Epic Reinforcements

I have returned from a rather nice two week break away in Cyprus, enjoying the sun, pool and more than a few cold beers. I am now off work on my shared maternity leave for a few months. I am hoping, as I have said before, to get stuck into the hobby as a result, as much as two small children will allow. The only down side is I am not getting paid whilst being off, so new purchases will be more or less none exsistant. Its a good job I have plenty to be getting on with, though basic supplies are running low! Never mind, I have a cunning plan to boost income....

Anyway, a few months ago, I had a game of Net Epic scheduled, and decided to expand the force some what. I was lacking dedicated anti tank as my Leman Russ company, whilst a very good all round company, does not possess any real hard hitting anti armour punch. I added a support detachment of Vanquishers as a result. My army overall was also lacking in AA cover as I as relying on my Thunderbolts for air support, but they needed to be freed up for ground attack duties. I therefore added a detachment of Hydra's to the ranks.

I was lucky enough to have bagged a few of the old FW models for these two additions so I painted them up:

They were a rush job, so not my best work. The FW models also lack the stowage of most of the epic models I use, and I am not confident of scuplting in 6mm, so they stay basic in appearance. Sadly, the game never happened due to illness so they will have to wait for a while to see action.


In other hobby news, I will now be cracking on with my 20mm Poles as they remain my priority. Sadly, an order from a supplier has fallen through after waiting three months, so I am looking to order from somewhere else to fill the gaps. Updates soon.

NetEpic Battle Report Guard-v-Space Wolves

As part of my ongoing effort to use my games table more I finally managed to pin down my friend Rich for a game of NetEpic - it's only taken about 4 years since our last one.

Back in the 90's, Epic was my favourite game of all the GW systems. At the time it was one of the main systems they supported with releases every couple of months. It was a good time. Of course, eventually they canned the line but Epic left me with a lingering love of mass battles and 6mm games. I always think it is a brilliant scale for large scale warfare, allowing hundereds of infantry and dozens of tanks on a normal table - all at a reasonable cost.

Back to Epic. NetEpic is a fan based spin off of my beloved 2nd Edition Epic. I've only played it once before and enjoyed it and always wanted to play more.

My army is Imperial Guard. In epic, you choose your troops using company cards as the main formation, each one of which allows you to take 5 support cards. So I chose a mechanised infantry company, a Leman Russ company and an artillery company. I added a detachment of heavy infantry to screen the artillery company, a thunderbolt squadron, a hellhound squadron, two sentinel squadrons and a shadowsword super heavy tank.

Rich ran a Landraider company, a grey hunter company, a thunderhawk, some attack bikes and a squadron of Thunderbolts as well. 

Here is a picture of the board layout:

I would be deploying to the right of this picture, Rich to the left. We each put down three objectives and off we went. Deployment was alternated unit by unit. This was my left flank, where I planned for the main punch to come. The idea was for the Russ company with air support to move forward and push through whilst the artillery company cleared the way.

 I deployed my mech company in the centre to push on the town and my two sentinel squadrons on the right as a delaying force.

In the first turn, things went slowly. As we gradually wrestled with the rules, it took a while to achieve anything. From a game perspective, my thunderbolts proved themselves by flying forward and strafing a few landraiders out of exisistence, something the artillery had failed to do.

In the centre we both sent mechanised forces forward and occupied buildings. The exchange of fire was fairly non commital, and the left flank was also fairly quiet.

In turn 2, things certainly heated up. The Russ company took loses from advancing Land Raiders, but more worrying Rich's Thunderhawk dropped a detachment of grey hunters in the middle of my artillery company:

In the centre there was more jostling for space and exchanges of fire, with both sides taking losses, though I had the worse of it. Over on the right there was more moving around, with the sentinels being engaged by the attack bikes, but holding their own.

The fight amongst the artillery company was short, brutual and one sided, with all three bombards falling. However, my screening platoon of heavy infantry did their intended job, about facing and destroying the attacking marines.

As a final note, I was realising how effective Thunderbolts could be so I managed to take out all three of Richs:

Turn 3 was all we managed to complete for this game, and we didn't quite finish this either. By the end of the turn, my Russ company was really suffering and not making ground, the situation in the middle was not much changed and the right my Sentinels were all but wiped out.

