May Games

Yeah... so... We kind of dropped the ball this month...



At the beginning of the month we made some changes to our Family 10x10 Borad Game Challenge. At the beginning of the year we said for a game to count towards the Family Game Challenge - all four members of the family had to play in it. This was mostly to keep Amanda involved in it and not just me and the kids cranking out games and her never joining in... but through the last few months Finnegan was clearly not having fun. He sat like a grump, sulking through most games and playing them in such a way as to end the game as fast as he could - often throwing the game just to end it quicker... which kind of sucked all the fun out of it for the rest of us... and that's kind of the POINT of games, right? "Fun"!?

Teenagers...

I was kind of torn as to what to do about this. We had all agreed that these were all games we were wiling to play with each other. It's only two games a week. It doesn't seem like it should be such an onerous task. If nothing else the kid is compliant, but damn, when he doesn't WANT to do something he sure lets you know in a passive aggressive sort of way.

Anyway, we ended up decided that the games DIDN'T have to include ALL family members. There's no point in making the kid play games he's clearly not into (and ruining the fun for the rest of us).

So, I was a little discouraged at the beginning of the month after this decision was made and wasn't pushing to play games as much... and then Amanda got super busy at work - organizing a conference just for fun and preparing for a couple of other big things going on later in the month AND trying to get a months worth of work done in the first three weeks so she could take the last week of the month off while her folks were in town.... because... that's the way she is...

I've been doing a LOT of painting... and lots of activities have been wrapping up requiring extra rehearsals and recital performances...

And then Amanda's folks were in town for most of the last week... and they're not really game-playing types...

Here is what we did manage to get up to...


Saturday, 4 May 2019


The kids played Dungeon Crawl Classics... I think...


Monday/Tuesday, 6-7 May 2019



Keira and I played a game of Warhammer 40,000 (8th Edition)

She brought out her Eldar... I brought my Imperial Guard... it was pretty awesome.

You can read the full game report here:

The Battle of the Denfeld Wastes - Part One

The Battle of the Denfeld Wastes - Part Two



Friday, 10 May 2019

Amanda actually suggested we play a couple games this evening. Finnegan opted out. There was more interested in stuff on the computer to do... or... something...

First we played Century Golem Edition. It also ended up being a SUPER close game.



 I ended the game picking up a sixth card, but Amanda ended up being only 3 points behind me - despite me having 6 cards to her 5... and had I not grabbed the scoring card when I did, ending the game, she likely would have the following turn or so and utterly crushed us!



Then we played Splendor. It was a pretty close game. Keira ended up being quite upset as she came very close to winning and was feeling like this might be her first time doing so... then Amanda took something which got her 15 points - which triggered the end game...



 and then I took a 4 point card and a patron which rocketed me from 11 up to 18!!! Yeah...


Saturday, 11 May 2019

This was Keira's birthday party...



She decided she wanted a GIANT CHOCOLATE DONUT for a cake. She made it herself.



She pretty much invited the Saturday Dungeon Crawl Classics crew and ran a game of Dungeons and Doggies for them. (Heidi was supposed to come too, but her cat died...).



She also got them to play a few other games - like Just Desserts!


Friday, 17 May 2019

The following Friday our friend Laura joined us for a game of Terraforming Mars!



Laughing about something...?



This was the first time Laura played and she totally crushed it - ending the game with 71 points - taking the Mayor Milestone and being second for both the Scientist and Thermalist awards!! She played with a beginner corporation... which may have given her a BIT of an edge - but we've all played nearly 10 times, so...



Amanda played Thorgate and came in second with 67 points - taking the Builder Milestone and both the Banker and Scientist awards. Keira played Inventrix and wasn't too far behind with 60 - she was second for both the  Banker and Scientist awards. Finnegan actually played with us and he played the United Nations Mars Initiative and ended with 48 points - not sure what happened, early in the game he was off to a commanding lead...



I played Helion, which I don't think I've played before. I took the Gardener Milestone and was first for the Thermalist award - and had a tonne of fun playing the game. I ended up with only 59 points though... Ah, well... Strangely I only put ONE blue card into play all game? Just didn't ever draw any.

