Country Living

is great until the cows come home...They live up the road.

Grot Train Robbery - Possible Table Layout 1

I'm struggling with a layout that I like. I've run out of straight sections of track and I'm not quite sure where to get them locally by Saturday. All the track I have is from 25+ years ago. I know it is still available, just where? The lack of track means I need to orientate the boards side to side (long sides touching) instead of end to end. So this makes the layout about 8 x 12. Anyway, here are some pictures of layout 1.

Train Start

Here is a view from the side the train starts. As one can see,  I need texture the boards. I need to use the track cross piece as I ran out of straights. I could do more curves there instead, but I wanted the train to start in the middle. Still, that will change.

Ash Wastes Section

The table is made up of three sections. The first section is the Ash Wastes section. I'll be adding in some rough ash wastes terrain pieces and outcroppings to make this a bit more interesting. 

Junk Town Section

The middle section is the Junk Town section. One can see the Junk Town at the top of the picture. Near Junk Town the Imperial defensive wall has been breached allowing entrance into the ruined city. The bottom half of the board contains old imperial defenses and the gateway into the ruined city the Imperial train uses. There will be tank traps here as indicated by the boxes of...tank traps.

Imperial City Section

This last section is made up of a ruined imperial buildings and the wall fortification. With the board needing texture, as with all of the buildings, it looks pretty shabby right now. Most of the buildings are past the prime and 1st stage of painting. But I need to get lots of rubble. Rubble is key to ruined buildings looking 'right.' As I stated last year in my junk town articles, texture and detail are key to making terrain look good. Rubble handles both of those jobs with ruins.

Train End

Here is the end shot of the imperial city...pretty shoddy. Still lots of work to do on terrain and I have to paint the Train! Ugh. At least all the Grots are painted and 90% of the trukks are done.  And the question remains, do I look to get more straight sections of track. I've got a nifty idea of having part of the route go through a destoryed Imperial Tank factory. (In the past, the train entered the factory empty and left the factory loaded with Leman Russ tanks with the train never stopping. I pictured it with the Leman Russ tanks being built right on the train as it went through the factory. Not practical but fun.) I just love the idea of Grots swinging down on chains trying to board the train.

Imperial Train - The Rest

Here are some more pictures of the work Katz did.

Defender Car.

Caboose.

All Together!

That is it for the work Katz did on that portion of the train. There are some interesting buildings he did some work on. I also have got some unexciting cargo cars to carry Imperial loot yet to finish. I'll get them up soon, but the good stuff is all up.

Imperial Train - Engine

The Imperial Train will soon be hitting my workbench. Originally I had planned to convert the train myself, but my friend Katz insisted he be allowed to do them. He hadn't worked on a hobby project in awhile and he felt very inspired by this one. I was hesitent, as I enjoy the conversion end of things more then the painting. Still, I went ahead and that was good for two reasons. I'm running out of time getting ready for the Grot Train Robbery, and, more importantly, Katz did a spectactular job.

Here are some pictures of the Engine as a work in progress:

Before.

Half way there!

Almost Done.

Finished!

The Grot Train Robbery

I've been gaming a good deal lately (for me) with a mostly Grot force in 40k. A month or so ago, I came across this: http://ironhands.com/train.htm. I thought, that is pretty cool, I should do that. And, as it happens, I've got an old, broken down O scale train. But what would I do it with? Well, it could make an appearance in a 40k Apocalypse game. Or I could do an Old West style train robbery! And with Grots on the brain, I thought, what would be more entertaining then having Grots rob the train.

So I started working on a scenario. I wanted this to be a large scenario and I wanted a lot of players. At first I was going to have some players be Imperials and some players be Grots. I would be the judge. After working through some permutations I just couldn't come up with good force divisions. And having players working directly against each other in such a way would naturally push things towards the more serious scale of gaming. For this game, I want hijinks! So, after much deliberation, I decide to make all the players be Grots and I would run the train.

Background: The battle takes place on Armageddon after the main engagements of The Third War for Armageddon. After Ghazghkull Thraka left Armageddon for the second time and the Ork lines where pushed back, a good number of Grots were left behind Imperial lines. Those Grots, disenchanted with inept Ork leadership, formed up their own warband. This happened much in the same way as it did on Angelis. But unlike on Angelis, there is no single strong Grot to unite them.

