Haedi, the mischievious duo

Here are my next to miniatures for the AE Bounty game, these miniatures are labeled Haedi. Neing a "regular" choice my my crew meant they were grouped into a "squad" of two. Now in bounty you can group just about any of the miniatures but these appealed to me because I had the mental image of two little sneaky aliens causing all sorts of trouble.






And here they are together ready to game unfortunately the rulebook for bounty doesn't come out for another month but at least I am going to have a fully painted crew by then. Next up is a Devon!

Shoot first leave the paper work for later..

I started to work on the AE Bounty figures that I bought at Gen Con this year, they are quite nice figures. They have this pulpy retro sci-fi look to them which are a blast to paint, one of the first miniatures that I worked on was the "Graffi". Now I based my purchases on a fully ready to play crew BUT I do not remember any of the rules I just know once the rules get released I will have a ready crew to game with.

Before I started work on this miniature something in my mind screamed "Cop" to me I took it a step further and created a small back story for this miniature and how he came under the employ of the "Red City Raiders" my Bounty Crew. I thought to myself corruption cannot just be a human trait especially to one in power, why not also aliens? After all life is so much easier when you can cut through all the red tape and not have to be arrested for "ashing" a target and the such.

Secrets of the SS

This is my mini write up of the Competitive Campaign Darkson Designs held for AE WWII at Gen Con Indy 09.

My List: SS
-Scutzkommando Hero (Natural Leader) with Teutonic Blade (gains lethal), Magical Item that stops Berzerk and Ring that gives +1 Wound.
-Krieg Hexe with Blur (-2 to hit, +2 versus suppression checks) and Second Sight (model within 12" is granted re-roll next turn).
-Hellhost
-Vril Engineer with Rune of Tyr (12" one model gains an AP) and Lyr (12" one model's weapon gets +1 to strength and to hit).
-Waffen SS with StG 45s
-Sharfuhrer with StG 45
-Waffen Sniper with WA46

It should be noted that my list was some what erratic due to going to Gen Con with the intention of trying out units I never played with. I specifically converted some units (Krieghexe, Hellhost and Vril Engineer) knowing that they would be in the book but having no clue how useful they would be.

Game 1: Aaron
-OSS Sapper Hero
-Airborne Officer Hero
-Airborne Squad
-Airborne Squad
-Airborne Squad with BAR
-Airborne Heavy Weapon Team with Browning

The Straggler special order was ever popular knocking my Kommando into reserves, letting Aaron easily win the intiative. After he placed his OSS agent right behind my Sniper and Vril Engineer hunkering down near some sandbag cover. Initially we messed up the rules on demo charges which led to the OSS agent being removed and put back on the table. I didn't mind as I barely read OTW unless I take it in my list, regardless I managed to roll a 1 for my Kommando to come in the second turn. Who promptly walked up to the OSS agent and gunned him down before any more of this Demo Charge Madness.

While the Hellhost (with second sight) absorbed Aaron's attention and firepower my sniper was busy plinking off a guy every turn. He even managed to take care of two airborne that rushed to his cover intent on putting an end to his bloody reign. By the end of the game only the browning armed Airborne was left on the table and he was about to rout as soon as he was activated. I rushed my Vril Engineer across an open field to achieve my secondary, denied my opponent getting into no mans land (achieving primary) and also got the attrition rate going for me. So full points to meI have to admit that Aaron did give me quite a scare with his OSS sapper who if he took out my sniper it would of been a different game.

Game 2: Maurice
Soviet Reconnaissance Detachment
Veteran Psi Officer
Veteran Cossack Uryandnik (War Hero)
Regular AT-Rifle
Regular Soviet Guard
Regular Starshina (Criminal)
Green Chumans
Green (sacrificed for 2nd hero)
Green Criminals (free w/ Criminal hero)
Jeep w/ heavy MG

When I first looked at Maurice's list I was scared of his jeep but I should of been MORE scared of his Cossack Hero. The terrain meant that I knew from the start that the primary objective would be tied.. or at least I was hoping. Maurice advanced with his chumans heading for the temple (the primary) and hiding there behind cover. On my left his criminals and Starshina took cover in some rubble throwing random pot shots my direction. On the right his jeep and War Hero advanced, for some reason Maurice didn't quite advance his jeep that far into the flank. I thought he would swing through the right and essentially ignore all the cover my SS were gaining.

The War Hero after being gravely wounded by my Waffen and Sniper charged across teh field taking care of the soldiers and being tied up in combat with the Krieghexe. I sent the Hellhost in to assist believing it would be a short affair. Boy was I wrong the Hellhost and war hero took various turns trying to kill each other while the battle raged around them.

