618 - Happy New Year!

For those of you who still swing by, 

THANK YOU!

...and 

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

My parting shot of 2017 (although not my last game, as it happens) will be this: I actually got to play X-Wing again last week, for the first time in a looooong time. Yay! - a double session of seeing the new film, 'The Last Jedi,' with my old adversary then blowing the dust off the old toys. 

I got absolutely thrashed, but it was really good fun. 

So long 2017; here's to a better 2018, eh?

TTFN,

- Chris. 

600! Six Hundredth Blog Post! Huzzah!

Hullo, Fair Readers!

Well, I've been blogging about my hobby now for over nine years, and it's come a long way.

Nine years.

Since discovering Bolt Action (and finding some local-ish gaming clubs!) I'm gaming far more than ever now, but with the arrival of children and more facebook-based hobby-tracking, I'm blogging less often. So it goes.

A pic from our local walk, last weekend. Because I love my girls,
and we couldn't hobby without the support of our loved ones, right?!

Anyway, I shall keep this uncharacteristically simple, and focus on two key elements of my hobby these days: Bolt Action and the good 'ol Draxian Painting Chart - together at last!

Firstly, my Number One force, 4 King's Shropshire Light Infantry (with attachments) from the British 11th Armoured Division in Northern Europe, 1944:

Next, my complicated and disparate new German forces - a 'Blitzkrieg'/Op Sealion occupation platoon AND my late-war platoons:

And finally, my entirely loved (but not often used due to the variety of local foes) British North Africa Desert Rats Sikh platoon:

And there we have it.

What does the future hold for Drax?

Well...

...I've  a LOT of Germans to get on with, a fair bit to finish up for my Brits, and a burning desire to try out some different WW2 game rules with my various 28mm and 15mm troops.

Also, hopefully, a bit more narrative X-Wing over the summer.

And possibly even some D&D 3.5...

For now though, cheerio - and thank you, readers new and old, for joining me from time to time on this journey!

Yours aye,

- Chris.

564 - Another X-Wing Game: Hyperjump Ambush

Hullo, All.

I got the chance last week for another game of X-Wing, and after our anticlimactic dogfight at the end of the last session, we decided to go for another home-brewed mission.

The Imperials lie in wait

In this case, the scenario was that the Imperial Fleet had discovered the Alliance were planning an attack, and so deployed a 'huge' ship (in gaming terms) with a small escort to intercept the hapless Rebels on their arrival from their hyperspace jump. The Rebel mission was then to destroy the huge ship and escape, whilst the  Imperials had to destroy the Alliance pilots in order to stop them.

DS could deploy his ships more-or-less anywhere within one random table quarter, but this was decided after I had pre-plotted (and secretly written down) where each of my three small flights would arrive. each flight would arrive in a random direction at full speed, and so my lot ran the risk of jumping straight into the huge ship and obliteration!

I fielded the following, equipped as if on an attacking mission:
================ Hyperjump Ambush ================ 230 points Pilots ------ Red Squadron Pilot (27) x 3 X-Wing (23), Proton Torpedoes (4) Nera Dantels (37) B-Wing (26), Enhanced Scopes (1), Proton Torpedoes (4), Proton Torpedoes (4), Deadeye (1), Munitions Failsafe (1) Dagger Squadron Pilot (32) x 2 B-Wing (24), Enhanced Scopes (1), Heavy Laser Cannon (7) Green Squadron Pilot (24) x 2 A-Wing (19), A-Wing Test Pilot (0), Cluster Missiles (4), Adrenaline Rush (1)

Obviously, for a game in which I didn't know where I'd deploy or where the enemy would be on a 6'x3' board, I needed two things: (a) turrets, and (b) fast, manoeuvrable ships. Naturally, I took neither, opting instead for ponderous space-cows.

