AT-43 Dispatch

AT-43 Dispatch: Please Leave a Message and We Will Return Your Call...

2009-11-23T02:04:00.000-08:00

Hey everyone and welcome to another issue of the Dispatch! Well, not really but let me explain.

We just started our local Warmachine/Hordes league so I am going to be on hiatus from AT-43 for a time. Basically everyone at the shop is geared up for the League so I threw my hat in the ring as well except I have also decided that I will paint my entire army by the time the League is done. Needless to say, I have very little free time at the moment but have no fear! Once the League is over, I should be able to get in some more games of AT-43 plus the ONI should be out by then and I also picked up a Baal for my Therians. Mwah-ha-ha-ha-ha!!! Yes, evil plans are in the works but until then I am going to be blogging about my Trollblood army for Hordes so if you are interested head on over to The Kegslayer's Kriel. I'll be posting my progress in the League and also how the painting is going.

Well, I got painting to do so that's all for now. Until next time, may all your dice come up Dragons!

AT-43 Dispatch: No One Escapes Vacation...

2009-10-31T06:07:00.000-07:00

Hey everyone and welcome to a brief interlude in the Dispatch!

An interlude? What could it mean, man. WHAT COULD IT MEAN?!?!?

It means that I am currently on vacation in California so there won't be any update this week. I will be back next week though so I'll see what I can get thrown together for then, plus I am hoping to have my first battle report versus the ONI for the following week! Lots of exciting stuff coming up so be sure to check back! Until then, may all of your dice come up Dragons!

AT-43 Dispatch: Monkeys and Robots Doing the Zombie Dance!

2009-10-26T04:51:00.000-07:00

Hello everyone and welcome to the latest issue of the Dispatch!

In this issue of the Dispatch, we are going to start out staying close to home again with another look at the Sin City Daily. Then we are going to have a bit of a surprise in an Intelligence Report featuring a look at the new ONI army box! So without further ado, let's head right for the front lines!

Sin City Daily
More Monkey Business In Sin City

This weekend saw another game as Dyllon and I played another game of AT-43! As my latest additions to my Karman army have not arrived, we decided to throw in a Wraith Golgoth for each of us so that Dyllon could get a taste of the vehicle rules. In the end, it was a good game but the monkeys were put in their place by their Therian Masters! That'll teach them to complain about their banana rations...

More people have expressed an interest in checking out the game and Dyllon is still eagerly awaiting the release of the ONI army box, so things are still looking good for the future of AT-43 locally. Once I have the rest of my Karmans, I am thinking that I will run some demos of the game at BattleZone so that I can really get the game moving.

Intelligence Report
Taking a Closer Look at the ONI

We also have a little bit of a surprise here at the Dispatch. Thanks to our friends in France, we have some more detailed information on the ONI including some of their special rules. So without further ado, let's take a closer look at the Zombie Horror that is... the ONI.

The mercenary forces of ONI belong to the human species, the newcomer in the universal war. Its zombies know no fear, on the contrary; it is the other species of the galaxy which are afraid of them! Its powerful combat vehicles are armed with the best technology ONI purchased, stole or looted from the battlefields all over the universe.

Super Zombie Reanimators

The Super Zombie Reanimators are the largest unit in the army box, weighing in with a total of twelve Reanimators. Among their special abilities are Nerves of Steel (not surprising for zombies) and they suffer from Zombie Syndrome, which requires that they spend 1 LP to activate (not sure on the translation there...). ***Edit: It's looking like the Zombie Syndrome special rule actually means that a unit that shoots at the zombies has to pay 1 LP. I am guessing that this is to represent the leader yelling "The head! Shoot at the head!"*** Then there is the zombie gun. Esh...

Okay, this is an indirect fire weapon with Accuracy 3, an Attack Rate/Re-Roll of 1/1, AoE of 4, and a Pen/Damage of 4/1. Doesn't sound too bad, but there's more! It also has the Contamination ability. Sounds fun, don't it? Any enemies killed by this weapons are replaced with zombie detonators, forming a new unit whose card is added to the activation sequence in the next turn. Guess this explains the Reanimator part of the name...

The unit also includes a Zombie Master which gives the weapons of the unit the contamination ability. Yeah, that's right. As long as the master is alive, the whole unit can potentially create massive numbers of zombies. Thankfully, this is offset by a fairly low Armor of 5 but I can still see these guys being very difficult to deal with.

This is a ** unit that costs 500 points and includes two zombie gunners, one medic, one zombie master, and is lead by a Shomyo.

Zombie TacArms Alpha

This unit of three armored zombies, though their armor is not as heavy as the TacArms of other armies. Only an Armor 9 for these guys, which seems low but considering the figure is mostly bare flesh in kind of makes sense.

Equipped with a Zombie Gun (same lovely stats as above...) and basically a UNA laser gun, these beasties look like they are going to be some pretty solid all round fighters. They also have Nerves of Steel and Zombie Syndrome abilities, just like the Reanimators. They are a *** unit that costs 300 points and is lead by a Samurai.

Zombie Detonators

Well, we had to get to these guys eventually, especially since more than half of the army can create more of them! They have a very low Armor 4 and no ranged weapons. Instead, they have two sets of claws and fangs so they really do just want to run up and give you a kiss. In addition to the unsurprising Nerves of Steel and Zombie Syndrome, they also have Bioexplosive. This lets you sacrifice each of the Detonators when you activate the unit, resulting in an explosion with an AoE of 2 and a Pen/Damage of 12/1.

Not surprisingly, Detonators are only a * unit and only cost 175 points for eight of them. Of course with all these Zombie Guns you are going to need a lot more then eight, but it's definitely a step in the right direction.

Medium Destroyer

This is the "smaller" of the two vehicles that come in the army box. With a Movement of 30 and an Armor of 14, this is pretty fast for a type ** AFV with respectable armor to boot. On top of the Destroyer is a Medium Graser with an Accuracy of 7, Attack/Re-Roll of 2/0, and Pen/Damage of 15/2. A very respectable punch as it is, but there's more! Yep, the Destroyer also has the Mechanic ability so that it can repair itself or other vehicles within 2.5cm at either the beginning or end of its activation.

Weighing in at 325 points, it is also pretty inexpensive compared to most AFVs of its type. The one disadvantage is there is only one weapon but the frame has one extra damage box compared to most. Combine that with the Mechanic ability, and you are looking at one tough little package.

Heavy Battletank Vlad and Shogun Bokor

This is the personal vehicle of Shogun Bokov, the hero included in this army box. With a Movement of 25 and Armor of 16, this vehicle is another nimble "little" tank. Plus is mounts a heavy maser cannon with an Accuracy of 7, Attack/Re-Roll of 2/1, and a Pen/Damage of 17/3. That's six points of damage from one shot, assuming that you are firing in the direct fire mode. It can also be fired as an indirect fire weapon in which case it gains an AoE of 3 but keeps the other characteristics.

The Battletank also has the Mechanic ability (just like the Destroyer) and Bokor has the Interference ability which lets you choose one of your opponents card in their activation sequence and move it. Nothing like having your carefully laid out plans changed at the last minute.

As an added bonus, Shogun Bokor is also no slouch outside of Vlad. Equipped with a Sniper Rifle with an Accuracy of 10, she also has Triple Lens Optics which give her the Detection ability and also lets her ignore Camouflage. Always nice to be able to lead from the back, especially when you are leading a horde of zombies. And all this can be yours for only 690 points. Pricey, but definitely worth it from the looks of things.

The Parting Shot...

And there you have it! Still no official release date on the ONI army box but considering there are now pictures of the contents floating around, I am thinking that it will be very soon! That's all for now but be sure to come soon for more AT-43 goodness. Until next time, may all of your dice come up Dragons!

AT-43 Dispatch: Introducing the Sin City Daily

2009-10-19T05:43:00.000-07:00

Hey everyone and welcome to another issue of the Dispatch!

This week, we are going staying closer to home with the Sin City Daily as we take a look to see what is happening locally with AT-43. So without further ado, let's head right for the front lines!

Sin City Daily
Spotlight on Local AT-43 News

This weekend, I was able to break out my Therians (along with some new Karmans) and hit the BattleZone to run a demo. I had originally scheduled a demo with the store owner so I could show him the game and get his opinion but that plan didn't quite work out. Something about first being late, and then being smashed. I'm sure you can all figure it out. :)

Instead, I ran the demo for Dyllon, one of the other employees at BattleZone Comics. The fluff seemed to interest him, the miniatures really caught his eye, and once he heard about the ONI (the word "zombies" can be a major selling point), he was pretty much hooked. Still, he wanted to try out the mechanics of the game so we set up a couple of small games just so that he could get the idea how it all worked. Two battles and a bunch of dead Therians later, he told me that he was interested in the game and that he would be picking up the ONI when army the box comes out.

Matt, another player at the store, took one look at the Karmans and said he would love to give the game a try. Just the concept of space monkeys had him excited, but when he saw that they had wrist mounted guns and smoking cigars... well, let's just say it sounds like another player will be seeking his own karma now.

Now I just have to get the owner to try the game and we'll see what happens. Hmmmm... maybe I should bring some liquor with me next time...

The Parting Shot...

Well, that's it for this week. A short issue I know, but with the interest that I saw this weekend, I am thinking the things will be picking up quickly. Until then, I'll leave you all with the best conversion I have ever seen of Omega Tiamat. This was done by Supercollider on the AT-43 forums and makes me want to pick her up just so I can copy his conversion.

What else is there to say? It just looks right. Until next time, may all of your dice come up Dragons!

AT-43 Dispatch: Rise of the ONI

2009-10-11T23:16:00.000-07:00

Hello everyone, and welcome to the return of the AT-43 Dispatch!

This issue, we are going to take a look at the latest of the new army boxes that will be coming out from Rackham. So without further ado, let's head right for the front lines!

Incoming!!!
Taking a Look Inside the Upcoming ONI Army Box

Slated to come out in November, the ONI army box will continue Rackham's new trend of selling complete armies for a very reasonable price. The ONI will also expand the AT-43 universe so that it will include six different factions for players to choose from, providing lots of options for new and existing players alike.

Enough of the sales pitch though, what exactly is this box supposed to contain? As it just so happens, we have a picture that shows just what there is.

A whopping 26 miniatures for $70. Definitely not a bad deal, especially considering two of those miniatures are actually vehicles plus all of the other stuff that comes in the box. There is even some information floating around about just what these units are, so lets dig a little deeper to see what we can find.

First up are the zombie Detonators.

In a universe where no one can escape war, these happy go lucky fellows just want to give everyone a hug. Sure, they explode while they do it, but isn't it the thought that counts? As if that wasn't bad enough, the charges these guys carry are supposed to be strong enough to even damage an AFV, meaning this one unit that you really can't leave sitting around for too long. With no weapons, it should be possible to just run them every turn and before you know it... BLAM!

Next up are the what I have only seen called "super zombies". Fitting perhaps, but for some reason I don't think that's the official name.

Equipped with autoshotguns and buzzsaws, I expect these critters will be a terror in close quarter fights. Imagine fighting a zombie with a circular saw and a shotgun in a building. Eeesh... My advise? Run away and shoot them at range.

Next up are the zombie TacArms Alpha.

With some of the first images put into circulation more than a year ago, it now makes sense why they look the way that they do. They're zombies! It's all so clear now...

Equipped with a laser cannon and a zombie gun, it will be interesting to see just what these guys can do. The laser cannon will give them some serious armor piercing punch but the zombie gun... Not sure of the specifics but there was mention on the AT-43 forums that it creates more zombies. Take it from a Therian player, being able to create more troops during a game is always a good thing.

The last of the infantry units in the box is actually a hero, Shogun N. Bokov. Described as being "as beautiful as she is dangerous", she looks like she will add an interesting twist to the army. A commander with a sniper rifle? That's one way to keep your leader out of the thick of it. And unlike the rest of the army, she is actually not a zombie.

The last two miniatures are the Vlad heavy battle tank and the medium Destroyer.

The vehicle on the left is the Vlad and looking at that cannon I would say that range is not going to be a problem for it. The thing that I do wonder about is if it will be an area effect weapon or a direct fire. I am going to guess that it will be direct fire since it does not look like it can elevate high enough for indirect fire. Other than that, the only other real question is "What happens if you fire the cannon with the turret turned to the side?" But enough about recoil and real life physics...

It's counterpart, the Destroyer, looks like it might actually be some kind of a transport vehicle which would make the ONI the first of the factions to have the real transport model! As for the gun on the top, it is described as being a medium graser cannon. The UNA Fire Crawler mounts the heavy version of this weapon and based on the stats for that one, the medium graser should pack a pretty good punch as well.

In addition to all of this ONI goodness, there is also a container, six low walls, an area effect template, a tape measure, dice... Everything you need in one box so you can just open it up and dive in right away. As with all of the new army boxes, the ONI army box is an incredible value for a mere $70.

