Imperial Guard Re-paint

Been some time since I posted. A 3 year old combined with shift work definitely means slow progress on the hobby front. I've finished some small projects since then, but I wanted to showcase the largest one I've completed since Robyn was born. Most of the models are from my Future Brits, but with new heads from Pig Iron. Many of the vehicles are from other non-GW model lines that have been re-purposed to stand in for the transports. These had been acquired on past impulse buys and had no particular project in mind. I did however, go with GW for the MBT's.

 The Leman Russ tanks all painted with a Russian theme. Simple, but anything more complex would likely have never been completed.

 I used Pig Iron transports for the Chimera's. One squad of 3rd edition Stormtroopers are being used as Veterans.

 The platoon command squad and inf squads in Taurox APC's. I got these models from Antenocitis Workshop before they ditched their model line to make terrain for Infinity. The turrets have been adapted to sport twin autocannons.

 Puppets war Dragon fly and Hornet fighter stand in for Vulture and Thunderbolt. The Hornet is a great little model. No aerodynamic qualities and enough thrusters for a 747. Very I.G.

 Had to get on of these.

 My Command squad. The guy in red is a commissar. Not sure who made him. The guy with the peak hat is the Commander. I also can't remember the company, but he's marketed as Space Rommel.

 Heavy Weapons and a "Sherman" Hellhound. The turret is GW though.

Another veteran squad with camo.
Currently working through some long neglected projects. My goal is to start a Bad Moon Ork army by summer.

Fourth Painting Challenge Entry - 28mm System Troopers from Pig Iron

"System Troopers" from Pig Iron Productions - 28mm Troops

After Sylvian landed huge points bomb in the Challenge late last week (like 400 points of stuff!!!), I felt a bit desperate to get something up on the score board over the weekend. I've been away for over a week, but lucky for me I had some primed figures sitting around which had been waiting in the pending pile for ages - and hammering out figures like that is part of what the Challenge is about, after all, right? So here are 10 "System Troopers" from Pig Iron Productions. These came off the painting table while watching the first round of the NFL playoff (go Chiefs!) (update - stupid Vikings!!!).

Heavy armoured troops for our sci-fi battles

If you follow this blog, or sci-fi gaming generally, you have surely seen the "Kolony Militia" range from Pig Iron on a gaming table somewhere - not least with us. Dallas has an excellent collection of them serving his "FuturKom" forces. That range is, I expect, the best-known one from Pig Iron, but they offer several. Pig Iron is home to some of the nicest, chunkiest, full-of-character 28mm sci-fi stuff out there. The ranges are small, but have some pretty decent overall composition and completion to them (as opposed to others who released three figures and wonder why the sales don't roll in, but I digress). I really enjoy painting the Pig Iron figures - nice, proper, heavy, chunky metal figures, the way wargames figures are supposed to be!

A view showing the back packs

These "System Troopers" are the heaviest of the heavy infantry (in fact, I think I stole that line directly from Pig Iron) - heavily armoured, carrying huge, frigging guns. The sculpts are brilliant - the armour gives a sort of exo-skeleton sense, without being all encompassing/enclosing. These heads are not the standard "System Trooper" heads - they are the "Inner Guard" heads from the "Kolony Militia" - there are many head options to choose from with these figures and I thought these heads looked spookier.

Red helmets to set the fire team NCOs apart...

I had painted a small group of these figures years ago - might have been the first or second Painting Challenge, actually, but before sci-fi figures counted in the race. I had a bunch more primed and ready to go back in that initial 2012 rush, but I moved on to other projects, etc. etc. and these have been sitting there, primed and ready to go, gathering dust in my hobby pile for years, until I got home yesterday, was spooked by Sylvain's huge entry, and broke out the paints!

Always like the officers to be pointing at something...

The chaps in the red helmets are NCOs/section leaders. The rest of the fellows are regular grunts. As a group, I think they can represent all sorts of factions, ranging from ominous mercenaries acting on corporate interests to the heavy infantry of a futuristic science fiction army. And they can certainly line up with Gün Schwarm, that enlightened body of hard-working soldiers...