Conversely, DS fielded something like this (in very vague terms):

200 points Gozanti Class Assault Ship-Thingy

Scary New (very red) TIE Defender

Almost-as-scary other new TIE Defender

TIE Fighter, Academy Pilots, x5

NB: Neither of us knew the other's list, and we didn't declare before the match either, upping the ante somewhat! (The additional 30pts I ad were intended to make up for the possibility of me either flying straight off the board or flying straight into his huge ship.)

The Game:

...Actually went well. Ish. It certainly looked cool!

An overhead view of the Imperial disposition:
"It's a trap!"

Turn 1. My direction-randomised deployment from hyperspace.
Sheesh. Those X-Wings look screwed.

Dagger Squadron. Luckily they got actions, so Dagger 2
barrel-rolled out of the way of the 'roid. 

Top-right is Red 2, showcasing his significant
- and painful - lack of barrel roll. :(

The arrival from hyperspace from above.

As it happened, all of the action randomly ended up happening in just one half of the board - which really played in my favour - but it could have gone very, very differently. If my B-Wings had been at the wrong end, facing in the wrong direction, they simply would not have been able to take part. 

I was lucky.

Turn 2. The trap closes. 

End of Turn 2. Spot the difference?

By the start of Turn 3, I'd started to swing my forces round into an attacking formation. The B-Wings were going slowly in line astern to rake the Gozanti with fire, whilst the A-Wings were skirting around to cut across her. I was fully expecting the Gozanti to try to run me over, which she did...but thankfully with no success.

Turn 3. Again (above and below): spot the difference.

That poor A-Wing in front of the Gozanti is bloody 'ion'ed!

Turn 4. Two B-Wings, one A-Wing and my last X-Wing
all turn n to attack...

..."PEW! PEW!"...

..."PEW-PEW! PEW!"...

...KA-BLOOIE!!!
Between them, the A, Bs and X all finish it.

Endgame.

At this point, according to the mission, my job was now to get two or more ships to 'jump back to safety' again, in a particular way...but honestly, we called it.

We called it for a couple of reasons: (1) I seemed to have won, and would all-too-easily escape, and (2) we'd planned for a short game in order to allow us some 'admin' time for our... er... rather significant X-Wing collection. Yay! I love a bit love of time spent organising hobby stuff!

That said, there were a couple of issues for which I failed to plan sufficiently: the random nature of deployment meant that the whole battle took place in just one half of the table. This was great for me, but less so for DS. Had it gone the other way, it would've been almost impossible for me to close with the enemy. I also had assumed that the huge ship would be bristling with gun emplacements to destroy my slowly approaching flights piecemeal. As it happens, the Gozanti was not bristling with guns.

Ultimately, I was expecting this to go poorly for me, but it ended up going rather well. If we were to replay such a mission, we would really need to revise and reconsider the victory conditions!

Well, here's to more games over the summer, eh?!

- Drax.

547 - Playing Catch-up: A Cornucopia of Posts (Pt 4: X-Wing Mini-Campaign)

This is the last of my catch-up compendium, and a combination of a lack of pics, a lack of memory and a lack of sleep right now means I'll keep it short.

On our previous engagement (the one prior to my last post), DS was keen to field his other new toy...

...so out came his Gozanti-class Cruiser. Specifically, the good ship Vector.

In short, 

• It looked awesome,
• We played the three-game escalating mini-campaign which came with the ship,
• I lost each game,
• The first through bad luck,
• The second through terrible manoeuvring and,
• The third because - as usual - I ignored the mission in order to do something more fun (viz. blowing up the Vector with a vengeful Y-Wing),

DS flew as well as ever, and brilliantly (due to the requirements of the third mission) we actually got to experience - in true Original Trilogy style - a flight of TIE Bombers systematically bombing asteroids. 

To the right of the Vector, you can see the two TIE bombers after their bombing run. Brilliant!

Just beautifully cinematic!

- Drax. 

PS: I played a swift game of Bolt Action tonight, so that'll be up soon...

546 - Playing Catch-up: A Cornucopia of Posts (Pt 3: X-Wing)

Again, this'll be in reverse order, but fewer pics this time (it wasn't me taking them!). In this post, two games, from last week.

