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Monday 28 December 2020

Grimdark Future - Prime Battle Brothers

A little bit of hobby therapy over the last couple of days, painting some of the new (to me at least) Primaris Space Marines up as hard sci-fi, expendable government assets, where joining the corps was the only option.

None of this pious, warrior space monk for me!
It also gives me a solid excuse to paint lazy, having everything various shades of olive green and then just dirty them up.

Looking forward to getting some tanks and scouts done next, as well as some more Prime Brothers and eventually Mech Cult (with converted heads)

For now, I've got my first batch of Intercessors, a Redemptor dread and a couple of Reivers 'finished'.

I've also taken the plunge (£4.50...) into OnePageRules Grimdark Future rules.

This could be the answer to all of my hobby woes (well, some of them).

A single ruleset that covers 6mm-28mm, sci-fi, fantasy, skirmish and large scale.
I've had a quick read and watched a few videos. Seems to contain a lot of elements I like;

Alternative activation
No 'phases'
No charts
easy army building
optional rules for suppression

To name but a few! Hopefully 2021 will give me the chance to try it out for real.








 

Saturday 26 December 2020

Merry Christmas - Hobby Update

 Seasons greetings!


As is the tradition I'm going to do a quick (hopefully) hobby state of the union address, and follow up with my plans for 2021.


OK, so it was was a weird one...

The year started with the finishing up of my Epic scale Chaos army, I managed to get a game in with them, and begun great fun X-Wing 1.0 campaign with some friends. My Hobby Chi was in perfect balance. I was paring down unused games/models and focusing in on the practicalities of actual gaming.

Then you know what happened - we ended up in lockdown and face to face gaming was swept away and replaced with perpetual time at home.


Boredom struck, and whilst I maintained a steady run-off of unused toys in a bid to achieve similar minimalism that I practice in other aspects of my life, I was too weak...

Frostgrave - painting warbands, terrain and monsters too up the 2nd quarter.

Epic Tau - I spontaneously bought and painted a sizable proxy-Tau Epic army, which were almost as quickly consigned to storage. I have no idea if or when I'll get them on the table.

Bolt Action - The remainder of the year was WW2 focused, and it's rapidly taken a fair chunk of my hobby time and storage (mostly the terrain, having to dive back in to 28mm)

By December I was in a good place, hardly anything unpainted, surplus photographed and boxed for eBay... Harmony once again.


Then Santa...

Santa, in a generous, yet cruel twist of fate delivered me an embarrassment of Warhammer 40k, including a number of starter forces and the Blackstone Fortress dungeon crawler game.

I'm a bit overwhelmed by it, and my first instinct (normally the one you should trust) was telling me to graciously accept, and then as they are non-returnable, I would sell them on without dwelling on it.


But then... I remembered One Page Rules: Grimdark Future exists.
I started list building... talking to people about it... and now it's happening...

Another year, yet another game to add to the list.

My reasoning;

  • I wish to honour the gift.
  • OPR: GF looks like a great game system for my simple brain.
  • The models are great, and I'd love to paint them.  
So stay tuned! 2021 looks like we are heading back to the big space toys.
I'll mark this in blood however here are my hobby goals for the year ahead;

Bolt Action - Play if possible, don't need to buy anything else, still have a few sprues to add more troops to my lists if the notion takes.
Epic - Paint a few more formations from my bits box when feeling like it, sell some of the excess/unfinished stuff
40k/OPR:GF - Paint all the things, sell any odd bits.
Terrain - Don't add, reduce if possible

Lets go for it!

Also - for the sake of having a photo, this is my planned scheme for the Space Lads... No Ultra-Smurfs here... i'm going hard Sci-Fi, with a bit of Aliens thrown in, weathering, camo and some attitude rather than piety.


 



Saturday 19 December 2020

Bolt Action - Stoooooog

Just a quick one - Painted a Stug, notable for a couple of reasons;

1. I wasn't going to buy any more Bolt Action for a bit - but then this came up cheap(er) and if there is something a Scotsman can't resist, it's a bargain!

