All Quiet on the Martian Front Saturday August 30th

 

The battlefield, American deployment zone in the lower left

Martian deployment zones, top left and lower right

Martian forces

American forces

We played the breakout scenario from the rulebook, with around 295 points a side. The Americans started in one corner and had to somehow make it to the opposite corner of the table. The game had a 3 turn minimum with a die roll after the third turn to see if the game comes to an abrupt end. It was a tight fit for the American forces but they needed to force a breakout and had to do it quickly so keeping troops in reserve was counter intuitive.

It was a close game with much carnage on both sides, the Martians lost 5 of 12 tripods while the Americans saw many of their tanks destroyed. The game did end after three turns, which were not nearly enough turns to have given the Americans a chance of winning. Ultimately the forces seemed to be fairly evenly weakened. As the Martian player said if this was a Martian victory, a few more like this and the invasion would be over.

More pictures follow...

Another dollar store find a Sci fi shuttle craft

 

So this is the type of thing I like to find when wandering the aisles of Dollarama. It is a toy that shoots some sort of rubber like disks, but to me it looks like some thing else.

To me it looks like a shuttle craft or will after a little work. It seems to match up well with my 15mm figures. So it will take a little patching here and there and I may  add some round bases to represent lifters on the feet, but in the end it looks like a pretty easy fix.

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Some star fighters for my growing 15mm Sci-fi collection.

 

So, I found these fine Buzz Lightyear space craft at the local Dollarama. I think they are a good size for 15mm figures and should repaint up nicely. I figure I can use them as troop carriers or shuttle craft ar just have them sit there as big damn space craft.

The Fifth Foreign Legion

So, this is how my organization of the Legion, using the Dirtside II rules, is going so far. I am, more or less setting it up as per what I can glean from the book shown above. I hope to have the vehicles painted up this week and I have already painted up their opponents vehicles. I also have 150 proxy enemy figures on the painting table and I will soon place an order for the Legions troops.

Dirtside II in 15mm, my latest obsession!

So, for no special reason I seem to have embarked on a mass purchase and thankfully mass production of 15mm Sc-fi figures. So far I have been sourcing the figures from three companies; Ground Zero Games, Brigade Models and Alternative Armies. There has been a recent binge buying on my part that has seen the acquisition of a few hundred infantry and 50+ vehicles. All these augment the preexisting (and largely ignored) forces that I already have.

The plan, such as it is (and subject to change) is to be able to field 7 different forces. Each army will have from 12 to 28 vehicles (a mix of APCs and AFVs) as well as 75+ infantry. The tech level of each army will vary quite a bit from low tech track/wheeled vehicles to full repulsor lift high tech vehicles. One army will be the exception in that they are very low tech troops with few if any vehicles but armed with captured weapons and arms given to them by an alien race that is keen to disrupt the status quo.

The rule set, Dirtside II, is intended for micro scale figures but I am adapting it to a larger scale figure. I am keeping the basing a multiple figures on a base, using Flames of War size bases, but I am including some personality figures to add something extra to the game. So far I have been fielding 'native' armies 3 to a base and plan to have 4 to a base for the more regular army/marine type forces. 

A few years back a fellow gamer took the chit drawing system that Dirtside employs for combat damage resolution and converted it to a D10 system. I have adjusted this system slightly to reduce the frequency of 'BOOM' hits that automatically take out a vehicle, but otherwise the system remains intact. So far I have been thinking through other changes but I have yet to record any of them.

To date I have painted up 20 Hammers Slammers vehicles, and 91 Ikwen native freedom fighters. I have drawn inspiration from the three Fifth Foreign Legion books and to some extent the Hammers Slammer stories. 

Some photos; The Hammers Slammers, vehicles only so far

Halo UNSC Pelican

 So today I built two of these ships. I thought I would take a break from all the glue sniffing, and try this snap together model. Well, it certainly was a breeze to build. Everything was already off the sprue, the instructions were clear and well illustrated, and amazingly everything fit so well that no glue was required! 

Current status of my ACW project

 

So, not as much progress on this, but some...

I have touched up some old troops, and actually painted some new forces. The Union greatcoat troops seen above are the first 15mm ACW troops that I have painted in 20 odd years! Man, do I hate painting 15mm ACW figures!!