Skirmish Action at NJCon

Back in June was the annual NJCon convention here in New Jersey. It's a fair sized event with good support from a few local venders such as On Military Matters and Maplewood Hobbies, among others my deteriorating mind cannot recall. The organizers are a great group of gamers, who genuinely love the hobby and are a blast to game with. They were my introduction to historical gaming and it has been a joy to game with them and call them friends for years now.

Anyway, my good friend Lee Sower and I had a little throw down in the Pacific with his "Skirmish Action" rules. These rules are loads of fun and give a game that feels "right" for WWII. It uses playing cards to determine which unit gets to activate, so you never know which unit will get to act or when. There are over watch rules that allow you to interrupt your opponent which keeps both players involved throughout the turn. The lists are a bit crunchy and have stats for just about every weapon available during the war and these are broken down by nation and years available to keep things historical, but there are special characters for those who want more cinematic game. As a matter of fact Lee runs a great game of the final battle from the movie "Saving Private Ryan" at  Fall-In, Cold-Wars and NJCon. Join those games if you can, it is a good introduction to the rules.

The game plays best with a platoon per side, with maybe a vehicle and support weapon (I.E. AT guns, HMGs and light mortars) per side. There are rules for off table artillery which keeps the game away from the silliness of artillery on table doing bombardments. Personally I think on table artillery and even heavy mortars is ridiculous, but that's my worthless opinion. You can play larger games but things can get cluttered very quickly and play can bog down because of shear volume of units.

Here are some photos of the game we played. I do not remember any specifics about the game except breaking a Marine platoon down to the fire team level and using fire and maneuver works very nicely. Also flamethrowers are a nightmare when employed against bunkers... it was a fun game and it is one of the few times I actually won a game.

 

 

I do not like all the cards on the table, it definitely takes away from the look of the game. I plan to make up markers to use instead to remove clutter. The minis are Bolt Action and were painted by me. The mat (3'x3') is from the Ganesha Games Kickstarter and all the other terrain was made by me.

 

Here a couple of the "Saving Private Ryan" game Lee ran later that day.

 







That's it for now. Until next time...

regards, Bill

Patrol Angis - the Shai Khan

So, here are the Khanate for Patrol Angis. These are the bad guys, but I love them.

Special characters

Legion Ordos

Legion Pioneer Ordos

Psycoborgs

Pugnus Light Tank squadron

I still have a bunch of these guys to paint, Warlords, a Malig Ordos and a couple of Magnus.  I will probably be adding the quite hilarious Malig vehicles as well as the Legion Canthus Monocycle. I will definitely be adding the new Canno tanks. The Khanate have some truly unique models in the line. Check out the Ion Age blog. It is chock full of fluff and updates on new product.

regards, Bill

Patrol Angis - the Retained Knights

I discovered The Ion Age a while ago and really liked the retro feel of the minis. It was almost a full year before I finally pulled the trigger and bought some. I picked up some Khanate Legionnaires and Retained Knights from Nobleknight Games, the U.S. suppliers. They are an excellent company to deal with. Then the Khanate Return Book came out and I pre-ordered it. The service from The Ion Age in Scotland is incredible, usually get packages within 8 or 9 days. The game title is Patrol Angis and eventually I'm going to push some lead and throw some bones with them. I thought I'd share some pictures of some of the finished stuff.

First up are the Retained Knights of Prydia:

 

 

 

A few special characters.

 

Retained Lance

 

Retained Duxis Battlesuits Lance. Still have 3 more Battlesuits to paint.

 

 

Retained Knights

Duxis Battlesuits

Afara Walker

Corbal Deployable Handprint

 

A few of the pictures are blurry, sorry about that. I really love these minis and I have actually collected all the available Retained Knights. All except the Strategist that comes in the Lance pack. The Lance pack was out of stock at Noble Knight Games at the time and I decided to just pick up the individual posts instead. Still have more painting to do to finish them up. I also want to eventually get a couple of Mullos and the Taranis Main Battle Tank.  I'll put up pictures of the Khanate in another post.

 

regards, Bill

Rangers always get their man

It'd been a long trail across the panhandle. The Cap'n had got us close a couple of times, but no dice. Then the trail went cold. But the Cap'n always seemed to find one more clue to keep us goin'. It weren't 'til we crossed into Arizona territory that we got a fresh rumor on these varmits. Just goes ta show, you can't never out run the law. Specially if'n you killed a Rangers kin. Slick Dan an his boys was holed up at the Three Trails Saloon in Sweetwater. It was time for a showdown...

The Rangers:
The Cap'n rep5 pistol
Bobby Lee rep4 pistol
Earl rep4 pistol
Wallis rep4 rifle
The New Guy rep3 pistol

The Outlaws:
Slick Dan rep5 pistol
Dirty Steve rep4 pistol
Big Mike rep 4 pistol
Longman Lenny rep4 rifle
The Kid rep3 pistol

 The Rangers call out Slick Dan and his boys. The first Activation roll went to the Rangers.

The Cap'n fired at Big Mike causing him to duck back by the corner of the saloon. Next Bobby Lee shot Slick Dan, putting him out of the fight. The fire from Earl and Wallis chased The Kid, Dirty Steve into the livery stable offices and The New Guy forced Longarm Lenny into the stable proper.

Even with things looking grim, the Outlaws were game for trading lead. All except Longarm Lenny. He ran long, far and fast to Mexico. The shooting from the remaining Outlaws didn't faze the Rangers at all. They quickly dispatched Big Mike and forced The Kid and Dirty Steve to duck back further into the office.

The two remaining Outlaws decided to take their chances in court. After all, Slick Dan would be locked up with them and he had lots of friends that could break them out before they were hanged...

Another fun game with Six Gun Sound. Stay tuned. There may be a jail break coming.

regards, Bill