Rogue stars, the first test game.

I got some unexpected extra time this christmas so I took the opportunity to try to learn the basics of rogue stars by playing a solo game.

I created two different units with different themes. First i made a Planetary defence force using the militia theme.

Sergeant with combat dress,laspistol, frag grenade and vibroblade, he is a veteran with leadership (2)

Medic with combat dress, laser pistol and frag grenade, he has medic (2)

Tech with combat dress, laser rifle, frag grenade and  a motion detector, he has tech (1)

2 identical soldiers with combat dress, laser rifle and frag grenade, they are marksmen (1)

 The PDF squad.

My second squad was very different from the first, a handfull of small grey alien abductors using the psionic theme.

Sectoid leader With Molecular slugthrower, He is diminutive, difficult target (2), Leadership (2), reactive, psionic with 3 psionics (Blink, Mind control and Guidance)

Sectoid Medic, He is diminutive, difficult target (2), Medic (2), reactive, psionic with 3 psionics (Blink, mindbolt and healing)

3 identical sectoid soldiers with molecular slugthrowers, they are diminutive, difficult target (2), reactive and psionic (Blink)

 The diminutive aliens...

The Sectoids became the attackers and I rooled Mission 5 a rather fitting manhunt. I first rolled crystal forest as location but decided to roll again as I have no fitting terrain. Next roll for location was much better, a mining station. I also rolled for complication and it turned out to be a Huge space demon rampaging through the mines.

 I kept putting down terrain pieces until it looked about right.

The PDF squad was holed up inside a building trying to protect the target for the aliens manhunt (the tech). The rampaging space demon (the unpainted Carnifex in the background) was randomly placed outside the building.

The sectoids started to move  to be able to flank the building with their target, it was rather uneventful for awhile with some sneaking about for both sides.

 I used white dice to mark stress.

As I wanted to test the rules I pushed forward rather aggressively to force combat, the first casualty soon followed with a sectoid taken OOA with a single laser shot! A chaotic shootout lasted for some time without any dramatic results on either side.

The sectoid leader managed after a few attempts to mind control a well placed soldier who proceeded to shoot the target for the manhunt in the back resulting in one wound and two pin forcing the PDF squad to try to regroup but another shot from the mind controlled soldier took the tech ou of action and i decided to end the game.

The space demon in the background did nothing in this game, mostly shuffling back and forth.

Conclusion

The game flowed very well despite me forgetting or misunderstanding the rules. Playing solo and trying to remeber all the different traits on both sides was a bit of a strain but the game mechanics was soon learned.

I felt that the game could handle a lot of different tactics and the action was dramatic.

Squad creation is really fun and it is very easy make squads for different backgrounds and games.
I am really looking forward to play soon again with a proper opponent!

First game of lion rampant

Today i managed to get my first game of lion rampant and it seems to be a solid set of rules.

I had a couple of bad turns at the beginning with a string of lousy activations (or rather lack of activations) but it evened out in the end.

 a unit of archers rushing past a small hamlet with some prickers in the background.

 The enemy center with a their leader commanding a unit of mounted men at arms

 A unit of handgunners hovering over a field.

 Flanking manoeuvre!

 My leader commanding som men at arms, these guys are tough!

The enemy leader is all that is left of the mounted men at arms after a number of wild charges and counter charges.

The game was fun, we had some needless trouble calculating courage (we made it more complicated than it was). I need to remember a few small rules regarding battered units but we didnt miss anything major.

I need to work more on the terrain:

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-Roads

-Linear obstacles (some hedges and fences)

-Some scatter items to liven up the table

Painted italians

I have been building and painting a few different groups of miniatures lately and finished the basing on all of them today.

 First out is a group of 8 archers for my red and yellow retinue, this gives me 24 archers with these colours.

 This is my first attempt at going for an italian feel. I have used a wonderful venetian  flag that i bought on ebay (look for Petes_flags)

 Some mounted men at arms seems to be mandatory. I am not sold on the way that the horse armour turned out.

 More horsemen, i am rather pleased with the horses.

I now have a few books to get me started.

Next on the painting table is a large group of crossbowmen, some light infantry and another 12 horses. I have also bought some priests and a few other miniatures to use in scenarios.

Italian retinue

 I have started to put together some italian infantry, they will be based individually so i can use them with different rules. After starting this project i realise that i need a lot more understanding about the  Italian condottiere and how they fought so more research is needed.

 A bunch of crossbowmen, i will make a few bases of pavisses too.

 Pikemen! I will need more of these.

 Light infantry

Handgunners

I think i will paint them in a black and white scheme with red and yellow as contrasting details.

Finished rebasing the last retinue

I have finished rebasing the last of batch of miniatures, the "blue retinue". I think that they would look better with some kind of badge or contrasting colour to break up all the blue.

I have also finished a few more forest bases and some buildings from 4ground.

Treemaking

This is a short step by step guide in how i make my trees using tree armatures from woodland scenics and some other bits and pieces

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 The armature needs to be twisted to make it a bit more realistic looking. this can be a bit painfull with the larger armatures since they are rather hard to twist near the bottom.

when the armature looks decent i mount it on a base a paint it to make it look less plastic.

 Contact glue and foilage clumps will be used next, i have tried woodland scenics hob-e-tac but it always ends with lots of work trying to fix everything after it keeps falling off.

 Put some glue on both sides of the treelimb and apply small clumps of foilage.

 Try to make the clumps meet near the trunk to make it look like a mass of leaves. When finished with the foilage i apply some PVA glue to the base and dip it in my container of basing sand. Some stones or twigs from the garden will make the base a bit more interesting.

 When the PVA glue is dry i always apply a mix of some dark craftpaint, PVA glue and water (about 1 part paint 2 parts glue and 3 parts water). This will fix all the sand in place and give a good base for the paint when dry.

For this project i am painting all bases i vallejo flat earth with a drybrush of GW Zandri dust. When dry i give it a wash of GW agrax earthshade, this gives a nice neutral colour that does not contrast too much with the grass. 

I finally apply some flock and put some different tufts on the base.

I hope this can be of some use to someone. I Find it best to make larger batches since the process can be a bit messy at times.

Some more miniatures rebased and some trees.

I have finished the next batch of bases and i have also made a couple of test trees, they turned out better than i had hoped!

 24 Bowmen of the white and green sort

 Men at arms

 2 newly made trees

A small forest!, the scruffy looking conifers are from an earlier attempt but the bases are new.

Sticks and stones

Its time to start on some terrain! I will start with some smaller projects and when my hobby room is finished i will be able to work on something larger.

I really like the building kits from 4ground (I have even started to enjoy the smell a little).

 Some houses and a bunch of forest bases will make a good start

Something new, something old and something found.

The rebasing of my miniatures continues and i hope to have the next batch ready this weekend. I have started planning on the next retinue and it might be some italians.

Rebasing the first batch.

I have started work on the bases, every miniature was mounted on a thin mdf-base so i had to cut them of those first before i glued them on steel washers.

I am rather pleased with how much better they look with the scenic bases. With the next batch i will use some finer sand or leave some areas flat as it was difficult to glue the grass tufts on these.

Some Men at arms, crossbows and command

 24 Billmen

 16 Archers (I am currently painting 8 more)

 Some handguns

I have only textured one tray as a test, might need more grass.