Wednesday, May 29, 2019

Deadeye Jedi X-wing night

Last Friday we got together for another 'Deadeye Jedi' X-wing night. A bunch of us bring lists and play some games. Five of us showed up so we played two games, one with 2 vs 1 with the two sharing a list. I played my 'Tractor Factory' list against Bob and Rob who flew Rob's four T-70 X-wing list.

I didn't give Bob and Rob much of a fight. They played well coming in from both flanks, and I mostly crashed all my ships into rocks and themselves until I was dead. At time I had two ships left, and had caused zero damage to the enemy. I think I have a lot of practice needed to play large base ships. Still Rob and Bob both played well and even had I been competent, they probably would have won easily. In X-wing, flanks are good.












For the second game of the night, Bob let me share half of his clone squadron. We flew against Steve who flew an effective Scum list with two aces: Guri and Talonbane Cobra filled with a second Star Viper and a Z-95. Steve flew great and the Star Vipers were the star of the show in my mind. I never got a shot on Guri while she danced behind my list with ease.

I flew more ships onto rocks, being far too heavy for Bob to carry me. At least I got one kill, finishing off the final hull on Talonbane Cobra after Bob did most of the damage on him. My love for the 'ugly' Arc-170 was softened a bit after playing with them. At 1 agility they're quite fragile despite all the hull and shields they carry.


I am very much enjoying that although there is a high amount of luck in X-wing games, like poker, the outcome of most games still goes in favor of the player who played best. In both games this night, no amount of 'hot dice' would have saved me from defeat. Poor play yields poor results. The answer - more solo practice at home!


Tuesday, May 21, 2019

The Last Nazis

These are the last figures I've painted to complete my 28mm late-war German army. The title is a bit of social engineering - a test to see what Google does with it.

Looking back through the blog, it appears that I started working on this army in February of 2014. A little over five years later I've finally painted the very last un-painted German 28mm lead from my stash. It's not often that I completely finish an army. Often I paint 'enough' figures then have a box full of dead lead to paint 'later'. This army has WAY more figures and vehicles painted than I ever could use in any single game, but the selection allows for many scenarios.

The only thing on my 'wish list' for the army would be an 88 and a prime mover half track to tow it. I'm waiting for the upcoming Rubicon boxed set for those.

The models are one Warlord and one Artisan motorcycle blister. The two will pair up with the one I painted earlier to make a Kradschützen patrol. 28mm motorcycles have their issues - mostly being fiddly to assemble and somewhat fragile. I've mounted these on round bases to help with both of these issues. Other than that they were straight forward to paint up.

Next up on the painting table some Crusades spear-armed foot for Saga. Long-term goals will be to clear out the un-painted Saga lead, finish up my British WWII army and then move on to French Napoleonics.

I'm counting this as six 28-mm figures painted for my annual painting totals.

Monday, May 20, 2019

Electronic Brigadier - Freeman's Farm Game at Huzzah! 2019

This past weekend I ran a Freeman's Farm game using my Electronic Brigadier computer-moderated rules. This scenario has been tweaked over the years and after tuning is now great as an attack and defend scenario.

The British in this game used their reserves well, punching a hole in the middle of the American lines driving Morgan's rifles and several other units off the table. On the flanks the British suffered due to allowing the American militia units too much respect which allowed the minute men the ability to pour volley after volley of fire into the British. Flank attacks in the dense woods on both flanks while successful, were too slow to impact the battle's outcome.

In the end the British won the battle decisively, but at a cost similar to the historic battle - opening the door for a later successful American attack from Bemis heights.

I had the luxury of having all great players, many with Electronic Brigadier experience from previous conventions. Game play was at a very high level for a convention game. Hats off to all who played!

End of game statistics (28 turns played):
 
British Forces

Army cohesion: 68.6%
Total Casualties: 479 / 4427 (10.8%)
4 units dispersed
2 shaken units

Honors to: 112 - 20th Foot

American Forces

Army cohesion: 68.3%
Total Casualties: 442 / 4205 (10.5%)
4 units dispersed
1 routed units
2 shaken units

Honors to: 211 - 1st New Hampshire

Videos of the Game




Wednesday, May 15, 2019

Medieval Armed Peasants and Monks

These 13 figures are from Old Glory's Dark Ages line from two packs 'Armed Peasants and Angry Monks' and 'Peasants With Farm Implements'. I've painted them up to be used as a unit of 'Fanatical Pilgrims' for my Saga Crusades armies. I figured if pilgrims were going to be fanatical they'd probably have some religious figures accompanying them. The thirteenth figure on the left can serve dual purpose as a Christian priest for those Saga armies allowed to take one.