The Defense of New Charon pt. 5

 I managed to get off my butt and play a spontaneous game the other night. It was quick, a little bit lame, half hearted by myself, and stopped when I started paying more attention to the TV show "This Is Us", that my wife was watching, and I was kind of half keeping up with. Great show so far (2 episodes in). 

New Charon Militia:
P2 Mech HQ Unit
P2 Mech - heavy hitters
P3 Heavy cavalry
P1 Light infantry x5

NCU
P2 Mech HQ unit
P2 Mech
P2 Light cavalry
P2 Light cavalry
P1 Light infantry x4

A frontier on a frontier. That is how Natalya Phillips would describe this place. New Charon was meant to be an escape, a fresh start for so many. It was out of the way enough to avoid UCS attention, and for those who wanted to avoid even the centralisation of a few settlements coming together to govern each other it was possible to pack up and drive off into the sunset, find somewhere, irrigate, grow, harvest and live a simple life. The handful of locals left in this community called it Sprucewald, but did a landing pad and a few prefabs really need a name? 

As part of the ongoing hunt for the mysterious invaders, Natalya's job was to rest here, refit and await resupply. Her militia were weary of the seemingly endless skirmishes, wary that there was no end in sight, and hoping to be taken off the line (if it could really be called a line). 

Suddenly shells begin bouncing off a prefab. The sentries within jump on the comms back to Natalya. 

"We need you up at this end, incoming fire".

Natalya responds, ordering all of her militia up to the edge of the settlement to return fire. 

An exchange of fire between the sentries and the enemy vehicle causes a little damage and a casualty, but nothing too serious.

Dunn Harrison, prowling on the left flank sends HEAT rounds punching into another enemy vehicle, smashing through the armour, damaging important components.

The enemy responds by trying to get out of sight and close the gap to make their armour piercing chain guns more effective. Infantry rushes forward in an attempt to flank Sprucewald and take the militia in a wicked crossfire.

The militiamen garrisoning the prefab keep the enemy armour engaged in long range sniping, shells bouncing off of the outer walls. They just need to keep them distracted until Natalya and the rest appear.

Natalya and some more footmen arrive, Natalya charging into the village to support the infantry, while the footmen move up to support Dunn.

Dunn exchanges fire with the advancing infantry, taking some damage to his vehicle, but manages to lay down enough HE to scatter an enemy squad.

Natalya lets rip with her CSMP, sending off rockets that tear the enemy vehicle to pieces. No-one was seen leaving the wreckage. At this point the remaining enemy withdraw. This short, sharp skirmish just another in the seemingly endless short, sharp skirmishes taking place out beyond the Reaches. Another firefight, another report for Natalya to write up and send off to Command. Just what she needed on a Tuesday.

Not the most exciting game. It was more about having an evening where I wasn't playing World of Tanks Blitz and didn't feel like painting. This was a fun game to put together, but I want to work harder on making better scenarios.

Terrain - Mechwreck

Here we go. It took days for the tissue to dry...I might need to work on my technique there. But finally this long forgotten mech is in a place I am happy to call table ready.

Here is a before shot:

Here are the after shots:

The rocks are these pink decorative, cat-litter looking things from IKEA that a colleague gave me to use for my wargaming. I have stuck other random bits of junk onto it, including a broken Lego brick and a tiddly-wink. 

Some scouts are investigating this ancient hulk, in awe of these mechanical beasts left over from a long forgotten war.

Terrain Building Updates - Statue and Mech Wreck

After a bit of playing games on my phone, reading, sorting out my childhood Lego collection, I got myself together and got my ancient statue table ready. However, I think I want to do some more to it. I am not sure what. It just doesn't look old and forgotten enough to me.

I also had an idea, inspired by the book: Flying the Storm, by C S Arnot. At some point the protagonists see the hulking remains of a mech from the previous, almost world-ending war. I like this idea. I also have a bunch of K-Nex (a toy) that my wife picked up for £1 for me for Christmas. It has been sitting around for a while, played with once. As such, I might have a good idea for a terrain piece. Bear in mind, it is very early days yet. I did this last night and the tissue paper is still wet.

