Odds & Ends (4) - What I've got and what I play

The Purge:

Its easy to get distracted as a wargamer, when the latest ruleset or miniature release takes your fancy it's hard to resist and before you know it you have an eclectic collection of half built, half painted forces. Well at least thats how I was, but when my first child was born (nearly 5 years ago) I soon realised that my gaming time was going to be severely reduced, so I started a much needed cull of the miniatures/rules that I either no longer cared for or knew I would never get around to painting up. I also intended on moving on to smaller scales to save on scenery/storage space, so out went my:

28mm Ancients.
almost my entire collection of GW's Warmaster range (I was lucky with these having bought almost everything when they were initially released).
my three 40K armies.
entire legions of 6mm Epic Orks, Space Marines and Squats.
2 Blood Bowl teams plus spare Star players and the like.
the majority of my really old early 80's pre slotta stuff.
all my GZG starships and Battlefleet Gothic stuff.
my 20mm WW2 British Infantry.
several boardgames.

By doing this I narrowed my focus and was actually able to crack on and get projects moving again, it also funded my wargaming purchases for 3 years, mainly due to some of my Warmaster stuff being very rare, I got over £100 for a packet that cost me £5. So now nearly 5 years on from the start of the purge, I am much happier in my hobby, as the unpainted lead mountain has shrunk drastically, and I'm getting more gaming in, on the games I've focused on, which brings me to them.

The Survivors:

So this is what I currently play:

6mm World War 2 using H&R miniatures and BKC2 rules (I have both a British Brigade and the German equivilent at a scale of 1 stand = 1 platoon).

(Some of my 6mm WW2 Late war British)

(German Panzer Grenadier Battalion)

(German Armour)

6mm War of the Roses using Baccus miniatures and Impetvs rules (I have around 90 units based for Impetvs).

(A game of 6mm War of the Roses, at the club)

15mm/20mm World War 2 using either my own 20mm SHQ miniatures (about 2-300 of these plus a dozen or so vehicles) or my mates 15mm FOW miniatures with the Rules of Engagement ruleset.

(20mm Para's defending a casino)

X-Wing, I have everything bar the latest large ships that have just been released.

6mm Napoleonic using Black Powder and my mates miniatures (I have nothing at all to contribute to these games).

(6mm Napoleonic Black Powder at the club)

1/1200th Napoleonic Naval, using Langton and Navwar miniatures with the Trafalgar ruleset.

28mm Old West, using a variety of miniature companies and the Legends of the Old West ruleset.

(Red's Gang)

 

(Red)

(Big Dick Bowdre)

(Evil Eli)

(Lightnin' Joe)

(Little Dick Whiteley)

(Injun Joe)

Wings of War/Glory, not played this for a while but still one of my faves for which I have around 20 airplanes including a Balloon and Bomber.

28mm Pirates, not got very far with this, as I only have around 6 crew and a small ship I converted from one of my sons wooden toys, lack of opponents has kept this on the back burner for now.

10mm Warmaster Medieval using my own homebrew Game of Thrones lists and figures from Magister Militum and Kallistra, this got put aside again due to a lack of opponents, but has now been picked up again as I've managed to get a mate interested in it.

28mm Judge Dredd, picked these up at Xmas, not done anything with them as yet, I only have a Justice Dept team ,and I'm looking for some good 28mm Post Apoc ganger types to use as opponents.

10mm Colonial Marine vs Aliens, Im using the Pendraken miniatures, but haven't decided on a ruleset as yet, I was tinkering with my own home brew rules, but have now moved on to converting ROE for this purpose.

 

 



(10mm Aliens & Marines from Pendraken)

 

6mm Sci Fi, mainly GW stuff - Space Marines to be exact and loads of them including a few original metal titans, I have a bunch of stuff from other companies too, and have been thinking of getting back into this genre as I've not played for a long long time.

28mm Samurai, always wanted an excuse to pick up some of the Perry Miniatures Japanese miniatures, and the Osprey's release of Ronin allowed me to do this.

Pirates CSG, I have around 200 ships for this, and at least 1 of every type of ship released, not played for a while, but I intend to use this to introduce my son to gaming.

