Fawcett Avenue Conscripts

On our recent European trip, we visited Ypres (Ieper) and Flanders to visit some areas of interest that we missed in 2012. One of these was Hill 62/Sanctuary Wood, where there is a small private museum, near the Canadian Hill 62 memorial.

I've reproduced the very cool brochure that the museum provides to visitors. I really like the Art Deco-style design of the piece as well as the quaint language. It really has the look and feel of something produced in the late '20s or early '30s, which it very likely was!

LOL at the reference to the "Britisch Battle Fields"...

Here's the exterior of the museum building. We visited on an overcast day in mid-June, it was gently drizzling rain.

But before we went into the museum proper, we walked a couple hundred metres up the road to the Canadian Hill 62 memorial.

It's laid out so that visitors can determine the direction of the various villages that comprised the battlefield. The views from the memorial were beautiful and haunting, when you imagine what was going on here nearly 100 years ago.

The interior of the museum has a ton of artifacts but not a lot in the way of curation or explanation. But that's OK too, as long as the stuff is cool, which it was ;-)

Pam is contemplating the massive collection of pickelhauben. As an avid pickelhaube enthusiast, she was happy to see that her favourite state, Mecklenburg-Schwerin, was represented. Just kidding!

Strange pinball machine of unknown provenance.

Some very cool trench signs. I'll have to steal some of these ideas for our trench terrain - especially "DUMP".

Outside the museum is an area that purports to be preserved period trenches. I say "purports to be" because I've read varying accounts on their strict authenticity. Whatever the case, the trench system here is certainly old, and its appearance is generally consistent with what you see in period battlefield photography.

Some rusty battlefield scrap including a broken "toffee-apple" mortar.

Shell craters abound. It had been raining earlier so many were filled with water.

Lots of scrap corrugated iron used to shore up trench walls and provide overhead protection.

Back in the year 2015, cattle were grazing peacefully.

Your correspondent.

There was an underground tunnel that stretched 20 metres or so connecting two trench entrances.

A Scottish schoolmistress with her charges.

Crosses laid by visitors on a splintered stump.

These are German grave markers - most were dated 1914.

Rusty rolls of barbed wire.

More random battlefield detritus. The sheer volume of metal left on the battlefields of the Great War simply beggars imagination.

The museum and grounds are certainly well worth a visit. As I mentioned, the curation left a lot to be desired (and some of the mannequins used to display uniforms bordered on disrespectful), but for a person who knows a little about the Great War, you mainly want to just see artifacts anyway, and the Hill 62 Museum has those aplenty. The preserved trenches are very interesting too. If you go, be sure to check out the stereoscope viewers with tons of period photos. Their subject matter is not for the squeamish, but little about the Great War is.

Yesterday, Dave and Byron came to my suite for a game pitting British against French ships of the line. The battle of San Domingo was the last fleet battle of the Napoleonic wars to be fought in open waters. Of notice, H.M.S. Canopus was commanded by captain Francis Austen, brother of Jane Austen. One of the most dramatic event of the battle happened when the Northumberland moved between the Impérial and the Superb to protect the flagship. Some shots from the giant French ship went right through the Northumberland and into the Superb. But, of course, wargaming was to redefine history.

At the beginning of this fleet engagement, British and French ships had to be set at least 15cm apart (measured from base to base, not main mast to main mast) in their respective deployment zones, to reflect the scattered aspect of the fleets too rapidly engaged in battle. This included ships from the Louis squadron entering on the map, that will enter the board with a die roll equal to or lower than the current turn number. This made it very difficult to form battle lines.

The objective of the French squadron was to escape to the South West corner with as many ships as possible. The objective of the British squadron was to intercept as many French ships as possible. Victory would be measured as follow:

5 French ships escape    Great French victory
4 French ships escape    French victory
3 French ships escape    Marginal French victory
2 French ships escape    Marginal British victory
1 French ship escapes    British victory
0 French ship escapes    Great British victory

The rules used were a simplified version of "Trafalgar" that I call "Trafalgar Redux". It speeds up the game considerably by halving the number of dice to be rolled.

The British squadron commanded by rear admiral Byron Duckworth, recognizable with the white name tags at the stern, duly proceeded to intercept the French ships of Dave Leissègues, with blue name tags.

As I forgot my sea board at home, Byron was kind enough to bring his own sea mat from "Dreadfleet". Oddly enough, the mat and the ship bases matched perfectly.

The Agamemnon, a 64 gun third rate, the smallest ship on the board, sails toward the Impérial, the largest ship, with 120 guns. Is this wise?

BOOM! BOOM! After the smoke dispersed, it appeared that the Agamemnon lost two masts while the Impérial was still in good order. Both sides were mostly aiming at the masts at this point of the game, trying to reduce the speed of the opponent's units.

Soon, French and British ships were engaged in ferocious gun exchanges.

The British were able to get the second squadron on board. Rear Admiral Thomas Louis was eager to join the fight visible in the distance.

Meanwhile, in the central melee, a few ships collided with each other and became unable to fire.

The three ships under the command of Louis, including the 80 gun Canopus, are getting closer and closer. Will this sceal the end of the French attempt to disrupt British commerce with the colonies? What could prevent a British Victory?

Wait a minute. What is this? A wind dial? So the wind changed direction. So what. I beg your pardon? It allowed a French victory? How is that even possible?

Because of the way the ships were positioned, after the wind changed direction, it became impossible for the British vessels still able to sail to catch three of the escaping French ships, including the giant Impérial. This was enough for a French marginal victory. This kind of event could only happen during the age of sail.

Here are a few images of the last turn of the battle. A British ship caught fire during an exchange of volley causing the reserve of black powder to explode. The ship survived though.

Louis was just about to join battle. One of the French ships, invisible because she is completely wrapped in smoke, caught fire during an exchange of cannon balls, stroke her colours down as a result, then blew up because of an explosion.

On her way to the edge of the table, after an incredibly graceful tack manoeuver, the Impérial sunk a British ship trying to block her way. French sailors can cause surprises sometimes.

The action in the middle, on the last turn played. The black smoke shows were are located the two ships on fire, that eventually exploded without sinking. So the final result was: 3 French ships escaped, 2 were captured, 1 British ship was sunk and 2 were badly damage. The destruction and carnage felt very satisfying to the host.

Byron and Dave, discussing the outcome of the battle after it was decided to end the game when the result became obvious. The mat really made the whole experience look good. I'll definitely need to get one. Again, thanks Byron and Dave for playing this scenario.

15mm castings from Battlefront - late WW2 Germans

Every summer I look forward to visiting northern Ontario and the beautiful city of Sault Ste. Marie. Located on the St. Marys River, between Lake Superior and Lake Huron, the Soo offers some of the most beautiful landscapes you will find in Canada (and some pretty awesome Italian food). The north shore of Lake Superior is paradise for me, and we are fortunate to have a property on Goulais Bay. In late July we spent two weeks there. I always bring some painting along on the trips to the Soo, and here is the finished product from the most recent visit - some late WW2 German infantry.

Fun to paint when this is your view! The sun setting over Lake Superior, at our cabin near Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario. The big lake is at its calmest in the midsummer, barely a ripple when we took this photo.

I have resolved this summer to make a bit of a dent in the pending WW2 lead/plastic pile (it's pretty huge). Lately I finished a couple of anti-tank guns, and this pile of infantry was up next so they came to the Soo and were (mostly) finished while on vacation. They are 15mm castings from Battlefront - a "Sturm" platoon (dudes armed with Stg 44 assault rifles with a couple of MG42s mixed in), a Pioneer platoon (mix of small arms but lots of scary engineer stuff like mines, pole charges and two guys with flame throwers), two tripod mounted MG42 teams and two bases of Panzerschrek AT teams. There is also an extra command stand (I think this was to go with the anti-tank guns), and a two-man artillery spotter team.

In all, a decent pile - 20 stands of infantry! Not too bad.

Command team leads "sturm" platoon

The "Sturm" platoon (is that even a thing? Not sure I'm using the correct term) sort of confuses me - I only included two MG42 teams, but I don't know if the platoons carrying Stg44 assault rifles had MG42s or not. I don't know what I was thinking when I put them together...but whatever, they will do fine. My head hurts when I try and sort out the platoon organizations that involved the assault rifles, and it gets more confusing when you figure what the Germans wished and what they actually went with in the field seldom mixed, especially late in the war. Overall it sure seems to have a frightening amount of firepower.

German troops equipped with Stg44 assault rifles - though there are a couple of MG42 teams in there too - lots of firepower

The Pioneer platoon is meant to represent scary combat engineers. There are fellows carrying anti-tank mines, pole charges, heavy grenade and other scary bits. There are also two stands where a flamethrower is present.

Pioneers ready for the battlefield

Lots of panzerfausts, grenades, mines and pole charges - and one fellow (on the left corner of the front right stand) has a flame thrower

Of course everyone is carrying a panzerfaust, and the uniforms are a mix of long coats and reverse camouflage jackets, pants and helmet covers. The pattern is/was supposed to be "splinter" pattern, but mostly it just looks kind of jumbled - not too bad. Painting the German camo makes me crazy, but I've given up trying to be too precise about it - from about a foot away, they look camouflaged - good enough for me!

