X-Wing After Hours!

Andrew and I had a little spare time after work last night so we decided to have a quick game of X-Wing. This subsequently triggered the realisation that it has been around 12 months since I had a game... damn, going to have to rectify this situation and play some more. In order to maximise my fun I decided to take models I had never used and quickly put together a list.

Captain Yorr (Lambda Class Shuttle)  24 points
- Gunner - 5 points
- Blaster Turret - 4 points
- Anti Pursuit Lasers - 2 points

Sabre Squadron Pilot (TIE Interceptor) - 21 points
- Adrenaline Rush - 1 point

Sabre Squadron Pilot (TIE Interceptor) - 21 points
- Adrenaline Rush - 1 point

Sabre Squadron Pilot (TIE Interceptor) - 21 points

Facing up against Andrew's Heroes of the Rebellion list:

Wedge Antilles (X-Wing) - 29 points
- R2-D2 - 4 points
- Proton Torpedoes - 4 points

"Dutch" Vander (Y-Wing) - 23 points
- Proton Torpedoes - 4 points

Ten Numb (B-Wing)- 31 points
- Ion Cannon - 3 points

My plan was to use the Lambda bus up front to absorb some damage and hopefully get in the way, using the Anti-Pursuit Lasers to score some free hits whilst the Blaster Turret kept it in the fight. In a second wave would be the TIE Interceptors, using their Adrenaline Rush cards to remove stress tokens, as well as Captain Yorr's ability to do the same.

Apologies for the quality of the photos as it was the iPhone to the rescue with pretty average office lighting!

Andrew deployed in the centre whilst I was off on one side, we both moved towards each other

I started to turn into him, with the Interceptors moving a little slower. The B-Wing and Shuttle traded shots, knocking out a few shields.

Up in each others faces there was a flurry of fire, the Shuttle loosing the last of it shields whilst the B-Wing took a pounding from the Blaster Turret and one Interceptor. Wedge lost his shields to some fine shooting from the middle Interceptor.

The B-Wing makes a dash for safety but is finished by the Blaster Turret on the Shuttle whilst everyone else flies past each other.

K-turns were the order of the day, Dutch and Wedge team up to knock out an Interceptor but Wedge is shot down with some outstanding shooting.

Dutch goes down the middle hoping to avoid too much fire.

But after a couple of turns of maneuvering ends up in a really bad spot.

And to add insult to injury the Interceptors (which rolled really well all game) continue their streak and finish the job easily!

In the end it was an outstanding game and the result was not really indicative of how close it was, I think my tactic worked well and at the same time I think Andrew made a couple of unlucky maneuver choices. Add to the mix that the Interceptor seems like a really solid choice for the Empire with a 3, 3, -, 3 stat line, letting it put a decent number of dice into the Rebel scum. Having the option of Focusing is outstanding as well as it is my preferred option (compared with Dodging anyway) due to the versatility of its use.

We are going to have a rematch over a couple of lunchtimes to see if Andrew can square up the series.

SSU Steel Guard Ready for the Production Line!

The guys in the BF Studio have been getting quite excited about DUST ever since the announcement that we would be working with Paulo, Olivier, and the rest of the DUST team. The agreement to take over distribution of the DUST range started with the Wave 8 releases, leaving product a little thin on the ground if we wanted to get in and start building armies immediately (although the recent FFG sale has resulted that excitement building as the guys ordered some stuff to get armies started!). Luckily for me I was really interested in the release of the new Steel Guard figures (they reminded me a little of Battletech Clan "Toads") and was able to grab a couple of boxes to start building a small force.

I'd decided I wanted to paint the army, but I also wanted to make sure that I was not going crazy and spending too much time on a per figure basis so I decided to go with a primer red, straight out of the Zverograd factory look. I airbrushed the figures with Tamiya Hull Red, and then did a little highlighting from the top with a Hull Red / Dark Yellow mix. As you can see from the results I ended up with a some nice highlighting of the top surfaces that (I thought) looked really cool. I then varnished the models (and was a little disappointed at this point as the varnish really flattened out the highlighting!) and pin washed them with a MiG Productions Dark Wash. The guns was painted Vallejo Black Grey with a highlight of Oily Steel, the springs in the legs were also painted Oily Steel. The uniform and bed roll were painted English Uniform, given a quick wash with some black paint, then re-highlighted with English Uniform, and the whole model a quick (light) drybrush of Buff.

For the bases I glued on GF9 basing grit, undercoated it black, and then drybrushed on Green Grey, Stone Grey and a little Sky Grey (letting the drybush of this go over the feet and lower legs of the figure a little. Then glued on some "bricks" from the guys at Secret Weapon Miniatures just to help reinforce that Zverograd feeling.

