Epic - House Party - December '20 - Megageddon

Third attempt at herding the cats yielded some results. Saturday 13th game day at my place, on the cards Epic Megageddon.

Assembled a table based on the mdf I have, rather than aiming for a specific size. Was plenty big enough (at least until we started putting down all the models). I think it was about 7.5' x 5.5' and I needed to cut down one of the boards just a tad to get the rectangle.

[ed: Turns out it was larger than the previous board. Previous was 2100x1500, and this was 2250x1650, based on a common 1800x1200 (normal board) + 450 to each length, as all the board involved were 450 wide. fascinating stuff. [yawn]] 

Had some support beams under it to ensure stability and towels to protect the dining table. Overall... solid.

Table cloths on. I opted for the two 'blanket' mats cos they're the most similar pair I have and didn't want to mix neoprene and blanket.

Then the fun part, being able to put out as much terrain as I damn well want.

Tried to vary the terrain and put out something for everyone.

Top right was forests and ruins.

Bottom right was cathedrals and mountains.

Left side had the city dominating the centre and industrial around the sides.

This would give titans plenty of high things to break line of sight and lots of buildings for infantry to get cover in.

Overall I was pretty happy with the result, just unfolded organically too... the fun part. 

We were playing 2:1 (only 3 of us playing)   and had Imperials: marines and titans    vs  Chaos:  chaos marines and vraksians traitor guard (didn't get a starting pic of the Chaos forces).

And now a dump of pics as the game happened, from the school of playable dioramas...

Infantry hiding in the ruins. Garrison was a help for this scenario.

This was our Chaos player's first time using the Vraksians. This is our standard Thursday night blackstone crew.

Vraksians.

Chaos Marine bikes and part of the Leman Rus tank blob.

Lots of Marine tanks this time around. 

I decided against using airborne drop troops as our objective for the game was turn-by-turn held objectives giving the side points. Holding the objectives on your side was worth less than holding objectives on the enemy's side. Exactly the same as our game in November 2019.

Bottom line being that troops on the ground was far more relevant than troops in aircraft for holding objectives.

The only off board formations we had (both sides) was a set of terminators each which teleported in, and attack aircraft (thunderbolts etc).

Chaos Marines and Deathstrike launchers. There was a lot of artillery and indirect fire units on the Chaos side (and these reaching across the board *), forcing the Imperials to spread out to avoid the barrages as much as possible. This left the deployment zone feeling far smaller than it normally would have.

* this is actually a fun feature of these big board games. Needing to travel further and giving those long range weapons a chance to function in their niche.

A Malchador formation garrisoned within the city.

Minotaur artillery were active throughout the game.

Tanks a little too close to an infantry formation for comfort (and about to get stomped in an assault action).

Not satisfied with smashing tanks they summoned a big ol' Greater Demon to continue the rampage.

The city.

Just an overview of the board approximately end of turn 2.

Probably during turn 3.

And our final results...

As well as getting late in the day, things were turning rapidly in the Imperial's favour with Chaos loosing more and more troops to the point of ineffectiveness.   We started with a 4 turn limit but called it at turn 3.

Because the photo is a bit blurry, our turn by turn results were...

             Chaos         Imperial

Turn 1    13              10

Turn 2    12 (25)       8 (18)

Turn 3    7 (32)         16 (34)

There was a surprising quantity of beer consumed, but the game seemed to flow smoothly regardless (or perhaps because of).

The only real change we made from the November game was that each side activated alternately rather than each player on each side.

So any    vraks/csm  and then  any    sm/titan

This was substantially better as it allowed more flexability in terms of the army strategy, additionally the i.e. titans only had six activations so it would have forced the available options (unnecessarily). Anyway it worked well and I'll amend the scenario rules to use this method.

We also didn't bother with BTS's or any other options - just points per turn.

I mentioned the increased worth of artillery on this board but another feature I liked was the option of taking unit types that are often overlooked for standard 'tournament' games. The are LOTS of units that are thematic, in-universe and really cool, but which don't have a place in the 'standard' game play. This (and other scenarios) are a great opportunity to dust these units off and give them a run on the table.  

And that was that. Probably my last Epic of the year, but hopefully some more fun game adventures to be had in the new year.  Probably not mega for a little while as it's kind of intense, just MORE EVERYTHING.  Worth doing, but you need a break between these big games.

update 2020-12-17

I decided that the army used would be getting battle honours. It was something "more than a pickup game at club"  and required a bit of prep, organisation and elbow grease to make it happen (even though it was just 3 of us. What the hell, the event was catered even!!).

These...

