Recent Painting - Mechs

 I painted up some Battletech Mechs recently. Just had the itch and I do enjoy painting them for sure! First up is a Lance of Kurita Mechs.

Three of the models are very Kurita and are very stylized. The Grand Dragon (second from right) is a very traditional Kurita design.

The next group is a Clan Mercenary Star, painted up in memory of Wayne who got our group into playing Battletech and Alpha Strike.

Just something different there. I enjoyed the bold, bright red color scheme and the white accents really pop. There's nothing subtle about these guys! The off-color leg is for Wayne. 

Ziggy, David and I also got in a game of Alpha Strike a couple weekends ago. No AAR, but here are a couple of pics.

I'm supposed to be testing out my Vikings & Saxons in a flipped game of Nightwatch on Saturday - a playtest for Southern Front.

Checking In

 Not detailed reports, but it has been a month and life has been busy, strange and otherwise filled since my last post. I have gotten in gaming, just haven't written about it. A couple of weeks ago, Wayne and Mark came over for a day of What A Cowboy followed by Check Your 6 Jet Age.

 The Ski-Mark gang won that outing.. Wayne's dice just hated him and didn't want him to have a fighting chance.

 Up next was CY6JA. I set up an early Cold War scenario featuring MiG-15s facing off against some F-3 Demons. Again it was me and Mark against Wayne.

It was an entertaining encounter. The Demons have first-generation AIM-7 Sparrows and guns. Although we got a few lock-ons during the game, Mark and I never had a chance to fire a missile. We did well in the gunfighting department though, knocking out two while losing one with one more damaged. A fun day of gaming for sure.

Last weekend Ziggy came over for a round of old-school Battletech. We each ran two heavies. He had an Orion and a Black Knight while I used a Flashman and a Guillotine. 

Halfway through, my Flashman took back-to-back headshots from the Orion's AC10 and Medium Laser. That finished that mech off in one fell swoop.

I peeled off the whole left side of the Black Knight, then cackled as the engine went full Chernobyl. The Orion beat my Guillotine to a wreck for few turns then we called the game. Fun outing!

No painting recently. We've got my F-I-L staying with us for a bit so I don't have access to the room where I paint. I weep.
 

A Classic Battletech Revisit

David,  Ziggy and I got together for a refresher game of traditional Battletech on Saturday afternoon. It had been at least a year since the last time we played that version. There's something about the "crunchiness" of the game that scratches a particular gaming itch. I pulled six similar point-valued mechs from my collection and we randomly drew our mechs for the game, which was the always maligned three-player free-for-all. They usually turn into a 2 v 1 but somehow this time we managed to avoid that.

I drew a Wolverine, David got an Executioner and Ziggy got the white PPC-armed Catapult.

Initially, David and I chased each other around a bit, initiative being king in this scenario. We were both very hesitant to engage Zig's pair of death rays.

David ended up skirting around Z's left side and Zig pursued. I had backed off after being smacked and heating up a bit much.

At one point we did back Z into a corner but it wouldn't last and David took advantage of the situation to bushwhack me.

By the end of the game, my mech had lost its good arm (with a Large and Medium Laser). Ziggy's Catapult was in terrible shape with two engine crits. David's Executioner was unreliable and slow with mucked up hip and gyro hit. All in all, a very busy and eventful game that thankfully didn't devolve into a 2 v 1! I think we're ready to add BT into our gaming rotation. It was good to step through everything and hit the books to answer the questions that came up during the game. 

It's a Battletech Christmas Game

 Ziggy and I got together for what's likely to be our last game of 2025. We pulled out the BT Alpha Strike toys and I quickly assembled a themed game to go along with the thematic scenery. 

Sitrep: One of Santa's Sledtech units was inadvertently shot down in the northern polar region of Bethlehem IV. The combatants on the planet (Fire Mandrill Clan and House Steiner) dispatched units to collect what gifts they could from the accident. Let's face it, these guys weren't exactly on the "good" list and desperate times call for desperate measures.

Ten gift tokens were placed on the battlefield, each with a different hidden value. Units could pick up one and only one gift and claim it. If the unit was destroyed, they'd drop the gift where they stood. We deployed in opposite corners.

I finally put my Elementals on the table. They're fun and interesting. I'd use them again with no hesitation.

My heaviest hitters, a Sun Cobra and a Pouncer held up my center.

My Griffin IIc keeps tabs on a distant enemy mech. Retaining loot is more important than knocking out enemy units, of course knocking out an enemy mech carrying loot is useful too!

An overhead shot of much of the table. An visit to Hobby Lobby earlier in the day was well worth it, I picked up 64 2-inch red, green and white trees for just over $20 (Christmas items were 60% off).

I had been hoping for some King-Konging and got it! My elementals ran off the filthy Steiner mech.

We ended the game after 6 turns or so. We each had snagged five tokens and magically only one point separated us at the end - my gift pile was slightly more valuable at 28 points to Zig's 27. A darn entertaining game and having the focus taken off just killing each other was a nice change for Battletech.

Merry Christmas and I hope your loot piles are wonderful! Peace and Love to all.

