Dragoons Finished

The "Black Powder Challenge" has another completed unit.

I have finally finished my first unit of 25/28mm Napoleonic Cavalary - a Regiment of Austrian Dragoons. These are the 5th Dragoons, a Moravian Regiment, with green facings. The figures are all Foundry castings, a 24-figure unit suitable for our "grand manner" style of gaming. This is the first unit of cavalry I have ever painted for 25/28mm Napoleonics, and I have to say I am very pleased to have it under the belt! I started these back in early March, so to me this feels like pretty slow going. A whole month on the same unit is like an eternity for someone with my lack of focus.

This leaves me with one final unit left for the roster I committed to last July - a Hussar Regiment. The Hussars have a very flashy uniform - shako, pelisse, sabretache. Getting 24 of them ready will take a bit of time for sure, but the end for this project is in sight!

Troll Forged Alien Larva Brain

Troll Forged Alien with Emperor's Champion and Tyranid Zoanthrope

In my last post I wrote about getting some Daemon parts from Troll Forged Miniatures to use in a Daemon Prince conversion.  Actually, I'd stumbled across the Daemon parts while browsing for Alien-style models to use in my 40K Tyranid army, Hive Fleet Nostromo.

Turns out that Troll Forged makes a very sweet Alien-style monster (the "Larva Brain") that would make a nice Zoanthrope, or in my army, will stand in for the Ur-Zoanthrope, the "Doom of Malantai". 

The Troll Forged model is a very clean one-piece casting in white resin, with a small integral base, and includes a large GW-style round base.  It cleaned up easily with mild soap and water, and took primer very well.  The only small caveat I have with the model is that the resin is somewhat "bendy", and didn't really straighten out even when run under hot water.  But this was not much of a problem in the end as it's not noticeable once the model is positioned on the large round base.  The Alien represents decent value for money as well, retailing for $12 in the Troll Forged online store.

Big Brother (Nurgle Daemon Prince Conversion WIP)

For awhile now, I've been looking for a suitable Daemon Prince to lead my Warhammer 40K Nurgle Space Marines.  I wasn't "feeling" GW's plastic Daemon Princes, and while the metal Daemon Prince of Nurgle is a really nice model in most respects, I always thought that that model was making a face like it smelled something bad, and didn't bring across the full diseased yuckiness of Nurgle.  These are the guys that wear gas masks to keep poison gas in, for Pete's sake!

So, I decided to convert a Daemon Prince of my own.  I had been wondering what to use as a base model, when I remembered that our FLGS had a broken up "Battle Brother Artemis" from the 54mm "Inquisitor" range in its used model bin.  This would make a great start on a Daemon Prince, since they're just overgrown Space Marines anyway, right?

Unfortunately, the parts model wasn't complete, and was missing its left leg.  Fortunately, I'd just come across Troll Forged Models and in particular, its range of modular Daemon Lords.  So I picked up a pair of legs, two arms, a loincloth and head from them for about 12 bucks.  (The wings also came from the FLGS)

The resin is great quality and virtually flash-free.  Once I got these parts, the model went up in an evening and a bit.  I used a ton of green stuff to make the diseased bits and to cover gaps.  Chains came from a Dollarama jewellery purchase today - $2.  The sword was made from thin plasticard.

We'll soon see how he paints up but I'm reasonably happy with him so far.  Thanks a bunch to Ed at Troll Forged for the quick service!

Ships shipped

Lately on Kijiji I found an ad for a bunch of 1/2400 warships. I asked the owner to send me a list and at first glance it seemed quite substantial, so I made an offer. But when the box arrived, I felt its weight and I knew the content was going to be awesome.

There is enough WW1 ships to make the Home Fleet and the High Seas Fleet. There is also a good core of pre-dreadnought ships to have a downsized battle of Tsushima. The rest is made of WW2 battleships and there are some 1/1200 ships as well.

Here is a "sub-box" full of C-in-C goodies. Some of the ships are in pure lead.

For comparison, here are side by side a 1/2400 battleship, a 1/1200 sail ship (74 guns) and a 1/1200 battleship (Lion). It's just mind boggling how big warships have become with time.

But before I start playing with my new ships, I have to finish my little Russians. Better get at it.

