Mixed bag

The awful weather, lack of anything we both want to see at the kino, Mrs Zzzzzz's need to perfect and practice her presentation has meant I had a pretty good w/e for painting.

19 Kasarkin shaped Stormies*, 12 VASA Suppressors (Arbities), ten meltavets and eight of my fake Valhallans (similar to those in the photo - WF greatcoat bodies, Pig Iron winter heads and Cadian arms).

Also sprayed the Armageddon camoflage colours on six Chimera. Decals next. Tomorrow night, if Mrs Zzzzzz goes swimming.

*I'm saving the best cast Stormtrooper sergeant for a possible project later.

And in case I forget, if you're off to blogwars next w/e, good luck.

The Generosity of Gamers

As further proof that not only are not all gaming bloggers not cannibals, but that some of them are quite nice* - following a conversation with Karatis about foamcore buildings, without prompting, he made a gift of this:



In similarly generous spirit, Admiral Drax offered to paint something for me. So I'll be sending him something soon. And it doesn't end here, Soviet Space also left this behind:




But giving it back will be a good excuse to catch up with him again.

* Now that's us damned by faint praise.

Pirate Viking Painting: Officers and Gentlemen of the DKK

Pirate Viking Painting: Officers and Gentlemen of the DKK: "Just a quickee this time and the penultimate Death Korps update before the project is finished! This time it is the turn of the officers and..."

Operation Lockheart

The Battle.
This is it. Sort of. There was a lot going on and I’ve slept since:
The Cadian Recce unit deployed into the ruined Administratum building. Two Wolverines covered the landing field whilst the third and the Weasels covered the built up area to the south. A detachment of Preatorians arrived immediately to the west of their position. The Cadians remained wary of the Preatorians, who had been conspicuously absent during the last year as the Cadians fought their guerrilla action.
Their reasons were well founded. The Preatorians did not make contact with the Cadians, waiting in cover in the adjacent city block until the first PLA presence made itself felt, immediately to the East.
A Platoon of Tigers arrived, creeping along in search of the Cadians who had spent the last week evading them. As the hidden Cadians, including their snipers, engaged the Tigers, dissuading them from advancing any further, the Preatorian’s armour arrived. Meadusa siege guns and MBTs rolled into place and the Preatorian infantry began to fire and manoeuvre towards the ruined Adminstratum.
Turn Two
17 Div’s mobile reserve, C Coy of the Cadian 2/24, trained in the light role, landed en masse in a huge Valkyre lift in the square that used to be home to a weekly market and holy day morality plays. The ankle deep blanket of rubble and rubbish was hard on the infantrymen, but the open space was good for the Valkyre pilots, who landed everyone without incident, the vast clouds of dust thrown up keeping the airframes from serious AA fire.




