The Last Knight Ep. 1. - Red Fox in the Sheep's Pen

This month I promised myself to play at least one game. Naval and sci-fi games are preferred because they require less prep work and fewer models!

On my Battle Campaigns blog I wrote a small summary for a sci-fi space battle campaign featuring the forces of rebellious Mars against the oppressive Earth Government. Thus the time has come to launch that campaign.

In this first scenario, the squadron conisisting of MSS Phoibos (Cmdr. Ian C. Nisom commanding), MSS Sub Rosa and MSS Walkyr, without fighter support, arrive at a junction point in dead space where they expect much EarthGov civilian traffic. Their goal is to hurt EarthGov shipping as much as they can, without risking their own skins.

The theme of the entire campaign is asymmetrical warfare: the Martian Sphere squadron does not get replenishments and any damage made against them is permanent. EarthGov forces are dispersed but get a lot more reinforcements during the campaign.

I use pre-made Lego ships which I built from scrap parts of multiple sets, including Star Wars ones.

I set up a simple entry/exit point system: the MS squadron enters the table first, and then each turn a new ship arrives until I exhausted my current stock. I just set my existing models in a row and picked them up in a sequence for their order of entry. There are no EarthGov capital ships in this scenario. 

The entry points are numbered one to six, starting from the bottom right corner and moving clockwise. I roll a d6 for each ship's entry point. A civilian vessel may exit the table safely by moving to the opposite entry point (so 3 to 6, 1 to 4, 2 to 5 etc.). An EarthGov Navy ship may exit via the opposite point or its point of entry. MS ships entered the table at point 6 so that's their extrication point as well.

Let's see how the scenario goes!

Brutal Lego Fighting

To be honest, I have almost given in to temptation.

I have stumbled upon One Page 40k and read a few 40k novels. Oh my. I have even started looking into cheap non-retail (read: non-GW) resources. 

And then it hit me: I can do better.

One Page 40k is good, but not beer-and-pretzels-fun-good. Not slaughter-everything-good. A fast-paced tabletop game of total slaughter IS, in fact, one page long. And then you can add all your scenarios, rules limitations and whatnot.

I have also had a lot of Lego on hand.

Thus was born One Page Sci-fi. 

No army lists and point limits.

No fancy mechanics.

No distinct melee and shooting.

No 9001 dice thrown at the same time.

It is bloody.

It is fun.

It is played with Lego miniatures.

In these pictures, you can observe a game where the Space Orcs defend an ancient ruins against two opposing armies. The enemy had to reach the ruins to end the game. The challenge for them was that the defender set up a series of obstacles and covers (some static shields too) the way he liked. However, the defending units were outnumbered and all armies had activations, so it was 2 enemy actions to the defender's 1. The Orcs lost but to a bloody cost. You can see that there are many types of units as it can be read in the rules.

We have also played some 'total annihilation' type games and a 'capture the flag' scenario. Since then the armies have been expanded and now any army can take up various 'mercenary' units to give way to variety as originally every army had the same number and type of units.

The Relief of Né-Elvim

Woot, a battle report! This time with Legos!

It's the Second War of Windscourt and the Lord of Windscourt is leading an allied relief force towards the remote town of Né-Elvim whose fort is besieged by the united Beaucourtian and Dorroseani armies.

Rules are standard Inter Arma with simplified firing (30 max, 15 effective / 40 for cannon), movement (cavalry (limbers) 20/30, infantry 10) and casualty (maximum 3 lost per unit per turn) regulations.

Martian Rebellion Campaign Ep. 2. - Zaqasdari Incursion

The united Martian-Terran fleet has to cope with the xeno threat. The battlefield is kind of 'hard terrain' with a large asteroid field and an ancient shipwreck occupying the centre. 

The Zaqasdari have a slight disatvantage in points which they make worse by moving in linear formation. The opposing fleets station on the two sides of the asteroid field and plan to launch their fighter squadrons throughout the field impassable for larger units.

Two small notices before continuing: first to welcome Warlord Paul, the 77th follower, and to tell I am not entirely sure I will be able to finish this campaign because I plan other uses for the Lego material involved - an Age of Sail naval game along the lines of One Page Fleets. Working on some terrain right now, well perhaps I could scratchbuild some ships too.

More Lego goodness

I just bumped into this exhibition on Sunday when going back to the dorm, then it was mostly model trains and railroads. I returned today, and this time, although the entry fee has been raised as well, there were Lego pieces only.

Based on actual Hungarian trains mind you. And they move around the table.

Naval campaign - Episode 5. (Finale)

Ep. 4 is here.

Turn 32-3

Another Imperial fleet showed up. The routed Rebel cruiser reached Fleet Yellow and gave a detailed list of Rebel units inside Ingre Harbor. Yet the Imperial admiral was hesitant and instead gave order to wait for Fleet Grey 2 to arrive and launch a cooperative strike.

The Rebel fleet, however, moved out to strike them down.

Initial setup. The Imperial left flank is protected by mines.

The Rebels charge right in. Two destroyers attempt to defend their carrier from enemy cruiser fire; those are busy enough fighting the Rebel heavy ships anyway.

