28mm Spanish Civil War - Carlists - From box to table

28mm Empress Miniatures - SCW Carlists

Next off the production line is some Carlist re enforcements, bought earlier in the year from the is highly lovely Empress Miniatures at Triples in Sheffield. This is my chosen force for the SCW as they are both Monarchists and Left Footers, much like my Royalist ECW army I have a bit of sympathy with their cause, if not for that of the Nationalists in general.

Presented in the ever popular From Box to Table stylee, we will follow these little fellows from a blank piece of metal to the finished item, ready to game with. All paints are Vallejo unless otherwise stated.

First up we have the basic figure on the left, mounted on a base and primed with Matt Black Halfords spray. Painted first are the trousers with 70823 Luftwaffe Cam Green in the middle and then a highlight with a touch of white added to the base colour.

Next up comes the shirt, left to right we have a base coat of 70924 Russian Uniform WW2, followed by a heavy dry brush of 70886 Green Grey and a final highlight of 70886 with a touch of 70951 White.

A bit of 70875 Biege Brown now, on the rifle, face, hands and taping above the boots, then I have highlighted with a 50 50 mix of the Brown and 70912 Tan Yellow, on the right the rifle has been finished off with 70863 Gunmetal Grey on the metal parts.

Next up literally is the "belts and braces", base coat of some old Citadel Colour Scorched Brown with a highlight of Citadel Colour Dark Flesh.

Berets are not something I have a lot of experience with, they are the trademark of the Carlist troops of the time. Left to right I started with a base of Dark Flesh, a heavy drybrush of Citadel Foundation Mechrite Red, highlighted with Citadel Colour Blood Red, all this is topped of with the tassel, base coat of Citadel Foundation Ivanden Darksun and a highlight of 70915 Deep Yellow.

I paint the figs in batches of 5 or 6, I paint the blanket rolls the same in each batch, I tend to just grab a pot of paint at random and use that, then highlight it with a mix of base colour and white, for this batch it was 70882 Middlestone.

Final stretch of painting now, I have block painted the face n the left using 70804 Biege Red, the next stage is a highlight of 70815 Basic Skintone. Fig 3 has had the taping, rifle and belts washed with GW Devlan Mud and finally hands and face washed in GW Ogryn Flesh.

The bases are sculpted with Polyfilla, painted Miniature paints Earth Brown, highlighted with White / Earth Brown, a dash of basetex which is highlighted yellow, finished with a bit of grass tufting.

Fine figures as always from Empress, a nice addition to my SCW collection.

X Wing - The Campaign - Games 4 and 5 - Kill thr Relay and Destroy the Carrier

Game 4 - Kill The Relay

This is a continuation of the X Wing Campaign, full explanation and details of Campaign rules are here

Pilot upgrades - Rick O'Shea is back after being shot down and surviving for 3 games in a row, he has been given the oldest creakiest B Wing and was glared at by Chief Mechanic Jim on his way to the flight deck, he has also been issued with a special flight helmet which has ice packs over the ears as they have been suffering from a strange burning sensation.

Spike Sharpie - His X Wing was upgraded to an R8D2 astromech (6pts gain a focus token when you gain a stress token ) and some Proton Torpedoes (4) for a total of  10 GC

Captain Tangent held his cash.

Mission Briefing

"Gentlemen, we have received information that an Imperial Communications array is active in a nearby sector, your mission is simple, jump in, destroy the relays and jump out, Intel suggests that the relays will be guarded by a prototype Tie Droid"

Set Up

Empire ships are 2 Academy Level 1 Ties a Level 2 Tie Interceptor and back by popular demand Jeff Vader a level 4 Tie Advanced, along with two Tie Droid (Mk1), set up as shown above. Rebel ships start range 2 onto the board in the top right hand corner away from the relays.

Special Rules

Tie Droid (MK1) - two of these ships are on table, one assigned to each of the relays, this is the basic cheap version with an automatic pilot, the ships have Pilot Skill 0 and will rotate around the relay using the 3 tight turn marker each phase, no deviation, they will fire at ANYTHING in front of them (apart from the other droid or relay), if two targets they fire at the nearest, all other stats are as a Lvl 1 Tie Fighter.

