Here are the pics of the newly completed BC and DN. Followed by the whole group. (Still trying to figure this camera out, all of these ships are a stark white.)
I'm also almost done with the Black Lightning Dictator.
Showing posts with label ADB. Show all posts
Showing posts with label ADB. Show all posts
20120610
United Federation of Planets Squadron Complete!
Finally finished with all of my Feds. Of course this doesn't mean that I won't buy more in the future....
Here are the pics of the newly completed BC and DN. Followed by the whole group. (Still trying to figure this camera out, all of these ships are a stark white.)
I'm also almost done with the Black Lightning Dictator.
Here are the pics of the newly completed BC and DN. Followed by the whole group. (Still trying to figure this camera out, all of these ships are a stark white.)
I'm also almost done with the Black Lightning Dictator.
20120604
Weekend Miscellany
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.
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.
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.
20120103
Klingon Armada BatRep
Since it was my last day of vacation I decided to set up a Klingon Armada game to play with the boys before going back to work. Also gave me an excuse to use the C8 and Fed NCL. The scenario was that a Federation patrol consisting of light cruisers and frigates encountered a Klingon dreadnought and its escorts as it was en route to reinforce a squadron about to engage in a planetary assault. We used Klingon Armada using the simple movement and damage control optional rules.
Here's the starting positions:
I controlled the Klingon group with the C8 and two F5 frigates for escorts. Zachary had a New Light Cruiser, to Old Light Cruisers, and two Frigates. Zachary had about a 30 point advantage. Victory conditions for the Federation were to destroy the C8 and for the Klingons to exit the C8 off the opposing edge.
In the opening turn the Federation squadron split into three, with an old Light Cruiser and a Frigate on each flank and the NCL coming up the middle. I moved to the side in an effort to move forward maximize the number of weapons bearing on the NCL as I saw it to be the biggest threat. That and I was hoping to take out a couple torpedo tubes before making my run.
Combat for this turn involved the NCL connecting with a single long range phaser-1 shot, and a couple shield hits on the NCL from the C8. Zachary launched a couple shuttles targeting the C8, but I held onto my drones waiting to get a little closer to keep him from having a chance to shoot them down.
Both sides moved forward in the second turn.
This turn Zachary managed to score some really good hits on the C8, but what really did me in over the course of the game was that he learned his lesson about concentrating fire. The NCL was taken down to about half of its hull, but the torpedo launchers remained unharmed. During the fighter launch phase I launched what amounts to a Macross Mega Missile attack at the NCL. Zachary launched two drone flights targeting the C8.
These are the ships after movement in turn three but prior to the fighter phase.
Now, this is were I'm still getting the hang of flying the F5s. I had intended to use them to screen the dreadnought from drones/shuttles, however, after movement the drones were too close and I couldn't engage them before they impacted on the C8. Most of the drone hits were absorbed by the shields, but a couple got through and created openings in the shields. With all the drones that hit the NCL it was destroyed, but it took almost all of the drones to do so.
In the combat phase Zachary very nearly destroyed the C8, leaving only two hull boxes left. I destroyed both the old light cruiser and frigates on the side I was advancing.
The next turn ended up with the F5s flying by the remainig Federation ships which had finally closed to medium range and the C8 trying to advance further. Unfortunately the C8 was destroyed by an overloaded photon torpedo.
So, in light of the fact that the C8 was destroyed but all that remained of the Federation squadron was an old Light Cruiser and a Frigate we called the game a slight victory for the Federation.
Starmada still continues to provide extremely close games at roughly equal point values. I could have played it a little different, possibly trying to position the C8 between the limited arcs of the photon torpedoes. I don't think that would've worked though because we were using the simple movement optional rule. With an engine rating of 4 the C8 wouldn't have moved far enough forward to get out of the forward arcs of all those torpedo tubes. I'm starting to think that it's time to teach Zachary the standard movement rules for Starmada. He's starting to get the hang of thinking tactically.
I'm thinking the starmat is going to stay out, that was a fun game and I'm feeling another Klingon/Federation battle is in order.
