Lockdown 2.0 Project Log Day 109: Battle for Jango's Landing

 Hi!

In a fit of nostalgia I pulled some of my old Epic collection out of my display cabinet and had a quick game using my own rules so without further ado, here's the battle report!

Background

While the Inquisition are probing the sewers beneath Farpoint's capitol Freeport City, Lieutenant Bolivar of the Ultramarines has been dispatched to defend one of the planets outlying settlements from a raiding party of traitor Marines.

Arriving from the north west, his scouts report that there is a force of the Sons of Titan rapidly approaching from the south and east and Bolivar begins issuing orders to his small force. The traitors will not ravage Jango's Landing while a single Ultramarine draws breath!

The Forces

Lieutenant Bolivars force consists of one command stand, two tactical stands, a Centurion battle suit and a land speeder. 

The Sons of Titan are lead by Konnix Darkslade, Champion of Titan. His force consists of one command stand, two tactical squads (one of which has a missile launcher upgrade), two rebel Squat squads and a Rhino APC.

Now these may seem like piddly forces for an Epic scaled game but I'm quite a fan of playing small games in the scale and looking at the two forces, they are about the size of a 2nd edition 40k force just scaled down.

The Setup

The game takes place in the town of Jango's Landing and as such there are a number of buildings scattered about the board which provides heavy cover for those occupying them. I didn't bother coming up with any scenario objectives, with the winner being whoever drove off the other force.

The Ultramarines deploy in the north west whilst the Sons of Titan arrive in the south east of the board. The board itself is 2'x2' and I was keen to see if I could play a game using such meagre space.

The Game

Aware that his force is outnumbered, Bolivar splits his tactical squad into two combat squads allowing for more flexibility and orders his forces forward. Like Epic Armageddon, a unit may activate normally and can then be pushed by passing a command check. If they succeed, they may activate a second time but if they fail, they receive a blast marker.

Turn one saw the Sons of Titan Space Marine squad rushing forward into the towns industrial zone, no doubt in search of supplies to loot. Their commander Konnix is distracted by his comm unit's snarled warning that Imperial troops are approaching his position and fails to activate while the forces Rhino speeds along one flank and the Squats move forward towards the town centre.

The Ultramarines begin to deploy with the two combat squads moving forward towards the town along with the command squad, who like the chaos commander, fails his activation check. The Centurion clanks forward towards the rock spires that overlook the towns northern edge, preparing to bring down heavy fire on whatever traitor he sees. Finally the Ultramarine speeder skims south towards the woods, intent on bringing some hurt to the traitors they detect moving towards the warehouses.

Turn two has activations swap between both sides fairly smoothly with the Ultramarine speeder rapidly closing on the traitors positions whilst both sides begin to consolidate their positions with the Ultramarines moving further into the town and occupying several buildings, preparing to use them as defensive redoubts to pour fire on the traitors when they approach.

 

The traitor Rhino speeds forward into the town, seeking shelter from the Ultramarine Centurions heavy weapons systems and the traitor marines close in on the warehouses chanting songs of battle as they do so.

Turn three has the action starting to hot up with the Ultramarine speeder making a drive by attack on the traitor marines but their fire only succeeds in placing a blast marker on the Sons of Titan. 

The failed attack is costly as the outraged renegades pour through the gap between the warehouses and rain fire into the loyalist skimmer and despite desperate evasion measures is sent spiralling to the ground in a ball of fire as bolter shells find it's engine. Chanting and bellowing, the traitor marines prepare to move on the main Ultramarine position.

Brother Vexus, the Ultramarine manning the Centurion battle suite spots the renegade tank but is unable to get a fix on it as it thunders behind a nearby building but his sensors do allow his weapons array to lock onto the traitor Squat squad and he proceeds to blaze away with his heavy bolter, shredding one of the stands and sending the traitorous survivors reeling.

Turn four has the traitors Rhino rapidly approaching the loyalist position and this time Brother Vexus can draw a bead on the tank and his heavy bolter fire shreds the machine.

