Been kind of all over the place this weekend with regards to hobby activities. Saturday morning was spent drafting a supplement for FUBAR to expand upon some ideas. I added different movement modes for vehicles, added rules for handling really large vehicles (think upon the lines of OGREs, 40k super heavy tanks, etc) to use with my Khurasan Siler and Dictator, effects for different types of weapons, and unit abilities. I've posted it at the Forge of War forum, but have yet to receive some feedback on it.
Today I tried this supplement out with the boys and the biggest thing I've determined from it is that I need to get more of my 15mm models finished. The selection I have ready for gaming leaves one side rather over powered compared to the others. So in light of this I spent a good part of this evening painting my ADB Federation Battlecruiser, priming the Federation Dreadnought (I think I died a little priming the glow-in-the-dark plastic, glow-in-the-dark stuff is cool), base coated my Black Lightning Dictator, and prepping a Rach Kraken. All of which have absolutely nothing to do with 15mm.
That's OK though, I've got plenty of unpainted and half-painted figures to ensure that I'll have plenty of time to get through the 15mm stuff eventually. I've been wanting to get all of those models done for some time now. The Feds will get used in the Klingon Armada games with the boys and since I'm actually playing CAV2 again those models will get used, so I don't feel guilty at all. Well except for the amount of time it's taken me to start painting that Black Lightning Dictator. A friend of mine sent them to me a few years ago with the intention that I use them. It's taken a while, but I've started. The Kraken (and eventually its stablemate) were started in a desire to use them. They're stupid fast infantry transports that match well with my Rach infantry tactics outlined a few posts ago. Unfortunately the model has some major gaps in it which required the liberal application of green stuff. It's been a while since I've mentioned this, but I can't stand working with green stuff. We just don't get along.
Painting the Dictator and starships also marks the inaugural use of new airbrush. I can tell it's been a long time since I've used one, I kept mixing the paint too thin. The fact that the humidity spiked while I was airbrushing didn't help matters. I'm going to have to go over all of them again later this week for an even base coat. I'm hoping that by next weekend I'll be able to get at least the Dictator done, if not the two ships. Ideally I'd like to get the second Kraken prepped for priming. I don't think either one will be ready by next weekend if I'm working on the other models. The gap filling took an inordinate amount of time. That and I think they're going to have to be painted in parts then assembled in order to save my sanity due to some hard to reach recesses in the assembled model. That and I'm not entirely sure how I want to paint them yet.
20120604
20120531
Achievement Unlocked!
I spend an inordinate amount of time looking at the stats page for this blog. Don't know why, probably the analyst in me showing. Anyway, in May 2010 this blog got a shade over 2,300 hit. I found this odd seeing as how I wasn't very active at the time what with getting ready to deploy to southern Iraq and all. Did a little research and I think it was bots artificially driving up the hit count. I'm proud to say that two years later, May 2010 the blog has received over 2,400 hits from what I can only assume have been naturally generated by my content (and a bit of shameless plugging on a select few message boards). If I had anything to give away I'd consider doing a give away for what I consider a milestone for my corner of the World Wide Web (does anyone still call it that?). However, all I have is the Shelf of Shame and even unpainted they are My Precious.
20120529
Memorial Day CAV Marathon
This weekend was pretty productive hobby wise. I finished up some painting that had been sitting around for a while (see previous post) then managed to play three games of CAV2 on top of that.
Saturday was a 3000 point game with the kids. I was shamelessly using this as an opportunity to test out a couple of list for a game with Paul. I wanted to show that infantry in CAV are not like infantry in Battletech so using CAV Command Console I whipped up a force using one of my favorite tactic, the Rach all infantry force using the No Mercy faction doctrine. I like to call it my Rach Raiders list. In CAV2, using the 2008 errata, each model in base contact with an enemy model gets to attack with a +1 bonus for each supporting model in contact with the target. Each successful attack does one point of damage to the target. The Rach faction doctrine No Mercy gives Rach infantry the ability to do another point of damage on a successful hit. Then add on top of that Satchel Charges, purchased from the overall point total for the force, which when their use is declared before a close combat attack is resolved by infantry cause an additional point of damage on a successful CC attack. So for a successful attack, provided I have satchel charges left, a Rach infantry team can deal three points of damage. In CAV, infantry are the close combat kings. Light infantry get a +5 on a d10 roll vs the targets armor, and armored infantry get a +6. Couple this with the infantry swarming the target for support bonuses and you have a fairly good chance of taking down most CAVs. Most CAVs only get a +1 though some will have an ability that granted a higher bonus vs. infantry.
