2012 - A Hobby Retrospective

This time last year, I put up some plans for what I'd do in 2012.  As the year's almost done, time to have a quick look at how I got on.

Great Italian Wars

Ah, yes, my big project for 2012.  Well this started off well, as I painted up all the figures I'd bought and started on a couple pieces of terrain.  Sadly, this project didn't survive the decision of Venexia Miniatures to shut up shop, depriving me of the main range of figures I'd planned to use.  Now I could have gone onto another range of figures, but as I'd taken the time and effort to select the ranges and check their compatibility etc, I simply didn't feel like making the compromise on this.  Officially on hold, as Venexia's range have been sold onto an American company, but they've yet to see the light of day.

In the future, I think I'll follow my usual practice and load up on figures early on, precisely to avoid this happening again (although, I've mentioned a few time on here that our hobby has proven to be remarkably resilient considering how far up shit creek we collectively are.)

Improve my painting & Infinity, Hordes and Warmachine

Hmmm, bit of a fail here.  I painted about fifteen different miniatures, but haven't really managed to finish up any of the starter lists I'd written.  Fairly sure it's an ego thing holding me back here, the figures I paint aren't as good as I imagine they will be.  Things are definitely improving, but it's slow going.  Recently I've been enjoying the Iron Kingdoms RPG and I've seen some upcoming figures for Infinity.  I think this looks like a decent quarter two project next year.

Dystopian Wars

My aim was to finish up all the fleets I had without going crazy and buying more.  Mission accomplished as I finished up my Empire of the Blazing Sun fleet (and took it to a tournament) as well as a Covenant of Antartica and Prussian Empire fleet (both sent off to eBay.)  I've not had DW on the table in a while, but it's nice to have a fleet ready to go if needed.

Flames of War

Another success in that I've painted up the target 600 points of Fallshirmjager.  Again, I've not yet had a game with these yet, but I have all the figures I'll ever need so I'll keep plugging away at them.

So I missed a few of my, admittedly vague, goals this year, but in other ways, it's been an excellent years gaming.  In 2011 I played many more games in any year since my school days, while 2012 has been even more prolific.  I've branched out and gotten over a dozen RPG sessions in and picked up a few games that, in the past, I wouldn't have thought were really "me."  Definitely going to put up another set of resolutions/targets for next year, but this time, I think I'll schedule updates throughout the year to track my progress.  I also want to put up one of those painting checklists on the blog.

Demo Games - Teach 'em or Crush 'em?

On Tuesday, I helped Gaz run an intro game of Dystopian Wars at the club.  We just used our starter fleets, minus the bombers, with some random scenery.  Only one other person was actually playing (he was expecting more,) but c'est la vie.  It was an enjoyable evenings gaming, lasting only two turns, but taking some time to explain the nuances and strategies as well as the rules.

   
The last time I ran a full intro game was when we were away at the DW tournament in April.  At that time, I thought it best to "go easy" on the new guy, and played in such a way that not only would he get to experience most of the common situations (different guns, aircraft, collisions, boarding etc,) but also get an easy win.  Afterwards, I hear grumblings that, for whatever reason, he didn't like the free win.  It couldn't have been too bad, as he bought a starter fleet from one of the traders there.  Oh, btw, I let him win against a random fleet I made up on the spot, my tournament Empire of the Blazing Sun list is still undefeated!

Now I don't believe you wanted to do that. . .

This time, when I took over at the start of turn 2, I decided to play with the view "the burned hand teaches best" and punished a poor move by sinking the opposing flagship.  However, I left worrying that this had been a bit rude.  We'd introduced the mechanics and given a generous amount of advice, but should I have also given the easy win?  I certainly don't play wargames to win,  far from it in fact, and I don't know any others to whom winning is the most important thing in a game.  So does it follow that a new player would feel better about a game if they get an early win in?

Anyway, Corrado, hopefully you enjoyed Dystopian Wars - next time, try and keep your Battleship less exposed!

RAFWA Championship 2012 Photos 1

I've started working through my photos from last weekend.  Normally, I'm hopeless at taking pictures, but as the Mrs set the camera up for me, at least some turned out okay.

