Legion of Everblight Raek

The first finished paint job for my Legion of Everblight.  This model was completed in 2015.  I do need to figure out a few things to enhance the base.  I will probably add snow and tufts.  I really like the blues and the natural chitin looking armor plates.  This will be the scheme for the whole force.  I used an airbrush to lay down the foundations of blues and then the armor plates and feathering to get a nice gradient.  Wet blending was then used to bring it all together and highlight.

I am pretty pleased with this model.  I definitely need a second as the model is beautiful and performs amazingly in battle.

Here are the colors I used

Base/Rock

Armor/Chitin Plates

Skin

Mouth

Star Wars Armada 2016 Battle Report 1

Starting 2016 right.  Rob and I decided to play a game of Star Wars Armada with some Wave 2 goodies on Sunday.  We haven't played many games, and this was our first 400 point game using the updated organized play rules.  Rob wanted to test out the Imperials while I took the Rebel Alliance.  

We both made poor meta decisions in our fleets builds.  I took 4 X-Wings, a MC80 Assault Carrier and 2 MC30c Scout Frigates with some beefy upgrades.  My fleet was designed to take out Capital Ships from a distance while running circles around them.  Rob took 1 Star Destroyer, 2 Raiders and a boat load of Tie Fighters, 2 Bombers and Bobba Fet!  He thought I was going to take tons of Squadrons.  

Deployment.  I wanted to stay far away from that Star Destroyer

That's a lot of Squadrons...

Admiral Akbar leading the fleet

Cautious movement on turn 1 from both fleets

A wall of Squadrons.  Not sure how I can deal with that

My plan was to get around their rear

Admiral Akbar erased a Raider.  Some Bombers beat up my MC30c.  Akbar decided to bump the MC30c and failed at maneuvering.

X-Wings have a lot of work to do.  Let's keep that Star Destroyer out of the way.  The closest MC30c would eventually fall due to Bombers, Bobba Fet!, and the Victory.

I must have missed a turn.  Akbar put a beating on the Victory the turn before.  All my X-Wings were destroyed, but all of the Imperial Squadrons are nearly dead.  At the end of the Game the Victory had 1 Hull point left with lots of Crits.  My 2 Remaining Ships were fresh.

I enjoyed the game thoroughly.  We fumbled around with the rules a few times due to not playing for a while.  Those new Rebel ships are beastly.  Rob wants to play again Sunday.  I might try out some different squadrons.  Definitely want to look at some of the other ship upgrades.

Warmachine/Hordes 2015 Battle Report: Legion vs Menoth

A couple guys at the local game store got into Warmachine/Hordes by Privateer Press in 2015.  I have been playing this game for years, but took a long hiatus as I couldn't find any opponents.  My friend Bill started collecting a Menoth force.  We are still learning and re-learning the rules.  We have been playing 35 point forces until we are more comfortable.  

The start of my 35 point force

I only have a few pictures of this game. I was running epic Absylonia with a beast heavy force (A given with Absylonia).  Bill was running a prime Kreoss list with very stock units.  Pretty much I was crunching on his army when Bill asked about his feat.  I blanked, realized it was knockdown and proceeded to show him how to beat me.  Abyslonia died a brutal horrible death from charging weapon masters.

I can't remember for sure, but I think this was our first battle (The bare metal Raek definitely makes me thing it was our first game).

Resurrecting Little Nicky's Gameroom and plans for 2016

It has been a long time since I have posted on here.  Not entirely sure what happened.  I did move positions at work, but I actually have weekends now which should be a boon to a gamer like me. 2015 was not the best year hobby wise.  I played a decent amount of games, played more board games, and did some painting here and there.  I started a lot of armies, but only to move onto another project very quickly.  I have refined my gaming to certain genres and rule sets.  I have pretty much given up on anything Games Workshop.  Hopefully 2016 will be a little more cohesive and I can finish a few projects and play more games.

