Friday, April 17, 2015

Update on Occulites

And more paint goes on.


Wednesday, April 15, 2015

The Deluge - By Fire and Sword.

Just got my copy in today.  First look, looks great.  Got me motivated to paint on my horses some more.  Thoughts on the book to come later.



I will and that these battle reports have also motivated me:  BiteSized BatReps


More work of Occulites

Just a few more minutes of painting.

Monday, April 13, 2015

Star Wars Armada - 300 pts.

We played 300 pts the other night.  I really like the game at this level.  There is a lot going on with this many points.  I think a fun quick game would be around 200 pts.   As the Imperial player, I choose 2 Victory class Destroyers with a LOT of Tie support. Our last game the X-Wings ate my lunch and I wasn't going to let that happen againThe Rebels had their puny CR90 Corellian Corvette and 2 Nebulon-B Frigates support by a handful of X-Wing Grand Moff Tarkin was my only upgrade card and he is very useful and powerful.  Ethan played the Rebel scum and pick a few upgrades, not sure how much he got to really use them.  (I need to use my real camera and not my phone).

The setup


Noticed the Rebel scum split their forces, while Grand Tarkin as commander for the destroyers kept his support close at hand.


The Imperials focus on the ship on the right.  An easy target with the Ties to support against those pesky X-Wing.



The Rebels try to out maneuver the slow destroyers but with superior command and tactics, the Imperials move in for the kill..  The Tie fighters swarm the X-Wings.  The Rebels on the left are no factor.



And the little Rebel ship is no more...  Time to turn into the Rebels which have been slow to attack while taking out more X-Wing.



The Rebels close (finally) as the destroyers turn back. The next few turns were actually a pretty close battle.  I got lucky with several rolls with the Rebels obviously usually second rate equipment and not being able to hit anything.  Notice the lone X-Wing in the middle of the swarm. 



The Tie swarm engages Luke and the destroyers continue their turning move just out of range of the Rebels.   Having Grand Tarkin really helps with the turns.



The Rebels close the gap but their firing must be out of calibration.  And the slow turn continues.  Both commanders disregard orders to disengage and continue the fight.  The Imperials have won the day at this point but let's see what happens. 



Luke is the lone X-Wing left and the Rebels continue with their shooting woes while now in range of the destroyers.  


Luke finally engages a destroyer and... misses.  The Rebels actually make a couple of good maneuvers to stay out of range of lead destroyer.  The Rebels get several  hits on 2nd destroyer but are getting their shields battered. 


And Luke is no more... The Rebels try to maneuver but the lead destroyer is turning to blast away. So the Rebel commander cuts his losses and flees. 




We ended up playing 10 turns.  I think it took about 2hrs.  We did stop to take a snack break and are still learning the rules.  I think the big difference in winning this game versus my loss last time was taking out the X-Wing.  They got very few shots (I think 3) at my ships.  Yes, they shredded my Ties but my massive numbers were able to overcome this and take out all the X-Wing.  It hurt the Rebels by splitting up his forces and help me.  I also got lucky in picking the correct flank to attack.  We did not use objectives this game but hope to on the next one.  I think they will give even more flavor to the game.  



Occulites - Hydris

Checking colors.  I think I like these.  Just need to figure out the pink/.orange for accent.



Wednesday, April 8, 2015

Dawn: Rise of the Occulites

Okay, so it was a nice day and I spent the evening outside.  So no Star Wars.  But I did prime some new miniatures.  Just what I need, more to paint.  These are just really cool minis.  They are simple but very unique and like they they will be fun to paint.  They are the miniatures for the game Dawn: Rise of the Occulites

I've been watching the game since it was a kickstarter.  I didn't KS it but I have been keep an eye on it.  After watching/reading some reviews, I decided to pick it up and am very glad it did.  The design, Ben Boersma has done a great job with the game and developing the world of the Occulites.  The game is a very unique combination of card and dice play and is a very tactical game.  The more I read and learn, the more I like the game.

Here is the start of painting the first tribe.  More to follow:




Monday, April 6, 2015

Star Wars - First Impressions

Played with my son.  We both really liked the game.  We did play with just one core box but that was all that was need for our first game.  By the end of the game we both had everything down.  I did go back and look a couple of things up just to confirm we were doing things right.

Love the over all feel of the game.   I never was able to get my Star Destroyer in a good position to do a lot of damage, while my son was able to get behind me with his two ships and he was also able to get a squadron of X-Wing in close.  His X-wing blew my Tie fighters to bits.  I was on able to destroy 2 of his squadrons while he kill all of my Ties.

All ships at the end of the game had lost most of their shields.  I was never able to get a massive shot off which would have taken out one of his ships.  He was able to get one critical hit which left me unable to turn.  It took me 3 turns to get a navigate command out but by that time I was off the board edge.

We will be playing a 300 point game tonight, adding a 2nd box set along with upgrade cards.  I will try to take some pictures also.

Sunday, April 5, 2015

Star Wars Armada

Just got my game in.  I have been reading up on this one and after watching a couple of videos on game play and ready the rules,  I think this one if going to be great game.  I will be breaking in the ships to night.  Here is a link to a blog that gives you a great feel for the game.

http://www.outpostzero.net/2015/03/star-wars-armada-after-action-report.html


I'm sure most folks have seen pictures already.  I will post some pictures tonight.