Galts Ghost, part 2

 July 12th, 3044, a combined light industrial and office park on the planet Sevon in the Outworlds Alliance.

 

The Pirates are back, or maybe they were different Pirates, John had begun to realize that the local government wasn’t very good about sharing intelligence data.  What he did know was that there were once again invaders on the planet and his employer, Alliance Motors Ltd., had ordered he and Hans to leave their assigned location and make the 40 mile trek to this out of the way office/industrial park.  The invaders were reported to be advancing to this location, and since Alliance Motors had corporate offices in the office park, that was apparently reason enough to leave the manufacturing facility unguarded.  John had his suspicions that there was more than just corporate offices here though, he’d heard rumors of some kind of advanced research project – which he thought unusual since Alliance Motors was an agricultural equipment manufacturer.

 

The spotty intelligence reports indicated a Lance size element of unknown composition enroute.  The only good news was that since the location also contained one of the main planetary communications relays, the planetary militia had managed to provide the support of 2 Pike armored vehicles and one Wasp Light Mech.

 

____________________

 

Since the last Alpha Strike game went so fast, and I still wanted to roll more dice I set this up quick as soon as I finished the previous game, which explains why it isn’t’ a well thought out scenario.

 

The attackers primary objective is to destroy the research facility (which doesn’t really sound like something mere Pirates would be concerned with, who are these guys?), with secondary objectives of taking out the communication infrastructure, they have 5 turns to accomplish this before they must withdraw.

 

The defender’s objective is somewhat divided.  Galts Ghost want to drive off the attackers while defending the Alliance Motors research building, the planetary Milita (Pikes and Wasp) want to drive off the attacker while defending the communications assets. What could possibly go wrong with inconsistent orders being given?

As always click on the image to get a bigger version.  

 

The Battlefield 

A view from the attackers drone.  You'll definitely need to click to enlarge.

Turn 1

And we roll for initiative and the attackers win, the defenders will move first.  One of the defending Pikes moves forward into a covered firing position, the rest stand still.  The attackers advance using woods and hills for cover. 

The defending Rifleman and Pike fire at the Ostsol and Shadow Hawk at long range and miss.

The attacking Shadow Hawk fires at the Pike and misses, the attacking Valkyrie fires at the Rifleman and misses.  (Nice to see my dice luck continues to SUCK, no matter which side I’m rolling for).

End of turn 1, view from the defenders side.  Maybe my eyes are just showing their age but I find it hard to spots the mechs in some of these photos.  I've ordered some colored hex bases, hopefully that will make them easier to spot.

And from the Attackers side

 

Turn 2

Roll for initiative and the defender wins, the attacker will move first.

The attackers Stinger sprints into the woods.  (Since it sprinted it cannot fire this turn).  The Valkyrie jumps into the woods.  The Ostsol moves into cover behind the farm house, and the Shakow Hawk moves behind the rock outcropping.

For the defenders one of the Pikes moves around the edge of the hill, the Rifleman takes the Pikes previous position, the other Pike moves into the tree line, the Phoenix Hawk moves into the woods and the Wasp Jumps to cover of the hill.

 

The attackers fire phase, the Stinger can’t shoot because he sprinted, the Valkyrie fires at long range at the defending Pike in the woods and misses. The Ostsol fires at the Satellite installation and hits, doing 3 damage destroying the building.  The Shadow Hawk fires at the Microwave Relay station next to the satellite installation and destroys it.

The defenders firing phase starts with the Stinger firing on the Wasp, doing 1 point of damage.  The Phoenix Hawk fires at the Stinger and misses.  One of the Pike’s fires at the Stinger doing 1 point of damage, destroying the last of the Stingers armor.   The remaining Pike fires at the Shadow Hawk and misses, the Rifleman fires at the Shadow Hawk and does 1 point of damage.

Turn 3

The attacker wins initiative, defender moves first.

The defending Wasp jumps towards the Stinger.  The Pike falls back behind one of the office buildings.  The Phoenix Hawk moves forward to the Pike’s old position.  The Pike stays stationary while the Rifleman moves back into the tree line.

The attackers Stinger jumps behind the defending Wasp who foolishly got to close.  The Valkyrie Jumps forward and the Ostsol move forward towards the Phoenix Hawk.  The Shadow Hawk Jumps forward trying to keep the woods between itself and the defenders.

