Firefight! A space monkey's view. Part 1

  Greetings.  Sorry for the long hiatus, myself and Lowie have been busy trying our hand at the new WWII 28mm game, Bolt Action from Warlord Games, but that is a story for another blog!  Our games of Infinity have been pretty sporadic lately, but between Lowie, Cohen and myself (with most the work being done for the other two) we managed to organise a small tournament to try and garner more interest in Infinity locally, to provide more opponents for the charnel houses.

  The tournament, called Firefight!, consisted of four 150 point battles per player using the YAMS mission system.  We had 10 players and managed to cruise through the rounds quite quickly, the whole tournament taking about 6 hours with a stoppage for lunch.  We had some help from Slave to Painting, who generously supplied us with vouchers as prizes for 1st, 2nd and 3rd positions.  These guys frequently have great deals and amazing customer interaction/support.  Definately a great source for Infinity and other hobby needs.

My kilted opponent playing another player later in the day.

  I took my MAF again.  My list consisted of a Yaogat Lt., a 5 man Daturazi link team (4 with Chainrifles, 1 with a Light Smoke Grenade Launcher) and a Rasyat with Spitfire.  My first battle was against a vanilla Ariadnan force, my opposing commander even donning a kilt in an attempt to please the dice gods.  It definately worked, as I had a bad start to the day.  My link team crossed the fairly open ground to move on a Traktor MUL, Dozer and Loup Garou, but my over eager Witch-Soldiers fumbled with their smoke grenades when I tried to throw them through smoke clouds to chain a nice path of smoke to the enemy.  I ended up expending too many orders, so my link team dove into some nearby cover.  My Rasyat held off until an opening appeared.
 

The battlefield for the first battle, it had a few open
spaces that I foolishly tried to cross.

  My opponent moved an Irmandinho up, so my Daturazi dropped a smoke screen, but the Ariadna was focused and he used an intuitive shot to chainrifle my team.  My return fire killed the impetuous pup but I also lost 2 Daturazi.  This was to be the recurring story of this game.  Each time my Daturazi would chainrifle an Ariadnan, their return ARO would kill me and I was soon down to just my Yaogat and Rasyat.  Needing to get into my enemies' deployment zone and capture his flag, my Rasyat threw caution to the wind and drop down next to the Ariadnan flag but his camoflaged Chassuer flamed him to a crisp before he could react.  I ended the game with just my Lt. left and my opponent had 2 Traktor MULs and a Highlander Grey.  I lost 2 objective points to 3.  Our scoring system for the tournament used a Flames of War style system, where because I lost and killed between 33%-66% of my enemies force, I received 2 victory points (VP), while my opponent gained 5.  He was a new player to Infinity, but a long time wargamer and played very well, definantly a well deserved victory for him.

  My second battle was against another fairly new player who was running one of Cohen's Haqq-Islam lists.  It had a Maghariba Guard, Naffatun with Heavy Flamethrower and 3 Ghulam Riflemen, one being his Lt.  My objectives for the game called for me to kill his Maghariba for 2 of them, his Lt. for another and not be in retreat.  He had first turn and managed to put two suppressive fire lanes over my link team but they managed to conceal themselves with smoke.  Not wanting to activate them, I held off on my Rasyat again, and moved my Yaogat up to Panzerfaust his Maghariba.  This was where my lucky flew out the window.  My opponent decided he didnt want to give up the suppressive fire on my link team and proceeded to let my Yaogat blaze away, but with 2 Panzer shots and 4 shooting actions with my Combi-rifle, I only managed to inflict 1 point of structural damage to his Maghariba.

  

The Ghulam HMG that kept my Daturazi pinned down.

  Then in my opponents second turn, he gunned down my Yaogat and again laid suppressive fire on my Daturazi, pinning them.  I had really deployed them in a bad position.  My deployment is probably my weakest part of my game, as I seem to leave my poor Witch-Soldiers in often poor positions straight from the onset.  Anyway, I dropped my Rasyat down on the Maghariba's flank and elected him as my new Lt., then opened up on the enemy TAG with my Spitfire.  I fared better and eventually managed to kill it even with it turning and then attempting to return fire on my second shooting attempt.  Then on my opponent's next turn his Naffatun managed to get up to my Daturazi who'd been pinned for 2 turns.  It was messy.  I lost 3 Daturazi but managed to kill the Naffatun.  I then lost my last 2 Daturazi but managed to kill a Ghulam.  This left my Rasyat vs. 2 Ghulams, one with a HMG in a commanding perch above the battlefield.

The Ghulam Rifles fanned out to pick apart
the remains of my Daturazi.

