Miracles, made of garbage...

o/

Rob and I played another game of Battletech this weekend in which I lost quite handily I think, but still came away with the moral victory.

I was running a light-weight, combined arms company of the 4th MAC (3050s era) and he was running a stereotypical lance of Steiner overcompensation which we both jokingly referred to as a 'recon mech lance' (i.e.: 2 of the 4 mechs weren't heavy/assault machines, and thus its 'recon'). At the center of his lance was a Fafnir which...to be honest I really had nothing on my side that could even hope to equal it (my heaviest unit was a base model Lineholder). I shot at it anyways, but generally just made it angry which is the best I could have hoped for. Early on I managed to knock it down due to incoming damage (with mechanized infantry of all things putting it over the 20 points received in a turn, to which he graciously failed the piloting check). But that's about it.

Until...

Beauty this is not!

Towards the end of our game, the Faf put 2 heavy gauss rifle slugs (at short range) thru the same leg of my company commander's Lineholder's left leg. This tore it off, effectively taking it out of action. Apparently enraged, the crew of my lone surviving SRM Hetzer (the other had suffered the same fate as the aforementioned leg), unloaded into the Fafnir's rear armor and managed 2 lucky critical engine hits! In the following turn, the fafnir made an about face and fired at...something, all I recall is it missed with all of its big guns. In return the Hetzer kept up the punishment with another anime-like volley of missiles corkscrewing thru the air, with only a few actually hitting the Faf, but still managing a 3rd engine crit which automatically took the Mech out of the game!

Huzzah!

While it had been hit by other units, the Fafnir was only marginally damaged, with no internals, yet in 2 volleys, a Hetzer took it out! While not as spectacular as my Urbanmech taking out a King Crab in one shot, this is a close second! Especially as the hetzer is more or less an Urbie in wheeled form (i.e.: cheap, defensive junk that's all but a death sentence to be assigned to).

After this debacle, I guess Rob's Steiner forces actually have something to overcompensate for now...lol!

The Ant Eaters of War

o/

In between the frequent games of Battletech, and occasional games of 40k, I've been slowly amassing my army of Quar for Bolt Action. At this point I have the full, reinforced platoon. Though I plan to get an artillery piece at some point, so a few more may be added in later. Currently I have 38 Quar in my platoon, again using the British Army list.

I also have an armored car which, once assembled I'll probably use as a Humber Scout Car, and a tank which I intend to use as a Sherman Firefly (I have an actual Firefly gun barrel for it). I was concerned that the tank wasn't large enough for that, but Screech commented that we're used to 40k's often grossly oversized vehicles and I do believe he's right. Especially as the gun extended out from the front end of the firefly as much as it will on my Quar tank. The tank's construction is on hold however as the tread sections were poorly cast. Josh, the 'Headzombie' at Zombiesmith (jeez, enough with the links already, lol!) responded to my inquiry on replacements inside of 30 minutes along with an apology, so more are on the way. Huzzah!

Below is the infantry portion of my platoon thus far, and a few close ups of some of the new recruits. At this point, along with having already conquered Spain and Portugal, it looks like the Quar will be unopposed in their conquest of the rest of the planet! Rob has yet to pick an army ('I was looking at the Russians...'; 'The Japanese look interesting...'; 'ooh! The Italians are out now...' and so on and so forth), whereas Screech has only assembled one German, his commander as he can't decide on how to equip the rest of them. FAIL!

The platoon thus far. Several in the back row are still missing their heads!

The platoon's cook has a submachine gun!

This goofy looking gun is supposed to be a sniper rifle, and I can probably use it as such. That said, I was going to use it as a Boys anti-tank rifle.

One of the Commandos, with an upgraded Vickers K LMG.

As it stands, my army is as follows:

Is-Caertenn (Lt.) with CameraQuar and bagpiper assistants

Forward Observer and HAM radio assistant

Sniper/Boys AT Rifle team

Light Mortar Team

Rhyfler Squad (infantry section) of 10, with LMG, and Yawdryl (Sgt.) with SMG

Rhyfler Squad (infantry section) of 10, with Platoon cook, and Yawdryl (Sgt.)  both with SMGs

Commando) squad of 9, with Vickers K LMG, and the rest with SMGs

Sothwyr Scout Car (Humber)

Crusader Tank (Firefly)

Again, aside from an artillery piece and crew, and possibly the new Quar medics, that's about all I need, aside from painting them, and probably another Sabol tray to haul them around.

Why is it always the relic mission?

I mean seriously, it seems that one always gets rolled for...lol.

