Saturday Night Gaming

So first of all, my last X-Wing order came in the mail yesterday morning which worked out well.  It added a YT-1300, a Y-Wing, and a second B-Wing to my growing Raven squadron.  Eight of the Twelve pilots in my fluff now have a ship to fly, plus the YT-1300 to haul around supplies and the support element.  Raven Squadron thus looks like the following currently.

Fighter Element
Commander Piet Henke "The Hangman", E-Wing
    Raven Leader, Human Male (Corellia)
    Squadron Commander
Lt. Commander Irie Muslar, A-Wing
    Raven Two, Devaronian Male
    Squadron Executive Officer
Lt. Aivars Gessitt
    Raven Three, Human Male (Palanhi)
Lt. Emleriss Vaelden, B-Wing
    Raven Four, Duros Female
Lt. Kevaan Haerliss "Lucky"
    Raven Five, Human Male (Corellia)
Lt. Daud Moumin, X-Wing
    Raven Six, Quarren Male
Lt. Rhael Hurrskain, X-Wing
    Raven Seven, Sullustan Male
Lt. Lew Parmley
    Raven Eight, Human Male, (Rendili)
Lt. Aikawa Toumin "Tingrin", A-Wing
    Raven Nine, Human Male (Kuat)
Lt. Olwen Neukirchm, B-Wing
    Raven Ten, Human Female (Lorrd)
Lt. Hlaxx Domipakk, Hortek Male
    Raven Eleven, Y-Wing
Lt. Caerla Doumlin, Human Female (New Alderaan)
    Raven Twelve

Support Element
Hidden Roost YT-1300 Freighter
Lt.Gahlaen Veless, Mon Calamari Male, Pilot
Lt. Liin Plaxxon, Sullustan Female, Co-Pilot


Havlock, M-3PO series Droid, Supply Officer
Slascra Plor, Bothan Male, Mechanic
Cam Olwiss, Human Male, Mechanic

Ok, moving onward, we've got a few games to discuss.  Part of why I like X-Wing is that is not so fast that it feels rushed and missing something, but it's short enough that you can get multiple games in.  Between 6:30 and 11:30 Saturday evening, I got to play two 1v1 games at 100 points and then one 2v2 game with 100 points per player.  The first game was against Billy TheBill.  I had Corran in his E-Wing (Commander Piet Henke as far as my fluff would be concerned) and the YT-1300 with Han piloting (Lt. Veless).  I was against a Firespray and 2 royal guard Tie Interceptors.  The game went pretty well and we called it even with a damaged ship left each.  My second game was against a co-worker of TheBill's who was running a Howlrunner Tie swarm.  He had a high level pilot with an Ion Cannon who kept Corran stunned when I made a mistake and got too close to a board edge.  After three rounds of stunned, he was off the board and I conceded.  Next turn my YT-1300 would have been stunned by the Ion as it had even less defense than the E-Wing and it'd have gotten pounded by everything else.

Which brings us to the 2v2.  This game really didn't go my team's way at all.  I was partnered with a very nice young lady who unfortunately I can't remember the name of.  Between us we had an E-Wing, a Y-Wing, an A-Wing, 2 B-Wings, and 2 X-Wings.  They had a Firespray, Howrunner and friends, and 3 Tie Phantoms, one of which was upgraded to real nastiness.  This game quickly got away from us as they pounded two of my ships with just about everything early on while managing to negate pretty much all damage sent back at them.  Sometime the force just isn't with you and the dice just won't be forgiving as Vader.  It was all fun though and I'm looking forward to getting some more games in.  I think my main problem right now is the upgrade cards I'm taking.  I think I'm trying to force some combos that just don't work as often or as well as I think they should.  I need to look at a lot simpler way to go about it I think.

Anyways, that's all for now and I'll see you later.

