Saturday 29 January 2011

Shako II Demo Game at CANCON 2011

Hi All,

Last weekend the lads from Canister & Grape met up with some mates from around Australia and ran a demo game of Shako II in 15mm at CANCON in Canberra. Everyone put in a massive effort beforehand getting their respective forces together to ensure a really attractive table. Here are some pics and a short battle report (remember to click for larger pics). Enjoy!



The scenario was a meeting engagement in Eastern Poland during the 1807 campaign. Both sides were attempting to dominate a crossroads and surrounding key features including a fortified farm complex, timber church and hills.

The French forces consisted of two French infantry divisions, one Saxon infantry division, a French Reserve brigade, several light cavalry brigades, a dragoon brigade, a cuirassier brigade and plenty of supporting artillery of various calibres. The opposing Allied force consisted of two Russian infantry divisions, an Austrian infantry division, several light cavalry brigades, two heavy cavalry brigades and once again plenty of supporting artillery of various calibres.




The battle was fought with great gallantry on both sides. Notable actions included the fight surrounding the farm complex which changed hands several times, finally to be held by the French at nightfall. The Saxons held the church without fail, eventually breaking an entire Russian grenadier division. At the end of the day the French were victorious, having broken 17 Allied units for the loss of 8 of their own. The French also held 2 objectives, the Allies one and the remaining two were still in contention. Vive la France! Vive l'Empereur!

A great time was had by all with the game played in excellent spirits and sportsmanship. Thanks to Russ for his camera work, especially given it was the first outing of his new camera.







Cheers,
Millsy

Wednesday 5 January 2011

Epic Armageddon Necron Army

One last quick post on Epic before I move onto other stuff. Here's some images of the whole force as it stands. Remember to click for larger versions of the images.

Necron Infantry Phalanxes
5 units of these, each comprised of a Necron Lord, 6 stands of Necrons, 3 stands of Immortals, 1 stand of Pariahs and 3 stands of Tomb Spiders. These are Dark Realm Andrayadas apart from the Tomb Spiders which are 40K Scarabs.


Flayed Ones
2 units of these, each of 6 stands.These are also Dark Realm Kraytonian Ketzali.


Wraiths
2 units of these, each of 6 stands. These are also Dark Realm Andrayadas.


Destroyers
4 units of these, 2 as ordinary or heavy and 2 as mixed. Each is 6 stands. These are also Dark Realm Andrayadas.


Obelisks
2 units of these, each of 6 stands. These are a copy of a single master made from a very old toy.


Monoliths
6 stands which I typically play as individual units. These are plastic crystals glued together and then painted. Until I can make a decent proxy Monolith these will do. To be honest I kind of like em...


War Machines
A pylon on the left and an Aeonic Orb on the right, both scratch built as I explained here...


Nightbringer
My C'Tan and Supreme Army Commander when fielded. This is a Reaper Miniatures 28mm figure.


And finally the whole army together. Too much to play at once except in REALLY large games. 5,000 points is roughly 2/3 of this force.


Happy to answer questions and accept comments ;-)

Cheers,
Millsy

Epic Armageddon Battle Report – Necrons vs. Orks – 5,000pts

As promised, here's the battle report from our game today. Necrons vs. Orks!


Turn 1
The Orks win the initiative and go first. Both sides advanced directly forward, keen to get to grips as soon as possible. The only shooting consists of an Ork Warband on the right flank firing a salvo from it's Gun Fortresses at a unit of Necron Heavy Destroyers, killing 2 stands. A quite start – the calm before the storm as we're about to discover!

Some of Russ' Orks...


Turn 2
The Necrons win the initiative and advance again.

The Necron Heavy Destroyers advance towards the Ork Warband that fired at them last turn and fire a return salvo, hitting three times all of which get through the armour. The Necrons also advance a unit of Obelisks towards the same unit and fire a salvo, causing further damage to the Gun Fortresses. Concerned by damage to the Ork Warband the unit attempts to engage but fails to activate and instead decides discretion is the better part of valour, falling back out of range.

On the Necron right flank a Monolith advances before disgorging an Infantry Phalanx to cover the advance of another Ork Warband.

In the centre the Orks advance a Blitz Brigade of Gun Wagons and fire at the Necron Infantry Phalanx to their front. They score a single hit but make little difference and the Necron Phalanx charges into fire fight range and attacks. The Necrons overwhelm the Orks, completely destroying the Blitz Brigade for the loss of one stand. The Necrons now control the objective in the centre of their table side.

