The Old West - Some Painted Minis

 I finished up most of my Old West minis over the weekend. I have one left and her dress will take a different level of attention to complete properly. I enjoyed painting these - they're quite characterful and just a lot of fun.

I did go back and paint ol' boy's tin star after looking at the photograph ;)

AAR: Xenos Rampant

 Mark came over for a game of Xenos Rampant yesterday. It's been a couple years since I played last and he'd never played. I had a bunch of models that I finished up last summer that have never seen a tabletop that needed a chance to get out and play. We played an orbital drop mission in which my Cultists and Nightmare monsters were defending against Mark's United Planetary Federation troops. Both sides had 24 points of troops.

Commander Mark

The yellow markers are the six drop points. All three of the pre-game orbital bombardment requests failed, meaning I got away with things early. Mark's forces generally clumped up around two drop point on what's the left side of the board in these pictures. Only his heavy drone was elsewhere, coming in right atop the bunker that was the objective of the attackers.

My Greater Demon, Ol' Skinny, sets her sights on the heavy drone atop the bunker.

My Necrobeasts (the GW Ghoul models) used their infiltration ability to close with the big group of invaders appearing at the far end of the table. They were in Wild Charge range right out of the gates, just the way Daddy likes it.

Chomp chomp! The battle begins in earnest with a furious charge by the Necrobeats into the UPF light infantry. In case you're curious, the green and blue space ork fellow is just a "commander's unit" token.

After some ineffective return fire, those rampaging hordes smash into the well-equipped Swarm Infantry, the UPF's heavy infantry.

Ol' Skin-And-Bones commits crimes against IT support staff, ripping into the heavy drone.

Meanwhile, I had a unit of Biles (heavy infantry with gimpy 12-inch range guns) slogging their way over to more light infantry and some recon drones. One good round of shooting was all it took to convince the goblinoid troopers to run away!

After another round of Dancing with the Swarms, my Necrobeasts were done, content to take their fresh-off-the-bone lunch back to their cave instead of slaughtering more invaders! Dang. At least I had also run off one of the Swarm infantry units.

The slow crawl of my mechanical support unit was nearing an end, getting into a position to start blasting enemies! You can also see my cultists hanging out in the bunker atop the hill.

The mop-up grind begins. My Biles head toward the remaining Swarm and light infantry. Ms. Purple Demon had finished with the heavy drone (although she'd lost two of her five strength points in the process!).

DANCE WITH ME, MY PRETTIES!

The Biles join in, forcing the Swarm to run and hide.

Purp was compelled to attack the Swarm infantry again. She pulled the head off another as she winked out of existence, back to whatever plane of existence she calls home.

The Biles do the thing. The recon drone's communications back to the orbiting ships is nothing good.

My cultists kicking it in the bunker. They took quite a few casualties but had terrific courage results all game and simply hung in there. 

A fun outing and nice to put XR on the tabletop again. I think I need to tweak the UPF's force composition, their shooting is decidedly "meh" and don't quite pack enough of a punch. Of course the heavy drone getting laced into by the big demon right out of the gates took away one of their better shooting units in a terrible way. As always, looking forward to the next game, which should be Frostgrave Part III next Saturday. Be well and good gaming!

New Mechs... Back to Clan Models

I enjoyed the last batch of Battletech models so much I figured the Clans could use some reinforcements. I picked up two boxes I didn't have and added new stars to both my Steel Viper and Fire Mandrill forces. I went with new colors this time around - you know I'm always looking for new colors and patterns to paint. These turned out nicely.

For the Steel Vipers, from left to right those are an Ebon Jaguar,  Black Lanner, Kingfisher, Huntsman and Linebacker.

And for the Fire Mandrills we have a Night Gyr, Battle Cobra (front), Turkina (behind), Arctic Cheetah and a Crossbow.

Name That Miniature (Round 2)

 I have some Battletech Aerotech miniatures that Wayne gifted me a couple years ago. I finally put magnets on them and primed them. I am not sure what specific models they are but I know there are some Battletech die-hards out there who can probably help. Thank you in advance!

 

And Then Some Mechs

I've had these 'Mechs in the queue for over a month. It's been one of those situations where I've just been too busy with other things to get back to them and put a bow on the project. Well, Sunday morning and yesterday evening I got them completed! These came in the Battletech starter box Ziggy gave me for Christmas. Nice guy, that Ziggy. 

I painted them up as reinforcements for the Kurita and Marik groups I've been collecting in the new patterns I started using late last year.

Marik Wolverine, Zeus, Catapult and Locust

And Kurita Shadowhawk, Thunderbolt, Commando and Battlemaster.

Welcome additions as always. I need to get BT:AS on the table soon. It's been months and I really enjoy it.

Cowboys!

I've been working on some models for What A Cowboy recently. They're not done yet but Ziggy and I planned to give the game a go on Saturday regardless. My nephew came into town last Friday and he was interested in playing as well so we have a full day of WAC on Saturday.

It was very much a learning experience and after playing I realized we had been screwing up the shooting rules all day. No worries, at least we were all messing up the same way. Regardless, we all had a great time and are all looking forward to the next outing!

One of my biggest hold-ups with a cowboy-themed game has always been the buildings which are very "niche." I was hesitant to plunk down cash on one-trick-pony MDF buildings. Once I remembered how doable paper buildings are and how inexpensive they are, I bought the rules and minis and there you go! Now, to finish painting the minis...
 

Alamo Game

 Mark J actually pulled his Alamo 15mm stuff out last weekend and a group of had a great time playing that battle out. It had been EIGHT years since it last saw the light of day. No play-by-play. Just pictures. 

Left to right that's Alan, Mark (the host), Wayne, Chris and Mike. I'm in the foreground with the banana lid.

I ran a contingent of Mexicans and stormed the picket fence side. 

Predictably, a bloody affair. We took horrific casualties during the assault but once in contact, the steamroller was unstoppable. Still, a heck of a fun day of gaming!