Crows and Some Things That Flies

So even though I was out of town most of the past week, I did manage to continue making progress on my BattleTech mercenary force Flock of Crows.  The Second Company command lance, Second Company alpha lance, Third Company command lance, and Third Company third platoon are all painted and ready for basing.

 

 

 

 The battalion is coming along nicely and I'm happy with the progress so far.  Next up is something for my Lions of Harlech.  When I was leaving town this past Tuesday, I spent some time hitting some stores in Knoxville.  One of those was the Warhammer Store out at Turkey Creek.  While there are many tempting items in there, I only ran into one that I just couldn't walk away from.  My Storm Talon now has a slightly meaner brother in a new Stormhawk Interceptor.  It's a great looking kit and so far I've managed to keep myself from starting on it until I get the Flock of Crows finished.

 

And then the last of all, I caught a sale at SciFi City the same day and grabbed one of the new X-Wing Imperial Veterans expansions.  The Tie Bomber and Tie Defender are both great looking ships and I look forward to getting back up to Johnson City and the gaming group there to try them out.

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

The Lions Head To War

Silent as a predator hunting its prey, a darkened ship swims through the void of deep space in a ceaseless patrol.  A golden rampant lion upon field of blue adorns the sides of its hull and announces the presence of the Lions of Harlech Space Marines Chapter.  Captain Rhys Glyndwr, Commander of the Chapter's 4th Company, stands on the command deck of the Strike Cruiser Blodeuwedd as the communications station bleets the arrival of a message.

"Sir, we've intercepted a report from the Hive City of H'btwn on J'hnston Cty.  Agents of Chaos have been spotted in the vicinty and they're asking for assistance.  From the images and transmissions, it appears to be agents of Khorne.  If the warp remains calm, we're within range to be able to force an intercept."  A quiet settled over the command deck as those present awaited their commander's decision.  Would they continue their hunt for the Eldar pirates or would a new prey be within their sights?

Captain Glyndwr gathered his thoughts as he turned first to look at the holo-map, then his stern face set with resolve as he at last turned to the vessel's commander.  "Captain Mallory, set course for J'hnston Cty, maximum thrust.  Send word to the Llew Gyr in case follow up incursions are discovered.  We ride for war, for honor, and damnation to the enemies of the Emperor!"  Cheers and liturgies of preparation rang out throughout the length of the Blodeuwedd as it's crew and assault force readied themselves.  Strike Force Glyndwr was headed for war!

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So between going to the Space Marine birthday bash a while back and then working on the Leviathan Dreadnought, I've got a bit of a 40K itch that just needs scratching.  Neverness has been good enough to agree to a game and my Lions of Harlech will be sortieing to meet his forces of Khorne.  We'll be meeting up this coming Sunday afternoon and we'll see how the dice fall.  It'll be 2,000 point each and while using the newest Space Marine codex, I'll be using the classic force organization chart rather than trying to figure out all those Demi-Company/Task Force charts.

I'll also be playing some X-Wing Saturday night at the regular HobbyTown gaming session.  I've got a totally new list that I'm looking forward to trying out, so next week plan on hopefully seeing a couple batreps here.  While I have made a bit of progress on painting Ghost Bear Elementals, there isn't enough for a blog post yet, so that's up coming for a future post as well.  That's all for now and I'll see you next time.

Slow Week

Well, I didn't get a whole lot done this past week.  About a dozen or so Mechs came out of the Simple Green and got primed but I didn't get a picture of them.  I've still got about 4 stubborn ones still soaking away.  I did get some 40K marines sold which let me get some 15mm ordered.

I ordered this detachment from Brigade Models.  It gives me a nice assortment of models to get started with and lets me get working on organization.  I've always like Hammer's Slammers by David Drake so the air cushion hover tanks and apc's really drew me in.  This is something that could be really fun to expand on.  I'm leaning towards a Scottish Highlander regiment theme right now.  It'd let me tell Cheef there can be only one anyway LOL.  I also got the Gruntz rulebook ordered and it should be here early next week sometime.

