Post Salute 2012

Well after arriving home late last night (I make a weekend of Salute, as it makes a bit less tiring when I'm travelling from Glasgow) I thought I'd put up my analysis of my Salute 2012.

I will admit, I didn't really take pictures of everything. I did however take pictures of the stuff that interests me, so prepare to have a whole load of them put up, and a list of what I bought.


I managed to pretty much buy everything I wanted from my list, comprising. I also managed to sneak a few things on there, that either I wasn't sure would be there, or just a bit of impulse purchasing.

And also I got to meet Fran and Ray from The Angry Lurker and Don't Throw a 1 respectively, Tamsin from Wargaming girl, the infamous Postie of the Postie's Rejects and a whole load of other people. Was great to put some faces to names and actually talk to people in person.

What I bought:

GZG - A whole load of UNSC troops, drones, and some New Israelis, that will have a very minor conversion into Republic Army troops from Star Wars.

Mongoose Publishing - A Maestekulos Dreadnought for Noble Armada.

Pulp Monsters - More superheroes. Finished off my Heavy metal team with the last 3 members and also picked up a giant hadron.

Micro Art Studios - A whole load of Urban and Urban War bases for my Infinity figures.

Sarissa Precision - Some of the System Infinity range of scenery, comprising 2 of the explorer pods and one settler pod.

GCT Studios - Daisuke and Mizuchi. I was also 2 numbers away from winning the board, if only I'd delayed my purchase about 2 minutes, it might've been me. Ah well.

Simple Miniatures - Infinity stuff I needed, including a Jotum for PanO and my post-humans for Aleph, along with some more blister packs.

Critical Mass - The core rules. I'm going to read these and then work out what I need to turn the few bits I have into a usable force to purchase at Carronade.

Wayland Games - Wasn't sure if they'd bring their Heavy Gear stock, but they did thankfully so I picked myself up an Aller tank and a Kodiak Gear for the North. I would've bought more, but money was limited.

Empire: Peripheral Wars - I had intended to look at this, thinking it was a demo game, but it was more a display, with Antenociti selling the stuff. Spaceships, very much modelled after Homeworld 2, which definitely floated my boat. So myself and one of my friends halfed in on one of the big boxes to get a whole load of spaceships. Lovely. Pictures later.

Twilight - Mike Thorp does some fantastic miniatures for this, and I always take a pop by his stand every year. This year I didn't get much, as again money was limted. However I did buy some of his little creatures and a herder to go with them. This was also the start of a dangerous path, as rather than rushing off to the cash machine, Mike said that they could actually do paypal. So out came the smartphones, and a few button pushes later, money had magically left my account and into his, with no exchanging of plastic or anything. 

What I saw:

First of all I'll add in the fact that it's what I saw. I just physically didn't have time to take photos of everything, what with buying, talking to people, so just ended up taking pictures of what I saw that interested me. And there were a few things.

Empire: Peripheral Wars

The display table run by Antenociti's workshop ended up having some really nice spaceships on it. Currently they have one fleet, based on the Hiigaarans from Homeworld 2, but they are planning more. They also currently have the stats for the ships done with A Call to Arms, but there may be talks of eventually developing something.

The battleship, the big one of the fleet

some of the smaller ships

The whole fleet spread out.

I ended up purchasing one of the large boxes, which basically gave you 2 of everything, though it is getting split with one of my friends. I'm sure I'll find a use for them. Spaceships are about the only thing I break my rule of not buying miniatures I can't physically use with. I ended up talking to the guy manning the table for ages about various things, and he was a great guy to chat too so he was.

If you're interested to know more go here

Fate Amenable to Change


Wolsung

The interesting steampunk game eventually coming from Micro Art Studios. The figures look nice, and the rules look like they could be okay, so I'm keeping an eye on this one so I am. Shall see how it turns out.

