AAR: Dystopian Wars Returns

 It's been close to year since the last game, but Zig and I broke out the Dystopian Wars toys on Saturday. We decided on a land battle and because they've haven't gotten any play time in recent memory, I used my Prussian forces. Ziggy brought his Polish. The scenario was a nothing-special shoot 'em up. We decided on 1200-point forces and we use the "Fleet Action" rules which Spartan put out right before they closed up shop. It's a much quicker, nicer game that retains 90% of the awesome while reducing the frustration by 100%.

Our setup. I had trouble locating my Prussian air units so I had the Honorable Eclipse Company mercenaries lend a hand. My "big units" are on the cheap side and a shorted a couple units resulting in having a couple extra units compared to Zig's Polish. That ended up making a difference as things progressed.

Early in the going, Ziggy is doing his best to re-create the Led Zeppelin I album cover.

A view from the right flank. We'd been mauling one another pretty well by this point and still only in turn 2.

Stompy heads toward the hated Polish airship.

But it was the H.E.C. interceptors that streaked in to finish off the monster! It's always a relief to see that thing get taken off the table.

Twice I attempted boarding actions with my medium tanks. Both times I was thoroughly smacked and sent packing, resulting in a massive build-up of disruption markers on the unit.

The Rarog Landship is looking a little lonely over there with a massive walker right there, the big Prussian tank as well and the H.E.C. Sky Fortress cruising into blasting range.

Final shot of the game. The Sky Fortress unloaded on the big Polish tank, bombers smash into a medium tank and that was all it took. Ziggy's force was thoroughly decimated and we wrapped the game there. 

What a nice afternoon of gaming! The win was a bonus, but DWFA really does deliver an entertaining experience. It's not terribly deep or thinky, but sometimes you just want an excuse to blast the hell out of each other and roll loads of dice. I'm glad I never got rid of my stuff and boy oh boy do I need to find my Prussian fliers!

The Landwehr Blues Began

Trying to come up with something fun to do with the word Landwehr... obviously.  

I knocked out a block of Prussian Infantry during the week. They look nice I think. The uniforms are a nice change from those of their colleagues.

I scrounged eight completely painted French ground-pounders over the weekend and enough unpainteds to fill in another six-stand regiment for those guys, so they're next in the queue. After that will either be a 6mm Panavia Tornado or French Dragoons.

Next weekend I'll be hosting Rubber and Lead for some of my co-workers. Team building. Yeah. 

More Horemen

The Naps continue, this time I've got some Prussian cavalry on this, the 75th anniversary of Prussia's dissolution. Uniforms inspired by the 2nd Life Hussars. Minis are again 20mm Newline Designs.

I surprised myself at how quickly I finished them. I guess eight instead of the more typical twelve helped, but either way. Next up are going to be Prussian foot or French horse. Haven't decided.

Haven't seen much of it on the blogosphere, but it's a damn shame what Russia's doing in Ukraine. screw them. My old high school JROTC instructor would crack us up with his stories about untrustworthy doubletalking Ruskies but Sergeant Major Reichert was right.

Gauche, Gauche, Gauche Droite Gauche

 The next / most recent addition to my Napoleonic French army made it out of the chute yesterday. They're 20mm Newline Designs Grenadiers.

Nothing award-winning but more than sufficient for action at the front! They'll get their standard once I've completed the other units I'm working on. The Prussian Hussars made it out of their baggies and got primed and some first colors yesterday as well. 

I've always struggled with cavalry but working on the riders and horses independently has helped a lot and I no longer hate it.

Next weekend I'm off the the inaugural Bold City Con in Jacksonville. It's more of a pop-culture/comic/cosplay affair than the stuff I'd normally attend, but they 14 year-old will enjoy it and I'll put a stripped down X-Wing, suitable for novices on the table. If nothing else, it's in-context with the show. In other X-Wing related news, apparently the new company Asmodee spun it off to (Atomic Mass) has been screwing around with the rules, making significant changes to how it's worked since it was first published in 2012. It doesn't feel like 10 years, but there you go. David was giving me the skinny last weekend. I'm not interested in purchasing new rules and information cards for something I'm already completely happy with. I don't know how much longer David's going to have me as a tournament practice opponent.