Tanksgiving 2025

 Last Sunday, November 23rd, the Space Cadets and some of the Savannah area HMGS members got together at Savannah Lions game store for a Tanksgiving game day. The group hosted games of Bolt Action, Team Yankee, Battletech Alpha Strike and What A Cowboy!I played in the Alpha Strike game while hosting / GMing the WAC scenario.

Wayne hosted the AS game. David and I took command of Clan Hell's Horses units and were tasked with keeping a Steiner force at bay. 

Our tabletop and deployment:

That's James, Ziggy and Wayne, left to right. David commanded the Stone Rhino and I think it was a Gargoyle. I had two squadrons of three very heavy tanks, each composed of two MBTs and the third vehicle being a multi-role AAA / Artillery vehicle. We needed to keep the IS forces away from the buildings circled in red.

I smoked one of Ziggy's Atlases early by simply combining a lot of fire on it. Three to go! Ugh... that won't be quite as easy next time.

I wasn't taking a lot of pictures. By the time I killed a second Atlas (and the Archer in the center), I had lost a whole squadron. David was working the artillery and other vehicles on the left.

There's David. Stomp that tank! Stomp that tank!

I ended up getting tabled but we did a fine job of keeping the enemy away from their objective. Not a bad job at all!

The other Tanksgiving table.

Say hi, Mark!

Next up was What a Cowboy. I set the game up for 5 players each with three characters.

Our game area. 3' x 4' is plenty for WAC. My water tank by the train tracks checks the "Tank" box. Each crew had an objective, three were trying to secure the lady int he center of town (Millie Mae) and two had to get to the cemetery and locate hidden loot.

Millie Mae was a slippery one. There was a lot of shooting each other from behind in this encounter. Just mean and nasty!

Just look at that! 

Mark's leader locates the treasure! Now, four inches to the edge of town and get the win!

James caught up with him before he made it away and the scenario ended with the loot being unsecured and Millie Mae sneaking off unattended. Mark and Wayne both made the most progress to victory so they shared a positive result. 

After playing the scenario, I should have started it with Millie already with the group her pappy sent to find her and they should have been closer to the train station. That gang had the most difficult objective and I should have given them some advantage by some other means.

Everyone had a good time and it was a great afternoon of toy soldiers. Be well and good gaming!

Newly Painted Things

 I finished up a handful of miniatures this weekend. They'd been in progress for weeks, I've just been going slowly. 

First up, some Battletech minis. This is the Recon Lance box. I've kept them in the same Marik livery as the last few I did. 

Those are a Firestarter, Javelin, Spector and Ostscout. More light mech goodness, and quickly becoming my preferred class. 

Next is a Brigade Game 28mm Red Russian machine gun for the Revolution. 

I don't think I ever posted a picture of the Red infantry that I painted first. Here they are. 

And finally, I also completed the next group of 20 Basmachi fighters to oppose the Bolsheviks.

Those models and the Russians are Wargames Atlantic plastics. Excellent models as always. 

Recent Games

 I've gotten a couple games in over the last week, as well as a bit of painting. No painting pics, but a few from the games. Last Sunday, David and I got in a game of Battletech Alpha Strike. We played the Reconnaissance scenario from the MRB. David used a 6-mech force of mid-cost mechs, ranged in the 30-42 point area: Battlemaster, 2 X Shadowhawk 2H, Guillotine 3N, Catapult K2, and Crab 20. I put the list together for him using my collection and he approved it. My preferred force was a much lighter affair, built for speed, agility and swarming. I had eight mechs : 3 X Wolfhound, Jenner, Locust 1M, Mercury 99, Raven 4x, Uziel. I was the defender in the scenario and set up 13 marked buildings across the center of the battlefield. David needed to locate SIX of the buildings I had chosen in secret, then evacuate a unit off the table to report the information back to HQ.

David deployed in a cluster on my left, while I had very much spread out.

My poor Locust gets dusted by the Battlemaster.

A measure of revenge against the Guillotine.

After a few hours of playing and a lot of blown up mechs, David located the last objective and RAN with the Catapult, his last 'Mech. A Wolfhound caught it with a headshot and, well, that'll do it! Minor victory for my Marik forces. This was a tense, drawn-out game of movement and sporadic damage. It was ridiculously enjoyable.

Then yesterday I drove up to Statesboro for a big D-Day Bolt Action game. I took my Canadians and helped storm the beaches! The game was hosted by the Statesboro Warhammer Club. A co-worker of mine, Landon is a member and invited me a few weeks ago.

There were three Axis players and five or six Allies. In fact, all three of the guys in this picture are the Axis players. As you can imagine, especially if you have every played a D-Day game, there was a bit of a logjam on the beach in no time.

I got all three of my infantry squads onto the beach / surf on turn 1. Well, one squad had to wade in, their boat having hit a sand bar. 

A real motley crew! The table was about 8' wide and 5-6' deep. We Allies were supposed to capture roads at the far end to ensure victory.

After a turn of shooting, my troops on the beach disappeared. Yes, some players were using their personal collections as proxies, thus the "Japanese" defenders.

I did manage to take out a bunker!

And we got a flank attack of three tanks. My Firefly VC cooked the StuG. 

But by 4:00, with so many players and units, we hadn't gotten far and the game was officially called. Minor Axis victory, they'd lost the beach entirely. I had a really good time and the Statesboro crew are a good group of guys.