Lockdown Workbench #2

 It's genuinely all over the shop this week. For some reason I got frustrated at myself for having some things in the queue that have been there for WAY TOO LONG and decided to get some things finished.

Victory at Sea

 

Luigi Cadorna on the right, Etna on the left.

Two more ships have been added to the Regia Marina this week - the RM Etna and the RM Luigi Cadorna. These were pretty easy paints and I'm genuinely really happy with how the bows are coming out now. I'm getting the hand of painting reasonably even stripes and getting the colour pretty consistent. I've been looking for things on the ships that add a bit of colour so the lifeboats on the Luigi Cadorna were a nice little colour point on the sides. 

I've parked the RM Aquila until I can find the transfer paper I bought back in the day and can make the marking for the deck as I don't want to paint it.

Warhammer 40K

Lord Commissar

This guy was one I picked up to add another HQ choice for my Imperial Guard. He's been sitting around for ages waiting to be done which, given it's mostly black, is an embarassing lack of effort on my part. Grrr.

Necromunda

 

Note FIREHAT

These are the last five gangers for my Necromunda collection (excepting some Sheen Birds and a Stig-shambler when those come out) and I've made up a couple who'll get painted red, to be more Redemptionists, including the one with a melee weapon and the Pyromantic Mantle (otherwise known as FIREHAT!)

Flames of War

 

Sentinels!

PIATs

Getting these done has reminded me that I'd actually really like to play my Pacific War Australians. It'll do a big old proxy for Late War British with a Canadian Command Card to give them 3+ Rally, which I think is a fair reflection of the determination shown by the Australians in the Pacific. I still need to put some turret markings on the Sentinels and get some unit badges for the front right fenders.

It needs one more add in to complete a viable list and that's air support. There is a 1/144 PBY-5 Catalina kit (and the RAAF flew Catalinas in the war) and I've decided that, in the vein of my AC-130, I'm going to do another silly air support choice. I'm also going to pick up some Matilda IIs and convert those to Frogs (as a Churchill Crocodile proxy) and I need to get hold of a resin Battlefront Honey Stuart (my M3s in the Pacific will proxy as LW M5 Stuarts) to have a platoon of 4 tanks.

I also finished up my 251/Ds - this was in the hope of going to FlamesCon in Auckland in October but methinks that's somewhat unlikely at this point. I'm still trying to decide if I want to put some foilage on them. I suspect I should - the rest of the army has it.

Next Time

Good question. I'm short of black primer at the moment, which is definitely putting a crimp in my style and of my plans. There'll be more boats, almost certainly, and I have a couple of obvious 40K jobs sitting on the painting table waiting to be done that are already primed so probably those. And hopefully NZ has managed to find the edges of this COVID outbreak and we'll be back to gaming soon. 

Lockdown Workbench #1

So it's back and it is as vexing as ever. New Zealand is back in lockdown as we try and contain a delta outbreak so we're back to workbenches for a wee while as we don't really know how long this will last.

Stompy Robots

 I've had new carapace weapons for my titans for a while. The Reavers aren't particularly interesting but I really had to post the updated Warlord because these Gatling Blasters are neat.

I might also be getting one of the new Warmaster Iconoclasts when they come out because that giant eff-off chainsword fits perfectly into my Legio Vulpa. Of course I'm not sure when I'll be able to get one....

Victory at Sea

Lockdown has also got me to have another crack at my Victory at Sea Italians. I wasn't super happy with my first attempts so they went in the stripper and I'm having another go.

I think I've posted these before but I decided I didn't like the water - I'd definitely overdone the whitecaps so went back and redid them and cleaned up the water and left a lot less white on the bases and I'm much happier with the result.

Then we're onto the next biggest ships, the Navigatori-class Destroyers. I enjoyed these, even the double candy-striped panels. They were definitely easier to get a result that I'm happy with. I'll keep going with these and, at worst, I'll go back and redo these ones when I get better. 

And now my least favourite experience. I did up my first plane stand as a test paint.

