Showing posts with label Aquanautica Imperialis. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Aquanautica Imperialis. Show all posts

Monday, October 2, 2023

Battle Report: Aquanautica Imperialis - Operation: Hemlock

 


This game will be using the Aquanautica Imperialis rules in the Operation: Hemlock setting. 

The Ammoriss Naval PDF cruiser Saint's Shield steamed ahead with her taskforce arrayed across the Ammoriss Ocean behind her. Their bows cut through the deep blue, cresting the waters into a white spray.  Their wake leaving a wide trail behind.  Sea birds swirled around the Vox and Augur masts along the bridge of each ship.  

Taskforce: Chalice had managed to pen up the Ork fleets sending those foolish enough to leave port to the bottom.  However, the Ork air force was still active and a danger to the Ammoriss Navy.  Her augurs stretched out looking for just such a threat.  The Ammoriss Air PDF had been unsuccessful in shutting down the enemy fliers.  Therefore, battle line Guiding Light led by Saint's Shield; was being sent into harm's way to the edge of Ork controlled territory in an effort to stem the Ork air forces ability to hamper Imperial supply lines. 

The Captain of Saint's Shield opened his sealed orders and read them to the X.O.  As expected, the battle line Guiding Light was to steam to the Green Zone and silence Ork airfields along the coast.  The intent was to take the pressure off Imperial Supply Lines from the Ork air boyz.  Of course, by attacking the air fields, they would be painting a big bulls-eye on themselves.  

Forces: 
The forces will be made up of the paper templates I made in MS Paint for the game. 

Guiding Light
ANS Saint's Shield - Reliable Cruiser

ANS Divine Right - Stalwart Cruiser

Spearpoint 345 - 3 Assured Escorts

Buckler 14 - 2 Protector Escorts

Hunter 878- Hunter Submersible

Green Zone Defense Forces
Big Mekz Boatz- 2 Boiler Boatz - Nobz

Slottaz Tubz- 5 Gun Tubz

Waaagh! Gorgbog - 5 Mob Boatz

Shush-Shush - Sneaky Gitz Submersible

Redtop- Grot Sub

Defgrin- Grot Sub

Squint Eye - Grot Sub

2 Shore Batteries (Weapon Battery, Range 24", Firepower 4, Armor 5+, Hits 4)

2 Fighta-Bommerz sites (Bays 6, Armor 5+, Hits 4) 

Mission: 
The Imperial forces have 6 turns to move in and cause as many hits on the Fighta-Bommer Sites as possible.  They score additional Victory Points for each hit removed from the Fighta-Bommer sites. 

The Orks are trying to protect the sites. 

Set-up: 
The table is a 4x4 play area on my ocean mat.  There is a coastline on the north side of the board where the Orks will deploy their shore battery and Fighta-Bomma sites.  The Orks can deploy up to 6 inches in from the shoreline.  

The Imperial forces will be coming in from the opposite board edge and are deployed up to 12 inches in. 

This game, I am using my paper templates as I do not have model versions of all the ship types in use. 

Turn 1: 
The Imperial forces move to the attack, and the Orks in their small escorts rush to meet them.  The channel between the two outlying islands seems like it will be a choke point, and the Assured escorts are outgunned there.  However, one of the Gun Tubz strays too close and runs aground in the shallow water near the island.  In addition, Ork subs come to fire depth a safe distance away from the Ammoriss Naval PDF taskforce. 

At the Chokepoint, the Assureds open fire and sink a pair of Gun Tubz.  However, they weather a withering amount of return fire and escape unscathed! 

The Saint's Shield trades fire with the Heavy Shore Battery.  Even with Bracing the Cruiser takes the worst of it, losing 2 hits to the Batteries 1.  The other Shore Battery manages to destroy one of the Assured escorts with a well placed shot. 

The Ork subs put fish in the water.  The Grot subs attempts are swatted away by PD, while the further away shots keep cruising.  However, a flight of Ammoriss bombers from the Stalwart send the Squint Eye to the bottom with precision bombing. 1 flight needs to retrun home to re-arm, but three others are still out there hunting.  Clouds of Ork fighta-Bommerz take off from their bases and head towards the PDF ships. 


Turn 2:
The Redtop tries to Run Silent, Run Deep but fails and collides with the Protector escort.  The two sink to the bottom. However, that is not the last navigation woe for the turn! 