There's 3 factions planned for. A gentlemans/nobles club, an inventors society and a triad style organisation. Based in a fantasy world as well, so have ogres, halflings, dwarfs etc.

For any more info go here

Wolsung SSG

Dropzone Commander

Now this for me was the find of the show. A stunning looking miniature line by a new company called Hawk Wargames. They've kept it very quiet, with nothing on the internet, and Salute was the big unveiling. And what an unveiling. Four fully fleshed out factions, ready for release, when the game launches in July. They're working on the rulebook as well, and that should also be ready for the release date, so that it'll be a fully working game on the get go.

The forces of the United Colonies of Mankind

More of them. Loving the fighters at the rear

The alien Scourge

More of them, including their large dropship

The Post Human Concordat, with dropships, fighters and walkers

More PHC walkers and some infantry and tanks

The Shaltari Tribes, with some stunning walkers and vehicles

More Shaltari vehicles, with some gorgeous grav-tanks

The game is 10mm and seems based around the idea that everything is getting brought in on dropships (hence the name). The vehicles are all sculpted in 3D, and then rapid prototyped, and will be resin, while the troops are hand sculpted and made in metal. I was much impressed when chatting with David, the designer/sculptor/painter/everything was saying that the human special forces have grenades on their backpack, and you can make out the texture on them.

Also rather a nice touch is that given that all the vehicles are meant to be brought in on these enormous dropships, they've been designed so that they do actually fit together properly. It will carry what it's supposed to as demonstrated here.

PHC dropships loaded up

Obviously this means that you can attach them with rare earth magnets if you so wish, or if you have the money, can just buy more stuff so that you can do an alternate one. However he's also doing the bases of the dropships to have tabs on them, so you can clip on little representations of what each one is carrying, and that way if you don't have the time or the money to do stuff like that then you don't have too.

The buildings that you can see in the photo are also being produced for the game. They're actually made up from tiles, which are double sided. I was shown an example with a more classical column architecture, while the other side had a more sci-fi look to it. It does mean that what you can do is basically buy a whole load of them, and can then design the buildings how you want.

For more info on this game you can follow them on facebook

Hawk Wargames on Facebook

Or you can go to their website. There isn't much right now, just a front page, with the release date and pre-order date.

Hawk Wargames

This is what I'm definitely most excited about right now.

GCT Studios

Along with buying some stuff from them, I had a look over their stand, and first of all I was pointed to the next release for the Precture of Ryu

A warrior monk for the Precture, who is apparently designed around fighting soulless creatures and what not. I'm sure my main opponent with his Cult of Yurei will be pleased with that knowledge.

I was also talking to them about upcoming releases. Along with seeing some artwork for the Shiho clan, who are a defeated clan and are basically now roning and wanderers, which look really good. There is also some really good information about another upcoming force called the Eto clan. They basically are a clan sacrificing people to an ancient snake god. As they do more the people doing it become more snake like, going from just having scales on their back, all the way up to having half a body of a snake, to just being a head on a serpentine body. Very exciting info.

For more info, along with the concept art for the above model go to their website

Bushido the Game

Empire of the Dead

The new game from Westwind Productions was brought out, and frankly they had a great looking board. I only hope our board, when we demo it up at the shows in Scotland looks half as good.

A very good looking board, with some great little jokes here and there scattered about.

If you want to know more about this new game, or their others give them a look

Westwind Productions

Rather than post every single picture I took, I thought I'll put up a link to my flickr account, where the pictures are all stored so people can peruse them at their leisure.

Salute 2012 photos

And that's about it. I'm considerably poorer, but considerably richer in toys, enjoyed every minute of it as I do every year I go, and I'm already looking forward to next year. Hopefully I'll get to see some more fantastic stuff, meet more fantastic people and spend more money on more toys. Until then I should probably get to painting some of the stuff I've just acquired.

Victory is mine...

