All Play and No Work for February

February has been a rather quiet month for my blog.  I have actually played a lot of games, but haven't really taken any pictures as it has primarily been Star Wars X-Wing and Armada.  Sadly I am not doing very well in my painting goals.  I actually did some painting today and was pleased with the results.

So where am I in my goals? As of today I have played 23 games (16 Miniature Games and 7 Board Games).  15 of those games have been part of my goals.  That put's me slightly ahead on my gaming goals for the year as I currently need to play 6 games a month from my goal list to complete my goal. I am also happy that I am playing some different games that were not on my list.

For painting, I am way behind.  I find myself coming home from work, eating some food, watching a youtube video and then going to bed.  I really need to stay up another hour or two an just get some paint on some miniatures every night.  I do need to find more podcasts to listen to as youtube videos are distracting as I tend to want to watch them instead of just listen.  If you are into 15mm Sci Fi I recommend this one from Clear Horizon Miniatures.

In The Garage

As far as purchases go I have been fairly good.  I have bought some X-Wing and Armada models along with some acrylic templates and tokens.  I also bought the new box of Morat Rodak for the Combined Army for Infinity.  I did purchase Descent and a few expansions for a very large discount and I also bought some new dice from Chessex at a local convention.  So currently I am happy with my purchases.  I do need to buy some decals from Victrix for my Carthaginians and I want to buy more foam for my X-Wing and Armada.

Next post will layout what my 2 Divisions of Carthaginian Infantry will look like and what my inspiration will be.

15mm Gruntz 2016 Battle Report 2: UNSC vs Helghast

Leaked news reports were calling it "The Massacre on 2335 Coronae IV".  Rumors were spreading, and a new uprising would occur each day.  Colonel Carthen was tasked with silencing these false truths, a crime punishable by death.  Still, Carthen was worried as the rebels had access to tanks and other vehicles via illegal arms trading.  He had many under cover spies and drones attempting to find out who was behind this influx, but so far nothing.

"Sir, a message for you" the young sergeant handing him a data slate.  Carthen had the intel he needed.  One of his spies had infiltrated an illicit trade agreement and learned of the next area to obtain new hardware.  Carthen mobilized his small strike force.  High Command was kind enough to send him more Spider Droids and Horizon's sister tank, Immortal.

FUBAR.

Enemy forces have been identified as the Helghast, a very mysterious, but high tech nuisance to the UNSC.  Rumors are that the Helghast were once human, but through gene splicing and copious amounts of experimental drugs, they are anything but human now.  His forces must have been spotted, as a rather large force of Helghast was bearing down upon them.  The humming of a Helo's engine could be heard.  This fight would definitely be interesting...

Matt and I played another game of Gruntz at our local hobby store.  We played a 400 point battle, with him bringing a much beefier and respectable force this time.  I brought my UNSC again.  I tweaked my forces a little since our last battle.  I love how you can tweak your guys in Gruntz to be exactly what you want.  We play pretty much by the book, except that we double all shooting ranges.

Here are our unit lists:

Matt's Helghast.  They have a Helicopter...

The layout.  We chose to deploy in opposite corners.

UNSC forces makea  dash for the town.  Horizon and Immortal take up firing positions.

Immortal taking up position to ruin any tanks day that strolls down that road.

Large plasma shot from a Jaktar V class MBT blows a giant hole in one of my APCs knocking out its CIWS.  Immortal shoots back and scores a solid hit.

UNSC forces have secured the town, but the Helghast move on forward.

UNSC infantry take some serious heat.  The Helo proves to be a pain as it has an active camo unit making it hard to hit.

Horizon and Immortal continue to score hits on the opposing tanks, but they keep rumbling forward.

UNSC Infantry squad thought they killed a few Helghast... but they got back up and wiped out the UNSC in the building. What are we fighting?!

Finally a Jaktar V MBT goes up in a ball of fire.  

A Jaktar V limps away and begins to auto repair.

The end of the battle.  Lots of damaged vehicles.

Was a very fun and close battle.  Not entirely sure who won as we don't really care, we just want to have fun.  I had lost nearly half of my infantry.  Matt's infantry had taken a beating, but kept rolling 5s and 6s to get them to stand back up on his auto heal perk.  I lost a spider droid and had a few badly banged up tanks.  Matt lost 1 tank, a second 1 point away from dying and a 3rd with a large chunk taken out of it.

I need to find some air cover to take out that blasted Helicopter.  Was very hard to hit with its Active Camo device.

Force on Force 2015 Battle Report: Libyan Civil War

I played quite a few games of Force on Force against Dave from Colorado Springs (His Blog) in the late 2014 to mid 2015 time-frame.  This was one of the last games Dave and I played before he left the state due to being re-deployed.  I really enjoyed playing against him.  This was a nice break from playing western forces vs their enemies. 

This battle was to represent an early skirmish in the Libyan crisis before Western airpower demolished pro-Gaddafi forces.  The objective of this scenario was for the pro-Gaddafi forces to storm a compound with targets of high importance.  