Protect Action - Any Imperial ship may sacrifice its own action in a turn and use a Protect Action on one of the relays, give the relay 1 evade token.

Exiting to Hyperspace - For this scenario Rebel ships may jump to hyperspace without any die rolls in the turns end phase.

Communications Arrays - 1 per 2 rebel players, each has 1 shield and 3 hull, criticals count as 1 hit.

Victory Conditions

Rebel Victory - Destroy all Imperial Arrays, Empire Victory - Prevent destruction of relays.

Game Length - 10 turns.

How did we get on

3 Rebel pilots took on the might of the Empire, all veterans of previous missions, it was not a pretty site, Rick dived in an got beaten up fairly quickly and jumped, the other two calculated the odds and jumped straight away too ! Comedy moment was supplied by the Empire when a Tie Fighter drifted in front of a Tie Droid and got shot down oops.

Pilot Rick O'Shea (2) - B Wing, survived, 1 kill - Totals Missions 4, 5 GC, 2 kills

Pilot Spike Sharpie - X Wing (2), survived, 1 kill - Totals Missions 4, 1 GC, 3 kills

Pilot Captain Tangent - A Wing (2), survived - Totals Missions 2, 7 GC, 0 kills

Pilot Sir Jeremy Dodger - X Wing (2), Not Present - Totals Missions 3, 7 GC, 2 kills

Pilot Twiki Bond - A Wing (1), Not Present - Totals Missions 1, 6 GC, 0 kills

Jim head mechanic in the Rebel Garage was in the infirmary after hitting his head on tool bench when he fainted after all the ships came back from the mission.

Result (2 pts for a win, 1 for a draw)

Empire Victory, Empire 5 pts, Rebels 3 pts

Game 5 - Destroy the Escort Carrier

Pilot Upgrades -

Rick O'Shea spent his 5 GC on an Autoblaster.
Captain Tangent who spent 6 GC to upgrade to pilot skill 3.

Mission Briefing

"Gentlemen, we have received reports that an Imperial Escort Carrier has been damaged, it has been struck by mines above the planet Yuka. The Carrier has performed an emergency landing on the planet surface where there are extreme high temperatures, this is slowing the repair. Get in and destroy the stricken carrier, you will need to be quick before the temperatures effect your fighters"

Set Up

Empire ships are 4 Academy Level 1 Ties and a named Tie Pilot selected at random (it was Howlrunner PS8), all set up range 1 from Empire base edge. Rebel ships start range 1 onto the board (standard 3 x 3).

Special Rules

Imperial Carrier - The whole table is classed as the deck of the Carrier, it has 2 Armour and 2 Agility (which only last until 2 hull points are destroyed) and 9 pts of hull (3 per rebel player). The carrier has active point defence and will roll 5 defence dice when under secondary weapon attack.

Attacking the Carrier - At the start of the movement phase each Rebel player must declare if he is diving down to low level to attack the Carrier, if he does they are immune to the Imperial ships above so long as at least 1 Rebel player stays "high" to hold them off. At low level the Rebel player can attack the Carrier however he is also vulnerable to the point defences of the carrier and will receive a standard 2 attack die, criticals count as 2 hits with no extra effects.

Exiting to Hyperspace - To leave the table you need to declare your attempt and then try and gain 2 critical hits, hits from previous rolls carry forward.

Turn 1. Roll 3 attack die

Turn 2. Roll 3 attack die + Pilot Skill / 2 (round up)

Turn 3. Automatically jump

Extreme Temperatures - From the start of turn 4 the temp starts to effect the ships, before moving each ship must roll 1 attack die, if any hit is obtained the ship is ionised, this increases to 2 attack die on turn 8. Ships can avoid the effect by travelling at speed 3 or above (2 plus boost would count but not 2 plus barrel roll)

Victory Conditions

Rebel Victory - Destroy the Carrier and all escape 4 GC, Destroy Carrier and some escape 2GC Imperial Victory Carrier survives. All other results are a draw.

