Battle Report - Flames of War

Hello All,

This past Sunday I got a chance to head over to Duncan's to play a game of Flames of War! We decided to give the objective cards a go as they are kind of fun, Duncan was planing to try out some new tanks so I took an infantry company and threw in a few TIgers for them to kill!

Sadly with the cards it can be a bit hard to remember all of the objectives, but I think I can get the main points.

We set up a table with multiple center piece terrain features on the corners, a major farm, a church yard with cemetery, bit of a town ect.. Eventually came to realize that this left the open very open, but you know these things happen.

I started with most of my infantry stuff in the church yard and TIgers hiding in town. The americans have some infantry and Pershings in the Farm, and some infantry and artillery behind the woods.

I got a card for 3 objectives around the middle of the table, and am slowly collecting the outer ones for one point each. On the far end of the church I moved up some guns to try and take out the artillery, while the tried to blow me up. The Americans found that the Farm had to be held for awhile and had some intelligence in the middle of the board, so the Pershings head there.

This game starts to have a bit of an odd flow now. The artillery eventually wins the duel with the guns without loss. Then we start bombing each others infantry to not huge effects. The Pershings sit in the center and the Tigers are not to interested in facing them so not much is going down. I am sending out solo teams from the church to capture and contest objectives and wait for opportunity.

Tigers about to make a move, but fail a 2+ Blitz and instead go back to town for a coffee.

People start wondering if we are playing a WW1 game, but the American infantry get tired of mortar bombs and line up to have a fire fight over the Church. By this point the clock on the Farm objective is almost gone and the Pershings got a big objective worth 5 points in the center. So this game is becoming a big problem. They smoke to block the Tigers and wait it out.

The Tigers are now forced to be in a game, really against their better judgement. I BLitz and move and am able to get a single shot on the far Pershing which bails him, hey not bad right? I am feeding stands to contest the objective and keep things going. But have allot of pressure on that infantry group now.

The Pershing remounts and they have a shot back, by some miracle don't kill anyone, basically no hits at long range. This makes the Tigers think shit we might have a go of this yet.

I Blitz into short range and shoot up the Pershings real good. Heroic effort for sure, but they passed all there saves. Very Serge like thing to do but never mind. The grind down for the Church is reaching the end point now as well.

The Pershings of course fire back, I think they might be out of gas or something as they haven't moved for awhile. Of course at short range they have more luck and kill 2 Tigers and bail the last. Who as you can expect fails his last stand test, this reminds me that I do have some commanders left in town.

I delay the Pershings from getting their well earned victory for as long as possible. But there is no way at all for me to kill them or catch up on points some how so they eventually score all the points. It ended up like 15 to 3 for the Americans. You only need to get 8 points on your turn to win so that is a bit showy but nicely done!

Fun game, interesting how different things can go. Obviously it was pretty clear from the start that this would most likely come down to a Pershing v Tigers show down. Which is not awesome for the
Tigers but anything can happen! I was expecting to see Comets which would be a bit more of a fair fight, especially consider it was 4-3!

Thanks;
Mike

Battle Report - Warhammer 40k!

Hello Folks,

Time for another Wednesday wargaming battle report! This week we are playing some more 40k a bit of science fiction stuff to change things up is always good. I took some Demons of Chaos this time to fight the Ultramarines.

I picked up the new Open War cards where you draw to determine a deployment type and mission objective. They are pretty fun. We also had a twist that debris was falling down from space, we actually forgot but rolled at the end to see and no space debris came.

I took a picture of the cards for some reason, as you can see the deployment type is opposite corners, the objectives are 3 gold coins. Who ever controls the most at the end of turn 5 wins, or if you end a turn controlling all 3 you win.

Here is the starting positions. I have most stuff behind a woods hiding out a bit, and some stuff on a hill claiming my objective for now. Main point was to hide important things like my demon prince from the tank.

The marines advance putting out allot of fire power dealing some good damage. Not much shooting for me so I am just able to advance. I sent some demons into the forest but still holding back the characters a bit. My screamers are fast so they are moving out on the flank to try and get the objective way behind the marines lines.

Lots of carnage, the marines deal heavy damage to my demon troops killing all but one of the khorne ones, and most of the ladies. That is not seeming good.

I advance some more and try a few charges, but only the frogs are successful. They make it in to a unit of marines but don't manage to kill anyone. I also got the screamers in against the inceptor but they also failed.

The marines keep up the pressure, falling back from the frogs and shooting them up a bit. In the center the tank half kills the demon prince and the last of the demon lades are all shot down. The tank and the inceptor make quick work of my screamers. Really regretted charging them, but I thought they could kill 1 guy. Should have kept up the original plan!

This turn I got to charge my characters but they mostly all disappointed. The skull taker failed to kill the captain and killing characters is his job, the demon princes killed a few marines, but not quite enough. The marines get up the hail of fire, the captain continuing to fight the skull taker. I had him down to wound, but I re-rolled a damage roll trying to get him in one go and lost most of them!

At this point things are looking pretty grim, not having tons of luck. I tried to kill what I could. The Demon Prince charged the tank hoping to at least kill it but just a did a few wounds. The pink horrors killed allot of the scouts thou so there were some marines casualties!

For the Marines part of turn 4 they were able to control all 3 objectives, winning the game. They also tried some heroic shooting and managed to bring down the Demon Prince. So in the end not a great day for the powers of Chaos!

Planing to try out another game next week, I will try a different army of course hah.

Thanks;
Mike

Painting Update - Infinity and Star Wars!

Hello Folks,

Time for another painting update! Lots of stuff to show this time, I guess it has been building up for a bit. Basically a bunch more infinity stuff, adding into some sub armies for my main faction, Pan Oceania.