  My Rasyat dashed through some open ground to get a bead on the last Ghulam riflemen who I assumed was my enemies' Lt.  His HMG Ghulam missed and my Rasyat cut down the riflemen.  When the smoke had cleared, we both had achieved 3 objectives.  Sadly, I was in retreating, having only my Rasyat left.  Being such a bloody battle (we each had less then 33% of our forces left), we both received 3 VPs.  After two battles I was on a measy 5 VP.  It was going to be a hard road to catch up to the forerunners of the tournament, one of whom was one of my follow bloggers who'd garnered 12 VPs after his first 2 games.  The results of my final 2 games and overall placings will have to wait for another blog, I must return to my command post and begin seeking replacements for my casualities!

 

Some pictures of the latest stuff

Some pics for your enjoyment!  About 300pts of Ariadna (painted by me); 150pts of Haqqislam (painted by a friend of all of us who is a very good painter; the Crates and Civvies for our upcoming 150pt tourney, Firefight; and some nearly finished terrain I've been working on, of which you've all seen a few pics.  In the foreground of Terrain Photo 1 is the Mag-Lev train, printed from the downloadable file. It also comes with the iKubes in the centre of the table.

Thanks for reading!

Not dead yet!

We are still here.  We promise.  But between work, family and other commitments, it has been a while since any of us have sat down to write things up!  Sorry!  Hopefully in the next month or so things will settle a little more and we'll be able to show you some of the games and terrain and cool stuff.

Okay?  Thanks!

Cork buildings basecoated

Greetings!

Just a couple of photos to add of my corkboard buildings.  I've added a rim around the edge of the previous one, where once the roof was fixed in place, to support a removable 'lid'.  It will be made of cardboard that has been corrugated.  The larger two pieces are the one building, which will be joined together (very soon, I hope).  They represent a mechanic's workshop or similar.

As with the cardboard buildings, there's a lot of work to do in the detailing.  I'm not sure just specifically what my approach with these will be, except to add the roofs, and inner floors for the larger building.  I'm thinking the section above the entrance (the two bigger doors) will be relatively open, with a walkway around the top.  I'll have to see how it turns out when I get to work on it.

But... so far so good.  I've enjoyed the projects and am looking forward to playing games on tables that sport these buildings!

Cheers!

Working hard

 Okay, so this post will be mainly pictures.  I've been working on terrain, on a bunch of buildings and today the accoutrements I bought from Antenociti's Workshop arrived. I ordered some computer panels for various hacking points, some door panels for each of the buildings and some interior furniture.  The other thing I ordered was a set of planter boxes.  I'd like to move away from the grimdark feel of GW's terrain offerings.

In fact, the look I'm aiming for at the moment is an outpost of some description, most likely something along the lines of mining exploration.

None of the buildings pictured are finished, merely basecoated.

So.  I might not get many games due to studies, work and family, but by George I'll have a good looking table when it happens!

Cheers!

The Migrant Fleet Approaches!

Hey all! Lowie here, been along time since i posted; living under a rock and all (and kept failing my PH rolls to lift said rock). After a rage quit from PanO's last failed game i have looked at what i can do within the game. I discovered that i actually really like the Nomad models and decided to build a list based on the Bakunen Jurisdictional Command. Some Moderators for a LINK team, 3 Sin Eaters to be auto-turrets. Two infiltrating glue guns and some other useful bits and bobs (don't want to give away all my tricks to potential opponents who read this :P). Overall synergised well in tonight's game against Cohen where we played a mission, the name fails me at this stage. At the end of the game Cohen had 1 model left and it was still a draw! (Mrs Cohen would have damaged me if i kept her husband away from the house any longer i think :S ; but of course I kid for effect.)

once the new job starts to produce more funds for me i shall purchase my metal warriors and start showing painting. Until next time!

...More games!

The games we played a while back were interesting.  Still at 150pts, I played both Skorpious' Morat Aggression list and Lowie's Military Orders (MO) list.

Skorpious' list was something like 2 Morats and a Morat paramedic (linked), a Yaogat with sniper rifle and a Yaogat with Combi Rifle and panzerfaust.  The thing that's confusing me about that is that it's only 125pts, so I'm missing something.  I chose the table edge (the top of the picture) and put all my guys behind cover, one Line Kazak (LK) on either side to protect my flanks, and one more LK in the centre with the HMG and the Veteran Kazak (VK).  My Chasseur and Foxtrot Ranger were awaiting Infiltration deployment.  Skorpious deployed his sniper (whichever it was!) up in the two-storey building next to the landing platform, the other Yaogat in the centre of the board (visible in the first picture, and the three Morats on the far right side, just visible.  My Chasseur deployed behind the green street sweeper, laying a mine out between the yellow truck and the cork building.  The Ranger deployed on top of said building, right on the half-way point.  Both were in Camo.