I'm particularly pleased to have the pioneers/engineers done - I'm often preparing a game and thinking to myself "hey, messing around with minefields and barbed wire would be a good time", and the engineers add a fun dimension to that sort of game. Plus - flame throwers! Watch out!

MG42 teams

Panzerschrek teams - mounted two teams per base in "Flames of War" for some reason, I think a reflection of the German tactical approach? Not sure...

The MG42 teams are left-overs from a "platoon" pack, and the Panzerschrek teams came with a Volksgrenadier box set from Battlefront. Actually, quite a few of these figures came from that box now that I think about it (the balance I have based individually).

Spotter teams come in handy, but are actually not easy miniatures to track down...they usually come with the mortar platoons and gun battery boxes, stuff that you don't even really need on the table - I wish the spotter teams were easier to get seperately

The grass was done with mostly light and dark brown and yellow colours, with just a few green tufts among them. I am hoping this overall would look good for fall or spring, not bad in a green summer table, and not terrible on a winter/mostly snow table either. This is something I have been trying to do more of, especially with infantry bases - a sort of "somewhat universal" groundwork, that compromises enough to not look terrible in most seasonal table presentations.

These figures will be used in games of "Flames of War", but I also hope to put them to use playing Spearhead in 15mm, as well as Battlegroup and even Crossfire (an oldie that was once pretty popular with the Fawcett gang - maybe we can try it again sometime in the not-too-distant future, I hope!)

I still have a huge pile of WW2 stuff sitting and waiting for the brush - and I want to get to some more of it before the summer ends, but there will be another abrupt switch in the paint shop, as I understand the Warmaster Horus is getting impatient to begin a major assault against the Blood Drinkers, and he needs more stuff finished for that to happen...so back to 30k painting we go!

Some time ago, we played another game in the long-running Wings of Glory campaign. For that night’s game, the first game of the campaign set in 1917, the scenario is Mission 4a: Stalled Advance:

Background: Hoping to prevent a stalemate and gain the upper hand on Intelligence for a major ground offensive, HQ has called for a renewed effort to eliminate the enemy’s observation balloons.
Type: Balloon Busting
Victory Conditions: Mission Points. The side with the most mission points wins the mission. For this mission, Balloon points are worth double the normal value.
Fallback: Mission 3a or 3b
Setup: Mission was played length wise on a 4’x6’ table. The Attackers have a 16 inch deployment zone and the Defenders have a 32 inch deployment zone. This leaves 24 inches of No-man’s Land.

Both sides must start the sortie with their planes inside their deployments zones in a loose formation with no more then a ruler length between planes.
The (French) defender’s side must place two balloons per sortie using the special Balloons rules.
Each side has a chance for random ground targets. Use the special Ground Targets rules.

Frederick and Kevin ran, respectively, the Germans and the French. Since it was 1917, the best pilot character on each side got an upgraded plane: an Albatross D.V. and a Spad XIII.

Below, Kevin contemplates the table.

Frederick overlooks the defending artillery observation balloons, and the pair of machine-guns placed between them, deep behind the French front line trenches.

The two patrols flew over No-Man's land.

The French opted to pass to the south of the Germans, seeking to gain their tails.

The northern balloon took several hits...

...and took several more as the Germans made long firing passes.

The French ganged up on the German wingman, who weathered their shots.

The German flight leader then fired on the southern balloon.

Concentrated fire brought the German wingman down.

By this point, the balloons had been winched down half of their altitude; the French might save them both!

Frederick's flight leader made a couple of passes at the northern balloon again.

Eventually, the balloon's hydrogen exploded!

Jousting with the French, the surviving German opened up his throttle...

...and headed east for home. Only the Spad had the speed to potentially catch up.

Kevin zigged when he should have zagged, resulting with the French leader ended up facing the wrong direction, and so he decided to head back to the French lines. The Germans won!

Knights of the Air Campaign: Results as of March 19, 2015

Scoring:

Bill (suffered 2 wounds in Mission 1): +2 (two sorties flown) -4 (being shot down) +4 (one plane shot down) = 1 victory, 2 campaign points
Brian: +1 (one sortie flown) +4 (one plane shot down) = 1 victory, 5 campaign points
Byron (suffered 3 wounds in Mission 3a): +1 (one sortie flown) -4 (being shot down = -3 campaign points
Indo: +1 (one sortie flown) +4 (one plane shot down) = 5 campaign points
Jim: +1 (one sortie flown) +4 (one plane shot down) -4 (being shot down) = 1 victory, 1 campaign point
MikeA: +1 (one sortie flown) -4 (being shot down) = -3 campaign points
Frederick's German Flight Leader: +4 (four sorties flown) +19 (three and 1/2 planes (14) and one balloon (5) shot down) +2 (drove off enemy aircraft) -4 (being shot down) = 4 1/2 victories, 21 campaign points; awarded the Knight's Cross!
Frederick's German Wingman (suffered 1 wound in Mission 4a): +3 (three sorties flown) + 2 (drove off enemy aircraft) -4 (being shot down) = 1 campaign point
Kevin's French Flight Leader: +2 (two sorties flown) +6 (1 victory (Frederick's Wingman) and one shared victory) = 1 1/2 victories, 8 campaign points
Kevin's French Wingman: +1 (one sortie flown), 1 campaign point

Next Game: Mission 5 Break Through

When war was declared with Great Britain in 1812, the American navy was just in its infancy at that time and had nothing comparable to the numerous and large ships of the Royal Navy. However, the Americans built strong frigates crewed by aggressive sailors and commanded by competent captains. In duels, the American frigates would usually win.Well, not this time...

This scenario pitted the USS Constitution against HMS Guerriere in the the famous action off the East coast on 19 August 1812. The rules were a modified version of Trafalgar called Trafalgar Redux and the models were from GHQ.

Captain James Richard "Kevin" Dacres was in command a British 38 gun frigate while Isaac "Sylvain" Hull was steering a strong 44 gun American frigate, specifically built to outperform British ships of the same size.

Sent to investigate, the USS Constitution just identified a British intruder in American waters. Get ready for battle!

The American crew displayed excellent seamanship, keeping a good distance from the enemy, avoiding being shot by moving out of the British firing arc...

... while shooting at the masts to slowly, but surely destroy the enemy's sailing capacity. Everything was historically correct so far.

Then, a series of unfortunate events happened. The American crew failed a first maneuver test, a tacking maneuver, which meant that the USS Constitution was now stationary in the water and the British had the wind in good position. To understand how humiliating the situation was, a comparison is necessary. It's like, for a WW1 soldier, to fall head first into the barbed wires he was about to jump, with the butt sticking out in the air. Another test for being taken aback resulted in heavy damage to the fore mast and severe casualties among the crew. The British frigate took this opportunity to do a stern rake which resulted in ruinous damage to the hull.

Stunned by how ridiculous the situation was, the American crew probably panicked because, in the next two turns, two more maneuver tests, just to turn the ship back into the wind, also failed. The American butt was still sticking out in the air and the British frigate, after an impeccable tack maneuver, came back for more spanking, right into the stern again. Ouch! Ouch! Ouch! This time, the USS Constitution took two critical hits, one resulting into a blaze which reached the reserve of black powder, which exploded, virtually wiping out the crew. The ship was still afloat, but the crew had had enough and the captain had to strike colours.

The rules work quite well for one on one battles, but I think I would like to give captains maybe one or two re-rolls per game to alleviate series of bad rolls.

Thanks Kevin for coming and trying this scenario. The outcome was not historical at all, but it was interesting and funny.

A couple of weeks ago I finally unveiled the collected results of my long-gestating Sedition Wars Project. I hosted a few games using the figures and terrain that I have been modeling for the last 19 months.

The Strain

I had some vacation time this summer, so I finally painted up 28 Strain models of various types. There are 21 Necroforms, basically human corpses animated by the dreaded nano-virus plague, There are 5 2nd-level Exoforms (evolved creatures, like in Resident Evil): 3 Stalkers (close combat types), and 2 Quasimodos (large creatures with an acidic shooting attack). Rounding them out are a pair of 3rd level Exoforms: a Scythe Witch (a kick-ass close combat expert), and a Brimstone (a big creature with a nasty gun in its chest).

I also picked up a couple of zombie paint sets from Army Painter:
Warpaints Zombicide Core Zombie Set
Warpaints Zombicide Toxic/Prison Set

I painted the 21 Revenants as if they were animated corpses, with muscles showing through rents in their greenish-tinged skin. With colours such as "Scaly Hide" and "Crusted Sore", I hope I have given these an adequate aura of putrefaction and fear.

Below, some of what I call "Lefty's" - Revenants with a HUGE left arm and a protruding right eyeball.

"Skeletors" - more traditionally zombie-like Revenants.

"Dunce's" - these are the most disturbing to me; their brains and skulls have collapsed and have basically been absorbed into a tentacle thingy.

Below, from L-R, a Stalker, three Revenants, and a Quasimodo take cover behind a container. The 2nd level, evolved Strain are painted in more traditional human flesh tones as if they are "alive", to help differentiate them from the Revenants.

The Brimstone, mounted on a 50mm diameter base, painted basically like a huge, animated temple dog.