Here's the starting positions:
I controlled the Klingon group with the C8 and two F5 frigates for escorts. Zachary had a New Light Cruiser, to Old Light Cruisers, and two Frigates. Zachary had about a 30 point advantage. Victory conditions for the Federation were to destroy the C8 and for the Klingons to exit the C8 off the opposing edge.
In the opening turn the Federation squadron split into three, with an old Light Cruiser and a Frigate on each flank and the NCL coming up the middle. I moved to the side in an effort to move forward maximize the number of weapons bearing on the NCL as I saw it to be the biggest threat. That and I was hoping to take out a couple torpedo tubes before making my run.
Combat for this turn involved the NCL connecting with a single long range phaser-1 shot, and a couple shield hits on the NCL from the C8. Zachary launched a couple shuttles targeting the C8, but I held onto my drones waiting to get a little closer to keep him from having a chance to shoot them down.
Both sides moved forward in the second turn.
This turn Zachary managed to score some really good hits on the C8, but what really did me in over the course of the game was that he learned his lesson about concentrating fire. The NCL was taken down to about half of its hull, but the torpedo launchers remained unharmed. During the fighter launch phase I launched what amounts to a Macross Mega Missile attack at the NCL. Zachary launched two drone flights targeting the C8.
These are the ships after movement in turn three but prior to the fighter phase.
Now, this is were I'm still getting the hang of flying the F5s. I had intended to use them to screen the dreadnought from drones/shuttles, however, after movement the drones were too close and I couldn't engage them before they impacted on the C8. Most of the drone hits were absorbed by the shields, but a couple got through and created openings in the shields. With all the drones that hit the NCL it was destroyed, but it took almost all of the drones to do so.
In the combat phase Zachary very nearly destroyed the C8, leaving only two hull boxes left. I destroyed both the old light cruiser and frigates on the side I was advancing.
The next turn ended up with the F5s flying by the remainig Federation ships which had finally closed to medium range and the C8 trying to advance further. Unfortunately the C8 was destroyed by an overloaded photon torpedo.
So, in light of the fact that the C8 was destroyed but all that remained of the Federation squadron was an old Light Cruiser and a Frigate we called the game a slight victory for the Federation.
Starmada still continues to provide extremely close games at roughly equal point values. I could have played it a little different, possibly trying to position the C8 between the limited arcs of the photon torpedoes. I don't think that would've worked though because we were using the simple movement optional rule. With an engine rating of 4 the C8 wouldn't have moved far enough forward to get out of the forward arcs of all those torpedo tubes. I'm starting to think that it's time to teach Zachary the standard movement rules for Starmada. He's starting to get the hang of thinking tactically.
I'm thinking the starmat is going to stay out, that was a fun game and I'm feeling another Klingon/Federation battle is in order.
20120101
Last Minis for 2011
Finished these up on the 30th, was too busy getting ready for company on New Year's Eve to get pics. Speaking of pics, my trusty old Panasonic camera died on me today after seven or eight years of service. I think the cheap blister pack cameras we got the kids for Christmas this year had a better megapixel rating than this one but I kept it around because I liked the optics. It seems to be a firmware error, but I need to research it to see if it is salvageable. In the mean time I'm using my wife's Coolpix and it is taking some adjusting to. For one thing I have no idea where the sweet spot is for the macro mode. So I apologize for the pics until I get a better feel for this camera.
So, enough on that. I did manage to get the Ironclad done, but not the Charger. I may go back over the shoulders a little bit, but for now I'm calling it done.
This next piece had been sitting on my table for some time as something I'd work on while waiting for paint to dry on other models. It was close enough for me to quickly add the last details and be done with it. It is a Federation New Light Cruiser from Amarillo Design Bureau. If I get any mini in the new line of ships it will be this one when it becomes available because the mold is just shot on this one. I'll deal with it being larger than the rest of my fleet. In the meantime, I'm looking forward to using it in games, the stats are just a bit less than the traditional Heavy Cruiser so I'm looking to try a scenario with a patrol group consisting of this NCL, two oCLs, and two FFs encountering either a Klingon C8 dreadnought or a pair of D7 battlecruisers.
Not anticipating getting any painting done today. I'm in the process of setting things up for the End of Year Wrap-Up post for 2011, which will be going up later.
