The FEF Growler

About 2 months ago, I decided to start up a Summer project. It had been a long time since I'd dabbled in actual mini painting and modeling. Probably about 8 years. I wanted to play around with it again - to explore whether I could produce some decent, little, metal men.

Another impetus for mini modeling/painting was that I was putting together a Traveller rpg campaign for Jake's group, and wanted to give the campaign a bit of a personal touch by using my own minis. Hell, having scifi minis handy for other campaigns - or even for small-scale wargame skirmishing - would be cool. I've owned some in years past - resold some; gave some to Adam - they've all disappeared over time.

The first step was to determine what scale of minis to invest in. I did a lot of looking around at both 25/28mm and 15mm lines from different companies, and I was really impressed by what I saw in the 15mm scale. There were a lot of solid manufacturers in that scale, and generally it's a little easier to paint 15mm since extreme levels of painting detail aren't necessary. 15mm is also quite a bit cheaper than the larger scales which was another factor in my decision. I bought a few random packs from RAFM, Khurasan, Ground Zero Games, and Critical Mass Games. Aliens, mid- and high-tech level soldiers, technicians, robots, vehicles. All very affordable.

The attached image is a tracked, civilian exploration vehicle that I've been working on. It's getting closer to completion - some flock or static grass would be nice to add to the mud and rock surface. Likely some paint cleanup so the basecoat doesn't look as dark. And I'll need to spray on some dullcote to cut the gloss shine from the "Army Painter" dip I used to shade and seal the mini. I've christened the vehicle, the Frontier Expeditionary Force (FEF) Growler. (A "growler" being a great unit of beer measurement, of course, as well as a cool name for a tracked vehicle). :)

What does this have to do with AT-43? Nothing at all. :) But, whereas AT-43 is a great wargame, modeling and painting isn't necessary to play it. Which can be it's greatest advantage and disadvantage at the same time. I'm certainly not going to take a break from playing my robots crabs, or space americans any time soon. It's just a relaxing little side-hobby.

Frostbite - Turn 1 - Debriefing

Here are the results of the first turn of our Frostbite campaign:

Units Lost
Therians   - 1 Wraith Golgoth (C2)
Red Blok - None
Karmans  - 2 ZZ Gun units (C1/2)
                  1 Kaptar sniper unit (C1/2)
                  1 Kaptar ZZ Rifle unit (C1/2)
                  1 King Buggy (C3)
                  1 ZZ Gun unit (C3)

Sectors Controlled
Therians   - The Cursed Fortress, Underground Base, Abandoned Base
Red Blok - The Restored Fortress, Ice Floe Oscar
Karmans  - None

Strategic Advantage
The Therians gain use of nanoviruses with control of The Cursed Fortress (nanoviruses can be used to block access to one sector). Underground Base provides +250 material points (MP) to spend. Abandoned Base provides +250MP.

The Red Blok get 2 free artillery strikes with control of the Restores Fortress. Control of Ice Floe Oscar provides improved accuracy with artillery strikes.

Victory Points
Therians   - 20VP
Red Blok  - 20VP
Karmans   -  5VP

Reinforcement Points
Therians     -   75RP
Red Blok  - 2000RP
Karmans   - 1350RP

During Debriefing RP are converted to MP
Therians    -  575MP
Red Blok  - 2000MP
Karmans   - 1350MP

Frostbite - Turn 1 - Ice Floe Oscar

Last night, Dave and Rob went head-to-head in the Ice Floe Oscar sector. 2K army points worth of Karmans vs. 2k worth of Red Blok, who were merged from two separate companies.

This sector was pretty insane; the terrain is a serious challenge on this map. The ice floes slow down infantry drastically, and put units at risk of sliding off of them. Mechs and vehicles don't have to worry about sliding, but they are slowed as well. This mission's victory point (VP) objective was roughly in the center of the map, meaning a king-of-the-hill type of situation to control it.

The battle began with us dicing to determine the weather during the battle. The result was "Thaw", which indicates that units are unable to rush move. We deemed this to be too painful on this map, and decided to ignore weather for this battle. We did play with the "night-time" rule, though, which provides all units with Stealth. (Which means you have to get in quite close to be able to have line-of-sight on targets, unless you've got special equipment).

Rob began by deploying 2 Sierps, a Urod, the hero-controlled Kosni, and a unit of Dragonov Commandos. The Red Blok mechs didn't suffer too much from the ice floes. They methodically made their way across the map, securing containers and Therian nanogenerators - soaking up quite a few reinforcement points (RP). The Dragonov Commando infantry unit had a bit of a scare the first turn, but managed to avoid losing any soldiers to sliding off a floe. After that point, they remained stationary, waiting for opportunities to snipe Karmans from afar.