There's two problems with this though, the first is that infantry are horribly slow on their own. The second is that against models with a higher defensive value (DV) you still have to roll fairly high on an individual attack. The way I get around the first is by using fast transports (Krakens are excellent for this if you have them...I really need to assemble mine), the orbital insertion unit upgrade, and the jet pack training upgrade. With units on transports I recommend that you upgrade your infantry with the Shock Infantry and Jet Pack Training options. Shock makes mounting/dismounting a free action (though you can still only do one or the other each turn) and the jet pack training allows you to use the action you freed up by taking Shock Infantry to close any remaining distance the transport couldn't cover or just allow you to be lazy and not have to measure just close enough with the transport to allow the infantry to dismount into base to base contact. Orbital Insertion allows you to drop your infantry on the turn of your choosing Starship Troopers style onto the tabletop no closer than 12 inches from any opponent model. That 12 inch restriction means that you almost have to give them the jet pack upgrade as well, otherwise after their first turn on the table the battle will move away from them and you just spent a lot of points on infantry that aren't doing you any good. The jet pack upgrade still leaves them fairly slow, but if you have another section that can fix the target the drop infantry can get back into the mix...eventually.
The second problem is dealt with by swarming the big nasty CAV (tip, don't assault tanks or recon units...it doesn't end well), upgrading one drop section with AT-23 missile launchers (think Javelin or TOW) and another with the FiST upgrade and a selection of strikes. For strikes I like the Orbital Pinpoint Strike and Orbital Strike because they don't drift. But for the big boys with DVs in the 13s and 14s you'll either cruise missiles or Artillery Bombardment. The pinpoint strike is great for taking out that pesky recon CAV that keeps the continual ECM bubble around the attack CAV huddle. The key with the strikes is to "crack the shell" as I like to call getting that important first hit on a model in CAV. Vehicle models in CAV can repair in game, but can never repair to an undamaged state. That first hit is usually accompanied by a drop in DV and sometimes other stats. So for the infantry assault to be more effective, you want to crack the shell a little bit. And if the strike is lucky enough to score a critical hit, even better.
To tie all this together, at 3000 points I put this together as three armored shock infantry with jet packs and satchel charges in three Badger transports. They aren't the fastest, but I don't have my Krakens assembled and painted yet (can we say Shiny Object Syndrome). A second section of drop infantry with FiST and a mix of orbital strikes and orbital pinpoint strikes. And finally a third section of drop infantry upgraded with jet packs and AT-23s. The general plan is on the first turn move the transports up, but don't commit to a target unless your card comes up later in the turn. On the second turn drop the FiSTers and unleash the strikes to get those precious first hits, then commit the transported infantry to an assault. In the third turn, place the drop heavy weapon section to pick off models that weren't engaged by the shock troops, preferably ones damaged by the strikes, rain down more fire from on high, and if the shock troops target is dead move them on to the next one using the transports if necessary. Try to focus on one or two models at a time, otherwise your firepower becomes diluted and you have a bunch of enemy models still on the table that will most likely spend one action repairing then dealing with your infantry. That and there's a certain morale effect on both sides when your infantry can score a quick kill or two on an opposing CAV, especially if it's a super-heavy attack CAV.
The other force I set up because I was somewhat expecting Paul to bring some Terrans and their love for air support. So I set up a patrol force consisting of two armor sections (Wight, Wraith, Ghost, Specter II for the first and two Hunter tanks and two Lance tanks for the other) and a specialist section with two Nomads and a few Artillery Bombardment strikes. In the game with the kids I found that this force is murder on soft targets, especially if the only soft targets are infantry. Here's the pics from the game with the kids:
Initial deployment, the Badgers are off screen to the left behind the power generator
End of turn two, the assault infantry have dealt some damage to the Wight, but weren't able to take it down outright. Notice the red infantry scattered around the table, those are the FiST teams which dealt a fair amount of damage around the Malvie force...except the tanks. The shock infantry withdrew to the woods because they knew the tanks were about to light them up. They had enough movement to re-engage the Wight next turn if need be. The white strips marks the area of effect for artillery delivered smoke for concealment.
Turn 3, enter the drop weapons teams across the other side of the table. They did a good job wiping out several CAVs.
Here's where things turned ugly, most of the CAVs were gone, but I couldn't score a hit against the tanks and they mauled the infantry with their two machine guns each.
CAVs are gone, but three of the tanks remain...
This is where I called it. I didn't have enough of the weapons teams to make a dent in the tank and its machine guns would have shredded my infantry.
So then on Monday Paul came over with tales of ReaperCon. We set up an urban-ish table and against what I had expected he pulled out a Templar force. He organized them as three armor sections using the Bonds of Knighthood doctrine:
Section 1
Centurion
Warlord
Knight
Section 2
Warhawk
2x Gladiator II
Section 3
2x Spartan
Lance
I tweaked my all infantry force and organized them as:
Mech Infantry
3x Badger
6x Rifle Team w/ shock, jet pack training, and six satchel charges
Drop Infantry FiST
3x Armored Rifle Team w/ orbital insertion, FiST, jet pack trainig, and three satchel charges
Drop Infantry Heavy Weapons
6x Rifle Team w/ oribital insertion, AT-23 for each, jet pack training
Here's the pics:
Deployment
Turn 2 Saw the Knight and a Spartan go down and a fair amount of damage to the Centurion. I also lost a Badger before the troops could dismount.
The Warhawk started a dash to support the other side of the table, FiST team put a few points of damage round
Turn 3: Centurion buys it and I do a real mean thing and move my infantry into base contact with the Warlord so that if he tries to move the infantry in contact get a free attack.
