A few more projects & game highlights

 o/

We had another rain sodden weekend which lead to a bevy of painting time. So see below at what all crossed the finish line: 

First up: I completed the last three mechs, a Shadow Hawk IIC, Crab/Night Chanter and a Lancelot for my Fire Mandrill Kindraa Mattila-Carrol (gosh that's an awful thing to both type and have to say!) star. This star is a fast moving glass cannon. 

Brightly colored and bordering on obnoxious!

I almost took this for a game eariler this week, but couldn't squeeze them down to 6k BV without running prettymuch all 4/5 pilots which is not at all in the flavor of the clans, not even for the crappy solahma units that I tend to favor. I still plan to paint up a point of Elementals to hitch a ride on the Night Chanter, but nothing is currently planned to expand them beyond that. 

One of these is frightening, and it is not the one you are thinking it is...

Next up: An armor lance for Corey's Cavaliers. In my recent game where the Cavaliers & Turtles took the bridges from the Capellans, The Cavaliers couldn't help but note that the tanks had largely carried the day. Unable to convince the Turtles to join their ranks (the tankers simply took their payment and left), the Cavaliers sought to purchase and outfit their own assault armor lance. 

I tried to tie in the brown accents on the mech's lower limbs by adding it to the lower and rear hulls.

They started off with the Shrek which killed their budget for this project, and corners had to be cut to flesh out the lance. Two Scorpions and a Vedette round out the force. That said, in another recent training skirmish scrum with Anthony & Aiden where my Cavaliers were woefully outgunned, my new armor lance suffered 75% casualties. 

You know how this worked out...

I used the Armor Scorpions which, in both cases required an extra turn of shooting to finish them off. In the interim they landed a few AC-5 slugs before expiring. 

After his other Mad Cat was crippled by Anthony's forces, my Vedette scored a glorious SRM hit that caused Aiden to run up the white flag! This also saved my (by-then armless) Rifleman from certain destruction.

My armor lance's MVP was AC-2 Vedette that plinked an AC-2 round into a Highlander IIC's cockpit, and later put an SRM into a Mad Cat's side with a snake eyes crit yielding 2 XL engine hits! It took a few good licks in return, but survived the game! It has thus been promoted to the lance's lead tank. 

And last but not the least:

I mean seriously, why would it be any other number?

An old custom decal from Fallout Hobbies (they no longer offer this service).

Lastly, I finally put the decals on my Canopian Pleasure Circus' dropship. Sadly, it does not feature in games at the FLGS as the last time I brought it there to use as terrain, one of the landing gear's 'feet' broke. Thus, it is only used here at the house. 

Onward to battle once more!

A viscous clash of the unpainted masses!

For the first time since February (I think...it was pre-pandemic), I managed to get a game in! My buddy Hoss brought his infamous PANDA-MONIUM!! mercenaries over to do battle vs. my own Mercs, the defending TBAGers. Both of us were fielding mostly recently acquired 3D printed mechs, and as such terrain aside, only my Phoenix Hawk was actually painted. 

The battlefield. The desert maps to the side were not in play.

My TBAGers were fielding (left-to-right) a Flashman-7K, (2) Crab-27s and a Phoenix Hawk 2. Hoss had his customized Jagermech (proxied by a blackjack after a record sheet mix up),  Griffin 1S, Shadowhawk 2K and a Dervish-6M. 

Just showing off my (still) half-painted Dropship. Kushial donated these Megaforce toy tanks to my cause for Scorpion Light tank proxies, as well as the wheeled carrier to be used as whatever. However I passed them onto Hoss post-Game as up until this point, he's still bereft of armored support (and quite frankly, I'm running out of room for my tanks). 

My initial left flank deployment, with no opposition before them.

On my right I deployed a crab with the unenviable task of being 'bait' behind the forest/park. Hoss was game and lined his entire lance up across from it. 

Turn one was the usual high speed maneuvers punctuated by random, long ranged potshots that as usual, hit nothing. 

My 'bait' deftly hides behind the forest. It did manage an angled shot off to it's left, killing many trees in the otherwise futile process. 

Turn two and the shots start connecting with enemy targets! My right flank Crab and Hoss's Shadowhawk savaged one another, with my Crab barely maintaining it's footing. However as for Hoss' Shadowhawk...

...my Crab landed 2 large lasers into the center torso scoring 2 snake eyes rolls for location! Those went on to result 2 engine and 1 gyro hit, effectively crippling the mech!

That highlight aside, there was a good pummeling all around elsewhere, with Hoss' Jagermech putting a medium laser into the face of my Flashman! There would be 3 head shots over the course of the game, with Hoss scoring two of them. No pilots were knocked out, though one came dangerously close! 

The short range firefight ensues, with my laser boats generally coming out for the the better. Meanwhile having already survived one heat induced shut down roll, the Shadowhawk starts to disengage, as it's dangerously high  heat levels render it's PPC more of a liability than an asset. 

My phoenix Hawk managed to skirt around the landing pad and outflank Hoss' lance. It did not however manage to hit any of it's targets whilst doing so. Grrrrr...

'DEATH FROM ABOVE!! Shouts the Griffin's pilot! Hoss' has a love of this so-called 'tactic' that borders on the irrational, but to each there own I guess. Whilst my Flashman scored hits but alas didn't shoot the Griffin out of the sky, it did distract the pilot enough to not connect with my mech and instead just suffer heavy leg damage on the rough landing. To the Flashman's rear, the scrum continued unabated. 

By this point the Shadowhawk had successfully disengaged, and I was soon to find that the Derish was angling to do the same after having it's right arm mangled (but I failed to crit the friggin' SRM ammo, damnit!). His Jager and Griffin were engaging in a holding action to allow their comrades to escape. Made all the more easy, as my now well overheated Phoenix could do nothing but flip Hoss' Dervish the bird. 

