15mm tanks and 25mm Star Wars

A bit of a mixed lot today.  First up are some 15mm storage tanks. These were part of a job lot that I bought from Scott. They came painted and I just added a bit of grit and some highlights.

The good news is that they work for anything from 15mm to 28mm, which is super useful.

Dave printed some 25mm taun-taun riders for me a while back from some files I bought. He scaled these to 25mm scale so they fit in with the Battle of Hoth figures I have plus my old West End Games Star Wars guys.

 

My goal here was to give the rebels another unit type in the board game to match the AT-STs I added for the Imperials. I'll probably play these as the analog to the Empire's probe droids.

They are maybe a touch too big (my fault--I should have asked for 20mm prints) but the sliding scale of Battle of Hoth figures is so elastic that it isn't a big deal. The prints turned out super well.

Up next: Probably more 15mm sci-fi terrain.

Random Star Wars painting

This week is a bit of a grab bag. First up are some game pieces from the game Star Wars Rebellion (these are from an expansion, I think).

Dead simple painting and they will work with 15mm (and smaller) sci-fi troops.

I also painted up some AT-STs from the same bag. Again, dead simple paint jobs.

These guys I will be using to add a new unit type for the Empire in the Battle of Hoth game with its sliding scale miniatures.

Up next: Some actual 15mm sci-fi terrain, I think.

More Battle of Hoth figures

At Christmas, I ran across a discounted copy of the Battle of Hoth and picked it up for the extra figures and so that I could play the giant-sized scenario (that requires two sets). I spent one of the cold snap in January painting these guys up.

Having painted this set once, I was able to knock out a duplicate a lot faster.

To help me keep the sets straight, I went with a plain white base instead of the light blue base I did on the first set.

I found some AT-ST minis that are roughly in scale with the AT-ATs and will paint those up shortly to add a unit type for the Imperials. I am hopeful that the success of this game will mean future release for, say, the Battle of Endor.

 Up next: Probably some 15mm sci-fi terrain.

Star Wars Risk (really)

Last fall, I bought a copy of the 2015 game Star Wars Risk entirely because it had a tonne of tiny space ships. I was just going to cage them for painting and toss the game but I read the rules first and it is actually pretty decent (and good for a Risk variant) so I added a few more minis and have been running a few games.

The game board is shaped like Darth Vader's tie-fighter silhouette, has three play spaces (left, right and centre), and lets you fight out the Battle Endor. Action is card driven, which lends a bit of interest and fog of war. Basically, the Space Vietcong have to destroy the Death Star before the Space Americans/Nazis wipe out the Rebel fleet.

The central area sees fighters contest for control of space around the fully operational Death Star while they wait for the ground forces to fight it out and lower the shields (I added minis for the larger ships and the DS). This shot is at the end of a game where the forces are pretty severely depleted and the Empire has managed to wipe out the Rebel fleet before the Death Star was destroyed. In each of the five games I've played, the game came down to the wire so it is well balanced and I don't see any killer strategies you could employ..

The ground game (above) sees the Rebel commandos move closer to the shield generators, slowed but not stopped by the Empire. The game comes with cardboard counters but I had some 15mm troops that I painted and added for colour. The tension here is how many cards does the Empire waste to slow the Rebels? Once the shields are down, the Death Star is very vulnerable.

On the other side of the board is a throne-room duel between Luke, Vader and the Emperor. Again, cardboard counters were replaced with some extra 25mm WEG metals from the 1980s. This duel is very much a sideshow and is less integrated into game play than the shield generator track. It has some nice colour (do you redeem Vader or just kill him--depends on your cards and your planning).

Overall, for a game that is designed for 10-year-olds (and requires no reading to play), it was a hoot. You can easily learn the game and play twice in an hour if you are an experienced gamer. I wouldn't want to play this very often but, as something to have around to haul out and play with non-gamers who like Star Wars, this was way better than expected.

Battle of Hoth Campaign 1

In late November, Bruce and I gave the first mini-campaign for the Battle of Hoth a go. This is one of two programmed tree campaigns that the game comes with. Including a brief instruction, we managed to get through three games in 70 minutes and had a dramatic finale (I suspect the campaign likely goes on one or two more steps but three games in a row was lots for one day).

Game one (above) was basically an encounter and introduction to unit types. The rebels won this one handily thanks to incredibly lucky dice.