Regular troopers - even the "basic" guns look really heavy, working well with the sculpts

Some variety on the backpacks as well

There is a large round spot on the back of these helmets, and I painted these lense-style. I think of them as part of the armour's "Decision Making Assistance System". The online DMAS helps the System Troopers stay in touch with HQ, know where to direct their fire, understand that orphanages make great firing positions, and realize that asking questions about the morality of their overall orders will have a negative affect on their own existence...

Close up showing the "DMAS" on the back of the trooper's helmet...keep focused, now, trooper!

Some more points for my sci-fi duel, but still not enough...

There are 10 figures pictured, but one of these pre-dates the Challenge, as he was being used as a model to make sure I matched the colours the best I could, so this gets me 45 points. Even with these points, I'm still eating Sylvain's dust... hopefully I can bear down and go full-Millsy this week to get some more stuff ready for next weekend...but in the event I don't, I'm wondering what kind of figure Sylvain will want me to paint...on the other hand, still a good, long time left in the Challenge, so we'll see what comes next off the painting line.

Party On The Prairie(con)

Battle is set - Colonials enter at the top and right, Rebels at the bottom and left

Prairiecon 2013 took place in the lovely city of Brandon, Manitoba last weekend.  Once again the Conscripts made a solid show of force, running and participating in games in other events over the weekend.  Dallas ran a Star Wars: Fleet Battles game Saturday morning, and I ran a game of Tomorrow's War Saturday night.  Here is a report on the Tomorrow's War game.

VIPs do some TV interviews while awaiting rescue

The scenario was set on some un-named dusty colonial world of the distant future.  Once again, the minions of everyone's favourite future company - Binary Petroleum - had been trapped in a dangerous place, shot down in an area of abandoned industrial facilities.  Colonial troops are dispatched to recover the survey team, and a group of Sludge Truther Rebels has the same idea.  Cue the firefight!

Sludge Truther Rebels under the guidance of the mysterious "Known One"

The table was 4' x 4', filled with Dallas' awesome Stalingrad ruins, with a few added modern touches, including some new sponsor logos (more about that later).  The Colonial troops were composed of the amazing Frank Hammond science fiction troopers.  The Colonials had four five-man fire teams, two with LMGs, two with rocket launchers, and a small command element featuring a medical bot and a sniper rifle.

Things heat up in the center of the table

One of Mike's fire teams sets up in cover

The Sludge Truther Rebels were represented by the excellent Pig Iron Kolony Rebels, and a couple of Pig Iron Kolony Ferals. They were organized into five-"man" "slurms", and a small command element (boasting the guidance of "The Known One"). As we frequently do in the Ambush Alley games, the two sides started very close, and in Tomorrow's War weapon ranges are not relevant, so the battle would come fast.

"Hey - they don't look like Colonial troops..."

On of my fire teams decimated by terrible reaction rolls

The victory conditions were based on the recovery (or, in the case of the Sludge Truthers, I should say "recovery") of the VIPs.  There were four of them, and they started the game right in the middle of the table.  Each fire team could only recover one VIP at a time.  If you evacuated or held a VIP at the end of the game, you got a victory point.  And, of course, accidents happen, so these, er, "incidents" would shape the number of victory points available.

Hmmm...what happened to this captive?

Mike F and I played the Colonial troops.  Dallas and Cam played the Rebels.  Early on, the Rebels made excellent progress - I blew a reaction role and lost most of one fire team in the first turn!  Meanwhile the shifty opposing slurms grabbed a couple of VIPs.

Colonial fire team

A rebel "Slurm"

But we started to turn the tide! Mike won a number of initiative rolls, and our fire started to really hurt the Rebels.  Mike got one of his fire teams into a position that could cover the Rebel exit points very well, and the rebels bogged town.  Two more of our fire teams closed in on the remaining VIPS.  Toss in an - er - "incident" depriving the Rebels of a VIP, and it was looking very, very good for the Colonial side...

This is Mike's second fire team moving in for a rescue

The Colonial troops rescue a VIP...but there was...an incident soon after...photos went missing...