Quickly both Skorpious and I saw that the Ranger was exposed and he tried to discover her.  As a reaction, she ducked out of view but they'd seen her.  She was trapped now between the Suppression from the sniper and from the other Yaogat on the ground.  The Morats moved up closer.  My forces moved up, sticking to cover as much as possible.  The LK on the right moved up and lay down Suppression Fire to a firing line along the edge of the board to block the Morat advance, the LK with HMG doing the same from the edge of the big building.  The left-side LK ran up, aiming to flank the sniper.  The VK also moved up, but with very limited visibility to the other side of the table.

The first blood of the match was to me in ARO when one of the Morats came into LoF.  He went down, dropping the Morats out of their link team mode.  The Yaogats manoeuvred a little, the sniper hugging cover more closely and the Yaogat on the ground trying to get a bead on the sniper.  Suppression fire was renewed.  I renewed my LK's suppression, kept my flanking LK on the move (in cover) and pushed up the centre with the rest.  The Ranger restarted her Camo and went prone, moving up to the edge of the building and avoiding the Suppression fire from below.  The Chasseur crept up closer too, still in camo.

More fire was exchanged through the building, with another Morat dropping, but revived by the paramedic.  One side of the battle was focussed through the buildings (the cork one, mid right) and finished with the Vanguards on that side down (crits for the win!), and one of my LKs.  The other model lost there was the Chasseur, who found himself open to attacks from behind, fire coming in from the Morats prior to them going down.  This was another of the rules that I found tough to deal with.  The Chasseur is being shot at, but until the bullets actually hit him, he doesn't turn around.  On the forums it was described as too much noise in the surrounds, or silenced weapons, but the more I think about it, the less I like it.

The other thing I'll have to do is house-rule the windows on the buildings.  If Skorpious and Lowie agree, we'll make them see-through-able, but not able to be shot through without either breaking the window first (short skill?) or shooting it out.

The final part of the battle consisted of a lone LK flanking and shooting down the Yaogat (who on consultation wasn't a sniper but an HMGer!) and the Vet Kazak taking the last Yaogat full on.

The second game was against Lowie's list: 3 Order Sergeants with Combi Rifles (linked), a Spec. Sergeant with Sniper Rifle, a Teutonic Knight with Combi Rifle and a Magister Knight with Panzerfaust (basically just the starter).

I'll describe this one in a little less detail, since time is short!  I deployed at the bottom of the picture, my Vet Kazak centre, two LKs and the HMG on the left in buildings or near the crates and a lone LK on the right covering the flank. My Chasseur deployed just inside the halfway mark, behind the green truck, laying a mine 8" farther out.  The sniper rolled for and got prime position in the bombed-out two-storey building in the upper left.  Lowie deployed his meagre forces within his zone, the specialist sergeant (SS) sniper with TO Camo emerging on top of the grey bombed-out building at upstage centre.  His link team of Order Sergeants (OS) came down the flank to the right.

The Magister's first move took him in contact with the mine, taking a wound and attracting a shot from the sniper.  The TO sniper took out my sniper quickly after that and proceeded to dominate the centre of the board.  The Chasseur kept up the pressure in the centre, but didn't do much else.  The action was on the right flank, with the LK there killing off all three members of the OS link team.  This left the flank wide open and after a few turns of dying in the centre of the board, I was able to move my Vet Kazak and Chasseur to threaten the remaining minis - the SS and the Teuton.  Concurrent with that, the LK on the flank simply ran around the edge of the map (much as in the previous match) and ended up taking out the sniper with sheer weight of fire.  It was glorious!  The Teutonic Knight died soon after.  I'd had to sacrifice my Chasseur, but it was worth it, as was the flanking manoeuvre.

So there you have it.  Two battle reports, two wins.  I've played two more games since then, one scenario game with Skorpious (who's described it well) and another with another friend to show him the game.  I left my HMG Kazak on the top of a tall building and he died turn one.  After that it was pretty much down hill!  I lost that game to a man.

Cheers!

The Cult Grows With More Games

  It's been pretty quiet around here over the last week but we have been busy spreading the gospel of Infinity. Lowie, Cohen and myself have had a few games at our local gaming club and it's been generating quite a bit of interested.  We have another person interested in a PanOceania list, built around a Cutter, as he's really drawn by the mecha-style of the PanO TAGs.  Then we have two interested in Aleph, one being my 14 year old nephew who has put in an order for the Aleph starter set through Slave to Painting (who has an amazing sale on at the moment of 35% of the Infinity range).  The other Aleph player has also ordered through Slave to Painting, but his already ordered a sizable batch of models, to make a 300 point list.  There is also another gamer who really likes the Ariadna Highlander aesthetics.