The Saint's Shield moves up too close to the island and also runs aground.  The Assured rushes past the Ork escorts, while they turn and head throught he chokepoint after the ANS Divine Right.  In the process, one of the Boiler Boatz runs aground in shallow water as well! 



The Gun Tubz Heavy Kannonz turn the last Protector into a lifeless wreck! A lone bomber squadron swoops in on the Tubz but fails to strike home.  

The Saint's Shield and the Heavy Battery trade shots again, with the Battery taking two hits and the armor of the Reliable cruiser shrugging off the attack.  The Stalwart, ANS Divine Right is hit by the Boiler Boatz and loses a hit.  

Mob Boatz and Fighta-Bommerz swarm the beached Cruiser.  She decides to Brace for Impact to weather the storm. PD takes out one squadron of aircraft.  Fierce fighting breaks out and 2 Mob Boats are removed from play, but in return the Crew of the Reliable is devastated and reduced to 0.  Orks are still swarming their ship. 



Ork Torps hit their own Gun Tub and overkill one and send it to the bottom.  Fighta-Bommerz swarm the Assured and a bomb turns it into a flaming wreck.  Several squadrons need to turn around a re-arm, leaving 4 total in play. 

  
Turn 3: 
The ANS Divine Right scoots forward and sends a squadron of Interceptors to clear out a Fighta-bomma over the Saint's Shield. The Reliable cruiser manages to get free of the grounding, but is still being swarmed by Ork Mob Boats and Fighta-Bommaz.  

The last Boiler Boat comes up on the Reliable's stern and trades shots with her.  The result is a crippled ANS cruiser.  The bow of the Reliable fires on the Heavy Shore Battery and destroys it!  The crew manages to fend off the last Ork attackers, but not before they wreck the ship's rudder.   

Swarms of Ork Fighta-Bommaz again take-off from their bases and head-out to sea looking for the Imperial Carrier.  Meanwhile, the Ammoriss Bombers still in the air target the last Gun Tubz and manage to hulk her. One more Squadron heads for home. 



Turn 4: 
The Divine Right moves towards the coastline.  However, Ork Fighta-Bommaz are swarming the area.  The Saint's Shield limps away from the island coastline, and towards the Ork beaches.  The Ork Shush-Shush moves between the two islands and tries to get a bead on the Carrier. 

The crippled cruiser fires a weakened broadside at the first Ork airbase, but fails to land a hit.  Being just too far for Bombs, the Carrier launches a sortie of Interceptors that clears the air around the ship of Ork aircraft.  Only 1 squadron remains. However, the other squadrons are radioed in and 5 squadrons attack.  Three are splashed by PD and two attack but fail to penetrate the Carrier's armor.  Only 1 remains in service after the attack. 


The last Boiler Boat stalks the Saint's Shield and hits her again for a damaging hit!  Several of the hulked ships sink or explode.  

Turn 5: 
The last Boiler Boat continues to be a nuisance and hits the Divine Right for two hits.  However, her bombers take-off and destroy the first of the Ork airbases with an air raid.  The Ork planes were busy on the ground re-arming and reloading.  



However, heavy fire from the Ork Shore Battery causes 1 more hit, crippling her.  Ouch, no more reloading.  However, there are still three active bombers out and operational.

The Shush-Shush fires a spread of torpedoes to finish off the Carrier, but they fall just short. 



Turn 6: 
The cover of night and a chance to escape is fast approaching.  

The last Grot Sub comes to firing depth behind the Naval PDF Cruiser.  The ANS Divine Right evades the oncoming torpedoes.  

The Boiler Boat and the Saint's Shield line up.  However, as the two exchange fire, it is the Boiler Boat who wins the engagement.  The Saint's Shield is reduced to 0 armor and begins to sink.  

The Divine Right and the Shire Battery exchange fire, with the ship taking a hit.  The last Ork Air base manages to get a screen of fighta-bommaz up over the battery.  

The Shush-Shush reloads her torpedoes and fires again.  The Carrier's PD takes out 1, but three get through.  However, the ship's armored belt holds up against the onslaught.  

See the Ork swarm over the battery, the remaining planes target the Boiler Boat.  However, the escort manages to survive the air attack unscathed!  With that, the bombers return to their battered carrier.  

Conclusion: 
Night falls and the ANS Divine Right manages to limb away into the night, badly damaged.  Despite wiping out the Ork blue-water Navy, they have proven to still have formidable shore defenses.  