Next time we're going to try with a drafting variant.


Saturday 18 May 2019



Dungeon Crawl Classics


Monday, 20 May 2019

We played a couple quick games of Set and Retro Loonacy with a friend of Amanda's from work. I didn't take pictures... I think I won the game of Retro Loonacy, but was dead last in SET. I used to rock that game... but now even Amanda had twice as many sets as me!?


Saturday, 25 May 2019



Keira was at an all day dress rehearsal for dance so Finnegan decided to run the Saturday crew through a series of Four Against Darkness games.



Keira got home before everyone took off so they ran through one more adventure with her.


Friday, 31 May 2019



This evening we all agreed to sit down and play Abyss. Even Finnegan... and he was even in a good mood and happy to play.



I ended up doing pretty good in this one.



92 points - my highest score yet! Getting the right locations really helps.


Well...



At this point we should probably be at about 40 games played and we're only at 34... I guess that isn't TOO far behind. We'll probably get playing a few more games over the summer when we're less busy with activities and stuff (though I am, in theory, supposed to be renovating the "Game Room" in the basement...).

Need to get painting those Blackstone Fortress figures so we can start playing THAT!!! Maybe that should be my goal once the Drukhari are done for the upcoming tournament.


Coming Soon to Tim's Miniature Wargaming Blog:

Probably some more Drukhari - the rest of the Hellions first, most likely - and hopefully a bunch more 40K game reports!

Hellions

The first batch of Hellions... I'm falling a bit behind my original schedule. I still have 42 minis to paint and 21 days to paint them in... that's two a day... 14 per week. Iv'e done that before... I could still get them done....



a Murderpack of ten hellions from Games Workshop.



These guys (gals?) seem like they'll be fun...



They're a little on the tippy side, and there are going to be a LOT of them, so I've been thinking about possibly making some little movement trays for them.


Coming Soon to Tim's Miniature Wargaming Blog:

May Games

More Drukhari

MORE Reavers

Four more weeks to the Strange Bedfellows Team Tournament!



Yesterday I finished up six more Drukhari Reavers!



And that finishes off the first massive, full-sized murder pack of TWELVE!



MWA-HA-HA-HA-HA-Ha-Ha-ha-ha-ha-haaaaaaaaaaa...

I have nine more Reavers to do at some point. I'm wondering about doing them in different colours - so they could be from a different gang and could be used as rivals in Gangs of Commorragh (which I have a couple copies of!)

I'm already on to the Hellions! My hope is that I will crank through all twenty in the next week and then the last three weeks I'll just have ten Wyches to do each week (and one Succubus!).

Looking over this force of Drukhari, there is a total of 93 Power Level (and just shy of 1900 points). I'm thinking once I've done the stuff we have, I'll have to convince Amanda to get herself a Ravager to give the force just a bit more hard-hitting, anti-armour capability - which will also bring the force to a nice even 100 Power Level (and just over 2000 points) - and be fieldable as three detachments.

Coming Soon to Tim's Miniature Wargaming Blog:

Hellions!!

ALL THE HELLIONS!!!

(well... all the ones I'm going to paint for the upcoming tournament)

(Actually I'll probably do them in batches of 10... so it might be the first batch of 10 in a couple days and then another batch of 10 after that... probably next weekend)

Drukhari Reavers

Having finished off the Asuryani stuff I needed for the Strange Bedfellows tournament, I'm on to painting Amanda's Drukhari (that Finnegan is going to use in the tournament).

First up, Reavers...



Drukhari Reaver Jet Bike Riders from Games Workshop.



I have six more of these I need to finish up, hopefully by the weekend!



Coming Soon to Tim's Miniature Wargaming Blog:

MORE Reavers!

More Dire Avengers

It's the Victoria Day long weekend her in Canada and I stayed up stupid late last night to finish up this latest batch of Dire Avengers....



Two batches of five old metal Dire Avengers models from Games workshop.



