Fistful of Lead Bigger Battles

 This past Sunday we played a game of Fistful of Lead Bigger Battles at the club.   This was our first game with the rules and we made a few mistakes, though nothing major.   The game was set in the sixth century A.D. with Byzantines vs Sassanid Persians.    The Byzantines had six cavalry units and nine infantry units.  The cavalry was bow and javelin armed while the infantry had some units of mixed archers and spear, a couple of units of heavy archers and three units of heavy spear.   All were regulars.  

The Sassanids had two cataphract units, three units of light bow and spear armed cavalry, three units of spear armed infantry, two units of mixed spear and bow infantry, and five archer units.   The cataphracts were regulars, the light cavalry and mixed spear/bow were tribal, and the rest irregulars.  Unfortunately, I forgot to bring the elephants so the Sassanids were missing one of their better troop types.  

During the course of the game the Byzantines had better die throws and broke or eliminated over half the Persian units.   The Persians were only able to eliminate two of the Byzantine infantry units.   One of them disappeared in spectacular fashion when it engaged a Persian unit and both side eliminated the other with their close combat die rolls. 

All units on both sides were eight figures strong.  I only took one decent picture during the game.   It is posted below with the Byzantines at the top and the Sassanids at the bottom.

August Projects

 During August I worked on completing the remaining 25mm Science Fiction items that had not been done.  These included assembling the buildings I got from PaperTerrain.  I also purchased some aliens as noted in the previous blog post and found a tank and an infantry carrier at Wargame Vault.  I needed different vehicles for the forces opposing the Federation.  

The vehicles are made by Tomoko's paper miniatures.  He also has 2d 28mm soldiers.  However, the vehicles are definitely not 28mm.  Fortunately I was able to use Paintshop Pro to enlarge them to 143% of their original size which made them compatible with my 25/28mm figures.  The PDF file has several different camo schemes.  All of them in shades of grey except for the one I chose to use.  The infantry carrier appears to be an M113 APC.  I haven't checked it against the actual vehicle to verify if it is an exact copy or not.   I added the original sized turret from the tank model to convert it into an IFV.  Instead of using the paper tube mounting system for the turrets I again went with thumbtacks glued to the inside of the turret with a strip of cardstock glued across the top of the thumbtack and to the turret floor to keep the thumbtack in place.  The only other modification was to cut the bottom of the track assembly as a wider straight edge instead of the jagged pattern making them easier to assemble.  The files include detailed assembly diagrams unlike the free ones that I made for the Federation.

The buildings from PaperTerrain were also PDF files and include detailed assembly instructions and diagrams.   The number of buttresses, bays, windows, and door openings can be customized as desired.  

The following photos show the buildings and vehicles.  The miniatures are from Grenadier Models, Inc.  They are the licensed Traveler Imperial Marines Imperial Marines.  They are being used as the Pantharii Impeium Marines.  I believe Magister Militum  has the molds, but has not recast them as of this time.   In addition to the marines I also bought a set of the adventurer figures back when they were released.  In addition to the sets of marines, I recently purchased some additional figures that were not part of a complete set that I found on Ebay.  |Fortunately no one else bid against me and I was able to get them for about $2 per figure.  Otherwise, there were a few complete boxed sets being offered at $120 to $160 per set.  I now have about three dozen of them for a complete platoon.

Again these will be used for Wiley Games Galactic Heroes and Bigger Battles.

The four IFV's, one of the tanks, and some of the Pantharii Imperium Marines.

Comparison of the Pantharii and Federation IFV's

Two of the PaperTerrain buildings.  The one on the left will be a bank.  The one on the right will be the town administration building.

The casino complex

Market building on the left and two others.

Repair Bots, buildings, and scatter terrain

spent last week assembling some more 28mm science fiction items.   These are free items from the website mentioned in previous posts. 

I added five more buildings to the previous two that I made.   They come in three different sidings - brick, planks, and panels and a variety of colors.   The panels consist of six with windows, two with ventilators/chimneys, and six solid that can be arranged in any order desired of twelve panels.  They also have a doorway and up to three dormers that can be added.  I made the two buildings with panels into a combined structure by adding the extra part provided for joining buildings together.  I left the bottom of the buildings open so that I can stack them and save storage space.