Two views of the Scythe Witch, painted as if she has a chitinous carapace; I did not want to go the metallic route with the armoured plating on her body. She's also very tall, noting that she is mounted on a 25mm base..

The Game Board

My Hawk Wargames Urban Battle Board finally arrived last month from Games and Gears. The package contained six 2'-square plastic boards that fit together. I used four in the photo below, for a 4' x 4' table. The streets and crosswalks already came painted. There would have been even more painting and weathering on the boards, but the company lost its entire shipment to a flood in China last year. This was a Kickstarter fulfillment, so they sent out these replacements with the basic paint job. I really like the detail and texture. Some airbrushing and oil washes will set these right in the future.

First Sedition Wars Game

A couple of weeks ago I hosted my first Sedition Wars game using the new models and terrain. Eight (!) Conscripts dropped by for the inaugural game.

For setup, the Vanguard Samaritans deployed in the street behind the non-burning armoured truck, needing to get to the square blockhouse to the north, and then had to scan the area for survivors for 4 turns. The Strain had to kill or infect all the Vanguard. Below, Conscript Keegan overlooks the board. The long pale rectangular terrain piece is the rail for a mag-lev train.

Below, Keegan and Duncan contemplate a flanking attack by hordes of Strain.

The Vanguard Grenadier bravely sacrificed herself; though wounded and bleeding, she stayed to fire off a grav grenade, which stalled a bunch of Revenants in their tracks. She succumbed to her wounds, leaving behind a corpse counter.

As Duncan and Dallas look on, several Strain converge on the blockhouse, only to be gunned down by Vanguard lasers.

Clouds of nano-virus mark dead Revenants; however, the nano-virus could still move and infect the Vanguard!

Too little, too late. Though several Vanguard were infected, they were able to complete the scan and win the game.

Other dead soldiers that evening. Mmm, beer!

Play Testing

Last week Conscript Mike came by to help playtest the next Sedition Wars scenario in the Outbreak Campaign. We made some errors in the rules during the previous game, which we went thorough carefully for the play test.

This time, the Vanguard have to break through the Strain ranks to catch the mag-lev train, which will arrive at the end of turn 4, and leave at the end of turn 6. The winner is the side with the most models on the train!

Below, a couple of infected Vanguard Samaritans support an advance through Taco Bell.

An incendiary grenade fired indirectly finds it mark, igniting several Strain. Burn, baby, burn!

A Quasimodo guns down a Samaritan with a corrosive acid spray!

Surviving Vanguard grimly carry on.

Several Revenants take cover behind the mobile hospital module.

Infinity The Game

Like Dallas` Stalingrad terrain, this table can be amortized over several games and gaming systems.
To that end, DerekY came over for the first Infinity game on the new table.

Below, some Pan Oceana Fusiliers (proxied by my Vanguard) seize an objective, ahead of Derek`s Nomad in the far doorway.

A Nisse Sniper provides covering fire, as a Trauma Doc approaches another objective.

Automatic weapons fire shredded the hair salon, leaving two unconscious soldiers!

The Trauma Doc managed to hack the objective, despite not having any hacking skill!

The Nomads pulled back and managed to hack two objectives in the final turn, for the win!

Infinity required a denser terrain setup (including another store, another truck, some street barricades, and more cargo containers). I will probably use denser terrain for Sedition Wars, too.

Sedition Wars Project - Phase Two:

In order of priority, the following modeling projects are in queue:

MDF mag-lev train for Scenarios 3 and 4 of the Outbreak Campaign
Strain: more Revenants (for tabletop play we need double the number used in the board game version of the game), and bigger nasties including a 4th-level Grendler and a 5th-level Cthonian.
Vanguard: a resin Gnosis battle-suit from Studio McVey, 6 civilians from Hasslefree and Corvus Belli (also usable as High Value Targets for Infinity), several corpse models to replace the cardboard counters, and more Vanguard Samaritans and A.I. drones
Other Terrain: More MDF buildings

Nineteen months into this 12-month project (yeah, I know), I`ve managed to finish 52 models and a couple of dozen buildings and terrain pieces. For me that`s a significant amount of effort. I`m glad it turned out pretty well.

Contemptor Dreadnought from the 16th Legion

I've been painting a fair bit of WW2 stuff recently, but the Warmaster's stout lads in the 16th Legion need some reinforcements in order to take the fight properly to the dupes of the False Emperor. More vehicles, more firepower. I hope this will help with the "more firepower" requirement - a Legion "Contemptor Mortis" Dreadnought, armed with a pair of Kheres-pattern Assault Cannons. The model is from Forge World.

The "Kheres Pattern" assault cannons - look cool, but they were a pain in the @ss to put together

Dreadnoughts are armoured battlesuits that support Space Marine units. The dreadnoughts are "crewed", if you can call it that, by the physical remains of a badly wounded Space Marine. Basically if you serve bravely in the Legion, and are terribly wounded, but still alive enough to be sort-of-saved, you are "honoured" by essentially being entombed into one of these armoured suits, so you can keep on fighting on behalf of the Legion. Yay for you!

Besides, it's not like your average Space Marine is worrying about a defined benefit pension plan or anything...

Contemptor Dreadnought power system - NOT carbon neutral...

The average Dreadnought usually combines one heavy weapon on one "arm" with a suitably horrifying close combat weapon on the other, but this "Mortis" version is all about firepower, so sports two ranged weapons. The Kheres pattern cannons are pretty nasty, and this fellow will be laying down fire support for the members of the 16th Legion as they work to ~~destroy rival loyalist Space Marine Legions~~ bring the Warmaster's light of liberation and tolerance to the galaxy.

Love the "Eye of Horus" logos sculpted right on to the models...spooky as heck

Forge World makes generic and legion-specific versions of these Dreadnought models. This model is obviously the Legion-specific make for the Sons of Horus. On the plus side, I love the iconography and roman numerals sculpted right on the surface of the model - I am generally more and more addicted to the embossed and sculpted accessories Forge World offers for the different Space Marine Legions.

On the down side, the sculpt is a bit..."Chaos"-y for my tastes. Now, you might say "well, duh, of course it is", and rightly so. After all, in the narrative, Horus was ~~tainted by Chaos, and so were the Legions that followed him~~ a victim of an arrogant and uncaring Emperor. It's subjective, but I loathe all the spikey bits, skullz and overly simplistic spooky stuff that adorns the Chaos stuff in the "current" 40k period. In a bid to appear scary, the effect is instead almost self-parody, and you get laughable models like this. YMMV - you might love the current Chaos stuff, and more power to you if you do! But I remember a time, back when the Horus Heresy was played out through 6mm figures, when the Chaos side was subtle, and Horus and his Legions were more genuine rebels, at least in appearance if nothing else.

Detailed logos sculpted on to the front plates - Forge World does a dreadnought body like this for each major Legion, loyalist and traitor, profiled so far

In the current version of the Horus Heresy narrative that is obviously changing - in today's version, the Legions are already looking a bit "Chaos-y" - some more than others - and by the point they are landing for the assault on Holy Terra, they will probably all look as silly as this thing from the Word Bearers. But I have to give the Forge World designers credit - they are straddling the line pretty well - the sculpt of Horus looks amazing, and ominous without being goofy (I expect another angry deamon version will be released at a later time...).

I christened this one "Issues" - I figured he was hurt in battle, and woke up entombed in an armoured suit with guns for arms - he would probably have issues

Anyway, all this to say, this Dreadnought model has about as many spikes, chains and skullz as I can tolerate. It doesn't look too bad - just enough to be angry and ominous. I have a second one of these still to paint, but I am going to shave a bunch of the spikes, chains and skulls off before I assemble it.

Dallas and I have been plotting a series of 30k games for some time - he's been adding reinforcements of his own. We are hoping to start a series of linked games as soon as this week...stay tuned for details, and for more reinforcements!

"All right! A ride!" Deimos Pattern Rhino APCs from Forge World

Continuing escalation in our 30k arms race. These are "Deimos Pattern" Rhino APCs from Forge World, painted in the colours and markings of the 16th Legion, the Sons of Horus. These trusty APCs will speed the Legion troops to victory over the ~~loyalist forces~~ dupes of the False Emperor.

A nice, updated version of the old Rogue-Trader-era Rhino kits - love this model!

I have been painting 30k figures for over a year now, but have been slow to add vehicles (unless you count Knights and even Titans, which are fun but are not, strictly speaking, "regular" Space Marine vehicles). Call it (yet another) "Exhibit A" of my disorganized approach to the hobby - lots and lots of infantry, but no real, cohesive force to put on the table. You have to be clueless like me to paint stuff for a project for over a year but not yet have a complete force ready. It's not like these are Austrains or something...but whatever, I'm easily distracted...

So I had parts of three different forces (World Eaters, Sons of Horus, Solar Auxilia), but no one force was complete. I decided to focus on the Sons of Horus - after all, they are THE bad guys of the Horus Heresy...

WIP showing the combination of resin bits the basic current Rhino model as a base

I finally completed a Land Raider this past spring to break the no vehicle spell. Now with these two Rhinos, the Sons of Horus forces are now a much more mobile and rounded out detachment for the table. These classic-looking models will carry 10 legion troops to various trouble spots on the gaming table in style and comfort, although they are certainly not as scary as a Land Raider...