Naval campaign - Episode 4.

Previous episode is here.

Turn 27-8

A new Fleet Yellow arrived at the Imperial main base.

The 3 Rebel divers and 2 blockade breakers struck on the harbored Imperial fleet.

Rebel startup with a diversion force of blockade breakers.

They don't last too long against the coastal battery, but win enough time for the divers to sneak in.

Naval campaign - Episode 3.

Episode 2 can be found here.

Turn 11-4

The Rebels now wished to extend their territory by either convincing or forcing the coastal cities to aid their cause. The main fleet returned to Western End, then the admirals divided the fleet to smaller squadrons.
Each squadron consisted of a flagship (a cruiser or heavier unit) and four smaller escort ships. Their carrier, engineering ship and minesweeper boat remained at the Western End.

Naval campaign - Episode 2.

See the previous post here.

Turns 8-9
Now if Fleet Yellow wanted to move along, could not do it without a fight. They had to secure their 3rd rig to the south-east, but also secure their base of operations. Luckily enough the Rebel main fleet set its course back to Western End and did not bother capturing the third rig.

Turn 10
The Imperial fleet moved out of harbor and set up attack formation out of the reach of the Rebel coastal batteries near Western End. The Rebels moved out with full force to meet them.

The two fleets approach each other.

The Yellow battlecruiser and the Rebel battleship aim for each other.

Naval campaign - Episode 1.

Turns 1-3

The Rebel feet assembled at its southernmost base of operations. The Imperials were soon aware of their presence and sent a unit of 9 frigates and destroyers to the Western End rig.
A strike force of 3 divers, a medium cruiser and 9 destroyers (plus an engineering ship) attacked the rig in hope of capturing it.

Rebel strike force.

Going naval

Illustration only. Sadly. Imagine all the boom.

This week, besides finishing an essay early (of Sun Tzu for the class 'Chinese Law', not as serious as it sounds), painting more stuff (some dark fantasy vikings are waiting to be based, oh how I hate basing) and some other minor chores I still have plenty of time. 

This is how the idea to dive into the blue sea came - out of boredom. I've built approximately 60 Lego ships in two days. No, nothing spectacular. The story involves a Rebellion against the Imperium's taxes and suppression in the far western edge of the known world. Oi, it's for fun so no huge lore behind this. While the rebels have, at the beginning, a bigger fleet (at least in numbers), better positions and no immediate threat to face, the Imperials have unlimited reinforcements coming from their capital if needed.

This is the area map randomly generated by Hexographer. Had to link the seas together at some places and place infrastructure. The rules used will be the trusty Inter Arma DIY book's different additions, including the ones for campaign and armored combat.

Blue ships are the Rebel fleets, the Imperials are marked with black. Hexes marked with X are mine fields of which only their possessors know, and the opposing fleets must spend two turns clearing. Cities, coastal batteries and terrain features are pretty evident. There are also oil rigs on the sea, these could be used to resupply fuel for the fleet. One fleet can run 10 hexes before refueling.

Well looks like there's fun on the horizon again, despite the snow (at the end of March... hadn't happened since at least 10 years). 

Sidenote: The Alban 28mm figs have arrived in a not so neat packaging today (regular envelope with bubble wrap) but luckily no incidents happened, they are really nice and needed minimal work on mould lines (this was a relief after the amount of flash I encountered while working on the plastics). They almost match the HäT figures but this won't show on the tabletop I hope. May run my first SDS game this week considering how fast I finished the previous batch.

The walls still hold, sort of

Some progress being made on the fortress I mentioned in the latest posts. This above is the first attempt, just threw together lego pieces of equal length. There is an artillery battery included to show the scale to the Risk units I own.

Now this is much better, I remembered I had some of these huge A1 papers so drew a pentagonal shape (marked a point, drew a line then 72° differences between four other lines starting at the same point), the sides equal the length of the longer lego pieces. 

There is a barracks inside and the old piece of vine I collected last year. All I need is some elevations, some of those thick cardboard pieces will do, or maybe foamboard.

More Lego goodness + sailing ship experiment

Didn't do much again this weekend, here are some old and less old pics of the sailing ship MKH Derpy Hooves project and a steam-engine lego frigate.

First things first, I just put this one together to see if I remember the ways (and then bombed it to destruction).

Welcome to DeanM from WAB Corner, a regular reader again! Thanks for following.

SYW with Legos

I was bored and had a lot of Legos. This is the result.

 Austrian army: five foot and five light horse regiments (foot: one Jäger, one Hungarian, one Leib-grenadiers, one line, one Landwehr; horse: one Leib-Dragoner, two Chevaux-Legers, two Hungarian hussar regiments), four heavy cavalry (two heavy dragoons and two cuirassier regiments).

 Prussian army has the same numbers with different colors. From left to right: line infantry, Leib grenadiers, line infantry #2, line grenadiers. Dragoon regiment #1, #2, black hussars. Cuirassiers, Leib cuirassiers, heavy dragoon regiment #1, #2 and command before them.