X-Wing

So I got a couple games of X-Wing in this afternoon against Archon Vortil.  The first game I took Corran Horn E-Wing, Luke X-Wing, and Tycho A-Wing while AV took an Imperial list with 4 Tie Fighters and the Lamda Shuttle.  Corna's double attack option came in all sorts of handy and I soon was clearing out Ties at a good clip.  Tycho ended up in a spot where he had to fly off the table and then the Lamda flew off the table with just a single hull point left.

Second game I took Wedge X-Wing, Corran E-Wing, and a Biggs X-Wing.  This time I was up against a rebel list with a heavily upgraded YT and a heavily upgraded Y-Wing.  I managed to pound the Y-Wing early and often which did it in.  Wedge got stuck on the board edge trying to maneuver for a shot and had to fly off the board, and then Corran finally got shot down.  At this point I had a Biggs with no shields and AV's YT was down to just a couple hull points.  With an upgrade allowing YT to boost, I had a hard time getting a shot off at him while an astromech that was letting Biggs burn a target lock to force attacking rerolls let him survive.  I finally took a chance and did a red maneuver to get a shot on the freighter while hoping to survive, but just managed to get shot down before I could do the same to him.

All in all, a couple quick enjoyable games.  I'm definitely sold as a Corran Horn E-Wing fan.  I need to get the YT upgrade pack though.  The shield and hull upgrade cards in though I could definitely have used, so that's the next thing on the want list for X-Wing.  And a second E-Wing.  Love the E-Wing.

That's all for now, and I'll be up in JC this Saturday for some more X-Wing.

A Bit More Battletech

So one of my eBay orders showed up today.  For $26 I got 3 Grasshoppers, a Cyclops, and a couple plastics from the starter set, the less nice plastics unfortunately so they got tossed in the bag to mostly ignore with the rest from my starter box.

The Grasshoppers will be joining the Eridani Light Horse which will give up an Awesome and a Mauler to join the Cyclops in the Tamar Heavy Guards.  The Grasshopper is a nice fast unit with a decent amount of hitting power so they'll complement the ELH quite nicely.  Throwing in the Mauler and Awesome for the Tamar Heavy Guard increases their hitting power and the Cyclops gives a bit of command and control options.  I've got a Wolfhound that needs a home as well so he'll probably land in the THG as a spotting mech for the heavies and assaults.

 

I'll need to give them all a repriming, paint, and basing but all in all not bad at for the price.  Now if the Robotech lances would just show up I could really get going on the Tamar Heavy Guard.  They had the ship date listed as if they had the items, but I've since learned they were selling their pre-orders and they won't be heading my way for at least another week.  I'm a bit miffed over that, not that I mind the wait but rather that they hadn't clearly mentioned that in the description or reflected it in the shipping times.  As to the THG, I'm thinking for the color scheme that I'm going to do a solid gray-blue with some silver highlighting.  Maybe some arctic basing to get some difference between them and my ELH.

I'm working the entire 4th weekend with my next day off being Monday, so probably won't get much of anything posted between now and then.  So that's it for today and I'll see you all later.

X-Wing

So I've recently been getting into Star Wars: X-Wing.  I've always been a fan of the Star Wars Universe (Greedo edit, Jar-Jar Binks, and Yuuzhan Vong Invasion not withstanding) and it really is a nice tight skirmish game system.  Between the constant new release of a variety of star fighters (with plenty that haven't been even looked at yet) and the endless combo of the upgrade cards for the different ships, it really gives you a chance to customize your force but keeping it balanced for playing.  Unfortunately I haven't got to play anywhere near as much as I want to but I'm hoping to change that as time goes on.

