ATOW Battletech Campaign Update Part 3

ATOW Battletech Campaign


This post details information concerning my ongoing ATOW Battletech RPG game I currently run. This post will help catch up readers and bring them up to speed on what events have unfolded revealing further story line since the last update was posted. If you are a current reader or by chance a new reader please follow along and check back for the next update.

Bonus Battletech Battle Report inside.

STRAIGHT OUTTA MICRONIA | Zentraedi Regults

Robotech RPG Tactics

Zentraedi Regult Assembly and Sprue Review

Regult Tactical Battlepod

During the recent holiday weekend I took some time to work on assembling more of my Robotech RPG Tactics models. This post will focus on the assembly of Zentraedi Regult Tactical Battle Pods. Currently I have 36 to assemble plus another twelve if I open the second sealed boxed set.

Deciding on how many Regults to assemble reminds me of when Commander Riker had to decide on how to deal with two Klingon Females.

*****

VEKMA
He's not very attractive, but I will have him.

TACTICS OFFICER
They are inquisitive. They would like to know how you would endure.

RIKER
Endure what?

KLAG
Them.

RIKER
One or both?

*****

The good news is I have assembled 24 Regults so far. I am either two thirds to half way there depending upon how much I want to endure. What follows is complete review of the Regult sprue, assembly process, and some general ideas and tip on how to assemble them.

STRAIGHT OUTTA MICRONIA

Robotech RPG Tactics

Last Saturday I got to play Robotech RPG Tactics with my friend Dan again. I have only played this game twice before with Dan so the chance to play the game again was needed and welcomed. A change of pace or game systems works often, but not to often. We both agreed to keep the game and points simple and to try to re-learn the game as much as possible. A lot of things we remembered, a lot of things we had to re-check, but the whole game went rather smoothly.

Dan had his mind set on using some Destroids so I went along and used the Zentraedi forces. Dan made his selection pretty simple and straight forward with the inclusion of some Veritechs and some Destroids.


Playing the Zentraedi I first went with what I used last time selecting the Regult Attack Squadron and the Regult Attrition Squadron. This would leave Dan shy of 10 points so I swapped the Regult Attrition Squadron for the Regult Recon Squadron. Using the Regult Recon Squadron would give me like Dan a new unit to try in the game being the Quel-Regult. This still left me ten points ahead. We both considered adding some more stuff, but in the end I swapped the Regult Attack Squadron for an additional Regult Recon Squadron. I figure Dan would blow one away to smithereens so having a second would give me a chance to use it and see how it works.

Battle Forces

UEDF - 140 Points generating 10 Command Points

Valkyrie Squadron - 80 Points

VF-1J X 1
VF-1A x 3

Area Denial Destroid Squadron - 60 Points

Defender Destroid x 2
Tomahawk Destroid x 2


Zentraedi - 140 Points generating 16 Command Points

Regult Recon Squadron - 70 Points

Glaug
Regult x 6
Quel-Regult

Regult Recon Squadron - 70 Points

Glaug
Regult x 6
Quel-Regult

Battle Setup

We setup on a normal 6 x 4 table and deployed twelve inches along the short edges. We agreed this setup would give both sides time to react to the first turn moves ensuring no first turn auto-wiping bullshit occurs. This gave the UEDF and especially the Destroids a nice range advantage.

One important detail we added was terrain and treating certain terrain as area terrain. The inclusion of hills and small forests as area terrain provides a small defense bonus, but that bonus can easily mean the difference of damage rolls being successful or not. Hills and trees were invaluable in helping one of my Gluags approach the Valkyrie squadrons. We treated hills and forests as soft cover. We treated some bunkers as area terrain hard cover, but this may have been over generous perhaps. This helped some Regults survive, sort of.

The inclusion of the Quel-Regults was an excellent battle tactic. The surprise that they generated command points on their own was a complete shock to me. I never looked at their abilities on thier cards thinking were just electronic countermeasure units. The Quel-Regult's abilities on top of terrain bonuses I admit are plain brutal, but an effective way to help Zentraedi forces in general. We never allowed the Quel-Regult's abilities to overlap each other and stack.

Battle Highlights

I passed on pictures this time.

