Misc.

If you had told me in January that I would only get in 2 measly games in the first quarter of the year, I wouldn't havebelieved you. The sad fact is that there is more regular gaming going on where the stars at night are big and bright. Another weekend, another opportunity to seize.

Lament aside, go check the first pics of the new Copplestone Miniatures range: 1660-1688-The Wars of the Sun King. Just f'ng brilliant.

Hey, Ilan. No doubt the range will be accompanied by yet another Chris Peers rule set!

Has anybody read or played the Field of Glory system yet?

M'heim goblins finished, warband bulking up. Squigs next. Step-off, Rob!

New figs of my own

So for my birthday Denise got me a copy of Chessmaster XI -- The Art of Learning as I've been trying to get back into chess for a couple of months now. The new version has a bunch of great tutorials by Josh Watkins -- the Searching for Bobby Fisher kid (now man). I'm enjoying it a lot and am looking to play the occasional over the board chess game in the neighborhood.

At the same time, last week, I went up to Cleveland to move the last of the furniture out of my parents' garage. While there, I held a quick garage sale to get rid of some of the nicer pieces on Craigslist and put the money toward a nice, basic set of wooden pieces.

Today my order from The House of Staunton arrived. I order the Championship Chessmen (their entry-level set) in Boxwood and Ebonized Boxwood. Unboxing follows:


The box was reassuringly heavy for its size. The custom HoS wet tape was a nice touch.

Lots of Peanuts

Beneath all the peanuts . . . a smaller box!

The King is 3.75" high. The set as a whole weights 45 oz -- nice and heavy. Big difference in heft between these and my old plastic set. The general style of the set is the "European Pattern" version of the Staunton Chessmen. The knights are a little funky looking, but I like them. Since entry-level sets aren't going to give you highly detailed knights, they opted for a more minimalist approach.

The pieces set-up on my green and white roll-up board. I might end up getting a new, el-cheepo vinyl board as the mouse-pad texture of this board is almost a little too grippy. I'm saving up for a nice wooden folding board as well.


The pieces in action. Again, the heft is just so nice.

While in Cleveland I also picked up a beat-to-heck platic set of Mandarin chess men. I threw the pieces in with my old plastic set and Will and I play "caputre" -- we set my old set and then put the mandarin pieces in the center of the board three at at time and Will captures them (followed by consoling them that "everybody gets caputred sometime"). The pawns from this old set hang out with his various fisher price construction workers.

BTW: If anyone is up for some correspondence chess on chess.com, let me know.

The Battle for Hill 02056

At the end of Spring Break last week Mike D and I got together for another round of AT-43.  The Red Blok forces (mine) were demoralized after a rough beating at Xu Qin (last battle, see post below), and so there was a "do or die" feeling in the ranks as the orders came to secure a small and rather mundane hill.  When the Therians, in their insane calculations, developed an interest in hill 02056 as well, the Blok forces knew that they would get their chance for revenge!  Great game again, and with lower expectations I was pleased with the performance of my army.  Urod (the large strider with big gun below) once again was the MVP (and Mike D's not taking any special characters was a help - see insane reasoning of the Therians, above), but the Sierp especially gets high praise after this one for holding down and troubling the enemy infantry for most of the game.

In the first round of the game my Kolossus units (the little infantry-sized armored fellers from the last post) charged out onto the field, firing at whatever they could see.  There are no pics of them in this report because they all got spanked in more or less short order.  Before going, though, they did put the hurt on some enemy units, and so I was generally pleased with them.  This is the Sierp, which fires two mortars that I didn't appreciate last game.  They never miss, though, and can force infantry to "take cover," which was very helpful for most of this game.

This Wraith Golgoth entered the field only to be showered by the rockets of the Kolossus units mentioned above.  The Kolossus units fire a bunch of rockets (4 per model), but only start to be accurate closer than 30cm.  In the past I have tried to close with them, which is impossible because they are so slow (and Mike D is wise to my tricks!).  In this game I treated them as suicide bombers.  They rushed out firing, and I expected never to need anything other than a "6" to hit.  Seemed to work better, and I was less bummed out!

The Therians enter the board.  Not sure of the types, but Mike D had three units enter the table and head for the hill.  The Sierp managed to cause attrition on all of the units because its mortars ignore the cover that Mike D was using so well.
Another shot of the golems entering the board.  Those claws promise to be deadly in melee, but the army I chose is infantry light, so thankfully I have not had to face them yet.

My infantry entered the board and took cover in a ruined house.  The cover rules are kind to dug-in infantry, which I think really works well.  My unit was totally pinned down, and while they could return fire with enemy infantry, they couldn't hope to move for fear og the Wraith Golgoth bearing down on them.