The two groups will join my two existing squads to make two squads of TEN!

I do have a few more Dire Avengers (5 or 6?), which, at some point, I'll paint up to use as a third squad... and some day I might try to track down a few more figures to make it a full unit of ten as well...

For now, this completes the force I'll be taking to the Strange Bedfellows Team Tournament in June.
Base Detachment - Biel-Tim (as Biel-Tan).



My 1000-point Asuryani "Base Detachment" force for the Strange Bedfellows Team Tournament in June. This includes:

HQ (1-2)
Farseer
Warlock

Troops (2-4)
Dire Avenger(10)
Dire Avenger (10)
Rangers (9)

Elites (0-1)
Wraithguard (6)

Fast Attack (0-1)
Warp Spiders (10)

Heavy Support (0-1)
Wraithlord

My entire War Host (so far)...

HQ
Autarch
Farseer
2 Warlocks

Troops
Dire Avenger(10)
Dire Avenger (10)
Rangers (10)
Rangers (5)
Guardians (8 - not quite a full squad)

Elites 
Wraithguard (6)
Howling Banshees (6)

Fast Attack 
Warp Spiders (10)

Heavy Support 
3 Wraithlords
Dark Reaper (4)

I'll be taking a break from the Craftworld Eldar for a month while I crank out 1000 point of their dark cousins: The Drukhari!


Coming Soon to Tim's Miniature Wargaming Blog: 

Drukhari! Possibly a squad of Reavers (jet bikes!)

Or... maybe some T'au?!

MORE Mistakes Were Made...

That thing I said about "No more eBay purchases"...?

Mistakes were made.

Actually, I did kind of tell myself I wasn't going to purchase anymore stuff off eBay... UNLESS one of these came along for a not-too-unreasonable price! Then that kind of happened.

Anyone paying REALLY close attention to the previous post might have noticed me mention some... stuff... needing to be painted.

Anyway, I woke up to this notification...



and I may have squealed like a little girl and then done a happy dance...


Then these showed up today...



An old Armorcast Eldar Phantom Titan and an equally old Armorcast Eldat Tempest Heavy Grav Tank.



Some of my other Aeldari Heavy Hitters - that all still need to be painted (or... Repainted). I also have a Wraithknight, but it's in pieces still and couldn't be propped up for the photo!

Looking at these, I'd seriously like to get a second Revenant Titan and third Tempest...



For a sense of scale here they are with my Imperial titans, a squad of infantry and Keira's Wraithknight - which is almost done! (She just needs to finish off the base!)

As exciting as these all are... I'm going to have to wait a bit to start painting them! I have other stuff that have DEADLINES!


Coming Soon to Tim's Miniature Wargaming Blog:

Eldar Dire Avengers, then a whole lot of Drukhari and THEN some massive Eldar titanic vehicles and walkers!!!

Painting Plans

It is, of course, the height of ridiculousness to think I could make a plan for what I'm going to paint ALL YEAR and expect I would actually stick to it.... ALL... YEAR.... I do recognize, however, that it is good to have SOME kind of plan and that I'm generally far more productive if I have a plan and am, more or less, sticking to it.

I was looking, recently, at the 2019 Painted Versus Purchased page I have listed over on the right under "Pages" and had a good look at the "Things I'd Like to Paint in 2019" list. Here is what was on that...

Reaver Battle Titan
Redemptionist Necromunda Gang
Imperial Knight Paladin
Imperial Knight Warden
Ratskin Necromunda Gang
Cawdor Necromunda Gang
Battle Sisters (~15 if them to finish off)
Tallarn (LOADs to do)
Valhallans (LOADs to do)
Craftworld Eldar (LOADs to do) - working on it!
Harlequins (Two Troupes and an Troupe Leader)
Grey Knights (Two Strike Squads and Castellan Crowe)
Drukhari Battalion (LOADs to do)
Rogue Trader Crew - Elucidian Star Striders
Gellerpox Mutants
Blackstone Fortress Heroes
Blackstone Fortress Adversaries
Imperialis Terrain (LOADs to do)
Mechanicus Terrain
Munitorum Terrain
Urban Conquest Terrain
Mice & Mystics Minis
British Regulars Rebels and Patriots Company
British Rangers Rebels and Patriots Company
French Regulars Rebels and Patriots Company
French de la Marine Rebels and Patriots Company
Soviet Modern Micro Armour
USMC Modern Micro Armour
Epic Eldar
Epic Imperial Guard
Epic Imperial Titans
Epic Marines
Epic Orks
Epic Chaos
Epic Squats