The Ammoriss Naval PDF lost 15 Hull points, to the Orks losing 16.  A narrow win for the Naval PDF, but I think it is more accurate to call the result indecisive.  

The grot squealed as Ripsnogga poked it with the business end of his Herding stick.  It looked up with its soft, weak Oomie eyes.  The critter was sopping wet from his little swim to the beach.  The Ork runtherd saw several more of them flopping through the waves and to the beach.  The ship that they came from had heeled over, and settled on the bottom of the bay with part of her hide sticking out.  Even from here he could see some figures moving about on the things hull. 

He cuffed the wretched cur at his feet, and it squealed again.  He grabbed it by the arm and pulled it roughly to its feet and tossed him back to the Gretchin horde behind him.  The Grots were glad to see someone joining their ranks that was of lower rank than them!  They cackled gleefully and some even did little dances of joy.  

Ripsnogga waved his arms around, encompassing the whole beach, "Gather up these little fish!  There is work for them to be doing!"  He whacked a nearby Grot with his stick for good measure.  The little blighters rushed off, eager to grab more Oomiez to their work crews.  Finally, someone they could push around!        

 


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Become a Patron and get access to all the cool stuff, a peak behind the curtain of Blood and Spectacles, and early-access to playtest games!  


You can follow Blood and Spectacles Facebook page or Instagram for more fun! 

Check out the latest publications and contact me at our Blood and Spectacles website

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Monday, November 2, 2020

Operation: Hemlock- AQ: Force of Arms- Battle Report



Vice-Admiral Travers had been pleased with the success of Taskforce: Chalice and their performance.  They had been instrumental in stemming the flow of Orks out of the Green Zone and to Baron's Rest.  The engagements had been in the open ocean, under the sea, and in coastal waters.  However, the Ork menace was still comfortably ensconced in Da Deff Islands.  General Kurtz and High-Command was ready to move to the next stage of Operation: Hemlock.  Instead of keeping the Orks contained, it was time to exterminate them from the area.  

Chalice had been beefed up with some additional ships, and now it was time to sweep the Approaches to the island clear.  Warboss Skarbash had been building and collecting an impressive fleet of Ork ships.  They had traveled from across Ammoriss to bring Orks to Skarbashz growing Waaagh! energy.  However, the Orks biggest threats were still submersibles and commerce raiders attacking the PDF convoys into the area.  Therefore, Chalice was being called on to pen in the enemy ships and trap them back in port or sink them.  

Vice-Admiral Travers had unsuccessfully tried to blockade the Deff Islands with mines and pickets before.  This time, his strategy was going to be more aggressive.  He assembled several smaller patrol lines of escorts and light cruisers.  The plan was to sweep the Approaches, located enemy forces, and then use the Wrath of Humanity and her escorts to sink any opposition.  It was standard North Ammoriss Naval PDF strategy; find, fix, sink.  

Well, that is an interesting title.  What is AQ?  What is Force of Arms?  Well, a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away I created a game for the Warhammer 40K universe called Aquanautica Imperialis.  It was a game about wet-navies fighting on an Imperial world called Ammoriss.  This was part of a larger campaign called the Battle for Ammoriss.  It was good fun and pulled a lot of material and ideas from Man O' War and Battlefleet Gothic to give it that distinctly GW design feel. I still play it pretty regularly and even Made my own Miniatures for it. 

From there, it evolved into another game called Aquanautica Imperialis: Battle for the DepthsThis game took heavy inspiration from Aeronautica Imperialis.  However, instead of fighter planes shooting at each other, it was submarines from Aquanuatica Imperialis fighting for undersea control of Ammoriss.  More fun was had, but I never got around to making any miniatures at the time. 

As you can see, I have a bit of a soft spot for Sci-Fi and Naval wargaming.  I have since experimented with various versions or adaptions of Aquanautica Imperialis.  I was working on an Anti-submarine game between PDF and Tyranids for a while called Horror of the Deep based off older versions of Adeptus Titanicus.  However, I never properly finished that game. 

Force of Arms is an attempt to create a large scale Sci-Fi Naval combat game closer to an Epic style battle.  That means covering more ocean space with more ships, but still creating a different gaming experience from the traditional Aquanautica Imperialis.  At the scale of Force of Arms, you aren't as interested as what is happening to an individual ship, or even a squadron of ships.  Tactics like broadsides, cross the  T, melee, raking, etc are abstracted.  Instead, it is a game focused more on Strategy, detection, deployment, and taskforces of ships coordinating together to complete their objectives. 

