Power Grid - played

In the on going attempt to play games that we own rather than the new and shiny, the collective went to Steedo’s to play Power grid. Now we have played this before back before I started recording my adventures in gaming  … so quite a while ago.  

The game was marked by two strategies employed - Steedo and I went for a get cheap power stations and build the city network, whereas DK, Sylon and Snake-eyes went for get the big power stations, then build the network. Initially the build the network strategy seemed to be working for Steedo and myself - the downside of it being we were buying resources and building the network last for sometimes more cost. In the end I couldn’t get hold of a big power station, so ended with a big network but I couldn’t power it - Steedo was in a better position. Where a DK could power a big network, which he didn’t have … but Sylon won by having the by being able to power the same size network as DK, but having more money that DK - Just 11 electros!

It was a tight game with all us thinking we had a chance - I needed another two turns, where as DK and Steedo and Snake-eyes needing just one more turn. Good fun had by all. 

Morts 

Ad Mech versus Craftworld …

Steedo popped over for a quick game of Kill Team - we used the Ad Mech list which had taken on Steedo’s Orks and Tiger-King’s Tyranids and a Craftworld (compendium based - although I had to use BattleScribe to source the stats as I had left my compendium at Tiger-king’s) force do Eldar. 

After a quick rules explanation Steedo chose to be the Ad Mech, so I was the Eldar. We played the scenario Duel of Wits. Which allowed you to collect more command points as well as victory points.

The starting positions - there was a little bit too much stuff in the middle of the kill zone. 

The view from the Eldar side - not much available in the way of firing lines … this would be a problem. There was a lot of movement as we tried to get operatives into position and onto objectives. The plasma and arc gunners did some serious damage. I think 4 Eldar were out of action, compared to 2 skitari. I scored first, but had my operative shot off the marker. This allowed Steedo to win the turning point 2-1. 

The start of the second turning point - I had retained the initiative, but the movement and heavy sniper rifles of the rangers was limiting by ability to shoot at any of the Ad Mech. Poor rolling to shoot and on saves were not helping my team get or retain any of the objectives - Steedo was pulling away. 

The third turning point saw some serious damage and the death of both of the leaders - the Eldar going down to a whirl of blades from the ruststalkers - we also worked out that we were doing the fighting wrong - we will get it right nice time. The Ad Mech Alpha was shot by a ranger with a pistol - my one decent dice roll of the game. 

The start of the fourth turning point saw 6 Ad Mech move up on the final 3 Eldar - Steedo had build up an unassailable lead in victory points by this point, but we had to finish the game. 

The final picture shows the final Eldar and 2 of the 4 remaining Ad Mech operatives (9 - 7 to the Ad Mech in OoA) and 11-1 in victory points - a right royal beating … eek!

Fair play to Steedo for the win - totally out played. The Eldar are a tough team to use in my opinion, so here come some excuses; the rangers all have heavy rifles, meaning they can’t move and fire (unless using the pistol, but you have to be close - not a good idea) - the Voidscared Corsairs equivalent does MW3 compared to MW1 for the rangers, which seems a little tough, and the corsairs only have one, in a team of 10, not 5! The terrain, which I didn’t set up didn’t help the rangers with very limited targets. I didn’t use the dire avengers very well - these need to be used in a shoot and scoot way, so that they can get overwatch actions - the last thing you should do is put them in to hand to hand combat (especially with ruststalkers or any other melee orientated opponent) - looking back there are some ploys giving the Eldar extra movement or free movement, which would make sense. 

The Craftworld also struggle with the fact this team have no heavy damage weapons - plasma, arc etc.

On the plus side the Ad Mech performed well - they are quite a balanced team, Steedo reckons they could benefit from another Sicarian Infiltrator - but this would mean only 2 gunners for the Skitari - although I should have had an extra ranger or vanguard against the Nids. We also work out that Tiger-king and I got the charge rules wrong - shoot - charge - fight is 3 actions - d’oh. 

On a separate note I did manage to win a game of snooker against Evo and Fish - which was nice and means I might be making progress there. 

Morts

Ad Mech versus Tyranids - a Kill Team rematch

So I trundled down to Tiger-King’s for a game of Kill Team. I took 3 possible teams with me - Eldar, Space Marines or Ad Mech. Due to a slight lack of preparation (and snacks apparently) I decided to use the Ad Mech team which had comprehensively beaten Steedo’s Orcs not so long ago.

