Sector 2..demolition...terminate...scenario

The a resistance force led by John Connor

The Terminator force

With most my Terminator Genisys miniatures now painted and based I decided to set up a game on Tuesday night and rope my partner Catherine Into playing a scenario taken from the Rulebook. The scenario was mission three:demolish which sees a random number of objectives placed on the board by both players (3 in this game), the attacker has to plant a detonator on the objective by been in base contact then in the following turn once they move away from the objective the charge is detonated and the objective is destroyed, by the end of the game the attacker needs to destroy more than half the objectives to win. I had picked a couple of forces of 750points, I took the role as the attacker using the resistance who were led by John Connor, I had Kyle Reece and 4 resistance soldiers in a pick up truck in reserve with the intention of arriving late in the day to help secure the objective, the terminator force included a cyborg infiltrator who is disguised as one of the resistance soldiers who's identity was unknown to me. Both forces had to deploy their troops in opposite corners from each other.

The table top at the end of the first turn

A squad of resistance soldiers move at the double up the edge of the table towards the objective deep in the right handside of the terminator deployment zone.

The main bulk of endoskeletons move towards the centre of the table, two of them were armed with a missile launcher and a flamethrower which is very deadly in the game of terminator once they get into range.

John Connors infantry squad move into the ruined buildings to meet the terminator advance, the missile launchers position themselves on the higher floors and engage the oncoming endoskeletons with plenty of sucess.

Another squad of resistance soldiers run towards the only objective in my side of the table, by the end of turn three I destroyed the objective without much resistance from the terminator force , one down 

With the sniffer dog approaching the cyborg infiltrator revealed itself amongst the squad led by John Conners lieutenant who was attacked immediately, somehow the infiltrator failed to cause an damage in the close combat allowing the lieutenant to escape.

At the start of turn 4 I announced my reserves would arrive, a D20 roll of 6-20 would see them arrive safely, 2-5 would delay them two moves and a 1 would destroy them before they arrive! Heart in mouth I rolled the dice..15 they arrived safely. Their arrival position was randomised and much to the horror of Catherine I rolled the corner right next to the objective in the terminator deployment zone, all I needed to do now was to jump out the pickup truck , open fire and destroy the endoskelton and spider dog to claim the 2nd objective and claim victory!

After a massive fire fight in the centre of the table the resistance missile launchers had cleared a path through the endoskeletons to open the way to the third objective, with the news of the arrival of Kylee Reece, John Connor and the remains of his squad dashed towards the third objective defended by the terminators behind the barricades deep in their deployment zone, this was now a race against time..

'Hasta la vista baby' as a terminator crawler has a couple of plasma rounds blasted into it as John Connor crosses the street rubble

Kylee Reece gets his squad to spread out so the flame cannon mounted spider dog would be less effective after it had previously accounted for 3 resistance soldiers in a single shot in a earlier attack on the objective. Despite firing at point blank range every single shot counted for nothing as the terminators high armour/resolution proved to resilient. More importantly the terminators were still in a position to defend the objective at the end of turn 4.

The red lights in the the eyes of the cyborg infiltrator go out after a lucky shot from remaining resistance soldiers plasma rifle.

With the second objective still contested a squad of resistance fighters make a desperate attack onto the third objective but are quickly gunned down crossing the open ground, only 1 from the 4 remained 

Kylee Reece ordered his squad to move into base contact and plant the detonators on the objective after a round of lucky shooting managed to destroy two endoskeletons and the spider dog who's resolution test failed this time round. However it was now the end of turn 5, with only one of the three objectives destroyed a roll a 4 on a D4 would see the game end and victory go to Skyet and the machines.....PHEW!!, a dice roll of 2 saw the game continue, if I managed to gain the tactical edge and  roll at least one activation on the fate dice I would be able to detonate the second objective and win the game and the terminators would be helpless to stop this.....

And that's exactly what happened, the luck of the dice saw me get the tactical edge and activate John Connors lieutenant (who escaped the clutches of the cyborg infiltrator) moved away from the objective and detonated it, destroying it. Unfortunately a resistance soldier was sacrificed as the objective was destroyed but it was a sacrifice for the greater good in the war against the machines.