The 40K just sold to fund the 15mm was a landraider, a quartet of predators, a vindicator and a pair of razorbacks.  I've still got a lot of 40K marines to sell off though, having decided to get rid of all the unpainted stuff and get down to just the finished models to keep back for future use.  It's looking like a few land raiders, 8 or so rhinos, some various odds and ends, and a whole lot (3 hundred or so) of infantry to get sold off still.

The rest of the week should be a lot slower and I'll have the weekend clear and free this go round so I'm aiming to get some progress on both painting the mechs and hopefully get some preliminary work on fleshing out the 15mm fluff idea as well.  That's all for now and I'll see you all next Tues.

A Large Pile Of Loot

So, as mentioned in previous posts, the Warhound went the way of the auction block.  This post will be covering the first influx of what it's funded.  And I've still got about $150 not spent from that with a number of items slated to go up on eBay tomorrow.  Since I've moved, I've had a chance to get my hobby stuff much more organized as I've been unpacking.  While I've still got a number of stuff to finish unpacking (mainly books, knick knacks, and lots of space marines), it's been nice to go through it a box at a time and get things under control.

This is DEFINITELY more organized than the pile and jumble I had pre-move

First up from the loot pile is two boxes of Perry Miniatures infantry for the War of the Roses force I'm putting together.  One is a box of War of the Roses infantry which can be assembled as archers or infantry and the other is a box of European infantry in the same time frame which can be assembled as crossbowmen, handgunners, or pikemen.  Each box contains enough model parts to assemble 40 models, so it was right at $70 for 80 models of multipart plastics.  Eat that GW.

The forces are being marshaled, but which side to support?

Next up is a box of mounted sergeants from Fireforge Games.  There are 12 multipart cavalry in the box and they're easily the match of GW Fantasy other than you don't get an entire sprues worth of detail bits.  But it was another good value at $20 on eBay.  I've got a couple individual models coming from the Dark Blade line of Game of Thrones models to represent the leadership of the force.  Once they arrive hopefully by this weekend, I'll have a bunch of the infantry assembled and will be doing an entire post on the force.  Also, I'm currently looking into the Fields of Glory rules for playing this army and would welcome any advice on the ruleset.

I read good reviews on this set and they were right

After that we'll make a quick hyperspace jump and look at a pair of basic Tie Fighters to bring me up to 5 basics as I slowly build up my Imperial forces.  I still want to get a pair of bombers, 3 more Ties to be able to field a full swarm list, and then a Firespray.  I'm not going to make the jump into Scum and Villainy just yet.

Soon you will feel the power of .... two lone fighters with no shields

And then last but far far far from least, my order from Warlord arrived with the last of my Bolt Action British paratroopers.  With what I already have, this will easily let me put together a force of up to 1,000 points quite easily.  I'll be working on getting them all onto bases when I'm off work this coming Sunday and Monday so they'll all be ready for my next foray up to Johnson City.  There paras have a return engagement planned with some aardvarks and we'll see if the paras can continue their success when properly modeled and not proxied.

Airborne rangers from the sky, fearless men who'll ...

So that's what all I've got on the plate for now.  Plus I've got some stuff to finish getting organized to get up on eBay.  My goal (if most likely a bit more than ambitious) is to get all this assembled by the end of the month and make a dent is starting to get it painted.  Hopefully I'll at least get it all primed by then and perhaps some basic colors on them as well.  The paras will be the top item for getting paint as they'll definitely be seeing the table top a fair amount while the War of the Roses force will be more of a hobby project for now while I find a rule set that looks promising.  I think I've got Bob talked into trying the time frame at least.

Thanks for the reads and I'll see you all later.

Battletech, X-Wing, and Bolt Action Oh My

So a bit more hobby progress over the last week.  First of all, I got my last six Robotech minis assembled, 2 Warhammers, 2 Riflemen, and 2 Archers.  Next I got restocked on paint with a run up to Johnson City yesterday with RTVortil or Imperial Recruitment or Archon Vortil or whatever his new blog commenting name is this month.  This let me get a green basecoat on another batch of Battletech.

