Photo dump!

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This worked out about as well as you can expect. 'Hamburger' (the Enforcer's pilot) managed to limp away from this dual, sans right arm and torso. 

The home campaign 2.0 is in full swing and the FLGS is also looking to start up another store campaign. Interested players voted and the Lostech era won out for the time period (immediately followed by disagreements on just when the Lostech era is). All of the bad apples that killed the last campaign are showing interest and some are already complaining. 

I will partake; Nick 2.0 is pondering to do so as well. I've already told him my level of expectations which should improve things considerably over the last store campaign: 

This is going to be an absolute shit show!

Having dropped the bar of standards on the floor, it should alright. I am looking to run the Desert Horde as the Fed Suns' Deneb Light Cavalry. Speaking of, onto the recent paint jobs: 

The new Kintaro sculpt, now without the tutu styled hips. 

I have never used one of these before. The DCMS variant is far superior to the Fed Suns' model. But being from a desert force, it should be running HOT! Right?

Note, this mech is numbered #20 in the battalion. However, I currently only have 16 mechs. As such, I will be reusing some numbers as a few Desert Horde mechs have been either sold, or recently an unused Clan 2nd line star was gifted to Screech for his birthday. 

I have decided to name this one: Checkers. Garth Brooks is in the cockpit. 

#13, that's a reissued number, I am rather pleased with how well this one turned out.

From this angle it looks like actual camouflage rather than the stylistic color scheme that it is. 

I don't think I've ever fielded a King Crab before. So far, I've only either been shot by them, or have knocked them over with charging Chargers!

All was quiet on the DCMS front, until this SHD-2K came along.

Like all of my Swords of Light mechs, no inks were used as my usual preference for dirt, grime & filth doesn't fit with the background of this elite brigade that looks more like a parade unit.

Armed with only a PPC & LRM5, this mech is essentially a DCMS Griffin. 

Only the fists and forearms show any kind of damage, as the infernal Davions insist on getting inside my weapons' minimum ranges. 

I broke up one of my foot slogging infantry platoons to add a few guys to every base of these little APCs from Microworld games. These will represent mechanized (tracked) platoons. I have 6 of these, so it will be mech infantry for everybody!

That's all for now. I have several minis in progress currently, so hopefully will have another update soon. 

Shrooms, kitties and clan mechs oh my!

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Nick's Awesome AWS-9M taking shelter amongst the giant shrooms.

Earlier this week Nick 2.0 came over for a game, I really didn't take enough pics for a battle report, so am just posting a few photo highlights. 

Poor Neeka, pouting as her lounge table has been turned into a dumb battlefield again. 

Nick's Commando COM-2D skulking behind a burning tower as my Hunchback HBK-4P and an AC-10 Hetzer close in... 

We called the game early due to time. Nick called it a marginal victory in his favor. It was more of a crushing vistory by that point as he had accomplished far more objectives than I. That said, I had beaten the hell out of his Awesome in the last round played. Likewise my Dragon lost a side torso to an ammo explosion but didn't die for once (thank you CASE!). 

*****

The Fast & The Furious sequel number...what? 10? 12, 13?

I also finished up a trio of clan mechs for the Desert Horde. Previously known as the more generic Desert Force, I went back and updated all of the prior post's labels to now say 'horde'. With the addition of these three, to go with my Mongoose and six Mercuries, I will now be able to field a clan second line binary where the slowest mech has an 8/12 movement rate! These three are also the only ones with any appreciable offensive firepower in said binary. 

Piranha, the only mech that makes me want to play Alpha Strike.

Locust IIC, the arms have 8 ER small lasers, rather than the SRM-4s that they look like they carry.

The binary commander's rocket ship Fire Moth.

Some time ago, I also painted up a point of Elementals for the Fire Moth to carry around as ablative armor. I am planning on a third star that will have a much more normal rate of speed, allowing me to field a full second line trinary. 

Speed? Got it. Accuracy? Not so much...

 o/

Yet another hapless settlement about to be destroyed in battle...

