Space Crusade! Attacking the clone ship

Hello and merry christmas for everyone, little bit late tough. Today we are doing something very different from my normal posts.

We have Hanna visiting from Forever and one day blog.
Normally she blogs abaut clothes, nailpolishes and other girly stuff. But now i will introduce her into miniature gaming.

I bought Space Crusade miniature tabletop game for 10 euros from a friend of mine. I were suppose to check the game that it had every bit and piece and later sell it. I gave it some tought and why not play it couple of times first. So onwards we go!

I convinced my better half Erja to play with me and Hanna. Here are more details from the gamers:

Hanna

-17 Years old, no previous miniature or gaming experiences if you dont count Monopoly and other games like that.

Erja

-23 Years old, mother of one (soon to be two). No previous miniature or gaming experiences other than telling me that my painting table is not tidy enough.

 Me and Hanna decided to do a 3 part blog serie into our blogs.

This part we are going trough the basics and some gaming. Second part is about painting the gaming pieces and third part, we go back to the gaming again

We started setting up the game at 4 in the afternoon. None of us had read the rules. My job was to get the game set up and reading trough the rules at the same time. I allmost abandoned all hope of getting the game ready as the girls were waving their space marines in the air and going "Pew-Pew-Pew" and "Ratatatatata"...

the board set up

We decided to play mission 1 from the missions leaflet. The objective for the space marines or "soldiers of the universe/Universumisotilaat" as it is translated into finnish was to destroy the "Destructor". There are some hillarius translations here, as the game is all in finnish. Alltough there is no better translations in the finnish language, but still... hillarius.

Additional objective was to kill a lone adroid wandering araund the ship. I made a mistake here as i told the additional objective to the girls before i noticed that i wasent suppose to.

I were the "umpire" of the game and played the clones. Erja and Hanna played the space marines.

Hannas team

Erjas team ready to go

The Game

Both teams entered the main ship and were very cautious and did not know what to espect. They scouted the first board piece.

Erja found couple of Gretchins and Orcs here and there. She started to clear them out with her marines.

Hanna on the other hand found the main objective allmost next to the spot she entered the ship from.

Hanna what were yor toughts when you found the mighty Destructor?

-I tought that it will kill everything i have instantly. Luckily the dice were with me and Destructor missed with everything.

Do you have something to say about yor tactical deplyment which we can see from the picture below?

-Ha ha... Well if i had any idea of how to play this game, i would have done it differently. Also i did not expect to find the Destructor in the first turn. 

Later on Hanna had to run away from the Destructor as she did not want to face it alone. Solution was to run to the nearby room and call Erjas team to help.

Erja chose to move her commander and two marines towards Hannas team, clearing the corridors as they moved.

Two of Erjas heavy weapon marines went to the opposite direction to scout the other part of the board

The marines found more Gretchins and also Chaos Marines. Luckily Erjas marines were able to gun them all down without taking casualties.

At the same time Hanna was hiding from the Destructor with her team and trying to shoot couple of orcs who were in the same room as her marines. The dices were against Hanna and she missed with almost everything she had.

So Hanna, didt the shooting go as planned? Werent your marines suppose to be the elite, best of the best?

-They are the best soldiers in the universe! Those damm dice just werent on my side. Later on i managed to kill the little orcs, which was the main thing for me.

Was it s wise decision from Erja to split her squad and go scout the other boards?

-In my oppninion yes. Erja sent two heawy weapon marines to the other board and two bolter marines agains Destructor. It should have been the other way round.

Did you have any plan of how to find the Android or was the Destructor the ony thing in your mind?

-Erja and me had scouted three of the boards so we knew that the android is on the fourth. Our tactic was that Erjas two heawy weapon marines and my bolter marines enter the board on the same turn and hunt the Android. Our main goal was the Destructor tough so we both sent our commanders against it.

The game has now gone trough 3 or 4 turns. What is your oppinion on the game? do you like it or do you want to get back to your nailpolishes and Justin Bieber pillow?

-Surprisingly i liked the game very much! When you have your own team to lead and shoot with and most of all unite with your own sister and fight against Nojis! I cant wait to take my team to the next mission




Towards the end of the game the Destructor tought it was best to garrison into a room and face the arriving marines there. Hanna and Erja had cleared the board piece and the Destructor was the only thing aive there. Erja and Hanna were ready to storm the room with both of their squads, not counting the two heavy weapon marines who went scouting.