Well, that's it for this issue but be sure to come back for the next issue when we will take a look inside the Cog army box and all their wacky orange figures. So until next time, may all of your dice come up Dragons!

The Return of the Dispatch...

2009-10-10T06:17:00.000-07:00

A deep hum fills the air of the underground chamber. Ancient displays that have lain dormant for centuries suddenly spring to life, information scrolling across their surfaces in mad flurry of incomprehensible characters. The hum becomes even deeper, and orange glow begins to illuminate the devices within.

More lights appear in the darkness, revealing humanoid shapes resting inside of alcoves along several of the chamber walls. As points of light appear on the shapes themselves, one of the tallest figures begins to stir and steps away from the wall. Surveying the chamber with its dead eyes, a cold mechanical voice states "It is time."

Yes that's right folks.

The AT-43 Dispatch is back.

Dispatch Update: "Troopers! We Are Leaving!"

2008-10-10T05:05:00.000-07:00

Hey everyone

Just a quick heads up to let you all know that the blog will be moving! I know I have said it before but this time I am actually serious. The new address will be...

http://sincitydispatch.blogspot.com/

So when will this big change happen you ask? Within the week! I had planned on posting about this about a week ago but I have had relatives in town for the past three weeks and we all know what that does to the schedule... I love them to pieces but man am I ready to get back to gaming! I will be posting a link from this blog to the new one so even if you don't change the address you will still be able to get there from here so no worries.

See you at the new blog and until then may all of your dice come up Dragons!

The Sin City Dispatch #2

2008-10-03T04:17:00.000-07:00

Hey everyone and welcome to the second issue of the Sin City Dispatch

In this issue we will start by taking a quick look at the latest pictures Rackham has released of the Cogs. Most of it we have seen before but there is a little something extra as well. The rest of the issue will be all about the box of plastic goodness that is the Assault on Black Reach. So sit down and strap in because we are about to hit the ground running!

Incoming!!!
Upcoming releases for AT-43 and Warhammer 40,000

Since the last issue of the Dispatch Rackham has actually released two issues of Cry Havoc Online, both of which have some pictures of the Cogs that we have never seen before. One of the most startling ones (for me at least) is the picture of what they look like without a helmet on.

I hate to say it but this is nothing like I expected them too look. From the concept pictures I think a lot of people were under the impression that the Cogs were somewhat Cthulhuian (does that word actually exist?) in appearance but this looks more like a typical Grey from Hollywood. I hate to say it again but this is another disappointment in my book. I am sure that just like the Karmans some people will like the look of these minis but I am really finding that I am falling into the camp of those who don't.

There is also another preview picture of the Cogs but this time it is what looks like their type III infantry.

The pros of these minis are the sculpts look kind of cool with an Anime flair to them. The problems is the paint job. Again with the orange! At first glance they look like some kind of an alien construction crew or chain gang instead of a powerful faction that was able to put the hurt on the Therians until the Karmans were thrown into the war. Something that looks worrying from a play point of view is the variety of weapons these guys have. It might be that these are from various type III units (such as the various types of the TacArms for example) but if they are just one unit then having that jumble of weapons could have an impact on how effective they are in combat. Of course only time will tell how good or bad any of the Cogs are but so far I am really not sure about the direction they are taking with them.

On the 40k front, this month is all about the Space Marines baby! Of all the releases, the new Codex is without a doubt the most important one.

Coming in at 144 pages, it will include all of the rules for fielding a Space Marine Chapter so if you are looking to build that Marine chapter that you have always dreamed of or you just want to see what new nasties they will be fielding, then this is a must buy. The bad news is that this is the first Codex that will fall under the new pricing, coming in a $30. On the plus side, this book is bigger than most of the current Codexes by at least 40 pages so it should have a bunch of new goodies and information in there.

A majority of the remaining releases are new minis for the Marines (including a plastic Drop Pod kit!) though there is one other product that really jumps to my attention and it is something that I will definitely be picking up; the Dice Cube.

For a mere $6 you get 27 20mm dice inside of a giant die. How could any gamer pass one that one? "I think I'll use the giant die for this roll." Plus the price actually isn't half bad so I would definitely recommend grabbing at least one of these right away.

To find out more about these items and the other new releases, head on over to their site and check out the Advanced Orders for 40k.

Taking a Closer Look at...
Assault on Black Reach

Cracking Open the Box

Everyone knows that there is nothing worse than opening a game only to realize that you just paid for a box full of air. The good news is that this is not something you need to worry about with Black Reach. From top to bottom, this box is packed full of stuff. In addition to the four sprues of minis, there is also a small version of the rulebook and a starter book. As far as I can tell the rulebook contains all of the information that the hardcover has (minus the fluff and color painting sections) while the starter book is more of a basic overview of how the game plays with a bunch of full color pictures thrown in as well. All of the templates that you need are also right in the box as well as some dice. Definitely not enough dice in the long run but it is a start in the right direction. A scatter die is also included so overall you are ready to go right out of the box once you have assembled the minis.

Taking a Closer Look

Looking at the miniatures, the first thing that struck me was the level of detail. From purity seals to scroll work, they managed to get it all in there. The symbol for the Tactical squad is even sculpted into the shoulder pads! And it is not just the Marines that received the love either as the Orks are very detailed miniatures as well. From my own experience, I think that this is great. While it might seem that having the extra detail just means that the figs would be harder to paint, I think that the opposite is true. With the higher level of detail, everything is so well defined it really seems to make the figure much easier to paint so I am really looking forward to getting to the painting. First I just need to cut them all off the sprue, assemble, and prime them. Definitely different than the AT-43 "open the box and go" feel but I am still really excited about these which really says something to me.

And The Verdict Is...

So is Assault on Black Reach worth the $60 price tag? In a word, definitely. The hardcover version of the rulebook alone costs $50, while you get all of the information that you need in a smaller size in Black Reach plus a ton of miniatures for an extra $10. In fact I have heard about a number of people getting two, three or even more sets of Black Reach just because of the value in the miniatures. Heck, I know that's what I am going to do.

From the Workbench
the Next Big WAAAAGH!!!

After some slow progress to start with, I have finally assembled most of my Orks from the Black Reach set though I am doing it slightly different from the what the box lists the contents as being. Rather than fielding a twenty strong Boyz mob I have decided to split the group and I have assembled them as a twelve strong Boyz mob and an eight strong Kommando mob, both of which are lead by a Nob. This is actually pretty easy to do and make them somewhat different as I simply used the helmeted Ork heads for my Kommandos while the rest of my Orks running around with a bare head. Here is a picture of the Kommandos...

And the regular Boyz...

To take it a step further, I am looking for some seperate backpacks that I can mount on the Kommandos to give them the appropriate "military-wannabe" look. This will really make them stand apart from the "regular" Orks (if there is such a thing...) by giving them a very unique look. Combined with just the other miniatures from Black Reach (the Deffkoptas, the small Nobz mob, the Warboss, and the other conversions that I will be doing with just this set) this should go together to make a pretty good starter force for my Ork horde. It is by no means finished of course but it is definitely a solid start to getting my Waaaaagh!!! underway.

And that is all for the issue of the Dispatch! Be sure to come back for soon for more Sin City goodness and until then, may all of your dice come up Dragons!

The Assault Has Begun!

2008-09-19T08:24:00.000-07:00

Hey everyone

Just a quick note this time; I picked up my copy of Assault on Black Reach for 40k a couple of days ago and let me tell you it is cool. The level of detail on the plastic minis is incredible and I will be taking a closer look at them in the next issue of the Dispatch. Rackham has also released some more pictures of the Cogs, including one showing what they look like without a helmet! (Crazy fool, not wearing his huntin' safety gear! Gunna get himself shot up good I reckon.) See you soon and until then, may all of your dice come up Dragons!

The Sin City Dispatch #1

2008-09-14T03:30:00.000-07:00

Hello everyone and welcome to the new Sin City Dispatch!

In this issue of the Dispatch, we will be looking at the new preview pictures that Rackham has released for AT-43 plus we will take a look at the new Assault on Black Reach boxed set for Warhammer 40,000 5th Edition. Next, we will be taking another look at my new Space Marine Chapter, the Reclaimers, to see how they are progressing. Last but not least, I stumbled across something at my local grocery store that has inspired me to start work on a new terrain piece. Just what could it be? Well, you'll just have to read on to find out!

Incoming!!!
Upcoming releases for AT-43 and Warhammer 40,000

In the latest Cry Havoc Online, Rackham released previews of several different miniatures that they having coming down the pipe in the next few months for AT-43. The first is the UNA Fire Crawler, the second of the support striders to hit the shelves.

Mounting two Grasers, this support strider packs a considerable punch and can easily cripple lighter striders with one salvo. It also mounts enough armor to make it a hard nut to crack though it does have the lightest armor of the support striders, the common hallmark of the UNA vehicles.

Now what about the miniature? Personally, I don't really like it. The forward sections of the hull swoops down so low that they really negate any ground clearance that the walker would have and the articulation of the legs where they meet the hull just doesn't look like it would be able to move well enough for it to be very maneuverable. There is also a large hatch on the back of the hull which seems odd. I would assume that this is meant for the crew to enter the vehicle but with the overall height of the hull it makes it look like the Crawler also has some kind of APC capability which it doesn't. While this is a nice addition to the game because it finally finishes off the units from the UNA army book, I am really not that thrilled with the sculpt. To each their own though, right?

Next are the Cog Warmongers.

While there are not many details out there about the Cogs, it seems like the Warmongers are going to be their basic infantry unit based on the previews that Rackham has been showing us. The main difference between this picture and the previous ones is they finally got some paint on them so we can see what they will look like. One question though; why are they wearing hunting vests?

These are still nice miniatures but I am really not that thrilled with the paint scheme. It reminds me too much of deer hunting season in Maine. Now don't get me wrong, I have nothing against hunting but it looks like the Warmongers are wearing safety gear so that they don't accidentally shoot each other. Makes me a little nervous about how the rest of the army will look like, but maybe there is a reason.

Last but not least is the ONI TacArm which for some reason I can not post a current picture of so I will have to put up the old one in its place.

These two pictures are identical in all respects but one; the new picture has the "helmet" of the TacArm open so that you can see the pilot. As I noted before, the arms and torso seem very odd because they look like some kind of body suit rather then armor and the new picture seems to support this look. The face of the pilot within seems to be heavily scared (of course they are mercenaries which could explain this) but he also doesn't look like he has a neck (which the mercenaries thing doesn't really touch on). In fact the musculature of his shoulders looks absolutely massive, giving him an almost Frankstein look. While this seems really odd, he is ONI and they have already aluded to the fact that ONI has access to technologies from all of the other factions. It might be that the TacArms are enhanced and modified Humans but only time will tell and until that time I am going to hold back my opinion of this one.

On the Warhammer 40k front, the big release is the new Assault on Black Reach starter set. Coming in at $60, this is an amazing value for all of the stuff that it comes crammed into the box. Don't believe me? Well, here is a look at what you get in there.

As you can see, that is a ton of minis, plus three templates, dice and a digest sized version of the full rulebook containing all of the rules for the game. Definitely a great value for anyone that is new to 40k or even anyone that it already a fan. Since I have mainly focused on AT-43 in the past, I do want to point out that Games Workshop minis are not pre-painted so you will need to break out the brushes for these but I really do think that it is worth it. From what I have seen and heard, the new edition is pretty good set of rules and Assault On Black Reach is a solid step toward collecting either a Space Marine or and Ork army (or both if you are crazy like me).

As a side note, I am also going to do a review comparing 40k and AT-43 in the future but I want to get a bit more experience with Warhammer first. I can already think of a few pros and cons for each system but I want to get a little more play in to see if there is anything else that I might be missing.

From the Workbench
Raising the Reclaimers

As I showed you a couple of weeks ago, I recently unearthed some of my old Space Marines and started painting them up. I had the base coats on the full squad and force leader and I have made some more progress on them. Here they are in all their glory.

Not the clearest picture I'll admit but I think that you can get the idea. Beyond the base coat, I added a few details to them; the trim on the shoulder pads, the Imperial Eagles on the chest, the white stripe on the right pad indicating the squad type. These are all small additions to the models and it was very quick and easy to do them but they really do add a lot to the model. The bases are also very important as well. I didn't add any details to the bases beyond some flock and painting the edges black but even this helps to give the whole group a more uniform and finished look. I am still in the process of working on the Eddy the Dread but once I get some more work done on him I will be posting his picture as well.

Is this all that I will be doing with the Reclaimers? Not hardly! This is just the beginning of my new Space Marine Chapter and the minis from Black Reach will be helping to swell their ranks. I also have some other ideas floating about things that I can do to really give the Chapter my own feel instead of just being another cookie cutter Marine Chapter. Unfortunately more on that will have to wait until the new Codex comes out in a so that I can see exactly how far I can go with it all. So have no fear; the Reclaimers are coming for you!