  I'll give a quick run down of the games I've had since my last post and share some of my thoughts at the end.  I haven't really taken any photographs just yet, because to be honest they would be quite ugly.  My Morats are still not fully painted and our terrain is still in the construction phase.  Cohen has been banging out some really nice buildings, but they are still brown cardboard colour at the moment.  So hopefully soon, I'll be able to start posting up some pretty mid-battle photos to bring you all the action in full colour.

  So in the last week I've had two games against Cohen's Ariadnans, both at 150 points.  I used a Morat Aggression Force in both.  The first list was a HMG Sogarat, Yaogat Lieutenant and three Vanguard Infantry.  I got caught up using suppressing fire from my Sogarat and Yaogat to keep his Ranger's head down, which gave Cohen time to flank me.  Then a string of luck for him (three criticals in a row!) saw my poor Morats gunned down.  I'll let him cover the game in more detail as he took a few photos and was planning to write up a brief report.

 The second game, I used a Kurgat with Autocannon, the three Vanguards, a Yaogat Lieutenant and another with Boarding Shotgun.  We played a mission that had three AI pods scattered about the battlefield that we had to disable and recover.  Sadly the pods had HMGs with Total Reaction and we deployed them in a way where they had clean LoF to at least one other pod.  This meant to recover them we were going to have to disable all of them.  I quickly decided to hold back and let Cohen fight the pods and then I could swoop in and mop up, although not before I lost a Yaogat to a pod through careless movement.  Cohen disabled two pods, and I did take out a third.  I ended up losing my Vanguards and Yaogat Lieutenant, which saw my Kurgat who was hugging cover at the back of the table, leg it off the field, but at least Cohen was only left with three models in this game. 

  I also had a game versus Lowie's PanO Knights.  This game went to plan quite well for me.  His impetuous Magister Knight cross through some open game and got gunned down in a crossfire of my Sogarat and two Vanguards.  My Sogarat did take a Panzerfaust to the chest from his Teutonic Knight, but in my next turn, I passed my Automedikit roll and my Sogarat slowly regained his feet and shot up his Teutonic Knight (to my hummed version of the Rise of the Machines theme music!).  As the smoke cleared at the end, I had only lost one Vanguard Infantry and Lowie's force was wiped out.

  I must say, its been mostly a hard road for my Morats.  I've made a few mistakes in games with movement and such, but I think I've found in these smaller 150 point games, my low miniature count is really hurting my play style.  I usually only have five or six, but three of those are Vanguard Infantry.  I have been trying to use my Vanguard aggressively in a link team but they have lost one to AROs pretty quickly in the games so far, breaking the link, meanwhile my more expensive Yaogats and Sogarat are getting flanked and taken out.  As suggested by Solodice on an early post, I might try out a four-man Yaogat link team.  Their extra armour and extra body should make it less vulnerable to snapped off AROs in the start of the game.  And I am also looking forward to starting to play some larger games, so I can add more bodies and still keep some toys.  Also I plan to buy a Zerat soon, as both Lowie and Cohen are running a few camo'd guys, I figure I need to keep up!

  So with these thoughts, I've also been toying of the idea of getting a second army in the shape of an Ariadnan Merovingienne force.  I really like the look of the Metro miniatures, creeping through desolate city alleys in their civilian-esque armour.  In the list I have chosen for it, I have nine guys at 150 points.  So it should pay quite different to my Morats as well.

  I leave the delving into the FRRM idea fully for another post.  For now, it's time to finish off the paintjob on these Morats!

More terrain...

Hi there.

Just a short update as I'm really supposed to be studying today... ah well, can't be helped!

First up, terrain.  The local Big Smoke (which really isn't that big until you live in a town of 800 people...) has a Spotlight store, selling craft supplies, fabric, paper, scissors, bed linen, etc.  I was able to steal some time on my day off to go and browse.  So now, in addition to the corkboard buildings being created, I've also got some small cardboard boxes that I'm slowly but surely crafting into buildings.

The first one I tried was using a big cardboard planter box, cutting out some windows, doors and using an iPhone box as main entrance (which is visible in the full board setup I'll be posting soon).  The cardboard was relatively easy to cut, using a hobby knife, and I'd also bought some plastic crocheting sheets, which have made excellent grill windows.  Consensus was that I needed to make the interior playable.  Currently it's more a "display piece".  Lowie was also a little annoyed or disappointed that the space at the top was restricted, as his TO Camo'd sniper would've loved that perch!

The second thing I did was create a simple landing platform.  Using some of the odds and ends from the El Cheapo Máximo playset that I bought, I added steps to the front of it and a small antenna using a tank turret (so no FoW for that one!).  It's come out quite nicely.  Obviously all of these still need painting, but I'm going to wait for some warmer weather to do that.  I'm also hoping that the paint won't warp the cardboard as it dries.

