Technicals: The Great Toyota War

Nissan Technical

"Ladees and Genu'llmen - the star of our show - fresh from our workshops in downtown Kabul - I give you - THE NISSAN TECHNICAL" - (promogirls go wild).

Weaponry

"As you can see, it is fitted with the tried and tested favourite of the irregular militia - the good ole Dooshka 12.7 heavy machine gun" - (promo girls throw headscarves into the air).

"This reliable weapon isn't some backstreet knock off of the famous Soviet equaliser - Oh No! - it's a genuine Chinese knock off."

"The AA mount is welded to the floor of the pickup so that there will be no embarrassing moments on CNN - like falling off'ove the back when when test firing."

Attaching Your Gun - Firmly

Incidentally, these things are a scratch modellers dream. Have a look at this genuine lash-up (from Technical- Osprey New Vanguard 257).

One Careful Owner

"Admittedly, there is some minor damage acquired from when the car was requisitioned from the previous owner by means of an AK47 - but this has (mostly) been repaired with a new steel plate to replace the driver's window and a bit o' BMP track to armour the door."

""And a little bit o' rust has got into the paint damage on the wing but the motah is as sweet as a nut - after all, 120,000 km is the sweet spot."

The truck is from Antenocitis Workshop and the weapon and gunner from Eureka UK.

Gaslands Post Apocalyptic Cars

Red Devil

This is a 28 mm post-apocalyptic car sculpted by Dave Stone at Wargames Terrain Workshop that sells for the princely sum of £6.

Suitable for lots of uses, it comes with a firing platform on the back that can take a mini on a base.

WTW Website Photo

I chose to paint mine in reasonable condition but Dave's website has one really dirted and rusted up.

Black Maria

This model is available from WTW for the sum of £5, and includes the guy with the multiple rocket launcher in the front boot space.

Rustbucket

Again, Dave weathered his display model rather more than me.

Grav Car

Finally, I bought one of these little beauties for a fiver. It's a Lamborrari 2000 sports car for sci fi skirmish games.

There must be a couple of hundred different sorts of resin models on the WTW webshop, all at highly competitive prices.

Well worth a visit.

Stompa

The upcoming Apocalypse supplement got me keen to finish my Stompa that has been lying around the shed for some years.

I had previously spray-undercoated it with a textured grey and overcoated with black and dark metallic.

Today I highlighted in copper and bronze, painted the crew, touched up a few details and finished it off with quick-drying furniture stain/varnish and Army Painter anti-shine.

And Yere-Tiz, now in playable condition. I may highlight it a bit more or I may not. Sometimes you have to know when to stop.

London Calling

The Lib-Con Government's new austerity measures and cutbacks in public spending are really starting to bite. I think they could spend a little more on road maintenance. Knightsbridge is starting to look a real mess.

Imperial Apocalypse II

I popped into my local GW recently and picked up a copy of Imperial Apocalypse II. It follows the familiar pattern of new troops and equipment and new formations, but also updates some old favourites to fit them into the new Guard Codex etc. It also rounds up some of the odds and sods and incorporates them into a single volume, which is useful.



An example of the old and the new.



Orky vehicles are considerably updated.



Two old favourites are updated.

The physical production of the book is excellent with the usual first class graphics.

At twenty pounds, I think this product is great value for money.

I rate it four (out of five).

Apocolypse Verdun

The Autumn Holiday has arrived so it is time for an Apocolypse! We used a six table board with a wide boulevard seperating two lines of buildings and leading to a park. The battle objectives were to control tables.


Inquisitor Shaun found evidence that Chapter Master Mike of the Dark Angels was treating with Xenos scum - his father Stephen. Our noble Inquisitor demanded an explanation but none was forthcoming so he formed a purging team based around a Stormlord that he used to anchor his left flank.



He also co-opted a mechanised detachment from the Imperial Guard, commanded by me. I divided my force into three. In the centre I deployed a baneblade backed up by a Leman Russ and a Hydra.



I placed a Leman Russ platoon, two depleted troops, on the right flank with a Colossus. The latter has a siege mortor with a twenty foot range so it could cover the table from this point.




Mike and Stephen opted for an agressive strategy. The Dark Angels deep struck on the left flank, bottling in the Inquisitorial forces.


Similarly, Stephen pushed his skimmers into our line. Shaun and I wreaked carnage on their forces but we lost sight of our objectives somewhere in the five turns that we played.


Late on I brought my third force on, two Valkyrie carring veterans, to contest their rear areas but it was too little too late.


At the end of the game my tanks were still embroiled on our start line.

I looked at the slaughter and had the happy delusion that the forces of light had won. It was some time before reality soaked into the spongy mass that I am pleased to call my brain. We did not even control our own objectives, let alone our theirs.

So congratulations to Mike and Stephen who focussed on victory, made a plan and stuck to it.

Shaun Murphy's Scratch-Built Monsters

Lord Commander Murphy prefers to traverse the batlefield with a dignity concomitant with his high office in a scratch-built Leviathon. The heavy armour and shields are incidental.






And this is Shaun's scratch-buit Titan.

Air Raid

My regular opponent, Shaun, and I have been working on a new scenario - Air Raid.

The idea is to set up a base, could be an airbase, a fire support base, HQ, supply dump or some combination.