Lay of the Land
The Storage Tank Project

While I was picking up some groceries the other day I noticed these items on the shelf.

I almost walked right past them but something told me to pick a couple up so into the cart they went. When I got home, I took another look at them and instantly saw the potential for a terrain piece, namely a large storage tank. With only a few additions I plan on taking this simple jug from the grocery store to the battlefields of the far future, and the beautiful thing is that it cost me less than a dollar. That's right only $0.75 for one of these bad boys so we will have to see just how cheap I can make this project by the time I am finished. I even picked up a couple of extra ones so that I could put several of them onto the table to create a small industrial complex but more on that later.

And that is it for this issue of the Dispatch! It was a long time in coming but it took me a little while to figure out just what direction I wanted to go in. Thanks to everybody for putting up with the wait! Now that I think I have things figured out, the updates should be more regular in the future. This is the Snowman signing off and until next time, may all of your dice come up Dragons!

Update coming soon!

2008-09-06T06:44:00.000-07:00

Hey everyone,

I just wanted to let everyone know that a new update will be coming soon! In it, I will take a look at the latest pics that Rackham has posted in Cry Havoc Online for AT-43, I will update my progress with my new Space Marine Chapter for Warhammer 40,000, and I will be taking a look at a new terrain project that I will be working on. Let me tell you, it is amazing the things that you can find on sale at a grocery store...

That's all for now so until next time, may all of your dice come up Dragons!

Returning to the Beginning, aka Another Minion for the Evil Empire

2008-09-01T00:52:00.000-07:00

While I plan on taking a break from AT-43, I definitely don’t plan on giving up gaming. Far from it in fact! Among the things that I will be touching on over the next few months are several miniatures games as well as some board and card games. So, without furter ado let's get to it!

The first of these games has a place in many miniature gamers hearts, be it for good or ill. What could it be you wonder? Let me give you a few hints that will make it obvious. Over the years, I have collected several armies for it and it is still in the sci-fi genre. Hmmm… What could it be? Sci-fi, been around for years, collected several armies for it… Sound familiar? That’s right I’m talking about Warhammer 40,000.

Over the years, I had amassed a motley assortment of Chaos Marines, Space Marines, Tau and Tyranids. Notice that I said had amassed. I sold my Chaos Marines, my Tau, and a good sized chunk of my Space Marines a couple of years ago leaving me with a handful of Marines and my Tyranid horde, neither of which were really painted. Well, they were painted as in paint had been applied at some point but there was very little theme to it and nothing was ever really completed.

With the release of the 5th edition rules our local gaming community has become all the buzz about 40k again and a friend of mine has started running very small games to help people become familiar with the new rules. In fact this past Saturday he ran several 500 point games at our FLGS so I decided to break out my minis to see what I could actually field.

Digging through the small plastic box of Marine bits and minis that I have, I actually managed to find about fifteen Marine minis that I could scrounge up for a game, along with a Land Speeder, an old version of the Land Speeder Tornado, and an even older version of a Dreadnought. I had planned on taking a picture of this bunch of misfits before I started painting them but it slipped my mind until I had the base coats on all of the Marines. D’oh!!! To give you an idea of how mish mashed my minis are here is a picture of good old Eddy the Dread (this is a Rogue Trader era mini for those of you that might remember it).

Originally painted up as to be part of a Chaos army, I kept it when I sold the rest of my Chaos miniatures. As one of the original dreadnoughts introduced to the game back in the 80’s in White Dwarf #100, they are quite hard to find. In fact my friend told me that I have one of three that he knows of in Vegas.

As for the rest of my fledgling army, here is a picture of how they look right now.

With a mix of some of the original “beaky” Marines from the 80’s along with a couple from the newest version of the Marine plastic set, I actually had the makings of a couple of squads right off the bat. By just adding a force commander and land speeder with a multi-melta to my other minis, I was able to field a nice little 500 point “army”.

The question now is how did it go? Well, I arrived while they were still wrapping up a four player battle (Witch Hunters and Space Marines on one side with Orks on the other) and I was immediately struck by how negative everyone was being. I have listened to various podcasts about the new edition and a majority of them have only good things to say about it. After watching them wrap up the game and launch into more complaints about the game, I asked them if it was so horrible why did they play it? I mean really, what is the point of playing a game that you can’t stand? No one was really able to give me a good argument against this and they all started say that it wasn’t really that bad so apparently it was another case of “let’s bash the Evil Empire” that prevails in the hobby.

The other players needed to get going and Jason and I set up our forces so that I could see how things worked. On my side, I had a total of twelve Marines (including the commander), one Dreadnought, and one Land Speeder. On the Ork side, there was a War Boss commanding the army, a unit of at least half a dozen Nobs, an Orky Dreadnought, and a mob of thirty Ork Shoota Boyz. Nothing like being hopelessly outnumbered, right?

So how did it go? Well, I did have to pack up early (family emergency which thankfully proved to be not too serious) so we only managed to get into the second turn but from what I saw it didn’t seem too bad. Movement seemed relatively straight forward as well, at least from what I saw of it. Coming from AT-43 I was at a loss at first as to how far I could move. As for shooting, there were lots of dice on the Ork side (in one volley Jason rolled 38 dice compared to the paltry four dice that I had rolled the turn before, and that wasn’t even the whole unit shooting!) but after playing against the Karmans that really didn’t phase me too much. The true line of sight and cover saves also really made sense to me from what I saw.

Was it enough to get me back into 40k? Possibly though there are other games that people would be familiar with that I am considering as well, the first of which is Warmachine. Unfortunately the Warmachine community in town is very erratic to say the least but it seems like it might be making a comeback so I have sent out some emails to see what is happening with it. Either way, I am still going to add some more Space Marines to my collection so that I have a small army that I can field. After all, it is 40k and like it or leave it that is one game that is not going to be disappearing anytime soon.

Another thing that people should consider is the new starter set coming out later this week, Assault on Black Reach. Loaded with a ton of miniatures, this set contains enough to give you the start of both a Marine and an Ork army right out of the box. You need more to be able to field “legal” armies in the game but this is a great way for new gamers to get into the game for a very reasonalbe price. As for the quality of the minis, they are not on the same level as the regular unit boxes but still, you are getting 46 miniatures of various types including three small vehicles and one walker for $60, not to mention a small version of the rulebook and the three weapon templates. Personally, I don’t see how you can go wrong with this. After all, even if you buy and decide that 40k is really not for you, there is always Ebay.

Well, that is all for now but there will be more in the future as I track my work on my Marine Chapter, the Reclaimers, and my Warmachine armies as well. Until next time, may all of your dice come up Dragons!

Endings and Beginnings...

2008-08-27T22:53:00.000-07:00

Hey everyone,

I know that another issue of The Dispatch is long overdue but unfortunately it just does not seem like it is meant to be. I have decided to hang up my reaper blades for a little while but instead of just shutting down the blog I have decided to change it.

Rather than just focusing on AT-43, I am going to start covering the various miniature gaming projects that I am working on and also anything else that I have been playing at home and around town. Things are definitely going to be a little bit different around here but hopefully you can still find a little something you enjoy.

Until next time, may all of your dice come up Dragons!

AT-43 Dispatch #4 delayed but coming soon!

2008-08-21T07:12:00.000-07:00

Hey everyone,

I just wanted to give you all a quick heads up that the next issue of the Dispatch will be delayed until next week but have no fear; the cryptic meaning of that picture with the single '6' will be revealed soon! Until then, may all of your dice come up Dragons!

AT-43 Dispatch #3:featuring Incoming!!!, the Battle Report, and Reviewing the Troops

2008-08-13T06:18:00.000-07:00

Hey everyone and welcome to issue #3 of the AT-43 Dispatch!

In this issue, there is a small Incoming!!! update, we will take a look at the first scenario in the new league as seen in our first of two Battle Reports, and we will take a closer look at the Karman Yetis in Review the Troops, a new segment that looks at both the miniature and how the unit plays in the game. So without further ado, let's head right for the front lines!

Incoming!!!: A Quick Update on the New Releases for August

While I was an the Shop this weekend, John told me that he expects to receive the new releases this Wednesday, as in today! Operation: Frostbite, the Baal, the K-shooters, all of it! So if you haven't ordered your copy yet, click on the link for the Little Shop of Magic located to the right, place your order now, and don't forget to tell him that the Snowman sent you!

Battle Report 11082007: League Play featuring the Therians vs. the Karmans

Sunday was a special day for gaming here in Sin City. Not only was I able to get out and play the first scenario in the new AT-43 League, I was able to play it twice! This week we'll be looking at the first of these two battles with the second one coming out in the next issue of the Dispatch.

For those of you who might have missed it, the first scenario in the intro league is called "Break On Through" and takes place on a board remarkably similar to this...

The background for the scenario is the attacker has managed to secure a vital piece of information and needs to escape off the far side of the board, while the defender is simply trying to stop this from happening. This sounds all well and good but there are a few things that don't really fit with this scenario.

For some reason, all of the defender's troops start the game on the board while the attacker is forced to keep a quarter of his force as reinforcements. This seems especially odd since when those reinforcements are deployed it is right behind line of low walls in the center of the board. Still, this was the mission and no one ever said that every mission had to make sense so John and I rolled off to decide who would be the attacker and the defender. Winning this roll, I decided to try being the defender (the idea of running past a bunker full of troops plus everything else to try to escape the board didn't really appeal to me...).

On my side of the board, I was fielding Babylon Zero, a second Incubus, a unit of Assault golems with a flamer (who were located inside the bunker), a unit of Bane Goliaths and a unit of Assault Goliaths. On John's side there was a King Buggy (proxied in this game for Jindo Un since he forgot to grab his King...), a unit of three Easy Trikes, a full unit of Wendigos with grenade launchers, and a unit of Anakongas that were kept as reinforcements. We deployed our troops on the board and got ready for turn one.

Since I was once again facing Nova (you kind of expect it when you field the Therians...) I was able to decide who would activate first and naturally choose myself. My first order of business was to get those Assault Golems out of that bunker!

There were other units with much better range that I wanted to be in that little stronghold.

John activated his Wendigos next, moving them forward and having them take cover and go onto overwatch as they started the mad dash across the table.

My Banes went next, moving forward into the now empty bunker so that I could get some serious firepower in there!

Unfortunately only one of them was able to make it all the way in but I still put the unit onto overwatch just in case.

The Easy Trikes went next, moving forward to fire on Babylon Zero.

My lone Bane managed to get off his overwatch shot and inflict a point of damage to the frame of one of the Trikes before they returned fire, inflicting one point on Babylon's frame and damaging a cannon in the process.

Babylon Zero went next as I moved her up behind the walls next to the bunker to get some cover. A logical thought until you realize that those walls are a quarter of her size and won't do anything to protect her. D'oh! I tried to repair but John quickly and thankfully canceled the routine. Why thankfully? When my Banes had gone onto overwatch, we had played the famous "Nova LP Game", draining off a few of my points before I was able to activate my combat drill. This had also tapped a chunk of John's LPs and once he cancelled my repair I was able to run Creation unopposed. I love making Hekats...

After doing this, I opened fire on the center Trike (which was the unit leader)and managed to do two points to the frame along with destroying one of the jammers and damaging the engines as well Definitely not a bad round of firing!

The King Buggy went next, moving up behind the Trikes and opening fire on Babylon Zero.

The shots ripped into the Golgoth and blew in apart, leaving Nina suddenly out in the open.

My Incubus activated next, moving behind the other troops before opening fire on the Trikes.

Spreading the shots across the unit, I was able to take out the engines of the undamaged Trike on the left, while the leader lost his other jammer in the barrage leaving him weaponless!

With the Karmans done I activated my last two units, moving the Assault Goliaths forward to try to get into a better position to shot while the Assault Golems just moved out of the way. This brought the first turn to a close with neither side scoring any victory points.

Opting to go first again, I had Nina Zero take command of the Banes and moved the whole unit into the safety of the bunker.

From this position, they opened fire on the Easy Trikes, destroying the leader and seriously damaging the frame of both of the remaining Trikes.

John activated his Trikes next, abandoning the immobile one while the other sped behind a container to get into cover.

I attempted to dash my Hekat forward but with the routine canceled I could only run forward instead.

This left it right out in the middle of the fire corridor but there wasn't really any other option for it as I wanted to engage those Wendigos soon.

Activating the King Buggy next, John moved it forward so that he could hit the Hekat with the flamers and the Incubus with the ZZ-cannons.

The Hekat survived the attack unscathed and the Incubus only took one point of damage to the frame. I was lucky this time but I had to get that Buggy before it could do some serious damage.

I activated the Incubus next, moving forward to open fire on the Buggy at point blank and managed to destroy the engines and damage the frame.

To finish out his round, John activated his Wendigos and moved the forward to try to get into cover behind one of the containers as they continued their run for the opposite edge.

