Urban Terrain

Some works in progress for generic Urban Terrain... better suited to Stalingrad, Berlin 45, WW1 Somme Villers Bretonneoux and any Sci-Fi where it represents an urban scape that has been bitterly fought over....

Space Wolf Fever....

OK, so after swearing not to succumb to "yet another new Codex release" buying frenzy I promptly went out and got the new Space Wolves Codex... and of course the most unlikely of unit choices catches the eye... Thunderwolves.. well, whoever heard of anyone EVER riding a wolf? Actually, this is a game so it doesn't really matter!! In any case I went back out and got the Canis Wolfborn mini which really is a beast of a miniature... for teh hermits out there, he is on the left on the pic below.

So, in typical Games Workshop form, they haven't released a mini for the most dramatic of all the Space Wolves army list... so the web forums are full of suggestions of all sorts. For my part I came across the Dungeons and Dragons singles minis of the Dire Wolf and after a very little effort of rearranging a set of Space Marine biker legs the result is what you see below. Personally I'm quite happy with it. Good size match and the soft plastic is ok to work with; just using SuperGlue instead of Revells. See how it comes up painted.

That's more like it!

OK, with the second squad from the SH 3rd box I tried the much lighter colour and in fact went with Vallejo Pale Sand. The Devlan Mud wash came up a treat! This is without any touch up and promises to be a very nice result providing I can do the detail justice!

Deathwing cont:-

Well, reasonably happy with the end result of the first Termie, although it has not at all captured the feel of the Deathwing....

Well, Tas from Tas's Man Cave has inspired me with his initial go at some older 2nd or 3rd Edition Terminators using the excellent guide to "Deathwing, quick and dirty" by Ron.

So, having splurged and gotten TWO Space Hulk box sets, I've broken one lot out and giving the Termies a go.... well, my first mistake already and I used a spray primer a few shades darker than Ron and Tas.... trying to use some Vallejo Stone Grey to bring it back to a closer fit but not sure....

A few terrain pieces...

OK, been busy putting together some paper terrain pieces for playing with Ambush Alley. Pretty simple really; printed out the "skins" of buildings courtesy of the Ambush Alley Yahoo Group files, created basic shells from 6mm foam core and glued the paper walls on. Complete with doors, windows and posters!!

This is an aerial view of the 11 buildings so far.

A "ground level" view of USMC dismounted.

The other vehicle in the patrol.

And an oblique aerial view, notice the rear building; these cut outs can be stacked to make multi storey dwellings.

...... and only about 40 more to go I reckon!

2008 going...going... gone!

Oh dear, been a bit of a break between posts. Here's an "After Action Report" for a game we played just before the end of 2008.

"Contracting Trouble"

We played out the intro scenario from the Ambush Alley rules; Greg and I taking a Marine Fire Team each and Tom playing the "bad guys". You can try out a free set of intro rules from www.ambushalley.com

The Squad Leader reviewed the terrain between their position and the contractor's'vehicle they could see in the near distance to their North. According to the radio chatter, the two contractors were apparently being left alone for the moment; they were in a strong defensive position with their backs covered by a heavy stone construction colonial building and it looked like the Marine's were attracting the insurgents attention anyway!

There was a lot of movement in the buildings along the western side of the main road but only a lone bad guy in the building immediately to their front and right. Although armed with an RPG it still looked the best route as there was plenty of cover along the road side. Leaving 3-2b as a fire base, the SL moved with 3-2a as they advanced cautiously towards the first building. As 3-2a approached the two storey building an RPG whistled past them making them duck and return fire but no casualties on either side! As 3-2a went o ground, 3-2b seized the initiative and dashed forward, fire and moving in pairs and closed to the ground floor doorway; where they stacked ready to do some door kicking! 3-2a provided cover fire into the side of the building and across the road to the west, where there appeared to be half a dozen or so bad guys milling about in a courtyard; with no apparent leadership they weren't posing a real threat at the moment.