It was decided that a contest would be held to determine which Grot should lead. Had these been Orks, they would have started beating on each other then and there. The last one standing would have been made the Warboss. Being weak, Grots prize cunning and back stabbing over strength. A different method was needed. Instead, they came up with the idea of robbing an Imperial ammunition train. As one was just rumbling by, this was rather convenient.

Picture a bunch of Grots sitting around arguing about how to choose a leader when an Imperial Train comes rumbling by. A grot named Snotnose proclaims, "The one that steals the most from that winz."

Snotnose jumps up, gathers his lackies, gets in his trukk, and drives off after the train. Quickly follow by the rest.

Objective: Steal ammunition from Imperial Train.

Forces: Each player starts with a trukk filled with band of 10 Grots. After that band of Grots dies, the player will get a new band of slightly more clever grots. A player may be a Grot at heart and be in need of a third band Grots. If all players are on their second set, they will get an even more clever band of grots. If not, something along the lines of some snotlings tied to the front of a rocket might be available.

Game End: When the Imperial Train leaves the board.

Victory Condition: The Grot with the most ammunition from the train wins.

Rules: Basic 40k rules with the following exceptions: The turn sequence has been modified to have the following phases: move, shoot, action. All players are active each phase and actions in a phase are simultaneous. In the action phase a grot can do a charge/board plus one of the following: inspect crate, toss crate, catch crate, and close combat. A ballistic skill roll is required to both throw and catch a crate. A failed throw roll means the crate is lost. Additional grots may attempt to catch a crate missed by other grots with -1 on the catch roll for each extra try. If all catch attempts fail, the crate is lost. Boarding is from any one vehicle to any other vehicle.

Each grot trukk can hold up to 10 models. A model is either a Grot or an imperial crate.

The contents of imperial crates are random. And since Grots can not read, they do not know if the crate has ammunition or something else. Roll on the following table to check:

1. Ammunition Explodes - Dead Grot. Roll D6 for all adjacent crates in contact. On a 1-3 that crate explodes. Grots in base contact with additional crates make S5 toughness save or die.
2. Imperial Rations
3. Space Marine Armor Lubricant
4. Hive Fashions Monthly
5. Ammuniton (1 pt.)
6. Ammunition (2 pts.)

Crates can either be checked in game, during the action phase. Or left unchecked until the game is over.

Other actions, not listed may performed by making a leadership check with an appropriate modifier.

Starship Troopers - This time I was the bugs...

I had another great game of Starship Troopers on Wednesday. (I really need to bring a camera.) This time I was playing the bugs and I had to defend some Plasma bugs. It was a pretty tough scenario. The 3 plasma bugs were not part of my points total but the MI got to start within the Plasma's minimum range. The MI objective was to destroy those 3 bugs. The bugs had to stop them (by killing all the MI.)

The game started out with MI Pathfinders coming out of hiding and shooting at one of my Plasmas. The MI doing 5 wounds with the Morita rifle drove home how vulnerable the Plasmas are. After two other groups MI were able to drop into within my Plasmas minimum range, I thought, “This is going to be a short game.” On my turn, I moved my wounded Plasma toward the Pathfinders, my two other Plasmas as far away from the enemy as possible, my tanker towards the dropped MI and I unleashed my defender force – 24 hopper bugs.

The next MI turn saw 4 Chicken Hawks, 2 Apes, and a Squad of MI disembark from their transports. They took some potshots where possible and wound some more plasma bugs. The Pathfinders also took some shots at the 1st Plasma bug and wounded it some more. Unluckily for them, they did not kill the Plasma and since they were within 10 inches, it got to react. Now when you react in ST, you have to focus on the unit causing the reaction. If not, this Plasma had moved far enough to shot at MI on the other side of the board. But it could not, so it charged the MI and killed two of them. The Pathfinders now had their second action and they had to kill the Plasma. If they did not, it could do serious hurt to the MI on the far side of the board. Plus, there were hopper bugs bearing down on them – enough to finish off the MI this turn. If the Pathfinders died before taking out the Plasma, it had a good chance of lasting the rest of the game. I’m stressing that as the MI decided they need to pour everything they had into the Plasma. By doing so they risked the Plasma bugs retaliate if they got an outright kill. Well, they did get an outright kill and the Plasma bug exploded taking 3 MI with it.

