FWC Mad Max Style

4 of us in the end last night for the standard 1000ap Mad Max style, no air, no arty, no massive, no minima, all rights reserved blah blah blah.

Graham had threatened to come late but came early and threatendd to leave straight away instead. Mike, Paul and I persuaded him to stay. A decision he shortly came to reconsider.
I took the pink menace with 2 Arkalsts and a pimped up CO at double cost for CV10. Mike took Eldar (4 serpents plus carried infantry), Graham borrowed my Marine Corps (IFVs, Bikes, Grav Bike and infantry) and Paul had his Stargrunt human army(IFVs with SMs and infantry with SM upgrade).

 

T1
We each took a corner and used static deployment. I reminded every one that Arkalasts have Pulse. This was important. Graham headed toward the centre of the table but fell short of the BUA (cover lvl 5) in the centre. Mike headed to his left to approach Paul. Paul borowed from the Pax Arcadian Advanced Tactical Manual and set up shop in the nearest cover and gave Mike a bit of kicking as Mike tried to approach him. I headed left toward Graham and started to give him a shoeing at long range.

T2
Next turn Graham reformed his battlegroup to come and get me then promptly failed his command. Mike took cover to protect his forces. Paul re-arranged his lines in the cover. I proceeded to wipe Graham off the map. He had limited the effect of pulse but 2 Arkalasts at under half range with free opportunity fire, initiative fire and 3 command turns are very unforgiving, particularly this last roll....

T3
Unsurprisingly Grahma failed his army break and left the table. At this point Graham may well have considered going home. Mike brought some fire to bear on Paul with limited effect. Paul decided he'd had enough and wanted to take Mike down so broke cover and set up in a nice lone battle line…and failed his next comman roll. An Arkalast's wet dream, all I needed were 2 good moves to get around on to his flank. Proof positive that the Kraytonians are truelly blessed in the eyes of the creator… I rolled snake eyes and got 2 goes. Paul managed to suppress 1 Arkalast but the other had a perfect shot along the line. At this point I'd like to thank Paul Stanton for introducing us to the wonderful straight line laser that clearly showed Paul Harris' units were in for a kicking (see the red line in the picture). As it happened I destroyed very little but I did suppress most of the line and importantly those that were facing off Mike.

T4
Graham deployed his 2nd army, using MC again… and failed his first command roll. His evening was looking bad. Mike, now overjoyed that Paul was suppressed promptly swung around Paul's right flank and close assaulted him. Paul saw off 1 assault but lost the other and also lost a subsequent assault then Mike ground to a halt still facing down Paul's flank line. Recall that Paul's troops are in a big long line, at the other end of which are 2 Arkalast and me with a laser line… Paul fired off what ever was unsuppressed but to little effect then failed his command. The Arkalasts now had a field day, the live was so long I even ended up rolling 1 dice against Mike's poor infantry. Having taken both Mike and Paul to well below break I then moved to the central BUA as I knew replacement armies were coming right behind me. Sadly for me I didn't quite make it there which proved to be critical.

T5
Graham manages to get his troops moving and gets in range of my Kraytonians and more importantly shoots on their rear scoring a suppression. Mike fails break with the Eldar so leave the table. Paul with a high CV passes so send his remaining troops into cover towards me. With only 1 tank unsuppressed I turn to face Graham, as it barely twiches Graham opens up scoring hits but no suppression. I turn and waste an MC IFV but then fail command. I now have 1 tank facing Paul and the other facing Graham and in a mess as 1 of them can constantly suppress me.

T6
Graham reforms his troops, I opportunity fire and get a kill but then get suppresed as Graham amasses fire power against me. Mike arrives with new Hunter Scavengers and moves toward Paul's remaing troops. Paul fires off smart missiles at me scoring hits but no suppresion.

T7
Graham arrays his MC in a splendid line a mere 10cm from my tanks, opportunity fire knocks down another of his units but he can afford that. Electing to fire rather than assault he scores a suppression on me then fails command. Mike fails command straight off so does not move. Paul fails break so leaves the table. I turn my unsuppressed tank that was facing Paul to face Graham. Opportunity fire from Graham score hits and suppression so my go is over.

