Wednesday, January 31, 2018

Tallarn Roughriders

One more painting update for January...



I finally finished up the first squad of Tallarn Roughriders!

It's really freaking cold outside today (where I always take pictures - because the light is so much better!) - so I didn't mess around with setting up any terrain or shots from different angles and thus you cannot really make this out - but I added a lot of saddle bags and sacks and blanket rolls to try and make it look like these guys are going somewhere... or... perhaps... have BEEN somewhere..?

Is that what a small grouping of cavalry is called..? "Squad"...? Feels like an infantry term Squads form into platoons, which form into companies, which form into battalions, etc... But cavalry forces traditionally have Troops instead of platoons and Squadrons instead of companies...? Are cavalry formations broken down into things smaller than Troops? I feel like "File" might be right, but I can find no reference for it...?

Regardless, if 40K they're called "Squads". I think I have 28 of these, currently, which will nicely make three squads of nine each.


Coming Soon to Tim's Miniature Wargaming Blog:

I'm supposed to be hosting a weekend campaign of Shadow War: Armageddon in just over two weeks... I guess I better get working on some of the stuff I planned to do for that... another Kill Team or two and some terrain. Maybe actually PLAY some games to familiarize ourselves with the rules!?

The campaign isn't taking place on Armageddon - so don't expect me to the cranking out promethium refineries or other sorts of urban sprawl or mechanicus industrial facilities... The campaign is taking place on Brind's World - the setting of all our recent games - previously occupied by a highly advanced, though long dead race, Kill Teams will be collecting Archaeotech caches rather than promethium stashes...

Harlequins vs Orks

The Girl has been asking to play 40K for some time now – especially since she finished up the Troupe Master, Shadowseer, and Death Jester for her Harlequin Troupe – she’s desperately wanted to get them on the table and mess stuff up!!

Brind’s World – 4.081.018.M42

SITUATION

Deep in the equatorial jungle, the Orks have been collecting up forbidden Archaeotech. Stuff so nasty that it has attracted the attention of the Aeldari – who have in turn decided it is too dangerous to let fall into the hands of the Orks. A crack team of Harlequins were dispatched to Brind’s World to destroy the Cache of Archaeotech.

SCENARIO

We played the Sabotage scenario – straight out of the 40K 8th Edition Core Rulebook.

The Orks had a cache of stuff within 12” of the center of the table and started with 10 Sentries guarding said cache. The rest of the force started in Reseve.

The Harlequins had to get units within 3” of the cache to plant bombs on them. A command point could give a unit a second bomb, which they could stick around and plant on a subsequent turn. At the end of the game at the Harlequins would  roll a d6 and add one for each bomb thrown on the cache 7+ meant the cache was destroyed and they win a major victory, otherwise they suffer a major defeat.

If the Orks, however, have units within 3” of the cache at the end of the and command points remaining they can modify that roll by -1 for each command point spent…

FORCES

Blitzagg’s Mob

Warboss Blitzagg – Headquarters – Power Level 4
-Warlord: Trait Might is Right
20 Boyz - Troops – Power Level 9
5 Lootas – Heavy Support – Power Level 8
Patrol Detachment – 3 Command Points

+10 bonus Boyz for sentries.

Harlequins

Troupe Master Foxx – Headquarters – Power Level 4
-Warlord Trait – Luck of the Laughing God
Shadowseer Tibia – Headquarters – Power Level 7
-Psychic Abilities: Fog of Dreams, Mirror of Minds
Troupe – Troops – Power Level 7
Death Jester Corgoph – Heavy Support – Power Level 4


THE GAME



All set up and ready to go. Pile of Archaeotech in those crates just 12” from the center. 10 hard Boyz keeping their eyes peeled for any pesky looters that might make off with their treasures…



Finnegan surveying his deployed troops… planning the downfall of the invading Elves…

Or, just waiting patiently while his sister finished writing up her stats on little cards for reference.



That’s a pretty big pile of treasure they’ve got – no wonder the elves are planning to blow it up rather than carry it off!


ROUND ONE – Harlequin’s Turn



Because the table was too small for the scenario – the attackers deployment zone was to be beyond 24” from the center of the table – as the EDGE was 24” from the center, we just had her move on from the edge on the first turn.



The Harlequins weren’t messing around – they charged straight into combat with a couple of the sentries hoping to take them out all quiet like…



Meanwhile, the Death Jester slipped into the rear of the Orks deployment zone via a Webway Assault (special Harlequin Stratagem, costing 1 Command Point).


ROUND ONE – Orks Turn




Checking for Sentry movement, the very first one marched up to the Shadowseer and said “ROIGHT! WHATCHOO DOIN THAR!” and raised the alarm – He was not long for this world, but he’d done his job…



Finnegan checked to see which of his reserves could deploy this turn… and The Boyz made their entrance. The Warboss and Lootas were having an argument of some sort…?