The Valkyries early on tried to decimate Regult Recon Squadron 1 on the West side of the battlefield first and in the process lost one or two along the way. Dan conducted an impressive speed boost and combined after burn maneuver to try and recover some losses. This is cool when you get to see rules used in action as they are intended  if watching the show. Using the after burn maneuver to alpha strike something is boring, but using the after burn maneuver to get in and out of fighting is heroic. Dan was able to punch throw a Glaug's meat shield defense and damage it. Oddly enough the Glaug he damaged was the Glaug I was hiding from the Destroids attached to Regult Recon Squadron 2.

Regult Recon Squadron 2's Glaug was the most vulnerable during the game as the Destroids kept stripping away Regult after Regult leaving the Glaug to cower behind some terrain to provide support. I think Regult Recon Squadron 2's Quel-Regult was made of more sterner stuff. Regult Recon Squadron 2's Regult count at one point was maybe one to two left and the rest were moving in from reinforcement range.

One tactic which seems to work when combating Valkyries is to get them to empty their missile reserves leaving them with only gun pods left to use. Regults are good for doing this as life is cheap and with a Glaug you can recycle them and I did this. Very few or none of the reinforcement Regults ever made it back to be of any further use.

When the Zentraedi had a chance to return fire surviving the Destroid's firepower turn after turn I saw the true ability of the Glaug's main cannon. The last Valkyrie was the commander and all shots would be going to his rear so I risked it and destroyed it knowing he had no chance of shielding or dodging the main cannon attack. This cut the UEDF's command points in half.

The entire Valkyrie squadron was wiped out. The Glaug from Regult Recon Squadron 1 destroyed the last Valkyrie. The Destroids in return killed the same Glaug.

The Destroids tried to knock out a Quel-Regult and failed doing so shortly after the last Valkyrie was obliterated. If they did this would have cut the Zentraedi command points effectively in half.

I took out a single Tomahawk Destroid. In a formation they are able to absorb and share a lot of damage. We called the game a good shortly after the Tomahawk fell. It was a good game and a good learning experience.

Carnage Report

UEDF

Valkyrie Squadron

VF-1J X 1 - Destroyed
VF-1A x 3 - Destroyed x 3

Area Denial Destroid Squadron

Defender Destroid x 2 - 1 Damaged, 1 Maybe Damaged
Tomahawk Destroid x 2 - 1 Destroyed, 1 Damaged


Zentraedi

Regult Recon Squadron 1

Glaug - Destroyed
Regult x 6 ~ 50% Destroyed and Reinforced, 1 Permanently Destroyed
Quel-Regult - 1 MDC left

Regult Recon Squadron 2

Glaug - Damaged
Regult x 6 > 50% Destroyed and Reinforced
Quel-Regult - 1 MDC left

Lessons learned and things to remember.

This is a list of some things we simply forgot and need to remember. The d6 roll of 1 and 6 is trivial, but playing so many games it makes a big difference.

• A d6 roll of 1 is an auto fail regardless of modifiers.
• A d6 roll of 6 is an auto success regardless of modifiers.

• Shielding damage by splitting damage evenly does not negate an uneven odd point of damage, it is assigned as desired.

• Taking damage is like math and the order of operations is AM/Dodge, Shield (If applicable), RWI.
• RWI rounds down damage.

Robotech RPG Tactics is a fun game so far, but considering Wave II's whereabouts are still considered out there floating the game is limited somewhat. I have picked up some chatter on PB's forums there may be additions to the FAQ and rules as well. The one thing which slows me down is the assembly process. I still have quite a lot of units to assemble for both sides and each one has a large amount of parts. Still I hope to play this game more often if I can.

Check back soon for updates to my dealings in the worlds of Battletech and 40K.

ATOW Battletech Campaign Update Part 2

ATOW Battletech Campaign

This post details information concerning my ongoing ATOW Battletech RPG game I currently run. This post will help catch up readers and bring them up to speed on what events have unfolded revealing further story line since the last update was posted. If you are a current reader or by chance a new reader please follow along and check back for the next update.

Bonus Battletech Battle Report inside.

Show Me the Lictors!

A brood of Lictors joins the swarm.

My June monthly paint project was my Lictors. My Lictors have never felt more than a black prime coat of paint. The Lictors for the longest time have been cosplaying Sirius Black and the GW case they live in is Azkaban.

" We have done our waiting!"

"Twelve years of it in storage!"

The old prime coat was removed and a new prime coat applied. Off they went to receive their first taste of real painting and basing oh my.