 It was time to draw a clone card and this time it was fun. I had the opportunity to move three radar tokens from the other boards to any other board. So i picked up three and moved them to reinforce the Destructor. At this time both of the girls went "Oh nooooh!. On the good side the radar tokens were only Gretchins so the marines gunned them down with no problems.

On the other side of board the additional objective Android was revealled and next it selfdestucted becouse of a clone card i got at the start off the turn.

After a huge exhange of gunfire the Destructor was downed by Hanna. Erjas squad was a huge help to get the Destructors health down before this.


So the game is over and Marines got both of their objectives done. The marines were still suppose to get back to their transports. We skipped this part as the game had allready went on for allmost four hours and there were next to nothing on the board, which could harm the marines.

Hanna, give us a small debrieffing of the game and some of your toughts?

-In the beginning i tought that i will never understand the game, becouse there is 5 million dirfent components on the board. But when we got past the beginnin it wasent so hard. I am really waiting with intrest for the next missions and what they are like. Thank youn Nojis for getting me into this project




In my oppinion this game is pure gold and in not sure if i want to sell it at all. It is relatively simple now after giving it the first try. And it also has 11 more missions for us to play. We need to get the gaming pieces painted tough, as i dont like them at the moment.

So there you have it! Drop us a comment if you want and remember to check Hannas blog.

-Nojis

Bolt Action: Pacific and Europe, Infinity

Hello there! Its time to update you on what i have been doing, which is not much. I have played couple games of Bolt Action. I painted one infinity figure, but mostly i have been sick or at work, or sick at work.

Here are some photos of my recent Bolt Action games. The first game is from the pacific theatre and  was against Herkko's Japanese army. There is not much to say abaut that game, as i had no idea how to face the Japanese. Objective was for me to keep my side of the river clear of the Japs and for them to get three units on my side at the end of the game for a victory. There were some losses for my marines. Well actually all of them got slaughtered by the Japanese Banzai warriors...

Bolt Action: Pacific

Herkko's Japanese Army

A mixed squad of Juha's and my marines

Japanese getting over the river

Bolt Action: Italy vs French

Next up is my game from last wednesday. This game was also against Herkko but Italian Bersaglieris. Objective was to destroy the enemy base and protect your own base. My base was the house with blue roof and Herkkos was the house on the top left. There was nothing special abaut this match as neither of us got to make any big moves agains enemy base.

Couple of highlights from the game tough:

1. My mortar hit three times, killing half of italian infantry squad and whole italian command squad. It is allways so much fun to hit with the mortar.
2. Renault FT-17 survived the game, even after taking a penetrating hit from italian light at-team.

Lesson from the game for me was that, if there is a objective in the game, i really need to push for it alot harder. I allways tend to turtle with my forces and try to keep them at full strenght. I need to learn that if i want to win, i will take some casualties with my units.

Infinity

I made some progress with my infinity figures. I bought the Morat Aggression force sectorial pack many months ago. I had major troubles with painting these as i couldnt come up with a good color scheme. Now after giving the scheme some tought i have gone for a green style.


 Here is the old scheme:

 And my new scheme on a Sogarat with a heavy machine gun:

And in the last picture there is the progress i have made on my Anyat. The whole force is still far from getting done, as next i need to paint more marines for our Pacific campaing which will be starting in January.

Comments and feedback are very much welcomed. Especially from the painting of the infinity figures. I am not very good at edge highlighting which you can see on the Sogarat. Infinity figures are a good practise for me as i will not be using Armypainter quickshades on them.

Battle for village Nuenen

Last evening at my local gaming club we played the battle of village Nuenen, which i earlier talked abaut. I played the british doing recon, Herkko played the american mechanised forces and Kalle was the germans occupying the village.

First things firsts

At our club, we dont use points costs. We have this gentlemans pact and we play only for fun and for intresting matches and thats the way we want to do it.

Special rules for the scenarion:

Germans start as hidden, and are marked with post it notes on the table, some of the post its are empty. At first there are 2 rounds for the brittish to do scouting. After that the Americans arrive via the road south of the village

Bren carriers are Recce and can carry 6 men instead of 5.
American FAO can call one airstrike with a 3+
Germans had a mortar strike which they can call in.

This scenario was custom desingned by our mastermind Juha. The troops involved were as follows:

Germans: All veteran
4x 5 Man teams with 2 smg:s, 3 rifles and panzerfaus or two )
2x Machine gun team
1x Sniper team
1x Hetzer
1x Pak40
1x Mortar strike spotter
1x Command team

Not so much german troops, but they are well equipped veterans and inside buildings.

