Sedition Wars Project - Phase One Complete!

A couple of weeks ago I finally unveiled the collected results of my long-gestating Sedition Wars Project. I hosted a few games using the figures and terrain that I have been modeling for the last 19 months.

The Strain 

I had some vacation time this summer, so I finally painted up 28 Strain models of various types. There are 21 Necroforms, basically human corpses animated by the dreaded nano-virus plague, There are 5 2nd-level Exoforms (evolved creatures, like in Resident Evil): 3 Stalkers (close combat types), and 2 Quasimodos (large creatures with an acidic shooting attack). Rounding them out are a pair of 3rd level Exoforms: a Scythe Witch (a kick-ass close combat expert), and a Brimstone (a big creature with a nasty gun in its chest).

I also picked up a couple of zombie paint sets from Army Painter:
Warpaints Zombicide Core Zombie Set
Warpaints Zombicide Toxic/Prison Set

I painted the 21 Revenants as if they were animated corpses, with muscles showing through rents in their greenish-tinged skin. With colours such as "Scaly Hide" and "Crusted Sore", I hope I have given these an adequate aura of putrefaction and fear.

Below, some of what I call "Lefty's" - Revenants with a HUGE left arm and a protruding right eyeball.







"Skeletors" - more traditionally zombie-like Revenants.





"Dunce's" - these are the most disturbing to me; their brains and skulls have collapsed and have basically been absorbed into a tentacle thingy.





Below, from L-R, a Stalker, three Revenants, and a Quasimodo take cover behind a container. The 2nd level, evolved Strain are painted in more traditional human flesh tones as if they are "alive", to help differentiate them from the Revenants.



The Brimstone, mounted on a 50mm diameter base, painted basically like a huge, animated temple dog.



Two views of the Scythe Witch, painted as if she has a chitinous carapace; I did not want to go the metallic route with the armoured plating on her body. She's also very tall, noting that she is mounted on a 25mm base..







The Game Board

My Hawk Wargames Urban Battle Board finally arrived last month from Games and Gears. The package contained six 2'-square plastic boards that fit together. I used four in the photo below, for a 4' x 4' table. The streets and crosswalks already came painted. There would have been even more painting and weathering on the boards, but the company lost its entire shipment to a flood in China last year. This was a Kickstarter fulfillment, so they sent out these replacements with the basic paint job. I really like the detail and texture. Some airbrushing and oil washes will set these right in the future.






First Sedition Wars Game 

A couple of weeks ago I hosted my first Sedition Wars game using the new models and terrain. Eight (!) Conscripts dropped by for the inaugural game.

For setup, the Vanguard Samaritans deployed in the street behind the non-burning armoured truck, needing to get to the square blockhouse to the north, and then had to scan the area for survivors for 4 turns. The Strain had to kill or infect all the Vanguard. Below, Conscript Keegan overlooks the board. The long pale rectangular terrain piece is the rail for a mag-lev train.



Below, Keegan and Duncan contemplate a flanking attack by hordes of Strain.



The Vanguard Grenadier bravely sacrificed herself; though wounded and bleeding, she stayed to fire off a grav grenade, which stalled a bunch of Revenants in their tracks. She succumbed to her wounds, leaving behind a corpse counter.



As Duncan and Dallas look on, several Strain converge on the blockhouse, only to be gunned down by Vanguard lasers.



Clouds of nano-virus mark dead Revenants; however, the nano-virus could still move and infect the Vanguard!



Too little, too late. Though several Vanguard were infected, they were able to complete the scan and win the game.



Other dead soldiers that evening. Mmm, beer!




Play Testing

Last week Conscript Mike came by to help playtest the next Sedition Wars scenario in the Outbreak Campaign. We made some errors in the rules during the previous game, which we went thorough carefully for the play test.

This time, the Vanguard have to break through the Strain ranks to catch the mag-lev train, which will arrive at the end of turn 4, and leave at the end of turn 6. The winner is the side with the most models on the train!




Below, a couple of infected Vanguard Samaritans support an advance through Taco Bell.



An incendiary grenade fired indirectly finds it mark, igniting several Strain. Burn, baby, burn!