Dave deployed his King Buggy and quickly rocket-jumped it over to the central floe. The buggy was headed straight for the VP marker in a race against the Red Blok mechs. Dave's infantry didn't fare as well - his Type 3 infantry had to basically line up and take turns to get across the floes. His Type 1 Kaptars struggled to get off the floe they deployed on. They didn't have the movement to jump to other floes without losing some infantry in the arctic water. The monkey army ground to a crawl, and that seriously impacted the battle.

Dave's King Buggy made it first to the VP marker and camped by it and a Karman crystal. The first (and, really, only) tense moment of the battle took place immediately after. The buggy had gone into overwatch, and Rob had no choice but to trigger that overwatch with his Urod - he needed to force the buggy from the VP marker if he'd have any hope of winning. The buggy fired up its twin ZZ-Cannons and scored 2 hits on the Urod, but it wasn't enough to destroy it. Urod returned fire and the buggy was blown to pieces.

After this exchange, the Rob's Red Blok were able to seize the VP marker and hold it for the rest of the game. Urod can be threatening enough, but Rob also had a pair of Sierps circling around one portion of the map, and his unit of Dragonov snipers discouraged movement from the monkeys. Dave's infantry were forced to hold position just to gather more RP - he had no chance of dislodging the Red Blok from the VP marker with the buggy gone. One unit of Karman K-Warriors were shot up by the Dragonovs; the remainder of Dave's infantry clustered out of line of sight, trying to save their hides.

The end result:
Red Blok  20VP, 2000RP
Karmans    5VP, 700RP

Rob really soaked up the RP in this battle. He'll have plenty to spend next turn to recoup losses in upcoming battles, or to purchase special army abilities.

Frostbite - Turn 1 - Abandoned Base

So, on Tuesday, Dave and I went head-to-head in a battle at the Abandoned Base. There were a few "firsts" in this misson: I used Tiamat (a Therian hero) for the first time as my Company Commander; and Dave deployed a King Buggy vehicle for the first time. Both units turned out to be pretty effective.

Deployment began with Dave's K-Shooters tromping across the snow to within control range of one of the Karman Crystals. A large unit of Karman Kaptars marched over to the other Karman Crystal - Dave was well on his way to collecting quite a few reinforcement points (RP). My first few deployments included dashing Tiamat over to the Western edge of the building - behind some cover - and having her generate a Hekat Golgoth. From there, Dave deployed a small unit of Kaptar(?) snipers, and his King Buggy. And, I deployed a unit of Bane Goliaths, a Wraith Golgoth, and a small unit of Storm Golems.

The firefight started pretty quickly with Dave putting a serious hurting on Tiamat, and taking her out of the battle. I had no choice but to make use of her Body Hacking ability - and, though it hurt, I had to sacrifice my Wraith Golgoth to have her reform. That tactic paid off in the end, because she was able to pump out Hekats throughout the mission, which harassed Dave's infantry units and drew a lot of fire from his K-Shooters and the King Buggy.

After Tiamat's reformation, my Hekat charged Dave's snipers and tore them to pieces. It didn't last long after that; the Buggy seriously damaged it, and the Kaptars did a little ripping and tearing with their power grips. Ouch! Check out the pic and see how many filthy apes are clustered around that Hekat! :)

Starting off within the building was a huge advantage to my Therian company. I quickly was able to seize victory point markers and camp on them with infantry, putting them into overwatch - discouraging Dave's advance into the building. He was able to collect some VP from the markers near the Western entrance but not quickly enough, compared to my entrenched infantry. Dave was popping Hekats left and right, but they served to slow down his advance.

Eventually, Dave threw caution to the wind and moved within the building with his Kaptars and the King Buggy. I brought a Succubus Golgoth in from reserve (which was useless thanks to my dice rolling). The entrance of the Buggy triggered my Bane Goliaths' overwatch and they did some serious damage to the Buggy. They didn't destroy it, but they blew off many of its weapons and destroyed its propulsion. One of my Hekats ran around the outside of the building and chewed up a unit of K-Shooters by one of the Crystals.

At this point, we were on the final turn, as I was within range of collecting 20VP and winning the mission. My early control of 2 of the VP markers was really the deciding factor. The mission ended 20VP to 9VP.

Pros/Cons: Dave collected ~600RP, which will allow him to replenish most of his losses. I gained the 20VP, and control of the sector, but at the cost of my Wraith Golgoth. I only had 75VP remaining at the end of the battle, so I'll be defending that sector down ~370AP. That'll make it a bit more challenging.

Ice Floe Oscar and the Abandoned Base

Here's a little intro to the two missions we'll be playing in the first round of the Frostbite campaign.

Ice Floe Oscar is going to be a pretty challenging map for Dave and Rob to play on. Both armies deploy their company on small ice floes and have to slowly navigate the map to be careful of icy surfaces... much less a drop in the drink! To make things even more challenging, battles in this sector take place at night, so you have to bring your forces into closer range to take shots at your opponents (unless your troops have something like triple-lens helmets to get around it).

