Full Thrust Cross Dimensions Trial Game

Having become increasingly disliking of the combat resolution system for Starmada: Admiralty Edition (S:AE) I finally looked up Full Thrust: Cross Dimensions (FT:XD). This variation of the Full Thrust rules combines the rules from the multiple Full Thrust books (available for free from Ground Zero Games) and adds some new weapons. I had looked at Full Thrust a while back but having the rules spread across multiple books with later books modifying some of the basic mechanics put me off somewhat.

What has been irking me about combat in S:AE was the iterative process for rolling each attack. Each attack with each similar weapon system requires a total of three die rolls with multiple dice. My issue isn't the number of dice rolled but the number rolls made. There is a roll to hit, a roll to overcome defenses, and a roll to determine damage allocation. This provides for a great amount of granularity for how different weapons behave allowing for the creation of one weapon that may be highly accurate with a high rate of fire but does not have much penetration or damage potential or another that has difficulty getting past defense but inflicts a great amount of damage on impact. It's actually one of the strengths of the design system within the game. The down side is that rolling a handfull of dice, sorting out which ones hit, rolling to see which ones penetrated then sorting those dice out, and then rolling for damage (sometimes with a multiplier) can begin to take time, especially with larger squadrons of larger ships mounting multiple weapon types. Individual weapons, engines, and shields/armor are potentially damaged from the first hit onwards. A battleship could potentially lose it's main gun in the first hit just as easily as a frigate.

Combat in FT:XD is much smoother. There are a limited number of types of weapons and there is only one roll that is modified by the target's defenses. This reduces the game's ability to closely replicate how weapons from specific books/shows/movies (which let's face it, generally falls into Star Trek, Star Wars, Battlestar Galactica, and occasionally Babylon 5) behave but does simplify gameplay. Roll to hit, typically hits are counted on 4, 5, or 6 and apply damage (applying half of the damage to armor if present) to the hull boxes. Systems are rolled for critical damage at the end of each of three or four rows of hull boxes, depending on the construction options used for the ship. A battleship's main gun won't be a candidate to be destroyed until after it has sustained enough damage to destroy a typical frigate.

I tried the sample scenario included with FT:XD using my GZG starship miniatures, this being the first time they were used for the game they were designed to be used with. The scenario is simple, each side has mirrored forces of two cruisers and three frigates. One side has to attempt to exit his ships off the opposite side of the table and are set up in a line abreast formation. The other side is to intercept and destroy the opposing player's force before he can get them off the table. This player deploys in two columns, one with the two cruisers and the other with the three frigate, in a corner on an approximately 60 degree bias from the table edge. My 9 year son Phillip played the interceptors and I played the blockade runners.

We both quickly picked up the basics of the game. Phil had no problems writing preplotted movement orders after I told him he could use left and right instead of port and starboard for indicating turns. Combat was quite smooth as I expected, slowing down only for the first couple threshold checks until we got the hang of the mechanic. By the end of the game I had lost my frigates and one cruiser had been effectively disabled while Phil had lost a cruiser to a containment breach in his power core and a frigate to weight of fire. His remaining frigates were heavily damaged but his remaining cruiser was untouched. My cruisers did manage to exit the board though. We called it a tie since I exited the board but had lost three of my escorts in the process. The upside is that we both managed to avoid the usual first game high speed pass that most FT players seem to experience since momentum is conserved turn to turn.

My impressions are that while I liked the faster combat I found that I prefer my starship games to be played on a hexmap for ease and speed. Turning and measuring, then turning and measuring again was a bit fiddly and moderately annoying with ships in close proximity and maintaining formation. So I'm left with something of a quandary. I like the combat resolution (though I have my doubts about adapting settings satisfactorily using the limited weapon options) but didn't like the movement mechanics with FT:XD. In S:AE I like movement on a hex (I use a modified movement mechanic rather than the one in the rules) and the differentiation between weapons but want a streamlined resolution mechanic. Majestic 12 changed the way combat works in their latest version, Starmada Nova Edition, but I'm not sold on it as it now uses a more complex defense mechanism though I suppose I ought to give a run using the sample rules in the interest of fair evaluation. I'm told Colonial Battlefleet may be what I'm looking for but don't really want to spend $15 + printer ink to find out it isn't what I want. I'm already invested with Starmada, both the base version as well as the licensed Starfleet Universe version, so will probably stick with it but the hunt continues. All this though has had me wondering if I still have the draft version of a starship game I had been working on about six years ago but never finished due to getting bogged down with figuring out how to assign point values.

