Legions Imperialis: the Alpha Legion strikes!

 Wes now has 1,000 points of Alpha Legion marines painted, so we met up for a game. I brought the same combined Blood Angels and Dusk Raiders force as in the first two games with Albert's Solar Auxilia.

We played the Stronghold Assault scenario.  It has four objectives in a diamond pattern: one close to the center of each player's table edge, and two spaced across the center line of the table. Your opponent's side objective is worth 9 VPs per turn, the center two are worth 4 VPs each per turn, and your own objective is worth 7 VPs to you in the last turn only.  

Here is an overlook of the table. My guys are on the right, the Alpha Legion on the left.

The Alpha Legion used their "Mutable Tactics" (ed.: Really ought to be called "Mutable Loyalties...") to advance several units before the game began, including this unit of Marines with missile launchters. A Predator is peeking in on the right.

I concentrated my tank company and a mobile detachment of Dusk Raiders infantry in Rhinos on the right, and they swung in to contest the center-right objective. The marines in Rhinos deployed into a brownstone building deep in the Alpha Legion's half of the board, just visible in the distance, top left here:

Wes advanced broadly, and skillfully zeroed in all of his tanks to focus on the central intersection (seen below) from different directions.  You can see his Predators at the end of the road here.  He also had a Secondary Objective - Secret Intel objective token he was trying to exfiltrate from the board for extra VPs.   He initially sent four Rhinos to pick it up, but I took them out with fire from my Sicaran tanks and missile launchers.

A Dusk Raiders detachment, including the company commander, can be seen occupying the large blue-grey building on the left of the above picture.

Wes brought up three Kratos tanks with Melta cannons - which blasted the building down, wiping those guys out:  they left behind the company standard (I had the Plant the Standard secondary objective).

My right hook continued to develop, wiping out the Alpha Legion's Sicaran tanks and some infantry.  I sent four Rhinos deep to try to capture the Alpha Legion's home objective, but Wes took them out with missile launchers and Predators.  I never actually captured that objective, but managed to keep pressure on it in the last two turns, which diverted Wes's Predators, Terminators, and Dreadnoughts away from the central objectives.

Having destroyed the central building, Wes sent his Kratos tanks to pick up his Secret Intel token, but massed fire from my own Kratos and Dreadnoughts knocked them out.  (I think their armor was defective because Wes has not painted them yet!)

A Dusk Raiders Sicaran moved into the ruins to pick up the fallen company standard (represented here with an old school Objective counter).  I also advanced a Blood Angels marine detachment to seize the Secret Intel.  A larger Alpha Legion detachment charged them, and I counter-charged with my second detachment of marines, resulting in this:  

My Blood Angels struggled in melee in their first two games with the Solar Auxilia. Not this time! All but one of the Alpha Legion bases was eliminated:

Not long after this, my Dusk Raiders Kratos melta'd down a building with Wes's large detachment of marines with missile launchers. And my Predators took out the last of his Predators.  

A single surviving Alpha Legion tactical squad managed to sneak almost down to my home objective, only to get picked off by a long-range shot from a Blood Angels dreadnought.

We called the game at the end of turn 4, as the Alpha Legion had just about been wiped out!  Glory to the Emperor and Sanguinius!

 Second Game of Legions Imperialis.

Albert and met up for a second 1,000 point game.  I had the exact same list as last time.  Albert split his horde of Solar Auxilia infantry into two formations this time, which made them a lot more flexible.  This paid off as his guys aggressively crossed the board, even contesting (and ultimately capturing) one of the objectives close to my board edge. 

Here's the board: this time Albert brought some Battletech / Hextech buildings, and I added some Civitas Imperialis buildings and some old GW plastic hills.  The result was more dense terrain, and the hills broke things up (we decided the rocky slopes were dangerous for vehicles).

We selected the "Seize and Hold" scenario.  There six objectives: two in the center, and two 8" from each player's table edge.  The objective on your own half are worth 2 points, center objective are worth 5, and objectives on your opponent's side are worth 7.

I concentrated most of my tanks (4 Kratos and 2 Sicarans) and infantry on the left, and left the 3 predators, a Dusk Raider's tacitical detachment and robots to fight a delaying action on the right.  My guys are on the right side in this photo:

Sicarans and Kratos tanks cautiously advance.

One of Albert's infantry Tercios occupied some ruins and a large Hextech building on either side of the left-hand crossroads, taking control of the left-hand center objective.  Blood Angels Dreadnoughts sought cover behind the big gray Adeptus Titanicus building...more on its fate below.

Here's a short of mid-way through the first turn.  On the bottom right, I tried to have one robot lag behind to take control of the right-hand objective on my side.  Albert's tanks blasted it, so the robots had to go back the next turn in order to establish control.

