The Big Three-Six, and Something Even Bigger! Err, Smaller?

Let's start off with the big news, as you can see from the image above, I've got a new miniature! This pretty much speaks for itself, needless to say I'm very excited. For those keeping score at home, we've got one child (err, did), and she'll be eight by the time the second one is born. The due date, by the way, is the day after my firstborn's birthday! Now I can say cool things like "firstborn" too. Also, despite my "failed a dex check" comment a little while back, no this was not an happy accident, but something we've been planning on, so...huzzah!

In other news, today is my 36th birthday! For some reason that doesn't sound too old to me, and I've always liked the number '36' anyway, it's nice and even, so methinks this is going to be a good year. Coupled with the above baby news, make that a great year!


Oh, and while we're on a personal note, and speaking of next year...I've also found gainful employment! After a year languishing in unemployment, substitute teaching, and teaching part-time in a private school I finally locked down something more permanent. I'll be starting the public school year this fall as a second grade teacher. So yeah, new baby on the way, birthday today, full-time job doing what I love...2010 is going to be awesome.

And I painted my 150th miniature for the year just last night as well!

Mokele-Mbembe Thursday!

Deathwatch Kill-Team: Name Those Battle Brothers!

The first five Deathwatch troopers are done of my big batch. I have no idea how I chose these five, because they're not a squad by themselves, they're actually from all three kill-teams I had devised in the original planning. These guys were a blast to paint up, but the pics didn't turn out quite like I had hoped, the Black Templar for instance looks way too shiny when in person he's really not. I was going for a semi-gloss look to the armor however.

From the title of the post you might be wondering how we're going to name these guys. I stole this idea form the Sons of Taurus blog (which is really cool and should be checked out for sure) and I thought I'd try it here. SoT invited readers to name members of his Traitor Guard army, I got to name the Rough Rider tramplemaster "Gyro", which was cool.

Well, let's do the same kind of thing here, but there's a slight catch. You have to have had, or currently have, an army of the Battle Brother's particular chapter to name him. For instance, if you've got a Black Templar army, ahem BJ, you'd have first shot at naming the above Black Templar. If this is too restrictive, we'll just open it up to whoever wants to name a guy, but chapter holders get first dibs. Just leave a comment below, say who you are, what chapter you represent on the tabletop, and what the Battle Brother's new name is going to be. It can be whatever you want as like as it sounds, you know, stalwart defending soldier of the vast dominion of man, kind of name, no "Sgt. McFluffy McFlufferson" or whatever.


Apothecary: Ultramarine


Tactical Marine: Ultramarine


Tactical Marine: Salamander


Tactical Marine: Blood Angel Brother Malach


Tactical Marine: Black Templar


The shoulder pads are what make a Deathwatch team so fun, and even though everyone has the same color armor, you still get lots of variety here. As you can see, I'm sticking to chapters whose decals I have access to, I'm not feeling up to free-handing this stuff. This does mean I'll miss out some of the more flavorful chapter icons, like Space Sharks!


Not only did I try to individualize them by shoulder pads, but I also tried to paint each Battle Brother's gear in different and unique ways. Left to right up top; the Blood Angel has a short sword in a red scabbard, the Ultramarine has leather pouches and a holster, but the Salamander has green pouches, an assortment of grenades, and a Kroot pistol which I'm passing off as some kind of dueling laspistol trophy from some past campaign.


I only had a single apothecary backpack, nothing else, so I had to get creative for the rest of the medic's (left) accoutrements. An ammo missile pack, painted up to match the pack, came out looking not half bad and can certainly pass off as syringes and the like.

For the Black Templar (right) I went with white gear to match his shoulder pad. I really like the way these turned out too, it's a great contrast to the black armor, yet is so simple to pull off. The combat knife is from second edition, and the backpack is from the Games Day Emperor's Champion model that came out a while back.


Here's a shot of all seven Deathwatch members so far. As you can see, in addition to individualized gear, I also mixed of the colors of the boltguns for each trooper as well to further each trooper's distinction. This pic includes the most recent five I just painted up, Brother Elyas for the upcoming RPG, and my original test model. It's doubtful these guys will actually see action in an 'official' game of 40k. I intend to use them as PC avatars in upcoming games of Deathwatch, as well as "impossible odds" type special forces scenarios using the 5150 rules or the like. I still have my copy of Inquisitor as well, maybe dust those off a bit as well. By the way, go to the Specialist Games section of GW, and those Inquisitor rules are free!

