This morning saw the matte spray hit the latest figures. Now I can post the last HMG & Rough Rider unit. This makes me game ready for the 5th of August.
The HMG.
Below is the Rough Rider unit. This unit is quite a unique & likely a fun unit to use against the Martians. One of the bikes has an HMG mounted, which because of the bouncing suffers a -1 to hit.
Now I have to say, that having to glue the handlebars onto the rest of the bike was not at all fun. Even now, after I managed to use sticky tack to hold them in their awkward place while the glue dried on that little bit of metal I am noticing some mistakes made.
Examples being, that depending on the pose, would determine which handlebar would be used, as some upon close inspection are seen to have hands holding the handlebars which should be used with the guy with the 2 hand grip. As well, my poor leader looks like an amputee as I used plain handlebars for his bike.
Obviously the next units I put together of these will be much more scrutinized.
Otherwise the sculpts are nice, with enough details, which of course need to be covered in mud, after all they are not on parade.
As we draw closer to bringing All's Quiet on the Martian Front to the lads at the club, I've finished off another unit of Mk III's. These are the ones that appeared fresh off the factory floor during Scott & my playtest.
I am now working on the 3rd HMG team & a unit of Rough riders.
As well our club is planning to host an online auction (aka EBay) to drum up funds for our club to cover the rent on the venue we play at. Thus each of us was asked to find some stuff that could help with this.
I've uncovered these 2 gems which were bought in the early 2000's. Having not gotten involved with the ever-changing versions of 40K I think its safe to let these go & not lose any sleep.
We have Brother Cleon of the Blood Angels
And Brother Grimmaw of the Space Wolves
When I get more info I will share it so that you may go & bid for our cause.
Finally...after months of waiting for the Kickstarter, further weeks to get stuff painted, Scott & I finally got to try All's Quiet on the Martian Front.
We started off with the intro scenario & it was basically a human armoured force against the Martians.
The Martians move quick! They easily covered half the table in 1 turn. They also blasted 2 of my tanks before they could even move. Here 2 Assault Tripods loom over a ruined building.
The Martian Scout Tripod scurries forward. Behind can be seen 2 Grenadier Tripods, whose launchers can reach out to 50". I think you can see where this is going. The Scout has a targetter which lights up enemy units for the Grenadiers.
After losing a couple tanks, we finally felled a Tripod.
The Armor lumbers forward to fire, then withdraws back behind the hill.
The Scout manages to get a sweep attack from its heat ray on these Steamer III tanks. I think one was destroyed from this attack.
Another Assault Tripod is felled.
The Scout tripod moves close to the routing armoured unit & destroys it.
The Martians win the first round.
We then set up & played the Outskirts scenario. This saw the addition of the blip markers which changes things up a bit for the humans, as the Tripods are not quite sure what they are aiming at.
Once again the Scout Tripod moves forward, if they get to within 6" of a blip, it is spotted.
A unit of Steamer II's moves down the road.
The tripod below was struck by a couple tank rounds & then I opened up on it with a HMG unit, as you can see by the markers, this Tripod was wobbling around with 1 armour point left.
This ended in a human victory, but it was very close & could easily have gone to the Martians.
We played the same scenario again, this time I finally got to put some Infantry on the table.
And just as quickly got to remove them as they were hit by the Grenadiers using Black Dust.
Things were going well for the Humans, when the destruction of a Grenadier Tripod ended with a Catastrophic explosion which destroyed the second nearby.
So the day was a success, it allowed us to see some things & how the game played. A game is generally only 6 turns long, but the ranges & movement make battles happen quickly & we never did get to 6 turns.
I have a few more units to complete before the next Club night on the 5th of August where Scott & I will host this game.
Last night at the club I brought out the Zombicide game for another go.
I had quite a few takers for this round.
We played the very first scenario of the original Zombicide. It didn't take long for the shadow of death to take Wanda.
Shortly after we all fell to a mob of 4 Zombie dogs & 2 runners which between them dished out 10 wounds... that only took about 40 minutes.
Ok reset & try again. We did have some first time players.
Though 2 of our number called it an early night, the remainder pressed on. We were doing quite well initially, with quite a few single walkers or nothing spawning. Alas we did not find all the items we were needing, and below is a photo of what was swirling around us Zombie-wise. I believe all of us were in the orange by this point. We decided to call it at this point due to the time.
So what's next? More All's Quiet miniatures to be painted. Scott is coming out Sunday afternoon to go thru the rules, with the intent to host the game at the next club night.
So I finished a bag of the HMG teams, & thought I had completed another unit, when I looked into the book, it states that a HMG unit has 3 elements...<sigh> OK, this one is understrength then.
A photo below shows a team in a defensive position.
Tommorrow night I will be at the club running Zombicide. Last time the scenario was easy, I will likely play the first scenario which due to the sheer number of cards, makes it harder to find whats needed. Should be fun for all.
This morning I completed the first of my Mk III units for All's Quiet on the Martian Front.
Adding an extra 2 guns on Sponson's certainly adds to the firepower. As well a MG mounted in the front will aid against the Loboton's.
I continue scrounging thru my old decal box trying to find suitable markings to add. This time around it was the numbers in the red box. I have the same available for my next unit of these as well.
I also received game specific decals which I have also started to add, namely the logo's & tripod kill markers.
I will need to do a quick tally to see where I am at with points, as the chatter on our club's Facebook site see's this game drawing a lot of attention. Of course Scott & I will need to get together to get the rules sorted in our brains before then.
Another unit of Infantry is off to the front.
Needing all the help they can get, I've also been picking up some of the FOW defensive works. These are seen in the next 2 photos.
These defensive positions come painted just as seen here, so that will save me some time to work on more tanks & infantry.
Certainly these fella's don't have the coolness factor of Scott's Tripod's but that is the lot of the Infantry.
A unit of Steamer Mk III's is my next unit.
Another unit of the Steamer II tanks for All's Quiet on the Martian Front has rolled onto the battlefield.
These are again the main force of tanks the humans have to fight against the Martian Tripods. Again I am keeping the markings simple to field as various forces.
With all the spare bits on the sprue I am thinking of creating a 'Canadian' modified unit of these which will field 2 sponson guns & an MG mounted where the existing gun sits. Canadians have always enjoyed trying to better their lot.
As well I have another unit of Infantry started & I think my next tanks (besides the ones just mentioned) will be a unit of the Steamer III's
Last night we had 9 people out for our special Canada Day meeting. It was only that due to it being a holiday here celebrating our nation's birthday.
Scott, Andy & I played a game of SAGA.
Andy had never played SAGA before, so we gave him the Vikings, Scott played his Normans & I played my Welsh. It was a 4 pt battle.
Below are my Welsh troops
Scott's mounted troops head out.
After a couple of turns of moving, we finally saw the Vikings & Norse clash. It didn't go so well for the Vikings.
Meanwhile after a couple turns of the Norman Levies finding themselves in Holy Ground, missiles began to fly. My levies were engaged by the Norman Warlord & a Hearthguard.
With the playing of a nice ability, my paltry 3 die became 8 causing the Hearthguard to lose 2 of their men, the third (& last) took a hit for the Warlord. Yes it was that close, the Levies having performed well, though they lost 7 of their number.
Below the end is nigh, as this was where everyone was to begin the last turn.
Scott & his Normans won with 11VP's, to my 8 & Andy's 7. Good game everyone.
