Orks vs. the Ork Codex...(oh, and some Beakies and Tau)

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Just a quick post again. Monday night the shattered remnants of Da Long Wayz Groop and Da Eleet Grot Mountin Duvishun took to the field along side Neverness' Orks to oppose Wolfy's Fem Fa'Tau and Jim's Dark Angels. Rather than post a redundant battle report, you can check Neverness' bat rep out here.

Above you see SCHULTZ!!!, the last of his Grot Duvishun, as he laughs in the face of Da Deff wing after rolling snake eyes for LD (and just a turn away from his messy demise)...

X-Wing, X-Wing games everywhere...

lol, curiously actual X-Wing fighters were themselves quite rare this past weekend. We played 3 games in total. Billy bailed on us Friday, but Jeff, another of our group's regulars was happy to step in. Sunday night Imperial Recruitment and Billy-uh, I mean Kushial came over to the house for an afternoon of X-Wing. We played 2 games, followed by going out to dinner to cap off a rather fun weekend!

Pull up! PULL UP!!!

Yeah, Jeff's outer space mat is so much nicer than what we have...we need to remedy that. Speaking of Jeff, we were ill prepared for his 2 Phantoms and he won quite handily.

Bumper-to-bumper traffic ensues at our house, and now with Scum and Villainy!

I think the Minion says it all: WHAAA?!?!?!

My gold squadron Y-Wing finds itself in a very bad neighborhood...

...this one's no better.

The last 4 standing in our first game, appropriately enough with one ship for each!

Down to Just Wolfy and I.R.

Imperial Recruitment wins with...Scum and Villainy? Indeed his minion shirt was apparently prophetic.

Sorry, no pics of the 3rd game as it was terribly blurry, but IR won with S&V in that one too. Not content to stop there, Neverness and our buddy Jim will be over this evening for dinner followed by an oh-so-rare game of 40k at our house. Hopefully I'll have some good pics of that game for Thursday's post.

Prepping for an X-Wing weekend!

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Just a quick post this go-round. this week I'm taking a break from Bolt Action to get some X-Wing gaming in. We haven't played that in a few weeks and I miss it (unlike say...40k). Friday night Wolfy and I will be teaming up to take on Billy and...possibly someone else (no word on that yet) in a 200 point game. Following that, Sunday we'll be playing in a 100 point free-for-all with Kushial and I.R. Voril.

In preparation for Friday's game, Billy asked if I would paint his HWK-290 to look (quote) Scum and Villainyish. In return he gave me a still new-in-the-package Y-Wing! The Y has been painted to match the rest of our Rebels' purple squadron, and I think it looks quite a bit better than the first Y-wing I painted. My apologies though as I don't have a pic of it handy.

As for Billy's HWK, his first time with it on the table top will be trying to blow it up as we'll be using it (probably alongside our own HWK-290) against him, lol. Anyways, here's his repainted HWK:

I was joking as I was painting it that it kinda looks like its starting to burn up on atmospheric reentry...

The first battle for Wylsh independence...

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I wasn't going to do a Bolt Action battle report for Friday's game, but Neverness was outraged by the notion, and so Wolfy started snapping pics after the game was underway. As such, the set up was 500 points, Quar (Dad's Army) vs. some British paratroops  fielded by Kushial. He was using Cadian (or is that Canadian? yeah, I think I'll go with Canadian) proxies as he hasn't gotten his actual Warlord minis yet. The mission was maximum attrition/colonial oppression. Basically: Kill them...kill them all!

Group pic! From left-to-right: Kushial, Dallas (in back playing X-Wing), Screech, Bob, Jim, and Myself.

The photos start just following the treachery from afar! I rolled a '1' and Kushial pushed my artillery strike marker right into the middle of my line (which was devastating) and that was followed immediately thereafter by his arty strike. Ouch!

The Canadians advance...

Here the Canadian 'Jeep'  is targeted by my tank just after it mowed down my medium mortar team.

BOOM! My tank's first vehicle kill!

My 2nd Militia squad arrives (finally, though thankfully after all the of the artillery strikes).

Canadians be damned, my Commandos outflank and open fire!!!

Bob looks puzzled, probably wondering why his armies didn't fare nearly as well as this one is...

Casualties in this firefight are light (thus far) as all models need a 5+ to be wounded.

The tank tries to soften up the oncoming horde with its MMG, but does little more than aerate some Quonset huts...

They're getting closer! Unable to depress the MMG far enough to be effective, the tank only kills one Canadian.

The militia add their weight of fire, though like last week they cause little damage.

With a blood curdling charge, they attack my tank with grenades!

Tank go BOOM! Sad face.

Meanwhile the rest of the Canadians mop up what little Quar resistance is left. Luckily the game ended on turn 6, saving me from getting tabled.

Well there we have it, that so-called 'elusive victory' I was looking for last week...lol. With the odds of the Quar getting their own BA sourcebook being literally nil, the Wylsh division will stay firmly under the British colonial heel. It was a good game, though that misplaced artillery strike was the beginning of the end, as my army never really recovered from it. Oh well, such is the way of not-so-friendly fire.