UNSC vs Mekanoids (A FUBAR batrep)

Since I couldn't go to work yet (waiting on paperwork with the company) I decided to play a game with the kids (school hasn't started yet).  I let them pick and they wanted to play with the 15mm figures, so FUBAR it was.  They wanted to use the AT-43 walkers I've appropriated (and still need to repaint) for the Mekanoids, so I grabbed those and the handful of Grenadiers I have. I only have one vehicle for the UNSC, a grav tank, so I tweaked the spider drones to have some small laser anti-tank guns and gave myself a squad of 8 infantry and a support section with two LMGs.

Here is the initial set up:

The scenario was that the Mekanoids were advancing on the flank of a larger battle. The UNSC had hastily gathered a reaction force to block the advance of the 'bots.  The objective for both sides was to remove half of the opposing models, forcing them to retreat.  The first turn involved some maneuvering and only one shot which had no effect. (In my mashed up version of FUBAR weapons can fire up to twice their listed range at 1/2 firepower dice.)

End of 1st turn:

Turn 2 was more movement then Alexander opened up and destroyed my section of anti-tank drones before they could even get a chance to fire. The grav tank immobilized the rearmost of Alexander's walkers with a shot that threaded a needle between the buildings:

In turn 3 my grav tank got into position and eliminated Phil's walker in one mighty blow as well as taking out one of his grenadiers. Alexander tried in vain to take out the infantry on the bridge.

Turn 4: the grav tank turned to engage the walker threatening the infantry and takes out the flamethrower. The infantry throw grenades and immobilize the walker while the fire support team takes out two of Alexander's grenadiers.

Turn 5 and end game: The support team took out enough of the remaining grenadiers to force a retreat by the 'bots before they got a chance to engage.

Some thoughts on the game:
1) I still need some practice on balancing forces without a point system.
2) I need to sit down and finish the point system I've written some notes about
3) Either I'm not handling infantry armor saves correctly or I need to change the mechanic. That walker should have put a hurt on the infantry.
4) The tank didn't get a scratch on it, though I think was due more to keeping terrain between it and the opposing vehicles, not a complete test of it's stats. In this game though it seemed maybe a bit overpowering.
5) The next game will be over more open terrain so vehicles can strut their stuff.
6) Mobility to use terrain to screen models is key.

Little known fact

Did you know that miniatures projects can be finished?  I finished the gun drones that were the final piece of my UNSC force.  Here's the group photo...

Krylon Camo Spray Results

Trying something new.  As I mentioned in a previous post I got a new phone that the blogger app works on, so I'm trying the camera on miniatures and attempting to post directly to the blog.

I finished the test of the Krylon spray paint earlier this week. Here is a comparison shot with the Krylon painted figure on the left and one painted with Reaper Terran Khaki on the right. The khaki and the wash are the only differences.  (The color I originally used for the wash had dried out so I used MSP Brown Liner which brought out the detail better but gave the overall figure a different feel.) The Krylon is a bit more grayish than the Reaper paint, but it is closer to what I had in mind. Overall I'm happy and don't think the difference between them will be too noticeable at arms length aside from the level of detail.

Edit: let's see if I can add a picture after the fact.

Woohoo! Legal Macross/Robotech Figs....Maybe

OK, I'm a mecha fan.  I fell in love with mecha sometime in late grade school or early middle school when I first an episode of Robotech, then was later introduced to Battletech in 8th grade.  I've been a sucker for Big Stompy Robots ever since.  I had known about an effort to bring Macross to the tabletop as a wargame, but when Palladium Books (owner of the license for all things Robotech on the tabletop in the U.S.) killed the project to announce their own I lost interest due to their track record for getting things published.  So I'm probably behind the times on this, but today I found out that they have partnered with Soda Pop and Cypher as Ninja Division to do a Kickstarter to get the game off the ground.  While I'm still apprehensive about dealing with Palladium Books, the fact that they have gone out with a 3rd party makes me more likely to contribute when it goes up.

