28mm Roman Auxilia

          Progress. No more wood splitting or stacking for me. I got 8 cords for the winter. The girls left on holiday and I got to paint again. I finished up some more Epic Blood Angels. Two Termie stands and two Contemptor dreads. Also two more pillboxes.
          Then Blue command group is finally being blocked in. The optio and the last 4 troopers were finished last night. The shield are primed and the transfers should arrive today.

Epic Titans and WIP

          The Legio Ignatum fought in the Horus Heresy at one stage they even defended the Imperial Palace. The Fire Wasps still retain a number of Titans from the Emperor's time. After the lifting of the siege of the Palace, the Legio took part in the campaigns to track down and punish the heretics.

          Throughout the long and bloody campaigns, the Fire Wasps kept their fierce hatred of the Legio Mortis, their old rivals turned to Chaos. This infamous Traitor Legion battered the walls of the Imperial Palace, and terrorised and systematically exterminated the populations of dozens of hive cities on Paramar and Tallarn. The hatred for the traitor Legio burns in the hearts of the members of the Legio Ignatum and one day old debts must be repaid!

          Today the Fire Wasps are the only Titan Order to have the honour of guarding the Gate to the Golden Throne. 

          The titans are from Forge World. Every now and then they are available, you have to call the bastards to get them. The casts were off center and there was a lot of flash to clean. No blue rubber stuck to either of them. The mold release came off easy with soft scrub and a tooth brush. 

                                                  Two Forge World Warhounds.  

          I still have to finish the details on the bases.

Some converted contemptor Dreadnoughts and a current GW dread, all in Space Wolves' colors. The Contemptors were twisted and the power fist arm replaced with one from a robot. The guns came from DRM. Once again I am waiting on the humidity to drop for the matte varnish.

 

 

 

Epic Terrain

          I got some JR miniature building a while ago and finally got around to them. The switch up to 6mm or 1/300 scale was a nice break. They are also must quicker to paint up. First up was a factory building, not much to it. It will mainly block LOS on the board.

          Next I cranked out 6 Oil field storage tanks. Two of which I took a dremel to, punching holes and hallowing out the insides, making heavy damaged containers. The oil is liquid water with black ink mixed in.

          All have a high shine to them. The humidity high again last night. I did not want to risk the matte varnish turning cloudy.

Force on Force

          I got hooked on Force on Force from Ambush Alley, http://ambushalleygames.com/,  during the last HMGS convention. It is rough to get the hang of at first. Once you get the action/re-action part down the game is fast paced and challenging.
          Now me getting hooked is bad news for the wife. I ordered buildings from Game Craft Miniatures, http://www.gamecraftminiatures.com/,  and vehicles off of Ebay that night. The next day I grabbed up a bunch of plastic 20mm or 1/72 scale modern ISF and skinnies. I primed everything and based them on US nickels. None of which got completely painted.

          This week I saw examples for quick and dirty modern camo. Up close, the paint job is no where close to my pictures from the AOR. It does look some what real at arms length.

          A group of dirt sailors

          A squad of Marines

          The Hummers

Legions of Rome by Stephen Dando Collins.

       

              I have read Collins other books, and own most in Hardcover. Cleopatha’s Kidnappers, Blood of the Caesars, Mark Antony’s Heroes, Nero’s Killing Machine, and of course Caesar’s Legion. The last two are the best. I have not found a 1^st Ed. signed yet. Anybody want to sell their copy?

             Yesterday the Legion of Rome showed up. ( Sorry for the stock photo ) Present from the wife, good wife! Yet I am disappointed. The book was printed in China. The paper weight used is that of a hotel bible. You can see the print through the other side. The pages do not feel right, Collins’ paper backs have a better feel to them. For a 1st Ed I expect a proper paper weight. My impression is that Collins publisher is trying to make a fast buck.

 

             The book is full of black and whites with maybe 9 pages of color pictures. Two of the pictures I have never seen. There are color pictures of each Legio’s shield. The print is huge, it will be a fast easy read. 

             Each legion gets at least 3 pages.  This is at most an introduction to the Legions. It is not a book for the historian. It is good reference for the war gamer. Very quickly you can find a back drop for your gaming night with little effort or at the last moment. As major and minor battles are covered with which Legio is present and strength.

Ebay

             My room is packed full of half started projects. Since the move 3 years ago my 40k has been collecting dust. No clean smelling, beer drinking, funny dudes play 40k here. Just a bunch of kids with half painted, proxy laced armies that appear to never have read or can't read the rules. Clearing out the last of the 40K bitz and bobs floating around.

             Some of the last of my Forge World Death Korps of Krieg army is up. The models are amazing and a joy to paint. These engineers were my MVPs. They entered behind Hades Breaching Drills with gas gernades. 

             

28mm Roman Auxilia

        I had most of Saturday to myself. After cleaning out the garage and moving the first of 2 cords of wood into it, I got to do some painting. Progress was slow. I was watch the Alpha TV series while painting.

     I am looking to have 6 sword and 6 spear, plus a command group for each. In the end there will be 5 battle groups. I completed 9 with Blue tunics. These are Black Tree Design minis. The spears and shields will be finished up tonight.

      
         I have been chipping away at the Cream tunic Command group as paint dries here and there. There should be finished up some time this week.

