The last of the Imperials....for now!

 Hello again,

I have spent the last week assembling and painting up the last couple units for my Imperial forces in Star Wars Legion.

I was able to finally pick up two boxes of Shoretroopers after they had been unavailable due to stocking issues at Fantasy Flight for months. Here are a couple pictures:

Click on after the break for pictures of the other unit and how they faired in their first battle last Friday!

More Star Wars and....live streams?

 Hello again!

It's been a busy October on the painting front, and especially related to all things Star Wars Legion. Matty and I have been getting games in a couple days a week and I have been painting up furiously to get new Imperial units on the table. I have added 3 new units and a smattering of characters to my force and I wanted to update you all with some pictures.

Before I start posting beauty shots, I also wanted to note that we have built a Dice Devils YouTube channel and are starting to try our hand at live streaming our games. This will improve over time as I get better cameras, set ups, overlays etc. so please bear with us while we learn. I have added a direct link to the menu bar across the top. For now the channel has a few of our recent Star Wars Legion games but the plan is to include any/all systems I play - mainly AoS (Age of Sigmar) and 40K along with Legion.

Here are the units I have completed in the past 2 weeks:

Director Krennic

R4 Astromech

Medical Droid

More pictures after the break of the Death Troopers, Imperial Special Forces, etc!

Something a little different

 This is just a quick post of some pictures from a game last night of Star Wars Legion. It seems to be starting to pick up steam again so I will start adding some occasional coverage of the games and painting taking place. Matt "PhantomRescue" came by with his buddy for a game of Legion. My Imperial forces were used against Matt's Rebels. Here are some pictures of the action:

Overview of the table

E-web heavy gun and some Stormtrooper squads ready to deal with the Rebel Scum

Speeder bikes readying to advance

Rebel Commandos defending the small generator station

Rebels holding the line

Overview on Turn 2

Han Solo (up close in the brown coat) is trying to help hold the flank against speeder bikes and advancing Snowtroopers in the distance.

Starting to learn 40k 9th Edition

 I know this is a bit of a surprise considering all the painting and hobby time I am putting into my Seraphon for AoS but I recently received an invitation to try out the new release of Warhammer 40,000 (40K). I jumped at the chance to hang out, have a beer or two, and try a new system that is getting a lot of hype online. I pulled out my old (and shockingly badly painted) Chaos Marines and headed out the door!

My CSM are actually Emperors Children - the first founding legion devoted to Slaanesh. For the uninitiated Slaanesh is the Chaos God of Excess (be that pain or pleasure). A local fellow gamer dad invited me over to his place to play a socially distanced and mask wearing small game of 500pts. The list I took was the following:

• HQ

  • Sorcerer [5 PL, 90pts]

    Selections: Bolt pistol, Delightful Agonies, Force sword, Mark of Slaanesh, Warlord, Warptime

    Categories: HQ, Faction: <Legion>, Faction: <Mark of Chaos>, Psyker, Infantry, Faction: Chaos, Faction: Heretic Astartes, Sorcerer, Character, Warlord, Faction: Slaanesh

• Troops

  • Chaos Space Marines [4 PL, 70pts]

    Selections: Mark of Slaanesh

    Categories: Faction: Chaos, Faction: Heretic Astartes, Infantry, Faction: <Legion>, Faction: <Mark of Chaos>, Troops, Chaos Space Marines, Faction: Slaanesh

    • Aspiring Champion

      Selections: Boltgun, Chainsword

    • 4x Marine w/ boltgun

      Selections: 4x Bolt pistol, 4x Boltgun, 4x Frag & Krak grenades

  • Noise Marines [5 PL, 115pts]

    Categories: Faction: Chaos, Faction: Heretic Astartes, Infantry, Faction: Slaanesh, Faction: <Legion>, Faction: Emperor's Children, Troops

    • Marine w/ blastmaster

      Selections: Blastmaster

    • 3x Marine w/ sonic blaster

      Selections: 3x Bolt pistol, 3x Frag & Krak grenades, 3x Sonic Blaster

    • Noise Champion

      Selections: Power sword, Sonic blaster

  • Noise Marines [5 PL, 115pts]

    Categories: Faction: Chaos, Faction: Heretic Astartes, Infantry, Faction: Slaanesh, Faction: <Legion>, Faction: Emperor's Children, Troops

    • Marine w/ blastmaster

      Selections: Blastmaster

    • 3x Marine w/ sonic blaster

      Selections: 3x Bolt pistol, 3x Frag & Krak grenades, 3x Sonic Blaster

    • Noise Champion

      Selections: Power sword, Sonic blaster

• Elites

• Sonic Dreadnought [7 PL, 110pts]

  Selections: 2 x Blastmaster, Helbrute fist

  Categories: Faction: Chaos, Elites, Vehicle, Faction: Heretic Astartes, Slaanesh, Helbrute, Faction: Emperor's Children

Richard (Thank you again for hosting!) was trying out his beautifully painted Indomitus Space Marines painted up as Nova Marines. His force had a Lieutenant, 2 units of 5 Space Marine Assault Intercessors, 3 Blade Guard and 3 Space Marine Suppressors (Jump pack troops with Autocannons!!?!). 