I've been trying to work with various game systems to work up a usable Macross fighter combat game, but to be honest the problem was always finding affordable Zentradi figures.  Sure I could have gone to Hobby Link Japan and ordered a bunch of gashapon, but to be honest they focus on the Valkyries and getting a Tri-Fighter seemed near impossible.  I know there have been some stuff on Shapeways, but to be honest I don't like the looks of their material.  Even the stuff that is supposed to be smooth seems to have a rough surface and excessive stratification from the printing process.

Apparently the Ninja Division Facebook page will be the mouthpiece for the project and the Kickstarter has been submitted for approval and posting.  I expect this one to go large for nostalgia's sake if nothing else.

Several Fighters Have Broken Off...

I hope everyone enjoyed their Christmas and received all kinds of new goodies. For me, I received a few things I'm really excited about: a new camera and some more X-Wing miniatures. The camera is a Canon Powershot SX160is and in short, it rocks! Tonight the boys and I played a game of X-Wing and with no messing with settings it took clear pictures despite my sometimes shaky hands in somewhat poor lighting. Got it at Wal-Mart for less than the camera I was going to get. With a good camera hopefully I will feel more inspired to post more often as I'll be able to show what I'm talking about.

For the figures I received one each of the Wave 1 expansions for X-Wing: a TIE Advanced, a TIE Fighter, a Y-Wing, and an X-Wing. The reason for the extra TIE and X-Wing is that the expansions come with pilot and upgrade cards that aren't in the core box set. That and everyone knows that TIEs work in flights of three and Rebels in wingman pairs. Today I finally got an opportunity to get them going in a game. It was a throw everything on the table and see what happens. To keep things simple and get an idea of the effectiveness of the TIE Advanced and Y-Wing I kept the pilots to the highest non-named cards with minimal upgrades. The Imperials has a Storm Squadron pilot in the TIE Advanced with concussion missiles as well as three Black Squadron pilots with no upgrades. I flew two of the TIEs while Phillip flew the TIE Advanced and the third TIE. Zachary flew the Rebel scum with a Gray Squadron Y-Wing with the ion cannon and two Red Squadron pilots both with proton torpedoes. The X-Wing leader had an R2 astromech droid. Something I wasn't paying attention to was that all the pilots cards had a Pilot Skill of 4 which meant that the Imperials would always go first but damage was simultaneous. As you'll see in the end-of-turn photos, Phil zeroed in on the Y-Wing with single-minded determination and charged up the middle, Zachary split his fighters trying to spread us out, and I came up the side and did a lot of circling around until I could get on the tail of Zachary's left-side (from his perspective) X-Wing. Without further ado, here are the turn-by-turn pictures:

Initial Deployment

Still closing

First shots fired, mostly just stripped shields from Red 2 and the TIE Advanced. First use of the Ion Cannons as well. Rebels scored the first hull hit against one of my Black Squadron TIEs.

The furball begins

My TIEs setting up for a pass to circle around and get on Red 2's tail. Phil and Zachary trying to line up shots.

Allllmost there, get a cheap shot on Red 2.

Zachary knocks out Phil's TIE, I biff on the attack against Red 2.

To be vindicated in the next turn with three solid hits on Red 2. At this point Phil has the Y-Wing down to its last point of damage left and I try to coach him on how to get in the slot and predict Zachary's movements so he could stay on the Y-Wing's tail.

This was one of those moments in wargaming where you're left scratching your head. Phil had the Y-Wing directly in front of him, but even with the re-rolls from his target lock rolled all blanks on the attack dice. Zahcary rolled a blank die for his dodge roll. End result, Y-Wing buzzes the TIE Advanced as it passes by, presumably with the pilots making rude gestures at each other.

The Y-Wing was eventually shot from behind by Phil, removing it from the game. At this point Zachary decided to call the game. He was outnumbered and all three Imperial ships were in position to get on his remaining X-Wing's tail in the next turn.

Overall a fun game, though I think Zachary forgot that his X-Wings had proton torpedoes. I think next time I'm going to load the Y-Wing out with torps and keep the dog fighting to the X-Wings. Once again, X-Wing provided a fun, easy to play, game that is ready upon opening the box. Next time though I'm not bringing the laptop out with the Star Wars Soundboard open. It created too many distractions with Zachary and Phil chaining together sound effects instead of setting their next maneuver.

In unrelated news, I did get some painting done today. Sprayed the base coat on my next batch of Dreadball figures as well as some incremental work on some Heavy Gear figs and parts of my second Kraken for CAV2.

