Killer Robots, Tech Priest and a Tank!?

Back to 28mm for a moment…

(Remember: click on the pictures for a bigger version):

I finished up a few “Killer Robot” types for giggles… mostly be cause they were quick and easy and had been sitting on the workbench for an embarrassingly long time. One is a Necron from Games Workshop (© and ™ Games Workshop and painted by myself and posted here entirely without their permission) and the rest are old Coppelstone/Grenadier/Future Wars figures from EM4 Miniatures.

Tech priest from Games Workshop (© and ™ Games Workshop and painted by myself and posted here entirely without their permission)

A die-cast T-55 that I picked up off ebay and I repainted just in time for my Force on Force game at ToonCon

Coming soon on Tim’s Miniature Wargaming Blog:

I have no idea… I’m a bit gamed out after the weekend. Also the box I used to farry the Force on force miniatures had a bit of a spill when it got home and all the minis went scurrying all over the floor. I kind of just scooped them back inot the box and haven’t had the hear to look at them yet. So I have some cleaning up ahead of me… and probably some repairing and painting touch-ups…. I have two book clubs this week that I need to finish books for so not much in the way of hobby stuff might be happening. 

Wargaming Nineteenth Century Europe at Toon Con

Saturday afternoon I helped my friend John run a game of Wargaming Nineteenth Century Europe 1815-1878 at  ToonCon.

There were actually four players for this so John and I kind of jointly ran the game. Gary and Rick played the Russians, and Keith and Bob (who drove up from Regina in the morning just to play this and my Force on Force game).

SITUATION

1850 – the War rages in Galicia! Finally the two armies have located each other and come to a place where they have no choice but to face each other in open battle!

SCENARIO

We finally decided to play a Pitched Battle scenario – where all the forces start on the table (so far we seem to have only played the Meeting Engagement scenario where only three units on the table and the rest are diced for at the beginning of each turn).

All forces were to be deployed on the table at the beginning of the game. To win two of the three objective had to be occupied by the end of turn fifteen.

FORCES

The forces were diced for. Here’s what they ended up with:

Russians

5x Infantry

2x Cavalry

3x Artillery

Austrians

4x Infantry

2x Skirmishers

2x Cavalry

2xArtillery

THE GAME

(Remember: click on the pictures for a bigger version)

Gary and Rick deploying the Russians

Gary and Rick in the back still deploying their Russians while Keith (on the left) and Bob on the right, whose Austrians are already deployed and ready for battle, listen to John explaining some of the rules.

The Austrians

The Russians

Austirans again. There were allowed to deploy three of their units a little ahead of the rest which effectively put them in control of two of the objectives from the get-go!

Austrian Skirmishers advancing towards the Russians guns.

I guess thos skirmishers didn’t realize how quickly those guns could get unlimbered and what a devastating volley they can throw out at such close range. This was the last we saw of that unit…

The Russians occupying one of the towns and one of their cavalry units reeling from their first contact with the (freshly painted) Austrian cavalry.

And there is said (freshly painted) Austrian cavalry…. Hmmmm… maybe the Russian cavalry had taken some fire from the Austiran Guns…?  This doesn’t seem to be the position the Austrian cavalry would have been in after a engagement with those Russians? Perhaps part of the Russian unit just fled when they saw the approaching Austrian cavalry knowing that they were DOOMED.

Actually now that I think about it, it was probably the combined fire of the Russian guns and the Austrian Skirmishers. (But we’ll just say it was them fleeing before the might and shininess of the (freshly painted) Austrian cavalry.

Rick and Gary making plans.

(freshly painted) Austrian cavalry again holding the right of the Austrian line… frightening away Russians of all manner… Seriously, look at them – the entire force is heading away down the other edge of the table – trying to get to the FURTHEST objective – which is held by two battalions of Austiran infantry – rather than face down the (freshly painted) Austrian cavalry.

Russians infantry fleeing the (freshly painted) Austrian cavalry. (I’m having too much fun… is anyone even reading this or are you all just looking at the pretty pictures… I’d just be looking at the pictures!)

Oh and there’s another cavalry battle going on here. Russians have just recoiled from the other Austrian cavalry unit. This went back and forth for a few turns. I think ultimately the Austrian cavalry was forced back into their guns and destroyed. Then the Russian cavalry thought they’d be able to ride down those guns that were unlimbered and facing towards them and not even half a league away!?

