Ion Age War Mecha "Arcus" Magog

   Okay, I am on the cusp of ordering one of these. I just love the rocket pods. From the Ion Age line, and you can find them here. They've a good sale with it right now as well, if you hurry before 27 November, I think.

Star Viking Scouts

   I also finished up a trio of light scouting vehicles for my Star Viking multi-racial pirate/raider faction. These are Malig Orb-bikes, produced by Ion Age.

   They are painted red because, as everyone knows, "red wunz go fasta!"

   These should make a nice little high mobility flanking unit for the Star Vikings. I have about six or seven more infantry of various sorts, mostly Ion Age, on the table right now, nearing completion. These will pretty much flesh out the Star Vikings with something like three squads of infantry, a little bit of support, and some light vehicles.

Felid Grav Bikes

    I've been a bit busy with my paint brushes lately. Over the next few days, I will share some photos. I thought I would start with a trio of grav bikes from Khurasan. These are 15mm Felids, a tigrid race, similar to the Kzin, I should think. This particular pack is the "Hostage Barons' Sons". I quite like them, don't you?

   The set also comes with an optional missile launcher instead of the twin gun. Well, it comes with one of them, at any rate. I'm considering picking up another pack to enlarge the squadron and field a pair of missile-armed grav bikes.

   I made new flight stands for them from a washer, some Milliput, and a bit of stiff steel wire.

   This is the Gruntz card I made up for them, using Barracks. Obviously, I hadn't finished painting them when I made the card, hence the lack of a photo. I'll correct that one of these days. I made the twin linked guns equivalent to a Full Auto Heavy Laser. The addition of the Peregrine Stabiliser Perk will insure that they always go in guns blazing.

   More photos soon!

Second Gruntz Game

The Defense of Garmin Farm on Tau Ceti IV

Initial T-800 Deployment

Terminator Objective: Kill all Humans!

Initial Deployment of FedArms Forces

Objective: Defend the Farm

First turn: Terminators advance. 

Taken under fire by Havelock suit and mortar, killing two.

Brave FedArms troopers advance and fire - to little effect.

 In return, T-800s cause three critical damages to the armoured car with only one hit.

Armoured Car pops smoke canisters to protect itself 

from the T-800s lurking by the bridge.

Sheep in foreground.

Armoured Car Brews Up under intense fire on the FedArms right; 

one squad of infantry also wiped out in a single turn on the flank by concentrated

fire from 40W phased plasma rifles.

   In the end, the Terminators were again defeated. It was much closer this time. I lost an entire sad of infantry in one blaze of plasma fire, and half of another, plus my armoured car blown to bits. My infantry rifles just can't do much to them at long range. Area of effect was far less powerful in this game, as the T-800s were spread more widely and we used the 2" diameter, not radius, like we should have done the first time (my bad). Also, the fusillade of fire that each T-800 now produces is really scary. You want to fight Termies? Use heavy weapons. It was luck that the rifles and SAWs took down any. May need to upgrade with some missile teams in place of SAWs.

First Gruntz Game!

   Well, Zach came over yesterday and we had a little game of Gruntz - our first official 15mm sci-fi game. I only have a few pictures, and the game was very short, but I'll still share.

The Forces:

ZM: Terminators (Rebel Minis, I think). We worked them up as if each individual T-800 was a 4-man infantry squad. I put four squads on a card, and that made each card a 4x T-800 'squad'. Each T-800 was worth 14 points. He took three squads of four, for a total of 12, making it (12x14) 168 points for his forces.

T-800 card, using Barracks

JW: FedArms (Khurasan and Ion Age)  I chose a well-rounded selection of differing units because I wanted to try them all out. I had a commander, three squads of rifle infantry, a mortar, a mecha, and an armored car. Total 171 points, so a slight point advantage.

Setup:

The table was pretty simple, about 3x4. The FedArms were protecting a fenced in area, and the T-800s were doing what they do - seeking to eradicate human life! As the attackers, the T-800s took the first turn.

The valiant defenders facing the road down which marches doom!

TURN 1:

T-800: Each unit activated and took two Move actions. This allowed them to reach the bridge over the stream, in a tight clump.

A blurry shot of a heck of a target.

FedArms: Infantry squads fired at long range, to no effect. What few hits were generated did only minor damage (one point of damage to a single T-800). Then I fired the mortar. Direct hit on front center T-800. He vanished (Waxed, in Gruntz parlance). Then the blast of the Area of Effect took over. Damaged (but did not Wax) five more Termies. Activated my commander, who moved to the gate and used his second action to raise the gate. Then the armored car, an Ion Age Red Adder Lifter, moved forward and fired it's gatling gun, also an area of effect weapon. It missed, and deviation of the beaten zone meant no hits. Finally I activated my last unit, the Havelock Suit. He fired his Missile Pod (yet another area weapon) and scored a direct hit on the T-800 right in the center of the entire force. This meant the blast would get every other Termie. The results were three more dead machines and several damaged to one degree or another. The follow-up shot with the railgun proved an anti-climatic miss.

