What I painted in May 2018

It`s been a good month as I settle in more in the new regime, and I got a decent amount of figures finished as such.

With the deadlines for some "mega battles" on the horizon, I needed to cranck it up a notch, and I must say it looks like I`m right on schedule.

The biggest unit I painted was the next regiment for my Irish Brigade, the 69th New York, of 20 miniatures.

The whole brigade needs to be ready by the 8th of june, and I`m currently painting on the 5th and last regiment for them, so that should be feasible to complete.

Another deadline I had to meet was for the huge 40k battle that took place the past weekend, and which you can find more about on my blog with a big batrep a few days ago.  For that battle, while I did have enough figures by far, I decided to paint up 5 more Noise Marines to boost the unit I`d take along.

I also started playing and enjoying Future War Commander, a 6mm scifi game, again after all those years, and I finally finished the Lacerators (Assault Marines from the Marine Corps list) unit I had been painting on for months now, as they originally where intended to feature in the AHPC.

The other thing I completed where three more players for my Blood Bowl team, the "side project" I`m working on in between the "must do's".

The last thing that got painted up where two lonely Kern, a left over from my box of plastic Gripping Beast models...

So that means a great total of 55 models finished this month, a nice ratio considering the limited time I spend between city trips, work hours and social life-ing.  For the next month, the target is that final regiment as such for the ACW mega game, before I`ll be tending to the models from Burrows and Badgers on the one hand, Crisis figures on the other, and some Blood Bowl in between.

Or at least, that`s the plan hehehe...

Pacific Rim Uprising

I am a HUGE fan of the original Pacific Rim film, I mean, what's not to love?  Giant Mecha battling monstrous Kaiju...

And when the long awaited sequel hit in 2018, I sat back for more of this!

Plot (from Wikipedia)

In 2035, 10 years after the Battle of the Breach (as depicted in 2013 film Pacific Rim), former Jaeger pilot Jake Pentecost – son of Stacker Pentecost – makes a living by stealing and selling Jaeger parts on the black market in the Los Angeles area. After he tracks part of a disabled Jaeger's power core to the secret workshop of fifteen years old Jaeger enthusiast Amara Namani, both are arrested by the Pan-Pacific Defense Corps after an altercation between Amara's small, single-pilot Jaeger Scrapper and the Jaeger November Ajax. Jake's adoptive sister and PPDC Secretary General Mako Mori gives Jake a choice between the prison or return to PPDC as an instructor with Amara as his recruit.
Upon arriving at a Shatterdome in China, Jake starts training Jaeger program cadets with his estranged former co-pilot Nate Lambert. Nate and Mako reveal to him that the Jaeger program is threatened by Shao Corporation's drone program, which offers to mass-produce Kaiju-Jaeger hybrid drones developed by Liwen Shao and Dr. Newton Geiszler. Mako is due to deliver a final assessment to determine the authorization of the drones at a PPDC council meeting in Sydney before she can report and prompts the PPDC council to authorize the drone program and order their immediate deployment. Moments before her death, Mako transmitted the location of a defunct Jaeger production facility in Siberia but Jake failed to save her. Jake and Nate travel to the area in their own Jaeger, but Obsidian Fury destroys the complex and engages them in battle. Upon destroying its reactor, they find that Obsidian Fury was controlled by a Kaiju's secondary brain, which testing shows was grown on Earth.