My stalwart Imperial opponent - DS - wanted to try out some new toys, so he cobbled together a fab little narrative mission which would enable us to do just that. 

New toys:

• HW-290
• Imperial Raider
• My scratchbuilt Moonbase

Our off-the-cuff scenario went essentially thus:

An imperial raider has stumbled upon a rebel outpost moonbase which appears to have the trace signal of a stolen imperial shuttle emanating from it. The raider steers a course to investigate but is spotted by one of two flights of clapped-out Z-95s guarding the place. The second flight is scrambled, as is Jan Ors in her HWK - her mission has suddenly changed, and she now needs to escape with the (inevitable) stolen imperial plans. It's not that easy though: she'll have to brave swooping past the raider for two turns first, so that her on-board intelligence agent can scan the enemy vessel to find out just how much the Imperials know...

Forces and Objectives:

To achieve a victory, I had to either destroy the raider(!) or keep the HWK within range 1-2 for two turns then fly off the board; For his part, DS had to either destroy my HWK or get destroy the moonbase. DS created a great little stat card for the moonbase and came up with the rather clever special rule that his raider could target only the nearest ship in each of its arcs (otherwise he'd just immediately blast the HWK out of existence). 

I had the moonbase, two flights of three Z-95s (with the second flight being more up-gunned 'Tala' pilots led by Airen Cracken) and the HWK. DS had just the raider.

Why does blogger still do this?

Summary:

What a cracking game! The moonbase didn't get a look-in to the action, but the scramble round the raider gave both of us a nice additional chance to explore the mechanics of fightier huge ships, and DS's scenario worked an absolute treat! In the end, it was very very close, but Jan Ors in the HWK escaped by the skin of her teeth with just one hull point remaining, as the brave, brave Z-95 pilot behind him sold his life very dearly indeed. He also flew his little Headhunter brilliantly well around the raider, even whilst it rammed four of his comrades into futile smithereens. 

Jan Ors makes her escape with the plans...or blueprints...or whatever.

Great fun!

In our second game of the evening, of which - sadly - there are no pictures, we tried three other 'firsts': (1) DS played rebels for a change, (2) I fielded my new Scum and Villainy, and (3) we actually played a straight, non-narrative 100 point face-down. 

Forces-wise, DS took three Y-Wings and a B-Wing (with one of the cool named Y-Wing pilots) and I took a Scummy Y-Wing, a Firspray and N'Dru Suhlak in his Z-95. Long story short, after a fairly close start I pulled ahead and stayed ahead. 

DS is a more tactical player than me, but for once I actually manoeuvred well during the course of these two games, and either way it was wonderful to get a couple of games in. I suspect we'll stick to narrative games in future...

Cheers,

- Drax.

520 - 6MMRPC 9: Completion and a Joker

This will need to be quick: I've got the biggest 40K smackdown of my life starting in about 14 hours, and miles to go before I sleep.

To sum-up 6MMRPC progress over the last two weeks, I've somehow finally finished the 2nd Ed Stormtroopers for tomorrow's match (if you're not familiar with the 'sculpts' then trust me: the faces are as flat and featureless as a puddle, so I'll go back to them later, maybe), but I also accidentally played a Joker. First though, some 2am-style pics:

Emperor be praised. I should note that there is, of course, another 10-man section (1 Section) to complete this platoon; what you see here is just what I've whizzed through in the last fortnight-or-so.

2 Sect (plas/melta); 3 Sect (2x volley) and HQ Sect (4x volley)

If you look carefully at the right-hand side of the first pic, you'll see how I've killed two birds with one stone: many of the models had rifle barrels which had snapped off, and I lacked special weapons...so after a bit of a hatchet job with some lasguns, six troopers now have the 2nd Ed retro--fitted version of a hotshot volley gun (or whatever it's called): four in the Platoon HQ Section and two in 3 Section.


