Victory goes to The Empire!

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My Storm Troopers advancing along with the AT-PT & Shore Troopers in the background.

I managed to get in a game this past Tuesday evening, with my Empire army making its battlefield debut against...The Empire. Heh, I am sure that this post's title is now raising some eyebrows. While also new, my opponent is a more regular player than I and only has a fieldable Empire army, so his forces did carry the day quite handily. 

I swapped squad leaders in the Shore trooper squads to easily differentiate those models. This squad did well, gunning down 2 Scout bikers in 1 volley, and wounding that agent in the backfield as well!

The AT-PT (AT-ST proxy with no upgrades other than the pilot), it shot a few of the storm troopers near the POI.

They made most of their saves and so following that it decided that simply stepping on them was far more efficient. It survived the game having suffered only 5 wounds. 

Nonetheless I managed several impressive rolls throughout the game and got a decent idea on how the Empire works. I didn't take enough pics for a proper bat rep, (hell, I don't think they're in order for that matter) as such below are a few highlights. In hindsight my biggest highlight unfortunately did not get a pic. 

That was when my 10-strong Stormtrooper squad with a T21 gunner rolled an impressive 7 criticals and 1 hit while only using 1 aim token where I forgot to utilize the precision 1! For my 40k centric readers, that is like having Orks roll 13 dice with shootas, hitting 8 times with only 2 dice rerolled, and all but 1 hit ignoring cover!

Ah yes, a good ol' 40K like scrum! This fight would in the end be inconclusive with no units wiped out, though the Shore and Riot squads were both down to just 1 model each I think, 

My commander, leading from the rear and beneath the shade of a giant shroom. He strategized our way into the debacle and walked away unscathed, typical.

One thing I seem to have issues with (vehicles aside) is getting my troopers out of my deployment zone and into that of the enemy. 

Another highlight roll (which I am sure my opponent was happy to not have photographed) was when one of his Storm Troopers squads fired and missed with 3 of their white dice. Not bad, but then he used FOUR consecutive rerolls (thanks to his officer and the Storm Trooper Battalion abilities), and on those three dice (12 rolls total) he still hit with nothing!

Truly impressive and for all the wrong reasons...

I've read and been told many a time to NEVER RUN SCOUT BIKES RIGHT UP THE MIDDLE OF THE BOARD! So, I did just that. Twit. To their credit they killed an enemy biker and sponged 8 light cover saves (those are like 40K T-shirt saves) before expiring.

Here the not Agent Callus wipes out the last of my mostly painted squad of Shore troopers. 

This was fun, all the more so as there were no Force users in either list, so it wasn't a case of Vader killing everything but rather squads killing squads for the most part. Afterwards, I pulled most of the of the superfluously unused/forgotten about upgrades out of my list, making enough room to squeeze in my newly assembled Scout Troopers for my next game.

Shore Troopers

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None of their helmet grills came out good, no matter how much I touched them up. In the end I opted for the looks good from 3 feet away standard. 

*Officially* they're called Coastal Defender Storm Troopers. However, more often than not everyone just refers to these guys as Shore Troopers. As far as I know are required for Empire armies located in the South Carolina Low Country (SC's coastal region), or at least they should be. As such stay tuned folks, I forsee a Shore Trooper photo op on the beach at some future point. 

I wasn't intentionally aiming for an Imperial remnant force which curiously requires the inclusion of Shore Troopers, even though they made no appearance in the Mandalorian series where the Imperial Remnant was a featured adversary. I'm guessing that the game designers needed a second core option and the Shore Troopers fit the bill better than Snow Troopers. 

If you hadn't guessed already, these are 3D prints and have enough detail to be reminiscent of painting 40K minis, god it was awful! I've been spoiled by painting easy-peasy Battemechs. 

Personally, Scout Troopers sans strike teams would have been more thematic, and not really OP as they seem to die quickly in my limited experience (which bodes well for the squad I am going to assemble this week). But I'm not a game designer so who the hell knows.