So, enough on that. I did manage to get the Ironclad done, but not the Charger. I may go back over the shoulders a little bit, but for now I'm calling it done.
This next piece had been sitting on my table for some time as something I'd work on while waiting for paint to dry on other models. It was close enough for me to quickly add the last details and be done with it. It is a Federation New Light Cruiser from Amarillo Design Bureau. If I get any mini in the new line of ships it will be this one when it becomes available because the mold is just shot on this one. I'll deal with it being larger than the rest of my fleet. In the meantime, I'm looking forward to using it in games, the stats are just a bit less than the traditional Heavy Cruiser so I'm looking to try a scenario with a patrol group consisting of this NCL, two oCLs, and two FFs encountering either a Klingon C8 dreadnought or a pair of D7 battlecruisers.
Not anticipating getting any painting done today. I'm in the process of setting things up for the End of Year Wrap-Up post for 2011, which will be going up later.
20111004
The Mighty Hood Goes Down
Here are the pictures from "The Mighty Hood Goes Down." I think I could've held out for the full 10 turns if I hadn't started to get bored and charged in to try to take out Zachary's D6.
The short version is that I spent the first few turns repairing lucky long range disruptor hits, got bored in turn five (it was getting late too) turned in so I could fire some overloaded torpedoes in an attempt to take out the D6 (which I did) fully expecting to be taken out as well (which I did).
20110830
Klingon Incursion
Sunday the boys and I played a game of Klingon Armada. I'm really liking this rules variant for the SFU setting, though I am a bit biased as I also enjoy Starmada: Admiralty Edition which KA is based on.
The game was a Federation vs. Klingon 1000pt game (I don't have any of my other SFU ships painted yet..it's only been about four years now). On the Fed side I had a Command Cruiser (CC) represented by the USS Constitution (I know, the Connie isn't a CC, but I don't have a proper CC and the other heavy cruiser doesn't have decals on it so it was the easiest way to distinguish), an as of yet to be named Heavy Cruiser (CA) that we'll imagine for now to be a certain ship that isn't to be named in the SFU, and two Old Light Cruisers (oCL). For the Klingons there were two of the iconic antagonists to the CA...the ever present D7 battlecruiser and two F5 frigates.
RAdm Micheal commanded the CC and an oCL and Capt Zachary commanded the CA and the other oCL. I commanded a D7 and an F5, whilst Phillip commanded the other pair. The first turn was closing and long range phaser-1 shots that amounted to minimal damage, though the CA did lose a number of weapons. Michael advanced his oCL while moving his CC only one hex forward. Zachary was a little more ambitious, moving forward as much as his ships would allow. Phillip, embracing his inner Klingon charged forward while I maneuvered around the edge for a little saber dancing. Phillip fired four drones and I added another one all targeted at the CC.
In the second turn Phillip charged head long into the oncoming cruisers which led to his brothers focusing fire on him. This led to one of the challenging aspects of playing with younger children who haven't developed a sense of sportsmanship yet. He got upset and stormed out because his brothers were obviously being unfair. Though to be honest, they weren't being very sportsmanlike either. This was addressed over the course of the next half hour before we could continue play.Michael advanced each of his ships one hex forward while Zachary cautiously advanced to within overload range. I continued to advance around the edge coming within overloaded disruptor range of Zachary's CA since he had already taken some damage. The drones were a few hexes outside of reaching the CC this turn. Phillip concentrated on Zachary's closer CA and I finished it off (despite some abysmal dice rolls on my part). Michael destroyed Phillip's F5 and put a hurt on his D7. My D7 weathered a few pot shots, but the F5 remained unscathed. In the end phase a new wave of was launched targeting Zachary's CA.
Turn three saw the continued rush of Phillip's D7, which didn't survive the turn. The The drones caused an amount of damage to be expected for five flights against an undamaged CC, though they did a good job of reducing the forward shields. The oCls continued to be pretty much ignored as killing the larger cruisers were sufficient to remove a player from the game from a victory condition point of view (destroy half or more of a player's total point value).
