Fun and Frolics in the Deadzone

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28mm, Deadzone, miniatures, Scenario, Sci-Fi, Solo Wargaming, space marines, Wargame, Wargaming

Hello fellow carbon based lifeforms and welcome to another Deadzone post! I have been playing some more solo missions in the Deadzone this week and trying out a new randomized activation for the ‘opposition’, using counters drawn from a cup. It has worked rather well at creating suspense, not knowing which enemy model will activate next creates lots of problem-solving for both sides.

I also have a shiny new copy of Command Protocols: Escalation and the new Incoming Intel deck winging its way to me. I am looking forward to seeing what the new deck, which has both bonus victory conditions and event cards, will add to the game.

Deadzone is a fantastic skirmish game full of dynamic action and what better way to showcase that fact than a comic strip based on an event from my current battle?

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Deadzone ‘Survival of the fittest’ Mission 4

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28mm, Deadzone, Nurgle, Plague, Poxwalkers, Sci-Fi, Solo Wargaming, space marines, Wargame, Wargaming, zombies

I finally managed to play the last mission of my solo Deadzone campaign ‘Survival of the fittest’ recently. With the original strike team of 14 troops being whittled down to 3, brother sergeant Edwine, terminator-suited brother Bartholemu and master sniper Larkin make their way to the extraction coordinates.

I found a rather cool app for my phone and couldn’t help but have a go with it, hope you enjoy!..

Deadzone: Survival of the fittest Part 3

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28mm, campaign, Deadzone, Gaunt's ghosts, miniatures, Nexus PSI, Poxwalkers, Solo Wargaming, space marines, Wargame, Wargaming

Mission #3 – Slip the Noose

‘You have no choice now but to trust that your message got through. The inexorable press of the zombies is slowly closing in around your position. The only hope you now have is to punch a gap through them and escape to the extraction point. As the noose tightens, you give the order and the remnants of your team pick up everything they can carry and get ready to make a run for it. You won’t get a second chance at this…’

For this mission I had the full roster of surviving members of my campaign army which started out at 14 strong (300pts) but had been reduced to 10 members…

The right flank holds the largest contingent of my strike force. With only terminator-suited brother Bartholemu and heavy weapon specialist brother Luther holding the left flank, hoping to give covering fire and draw the majority of the poxwalkers away from the right flank…

The undead shamble aimlessly around the complex…

Gaunt and his remaining ghosts scout forward but are swarmed by zombies. Gaunt is torn apart in the initial wave and trooper Criid is brought down and eviscerated soon afterwards…

As brother Hienrich is attacked in vicious hand to hand with yet more shambling horrors, it is time to take drastic measures. Brother Luther aims his fusion gun into the melee…

The resultant explosion vapourizes the zombies and throws brother Hienrich away, bruised but unhurt…

Headway is made on the right flank, but the tide of undead is rising…

With many of the team falling beneath the teeth and claws of the undead masses, things are starting to get desperate. Brother Bartholemu finds a discarded frag grenade, and hoping to emulate the success of earlier, doesn’t think twice about hurling it into the fray…

With predictable results. It has proven to be a solid tactic for getting space marines out of trouble…

Brother-sergeant Edwine and brother Bartholemu cover their backs as they make their way to the extraction point…

As the mission ends, the cost becomes apparent. Of the original strike force only three remain, brother-sergeant Edwine, brother Bartholemu and master sniper Larkin.

The weary survivors will make their way the  to the rendezvous coordinates and hope to hell that the flier is inbound…

Deadzone: Survival of the fittest Part 2

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28mm, campaign, Deadzone, Gaunt's ghosts, Nexus PSI, Scenario, Sci-Fi, Solo Wargaming, space marines

I had some time during the week to setup and play the second scenario of my solo campaign, and if I thought the first battle was nail-biting then I was certainly in for a shock second time around!

Mission #2 – Beacon of hope

‘You now know what you’re up against, and the scale of the threat is greater than you could have imagined. You have sent dispatches to command, but your meagre resources can’t guarantee the quality or strength of the signal. Remembering a nearby radio tower, you hatch a daring plan. If you can find a functioning data-terminal you can guarantee that your message reaches your allies. If only the area wasn’t already overrun with zombies’

I selected my 150pt strike force and faced the hordes!..