ATOW Battletech Campaign Update Part 1

ATOW Battletech Campaign

This post details information concerning my ongoing ATOW Battletech RPG game I currently run. This post will help catch up readers and bring them up to speed on what events have unfolded revealing further story line since the last battle report was posted. I have garnered the attention from a few new readers thirsty for information along with some nice compliments to my posts. My RPG players are encouraged to check and read these types of posts for information as well. Sometimes they may find hidden details, leads, and secrets in these posts and I know one player has been checking and waiting for the next post.

If you are a current reader or by chance a new reader please follow along and check back for the next update. This will be the first of possibly two or three updates leading to a few battletech battle reports posted one after the other.

Learning To Fly and Go Team Lictor!

Playing 40K

Recently I had a chance to play two games of 40K using my Tyranid swarm against a new player and his Deamonkin cult. In fact those two games were the second and third time I have got to play 40K this year I believe. Both games, both armies used different list options with interesting results. As much as I detest Deamon rinces and Bloodthirsters, I had a huge pool of physic power at my disposal. I did two different things different when playing I used the rules for a flying Hive Tyrant and we used Tactical Objective cards.

Being tossed off the cliff and learning to fly isn't so bad when another player explains it from a biased opinion. The new player gave me a general run down and really thought I should just give it a go. This player honest approach to explaining flyers is how I came to face my fears of using a flying Hive Tyrant and use one in my list. Including a flying Hive tyrant made a huge different in games and I may never go back to a ground based Hive Tyrant again. Although I do love my panted Tyrant Guard. I think what might have been holding me back is the whole wait a turn to assault after grounding, but my Hive Tyrant shouldn't be assaulting anyway because he sucks at it. I learned very easily a flying shooting Hive Tyrant is an absolute menace if left unchecked and getting into assault is another story altogether.

Tactical Objective cards really changed the flow of the normal boring kill everything to actually use strategy to gain points. Tactical Objectives allowed me to emerge better in raw scoring power versus raw killing power. My set of cards has been sitting still wrapped unused for quite some time so getting some use out of them was welcomed. I will definitely use these cards much more often.

Packing for Playing 40K

The real reason for this post is something I found mildly amusing when I was packing all of my Tyranids to go play 40K. Currently I am working on painting a brood of three Lictors along with a small brood of ten Termigaunts. Naturally I would take all of my Termagaunts as they are a huge necessity my current list to work correctly as cannon fodder or Deamon Prince/Bloodthirster tar pits. My Tyranid swarm's lone Licor brood Never sees the light of day as they suck. The great hive mind has read their rules and determined them kah kah. However bad they may suck the Lictors still get packed with the rest of the swarm to go play 40K.

When I was packing the Lictors I had only painted their normal flesh color and their armor plates minus any shading. Their look amused me slightly as they looked like football players. For a minute their I thought my Lictors had switched game systems. My Lictors looked like they were wearing helmets, shoulder pads, and knee pads and them middle Lictor in the picture below looks like he is ready to receive a pass.

Team Lictor's Star Quarterback and his guards.

"Hut One, Hut Two, Hike"

Since taking this picture, the inner flesh has been painted and the armor shading has been applied. The Lictors still looked like football players, lol. Painting the scything talons kind of took the look away, but made them look like mean football players. Painting the flesh hooks removed the look and they were no longer football players, but Lictors invading a planet slaughtering football players and everything else. The Lictors own the stadium now.

 "Go Team Lictor!"

This is all for this post. I just wanted to provide a little information about my time in the 40K universe. I will continue painting my Tyranids for sure and playing 40K when I can and try to capture a Battle Report, because they are full of the lulz I enjoy. Next post I will be switching to Battletech where I will give some information and notes for an upcoming Battletech game for my current ATOW RPG game I run. Soon along after you should see a Battletech Battle Report and my finished painted brood of Lictors.

I've been Working on the Tyranid swarm.

I've been Working on the Tyranid swarm. All the live long day.

Working on a Tyranid swarm due to the large model count is sometimes a daunting process to handle and complete. This post is a look into how I go about working on my swarm so hopefully the entire swarm comes together finished at some point to a fully primed army and hopefully a fully painted army.

The Woes of Painting Tyranid 3rd Edition Biovores

Returning from vacation

I meant to get this posted in late May,before I went on vacation, but later is better than never. It is a bit of backstory and general thoughts on painting this fellow here.