Some More Descent

Nothing much to report here, except some more Descent last week. We didn't have a large mid-week crowd, Andy and Chrispy were both absent, but luckily Chri3 showed up with his little brother in tow. I say "little", he was twelve, but that still meant I had to watch my language. My brother-in-law Jake showed up to. Jake's kind of zany, he is full of raw geek potential, but he has never gamed a day in his life. He brings both an unbridled enthusiasm and a completely random, out-of-left-field unpredictability to the table. It's never dull.

So we cranked out some Descent. You know what? This really is a great game. It's got simple mechanics that are easy to pick up and run with, yet can get complex enough to give you options and feel like you're actually using your brain. The components of the main box are just amazing, and you get so many figures, cards, tokens, board pieces, and the like that's it's jaw dropping. And the replay value is outstanding, and that's not including the expansion sets or the boxed sets designed just for extended campaigning.

You could play this game weekly, literally for a year straight, and never get tired or bored with it. With my group we bounce around too much to make it a regular thing, but it would be nice nonetheless. For dungeon-crawl, RPG-lite action, it's pretty got it all.

For some closeup pics of a couple of painted character models, check out the Adepticus Prime blog, there's some great shots there.

Ragnarr's Revenge

I saved the best for last of the three BrianCon battles. This of course is hard to say when all of the gaming were in and of themselves awesome, every one of them! To conclude the day we broke out Pig Wars and kicked it into Viking gear once again. I'll let the photos do most of the talking here, suffice it to say we had six full-sized, fully painted warbands on the tabletop as well as some amazingly cool terrain and scenery. I pasted the text in places below that details the overall scenario of the battle, special rules used in conjunction with the stockade, and each individual player's goals and initiatives. Brian did a great job on these, and even though it was technically three versus three, players on the same side quickly found that their own goals ran in direct opposition with their allies. Onward!



No Good Deed Goes Unpunished:

After getting into a feud with the clansmen of Erik the Vain, who Sigmar accidentally drowned while trying to baptize, Sigmar is on the lam and has requested Christian charity and succor from the tenants of an Irish rath settlement. Sigmar might not have been entirely honest with his hosts as to the size of the band pursuing him, but it’s too late now, as Erik’s clansmen have surrounded the fortified farm. One of Sigmar’s men went for help and Sigmar’s clansmen are may be on their way.

A fairly empty stockade, as most are out working in the fields...

Irish scouts call everyone to action as they take refuge in the fort

CHARGE! Ragnarr leads his band of berserkers and warriors to the walls

Ragnarr Ketilsson's Mission:

At last. Your people are awakening to the danger the men of the cross pose to your people and their ways. The murderer Ignolsson must be punished with death. Leiknarr is weak to even accept an offer of cattle for his son’s life and place in Vahalla. Imagine how the Gods must laugh at a death by drowning while bowing to a god of peace. You will not suffer such a fate! You’ll die a warriors death, but not before earning as much glory as you can.

Forces: one 140 point Viking band – must have berserkers.

Goals:

Personally slay more enemy than any other leader on the table

Kill Sigmar Ignolsson

Kill any priests you encounter

End the game with more warriors + cattle or slaves than you started with.

Brothers of Ragnarr and their Missions:

Skógi Ketilsson

With Erik’s “untimely” death, you are next in line to inherit Leiknarr’s wealth. It would be a shame if the old man died on the battlefield today but even if he doesn’t, your time will come soon enough. Of course, you must do your part to restore the clan’s honor or your men will abandon you. It would be a shame to simply kill Ignolsson when you could extract a reasonable price in cattle from him. Vengeance is fleeting, but wealth lasts. That unstable lunatic Ragnarr would also be trouble…

Force: one 140 point Viking band – may include berserkers

Goals:

Survive the encounter

Extract a blood price of not less than 30 head of cattle from Ignolsson

End the game with more strength than Ragnar

End the game with more warriors + cattle or slaves than you started with.

Leiknarr Ketilsson

Pah! What a mess. Serves your idiot son right for defying the old gods and hanging around with that defiler Ignolsson. Still, honor demands that your son be avenged or that Ignolsson pay an appropriate price. Fortunately you have friends in the Thing that were agreeable to the price you suggested. Once he is desperate enough, he’ll find a way to pay the price… or he’ll be dead. Either way is good for you.

Forces: one 140 point Viking band – may have berserkers.

Goals:

Survive the encounter

Kill Sigmar Ignolsson or extract a blood price of not less than 40 head of cattle.

End the game with more warriors + cattle or slaves than you started with.