Yes we can reroll it, but whatever. Anyways, as stated in my last post, both my GF's Fem Fa'Tau and Jim's Blood Angels were going to square off in a 'training game' this  past Saturday. I say training game as with this game included, they still don't have a dozen games played between them. Additionally, I brought along a squad of my (counts-as-Tau) Grymn, for their (less than stellar) battlefield debut. I tried to remain fairly 'neutral so as to help both sides, and I think I did pretty well  with that till mid game. RTVoril had no game to play, so also helped, as did Screech after his game concluded. Thus about mid-game we were in the congressional mode of fighting thru committee and I had to come to my GF's aid once she realized Voril and Screech were fighting me by proxy.

Relic Scenario
1500 Points
Vanguard Deployment
Jim one the roll to deploy and start the game as the Tau failed to steal the initiative, night fighting didn't kick in till turn 5.

lol, my girl wore the proper attire for the game shop!

The Tau muster for battle...

As do the Blood Angels...

Tau Deployment.

The Grymn in their battlefield debut!

Broadsides (separate units) and Fire Warriors behind their Aegis.

The Blood Angels sight their targets...

Off brand models?!? Target them first!!!

Damned scouts, hadn't anticipated them...

And they're off!!!

Turn 1 Drop pod dread, damnit but I hate that tactic!

Red Wunz Go Fasta!!!

The Fire Warriors lining up their targets from behind their protective barriers.

The Devilfish side stepped over the grymn, so that the Tau Commander could destroy the dread with her missile pods, first blood!

The Broadsides make their presence known!

The view from the broadside in question, note: the white fuzzy lines are the rail cannons.

Voril seems to be enjoying the Broadsides' demise via the devastators and predator.

Whatever you do, Don't turn around...

'Mr Coolaid' kills the commander's bodyguard, and despite a short fire fight, later kills the commander as well. Pathfinders with marker lights would later help the fire warriors to shoot him in the back causing his destruction!

The bikes killed a few grymn, and the little bastards fled right off the table!

Shit, Death Company Deep Striking in!

After a few casualties, the Fire Warriors initiate an orderly retreat. Low LD seems to be the Tau Achilles heal...

The Death Company weather the overwatch fire with only one loss and Multi-charge the Fire warriors.

The end result was a foregone conclusion, one unit run down and the other fleeing off of the table, again the Tau LD hurt them badly.

However the Stealth Suits were doing their job...

The tau attempt at seizing the relic comes apart under withering fire!

And yet another doomed bout of HTH.

Damnit! Now they have the Relic!

Both sides' diversionary units collide! Once again though, the Tau falter in close combat...

Screech, as he watches the Blood Angels all converge on the two pathfinders hunkered in that ruin.

The lone pursuing Stealth Suits would gun down the bikers, but the Relic was never recovered.

There were a few more photos, but blogger is acting wonky and I'm tired of fighting it. In the end it was a 5-1 loss. Jim had the relic, slay the warlord and line breaker, whereas my GF only had First blood. Had she managed to kill the assault marine holding the relic it would have been closer. Still they both had fun which is all that matters!

The Greater Good's Pink Aegis Defense Line

o/

Finally, a painted Stealth Suit!

My GF and her Fem Fa'Tau will be playing at the FLGS this Saturday for the first time! To date she's only played against me and like all gamers, she would like more than one opponent. Seeing as how the rest of the guys aren't too keen on coming to my place for fear of losing to a 'girl' she's instead gone hunting for them!

 Jim has graciously accepted the challenge with his Blood Angels! He's still new to the rules, as is my GF. Thus for my contingent, I'll only have a squad of Grymn fighting alongside their Tau allies. That will allow me to play a little bit whilst concentrating on helping with rules, taking pics for a future blog post, and whatnot.

 Looking to bolster the Tau's defenses, I've noticed that to get some good cover for her broadsides, often comes at the expense of good fields of fire. Shield drones suck as once a Broadside fled the table after its drone died. Thus the best solution is the ubiquitous Aegis defense line. However being a xenos army with vastly superior technology, why in the hell would they be hiding behind an IMPERIAL fortification?!? GW's excuses as to why their terrain kits are always 'Imperial only' are lame at best as they clearly capable of making more xenos terrain than just Ork barricades. Luckily, there are lots of 3rd party companies who are taking up the slack.

Its a fort...field? Force field fort?  Well, at least its not a pillow fort...

One such company is Burn In Designs. I was wary of the laser cut wood kits after a poorly designed SM drop pod kit I got years ago. The addition of the laser cut acrylic made it look rather good though, plus it was cheap, and not imperial looking so figured what the hell? The energy shields are shaped to vaguely resemble the energy shields from Halo and come in various colors. Due to the Tau's advanced technology, they can fire out thru the energy shields with no loss of effect, yet incoming fire is often absorbed to the benefit of those behind it, huzzah! True there's no quad gun to go with it, but if there's one thing the Tau lack, AA weaponry isn't it...