Only two items crossed off a rather lengthy list. The problem with it is Craftworld Eldar is ONE ITEM on that list - I'm never going to cross that off this year - or likely any of the items on the list - they are too vast in scope... So I started thinking about what I would like to paint this year... y'know... IF I had to pick, right now, what I had to paint for the rest of the year, AND was actually able to STICK TO IT!?

(The above list is no longer on the page, I've removed it and replaced it with a slightly more reasonable list below - something that I'll be able to cross items off of!)

I was thinking a squad or unit of 10-12 or a single vehicle per week is entirely do-able. The next five weeks... well... I'll be doing a bit more than that as I'm on a bit of a DEADLINE!

This week I've already completed 5 Rangers and 6 Wraithguard and still need to finish up 10 Dire Avengers over the weekend.

Next Five Weeks (before the Strange Bedfellows Tournament)

Week One - 12x Reavers
Week Two - 20x Hellions!?
Week Three - Succubus + 10x Wyches
Week Four - 10x Wyches
Week Five - 10x Wyches

After 23 June 2019, there are 28 weeks left in the year. So, I tried to think of 28 items (squads or units of 10-12 or a single vehicle) that I'd like to finish up. Right now, I'm feeling like finishing off the Asuryani - my Craftworld Eldar. In no particular order, here is what I'd have to do:

10x Rangers
10x Metal Guardians
10x Metal Guardians
(there are 80+ plastic ones that I'm not even thinking about at this time!)
10x Warp Spiders
8x Fire Dragons
7x Swooping Hawks
10x Striking Scorions
4x Phoenix Lords (Jain Zar, Fuegan, Baharaoth, and Karandras - I might be dreaming to think I could get all four done in one week... but whatevs...)
2x Warlocks + 1 Farseer
5x Dire Avengers
Falcon Grav Tank
Falcon Grav Tank
Wraithknight
Tempest/Scorpion Heavy Grav Tank
Tempest/Scorpion Heavy Grav Tank
Revenant Titan
Phantom Titan

That's 17 Weeks right there... but DAMN, it'd all be DONE! And that would be 512 Power Level or 9500 points worth of options!! (Mind you almost 2/3 of that is the last four items on the list!)

What to do with the remaining 11 weeks...?

Well, I have harlequins still to finish up (if I want to stay focused on Aeldari forces)...
6x Harlequins
6x Harlequins
6x Harlequins
6x Harlequins

And I have some more of Amanda's Drukhari...
10x Wyches
10x Kabalites
10x Kabalites
5x Kabalites + Archon
Venom
10x Hellions
9x Reavers

This would finish off about 1900 points of Drukhari - enough for a pretty big game or lots of options for smaller games (which I like better anyway!)

I also have some stuff I've promised to paint for my friend John (at some point!?)...
Shadespire Skaven
Shadspire Dwarves
Pi-Rats
Space-Rat Kill Team (20)
Frostgrave Female Soldiers (22)

I'll probably get working on a few of these over the summer - mixing them in with the Eldar...