The Sniper as always did his job pinning everything he could see from the Criminals with attached Starshina on my left, what I could see in the center of the ruins (where the Psi Officer died) to the right flank the jeep did not advance. A thing of beauty I might add. Despite that I was still losing there wasn't a doubt in my mind as anyone not in cover would have criminals and a starshina plinking into them. Also despite the Jeep staying out of line of sight of my sniper he made sure to have visual access to the rest of my army.

When all hope seemed lost the Hellhost won the ONLY round of combat against the War Hero it should be noted the War Hero won EVERY round of combat he just couldn't kill the Hellhost.. and it proved fatal to the War Hero. The Hellhost then proceeded to walk up to the temple and contest the primary objective despite all odds.

Game 3: Scott
-Airborne Hero (natural leader)
-Airborne Weapon Team with Flamethrower
-Airborne with BAR
-GI Squad
-GI Squad
-Jeep with Browning
-Jeep with Browning

At first like everyone of the Axis players I feared the double jeeps but with German determination I was determined to take a few out with me. Scott deployed a Jeep on each side with most of his infantry supporting the left flank (one GI unit went with the rightmost jeep). I deployed centrally around the bunker not sure why I didn't just sit in the bunker and wait for him to come close but then again i've never really been a defensive player..

The game was quite short in as much as when I needed my Sniper the most he had failed me, even needing 3+'s to hit in long range I managed to miss! When I did manage to hit Scott trumped my rolls by rolling exactly what he needed a 6. I guess my sniper felt he did enough the lat two games. Attempting to wrestle the initiative from Scott a made a few mistakes, I probably could of retreated my forces into the bunker and waited for Scott to come and dig me out. But by then it was too late and the Sniper despite his best efforts was the last to die giving Scott the win.

Now some people were not fond of his two Jeep list but I thought had I managed to hit more with the sniper Scott would of been in a sort of pickle. Had I managed to kill off both the Jeep gunners (I did tag one.. eventually). Scott would have had to advance towards a bunker to achieve his primary objective. Not exactly a peachy prospect as it was at least two or more activations of no mans land before the can deny the armor bonus to my troops.

After thoughts:
I had great fun at the tournament many thanks for the Darkson crew putting together an inventive way to play a tournament without all the stress or wacky missions. My only suggestion might be moving it to friday? Possibly next year due to saturday being such a high traffic day I think it would have an even higher turn out. I know my two friends were itching to play but had schedule conflicts.

Thanks to everyone who played I can't wait to see what kind of lists next year will bring to the table. I know that I will bring something different as I always do a new army for every tournament I go to in order to keep things fresh and interesting. Hopefully we also get more board members next year it was good to put names to faces!

The Road to Gen Con..

The time is almost here for the biggest Gaming Convention in the USA.. GEN CON Indiana! It has been the continued mecca for gamers from all over the states just pick your poison. Cards Games? Board Games? Role Playing? Live Action Role Playing? Miniature Games? Video/Computer Games? Yup it has all that and so much more, it is four days on gaming and shenanigans.

This year for Gen Con I had grand plans to come swinging with quite a few new armies.. it should be said that I have a fetish to play new armies to every convention I go to... BUT unfortunately for me plans for a commission pay out to have money to fund new armies fell through. So now we do something more exciting/challenging, I will create playable and hopefully semi-competitive from models I have laying around the house.

AE WWII - German Geneticists

German Officer*
SD Agent*
Wermacht Sniper
Volkstrumm Group Leader*
Wermacht Soldiers w/ StG 44's*
Mad Doktor*
Emaciated Soldiers*

Dark Age - Skarrd
The Father
Warhead
Toxic Mistress
Kaustic
Hoodoo
Chitin
Saber
Bolas

Alkemy - Aurlock Nation
Starter Set
Also some commission work for Jon

AE Officer Challenge: Volksstrum Group Leader

Roaming the AE message boards I found a challenge thread to paint an officer, i found this to be an excellent opportunity to start painting up some of my Weird War II miniatures. Also this is a great opportunity to start building up my new army for AE WWII for their tourney at Gen Con Indiana. We all know how much I love to attend tournaments at conventions. Well here is A Volkstrumm Group Leader, it is an Artizan miniature with a green stuffed gas mask.

Stomp Em Flat...

So i have been off the radar for quite some time I apologize for that, I have been busy at work keeping the girlfriend happy and toiling at work. Always a lethal combination when it comes to anything hobby related as both activities require time and attention.

Through peer pressure Cash has managed to sign me up for the Apocalypse League for the Game Room store, it is a 5k running league with a few additions/changes posted on his site. I immediately called for help from my group to pony up some ork models for me to field enough things for the games. Amazingly I found out between my personal collection of orks and what i have borrowed that i have more than enough to make quite a few different army lists.