My Nakovalny strider (with Gauss guns - effectively machine guns) on either side, closes with the Golem infantry, only to be intercepted by the Hekate (sp?) that the Therians are able to construct at will!  The Nakovalny did not survive, but took out some infantry before being overwhelemd.

A close up shot of the Hakate waiting to spring on the Nakovalny strider.  My only saving grace is that Mike D only has one of these models, and so can only generate them one at a time.  If he had a bunch of them I would be completely screwed.  It is a powerful ability, and Mike D doesn't make a lot of mistakes in how he uses it!

"Urod," the special character version of the Hetman Strider (actually it is piloted by the special characters), is my star player, and here he bears down on a Wraith Golgoth.  Because of my special rules, my Striders can take scenario objectives, and so here Urod is claiming the hill while taking shots at the Golgoth.  The Golgoth is just as tough in a lot of ways, but the special "Urod" Hetman can repair itself, which makes it very powerful.

The Hekate, having done away with the Nakovalny strider, then prowled around and attacked the Sierp, wgich was then fleeing from the Wraith Golgoth that had taken over the right flank.  The sniper in my infantry unit, out of spite, managed to put one hit on its propulsion through that notch in the corner before it ran off.

The end game saw the Hetman claiming the last five victory points while the Wraith Golgoth that was left finished off the infantry in the ruined house.  Final score was 20-18, Red Blok.  It was a very fun game, and very close -- many times it could have gone either way.  All in all the Hetman was the saving grace of the army, which makes me shudder to think of when Mike brings out the big Therian guns, like Babylon Zero!

More AT-43 Red Blok

Thanks to prior posts, I decided to take advantage of the sales available online for AT-43. Like IMS, I was attracted to the Red Blok and, also, got the minis before getting the rulebook. As luck would have it, approximately 1300 points of stuff landed me in the "Supra" category as far as force organization goes. This is just fine with me.

Supra is associated directly with the administrative (state) center of the Red Blok. So, in keeping with the Supra theme, I designed a colonel to go with the army. He is a conversion, obviously, mostly a cadian food soldier from 40K. I carved the head out of a preexisting head. And various hand conversions, etc. I wanted his uniform to more or less match the Red Blok but, also, to make his uniform reflect some kind of bureaucratic/ceremonial aesthetic. Here are some photos. Photos of my entire red blok army will follow and hopefully a battle report: Me vs. Granta 94.

Battle of Qu Xin Station = Second AT-43 Game

The Battle for Ava continued yesterday when the Therian force attacked a small outpost known as "Qu Xin Station."  Blok forces had been using the station as a staging area for the region, and the Therian assault was aimed at destroying the Red Blok forces.  In other words, VPs in tis game were for taking enemies out.  In the end, I lost spectacularly.  Mike D and I agreed that the Therians are "like the Space Marines," meaning that they have a lot of rules to make all comers take them seriously.

Here my Kolossus Streilitz unit (armed with grenade launcher and flamer), tries to rush to the house in order to take cover behind the wall.  These are so slow, though, that one of them got picked off just as they were trying to make it to cover.  The idea was that they would hide on the left flank and light up anyone crossing the road.

Here is how the Therians moved onto the board.  To the right of the screen is his last Wraith Golgoth -- a kind of standard strider/tank for the Therians.  All in all, a very powerful vehicle.  I think it tries to be both anti-tank and anti-infantry, and does neither very well.  It should be said, though, that these always play havok with my Kolossus units.

Supported by the Wraith Golgoth, these Golems make their full assault across the road.  Gerenades from the two hidden Kolossus do some damage, but do not hamper their approach.

The Nakolvany (bottom of the frame) also did some minor damage with its MGauss guns.

The Wraith Golgoth, carrying an actual Therian approaches steadily on the right flank, firing at the Kolossus units at every opportunity.

Wraith still approaching, but I though seeing him next to the Buddha would be a cool picture.

The second Wraith Golgoth and the golems make ready to make their assault on the left flank.

My right flank.  It looks impressive though.  The Hetman and the Nakolvany together were a strong team, but the Nak got skilled straight away, and the Kolossus units were soon to follow.

Final position.  The Wraiths and the Golems are closing on my position, and no one seems to be able to fight back.  I was a bit frustrated after this game as it seems a little bit like the Therians are REALLY tough.  The Wraith Golgoths have such good range that they pretty mch call th shots for the whole board.

