"It's a Trap!"

This has got to be the fastest Christmas-present project ever... last Christmas my wife bought me about a hundred tiny Star Wars snub fighters from Studio Bergstrom (http://www.studiobergstrom.com/) to go with a project I had been working on for some time... a Star Wars fleet-scale game.

A few furious evenings of painting in January and the snub fighters were done - X-, A-, B- and Y-Wings, TIE Fighters, Bombers and Interceptors, and a tiny YT-300 freighter too. Combine this with Titanium Avenger-class Star Destroyers, converted Micro Machines Victory-class SDs and Interdictor Cruiser and Micro Machine Mon Cal MC80s, and you have the makings of a Thursday night game...

I basically threw out most of the stuff I had painted: seven Mon Cal capital ships versus four Avenger-class ISDs, two Victory-class SDs, and an Interdictor cruiser, both sides with full complements of fighters. The putative scenario was the Battle of Endor, this being the fleet action outside the deflector shield protecting the second Death Star. For rules we used the Star Wars Starship Battles set, with additions downloaded from http://www.boardgamegeek.com/.

Bill, Dave O., and Dave V. commanded the Rebel fleet while Frederick, Mike F. and Brian ran the Imperials. The Imperial fleet deployed first in a dispersed formation while the Rebels aimed a tight wedge of capital ships at one flank.

The Rebel strategy proved a winner (well, that and the hot die rolling) as the Rebels never lost the initiative. They threw their fighters aggressively at the Imperial ships, bleeding off shields with snub fighter attacks and Ion Cannon shots, then lit up what remained with their capital ships.

Mike had terrible luck with his squadron of VSDs and Interdictor, while Frederick accounted for an MC80 and Brian swept in from a flank, but in the end it was a stirring Rebel victory. So much for "faith in your friends" being the Rebel weakness ;-)

All in all a fun evening's entertainment. Drew Bergstrom's snub fighters are fantastic models and suit the "fleet scale" to a T. Add in the fact that they're so easy to paint and they are a must for any Star Wars fan. The rules are simple but provide a fast-paced and, with the additions from the Web, semi-tactical game. Let's face it, the whole point is seeing the fleets face off. The only problem is now I need more variety of ships -- perhaps an order from Odyssey Slipways is in the near future...

Cheers

Dallas

(More) Rogue Tradin'

Finished an RT Ork Dreadnought (thanks Sean) and an old RT "Inquisitor" figure so I thought I'd pitch out some inspirational pics. Plus a mostly-finished Howling Griffons Space Marine, this time in "heraldic" livery.

Yes, the Rogue Trader project progresses. Certainly sometime in Spring we will be delving back into the goodness of Warhammer 40K "first edition" - of course back then nobody called it "first edition" because it was the ONLY edition!!

(That is, if I can resist taking time to paint the new arrivals yesterday courtesy of eBay... Grenadier's "Orcs of the Severed Hand" from 1982... soon to become a Mordheim warband!!)

Cheers

Dallas

The Napoleonic Challenge

Where's my parking space! I'm glad you guys brought scrapers. F&%#ing Regina winters...

For Greg and myself Napoleonic wargaming is the absolute bees knees of the hobby and unless you have been living under a rock this past year you will have noticed that there have been a plethora of rules and minis released for the period. A veritable orgy of plastic figures are now available from the Perry twins and Victrix, along with more rulebooks than you can wave a marshal's baton at (Shako II, Black Powder, Lasalle, Rank & File, etc.). Yes, Virginia, its a wonderful time to be a Napoleonic geek. So, while Lasalle looks to be a great set of rules (and I will probably be a complete whore and do it in 6mm) Greg and I are both smitten with the 'Grande Manner' style of wargaming proposed in Warlord's Black Powder. Its completely unapologetic about its loony mega-sized units (30-60 28mm figures per battalion/regiment!) and has relatively straightforward rules. So as Lord Flashheart would say, "LETS DOOO-OOO IT! WOOF-WOOF!" We thought we'd pick a battle and use it as a target to build/paint towards. Lasalle has a nice little affair at Venzone in northern Italy depicting the early moves of the 1809 campaign. Greg is going to get the Austrians up and running and I will come up with the French. Six or so battalions each plus a few regiments of cavalry and some guns to bang away with - pure bliss. We've set a tentative date of April 'something' to do this by (come to think of it, as the battle occurred on the 11th of April maybe this is as good a date as any to aim for). The gauntlet has been thrown so now its time to get busy!