The strike team assemble…

There are 4 possible locations where the data-terminal could be marked out with red stars…

Gaunt and his ghosts scout ahead…

Major Corbec makes a heroic last stand as ‘poxwalkers’ crawl in through the window, he is eventually overcome under hordes of undead flesh…

Brother Gunther and brother Kessler (heavy weapon specialist) attempt to stem the tide with their withering fire…

Gaunt finds the data-terminal  first time, thank the Emperor, and  just needs to spend a turn encrypting a message to high command…

Trooper Tona Criid provides invaluable fire support throughout the mission. Here she makes two pinpoint headshots, saving apothecary brother Leo from overwhelming odds…

Criid provides yet more assistance for her space marine allies..

As the strike team makes its egress a ‘poxwalker’ shambles out of nowhere and makes to attack. Brother Bartholemu crushes its head with his powerfist.

The Aftermath

Battered and bloodied but victorious, the strike team make  their way to the agreed  extraction. As the picture shows, Major Corbec and brother Gunther didn’t make it and several members of the strike team were injured.

We did find some useful items including a smoke grenade, medi-pack and extra ammunition. The black cubes were used to keep track of who made kills during the mission, as this gains them experience points.

During the post-mission phase, surviving strike team members gain experience points and may go up in rank which grants them a boon. I decided to give everyone an increase in Fight stat with the exception of Criid, who I gave an increase in her Shoot stat and Gaunt who received Tactician(+1), which will give me an extra command dice to roll each turn.

Containment protocols in effect: Deadzone

Tags

28mm, 40k, blood-axe komandos, Deadzone, miniatures, Sci-Fi, space marines, Wargame, Wargaming

I have recently been playing a lot of Deadzone by Mantic Games. I bought the first version of the boxed set last year and decided at the time to stick with the original ruleset, however, after reading the version 2 ruleset I have decided to upgrade to the new and improved version.

To help me to learn the new rules before I can get another gaming session in, I have played a couple of solo games. It not only took me very little time to get to grips with this more elegant system, I had some very interesting battles!

Whilst patrolling the deadzone, plague forces are ambushed by a marauder kill-squad on mission to assassinate the leader, a Stage 1 known to be operating in the vicinity. The heavily armoured ‘Rainmaker’ lines up his holo-sight…

During the last game, I rolled to find out which scenario to play and came up with ‘Patrol’ mission. Now one of the things I liked about the original version was the secret missions and they are still in version 2. After selecting a scenario you can also choose to roll on the relevant ‘Secret Mission’ table.

The Plague rolled the ‘Staking a Claim’ mission which meant they scored double victory points for objectives but only half for killing enemies. The Marauders rolled the ‘Assassination’ mission, giving them double victory points for killing the enemy leader but no points for holding objectives.

A stage 3 ‘ghoul’ throws a stun grenade before charging in to engage the marauder hulk in hand to hand.

Although they successfully eliminated the Stage 1 leader, the Marauders were unable to stop the Plague forces from dominating the battlefield objectives and the foul forces won 14 to 11 VPs. It was a very interesting game and more importantly, I have got the rules pretty much down to pat ready for my next opponent.

Models

The keen-eyed among you may have spotted the lack of Mantic orx on the board. Due to a lack of funds I want to utilize the models collection that I already own as much as possible and so have decided to replace the Enforcers with my Iron Eagle space marines and the Marauders with my Blood-axe kommandos. I also intend to repurpose some more minis and do some kit-bashing to boot!

 

 

Decemb-uary Painting Challenge Final Reveal

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28mm, 40k, fantasy miniatures, Games Workshop, miniatures, painting and modelling, Sci-Fi, Space Crusade, space hulk, space marines, Wargame, Wargaming, warhammer 40k

Having read Azazel’s latest Decemb-uary post, which is chock-full of fantastic paint jobs and brilliant conversions by fellow participants, I was inspired to get myself into gear and finish off the final touches to my dreadnought.

Without further ado I present venerable-brother Dracorus…

In battle the Iron Eagles are a terrifying site to behold.

I’d like to take this opportunity to thank Azazel for coming up with the idea for this painting challenge, I’ve wanted to do something like this for some time but things either got in the way or the subject didn’t really fit with the projects I was working on at the time.