How did we get on

3 Rebel pilots took on the might of the Empire, Rick, Spike and the Captain

Pilot Rick O'Shea (2) - B Wing, survived, 1 kill - Totals Missions 5, 6 GC, 3 kills

Pilot Spike Sharpie - X Wing (2), survived, 1 kill - Totals Missions 5, 1 GC, 3 kills

Pilot Captain Tangent - A Wing (3), survived - Totals Missions 4, 5 GC, 0 kills

Pilot Sir Jeremy Dodger - X Wing (2), Not Present - Totals Missions 3, 7 GC, 2 kills

Pilot Twiki Bond - A Wing (1), Not Present - Totals Missions 1, 6 GC, 0 kills

An easy victory for the rebels this time, dive in blow up the Carrier and fly out, no problems.

Jim head mechanic in the Rebel Garage was being treated for mild shock, two missions in a row without a Rebel ship destroyed.

Result (2 pts for a win, 1 for a draw)

Rebel Victory, Empire 5 pts, Rebels 5 pts

And that's all for now folks, Game 6 has taken place with two new Imperial Targets, sorry rebel pilots, game 7 is due next week so it will be the usual double report then.

Spanish Civil War - Andalusian Motorcade

28mm SCW Andalusian Scenario and AAR

The Legion advance

Back to a spot of "proper"gaming this week with some 28mm Spanish Civil War action this week, this was the first period I ever covered on the blog and it remains a firm favourite amongst the group I game with.

This game was inspired by the excellent Steves Balagan site and a scenario of the same name at that location, many thanks to Steve for allowing me to use his map of the game. Our rules and scale are different but it was easy enough to adapt. For a full run down on our game system and the purchase method of re enforcements I refer you back to an earlier post on the blog, here.

Background

In August 1936 the Nationalist drive on Madrid, La Marcha, was in full force, the tactic was far from subtle, drive down the road at speed until they met resistance. Dismount and attack, then move on to the next village. Our game recreates one of these meetings.

Starting Forces

Nationalist - 2 companies of Legion (Each with 1 x 4 fig Command and 3 x 8 fig sections each with an LMG), one company of Guardia Civil (1 x 4 fig Command and 3 x 6 fig sections armed with rifles), to support the attack were a UNL 35 and a Bilbao, both Armoured Cars. Set up south of A on the map (North is up).

Republican - 2 companies of POUM Militia each with 1 x 4 fig Command and 3 x 10 fig sections (no LMG), supported by a Maxim Machine Gun and 2 x Snipers. Set up in the village.

Each side started with 10 money rolls and a further 3 per turn, see link above.

Militia wait for the attack

Our latest high tech munitions delivery system or "ammo on a donkey"

There was quite a bit of terrain to hide behind in this game so the Nationalists managed to creep forward with relatively light casualties, mostly from the Maxim and the odd sniper, one company of Legion advanced towards the Church, the other and the Guardia Civil took advantage of the tight terrain on the other side. A firefight broke out between a section of Militia in the southern most building in the village and the majority of the Nationalist, there would only be one result.

The Guardia join in the attack

The Guardia Officer clearly missed day one at Camouflage School, a red cape in a battle, really !

The financial side of the game degenerated, as it always does into "race for the tank", usually at the expense of units having Ammunition both sides managed to get a T 26 fairly early on but it was the Republicans who picked up the second. The Nationalist invested in a Heavy Mortar and lots of Carlists.

Stood around discussing collectivisation of land when a stray round ruins you day.

That was a bad turn for the POUM their morale is shaky at the best of times but now with no HQ things were looking bad, a cheer did rise shortly after that when the Republicans managed to get the first air attack of the day, the "balls of death" dropped from the sky and once again (see last game) took out the UNL 35, before strafing a unit of Legion.

Desperate defending, a Dynamitearo takes on 4 Guardia (and loses badly when he drops the lit dynamite in front of himself)

By now the Nationalists had started to make ground, they gained a foothold in the village and captured the Church, even with the advantage in tanks (the Nationalist T 26 had retreated off table after a failed morale check) the Republicans were in difficulty, a late re enforcement from the Mac Paps of the International Brigade was there last, best hope.

The final attack goes in

Not what the Militia needed

One final glorious charge by Legion and the Carlists finished off a company of Militia in one turn finishing off the game as the remaining Republicans fell back under the cover of their tanks. A good enjoyable game, we had a couple of SCW newbies and they had a good time as well.