Last autumn I had picked up three boxes of Victrix French when they were promoting the Black Powder rules (it was a wee deal that was too good to pass up, what with the free shipping) and so I eagerly cracked them open the other day to start the race. Holy crap! I was completely gobsmacked when I discovered that there are around a zillion separate pieces to these guys! Each figure is composed of around 6-8 separate parts, with options galore - its completely mental. Anyway, I girded my loins, got out my sprue clippers, sniffed some plastic cement and started in. Well, to be sure they are a bit of a pain in the ass to assemble, but the variations in poses help to make up for it. I found that it will not be too difficult to create units where the soldiers look like they are interacting with each other which is pretty darn cool. This project will be a much harder slog than I first thought but the results could be well worth it.

Here is a pic of some preliminary layout options I'm working on for one of the command stands... I really like that the Victrix figures are quite slim and that you can easily trim the bases around their feet. This will allow me to pack them in shoulder-to-shoulder for a nice massed look (I plan to pack another three figures on this base). Anyway, Greg and I will try to keep you up to date on how we are progressing with the challenge and hopefully we'll have a game to show for it in the spring! Cheers! Curt

More Warmaster Progress

I'm still plugging away on my Warmaster reclamation project - an Empire army that I found in the basement. I've just finished a unit of Knights, the artillery and the characters. The pace is slower than I thought, as the "touching up" has turned into "re-painting" but it is still a lot of fun.
Knights - before...




and after...



Some artillery for the Empire battle line - a detachment of two cannons, and the always-fun Hellblaster volley gun.



The important bits for running any Warmaster army - the characters to boss the units around. Sorry - this picture is a bit lame because of the lighting, but hopefully the models show up OK. There is a the Count on his Griffon, a general (with his feet kicked up - I love that model), two hero bases and a wizard.



The character models and artillery were the "easy pickings" on this project - now I have to get back to the meat and potatoes core units, the Halberdiers and Crossbowmen (you need two of each as a minimum in the Empire contingent). I'm hoping this army can be ready for a fight by the end of February.

Battle Report - Orks take it in the Teef'

Last week Mike F and Brian popped over and we played a game of "Epic 40,000" - the predecessor to the current "Epic: Armgageddon" rules. It has been quite a while since I have played a game of "Epic: 40,000", which at the time it came out represented a real jump in a new direction for GW and their rules, featuring highly abstracted and much more balanced game play than the previous Epic/Space Marine rules.

Tau Hunter Cadre with Fire Warriors, drones, Devilfish APCs and a unit of Pathfinders

An Ork Warband moves to attack

Hammerheads look for enemy targets from a hill

Note that Epic/Space Marine rules were awesome too - I just think the different vehicles/capabilities/special abilities had got way, way out of hand and it became pretty slow and hard to play because of the multitudes of exceptions and special rules (sound like any other system? I digress...). Whatever the reason, the GW guys purged the Augean stables of Space Marine and came out with a game system that used blast markers, flexible detachments, abstracted firing and army morale to create something pretty cool. The endless special rules were replaced with more abstract and subtle abilities that required careful play in order to exploit. And the icing on the cake - it was sold in a box, complete with ALL the army lists, and TWO armies to start! Now THAT takes me back...