The defenders Phoenix Hawk fires on the attacking Stinger, destroying it (the Stinger still gets to shoot this turn since combat is simultaneous).  One Pike fires at the Valkyrie getting 1 hit, the Pike fires at the Shadow Hawk getting 1 hit.  The Rifleman fires at the Shadow Hawk and gets 2 hits plus a Criticial Hit (rolled a 12) which was a Weapon Hit reducing the Shadow Hawk’s damage by one.

The attackers Stinger fires into the back of the defending Wasp as it dies, doing 2 points of damage stripping all of the armor off of Wasp.  The Valkyrie fires at the defending Phoenix Hawk doing 1 point of damage.  The attacking Ostsol fires at the Phoenix Hawk doing 1 point of damage.  The Shadow Hawk fires at the defending Pike and does 2 points of damage, when vehicles (non-mech) are hit the must take an automotive critical hit, which was no result.

Turn 4

Defender wins initiative, attacker moves first.

The attacking Valkyrie and Ostsol both move into woods.  The Shadow Hawk moved into the woods.

For the defenders Wasp moves behind the Valkyrie.  One Pike and the Shadow Hawk move into cover behind the buildings.  The other Pike stands still, making it easier for it to hit, but also easier to be hit.  The Rifleman moves to cover behind a building.

 

The attacking Valkyrie fires on the research building, doing 1 point of damage.  The 

Ostsol fires into the research building, doing enough additional damage to destroy it!  Satisfying their main objective.  The Shadow Hawk fires at a Pike, doing 1 point of damage.

The defending Wasp fires into the rear arc of the Valkyrie hitting for 2 points of damage and removing the last of the Valkyrie’s armor.  The Phoenix Hawk and one Pike fire at the Ostsol, the Pike hits for 2 points of damage and the Phoenix Hawk misses.  The remaining Pike fires at the Shadow Hawk and misses.  The Rifleman fires at the Shadow and hits for 1 point, burning off the last of the Shadow Hawk’s armor.

End of turn 4, smoke rises from the Research Center building.

 The attackers have now completed their primary objective of destroying the research building and have destroyed the main satellite relay station for the planetary hemisphere and damaged another microwave relay tower.  Time for them to beat feet.

 

 Turn 5

 The defenders win the initiative, the attackers will move first which is what they want to do.  The Shadow Hawk sprints for the table edge.  The Ostsol and Valkyrie fall back.

The defender Wasp, with no armor left, opts to jump away from the Valkyrie.  The Phoenix Hawk stands still.  Both Pike tanks and the Rifleman move to get shots at the retreating Ostosl.

The attackers Valkyrie fired at the Phoenix Hawk and misses.  The Ostsol fires at one of the Pike tanks and misses. The attackers Shadow Hawk sprinted so it can't fire.

The 2 defending Pike tanks, the Rifleman and the Phoenix Hawk all fire at the Ostsol; one of the Pike tanks hits for 2 points of damage, the Phoenix Hawk misses, while the Rifleman hits for one point removing the last of the Ostsol's armor.

___

That ended the 5th turn which was the scenario length.  The attackers achieved their primary objecting and 50% of their secondary objective.  Will the stay on planet or will the leave?  And just who the hell are these guys?  Pirates don't tend to destroy research facilities, raid them sure, but destroy them?  And why would 'agricultural equipment' research be of any interest to Pirates anyway?  WTF is going on here?

Well, that was fun and fast.  It would have easily played out in under one hour if I wasn't taking pictures and writing it down as I went.  There are still a few things I don't think I'm getting right from a rules perspective and I need to actually remember to look at the movement markers when I calculate the to hit values - I messed a few of those up.

All in all a fun learning exercise.  And there's still enough time to throw together another scenario together and play it out today... hmmm... that is a thought.  And as quick as the games have played out so far they are rather easy to write up...

Also, I need more, varied terrain.  The card stock buildings that come with the Alpha Strike box set are excellent quality for what they are and fill in nicely.  But I need a better selection of industrial buildings.  I also need to make some more highways.  And more hills suitable for 6mm figures.  