Click on after the break for some pictures and a quick rundown of how the game went!

Last Stormcast - for me

But not for the family! I have finished up the Lord-Celestant on Dracoth for the kids starting Stormcast Eternals force :

Not amazing but table ready for the kids!

Skip on past the break for more pictures and information on upcoming units and battle reports!

First Blood and a Skink Starpriest

The first battle for the new Seraphon between two tenacious commanders. My kids! At 11 and 7, they are primed to enjoy the game now and honestly they are excited to try their wits against each other. Both have obviously been exposed to my longstanding table top gaming hobby so it comes as no surprise that as the self isolation and social distancing continue, they are more keen to try different things with their time. I am more than happy to oblige ;)

But before we get to the game, I did finish another model this week :

 Skink Starpriest

More after the break!

The Defence of the Church of Our Lady of Saving Throws MidWar DAK scout cars and Italians

 The humble 2cm scout car.. on parade for the Kriegsmarine?!?

Hey gang, another battle report at Chris', this time I will let the pics and video at the end do most of the talking.    There was some chatter about a tournament list that used 2x DAK Aufklarungs command card (scout car formation), 2 Tigers, 2 88s.   While I doubt I would ever go 'that far' I liked the concept of using the Aufklarungs card, and adding more cheap hulls to the mix:  M14/41 allied formation!    Chris has been tweaking his DAK list over the past few videos, and this time wanted to try Lorraine Schleppers.  We rolled up CounterAttack.

Cygnar vs Cryx - The first encounter

New Year, new desire to play more games. I have been a beautiful combination of busy and lazy, leading to very little in the way of dice throwing, however, I have been actively painting over the past couple months. Here is why  - I picked up, on a whim due to the cover, the new Privateer Press Prime Issue #1 back in November.

Mid War 71 points Desert Rats vs German Pzr's Counterattack

Marder III with wounded on board, last survivors of their unit.

So let's dive in to Game 2, where hopefully I don't botch too many more rules!   As always, Video Battle Report at the end!  So we rolled up Counter-Attack, with me defending.  We used the same lists as Game 1,  and we both used Spearhead liberally, as this mission allows good movement.  Matt Spearheaded everything into No-Man's Land, deployment is below

Flames of War Battle Report: KG Peiper vs Cdn Infantry Bridgehead 1050 pts

Sitzkrieg, 1944

A quick Late War match, 1050pt game, a tune-up for Canadian Nationals.   I used a K.G Peiper list (fearless trained stuff) vs  Rob's Canadian Mech Infantry out of Market Garden.  I think Rob was out of his element, as he had no artillery of any kind, which for him is unheard of!    The hecklers playing 40k on the next table over decreed we should play Bridgehead.  (bonus 40k pics at the end of the post, and as ever, a video as well)

Dug-in Canadians guarding the roadside supply dump objective and wrecked SPG objective.

Hard to see behind the tall trees in the back, but the transport section of Kangaroos are there.

My half-finished Puma's Spearhead to this area of trees, with plans of Fritz-Moving up, shooting at the Kangaroos, then moving back to cover if they pass the Movement Orders.

KG Peiper, when attacking, the Pzr IV platoons can Spearhead, and the King Tiger HQ and KT platoon take advantage of the expanded deployment zone.

I had successfully Blitzed, shot at the Kangaroos, then Shoot N Scoot back, but AT9 vs FA 5 plus range meant I didnt get any shots to count.   Rob now rushes his Kangaroos forward, with designs to .50 cal. my Puma's.    My armour saves were made however.

The game devolved into a waiting game.  I couldn't commit anything until his 4 x Achilles with AT15 came in, but they were in Scattered Reserve.  You can see in the background I had Skorzeny jeep trying to block that back quarter from being a viable deployment for his Achilles.  Meanwhile, my Pzr IVs had to hide in the crops, as his ambushing 6lbrs had to yet to be sprung.

With no armour to shoot at, these are just very expensive AP3 platforms... which, when needing 6s to hit infantry, were useless apart from I think one kill all game vs his Infantry

Turning point of the game:  I had elected to use Skorzeny to block once again the quarter deployment option for the Achilles' reserves, and failed.   Since I can not move when Disrupting the enemy, I was challenged by the HMG unit leader, and FAILED the challenge: "Who won the 1941 Stanley Cup?   Umm, the NY Mets???"  Firing Squad!    The Achilles come on and start workign their way up the side of the board, whilst the 6lbr AT11 x 18 shots made short work of my concealed Pzr Platoon.

