Star Wars Campaign Game 10 - Rescue

 

Over the Victoria Day long weekend, I ran the latest game in the ongoing Fawcett Avenue Conscripts Star Wars skirmish campaign.

In game 9, Chewbacca led Rebel forces that annihilated the Imperial reinforcements rushing to the site of the battle in game 8. "Chicken Run". This meant that an opportunity arose to try and rescue Captain Rec, who was wounded and captured back in game 8.

The current game was a variant of the Rescue scenario in Wiley Games' Wasteland Warriors game.

The Imperials set up in a loose line within a move of the south end of the table. Their goal was to make it to the shuttle landed at the north end of the table. The Rebels, again led by Chewbacca, were trying to rescue Rex, the famous Clone  Trooper elder and Clone Wars hero. Boosting their strength was Ahsoka Tano, who was eager to aid her old friend and comrade in arms.

At first things looked very bad for the Imperials. They took several casualties from blaster and bowcaster fire. 

Ahsoka leaped ahead of her troopers, and got truly stuck in. Rebel troopers moved up on both flanks, supporting the Jedi's advance and laying down a withering fire. Ahsoka cut down the Stormtrooper carrying Rex, but then got caught in a crossfire of  blaster fire, and was subjected to successive close combat attacks. At one point she was prone Shocked, having dropped one of her lightsabers. 

The game turned when one of the Stormtrooper leaders managed to defeat Chewbacca in close combat, putting him out of action!

Some Stormtrooper Remnants made it into contact. Seeing that they would never be able to get to the shuttle, one of them slew the helpless Rex.

Game MVP was surely Ahsoka, who managed to get to her feet, Force pull her lost saber, and withdraw in good order. She made every blaster Deflection roll she attempted, wounding or putting out of action several Imperials.

The game was basically a draw, but Rex is gone from the campaign for good, and Chewbacca is out for the season.

Thanks to Hugh, Dallas, Rob, Kevin, and Frederick for playing with me.

Star Wars Campaign Game 9 - Breach

 

Awhile ago I ran the latest in the ongoing Fawcett Avenue Conscripts Star Wars skirmish campaign. 

After the previous game’s loss, Chewbacca led a force of Rebel Veterans, Commandos, and Troopers in a meeting engagement against a mixed force of Imperials, including Shoretroopers and Scouts. 

The goal was to get forces to the opposite table edge. By the end of the game, only one Rebel and one Imperial had scored, but that didn’t account for the utter carnage wrought on the Imperials. 

Also, a Wampa-like creature appeared in the middle of the game, causing some consternation. 

The Rebels caused casualties in a ratio of 5:1, resulting in a Rebel victory. So many times players rolled hot (“I need a 10?” *rolls* “10!”). 

"Never tell me the odds!"

A lot of fun was had, in a very memorable game. 

Thanks to Hugh, Rob, Bob, John, and Frederick for playing with me. 

Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge XIII Submission #13 - The Last of the Special Studio Challenges

  This is my final submission of projects completed for AHPC XIII which consists of a grab bag of Special Studio themed challenges. For the 'Swords and Sandals' challenge I painted a 15mm Spartan De Bellis Antiquitatis army consisting of 12 stands of Spear and an optional stand of Psiloi. If I recall correctly these are from Falcon Miniatures that are now no longer in production. They were cleaned up and primed a quarter century ago, and have been sitting in the pending box ever since. Once again, the Special Challenges has cleared a project from the 'To Do' list. They were painted using Army Painter Warpaints Tannned Flesh for all the skin areas, Partha Paints Bronze Metallic for the helmets, greaves, and shields, and Vallejo acrylics for everything else. They were mounted on metal bases of the appropriate DBA dimensions that I still have in my storage boxes, and the groundwork completed. The temple in the background is one I built for a scenario that Curt hosted back in the early days of the Fawcett Avenue Conscripts. 

 

This is Sparta!