A Tigers ML sentinel opened fire on a Wolverine. Which was a mistake, the Wolverine gunned its engines and hurtled forward, to crush the walker. The sentinel and its two HF fellows were still in action, all four vehicles thrashing about in the space between a tower and an empty basilica. The Preatorian Armour opened up on the weasels, destroying two of them as their infantry swept into attack. A Wolverine shot at one of the meadusae, knocking it out.
Elsewhere, the Tigers hesitated and the QRF shut their eyes and held hands over mouths and noses as 50 TLW dusted off, leaving them controlling a lot of ground with precious little cover.
Turn Three
Lead elements of the PLAs 79th Tank Battalion rolled into town; of the Cadian 2/24th had control of Freeman’s Square itself only moments before, they were joined by an ominous and threatening shape as a Baneblade entered the NW corner of the square with its MBT escort.
The 79th Tank Bn chewed its way through the Cadian relief force as the rouge Cadian guardsman Bomar jumped off the bell tower where he had been hiding and took on the Tiger’s Sgt Harphur and his remaining vets in an epic brawl that ended with Guardsman Bomar victorius. A similarly epic punch up went on in the shadow of Zarathusa’s tracks between a Preatorian Grenadier and an Arcomet Psyker, each of them the last of their respective units.
Epidemus, the Tallyman of Nurgle, arrived to anchor the Tiger’s right flank and two other Major Deamons of Nurgle arrived before Zarathusa and its escort of Arcomet Armour and promptly laid into them, chomping into the structure points available.
Turn Four and Five
Mechanised units from the Cadian 1/24 began to arrive. Griffin mortar carriages opened fire on PLA units threatening the square. One PLA LRMBT lost its main armament to an assaulting lone Cadian sentinel. PLA tank fire continued to keep the Cadians heads down. A lone Marauder Destroyer from the PLA’s air brigade hurtled over the scene firing its autocannons and loosing off a barrage of Hellstrike missiles at Cadian targets, scoring hits on many of its mechanised assets. Desparate meltagun fire and a curtain of flak from a damaged hydra took down the Marauder.
Arcomet units, scrambled as the Cadian QRF left to succour the 144th, began to arrive. Their elite PBS, veterans of many fights against Orks, found themselves in desperate HTH with Preatorian Grenadiers.
Behind the Tigers, the Arcomet Stormsword arrived, to counterpoint the arrival of the Cadian’s Lucius Pattern Baneblade ‘Zarathusa’ in the SE corner, threatening the Preatorians. As the Preatorians charged the Cadian’s position, the platoon were countercharged by a single special weapon squad, who held them up for an unfeasibly long time without going down.
At this point things started getting much worse for the Liberation Force, as deamons of Nurgle appeared. Nurglings and Plaguebearers assaulted the remains of the Cadian 144th. Melta teams from the Cadian 2/24th worked their way through the 79th Tank Bn’s tanks whilst their veterans faced off against the Tiger’s Colonel Strapon and his supporting Ogryn. The Tiger’s redoubtable CO only took down only two vets, but took almost all of the Cadian’s fire power for two or three turns before eventually going down.
The Deamons finally took out the Zarathusa, the ensuing explosion clearing a good two square feet of space in that corner of the board, the only survivor in the area was one of the Major Deamons. Unfortunately for ‘it’, the explosion had removed the building between it and a squadron of ASL Tank Hunter Sentinels and promptly took a Las Cannon to the face, sending it back to the warp.
The Cadian 1/24 arrived and drove into the fray, committing everything they had to clearing the Plaguebearers off the 144th’s scanner with its vital data.
Epliogue
Technically, the objective was still being contested at the end of the game. In narrative terms, the Cadian 144th lost all but three of its men, Major Budget (OC of the 144th) lasting on his own until the very turn that the deamons were banished.
So the Imperium has possession of the scanner, but there is every chance that the cogitators are full of plaguebearer slime. We’ll have to wait a while to find out.
My thanks to the participants, Admiral Drax and Kartias. Especial thanks to Soviet Space, who’s obvious experience of Apoc and keeping things running along at a good pace possibly saved us from a three day game.

Operation Lockheart

The Battle.
This is it. Sort of. There was a lot going on and I’ve slept since:
The Cadian Recce unit deployed into the ruined Administratum building. Two Wolverines covered the landing field whilst the third and the Weasels covered the built up area to the south. A detachment of Preatorians arrived immediately to the west of their position. The Cadians remained wary of the Preatorians, who had been conspicuously absent during the last year as the Cadians fought their guerrilla action.
Their reasons were well founded. The Preatorians did not make contact with the Cadians, waiting in cover in the adjacent city block until the first PLA presence made itself felt, immediately to the East.
A Platoon of Tigers arrived, creeping along in search of the Cadians who had spent the last week evading them. As the hidden Cadians, including their snipers, engaged the Tigers, dissuading them from advancing any further, the Preatorian’s armour arrived. Meadusa siege guns and MBTs rolled into place and the Preatorian infantry began to fire and manoeuvre towards the ruined Adminstratum.
Turn Two
17 Div’s mobile reserve, C Coy of the Cadian 2/24, trained in the light role, landed en masse in a huge Valkyre lift in the square that used to be home to a weekly market and holy day morality plays. The ankle deep blanket of rubble and rubbish was hard on the infantrymen, but the open space was good for the Valkyre pilots, who landed everyone without incident, the vast clouds of dust thrown up keeping the airframes from serious AA fire.