 

...are the colours that the fighting units will receive. The event was fluff-named "Purging of Cersmond Secondus".  This is sideways mashup of 'Richmond' as that is used on more weather maps than 'Windsor' is. 

I had initially thought to just give them a commendation, but the 'Convoy' event (the last that received colours) was a 2 game vs one person deal... so roughly the same amount of table-time.

Dice were thrown in anger, experience points were earned...

Until next time...

Zona Alfa - Military - Part 2

original draft 2020-12-09

No great surprise that this is here, nor the contents... Seal Team 6.

Again I'm going to be a lazy sod and just use the Eureka promo pic.

Also doing up the vested attack dog, though I'm having difficultly working out which group he's meant to be attached to. The pic above clearly doesn't have anything doggy in it, but there's a pic in the "here's some we painted earlier" with a single model from above and the dog. Bit confusing but hardly show-stopping, doubt the dog will ever make it onto the table anyway.

So far everything has brushed black undercoat, and the first blocked in colours, medium grey for the dudes, brown for the dogs.    Shouldn't be a lot of detailing required for them either.

update 2020-12-10

Added some more base colours, plus details and washes are on.  Just some dry brushing to bring out the edges, then basing and good to go.  Will be doing some dry brushing for these (didn't for the usmc) as there's a lot of black/shade of grey, so the main source of variation comes from shade and dry brush.

update ends

update 2020-12-14

Finished off on Friday I think. Happy enough with the results. Magnetised and boxed even. 

Another project scratched off the list.

update ends

Until next time...

Zona Alfa - Military - Part 1

original draft 2020-12-02

I know this is going to be multi-part because...

The order of Eureka minis from ages ago had a few things in in; the contractors, marines and seal team 6... thinking that was it.

Anyway, contractors done ages ago obviously and I'm looking to clear some mini painting backlog... just because... aka to put off painting the AT titans.

The marines have been staring me down every time I walk through the garage, so i started having a serious look at them a couple of days ago. Seal Team will be part 2, as I couldn't be bothered with doing batched multiple colour schemes simultaneously.

I'm going to be super lazy and just post up their site pics...

Which is 16 models all up. Given they will be uniform, unlike the zombies, it should just be a matter of batch painting/washing everything. I'm hopefully anticipating a quick and easy project.  However I will probably look at adding a little subtle camo pattern, so they won't be completely plain. 

As of now they are now all black undercoated.

I honestly don't see a lot of them getting picked for table use. there's perhaps half that fit my 'paying attention' pose requirement. While none of them are yawning, 'guns aimed or at least up', 'standing or moving forward', or at least 'looking forward' are all elements.

Firstly, i'd like to use them as an alternative to using bandits as hostiles. probably skew the tables so they're more likely to arrive like giving them 2 or 3 dice slots which will come down to the table and possibly scenario being played.  Yhey'll need better stats (than bandits) probably, definitely better armour.

Secondly, they'll be more useful in specific scenarios such as attacking a populated military outpost. In this case the crouching or static looking models might get a look in.

Don't get me wrong, they're nice models, suitable for diorama-ing for sure,  but not all of them are my cup of tea for gaming.

The  "usmc squad deal" consists of the following packs...   

- usmc fireteam patrolling (4)

- usmc fireteam firing (4)

- usmc fireteam advancing (4)

- usmc marksman with m21 sniper rifle (1)

- usmc officer (1)

- usmc scout sniper team with barrett   (not part of the "squad deal")

update - some time later that day

Everyone is now super-green...

update ends

update 2020-12-04

I had to get some extra paint to finish off some of the detailing.

Flesh colour -> leadbelcher (metal) -> dark grey -> light green (camo).

The camo is subtle, sometimes blotchy, sometimes sharper. While the green looks incredibly green in the bottle, it dries a little more subdued, especially with a darker under-colour that mutes it. Additionally... pretty much everything will now get a null oil wash (black wash) that will bring it down even more.

All the base colours were selected with darkening in mind, so there is a bit of strategy involved in the process.

After that basing, and i think i will do just a light dry brush on the textured flack jackets just to bring them out (want that done after washes) and they're about done.

Later: first wash done - much better. Everyone now has first layer of astrogranite. Will take a couple of layers to build the basing up a bit as the models are on built up metal mounds.

Later: that dried sufficiently so dolloped on some more. Think it should now hide the bubbular bases.

update ends

Update 2020-12-06

Model kebab. Paint done. Clear protective coat... or two.

Probably the money shot.

Shows the camo a bit better possibly.

And I managed to make enough room in the box for everything. 

I'm sure I can fit seal team 6 when they arrive. not sure about the left over stalkers...

update ends

Update 2020-12-08

Magnetised and properly boxed.

update ends

Until next time...