Enraged at the loss of their tank, the Sons of Titan marines storm forward firing on one of the Ultramarine combat squads with their missile launcher causing no casualties but inflicting a blast marker on the stalwart defenders as the missile blasts a large hole in the building they are occupying.

Return fire from the marines is out of range and they hold their position, forcing the chaos marines to advance on them in the next turn.

Meanwhile the traitor Squats finally rally back in the chaos deployment zone and the renegade commander Konnix moves forward as fast as he can to support his renegades who are engaged in a fierce firefight in the town centre.

Turn five begins with the Sons of Titan marines rush into a series of buildings opposite the Imperial positions and open fire on the second combat squad. The ensuing firefight is savage and both sides take blast markers but the combined weight of fire of the Ultramarines as well as some poor rolls by the Chaos troops sees them wiped out.

Approaching the scene of the firefight, the rebel commander Konnix realises that his men have been slain and the Ultramarines are in possession of the town and that no doubt reinforcements are on their way. Cursing the loyalist scum, Konnix gathers up his surviving marines and retreats towards their landing zone, vowing revenge upon the Imperium in general and the Ultramarines in particular.

Conclusion

Well I had quite a bit of fun with that game and things went well for the staunch defenders of the Imperium! I need to rework the command system a bit as the renegade commander spent much of the game failing to activate due to poor rolls so will need to take that into account in future games. 

Konnix should have deployed in the Rhino and stormed forward with his renegade marines as I feel the combined force would have probably been able to overwhelm the Imperial positions but I sent it off by itself to distract the Centurion and stop him blowing away my marines.

I've really enjoyed playing in 6mm again and suspect that I'll be dusting off more figures in the future to play some slightly larger skirmishes and may need to make a stand to represent some of the assorted warbands that I have in 28mm scale as it would be great to have games using different scales to represent small encounters on the battlefield or as part of a larger campaign where the action hots up with a rebel uprising or xenos invasion forcing the different warbands to choose a side!

In other news I'm working on a load more sculpts for my fantasy project and should have some more stuff to show tomorrow but until then, All the best!

Lockdown Day 78

Hi!

Today I've had a bit of a mixed bag of solo gaming and painting as well as some bits and bobs of a sculpting sort.

First up, here's my Goff Nob Mob:

Goff Nobz

I tried to keep the little guys somewhat inspired by the 2nd edition 40k original pics I showed the other day so instead of just having utilitarian black and a smidge of white, I added some bright red with orange highlights which really livens up the figures.

Here's the current mob:

The Mob so far

This will represent a single formation for my warband as it expands but will probably have the nobz put into a separate unit with the Warboss and his ride once I have it finished...

Speaking of which, I was looking at the classic Epic Battlewagon and was uninspired by the little cheesy skull and spikes on the front so have spent a bit of time working on an upgraded one this afternoon:

 Battlewagon wip

I still have a bit of work to do on it as I am going to replace the weedy wheel spikes and add some impressive banner poles on it to give it the real Orky Warboss' personal super cool ride vibe that it deserves.

I'm also starting to pull together lots of odds and ends that I can use to bodge together the retro scenery I want as I am planning on adding funky cacti and all sorts of gubbins and trying to replicate the original scenics seen in the old 2nd edition battle reports on a small scale. Hopefully I'll have the first of it finished in the next few days and will show it when I can!

I also managed to play not one but two quick games of Battletech today using the introductory rules and found it to be rather fun!

Full information can be found HERE over on my Tales From the Inner Sphere blog but having heard about how plodding Battletech was with near wrecked mechs dragging themselves along with their only operational finger, I was pleasantly surprised.

I am also working on a commission at present so I don't have quite as much time on my hands but will try and keep the entertaining posts going every day while the lockdown continues and once I'm back at work, we shall see how things go.

In the meantime, All the best!

Lockdown Day 76

Hi!

Just a quick post this evening as is often the case, I've got lots of bits and bobs on the go but not much finished.