2. I used my airbrush - a tool that I have dedicated some time, money and storage too, yet for some reason can rarely be arsed bringing it out of its box.

The side armour skirts are removable.

I also touched up my 251/10 Half-track with some spots to make it a bit more European

And that's about it.

Photos;














Sunday 6 December 2020

Epic - Blood Angels Stragglers

 I've decided to focus any further painting of Space Marines to my Blood Angels army.

This is to give me as many options as possible for them, and whilst having multiple chapter sized forces with all the possible units is great, it's a massive undertaking and doesn't make much sense to me now.

That said, I did enjoy the palate cleanser of the Son of Horus inspired 30k models I painted recently, and could be tempted to make a force of these guys at some point...

It does mean that I think my Dark Angels project is a bit dead in the water, which is a shame as I'd painted 3-4 companies of stuff... who knows, maybe I'll finish it off one day!

For now, I'm raking through the bits box, finding stuff that I can make a detachement out of and painting it up.

Starting with characters, a medic/sanguinary priest/apothecary, a Techmarine, a Librarian and Commander. I think I'll do another HQ stand with banners etc for the force commander/chapter master at some point.

Additionally I finally painted a unit of Rapier Laser Destroyers, and mounted them next to some servitors, these could work equally well in my Ad-Mech force.





Sunday 29 November 2020

On the paint table - November

 Just a quick post with some updates for this month.

I've started a bit of a clear out. I binned a load of half finished/broken terrain, mostly 28mm Sci-Fi stuff that I don't think would have seen much action anytime.

My plan is to offload my desert and jungle stuff soon too.

As cool as it is having lots of sets of terrain, for various scales, and environments, the practicality of  storing it is becoming an issue, and realistically the amount of time it spends on the shelf vs being used is crazy.

My aim now is to have a nice set of 28mm and 6mm temperate/european style terrain and a nice mat to place it on, I'll also hold on to my smaller city scape board tiles and buildings to allow for some urban combat.

The next phase of this will be to try and cull the miniatures collection a bit, and finally rid myself of any unpainted 40k and fantasy stuff, as well as the excess epic projects that I don't need (another full chapter of space marines?!)


Anyhoo, on to progress - I picked up some of my favourite Thunderhawk models for the Epic Blood Angels, as I really hate the Mk1 'thunder-bricks', and as I'm playtesting new flyer rules i figured it would be nice to have models i actually like!

For Bolt Action, I reluctantly picked up a Cromwell tank for my British. I said I was done buying for a while, but a £5 eBay voucher forced my hand!

I don't regret it, it's a great kit, very simple and I love painting tanks!

In gaming terms it will also be nice as it gives my Brits a lighter option over the Churchill.

Just need to chuck some decals and aerials on and blend them in before calling it done.





Update - Decals




 

Saturday 28 November 2020

Epic - Spearhead playtesting (Rules mod for Space Marine 2nd Ed)

 I recently took the notion to see if I could bring any of the interesting mechanics I'd discovered from playing Warlord Games' Bolt Action to Epic Space Marine (2nd Ed).

Whilst I have massive nostalgia for Space Marine, the models, and that whole era, I do find the game itself to be a bit cumbersome in places. I have really enjoyed what I have played of Bolt Action so far, and in particular the activation mechanic seemed like it would work well for Space Marine to break up the I-Go-You-Go gameplay, and put less importance on who wins that initial initiative roll.

I used this as an excuse to break out some small armies and do some side by side testing, with the aim of seeing if it made a major difference to the outcome.

I took notes and plenty of photos, but in the end after a couple of games it was inconclusive and I ran out of time/energy to pursue it much further for now.

I would say on the whole it felt like an improvement, and the games seemed to play a bit quicker (I also experimented with simplified/abstracted combat rules, however they require much more thought) 

My final thoughts on it were that I'd definitely take elements of it forward into future games, however I think what I should really do is enjoy Space Marine for what it is, and continue to play Bolt Action when I want a change of scale.

I really want to try Epic 40k (3rd Ed), as it seems to have many of the rules I've been trying to replicate baked in, and from all accounts seems to be the most streamlined way of playing with the collection of models I have.