My Assault Goliaths went next, moving forward to the wall before opening fire on the King Buggy.

The sonic guns were totally ineffective but the nucleus guns actually managed to do two more points to the frame! One more and it would be out of commission.

My Assault Golems activated last, moving up behind the bunker in case I needed them. With turn two coming to a close, neither of us had managed to score any VPs.

For turn three, I decided to let John go first to see what he would do. I had been hoping that he would move the last Easy Trike forward so that I could be a shot on it but instead he moved the Wendigos deeper into cover behind the container.

The Banes went next, opening fire and destroying the King Buggy in a massive salvo.

The Buggy had been next in the sequence and John decided to miss the activation so my Hekat went next.

Running forward it charged into the Wendigos, failing to trample any of them but then killing two of them in close combat.

The Easy Trike went next and fired on the Hekat before moving on toward the far edge. As the jammers blasted the Hekat, they managed to destroy one of the grim scythes and damage the frame but even damaged it was still very much a threat.

My Incubus was next and moved forward to open fire on the Wendigos.

I managed to kill two of them and somehow actually failed to damage the Hekat.

With the Karmans done activating, I moved my remaining troops closer to the action and the third turn came to a close with the Therians up 2 VPs to 0 VPs.

For the fourth and final turn, my Incubus moved forward and destroyed the Easy Trike. With only the three Wendigos left, we decided to call it a game at this point, giving the Therians the win at 5 VPs to 0 VPs.

Talking about the game afterward, we all came to the conclusion that this scenario really favors the defender. Not only does it give them a strong position on the board, they also start with their full force right from the start while the attacker is forced to wait until at least turn 3 before bringing on his reinforcements and this is assuming that the reinforcements are cheap! Even so, it was an interesting game but we are all curious to see what else FFG and Rackham are going to be throwing out there for the rest of the league.

So what about the other battle? Sorry, you'll just have to come back to find out what happened in that one but I will give you something to think about.

Just what could this mean? Find out next week...

Reviewing the Troops: Taking A Closer Look at... the Yeti

The Yeti miniature is one that inspires a love/hate relationship. Some people love the retro styling of it but others wonder why the monkey is wearing a fish bowl on its head. Indeed, I can see how it would be easy to discount a miniature in the game just based on its appearance. In my own case, I one time swore that I would never ever buy a Hekat because it looks like... well, lets just say something rather unflattering and leave it at that. Then I heard people singing their praises on the forum and decided to bite the bullet and get one, and since then I have never looked back. I still wonder at just why it looks that particular way but considering how effective it is I am more than willing to see beyond the ugly duckling facade. Could the Yeti be the same way? Let's take a closer look and find out...

At first glance, they seem like a slightly weaker Wendigo with a jetpack. Their range and penetration are both one less than the Wendigos but their cost is high even for an already pricey Karman unit. One of the key differences is the re-roll on the Jungle rifles. This means that for a full unit they will be rolling twenty four dice with a re-roll, would should more than make up for the lower accuracy and penetration.

Beyond this there are several other factors that you have to consider as well. Unlike the Wendigos, the Yeti actually does have a close combat weapon and a pretty powerful one at that especially when you combine it with their jetpacks. Their special weapons are not something that should be overlooked either. The flamers give them the ability drop a couple of templates within 25cm and the rocket launchers pack a very nasty punch as they each roll three dice per shot with a respectable penetration and a whopping two points of damage. This means that against an armor 14 strider they could be rolling 5+ to damage on six dice so with a little bit of luck you might even be able to destroy it in one salvo! The downside to this is that you need to get close to be able to make use of them but with the jetpacks it is that much easier to do.

So what is the best way to make use of them in the game? Take advantage of the mobility of the jetpacks to set yourself up in a good position, hit your opponent with the massed fire from the jungle rifles, then jump into close combat to finish off any survivors with those nasty power grips. I know that I make it sound easy but with a little practice I think that the Yetis can more than make up for the odd little fish bowl on their head.

Well, that's all for this week, but be sure to come back next week for the second Battle Report and perhaps we will even start taking a closer look at some of the new goodness that Operation: Frostbite contains. So until next time, may all of your dice come up Dragons!

AT-43 Update: MedTec revealed!

2008-08-06T12:03:00.000-07:00

Hey everyone,

The latest Cry Havoc Onilne is out! Though most of it is devoted to the Lions for Confrontation, there is one thing for AT-43 that really sticks out; the stats for the MedTec unit! What more? You can check it out here.

This has all the stats for it including the answer to the burning question; just who can use this thing anyway? The answer is EVERYONE! Talk about mercenaries, the ONI Corporation will sell their services to anyone, including the Therians and the Cogs! Counting as three medics plus having the ability to bring back a fighter that was killed earlier in the game, they sound like a nasty addition to any force but they have their limits. Their special abilities are very short ranged and if you are not careful the whole unit can quickly disappear without taking a point of damage! But more on that in the next Dispatch... Until then, may all of your dice come up Dragons!

AT-43 Dispatch #2: featuring Incoming!!!, Intelligence Report, and the Unit Review: Storm Golems vs Assault Golems

2008-08-04T01:55:00.000-07:00

Hey everyone,

Welcome to the second installment of the AT-43 Dispatch! In this issue, we will take a look at the new releases that will be hitting the shelves this month, we'll take another look at the Cog preview picture from earlier in the week complete with a little wild speculation, and I have a new Unit Review, this time focusing on the age old debate of which is better, the Storm Golem or the Assault Golem. As an added bonus, I have a little bit of information about the new AT-43 introductory league which starts on Monday and I look at the question of just what is an introductory league anyway? So without further ado, let's get on with the show!

Incoming!!! A Quick Look at the August Releases

August is going to be a big month for AT-43 with several new releases, including the new Operation: Frostbite boxed set!

Included in this set you will find three civil engineers, two crystal terrain pieces, new map tiles, and of course a rulebook which will cover a bunch of new rules for the game; new units for all of the factions to terrain rules and everything in between. It sounds like a definite a must-buy for anyone who is a fan of the game and you can expect a more detailed look at just what is in it soon!

On the miniatures front there are also several new releases that look really good as well.

The Karmans will be getting two new additions to their army; the last of their infantry units, the K-Shooters, and a new hero complete with a Thunder Buggy, Guru Lucius.

The K-Shooters come equipped with a massive ZZ-gun on their back which normally just a potent anti-vehicle weapon, but in this form is even more dangerous. With the potential to rip infantry units apart quickly as well, this will be a very deadly addition to their arsenal especially since the unit has the “Concentrate fire!” ability which lets the player re-roll all of the failed damaged tests. A re-roll to hit and damage? You gotta be bananas not to want one of these! (And the monkey jokes just keep on coming…)

Guru Lucius is a bit more of a mystery since information on him will be coming out in Frostbite but based on the images of him, he should be pretty nasty as well.

The Thunder Buggy combines the best of both worlds; the drum guns on front mow down the enemy infantry before the Buggy spins around to rip apart enemy vehicles with the twin ZZ-cannons. As for the Guru himself, he looks like he can be attached to an Anakonga unit and comes with not one but two drum guns! Like the Anakongas didn’t already roll enough dice when they shoot…

Next is Lieutenant G. Epstone for the UNA.

The really interesting thing about her is that she appears to be equipped with a Death Dealer TacArm. Originally the Death Dealers could only be used in their own platoon pattern so maybe this means that will be changing with Frostbite. Mounting two volcano machine guns each, the Death Dealers are the bane of infantry units as they let loose their torrent of lead and with hero attached they will become that much more deadly!

And of course I save the best for last (Yes, I play Therians…) That’s right, I am talking about the mightly Baal Golgoth, first of the type 3 striders.

Mounting a heavy flamer and a heavy particle accelerator, this strider can inflict some serious damage but perhaps the best thing about it is the ability to reduce the cost of a routine used by the Overseer on board by 1 LP to a minimum of zero! Combine this with the Web Striders advantage and you are looking at the Baal being able to repair for free. And people thought that Urod was bad...

So when does all this goodness hit the shelves? The word from my FLGS, the Little Shop of Magic (you can find the link to his online store on the right side of the page...), is that they will be arriving within the next two weeks and he is already taking pre-orders as well so if you don't have a FLGS that carries AT-43, just hit the link and John will be happy to hook you up!

But before you hit the link there is something that I need to warn you about. When you try to checkout of the online store, a warning comes up that there is a problem with the security certificate. I have talked to John about this and the site is safe, there was just a spelling error on the certificate that triggers the warning (I believe that he told me it says "littleshopofmagic.com" instead of "shopofmagic.com"). So now that we have that cleared up, be sure to hit the link and get your pre-orders in right now! We now return to your regularly scheduled Dispatch...

Intelligence Report aka Wild Speculation

Earlier this week, Rackham released a picture giving us an idea just how large the Cogs are compared to a UNA Steel Trooper. I had posted this before but in case you forgot lets take another look at it.

Seeing just how big these critters are gives us a pretty good idea why the Karmans were used to fight them, don't you think? Mounted on the larger infantry bases, Cogs look like they will be a little taller than a Karman making them the largest race in the game so far. I also think that their size might give us some clues into just what to expect from them as far as unit sizes. Assuming that they follow the same unit coherency rules, they would only be able to fit so many troops within 10cm of the leader due to the larger bases so I expect that they will probably run up to a maximum of eight troopers in a regular unit.

The type 3 troops will be a different story but I am inclined to think that they might follow the Karman lead and just put two into a unit for the Cogs as well. That said, I can see how they might push it as high as three but more than that just seems like it would be too unbalanced.

Of course only time will tell just how far off base I am, but if you have any thoughts of your own about it be sure to post a comment!

Unit Review Storm Golems vs. Assault Golems

It has been a while since I have done a unit review so I decided that it is time to fix that! I was recently asked by a new player which units he should look at getting first for a Therian army. For most of the units, it was pretty cut a dried but the two that really stumped me are the Storm and Assault Golems. They both have some definite pros and cons so lets take a look at the both, starting with the Storm Golems.

Storm Golems were the first Therian infantry unit introduced in AT-43. Equipped with nanoblasters, sonic guns, and reaper blades, they were supposed to be one of the first lines of defense against the invading Avans and I suspect that they are probably the most common Therian mini out there today. Heck, all you have to do is pick up the Operation: Damocles boxed set and you get eight of them!

Taking a closer look, they are faster and tougher than most of the Avan units. In addition, they are equipped with both a decent short to medium ranged weapon and a powerful close combat weapon. This makes them very versatile on the battlefield, wearing down their opponents with ranged fire before charging in to finish the job. They carry sonic guns or the optional flamers for their special weapons, making their punch against infantry units that much deadlier as long as you can get close enough to be effective. Against armored units it tends to be a different story as they simply don't have the penetration to effectively deal with most of the vehicles that you could run into.

By comparison, the Assault golems are probably slightly less common on the gaming table but they do have some nice advantages. Their standard ranged weapon is the nucleus rifle which has double the accuracy of the Storm Golem nanoblaster and one better penetration as well which is always nice. On the down side the nucleus rifle doesn't have a re-roll on its shooting test so the improved accuracy definitely comes in handy. For special weapons they can field either flamers or nucleus guns. I don't use flamers very often but when I do I am certainly not going to put them in an Assault Golem unit. The Assault Golems already cost a little more that Storm Golems and with the improved range most of the unit has it just doesn't make sense to me to give them a short range special weapon. The nucleus gun is also a great anti-tank weapon with a very good accuracy and a re-roll plus the penetration is extremely good, making it impossible for me to pass on them in favor of the flamers.

So the question still stands; which one is better? Personally I tend to favor the Assault Golems because I like having the extra range but I also tend to face a lot of walkers so having the extra punch of the nucleus guns is almost a must for me. Even so, the Storm Golems do have their own merits and if the conditions favor them (if I were facing a large number of infantry for example...) I would not hesitate to bring them out instead.

Does this answer seem a little vague to you? Well it should because I think that these are both very solid infantry units. Each of them has their own specialty but they are too useful not to at least have one unit of each of them available in case you need it. After all, even if you don't need them both now you might in the future.

Dispatch News: Just What is an Introductory League Anyway?

This Monday marks the beginning of the new league for AT-43. The scenario will be winging its way over the internet to the LGS's that have signed up and people will be throwing down their miniatures fight it out but the real league doesn't start until next month. Huh? Seems kind of odd but I think that I can see why FFG and Rackham are handling it this way.

AT-43 has never really had a solid league going for it. Sure, there was the whole Operation: Damocles campaign but that had a very erratic time table and didn't have much support from Rackham besides saying which side was winning or losing. It seems like the new league will be something more than this since I have heard that there are supposed to be official league kits that will go along with it.

