The Defense of New Charon pt. 2 - One Year Later

Months ago the engagement in the Western Reaches of New Charon that took place about a year ago had  been written off as pirate action. Such skirmishes, while not common, happened often enough that it didn't seem out of place. 

Mining had been continuing smoothly and the stakeholders at Sunspoke Mining were happy with the steady stream of profit coming in from the New Charon operation. Originally a Sunspoke self contained mining colony, it had been steadily profitable for roughly 10 years now, and the bosses at Sunspoke had long since moved on to newer, more lucrative mining ventures, happy to turn New Charon over to the colonists and simply take their cut of the profits.

 Isaac Forgrave was staring through the HUD of his CSMP as he approached the unidentified landing zone. Out here in the Western Reaches of New Charon there wasn't much other than a few farming communities who were aiming for an even quieter life than the already quiet life out on the edges of known space. 

"Probably pirates again, or someone looking to keep a low profile for a short time to avoid the authorities", he thought to himself. Keying the comm system he checked in with his small detachment and received the all clear from everyone. "Eyes peeled and check scanners as we pass through this rocky outcrop, people."

AMBUSH! Unknown assailants open fire on the Forgrave's partner mech, causing significant damage. Shaken, the column begins to disperse as infantry seek out cover and Forgrave's partner tries to get out of dodge!

Fire rains down on the militia, now caught in a deadly crossfire. Casualties mount. "Find cover, I'm calling this in to Central!" Forgrave calls over the comms.

In an attempt to steady his team Forgrave charges forward, unloading a volley of missiles on a unit of enemy infantry, utterly destroying it! While this happened a unit of militia holed up in one of the enclave buildings.

In response to the destruction of their comrades a squad of attackers opens withering fire on the militia, killing an entire unit.

Taking the initiative the unknown mech fires a round of missiles at the damaged militia mech blowing it into pieces! Forgrave's partner, gone. Things were looking grim for the militia, and Forgrave hadn't been able to get a message over to Central. He commed the militia unit garrisoning the enclave. 

"Harrison, it is up to you, get a message to Central, they need to know what is going on! These don't seem like ordinary pirates!"

"Affirmative, sir. Wilco!"

 As if to underline the precariousness of the situation another militia squad gets blown away by the unknown attackers!

 In the intense firefight casualties are taken by infantry on both sides. The air hot with high velocity pulse rounds, the worst of the casualties get taken by the attackers, their squad getting wiped out. Forgrave takes this as his moment...

Advancing into the trees he engages a squad of infantry at close range. Bodies fly, armour shreds, and there is not much left to hint at there having been a battle.

 "On your six, sir!" the message screams through Forgrave's comm. Rounding quickly he manages to engage the enemy mech. Rockets explode, damage is caused, Forgrave is getting the better of the exchange until a squad of infantry join the fray. His mech collapses and Ian Forgrave struggles to breathe, his vision goes black and he drifts off. "Get... message... Central..."

Unsettled by the loss of most of the militia force, one of the remaining squads gets caught under heavy tank fire, going down. Rifle fire joins and then stops. There is no-one left to fight back. 

Back at Central Command there is a buzz. Merissa Cantos has lost contact with three militia units, all investigating unscheduled landings. Something is going on, this is more coordinated than mere pirate raids. Something more sinister is at play here and Cantos will be damned if she was going to let the colonists bear the brunt of something like this. It was time to call in the big guns. It was time to fully mobilize the militia.

Morale Chits

I knocked these rough and ready morale chits up for wargaming. They are to be used with Horizon Wars as my house rule of morale in order to make the game more interesting to me. I used this system last year once and thought I would actually make some more permanent chits for it.

After the destruction of a unit the commander draws a random chit. If at any point the total on the chits exceeds the army's P value, then they break and withdraw. There are also a few that have random events on them, which may bring something cool to the game. 

I am toying with this system for my Activities Week event this year. Four days of wargaming. 

Poundland Dino-score

Now I don't consider myself particularly into the pulp sort of scene, but when I came across these in Poundland this morning I couldn't resist. Now to find a way to include them in universe.

Motorway sort of...

So i tried making some motorway sections so I can have them cross the table. I am not sure how I feel about them. Each lane is wide enough for a coin wih a miniature on.

Also I made some more modular hills but in an easier way. I sprayed the cork with a brown spray paint and then stuck static grass. Painting them was far quicker.