Anyway, to the game: the scenario was a meeting engagement, between an Ork army with two warbands, one Kult of Speed and a pair of Ork Battlefortresses. The Tau for their part featured four different Cadres - two of infantry in Devilfish with assorted drones and Pathfinders for support, one made up of Hammerheads with railguns (oh yeah!) and a rather lethal and mobile cadre of Crisis suits, backed by Broadside suits and Stealth Suits. Brian and I played the Tau, and Mike F took the Orks.

The Ork Kult of Speed prepares to go out with a bang...

The key to most "Epic 40,000" games is army morale - as your detachments break, the morale of the army decreases, and if you hit "0", you're done. All of sorts of things add to this - the blast markers on your army in each morale phase, a war engine going out in spectacular fashion, different objectives being taken, lost, etc. In other words, the rate at which your army morale decreases is not necessarily exactly aligned to the rate at which you take casualties - in fact, it can materially exceed it.

Ork boyz contemplate the flaming death of their Kult of Speed...

Mike F learned about this the hard way, when he advanced his Kult of Speed out in front (which of course they would do) and into a close assault! I gulped a bit, as the Tau generally do poorly in close assault, but I was saved by lucky (for me)/ unlucky (for Mike F) dice rolling! We tied the first roll, and on the second, Mike rolled the "Scottish Number" and I came up with a "6". The Tau slaughtered the Orks, placing a pile of blast markers on the enemy detachment AND breaking them...the horrific combined effect of this (lots and lots of blast markers plus breaking) took Mike's army morale from 21 down to 5 or so, reflecting the impact that the complete destruction of the Kult had on the other Ork Boyz!

Tau Hunter Cadre moves on to a hill

Fire from the Ork Kans and Stompas broke one of the Tau Hunter Cadres

Thanks to drones, the Tau are able to hold their position under Ork fire

Betrayal by the dice was a common theme for Mike for the rest of the game. He tried to pull the Tau into position where he could make a stronger attack, and fire from his dreads, boyz and Stompas did break one of the hunter Cadres. But as his morale clicked down (and he had bad luck with rally rolls), he had to make a final charge, and Brian moved in with the Crisis suit detachment at just the right time to lay a horrible licking on one of the last Ork warbands.

Brian's crisis suits eliminate the enemy, delivering a coup de grace to the Orks - note the blast markers in the backround...

In the end, it was a Tau win - the Ork army morale dipped to "0", while the Tau still had 7 points left. I have to give credit to Brian for playing the suits very well, and to character - letting the Fire Warriors soak up the abuse, and then dropping in for the kill. And clearly I don't think the Tau would be so lucky again now that Mike has a better feel for the "Epic 40:000" rules! It could have gone either way with the assault by the Kult of Speed for sure.

Thanks to Mike and Brian for coming by, and providing me with another opportunity to further "amortize" my Epic Tau.

Project Trafalgar

Last week I found in my e-mail box a nice invitation from Greg to contribute to this blog. I could not refuse and I don't want to be just a lurker. This is my first blog entry ever and I would like to talk about my new painting project for 2010: Trafalgar. Last year, I bought a copy of copy of the new set of rules published by Warhammer Historical about the age of sail. It's a period I was always interested in but never dare start collecting models. Now my plan is to have enough ships by December 2010 to recreate the famous naval battle.

On this picture, the U.S.S. Constitution talks to the H.M.S. Guerrière through the mouth of her guns.

My first step was to choose a model maker. I wanted miniatures with enough detail to look good on the table, so Langton and GHQ were shortlisted. I soon realize that the superb Langton models, for some of their items, require assembling each sail separately... So maybe I'll buy a few models at a later date, when I feel I need an outrageously super detailed sailship to impress my opponents. GHQ seemed a better (and more convenient) (and cheaper) option.

So the second step was to order a variety of models from GHQ to get a better feeling of what is available. Although the company catalog list 25 different sailships, I discovered that sometimes the same hull is used with a slightly different set of sails. Oh well, at 1/1200, the color rather than the shape of the hull is what matters anyway. On the picture, you can see 14 different ships from the GHQ selection. I also decided to buy full sail sets models instead of battle sail because I prefer the look of the latter. I've seen many paintings and models of sail ships with pure white sails, but I've decided to paint my miniatures in cream tone. It gives the feeling that the ships have been at sea for a while and it creates a better contrast with the white masts of the American frigates.