And Galt's Ghost, for however long I stick with them need more long range firepower.  But since they failed to keep the research building from being destroyed I rather doubt they'll be getting a bonus.  Hopefully they make good money on the battlefield salvage.  Which reminds me I need to figure out a way to determine when a destroyed mech/vehcile in Alpha Strike is really destroyed or repairable.  In the old Classic Battle Tech, with the insane level of detail you could tell exactly what component was destroyed - at least that's how I remember, but then it has been almost 40 years since I played Classic BattleTech.

Anyway, if you made it through the rambling to this point thanks for reading.

Take care.

So much lead, so little time

Galts Ghost

 Time for something really different.  Way back in the late 1980's I played Battletech, primarily because at the time it was the only 'wargame' I could find opponent for in the pre-internet era, (It wasn't really a true war-game, soft of a hybrid role playing/battle game in my experience).  It was fun, but it was painfully detailed.  However as part of that detail it had a magnificent backstory.  As relocation for work occurred I drifted away from BattleTech, and ultimately ended up in CT where I found local (as in same small town) historical warmers which allowed me to get back into 'proper wargaming in proper eras'.   Earlier this year the 'Friday Afternoon Old Guys', discovered Alpha Strike, which is, in my opinion, a true 'wargame' version of the original BattleTech game, (your mileage may vary).  So, I had to give it a try.  So what follows is brief solo run-through of a quick little skirmish.  Unlike original BattleTech which I found to be unwieldily with more than 4 'Mechs' per side, Alpha Tech can easily accommodate Battalion size battles and larger.

And since I still had the gaming table set up with terrain from the last Eurica battle.  Time for some more foolishness.

So here we go.

March 9, 3044, Alliance Motors Limited Manufacturing Annex  C, on the planet Sevon in the Outworlds Alliance.

 

John Galt, the 1commander of Galt’s Ghost, a mercenary unit consisting of 2 Battlemechs was just finishing his morning coffee.  He was still trying to wrap his head around the turn of events over the last three years that had resulted in him and his best friends Hans Johnson and Rudolph Klupton being able to live out their lifelong dream.  This was their first job, and the pay was pretty pathetic, but all they had to do was provide additional security for this new remote production line for farm equipment of Alliance Motors Limited.  While only 9 days into their 12-month contract he felt like things were going well.

 

Just as he downed the last of his coffee the facilities PA system blared to life, and alarm Klaxons started going off across the complex.  “Hostile forces inbound, all personnel to shelters.  Security Force stand to. Estimated 10 minutes until arrival.”  John dropped the paper coffee cup and ran outside, passing his partner and lifetime friend Hans as they sprinted towards their Mechs and their first combat. 

 

As soon as the start-up sequence completed on their Mechs, Ralph, their friend and mechanical genius who was mostly responsible for restoring the two Mechs they had unearthed on their home world of Conroe 3 years ago came over the comms system and said “Remember it took me 3 years to get those things operational, make sure you take care of them.  Now go kick some ass!”

 

_____________________________

 

A peaceful Tractor Factory surrounded by farms.

Turn 1

John deployed his Rifleman 4D behind the cover of the factory administrative building while Hans moved Phoenix Hawk 1K across the road to the cover of the farmhouse.  

In the distance the attacking Recon Lance moved forward, With one of their Wasp mechs jumping the river with the intervening woods breaking line of sight.  The Locust moved forward keeping the hill between itself and factory, giving it cover.The other Wasp moved behind another clump of woods which also blocked line of the sight to the small Mech.  The Stinger sprinted behind another clump of trees that blocked line of sight.

 

 

The defenders have deployed (upper right) and the attackers advance taking advantage of the terrain.  As always, click to enlarge.

Turn 2

The attackers continue to advance.  They need to close to medium range in order to engage as none of their light Mechs can fire at long range.  The Wasp on the attackers left ground moves into the woods.  The Locust ground moves into cover behind a farm house.  The other Wasp moves into the woods.  The Stinger ground moves behind the woods breaking line of sight.

The defenders stand still (normally they would have moved to keep the enemy 'to hit' roll higher, but since the light mechs they are facing don't have long range fire power it opted to stand still to improve it's 'to hit' number for not moving).  The Rifleman fires and misses, by a lot, it must be the first combat jitters.