For the bugs turn, the two remaining Plasmas move further from the MI, the Tanker moved towards the MI and got off an ineffective spit, and the Hoppers went into action. Normally, when I play Starship Troopers I try and focus as much of my force on one part of the enemy as possible. That way I get the maximum amount of attacks possible while minimizing the number of attacks the enemy gets. For this scenario I couldn’t do that. I needed to engage every MI unit possible. This would then either force the MI to deal with my Hoppers, or if they didn’t, let my Hoppers get free reaction attacks on the MI. So with that plan, one group of Hoppers did their fly by attack and finished off the pathfinders. One group of Hoppers hit the standard MI and killed a couple. And one group of hoppers moved to attack two units of Apes and Chicken Hawks, killing one. The last group couldn’t reach any MI but positioned itself to react against a unit of Apes and Chicken Hawks.

The next MI turn was one of action and reaction by the Bugs. It ended with some dead hoppers, a wounded tanker, some dead MI, and more wounds on the Plasma Bugs. The Bug turn saw another ineffectual Tanker spit attack, some more standard MI kills, and a Plasma Bug attack. This was big it took out another Chicken Hawk which was the biggest threat to the Plasma Bugs.

The last turned ended up being close. The MI continued to focus on the Plasma Bugs. They finished off one more and brought the last one down to 1 wound. But the reactions by the Hoppers killed one Chicken Hawk, brought the standard MI down to 2 models, and allowed the tanker to move within ‘charge’ range of an Ape and a Chicken Hawk.

For the bug turn, they needed to finish off the MI. If not, they would most likely get that last wound on the Plasma Bug and win the game. The turn started with the Tanker bug charging the Ape and killing it. The Chicken Hawk reacted and brought the tanker down to its last wound. The tanker then charged the Chicken Hawk and killed it. Next, one group of Hoppers moved in to finish off the last Chicken Hawk. This left 9 Hoppers to finish off the last two standard MI, which they did.

This was a pretty fun game and everyone had a blast. The outcome was by no means certain and was well played by all parties. We forgot some rules, such as the command for the MI, but overall we had getting a good grasp of the rules.

Aeronef Halloween Scenario

Here is a simple little scenario for Aeronef in the spirit of Halloween.

Background and Victory:

An alliance of nations has tracked down a rogue Austro-Hungarian battleship The Nosferatu. The alliance has caught up with it just before it reached its home port. The alliance player needs to destroy the Nosferatu without losing a non-US ship. The A.H. player needs to keep the Nosferatu afloat to win. Any other result is a draw. When the Nosfertu is destroyed, the rest of the Austro-Hungarian forces surrender.

Alliance Forces:

Texas class Battleship USS Quincy Morris
De Ruyter class Heavy cruiser HNLMS Van Helsing
Benbow class Battleship HMS Jonathan Harker
Audacious class Battlecruiser HMS John Seward
Exeter class Cruiser HMS Arthur Holmwood

Austro_Hungarian Forces:

Szent István class Battleship The Nosferatu
5x Huszár class Destroyer Gypsy Destroyers
Raevski class Aerial Redoubt Dracula's Castle

Setup and Special Rules:

A 4x4 board should be sufficient and set up like a remote area of the Carpathian Mountains. Dracula’s castle should be located on a center line 6 inches from the eastern edge. One Huszar destroy should be placed with it. The Nosferatu should be placed 12 inches from western edge along the same center line. The USS Quincy Morris may be placed anywhere on the western table edge. The rest of ships move onto the board on turn 2. That placement is the movement for those ships. The Alliance forces start anywhere on the western edge. 2 of the Huszar destroyers may be placed anywhere on the northern edge and the other 2 may be place anywhere on the southern edge. The Austro-Hungarian ships may not move off the edge of the board. All other ships may but are removed from play. They are not considered destroyed if they do so.

Notes:

This scenario is based on the climax of Dracula with each ‘Nef being a character from that scene. It was somewhat of a struggle to come up with good mix of ships for the Alliance. I started with having the USS Quincy Morris be a Texas class battleship as Quincy Morris was from Texas in the book. Also, I put in the Aerial Redoubt as Dracula’s castle for the reason that, as Dracula’s castle is a place of power for him in the book, it should be so for him the scenario as well.