A Tigers ML sentinel opened fire on a Wolverine. Which was a mistake, the Wolverine gunned its engines and hurtled forward, to crush the walker. The sentinel and its two HF fellows were still in action, all four vehicles thrashing about in the space between a tower and an empty basilica. The Preatorian Armour opened up on the weasels, destroying two of them as their infantry swept into attack. A Wolverine shot at one of the meadusae, knocking it out.
Elsewhere, the Tigers hesitated and the QRF shut their eyes and held hands over mouths and noses as 50 TLW dusted off, leaving them controlling a lot of ground with precious little cover.
Turn Three
Lead elements of the PLAs 79th Tank Battalion rolled into town; of the Cadian 2/24th had control of Freeman’s Square itself only moments before, they were joined by an ominous and threatening shape as a Baneblade entered the NW corner of the square with its MBT escort.
The 79th Tank Bn chewed its way through the Cadian relief force as the rouge Cadian guardsman Bomar jumped off the bell tower where he had been hiding and took on the Tiger’s Sgt Harphur and his remaining vets in an epic brawl that ended with Guardsman Bomar victorius. A similarly epic punch up went on in the shadow of Zarathusa’s tracks between a Preatorian Grenadier and an Arcomet Psyker, each of them the last of their respective units.
Epidemus, the Tallyman of Nurgle, arrived to anchor the Tiger’s right flank and two other Major Deamons of Nurgle arrived before Zarathusa and its escort of Arcomet Armour and promptly laid into them, chomping into the structure points available.
Turn Four and Five
Mechanised units from the Cadian 1/24 began to arrive. Griffin mortar carriages opened fire on PLA units threatening the square. One PLA LRMBT lost its main armament to an assaulting lone Cadian sentinel. PLA tank fire continued to keep the Cadians heads down. A lone Marauder Destroyer from the PLA’s air brigade hurtled over the scene firing its autocannons and loosing off a barrage of Hellstrike missiles at Cadian targets, scoring hits on many of its mechanised assets. Desparate meltagun fire and a curtain of flak from a damaged hydra took down the Marauder.
Arcomet units, scrambled as the Cadian QRF left to succour the 144th, began to arrive. Their elite PBS, veterans of many fights against Orks, found themselves in desperate HTH with Preatorian Grenadiers.
Behind the Tigers, the Arcomet Stormsword arrived, to counterpoint the arrival of the Cadian’s Lucius Pattern Baneblade ‘Zarathusa’ in the SE corner, threatening the Preatorians. As the Preatorians charged the Cadian’s position, the platoon were countercharged by a single special weapon squad, who held them up for an unfeasibly long time without going down.
At this point things started getting much worse for the Liberation Force, as deamons of Nurgle appeared. Nurglings and Plaguebearers assaulted the remains of the Cadian 144th. Melta teams from the Cadian 2/24th worked their way through the 79th Tank Bn’s tanks whilst their veterans faced off against the Tiger’s Colonel Strapon and his supporting Ogryn. The Tiger’s redoubtable CO only took down only two vets, but took almost all of the Cadian’s fire power for two or three turns before eventually going down.
The Deamons finally took out the Zarathusa, the ensuing explosion clearing a good two square feet of space in that corner of the board, the only survivor in the area was one of the Major Deamons. Unfortunately for ‘it’, the explosion had removed the building between it and a squadron of ASL Tank Hunter Sentinels and promptly took a Las Cannon to the face, sending it back to the warp.
The Cadian 1/24 arrived and drove into the fray, committing everything they had to clearing the Plaguebearers off the 144th’s scanner with its vital data.
Epliogue
Technically, the objective was still being contested at the end of the game. In narrative terms, the Cadian 144th lost all but three of its men, Major Budget (OC of the 144th) lasting on his own until the very turn that the deamons were banished.
So the Imperium has possession of the scanner, but there is every chance that the cogitators are full of plaguebearer slime. We’ll have to wait a while to find out.
My thanks to the participants, Admiral Drax and Kartias. Especial thanks to Soviet Space, who’s obvious experience of Apoc and keeping things running along at a good pace possibly saved us from a three day game.

