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Fire and Fury Thursday

That pretty much says it all.

Initial set-up

Union Line advances

Rebs charge right up the middle.

The fight for one of the towns begins.

A view of the right flank. The fight for the Old Mill starts.

The battle lines establish.

The bloody fight for the walled fields.

As always a solid game. Don't know why anyone would play another ruleset for ACW.

End of a dry spell? Unicycle Uhlans

Finally, got some painting done. My VSF Germans get some cavalry of sorts:

I ordered these fellas from Eureka many moons ago.

and a close up

Also did a one off (for now) for my growing collection that takes Unkerlant into the 20th century:

From the Unkerlant Chronicle:

A rare, color photo of a Civic Militiaman after the fall of Koenigstadt. Acting both as police force and personal bodyguard to the king, even at the height of warfare, the Militia still wore their distinctive spiked silver helmets and appulettes. They proved to be effective shock troops.

RECRUITS is Coming!

The Battle of Port St. Hubert by GASLIGHT

In a startling move, German troops have landed behind French lines, and captured the seaside village of Port St. Hubert. The village could become of great strategic importance, as the harbor is deep enough to accommodate transports.

French troops on leave a few miles to the north were quickly dispatched to Port St Hubert. Awaiting them were a few German regulars with a few light armored conveyances, and the Empress's Own Elite Lady Hussars.

The German's reacted quickly, sending their KIllenkanner, a horrible killing machine that spits fire, and steam velocipede hurling forward. These jabs, however, were countered. A French Turtle destroyed the Killenkanner with its first round, while accurate fire from the Zouaves killed the velocipede's driver and gunner.

Watch out for those fellows in fezs!

Next, the Hun threw their armored clockwork conveyance at the Zouaves. The sturdy fellows charged the beast. A well placed week old baguette mucked up the treads, immobilizing it.

Then, a buzzing was heard overhead. Those dastardly Germans had a flying machine! It strafed a group of French Regulars and dropped a bomb on the. Instead of scattering, they brought down the flying menace with a volley of rifle fire.

the Jaguar streaks across the battlefield

After the arrival of some British reinforcements, it looked as though the Frenchies would roll over the German defenders. But no one during the battle had notice the approach of a submersible. It silently docked and began unloading troops. Klankers! Surely the work of the Nefarious Proffessor Nightshade. The automatons left the peir and began a steady march down the main street of the village.

As the French cleared the trees, they were shot to pieces from the buildings on the edge of town. As if that wasn't enough, a dark shadow passed overhead. Rokkitruppen leapt from their transport zeppelin and landed right next to the French Spyder steam contraption. They managed to kill the Spyder's commander before it lunged forward, shaking off the sky pirates.

At the same time the Lady Hussars had assaulted another Turtle. In a panic, the Turtle's driven threw the beast into reverse. It slammed into a rock outcropping, tipping it over on its back. Sweet irony!

All was lost for the French. That didn't stop their heroic leader, Colonel Fraumage from single handedly attacking a unit of Germans hold up in the houses. He not only routed the poltoons, but also dispatched that member of the League of Calamitous Intent, the Duchess D'Harme.

With a deep water harbor in their hands, the German transports started landing....

Games and plans

Last night was a change, as we did a boardgame instead of the usual battles. I haven't finished any new armies, so I've been recycling games for awhile. I've hit that dry spell we all get, where I just can't get into painting.
Some of it has to do with the fact that most of the guys I play with all have different projects, so putting together an army falls on one person. We've kinda got a group Dystopian Wars thing building, but I wasted a lot of time on one fleet that another member is already doing.
Lead Addict and I have discussed 10mm Marlburian, but I've already painted quite a few for my Unkerlant Imagi-Nation. If I paint more 10mm, it should go for that.
I'm really excited about SAGA, but that is essentially a 2 player game.

The army I'm closest to "finishing" is my Italian Wars Renaissance stuff. But that's going to require a lot more painting, and I know as soon as Warlord releases their Pike and Shotte BlackPowder rules, I'll drop everything for that.

To get out of this rut, in the past, I've painted a bunch of singles of different sizes, just to get that feeling of finishing something. But, even that has proven difficult. As soon as I start, I can here the explosions in the next room as the Boy plows through Modern Warfare 3. I am soon drawn to the action and suddenly 3 hours have gone by.

Robofire! again

I wanted to try Robofire again with the new suppression rules. Besides, Duke Milo needed to try and stop those dirty rebels. We also borrowed the objective rules from the old, original Space Marine epic rules. Each objective has a point value, higher in the middle. Each turn you hold them, you get points. The crashed spaceship and the oasis were worth 5 points. The buildings, 10 each, while the bridge was 15 points.

Crashed ship

I made the forces start in opposite corners. The infantry got to ride in style thanks to the purchase of some APCs (6 inch moves on a 6 x 8 table has left Infantry out of some fights).
Also brought command vehicles. They had Electronic Counter Measures that would help troops around them in defense. I came up with a new system: "Advanced Communications" that allowed the CO to give a re-roll to any troops within a short move of him.

APCs move up under the wing of the Command vehicle

The game itself played great, although with 8 guys alternating single vehicles it slowed down. We need some sort of group move ala Future War Commander. We ended up having to group move the APCs to keep the infantry as a group.

Infantry take the building (a work in progress)

Still to do for 6mm SciFi/Robofire: I need some more urban terrain, which I'll probably build in geomorphic blocks. Also need to flesh out some troops so I have at least 3 of each thing. And tons more infantry...

6mm Grande Armee

After all the skirmishes lately, I thought we needed some big battle action. Time to bring out the 6mm Nappies,

The Austrians have gotten pretty hammered (not in a good way) the last dozen times they've played, so with some more troops fielded, we thought they'd have a fighting chance. That said, as the Austrian commander, I watched my left crumble almost from the get-go. But luckily, the right held and the wargame dosey-do began.

The town in the center changed hands a couple of times, finally held by the Austrians. As night fell we still had it, giving us a somewhat Phyrric victory. 

Oh well, the figs looked nice.
Update: I was asked how to do the town. Print this 4 times, mount to foamcore and glue together. If you're really good, notch out the corners of two so you don't see the foam.