The next step was to turn the other boxes visible in the first pic into something usable.  There were two 9cm x 9cm boxes which have become one room buildings with an annex (visible in the lower left of the full table layout).  Then these two buildings with interior walls (pictured with the glue still drying, roofs on and off).  I wanted something that would break up the sight lines a little more.  During the games, the windows through the buildings became excellent vantage points for tagging things with AROs.  It made the game much more unpredictable!  And fun, too, if I'm being honest.  I enjoyed the challenge of thinking through all the lines of fire that were possible before moving.  Having the roofs removable is interesting too.  I haven't ever had access to buildings that were usable like that before.

I have several more bigger boxes that will be used to create a few more multi-room buildings, and I'm looking forward to putting them together in the next week or so.

That's it for me for now.  I'll probably post up some battle reports later.

Cheers!

First Painted Space Monkeys and Spec Ops!

  So I received my Combined Army miniatures last
week and quickly assembled them within hours of receival.    They had very little flash on them and I was very happy with the quality, although I knew to expect lovely miniatures from Corvus Belle.  I decided to assemble my Sogarat differently to the 'at rest' pose displayed on the Infinity webpage.  Instead, as you can see in this picture, I made him hoisting his HMG one-handed, in total contempt of his target, nonchalantly blazing away at them.


  Here is a group shot of my Morat force.  The total is 282 points at the moment.  Not sure how often I will use all four Yaogats, but as there is no Morat Aggression Force starter and I wanted a pure Morat army, I had to buy the full box of them.  I do love the Sogarat and can't wait to use him in a game this coming weekend.  I look forward to having Cohen and Lowie trying to work out how to crack open this ARM 6, W 2 beast.

  Anyway, I have begun painting.  Now I am not a great painter or a fast painter.  I have over 20,000 points of 40k miniatures and barely 3,000 of them are painted to a gaming standard at best.  But with starting Infinity and the smaller army size, I decided I would paint them fairly quickly, so I can play with a fully painted force.  No excuses.  I'm happy with having gotten two done in a week with a busy schedule including trips to the city to see Ice Hockey (but that's another story).  So here is my finished Sogarat and Yaogat with Spitfire.  

  I've gone with a dark blue (old GW Regal Blue), with light blue highlights (old GW Enchanted Blue + Skull White) and green underarmour/patches (old GW Goblin Green) for the armour itself.  I painted the Sogarat's helmet in a stylised Morat scheme, with the white crest to simulate their white hair and red faceplate.  I will continue this helmet scheme with the other Yaogats who have enclosed helmets.  Their guns have a darker look with a lot less colour on them, but I like it as a contrast to their stark white hair and bright faces.  I'm happy to hear what you guys think, or any tips on painting these guys.

  As I was writing this post, I also saw Corvus Belle has release pictures of the new Spec Op miniatures.  I am not really smitten with the Morat one.  I think it's the pistol.  Although apparently it comes with alternate weapons.  If that is the case, he wouldn't be a model for a Vanguard Lieutenant.
  But I really like the Haqqislam and Ariadna ones.  Intel, the Ariadna Spec Ops, looks particularly bad ass, as though his about to use that combat blade on some poor unsuspecting sap.  Also the alternate heads for the Nomad and Aleph ones look awesome as well.  I may have to look into expanding into an Ariadna force later...

Tokens, Templates and Tents... Well, Kinda

There are a couple of things you need a lot of to play Infinity, or so it seems.

The first is the biggest one, and that's terrain.  If there's been one thing that has stood out in those first few games, it's that open sight lines will kill you.  With that in mind, I've had some corkboard lying around the house for some time, and with a quick trip to the general store to buy the smallest nails they sell, I took the time to carve it up and make some buildings, watched by Master Cohen, my son.  He avidly used my few Space Marines as scale markers and fought an epic last stand on the bombed-out building once it was complete.  I'm proud to say: my son is a wargamer in the making.  I win.

Cork is an interesting material to work with.  It is perfect for carving ruins out of, since the crumbling of the edges looks great when painted.  But I also think it's good for more solid constructions.  I have some more ideas I'm looking forward to trying out, like an L-shaped building a little taller than the ones in the pics here.  The debate this arvo was whether or not to make the roof removable to facilitate thru-play in the buildings themselves.  I'm still undecided.  What do you think?

All in all they turned out well, playable at the very least.