Now the ships are VERY well done from a visual standpoint, both in the level of detail as well as the paint schemes they've been given.  The only real modification I'm considering is when I get a second B-Wing, I want to try one of the How To's on changing the orientation of the fighter so it's turned 90 degrees into the more iconic attack position from the Return of the Jedi movie.  And what is a force in a game system for me if I can't do a bit of fluff for it.  So here we are,after a bit of research and some decision making on which species and such I wanted to represent in the force, the Raven Squadron of the New Republic.  Now some of the ship varients have a specific pilot name attached to them, so for my fluff purposes, they'll just be a counts as for a pilot of similar skill level, though it won't reflect anything game play wise.  Actually, the fluff I've come up with won't really be reflected at all in the game play, but as this is part of the hobby that I really enjoy, I couldn't help myself.

Raven Squadron
    During the early years of the fledgling New Republic, a number of fighter squadrons were formed to help combat the numerous warlords and fragmented Imperial remnants.  One of these squadrons was Raven Squadron.  The unit's first major combat was during the Thrawn campaign where they lost nearly half their strength in one of Thrawn's hit and run raids to make Sluis Van to attack.  After rebuilding, they were deployed on anti-pirate patrol on the Assault Frigate Tannenhaus where they gained experience not only against the pirates but various small incursions by Imperial Warlords.  Raven Squadron then took part in a supporting role during the Crimson Empire crisis.  They were then deployed as part of Admiral Ackbar's fleet to overthrow Warlords Teradoc and Rogriss.  Their next major deployment was to the newly formed Fifth Fleet where they took part in the Black Fleet Crisis.  Since then, Raven Squadron has been assigned various training and escort missions.

Lt. Commander Piet "Hangman" Henke, E-Wing
    Raven Leader, Human Male (Corellia)
Commander Irie Muslar, A-Wing
    Raven Two, Devaronian Male
Lt. Aivars Gessitt
    Raven Three, Human Male (Palanhi)
Lt. Emleriss Vaelden, B-Wing
    Raven Four, Duros Female
Lt. Kevaan "Lucky" Haerliss
    Raven Five, Human Male (Corellia)
Lt. Daud Moumin, X-Wing
    Raven Six, Quarren Male
Lt. Rhael Hurrskain, X-Wing
    Raven Seven, Sullustan Male
Lt. Lew Parmley, Human Male, (Rendili)
    Raven Eight
Lt. Aikawa "Tingrin" Toumin, A-Wing
    Raven Nine, Human Male (Kuat)
Lt. Olwen Neukirch
    Raven Ten, Human Female (Lorrd)
Lt. Hlaxx Domipakk, Hortek Male
    Raven Eleven
Lt. Caerla Doumlin, Human Female (New Alderaan)
    Raven Twelve

Raven Squadron Flight Patch

The ship types listed in the unit composition are ships I already have or have purchased in the past week and am awaiting the arrival of.  I want to add another X-Wing and B-Wing for sure, and possibly a second E-Wing (Hands down my favorite Star Wars fighter from a visual standpoint).  And then I want to see about some Y-Wings and Headhunters to round out the force, perhaps to use as replacement fighters as needed.  Might pick up a YT-1300 Freighter to assist in hauling parts and supplies.  I have no plans what so ever in getting the Corellian Corvette yet, even though it's a gorgeous model.  It's just too many points for regular casual game play (Not to mention the $70 price tag on it).

So that's all for now and I'll chat with you all later.

Bit of BattleTech

     So I've been needing a unit to put the pair of Fafnirs I own into.  I also had some heavier clan mechs that needed a home as well.  I had put a few clan mechs into my Eridani Light Horse as well as some heavier mechs into the Striker lances but while a highlander is jump capable and makes sense as a highly mobile mech, there is no way that a Fafnir would work.  While looking into the Lyran Commonwealth, the problem I had that I just didn't like any of the possible choices in the Lyran Commonwealth.  What I finally went with, was to create a pseudo mercenary mech unit based in the Tamar Pact.