Blood Bowl, still got 4 teams and a bunch of star players/cheerleaders.

Car Wars- bought this on a nostalgia trip, but still intend to play it at some stage.

(Irregular miniatures 6mm Post Apoc cars)

Most of the above get at least one play a year, whilst some get far more than that, ROE for EG being a current favourite, I think I've played that at least 6 times in the last couple of months.

I also play a number of different boardgames, such as Axis & Allies, Richard III, and Zombies to name some.

The Future:

I'm intending to add to my 6mm Sci Fi stuff at some stage with some CinC & GZG mini's, but their's no particular rush for this. I also want to add more to my 10mm Sci Fi collection as this is currently quite small and I need more guns and bugs, but again, until I get some rules sorted, no big hurry.

As for my WW2 stuff, no plans on expanding my 20mm armies, but I intend to get some suitable 6mm tanks to represent an early war BEF contingent.

I'd like a few more figures for my Ronin game but no great expense (or rush), maybe 1-3 packs from Perry's.

I'll try and keep up with the X-Wing releases but the large ships are currently beyond my gaming budget.

I need to pick up a couple of the more recent releases for Wings of War, the Brisfit inparticular.

I am also really desperate for scenary for  Ronin, Judge Dredd and the 10mm Sci fi stuff, but should be able to cobble together most of what I need apart from the Ronin scenary which is beyond my ability to knock together.

Finally, I have been really tempted recently to start a 15mm Dark Age force for use in a skirmish/warband level game, quite possibly using the free Age of Blood rules, and whilst browsing Khrusan Miniatures 15mm Vikings, I stumbled upon their extensive 15mm Sci Fi range and I now want almost everything they put out....must resist the temptation.

(Boardgames - 1) - Richard III - Game Report

I introduced my mate John to this game recently, and we managed to get two of the three campaigns played out. I took a few pictures but it being a boardgame they are not very exciting.

(Early in the 1st Campaign)

The first campaign did not go very well for my Yorkist forces, and I made a few silly moves when I invaded from Calais with the Nevilles and the future Edward IV committing them to battles I didn't have to fight and withthe odds against me. This resulted in a huge series of battles in the South West that led to the deaths of Salisbury and Fauconberg, and Warwick deserting to the Lancastrian cause, Edward barely escaped the disaster. My invasion from Ireland and the troops I raised in East Anglia all came to nought, and at the end of the campaign my opponent held over 10 votes to my 3 or 4, all in all a crushing victory for the Lancastrians who did not lose one loyalist, whilst I had lost 3 including the traitorous Warwick.



The 2nd campaign was a different kettle of fish entirely, as the Yorkist forces moved straight in for the kill having realised that King Henry VI was in London with few nearby supporters. King Henry soon lay dead on the battlefield killed by the Earl of March, and the Yorkists held most of the South of England, with Lancastrian forces mustering in the North and South West. As the campaign progressed we realised we wouldn't get to play the 3rd campaign which was a little disappointing as we were both engrossed in the outcome. However knowing this, we both made some moves that we might not have done if we had a 3rd campaign to consider.

One such move was a major Lancastrian attack on the isolated Duke of York, accompanied by the Earl of Rutland and the Irish mercenaries who were all holed up in Chester, this 1st Battle of Chester saw 7 Lancastrian blocks against my 3 Yorkists. Against all the odds the Yorkists came out victorious without even losing a block, the Earl of Rutland performed magnificently hitting on 5 out of 7 rolls of the dice (he needs 2 or less to hit), the Lancastrians on the other hand had been all but annihilated as only 2 blocks retreated and both of those were badly mauled.

 

 

(The Battle of Chester, Before & After)



As a final move and at this point a little annoyed at the defenders of Chester, my opponent threw another 4 blocks at the grim survivors, leading to the 2nd Battle of Chester which again saw him fail, as I held off the attack losing the Irish, but having both Plantagenets survive. More losses followed for the Lancastrians as I pounced on isolated nobles.