X Wing - The Campaign starts in earnest (Games 2 and 3) - Political Escort and Listenind Device

Game 2 - Political Escort

This is a continuation of the X Wing Campaign, full explanation and details of Campaign rules are here

Mission Briefing

"Pilots a few minutes ago we received a distress call from Rebel Senator Maxis, he has been attacked, his shuttle damaged and his escorts sent packing, scramble to your ships and jump into the sector to save him from the clutches of the evil empire"

Set Up

 

Empire ships are 4 Academy Level 1 Ties a Level 2 Tie Bomber and back again Darths more famous brother Jeff Vader, all set up range 1 from Empire base edge. Rebel ships start range 2 onto the board (standard 3 x 3), the shuttle range 1.

Special Rules

Shuttle - Has agility 2, Hull 6, Shield 2 (2 per 3 rebel players), it may only move 2 ahead, 1 left or 1 right. It never suffers critical hits, any rolled criticals count as standard hits.

Protect Action - Any Rebel ship may sacrifice its own action in a turn and use a Protect Action on the Shuttle, give the shuttle 1 evade token.

Exiting to Hyperspace - To leave the table you need to declare your attempt and then try and gain 2 critical hits, hits from previous rolls carry forward.

Turn 1. Roll 3 attack die

Turn 2. Roll 3 attack die + Pilot Skill / 2 (round up)

Turn 3. Automatically jump

Victory Conditions

Rebel Victory - Shuttle exits table on Imperial edge, Imperial Victory Shuttle is destroyed, any other result is a draw.

How did we get on

4 Rebel pilots took on the might of the Empire, Twiki Bond was a no show but new Pilot Captain Tangent took his first flight in an A Wing.

Pilot Rick O'Shea (2) - B Wing, Shot down again, survived - Totals Missions 2, 0 GC, 1 kill

Pilot Twiki Bond - A Wing (1), Not Present - Totals Missions 1, 6 GC, 0 kills

Pilot Sir Jeremy Dodger - X Wing (2), shot down Jeff Vader !, survived - Totals Missions 2, 7 GC, 1 kill

Pilot Spike Sharpie - X Wing (2), survived but shot down - Totals Missions 2, 2 GC, 0 kills

Pilot Captain Tangent - A Wing (1), survived - Totals Missions 1, 7 GC, 0 kills

Sadly for the rebels the Empire quickly destroyed the Senators Shuttle and the Rebels jumped to hyperspace.

Jim head mechanic in the Rebel Garage was looking slightly pale after having to find another 2 ships for the next mission.

Result (2 pts for a win, 1 for a draw)

Empire Victory, Empire 3 pts, Rebels 1 pts

Game 3 - Imperial Listening Device

2 pilots has some cash to spend from the last mission, Sir Jeremy Dodger spent 6 GC to upgrade his X Wing with a 4 GC R2-D2 and also a 2 GC Flechette Torpedo, Captain Tangent spent 4 GC to upgrade to Pilot Skill 2.

Mission Briefing

"Gentlemen, another squadron has been in a skirmish with the Empire in a asteroid belt in the Phato Sector, their sensor data was examined after the incident and a small unexplained energy signature was located, our Tefal Heads believe this is at least one secret Empire Listening Device, travel to the sector, scan the area, locate and destroy any listening devices "

Set Up

Empire ships are 4 Academy Level 1 Ties a Level 2 Tie Bomber, Jeff Vader was in the infirmary after a minor injury in the Death Star Canteen when he was carrying a plate of hot Italian food without a tray, so a Level 4 Interceptor was the lead Empire ship, all set up range 1 from Empire base edge. Rebel ships start range 2 onto the board.

Place 1 different numbered ID token on each asteroid and a corresponding numbered token in a cup.

Game lasts 10 turns, Rebels must jump to hyperspace on turn 10 or be destroyed.

Special Rules

Locating the listening device - Any rebel ship within range 1 of an asteroid can sacrifice its action for the turn and scan the asteroid. The player blindly picks one token from the cup, if that token matches the one on the asteroid he has found the device. If the token doesn't match then remove the marker from the asteroid along with the corresponding token from the cup. Continue until all asteroids are scanned. (There may be more than 1 device)

Asteroids - Standard rules however for this scenario they do not move.

