Sunday Afternoon's alright for Fighting

Battle Lines

Alpha testing of my card based pub carpark skirmish game with new improved GIF action!

Hooligans from Ainsty, scratch built carpark. Each player has 4 figures and a pack of 64 cards of appalling actions.

Offensive actions include Taunting (swearing) and Argey-Bargey (pushing and shoving) with the nuclear option of Tooling Up.

Fight 1 - Football Hooligans win

You lose cards to damage (and insults) and the player who loses all cards first loses the battle and is routed from the carpark. Drunkenness is a factor as is expert coordination of your team as your the number of cards you draw each turn is based on proximity of the supporting figures to the main protagonist.

Fight 2 - Skinheads win

Certain actions cause the police to appear who will act on aggressive acts, moved by the other player, until the police officer comes into contact with a troublemaker who then gets whisked off down to the station for an appointment with a set of stairs.

Skinheads rout the Football Hooligans

More mindless violence to come, probably.

The Saga of Felonmarmer continues...

 After a lengthy period of inactivity, here comes a bit of Saga. Anglo Saxons finished and pitted against a ruthless invading force of Vikings.

The Anglo Saxons at home to visitors

The full army consists of four groups of 12 Ceorls (Levy) armed with spear and shield (warrior-lite), two groups of 8 Thegns (Warriors), one group of 4 Ealdormen (Hearthguard) on foot and one group mounted, and the Warlord, who can also be mounted if feeling suicidal.

I need to get some bow armed Levy to add a bit more variation, maybe more warriors too.

For this 6 point battle, I picked the mounted Ealdomen, two units of Thegns (one as a 12 man unit and the other as a 4 man unit to hang about with the warlord), and three units of Ceorls.

Facing them the Viking army consisting of three 4 man Hirdman (one of which were berserkers), two 8 men Bondi and one group of bow armed Thralls.

The Warlords meet to discuss terms	The Battle The terrain was quite bare, one hill that ended up on my left rear, and one large building centrally located. I set up across the table edge, well spaced out, cavalry on the right (away from the Viking bows). The Vikings set up to the left of the building, leaving the right flank free Turn 1 The Vikings advance, 1 unit of Bondi turning to hold off a flanking movement by the Anglo Saxons. The Anglo Saxons counter, sending the cavalry right round the flank (taking a fatigue) and charging into to building (also gaining a fatigue). Turn 2 The Viking Hirdmen attack the building but are repelled by the Saxon Levy, who take three casualties The Viking beserkers and their warlord attack the Anglo Saxon warrior unit causing many casualties, using the power of Thor to force an extended melee. The Anglo Saxons fail to hurt the warlord but the beserkers expend themselves with valour (apart from one lone survivor) We had to re-fight this after mistaking the warriors for levy the first time round as well as mistiming the use of abilities, fatigue etc. (Well it was our first game of these rules, and the first melee of the battle!) The remaining Anglo Saxon warriors take a break to recover fatigue. Turn 3 The Viking warlord and remaining beserker charge back in, killing all but 2 warriors for the cost of the last beserker. The remaining Saxon warriors fall back and take no further part in the battle. Anglo Saxon ceorls advance on the left flank towards a bondi unit. The smaller, 4 man warrior unit move forward to shield the Anglo Saxon warlord. Turn 4 The other Viking Hirdmen unit advances to support their warlord. The Viking Thrall archers move up and kill most of the small warrior unit. Anglo Saxons go on the offensive with some helmet/horsey action and get the Saxon Kingdom ability going - All the levies now count as warriors for the rest of the turn. The force in the building charge out and do some damage to the Hirdmen outside before being repelled back, then the unit on the right side of the building charge in finishing the job. On the left flank, the Ceorls charge into the Bondi and push them back. Round about here the fog of war and poor memory take toil and a gap in the photostream doesn't help either! In summary the Vikings do some more damage with their archers before falling back while the Saxons advance on the left flank. The cavalry charge in on the Bondi holding the flank and get exterminated, but defeat most of them but fail to get through to the archers. Turn 6 The Viking warlord charges single-handed into battle with the Ceorl unit on the left flank who pile on the order dice (Horsey, Axe, Axe and Helmet) on Defenders of the Realm, and Combat Pool for 6 extra attack dice and manage to defeat him for the loss of all but one man
The Viking Warlord The Vikings advance!
Anglo Saxons move off
Hirdmen try to take the building.
Beserkers!
After the beserker fight.
Ceorls advance!
Time to leave the building (for a bit)
More Hirdmen
Viking Warlord works out a new plan
Ceorls push the Bondi back
Victorious Saxons at the Building
Vikings retreat towards their boats.
Half the cavalry dead but will that stop them, unfortunately no
Vikings ponder their future.
The Viking warlord makes his way to Valhalla...
...helped on his way by Saxon Ceorls

Summary

The casualties on the Saxon side were appalling - we lost more than the Vikings, however we started with more and they lost more expensive troops.