     What I did was to come up with a unit that is going to be close enough to the front lines that it continues to get hit hard in defensive fights to explain why it didn't take part in major Lyran offensives in the later succession wars.  I also needed to give it some connections to power that would keep it being able to be rebuilt but without getting too close to the halls of power.  My final choice in this was to make the founding commander and his offspring distant relatives to the Kelswa family in the Tamar Pact which put them in place to deal with constant Kuritan incursions as well as the front lines of the Clan Invasion which provided salvage as well as keeping them fairly high on re-equipt lists to keep them viable.

      Hopefully my logic makes sense and if anyone sees any flaws in it, please feel free to comment any suggestions or issues.  That being said, here comes the fluff.

Tamar Heavy Guard
Unit Motto:  Wall of Steel
    The Tamar Heavy Guard was formed just after the Second Succession War by Captain Bernard Kelswa.  He was a distant cousin of the ruling branch of the Tamar Pact who was serving in the 5th Lyran Guard Regiment.  Unfortunately he didn't have enough political connections, or favors due, to prevent his career from coming to a halt when he overrode a superior officer's commands.  That the commands would have led to defeat of the Lyran forces prevented him from being cashiered, but not from ruining his career.

    Captain Kelswa was a loyal soldier of the Lyran Commonwealth and refused to let political generals keep him from defending his homeland.  He used his family connections to create a battalion sized mercenary command that was then hired by Lyran Commonwealth via Kelswa family ties to assist in the defense of the Tamar Pact.  Part of the hiring fee was covered by the Kelswa family itself.

    Over the next several decades the Tamar Heavy Guard received plenty of military experience in various battles with the Kuritan forces seeking to invade the Tamar Pact.  The unit saw its fortunes wax and wane over the years, building up to a high of a full regiment down to a low of just a single understrength company.  They always managed to trade on their distant family connections to rebuild though.  Due to this continued cycle of defense and rebuilding, the Tamar Heavy Guard rarely have been deployed in offensive operations.

    The unit was then nearly fatally damaged during the Clan Invasion which saw it forced to relocate to Graceland with just three lances of damaged mechs.  The Tamar Heavy Guard again traded on the distant family connections of the current commander, Colonel William Kelswa-Cromarty, and managed to rebuild once more to Battalion strength.  The unit was then transferred to Morningside to help defend the southern part of what remained of the Tamar March.

    The Tamar Heavy Guard managed to sit out the FedCom Civil War as they were part of the defense against raiding Clan forces.  While a number of the members of the unit wanted to commit to one side or the other, Colonel Kelswa-Cromarty held them together through force of will and kept the unit a viable command.  He acquired permission to undertake several raids into the Jade Falcon territory to keep the unit's edge as well as to occupy them with something other than thoughts of the Civil War.

    After the Civil War, the unit's command passed to William's son, Oliver, who had recently returned to the unit after undergoing additional training at the NAIS Academy.  Newly promoted Colonel Oliver Kelswa-Cromarty has proved to be a very likeable commander who intimately knows the men and women under his command but still remains aloof enough to maintain the mysterious allure of command.

    The command is built around heavy and assault mechs with each Company having a single lance of lights and mediums for scouting purposes.  The Tamar Heavy Guard is currently an over strength Battalion with plans to expand to a second Battalion in the coming months.


This unit will be joined by some Warhammers, Hammerhands, Longbows, Archers, and Rifleman that should be arriving in the next few days via eBay purchase of Robotech units.  We'll see how it goes from there.  That's all for now and I'll see you all next time.

Chapter Master Moriarty

At long last a major project is done.

So as I've posted before in a couple blog articles, I've been working on a conversion for quite a while now for my Chapter Master of the Lions of Harlech.  He started out as a Scribor SF Lion Knight Number 3.  I used the main body of this kit as well as the base, discarding the weapons.  I love the Scribor bodies and bases but like Forge World, they can stink at times on hand weapons.  The ghost lion bits added to the base are from the Anime Tactics model Samiel.  The banner is from a Space Marine Captain box with the banner topper coming from a Bretonian helm bit (that bit courtesy of Archon Vortil).  The Shield is from the Forge World boarding marine, the servo skull from the Scion box set, the sword blade from the new Sternguard box, his helmet is a from a Contemptor Dreadnought, and the cyber cherub with banner is from the Space Marine Master of the Marches model.  Then various purity seals, oaths of movement, and various other icons of purity and faith were added from various marine sprues.