Battletech Battle Report

I bring you another Battletech Battle Report. This battle report is a Battletech game from an encounter during the second campaign of my ongoing ATOW campaign.

Battletech A Time of War Campaign Complete

The turn of 2014 to 2015 marked a lot of gaming changes apparently and another one of those changes was the successful completion of my ongoing Battletech A Time of War campaign. The campaign is not 100% complete by any means as there is plenty of story to develop and reveal along with general character development alongside. The campaign completion was the end of the player character's involvement in the self designed Katerra system story line. What follows is a brief overview of the first campaign and some notable player information. Also I will provide a brief run down of the how the players available resources appear going in to the second campaign.

How I achieved a painting goal.

Pictures, or it never happened! is what I imagine any viewer is thinking who comes across this kind statement on my blog concerning achieving a goal. I wouldn't move to stop any person's thoughts either as I have failed in the past. I am here to not only prove to any viewer who reads this post, but prove to myself I have the potential to succeed. This post is long, but it attempts to give as many details as possible and maybe it might help another viewer.

Please follow along as I explain ... How I achieved a painting goal.

A Tale of Two King Crabs

327 > 312

Why is 327 > 312?

What happened to 312?

I just can't help myself I suppose, but there are limits to my madness. Valentine's Day added to the pile along with a purchase form ebay. My wife let me ger anything hobby wise within reason for Valentine's Day so she got me a boxed set I have been wanting for awhile. This boxed set added 14 miniatures to the total.I purchased some Battletech maps on ebay and received another bonus miniature in the process. The last miniature, a King Crab, brought the total to 327.

Hobby Backlog Porn

As promised a picture of all my hobby backlog porn stacked up in order of rough aquisition.

Some assembly required.

In detail climbing from bottom to the top.

Layer 01 - Robotech RPG Tactics x 2 (Left box unopened)
Plastic Bags - Robotech RPG Tactics Wave One Rewards
Level 02 - Reaper Bones Kickstarter
Level 03 - Deathstorm
Level 04 - Battletech Pursuit Lance and Assault Lance
Level 05 - Operation Ice Storm  =O
Level 06 New King Crab and Used King Crab

Now you can see whay 327 > 312.

Everything I have aquired is in order of aquisiton except the King Crabs. The new King Crab should be on the bottom and the used King Crab should be up top. The used King Crab is still bare metal, fully assembled, and only has an easily repairable broken arm.

What am I going to do with three King Crabs?

You knew it had to happen.

Even better for my Battletech purposes.

Okay enough already.

 

 

Back on topic.

 

When examing the Reaper Bones miniatures, my daughter has been taking dibs on certain ones like the fairies and frogs. No idea what to do the Reaper stuff, mostly it is to try new paint techniques and paint different things like skin, cloaks, etc. One idea which has spawned due to the lack of ATOW RPG miniatures, I think the Reaper Savage Worlds and Pulp Action miniatures might work well for stand-ins to represent in-game characters during the RPG sessions. Operation Icestorm has some gorgeous miniatures, they are easy to assemble and look fun to paint and try new techniques with. The miniatures are slotted and the bases they came with are not slotted so I wonder if this is a mistake.

 

Progress on Goal of Assembly

Most of my time has been working with the Robotech and Deathstorm boxes. I paused the last week with assembling the Robotech miniatures as the Valkyrie instructions are vague in certain key areas. Palladium Books have provided some better detailed instructions for assembling the miniatures which should speed this process up much faster. It will be a while before I can paint them, but the idea is to get them out of the box and on to the table soon.

Prgress on Goal of Painting

I finished my Ravaner brood and have now started painting my Hive Guard wich are coming along nicely. If I can keep my goal I should be able to paint a unit about ever month or so and this would be fine with me. I'll get some pictures of my Ravaner brood soon to show the new paint scheme and base scheme.


Now I have to go read up on four different sets of game system rules.

312 > 174

Why is 312 greater than 174?

174 is the amount of miniatures I received in the last few months of 2014 for three different games.

140 miniatures are from a kickstarter campaign for Robotech RPG Tactics. 25 miniatures are from a Christmas present for Warhammer 40,000. 8 miniatures are from a Christmas present for Battletech. 1 model is from a surprise birthday present for Battletech.
140 miniatures for Robotech RPG Tactics Wave One
25 miniatures for Warhammer 40,000 Deathstorm
4 miniatures for Battletech Assault Lance
4 miniatures for Battletech Pursuit Lance
1 miniatures for Battletech (King Crab) :)
174 miniatures in total.