Rob passes his Blitz move order to see the side armour of my HQ King Tiger.  I had to move it up to be within 16 inches of an objective or lose the game.   2 shots, two hit, 2 bails!!!!  I rolled a 2 for my remount, and we thought that was it, and I was down to one platoon In Good Spirits and lost the game.   Turns out, one of the hits could have been put on the platoon KT, and that the HQ tank can reroll on himself.   But still, this is why we are playing test games before Cdn Nationals.

The excitement is palpable in Rob's face as he exults in his Achilles winning him the game :)  Great game, and now I know a bit more that I need to keep the thinly armoured Pzr IVs hidden, since being trained and only FA6 means almost everything in LW can hit them easily.   Video and bonus 40k footage below.

Tristan and Andrew played V8 40k on Brett's phenomenal Sci-Fi board

Brett started digging out his old Forgeworld army, the Death Korps of Krieg.

Black Powder Napoleonics 2 vs 2 Brit-German alliance vs French plus Irish

"FEUER FREI!!"

Over the weekend, we had ourselves a Napoleonics game featuring Chris Caron and I running the dastardly French (and one unit of Irish allies) vs Mark and Rob's assorted British / Allies including Kings German Legion, Badeners (posing as Portuguese) and some Black Brunswickers.  We kept things reasonable and had roughly 200pts per player, and thus 400pts per side.     Laid out 2 static objectives (Lion statue and french supply cart) in the middle and would score 1 VP for each enemy unit broken.    As ever, Video Battle Report is at the end.  Enjoy!

View from the French side, you can see supply cart left middle and lion statue mid right.

We decided to deploy onto the table using orders.   Hands up if you can guess whose entire Brigade failed its command rolls?   I took a cavalry Brigade with 3 units of Horse and 2 Horse guns, and thus was not able to take advantage of 'Attack Column' Command bonuses!

Rob's splendid King's German Legion preparing to deploy in Line Formation to sort out the frenchies.

Mark's British and Light Dragoons.   He wouldn't let me take shots of half-finished Brunswickers!   Ignore the unpainted casualty markers please.

After my Brigade failed to get on the table, and Chris' 3 infantry and 2 light infantry (in attack columns) only moving one move, the Redcoats managed to get everyone in place, except the guns. Rob here has left room for the guns on the hill.

Close-up of Rob's KGL, front view

For the second straight turn, most of my army does not come on the board.  Only my 9eme Dragoons are on board near the house and obscured by my alcoholic beverage :)

Meanwhile, Chris' 2 units of Lights move up to the Supply wagon and deploy into open order, with the Irish plugging the remaining gap to the trees.    Mark already has some British in the middle and a vicious close range firefight would ensue .

Mark's Brigadier fails to inspire the troops to get into the safety of the houses, even though they would be much safer from the musketry coming from the stone walls in the background there.

Meanwhile the German's under Rob's Brigadier await the tardy french horse to arrive!!!!!   Only my guns made it on (back right) and took pot shots at Rob's limbered guns on the hill

Holding the Supply Wagon and manning the defences, Chris' Brigade has no reason to move and focuses fire on the limbered  British gun in the town square, Disordering it repeatedly so it can never unlimber and fire cannister (see below)

Mark's Brigadier would love to order the gun to fire, but its is permanently limbered with Disorders. It would eventually break off after failing a morale test.

Chris' Light Infantry command jeering the British from the supply wagon, waving the colours!

FINALLY my cavalry brigade comes on the board, but can only declare charges on the infantry and they form square.   My Horse Guns, despite being within Cannister range, only on the last turn do would they finally break Rob's KGL line infantry.    With Mark's Brigade below half strength from the town-side fire, the British -Germanic alliance would fall back and leave the field to the French.  To be fair, Chris' infantry did all the heavy lifting.   Still, great game, and it turns out we have enough models and terrain to play in Scott's absence.   Looking forward to our next game, perhaps some Colonials?

Catch a Tiger by the Toe (Final Version 4 Test Game)

My Tiger unit was about as useful as the one I'm sitting on.......

So, depending on the list and the cost of a unit, a game using the new Version 4 rules can go one of two ways. The first is that you flawlessly execute your plan and your opponent suffers as a result. That chance your plan doesn't quite go as you saw it from the beginning however, sometimes rears its ugly head and you get trounced. That's the second possibility.... It's a Thursday night, Tristan and I go for a game of Germans vs Germans in what was a a great back and forth game from the start and later just turned out to be downright brutal for me in the end.

Scroll to the bottom for video of the game!!

Hope you enjoy it and the discussion on the game we had afterwards!

List descriptions are in the video!

Catch a Tiger by the Camel Toe, more like!

Flames of war VERSION 4 test game 3: Fritz-Move

25lbrs doing what they do best: Scaring away tanks????

Its been a whirlwind weekend, with 3 test games of the new Flames of War (gleaned from cell phone snaps of preview books, WWPD compilation and the Team Yankee book where possible)

Brits vs DAK again, but on a different board, with different lists:

We counted the rocky hill as just Rough Going, anything else is obvious, so lots of trees this time.

As ever, the LONG video is at the bottom.  We discuss throughout.