British Scouting Section:

6 Man team with 3 rifles and 3 smg:s (veteran) + Bren carrier

6 Man team with 3 rifles and 3 smg:s (veteran) + Bren carrier

Second lieutenant with rifle + 1 rifleman (veteran)



American Mechanised Forces:

Sherman tank (regular)
12 man team with x amaunt of BAR:s and smg:s
(regular) + halftruck

12 man team with x amaunt of BAR:s and smg:s (regular) + truck


 Air observer team (regular)
30cal machinegun team (regular)
Second lieutenant + 2 riflemans (regular) + Hmg transport jeep.
  + With the americans is arriving my Cromwell tank

Village Neunen before the battle

 

In the first scouting round the british came in fast with their two bren carriers. They quicly noticed from the ammaunt of bullets flying their way, that Germans were in the first two houses. Both houses had a 5 man infantry team in the bottom floor and a machine gun team in the top floor

Bren quicly got 3 pins, as did the squad inside.

On the left side from my point of view the other bren got a single pin and my command team ran to the nearby trees to spread the commanders leadership.

hmm... i wonder what this post it is

The sound of tank tracks came louder and louder, somekind of tank moved into position in the midle of the road, next to the church...

On scouting turn two the bren on the left shot a pin into the nearest infantry squad in the house, and then reversed out of the harms way. The other took a pin more. failed his test and reversed in panic.

Now it was time for the Americans to arrive (And for my Cromwell!!)









The Americans bring in their Sherman first. It is greeted by the enemy hetzer which was in ambush. Luckily the Hetzer misses. Sherman returns fire but also misses.

The americans bring in more forces with both trucks.


















 My cromwell comes in and wants a piece of the hetzer but also misses....

The American truck is destroyed by machine gun fire and the troops inside (infantry, mmg, fao teams + medic) all get 2 pins each.

At this point this are not looking so good for the allied team. The progress is halted allready before the town and now we have a fifty-fiffty chance of getting our dice and shoot with our tanks before the germans can shoot with the hetzer or the pak40.

My other scouting bren is failing even more tests an has reversed all the way back to the table edge.

The american lieutenant moves to the destroyed truck to get his men back into the action.

He orders the Fao to call in the close air support. Soon there is the lovely sound of a thunderbolt fighter bomber roaring in from the skies with guns blazing.

The plane hits the first house on the right from our table edge. It scores 12 hits and levels the whole house ontop of german infantry team and mmg team. Also germans in the nearby house gets couple of pins.


On the downside my Cromwell gets a pin and Sherman gets two.

Death from above

On the left side, my veteran team from the bren exit to the forrest and fire a volley into the german ocupied house, getting a pin in. Also my command team enter the same Bren

American halftruck gets pinned by german sniper in the church tower and the mmg team in the top floor from the house on the left. It panics and reverces to the table edge.













Cromwell moves up to the destroyed house and misses the shot against the hetzer again, becouse of the pin from the airstrike.

Hetzer moves next to the house in the village, takes the shot and gets a hit on the cromwell only to shaking the crew.

Pak40 takes a shot into the Cromwell, hits, penetrates, lights the cromwell on fire... and well thats really it for the cromwell...

On the left, my veteran scouts assault the house bottom floor, while the ammericans shoot the mmg team from the top floor.

This house is now in posession of the allies. It seems a way into the village is now open from the left side. On the badside i think this is allready turn 4 so the time is nearly out.

American halftruck gets a grip of itself in drives towards the house on the left with an infantry squad inside of the halftruck.

German Hetzer takes out the Sherman. All allied tanks are now gone and the allies have no more antitank weapons...

My scouting team tries to take out German command team with shooting in the house between the church and the house we just emptied. Command team goes down but 2 men from the command team gets moved down. The commander survives. Another american squad assaults the downed commander in the down floor, and offcource wins. The commander takes out 2 americans before he dies tough..
Americans move in to the village with everything they have as they need to push forward. Halftruck moves and gets pinned even more in the middle of the village.

There is now americans in the bottom floor and 3 germans with 5 pins the top floor of that house.  Pins caused from getting a little fire from about everything...


This is where the game starts to end and i stopped taking pictures.
The american squad which killed the commander assaults the church and empties it. Hetzer and pack40 shoots into the town not killing anything. Allies move into the town with everything still alive.

We roll for if the game contienues on a 4+ but it does not. A win for Ze Germans commanded by Kalle.

This was a fun game, and the second time we played this scenario. The forces are now balanced in my opinion, but the allies need a bazooka team or a litle more AT capability. All in all a great game.

Feel free to leave a comment or feedback!

-Nojis