6mm Team Yankee - Russians

With all of the Team Yankee fighting going on at the club, I decided I wanted to jump in as well.  However, being my normal difficult / contrary self, I had to do something a little different.

I really like the Team Yankee rules, as they are essentially FoW but with smaller forces (which is where the rules work better!), but have some visual issues with them.  While the 15mm models are amazing and highly detailed (I own some), I have serious issues with the scale.

Let me run you through some numbers that lead to my issues with the rules:

- An M1 Abrams is roughly 32 feet long in real life (back of hull to front of barrel)
- M1 Abrams had effective kills at ranges above 8000 feet in desert storm
- That provides a vehicle length to kill length ratio of 1:250
- An M1 15mm kit is roughly 4" long and has a range of 40"
- That provides a vehicle length to kill length ratio of 1:10

SEE THE ISSUE I HAVE???  Most of you probably do, while Conscript Greg probably threw his hands in the air and is ranting about math and games not belonging in the same universe together!

Therefore, I went to 6mm, where an M1 is roughly 1" and if we keep the same 40" range, we get a ratio of 1:40 which, while still far below real life, at least looks and feels far better on the table (at least in my mind).

 So, onto the show and tell, and despite using the US main battle tank in my example above, I am going to show off my Russian force today.

All the figure are either CinC or GHQ figures.  They are painted to be used with Team Yankee as desert war or as USA vs Iraq war.  Early on I decided that since Greg was doing European theater cold war gone hot stuff, I would do something different and focus on desert colours.  This lets us do either Team Yankee cold war gone hot battles, or Desert Storm battles.
 

I know some pure historical games are cringing at that last statement, but tough....  I know that Dessert Storm had some different vehicles and that this is somewhat inaccurate, but many of the same vehicles were used, so for a game we can stretch it a bit. While I like historical battles, I am not caught up on exact recreation. I have no real need to worry about which version of which gun was at which battle, I really don't care.  If the figs are well painted, and reasonable resemble something, then all I care about is the game itself.  Is it fun and plays well, Awesome!  I took that view for this so that we could do fun games based in the Team Yankee "world" and use their rules, but stretch it to other areas a bit.

The Russian force I have started here has 20 T-72's, 10 BMP-1's, 5 BMP-2's, and a pile of infantry.  I followed the Team Yankee force creation rules so that it is valid for the game.
I based all of the vehicles and infantry to force some separation between them.  Having learned from Greg, it really bugs me when I see tanks parked side by side on a table.  with the bases being about twice the width of the vehicles here, even if you put the bases next to each other it would still look OK and represent at least 10-15' in real life between them (which is still too close, but better than some nimrods that park 15mm FoW tanks touching each other).

All of the bases were 3d printed to have lips around an area at the back to drop labels into for easy identification (in theory).  6mm is sometimes hard to tell apart at a distance, so having seen many people online use labels similar to these I decided to copy the idea.  Each label has three sections: Unit type (Tank, Infantry, Transport, etc), Description (T-72, M1, etc), and a unit number/colour (so if there are 5 T-72's in a unit but I have 2 units, there is a blue shaded 1-5 and a green shaded 1-5 to tell them apart).

I loved painting these up as they are so insanely fast and easy to do.  Even though I was pretty fast and sloppy with painting them, at table top they look really good!  I am really starting to see the appeal of 6mm!

Still to do with the Russians is some aircraft, helicopters, and some artillery and anti-air firepower.  Coming soon!

Something to wash the 40k taste out of my mouth...

As I posted last week, I got my 40k Tournament Tau list done to go to an ITC event.  I knew that it would be complete cheddar due to being ITC based, but had no idea how bad it could be.  I expected cheddar, but the mildest cheese there was Blue!  Wow....

Don't get me wrong, if that's your thing, go for it, but the game has devolved to rock paper scissors at the army design level, once you are in a game it is too late!  To be fair, everyone I played was great to play and super friendly, they pretty much all thought the game has gone too far, but like me love the models and fluff, so keep playing.  Also, the organizers did a great job, things ran smoothly, on time, and they had tons of space available, tons of terrain, and a great looking setup.  It's just really too bad that they chose to use the ITC format, but like I said, to each their own.