I played a practice game against Mike our resident Imperial Guard player in a test game. Our group is still pretty new to this 5th edition thing so the game went a little slower than usual games. Still the game was GREAT fun, we played outside on a sunny Saturday afternoon while drinking beer and BBQ'ing... Can it really get any better?

The lists (roughly):

Mine (Orks)
Big Mek x7, assorted gear including 3 Kustom Force Fields, 2 Shokk Attack Guns and 2 with just Burnas
Warboss w/ combi skorcha and power klaw
Wyrdboy Warpheads x2

Killa Kan x9 w/ assorted gear
Looted Wagon x2 w/ boom guns
Battle Wagon x2
Lootas 10 x 2
Boyz Mob 25 x 5-6
Tankbustas x9
Grots 2 x 20
Mega Armored Nobs x9
Big Mek Stompa

Mike (Imperial Guard)
Command HQ
Inquisitor
Independent Commissar x3
Calidus Assassin

Conscript Platoon 50 x2
Guard Platoon x2 with 5 squads each and 3 heavy weapon squads each.
Stormtroops 10 x 2
Leman Russ x4
Veterans 10 x 2
Penal Legion

Sentinels x3
Leman Russ Demolisher x2
Basilisk x3
Colossus x2
Punisher


Here are a few pics with a small description of what was going on...





Here we have deployment where i bid the max time thinking for some odd reason that i would need it. Well i was sorely wrong and mike pummeled my stompa leaving it with a single structure point.. he also left huge gaps in my infantry by firing multiple blasts from leman russes and basilisks.





Here you can see some neat holes punched through a mob of grots near the front of my line. Along with a nice template outline on a mob of boys on the right flank.. damn artillery.



The general orky advance! forward! I must say that the Lifta Droppa that the Stompa is armed with.. pure fun! Nothing like lifting tanks into the air and tossing them about causing havoc on everything!





About a turn later a bunch of holes are starting to form in the guard lines, mainly from a few moved infantry lines.. Guard advancing? well some of them!




Some very clear damage among both lines the destroyed husks of leman russ tanks shows that the right flank is definitely in peril to fall.




The last turn was pretty much a mop up operation for my orks i stopped moving some of my infantry as i was eating while playing. I'll admit i was a lazy son of a bitch as the battle drew to a close.



Last picture of the battle, the Imperial Guard casualty pile. These boys won't be returning home in anything but a wooden suit case. The group tried to guess how many casualties in total the game would reach. With about 400-500 infantry models being the result. Some of the highlights in the the game were two Killa Kans charging a conscript squad killing about 2-3 of them while the Commissar uses a powerfist to blow a Kan apart killing 21 conscripts... yup! Also despite the fire that Mike poured into the Stompa the first turn I thought it would surely fall the second turn.. This was not to be as Mike continued to pour fire into it and could do nothing but fail to roll the 5 or 6 needed to destroy it.

General Update..

WHFB:
Sorry for the lack of update guys so far my "Mongorcs" are doing good in the league getting two victories over Orcs and a victory over High Elves. Though I did have a close fought defeat against Vampire Counts (i misjudged the distance between one of my units...) before a unit of black knights and wraiths mopped up most of my line. But other than that I am quite satisfied on how my new army is doing.

My dark elves were mostly a shooting type of army with some quick counter assault units to mop up depleted units. With the orc army I tend to be more aggressive using anti-magic to make things 'more fair' lol. I found out just how amazing goblin wolf riders are, when the points jump happens I plan to put quite a few units in.

Painting wise I am copying what I see online as far as 'nomadic hordes' so lots of blue/turquoise with brownish/red pants, the skin I painted graveyard earth giving them a very muted skin tone. The first few models I cranked out look quite good despite being far from finished.

AE WWII/Secrets of the Third Reich:
Other projects on my table are AE WWII American sci-tech force, a little bit difficult to put together but good minis with lots of detail none the less. I hope to get the force painted up quickly to demo it to the Game Room (a semi-local store). I have people have shown interest in non-GW skirmish games, especially of the "Weird War II" variety. Secrets of the Third Reich seems like a solid game with some cool mechanics I will definitely look into the game in the next month or two.

Pulp City:
I eagerly await to get an order big enough to get some of the new villain supremes they have released. They are quite nasty and help expand the game way beyond what just came in the 'starter' box. Now sporting an assortment of over 22 miniatures split between hero's and villains the game now has more range and variety and that is always a good thing. This is also one of the games that my group wants to formally introduce to the game room... after all who doesn't like hero's and villains?

Well that's about it for now I have a bunch of 'party' pictures on my camera as soon as I clear them out I want to snap a few pictures of my work. Till then!