   

Friday nights demo/practice game.  Boozed up gamers teaching other boozed up gamers how to play!  Carnage.

Big Al's Federated States of America Fleet

Gaz's Kingdom of Britannia Fleet

 Rob's Covenant of Antarctica Fleet (with missing turrets and proxy Bombers)

My Empire of the Blazing Sun Fleet

For some reason I don't have an fleet photo of Woody's Prussian Empire, but you can see them this deployment shot:

This was a great table to play on.  Somewhere in the Southern Ocean, two fleets have engaged each other.  Unfortunately, a Sturginium spill has caused the currents to become extremely erratic.  Each turn we rolled a random direction and each iceberg would move an independently determined D6 inches in that direction.  Again, carnage.

 

Towards the end of the game.  We used the new field orders rules, so both sides rolled randomly for their objectives.  I think the Covenant had to destroy all large and massive vessels, while the Prussians had to destroy 50% points value including all small vessels.

The core mechanic of Dystopian Wars at work here with the Rob's Particle Accelerator. Rolling twelve dice, he scored an initial six hits, but kept rolling sixes to generate more hits. From those initial six, he ended up with twenty six hits.  Too bad it was only against a cruiser! 

The Solomon Islands table.  The rocky reef in the middle slowed movement to half rate except for small ships (and flyers obviously) but it didn't obscure line of sight.  Otherwise, this was a normal table.

Turn 2, the Empire of the Blazing Sun can put out a lot of long range fire.  It helps when Al couldn't roll defensive dice for toffee.

Close to the end.  My objective was 50% of the enemy fleet including all medium ships.  The FSA had to take out all my naval models.

End of the same turn, captured a Gunship and Frigate for double victory points.  Everything but the FSA Battleship and a couple frigates were gone, resulting in a comprehensive Japanese victory!

RAF Wargaming Association Championship 2012

This weekend saw the Royal Air Force Wargaming Association Championship 2012.  Gaz ran a small Dystopian Wars event with five players (including me.)  Other than that, there were tournaments for Flames of War and Warhammer 40K, a big roleplaying session and individual games of Black Powder, Arkham Horror, and and Age of Sail type game.  There was also a painting competition, raffle (involving rolling lots of dice - quality) and a nice dinner on the Saturday night (we toasted the Queen - first time I've ever done that!)


Given that the event was full of current and ex service personnel, there was also a vast quantity of booze (all at £1.50 a pint!) and on Saturday and Sunday, a few sore heads!  I took a few photos, but haven't had the chance to work through them yet.  Here's a sneak peek though:

So thanks to Gaz, Big Al, Woody, Rob, Sean, Pete, Steve, Nick, Dave and everyone else for a great weekend!

Empire of the Blazing Sun - Fleet Pictures

Finally, Finally, FINALLY finished up my Empire of the Blazing Sun 800 point fleet for Dystopian Wars.  In fact, the varnish was applied about 21 hours before we leave for the tournament (wow, flashbacks to university!)  I originally planned in this post to explain a bit about what each squadron did and what my tactics would be with them, but, to be honest, I'm sick of the sight of them!!!

The Flagship - Hachiman Class Dreadnought

Although they were only painted to a "tabletop" standard, they took a hell of a lot of work, being covered in lots of tiny details and textures.  If you're unfamiliar with any of the Spartan Games resin models, I'd heartily recommend you check them out, the level of crisp detail on them is really impressive.

Tsukuyomi Class War Gyro

From this distance, about three feet, I'm quite happy with them and I think the look is cohesive over all the ships.  If you get any closer however, you'll see a couple problems and some of the details I've missed.  The War Gyro in particular just wouldn't hold the drybrushed paint, so it got a thicker coat than the other ships.

Tanuki Class Gunships

Still, its not good manners to post pictures on your blog and then criticise them yourself (that is the readers job.)  So I'll just say again that I'm happy with how they've turned out.  Hopefully they will continue to perform well on the tabletop now that they're finished...

Yurgi Class Destroyers and Uwatsu Class Frigates

Tiny Flyers - Torpedo Bombers

My own personal Agincourt - Dystopian Wars

Or, perhaps, not their finest hour.