Squad sergeant on the left and the T-21B gunner on the right. Just like when pulling casualties in 40K, these two will likely be the squad's last standing members.

To generic dudes, in unassuming poses and likely the first to be pulled as casualties.

I have a second squad of 5 to assemble or, to use as the second half of a super squad if I so choose. There was no option for the mortar trooper when I ordered these, which is odd as have two dudes carrying what looks like mortar ammo to me. The point is more or less moot as the mortar is operated by a standalone trooper i who functions as a separate unit anyway. 

The' squad logistics trooper' on the left and a more aggressively posed grunt on the right. 

As there are no mortars to accompany my Shore Trooper squads, I am guessing that this guy and his counterpart in my second squad are carrying everyone's lunchboxes...err, uh provision cylinders.

For now, my Imperial army slots nicely into an Imperial Remnant Recon list, or at least it does until the AT-PT that you see below is added to its base and painted up (am not sure which order those two things will come in). The Remnant cannot have an AT-ST, so instead my Imperials will be a generic force, stationed somewhere out on the ass-end of the outer rim. 

Now where were we? Ah yes, that's right...we were renegotiating the terms of your contract...

Edit: These Shore Troopers look fairly good to me in person, but they look atrocious in these photos!

Imperial Remnant Warlord

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 I'll bet you thought that second breakfast only existed in the Lord of the Rings Universe...

I've been leaning towards building my Empire army for Star Wars Legion as an Imperial Remnant force. I rather like the idea of the pocket empires sprouting up in the wake of the battle of Endor. I was hoping to find a mini of or similar to Commandant Beehaz from the Andor series. In the end I settled on this mini who is apparently Warlord Zsinj from the expanded universe. I only learned of this when posting these pics on our local discord. 

He wears the rank plaque of a Grand Moff, a title he undoubtedly didn't earn. Though to question this would likely earn you a one-way trip to the spice mines of Kessel! 

Regardless he'll make a fine commander for my little army. In addition to my storm troopers and speeder bikes, I've also recently acquired two squads (or one super squad) of shore troopers who were purchased at the same time as this guy). Hopefully I will have some of them done here soon as the first squad is already in progress...or, well based coated at the least.

He wears a blaster pistol just in case anyone questions his ability to pass a PE test. 

Curiously, in addition to a token squad of storm troopers, at least one squad of shore troopers is required in a Remnant army list even though they make no appearances in the Andor TV series. All I can figure is that they wanted more than one option for a core unit choice, and shore troopers seemed to fit that bill better than did snow troopers. Or something like that. Personally, I think they ought to have made scout troopers into a core unit, but whatever. 

Moroff

I had a mini of this guy previously, but sold him off with my Rebel army as he was little more than a glorified Z-6 gunner. Wait 6ish months and the build-your-own Officer/Agent combo kits are first revealed, and then finally released and suddenly Moroff has a viable build! So I ordered another one and he is now ready to go.

Chewie and his laser crossbow can suck it!

Not that he is able to use them, but his pack has 2 spare blasters for just in case!

The big guy is equipped with everything but a kitchen sink!

No, that is not a terrible print line that you are seeing around his head, that's the line in his fur left by the headband holding on his voice translation mask. 

This week's round up.

o/

Fuck the opening crawl, we're attacking! 

I got another game of Star Wars Legion in, with my Separatist Alliance making its battlefield debut. It was my opponent's 3rd game, none of which involved droids. As such he was not able to correct me if I did anything wrong. Being my first time using said army, I am sure that I made plenty of mistakes.

My opponent was also strecthing for points and apologized for having both Vader & an AT-ST in a recon mission list. Next time I'll see if he wants to borrow my small Imperial contingent. 

I was stretching for points, so I had unit upgrades everywhere and forgot about most of them. Darth Vader killed most of my army single handedly forcing me to concede that while I don't like force users, I probably need to field one, even if only to tie up the opposing force user.

