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.

Bad Moon Rising - Empire of the Dead AAR, Part 2

We continue in part two...

Death and its spirits clear the streets and go searching for more victims.

The Field of Screams continue to search for more victims to drag back to the cornfields.

The vampires continue to spread out, preceded by their swarms of bats.

Seeing the oncoming werewolves, the tank hits the breaks and begins to reverse as policemen try to move civilians out of the way.

Of course, the tank's gun jam and the chaplain's exorcism fails to do any damage. The pack looks to split between the police and the poltergeists.

A tenuous truce was struck between the werewolves and the pumpkin monsters, for the moment.

Van Helsing's gang make their way past the town's hall, looking for vampires.

And do they find some! The vampires have been busy draining and converting civilians, turning them into new thralls.

A pair of packmasters hit the edges of the police lines, attacking the tank and a hapless constable that got mixed up by accident.

The town begins to descend into chaos as the civilians are caught in a three way fight between the vampires, industrialists and the vampire hunters.

Small sections of the spirits and werewolves also get in on the action.

The Field of Screams invades the town's graveyard, not wishing to share real-estate with non-pumpkin based spirits.

The two packmasters kill the men crewing the tank, who stayed behind to cover the others' retreat. The flower lady managed to hold out against two wolves with nothing but a bouquet, but was finally dragged down.

The streets were filled with screams of terror, the roar of guns, and the hissing of vampires.

The vampire hunters were caught between spirits, werewolves, and vampires. Van Helsing was killed by a packmaster, never getting a chance to lay eyes on Dracula.

The Industrialists were hard pressed by the supernatural threats, trapped near the docks.

The Field of Screams crew completed its Occupy Death rally, forcing their way into the graveyard.

The group decided to call the game after three and a half hours of play. The vampires had secured victory, turning at least a dozen civilians into thralls and spreading throughout the town.

Despite some hiccups in the game, the group had fun. Gary did a great job of setting up the game and helping players unfamiliar with the rules. His next project looks to be a massive underwater GASLIGHT game, which sounds interesting!

Bad Moon Rising - Empire of the Dead AAR, Part 1

Happy Halloween!

In the spirit of the holiday, I've got the first of a two part after action report of a massive, Halloween-themed participation game of Empire of the Dead, run by Gary. There were seven gangs on the table, each with their own objectives and grievances with one another. 

Like his Assault on Castle Klankk game, Gary went all in on the terrain, creating a sizable town with docks, fields, an industrial section, and even a graveyard.

And, of course, there were plenty of innocent (and not-so-innocent) civilians populating the streets and alleys.

With that, let's take a look at the factions than ran amok through the town.

Dracula and his brood arrived via an unmanned ship, looking to drain as many civilians as possible and convert them into vampires.

A pack of werewolves also arrived with a bone to pick with the vampires. Though they weren't opposed to picking up a few snacks along the way.

The Industrialists, having realized that a number of valuable Clickers had gone rogue, geared up and set out to reclaim them.

Members of the Supernatural Branch, following a tip they had received earlier, desperately worked to save some civilians from the impending slaughter.

Also looking for Dracula was Van Helsing and company.

Lurching out of the corn fields, the pumpkin-headed Field of Screams looked to secure some valuable, and fresh, fertilizer.

And feeling as though he'd been under quota for the year, Death itself stalked the street with an assortment of banshees, poltergeists, and other spirits.

The Supernatural Branch fanned out, somewhat concerned by all the howls coming from the park.

Death and his spirits began to float through the streets, wailing and shaking ephemeral chains.

With a steam-powered Mech and a Penny Farthing bicycle, the Industrialists began to move through their section of the town.

The vampires fanned out, looking for unprotected necks from which they could feed.

The Field of Screams found an unwilling volunteer to head back into the cornrows.

And the werewolves snacked on a nanny and her charge, while the rest moved towards the town's center.

Another two victims fell to the werewolves - a hapless gravedigger and a flower lady - but a burst from the Supernatural Branch tank's Gatling gun killed a wolf.