That still leaves the question; why run an introductry league? My own guess is that they want to try test things out first to make sure that they are running right as far as the online portion of the thing, which is a really good idea in my opinion. It makes a lot more sense to work out the bugs first then hit the official league instead of jumping right into the league only to have it fall apart. So all in all, I think that this is a good way for them to start out and I can't wait to get in there and mix it up! But more on that in the next battle report... : )

And with that it is time to bring another Dispatch to a close but be sure to come back next week for a new battle report and I'll also be taking a closer look at all the goodness that is Operation: Frostbite. Until next time, may all of your dice come up Dragons!

AT-43 Upcoming Releases: A New Perspective on the Cogs

2008-07-31T05:55:00.000-07:00

Hey everyone,

There will be more about this in the upcoming Dispatch but I just had to share this one right now. Rackham released this picture of the Cog miniatures that they have been showing with a UNA trooper to give some scale. Well, the picture speaks for itself.

Great googley-moogley those things are big! Now just imagine how big their AFVs will be...

More thoughts on this in the next Dispatch, but until then may all of your dice come up Dragons!

AT-43 Dispatch #1: Karman vs. Therian Battle report, Frostbite Terrain Project, and the Zeros miniature review

2008-07-27T23:23:00.000-07:00

Hey everyone,

As you can tell from the title of this post, I have decided to try something a little different. Instead of a bunch of individual posts throughout the week, I have decided to try typing up several "articles" and posting them together on either a weekly or a bi-weekly basis. There will still be smaller updates throughout the week but I thought I would give this new format a try to see how it works. As always I would love to get your feedback about it as well so feel free to post your comments here or drop me a line at dyssnowman@gmail.com. So with that said, lets go ahead and dive into the first AT-43 Dispatch! Enjoy!

The weekend has come to a close and that means it is time for more from the Sin City Snowman. In this week's dispatch, the Karmans clash with the Therians over some urban ruins in our battle report, we will finally take a look at the new Frostbite terrain that I have made, and I will have a miniature review of the Lady in Red herself, Nina Zero. So sit back, relax, and let's get on this the show!

AT-43 Battle Report 27072008: the Therians vs. the Karmans

Does anyone remember how I said that this was going to be the big rematch for the Semi-Mega-Battle? A gigantic battle featuring the legions of the Red Blok support by the Therians fighting against those dirty apes the Karmans? It didn't quite work out that way. Life conspired against us so that idea had to be changed slightly but that's okay because it wound up being a really good game regardless.

Featuring the more manageable 2000 points to a side, this battle had the Web Striders fighting against Nova. This was a first for me as I have always played Cypher so I was very interested in seeing how another faction would handle. On the Karman side of the table was a King Buggy, a single Easy Trike, a full unit of Wendigos led by Cornelius, and a full unit of Kaptars led by a Saint. My side of the table had a unit of Assault Goliaths, a unit of Bane Goliaths, two small units of Storm Golems led by Deltas, Babylon Zero, and a Hekat piloted by an Alpha overseer. For our battlefield, we used a 4' x 6' table with some of the Shop terrain on it; mostly ruins but there was a small stream and pond as well. Here is a view of the table looking down it from the right hand side.

Since I was facing Nova I was able to choose who would move first so needless to say it was me. Go figure! One of the small Storm Golem units moved onto the center of the board first, taking position behind a platform.

Normally I would put one of my more powerful units first in the sequence but this time I wanted to see how the Karmans would be deploying their big guns first.

The Kaptars moved on next, following my lead as they took up position behind a ruin on the center of their side of the board.

My second Storm Golem unit came on next, this time on the far left side of the board.

I was a little worried that they might be too far from the center to really do anything in the battle but it seemed like a good position overall; good cover and it meant that I might be able to hit the Karmans on their flank.

The Wendigos were next onto the board.

Positioned to the left of the center, they were in a good position as far as cover went since there was no way that I could get a good shot on them in the first turn.

My Assault Goliaths were next, taking up position to the left of the Storm Golems in the center.

Letting lose with all their weapons they managed to wipe out four of the Kaptars on the other side of the board, including the Saint! Now I just had to get rid of Cornelius to reduce his LPs to the point that I could really start using my routines effectively...

The King Buggy moved on next taking position next to the battered Kaptars before opening fire with its ZZ cannons against the Assault Goliaths.

The deadly rain of blasts proved to be too much for them as every single was blasted to scrap.

Seeking revenge, the Banes moved onto the battlefield next stepping over the broken shells of the fallen brothers.

Opening fire on the King Buggy, three of the shots managed to pierce the vehicle's armor, damaging the frame and knocking out its engines.

The Easy Trike moved on next to the now stationary King Buggy and tried to open fire on the Banes.

Realizing that he couldn't actually do this, he opted to go onto overwatch instead so that he could wait for a more promising target.

The Hekat went next, running up the right side of the battlefield.

Using Dash is always the best way to move a Hekat but since the Karmans still had most of their LPs, I didn't see the point in even trying. Besides, moving at a rush still got it into a nice and safe location even without the extra 10cm.

The Lady in Red was next, moving up beside the Banes to open fire on the Easy Trike.

Finally having a target, the Trike opened fire with its jammers and totally failing to hit Babylon Zero. I opened up with both of my v2.0 medium nucleus cannons and BAM!!!

You gotta love that! Then I tried to use her special Zero Fire routine thinking that it was free since she was a Web Strider, at which point my opponent reminded me that a routine can not cost less than 1 LP with their advantage and he was canceling it. Grrr... I rolled my damage and somehow only managed to destroy one of the jammers with that volley of fire.

This brought the first turn to a close with the Karmans leading 2 VPs to my 1 VP.

For the second turn I moved Babylon Zero first positioning her behind one of the buildings so that I could avoid some of the heavy fire that would be coming from the disabled King and the Trike.

I had hoped that I might be able to get a shot off against the Wendigos but with most of that unit in cover I decided against it. And for some reason I didn't bother to put her onto overwatch... D'oh!

The Kaptars went next, running up behind the King Buggy so that the mechanic could get the ZZ cannon back online.

Opening fire on the now mobile King Buggy, my Banes were able to inflict two more points of damage to the frame as well as take out one of the ZZ cannons before moving into cover behind the nearby platform with the Storm Golems.

The Easy Trike moved next, flying forward to open fire on Babylon Zero at close range.

Amazingly enough, the Trike once again failed to connect with the Golgoth and sent its energy blasts winging off into the distance.

My Hekat was next up in the sequence, running forward to get into position to attack next turn. I would have been there sooner if I had used Dash but at least it was still able to move at a pretty good clip without it.

The Wendigos went next, advancing slowly but surely through the ruins toward the main conflict.

The second turn ended with both of my Storm Golem units moving into what I was hoping were better positions. On the far left, the unit advanced around the ruin and went onto overwatch.

The unit in the center moved up onto the platform they had been hiding behind, took cover and also went onto overwatch.

This brought the second turn to a close with no change in VPs, leaving the Karmans leading 2 VPs to my 1 VP.

I opened the third turn with Babylon Zero firing on the Easy Trike. At that range it was an automatic hit but I failed to penetrate his armor with even a single shot! With that jammer still to worry about, I pulled further back behind the building to get some cover.

I quickly wondered why I bothered as the Easy Trike flew over the building to get a line of sight on my Golgoth. Now just why did the Therians give the Karmans anti grav vehicles again?

Letting lose with the jammer, it finally managed to score a hit on Babylon, damaging both the frame and one of the cannons.

The Hekat charged forward, finally closing with the King Buggy and ripping into it with its grim scythes, scoring two points of damage on its frame.

The Wendigos advanced again and were finally close enough to join in the fray!

Splitting their fire, the grenade launchers pounded on the Storm Golems that were on the platform, killing all but two of them, while the zz rifles opened fire on the Banes, who amazingly survived unscathed! An incredible stroke of luck that was followed up with none of their shots managing to connect as the returned fire on the Wendigos before moving into cover further behind the platform.

The Kaptars were next up and repaired the engine of the King Buggy before the snipers took out one of the two remaining Storm Golems left in the center.

Managing to make his morale check with flying colors, that last Golem was so motivated that he sprang to his feet to climb down off of the platform!

Well, I actually forgot that he was grounded but it sounds good, doesn't it?

Spinning around, the King Buggy turned its rear flamers to the Hekat and engulfed the Golgoth in twin balls of fire.

Thankfully for me it armor withstood the inferno and it emerged blackened but undamaged.

The Storm Golem unit on the far left moved next, closing with the Wendigos but ultimately no where near enough to be able to actually have their nanoblasters be effective though the sonic gun did manage to score one casualty.

This brought turn three to a close with the Karmans at 3 VPs to my 1 VP.

The fourth turn opened with a bang as Babylon Zero opened fire on the Easy Trike, damaging its engines, destroying its other weapon and pounding on its frame.

Turning their attention to the Storm Golems on the left, the Wendigos advanced toward them and then let loose with all of their weapons.

Just how many dice is that?

And this is not including the four dice from the grenade launchers! Needless to say that unit was wiped out in short order.

Running up behind the Wendigos, I was hoping to go right through the unit with the Hekat but just came up short. Even so I was still able to take out the two that were in contact.

Did anyone else know that a Wendigo is the perfect size to do this?

Advancing around the King Buggy, the Kaptar snipers fired on the Hekat while the other two went onto overwatch.

Most of the shots glanced harmlessly off its armor, but one shot managed damaging its legs.

Moving out of their cover, the Banes took position to fire on the Kaptars but no before they were able to get off their own shoots.

One of the Banes went down in the fire fight but the two that were left quickly took out the last of the Kaptars.

The King Buggy then moved forward and let loose another broadside at the Hekat.

Once again I was lucky as the only damage it took was one point to the frame.

The lone Storm Golem was the last unit to move for the turn, moving up with the Banes behind the platform. This brought the fourth turn to a close with the Karmans at 6 VPs while the Therians trailed behind at 3 VPs.

Turn five started with the Hekat plowing through the Wendigo unit and then turning to attack them in close combat, killing four of them in the process.

All of this and yet Cornelius was still alive!

The King Buggy went next, flying up onto a ruin to open fire on the Hekat with the flamer and Babylon Zero with the ZZ cannon.

The Hekat looses one of its grim scythes in the attack while Babylon takes a second hit to the damaged cannon.

Babylon responds by returning fire against the Buggy and does the last point of damage needed to destroy it, finally taking it out of the game.

Cornelius and the last Wendigo move away from the Hekat to try and destroy the last two Banes but fail to damage either of them and are then killed by the returning fire. This effectively ends the game with the Therians winning 7 VPs to the Karmans 6 VPs.

All and all this was a really close game and a lot of fun. There were a number of times that slightly different dice rolls would have changed the outcome for the whole game, which is something that I really love about this game. Usually it comes right down to the wire before someone finally manages to emerge victorious.

AT-43 Terrain Project: Operation: Frostbite Terrain Tiles

I have finally managed to get most of the work done on my Frostbite terrain tiles. Here is a picture of them laid out with a couple of Golgoths on them for scale.

And here they are from the side with a couple of hills that I made as well.

This whole set up is completely modular and it is also reversible with a terrain feature on one side and an open snow field on the other. Combined with the hills, this should make for some interesting games, though I am really interested to see what the official tiles look like so that I can compare the sizes of the various features.

The creavases in particular are a feature that I am not sure about. I didn't want to make them too large as that could make portions of the battlefield completely inaccessible for an average game but I am thinking about making some special ones that are much wider for use in scenarios. I have the Technobridge that was made by Pegasus Hobbies and I think that would be perfect for an objective in a game.

I also made the ice flows as small individual chunks of ice but I think that I am going to make a couple of larger sections that are mostly solid ice flow. Even then I think I will try to work in some opennings through the ice to make life interesting. What fun is ice if there isn't a chance you will fall in the water, right?

AT-43 Miniature Review: Babylon Zero and Nina Zero

This is something new for the blog. In the past I have done unit reviews but not actual miniature reviews. With the new releases coming out for Frostbite, I decided that it was time to take a closer look at what exactly these new miniatures look. First up is Babylon Zero, shown here from the front...

And the side...

Overall, I like the paint scheme. The white "frosting" looks a little rough compared to the studio model that we have been shown but other than that the model looks pretty good. That said, there is one thing that is kind of strange about it. The back of the main body is cast from a transluscent orange plastic which just looks kind of strange. Not a big deal really, it just looks a little odd from the back. My model can also rotate at the "waist" which is the first time that I have seen a Golgoth miniature that was articulated this way. Not a major perk but I think that it is a nice touch.

Next up is Nina Zero. Again, here is a view of the miniature from the front...

And the side...

Like Babylon, the paint job is not bad. At first it looks like the metalics were applied in a thin coat but there is actually an orange wash over the metal which makes it seem this way. Another thing that I really like about this miniature is that the arms and the waist are all movable. Why do I like this? Well, there are a couple of reasons that immediately come to mind. First, it is nice that it is somewhat posable as it makes the miniature more unique than a regular Bane Goliath and a little easier to transport. I can simply move the arms so that it fits nicely inside my container and I don't have to worry about it being bent. The second thing is just the basic fact that I am a kid at heart and this reminds me of the old action figures of my youth. Yes, I admit it; I am a geek at heart but aren't we all?