Now, what about this joker? Well, I was in an old FLGS in Norwich and - without thinking and for the first time EVER at my wife's prompting - I bought myself a new toy: a B-Wing to complete my X-Wing Rebel flight, the 'Mutts and Mongrels'. 

Right then. In my mind, at least, that brings me full-square and back on track with the 6MMRPC blogging. So there. 

Right. I'd better get painting for tomorrow then...

TTFN,

- Drax

...And miles to go, before I sleep.

517 - 6MMRPC 8: Progress and Distractions. Good Distractions.

Brief version.

1. Progress: The 2nd Edition Stormtrooper platoon is rapidly nearing completion. I actually did a lot of work on them last week (this is last week's post, really) but don't have access to the photo right now)
2. Progress: That will leave only a Manticore and a Servitor to finish before the Second Seige of Agratha, in a fortnight's time(!)
3. Distraction: THIS - Secret Cinema's 'The Empire Strikes Back', last night in London - great fun!

4. Distraction: I'm on holiday for a week, in Norwich (birthplace of this blog, back in '08), and unable to do ANY painting.
5. The prospect of blowing an evening's urgent painting next week in order to get in a game of Bolt Action(!)

Oh, such excitement!

- D.

513 - youtube wargaming, tabletopbattle.com...and Drax Wins a Prize!

I won something!

If you're not already a fan, I seriously and wholeheartedly recommend the brilliant, brilliant Norwegian chaps over at Tabletopbattle.com [link here]. In short, they are essentially playing through many of the major land battles of all theatres of WWII - in vague chronological order - through the marvellous medium of Bolt Action, filmed and posted on youtube! 

I have essentially become addicted to their material, as it's a way of vicariously getting to enjoy playing the brilliant game that is Bolt Action, and the gentle ribbing and enjoyably Nordic buffoonery is the perfect antidote to all the beardy posturing and gamesmanship that seems to have come to the fore in video uploads of other games. The hosts (led by the charismatic Svein and Damon) are extremely sporting and generous in their gameplay and love more than anything to tell a story.

They are making in-roads to filming other games systems as well (including Flames of War, Terminator Genisys and -soon - 40K) but with the probable exception of Terminator, I don't know how well these will all work for videos: in my (sadly not inconsiderable) experience of watching other people play on youtube, I've realised that I-go-you-go mechanics can swiftly get boring, and smaller minis (like Flames) can get lost. 

[Interestingly, X-Wing works really really well through video if filmed and edited tightly and if the commentary is crisp, knowledgeable and inoffensive (why do so many of us nerds feel the desire to be so bloomin' negative and derisory? - anyone'd think we were outcast at school!) it can be a real joy to watch. Competitive games too, as these are usually the ones filmed. I love that even newbies can stand a chance in X-Wing tourneys, and the core mechanic really does translate well. I heartily recommend an Australian channel, Fly Casual [link here], whose videos are very pleasant indeed!]

ANYWAY...All of this brings me back to my stroke of good luck. As I was watching the latest tabletopbattle.com Bolt Action scrap this week (Operation Ironclad - 1942: Madagascar - British Commandos Vs Vichy French), I realised they were inviting answers to a question on their facebook group, of which I am a member. I answered first, and - lo and behold - I soon found out that I won the following:

Yay! I faced these beauties in my first (and only proper) Bolt Action game (link here) and they really impressed me, so what an absolutely delightful prize! I told you they were lovely chaps over at tabletopbattle.com, didn't I?!

I've plans for this...and something else as well...but you'll have to wait to see precisely what other excitement I'll have in store.

Cheers,

- D.

497 - Life Lessons

I'm a teacher. 

Love us or hate us, our job is to try to teach stuff to kids, and by-and-large - despite all bloody interference by ministers and tabloids - we tend take an immense pride in our jobs. Sometimes, we even take it seriously.

Last month, however, I was forced - forced, I tell you - to stop teaching a lesson on genre tropes ten whole minutes early in response to overhearing an 11 year old boy telling his group that a genre feature of sci-fi was 'Jar-Jar Binks'.

