Ready for Mortal Gods

I received my shipping notice for Mortal Gods this week, so I'm expecting it sometime in the next 12 days (downside of being on the opposite side of the world). In the meantime, I've finished two forces so that I can get straight into it once it arrives.
These are an Athenian and a Spartan Lochos, and although I'm not sure about points totals at this stage, I am sure that this will be enough figures to get me started.

Spartans cross a river - making the Helots go first of course, just in case it has a strong current.

Hoplites consider getting their toes wet.

Spartan hero - 'I don't need a helmet!'

Spartans vs Athenians - we'll have to see how this plays out when the rules get here.

I also spent the afternoon playing a game of Clash of Empires with unpainted figures. I'm really impressed with the rules, and it hasn't taken much to get a good grip on how they play. Today was Seleucids vs Pompey's Romans, and after a close game the Seleucids had broken the Roman centre.

Initial deployment

Companion cavalry on the charge defeat their Roman equivalents. 

End of the game, and two phalanxes have taken heavy casualties, but only one Roman legionary unit is standing .

I'd recommend the game to anyone who has ever played WAB and enjoyed it. There is a lot that is familiar, but the hero element is reduced and the game plays a bit more smoothly.

Nate

Painting update

It's been a while since one of these, but I've had two weeks of not doing much painting, so it balances out.
First up, the next installment in the campaign to have two ready forces when Mortal Gods is unleashed. These Spartans certainly aren't as colourful as the Athenians, but they'll do as an opponent.

Lambdas to the fore

I used sunset red on the tunics - it gives them a pinkish hue.

 Next up, progress on the Great War figures for Battlefront's re-released game.

A German platoon including rifle grenadier option

Close up - look at those moustaches!

The British opposition - a full platoon.

A few less moustaches in these close-ups

Next we have some fantasy figures. These are old GW plastics that are being repurposed for Dragon Rampant. The strength points are tracked by mini-dice, which enables me to put a variable amount of figures on the bases.

The second unit of human handgunners, in red and black. The others are black and yellow.

Gobbos next to their mushroom homes.

These guys were easy to paint - completed in an evening.

I've also completed some figures for Craig. Star Wars Legion (some were painted a couple of weeks ago, but I haven't posted them in between):

Scout troopers ready for combat.

Leaders to oppose the Scout troopers

I was quite pleased with how these two turned out.

And some WWII British snipers in ghillie suits.

Last week was extremely productive, and I'm hoping this week will be similar.

Nate

Portable Wargame in Vietnam

This is something I'd tried last year on a square grid, but this time I decided that I would try it on my hex board.

Set-up and rules modifications

The terrain is set up with a road heading into a small village that is to be captured by a US platoon. Jungle bases mark the line of the woods which follows the road, and the bases themselves are impenetrable.

I used the standard WW2 rules with the following alterations:
All infantry units fire with 1d6 except the M60 which rolls 2.
The Blooper and the RPGs ignore cover effects when firing.
The Vietnamese LMGs subtract 1 from the dice roll for the effects of hits on enemy units.

The US starts with 4 units, one including the commander, 1 with the M60 and 1 with the Blooper.
The NVA are placed in ambush by rolling an average dice to see how many units will appear, and then a d10 and a d12 to see which hex each appears on. The unit is placed in cover as close to the hex rolled as possible. I then roll for each NVA unit. On a 4+ they get an additional weapon - an LMG on a 1-4 and an RPG on a 5 or 6.

For this game I rolled a 5 on the Average dice, so 5 NVA units were placed - one right next to the Americans as they entered the table.

The US forces have to occupy both buildings before losing one whole unit to win.
The NVA obviously have to wipe out one complete unit.
The US are rated average, the NVA as poor.

The Game

The board seen from above. Although I ran out of plant-life, the jungle is supposed to run to the sides of the board. The village occupies 2 hexes each adjacent to the road. (I miscounted the number of NVA units, so the sixth on the top right was removed just after this...)

Surprise ambush in the flank!

two units turn to face while the unit with the HQ moves to outflank.

The outflanking operation is not without cost. Both sides take casualties in the initial stages.

The rest of the platoon takes on the next threat to appear.