Rick and Gary making more plans…

The Austrians have a nice line diagonally across the table securely holding two objectives. The Russians are still trying to figure out what they are doing and maneuver around the town – away from the (freshly painted) Austrian cavalry.

Ah here we go – the remnants of the Russian cavalry about to make their valiant charge into the mouth of the Austiran guns. So valiant. Poems will be written about them… well… maybe a limerick..

Now they’re getting somewhere. Russians trying to deploy in something resembling a line while the Guns hammer away at each others troops.

There they are, the finally figured it out – The Russian all deployed in a nice straight line like they were taught on the parade square.

Facing the solid well-drilled Austrians (who were taught more than one formation).

Then one of the (freshly painted) Austrian cavalry horses whineied and all the Russiand fell out of line and made a dash for the safety of the village, which, unfortunately for the Russians, was already occupied by Austrians… but they weren’t thinking of that – they only wanted to put as much distance and buildings between themselves and those (freshly painted) Austrian cavalry.

Things looking a little sparse on the Russian side. In short order the Austrian infantry in and around the village (supported by their artillery when possible) cut down the forward fleeing Russians – as you can see there are only two of the four battalions remaining.

Steeled up by drinking all the vodka they could find in the village the Russian cavalry rode out to meet the (freshly painted) Austrian cavalry.

Anotherr picture of the (freshly painted) Austrian cavalry. They’re just so shiny and new… The Russians were probably blinded by them.

The Remnants of the Russian cavalry fleeing from (freshly painted) Austrian cavalry… Those Russian cavalrymen… they are mighty belligerent, and somewhat lacking in common sense, when drunk! That single remaining stand of Russian cavalry charged back into the fray on the following turn. So appalled by the smell of the drunken louts the Austrian cavalry had to ride off and get some fresh air before riding the last of them down in the following turn.

Meanwhile the last of the Russian infantry – that had been hiding out in the village looting and raping the locals and drinking all the vodka that they Cavalry hadn’t ridden off with – sallied out and made a last ditch effort to take the hill (in the previous couple pictures you can see them doing so in the back ground). At this point they’ve been reduced to a single stand and had two Austiran units firing on them from the front and Austrian Cavalry about to ride them down from the rear…

Here’s how things looked with the Russians packed it in at the end of Turn Fourteen.

Finally a decisive victory for the Austrians! It’s handy to have your army on the table BEFORE… oh… Turn Seven!?

I like this game. It's simple enough for a big dummy like me to understand.

I think the game went over really well. Everyone seemed like they were having fun and remained civil throughout the game. No items were thrown across the table in anger! Thanks to John for bringing his beautiful toys out and thanks to Gary, Rick, Keith and Bob for making this a thoroughly enjoyable game. 

Coming soon on Tim’s Miniature Wargaming Blog:

Back to painting – but hopefully I’ll get some more games in in the coming weeks. The Force on Force game really got me stoked to play more of that – as I haven’t played it in a while. Maybe it’s time to try some of the OTHER scenarios in that book! I’m also keen to have a go at Tomorrow’s War - using some of the Sci-fi figures I’ve been painting up lately. 

Force on Force at ToonCon

I ran a game of Force on Force Saturday evening at ToonCon. I’m doing this report before the Afternoon game because there’s less pictures and I had all the scenario information already typed up before hand, so it will be quicker…

I used the Gone To Ground scenario from Classified: Special Operations Missions 1940–2010. I’ve run the scenario before and it seemed like it would be a good one for a convention game.

SITUATION

Since colonial times there has been tension in what is now Timbogo between the majority (ostensibly Christian) Timbo peoples in the North and East of the country and the Bongogo peoples in the West and south who continue to practice their own indigenous religion.  

Tensions have flared in recent weeks and there have been rumours of genocide taking place in central Timbogo. A team of MSF doctors stationed in Timobogo and a visiting journalist, who have witnessed the atrocities firsthand, have been trying to get out of Timbogo. They finally made it aboard a helicopter that was to fly them out to a neighboring country only to be forced down by gunfire as they approached the border.

A force of French Foreign Legionnaires stationed in said neighboring country was immediately dispatched to extract the French nationals. The team was able to reach the crash site but their transport helicopters were driven off by ground fire. The team did, however, locate the French civilians and holed up with them in a cluster of abandoned buildings along a lonely, dusty road, with the forces of the Federal Army of the Republic of Timbogo (F.A.R.T.) and local militias closing in…

SCENARIO

Duration: 6 turns

Initiative: French have initiative for the game

Fog of War: Determined normally by Reaction Tests

Table Size: ~3’x3’

FRENCH MISSION

The Team had to protect the civilians from the various Timbogan forces converging on the area. They had to hold on until the end of Turn Six when the French higher-ups would give the green light to some Close Air Support to clear a landing zone for the transport helicopters to pull them out.