First game of AT-43: Therians versus Red Blok

Mike D and I had our first AT-43 game this last weekend, and in general we had a good learning game (so it was fun, but lots of learning and rethinking things like table setup and army composition).  Mike D played the Therians -- advanced humanoids who rely on technology for both their own bodies and the "golems" who fight for them.  I was playing Red Blok -- more or less space Marxists (OK, "communists"), and my army, the Children of the Hammer (from the "Frontline" collective), emphasizes fighting vehicles and battle suits.

In the opening rounds, the Storm Golems (his rank and file troops) swarmed over and through the ruins of the Frontline Collective.  Larger Assault Goliaths (see on in the lower right) supported them with accurate and powerful long-range guns.

As the Golems and Goliaths entered on the flanks and moved north towards the Blok forces, the Large "Omicron" Golgoth - the most powerful unit on the Therians side, claimed the main central street and moved north, firing its long-range guns as it came.  One of my striders (large walker tanks from the Blok) tried to rush across the main street further north, towards my table edge, but the Omicron bombarded it and it fell before it could make the cover of the other side.

On the east flank of the table some of the Therian "overseers" started to spontaneously generate automated striders called "Hekats".  Here one charges my command model - the Strider called "Hetman."  The Therian ability to generate this model was rough, as my guns had to be focused on this more immediate threat than the real targets, which were the overseers.  Luckily, Mike D only has one of these models, and so his ability to make them was hampered!  In the top of the pic, my Nakolvany Strider finally finds a position to open up with its MGauss cannons at Storm Golem Infantry.  After its barrage only two were left, but they immediately began reconstituting themselves.

Behind the charging Hekat, Mike D planted a Golgoth, which is a Therian strider with an array of weapons.  He then reinforced this Golgoth with a second one, and this became a major front in the battle.

In the center, a unit of my Kolossus infantry (armor suits) took up a covered position in the ruined library.  They stayed here for much of the game, firing against the Omicron and the Hekats generated by overseeres in the center.

My commandos supported the Kolossus units where they could.  In this battle, even the elite infantry with their Gauss weapons were next to useless, as the enemy was so well armored.  My force, it turns out (I bought all minis without having read the rules), is really good against soft infantry.  Against the very hard Therians, esp. a force with lots of striders and assault troops, many of my fighters just couldn't cause enough damage.

The Storm Golems and the Assault Goliaths rush forward at the end, nearly making it to my table edge and claiming the center of the board.

Here they swarm past the statue of the Hammer Comrade - the mythological figure for whom my force is named.  This constituted my loss of the center and right flanks of the field.  The battle had gone well on the left flank, however, and wehn we called the game we were even on victory points, and I had a good chance of completely claiming the left/east flank.  Nevertheless, most of the board was under Therian control, and so the field went to Mike D, even if the VPs were even.

All in all the system seems to be fun and I am looking forward to another game.  It does, however, move a bit slow, which is probably our fault for playing long ways on a 6' table!  The fastest unit on the board moves 20cm, which (as many of you know) is quite slow.  The game is really set up to be more 2D for terrain, with a much smaller table.  In the next encounter we will shorten the table considerably.

The other real learning moment for me was the realizationb that, unlike 40K, smaller weapons have no chance of punching through the armor of larger opponents.  This hit hard because some of my largest units were anti-intantry Striders, so I found myself in the disappointing position of having big burly models that couldn't hope to damage the Golgoths, or the Omicron, or even the Assault Goliaths.  The two units that I could hurt with these tended to stay behind the larger units, and so I just didn't have anything to do with some of my bigger models.  This, of course, means that I have t think about my force composition a bit more.  It also means that we should follow the rules of the game more closely.  We judged vistory on how many enemies we could wipe out, whereas many of the published scenarios base it more on battlefield objectives.  I think playing with these objectives would give some of my weaker units (the commandos, those striders, etc.) something to do, even if they are not taking out Therians.

We both had a fun time, and it was nice to get a game in after a good deal of planning on the part of all of the members of the WTWA (the west Texas group that is all doing AT-43 stuff).

A little WIP in the afternoon.....

Because two weeks between posts shall NOT pass, I present you all with a little WIP in the afternoon. As most of you, I have been extremely busy in the weeks leading up to Spring Break. But, in between the papers and the prepping and the committee meetings, I have managed to get a little work done....

First up, the current state of my speeder which I have featured in this space before....


It is coming along. Slowly but along.


I also managed to finally get to a Hobby Lobby (60 miles for me, people!) and buy some Testors Spray Paint and matching pot paint. So I decided to test it out on a couple of Terminators, seen here.