Scenario Special Rules (Pig Wars system):

Scaling the stockade

To climb the stockade walls, a model draws a card and consults the table below.

Unarmored 8 or better to successful scale the wall

Partially armored 10 or better to successfully scale the wall

Fully armored Q or better to successfully scale the wall

A model may be helped over the wall by up to two friends. In this case, draw a card for each man and choose the best one. A model may not use a shield during a turn spent climbing or helping another model climb. The suit of the card drawn determines how the model lands. On a red card the model lands on his feet and is ready for action. On a spade, the model has fallen clumsily and is stunned. Place the model prone. Anyone attacking the model treats it as a rear attack until the prone model’s next turn during which he may stand and act normally. If the card is a club, the model suffers will suffer a wound if it falls the entire height of the wall. If being helped over the wall and he model failed his climb test, he will instead fall on his helpers, cushioning his fall, but stunning all of them as above. If the model is climbing the wall at a place where there the fall would not be great, they are stunned instead. If the model’s card exactly equals the required card, they are caught halfway and are perched precariously atop the wall until next turn. Next turn draw a new card to determine how the model lands. A model may not scale the wall at any location that could be defended by an enemy model.

Hard Cover

A model with at least 2/3 concealment behind an obstacle that would provide hard cover and stop a missile may save against missile attacks at two levels higher than normal.

Ragnarr and his elite berserkers

I was playing Ragnarr's band, which is why they got top billing, and I made the most direct attack on the fort, but that was just a small part of the overall battle. There was action occurring all over the table! Getting into the fort was hard enough, but more Irish were coming out of woods and attacking our flanks and rear. It was very exciting to say the least.

My goal was to get in there and crack some skulls, very straight forward, but Andy (my ally) was trying to parlay first in order to get some cattle for the loss of his son. That fell through, and he joined the fray after all. Ken, the last brother, was embroiled in no-man's land between the archers and slingers on the stockade walls and the Irish coming out of the woods.

At one point, the Irish in the fort who had been sheltering Sigmar (Brian's warband) decided it was no longer worth it, and Bob's warband (Sigmar) was in dire straits indeed, and didn't have an ally in sight! Tom played the Irish coming out of the woods, and his morale checks didn't fair too well. I guess I wouldn't either if I returned from hunting to see my home absolutely swamped with berserkers!

Ragnarr's dead filled the woods

The remaining agendas and goals for the rest of the players:

Brion Mac Domhnaill

You have offered Sigmar protection and can hardly go back on your word to protect a fellow believer from the pagans. However, it seems your guest has been less than forthright about his predicament. Your lookouts have spotted Sigmars men approaching. Hopefully you can hold out until they arrive.

Forces: one 140 point band, a small group of non-combatants (all unarmored militia with improvised weapons), and 20 cattle and assorted livestock.

Goals:

Survive the encounter

Protect the non-combatants and if needed, see them to safety

Preserve your livestock

Preserve Sigmar

The Irish start the game in their rath. They may bring any and all livestock into the rath or have it hobbled and hidden in a wooded area. Anyone moving within 6” of the woods will hear mooing and if they enter the cattle will be revealed. You may also choose to hide any of your men you wish in any of the wooded areas. They will be revealed only if an enemy enters the woods or when you choose to place them on-table at the start of any of your moves (required to move or fight with these models). Most of the non-combatants were sent away, but a small number remain inside the fort. You may arrange any of the provided barrels, wagons, etc. in any way you choose.

There is a souterrain under the floor of the larger hut with a passage out of the rath that exits at the large bush on the north side of the mound. Four models per turn may move from the rath to the exit.

Sigmar Ingolsson

Damn Erik and his ridiculous vanity, demanding to be baptized in his armor. Now his father is demanding 50 head of cattle to satisfy the blood price. A ridiculous sum, but the pagans take their feuds seriously. You have 20 cattle, but not 50! Hopefully your men will reach this place in time…

Forces: one 140 point Viking band. Christian – may not take berserkers

Goals:

Survive the encounter

Either kill the leaders of the Ketilsson clan or negotiate a new blood price that you can afford.

If the end is nigh, find a priest to receive last rites

Sigmar starts the game in the rath with the Irish. He is accompanied by up to 4 of his followers, which can include no more than 2 veterans and cannot include the standard bearer. The standard bearer and the rest of the followers will enter from a pre-determined table edge on turn one.

