Monday, 25 November 2024

Darc's Dragoons

I picked up another boxed set to bring my mercenaries Darc's Dragoons up to company strength (3 lances). I still needed to add the tufts to the bases which I did after the photos were taken. These Mechs were all part of a Direct fire lance, 2 assault mechs and 2 heavy mechs, the Atlas, Marauder II, Orion and Crusader.


AS7-K Atlas

MAD-5A Marauder II

ON1-k Orion

CRD-3R Crusader

The full company

To support my mechs I also painted up 3 more vehicles, the 2 APCs are 3d prints from Mitch, the heavy tank is also a 3d print I picked up off EBay, I have 3 more of these.


I've got another 3 tanks, an APC and a AA support vehicle on the painting table nearly finished. I will just need 1 APC to complete but need to order in some more bases.

Friday, 22 November 2024

Songs of our Ancestors

On Thursday night Mitch set up a small table so we could try out the 'Songs of our Ancestors' rule for a Quar skirmish. My force was made up of a standard platoon, 3 sections each of 3 Quar, 2 armed with Bogens and 1 with a Ryshi rifle led by my Yawdral. 

The rules are pretty much like all those by Ganesha games, needing 'successes' for your troops to do anything. Failures allowing your opponent to steal the turn.

The Yawdral encouraging the Quar forward

2 sections advance towards the ruined village

My 1st section occupied a ruin and set up camp for pretty much the rest of the game.

Dastardly Royalists pushed forwards


A lone Royalist about to meet a grisley end

With both sides manouvering into position my Crusaders got a crucial steal of the turn, allowing them to pout some devastating fire in the Royalists. Taking out 1 and sending the others scurrying for cover. Mitch was having difficulty getting all his troops moving each turn as with bad dice rolls I kept stealing the turn. This was allowing me to keep my forces on the move and isolating his troops.

Take that ya Royalist fiend

Led by my Yawdral, we stormed one of the buildings, throwing grenades and taking out 3 of the enemy at close quarters. The Royalists were now on the run. Their right flank position was overrun and most of their troopers were prone or shaken. It was then that my Yawdral caught his Royalist counterpart in his sites, taking him out with a single shot. With their Yawdral down, morale tests were required across the remaining Royalists. Only 1 passed. The remaining troopers fled the field.
Another Royalist is down

Crusader 'fire and move'

It's all going wrong for the Royalists

'Got him'

A very fun and fast game. The rules are definitely a lot more smoother than Clash of Rhyflers. There were definitely less rule querying and head scratching. I got the best out of my Crusaders by keeping them on the move with the sections supporting each other. You have to get in close as the Royalist infantry have longer range rifles  and take delight at pinning you down at range. So another glorious victory for the 22nd 'the Double Ds', Devious Ducks.

Sunday, 17 November 2024

Quar and Mechs

Quar and Mechs! now that would be a combination, however I digress. First up is some additions to my Quar. I had some support weapons that needed to be in teams. For the torpedo weapons, Mitch had printed off some of the crew for me, just hadn't got around to painting them. I also needed some ammo carriers for the LMGs so I converted a couple of spare figures using some arms from WW2 Germans. They'll do for me.



Completed teams

For Battletech I completed 3 more Mechs to complete a second lance for my mercenary company Darc's Dragoons. These were all 3d printed for me by Mitch, a Marauder, Rifleman and a Penetrator.





I've now got a few 6mm vehicles to paint up to support the company. I've also finally gotten around to constructing a 3rd building for the Quar, just need to get it painted up.

Sunday, 10 November 2024

Start of a new faction

So as I painted my way through the Battletech collection, I decided that I would need at least 1 other faction. I decided on a mercenary company. Now I have already done a single lance of mercenaries but I wasn't sold on the colour scheme. So a new faction needs a new colour scheme. I went for black with little flashes of silver. I always like the look of black on vehicles, it can look really nice when finished.

So I pulled together 5 mechs that I had left over, another 3 will be used to complete the Dragons Fury collection to bring them up to 2 full companies. So we have a Raven, Enforcer, Guillotine and two Banshee's.


Raven

Guillotine

Enforcer

Pair of Banshee's

The Banshee's and Guillotine will form the basis of an assault lance. I did try to do some of the edging with a light dusting of silver, doesn't show too well in the photos. Another advantage of this colour scheme is I can use some of the 6mm infantry and vehicles that I had already painted, saves a bit of work. Now I just need to come up with an appropriate name for the company

Monday, 4 November 2024

More Mechs and some droids

More work completed for my Battletech collection. This time it was a 5th lance for my Dragons Fury, these are all Urbanmechs or as I like to think of them as dustbins on legs. They aren't that good in the game but have a certain charm about them. I also completed another Rifleman for a 6th Lance, this is a 3d print provided by Mitch.

Urbanmechs

Rifleman

For my mercenary lance I added 2 more mechs, both 3d prints from Mitch. They are a Penetrator and a Hunchback, nicely completing the lance.

Hunchback and Penetrator

Mercenary lance

Now still in keeping with a sci-fi theme I painted up 3 Imperial security droids as I begin to plan the next adventure. These are 3d prints provided by Thom, he even passed on enough parts for another 3 or 4 droids. I did flick through some image for a colour scheme to discover they come in pretty much whatever you like so went for a mid blue to match my security forces.





After these I have a few Quar on the painting table after being inspired after a couple of games to get the last of them painted.

Saturday, 2 November 2024

Ground troops

For the planned game next year, Mitch wants the Mechs to be supported by some ground troops, just a couple of mechanised infantry companies and other support vehicles. I had already done the tanks so just the infantry to do. Now to save money I dug into the old lead/plastic pile  for more of the old space marine infantry. 8 bases duly found and painted up. Mitch even provided a few more 3d printed vehicles to act as transports. In keeping with the force colours they are all red with some black to break up the colour.

2 companies of infantry

APC's

Mobile AA missile launcher

Completed company

I'm just waiting for my order of grass tufts to arrive to finish the bases on the infantry. Now I can get back to painting up some more Mechs that have arrived. Looking at finishing a second company and a mercenary lance.