TURN 2:

T-800: Having passed all required Mental tests, the T-800s were unfazed in their mechanical hearts. Onward they strode! This time they paused and fired. And this is where we made waht was probably the biggest rules error which made it virtually impossible for Zach to win. We only gave each of the Termies a single shot as if they were single humans. He had paid points as if each was a squad of four - after battle analysis concluded that he should have been firing four times each. As it was, his fire was light and ineffectual, managing only a single point of damage on the Red Adder, barely scratching the paint.

FedArms: Again, everyone lit up the T-800s, starting with the area effect weapons on a still very compact body of robots. All three weapons hit, and casualties were heavy. One squad was eliminated totally, while the other two were reduced to a total of five (damaged) machines. Directed fire from the infantry added a bit more damage to the reeling (and now suppressed) foe.

TURN 3: 

T-800: With only five units remaining, Zach began to unclump them. One unit could only move and not fire, as they had been suppressed. The other fired two shots, to missing both.

FedArms: Area effect again. The mortar missed, but the deviation put the shell directly on top of another T-800 - blasting it to bits. The blast damaged two others, now down to only one hit remaining on each. The Adder's gatling fired next, finishing off those two. The missile pod of the Havelock missed completely, but the railgun took down one. The infantry fire began to take a toll, taking down the last two of the soulless killing machines.

It was an overwhelming victory for humanity, but after-battle analysis shows that the T-800s were severely hampered in their return fire, and had underestimated the effectiveness of area effect weapons. We both enjoyed ourselves, though, so that's the main thing!

We plan on fighting a re-match next week, with adjusted firing for the T-800s. I also think that there will not be as tightly packed a group of targets for my blast weapons, either.

More FedArms Forces

   Some more of my growing FedArms forces. I think I have posted shots of the battlesuit and maybe the Adder hover tank before. These have had decals added.

   All vehicles will have the green and gold leaf badge and the "74" badge. I've decided the leaf is the regimental insignia, and the "74" is the regimental number for my forces, the 74th Regimental Combat Team (RCT).

Havelock Anti-Tank Battlesuit

(The Ion Age)

Sergeant

(Khurasan)

Missileer

(Khurasan)

Polecat Mk. III (AT)

(Khurasan)

Polecat Mk. I (C3)

(Khurasan)

   There is a third Polecat variant, with a twin MG turret, but the photo I took of it was far too blurry to use, really. It's the Mk. II, obviously.

Artillery F/O Drone

(Khurasan)

Adder Mk. I Light AFV

(Ion Age)

   The Adder has a cousin waiting a replacement part from the UK. I misplaced the railgun for it. It will be the Mk. II Light AFV (AT). It's painted and decaled. Just need the gun...

   Some of the photos are much better than the others. I'm a crap photographer. Sorry about that.

FedArms 'Goanna' Tank

   Another of Khurasan's pieces. This is the Thrainite 'Goanna' tank. Here it is in use by the FedArms Corporation. You can just see the regimental badge on the rear - 74th RCT.

I'm currently waiting on Khurasan to send me the vehicle crewmen I ordered two weeks ago. Grumble grumble grumble.

Felid Invasion

   What ho, chums?

   I've been a bit busy painting away, slopping on a bit of paint with a tiny patch of squirrel hair on a stick. The victims of my intentions this time around are a batch of Khurasan Miniatures' 15mm Felids.

Mortar and Operator/FO

I am trying to figure out how to do an F/O for Gruntz. Any ideas?

Light infantry. Squad leader (left) and Squad Support Weapon (right)

Heavy Infantry. Laser rifles (regular troops)

I'm giving them Active Camo as a Perk. (well, all the Felids)

Heavy A/T Gunner. Medium Plasma Gun.

Felid Baron.

And a sample Gruntz card, made using Gruntz Barracks:

Sci Fi Civvie Vehicles

   Dirty civilians, leaving their stuff all over the place... well, at least they provide some cover, right?

In the center of frame, the blue grav car.

Khurasan

The Auger, an industrial vehicle.

Matchbox.

Also, some of my old Car Wars cars. Need to get back to that...

A grav taxi, from CheckerGrav

Khurasan

Front end loader and forklift, more industrials.

Matchbox

The mad chaos of the tray table that is my painting surface these days.

FedArms Corporate Troops

FedArms Security Solutions...

...when you absolutely, positively, have to kill every dirty grokking chi-wua-ne on the planet, accept no substitutes.

   Here's the corporate state troop force that I am building for Gruntz. I'm calling them FedArms, a megacorporation that contracts out military services to the Corporate Federation. Not all of them are dirty, ruthless mercenaries. Some are quite reliable and restrained mercenaries who would never violate rules of war or a contract's stipulations. After all, that's bad for business.

The MBT. Khurasan, the Thrainite one whose name I can never remember. Goanna?

The first painted infantry squad.

Khurasan Federal Army troops. Yeah, my name isn't very imaginative.

The armored battlesuit in the background also belongs to this faction.

It's an Ion Age Havelock Suit with railgun.