Revamped FUBAR Supplement

I decided after a couple games with the kids that I wanted to revamp FUBAR and my supplement to it. For one thing, I wanted to make units that failed their activation still be able to do something before losing initiative to the other player, if only from a few possible actions. I also wanted to incorporate the supplement directly into the rules, so I went with a two-page format borrowed from the VSF rules for FUBAR. Tweaked some stuff from my supplement, added a few more things and ended up with this...

I haven't given this new version a trial run yet as I was letting a friend take a look at them and provide feedback before I went public with them.  We'll see how this week goes and maybe get a little weekday gaming in.

This Is Red Leader...

Played a second game of FFG's X-Wing with Zachary and Phillip last night. We used the full rules this time. Overall they picked up the rules pretty quick, but need to work on predicting where their target is going to go and picking a maneuver to best position themselves. The game remains highly intuitive though. Movement, normally the bane of any space fighting game, is very visual and easy to understand. Combat is fairly straightforward, especially since the results are on the custom dice and no charts are needed.

We played a 31 point game (as recommended in the rules when using just the core box for a squad build game). I played the Rebel Alliance and chose Red Squadron Pilot with Proton Torpedoes and R2-D2. Zachary played "Dark Curse" and Phillip "Night Beast."  My pilot had no special abilities and the lowest pilot value but had the advantage of having shields, R2-D2, and the torps. Dark Curse gets a free Focus action when he does a green maneuver. Night Beast is actually a bit of a pain with his ability, a model attacking him cannot change focus results to hit or reroll attack dice. This pretty much means you need to overwhelm him with odds by getting in close for primary weapon attacks or use your proton torpedoes and hope for the best.

The game went a long time because Zachary was so focused on performing green maneuvers to get his free focus action that he wasn't putting himself into position to attack and Phil is still getting the hang of predicting opponent moves and making his selection to position himself to attack. Zachary got better at this, but it was too late. In the end I won and we all had fun. The game produces a very cinematic visual as the ships swoop around the table. I'm looking forward to getting the expansions and seeing how they impact the game. I think in our next game though Luke Skywalker will be taking the stick. I want to see if that back-water bush pilot kid is all they say he is.

I Hate My Camera - an FFG X-Wing Miniatures Game Review

I feel I owe you all an apology. I just looked at the pictures I took with my cheap ass camera and I can see that I have a box titled "X-Wing" and that I have some vaguely X-Wing and TIE Fighter shaped blurs. I will never buy a Vivitar camera again.

So, I suppose I can still tell you about it at least in written form.

To begin with, this is the first Fantasy Flight Games I have ever purchased. I did purchase the game at the local Target (pronounced with bad phony French accent according to SWMBO), so this is not a free evaluation copy or anything like that. The local store did not have the expansions so I do not have the Y-Wing, TIE Bomber, or TIE Advanced. (BTW, I like how the first round of figures effectively lets you replay the Battle of Yavin, minus Han's cavalry charge at the end).

I have not bought any of the current trend of "euro-games" or modern board games before so I was impressed with the quality of the non-miniature materials used for the products. The counters are thick and easy to grab. The box and counters have what seems to be a fabric of some sort in the surface which I'm sure is there to extend the service life. Printing quality on the tokens is excellent and easy to read. One quibble with the box is that the top has a big viewing hole in it. Obviously this is to show off the miniatures of the iconic ships from the Star Wars franchise while sitting on the store shelf, but it means that storing things in the box means either the box has to be flat on it's back, or you keep the packaging for the fighters and never lose it. All the counters and maneuver templates released from the counter sheets easily and without ripping or tearing. I do recommend getting some additional baggies for them though. Since I'm something of a...collector...I have a number of small bags from previous miniature purchases that fit the bill quite well.  The pilot cards, upgrade and damage cards, and dice each came in their own zip-lock bag. The box does allow for all the components to fit back in without having to play Tetris, though I'm not sure how well expansion components will fit later on.