Still on the attack, the Necron Aeonic Orb fires a barrage at the third Ork Warband in the centre, scoring a single hit on a Battle Wagon.

The Orks now Gargant makes a sustained fire attack at the Necron Phalanx in the centre which had been so successful earlier in the turn. The Necrons pay for their earlier success, losing six stands and breaking before phasing out at the end of the turn.

On the left the Necrons advance another Phalanx to secure the third objective on their table side. On the same flank, the Warband moves inside to challenge the Necrons for the objective, deploying troops from transports and shoots. The attack is less effective than it might have been, killing only two stands. In retaliation the Necrons push a unit of Destroyers in behind the Phalanx and fire at the dismounted Orks, killing eight stands.

Still on the Ork right flank, a Blitz Brigade advances and fires at the Necron Phalanx to it's front, killing a single stand. The Necrons respond by teleporting a unit of Wraiths directly into close combat from the supporting Monolith. The Wraiths wreak a terrible havoc, destroying the second Blitz Brigade for no losses. The Orks counter again, doubling a unit of Big Gunz and firing at the Wraiths, hitting twice, one of which destroys a stand and breaking the unit due to it's small size.

In the centre the Orks advance the Kult of Speed against the battered Necron Infantry Phalanx and fire a salvo from the War Buggyz, Bikez and Scorcherz killing another three stands.

On the Ork left flank a unit of Stompaz advance and fire at the Necron Heavy Destroyers to their front, killing a stand.

After a turn that took over an hour, both sides pause to regroup.

And some Necrons...


Turn 3
The Necrons win initiative again and move the Aeonic Orb to their left and barrage the Ork Warband ahead of them, destroying three infantry and one vehicle. They follow up with a salvo from a unit of Destroyers, killing a further seven infantry, breaking the Ork Warband. <$Necron Necron Implacable Shrug$>.

In the centre the Ork Kult of Speed charges into a Necron Phalanx holding an objective, pinning the infantry with the Warbikez to prevent them moving to melee attack the remainder of the unit. The Necrons dismiss the tactic and respond viciously in fire fight, killing fifteen bikes for the loss of a solitary infantry stand! The Kult is broken and flee from the enemy.

Angry now, the Orks reverse a unit of Big Gunz and mow down the Flayed Ones that Teleported in behind them at the beginning of the turn. The Flayed Ones break after losing three stands and run towards the Ork rear table edge.

On the Necron right flank the Obelisks kill two Ork Stompaz breaking the unit of five. The Stomkpaz run before more damage can be done by the supporting Heavy Destoryers who will have to seek a different target. They choose to regroup instead after failing an initiative roll.

In the centre the Orks advance a second unit of Stompaz and fire a salvo at the Necron Phalanx to their immediate front scoring three hits for a single kill. The Necron Phalanx charges back and comes into melee. The Orks lose their remaining four Stompaz and the unit is obliterated whilst the Necrons lose another five stands and are broken.

On the Necron left flank an Infantry Phalanx advances but cannot quite cross the centre line of the table. The Orks respond with an bombing run against the Necron Destoryers, killing a stand.

The Necrons now scoot a unit of Wraiths into the Ork table half to contest an objective on their left flank and support the advancing infantry Phalanx. In the centre a Monlith advances and fire ineffectively against an Ork Warband. The Warband advances and deploys infantry into assault against the Monolith. The Orks have “one Nob in contact” with the Monolith to quote Warboss Ruzz. An amazing twenty-three dice result in ZERO hits! A single Monolith hit is saved. The result of the combat is a tie meaning they fight again! This time the Monolith is destroyed but not before it destroys the offending Nob and an Ork Boy.

The centre Infantry Phalanx advances again and fires against the Warband killing another eight stands nearly breaking the Warband. A nearby Monolith chimes in with another blast marker. The Big Gunz behind the Warband don't like that and fire at the Necron Infantry Phalanx in support, scoring three hits and one kill.

The Necrons end their turn by advancing another Monolith on their left and firing at the Big Gunz ahead of them for a single blast marker but no hits.

On the Ork left the Warband fails an advance and elects to regroup instead.

