Friday 29 June 2018

Russian Generals

Some Napoleonic Russian generals to take command in the upcoming 1812 campaign.


Corps and Divisional commanders
Learned a couple of lessons from these, firstly using an alternative colour base spray really works - in this case I used Mournfang brown from GW. This gave a good coverage on the horses, most of which were going to be some shade of brown in any case.




I was worried that the lighter colour base coat might highlight patches I've missed (I have had some horrible experiences with white on 28mm in the past) but I seem to have got away with it this time.




Secondly I found painting on lollipop stick good as always but using PVA to stick 6mm troops to them just causes difficulties when trying to pop them off. Back to the venerated Blue Peter tradition of double sided sticky tape in future!


All figures are Baccus.

Friday 15 June 2018

May Progress

Oh dear... as recounted in the Nottingham Loot post, this month took a heavy hit on the miniatures purchased. As well as that trip I succumbed to some Roman purchasing early in the month.
Finished:
  • 24 French Light Infantry (actually finished in April but I forgot to include them!)
  • 1 Nephilim Jet Fighter (WH40K Dark Angel flyer)
  • 11 Celtic Warriors (28mm)
  • 120 6mm Napoleonic Russian Infantry
Bought:
  • 60 Roman legionnaires
  • 20 Roman Praetorian Guard
  • 20 Roman Veterans
  • 24 Roman Auxiliaries
  • 3 Roman Auxiliary Command
  • 40 Celtic Warriors
  • 10 Celtic cavalry
  • 8 Celtic archers
  • 4 Roman Generals
  • 3 Celtic Generals
  • 6 ME109s
  • 6 Spitfires
  • 3 Primaris Marines
  • 1 Tech Priest (WH40K Mechanicum)
  • 10 Skitarri Rangers
  • 2 Warglaives
  • 5 Lychguard (WH40K Necrons)
  • 5 Immortals
  • 3 Canoptek Wraiths
  • 1 Cryptek
  • 1 Aeldari Gateway

Monthly: -79
Yearly: -31



Friday 8 June 2018

Nottingham Loot

Recent trip to Nottingham led me to the HQ store of Warlord Games. Had some interesting chat with the staff there and of course succumbed to a slight spend:


  • Celtic cavalry
  • Celtic archers blister
  • Celtic chieftains blister
  • Roman general (who in now way looks like Russell Crowe in Gladiator - honest)
  • Roman generals
  • Roman auxiliary command
  • Blood Red Skies - an impulse buy backed up by some interesting reviews I'd read on the internet. I have an idea for this, more when I actually get round to it!
  • Wargames Illustrated - don't always buy this these days but noticed a BLB article!
I was also given a  miniature of a crusader for visiting the store.
I allowed my credit card an evening to recover and then wandered over to Warhammer World (those of a historical disposition may want to look away now).


  • Forgebane - self contained WH40K set with loads of cool Mechanicum models
  • Some Primaris Reavers... no can't explain that one other than I like the skull motif helmets
  • Aeldari web gate - it's scenery, you can't have too much scenery!
  • A selection of paint - this is actually for my Romans and Celts!
Now all I have to do is explain this to the better half, on reflection perhaps I should have brought her back more than a mug...

...or maybe not blogged about it publicly!

Friday 1 June 2018

Star Wars Armada

I know this has been out for a while but that's me, always late to the party, provided of course I actually get an invite. But enough social woes, I'm a wargamer I should be pleased with what I get, right?

Anyway, I purchased Armada about a year ago along with a few extra ships and only managed to get round to breaking the seal on the box last week, so it was a surprise to actually get a game in (first of the year!).

The scenario was simple as this was a learning process and taken straight from the book using the ships supplied by the core set. So for the Imperials there was a nifty Star Destroyer identical to the one in the opening sequence of the original film plus a half dozen TIE fighter squadrons. The rebels had a corvette and a Nebulon class cruiser, again familiar to watchers of the original trilogy, and four X-wing squadrons.

The setup was on a three foot square table with the opposing forces facing each other.

Turn 1
Not much happened in a very long round apart from a lot of page turning to find out how everything worked. The rules were split into two booklets Learn to Play and a Rules Reference. I admired the intention, get players up and running as quickly as possible but the split was annoying sometimes having to reference two or three pages to work out what was supposed to happen. There was the odd contradiction too which presumably Fantasy Flight, the manufacturer, must have known about as there was a clarification on contradictions between the two booklets!

Anyway after much flicking, pondering and scratching of noggins the fleets advanced.
A ponderous advance

Turn 2
This took even longer as we worked out what we had done wrong in the previous round and had to handle the first round of shooting. This was actually straight forward enough utilising some of the now familiar custom D8s that come with this and other Fantasy Flight products. The Star Destroyer's frontal batteries quickly knocked out the front shields of the Nebulon cruiser.

Some shooting!

Turn 3
The one turn where everything seemed to be in range. The corvette started the action off by taking out two (of three) of the Star Destroyer's shields. In response the Imperial ship blasted the corvette with it's port batteries nicking the rear shields of the rebel vessel. It then unleashed more attacks on the Nebulon, doing actual hull damage and a critical hit on the ship's shield generators.

Then the fighters clashed and all I can say is I wouldn't want to be a TIE fighter pilot. Those X-wings were mean taking down two squadrons of TIEs almost immediately. There was some response from the Imperials with an X-wing squadron being obliterated but if I had been in that navy (and with my accent that would be likely) I would have been hyper-spacing out of there!

This turned out to be the height of the battle

Turns 4-6
The issue now was that everybody had to turn and this took time (especially for the Star Destroyer). There was also the question of the table size for the Imperial ship there was a real danger that it would fall of the edge of the universe.
Turn, turn, turn...

The fighters continued to engage and the TIEs even managed to get in a few shots at the Nebulon cruiser.

Unfortunately the hiatus also allowed those ships that were damaged to recover shields which in effect meant that, apart for the dwindling fighter forces - which had had minimal impact on the capital ships - everything recovered.
Fighters still engaged

The game was supposed to conclude at the end of turn six but with no clear result a couple of further turns were agreed.

Turns 7-8
Finally two of the capital ships get back in range
The corvette and Star Destroyer passed each other but were unable to dent each others shields and the game petered out to a draw.
But damage is minimal

Conclusion
It might not sound like it but I actually enjoyed this and it definitely had that Star Wars feel (I was told off repeatedly for humming the Imperial March). I have a feeling that we were not applying the damage rules properly and that may have caused the issue. A bigger playing area and a better appreciation of the ships in play would also help. A re-read of the rules, especially now that I'm aware of the areas causing me confusion is also in order.