I had some inspiration come to me one day, and I pounded out the rules in a matter of days.  The impetus of these rules actually grew out of thinking about a game play issue for a historical airplane game.  Some of the key games that inspired these rules were:

Chain of Command
Battlegroup
Blucher
Epic: Armageddon
Jovian Chronicles

I won't go into further details.  I have not placed the rules in the Work-in-Progress section yet as they still need much more polish.  However, I was so excited about the basic rules that I wanted to get them to the table as soon as I could.  Operation: Hemlock seemed like a great way to do it.  Hopefully, this battle report will give you a flavor for the game?  

Forces

North Ammoriss Naval PDF
Ascendant Battleship Patrol Line- Wrath of Humanity
- Protector Escort

Escort Flotilla- Shield of Alset

Anti-Submarine Flotilla- Guardians of the North
- Augur Buoys
- Attached ANS Hunter

Steadfast Light Cruiser Task Force- Swift Lance
- Mines

Break Point- 13

Skarbashz Big Bloo Boyz
Big Dakka Mob-
- Ram
- Nobz

Boiler Boatz Mob
- Smokescreen

Runt Boatz Mob

Sneaky Gitz Mob

Break Point- 14

These are relatively small forces to help me get a feel for the rules and how they work overall. 

Set-up
This game will take place on a 4x4 foot board.  The North of the board will have a small coastline to represent the Green Zone of Da Deff Islands.  The rest is open Ocean, with a couple of small Drill Rig platforms.  Each fleet will have 2 Deployment Nodes. 

Mission
Today's battle represents a standard battle.  Therefore, both sides are trying to get the other enemy force to their Break Point by inflicting hits on enemy forces.  Each hit will require the player to draw a Morale Chit worth 1-5 Morale loss or critical damage to the task force.  Once a fleet has exceeded their Break Point, the game is over. 

Turn 1:
Initiative Phase:
No one has any forces deployed, so it is a straight roll-off.  Some reconnaissance style assets such as aircraft, escorts, etc can influence this roll. 

Imperials win, and choose to force the Orks to act first.  The Imperials have 1 Order to the Orks 1 Orders.  

Deployment:
The Orks decide to only use 1 Deployment Node of their two to start the game off.  They keep the other for subsequent rounds.  The PDF deploy both of their Nodes.  

We start by moving our Deployment Nodes until they become "Fixed" in place.  Deployment Nodes are where our forces will be able to deploy forces from.  One of the Imperial and the Ork Nodes is fixed off the coast of the Green Zone.  The second Imperial Nodes chooses to be fixed near the center of the board.  The Orks still have a Node they can deploy next turn if they wish.     

The Imperials deploy a Blip forward from each Nodes, while the Orks deploy back from there Node.  It is not clear what is what.  The second Imperial blip also deploys an element.  

Orders: 
The first Imperial Blip makes an All Ahead Full order.  Meanwhile the Orks make a Run Silent, Run Deep Order.  We all know the first Ork Blip was a Sub Mob.    

Battle: 
All contacts are still blips, so no firing will likely happen.  However, we check passive ranges to make sure.  No one did an Augur Spike, so no further action is needed as no Blips are revealed.  

I think attacking before moving will take a bit of time to get used to! 

Maneuver:
The First Imperial blip goes All Ahead Full, and reveals that the first Ork blip was indeed a group of Subz.  However, they quickly break off Augur contact and disappear from the escorts scopes.  The second Imperial Blip moves towards the first Imperial deployment Node.  


With that, the 1st turn of the game is over.  

Turn 2: 
Initiative: 
The Orks win and earn 1 Order, while the Imperials have 0 Orders.  

Deploy: 
The Orks deploy their second Node, and begin to move it.  The second Nodes is easily able to move around and partially encircle the Imperial Nodes before choosing to fix itself. 

The Orks deploy 1 Blip at each Node, while the Imperials Deploy only a single Blip by their first Node closer to the coast.  

Orders:
The Orks use their special Waaagh! ability to put All Ahead Full on both of their blips.  The Imperials have no Orders to give.  

Detection: 
The Escort Flotilla is close enough to an Ork Blip by their first Node to determine it if a pack of Boiler Boatz.  No other Detection occurs.  