Finally the Gargant in the centre doubles forward and fires against the Necron Infantry Phalanx which has taken a real pounding this turn but continues to hold firm. A Gaze of Mork fails, the Super Zap Gun fails as well before barraging for four stands, just breaking the unit.

The turn ends with a regroup for all. Things are in the balance with three Necron Infantry Phalanxes phased out and plenty of Ork casualties as well.

Turn 4
The Necrons win initiative for the third time in a row and move the Heavy Destoryers from the left flank to attack the centre Ork Warband, scoring five hits, killing Battle Wagonz and damaging a Gun Fortress.

Adding to the carnage, the Necrons teleport their remaining Infantry Phalanx from the left flank, Monolith portal-to-portal and fire a salvo at the same Warband, killing another two stands, breaking the unit.

The Orks now adavance the Gargant again, firing at the Necrons which just appeared in front of them, scoring seven macro weapon hits and breaking the unit. Ouch!

On the Necron left the Destroyers advance to cover the objective, firing agains the Big Gunz to their left, killing four outright. The Wraiths to their front charge the remaining gun and engage in melee and killing the remaining stand. Unit destroyed!

In the centre the Orks have rallied a Blitz Brigade and double forward behind the victorious Necron Destoryers, shooting them from behind but scoring no hits. Aeonic Orb retaliates by bombarding the Blitz Brigade, killing two of the remaining three vehicles and breaking them for a second time.

On the Necron right flank the Obelisks advance onto the second Ork objective, firing at the returning Stompaz, killing one and breaking the unit again. They hold the objective!

In the Ork centre the Big Gunz sustain fire at the Heavy Destoryers on the Necron right flank, missing with all five shots.

On the Ork left the remaining unbroken Warband moves to engage the Obelisks holding the objective, deploying infantry and charging once again into melee, fearing a repeat of the dice of death. Four hits from twenty-eight attacks is another poor show, one of which is saved. The Obelisks score on hit which is saved. Despite losing the combat 13-2 their Fearless nature prevents them being destroyed even though they break and run.

The turn finishes with the Necrons moving their left flank Monolith inside onto the objective and teleporting back in a battered Infantry Phalanx from reserve. Three stands of infantry but they are there.

End Game
After regroup the Necrons lead the victory conditions 1-0, so not enough for a win. The tie-breaker rule comes into effect and the point totals are calculated as follows:

Necrons:
Destroyed units: 1 x Monolith (125).
Broken Units: 1 x Obelisks (300).
Half Strength but Not Broken: 3 x Necron Phalanxes (833), 1 x Flayed Ones (100).

Total: 1,358

Orks:
Destroyed units: 1 x Stompa Mob (375), 1 x Gunz Mob (175), 1 x Blitz Brigade (250).
Broken Units: 1 x Kult of Speed (350), 1 x Blitz Brigade (250), 1 x Warband (730).
Half Strength but Not Broken: 1 x Warband (380), 1 x Stompa Mob (183).

Total: 2,693.

A points victory to the Necrons! A great game with plenty of laughs, back and forth and a close result despite what the points might suggest.

Cheers,
Millsy and Russ

Tuesday 4 January 2011

Necron War Machines for Epic Armageddon Part II

So the spray undercoat dried quicker than I'd hoped in the damp(ish) conditions and I just couldn't keep my little grippers off these. I'm pretty happy with how they turned out. I'm not inclined to paint over the orb as the green colouring has some nice variation and it has a typically mabled shine to it. It's probably a better job than I could do!

As always, comments welcome...



Here's the list I'm going to play tomorrow. Will it work? I have no idea!

Necrons - 5,000 Points

Infantry Phalanx
6 x Warriors, 1 x Necron Lord 225
+ 3 x Tomb Spiders 150
+ 3 x Immortals 120
+ 1 x Pariahs 60

Infantry Phalanx
6 x Warriors, 1 x Necron Lord 225
+ 3 x Tomb Spiders 150
+ 3 x Immortals 120
+ 1 x Pariahs 60

Infantry Phalanx
6 x Warriors, 1 x Necron Lord 225
+ 3 x Tomb Spiders 150
+ 3 x Immortals 120
+ 1 x Pariahs 60

Infantry Phalanx
6 x Warriors, 1 x Necron Lord 225
+ 3 x Tomb Spiders 150
+ 3 x Immortals 120
+ 1 x Pariahs 60

