The Campaign for Azmodov 7: Assault Phase

Even though the forces of Pax Arcadia had beaten back the Recce attempts from the Emperor's Children, the assault inevitably came.  While perhaps not as pinpointed as it might have been, had the information been fully transmitted back to the fleet in orbit, they descended in their landing craft.  Fireballs lighted up the dawn, as the forces landed on the soil of Azmodov 7.  The tide of extremities had arrived, and the beleaguered Pax force had to hold out against the overwhelming numbers...

So, scenario 2 in our Future War Commander narrative campaign that Nemesis and me are playing out, and this time the Pax only have half the points available of the Marine Corps troops.

The scenario objectives are that within the timespan of 10 turns, you must break the opposing battleforce.  Failing this, causing 25% casualties results in a minor victory instead.

I opted for the bigger models in this force, with two knights, minimal regular marine troops, a heap of commanders and decent armoured support.

The Pax force had various tanks surrounding a very big and heavy one, and supported by various classes of infantry.  A big artillery piece was lurking of the table to try and pin as much as possible every turn.

And so the table was set up, now using some more regular buildings compared to the rural table we used before.

Turn 1

Using orbital deployment, my force landed in the centre of the table.  I opted then to spread out a bit, because the Pax would arrive by Mobile deployment, and with command 10 and 9 I should be able to return to the fray quickly if they arrived away from my forces.

But as my anti infantry predator trundled forward, an ambush sprang and the little tank was duly blasted to pieces.  One of the infantry stands then got shot up from the returning fire as well.

On the other flank, smart missile troops appeared and opened fire on a Land Raider, but failed to take the machine out, though they suppressed it.

As the Pax took their first turn, a mighty barrage rained down on the front battlegroup, causing no casualties but supressing the commander, leaving him unable to order commands in the next turn as a result.

The Pax arrived on the tabletop, concentrating on the southern edge of the table and both groups arriving there without issues.  Opportunity fire didn`t do that much unfortunatly, and the first knight was swiftly decimated by the tank batallion.

At the end of turn one, it looked good for the Emperor`s Children, and now the forces would need to return and take the battle to the Pax...

Turn 2

Well, most of them started to return to the fray at least.  The shooting phase wasn`t to spectacular though, even though the CO`s group managed to do some serious supressing to the Pax.

In the Pax face, the artillery seemingly fired straight upwards, resulting in a blunder but the machine managed to escape it`s own barrage unharmed.

The artillery pieces of the Emperor`s Children where taken out, and for the second time they came to the table these 175 points each machines did nothing.  A career of off-table artillery support awaits them from now on...

The Pax line held without to much problems and started to break through the front most battlegroup as a result even as their officer blundered and fell back to it`s table edge as a result.

Turn 3

And it all starts going very very sour now for the Emperor`s Children, as two commanders botched out on their first order, bringing the force to a standstill.  Only the central Land Raider got a couple orders through, destroying some smaller tanks in the process.

And then the CO failed it`s orders again and the whole force did next to nothing.

The returning concentration of artillery didn`t cause any casualties or suppressions again, but that was about the last thing that went well for the pink Marines.

Some conscripts bravely charged the recce Land Speeder, but where thrown back as a result.  Another commander was overrun though and fell back as a result.

The western flank was now being in the process of being annihilated by the mass of Pax infantry, while the centre stood to a complete stand still, and my 25% point was reached.

Turn 4

Again the Emperor`s Children start failing their orders, and do right about nothing for the whole turn... this is getting terrible, including an officer managing to get -2 command for this and next turn...

The barrage from the Pax again didn`t cause any effects, but the battle would probably reach it`s climax in this turn as all I could do was react.

While I was pushed below my breakpoint in this round, so was the Pax force by my opportunity fire, and that meant my one chance was that Nemesis would botch his roll at the end of his turn.

Which he of course didn`t.

Turn 5

Nearing the clock of midnight, this would be the last turn.  At my end, I would test with a -3 modifier already, but it never came to that.  I failed every single roll (my CO for the third turn in a row) to give orders, but did pass the botch out roll... and duly threw the towel as a result.

So the Pax where victorious against overwhelming odds.  Maybe I should`nt have spread out in the beginning to cover more possible arrival points, but what hurt me the most where the failings of the command rolls.  Spread over the last three turns, with 5 officers on the board, I managed to give a grand total of 6 orders... that`s abysmall with command 10 and 9!!!

Well deserved, the assault has been stopped for now, and next time it will be scenario 3 in which it seems I will have to cover as much ground as possible over the game, and staying alive in the process...

Commander Carlyle couldn`t believe what he was seeing.  Even though his small army was in shambles and on the verge of breaking off the engagement, when the enemy suddenly started to withdraw.  Apparently, seeing them bicker amongst themselves for most of the time, this had cost the invaders deerly, and as they got gunned down by his forces, they seemingly lacked any form of communication...

