A few games

I thought I'd try out the Post of Honour rules today with my Marlburians. These rules have been written by Keith Flint to provide a simpler alternative to Honours of War. They certainly are simpler, using d6s and having units which seem to have a little more survivability. I played out the St Ulrich scenario from the Honours of War rulebook as it only has a handful of units which suits how little I actually have painted at the moment.

The Confederates advancing in column

The Spanish defenders providing the rearguard for the bridge

The Confederates advance

The Spanish stand and wait, while the artillery on the hill across the river fires the first shot of the game.

The Confederates deploy out into lines, Starhemberg's regiment taking the lead.

Both sides are in combat range, with close in volleys that weaken the Austrians, and the English Horse losing their initial advantage over the Osuna Dragoons.

The end of this turn sees the cavalry both weakened and standing off staring at each other, while the Austrians give as good as they get with the Viejos Murados.

The last recorded image of the English General before an unfortunate collision between his head and a cannonball.

With no general to help rally, the English Horse are unable to charge again this game, the Austrians are broken, but in turn the Spanish are broken by the Rivers' and St Amant regiments.

 The upshot was a victory for the Confederate attackers, which was fairly predicatable considering their numerical advantage, but there were moments where the game was in the balance, which is what you want from a set of rules.

Here's some lose up of the new units completed this week:

Spanish artillery

A Spanish general. I figured the yellow coat was justified as the Spanish Horse in the Nine Years War sported the same colour.

English Artillery

That was a solo game this morning, and took just under an hour to play out. Then this afternoon Adam came around and we had a game of Warhammer 40K Killteam. This relatively simple skirmish game should have been quite quick to play, but we did our best to lengthen it out to two and a half hours by being rather incompetent. We eventually worked out everything that we were doing wrong, so we'll be ready for the next game.

The battlefield

The sides begin coming together.

The Ultramarines had a pretty happy day chopping up the Genestealer cult.

I've found that I never take many photos when I play opponents, probably the part of me that believes that spending time with a phone in your hand when you have company is actually rather rude. I realise that we are a declining species.

Anyway, the Ultramarines had a pretty solid victory and then we decided that we'd have ago at playing speed-freaks. Adam had brought these over to play, but we had spent so much time mucking up Kill Team that we only ended up with a small amount of time to play. Nevertheless I played enough to get a good feel for the game, and it is a lot of fun. Not to mention that the models are simply stunning.

Me ramming Adam - these models were works of art. I loved the corkboard roads on the bases.

We managed to lose all of the war bikes very early.

A busy day and it was great to play a few different games.

Nate

First run of Kill Team

Having painted the models for two sides I thought I'd have a go at the game as a solo endeavour. I usually prefer to play solo, especially in the first few games just to get a good hang of the rules, but I think I will be much better off learning with an opponent. The reason is that there are special rules to remember for both sides, as well as tactics and specialist's abilities, and when you are searching for an advantage over an opponent you learn all of these rules much faster.

At any rate, I still had fun rolling the dice, and even though it ended in a white wash for one side, I think it could have gone either way - especially if I'd remembered some of the rules like Death to the False Emperor!

The battleground all set out and the two sides deployed. Ultramarines would keep winning the initiative for most of the game.

Looking from behind the Chaos lines, the objective is the crate in front of the right hand figure.

Sniper's eye view of the battlefield

In the second turn the Reiver has charged into combat. Chaos Plasma dude is coming to the rescue.

The combat is a hard slog - both sides have good armour and neither has AP weapons in use.

The Space Marine plasma gunner is taken out by the Chaos heavy bolter, but tit for tat, the sniper takes out the Chaos plasma dude.

Good shot that man!

The Intercessor has joined the combat as the Chaos Aspiring Champion charges in to help. The Intercessor will go down before his power fist.

The Space marine Sergeant shows up and his power sword shreds the Chaos champion

Fifth turn and the last Chaos Marine is removed. Ultramarines victorious!

The casualty pile is a bit lopsided.

The scout sniper managed to take out two Chaos Marines by rolling 6s which are mortal wounds. I forgot that Death to the False Emperor gives the Chaos Marines another attack dice in melee. I remembered to ignore the first flesh would because that works for both sides. I did use a couple of specialisms, but generally forgot about them and I didn't even try and use tactics. The game was fun and quick, and I can see it being a great game to play against an opponent, so I'll try and organise a battle against Adam soon. I'll also write out all of my tactics and specialties on a separate sheet so I can find them easily without flicking through the book.

So that makes 3 games that I've completed armies for and tried for the first time these holidays. I'm happy with that. Now back to thinking about work and doing marking and prep. Yay.

Nate

Latest painting

Things that have been finished and not photographed recently (excluding the Mortal Gods Greeks and Fantasy that have featured in the last couple of game reports).

First up - Kill Team Chaos Marines. Now I have two painted kill-teams I should probably try and play the game...

These guys are Slaanesh lovers, because shocking pink is the perfect colour for any great warrior.

Next up, a Fantasy Goblin Rock Lobba. This is an extension/option for the Orc and Goblin army.

You have to love the character in these GW models.

Then there is some Byzantine goodness for SAGA.

Cataphracts

Varangians - love those axes!

For the fantasy armies I have some magic users and Elven allied cavalry for the Imperial forces to paint. I've decided that I will use the Silver Helms I've got as an addition to the humans rather than do a full Elven army. I'll have my hands full with Undead and Dwarfs anyway.
The whole Byzantine army is finished and ready now, although their Norman opponents are a little way down the painting queue. Luckily John has finished armies so they may get a run before I create their opponents.
I have 8 figures for Mortal Gods to complete over the next couple of nights and some cart-horses before I get stuck into some Star Wars Legion for Craig, which I want to complete by the end of the week. So hopefully a few more photos next Sunday.

Nate

Some progress

Since the last post my paint brush has been busily working through a few things. First and foremost is another 2 regiments for the Spanish War of Succession project.

The Viejos Murados - the Old Purples. the Sevilla Tercio.

From the other angle with a closer shot of the grenadiers.

The Dutch Regiment St.Amant - a marine regiment that served in Spain for the duration of the war.

And another angle.

Rivers' regiment is not too far off finished so I'll put that up when it's all done.

I completed the Ultramarine Kill Team. Painted up in mid-90s style - ain't no school like the old school! Adam's been keen to get a game in but the weekend has been far too busy, as we've taken advantage of the weather to do some tidying up in the yard.

A bit bunched

A better view of some of the hidden chaps from above.

I also finished off Geoff's last figures.

I felt a little sad as I painted these kids. It just reminded me of how desperate things must have felt in Germany in 1945, and the price that was paid. Some of those kids might have been distant relatives.

Which leads nicely into my updated DNA Ancestry results. The previous results had 40% English, 20% Irish, and no German. The latest update (the more people that take the test, the more markers are available and the more accurate the test becomes) sees my ancestry shift a little to match what I know of my family tree. The Scandanavian probably comes in with my Eastern English ancestry - lots of Vikings hanging out in those parts, and the Eastern European probably adds to the German as part of my Prussian heritage. but I am quite surprised at the degree of Irish in there.  20% seemed to tally with my knowledge of the family tree, so further research is needed. Gone are the small Spanish, Jewish and Caucasus percentages. Just lots more Irish. I look forward to seeing how it shifts again in the future.

Right, time to go and grab some Guinness I guess. Will it improve my painting?

Nate