First up, I've got the first four bases of my Ork warband done:

Goff Boyz

Although clad in proper Goff Black, I feel they are possibly a bit dull so may reclassify this four bases as Skarboyz, the ded 'ard veterans of many a battle and I think I'll be adding a wee bit of red to the normal boyz as in this scale, a bit of brightness, especially 2nd edition 40k inspired is almost a requirement.

Almost as an afterthought, I added a little clan logo to the front of each base which I quite like! If they do become Skarboyz, I'll need to rework the glyph to represent their elite status but it will do for the time being. 

Hopefully a bit of tweaking tomorrow will see them looking more as I wanted them to!

Secondly, I've quickly thrown together a logo for my Battletech pirate force, Red's Marauders:

It's a bit simple and rather Orky but thats ok with me. I'm currently putting together a separate Battletech campaign blog so I can ramble on about my chosen forces, the setting and whatnot without clogging up this blog which is already sitting at over 900 posts!

While it's convenient for me to just post everything here, I suspect that my Battletech blog will be more of a stream of consciousness come RPG lite sort of affair with the possibility of several posts a day with whatever comes into my head and if it works out, I may do something similar for one or two other ideas I've had.

It may not work out as planned but we shall see how things go.

In the meantime, All the best!

Lockdown Day 75

Hi!

I've had a bit of a mixed day here with bits and bobs being worked on but not much to show for it!

First up, I've got a bit of a micro project underway with a tiny version of a 40k Ork warband started. The plan is to make a 2nd edition sized warband in 6mm and use my own rules to play some small skirmishes using them.

Classic 40k 2nd edition Ork warband

I decided to do this on a bit of a whim as I've got quite a pile of Epic gubbins lying around and have been wondering what to do with it. I plan on using 30mm lipped bases with five infantry, two bikers or one vehicle on each and recreating some teeny warbands from the golden days of 2nd edition.

Initially I've picked out 20 boyz, 5 nobz, a dread and battlewagon which should keep me entertained for the next day or so and hope to expand the force up to the technicolour excitement of a 2000 point Ork warband of many clans roughly identical to the first image.

This will require me to rummage out the following:

1x Warboss
1x Weirdboy plus Minders
5x Nobz
15x Goff Boyz
5x Goff Skarboyz
10x Deathskull Boyz
10x Evil Sunz Boyz
10x Badmoon Boyz
1x Shokk Attack Gun plus Snotling ammo
1x Battlewagon
1x Dreadnaught
1x Warbuggy
1x Wartrakk
2x Warbikes

Now reading the original battle report, the game was played on a 8'x4' board but I'm fairly sure that I play a game on a 2'x3' if I wanted. I'm also keen on copying some of the terrain in miniature so we shall see what I can bodge together!

In other news, I've ordered some maps from Ral Partha Europe for playing some games of Battletech with.

Maps aplenty!

According to the listing I'll be getting ten different map sheets covering a variety of terrain types and I look forward to seeing what I get. Not too bad for a tenner, especially when all the other map packs I've found cost considerably more!

I'll have to wait for them to arrive but I'm looking forward to trying out some classic Battletech using them with my paper standees and the old 3rd edition rules which I've managed to rummage out. It will be interesting to see how the game plays compared to Alphastrike. I'll post a review of them when they arrive and will see how I get on.

In the meantime, All the best!

Lockdown Day 28

Hi!

Here's the latest addition to my 6mm fantasy project:

 Pigpen Hill

It's an Irregular Miniatures pigpen and a Dark Age house of some description that I've had lying around for at least ten years. I was gifted it along with a bunch of other Irregular fantasy stuff whilst I was still at university and embarrassingly it's taken till now to get it done!

I'm rather chuffed with how it turned out on it's mdf base and tiny hedges and fence made from cardboard and will need to get some bumpkin militia types to defend their homesteads from Goblin raiders.

 Gobbo's after the prized porkers of Pigsty Hill

After the success of this piece, I shall be grabbing the other pieces I painted badly back in the day and giving them similar treatment so that I have some entertaining and interesting objective pieces for my tiny armies to fight over.