Once I'd finished spluttering, gesticulating and suppressing profanities, I spent the remaining time putting them straight through a long, multifaceted rant. Here's what was still there of my copious notes at the end of the lesson:

What fools these mortals be.

- Drax.

492 - EXCITEMENT! First X-Wing Tournament - Part 2

Time, then, for Part Deux of my Exe-Wing tournament write-up. 

I left you at the halfway point:

Game 1: Modified Win - 12-0
Game 2: Match Loss - 0-100

Next, Game 3

Game 3: Tim with Empire: a Decimator List
Notes and Result:

This Tim also seemed fairly well matched with me in terms of experience, and was a very helpful chap to boot. Plus, he wooed me with a generous offering of Fox's Glacier Mints on the sidelines. Yay! He brought with him the kind of list I'd been fearing: the Decimator was captained by Capt Oicunn and packing proton bombs, flanked by Howlrunner and Backstabber with another Academy Pilot making up numbers.

Me deploying first meant that Oicunn set a course to overrun me, and - not being sharp-witted enough to avoid this fully - I sacrificed the Z-95 to take the hit from the terrifyingly pointy ship. So far, so inevitable, but what I'd completely forgotten about was the proton bomb just about to drop out of its pointy backside. Rats. I've never played against bombs before and was caught out utterly: both the Z-95 and the X-Wing took a hit.

Bugger. 

Tim was also kind enough to remind me before the game about how the bombs work.

Bugger.

Pointy nastiness

Still, I rallied my forces, managed a sneaky wee bit of K-turning and some cunning manoeuvring, and started fighting back. First to fall was the Decimator itself - I stripped its shields, crippled it with some lucky rolls and finished it off soundly by managing to steer most of my ships to have it arc. Rather pleasingly, it was the sturdy old Y-Wing that finished it off!

Gritty survivors!

At this point, Tim's defences sadly crumbled, and to my surprise and delight his other three ships soon went too. He was kicking himself that he hadn't focussed on destroying my Y-Wing when it was limping, but honestly my Mutts and Mongrels were on a roll in this game, and astonishingly they all made it through.

Result: Match Win (99-0)

Game 4 - Tom with a 'Phat Han' List
Notes and Result:

This was one match-up I was really interested to play - I was quite excited going into my last game! 

I was playing against Tom, who knew his Star Wars fluff inside-out and really enjoyed the construction of my list, noting how typical it was for the rebels to just cobble together whatever ships they could find for a sortie. I guess that's why I was fielding a 'Prototype' A-Wing, right?

First, a brief note on the tactics I'd been using through the day:

- None.

That's not strictly true. I was trying to use the A-Wing as a flanking outrider, but that was about it, and now I was facing an actual outrider: the beautiful YT-2400 'Outrider' piloted by the marvellous Dash Rendar and escorted by Chewbacca in the YT-1300 Millennium Falcon, helped out by his crewmates R2-D2 and C3PO. The crew choices were a wee bit beardy maybe, but the two ships together look amazing - and how very cinematic to see the two smugglers zooming round the board together!

And for this game, I genuinely planned and played tactics: The A-Wing was deployed in a feint to swoop by and strafe the Falcon before zooming off to run interference with the Outrider. This worked. Whilst the A-Wing stopped Dash Rendar doing what he should do best by flying annoyingly in his way, the others systematically swarmed round the Falcon and took it apart. Rather poetically, after my Mutts took it in turns to get in Chewy's way, it was obstructed by the X-Wing, ion-ed twice by the Y-wing, then finished off by the Z-95.

Then it was just a matter of chasing down the Outrider - cue 'Benny Hill' music as my ships bumbled round the board in the last minutes of play, crashing into each other and trying to head Rendar off at the pass. The B-Wing was on its last hull-point and bound to die, but as it happened, my rush to manoeuvre meant that all of my ships ended up crashing into each other within Range 1 of the Outrider - meaning that he couldn't actually shoot me: Woo-hoo!

