Another Battletech

 The Space Cadets re-convened for another iteration of Battletech on Saturday. Wayne, our host and GM managing the campaign had all of our pilots recruited to join a mercenary company. This was our first mission as a full team against a common enemy.

I didn't take tons of pictures but the scenario had us investigate and engage some backwater nutbags who'd opened a dimensional rift to another sci-fi intellectual property.

Apparently Red Jack isn't familiar with the mighty Games Workshop legal department! We were there to maintain the sanctity of Fasa/Catalyst's IP. The Falcon grav tanks were fast and dangerous. The Warlock titan was slow and far more dangerous. We allied briefly with Red Jack against the Eldar but came to decision that if it's not part of our unit, it probably should be eliminated.

Poor Mikey, not even in attendance and his Rifleman took a headshot from the Eldar Titan and...

After mopping up, we engaged big 'un. I lost a Locust drawing fire, leaving Dave's Centurion in one piece.

It took some doing, but we eventually brought the machine down. 

A fun game for sure and I think we're all getting comfortable with Battletech overall. I think Wayne's got one or two more games left in the campaign. I've been rather enjoying it so far. Be well everyone!

A Hole in my Head

 I did the thing. I bought Bolt Action stuff. 

Not sure how I feel about that, but you know what? I'm enjoying the hell out of the build process! 

I bought a British infantry starter army, though they'll be dolled up as wicked nasty Canadians. I'll need to pawn the Churchill that came in the box off on someone or trade it for a Sherman. 

So, what was I thinking, right? Well, after the flood, renovations and my wife and son re-decorating to their taste, my ability to host games in my dining room has been severely affected. This means that My out-of-the-house gaming will likely increase. Mike runs a lots of Warlord games at his club and having a BA force gives me an opportunity to throw dice.

I did up 36 MDF bases with putty, sand and a basecoat to help keep the sand in place.

Some tough dudes awaiting their bases.

Other tough dudes being supported by their metal gun crew brethren while the superglue sets.

 I'm enjoying this so far. If you know me at all, I really do love the building and painting part of the hobby and this scratches that itch very well.

Some Painting!

 Not to be outdone by a gaming post a couple weeks ago, I actually completed some painting this week. It's been a slow go, but enjoyable.

First up are a couple of Locust Battlemechs to replace the card standees I've been using for the games Wayne hosts. 

I ordered the pair from eBay from a dude who 3D prints them. This was the first time I received 3D prints with all the "scaffolding" still attached but that cleaned up easily. Looking forward to getting these little guys on the table. 

The next batch of minis is something a bit unusual. I picked these up in Jacksonville a couple of months ago and they've been done up and painted in the intervening 10 weeks. 

Mayans from Mythic Americas. This is most of the faction starter box. There are three were-jaguar things I haven't fiddled with yet. So you're asking yourself, "what is he buying those for?" Well, they're great looking minis and will make for a wonderful pulp game "jungle dweller" op for. A boss, a couple bad-mother body guards, scary dudes with spears and guys with bows. What's not to love? 

You can see I invested in some foliage clumps. I found an assortment on gcminis.com and nobleknight.com recently on the cheap. I like the look, especially the way the foliage pops against the red clay dirt.

An Actual AAR: Dystopian Wars Necromancy!

 Ziggy suggested Dystopian Wars Fleet Action as a game selection for Saturday, and who am I to say no to that? I think the last time we played DW in any capacity was pre-pandemic. The follow up questions led us to a 1200-point land battle. Initially I thought French, but changed my mind to the Japanese Empire of the Blazing Sun since it really has been quite a long time and they were my first. Ziggy brought his Poles. Only in a Dystopian Wars - Japanese - Polish Venn diagram does this battle happen! 

See as though it's been four years (January 2020 was the last DW game I could find on my blog) we set up for a basic slugfest with no objectives other than re-learning the rules.