We had the last warm up game of Dystopian Wars last week, in preparation for this weekends tournament.  I used my Empire of the Blazing Sun list I talked about here, while Gaz's British fleet consisted of a battleship with escorts, a carrier, two submarines, two bombers, three frigates, three destroyers, three squadrons of dive bombers and one spotter plane. 

The British had the advantage of more squadrons to activate, but I won the deployment role to balance things out a little.  I put my Dreadnought and War Gyro opposite the British Carrier, while the Gunships and Destroyers faced the battleship and bombers.  The British Subs, my Frigates and lots of aircraft kept to the centre.

The battle, just after the first few shots.

I took the initiative on the first turn, so made the British move first.  Gaz moved his Submarines up and one fired at my destroyers, missing.  The Submarine then attempted to dive under the waves to safety, but failed the test to do so.  Things didn't get any better for the Brits.

The British left flank, things looking ok so far.

On my right, the Dreadnought and War Gyro took two turns to destroy the Brit carrier, frigate squadron and all but one destroyer.  The Gyro took a lot of damage from the dive bomber squadrons, but was still functioning.  My Destroyers put some damage on the Sub opposite them and a dented one of the bombers to their left.

Gunships & Destroyers, just before a flurry of rockets!

The Gunships on my right took a little damage each from the battleship, but managed to destroy one bomber, capture the other and started putting damage on the battleship.

Halfway through turn 3, everything heads toward the battleship.

At the end of turn two, Gaz only had his damaged Battleship, one Sub, one damaged Destroyer and some aircraft (without any bombs) left.  To his credit, he carried on for a few more activations, but facing with three big threats closing in, we called the game half way through turn three.  In case anyone didn't notice, total casualties for the Empire of the Blazing Sun: zero.  Not even a single tiny flyer token.  Nice.

The Kingdom of Britannia derelict area.  Heh, heh, heh.   

So a great warm up game for me, not so much for Gaz.  Still, it was a good reminder that who you're playing is often far more important than what you're playing. 

Empire of the Blazing Sun - WIP

   

Managed to get a few hours painting in today, mainly trying to get the last of my Dystopian Wars fleet finished.  These three Tanuki Class Gunships are almost done.  The white hull, decking and metallics are all finished, with only the windows, red detailing and lower hull needing work.

   

The Tsukuyomi War Gyro has proven a bit of a problem.  After the first coat of paint, I couldn't decide whether or not to cut out the gaps between each individual turbine.  If I'd left them in there would be plain flat panels that wouldn't (in my opinion) look right painted or left black.  On the other hand, the way the model is cast, you can't cut out all the flat panels (some are too close the main structure, others are just too small,) which might still not look right.

I've still to cut out the two leftmost panels
   

I couldn't find a painted example anywhere in a quick search online, so just decided to hack away at it.  Although it took a while to make any progress (the resin was deceptively thick) I'm happy with how it turned out.  It won't stand up to close scrutiny, but for the quick paint job I'm doing, I think it will look fine.

I just don't know how you would paint the panels and have it look good.
    

After these guys, it's just ten tiny flyer tokens and the fleet is finished.  

Empire of the Blazing Sun Tournament List

  

I've been presured into submitting my fleet list for the Dystopian Wars event I'm attending at the end of the month.  It's a 800 point naval tournament with a cap of 240 points on air units (the tiny flier squadrons are free.)  So I've gone for an Empire of the Blazing Sun list:

Hachiman Class Dreadnought
Tsukuyomi Class War Gyro
Tanuki Class Gunship x 3
Yurgi Class Destroyer x 3
Uwatsu Class Frigate x 4
Torpedo Bombers x 5
Torpedo Bombers x 5

I'm fairly comfortable with the list.  The only real dilemma I had was choosing the War Gyro over the Sky Fortress, mainly because the Sky Fortress gives you three activations instead of just one.  However, I went for the Gyro due to the better quality firepower.  I should get in two more games before we go, so will hopefully get to iron out any issues.

There's not been a lot of activity on the blog this last week, as real life has rudely kept me busy.  I have got a bit of painting done though, namely some Flames of War figures and some work on my Great Italian Wars project.  Updates soon.

