Last Week's Gaming

 Wayne hosted some gaming last Sunday, at his office again. Nice guy, that Wayne. He was keen to put CY6:JA back on the table, particularly with the new planes I'd painted up for him recently. Oh yeah, those planes... I STUPIDLY took the commission work, did what I thought was a terrific job worthy of the commission and FORGOT TO TAKE PICTURES for the blog. Three Tomcats, six F-5 Aggressors and some Libyan Gulf of Sidra planes. Wayne set up a Top Gun movie scenario featuring very skilled F-14s against a boatload of crap "MiG-28s."

David and I flew the MiGs; being more experienced players, we we slightly better suited to  handling more planes. Mike and Mark each drove one F-14 to start. After a few turns, additional MiGs would arrive followed shortly by Maverick.

Good Golly Miss Molly, those are some SHARP looking planes! They're 6mm. Can't remember the manufacturer.

And our Aggressors

A few turns in and Hollywood gets popped by one of our missiles. I think it was mine from the "white" MiG. The Tomcat only suffered engine damage. No kill for us!

But in no time, that hoodlum Iceman knocks out one of ours!

Another MiG down!

That cocky Yankee Mav shows up and takes out a third MiG. We did manage to knock out Hollywood though!

In no time another Sparrow takes out a fourth bogey and we're done. As it turned out, a result very similar to the movie! The scenario was a blast and although the bad guys are clearly overmatched, it was worthwhile and close to being well-balanced in terms of victory conditions. Better AAMs on the MiGs would probably even things right out.

After Check Your 6: Jet Age we moved on to Rubber and Lead. Wayne had never played my home-brewed game of combat automobile racing. Interestingly I finished my game right when Gaslands was released. My game was not influenced at all by GL. Having played Gaslands, all I can say is my game is better.

This was the first time I'd tried R&L with five cars. It played just fine with an extra car on the track.

Early into the proceedings. From left to right it's Mark in the purple truck, me in the dark green/gold car, Wayne in the green/purple convertible, David in the yellow./red truck and Mike in the Greased Lightning Mini.

Mike makes quick work of the first lap. I'm in HOT PURSUIT! Lap two is always a dicey affair though with loads of oil, mines and wrecks on the track.

The other three however have miscalculated the final 90-degree turn and have to slow things down a lot. Wayne was victimized and put out of the race just moments after this photo was taken.

I managed to catch up with Mike and nudged him going into the home stretch. David's gone waaay the fuck off course, cruising around through the infield.

Friends... whatcha gonna do? Both our cars had but a single Body point left. Any more damage would seal the deal. 

And of course Mike nudges me on the approach to the finish line. Of course it kills off both our cars! NOOOOOOOOO!

And the King of the Skulkers, Mark J wins the race! He putzed around in last place for 90% of the race and only showed out at the end. David survived and was first-place loser. 

A nice blurry of the players

A great afternoon of gaming. I'm going to try out some Megablitz with James this weekend. Haven't played in ages. Be well!

A Recent Painting and GOT Thoughts

 I finished putting paint on a Hordes Trollkin yesterday. I've got a few of them and look forward to fielding an warband of them in KOW Vanguard one of these days. This guy is just a wonderfully characterful model that had to be included. It was one of those minis that was primed and got one or two colors then just sat for a few months. This week I had the urge to get him finished. 

Very militaristic and fancy. It's a big model, on a 40mm base. I'm happy to have another member of the Trollkin warband wrapped up. I've taken a picture of him with his new brothers in arms. They were finished in a much different manner, making them quite dark and grim compared to Gunna.

An imposing lot for sure! I scored a sweet deal on another group of models which will give me enough Trolls to fill out the collection and then some. Mode on that later.

In other news, my wife and I finally got around to watching Game of Thrones in the last couple of months. We finished it last evening. That's been a major contributor to my lack of painting production. My thoughts on GOT

1) Excellent show and I'm glad we spent the time on it.

2) I'm so happy we could binge-watch it instead of drawing it out over eight years. There is a lot to be said for wrapping one's head around the season-to-season continuity when there's no real-world gap between the end of one and the start of another.

3) We didn't hate the last season(s). I was quite aware of the popular opinion of the series ending. We though it was very much on-point with the rest of the show from a theme and tone standpoint. 

Spoliers ahead if you haven't watched it but might....

