Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge

So in a fit of wild optimism I signed up for the Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge. I missed the boat last year but just about managed to catch one of the few open spots in time this year.

It may have been a slightly unwise choice as I'm also trying to complete my masters thesis by summer. I've signed up for what is effectively the lowest possible points option, but I'm already starting to feel stressed. On the other hand I really, really need to get stuck into the lead pile.

The challenge starts tomorrow and I'm not even done with the prep. In fact there are still bases for some of the models in the post.

Here's a sample of what we're working with

Also some gaming roundup

Our trial game of Necromunda (with zombies!) gets off to a good start as my gang are driven off on turn 2

TwiceLord Jadhak and co fight a sentient pinata from another dimension

Gaming Roundup

The whole damn army (minus newly supercilious command teams)

Plus the French

TwiceLord Jadhak and company take care of a rogue druid (while accidentally leaving a man to die)

A weird collection of ancient people gather for a scrap on a ping-pong table

 

The Welsh make things tasty after spending the entire game frustrating their opponents

A mammoth leads a hoard of barbarians against the wastes' favourite drinking establishment

 

But is more or less instantly killed by a floating octopus robot

 

Sinister gunmen await the horde

 

Crush your foes, drive them before you, and hear the bitching of their women :P

After action look at the control board for Urban Nightmare in Chipenham (the giant green blob in the lower is my massive troop buildup)

Jono's super huge Soviet tank spam rocks up to Tanksgiving

My force from round 1 of out de-escalation tournament.

Things get weird for the Desert Rats as Soviet armour dashes down the board to protect them from Axis aligned Hungarians

Operation Goulash - Offensive Bogs Down In Central Hungary

This'll probably be more of a photo dump than a play by play. In the end the game came down a single random objective card that could have gone either way. It was a very fraught game all in all.

2000pts of paras face off against 2000pts of combined Germans and Hungarians

17pdrs set up to control the high street

German artillery and mechanised prepare while Hungarian fascists advance.

75mm howitzers begin to take damage while the center reaches stalemate

...while the RAF bombs advancing infantry

Para MGs lay down a barrage of suppressing fire

A worrying amount of Hungarians pour through the back gardens of the town

Before being cut apart by re-positioning paras and machineguns

While the RAF strike again

Flanking assault paratroopers hole up in a two story house, to prevent the Hungarians getting easy victory points

The ballsy Hungarian infantry push is wiped out, quite literally, to a man.

The Hungarian assault pancakes begin the Axis counterattack.

British armour and paras return the favour

Axis artillery hits the 6pdrs holding the right flank

The British reserves advance cautiously

Assaults against the German infantry are costlier and hoped

The Hungarian reserves make their presence felt

Paras push on to the rear objective

While Hungarians arrive on the other flank in force.

Operation Goulash - British Tanks Engage Facist Sympathisers!

My second game of Operation Goulash seem the lead elements of British armour going up against elements of the Arrow Cross.

At a 1000pts my Armoured Reconnaissance company was stretched thin across two objectives, and heavily outnumbered.

Fascists advance on the left and right - and hide in yellow building

From the start, the game balanced on a knife edge, with I unwilling to commit fully to any one objective or able to take advantage of my mobility,

Arrow Cross blackshirts take cover in a wood under machinegun fire

I attempted to lure and skewer the StuGs (my main worry) with my scouting Cromwells, but succeeded in only attracting the Hungarian artillery.

And exchanging a few long ranged shots to no effect

Meanwhile, on another table, the main British armoured column ran into a StuG company...

On my right, my smaller platoon and HQ platoon bombarded the infantry holed up in the yellow building, while taking fire from supporting German aircraft.

In the heart of the action the StuGs re-positioned and brought the pain to 1st platoon...

Killing two in exchange for one of their own.

 The flanking infantry manged to finish off the platoon, who were bailed and vulnerable, protected only by the IC in a tetrarch. He managed to put up quite a fight, but was eventually blown up by with a panzershrek. They really should have redeployed...

Oops...

As it turns out, I would have lost anyway, as you can now put yourself out of good spirits by having a platoon out of command, so even if I had won the assault, I would have failed my formation last stand anyway. Something to remember for the future.

The captured flaktrack burns as my line collapses

Operation Cannon Ball - Armada

Sitrep
Insurgent vessels are engaged in mapping asteroid clusters near trading routes. Intelligence suggests they may be engaged in setting up bases for piracy or convoy raiding. Let them no that we are onto them, and that their activities will not go unopposed.

Threat Assessment
Variable - The local volume is full of asteroids and the insurgents will attempt to use this to their advantage. Keep your speed low and watch out for ambushes.

Combat Report
I think my deployment is getting better, but my fleet selection definitely needs work. Both the Jerkzanti - courtesy of our local gaming podcast and my Quasar failed to bring the pain, the latter, probably because it was out of position, the former, perhaps because it never got into it.
 

Deployment, with the traditional YOLO run setup from the ISD

I'm still not entirely sure how to use the Quasar properly, so I decided to run it into asteroids to collect victory points, or at least, deny them to Alex.

Relentless stares down an MC80

The first turns were - as is traditional, unexceptional. Squall bumped into some asteroids while nervously eyeing up the rebel escorts to starboard, while missing an opportunity to alpha strike squadrons (admittedly with fighters). Relentless dithered with its speed, trying to get the drop on the MC80 while Suppressor tried to do something unseful. Insidious yes, Insidious went for the flank.

It should be noted that I'd scored the first turn, which probably won me the game, as Alex was unable to fly a MC30 up my jacksie and keep it there.

Squall begins to have have A Bad Time while my fighters harass the scout frigate and trailing Hammerhead

My fighters finally got in on the action, jumping in on the reluctant rebel fighters, while Insidious and Relentless unloaded into the MC80.

*Pew! pew!*

Squall having racked up several points of hull damage already from hoovering up objectives, actually survived rebel fire long enough to plow into the MC80 losing its last hitpoint and exploding.

Explosions!

 Relentless' retaliation was swift and the MC80 was dispatched at the start of the next turn.

More explosions!

 At this point, my first turn advantage really came into its own. The below should have been a worrying set up, with several small short ranged units behind my ISD.

Pictured: no bueno!

 But because I had first turn Relentless was able to...

...Melt an MC30...

...Melt a hammerhead...

...Then fly the fuck away

Alex conceded at this point, foreseeing this series of events was bound to repeat itself over the coming turns (perhaps with less melting).