Destroying Listening Devices - once discovered a device has 3 hull and 1 defence dice.

Exiting to Hyperspace - To leave the table you need to declare your attempt and then try and gain 2 critical hits, hits from previous rolls carry forward.

Turn 1. Roll 3 attack die

Turn 2. Roll 3 attack die + Pilot Skill / 2 (round up)

Turn 3. Automatically jump

Victory Conditions

Rebel Victory - Destroy all listening devices, Imperial Victory Listening devices survive, any other result is a draw.

How did we get on

4 Rebel pilots took on the might of the Empire in the second campaign game of the night.

Pilot Rick O'Shea (2) - Y Wing, Shot down AGAIN !!, survived - Totals Missions 3, 0 GC, 1 kill

Pilot Twiki Bond - A Wing (1), Not Present - Totals Missions 1, 6 GC, 0 kills

Pilot Sir Jeremy Dodger - X Wing (2), 1 kill, survived - Totals Missions 3, 7 GC, 2 kills

Pilot Spike Sharpie - X Wing (2), survived, 2 kills - Totals Missions 3, 8 GC, 2 kills

Pilot Captain Tangent - A Wing (2), survived - Totals Missions 1, 6 GC, 0 kills

Rick O'Shea entered the garage very timidly as Jim was seen sticking pins in a small doll dressed as a rebel pilot.

A victory for the Rebels this time, the Y Wing soaked up the Empire Firepower whilst the 2 located listening devices where destroyed.

Result (2 pts for a win, 1 for a draw)

Rebel Victory, Empire 3 pts, Rebels 3 pts

Next report will be games 4 and 5, coming soon

 

Russian Museum of Artillery - St Petersburg

A Day out with the Big Guns (Part 1 outside)

T - 80

I was lucky enough to have recently spent some time in the beautiful city of St Petersburg, Russia, what a fantastic place ! Full of history, loads to see and do and most things pretty cheap to boot.

I managed to spend an afternoon at the Russian Museum of Artillery and well worth it too. The museum is situated next to the Peter and Paul Fortress about 5 mins walk from the nearest metro (tube) station. There is a large area outside the museum with lots and I mean lots of larger exhibits. Entrance to the museum is 300 roubles (about £4.25) and there a two very large floors of exhibits. All the info is in Russian but that really doesn't lessen the experience.

In the mid to late eighties I was pretty sure that I would see the T 80 above rolling towards me from a foxhole in the Western German plain, it was much better seeing it under these circumstances.

I will let the pictures do the talking from here, if you do recognise any of the stuff I don't know leave a message below.

Pic 2 guessing a mine layer

Pic 3 looks like an underwater MTLB any ideas ?

Pic 4 lots of SP Artillery

Pic 5 AA row

Pic 6 For those hard to take out bunkers

Pic 7 That's a big gun ! Any Ideas

Pic 8 SP Gun ISU 122 ?

Pic 9 Looks like some sort of automatic trench digger

Pic 10 Field Art Row 1

Pic 11 AA towed row

Pic 12 Field Art row 2

Pic 13 Large unidentified SP Gun

Pic 14 Russian MRLS

Pic 14 Field Art row 3

Thanks for looking and if you do recognise anything, especially Pic 7 and 3 let me know, I'll put some pics of the inside up later in the month.

X Wing - The Campaign Begins - Graduation Day

Starting the engines and firing up the lasers.

A couple of months ago whilst on holiday in Scotland I discovered and started to play X Wing, x-wing-holidays-and-common-ground-games. What a cracking game it is, I can see why its so popular. Well I introduced it to my regular gaming chums and the result was, as expected an arms race of epic proportions. Safe to say that most of us now have at least one of every ship available including the big stuff. Great to get a really well painted mini out of the box and straight into a game.

The only draw back to me of the game, and to be fair its more the players than the game, is the points system. I'll put my cards clearly on the table, I hate points systems, I hate the way it creates super lists and competition winning "builds". Want to see me do 100m meters sub 12 seconds, ask me for a game at the club next week and then suggest 100 pts, I would also suggest ducking.

