Wrath of Kings: Teknes vs Goritsi Rematch

I was debating doing some more painting the other day but instead I decided to set up my board and push around some Wrath of Kings again. This time I decided to take advantage of the extra models I'd assembled and kicked the game up to the skirmish level.  This added some more variety to both sides and let me dig into more of the synergies that some of the units have together.

The forces of Teknes prepared for battle!

The nightmares of Goritsi searching for blood!

As the game progressed, it quickly turned into two bloodbaths, one on the right flank and another one in the center.  Where the Ravenskar mercenaries had struggled with the Union workers, the Skorza supported by a shield breaker and Moonclave executioner made short work of them.

In fact six of the workers fell in one turn to three Skorzas and their alpha!  There was much feasting on bacon after that, let me tell you.

Meanwhile, the defender linesmen in the center were proving to be hard as nails with their counter attacks cutting down several Skorzas and war dancers.

In the end though, the Goritsi were able to break the morale of the Teknes force, driving them from the battlefield after stealing their intel but not without taking some serious losses themselves.

Playing the game at this level felt like there were more options available for the two sides, and it was interesting seeing how the various units interacted.  The executioners a brutal foil to the pain-fueled Union workers while the counter attacks of the linesmen were more devastating then their regular attacks.  Having a couple of warsmiths in there didn't hurt either as it made the citizens that much harder to take out.

I will admit that as I was picking up more and more for this game, I did wonder if it was just going to be a waste of money.  I've enjoyed pushing it around though so I'm glad that I took the plunge.  I don't see it catching on locally (locally 40k and Bolt Action seem to be the big contenders) but I'm glad that I have them available if I want to use them.  I'm also thinking about stating them up for Song of Blades and Heroes so I can push that system around again.  It's been far too long since that game has hit my gaming table, especially considering how well it worked solo.

That will be a project for another day, along with the various Nasier and Shael Han minis that I still have to assemble.  Plus I'll probably pick up some more units for all four Houses as well, just because.  Good reason, right?  As for the near future, my Antares armies are painted up and ready to go, I'm just trying to get some more terrain pieces put together to spice up the battlefield.  So far I've got a few basic forest pieces but I also have some buildings I'm working on too.  There won't be much in the way of details on those for now but I want to at least get some paint onto them before they hit the table.  I should be able to get those presentable next week, and then do an Antares Batrep or two the week after.  Until next time...

Painting Notebook: Concord C3 Strike Trooper and Spotter Drone

Concord Strike Trooper from Bastion

My C3 troops were all primed with Vallejo black surface primer (73.602).  Once this dried, they were all dry-brushed with Vallejo Game Color Cold Grey, followed by a mix of Cold Grey and Vallejo Game Color Stonewall Grey (72.049), and finally a layer of just Stonewall Grey.

Concord Strike Trooper front

Their face plates were painted with a P3 Thamar Black, while any expose joints, the central disc on their back, and their plasma weapons were given a thick wash Thamar Black.

Concord Strike Trooper back

Once this was done I added a small dot of Khador Red Base (PIP 93021) onto the two dots located on the chest plate to break up all the grey.

My C3 spotter drones were done using the same paints and methods as the troopers.

C3 Spotter Drone front

The mounts for the sensors were painted with P3 Thamar Black and then the lenses were picked out with Khador Red Base.

C3 Spotter Drone back

Basing

For my Concord force, I use my regular basing technique; a coat of either P3 Bloodtracker Brown (PIP93030) or P3 Bootstrap Leather (PIP93031), followed by a layer of Gale Force 9 fine basing grit (GFS019) glued down with Elmer's Glue-All.  Once this has dried, I add some spots of Glue-All to the layer of grit, spread it in patches with a toothpick, and then cover this with Gale Force 9 Green Static Grass (GFS001).  As a final touch, I paint the rim of the base with black paint to give it a clean finish.

Bolt Action AAR: Combat Patrol Tournament With Cheese

This past Saturday, I headed down to Greenhouse Games for their Inaugural Bolt Action Combat Patrol Tournament.  This event pitted eight players against each other over three rounds using a 450 point list.  Previous BA tournaments they have run were 750 points so dropping 300 points made for a very different list building experience.  In addition to the low points, there were also a couple of other limits just to keep the lists from being too crazy.

• maximum of 8 order dice
• no free units of any kind
• no weapons with HE 3" or HE 4"
• maximum of one flamethrower
• no vehicle-mounted flamethrowers
• maximum of three vehicles
• no vehicles with armor of 9 or higher
• no air force or artillery forward observers
• no captain or major

Nothing too extreme and it all really makes sense; this is supposed to be a combat patrol so it should be small forces of mostly infantry units.  To drive that point home even more, the two of the three scenarios in the tournament require you have infantry units to achieve their objectives.  All in all, a really good and balanced set up.

While I was researching units for my list (my experience with Bolt Action is still pretty limited), I stumbled across a unit that I believe was actually banned from other tournaments; the M3 Stuart.  Now anyone familiar with this tank might wonder why it would cause such consternation in the community.  It is a light armor with poor armor design, making it even more vulnerable to attacks from the sides and rear.  This is true, but the base design mounts a light AT gun, a coaxial MMG, and a hull-mounted MMG.  Still not horrible... but then you can give it recce, add a pair of hull mounted LMGs, and even add a pintle mounted MMG.  This means that this light tank is rolling 23 dice in one turn if it just fires its machine guns.