Friendly side access point - I still don't get how Space Marines get in and out of these things, but it's part of the charm...

The "Deimos Pattern" Rhino is a mixed kit from Forge World - you get a plastic Rhino kit from the current 40k range, and resin bits to bolt over & combine with the plastic model. The resulting vehicle is a clear shout-out to the original plastic Rhino model from Rogue Trader, and I quite like it. You have little bolters on the hatches, the twin doors on the front, all the key design looks for the original plastic model, but with the larger size of the current one. The Forge World designers have really nailed the spirit of the Horus Heresy well with these constant little nods to the original models speckled throughout the range.

Rear access ramps

These are not cheap kits, but given the horrifying current price of a plastic Rhino, and the fact that the Canadian Dollar is once again circling the toilet, the price is not too far off from buying a "regular" Rhino. As Dallas notes in his post for his IXth Legion Rhino kits using Chapterhouse, if you don't have spare unused plastic Rhino kits around, then you will not lose out by much more opting for the Forge World kit.

Not every line went together well, but screw it...

Assembly was a challenge - but surprisingly the issue was not Forge World's unreliable resin, but rather the plastic model components, which were warped and needed straightening - something I was not successful with as you will note if you look closely, especially the front fender plats on a couple of them. I did my best, but didn't sweat it - I'm no Golden Demon model builder anyway, and I don't have the patience to try!

Legion tactical marines with their new vehicle - as a newly painted tank, it's guaranteed to survive well on the tabletop - right?

So the Sons of Horus are now a much more coherent table-top force! Dallas has been working hard to build up his IXth Legion loyalist forces (a Spartan - crap!). The arms race isn't about to stop, but it will soon be time to get started on some 30k gaming. We've been noodling a little narrative campaign for 30k, sort of like what we did for Rogue Trader and Rynn's World, but this will build up into a massive mega-game where we get the Titans out for a spin. The date on the mega game is a bit of a moving target, but we're going to get started building up the story with the first game this week. Stay tuned for more!

Let the galaxy burn! (To create jobs, of course - good, high-paying Horus jobs...)

Force escalation is a wonderful thing - it drives us to move stuff from a wishlist, to the painting queue, to the gaming table. And the end result is spectacular games! Such has been the case with our Horus Heresy escalation project. Greg's been working on Sons of Horus and World Eaters, Byron on his Death Guard, and me on my IX Legion lads. The objective has always been to have some large games in the late summer, and with it being August, that's where we are. So last Thursday we leaned on Greg to design a scenario for the first game in our mini-campaign, "the Defence of Orask". Here's what he came up with:

The machinations of Horus are revealed, and they reach well beyond even the events of the Istvaan System!

Knowing they would not join his cause, Horus dispatched the IXth Legion to “liberate” the worlds of the Signus Cluster - a campaign far from Terra, far from Horus’ plans, and home to a trap.

The Primarch of the Blood Angels has led the bulk of his Legion into that distant assault, and Horus now looks to cut them off completely from contact with the rest of the Imperium. He will do that with an attack on the frontier world of Orask, staging area for the IXth Legion’s invasion force.

As news of events on Istvaan reaches Orask, the local Imperial government is stunned - and panics when their sensors detect a task force of ships bearing the signals and markings of the Sons of Horus, the World Eaters and the Death Guard headed for the planet. Things get worse when a number of Horus’ agents take action, disabling defence systems, monitors, docks and other elements, sowing further panic. The traitor Legion elements crash through the scattered resistance among the orbital defences and begin to secure landing areas.

On the planet’s surface, elements of the IXth Legion - the 66th Maniple, the “Blood Drinkers”, reserves which had been planning to follow their brethren toward the Signus Cluster, instead turn to defend the planet, knowing if Orask is overrun, the bulk of the IXth Legion will be trapped in the Signus Cluster and unable to defend the Imperium from Horus.

In our first game the Blood Drinkers will rush to try and defend against one of the rebel landings, hoping to contain the enemy and buy time to secure the capital….

Here is the Blood Drinkers force. Praetor Draculis and command squad, Veterans to the left, Rapier behind just in front of the Tactical Support squad and the heavy weapons squad. Masses of Tactical Marines at right.

But wait... there's more. Assault squad and Terminator squad, with Rhinos. Landspeeder and THIS. IS. SPARTAN!!!! ;-)

Byron brought his Death Guard. Sicaran, Contemptors, boss and standard bearer.

Plus Terminators, Support squad and tactical marines too.

Solar Auxilia joined the Blood Drinkers in defense of Orask. Greg has done a great job with these.

Greg's Sons of Horus strike force... Land Raider Proteus, lascannon squad, heavy bolter squad, Assault squad, Veterans...

Plus Support squad, scary boss, Contemptor, and tactical marines in new Rhinos.

The battlefield represents a tactical staging area for the Orask planetary defense force/Solar Auxilia. The superheavy tanks are under repair and won't take part in the battle (tonight anyway). The Blood Drinkers and Solar Aux defenders were allowed to deploy in the Bastion (at centre) and behind the defence line around it, as well as in the area "south" and "west" of the roads (assuming that "north" is the short table edge at top right of picture).

The objective was to control the Imperial Bastion at the end of the game.

Solar Aux mobbed up on the top of the landing pad with excellent fields of fire over the approaches to the Bastion. Their comrades deployed behind the defense lines. The Blood Drinkers were allowed three infantry elements on table - the Tactical Support squad with Volkite Calivers on the landing pad, the Rapier carrier behind the storage tanks, and the plasma cannon squad on top of the Bastion.

Solar Aux defending the Bastion. Quad autocannons are under AI control.

Plasma cannoneers keep a lookout. "Land Raider spotted!"

Traitors got the first turn; Death Guard walk on, accompanied by the Sons of Horus vehicles. They drew first blood, if you can call fragging a single Solar Aux dude "first blood".

Where's the Death Guard gone? The entire squad was wiped out by Blood Drinker plasma cannon fire. That's what I call "first blood" ;-) Masses of Solar Aux lasrifle fire and Quad autocannon fire scratch a hull point off the Rhino.

In turn two, the Blood Drinkers started to roll for Reserves to bring the rest of the force on board. However, the Warp was playing up (and Orask Telecom was subsequently not to be trusted), and for each successful Reserve roll, Byron was allowed to attempt disruption with his Death Guard... basically an opposed die roll. If the DG won the die roll, they were allowed to bring one of their own units in Reserve on table, instead of the Blood Drinkers getting their unit. So guess what happened - three Blood Drinkers units available, three Death Guard challenges, and three Death Guard wins. Three DG units appear in the Loyalist backfield, uh-oh...

But the news got worse at the top of turn three. Greg explained that the Warp was in turmoil...

...the Solar Auxilia were beginning to panic...

...and their treason became complete! The Solar Auxilia switched sides to ally with the forces of the Warmaster!!

The victory conditions of the game changed at this point as well - in order to win, the Traitors had to ensure that not one Blood Drinker Marine survived! This whole development had the potential to cause some serious problems for the IX Legion as at that point, there were only 9 Blood Drinker models on the table! (Greg surmised that this stab in the back was likely a contributing factor to the Legion's later "rage issues")

Blood Drinkers reinforcements did start to arrive from reserve, though. The Assault squad came on and shot, then assaulted the Death Guard Contemptor Dreadnought and Support squad camping on the Loyalist table edge, wiping them out.

The SPARTAN!!! and a Rhino rolled on as well. Just out of shot, the Praetor and command squad were about to assault the other Death Guard tactical squad, and eventually eliminate them.

Around the Bastion, the psychic tsunami had blown the two remaining plasma cannoneers out of the building and into the midst of the now-suddenly-unfriendly Solar Aux and Sons of Horus. Undaunted, they blazed away with their plasma cannons but sadly the scatter of a template took one of them to the bosom of the Emperor. The last remaining hero bellowed his defiance as the Traitors cocked their weapons...

...and blew him to his component atoms.

Meanwhile, back on the Loyalist table edge the Praetor and co. were dealing with some Death Guard. Byron's boys had it pretty rough in the game.

A moment later there were none left standing...

The Sons of Horus formed up for a last push on the bastion. The crater at centre is where their Rhino once sat; the laser destroyer array on the SPARTAN!!! had done as the name indicated.

The SPARTAN!!! disembarked its 20 Space Marine passengers in preparation for a last push on the accursed Bastion. The Landspeeder (just above the SPARTAN!!!) supported the remnants of the Assault squad in attacking a Solar Aux unit standing just under the landing pad. The Solar Aux volkite weapons were suffcient to see off the charging Blood Drinkers though.

Two mighty machines of the 30th Millennium face off.

Blood Drinkers make a mad rush for the Bastion...

...but the turn limit expired before they could complete their victory by obliterating the last pitiful remnants of the Traitor forces (j/k). The game ended in a draw - the Traitors controlled the Bastion and its communications array, but the Blood Drinkers survived the encounter and are able to wage guerilla war against the forces of the Warmaster, and try to hold open the Signus Gate for the return of the rest of the IX Legion.

We had a great turnout of lads for the game and I think we all really enjoy "30K". The models are amazing, of course, and the gameplay is a lot less complex than 40K because there are a lot fewer special rules to remember. Looking forward to the next escalation in the campaign!