So it finally happened. Three days before Salute and the lifting of "The Oath" my other friend, who had until now managed to hold off cracked. He was in GW exchanging a can of purity seal, and apparently one of the Necron characters called to him. Therefore, given that the other friend cracked by buying the limited edition space marine from the old artwork a while ago, means I am effectively the last man standing.

Obviously actually me.

So what does this mean I hear you ask. It means of course that the beers at lunchtime at Salute are on them.

I must admit, I'm actually quite proud. There's been moments of temptation, what with various 15mm figures tempting as I get more into it, and just various other things. The fact that I haven't is quite good, and I have managed to get some painting and building done. Admittedly not a massive amount, though to me it is, as I do things at a bit of glacial pace.

Anyways, in terms of Salute, here's another few things I'll be looking at.

The Salute List: Part 2

Traders

Wayland Games 

I want to go and see if Wayland games have brought any heavy gear with them. If they have I may get some, though this depends on the money at the time.

World of Twilight

The world of twilight is a great little game, and Mike Thorp has come up with a really original world, of various races in a fantasy universe of his own creation. Very much inspired by things like Dark Crystal and things of that ilk, his figures are really great. It's just a shame I don't get to play it more, so these are further down the list, but I'll probably pop by and say hello at least.

Games:

There's also a couple of games I'm interested in trying out this year, or at least looking at and taking pretty pictures of.

Antenociti's Workshop

Antenociti's Workshop are listed as running a game called "Empire: Peripheral Wars" which is listed as sci-fi and as a new range of small scale warships. This to me sounds like a spaceship game, and I do like me some spaceships. And given the stuff that Antenociti has produced in the past, I could be all over this like a fox on a binbag when it comes out.

Artemis Blacks

Artemis is listed as running demonstration games of the new miniatures rules coming out from Red Box Games. I've always loved these figures, as they combine fantasy and a dark age feel that I really like. However I'm not one to buy figures that I can't use in a game system, and I have a weird fluff OCD that means I can't just bodge something together in a generic system. Therefore when they announced that they were finally bringing out a ruleset, I was very happy. Again I may be having a look at this when it comes out, and as such may pick up a couple of figures at Salute if I like it.

Four Colour Figures

As no doubt many of you will know, due to his participation in the blogosphere, The Department, a set of sci-fi noir rules is being released at Salute. I've recently picked up Blasters and Bulkheads, by the same guy and I'm liking the look of it, and I'm thinking of getting some Old Republic gaming in. If it's good, then this could also be on the list, so I intend to have a look at it.

These of course are just the games I'm most interested in and will definitely be having a look at. I'll be taking pictures of other things though, and will no doubt do a bit of a breakdown of Salute on my return at somepoint. Given this list, and the list of potential things, I predict by this time next week I'll be a bit skint. I'll have lots of shiney new toys though, so that'll be okay.

Cheers for looking, and hope to see some of you there.

Tomorrow's War Battle report

So, over the Easter weekend, myself, Lead Legion and one of our friends Andy P decided to have a game. I fancied trying Tomorrow's War out, as while I have the rules, they seem to me the kind of rules that you sit down and read and just make a confused face at, whereas if you play them, they make more sense. Also I intend on buying some 15mm stuff for it at Salute, and wanted to see if I was actually going to get use out my investment.

So Lead Legion kindly supplied some figures and scenery, I supplied a board and gaming space, and our friend supplied Irn Bru and hob nobs. All in all I feel everybody contributed equally.

The scenario was modified from the Tomorrow's War book. Lead Legion would control the evil aliens, in this case from Pendraken miniatures I believe?. I would take on the role of corporate marines, who had been sent in to clear out the "accidental" release of corporate bio-weapons on this colony, represented by GZG New Israelis, while Andy P would be using Lead Legions Khurasan Neo-Sovs as the local constabulary.

I effectly had two 4 man fire-teams at tech level 2 and heavy armour, Andy P had three 4 man fire-teams at tech level 2 with light armour. Space Demons were considered tech level 2 and had fearless and light armour. If I'm wrong no doubt LL will jump in and tell me.