As luck would have it, I happened to have a Stuart that I had never assembled.  Given the low point limit, I was trying to find a light tank that I could fit into the list but there aren't a lot of other options for the US.  I thought about making it an M3A1 or M5A1, but the first couldn't have recce and the later had a gyro-stabilized AT gun which is a waste if you aren't taking a veteran.  So the only thing that made sense... the machine gun toting monster that is the M3.

I looked at other list options because this made Stewie take up a third of the points but nothing really jumped out at me.  I verified with the tourney organizers and they said it was okay, so machine gun monster it would be.

Now this is a lot of background but there's a reason.  The day of the competition, I was running the middle of the pack but had to leave because the whole thing was really running behind.  My parting gift?

Cheese pin markers for having the Cheesiest Army List of the day.  And I have to admit that this just made my day.  All thanks to good old Stewie, the biggest cheese of them all.  Until next time...

Workbench: Stewie, Objectives, and Ghar

This past weekend was a long weekend but that was family time.  Now that I'm back out for work though, I've been plugging away on a few projects.  I went overboard and brought a ton of stuff with me this time.  All of my paints, some Bolt Action to work on, all my Concord, Ghar, and Algoryn, and even a 4' x 4' table topper.  Yeah, things definitely escalated.

First and foremost is Stewie aka the M3 Stuart fielded by the US Army in WWII.  This is a light tank with the potential to mount a ridiculous number of machine guns.

All told, this tank can potentially roll 23 dice on an attack which is just silly.  Of course this is the reason that I've been assembling it.  This Saturday I'll be playing in a BA combat patrol tournament and Stewie might be part of my force.

For those that haven't heard of this format, it's a 450 point tournament with some special restrictions for balance.  There are three specific scenarios which focus on infantry units so the most appropriate thing to do would be focus on the foot sloggers and pass on the tank.  Unfortunately I like crazy lists so I decided that I needed to build the Stuart that I've had sitting around just in case I want to field it.  I'm still really on the fence about it but it is really tempted.  I'll have to see once I get closer to the event whether I go with the tactically sound choice or Stewie and the gang.

Besides making my tank, the scenarios also call for a number of objective markers.

Since I had the Stuart kit with me, I scrounged up the various leftover bits and pieces and cobbled together four markers for the tournament.  Nothing too fancy but I like how they came out.  I think it's a hold over from Frostgrave; making "treasure markers" is just fun to do.

I also decided to make a drone objective for Antares.  I have a couple of Virai drones that I can use but I like the idea of a crashed Concord style research drone.

For this I used a C3D1 general purpose drone but cut off the arms from the subverter matrix (I used these to make my custom batter drones for my C3).  This keeps its profile familiar but makes it different enough looking to stand out.



To make it a bit more functional, I also made a crash site and the drone won't be glued to its flight stand.  This will let me place it on the "crash site" until it is reactivated at which point it can be popped onto its stand as its escorted off the table.

Last but not least, I've also taken steps to base the first of my Ghar force, namely the command crawler and some of the battle suits.

I still need to finish the three last battle suits and dig out the outcasts to slap some paint on them, but I like how these are looking so far.  It's definitely been a busy but productive week, and hopefully I can keep that momentum going into next week!  Until next time...

Workbench: A Whole New World... But We Ain't Talkin' About Aladdin Here!

I've been really happy with the tie dye fleece "table" that I picked up.  True, I haven't had a chance to actually play on the full size version but I like how it looked for the games that I threw it over the table.  I also found that it worked quite well when cut down for covering some of my terrain pieces.  They aren't going to win any awards but they will definitely suffice for putting together a table on the cheap.

Since then, I've been keeping an eye on the prices at Joann to see if they are having another sale.  The one cloth worked so well, why not get another?  Since I already have a nice green surface, I figured it was time to mix things up and I was looking at the tie dye khaki... and then inspiration struck!

Why does it have to be khaki?  They had other colors available and I've found that the variety of terrain that people have used for Antares to be really evocative.  Looking at the other colors, there was a nice royal blue, a rich looking purple, and a shockingly bright yellow.  In the end, I decided to go with the yellow just for something different.  Now this is a really bright yellow and my realistic mind was intrigued as the possibility but somewhat daunted.  For inspiration, I hit the interwebs to see if there was any artwork for this kind of a landscape to use for inspiration and couldn't believe what I found.

The Pinnacle Desert located in Nambung National Park in Australia is exactly what I was looking for, but I didn't think that a desert with such brilliantly yellow sand would actually be a real thing.  I already have some desert style terrain which is good (spiky bushes and the like, plus the terrain I'd made for Kar'A Nine).  I also have critters that I've started painting up just so I can add some fauna into the mix.  Still more work to be done, but I'm excited to open up to another world.

As for the battle reports I've been doing, there are more on the way. I've just been quite busy with work the past couple of weeks which has caused the slight slowdown.  I think things will start to smooth out some next week, and I'll be taking my Ghar home over the holiday break so I can get some more work done on them.  Heck, I might even get the full 500 point force painted which would be great.  It's always better to field painted armies in my book.  Until next time...