For a refresher on his fluff, his full name and set of titles is Chapter Master Annwn Piet Moriarty, the Lord Harlech, Dominus Cymru, Knight Commander of Tyr, Lord Defender of the Eastern Fringes, Keeper of the Seal of Cymru, and Knight Protector of Imperial Honor.  After his time in the 10th Company, Piet served in Tactical Squad Haarkin in the 7th Company.  When he was promoted to Veteran, he served in a Sternguard squad in the First Company under the tutelage of Veteran Sgt. Mycroff Owain.  He was then sent to the 3rd Company as a Veteran Sgt to command a Tactical Squad.  He was later promoted to Captain of the 3rd Company and served as first Master of the Fleet and then Master of the Marches before ascending to the position of Chapter Master upon the death of Chapter Master Wilhelm Llewes.

 

 

 

The painting was done by Archon Vortil (formerly of the Rogue Traitor variety) in exchange for a copy of the new 7th Edition rule book.  I was able to get a second copy at a reasonable price and I definitely feel like he did a great job on the model.  He also did the Chapter Master's personal standard bearer which was acquired in the Great Bits Swap Night.  The bearer acquired the needed banner pole, the banner bit that was featured here, and a banner topper from the Scion box set.

 

 

 

 

 

All in all I'm very very happy with how it all came out.  What is left to do now is find a small gold lion head in profile in a transfer to add to the Chapter Master's small banner to finish that off.  On the paint job, I love how Vortil got all the nice neat text on all the scrolls and icons, plus the blue came out just right for the rest of the army.  The spectral lion bits really look like they're coming out of the marble base to defend the Chapter Master as well which is just about perfect.  All that's left to do now is working him into a list to get him on the table top.

So that's all for now and I'll see you all on the next time.

Bad Me

So I've been a bad blogger this past couple weeks.  My work schedule has changed, and it's been a bit chaotic so I've got nothing done on the hobby front unfortunately.  I did make it this past Saturday night up to Johnson City for Gamapalooza which was discussed HERE.  It was nice seeing not only so many gamers out but also so many different gaming systems getting played.

For my own game that evening, I had an 1850 point match against Cheef's GF's Fem Fa Tau who've been cutting a rough trail of wins over a number of different opponents including Neverness who had asked me to avenge his poor boys in blue.  (Now I'm not an Ultrasmurf fan, but a marine's gotta defend even the smurfs against the threat of xenos.)  So I decided to take a list like I've never fielded before just to really mix things up and to not be expected.  Thus the "Ancients and Initiates" list was born.

My list was
Master of the Forge w/ combi-flamer in case someone got too close
3x 10 Scouts with Camo Cloaks and Shotguns
1x  6 Scouts with Camo Cloaks and Sniper Rifles
3x  Ironclad Dreadnoughts with Meltaguns and Heavy Flamers as Elites
3x  Venerable Dreadnoughts with Twinlinked Lascannons and Missile Launchers as Heavies
3x  2 Landspeeders with 2 Heavy Bolters each

It turned out to be a fairly fun list to play as a one off, though not one I'd want to take often.  The Tau were fielding a commander with all the bells and whistles, 2 small units of fire warriors, 2 small units of pathfinders with rail rifles (one had the upgrade character and outflanked), 6 stealth suits with 1 fusion blaster, 2 Hammerheads with railguns, 1 Piranha with fusion, 1 C'tan with writhing worldscape and a short range gun effect, and then a necron lord with 10 immortals.  It was her first time using the tin robots so they gave her a bit of trouble on rules and such, and since I rarely play against the tin boys I wasn't much help there either.