Pro-Government Armored Column advancing against anti-Gaddafi forces

Make-shift Technical attempting to ambush the column

Cell of Irregulars with a Technical lying in ambush.  Also a hot spot in the ruins.

 A view of the anti-Gaddafi forces in ambush

Column advances.  A rebel technical goes down along with the rearmost Pro-government technical.

Fire exchanged between the lead BTR and irregulars

Ambush unit tries to take advantage of the immobilised technical but the DSHK is still working.

Another Technical down.  Pro-government forces push on causing more casualties

Layout of the battlefield.  Things are looking interesting.

Brutal close combat ensues as the Rebels try to storm the wounded Technical crew.

The inevitable donkey cart due to the fog of war

Pro-government forces finally storm the target compound

Compound falls.  Gaddafi forces capturing some high profile targets.

A very bloody battle for both sides.  The anti-Gaddafi forces lacked the hardware to really take on that much armor.

I will miss battles like this as I don't currently have a regular non-Western force at the moment.  I would love to build a modern Russian/Ukranian or Syrian force that could face my collection of irregulars.  Maybe one of these days Dave will come back to Colorado and we can play.

Warmachine/Hordes 2015 Battle Report 2: Legion vs Menoth

This was my 2nd battle vs Bill and his Menoth.  He had a few new goodies he wanted to try out.  I was still playing with the same 35 point list with eAbsylonia and Bill with pKreoss.  

Majority of my force in a giant deathball

Bills force in a standard battle line.

Deathball moves forward with a Carnivean making use of eyeless sight and pathfinder

Can see my Raek and 2 Deathstalkers flanking

I seem to have failed to take anymore pictures after this point.  Essentially Bill moved up into combat with my Carnivean, and moved his line forward.  Kreoss edged too far to my right.  My next turn was the last as eAbsylonia feated, killed a model which gave every model in her battlegroup (Every warbeast) conferred rage (+2 spd and mat).  My Raek was able to assassinate pKreoss.  It was a pretty brutal and effective assassination run.  If Bill had moved Kreoss literally 1 inch to my left, he would have lived and pounded me on his turn.

15mm Gruntz 2016 Battle Report 1: UNSC vs Rag Tag Militia

Upon learning of an illegal arms trade and subsequent uprising the United Nebular Space Council dispatched a peace keeping force to the desert planet of 2335 Coronae IV.  Unknown to the UNSC strike force was the exact composition of the local militia.  Colonel Carthen, commander of the UNSC forces in the Coronae sector only had one mechanized platoon and the Paladin class tank "Horizon" to quell this uprising.  The troops he commanded were elite light infantry, with some serious hardware and numerous battles to their name.  Forward reconnaissance located the Militia scum 1 click north of their current landing site.  The terrain was not very favorable, this planet was pretty barren with very little vegetation, but orders were orders.  The uprising must be silenced.

3 Squads move forward in their Phalanx APCs.  Squads A and B have an attached heavy laser.  Squad A secures the right flank, while Squad B with a Spider Droid secures the center.  C Squad is told to hold the left flank.

Troopers await the upcoming battle inside their APCs

C Squad moves up behind a hill.  Horizon takes a shot at an enemy Hover Tank scoring a direct hit.  Looks like the targeting equipment was crippled. B Squad drops off their Heavy Laser team in some vegetation.

A rather large Militia force with a variety of equipment.  Hover tanks, wheeled, and tracked along with various mecha.

Horizon fires a second salvo brewing up the Hover Tank.

A and B Squad move out into cover and start firing missiles and heavy laser fire into the Militia vehicles.  C squad ventures too far.  Frakkin new replacements trying to prove themselves.

Horizon targets a light Mecha and destroys it in one shot

C Squad takes horrendous casualties while A and B squads continue pouring on the fire.  

The Militia tries to push forward.

A Squad brings down what appears to be an American build IFV and the dismounted infantry.  B squad lights up another light mecha.

Spider Droid moved forward to destroy most of an enemy infantry unit.  A squad has been wiped out.  Frakkin Noobs.  Horizon decides to Brew up another Hover Tank while taking minimal return fire.  The Militia vehicles acquired in the illegal arms trade seem to be of poor quality.  Spider Droid moved too far forward and took a large amount of damage from the back destroying it.

Had a great game with my friend Matt.  We played 300 points a side.  He is still trying to build a cohesive force out of his very large collection of 15mm figures.  I have been tweaking this force for a while and I think I am close to a nice balance.  His troops were very under armed and under trained.  I told him to make his guys at least skill/shoot 4 if he wants to represent trained soldiers as 3 skill/shoot can't hit much in this game.  He also took way too light of guns on his vehicles.  He had a very hard time doing much damage to my troops.  

I had a missile launcher in each squad along with 2 heavy laser teams.  I was able to do heaps of damage to his vehicles and mop up his infantry with small arms fire.  My force was all skill/shoot 5 to represent a battle hardened unit of veterans.  They also all had the Hard Vetz special rule to match their backstory.  

This is my force that I want to finish up painting and have at least 600 points to mess around with.  I would like to continue creating and fleshing out their back story.  Kind of an oppressive futuristic U.N. style force.