I feel like they rounded out their turn with some ineffectual dakka and an ork sentry charged into combat with the Harlequin Shadowseer and died and terrifying and pointless death…


ROUND TWO – Harlequin’s Turn



All the Harlequins rush forward, the Death Jester sneaking through the jungle to a location within 3” of the objective and thus where he could plant his first bomb.



The Death Jester then shot up the unit of Boyz with his Shrieker Cannon taking two out of action.

Elsewhere the Troupe shot up and killed two more sentries.



The Troupe Master and the Shadowseer both charged and killed a pair of sentries near the Archaeotech cache – bringing them onto the objective as well.

So the Troupe Master, Shadowseer, and Death Jester were all able to place bombs/sabotage markers on the cache.

At this point I believe The Girl also spent a Command Point on one of the scenario Stratagems “More Explosives” it allows a unit that has already placed a sabotage marker on the objective to place a second one later in the game. (that went to the Death Jester – hence the bonus green marker sitting next to him).


ROUND TWO – Ork’s Turn



Situation at the beginning of the Orks second turn.



Mob of Orks eyeing up all them fancy-pants Elfy-gits.



The Orks surge forward and Warboss Blitzagg and the Lootas followed them onto the table.



GRrrrrraaaaAAAAARRRR!

There was a lotta Dakka and it didn’t do nuffin…



A pair of likely yobs charged the Troupe Master and Shadoweer for a lark…



The were quickly returned to the compost from whence they came. (But not before they got some lucky blows in on the Troupe Master – wounding her THREE TIMES!)


ROUND THREE – Harlequin’s Turn



The rest of the Troupe moved up to the objective to plant their sabotage markers.



The Girl tried to have her Shadowseer manifest a particularly nasty Psychic Ability…. I think it was called Mirror of Minds…? She successfully manifested itself and so she and Finnegan were to dice off, if her die were equal to or higher than his, one the Boyz suffere a mortal wound and they dice again, and keep going like that until the unit is wiped out or Finnegan rolled higher than her… The Girls’ first roll: 1… Finnegan rolled a 3 and that was the end of it…



At the end of their turn the Troupe dropped their sabotage marker and the Death Jester Dropped his second…

Well now what to do for the rest of the game…?

Finnegan pointed out that if he had a unit within 3” of the objective at the end of the game and command points he could spend them to remove sabotage markers (I believe the Strategem was called “Cutting the Wires” – or something like that) – So the Girl decided to stick around and try and make sure they DIDN’T get anywhere NEAR the objective for the next three to five turns…


ROUND THREE – Orks’s Turn



‘Ere we go!



The Mob of Boyz surged forward in a sneaky-flanking-like maneuver around the wall that could give them cover, and the Lootas shuffled over to where they could get a better shot at all the fancypants. Then they did a whole lotta Dakka! (and a whole lot of missing!)



Mob of Boys advance under cover of the furious covering fire of the Lootas!

Then the Boyz decided to charge the fancy-pants Harlequins!

One was lost to overwatch fire.



Then they went in!



It was quite the mess and Orks are abaoloutely SAVAGE in Melee!!



The Troupe Master was wounded again, reducing her to ONE WOUND, the Shadowseer also took two wounds (she had three left) and the Troupe was utterly wiped out.

The Girl explained that they didn’t all die. The Harlequins have a very clever Web Way Casevac system that extricates any downed Harlequins and quickly removes them from the battle and gets them whatever immediate medical treatment they need…

The Troupe Master and Shadowseer then fought back – taking down 5 of the Ork Boyz.

Still, things were looking… kind of DIRE for the Harelquins at this point!


ROUND FOUR – Harlequin’s Turn



BOOF! The Troupe Master, Shadowseer and Death Jester all fled from the melee…

The Death Jester then shot up the Boyz – taking out two more.



And then they charged right back in… because apparently that’s the sort of cheaty thing you can do when you’re harlequins…!?



And they thinned the herd considerably in a whirlwind of slaughter…. Though in the process the Death Jester Suffered two wounds from being crushed in a Power Klaw.


ROUND FOUR – Orks’ Turn



The Lootas started trundling forward again – not being able to shoot at much, they thought they’d try and go defuse the elfies bombs – or at least see if they could add them to their bizarre weaponry…?



Warboss Blitzagg charged the Shadowseer. He couldn’t seem to pin down exactly where she was at any given moment and ended up shredding foliage and rock with his giant Power Klaw… but not much else… One of the Boyz got a lucky shot in while she was dodging the Bosses blows and she lost another wound.


