Escalation League Changes, Catachan

I have finalised a beginning 500 point list for the escalation league. I then made a list of the conversions i will have to do to field it using my Praetorians and despaired. Now I will be using my Catachans with some Adeptus Mechanicus back up for the league. I have been contemplating using the Witchunters codex but I couldn't get a decision from the league organizers whether I could use the old Zealot chapter approved rules from White Dwarf, so Imperial guard it is. I found my Catachans in storage and brought them back out into the light of day. Unlike a lot of people I like the Catachan models. at one time I had a regular Catachan army and a Catachan Ork Hunter army. As all things GW go they invalidated the Ork Hunter White Dwarf list and rolled the Catachan codex into the regular Imperial guard Codex. The bigger problem for me was I wanted to build an Adeptus Mechanicus army for a home brew codex by Tim Huckleberry of GW fame. The codex was in progress and some of the weapon options and upgrades would change so I needed the ability to be able to swap out the weapons on the models. This lead to me building my basic Ad Mech troopers. I thought about buying more figures to build the Ad Mech figure but instead raided my Catachan armies and used them as the basis, and all was good. In the fullness of time I wanted to break out the Catachans for some more games and found that I had retasked too many of them. I didn't have enough models to field a legal army. I picked some more up and brought them up to strength. Later my friend Patrick decided to sell his Catachans and I ended up buying a bunch of them. This added a ton of troops to my army but I am still a little light in heavy weapons and command models. I have a good selection of vehicles but lack many of the new vehicles in the Guard codex. It looks like I will be buying a few more things for the army. I have a tentative 2000 point list and need some new vehicles and bits to convert the models I want to field. Luckily heroes HQ is giving a League Discount. Now back to the hobby room to reorganize the Catachans and contemplate whether field three fifty model conscript squads on a thousand point army is theme or not. ColKG

GQ III German Convoy Attacked by Surface Raiders

Last weekend I played in a game of General Quarters Three at the Basement of Heaped Miniatures. The game was ran by Steve J, who controlled the German Supply convoy. I controlled the four German escort destroyers, while ChuckarooBob and John"Own Goal"B controlled three British destroyers each. It was a play test for the game Steve wants to run at an upcoming convention. The basic Scenario is a German supply convoy is making a run to take vital resupply parts to Norway. The convoy consisted of eight merchant ship protected by four Destroyers. Hunting the convoy was two groups of three British Destroyers each.
I neglected to take pictures during the first half of the game including the most decisive turn when I sank two of John B's destroyers with torpedoes. Then John returned the favor and earned his new nickname "Own Goal" by using torpedoes to sink one of my destroyers and his own destroyer, the last one. This left me facing Chuckaroo's three destroyers with my three.

And then it happened a moment that had to be recorded. Above Chuckaroo has ,for the first time, fired torpedoes in a naval game. He also fired from another destroyer aimed at the convoy.

A look at the table after the torpedo launches. Two of my destroyers are in the upper center of the table were all of John "Own Goal"s ships along with one of mine were sunk the turn before. My one destroyer faces Chuckaroo's destroyers to the bottom left and center bottom.

Later my destroyer cruises at full speed around the convoy to get at the British. Chuckaroos Torpedoes have claimed another merchant ship and another destroyer. The Merchant took three hits and the Destroyer was hit by all four torpedoes, giving their lives to save the convoy and their critically needed supplies.

Another exchange of gunfire and torpedoes leaves me with only one destroyer facing the remaining three British destroyers.

Then a break for me, two of Chuckaroo's destroyers leave the combat area. Heavily damaged, torpedoes expended and no working guns they return to port for repairs.

Now it is down to the last two. Chuckaroo maneuvers and I chase. Neither have any torpedoes left and both are heavily damaged.

We continue to exchange fire doing more damage to each other. The convoy also gets into the act firing up Chuckaroo's last destroyer. Finally a telling hit leaves Chuckaroo dead in the water with the convoy sailing away. My last destroyer is barely afloat, hardly faster than the convoy but still has a working gun. We call the game and the convoy makes it through.

I had a good time but the highlight of the game was ole Chuckaroo "politely" reminding John "Own Goal" B about his miscalculation in the torpedo plotting phase.

Praetorians for 40k Escalation League

The Lads at GameOnGw have started a Warhammer 40k Escalation League and I am debating about joining. If I play I will probably be playing Imperial guard and fielding my Praetorians. The league will help motivate me to get some painted and play some games before a new edition of 40k comes out. I have been collecting Praetorians for years but have yet to fully paint a single model. The best i have is a base coat on my Praetorian Lancer rough riders and some sentinels but they are far from painted. The added bonus is I will get them painted up to use in Victorian Science Fiction wargaming as The Queens Electric Rifles.

To Field the army I want, I will have to do a series of conversions. Some I have already done when I was redoing the army a year or two ago.

Here is my master Vox model. It is a regular trooper with a catachan voxcaster on his back with a bit added on from the bits box.