Game 2 went to the imperials who quickly killed a rebel laser cannon and grabbed the key victory location.

Game 3 saw the rebels defending shield generators. The Imperials could win if they took out both generators. The rebels could win through attriting the attacker. 

Bruce thrust up the left flank and quickly destroyed the first generator and I figured the game was over. The Rebels were able to successfully defend the second generator long enough to attrit the Imperials. There was quite a lot of drama, much like you'd expect.

Overall, we thought this was a fun, light game that was more like the simplicity of Battle Cry than the more chromed up later CCA variants we've played. The campaign included primary and secondary victory conditions and just enough carry over effects to incentivize the players. Overall, this was good fun and emphasized movement and tactics. Super happy with this game.

Battle of Hoth

Jessica happily agreed to give my new Battle of Hoth game a test drive a few weeks back. This is basically a re-skin of Memoir '44 with a few sci-fi flourishes, separate activation decks, and a smaller playing area. Jess chose the Sith and we played the first three scenarios in the scenario book in about 80 minutes to get the hang of the rules and the units.

First up was a meeting engagement. Jessica won this handily, which meant that I could take the gloves off for the next two games! We added in the "character" cards (basically extra activation cards themed for three different characters on each side) that give the game some extra colour.

Game two introduced walkers and snow speeders and I used the speeder mobility to isolate and kill Jessica's snow trooper units while evading her AT-AT, which is pretty hard to destroy. 

It wasn't a romp by any means but it was a pretty clear win for the good guys.

The third scenario introduced more terrain and laser canons for the Rebels. This was a pretty hard-fought battle. The smaller map (7x10 hexes) means you are in contact almost immediately.

Jess managed to take out the laser cannon that was jamming up the valley for her but I kept re-occupying the hex before she could grab the victory markers. In the end, some savvy play that took advantage of some special cards gave me the win. 

Overall, this was a pretty fun Memoir adaptation. I am looking forward to the two linked campaigns that the game comes with. I would think there is an easy Endor expansion available if this one sells. Plus probably lots of Clone War possibilities.

Star Wars Risk Part 2

A few weeks back, I posted some pictures of the Rebel fighters I painted from the Star Wars Risk game, which recreates the Battle of Endor. I finished the rest of the minis in the game plus I replaced some counters with minis.

First up was a horde of Tie fighters. These just got a dark grey prime, white dry brush, and dark wash.

They are sightly smaller and less refined than the Tie fighters from the Star Wars Rebellion game (right).

I also needed a rebel fleet. 

The cruisers are just targets for the Death Star in the game but I had these ships, so why not?

The Falcon replaces a counter and is a 3-D print my buddy Dave made me. Paint job was mostly washes.

The Imperials needed an Executor and a partially assembled (but fully operational) Death Star. The throne room fight also needed Vader and Luke figures--these were old 25mm West End Games figures (or maybe Star Wars Monopoly?) that I had laying around. There are better figures but whatever.

I also needed a Rebel ground force and the Storm Troopers the imperial player can throw at it as road bumps. These are 18mm figures from Star Wars Rebellion.

This is the game set up from the instruction manual with unpainted figures and counters.

This is the game with painted minis.

The throne room duel is so-so.

The shield generator assault on Endor is better.

The space battle is sweet.

Hoping I can convince the kid to give this a whirl with me this week.

The Battle of Hoth

For my birthday, my wife got me the new Battle of Hoth game. This is basically a reskin of Memoir 44 and comes with miniatures.

The bulk of the miniatures are Imperial Snowtroopers, which I promptly painted up.

The snow troopers are okay figures. This was a quick prime, detail and wash. I see the bases may need some more work.

The best part about them is that they more or less match the 25mm West End Games figures I have from the 1980s. The WEG figure is slightly beefier and is on a washer but otherwise, these are a good match. It is wild how long it has taken for a Star Wars game token to match the old WEG figures!

There are also some probe droids that match the WEG ones pretty closely.

There are also a bunch of Rebel Hoth Troopers.

These are pretty nice figures that paint up well.

The rest of the minis have variable scales. The snow speeders are maybe 5-6mm sized.

The AT-ATs are very small (2mm?), the turrets are more like 10mm, and I've no sense of the ion cannon or the shield generators.

Once put on the game board, the effect is awesome and I cannot wait to play a game as well as the two campaigns the box comes with.