It was a close battle and could have swung either way near the end, but watching the dead Saxons pile up off table at twice the rate of the Viking casualties it looked like ending up with a loss right up to the end, however looking back the victory points were closer to parity if not slightly in my favour.

There you go! A tabletop battle finally after a long pause, and an army finally painted after lurking shamefully on my bookshelf in undercoats for many months.

Hopefully more to come.

Merry Christmas One and All

Back at the beginning of December, my Traveller sub-blog FelonTrav got nominated for a  Liebster Blog Award by Mr Kobold over at Waystar High Port. As the Traveller blog is on hold at the moment until I can resolve the problem of all the player's characters being banged up in pokey for piracy and other nefarious dealings, I'm responding in this blog instead (which is marginally more updated - must do better in the new year!)

The blog award is a self propelled chain letter kind of deal, focussing on blogs with less than 200 followers, which unfortunately excludes a bunch of blogs that I regularly frequent.



The Rules

• Copy and paste the award to your blog, linking it to the blog who nominated you.
• Pass the award to your top five blogs with less than 200 followers by leaving a comment on one of their blog posts to notify them that they have won the award and list them on your own blog.
• Sit back and bask in that warm fuzzy feeling of knowing that you have made someone's day

There is no obligation to pass this onto anyone but it is nice if you do.

Now a bit of internet searching on the origin of this award gives me the following..."The Liebster Blog Award is indeed what I've originally thought except for some one minor difference. Once you accept your award you have to nominate 3-5 favorite bloggers who have less than 3,000 readers."

So, while this may break the latest version of the rules, it may be fine for the original rules, but what the heck, here we go...

Waystar High Port

 In a spectacular bit of feedback loopage, my first nomination goes right back to the chap who nominated me. Kobold's Waystar High Port is a Traveller blog, the SciFi roleplaying game with its origins back in the 1970's. Notable highlights include the Traveller A to Z series and the current ongoing Aloin's Saga, a series following the career of an apprentice merchant spaceman.

ClearHorizon

This nomination for Mr Harold's 15mm SF blog is also a little bit of feedback loopage, being one of Kobolds other nominations (who would have thought, people who liked my blog also like blogs I like, wierd huh?). Particular favourite posts include the Shadowrun terrain and vehicles which are very nice pieces of painting and construction, as well as excellently photographed.

Wargaming Girl

This one breaks the rules, as Tamsin has close to 300 followers at last count (but this would have been OK under the original rules so consider the rules broken). I started my blog at the same time as Tamsin's and she was one of the first followers of my blog (and sub-blogs) and vice versa. Reading her accounts of the Dark Ages Saga games inspired me to dig out my old Gripping Beast miniatures and get them painted (well assembled and primered for most off them so far). Of all the blog writers I read, she is one of the most prolific both in posting and painting.

Dux Homunculorum

Also breaking the rules slightly, I found Dux's blog by searching for Saga Roman rules. He has produced a variant for the late Roman period for the 4th and 5th centuries. Lots of good posts and photos.

Painting Agency

Allison M's blog gets us back on track for the less than 200 followers rule. Some very nice painting, particularly the nazi zombies from the Norwegian zombie movie Dead Snow (easily my favourite Norwegian nazi zombie movie of all time).
 
I See Lead People

Has to be the best named blog ever for miniatures. Breaks the rules at 316 followers, but so full of excellent painting and sculpting that it has to be included also.

Ah that's 6 nominations also, of which 3 break the rules on number of followers. So 3 of them are official nominations and 3 of them are for the newly devised Felonmarmer's Awards for blogs I like (the other 3 also) which has no rules whatsoever.

Bugs and Flyers (and Flying Bugs)

Been a bit quiet in here lately (blame Minecraft), but I do hear a faint buzzing in the air. Oh no, it's an attack from those pesky Parasachnids from Khurasan! Quick wind up the wndows and dig out the bug spray!

