Steiner Recon Action

 

The assembled forces: 24th Lyran Guards (left) and assorted Word of Blake militia (right)

Months after the last instalment and months after I actually played the battle, I bring you the next episode in my Tharkad Battletech campaign. As the name suggests, for a "recon" mission I chose to deploy forces more suited to a frontal assault.

Running the Gauntlet

 

Today we return to my Tharkad campaign, where my first unit (a mercenary company, the "Acing Blazes") has been rendered combat ineffective and we've switched focus to "Zebra" Company of the 24th Lyran Guards (plus stragglers from the Blazes, such as Gabriel Zabinski and their Phoenix Hawk). The Word of Blake has launched a counter-insurgency campaign against loyalist forces on Tharkad around the Tatyana Islands with the elite 40th Shadow Division and mercenary backup. Fortunately for the resistance, the counter-insurgency forces have already been infiltrated and the planned kettling has turned into a confused brawl, with our particular merry band looking to slip the net while giving the "Wobblies" a bloody nose.

Group shot of the deployed force. L-R: Phoenix Hawk, Commando, Griffin, Thunderbolt and "Super-Sub" Phoenix Hawk from the Lyran Royal Gaurds.

The Clan Invasion

 

You remember the '60s, right? (the 3060s...) When a wave of Skiffle bands swept over the Inner Sphere with their mop-top hairdos and Burrock and roll music: The Rolling Stone Lions, the Jyde Falcyns, The Totem Animals, the list goes on. What I'm trying to say is that I've finally painted some more Clan 'mechs and wanted to make an extremely strained pun. I've also got a new SAD lamp for Christmas and while no mental health benefits have yet been observed it does improve my lighting setup a lot.

Mist Lynx (left) and Timberwolf (right). Or Koshi and Madcat if you swing that way.

Do-or-Die

Mercenaries cautiously pick their way through the woods before the shoot-out begins.

So, two defeats on the trot, down one commanding officer and with nothing left in the kitty to pay for repair bills, the Mercenaries are on their last legs and know another heavy defeat would render them completely combat ineffective. Rather than retreat to lick their wounds though, they decide to stake it all on one last roll of the dice, hurling their full strength at the local Word of Blake garrison (Camp Satanic Mills) despite failing to obtain any useful intel in the last game.

The Tharkhad Campaign Hots Up

 

(The joke is that Tharkhad is actually a cold, icy planet)

Well, after a poor first showing, our Mercenary outfit (the Acein' Blazes for those curious) commences guerilla activities with a recon-in-force against the Word-of-Blake (not that one) occupation around a river delta. According to the rolls made on the  random scenario table, the WoB would be materially inferior but much better skilled, with the local commander something of a dead-eye shot in their long-range sniping mech (Jaegermech for those with Technical Readout 3025 handy).

A lovely day for a walk in the woods

BattleTech Battle Report

Generic Mercenary Force gets ready to intercept half of today's contractual opposition.

Something a little unusual today, a solo BattleTech battle report: just the thing for total lockdown. Playing with myself is so much easier to organise! I even managed to fit in a second game within a week which otherwise NEVER happens with other humans.

Catching Up with the Painting

As I write this paragraph, five more Italian infantry (for the surprise bonus extra squad in Chain of Command) are out in the garden being spray-varnished. Having already added the Bushwhacker and Churchill tank (see below dear reader), I realised that I really needed to hurry up and get this post out of the door before my painting progress made it longer than an undergraduate dissertation.

The last two plastic 'Mechs from my Lance Pack (of four)

WMMS 2020

Hard to imagine it now, but only a few months ago you could go out and mingle with hundreds of people and wipe your hands over all manner of hard surfaces and the police wouldn't intervene. I don't normally go to shows very often, but my sister has recently fallen in with a delightful young man whose father happens to regularly run showgames so some sort of visit was only polite. I therefore present the Hrothgar's Shed guide to Alumwell Wargames' West Midlands Military Show.

How not to be seen

Private N. E. Seagoon of the 4th Armoured Thunderboxes has presented us with a poser: we do not know which tree he is behind, but we can soon find out.

Yes, it was the middle one.

Tanks Again!

My mental health hasn't been great lately. This means plenty of models have been bought as retail therapy and painted in my secluded underground lair so there is plenty of content for the blog. Every cloud eh?

Airfix 1/76 T-34, assembled by my uncle, painted by me. During painting I gummed up the joint so unfortunately the gun doesn't elevate any more.

CoK Loot and Plans for Next Year

A morose air hung over the camp after the tournament. Two figures sat by a campfire, one a human with both arms in enormous plaster casts and the other a great beast-man with a bandaged lump on his head as large as an extra horn. One turned to the other and said: 

"It's no good. Next time we're going to have bring a competitive army list."

Gaming paraphernalia freebies. Tape measure not included as I'd lost it down the sofa by this point. 

StuG Life

Markings are entirely fictitious to remind people that wargaming isn't real.

I didn't chose the StuG life etc. etc.

Almost, But Not Quite

Today's theme is that I have a lot of models that are almost finished, but there remain important details which should not be left undone. Such as the basing.
 

Perry-sculpted GW Lord of the Rings elves, featuring conversion wielding a spear. I've just realised that I forgot to do the mail on the armpits in a steel-tone (hence the title).

Base-ic Instinct

With the new models, I decided I needed some new bases to mount them on. Unfortunately, I underestimated the size of a peeg, so now I have 32 15 mm MDF circles and nothing to do with them, as well as an absence of 25 mm rounds and the suspicion that 30 mm might fit the fast attack options perfectly.

This picture doesn't really do it justice, but the bases are too small

Christmas Comes Late

Met the lovely family for the first time since Christmas. I had a lovely catch up and so on, but more importantly I picked up the parcels I've been waiting for for weeks!

Gunny Peegs [sic] by Bad Squiddo games, with 28mm 'human' for scale purposes.

I Need a New Spray-Varnish

Unlike many of my photos, the poor quality here is due to too much varnish blurring the models rather than shoddy camera work

My spray-varnish broke a nozzle late last year, and I thought I could use up the remaining varnish by holding the nozzle bit over the can and pressing down. This was good enough for the last round of varnishing, but this time I massively overdid it on a couple of models and ended up with fuzzy grey patches. Argh. Now I have to not only spend money on more varnish but also repaint these chaps to fix the harm as best I can.

Keep reading, there's more news under the break.

Send Help

WHAT HAVE I DONE

If you can't send help send more 'Mechs.

ANGRY BEAVERS

I REGRET NONE OF THIS

The beavers in question. Sold by Bad Squiddo Games, originally a North Star product

More Stuff I Haven't Painted Yet

One thing about moving house is that you go through all your wargaming stuff and find not only the models you painted badly at the age of 16, but also all the models you failed to paint at the age of 16.

Some well sculpted Perry Men of Gondor. The photograph makes them look a lot better painted than they actually are.

Initiate Enhanced Imaging!

After three days in my basement/dungeon being forced to listen to the Archers at uncomfortably loud volume, some mates were persuaded to play Battletech. Unfortunately I was too busy explaining the rules to take photos, but fun was had, even if it did peter out at the end.

What I've got for you today is a solo scenario I invented as part of a narrative campaign.

"Stormhammers" (a paramilitary force aligned with House Steiner) with a bunch of big scary Assault 'Mechs