Sunday 3 January 2016

Happy New Year

Right, I know I've been absent for a while.
Many excuses and reasons can be given (work, sickness, ...), but in the end I just didn't feel like posting.
It's not I've been completely idle though, a few games were played and miniatures painted, but a far cry from the progress I made for Bushido in May and June.
One of the things I like to do this year is to start posting again.

We have a plan to paint more. The idea is to play a lot of small campaigns which will challenge us to get a bit more painted before each game.
On top of this we plan to start with Bolt Action, expanding our forces a bit each month and painting the expansion in the same month as well, so we can play a campaign at the start of 2017.
I'm not really into historical games, but since a friend picked up the book at Crisis and he really wants to start with the game I'm willing to give it a try.

Here's a few things I have done at the end of 2015.
Most of it was speed painted because of a lack of time, but still acceptable in my opinion:

Pulp City:
A game I picked up in October and one where I recently backed a KS from.
The game is very interesting as there is a lot of interaction with the scenery, stuff to destroy or throw with. I really want to play a small campaign of this game, ... if only my starter sets and rulebook would arrive.


 

 
 
Guildball:
When I received my KS award and the Indiegogo mat, I couldn't resist to start painting these.
The miniatures are gorgeous and the rules refreshing.
At Crisis I played a demo game with a friend and must admit it was a blast.
Some of my friends even got a team of their own. I really look forward to start a season and expand my team in the near future.





 
Battletech:
It is a game I have for more than 5 years and haven't done anything with. Recently I viewed a lot of Ouchies batreps on YouTube and the game started itching.
Recently I played a first game with my brother and we both liked it a lot. Though it was the Green training scenario from, with only the basic rules, we look forward to play with the rules in the Introduction book.
the plastic miniatures in the box aren't great quality, so I didn't take a lot of time preparing or even resculpting. But I hope they look just good enough on the tabletop to motivate us to play.
As I liked the red (Kurita) vs green (Davion) setup of the Sword and Dragon campaign I went with these. The idea is to get enough painted to play both the scenarios from the introduction rulebook as the aforementioned campaign.





 
A few more games were played like Infernal (beta-rules from the KS), X-Wing and Bushido.
One game gets a honorable mention as we took pictures of it though, this was our first Heavy Gear game (it were actually two games as we switched sides after the first round).
The CEF got pummeled in both games, but it was clear my friend is the better tactician as he destroyed them all without suffering a single casualty in return and scoring the most VP.
The Hun and superior numbers of the South were a big problem for the hover tanks, even though they get two actions a piece. The single frame as also no more than an extra target and had no impact in either game.
Both the medium autocannon and bazooka were absolutely killers.



 
Game One:
I'm playing South, my friend Bram plays CEF.
 
setup
 
First movement

 
The CEF try to score some VP


 
My oldest son is watching as I shoot down a hover tank

 
Endgame

 
Game Two:
I'm playing CEF, my friend Bram plays South.
 
setup, my friend fans out his troops more to get the objectives faster and to deny the CEF some VP
We forgot to take some more pictures after this one. What follows is that my hover tanks approach from the right, while my frame tries to take the objective closest to him in the middle of the table.
The frame is gunned down first, by combined arms fire from the Jägers.
With the Hun resolutely hunting down the hover tanks, it was all over after turn three, two turns faster compared to me playing South.

 
That's about it for last year. I still have to get behind my painting desk in 2016, but I hope to get some time to paint some more soon.
Tapper for Guildball, some more mechs and minions for Pulp City, as well as my recently started Frostgrave group are high on my list.
 
Thank you for reading and best wishes to you all!
 
Wouter