robot or tank - the violin!



Deluded young kommulist interns display the new FuturKom weapon during a youth re-education session

Several turns of whinging about the abilities of Gün Schwarm ("They hit on a three?" "The mortar hit how many people?" "Their training is WHAT?"), together with other big-lip tactics managed to obscure the fact that FuturKom actually WON the game. The Gün Schwarm certainly piled up Kommulists like cords of firewood, but it was not enough, as FuturKom managed to secure a majority of the bomb zombies by the end of the game.



The SU-3000 lost out on the duel with the Space Hetzer



Dave V was Vegas with the Gün mortar team - it basically held one flank for most of the game

Hopefully Dallas can add a few more photos to show the Futurkom side of the battle. But a good time was had by all - even Mike and Dallas after they realized they had won!

Thanks again to Dallas for hosting, and to all who came to play!

FuturKom on the March!

If nothing else, the Painting Challenge has concentrated me on finishing stuff that has been hanging around unpainted seemingly forever.  Two great examples are in this post.

I picked up these models out of a bargain bin at Phoenix Games in Minneapolis, several years ago.  (Phoenix is now defunct and has been for some time if that gives any indication of how long they've been laying around).  I decided to paint them as "FuturKommandos" in advanced power armour suits, the pinnacle of technological advancement of the latest 50-Year Plan.  Five are armed with plasma rifles and one with a heavy plasma cannon.  For the tactical markings, I used some red star decals from Company "B" that were in my decal folder.

Behind the Kommandos stands another converted walker I have dubbed the "KomBot".  The base model is from WotC's Star Wars Miniatures game line (I have no idea what it's called) and I picked it up cheap a couple years ago at a local shop, thinking it might come in handy someday.  I reckoned that for about $3 it was a great deal.  Some GW weapons (and of course a standard-issue spotlight from Future Industrie GmbH), a Futur-green paintjob with chips and rust, and it is ready for battle, with the addition of decals from Company "B" and GW.

"Onward to the glorious future-socialist future -- FUTURKOM!!"

FuturKom: Монстр

Of course, with Greg working on his TruKom rebels, the Spacekrieg escalation must continue.  With this in mind I set about painting a mechanized death machine to serve as an example of revolutionary engineering prowess and the inevitability of victory for the latest 50-Year Plan.  So what if a few million peasants starve in the process -- look at this frickin' cool giant robot we built!!

The base model is, of course, the Destroid "Monster" from Robotech - "the largest mech ever constructed by humanity" or something.  All I know is that it looks vaguely Russian and has some very big guns.

I was pretty lazy and just painted it straight up - no conversion.  Me, I'm not that familiar with the Robotech universe so it doesn't look odd to my eyes to see a Robotech vehicle in FuturKom livery.  

This shot gives a good impression of the large size of the Monster - it's big!  Look out Space Panthers!!

Final Defeat for Future Gordon Brown

Future Gordon Brown is briefed on the outcome of the engagement

Well, given the few highs and many lows of Gordon Brown's prime-ministership, it is hardly surprising to see the future mimics the present when it comes to the exploits of Future Gordon Brown and the FutureBrits in our entertaining SpaceKrieg setting.

Since the British electorate has now deprived us of Gordon Brown, last week we played a tribute game to the hapless outgoing UK PM. Set on the otherwise non-threatening Planet K, the sinister FuturKom has marshalled a Device Of Widespread Annihilation. At the (possibly enabled) insistence of FutureHansBlix, a coalition of Gün Schwarm and FutureBrits swung into action to protect interplanetary order and secure the DOWA for, er, "research" purposes. This represented Future Gordon Brown's last gambit at achieving a military success which might convince the voters of FutureUK to at least accept his party in some kind of coalition government.

Dallas' outstanding "DOWA", a 1/48 SCUD missile model kit, made for an awesome objective

The game was set on a 6'x4' table, with the DOWA and accompanying FutureKom escort in the middle. Dallas and the elusive Cam rolled with the Kom, while Mike F pushed his hard working Brtis, and I went with the Schwarm.

An odious FutureKom detachment prepares to escape with the DOWA, aided by the ubiquitous T-340s

Mike and I set the Schwarm and the Brits in a blockade on either side. The Kom had to get the DOWA off one of the short edges of the table. Beyond establishing that the "Coalition" side could not fire direclty on the DOWA, we really did not get too precise about the conditions, but as it turned out this didn't matter, since the Coalition turned in a pretty lousy performance.

FutureBrit troops move into position, privately relieved that FutureKom seems to want to run over the other guys instead...

Dallas and Cam opted to try and push through the GünSchwarm line, which I thought was foolhardy. After all, I had a Space Panther and the beloved Schwarm-Bot. How could we not prevail?

