CAV in San Angelo

Hey again everyone,

CAV was a project that was really enjoying last year.  I thought I would post it now because Southpaw is in a "must buy" death spiral and I know he doesn't like sci fi with giant mechas.  CAV is the sci fi game from Reaper Minis, but has basically become a grassroots movement from some of the players with pretty good, if slow, online support.  It is in 6mm, which makes the mechas between 35 and 50mm tall, I would say.  Unlike Battletech (which has a similar aesthetic but is in a smaller scale), CAV is really a fastplay set of rules, and so speed of play and constant action mark it rather than a reliance on details.  I really like this, and think that imagining the game in the right way makes for a very "real" game that is exciting and plays well in under two hours.  Unfortunately, my partner in this project moved away, but some of the gamers in Big Spring ran with CAV for a while, so there is a chance yet that games might happen...

This is one of the light "recon" cavs, very fast and equipped with jamming equipment.  In general, his job tends to be to accompany a larger CAV and jamm possible locks on the duo.  This is a "Puma," and I have tried to balance snow camo with a heavy black-lining technique.  Kind of works, I think.
This is an admittedly wide shot of the end game in one of our last games together.  As ofetn happens in CAV, many of the vehicles get disabled, so te end game is between those who are left.  Here my Falcon and my Dictator (both light heavyweights), close on a heavy weight tank that holds the scenario objective.  The green markers show how long he has held the objective, and the dice by his tank and my Dictator indicate damage.  In this game, each CAV and vehicle functions differently with damage, and so the player looks at a different "damage track" according to how many "hits" are indicated by the damage die.  Kind of like Heroclicks, but without the clickies.
This is the advance of my Rhino (a superheavyweight CAV) and the Puma, who is providing ECM cover.  The Dictator provides covering fire.
Here is the merc force I was playing with - the Forlorn Hope.  The infantry, in the back, come on stands of 6 or so models.  The game has an interesting roks-paper-scissors dynamic, in that Vehicles, Infantry, and CAVs all work really well against one other type, but not so well against the third type.  This makes the game interesting, as it requires good use of different kinds of unit types with different kinds of weapons systems.
Sabertooth, a light-medium CAV, but really useful in that it carries weapon systems that work well against hard targets (like CAVs) and also for soft targets (like gunships).

Another groups shot.  This is before the addition of some more vehicles and the Rhino, my big boy.