Legion BattRep - Empire vs. Trade Federation

Hey folks,

I hope you and yours are doing well in these fluid times. All the best to those who need it the most! Gotta say, the idea of gaming today was a very welcome distraction, and dealing with the imaginary evils in the Star Wars universe certainly felt a much better way to go.

We had attempted to set this up a week or two ago and ridiculous reality along with a migraine got in the way of that one, so it was good to get together with Mike and Duncan. Leading up to this we had settled on 800 points per side (Empire and Trade Federation), with Mike as the Federation and Duncan and I tag teaming to lead the...good guys???

Now as I'm actually only now getting into the whole gameplay of Legion, I can't say if we busted any 'rules' on our force/formation build, but m'eh, we went with what we had at hand. I can't remember all of Mike's forces...I know he had Cad Bane, Darth Dooku (sp?), some Roger Rogers (2 sections), some commandos, a section of larger droids, a couple of droidekas, and a spiderbot...I think. And I definitely don't know what equipment or tactics cards he had!!

Duncan and I:

 

The Emporer

Boba Fett - stims and hunter cards

Royal Guards - don't know if they took anything extra

Stormtrooper (Reds) - stims, frag grenades, extra trooper, HH zooka

Stormtrooper (Blues) - stims, impact grenades, extra trooper, DL sci-fi looking mg42 thing

Death Troopers - stims, impact grenades, E11 config card, extra troop with DL sci-fi looking mg42 thing on steroids, and hunter

Speederbikes - straight up, no cards

I can't remember the actual scenario process steps, but we ended up with setup on long edge in the corners (opposite) with 4 objectives for recovery and carry to table edge. Cad Bane and the Fett man both had the ability to put a bounty on an enemy unit, so we ended up putting bounties on our bounty hunters...the rub being that the bounty hunter has to get the thrill of the kill to get the payoff.

The table was already setup by Duncan, a desert-y looking environment with low-tech low development community. As well, we had set up about 16 barriers for cover and LOS.

Overview of the setup...Mike is at the bottom of the shot, Duncan and I are at the top with all the rocky outcrops...

 

Close up on the Empire side...Stormtroopers (Reds) on a low ridge, Death Troopers near a structure behind cover, Boba Fett on the rocks, along with speederbikes, the Emperor and his guard, and another section of Stormtroopers (Blues) on the other side of the structure.

 

Turn 1

 

Initial moves across the board...Mike brings up his droids from the left side of the shot. He also lays down a few 'stealth' tokens for Cad Bane. 1 of them are Bane, and Mike can reveal him when he wants. As well, a unit that gets within 'range 1' of a token will also reveal it, in this case, the Blues (stormtroopers) initially pushed towards the line of barriers on the top part of the pic and revealed a sci-fi IED...I think they lost 2 troops to the blast. With their 2nd action they pushed behind the structure to chill...the Reds take a suppression from Mikes commando bots...long range snipe shot...no kill, just suppression.

The Fett man makes a dramatic jetpack launch to the rooftop of the structure to get a survey of the land. The Death troops do something...I think they shot at some droids, took some points away from his shield, I think...

Turn 2

The troops take a real liking to the droid section moving forward...lots of blaster and even the zooka gets involved.

 

 

Mike keeps moving up from the left, hello spider bot...Bane joins the action and reveals near an objective. The droid troop near him is all that remains from a round of shooting prior. During this turn, there was definitely a concerted effort to target Bane...Fett man jumps closer into the mix, hits him with rocket pack, carbine, and wrist rockets. I think even the Reds and Death troops may have joined the mix...oh yeah, the Death troops got the kill, so no bounty for Boba.

Turn 3-ish

Spider bot keeps on moving and hits the Reds with some flamethrower action...they take a bunch of suppression, they stay the field because the Emperor threatens them but end up taking way to much and quit the field.

The droidekas pace up as well, the speederbikes move in from the right, lots of blaster fire...i think one of the droidekas goes down hard. I think Fett man and the Guard took the droideka and the speederbikes put some pressure on the spider bot.

