Napoleonic's: Spanish Guerrilla

Adding to my growing Peninsular campaign forces this week are some Spanish Guerrilla's. As with the other models these are from the Perry range but this time in metal.
Being irregular troops I've gone for a mixed approach on their clothes with no effort made to make them uniform, this has been a nice release after the previous British uniforms and hopefully will help cleanse my painting spirits before I start on the British centre companies foot.

I've got eight more Guerrilla's and an officer to paint up so in theory could form 4 units of them but it seems more likely they will be fielded in units of 8.

Strictly speaking the British shouldn't be able to field this unit in Shakos & Bayonets but as it's a skirmish game it feels appropriate that the British would be working with local Spanish Guerrilla's. It also gives the British an extra troop type (Irregular) that they can then gain activation cards for which should help balance out the foot Dragoons on the French side.

As you'd expect unit starts off as a pretty basic skirmishing style unit but you can buff them up to be decent troops at an extra 12 points a unit, another good reason to take larger units.

As I plan to do all the leaders at the end before I start on the cavalry I have another eight of these chaps to paint and then onto the British centre company infantry.

Napoleonic's: British Light Infantry

I completed some more British Napoleonic's this week with the British Light infantry being added to the force. With the way the Perry box is made up I only had enough of the flank company arms to make up eight of these but with the twelve Riflemen that should give plenty of British skirmishers.

As with the Grenadiers I've given them the yellow facings of the 28th North Glos Regiment and the green plumes of the light company. 

The rules allow you to field the light infantry in one of two ways, either as the flank company of a line regiment or as the men of a specialist light infantry regiment.

Using them as a flank company gives you the option of fielding in units up to 12 (well it would if I had enough models) and a better Defence stat for when they get into melee. The specialist light regiment option means you can gain the sharpshooters trait which allows you to re-roll some missed shots whilst coming in units of 4 - 8. It's worth noting that the flank company version activate on a Line Infantry card whilst the specialists activate on a Light Infantry card.

With these completed I've now started on the Spanish Guerrillas to ally into the British force, these are from the Perry metal range and sport a variety of clothes which should make from a nice change from the British uniforms. 

Napoleonic's: British Riflemen

 Having completed the grenadiers I have moved onto some light troops for my British force, namele riflemen. Drawing again from the Battle of Albuera I have painted these chaps as members of the 5th Battalion 60th Royal American Regiment. Armed with Baker rifles they served in the Peninsular campaign and despite the name mostly came from German States. 

They had the same green uniform as the more famous 95th but with red facings which make them a little more interesting on the eye. You get four of these per box of Perry British Line so I've ended up with twelve altogether. This I think should be more than enough.

Looking at the rules we can see they are available in units of 4 - 8 models and are better at shooting than fighting. The special rules mean they can spend an action to Aim which gives them an extra +2 to hit (on top of the base +1 for rifles), however the rifles take 2 actions to reload rather than the normal 1 so the benefit of an accurate shot must be weighed against the slow rate of fire.

Here's a couple of shots of the Grenadiers for the 28th, I've included a back of the head shot to show the extra badge I painted on to represent the custom of wearing a second badge.

Next up are a few Light company men and then some Spanish Guerrilla's. 

Nido de Plaga IV: Escape

Status Report:

Having fought through the Asterian cordon your forces regroup to make a final push towards the pickup area and count your losses. Fortunately they aren't as serious as first thought and Commander Bolts has engaged emergency backup protocols to bring his suit back into action. Unfortunately you have lost one of the Commando's and the Mawbeast which had been vaporised by the Asterian Spectra.
A brief communication from your orbiting ship promises some reinforcements and a rescue ship will be launched to coincide with your arrival at the extraction point.
You know you must make sure Subject F is removed from the planet and hope that you and your fellow Marauders can make it as well.

This was the final battle in our 6 part narrative campaign which has seen the Marauders bravely fight and die above and below the surface of Nido de Plaga IV. It's also going to be the last game of v2 of Deadzone as my v3 box arrived this week. I got some extra terrain in the box including some all new cyber-punk style pieces which I've painted up in red, this adds another different colour onto the board.

The new terrain set includes several signs, awnings, boxes, shelves and a recycling bin amongst it's contents. This helps to add the impression of a Deadzone that has just come into being and hasn't had a chance to fall entirely into decay.

I purchased an extra set of the new additional pieces and made up a couple of little street eateries to place out on the table, the awnings will allow troops to shelter from enemies on higher ground and the little shelves with sauce bottles on look rather good.

Facing off against the escaping Marauders where a horde of ravenous Plague victims, with some starting at the edge of the battle and some already deployed forwards of the raised area the Marauders had to make it too.

The Marauders got some reinforcements for the two lost troops from the last battle in the shape of two Skyscrapper Commando's who dropped onto the battlefield after deployment was completed.

The first turns saw both sides advance with the Marauders laying down some fire into the Plague Zombies who shambled forwards. One Zombie did catch a Skyscrapper in melee and manage to kill him before being gunned down in return.

