Recent acquisitions and a few repaints

 o/

Long time no post because...well, there hasn't been a whole hellova lot going on aside from the usual array of sporadic games lined up only to be postponed indefinitely if not just outright cancelled. I got my Clan KS stuff, and then summarily sold off most of it. Just not much of a fan outside of Solahma forces. I've also been acquiring a small horde of 3D printed mechs and tanks. 

Below is a gallery of what all I've gotten (aside from that beautifully resculpted Urbie above), and what little I've painted: 

The Enforcer: Simple, rugged, and very utilitarian. Still, it looks infinitely better than the old metal sculpts. 

The two Missile carriers came with hatches to optionally cover the launchers, those will be added to that these will be able to represent the LRM, MRM and SRM variants. Two Vedettes are in the foreground, and a 'freebee' Demolisher II in back. Again, all are vastly superior to the original sculpts (well, barring perhaps the D II).

Aside from the Urbie, all I kept from the Kickstarter was the Puma (my favorite clan mech), Grayson Carlyle's Marauder (or a Marauder C in my case) and the two points of Elementals which look amazing!! Also there are a pair of 3D printed Crabs, and a Piranha which was also a freebee due to being damaged. However said damage is minor and can easily be passed off as battle damage whenever I paint it. 

The Demolisher is the only originally painted mini (i.e.: not a repaint) in quite some time across all game systems. The Clan Pike on the other hand has so many layers of paint slathered upon it's hull that it ought to act as ablative armor by this point (both for the Hell's Horses Eta Galaxy, though are generic enough to be most anybody). 

The Whitworth is also a repaint, for a forthcoming former SLDF mercs/Pentagon Powers force (pay no attention to the monster attacking it from behind...). The Hoplite in back is new and is a custom conversion representing a Hoplite IIC armed with a HAG-20, LRM-5 with art. IV, and an AP Gauss rifle. 

Lastly, the Mauler was also a freebee 2nd, with a mis-molded arm. I replaced it with the arm or a 3D printed Dragon that I didn't like making it into a 'Franken-Mech'. Also not pictured but recently purchased is a 3rd Hunchback (an HBK-4P) and a Charger that looks fantastic!

Tentatively I have a game set up with Screech this coming Wednesday, however being an already once postponed game, I'm not holding my breath. Sometimes it's best to just wait until the holidays are over to resume normal gaming. 

Oh, so you elitist Battletech fucks are going to play eh?

lol, I think that means the 40k crowd misses us...

No idea who made this, but it's awesome!

That remark was made tongue & cheek (well, mostly) by Neverness after he asked if I was gaming Saturday, to which I replied yes but not at the FLGS. 

Instead of a night of Kill Team Hoss came over for his first taste of the Clans, well sort of. In their battlefield debut, I was fielding my Operation Klondike era Clan Wolverine star. Essentially, all mechs were SLDF Royals, as the newer clan omni-mech and weapons technologies had yet to be invented. 

One of these is not like the others...

I was fielding a Royal Thunderbolt, Catapult and 3 Wolverine IIs. WestRider and I have discussed in the past the mediocrity of the Wolverine II's main weapon: the Ultra AC 5. That however of little concern because of the 30-40 UAC-5 rounds I fired over the course of the game, exactly TWO hit (and neither in the same volley, because that 8+ roll on the cluster chart is a sheer impossibility for me). 

Needless to say it was infuriating. 

UAC-5, double tapping needs a 4 to hit: it misses, SRM-6 needs an 8 to hit: it hits...seriously WTF?!?

Using superior technology vs. Hoss' Tech I 'Pentagon Powers' force (they were all Star League era mechs, barring a Jagermech refit, but even that was all Tech level I) ought to have been a cake wake, but alas aside from one lone turn in which my Catapult hit with everything and even rolled well on the missile clusters (THANK GOD FOR ARTEMIS IV!!!) my dice were having none of it. 

Hoss bringing the pain!

Instead I had the usual bane of my existence, and 8Q Awesome, with it's Griffin sidekick beating the snot out of my Catapult and Thunderbolt, which were only giving sporadically accurate fire in return. Hell, even Hoss's Urbie was giving my cat hell, whilst proving largely elusive to my return fire. I only managed to silence it's AC-10 in the last turn (couldn't hit that ammo though). 

Yeah...I think it's best not to lend that little guy out anymore.

Speaking of the Urbie, Hoss' list was approx. 600 points short and he was just going to go with that. I would have none of it however and loaned him NOOB! with a 4/4 pilot which clocked in at 580 points. Heh, I use standard urbies so much that I actually have all of that memorized. 

There was an actual strategy in play here as my Wolverines maneuvered into position, well maybe...

My shooting on the other side was decent so long as you ignore my UACs altogether, whilst Hoss was fairly accurate across the board. He wasn't too happy with the Wolverine's mobility though. Spoiled by my usual urbie centric, slow grinding attrition tactics, my fast moving trio that was intent to get into his backfield gave him fits! Especially when he realized that it really didn't matter which way his Jagermech faced, I would have a rear-armor shot! Not sure why he was concerned though given my die rolling...

I have you now! (apparently the dice didn't hear that)

In the end, the hour was late, and both sides were badly beaten though still on their feet, with only my Cat taking an engine hit following a snake eyes, vs. his Urbie losing the AC and a heat sink. We were going to go one more round in which the T-Bolt, Cat and possibly Awesome would all start to display their innards but Hoss instead ran up the white flag and we called it a night. 

T'was a good game all around, but I think my Wolverines need a bit of time in the ol' mini case contemplating their gunnery failures before they see the tabletop again.