The Mines of Lead Mountain

 I went deep into the pile of reject miniatures this week and got few minis rehabbed and ready.

These are three civilians from Firelock Games' Blood and Plunder collection. I've only had them since February 2019. The old fellow in the steampunk wheelchair has been on the table much longer - perhaps since 2017. Good to see them done and out of the queue.

Game Necromancy - Dystopian Wars!

I checked in with Zig on Friday to see if he was up for a game Saturday.When he said he was, he asked which game. For some reason Dystopian Wars popped into my head and he was up for it. It's been over a year since we played so it was great to put it back on the table. Our last outing was a land battle, so we of course wanted a naval affair this time around. I put together a force of Empire of the Blazing Sun (Japanese) and Zig brought out the British - our original fleets.

Ziggy's fleet looks much the same way it did nine years ago. No new paint recently! We did a straightforward 1200-point free-for-all battle.

Some first turn maneuvering.

My Armored Cruisers get things going early with a massive salvo of rockets at the British carrier! The flattop is hit hit hard and loses four hull points. It's halfway to the bottom of the channel already and we're just getting started.

One of my little destroyers was wrecked by cruisers opposite them. My cruisers steam in a line, launching rockets at the armored cruisers in the back corner while my massive War Gyro floats steadily forward.

Towards the left, the Magnate Battleship and Hood Battlecruiser combined to sink one of my Armored Cruisers and damaged my carrier! The heavy destryers, obscured by Zig's hand damaged one of the light gyros.

We went out for wings and beer between turns two and three. When we came back, the scrum began in earnest with massive close-range salvos going both ways across the waves. My frigate squadron off to the far left got the better of their British counterparts. My light cruisers on the right had a terrific round of shooting, wrecking their opposite numbers!

In the middle of turn three, my War Gyro drove in the nail. If drifted right into the middle of the Britsh fleet, dropping bombs on a cruiser, rocketing a distant cruiser off to the right, and smashing the carrier with gunfire killing three capital ships in a single round of fire. Now that's getting it done! 

We played out the rest of the turn but Zig threw in the towel. We tallied up the scores it was 26-20 in favor of the Japanese. A tough battle a it felt good to get one in the W column! We're hoping to get DW back on the gaming table a bit more in 2021. It's always a fun time that doesn't require much of a rules refresher at all.

AAR: Dystopian Wars?

Since it's been a year and a half, Zig and I decided it was high time to put Dystopian Wars: Fleet Action back on the table. DW used to be a very regular game for us and it just sort of fell off the hot list. Last night we kicked it back into gear on the ol' 6x4 and had a quite entertaining battle featuring French and Polish land forces in an alternate steampunk past.

The forces arrayed. We put together 1200-point groups. and essentially the scenario was just a slaughter-fest.

My two landships both started the proceedings by getting just pounded. Grrr.

French scout fliers pass over a wood. Their broadside fire would silence one of the three Polish artillery pieces.

A view from the other end of the table.

Ziggy decided his Rarog landship should empty the tubes into my Liege-class and checks the range.

Thar she blows!

Turn 2 was a bad time for the French, as they lost their big bomber moments later. Mon Dieu!

I got a bit of feel-good, but ultimately worthless revenge moments later by having my light tank squadron blast the airship. They caused solid damage, but it would be the only damage done to the monster for the rest of the game. That volley and their presence would have been better used in the center. Oh well.

Part way through turn 2.

The photography became less regular as the battle ground on. I parked my landship carrier in front of the Polish landship and blasted away. Fortune was not with me as many shots simply tore holes in the earth instead of the steel beast straight ahead!

The center continued to devolve into a real mosh pit. Polish flame attacks caused quite a few "disruption" hits which become real hits after a short time if they aren't dealt with. Boarding actions we undertaken by both sides with generally poor results all around.

Turn 4 - almost done! The center has thinned out a lot. Ziggy parked his light tanks behind my carrier for a coup de grâce. Would they get it?

Of course.

After four turns I only have three things left. The Polish took a real beating too, but of course still had their two big vehicles left and I had three mediums that wouldn't have given them much resistance.

Final score - 44 to 35. Actually closer than I expected and the carrier that blew up at the end was worth 9 points.

It was great to have these minis on the table once again. They're beautiful models and DWFA is a solid, fun set of rules. As it turns out, this game was very similar to a game we played three years ago with almost the same forces! That game was played with the regular Dystopian Wars rules but otherwise was very similar (and with similar sad results for me!).

I hope everyone's having a good New Year. I know I've been silent on the blogging front lately. I've been busy with other things and there's been precious little gaming. Zig and I did play four or five games of C&C:A a couple weekends ago and had a blast.

Be well and good gaming!

Big Tank

It took seemingly forever, but finally my big steampunk tank is done. I picked it up many months ago - maybe as much as a year or more. I remember the purchase because it was heavily discounted - $18. It's a Dystopian Legions model, RIP Spartan Game. It's a nice heavy chunk of resin with a few metal bits and pieces. I put the two 32mm VASA Suppressors in there to give it some sense of scale.

One of these days I'll put a game together and put this sucker on the table, but until then, it's a just good buy that's finally out of the painting queue!

Dystopian Wars Fleet Action: First AAR

So, about a week before Spartan went under, I started looking through their quick-play rules - Dystopian Wars Fleet Action and Firestorm Taskforce. DW and FSA are terrific games but the fiddly nature of the rules limit how much of a game can be played in three hours. The new rules simplify things significantly but do a fabulous job of retaining the flavor of the original.