John's radio crackled as Hans' voice came across,  "Hey boss, I thought the plan was you'd soften them up from a distance.  Maybe we need a new plan?"

The attackers continue their steady pace.  But what's their objective?  To raid the factory or to destroy it? Or both?

Turn 3

The defenders won the initiative, again.  (In Alpha Strike the initiative winner moves last, that way they get to see the enemy deployment.)

The attackers launch their assault.  Their left most Wasp jumps forward (jumping makes it harder to be hit, but it also make it harder for them to make hits).  

The defenders move, the Phoenix Hawk ground moves to the other side of the farm house the Locust is behind and the Rfileman moves to the farmhouse the Phoenix Hawk was sheltering behind.

Shooting is simultaneous, with the side that lost initiative shooting first.  The attackers left most Wasp fires at the Rifleman and misses.  The Locust fires across the top of the farmhouse at the Phoenix Hawk and hits doing 1 point of damage to the Phoenix Hawks armor.  The other Wasp fires at the Phoenix Hawk and misses.  The Stinger fires at the Phoenix Hawk rear arc and misses.

The Defender return fire, with the Phoenix Hawk firing at the Locust and misses.  The Rfileman fires at the Locust and finally hits something, doing 2 points of damage boiling off all of the Mechs armor.  However, the Rfileman rolled a 12, which is a critical hit which resulted in no additional damage.

 

I hope the residents of the farm house the phoenix hawk and Locust are fighting over in the center evacuated in time.

Turn 4

The attackers win the initiative, defenders move first.  The Rifleman falls back to cover the factory administration building.  The Phoenix Hawk falls back to the position the Rifleman just left. 

For the attackers move, the left most Wasp jumps forward again.  The Locust and other Wasp switch positions,  And the Stinger moves behind the farm house flanking the defending Mechs.

The defenders fire, the Rifleman targets the Wasp behind the farm house, hitting for 2 points of damage which removes all the armor from the Wasp.  The Phoenix Hawk targets the same Wasp, and misses.

The attackers fire, their left most Wasp firing at the rifleman doing 1 point of damage to its armor.  The Wasp behind the house fires at the Phoenix Hawk and misses, the Locust behind the woods fires at the Phoenix Hawk doing one point of damage to it's armor, but the roll was a 12, which requires a critical hit check, which had no effect.  The Stinger behind the farmhouse fires at the Phoenix Hawk doing one point of damage to its armor.

Looks like the kids may have bitten off more than they can chew.  Is this the end of Galt's Ghost?

Turn 5

The defender wins the initiative.  The attacker moves first.

Their left most Wasp jumps into the factory compound. The Locust and Wasp switch positions, again.  The Stinger moves forward into cover behind the billboard.

The attacker moves the Rfileman back towards one of the assembly buildings to fire on the Wasp, and the Phoenix Hawk falls back into the shipping container yard to fire on the Stinger.

The attackers left most Wasp fires on the assembly building and somehow misses - I guess all of that jumping messed up their aim?  Now we know what the attackers objective seems to be. The Locust fires at the Phoenix Hawk and misses, the other Wasp is out of range.  The Stinger fires at the Phoenix Hawk, and hits doing one point of damage to the Phoenix Hawk's armor.

The defender fires his Rifleman at the Wasp inside the factory compound, and hits doing 2 points of damage removing all of the Wasps armor.  The phoenix Hawk fires at the Stinger behind the billboard, and hits doing 3 points of damage, destroying all of the armor and causing one internal structure hit causing a critical hit roll resulting in a weapon hit.

Turn 6

The defender wins the initiative, attacker moves first.

The Wasp inside the complex moves around to the other side of the assembly plant.   The Locust moves forward to the cover of another farm house and the other Wasp moves into the position the Locust just left.  The Stinger falls back to the cover of the farm house.

The attacker sends his Rifleman after the Wasp that fired on the assembly plant.  The Phoenix Hawk moves to the Cover of the hill to try to finish off the Stinger.

The attackers wasp fires at the assembly plan again and hits, doing 1 point of damage, the building still stands.  The Locust and other Wasp fire at the administrative buildings, the Locust hits doing 1 point of damage and the Stinger misses.  (I really can't roll dice worth $%!#, LOL.  The Stinger doesn't have any weapons due to the critical hit so it can't fire.