Armoured Phalanx
6 x Obelisks 300

Venator Maniple
6 x Flayed Ones 200

Eques Maniple
6 x Heavy Destroyers 375

Eques Maniple
6 x Destroyers 375

Recon Maniple
3 x Wraiths 200

Monliths
1 x Monolith 125
1 x Monolith 125
1 x Monolith 125

Pylons
1 x Pylon 200

Aeonic Orb
1 x Aeonic Orb 750

Total 4995

Hopefully as promised there will be a battle report or some description from tomorrow's game.
Cheers,
Millsy

Necron War Machines for Epic Armageddon

Russ and I are playing a 5,000 point game of Epic Armageddon tomorrow. I've got a Necron force but the problem with the Necrons is that they were never an "official" list and VERY few models were produced. Those that were produced were the old style warriors and a few bigger bots thrown in amongst other stuff on a small sprue of official forces. Collecting a decent sized force of them is almost impossible and also prohibitively expensive.

Consequently my Necrons are made up of Dark Realm Miniatures Andrayadas for the infantry. The Tomb Spiders are W40K Scarabs. The remainder of the larger items like Obelisks, Monoliths, etc are all scratch built / pillaged numbers. To date that was where I stopped but I decided this morning to put together an Aeonic Orb and a Pylon as I invariably get hurt badly for lack or ranged attacks.

Here they are in their unpainted form. Remember to click for bigger versions...

Aeonic Orb
Made up of a pizza tray widget (the thing that stops the pizza box collapsing), a plastic funnel from a child's toy and a few scraps of plasticard. Once the painting is complete I'll glue in a suitably nice looking glass marble for the orb. I may paint the marble but that depends on how it looks. If it is sufficiently "orbish" I'll leave as is. BTW, I know it is meant to be a skimmer ;-)


Pylon
Made from two office desk cable management gadgets (which amazingly glue with liquid poly, winner!), an iced lolly stick thingy, the gun from a W40K Necron Destroyer and more plasticard. This will have the green translucent rods fitted after painting and possibly a big crystal in the end of the gun.


Check back soon for pics of the painted versions and possibly even some shots of the full army and a battle report. If you're lucky...

Cheers,
Millsy

Monday 3 January 2011

Howdy Blogonians,

Well after telling myself that I would use these holidays to finish off my US forces for Flames of War I decided instead to start my Grenadier army. Now this army has been 'seasoning' in a drawer for almost a couple of years - so its ripe and ready for getting some desk time.

All of the vehicles have already been undercoated and about half have been base-coated. After seeing Millsy and Cory's efforts with the new FOW Vehicle Paint sprays - I'm waiting til I get my hands on the late war german one before moving forward with those. Millsy showed me a neat trick using blue-tac and Tamiya spray paint to do three colour camouflage. So I'll hopefully be blogging the results of that in the coming days.


So whilst I wait for the local hobby shop to get stock I've been prepping the reminaing units. So far I have three platoons of grenadiers (one being pioneer), HQ, pak40s, artillery, 88s & all assorted crews.


Tomorrow weather permitting I'll start undercoating all of that as well as finishing off the MG, Mortar and Infantry guns squads.

Then onto the painting!

Seeya,

Russ




Sunday 2 January 2011

Ney and friends...

Happy New Year all from the lads at Canister & Grape. My New Year's resolutions included not buying any more figs until I've painted some more stuff. Like all good plans that won't survive contact with the enemy ;-)

Another update for my 15mm French Napoleonic force for CANCON. Apologies for the somewhat continuous stream of Nappy stuff but I'm on a tight schedule and no other bugger can be bothered posting (hint, hint!)

Se here's Marechal Michel Ney, Duc d'Elchingen, Prince de la Moskowa, le Brave des Braves...


To support the great man we have the 2nd Dutch Hussars, which along with the 2nd Dutch Cuirassiers were attached to Ney's VI Corps at Friedland in 1807. Elite company in white colpacks? Nice!



And also horse artillery of the line for my expanding reserve cavalry brigade of dragoons and guns.



Last on the painting table for CANCON is four battalions of French line in greatcoats to complete my second infantry division. From there I'll have to wait until I can get to the con to pick up some mroe stuff from Nic at Eureka.

In the meantime I'm planning something different - a little side project in 15mm sci-fi using Ground Zero Games stuff. Before I can do that I have to wait for my painted Undead Bloodbowl Team on eBay to sell.

Cheers,
Millsy.
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