Hobby Weekender 14/04/2019 – Waking up before we get to sleep

[oriskany 60771xp 1]

Hello, everyone!

As you may have seen, we had a great stream today in Wessex Games’ AirWar C21 system.  I thought I would post it here as well as other places just because some of the people we had in our chat were also Weekender Thread Alumni.  😀  I will also feedback on people hobby work this weekend, add some music, participate in the Q&A, and reply to people that posted questions in the chat but I  couldn’t get to int he middle of the game.

For for now …

Thanks very much @stvitusdancern for the great game and thanks to everyone who stopped by our streams to support us. It really means a lot. So yeah, I hope we gave AirWar C21 a decent showing here. I kind of didn’t do my Immelmans correct (at least the ones that succeeded), so I that’s on me … and there are additional rules for TAILING that can make the “dice-iness” of the initiative phase a little less luck driven – IF you’ve planned ahead and get can begin an enemy (your from 180-degree arc, in enemy’s rear 60-degree arc, you go when he goes, NO MATTER WHAT THE initiative is). SO we’re still learning this system, but already having tons of fun with it, and it’s deliver great realistic results for our 1982 Falklands wargames.

Northeastern coast of East Falkland Island, 1 May, 1982. Two FRS1 Sea Harriers of HMS Hermes have been vectored to intercept two Argentine Mirage IIIEA interceptors launched toward the battlegroup. Each grid on the map = roughly 1km (scale in the game is actually logarithmic). Each inch of movement = 50 knots air speed. Virtual gameboard is set up to reflect a 72″ x 48″ (6×4) gaming table.

 

Mirages, pushing 950 knots, try to pull Immelmans to vector toward the sidestepping Harriers (both just executed successful barrel rolls + turn maneuvers). One Mirage fails the roll, but still manages a lock with SARH (semi-active radar homing) R.550 “Matra” medium range air-air missile. Shots fired! The Falklands War is on!

 

The Harriers respond. They fire American made AIM-9L Sidewinder IR-guided short-ranged air-air missiles. The key advantage here is that the Sidewinder “L” variants can acquire a lock from any target aspect. you do NOT have to behind the enemy plane to get a lock (although it helps when the missile has to hit). The Argentinian equivalent, much older French made R.530 “Magic” missiles, must be launched from behind the target aircraft. Easier said than done.

 

The first Sidewinder hits the lead Mirage, but explodes off my wing and only does 2 points of damage. Sea Harrier 01 is closing to guns range, however, and will score one more hit on a high-deflection, medium range extended burst from her cannon. It’s just enough to cripple the Mirage, who’s max safe speed drops from 1000 knots to 500 knots as a result. Too bad he’s currently at 650 knots (speed 13), so that’s +3 over safe speed, +3 MORE damage, so that’s 6 damage total. BOOM. Mirage is down, but the pilot punches clear with a clean ejection. Still, that’s SPLASH ONE!

 

Another hit on another Mirage! Not only does Gianna score the hit, but then gets a roll on the “Golden BB” table. Compression stall in the Mirage’s engine! Immediate stall and spin in a random direction, AND he’s down 5 out of 6 damage points. Man, is this pilot in trouble.

 

Final result at the end of Turn 3, Phase 2. British win by splashing all 3 Mirages, no loss to themselves. If this game seems unfair, it really isn’t. I kind of forgot how Immelmans really work, and if EVEN ONE HARRIER goes down, automatic Argentine victory. And these Harriers are not very sturdy AT ALL. Just one burst of Mirage cannon fire is enough to put one down, so the British player really has to play it to the wire, which Gianna totally did. Well done! And thanks again for the great game and support with the stream!

 

[oriskany 60771xp 1]

What would it take to get me in a new game?

Several things.