The Defending Rifleman fires on the Wasp, and hits doing 2 points of damage which destroys the last of the Mech's internal structure, killing the Mech.  The Phoenix Hawk fires on the battered Stinger, and hits, destroying it's last pip of internal structure and it goes down.

The Assembly Plan and Administrative Building have each taken 1 point of damage, but they still stand.  Two of the 4 attacking light Mechs have been destroyed.  

At this point the attacking forces were down to 50%, the two remaining attackers both have no armor left and only have 2 internal structure points left.  I think at this point they would withdraw, the question is do the defenders pursue let's see what the dice say.

Turn 7

Both of the attacker Mech's sprinted, the Rifleman advanced and took one maximum range shot, missing.  Knowing there was no way to catch the attackers the defenders decided to continue to man their post and begin to salvage what they could from the destroyed Mechs.  Would there be enough to rebuild one of them?

For now, they'd focus on replacing the destroyed armor plates, especially on the Phoenix Hawk.

The Phoenix Hawk may only have 1 armor point left, but it walks triumphantly down the road headed back to the factory complex.

Well, that was a nice distraction.  It played surprisingly quick, if I hadn't been taking pictures and notes it would have taken less than an hour.  I think I got most of the rules right.  Anyway, a fun little excuse to push some plastic around the table and roll some dice.  

It feels like I played this ages ago, I'm rather slow about getting around to posting stuff.  

Take care and HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

So much lead, and now plastic, so little time

Feeling Spacey

In keeping with the flight theme, next up Space... the final... well you know.

As the 2 or 3 of you who follow these eratic ramblings may recall I've mentioned 'Project Z' a couple of times, which is my ongoing effort at a space campaign.  I've posted some attempts at finding ships with the right feel for what I want, but haven't really found anything that felt right.  Although now, maybe I just go old school and repurpose the ship designs most of my generation of wargammers recognize.

A couple of months go while digging through some boxes I stumbled on my StafFleet Battles stuff from the mid thru late 1980's.  Sadly, none of the Federation Heavy Cruisers had survived their time in mothballs (The pylons for the Nacelles were super thin, super soft lead and had needed repaired several times before they went into mothballs, and they had all broken again over time and multiple moves.  The Klingons, on the other hand, while all the warp engines had snapped off, a few were recoverable, but the ones I could recover were all for the same side of the ship, so no joy there.

In addition to the sad state of the mothballed fleet mentioned above, I also discovered a couple of unopened blister packs from the 80's.  So, off to the the Amarillo Design. Bureau store on shap ways and soon most of the below arrived.  (fun fact, in the late 80's and early 90's, for a while I was traveling to Amarillo fairly regularly on business.  The hobby shop whose name I don't recall, was located in a mostly abandoned shopping mall but I was able to get to meet most of the ADB folks).

All figures are Amarillo Design Bureau (Shaeways store), except for 1 Heavy Cruiser and the stations.

We start with a couple of Frigates

And a slightly different view

Followed by Destroyers

And a slightly different view of the Destroyers

The local star must. have sent out a flare at the time this image was captured resulting in the poor quality.

And some New Light Cruisers

And finally, the fan favorite Heavy Cruisers.  The one in the center is the one made from lead instead of all this 3D printed stuff  as I recall.  (I'm sure 3D printing is just a phase [like cassette tapes vs. 8-track tapes] and soon everything will be back to lead, right?  ... right?) 

The local system's star seems to have entered an active phase and washed out these images as well.  The Science Officer should have caught that before allowing the images to be published. 

Support ships, in this case a New Light Cruiser Scout and and Destroyer Scout.

Support bases, I hear the one on the left has implemented a no-tribble policy.  These are lead that I've had for at least a decade and a half, maybe 3 decades.

And the ships out on a major fleet maneuver

My hope is this diversion in painting a couple of months ago will rekindle the energy on Project Z.  A while back Joe and I had a good discussion about how truly massive the Universe is and how easy it would be to have multiple genres in the same universe, maybe I could build on that thought as well. Or maybe I'll end up going a completely different direction.