Well, that is all for now but there will be more updates throughout the week and another Dispatch next week! As I said at the beginning, I would also love some feedback about this new format. Do you like it combined this way or are the seperate posts an easier read? Please feel from to post your comments on the blog or you can send me an email to dyssnowman@gmail.com. Thanks a lot and until next time, may all of your dice come up Dragons!

AT-43 Upcoming Releases: more information about Operation: Frostbite

2008-07-27T00:57:00.000-07:00

Hey everyone

More information has been released by Fantasy Flight Games about exactly what Operation: Frostbite will contain! In addition to the crystal cluster and three O.N.I. civil engineers, it will also have the rulebook, cards to be used in the missions and scenario booklet. There will also be the new terrain tiles in the game which according to Erik at FFG are actually meant to be used with the tiles from the Damocles campaign. Definitely an odd little twist there but we will have to see how it plays out.

We have already seen the preview of how the terrain will effect the game but there will also be weather effects that will come into play as well. The only one that they have mentioned so far is called Cold Snap. While this is in effect, any unit that does not move in the round is destroyed as it freezes in place. Alright troops, lets get out there and do some jumping jacks!

That's all for now but there will be more soon! Until then, may all of your dice come up Dragons!

DUST News: more concept art and miniature previews available

2008-07-26T22:47:00.001-07:00

Hey everyone,

More information is slowly being released on the DUST miniature wargame. Well, mainly pictures actually but they still look pretty cool so let's take look at what they have to show us. I tried to dig up some additional information from the DUST Sourcebook but since it was published in at least a few years ago some of the information might be a bit dated now. Still, I thought I would include it to give a little more depth to the pictures.

First up is Sigrid Von Thaler with what is called her class II robot "Blitz".

Sigrid is described in the sourcebook as being in charge of secret operations and research that is being conducted by the Reich. Overall she sounds like a very nasty little lady with a sadistic streak a mile wide. The basic design of the walker looks very similar to what the sourcebook describes as the Luther which was the first Axis walker to enter full production in 1944. The main difference between this version and what is pictured as the standard version are the weapons. The book pictures the walker with an autocannon mounted on one arm while the other actually has a large metal pincher, while this walker appears to mount two rocket launchers.

Next up is the C2 Mickey armed with a flamer and equiped for amphibious operations in the Brazillian jungle circa 1952.

The Mickey is described in the DUST sourcebook as the the most commonly used walker by the Allies with several different versions in production. This verison has had its howitzer removed and a flame thrower installed in its place. Judging by the pictures, it looks like it also mounts a Browning .30 cal MG in the hull and a Browning .50 cal MG on the cupola. The large drums mounted on the sides of the hull and the back of the turret are flotation devices, giving this version the ability to wade through rivers.

The next preview is of another version of the Mickey, this time armed with twin 15 inch "Bunker Blaster" rocket launcher, used in Western Europe circa 1946.

This looks like it is armed with the standard 75mm howitzer in the turret in addition to the machine guns and the rocket launchers.

Finally we have the latest picture which is actually a piece of concept art for an Allied character, Rosie.

No details about her that I know of but she looks like the Army's ideal version of a mechanic; not only can she blow stuff up, she can also put it back together again afterward!

Well, that is all for now but from the sounds of things on the DUST website we can expect more previews soon. Until next time, may all of your dice come up Dragons!

AT-43 Updates Coming Soon!

2008-07-25T19:35:00.000-07:00

Hey everyone,

I just wanted to give everyone a quick heads up that there will be another battle report going up after this weekend. We are planning on playing the big battle again but with the rules changed slightly to make things flow a little bit smoother for us. As an added plus, Babylon Zero should be making an appearance in the game so we can see just how nasty Nina can really be! Besides, it makes perfect sense; an alliance of the Red Blok and the Lady in Red, who could ask for anything more?

There will also be pictures of my Frostbite terrain going up soon! I finally have most of the pieces done so that I can really show how they will all fit together.

Well, that's all for now but until next time, may all of your dice come up Dragons!

AT-43 Upcoming Releases: more Cog wild speculation and a look at the mighty Dotch Yaga!

2008-07-23T13:17:00.001-07:00

Hey everyone,

The latest Cry Havoc Online features more preview pics of the Cogs and the first look at the Dotch Yaga! Exciting stuff for the Reds and the Squids so without further ado, lets take a look at them.

First up are the new lovable neighbors, the Cogs. This issue included a picture of one miniature from several different angles two of which you can see below.

So the big question is "What the heck is it?" I was going to go way out on a limb here and guess that this was actually be a type two special weapon trooper but I am thinking that it might actually be a type 3 trooper. The base looks a little small for what we can normally expect to see from the type 3s but if you look at this prototype picture it seems like this might just be the final version of this type of trooper.

I definitely think that this image was of a type 3 infantry trooper and it does have a number similarities; the missiles on the back, the bizarre little hand grip things that it is carrying.

So what can it do? I am thinking that it is probably similar to the RPG Kolossus unit of the Red Blok in that it packs the potent twin rocket launchers. Note that I did say rocket launchers because I don't think that these will be the locked shot missile launchers like the UNA loves to field. Rackham minis tend to be very WYSIWYG so I am thinking that these will have two stat lines with four attack dice for each one with a pretty potent penetration. As for the things in its hands, I am going to guess that those are some kind of a short range energy blaster. They look more like some kind of targeting device in the prototype drawing but on the actually miniature they really seem more like a blaster. Am I right? Who knows but it is fun to try to figure these things out and then see just how far off you really are! If you have your own guess then by all means post it in the comments as I would love to hear what everyone else thinks this mini might be able to do.

Next is the mini that the Red Blok players have been screaming for over the past few months. "Everyone else at least has pictures of their support striders so where is ours?!?!?" Good news kids, here it is...

The style seems very fitting for the Blok though I can see some people complaining about the legs looking a little too Therian. The thing to remember is that those two weapons pack a serious punch and would no doubt have a pretty serious recoil to go along with that punch! The mortar has a massive 10cm radius while the gauss cannon rolls a whopping five attack dice!The only good thing (for the rest of us at least...) is that both of these weapons thankfully have relatively short ranges. Then again with the Lady in Red I can actually field one with my Therians but I digress... The only bad news is that the Dotch Yaga is still the last item listed on the current release plan but at least all those RB players with have all their new toys from Frostbite to play with to keep them busy while they wait. Small consolation I know but at least it's something!

Well, that is all for now but there should be more soon! The Frostbite tiles that I am working on are still to come, plus there will be another battle report this weekend and I have some other things in the works as well. So until next time, may all of your dice come up Dragons!

AT-43 Preview: more information about the Lady in Red

2008-07-23T05:00:00.000-07:00

Hey everyone,

Fantasy Flight Games has a preview of the Nina Zero up on their website and I must say that she is looking pretty interesting. How so? Well, lets take a look and find out...

Nina Zero is an omnicron overseer that can be fielded in two different forms; either in her Golgoth, Babylon Zero, or on foot with a unit of Bane Goliaths.

Babylon Zero costs 475 points and comes with the v2.0 medium nucleus cannons automatically. This gives it a serious punch and lets you put a higher level overseer into a Golgoth which is always a handy thing. In addition to this, she has access to the Zero Fire routine. What does this do, you ask? For a mere one LP it lets her choose the location of each impact, effectively giving the Therians access to a mobile sniper equipped with anti-tank weapons. You just gotta love that! At least you do if you are a Therian player...

In her other form she must be attached to a unit of Banes, coming in at a total of 530 points (including a relay for the Banes). At first this could sound kind of pricey but when you consider that the whole unit has access to the Zero Fire routine... Eesh... That's gonna leave a mark! We are now talking about eight shots with a re-roll to hit, plus potentially a re-roll on any failed damage tests (thanks to hyper nano nucleus) and then you can choose where all of those damage points are assigned.

The other ability that Nina Zero has access to is Lady in Red. This lets you include a Red Blok unit in your platoon when you field either of the Zero units. This will be interesting to try out as there are a few of units that the Red Blok has that I would be very interested in trying out. Perhaps the Kossak with its potent rocket launchers? Or a unit of Sierps so that I can finally has some indirect weapons on the board... So many options, so little time...

Now all of this sounds absolutely sickening and it can be but there are definitely ways to counter this rather nasty bundle of joy. First and foremost are any abilities that let you cancel other abilities as they are played, such as the advantage of the Nova faction for the Karmans. Failing something fancy like that, there is the good old strategy of pounding the living daylights out of her. It is only a regular Golgoth after all; hit it hard enough and you can take it out, leaving her on foot and slightly more vulnerable.

So what about if she is with the unit of Banes? If you have artillery, just keep pounding them. Goliaths have good armor so you might not be able to take them out even with a couple of salvos from your average indirect fire weapon but you can knock them down which is even worse! Even the lowly Krasny Soldaty grenade launcher with its mere penetration of 4 can pin them down until you can get something stronger into position to take them out.

All in all, Nina looks really nasty but as with most things in AT-43 there is a way to deal with her. The real key is don't just focus on her as that can cost you the game. Try to find a way to deal with her but if you can't seem to be able to do that then just try to avoid her and complete the mission at hand. All the anti-tank sniper shots in the world won't help you if your opponent just won the game by completing the objectives while you were looking for that killer shot.

That's all for now but until next time, may all of your dice come up Dragons!

AT-43 Terrain Project: update on the Frostbite terrain

2008-07-21T03:30:00.000-07:00

Hey everyone,

Just a quick update about the Frostbite terrain that I am working on. So far, I have three 1' x 1' boards completed with another 1' x 1' and a 1' x 2' board that I am working on. No pictures yet but I should have some up very soon. I have also picked up material so that I can start working on the next batch of boards as well so now I just need to wade in there and hack up some foam board, which I think I will go do right now.

Until next time, may all of your dice come up Dragons!

AT-43 News: Organized Play is on the horizon!

2008-07-21T03:18:00.001-07:00

Hey everyone,

Fantasy Flight Games just released the following announcement...

"Rackham Organized Play

It's finally here! Aarklash is banging its war drums, calling its warriors to arms, while the universe of AT-43 is ablaze and can only be claimed by one species to dominate the galaxy! League play for both AT-43 and Confrontation will be starting up at your local retailers on August first. This league is going to be a preliminary one to let us know how many stores are going to run Rackham leagues. This information will be used to figure out how many league kits we should order when we launch our official league, that being on September first. More information for that league will be released at a later date."

Very few details at this point but it is a promising sign in my opinion. My FLGS has been trying to find out more information about organized play for AT-43 ever since we started playing down there so it is good that FFG and Rackham are finally going to do something for it. I have also dropped a line to the person at FFG who is in charge of the whole thing to see if he can give any more information and as soon as I get a response I'll be sure to pass it along.

That's all for now but until next time, may all of you dice come up Dragons!

Scratch that. Reverse it. Aka: Changes, they aren't a comin'

2008-07-18T05:21:00.000-07:00

Hey everyone

As I mentioned, I had planned to change the address of the blog this Saturday but I have changed my mind about this. In fact, I am going to be changing the name of the blog back to Sin City AT-43. Why all the flipping and the flopping? Well, I had originally changed it to Sin City Snowman because I was looking at branching out to cover other games as well, but I have since changed my mind and decided to focus primarily on AT-43. I might throw in a curveball every now and then but by and large AT-43 will be remaining my primary focus.

My apologies for any confusion that this might have caused. We now return you to your regularly scheduled blog...

Changes, they are a comin'

2008-07-16T15:38:00.000-07:00

Hey everyone,

Just a quick update to give everyone the heads up that I will be changing the address of the blog this Saturday (aka July 19th). Instead of sincityat43.blogspot.com it will be sincitysnowman.blogspot.com. I will be posting a note at the old address about the change so if you miss this or you forget it will be easy enough to find my new home. Heck you can even Google me now! (I feel so famous...)

That's all for now but there will be more soon!

AT-43 News: the final faction preview for Frostbite and another picture of the Cogs

2008-07-16T14:29:00.000-07:00

Hey everyone,

Rackham has released the final faction preview for Operation: Frostbite, the Arceo for the Karmans. So what are they like? Let's take a closer look...

One of the most notable things is their advantage; their vehicles can use the "Take Cover" combat drill. This is a pretty serious advantage, especially with the new rules regarding the crystals. Thankfully, they can not field the King Mammoth as that would just be sick. "Okay, my Mammoth with its 16 armor is taking cover."