So what to do to make the game more interesting, a campaign of course. I found the basis of our campaign on a website called Boardgamegeek and managed to download a PDF covering the basic outline and 50 odd scenarios, I did this a few months ago and can't find it now so sorry I cant credit its initial author.

This post covers the initial set up and first game of our campaign. Hopefully it will give you a few ideas and allow you to escape from the world of "Tie Swarms" and multiple Millennium Falcons.

 

Campaign Set Up and the "Galactic Credit"

IF YOU HAVE ARRIVED HERE FIRST YOU CAN ACCESS ALL THE GAMES BY CLICKING ON THE X WING LABEL ON THE RIGHT, WHICH WILL TAKE YOU TO THE NEWEST GAME. ALL PREVIOUS GAMES ARE GIVEN AS LINKS AT THE BOTTOM OF THE LATEST POST. 

FLY CASUAL DUDES !

The campaign players will take the role of newly qualified pilots in the Rebel Alliance, fresh out of training school they must start from the bottom and work their way up to better ships, upgrades, fame and fortune. The system does need a Campaign umpire who will also play the Empire ships.

Each player in their first game can pick any of the basic Rebel fighters, Hawk, A - Wing, B Wing, X Wing or Y Wing. It starts the game with no upgrades and the lowest pilot skill PS1. The maximum spend is 22 (i.e a basic B Wing) anything less is converted into GC or Galactic Credits, so an X Wing will gain 1 GC a Y Wing 4 and an A Wing 5.

As you progress you will buy bigger and better ships, you will however still get shot down, if you loose your shiny new E Wing the rules still apply, i.e you can only get a "free" replacement from the list of basic ships. The way round this is to take out an Excess on your Insurance policy. If you own an E Wing and it is shot down you get 22 GC for a new ship and so long as you have the extra credits to upgrade to the ship you lost you can pay the money and have it (If you don't have the cash you're back in the basic category. You CANNOT buy different ship types this way.

Galactic Credits are gained in the following ways,

Surviving a mission with a working ship - gain 1GC

Hitting an enemy ship and causing damage - gain 1GC

Destroying an enemy ship - gain 2GC

Destroying an enemy ship with a higher lvl pilot - 1GC per level difference plus 1GC

Completing a mission - as per mission

Being shot and damaged by the enemy - loose 1GC (only from those in hand)

Being shot down - loose all GC gained that mission.

Sadly you will get shot down, some more than others so there is a mechanism for that as well.

Roll a red hit die when you are shot down with a critical hit meaning the pilot is no more, any other result and you need to get down to the garage and see head mechanic Jim to beg for a new ship. 

All upgrades are lost but you do get to keep your credits already in the bank. Your pilot however will retain all his upgrades.

Ace Pilot Skills

As well as buying skills you gain traits from your kills.

The pilot with the most kills is designated the Sqn Leader once per game he can re roll any roll.

5 Kills - Ace Status - Once per game you can perform an action when you have a stress token.

10 Kills - Double Ace - Once per game you can treat a red manoeuvre as a white or a white as a green.

15 Kills - Triple Ace - Once per game you may change a blank to a Hit or Evade

20 Kills - Quad Ace - Once per game you may perform 2 actions in the action phase, you also become a priority target for the enemy, if you are in range 1 or 2 of the enemy with another friendly ship the Empire must target you.

25 Kills - Quint Ace - Once per game you may perform a K turn but chose if it is at 1,3 or 5 after you reveal your dial. Roll 1 attack die and take that damage (no mods or re rolls)

30 Kills - Hex Ace - Once per game when you receive a critical hit you can take the next three cards from the damage deck and pick the one you want.

40 Kills - Legendary Ace - Once per game you can change you dial (after you have revealed it) to any manoeuvre on the dial.

Spending Credits

Once earned you can spend your hard earned monies on shiny stuff.

To gain a pilot skill level you pay the bank twice the level (max increase 1 per mission) i.e an upgrade to pilot skill 3 will cost you 6 GCs.

Upgrades cost 1 GC per point so an R2D2 upgrade costs you 4 GC s.