Our objective was to rescue colonists, Lead Legions was to eat them. For every colonist or trooper he killed, he got one 1 vp, whereas for every colonist we escorted off a board edge, we got 1 vp. Also we would be competing against each other, to see who could rescue more colonists between the marines and the local cops.

Colonists would move randomly, unless they could see either marines or police, then they would move towards them. If they were attacked by aliens, they would react by trying to move away from them.

Aliens would spawn randomly. 1d6 4 man (alien??) squads would appear every turn, with 5 locations randomly determined. On a 6 they didn't turn up (or turned up at the wrong settlement or something).

The Set-up

The board with myself deployed at the near edge, Andy P sitting in blue with his cops, and most of Lead Legion looking on with an evil grin (that you can't see).

So we set up along the board edges. Colonists in the middle, with the aliens having 5 squads deployed. One in the centre, one in the large wooden temple thing, one amongst the brown tanks, one in the grey bunker and one in the toxic pool. Our forces were deployed at the board edge.

Turn 1:

I got initiative so my marines decided to move up. Of course this got them seen by the aliens in the wooden temple, so they reacted by moving towards them. I had forgotten to declare I was going to shoot them. I then failed to kill any, and they got into close combat. I wasn't particuarly looking forward to this as I thought I was about to get killed. However his guys were d6 and mine were d8. So after a couple of rounds of combat, it turned out that marine boot beats alien quite nicely.

Dead aliens

Andy P then moved his troops up, again drawing the attention of some aliens. After some shooting and close combat, his cops faired pretty well, taking one casualty who would be rolled for at the start of next turn to see if he was actually dead.

Seen off with the help of anti-alien truncheons.

Aliens then began moving, chasing after the colonist in the centre as well. Most of them managed to get away, however one group didn't react fast enough. We didn't realise that the colonists shouldn't fight in combat. And then after finding out they couldn't, we decided to allow them too anyways. Especially as it resulted in the amusement that followed. For unfortunately the aliens didn't realise they'd picked on the colony's Kung Fu class.

Four dead aliens lie at the feet of some rather put out colonists.

Turn 2:

Lead Legion got 2 more groups of aliens. They spawned at the closest point to me. Sigh. Andy P's cop recovered with a light wound, which basically meant he couldn't advance move without a quality check. Andy P also got initiative.

The table at the start of turn 2

His cops moved up to move towards the colonists in the centre. This meant they were now in site of some of the colonists, who would now begin moving towards them on their turn. They also moved up to shoot some aliens who were chasing colonists

The colonists run towards the local constables, while they shoot some aliens, which can be seen just at the side of the white bus.

My marines on the other hand were bogged down, as they now had a whole load of new aliens in front of them. Thankfully I remembered to shoot at them this turn, killing some, but they still reacted and moved into close combat. After several rounds of this, all the aliens lay dead, with one marine casualty.

A whole load of dead aliens

By this point I think Lead Legion had one lonely alien left, all the other having been shot up or stomped on. So he doggedly chased some colonists, which just got it shot by the local cops.

Turn 3:

The situation at the start of turn 3.

Lead Legion spawned his aliens, only another two groups, and thankfully they were far away from me, meaning I could try and make up some lost ground. They spawned in the cess pool, and in amongst the brown tanks. My trooper recovered, though had a serious injury, so was basically useless, and as I had a bit of a chase I decided I'd spend this turn escorting him to the rear.

The colonists now flocked to Andy P's cops. It was at this point we discussed could I try and steal the colonists, convincing them to come with me. It was decided that yes, if I got close enough, I could try and opposed test to convince the colonists, that clearly I was the safer choice. So the chase began.

The horde of colonists, with some freshly spawned aliens

Not a lot happened this turn. Andy P started to move his troops and colonists back, while managing to kill all the aliens in the cess pit, while the others began chasing his colonists. My guys fired up the Benny Hill music and started chasing after them.