So... to come to the point of this rant...  For the last 20 years, coming home from a 40k tournament I get anxious for my next project.  Like a junkie, I need my next fix, I have seen something that is just too cool, and I have to start a new army.  This has happened every tournament for 20 years....

Not this time.  Looking around the tournament, there were lots of amazing models, amazing armies, and paint jobs, but none screamed to me to start them.  In fact, seeing the direction the game has gone, I came home with a strong desire to paint something that would actually be FUN to play!

So, here is what I have done in the last few nights....

First up is a fleet of Venetian Galleys from Skull n Crown that Greg twisted my arm into picking up recently.  I started 1 of the ships in between washes on some of my Tau figures before the tournament, but finished the others up Saturday, Sunday, and Monday night.

They are laser cut plywood and come with all the flags, awnings, and side graphics. They are super easy to put together, but work better painting them in 2 main assemblies so that you can rig them through the supplied holes and then glue the two sub assemblies together afterwards.

Greg had already chosen two fleets before I decided to get in on the action with him, but he hadn't picked the fleet I wanted so all was good.  I figure if you are going to play a game, you really should have your army fit your personality.  As you all know I have a very evil, cynical, twisted take on things, therefore what better fleet for me than the most corrupt and evil faction of the time, The Vatican!  That's right, I am playing the Papal Fleet.

So far I have 1 large Lanterna, 1 Galley, and 2 smaller Galiots fully painted and ready to go.  Greg, what's the hold up?  Get yours done already!  Being at the lake is not an excuse!

The painting I did was very simple and plain, almost no shading or highlighting, yet on a flat surface I feel it works.  Adding too much to such a simplified take on the Venetian galley just makes the shape look wrong in my opinion.  The simplified block style design works great with these ships, I just feel its better to keep the paint simple as well.

Next up I got in a pile of 6mm figures to do Flames of War: Team Yankee with and had to start on them. I liked playing Team Yankee with Greg and Curt, however like Flames of War, really dislike the size of the figures vs the ranges on board, so am doing the game in 6mm where I feel things balance out better.

The first unit here is a group of T-72's that I actually painted a few weeks back, but never posted. 

The second unit is a group of M1A1 tanks, my favourite tank.

Both squads are done with very simple desert colours, then washed, and weathered with powders to give some depth.

I then based them on some bases I printed up that have lips around the area where I put labels, so that you can tell units and vehicles apart at a glance.  Oh, and to go with tiny labels, tiny magnets.  No, not for the labels.... I magnetized all the turrets, so they can turn to face the enemy.

To show how tiny these things really are, here is one next to a 40k model (who has turned his back to us in shame over the state of the game).

There we go, I have gotten the bad taste out of my mouth now. Next up in the queue is a mix of more 6mm to finish up some armies to do a Team Yankee game and some figs for a GW game, but not 40k.  I have an alternate Necromundia Gang to paint up and would like to get them done sometime soon.

Epic 30k - XVI Legion Breachers and Legio Mortis Warhound

Epic 30k reinforcements for the cause of "hope and change"

Continuing with the see-saw posting of Epic 30k work, we are back once again to the Rebel side.  This post includes infantry, vehicles and the first Titan I have attempted to paint in quite a long time! The infantry and vehicles are from the XVI Legion, the Sons of Horus, while the Titan is from Legio Mortis, one of the Titan Legions who sided with the Warmaster in the Horus Heresy.

Achilles Land Raider

Slabs and slabs of armour...

The vehicles are Achilles variant Land Raider tanks.  These vehicles are even more heavily armoured than the "average" Land Raider, meant to support close assaults or fight among ruins and built-up areas (or built-up areas blasted into ruins).

Breacher Marines for the XVI Legion

I expect these fellows will work well together...

The infantry are "Breacher" Marines, a detachment of 20 spread across four bases.  This detachment would be small, meant to augment a larger basic force.  In fact, they will probably work well together with the Achilles Land Raiders and I expect I will pair them up when the time comes for these fellows to see action on the table.

"Scout" from Legio Mortis

The Titan is a Warhound class, a so-called "scout" Titan (hilarious).  It is armed with turbo lasers and a vulcan heavy bolter, giving a mix of anti-tank and anti-personnel capability.

I went with some pretty boring/average markings on this vehicle...