The three Harelwuins finished off the Boys… and then turned their sights on the Warboss…


ROUND FIVE - Harlequin’s Turn


The Shadowseer tried to manifest powers against the Warboss, but failed. The Death Jester also unleashed his Shrieker Cannon on the Lootas, but failed to cause any wounds…


Then they all charged in… Together the three of them scored six wounds on the Warboss – but he saved two of them and remained in the fight! Fighting back he scored a wound on the Troupe Master – luckily she saved as it was her last wound!


ROUND FIVE – Orks’ Turn


The Lootas made it to the Cache and the Warboss continued his fight with the Harlequins!

I think this may be the very first game that Finnegan's Lootas have done something useful. It's been a running joke since the first two games we tried in 7th Edition - in both games they were the first shot at, lost one or two, and then ran away! 

Blitzagg scored two hits on the Troupe Master but failed to wound… then he scored a wound on the Shadowseer, but she saved…



And then the Harlequins finished him off…

At the end of the round they rolled for game end and that was it.

GAME END


So Finnegan spend his three Command Points to removed three of the Sabotage markers.

The Girl rolled a 4 – not enough to destroy the cache with only two sabotage marker remaining.

Luckily The Girl had ALSO saved a Command Point for just this purpose and spent if for a re-roll. This time she rolled a six and the whole cache went up with a blinding flash and a deafening BOOM!

The Harlequin’s won!

Fun game – I like playing at this Power Level – the games are quick-ish and there is little downtime or waiting. I think we will keep upping the Power Level, bit by bit, as the kids keep adding stuff to their collections.

The Girl has been working on some Swooping Hawks for her Craftworlder force, along with an Exarch for her Howling Banshees and a model of Jain Zar – Eldar Phoenix Lord that started the Howling Banshees. She was reading the novel about her too, but seems to have been distracted by other some other novels in the meantime…

Finnnegan’s been busy assembling new things to add to his hoard – another pile of Boyz, some Orks on bikes and a Gorkonaut…


Coming soon on Tim’s Miniature Wargaming Blog:

I did finish up the Tallarn Roughrider Squad the other night. I should have some pics of those up here shortly…  after that…? Not sure…? Another Kill Team for Shadow War: Armageddon? Some Minis for the rogue Trader campaign…?

Actually, THAT is what I’ll be spending my hobby time on for the remainder of the week – preparing for our first proper gaming session… and I have MUCH to prepare – I’ve decided to redo the system we’re going to use to play the game – streamlining it a LOT – discarding the percentile system in favour of good ol’ d6 dice pools and combat will be worked out using 40K 8th or Shadow War: Armageddon or some bastardization of the two…

I’d like to track down some Battlefleet Gothic ships to use in the campaign – but they seem to be selling for just CrAzY prices on ebay!? Anyone out there got an old copy of the game gathering dust in their basement storage room they’d like to get rid of?!

Tuesday, January 30, 2018

TITANS - Big and Little

Because I'm that special kind of stupid... I thought it would be a good idea once I got the Warhound Titan in 28mm... that I should go ahead and get an Epic scale one and paint them both in the same scheme!?



"Epic Scale" Warhound Titan! That's a 40mm base - it isn't THAT tiny... although, it was a bit smaller than I remember them...



"Epic scale" Warhound Titan next to the "28mm" scale titan... not that either is a real "scale".

I guess he is kind of tiny.

While I though I got a pretty good deal on the BIG titan, I got... less of a great deal on the Epic Titan... I tried to console myself that 6mm is about 1/5 of 28mm or 20%... right...? So as long as I didn't pay too much more than 20% of what I paid for the Big Guy, I didn't go too overboard... Except from the photo, this guy is clearly nowhere near 1/5 of the big one...

I guess when considering a 3-dimensional model all three dimensions need to be included and thus it is closer to 1/125 of the bigger version...

I'm overthinking this aren't I...?

Okay, I paid too much for it.

but I have it now. And I'm going to paint it in the same scheme I paint the Big 'Un. So I can field it in either scale (should I ever roll out the the EPIC/Micro sci-fi!?).

What I REALLY need for the epic stuff is some Imperial Guard infantry. I've been looking at some alternatives - Vanguard Miniatures Novan Desert Infantry look promising...? I just kind of wonder how they size up to other 40K Epic stuff... I'd picked up some other generic sci-fi light infantry from another seller and they ended up towering over all my Epic Marines... which doesn't really work for me...


Coming Soon to Tim's Miniature Wargaming Blog:

Still working on that AAR of the kidz game of 40K.

I finished up the Tallarn Roughrider squad!  So hopefully I'll have pics of those up here sometime soon.

Monday, January 29, 2018

Last Week's Games

Whoops - meant to post this last night, but we ended up watching Kindergarten Cop (long story) and a few more episodes of Heroes Season 3.... (during which I finished off my Tau Ethereal and got quite a bit of work done on the Tallarn Roughriders!). Despite all the movie and TV watching, we did manage to get in a few games over the past week...