Next in the painting queue was a maglev train from BP Laser. It's a cool, massive MDF kit, with about 5' of track, and the tender and 3 flatbed cars around 4' long. The photo below, from their website, shows what it looks like when assembled, without paint.

The kit is great; all the MDF parts are cut out cleanly and fit together well. BP Laser provides detailed assembly instructions as downloadable PDFs. I was very impressed by all the clear parts for the various windows; they are very slightly beveled on the edges, so they can press fit very snugly into their locations without glue (after all the painting is done).

Below is a photo of the completed train, sitting on its rail near the edge of my urban table.

The tender is striking, with finely cut details.

I painted and slightly weathered the three flatbed cars. I painted them in different colours. I figured that in the future the various evil corporations represented on my table would still have some of their own "rolling stock" (floating stock?), which would be connected together to form cargo trains.

There are 5 laser cut plastic windows located around the front of the tender. After painting, I test fit them with their protective paper covering still on. I removed the paper, then, wearing nitrile gloves (to avoid finger prints), carefully press fit them into the openings.

The roof comes off so you can have fights inside the tender. I left off some parts, like the tender's rear door, the drivers' seats, and the couplers, for easier for placement of figures.

I freehand painted the control panel as if the left console was active.

Also threw some light weathering around the base of the rail sections.

Here is a shot of the train loaded with cargo, with a 28mm Vanguard Samaritan standing on the nearest flatbed for scale.

This model is a significant addition to my stock of near/future terrain. As with the other buildings and pieces, it will be useful for various sci-fi games.

I am now ready to run the next two scenarios in my ongoing Sedition Wars Outbreak Campaign. The first is a race to the train (using probably just the tender and two flatbeds), followed by a running gunfight on the full train itself!

***

Yesterday I received in the mail yet another addition to the pile of sci-fi gaming stuff. It's a 1/48 scale air ambulance from Dust Studios that I found on eBay. It's a funky design, created for their Dust Tactics miniatures game, This model is part of their "Premium Edition" line, so it comes fully painted and weathered. To me, the "Weird War II" aesthetic makes the model usable for all kinds of sci-fi backgrounds. It could be used as an active gaming piece, as a scenario objective, or just as a neat bit of terrain for Sedition Wars, Infinity, 40K, Gunschwarm, etc.

Last night I hosted another scenario in my ongoing Sedition Wars Outbreak Campaign; Scenario 3, Terminal Station. This was also the debut of the maglev train I have previously described.

Vanguard Mission
Objective: Live long enough to get personnel on the incoming train

Strain Mission
Objective: Prevent the Vanguard from escaping on the Train. The Strain win if:

The train leaves with no Vanguard aboard
When the train leaves there are more Strain models on board than Vanguard models

At the end of round 4, the train would be placed on the track. At the end of round 6 the train leaves the table. When the train leaves there must be more Vanguard models on it than Strain models.

***

Conscripts Frederick and Kevin played the Strain. They set up 16 Revenants, 2 Stalkers, and 2 Quasimodos adjacent to 4 Strain strategic points on the table. Below, looking east, several corpse counters can also be seen, casualties of previous fighting against the Strain, and potential new recruits as re-animated Revenants.

Duncan and Malcolm played the on-table Vanguard, 6 Samaritans led by a Grenadier. I allowed them to set up as far as the north side of the road.

The Vanguard were first out of the gate, wounding or setting on fire some Strain using the indirect-firing grenade launcher, and wounding another Revenant with laser fire.

The Vanguard made a cautious advance, mostly on the western side of the table, with a couple providing cover by the strip mall to the east.

The Strain moved morth and hunkered down behind cargo containers and the bunker; the nano-virus clouds seen below were Revenant casualties of incendiary grenades and lasers.

Frederick and Kevin cheerfully contemplate the rising casualty count of the Strain. With the necrocysts and corpses on the table, they could always create more!

Malcolm and Duncan contemplate the Vanguard moves.

One of the Quasimodos adopted a protected firing position on top of the bunker, allowing him to shoot and melt away a Vanguard trooper!

Another trooper bravely drew the Quasimodo's fire; this allowed her comrades to step forward and gun the Strain monster down! The unfortunate Vanguard succumbed to the corrosive acid of the Quasimodo's weapon.

The other Quasimodo was in a good firing position, and shot another hapless Samaritan; of 4 eventual Samaritan casualties, not one armor save was made against the corrosive effect of the Strain weaponry.

When the train arrived at the end of turn 4, the Vanguard players placed Operator Akosha Nama (run by Dallas) on a car of their choice. Akosha activated immediately, and was part of the Vanguard force from that point on.

The surviving Vanguard Samaritans try and make up for lost time and advance on the train.

Two groups of Strain manage to get on the train, with only one casualty falling to Akosha's sniper rifle.

Too far to board the train, and resigned to trying to cause Strain casualties, the last Samaritans concentrate their fire on the group on the westernmost flatbed car, killing two and wounding one more (who was also set on fire).

Dallas rolls hot, having Akosha kill a Stalker standing right behind her.

Several Revenants leapt at Akosha, who grimly killed...

...or wounded any Strain who got in her sights, until, bleeding out...

...she finally succumbed to overwhelming numbers.

Adding insult to injury, the nano-virus left by a couple of Strain casualties managed to infect one of the surviving Samaritans.

The game was a tense affair. Despite being defeated, the Vanguard gave a good account of themselves. They killed 15 Strain, and wounded another 3 or 4 of the 8 Strain who managed to get aboard the train.

***

Here is a prevue for the next scenario, entitled, Ticket to Die, or, as Kevin suggested, Strain on a Train:

From the rear of the train appeared Specialist Barker Zosa, clanking along in a powered exoskeleton, wielding a charged up pulse cannon (cue Samuel Jackson voice):

"I HAVE HAD IT WITH THESE MOTHERF@#$%ING STRAIN ON THIS MOTHERF@#$%ING TRAIN!"

So, with all the Warhammer 30k going on, you would think that I should be working on my Fire Raptor and Sicaran Venator, but no I got sidetracked, once again, with another side project.

Mike, Kevin, Dave, and I have started looking at some small skirmish games set in ancient Japan. Is it ancient if referring to the 16th century? If we can call a 386 ancient technology, then I am going to stick with the 1500's being ancient too. The two games we have looked at are Ronin (by Osprey) and Daisho (by the Ministry of Gentlemanly Warfare). Ronin is historically based and sticks pretty close to real history, while Daisho is more mythical factoring in powers and demons (if you so choose). The great thing is that both can be played with the same figures, which we all collected over the last few months and have been sitting cleaned and primed on my painting desk.

I was sick the last few days from work and couldn't focus on some of the technical work I had to do on my 30k stuff, so I pulled out a few figures to get ready for Ronin.

Keep in mind I set out to paint these quickly and to a table top level, they are not meant to be show entry pieces. I used quick base colour (mid-tone), wash (shadow), highlight method, with very little additional cleanup of fine detail.

I think the longest part on each was painting to insignia's on the back banners.

All of the figures, other than the large banner bearer, are from the Northstar Bushi Buntai box set for Ronin. The large banner bearer is from Perry Miniatures. The figures are all excellent quality and the various other Northstar and Perry figures I picked up will all mix with each other perfectly.

However for only about 6 hours of total paint time, I am pretty happy with them. I may go back and clean up some of the fine details at a later date, but for now I have a force to play either game with.

Hint Hint Kevin, Mike, and Dave....

A bit of progress to report on the Heresy escalation... as we posted last week, the campaign has begun. That means the pressure's on to get more stuff out of the painting queue and onto the tabletop for the next big game.

This weekend I was able to finish the Contemptor Dreadnought that had been sitting around for awhile. A pretty basic paintjob to fit in with the rest of the IX Legion "Blood Drinkers" maniple.

The Forge World Contemptor is an excellent looking model and I elected the Plasma Cannon/Close Combat Claw option to arm it, for no better reason than it looks cool...

The laser-cut base was kindly provided by Conscript Byron of SG2 Creations, cheers B...

Posing the model was a bit of a challenge, especially as my preferred adhesive is fast-setting superglue. This doesn't leave a lot of time to get the pose right with the multiple parts involved. I think this one came out OK though.

Glowing green eyes.. all the better to see (traitors) with...

The other escalation update is a bit late, since these guys took part in the campaign game already, but I thought I'd post some pics anyway.

They're MK IV Marines, of course, armed with Volkite weapons. They are a Troops choice in the Legion army list - "Tactical Support Squad".

I've got five more Volkite weapons so there's still the option to bulk the squad out to ten Marines, just need five more bodies ;-)

Lastly, here's the converted RT-era Assault Squad. Ten Marines with pistols/bolters and close combat weapons, with a plasma pistol in there too. Jump packs are from Max Mini.

These are three of my favourites - the RT Lieutenant with bionic leg, RT MK III Marine with Bolter and sword, and a converted RT Medic with updated bolt pistol.

Here's another three - the model at centre has been converted to carry a Heresy-era resin bolter in his right hand.

These four chaps fill out the squad. The model second from right has had a head swap, and the one at far right with plasma pistol is the same model as the converted one in the picture above.

