The Plague

Despite being under the weather and not really feeling like doing much for most of the week I have managed to complete a few more models and get a game in.

I now have both the leaders completed for the Mazon Labs faction so can field a legal strike team.
Neither is really a melee beast so would be happier hanging back and leading from the rear. Graves can be upgraded with a better ranged weapon so could for instance take the Range 4 AP2 Thermal Rifle to add some armour piercing into the team.

As with all leaders they come with a special ability with the Dr being able to raise dead friendly troops as Plague Victims and Graves being able to give some troops a free suppressing fire. Out of the two I like Grave's ability more as it can be used to pin an enemy to allow your melee orientated troops to close the distance.

The other addition for Mazon Labs is the Data Storage Unit which again is a ranged specialist. This unit has Psychic abilities which do not require line of sight to use meaning the enemy has no place to hide. It also has the Invigorate ability which allows you to reactivate a model that has already been activated that turn, very handy to use on a powerful model.

The last two models aren't for the Mazon Labs faction so are unlikely to be used other than in Star Saga. In Star Saga they are two of the bosses that the player Mercenaries have to defeat in the game.

I also had Stu over for a Blood & Plunder game on Saturday and we played the Control the Field scenario. This has only his third game and they have been spread out over several months so some learning was going on whilst we played.

The scenario involves both sides trying to control at least two of three objectives placed along the center line of the table. Both sides start in opposite corners giving them one close objective and generally leads to a scrum in the middle.

The English under Stu's leadership took up a good early position and soon started to score victory points.

This forced me to sacrifice one and then eventually another unit in the open to contest the middle objective and then the Spanish managed to wipe out a couple of English units in melee. The first unit was unlucky not to wipe out a Spanish unit lead down by the objective and was caught on the counter-charge by a supporting unit and the Lanceros for once got a charge in against a fatigued unit so they could not use defensive fire.

In the end I managed to just inflict enough casualties to win by one Strike Point after a bloody six turns.

I also took delivery of some adobe building from Fogou Miniatures, these where from a Kickstarter campaign I backed only 1 month ago, which is a nice quick turn around as these things go.

The models are cast from yellow resin so could be almost used straight from the box, I'm going to put some paint on them though. One big bonus is that no release agent was used in the casting process so the models can be painted without needed to be washed first.

Who'd be a Redshirt ?

Continuing on with the Mazon Labs models this week I've been able to complete a few different unit types. First up are the Security Guards who are one step up from the Lab Techs completed last week. I'd seen someone else paint these up with red shirts and given the likely-hood that these brave men and women will die I thought I would do the same.

The Security Guards are the slightly more expensive troop choice but still very cheap at only 8 points each. They have a reasonable shoot stat and the ability to pin units down with Rapid Fire means they could be used to let more deadly units get up close.

You get nine of these in the Star Saga set and they should provide a plentiful and expendable force of troops to throw at the mercenaries.

Next up are the Black Wing Marines and Medics. The Marines are the most expensive troop type available to the Mazon Labs with solid stats and a good ranged weapon. These would make the basis of a more elite strike team.

I painted one trio of the models up with white flashes instead of red to be used as medics in Deadzone. The specialists can heal up wounds on other models and also improves the save chance of any model who occupies the same square as them.

The Medic can also be equipped with a Laser Rifle to increase his ranged threat.

The next level up of specialist choices are the Black Wing Rangers, these come in standard and Specialist varieties. As the units have become more elite I have increased the amount of grey and reduced the amount of red in the uniforms to help differentiate the unit types.

The Ranger stats are again solid across the board with the addition of Armour 1 which should help them survive a little longer in the field. Whilst these chaps are pretty expensive the fact that Mazon Labs has cheap unlocking units means you can probably field a fair few and add in some upgraded weapons as well.

The last group I completed this week are the melee specialists, these consist of two Plague units. These are the results of study and experimentation being carried out by Mazon Labs and they sometimes deploy these highly dangerous units in combat zones.

For these models I wanted something a little different from the standard zombie type look so picked up some inspiration from the Liche Queen I painted for the Undead. 

Both these units are dangerous if allowed to get up close by the enemy so having some pinning fire laid down by the cheap Security Guards to cover the advance of the heavy hitters would look like a good basic tactic. The Aberration is a real tank with 5 wounds, armour 1, and Tough meaning it ignores the first wound taken with each attack, it should be very hard to kill. The Victims are fast and again reasonably cheap so a fast melee focused horde style strike team is a possibility.

I still need to complete the bases on these models and should be receiving some further basing supplies soon that should be done in short order. I now just need to complete a leader to put into the strike team and they will be ready to take the field.

Back in Black

A month ago I confidently posted about completing the last of the extra units for my Undead army project and turned my thoughts and paint brush towards other projects. As if often the case I have had second thoughts about what unit choices I need to build a list and decided to add something extra into the army.