Turn 4:

In which we forgot to take a beginning of turn photo. D'oh. Lead Legion managed to get more aliens this turn, and in slightly useful positions.

Andy P's colonists were on the large hill with his troops, while his other troops and remaining colonists were on the left handside and leaving the board. My troops had just made it to the hill

Hey you guys wouldn't you rather come with us??

 Unfortunately they couldn't quite get close enough. Then of course pesky aliens arrived.

Effectively I had to turn round and save my competitor. Rubbish

So yeah I had to turn my troops round, so that my opponent could get the colonists to safety. I like to think of it as self sacrificing and all that for the greater good yadda yadda. Eventually after some shooting and some close combat the aliens were defeated with no casualties. My other group of three also encountered a group of aliens as well, close to my original board edge.

Take that.

Thankfully these ones didn't even get into close combat, managing to shoot them all, and then fire again as they tried to charge into close combat. Take some space guns nasty aliens.

Andy P's police also encountered some more aliens, while protecting the last group of of colonists.

All lined up

In which he managed to kill them all. through a combination of shooting and close combat, all the aliens were seen off with only one casualty. All the aliens were also kind enough to slide down the hill into a nice neat row after a rather ferocious round of close combat.

At this point we decided to call it. It was pretty clear that Andy P would get the colonists off, and there was nothing I could do about it. So basically he managed to get 16vp for rescuing every single colonist. Lead Legion got 1vp for killing a cop. And me, I got none. Swines.

Still an enjoyable game, so definitely think I'll be investing in some 15mm stuff to play this with. They'll also double up as space troops in various RPGs and what not.

As always thanks for looking, comments more than welcome.

Less than two weeks till Salute 2012

So Salute 2012 is less than 2 weeks from now. Hurrah I say, for with it comes the end of "The Oath" (which I've actually managed to keep too). So just thought I would post a quick review of what I'll be buying, and from whom, to put an end to the oath.

Definites:

1) Critical Mass rulebook from Critical Mass Games

Very interested in these rules, as I'm looking more and more to 15mm for gaming, especially when it comes to platoon level and larger games. As one of my friends described it, I'm put off by the way 40k now looks during a game, as to stay competitive you need tanks, and due to the amount some armies take like Imperial Guard, it looks like a parking lot for tanks.

They're also doing a deal at Salute of if you buy one of their new army boxes, you can get the rules at half price, or if you play a participation game you can get the rules for free with the purchase of an army box. 

2)  A couple of figures for the Prefecture of Ryu for Bushido from GCT Studios

Due to the oath I've missed out on a couple of releases for my faction for Bushido, so I'll be picking those up. Namely

Mizuchi, a rather nice looking dragon

Daisuke, a healer who could prove very useful

I think they're both great looking models, and will be keen to get them. And as GCT Studios are running a giveaway on the day, in that if you buy something from them, you get entered into a draw to win a board. The more things you buy, the more chances. Info below

GCT Studios Salute board giveaway

3) Some 15mm troops from Ground Zero Games

Looking at getting some of the 15mm UNSC troops for use in Tomorrow's war. I've worked out for £24 I can get 55 figures. 55 figures!!!, that's a whole lot of stuff for not a lot of money. They'll also double as troops in RPG games and what not. I'm also looking at getting some New Israelis to paint up as Republic Army troops for a Star Wars RPG I'm going to run at somepoint.

4) Bases and possibly some figures from Micro Art Studios

I need more bases for my Infinity figures, both the Urban set they do and the Urban War set they do (not the game, just the urban set that looks like it's been shot up). They're always difficult to come by from Maelstrom etc, so I'll grab as many as I can while down there.

Also I'm interested in their game that's coming out at somepoint Wolsung SSG, which appears to be steampunk in a fantasy world. A steampunk Shadowrun you could probably say. Looks interesting anyways, and if they have the rules I may grab a copy.