Head Hunters - 40K Tourney Prep

Last Wednesday night I had a great game of 40K with AlexB, co-organizer of Mechani-Kon. He's in the midst of building an entirely new Ork force. Vehicles all scratch built or heavily converted, converted figures, the whole nine yards. He's been wanting to play test his list before the upcoming Astronomi-con Winnipeg in April. Accordingly, Alex put on the table his WIP army. I brought my Las Vegas GT list - I've been play testing this latest iteration of my Eldar Swordwind since Christmas time, against a variety of opponents and army factions.

Alex posted a batrep of the game on his blog, here. We thought it would be cool to get some insight into the two very different factions and their respective strategies and tactics.

Eldar Swordwind

HQ: Autarch (1#, 93 pts)
1 Autarch (Banshee Mask; Power Weapon; Fusion Gun)

HQ: Farseer (1#, 125 pts)
1 Farseer (Doom; Fortune; Runes of Warding)

Troops: Dire Avengers (6#, 185 pts)
5 Dire Avengers
1 Wave Serpent (Spirit Stones; TL Scatter Lasers)

Troops: Dire Avengers (6#, 185 pts)
5 Dire Avengers
1 Wave Serpent (Spirit Stones; TL Scatter Lasers)

Troops: Dire Avengers (6#, 185 pts)
5 Dire Avengers
1 Wave Serpent (Spirit Stones; TL Scatter Lasers)

Elite: Fire Dragons (10#, 264 pts)
9 Fire Dragons
1 Wave Serpent (Spirit Stones; Shuriken Cannon; TL Shuriken Cannons)

Fast Attack: Vyper Squadron (3#, 210 pts)
1 Vyper Squadron
1 Vyper (Scatter Laser; Shuriken Cannon)
1 Vyper (Scatter Laser; Shuriken Cannon)
1 Vyper (Scatter Laser; Shuriken Cannon)

Fast Attack: Warp Spiders (5#, 137 pts)
4 Warp Spiders
1 Warp Spider Exarch (Powerblades; Death Spinner x2)

Heavy Support: Night Spinner (1#, 115 pts)
1 Night Spinner

Total Roster Cost: 1499

Everything moves very fast. Lots of Strength 6 firepower. The Fire Dragons are there to stop the odd heavy unit, like a Land Raider. The Farseer will mostly cast Fortune (re-roll saves) on vehicles, casting Doom (re-roll wounds) on targets of opportunity. The Autarch adds some offensive capability and allows the entire force to reserve itself and still come on fairly cohesively. The Vyper squadron runs interference for the tanks and lays down suppression fire. The Warp Spiders can Deep Strike anywhere, especially targeting the rear of enemy tanks or isolated units like Devastator squads.

Ork Horde

HQ:
105 - Warboss - Power Klaw, Bosspole, 'Eavy Armor, Cybork Body
120 - Big Mek - Burna, Kustom Force Field, Cybork Body, 'Eavy Armor

Elites:
105 - Tank Bustas - 6 with Rokkits, 3 Bomb Squigs
100 - Mekboy Junka - 3 Big Shootas, 2 Grot Bombs, Reinforced Ram, Grot Riggers

Troops:
245 - Meganobz - 5, trukk with Big shoota, Grot Riggers, Reinforced Ram
126 - Boyz - 11, Rokkit, trukk with rokkit, Grot Riggers, Reinforced Ram
177 - Boyz - 12, Rokkit, Nob, Bosspole, Eavy Armor, Power Klaw, trukk with Rokkit, Grot Riggers, Reinforced Ram
122 - Boyz - 12, Big Shoota, trukk with Big shoota, Grot Riggers, Reinforced Ram
45 - Grotz - 10, Runtherd with Grot Prod

Fast Attack:
70 - Warbuggies - 2 buggies, 2 wartrakk upgrade, 2 Twin-linked Big Shootas
80 - Warbuggies - 2 buggies, 2 wartrakk upgrade, 2 Twin-linked Rokkits

Heavy Support:
110 - Gun Trukks - 2 Trukks, 2 Zzap Guns, 2 Rokkits
75 - Big Track - 4 Big Shootas, Deffrolla, Grot Riggers

Total = 1480 pts.