Dystopian Wars - Battle in the Baltic

 

We had another Dystopian Wars battle at the club this week.  This time, we were trialing one of the scenarios planned for the upcoming tournament - a battle for control of the Baltic (although what the Japanese are doing contesting the Baltic Sea is beyond me!)

A large strut of land stuck out towards the centre of the table, with sand banks blocking any gaps (I really need to make some more terrain,) and deployment zones stretching out from opposite corners.  The ultimate goal was to move a ship or squadron off the table via your opponents deployment zone, but we realised very quickly that this was unfeasible.  It looks like the scenario will change to awarding extra victory points for intact ships and squadrons in the opposite table half.

So far so good.  The Brits move out, lead by their gunships and carrier.

Gaz changed his Kingdom of Britannia list by replacing the Dreadnought (yay!) with both carriers and a lot of medium ships.

The big hitters move out.  Sjy Fortress, Gunships and Battleship head straight for the Brit carrier.
  

I swapped out the Dreadnought for a Battleship and extra frigates, but was still lower on activations compared to the Brits.

Due to the strut of land, I was able to deploy close to the middle of the table edge, but at the same time keep my gunships and battleship hidden from most of the Britannian firepower, in particular the torpedoes.

The Brits in disaray.  A Sky Fortress, Destroyer and unarmed bombers all that remain.

The Brits pushed the carrier and gunships forward, followed closely by the cruisers.  The carrier, however, pushed just a little too far forward and became the target of every big gun in the Blazing Sun fleet.  The following turns saw the Brit fleet decimated for the cost of only a couple frigates, a destroyer and a couple points of damage on the Battleship.

So from my point of view, the scenario was perfectly balanced. . . Only kidding, it was fairly skewed in my favour as I was able to deploy most of my fleet hidden from view, while Gaz had to sit his big ships out in the open.  A little bit of adjustment to the deployment zones and a little more terrain should solve both these issues.

  Dice. The cause of, and solution to, all wargaming problems!

My crushing victory was not purely down to dodgy deployment however.  The Brit fleet had nowhere near enough regular gunnery attacks, relying instead on aircraft and torpedoes, both of which allow defensive measures to limit their effectiveness.  There was also the fact that Gaz couldn't roll for shit the whole night!

Four weeks until the tournament.  Need to get my existing fleet finished, order and paint some gunships, try and make some terrain and, if there's time, make sure my liver is in good shape for a bashing!

February Gaming

February has been a fairly unsettling month so far - Mrs had a wee holiday, I had a chest infection, job interviews, a birthday party and a funeral.  Honestly, it's been very up and down, leaving little time for my nerdly pursuits.  I've not picked up a paint brush all month and only managed two games so far this month, both early on.

First up I had another Dystopian Wars battle against Gaz at the club.  We're both going to a tournament at the end of March (Gaz is actually running it) so we've been working on some of the more complex rules and, of course, our lists!  For this occasion, I proxied a squadron of three Gunships with the cruiser models.

The two fleets looked were:

Empire of the Blazing Sun

Hachiman Dreadnought
Tenkei Sky Fortress
Tanuki Class Gunships x 3
Yurgi Class Destroyers x 3
Uwatsu Class Frigates x 5
Torpedo Bombers x 5
Torpedo Bombers x 5
Fighters x 3
Fighters x 3

Kingdom of Britannia

Magesty Class Dreadnought
Tribal Class Cruiser x 3
Orion Class Destroyers x 4
Doncaster Class Bombers x 2
Hawk Class Scout Rotors x 2
Dive Bombers x 5
Dive Bombers x 5

Both fleets were heavily weighted to my left (err, port) side, with only the cruisers, gunships and some tiny flyers on the other flank.  The Brit Dreadnought decided to halt and make use of it's long range firepower, while the rest of the fleets closed in on each other exchanging fire.

The following turn saw my frigates mauled by the British bombers and destroyers.  In return, I destroyed one scout rotor and one cruiser and damaged the remaining cruisers, bombers and rotors.  The tiny flyer squadrons repositioned on the battlefield, making use of their long movement range, although no squadrons engaged the enemy.  The Brit Dreadnought took a lot of rocket hits for no damage, but inflicted none in return.

