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. 

Mini-Campaign game

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Wait, what?

Nick 2.0 was in town, and devised a mini campaign using tonnage rather than BV. Unit build specs were a heavy lance in weight, with no more than 1 Assault mech, a light recon lance that could include vehicles, and a mixed weight lance. Each lance would have a lead unit with a 3/4 skill, all else would be 4/5. Lostech era. 

Unable to field a full company in the same color scheme under those requirements, I mixed two forces, using the Desert Horde as the Calloway Training Battalion with an assist from a lance from the Marik Militia. As this is the Lostech era, most of the training mechs and tanks are garbage variants (rookies don't get the good stuff). Force comp would vary per game. I took the Ostroc, Quickdraw, Crusader, Assassin, J. Edgar, 10 Ton hover APC for this match, all were base models aside from the APC being the MG version, and the Ostroc the 2M variant.

The scenario was an attacking dropship had crashed, and the central memory core could be captured/destroyed. Forced withdrawal would also be in play. The defender would also have 2, CF20 objectives for defend from being destroyed. I opted to defend and failed miserably at it. 

I didn't take enough pics for a true bat rep, so here are some highlights:

My company, post-game with the 10-ton hover APC & J. Edgar having not survived.  

Due to motive crits these two would be bricked and fight point blank all game. The J. Edgar died first but only just, with the Pegasus down to 1 point of internal structure holding the back end together.

The Assassin doing Assassin things. Basically running & jumping around in full distraction mode while inflicting minimal damage.

With my (lack of a) plan already falling apart, the Ostroc opted to enter the drop ship thru a side door and punch the memory core into scrap!

The intermission is brought to you by an annoyed Neeka.

The highlight of the game for me: After several turns of being little more than a distraction, the Assassin went into Kamikaze mode and charged the Panther connecting for 24 points of damage! Both remained upright afterwards, though the Panther's left arm was pancaked into scrap.

Post game clean up with my 'supervisor' annoyedly awaiting the table's reassembly and her cushions being put back in place. 

Post game I was only able to repair one mech, so I opted for the Ostroc which proved more effective than I thought it would. The Crusader hung out in the backfield and never took a hit, the Assassin and Quickdraw are both fairly beat up and will likely sit the rest of the campaign out until I can either afford repairs (or things get really dire). I believe Nick was able to repair all of his damaged units.

Tanks for stopping by!

That pun was brought to you by your friends at Technicorp, the fine (and original) manufacturers of the Manticore heavy tank. 

Three of a kind?

As you can see, I finished a trio of Manticores this week and as is so often the case, they are all painted for different units. Thus, they are more likely to be shooting at one another in the future, than be fighting side-by-side.

This one will join my Turtles mercenary lance. Weighing in at 60 tons and moving along at a blinding 4/6 movement, this tank will serve as their recon element...or at least it will until I flesh out the rest of its lance with something smaller and faster. Yes, they are of Lyran heritage. Stop asking!

This Manticore puts my generic clan conventional star firmly in the clan Burrock camp. Among the Clans, they alone seemed to field (at least according to the MUL) both the Manticore as well as the Manticore EC (Early Clan) which is a halfway point between SLDF & Clan weapons technology. That said, none of the Burrock Galaxies use this color scheme, so perhaps this is used instead by their Dark Caste 'friends'.

Lastly, this Manticore will go to the Desert Horde. Designated number XIX, this one got its decal at the same time as the two J-27s from my last post. The Desert Horde is a generic force spanning all factions and eras. With this tank now completed, the rightly named Horde clocks in at 39 models and counting. I'll have to do a group photo at some point. 

Generals study logistics...right?

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Here comes the maintenance platoon!

(...and somewhere Screech is twitching...)

So far this week I've finished up some support vehicles that, while technically armed, are really more like objective type of units. Sure, they're not really sexy or anything (well, Nick 2.0 was rather impressed with the Savior), but they are still pretty good to have around. Notably, the J-27s are painted for Desert Horde, bringing that mob's vehicle contingent up to 21 vehicles in total. The Savior just has a generic appearance. 

Just a bunch of gear heads...

The business end that gives your mech a hug, awww. 

The J-27's trailers were painted (differently of course) and glued to the landing pad as I didn't like the look of them crammed on the base with the tractor. 

Weekly painting update.

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Just a quick post of this week's painted minis. I did play a game last night, but didn't take too many pics. Unless I can get some photos from Nick, I'll have to skip the battle report on that game. 