There are several Imperial Armour units in the force: the squadron of Zzap gun Gun Trukks (Imperial Armor 11), the ersatz Huey running as the Mek Junka (IA 11) carrying the squad of Tank Bustas, and the "Chinork" running as a Big Trakk (IA 11).

There are lots of scoring units, and just a lot of Orks in general, following Alex' "target overlord" strategy.

The task for the Eldar would be to implement correct target prioritization and gun down the Orks before they get within their own "sweet" range.

Scenario:
We played an old WarCon scenario, Headhunt, updated for 40K 5th ed. Victory Points mission, with your general (the highest point character) being worth an extra 250 VPs if killed; while she is alive all of your models get +1 Ld, but if she dies all your models get -1 Ld. Deployment zones were 12" in from either long table edge.

Table:
Alex used some of the Mechani-Kon terrain. The volcano in the middle was a big LOS blocker. We agreed that the lava in the craters had cooled off and the craters were difficult terrain, but provided cover for infantry inside them. A few bits of scattered wreckage dotted the table, too. So, aside from the volcano there was almost no cover for my skimmers.

Below, the view is from the northern table edge, looking southeast.



Planning and Deployment:
Due to the lack of other cover, I would have to use the volcano as much as possible, and use skimmers to provide cover for my other skimmers.

Alex won the die roll and chose to set up first. He set up in a deep phalanx behind the volcano, Warbuggies on each flank, with the two Zzap Gun armed Gun Trukks on his left (eastern) flank.

I could see that Alex was poised to use his fastest vehicles in a double envelopment. I thought about using null deployment (keeping everything off the table in Reserve), but that would just allow the Orks to move up fast, unopposed, and the Eldar would not have a lot of room for maneuver when they did arrive.

The two highest priority targets were the Gun Trukks and the Huey carrying the squad of Tank Bustas - these had the best chance of downing my boats. The Gun Trukks were parked right on the northern table edge, just behind the Ork left (eastern) flank.

I wouldn't mirror the Ork deployment. That would place most of the Eldar too close to the Ork fast movers.

If I set up in one of the corners I might have been doing what Alex wanted me to do, but there were ways to mitigate the risk.

Therefore, I set up everything but the Warp Spiders in the southeast corner, as seen below:



The Farseer rode with the Fire Dragons. I placed their Serpent right in the corner, shielded somewhat by the hulls of other tanks. The only worthwhile target for the Dragons were the Meganobz, and there was no way the Eldar were going to get that close to them, if I could help it. The Farseer would Fortune her ride, giving it a re-roll on the cover saves it would get from the other tank hulls around it.

The Autarch rode in the Avenger Serpent immediately in front of the Farseer - if that boat went down, the Autarch had a chance of successfully acting as a speed bump to slow down the green tide for a turn, if they Waaaughed into close combat.

The Vypers shielded a couple of other tanks (looking at fire angles around the volcano).

The Night Spinner artillery tank anchored the Eldar left (western) flank. It was protected from a lot of fire by the volcano, and was a low priority target since it was my cheapest tank.

I would Deep Strike the Spiders behind the Ork lines, trying for the Tank Bustas.

With a range of 36", the scatter lasers on my skimmers would be able to hit any Ork vehicle that revealed itself. The Night Spinner could drop a shot anywhere on the table. My plan was to keep the fight at fairly long range. I figured to hit the Gun Trukks and the two Warbuggy units early with massed S6 gun fire. The Eldar infantry riding inside the tanks wouldn't get out of their tanks unless they really, really had to.

The Orks went first, starting their envelopment and pushing the Warbuggies close. The only effect of their fire was a single Wave Serpent Shaken, unable to fire but still able to move (yay for Spirit Stones).

The Eldar moved east and north, hugging the table edge. The Eldar return fire was effective, destroying the two Gun Trukks. Another Trukk was Immobilized by the Night Spinner; the blast effect also affected the Trukks packed around that first target, but they could easily make the required Dangerous Terrain tests.



The Orks kept pushing forward, but just couldn't damage the Eldar tanks. A Warbbuggy was destroyed, along with another Trukk, putting the Meganobz on the ground.The Warp Spiders dropped in (almost missing their drop zone), immobilizing the Tank Bustas' ride; the Spiders were going to die, but it was worth the sacrifice.



