28 June - Bolt Action vs The Brother

Well we finally managed to get together and fit a game in. The Brother had spent what time he had this week finishing off some more of his British for Bolt Action, so German's in hand I drove up to his place to get our game in.

Unfortunately he didn't quite have a 1000pts painted up ready to go so a quick adjustment of my list down to 850ish and we were set to go. I'm not sure if it's a good thing or a bad thing but we rolled for the mission and managed to roll up Top Secret which is the only scenario I've ever played so far in a two player Bolt Action game. I know he'll ask me to get you all to excuse his WIP building on the close edge of the first photo.




The scenario starts off with all our troops in reserve but being able to come on in the first turn. The objective is to secure the intel in the centre of the table with an infantry unit and get it off the table edge before the six (or possibly seven) turns have elapsed. The first turn saw both of us get everything on but our troop carriers on, The Brother's with a five man regular infantry squad and mine with my 2nd lieutenant and his attendant. Some early order dice left myself with a few early pin markers and casualties, while my usual skill with the dice left the British basically untouched.

The first of many misses from my Hetzer

The second turn saw a plethora of British order dice pulled early giving The Brother a chance to move in on my positions and lay down some more pins and a small amount of casualties. My ten man regular unit on the left flank did what I was hoping and drew the fire of the Cromwell, going down and managing to gain but a single pin and no single casualty. Unfortunately my Hetzer failed to hit again, leaving the task up to one of my smaller panzerfaust equipped units who fired all four of their single shot weapons, with only one hitting. Then a massive penetration. Here we go..... snake eyes, no damage at all, although it did give him another two pins to deal with next turn so not a total loss. We also saw his Bren carrier enter the fray, while my 250/1 refused to come on leaving me with the HQ still sitting around waiting.

Left flank at the end of turn 2

Right flank at the end of turn 2

Turn three and now some serious carnage began on both sides. Finally the Hetzer managed to land a hit on the Cromwell. Again massive penetration. Two damage table rolls incoming....... What have I done to offend you oh great gods of the dice?!?!?! Two twos, well on the bright side it's now immobile and has six pin markers so I'm pretty sure it's out for the game now at least, just in the most unspectacular way possible. Meanwhile on my left flank I managed to wipe his Veteran unit from the table before they'd managed to do much more than a single pin and rifleman kill.
However he than began to demolish my poor unit on the side unloading his five man squad, moving another central ten man squad and opening fire with his Bren carrier. This left them a tattered remnant with but four men left after all three had finished their activations. I attempt to rally the poor men, but they felt they'd prefer to keep their heads down and see what happened. He also moved his last ten man squad up to the intel marker securing it. His last dice saw his forward artillery observer plant his marker down near my HQ, 250/1 and most successful unit this game. Things were not looking great for me. The only thing left to me was to move the 250/1 up slightly and position it so I could attempt to throw a little support toward the unit and attempt to get some pins on the centre of the table to attempt to stop him getting that intel off.

Fresh rifleman unit begins it's attack

The centre doesn't look too friendly either

The 250/1 attempts to support my rapidly
collapsing flank

So last turn The Brother lay down his artillery marker as I'm sure you'll recall from the last paragraph. Now he has to roll to see what happens...... a one! Disaster for him and to be honest this will have more effect on his game than anything I've done at this point. I move the marker up to the centre of the table which, as you'll remember, he currently has locked down quite handily. The final result after the shells stop falling is terrible. The forward observer himself has fallen to friendly fire along with the Cromwell that I was unable to do much more than halt. His HQ and two remaining units are alive but are now so shell shocked they will have trouble doing much of anything for the rest of the game. This also gave me a firm advantage in order dice for this turn.

My order dice definitely gave me the edge for this turn and I took full advantage of it, throwing pin markers on both the central units and cutting them down even further, but unfortunately it wasn't enough. While I'd stopped the British from securing the objective I was unable to get it off the table before games end. His squad held off long enough that I was forced to fire on them with my HQ (who bloody missed them anyway) instead of being able to just move in and grab the intel leaving me too far from the table edge to manage to get it off in time. We settled up at the end of the turn, both happily calling it a draw and a fitting end to a hard fought game.

Centre of the table at the time of the draw

Edit: I'll add a link to The Brother's blog as he's got his own post up now for this one as well.


It was great to get in and have a game for the first time in at least four months, we're both hoping it'll be less of a gap this time. We've still got to get that six point Saga game in some time soon now he's got his extra Welsh painted up and we've both got plans to expand the Bolt Action forces from here out as well. Also don't forget to have a look at the Shattered Crown kickstarter now that it's live.