Battle: 
The Ork Boiler Boatz oepn fire with their weapon batteries at the Escort Flotilla, and they return fire.  This is a close range fight, so both sides will have +2 Firepower dice.  You make an Opposed roll between the Firepower of the shooter, vs the Counter Measures of the target.  Boiler Boatz also always counter as obscured due to their inherent Smokescreen, giving them +2 to Counter-measures.   

      

After all the dice are rolled, the Boiler Boatz take 1 Chit, while the Escort Flotilla takes 3.  The Imperial players reveals that the Escort Flotilla is broken.  However, one of the Imperial Chits reveals that a Weak Point was also hit and two additional Chits need to be drawn.  The total is enough to obliterate the Imperial Escorts, but the damage then goes onto the overall Morale of the Fleet as well.  The Imperials have 4 chits to the Orks 1.  The Ork player reveals that the Boiler Boatz were also crippled in the engagement.  

Maneuver: 
The Boiler Boatz go All Ahead Full, but due to their crippled status, it is more of a limp along full.  The other Ork Blip also races towards the second Imperial Deployment Zone to try and capture it, but it is too slow and too far away.  

The initial Imperial Blip falls back away from the Boiler Boatz, while the second moves towards them to potentially engage.  


Turn 3: 
Initiative: 
The Imperials have an additional dice since a sub element is deployed by one of their blips.  This gives them Initiative and 1 Order.  The Orks have 0 Orders.  

Deploy: 
Both Fleets deploy the rest of their forces onto the board.  The Imperials at their second Deployment Node, and the Orks deploy one blip at each Node.  


  One of the Imperial Blips deploys an element.  The Blip deployed at the second Imperial Node.  

Orders:
The Imperial Blip near the second Node successfully receives a Lock-on Order.  The Orks use their free Order to go All Ahead Full on one of the blips near the second Imperial Node.  

Detection:
The two Blips by the Imperial Node are within passive range of each other and reveal themselves.  The Imperials are the Wrath of Humanity with a Protector Escort, while the Orks are the Big Dakka Boats!  The protector also increases the Passive Augur of the Wrath of Humanity, to reveal the second Ork blip to be a mob of Runt Boatz.   

One of the PDF blips by the initial Deployment Nodes goes Active Augurs and tries to reveal the Ork Blip.  The Imperials are revealed to be Steadfast Commerce raiders.  However, they fail to detect the Ork Blip.  It stays as a Blip.  

Battle:
This was the moment Admiral Travers had been waiting for.  The human battleship task force versus the main Ork threat.  The Lock-On order is decisive and allows the Wrath of Humanity to land 6 damage chits on the Ork Big Dakka Mob after the Counter-measure rolls.  The Smokescreen helped, but it wasn't enough.  The Ork player grabs his tokens, and declares his Mob broken and out of the battle.  Ouch, however the Ork fleet maintains the chits for fleet morale reasons.  


The damage is so severe and crippling to the Ork fleet, that the rest of the Ork force decide to withdraw back to safety in the ports of the Green Zone of the Deff Islands.  

Conclusion
That ended rather abruptly as the Ork Big Dakka Boatz were so utterly devastated byt he Wrath of Humanity Taskforce, that the Ork forces decided to call it a day!  The Orks took 19 Morale Chits and broke at 14.  Bad draws!  The Imperials took 9 and had a break point of 13.  

The Ammoriss Naval PDF was victorious.  



So, how did the game play?  Hmm, it worked as intended for the most part.  I need to go back and balance the Chit draws a bit as most taskforces did not survive an attack as they were pulling multiple Morale loss chits consistently.  I need more 1's and 2's and fewer 3+ in the stack.  Related to this, I may need to re-jig the Morale rating of the various forces.    

Sometimes, it was hard to keep track of which Chits were for which force, so there will need to be a Blue and a Red force for the cards and make color coded Deployment markers.  

The core of the game was detection and blind man's bluff.  I would say neither of us played this part that well, except for my opponent's opening tricks with his Ork Sneaky Gitz.  I failed to use my anti-sub flotilla well at all!  However, the right initiative, with the access to the right order, with the right unit allowed me to take the W and detecting the enemy there was key.  If I had not had initiative my Commerce Raiders would have gotten pasted by the Ork Subz and possibly won the game for the Orks.   
That said, we consistently kept screwing up how many dice we could throw for Initiative/Orders due to deployed Escorts and subs.  We were under rolling in the later turns.  