I am pretty happy with the finished model and although there are a couple of things I am not entirely happy with, I was able to complete it quite quickly meaning I can get a small army on the table and play some games over the Christmas break! The rest of my force is undercoated and ready for the pin washing and detail work, with the HQ section currently on a plane somewhere between our factory / distribution hub in KL, and New Zealand. Once these figures are done I am definitely looking forward to painting a couple of the massive SSU tanks as well!

Battlefront and Dust!

Earlier today it was publicly announced that Battlefront would be taking over the distribution of the Dust Tactics and Dust Warfare games from Fantasy Flight. For those of you who do not know much about Dust, the game is set in 1947 and World War Two is still very much a current affair. Thanks to a mysterious substance called Vk ore the three main factions Axis (German, Italy and Japan), the Allies (USA, Britain and the Commonwealth, and France) and the SSU (Soviets and Chinese) have pushed forward techology to build wonderous walkers and flying machines. Yep, it is WW2 on steroids (and in 28mm) and I cannot wait to get a copy of the Dust Warfare rulebook to read up on the "history" and rules of the game.

It is pretty easy to tell from my blog that I am a sucker for cool models and these guys take the cake for coming up with some really cool things to put on your table. I am very excited to have the opportunity to pick up a few (nobody tell my wife) and play some games over the coming months - of course the hard part is choosing a faction. The models themselves come with a basecoat applied, as well as some decals so you can put them on the tabletop immediately, but I feel that some of the fun will definitely come from putting a little paint on. Luckily I have been sharpening up my airbrushing skills on those Vietnam choppers because these models look like they will really pop on the tabletop with a few minutes with an airbrush, some filters and a wash or two.

Stay tuned for more info!

Vader vs the Salami Dumptruck!

This weekend I headed out to my X-Wing gaming venue of choice, TCOW. Dan and I had arrange for a re-match where I would take Vader and some friends up against Horton and Salami Dumptruck!

I had also downloaded a cool app for my phone that lets you build battle reports from still images so I thought it might be a chance to give that a go as well. The results of both (the game and the app) were pretty good, and I definitely learnt some lessons... the main one being to use a decent camera (rather than the one in my phone - sorry for the blurry shots!) and that if Vader is going to get locked up by three Y-Wings with Photon Torpedoes it pays not to run in to things and lose your actions!

It was a great game, although I think I should start thinking about Rebel builds as I cannot seem to stop my ships from running into each other, so running less ships has to work in my favour!

Dan's List
Pilot: Horton Salm, Y-Wing (25)
Upgrades: Proton Torpedoes (4), Ion Cannon Turret (5), R2-D2 (4)

Pilot: "Dutch" Vander - Y-Wing (23)
Upgrades: Proton Torpedoes (4), Ion Cannon Turret (5), R5-K6 (2)

Pilot: Gold Squadron Pilot, Y-Wing (18)
Upgrades: Proton Torpedoes (4), Ion Cannon Turret (5)

My List
Pilot: Darth Vader, Tie Advanced x1 (29)
Upgrades: Squad Leader (2), Cluster Missiles (4)

Pilot: "Backstabber", Tie Fighter (16)

Pilot: "Howlrunner", Tie Fighter (18)

Pilot: "Mauler Mithel", Tie Fighter (17)

Pilot: Obsidian Squadron Pilot, Tie Fighter (13)

Vader gets a little too close and finds three Photon Torpedoes coming his way

Spoiler Alert - Final shot of the game... literally! Who says Obsidian Squadron Pilots cant shoot straight!

…2013, come on down!

I meant to be put this up a week ago but with a busy first Christmas with my son the holiday period disappeared quite quickly on me. So, on with the show!

2013 is going to be a bit of an odd hobby year for me. We are only holding one GT this year, so it means a little less incentive to work on some of my FOW projects (EW French, EW Soviets or anything Mid War). I am also unsure as to how many “away” games I will get in as it may be hard to get leave passes for the long weekends, although I am in preliminary discussions to head to Napier in June (good wine country down there so I can get in some gaming, and then after that we can visit some wineries!) and Wellington in August (nicest bunch of WarmaHordes players in New Zealand – sorry fellow Aucklanders, you guys are great too but they take the title). Evan is also likely to suggest I make the trip to Panzerschreck for his doubles tournament in July.

What’s the plan?

Q1 – I need to get a 42 point force painted for Ides of March and I have about 7-8 weeks to do it. I have been tossing up between expanding my Kara Sloan list by painting my Minutemen and Gun Mages, or starting my Trolls… Last night I was playing around with War Room and got excited about an eIrusk, 2 Juggernaught, 5 Man-o-War Shocktroopers, Bombardiers and Demo Corps and a small unit of Mechanics with their Officer UA. I love the MoW units (although they seem a little underwhelming on the table) and this would get me to paint them!