The second thing you need lots of is tokens and templates.  I ordered a lot of 100 25mm slotta bases from eBay (some seller in the UK... it was a great deal!) and they arrived very quickly, quickly enough that I now have 50+ tokens for wounds and camo and the various other things one needs.  I got the rulebook printed, spiral-bound, at a local printer, and with that I also acquired the tokens sheets printed on 100GSM gloss paper.  They looked really purdy once printed, but cutting them out proved almost their undoing.  The gloss paper and the printing on it peels off if not careful.  I was also to get a permanent marker and redo the edges; they've turned out alright and will certainly be functional (and certainly cheaper than 'official' ones)  I used some old CDs to support the explosion and smoke templates and laminated the flamer ones.  I'm waiting for some 25x50mm cavalry bases to mount the Suppression Fire tokens on, but they're on their way.

The other thing that is visible in the picture is my ol' faithful Focus markers from my Warmachine/Hordes days.  These will stand in as order markers for the time being.

The question remains though: do I have enough?

Time will tell!

First Games, Part 2

  So as Cohen said, we played a couple of beginner games this weekend.  My game was 150 points with my Combined versus Lowie's PanO.  With only a quick run over the rules this was a very much, hands-on learning experience.  I found the idea of cover and the requirement of being in contact with it to get the bonuses, difficult at first.  I am use to True Line of Sight cover rules from other miniature games, so we decided to play this first game using True LoS.  Afterwards we decided to play the rules as written, and to give it a chance despite any apprehension.
  So I used my 150 point list I mentioned in my last blog.  A Yaogat Lieutenant, another Yaogat with boarding shotgun, three Vanguard Infantry and a Kurgat with autocannon.  Lowie infilitrated his Specialist Sergeant with a clear bead on my Yaogat Lt. which was a bad oversight on my part straight off the bat.  My Lt. managed to survive Lowie's first turn, so I quickly moved my Kurgat across the street that seperated them, to get a shot at the enemy sniper.  The Kurgat struck straight, taking out the Specialist but was in turn shot down by Lowie's Teutonic Knight.
  Our lines seemed to turn on an axis, as I took out the PanOceania's right flank, as they smash me on the left.  Sadly though I lost my more expensive troops, my Yaogats going down to Lowie's Teutonic Knight and Magister Knight, despite putting up a brave fight in melee.  With my Lieutenant gone and down to one Vanguard Infantry against Lowie's two Knights and one Order Sergeant, the battle was all but over.
  In hindsight, I made a few grave errors in this first game.  Moving my Kurgat out to take out the enemy sniper wasn't really a good trade, I should have moved my Lt. and reduced the sniper's targets, forcing him into my fire lanes.  I also shouldn't have let the Knights get into melee.  I was confident in my high CC, but with them both having two wounds, it was an uphill battle (one I nearly won with some lucky rolls).
  All in all, it was a good game, and I look forward to getting my revenge soon.  I'll have some pictures of my Morat Aggression Force up soon!

Doom!

Hey there!

Just a small update today.  I went shopping at the local Kmart and found some interesting things...

These two bags held some interesting stuff.  I'd been keeping an eye on them (read: coveting...) for ages, mainly the construction set one, and mainly for a game called Pulp City (which can be found here: http://pulp-city.com).  It's a great little game, smaller than Infinity in terms of both model count and board size, since you can play with 2-4 minis on a 2x2 board and still have a decent game.  Finally I've caved and bought the two bags - it's cheap Chinese plastic stuff, but there are things in there that will fill a board.

I divided the two packs into stuff I could use and not (see the pics below; usable on the right, unusable on the left).  There was almost a whole bag of stuff that was the wrong scale or just too bad to use.  The mountain in the right picture is pretty cool, or would be if it was made of sturdier plastic.  But, for the price I paid, I didn't go too badly!  (Mrs Cohen might disagree!)

This should be enough to further populate our tables with some LoF blocking items, meaning that the units in the battle will be able to move around a bit more freely.  There are a bunch of brick walls, sandbag walls, rocks and some objective-like pieces, like the artillery cannons and the missile launchers.  I think we can come up with some decent scenarios to make use of them!  There were also a bunch of tall lamps and traffic lights which might be useful on urban tables.  I've got some cork tiles that I was thinking of using to make buildings from... now's the time!

I thought I should save the tanks, though, for my Flames of War playing colleagues.  What say you, guys?  Are they good enough for Flames of War?  Okay, so maybe not!  The other amusing items were these two feet.  I couldn't actually find the figures they belonged to, so I'm assuming they are there for scenery use... maybe to mark mines or something?

'Til next time!

First Games, Part 1

First games have taken place, one with the starters from the Quick Start Rules (QSR) with Lowie and myself, and then a 150pt game between Skorpious and Lowie.  I'm sure there were things we missed, forgot, did wrong, etc. All in all though, "a good time was had by all."  (And the barbecue lunch helped too, I'm sure!)

Initially it was a matter of setting out the terrain.  The first picture is the table in its entirety.  Sadly, we were using all the terrain available to us, and I have a feeling that it would have played a little differently if we'd used more stuff.