In turn four, I turned to get the CC into a broadside arc and Michael obliged by turning into a head on course to my ships, effectively crossing his own T...with severly depleted forward shields (they were at 1, meaning as long as I rolled a hit it was fairly certain to cause damage). The second wave of drones were spectacularly ineffective, and poor rolling on my part only barely destroyed the CC. However, it was a Pyrrhic victory as overloaded torpedoes rendered my D7 into so much space debris. Had we continued with the oCL and F5, the game would've gone to Michael as the F5 had lost too many weapons to cause any significant damage to the light cruiser. But victory conditions what they were, we called it a tie. (No photo, my chief of photography again ran off, I may need to request another person to fill the billet...)
Even using the simplified movement I think Starmada may be a bit overwhelming for the boys, especially Phillip, but they had fun. I think next time will be a three-way NSL vs FSE vs Mauridians in an effort to use some less complicated shielding rules. Or who knows, I might play a first game of Silent Death, having had that on the shelf for about two and half years now. One thing I do know is that I need to get some F6 Frignaughts and get my D5W done and on the table. Stinking F5s just irritate the heck out of me with their shorter ranged disruptors and laughable phaser-1 array. Speaking of Silent Death, I need to get some X-Wing and TIE Fighter models to use the Star Wars variant of those rules. I've pretty much given up on the idea of finding suitable Zentraedi fighters to do a Macross battle.
I've gotten a little bit of painting done on the GZG High Tech Grav Tank. The turret and top half of the hull are base coated.
Here's a look at the rest of table with a few projects in progress and a few waiting to enter spacedock.
The game was a Federation vs. Klingon 1000pt game (I don't have any of my other SFU ships painted yet..it's only been about four years now). On the Fed side I had a Command Cruiser (CC) represented by the USS Constitution (I know, the Connie isn't a CC, but I don't have a proper CC and the other heavy cruiser doesn't have decals on it so it was the easiest way to distinguish), an as of yet to be named Heavy Cruiser (CA) that we'll imagine for now to be a certain ship that isn't to be named in the SFU, and two Old Light Cruisers (oCL). For the Klingons there were two of the iconic antagonists to the CA...the ever present D7 battlecruiser and two F5 frigates.
RAdm Micheal commanded the CC and an oCL and Capt Zachary commanded the CA and the other oCL. I commanded a D7 and an F5, whilst Phillip commanded the other pair. The first turn was closing and long range phaser-1 shots that amounted to minimal damage, though the CA did lose a number of weapons. Michael advanced his oCL while moving his CC only one hex forward. Zachary was a little more ambitious, moving forward as much as his ships would allow. Phillip, embracing his inner Klingon charged forward while I maneuvered around the edge for a little saber dancing. Phillip fired four drones and I added another one all targeted at the CC.
In the second turn Phillip charged head long into the oncoming cruisers which led to his brothers focusing fire on him. This led to one of the challenging aspects of playing with younger children who haven't developed a sense of sportsmanship yet. He got upset and stormed out because his brothers were obviously being unfair. Though to be honest, they weren't being very sportsmanlike either. This was addressed over the course of the next half hour before we could continue play.Michael advanced each of his ships one hex forward while Zachary cautiously advanced to within overload range. I continued to advance around the edge coming within overloaded disruptor range of Zachary's CA since he had already taken some damage. The drones were a few hexes outside of reaching the CC this turn. Phillip concentrated on Zachary's closer CA and I finished it off (despite some abysmal dice rolls on my part). Michael destroyed Phillip's F5 and put a hurt on his D7. My D7 weathered a few pot shots, but the F5 remained unscathed. In the end phase a new wave of was launched targeting Zachary's CA.
Turn three saw the continued rush of Phillip's D7, which didn't survive the turn. The The drones caused an amount of damage to be expected for five flights against an undamaged CC, though they did a good job of reducing the forward shields. The oCls continued to be pretty much ignored as killing the larger cruisers were sufficient to remove a player from the game from a victory condition point of view (destroy half or more of a player's total point value).
In turn four, I turned to get the CC into a broadside arc and Michael obliged by turning into a head on course to my ships, effectively crossing his own T...with severly depleted forward shields (they were at 1, meaning as long as I rolled a hit it was fairly certain to cause damage). The second wave of drones were spectacularly ineffective, and poor rolling on my part only barely destroyed the CC. However, it was a Pyrrhic victory as overloaded torpedoes rendered my D7 into so much space debris. Had we continued with the oCL and F5, the game would've gone to Michael as the F5 had lost too many weapons to cause any significant damage to the light cruiser. But victory conditions what they were, we called it a tie. (No photo, my chief of photography again ran off, I may need to request another person to fill the billet...)