26th June - 22nd June Dreadball vs The Wife

After a games night consisting of Dominion and Ancient Terrible Things, The Wife and I were still keen to play something else. So I figure with the upcoming league I should give her a chance to get some more practice in with her Brokkrs (although the minis are the Forge Fathers she decided to upgrade her team and will get the Brokkrs done once she finishes off her Shaltari).


The Wife grabbed the ball and set to attempting to clear the way for an early strike, but was unable to make enough headway with the combination of the space dwarves lack of speed and the Veer-myn's super human agility. The start of my first rush began with one of my guards putting her ball carrying striker into the dugout for two turns and one of my strikers picking up the ball with a surprising amount of co-ordination for a rat and rushing for the larger scoring strike zone. However upon arriving he performed about as well as can be expected from a Veer-myn striker and missed the target scattering the ball.

Rush three and The Wife decided on focusing on getting physical with my players, but apart from a getting a guard off for a single turn failed to do much. Again my 3+ speed for Dodge roles managed to keep me safe. She did managed to secure the ball down the end of the pitch but..... my rush began with my striker successfully stealing the ball from her. My remaining guard on the pitch then slammed her jack that was hassling one of my "defensive" strikers sending him to the injury bench for two. The now ball carrying striker then scurried around his Brokkr counterpart and despite moving in the same action managed to not only score the strike, but showboat while doing it giving me a nice three point lead in the first half of the match.


The Wife started to get really aggressive after this over the course of the next few rushes with most of her activations going toward her guards as she attempted to clean house. Mine consisted mostly of failing to pick up the damn ball. She did manage to put another guard off for a single turn, but despite her best efforts she was unable to clear a straight path for her striker to for for the bonus point on a close zone strike. I suggested she dash one hex for a shot but her poor speed stat put her off the risk and she decided it was safer to hold the ball and wait for the next turn.


This proved to be a poor choice with one of my guards, who had sprinted back on the turn before. He came running back down the pitch and slammed her striker not only managing to put her off the pitch but potentially killing the player as well. I then bought the other guard back on and attempted to sandwich her guard as well, but after three action the best I could do was get him off for two turns after an amazing armour roll. This left me with one action to pick up the ball which I barely managed to do leaving my striker still in my half of the pitch and with in range of another of her guards.




The Wife quickly capitalized on this and put my striker down but not out with another amazing armour roll. The ball scattered out to the centre of the pitch to be picked up by one of her jacks. My rush began with my striker picking himself up off the deck and rushing over to steal the ball back. This did not go to plan. I then bought across a guard and sent the jack off for a turn with one of my strikers again managing to pick up the ball, but only just so yet again no free action. My final action had my striker heading up the pitch as far from the dwarves as I could manage.

Her next rush didn't see too much happen with most of her players just coming on to the pitch even with sprinting they couldn't get into much of a position Mine was spent getting setup for a four point strike attempt for a last rush landslide, basically just getting my striker to the zone and setting up my guards to attempt to protect his flank and lay some threat hexes around. I got greedy. The ref movement check came up with the most annoying card possible for me. The Ball Shatters! This left us with the newly launched ball at her strikers feet and one of my strike zones wide open from a vicious slam from her guard earlier which had almost killed my striker.

The Wife of course chose to head for the other strike zone and attempted another striker kill, but while knocking him down the Brokkrs were unable to penetrate his armour and the rat was merely shoved down out of the way. Leaving her striker with a clear shot which she made bring the score back to a single point to me. I began my rush by attempting to pick up the ball but unfortunately his innate Veer-myn abilities came into play again and I fumbled ending my rush and the game.

Still a one point victory for me and The Wife has definitely learned a few lessons on deployment and the vital need of the sprint action for either dwarf team which ever she settles on playing. I'll hopefully be getting a game of Bolt Action in this weekend and possibly a game of Saga. The Sister is also down from Rockhampton and we're attempting to organise a largish family games day on Monday with the various Nephews, Nieces and of course The Daughters so I'll most likely put up a few pics from that if it goes ahead.

Also don't forget to check out The Shattered Crown on kickstarter when it goes live later today (or possibly tomorrow depending on your timezone)

21st June - Finished Combined Army Doctor/Engineer

Finished of the basing of the Combined Army Doctor/Engineer this week, which also finishes off my first three hundred point force for Infinity. Toby's madly painting up his Haqq-Islamic themed terrain from Plastcraft and finishing off his last few troops and hopefully I'll be getting in my first post Operation Ice-storm game.

I should also be getting a couple of games of some sort in this week so with any luck I'll get a few battle reports up this week as well.

