Zombie books

Not quite miniatures but hey it's Halloween and some bloggers are doing zomtober so I thought I would waffle on about a series of books I've been reading.
The series is called day by day armagegdedon. It's a cracking series the first two are done in diary format so the chararcter writes about events after they happened. Which is great when he writes something like "I barely made it" makes you want to read on to find out what happened. The last 2 books he seems to go away from that format slightly but there are more characters in different places so I guess that it would be hard to stay in diary format all the time.
The first 2 books are the strongest in the series the fourth book seemed a little bit rushed I felt but still enjoyable as it carries on the story.
If you like zombie books give these a try!

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Terrain! Part 1

I've been working on some new terrain. With my force for dystopian legions and my new foray into bolt action I decided I needed to add a few buildings as all of mine are post apocalyspe type buildings.  I wanted some cottage type buildings and a bigger one so I settled on an inn type building. These should hopefully be Ok in both game settings. As funds are low (as always) for gaming I aim to scratch build them. We have had a new microwave so the box was sacrificed to make said buildings. After making a template out of paper

Using the template I cut the pieces out required.
Using a bit glue gun I assembled the buildings

The big building has a balcony on as well (ignore the coloured lollipop sticks it's all I had to hand!). Next up I've added lollipop sticks to simulate wooden support a some old buildings have

The large building comes apart I can take the way floor off for access to ground floor and also the roof off. One of the cottages roof comes off also the other has a while 'blasted' into the back. The roofs were a real challenge for me getting the right angle and securing them son I could take them off in games. I've managed it but they don't fit as nice as I would have liked.
Next up was tiling the roofs! Thanks again to Lukes APS Facebook group (link here ) I was offered some good advice as I was looking at cutting each tile out separately!! Thankfully the advice was cut one inch long strips og cardboard (the length of your roof obviously) then mark a line halfway all the way along. Along this line mark every half inch then cut up tothe half way marked line. Starting from the bottom of the roof stick one strip down the the next strip on top with the 'tiles' covering the non cut but of the strip. Hopefully that made sense and it looks like this

I think the effect looks really decent. The cardboard could have been better quality but I'm working on a budget (so far a microwave box and happy box have been sacrificed) but you only really notice it on close examination  for gaming I think the will be ok.
Next up is undercoating and painting

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Game Night! Part 1

Last night my good friend came over for our usual game night. I was quite excited about this game night as my friend had recently purchased Star Wars Armada. This is made by the people that made X-Wing but uses the bigger capital type ships from the star wars films such as Star Destroyers so every thing is on a bigger scale.

I played the rebel fleet and my friend took charge of the imperial fleet. He had one star destroyer (an absolute beast of a model) and six squadrons of Tie fighters.

My fleet consisted of two capital ships. The CR 90 Corvette  (famously in the first scene of the 'first' star wars) and a Nebulon B frigate (I believe it can be spotted in Return of the Jedi) escorted by 4 squadrons of X-wing.

Nebulon B Frigate

CR 90 Corvette

The game looks quite foreboding when you are getting all the bits and bobs you need out but once you start playing it runs smooth and you can see all the little things they have done to aid the speed of the game. Squadrons of fighters have there own section of the time and are super simple to use but add so much to the game. This makes moving squadrons fairly quick and allows you to concentrate on your capital ships. The capital ships is what the game is all about.  Theu have order dials like x wing  but depending on the ship you have to go stack them up and plan ahead. So a slow strong ship like the star destroyer has 3 order dials and at the start of your game you have to choose orders for all 3 which will be revealed one at a time over the next 3 turns. Each turn you add another order dual to the bottom as you take and activate the top one. This means you need to have a good think about what you plan on doing ahead of time. The dials allow you to speed up or slow down (if you don't choose this on one turn you move at your selected speed), charge your weapons,  make repairs to shields etc and finally order near by squadrons to move and attack.  Next up you attack with up to 2 weapons from different arcs. The ships have various weapons, the strongest being at the front and they have anti fighter weapons to fend off nearby fighter sqaudrons also. After the attack you can manoeuvre  (we did this the opposite way round before realising but finished the game the way we were playing as we were nearly at the end). To move you get a cool movement tool that is spilt into 4 sections which can move left or right a certain number of clicks.  Depending on your ships movement and speed determined how you can manipulate the movement tool.

So after getting set up we used the first scenario type game the book suggests to learn the rules.

Not really knowing the game I set up quite basically giving each ship 2 squadrons of x wings as support. Looking over the star destroyers stats I knew a frontal assault would end badly as my ships lacked the shields to hold out against the big guns for ever so my plan was to spilt my force and circle star destroyer (my ships were far more agile than the star destroyer). The first turn was spent advancing towards each other my ships spliting and going  for either side of the star destroyer.