This time, the X-Wing took the final shot. Nice. The tactics worked.

The dying moments - a portrait in three parts.

Result: Match Win (100-0).

Endgame:

To my surprise and utter delight, it turns out that I finished sixth out of twenty-two!

Top-eight! Woo-hoo!

I got as a prize not only the special character card we all received but also a shiny new (literally shiny) X-Wing dice bag. Bolt Action here we come!

It really was an absolutely smashing day, and the X-Wing system - if not too roughly abused - is genuinely a great leveller for newbies. Thanks go out to all the organisers.

Here's to next time, eh?

Fly Casual...

- Drax.

491 - EXCITEMENT! First X-Wing Tournament - Part 1

Hullo, Friends!
I've actually got a couple of posts in the pipeline for once, but first...NEWS!

This last weekend I had the singular joy of attending my first official X-Wing tournament - it was co-hosted by Kirton Games (of Col. Gravis/Curious Constructs fame - see banner, above) in Exeter and it was an absolute blast!

Yup, 'Exe-Wing' (for what else could they call it?!) was a four-round, Swiss-style tourney, and on the off-chance you're vaguely interested, I'll give you a quick run-down of my trials and tribulations here, in two parts.

The 'Mutts and Mongrels'

You know me by now - I'm not particularly competitive, and I haven't even played X-Wing since before Christmas, so I went for a squadron that was suitably in keeping with the canon - it would also be simple to use and not 'gamey'. It was as follows:

As it turned out, there was a fair bit of list variety in the room - from the beardy net-lists to the rather fun ones. There was also a 'Scum and Villainy' list, although I didn't get to play them. Rather pleasingly, I did get a couple of compliments on the fluffy/canonical nature of my squadron - I'm glad that folks noticed!

Game 1 - Tim with an Empire 'Mini-Swarm'
Notes and Result: 

In Tim's own words a little later, "This was a tough list a couple of years ago!" Tim's pretty new to the game and was an absolute gent to play against: we were both bumbling through a lot of rustiness with the rules and I lost us at least two minutes as my bottle of drink sprayed all over the floor, but our ships finally clashed and eventually - in the dying seconds of a slow game - I managed to kill (for no loss) an Academy Pilot. That was the lowest of the low in terms of kills, but it was enough to scrape me, at twelve points, a 'modified win'.

This mat looks amazing...This mat, though, prevents you from seeing absolutely ANY playing pieces - it's a right pain in the Wookie!

Result = Modified Win (12-0)

Game 2 - Rich with Empire: the 'Royal Guard' - 4 Interceptors
Notes and Result:

Since this match I've been scratching my head, wondering just what - if anything - I could've done to maybe shoot down just one of his ships...but I can't think of very much. As it happened, four Interceptors with 'Push the Limit' are enough to run rings around anyone! My only consolation was that my plucky little A-Wing didn't shy away, and upon finding he was the sole survivor of my squadron he charged headlong into the enemy formation - staying bafflingly alive for two more rounds before succumbing. I was tabled.

Valiant death of an A-Wing.

Result = Match Loss (0-100)

Tune in next time for Part Deux and the final placing...

483 - X-Wing Moonbase Painting Progress

Hullo All,

Thanks for the tips a couple of posts ago: I've now drybrushed the rock, softened? warmed? changed the grey of all the man-made structures and then repainted all of the shadow and some edge highllights, with varying degrees of success. I reckon it looks smashing!

Not amused.

Amused far less.

Sadly, spot colours just didn't work at all: the scale's all wrong. If I had subtlety enough with my painting, I'd paint it in a muted palette like the underside of the GR-70 Reel Transport...but I don't. So I won't.

It still needs a bit more tidying, and I'll follow some of  Mordian 7th's advice and deepen the well-like structures, but it's that Lambda shuttle that's frustrating me: I just cannot make it look right and the more paint I put on it the clunkier it becomes. Any thoughts for more free help, please?

Pretty please?

- D.