The miniatures are not made of the bendy plastic like previous Star Wars games. The TIE Fighter panels and X-Wing laser cannons were not bent at all. The plastic does feel like it would break if too much pressure were applied, so I'm kind of concerned about the kids being rough with them. The flight stands are made so that a cardboard stat counter fits on the base and the stands are keyed so that the fighter will only fly forward. The painting is actually pretty good on them, about the level at which I would have painted them if they were supplied unpainted. It wouldn't win any awards, but nothing worse than what I've painted before.  I tried to take some comparison shots with my Silent Death fighters, long story short, the figures are too big to mix well with Silent Death figures. The figures are 1:270 scale so should work with 6mm, but the cockpits on the X-Wings seemed too small, though the TIEs seemed like they would work. The fighters dwarfed my GZG battleships. So, they probably aren't going to mix all that well with any pre-existing starship games you may already have.

The rulebook and quickstart pamphlet are well printed on glossy paper. Rules are easy to comprehend and there good examples when needed. The quickstart rules are extremely watered down from the full rules, but my kids had them down pat before the first turn was over. Our quickstart game resulted in only the first pass being a passing flyby as we got better at anticipating the movement, though in the last turn Zachary zigged when he should've zagged and my TIE fighter got on his six and turned his X-Wing into a rapidly expanding cloud of gas. Throughout the game we were all singing the appropriate themes and adding our own sound effects, so the game gets a big "+" on fun factor as it captured the feel of universe quite well. Tonight I plan to get our first game in with the full rules.

TL:DR: Overall I like it very much and will probably spend an obscene amount of money on expansions. Especially when the Millennium Falcon and Slave I are released later this year.

Would you like to know more?
Or even more...

Lock S-Foils in Attack Position

Picked up FFG's X-Wing Miniatures Game tonight. Will do an unboxing and probably a battle report tomorrow.



Update: OK, did the unboxing, played the  quick start scenario with the kids, even took pictures. Went out for ice cream with my wife instead of posting pictures.

Hunter Assembly

After a learning game of Munchkin (been a long time since I played and they never had) at a friend's house came home and started to work on the Northern GP squad.  Right now all five have everything except their arms and primary weapons assembled. I'm going to paint the arms and weapons separate in order to keep them out of the way while I paint the torsos, pretty much the same way I paint my other mecha figs.

The most common thought I had tonight was, "Is that detail or a mold line?" Which isn't unusual when I'm working with figures I've never seen before. However, the problem was compounded when I discovered the metal Dream Pod 9 uses is much softer than what I'm used to. So the first pass with a file got a lot more pressure than was needed and I'm sure I'll probably anger some WYSWIYG purist out there for having accidentally filed off the interior left repair access panel or some such. Otherwise though the casting was overall good, despite a tendency to have some pitting on flat surfaces. Thankfully those those were all at points that would be covered when glued together. Assembly was fairly straight forward. Fit is a bit loose, but not overly so. I have a feeling I should have pinned them, but the kids broke the drill bit I use for that and I can't seem to find the right size without having to buy a whole set of bits. Probably about the only thing I had some issue as far as assembly goes was that I filed the mount on the back of the torso for the V-Engine "backpack" down too far while cleaning up molding irregularities and I'm not real comfortable with the resulting join.

Tomorrow should see preparation of the arms and weapons, priming, and maybe even a little paint. Something I'm already not too sure about though is where exactly the Heavy Panzerfaust is supposed to go...

GADD Strikes Again

Well, my Gamer Attention  Deficit Disorder has raised it's ugly head again. Being the mecha enthusiast that I am, I have been going around and around with myself for about six years about whether or not I should get into Heavy Gear. They finally got me with their summer promotion which gets you the Locked & Loaded and Field Manual rulebooks in .pdf format for free via RPG DriveThru. And seeing as how my current main CAV opponent works for Dream Pod 9 I decided that I've got free rules and an opponent, I like most of the miniatures, why not.

What makes this even better is that yesterday I found a model railroad shop to source some modern buildings that fit with sci-fi settings. They just happened to have the North vs. South starter set for HG Blitz...at 35% off! So I now have a General Purpose squad for both the North and South, though my intentions is build a force from the Northern Guard 33rd Regiment, the "Roving Guns." From what little fluff I've read, they are a force of heavy raiders that favor hit and fade tactics.

The Northern Gears are going to be painted in a sci-fi version of chocolate chip desert camo. I think the Southern ones will be painted as standard MILICIA, meaning grey drybrush. I'm not all that interested in the Southern Gears and they may eventually end up on eBay.

Speaking of which, my 6mm sci-fi figures will be offered up for sale as a way to fund the further expansion of the HG forces.

