Running the Empire into the ground.

Tuesday night I lead my Empire forces into yet another doomed battle. This time my Imperial army vs. Tom's Rebels which I have heard about but only faced now for this first time. Up to this point I have yet to beat Tom who is also new to the game, but also only plays Legion, and plays more regularly than I. That said, he is a blast to play with, and I thoroughly enjoy our games, regardless of my abysmal record. 

Here are a few highlights:

My army. Notably, the Scout on the tactical log was serving as an Imperial agent with his basic pistol only, and the Spaceballs would be Pykes as mentioned in my previous post. 

The only overall photo of the battlefield. My Storm Troopers, Scouts and Spaceballs have already suffered heavy casualties by this point. The speeder bikes were already dead because that is their job. Apparently.

*On the Record*, the Spaceballs are being blamed for the Empire's loss, as none were left alive to defend themselves. That's the points of mercenaries, isn't it? To purchase a fall guy?

One Scout was in combat with a squad of veterans, much to the annoyance of my Shoretrooper Mortar gunner. In the backfield, my Agent and his log had just charged and finished off the Veteran's support gunner (who was already wounded and suppressed into oblivion). Standing atop said log, he is looking for his next quarry.

As much as I loathe (and suck at) painting Shore Troopers, and despite their inability to actually move anywhere, these fuckers deserve to be painted. They used long shot to put three wounds on a very surprised Princess Leia (and Tom who thought she was safely out of range). Were it not for an excellent cover roll, she would likely have died. In the following turn, they gunned down two Taun-Taun riders who had yet to even be shot at!

Running amuck in the backfield, my Agent, despite having taken a few wounds himself, charges Leia reducing her to her last wound (were it not for her dodges he'd have killed her). Following this, she would withdraw from combat and...

...a heavily wounded and enraged Chewbacca ripped his arms out of their sockets. At this point the game was over. While my scouts as a whole were true to form and showed up and died, this guy should also be painted. 

*****

Following the game, I bought the Separatist starter box, chosen as it had the most appealing models of all four factions. The Rebel box has Wookies, the models for which I do not like, commandos who suck (but could just be used as regular Rebels), and Luke in the clothes he wore to get a medal, but never in combat. A curious choice. The empire box has an admittedly cool looking Vader mini, 2 squads of Stormtroopers, and 3 squads of Scouts who (again) always show up and just die. I suppose it is fluffy, but it's kinda boring,

I do not have any clones and honestly that army's only real appeal to me is the multiple generic Jedi options. It's really an army for all the folks who watched all of the animated Clone wars series (which I haven't). Most of their vehicles are kinda ugly too, also more Wookies. 

I didn't much care for the prequels, but I did like this army. Especially the hordes of comical and idiotic B1 Battle Droids. 

So, I opted for the endless horde of Roger Rogers which, as an old Iggy player appeals to me greatly. Including all support weapon options, I now have 58 B1 battle droids! I expect to have them all painted sometime around: never.  

TELL THEM TO COMB THE DESERT! DO YOU HEAR ME? COMB THE DESERT!

 

And...I did my best to show that on their bases.

I am using these as Pyke Syndicate mercs for Star Wars Legion. Obviously, they will only be fielded with my Empire army (the Rebels & droids wouldn't put up with these schmucks). I didn't have an officer model, so I painted one in officer's colors to use as a Capo. 

I got these on Etsy and cannot recommend the purchase. They were cheap and I got what I wanted out of it more or less (a proxy unit for the Pykes). However I bought 14 minis, all tossed in a baggy which was then wrapped in bubble wrap. By the time these crossed from Utah to South Carolina, 6 guys had broken guns and Dark Helmet's paper-thin helm was broken. 

My purchase also included what I presume was Micheal Winslow's radar operator character in a chair. I had no idea what I was going to do with that mini, but that concern was rendered moot once I realized that his arms lacked elbows. Excellent quality control. 

Like I said, they were cheap, and sometimes you get what you pay for. 

A glimpse of the olden days…

 o/

Ah, the good ol' days...

Despite the yellowed pages, it looks to be in good condition.

I spotted this half-buried relic at the FLGS and bought it for a mere $3 last night. I haven’t had the chance to look peruse its pages yet but am sure it will be a very nostalgic read. This one came out in 1989, so it predates my entry into the realm of 40K by 5 years!

The Grim-Dark equivalent of Fed-Ex?

 o/

The Mass Conveyer Mercogliano, somewhere in the Segmentum Solar.

I got this mini late last year from 0-hr.com as one of my random 'just for the hell of it' purchases. I liked the fact that it looked rather Battlefleet Gothic-esque. I also live in a port city and see container ships whenever I head towards downtown, so that made this all the more attractive. Indeed, I painted the containers in a random array of colors much like those we see on the container ships and at the ports. 

A bit too much purple paint blooped out of the container which is why the ship itself is trimmed in this color. Conveniently, it is also my favorite color. 

This originally came with 2 dorsal cranes, the centers of which are intact, though the booms were quite frail and I broke them with my sausage fingers. I did add some weapons because grim-dark. To the right and left of the bridge are point defense guns with an anti-starfighter missile launcher. The prow's dorsal point defense turret can rotate, though is doubtful its traverse speed could keep up with any actual fighters, bombers or boarding shuttles. 

Painting all of the containers in different colors was both fun and surprisingly easy.

All of those little decals however, not so much. Two containers on this side, towards the front actually have two decals apiece on them! You can see from the logos, that in addition to Imperial goods, there is a fair bit of Votann cargo onboard as well. 

Ventrally on the prow is its only capital class weapon, a lance. Comparable to the kind found on an Imperial Firestorm Frigate. Like the Firestorm, the limited range of traverse means you basically have to aim it with the ship. Unlike a Firestorm, this ship does not maneuver like a frigate. Hell, it probably makes battleships (which are comparable in size) look nimble. 

The flat bottom means that this may possibly be capable of landing on a planet, maybe...

The bottom is as colorful as the other sides. 

Thus, they are more like emotional support weapons than effective defenses. Take away the hab-block sized containers, and this ship is a seriously frail vessel; this would only ply the safest portions of the Imperium and yet would still need a heavy escort. This is a Brute Ramship's wet dream! One of those could easily punch straight through, scattering all 624 cargo containers out in all directions which, I would imagine, would amuse orks to no end.

Ironically, this now occupies a space in my display case right next to my two Ork Kroozers. 

Merry Meme's mas!

 o/

What better way is there to (potentially) finish out a year of waning blog posting and interest than with a good ol' meme post?

No this isn't one of my creations. I tried to build a gingerbread house once. It was a...disaster (just ask Neverness, he was there and fared no better as I recall).  

 

Victory goes to The Empire!

 o/

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

 o/

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!