When the drones reach their respective locations, they are taken over by cloned Kaiju brains and simultaneously attack Shatterdomes worldwide, inflicting heavy casualties on the PPDC forces and incapacitating almost all Jaegers. Hermann Gottlieb seeks out Geiszler for help, only to discover that Geiszler is the mastermind behind the attack. Geiszler’s mind has been taken over by the Precursors, the alien race who created the Kaiju, due to his regularly drifting with Kaiju brains. Seeking to destroy the world for the Precursors, Geiszler, who is now the Precursor Emissary, commands the Kaiju-Jaeger hybrids to open new breaches all over the world. Although Shao is able to destroy the drones, three powerful Kaijus named Raijin, Hakuja, and Shrikethorn – emerge from the breaches and unite in Tokyo. The team realizes that the Precursors' goal is to activate the Ring of Fire by detonating Mount Fuji with the Kaiju's chemically reactive blood, spreading toxic gas into the atmosphere and wiping out all life on Earth, terraforming the planet for Precursor colonization.
The cadets are mobilized while Gottlieb and Shao repair the PPDC's four remaining Jaegers; Gottlieb invents powered jet-rockets, which launch the team to Tokyo. Although the Jaegers initially repel the three Kaiju, the Precursor Emissary merges them into a Mega-Kaiju that quickly overpowers the Jaegers, killing Suresh and two cadets, wounding Nate, and destroying all but Gipsy Avenger as the only operational Jaeger. Jake and Amara pilot it against the Mega-Kaiju, with Shao remote piloting Scrapper and aiding them by locating and welding a rocket to Gipsy's right hand and sending the Gipsy into the Mega-Kaiju which kills the kaiju as Jake and Amara survive by transferring into Scrapper prior to the collision. Afterwards, Nate takes the Precursor Emissary into custody.
Meanwhile, the captive Precursor Emissary threatens that Precursors will attack the world over and over again. Jake replies that next time, humanity will be the ones attacking the Precursors.

What I liked about it

* John Boyega puts down a great Pentecost Jr, and his english accent makes him even sound like the magnificent Idris Elba at times

* The new Jaegers are once again of fantastic design

What I didn`t like about it

* Most of the movie, this was a huge disappointment.  The evil Kaiju infiltration arc, rebellious Jaegers, the morphin together big beastie... this is just all to far flung compared to the first movie in the series.
* Scrapper

A shame, but it did groce well at the box office this year, currently standing in 10th place of all the movies released.  It will probably be enough for a third instalment, which I hope will go back to the first movie in style and `darkness`...

Miniature Wargames 421

Taking a stroll through the newest edition of the magazine, the May 2018 issue, it`s time to have a look at it`s contents.

The cover articles of new sculpting techniques and the Cavalier report made me pick it up, but I had no idea what was actually inside for the rest.

So as usual, the bold marked articles picked my intrests...

Welcome

Forward Observer - news on recent releases

Send Three and Fourpence - a look at what motivates wargamers in what they do

Hell By Daylight - the final part for 20th century skirmish rules

One of these Things is Not Like the Others - a view on historical and fantasy wargaming.

Villiers Bocage 1944: scenarios for the Normandy actions of 1944

A Cavalier Approach - show report

Dark Horizons - a look at the newest franchise from Modiphius, Star Wars Legions and more fantasy and sci-fi releases... including the Burrows and Badgers game I`m going to get for me and Noshi.

The Path to Frostgrave - how to write and a new scenario for Frostgrave

Putty to Pixels - a very intresting article on how models are now sculpted by computer instead of by hand

The Future is Foam - how to make scenery with EVA foam, a material I know all to well as a cosplayer intressee

The Victorio Campaign - this article is a guide to western gunfights in the 1870 to 1886 era

Recce - a look at the latest wargaming reading releases

Swampy River - the wargaming widow builds some scenery

WWW Wargaming Web World - a look at how to set up and manage online wargaming communities

And that is it.  While I foound no less then 7 articles intresting, it leaves me with a bit of a mixed feeling.  Thing is, most of them where either opinion pieces, or general intrest articles, but only one was actually about a possible historical gaming project in the from of the Victorio article.  Heck, it only contained FOUR articles for gaming anyways (Victorio, Frostgrave, Daylight and Bocage) whoch isn`t a lot at all for a wargaming magazine...

So no, this was a rather weak issue for a "wargamer" if looked at objectively.

TSA 40k Megagame 60.000 points!!!!

Today it was time for an annual tradition, the Warhammer 40k megabattle organised by Jo.

No less then 60.000 points where put on the table, as the Imperium (oddly enough led by a T`au Commander) faced off the forces of Darkness under the supreme command of Lucius the Eternal (aka me).

My orders where simple: shoot everything until it was killed, to go for the points.

And so the huge battlefield was ready to be manned, and people started putting down their forces... including 4 extra knights for the Imperium (a scenario benefit), and fortifications for Chaos (same).