I got a couple trades worked out on a Battletech Facebook group so the first part of the week I'll be getting the unseen Griffin and 2 unseen Stingers to finish off the battlemech portion of the 21st Striker Regiment.  I still need to acquire 6 aerospace fighters to completely finish the regiment.  I've started messing around a bit with nonRegimental asset ideas to be able to build a base for the Regiment as terrain such as command center, storage bunkers, repair bays, MASH vehicles, coolant trucks and such.  It's still just in the starting idea phase and we'll see how it goes.

Next up is that I went through the last of the Christmas money and finally got the Rebel Transport.  The extra X-wing pilot cards and astromech droids offer some interesting possibilities.  The fact that you can make the transport a 10 hull 5 shield beast at 40 points and then add some passengers and upgrades also gives some interesting possibilities.  It doesn't have any attacks but it sure can be a rock hard place to put a lot of large area boosts and effects into play from.

Last of all, I got my two Bolt Action books in the mail on Friday that I ordered with a Books A Million egift card I got for Christmas.  I also picked up a box of British Airborne yesterday to start getting ideas on how I want to paint and base them before I do my big order with my March bonus check.  I already know I'm going all berets and no helmets so there will be the bit of red on all the miniatures to tie the army together.  Basing I'm torn between fall forest and urban.  I just haven't been able to decide which so feel free to post in comments with suggestions or ideas on this.

So that's where we're at for now and we'll see about getting with you all again next weekend.  I think it sounds like I'm going to be in a major mulitplayer X-wing battle on Friday night so there will be that to discuss no matter what.  Have a good new year all and I'll see you next time.

Still Here

So yes, I'm still here.  Since I'm in retail management, this is always a tough month for me.  While I've only managed a single game this month, I have managed a few acquisitions for use after the holidays.  I started the month off with my 40th birthday, so I treated myself to a copy of the original Battletech mercenary handbook.  Murl had made some printouts of the Eridani Light Horse pages from it some time back, but it's nice to finally have a full hard copy of the book.

I also finally got my Robotech pre-order right at the end of November and have managed to get half of the mechs put together but have yet to get paint on any of them yet.  I've got 2 Warhammers, 2 Riflemen, and 2 Bowmen assembled with 2 more each of Warhammers and Riflemen to put together and a pair of Archers.

I've also got about another dozen battlemechs and half a dozen aerospace fighters in trades and purchases through a CBT Facebook group.  Once I get them all painted, it will put me about 8 battlemechs and 6 aerospace fighters shy of completing the entire 21st Striker Regiment of the Eridani Light Horse.  This has been a fun project this year and it looks like somewhere around the end of January or maybe into February I should have it completed.  That's what I'm aiming for anyway.

The last of what I've got this month is that my last X-Wing order arrived with a second Rebel Aces set and a YT-2400.  That'll probably be it for me and X-Wing purchases until scum and villainy release, though I'm still needing to flesh out my Empire forces a fair amount.

So that's where I stand for now and once I get past Christmas and onto a more normal work schedule, I'll try and get back onto a more regular posting on the blog once more.  Thanks for reading and I'll see you all later.

X-Wing ..... Let's Have A Bit Of Fun

So yesterday evening I finally made it back up to Johnson City and the FLGS there for some geek time which included a 3v3 game of X-Wing.  Let's see how it went.  Warning, this might end up being fairly lengthy.

This is Trooper Reporter 1179 coming to you live from the Galactic News Station on Coruscant.  Top news today is a report of a battle between our Glorious Imperial Naval Forces lead by the Sith Lord Darth Vader against a rabble of Rebel Forces who dared stray out of their dark hiding places.  We were able to get a News Shuttle nearby for some images while our crack team of ace field reporters deployed to bring us this unfolding story.  We go now to Trooper Reporter 472 live on the scene.

This is Trooper Reporter 472 coming to you LIVE from the J'City System near the FLGS planet where it seems that three different rebel groups have gathered together in some sort of attempt to disrupt Imperial rule in this area.  Our own Imperial Naval forces have dispatched similar forces and seem to outnumber the enemy.