Close Up

It's a really fun little project to put together and is giving me quite a lot of entertainment putting together. I hope to be able to put together a small force of Wood Elves soon to fight the Goblins I already have and will see how a 2'x2' gaming surface works for fantasy gaming as I look forward to playing out the Battle of Pigsty Hill!

In other news, I have been working on a few other bits and bobs that I've had lying around for almost as long as this piece and my Rusty Robots should have their first scenic item painted up and ready to go in the morning once the sand has dried on it's base.

I seem to be having quite a bit of fun with scenery at the moment and look forward to seeing what else I can come up with from my boxes of stuff in the coming week!

All the best!

Lockdown Day 17

Hi!

Today I have finished a bit of scenery!

Mighty Magic Mushroom

I picked up a box of nine plaster mushrooms in three different designs from Lidl last year for about £3.00 and I've finally got round to painting one. The detail isn't fantastic but they do the job for scenery.

I just realised that I based them with brown/desert colour when they are more likely to be used with Leviathan which has my black and brown basing but hey ho!

I've also got a quick pic of my Goblin army thus far:

I'm really pleased with the progress I've made on the little guys but do think I need some more infantry to really flesh out the force a wee bit. I may need to scratch build some of the rarer Gobbo gubbins, be they pump wagons, Doom Divers, or Squigs but we shall see how I get on!

Hopefully I'll have a bit of an update tomorrow with some of the other gubbins I have been working on but I can't believe how much progress I've made over the last two weeks of being locked down!

In the meantime, All the best!

Lockdown Day 13

Hi!

I'm busy having a clearout of the mancave which means my table is currently in pieces and books are strewn literally everywhere as we attempt to bring order from the chaos but I have managed to grab a quick photo of my 6mm Goblin characters:

L to R, Shaman, Warlord, Boss

I went for some round bases and gave the tiny guys some suitably big banners which should give them a bit more visual impact, and indeed identifiability on the battlefield. My warband now has a Warlord riding a chariot, a shaman with properly starry sigils on his robe and a boss to act as a somewhat disloyal underling to my warboss!

I had been tempted to paint the warboss as Grom the Paunch but will need to convert a suitable ride for him and give him a teeny axe to wave about to make it really visually pleasing and may yet convert one to really give my army a big boss character!

I have only got a few more bases to paint for this project and it will be officially done which is really exciting but looking at the force I have, I realise I really need some more infantry so I may bite the bullet and place a small order with Irregular Miniatures to give me what I need to have a fully formed army...

On a side note, I used my phone to take the pic of the Goblins as I've found it's got a better macro setting than my wifes camera which is better for larger scale shots so I will try to get photos of all my 6mm stuff up along with some 2mm pics in the next day or two. 

I've also finally finished my last Deadloque Zombie musketeer which is rather exciting as that will be a complete unit that I've painted (admittedly it has taken me over a year!) which is rather refreshing to have completed something! I'll need to work on my Ferach next but in the meantime, All the best!

Lockdown Day 3

Hi!

I've managed to get another addition to my 6mm Goblin army in the shape of two regiments of archers:

 Gobbo Archers

I'm quite pleased with the tiny little guys. They are originally Irregular Miniatures lesser Goblins and are really tiny but absolutely ooze character and feature diminutive Goblins armed with short bows and shields. The figures sport a selection of robes, hoods and sport some fancy standards.

I've still got another base for each regiment to make two big regiments of 30 Grots but may eventually build them up to hordes of 60 as what they lack in quality, they make up with in quantity.

Rule wise, I'm not sure what I'm going to use as I may tweak my Song of Blasters rules or play some Dragon Rampant or even simplified Warhammer Fantasy or even Warmaster but we shall have to wait till I've got an opposing force to play against the Goblins.

I do have a load of Irregulars Wood Elves which may do the job so that may be my next 6mm fantasy project once I've got the last of my Goblins finished which is looking like it's going to be done by the weekend!