Admiral Travers read through the reports coming in from the various Taskforce commanders.  Ork forces had been detected and succesfully engaged.  The Xenos were fleeing back to their ports, licking their wounds.  Ork Capital Ships had been successfully repulsed!  The Approaches to the Green Zone were secure.  The Admiral sighed with relief.  It was another feather in the cap of Taskforce: Chalice.

Upon hearing the reports, General Kurtz was said to respond with a curt nod and a rough Cadian salute, "Done well enough."  With that, he and Commander Brusilov turned to the task of transferring the forces of TaskForce: Sword to the Green Zone.  

Warboss Skarbash could fee the noose tightening around his neck.  The cunning pirate knew he was going to have to do something unconventional if he wanted to throw the Imperial war machine off its stride, and gain back the initiative.             
  

Monday, September 21, 2020

On The Painting Desk- Finish It!


This year, I had some big painting projects to complete.  First, I wanted to complete my Men of Bronze armies, and second I wanted to finish off my Heirs of Empire 6mm armies.  I managed to complete both of these tasks earlier in the year.  However, that wasn't the end of my "Pile of Shame".  In fact, I still had a handful of Copplestone Casting Gangsters, some Gangster buildings, Fantasy miniatures, and some All Quiet on the Martin Front Scorpion Drones to finish off. 

Thankfully, I am having a pretty productive year on the painting front.  I have painted up to 66 models or bases this year.  Let's take a look at some of the Models I painted to finish off my Pile of Shame....

Here is about where I was with my Gangster models:

Here is about where I was with the buildings: 

And these were some assorted minis in my Pile of Shame to paint:

I managed to paint a lot of gangsters this year!  I look forward to taking a lot of "action shots" of these models to help flesh out the photos in my Turf War rules.  I want the rules updated with new pictures so that I can get it on the Wargame Vault.  I plan on having that done by the end of the year.

Two gangster gals....
A boss, his girl, and a hitman....
Those were the last few gangsters I had left, the rest have shown up previously on the blog in On the Painting Desk posts.  So, you can see I was also working on some buildings in the background, and those turned out like this.....

The start of my town.... Los Mundos
The 4ground models for the Chicago Way come pre-painted and go together really good.  They might be just a tad more detailed and complex than I really needed (or enjoyed) putting together, but they do look the part when done!  All the little posters and leaflets look amazing on the finished models.  

Here is a sample of what some of the pictures in the Turf War  will end up looking like.  This was just a quick test with no lighting set up.


   
So, then I turned my attention to the Scorpion Drones.  I painted these with some remorse.  They are the last models I have to paint for All Quiet on the Martin FrontI do not expect any replacements anytime soon, even though the game was purchased by a new company they are redesigning the line.  It makes me a bit sad as I loved the old Martians and American models.  I am sure you will see more of these guys when I start playtesting my post-Martian Apoc skirmish game. 

Scorpion Drones
I was getting to the end of my "Pile of Shame" and was afraid if I painted them all I would die.  You know the old saying about a gamer who paints all his models, right?  So, I took an evening to make and paint up some Ork Submersibles for Aquanautica Imperialis: Battle for the Depths so next time I play I would not need to use paper templatesThese guys used all paints and materials from Big Box Retailers, so they were ultra cheap to make.


Finally, I had two last miscellaneous Fantasy models to paint.  They were both from Reaper, one was Bones and the other was Dark Haven metals.  The old Bones sucks to paint, but the new Bones Black is much better.  Of course, Reaper's metal is always good!

 
These ladies will probably feature in local D7D campaign (If COVID ever ends), my Frostgrave wizard's warband, or Rampant Swords.  However, these were the last of my unpainted models.... EEK!

Thankfully, some new ones came in the mail!  Plus, I have a whole Early Republican army on the way...


Wow.  That was close.....




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Monday, July 6, 2020

Random: 2020 Half-Way Goal Update!


So far 2020 has not been like anything that I expected it to be.  I expected a vast nuclear wasteland, or to be living in a giant dystopian city, I thought we would be on Tokyo-3 by now!  That is what my childhood had prepared me for?  It did not prepare me for the dystopia that we actually have!  Pandemics, riots, political chaos..... I guess it is a good thing I have wargaming to keep me going! 