Now I am waiting for an order of business signs from Iliada Game Studio that I will be adding to various buildings that I have already made and some additional ones that I will be making that I just purchased from PaperTerrain.   These were announced back in March and are available already printed or in PDF format.  One of the sets includes three buildings that can be joined together or used separately.   He also has a wall and gate set and a set of storage containers.  The picture is from his website.  I purchased the tower, the two story building next to it,  the three stall market building next that and the three building combination in the lower ;right, along with the gate and wall set.  The tower and the individual buildings occupy about a six in square area as to the three modules in the combination set.  Except for the tower, each set includes exterior wall panels, buttresses, doors and bays that can be placed as desired or left off.  It appears that one of the wall sections has been shortened next to the gate in the lower right of the picture.  The sets look to be easy and quick to assemble.

The last picture is of the repair vehicles and bots, a pair of forklifts, and a couple of accumulators.  The vehicles and bots can be printed in different color sets if desired.   I chose to use the yellow set.  The repair vehicles consist of a control vehicle, two tool chests and an open trailer.

Federation armed forces.

I decided to spend some time working on another project, having spent the last couple of months painting 28mm fantasy figures.  I am still doing some painting, but I am not spending as much time doing so as I previously had.

For the past week and a half I have been assembling some tanks and IFV's for my 28mm science fiction figures.  These are from the free website that I previously mentioned.  free items   I had to use Paintshop Pro and import the camo scheme from ones that I previously made.  This took a couple of days to complete.

The models are better than the other one I had made, but the directions could use a couple of additional diagrams to help with assembling them.  They include a variety of detail parts and choice of weapons for the IFV and secondary armament for the tank.  I chose to use the smaller remote controlled turret for the IFV and chose the auto-cannon for it.  The tank also has a remote controlled turret, but I decided to not use it due to its large size.  I also added thumbtacks to the turrets to allow them to be rotated. and also made some other minor modifications to the locations of items on the tank turret and the IFV turret location.

I did post a picture of some of the figures in a previous post. See previous post They are from Anvil Industries.   These were available in a set called the Martian Orbital Fusiliers under their regiments range.  I purchased three of the 10 figure sets along with a six man heavy weapons set and a five man command set in order to get the free shipping.  Purchasing the two additional sets of 10 figures reduced the cost per set by four UK pounds.

This set of figures is no longer listed,, but all the parts to make the figures are still listed on their site.  These include the Gothic Void helmet, and torsos (the specialist weapon guy has the plain back and the rest have the standard back), armored legs and arms, and the Tesla disintegrator under the rifles with stocks range.

After priming them with white spray primer, I painted the figures with a rough wash of a bluish grey color to give them a similar camo pattern to the vehicles.  The wash left different parts of the figures with dark, medium, and light patches.

 The complete force.  Three tanks, four IFV's, one command squad with 11 figures and four ten man squads.   The ten man squads have a two man ATGM team, two team leaders with rifles, and six riflemen.  The command squad has 11 men armed with rifles.  This gives me 15 units and a commander for Wiley Games Bigger Battles rules.  These are for the Federation armed forces.  One of several factions of the Human Space setting which also includes the Panthari Imperium and the Domain.

  The tank. 150mm main gun with co-axial machinegun.

 IFV with ten man squad.  50mm main gun.

Close-up of the ten man squad.  The missile team is in the top right corner,  The heavy weapons man is just to the left of the figure at the top center. One of the two team leaders is at left center and the other is cut off at the right center.  The multi-part figures allow a variety of poses.  While there are some similar poses in the four squads they are all have minor differences.

Elf Army Part Three

Last night I finished painting the elf cavalry and ten character figures.  The elf cavalry is organized as eight units of eight figures each. While most of the horses were almost finished the riders needed to have their armor repainted to match the heavy infantry.  Six of the units are on partly armored horses and two are on unarmored horses. The army's units equipment and organization is based on the Maurikian Byzantine reforms.  The cavalry has lances and bows.