At one point, my Super Tactical Droid charged Vader, hoping to tie him up for a bit. That was an unwise decision...

I prefer more of the Rogue One/Andor type of army of average Joes (or in this case, droids) fighting the battles. However, it is Star Wars and so like the game of War Machine, the same half dozen characters don their plot armor before leading every...single...battle. 

The Dwarf Spider's 'wicked kick' attack was brushed off by a bemused Darth Vader. 

Anyways, despite heavy losses, I held a slim edge in VPs throughout the game. That is, until about midway thru the final turn when my my army finally crumbled leaving me with nothing more than my T-series command droid and one of the Dwarf Spider droids, remaining. At that point I ran up the white flag. Overall it was an enjoyable game though. 

Next up: The State of my 40k. 

In short, it is rapidly declining. I donated the vast majority (say, 95%-ish) of my spare bitz and terrain to the FLGS for use as a community resource. I have a very limited amount of space to store gaming stuff at my new house in SC. Those two tubs of plastic were taking up a lot of room in my miniatures storage closet while not being used. Nor did they possess any prospect of being needed at any time in the foreseeable future. 

Just another unfullfilled prophecy...

As for my 40K armies, the PHIGs (minus the squad siphoned off for Trench Crusade) are boxed up and will be shipping out today to a very excited buyer in California. The PHIGs will join his WWI styled Iggy army. It is exceptionally rare to get such enthusiasm from an eBay buyer. They may have have sold for less than I wanted them to, but knowing that they are going to someone who cannot wait to get them makes up for that in my opinion.

What little remains of the unpainted portions of my Smurfs, Orks & Tau are likely to be next in line for eBay. I have decided to hang on to the painted portions of my 40k armies for the time being. 

Now where did I put those Ork & Imperium styled Christmas trees that I got from Kromlech last year? 

Lastly,  this weekend I finished up these Christmas bots that I bought from Bombshell miniatures last year. These will be distributed too friends and family who neither read, nor are even aware of this blog's existance. As such, I can post them here without spoiling the surprise for anyone. 

Heading underground again...

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These are the coolest gaming pieces that I have never used.

After painting the last couple of cavern tiles that Nick printed for me, I thought I'd take the whole collection out of the box and see just how big of  a tunnel system I could create. As you can see it is fairly substantial. I forgot how much of a puzzle these are to assemble without leaving any gaping holes without a finished edge. 

Same as the above, just a different angle. 

I have 4 total entrances, and did my best to spread them out towards the four corners. 

All of the painted tiles by themselves. 

They never go together the same way twice, but as of today they cover somewhere between half to two thirds of my gaming table. I still have 25 or so pieces left to paint. However being a quick case of drybrushing followed by a few random tufts representing alien plants/molds/mosses  (presumably there are openings in the roof to let in sunlight pollen and seeds. 

My 20mm Starship Troopers patrolling the depths, in search of the little gribblies. 

Not that I have any little Gribblies. I suppose I need to get some Tyranid Rippers and put on individual 20mm bases. While a nuisance in 40k, they would be terrifying to some 20mm scaled infantry!

I still do not know what game system to use with these, but Nick said that they are nothing to print and was quite impressed with the above photos. So hopefully, one day I will be able to achieve my goal of having enough cave hexes to fill my entire table. 

Dual caverns, one painted & one not. 

These are not the droids that they were looking for.

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Beep Boop.

Just a quick post to show that I am still alive. I've been on a bit of a battletech kick here again of late, though am looking to get in a game of Star Wars Legion this week. So hopefully I'll have a bettle report, or at least a highlight reel of that game some time soon. 

In all honesty, decorating the base takes longer than painting the droid istelf.

With this second assembled and painted Dwarf Spider Droid, I can now field a 600 point recon list for the separatist alliance. By themselves these two aren't much, but in support of the usual zerg swarm of Roger Roger bots, hopefully they will do alright. We will see I guess...

They're not quite twins, but close...