To gain pilot skills you have to buy a Pilot Upgrade slot for 5 GC and then pay for the upgrade.

You get a trade in of 50% on used goods so if you want a basic E Wing at 27 GC you will get 11 GC for your battered old X Wing and need to find 16 GC from somewhere, you can transfer upgrades from 1 ship to the next but you can only upgrade a ship in line with its upgrade bar.

Maximum of 2 upgrades per mission.

Empire Squadron Set Up

Allocate 1 PS 1 Tie Fighter per rebel player. As the campaign progresses you will need to beef up your Ties with named and squadron pilots. We use 1 random named Tie Pilot per 3 Ties and roll randomly for the Sqn Pilots.

Allocate the following Speciality Ships 1 for every 2 Rebel Players.

For each special ship roll 1d10, add 1 to die (per PS level) if ave PS skill of Rebels is more than 2. For the pilot randomly pick a pilot card from those available.

1-4 Tie Interceptor

5-6 Tie Advanced with 1 x Concussion Missile

7-8 Tie Bomber with 1 x Proton Torp, 1 x Concussion Missile and 1 x Proton Bomb

9-10 1d6 1-4 Lambda Shuttle with Weapons Engineer, Anti Pursuit Lasers and Sensor Jammer

                5-6 Assault Gunboat with Tractor Beam, Shield Modulator, 2 x Assault Missiles, Engine                      Upgrade.

11 Guard Tie Interceptor with Shield Upgrade and Targeting Computer

12 1d6 1-3 Tie Defender with Heavy Laser Cannon and Ion Pulse Warheads

            4-6 Tie Phantom with Flight Instructor, Stygium Particle Accelerators and Advanced cloak.

ADVANCED EMPIRE SQN BUILD

As the Campaign progresses and the Rebel Pilots improve and get access to new ships (as they enter the game in New Wave releases) the Imperials will need to get better to keep the Campaign competitive.

A good Umpire will use a combination of Scenario tweeks and Imperial ship improvements to keep the Campaign moving, writing this I have just written up Game 27 and I have prepped Game 28 so we aren't doing too bad.

So from Game 27 The new Empire random ship allocation is as follows, 1d10 per ship

1-2 Tie Interceptor 

3 Tie Advanced Prototype

4 - 5 Tie Advanced

6 Roll 1d6 1-4 Tie Bomber, 5 or 6 Tie Punisher 

7 Tie Defender

8 Tie Phantom

9 Firespray

10 Roll 1 d6 1-3 Imperial Shuttle 4-6 Decimator

Tie Fighters are 50 50 standard Tie and Tie/FO, the first ship of each type is a named pilot (drawn at random) then two random Sqn Pilots then another named.

Pilots for the random ships are drawn themselves at random from all avaliable pilots (including Sqn types) for that ship.

Upgrades, if the ship has an upgrade slot on its title bar, roll 1d6 per slot, if 4-6 it will have that upgrade drawn at random from those avaliable.

Mission 1 Graduation Day

Briefing

Congratulations on graduating as a new fighter pilot, normally you would walk out to your new ship however the ship manufacturing plant in this sector has been captured by the Empire. Other Rebel forces will distract the occupying forces whilst you are dropped into the factory by assault shuttle. Grab a ship, get it started and get out of there, Good Luck and May the Force be with you.

Set Up

Set up as shown above, standard 3 x 3 space mat, Empire ships are randomly allotted based on number and type of Rebel ships (I'll do a full write up on this in a later post to keep this one readable), for our game we ended up with 4 skill 1 Tie Fighters, a Tie Interceptor skill 2 and Darth Vaders younger brother Jeff in a Tie Advanced skill 4, all set up range 1 from their base line. Rebel ships are on the ground range 1 from their base line.

Special Rules

Starting your ship - Roll 1 attack die per level of pilot skill plus one (Lvl 2 rolls 3 die) you need 5 hits of any type to start your ships, if not done by turn 4 it will start on its own, you have no shields until your ship starts so get rolling !

Targetting ships on the ground - Attacking ship must be in range 2 or less, each rebel ship is in a bunker it gains 3 extra hull whilst inside the bunker. Rebel ships can defend with green dice but cant use actions.

