New Faction - Name needed.

So I threw together these guys today. I will be finishing them off tomorrow. But I have no idea who they are or what I will use them for. If anyone has any ideas, I am open to them. You will receive full credit.

What's that coming over the hill?

Trained and equipped to fight in the jungles of the colonies of the struggling Western Alliance, the Green Jackets are hard as nails. Originally a small force of elite infantry, they have grown and are often involved in combined arms actions. These men and women took their name from an ancient unit of elite soldiers who fought for a country lost to the ages. 

The Western Alliance was once the superpower that succeeded in creating the largest interstellar empire centred around Old Earth. However, when the Collapse came they struggled to maintain their power, due to much of their economy relying on Old Earth economies. Then with the formation of the UCS, the Western Alliance found itself dwarfed and fighting just to survive.

If the Green Jackets have anything to say about it, then yes, yes it will.

The Defense of New Charon pt. 1.

With reports from various sources being shared about some kind of extra planetary landings, a small detachment of the New Charon Militia (NCM) is sent to investigate. Scans show heat signatures moving towards a small enclave out in the Western Reaches. Prepared for any eventuality, the NCM force is under orders to report back before engaging.

Armoured walkers and what appears to be a tank supported by infantry is spotted on the outskirts of the enclave. Reports are sent back to HQ, and the ROE is advanced from investigate to free fire. Whoever these people are, they are clearly not here on official business and there have been no military training exercises agreed by any of the local militias or government forces.

With the updated ROE two units of the NCM advance up to some rocky outrcrops and open fire on advancing infantry forcing them to scatter while taking casualties.

The Close Support Missile Platforms (CSMPs) advance behind the infantry laying down rocket fire, damaging an unidentified walker. These single man mechs are outdated but still pack a punch.

 Menwhile the two remaining CSMPs advance on the right flank, while an infantry unit garrisons an outlying water storage plant.

Seizing the initiative again one of the CSMPs delivers more damaging rocket fire, shaking the pilot of the opposing walker.

In response to advances on the NCM right flank, the unknown tank advances and unleashes withering shell fire, causing severe damage to one of the defending CSMPs.

The strange armoured infantry advance up the centre of the enclave, throwing lead at the NCM infantry dug in along the roadside. Casualties begin to mount.

 

To avoid getting bogged down the CSMPs charge the enemy tank, causing severe damage with their rockets. However, it keeps fighting on.

In the centre the other two CSMPs unleash more rocket fire, utterly destroying one of the enemy walkers.

As a response the mysterious invaders open fire with the infantry who are garrisoning the enclave central hub and the surviving walkers. One CSMP is destroyed.

As if to avenge the death of his comrade, this New Charon CSMP pilot opens fire yet again on the enemy tank, causing a catastrophic failure of the ammunition storage system. With rounds cooking off inside, the crew attempt to abandon their tank and run for their lives.

Inspired, New Charon Militia infantry advance, and with the support of the missiles from the CSMP they destroy the enemy infantry, killing them to a man.

With their heavy armoured support gone, and having a large hole in their centre, the invaders call it a day and make a hasty retreat while under fire from the militia.

Picking through the wreckage, and bodies the NCM find that the men they were fighting all wearing ancient symbols from Old Earth. Their squad leader decides to leave it for the guys with big foreheads to sort out, meanwhile they will carry on to investigate what appears to be the original landing area of these mysterious invaders.

I really liked playing this short  game of Horizon Wars. I will carry this campaign on for a couple more games to just familiarize myself with the rules again, having not played since December. Maybe one day I will continue that campaign, the Battle for Satomi. 

Something I tried with this game was using the Battlegroup WW2 rules system of pulling chits when damage is taken. Each chit has a number and if you pull numbers that add up to more than your breaking point, you lose the game. The mysterious invaders pulled a chit each time they lost a unit, and got 4,3,4, exceeding 10 thus ending the game.