With the sound of the large explosion signalling the second objective been destroyed, John Connor abandons his assault on the third objective and retreats under the cover of the supporting missile launchers who had more than proved there worth during the course of the game. The few  remaining endoskeletons tried to stop the resistance retreat but to little avail. At the end of turn 6 a D6 roll of a 4 ended the game, with two out of the three objectives destroyed it was, with a large slice of luck, a victory to the resistance in there war against the machines. The main turning point was the arrival of Kylee Reece who like in the movies arrived exactly were he was needed, on another day he could have arrived on the opposite end of the table which would have seen victory surly go to the machines, termiator  genisys is proving to be a fun game to play and has definetly grown on me the more I have played it, there is plenty of scope to the game to invent some narrative scenarios which will only add to the fun of the drama in the game.

A fantasy start to the new year

Our first game of the year saw a fantasy battle as I got to try my hand for the first time using Mantic games Kings of War rules useing my dads Orcs & Goblins and Dwarf armies in a pitched battle scenario. I had read through the rules on a few occasions over the Christmas holidays so I had a fair idea how the rules would play, obviously the game was a good trial for me to see how certain units would fight and how effective shooting and spells etc would be along with which enemy units to try best avoid as your likely to get a good hiding! Unfortunately for the dwarfs on this day I was in command of them and they ended up on the wrong end of a server defeat. The game was fast and easy to play, and the rules were fun enough to feel like it was a fantasy game, it can be be abit hard when it's your opponents turn as they do all the dice (and lots of them too!) rolling while you just have to sit and take it, but at least if your troops survive you know you get to make immediate pay back in your turn. I'm looking foward to play them again as I now have a better idea of fighting capabilities of certain units and next time I fancy my undead army will make an appearance. Here are some photos of the game...

The centre of the dwarf lines deployed in front of the river

A giant and Trolls, lots of trolls 

The massed ranks of the Greenskins hordes

The Orc and Goblin flank was very mobile in the form wolfriders and chariots and Orc boar riders, particularly the quick moving and shooting ability of these troops.

Dwarf Berserker riders charge into the the goblin hordes as they cross the river

The Ironbelcher Organ gun tries to slow the advance of the on coming Trolls and giant as the Bulwarkers unleash there throwing mastiff at them, all to no avail 

In true Berseker fashion the red headed dwarfs get stuck into the action

And not wanting to be undone by the Red headed kin the second unit of Beserkers charges the oncoming Orc horde intent on finding a glorious doom

The Bulwarkers brace there spears as the giant and trolls come crashing into their ranks

The presence of the Dwarf battle standard helps to keep the warriors in the fight against a vicious attack from the orc horde

The Dwarf riders are cut down as the they are flanked by a unit of bouncing squigs, been flanked leads to double the amount of attacks...ouch

Things start to take a turn for the worse as the dwarf Beserkers don't quite rout the horde of goblins and find themselves flanked by a unit of Goblin wolfriders.

The main action sees the dwarf warriors just about holding the line as the giant jumps and down on top of the poor old organ gun

Just about every warrior, creature, wizard are engaged right across the battle line, cracking stuff!!

The heroic dwarf King (or foolish) charges the lumbering giant and proceeds to start to stab him in the toes as a troll Brusier and troll horde ready themselves for the Ironclad warriors and giant bear counter charge

Over running the Bezerkers the wolf riders crash into the flank of the earth elements along with a charge from a giant, note to ones self, double dice flank attacks are nasty so don't let it happen!

Against the odds the dwarf King survives the Giants return attacks but the collapse of the ironclad warriors sees my dwarf army well beaten and I conceded defeat.

Last post of 2016..

As 2016 comes to a close here are Some of the famous faces to leave us.