Nick & I met up for another game Wednesday night, this time using a scenario rather than the usual kill everything in sight (though, ultimately they all kind of go that way at some point). 

The mission brief. 

We upped the game size to 3500points, Lostech era with the exception of one mech sporting some Star League tech of some sort. We then rolled off to see who's mech would be the 'prize' to be captured. Nick had a Blackjack BJ-3 with its new fangled double heat sinks, whereas I had a Cyclops CP-10-HQ, with a still intact Collapsible Command Module (basically a side torso stuffed with a fold-a-fort/field HQ/tent and super computer). This Cyclops variant is more or less an objective/fluff model, and this was the perfect opportunity to actually use it!

I won the roll off and decided my prize was better, and thus my Cyclops would be the hunted mech, meaning it could not be shot at. Erroneously, for the first half of the ensuing game, I was under the mistaken impression that I also could not shoot at Nick's Blackjack, allowing it to roam the field unmolested, doh!

That said, with base 4/5 pilots and a bunch of fast moving mechs with +3 & +4 to modifiers all over the place, there would be a lot of shooting, but not so much hitting. So perhaps that really didn't matter. Throughout the game, the dice were not kind to either of us, though for a turn or two, Nick especially. 

Oh look! The city is undefended...

The wall seemingly goes on forever!

The first shots are fired, with the Prize bringing up the rear.

Jenner v. Jenner. At least one of these two ugly machines had the decency to try and conceal itself! These two would tangle with one another throughout the game. 

An overhead view of a bunch of small mechs shooting a lot and hitting only a little (odds are the buildings didn't fare too well in these exchanges).

Still not firing at the Blackjack the Dragon put a few rounds into the Panther instead.

Speed is life! My Jenner survived this multi-mech  assault with nary a scratch due to its +4 to hit speed modifier. Speaking of, it's reversed guns didn't hit anything for the same reason.

REAR ARMOR? This is a great opportun-oh wait, fuck it has a damned +4 to hit. Take that you damned wall!

Shots were landing here and there, but none too many were recorded. My Wasp was the first to fall (doesn't take much), and my Jenner taking some hits, in exchange for similar (though not yet fatal) damage to nick's Panther and Spider.

Its gotta be interference from the radar and communication towers, that must be what is throwing off our aim!

Ugh, these two again. I believe that by this point my Jenner was down the SRM launcher and one arm (taking 2 lasers with it) which was fine as it had an engine hit as well. 

The battle finally moves outside of the city's wall

Well mostly, the Panther hopped the wall and my Cyclops finally put the mech out of it's misery (it had been running around 1 remaining point of CT structure for several turns).

 This was a fast moving game of extensive maneuver and atrocious aim! My elite Swords of Light mechs were as sharp as the average spork, and Nick's Vegan Rangers (or the Soy Boys as he called them, lol) weren't doing much better.

Like the Panther before it, my Jenner succumbs to the inevitable, losing a leg. 

Similarly, the Dragon, incapable of shooting worth a damn, charges the damaged, 1-armed Spider and punches and stomps the little mech into oblivion!

Any notion of not shooting the Blackjack had long since passed, with my Cyclops and (armless) Dragon making a last stand against the Blackjack, while the Dragon's rear mounted laser shot at the Jenner (again). Indeed, at this point blank range the Cyclops emptied it's LRM's ammo, but it was all to no avail. 

The hour was starting to run late and it was a 'school' night. While the tenets of Bushido would rightfully inspire the Dragon to suicidally fight to the end, doing so would only delay the inevitable. As such the Cyclops powered down, and it's pilot turned the keys over to Nick to claim his new Cyclops with it's integral field kitchen collapsible command module...

The victor claims his prized...sheet of paper?!?!

This week's roundup.

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The new Charger sculpt reminds me of something, but I just can't quite place it...

lol, as you can see, I painted up my new KS Charger. I love the Charger, its one of my favorite minis, and it will be one of the two mechs that I will be fielding in my local FLGS' upcoming 3020s era, Solaris free-for-all event. 

