Thursday 27 July 2017

Painting - Infinity!

Hello Folks,

Time for another painting update! Wednesday wargaming on a bit of a hiatus due to injury and vacations, but maybe I can find a ringer we will see.

Anyway with the Romans in good shape, but I have a few more to do, I decide it was time to change things up a bit. It struck me that I haven't been getting to much painting done for Infinity, which I ahve been playing a fair bit, so I decided to work on my back log for that for a bit. I have a bunch of stuff built up from a combination of prizes and some things I picked up. Making good progress for now thou.

Crane Agent:


First up a few guys for my Yu Jing army. This guy is a Crane Agent, was a freebie for pre-ording one of the books I think.

Takeshi Neko Oyama:


This guy is a special character of the Samurai type guys, pretty cool with his sword and what not.

Shaolin Monk:


Finally there is the space monk, he came out weirdly leaning forward but what are you gonna do right. Aparently I forgot to trim the pictures on this lot so sorry for that. I had taken the pictures last week but forgot I hadn't fixed them up.

Nisses HMG:


Then a few guys for my PanO guys. Blue instead of yellow hah. This guy is a pretty good one with a multi-spectral visor and a camouflage device so he can get some real murder going on.

Miranda Ashcroft:

Technically a mercenary so she can be in a bunch of armies, but most likely I will be including her with these guys. Scary swords can always be fun right.

Regulars:


Some more basic infantry, a sniper and a short range machine gunner in there. These are for a sub-faction so I decided to base them a bit different. Bit of a change in colors going on here as my older stuff is green.

Bagh-Mari:


A trio of hunter-killer type guys, including their special character. The lady is a hacker, which is fun. Have 2 more of these guys coming up soon.

Akalis Sikh Commandos:


These ones are drop troops so they can fly in and bring the pain deep. The right is another hacker, and the left has a spitfire. Not a huge fan of drop troops in this game, but they can be fun, especially the hackers can do some needed tasks every now and then.

Knight of Montessa:


Finally a knight, always got to have a few of these. This brand of knights get to use mechanized deployment so they can start a bit forward and be closer to stabbing people!

Group Shot:


To finish off here is a group shot for the new sub-faction.

Still have lots more infinity stuff to paint so I will keep on with that until I get bored or distracted! Next big thing is a few guys for another PanO sub faction.

Pledge Status, 2017:

Bought: 157
Painted: 241
Total: 84

Thanks;
Mike

Tuesday 18 July 2017

Battle Report - SAGA Aeitus and Arthur

Hello Folks,

Time for another Wednesday war gaming battle report! A bit late maybe because I have been lazy of late, Also because I had a tendency to finish them on my lunch break and now there is not really enough time for that and I have adjust to a new system yet.

Anywho last week we got the chance to finally try out a game with the new Saga book! Very exciting indeed. I had the plucky Romans and Serge had an all mounted Goth force because he is a bad person. We tried out one of the new scenario, Retreat! This was picked by me and I felt it made sense for the Romans to be retreating, so that was my choice....

In this scenario the attacker gets points for murder, and the defender gets points for escaping off the table and half points for murder. The attacker goes first from very close and all the defending units have a fatigue to start with, boo.



Initial set up, you can see my plan was to refuse the right flank and be behind the woods making it a bit awkward to charge. Possibly I didn't take this far enough. The Goths are everywhere, and choose to put a unit right behind me also blocking my escape, but taking 2 fatigues.


Holy cow they all charge like crazy, so many dice. This was a pretty potent strike to my army, my warriors are devastated. One unit totally gone, another with 1 guy, and the archers half dead. I had 3 dice to try and defend, but there were just to many charges for that to be effective, and all of my guys starting with 1 fatigue made them vulnerable.


I did what I could to strike back, the balista killed a hearth guard from the blocking force, and my big mounted unit charged and killed a unit. I thought this would cost the Goths a Saga dice but I had mis counted. So some return fire, but not enough.


The Goths press the advantage killing my warlord and all the rest of the warriors but 1. That is not good news!


Well not much options left with 2 saga dice but I charge with my mounted guys to at least try, but they don't accomplish much.


More charging and my mounted and balista are ridden into the ground. I tossed my one dice into plumbatae to throw some darts and kill another guy or 2.


The Goths of course murder the last warrior and half of my levy. This leaves me with no saga dice to roll so I just loose the game mercifully?

So that game was a bit of a disaster. I never thought it through but picking a mission where the goths are all starting within charge distance and I have fatigue was not a smart idea really. Could have been interesting the other way around perhaps. Never really got to see much of what the Romans could do with such an effective alpha strike, but the Goths seemed pretty cool. Kind of like mounted vikings, and that is a scary thought!

We are going to try the winter river crossing tomorrow I assume that won't go any worse!

Thanks;
Mike

Wednesday 12 July 2017

Painting - Even More Romans!


Hello All,

Time for another painting post! Been a bit out of the norm lately so I guess there has been a bit of a slow down. Anyways I have some more Romans done, so time for a look.

Manubalista:


Maybe closer to a scorpion depending on who you ask. But for Saga purposes this is what it is. Still not sure if this thing is actually good or not, but it is at least interesting so there is that. Always kind of a drag to have levy it seems. Looks cool thou and kind of fun to have something different.

