Friday 25 December 2015

Merry Christmas!

My sister is visiting from the UK, and we haven't seen each other in about three years. It's been great to catch up, and I got her and her fiancé playing a few boardgames. As usual, Pandemic was a great success.

The 6th APC has begun, and here's what is facing me currently... I'm appreciating the coloured primers from Army Painter.
All the best to you and yours!

Friday 18 December 2015

Imperial Assault- Imperial reinforcements!

I got some more figures to bolster my Imperials. Hum the Imperial March and look on!

Stormtrooper Captain Kayn Somos was the featured villain in my recent Twin Shadows campaign. I spent a bit of extra time making sure his armour was crisp. I like this figure.
Kayn Somos
The Heavy Weapons Stormtroopers were pretty impressive during the campaign, and I'm sure they'll be recruited for future missions.
Heavy Weapon Stormtrooper
I also got some alternative pose Stormtroopers to add a bit of variety.
Old on the left, new on the right
Finally, I finished General Weiss and his up-gunned AT-ST. I added the open hatch, and would love to add some sort of pintle-mounted heavy blaster at some stage.
General Weiss

General Weiss- simple open hatch conversion

I won't say I was an immediate fan of the aesthetics of this walker, but it has certainly grown on me. It took me a little while to recall what it reminded me of:

Friday 11 December 2015

Boba Fett! Where?

So much awesome. After his blink-and-you-miss-him appearance in my recent campaign report, here's some more pics of everyone's favourite Bounty Hunter.
Boba Fett

Shoulder and helmet markings

Before washing, highlighting, and weathering...

... and after.

Backpack

Friday 4 December 2015

Steel Cup 2015

Steel Cup 2015! The Newcastle Legion organised a Blood Bowl tournament at short notice last weekend, and had ten coaches playing for the inaugural Steel Cup. (The format was three matches, 125kgp, resurrection, buy skills, one double).

I had to borrow a Chaos team, but was able to use my own Star Player (follow this link for more pictures of Lord Borak). My roster was Lord Borak, three Chaos Warriors (two Block, one Guard), seven Beastmen (one Sure Hands, one Block), two rerolls, FF1.

Game 1 was against Bonesplitter's Ard Boys, an Orc team. I received the ball, got a riot which stunned four or five of his players, and injured one of his Black Orcs on the first block! A great start, but after that the tourney went downhill! I couldn't punch through or punch out his orcs, and lost 1-0, suffering 3-0 casualties.
A Beastman breaks away, briefly, before getting sacked!
Scrimmage on the line!

Game 2 was against Georgiechristo's Orcs, Da Waaaghndaraz. I have met them before, at the 2014 Gosford Gauntlet. The greenskins got their revenge, taking me down 2-0 and smashing me 4-0 on casualties. I have to say, my heart wasn't really in this game. Georgiechristo is a gentleman opponent, and won the tourney overall.

A Beastman stumbles and drops the ball... Da Waaaghndaraz will capitalise on this error!

The third and final game was against the Reikland Fury, a Human team with the Mighty Zug. This was a match more to my liking than the armoured orcs, and I scored my only touchdown of the tourney. I still lost 2-1, and tied 1-1 casualties.
Borak vs Zug! The unstoppable vs the immovable!

So, 0-0-3 WDL for my borrowed Chaos team... I ended up coming last, but I won the $5 consolation prize/ encouragement award! I admit that Borak isn't the best value for a tourney, sucking up a quarter of my roster and not pulling his weight. But it was good to get him on the pitch.

I'm trying to get to CanCon next month, watch this space...

Friday 27 November 2015

Imperial Assault- Twin Shadows comic battle report

Twin Shadows is a 'mini campaign' for Imperial Assault. It is only four missions long (from a possible six, depending on who wins what). Your characters already start with improved skills, and improve further rapidly. I had a lot of fun both playing this and re-living it for the report, I hope you enjoy it! Needless to say, there are spoilers...

Cue the music! 

(Click to embiggen)






  
I've played a larger IA campaign (see here) as the Empire, and got most of the way through a Descent campaign. I know that to win, you have to be efficient and objective focused. I think I did that well here, getting the codes early, ignoring Boba 'Blink and you miss him' Fett, and racing past the Imperials to victory!








I tried that again here, but still got swamped! I resuscitated Threepio and was able to open the doors, but just got overwhelmed. I gave Captain Somos a nasty shock by sniping him with Mak, and charging him with Biv, but he sensibly withdrew. A Stormtrooper with Combat Medic took away any chance I may have had. I think I still got his health down to 6/19.

I think it was this game where the Heavy Stormtroopers first had Assault Armor, and I realised that they were a significant force to be reckoned with. Their Blast ability made me leery of clustering together.






In Canyon Run, I again tried to focus on the goal of making it to the end in eight turns. Tight pressure from the Imperials meant I just couldn't do it without sustaining the casualties that brought me undone. If I was the Imperial player, I'd be looking forwards to getting a Bantha and rolling up the canyon!

I think that the Twin Shadows missions really showcase the abilities of the new heroes Biv Bodhrik and Saska Teft. Biv was an absolute tank, receiving intense fire and suffering very few wounds. I didn't take Saska, but her ability to buff the other heroes for attribute tests would have been so useful for all these missions.







Somehow, after the debacle in the canyons, I get aboard a Star Destroyer! And, like in the previous two missions, I tried to push forwards but just got swamped. Jyn and Mak got wounded early and the Empire concentrated on trying to take Biv down- but he's not an easy nut to crack! Neither, I note, are Elite Heavy Stormtroopers with Assault Armor and Combat Veteran abilities... I knew I was struggling, but broke away from the scrum and fired up the shuttle. However, the Empire just swamped the place and I just couldn't swat them fast enough...

In the epilogue, I find that I was able to prevent the Star Destroyer chasing Luke by disabling the hyperdrive, but that the Empire has broken our codes and that was the secret I was trying to uncover.

My Man of the Match was Biv Bodhrik. He was able to weather storms of blaster fire, buying time for his teammates to accomplish mission goals. My opponent used the Military Might class for his forces to good effect. My toughest opponents were the buffed-up Elite Heavy Stormtroopers. I think I could have taken Han Solo as an ally on these missions, but didn't realise. I don't know if it would have made much difference, but would like to try it. Also, as I mentioned above, Saska Teft would be good to try out. I struggled with masses of enemies, as I was lacking in significant area of effect weapons or close combat brutes who could take out several opponents at once. 
Biv Bodhrik

Saska Teft

I'm looking forwards to Return to Hoth, the next mega campaign! I'll write it up in a similar fashion, let me know if you like the approach or if there are too many Pews! Thanks for reading!

Comic created with Comic Life 3.