One capital ship with x wing escorts

The Corvette leaves it's escorts behind!

The two frigates went round the sides while their escorting x wings engaged the tie fighters. My Corvette did manage to get ahead of its escorts and was hit quite a bit by a Tie fighter swarm.

Both rebel ships flanking the slower but more powerful Star Destroyer

The Rebel capital ships Strip the star destroyers rear shields while the x wing squadron goes on a bombing run

My frigates managed to get round to the rear of the star destroyer and a few lucky long range shots stripped its rear shields. Then a plucky x wing squadron took a shot at the star destroyer now lacking shields. Thanks to a handy special rule for x wings attacking capital ship I could potentially cause a critical hit. ....which I rolled! ! The star destroyer ended up with a thruater fissure meaning wverytine it changed speeds it gets one damage Go X wings!!!!!
The next few turns had the star destroyer stuck moving at a speed to fast (remember the orders were set a few turns ago) putting in an awkward position soon it took the damage and slowed down for better control. Using the space given by the star destroyers move my remaining x wings finished off the tie fighters . The game ended (you only play 6 turns) with my capital ships and remaining x wing squadrons chasing after the star destroyer which to be fair had plenty of hull points left and could have repaired shields so if the game would have carried on I think I could have took it out but I would have lost a capital ship.

The rebels chase off the star destroyer!

Victorious Fleet

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Games Night!!! Part 2

After our game of star wars armada we broke out thevteuated Across the Dead Earth gangs for a shootout plus the very first time my game board got used!!

Looking good I have to say

It was getting late so we only had a small game 2 loot counters and 2 rare item counters up for grabs on a quite open board (cover is you're friend in ATDE) that seemed to simulate the edge of a ruined town leading into the country side.
Both gangs came in from opposite sides and spent the first turns getting into position.  The Coggers  (my friends gang) leader made a dash for a loot counter on when turned round to run back I pulled out the trip wire event card and stopped him in his tracks. Both ganga seperated and grabbed loot on the edges of the board.  My scout hopping over the stream for a rare item which he retrieved. The centre of the board was held by the Coggers and they had been shooting at my medic and assault guy taking the medic out but once again a  handy heroism event card meant the assault dude took the hot and was healed by my medic again he was shot by a 'lucky' shot event card after my opponent missed my  medic. Again he was  healed.

Coggers hold the centre ground

I tried to flank them with my leader unfortunately I'd forgot about a Cogger lurking behind a lorry who ruthlessly shot my leader down.

Leader down!!

The infamous 'Wall' lurched over to finish my leader off but he had a surprise!! A sacrifice event card meant my leader dropped a grenade taking both of them out of the game!

Boom!!!

In revenge for my leader falling, My sniper for into position and 2 actions 2 shots 2 downed Coggers!

My assault guy (who'd spent most the game being shot and revived) scrambled over and finished the 2 downed Coggers off.
The last few Coggers were trying to get loot back, My scout took the Coggers heavy out with his bow and arrow! 

The last Cogger made off ending the game.
Another great game a lot more bloody than our previous games but great fun. My leader survived unscathed and my friends gamg members were generally ok a few were -1 Toughness but all still alive. The rate items we found? The Coggers got a nail grenade and I got a pistol stock hmmmn think our gangs got some duff info about rare items ha ha ha ha thats all folks!!

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Birthday funds depleted!!!

The post people have been busy delivering all my online orders that I've spent my birthday money on or as a present.
First up.

My family for me the star wars rebellion game. It's an absolute beast of a box 6 inches in depth. Inside is 150 plastic miniatures to represent fleets etc. Looks great can't wait to dive in.

E-Wing from my good friends! Can't wait to break out the new fighter and give it a fly.

My first bolt action miniatures are the British Airbourne HQ. After watching  the Pegasus bridge section of the Longest Day and A Bridge To Far for many years I've always loved the idea of having an airbourne force.

Next up I needed some anti tank (not many airbourne tanks .....well I believe there is one but not great in a tank fight so I'll aim to get that later ) I got a PIAT team and a light mortar team .

Obviously i need some troops!! This section gives me a squad with a mix of SMGs, OMG and rifles.
All the models look great and detailed I just hope I don't ruin them with my painting. On that note I've gotta but some more shadea of green!

Last of all (well apart from two books from the excellent series day by day Armageddon which haven't arrived yet.) Is my 14 pounder giving my Britannia force some much needed artillery and a nice anti-iron clad threat. The models looks great and comes with a base which was good as I thought I would have to buy one separate. In my last blog I mentioned that I was worried as prices were going up and stick diminishing. Well in the Spartan games blog they announced that dystopian legions is going strictly mail order from them to keep prices low and models still available. They have many games and I guess this isn't the most popular one. So at least I'll still be able to get models though depending on price may still use some proxies he he he
Now into assembling and painting!!!

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