Last year, I tried a different approach and focused on goals by Period.  I decided not to be doing that this year.  I placed my goals into a series of categories instead of by genre or period.  Those categories are:

·         Purchase- This is goals that require me to spend my hard earned bread, cash, grip, money, coin, etc. 
·         Painting and Modelling- Here is the section of stuff I will want to paint up or build up
·         Playing- This section will be for what I intend to put on the table for 2020
·         Rules Writing- Here are my goals for writing and creating games
·         Miscellany- This is for stuff that falls into the realm of Blood and Spectacles but doesn’t neatly fit into a category

I laid most of my goals out in a different thread, so there is no need to rehash that post!  If you want you can go back and read it for yourself.

So, let's find out what we have accomplished so far.....

Purchases
This year, I expected to buy a lot of stuff.  Thanks to your support via the Wargame Vault, I have been able to make progress on this front.  Not as much as I had hoped.... but progress.  Thanks for the assist on this one guys!  I have been able to get the following from my list:

1. Clash of Spears
2. Zona Alfa
3. Gangster Terrain (3 Shotgun houses and 2 store fronts) 
4. Blood Bowl Lizard Men
5. Last Days: Seasons
6. Realty's Edge




There are still a lot of ancients left to buy.  However, I think I cleared some space in the painting Queue for them so I can probably start buying some Romans.  

That leaves to buy:

  • Victrix Elephant
  • Victrix Greek Cavalry
  • Victrix Republican Romans
  • Victrix Samnites/Carthaginians/Italians
  • Gangs of Rome
  • Mortal Gods
  • Oathsworn Burrows and Badgers bundles A and B
  • Any new Osprey Blue Books
That still looks like a long ways to go on the buying front.  I have a feeling some will slide into next year!



Painting and Modelling
Last year, I painted over 150+ models.  That is probably a record for me, and I doubt I will be getting anywhere near that this year.  However, a man can dream can’t he? So far I have painted up 75 minis or bases.  Not bad.  

I finished my two Greek Men of Bronze armies- Corinthians and Spartans


Spartan Army

Corinthian Army

Paint my 6mm Baccus Successor Armies- I have enough for two armies of Heirs to Empire!



Finish up my loose Gangster Models from Copplestone casting- I only have 5 left




Complete a set of Scorpion Drones for All Quiet on the Martian Front- Not Started

Paint my Purchases for Use- Painted up my Lizzies!


Playing
This year, in half a year I have managed to play as many games as I did all of last year!  Plus, i have the beginning of a variety of games.  I just need to finish them off on the table.

  1. Broken Legions- Played
  2. Wars of the Republic!- Played a couple of times
  3. Men of Bronze- Played it! 
  4. Operation: Hemlock- Got those in too!
  5. Play a New Game- Watch this space for the battle report! 
Broken Legions

Wars of the Republic

Men of Bronze

Aeronautica Imperialis

Wars of the Republic


Wars of the Republic

Rampant Stars

Turf War


Aquanuatica Imperialis

Rules Writing
Typically, this is one of my more productive goals for the year.  Last year was a pretty good year for me on this front, and I hope to keep expanding on my successes.  I always have various projects on the go, and this year I have a few deadlines to hit!

1.       Complete writing Wars of the Republic for Osprey Games- Sent to the Publisher!

2.       Update the photos and artwork in Turf War for Wargame Vault- I have the models and terrain now.  Just need to take the photos and make the updates! 

3.       Get 1 game from the WIP section to the Wargame Vault- I finished the rules for Glittering Void, but I really need some better pictures before that is ready for prime time. 

4.       Get 1 new game into the WIP section of the blog- I actually have 4 games I have been working on: Under the Martian Yoke, White Star/Red Star, Homer's Heroes, and Aquanautica Imperialis: Force of Arms.  Two are up in the WIP Games section for you to review. 

White Star/Red Star Playtest

Miscellany
This is stuff I want to do for the Blood and Spectacles publishing, but don’t really fall into other categories. 

1.       Get 1 new blog post a week- So far I am on track! 

2.       Take more photos for Social Media Marketing- Check my Instagram! 

3.       Add a games Played/Models Painted Tracker to the Blog- In web version, look at the bottom right hand side, below the WIP games!
4.       Do preliminary work for organizing a local Convention for 2021- Covid absolutely killed this one!  No  progress. 



Conclusion
There is an update.  Like usual, it has been a productive year writing games but it has also been unusually productive with gaming and painting too.  I have a strong start to 2020, but I expect the Apocalypse to arrive and ruin the second half from a wargaming perspective.  I mean, it is an election year!  I hope my progress so far is enough to carry me through the end of the year.

Good luck to all of you out there! 





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