Also turn 3: one of my Armored Drop FiSTer teams buy the farm, but not before it and the newly arrived weapons teams take out the other Spartan, a Gladiator II, and put a point of damage on the Lance. (The Lance is really what I was worried about, I remembered how bad they tore up my infantry in the game with the kids.)
Turn 4, Paul cedes the game, I had taken out the Lance and remaining Gladiator II leaving him without much to target infantry with and my troops were fairly well off damage wise.
Since that game went fairly quickly we played on the same table but with fielding the Malvie force for the Rach. It was much longer drawn out game that hung in the balance for quite some time, but in the end fairly consistent above average dice luck on my part and bad dice luck on his lead to another win for me. This game was a much closer affair and I think was better for it. I broke down to the armor units playing hide and seek amongst the buildings. Paul had some good repair rolls, but just couldn't land enough hits to take out my CAVs. We didn't take pictures of this game because we just wanted to focus on playing.
That's it for this past weekend's activity, didn't intend to do the Wall of Text at the beginning but hopefully some of the new players finding CAV for the first time will find it useful.
Saturday was a 3000 point game with the kids. I was shamelessly using this as an opportunity to test out a couple of list for a game with Paul. I wanted to show that infantry in CAV are not like infantry in Battletech so using CAV Command Console I whipped up a force using one of my favorite tactic, the Rach all infantry force using the No Mercy faction doctrine. I like to call it my Rach Raiders list. In CAV2, using the 2008 errata, each model in base contact with an enemy model gets to attack with a +1 bonus for each supporting model in contact with the target. Each successful attack does one point of damage to the target. The Rach faction doctrine No Mercy gives Rach infantry the ability to do another point of damage on a successful hit. Then add on top of that Satchel Charges, purchased from the overall point total for the force, which when their use is declared before a close combat attack is resolved by infantry cause an additional point of damage on a successful CC attack. So for a successful attack, provided I have satchel charges left, a Rach infantry team can deal three points of damage. In CAV, infantry are the close combat kings. Light infantry get a +5 on a d10 roll vs the targets armor, and armored infantry get a +6. Couple this with the infantry swarming the target for support bonuses and you have a fairly good chance of taking down most CAVs. Most CAVs only get a +1 though some will have an ability that granted a higher bonus vs. infantry.
There's two problems with this though, the first is that infantry are horribly slow on their own. The second is that against models with a higher defensive value (DV) you still have to roll fairly high on an individual attack. The way I get around the first is by using fast transports (Krakens are excellent for this if you have them...I really need to assemble mine), the orbital insertion unit upgrade, and the jet pack training upgrade. With units on transports I recommend that you upgrade your infantry with the Shock Infantry and Jet Pack Training options. Shock makes mounting/dismounting a free action (though you can still only do one or the other each turn) and the jet pack training allows you to use the action you freed up by taking Shock Infantry to close any remaining distance the transport couldn't cover or just allow you to be lazy and not have to measure just close enough with the transport to allow the infantry to dismount into base to base contact. Orbital Insertion allows you to drop your infantry on the turn of your choosing Starship Troopers style onto the tabletop no closer than 12 inches from any opponent model. That 12 inch restriction means that you almost have to give them the jet pack upgrade as well, otherwise after their first turn on the table the battle will move away from them and you just spent a lot of points on infantry that aren't doing you any good. The jet pack upgrade still leaves them fairly slow, but if you have another section that can fix the target the drop infantry can get back into the mix...eventually.
The second problem is dealt with by swarming the big nasty CAV (tip, don't assault tanks or recon units...it doesn't end well), upgrading one drop section with AT-23 missile launchers (think Javelin or TOW) and another with the FiST upgrade and a selection of strikes. For strikes I like the Orbital Pinpoint Strike and Orbital Strike because they don't drift. But for the big boys with DVs in the 13s and 14s you'll either cruise missiles or Artillery Bombardment. The pinpoint strike is great for taking out that pesky recon CAV that keeps the continual ECM bubble around the attack CAV huddle. The key with the strikes is to "crack the shell" as I like to call getting that important first hit on a model in CAV. Vehicle models in CAV can repair in game, but can never repair to an undamaged state. That first hit is usually accompanied by a drop in DV and sometimes other stats. So for the infantry assault to be more effective, you want to crack the shell a little bit. And if the strike is lucky enough to score a critical hit, even better.
To tie all this together, at 3000 points I put this together as three armored shock infantry with jet packs and satchel charges in three Badger transports. They aren't the fastest, but I don't have my Krakens assembled and painted yet (can we say Shiny Object Syndrome). A second section of drop infantry with FiST and a mix of orbital strikes and orbital pinpoint strikes. And finally a third section of drop infantry upgraded with jet packs and AT-23s. The general plan is on the first turn move the transports up, but don't commit to a target unless your card comes up later in the turn. On the second turn drop the FiSTers and unleash the strikes to get those precious first hits, then commit the transported infantry to an assault. In the third turn, place the drop heavy weapon section to pick off models that weren't engaged by the shock troops, preferably ones damaged by the strikes, rain down more fire from on high, and if the shock troops target is dead move them on to the next one using the transports if necessary. Try to focus on one or two models at a time, otherwise your firepower becomes diluted and you have a bunch of enemy models still on the table that will most likely spend one action repairing then dealing with your infantry. That and there's a certain morale effect on both sides when your infantry can score a quick kill or two on an opposing CAV, especially if it's a super-heavy attack CAV.