There are all the Blackstone Fortress minis I haven't painted yet...
9x Explorers (that might take more than a week...)
1x Chaos Lord + 2 Chaos Space Marines
4x Chaos Beastmen + 4 Negavolt Cultists
2x Rogue Psykers + 4x Spindle Drones
14x Traitor Guardsmen

AND there's all the Hellboy: the Boardgame stuff I was hoping to finish up BEFORE Xmas so we could play a campaign of that over the week between Xmas and New Years...
10x  Agent Miniatures
50+ Plastic Minion Miniatures
4-5x Plastic Boss Miniatures
PLUS all the stuff in the Box Full of Evil - that hasn't even been shipped yet! (That'll have to be a "Next Year Project")

Plus there are lots of other things on that initial list that might still distract me (because they are smaller items that might be nice to just finish off!!)
Ratskin Necromunda Gang
Cawdor Necromunda Gang
Van Saar Necromunda Gang
Karloth Valois and his zombie minions
Battle Sisters (~15 if them to finish off)
Grey Knights (Two Strike Squads and Castellan Crowe)
Rogue Trader Crew (Elucidian Star Striders)
Rogue Trader Gellerpox Mutants
Imperial Knight Paladin
Imperial Knight Warden

And NO END of terrain to finish up!? (Rogue Trader, Imperialis, Munitorum, Mechanicus, Wall or Martyrs, Urban Conquest, etc - plus loads of scratch build stuff I have in mind...)

GAH!?

I guess I need to just focus and get the stuff done for the tournament and then see how sick I am of painting Eldar or if it just gets more MORE fired up about finishing off the entire collection!


Coming Soon to Tim's Miniature Wargaming Blog:

Ten Dire Avengers seems most likely.

Wraithguard

Just finished up a few more Aeldari I'm planning to use for the Strange Bedfellows tournament coming up in June...



Wraithguard!

I've had one of these models for years and never really got around to painting it up because I could never find enough others to make a unit. Oh, they're available out there on eBay, it's just that people want so much for them! So, I was REALLY EXCITED when I saw there was a full unit of five included in the Big Batch of Eldar I recently picked up - especially considering how well my Wraithlords have been doing in games - AND how well Keira's Wraithblades fared in our latest game.



Here is the rest of the force, so far... I just have ten Dire Avengers to finish up the 1000 point force. I hope to have them done by the end of the weekend - and then it's on to painting Drukhari!


Coming Soon to Tim's Miniature Wargaming Blog:

Ten Dire Avengers seems most likely.

I've also had a post about painting plans for the year congealing in my brain matter, that might show up soonish.

It is the Victoria Day long weekend this weekend - I really hope we get in a few games over the weekend. Board games will end up in the monty Board Game update post at the end of the month, but maybe I'll get in some mini games that I could post a game report about!

Path of the Outcast

I finished up the Rangers I need for the Strange Bedfellows tournament coming up in June.

"Need" is a funny word to use there, as I did not NEED them at all. I have other painted rangers I could have used...

But they don't MATCH!?



It's true, I AM a special kind of stupid...



MORE Aeldari Rangers in the Cool Alien Camouflage (cool as in cool colours - Blue, Green, Purple... as opposed to the Warm Alien Camouflage).

One of them is a conversion that I used a Drukhari head on. not because I thought, "Hey, it would be cool to put a Drukhari head on one of these rangers...", but because one of the Ranger minis I got in the recent Big Batch of Eldar didn't have a head... and I had lots of Drukhari heads... and I recently read Path of the Warrior by Gav Thorpe and one of the Striking Scorpion characters is later revealed to be a Drukhari that was captured or surrendered in a battle against the Alaitoch craftworld and somehow became one of them...? I thought, of all the paths, the Path of the Outcast (which the Rangers follow) seems the most likely to take in wayward Drukhair... If you can call a Drukhari that no longer wishes to be a BDSM Murder Elf "wayward"...?



The Whole Squad

Because of the acquisitions made in the Big Batch of Eldar, I will, eventually, be able to field three full squads of ten Rangers!

Now you see them...



....now you don't! Can you spot all the Aeldari Rangers in the Deathworld Forest!?


Coming Soon to Tim's Miniature Wargaming Blog: 

The plan is to finish off all the stuff I need foe my own force THIS WEEK! That means six Wraithguard and ten Dire Avengers. Then I have FIVE WEEKS to paint 1000 points of Drukhari!