It's a running joke that I make a priority of wiping out Gaz's destroyers (they mauled me the first time he used them and I was scarred by the experience.)  My Dreadnought, Sky Fortress and remaining frigates combined to wipe out the British destroyers, bombers and rotors.  More long range fire at the Brit Dreadnought, but for little effect.  My gunships destroyed another cruiser and effectively crippled the last.  Gaz powered his Dreadnought forward, putting a point of damage on my dread and finishing off my destroyers.  All the torpedo and dive bombers on the table had used their ordinance, so it was down to the three large ships to finish the fight.

Having managed to manoeuvre side on to both my Dreadnought and Sky Fortress, Gaz unleashed the full might of his Dreadnought.  Both my ships were damaged, the Sky Fortress' assault marines were heavily depleted and my Dread lost it's shield generator.  Again, my return fire was completely ineffective (although I managed to knock out one of the two generators with a game card.)  Our time was up and the Empire of the Blazing Sun had proven clear victors.  A victory only tainted by my inability to scratch the British Dreadnought.

I still have serious misgivings over the new Kingdom of Britannia rules Spartan Games have released.  And I have severe misgivings over that Dreadnought!  Although it's only devastating up close, two shield generators AND a load of defensive fire mean it can take an heap of punishment .  My rockets and heavy guns simply struggle to get through that!

However, I'm feeling much more comfortable with my Empire of the Blazing Sun (apart from the paint job, which is starting to look like the rush job it was.)  Three gunships will definitely be going on the tournament list, while the three cruiser won't even be going in the box!  I like the Sky Fortress well enough, but mainly for the two extra flyer squadrons and the rockets, but it's still too puny at mid range for the hefty points price.  I think I'll try the same list with either the Tsukuyomi Gyro or, possibly, three Inari Scout Gyros.

A few days later, we had a run through of the Horus Heresy board game from Fantasy Flight Games.  We randomly chose our sides (I was the Imperials whilst Gaz was the traitors) and worked very slowely through the first few turns, getting comfortable with the rules.

The game is set during the final action of the Horus Heresy, the seige and assualt on the Imperial Palace.  As many of you may know, the history of 40K has the Imperial defenders barely holding off the overwhelming Traitor forces, when the Emperor is somehow able to teleport onto an orbiting space ship and kill Horus, albeit at the cost of his own life.

The board game lets you recreate this play for play with the Emperor, Horus, eight primarchs, space marines, daemons, titans (and more) all present in the game, with areas on the board representing the Imperial Palace itself, space ports, factories and Horus' orbiting battleship.  However, there are a few other ways to secure victory without following the traditional path.  Obviously, killing Horus or the Emperor (wherever they may be) is fairly straightforward way, but you can also win by holding all four space ports (denying or allowing reinforcements) or by the Imperials holding out until the end of the game (at what point Imperial reinforcements arrive in overwhelming force!)

There are some great mechanics in the game.  The initiative tracker gives you lots of strategic options, as does the card driven combat, while the Tactical Map is a small game in itself!  Like many Fantasy Flight games, there are lots of random and fluffy events (orbital bombardment?  Yes please!) and the scenarios booklet lets you play the board game in lots of different ways.

All in all, great fun and a great evening game, even though I lost through leaving two of the spaceports undefended (in my defense, if I was more familiar with the Unit Limit and Initiative rules, my assault on the space ship would have been much more effective though!)

No games this week, but I've a couple days to myself now and plan to get some painting done and, with any luck, something finished!

A Quick Update

Just a quick post on this weeks progress.

We had another game of Dystopian Wars at the club (which has been packed the last couple weeks) with my Empire of the Blazing Sun and Gaz's Kingdom of Britannia fleets.  No photos I'm afraid, but it was a solid victory for the Blazing Sun.  It was also a timely reminder that painted models always do better than unpainted ones - my newly finished Dreadnought and Destroyers both performed admirably.  However, the only undercoated Skyfortress, on it's debut, was unceremoniously blown out of the sky!