On the other side of things is the disadvantage, which is that all type 1 and 2 infantry units have one fewer member for the same cost. Pretty harsh when you consider that this means that their minimum units would be facing Morale checks right from the start since they now only contain three troops. You can buy the missing troop back at no penalty (except the point cost of course...) but ultimately this drives up the cost of the already expensive Karman infantry units by anywhere from 60 to 70 points per unit. With one infantry unit being mandatory, this sounds like it should nicely counterbalance the advantage but we will have to see how it plays out on the battlefield.

What about the pattern itself? Well, it is somewhat flexible as you can actually field one of each type of infanty unit if you wanted to though type I is the most commonly available, followed by type 2 and finally a single type 3 option. The vehicles are another story as there are two fixed type 1 or 2 slots while there is a third slot with the type 1 or 2 vehicle option. Another thing that I just noticed is that all of the infantry slots are literally infantry slots which means that with the support unit rules finally coming out this faction could actually field three vehcile choices along with two support units which seems like it could be a pretty nasty combination.

The Karmans also have access to a new piece of "equipment", the Karmic warrior ability. A unit with this ability can either re-roll or force another player to re-roll any test taken by that the unit or a unit targeting it. Potentially a very powerful ability which is why it can only be used once per game. Coming in at a mere +5 APs per fighter (which means that both infantry and vehicles can use it), I can see this ability becoming pretty commonplace. What's an extra 40 points to be able to re-roll that critical cover save?

Last but not least, Rackham has also released another preview picture of the Cog miniatures. These are very similar to the last ones except that they don't have the sword thingee (like my technical terms?) going for twin pistols instead.

This usually means that the unit will have two identical stat lines for their weapons giving them the ability to potentially fire at two different units in the same turn. I say "usually" because the Wendigos changed that as most people probably remember. In this case, I am thinking that they will go with the two stat line approach again but only time will tell.

Well, that is all for now but be sure to come back again soon for more. Until then, may all of your dice come up Dragons!

AT-43 Battle Report 13072008: the Conclusion of the Uneasy Alliance vs. the Karmans

2008-07-15T12:37:00.000-07:00

Hey everyone,

As promised, here is the conclusion to the Semi-Mega-Battle that we played this past weekend! In the last post we ended turn 2 with the Alliance (aka the Therians and Red Blok) having 8 VPs while the Karmans had 2 VPs.

Turn three opens with my Incubus taking the first move. Advancing towards the King Buggy, it opens fire with both cannons but only manages to inflict a single point of damage to the frame! So much for the v2.0 cannons...

The Dragonov unit on the second story went next, letting loose a salvo on the Wendigos again. They inflicted three more casualties, one of them being Cornelius!

Seeking revenge, the King Buggy drifts sideways and opened fire on the Incubus with all of its weapons, destroying the legs and damaging the frame.

The three remaining Wendigos went next. Opening fire with the grenade launchers, they pound the two squads in the ruins, grounding both units and killing seven Kommandos in that single attack!

The Banes were next up. Moving them forward I opened fire on the still unscathed King Buggy, hoping they would be slightly more successful than the Incubus had been. Once again they did not let me down, damaging the propulsion and inflicting a whopping three hits against the frame.

Urod moved around the front of the ruins and opened fire on the now badly damaged King Buggy and managed to blast it apart with a volley of rockets. Turning its attention to the Wendigos, it then opened fire with the AT gun blasting another one apart.

Things were looking very good for us at this point and then the Kaptars in the ruin on the far side of the table opened fire on my now exposed commander. Two sniper shots later and I had lost my leader, leaving the equally exposed Urash as the new commander.

The second Kaptar unit in the ruins on the right opened fire on the Banes next, but luckily for me they were only able to destroy one of them.

My Assault golems in the center went next. Splitting their fire, the nucleus guns were able to penetrate the armor of the Trike to destroy it while the rest of the unit was able to take out another Anakonga, taking that unit down to a total of five troops.

Going back to the left side of the board, one of the Dragonov units advanced around the ruin to try to get into a better position.

The battered Anakonga unit went next. Jumping forward, they could not get close enough to be able to use the flamers but the rest of the unit was able to take out four of the Assault golems in a hail of drum pistol fire.

All alone in the center of the table, Urash moveed to get line of sight on the Anakonga and opened fire. The amazing thing is that he not only hit but he even managed to kill one of them!

The rest of the turn consists of the two units of Dragonovs standing up (always exciting...) and the Storm golems moving forward to shoot at the Anakongas, taking their number down by another two.

This brought the third turn to a close with the Alliance at 10 VPs while the Karmans only had 2 VPs. The game did continue on for another turn but at this point it was almost impossible for the Karmans to catch up. We called the game after the fourth turn with the Uneasy Alliance ultimately winning 12 VPs to 2 VPs.

All and all, it was a pretty good game but there were some things that we need to work on. First and foremost was the army building itself. I have never seen rules that cover making an allied force, so for this game the Red Blok and the Therians each fielded their own company. This combined with the fact that we were playing Nova meant that we could effectively choose to go first every turn which made it feel more like a more traditional "I go, you go" game. This was especially frustrating for us since one of the things that we really like about this game is the dynamic feel it has and that was kind of lost in this game. I have already started asking people about doing a rematch to try a new system which borrows from the rules for allies in Confrontation and would work like this.

One player is the company commander. He has the highest ranking officer in the company and he chooses the faction the army. The remaining player then chooses units according to that army's platoon pattern. To use this game as an example, Urod would have been the commander and the pattern would have been Supra. The Red Blok army would have remained the same but mine would have been slightly different since I would be following the Supra pattern (this would have forced me to drop a Golgoth and field another infantry unit instead). This also means that I would have the advantage and disadvantage of Supra and that my army would only have the basic rules for the Therians (I would still have access to the routines but none of the faction advantages or disadvantages). We would also be pooling our leadership together and putting our activation sequence together which would eliminate the "I go, you go" feel that this game had since each side would be activating one unit at a time. Not sure how well this will work but hopefully we can get together again soon so that we can try it out.

One of the other things that caused some problems for us was the terrain, especially as far as cover was concerned. After hitting my own head with a hammer a couple of times it started to make more sense to me so things should go much smoother next time plus I figured out how to explain it to other people quickly and easily which is always a good thing.

That is all for now but until next time, may all of your dice come up Dragons!

AT-43 Battle Report 13072008: the Uneasy Alliance vs. the Karmans

2008-07-13T23:16:00.000-07:00

Hey everyone,

Another weekend and another battle report, but this one was a little bit different. We had planned on playing a mega battle between the Karmans and the Red Blok, but unfortunately a couple of the players didn't show up until a few hours after we were supposed to start. Even so, we were able to salvage the game with some slight modifications. It featured an alliance of the Red Blok and the Therians against the Karmans. It may not make sense but when you get lemons...

The Karman army consisted of two Nova platoons containing a King Buggy, two Easy Trikes, a full unit of Wendigos led by Cornelius, two full units of Kaptars (one with snipers, the other with ZZ-cannons), a full unit of Anakongas, a K-warrior unit and a K-fighter unit.

On the other side of the table, the Red Blok came in with a Supra platoon containing Urod and four full units of Dragonov Kommandos, while the Therians (that's me!) fielded a Cypher platoon with Nimit-Urash and an Incubus (both with the v2.0 upgrade on the nucleus cannon), a full unit of Assault golems, a full unit of Storm golems, and a unit of Bane Goliaths. All told, it was about 4300 points on each side, making this one of the largest games that we have played.

The terrain was some of the generic ruins that the Shop has which was both good and bad. While it was nice to have a selection of terrain to choose from, it was not just containers and low walls so we had to wing it on how it would effect the game at times.

Another factor was the size of the board. We have gotten used to playing on the 4' x 3' Damocles map while this table was a massive 6'x4'! There would be no moving onto the board and straight into combat this time.

Since we were facing Nova, we had the choice of who activated first in the turn so we decided to go Therians first, followed by the Red Blok, and finally the two Karman platoons. First up, moved my Assault golems onto the center of the board and attempted to both take cover and go onto overwatch, only to have the drills cancelled by the Karmans. I issued the take cover drill again and this time they choose not to cancel it.

Next, Urod walked onto the left side of the board and after a little bit more of the Nova cancel dance was put onto overwatch.

The first unit of Anakongas moved in next, taking position in the ruined building in the center of their side of the table.

They were followed by the Kaptars who moved in the ruins on the right side of the board.

Swinging back around to me again, I brought on my unit of Storm golems, positioning them completely out of harms way behind a building on the right corner of the field. This unit contained my force commander and there was no way that I was going to let the Karmans taking him out this early in the game!

The first of the Dragonov Kommando units moved onto the board next, taking cover inside the ruins on the left beside Urod.

The King Buggy came on next, taking position behind the ruin the Anakongas were in. I had expected it to come in blazing, but this battle was rapidly becoming a game of defensive posturing on both sides.

Cornelius and his Wendigos moved in next, taking position behind a platform on the left side of the board. Two times around the table and still a shot has not been fired! It's just scary I tell you...

My Banes were next, moving into cover beside the hill on the left side of the board. No good shots were available yet and I didn't feel like losing them this early in the game so cover was the way to go.

The second Dragonov unit moved on next, literally right next to the other Kommando unit.

The K-warriors moved on next but they did not fire even though they had line of sight to my Assault golems! I have never faced these before but from what I have heard, I was glad that I was not the center of their attention!

The K-fighters moved onto the right side of the board next, taking position near the ruins that the Kaptars had moved toward.

Nimit was next onto the board and the first to draw blood! Moving up the center of the board, I opened fire on the two K-warriors and was able to take both of them out in one salvo! So much for the Karman Mortars of Doom...

The third unit of Dragonovs came on next and I have to say that it is a good thing that I managed to take out the K-warriors otherwise these guys might have been sitting ducks! They must be having one heck of a Blok party though...

The second unit of Kaptars appeared next and took up position right beside the Anakongas and the King Buggy. Must have been some bananas in those ruins to be getting all of the attention that the monkeys were giving it.

Next up was the unit of Easy Trikes who positioned themselves right on top of the same ruins but unlike the rest of the units there, they actually opened fire! Launching a salvo of jammer bolts at Nimit-Urash, I managed to get lucky as they only did one point of damage to the frame and one point to the nucleus cannon.

Just a quick note about this picture... The second trike is supposed to be on top of the base on the left but unfortunately the post has broken and John has not been able to find a good way to repair it. Any suggestions on how to fix this while still keeping it so that you can add the altitude riser are appreciated!

My Incubus moved on next right beside Nimit and opened fire on one of the Trikes. Those things are far too dangerous to leave on the field but unfortunately for me I was only able to do one point of damage to the frame and take out its engines. It might not be able to move next turn, but I still had to worry about those jammers!

The last Dragonov unit moved on to the board next and thanks to some fancy shooting on their part, the damaged Easy Trike lost one of its weapons. Huzzah!!! Now I only had to worry about three jammers instead of four...

This brought the first turn to an end with both sides at 0 VPs.

For the second turn, I activated first and moved my Incubus even closer to the Easy Trikes. I opened fire on the damaged one and managed to blow it apart, leaving only one on the field.

Urod went next and thanks to my urging opened fire on the last Trike. Unfortunately I didn't realize just how bad its accuracy was until I watched all of the shots sail off into the blue. Whoops!

Moving out of cover, the Anakongas jumped out into the open as they started to advance across the battlefield.

This was followed by the Easy Trike moving right in front of them so that it could open fire on Nimit. Even with the intervening terrain, he was still able to do two more points of damage to my frame leaving Nimit in pretty rough shape, especially since he could cancel my repair routines!

Nimit returned fire, managing to destroy the Trikes engines and take out one of the weapons!

One of the Dragonov units went next moving out of cover to shoot at the K-fighters across the board with their AT gauss guns. Even at that extreme range one shot managed to find its way home, taking out one of the fighters.

The Kaptars hiding in the ruin on the center of the board opened fire in response to the death of their brother and managed to take out the medic and two of the three AT gauss gunner. A painful price but hopefully one that would be worth it. The Wendigos followed this, moving up onto the platform that they had been taking cover behind to get into a better firing position.

My Banes went next, moving from their cover to line up a salvo against the one remaining K-fighter. Unloading all six nucleus guns, they managed to finish off that unit in short order.

The King Buggy moved next, flying around the ruin to take a firing position against my Incubus. Thankfully the rubble provided some meager cover against the few ZZ cannon shots that found their mark, leaving me completely undamaged.

The Kaptars in the ruin on the right side of the board moved up onto the second floor and opened fire on the badly damaged Nimit, inflicting just enough damage to destroy the Golgoth and leave Urash standing there feeling quite vulnerable.

On the other side of the board, one of the Dragonov units moved further into their ruin and the three AT gauss gunners climbed up to the second floor to try and get some shots off against the Wendigos. Sighting the movement, the Wendigos opened fire with their ZZ rifles and the two grenade launchers, wiping out the gunners and knocking the rest of the unit to the ground.