Taking one for the team, Hoss' Jagermech disintegrates under the all-around onslaught! whilst the Dervish flees the field. As all of my beat up (though none yet showing any internals) lance turns all guns on his lone Griffin, he ran up the white flag and we called it a game.  

HUZZAH! VICTORY AT LAST!! (I'm used to losing most games can't ya tell?). The aggressive up in your face laser lance seems to work for me a bit more than the usual, slow crawling, war of attrition tactics that I usually employ. Indeed, I may need to try this again soon. Admittedly though, the two lucky crit rolls early on that neutered his Shadowhawk -2K was a BIG help!

Still wins are rare and I'll take it! I'm looking forward to our next game my friend!

My first game of 2020!

o/

After a yearlong hiatus due to misaligned schedules and an untimely illness on my part, Kushial was finally able to come over for a game! He was brining a medium/light weight company (well mostly, he left 2 behind to guard the dropship), against which I fielded a similarly weighted demi-company, of mechs, with an APC carried infantry platoon. 

The following is my usual brand of a half-assed bat rep. Kushial already posted his which you can read here. 

My setup assistant Baxter 'helping' as usual...he would be removed from the table several times over the course of the game. 

Kushial's Donegal Guard approaches...

My right flank defenders, with my Urbies in the 'subdivision'. I had hoped he would close to slug it out with them in these close confines, but to no avail. 

My left flank, and the LoS blocking hunk o' cardboard that would see much fighting around it. 

My hunchback advances boldly out in front of the vehicle park, tempting the hatchetman horde to charge in, but they don't take the bait...

My Whitworth would stand rooted in it's spot most of the game. with a multitude of targets, it had no need to close and performed admirably (well, when my die rolling actually cooperated) in the fire support role with it's twin LRM 10 launchers. 

Ceding ground to try and draw him into close range, the hatchetmen and Urbies instead trade long ranged AC-10 fire, whilst the first real scrum begins on my left flank. 

My first ever use of a quad mech, the Scorpion performed fairly well, though the lack of both adequate heat sinks and the ability to torso twist were rather difficult to grapple with. 

Backed into a corner already, grrr...

As a bit of a side note, in the background on the platform next to the dropship, That valkyrie had just finished incinerating my infantry platoon to a man! This was the first time that anyone actively engaged my infantry, normally they're just ignored.

The beginning of the end as the end starts to swing against me...

TREACHERY! Attacking a prone mech!?! (A Gryo hit and destroyed foot actuator would keep it down). This shall be noted in the Book of Gru-wait, wrong game system...never mind. 

I kept forgetting about that little, overheated all to hell and heavily damaged but still not dead little bastard.

and lo, the mechs began to fall...

The hatchetmen continue to dance back and forth in front of my gunline, taking damage but not enough to die. 

Finally they charge, axes held high! Two urbies would fall to shooting however, denying them their axe swings. Remarkably, one urbie took an ammo crit and survived by dint of only having 1 round left in the hopper! It still hurt quite a bit though. 

Trapped like a rat and preparing for death. 

The hatchetman would decapitate my griffin with it's axe, though a solid right hook to the hatchetman's face made for a glorious death!

With the last 2 urbies combat ineffective (only 1 small laser left between them), my still untouched (and almost out of ammo) Whitworth, and surprisingly only lightly damaged Scorpion run up the white flag and retreat. Likewise that heavy APC put pedal to the metal and made a run for it as well. 

My ragged survivors (though 'survivors' kinda debatable given the state of those two urbies)

So...I started off 2020 much like I finished off 2019, by losing. Of well, consistency is half the battle they say (just not the half I was hoping for...). Still, it was a fun time and I look forward to our next bout which hopefully will not be until 2021.

The dropship has landed!!!

Okay first up, a bit of a USPS rant here. I commented on my prior post in response to WestRider on how my last birthday purchase was circling the state of Tennessee due to the US Postal Service's gross inefficiency. The approximate driving distance my package had to go was about 1000 miles. In the end, thanks to tracking I saw that my package went about 2400 miles (and the box looked certainly looked like it upon arrival). Luckily there was lots of bubble-wrap and all arrived intact!

The 3d printing resolution is pretty good, with print lines really only noticeable on the top of the shuttle itself.

I'm super thrilled with my dropship and landing pad from Hardware Studios!! I opted for the smallest of their dropships (it's about 3.5" in diameter) due mostly to budgetary concerns so its too small to carry mechs. Instead its more of the K-1 Dropshuttle size, making for a good objective and line-of-sight blocker. It also sits perfectly on the landing pad. 

Extra gratuitous pic for no other reason then just because.

As for the pad, its quite large (9.5" x 5.5") and will occupy the space near the parking lot on my new battle mapsheet. It has an open slot on the side for a switch if you're one with the technical prowess (I am not) for LEDs or the optional magnetic setup that allows the shuttle to hover above it. The latter is quite cool but also quite expensive ($79.95 on amazon). 

These paint up in just minutes, its all dry brushing!

As you can see, these are all victims of my pilots/crews' stellar gunnery skills...

I also got some resin, textured bases for my mechs w/o the pewter tab between their feet and vehicles. I also bought two packs (totalling a dozen) 6mm scaled cardstock buildings from Gamecraft Miniatures. Whilst I certainly need more buildings beyond the pad, shuttle and these first few buildings, I'm off to a good start for my urban warfare setup. I have some Space Marines on ebay, and am hoping I can use some of the funds from those when/if they sell to also put towards more terrain (and not just bills).