5) Spaceships from Mongoose Publishing

I play Noble Armada by Mongoose Publishing and have a Hawkwood fleet (in fact it was painted by Lead Legion, and can be seen in my first post). Still, we've been getting more games, and I feel the need to expand it a bit, so definitely a Maestekulos dreadnought and possibly some other stuff. Probably the expansion if they have it as well.

Ready to bring the thunder with that enormous meson cannon

6) More superheroes for Pulp City

I need to finish off my Heavy Metal team, and to do that there isn't a lot. I need the last three heroes, Captain Hadron (a size changer) who comes with a regular 28mm version and a small version (think it's around 10-15mm), and Lady Cyburn (a ranged attack cyborg). I also need to buy C.O.R.E., the illustrious leader of the team. I also want to buy a Giant Hadron (a large resin figure they do to represent Captain Hadron in his giant mode). As Giant Hadron is very limited stock (they simply can't afford to have it sitting around, so it's just about cast to order) and C.O.R.E. comes normally in a box with a hero I already have, I've e-mailed my order in already, and they've said they'll have it sitting aside for me on the day. What helpful people.

Giant Hadron Smash. Hope to drum up some interest in the game with models like this.

7) Some scenery from Sarissa Precision

What with the new wave in laser cut MDF scenery that's coming out, it's a good time to be a gamer, as this makes it much cheaper. I really fancy some of their system infinity scenery, for well Infinity for a start, and other sci-fi games. I think a few habitation pods etc, will make a nice little start up colony in the jungle somewhere.

8) Infinity stuff from Simple Miniature games

Probably. Simple miniatures normally do decent deals on the day for Infinity. Last year it was buy 4 blisters get a 5th free, or buy 2 boxes and get a 3rd free etc, so I'll probably get what Infinity stuff I need from them. I'm going to have a look around though.

Well this post has gone on a lot longer than I thought, so I'll post up other possible purchases that I may make, depending on money and how gullible I'm feeling on the day, along with games I'm going to be looking at/participating in.

What about you? Are you going this year? What purchases will you be making? Are there any you feel I've missed off my list I should look at? Would be great to hear your opinions.

As always thanks for looking.

Heavy Gear battle report

Well horribly late is better than not at all right?

Anyways, last Tuesday, the forces of North and South joined up against the evil tyrannical grasp of Earth and the Colonial Expeditionary Force (CEF). Or what this means is myself and my friend LeadLegion teamed up against another mutual friend for a game of Heavy Gear. I'll say right now this took a while, as not only is it on a club night, so there's a bit of chat with people you only see once a week, there's also the fact that neither myself or the other player (the regulars of the game technically) get many games in, so it was a bit of "how do you do that again?". Also it was LeadLegion's first game. Still he'd read the rules and that helped.

Anyways force composition comprised the following.

North:
1 Fire support squad, comprising 2 Grizzlys, 2 Hunters and 1 Jaguar.
1 Strike Squad, comprising 3 Jaguars and 2 Hunters
1 Mammoth Strider

South:
1 General Purpose squad, comprising 3 Jaegars and 1 Black Mamba (they were the honour guard)
1 General Purpose squad, comprising 3 Jaegars and 1 Command Jaegar
1 Fire support squad, comprising 3 Spitting Cobras and 1 Jaegar
1 Infantry Squad

CEF:
1 GREL Platoon in HPC-64s (Hover APCs basically)
1 Light tank squadron comprising 2 LHT-71s
1 Heavy Tank squadron comprising 1 HT-68 and 2 HT-72s

Now, I had found out our opponents army list in the day (as we'd all worked them out in advance, so we started chatting during the day), and was suitably terrified of the fact he had 3 Heavy tanks. Still, we decided to sacrifice our lives dearly in service to Terra Nova, and began set up, after choosing objectives and support.

The set up.

The initial set-up, the guy on the right is the CEF player. 