We played long table edge deployment and Big Guns mission with 4 objectives.  We played on what she dubbed the Pretty Table.  This was still a 6th Edition game as she hasn't had a chance to delve into 7th yet.  Unfortunately I was still a bad blogger and no pictures were to be taken.

So she deployed first with her commander, both fire warrior teams and a pathfinder team in a large ruin in the middle of her deployment zone.  She put a hammerhead in each corner of her side of the table and the Necron contingent went behind her big ruin in the middle.  Her Piranha was going to deep strike and the stealths and second pathfinder team were outflanking.

I put my speeders behind terrain, Venerables in terrain for cover saves, the Master of Forge went in a building to hide as he was only in the list for the dread slots and bolster, the Ironclads used ruins to block LOS to the hammerheads to be ready to advance up board, and the scouts all infiltrated.  The snipers went into a building that I bolstered with the Master of the Forge.  The Scouts with shotguns all went in to be ready to grab objectives.

Her first turn wasn't too eventful due to lack of good shots.  I made most all the cover saves and lost only 1 sniper and 2 shotguns from the middle squad and a shotgun from my left flank squad.  My first turn the speeders came out to play and everyone else advanced except for the Venerables which stayed where they were.  Heavy bolter fire racked up the kills and one fire warrior team died, one lost 4 warriors (other two couldn't be seen and thus couldn't die) and broke and ran, and the pathfinders lost everything but a drone which broke and ran.  The middle scout squad managed a charge on the Immortals which moved up and thus got them tied up in combat.

Her second turn saw the piranha come in inside my deployment area and the other pathfinders showed up but on a flank with no good deployment options on my right.  They went into some trees in front of her hammerhead but didn't have real range to anything much less LoS.  Her other hammerhead took a hull point off a speeder and then her commander finished it and his buddy off with missile pod fire.  I lost a few more scouts and the Piranha missed the side armor shot on a Venerable but it's drones got a hull point from a shot in it's back.  My turn saw the drones die and the Piranha lost a hull point.  Her commander took a lot of fire and was down to one wound.  Immortals still were tied up in combat while the Ironclads continued to advance.  One just made it into the Immortal combat and I now had a 3 scouts squads holding objectives (snipers and the other two shotgun squads).

Third turn saw still no stealth suits, her commander drop 2 more speeders, her piranha connected to kill the wounded venerable, her hammerheads continued to be denied with cover saves, and the Immortal combat keep dragging on with tied combats.  My turn saw the Piranha die, her commander went down, a glance get through for a hull point on a Hammerhead, and the 2 remaining speeders took out all the pathfinders but the special character who had one wound left.  Her Immortals lost combat by one and broke and ran.

Turn four the stealths are in .... and on the side of the board she doesn't want them.  They try and get a dread and don't have range to hit the closest scout squad.  Immortals rallied and C'tan took out the lasts two scouts from that fight.  My turn four saw an Ironclad almost to a hammerhead, the pathfinder character get BBQ'd by an Ironclad, and that's it.

Turn five I lost a couple scouts to burst cannons from advancing stealths and the C'tan charges an Ironclad which put 2 wounds on it from overwatch and then they mutually killed each other.  I charged a hammerhead and only shook it for a hull point.  At that point it was over with me holding 3 objectives and having scored all 3 secondaries and she had a point from killing a Heavy Support.  The Imperium is avenged and the Tau are held in check.

I think the only thing that held her back in the game was that I think like a lot of Tau players she was trying more to kill me with firepower rather than playing the mission such as trying to railgun dreads in cover rather than placing pie plates on my scouts (which worried me which is why I was being aggressive with the Ironclads to try and keep her attention on them since if they died as Elites, no VPs for them).  She was also real unfamiliar with the Necron rules and that hampered her from using them effectively as well.

All in all it was a fun game and hopefully I'll get some hobby stuff rolling again now.