So long 2016 and good ridenance pretty much somes up this year for me. Personal problems have taken their toll on my hobby this year as unfortunately it had to take a place on the back seat as issues in real life have had to be dealt with. I have tried to keep my blog as active as possible with AAR from games I have taken part in, particularly games with my dad who's fantastic 10/15mm armies I am able to showcase through this blog (he paints a mean wargame figure but the world of uploading and downloading is best left to me 😀). I have tried to keep adding to my small projects such as X wing and terminator genysis throughout the year and I have made some extra additions to my colonial armies and I managed to get up and running my Deadmans hand project but I never got any larger projects underway.

French and Austrain cavalry clash during our last game of 2016...Blucher 

Bavarain and Franch line infantry brigades advance onto the Austrain lines

Two onto one is never a fair fight!

Unfortunately I wasn't able to attend many shows this year, I did go to York at the beginning of the year which happens to be my favourite and it didn't disappoint but this aside I only managed to go to Derby and our local show Batteground at Middlesbourgh where my dad and I put a demonstration game using my Mahdist & British armies. With this in mind it's not fair to say which was the best show but I'm sure York will have taken some beating. 

I have played a fair amount of new rule sets this year and I've lost track of how many times my dad has been busy rebasing armies ha ha, my main change in rules was for WW2 which saw me sell off my battlegroup books as we now favour the Ironcross rule set. I really enjoyed our Blackpowder games this year, especially the ACW with the extra amendments from the Blood and glory supplement, and recently I really enjoyed a SSW game using volley and bayonet, a simple yet very playable set of rules. However I think my favourite set of rules I used this year was impetus baroque, which came as a surprise to me as I was never won over using impetus rules before.

French Currasiers on mass but their presence fails to prevent a defeat in our final game

Our final game in full flow

One positive in my hobby this year (especially for my dad) has seen me taking up the painting side of the hobby for the first time in a lot of years. I've been steadily adding to my paint supply and I think my figures I have managed to paint to a pretty decent standard, granted I've been painting 28mm terminators and resistance Fighters and now Walking dead figures (which once I finish basing I will photo for the blog) and not 10mm Napolionic figures but it's a start.

So what's on the horizon for 2017? I think this year I will start a new army or two.  I am leaning towards something for Hail Caesar rules but of a later period than my Macedonians, possibly Atilla the Hun in 10mm?, Im definetly tempted. I will no doubt continue to add to my X wing and walking dead games as they are something which I can easily set up and play in my own home on the kitchen table for a couple of hours of fun, maybe I might look at purchasing other board games to. Hopefully I will get to one or two more shows this year and hopefully get a few more games in all been well, it would be nice to get some BIG games in like we had up at Westerhope where I had a great day!

Well that just leaves me to wish everyone a...

See you in 2017!!!!

Star Wars X wing miniatures update

Just before Christmas I ordered myself some asteroids for use in my X wing minatures game, I managed to get them painted quickly and onto the table top. The rocks I just repeatedly dry brushed grey, lighting the colour each time I applied it, to finish them I gloss varnished them and seen as though the kids had their craft stuff out I pinched a bit of the silver glitter and sprinkled it over the asteroids which I think give a nice finishing touch, they match my p,any mat very nicely .

A Christmas present I received came in the form of boba fetts slave 1 ship which I just had to get unboxed and into play. We played the mission which came with the ship, I played boba fett and the accompanying tie fighters while Catherine had hand and chewie in the falcon supported by a couple of X wings. A bounty had been placed on Hands Solo and to win the mission you simply had to take out the falcon which is easier said than done.... 

The arieal battle takes place between the asteroids

The millennium falcon and the save one juke it out with one another. Alas for me despite dealing the falcon some serious damage once I lost my supporting tie fighters, the X wings closed in for the kill on my slave one, helping Hans to escape the clutches of the empire once again.

The battered Falcon flies through the asteroid before jumping into light speed

While I had my table set up I thought I'd take a picture of the ships I have purchased so far, what was bought as a game on the side is gradually growing into quite a force, which no doubting will be added to during 2017 after I have watched the new Star Wars rogue one film ha ha.😄

The Rebel ships

The Imperial and scum & Villainy ships