With the army being generally on the slow side it occurred to me that some extra ranged threat to keep the enemy honest during the approach would be a good thing so I had a look at the units available and settled on a mounted Vampire Lord. Looking through my boxes of spare models I was able to bash together a rider and added him onto the Chimera from Mythic Battles: Pantheon.

Pegasus Stats

I have a spare 50mm to 75mm base converter so can use the model as either unit.

Dragon Stats

I also decided to take a little step away from the pure mono-chrome scheme of the rest of the Forces of Death and add a little colour as I did with the Liche Queen.

This helps add some interest to the base as I didn't want to add a wall onto it and forgot to put a tree stump on before I put the Polyfilla layer on. All in all I think it looks good and adds another interesting looking unit into the army.

That should really be it now for the Undead.................

A Different Saga

Star Saga to be exact.
I picked up the starter set for Star Saga at the Mantic Open day and have started to paint up the minis that came in the set. The figures come assembled and could be used to play the game straight away but I like to use painted models as much as possible so I won't be using them until I have the painting all done. The models can also be used in Deadzone as the Mazon Labs faction who represent the evil mega-corporation archetype in the Deadzone universe. This brings together a mixture of scientists, hired security guards and monsters, mostly Plague victims.

The first set of models I have completed are the humble Lab Technicians, these are the cheapest troops in both Star Saga and Deadzone. Lacking any sort of ranged weapon they instead have to close into melee range to poke people with their shock batons.

In Deadzone these troops can either be used as cheap unlocks for the more expensive specialist units or can be brought in to use the shock batons ability to negate a bad Rampage roll (which would make your plague troop(s) attack your own side) on your powerful Plague melee troops.

Deadzone Stats

In Star Saga the Technician looks to be cannon fodder, designed to be thrown into the path of the player controlled Mercs in order to tie them up and slow them down.

Star Saga Stats

I've also completed the doors which came in the box set and used these along with some of the floor tiles that come in the box for the photos. I haven't completed the bases yet as I had an idea and am waiting on some materials to be posted through, so hopefully I should have some updated pictures of the completed bases soon.

The next step up from the Lab Technician is the Security Guard, they should be completed by next week, so stay tuned!

First Outings

After a break from actually playing any games for a few weeks I managed to get a couple of first outings done this week.
First off I hosted Stuart for my first game of Kings of War v3 and my first game with the Undead. He played his Abyssals which he had fought against several times but never with.
So this was very much a voyage of discovery for both us with the armies and a good chance to try out v3 for me.

My army for the game was as follows:

175, Skeleton Spearman Horde
175, Skeleton Spearman Horde
270, Soul Reaver Infantry Regiment
-- Blessing of the Gods
270, Soul Reaver Infantry Regiment
-- Chant of Hate
130, Revenant Infantry Regiment
-- Fire-Oil
265, Soul Reaver Cavalry Regiment
-- Sir Jesse's Boots of Striding
70, Zombie Regiment
105, Revenant Cavalry Troop
105, Revenant Cavalry Troop
70, Ghoul Troop
70, Ghoul Troop
280, Wight Horde
-- Brew of Haste
265, Revenant King on Undead Great Flying Wyrm
-- Surge (8)
175, Goreblight
230, Mhorgoth the Faceless
215, Vampire Lord
-- Staying Stone
-- Undead Horse
-- Surge (4)
130, Revenant King
-- Mournful Blade
-- Undead Horse
-- Surge (5)

As I'd not played Undead before and never used a Shambling / Surge army I wasn't sure how much Surge was actually needed and as it turned out I think I only surged once during the whole game, but that may just have been my missing chances to do so or not getting the troops into the best positions to take advantage of the surge ability.

Things which worked well where the Soul Reavers who are as expected a real hammer which could potentially one shot most units alone and certainly with a double charge. The troops of Revenant Cavalry proved to be excellent chaff and surprising resilient so I can see myself using in greater numbers in the future.

Mhorgoth was very handy and managed to be doing something every turn after the first. His drain life is very handy though I need to target lower armour units as even with Piercing (1) he is better off not picking on Def 5 targets.

The one thing that didn't really happen was many grinding fights with both sides fielding some strong hammers most fights where over and done in one round. I had wondered about including healing or more drain life in the army but I'm not sure it would have been that useful in the end.

The army includes almost no shooting which when I played Herd wasn't such an issue as the army was faster and got into combat quicker, in the slower Undead army some more shooting may be needed to help suppress the enemies chaff and shooting elements.

So lots to think about before the next game, whenever that may be.

The Mayan temple scenery also got it's first run-out when Mick came over for some Blood & Plunder. The temple formed the focal point of a race to claim a pile of treasure which ended in a bit of a scrum  which saw the Buccaneers come out on top with the Spanish taking some heavy casualties.