The left flank, where my Russ company is noticable by its absent. The ray of hope was was that Rich's infantry was running away from the hellhound squadron and its flamers:

The centre, I held two buildings and Rich only one, but his was the objective and in the top right you can see a landraider detachment advacing to cause issues:

Thr right flank. The only ray of hope here was my thunderbolts shooting accross the table and about to engage the Landraiders. Sadly, we had to pack up before they got to fine:

And that is how it was left. Rich held more objectives then me so was the nominal winner. Had the game continued, I suspect Rich had more heavy units than me and would have used them to push forward. However, he thought my superior numbers would overwhelm him, especially because he thought my Thunderbolts would wizz about taking out a detachment per turn, which they had done so far in the game to be fair.

Overall a great game. I need to get some anti air painted up to free my Thunderbolts up for ground attack - they were my stars. Also, my screening force for the artillery company worked well. Sure, they took losses but witout the them the marines would have rampaged through the artillery company with ease - wiping it out.

Both Rich and I are hoping to get a game a month in, and not just in Epic. We are both 6mm fans, and there is talk of Napoleonics, modern and WW2, so who knows! 

Salute 2016 Swag

As I mentioned in my previous blog, I had saved some spending money for salute. Without further delay, here is my swag from the day.

Couple of Osprey books, hopefully going to provide some guidance and inspriation for my current early war focus:

 Bit of a spontaneous purchase, some of the new Late Romans from Gripping Beast. Looks like Late Romans will be my second Hail Ceaser army, not that I have started the first yet:

Halftrack mortar carrier for my Bolt Action Germans. I'll be honest, I bougth this more for the model than anything else. 

Footsore Miniatures Late Romans. I bought these just to paint as they look like lovely models, but I guess they'll go with the Gripping Beast stuff:

I've been eyeing up Baccus stuff for years and finally took the plunge. 6mm has a special place in my heart, and here we have 288 British Napoleonic Infantry and around 150 WW2 Germans. All very small and hopefully very quick to paint. 

A 20mm trench system from Ironclad Minatures. Another spontaneous purchse, but lovely terrain and all three feet of very detailed trenchline in solid resin for less than £30. Bargain.

 An armoured car for my 20mm Poles from First to Fight:

Another cheap, random purchase, some 15mm goblins. Bought because I though they looked cool and no other reason. 

A purchse from the excellent Empress Miniatures. Some more Taliban and Insurgents for modern gaming. 

Trees! A little purchase from S&A Scenics to jazz up the gaming table. Hopefully the start of some terrain for the table. 

A far haul over all and will keep me busy for a while. My unpainted mini count has taken a massive hammering, with this pushing me up to +588 unpainted mini's. I best get busy!

Epic IG and Sentinels

I have been a little remiss with my blogging of late, nearly three weeks since the last post! Being at work full time was fine, and then being off work with a newborn was fine. However, put the two together and it's getting complicated. It's not so much the lack of time to paint, as I am actually getting quite a lot done, but finding time to blog is a little trickier. I do hope to get a few more posts up before the end of the month though.

Enough of my lamenting. My expansion of my epic armies continues. I have managed to add a second platoon to my mech infantry company, so may I present yellow platoon:

Whilst I was at it and because the paints were out, I added a sentinel squadron to the force as well:

I made a little more effort with the bases to add some character, think it came out quite well. Some ruins and a tree were little added effort, hopefully to make the models pop a little more than they would ordinarily.

There are no more epic in the painting queue at present, so will be a while before I do the rest of the mech infantry company. I also suspect I am short a few chimeras but they are one of the more plentiful epic models on ebay so it's not big deal.

I have a couple more posts due this week and I am currently working on some more Napoleonic British, as well as mulling over both 15mm and 20mm World War 2, so plenty to come.

Epic Imperial Guard Platoon

Epic was always my favourite of the Games Workshop games, back in the day when it was one of the three main systems. I have dabbled on and off with getting back into it via NetEpic, so have quite a lot to paint, nearly all Imperial Guard with some Titans.

I recently got the bug to paint some, and pulled this small infantry platoon off the shelf. There are 30 men, all organised into groups of five, one of which is marked as the platoon command by the dude with the little banner. You probably can't see it but they are marked as white platoon. Here they are:

And a close up:

And finally with their transports, which I painted an age ago:

They follow a red and bone scheme, which matches my 40k guard, and translates quite well into 6mm. I enjoyed doing these, they are quick, and I can see more getting done soon, at the very least I need to paint the other two thirds of the comapny.