1) A subject matter in which I’m actually interested.  I’m not usually a fan of universes / settings with no background. So obviously I’m usually a big historical player.  I will play sci-fi if it’s “historical” in the sense that it plugs into a known franchise like Star Wars, Star Trek, BSG, Dune, etc.  Games that try t o invent their own verse, I appreciate their creativity, and I know I more ore less created my own verse for Darkstar, but it’s not USUALLY my thing (and let’s be honest, Darkstar is really World War I and II in space).  Long story short, it has to “connect” to something OUTSIDE of the game itself.

2) Sufficiently detailed mechanics that allow emergent tactics.  Not a fan of games where “special faction tactics” are kind of shoved in your face with special abilities or abilities in the stat line / stat cards, that kind of thing (FoW 3.0, I’m looking at you).

3) Expandibility.  Give me a tool box and then let ME create, scenarios, campaigns, etc.  Try to “spoon feed” me and you get three guesses where that spoon is going to wind up.  😀 😀 😀

4) Ability play virtually.  I don’t mind doing the work, but with our little weekend wargame group playing two game s a week in places like China, Australian, Canada, all over the US, including Puerto Rico, Ireland, and the UK, I have to be able to covert it to some kind of virtual environment and play it with people via Twitch, web conference, etc.

5) Agnostic regarding playing pieces, etc.  I don’t really appreciate wargames that are basically vehicles for just selling me miniatures.  Some of my best games have been with cardboard counters or pennies vs. quarters, etc.

6) This isn’t a requirement, but it helps … some kind of campaign element where I can build a force and then track their progress over time.  Build up skills, buffs, bonuses, etc., basically track my force getting better as the “war” progresses through whatever campaign / setting we’re dealing with.

[oriskany 60771xp 1]

Some music in theme with out game this weekend:

Epic 80s dogfight music!

[oriskany 60771xp 1]

Okay, once again thanks to everyone who came out for our live stream.  In that vein, let me try to respond to everyone who asked or question or dropped a comment – to whom I wasn’t able to reply DURING the stream.

@gladesrunner – That’s no joy on Top Gun soundtrack just because we’d get booted off of Twitch.  😀  And you only heard me at first because I was yammering too much.  😀  And damn it, now I know how @stvitusdancern won so badly, you were  giving her tips and intelligence in the stream!  Just kidding.  😀 😀 😀

@tuffyears – apologies for the early audio issues.  And yes, the Americans stayed out of the Falklands War … except we sent all the AIM-9L Sidewinders that allowed the Harriers to score that awesome kill ration, and leased bases on Ascension Island the British task force used as a midway staging point for the invasion.  So we stayed out, but we were definitely on the UK’s side and providing logistics support.

@warzan – thanks so much for stopping by!   Yes, I should have had 20, 30,of 50 more Mirages on that table!  😀 😀 😀  And yes, Tea and Hobnobs all the way!  Don’t forget the Quavers, though.  😀  Nostradamus would have it no other way.

@elessar2590 and @rasmus – I called it, I would you in the Darkstar stream that I would have my head handed to me today!  😀 😀 😀

@tuffyears – I would love to see you get and build / paint and play some Harriers for your Team Yankee British.  We have RAF Harriers in this game as well, technically a different version (in 1982 we’re talking about the GR .1 and .3) in addition to the FRS1 Royal Navy planes.  A few subtle differences in the game stats. – and YES, good call on the Vulcans.  The Black Buck missions will be addressed in Part 02 of the upcoming Falklands series in the Ops Center.

@warzan – Nazi UFOs – will we see these over Omaha or Sword beach for the D-Day boot camp? 😀 😀 😀  They  might make the difference!

@rasmus – absolutely – the Harrier is NOT an air superiority fighter at all, she’s a strike craft.  Yet they were pushed into this role during the Falklands.  They “got away” with it because the Argentinians they were up against were a full generation behind and they had full stocks of the latest top-shelf AIM-9L Sidewinder air-to-air missile.  Really the silver bullet of the Falklands air war.

