Goings On - Summer 2022

 The blog has been light on posts lately because like many others, I've been busy with summer time. We took a short vacation to Jacksonville and St. Augustine a couple weeks ago and had a fine time. 

In Jacksonville we went to "The Stadium Tour" and saw Joan Jett, Poison, Motley Crue and Def Leppard. The show was amazing, even though the walk to the stadium was during a torrential downpour.

Poison

Crue

Def Leppard

The next day we drove down to St. Augustine to explore an old town we've never really visited. The last time I was there was maybe around 1984 or so.

It rained much of Sunday as we toured the town, I didn't take many pictures. We did a ghost walk in the evening which was fun, those things usually are. Our guide wasn't a great story teller so that detracted a bit. The weather was much better for the evening walk though.

Monday was July 4th and since we hadn't toured the Castillo in the rain on Sunday, we visited it that morning. The weather was hot but otherwise gorgeous. I haven't been to the fort in a long time. It's in great condition and has an interesting history.

So yeah, plenty of fun stuff going on. I have done a bit of painting here and there, I'll post some pics of that at another time. Y'all be well!

Shacks and Kayaking

Along with the 1/72 Germans I painted a week or so ago, I picked up and completed these gorgeous Russian farmhouses, courtesy of Pegasus models. The kits went together very easily and are quite robust. They were easy to paint and should look great on the game table. I'm tempted to pick up more but since storage is already an issue, perhaps it's best if I hold off.

I hope all my fellow American readers had a fine 4th - mine was great. Heck, the third was great too! My sister rolled into town and recruited my wife and I to join her on a geocaching expedition on Little Tybee Island. My sister Angela is big into geocaching and has visited thousands all over the world. I never join her so when she asked I figured "what the heck?"


It should be said that neither my wife nor I have ever kayaked before. We've both captained canoes on a river in Tennessee about five years ago, but that's not the same as a kayak + currents + motorboat wakes. Sis on the other hand is a pro. Caroline and I chose the tandem boat, or as Angela describes it, "The Divorcer."

Roughly 20 yards out, we capsized. The crowd on the shore got quite a show. My wife panicked momentarily  then swam back to shore. A swimmer who was knowledgeable in things kayak helped me flip the boat over and coached me a bit. I re-boarded with some help from Angela. We set back out, wetter and wiser. The channel crossing was a lot less dramatic the second time although I was attacked by a horsefly which was turned out to be a very stressful situation because I could freely swat at it without tipping the boat. Before long, we made it to our target, an exposed spit of sand. It was about an hour before low tide and there was a lot of temporary beach.

We hiked what felt like miles across the tidal sludge, sand and fast-running water. It was closer to 1/3 of a mile in reality. Angela located the cache and quickly realized she'd left her camera on the boat. She wandered back to get it which Caroline and I goofed around looking for shells and other crippus and crappus.

With no sign of Angela after about 20 minutes, we decided to head back, assuming she'd been eaten by a shark or alligator. Over the course of that 45 minutes, the area we'd been walked through had changed considerably so there was a little guesswork involved but we found the boats no problem.The float back to the other side of the channel was uneventful except for having to ride out the wake from a passing motorboat.

There's a map of our travels, starting in the upper right. The red circle indicates where the SS Banana went down. The yellow circle indicates the location of the cache.

Our boats pulled up on the sandbar.

My bride and I hiking back to the boats. We're a long way off.

There we are!

We three.

We had a terrific time and once we got the boats back to the rental place, we had dinner at the restaurant right next door. That was probably the best half-day of work ever. Be well! I'm on vacation next week - we're off to the Carolinas to goof off and get a change of scenery.

Labor Day Weekend Gaming

Mike in Waycross was kind enough to host an all-day game session Sunday. We got cracking somewhere around 11:00 and left his house around 10:15, so it was a heck of a long day but terrific fun.

First up was StarDust: Ground. I brought my minis and Mike supplied the terrain. I had four factions split into to teams - the Red Guard and Space Marines were to fight the Mechans and Khans. David wanted the 'Bots and Zig wanted to command the Marines for their first game. Mike chose the Khans and I was left with the Red Guard.

The players and table. We blooded some newly acquired GeoHex. There were two objectives in the middle (yellow circles) and both teams were attempting to take and retain control of them.

 

Most of my forces.

 

I was situated across from David - his 'Bots were to be my primary opposition. That yellow disc to the lower right is one of two objective locations.

 

I sent my heavy tanks up the road in the crease; the light tanks also zipped forward and put a smoke screen in front of the heavies.

 

My Salamander Space Marine allies pushed forward into the crater and towards the ruined building with the other objective.

 

My Horseman light tank squadron keep my far left flank in order. The one furthest up the hill had just been  hit by a blast from the Mechan Destroyer grav tanks up ahead. Lucky for me, its movement was just halved - it was still a useful gun platform. Those light tanks did have a great time shooting up the small Drones in the distance. They were convenient and willing targets.

 

My biggest problem though was trying to get good results out of my heavies. Mike's heavy tanks (on the ridge in the distance) hung around and just dared me to do something. We traded shots for quite some time.

 

Over on the right, the Marines reinforced their position. They were taking massive amounts of fire from the Dawgs but good armor and good cover make Space Marines incredibly hard to shift.