  

It was our second game using the updated rules from Spartan Games.  I still hate the new Britannia generator rules (I have to read these again as they seem waaaay too powerful now,) but the new EotBS movement rules are suprisingly useful.  If anyone out there is using the new rules, I'd heartily recommend reading this post of the Spartan forum to clear up a lot of grey areas!

I also had a try of making my own storage tray this week - it's surprisingly effective, although I don't think BattleFoam need to worry too much!

In other news, my order from Museum Miniatures has arrived (some 15mm Landsknechts,) and they look good enough to probably put in another order while their 25% sale is still on.  I've finished up the first batch of figures for my Italian Wars project and am just waiting for some bases to arrive so I can get them completed.  We're planning another Black Crusade session, but I think we might end up waiting for the first supplement (just released) before going any further.

Fortunately for my nerd time, the sporting schedule is due to relax a bit next week, leaving more painting time!  I'm sure I could have got a lot more done this week if it weren't for the football (far too much nonsense to talk about,) the snooker (always bet on the thinner guy,) the tennis (Andy Murray's Scottish again,) the womens tennis (is this even a sport?) and the cricket (best team in the world my arse!)

Have a good weekend everyone!

January, WIP

Just over halfway through the month, so how am I getting on with my resolutions.  Well, not bad to be honest.  Frustratingly, I've not been able to finish off any individual projects so far, but plenty of progress has been made.

In order of "almost completedness:" 

• Dystopian Wars Empire of the Blazing Sun Dreadnought and Destroyers (yes, before anyone asks, this is the same ship from October 29th last year)
• Vexillia 15mm Landsknecht Arquebusiers and Crossbowmen
• Battlefront 15mm German Pioneers
• Bolt Action 28mm SS

The biggest problem I'm having is deciding when a miniature is finished.  For instance, those Landsknechts are covered in little details (powder cases, drinking horns, sidearms) and I can't seem to say "That's enough detail, he looks fine, get on and base them!"  Add in the fact their uniforms are painted in a variety of colours, they are taking much longer than planned.

Away from the painting table, a pleasant surprise arrived in the post this morning - a Covenant of Antarctica fleet box set from Spartan Games!!! I won this prize from Tabletop Fix, so a big thanks to both them and Spartan Games.

We've had another Black Crusade session (our third,) this time with some new characters (Chaos Space Marines) and a heavy combat mission.  Still loving the rules, I'll try and get a write up of this session up in the next few days.  The first supplement is due for release shortly, hopefully once it's out, FFG will get on and product some player and GM books for this great game.

Lastly, for this update, my Infinity eBay purchases look like they've gone missing.  There shouldn't be any problem getting the cash back, but it's still a hassle.  Particularly considering I paid a lot less than the RRP, it'll cost more to get the same collection of figures.

First game of 2012 - Chaotic Dystopian Wars

Tuesday saw the first wargame of 2012! Dystopian Wars at the club, with my regular opponent and his Brits against my (ahem) almost painted Prussians.  This was all the more impressive considering it took me four months to get a game played in 2011.

We tried out all the latest rules updates as posted on the Spartan Games site here and here.  We also took it as an opportunity to go over the rules and correct some rules we had been misinterpreting (bravery and commander mainly.)

Tiny Fliers are now a whole lot easier to manage, movement hasn't changed much, but the attack and defence rules have been well streamlined and are much more straightforward.

The Field Orders generator and game set up are great additions.  Before you pretty much had to decide your mission and terrain yourself, now there is at least some guidance.

The left flank was the scene of absolute carnage - 8 destroyed and 3 captured!

Nation rules.  Hmmm, not too keen on the new KoB generator rules, but that's probably because a) I couldn't even chip the paint against the Battleship last night, and b) felt my Prussians didn't get much love with their new rules (oooh!!! 1 extra dice after damage!!!)

Still, as a trial game, it was quite succcessful.  Although we played two hours, only two turns were completed, but I think we ironed out a lot of issues we were having.  I still have a couple areas I'd like cleared up:

Is defensive Ack Ack combined or linked against tint fliers?
Against tiny fliers, does everyone in range get Ack Ack?
Clear up the exact order for dogfighting.

A rematch is due next week, but I think I'll go back to my Empire of the Blazing Sun fleet (they might just have some reinforcements available!)