Painting Goals:

Finish painting a 50 point Legion of Everblight army for Privateer Press' Hordes/Warmachine

300 points of the Morat Aggression Force for Infinity by Corvus Belli

2 Carthaginian Divisions for Hail Caesar by Warlord

600 points of my UNSC for Gruntz

Bonus Painting Goals:

Paint a 2nd 600 point Gruntz Army

Finish my 20mm BAOR, West Germans and Soviets for Cold War Gone Hot era games.

Gaming Goals

12 games each of the following:
Warmachine/Hordes
Infinity
Star Wars X-Wing
Star Wars Armada
Gruntz

6 Games of the following:
Hail Caesar
20mm Moderns


Would love to hit a majority of these goals.  I am aiming to play my first game of Hail Caesar in March.  Will probably be just 1 division per side (4 units + skirmishers).  I would really like to limit my purchases to storage and transportation, terrain, and filling in the gaps of armies I already have models for.  I have a lot of unbuilt miniatures.  I really need to cut down on my purchasing of miniatures that I won't even paint for a couple years.  It will be hard to resist, but I have already done pretty well over the past couple months resisting a few exciting looking armies and games.  I would love to go a whole year without purchasing a new game system (New rule sets are fine as long as they fit the models I already own).

Anyways, sorry to everyone that follows this blog for taking over a year to post.  I should have a few posts lined up from pictures I have taken in 2015, and then I plan to take pictures of every game I play.  Would love to post 1-2 times a week.  We shall visit this post again in a year and see how we do.

Cheers,

Nick aka
LittleNicky

Who do you think you are... Ross Kemp? Force on Force AAR

Saturday I got to host a fun game of Force on Force by Ambush Alley Games.  It was just a fun learning game between my Modern British Army against the dreaded Taliban somewhere in the Helmand Province of Afghanistan.  

The premise of this scenario was that a curious group of reporters had made their way into a local village and wanted to interview the town elders.  Accompanying the reporters is the platoon commander with his HQ elements.  The commander wanted to learn more about the town and try to create a relationship with the villagers.  He brought his medic along to help treat any villagers that might be suffering from injuries and disease.  For safety reasons the commander has a squad sweeping the town and and quick reaction force available for extraction.

Unbeknownst to the commander, the local insurgency has an insider among the town elders and plans to ambush and capture the civilian news reporting team to take hostage and use as a bargaining chip.

Fairly moderate Afghan Village.  The reporters are deep into the interview process as the commander stands by to ask questions and understand the village's needs.

Taliban start positioning themselves around the village to ambush and hopefully capture the news crew.

Quickly after the first rounds of gunfire the quick reaction force responds and races through town to extract the HQ element and news crew.

Elements of the squad that was sweeping the village find a weapons cash.  They quickly clear the area and disable the cache.

Insurgents attempt to storm the compound containing the Platoon HQ and news crew.  The Platoon Sergeant takes a serious wound, but the HQ element manages to hold off wave after wave of insurgents.

The MRAPs continue to race to the HQ element while the top gunners start to verify enemy contacts and neutralize them.

More Taliban making their way through the village to surround the British Forces.

Wave after wave attempts to breach the compound.

MRAPs are slowed down by a stray donkey cart.  Wary of a possible DBED (donkey born explosive device), they wait till the cart passes by.  Meanwhile Taliban attempt to flank the MRAPs and fire off a round at the rear armor.  The round flies through the air, hits the MRAP and doesn't explode.  Apparently the Taliban's arms dealer supplied them with some duds.

Combined firepower from the MRAPs and British units take their toll on the Taliban.  Most of the Taliban flee the battlefield instead of becoming casualties.

Elements of the first British squad flank the exposed Taliban and unleash a torrent of firepower

Just a few of the Fog of War cards that were dealt this game.  Both players had a god given talent for rolling 1s.  Lot's of random civilians which really made it feel like the players were fighting in a real village.

Was a very fun game.  I have not played a game of Force on Force for quite some time.  Still my favorite rule set by far when it comes to asymmetrical warfare.  Needs some fine tuning still for two trained forces combating each other and the rules are definitely in dire need of reorganizing.  Only thing I couldn't figure out was exactly how to resolve was an IED hitting the bottom of an MRAP.  I just used side armor values plus all the benefits the MRAP gets against IEDs.  What does everyone else use?