Simply put, do not like. They're cast in soft plastic and the result is that the bases aren't level and don't fit together that well. The flash was irritating and I didn't enjoy trying to get that sorted (and gave up after a while). I also don't understand the asymmetric stand either. It looks weird. The design is clever with the ring on the base that can swap between F and B (for fighter and bomber) is good but the overall product doesn't float my boat as they're much less nice than the ships, which are lovely. I will consider some alternatives.

Next Time

I'll be continuing with more Victory at Sea models - I'm working on the RM Aquila and the rest of the plane stands. After that, I'll have a look at the Etna and the Pola before I crack into the Conte di Cavour and another go at the Vittorio Veneto. I'm also going to do some stuff that's sitting on my task shelf that's already primed as I'm also out of black primer...

First Stargrave Game

 Stargrave! 

After the untimely death of Rogue Trader Devona Caligari, her first mate Mortem Castranova took over command of the trader's ship and continued around the universe looking to make some coin. He enlisted the services of a disgraced churchman, the Bishop of Iroas, as his new first mate and on this particular day, they arrived at a Starport to pick up some loot. 

We didn't have four small spaceships so we adapted - we placed four containers on the board which we figured would do the same thing. As I read through the scenario to work out what was supposed to happen, we created a new narrative - instead of the starships taking off, the starport crane would come in and pick up the containers and anyone too close would be smashed by swinging shipping containers instead.

I attacked mostly on my left - Captain Castranova, the Chiseler and the Robot Gunner attacked one flank while everyone else aimed to defend the other. Scotty attacked both sets of objectives equally with a couple of Specialists either side. Scotty got first blood when he shot down my dog. As a result, Captain Castranova went all John Wick...

Some pretty desparate redeployment for me happened as I moved the Bishop, the Guard Dog and the . Scotty made some good use of Remote Firing to shoot his robot at my oncoming dudes. My
Captain, however, wasn't having a bar of it and with a Power Spiked shotgun, took the robot from full health to 1 health in one shot.

In an attempt to stymie my attack, Scotty cast EM Pulse on my Captain, jamming all his weapons while my Chiseler (who you can see on the right of the photo below) busily failed to open a physical loot counter for the third time (trying to hit 14 on a d20+7!!). I was not impressed. This lead to quite a scrap over that loot counter between Scotty's captain and his Void Blade, my Chiseler and the Bishop of Iroas.

In the most John Wick moment, my Captain charged his badly damaged robot, cast Concealed Firearm and shot the thing in the head before it could get up and get me first. About here, a bunch of wild pirates appeared behind my crew! The Robot Gunner turned to deal with them and gunned one down before he was summarily smashed by the starport crane and a combination of fire from a pirate and Scotty's Pathfinder did for him.

Meanwhile, on my right, the Bishop and the three troopers were engaged in a scrap with Scotty's first mate, a Pathfinder and a Gunner. There were a lot of handbags being thrown (I think I rolled 17+ on every shooting defence for two or three turns) and my shots weren't much better. It was this turn that I grabbed a data loot and the central physical loot and Scotty managed to Data Knock the data loot on his side for the Pathfinder to grab.

In the same turn I took this picture, the Pirate marksman who'd appeared on Scotty's board edge, along with two other pirates who had arrived on our flank, collectively gunned down my captain with Scotty reveling in one of the few crits he rolled in this game! I did the maths and I think my captain took....15 damage from that one shot.... 

My troopers on my right finally scragged Scotty's first mate and we collectively started running for the board edges so it was at about this point we gave it away. My Chiseler and my hacker had made it off the board with a data loot and a physical loot each and Scotty's crew managed the same. Most of Scotty's cheap troops had been taken out, alongside his Captain and his First Mate and Captain Castranova had also been gunned down with one of his troopers, his combat robot and his faithful dog! 

We made the game a draw and a fun first outing, even if I did roll A LOT of 20s. D20 games are my jam apparently, although I was never much chop at Infinity. I guess because that wanted you to roll low...

 Stargrave Thoughts

Things I like

I think my favourite thing about Stargrave is how flexible it is. Scotty made his crew up out of models from Star Wars Legion and I with models from Warhammer 40K which I kind of loved. A new club member was looking over our game and was mightily vexed by "another new game" at which point he was pleased to see he could use stuff from his 40K collection. Of course this hasn't stopped me looking around for other interesting options for Stargrace crews...