Strange Plans

There is another tournament coming up in town called "Strange Bedfellows) that I thought I might get in on. The format seems interesting - it's a four-player team tournament. Each team has four players, each of which brings 1000 points. There are three rounds, during each you will partner with each of your different teammates against two teammates from one of the other teams.

I got kind of excited thinking maybe the whole family could go! The Girl and I could play Asuryani (Craftworld eldar), Amanda could play her Drukhari, and I though perhaps between mine and The Girl's Harlequin forces we might be able to put together 1000 points for Finnegan to play with.

As it turns out Amanda's away that weekend, and The Girl and I have nowhere NEAR enough of the right Harlequin stuff to put together 1000 points of them. Partly because our forces of painted stuff are small, but mostly because the allowed detachments are pretty restrictive!

None of the regular detachments are allowed. Only these:



Initially, when I read the concept - four players, 100 points each - I thought "no problem, I just fielded  1000 point force at Battleforce Recon"... then I saw the detachments. Wow. What is up with that!?

At Battleforce Recon, for my 1000 points I fielded an entire Battalion - with a Farseer and two Warlocks (3HQ choices),  two squads of Dire Avengers and two squads of Rangers (4 Troops), a Squad of Banshees (1 Elite), a squad of Warp Spiders (1 Fast Attack), and THREE Wraithlords (3 Heavy Support)... Except for this tournament, the max I could have is two HQ and ONE Heavy Support... so I'd have to ditch two Wraithlords and a Warlock and NOT add anymore Elites or Fast Attack!? At first I wasn't sure how I was going to do that! Really BIG squads of Dire Avengers and Rangers...? Dedicated Transport for them all....? I am curious to see what others do...? Lots of high point, hard-hitting units and characters!?

Here is what I'm currently considering taking:

Base Detachment - Biel-Tim (as Biel-Tan)

HQ (1-2)
Farseer
Warlock

Troops (2-4)
Dire Avenger(10)
Dire Avenger (10)
Rangers (9)

Elites (0-1)
Wraithguard (6)

Fast Attack (0-1)
Warp Spiders (10)

Heavy Support (0-1)
Wraithlord.



Of that, so far, I have the Farseer, Warlock, 10 Dire Avengers, 5 Rangers, 10 Warp Spiders and the Wraithlord...



I only have to paint the six Wraithguard, 10 Dire Avengers, and technically I don't NEED to paint any Rangers... I could just use the other squad that I already have painted, but I'm probably going to paint five up to match the cloaks of one of the existing squads to have a complete units of Rangers in matching cloaks.


Earlier this week we sorted out The Girl's stuff and figured out a force she could bring:

Speartip Detachment

HQ (1)
Jain Zar

Troops (1-3)
Dire Avengers (10)
Rangers (9)

Elites (1-3)
Howling Banshees (9)
Howling Banshees (8)
Wraithblades (5)

Fast Attack (0-1)
Swooping Hawks (6)



So far she has Jain Zar, the Swooping Hawks, the Wraithblades and half of the Rangers and about a third of the Banshees needed.



She still needs to paint 10 Dire avengers, 4 Rangers, 11 Howling Banshees, and the Wraithlord.

As Amanda is going to be out of town, Finnegan is going to play Amanda's Drukhari. Here's what he's tentatively planning to bring:

Escort Detachment

HQ (1)
Lelith Hespirax

Troops (1-3)
3x Wyches (10)

Fast Attack (1-2)
Hellions (20)
Reavers (12)

So, here's where it gets a little stupid... NONE of those are painted... I have to paint all of them in the next six weeks - in addition to the stuff I need to finish up for my own force! (and, y'know, all the other stuff I have to do in life...).

The other succubus is thrown in there as we might change things up and use a generic succubus and use a different Wych Cult. Lileth Hespirax is from the Cult of Strife - which is okay, it gives everyone an extra attack in close assault on a turn when they charge or were charged... But we've also been looking at the Cult of Red Grief, which makes them like harlequins - can charge even if they've advanced! That could mean first turn charges for a lot of them! We shall see. If we changed it up, I'd have to add another wych to two or three of the squads

In total it's about 75 infantry (I've counted the Hellions as Infantry) and 12 Reaver Jet Bikes... So that's One week for the Reavers, and 15 infantry per week for the rest of the stuff.... I can totally do that!