These four models are the latest additions to my collection. I just finished putting the gel on the bases last night. From left to right: a small merchantman that I christened the Nonsuch :-); a large merchantman, the Beagle; an American frigate, the U.S.S. Constellation, and the U.S.S. Constitution, the American super frigate. Now that I have painted a nice variety of ships, the third step is to focus on those ships I need for the battle of Trafalgar. There were 60 ships of the line at the battle, and I have 6 so far. In the meantime, I will hone my naval skills with smaller scenarios.

Cheers,

Sylvain

Another(!) Eldar unit for the Tempest of Blades

A couple of weeks ago I played a game of 40K with Duncan (batrep to follow shortly). We played the Astro scenario "Crash Site Recovery." I was running my Dire Avengers lean, without an Exarch.

That's right, Dallas, no more "Blade-storm."

The proof of concept seemed to work out OK. So, I'm looking at a fairly radical change to my 1500-point Swordwind list . Some of the following is based on stuff I read on Warseer and on YTTH (in particular, the second small Dragon squad and the Vyper squadron):

Farseer - Doom (re-roll "To Wound" rolls); Guide (re-roll shooting "To Hit" rolls); Eldar Jetbike; Runes of Warding; Singing Spear

Autarch - Eldar Jetbike; Banshee Mask; Laser Lance; Fusion Gun

8 x Dire Avengers - mounted in Wave Serpent grav APC w/ TL Shuriken Cannons; Shuriken Cannon

8 x Dire Avengers - mounted in Wave Serpent grav APC w/ TL Bright Lances

5 x Fire Dragons - mounted in Wave Serpent grav APC w/ TL Shuriken Cannons

5 x Fire Dragons - mounted in Wave Serpent grav APC w/ TL Shuriken Cannons

3 x Vyper jetbikes - each w/ 2 x Shuriken Cannons

5 x Warp Spiders - including Exarch with dual Death Spinner

Fire Prism grav tank

Total = 41 models, at exactly 1500 points

***

A fair amount of medium strength firepower (a possible 42 S6 shots in a turn of shooting), plus 11 melta guns, a TL Bright Lance, a Prism Cannon, and lots of Shuriken Catapults. The two Fire Dragon units deal with tank spam and hunt down things like squads of Tyranid Warriors (hooray for Instant Death). The two Dire Avenger squads back up everyone else and try to seize objectives. The Farseer buffs her side's shooting, or helps them wound their enemies. The Autarch allows for putting everything into reserve, and allows heroic "Horatius Cocles at the bridge" type rearguard actions. Very little close combat ability, except for the sacrificial Autarch.

I've been working on the new Vyper squadron. I never liked the idea of a 2-man Eldar bike, with the gunner basically having his ass hanging out in the wind. So, I threw away the turrets and made all the bikes single-seaters:

(Note: click on the photo for a larger image)

The leftmost model shows the basic single-seat bike configuration, using castoff bits, putty and wire. It will eventually have an enclosed canopy. It is somewhat based on the work of a couple of modelers I saw on Warseer.

The centre model shows the pewter Shuriken Cannon upgrade used for all three bikes, replacing the bikes' original TL Shuriken Catapults.

The centre and right-hand bikes were cut down even further, to become unmanned drones. I threw their canopies into the bits box and used Eldar "command tank" bits to represent their drone status. In the army fluff, the drones are slaved to each other and to the manned bike. This represents, in model form, the vehicle squadron rules in 40k 5th. edition (i.e. ignore "Stunned" results, but "Immobilized" counts as "Destroyed") .

So, there it is. The army is still very fast, now with more firepower at the expense of reduced close combat ability.

I would greatly appreciate any constructive comments or concerns.

Edited to add: The Vyper squadron was finished and is illustrated here.