Also I grabbed a handful of Star Wars models, partly they are fun to paint, and partly maybe I can play some kind of Star Wars Skirmish thing with Stan at some point. Based on what was easily available I decided to make a kind of Firefly type Star Wars thing.

Star Wars:

Here are the Star Wars guys I have, just getting the small packs so I can avoid any big mixed boxes for now. So I have Lando as a captain type guy, a mechanic lady with a drone, a smuggler and a pair of saboteurs. Possibly could fit into a Rouge Stars type crew, not really sure haven't looked into it. Also I saw that they have announced a Star Wars miniatures game now so that could be a thing also. Not sure if the models are the same scale as the board game, but I assume so.

Aquila Guard:

First  of the infinity guys is the Aquila, big guy with a machine gun and a multi-spectral visor.

Neo-Terra Bolts:

Some medium infantry guys, these are a bit expensive but they have some cool abilities and are cool models.

Bagh Mari:

The last 2 from the Bagh Mari set that I was working on last time. A guy with a boarding shot gun, and a lady with a sniper rifle. These guys are great on paper, but haven't had a ton of success with the as yet.

Scylla and Devabot:

Starting with a few mercenary attachments that the shock army can take. This lady is a pretty neat hacker, and a has a handy flamer thrower drone to help out. Looks like she has a bandit mask or something, but they are meant to be glasses, hard to paint stuff that small.

Nagas:

Another mercenary type unit, these guys are some sneaky infiltration and mine laying abilities. The lady has a sniper rifle which I don't like but nothing is perfect.

Highly Valued Target / Corporate Security Unit:

A lady with a briefcase, very similar to the other one whos briefcase is transformed as a gun, so can be used as a civilian or a security guard.

Auxila:

A pair of Auxila, these are pretty standard infantry but they each get a flame thrower bot to follow them around. These are really old models so they are a bit crappy compared to the newer ones, their guns are much bigger looking.

Tikiblang TAG:

Finally for today I have this big giant robot tank. He has some stealth abilities and mines so is a bit more cool then your standard big guy.. Should be fun to try out. Came as a pack with 2 different big guys so I guess I have to paint that at some point.

Pledge Status, 2017:

Bought: 207 (Death guard part of dark imperium plus some infinity and walking dead guys)
Painted: 264
Total: 57

Thanks;
Mike

Battle Report - SAGA Aeitus and Arthur

Hello All,

Wednesday Wargaming is back! But I am still slow making posts, can't have anything. For the return we played a second Saga game using the new book, another outing for those Romans and crazy Goths. This time we played the Frozen River Crossing mission which is much more sensible. Basically same idea as the Battle at the Fords but the river is frozen so it can be crossed but slowly.

I think we pretty much took the same armies, the  Goths had 2 points of warriors and 4 points of hearthguard all mounted. I had 2 mounted hearth, 2 foot warriors, another warrior with bows and a unit of levy spear with the Batista! We made the Goths the attackers because it just makes sense somehow.

Here we are at the start, the attacker has a deeper deployment so they are much closer to crosing the river. Makes it a bit different from the ford as you can't really clog up the fords, especially with a mounted attacker! My mounted troops are forced into reserve but I am sure it won't take the Goths long to trigger them.

Not wasting anytime they move twice with a unit of hearthguard and push back my wsarriors more then half killed. This puts them within 12! of my edge so the reserves immediately arrive.

A second first turn charge! Against my levy spear who are just standing in front of my balista so it can't easily be killed on turn 1. They kill 4 and push the other 2 back, so fatigues but not a huge deal.

Finally the rest of the Goths get to crossing. Man that is some big turn 1 pressure!

The Romans strike back, my ballista, and archer and even the darts ability from my warriors all shoot at the huge unit of angry goths, depleting them a good bit. Then my Roman Knights charge really reducing the effectiveness of them. So not a bad strike back.

The next big unit of Goths now rides in and wipes out my knights!

Next up the next unit of warriors chargers my archers, killing allot but taking some hits. I used a good defensive ability to save the unit, that Roman efficiency is starting to show. I fight back as I can on my turn, but don't super remember the details. Bit of shooting and a charge with the Knights I guess.

The Goths keeping pressing murdering the ballista. Just barely thou they just won the combat and it dies if it has to fall back.

Also getting rid of the archers I guess they don't like being shot at? Things are starting to look grim for Rome.

But on my turn I had an ability that left all of my units attack and gain bonus dice, this did a good amount of damage, and out things actually very close.

As you can see not much left! The Goths murder my 3 warriors that came out from there tree, was a stupid move on my part.

I am able to double move with my warlord and the last of the warriors and kill all but 1 Gothic Warrior. On the Goths turn their warlord joins him and kill all of my warriors, but at the loss of the guy. This leaves just our warlords and 1 Goth hearth guard alive and it is turn 6, the last turn!

Only option is for me to kill that guy! I made a decent attempt and got the hits to do it, but he was defensive and made enough saves to live, so the heroic battle is just a push. I Romans don't really have good abilities for heroic fighting like this.

 So in the end we both had our warlords and the Goths have 1 guy on the far side of the river so they win by 1 point! Great game and a win for them, but I don't think there are to many guys around to celebrate!

This battle was massively more fun then the last one as you can probably tell. I quite like this Saga book, lots of fun stuff. Need to try more of the new armies I guess but can't collect everything!

As a bonus here are a few shots from last nights infinity game:

 The models get lots in the terrain a bit but you can see some of them. As you can see Fandom has some crazy good terrain for this!

Thanks;
Mike