The nice part is, when I'm done this, Amanda will have a painted 1000point force she'll now be able to play with! There really isn't a lot else to her army after that... another 10 Hellions, another 9 Reavers and aVenom. I think there is also an Archon and a small handful of Kabalites that could be assembled/painted unto join in... but we mostly play smaller games, so there's no NEED to get those done... 

We do need one more player with Aeldari to complete our team - Ideally that can field another "Base" Detachment or a "Fire Base" Detachment? I'm hoping my friend Other Tim will join us...

We also need a name for our team... The couple ideas I had off the top of my head were:

 Aeldari All-Stars
 Aeldari Apocalypse
 Aeldari Avalanche

Other Tim suggested Aeldari Alliterations or the Canadian Aeldari Association of Canada...

Finnegan suggested the Amazing Aeldari Awesomesocks!?

I don't know...


Coming Soon to Tim's Miniature Wargaming Blog:

Painted Eldar!!!

The Battle of the Denfeld Wastes - Part Two

Carrying on from PART ONE played the night before... I'd hoped to finish the game off in the morning, but we were distracted by the arrival of Hellboy: The Board Game! Luckily we had some time in the afternoon to finish off the game before heading out to dance classes!

ROUND THREE - ASTRA MILITARUM



First platoon started off the firing, unloading on the Hulking Avatar of Khaine lumbering their way... but the fire seemed to have no effect on it at all



Half a league, half a league, Half a league onward, All in the valley of Death rode the.... five?



The Sniper Section poured fire down on the Wraithblades - finishing off one of them!



Second Platoon broke cover and rushed the Aeldari Rangers position.



At close range, Lt. Ibrahim Kirdar directed their fire on the Rangers positions and when the dust cleared... not a ranger was to be found!



1st Platoon's Command section moved to a firing position to bring supporting fire down on the Swooping Hawks to the rear of their position.



Theirs not to make reply, Theirs not to reason why, Theirs but to do and die! Into the valley of Death Rode the... five.... Charging the Avatar of Khaine. Mesamaenes, the Warlock, joined in the fight as well.



One of 1st Platoon's Infantry Squads joined in the Melee.



AS the Rangers on the objective had been dealt with, one Squad from second Platoon charged the Farseer all alone in the open.



The Mortarmen continued their Melee with the Swooping Hawks - taking out two of them!



1st Platoon's 3rd Squad continued their melee with Jain Zar...



and were pretty much slaughtered... completely unable to even land a blow on the Phoenix Lord!



When can their glory fade? O the wild charge they made! All but Corporal Maalouf, leading the squad of Roughriders were taken out by the frightful molten mountain swinging the giant flaming sword...


ROUND THREE - AELDARI



The Wraithblades scaled the rocky outcropping and assaulted the Sniper Section.



Jain Zar finished off all but Sergeant Hamid - who had been leading 1st Platoon's 3rd Squad... he later failed moral and left the table (actually he ran to help his wounded men, and jain Zar, seeing he would no longer take part in the battle, moved on...)



The Autarch joined in the fight between the squad from 2nd platoon and the Farseer. It did not go well for the Tallarn Infantry Squad....


ROUND FOUR - ASTRA MILITARUM



The remains of the Heavy Weapons Squad fell back from their battle with the Swooping Hawks and 1st Platoon's Command Squad moved up to cover their retreat - taking out two of the Swooping Hawks!



The Wraithblades continued massacring the Sniper Section. By the end of the turn, only one remained.



Lt. Ibrahim Kirdar directed the fire of the remaining Squad from 2nd platoon on the two Aeldari leaders left in the open after they wiped out their sister Squad. The Farseer was grievously wounded and the Autarch was taken out of action.



The confused melee between Mesamaenes the Warlock, The Avatar of Khaine, Corporal Maalouf, and the squad from 1st Platoon raged on!

