One Ork Two Ork

 Because I had an empty painting queue a couple weeks ago, I picked up a blister of D&D Orks to give myself something to do. More Boyz for da Horde. 

They join the rest of the Frostgrave / other fantasy orks. I'm happy with the result, they look like they're ready to break something.

I've need nursing my first encounter with COVID for the last week. Omicron I'm sure - everyone around here's getting it. Hasn't been so bad, although I've had to work from home which I detest. Be well everyone!

Infinity AAR: Weekend (Weakened?) Warriors

 Zig and I got Infinity on the tabletop Saturday evening. It was a Supply mission with both teams trying to control as many supply objectives as possible. Us per the norm, Ziggy brought his Pan Oceania Knights. I used some newly-painted models, in the form of a Combined Army Onyx Contact Force. Not terribly much different from what I've pushed in the past but I always like to mix things up.

The battlefield du jour. My group would be on the right side, Zig's on the left.

New paint jobs on the left (a Hacker and her do-bot) while some hard pipe-hittin' space monkeys go right.

More new paint much further to the left. The mighty and brave robots of the Twenty First Programming Battalion!

There's a dad-blasted K-Night up the road with a narrow line of sight. Fortunately the range means his combi rifle is unlikely to keep my Rodoks from moving out. The move out and the groups exchange ineffective fire.

Sadly, a schlub with a rocket launcher (top center-left) walks out an fires the most accurate rocket in the history of rocketeering at my Rodoks One of my boys is knocked down, the others dodge outside the blast radius. My fireteam includes a paramedic who actually succeeded in patching up the injured guy!

 

In an effort to shut up the most-hated knights, Ol' Bluie is programmed to step on out and exchange gunfire. The bot and knight shoot at eachother for a couple actions until Bluie springs a leak and expires.

I send the Batdroids and the Umbra Legate big man forward to deal with the knight roadblock. It's GOT to work.

After losing their 'Bot with the Spitfire, the UL reveals plan "C" which includes the phrase "Hey robot, hold my beer, check this out." He bolts across the gap to fire at the rocket launcher dude across the way.

Yeah boy. That's doin' it right there! I did not get a picture of that rocket dude hammering the Robok team a second time, killing the medic.

The big PanO team ran to the protection between the tuck and building. My Rodoks began hammering them. Felt good because I was getting slaughtered elsewhere!

The Knights had moved up so I thought it wise to charge them with Billy Badass. Turns out ol' Billy was wearing his "dress up armor" and not the real stuff. As they say, two to the body, one to the head. My leader was down and the Batdroids were in deep kimchi.

To my delight, the knights went outside to flank me rather than simply walking up to an objective and taking it. Queen Hacker Bit hit the Knight leader with an Oblivion routine blowing his mind and shutting him down for the duration! Woohoo!

The Rodoks finish off the Order Sergeants.

I did not photograph the massacre that was happening elsewhere. Those two Rodoks in the last picture are the only two guys I had left at the end of the game. Amusingly, we technically tied since neither of us captured an objective, although I think my guys would have quit the field early due to casualties. Regardless of the outcome, the game was a lot of fun and we got to use a lot of the weird and fun stuff including hidden deployments, deploying and deactivating mines, and hacking attacks. Looking forward to some revenge!

WW2 Force on Force Testing

 I gave Force on Force a test run yesterday. It's been 4 months since I played it the one and only time. It wasn't too bad re-acquainting myself with it. The engagement featured two five-man German fireteams and 18 resistance fighters split into four groups. This was all contained in a tiny 24" x 24" area.

No thorough AAR, but a few pics of the action.

Things went badly for the resistance, being a poorer troop quality for the most part, their firepower was less reliable and the were less able to avoid taking damage from enemy shooting. Towards the end, the veteran team with the leader got off a good round of shooting at a German team but amazingly, all the wounds were superficial and all the Krauts hopped right up like nothing had happened.. 

At the end of it, two partisans had been captured, five KIA and one seriously wounded. There were no German losses.

I'm much more comfortable with the FOF rules now which was the whole goal and a few more plays through should solidify my strength with the system.

Firestorm Armada Ships

 If anyone's interested, I've got 40 Firestorm Armada ships in need of a new home.

There's the lot

And some close ups.

Auction on ebay or email me at stardustgame at outlook.com if you're interested.

More Partisans / Le Resistance

 I finished up the second group of 1/72 Partisans this evening. They're ready to take on the Germans now. This group stiffens things up a bit with a couple PaK36s, a heavy machine gun and a light mortar.

Much fun to paint for sure. Maybe they'll get an outing this weekend? 

In other news, I did sell off my Batman minis collection. Check that out, making good on resolutions already!

AAR: Very 2021 Stardust Ground

 Mark, Ziggy and I got together for an end-of-year game Friday afternoon. I put together a Stardust Ground scenario and got the table set up. The setup:

The Bugs have been on a rampage over the last couple days and they're approaching the abandoned mine in Dodge being used by followers of the Cult of Personality. The Cultists have been using the mine to store supplies and sacred relics. The local chapter of the CoP has been tasked with removing everything of value from the mine and getting out of Dodge before the Bugs overrun the area. 

Mark and I split the Bug force and Zig commanded the Cult.

Our battlefield, on the shore of Lake Murkwater

The cultists are hunkered down around the mine. Presumably, the loot extraction process will be time consuming and they'll have to hang out a while.

The bugs deployed on the short edge of their choice after the cult was deployed. Half of their number was in reserve.

Cultist prayers were answered in no time. Crimminy.

Big 'Un lets cuts loose with some plas-mar. It's utterly ineffective.

The bugs move in. Skitter skitter.

The bug rush smashes mightily into the insane fanatics who popped over their defensive wall to get into close combat sooner. The fanatics show 'em exactly who's boss.

I send a couple units around the left side up the hill and in cover. A second unit of blues smashes into those fanatics who reject the offer. Good grief.

The 'roid raging fanatics finish off one unit of blues and gets to work on another, under the loving gaze of Bobby the Pit Fiend.

A mighty laser blast from a cult heavy APC craters Big 'Un's noggin. Tragic.

Those blue bugs are in a shit position. Pit Fiend, cult squad, heavy tank...

The writing on the wall is becoming clear. That Giant Scorpion ran up to one of the cult tanks and delivered a massive blow to the vehicle's paint job. The tank replied with good 10-second hosedown from its heavy laser cannon. Give that dick a second kill ring.

Short of units and activations, my worms get some action. The Brain Bug had just sprayed some very sexy pheromones on the fanatics, giving the worms a bit of a boost. Worms 1, Fanatics 0. Woohoo!

That worm unit wasn't done, as they managed to skillfully evade taking any hits in the subsequent cult turn. They turned their attention to the nearest cult unit - a Demolisher tank - and smashed it!

But it was not to be... with only two fighting units left, it wasn't ever going to happen. The cult had extracted both crates and there was nothing left in the tank. A solid win for the Cult of Personality.

Was Mercury in retrograde yesterday? Mark and I had the worst day of dice rolling in a long, long time. SDG is a d8-based system and we were riding the 1s and 2s the whole time. Time after time in melee, with a +2,3 or 4 advantage we'd roll a 1, Zig would roll a 7 or 8 and just smack our bugs down. 

In addition to the crap dice, I should have let the bugs start with all their troops on the table, they'd have been able to the that "crush" that's necessary to overwhelm a front line; as it was, the cult picked off units one at a time as they appeared and was able to deal with it very easily.

The scenario itself was good fun and worth another go with some tweaking.

Regardless of the outcome, it was a very enjoyable afternoon and a fine end to 2021. Happy New Year to all of you!