Come back on Wednesday for Part 2!

Shattered Glass - Wrath of Kings AAR

We're back this week with another Wrath of Kings AAR. 

Kevyn and I are still trying out new lists and Motivations. I brought some new characters while Kevyn dropped the Ravenscar mercs onto the table.

My List (Shael Han, 10 Morale, Disrupt Supply Line
Madam Mui
Dragon Legion Keeper (Commander)
Iron Lotus Warrior x10
Dragon Legionnaire x8
The Deathbloom
Hong Yao

Kevyn's List (Goritsi, 9 Morale, Assassination)
Korrad Ungarash
Ravenscar Mercenary (Commander)
Skorza Skirmisher x6
Ravenscar Mercenary x6
Shield Breaker
Scourge Hound
Ravenor Alpha

First turn was the usual slog forward. I had Hong Yao and the Deathbloom out on the flanks.

With Kevyn winning the initiative on the second turn, I managed to get the Deathbloom and Hong Yao into trouble. Luckily, Deathbloom's high Wound value and Hong Yao's resilience kept them alive (and would continue to do so through the fight).

Meanwhile, the masses of infantry converged in the center as I aimed to push through to the Supply Line tokens.

This is where things started to go downhill for the Goritsi force. The Ravenor Alpha was killed by a combined attack from Hong Yao and the three Iron Lotus Warriors that had broke off from the main group. The rest of the Iron Lotus Warriors had crashed into the Skorza line, killing off all but one of the werewolves. The Deathbloom used her Stalker ability to shift away from the Shieldbreaker and into the squishier Ravenscars. The mercenaries tried to counter attack, but failed.

While Kevyn was now at a low enough Morale level to win initiative, his force was fractured enough that there wasn't much he could do. The Shieldbreaker's Howl from Beyond ability killed off a few Iron Lotus Warriors, but the big wolf was quickly surrounded by Dragon Legionnaires.

The most damaging part of the turn was the loss of 4 Morale from two Supply Line tokens, thanks to the Deathbloom's Stalker ability and a nearby Iron Lotus Warrior.

The game then ended the next turn when the Deathbloom swept over to the Ravenscar Sergeant and tore him into shreds.

During our after-game discussion, Kevyn and I came up with two potential problems as to why House Goritsi hasn't treating him so well. The first is that he's been playing defensively with a glass-cannon faction, which I've managed to take advantage of in turns 2 and 3, smashing into his lines and wiping out large chunks of his force. The second is the perennial problem of dice. For the past few games, mine have been on fire - keeping Hong Yao alive, passing Will Checks, and hitting the top of the defensive chart time after time. Kevyn, on the other hand, could roll a dozen or more dice to try and hit one model (in this game, it was Hong Yao), and only come up with a single point of damage. Which I then saved against and prevented.

Kevyn's has taken the proper gamer's path of tossing those dice in the trash and getting a new, shiny set that will hopefully learn from their predecessor's fate.

Painting Update - Arena Rex, FIW

Let's see what's on the painting table this week!

I finally finished with all of the Ludus Magnus figures for Arena Rex. Viatrix, on the left, is the other leading lady for the faction. She's a counterpart to Lupa's bare ferocity, taunting opponents to keep their attention on her. This can be useful if pared up with other faction models like Otho or Iason.

On the right is Septimus, another decent Favor generator with good damage and push results. And in the middle is Nero, Ludus Magnus' mount, Titan, and beast all rolled into one very angry package. With two stages, the massive bull is going to stick around for a while, and can both put out high damage and rearrange enemy placement in the arena. He can be ridden by Septimus, turning the pair into a very dangerous duo.

I also finished the British Wilderness Force for Muskets & Tomahawks. Half of the force is made up of Rangers, the green-coated light infantry force made famous by Major Robert Rogers.

The other half of the force consists of British-allied Indians and Colonial Militia. 

While this is a small force in Mustkets & Tomahawks (a little over 200 points, or half a regular game) these miniatures can also be used with the Song of Drums and Tomahawks rules, and provide plenty of options.