Deployment

The above video shows the whole table as the armies (minus deep strikers and the likes) where deployed on the table.

Chaos

Anchoring our far left flank was my force of Emperor's Children, joined by Nemesis and his Death Guard.

Next in line, Jurgen with his Tyranids and Vincent with his Orks.

Then we had Svenn with his Death Guard, flanked by Cedric and his Khorne Daemon force.

Tom VR brought Nurgle Daemons to the battlefield, sided by Mike and his Ork horde.

The end of the line was held by Christophe with his Death Guard and Dimitri with his Genestealer Cult.

Imperium

On their far left, Jo fielded Ulthwe Eldar alongside T`au commanded by Ivan.

Michel put his Space Marines alongside David's, their Supreme Commander, T`au.

Next to them, Tom J and Peter put down the Custodes and a Guard Tank Battalion.

Heikki and his Mechanicum and Marc with his Imperial Guard / Space Marine force then came in the line.

Finally, Tom DG had his Guard deployed alongside Vincent's Space Wolves, directly facing me and Nemesis.

And then the battle for the first turn began.  David and me both rolled 2,s, then followed by a 2 for me and a 4 for them.  So the Imperium would begin, ouchies... was it not for a nonchalant hand throw for seizing the Initiative... and coming up a 6!  Swaffelen!!!!

Turn 1

The Chaos forces, aka the defenders, rushed forward (bar le moi of course).  Now of course, playing and such a huge table I can`t make a detailed report of all the things going on everywhere, but I`m putting down some moments of every turn.

The tyranids stormed forward, falling just short of the Imperial gunline awaiting them...

Khorne troops start to make amok in the enemy tank company

One big mek looking for a fight


Turn 2

After suffering casualties in the first turn, both forces prepare for the charges that are starting to happen left and right, while reserves start appearing on the field of battle

My demon princess rushed forward, slaughtering some Primaris before consolidating into the Space Wolves lord on the mountain.

The Mechanicus prepare to receive an Ork bunch of hooligans.

Tau encircle some poxwalkers

 A Nurgle Knight overlooks the field of battle


Turn 3

After two rounds of taking heavy losses, the Chaos forces are starting to grab points back (the Space Wolves lost the most points in one turn during the game, with 81 in this round, though some high scores of 75 and 64 did follow later on).

The Ork walord challenges the Space Marines to try and get `im

Turn 4

This round saw the first of the armies being totally annihilated, in the form of the Space Wolves.  Later that turn, the Khorne force would follow suit, while one Tau army, the Genestealer Cult, both the Orks and the Tyranids afterwards held on only by the skin of their teeth (one Tau player would end the battle with only a single commander left).  Bjorn the Fellhanded has the dubious honour of being the only "named character" on the Imperial side to fall, while Kharn the Betrayer went down at the side of Chaos.

The Custodes start clearing the walkways to an objective.

Some old geezer looks amazed in finding out there are games out there not called Dux Britanniarum x-D

Turn 5

Turn 5 and actually Chaos, for whom it looked very grim, started hitting back hard.  To little too late it turned out in the end, but with our forces now starting to deplete the Imperials, points where raking in.  On my flank, this was helped by the destruction of the Space Wolves, as we could now start focussing on the tanks facing us and Russes where blown to pieces...

The Lone surviving T`au commander

Lucius personally commandeers one of the defence turrets.  This was his farewell game, as now I`m no longer obliged to take the moron to the field, something I did all year as to `cement` his role of Supreme Commander, but I really don`t like playing with him.


Eyecandy

Just for the fun, some of the lovely units on the table.  I understand not everyone gets his armies painted or like doing it per se, but all in all the ratio of painted vs unpainted was more or less okay on this battle.

The Result

And so the battle ended.  In the above video you can see the result, a close (13 VP) win for the Imperium... if only that 6th turn had been rolled for (we closed after the base 5 as it was nearing 18hrs and it all had to be cleaned up still).

Congratulations in some way to the Imperium, and thanks Jo for organising this great event once again.

It is all for fun after all!