And Then some Prussian Jagers

 I'm technically done with the 20mm Napoleonic lead mountain. I have some odds and ends, but not enough to put together a unit. Probably. I'm scared to look in that one box. This group was a bag of 16 Prussian Infantry I don't remember ordering. It appeared to have been a Newline Designs ziploc and label. I snipped off the bayonets and based them in pairs to form a group or two of skirmish troops.

It's amazing how quickly I can churn through a group of sixteen compared to the more usual twenty-four. 

I've got a few altogether things to paint next. Maybe tomorrow evening some of them will get a splash of paint. Witches and scatter terrain... Be well!

More Boom!

I finished up the four Prussian guns last evening. I think I've got enough fully painted stuff to put on a game! It's a miracle.

As you can probably tell, the pics were taken with a flash and the shading is washed out.

Models are Man At War from their Napoleon at War line, which is of course discontinued.

A Few More Prussians

I put the wraps on another group of Prussian infantry last evening. They'd been "in progress" for a couple months, getting a bit of attention here and there. The lion's share of the work was done last weekend. Models are 20mm and are from Newline Designs.

Next in the queue are gun crews. I have French crews mounted to painting nails and primed.

Merry July 4th

It's Independence Day, woo hoo! A day off in the middle of the week is kind of ridiculous really but hey, a day off is a day off. Any excuse to burn burgers and have a brew is a good one.

I've actually done a fair amount of gaming the last couple of weekend, it's gone undocumented here but I'm about to rectify that. The day after Zig and I played Firestorm a couple of weeks ago, I met David up at Morningstar Games for a Dystopian Wars Fleet Action battle.

I used a fun pairing of Prussians and Eclipse Company mercenaries. David brought along his Blazing Sun Japanese.

So the general setup was that I was defending a channel and the EBS forces were trying to clear me out and capture the large building in the center (next to the robot).

By turn two, it seemed that David wasn't moving quickly enough towards the objective building. I was fine with this.

My swarm of little boats and subs drew a massive amount attention and really helped the Prussian cause. While David was expending considerable resources killing the hard-to-hit little guys, I was knocking on his larger, more threatening units.

Ol' Stampy gets up close and personal with the Blazing Sun sky fortress. Sadly, I completely botched the attack and did not crush the thing mercilessly.

In the end, it was a solid Prussian victory. My aggressive defense paid off - I took the battle to the enemy a long way from their objective. It felt great to put the DW toys back on the table. They really are a lot of fun.

Last Sunday, Dave and I met again at Morningstar, this time for some X-Wing. David flew a by-the-book TIE swarm - 8 x 12-poit TIES, while I used a Rebel mix including Poe Dameron, and ARC170 and a new Resistance Bomber.

Early into the proceedings I just could make anything happen and I wasn't feeling good about it at all.

The shot of the week - Poe gathers the attention of seven TIEs. Poor shooting by the Imperials meant that Poe's luck held out.

The TIEs at the bottom had finished of the ARC170 while I'd managed to bump off three of the Imperials. Things were starting to fall into place for me.

An example of David's fine driving skills. Keeping it on the table like no one's business!

The final result. Poe kills yet another TIE - he turned out to be quite the killing machine - and the Bomber hangs on to its final two hull points. I had managed to kill seven TIE fighters and only lost the ARC170. The Bomber is very nice and a good pickup for the collection. I've been eyeing the Ghost for a while, but I'm glad I went with this ship.

I've been painting a bit recently and have finished up a few things.

Here's a fun little well / fountain with some creepy crawlies in it.

Another good pickup at Morningstar...

 I can't believe Jeff had one of these on the shelf. A very nice pickup for my Red Fleet for StarDust.

And they got painted up quickly. I haven't touched the fighters yet.

And lastly, some Malifaux minis.

 This is the "No Shelter Here" box set.

Creepy little girl and zombie baby

Three ghosts and a poltergeist

One of these days I'll put Malifaux on the table and try to learn the system, but until then, I just really love painting the models. Happy Fourth and stay safe!

Happy TANKSgiving - Two AARs

Over the weekend, Mike hosted his annual Tanks-giving gaming get-together and of course David and I had to make the 120 mile trek. On the menu this year were Dystopian Wars: Fleet Action and Blitzkrieg Commander.