Turn 4-ish

 

As this turn opened, we ended up losing a bike to blast fire...I think it was either the droideka or the commando bots, but one bike down and the other is feeling some damage.

 

 

 The Guard move up and get closer to the droideka...I think they took care of it this turn. The spider bot takes a shot at the Death troops and they pretty much love the fireblast, all good on their end. The Emperor keeps on shuffling forward, movement 1 each turn...

If I recall correctly, the DT's and the Fett man put some more pressure on the spider bot and take it out...funny thing, it has a self-destruct blast when it malfunctions or gets damaged bad enough...so yeah, we had that to look forward to. Boba shrugs it off and says heyo was that the wind...the DT's lose a troop and keep on grinding.

Turn 5-ish

So at this point, Mike pulls a fast one and actually reveals that he has been paying attention this whole time and Duncan and I see that he has systematically pulled 3 of the 4 objectives towards his table edge...the Guard continue to move forward, nearing the corner of the structure and getting in range of the Count...the bigger bots take their objective back towards their lines and the distance between the Fett man and DT's keeps getting larger...i think we were good range-wise, but LOS was another issue and there was no way we were going to retrieve and move those objectives.

So yeah, end result...had a great time leaving bits of plastic and robot parts all over the field, only lost a few troopers, but did not get any objectives...so a victory for Mike.

MCP - Green Goblin

Hello folk,

 

I hope you are all staying safe and sound. I am continuing my posting momentum on the Marvel Crisis Protocol theme and I have to say, I really do enjoy these models. On one hand, there has been some amazing frustration with how finicky they be with assembly and certainly there have been some issues that have required some patching and layering of varnish to seal up.

On the other hand, the poses are dynamic and thanks to some great reference googling there are some really great examples to see...not to mention the box and comic book art that comes with the boxes and character cards. 

I have tried to keep true to the comic book feel and definitely leaned on the painting guide put together by Sorastro. I have to admit, there are some elements that took me a couple of tries to square away (the smoke plume, the Goblins rocket wing, and the pumpkins) but I am really happy with how things turned out...and really, I think a lot of it comes down to being willing to experiment and not approach this as having to copy stroke-by-stroke what someone else does.

Anywho, I hope you enjoy the pics.

2022 Lead Mountain Climb

Painted

15mm               8 

28mm+             17, +1

 

Bought              0

Progress          +25

Marvel Crisis Protocol - Starter Box Terrain

Hey hey everyone,

I hope all is well on your respective sides of the dice. Having gotten through the main characters of the starter box for Marvel Crisis Protocol, I thought it high time I start working through the excellent terrain that came in the box.

Shooting sights high, I do have the thought of putting together a suitable gaming table to accompany these great figures, so if I’m going to do any cityscape I figure that I need to start with some dumpsters. These were very straightforward to put together and after some googles, were straightforward to paint up.

Here are a few pics.

Ps. As I try to write my blog posts up in advance, this one is definitely a little more upbeat than the day would reflect; given my news monitoring, the fact I’m posting dumpsters feels rather relevant. Stay safe and all the best!

2022 Lead Mountain Climb

Painted

15mm               8 

28mm+             16, +2 (dumpsters) 

 

Bought              0

 

Progress          +24

Star Wars Legion - Barriers

Hey folks,

I hope all is well on your respective fronts. The times are certainly a little crazy out there, so…smoke ‘‘em if you got ‘em, enjoy your hobbies, connect with your buddies, and toast to being on the right side of the dirt.

Now if you’ve been reading through my posts from the beginning or midpoint of this blog thing, you’ll know that I like to have projects on the go…and little by little things do eventually get done. While I won’t claim to be complete the SW Legion core box, I have nonetheless gotten around to painting the barriers.

They took much longer to get to than the actual painting process…I wanted to keep a rather simple process to the pieces do they could be at home in almost any battlespace. I’m pretty happy with the result, please enjoy the pics.

Take care.