This is the first Titan I have tried to paint in a while, and this paint job is pretty tentative.  Usually the Titan Legio markings feature lots of bands and chevrons of contrasting colours, but I took it easy with this model, opting for basic colours only.

A view of the engine and leg assemblies

In the "Epic: Armageddon" rules the Warhound class Titan is a pretty impressive war engine, even though it is only a "scout" Titan.  I hope to get this on the table sometime later this summer, although I'll want to make sure some Loyalist engines are on hand to keep things balanced.

Ready to stalk the ruins of Istvaan III and elsewhere...

Need to move on to a Loyalist engine now

This batch concludes my little run of Epic 30k - time for some plain-old 28mm 30k stuff. Stay tuned for more, and I hope you are enjoying your summers!

Epic 30k - Achilles Land Raiders for VII Legion

Land Raiders for the VII Legion

A few more Epic 30k bits to share as we enjoy our summer here in Canada.  Just a pair of Land Raiders for the VII Legion, the Imperial Fists, in this posting.  I believe these are the "Achilles" variant of this vehicle - extra tough even by tough standards of the Land Raider vehicle.  Where the classic Land Raider has lascannons on the sponsons, this vehicle sports even more armour, a nose-mounted heavy cannon, and closer support weapons like multi-meltas or volkite weapons on the sponsons.

Front-mounted cannons to support assaults by Legion marines

The added armour and weapons come at the cost of troop-carrying space - each of these Land Raiders would hold only one infantry stand instead of the usual two. These vehicles will assist Rogal Dorn's chaps as they punch in against rebel Astrates positions - I see them being particularly useful in urban settings.

View on the back showing the not-so-carbon-neutral propulsion system

These vehicles meet the key requirements of service in the 30k era - huge treads, slabs of armour and silly guns - perfect!

I hope everyone out there is enjoying their summer and getting a break to relax (and paint more, of course!). I'll have a few more Epic 30k bits along shortly before moving back to the "regular" scale figures.

Epic 30k - Imperial Fist Artillery, Infantry and Command

VII Legion additions for my Epic 30k forces

Flipping back and forth once again on the Epic 30k painting - last entry had Sons of Horus, so for this entry I'm back to the VII Legion, Rogal Dorn's Imperial Fists.  As with the Sons of Horus, we have some artillery support, but there is also some additional infantry and a command base.

To help the officer (either a Centurion or a Praetor) stand out on the table I mounted the command group on a round base. 

Preator ready to fight the traitors!

 

My photo skills suck - apologies...

Really like the anachronistic standard bearers in Space Marin Legion command units...

Command figures can be very useful in Epic, helping to remove blast markers and even tipping the balance in an important firefight or close combat encounter.  But in Epic there are a large number of scary weapons about on the table - this guy won't last too long if he gets hit with, say, the mega-bolters from a Titan.  So important to be a little careful with these command stands.

Boring, but they get the job done - tactical stands and Rhino APCs

There are a couple of tactical squads and two rhinos to carry them around.  A basic element for the Epic Space Marine Legion forces is the tactical detachment of 8 stands plus Rhino APCs.  This group of four will now round out my VII Legion collection so they can field two basic tactical detachments - good building blocks for an Epic force.

This amounts to half of a basic detachment in an Epic game

Moving along, here is a solitary Whirlwind rocket launcher.  As with the Sons of Horus in the last entry, this lone vehicle was painted to provide a fourth launcher to complete a battery of vehicles to support the Imperial Fists.

A Space Marine classic - the Whirlwind rocket launcher

This one vehicle will join three others already painted to make a complete battery of four launchers

And more long range artillery, a battery of Legion Basilisks.  These long range guns will provide some heavy firepower to back up the VII Legion on either defence or attack.

Basilisk battery for VII Legion

These models really make me think of the German "Hummel" from WW2

This group will bring some pain to those to who turn from the light of the Emperor!

Well, that's a fair bit of yellow stuff...still more Epic 30k stuff to paint, just not sure where to go next with it...but stay tuned for more! 

Epic 30k - Sons of Horus Artillery Support

Artillery for "hope and change" in the galaxy...