Ebay

          I notice a few Space Wolves armies up on Ebay. They were selling for 78, 74, and 140. My SW army is huge. I cut out the poorly painted ones and some extra options. Lucky me, they went above avg, 135.

                                                        2 Tactical detachments.

 

2 Commands. One with a Land Raider and one captain in terminator armor and one stand of Wolf Guard. The second one with a rhino and one stand with a Captain, the other a Grey hunter stand.

1 Speeder detachment, 1 Bike detachment,1 Assault detachment, and a Hunter.

1 Land Raider detachment, 3 Vindicators, 1 Devastator detachment with Dreadnought.

                                                          1 Thunderhawk gunship

Thursday night gaming

                                                        Rematch! 

     Last time Fred got the win. I never really had a chance and was playing for a tie the whole time. I was not going to go down again. My game plan was tempo and movement, focus my fire, and let it rain.

    We play a 6 objective game. The large bridge in the center, 2 small bridges on the flanks, the air field on the hill, and one building in each others deployment area.   

 

Left flank with air field objective and small bridge

Center Bridge and the tall buildings in the deployment zones

                                                    Right Flank with small bridge

     Fred's deployment

 Left Flank. Speeder det., Land Raider det., and Tactical det.

 Center. Bike det., Predator det., and Tactical det.

Right Flank. Speeder Det., Whirlwind det., and Tactical det.

My Deployment. I gave up the right flank completely. Leaving units there to draw attention and refuse that flank.

Left Flank. Assualt det., Tactical det., and Bike det.

Center. 2 Tactical det., and Devastator with a dread and Razorbacks

Right Flank. Land Raider det., Whirlwind det., and Speeder det. 

                                                Turn One

Right Flank. 

Fred's Whirlwinds fire put a blast marker on my Land Raiders. The Tactical det. doubles toward the center bridge, and the Speeders advance to the bridge shoot, and break my speeders.

               
 My Whirlwinds put a blast marker on Fred's speeders. The Land Raider advance to refuse the flank. My speeders double, shoot adding a blast marker.

                                                                Center.
           Fred's Bike det. doubles toward the brigde. Speeder Det fails to activate and advances. Predator fail to activate and do nothing. Tactical Det advances and occupies the building objective in Fred's deployment zone.

        My Tactical Det doubles on to the bridge, shoots Fred's Bike det. killing two and adding 3 blast markers. My Devastators double occupy the two building to the right of the bridge, shoot and put a blast marker on Fred's Speeders. 2nd Tactical det. marches across the small bridge to deploy around and occupy the building in front of the devastator

                 
                                                           Left Flank
Fred's Tactical det doubles to the edge of the Air Field. They shoot my Tactical det.killing 2 rhinos and add 3 blast markers. The land Raiders advance just behind them.

My Tactical det double for the Air Field, gets there first and gets shot up. The Assault det advances. The Bike det. secures the bridge.

In the the End Phase My speeders rallied. What unit removed blast markers were not recorded.                                                         
                                                 TURN 2

                                                             Right Flank
Fred's Speeder shoot my Land Raiders, failing to kill. They added a blast marker. The Whirlwind det advances and shoots the Land Raiders. Again killing nothing, but adding another blast. Fred then saw that he very nicely place his Whirlwinds in my Land Raiders LOS.

My Land Raiders shoot the Whirlwinds. Fred makes every save and takes a blast marker. My Whirlwinds in direct fire at his Tactical det on the bridge, clipping the bikes. The Bike det lose one and break off the table. The Tactical Det loses a rhino and 2 stands, collecting 4 blast markers. My speeder advanced to sit on the building in my deployment zone.

                                                     

                                                              Center

          Fred's Tactical det. on the bridge, shot mine killing a rhino and adding a blast marker. The Speeder det shot, fail to hit, and added a blast marker. The Predators rolled up, shot, missed, and added a blast marker.

           My 2nd Tactical Det in the building to the left of the bridge fails to activate. It made one move, spreading out into line for cross fire bonus. The Tactical det on the bridge shot Fred's on the bridge, handing out 2 blast markers. The Devastators failed to activate, collecting a blast marker. They shot and broke Fred's Speeders.

                                                         Left Flank

Fred continues his abuse on the left flank. His Tactical det kills another rhino and adds 2 blast markers. My Tactical Det fails to activate, marshals, and rolls a 1! Fred's Land Raiders fail to activate and make one move forward. I jump the Assault det up to contest. My Bike det remain on the bridge with a hold action.

In the End Phase;

                                                       Turn 3, the end.

                                                             Right Flank

Everything stay the same. We sat there and traded blast markers with no advantage to either side.

                     
                                                            Center
        Fred's center collapsed. His Tactical det was shot down to the man, the predators broke, the Tactical det in the building was a blast marker away from breaking,

          The stars for me were the two Tactical dets. and the Whirlwinds. They cleaned the bridge off and slapped around those in the building. The Devastators broke his Predators.

                                                        Left Flank

        The Left Flank was pay back. Fred wiped out my Assault det. Then poured fire into the my Tactical det, securing his hold on the Air Field.

                                        
In the end I had no broken units, held two of the bridges, and the entire center of the board. Fred took the objectives on the far Flanks. A 4 to 2 victory.