Ziggy and I got together for a battle Saturday evening to give DWFA a thorough workout. I used my Honorable Eclipse Company which have been in a box, painted, for quite some time but only minor elements of which have ever seen the battlefield (two years ago!). Zig used his British navy. One unintended matchup problem that Z didn't consider is that his ships rely heavily on torpedoes, which are useless of course against flying machines which make up 85% of an HEC force. Point values were just over 1700 each.

I'd have decorated the islands a bit more, but the decorations would have just gotten in the way of my fliers. Witness yet another bizarre deployment by Ziggy.

After a turn, there had been very little destruction. Lots of moving out and getting lined up.Oh, that white square on the left side was a minefield. I suppose I should craft a couple, more elegant.

A squadron of Hades interceptors takes a run at some frigates.

I'll note at this point that we were listening to 80's heavy metal and Slayer "Raining Blood" came on as I was getting the bombers lined up for a bombing run on the destroyers below. Just one of those fun memorable gaming moments. My bombers whiffed and we quickly turned the song into "Raining Dud."

The noose continues to tighten around the British. Their only element outside that top-right pocket is a corvette squadron visible (barely) on the left in front of the mines.

Turn 3 - I remember to launch the little guys from my undersea bases. Assault submarines make for the Hood battlecruiser and give it a good thrashing.

A view from the top. The immobile killing machine had just mashed up something or other in the distance. Pretty sure the gin & tonic inspired this picture.

Remains of a Hades squadron try to make an impression on the Monarch-class heavy battleship. They'd have done just as well lobbing water balloons.

The mini-subs finish off the Hood. During turn 4, Ziggy actually racked up a lot of kills but it wasn't enough to overcome the deficit. We called the game there.

The final score, just raw kills was 46 to 27 in favor of my HEC. I really do think that the lack of suitable targets for torpedoes was significant. Nineteen points different? Who knows? Next time I'll use something a bit more naval.

We're both very happy with the DWFA rules and they'll continue to be used. The game just plays better with less confusion, fewer rulebook dives and more toys on the tabletop.

AAR - Dystopian Wars: Europe Ablaze!

Ziggy, David and I got the Dystopian Wars toys out Saturday evening for a Central Europe slaughterfest. Zig and David paired up as Team East - Poles and Russians. I was The Westside Boys - using French and  Scandanavian forces. Each force was nominally 600 points.

Our deployments. We left the SAS out of the game - they do tend to slow things down and have a way of "cancelling each other out" when numbers are even. This would mark the first time since Ziggy started playing Dystopian Wars in 2010 that he played with a completely painted force!

Early into the action my Reckes and Marteaus got to work on the central medium tank squadron.

My Metzger was the "Hell on Legs" St. Michael variant that the STO has access to. It's a massive improvement over it's predecessors and actually worth using.

One of the Reckes gets pummeled by the Rarog. The Fausts quickly disembark from the other!

Those Kamchatka medium tanks lined up for the broadside shot back there creamed one of the Schildtragers early - one-shotting it with a Mag Explosion. Rather sad.

One turn two, they repeated their performance, killing the other medium robot. Seriously? What the heck?

My remaining Faust, although on fire and "disordered" (which robots ignore) charged into one of the  Polish mediums in the squadron that killed his mates. A couple very lucky rolls later, the tank was done. Huzzah!

The wounded Ragog puts a remarkable amount of fire on an unfortunate French small tank group.

But Stompy returns the favor.

The French mediums (with an attached Grele flak tank) has their way with a Polish squadron. They blasted two and boarded a third, ruining their opposite numbers.

I had the Recke wreck the Rarog. I seriously considered smashing it in close combat with the bog robot, but decided his firepower would be better used elsewhere.

Firmly in control over the right side of the table, I start to focus towards the Russians.

The Metzger and Liege get to work on the Kamchatkas and Minsks. My Robot got set the heck on fire but was still in decent shape.

After three turns, we tallied the score - I had eked out 665 points (including all of their Larges) and the Polish/Russian force was at 525. They had three more small tanks of mine to destroy and they'd have achieved their objective. It was a close affair for sure - my Schiltragers and the Recke going out early really hurt. I think one Russian squadron on the right side to prop it up would have made a big difference. I really liked the French/STO combination. The Liege continues to make me smile and the St. Mike is a Metzger worth using.

Recently Painted - Terminator 2 and a Dandy

I finished up the human resistance fighters from Terminator Genisys today. I didn't go nuts with them - kind of a quick job to get 'em table ready. I think they still look very nice.

Seventeen of humanity's finest. Maybe we'll give it a go this week.

Also finally off the table is this dude:

A Steampunk hero-type character. I've dubbed him Duke Rose. Although he'll be on the "good" side, I envision him as a bit more of a scoundrel. Chapter Two has been thought out and I hope to get that back on the table soon as well - my wife really like the last game.

I finally broke down and ordered some Pico Armor. I've been wanting to do this for a while and I've decided that now was as good as ever to jump into the Yom Kippur War. I placed an order for a boatload of T-62s, BMP-1s and "Soviet" infantry. They'll probably arrive this week. More on that as it progresses. I have got appropriate aircraft, thanks to CY6:JA!