Bob's Boomerang, your morning commute's eye in the sky!  is reporting heavy foot traffic on access lane 4...

Those large pauldron armor plates are screaming for a logo of some sort! 

Originally, I was thinking of running the original CGR-1A1 as it is a true zombie mech in that the head, Center torso and legs are the only things to worry about. Well, that and I was hoping to try a charge attack, where if the stars all correctly align, the Charger can mete out a whopping 64 points of impact damage (in 5 point increments)! 

 That 'charge maneuver' might work...once. Then, after my poor, hapless target was cartwheeled across the field following its 80-ton impact. I would likely be shot by everything still left on the table (and the winner is the last mech standing). As such, I'll go with my good ol' standby Zombie-Charger, the CGR-SB Challenger. 

Post Solaris event, I'm not sure who will get this mech, be it my deep periphery Mercs: Battle Rattle, or if it'll gain a pink paw print and join my still winless Ace Darwin's Whipits (I was thinking of bringing Ace to the event purely for style points, even if it is out of his era). Or possibly just start a new faction altogether like the DCMS' Dieron Regulars, allowing me to field this as a CGR-1A9.

Queue Wagner's Ride of the Valkyries...

The one on the left has a bit of foliage stuck to its turret, apparently it got a bit too close to the treetops!

Run away!

The counter rotating props give these a very Russian KA-52 vibe. I have a feeling that they will be just as ineffective in combat as their real life counterparts...

I also painted up my Warrior attack VTOLS. These make my TBAGers the first (ever) unit of mine to have its own air support, meagre as they might be. These look to easiest to field in Alpha Strike, and will likely be contained to just that form of BattleTech play. Actually on second thought, I'll try one of these out in a game of Classic tomorrow night. I'll let ya know how that turns out.   

All together!

Lastly, I also got my first Steel Haven campaign game in. It was a lot of fun even though I lost the snatch and grab scenario. All damage was free to repair for the first game which is good as my Assassin suffered an ammo hit and was obliterated! While my mech will be rebuilt for free, I am down one mechwarrior as there wasn't enough left of that guy to even bury. 

The Buffet Assault Group and 4th Syke Rangers pose for a pre-game, full company photo op. 

One of these is not like the others...

 o/

Here ya go, some more mechs fresh off of the panting queue:

Don't eat the green one, its not ripe yet.

The green one is a clan Baboon (AKA: Howler) painted in the colors of Clan Jade Falcon's Omega Galaxy. This is my first mini for the Falcons and will soon be joined by four more mechs for another Fast & the Furious, Frankie-styled mech star. 

I just love how all of my minis are invariably adorned in cat hair. It like its just plowed through some sort of colossal spider's web!

This Baboon, as well as another of the same in the coming batch of light clan mechs will be the slowest moving units in this new star, as is befitting of a (light) fire support mech. That said, it still will be moving at up to 14" per turn!

It doesn't look so bad when it zips past you in a blur!

Speaking of fast, next up is my Jenner which is easily the UGLIEST mech in my inventory! This mech did take out a clan omnimech in it's last game. While that sounds impressive, the mech in question was a Dasher which has barely enough armor to withstand a collision with a tree branch when moving at full speed. 

This urbie earned it's paint in that same game.

Here we see it crossing what was once runway 67 A.

This Rifleman on the other hand, ought to have been tossed into the flames of my backyard firepit given its last, stunning battlefield performance!

The Rifleman got lucky in that I was painting red mechs this week, as when it last saw the table top, it shutdown due to overheating. I was fielding it as a C model refit (which is prone to overheating) all while failing to hit most anything with the clan pulse lasers that it was mounting. It was awful.

These three bring the Combine's painted total up to 7 mechs.

Nonetheless, all I have left to paint for my (current) DCMS' Sword of Light demi-company is a recently purchased Catapult K2. Unfortunately, I'm out of the correct shade of primer for the K2 (as are the local FLGS').