Gunnvaldr Ingolsson

You have followed your brother’s lead and accepted the Christian faith, but with less gusto and more trepidation than your brother. This episode with Erik seems like a message from the Old Gods and many of your men agree. Still the bonds of clan must be satisfied and destroying the Ketilsson clan strength would improve your own position. Perhaps if they can be reduced in strength, a bargain can be struck for your brother’s honor. Of course, if your brother were to die in battle you would be left to lead the clan…

Forces: one 140 point Viking band. Christian – may not take berserkers

Goals:

Survive the encounter

Either kill the leaders of the Ketilsson clan or negotiate a new blood price that you can afford.

End the game with more strength than your brother and with the Ignolssons stronger than the Ketilssons

Enter from a pre-determined table edge on turn one.

Me and Artie

Scrolling through my subscribed blogs the other evening I ran across a nice Lovecraftian mythos collage on the diceRolla's blog. Oh, and as a hint to any fledgling bloggers out there, it's the pictures that grab me first and foremost, not titles or text blocks!

Well I'm glad it did grab me 'cause what Papa JJ posted was a literary analyzing site called "I Write Like". Basically you put in your pasted text and it "analyzes" your work and comes up with a close match to which famous author your style most closely resembles. The only two qualitative factors it mentions are "writing style" and "word choice". Apparently this thing has gone viral all over the place and it's little more than a lark, but it's still fun. Fun in the same vain as like, "what's your pirate name?", or "which Flash Gordon character are you?". I made up that last one, but it's one I'd like to see none the less!

Anyway, all I did was take my text from my post on the recent space station skirmish battle we had, popped it in the ole analyzer, and voila, Arthur C. Clarke. Whoa, he's like, all good and stuff when it comes to sci-fi writing! Am I the next Arthur C. Clarke? No, but it's still a fun diversion nonetheless. I can't boast anything like ole Artie, it's still nice to think about. Looking at the photo, that's basically me in forty years anyway. Enjoy!

I write like
Arthur C. Clarke

I Write Like by Mémoires, Mac journal software. Analyze your writing!

The Battle of Hannut, 1940

The massive battlefield


The Battle of Hannut (not to be confused with the Battle of Gembloux Gap)^[9] was a Second World War battle fought during the Battle of Belgium which took place between 12 and 14 May 1940 at Hannut, Belgium. At the time, it was the largest tank battle of the war,^[10] only to be surpassed later by other engagements during the North African Campaign and on the German-Soviet front.

The primary purpose of the engagement at Hannut was to tie down strongest elements of the 1st French Army and remove it from Army Group A's main thrust through the Ardennes, as laid out in the German operational plan Fall Gelb, or "Case Yellow", by General Erich von Manstein. The German breakout of the Ardennes was scheduled for 15 May, five days after the German invasions of the Netherlands and Belgium. The delay was to entice the Allies into believing the main thrust would, like the Schlieffen Plan in World War I, come through Belgium and into France. When the Allied armies advanced into Belgium, they would be tied down by diversionary German offensive operations in eastern Belgium, at Hannut and Gembloux. With the Ardennes flank exposed, the German thrust to the English Channel would encircle and destroy the Allied forces.

The Germans reached the Hannut area just two days after the invasion of Belgium. The French and their Allies did win a series of delaying tactical engagements early in the battle, but failed to prevent the collapse of the Belgian front. The German battle plan succeeded in tying down substantial Allied forces that were removed from the path of the decisive blow through the Ardennes. However, the Germans failed to neutralise the French 1st Army completely, which once again scored tactical successes at the battle of Gembloux, during the 14—15 May. Although seriously damaged it was able retreat to Lille, where it delayed the Wehrmacht and assisted in the British Expeditionary Force' escape from Dunkirk. -WikiPedia

There have been talks for some time of the historical group I game with to start doing some early war in France using the Piquet-based Field of Battle rules. This was the first of hopefully many to come, and is the game we kicked BrianCon off with.


As usual, the tabletop is an incredibly detailed battlefield



The German tank columns line up at the river's edge


German air support came storming overhead


French infantry defend a hamlet by the river


The main town of Hannut itself


Brian's awesome French command stand, check out those wine bottles!


More French forces defending another riverside village


I absolutely love Field of Battle as a rules set. I was excited to jump into some WWII gaming, and I'm sure I'll be playing a bunch of Flames of War, but I'd like to get in just as much gaming with these rules as well. As you can see, you use decks of cards per side, each one tailored towards that particular army. The cards allow you to do actions on your turn, but only then, it's entirely possible that your army doesn't get a 'move' card for a few turns in a row. The same thing goes for reloading, off-table support, and the like. By using the random decks, the 'fog of war' is simulated nicely on the tabletop. Remember, each deck may be random, but they still favor the particular nature of whatever army you've got, or can be tailored to reflect a particular scenario. I'm not doing the system justice here, pasted below is the blurb from the Piquet Store.