Even using the simplified movement I think Starmada may be a bit overwhelming for the boys, especially Phillip, but they had fun. I think next time will be a three-way NSL vs FSE vs Mauridians in an effort to use some less complicated shielding rules. Or who knows, I might play a first game of Silent Death, having had that on the shelf for about two and half years now. One thing I do know is that I need to get some F6 Frignaughts and get my D5W done and on the table. Stinking F5s just irritate the heck out of me with their shorter ranged disruptors and laughable phaser-1 array. Speaking of Silent Death, I need to get some X-Wing and TIE Fighter models to use the Star Wars variant of those rules. I've pretty much given up on the idea of finding suitable Zentraedi fighters to do a Macross battle.
I've gotten a little bit of painting done on the GZG High Tech Grav Tank. The turret and top half of the hull are base coated.
Here's a look at the rest of table with a few projects in progress and a few waiting to enter spacedock.
20100106
New Shipment
Received my order from ADB today! One each Federation DN, BC, NCL and one each Klingon C8 and C7. Always fun opening new minis. Now just waiting for the much anticipated Cold Navy ships to arrive from Ravenstar Studios.
20080114
Because What the World Needs Now...
...is another blogger, like I need a hole in my head.
Well, I finally decided to join the rest of the world and try out this blogging thing. For now I'll just keep it to my miniatures as I don't really like putting my Real Life (TM) out there for the world to see too much. As it stands, I plan to add pictures of things I'm working on, what I've finished, hopefully some battle reports from games, and my musings on my experiences in the wild world of miniature wargaming. Don't expect too many battle reports as I don't have a lot of time to play, but when I do I'll load them up.
Why do this as there are tons of other miniature wargaming related blogs out there? Well a couple reasons. The first is instead of me posting the same pictures to five message boards I can put them here and just post a link and a teaser pic saving me time. Second, why not I've got my views on things and want to show off my stuff as well.
So I guess I'll start this off by identifying what I play, what I'd like to play, and what I'm currently working on. The games that I am currently playing or will be playing very shortly are CAV by Reaper Miniatures, 5150 by Two Hour Wargames, Federation Commander by Amarillo Design Bureau, and with any luck Warlord by Reaper Miniatures. You'll notice two of those are Reaper games, they don't do the best at publishing but their miniatures are top of the line and I really like the concepts behind their RAGE system. Federation Commander is to satisfy that Trek fix I quite often. Star Trek was my first exposure to the world of science fiction many years ago. I still remember the first episode I saw, the one with the Horta, Devil in the Dark I think is the title of that episode IIRC. 5150 was something I picked up to satisfy 28mm skirmish gaming as I grew tired of Warhammer 40,000 several years ago. I haven't had a chance to play it yet, but it attracted me due to the fact that it isn't tied to minis from a particular manufacturer and has such an unorthodox game mechanic. I'm really looking forward to playing it when I have the chance.
What I've been kicking around trying are historicals, small scale fantasy, and space ship combat not related to Star Trek. The problem I've had with historicals is that I can't seem to pick a period. Though if I were forced to pick right now I'd probably go with either ancients, Seven Years War, or Cold War. The issue I've been having with small scale fantasy is I can't seem to find figures I really like and I'm not really sure what rules are out there for that type of game other than Warmaster. Space ship combat is kind of a touchy point for me. I've been (im)patiently waiting for Reaper to do Imperator which was supposed to be space combat set in the CAV universe (which as you'll see over time is my favorite game and miniatures). I even went as far as to write a game using the RAGE mechanics, but haven't taken the time to test it. I have this problem where I'll do something just to see if it works or if I can do it. That project fell squarely into the "can I do it" realm. Once the rules were written I kept making lame excuses for not getting the miniatures I bought for it done so I could play it and tweak the point system and movement mechanics. So that's one of my goals for this year, finish those ship minis and play the dang game.