 

As these shots from our GNS News Shuttle shows that the rebels have assembled what looks like a B-Wing, a pair of X-Wings, 4 Z-95 Headhunters, and a pair of rough looking freighters.  This sort of rabble is what you'd expect from the Rebellion.

We were able to get a holocam operator into the Imperial Command Center where you see here our glorious cabal of Moffs and Admirals preparing to sweep the Rebel's smattering of ships from the system.  There are a number of Tie Fighters of course with some Interceptors and Bombers and even a Tie Defender in evidence.  Even more importantly, we've learned that Sith Lord Darth Vader will personally be leading the fight from his own personalized fighter.

 Things on the Imperial right flank where I'm stationed at seem to be in balance for the moment.  An Interceptor is escorting a pair of Bombers in against a trio of Headhunters and a B-Wing.  Both sides seem to be inflicting light damage on each other while trying to get into optimal firing positions.  Let's cut over to News Trooper 2069 who is at the other end of battle reporting.

This is News Trooper 2069 coming to you live from the Imperial left flank.  What we've seen down here is a Tie-Defender and Lord Vader leading about 6 Imperial Ties and a Interceptor against the Rebels.  We've identified the larger Imperial freighter as the Scarlet Harlot, a ship with a questionable reputation.  For some reason the Imperial Ties seem reluctant to approach her and they just seem to be hanging around her in a tight group.

 The pair of X-Wings and the other Z-95 in this part of the battle seem to have taken out one of the Tie Fighters that was out scouting and the main lines seem to be closing in now.  Back to you 472.

News Trooper 472 here again bringing you the latest update.  The Imperial forces on this flank of the battle seem to be crumbling under the cowardly rebel attacks as an X-Wing has joined the combat over here to overwhelm our brave pilots.

Outnumbered 2 to 1, we've lost a bomber and the interceptor with the remaining bomber damaged and heading for the other Imperial forces.  The main question in this part of the battle is "Where is everyone else at and what are they down there doing?"  There is a growing belief from the forces falling back here that the Admirals and Moffs handing the Imperial left flank are not being aggressive enough against the outnumbered rebels and have squandered a chance to salvage the right flank.  Back to you 2069.

Did you see that???  Lord Vader and the forces with him have gotten over whatever was keeping them at arm's length from the Scarlet Harlot and have suddenly gone after the Harlot with a vengeance, and boy are they sure handling her roughly.  I thought you had to pay extra for something like that.  They've managed to destroy the Headhunter that was in this part of the battle and have traded a Tie-Fighter for some more damage to the rebel ships.

 The rebels who were on the Imperial right flank are flowing into the battle on the left flank now.  The remaining bomber was gunned down in the back by the cowardly B-Wing as a pair of Headhunters take out a Tie-Fighter.

 The Harlot can finally not take anymore of the rough stuff and goes down in a final climax of explosions.  The other fighters then turn on the other freighter, which seems to be a HWK, and proceed to damage it as well as the pair of X-Wings.

This is News Trooper 2069 with a last report before we sign off from this location.  Our position is no longer safe as the criminals have continued to roll in a wave over the Imperial forces and downed one fighter after another.  The HWK is gone but the only friendly I see still flying is Darth Vader himself and he has at least 6 enemy fighters heading for him.  Even a Sith Lord has his limits and he seems to be withdrawing from the battle.  Words cannot describe the horror of these turn of events that we've witnessed here to day.

This ... this is News Trooper 1179 coming you from GNS Headquarters.  We, along with all of you our viewing audience, are in shock at this surprising victory by the criminals and rogues that make up the Rebellion.  I'm sure this will lead to inquiries and investigations into the rumored appointments of social and political commanders rather than truly trained gifted commanders that our brave pilots deserve.  The Moffs and Admirals who lead this attack must be held accountable for their conduct and lack of victory.  This is GNS signing off.




So all in all, this was a very fun game.  Being on the winning side just made it more enjoyable and I'm looking forward to next Saturday where I'll be playing some CBT against Skylar.  Until later all.

So I'm Still Around ....

Work this past 5 weeks has been a real pain with a major inventory that just took place at the end of this past week.  Since I'm salary management, that means I "get all the overtime I want".  Which translated into me getting all of three days off in the month of September.  Bleh, well it's over at least.