This is a better look at the simple conversion. I plan to use the Buglers as regular voxcasters.

This is a Junior officer with a power weapon and stormbolter. It is one of my favorite conversions that was nullified by the new codex. He and the others I converted to have stormbolters will end up with a weapon swap to at least a boltpistol, plasma pistol or maybe a bolter.

I received several standard bearers in a trade with broken banner poles. Most of them I converted into lancers but a couple I gave a laspistol so I could use them as sergeants. I plan to cut the banner pole from another one, add a laspistol and some belt packs to make them medics.

One failing of the Praetorian range was no Plasmagun model. I have several of the other three special weapons but wanted some plasma guns. I followed a tutorial from a forum and converted a couple plasmagunners from regular lasgunners and plasma pistols. I might have to convert up a few more depending on my army list.

I will probably add a few powerfists into the army and will have to convert them. I am not sure which models to base the conversions on but will probably need two or three. I am also debating adding some autocannons, with the carriages modeled with seven spoked wheels like Col. Gravis has on his.

Vehicle wise I have a good selection already with most of them painted. I am thinking about buying two of the new hellhound models to make into banewolves. I have a couple griffons from back in the day. I bought them on clearance to use for chimeras but never did. They might get their chance to see the table.

Still planning

New Shop, Endless Gaming

I was in Raleigh for training last week and stopped by a new gaming shop called Endless Gaming. It is a nice shop and they have plans to host several tournaments. I couldn't resist not buying anything so I picked up a box of Blood Angels Death Company for my Fleshtearers. The shop is located at 3801 Hillsborough street across the road from the entrance to Meredith College. They have access to another storefront in the shopping center so have plenty of room if they need it for gaming. They also have a selection of Games Workshop and Privateer models.
If you are in Raleigh and get the chance stop by and have a look.

Black Powder Napoleonic game

Hello, I made it out to Heroes Headquarters in Mocksville NC for the first time to play in a Napoleonic game ran by Chuckaroobob. Several of the players planning to show bailed so it was just me and Chuckaroo till Tim C. arrived. Chuckaroo had planned for a larger game but pared it down to three brigades a side. We played using the Black Powder colonial rules. It was the second time I had played the rule set and the first time for Tim. Chuckaroo sat out the game and game mastered.

It was my first trip to a new gaming/comic shop in Mocksville NC called Heroes Headquarters. it is a nice shop in a good neighborhood. They have a selection of board games, role playing games, some Games workshop, Some Warmachine, some Malifaux and other odds and ends

Chuckaroo decided the have the Hungarians face the Germans. I chose the Hungarians. my force was divided into three brigades. The first brigade was the two regiments in the foreground. working down the line is the Cavalry brigade with a regiment of Light cavalry, A regiment of Cuirassier and a regiment of Dragoons, the last heavy brigade had two regiments of infantry, a regiment of Croatian light infantry and two batteries of Cannon. The organization may seem a bit lop sided and i would like to say it was part of my master plan but I placed the Brigades on the board as they were in the storage boxes. After deploying them and starting the game I learned that they were not in their Brigades in the boxes but I just played on.

Tim deployed the Germans. The Brigade in the fore ground has two Infantry regiments and a Cuirassier regiment. His Center brigade has his two batteries of cannon and a Light infantry Jager unit. His far brigade contained three regiments of infantry and another unit of Cuirassier.

We rolled for first turn and I won. I decided to let Tim go first. He moved forward and shot up my troops. I began to think that letting him go first may have been a bad idea.

Tim ran his Cuirassier around my flank so I formed right most flank Infantry regiment into square and waited for his Cavalry.

Tim's Jagers had moved far forward. I rolled well and my entire cavalry Brigade charged them.

Tim moved up on my far left flank and fired up my cannon.

The combat was hot and hard with the infantry giving as good as they got.

The Infantry broke and the Cavalry held the field.

With their sweeping advance the Cavalry move forward to flank the German Infantry regiment.

The German Infantry Regiment charge the Hungarian guns. the Hungarian defensive fire make the Germans pause.

The German guns move up and enfilade the Hungarian light cavalry.

The German Cuirassier charge toward the Hungarian Cuirassier. The Hungarians see the movement and counter charge the Germans. They meet in the middle.

The Hungarian Infantry regiment moves up to support the Battery. The Cannons fire grape again and with the fire from the Infantry regiment break the German infantry.

The Hungarian cavalry Brigade shaken but not broken withdraws back the the center of the battle line.

The Hungarian Infantry form up and fire into the advancing Germans. The best shooting of the game happened and the Hungarians when six hits for six shots.

That did enough wounds to break the German who retired from the field.

On the far right the threat of German cavalry removed, Hungarian Regiment in square reforms and charges the Germans. The second Regiment of the Hungarian Brigade wheels and charges the Germans in the flank. The Germans are overwhelmed, break and leave the field.

After the last round of combat we debated another turn and decided against it. The majority of my army was shaken but I still had all of my units, while Tim was down to two Regiments of Infantry, two Regiments of cavalry and both batteries of Cannon.