New grass mat

I was at Lidl a few weeks ago and they had these 1 metre x 2 metre fake grass mats. On the underside there are rubber lumps for grip. I guess they are designed for gardens and such, but being a modelmaker and wargamer I immediately bought two of them. They look much, much better than green felt. The size is a little awkward, it is long and thinish, but it will do. All in all, very pleased with the purchase and how they look. It will make my wargaming event at school easier to handle. I only wish I had bought more.

Terrain progress

I found time to dry brush some colours onto a few of my bits today. I will see how they turn out. Again all I am going for is passable for the time being. I still want some kind of wash though. 

Cheap and dirty terrain

With Activities Week coming up I have been realizing that I need more terrain. It doesn't even need to be good terrain. I just need enough stuff to clutter up 5 tables. As such, I brought out my grey spray can and attacked a bunch of yogurt pots, lids and a sausage packet. This terrain will be simple, but enough to lay out enough cover to fight over.

Ancient Ruins

Arthur C. Clarke — 'Two possibilities exist: either we are alone in the Universe or we are not. Both are equally terrifying.'

As humanity expands its reach this question becomes ever more apparent. Are we alone? Will something be found? Will contact be made?

Activities Week - A Horizon Wars Event

At school we run an activities week towards the end of the summer term. If you do not run an activity or organize a trip then you get assigned to support other activities either at random, or you try and get your colleagues to pick you to help with whatever they are running. Last year I didn't run anything and got lucky with the trips I helped with. I also managed to get a day where I didn't support anyone and got loads of work done.

This year, knowing I am not that lucky, I decided to run a wargaming activity. I thought, on three days I can run the same activity for different year groups. I said I can run for 12 kids each time. I thought if I have two games going on at once, three factions on each game, 2 kids per faction making decisions together. However, apparently it is much more popular than I thought and I have 20 kids on one of the days. I just spent the evenings of my holiday in away planning out battles, factions, teams and hoping that I would have enough miniatures to support three or four games simultaneously.

Here is my planning so far:

I am pretty much forced to use Horizon Wars. I had thought about other rules, but have in the end opted for Horizon Wars because I can run smaller armies. Also because it is a brilliant game.

I can have the following factions:

2x UCS armies (3 at a push), infantry, tanks, mecha.
2x Collective of Systems armies (3 at a push), infantry, mecha, maybe some normal vehicles.
1x UCS marines, possibly entirely infantry, but maybe with some tanks support. Perhaps even a couple of mecha if I can paint any.
1x New Charon Militia. Infantry with a few light P1 mecha.
1x Neo Christian Union. Infantry, cavalry and a couple of mecha.
1x New Vesta militia. Possibly they will have some tanks. I might give them a couple of mercenary mecha.
1x Quansec. Infantry, cavalry, artillery, possible mecha.
1x HySys. Infantry, cavalry, possible artillery, and some mecha.

This puts me at 10-12 armies. I have enough terrain mats to run 2 large games (big felt mats, probably like 6x6 or so), 2 medium games (fake grass from Lidl, 1m x 2m each, could be joined if needed), and finally one small game (the original grass roll that is probably about 3x4).

I have terrain, but not loads. These past weeks I have been collecting vacuum packaging to spray and varnish as the most basic of terrain. I am tempted to draw doors and windows on them with sharpies. Yesterday I made some more modular, grassy hills. I am looking to create roads also and have found what looks like a good way of doing it.

I will update with pictures as the event nears. But I just wanted to get some ideas out on the web. Does anyone have ideas?

Normandy Farms.

Buildings by Hacme, available over on Rapier Miniatures. They come with those card roofs which make life easier. I really don't like my paint scheme though. I need to paint them differently.

Hedges are scourer pads. I need to paint them too. I am just happy to have some 6mm buildings for my WW2 project.

6mm German Infantry with nice Static Grass.

I won a £20 voucher for  a couple of months back. Having looked at the range, I decided that as awesome as their 15mm space dwarves are, I don't really have a place for them in my 6mm universe. So I spent it all on their range of static grasses. It arrived, sat in a box for weeks until last night where I was able to flock my Germans. It turns out I really like the flock, and am now considering re-flocking all of my other 6mm WW2 miniatures.

Here are just a few examples.