Space Commie Pinkos indeed.

Whilst it looks kinda orangy, once you put a mini behind you'll see that its actually pink! I figured my GF would prefer that color, and it goes well with black. Plus I figure that pink and black terrain ought to illicit a few groans of annoyance at the game shop, lol! Thus with 2 broadsides with their 2+ saves, camped inside the Aegis for a 4+ cover save, and probably a squad of Fire Warriors to keep the BA from deep striking inside the walls, this ought to provide a good fire base for this weekend's game.

An axe to grind...

o/

I arrived at the FLGS on Saturday with the intent to play Battletech against Rob. Table was set up, and all was ready to go when...I realized I  had forgotten my record sheets and thus couldn't play.

Shit.

No doubt my forces were shot down on orbital entry and the Battletech toys went back into the box. Rob wasn't sure if he'd make it or not, so luckily I had my Storm Wardens handy as a back up. Conveniently, Neverness was on hand with his Space Wolves to challenge me to a game. Nothing like a good ol' grudge match vs. one of my favorite adversaries! Camera in hand he took all of the photos below, however wasn't in the mood for a battle report, thus I shall do so in my usual method (i.e.: a bunch of photos, with random commentary in the captions).

The Best photo of the night!

 Neverness' Space wolves were lead by none other than the infamous Sven Axe-Grinder, Bearer of the famed Pink Feather Boa, and leader of his so-called 'Great' Company. In opposition to these nefarious foes I had Captain 'I Killed Draigo!' and the Storm Warden's 4th Battle Company, as well as a squad of scouts from the 10th Company. Relic Scenario (as always it seems...) and the good old fashioned across the board deployment. I won the roll to set up first and the first round was under night fighting conditions.

The Field of battle, some unknown desert hell...appropriately enough, the A/C was lacking and it was quite hot in the room.

The Space Wolves' deployment.

The old fogies blend rather well with this piece of terrain.

The Storm Wardens' Deployment. Its a touch out of focus, perhaps Neverness had a tremble of fear?

Combat Squads a plenty! (completed paint jobs and backpacks, not so much...)

First Blood! A rhino falls to what would become my generally mediocre heavy weapons fire.

Once again, Neverness' hunter killer missile falls a little short...

Sven and his termies drop podded into my back field with the intent on attacking my devastators. However my 'Chaplain' dread would have none of that and charged the accursed foe, engaging in what would be an EPIC combat!

2 beleaguered combat squats with characters in tow, advance on the relic, whilst the rhinoless Grey Hunters do the same.

Captain I killed Draigo! singlehandedly charges the Grey Hunters while his former tactical combat squad secures the relic!

The Grey Hunters, fairing poorly in close combat, are joined by the Terminator Rune Priest! Soon my Librarian would also join into the fray!

With my Dreadnought having dispatched his Termie escort, Sven is joined by the not-so-Lone Wolf and his dog!

Another Rhino dies and Neverness is clearly quaking with fear as this photo is taken!

TREACHERY!!! Claiming his weapon is useless (he had a frostblade, not actually a powerfist) Sven flees the righteous combat with my dreadnought who cannot pursue, as the Lone Wolf holds him in place!

Having left the librarians to settle their differences (mine would be victorious to only be gunned down soon thereafter) Captain I Killed Draigo! went on to harass the vindicator, taking 2 hull points front it. He however failed to clear the crater and soon became one himself...

My Dreadnought, finally overcome by powerfist hits and krak grenades falls, whilst the Lone Wolf moves into the Storm Wardens' rear areas. The treacherous Sven Axe-Grinder can be seen skulking in the ruins after having dispatched two combat squads of Devastators.

The Space Wolf mad dash for the relic on turn 6 is thwarted by an equally depleted combat squad of Storm Wardens!

While no photographic evidence exists of their endeavors, these two Long fangs are all that remain after dispatching the Scouts in HTH combat. The Scouts distracted the Fangs for a full three turns, killing a few, and even stunning the Whirlwind for a turn via a thrown krak grenade. They were clearly a thorn in Neverness' side!

With no turn 7 the Relic is never claimed as the brawl mere inches away never came to conclusion!

Whew, that was a fun one! The close games are always the best games, and the last minute charge and combat kept the relic out of either side' hands. Without the relic, we totaled things up and I had First Blood, whilst Neverness had Slay the Warlord and line breaker, thus victory was his. Until...I recalled that his Lone Wolf didn't in fact die, thus granting me another victory point changing the end result to be a tie! Denied victory, there shall be no sagas written about the treacherous actions of Sven Axe-Grinder this day!!!

Huzzah!