The other force I set up because I was somewhat expecting Paul to bring some Terrans and their love for air support. So I set up a patrol force consisting of two armor sections (Wight, Wraith, Ghost, Specter II for the first and two Hunter tanks and two Lance tanks for the other) and a specialist section with two Nomads and a few Artillery Bombardment strikes. In the game with the kids I found that this force is murder on soft targets, especially if the only soft targets are infantry. Here's the pics from the game with the kids:
Initial deployment, the Badgers are off screen to the left behind the power generator
End of turn two, the assault infantry have dealt some damage to the Wight, but weren't able to take it down outright. Notice the red infantry scattered around the table, those are the FiST teams which dealt a fair amount of damage around the Malvie force...except the tanks. The shock infantry withdrew to the woods because they knew the tanks were about to light them up. They had enough movement to re-engage the Wight next turn if need be. The white strips marks the area of effect for artillery delivered smoke for concealment.
Turn 3, enter the drop weapons teams across the other side of the table. They did a good job wiping out several CAVs.
Here's where things turned ugly, most of the CAVs were gone, but I couldn't score a hit against the tanks and they mauled the infantry with their two machine guns each.
CAVs are gone, but three of the tanks remain...
This is where I called it. I didn't have enough of the weapons teams to make a dent in the tank and its machine guns would have shredded my infantry.
So then on Monday Paul came over with tales of ReaperCon. We set up an urban-ish table and against what I had expected he pulled out a Templar force. He organized them as three armor sections using the Bonds of Knighthood doctrine:
Section 1
Centurion
Warlord
Knight
Section 2
Warhawk
2x Gladiator II
Section 3
2x Spartan
Lance
I tweaked my all infantry force and organized them as:
Mech Infantry
3x Badger
6x Rifle Team w/ shock, jet pack training, and six satchel charges
Drop Infantry FiST
3x Armored Rifle Team w/ orbital insertion, FiST, jet pack trainig, and three satchel charges
Drop Infantry Heavy Weapons
6x Rifle Team w/ oribital insertion, AT-23 for each, jet pack training
Here's the pics:
Deployment
Turn 2 Saw the Knight and a Spartan go down and a fair amount of damage to the Centurion. I also lost a Badger before the troops could dismount.
The Warhawk started a dash to support the other side of the table, FiST team put a few points of damage round
Turn 3: Centurion buys it and I do a real mean thing and move my infantry into base contact with the Warlord so that if he tries to move the infantry in contact get a free attack.
Also turn 3: one of my Armored Drop FiSTer teams buy the farm, but not before it and the newly arrived weapons teams take out the other Spartan, a Gladiator II, and put a point of damage on the Lance. (The Lance is really what I was worried about, I remembered how bad they tore up my infantry in the game with the kids.)
Turn 4, Paul cedes the game, I had taken out the Lance and remaining Gladiator II leaving him without much to target infantry with and my troops were fairly well off damage wise.
Since that game went fairly quickly we played on the same table but with fielding the Malvie force for the Rach. It was much longer drawn out game that hung in the balance for quite some time, but in the end fairly consistent above average dice luck on my part and bad dice luck on his lead to another win for me. This game was a much closer affair and I think was better for it. I broke down to the armor units playing hide and seek amongst the buildings. Paul had some good repair rolls, but just couldn't land enough hits to take out my CAVs. We didn't take pictures of this game because we just wanted to focus on playing.
That's it for this past weekend's activity, didn't intend to do the Wall of Text at the beginning but hopefully some of the new players finding CAV for the first time will find it useful.
20120527
Finished UNSC Fireteams and a Starship
Finally got around to finishing the basic fire teams for my UNSC force, which will comprise the expeditionary forces of the Terran Confederacy in the setting I'm working on. This is the best of about 20 pictures I took with the new camera. The lesson learned here is that if you buy a $40 camera, you can expect $40 optics and $40 results. Remaining for this force are three spider gun drones and a weapons squad with four LMG teams. The platoon will be organized with a command team, three squads with a fire team and a gun drone, and the weapons squad. As I work down the Shelf of Shame I'll eventually round this out with some IFVs and a heavy weapon sections (anti-material rifles and rocket launchers). Also of note, this was my first application of the "Minwax Dip" en masse. Still working on the proper consistency.
Also finished a starship yesterday, it was mostly finished, just needed me to get off my butt and get it done. Unfortunately, the camera couldn't deal with the straight white and bright silver on the figure. This is the Nagato carrier (I think) from the Squadron Strike Japanese set available from Ad Astra Games. I'll be using them with Starmada though.