Mass carnage ensued.  Notable moments included:

• Blood Angels missile launchers killed a Malcador tank with a single volley, and the other Malcador then fled from the table.  
• Two Dusk Raider's Rhinos were destroyed by massed Sentinel fire (luckily after disembarking their passengers; the third ignominiously ran away.
• Charonite Ogryns wiped out a Blood Angels tactical detachment to capture the big gray Adeptus Titanicus building.

• My Predators, forgetting that they were supposed to be conducting a delaying action on the right, zoomed forward. The succeeded in blasting Sentinel walker and even shot a Leman Russ in the rear, but return fire killed two, and the third ignominiously ran away.
• With the Predators gone, the Solar Auxilia infantry Tercio on my right advanced all the way across the board to occupy the right hand objective (seen below while it was still occupied by a robot).
• Dusk Raiders marines then defeated them in melee, retaking the objective;
• But in turn lost over half their number to Sentinel barrages.  The survivors ignominiously ran away.

But the high point of the battle: after the Ogryns captured the big gray building, Dusk Raiders Kratos tanks hit the building with Melta cannons.  The result:

We called the game after four turns; Albert kept control of his objectives for the entire game, and controlled the middle objectives for most of the game, and even scored one of my objectives in two turns.  I forget what the total was, but it was an overwhelming victory for the traitor Solar Auxilia.  

A great game though, can't wait to play again!

Legions Imperialis - First Game

Albert and I met a Dragon's Lair for my first game of Legions Imperialis.  1,000 points.  I've been assembling and painting terrain and minis for this game since August!

 The table:

 The buildings span over three decades of GW's epic-scale terrain: 

First edition Adeptus Titanicus styrofoam buildings (that's polystyrene to folks across the pond); 

Second edition Epic Space Marine plastic & cardboard buildings; 

Epic 40,000 plastic ruins; and 

current Adeptus Titanicus Industrial stuff.  

Deployment: 

Albert brought traitor Solar Auxilia. Here is just half of a giant Tercio of infantry, with Malcador tanks and a Baneblade on the left:

Charonite Ogryns on the left

Leman Russ tanks, Heavy Sentinels in a promethium refinery area, and the Baneblade again in support.

I fielded Blood Angels and Dusk Raiders (Loyalist Death Guard).  The Blood Angels deployed in the center - two tactical detachments, Contemptor dreadnoughts, and two Kratos heavy tanks.

On the left flank, here is the Dusk Raider Demi-Company - Rhino APCs carrying tactical marines, Kataphract Robots (count as Contemptor Dreadnoughts), and supporting Kratos and Predator tanks.

Right flank - Sicaran tanks in cover, Blood Angels in the background.

Turn 1: Traitor infantry occupy the right-hand objective (poker chip).  Blood Angels and Sicaran tanks advance to oppose them.

On the left, the Dusk Raiders take the objective and occupy two forward building as a horde of infantry, Ogryns, and Leman Russ tanks bear down on them:

Turn 2:

The traitor Auxilia charge and kill both Sicaran tanks and some Blood Angel infantry on the right.

On the left, Kratos tanks move up and begin mowing down the infantry horde.

Most of the Ogryns were shot down.  Two attacked the Rhinos, easily taking them out, only to be shot-down in the Advance Fire phase by supporting Robots.

After that, we forgot to take pictures!  Suffice to say, lots of stuff was blasted into oblivion!

MVPs: The Solar Auxilia's Heavy Sentinels wiped out an entire detachment of Blood Angels marines in a building with one missile volley.  The Blood Angels Kratos tanks killed most of them in turn, as well as  Baneblade, Malcador, and a bunch of infantry.  The then drove over the infantry and occupied the right-hand objective.

In the end, the traitor tanks were all knocked out, and the remnants of their infantry were fleeing.  Victory for the Loyalists!

 

Afrika Korps trucks

 Here is a set of 15mm plastic Afrika Korps trucks.  Five of them are from Plastic Soldier Company, one is by Zvezda.  The Plastic Soldier Company (PSC) version is a bit more detailed, but both are perfectly serviceable kits. 

Here a couple picks, they must be at an oasis, or perhaps on the set of an Indian Jones film.

 One nice detail about the PSC kit is that it includes optional parts to build Mercedes trucks, and even to built Opel Maultier halftracks.  I didn't build any halftracks yet, but I did build two of the trucks as Mercedes.  Here is a side-by-side of an Opel Blitz (left) and a Mercedes (right).

Like the DAK infantry, these are for use in DAK Attack -- usually as targets for an LRDG raid.  But can also be transport or jump off points for infantry in a game of Chain of Command.

Afrika Korps platoon

I recently painted an old set of Battlefront 15mm Afrika figures.  They are individually based for use with Chain of Command and DAK Attack.

First, some WIP shots.