@tuffyears – Damn, that was a harsh slam on the USMC performing math.  No worries, between the US Army and Canadian vets in the Sitrep team, I’m used to it.  😀  Unfortunately, no stuff upper lip bonus against impacting 20mm autocannon or R.530 Magic Missile.  In all seriousness, though, these Mirages were the absolute terror of the skies … 20 years before this game takes place.  Again, just look at what they did with Israel service in the 1967 Six-Day War.  So you’re right, in the right hands, even a Mirage can be great in 1982 – especially with guns.  As we’ve seen earlier in this thread, these Mirages have actually won this scenario 3 out of 5 times.  They just did really poorly this time.

Absolutely @rasmus – True Lies shows how Harriers absolutely work realistically.  Actually, Gianna totally pulled off that barrel roll to avoid a missile strike.

@elessar2590 – Old, Busted, and French … indeed, none of these are good things in a 1980s dogfight.  😀 😀 😀  And thanks for the assist on the Max Immelman reference.  Indeed, he was pulling this in a biplane, what this game would definitely classify as a “low power” aircraft.  So target number 8+ on a d10 … so he must have been a seriously great pilot to be doing this consistently.

@grimwolfuk – thanks for stopping by to support the stream!  😀

@templar007 – thanks so much for stopping by the stream!

@tuffyears – Do a Barrel Roll, Fox!  Ha!  Great game.  At least you didn’t say … “I’ll do spinning, that’s a good trick …”  🙁 🙁 🙁  And just a boy racer indeed, but when you’re not allowed to lose a single aircraft per scenario rules, the Brits have to be as agile as possible against all these Argentinian guns and missiles.  Hey, they’re old missiles, but I can always roll a 10!  I have literally won this game with the Argentinians by just launching all missiles blindly and landing that “10” result.

Arggh, and another Marine slam, followed by a mike drop.   No worries, you supported our stream, you get a pass.  😀   Yeah, and I guess you’re right, we were “getting weird” from the very start.  😀   All the way to the Danger Zone.  😀

@rasmus – good catch on that -1 Chaff Modifier.  😀

@templar007 – indeed, that Black Buck Vulcan mission was beyond epic.  And crucial, too.  With that success at Port Stanley runway, the Argentinians had to operate their jets from their bases on the mainland, at the limit of their range.  How about that refueling plan!

Okay, that’s the first half of the stream, I will do the rest later tonight.  😀 😀 😀

[oriskany 60771xp 0]

On to replies:

Great job once again, @evilstu – running the thread.

Great work on the Eldar – @horati0nosebl0wer , damn, those are 6mm figures?  Awesome!

@robert – those figures look huge and heavy, I like the drill arms and the gas masks.  And the three-wheeled assault vehicle too.  Is that a huge scatter gun on the front?

@blinky465 – More great work on the MOTU figures.  I’m still holding out hope you do a sexy Sorceress figure one of these days.  😀 😀 😀  Until then Evil Lyn will do.  😀

 

 

 

[horati0nosebl0wer 19649xp 1]

So, I goofed and forgot stuff for painting at home. Thankfully I had sculpting stuff and made display bases. 12hrs were not wasted.

 

@sundancer Sounds like your plan and mine are in alignment for the lottery plan. The house would be great as I’d turn mine into a mini museum/library/workshop.

@blinky465 You’re not alone in missing most of last week. I got to say hello to everybody at tally time. Those figures came out really well. Now, as far as the dark cloak… ask and you receive.

@oriskany Ack! Reading your battle report made me think back to having to learn about radar system threats and SAM profiles from my time in the AF. Thankfully that part of my memory was mostly dumped so it wasn’t so bad.

Thanks much. I am very well pleased to be done with them. As far as the figures they’re about 25mm for Warhammer Epic but are scaled to 6mm. The little War Walkers are about 20mm high and you can see the difference between them and regular sized vehicles for 40k.