It's great to get these models done and into the force org. I'm quickly exhausting the queue of unpainted Heresy stuff... but there's another 10-man RT tactical squad and Apothecary waiting for paint, along with a Chapterhouse Land Raider conversion kit that awaits assembly. That's not even mentioning the Magos and Adeptus Mechanicus guys I need to build and paint to accompany the Reaver Titan... so we'll be busy for awhile yet I think ;-)

Conscript Byron was sick a couple of weeks ago so couldn't come out to the Terminal Station game I ran. Accordingly, he dropped by Wednesday night to re-fight the game. This time it was just the two of us, head to head, with Byron running the Vanguard, and myself running the Strain.

The scenario objectives were the same as we previously played - basically it was a race to the train. However, both sides played a little differently, both acting more aggressively.

Byron set up his 7 Vanguard (6 armed with laser carbines, one elite armed with a grenade launcher) as far forward as he could, in two groups on either side of the sushi restaurant. The grenadier was given two tactics markers, to allow her to fire indirectly.

The Strain (16 Revenants, 2 Quasimodos, and 2 Stalkers) were again limited to setting up adjacent to 4 strategic points. (Remember, we have doubled the gun ranges to S=8/M=16/L=24 inches, so the point cost of the Revenants has basically been halved).

Byron opened the engagement with the launching of his only grav grenade, causing some damage, but, more importantly, pinning several Strain in place for a turn (the Singularity effect reduced their movement to "1").

The Vanguard advanced north towards the rail line, on both sides of the red-roofed sushi restaurant. Nine Revenants and a Stalker advanced south towards the Vanguard, some entering the strip mall buildings through the back doors. They drew a lot of fire, and most of them were killed, However, the nano-virus clouds left behind by dead Revenants moved on, infecting some of the Vanguard. The two Quasimodos moved to take up firing positions. The rest of the Strain moved away from the action, towards where the train would arrive.

A single Vanguard Samaritan got the attention of both a Quasimodo and a Stalker, but for a couple of turns none of them could manage to hit the other, even with the assistance of the Tac-net!

One of the Quasimodos achieved a strong position on top of the blockhouse, commanding the centre of the table. He killed a Samaritan with his acidic ranged weapon. An infected Samaritan drew his fire, and blew him away with a well-aimed laser shot. Then, as the infection overtook her...

...she withdrew towards the western table edge, trying to get as far away from her comrades as possible before the inevitable happened...

...and the nano-virus consumed her and turned her into another Quasimodo!

When the maglev train arrived, 7 or 8 various Strain were in position to board. A couple hiding behind a Tyrell Corporation shipping container were lit up by the grenadier (literally; she set them on fire). Akosha Nama, riding on top of a container on a flatbed car, finished off the flamed Stalker with a round from her sniper rifle.

Below, Byron contemplates his potential moves toward the train. A couple of Vanguard have already been hit by the remaining two Quasimodos, and are about to die agonizing deaths from their corrosive acid spray.

The single Vanguard Samaritan left behind by the Taco Bell finally helped kill the Stalker threatening her, then she moved away from the train, drawing fire from the recently-created Quasimodo. Though covered in acid, she managed to kill the creature (her former mess mate) with a single shot (she rolled three "6's" to hit).

The Grenadier and another Samaritan managed to join the sniper on the train. Meanwhile, six Strain also boarded the train. However, two Revenants died from Vanguard reflex fire and one was reduced to a single wound. The two Samaritans were infected by the resulting nano, but otherwise were unwounded.

Discussing the game afterward, in our minds we took it as a tie. Yes, the Strain got 1 more model on the train, but it had only 1 wound, and the Vanguard had a big, expensive character with a superior, longer-ranged weapon.

***

I like the alternating Active Mode and Reflex Mode that comprise each side's turns. You always have to pay attention, since, in Reflex Mode, your models may be able to respond to enemy actions.

Some of the nuances of the rules are interesting. You roll for corrosion resistance at the END of your own activation. So that one Samaritan mentioned above moved and drew the reflex shot from the Quasimodo, who didn't cause enough damage to kill her outright. She then fired, killing the Quasimodo, then she had to roll for corrosion resistance.

You only take extra damage from corrosion effects at the START of your activation. If one saves at the END of her previous activation, the corrosion ends, and you would not take any more damage from corrosion next turn. Thinking about it, this actually rewards bold action, risking drawing fire, rather than waiting for the Strain to shoot you during their own activation.

***

Trooper Vasquez managed to avoid the worst effects of the acid on her armour. As the train left Terminal Station, she ruefully turned away and contemplated her situation: Wounded. Infected with the Strain nano-virus. Alone in hostile territory.

"Time to soldier, soldier," she said to herself. "Let's see if that abandoned aid station has anything that can slow down this frakking infection."

***

Operator Akosha Nama called out to the Vanguard nearby, "Get back! There's a Corpsman at the other tender that can help you!"

Her optical camouflage activated. She started to disappear from their view, and looked straight at her enemy.

"I'm coming for you."

Over the last few weeks I have been working on two vehicles to add to my expanding 30k Death Guard force. The vehicles I have added are the Sicaran Venator and a Fire Raptor. Both were picked just because they look too damn cool not too have! Here they are along side my original Sicaran.

I love the Sicaran hull and having a normal one already, I just had to get the other version of it, where the driver is obviously trying to compensate for something. The gun is a huge neutron laser and makes up most of the tank, and the fluff explains that it is the largest weapon on any tank in this class.

The gun spits out multiple strength 10 AP 1 shots, so it should help against the land raiders and super heavies that are starting to show up in our 30k games. On top of that anything that is hit by the gun (even super heavies) can only fire snap shots the following turn. Even better yet, because this is a Sicaran hull it is a fast vehicle so can move 12" and still fire 2 weapons at full effect (mind you as soon as the big gun fires, the sponsons are snap firing anyway since it is an ordinance weapon), or if it chooses not to fire, can cover 24" in a turn. This means it can get where you need it on the table quickly.

To help ensure that the main gun stays alive a bit longer, I mounted the optional sponson mounted lascannons. Even if the main gun is knocked out, at least it can still do something.

Next of the new vehicles is the Fire Raptor, which in my mind is very reminiscent of an A10 tank killer with two huge guns under nose and I could not pass on one, and it doesn't hurt that it turns out to be really good in a game.

I built the kit with the landing gear out so that it can sit flat on the table to be used as terrain, even when not used in a game. I have not figured out a flying stand system for this beast though as it just does not seem stable enough on a GW flight stand for me. I can use one, but will probable build in some kind of magnet system and a larger base so that I feel better about this expensive and fragile model sitting 8" above the table.

The guns on this flying gunship truly shine, and it should excel at multiple things in games. The chin guns can spit out 7 shots that are strength 6 AP 3 so should help thin out all of those Legion Marine squads. The rest of the armaments on it are a little less deadly being all AP 4, but putting out a lot of shots. It has 4 single shot rockets and two side turrets that each have a reaper autocannon battery (4 strength 7 twin linked shots each), and each turret can target whatever they chose, they are not limited at firing what the main guns are targeting. This should allow it to help support my ground forces and open up some Rhinos with all the strength 7 shots so that my infantry can get at the squishy contents.

I have been asked about my painting method in the past, since it is very different than my normal 40k clean style, so I figured I would explain a bit. Firstly, I am doing all of my Death Guard as grungy and dirty as I can while still keeping them resembling their white and green official colours. The reason for this is that I really love the first few Horus Heresy novels and the loyal Death Guard that are led by Captain Garro in them. I picture my force as part of Garro's force that was on Isstvan III either during or landing shortly after the Warmaster Horus scorched the planet in his attempt to wipe out the loyalist members of the legions there. Almost everything on the planet was destroyed by his attack and what was left was badly damaged, and everything that came down after the strikes was subject to all the dust, corrosion, and fires going on, and then went through the vicious fights that took place.

To accomplish this look, I did a bit of investigation and found a REALLY simple method. In fact it is so simple, and looks so good (at least in my opinion) that I wonder why the hell I spent so much time trying to paint vehicles in the typical GW clean sharp method.... This method takes way less than 1/2 the time, in fact probably about 1/4 the time, and looks better (again my opinion).

Step 1) Assemble and prime your vehicle. I primed these with Vallejo German Dark Grey airbrush primer as it gives a ver good dark colour for the chips (a dark almost black grey but with a hint of brown and green). I then gave some quick random shots of a rust brown to some edges and recesses where I knew I would ensure some chips where. (total time to prime and hit with rust - 15 min)

Step 2) Spray the whole model with a coat of either AK Heavy Chipping Solution or AK Weathering Solution. I used the heavy solution around the edges and the weather on large flat surfaces. Then set it aside and let it dry completely over night. (total time - 15 min)

Step 3) Next up I spray the whole model with my base colour and any accent colour (the green in my case, which in my anxiousness to get these done, I forgot and then had to go back mask areas, put another layer of chipping solution and and then put the green on) and then set it aside and let it dry for at least an hour or two. (total time - 15 min)

Step 4) Now comes the fun part. Either use a spray bottle with water or a large brush with water and wet down an area to start working on. Let it soak for about a min to soften the paint and then just start rubbing any area you want to show wear or chipping with a stiff brush. Paint will start coming away in a very random and natural way. The more you rub the more comes off. just keep moving around and working areas until you are happy with them. (total time for chipping - between 20 min and an hour depending on how you work)

Step 5) Time to put your decals on and then make sure you take some areas of them and pick them away so that they look worn to match the rest of the vehicle. I then clear coat the whole vehicle to prep it for the next step. (total time - depends on number of decals maybe 30 min)

Step 6) Back to some AK solutions for the grim look. Now I go to some AK Streaking Grime and AK Rust Streaks. These are enamel based solutions that make streaks really easy, but make the earlier clear coat step necessary. All I do is put a drop of the paint on each chip, or in crevasses or on sills and then let is sit for a bit (15-30 min). Once the paint has had time to dry a bit, it is time to take a soft brush and some odourless thinner or white spirits and brush down over the dots of paint you put on. They will start stretching down and forming streaks. If you pull them too far down you just wait a bit and then brush up with some more thinner. You can keep working the paint back and forth until you are happy with how it looks. I like leaving it a bit rough, then grabbing a stiff bristle worn out brush and do it again to break up the streaks and make them look grainy like real rust or dirt runs.