In the Epic 30k setting, Horus the Warmaster brings a powerful and uplifting message of hope and change for humanity and the galaxy.  Sadly there are many who yet cling to the existence of an alleged "Emperor" such that armed resistance is an issue, meaning the brave members of the Sons of Horus Legion sometimes require artillery to get that hope and change message to truly "sink in" to a given target zone audience.

So just a few Epic 30k fire support bits for the XVI Legion here.  Up first is a lone Whirlwind - this will join the three I have already finished to form a complete battery of four vehicles (I am following the standards and listings in this awesome wiki, which has four launchers per battery for the Legiones Astrates).

The Whirlwind, a "classic" Space Marine support vehicle - rocket launcher on a rhino APC chassis

Next - three rapier gun carriers to provide some close heavy support for the noble foot-slogging elements of the Sons of Horus.  They add a nice little boost in firepower for infantry detachments - I need to finish up a few more in order to have a stand-alone detachment of six platforms, so they will serve as detachment upgrades for now.

A small battery of Rapier weapon carriers

Another "classic" support weapon for Space Marines

Then there is a battery of Legion Basilisks.  I love the look of these things - they remind me a lot of the WW2-era self-propelled guns such as the German "Hummel"or the British "Archer" (which was a tank destroyer, I think, not artillery - but still). 

Serious "hope" here - a battery of four Legion Basilisk guns for the XVI Legion

These are more "new age", so-to-speak, for Marines - this weapon is more typically thought of as an Imperial Army thing, but the Space Marine Legions like to have it all...

While the Whirlwind is a more "classic" Space Marine support vehicle, these Basilisks give the Legion fire support at a much longer range (up to 120cm out compared to 45cms for the Whirlwind). They can fire indirectly to offer a steady dose of barrage points upon loyalist fools or engage over open sights in a more direct-fire, tank-destroyer-type role (for when one of these isn't available).

Horus for hope - with a range of 120cms on the table, the love of the Warmaster will find you!

For the past little while I have been trying to keep my Epic forces consistent - when I add some stuff for the Sons of Horus, I try to add the same for the Imperial Fists, and vice-versa.  So watch for some more Epic artillery to appear soon, but in the bright yellow of Rogal Dorn's chosen...in the meantime, happy painting!

Epic 30k - Imperial Armour for Imperial Fists

The treads of Dorn...armour of the VII Legion for Epic 30k

The parade of reinforcements for Prairiecon 2016 continues! In this entry we have an assortment of vehicles for the VII Legion, Rogal Dorn's Imperial Fists.  A few of these have been finished for a while, but I completed the balance last week in Sault Ste Marie.

For light, basic troop duties there are a pair of Rhino APCs.  There is a lone Land Raider Proteus.  There are two Spartan heavy troop carriers and a Typhon (for those up-close-and-personal missions).  And to really slay those who refuse the light of the Emperor, there is a Glaive super heavy tank.

A Glaive super heavy tank - a reckoning beckons for the followers of Horus...

Land Raider Proteus - will join three others already painted to round out a detachment into four vehicles

The lunacy of the Legion super heavy tanks is quite wonderful.  The Falchions are bonkers kind of super-everything-destroyers, but the Glaive is a more nuanced (LOL) wrecker of things, with a horrifying Volkite something-or-other turret and the ubiquitous quad-lascannon sponsons to mow down the enemies who somehow survive - what is it called? Oh, yes - "deflagration"...ah, 30k!

Spartan troop carrier - I just love these things, they look so...legion-y...

Tons of firepower and troop carrying capacity - let the good times roll (literally)

The Spartans are marvellous too - this weekend will have some Legion infantry detachments mounted aboard these things, with the Typhon for close range support. Backed by super heavies like the Glaive, the crash should be satisfying to all concerned!

Point blank heavy support for the chaps riding in the Spartans...truly the tyranny of the so-called "Emperor" will be difficult to overcome...

This round of reinforcements brings a rough collection parity between my Sons of Horus and the Imperial Fists for Epic 30k.  There are few odds and ends here and there to truly round them out (like a Rapier battery for the Sons of Horus and a command infantry stand and a heavy support detachment for the Imperial Fists) but we are set for a rather shattering game of Epic 30k on Sunday morning at Prairiecon! I hope to post some photos and a battle report once the the game is over.