There are precious few situations in the show where "good guys" win. Our "good guy" characters are all killers with their priorities all over the place. Brandon is the only character that comes to mind who ends the show with a clean slate in my opinion. Sansa is too arrogant, Jon and Grey Worm are too honor-bound to make the correct decision. I didn't hate Jamie and Cersei's death. They got what they needed. Jamie got to die at her side and she was crushed to death being too stubborn and arrogant to leave. Daenerys was so wrapped up in her mental version of what's "right" that she was too blind to appreciate the bigger picture. Her heel turn landed OK on us. It brought her "my way or the highway" personality into laser focus Maybe overly dramatic for some but the series had to end eventually and her logical outcomes were 1) death or 2) dictatorship.

"Heroic" characters that are obvious favorites are Arya for starters. A weird fate to be sure, but she's a cold-hearted killer and to remain in Westeros would mean that she'd likely become a full-time assassin. Tyrion got to end the series doing something he genuinely enjoyed. 

The only deaths I really didn't care for was Varys the spymaster. It felt like he was the only one who really had an interest in the people of the realm. Perhaps selfish motivations much of the time, but I think we can all agree his actions were consistent in the interest of "the realm" over the course of the show. Daeny had already started tipping heavily at that point so it kept with the GOT-yness. Missandei's death was also quick and brutal, but unexpected and on-point with the GOT product. Every bit as shocking as Ned and the Red Wedding. 

I could go on for ages... be well!

More Insurgents, More Earth

 Zig and I got together for a play-through of Insurgent Earth on Saturday evening. From a rules and order-of-play standpoint, things were a lot smoother for me this second time around. Ziggy had no trouble at all wrapping his head around the mechanics and was pro in no time.

The layout. Today's mission was to be a "Shopping Trip," a pretty simple supply run.

We started from the corner in the park since it had dense terrain features making it easier to hide

Jean Claude checks the first POI, retrieving some electronics - just what the doctor ordered! Unfortunately, he gained the attention of two aliens nearby!

The first of many "Vermin" trouble rolls on the loot tables for us... Since it was still turn 1, we decided the woods were too overgrown to trace LOS.

We heaved a couple crybabies over the next couple of turns to give ourselves space to run!

Monique locates a food cache beneath the tree in the fenced yard, then heads across the street. Teammates stay out of sight behind the police cruiser.

The jig is up! While searching the jeep and stripping two additional useful electronics components, two more free-range aliens appear and cut loose with their blasters, wounding her. The jig is up and the aliens now have full awareness of the tactical situation. No more cat-and-mouse.

Dental assistant Elle gives Monique a hand. Jerome, our other new addition from the previous mission pops three noggins with his sniper rifle from atop the building in the lower left corner.

Jerome gonna do what Jerome gonna do

No picture, but Jean Claude ran over to the POI next to the semi and located some more loot that we were after. Unfortunately, the noise attracted another pair of invaders who'd apparently been napping on the roof of the shop! Elle splats one with her shotgun, standing in the back seat of the jeep.

JC goes a couple rounds with the four-armed freak, eventually making the connection between axe and alien forehead.

We had managed to clear the table of critters, Jerome and Monique's shots were on point. I suggested that we keep looting unit more rapid response units made out lives more difficult.

Well, all we got was a food supply. Monique checked the box in the center of the table and it was empty. Two bots showed up and it was immediately obvious they were now sending their best and brightest. Time to go!

Jean Claude gets nailed twice by a blaster, slowing him down quite a bit. Good thing for him he's quick, moving 7 inches at a go. He's relentlessly pursued by an alien bot.

Monique and Jerome try to get scarce, also pursued by a metal monster.

They make it out by the skin of their teeth. Another successful run!

Another entertaining game. I'm getting the hang of the system and am confident that this'll play well at Southern Front next month. Ziggy enjoyed it - this was his first Stalker7 game; a good test for me as a GM and it gave me a good idea of how things might play out for a group of strangers. I think I need to alter my bad guys a bit, I ran out of vermin much faster than anticipated with all the bad "trouble" rolls. I have ten of the Terminator minis, I'll probably make those the vermin going forward and the orange guys will be the mid-grade baddies. The sniper was impressive, and this time around I got a good feel for the cry babies. We messed up and only had a single med-kit in the group and were fortunate that the wounds didn't start accumulating until we were close to done. No smoke was also challenging, but it was that much better having to come up with new solutions.

Be well and good gaming!

Saturday Gaming

Wayne hosted a couple of games Saturday at his office. Although an unusual setting, it was great - plenty of space and quiet. There were five of us gamers in attendance, Wayne and me of course as well as David, Mark and Mike. The games on the agenda were Star Wars Armada and Battletech Alpha Strike. The SW Armada game was actually a Star Wars vs Star Trek mash-up.