ROUND FOUR - AELDARI



Not wishing to just stand there and be cut down, Ja'ade the Farseer charged the Tallarn position.



She took out one or two of the defenders, but was eventually succumbed to exhaustion and her wounds.


ROUND FIVE - ASTRA MILITARUM



Jain Zar charged 1st Platoon's Command Squad...



... and after cutting them all down, turned on Lt. Anwar Al’Saphira - commander of 1st Platoon!



Corporal Maalouf finally fell - as did most of the Infantry squad engaged with Mesamaenes the Warlock and the Avatar of Khaine!


ROUND FIVE - AELDARI



Things were looking pretty sparse on the tabletop. The battle had really been back and forth for a bit. During the first turn it looked really bad for the Eldar... a turn or two later when the Phoenix Lord and Avatar got stuck in it started looking very, very bad for the Astra Militarum! Around Round Four it looked like the Tallarn might just hold out to Round Five and if they could hold on to two of the objectives would win the game... but by this point in the game things were looking pretty grim for the Imperial Guard...



One Squad holding an objective, being eyed up by Mesamaenes the Warlock and the Avatar of Khaine! They'd just wiped out a squad of Roughriders and one of the sister squads in their platoon... Surely they would charge this turn... Could the brave souls of the Guard hold on long enough to contest the objective at the end of the Round...?



the Wraithblades once again charged the remaining member of the Sniper Section - who had fallen back from the melee to try and secure the objective... It was a brave but foolhardy move. She was no match for the Aeldari Wraithblades. By the end of the Round, that objective would be securely in the hands of the Eldar.



The Swooping Hawk Exarch - all that remained of warriors from his shrine - dropped from the skies behind the remains of 2nd platoon and unleashed a volley from his Hawk's Tallon - taking out one of the Tallarn crouching behind cover there... not enough to make a difference on this end of the battlefield.



If being charged by Mesamaenes the Warlock and the Avatar of Khaine weren't bad enough, Jain Zar also joined in the assault on the rains of 1st Platoon.



The Phoenix Lord gracefully danced through the squad, cutting and slicing as she went.



The Avatar slogged through as well - the Wailing Doom singing as it fed on the souls of the Tallarn it cut down.



We rolled for game end... and the game could have continued... but I called it. The writing was on the wall at this point.. The Eldar were pretty securely holding on to two of the objectives and there was NOTHING on the table that could have shifted them from either. The Tallarn held one, the other was not held by anyone.

It is possible that the Heavy Weapon Section could have hoisted their guns not their shoulder and high-tailed it over to that objective to try and secure it on Round Six... but, at the bottom of the round,  jain Bar would simply have pranced over there and slaughtered them, giving the Eldar THREE of the four Objectives...

All in all a great game - there was a bit of tension - feeling like it might have gone either way for a little bit. We learned a bit more about the Eldar (Sweet Jupiter - Avatars and Phoenix Lords are NASTY! the Wraithblades were nothing to sniffle at either!). The Girl it totally stoked about getting the rest of her Eldar painted up and already talking about our next game!


Coming Soon to Tim's Miniature Wargaming Blog:

Finnegan's discovered Naomi Novik's "His Majesty's Dragon" and is thoroughly enjoying it! I loaned him some books on the Napoleonic wars (mostly uniform books - so he could imagine the soldiers in their proper uniforms as he read the books! Though none contain the tack and saddlery for dragons...) Perhaps in the not-too-distant future we might see some Dragon Rampant/Rebels and Patriots mash-up wargaming! Perhaps this will be the excuse we all needed to finish painting the dragons we all got in the Bones Kickstarters!

I've been trying to switch gears and get some other stuff done, but I'm super STOKED to paint some more ELDAR now!! Also there is a TEAM Tournament coming up in June, I think I might try to get a bunch of Amanda's Drukhari painted up for Finnegan to use, so he can team up with me and The Girl and... someone else...? (4-person teams, unfortunately Amanda will be away that weekend...)