[sundancer 43003xp 0]

@horati0nosebl0wer at least your plan for a house could recoup some of the investment 😉

[horati0nosebl0wer 19649xp 0]

@sundancer Profit from touring my house? Pfft! I’d have people sign waivers before walking though for fear of legal backlash from seeing what I own. I don’t have a Necronomicon but my friends always joke about being wary of what books I might have lurking in the corners. If anything I’d have tea lunches by invitation only. That might turn a little profit but I’d likely spend it on higher grades of oolong or pu-erh tea.

[evilstu 15298xp 2]

Ok Team, before I get to responses just a quick update on what I’ve been up to given i’ve been offline for a bit (work ate my hobby time…). Spent a few hours over the last couple of weeks trying o get the 3D printer back up to speed after the last head crash. No go unfortunately so replacement parts are now on order. Plenty of stuff in the queue to work on so not that big a deal.

Been really getting into the WHFB 9th Edition fan rules and armies so prepping a few alternate forces ostensibly to use with that. This will also be my way of sneakily getting some historicals done up to tabletop standard. I don’t know why but I seem to have some sort of in-built painters block when it comes to historicals. I can merrily churn out large scale fantasy armies at a reasonably horrific rate but the painters block kicks in when I hit historicals. I think it’s a combination of wanting the armies to look better and also having things along the lines of historical accuracy (I’m not a stickler for exactness but a close approximation is I think helpful). Could also be the slightly smaller canvas, true 28mm vs heroic 28mm. It shouldn’t be the price – I can get a box of 40 historical infantry or a dozen cavalry for the equivalent price of a single mid to high end resin mini. Anyhow, working on an Albion force using Warlord Celts, a Norse force using a mix of Fireforge Scandinavians with some Shieldwolf Shield Maidens and Frostgrave soldiers to plug some gaps in the unit options, and also going to look at getting a bunch of my other historicals to tabletop through the medium of some Dogs of War mercenary forces (was contemplating Estallia (fantasy version of Spain) but can’t find an appropriate range of plastics to use and I seriously have enough that I’m working on right now. Five separate fantasy armies at once is getting a little silly, even by my fairly loose standards….

Anyhow, today I finished assembling and priming about 500 points each of Norse and Albion. I usually don’t let unpainted minis on the tabletop but I think if I get a chance I’m going to trial these guys as I want to test some ideas i’ve got for a home-brewed mash-up of the Sharp Practice rules set with WHFB. Should go disastrously 🙂

500 point Albion force (plus a catapult which I haven’t primed yet…):

500 point Norse force:

Broad hobby goals for this week are as follows:

– Finish reading the Rangers of Shadow Deep rules

– Work out what to do about order dice for Warlords of Erehwon, work out that making 20 marker tokens for each of the 6 order actions for 2 armies would be 240 individual markers to scratchbuild, give up and just buy some order dice (I don’t resent paying for them but there is much shinier stuff from warlord I’d rather get for the money 🙂 )

– Reread the WHFB 9th edition rules

– Test play WHFB 9th ed with elements of Sharp Practice incorporated

– Get caught up on painting some scenic elements and terrain pieces

– Painting (aforementioned fantasy armies – Norse, Albion, Dogs of War, Cult of Ulric and High Elf Sea Patrol)

– Maybe work on some of the Napoleonic stuff I have floating about?… Would like to get two core forces with a bit of versatility finalised to test the game and I’m not too far off that point.

– Try not to start any more armies until the decks have cleared a little…

– Hopefully get some gaming in.

[Anonymous 0xp 1]

So that is Game of Thrones watched.  Always makes me want to build snow scenery.

Anyway, got 10 of the Dwarfs built yesterday.

A few gaps where the arms meet the shoulders but I am experimenting with making my own liquid greenstuff  (it is in the background).  You just dissolve old sprue into liquid cement and it “should” dry solid.  I only used green sprue as it was the first non-grey plastic I had to hand.  If it works and I do it again, I will make liquid blue stuff with the Conquest sprues. Hopefully the different colour will allow me to see it better when I use it. I’ve used it to fix those wee gaps up.  Will see what it looks like today once it has fully dried.  Possibly need to add more sprue to the mix to get it a bit thicker or start with a thicker plastic glue, as I just used Tamiya Extra Thin as there wasn’t much left in that particular bottle.