2022 Lead Mountain Climb

Painted

15mm               8 

28mm+             14, +8 (barriers) 

 

Bought              0

 

Progress          +22

Ladies Night - Marvel Crisis Protocol Gamora & Nebula

Howdy folks,

I hope all is well on your side. Apparently the North Pole got my request for some snow...we got a dump of almost 50cm the other day...or...almost 2 feet and then another few inches a day or so later. Very cool, nice thing is that the bulk of it was rather light and powdery, so no shoveling heart attacks!

As the title says, this one is about the ladies, and in this case we're talking the Gamora and Nebula pack from MCP. The sculpts are very dynamic and action oriented...and while I am not familiar with their comic book origins, being a big fan of the marvel movies, I thought the poses fit my movie expectations. As for painting them up, like the marvel figures I've painted to date, I wanted to go for a brighter, 'poppier' and comic book look and feel.

Now anyone who has been reading my posts will know, I am a pretty big fan of Sorastro and his style and approach to painting figs. Thankfully from watching him work I have been able to add a few techniques to the painting toolbox over the past few years. With no dedicated guides to go by, the paint scheme was really up to me on this...sure, there is some box art to go by...and the character cards themselves also help provide that comic book look and feel. But I am happy to say I was a little more confident approaching these models...and if I'm totally honest, it was Nebula that presented the biggest challenge.

 

Gamora was pretty straight forward, the box art was close to the comic book references that I found...white and black body suit, red/orange colour bands on them, metallic looking sword. Fairly straight forward and really happy with the results.

 

Nebula took some hard time to consider...the character card was great for scaling out her clothes and form, but the model has her leaping off a booster, rocket, or some motor type thing. Taking to the google, I saw that there was a consistent approach of hitting this 'rocket' with a straight metallic or single colour and adding some rusting/weathering. Given the dynamic model, the look and feel I was going for, I thought this rocket needed more.

 

Looking at the end of it, it reminded me of a inlet turbine so I did take a look at various rockets and engine for overall metallic colours.At th end, I took the chance to try out my shading techniques and try my hand at some non-metal techniques as well. Again, very happy with the result.

Take care...enjoy the pics.

The Ladies...daughters of Thanos

Lady Gamora

the warrior Nebula...very happy with how she turned out. The colours were a lot of fun to mix and paint up. The nmm was a challenge and t really happy with how I was able to get the shading/highlights that I was looking for...

2022 Lead Mountain Climb

Painted

15mm               8

28mm+             6, +2 (Gamora and Nebula)

 

Bought              0

 

Progress          +14

Rules for Imagi-Nations - Afropia?

 Hello folks,

One of my random thoughts on my end year 2021 post was the idea of moving forward with an 'imagi-nation' type setting to bring together some ideas I had on scenario creation, maximizing playibility, fielding more figures, and really just getting more games in. I know that with Duncan and Mike we have some ideas on SW Legion and the Nam...but I also wanted something that I could have where I could take as little as a dozen or so figures or as many as a couple of companies and have some enjoyable games.

As this is a longer term project and idea, I thought I would invest in some scoping activities and rulesets that could be feasible within these arcs of dice throwing. Now, I have to say I have always been entertained by some great blogs over the years and some have provided some great inspiration for getting to this point. As well, seeing some battle reports of various games and rulesets has also helped guide the research side of this as well. 

 

Most recently I re-opened my copy of "7 Days to the Rhine" and this looks promising to have some cold-war era kit with a more limited size of force. I think it holds the same promise as Force on Force Cold War and am really curious to try it out. In the scope that I'm looking at, I see it fitting in a scenario with standing armies going toe-to-toe who have the joy of being Superpower benefactors...or some variance there of...more to follow.

 

I have always been a big fan of Force on Force, and if you look through some of my posts from years back you will see some very enjoyable battle reports. This ruleset would allow me the minimalist approach to force size and there are some excellent companion books that can help scale everything from standing army modern fights to counter insurgency to peacemaking/keeping/building operations. So again, a very good ruleset to have as a reference point.

 

In similar vein to Force on Force (and Skirmish Sangin below), Contact Front is a modern ruleset focused on the Afghanistan experience and professional army vs. insurgent warfare. It does look pretty interesting, it is a little more manageable as the book is on the lighter side of pages, and looks like it is fairly open to scenario and force improvisation.