Anyhoo, rather than doing the full blown battle reports I had planned, I'll just chuck some photos below, to prove that I did 'something' :D

regardless of the success/failure of this rules experiment, it was fun to get the toys out on the table and roll some dice. I've included my rough rules here too if anyone wants to see my train of thought.

Game 1 Vanilla Space Marine (2nd Ed) 1000 points, 2x4 foot table;















Game 3 : Epic Spearhead 1500 points, 3x3 foot table.












 






Rules;


Epic: Spearhead

Introduction

The purpose of these rule modifications is to modernise the existing Space Marine (2nd Edition)/Titan Legions/NetEpic Gold rule set.

The modifications have the following aims;

Increase the survivability of units - Individual units should survive slightly longer with the ability to go ‘down’, allowing them to hold objectives under fire.

To avoid stagnation and to punish commanders that push their units to far or neglect them, an optional suppression system adds to the existing morale system and simulates the tactics used by militaries to neutralise an enemy without killing them, or softening up a target before engaging in close quarters combat.

Make flyers great again!

Make Transports and HQ function in a more ‘realistic’ way.

Efforts have been made to make flyers function in a way that better represents their tactics, speed and vulnerabilities.

Activation/Orders Phase

Use Warlord Bolt Action Order dice or normal D6 using the facings below.

Place the number of dice equivalent to the number of formations per side into a bag.

Dice are removed from play when a formation is destroyed.

Players blind draw order dice equal to the number of formations, take turns drawing from the bag, activating units until all dice are used. Enter the turn end phase after the last unit is activated.

Return all order dice to the bag. Ambush and Down orders may persist between rounds if the player chooses.

1.       Fire = No movement, Fire with -1 To Hit bonus, and +1 to rolls targeting the unit on Fire order.

2.       Run = Charge, move double, engage in CC

3.       Advance = Move and fire as normal

4.       Ambush = Go on overwatch/snap fire – may interrupt opponents turn when a formation moves into line of sight/range and fire all weapons as per advance fire rules.

5.       Down = No move/firing, apply +2 to hit modifier cover bonus (does not stack with terrain cover bonus)

6.       Rally (optional) = remove all suppression, no movement/firing – does not require a morale check to issue.

Units that have not been activated may choose to go ‘down’ before when being fired upon (prior to any dice rolls). Retrieve an order dice from the bag and assign it to the unit with the ‘down’ order face showing.

HQ Units

HQ unit’s no longer Charge/First-Fire, instead they activate as normal units with the bonus ability to ‘snap to’ nearby units.

HQ units may activate up to 2 formations within 15cm before the HQ moves. To do this, pull the required order dice from the bag and issue orders, activating the units any order.

Flyers

Flyers are deployed from reserve and are required to pass a morale check before order is issued (this simulates the uncertain nature of air support, weather, poor maintenance, miscommunication between ground and air commanders etc all contribute to air assets failing to arrive when desired)

Flyers Enter from any board edge and have unlimited movement in a straight line (you may wish to change this for larger battlefields) during a sortie, units may make one change of facing.

Flyers leave the board in the turn end phase. Must spend 1 turn to refuel/repair, any suppression is removed.

AAA/Opposing CAP automatically activates in LOS and range of the flyer

Transports may land to disembark troops and dust off at the end of the turn. On subsequent turns, once refuelled may continue to engage in fire support roles/CAP.

Flyer Orders;

Flyers use the same order dice to represent the following orders

Fire = Provide Air to Ground/Air support. Engage with ground or air units within weapons range

Run = Engage in CC with enemy flyers currently on the board

Ambush = Combat Air Patrol (CAP) Enter the board, snap fire/AAA against incoming enemy flyers

Advance = Transports may land

Rally = Activated Off board – Refuel and Repair

Down = Activated Off board – Hold in reserve

 

Transports

Formations with transports and troops activate using a single order die, and both types of unit’s must receive the same order and maintain coherency with their troop units.