The only thing that I really need to add to the army is a couple of big blocks of warriors and I'm thinking of adding some teeny fanatics to each regiment. I've also got a base of Ogres to paint as I want to add some heavy hitters to the tiny force.

The Horde so far

I'm going to work on getting the characters done soon and will be adding large banners in the style of my Epic command stands which should give them a readily identifiable look on the table.

I really need to work on some more 6mm fantasy scenics as at present I've only got the few bases of trees at the moment and want to add some hills, rivers, roads and settlements for my tiny forces to fight over and I'm humming and hahing over how to go about doing it.

It's interesting that with all this time dedicated to hobbying, I find myself being drawn to some middlehammer gubbins. I started gaming back in the early 90's and the release of Warhammer Fantasy Battle 4th edition was always fascinating. 

I spent most of my time playing 40k or Epic as I couldn't get any opponent interested in fantasy but seeing some of the stirling work that the Oldhammer community has done over the last few years has got me seriously thinking about having a bash at painting up a regiment and seeing how I get on.

I'm going to resist temptation for the time being though as I have enough stuff to keep me entertained for some time to come without starting a new and frankly massive project, especially as I just don't have the space for such a mammoth undertaking!

We shall have to see how I get on over the coming week and I've got some more stuff to post up on over the next few days and will be cracking on with painting some more gubbins today so I have plenty of stuff to entertain me.

More updates to follow but in the meantime, All the best!

Lockdown Day 1

Hi!

Well it looks like the next 21 days are going to involve a UK wide lockdown with me stuck at home as the shop is temporarily closed so instead of moping, I am hoping to use the opportunity to both get the flat in order but to spend some much needed stress relief of hobbytime!

To get the ball rolling, here's the latest additions to my Goblin army in 6mm:

Goblin Boar Carts

Originally from Irregulars Lesser Goblin range, these tiny transports are rather fun to paint and once the initial drybrush is on, the details literally pop. There's a ton of tiny Goblins in the cart waving weapons and in one case a chap looking like he's preparing to leap out of the cart to attack an unsuspecting target.

Game wise, I must admit I'm not sure how to use them but I'm sure I'll come up with something, especially as I have another three of them primed and ready to go.

I am finding painting these tiny chaps quite refreshing and shockingly it looks like if I keep this up, I may actually finish all the figures I have and have a decent little army to play around with too!

Goblin Cavalry Thus Far

I've thus far stuck to working on cavalry but have primed and drybrushed a couple of archer regiments so look forward to adding them to my slowly expanding horde.

In other news, I've finished a new Ironclad for my Vongola City State force:

 The Lancia heavy ironclad

It's another of Brigade Models British Ironclads repurposed to my villainous Vongola landfleet.This is a class 3 Ironclad and armed with a pair of heavy turrets which makes it a bit more flexible than the heavier Capo di Capo due to having a better arc of fire than the fixed broadsides and single turret of the larger vehicle.

Capo di Capo and Lancia Ironclads on maneuver.

While it's all a bit small scale gaming that I've got finished thus far, I am working on finishing an Ork Nob in 28mm and a Chaos chappie who has been on my painting desk for quite some time now. My plan is to post up something every day, be it painted miniatures or battle reports and I have a fairly major Epic project that will be kicking off when I get a restock of bases which will see additions to pretty much all my existing forces and the beginning of several new ones too so watch this space!

In the meantime, stay safe and all the best!

Harlequin and Wolf Chariots!

Hi!

As I mentioned in a previous post, I happened across my old Eldar gubbins and in a moment of madness decided to have a bash at painting them in retro 2nd edition technicolour magnificence!

 Harlequin!

I settled on a NMM finish but using all the old school techniques I had to make the little guy fit the classic imagery of my 2nd edition memories.

I even primed him white (which in hindsight was a total pain in the bum but did result in a pleasingly bright finish that I wouldn't have got with black). There's lots of washes on there too but it doesn't seem to show up too well on the pics but I am quite happy with how he turned out.