T8
The zenith of Graham's FWC gaming arrives. Under initiative he pours 32 dice needing 5s into 1 Arkalast. Scratch 1 pink menace. Under command he repeats the process but I manage to save some hits and am still on the board. Graham passes his 2nd command roll and another 32 dice say the remaing Arkalast is toastand I've no units left.

At that point we called it as it was 10.45pm and with the Kraytonians dead the evening wasn't going to get batter than that for Mike, Paul and Graham.

Great fun and we all laughed, particularly hysterical was Mike's recon roll at 5cm away… Don't roll a '1'. Take a wild guess!!

Important safety tip: Always remember Arkalasts have pulse
Oh and no blunders last night either. One double '6' but that was for Mike's break rather than a command roll. Mike and I both had a doubel '1'.

HOTT Dwarves - 15mm

So we've just finished HOTT Berkeley 2012 and here are some pictures of the army I used.

I'd had the figures lying around for a long time begging to be painted but wasn't motivated. For HOTT Berkeley I always do a momento for the attendees to make it a bit special... not that it isn't special enough of course but it's nice to take something home.

This year I'd left it late to sort out so was in a bit of a panic but then a discussion ensued regarding my 25mm Dwatven mine (http://web.onetel.com/~stenic/Wargmes/myarmies/hott/HostofMinehelm/Host%20of%20Minehelm.jpg) and Shaun of Dreamholme Scenics reckoned he could knock one up to fit a 15mm HOTT Stronghold.

I got the army painted in time for HOTT Berkeley and Shaun was true to his word providing 24 of the mines.

Here is the full army:

It consists of 4 Blades includingthe General with the Standard, 1 Hero, 1 Sneaker (to test the revised Sneaker rules), 1 Artillery and 3 Shooters.

A close up of the Hero:

A close up of the Artillery:

The mine entrance; I added the spare figures from the army to make it look like something was happening, one dwarf entering the shaft with torch, two messing about with the gold truck and one wondering up to see what's happening.

Another shot of the mine.

The back of the terrain item has a badge detailing "HOTT Berkeley 2012". I understand from Shawn these will be available from his online shop at some point although without the badge that makes the 22 people who got one at HOTT Berkeley 2012, plus one very lucky US tourist to the UK and 1 lucky no-show, very special people indeed.

FWC Bridge finished

And here's the final model. I'd asked numerous people about thoughts on colours but in the end stuck with what was in my mind, a sort of metalic midnight blue. Bridges in the future could be some composite fibre of sorts and and I wanted it to look like it wasn't contemporary.

So here are the pics, to give an idea of size the figures are my 6mm FWC Kronal Legio army.

FWC Bridge Part I

For some time I've been looking to get a nice bridge for our 6mm FWC games, my plan was to do a  Sci-fi version of something like Mont St Michelle, but rather than a causeway I wanted a modern style bridge, like the one in MI3 where Davian escapes with help from his mates, Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel. I wanted a fairly long bridge and wide enough to fit our based vehicles.

Needless to say the moment I got into the project Brigade Models developed something similar. Sadly theirs are to narrow for me and as I'd got all the bits  I wanted....


The bridge surface wasto be some 2mm MDF that I cut up in my evening woodwork class for bases and other bits. The bridge parts were to come from the Airfix Robogear platform terrain kit.

First job was to drill the holes through the deck and glue the supporting columns to the deck.

 Ta-da!

Next up construct the ramps. Happily I have two of the Robogear kits so managed to find a full complement of 4 ramp bits for eand end of the bridge. In the background are the bits to use as the railings.

The railings were glued on, they are different bits but I had enough to get symmetry going on so it does not look out of place

Sufficiently sci-fi looking.  Main deck almost done

Next side barriers for the ramps. Note also the ledge for the ramp to sit, this mean the ramps can be higher or lower than the deck as required by the terrian items I'm using.

And there she is, almost done. On the back edge I've place a pillar and gun turret, the pillar were dropship legs from the Grendel VTOL craft that were never used, the turret is from Old crow. They are not glued yet as I'm undecided if they look right. Angel Barracks kindly suggested some gangtreee with signs and I think that  may be the way to go.

Once I've done the gangtree and painted  it I'll post the finish pictures. Great thing is of course that it is easily usable for 15mm or even light footbridge for 28mm.