The figures are all plastic and were purchased years ago at much less cost than the current offerings from Games Workshop.  While most of the figures I have were made or designed by GW there are several from other figure makers. This is the last of three posts.  Clicking on older post will go directly to the previous post.  The first post also has links in it to the dwarf army and human army units.

 All eight units

 The guard cavalry.

 One of the two units on unarmored horses.  They carry a mix of equipment

 The other unit on unarmored horses

 The army commander at the left and two subordinates.

 Two mounted heroes

 A mage

Four heroes on foot.

I also found a couple of figures that I could use to finish the sixth unit of light infantry.

Elf Army Project Part Two

Last night I finished painting five, sixteen figure units of Elf light infantry and another 14 Elf light infantry.  I will either base the extra 14 figures as an understrength unit or add a couple of extra heavy infantry figures to bring it up to 15 figures.  These figures required more work as they were just primed.   I have ordered some plastic glue from Amazon so that I can make needed repairs to some figures and add standards to two of these units.  I will be flocking bases later.

28mm Science Fiction Buildings and Vehicles

I recently found out about a website with free science fiction buildings and vehicles that can be printed.   They have  a variety of items available.   So far I have assembled some trucks, cargo items and several buildings.



The trucks are one of the vehicles available.  They can be printed in four different colors and  each has a choice of four different loads - Water, Fuel, Open, and Covered.   The chassis are all the same consisting of the main frame, cab cover, four re-enforcements, six interior wheel parts, and two additional parts.   The different payloads can be the same color as the chassis or can be different.   The open truck is carrying most of the boxes.

There are a lot of other vehicles, including drop ships, and a freight hauling spaceship. The buildings I have assembled so far are the water tower, wind powered generator, solar panel, a pair of storage tanks, a landing pad, a greenhouse, a storage shed, and two of the habitats.   The habitats have three different types of sidings and each type is available in four or five colors with a total of seven different colors.   The farm set has an additional habitat in one of the siding types with a different color pattern.  This gives a total of fourteen different color and siding combinations.  I left the bottoms off of the habitats so that they can be stacked.   Each habitat is assembled with twelve panels has six solid side panels, six window side panels, and two chimney panels to choose from.   These can be arranged in any order.   Additional items that can be added are the door, up to three dormers, and if desired a part to connect multiple habitats together.

The prefab habitats.  The one on the left has a dormer added above the doorway.

Landing pad, greenhouse, shed and large pallet of boxes.

Water tower, wind powered generator, solar panel, and two storage tanks.

I still have five of the habitats to assemble, ten service droids with four small parts vehicles, and a few additional items from the farm set.   There are some other vehicles I am thinking of printing and assembling and am still undecided about making the cargo spaceship.  There are eleven different versions of the spaceship to choose from and the model has a total of 42 pages of parts to print.

All the items that I have printed and assembled so far are fairly easy to assemble and fit together very well.  While not any particular brand the cargo trucks and some of the vehicles could be used for present day 28mm skirmish games.  The link to the free items is Free items

Projects for 2020 and a review of projects for 2019

Back at the beginning of 2019 I posted my project plans for 2019.   These are listed in black with status in Red   All Projects are 6mm unless noted otherwise.

Finish Late Roman/ Byzantine army  Still to be done
Finish Sassanid Persian Army  Still to be done
Finish Warbands  Still to be done
Finish lace wars armies  Completed
Finish Napoleonic armies.  Completed
Purchase and paint modern engineering equipment after GHQ finishes releasing the vehicles for early this year.  Completed
Make 2mm towns and villages. (counted about 40 for one scenario)  Dropped plans for 2mm army
Make some more 6mm towns, villages, and farms.  Made some, more to do
Finish painting 2mm armies.  Replaced with 6mm Franco-Prussian and completed
Paint about a dozen 25mm sci-fi figures I dug out of storage.   (yes, they are actually 25mm figures from 35 years ago)  Completed
Make jungle.  Got some left over palm trees and bamboo to place on Litko hexes.  Completed
Make pine forest.   Bump chenille on Litko hexes.  Started

Items that were added and completed
purchased and painted some 1:285 Leopard 2 Revolutions
Finished painting some 28mm fantasy figures.
Finished the 28mm castle
Purchased and painted some 28mm science fiction figures
Printed and assembled a 28mm spaceship using World Works Games First Light, expansion, and other sets.
Printed and Assembled the 28mm Desert Village and Desert Fort sets from Wargames Vault.
Printed and assembled a 28mm Science Fiction town using World Works Games Mars Station set.
While most of the above were not reported on the blog, they can be seen in several of the blog posts.

