Wrath and Glory - Cultists and Plague Marines

 Just a quick post showcasing some cultists and plague marines I painted up for the Wrath and Glory Campaign.

I did a little bit of kits bashing on these, adding mechanicus arms to the figure on the left and right of center.  They are intended to be Dark Mechanicus Cultists.

These three Death Guard Plague Marines were part of the Blackstone Fortress Expansion No Respite and I was quite happy to finally get them painted up!

Printed Mechs by Titan Forge

 So, I 3d printed these mechs really just to play around with and never really meant to fully painted them.  They are by a company called Titan Forge, who makes really good stl files.  You can check them out on their web site https://titan-forge.com/ or their MyMiniFactory store.  I have actually printed quite a few of their miniatures and have never had any issues rinting them.  

These Mechs were printed on a Phrozen Sonic Mighty 8k.  The print consisted of the main body, arms and legs and the cockpit cover.  Their were multiple weapon options.

I primed them in Leadbelcher, which I had never used out of the rattle can.  The result was a very smooth finish.  I then taped off one of them and hit the top areas with a blue paint (Coastal Blue from Rust-oleum).

They sat around for many months and then I started playing around with them after I got a bit burned out from painted all the minis for the ongoing Wrath and Glory campaign.  The green one was supposed to be just bare metal that I was going to test out some weathering effects, but I got carried away and really liked the models so put in a little effort.  The canopy over the cockpits is literally just a coat of Gryph Hound orange over the leadbelcher, and I think it looks pretty great.

And now they are being used in the Wrath and Glory campaign. Woot.

BattleTech Alpha Strike Review

 So I didn't really start this blog to post reviews, but I liked this game so much I wanted to post something in case someone somewhere is looking for a review and some information about this box set.

My son is running a Transformer RPG game for his friends.  At their last game he asked if he could use some mini's for their game.  I was surprised, as he has quite a large number of transformers action figures, but he said they were just too big. Unfortunately, the closet thing to mechs or robots I have are my Skitarii and they were over at the site of my Tuesday Wrath & Glory game.  So, he used a cadre of Votann squats.

Interestingly, I have a history with BattleTech and the PC game is one of my favorites.  I had been browsing on Amazon and saw a couple of different box sets for the table top version of the game and an idea struck me.  I could get that game and my son and I could play it and he could proxy the Mechs for the transformers in his RPG.  After a bit of research I decided on BattleTech Alpha Strike.  

I believe that BattleTech Alpha Strike is a entry level skirmish version of the the bigger game BattleTech A Game of Armored Conflict.  It was supposed to be quickly playable right of the box and game with 13 miniatures!  The price that day was $53 (retail of $79.99).  Pretty good deal I thought.

The game comes with everything you need to play.  There is a squad of 8 Northwind Highlanders and 5 Clan Jade Falcon with Mech Cards. The miniatures are very nice IMO. It even has card board buildings and trees.  The Quick Start Guide is easy to read and understand and has two tutorial missions that build on one another.  We were able to sit down and put everything together and play and it was a lot of fun.  From what I understand, Alpha Strike is supposed to be a quicker playing game than the full game and less crunchy.  It uses an non grid battle map and you measure distances.

I will say the game does feel a bit scaled down and I believe there is a Commander's Edition Rulebook and even a Commanders Edition Update to the Quick Start rules here -  https://bg.battletech.com/downloads/

And the quick start rules specifically state that any special abilities found on the Mech cards but not listed in the Quick Start have no affect but can be found in the Commander's Edition. A good example of the is that each side has a missile boat Mech with Indirect Fire capabilities. I knew from playing the PC game how awesome indirect fire was and we agreed to house rule those into the game when would could not find them in the Quick Start.

I will note also that the game comes with a deck of pilot cards that are never used and that I didn't find mentioned in the Quick start rules, so I assume those are for more advanced games.

All and all, a worthy investment and I will probably track down a copy of the Commander's Edition of the rules.

Below are some pictures from our play.

 

Our table set up for the second mission (my son wipe the field with my mechs in the first mission, which was set up on a field with a few clumps of trees)

There is my sneaky missile boat hiding behind a building.

The final blow was landed on my son's remaining attacking Mech leaving only his critically wounded Atlas to retreat from the field.

I definitely plan on painting these miniatures and certainly will post the results.

Wrath & Glory, The March of Chaos - WAAAGH! Ork Kommandos

So, in preparation of some upcoming potential encounters my Ork Kommandos Kill Team found their way onto my paint table.  I had painted up three back in "Orktober", so had to build and paint the rest. 

These are a tabletop quality speed paint.  I tried to vary the skin tones.  They were actually a lot of fun to paint.

Here are a couple shots of the whole crew on the tabletop.

And this little guy might be my favorite!

Anyway, great to have these done.  And I can see why people like Orks, they are fun to paint and have lots of character.