Your Tauntaun will freeze before you reach the first marker!

lol, yes I know, I know...most of the country (the northeast in particular) is literally buried under several feet of snow, and has been for quite some time. However not one to be left out, Tennessee is doing its best to feel like Hoth as well. It snowed the other day, and every day since, about 8" worth. Add to that 40+ mile an hour wind gusts, the temperature this morning (not counting the windchill mind you) was -2F, and today's 'high' projected to be a balmy 0. Friday night's low will be about -15F! WTF? Reminds me of growing up in northern New Jersey!

So needless to say, there's not much going on in the painting department. There's no priming or clear coating in weather like this. That said, I did finish two Quar (aside from clear coats). The first was my Homeguard Quar with a shotgun. Wolfy kept making fun of his 'naked base' (unflocked), and the poor bastard was so self-conscious about it that he never managed to hit any of Bob's paratroopers.

Ya know its a bitch to paint squad numbers on warmahordes bases, and decals don't like to work on them either (much like Space Marine shoulder pads), thus I just use a pen. Not my best effort I guess, but it works...

  The 2nd was my Quartillery Officer. Between the first game's excellent arty strike, to damned near reaching the objective in the 2nd game (plus adding a pin marker here and there to the paratroops), he's been hitting well above his weight class. Better yet, he's FREE to the Brits!

Beware the fat man...er, I mean Quar, with the radio!

 I'm tentatively scheduled to play vs. Kushial's British paratroops this coming Friday. However given the inclement weather here of late, I'm not sure if he's going make it or not, so we'll see...

Bolt Action game 2: Quar vs. Band of Brothers

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For our 2nd outing of Bolt Action, Bob opted for his American Paratroopers vs. a slightly different set-up to my Dad's army-Quar. 500 Points, Demolition scenario which is very similar to 40k's Auto-Tie mission (I forget what it is actually called), 1/2 our forces started the game set up on the board, with the rest coming in via reserve.

The Quar deployed on the field of battle. The two Quonset Huts that are not on the hill are the objectives (which must be destroyed by remaining in direct contact for a whole turn with no interference from the defending forces). Note the over-sized Churchill making it's battlefield debut as terrain.

My sniper team, which like their 40k counterparts would often (but unlike 40k, not always) prove to be useless...

Turn 1 starts off with the regular infantry advancing at a run.

Meanwhile the wily stand-in for Major Winters ponders his next move.

Keenly aware of his Germans' lack of AT weaponry, Bob's paratroops brought along a bazooka team. Thus began a long and pathetic dual between the Quar tank and said bazooka team...

The Quar militia (Homeguard) units arrive to defend their objective.

Turn 3 saw the Commandos outflank as per the last game, however with their targets also being veterans, they failed to wound anyone, instead inflicting a mere pin marker on the unit.

As the leading infantry squad rounds the hill the front ranks are cut down by the paratroops. Murica!

A penetrating hit resulting in...crew stunned. lol, to which Bob asked: Where have I heard that before?

A second squad of Militia arrive from reserve (finally). In hopes of creating a crossfire, they arrived on my far left.

LOOK OUT! THEY HAVE TRACERS!!!

Taking the hill!

Up to this point, my sniper team was rolling straight 1s to hit. However, you see that gap between those two guys by the back of the Quonset hut? Yeah, that was the paratroopers' C.O.. There's no 'look out sirs' in this game!

The Quar onslaught rolls forward...aside from the out-flanking Commandos who were locked in a firefight which was producing little damage on either side.

The bazooka loader is down, however nothing else of note has happened in several turns of this so-called duel.

Meanwhile at another table, boredom (a.k.a.: Federation Commander) kicks into high gear...

Tired of watching the tank fail to take out the bazooka team, the Militia add to the weight of fire, with little effect.

Keep firing lads!

A rather nice shot...er, um, photo I mean. As for the tank and bazooka gunner, nothing of note happened here, again, as usual.

As the Quar continue the inexorable advance, note the Quartillery officer (primed black). His arty strike having largely failed, he advances, gun blazing hoping to make up for the artillery strike's failure. Meanwhile the Infantry squad continues to die horribly.

GAAH! WHY WON'T THEY JUST DIE ALREADY?!?!!

The Quartillery officer runs for the objective but comes up short of the objective (no doubt due to that heavy radio). Unfortunately, the game ended at the bottom of Turn 6, and with both objective Quonsets still standing, its yet another draw.

Yup, another tie. I'm starting to think that a decisive victory in this game will be rather elusive. In prior posts, I've railed (as usual) about the all-veteran army, however their numbers are so few that if anything, it seems to work against them. I mean, these aren't space marines, just regular guys. True, vets are only killed on a 5+, but they're still easily pinned, and with the sheer number of my units (approx 2:1) meant that the pin markers stacked up on Bob quickly. So whilst the all veteran army is a quick way to build up an army, I'm not sure how threatening it is.

I suppose I'll get to see next week when I square ff vs. Kushial's British paratroops.

Edit: Most names and terminology of the Quar are based on the Welsh language. As such, my 'Dad's Army' Quar have just been named by Wolfy as: The Welsh Division. Ooh, I rather I like that!