My team looking over the away pitch ….

We rolled and were playing the scenario Awaken the Data Spirits.

The starting positions with opposite diagonal corners - which actually made things very funnelled around the centre of the board.  

I won the initiative in the first turning point - which allowed me to get the first objective marker and get a shot at one of the big Nids, which scored a couple of mortal wounds … the plasma gunner got some good damage on another Nid … but unfortunately Tiger-King killed my Arc gunner with a blast shot which also wounded my Transuranic Arquebus gunner.  He was also keeping his homgeants out of range and sight. However the turn end 4-2 on victory points for the Ad Mech, so I thought I was doing better than in the last fight against the Nids. I was lining up by Sicarians to take on the Hormagaunts.   

However a the second turn i lost the initiative which then allowed Tiger-King to get first shot in which killed my leader and plasma guy - which was probably the key turning point in the game, as they hadn’t activated yet and the plasma gunner was a big hitter in the last game. It was also the point that I knocked over a building (might have been subconsciously trying to end the game … I could see the writing on the wall). The Sicarians were mobbed one by one by the annoying little Hormagaunts and were slowly wiped out - the initiative and charging causing no end of issues - not getting enough hits to kill off the little gits. They also killed me off an objective marker. On the plus side I did manage to kill off two of the big shooty Nid warriors. But the score had changed to 6 - 4 to the Nids. 

The third turning point started with all my warriors injured and things were not looking good - below 1 Sicarian trying to hold off 4 Hormagaunts and 2 Skitari (the transuranic arquebus was still hiding on the top of the building) looking nervously at the warrior and Hormagaunts heading their way. I did win the initiative which was a sort of bonus. 

I activated a shooter first in the vain hope that I could kill off the warrior - but it was not to be. Tiger-king chewed up the last of the Sicarians, and shot the comms guy. 

After eating up rest of the team the last vanguard prepares to die. 

The situation at the end of the 3rd turn, start of the 4th - score now 10 - 4 to the Nids and I just have the Arquebus Skitari left … with this lot looking up. 

So the game was called - another win for Tiger-King’s Tyranids and back to the drawing board for the Ad  Mech in how to deal with to hit wounds monsters. 

A good game, but I still haven’t worked out how to deal with the high wounds Tyranids, especially when most of the heavy guns are taken out of action with either only one shot or no shots taken - with the Vanguard it is like trying to kill them with a thousand cuts. 

I did try a couple of extra rules - the data tether to give an extra action point and leader allowing effectively a group activation. 

The Hormagaunts had group activation of 2 which meant they could mob the sicarians one at time and I wasn’t getting the hits I needed to kill them. 

Next time.

Morts 

Greek Hoplite Army - Showcase

There will be another on of these sometime, as I have another Hoplite army … which was painted years ago with some really nice hand painted shields. This is the army currently on eBay, which to be fair is where most of this one came from - the bulk of the Hoplites are just repainted figures which I picked up as a bargain.

The army arrayed for the photo shoot. 

The first line of Hoplites - mainly Essex miniatures, which a few Black Tree Designs in there.

I used a very simple paint scheme with 3v transfers for the shields.

The light cavalry - I have enjoyed painting Essex horses over the years. 

The slingers - I think most of these are repaints from an eBay win. 

The Greek camp - with a little fire pit.  

A nice little army - I think I was a little jaded painting Essex Hoplites (I still have some unpainted Foundry ones to do …) by the time I got to these - I got these as a extra army for the planned and almost realised Mediterranean mini campaign involving Greeks (both in Italy and Greece), Macedonians, Romans, Persians, Thracians and the unpainted Celts and Carthaginians … oh well never mind. 

An this isn’t the first Hoplite army that I have sold off - long ago there was a 1st Corps/Navigator/Foundry one (but they were a tad short and slight to play with the Essex and Renegade stuff) - I don’t think there is a picture of them anywhere now … sad times. 

Morts

Macedonian Army - Showcase

The bulk of this army was picked up years ago when DK and I went to Colours in Reading … it was before he had “mind tricked” me in buy some Confrontation miniatures, but that is another story - in I think part of the reason for going was so that he and Pete could enter the painting competition for a Confrontation event that they hadn’t entered … anyway in the deep and distant past now. I picked some Foundry and Newline phalangites at the show … left then for a while an the decided to go with Newline because they were cheaper…

The army fully arrayed - not for battle, but so they can fit in a picture.