On Tuesday (23 January 2018) we played Lords of Waterdeep with the Scoundrels of Skullport expansion.



I got to play the Harpers and some secret master that gave me bonus points for Piety and Skullduggery quests.

Finnegan got the Lieutenant in the first round and kind of crushed it... I mean in a worker placement game where you have one more worker than everyone else for pretty much the ENTIRE GAME... well... you really better win!!



I thought I did pretty good for myself with five Piety quests and two Skulduggery quests....



But the kids did BETTER!  I was Lin last place with 110 points after all the final counts were done...



Later that evening we played Splendor with Amanda when I got home from taking The Girl to her dance class. At the start of the game Amanda was suggesting that they all "gang up" on me...? I'm not really sure how you can...? I mean if you watch VERY CAREFULLY what others are doing... and can guess what they're planning, I guess you could try and hoard the resource gems that they're wanting...? but you can only hold so many and I feel like in a game like this if you spend any time trying to thwart another player, it's only going to be time taken away from working towards your own goals...

I'm not sure why Amanda thought I needed to be ganged up on, I'm SURE she's won just as many - if not MORE - games of this than me...



Either they decided to take pity on me - because I had a HUGE headache - or headache-be-damned I was ON FIRE! Because I totally cleaned up! I ended the game with TWENTY points!? Fifteen usually ends the game - but I picked up that 4-point diamond and the 3 point 4 black/4white patron on the last turn for a total of 7 points.

On Thursday (25 January 2018) I played Legendary: a Marvel Deck-Building Game  with the kids.



We beat down Mole Man who was trying to steal weaponized plutonium.



All the Heroes we used were female - at The Girl's request. They kind of kicked ass. Finnegan ended up feeling like it was a bit "too easy"... I didn't mind - the game didn't last FOREVER!

Friday (26 January 2018) we had another crack at Harry Potter: Hogwarts Battle Game Four...



...and lost.

Again...

There was talk of playing again over the weekend, but we just didn't get to it. Or any other game for that matter... We did a lot of TV and movie watching... Finished of Heroes Season Two and started in on Season Three. We also watched a few movies this past week: The Big Sick and Kindergarten Cop...



Despite all that, we HAVE been managing to get games ticked off our playlist for the year. With 30 games that we want to play (at least) five games each - that's 150 games we'd have to play throughout the year - minimum. Which equates to about 3 games per week we need to tick off our chart. As this is the fourth week of January we just finished and have played 11 games... Not bad, I say!


In Other News....

I did go in for an MRI on Saturday... but now have to wait for at least a week - as they said that's when the Neurologist will have the report... of course then I actually have to schedule an appointment with her... so, probably MORE than a week... Ugh... On the plus side, I haven't been feeling as dizzy the last couple weeks and even the head pressure seems to be subsiding... so maybe it was just nothing..? That's what I'm trying to tell myself anyway!

Because I ended up going for an MRI on Saturday I missed Freezerburn - my friend John's annual invitational boardgaming day I think I've made it to 3 of the last 7...? or 8...? Missed two for Medical Reasons... and I think I missed one (possibly two) other(s) because John insisted on sending my invite to an email address that I haven't used for years!?

I'm hoping to get in a game or gameS of 40K 8th and/or Shadow War: Armageddon sometime this week - Especially now that I've finished Amanda's Tau Pathfinder Kill Team.


Coming Soon to Tim's Miniature Wargaming Blog:

A gen-u-ine wargaming after action report! Finnegan's Orks versus The Girls Harlequins...

After that...? Probably the Tallarn Roughrider Squad!



Tau Ethereal

Hot on the heels of the Tau Pathfinders, I finished up a Tau Ethereal....



Tau Ethereal from Games Workshop.

This figure has been in a half painted state for months. Like the Pathfinders I wasn't really sure what colours to use. I didn't want to use just plain metal for the weapon - they're super advanced aliens - I just can't picture them carrying around steel weapons... with wooden shafts... I just couldn't be bothered to figure out how to do some sort of non-metallic-shiny-look and just painted it purple and green to be done with it... and now it's done.

I picked this one up in the fall around the time I picked up Shadow War: Armageddon and started thinking about putting together a Tau Pathfinder Kill Team. Ethereals are available as a Special Operative for the Tau. Special Operatives do not permanently join the Kill Team, you give up a Prometeum Cache to add them to your Kill Team for one game only. I haven't been worrying too much about Special Operatives as it seems a lot to give up for a one use thing - I guess if you were really far ahead in a campaign and stuff...? I don't know... guess I'll have to play and find out!


Coming Soon to Tim's Miniature Wargaming Blog:

I did a bit more work on the Tallarn Roughriders last night - they're coming along nicely.

Hoping to get in a game of 40K or Shadow War: Armageddon today or tomorrow - so stay tuned for the game report. 

Next, however, should be a brief post about this past week's games.