(The final tally of loyalist KIA's)

And that brought the 2nd campaign to a close, the final adding up was 13 votes to 12 in the Lancastrian favour so the newly crowned Edward of Westminster would have a tenuous hold going into the 3rd campaign. The final toll of dead loyalists was 2 Yorkists dead and 6 Lancastrian dead, with the way blocks were positioned ready for the final campaign and the large losses of the 2nd campaign things were not looking too good for the remaining Lancastrians.

 

 



(Set up ready for the final campaign)

I'm off to the club next week, having not attended for about 3 weeks now, for a planned game of Rules of Engagement using 15mm Germans vs Russians.

Odds & Ends (3) - X-Wing AAR

Managed to squeeze a game of X-Wing into my busy schedule this week, we both took ships we hadn't used before so it was a bit of a learning experience. Both squadrons came in about 160pts. I took command of the Empire, and had the following ships:

1 Firespray (Standard Bounty Hunter with an Auto Blaster, Navigator, Concussion Missiles and Seismic charges)
3 TIE IN (1 Royal Guard, 1 Sabre Sqn & 1 Avenger Sqn with Push the Limit and a Hull Upgrade; Expose and Hull Upgrade and nothing, respectively)
1 TIE Bomber (Gamma Sqn with Prox. Mines, 2 loads of Cluster Missiles and both normal and Advanced Proton torp's)

The Rebel forces commanded by John were:

1 Millenium Falcon (Han & Chewie with an Intelligence Agent and draw their fire)
2 X-Wings (1 Red Sqn & 1 Rookie both with R2's and Proton Torp's)
1 A-Wing (Green Sqn with Push the Limit and Cluster missiles)
1 HWK (Rebel Operative with a Recon Agent Shield Upgrade and Blaster Turret)

I didn't manage to grab many pictures as the action was flowing and I don't like to disturb it for the sake of a few photo's, so apologies for the lack of quality images.

We made our own mission up, which was that the Rebels would start in 2 groups the Falcon and X-wings in one the HWK and A-Wing in the other, the Falcon and HWK had to get within range 1 of each other and then both spend an action "Communicating" as they attempt to transit vital information via a short range encryption device. The Empire simply had to stop this from happening.

It didn't start too well for the rebels with their rookie X-wing pilot heading straight into an asteroid, fortunately doing no damage(this became a bit of habit for this poor pilot, who managed to hit 3 asteroids during the game)

 

The battle split into two distinct  sections, with the X Wings engaging the TIE/In and the Falcon and A-Wing taking on the Bomber and Firespray, the HWK being quite fagile took itself out of the battle  hoping to fulfill its mission.

 

My TIE's managed to eventually defeat both X-Wings though not before my Royal Guard had had his Pilot skill reduced to 0 due to critical hits. The Bomber seemed to draw a lot of fire and was taken out before I had chance to fire off all its special weapons which is always annoying. The A-Wing after being shot up, was destroyed when it clipped an asteroid.

The chase was now on to bring down the HWK which would scupper my opponents mission, the first TIE to get within range of the HWK was promptly and much to my surprise shot down in one quick burst. The Falcon was attempting to get within range of the HWK and all the remaining ships had converged in a corner of the table. Finally managing to get rid of some critical damage that prevented the Firespray from Target Locking the HWK, I launched my missiles only to see the HWK easily survive the attack. At this point both the Falcon and the Firespray were badly damaged and the HWK was just hanging on in there. Both remaining TIE's had suffered only minor damage, but both had injured pilots. If I didn't take the HWK out soon the rebels would claim the victory, fortunately for me in an attempt to evade the Firespray the HWK swung straight into the line of fire of both my TIE's and my man of the match - The Sabre Sqn Pilot did that last bit of damage to bring it down.

Only the Falcon survived on the rebel side and that was badly shot up, I still had 3 ships left but all were damaged and it was much closer than the final tally would seem.

It was my first run out with the Firespray and I liked it, its auxillary fire arc(to the rear) is very useful, and unlike most Imperial ships it can take a kicking. I was particulary impressed with the Expose skill on my TIE Sabre Sqn pilot which he managed to use almost every turn.


We have planned a game of Richard III for next week which John hasn't played before and I'm not overly familiar with, so its off to swot up on the rules.