Current Projects

Most of the time I have multiple gaming projects on the go at once. Impulse purchases result in many models that can sit around for years before a random burst of enthusiasm means they finally get painted. The projects that I have had the most enthusiasm for lately have all been 28mm sci-fi.

First, a Terminator with Thunder Hammer, which I had previously blogged about. These were a TradeMe purchase that came already painted, but a couple of days soaking in Simple Green followed by a good scrub with an old toothbrush got it back to bare metal. It is now painted up in Red Hammer chapter colours.

Next up were an OpForce to face the Red Hammers, in this case some Dark Eldar warriors. These are mostly done, just a bit more drybrushing and some details left to paint.

Lastly, my Teratons for Dreadball. I've done 6 of the 8 starting team members. Painting the last two really should be my next priority, but as I have two gaps on my roster due to casualties I can afford to let this slip for a couple of weeks. But I have finished another Dreadball related model - an alternative ref-bot. I'm not a fan of the ref-bot that comes with the game, so instead I've painted up a floating ref-drone.

My main priority for the next little while will be finishing the Dark Eldar and last two Teratons. Beyond that I'm not sure. One or two stormbolter Terminators is a possibility. But the main game that seems to be being played locally is Infinity. Space Marine models could be used for this, but they don't really suit the aesthetic. The Dark Eldar on the other hand fit in nicely, so I might use what I have as a starting point and pick up some Infinity models to round it out to a full size force (they have some very cool looking quadruped drones...).

Bringing RPGs Full Circle

It's great having a gamer brother, because it means Christmas and Birthday presents are exactly the right thing for a current or planned army. For example, this year I received a Terminator Assault Squad. Two or three Terminators were next on the list for my Red Hammers chapter at 28mm. While I mostly wanted to stick with basic storm bolter/power-fist, at least one had to have a thunder-hammer - how could I not when the chapter name is the Red Hammers :)

 The plan was to repaint them in my chapter colours, but these already came in a cool and very striking black with flame edges scheme. The compromise was to strip and repaint one thunder-hammer and leave the rest as is.

While the Terminator spends a couple of days soaking in simple-green I have another project to work on. A while back I painted a Dark Eldar Sslyth. At the time it was just a one-off (not part of an army) but it came out extremely well. I regard it as the best painted model I have ever done.

Making a whole force of (hopefully) equally well painted models would be too much work for a full size 40K army. But for the squad/platoon level games I've been playing lately it's a realistic goal, so I have acquired some Dark Eldar Warriors to accompany the Sslyth.

Sybarite squad leader

Special weapon warrior with Blaster

Dark Eldar warriors

On the subject of skirmish level games, I've been considering another candidate rules system;

 

The combat rules used in pen-and-paper RPGs are effectively small wargames, usually resolving fights between an elite group of 3-6 combatants on one side (AKA, an adventuring party) and whatever the GM throws at them on the other. Since Dungeons & Dragons originally evolved out of medieval wargames using one of its descendants as a wargame would be coming full circle.

The specific rules I'm considering is d20, the system used for Dungeons and Dragons 3rd edition as well as a host of other games. It has a number of pros and cons to being applied as a wargame.

Pros:

• Open-source
• Extremely thoroughly playtested
• Has rules to cover pretty much any situation
• Can resolve squad/fireteam size battles in under a couple of hours
• Can be played on a relatively small area. Four foot square would be heaps, and even two foot square would probably work.
• High level of detail, making it possible for each model to be unique and interesting
• While it doesn't have army-lists, it does have Challenge Rating (CR) and Encounter Level (EL) systems to help create roughly balanced fights. These could provide a starting point to more carefully balanced army-lists.

Cons:

• Natively uses a 5 ft = 1" square grid. Adapting to play on an open tabletop shouldn't be too hard, but will require establishing some conventions (e.g. around flanking)
• May be too detailed. When playing an RPG one person keeps track of each character, while here each player would have to keep track of half a dozen. However I expect this should be managable provided the abilities and resources of each character are kept simple (no huge lists of spells/feats) - GMs frequently have to handle half a dozen or more monsters at a time.
• Would require more book-keeping than most wargames. Each individual model would have a quarter to half page character sheet, with HP, expendible resources, and status conditions to keep track of.
• The CR and EL balancing mechanics don't really cover equipment the character has. Some way of including this in a models effective CR would be needed.