The test, as you can see, is what this spray paint will do to either black-primed or unprimed figures. Initial results.....
Now, this may have evident without a test to you more experienced hands but I far prefer the black-primed on to the unprimed. The odd thing about this spray paint is that it sprays on really really runny and heavy. You cannot see it in this picture but large flat areas collected paint toward the bottom. It did this on the mini-shields on their shoulders but you cannot really see it here. I will say that for the most part is it a LOT less noticable after it dried -- except where the top is still dark (as on their rears). If you do use it, pull way back and let it drift over the figgies. Even then it is really different from regular primer.


PS - -IMS, I looked for Winsor Peat Moss at Hobby Lobby. I found the brand but nothing near named Peat. Is this a tube paint? Large tube? Small?

Second Battletech Game in San Angelo

Hey everyone,

This is an AAR of the second Battletech game I had with my friend DWEB here in San Angelo.  You will remember that the last game eneded with my Battlemechs admitting defeat after his Hunchback came to bear and destroyed my Cicada with one shot!  This time the scenartio was designed for my kind of force, as the objective was recon as opposed to straight up fighting.  One of my 'Mechs needed to remain in BTB contact with the large, central building of the city from the start of a turn to the end, hacking into the building's computer ans stealing valuable intel.

The game started with my fast recon force ("The Ghost Company" closing fast to the city.  DWEB brought a very light and fast Commando, and the Hunchback, with that terrible Autocannon 20, showed up as well.  Choosing to have fewer, heavier "Mechs, he also brought an 80-ton Zeus, who was armed with both close firing and long range weapons.  This forced me to close to the safety of the buildings quickly, and once there my Assassin made a break for the building.

DWEB was ready for this, however, and my calculations were off by a lot.  All three of the enemy battlemechs closed on the Assassin's position, so that he came under heavy fire even before starting to hack into the building's mainframe.

The Assassin went down with a leg blown off, but my Spider was able to get in behind the Commando and cause some damage even as the Assassin was falling under a hail of missiles and laser fire.

On the left flank, the Cicada, hungry for revenge against the Hunchback from the last game, circled quickly while the Hunchback was busy blowing off the lef of the Assassin.  The Civada missed with its small laser, then missed with its first medium laser.  The second hit, however, and scored a laser burn deep into the armor of the cockpit.  Much to everyone's surprise, the pilot passed out briefly from the shock (DWEB needed to roll anything but snake eyes to avoid this.  His roll?  Snake eyes).

This led to one round of total immobilization for the Hunchback, and so of course my smaller and faster 'Mechs swarmed his position, firing everything they had to destroy him.  Alas, his armor was so heavy that, however close they came, the Hunchback was still operational and the pilot awoke the next turn.

In fact, he lumbered forward, and drew aim at my Clint, which was firing from cover at the Commando, which had taken more damage.  DWEB rolled a hit with the big AC/20, which would have all but destroyed the Clint.  His hit location, however, was the left arm -- the one location that the Clint had cover for (you can kind of see this from the image above -- imagine you are lower and right next to the Hunchback).  The shot impacted the building, and the Clint escaped on a prayer.

The Zeus, in the meantime, was patrolling in the backfield and the road, trying to protect the building with its long range weaponry.  DWEB's use of the Zeus was so effective that I couldn't ever leave a 'Mech next to the building -- he was really holding me off!  The one this I did was start trailing him with the Cicada, firing at his rear armor until it was almost detroyed.  The Zeus has a rear-mounted laser, and so he was returning fire, but the Cicada was bringing the fight to him, and his rear armor was starting to suffer.

On the other flank, the Assassin managed to destroy the Commando, and the Hunchback managed to destory the Assassin, which had managed to make it to its foot after having downloaded the intel.  In repayment for destroying their leader, the Spider and the Clint managed to destroy the injured Hunchback.  This left the Clint, Spider, and Cicada on my side, and the Zeus alone, with no back armor, on DWEB's.  Here the Clint engages the Zeus in close quarters fighting, while the Spider completes the mission objective elsewhere.  The Zeus kicks the Clink in return, almost tearing the lef of the smaller 'Mech off, but at length the Clint jumped away and behind a building, and on the other side of the board the Spoder left the table with the Intel.  Arrangements were then made to allow for salvage and the safe return of down pilots, and the Ghost company returned after its first successful mission.

All in all another really fun game.  Esp. with the fast and light 'Mechs, this is such a tactical game that we were both exhausted afterwards.  Nevertheless, it is nice to play a game so focused, and to know that we both played really well.  All in all, I think I did a fine job, but the real game winner for me was the snake eyes for the Hunchback to stay awake after that one head shot.

Nevermind

If only I'd read on. See p. 29-Duh!