What I'm currently working on is the Border Box #1 from Amarillo Design Bureau which is a collection of 24 miniatures as presented in their Klingon Border box set. Right now I've got two each of Constitution Heavy Cruisers, Old LIght Cruisers, Burke Frigates, D7's, D6's, and F5's about half done. I've also got the base coat on a Hughes-Marietta Czar for CAV waiting for me to finish the camo scheme on it, four stands of Andrayada 6mm infantry from Dark Realm Miniatures waiting for primer, Sadie with pulse rifle from Hasslefree Miniatures waiting for more paint, and several CAVs waiting for primer. I've got a lot of miniature painting I want to get accomplished for this year. Maybe that'll be my next post, the to-do list for 2008, as this first one has gotten much longer than I had anticipated.
Well, I finally decided to join the rest of the world and try out this blogging thing. For now I'll just keep it to my miniatures as I don't really like putting my Real Life (TM) out there for the world to see too much. As it stands, I plan to add pictures of things I'm working on, what I've finished, hopefully some battle reports from games, and my musings on my experiences in the wild world of miniature wargaming. Don't expect too many battle reports as I don't have a lot of time to play, but when I do I'll load them up.
Why do this as there are tons of other miniature wargaming related blogs out there? Well a couple reasons. The first is instead of me posting the same pictures to five message boards I can put them here and just post a link and a teaser pic saving me time. Second, why not I've got my views on things and want to show off my stuff as well.
So I guess I'll start this off by identifying what I play, what I'd like to play, and what I'm currently working on. The games that I am currently playing or will be playing very shortly are CAV by Reaper Miniatures, 5150 by Two Hour Wargames, Federation Commander by Amarillo Design Bureau, and with any luck Warlord by Reaper Miniatures. You'll notice two of those are Reaper games, they don't do the best at publishing but their miniatures are top of the line and I really like the concepts behind their RAGE system. Federation Commander is to satisfy that Trek fix I quite often. Star Trek was my first exposure to the world of science fiction many years ago. I still remember the first episode I saw, the one with the Horta, Devil in the Dark I think is the title of that episode IIRC. 5150 was something I picked up to satisfy 28mm skirmish gaming as I grew tired of Warhammer 40,000 several years ago. I haven't had a chance to play it yet, but it attracted me due to the fact that it isn't tied to minis from a particular manufacturer and has such an unorthodox game mechanic. I'm really looking forward to playing it when I have the chance.
What I've been kicking around trying are historicals, small scale fantasy, and space ship combat not related to Star Trek. The problem I've had with historicals is that I can't seem to pick a period. Though if I were forced to pick right now I'd probably go with either ancients, Seven Years War, or Cold War. The issue I've been having with small scale fantasy is I can't seem to find figures I really like and I'm not really sure what rules are out there for that type of game other than Warmaster. Space ship combat is kind of a touchy point for me. I've been (im)patiently waiting for Reaper to do Imperator which was supposed to be space combat set in the CAV universe (which as you'll see over time is my favorite game and miniatures). I even went as far as to write a game using the RAGE mechanics, but haven't taken the time to test it. I have this problem where I'll do something just to see if it works or if I can do it. That project fell squarely into the "can I do it" realm. Once the rules were written I kept making lame excuses for not getting the miniatures I bought for it done so I could play it and tweak the point system and movement mechanics. So that's one of my goals for this year, finish those ship minis and play the dang game.
What I'm currently working on is the Border Box #1 from Amarillo Design Bureau which is a collection of 24 miniatures as presented in their Klingon Border box set. Right now I've got two each of Constitution Heavy Cruisers, Old LIght Cruisers, Burke Frigates, D7's, D6's, and F5's about half done. I've also got the base coat on a Hughes-Marietta Czar for CAV waiting for me to finish the camo scheme on it, four stands of Andrayada 6mm infantry from Dark Realm Miniatures waiting for primer, Sadie with pulse rifle from Hasslefree Miniatures waiting for more paint, and several CAVs waiting for primer. I've got a lot of miniature painting I want to get accomplished for this year. Maybe that'll be my next post, the to-do list for 2008, as this first one has gotten much longer than I had anticipated.
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