The base is attacked from the air, including a number of flyers using the Apocalypse flyer rules. Non flyers have to be delivered by air, including jetbikes, teleports, deep strike etc. The defender should have air defence weapons. Winning and losing is about the amount of damage inflicted, depending on the scenario. The attacker has the first turn.

The game only last three turns. Air raids are quick in and outs. Apart from anything else, the planes run out of ammo and fuel.

Organised forces, such as Tau and Eldar use programmed entry. They write down, which turn their assets will appear. Only half can appear on the first turn.

Everyone else uses the reserves rule, with the proviso that you start rolling on turn 1, bumping all the probabilities up one turn.

We did a simple scenario to test the concept in our Sunday game. Basically it worked. I used my Flying Circus and rolled amazing dice throughout. All assets but the fightabomba arrived on turn 1. Shaun had his usual bad luck.

Six Deffcoptas swept across the base and un loaded on the Hydra, knocking it out on turn 1. That was critical. Three fightas shot up the Basilisks, knocking one out and the Black Baron strafed the Imperial flyers to no effect. The return fire from the shocked imperials went wild and failed to hit.

The fightabomba arrived on turn two and rocketed the Gorgon, but missed. The deffcoptas split into two squadrons. One took out an ammo crate and the other a Basilisk. The fightas all missed.

Leutenant Sparky, hastily put the spark plugs back in and drove the base's second Hydra out of the servicing depot. It took out a fighta with its first burst.

On the third turn the fightabomba dropped its full bombload on the parked Vulture - hur, hur, hur - a most satisfying bang. No other major damage was inflicted. In reply the Hydra took a second fighta down and an AA autocannon on a Salamander took a third.

The Circus decided to disengage at this point.

So the Orks lost three fightas.

The Imperials lost a Vulture, two Basilisks, a Hydra and a supply crate.

The Orks had a tactical victory but, strategically, I am not so sure. The orks lost three planes taking out three strategic assets. Counting a squadron of deffcoptas as equal to a plane that is three out of seven ‘units’, a loss rate of 43%. That seems high, even for Orks.

Conclusion: The scenario is great fun and all over in a couple of hours. We could easily double the size of the forces. The Imperials needed more firepower (which is why we brought the Hydra back).

John

PS Sorry about poor photos.

Hell Talon

I have a weakness for airplanes. I think it goes back to my childhood when I made plastic Airfix kits and hung them from my bedroom ceiling. I used to try to shoot them down with a torch.

Anyway, here is my latest kitbash, a Chaos Hell Talon. I kitbash rather than buy Forge world because (i) I have a limited budget and (ii) I enjoy the challenge of making something unique.

It is not quite finished. I am still waiting for my emblems from Forge World and I have to add some bombs.

It is now in playable condition.

John

Last Man Standing

I finished the story today. My editor at Black Library has graced me a few extra days for editing. This is the most ambitiously structured story that I have attempted. I hope that i have pulled it off.

John

The pic is of a scorpion made from two despoilers.

Clash at Formalhite

Ghastly Xenos desecrated His Imperial Majesty's city of Formalhite by their presence. The Imperial Guard despatched a substantial force to cleanse the Emperor's territory. Unfortunately, they had to destroy the city to save it - now where have I heard that before?

The cowardly Xenos fled the city during the initial bombardment but returned to meet the righteous anger of the Guard. The initial probing forces met on the Boulevard of Angels. The Guard lost a two Chimera APCs, a Salamander Scout, two Sentinel Scouts and a few Guardsmen. The traitors lost several jetbikes, walkers and infantry. Their demon-avatar blasphemy was also destroyed.

A tactical victory to the Guard Commanders, Sean and me. However the heretics, Stephen and Mike claim to be undefeated and promise retribution.

The Baneblade was the Hero of the Guard, surviving a storm of fire and hitting back. The jetbikes were the Eldar Heros, causing mahem and being very difficult to kill.

Ork Clash

Sunday Game

My mate Sean's Ork warboss disagreed with my my warboss about who was to be warlord. Naturally they settled it the traditional Orky way - wiv da stompas.

Sean fielded a stompa supported by battlewagons, deffcoptas and truks. My warboss turned up with his Skullhamma and Flyboy Buggles made an appearance over the battlefield.

The deffcoptas showed a miracaculous ability to survive by jinking, surviving my supa-gatler without loss; it did jam on the first burst.

Buggles had minimal impact on the game. He slammed two supa-rokkits into Sean's stompa, but they bounced off the armour and then he was chased off by dakka from the truks and battlewagons.

I charged Sean's stompa with mine, inflicting terrible damage and winning the game.

The only problem is that it is possible that the driver was stunned when it charged. So I may have won by cheating. Oh well, all's fair in love and war.

Floor Games

It has been many, many years, since I got down on the floor to play toy soldiers. The game involved Airfix toy soldiers and marbles, as I recall. Yesterday my regular opponent Sean, and I, played out an Apocylypse game with super-heavy tanks.

Sean's loyalists were trying to run armoured fist units through a smashed up hab complex on Vrak. The heretical Cardinal's men (me) were trying to blunt the assault. We finally settled on a draw. I immobilised a Baneblade and shot up four Chimeras stopping the attack but I lost a Leman Russ and had a Malcador very heavily damaged (almost certainly a combat loss as it would never get back home).

The game plays quite differently at this scale. Lascannons are often out of range. A Shadowsword needs to hang well back out of lascannon range.

Great fun. Next time Sean vows to field his titan.