Can you tell what it is yet ?

A little better. The tamiya spray paint is the right colour, but the tin, didn't cover the vehicles. More base colour, methinks.



Quite delightfully, Karitas fixed my airbrush. By it together and turning it on. (why didn't that work for me ?) So these babies are next for glory. Especially as their passengers could be back at the end of the month.

Combat Patrol

The forces of the Empire have landed at Randstad, a port on the western seaboard of Benq. The port and main road inland are overlooked by a series of hills known locally as the Nolag Hieghts. The area contains many prepared positions and supply caches for the PDF set in case of planetary invasion.

The 72AG (ie 17 Div, as that is all there is) sends F Coy Cadian 2/24 to agressively patrol the Hieghts, to ensure that any future advance won't be overlooked by hostile eyes. Or Artillery, for that matter. A detachment of the elite Arcomet 877th rotates into 901 Bde's QRF. Col Stirling, being the kind of man he is, sends his Recce Platoon out to keep an eye on the Cadians and give his QRF as much advance warning as possible.



What you see here in various views is the table with no bodies on it. You can see the trench system, Arty Posn(s) and the anti vehcile barriers. The whole ridge line looks like this, some eight Kloms.

The PDF's dickers see the Cadians advancing into the hills and report this to their leaders. The PLA are worried that the Imperium is going to find the command post with the encrypted cogitators and aim to cut the Cadians off in a pincer movement. Elements of 13th Mech ('Tigers') and 99th Foot ('Bloodcoats') set off.



So there was a 400 point Combat Patrol game with the Cadians (Admiral Drax), Arcomet (Karitas), Tigers (Zzzzz) and Bloodcoats (Soviet Space). The Objective, such as it was, is the abandoned PLA Command Post AFV in the centre of the board. The Cadians started in the trench line. An Arcomet sniper team hid itself in one of the snadbagged emplacements. The Tigers attacked the Cadian position from the Arty Posn and the Bloodcoats established their gunline between the objective and the anti vehicle barriers.

Lt Woolpack, Commanding No 3 Platoon, quickly assessed the situation and decided to dislodge the heretics from the hill top. He bravely defended the trench as he sent his brave boys over the top to march down hill, bayonets fixed and power cells ejected, towards the waiting bloodcoat heavy stubber and mortar defended Bloodcoats.

No 3 Platoon's own supporting mortars were soon in action, during the ensuing firefight, Cadian sergeants handed out buckshee power packs and the Bloodcoats got the worst of it. There wasn't really much of a let up for the Bloodcoats when a squad of Tigers "hut, hut, hut'd" their way into the HW dugout and saw off all of the Cadian HW teams, only to then go down in long drawn out melee with Lt Woolpack's command team.

The Arcomet snipers had another Tiger squad in their sights. They had already called for back up and could have let the squad go straight past, but the men of Arcomet are made from sterner stuff and three guys with sniper rifles elected to take on ten Tigers at well within charge range. Fortunately for the Tigers, these men of Arcomet had been hitting the hard stuff all morning and only got one of them. Unfortunately for the Tiger squad, they were quickly flanked by one of F Coy's sentinals, which promptly began to toast the Tigers.

The Tigers veteran Sergeant Harphur Scrambled to the top of one of the Arty emplacements and, firing a heavy bolter from the hip, imobilised the sentinal. Everything was still hanging in the balance, the Bloodcoats Coy Cmd squad was still in action, although their Plt Cmd Sqd was still pinned following and earlier mortar barrage.