Projects for 2020 are as follows:

All are 6mm unless noted otherwise.
Complete Late Roman/Byzantine army
Complete Sassanid army
Add cavalry to Achaemenid army
Finish Warbands
Make additional built up areas
Make pine Forest
I have a dozen two foot square interlocking mats that have been painted a light brown to finish
I have a bunch of 28mm Fantasy figures in various stages of painting to finish.
Add a few more 28mm science fiction buillding paper buildings.

Pacificon

Made it to Pacificon on Saturday.  There did not appear to be as many miniature or board games as last. year.   Nor did there seem to be as many people participating either.   There were quite a few Command and Colors games at the convention this year covering ancients, Napoleonics, ACW, and WW2

My first game may have been too early in the day as  no one signed up to play.  Fortunately the same set up was being used for the second game which had a full complement of players.  There were several other early games that had one or maybe two players where the gamemaster had to step in and play.

Below are some pictures of other games at the convention.   I was not able to get pictures of all of them.

Retreat From Moscow 1812 with 54mm figures.

Battle of Anzio in 15mm using Battleground rules.

Battle for Hoth using modified Bolt Action rules.  28mm

WW2 escape from Falise in 15mm using Fireteam

Western gunfight using Desparado rules.

This was the smuggler scenario with four factions.   The smugglers whose objective was to meet with a local gang at the tavern and deliver the contraband to them.   The third group was a rival gang who were trying to intercept the contraband for their own purposes.  The fourth group was the local law enforcement.   I used teams from the Galactic Heroes companion book.  The smugglers were the Kreng, the Ornks were the gang they were making the delivery to, the rebels were the other group and empire were the local law.

East Moss Landing.  Spaceport in background.  Ornks entered along main road just to the right.  Law enforcement entered along the road just to the left of the trees.

The Kreng ran into trouble early as the rebels opened fir on them putting wounds and/or shock markers on three of the five Kreng. Meanwhile the Ornks advanced through the town to the tavern.   They also came under fire from the rebels.   One of them went berserk  and charged the closest rebel.   The Ornk gang leader snuck into the tavern and waited for the contraband to arrive.   The wounded Kreng recovered and was so enraged by being wounded and seeing another team member killed that he tore the closest rebel apart in close combat,  He then attacked the next rebel and after a couple of rounds of combat tore him to pieces also.   The next turn he charged another rebel and did the same to him.   Mean while the Ornk had killed the rebel he had been fighting.

Another view of the town.  Rebels entered on the road between the lab (two story building) and the container yard.  Tavern is near the center of the picture to the left of the lab.

While all this was going on the law enforcement team had been slowly advancing towards the center of town.   One of them took out the last rebel with a long range shot.   They then headed for the tavern where they broke down the door and proceeded to open fire on the Ornk leader wounding him.  They would continue to fire at the Ornk leader for  several turns causing additional wounds and shock markers.   The Ornk leader finally succumbed to his wounds while making a recovery attempt.
The law enforcement team was plagued with faulty ammunition.   Throughout the game they would take shots at the Kreng, rebels and Ornks with almost half their shots resulting in out of ammo rolls.

While this was happening the Kreng were able to deliver the contraband to the Ornk specialist behind the tavern.    The Ornks then headed for the outskirts of town with the contraband and the Kreng returned to their ship to join the one team ember who had fled to it earlier following a failed shock recovery attempt.

Final results were victories for the Kreng and Ornks.   A total loss for the rebels with all of their team members dead with bits and pieces of most of them scattered about.   The law enforcement team claimed a political victory with one gang wiped out and the leader of the Ornks killed and all of their team members surviving.