 

The Mechan Destroyers appear to have tired of my light tanks. Their gunfire wasn't terribly accurate and the Horsemen continued to frustrate the robot horde. You can also see that a squad of Marines has captured the objective in the ruined building.

 

David moves a squad of 'Bots up to the objective on our side! This will not do.

 

Two massive Predator walkers jump-jet over the rubble and smash into the Marines in the crater. The loose gravel must have frustrated the Predators' pilots because the Marines fought them off with little trouble.

 

Moments later, the Salamanders' lascannon let loose an energy blast, wrecking one of the Predators who was now in an exposed position.

 

Needing to do something about the Mechan threat to the near objective, I pushed my Lancers forward. One took a shot at one of the Destroyers but the plasma beam went high. The other two tanks fired off low-powered pulses of plasma energy at the robotic infantry, causing havoc among their ranks.

 

The Destroyers pushed forward to escape my heavies and took out a lot of aggression on two infantry squads I had lingering. My AT missile team remained, but was forced to fall back, effectively neutered for the remainder of the game.

 

Mike finally gets a shot to land on one of my Lancers and knocks one out! An artillery strike called by the Mechan commander slows down another of my heavy tanks. Woe is me.

 

The end. I had pushed my one good-condition tank right up to the objective and Zig had put some Terminators in the ruin, heling secure that objective. The David and Mike made a mighty push in the last turn to shift me but it just didn't happen. The Marines (mostly) and Red Guard managed a convincing win, even though it didn't feel like it.

The game was well-received and we all had a good time. Mike and I had a shitty-dice rolling contest. I was confident driving my tank out in front of his towards the end because his shots were soooo bad, I really didn't figure they'd do anything. As it turned out, he still only bagged one. I had a wonderful time shooting up infantry but succeeded in penetrating vehicle armor ONE time, and even then I only half-moved a Destroyer.

The Marines were spot-on. They're dead hard infantry and proved incredibly tough for Mike to deal with while they remained in cover. Mike started to give up on them and move along, but a turn or two too late for it to make a big difference.

After we tidied up, we set up for a big game of X-Wing. Big. Like 360 points per side big.

With no time constraints, we planned an Epic game a couple weeks ago. We put all the big toys on the table - the Imperial Raider and Carrier along with the Rebel Transport and Corvette. The big ships had plenty of small ships in support.

We did have two additional players show up to help drive - another Mike (H) and Max.

 

The Imperials were:
Me - Gozanti Carrier + 4 TIES
David - Raider Corvette  and 4 TIE Interceptors
Mike H - 2 TIE Bombers and Vader in a TIE Advanced

The Rebels were:
Ziggy - CR90 Corvette + 2 A-Wings
Mike B - GR75 Transport + Han Solo Falcon + Luke Skywalker X-Wing + Rookie X-Wing
Max - 2 Y-Wings + 2 B-Wings

Somehow, I had to end up having to prop up a flank with a trash scow and four bottom-rung TIEs. Yup, against the most powerful ship in the Rebel group. Oh well, somehow I'll figure out a way. I popped out a pair of TIEs to get to work keeping the A-Wings off my carrier.

 

On the far side of the battlefield, a real dogfight was developing. The Interceptors absolutely pummeled the Falcon, reducing it to just one or two hull points after their volley was done.

 

My other two TIEs launch and amazingly I kill one of the two A-Wings right away! Ziggy's dice were (as is often the case) miserable.

 

A wider view of the early stages.

 

I went to the bathroom. When I came back, David's Interceptors were in the process of being destroyed. They had been left hanging out to dry in front of a gunline of X-Wings and B-Wings at range 1. Ugh.

 

I made the command decision to get away from Ziggy's corvette. David and I decided our two big ships should go play bumper-cars with the Rebels.

 

The shelf of despair.

 

Although you can't tell, the Gozanti had just steam-rolled a Y-Wing and a TIE Bomber narrowly avoids a similar fate. Bwahahaha.

 

I start swinging my TIEs around to nip at the heels of Ziggy's monstrosity. Bwahahaha again.

 

David makes his goal the destruction of the Transport, nicknamed "The Fish." My carrier keeps turning and running! David's Raider's rear section is being completely wrecked by the big Rebel ship.

 

A Bomber snuggles up behind the CR90.

 

The CR90 is good and screwed. Vader, the Bomber and my TIE all blasted away at it. both the front and rear were within one hit of being wrecked. The Raider had repaired its shields and the Transport was sucking wind. The Rebels surrendered, secure in the knowledge that they we done.

Wow. That was a long, epic, awesome game of X-Wing. Fortunes swung wildly a few times. The Falcon getting wrecked early, the all the Interceptors going away. Luke was taken out by Vader. The Raider was getting murdered by the CR90, but constant pounding by the Imperial smalls took its toll on the Rebel corvette and eventually did the trick.

Vader was the man of the match, followed by the Imperial Raider. Vader lost one shield and was just hell on wheels the whole time. Nothing but Hits, Crits and Evades. It was amazing. My TIEs proved a quality distraction, especially for their low-low cost!

Thanks for everyone who played - I had a great time. Double thanks to Mike for hosting and letting us junk up his house for a day. Also double thanks to David for driving. Looking forward to the next games! Be well.