In order to minimise several of the con's my thought is that (for unnamed, run of the mill troops) green combatants be 1st level Warriors, regular combatants 2nd level Warriors, veteran and/or elite combatants 3rd level Warriors, and special forces (including Space Marines and the like) 4th level Warriors.  Templates can be applied increasing the combatant's effective level (a Fiendish Dire Half-Dragon Space Marine might be equivalent to, say, 8th level) and named individuals can be higher level.

Conveniently I have already done a lot of work converting elements of 40K to d20, intended for an Inquisitoral RPG campaign which so far hasn't happened. So the key things to do are establish the conventions for open-table play, and decide how to use the CL/EL mechanics to balance forces.

New Year, New Rules

Happy new year to everybody! I hope everybody has a fun 2014 with many victories.

One of my new years resolutions for this year is to be less slack about my blogging - the initial goal is one post a week. So I'll get myself off to a good start by posting this.

Orks. in. Spaacccceeeeeeee!

On boxing day I went round to Mark's place for a game of Battlefleet Gothic. Mark was using his Orks (with the latest revisions of the fleet list) and I was trying out the Space Marine fleet list for the first time. Mark's blog covers the events of the battle pretty well, so I'm just going to post my pictures;

My fleet deployed in the center

"Ork battleship and carriers approaching to starboard sir!"

Overall situation.

My (temporarily) disabled capital ships move off, while the escorts provide cover

Escorts successfully cross the T against the Ork carriers, while the two battleships engage in a broadside duel.

Endgame. My battle-barge and strike cruisers picking off the Ork escort ships

This was a fun game, with some hilarious swings of luck for and against both sides. The marine list was interesting. Having armour 6+ all round makes it very tough (at least against gunnery) but I don't think it can dish out as much firepower as the Chaos fleet that I'm used to. Still, I think I'll use it for at least a couple more games to get a better feel for it.

Darkness Awakening

My first painting project for 2014 will be my old Dark Elf army for Warhammer Fantasy Battle. I used to play quite a bit of Warhammer back in 7th edition, and I'm a fan of the rules (although not so much a fan of GW). A couple of friends have been playing some WHFB (8th edition) lately, so I figured it was worth pulling the Dark Elves out of the cupboard and seeing what needs to be done to get it presentable. After a bit of reading to refresh my memory and familiarise myself with what has changed, here is what I'm considering for an initial 1200 point army;

• Supreme Sorceress, level 4 with 50 points of magic items
• Regiment of 24 Warriors with spears and full command
• Regiment of 12 Warriors with crossbows and musician
• Regiment of 12 Warriors with crossbows and musician
• Regiment of 18 Witch-Elves with full command
• War-Hydra

A lot of this is already painted, and the standard is actually better than I thought it was. The major thing I'm disappointed with is the basing - it looks like I got bored and just painted the bases brown! So re-doing all the basing is the first step, then the second step will be finishing off the Witch-Elf unit. Witch-Elves are actually quite a bit of effort to paint because each one is quite distinct, and they also have lots of mixed areas of clothes/skin/jewelery that is quite fiddly to do well. Still, one model at a time and I'll work my way through them.

Progress on BA40K

With my renewed interest in 40K (setting, not system) I have been going through old boxes of spare models, and there have been a surprisingly large number of useful finds. For the Red Hammer marines I found a complete squad of 9 Blood Claws (Space Wolf assault troops), a marine bike, and a Cyclone Terminator. My brother also donated a squad of 4 scouts and a plasma gunner.

Two Blood Claw assault teams of 4

Attack bike, plasma cannon, captain (seen below painted), and cyclone terminator

Scout team

Captain Ulrik the Northman

It takes four thralls to get him battle ready. Three organise his weapons and armour, the fourth does his hair.