The Orks continued to try and push forward around both sides of the volcano. The Eldar shot up some more Trukks, putting their Boyz on the ground. This really limited both their mobility and their ability to mass together for a decisive charge.



As the surviving Warbuggies closed, I started moving the Eldar back west, away from the closest ground troops of the Orks. The Vypers skirmished in front of the Eldar tanks; it would be difficult for the Orks to take down all three Vypers in a single round of close combat - they needed "6's" because of the bikes' speed, and they didn't have enough attacks available.



The last Spider went down to the westernmost Ork Boyz. Eventually, all the Warbuggies were destroyed or had their teeth pulled ("Weapon Destroyed" results). I put a lot of fire on the Meganobz, killing a couple, but not enough to score any VPs (minimum one-half the unit required to be destroyed to score 1/2 VPs).

Alex had difficulty repairing his damaged vehicles. Eventually, the Tank Bustas got out of their damaged ride and tried to lay fire on the Eldar tanks. The Orks whiffed, and a Night Spinner barrage blew them all off the table.



As the game wound down, I concentrated fire on the Boyz who killed the Warp Spiders, reducing them to one last Boy. Instead of wiping out that unit, I tried to put some more shots on the Nobz (one more unsaved wound would garner another 100 VPs), but their heavy body armour held up.

Below is a shot of the wall of wraithbone skimmer hulls, around the end of the 4th turn.



The Eldar Vypers had been a thorn in Alex' side all game, so he concentrated his fire on them, finally downing one.

The Farseer switched her Fortune to the bikes. The final Eldar formation saw the bikes in the rear, protected by the mass of the hulls in front of them; the bikes were the easiest to kill, so I wanted to keep them alive and prevent giving up their VPs to Alex.



The game ended at the bottom of the 6th turn. Despite the awful carnage wrought among the Ork forces, the game wasn't going to be a runaway for the Eldar. I wasn't even close to tabling the Orks. As it turned out, the Eldar gave up 137 VPs, for the Warp Spiders. The Orks lost in the vicinity of 450-500 VPs worth of units. The Eldar needed to be ahead by a difference of at least 150 VPs to allow for a win.

Result: Eldar Victory

The Big Trukk just wasn't producing for Alex. It was the slowest of his vehicles, so its firepower was very limited if it tried to keep up with everybody else. It's a large vehicle; using it as a "counts as" Battlewagon instead would gain a lot more resiliency for the Orks (AV 14 on the front facing). If the Meganobz ride in that bad boy, they might be able to get into close combat.

As for the Eldar, their tactics seemed to hold up. The only question was regarding the Fire Dragon's Wave Serpent. It's armed with turreted TL Shuriken Cannons. Twice during the game it came up short, just out of its 24" range. If I give up one Fire Dragon (16 points), I can afford the upgrade to TL Scatter Lasers (15 points), just like the rest of the Wave Serpents. Fundamentally, I'm probably losing only one Melta shot during the course of a game, since the Dragons die pretty fast once their boots are on the ground. As Alex says, the squad would still have eight melta guns...

All in all, we both had a lot of fun. It's always cool trying out my Eldar against different opponents. I don't get to play Alex enough. The last time was at an Astronomi-con a few years ago. I look forward to seeing his force when they're fully assembled and painted.

"Heeeeere's (more) Nurgle!"

I just finished some more vehicles for my 40K Nurgle Space Marine army and wanted to post some pics...

 

First off, here we have some Chaos Raptors with excellent resin jump packs from Max Minis. The original models had those somewhat ridiculous looking batwing style jump packs which did not look menacing at all but looked more, as Conscript Brian would say, "fey". So away with them! I have five more which will be used to outfit five more new-style Raptors.

Next, a group shot of the Motor Pool of Nurgle.  I just added two more Rhinos (call signs 2 and 3 below) and a Vindicator that I bought off ebay, that turned out to be from a guy right around the corner (cheers Dan H.)  The vehicles were converted with green stuff and the odd Chaos Spawn bit and then painted to match (as close as possible for me using eyeball paint mixing) the rest of the vehicles in the army.

