Bad Kitties

My friend CurtisK, a FOW aficionado (see his blog), came Thursday for a "training game" as he plans to participate in an officially sanctioned FOW Late War tournament in Saskatoon this weekend. His army list includes 3 King Tigers, a battery of 3 Wespe, a platoon of infantry and... that's it! His units are very well painted,especially the camouflaged ones.

I chose my army list as if I was myself to participate in a tournament, with some of the iconic units I cherish most in the Soviet army:
- 2 companies of infantry (1 platoon each) reinforced with flamethrowers and sappers.
- 1 artillery battalion
- 1 company of T-70
- 1 platoon of SU-152
- 1 flight of Sturmovik

The scenario, randomly chosen, was "Fighting Withdrawal". I set up the Winter boards, that I haven't used in a while, and we prepared for battle.

The German Bad Kitties are up there, on the upper corner. The Soviets deployed around the three objectives, two of them were to be removed as the withdrawal is progressing.

The Soviets had a fun time at first. The artillery was pounding the infantry platoon while the Sturmovik gloriously hammered a King Tiger...

... then a second one!

Things were not looking too good for the Germans as the clock was ticking. Two objectives were already removed, and the Germans launched a desperate assault to seize the last objective: a turretless Tiger I hull full of Zecret Dokuments hidden under the driver's seat.

The flamethrower teams came out of the wood to greet and grill the King Tiger. Somehow, the bad kitty survived. But the real threat for the Soviet, from the beginning, happened not to be the King Tigers but...

... it was the infantry platoon!!! In a dramatic dénouement, the German grenadiers were able to overcome the more numerous Soviet defenders around the remaining objective, thanks to incredibly low dice rolls from the Soviet side. A last minute unexpected victory for the Germans.

It was a very intense as well as very interesting engagement done within the 2 hour time limit of a tournament game.

You can read CurtisK's own version of the battle here, as well as compare his pictures with mine.

Tools of the Trade

I'm a person that enjoys minutiae and detail.  I'm all about trivia and such.  I'm kind of a brand fiend too.  Sadly, this extends to hobby stuff as well.

Years ago, I used Krylon Clear Matte spray as a varnish for my models.  I really liked the smell (!), plus the slightly satin finish it created.  Then came The Incident.  I bought a can of Krylon at Michael's and used it to varnish some models.  The spray dried to a weird frosty textured coating.  Temperature and humidity were normal, so I assumed it was a bum can and bought another.  Same thing... so I swore off Krylon forever.

This extended to paint for priming as well.  For the longest time I've advocated using the cheapest flat black spray you can find.  Here in Winnipeg, this is "Colour Place" available at Wal-Mart for less than $2.50 a can.  I've used it for a few years but in the last six months or so have noticed that it seems to be getting less pigmented, if that's possible.  It's taking several coats just to build up a primer surface, and that's annoying.  I'd find I was always running to Wal-Mart to buy more paint.

     

Enter Krylon... last time I was at Wal-Mart I saw this can of Krylon flat black for about $4.50... and in a moment of weakness decided to try it.  What a revelation.  Wide spray pattern, great for priming larger models like vehicles.  Great coverage in one pass.  A nice flat finish with plenty of tooth for the basecoat to latch on to.  The can seems to be lasting a long time too, I've primed two Rhinos, a Vindicator and six Tyranid warriors so far and probably used less than half a can.

Recommended!!

Here's a hint

 

Enough to cover an 8'x5' table  ;-)

???

Just got back from the parcel place in Pembina, ND.  The border was mental on the way down, but a breeze on the way back 35 minutes later.  Weather was a little sketchy with blowing snow on the way back but we made it fine.  The car was filled to the brim with boxes...

So what was in the boxes??? (other than 10 jillion styrofoam peanuts...)

"It's (yet another) Trap!!"

Last Thursday I put on a game using a variant of WotC's "Star Wars Starship Battles" rules and Imperial and Rebel fleets.  The scenario was an excellent Battlefleet Gothic scenario called "Escalating Engagement".  Basically each side divides its fleet into five divisions, and the game begins with one random division from each fleet on the table.  Each turn there is the potential for another division to arrive at a random table edge.  It makes for a pretty interesting and tense game.

Each side divided its fleet into five more-or-less equivalent divisions.  The Rebels (me and Wes) had a superiority in numbers of ships with divisions composed of one capital ship and a cruiser or two corvettes.  The Imperial fleet (Brian and Indo) had a division with two Victory-class Star Destroyers and an Interdictor, one with an Imperial-class SD and a carrier, and three composed of a single Imperial SD.

The capital ships were mostly all carrying fighters too, of course!  (these would prove their worth later)

The scenario ran very smoothly.  All of the Rebel divisions but one warped in right on time and in good positions, beating up on the single Imperial division on the table - the two Victorys and the Interdictor.  But as soon as that division was comprehensively atomized, the remaining Star Destroyers all arrived, surrounding the Rebel fleet... "it's a trap!!"

The X-wings were initially quite effective against the SDs - their proton torpedoes are awesome!  But once the TIE fighter swarms became fully engaged it was bye-bye Gold squadron... and Red Squadron... and Green Squadron...

In the end, the Imperial fleet had been all but eliminated with just the carrier remaining... however the Rebels had nothing left nearby to hurt the Imperials.  There was an untouched Mon Cal cruiser and a Nebulon B that had arrived late to the party but they couldn't reach the fight in time to make a difference.

The game ran very slickly, I like the WotC rules with the additions we use for ranged weaponry.  Due to the size of the fleets and the number of players, we didn't use our usual additions for "shields".  The result was a faster playing game where stuff blew up real good and real fast.

I also love the aesthetic of the game.  The "Titanium" Imperial SDs mix well with the Micro Machines Victory-class and Interdictor conversions, and the MM Mon Cal ships.  The Nebulon Bs and Corvettes as well as the Imperial Carrier are from the most excellent Odyssey Slipways firm, available through Starship Modeller.  The fighters are Stringvest's snub fighters made by Drew of Studio Bergstrom and although they are of course grossly overscale, I think they look good on squadron bases mixed with the fleet scale models.

Statistical Analysis

I thought it might be neat to pause for a moment and reflect on this thing we call the Conscripts blog.

We've been at this now since December 2008.  Since then we've put up over 400 posts (that's about one every two days) - battle reports, game announcements, painting projects, rants, etc., and speaking personally, this outlet has really increased my enjoyment of our silly shared hobby.

Earlier this year, our blog passed 40,000 individual page views (that's "40K" page views ;-) and we just reached 50 followers.  That's pretty cool.  So thanks to everyone who checks out our blog, and special thanks to those who leave comments.  We really appreciate that.  Also, if you think your friends might like this blog, please share it with them, and above all, enjoy your gaming, painting, and collecting!

Rogue Trader Bonus Content!

Just wanted to add some bonus content to Greg's excellent RT battle report.  Above is a group portrait of my "Red Star" Ork army, prominently featuring the Red Barun, of course ;-)

Here are Greg's very well done Guardsmen.  I particularly like the conversion to "new style" lasguns.  The old flashlights never did it for me but the new ones look fantastic.

Here's a manky old wreck of a Predator I picked up on the weekend from a local shop.  I had some plans to incorporate it into my Ork army as a "looted vehicle".

And after an evening's work... the corrugated stuff is some textured plasticard I had laying around from a previous project.

And lastly... a video walk-around of the table from last week's game, filmed from a conveniently placed flying servitor skull of the Adeptus Mechanicus...