DWFA was set up first. I'd brought two forces, French and Prussians, allies in the DW alternate history. Opposing them would be the British and Russians. Being a tank-themed event, it was a land battle with the minor exception of an Eclipse Company airship recruited by the Brits to pad their numbers.

So, managing the Brits and Russians were Mike, Alec, David and Lee. Ace and I split the French while James and Sarah led the Prussian contingent. I won't attempt a detailed battle report because most of what followed over the next three and a half hours was a series of insults and jeers as we all settled into our national stereotypes for a bit of roleplaying with our wargaming.

Our battlefield and two of our opponents.

Our patient host.

The French mobile airfield moves towards the hill in front of it, accompanied by many smaller tanks. It may be worth noting that one of my two artillery pieces, in the extreme foreground, had already been destroyed by the British arty.

At some point during turn 2...  Lee and Sarah showed up a bit late, but better late than never. After turn 1, the Anglo-Russian alliance were ahead 9-2. The Prussians had made a deep push on our right flank but appeared to be getting pulled into a Russian trap. The Brits in front of me and Ace were content to focus fire on my Danton landship.

Hey, it still has two hull points!

Sarah's small tanks get up the hill and begin flanking the Russian trap as the big Russian drill surfaces and disgorges its cargo of three more tanks.

Blimp's-eye view.

Big Stompy charges into the Russian line, destroying a couple of tanks. James knew the writing was on the wall for the big guy and wanted to get in a few extra kills before his big 'bot was destroyed.

I wanted to do the same with my Danton, except that Ace had parked a tank in front of it, restricting my movement.

 Mike's artillery then cut loose like a deuce on the ol' Bastille on wheels.

And it was no more...

Smiling faces of our opponents.

This was followed quickly by David putting paid to the Metzger. Two heavy hitters gone in the blink of an eye. To add insult to injury, when Ace rolled his airfield right up to the death zeppelin, he whiffed with every attack!

The final insult as Dave's drill smashes through a tiny stand of Prussian Walze tanks.

So, from that last picture you get a good sense of the class and graciousness of our opponents. I jest. It was a terrific game, marred by horrifying dice rolls on our side and good, if not great, dice rolling by our opponents. James was the only player on our side whose dice weren't completely miserable. Final score - 50 to 30 in favor of Mike, Alec, David and Lee. Congrats, and on to the next!

For BKC, we switched up teams a bit and a bit of a staffing change. Ace, Mark and Alec were on team Germany with me, while David, Mike, Matt and James for team Soviet Union. Though the game was technically set in 1944, we had a motley collection of equipment fielded and the battle amounted to a line-up and shoot. Given the feistiness of the players, it was just as well. Nothing too complex.

Most of the players... Matt has brain damage and can't control what his hands do.

My lovelies. I was to just hang onto the right flank as best I could with a mere seven Panzer IVs, two blobs of infantry and two PaK40s (in the wheatfield).

SU152s, T-34s and KVs across the map from me.

James' (behind the field) and David's (behind the buildings) tanks.

The battle began in earnest on our left flank with Ace and Alec pushing up the hill opposite David's 85s.

In the hour and eighteen minute-gap since the start of the game, I had passed exactly one command roll and my slackers had moved almost nowhere.

I was presented with some targets atop the central hill and began firing with my tanks. Finally, some fun!

Mark's Tiger IIs in our center, behind that pond, absolutely dominated the gumball alley in the middle - a good thing for us because I wasn't doing anything and about 2/3rds of our forces were on the left side cut off from us by the hilltop and woods.

Mike and Matt eventually got their tanks to the ridge in front of me and began hitting my position. My Mk IVs didn't stand up well to the challenge.

My two functional tanks hit the gas and re-deployed to the field to join with the anti tank guns that had actually been complete killing machines.

The far side of the table. Alec and Ace had made a significant push forward and made quite a mess.

By 10:00, with a two-hour ride home looking at us, we wrapped up the game. We tallied up kills and the Germans had won by a roughly 2:1 margin - quite shocking but I needed a win after the beating that was Dystopian Wars! I rather enjoyed BKC and am sure I'll be playing more of it in the future. David liked it as well. We've both purchased the 2nd edition rules PDF.

Another great Tanksgiving come and gone. James has a post on his blog too, here.  I'm psyched for Memorial Day now!