 

Skirmish Sangin from Dish Dash is one that I am not overly familiar with. I did have a chance about 3 years ago to get a game in and was pretty happy with the mechanics and gameplay. This set is focused primarily on Afghanistan and ISAF, however much to my delight they have also developed Skirmish AFRIKA with a reimagining of the African continent with enough similarity to be familiar, and enough reimagining for this to accommodate a variety of nation state models and histories. It does look fairly promising so I will be curious to see how I can adapt this.

In the African vein, Peter Pig are certainly no stranger to gaming. I recently picked up both old and 'new' version of their AK47 ruleset. I have to be honest, this is the ruleset that allowed me the headspace and comfort to start modern gaming and definitely the idea of gaming in Africa. Having served there back in the day, I had some misgivings about modern gaming. Now, while I had bought this set years ago, and enjoyed reading it immensely, I unfortunately never got around to gaming it. So looking at it again was critical to approaching my Imagi-Nation. In terms of scale, this does represent a bit of a miniatures 'investment' as it allows warlord and state actor armies, it has a base level of 5 units...so some investment in terms of grunts, etc. Although, I may have to see how I can adapt as I have read so many great battle reports that it is really enticing.

At this point, I'm pretty confident that my battlespace and geographical reference will be rather Afropia (Africa-Europe-Asia) focused...this lets me use the full range of terrain and figures that I have but I will have to scope and define this further.

I guess that's all I'm going to say about that...for now. 

Take care.

Painting Update

Hello Everyone,

 

I trust all is well in your areas of influence. Just a quick post today with a truly random collection of figures that I've painted up over the past little bit. These wasn't a particular focus in mind when I went through each of these, and you'll see by the pictures there really is not a cohesive connection between them. Simply put, they were on the table, and they needed painting.

 

Take care. Here are a few pics...

A remnant from the assembly of my Royal Canadian Dragoons force for Team Yankee, I had an extra Leopard 1 tank kicking around assembled and in need of a paintjob. As I'm starting to put some thought to an Imagi-Nations setting I am anticipating that there will be a need for some sturdy peacekeepers to hold the line somewhere in the region. As such, my blue helmets will have some white metal to bring to the conflict resolution table.

 

If I recall correctly, these glowy ghouls were originally from a convention special and then they went on the Modiphius's shopsite in the early days of lockdown. Given that they didn't require any painting for the figures, the bases were the only thing that needed some love. They're straight out of Fallout and will be perfect for any post-apoc and radioactive setting ala Zona Alfa.

A few-ish years back, I picked up a superheroes blister from Knight Models that was on sale at FDB Boutique. Now, I am a bigfan of the sculpts for Marvel Crisis Protocol, but regardless I still have some heroes to paint up. Originally, I was going to use a similar technique as what I had painted up my MCP Ironman previous, however after visiting Red Dragon over the past summer I picked up Turbodork's Redrum...which as Dan told me was "Ironman in a bottle"...to say the least, he was right. I brought the paint home, put a fresh black base coat on 'little' Ironman and hit him with some Redrum. I gotta say, Dan was spot on!! For the silver metallic, I used vj gunmetal and nuln oil overtop. For the bronzey-gold elements I used the same technique that I did on MCP Ironman.

Finally, I picked up some figs in 2020 from Monster Fight Club, amongst them was an IT inspired Pennywise...I actually picked up 2. I painted one already, here which I painted up ala Pennywise. For the second, I was going to go with the clown from American Horror Story, but was instead struck by inspiration and instead painted this one up ala Homey the Clown from In Living Colour. The figure was a lot of fun, especially trying to capture the Homey look...and the balloons were a great test of my wet blending different shades. All in all, good fun.

Anywho...I hope you enjoyed the pics.

2022 Lead Mountain Climb

Painted

15mm               8, +1 (Leopard tank)

28mm+             4, +4 (homey the clown, 2 x ghouls, ironman)

 

Bought              0

 

Progress          +12