"Seriously - there are no enemy troops out there - now stay off the radio...

Pretty easily, as it turns out. Try as I might, I could not convince the Panther crew to spot anything, and the tank was ultimately knocked out by the Cam and Dallas' T-340s. Schwarm-Bot had a good time knocking out some FutureKom suits, but overall added little to the battle other than a few beeps and a pleasant retro-GW figure vibe. The Kom broke through my line easily, spearheaded by a few bomb zombies. Hardly Operation Bagration material...

Artist image of Gün Schwarm Space Panther commander

The Brits had a not-great outing too, but to give Mike F credit, his lads ultimately got their stuff together and began to mow down the Kommies. By that time, the DOWA was just about safely off the opposite table edge. In the very last turn of the game, my Gün Grenadiers realized how bad they were going to look in the after action report, so they suddenly took the safeties off their weapons and shredded some FuturKom troops, but this was way too little, too late. I talked smack about a Gav Thorpe moral victory, but the fact is that the Kom got the job done, and will now be able to threaten Planet K with a DOWA. No doubt Future Nick Clegg will be gloating at this last set back Future Gordon Brown.

"Another example of the failure of Future Gordon Brown!"

If this is a sign of the abilities of Coalitions, I fear for the people of the UK.

Up next will be some warm up games for Prairie Con, which the Conscripts will be rolling out to Shock and Awe once again this year. Thanks to Dallas for hosting, and to everyone who rolled out!

New addition to the "Arsenal of Future-Socialism"

I've now finished painting and weathering the latest addition to my FuturKom forces, the T-640 heavy tank. (Please ignore the gloss around the decals as I'd run out of matte spray)



As I wrote in the previous "build" post, the model is based on a 1/35 T-64, built mostly from the box, with some GW bits bunged on, skirts made from plasticard, and a biiiiig gun.





Some Pig Iron Kolony Militia to show scale. In keeping with Soviet doctrine the FuturKom heavy tanks are a bit smaller and more manoeuvrable than their Western counterparts.



Crewman has a GW Cadian tank crew body and a Pig Iron Kolony head. Looking forward to crushing some future-fascists with this bad boy!

More FutureCom Fun

The arms race continues...

I've really been enjoying the conversions and painting projects I've been doing for my Pig Iron project. Science-fiction painting and modelling can be fun even without skullz and spiky bitz ;-)

Anyway here's the latest addition to the arsenal - based on a gigantic 1/43 Russian diecast T-34/85 tank obtained from Greg B. A mild conversion really - cut off the main gun and replace with twin GW Heavy Bolters, mock up a hull-mounted lascannon for a big punch, add stowage and a pintle-mounted storm bolter, and sprinkle on some randon sci-fi bits. "Simple but effective," as they say... here are some pics.

A word of caution for anyone attempting to repaint Russian diecast... DO NOT paint the tracks!! I forgot to remove them before priming the vehicle and the paint would not dry on the flexible vinyl... it turned into a sticky mess. After a bath in Castrol Super-Clean degreaser they are OK again, thankfully.

Anyway, hope you enjoy the pics and stay tuned for pictures of the painted Polikarpov I-16 conversion coming soon!

The Finished Flyer

Thanks for all the kind comments on here and TMP regarding the Polikarpov I-16 conversion!

I thought I would post some final pics of the painted model and briefly describe the process of painting it.





The whole model was first primed with cheap black spraypaint - the cheapest I could find (that still has "fast-drying" in the description, as I am an impatient hobbyist)



The top surfaces were basecoated with Citadel Catachan Green and panels highlighted with a mix of Catachan Green and Camo Green. The red nose ring and rocket warheads were painted Citadel Mechrite Red from their Foundation range. All of these paints are highly pigmented and cover extremely well.





The underside surfaces were painted Citadel Ultramarines Blue and panels highlighted with Citadel Shadow Grey.

The metal parts were painted Citadel Boltgun Metal and washed with Citadel Badab Black, and a Botgun metal drybrush applied. Black craft paint was drybrushed along the fuselage bottom to simulate the effect of the jet wash.





After painting the colours, I went around and added paint chips to panel edges and wear spots with Citadel Boltgun metal and a spotter brush. (Most all of the panel highlighting was done with a no.2 "Filbert" brush which I tend to use alot).



The last step was to affix the canopy with white (PVA) glue, to avoid fogging the clear plastic with cyanoacrylate fumes. The (twenty-year-old) kit decals were applied and I although I used Microsol to set them, some silvering is evident, and I think I'll touch that up with some paint.

All in all, this was a really fun project from start to finish and I hope you enjoy the pictures. Cheers!