The Terra Novan forces set up on the right hand side in the above picture, while the CEF were on the left. The Heavy Tanks were set up in the middle, with the HT-68 off to the left of his side (up in the top left in the picture). His light tanks were also deployed in the centre, while his HPC-64s were deployed behind the large hill in the bottom left. His GRELs were already out.

Our forces were deployed, with the Northern strike squad in the right hand side (top right of the picture), the fire support squad infiltrating into the woods (bottom of the picture) and the mammoth taking up position in the small town in the centre. And yes none of my stuff is painted. LeadLegion pretty much had all his painted just to show off. Swine

Southern forces had the two general purpose squads deployed on the right hand side (top right) while the fire support squad were just the other side of the river from the town. The infantry were deployed in the town. Then battle commenced.

Turn 1:
We got the initiative, and instantly began pouring fire into his heavy tanks as much as possible. LeadLegions fire support squad opened up on the HT-68, and managed to damage it, removing it's sturdy box (basically ablative armour). So would begin the long process of wittling the tanks down. His tanks moved up, and began opening fire, heavy particle cannons blazing trails, and managed to cause damage to the southern fire support team. Meanwhile eventually his HPC-64s started moving towards the town, round the hill. My fire support squad emerged from the woods, and began laying down rocket pod fire on them, damaging one and destroying another. My Mammoth also joined in pouring fire into the HT-68, lightly damaging it.

The most important part of this turn when both sides decided to call in a lot of support, intending to try and cause massive damage. We locked two heavy artillery bombardments onto the position of his HT-72, as they'd managed to log jam themselves between the bridge and the buildings. A medium bombardment was called in against the HPC-64s, while the CEF player called in a heavy bombardment against my Mammoth.

And it was a result. Another one of the HPC-64s went up in a ball of flame. The 2 HT-72s suffered damaged, though not enough to adversely affect them greatly, one of them losing its sturdy box, and the other suffering light damage.

My Mammoth managed to lose it's 2 sturdy boxes, and suffer light damage, so took quite a beating, but thankfully kept going.

Turn 2:

Cunningly I decided to take the photo from the other table end, so it's all reversed now.

Our opponent got the initiative, and started moving his heavy tanks again. Reaction fire from my strike squad, and LeadLegions fire support squad, managed to finally destroy the damaged HT-68, which ditched in the middle field, while his HT-72s took to the river and began doleing out punishment, reducing the southern fire support squad to 1 Jaegar.

My fire support squad, emerged further from the woods and pounded the HPC-64s with further rocket fire, destroying not only the whole squadron, but the army commander with it (this is important, as it means he no longer has access to command points for re-rolls and activating things out of sequence etc). Cheered by this victory we began the slow march forward.

His LHT-71s had advanced up the river and began scanning the bridge (one of his objectives). They then nipped behind our lines and began dishing out punishment. However, we weren't without return fire, with my Mammoth opening fire on them, while both of LeadLegions general purpose squad moved to allow his rocket pods to get shots in, which eventually destroyed one, and damaged the other.

Unfortunately we had to call it a night at that. It had taken a long time to set up, with deciding objectives, support points etc, so I think next time we play we're going to sort it out by e-mail prior to the game to save us time. Also we weren't clued up on the rules which didn't help.

Technically the Terra Novan forces won, as we had completed more of our objectives, that of certain key gear squadrons surviving. However had we played longer the CEF player would've garnered points by having his LHT-71s leave the table with the recon data.

Still, it was a great game. There's talk of getting a game over the Easter weekend were we can take more time over it, and play it out. And next time I'll take more photos. Promise. I seem to have landed the role, as LeadLegion isn't allowed to handle his wife's camera, due to him perpetually dropping things.

Apologies for the slight sketchiness of the details. I'll maybe try and take brief notes, though it's difficult to do, and get a game in during the say 3 to 3.5 hours we get in a club night, depending on how long it takes to eat and chat.

Thanks for looking.