The Haul Report 187

No less then 36 degrees for day straight... that doesn't make a man happy...

But heck, it was an excuse to buy this little boy, totally hobby unrelated but oh so fun with the blistering heat...

19 euro later and I can grill my meat nice and easy on the terrace here at evenings, because food is important for the heavy duties of a wargamer x-D

But that wasn`t all that got looted this week.  From AliExpress, I got a bunch of cheap tape measures for taking to events.

And also another cellphone cover arrived, love this one...

From eBay, a bunch of old metal Uruak Hai scout bowmen fell in the mailbox.

While a varied selection of figures also arrived from my `regular dealer`

And some Army Painter washes from Wayland Games

While I also obtained two bags of "bottlecap" Gundam models, who will be repainted for use in FWC.

What a varied week indeed!

On the Painting Desk 100

The Big, 1 - 0 - 0, nearly two years of (almost) weekly updates on what went on in my painting life!

Now, I wish I could say that as a manner of celebrating, dozens of models have been completed... but unfortunatly, that hasn't.

Au contraire, with a heatwave striking Belgium this week, most of my evenings are spend in a cold bath and with tons of ice-cream...

Though I did finish those Uncharted Seas frigates that you saw earlier this week... but that's about it to be honest...

And I worked a bit on the big batch of Minas Tirith warriors still standing on my desk, six now only awaiting basing.

Well, maybe for the big 250 that I'll have a big project done then instead x-D

What I Painted in June 2019

Do walls and ceilings count?

Well, the new home is now in our possession, so renovations have started, meaning my painting time is now severly limited.

However, I did manage to get some stuff finished at least in between...

I completed 4 more Dead of Dunharrow, as well as three trays for them as well.  This nicely lines them out in the cabinets now in a block of 24 and the King. 

On the not MESBG front, these 6 dogs have been added as scatter terrain animals for populating the countryside.

For my 6mm Future Wars Commander force of Emperor's Children, much needed 'cheaper' armoured support rolled of the desk as well with 3 Predators, and oh well, 2 more of the more points expensive Land Raiders whom are just fantastic tanks in the game...

A small side project, and one that will take while to actually complete, is restoring my fleet of Shroud Mages for Uncharted Seas.  I finished this month the first three vessels with these destroyers in the 1/600th scale fantasy naval game.

Talking naval gaming, the Dystopian Wars Requin corvette is the "colour scheme tester" for my little fleet of French.  This odd game scaling system is at 1/1200 theoreticaly (well, correct for the naval part of the game), but the airplanes and tanks whom will follow later are actually more suitable for 6mm scale...

So to that end, it still means I got 22 models done for the month.  Curious what the coming months will be bringing though...

Goals 2019 - the Halfway mark

June has ended, and the year has already been cut in half.

So where do we stand on our goals, whom have been "disrupted" in their schedule by finding a new place months before planned.

The first goal of the year, the AHPC Challenge, was succesfully completed on it's deadline, so not really a suprise there.

But then we come to the painting goals, and that is a totally different story for the moment.  Neither the Blood Bowl nor the Crisis figures have had their numbers swollen so far, and it'll be doubtfull I will be able to fully complete either of them as time stands now.

The same goes for the 1000 points of Rohan I had planned before the 11th of november, to be able to create a tournament force.  It stands lowly below 100 points so far, and I don't have any prognoses of actually being able to expand on them big time for now.

On the other hand, both 700 point goals of a Minas Tirith and a Mordor force are going strong, and they will easily reach their target before the end of the year I hope.  In the case of the former, completing Gandalf the White is more then sufficient, while for the latter a couple more orcs and minor characters to lead them is all that is required.

Should I also manage to complete a couple more Battle Companies during the remaining half year, that should maybe not obtain, but at least get me close to the aimed 300 MESBG figures I wanted to paint up this year, as that number now sits just shortly of the half way mark.  And goblins, humans and orcs tend to paint up fast, and tick that counter rather well with each upload.

Reading 20 books is still doable for this year, as in the half of the year, I'm about half way there as well.

However, the other three, respectively watching those amounts of anime series, movies and regular series, might prove a lot harder then expected at the beginning of the year.  Especially with the anime, as time to couchlounge is rather nihil during the coming months, and once we settle down on renovations it might be to far into the year to get it all to their numbers that I hoped to achieve...

On the wargame events level, even though I had to cancel attending some mega games and minor conventions due to above reasons, I should be able to attend at least two more tournaments, one convention (Crisis ofc) and perhaps even Armies on Parade again this year, so that on paper looks like it will get achieved.

But we soldier on never the less, and maybe, just maybe I can get the whole place finished earlier then projected (totally finished next year march, but living in ready end of november are the deadlines I set myself for that) and push in a marathon or two to get it all up to speed in the end...

Fingers crossed!