And in totally unrelated news, I'm totally stoked about the impending release of Fantasy Flight Games X-Wing. I'm getting to like the idea of the big box board games that are either fully or mostly self contained, as evidenced in my backing of the OGRE Kickstarter. I'm looking forward to X-Wing for a few reasons: as with most gamers I'm a big Star Wars fan, I don't have to paint the figures, my kids are getting to be almost bigger Star Wars fans than I. The game rules look like they will be easy to pick up. If nothing else I'll end up with a couple of TIE fighters and an X-Wing.

Look! Something Shiney!!!

Black Lightning Dictator

I finished this last weekend, just didn't feel like messing with editing the pictures. A little background on this first, Black Lightning was Reaper's volunteer demo organization and for a while they used to give these unavailable-to-the-public arms for putting on a Dictator 60. My understanding is that the fluff was that they were prototypes of the gauss cannons used on the Dictator 70. I was never a member of the Black Lightning program, though I had bounced the idea around in my head a few times.

A couple years ago a friend of my sent them to me with the promise that I use them. I almost immediately assembled the model, but then I deployed, then moved, and have just now gotten around to painting it.

I'm not entirely sure that I'm happy with the painting on this. My CAV painting ability has apparently decreased somewhat as it has been a couple years since I've painted one as I've been focusing on my startships and 15mm. Well, as much as you can call my frequency of painting "focused." This turned out only partially what I was seeing in my minds eye. I'm thinking that once I get back to my former skill I may strip this one and start over.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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)

Shield Generator/Power Plant WIP

Today I finally got around to starting a terrain piece that's been floating around my bitz bucket for a while now.  At some point last year my kids had left a Hubba Bubba Bubble Tape container on the floor. I saw it and had an attack of Scratchbuilditis, as I knew instantly what that little container really wanted to be when it grew up. Not too long later the kids had left another empty one in the van. Only problem was I needed something to dress it up. A few weeks ago I saw the cover for one of my wife's disposable razors and it looked the part, so I looked around for a second. Wait about six months, and today I finally got off my butt and started on it.

Here's the parts:

2 bubble tape containers, 2 ladies disposable razor covers, and the base is a wood flat from Michael's (Hobby Lobby has them as well, I'm sure most general craft stores will).

First step was to separate the halves and trim the bottoms so they'd sit flat. I used a combination of hobby saw and X-Acto knife for this. After that, removing the stickers. Getting the sticker glue off was a real pain in the ass though that resulted in me getting a blister on the side of my thumb.

Test fit

Next was to scratch up the sides to be glued together with some 80 grit sandpaper so there is some tooth to the surfaces to be glued. The plastic on the side is extremely smooth and non-porous. Had to do the same with the area that the razor covers were attached as well. Superglue (your typical cyanoacrylic glue) was what I used. I glued them together in sets of two them together, starting to look like something now...

Another project that had been sitting around, a little something to pass the time while glue dries.

All glued together now. I used some regular Milliput (found it at Hobby Lobby) to fill in the openings where the gum strip used to come out. I've decided I really like Milliput for it's ability to be smoothed with the application of a little water. Greenstuff and I have never really gotten along all that well. Had a little extra over so tried my hand at making some vent panels. Only one of the two turned out semi-OK-ish enough to use.

Since I wasn't sure what kind of plastic it was, I used Krylon Fusion black spray paint to cover the model as sometimes I've done work with plastic that went all tacky on me due to interactions between the plastic and the clear coat. Hopefully the Fusion coat will help prevent that. I'm going to let the base coat dry overnight then I'll glue it to the base and smear some artist's gel to the base and prime the whole thing with my usual primer (Duplicolor sandable auto primer - usually in grey rather than white or black). It looks good in black, but I know that it hasn't reached it's full potential yet.

Thoughts on painting are metallic silver with a good dark wash and glowing blue in the recesses along the tops. I'm purposely trying to avoid anything that will give this piece a scale reference to increase it's potential for use. Right now I'm looking at is as a shield generator or power plant for 6mm to 15mm and as a small power plant for 28mm or maybe a part of a Cygnar research project for Warmachine (though I still have yet to play that particular game). I'm hoping to get it based and primed tomorrow, maybe even a little paint. Though to be honest I'd like to play the last game of the Klingon Armada campaign tomorrow as well.