The Doc/Engineer on his own

 My three hundred points. I've dropped the 4Ground immature willows and mature willow in behind the TAG this time. I've got my orchard trees started, just got to finish the basing so I'll drop them in a pic soon

Also I'd like to take a moment to drop this in

It's the new game coming out from the Dead Earth Games, the creators of Across the Dead Earth. I've been following this since it's alpha incarnation and I'd recommend having a look once the campaign launches and taking the plunge. The support and community for Across the Dead Earth has been brilliant and I can't see this being any different.

16th June - Finished UCM Starter

Slow week gaming wise for me. Got a game of Cthulhu Wars in with The Wife and The Daughters on the weekend. All of us were playing a faction we hadn't yet which was a bit of a challenge in swapping play styles. The Youngest took the win finishing a point behind The Eldest after revealing her Elder Sign points but snatching it as her sister hadn't managed to get her sixth spell book allowing her to win. The Daughters and I also managed a game of Dominion which I took the win in with a eclectic set of action cards making for a rather fun game.

Hobby wise I've been bouncing between a few projects. I recently bought some of the new 4Ground trees which I'm very happy with. I've got the willows (Mature and Young) and the Chestnuts (Young) finished off with static grass and just have my two sets of orchard trees to go. Painting wise I've finished off the UCM for Dropzone Commander that came in the two player starter set, made a little more progress on the Traders Caravan for Anyaral and over the course of today working around chores I've all but finished my Doctor/Engineer for my Combined Army force for Infinity which will finish off my first three hundred points.

I've got some pics of the finished UCM. They're not the best thing I've ever painted but for what they are (spare faction for guest to play with) I'm happy with where they've ended up. You'll notice the 4Ground Young Chestnuts in corner of a few of the photos.

Colonial Legionnaires

Sabre Main Battle Tanks

Rapier AA Tanks

Bear APCs

Condor Medium Dropships

Finished UCM starter set

Back to work tomorrow, but with The Wife on days I'll have a few hours each morning before taking The Daughters to school and heading in myself so hopefully I'll get the Infinity Medic finished off in the next couple of days and get a quick post up.

10th June - Painted Across the Dead Earth Sisters of Aquisition and The State

Just a quick post as I'm on the mobile. Gave up on outside and got out the Foldio so I could get some decent lighting for a few pictures of the last couple of weeks painting efforts. Without further ado

9th June - 8th June Public Holiday Dreadball Games

There's been a delay between my last post and this one, not that I haven't been getting anything done, I'm just having a small argument with the weather whenever I go to take a few photos of what I've finished off. I'm thinking once I finish off my UCM starter for Dropzone Commander that's on the table at the moment if it's not willing to compromise I'll just pull out the Foldio and take a few shots in it to get something up :).

Having a public holiday yesterday meant I could catch up with Toby and Mr Anon for a game during the day with The Wife and The Daughters, so we decided to play a mini Dreadball tournament. Looks like we're going to get the league off the ground in the next month too, hopefully with eight to ten players so not too bad for the beginning.

Competitors/Teams

The Wife - Brokkrs

The Youngest - Female Corporation

The Eldest - Teratons

Toby - Hobgoblins

Mr Anon - Robots

Me - Veer-myn

Round One

The first round saw The Wife vs The Eldest game finish with a narrow victory to the Teratons in a very bloody match up with three of the Brokkrs ending up dead in the 0 - 1 win after the full fourteen turns.

The Youngest held off the Mr Anon for almost the full game finally loosing to a landslide victory in turn fourteen. This is quite the achievement against him as most of his games are over fairly quickly so she's showing some promise there.

My game gave also ended in a landslide but turn twelve with my Veer-myn strikers finally managing to get the last three pointer I needed for the game. I also managed to put the Hulk off the board twice which I was happy with and as usual my rats danced around most of the offensive plays by Toby with only a couple hitting the injury bench for a turn or two.

Round 2

The Eldest squared off against Mr Anon. She went down in a landslide during rush eleven but managed to do a fair amount of damage against the bots, but was out maneuvered around the strike zones

Toby managed a win against The Wife but it was a hard fought game with both sides dishing out the damage.

I faced The Youngest but was unable to manage more than one point strikes for the entire game with the final score being 4 - 0 to me at the end of the final rush. I wasn't an overly bloody game but I did manage to kill one of her strikers early on. If it wasn't for the clumsiness of her team for this game it could have been a far different result.

Unfortunately The Youngest had some homework she had to get onto so we had to call it then with Mr Anon taking a technical victory for the day with the two landslide victories, though I like to think I would have taken him out in the final round had we got a chance to square off.