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.

Afghans 1

 The Reds needed an Opfor and the Central Asia / Transcaspian area was rather appealing from a "something different" standpoint. I picked up some Wargames Atlantic Afghan Warriors that'll work quite well as Basmachis or any other group from that part of the world. It's been a slow painting situation here recently with visitors in the house, but the first 20 are complete. They were a joy to assemble and paint up.

Sharp-eyed visitors might notice a handful of Russian weapons in the mix. The WA box which generously provides 40 warriors does not include enough Martini-Henri rifles for all. I used a handful of muskets to fill in as well as leftover Mosin Nagants from the Russian box. The long sleeves of the Russian arms work well enough with the Afghan bodies.

Next up on the painting table are some 28mm modern law enforcement minis and Russian Cavalry for the Revolution. I have to mix things up so I don't get burned painting the same thing over and over.

Recent Happenings

Hi all, I just haven't had the motivation to put up proper postings lately. A few pictures and progress of current goings on. For Memorial Day, a group of us played Alpha Strike then a large game of Check Your Six.

David and I barely hung on to a win with Clan Wolf preventing the Steiner forces from exiting enough units from the left edge of the battlefield. CY6 was a Battle of Britain scenario - He111s with escorts trying to get past Spitfires and Hurricanes.

It was a lot of stuff on the table, for sure!

Towards the end of the encounter, I had a Spitfire being pursued by what felt like the entire Luftwaffe!

But I bagged the bomber before getting shot down!
 

I finished up a handful of RCW Reds (Wargames Atlantic models) and some Etsy-sourced 3d printed vehicles. Afghans and other Russians are in the assembly and painting queue.

And the summer concert season has begun. The wife and seventeen-year-old accompanied me to Charlotte, NC for the Metallica M72 concert on Saturday. It was fantastic. Next concert is Ghost in July.