Painting Update - FIW, Pirates, Horizon Wars

Let's go to the painting desk for an update. 

I finally got around to finishing the French Wilderness Force for Muskets & Tomahawks. Part of the force is made up of a Canadian Officer and Canadian Miltia.

Another unit of Canadian Militia is also included, but these are Coureur de Bois - woodsmen and trappers who have gone native. And speaking of native, a small unit of French-allied Indians rounds out the force.

I made a slight mistake when talking about the British Force. It turns out the unit size restrictions in Muskets & Tomahawks only allows a Ranger unit to be eight men at max, so the six so-called "militia" are actually rangers as well, to make two units of eight.

And now that all the irregular forces are done, it may be time to start looking for some regular troops to fill out the conflict.

I also painted up some pirates for Blood & Plunder. While I like the rules, and the miniatures look great, I wasn't so enamored with the idea of painting up the same four miniatures for each unit in the game. So I've been shopping around and buying up Wargames Foundry Pirates where I can find them.

While I haven't had the chance to play Horizon Wars recently, I've finished painting up the last of the UMC forces. The above are medium Gladius mechs from Immediate Force Solutions, a private military company that exclusively fields mechs.

Rounding out the UMC is Fujikawa-Shaw Investment Retrieval LLC, which uses its airdrop capable light Zephyr and medium Squall mechs alongside airborne infantry, artillery, and recon units. 

Painting Update - Horizon Wars, Wrath of Kings

I've had a deficit of AARs this month, but I've made up for it by keeping a steady stream of models passing through the painting lines. 

Complementing the infantry from my last post, these blower tanks are from the Patton Enforcement Company, another PMC under the United Mercantile Consortium's employ.

I've finally managed to get the Children in the Shael Han faction finished for Wrath of Kings. This includes the two Big Sister leaders and the Warchild character leader.

Painting Update - Horizon Wars

Hey, look at this! I managed to sit down and finish some more miniatures. 

I've been trying to get back into the painting grove, and the relative ease of painting 6mm skirmishing scifi minis for Horizon Wars has been fun. 

I've added more mechs to the Kressidian forces. Like the Gators and Caimans, these Heavy Gear mechs are used as Crocs, another mech fielded by the Army of the Reach (one of the factions in my Horizon Wars setting). Crocs are a step above standard Gators, easier to hit but with heavier armor.

With the Kressidians finished for now, I've moved on to working on their opponents, the United Mercantile Consortium. This is a collection of various PMCs and security forces hired by the UMC to retake Kressidia after a failed first attempt.

The above Light/Heavy Infantry and Special Forces belong to Yntrinsic Defence, a Mar-based PMC known for recruiting from the gangs that rule the lowest levels of the Martian megacities and for their distinctive red armor.

Stalling Out - Horizon Wars AAR

Having gotten the hang of how to set up one of the scenarios in the Horizon Wars rulebook, Kevyn and I decided to retry the first scenario we played, Deliberate Attack, and bumped the points up to 20.

Kevyn's mech-led force would be the attackers:
P3 Mech Gold Prophet (CHQ)
P1 Mech x2
Armored Artillery
Heavy Cavalry x2
Mobile Infantry x2
Heavy Infantry

In order to win, Kevyn would need to beat down my force until only two units remained on the table at the end of a turn.

While I decided to defend with a conventional only force:
Heavy Cavalry (CHQ)
Heavy Cavalry x2
Light Cavalry x2

Heavy Infantry x2

Recon

Armored Artillery

To win, I would need to end the game with at least four units on the table, and have double the original amount of Presence.

Kevyn deployed his advanced force, while my units (the two Heavy Infantry and the Recon) were set up in hidden deployment.

In the first turn, I kept the two Heavy Infantry units hidden, but chose to reveal the Recon unit, which used its Guide Fire ability to reign down Armored Artillery fire from reserves. This was even more deadly thanks to a CR upgrade that pushed the Armored Artillery's firepower stat up to 8!

Kevyn decided to focus on the Recon unit, laying fire into their position, but poor dice and a combination of high armor and elevated cover meant few hits were scored.

Kevyn kept his units' fire concentrated on the Recon unit, not wanting to get closer to that dangerous artillery barrage, but the small infantry unit kept their heads down, receiving little damage. 

I brought on the first of my reserves - a Heavy Cavalry unit - which Kevyn then tried to destroy with a charge from his Mobile Infantry. Unfortunately, the P3 vehicle out-rolled the P1 infantry, winning the close-quarters battle and causing a huge amount of damage.

It was at the beginning of Turn Three that Kevyn realized his mistake. Allowing the Recon unit to hold up a large chunk of his force meant that I had enough time to bring on the high-presence units I needed to win the game. And as the previous two turns had shown, it was unlikely that he could do enough damage to take the slightly-damaged Recon unit to stop me from winning.

Kevyn's attempt to shoot down the Recon unit allowed the infantry to react and move out of line of sight to most of his units. A desperate gamble from a long-range move from his Mobile Infantry didn't allow for a charge, and another shoot action failed to provide the necessary crits to wipe the enemy from the table.

A crit from the Armored Artillery's indirect fire did, however, take out Kevyn's other Mobile Infantry unit, and my Heavy Cavalry (along with the CHQ unit I had brought in from reserve) started to rumble forward toward's Kevyn's lines. 