Step 6b) What is shown above is one coat of Streaking Grime, and then I went back and added little bits of the Rust Streaks and repeated step 6. (total time for 2 colours of streaking - roughly 2 hours)

Hopefully, this all comes across clearly. I may sound complicated, but honestly it is super simple and very fast. If there are any questions, please ask. Total WORK time for priming through streaking on both the Sicaran Venator and Fire Raptor was roughly 4-5 hours. Once all of that is done, then I go back and paint all the details and then add pigment powders to dirty it all up even more. These finishing steps take about the same time as the weathering, so total time for 2 really big vehicles was less than 10 hours. Which in my mind is pretty damn fast compared to what I used to spend to paint vehicles and I used to despise painting vehicles, and now I love it, so it's pure win. Now, if only putting the Fire Raptor together wasn't as much of a pain the .... as it was, or I would get the troop transport version to go along with this one.

Anyway, sorry that the post got so long, I hope you find it interesting, and thanks for reading it (assuming you got this far).

Now, time to get another game of 30k in!

More fodder for the Eastern front!

Well I have been very lazy at blogging for the past month or so, but I have actually still been painting stuff. The NFL has started, the NHL is about to get started, and all of that sport-watching provides for prime painting time. Here is some more late WW2 Germans. This is a panzer grenadier platoon infantry, a PaK40 AT gun team and a spare command figure. All of the figures are from Battlefront.

A platoon command group urges the troops forward

he Panzer Grenadiers are loaded down with MG42s and panzerfausts, all things they will need to try and get the job done late in the war. As I have observed previously, sculpting from Battlefront can be hit and miss, but I really like these late war German sculpts - the troops have a nice mix of trench coats and reversible cammo smocks and pants, covered and uncovered helmets, and a sort of hopeless look on their smooshed faces...even if the particular firefight they are involved in is going OK, overall they know things are going pear-shaped, and they look like they know it.

MG42s by the bucket load

The PaK40 is a plastic gun with metal crew...I have painted these plastic PaK40s before and they seem a bit..off, I'm not sure exactly what it is, but the barrel doesn't seem quite right...but whatever - good to have some AT guns to try and hold off that Soviet armour.

PaK40 ready to take out some tanks

I quite like the animation of the crew figures from Battlefront...

As with the other WW2 figures and AT guns I have painted this summer, I've tried to go for a combination of uniform colours and ground work that might be called "3-season" - good for spring and fall, and not horrible in midsummer or winter. I've been making some recent terrain purchases to try and get away from the very ideal green midsummer look on the gaming tables (more on that later) and I hope these will fit in with that.

Blurry photo (sorry) of another command stand - I put a figure with one of those artillery scoping deals, so this can double as a spotter for artillery or maybe a command group for a gun unit

Tried my best with some German cammo here and there...mixed results but looks OK, especially with lots of trench coats to break up and vary the overall look

Nice to have these additions to the late war 15mm collection done. They will see action in games of Flames of War, Battlegroup and even Spearhead.

Another view of the Panzer Grenadiers

I mentioned earlier all the pro sports firing up and that is a sure sign that fall is here now (yes, and the beautiful colours in the trees - I notice that too :). I had set for myself this summer a bit of a goal to tackle my Smaug-horde-sized pending-pile of lead and plastic for 15mm WW2. I managed to make a bit of a dent, even while distracted as always by my wandering interests, short attention span, as well as wanting to get even more 30k stuff finished. Stay tuned for more on all three of these subject areas...

T-64BVs - 1/600 scale vehicles from Oddzial Osmy, available at Pico Armor

This week I hosted a game of "Modern Spearhead", the adapted version of Arty Contliffe's classic division level-WW2 rules. "Spearhead" is one of the great rule systems out there, and although I like to fuss with the rules from time to time, overall it is one of my favourite games and one of the best sets of rules ever done, in my opinion (of course, YMMV).

Vast echelon of elements in the Soviet 112th Guards Motor Rifle Regiment

In "Spearhead", each base or vehicle represents a platoon or troops or vehicles, a battery of guns etc. This is part of creating the right sense of abstraction in order to play a division-level command game. The players take the role of regiment and brigade commanders, and are not fussed with the tactical elements. Contliffe's rules engine does this very well, and the key to success in a game of Spearhead is timing and planning, mixed of course with (you hope) some good fortune on the dice.

Leopards waiting on a ridge - with the small figures, I used paper to mark elevations instead of hills - Curt put me on to this, and I really liked the effect

I generally use my large (but old, and now really tired looking for the most part) 1/300 scale collection of figures to play "Spearhead" - whether WW2 or modern. But, as seen here and there on the blog, I have been getting more and more into the 1/600 scale sculpts from Oddzial Osmy (available easily from the delightful folks at Pico Armor). Here is an old post of those figures in action - I have been painting a few more to bulk up the collection, and we played another game this past week.

The scenario was a favourite setting of mine - Cold-War-gone hot, with the Canadians in CENTAG's III Corps put into action to try and prevent a Soviet breakthrough on the road to Frankfurt. Byron, Brian H and Dave V all came out for the game.

For the table, I took advantage of the fact that Conscript Curt had just been in town and he had set up for a 3mm game of Napoleonics (more on that will be found shortly over at Analogue Hobbies I'm sure). He used paper to mark the contours of elevations and hills. If you would have told me about this beforehand, I would have found it odd, but I loved how it worked in practice with the very small scale figures - it reinforces the "proper" sense of abstraction for the game - you are a senior commander, not tactical, and helps you think at that level. I made a few small changes and bang, the table was ready - Curt had already done most of the work for me :)

T-72s have overrun 2PPCLI on the first ridge line

Brian and Dave took command of the Soviets. They had a full BMP regiment at their disposal - designated the 112th Guards Motor Rifles - three battalions of BMP2 mounted crack troops, and an attached battalion of T-64BV tanks. The Regiment had its own attached 122mm SP artillery battalion. To bulk up further, the 112th received the 80th Independent Tank Battalion, equipped with T-72s. Off table there was further support from the division - another battalion of 122mm guns, and a further (scary!) battalion of 152mm guns! Air support in the form of Su-25 "Frogfoot" attack planes was also available.

The Royal Canadian Dragoons open fire

The Soviets had just crossed a small river, and their objective was to break through to the Canadians and capture the next town and river crossing. Time was of the essence, of course. NATO was on the run, and Frankfurt could be reached and CENTAG disemboweled - as long as the schedule was met!! Forward comrades!

In the face of this monstrous horde, Byron took charge of the Canadians. He had the 2nd Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry (mechanized troops in M113 APCs), and the Royal Canadian Dragoons and their Leopard C1 tanks (bulked up with a fourth squadron - NATO would have got them there somehow as the crisis in Europe boiled up, I figure). NATO doctrine is flexible, so Byron peeled some elements from both units to create a small reserve task force in case things went pear-shaped. For support there was the Royal Canadian Horse Artillery and their 155mm SP guns, and the hope of air support from US A-10s and even some division level 203mm US guns...

Initial deployments and plans - Byron has two layers of defence (blue areas) and a reserve off table, while the Soviets have plotted a vicious right hook...

Dave and Brian crafted a fairly straightforward plan - sacrifice some units to overrun the forward deployed Canadians on the first ridge, and send the bulk of the regiment past the right flank so the Canadians on the second ridge would have difficulty engaging. Use the merciless amount of artillery to pound any resistance into dust!

You can see 2PPCLI is no longer in the game...

That's kind of how it unfolded - the Warpac forces broke out of the town and engaged 2PPCLI on the first ridge, taking heavy losses, but backed by horrible amounts of artillery. Soviet counter battery even located the Canadian gunners in RCHA, took out a battery and forced the survivors to relocate.

The Dragoons would take revenge for their comrades - those Russians on the ridge at the right were soon vaporized

Once 2PPCLI was crushed, the Soviets swept over the ridge, and encountered the guns of the Dragoons. The Leopards made short work of the Soviets who took the first ridge. Meanwhile, US air support showed up and started to put some hurt on the Russians.

Byron's challenge illustrated - if he could just get the Dragoons moving...