So while my hobby results has been very less than what I'd care for ... borderline nonexistent that is, I HAVE managed to make a few acquisitions that I can show off even though I haven't gotten anything painted and such.

First up is some Classic BattleTech Stuff for my Eridani Light Horse.

 A pair of Demolishers, a Morningstar Command vehicle, and a Solitaire

A Thrush, a Sholagar, a Sedlytz, and a Cheetah expand my aerospace options

Then on the X-Wing front, I got a Rebel Aces, a pair of Headhunters, and a Hawk.  I plan on starting to tweak the Hawk this month now that I've got some days off again.  Plus I'll be getting to play some X-Wing this coming Saturday and some promised CBT with Skylar the following Saturday.  I'm seriously looking forward to getting some major geek time in.

So a brief post for today, but more is yet to come I promise.

X-Wing in Blue Mode

So Cheef has been showing off his and his GF's X-Wing repaints (found here and here), so I thought I'd show off what I've done so far myself.  First of all we've got an alphabetical order group shot.  (Though this shot does have me wondering when they're going to add the New Republic K-Wing bomber to go with the E-Wing from the same time frame.  Seems a shame to leave out an option like that.  Though a recon X-Wing wouldn't be bad either .... )

As you can see I've got with a blue motif and I'm pretty happy with how they've all come out with the exception of the Y-Wing.  I'm not happy with it and I'll have to either start over or figure out a tweak on it.  That or just set it aside since I rarely run a Y-Wing in my lists.

 

 

 

 

I've still got another A, B, and X to get into the color scheme and there is a Rebel Aces, 2 E-Wings, and a pair of Headhunters in the mail coming that were funded by an eBay sale of some GW BFG that just isn't ever going to see the table top as a cohesive fleet since I can't afford eBay pricing for Strike Cruisers and such to finish the marine fleet.  It brought in a very tidy sum and funded both a decent CBT purchase as well as the above mentioned X-Wing.  I'm also wanting to tackle a YT-1300 conversion and paint but that's going to wait until I get a second one.  I've got one right now and plan on leaving it stock at least.

So that's the Raven Squadron so far.  It's coming along nicely though I'm really wanting to get some Swarm Tactics cards for an A-Wing list based around some of the stuff in the Rebel Aces pack.  I've been putting off Imperial purchases on purpose for now as funding one side of the rebellion is hard enough without going into both sides of it.  So if anyone has a few Swarm Tactics cards they wouldn't mind parting with, please shoot me a message and we'll try and work something out.

That's all for now and I'll see you all later.

How I Haul It (X-Wing Edition)

So with any army, it often comes down to just how do you haul it around.  With X-Wing I started by using the bottom of the starter box, but that obviously was a very short term solution.  What I finally decided on was a fishing tackle box.  It set me back about $30 (but I'll admit I got it at Walmart which means I got my employee discount which knocked off all the sales tax) which isn't bad at all.  It's got plenty of pockets, a strap, and came with 4 dividable trays.

There is a pocket on the inside of the lid that the rules fit in with plenty of room to spare.

Now let's take a look at the first tray.  It's got my fighters, profile cards, movement dials, the cardboard terrain pieces, and the flight stand markers for the fighters.

In the second tray, we've got the YT-1300 and it's flight stand stuff, movement templates, dice, upgrade and damage decks, and all the various tokens.

So right now with just 8 fighters and the freighter, together with all the other game play stuff, it all fits in just two of the trays.  So with 2 trays still empty, I've got plenty of room to continue growing my Rebel Alliance/New Republic force.  Plus if I decide to finally add an Imperial force in the future, it'll be easy enough to just get a couple of these standard size fishing tackle trays to use and then swap out the ones in the bag as needed.  One note though, the trays come in the bag standing up on their side and I've chosen to lay them down instead to keep the various tokens and cards in their right divided spots.  It makes the top tray just a touch difficult to get in and out, but still way easier than resorting everything every time I get it out.

So that's how I'm hauling my X-Wing.  Anyone else out there with an interesting army transport or suggestion?

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.