Also finished a starship yesterday, it was mostly finished, just needed me to get off my butt and get it done. Unfortunately, the camera couldn't deal with the straight white and bright silver on the figure. This is the Nagato carrier (I think) from the Squadron Strike Japanese set available from Ad Astra Games. I'll be using them with Starmada though.
20120520
Solar Observation Device
You thought it was going to be a satellite or some large piece of equipment in miniature form didn't you? These are home made camera obscuras (cameras obscura? camera obscurae?) for the kids and myself to watch the solar eclipse tonight without burning out our retinas. The idea surfaced from a childhood memory when I made one from instructions from an astronomy magazine for kids. I was probably somewhere around 10 years old or so. (They say something is the first to go as you age, but I'll be darned if I can remember what it was.) With age though has come some improvements on the original. First, the interior was spray painted flat black. Blank paper is more readily available than when I was a kid. (I used regular notebook paper in the original) Light "leaks" have been more aggressively addressed than the original. And finally the viewing hole was made smaller to reduce the amount of light infiltrating. These work pretty well. I get about a 1/4" disk when viewing the sun unobstructed, and standing under a tree I can see a faint image of the branches over the projection surface (white card stock).
I used a shoe box, a bunch of duct tape and electrical tape, black spray paint, white cardstock (regular paper works as well), and aluminum foil. Use the tape to cover spots where light will enter the box. Paint the interior black. Cut the cardstock or paper to fit on the inside of one end of the box and tape into place. cut a small opening on the opposite end and tape the foil over the opening, making sure the side are completely covered and most importantly that the foil is taught. Using a small sewing needle, poke a tiny pinprick of a hole in the foil. Put the lid back on and tape around it to block the light. Cut a small hole in the side so you can see the paper. Go outside and looking into the viewing hole point the foil-end at the Sun and with small movements move the box so you see a bright disk on your paper...that's the reversed and inverted image of the Sun. During the eclipse we'll be able to see the Moon cross the disk.
I still think I'm going to have to tell them not to look at the Sun.
How Stuff Works
20120514
FUBAR Battle Report
So, as promised here is the battle report. As mentioned in my previous post I played this game to see if the boys would like it. So Alexander and I played the UNSC with two fire teams consisting of a team leader, SAW gunner, and three riflemen and a heavy grav tank with a rail gun and HMG. Zachary and Phillip used the Mekanoids with two four 'bot teams of grenadiers and a walker (medium vehicle). I laid out a simple board with some hills and trees in the middle to prevent cross-table line of sight. Both sides set up with the vehicle in the center and a team on either side. (click for larger photos)
In the first turn Zachary and Phillip only managed to activated their walker and moved it up to a covered position behind the hill. All the UNSC elements activated and moved forward, the infantry to covered positions and the tank forward behind the hill.
This time it was the USNC's turn to twiddle it's the thumb, except for the grav tank. It moved up and fired on the walker, immobilizing it. The walker on it's turn returned fire and got a crew shaken result. One team of grenadiers moved forward to the forest.
Zachary failed to activate again in the third turn, Phil moved forward and took some pot shots at Alexander's infantry team and suppressed one figure. The walker activated and immobilized tank, meaning that for the rest of the game they'd be blasting into each others' front armor, meaning it would be difficult for one or the other to completely destroy the other. The UNSC managed to suppress a couple 'bots but that was about it.
The vehicles continued to wail on each other with no discernible effect. The UNSC envelop the forward team of Mekanoids and destroy two in shooting and the other two when the Mekanoids charged into close combat. Zachary again rolls a 2 to activate (needed a 3).
The grav tank landed a telling blow on the walker, disabling both it's weapons. Unfortunately it couldn't maneuver to get a shot on the remaining Mekanoid infantry. Zachary didn't have line of sight so moved forward using what I like to call the "Dodge, Duck, Dive and Dodge" order, allowing him to move 8" and count the models as if in soft cover. The UNSC moved forward and formed a skirmish line on the edge of the woods and fired on the 'bots, adding a couple suppression counters.
The final turn saw the UNSC activated first and using the Aimed Fire order destroyed the remaining 'bots. All told the game took about 2 hours to play, with me explaining the rules along the way. By turn three they all had it mostly down pat. They enjoyed the game, though I think Zachary would have had more fun if his participation included more than "sit in place until the last two turns and get obliterated." We used a combination of the core rules, the sci-fi supplement, and the Khurasan 15mm supplement along with a few tweaks to unit properties of my own. These are all available here.
There are a couple other games on there I'd like to try out, Forge of War and In the Emperor's Name. Forge of War is a 40k alternative but leaves itself open to stating up other figures for other settings while ItEN is firmly set as an alternative to Inquisitor. I've been having bad ideas about modifying ItEN to work in the Firefly 'verse, or playing as Sam and Dean from the show Supernatural, or maybe even some cyberpunk shadowrunning. I'll probably try out Forge of War with my 40k figs, but mostly likely use the 40k stats for FUBAR on a regular basis.
And again, an apology about the pictures. I'll get it right sooner or later.
