Tagged: wargaming
Wargame Playtest AAR – Foreign Stars
The Forces
A-Force:
M1AX Isaac Main Battle Tank
– Medium Vehicle, Heavy Cannon, Machine Gun, Grenade Launcher
2x VIRTU Rifle Section (8 Troopers)
– Assault Rifles
2x AT2 Anti-Tank Team
– Medium Missile Launchers
B-Force:
VIRTU A9 Frame
– Large Melee Weapon, Small Laser Cannon
VIRTU A7 Frame
– Large Melee Weapon, Heavy MMG
2x VIRTU Rifle Section (8 Troopers)
– Assault Rifles
2x AT2 Anti-Tank Team
– Medium Missile Launchers
2x MG92 Machine Gun Team
– MMGs
Full Thrust Project Continuum Battle Report – Scouting Mission at Itomori Star Zone
Fleet Lists
EFS Taskforce Itomori:
Artemis-class Cruiser EFS Adamant
Tsukuyomi-class Cruisers EFS Repulse, Revenge and Resolute
Nephthys-class Destroyers EFS Jupiter and Juno
Chandra-class Frigates EFS Crisis, Critic and Castle
AISN Forward Group 3185:
Meridiel-class Cruisers AISN Fiora Froleya and Caldis Varden
Chiithan-class Destroyer AISN Dethan
Irivel-class Frigates AISN Mabaris, Cavaris, Theliris and Levitris
The Scenario
March 2146, three months into the Astoran invasion of human space. While the Itomori system is a relatively lightly populated one and would seem to be a reasonable buffer between the advancing Astorans and vital EFS infrastructure, its numerous gas giants are strategically significant mining operations. A reinforced cruiser group, led by Commodore Tachibana, had been sent by the Earth Fleet to defend Itomori – and had been waiting several days to see action.
Tachibana’s fleet encountered what was presumed to be an Astoran patrol on the 23rd March; a small flotilla of Irivel frigates was detected by long-range sensors on the cruiser Adamant, and the decision was made to advance into the magnetic clouds on the system’s edge to investigate. There, Tachibana encountered – apparently with the element of surprise – a small Astoran task force. Battle was joined…
“I Am Unreasonable Mad About This Stupid Show” – Twitter User @R042 on Record of Grancrest War
It is hard to easily express in which ways Grancrest War is bad; it is, in my opinion, such a combination of failed attempts to be interesting it ends up a singular kind of ridiculously uninspiring. Even trying to consider it from within its genre, a teen-focused power fantasy series, it feels alienatingly stupid. When writing about anime it is often easy to forget that much of it is written as mass entertainment for young people, and that approaching it with the expectations of an adult fandom is rarely fruitful. So anything that seems alienating and other may simply be something that an older audience are out of touch with, a reflection of, ultimately, a foreign country’s trends in youth culture. That is as maybe; I maintain Record of Grancrest War is still not very good.
Tabletop Game Review: Rogue Planet (Brent Spivey, Bombshell Games)
Brent Spivey’s skirmish wargame Rogue Planet plays like the much-loved Games Workshop RPG/miniatures game hybrid Inquisitor; it has similar systems of random activation counts and a focus on interactions with terrain and inventive skill use. It is different in fundamental ways mechanically, but the intent – bringing together the freer mechanics of role-playing games and the structure and campaign advancement of a miniatures skirmish game. It will not stand as a direct competitor to something like Necromunda, as the focus is not on highly granular combat and strict rules (insofar as Necromunda’s rules were strict), but it offers an attempt to emulate, as any niche wargame should, a specific kind of skirmish combat.
Heavy Gear Blitz Battle Report (169TV, BTRT vs CNCS)
This was an interesting battle for sure – a force of only eight models against a much larger one, led by a powerful Strider.
Unfortunately, many of the photographs I took did not come out.
It did not go particularly well for the North…
Heavy Gear Army Backstory – BTRT Special Unit K71
This army has been one of the most fun wargaming projects I have worked on; I have taken the time to personalise and create custom scenic bases for every miniature, bought third-party conversion parts to add to the kits to ensure none are completely stock constructions and come up with a backstory for every unit. I have tied the backstory into my other armies for the game where possible, thus the Three-Ones and the Salamandine Incident turn up…
It is also only eight models, a truly elite force!
Tabletop Game Review – Test of Honour
Warlord Games’ Test of Honour is best described as a pseudo-historical or pop-history wargame, a kind of midpoint between “serious” historical wargaming (focused strongly on accuracy over balance, and often breaking rules of what is considered “fun” in traditional miniatures gaming senses) and pure fantasy or speculation. Its mission statement, according to a Wargames Illustrated article was to “evoke samurai movies rather than a slavishly historical view of feudal Japan” (Graham Davey, quoted in WI354) and in this respect it achieves its aim. The rulebook is wholly free of historical context, the painting guides are genericised and do not even provide a list of historical coats of arms to imitate for historically-minded players.
Heavy Gear Army Background: Marigold Army, 25th Regiment, 3rd Compagnie, 1st Gear Section, The “Three-Ones” (Southern Forces, 319TV)
Writing the background for this army took significantly longer than the more comparatively cursory unit descriptions my Northern forces received. I came into possession of the Duellist’s Handbook, Southern Republic Army List and Southern Field Guide before writing this and so decided, as is my way, that if I was going to do this it was going to be done properly.
The immediate problem came from the fact I had just bought two Fer de Lances, and the Southern Republic Army List claimed on page 146 that only “a few dozen” of these Gears were in service, and “it is a capital offence for it to be used by any other Republican unit”. Thus I had to make a few adjustments to the background and came up with the Fer de Lance Beta (which is probably not strictly fluff-accurate, but sidesteps more awkward questions).
The only other major background howler I can think of is the move away from strict 5-Gear Cadres (something that the newest edition of the game rules and my choice of unit loadouts does not make particularly easy to do thematically).
Heavy Gear Army Backstory Continued: “NorthCo Tech Support”
As I mentioned in my previous post, my current miniatures wargaming project is nearing completion but still has several models unfinished. As I finished a key part of the army, the Kodiak Gear pictured above, I decided it was good material for a little longer piece of backstory, detailing exactly how awkward a malfunctioning and uncalibrated mech could be for a unit…
Heavy Gear Army Backstory – Whitetop Regional Army 9th Gear Regiment (311TV CNCS)
While not all of this army is currently built, I have taken the opportunity of using a new lightbox to get some photographs of what is currently finished, and write a little background for it. As it is a significantly larger force than would ordinarily be fielded, I decided to group the models into sample units and come up with background for the pilots within to try and give a picture of how the army might function as a whole.
Ideas Without End 