I now have far more marines than I would field in my preferred 600-800 point games, so any further additions will be just for unit variety.

I’ve also been thinking about how to organize force selection. Original WH40K has it’s system of HQ/Troop/Heavy Support etc. unit types. But that’s a bit more complicated than I would prefer, plus at the 600-800 point level it wouldn’t be much of a restriction. I’m also not a fan of Bolt Action’s system of allowing a force to have one each of AT gun, artillery, armoured car, tank, etc. In my opinion this manages to be simultaneously too restrictive and too permissive – having two AT guns is unrealistic, but having an AT gun, a tank, and a howitzer is fine?

My present thought is to tag certain unit choices as HQ, Troop, and Rare. When organizing a game players agree both number of points and number of Rares allowed (with 1 Rare per full 400 points being suggested). A force must have one HQ, two Troops, and cannot have more than the agree number of Rares. The units I currently have written for the Space Marine list are;

• Sergeant (HQ)
• Veteran Sergeant (HQ)
• Captain (HQ, Rare)
• Tactical Fireteam (Troop)
• Terminator Fireteam (Rare)
• Assault Fireteam
• Devastator Fireteam
• Rhino
• Land Speeder (Rare)

This is only about half the units in the WH40K marine codex (and likewise the Tyranid list so far only covers about half of their WH40K units) but I’d rather work on getting a modest selection of units done well than do a rush job covering everything. Next army list up is the Tau, thanks both to my finding a box of Fire Warriors in my spare models and a potential opponent mentioning an interest.

Aerospace Operations

A few month back a rumour circulated that GW was shutting down the Specialist Games online store. Allegedly they were going to sell the models they had, but once existing stock was gone that was it. As I write this the Specialist Games store is still online, so I presume this rumour  was (to use the technical term) a load of bollocks. But at the time it seemed plausible.

My reaction was mostly to not care. I have almost everything I want for my Epic marines, and my other Epic/BFG forces all consist of non-GW models. But one of the few GW models I had been thinking about buying was the Thunderhawk Gunship. I didn’t get  one initially because my Red Hammer marines are a “no-shenanigans” marine force, and air assaults definitely qualify as shenanigans. But it is an extremely cool model and has always been on the wish-list. With the (seemingly) impending closure of Specialist Games my hand was forced, and I grabbed a couple. 

Since I’ve found myself on a bit of a BFG fix lately (been looking at my fleets to see what needs to be repaired or finished) the Thunderhawks have got me thinking about  planetary assaults and ways to combine BFG and Epic in a campaign. Might have to do a bit of research, see what other people have tried.

I See Red People

Like many wargamers I was introduced to the hobby through Warhammer 40,000. Also like many wargamers I eventually gave up on 40K’s crappy rules in disgust, and went on to play other games with better rules. But despite this I was always a fan of the WH40K setting, and although they virtually never see the table I kept my old Imperial Guard army boxed away in the back of the wardrobe. For a long time I have been looking for a good 28mm sci-fi skirmish system to use my 40K figures with, and now I think I may have found it.

The system in question is Bolt Action, and it ticked almost all the boxes – it’s 28mm (although I’m told it works at other scales too), the rules encourage sensible tactics, it’s fast and playable, and it has points buy army lists that give a decent first-approximation of balance. But it fails at the last requirement – it’s not sci-fi. Using Bolt Action to play 40K would require me to write new army lists, plus a few new rules to cover sci-fi stuff.

Challenge accepted!

A few weeks ago my brother and I played a couple of “proof of concept” games using my Imperial Guard versus his Tyranids. We simply used the existing BA army lists, and declared what things “counts as”. So for example my lascannon team counted as a PaK38, Vaughan’s Hive Tyrant counted as a captain and two bodyguards with SMGs, and so forth. It worked surprisingly well, but obviously some of the “counts-as” approximations didn’t quite fit, particularly for the Tyranids.