Fortunately, with this fellow sitting around waiting for a lick of paint I was able to join in the fun!

Decemb-uary painting update #2

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28mm, 40k, Fantasy, fantasy miniatures, Games Workshop, miniatures, painting and modelling, Solo Wargaming, space marines, warhammer 40k

I have been slowly plugging away at my Iron Eagles dreadnought and have finally started to hit my stride. I look forward to sitting down at the painting desk in the evenings and cracking out the paints. The metallics have been laid down and highlighted, and I am now working on the purity seals.

Decemb-uary painting update #1

Tags

28mm, 40k, fantasy miniatures, Games Workshop, miniatures, painting and modelling, Space Crusade, space marines, Wargame, Wargaming, warhammer 40k

I’m a few days into my Decemb-uary painting challenge and I have been pushing myself to get on with painting my space marine Dreadnought.

It’s funny how a couple of weeks away from the painting desk and I seem tentative to put brush to miniature, so I have been taking my time with it, slow and steady wins the race.

I started by dry-brushing the whole miniature with a light grey, followed by white. That has been all the progress on the torso to date.

For the next step I went on to the weapon arms. The shoulder pads were given a basecoat of panzer grey and then dry-brushed with light grey, then white. I then basecoated the weapon casing and power fist in Castellan green, which was followed by the camo scheme, painted on in pale sand and reddish-brown.

That’s all for now, hopefully there will be more progress reports soon.

Battle over the Malcador river

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40k, 6mm wargaming, board games, campaign, Campaigning, Command & Colours, Games Workshop, miniatures, Orcs, orks, Scenario, Sci-Fi, Solo Wargaming, space marines, Warhammer, warhammer 40k

Following on from my last post, here is a quick update on my memoir 40k narrative campaign. As an ork force tied up the space marines reserves at the Ormffidian river forks, they struck out to secure the bridges over the Malcador river.

Ork and space marines face off across the Malcador river.

In this scenario, I decided to play using the more traditional victory conditions from the C&C games, in this case the winner would be the first side to reach 6 victory points.

Permanent victory points are gained by destroying enemy units and temporary victory points are gained by having a unit in a bridge hex.

A near run thing

I took command of the ork army this time round and used a solo playing aid (as mentioned in the last post) to generate the space marine orders.

It was a very close battle, with the bridges becoming focal points for the fiercest fighting and changing hands several times. Finally the might of the Adeptus Astartes won through, securing two bridges and destroying five ork units (including the warboss)

On the right flank tactical marines secure the bridge as terminators and heavy support, provided by Vindicators and Land Raiders, take up position to cover them.

In the centre of the line, Predator tanks sweep the bridge clear and repel all counter attacks. The third bridge is well within the green skin’s grasp.

Packing away Christmas & Going on Campaign

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40k, campaign, Command & Colours, Games Workshop, miniatures, Orcs, orks, Scenario, Sci-Fi, Solo Wargaming, space marines, Wargame, Wargaming, Warhammer, warhammer 40k

Over the Christmas holiday I have been playing plenty of games of Memoir 40k, attempting to tighten-up the rules and stat-lines.

I now have a very workable set of 60 command cards which is composed mainly of Memoir ’44 cards, along with leader cards from C&C Ancients and “hit & run” cards from Battlecry. This creates the right combination of modern combat elements with a sprinkling of heroic sci-fi.

Battle for the Ormiffiad River Forks

Closing stages of the Battle of the Ormiffiad River Forks

Following the success of the space marines during the Battle for Macharius Bridge, the orks attempted a probing attack at the Ormiffiad River Forks. A small Iron Eagles task force rushed to plug the gap with orders to hold till the last man and last bullet.

The battle ended in a stalemate, the space marine force took heavy casualties but managed to hold the line. Meanwhile the orks were merely conducting a diversionary attack whilst, in the north, their main body struck out for the bridges over the Malcador river….

Ork and space marines face off across the Malcador river.

Bridging the Gap

As well as all this excitement, I have been packing away the Christmas decorations and I took the time while I was in the attic to sort through the general detritus that had been left by the previous owners. While I was up there I found this…

I have no interest in playing this game but it will solve one particular problem I have been experiencing with my campaign until now, that of a distinct lack of bridges.

Problem solved…