After that is was more of a punching match between the Marauders and the Plague with the Commando Specialist making good use of his HMG to shoot several Plague and even put two wounds on the mighty Aberration. 

The Commando escorting Subject F was killed by a Zombie and as Subject F ran away Bolts stepped up to tie down the Plague whilst the Gruntbot secured the rear lines.

With everyone else tied up the Gruntbot made a break for the extraction zone but held off calling in the rescue flight (after a fair bit of deliberation) in the hope that more Marauders could be rescued. The Marauder commander had by this point realised that as only one pickup could be made the size of the landing area meant not all the troops engaged could be rescued.

On the next turn Bolts was engaged by the Aberration and the Commando Specialist went down to a Plague Zombie.

When Bolts was killed by the Aberration the Gruntbot called in the rescue. To pile extra troubles on the Marauders the advance guard of an Asterian force had arrived on the battlefield and started to fire on both sides.

There was just time for the Rainmaker to run into the pickup zone in time to be rescued and along with the Mauler and Gruntbot, Subject F was picked up from the planet surface.

The decision of the Gruntbot to stay an extra turn didn't save Bolts or the Commando Specialist but it did mean the Rainmaker and Mauler managed to get away as well and it made for a tense finale to our final v2 game.

Now onto Deadzone v3 so we need to forget the rules we know and check through the book to make sure we adjust to the rules that have been updated.

Our next campaign should be using the Saga Age of Hannibal rules which Mr T is putting together, so hopefully we will be starting that in the near future.

Nido de Plaga IV: Breakthrough

 ***Priority Transmission***

From Captain, Marauder Assault Cruiser Mandrake
To Assault Commander, Ground Forces, Nido de Plaga IV

Commander Bolts,

Whilst you have been underground the Asterians have launched a massive attack on the ground base of operations. The fragments of messages we have received indicate an attack with overwhelming forces has wiped out the forces defending the base. We can only assume that the Asterians have somehow brought reinforcements onto the planet without us spotting them.
In order to safeguard Subject F and ensure we do not lose the information gained from the lab you are to lead the forces from the lab to a nearby LZ we have identified for extraction. The Asterian forces are sweeping the area in an attempt to find you so you should avoid becoming engaged in a protracted battle and should move at your best speed to the LZ.

Captain T.

The scenario for this battle was Breakthrough 2.0 with the Marauders aiming to break through the Asterian cordon and make their way to the pickup zone. They had Subject F in tow and would gain 2 Victory Points for getting him off the opposite board edge. VP's where also awarded for getting other members of the Strike Team off the opposite board edge or killing enemy troops.

The Marauders had managed to patch themselves up from the lab fight so went in with the same roster as last time:

1 * Bolts - Commander

3 * Marauder Commando

2 * Mawbeast

1 * Marauder Commando Specialist with HMG

1 * Ripper Rainmaker

1 * Ripper Mauler

1 * Gruntbot

The Asterians took advantage of the influx of new troops onto the planet to bring in a Spectra giant robot:

1 * Marionette Prime

4 * Marionette

1 * Kalyshi

2 * Marionette with Grenade Launcher

1 * Matsudan Inashi

1 * Spectra with Micro Fission Beamer

The game started with 10 Plague victims out on the table all of whom died during the first turn as both sides moved up into cover. The Spectra drew first blood when it smoked a Mawbeast with a shot from it's Fission Beamer, it may only be a pistol but it's a damned big one.

During the second turn both sides got sucked into surprise melees. The Spectra was engaged by the second Mawbeast who took a wound but managed to tie it up and Bolts was charged by the Inashi. Once you've pushed up a bit even a charge of 2 squares can be hard to spot and stop from happening and with the Mawbeasts charge of 3 squares that is extra difficult.

Turn 3 saw the Marauders move first and the Gruntbot join the fight against the Spectra, the Spectra survived the combats but some bad rolling meant it lost it's Energy Shield. The shield is used to block incoming damage but if you roll more 1's than successes it fails and cannot be used again for the rest of the game. 

The fight between Bolts and the Inashi continued with neither side gaining and advantage. 

The next turn was decisive with the Marionette Prime popping up onto the purple building to kill both the Commando Specialist and a normal Commando before falling to returning fire. Bolts was also killed in the same turn along with the Spectra and a couple of Marionette's. Once the shield is stripped from the Spectra it's pretty squishy so it was fairly easy meat for the Mawbeast & Gruntbot.

The exchange of kills left the Marauders in a better position with the Asterians having lost their most powerful piece in the Spectra and now only rolling 3 command dice due to the loss of their leader.

The Asterians did however notice that Subject F was unattended so made a last-gasp effort to secure the win by seizing it.

Some good shooting and then the intervention of the Ripper Mauler saw the Asterian forces further depleted and the Marauders managed to secure the win (18 VP's) by killing the last of the Marionette's leaving only the Inashi standing.

So what was a really hard fought and bloody game came to a close with the Marauders breaking through by virtue of almost total annihilation of the opposing force.

So we just have one more mission to play out in which the Marauders will attempt to escape the planet with their prize and hopefully their lives.