FRENCH VICTORY

In no French civilians were captured by the end of Turn Six the French team wins. Otherwise, they lose.            

FRENCH FORCE

Initiative Level: D10

Confidence Level: High

Supply Level: Normal

Body Armour: (+1D)

Troop Quality/Morale: D10/D10

French Forces 

French Foreign Legion CSAR Team

1x Team Leader - FA-MAS

2x SAW-Gunners – Minimi

2x Grenadiers – FA-MAS with UGL

2x Riflemen - FA-MAS

2x Medic - FA-MAS

1x AT Gunner w/ ATGM (AP:4/AT:4 M)

5x French Civilians - Dependants

TIMBOGAN MISSION

Capture the foreign spies and agitators, dead or alive! They must be stopped from spreading tmore lies and stir up the rabble – an example must be made of them!

TIMBOGAN VICTORY CONDITIONS

F.A.R.T. Forces win if the are able to capture one French civilian

TIMBOGAN FORCE

Initiative Level: N/A

Confidence Level: Confident

Supply Level: Normal

Body Armour: None

Troop Quality/Morale: Militia D6/D10, Army D8/D10

Three Timbogan teams start on the board and reinforcements arrive each turn.

THE GAME

Two players showed up for this one – Rick and Bob. Rick took the Africans and Bob took the French.

I got so immersed in running the game and keeping it fast-paced I completely forgot to take pictures until the beginning of the second turn. I would have liked to take notes – because there was some crazy stuff that went down, but it’s kind of hard to do that while keeping a good convention game going… so here’s a few pictures and a bit of what I remember going on…

(Remember: click on the pictures for a bigger version)

I think on Turn One Rick got his FIRST BTR-60!? Maybe it was the second turn…? Sorry, I am really damn tired - but I want to get this done because I don't know when I might get it done if I don't do it tonight! 

No, it must have been the first, because I remember this was the first turn that these guys ran out of the wadi and miraculously only took one casualty!

Over on the other side of town the other Militia were also taking casualties.

And the first BTR-60 got lit up pretty quickly. This must be the second turn. I’m pretty sure the first turn the French AT gunner knocked out the main gun, but the vehicle carried on. On the second round of firing it brewed right up! The passangers bailed out without trouble, but the crew were both injured (one turned out to be KIA)

Africans trying to surround the village.

I totally forgot to bring my Gas tank, so I just ignored that part of the scenario…

The SECOND BTR-60 arrives.

Rick was trying to rush the buildings with the French and kept getting murdered out in the open and teams ending up pinned and having to sit out for a turn dealing with seriously wounded casualties.

One French team did take some casualties earlier in the game – with a couple of seriously wounded. There was also a lot of lightly wounded. And guys that just got back up an continued fighting. Those two medics turned out to be super handy!

On the last turn (or maybe second last turn) Rick rolled a T-55 for reinforcements!!

It took a suspension hit – halving it’s move – but the crew stayed inside and fired on the building with all the French civilians. It was the first time I ever did a building destruction roll – the building survived. But the French took some casualties.

Basically the French sat on overwatch the entire game and just creamed the Africans as they tried to rush the building. I wonder if it might have been better to just pour on the fire for a few turns and then all try to rush the building on the fourth or fifth turns…?

I think by the time it was over there was over fifty Africans on the table. In the end six of them were killed in action, and seventeen were seriously wounded. I stopped keeping track of light wounds as pretty much every team had a few…

Of the ten French Foreign Legionnaires five were seriously wounded, and the rest were lightly wounded – some were wounded twice! Two of the French Civilians were killed in the action, but none were captured during the six turns.

In the last three turns of the games I think I saw more Fog of war cards come out than in any other game we’ve ever played… The Africans got a sniper team that caused the French some serious trouble. The second BTR-60 was actually taken out by a predator drone that buzzed into the area. Others were useless (“I gave it a good Smack” or ones that gave the players 3 victory points) and I’m sure there was another two… Golden BB and Hydration…?