The left side of the board is pretty open, and there are lines of fire (LoF) that stretch from one side of the board to another!  This obviously has repercussions on how figures move and fight.  Playing Ariadna, I had two figures that could Infiltrate (start anywhere in my half of the board, further if I wanted to make a Physical (PH) roll... I chose not to) and so positioned a Camo'd sniper on the double-storey building in the middle of the table (just inside 24").  The other was my SAS trooper, who deployed near the giant tree stump, also Camo'd.  This advanced threat helped enormously.  The other two are visible in the pic in the lower right quadrant.

When Lowie deployed, he put a sniper in the two-storey building in the top right of the pic, and then the rest of his minis spread out across the table.  No infiltrators though, so that was a plus for me.

As we were playing, I've got to say I found the QSR very limiting.  We're all quite well versed in miniature wargaming, and so the lack of options presented was tough to work with.  But we managed, with input from Skorpious who can be seen here leafing through the rulebook on the right.

One thing we questioned early on was the line-of-fire and cover rules.  True line of sight has been a part of our gaming for a long time, and so we opted to use it rather than the 'you must be in base to base contact with a scenery item to gain cover.' This became one of our first debates - could the Acontecimento Regular on the board see my sniper when she came out of camo? Only partially, but enough to take the shot through trees to an elevated position, so we agreed that true line of sight meant that she gained cover.  Having since read through the forum threads on Cover, the way it makes most sense to me (as written) is thinking about cover in a target-oriented way (if you're not hunkering down, actively making the most of cover, you're exposed) vs. a shooter-oriented way (if you're looking down the sights at someone and there is a bit of house, a bus and some bushes in the line of fire to the guy in the middle of the street, he's harder to hit).

We'll have to have a try at the rules as they are written next time, with a target-oriented mentality.

The game ended with an Ariadnan victory, with the SAS and Kazak HMG left on the board.  PanOceania went into full retreat after that.

I'm going to leave it there, and hopefully Skorpious and Lowie will post in a bit with their first thoughts.

Cheers!

Starters, Assemble(d)!

Hey there,

A couple of days back I said the minis had arrived, and Lowie's progress has been evidence of that!  Now to show off my 'evidence'...

First up is the Haqqislam mob.  My 150pt list is two Ghulam Infantry; two Halqa, one a hacker; one Janissary; one Naffatûn with a light flamethrower; and a Hunzakut with sniper rifle.

Putting them together was a task fraught with danger... well, super glue, anyway.  A couple of the minis were a real pain.  Although you can't really tell from this angle, the sniper's rifle is too high, and looks a little awkward from the other side.  A couple of the joints didn't fit correctly, and the Janissary's gun-arm was a pain - the tag from moulding was too big for the joint.  Took a bit of carving to get it to sit right.

I'm looking forward to using the Mechanised Deployment skill on the Halqa, especially if we're going to play scenarios other than just shooting one another!  And the flame template looks like it will be enjoyable too!

I do still need to tidy up all the bases on the models, and that goes for the Ariadna troops too.  I noticed on Lowie's last post that he'd used greenstuff (from GW?) to fill the gaps in the bases.  Honestly, that had never occurred to me to try, so I'll have a go, along with filling in gaps in the minis themselves (which are only small but if I neglect them, I'll be kicking myself when I start to paint.

Then the Ariadna minis.  I'm torn with these guys.  I like their poses better I think, and I like the underdog status they have when it comes to their technology.  It's going to be harder to slog it out with the other factions in the short term, but I bought an HMG along with my 150pt force, so I should be fine!

The 150pt list is this: 3 regular Line Kazaks with rifles, and another with the aforementioned HMG; one Veteran Kazak with a T2 rifle; one Chasseur with rifle and flamethrower; and a Foxtrot Ranger with sniper rifle.  I was a little disappointed with the sniper - she's pencil-thin.  I can't imagine her firing her rifle; it would knock her over.  Mrs Cohen's comment was, "Why do the girls always have such weird butts?"  And I had to agree... it was odd.

These guys were less tricksy to put together, which was nice.  Although the Highlander Grey was 5 pieces, they all came together reasonably easy.  The picture above shows the 10-man crew hanging out together. I've since been given another Ariadna mini, a Caledonian Volunteer, which Skorpious had in surplus, after buying a blister to get the chick with the grenade launcher for his 40K Imperial Guard army.  Thanks, Skorpious!  (Although he insists the guy is a girl, due to the fact he's wearing a 'skirt'... someone Scottish will kill you one day, mark my words!)

We might have some initial thoughts about the rules and game-play after Saturday afternoon ('arvo' in Australian), but for now, that's enough.

Cheers!

