Adeptus Titanicus - 30k Plus - Part 2

Original Draft 2020-11-13

There was something of a hiatus on this, mainly due to... other projects... no game meets happening... forgot about it...     So just some follow up on this...  adeptus-titanicus-30k-plus

Looks like game days might be starting up again (finger crossed) so i re-mentioned the concept as a possibility for next year. AT still seems to be a popular 'want to play' system so in order to keep that going, plus add some... what did a game buddy call it... "Traction Grit".

Anyway i actually had a read through of the army 'cards' for infantry just to get an idea of what's what.

i've pulled the printer out with the idea of making up the basic 'line company' content. 1 commander, 8 tactical bases and 2 support bases.   i am also contemplating doing rhino transports.

again, i need to work out some scale issues for all of this. i don't have support models so i will need to whip up some plasma and melta guns for those.   will probably do 4 models on a base with 2 of them with the support guns rather than everyone has one. subject to change. 

also will need a suitable rhino model, might have to adjust something for that too.

in order to kit out 'all options' i'd need double the tactical bases (stands) and i'm contemplating double up on the support bases just so i have a little more depth and options with those. adding extra tactical stands would just be spending left over points.

anyway, i'm starting by batching out some tacticals and take it from there... 

cos i don't have enough projects on the table already.

Update 2020-11-18

So.     I got the infantry printed up, modelled up some plasma and melta guys, and on the last batch i discovered that the FEP had torn (clear plastic at the bottom of the vat that allows UV light through to cure the resin) and I had encrusted resin on the LCD. Annoying.

So these guys won't be getting Rhinos but i at least managed to get the infantry done.

Not looking at ordering more FEP sheets mainly cos i couldn't be bothered printing and this ensures I don't. Had a little resin hit over the last month and that's enough.

For probably no one else's enjoyment than my own, here is the (majority of the) build process. Shows there are lots of steps involved, so when there's days/weeks between when a project starts and ends... this is why.

Printing up the models. Worked out how many bases of guys i wanted. 

Positioned and glued to the bases. This happened fairly organically. I didn't swap models around looking for best positions, blu-tacking or anything like that. Fairly random.

So there are 7 bases of Tacticals required for the basic company, and there are 4 extra bases of 'points fillers'.

There are 2 bases each of plasmas and melta all up,  2 required for basic company, and 2 extras.

Black undercoat. I paint it on. Probably could rattlecan it, but (ironically) I prefer brush work. Even boring stuff like this.

Three steps here.   Base colour of 'Averland Sunset' - had enough in the pot to complete this project. Then a wash of Agrax Earthshad. Then a light dry brush of Averland to bring out some highlights. 

Leadbelcher on weapons and backpack exhausts.

Two steps here.  Base white on the pauldrons. Black on the bolters.

Done. Black icons on the pauldrons - these are very much token blobs but at this scale there's no chance of me getting any more details on there.  The plasma and melta guns were the only bright colour variations.

The melta guns just had a wash of Agrax on the barrel, then dry brush of orange, then white. Looks better in real life.

The plasma guns just got a smear of 'regular' blue and then a light dry brush of a lighter blue to brighten it.

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Update 2020-11-19

And done...

Basing and two coats of sealant. Not bothering with magnets at this stage. Will be a while before they get games etc, so no transporting etc, they can just sit and look pretty on the shelf.

So that's one full  Line Company, plus change. Pretty happy with the results. Feels nice to have some Imperial Fists in the mix again. 

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Update 2020-11-26

Appalling photo, but these guys are now displayed on a shelf in a cupboard in the office. Just reusing the 6mm planet28 stuff I was working on, highly unlikely that that project is going to get resurrected.

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Until next time...

Zona Alfa - Focused Mission 4 - Defend the Compound (prototype)

Despite the number of bullets unleashed across the board, I can't help feeling it was a sub-par game.

An enticing start to the tale?

Specifically the mission parameters were not up to scratch. The term 'turkey shoot' comes to mind... if said turkeys were locked in a reasonably small and restrictive coup... and without any protective cover.

The map was set up with the crew Compound on one side, and the opposite side divided into 3 sub-sections. And to be fair there was a bit of cover (not entirely intentional) on the hostile's edge (which was a good thing).

Sure enough, hostiles started deploying at the start of every turn (snorks. damn snorks).

But before long it became evident that the hostiles were forming a rather large hillock of corpses about 1/3 of the way from their edge. 

The mission parameters allowed multiple squads to deploy in a single turn (here we have bloodsuckers and zombies). And I even left the Control Check (roaming packs) rule in, just to try to get some additional/random hostiles on the board.

It was briefly looking like the hostiles might get a bit further across. However this pic probably still has half the crew waiting to activate (and snot all those incoming hostiles).