In the first turn Zachary and Phillip only managed to activated their walker and moved it up to a covered position behind the hill. All the UNSC elements activated and moved forward, the infantry to covered positions and the tank forward behind the hill.
This time it was the USNC's turn to twiddle it's the thumb, except for the grav tank. It moved up and fired on the walker, immobilizing it. The walker on it's turn returned fire and got a crew shaken result. One team of grenadiers moved forward to the forest.
The vehicles continued to wail on each other with no discernible effect. The UNSC envelop the forward team of Mekanoids and destroy two in shooting and the other two when the Mekanoids charged into close combat. Zachary again rolls a 2 to activate (needed a 3).
The grav tank landed a telling blow on the walker, disabling both it's weapons. Unfortunately it couldn't maneuver to get a shot on the remaining Mekanoid infantry. Zachary didn't have line of sight so moved forward using what I like to call the "Dodge, Duck, Dive and Dodge" order, allowing him to move 8" and count the models as if in soft cover. The UNSC moved forward and formed a skirmish line on the edge of the woods and fired on the 'bots, adding a couple suppression counters.
The final turn saw the UNSC activated first and using the Aimed Fire order destroyed the remaining 'bots. All told the game took about 2 hours to play, with me explaining the rules along the way. By turn three they all had it mostly down pat. They enjoyed the game, though I think Zachary would have had more fun if his participation included more than "sit in place until the last two turns and get obliterated." We used a combination of the core rules, the sci-fi supplement, and the Khurasan 15mm supplement along with a few tweaks to unit properties of my own. These are all available here.
There are a couple other games on there I'd like to try out, Forge of War and In the Emperor's Name. Forge of War is a 40k alternative but leaves itself open to stating up other figures for other settings while ItEN is firmly set as an alternative to Inquisitor. I've been having bad ideas about modifying ItEN to work in the Firefly 'verse, or playing as Sam and Dean from the show Supernatural, or maybe even some cyberpunk shadowrunning. I'll probably try out Forge of War with my 40k figs, but mostly likely use the 40k stats for FUBAR on a regular basis.
And again, an apology about the pictures. I'll get it right sooner or later.
20120513
Second FUBAR Game
Played a second game to teach the boys today. Once my netbook stops acting stupid or I can get on a real computer I'll post the report. I think the pictures are actually worse this time. Need to sit down and play with the settings some more with the new camera. I wish the old one hadn't gotten flaky, I really liked the optics on it. Anywho, the kids took the game quickly and I see it becoming a staple in our gaming line up.
On an unrelated note, I did partake in the OGRE Designer's Edition Kickstarter project, so sometime in November I'll be the proud owner of a freakin' huge box with about 20 pounds of game in it. I think the kids will like that one too, they don't have to wait on me to paint stuff.
On an unrelated note, I did partake in the OGRE Designer's Edition Kickstarter project, so sometime in November I'll be the proud owner of a freakin' huge box with about 20 pounds of game in it. I think the kids will like that one too, they don't have to wait on me to paint stuff.
20120512
Battle Station Assault!
Finally got around to playing the final battle of the Day One campaign today. Took a lot longer than I thought it would, but that was mostly due to outside distractions. At any rate, after replaying the third battle the two side were relatively closely matched, with the Federation having the advantage. The victory condition was destroy 900 points of enemy models. The forces were...
Federation
Battle Station
NCL
oCL
2x Frigates
Klingon
C8 Dreadnought
D7C Command Cruiser
2x D7 Battlecruiser
F5 Frigate
I controlled the Klingon cruisers, Phillip the C8 and F5 (until later when he ceded control of the F5 to me). Zachary flew the Federation.
Zachary set up the station in a corner with ships forming a defensive line three hexes in front of it. I set up the cruisers on the near side of the station while Phil set up further out. (sorry about the fuzzy pictures, getting used to a new camera)
First turn saw Zachary dress his gun line while Phil moved forward and I did as well, but more cautiously to see if Zachary would come running out or not. Zachary hit the C8 with a couple Phaser-4s, did a couple points of hull damage but not much else.
Phil must've gotten spooked by the big guns on the station as he turned the F5 around and launched drones at the NCL. I moved forward just far enough to plink at the NCL with disruptors.
One of the D7 got hurt enough for me to pull him off the line while the other cruisers moved up to get into the edge of the Phaser-1s range. The damaged D7 only took a few points of hull damage, but his shields got chewed up pretty bad. So I figured I could make some repair rolls and have it catch up with the dreadnought. Zachary kept his gun line in place (for most of the game) and tried to score some lucky hits with proximity fused photon torpedoes. The NCL accrued damage steadily.
I decided it was go time and move the undamaged cruisers up to take out the NCL after the drones did some more damage to and Phil focused on the station. The NCL went out in a fireball, but the C8 was starting to show some stress on her hull, but systems remained largely unaffected.
With the NCL gone I was able to focus fire on the station, which was all I needed to win. The C8's shield were still holding out so I was confident in a victory even though it was down to about 5 hull at this point. managed to take out a FF with the D7 in the back, it couldn't range the station yet. The other D7 that had been the D7C's wingman was taken out by the combined firepower of the Federation ships.