Field of Battle: WW2 covers the World War 2 era from 1939 through 1945. Field of Battle: WW2 is a stand alone game - no additional supplements are necessary for play. Field of Battle: WW2 includes ratings and organizational charts for the British, French, German, Polish, Italian, Japanese, Soviet, and United States armies.

Field of Battle: WW2 is designed to give players the feel for commanding battalions, regiments, divisions, and more in a miniature WW2 environment. Games with a division per side can easily be resolved in 2 to 4 hours. Field of Battle: WW2 is designed using game processes used in the popular Field of Battle rules that gives all players an equal opportunity to act during the game.

Field of Battle: WW2 is not a game of skirmishes or low level actions, but rather one of battles of up to Division size or larger.

Field of Battle: WW2 uses companies as the combat element, and battalions as the maneuver element.

The only troops represented as units on the tabletop are maneuver and combat elements - infantry companies, armor companies, and anti-tank gun/artillery companies. There are no Heavy Weapon companies – no separate machine gun or mortar units. The effects of supporting machine gun and mortar companies are abstracted in the game mechanics and card system.

Storm Wardens Big Event Today, Live!

The Storm Wardens Project is coming to a close, and its time to draw the winner of the Army, but even if you don't win the army, there are other prizes which will also be up for grabs!

The prize drawing will be live online on Jawaballs Live, on a special broadcast Sunday July 25th, 2Pm EST, or 11AM PST

You can check out the army miniatures and other awesome goodies on the Storm Wardens Army page.

Here are some of the additional prizes which are also up for grabs:

Kirk from Siegeworld is all about Apocalypse, and went big by offering up a Forge World Eldar Vampire Hunter. Here's the Forge World pic, the prize today is not fully assembled or painted.

The guys at Bolter & Chainsword have been helping us spread the word and also sent us an awesome, super limited edition deck of custom cards with some amazing 40k artwork, this was an admin only exclusive that was not for sale, and its just amazing, you can see some more of the awesomeness at the bottom of this page at B&C, they also threw in a rare B&C patch for the winner.

Everyone needs an airbrush, so Santa Cruz Warhammer pitched in a brand new Badger 175 dual action setup with all the trimmings and connectors for canned or compressor air.

Justin at Secret Weapon Miniatures, keeps hooking us up with the goods, pitching in $50 bucks worth of Secret Weapon glory.

And here at Miks Minis, I'm giving up a NIB Chaos Daemon Prince coupled with the most current Chaos Space Marine Codex.

Rumor has it there are some Tickets to Games Day USA up for grabs too, so tune in and keep your fingers crossed. If you miss the live show we will be contacting the winners and posting the results after the show.

Now don't forget, all of those great prizes listed are for the runner-ups. The big enchilada, covered in awesome sauce, served up with a side of rock-and-rolly is the above Storm Wardens Army. We didn't even get all of the units photographed in time, so it's even bigger than what you see. Throw in a signed copy of Deathwatch by the author Ross Watson, and you've got one heck of a grand finale!

Good Luck!

Too Close for Missiles...err, Maybe Not!

During the Libyan-Egyptian War, there were some skirmishes between Libyan and Egyptian fighter jets. In one instnace, two LARAF MiG-23MS engaged two EAF MiG-21MF which had been upgraded to carry Western weaponry. The Libyan pilots made the mistake of trying to manoeuvre with the more nimble Egyptian fighters, and one MiG-23MS was shot down by Maj. Sal Mohammad, while the other used the speed advantage to escape. -WikiPedia


Andy's "claims" of being divinely protected saved him...even here!


Egyptian MIGs and two ground defense units


A near miss!



Missile contrails filled the middle-eastern skies



The orange trails denote hitting the afterburners



Two missiles fail miserably, missing their mark by a mile


Libyan bombing runs decimated ground units


Check Your 6! was one of the three "BrianCon" games we played, and as always it didn't disappoint. I hadn't had a chance to play with the jet rules yet, and man, they were cool. Speeds were off the charts, we had missiles, attack ranges were vast, and we had afterburners. Mind you, all of these extra mechanics didn't muddle up the rules or make them any harder to play. CY6! is a great game with tight rules that allow even brand new players to jump right into the action and pretty much know what they're doing by the second or third turn. I've played in a handful of games, and every one of them has been enjoyable, here they are.


...and now from the "what if" files, laser guns!