And then...and then...in the space of three die rolls, it was over.  One of our VIPs was, um, "lost to a kinetic incident" in a fashion that may, or may not, have involved some of our own weapons.  Dallas then got the drop on my last fire team, meaning the Rebels broke free of their pinned position and buggered off the table with a VIP.  Since the other three VIPs had encountered "issues", that meant a win for the Sludge Truthers!

Rebel command element under fire.  The captive (at the top of the photo, with his back turned) would get hit in the crossfire

In all we played about six turns, but with the Ambush Alley system, there is a lot of interaction and the exchange of fire was very involved.  In one turn Cam's cover "Slurm" fired so much he actually ran out of dice.  Gun barrels were melting on both sides.

Colonial troops advancing near the friendly Binary Petroleum billboard

A big thank you to Dallas for lending out his excellent Stalingrad terrain for the game, and to Dallas, Mike F and Cam for joining in during the game.  It was a lot of fun, and we drew a healthy crowd of onlookers for the battle.

A fine sponsor of the future

Can't build colonies without financing...

I also want to thank Conscript Kevin H. for the ace work he did putting together the corporate logos for our game.  It is good to know that Binary Petroleum and Stellarbank will have a nice brand to add to our science fiction game settings!  Stay tuned for a report from Dallas on the Battle of Endor... 

Hammer's Slammers vs. Zaporoskiye Brigade!

Last Thursday we played a 28mm sci-fi game set in David Drake's "Hammer's Slammers" universe, using my 28mm Slammers blower tanks and new infantry models, and some Pig Iron Kolony Militia and vehicles as the Space-Russian mercenaries of the Zaporoskiye Brigade.

The scenario was simple - Maximum Attrition - basically a kill points mission with VPs awarded for destroying enemy units. I laid out some suitably futuristic looking terrain, I have to say that the small buildings particularly suit what my imagination tells me is the setting for the Slammers stories.

Col. Alois Hammer's Frieslandian mercenaries - two blower tanks, three sections of infantry, a buzzbomb AT team, lead by a lieutenant and his ADC. All rated veterans.

The Zaporovskiye Brigade - two medium tanks, a heavy assault gun, an armoured car with AT missile, and four infantry sections (one not shown here) led by an officer with ADC and bearer bot. All regulars.

Conscripts Mike F. and Greg took command of the Russian mercs and Conscript Nathan lead the Slammers. Here we see the Z.B. infantry entering the battlefield, this is at top right of the first picture.
 

More Z.B. infantry and armoured car enter on the Z.B.'s other flank.

A Slammers infantry section enters near the road.

Z.B. moves up in a wide pincer :-)

First blower enters play supported by the buzzbomb team, drawing a bead on the armoured car outside of shot.

The buzzbombers had to run across the road to get LOS to the armoured car.

Z.B. heavy assault gun supports Z.B. infantry.

Some buzzbomb shooting at the armoured car deals out Pin markers. The Slammers infantry was engaged in a firefight with some Z.B. troops in the building at top left but wiped them out, taking the position.
 

High noon! Blowers square off against two Z.B. tanks on the road. Some epically poor die rolling kept this confrontation going for several turns, ending with one immobilized blower and one destroyed Z.B. tank.

Slammers infantry takes cover behind a building, but too late. They were wiped out by concentrated infantry fire.

One knocked out Z.B. tank; the other takes evasive action!
 

Slammers section is wiped out; assault gun maneuvers to engage immobilized blower from the side.

Engage target at three o'clock! Gun duel with the Z.B. assault gun.

Blower moves up in pursuit of the Z.B. tank...

... which has cleverly moved to hose off infantry while presenting its front to the tank threat.

The game went for six turns, and frankly I expected more carnage, but some die rolling got in the way, as it often does ;-)  As it happend, the Slammers eked out a 4-1 victory by destroying the Z.B. armoured car, a tank, the command group, and an infantry section, for the loss of one infantry section of their own. We used the Bolt Action rules for this one nut I think I prefer our home-grown "Future Krieg" rules for SF - much bloodier. Certainly we'll see the Slammers out again soon, perhaps against the GunSchwarm?