Over the next couple of weeks I sat down and wrote dedicated army lists for both the Tyranids and Space Marines. I used the existing BA lists as a guide (particularly for point costs), but unlike the “counts-as” experiment I was willing to change things and/or add new special rules. I also painted up a small Space Marine force;

The whole 650 point force

My Land-Speeder Muninn

A Tactical Fireteam

My Veteran Sergeant and his bodyguard

Missile launcher team with bodyguard

The colours are the same as my Epic marine army and one of my BFG fleets, so I can now field my Red Hammers chapter in skirmish-level, operational-level, and space combat games.

This afternoon Vaughan and I playtested the army lists I had written. We used 650 point lists, and rolled a Point Defense mission with the Tyranids attacking. Vaughan had a Hive Tyrant, a Carnifex, and brood of 2 Tyranid Warriors, 3 broods of 5 Termagaunts, and 2 broods of 5 Hormagaunts. Against this I had a veteran sergeant with bodyguard, a missile launcher marine with bodyguard, 3 tactical fireteams of 3 marines, and a Land Speeder.

Defense of the right-hand objective

Defense of the left-hand objective

Tyranid first wave

Vaughan chose to put his Carnifex and both Hormagaunt broods on flank marches. His preparatory bombardment meant almost all my units started the game with one or two pin markers. Annoyingly this meant that (despite being Veterans) all of my long range fire units failed their order tests, so Vaughan’s units simply ran up unharmed. As the Tyranids closed to within 24” during turns 2 and 3 my firing started to improve, and I eliminated about half of what Vaughan had on the table without losing a marine. Unfortunately, at the end of turn 3 his Carnifex turned up.

Carnifex blasting my Tac team with bio-plasma

Having eliminated the Tac team, it moved on towards my gunship

This 10 wound monstrosity proved a game-changer. By mid turn 5 it had eliminated one of my Tactical fireteams, and had charged into assault my Land Speeder. On top of this Vaughan’s other flank marches had showed up. One Hormagaunt brood was quickly destroyed by the missile launcher (although this took valuable firepower away from the Carnifex), while the other assaulted and destroyed the Tactical fireteam holding the left-hand objective. Thankfully the Carnifex lost the assault against the Land Speeder, failing a morale test against a 10. The game ended on turn 6 with each of us holding one of the objectives.

I am extremely pleased how this turned out. Things were as effective (and in the right ways) to match their 40K fluff. It was a very close, hard fought game and no units stood out as being too good/bad, so I’m going to leave the points as they are for now. The only two things that need tweaking are (A) the Land Speeder (I need to add Fast Vehicle and Skimmer rules), and (B) adjust how Tyranids interact with vehicles in close combat.

The First Battle of the Dunes

A Saga of Bravery and Heroism. Told by Adeptus Thansson, personal attendent to Hammerlord Styrkar of the Red Hammers.

On 2309012.M41 an astropath in my master's service received a plea for aid from the govenor of a remote Imperial world. Govenor Harkkonen was facing an uprising by native religious fanatics, followers of a psyker they called "Muad'Dib". After consulting with council my lord agreed to assist and called his banners. We were honoured by Runelord Kolsvein answering his oath personally, leading a lance of Speeders into battle. Six other pledged huscarls were able to muster formations in time, and Wing-Commander Gray of the Imperial Navy put two Thunderbolt fighter squadrons at our disposal. Combined with Hammerlord Styrkar's house guard our force consisted of;

• Tactical Detachment Alpha (6 Tactical stands including one with Supreme Commander Styrkar, 3 Land Raiders, and 1 Hunter)
• Tactical Detachment Bravo (6 Tactical stands, 3 Rhinos, 1 Razorback, and 1 Hunter)
• Devastator Detachment Charlie (4 Devastator stands, 2 Rhinos, and 1 Razorback)
• Devastator Detachment Delta (4 Devastator stands, and 2 Dreadnoughts)
• Air Cavalry Detachment Zulu (5 Land Speeders, including one with Librarian Kolsvein)
• Cavalry Detachment Yankee (5 Bike stands)
• Scout Detachment Sierra    (4 Scout stands)
• Artillery Battery Whiskey (4 Whirlwinds, and 1 Hunter)
• 14 Squadron "The Mechbusters" (2 Thunderbolt Fighters)
• 75 Squadron "The Great-Hawks" (2 Thunderbolt Fighters)

The force opposing us consisted of power armoured infantry, backup up by three flights of attack skimmers, a heavy tank company, and an assault gun company. In addition we had intelligence that two platoons of "fremen" warriors were somewhere in the area. Allegedly these fremen were incredibly skilled warriors, equal in battle to an experienced Terminator, and able to spring from the desert sand with no warning.