Lastly, the big bruiser... Chaos Land Raider. I bought this off a chap in Toronto through Bartertown and took delivery personally when I was there a month ago or so.  I'm never too much for "work in progress" pictures because I either forget to take them, or don't want to stop to take them when I'm on a painting roll, but here are a couple of shots during the conversion and after completion:

  

Looking forward to rolling this sucker out, probably carrying Typhus and a retinue of seven (naturally) Chaos Terminators... good times.  Of course with Conscript Indo's and Conscript Mike A.'s Nurgle forces to complement my own 2,500 points or so, we could probably have a really nice Apocalypse game... although with that strong of a representation from the Plaguefather you'd best be advised to bring plenty of hand sanitizer ;-)  

Wings of War: Battle over the Trenches

Last night I ran Wings of War for some fast WWI air combat action. We first played a quick dogfight to get everyone up to speed on the rules. Afterward, we played the first mission in the Knights of the Air campaign system.

Mission 1: Battle Over The Trenches: Each side reveals the newest weapon in their arsenal – the airplane – and attempts to seize the initiative. The side that wins goes on the offensive.

Type: Dogfight

Sorties: 2+

Victory Conditions: Mission Points. At the end of each sortie, calculate each side’s Mission Points. The side with the most points wins that sortie. After all sorties have been flown, the side that has the most victories wins the mission.

Fallback: Replay

Setup: Mission should be played length wise on a 4’x6’ table. Each side has a 24 inch deployment zone. The trenches begin 24 inches in from both ends of the table. This leaves 24 inches of No-man’s Land in the center of the table.

Below, MikeA and BillC played Die Fliegertruppen, setting up two Albatross DIIIs in the nearer (eastern) section of the table.



Brian and Indo flew a pair of Aéronautique Militaire Nieuport 17s, seen in the farther (western) zone.



Mike and Bill flew in a loose formation westwards, looking to scrap with their French counterparts.



Mike and Bill turned south, Brian turned north to meet them, and Indo flew on east toward the German lines.



Indo Immelmanned and flew back west to help out Brian, who was locked in a turning fight with Bill's red Albatross. Mike performed a large, slow turn, nursing damage from the first pass.



Brian decided to concentrate on Bill, and Indo sunk his teeth into Mike, breaking up the fur ball into two distinct dogfights.



Below, Indo moves his plane into a deflection shot on Mike.



Like mounted knights of old, Bill and Brian headed straight for each other, all guns blazing. Brian's deadly marksmanship set Bill's plane on fire...



...then another burst at point-blank range sent Bill's Albatross spinning down into No-Man's Land.



Meanwhile, Mike decided to head for his own lines. He had suffered considerable damage, and was now outnumbered 2-1. However, Indo had other ideas...



At the extreme range of his guns, Indo managed a final burst that forced Mike to crash land just within the German front line trenches.



Mission Results: The French were able to pull off a decisive win.

Campaign Results:

• Bill: shot down in No Man's Land; suffered 2 wounds, but managed to evade capture and return to his squadron
• Brian: one victory (Bill's Albatross DIII)
• Indo: one victory (Mike's Albatross DIII)
• Mike: shot down over own lines; unwounded

Since they won, next game the French will be able to choose to play one of the following missions:

1. Mission 2a: Enemy Troop Movement: Providing intelligence for the ground war is of the highest priority, HQ has tasked the air service to locate vital ground targets along the front lines.
2. Mission 2b: Dawn Patrol: Maintaining air superiority is critical for the ground war, HQ has tasked the air service to fly routine patrols along the front lines.

Wings of War is a very fast and clean system. There are better simulations out there (for example, Aces High), but WoW is easier to grasp and allows new players to get involved right away.

Thanks to everyone who played.

Thursday Game: Wings of War

Tonight's game will be the first of the long-gestating Wings of War campaign. The game will be set in 1916, pitting men and machines of the French Army Air Service (Aéronautique Militaire) against those of the Imperial German Flying Corps (Die Fliegertruppen des deutschen Kaiserreiches).

Each side reveals the newest weapon in their arsenal – the airplane – and attempts to seize the initiative. The side that wins goes on the offensive for the next game of the campaign.