Transports cannot take or hold objectives alone, however, do contribute to contesting objectives if their troops are also present.

The above statements are true of formations with ‘dedicated transports’ as depicted on their unit card, however units may be transported by a separate formation that has the transport capacity, and these units remain separate for all other intents and purposes. For example, a unit of scouts may start the game embarked in a Thunderhawk. Once the scouts have disembarked the Thunderhawk resumes its function as an independent unit. Discuss with your opponent and agree any specific cases before play. Razorback transports for example may be added as dedicated transports (increasing the breakpoint of the troop formation they are attached to) however the intention of these vehicles is to provide fire support to disembarking troops, and as such it would not make sense to force them to follow their transported troops into a charge. The same could be said for Land raiders, Eldar Falcon Grav Tanks etc… however this may lead to a severe imbalance in activation dice. A compromise could be to reduce the points cost of formations with dedicated transports by 50pts, however more playtesting is required.

Suppression (Optional)

Successful hits (armour saved or otherwise) against the formation result may result in suppression. Each hit results in 1 point of suppression.

Once a formation reaches it’s suppression limit it is considered supressed (this is resolved following any attacks that put it in this state)

Units with a save modifier do not receive suppression from hits with a 0 TSM.

·         Infantry, cavalry, bikes, walkers = 1:1 suppression to number of units in the formation (e.g. a unit of 6 stands will require 6 hits to become suppressed, this number will reduce as casualties increase)

·         Elite key word units = 2:1

·         Vehicles = 3:1 suppression to units in the formation (e.g. a formation of 3 predators requires 9 hits to suppress, once one tank is lost then they will only require 6 hits to suppress)

·         Super heavy/Knights = 5:1 suppression to units in the formation

·         Titans/Praetorians cannot be suppressed

A formation’s suppression counter is not reset between turns.

Suppression can be reset to 0 by issuing the formation a ‘rally’ order.

Supressed units must perform a morale check at to receive an order. Successful morale check will reduce the suppression counter by 1 point.

Suppressed units have 0 CAF

Suppressed Units that fail to receive an order go ‘Down’ if possible

Suppressed units do not contest objectives.



Monday 9 November 2020

Back to the little guys - Epic


 After a nice wee break painting 28mm for Bolt Action, I decided to crack open the box of shame and fished out the remainder of the order I made to Vanguard back in June.

3 not-sicarian battle tanks, 1 not-fellblade, some daemon princes and some not-knight errants.

I wanted to make the 30k tanks part of my Iron Warriors army, however I feel that black/silver paint scheme is tough to make look interesting at this scale, unless I can learn non-metallic metal painting somehow.

So instead I went with a bit more of a eye-popping teal/turquoise colour that I've became fond of recently, mixing in some green/grey.

I also decided to heavily weather them, partly to tone down the bright colour, and also to make them look ancient and war torn.

I really like the effect for how simple it was, and I'm now sorely tempted to do a whole 30k army like this.

The Daemon Princes were done as one for each of the major powers and require a bit of tidying up/detailing, as do the Knights, which will be added to my Mars AdMech forces eventually.







Thursday 22 October 2020

Bolt Action - October Update

 I would hesitate to call my Bolt Action project 'done'. but I'm certainly packing away the unused sprues, and forcing my self to take a break from drooling over the warlord mini's website for a while.

I'm at a nice point now, where I have a couple of decent sized armies, with plenty of options. Enough to hopefully play a good number of games before I get bored and want to add more to my collection.

That being said, what remains on the unpainted sprues would are a good number of potential units, mostly regular British and German infantry that would form great backbone units.

Aside from this, I've got a big box of trees to base and spruce up which should help adding some dense terrain to my tables, as well as some gravel roads to finish off.

I've got to say that these guys are pretty rough in terms of finish. I think the same can be said of most of my Bolt Action stuff. I've been really keen to get them 'tabletop ready' I've definitely cut a lot of corners. I have made a start though. I've dug out the British Paras, which were the unit that I started with back in June, and i'm now going back over them, tidying up, and trying out a more subdued scheme for their smocks.

So without further ado;