I also need to paint up a T-34 Battalion for a web article I am going to be working on. It means assembling and painting up 21 tanks, as well as an additional 21 turrets. Not normally a big issue but it does mean that I need to schedule my painting time well to achieve both sets of goals.

Q2 – If I am heading to NiCon it will either be WarmaHordes teams event (with Sean and Victor) or Flames Of War at a guess. In which case I will need to paint up some Trollbloods or find something that is going to inspire me with regards to Late War (not sure what periods will be on offer, but LW is a safe bet at this stage) – good chance to paint some of the new plastic PaK40s for my Hungarians as well as some Tigers I have had stashed for a rainy day!

Q3 – Call To Arms in Wellington will definitely be a WarmaHordes weekend with either the Trolls or Kara (or whatever else I end up coming up in between). Looking at my unpainted WarmaHordes figures there are quite a few units that I want to get painted and I know that a tournament is the only way to help me achieve that goal, hence all the swapping between forces.

Q4 – Finish my 1956 Israeli Tank Company! I have the tanks done, now I need to finish my artillery, add some recon and infantry. All the figures are sitting in a box at home, they just need a little paint and a lot of time. Evan is also working on a little Christmas present for me to go with this army – more details on that later.

Throughout the entire year… play some more games in general. Other than getting out to play X-Wing at TCOW in the last part of 2012 I did not play may games so the onus is on me to get the FOW and W/H stuff out of the cupboards a little more regularly. I’m also going to get my Dystopian Wars Prussians (and Allied nations) finished this year. They are quick and fun to paint so I need to stop mucking around and just get them done! I’ll also be getting my Relic Knights pre-order at some point so I should try and get some of that painted (or maybe just assembled). Last (but not least) is to work on some 1967 / 73 Syrians to go up against my Israelis.

Well, that is the 2013 plan, I already have this sinking feeling that I have bitten off more than I can chew!

Between writing this and posting it, I managed to get in two games (WarmaHordes with Tony and Napoleon at War with Wayne) and paint some Dystopian Wars stuff – the year is actually starting off according to plan!

Goodbye 2012...

It is fair to say most of us in the office at work suffer from Mike Envy, that is we are all amazed by the quantity and quality of models Mike paints over the course of a year. Sitting down tonight to a very quiet New Years Eve with my son I thought I would look back at what I have achieved through the year...

January/February - EW French. A full infantry company in time for Battlecry 2012. Waiting for the next EW tournament so that I can paint up my Somuas and Lorraine Carriers. Not looking too good with only one BF GT though...

EW French Infantry Company

March - Circle Warpwolf Stalker. A pretty quiet month on the painting front with focus being more in the direction of planning for coming events.

pKaya goes out with half the cast of Twilight?

April - Khador Iron Fang Uhlans. Another NZ Nationals has come and gone - I took my usual position of "tournament bunny".

CHARGE!

May - Iron Painter and Circle Wolds. I do love our Iron Painter events (24 hours of straight painting) even though I am a bit of a softy and end up sleeping for the last few hours. Whilst the rest of the guys were knocking out forces for Blood, Guts and Glory I was working on my Mid War (and techically EW) Soviets. I also spent a week working on my Circle Wolds in preparation for NiCon and the WarmaHordes teams tournament.

Soviets with camo?

Got Wood for Stone?

June - Tournaments. June was all about the last months furious painting efforts, so not much interest on the brush front. Both tournaments worked out well though with Baldur putting in a solid effort for me, whilst my T-26 horde managed Best Army - June was a good month!

July - Dystopian Wars. Love this game! Managed to finish off some Dystopian Wars terrain that I had been sitting on for a while. Easy to paint and looks great when finished. Guess that means I really should finish those last two islands!

We are sailing...

August -  New Miniature added! Not much to say other than that the early comments about him being a laid back little fella that enjoys sleep, food and daddy time have continued, much to my enjoyment!

Leave me alone, sleeping!

September - IKRPG. Got distracted this month by the new Iron Kingdoms RPG. Victor is going to run a game in the New Year, once the rest of us sort out our characters...

Hey Sean, so about that book?

October/November - Late War GT and 1956 Israelis? Back to the brushes to work on my LW GT army - I thought I would take something different and use Blood, Guts and Glory to field a 1956 Operation Kadesh Israeli Tank Company. It was a heck of a fun army and is definitely going to come out at another event. I just need to finish painting the "missing" platoons that I did not get a chance to do. I also found myself distracted (a lot) by the new X-Wing game by Fantasy Flight...