And here's the end game. All but one of those blue drone tokens hit the Battlestation for the SFU version of the Macross Mega Missile attack. It left the station with 8 hull left. The C8 took it down to 3, and the D7C finished it. Unfortunately the C8 also bought it with the stations dying onslaught of Phaser-4 fire. I tried to take out the oCL before the end of the turn, but couldn't get enough hull hits.
At this point I had scored about 1040 points and Zachary had scored 893. The Klingons with the game by victory condition. If Zachary had destroyed another ship I would still have won by points. For the campaign, having won two of the earlier games and this one the Klingons achieved a major victory. They may have lost their dreadnought, but with the station out of the way further fleets will be able to push into Federation territory freely. If Zachary had won the scenario I would still have gotten a minor victory for the Klingons. The most he could have gotten was a minor Federation victory by winning this game with a higher victory point total than me.
The game was enjoyable despite some issues involving trying to game with an active 8 year old. I'm debating picking up the new version of Starmada and going through and converting the SFU ships to that format, though supposedly that will be done for us. I like Starmada Admiralty edition well enough, but the new version is supposed to streamline some of the die rolling. It gets time consuming waiting for the kids to pick out the dice that were successful for the next iteration of rolls.
Next game will probably be me teaching them how to play FUBAR with either 15s or 28s.
Federation
Battle Station
NCL
oCL
2x Frigates
Klingon
C8 Dreadnought
D7C Command Cruiser
2x D7 Battlecruiser
F5 Frigate
I controlled the Klingon cruisers, Phillip the C8 and F5 (until later when he ceded control of the F5 to me). Zachary flew the Federation.
Zachary set up the station in a corner with ships forming a defensive line three hexes in front of it. I set up the cruisers on the near side of the station while Phil set up further out. (sorry about the fuzzy pictures, getting used to a new camera)
First turn saw Zachary dress his gun line while Phil moved forward and I did as well, but more cautiously to see if Zachary would come running out or not. Zachary hit the C8 with a couple Phaser-4s, did a couple points of hull damage but not much else.
Phil must've gotten spooked by the big guns on the station as he turned the F5 around and launched drones at the NCL. I moved forward just far enough to plink at the NCL with disruptors.
One of the D7 got hurt enough for me to pull him off the line while the other cruisers moved up to get into the edge of the Phaser-1s range. The damaged D7 only took a few points of hull damage, but his shields got chewed up pretty bad. So I figured I could make some repair rolls and have it catch up with the dreadnought. Zachary kept his gun line in place (for most of the game) and tried to score some lucky hits with proximity fused photon torpedoes. The NCL accrued damage steadily.
I decided it was go time and move the undamaged cruisers up to take out the NCL after the drones did some more damage to and Phil focused on the station. The NCL went out in a fireball, but the C8 was starting to show some stress on her hull, but systems remained largely unaffected.
With the NCL gone I was able to focus fire on the station, which was all I needed to win. The C8's shield were still holding out so I was confident in a victory even though it was down to about 5 hull at this point. managed to take out a FF with the D7 in the back, it couldn't range the station yet. The other D7 that had been the D7C's wingman was taken out by the combined firepower of the Federation ships.
At this point I had scored about 1040 points and Zachary had scored 893. The Klingons with the game by victory condition. If Zachary had destroyed another ship I would still have won by points. For the campaign, having won two of the earlier games and this one the Klingons achieved a major victory. They may have lost their dreadnought, but with the station out of the way further fleets will be able to push into Federation territory freely. If Zachary had won the scenario I would still have gotten a minor victory for the Klingons. The most he could have gotten was a minor Federation victory by winning this game with a higher victory point total than me.
The game was enjoyable despite some issues involving trying to game with an active 8 year old. I'm debating picking up the new version of Starmada and going through and converting the SFU ships to that format, though supposedly that will be done for us. I like Starmada Admiralty edition well enough, but the new version is supposed to streamline some of the die rolling. It gets time consuming waiting for the kids to pick out the dice that were successful for the next iteration of rolls.
Next game will probably be me teaching them how to play FUBAR with either 15s or 28s.
20120508
FUBAR Sci-Fi With My 15mm Toys
So, I bought Tomorrow's War a while back and I've played one trial game with it. While it has a lot of neat ideas, I don't see myself playing it with the kids. Maybe with some other adult gamers after a couple demos or practice game, maybe solo, but not with the kids. Not yet at least.
Fast forward to this past weekend. A friend of mine with a penchant for using frogs as his online persona asked me to review a VSF supplement he was doing for FUBAR. Now, on and off he had been recommending FUBAR to me for use with my sci-fi collection as I had been becoming upset about CAV and looking for a replacement. I read the base rules over it didn't grab me. For some reason though when I was looking at it this weekend from a troubleshooting point of view I started to see lots of potential here, especially for my 15mm stuff since TW seemed a bit dense. So I figured what the heck on Sunday night and threw some terrain down and got my Felids and bugs out. First time through I screwed up turn sequencing as I had misread the activation section. That took about 15 minutes with two units per side (the bugs got a chance to respawn, Felids had to survive six turns before being air lifted out). Second game took about 30 minutes with me following the rules. Still not entirely sure that I was handling suppression right, but seems I was after reading through the Forge of War forums. I would post a pic, but my camera crapped out again before I started.