The General (a Foundry mini) and his companions. 

The mighty Phalanx - nice!

The elite Hypaspist - I think auxiliaries in DBA 

The prodromoi light cavalry. 

Light troops - slingers and javelin mean by 1st Corps miniatures. 

The elephant (this is an Foundry model I picked up in a bring and buy somewhere) - I think it could be used for Macedonian or Carthaginian - scale wise it fitted in with the Newline figures rather than the Renegade ones. 

A nice little army - the Newline stuff was easy to paint if lacking in movement a bit. 

Morts

Republican Roman Army - Showcase

I picked up this Republican Roman unpainted from Renegade Miniatures a few years ago - I also pick up a Carthaginian and Celt armies which I haven’t got around to painting (I will be keeping the Celts, they will be used for barbarians in Kings of War or Dragon Rampant).

The whole army arrayed.

The legion - in its three lines, on the top and the hastati on the bottom.

The second line of the Principes and the Triarii below.

The legion command element - never used in a game due to the standard being a tad delicate. 

The cavalry and general elements - and a legate an extra command figure that Renegade did. At the bottom the Velites light infantry 

Below the rather nice (in my humble opinion) Roman camp - a resin tent from Battleground I think and some other bits and bobs. 

I did enjoy painting these Romans - I think everyone should have painted a few. Due to the size of the Renegade models they were on larger bases than recommended for DBA. I also swapped out the horses for Essex ones as the Renegade ones were rather large. 

A couple more DBA armies to post before they go…

Morts 

Thracian Army - Showcase

This little lot have been around for a while - my second DBA army painted as they were able to fight lots of different Greek city states. 

The whole army - when I painted these I was not aware of the sort of colours and patterns the Thracians wore - but they came out nice. 

The General and an element of light horse. 

Two more elements of light horse - with shields, because why not …

The first 2 elements of peltasts - such a useful type of soldier the Greeks copied them (as I understand it). 

Another 4 elements of peltasts. 

Finally the light troops - I believe that these should be javelin men or slingers, but I got archers because I prefer them. 

This lot have thought a few battles and been auxiliaries in Greek and Roman forces in DBA3 - but time for them to move on. Sad times …

More to come. 

Morts

Persian Army - Showcase and Selling

 After much bimbling around I have started the great DBA army sell off and to coincide showcase the armies I painted up for the great but never realised DBA campaign that DK and I envisaged (a bit like the Lords of the Rings HotT campaigns). 

I will first present the Persians (all of these figures are by 1st Corps - most came via eBay, but I had to get a few extra to be able to complete the army). 

The full army arrayed for battle.

The king or local Satrap, with some booty.

The scythed chariot - which was rather underwhelming in the few battles I fought with this army. 

The mounted force, the top line shows the cavalry with a possible General element in the centre. The bottom line shows the light horse. 

The Persian infantry - 4 elements of Auxiliaries in DBA term on the right and I think an element of spears on the left (probably should have been mercenary hoplites but I had enough Persians), the bottom shows the light infantry. 

I have to say I quite enjoyed painting this back in the day - but I need to clear space, so these and a few other armies had to go. A bit of de-cluttering had to happen … so I can justify other mission creep …

Morts

Birthday Haul

It has been rather busy recently - walking and visitors taking up quite a lot of time. I have managed a game of Ticket to Ride (or the train game as the girls call it) and a two play go at Raiders of the North Sea with my brother. My birthday was in the last week and surprisingly I actually got some gaming stuff. 

Xenos Rampant and a couple of Kill Team sized game mats. 

We got lucky with the mats as the vendor had list a mat that wasn’t in stock so offered 2 as a replacement - we couldn’t say to that offer. 

Hoping to try out Xenos Rampant as a way to use the 40k stuff with the Starship troopers - always good to try and get some use out of everything. I also have a copy of the Fall of Numenor - Christopher Tolkien’s last run through his fathers notes - it will be a month or so before I settle down to read that one. 

Some pics of the moor yesterday - a good day out. 

Hope to post some more soon - probably pictures of the DBA armies before their sale. 

Morts