A Quasimodo guns down a Samaritan with a corrosive acid spray!



Surviving Vanguard grimly carry on.



Several Revenants take cover behind the mobile hospital module.




Infinity The Game

Like Dallas` Stalingrad terrain, this table can be amortized over several games and gaming systems.
To that end, DerekY came over for the first Infinity game on the new table.

Below, some Pan Oceana Fusiliers (proxied by my Vanguard) seize an objective, ahead of Derek`s Nomad in the far doorway.



A Nisse Sniper provides covering fire, as a Trauma Doc approaches another objective.



Automatic weapons fire shredded the hair salon, leaving two unconscious soldiers!



The Trauma Doc managed to hack the objective, despite not having any hacking skill!



The Nomads pulled back and managed to hack two objectives in the final turn, for the win!



Infinity required a denser terrain setup (including another store, another truck, some street barricades, and more cargo containers). I will probably use denser terrain for Sedition Wars, too.




Sedition Wars Project - Phase Two:

In order of priority, the following modeling projects are in queue:

• MDF mag-lev train for Scenarios 3 and 4 of the Outbreak Campaign
• Strain: more Revenants (for tabletop play we need double the number used in the board game version of the game), and bigger nasties including a 4th-level Grendler and a 5th-level Cthonian.
• Vanguard: a resin Gnosis battle-suit from Studio McVey, 6 civilians from Hasslefree and Corvus Belli (also usable as High Value Targets for Infinity), several corpse models to replace the cardboard counters, and more Vanguard Samaritans and A.I. drones
• Other Terrain: More MDF buildings

Nineteen months into this 12-month project (yeah, I know), I`ve managed to finish 52 models and a couple of dozen buildings and terrain pieces. For me that`s a significant amount of effort. I`m glad it turned out pretty well.

Spanked! - Naval Action in the War of 1812 (1/1200 sailing ships)

When war was declared with Great Britain in 1812, the American navy was just in its infancy at that time and had nothing comparable to the numerous and large ships of the Royal Navy. However, the Americans built strong frigates crewed by aggressive sailors and commanded by competent captains. In duels, the American frigates would usually win.Well, not this time...

This scenario pitted the USS Constitution against HMS Guerriere in the the famous action off the East coast on 19 August 1812. The rules were a modified version of Trafalgar called Trafalgar Redux and the models were from GHQ.

Captain James Richard "Kevin" Dacres was in command a British 38 gun frigate while Isaac "Sylvain" Hull was steering a strong 44 gun American frigate, specifically built to outperform British ships of the same size.

Sent to investigate, the USS Constitution just identified a British intruder in American waters. Get ready for battle!

The American crew displayed excellent seamanship, keeping a good distance from the enemy, avoiding being shot by moving out of the British firing arc...

... while shooting at the masts to slowly, but surely destroy the enemy's sailing capacity. Everything was historically correct so far.

Then, a series of unfortunate events happened. The American crew failed a first maneuver test, a tacking maneuver, which meant that the USS Constitution was now stationary in the water and the British had the wind in good position. To understand how humiliating the situation was, a comparison is necessary. It's like, for a WW1 soldier, to fall head first into the barbed wires he was about to jump, with the butt sticking out in  the air. Another test for being taken aback resulted in heavy damage to the fore mast and severe casualties among the crew. The British frigate took this opportunity to do a stern rake which resulted in ruinous damage to the hull.

Stunned by how ridiculous the situation was, the American crew probably panicked because, in the next two turns, two more maneuver tests, just to turn the ship back into the wind, also failed. The American butt was still sticking out in the air and the British frigate, after an impeccable tack maneuver, came back for more spanking, right into the stern again. Ouch! Ouch! Ouch! This time, the USS Constitution took two critical hits, one resulting into a blaze which reached the reserve of black powder, which exploded, virtually wiping out the crew. The ship was still afloat, but the crew had had enough and the captain had to strike colours.

The rules work quite well for one on one battles, but I think I would like to give captains maybe one or two re-rolls per game to alleviate series of bad rolls.

Thanks Kevin for coming and trying this scenario. The outcome was not historical at all, but it was interesting and funny.