We shall be using the Knights of the Air campaign system for Wings of War. The system uses the rules from Famous Aces and Watch Your Back (including the Special Damages, Aim, Tailing, and Blind Spots For Rear Guns optional rules), plus we may use our home brew Limited Ammunition rules.

Dragoon(ing) along

Just a short update on my continued efforts to finish that initial roster of 25mm Napoleonics I started last July. Curt and I are doing really big units in the "grand manner" style. To help keep us motivated, Curt has launched his own spring thaw challenge. I had finished off my first three infantry units, some command, some skirmishers and (eww) artillery. Now I'm stuck into the hard part (for me) - cavalry!

Our cavalry units are 24-figures strong. I am close to half-way on my first cavalry project, a unit of Austrian Dragoons. The figures are from Foundry. Here are a couple of pictures of the progress so far.



I'm starting to get into a bit of a groove with the cavalry, but I can't quite bang these out like I can with the infantrymen. Practice helps, however, and each night I complete another one or two troopers is a good one! The picture below is a testament to my lack of project focus - you can see a bunch of 40k stuff in various stages of completion in the background.



Helpfully for me the Austrian Dragoon uniform has a lot of similarities to the uniforms of the Austrian regular infantry - white coats, coloured facings, yellow and black puff (I'm sure it's not called a "puff", but whatever*) on a black helmet, etc. I can't wait to get these guys all finished and based, and at the current rate, that will likely be end of March. Every nervous Austrian commander needs cavalry to cover their flanks of their column (or just ride with them to check out a potential new summer palace), so it will be good to get some cav together for the scions of the sausage.

*PS - fellow Conscript Curt has informed the "puff" is actually called a "comb" - I'll remember that for the future!

San Domingo, 1806

Last Thursday, I prepared a scenario for the sail ships inspired by the battle of San Domingo. It was the occasion to test a few rules tweaks, most of them taken from Wargames Illustrated n260, but also some of my own, including redrawing the ship display.The display is inspired by Kiss me Hardy!. Numbers in the hull indicate the number of die for gunnery. If damage reaches red zones, the ship must test in the end phase for striking colors. The big change is the suppression of the saving throw, making the combat resolution a little quicker. But let's go back to the scenario.

Leissègues' fleet had the mission to disrupt British shipping lanes in the Carribeans. During a stop in San Domingo, Leissègues decided to leave in haste the safety of the port when hearing the news that a British fleet was approaching. The British split their fleet in two squadrons in order to trap the French fleet. Stacy, briefly helped by Rob, was in charge of the French vessels, while Curt and Allan would share command of the British.

Here is the French fleet, cruising under the nice Caribbean sun, minding its own business. The fleet was lead by the Impérial, a giant 120 gun first-rate under the cmmand of Amiral Stéssy. The green tape represents shallow waters.

Trouble on the horizon! Admiral Allan forms his ships into a line of battle to engage the French.

Amiral Stéssy wanted to demonstrate that French sailors are not just decorative. He ordered a series of tacking maneuvers to confuse the British.

Boum! Boum! Guns are talking. Admiral Allan had his guns readied with double shots and it proved devastating on the Impérial.

More ships are being engaged in the exchange of fire. More shots on the French first-rate.

Hey, what is that black smoke? The Northumberland is on fire! And what is that ship on the horizon? It's Admiral Curt, finally joining the battle after some delays that will later have to be explained back in London.

Badly damaged, the Impérial found the situation hopeless. The French had the option in this scenario to try run aground instead of being captured. So Amiral Stéssy bravely headed for the island and got stuck in shallow waters where his flagship got wrecked.

Admiral Curt is closing in, eager to make sure his ships will be included in any future historical paintings of the battle.
And here is the final situation. A nice tableau of confusion, violence and destruction! Two French ships were grounded, one was captured and two were able to escape to an uncertain future.

I found the rules changes quite satisfying, although a few more adjustments could be made:
- Firing at masts seems futile. No British ships were dismasted as was usually the case after meeting the French. I will have to revisit the rules.
- The article in Wargames Illustrated proposed that the line of fire is blocked if there is a friendly ship anywhere in the firing arc, to encourage captains to adopt the line formation. The approval rate of the rule was quite low. I will have to rethink that one.

Curt wrote his view on the game in his blog.