[ed: just as an aside - it wasn't a hassle monitoring each of the hostiles as individuals, rather than as squads of hostiles, even with more of them on the board. Given there's only Player vs Hostiles perhaps having still 2 sides works...]

A mutant (yowie) did manage to tag HUSTLE in a mutual melee takedown. But that was the extent of the damage. And if HUSTLE had been back further then the mutant wouldn't have made base to base contact at all (he was flanking for a better shot around the trees). 

And this... was as close as a hostile got to entering the compound. With the expected results.

I ended up calling the game at 7 of 9 turns, as frankly, I was bored.

Although this was intended to be a milk run to ease in the rookies it just didn't have any suspense. I was really rooting for the Control Checks to throw in extra hostiles from the sides but nope.

So what's going on this with that then?

a) The compound is meant to have nice clear firing lanes on all sides. And it did.   And I don't really want to crowd or place more trees/junk along the way because it doesn't make sense for them to have left cover for an enemy to sneak up on the stronghold.

b) The crew weren't making all their shots but there was enough fire power available to comfortably deal with the enemy safely.  There also wasn't a lot of movement required, just a wall of bullets. Again, this tactically makes sense; don't run out to engage in hand to hand if you can deal with them from afar (unless you're in a movie)?

c) The rookies didn't need to move (much) so they were hardly tested. They provided what shooting was required of them but there wasn't a lot of LEADER-ship required.  In fact during a couple of turns there were no hostiles visible or on the board so i called End of Turn early with models unactivated.

d) I limited the hostile list to 1) dogs, 2) zombies, 3) more zombies, 4) snorks, 5) bloodsuckers, 6) mutants

And the deployment per turn was 1,2,3 = one squad in the rolled sub-section, 4,5 = two squads in different sections, and 6 was no hostiles entering (and I'm glad I didn't roll that up). 

The choice of melee only hostiles I feel... conflicted about, but from a narrative perspective the idea is that there is a great horde of critters incoming; the dogs are fleeing in front of the zombies and the zombies and mutants are just... doing what they do.

I could have alternately had bandits, but then i think it would be more appropriate to have just bandits.  Why would bandits and dogs team up to attack en masse? Or bandits and mutants? etc etc

Dunno. It was a choice. I made it.

Ideally I would perfer a more homogenous hostile list, like all zombies with perhaps a single squad of snorks or bloodsuckers occasionally.  Or similar.    I diversified the list mainly due to model availability (i had intended to print up more zombies but i just ripped my last FEP, so not more printing for a while).

Hordes of bandits would have provided a far different event. The crew would have had to stay behind the walls, pop out, shoot and pop back in - a lot. And far more med-kits used Ii imagine.   Probably worth a try... however...   

I'm reluctant to throw bandits into this mix as the idea is meant to be an overwhelming horde of mutants incoming (fleeing a blowout perhaps, or for local relevance... bushfires).  In this case however, the horde was whelming... to be gracious, underwhelming to not.

As there are no Hot Spots (why would they put a compound on top of a known anomaly field?)  this mission is all about bullets and combat.

I think just getting more hostiles on the map would make things far more sporty.

Instead of rolling the Control Check once, perhaps it could be done for each board edge to up the chances of getting irregular reinforcements.

Additionally the table for the deployment roll at the start of the turn could possibly be cranking out more squads by default.

Back to the drawing board on this mission. In general the concept is ok it just need to provide some challenge and suspense.

Will run it again with some adjusted parameters and see how it goes. I'm anticipating that this shindig was just the vanguard of a far larger horde just over the horizon.

Until next time...

Zona Alfa - Brand New Recruits

I've decided that to replenish the crew I'm going to take on some rookies.  Rookies are not ideal strategically imo, but I'm going to try it from an entirely narrative angle.  Hoping to get them on the board this weekend.

These were some of the new crew i was working towards with the big batch of Anvil prints I did a few weeks ago. Just seemed like a good opportunity to push some of them ahead.

Mainly due to the recruits, the  Ship Mission 2  will be delayed. I'll probably run a couple of free-play boards. Just to get some tactics happening.  Can probably still work the whole Hostile Phase but will need to plan for slower moving models with the Infil/Exfil positions etc.

Additionally I've written a new 'defend the compound' mission where basically the squad just gats incoming hostiles which respawn from the board edge turn after turn. Might try this on the weekend if possible.

I also painted up the 'Cannon Drone RC' model. Just a basic colour scheme. 

So that was pretty much as much hobbying as I could be bothered with during the week. 

Until next time...

Betrayal at Calth (BaC) - Old Project, New Movement - Part 1

Original post circa 2020-10-29

The box game, Betrayal at Calth contains a fantastic skirmish rules system. One of my favourite ways to roll dice. Not commonly played or used this way however.   I tend to use it as a solo narrative 'space play' system.

I've used token marines vs tyranids mainly which has been fun.