The big damn walking airfield finally made it on to the tabletop many many years after I put it together and painted it up. The Polish artillerymen Christened it the "Broad Side of a Barn-class Carrier." 

A view of my left flank. Some Polish tanks and artillery burn in the distance.

And one of my bombers meets a predicable fate. I was told the crew managed to stay safe, so that's nice.

With the Kagoshima taking it in the seat, I pushed it forward as quickly as I could to get some use out of it. It wasn't long though before the Zamiec airship was all over it, wrecking the magnificent machine.

Things were going pretty evenly across the battlefield, with a slight edge to the boys from Kyoto. The Japanese are very much a long-distance force with strong long-range capabilities while the Polish are point-blank specialists.

The Polish carrier had to go. My Taka Ashi heavy walker crab-walked on over and unloaded, along with the artillery. Boom goes the dynamite. 

Zig had a swarm of little tanks working their way around my right side and they appeared, giving my bombards a lot to think about.

Meanwhile, the forces I'd used to form a left flank had performed admirably and were now moving into the center to lend their rockets and shells to the fight!

The end drawing close, the last two big guys on the table converged. My walker was heavily damaged and the Perun landship was still factory-fresh. Not good for me at all.

Bring your marshmallows and long sticks. 

But let's look at something in the picture two up... those little rocket-launching walkers from hell were lined up perfectly for a massive 25-dice spite attack against the big Polish beast.

Setting up a coup-de-grace for my Chi-Ri medium tanks. How's that for a "Chi-Ri" on top? 

That was the end of turn four and we ended it there, a minor Japanese victory, although both sides had taken a massive beating.

We both had a great time and for a low-stress good old-fashioned smash-em-up, DWFA is always a great option. I have a feeling it won't be four years before our next outing!

End of March

 Happy Easter, to those of you who celebrate.

It's a pretty quiet weekend here. I have actually gotten up to some painting, finally, after returning from the con, getting asbestos flooring removed (stayed in a hotel for a week while that was done) and just stuff.

No nice pictures because the lightbox is hidden away somewhere since our house is still in some amount of disarray.

Some 28mm Halfling Braves. My best attempt at a tartan pattern. Cross your eyes slightly and stand back a bit, it'll look fine I tell ya!

I added a third ox cart to the collection. It's the one in the center with the mismatched flock.

A couple of Bad Squiddo Mummies.

And some retro spaceships for a game I'm developing. Very excited about this. Watch this space!

Last weekend the Space Cadets got together for some more Battletech. It was again some Solaris VII gladiatorial fighting with three different environments, teleporters connecting them and some nasty NPC enemies.

My two cardboard beauties, a pair of vanilla Locusts gave Mike fits and tore his Rifleman a new one.

Action shifted to the wooded zone. We eventually bagged the Hunchback that was terrorizing the lot of us. I sacrificed one of my mechs simply to end the game! 

Skirmish Game Con 2024

It's been a while since my last post, obviously. The house situation has been a weeks-long drama upon which we're finally making some real progress. Flooring everywhere! Well, not the bathrooms which are still untouched, but the rest of the place is looking good.

Mark and I trucked it down to Jacksonville Florida for Skirmish game con last weekend for some much-needed downtime. It was a good couple of days of gaming and this might have been the first con I've attended during which I've never before played any of the games I ended up playing. First game was Friday afternoon at 1:00PM. It was a fairly simple game of What A Cowboy for four players, each with two very similar characters. We'd all heard there was a looted Union payroll stashed in a wrecked house. 

The players were split into two groups and away we went.

Our table. My two gunslingers are the closest - Buck Owens and George Jones. All the characters were named after classic Country and Western singers.

At the end of the encounter, both my fellas were pushing up daisies. I'd managed to take out Willie Nelson. My teammate took out an opponent but as it turned out both gangs failed their morale tests at the same time and the survivors all fled with the sound of cavalry approaching. I had a terrific time and really enjoyed WaC. 