The third game was set in a different location.   R. E. Howard, Inc and H. Beam Piper, Ltd.  had established a  joint mining operation n a barren moon.  Eventually they had a falling out and H. Beam Piper, Ltd had taken control of the mining operation.   R. E. Howard, Inc hired a group of mercenaries, Conan's Barbarians, to sized the mining facility.   The mercenaries had two squads of two four man fire teams each riding in an Infantry fighting vehicle equipped with a rail gun.   This was treated as a heavy laser in the rules.   The IFV's had heavy armor.   Both the mercenaries and the security force defending the mining base had light armor.

The security force had five four man teams.  Two of the teams had an Anti-tank rocket launcher and three riflemen, one team had a heavy blaster and three rifle men, and the other two teams only had four riflemen.   Both sides were armed with blaster rifles.

The mercenaries would win by eliminating the security force and/or capturing the power plant.  There was a road going through the mining base from the spaceport to the mines.  Vehicles could drive along it with no problem, but if the attempted to move off road there was a chance they could break through the ground surface and become stuck.   Infantry could move cross country without any problems.

The mercenaries dismounted outside of town and advanced on foot supported by the IFV's   They soon came under fire from the security force.  One IFV was disabled immediately after it put a round through the nearest building in an attempt to take out the guy who had fired on it.  It was eventually knocked out  The other used its railgun to support its team killing a couple of men on the security team.   Though several mercenaries were wounded or shaken, they eventually overcame the security force.   With half the security force dead and several others incapacitated due to wounds and shock hits the surviving members of the security team surrendered.

The mining facility.  Security force fire teams  

another view of the mining facility.   Conan's Barbarians in upper center of picture.

 

The mercenaries advance.  Security teams are actually inside the building.  The figures were moved to the roof after combat began to make it easier to keep track of who had acted.   One mercenary IFV has been disabled.  One squad is advancing along the road while the other is outside the picture on the left.  By the end of the game all the guys in the building were either out of action or wounded.

Galactic Heroes at Conquest Sacramento part two

This part is description of the second scenario followed by a brief description of the action in the game.  The scenario is an expedition to examine an ancient abandoned alien site, gather as much data and items as possible and leave in the spaceship they arrived in.   The others are teams from various star nations or corporations attempting to capture the expeditions scientists and any data or devices that are at the site.   The scientists may not be shot at, but may be captured if defeated in close combat by a shaken, wound, or out of action result.   If captured they each must be accompanied by a team member and move at crawl speed.

The scenario is designed for four to eight players and uses a six-foot round table or a five by six-foot rectangular table.   The spaceship starts at the center of one of the long edges of the rectangular table, any point on the edge of the round table.   The center of the metal disc is placed 40 inches in from the edge where the spaceship is located with the three buildings near the disc per the photos below.   The rest of the terrain is low hills and patches of wood that block sight and slow movement.

The teams are all from the supplement and have five members.   The spaceship crew uses the bounty hunter team minus the not-Jabba hero.  The spaceship crew will not leave the ship, but will defend it if it is attacked.  The two five-man guard teams for the expedition are the not-40K space marines.  One of the regular guards on one of the teams is replaced by three grunt scientists.   They have the following traits:  Smart, Slippery, and Lousy Shot and are armed with blaster pistols.   Combining Lousy Shot with the inaccuracy of the blaster pistol and the eight-sided die of a grunt results in the scientists not being able to shoot anything at long range and having a poor chance of hitting anything at short range.  The guards and the scientists start within the perimeter of the abandoned alien site.

For the round table locate the point on the edge directly across from the spaceship and place the starting point for the first two teams 15 inches from that location.   The next two teams start 30 inches from them and the last two teams are another 30 inches from the second pair of teams, placing them about 36 inches from the center of the spaceship.  On the rectangular table the first two teams will start six to twelve inches in from the corners of the opposite long edge.   The next two teams start in the middle of the two short sides.  And the last two teams start in the corners of the same edge as the spaceship. 

The six attacking teams cannot be the not-40K marines or the bounty hunters.  The first two teams are from the birdmen and ranger teams.   The last two must have armor reducing their movement to four inches be action. The other two teams can be any other team from the supplement.