Realizing he needed to maneuver to stop the Soviet flank maneuver, Byron activated his small reserve and sent them forward, and he tried to issue orders to get the Dragoons to hit the Russian flank. In "Spearhead", the ability to change your orders is crucial to the success of outnumbered but more flexible forces like the Canadians. Just don't roll a "1"...so, anyway...

Visual recreation of Byron's order change rolls...Dragoons stay put

Byron's reserve came forward, but he could not get the dice god to allow the Dragoons to move in time! The Soviet flank thrust took a bloody nose from the small reserve (and more US air strikes), but Soviet artillery, and a visit from the Su-25s, blasted the Canadian reserves. With two of their three elements broken, the Canadians were defeated.

Su-25 Frogfoot pastes some Canadians in M113s

Soviet victory was achieved in 8 turns of hard fighting! Promotions for the Soviet Commanders! The Soviets had two battalions (a BMP unit and a T-72 unit) knocked out of the game, and two more (a second BMP unit and the T-64s) chewed up a bit, but their plan held and they managed to overwhelm the Canadians.

Suppressed Leopards courtesy of huge Warpac artillery barrages

It was, however, a close-run thing - the pivotal issue was Byron's bad luck with his order dice - if he had been able to get the Royal Canadian Dragoons moving, they might have swept right into the flank of the Soviet advance over the second ridge...it could have gone either way.

Soviet Motor Rifle units sweep the forested ridge!

While it was a loss for the Canadians, and the poor lads of 2PPCLI took a drubbing, the Royal Canadian Dragoons were still actually in great combat shape, with three full squadrons and some attached support still ready to fight. If and when the guys are up for another game of "Modern Spearhead", I think we'll have a scenario where these fellows are trying to cut their way out of the pocket they find themselves in and re-join the NATO lines.

Thanks to Byron, Brian and Dave for coming out to play, and doing a great job playing the command roles in character!

Deimos Pattern Rhino from Forge World

Another shift in period and scale, from 15mm WW2 to 28mm science fiction and Warhammer 30k. This is another "asset" for the motor pool of the 16th Legion - a Deimos Pattern Rhino APC. The model is from Forge World, a mix of resin components with a current plastic Rhino model kit from Games Workshop.

Those panel lines on the fender are not too clean...ahem...lack of patience and skill on my part

Compared to the other cool and scary-looking vehicles to be found in Forge World's 30k Space Marine Legions (like these, or this), the Rhino is quite humble and rather boring. It's two bolt guns will not destroy another vehicle or wound a Titan. But it will increase the mobility of the Sons of Horus troops and continue the slow and steady collection escalation underway with Dallas and Byron.

Access hatch on the rear

Forge World models are always a bit hit-and-miss, and this one was very difficult - not because of the resin (for once) but because of the plastic model components. The fenders on the GW Rhino kit plastic superstructure were bent pretty badly, and this one did not come together very clean. I am not an advanced modeler at all - I lack the patience and skill - and so when you look closely you will places where the panels don't quite line up. This is what happens when you pretty much just force a model to fit together, with a proper mix of super glue, will power and swearing. But from a foot away, it looks fine, and that's good enough for me!

Lots of chipping on the top hatch

This APC will join the other two Rhinos I finished back in the summer. Between these Rhinos and the Land Raider, my Sons of Horus force can comfortably mount 40 troops in armoured vehicles to take the fight to the dupes of the False Emperor. I am thinking it won't be long until hostilities resume on Orask, so I will try and get a few more pieces done to escalate the fight and speed the inevitable conquest of the Warmaster Horus, humanity's last hope!

Vote Horus - or else!

Collection escalation is a lot of fun. I've been working on Legion 30k figures since late February in 2014, and in the time since both Byron and Dallas have jumped in too. As a group we've been adding more and more stuff, and that's great. Dallas has continued to add reinforcements for his Blood Drinkers, while Byron has added more vehicles for the Death Guard. All in preparation for a very, very big game (more on that soon). The Sons of Horus had to match (and try to exceed!) the escalation - a new Rhino barely counts. So here are a couple of posts on new additions to the 16th Legion. Up first is this Rapier Laser Destroyer from Forge World.

16th Legion Rapier with two-man crew

Rapier commander in MKIII armour - my favourite Horus Heresy kit...

This model, like many parts of Forge World's Horus Heresy lineup, is a nice-shout out to GW's Rogue Trader history, and really screams out to nostalgia-primed dorks like me. A tracked carrier for various heavy weapons, the Rapier was once a metal model from the late 1980s. The model available today is a lot bigger than the original, and comes with two crew figures.

As I have said before, the embossed shoulder plates are a god-send, and an expensive addiction

This particular weapon system is a "Laser Destroyer", a scary energy weapon useful for blasting vehicles or heavily armoured bad guys. It is a twin-linked, ST 9, AP1 ordnance weapon - 30k-speak for "ouch".

The "driver", using analogue-style technology to operate the Rapier

These are very nice figures, a lot of fun to paint. I like the comb on the officer, and the little extras like the scope and lens on the backpacks, etc. Great work by the sculptors at Forge World.

Lots of nice details on this model, another great piece from Forge World

In keeping with the theme of excess running through the 30k Legion army lists, these things are actually meant to be deployed in batteries of three guns (!). I'm not sure I will get that level with these guns, but I'm sure that would be a fun way to take out enemy armour...

Whoever that guy on the left is pointing at is probably in a lot of trouble...

Up next - more Sons of Horus...

Horus for hope - or else!!

More escalation in the continuing 30k arms race. Here is a squad of Legion Terminator Marines, wearing "Cataphrachtii" pattern terminator armour, painted in the colours of the 16th Legion, the Sons of Horus.

"Power Fists for Change!"

Troops wearing the Terminator, or "tactical dreadnought", armour represent elite combats units in the Space Marine Legions. And in 30k, most of the Legions take this further, sporting some kind of specialized tactical dreadnought troops. In the case of the Sons of Horus, it is the Justaerin Terminators. I did not care for the goofy, proto-dark-Eldar look of the Justaerin figures myself, so I went with the "generic" Cataphractii armour, reasoning that the 16th Legion was a huge formation and would mostly have access to these more "generic" units, with the Justaerin limited to just one company in the Legion (led by that warm fuzzy fellow Abbadon...)

The sergeant is rather menacing - I wish I had not been in such a hurry to finish these, as I would have take time to shave those stupid skulls off...oh well - by GW standards, still pretty tame

The Terminators are equipped for the most part with combi-bolters, a precursor to the storm bolter seen on the 40k Marine terminators. One Marine is carrying the absurd-yet-so-dumb-yet-gorgeous reaper autocannon as a special weapon - another 30k-era fixture, used prior to the assault cannon. All also have power fists for smashing the enemies of Horus right in the face, save the Sergeant, who carries a Thunder Hammer, which also smashes the enemies of Horus, but makes it hurt even more. The Sergeant is also sporting a "grenade harness", a small grenade launcher on the top of his armour.

"Horus just wants to talk with you..."

"Accept that change is coming..."

Terminators are great fun to have from a collecting and fluff standpoint, but function very poorly in the actual game. GW's 40k rules engine - as has been noted here often and, much more effectively, in so many other places on the web - harbours many deep flaws, and in the case of the terminators, these flaws combine to render them close to useless. Despite their impressive stats and armaments, getting them to contact with the enemy is very difficult, and when that enemy is a Space Marine Legion, chances are they will be shot to be pieces by sheer volume of accurate and scary fire before they can accomplish much.

Oh man - just LOOK at this gun - bonkers!

The Reaper Autocannon - a 30k favourite!!

Terminators look cool and are fun to paint, but are a waste of points in your force, looking much more impressive on paper, in contrast to actual results on the table, which are almost always disappointing. This was certainly the case when they went into action last week (more on that soon).

One critique of the design, not much room for decals, save the top...at least Ferrum Mori will be able to recognize them and not step on them accidentally

Whatever their table attributes, the looks-cool-factor is certainly high on these sculpts. They appear menacing, and as I said, that reaper autocannon just can't be beat for "WTF?" I'm glad to have these as part of the battle line for the 16th Legion!

Up next, some more Sons of Horus...

Hill 62 / Sanctuary Wood Museum, Flanders

Battle of San Domingo 1806 (1/1200 sailing ships)

Vacation Painting - 15mm Late WW2 German Infantry

Wings of Glory - Campaign Game

Spanked! Naval Action in the War of 1812 (1/1200 sailing ships)

Sedition Wars Project - Phase One Complete!

Sons of Horus 30k Contemptor Dreadnought

Deimos Pattern Rhinos for the Sons of Horus

The Defence of Orask, Part 1 - Horus Heresy Campaign Battle Report

Sedition Wars Project - Phase II Update: train and chopper

Sedition Wars Batrep - Terminal Station

Side tracked, yet again... Small Ronin or Daisho skirmish force

Blood Drinkers Contemptor Dreadnought, Tac Support Squad, Assault Squad

Sedition Wars - Re-fight and Some Thoughts

Horus Heresy Death Guard Vehicles

More 15mm Late War Germans

That's A Lot Of Tanks, Eh? Modern Spearhead Battle Report

Another Deimos Pattern Rhino for the Sons of Horus

Legion Rapier for the Sons of Horus

30k Sons of Horus Terminators