Coeli Lux Nostra Dux

Fresh out of the green-stuff and superglue encrusted fingers of their overlord the newest recruits in the PanOceanae Christi Militum Ordo have made past their ordinations and are ready to defeat the enemies of gods chosen. Man and Woman alike will purge the infidels from our rightful lands.

Anywho enough crusader speak take a gander at my new Starter set assembled along with a Nisse Sniper whom I will use in Shadowrun as my PC but will paint up so she still fits in with the rest of the army. Until next time.

Arrivals

Howdy!

Defiant Gaming have come through again.  In the evening of Wednesday, I put in an order for Lowie and myself.  This morning at the post office, TA DA! it was waiting for me...

This is the order: Lowie's PanO stuff (Military Orders starter) to the side there, along with a mini for his new Shadowrun character; mine is centre and left (Ariadna and Haqqislam starters; Halqa, Foxtrot Ranger sniper and S.A.S. blisters).  I put together the minis in the blisters almost immediately, and was quite impressed with the quality.  No flash except at injection points, hardly any mould lines either (and where they were there, they were along places where they were barely visible anyway).  The Halqa chick was the most difficult to put together - her weapon arm and supporting arm are two pieces, so a little manoeuvring was needed to get them to fit the body.  I'll probably use some of the GW Liquid Greenstuff to fill the small gaps that remain.  The other slightly tricksy model was the S.A.S. guy.  His knife blade is very thin, and there was a good tag on it from the mould, which I had to carve off.  With a lot of care, however, it all went well.

I'm hoping that I'll be able to do the boxed figures tonight, but no promises.  I'm also holding Lowie's minis prisoner until tomorrow.  So there.

And I'm very much looking forward to testing out this game.  If you've played the game before, how are the Quick Start Rules?  Useful?  Or a waste of time?

Until next time, cheers!

New Aliens on the block

    I've always liked the Infinity range of miniatures, with their distinctive flavour and animated poses.  So when Cohen and Lowie mentioned how they were getting into it, I jumped at the chance to join in.  As a long time player of Warhammer 40,000, my forrays into other game systems has been somewhat limited.  So with a limited knowledge of the rules, I set about choosing my list with the main focus being on what I thought looked awesome.

   

 I decided on a Combined Army, specifically a Morat Aggression Force.  Something about the Morat and their totally blunt, aggressive nature spoke to me.  These guys are unashamed in the brutal way they conduct war, and always play to win.

The Kurgat with Autocannon miniature leapt out at my instantly.  What more could any self-respecting soldier want then a firearm bigger then himself that fire explosive ammunition?

    Because we were starting small at 150 points, taking the Autocannon limited my choices of Lieutenant somewhat.  I decided to go with a Yaogat Lieutenant with Combi-rifle, along with a Yaogat armed with a Boarding Shotgun.  The intimidation factor of a shotgun always inspires confidence in me, so now with what I perceived as a strong core, I decided to fill out my starting list with some grunts.

    Three Morat Vanguard Infantry with Combi-rifles will help boost my numbers and stop me being swarmed by my opponents.  I look forward to expanding my list with some HMG totting Morats in the coming months, but for now am ready to start assembling my beginning force, time to wait at the mailbox.

Reconstructive Surgery

Alright.  It's begun.  I dug up a mini I'd previously acquired for AE: Bounty, but never really got around to painting: an Ariadnan Scout, with an Ojótnik rifle and E/Mauler (I still really have very little idea what either of those items are at the moment, but we'll get there!).

Sadly, when I got the mini out, the E/Mauler arm was gone, presumed snapped off.  My models tend to get a good working over through my kids, my son in particular being fond of checking out the latest and greatest.  I assume that is what happened here.

I spent some minutes looking through my various bitz boxes, and although I found some very interesting stuff, the arm was lost.  What to do?  In my searchings, I'd found an extra arm from a Cygnaran Ranger, which was holding a astrolabe or some sort navigational/telescopic device.  With a little clipping, I managed to cut it down to look like a smaller version of (what I remember) the E/Mauler (to be).

Here's what it looked like after the hobby knife attack:

Not particularly pretty, but functional.  May also double as a Forward Observer, once I work out what one of those does!  After a quick re-application of the undercoat (since the pink cloak is hideous!), the mini was looking a little more respectable:

With the Olympics playing in the background, I was able to work for about an hour and a bit on the mini, and on the whole I'm happy with the result.  I need to do some further work on the face (which is a common problem I have when I'm painting) and on the camo of the cloak (not too sure about the grey spots; maybe they could be smaller?).

All in all, a reasonable night's work, and a pretty good vanguard for the rest of the force, which should be arriving mid-week.

Cheers!

PS: The iPad 3 has a great camera!  It's close-up pictures are really pretty good, all in all.  Props to Mrs Cohen for holding the second light-source and to Eric Hill for Spot books.  You guys rock!