Mechanically, I enjoy the crew construction changes and the re-characterisation of the Captain and First Mate from the Wizard/Apprentice model. I love that they can be different, their powers are all different and their skills and abilities haven't really got anything to do with each other. I think I need to still be cleverer with my power selections and get some out of game ones too which I didn't take. Again.

Overall, I think it's a slick evolution of the mechanics that began with Frostgrave. I'll certainly be interested in seeing author Joseph McCullough's foray into Gothic Napoleonics that's coming up too.

Anything I don't?

Much like Frostgrave, I have few dislikes to speak of. I always like an index in my rulebooks and there are some layout decisions I would have done differently but that's very much a preference thing. From a game perspective, I don't think there's anything I'd change. It's as swingy as Frostgrave (d20s will do that), which can sometimes be a bit frustrating but the changes to crew construction, loot tables and gear management means that in a campaign I suspect that's a lot less of a problem. 

Definitely keen to play it some more.

 Workbench

I've finished up the two Assault Intercessors for our next slowgrow day in a couple of weeks and just waiting for the Outrider to arrive to add to the Kill Team to finish up the army. 

Blogger Scotty has supplied me with a classic Leman Russ, giving me enough vehicles to build up a Spearhead detachment for my Imperial Guard. It's the last generation Russ with the narrower turret and cast weapons so I'll be building it a) as more of a classic Russ and b) as a command tank (maybe even with a Commissar tank commander, even though those aren't a thing) with lots of radio gear and so forth to kind of highlight the different construction from my other two Russes.

Next Time

The Russ, probably pre-paint, and the finished 1000 point slowgrow army. I've worked out a bit of a plan for the 1500 for late in the year which I'm also enthused about. I'm slowly working through basing up my 15mm Grenadiers as well so there'll be a massive binge paint of those coming up too.

Pooch's July update

7 months gone, 5 remaining. 2021 is fast getting away from me!

1. Finish a table of terrain

More terrain painted for Frostgrave, this time the ruined tower from TT Combat. Painted as per the rest of the terrain for that table, using spraycans, contrast paints and snow basing product.

It's a big bit of terrain!

I have a bunch more odds and sods left for this table, but I think it could well be done this month!

2. Play a game a month

I played a couple of games this month too, mostly of Victory at Sea!

American aircraft swarming over the IJN Yamato...

3. Finish a 1,500 point 40k army

You know how last month I had made a start on a bunch of different models?

Well, this month I actually finished some of them!

Battle sisters squad, with the heavy flamer borrowed from the one I had already painted

Close up on their converted cherub

And replacing the heavy flamer in the large squad is this multi-melta!

And a transport for the full squad, the stupidly amazingly detailed Immolator!

Stained glass effect comes from Contrast paint over clear plastic

So. Much. Detail.

And the Saint herself, Celestine!

Angelic AF

And her two meatshields/bodyguards

I still haven't finished up enough to make a 1,000 point army I am happy with for slow-grow in August, so more painting is needed!

4. Finish armies that I have part started

Nothing new here still.

5. Buy, build and play a new game

Another month, another new game fully painted, this time Victory at Sea! Much like Tank, I have always had a soft spot for naval wargaming and so when the result of Tom buying the rulebook and us reading it was "ok, this game looks quite playable", it didn't take much for me to buy into the game and pick up a whole bunch of US Navy ships, which I have supplemented with 3d printed aircraft.

Two battleships, the USS Idaho and USS New Mexico

Two Portland class and four Northampton class cruisers

Two carriers, the USS Essex and USS Yorktown. I have added 3d printed aircraft to the flight deck- having them clean just felt wrong!

Three Gato submarines

Three Clemson and six Fletcher destroyers (one is AWOL from the photo!)

Four bases of PT boats, three flights of Corsairs

My fleet of aircraft- this is the full complement for the USS Yorktown!

Close up of a base of Wildcats- an MDF base, a nail, a popsicle stick and some 1/1800 3d printed planes! 

I have more ships on the way to get even more variety into the games, and I want to play more games of it too!

August here we come!

The eye will be pleased when 1,000 points is complete....

All Hands on Deck!!