Breaking down 174

I pledged for the Showdown in the Robotech RPG Tactics kickstarter which gave two times the Battle Cry pledge which basically was the core set and unlocked stretch goals. In other words I have a shit ton of miniatures for Robotech RPG Tactics.
The Deathstorm boxed set was perfect for me as it includes both armies I own and use, plus the handy small updated rule book. This boxed set was such a bargain as it gave my Blood Angels a new captain, new terminators, new dreadnaught (magnetize for all flavors if can), and additional death company. The box will also bolter my Tyranid forces with a new broodlord, genestealers, a carnifex (magnetize those dual devourers), and warriors. :( Warriors, hmm ... they are the new sculpts with swords and lashes and they can make a prime. :) I am very interested in playing the scenarios from the campaign booklet for some easy quick games.
The Battletech lances gave me some new battlemechs to use and especially new battlemechs to throw at my players in my ATOW campaign. :) I love torturing them with challenges just as much as one of my players loves getting head hits. Best of all they don't need to be assembled, they are ready to play. The birthday present was a surprise and I can't wait to play a game with two of these death machines running around terrorizing and destroying everything they can. Only one player I know off hand would say game on. Needless to say this probably will make an appearance in the ATOW campaign.
There is more, eventually and hopefully anyway.
84 miniatures for Reaper Bones II 2013 Core Set
54 miniatures for Robotech RPG Tactics Wave Two
138 additional miniatures in total will eventually be added. I say eventually as the updates from

Reaper concerning the Bones II kickstarter point to a successful delivery soon. Actually today Reaper confirmed they have started Wave I fulfillment and I am in Wave II. I still have no idea what I will do with them to be honest. Hopefully is all I can say for Wave two of Robotech RPG Tactics and that’s all I have to say about that.
If you add all the received miniatures and the additional miniatures up you will get a hefty sum.
312 miniatures in total. This is why 312 is greater than 174.

I could be off by a few.
Actually I could say 313 miniatures as I assembled a Wolverine II model for battletech last Sunday I purchased in late 2014.

Goal for 2015

I have set a goal for 2015 of assembling and painting miniatures once a week. It doesn't have to be much, just assemble and paint something once a week. Any easy goal in all respects. When it comes to the assembly portion of the goal I can use assembled minatures in game as soon as they are assembled. I can assemble small things or large things, this game or that game, or start something this week and finish something next week.

Proof

The first week of January I started my once a week assembly goal and I think it went well. I got two battlemechs assembled. One battlemech was the Wolverine II I mentioned earlier which will go to a Marik unit I am building for the sake of building. The other battlemech was a Thug which was sent as a return fire birthday present to a friend. It has found a happy place in the ATOW campaign.
I started assembling the captain and terminators from the Deathstorm boxed set during the first week of the New Year and continued some more. I used my bag of bricks for basing materials on my previous Devastator squad I finished a while back. I intend to glue the miniatures to their bases before priming them to make it easier and so I can use them. I post about these units later.
During the first week of the year all the way to the end of January I assembled a lot of the Robotech RPG Tactics miniatures from one of the boxed sets. I tried the valkyries first and went WTF over the amount of pieces and which arms are for what. I have a lot of battle pods together. I got two destroids together as well. The amount of parts for some of the miniatures is huge and daunting, they will take time. The amount of time to remove mold lines takes time as well. I need to focus on what is needed to play the scenarios in the back. Whatever some may say I think those are easy step up battles to help learn the rules very easily and fast.
I did cheat one my never buy expensive GW tools, but I ended up buying the mold line removal tool and so far it is very helpful.
Painting I have been sticking to as well. I started with the repainting of my Tyranid Ravener. I changed the overall paint scheme to make it much easier and faster to paint them by eliminating certain complicated steps, paints which dry too easily, and adding a few steps to better the miniatures. I have picture of them, but I would rather post about them later. I have actually moved into painting my Hive Guard now.

TL;DR

I have a large backlog of combined old and new hobby work. This backlog needs to be worked on to get more game time. I’ll have plenty to post about soon. I was going to post pictures of everything stacked high, but does anyone really want to see hobby backlog porn?


I’ll have plenty to post about soon with pictures.