Hopefully I can get back to painting proper lead/pewter figures soon.

So much lead (and now plastic) and so little time.

Feeling Spacey

Project Z continues on the back burner.  I’m still trying to find some ship figures that fit the feel I’m looking for.  Of course, it would help if I could articulate what that feel is, but I can’t – I’ll know it when I see it.

I wasn’t having much luck on the traditional lead sculpted ships so I decided to do what the kewl kids due and went to  Shapeways.  I found a couple from TV shows I watched back in the day.  

 

First up, an Earth Alliance Omega Class Destroyer.  Bonus points if you recognize the TV Series – there continues to be a youtube rumor that there is a new version of the series supposedly in the works with actors already signed up.  We’ll see.

The photo doesn’t do this justice but it has very nice detail, with crisp clean lines.  I ordered this before Christmas and just got around to painting it up.  I ordered a couple more, but… the price seems to have gone up several dollars per sculpt.  Not cheap, but in small numbers doable.

 

Hopefully this view shows off some of the detail of the sculpt better.

It has a certain gritty feel, especially with the habitation section that rotates to create gravity due to a lack of artificial gravity technology.

 

And I also gave this one a try.  The figure was about half the price as the one above, and the detail, or lack thereof, is evidently the reason for the price difference.  I won’t be buying any more of these.  Again, bonus points if you recognize the series.  In hind sight, most of the stories were pretty lame, which was a pity because it had an interesting background they could have done a lot more with.  Lexa Doig still makes it worth watching though, in my opinion.

 

That’s it for now,

 

So much lead, so little time

Random Pigment Application

 Sometimes dreaming up a title for a post can be a real hassle.

So, a while back I was digging through my 40K stuff and found some unpainted non-40K figures (but I think you'll recognize them). While priming them I decided to buy 2 more Sci-Fi figures that I've had my eye on for a couple of years now.

As I didn't have  enough time between houseguest to play out the next battle in Eurica, I decided to quickly put brush to lead.  

I think everyone will recognize the first batch, but the second batch is a little more esoteric, having only one season, and one movie.

3 Redshirts and a Dr./Sciencey type.  Figures are from CP Models.  They list them as 28mm but the appear to be more of a true 25mm  but they look ok next to the others, just a little scrawny.

The Captain and the Mechanic (kind of sounds like an amalgamation of a couple of 1970's bands).  Figures are from Heresy Miniatures, Smugglers and other anti-hero range.

And for their closeups.

Shiny!  Unfortunately the photo doesn't do her justice.

"I am to misbehave."  I love the action of the sculpt.  

Hopefully in the next week or so I can get the next battle in the Eurica campaign set up, played out, and posted.  Try to stay cool with all of this insane heat and humidity we're having in New England.

So much lead, so little time.

 Spring is finally here, the temperatures are slowly rising.  The pool is open and the water is a balmy 64 degrees.  The grass seems to need to be mowed every 4 days, and there’s a long list of honey-do’s.  

But, I’ve still managed to get in a little painting.  

I’ve also been puttering around with some more terrain pieces.  Photos to follow if I ever finish them.  I don’t know if it’s a just a local thing but balsa wood seems to have become unobtainable.  

 

First up, the last of the reinforcements for the next round of foolishness in the Outlandishan Chronicles. Spoiler alert, the next battle will be a strictly infantry affair, if the clever plan of the Earl’s Mercenary Commander Bigus Dickus is successful in drawing away the Count’s cavalry.  Only the dice know…

These are Old Glory figures, Hungarian Spearmen if I recall correctly.  The paint job is just a “meh”.  I wasn’t really into it when I was working these guys, but from a gaming distance they’ll look ok.

 

Now I just need to clean all the junk off the gaming table so I can set up the next battle in the Outlandishian Chronicles.

 

And lastly, I found this in the lead pile.  The figure is from Ground Zero Games, Full Thrust line.  It’s a UNSC Battle Dreadnaught that I ordered something like 11 years ago?  I have at least one more of these I’ll get around to eventually when I start to focus on Project Z.

 

 

I hope everyone is enjoying the warmer weather.

 

So much lead, so little time.

More Painting

 After painting all of those tiny vehicles and even tinier infantry for the Eurica campaign, it felt good to go back to painting proper historical figures in the one true scale. Or at least the one scale I can see well enough to paint some minor details on.