New Mecha and some terrain

Finally finished these mecha. I went for a simple one colour paint job for them and actually I am very happy with them. They can match the Green Jackets for colour or I might be using them for another faction at some point. I can see them going along with the Coyotes also.

When you take a job to explore an uncharted world on the edge of human space and come across these crops. Does God build in straight lines? Or are there already people here? Call it in and turn the safety off.

Tedrion III part 3: The Airfield

See parts one and two for more information.

Tedrion City is besieged. The roads are locked down by PAC forces, the jungle too impassable for large scale escape. The troops of the Western Alliance are faced with defending to the last man, starving to death, or attempting to break out. The Alliance commanders have promised a supply drop to an airfield near the PAC lines. If it can be secured, supplies and reinforcements may be able to be dropped in to surprise the PAC attackers. It falls to a unit of Alliance regulars to attempt to secure this airfield.

 The control tower of the airfield on the right is an objective. Another objective is the backup generator over on the left.

 The airfield with it's four landing pads that needs to be secured.

 The Alliance mech fires on the advancing PAC mech dealing severe damage to its armour. First blood in this engagement is drawn.

 Further engagements around the generator. The fighting on the left flank is getting heavier and drawing in more of the Alliance mecha and tanks.

 Alliance infantry and armour advance on the airfield, setting up a battle line to wait for their mecha to clean up at the generator.

 More heavy fighting at the generator leads to the destruction of the PAC mech, blowing to pieces and damaging the generator.

 Advancing up the central road, a PAC tank falls under heavy fire from Alliance armour. The fighting over the generator is heating up and draws more armour from the Alliance in, leaving the infantry heavy battle line to go on the defensive.

Unfortunately for the Alliance, some PAC mecha advance along their flank and begin rolling it up, shattering dug in infantry and destroying armour. The remaining units retreat across the road towards the generator where the Alliance mecha and armour have mauled the PAC attackers.

Exhausted from the fighting each side begins digging in on opposite sides of the road to await reinforcements. If they come.

This is the second game of Horizon Wars I have ever played against an adult human. It was great fun, although I found it difficult to stick to the rules entirely as I am used to fudging things to help the narrative of the battle when I play solo.

I played my brother who is visiting from the States and he had been interested in trying my 6mm sci fi wargaming. It was a success and hopefully a seed has been planted.

I didn't take as many photos as normal because it seemed like a faff interrupting the game.

Crimson Skulls and new terrain.

Here we see the Crimson Skulls on a fairly innocuous job, looking for a research team that went missing while determining the potential worth of these crystal deposits.

The crystals were liberated from a local venue that had purple, shiny gravel. The bases are floor tiles from Poundland (pack of four), textured with Vallejo texture paste. Just a few more things to throw down on a planet surface.

Mecha Madness!

These Iron Wind Metals mecha (10mm battle armour) have been sitting around on my painting mat almost finished but not quite for a few months now. Tonight I finally gave them a few highlights flocked the bases. 

 The Crimson Skulls. These are the support mecha of one of the better known mercenary groups in the Fringes of human space. The infantry are well trained, usually former military, or trained by former military drill sergeants. They tend to accept contracts that fall on the side of legal, but occasionally may get involved in some more questionable ventures.

The Twins. Little is known about the operators of this armour. They have been on the payroll of HySys for a while now, but their contract is coming to an end...

 Soldiers equipped with this battle armour are trained to jump from low orbit, land in the rear and cause trouble before making a quick getaway. These three suits were scavenged from the remains of the First War of Independence.

If your settlement can afford it, you get at least one mech. These are multipurpose combat platforms. The shoulder mounted weapon can be used for anti aircraft, vehicle, infantry, mecha purposes. Fairly easy to maintain and versatile, this type of mech is popular on fringe colonies that can afford one.