The Arcomet QRF arrived, Valkyre screaming over the hill top at less than ten meters. A slavo of rockets rippled into the heretics. Incredibly, Harphur jumped off the high point he was on and into cover. A squad of Arcomet Drop troops engaged the Tiger cmd sqd holding the Arty Posn. Another squad of Arcoment Stormies landed next to the Command Post vehicle.

A few minutes later, the hilltop belonged to the Imperium.

Huge thanks to the guys for turning up. Esp Sov for keeping us chipping along and not getting bogged down. More later. There was another battle after this, a consequence of the action on the Hieghts.

Combat Patrol lists

Er, these are for the weekend. Now all I have to do is figure out how to import PDF (the file, not the army) into the blog.

13th Mech

400 Pts - Imperial Guard
Name # Grp WS BS S T Wo I A Ld Save Cost
Troops: Veteran Squad (10 , 125 pts)
Veteran Squad 9 3 4 3 3 1 3 1 7 5+ 125
Unit Type: Infantry; Flak Armour; Frag Grenades; Krak Grenades; Close Combat Weapon
(x9); Lasgun (x9); Gunnery Sergeant Harker
Gunnery Sergeant Harker 1 4 4 4 3 1 3 2 8 5+ [55]
'Payback' (Heavy Bolter); Close Combat Weapon; Flak Armour; Frag Grenades; Krak
Grenades; Catachan Devils; Feel No Pain; Relentless
Troops: Infantry Platoon (25 , 192 pts)
Infantry Platoon 1 192
Platoon Command Squad 4 3 3 3 3 1 3 1 7 5+ [82]
Unit Type: Infantry; Flak Armour; Frag Grenades; Close Combat Weapon (x4); Lasgun (x4);
Medi-pack; Platoon Standard; Vox Caster
Platoon Commander 1 4 4 3 3 1 3 2 8 5+ [8]
Flak Armour; Frag Grenades; Laspistol; Bolter; Junior Officer
Infantry Squad 9 3 3 3 3 1 3 1 7 5+ [55]
Unit Type: Infantry; Frag Grenades; Close Combat Weapon (x9); Flak Armour; Lasgun (x8);
Flamer (x1); Combined Squad
Sergeant 1 3 3 3 3 1 3 2/3 8 5+ [5]
Flak Armour; Frag Grenades; Laspistol; Close Combat Weapon
Infantry Squad 9 3 3 3 3 1 3 1 7 5+ [55]
Unit Type: Infantry; Frag Grenades; Close Combat Weapon (x9); Flak Armour; Lasgun (x8);
Flamer (x1); Combined Squad
Sergeant 1 3 3 3 3 1 3 2/3 8 5+ [5]
Flak Armour; Frag Grenades; Laspistol; Close Combat Weapon
Fast Attack: Scout Sentinel Squadron (2 , 75 pts)
Scout Sentinel Squadron 1 75
Scout Sentinel 1 Grp: WS: 3 BS: 3 St: 5 In: 3 At: 1 FA: 10 SA: 10 RA: 10 [40]
Unit Type: Vehicle (Walker, Open-topped); Heavy Flamer; Move Through Cover; Scouts
Scout Sentinel 1 Grp: WS: 3 BS: 3 St: 5 In: 3 At: 1 FA: 10 SA: 10 RA: 10 [35]
Unit Type: Vehicle (Walker, Open-topped); Multilaser (x1); Move Through Cover; Scouts
Total cost: 392