 

Following the latest thrashing of the Earl in the Outlandishian Chronicles the Earl was in desperate need of some additional infantry.  This is the First Pike Block I’ve painted.  They should see some action soon in the service of Earl, hopefully without all of that pesky Cavalry the Count has put to fairly good use of late.  I think I may need to paint a few more infantry unit before the next battle can occur.

 

Figures are Old Glory, Pike in Back and Breast.

 

View from a low flying Vulture sizing up his next meal.  They will be in the employ of the Earl for their first outing on the table, their odds aren't good.

 

And I also found these classics laying at the edge of the lead pile, almost like they were fighting to be seen.  Figures are Evil Empire (Games Workshop) Battle Fleet Gothic.  Three Firestorms Frigates and one Dauntless Light Cruiser.  I’m not sure when I bought them, but they’re old enough to be all lead, no plastic.  These may get some use in Project Z, if I ever move along with that effort now that Project X is 75% done.

 

 

So much lead, so little time

40K Imperial Guard

 I realized the other day that I’m not entirely sure exactly what I have for various troops/armies laying around in various boxes, piles, and bags I thought the best way to sort them out would be to do a quick post with some photos and rambling comments.  Turns out in this case I had a lot more Infantry than I thought I did.

I decided to start with my long dormant GW Warhammer 40K Imperial Guard troops.  This was the first army I did when I ‘got back into’ wargaming sometime around 2000.  When I left the active duty Army in 1988 I figured my war gaming days were through.  Fortunately, at one of my Son’s Scout meetings they did a little something with war gaming figures (as I recall, the first exposure I had to formal rules with toy soldiers was through the Scout magazine, Boy’s Life I think it was called at the time).  Unfortunately, that launched him, and my credit card, onto the money draining path of Games Workshop in the late 1990’s.  On a positive, it was through the GW White Dwarf magazine that I saw an advertisement for a HMGS convention, (I think it was a joint convention in MD, but I don’t recall exactly - it didn't work out with my schedule) and the rest, is history.

 

In any event I have fond memories of helping him assemble and paint his Space Marines, and then his Lord of the Rings Orcs, and Drwaves.  Somewhere along the way I was seduced and end up buying a few Imperial Guard troops, and then a few more.  And then he gave me a Sentinel for Christmas.  And from there it snow balled.  But all good memories of quality time with my Son.  In fact the last time we talked part of the discussion was around his Tau forces.

 

As I said, I had just gotten back into the hobby when I painted these, so their a little rough, and for some strange reason I thought you should paint eyes… maybe because they were so much bigger than the 15mm Napoleonics I had last played with?  Honestly, WTH was I thinking trying to paint on eyes.  

 

Unless noted, all of the Infantry figures are the ‘old’ GW Cadian lead figures.  When they went to plastics, and changed the rules for the umptenth  time, I called it quits.  Maybe someday I'll find a new SciFi rule set and these will get out on the table again.

 

 First up, the crew served weapons.

A couple of Lascannons

Heavy Bolters

Mortars

Missile Launchers

And some Vehicles

Sentinels

Chimera APC

Basilisk Artillery

Leman Russ Tank

Elite Troops

Storm Troopers

Heavy Weapons

Plasma Guns

Melta Gun (I think)

Grenade Launchers

Infantry

Commanders/Leaders

Beauty first

with those crazy eyes you can be excused for looking at her chest or that sliver of leg she's showing instead of looking at her face

It can't be 40K without a chain sword

And the mandatory power fist

Radiomen

Odds and ends

Plastic missile launcher

Flamer armed Infantry, a couple of leaders, and another grenade launcher, all lead.  I found these after the photo shoot was done

More plastics 

That's it for the Sci-Fi Troops

Up next, Romans.

I had started this post in the 3^rd Quarter of 2020 and was finishing up the photos, when I received a phone call that no Parent should ever have to receive and I sincerely hope no one reading this ever does.  Given the memories that I associate with these figures I just couldn’t force myself to finish it at the time.  I’m now far enough along the healing process that the memories are welcome.  

 

1988 – 2020

 

You will always be my little boy

 

 

So much lead, so little time.