The NVA garrison the village. On the right a unit is detached to remove the NVA in the woods.

The HQ unit, successful in destroying the ambushers rejoins the advance on the village. The NVA commander has fled his destroyed unit and joined his comrades in the village.

After a sustained firefight NVA commander is killed and the remaining unit is driven from the western village.

The firefight is taken into the village, with the blooper squad occupying the west. Note that both sides have weapons that ignore the cover penalty - the RPG and the Blooper.

Things don't go well for the US unit in the village, while the rest of the platoon are tied down by a flanking NVA unit at the eastern edge of the woods.

The final turn. The NVA are finally driven from the eastern village, but the blooper unit is destroyed.  

The Lt has no choice - casualties are too high, time to bug out.

Tactically speaking, I could have played this game a lot smarter from both sides, but I was just trying to get a feel for the rules and how they would work. The abundance of cover meant that most shooting was hitting on 6s, unless the unit had an RPG or blooper, and as such there were a number of rounds where firing really had little or no effect.
I'm thinking of rejigging the dice result so that a 4+ is a hit and rolling for the effect of hits will include pinning as an option. All units get 2 dice (3 for LMGs), but lose a dice if pinned.
We'll see how this goes next time.

Nate

Shattered woods

With the imminent release of Battlefront's new Great War book, some terrain was thought to be in order. To my shame I still haven't painted the Great War armies which were purchased when the first iteration of the Great War emerged, and they have been traded back and forth between myself and Craig more than a few times. They are now back here and I'm determined to get them completed.
Here's the only stands of German Infantry finished so far amidst the woods.

The woods are cardboard with twigs cut up and hot glued on. Then they've been painted and flocked. Not too bad an effect I think!

Nate

Battle report up on the NDC handbook

Hi folks.
A battle report for issue #3 of the Alliance of Awesomeness is up on the NDC handbook blog. As I've said before, I'll post anything superhero related over there, and just link to it from here. I have to say though, that Clobberin' Time as a ruleset is just getting better and better. I am very much enjoying these games.

Nate

Tank battle in Normandy

Games night at John's last night, and Paul brought along part of his collection of 28mm WWII British and Germans. It was a decent size table with plenty of terrain, but somehow we still managed to find plenty of open spaces for our vehicles to get hit and burst into flames.
Each side was around 5000 points in Bolt Action, and initially the games was quite slow on account of everyone taking it in turns to draw order dice for platoons (rather than squads) and having to look up the rules again. At 1 am we finished up, the Germans in the best position in terms of contesting and holding objectives. We think that if we play on this scale again, it would be better to use flames of war as the ruleset, as things will move much more smoothly. It was a lot of fun to play on such a beautiful table with all of these gorgeous models though.

The table with the town which was a German objective, the church which was the British objective, and in the background the two hills which marked the other objectives for both sides.

Some of Paul's gorgeous Tamiya models. 1/48 is a much better scale than 1/56 to go with 28mm figures.

The German forces deployed - all the infantry are in halftracks and Schwimwagens.

British on the right, looking from the German lines.

And on the left.

Capture ze beer!

No stopping for tea - we have an objective to seize!

 

The Church is garrisoned

The rest of this flank approaches the the town.

On the left the Panthers advance over the hill to try to take up positions behind the hedge-rows, but one is hit and immobilised almost immediately!

Panzer IV moves onto the road to scare off the Bren carriers.

While the command PZ IVs exchange long range shots with Shermans.

Germans and Brits begin to contest the town.

Sherman Firefly and friend taking pot shots at the Panthers sitting out in the open.

By the end of the game the German scouts were contesting the far hill, and the German infantry contested the town, while holding both of their objectives securely.

Almost everything on the table is the result of Paul's mania for WWII, and it looked fantastic. I should have got a shot of the typhoon flying high over the table, but I shot it down in the first turn! The Tamiya vehicles are so detailed and paint beautifully, and Paul hasn't actually got around to weathering most of the vehicles here. And as I say, this is just part of his collection. He also has US, Soviet and many more Brits and Germans sitting at home in various stages of completion. Not to mention he has a stock of unmade kits that would put many model shops to shame!
Not too sure what we're playing next time - either SAGA or Flames of War I think.

Nate