Wings of Glory - Campaign Game

Some time ago, we played another game in the long-running Wings of Glory campaign. For that night’s game, the first game of the campaign set in 1917, the scenario is Mission 4a: Stalled Advance:


Background: Hoping to prevent a stalemate and gain the upper hand on Intelligence for a major ground offensive, HQ has called for a renewed effort to eliminate the enemy’s observation balloons.
Type: Balloon Busting
Victory Conditions: Mission Points.  The side with the most mission points wins the mission. For this mission, Balloon points are worth double the normal value.
Fallback: Mission 3a or 3b
Setup: Mission was played length wise on a 4’x6’ table. The Attackers have a 16 inch deployment zone and the Defenders have a 32 inch deployment zone. This leaves 24 inches of No-man’s Land.

• Both sides must start the sortie with their planes inside their deployments zones in a loose formation with no more then a ruler length between planes. 
• The (French) defender’s side must place two balloons per sortie using the special Balloons rules.
• Each side has a chance for random ground targets. Use the special Ground Targets rules.

Frederick and Kevin ran, respectively, the Germans and the French. Since it was 1917, the best pilot character on each side got an upgraded plane: an Albatross D.V. and a Spad XIII.

Below, Kevin contemplates the table.



Frederick overlooks the defending artillery observation balloons, and the pair of machine-guns placed between them, deep behind the French front line trenches.



The two patrols flew over No-Man's land.





The French opted to pass to the south of the Germans, seeking to gain their tails.



The northern balloon took several hits...



...and took several more as the Germans made long firing passes.



The French ganged up on the German wingman, who weathered their shots.



The German flight leader then fired on the southern balloon.





Concentrated fire brought the German wingman down.



By this point, the balloons had been winched down half of their altitude; the French might save them both!



Frederick's flight leader made a couple of passes at the northern balloon again.







Eventually, the balloon's hydrogen exploded!



Jousting with the French, the surviving German opened up his throttle...



...and headed east for home. Only the Spad had the speed to potentially catch up.





Kevin zigged when he should have zagged, resulting with the French leader ended up facing the wrong direction, and so he decided to head back to the French lines. The Germans won!





Knights of the Air Campaign: Results as of March 19, 2015

Scoring:

• Bill (suffered 2 wounds in Mission 1): +2 (two sorties flown) -4 (being shot down) +4 (one plane shot down) = 1 victory, 2 campaign points
• Brian: +1 (one sortie flown) +4 (one plane shot down) = 1 victory, 5 campaign points
• Byron (suffered 3 wounds in Mission 3a): +1 (one sortie flown) -4 (being shot down = -3 campaign points
• Indo: +1 (one sortie flown) +4 (one plane shot down) = 5 campaign points
• Jim: +1 (one sortie flown) +4 (one plane shot down) -4 (being shot down) = 1 victory, 1 campaign point
• MikeA: +1 (one sortie flown) -4 (being shot down) = -3 campaign points
• Frederick's German Flight Leader: +4 (four sorties flown) +19 (three and 1/2 planes (14) and one balloon (5) shot down) +2 (drove off enemy aircraft) -4 (being shot down) = 4 1/2 victories, 21 campaign points; awarded the Knight's Cross!
• Frederick's German Wingman  (suffered 1 wound in Mission 4a): +3 (three sorties flown) + 2 (drove off enemy aircraft) -4 (being shot down) = 1 campaign point
• Kevin's French Flight Leader: +2 (two sorties flown) +6 (1 victory (Frederick's Wingman) and one shared victory) = 1 1/2 victories, 8 campaign points
• Kevin's French Wingman: +1 (one sortie flown), 1 campaign point

Next Game: Mission 5 Break Through

Vacation Painting - 15mm Late WW2 German Infantry

15mm castings from Battlefront - late WW2 Germans

Every summer I look forward to visiting northern Ontario and the beautiful city of Sault Ste. Marie.  Located on the St. Marys River, between Lake Superior and Lake Huron, the Soo offers some of the most beautiful landscapes you will find in Canada (and some pretty awesome Italian food).  The north shore of Lake Superior is paradise for me, and we are fortunate to have a property on Goulais Bay. In late July we spent two weeks there.  I always bring some painting along on the trips to the Soo, and here is the finished product from the most recent visit - some late WW2 German infantry.