Jamie was using the Red Corsairs chaos list, with models primarily from brigade games. It included two Chaos Marine formations, a Chosen formation, 3 Blight Drone formations, a Defiler formation, a tank formation (3 Land Raiders and 4 Predators), and two Terminator (AKA "fremen") formations.

My lord deployed our Whirlwinds and land speeders on our left flank, opposite an enemy scout formation. Devastator detachment Delta had formed a strongpoint ahead of our main force. The majority of our force (detachments Alpha, Bravo, and Charlie) deployed in a valley between two mesas.

Our initial deployments

During the opening exchanges things went well for the rebels. A strike by their attack skimmers inflicted heavy damage on Kolsvein's speeder detachment, forcing him to pull back, while our airpower and artillery failed to inflict any significant damage in return. But our mechanised assault reached their lines undamaged, and drove their armour back under heavy fire.

My mechanised assault in the center

However we had committed too much of our force in one location. The rebels brought in their assault guns and infantry, and while the Land Raiders shielded us from the worst of their fire our formations took heavy damage. To make matters worse, a unit of Fremen had appeared, surrounding our artillery. While the gallant crews knew there was no retreat, they kept firing to the last.

Fremen surrounding my Whirlwinds

At this point the battle was a stalemate. Our mechanised units in the center of the field still held the advantage... until a second unit of Fremen appeared! We were forced to pull back, but still had enough strength that the rebels could not safely advance either. Behind us the Fremen that had destroyed our Whirlwinds moved to cut off our line of withdrawl, only to be broken by repeated airstrikes. With no clear advantage to either side, we disengaged, pulling back to our landing zones in the city.

At the end of turn 4 neither Jamie nor I had won. I had Break the Spirit, but pretty much all the non-Blitz objectives were contested, and we both had formations in the enemy half of the board. Since it was getting late we called the game for time.

First Game with the Red Hammers

Last Sunday the Red Hammer marines got their first try on the table, and it was a great success.

To be sure I don't give the wrong impression, I was utterly crushed. My Ork opponents were being run by Mark (Markonz on the TacComm forums), a very experienced Epic player, and he took my force apart in short order. I made the mistake of trying to run the marines like a Guard list, and it simply didn't work. My attempt to fight his massed Stompas head-on quickly resulted in dead marines and me pulling the survivors back to my blitz objective. My garrison took heavy damage from his Gargant, although they only just failed to hold the Defend the Flag objective. About the only highlight for me was my Warlord (which destroyed both a Gargant and a Supa-Stompa) and in the end I lost in Turn 3. But even so it was a success because I learned some lessons about what worked and what didn't - mostly what didn't. Mark was a great source of advice, both in terms of specific army list tricks and marine strategy more generally.

My scouts about to be wiped out in a firefight with a Stompa mob

Air superiority. I tried to intercept a first wave of Fighta-Bombas, only to be shot down by a second wave.

My Titan advancing down the center, while my infantry face off with the Stompas

So armed with Mark's suggestions I resumed painting, and now have around 3000 points of pure marine units fully ready to go;

The complete ~3000 points of Red Hammer marines.

The new additions were mostly formation upgrades (Razorbacks, Hunters, and Dreadnoughts) but I also decided to paint up the bikes. With the "no shenanigans" marines done, I'm now considering what to do for my next project. Adding some shenanigans (in the form of a Thunderhawk gunship or two) is one possibility. I've also been prototyping Tyranid colour schemes - at a minimum I'll probably paint my Hierophant to use in Titanomachy battles. And I'm still thinking about some 28mm models - both Hungarians for Force on Force, and small 40K units to use with Tomorrow's War. Decisions, decisions.