A closeup of the General's stand

 

Next is a figure of Alex Kingston as 'River Song' in the Doctor Who episode called 'The Impossible Astronaut'. That may sound more like Sci-Fi, but she's wearing jeans and packing a big iron on her hip. That says Gunslinger to me. This figure was a freebie that came with my order from Warlord Games back in December. Just the thing for the Westerns studio.

 

River Song

 

  For the 'Book' theme I was inspired by C.S. Forrester's 1933 novel 'Death to the French' featuring Rifleman Dodd. The figures I have are two Perry Miniatures plastic 95th Riflemen that were another freebie with an issue of Wargames Illustrated that sat in storage until now. They are very nice minis with lots of detail, easy to assemble with minimal cleaning of mold lines. Their rifle green uniforms were painted using Vallejo Luftwaffe Camouflage Green, followed by a wash of Citadel Nuln Oil. 

 

Riflemen Dodd and Harris

 

 The last entry for the "Director's Chair" is a De Bellis Antiquitatis army for the High Medieval Period, specifically IV/13(a) Medieval German 1106 - 1235CE consisting of 1 x 3Knights (General), 4 x 3Knights that can dismount to 4Blades, 4 x 4Spear, 1 x 4Crossbow, and 2 x 2Psiloi(Skirmishers). This is another army that has been sitting in the 'Pending' tray for at least quarter century. I had bought it as an alternative to my Teutonic Order army that I had been using in a local biannual DBA tournament, but never got beyond the priming stage. It gathered dust for many years in a tray on top of my filing cabinet before being put in a storage box where it was 'out of sight, out of mind', keeping my unpainted Spartan army company until now.

The figures are all Gladiator Miniatures from prior to the line being taken over by Black Hat Miniatures. Since 2018 they have been available from Fighting15s. While some of the figures look a bit chunky, I liked the attention to detail that the sculptor put into the armour. The only down side was that the mounted figures don't come with spears, so I had to make them from florist wire. I probably thought I needed to have bright colours on the figures, so I had primed them in white rather than black so many years ago. They were painted using Vallejo acrylics, including all the shield designs. The foot figures looked a little too clean, so they got a wash of Citadel Seraphim Sepia at the end. Here is the final result.

 

IV/13(a) Medieval German 1106 - 1235CE

5 stands of Knights with the General in the center

4 stands of dismounted Knights that count as Blades

4 stands of Spears

1 stand of Crossbows and 2 stands of Psiloi

 

That concludes the backlog of my AHPC XIII submissions. Thanks for reading.

Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge XIII Submission #12 - High Elf Warriors and Command

 This submission consists of 10 High Elf Warriors with spear and shield, a Captain, and a Banner Bearer, all by Games Workshop. Four of the Elf Warriors are a recent purchase and made of resin. The remaining figures are all metal. When I first got into Middle Earth gaming, I acquired some secondhand plastic High Elves from the 'Warriors of the Last Alliance' box. I wanted to flesh them out with some warriors with spear and shield and had picked up the metal figures as 2 or 3 figure blisters, and more recently got the last four that are made of resin. The resin figures are the same sculpts as the earlier metal minis and look identical once painted.

 All the figures were cleaned up and assembled, and mounted on their bases. Some fine sand was glued to the base with PVA, and they were then primed black with an airbrush. Painting was primarily done using Vallejo acrylics, but also my long-serving Partha True Blue and Bronze Metallic, which are still hanging in there. I also used some Citadel Reikland Fleshshade wash on the faces. Here's the final result.

 

High Elf Warriors and Command

 

Metal High Elf Captain and Banner Bearer

Metal High Elf Warriors

Resin High Elf Warriors

My High Elf host with Gilgalad and Elrond

 This completed the last of the High Elves I had in my storage boxes, but since then I have picked up a box of six Knights of Rivendell to add to my elvish muster. Thanks for reading. More to follow