It was mad. A lot of back and forth and it seemed like it could go either way right down to the last turn - which is pretty much how I remember the other times I've played this scenario! Fun was had by all! Especially me!

Coming soon on Tim’s Miniature Wargaming Blog:

I will get that Wargaming Nineteenth Century Europe 1815-1878 report done… it might be tomorrow (or “later today” as it is well past midnight…) 

Ambush Z at Toon Con

I ran a game of Ambush Z at ToonCon earlier this evening… actually it will probably be “yesterday evening” by the time I post this…

I had two players that showed up (Rick and Pat). Another had signed up but didn’t show. Another had stopped by as I was setting up and asked if there was space in the game but I didn’t happen to know at the time… Could have done with a couple more players… ah well…

SCENARIO

The players were to controls teams of survivors playing against myself (controlling the zombies).

The survivors were on a hunt of supplies. The had to cross the table and get to the pawn shop and/or the surplus store to pick up supplies. Obviously there was guns and ammunition at the surplus shop – the pawn shop was an objective because someone remembered an old Ham Radio set there and they hoped they might be able to use it to get into contact with other survivor groups.

Infection Level 3

FORCES

I had a few different survivor groups available to play with (not knowing in advance how many players would be there). I said they could each take two.

Pat chose:

Army Sniper team (2) with Suppressed Sniper Rifle and Assault rifle (Special Weapons Team bonus). TQ d10, Morale d10

Army Fire Team (4) 2xM16, 1x M249, 1x M16/M203. TQ d8, Morale d10

Rick chose:

Beat Cops (5) 3x Shotguns, 2x Pistols. TQ d8, Morale d10

Armed Civvies (6) assorted hand weapons and a chainsaw. TQd6, Morale d8

This is why I don’t often go other places to game… Run demos at the Dragon's Den, etc... That’s my zombie game all loaded up on my bike…

THE GAME

(Remember: click on the pictures for a bigger version)

Sorry about the quality of the photos, the lighting in the hall was horrid.

The lay of the land: the Pawn Shop is at the left edge of the picture, the Surplus Shop is top center, and the deployment/exit area for the players survivors is at the right of the picture.

There was 20 zombies on the table at the beginning, scattered about in three groups.

Snipers with suppressed weapons are awesome… First Turn – down go some zombies and they had no idea where it was coming from!

The players pretty much ran straight up the center of the street.

I just kept getting hordes and hordes of more zombies every turn and every time they fired.

Seriously, with an infection level of 3 I should have gotten reinforcements on half the turns… of the 10 or so turns we ended up playing I don’t think there was a single turn that I didn’t get reinforcements! And half of the pop up rolls due to gunfire generated more zombies. It was insane.

Luckily the cops and sniper team were kicking some serious zombie butt!

The Regular Army Fire Team… not so much… On their first attempt to run out from cover and fire on some zombies, a zombie team actually managed to interrupt them and charge and wipe them out in two rounds of close combat!?

From that point on the cops covered the civvies and pretty much blew away anything that came near them, and the sniper team covered the cops and blew away anything that came near the cops…

The Civvies made it to the pawn shop and, for once, I failed a roll against the infection level – so they found no zombies in there.

Rick’s cops charged the zombies by the Hot Spot hoping to clear it so they could run through the alleyways behind the buildings to get away as there was rather a LOT of zombies coming from the other direction.

Rick was rolling HOT for shooting. On five dice I rolled a 6, 6, and 4 and was thinking that was pretty awesome… they rick rolled this mess: 8, 8, 7, 7, 6, 6, 6, 4, 4, 4…

Unfortunately everytime Rick shot more zombies kept popping up at Hot Spot #1…

…and one of those mobs took down the civvies as they staggered out of the Pawn Shop with all of the radio equipment…

Rick attempted to recover the radio and clear off some more zombies, but another batch of NINE reinforcing zombie showed up at that Hot Spot and wiped the cops out…

At this point the only Living team left was the Sniper that was hiding behind a broken down truck on overwatch and so they decided to scarper.

Good times were had by all (I think?)! It was very, very loud in that hall – which is good – there were a lot of people playing a lot of games and having a good time – but I had to shout constantly for about two hours and my throat is sore and my ears are ringing… and I have another 5-6 hours of the same tomorrow!?

Coming soon on Tim’s Miniature Wargaming Blog:

Tomorrow I am running Force on Force and helping John run

Wargaming Nineteenth Century Europe 1815-1878 (with some snazzy new Austrian Cavalry!).