Warriors with Bows:


Another slightly odd unit the Romans can take. This one is warriors with bows, you actually can't get levy with bows. My feeling has always been that warriors with bows are not really worth as levy with bows have 50% more shots. But sometimes it is handy to have some bows, and you still get a saga dice so that is interesting. This and the war machine are both from gripping beast by the way, foot sore don't make these units currently sadly.

Hearthguard on Foot:


Finally a command pack, plan is to use them as hearthguard on foot, but they can fill in other places as well. My feeling is that lots of warriors is maybe a better way to go with Romans, as it is more about crunching out efficiency. But it is never bad to have some tougher units.

Lady Spy:


Quick bonus the lady from one of the Austin Powers movies!

I have some more levy coming to finish out a full unit of spear armed levy, and a foot warlord. That may be pretty much the end of the Romans for awhile. But I think I will be tempted to get another couple of packs of warriors. They are fun and fast to paint and I just like them!

Also trying to do a unit of steppes tribes to try, but I am not loving that at all!

Pledge Status, 2017:

Bought: 153
Painted: 226
Total: 73

Thanks;
Mike

Wednesday 5 July 2017

Painting - Late Roman SAGA Army

Hello All,

So I got to catch up on a bit of painting over the long weekend, got my starter warband finished for the next Saga project and just a bit more. A bunch more models from foot sore miniatures basically.

Mounted Warlord:


First up here is my warlord and his banner bearer. A bit of a big base I guess but it is a cool effect with the extra guy. The set comes with the dragon banner thing, I was not really that keen to use it as they include the exact same one in all of their kits like that. I had ordered a sheet of banners from LBMS but in the end I decided not to go that way as this is allot easier. Also those bannes were not that great I felt.

Equites:


I also completed the second unit of mounted hearthguards. This time going with blue trim instad of red and using the fancy sheilds to mix them up a bit. Pretty nice models overall, again the 2 with the spears above their heads are missing thumbs which makes it a bit harder to drill the hole for the spear, but isn't a huge issue.

Pedites:


Moving on there is also a completed set of armored kneeling warriors. I decided to use the unarmored ones from the set as levy spearmen so these guys can take there place.


Starter Warband:


Of course you will want a shot of my completed 4 point army! So here it is, a blue side and a red side! Very happy with this group, foot sore do some great models.

Of course I am still working on a few more things to bring up the points. I have a unit of bows just about completed, just need to finish the bases. Then a manubalasta to add and some command guys on foot. I also want to paint a unit of steppe tribes mercenaries so they can be given a try as well, but could take a few more weeks.




Pledge Status, 2017:

Bought: 153
Painted: 210
Total: 57

Thanks;
Mike

Tuesday 4 July 2017

Battle Report - The Walking Dead All Out War

Hello Folks,

Over the Canada Day long weekend I had the opportunity to head over to Duncan's for a game, so we set up to try out another game of The Walking Dead. Zombie games are turning out to be quite fun! Very easy game helps for sure. This time we were a bit more advanced on the terrain side, Duncan has gotten some more stuff completed and I took along my big cit mat.

We both had a rag tag group of 4 survivors. I had 4 custom ones, and Duncan just used 4 existing cards with some models we thought were cool.

I had The King Pin, The Hitman, Angry Axe Man, and a Firefighter. Facing Dirty Harry, 2 Fighters I nick named the Double Dragons, and a SWAT team guy. Makes sense right. Once more we are fighting over supplies in and around the grocery store. We had a really big table this time so did a separate event card and threat counter for each side. Table split was along the edge of the mall / gas station.


Here is the initial terrain set up, good variety of stuff, as mention mall and gas station, a junk yard with a couple of primmed hummers, a park with an RV and a stone house. Pretty cool, we spread around 10 supply tokens to try and capture.


I advanced accross taking some supplies building threat and heading for the other team. Here the fireman has broken into the junk yard to grab a supply, and the hit man is gunning down zombies, but he got bitten early on!


Angry Axe Man heading for the mall. With the King Pin going into the house for a supply.


Big over view, lots of zombies along my back edge, some bad things happened. Cars on fire and alarming. I have my fire fighter going for the SWAT guy, most other more on the mall side. The hit man trying to take out whoever he can as he slowly dies of the zombie disease.


Inside the mall the Double Dragons are punching and kicking through the Zombies. Angry Axe Man is sneaking in to try and axe them. But I really have to stay away from Clint, he has a big gun and I do not fell lucky, Punk!


The fight goes down and Clint shoot my guy right in the face which is not amazing. In the end Wounded Axe Man is left with one hit point and is able to run away! But got a bit of damage on Clint.


Here my Fireman has finished off the SWAT guy in close combat, but got a bit swarmed by zombies. The King Pin is protecting the Axe Man behind the mall. At this point we are both down a guy and my side of the table has been closed down by having to high of a threat.


Final turn I fight off most of the zombies around me or delay and this side of the table maxes out. I had 4 supplies which is the most I could hold, and the Karate Heroes have only 3, so I am the winner this time. But the now Zombie Hit man may have a different thought...

So ya fun game, really enjoying the zombie thing, bound to be more of this, hope you like it!


Thanks;
Mike