A few months ago I played the Wrath and Glory sessions and there we encountered Tzeentch Horrors: pink, blue and yellow demons. These critters were quite fun... challenging... annoying. But fun and more importantly, memorable.

So after months of contemplation I ordered a box of each (pinks are one box, blues and yellows are the other).

These are now assembled and awaiting paint. I will be dropping the new contrast paints on them in an attempt to get them done quickly.

The main idea here is that i will run 'chaos' in the Calth framework.

I already have a good set of chaos marines, and I also have bloodletters which are my favourite type of chaos demons. And now I will have the pinks/blues/yellows which can be added for variety.  The marines vs marines are a bit too same:same - enjoyable occasionally but it's nice to have asymmetric forces as well.

As I was rummaging through my boxes of stuff in storage I also found my orks, which I'd used with Calth too but less than the nids.  Plus I had a build+paint box that has been sitting around forever which I will add cos why not.

So some new orks and some new chaos demons.

Orks, chaos and tyranids as opposing forces. nice.

I was looking at all these models with a critical eye. These were done before I really started looking at washes and dry brushing. Pretty much everything is just all blocked in base colours.  I theoretically could look at doing some washes to everything.  The Horrors will look pretty fancy compared to the other stuff.... we'll see.

Update 2020-11-03

Some paint happened. The Horrors got a black undercoat then just a single coat of grey ('grey sear', it's a surprisingly good base).

Orks black base coat. Currently working on the base colours, up to leadbelcher so still a couple of days before they're ready to box. Will look for a decent boxing option for them - am actually contemplating how I'm going to box/store the models that I use for BaC... haven't got a solution, just contemplating. [ed: still contemplating]

And contrast paint for all the Horrors.

The blue and pink shades are two dark out of the bottle so I will be dry brushing on some lighter shades before doing anything else with them.  The pink in the bottle IS a glorious plum/crimson, pretty close to my favourite colour.  Anyway, progress on everything. Yhay.

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Update 2020-11-06

The blues and brimstones are done. Pinks still on the way, not far from done.

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Update 2020-11-12

I'm calling this the end of part 1.  The Pink Horrors are done...

which means all the Horrors are done....

Turned out as well I'd have hoped for. Just used the box art as the 'goal' and it went as expected.

The contrast paints worked ok, I think they have a legitimate place in the tool box.

The orks are taking longer than projected and I'll most likely be zuzhing the old ones up and who knows what else so that will be a part 2.

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update 2020-11-20

Not a build update. Pulled the board, dice and models out and just rolled up a couple of 10 minute games. So quick, so simple, so elegant.

You theoretically could run it just on a non-hexed table and use a tape measure but it's nice that you don't have to. 

Bloody stellar.

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Until next time...

Zona Alfa - Focused Mission 3 - Scout the Ship

Had a weekend off last week but definitely noticed the lack of dice rolling affecting my mood.

Back into the focused missions, in part to 'prove' them all, in a larger part they are fun. Probably more like solving a puzzle than free-play is.

Anywho, today's mission was 'Scout the Ship'.

I set up this board with the previous board in mind again. This new board sits roughly 'upper right' of the previous board on a larger 'world ma'. I might make a sketch of how they all fit together in due course.

The right side of the board is predominated by the water so about 1/4-1/3 of the board is largely unusable. I don't think this really provides any overwhelming advantages or disadvantages - it didn't feel that way, it was just different. 

To expand on that briefly - this means all the action is compacted, so you have less room to move.  A lot of action happens/happened on board the ship which is even tighter... kind of a theme for the mission I guess.

The Infil site is bottom left and the Exfil site is top left. The APC follows the road around, moving as appropriate every turn, just for mood, though it could theoretically be used as cover.

There are 4 hot spots and 2 mission objectives - fore and aft on the ship - as per the first pic.

The Hot Spot were less randomly placed this time and are in positions that are... 'morally inconvenient'. As in, they are adjacent to important areas (infil, exfil, gangway - with the exception of one up near the warehouses). Although they aren't going to necessarily be automatically/inadvertently triggered, they do present tempting targets along the way.

The first HS was right near the Infil site. The crew set overwatch and triggered it. Bandits and an anomaly *1.  Overwatch was moderately successful taking out one AK guy, the rest were dispatched by the end of the turn without any wounds inflicted on the crew. (blue dice shows scatter, 5" toward upper-right)

[*1 - I like to hit up a HS early while the crew is fresh, full strength and all in the same place. Means i can opt for a tougher hostile (preferably one with an anomaly) and score some loot and an artifact early and relatively safely.]

With the Infil site clear the crew hoofs it across the map to the gangway.

The board the ship and head for the MO point on the foredeck.

Mission Overview (briefly): The ship contains 2 MO points. When the first is triggered both points produce hostiles. They may (one, either, both, neither) produce hostiles in subsequent turns until they are both Searched.