Force Field - The Empire have set up a planetary force field so no ship can leave the table until the start of turn 6 when a bomb pre set by resistance fighters on the plant will blow the generator.

Exiting to Hyperspace - To leave the table you need to declare your attempt and then try and gain 2 critical hits, hits from previous rolls carry forward.

Turn 1. Roll 3 attack die

Turn 2. Roll 3 attack die + Pilot Skill / 2 (round up)

Turn 3. Automatically jump

Victory Conditions

Rebel Victory = All fighters escape, Imperial Victory = No fighters escape, any other result is a draw, 2 GC per player for a win, 1 for a draw (if you get your ship off) 

How did we get on ?

Four new pilots set forth on their journey to fame and fortune on Graduation Day. Apologies for the names I didn't make them up.

Pilot Rick O'Shea - X Wing, 1 Kill and then shot down himself - 0 GC

Pilot Twiki Bond - A Wing, survived intact - 6 GC

Pilot Sir Jeremy Dodger - B Wing, shot down - 0 GC

Pilot Spike Sharpie - X Wing, survived intact - 2 GC

Result . A Draw

Lagging a bit behind with real time, we are 5 missions in now so lots of reports to come.

28mm SCW Foreign Legion - From Box to Table

Empress Miniatures Spanish Civil War

With the next historical game being Spanish Civil War the enthusiasm rose to paint up some of the Empress Miniatures I bought back at Triples earlier this year. I picked up a lot of stuff Carlists, Brigaders and these Foreign Legion, all additional figures for existing collections. I picked up a couple of Panzer 1s and an Hispano Armoured Car but they are on hold until I finally get an airbrush (which is in the post now).

I've gone for the box to table format because a) it seems popular with you the readers and b) when I come to paint some more in 5 years time this will serve as a memory jog for what colours I used.

On the left the basic Empress 28mm figure, cleaned up, primed with Halfords Matt Black spray. If you haven't seen Empress stuff I would highly recommend it, great detail and character and lots of weird and wonderful ranges. They are quite expensive (@£7 for 4 figs) compared to most 28mm figs but still very nice. In the middle I have painted the cap and trousers 70823 (all Vallejo unless stated otherwise) Luftwaffe Cam Green and then on the right I have highlighted that with 70924 Russian Uniform WW2 and then a very light brush of 70924 and White 50:50 mix.

Next up is the shirt again in three stages, right to left this time. Base coat of 70924 Russian Uniform, an overbrush of 70886 Green Grey on the middle figure and then on the left the finished shirt with a 50:50 mix of Green Grey and White.

Familiar territory now for regular readers (if it ain't broke and all that) fig on the left has has a base coat of 70875 Beige Brown on the flesh areas,belts, rifle and leg strapping. The central figure has a highlight on the Beige Brown (none flesh areas) of that colour and 70912 Tan Yellow in a 50:50 mix. On the right I have added 70863 Gunmetal Grey for the metallic parts on the rifle.

The figures have now had red piping added to the hat, base of Citadel Colour Mechrite Red with a highlight of Citadel Blood Red. I have then painted the blanket rolls on the figures, I like to do a random mix of colours for these, although issued with green, I'm pretty sure after a bit of campaigning that would go out of the window. I paint these figs in batches of 5 or 6 but do the blank rolls one at the time, reach into the piles of paint pots. For me it gives the unit a more lived in feel. Whatever comes out is the base coat and a highlight or two added to that. The belts are probably on the light side, the modern Legion have black belts whilst in the SCW they were dark brown however after a while in Africa and then sunny Spain they would lighten off a bit, oddly to the same colour as the rifle ! That's my story and I'm sticking to it, after all I am trying go get figures on the table at a reasonable standard not win a golden demon.

My usual technique to finish of the figs, left to right, pick out detail on flesh with 70804 Beige Red, highlight with 70815 Basic Skintone and then a wash of GW Devlan Mud on rifle, belts etc and Ogryn Flesh on the Flesh. I have skipped the basing section as this has been detailed before on the Box to Table series.

A quite straight forward paint job I think more technique than detail. More SCW coming on the paint table next along with my airbrushing debut, gulp.