99th Regt

400 Pts - Renegades and Heretics
Name # Grp WS BS S T Wo I A Ld Save Cost
HQ: Company Command Platoon (11 , 187 pts)
Company Command Platoon 1 187
(IA5, pg. 158); Heavy Weapons Squad; Heavy Weapons Squad
Company Command Squad 2 3 3 3 3 1 3 1/2 D6+4 5+ [67]
(IA5, pg. 158); Unit Type: Infantry; Frag Grenades; Close Combat Weapon (x2); Laspistol
(x1); Lasgun (x1); Grenade Launcher; Heavy Stubber; Combined Squad; Leadership;
Renegades
HW Team w/ Heavy Stubber 1 3 3 3 3 2 3 2 D6+4 5+ [5]
Unit Type: Infantry; Frag Grenades; Heavy Stubber; Close Combat Weapon; Lasgun;
Combined Squad; Leadership; Renegades
Exalted Champion 1 4 4 3 3 2 4 3/4 D6+4 5+ [27]
(IA5, pg. 158); Unit Type: Infantry; Frag Grenades; Bolt Pistol; Power Weapon; Exalted
Champion; Independent Character; Leadership; Renegades
Heavy Weapons Squad 3 3 3 3 3 2 3 1 D6+4 5+ [60]
(IA5, pg. 158); Unit Type: Infantry; Close Combat Weapon (x3); Lasgun (x3); Mortar (x3);
Combined Squad; Leadership; Renegades
Heavy Weapons Squad 3 3 3 3 3 2 3 1 D6+4 5+ [60]
(IA5, pg. 158); Unit Type: Infantry; Close Combat Weapon (x3); Lasgun (x3); Heavy
Stubber (x3); Combined Squad; Leadership; Renegades
Troops: Renegade Militia Platoon (25 , 212 pts)
Renegade Militia Platoon 1 212
(IA5, pg. 161)
Militia Command Squad 2 3 3 3 3 1 3 1 D6+4 5+ [70]
(IA5, pg. 161); Unit Type: Infantry; Frag Grenades; Close Combat Weapon (x2); Lasgun
(x2); Flamer; Missile Launcher; Combined Squad; Leadership; Renegades
HW Team w/ Missile Launcher 1 3 3 3 3 2 3 2 D6+4 5+ [15]
Unit Type: Infantry; Frag Grenades; Missile Launcher; Close Combat Weapon; Lasgun;
Combined Squad; Leadership; Renegades
Champion 1 4 3 3/6 3 1 3/1 2 D6+4 5+ [20]
(IA5, pg. 162); Unit Type: Infantry; Frag Grenades; Melta Bombs; Laspistol; Power Fist;
Leadership; Renegades
Militia Squad 7 3 3 3 3 1 3 1 D6+4 5+ [71]
(IA5, pg. 162); Unit Type: Infantry; Frag Grenades; Close Combat Weapon (x7); Lasgun
(x7); Flamer; Autocannon; Veteran; Combined Squad; Leadership; Renegades
HW Team w/ Autocannon 1 3 3 3 3 2 3 2 D6+4 5+ [10]
Unit Type: Infantry; Frag Grenades; Autocannon; Close Combat Weapon; Lasgun;
Combined Squad; Leadership; Renegades
Veteran 1 3 3 3 3 1 3 2/3 D6+4 5+ [6]
(IA5, pg. 162); Unit Type: Infantry; Frag Grenades; Close Combat Weapon; Laspistol;
Leadership; Renegades
Militia Squad 7 3 3 3 3 1 3 1 D6+4 5+ [71]
(IA5, pg. 162); Unit Type: Infantry; Frag Grenades; Close Combat Weapon (x7); Lasgun
(x7); Meltagun; Heavy Stubber; Veteran; Combined Squad; Leadership; Renegades
HW Team w/ Heavy Stubber 1 3 3 3 3 2 3 2 D6+4 5+ [5]
Unit Type: Infantry; Frag Grenades; Heavy Stubber; Close Combat Weapon; Lasgun;
Combined Squad; Leadership; Renegades
Veteran 1 3 3 3 3 1 3 2/3 D6+4 5+ [6]
(IA5, pg. 162); Unit Type: Infantry; Frag Grenades; Close Combat Weapon; Laspistol;
Leadership; Renegades
Total Cost: 399