Also finished prepping these guys

Had thought of putting Slimer on some clear plastic rod so he would look like he’s floating but it is one solid piece of metal and I don’t want to spend half my life repairing it.

Also as I have been blabbering on about Mantic’s plastic/resin stuff…

…thought this was a great bit of sculpting.  The backpack and arm are sculpted together and the “restic” is flexible enough to allow you to glue them both to the model without heating it.  I did heat it anyway as the bottom of the staff was a bit crooked, but it is a great example of using the proprieties of a material to its advantage…

 

Anyway, some cold frozen music…

 

[sundancer 43003xp 0]

– Reread the WHFB 9th edition rules

So… Ninth Age or AoS? oO

[woldenspoonsParticipant 3557xp 0]

@sundancer I think it’s 9th age he means. Didn’t you see the square bases ?

@evilstu just saying but Kings of War has historical armies in it. Last I heard Mongols were doing quite well. Yes you can mix and match if you want to.

[Anonymous 0xp 1]

@mage thanks for posting a meme I actually think I understand!  I wonder what Richard Dawkins thinks that his term has been mutated to mean sort of funny picture on the internet!

@limburger did the minis come out as good as the renders for Black Rose War? They look very nice!

@horati0nosebl0wer good work on the Eldar.  At least you haven’t had to paint any epic infantary yet… Best piece of advice from someone who recently moved his whole minis and music collections to  new home,  is to keep your minis well organised and boxed.  I haven’t a clue as to which box half my stuff is… just a pain when I go to look for something now.  I’ll get it sorted sometime but it is such a pain.  Good work on the bases.

@woldenspoons I’m loving these Chaos Models… will have to pick some of them up in 10 years when I have my backlog sorted!  I remember Night Goblin spears being the curse of my existence years and years ago as I kept stabbing myself with those.  Now I just stab my fingers with craft knives.

@sundancer do you actually do the lottery to win it?  I keep saying what I would do if I won the lottery but haven’t bought a ticket for years and years!

@blinky465 enjoying the tunes.  Love a bit of Dr Feelgood and that Danger Danger song wasn’t bad, never heard of them before.  Good work on the He-Man models.  One tip for dark clothes if you are using black for you shadow is to use dark purple tones or dark greens to do the highlights rather than grey.  Glazes are probably your friend as well to get smoother transitions or to tone down the highlights.  Nice control panels as well.

@oriskany missed the stream as I was busy with family stuff.  Had hoped to catch a bit, even just to wax lyrical about Harriers.  I think I have a 1/72 Sea Harrier and a Wessex somewhere to build.  Pretty sure it is a Falklands Anniversary boxed set from Italeri.  I must get onto it someday.  The models are huge but thankfully in plastic.  If they were metal, throwing them at someone would be lethal.  The weapon on the three-wheeler is a Super Heavy Chem Thrower… No idea how it is meant to work in game, but I liked the look of it!

@evilstu thanks for running the thread again. I have quite a few unpainted historicals because I don’t know how they are meant to be painted – I don’t want someone on the internet telling me the buttons on my Pennisular Campaign troops are the wrong shade of silver… sounds ridiculous and I am exaggerating but there is a genuine fear that I will do it wrong.  I do wish I could build things as fast as you, though.

 

 

 

 

[sundancer 43003xp 0]

do you actually do the lottery to win it? I keep saying what I would do if I won the lottery but haven’t bought a ticket for years and years!

@robert same here XD

[Anonymous 0xp 0]

@woldenspoons You can even include Gengis Khan in KoW historicals.  Has the Thunderous Charge and Very Inspiring special rules, amongst others.

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