 So many jewels!

That's not all though! I also managed to paint my way through a trio of tiny wolf chariots for my 6mm Goblin army:

 Teeny tiny chariots

As with my previous post, the figures were primed black then drybrushed grey which brought out the details and allowed me to quickly paint up the little guys.

 The force so far

With a strong cavalry force now painted, I need to sort out some infantry, monsters and artillery, not to mention characters which need to be worked on to complete the force!

I'm really chuffed with the progress I've made with the little guys and am really enjoying painting the Irregular Miniatures range as while the unpainted metal is rather uninspiring looking, once that first drybrush is on, they really come to life and I'm seriously pondering picking up some Empire proxies for the Gobbos to fight and defend the borders of the Empire from whatever forces that wish to bring it low...

I've mentioned my Song of Blasters rules that I've been working on over the last couple of years and one of my latest addition is to do away with traditional rulers and go for measuring sticks instead.

Here's the movement measuring stick:

 Move!

Infantry generally moves half the length of the stick while infantry the full length while fast cavalry 1.5 or even 2 for very fast units. This seems to work quite well in 2mm, 6mm and 15mm scale with only a few small modifiers.

Next up, here's the shooting stick:

Dakka! Dakka! Dakka!

Unlike movement, shooting has a longer range with short range being one stick, medium 2 and long 3 and individual weapon rules allow for a deal of customisation. For example the Beam option allows the firer to roll to hit any unit the ruler touches which represents things like flamers or grape shot.

The sticks are jumbo lolly sticks and measure 15cm which is very handy when it comes to measuring stuff and I am thinking of making some themed ones for my Goblins and more for my Imperial troops and Vongola ironclads!

It's interesting how simplifying rules down has resulted in a far more pleasing game than making things over granular and complex. I've found myself rather inspired by the likes of Epic 40k which has one of the best systems I've played for years and will continue to post the odd ruminations on the rules as I go so watch this space!

In the meantime, All the best!

Wolf Riders!

Hi!

Just a quick update this evening with a few stands of 6mm Goblin Wolf Riders!

I've been tempted by Warhammer Fantasy Battle and instead of giving into the rather pointless endeavour of trying to collect, let alone paint a 28mm army, I've settled on rummaging out some 6mm goodies instead!

 Fresh from the Worlds Edge Mountains

Ironically they are actually Orcs riding wolves and produced by Irregular Miniatures but in 6mm scale one can get away with playing a bit loose with what figures are supposed to be.

I must admit that the sculpts looked a bit uninspired until I primed them black and then drybrushed them grey and my goodness didn't the detail suddenly appear. They are actually wonderfully detailed little sculpts that ooze character with snarling little faces, gnarled knuckles holding reins and lots of nice little bits and bobs that made them a pleasure to work on!

Better yet, in 6mm scale I can field quite a few for pretty much nothing and an entire army would cost only a few quid so what's not to like!

I was gifted these little fellows about ten years ago by a follower of my Leviathan Blog (I'm so sorry I can't remember who it was!) and it's taken me till now to work on them but hopefully I'm doing the little guys justice.

I've got a few wolf chariots and infantry to paint too so we shall have to see how the whole force looks like once it has been painted but I have to say it is quite a nice way to put together an army quickly and cheaply and it has got me ruminating on painting up some Empire troops to fend off the greenskinned menace.

Looking at what I have, I think I can play a nice wee game of Dragon Rampant using the stuff I have so it might be fun to work towards playing a mini campaign over the summer, especially as it took me a couple of hours to paint a small host of figures!

In other news, I have rummaged out my Eldar and begun work on one of them and have almost finished an Ork in 28mm as well as a sinister Chaos chappy. The scattergun approach once again seems to be working quite well for me as I plow through all manner of random stuff and continue to enjoy myself immensely whilst actually starting to reduce my unpainted pile.

We shall have to see how I get on over the weekend with my assorted bits and bobs but I'll post updates as I get the chance but for now, All the best!