Saturday 24 January 2015

Bolt Action: Infantry

Just a quick post to show off some more painting that I have recently completed.

Don't panic though, I haven't done anything crazy and got stuck into a whole lot of painting! :)

These guys were close to finished near the end of last year and I've found some time over the last couple of weeks to finally finish them off.

Overall, I'm pretty happy with how they've turned out. I've been following Rubén Torregrosa's guide in the first Painting War magazine. Check it out here. It is a very cool guide if you want to paint WW2 German forces!

Sniper Team:


Infantry Platoon:


Vehicle Crew:


The next squad and force commander are currently lined up on the painting table now awaiting their turn :)

That gives me 3 squads painted and a number of vehicles. Still have an additional squad (vet's with zeltbahn) and all the gun teams backed up in the painting queue! No rush though :)

Thanks for having a look.

Sunday 18 January 2015

X-Wing

Gaming day again today and it was definitely required after the first full week back at work for the year.

The game of choice was X-Wing. To this end, Rob and I played a couple of games of the campaign for the CR-90 corvette (Tantive IV).... aka "the big ship"!


In the first mission it would the the CR-90 trying to escape after being pounced on by a number of Imperial Tie Fighters.

The campaign rules specified the list build of the CR-90 vs. 6 Tie Fighters (one of whom would have to be Howlrunner).

A quick read of the upgrades the CR-90 was to take looked good. Until I realised most of its weapons had a range of 3 - 5.... uh oh.

To win, I would just have to survive 6 turns..... how hard could that be?

We kicked  off and the Tie Fighters started to swarm in. The CR-90's engines lit up and moved forward quickly. I needed to gain energy (I need energy for secondary weapons and to replenish shields)!



And then the Tie Fighters get real close... not what I wanted!


Only my aft quad lasers are really able to target anything, so I continue to move and build energy each turn. Shooting proves to be pretty ineffective on my part with the Tie's agility negating what hits I do get.

I do have plenty of energy though. This I use to replace my shields to some slight annoyance for Rob :)

But then the Tie's start getting a little too close...

 

And the crashing begins. But crashing into huge ships it not a good thing.... it causes damage.

As do the asteroids that are floating around...


But when big ships move through little ships... then there is no hope. The little ship gets destroyed. My first Tie kill :)

We're getting through the turns pretty quickly. I keep replenishing my shields, so the CR-90 hasn't even had the paint scratched yet. The Imperials pull off some very lucky maneuvers. Very lucky...


But that's the last the Tie Fighters see of the CR-90 as she breaks through the swarm and past the asteroid field into open space....

I'd made it through to turn 6 unharmed. So victory to the Rebels.

With that we decided to play the next mission in the campaign...

This time a larger Imperial force has caught the CR-90 refueling after her escape. At least I would have some help to defend the CR-90 this time....

2 X-Wing and 2 Headhunter were on patrol in the area. But 3 damaged Tie's from the previous encounter closed in supported by an additional Tie and 3 Tie Interceptors!

I'd have to ensure the CR-90 escaped off the board to win. But I was low on fuel!? Do I just risk it and go for it or fuel up and then make a break? Decisions... decisions...

We set-up:


This didn't look good for the Rebel's! I split my forces and hoped the weaker Headhunters could knock out the damaged Tie's and left the X-Wing's to face the rest....


But shooting proved ineffective as the Imperial forces proved to be aces at dodging any potential hits... so the swarm just kept on closing in.



The CR-90 has taken a bit of a pummeling by now and I've lost all shields on the fore section and am taking damage. But because I'm still fueling (and low on fuel), I can't generate any energy to replenish shields!

I had at least destroyed one of the Tie Interceptors with some point blank fire by an X-Wing by now.

This can't keep up though. I need to move and I need to move now. Downside is that since I'm not fully fueled, I'm not going to generate much energy (if I can generate any at all). Better than sitting here getting destroyed though!

So, the CR-90 powers up her engines and moves forward catching the Imperials off guard as she runs through one of the Tie's..


But close range fire from one of the Interceptors hits the fore section of the CR-90 and it's enough. That section is now crippled giving the Imperials victory in this one.

A good game and the missions are definitely good fun.

I think my mistake was delaying the departure of the CR-90. I'd hoped to hold off for a bit to get some fuel to generate energy later in the game. The game was never going to last long though. I reckon the better tactic would have been to just get her moving. That and use one of the upgrade cards she had.... that would have given me 3 fuel! D'oh.

I'd also got the X-Wings into a bad position due to being worried about the CR-90 crashing into them, so they weren't shooting as much as they should have been. That meant Rob wasn't under a lot of pressure from them and could just use his numbers and swarm the CR-90 with focused fire to win the game.

That ended X-Wing for the day. Phil had King of New York. So we rolled out a couple of games of that.

I chose to be Captain Fish. Turned out to be a bad choice as I died in both games... :)


Then it was the beach for a cool down and swim since it was far too hot and stuffy.

We'll have to see if we can play the last 2 missions in the CR-90 campaign next weekend.

Thanks for reading! :)


Monday 12 January 2015

Sunny Sunday's

... that are far too hot for gaming in a garage!

As it was, Mark had some tasks to do in the morning and Rob & Phil were away. As such, gaming wouldn't start until closer to lunchtime, so I decided to pop into Ardmore to wait for Mark to return home.

I'm pretty glad I did.... just as I got there, this old girl was lining up to take-off....


Lot's of heat haze! But, still it was nice to see her take off and return a little while later. I suspect someone got a nice scenic flight.

DC-3:



The airfield turned out to be pretty busy! So I txt Mark to pop down and enjoy the show.... but he was too slow :)

Isaac's Fury:

I haven't seen this one before. Very nice looking aircraft.



The last photo is very heavily cropped, but I think it turned out alright.

Then I had my own little stunt show as the MX-2 took off and did a few aerobatics before disappearing off for some practice...

MX-2:


Although this one isn't as good, I do kinda like the swirling clouds behind the MX-2.....


There were also plenty of Cessna's and other modern craft taking off which meant good practice with tracking and playing with shutter speeds. Even got treated to a couple using the grass strip and taking off directly overhead. So here's a nice close shot of a Cessna's nose wheel :)


Mark did turn up in time to see one of the Harvard's take off. Yellow #78...

Harvard:



Plenty of choppers flying around the place too. Until someone realised the lawn had just been mowed....



By now Mark and I were well and truly cooked, so it was time for the beach and a swim (good plan Mark!). The water was certainly cool and refreshing in between getting baked by the sun (no sunburn though!).

A couple of hours at the beach was enough and it was back to Mark's for a quick look at Ronin (Osprey rule-set) and that amounted to our sole gaming endeavor for the day - a quick run through of the basic rules.

It was getting late in the day (and I could still hear the Harvard's flying around), so I headed home, but stopped at Ardmore on the way... only to see a Cessna of a different type coming in too land..

Cessna Bird Dog:



I had some company of a different kind for a little while too, but they soon deserted me...


So I took a couple of shots of one last aircraft taking off..


And lift off...


Then it was time to head home. The airport was pretty quiet by now.

Since the camera was out. I kept it close by on the rest of the journey home.... just in case.... and I was soooo close. Twice! But not close enough..... a good photo of a hawk still eludes me...


Finally, welcome to another follower... Mad Monty (Lee). Lee has also started a blog, so head over if you to have a look and learn about photography. His blog is here - I See Dead Pixels.

Thanks for a having a look :)