End game on my right flank. Of note is the lone German Cavalry unit on the left. Tim had finally managed to make a leadership roll and move them forward after missing the roll three turns in a row.

My right flank at end game.

I had a great time and hope Tim C. also enjoyed the game. One thing different about the Black Powder rules is that you don't remove models from the table until the unit is destroyed. it is different from most other games I have played but it make the game a better spectacle. It allows you to show your painted figures instead of putting them away as you take casualties. The basic game mechanics are quick to pick up and make for a faster game.

I am looking forward to the next game.

Old West Figure count

An old gaming buddy has expressed an interest in doing some western gaming. We haven't gamed anything in years but thanks to the Internet we have kept up. I will be able to play a game or two in a couple weeks so I broke out the figure. As much as I like westerns you would figure I would have more but this is it.



Here is the group shot. They are a combination of Pinnacle Great rail wars figures, Ral Partha Banditos and a single Chronoscope figure. The Pinnacle figures were in bad shape. I painted them over ten years ago and it shows. They had a fuzzy primer and a bunch of mold lines still showing. I cleaned off the mold lines and dropped them all into the simple green.

here is a group shot of the Banditios. I converted one of the duplicated poses to have a bowie knife in his off hand and plan to give the other two duplicate poses differ paint jobs to tell the difference.

I am debating about using Gordo here as my gang leader. I am still deciding on a paint scheme but i mill watch some more Italian westerns to get some inspiration.

The best painted off the bunch is an Ellen Stone figure from the Reaper Chronoscope line. I really like the figure and bought it just to paint with no real plan to use it in gaming. If I don't use Gordo as the leader she probably will be.

The last three are Pinnacle figure I repainted a few years ago. The Model in the center is, of course, Prospector Bob international man of mystery. He is headed back to his roots and his rifle will lend a little long range firepower to the mostly pistol armed gang.

I am not sure which rule set we plan to play with. Either Legends of the Old West, Gut shot or The Rules with no Name. I plan to show with my figures and roll with whatever game they want to play.

Chinese Big Sword Platoon

I have started on the second platoon for my Chinese Warlord army. I am using the Disposable Heroes rules Pacific war supplement called Red Sun, Red Death to organize my units. The Big Sword platoon only has three fifteen man squads compared to the regular Chinese Rifle platoon's four squads. The difference is you can upgrade a Big Sword squad to have three submachineguns to the rifle platoons one and every model can be upgraded to have a Mauser Broom handle pistol. When you get in a tight spot, who doesn't like to have a bunch of fearless, broom handle shootin', sword swinging assault troops to make the enemy think twice.

The platoon in its unpainted glory. The sword and broom handle armed models are Copplestone dare to die troops. The submachine gunners are Copplestone assault troops. The rifle armed models are a recent addition to the army from Pulp miniatures. The German advisor light machine gunners to the right are Renegade WWI late war Germans with captured Lewis guns and the German Advisor is a German officer from the Copplestone German adventurer set.
I have had most of the figures for several years but plan to get them painted this year. I went back over them and removed several mold lines and touched up the base coat. I have many more submachine gun armed men than needed for the Big Sword unit. My reason for painting them is I need more smgs to use the guerrilla list in the book at some point in the future.

Old Stuff day

Inspired by the Warhammer 39999 blog to bring back an old post, here is a link to an old favorite of mine. It was when I finally acquired fifty chaos terminators for my Apocalypse Annilation force in 2008.


http://mlwodementia.blogspot.com/2008/11/annihilation-force-assembled.html



I have since assembled them all and used them in a couple Apocalypse games, but this is where it all started.

ColKG

Chinese Rifle Platoon Finished

I have finally managed to finish painting a full platoon of Warlord era Chinese troops. I finished four fifteen man rifle squads, a five man command section with bonus standard bearer and five extra officers to lead the Big Sword platoon and the other Rifle Platoon (yet to be painted). So a good start to the year with seventy one finished models.

The Platoon in all their glory. The majority of them are Copplestone Back of Beyond figures with a leavening of Pulp miniatures Chinese to bring up the numbers.

A not so good picture of the Standard Bearer. The flag was given to me by Chuckaroobob and I credit it with motivating me to finish the platoon.

A better shot of the standard bearer. It is a Pulp miniature from their Japanese naval troops range. Apparently this one has hired on and impressed the Warlord enough to be given the Honor of carrying the General's standard.

The four converted light machine gunners. Bolt Action Partisan Light machine gunners with Adrian helmet heads from Empress miniatures. More mercenaries serving the Warlord.

A close up of a wounded gunner.

The rear of the kneeling gunner.

Another gunner.

The second kneeling gunner with spectacles. The flash really makes them glow.

The second standing gunner also with a head wound. To have helmet these boys get hit in the head alot.

Another shot of the assembled troops getting ready for the battlefield, once the glue dries on their static grass.

Only about another hundred Chinese to paint but I am optimistic.