Mark and I drove the Klingons

Wayne, Mike and David

I commanded two Birds of Prey

The opponents commanded a Star Destroyer each. Wayne was GMing and kept the game moving along.

Maneuvering takes some getting used to and Mark's flock of D7s cutting me off was the result of early struggles with the turn template device.

David's ISD catches "The Green One," hammering it pretty good. Mike had laced into previously. That ship was a hurting puppy.

I had a BOP separate from the pack. It cloaked and prepared to close.

While the rest of the Klingons ran, Captain Byg'nutz pulls in between the two Imperial slugs, decloaks and fires weapons at both. The Klingon gets away with a bit of "remodelling" courtesy of the Imperial gunners.

Lucky for me, it was late in the game. David and Mike concentrated on Mark's crippled D7, stripping its cloak, allowing the TIEs to finish it off.

The Klingons scattered and fled.

The Star Destroyers were a tall order for the Klingons. In all honesty, we might have been able to get a fair fight out of a single ISD, but two! Ugh. Wayne kept telling us to cloak, but cloaking and running doesn't kill enemy ships. We had to decloak to fight and as soon as we were visible, it was almost a guaranteed crippling every time we were hit. Oh well... fun game regardless.

Game two was Alpha Strike. David and I paired up this time against Mike and Mark. Henceforth known as Mike and Coward. I took command of the following three mechs:

Shady, The Fast One and Griffon

David had some slightly heavier mechs. Mike had a light Lance and Coward had an Assault Lance consisting of a Battlemaster, a Marauder and a Warhammer. 

Mike and Coward had to damage some sewage treatment ponds, causing leaks to taint the water sources in the area. David and I were supposed to prevent that, but  honestly, defending two sludge-filled holes in the ground is a pretty tall order. We kind of defaulted to "shoot the tan mechs."

Shady and Griffin deployed in the woods. Fast One was was off to the right to flank the scum.

There's Speedy, way out there! David's stompers hang out in the center.

Griffon and Shady hang out at the edge of the woods and take shots at the tan mechs piloted by cowardly half-men.

David's Marauder and other big thing move in a bit and mix it up with the enemy.

That Warhammer is a good example of the bravery, resolve and faith in heavy armor that Coward exemplified. Meanwhile, Speedy tossed out a mighty DGAF and not only got into the tan backfield but lined up right behind Mike's Cicada.

Yeah baby. Sadly, my shooting rolls were abyssmal most of the game and I didn't capitalize like I'd hoped.

Coward's Marauder continued to skulk on the next turn. I couldn't resist getting the Wasp behind it for a rear attack. Mike returned the favor and we ended up with a real weird conga line of DOOM.

The Battlemaster and Marauder shoot up the retention wall on Pond A. Good for them!

Mike's little mechs kill Speedy. Oh well. Live fast, die young. That was a darn fun mech to have in the pack.

Speedy's death is quickly avenged by Shady and Griff.

David's Marauder takes out another of Mike's little guys, but then Coward's Warhammer finished off the Marauder.

That tan Assault Lance continues to defend the shit out of the ruin they started the game in. Meanwhile, team blue is all up in their grill. David's got a big 'un barely visible behind a black wall section in the upper left of that image.

And what does he do? You guessed it.

Two big scoops of Post Fuckit Flakes later, Shady performs a Death From Above attack on the spineless Marauder. The attack was quite successful, causing FOUR damage! Unfortunately Shady suffered a critical hit in the process. Oops, cockpit. He's dead Jim. Still, a coward dies a thousand deaths.

A turn later and, oh what the hell? Mike served up an opportunity and since it worked so well last time...

Burn, heretic. Heheh.

David unloads on the yellow Marauder that had been pretty heavily damaged by my bold decision to smash into it with a 55-Ton mech.

Beautiful.

So, at the end, Mike and Mark managed to break the walls of both ponds, poisoning the creek and causing many women, children and elderly to get dysentery and other nasty diseases as a result of tainted drinking water. Surprisingly, David and I accounted for four of the Tan mechs, only losing three of ours. Of course Mark still had two Assault mechs in showroom-floor condition skulking around but hey, you gotta take your victories where you can find them! 

I think we all had a great time. Thanks to Wayne for getting this all setup and hosting. Had a blast and looking forward to the next!

RIP, Shady