My next game was One Hour Wargames WWII. These were simple infantry encounters designed to demo the rules. Although I enjoyed myself, I'm not sold on the bargain-basement simplicity of the game system and it didn't really trip my trigger. 

My final game of the evening was home-brewed 40K Bike Racing.

Entertaining enough but rough-and-ready. Having designed the most excellent Rubber and Lead game, I could fix this bike racing game. I've got ideas kicking around in my head, but they need to ferment for a bit. The game was a hoot. I was first to be knocked out and my Space Marine ascended to Racetrack Sniperhood. From the Sniper's Pulpit, I helped two other racers ascend. The race was won by a cautious / timid gentleman who seemed to miss the bit about it being a race.

Saturday morning I hosted my PULPY! Steampulp game for a group of six. GMing, I failed to take many pictures, but I got a few.

The good guys stormed the lair, snatched evidence and disabled the tank! Dr. Krauss and his assistant Milford escaped of course...

The players seemed to really enjoy the game. All were complimentary of the terrain, miniatures and most importantly the rules. I put the basic Pulpy! rules together back in December I think, gave it a basic mechanical test once, a thorough test with my wife once and this was showtime! One of the players had significant experience playing Pulp games and was rather taken with my rules so I gave him the one printed copy I had and let him keep one of the QRSes. I have a couple of follow-on scenario ideas.

After lunch it was more What a Cowboy. This time a much more involved scenario based on a pivotal scene in the movie Silverado. I hadn't done my homework and having only seen the movie once when it was in theaters in 1985, I didn't remember any of it. I was in charge of Sheriff Langston and Mal while my teammate had Paden and Emmett. Opposing us were a real motley crew of scum and villainy. 

Again, I didn't take many pictures. We were tasked with the Herculean assignment of releasing horses and taking back some stolen money. What we did was get our asses kicked. My deadeye sniper Mal got one good shot then took a chest wound effectively neutralizing him very early in the goings. The sheriff did alright as did Emmett and Paden but we just couldn't make any forward progress. It was a series of one step forward, two steps back. So yeah, the bad guys won handily and for the second time last weekend, I really enjoyed What a Cowboy.

Next up was some sci-fi skirmishing with Cyberpunk: Red. Our host Alex gave off a typical young millennial vibe with his spiky, dyed hair and I prepared myself for a steam of irritation. I was dead wrong about him; he was such a nice energetic guy that it gave me hope for the future of the miniatures gaming hobby! 

The game itself is not a far cry from Infinity with regards to aesthetic, with much smaller forces. The game plays more like X-Wing miniatures and is quick, straightforward and easy enough to wrap one's head around.

I didn't take many pictures, but I sat in front of a Japanese-themed group that was heavy on the cheese. My opponent's force was very much a melee-focused group. I felt a little bad that he got a poor read on the table and I took advantage of his disadvantaged deployment right from the get-go. He was a gracious opponent and handled himself very well in the face of adversity and uncooperative dice rolls. If I didn't already have such a heavy investment in Infinity, I'd pick up Cyberpunk: Red. The minis are dead sexy and I may pick some up just to paint. 

My final game was Wars of Ozz. There was a LOT of Ozz being played last weekend, with games being hosted by both Discover Games from Atlanta and by Mr. Buck Surdu himself. The late Saturday game was a four-player affair hosted by Discover Games.

I sat in front of the Pumpkins so I led them into battle with my Winkie allies against the Munchkins and Frogs. 

Our line of battle at the start of the affair. As you can see, it was a dead gorgeous game. Interesting minis, bright colors, adorable terrain.

The game itself is quirky as hell but plays well and everyone at the table except for my traveling companion Mark enjoyed themselves. Mark's dice were abysmal and he wouldn't get past it. Once he left we finished a very entertaining game, wrapping up well after midnight. 

A damn fine two days of gaming. I met some great folks, played a bunch of wonderful games and quite simply had a fine couple of days away. Be well and good gaming everyone!