The victory conditions for IFO are a little weird, too: you receive VP by controlling access zones. Each opponent will likely have control of their initial access zone, and can speed up VP gain by spreading out and controlling the neutral access zones on the board. I can see this battle resolving quicker than most of our past battles. We'll see.

The Abandoned Base is a mission that we've played before. This time, we're paying closer attention to all of the odd Frostbite sector rules.

In this battle, VP tokens are placed at the building entrances. Dave will enter from the 'West' edge of the map, whereas my Therians will shoot in from the 'East' edge, within the building. What makes holding the building a little more challenging is that there are containers filled with explosives scattered around the building. When any unit opens fire there's a chance that explosives could go off near them, or near their target. (If their target is inside the building). Mind you, it's a small chance (two 1's rolled on 2d6; or two 6's rolled on 2d6) - but it could be punishing if it happens.

Frostbite - Turn 1 - Planning

On Thursday we discussed starting up the Frostbite campaign. After reviewing some of the campaign rules, we diced for the battleground, which ended up being the Black Fortresses.

The Black Fortress battleground takes place at the South pole of the ice planet, Elysee, and is a home to the Therian doomsday devices. Two collosal Therian monuments exist in this region - the Cursed Fortress, which was the site of an engineered nanovirus; and the Restored Fortress, which is a site being rebuilt by the Therians. Two military bases are also in this region, originally built to protect the fortresses.

As you can see from the battleground map, the Therians have a very strong presence here, and their HQ is centrally located, which gives them quick access to 4 of the 6 sectors. The other armies start at the fringes of the map and have to push inward to lay claim to many of the sectors.

We started the Planning phase of Turn 1 by dicing to determine who went first. Deployment order was: Rob, me, and then Dave. By the end of the Planning phase, Rob has 2 companies entering the access zone to Ice Floe Oscar, and a 3rd company at the Restored Fortress. I had to deploy 1 company at the Cursed Fortress, and then shifted a company to the Underground Base, and a company to the Abandoned Base, both coming from my HQ. Dave moved 2 of his companies into the Abandoned Base and 1 into Ice Floe Oscar.

So, for next week (and probably the week following), we've got 2 big battles coming up. I'll face Dave at the Abandoned Base, and Rob will face Dave at Ice Floe Oscar. Should be some epic battles over these 2 sectors!

Observation Post

On Thursday, Rob and I battled over another Frostbite sector - this one was called "Observation Post". This sector had a building in the North-center of the map, with snow/ice tiles around the West, East, and South sides. I elected to play the defender in this mission - which meant fewer troops in my assault force but control of the defensible position.

This mission had some rather unusual victory conditions. The only way to earn victory points was to have one unit hold objective Zebra (within the building) and have a second unit - which had to include an overseer, mechanic, or electronic weapons specialist - within base contact with a 'sensor' (a nanogenerator model). 10VP were given for each turn that you could hold both locations, with the game ending when on army had 20 VP.

The battle started normally enough - the Red Blok began invading from the North within the building. I again fired up a Hekat Golgoth right off the bat, and launch him, high-speed into a unit of Dragomirov Kollosus. This time he managed to take out 1 mini before be hammered by a Urod and the Kollosus.

The round continued with Rob pushing some of his smaller mechs and an infantry out to the Eastern side of the building. This played havoc with my plan to grab a quick 10VP - I already had a unit of Bane Goliaths camped - and overmatching - objective Zebra. But, my hope of rushing a unit of Storm Golems over to a nearby, Eastern 'sensor' was crushed because they'd be hammered by a number of Rob's forces in overwatch.

One small 'victory' that I had in the mission was rushing my unit of 6 Storm Arachns to within range of the remaining Dragomirov Kollosus and detonating them. These spiky little, naval mine-looking monsters blew the Kollosus to bits. First successful use of the suicidal little guys!

To abridge things a little, the mission ground on without a lot of conflicts. I was hiding a few of my units in an effort to get more reinforcements on the board, while Rob's units slowly trudged through the building - careful due to my Bane Goliaths in overwatch.

We called the mission just after midnight. It was looking like Rob's forces were going to combine their efforts to flush out my Bane Goliaths within another turn or 2, while moving his other forces around the building. I'm not sure if I would have been able to get close enough to a sensor to gather VP in that time. Maybe, maybe not. Regardless, we would have been gaming past 1am before we had a conclusive victory.

Looking back at the missions now, it looks like we put objective Zebra in the wrong tile - at least what I noticed from the map guide. Which probably wouldn't have impacted the mission too much - I still would have had a unit camping there, holding it for as long as I possibly could. And Rob still would have been in the position of chasing me out of there and securing the building himself.