My overall impression is that it's a very basic system that is quite easy to modify to fit your needs in a game. I think units might come out a bit "samey," but that's ok for the grunts I think. Need to try it with vehicles next time I think and see how they work, but I think I may need to make some alterations of my own before I'm totally happy with it, primarily in further differentiation of weapon types. Most importantly I enjoyed playing it. It should be easy to teach them the rules, which is another plus in my book. If you're looking for an all encompassing tome of rules +5 this isn't the ruleset you're looking for. Core rules print on one letter-sized page (though apparently there's a looming shift to a two-page format without even adjusting the cost of the rules). Different supplements exist for various settings/genres, though while there is a medieval set I didn't see anything specifically geared towards fantasy. Supplements are generally one or two pages following the same format as the core rules. If you're looking for something that is easy to modify and leaves a lot up to your creative juices regarding how you play with your toys then this is right up your alley. I also get the feeling that this is the game you want to play if you have 30 minutes or an hour and want to get a quick game in.
My recommendation is that if you haven't looked at FUBAR, go download it, grab those 40k figures you have sitting around and give it a shot. Worst case scenario you hate it and have only printed one or two pages, though I doubt this will be the case.
Fast forward to this past weekend. A friend of mine with a penchant for using frogs as his online persona asked me to review a VSF supplement he was doing for FUBAR. Now, on and off he had been recommending FUBAR to me for use with my sci-fi collection as I had been becoming upset about CAV and looking for a replacement. I read the base rules over it didn't grab me. For some reason though when I was looking at it this weekend from a troubleshooting point of view I started to see lots of potential here, especially for my 15mm stuff since TW seemed a bit dense. So I figured what the heck on Sunday night and threw some terrain down and got my Felids and bugs out. First time through I screwed up turn sequencing as I had misread the activation section. That took about 15 minutes with two units per side (the bugs got a chance to respawn, Felids had to survive six turns before being air lifted out). Second game took about 30 minutes with me following the rules. Still not entirely sure that I was handling suppression right, but seems I was after reading through the Forge of War forums. I would post a pic, but my camera crapped out again before I started.
My overall impression is that it's a very basic system that is quite easy to modify to fit your needs in a game. I think units might come out a bit "samey," but that's ok for the grunts I think. Need to try it with vehicles next time I think and see how they work, but I think I may need to make some alterations of my own before I'm totally happy with it, primarily in further differentiation of weapon types. Most importantly I enjoyed playing it. It should be easy to teach them the rules, which is another plus in my book. If you're looking for an all encompassing tome of rules +5 this isn't the ruleset you're looking for. Core rules print on one letter-sized page (though apparently there's a looming shift to a two-page format without even adjusting the cost of the rules). Different supplements exist for various settings/genres, though while there is a medieval set I didn't see anything specifically geared towards fantasy. Supplements are generally one or two pages following the same format as the core rules. If you're looking for something that is easy to modify and leaves a lot up to your creative juices regarding how you play with your toys then this is right up your alley. I also get the feeling that this is the game you want to play if you have 30 minutes or an hour and want to get a quick game in.
My recommendation is that if you haven't looked at FUBAR, go download it, grab those 40k figures you have sitting around and give it a shot. Worst case scenario you hate it and have only printed one or two pages, though I doubt this will be the case.
20120505
Shield Generator/Power Plant Finished
As the title implies the shield generator is finished. I didn't take pictures of it primed because, well I figured you all knew what a primed terrain piece looked like. As I normally do with terrain pieces I used craft acrylic paint for it, I use Apple Barrel due to it's almost guaranteed availability no matter where I seem to be because Wal Mart carries it. I know there are better craft paints, but these have always worked well for me, including my first few armies. For this I used silver with a touch of black mixed it to give it a worn steel look. The recesses on the top got ProPaint blues ending in Ghost white. They could've turned out better, but I got in a hurry. The ground got my usual AB Country Tan, then it got all flocked up. (hehehe, he said "flocked up") And now the pics:
Here's the generator with a selection of 6mm, 10ish mm, 15mm, and 28mm models. I think it works best with the 6mm, but doesn't look bad with the others either. Though with the 28mm it'll be a power generator more than anything else. At 6mm it could a full on facility of some sort.
Yes, Lord Vader. I've reached the main power generators. The shield will be down in moments. You may start your landing.
(Thanks to Zachary for letting me borrow his WotC AT-AT)
Here's the generator with a selection of 6mm, 10ish mm, 15mm, and 28mm models. I think it works best with the 6mm, but doesn't look bad with the others either. Though with the 28mm it'll be a power generator more than anything else. At 6mm it could a full on facility of some sort.
Yes, Lord Vader. I've reached the main power generators. The shield will be down in moments. You may start your landing.
(Thanks to Zachary for letting me borrow his WotC AT-AT)
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