Song of Blades and Heroes measuring sticks

I own Flying Lead and Songs of Blades and Heroes. Flying Lead I have played twice, the latter i have played zero times. I have had the idea to create measuring sticks for some time now but never got round to it. Tonight I finally finished them off. The smaller set is for smaller scales, so I will likely use them for 6mm. The larger set is for my 28mm fantasy miniatures and 20mm WW2, which I won't realistically use for some time.

Over the Easter break I had big plans on many different hobby fronts. Starcraft 2 ladder games to get promoted to Platinum league, which went well for the first few days, but I haven't played much in the past week. Play Northgard, which I haven't done. I started a new XCOM campaign, which I sort of regret doing, because it took over Starcraft time. My wife and I also watched the first season of Knightfall, which to be honest was pretty lame. I did not enjoy it much. Only in the past two evenings have I done any miniature hobbying: making the measuring sticks and putting together some motorway sections. Once those are finished I will post them, probably this weekend.

Help with Terrain

Here I have a terrain piece that has been languishing on my bench for almost a year now. I just can't decide what to do to finish it off. Foliage around the edges? More dry brushing? A wash to sink into the crevices? Some sort of cheaper ink wash? I just don't know. This sort of paralysis is stopping me from making any strides with any of my projects now.

Flanel Fields 2.0

It has been a bit bare on this hobby front over this half term. I installed Star Wars the Old Republic and played that a few days before accepting that my computer can't handle it. I then moved back to playing Northgard, agame I experimented with a couple of years back and have fallen in love with this month.  I have played at least a couple of games per week since school started.

Then over the half term holiday, when I had planned to complete any hobby projects, I discovered a guide to improve how you play Starcraft 2 and have ended up prioritising that this week. All I managed to paint was a couple of new fields. 

I really like how they look and how they will break up the battle mat from just green

Uh oh...

A bit of a whim...but I may have just ruined my life. I played this game for a couple of months back in 2013. We will see what happens.

Return of the Mojo: Stuff on the bench

Two weeks of paternity leave, a week of "end of term" teaching, plus another two weeks of Christmas holiday. It sounds like the perfect time to be productive in the hobby. Last time I had paternity leave I made great strides with my computer gaming. This time, I tried something similar, tried to paint something, but generally have had almost no motivation. After griping about it on The Wargames Website, I decided to actually do something about it, read the responses, and see if I could paint something.

Tonight was the night! I managed to finish my Xenos and Colonial Marines (ultimate badasses). I also did some re-painting and flocked a couple of fields. It felt good to get momentum going again.

The grey vehicles have been disastrously painted police vehicles that have been sitting around for over a year. I just went over them in an effort to restart. Now to Pintrest to find ideas for sleek looking sci-fi police. The blue MLRS has been sat around for the same amount of time. I will just finish it this month.

Xenos and Colonial Marines. Looking forward to getting these into a game. Urge to build indoor terrain rising. Need to buy copious amounts of granny grate.

2019 Goals and Reflection on the Year.

I made a few goals for 2018. Some I did better on and others I didn't do so hot on. Here is a breakdown of the goals made for 2018:

6mm WW2

I am mostly pleased with this. I have enough infantry painted up so I can field about a platoon each of Germans and Americans. I have some StuGs, Panzer IVs and a Tiger on the German side, which is great. Unfortunately I only have 3 Sherman 76s, which isn't ideal, as such I need to put in an order of normal armour. 

I haven't managed to get any games in though. This is back to the time old issue of not having enough terrain. I have a few buildings, a couple of roads and some hedgerows. I need more though, and I want different ideas for roads. Currently I am in the process of making fields, and today I picked up two more towels with which to make even more of them. I reckon I will be happy with terrain by the summer in order to get a game on the table.

Activities Week

This was a resounding success. I loved running the games, I loved hosting, I loved getting kids into wargaming. I will be doing this again this coming summer. 

Existing Sci Fi Campaigns

The campaigns of Startport Scum and Horizon Wars that I began at the end of 2017 have still amounted to nothing. I haven't played another game on Satomi, or in the Edge of the Storm campaign. At some point these will continue, maybe this year. It is ironic because the two campaigns were going to link together, with the Satomi battles becoming the origin story for one of the Starport Scum characters. It was going to be amazing. 

New Goals for 2019

1. To actually have enough terrain to have a 6mm WW2 battle. This is an absolute priority.
2. Entrench the Wargaming club at work. I haven't done it this autumn. but the guys know it is coming back in January. In this club a number of different games will be played. Already we have done Star Wars Miniatures and Star Wars Pocketmodels.
3. Finally order some more miniatures to build up my WW2 forces.

Other occurrences

The arrival of my third child, a son this time was a highlight.