A military transport gets trapped on the bridge, while a grav car makes use of his technology to get past

The police grav skimmer sent to investigate gets harassed by flying bugs

Only four bugs cause this much fuss, imagine how bad it will be when the rest get painted!

In the van, the troopers try to remember their Alien quotes.

Parasachnids Bugs and Grav Cars from Khurasan, Police van is a 1:85 model from a German online model shop (which one,  I forget). Clear resin flying bases from Ainsty.

Also I've been nominated for a blog award, with some conditions to pass on the happiness, for my Traveller Blog by Mr Kobold over at Waystar High Port, The Traveller Blog is in hiatus at the moment as all the players where locked up in prison for piracy and the campaign has been stalled for a while, so I may post my recomendations on here instead, if that's OK with Mr Kobold. I'll need to consider 5 nominations myself before I can post it. One might be going straight back to Waystar High Port for a very tight feedback loop! This may break the internet so be warned!

Back in Time

As bit of a departure from the usual, here's a couple of photos of some Gripping Beast plastic Anglo Saxons, that I'm painting for a Saga army. Background houses are 4Ground laser cut MDF jobs - still got a faint whiff of burnt wood about them that a real one with wood fires would have! Less of the other smells associated with the time period though thankfully.

4 plastics (left), one metal (right) Gripping Beasts

Close up on the Warlord (right) and his best mate with a 2 handed axe (bit of a conversion job)

Only loads more to do!

Desert Polecat

Khurasan's Polecat Light Armoured Vehicle painted in desert digital camouflage. Here used to support a team of Khurasan's DEVGRU SEAL's at their camp in the burning sands of Erytipium III.

Right hand side

Front view

Left Hand Side

Another Front View

Closeup

 This time I painted them all by hand without using masking tape. With the high level of detail on the Polecat, masking tape becomes more of a hindrance.

Lettering from my 1:48 Chinook spare transfers and an upside down Letraset V. Background image from Arizona I believe. Close up ground from a brown T-shirt. Lighting courtesy of the big yellowy object in the sky shining through my kitchen window, diffused somewhat by an overcast sky - probably the best ambient light source you can make use of, so long as you use a tripod.

Urban Polecat

Khurasan's Polecat Light Armoured Vehicle painted in urban digital camouflage. Accompanied by a section of Khurasan's DEVGRU SEAL's as they patrol a ruined section of the city on the hunt for a suspected alien creature.

Front View : "Maybe it doesn't show up in infrared at all."

Left Side : "You're reading it wrong, that's in the polecat"

Right Side : "We should take off and nuke the site from orbit"

Rear View : "This city is headed for a disaster of biblical proportions."

Painting technique was this:

Spray gray with Army Painter base coat, then apply small rectangles of masking tape, stipple paint with darker gray (following Mr Harolds guide on his blog).

Thought about putting on a more rectangles to do a darker coat, but on realising it'll end up jet black, went for a 2 tone pattern instead.

Peeled of most of the rectangles and then realised as the Polecat was highly detailed the edges of the squares were not very distinct as the paint got under the masking tape due to the raised detail.

Ended up tidying the squares up by hand and then  painted in a lighter set of squares by hand anyway.

Symbols and text from some letraset and some spare water slide transfers from a helicopter model.

Background image from scenicreflections, foreground ruins from me, asphalt road surface by Metcalfe Models. Giant alien bug hiding in the ruins from Khurasan.

Little Green Men

Taking advantage of 15mm.co.uk's recent 10% off deal on Dropship Horizon, I bought a pack of aliens for something to do while waiting for my Khurasan order.which has been delayed a bit.

Not entirely sure of the paint job as it stands, but here's some photos anyway...

A patrol on the way to the local farm for a bit of probing

Meanwhile the rest of the landing party scare some humans they stopped on the road

Looking for some cows to mutilate

The aliens keep a lookout from the bridge

A one man (alien) saucer with PPPS type engine and an attempt at a SENMM paint job

The saucer hovers in front of the bridge

The saucer with the top off. I'll be looking for a small transparent dome to replace the painted metal one

The lead alien cackles evilly while his technicians prepare their probes

Harook Support Troops

I've finished 7 of my 20 Harook Support Troops. 1 sniper, 4 SAW gunners and 2 Plasma gunners. They sport my usual Harook multi-coloured head and tail feathers.

Back Left : Sniper.  Front Left : Plasma Gunner. Back Right : SAW Gunner

Two Harook fireteams move into the ruins

The sniper lines up his shot

The second squad move into the ruins