You may be wondering why they are wearing green.  Apparently, when the Afrika Korps first deployed to Africa, they were issued a light Olive Drab uniform designed by the Tropical Institute of Hamburg.  Wargames books speculate the experts at the Institute were misinformed about the lack of vegetation in North Africa. I can’t help but wonder if the Institute was left in the dark about what part of Africa the uniform would be used in.  Who knows.  Either way, it was too green and too dark!  

Fortunately it started fading in the sun.  I’ve tried to depict that here by dry brushing a lighter shade of green over the base coat.

Apparently, the soldiers quickly added bits of Italian and British uniforms when they could get them, and also later issues of clothing were in a sand color.  

So the next step with these is to paint some guys with khaki coats and/trousers.  Should give them a pretty motley look!  Also, their helmets will be a very light brown/tan.

And here they are finished:

Here is the whole platoon.  They have 5 MG34s (four on bipods with the rifle squads, one on a tripod), a 50mm mortar, and even a PzB39 anti-tank rifle…which probably was effective against the old Cruiser tanks the British were still using in 1940-41.

Next up, these guys need some trucks so they can keep up with the panzers:

Warlords of Erehwon: the Aftermath

Guest Post: My friend Albert wrote a great little short story recounting the aftermath of our first game of Warlords of Erehwon, which I posted about a couple weeks ago: Warlords of Erehwon: First Game  Sadly, it involves yet more travails for the long-suffering wizard Aethelstan...

Aftermath:

Lord Adelstead stands over the rows of dead, his dead, being given their last rites as the peasants bury his men into the earth. Now the low-born clansmen armed with spear and bow, the King’s own chosen soldiers, the Ogres and the Lord’s own cousin are now equal. Adelstead’s father called death “the great leveler” before he passed on and left his land to his son.

Adelstead looks up and sees the vultures and various carrion-eaters descend upon the bodies of the beast-men. They care nothing for their dead. Just another reminder of what the Men of the West must defend their homes from.

The King’s Champion, Konor, a veteran of over 50 battles and man who has fought for coin, kings and survival since Lord Adelstead was just a dream in his father’s eye, looks over the scene. Nothing. He feels nothing. We lived. That’s all that matters.

Konor heads over to the Adelstead… Adelstead doesn’t look up. “Is this the part where you tell me that we won a glorious victory and I should be happy?” A silent monk throws dirt on the face of Adelstead’s cousin, who died by his Lord’s side in the battle.

“Victory? We bought time. Nothing more. Do you see the Beast-Lord’s head set on a pike, his Minotaur spawn being paraded around the streets like trained bears?” The old mercenary tosses his dented helmet into the grave. “He’ll run back to his headstone and spin tales about how the man-things defended a land of great treasure with blood. He’ll be back with more.”

“It sounds like you’ve had this happen before.” Adelstead responded, still not looking at Konor. “I don’t know if you noticed, but we have a lack of fighting men to stop this further threat… So, unless you have something constructive to say, leave me to my penance.”

Konor smiled. Adelstead did not like Konor’s smile. That man had seen too many battles, his blood-lust was something that belonged to the wild men of the Black Forest across the Great River. “Aye. they have a headstone, we have glory. You tell people about how we beat back the beast-men, alone, men will come from all over to devour your glory… Do that and we’ll have enough men when the Beast-Lord returns.”

“Who will ask the King for forgiveness for his lost men and ask for more? Who will grovel and beg the assorted knights and seasoned men-at arms to come here? Who will empty the quays and bars, looking for mercenaries to fill our ranks?” Adelstead asked. “Who? Who can we make abject themselves to such a degree?”

Konor points at the hills… Towards the bloodied wizard Aethelstan, the survivor of the Dread Desert, dragging the corpse of his assistant back towards the camp. For the first time Adelstead smiled… for who indeed shall abject himself if not the outcast wizard. Konor smiles again “After he’s done scraping the ground and apologizing for the dead, he’ll wish he was resting in a harpy’s belly.”

"Agreed…. Get the paper and ink ready. It’s time to call the forces…” Adelstead states to his servants…

What A Tanker - first games

Earlier this week the Austin Historical Gamers of Dragon’s Lair tried out “What a Tanker,” Too Fat Lardies’ WWII tank skirmish game.  It is a single-tank to platoon level game, the same as GF9’s “Tanks” game, but with very different mechanics.

Each turn, you roll a hand of six order dice for each tank. Each number of pips corrresponds to a different order or action by the tank’s crew: drive, acquire target, aim, fire, and re-load.  A six is wild, and so very useful. 

We played two games in a single evening, both times matching up three T-34/76s against a pair of PZ IV-Hs and a STuG III-G. 

The rules are really simple, and fast.  My eight-year old really enjoyed it and remained engaged through both games.

Ouch, in the second game, Jake’s T-34 snuck around behind me, brewing up my PZ IV.  He went on to single-handedly take out the other Panzer IV and the STuG.