Flames Of War gamer in the making!

December - More X-Wing.  Pre-painted miniatures... fast game system... that was me distracted for the rest of the year!

2012 Wrap-up
3 Flames Of War armies
1 Hordes "army"
2 Warmachine/Hordes expansion packs (new things painted to add on to an existing force).
A pile of Dystopian Wars terrain.

Not a bad effort, I think I give myself a A- on the effort front. Feels like I slacked off during the second half of the year, although given the arrival of my son I think I will forgive myself. Over the next couple of days I will sit down with my wife and plan out the 2013 tournament season and from there start thinking about the painting requirements.

Have a good New Years everyone!

Kessel Run!

Over the weekend I headed down to my FLGS (King of Cards) for a X-Wing Kessel Run event. Kessel Run was a special preview event created by Fantasy Flight as part of their X-Wing Miniatures Game due to shipping delays for their 2nd wave of ships. The goal was to head along, play some games and have a chance to win a pre-release Millennium Falcon, Slave I, A-Wing or TIE Interceptor. You also got the chance to have a close up look at the new ships (and cards).

On the day I had a momentary case of brain fade forgetting that my fourth X-Wing was sitting at home, rather than at work with the rest of my X-Wing gear after some after-hours gaming. Arriving at work I quickly modified my list and ended up with Wedge, 2x Rookie X-Wing pilots and 1x Gold Squadron Pilot (in his Y-Wing) with an Ion Cannon.

However I did remember to grab the pre-production GF9 Space Mats so we could play on those as it would look nicer than some plain black table-cloths and hopefully add to the fun of the day. Turning up it seemed that Rebels were definitely out numbered with only three Rebel players and an abundance of 8 TIE fighter squadrons.

Whilst my final standings were not enough to get into the finals pool (and therefore compete for one of the new ships) I did have a great day, and managed to take a few nice photos of the games. The other thing I found very interesting was that whilst many of the competitors were like me (i.e. only played a handful of games) there were many veterans of Wings of War and they definitely seemed to have a leg up on the rest of us. Made me keen to pick up some WoW planes, but the X-Wing addiction might be enough for now...

Games in process

Couple of TIE Fighters lurking away from combat!

Red-on-Red match-up

Furball forming

Wedge and friends go round the outside!

Round 3 - Wedge vs Wedge

Millennium Falcon and A-Wings

A-Wing close-up

Millennium Falcon close-up

Slave 1 and TIE Interceptors

TIE Interceptor close-up

Slave 1 close-up



Final match-up in process

Slave 1 on the tail of the Millennium Falcon 

Grudge match: Luke vs Vader!

Popped out to TCOW again as it is rapidly becoming my X-Wing gaming venue of choice! I went head to head with Rob again, this time taking the Rebels - I wanted to test out a squadron with Luke, Wedge and Horton (with an Ion Cannon, R2-D2 and 2 Proton Torpedoes). The plan was that he would fire off a couple of long range salvos, then Ion Cannon targets for the X-Wings whilst R2 repaired his shields.

Rob had a plan of his own though taking three TIE Advanced (with Vader and Maarek Stele), matching my elite fighters with some of his own!

(Forgive the really bad photoshop explosions, not my best effort.....)

Both sides close on each other...

The TIEs break right trying to throw off the Rebels aim

Vader and Wedge pull of Koiogran turns and a TIE takes fire from all three Rebel ships (and explodes)

Maarek Stele gets caught in a cross fire and is destroyed

Vader pulls in behind Horton whilst Luke and Wedge flip around to save him

Horton hits Vader with the Ion Canon and breaks right, meanwhile Wedge pulls the "Hazell Maneuver"*

Vader shakes off the hit and swings around to finish off Horton...

But cannot shake off the X Wings, with Luke getting the final

The X-Wings managed to pull off the win, but there a few rough patches - I think I need to move the 2nd set of Proton Torpedoes to one of the X-Wings (thinking Wedge at the moment, although Luke should be pretty handy with them too....). Also not convinced by Horton Salm, I might have to go back and read up on the other Y-Wing pilots. Last of all it might be worth moving R2 over to Wedge as well (I hear he is broken-good when used together) as Luke has inbuilt defensive skills, the Y-Wings have shields and hull points to take a few hits, where-as Wedge found himself pretty badly beaten up by the end of the encounter.

More thinking required, especially if our local store is going to try to run a Kessel Run event (hopefully the NZ distributor of Fantasy Flight product is getting these promo packs in!).


*The "Hazell Maneuver" is where you plan on turning one direction, but accidently find yourself turning the other direction. Confusing to both friend and foe alike it can sometimes be useful, but is generally met with much laughter. Named after an occasional TCOW visitor....