Back in March during our annual trip of bullsh*t and misdeeds, I discovered Warlord Games had revamped and republished Victory At Sea, a WWII fleet battles game. Immediately my interest was sparked as I had been searching for a Fleet game for a long time - ever since Battle Fleet Gothic passed into the grand unsupported history that GW likes to create. So with excited energy I visited our most reliable dealer of Wargaming awesomeness (Mr Bowmans Hobby Corner) and bought the rulebook. I already had some old GHQ 1/2400 fleets lying dormant that would be perfect, plus, I did make some over opinionated commentary on the suckiness of the Warlord 1/1800 ships bases. Much to the mirth of all the fellow bloggers, after purchasing the mighty Yamato, I completely changed my thoughts and I now love the scale, models and bases. I am such a fickle beast?!

So onward I went splitting a starter box with fellow blogger Pooch, and starting the mighty IJN. Into the research I went - watched some youtube and joined the obligatory FB groups. As expected the whinging was high. Mostly about the points discrepencies, and at first glance there are a couple of head scratchers. However in the best traditions of playtesting I thought I would get a few games under my belt before forming any opinions. I have now got a reasonable eight games done now and I am forming a fairly strong opinion. Apart from a couple of outliers the points work pretty well. So far we have played IJN, RN, USN and KM fleets, and they all have a unique style, which is very cool but tricky to accurately point. Warlord have been developing their naval games through the last few years and with a lot of cross over from Cruel Seas and Black Seas. Good lessons have been learnt and Victory at Sea has benefitted. The fleets seem well matched and the outcome of the games have come down to good tactics sprinkled with a little luck.

The mix of big ships, air power and submariners are a real challenge and make for fantastically fun games. The mechanic that really makes the game sing is the Critical Hits mechanic. In every other game that I have played that have critical hits they tend to be a big swing in the game, where as Victory at Sea has worked the crits into the game as a genuine tactic to aim for and an important part of damaging the big ships. The Criticals can have 4 effects. You can take out weapons, engines or crew, and all these are on a sliding scale of effectiveness. These crits can be repaired (or fires put out) but if a captain ignores these, things can quickly escalate and blunt your fighting ability, or your defensive ability. For example if you take too many weapons criticals you can loose your AA, and then the planes will make mincemeat of you! The last possibility is that a critical hit hits a vital system - remember the HMS Hood! Vital systems hits can pour on the damage to a capital ship, or with an extreme bit of luck, hit your magazine and you explode catastrophically. I lost the Yamato this way (after taking a massive pounding from a USN battlegroup). This is brilliantly thematic and a huge amount of fun.

So if you are looking for a fun fleet game that plays well and is quick moving and well balanced - Victory at Sea is your puppy. If you want a simulation - look elsewhere (lots of moaning about the abstraction of the game online from the grognards). Warlord have done a great job with both a pick up style game and the scenarios they have created. The magpies of the Regiment say, cacaw, this is one to crack into, CACAW!!

PaK40s a go-go!

PaK40s

I've been working my way through some of the backlog on the project shelf and finally got these things cleared away - touching up some paint and getting the final whitewash on. 

I'd love for Raupenschleppers to come back to Flames of War. These guys were brilliant in V3. In the meantime, they'll happily sub in for Marders. I'm working my way through the options for Bagration to see if I can find something that gives me the vibe I got from the Sperrverband in V3.

I've posted these PaK40s previously. Finding my white weathering powder took some doing and I definitely used some choice words until it reappeared in one of my carry cases (?) but once I found it, it was worth getting these done. 

40K Slow Grow

The two Assault Intercessors to go in my Venator Primaris Kill Team have had their base black and wash put on and I'll look to get them done during the week. They don't look like much at this point as I also ran out of primer today so there's a few bald spots that'll need fixing.

I do love the push-fit models and how easily they go together but refitting the shoulderpads on these two was a labour of frustration. They're brilliantly sculpted but they really don't want to play nice. I suspect the Outrider I have coming to finish up that KT is going to be just as bad.

 Next Time

Planning on breaking out some Stargrave with the team on club day. I've got a mixed model Imperial Crew that will be my team on the day. Photos, batrep and some post game evaluation of the two player version! Should be finishing up the second Kill Team for our 40K slowgrow too.