3-2b went in and quickly cleared the eastern side of the building, dispatching an RPG gunner (looked more like a school kid than a "freedom fighter"). However, as 3-2a started to move up they were surprised as two more groups of three bad guys each appeared in the windows! Apparently confused and disoriented and also without any leadership they didn't stand much of a chance as 3-2a assaulted straight in and 3-2b provided fire through the hallways and thin walls. One group left a downed companion behind and scarpered out the back door to some outbuildings, where they went to ground gasping and not daring to raise their heads; while the other group of bad guys simply died where they stood.

Too early, 3-2a and 3-2b started to congratulate themselves on a good start to the task and didn't notice the large numbers of insurgents starting to move into the buildings over the open ground to their north and across the road. The firefight in taking this first building had created quite a stir and not only armed citizens were turning out but it appeared a local cell of Al-Quaeda had turned out splitting up and starting to direct the aimless but excited groups gathering and getting them organized!

3-2b went into Overwatch as 3-2a moved out into the walled courtyard to continue the push up the street towards the contractors. Taking up position on the stone and mud brick wall seemed to act like a switch and half a dozen groups of insurgents opened up on them with a hail of AK and RPG fire! This fire was far more effective and accurate than the Marines had been briefed on about the local insurgents!! So much for Intel!

3-2a immediately took two casualties and scuttled back into the building, before checking them out; although one young Marine had taken a concussion and was back on his feet in seconds, the other didn't survive the massive shrapnel wounds received from the RPG explosion. 3-2b put down effective suppressing fire on the groups across the road cleanly taking out two RPG teams that foolishly ran into the open apparently to get a better shot? But 4 men (even though they WERE Marines) against better then 30 determined and now seemingly well led insurgents scattered among the buildings across the road and to the north was NOT good odds in anyone's book!

Even back in the building 3-2a still took heavy fire from across the road and they lost another man to the heavy AK fire. At the same time 3-2b also took a casualty forcing a break in the Marines sustained fire across the road. Although the wound was minor and the Marine was back into the fight after less than a minute, the lull was long enough for the insurgents to seize the initiative and a group of half a dozen dashed across the road and threw themselves through windows the doors screaming and ranting in a frenzy to close with 3-2a! The hand to hand was fierce and although the Marines fought like the Devil Dogs they were, the insurgents carried the fight. However, as the Marines had fought to the last and there would be no propaganda videos on Al-Jazeera!

3-2b could only watch in frustration as the other Fire team went down and as they had taken another casualty themselves were ordered by Company Headquarters to pull back. While 3-2 had been "attracting" the insurgents attention it appeared that the contractors had managed to slip away on foot…..

The game was great fun to play; the Fog of War card was a nasty one with the Insurgents Quality being increased from d6 to d8 putting them on a close footing with the Marines….

Although the Marines took the number 5 Hotspot early, there were some good rolls on the Insurgent Reinforcements and on turn 3 the Insurgents got a squad of 6 with Small Arms with a second roll allowed, resulting in a Squad of 11 (yes 11) with a Leader and Support Weapon….. AND both rolled for the Hotspot directly across the road from the building the Marines were in! From there it went down hill as the weight of fire coupled with the d8 quality of the fire whittled away at the Marines…..

Although the Marines didn't fare well, everyone thoroughly enjoyed the game. The dicing mechanism for combat was actually easily picked up and rolling opposed rolls became quite fun. although one of the guys initially struggled with the Morale checks by the end of the game it was going smoothly. A decision was made to buy all one color for each dice type, as on more than one occasion it was noted that a 9 was rolled for using " an 8 sided dice"…….. All agreed that the scenario was always going to be difficult for the Regulars but we felt it was going to play out completely differently each time, if only because the Insurgents were so unpredictable!

We had been after a game that played a "Call of Duty 4" style and Ambush Alley is very much that game! If you haven't played CoD4; then you really should try it!!