The hero of my last post, the Demolisher/Devastator tank is now painted, replete with nose hull art and 3 kill markers on the turret. The sides of the turret are a slightly darker shade of tan making this one of the rare, 2-tone models in my Desert Horde. 

Also for the Desert Horde, for when we play in the SLDF/Early Succession wars era, the rare LBX carrier. Equipped with 2 LBX 10s, and 3 LRM 5s, and a decent amount of armor, I'm hard pressed to wonder why a Lostech version with standard AC-10s was never created. 

I am tempted to order more of these, though we rarely play in that era so am not sure how often even this mini will actually get used. 

Lastly, my Fire Mandrills Elemental point is now painted. Being the closest in game to 40K's Spess Mahreenz, I'm thinking in hindsight that I ought to have painted them like ANGRY MARINES!! as Neverness suggested when I posted pics of thier mech star. 

Just a good ol' fashioned slugfest!

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Two different flavors of death by a thousand paper cuts. 

Last week I played a game at the FLGS vs. Anthony again, where the scenario was simple:

Just kill each other! 

8K, Clan Invasion Era, I was fielding my Desert Horde as mercenaries this time vs: whatever Anthony put in his force. He's still a newer player so is not concerned with faction limitations. It's kinda like fighting an ilClan era force, albeit with units from the 3050s. 

I didn't get force pics, but we fielded the following: 

Desert Horde Mercs:  Crusader CRD-6T, Shadow Hawk SHD-3H, Cicada CDA-3G, Starslayer STY-3D, Condor medium tank (Laser), and a Devastator heavy tank.

Anthony's mixed 'star':  King Crab KGC-001, Bane 3, Jenner IIC 3, Fire Falcon D, and a base model Sturmfeur heavy tank. All missiles in his force were Narc capable.

Here's how it went down:

Ugh, not what you want to see coming at you...

The Shadow Hawk tries to swing wide and moves up the flank whereas the Devastator just punches it and runs straight up the middle!

Jenner IIC got cocky, and ran right past the Devastator!

Not a good idea, even with +4 to hit! One AC20 connected with the center torso and that was all she wrote for the Jenner IIC!

After some careful maneuvering, my (narced) Crusader moves into point blank range and these two just start pummeling one another! The Starslayer mesanwhile was firing a consistant large laser & ER PPC shot per turn, usually hitting with at least one per turn. 

I forgot that the starslayer had a rear facing medium laser, not that I would have stopped it from getting narced here. 

Cicada, Condor & Shadow Hawk vs. King Crab = still not a fair fight!. The Sturmfeur was largely immobile at this point and the Devastator started working over the Sturmfeur with it's big guns!

The point blank pummeling continues...

The Starslayer snipes at the Bane while the Crusader turns and smacks the Fire Falcon, causing to to hit the ground!

The Bane falls back out of the Crusader's optimal medium laser range while the Devastator moves into point blank of the Sturmfeur which really cannot defend itself from that range!

Luckily, the King Crab largely wiffed, with the Shadow Hawk's right arm being the only casualty! The Cicada maintains it's point blank attack on the Crab's rear with all guns & even kicking!

Down goes the Sturmfeur!

Oh hey, look who was running from the King Crab on pavement and failed it's PSR...

The Bane keeps living up to it's name and hammers the Crusader, damaging a shoulder which more or less fuck's the firing of half of the Crusader's lasers! Not that I stopped shooting with them or anything...

The King Crab is slowly getting surrounded and taking on heavy fire!

The Bane & Fire Falcon both move into the back corner, for mutual support of each other while my forces move in (with the rest of the board more or less being ignored at this opoint).

In a lucky shot, one of the Condor's ER medium lasers connects with the Bane's head (previously hit by a medium laser from the Crusader). On the crit rolls, both the life support & the mechwarrior connected to it are vaporized! 

Huzzah!

With the Bane down, everything turns their guns onto the King Crab, ignoring the Fire Falcon which is by far the lesser of the two threats left on the table. 

The King Crab goes down fighting, taking off the Crusader's side torso, as the Devastator does the same to the King Crab, resulting in double XL engine-induced kills! The Fire Falcon being the last thing left standing in Anthony's force, wisely fled the field. 

Dude, look at that! Only 6 points of armor left on my Crusader's forward facing! This thing was an LRM sponge! It should have died well before it did!

The King Crab certainly had a rough go of it as well, although oddly a barely hit the CT. 

That was fun and Devastator is already in the process of getting painted in recognition of it's glorious actions in combat! I'm also a fan of the Crusader CRD-6T, it's like an HBK-4P on steroids!