Fun to paint when this is your view! The sun setting over Lake Superior, at our cabin near Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario. The big lake is at its calmest in the midsummer, barely a ripple when we took this photo.

I have resolved this summer to make a bit of a dent in the pending WW2 lead/plastic pile (it's pretty huge).  Lately I finished a couple of anti-tank guns, and this pile of infantry was up next so they came to the Soo and were (mostly) finished while on vacation.  They are 15mm castings from Battlefront - a "Sturm" platoon (dudes armed with Stg 44 assault rifles with a couple of MG42s mixed in), a Pioneer platoon (mix of small arms but lots of scary engineer stuff like mines, pole charges and two guys with flame throwers), two tripod mounted MG42 teams and two bases of Panzerschrek AT teams.  There is also an extra command stand (I think this was to go with the anti-tank guns), and a two-man artillery spotter team.

In all, a decent pile - 20 stands of infantry! Not too bad. 

Command team leads "sturm" platoon

The "Sturm" platoon (is that even a thing? Not sure I'm using the correct term) sort of confuses me - I only included two MG42 teams, but I don't know if the platoons carrying Stg44 assault rifles had MG42s or not.  I don't know what I was thinking when I put them together...but whatever, they will do fine. My head hurts when I try and sort out the platoon organizations that involved the assault rifles, and it gets more confusing when you figure what the Germans wished and what they actually went with in the field seldom mixed, especially late in the war.  Overall it sure seems to have a frightening amount of firepower.

German troops equipped with Stg44 assault rifles - though there are a couple of MG42 teams in there too - lots of firepower

The Pioneer platoon is meant to represent scary combat engineers.  There are fellows carrying anti-tank mines, pole charges, heavy grenade and other scary bits.  There are also two stands where a flamethrower is present.

Pioneers ready for the battlefield

Lots of panzerfausts, grenades, mines and pole charges - and one fellow (on the left corner of the front right stand) has a flame thrower

Of course everyone is carrying a panzerfaust, and the uniforms are a mix of long coats and reverse camouflage jackets, pants and helmet covers.  The pattern is/was supposed to be "splinter" pattern, but mostly it just looks kind of jumbled - not too bad. Painting the German camo makes me crazy, but I've given up trying to be too precise about it - from about a foot away, they look camouflaged - good enough for me!

I'm particularly pleased to have the pioneers/engineers done - I'm often preparing a game and thinking to myself "hey, messing around with minefields and barbed wire would be a good time", and the engineers add a fun dimension to that sort of game.  Plus - flame throwers! Watch out!

MG42 teams

Panzerschrek teams - mounted two teams per base in "Flames of War" for some reason, I think a reflection of the German tactical approach? Not sure...

The MG42 teams are left-overs from a "platoon" pack, and the Panzerschrek teams came with a Volksgrenadier box set from Battlefront.  Actually, quite a few of these figures came from that box now that I think about it (the balance I have based individually). 

Spotter teams come in handy, but are actually not easy miniatures to track down...they usually come with the mortar platoons and gun battery boxes, stuff that you don't even really need on the table - I wish the spotter teams were easier to get seperately

The grass was done with mostly light and dark brown and yellow colours, with just a few green tufts among them.  I am hoping this overall would look good for fall or spring, not bad in a green summer table, and not terrible on a winter/mostly snow table either.  This is something I have been trying to do more of, especially with infantry bases - a sort of "somewhat universal" groundwork, that compromises enough to not look terrible in most seasonal table presentations.  

These figures will be used in games of "Flames of War", but I also hope to put them to use playing Spearhead in 15mm, as well as Battlegroup and even Crossfire (an oldie that was once pretty popular with the Fawcett gang - maybe we can try it again sometime in the not-too-distant future, I hope!)

I still have a huge pile of WW2 stuff sitting and waiting for the brush - and I want to get to some more of it before the summer ends, but there will be another abrupt switch in the paint shop, as I understand the Warmaster Horus is getting impatient to begin a major assault against the Blood Drinkers, and he needs more stuff finished for that to happen...so back to 30k painting we go!