In addition to the three buildings and the central disc there are two devices at the edge of the disc on the side facing the spaceship.   Each of the buildings can be searched for data and information.   On the first attempt if an easy task is passed then one data unit is retrieved.   For a medium task pass two units are retrieved and for a hard task pass three units are retrieved.   On the second attempt a medium task pass provides one unit of data and a hard task pass provides two units of data.   For the third and final attempt one unit of data is retrieved on a hard task pass.   Each unit of data is worth five points.  The two devices next to the disc are worth 50 points each and can only be removed by making a hard task pass.   Attempts can be made as many times as needed to remove them.   Once removed each must be carried by at least one team member at a crawl.   If two carry it then one inch is added to the movement rate per action.

The game started with four players and later two additional players who were passing by joined in.   The starting attackers were the birdmen equipped with jet packs, the rangers, and a regular team starting from the middle of the east edge.   The spaceship was on the south edge of the table.   The later arriving players took the two armored teams.

While the scientists were inside the buildings attempting to retrieve as much data as possible the two team leaders were trying to remove the two devices.  One of them removed a device on the first turn and the other accomplished removing the second device on turn two.  While this was happening the raiders were advancing and starting to engage the guards.  At the end of the second turn a strange humming could be heard from the disc and suddenly a group of four demonic looking creatures appeared.

Both jokers had been included in the deck as wild cards.   If  a joker was played and there were any creatures on the table they would move in a random direction determined by an arrow die or the top corner of the result of a ten sided die roll.  This movement would take place after all cards of the type that had been called had been played.   Thus if tens were called and the first joker was played as a ten once all players had finished playing their ten cards the creatures would then move.   If the second joker was played in a turn then additional creatures would appear.   The number of creatures appearing would be determined by the difference of two averaging dice, marked 2,3,3,4,4,5 or if both were the same that number of creatures would arrive.   For a regular six-sided die count one as three and six as four.

The creatures had the following characteristics:  Close combat D10 +1, Wounds 2, Wound roll +2, Move 4 per action and +3 inches per turn.  No shaken/shock effects, Leap +2 inches, no terrain penalty for movement, +1 to break down door,

To be hit shooting +1, to be hit in combat -1, to be wounded – 1, no penalty for fighting more than one opponent or not having a close combat weapon.

When the creatures were activated on the third turn two of them charged the round domes and the other two headed off to the east attacking the guards that were there.   One of the scientists was engaged by a creature after it broke down the door immediately.  He was lucky and only suffered a shaken result.   On his turn he slipped from its clutches and ran for the spaceship.  The creature was then knocked out of action by the guard in the dome.   The other guards did not fair as well.   During the course of the game one of the creatures killed two of the guards and spent a couple of turns devouring the remains of the second guard (no jokers played during those turns).  The other scientist also packed up their gear and made a run for the ship before they could be caught by any other additional creatures.  Surprisingly the scientists did not stop to relieve the team leaders of the devices as they ran for the ship.

One of the armored teams made an alliance with the birdmen who had moved to the southwest of the site.  Together they formed a firing line that kept the two guard leaders pinned down with shaken and wound results.  While they put up a tough fight the guards kept suffering casualties as additional creatures arrived.    They were eventually down to only three of the starting nine and only one made his escape to the ship abandoning the devices.   The two teams of raiders who had partnered split the devices between them.

The rangers had made it to the site and finished investigating the buildings finding a few more data units.   Except for the one creature munching on the guard all the others had been killed.  The team advancing from the east met that creature just after it finished devouring the guard  with only one team member surviving its attack by running away.   The creature then went on to attack the other arriving armored team and was finally slain. 

Final results for the game were 50 points each for the two teams with the devices,   35 for data retrieved by the expeditions scientists and 25 points for the data retrieved by the rangers.    

  End of the second turn.  Four creatures have appeared on the portal.   The guard with one of the scientists on top of the dome is actually inside.   He managed to kill two of the creatures during the first round of combat with each of them.

 One of the guards engaging the birdmen in close combat.

The two team leaders dragging the devices towards the spaceship at the bottom of the picture.  

The first part is here