For this reason i opted to crowd the entire crew on board to deal with the hostiles en masse.

I knew there would be hostiles from both directions and also wanted to use the superstructure as a shield from the aft deck hostiles.

As it turns out i rolled lucky, rat swarms from both fore and aft decks.

These were both slaughtered with activations to spare, then HUSTLE booted for the aft MO point alone (little risk going solo at this stage).

Just as things were looking like they were going a little too easy, a bandit patrol enters from the bottom-middle of the map. (Rolled up in the 'Control Check' at the end of every even numbered turn - for those playing Zona Alfa this is a cool little wrench for solo games, and i'm thoroughly enjoying the Control/Hostile Phase rules too - all part of the same doco).

The timing and position couldn't have been worse (*2), they were blocking the gangway and the crew had no option then to deal with them. And right before i'd done the MO point Searches too!!

[*2 - this is why these games are great, although they seem fairly predictable the dice have a way of leading the story where they will. This is the fun stuff!]

SNIPER took out one of the AK guys before the other AK guy returned fire, hitting SNIPER and putting him "Incap!"

Pistol bandit moved and took a shot at... someone, before being capped. and Machete bandit made a gambit along the gangway before someone else popped out and ganked him. All the while HUSLTE and KNIFE were making Search checks desperately to stop the MO points generating more hostiles.

With only LEADER left to activate, the AK guy was behind a stone barricade waiting for the next turn. LEADER leapt from the gunwall, bolted down the gangway, up onto the barricade and took out the last bandit point blank like a champion!

Note the APC moving up along the pier.

With the mission objectives secured (hazzah!) It was time to head for the Exfil site. SNIPER self med-kit'd and with extra orders from LEADER got a hurry-along off the ship.

There were now only three turns remaining, and a fully sprint across the board required to avoid the shenanigans of 'Hostile Phase'. 

The crew were fortunate that no further hostile patrols were rolled up as they made a conga-line across the board after the APC.

They bypassed the barrel Hot Spots on the pier, and the crate HS in the woods although they were within easy distance to activate it. Time didn't feel like it was on their side, though so every one Exfil'd easily and safely at the start of turn 9. Although there was a valid question as to taking the final HS we felt it was better to play it safe.

They'd been lucky with most of their rolls so far and no point loosing someone for a few credits when the APC was right there. 

And that was the mission done. SUCCESS!

No casualties and the Ship 'Scouted'.

In terms of ongoing mission narrative i'm contemplating whether to run the next 'Ship' mission immediately or not. This map is now 'disturbed' i.e. the hostiles are going to be all agitated so might be best to leave a mission for them to dissipate. I will also set up the exact same map for consistencies sake.

So contemplating a different mission just to break it up a bit.  We'll see. 

Additionally, i'll need to refit the crew. Three of the guys got promoted today, which is nice but means that i'll need to adjust the roster to maintain the 12k limit.  Didn't really want to contemplate that today (hence just playing the one mission).

Congrats KNIFE, SCROUNGER and SNIPER on promotion to veteran. LEADER gets a commendation (no promotion as he's already a vet).

Didn't bother adding any mission reward. No new purchases, just replaced the consumables, so I've got just shy of 9k to spend plus a '5k armour artifact' in the kitty. Well over the 10,000 credit limit for retirement - but I think the lads will keep at it for a while long. Tonnes of 'advances' sitting in the pool too.

Will come up with a new line up for next mission.

The game might be feeling a bit easy, however i'll adjust the crew and keep going rather than upping the Threat Level (for example), just because i want to give the missions all a play through and don't want to adjust everything all at the same time. Hopefully some new blood in the crew will adjust the dynamic of the game play.

NOTES

And finally, just thought i'd drop in pics of my mission notes just for shiggles.

First page is the mission briefing, where i roll up parameters like the number of turns, what hostiles i'm setting for the map, and a map of the map so i can record MO points, HS points, etc. My memory isn't super.  I sometimes write down a 'game plan' under the map, especially for the free-play missions but here the plan was simple: ship -> home.

The next 3 or 4 pages are the turn-by-turn action in, what is becoming, a fairly standardised shorthand. This is in part to keep track of who has activated, what turn it is (so i can remember to do 'Control Checks' etc), results of combats, salvaged gained, consumables used etc etc etc.   It doesn't make for great reading, but is a useful memory jogger.

Taking the time to jot stuff down also means i'm more likely to remember to i.e. use electricJuice, make sure i calculate the correct combat rolls or will checks with appropriate adjustments etc.

Last page or two is book keeping where loot is recorded, dues paid, gear replenished or bought, loadouts adjusted, and promotions and skills upgraded etc.

And that was the game. Dice sanity restored.

Was fun - FAR more entertaining than watching some slop on tv. 

Update 2020-11-09

Of course this was always going to happen...

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Until next time...