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Sonntag, 20. Februar 2011

 My 15mm Scif collection in all it's glory:










Star Trek Fleet Battle - Using the Firestorm rules

Before last year I somehow got a Star Trek fever and the idea formed to play some fleet battles. Some ebay- and google-fu later, I found some companies (mostly japanese) that produced miniatures/toys in the right scale and quality.

My Federation fleet was quite cheap (3-4 € for the medium ships and 15 € for the big one), but my Klingon fleet depleted my hobby budget completely. I fell into the "Must have everything at once trap" and bought a lot of ships. So as this project got out of control, I became frustrated and put it aside.

Last saturday I finally had the chance to use both fleets and it was a good game. So I feel less guilty about me spending that much money on the ships. I used the Firestorm Armada rules, because they are easy to learn, make a nice and action oriented game and are still tactically interesting.

The Klingons used the Relthoza profiles, because the forward torpedos and cloak fields fit them well. The Federation used the Terrain profiles as they can fire torpedos in any arc, have shields and more crew, than assault troops. Both fleets used 3 cruisers, one battleship and 3 heavy cruisers.

A Ferengi marauder salvaged components of a destroyed Federation science vessel. The Klingons badly damaged the Ferengi ship, that is now drifting in an asteroid belt and are sending search parties to capture it. The Federation quickly assembled a strike force to get in the way of the Klingons' plans. The players could capture the Ferengi ship with assault troops or use a tractor beam to drag it off the table. There was a chance of 1 to 6, that the structural integrity of the ship collapsed and exploded.

Now pictures:

 A Konami Battleship.
 Vor'cha Attack Cruisers, repainted Micro Machines.
 Yamato cloaked Bird of Preys (Star Trek never gave consistent measurements, in fact there are 5 versions, so big and small Bird of Preys are completely usable)
 Klingon initial deployment.
 Federation. Nebula class from Furuta. Can't remember where the Galaxy class is from. The Excelsior class is from Furuta too.

 Both fleets clash in the middle. The asteroid field was moving 2 D6+3 from left to right.


 The Klingons dropped their and started firing, but the asteroid belt smashed into my forces (bad dice rolls) and damaged it.

 The beaten Klingon fleet tried to drag the Ferengi ship of the table, in this process destroying it. Still a moral victory for the Federation.

Star Trek nuts please bear with me, if the measurements of the ships are not 100% perfect, I personally like the look of my two fleets and that's good enough for me. Btw. I know that there are Star Trek pewter models, but they are smaller and pricier (and not even more detailed) than my alternative solutions.

Donnerstag, 17. Februar 2011

A buddy for my Squid ! Steam-Godzilla....

Just began working on my Steam-Godzilla:





This is an early-stage picture. He has a gatling-cannon in his belly now ;)

Skykings WW2 - Hangar 18 FSA - Review

Yesterday I received my (highly anticipated) Skykings order. I ordered one bomber, one flak cannon and a radar station. The casting is good, very little flash, good details and cleaning is quite easy.

In short, great value-for-money! Just 4$ for the bomber, 5.50$ radar station and a flak cannon for 2.75$ (plus a free saucer). I'm not a fan of the "base", but as the terrain pieces will be integrated into islands/hills they are not a problem.

From the size comparision pics you can see that they fit the Spartan Games stuff quite well and I'm sure would fit  to other 2mm or 6mm ranges as well (they could go for Scifi, Weird World War, etc.). Several of those buildings could be great targets for "Check your 6" style fighter games.

Comparision pic with a Spartan Games Uncharted Seas fortress. On the right the flak cannon and below the radar station.
 The plastic part for the radar tower is a nice touch.

 Pic with Dystopian Wars ships.



 A FSA bomber next to a German bomber and a saucer.

Sonntag, 13. Februar 2011

6mm Impetus - First Testgame

I had my first Impetus testgame last Saturday and I really like it. Players that consider any other scale than 28mm obsolote, should just stop reading here.

In combination with our 6mm armies (1x Polybian Romans, 1x Marian Romans, 1x Carthago and 1x Syracus Greek army) you really got the feeling, that you are in control of a massive army.

In 6mm you actually have a lot of men under your command. My Marian Roman army consists of 254 men and is not even finished (6x bases of legionaires, 2 medium cavalry, 2 skirmisher bases). I will add two more legionaire bases, because I want to order those great new Marian legionaires from Baccus. Superb sculpts and a nice price.

With our four armies we formed two long battle lines and the Greek and Carthago player deployed their light forces on their flanks. Although the Romans had the advantage of their strong heavy infantry, those pesky skirmishes and light cavalry men really ruined our day. Additionally this day Fortuna was quite a bitch, both Roman Generals seemed to have swapped their battle-hardended legionaires for new recruits (8 Dice and no 6 or two 5s and this several times).

So every time our glorious cohorts smashed into the enemy, their pilums missed, their sword were blunt and they died away one after the ofther.

Lesson of this day, I need a second 6mm army and finish my Romans. Plus I want a rematch, this time we should spend more time thinking about the initial deployment of our forces and hope that the dice goddess presents us a smile. Great rules and I'm glad I let myself get drawn into 6mm Ancients.

First some close ups on my Marian Romans:

Some beautifully painted Greek hoplite phalanx:
Carthago's heavy infantry advances:

 Battlefield overview in the early stage of the battle. On the left bottom you find my Romans, right bottom the other Roman army, left top is the Carthago line and right top the greeks. We should have put up a long line instead of placing our troops rather loosely:
Those damn three Numidian light cavalry bases (bottom) managed to get behind me to harass my troops and slowly withered them down:
The fronts collide, but our dice rolls made sure that our troops bounced off the enemy line:
On my flank, I finally brought my legionaires to the front, but the time they arrived, they were disorganized and not in th best shape (bad discipline rolls and effective enemy fire).
At least we managed to break the strong phalanx line, but we had to call it a day, because the store was closing:

These pics really don't do the models justice. Nevertheless the overview pictures demonstrate the feeling, mentioned above, that 6mm delivers (15mm could do it, 28mm does not): You are the general of a vast army and with a word order hundreds of troops towards the enemy.

Sonntag, 6. Februar 2011

Step by Step - My finished Octopus

Stage one: GW Dwarf Bronze applied in two layers. Then drybrushed with GW Mithril Silver.
Stage two: One layer of GW Devlan Mud.

Stage three: GW Badab Black was applied to the deeper areas of the surface.

Stage 4: GW Ogryn Flesh is the last layer for the metal. It gives a mire "red-ish" look, that I really like. The water is (as always) not finished and the whole miniature need to be varnished too.