However, the game ended at that point - I had five units on the table (none hidden) and had doubled the original presence of the advance force. 

It's nice that Kevyn and I are starting to get beyond simply trying to learn the rules, and have instead begun trying to tease the nuances out of Horizon War's ruleset. This could have been a mission in which I tried to rush into Kevyn's forces from the beginning, which probably would have been a mistake. While I had an overall advantage in available Presence, Kevyn's advance force could have been plenty to wipe my units from the table, had he been less cautious. It's definitely a lesson I'll need to keep in mind, if I end being the attacker again in this scenario. 

Tripped Up - Horizon Wars AAR

Kevyn got his own Horizon War miniatures painted, so we decided to get a game in and try out the full rules. 

We decided to try out the Rescue mission at 15 P. I was the attacker and Kevyn the defender. I had to get my units off my side of the table, while Kevyn had to destroy them. Unfortunately, each unit had to take 4 points of damage, first applied to their Movement value, so they started the game limping along at 1" per move. 

We deployed our initial forces, with Kevyn placing his full advance force out. I had two units in hidden deployment. You'll notice the two sets of activation markers denoting where the hidden units are. This was actually a mistake - the tokens should be split up, allowing for a little more ambiguity in the unit's position. 

This misunderstanding meant that both of my units ended up revealed in the second turn, after repositioning their tokens to the other side of the table. Kevyn's P1 mech damaged my P2 mech in close combat, and both then went down due to shooting from both sides.

I brought on another P2 mech from reserve, and Kevyn's forces moved towards the other retreating mech.

With Kevyn leading 1-0, I had to get the other mech of the table. I brought on a Hvy Cav unit and my Lt Cav CHQ. I was able to use the CHQ's Chain of Command ability to move the objective Mech further along towards my table edge. The mech managed to dodge four reactions from Kevyn's forces! It then scooted back a little further

Now things were starting to get desperate. Kevyn had a concentration of forces all around the objective mech, while I was scrambling to get anything over to the fight. Another Lt Cav and a Mob Inf unit arrived from reserve and sped forwards. Meanwhile, my P2 mech was trying to take out the opposing P3 mech, and doing a poor job of it.

Unfortunately, Kevyn's Mob Inf charged in and, after slapping a half-dozen explosive charges on the mech's legs, watched as the explosions toppled the warmachine! Victory went to Kevyn, 2-0.

It was only after the game that I had realized my mistakes. The screw-up with the hidden deployment tokens hadn't helped, and I never thought to try and use the Repair action to try and heal the damage caused at the beginning of the game. I also revealed my units too soon, before I could get a decent build up of units on my side of the table. Kevyn followed the suggested tactics perfectly, forcing my to reveal my units too early, and then harrying them to destruction.

Painting Update - Guild Ball, Arena Rex, Kings of War, Horizon Wars

We're back this week with some single additions and half of a "big" project. 

Gen Con has come and gone, and thanks to some ninja-shopping from Kevyn, I managed to get my hands on some exclusive releases.

Wrecker is the Season 2 mascot for the Masons, and hasn't been released yet. He's an interesting addition (with a somewhat boring model), and I'm curious as to how he works in the team compared to Marbles. The baboon is a damage modifier, while the giant armadillo seems to occupy the footballing space more, with some methods to push models around as he moves.

Lupa is a gladiator for Ludus Magnus, and was originally available only through the Kickstarter. Now she can be bought exclusively at certain conventions. She brings some hitting power to the Magnus ludi, but can be stopped by the opponent by spending Favor dice - which can put the Magnus player at a Favor advantage. She's also a pain to take a picture of thanks to her stance.

Although I lost interest in Kings of War as a fantasy mass-combat ruleset earlier this year, I'm planning on attending a local tournament just to get some games in and support the local scene. The problem is, I no longer have an army for the game, having sold off my League of Rhordia/Kingdoms of Men force not too long ago. Luckily, Kevyn's letting me borrow his Ogres mega-army. As a thank you, I picked up this Reaper Bones giant and will pass it along to Kevyn, after using it in the tournament.

As for the "big" project, I completed half of the forces I'm putting together for Horizon Wars. The above miniatures are all from the Army of the Reach, the military force of Harker's Reach, one of the most powerful manufacturing cities on Kressidia. They're the main opposition to the UMC (United Mercantile Consortium) and their mercenary companies.

This is a big force; an average game of Horizon Wars may range from 15 to 30 points, and what I've painted adds up to 67 points!

The armored elements of the army consist of Mobile Infantry, Light Cavalry, Heavy Cavalry, and Armored Artillery. The vehicles are from Brigade Models, as are the infantry.

There are plenty of foot infantry options; Light Artillery, Recon, Airborne Infantry, Special Forces, Light Infantry and Heavy Infantry. Again, these are all from Brigade Models.

These Heavy Gear mechs have been repurposed as paratrooper variants of medium Gator and light Caiman mechs. I'll be adding more when Dream Pod 9 releases their plastic starter set, which contains 30 mechs!

Now that the Reach forces are done, I'm starting work on the UMC, which is made up of various private military companies. This should break up some of the monotony, as everything in the faction won't need to look alike.