My Assault golems in the center moved next, coming out into the open to fire on the Trike with the nucleus guns and the Anakongas with their rifles. I failed to wound any of the Anakongas but I did manage to take out the last weapon on the Trike! Now I just had to destroy it before the Karmans could move a mechanic up to repair it...

Back on left side, another unit of Dragonovs moved to the second story to open fire on the Wendigos. Raining down gauss rounds on the platform, they succeeded in killing three of the armored apes.

My last unit to move this turn was my Storm golems on the right. I was hoping that the Karmans might have depleted enough LPs that I could create a Hekat so I had to move my commander out into the open, but no such luck. Even so, I did manage to take out two of the Anakongas at pretty extreme range so it seemed like it was worth it.

The Red Blok had the last move of the turn as the final Dragonov unit on the far left advanced up behind Urod, as you can see here in the picture of the Red Blok Party House.

As turn two came to a close, the Uneasy Alliance found itself ahead 8 VPs to 1 VPs. Was the game over? Were the Karmans able to make a comeback? Come back tomorrow for the exciting conclusion of the Semi-Mega-Battle!!!

AT-43 Upcoming Releases: Some Wild Speculation on the ONI and the Cogs

2008-07-12T23:31:00.001-07:00

Hey everyone,

The weekend is finally here so I can finally throw in my own wild speculation about the prototypes for the ONI and the Cogs. So without further ado, let's get to it.

First up is the ONI trooper. I am thinking that this will probably be a type 2 infantry trooper, mainly because of the weapon that he is carrying. It seems to be some kind of energy weapon (I am guessing a laser rifle similar to the one used by the UNA) which typically is given to the elite troopers. The type 1 units for both the RB and the UNA are only equipped with assault rifles so I don't see any reason for ONI to be diferent.

The other thing which really stands out is the face mask. Most of the other human units that have face masks also have some kind of an optical enhancement (ie the triple lens of the UNA) but in this case I don't think that it will have any effect in the game. It looks to be just some kind of a gas mask which looks cool but there is nothing in game that I can think of that it would really protect you from.

Next up is the ONI version of the TacArm. The weapons look like they must be some kind of an energy weapon, probably a particle gun of some kind. That big X for the opening of the barrel just makes me think of the nucleus cannon on the Golgoths.

The really weird looking thing about this figure is actually the torso and the arms. The detailing on the torso is very odd looking and the upper arms appear to actually be arms rather than armor. This makes me think that these TacArms might be on the low end as far as armor goes simply because they don't seem to have the armor plating that the UNA TacArms do. I also wonder if they will have the gyroscopes that the UNA has because they look very top heavy. Seems like some odd compromises but it all depends on how many points they cost to field.

Finally we have the first of the Cog prototypes and they look pretty sweet! They are definitely some kind of an assault troop but I am not sure which type they will be. Just looking at the picture, they look like they have almost no armor on but all have something attached to their back. Maybe some kind of a force field? The Cogs are supposed to be a very advanced race so who knows what to expect from them as far as technology.

For their weapons, they seem to be equipped with an energy blaster but they look like they have some kind of sight on top of the gun so their range might not be to bad for an assault weapon. As for the "swords" I am not sure what to make of them. At first glance they looked like some kind of chainsword but what I first though were teeth on the blade are actually posts. I am guessing that these posts either generate some kind of force field around the "blade" or possibly a disruption field. Which ever it is, it will probably be a fairly potent hand to hand weapon. After all, the Therians had to bring in the Karmans to bring their war against the Cogs to a standstill so the Cogs must be some pretty nasty customers.

Well, that is about all for now except that Rackham has updated their release plan. In addition to extending it further out than before, they added a little something for the Therians in the same wave as Operation: Frostbite.

Ain't she purdy? (What did you expect? I am a Therian player after all...). So until next time, may all of your dice come up Dragons!

AT-43 News: another Frostbite preview

2008-07-09T13:23:00.000-07:00

Hey everyone,

The latest update from Rackham is a doozy with lots of great stuff in it. First is the new faction for the Red Blok, the GenCol. For those of you that don't know, this group is actually mentioned in the RB Army book and they are responsible for everyone's favorite clones, Odin and Manon. So what does the faction look like? For their advantage they can field several copies of the same hero and they can ignore the limitations on officers. Wanna field two Urods? Knock yourself out!

Their disadvantage is that any unit that does not have an officer is eliminated as soon as the player doesn't spend LPs to activate it. I have to admit that I am not too sure how this is really a disadvantage; I have never seen a RB army with so few LPs that it could not activate all of its units twice in one turn if they wanted to, but time will tell.

As an added bonus, GenCol also has access to bacteriological grenades. There are effectively a locked damage weapon, causing two points of damage on a 5+ regardless of armor. Talk about packing a nasty punch!

Now when I first saw this the first thing that came to my mind was "Oh my god is that broken!" but after giving it some more serious thought, my opinion has changed. Yes, the idea of fielding two Urods is sick but then again so is the cost. That is over 1100 points in two minis, which is about enough for me to field a couple of units of Bane Goliaths and an Incubus with v2.0 nucleus cannons, or for a Karman player to field four Easy trikes. So while it first struck me as just wrong, it really is not that bad once you stop and think about it.

As for the grenades, these also are not as bad as they first sounded to me. A 5+ damage test against everything is pretty potent but they have to hit first and with an accuracy of 1, it will make it tricky to say the least.

Well, that is it for now but come back soon for the first of the preview pics of the Cogs and ONI plus some wild speculation on all of them. Until next time, may all of your dice come up Dragons!

AT-43 Preview: More Frostbite Excerpts and a Painted Comparison

2008-07-03T06:02:00.000-07:00

Hey everyone,

Rackham has released two more excerpts from Frostbite, the first about the new Morningstar faction for the UNA while the second is H/Babel faction for the Therians. Both these have new special rules and platoon patterns letting you add another new dimension to the battles on Elysee. Definitely worth taking a look at.

Personally I am especially interested in the H/Babel faction for the platoon pattern that they have. Focusing more on the type 1 and 3 infantry units than most of the other factions, H/Babel also includes type 1 armored fighting vehicles as an option rather than a mandatory choice to fill out the platoon. With Hekats being so hard to come by and the Succubus not even being available yet, this makes this pattern very workable for me. The advantage and disadvantage are different but it is the flexability that really interests me the most. And as an added plus, the H/Babel excerpt also includes the official rules for the v2.0 nucleus cannon upgrade on the Golgoths. Man I love that thing...

One last thing of note is this picture comparing the studio version of the Red Blok Molot with the production version.

There are some slight differences but they really are very minor. Definitely a great job by Rackham on this one and proof that the paint jobs are only getting better.

That is all for now but I should have some more pictures of my Frostbite terrain soon. Holidays and overtime making working on gaming projects a little challenging... Until next time, may all of your dice come up Dragons!

AT-43 Battle Report 29062008: Therians vs. Red Blok (but this time they have infantry!)

2008-06-30T01:20:00.000-07:00

Hey everyone,

As you can tell from the title, I was able to get in a game today! Definitely had a good time and it could have gone drastically different if not for one dice roll but more on that later.

For this battle, I faced off against James again but this time he had his own army and they were quite a bit different from anything that I have faced before, at least as far as the Red Blok are concerned. Instead of fielding a Frontline faction as most of the RB players in town have done, James decided to focus on Supra and more specifically the Dragonov Kommandos. His entire platoon was made up of full Kommando squads lead by the twins in Urod (I tell you there is just no escaping them...). Let me tell you it was weird seeing infantry on the opposite side of the board...

As for my own troops, I was fielding Nimit Urash (with the v2.0 upgrade), an Incubus (also with the v2.0 upgrade), a full unit of Assault Golems, a unit of Storm Golems, and a unit of Bane Goliaths. Not sure what to expect from his side, I decided to keep the Storm Golems and Banes as my reinforcements so that I could get the larger Assault Golem unit onto the board to soak up some shots.

Rolling for Authority, James won and deployed Old Faithful first, moving Urod onto the board and putting it on Overwatch.

I was instantly regretting putting Nimit at the top of my sequence but I decided to just get it over with and walked him onto the board directly across from Urod.

It had barely stopped moving when Urod opened fire scoring a hit with its cannon (which damaged its legs) and all three of its rockets! Fearing the worst all I could do was watch as James rolled for penetration only to see three 1's staring back at me. By some bizarre twist of fate, all of the rockets had plowed into Nimit but none of them damaged him! Knowing that my luck could only hold out for so long, I opened fire on Urod and managed to inflict a point of damage on it frame before ending the activation by creating a Hekat.

Next James brought the first of his Kommando units onto the board and he let loose with three AT gauss guns into the Hekat, damaging the frame and destroying one of the weapons. Not a big loss in my mind since I tend to use them as fire magnets anyway but knowing that there was another three AT gauss guns coming onto the board before the end of the turn was not too reassuring.

My Incubus moved in next taking position near Nimit before openning fire on Urod. I had contemplated trying to thin out the Kommando unit but Urod is a tough target to pass up which in the end I was glad I did not do. Three of the shots from the v2.0 cannons managed to punch through Urod's armor, damaging its legs and taking the total frame damage up to three! One more to go...

The second unit of Kommandos then moved on and opened fire on the Incubus but they only managed to damage one of the cannons, leaving my striders all in really good shape as the turn was coming to a close. The only thing left to do was move on my Assault Golems.

Once they were on the board, both of the Kommando units opened fire on them (James had used split fire and put the light weapons onto overwatch). In another stroke of luck, I only lost three of the Golems after both of the Kommandos had fired and all of my nucleus guns had survived! Training in on Urod, the three gunners opened fire and managed to inclict the last point of frame damage! The last two Golems opened fire on the twins as the dove from the smoking hulk but both shots failed to penetrate their meager armor. Just have to deal with them next turn...

This brought the first turn to an end with neither side scoring any VPs or RPs and also creating a very image as the RB foot units had to face off against the Therian armor units.

Rolling for Authority on the second turn, James managed to win it again (no big surprise there as the twins were still alive and kicking...). The first thing he did was move the twins into the relative safety of the factory to get them out of the line of sight with my striders.

Definitely a wise move but unfortunately they just could not get far enough away from the Hekat which activated next and dashed over to give them an old fashioned Therian welcome.

James had his Kommandos open fire on the Hekat next, damaging its frame again and its legs but not doing enough to stop it. At least not yet anyway...

My Incubus went next, easily targeting and eliminating the medics from one of the Kommando units. Snipers are nasty things, especially when the weapon in question is also an anti-tank cannon.

James moved his other Kommando unit next, getting them into the factory. This put them at point blank range to the Hekat for his AT gauss guns but through another twist of fate he failed to do any damage! Too much vodka for the Kommandos before the battle...

Nimit moved next, firing as he advanced toward the Kommandos that were still outside but failing to inflict any casualties as I couldn't get close enough to negate his cover save but I was close enough to create a second Hekat that would be sure to make their lives miserable next turn.

Last but not least, I dashed my remaining Assault Golems into the factory losing one in the process but getting the rest of the unit safely into cover. This ended the second turn with James getting 100 RPs for capturing the container in the factory while I still had yet to score any points.

The third turn was the first time that the weather went bad this game and I was glad that I had created my second Hekat before the magnetic disturbances made it impossible.

James won the Authority check again and had his unit inside the factory open fire on the Hekat, finally destroying it!

Seeking revenge, my second Hekat rushed into the Kommando unit that had just destroyed his friend. I failed to trample any of the Kommandos but I was able to take out both of the medics and one of the AT gauss gunners in hand to hand.

The second Kommando unit went next, letting into Nimit with all that they had but failing to damage him. Afterward, he walked around the barrier and opened fire, killing all but two of the AT gauss gunners.

The Incubus then moved forward and opened fire on the two remaining gunners but actually failed to kill them both, leaving one brave soldier to face off against two Golgoths.

My Assault Golems finished out the turn by opening fire on the Kommandos inside the factory, taking out three more them though they were still able to score an additional 150 RPs for controling the containe while I scored 100 RPs for capturing the container on the other side.

The fourth turn was basically just a quick mop up at this point with my Hekat finishing off the remaining three Kommandos inside while Nimit blasted the one outside, winning me the game 20 VPs to 0 VPs.

Overall, I think that this was a really good game and if it had not been for a few key die rolls, things could have been very, very different. It was also nice to face a different Red Blok force then we usually see around here. Kind of strange to see all that infantry out there...

This game also marked the end of our Damocles campaign but in two weeks we are going to be running a mega battle between the Karmans (possibly with some Therian assistance) and the Red Blok! Just how big will this battle be? No idea but I am thinking that we will easily be fielding more than 5000 points a side. Should be a blast and there will definitely be a battle report after that one as well!

That is all for now but I should have more pictures of my Frostbite terrain project soon (waiting for glue to dry as I type this...). So until next time, may all of your dice come up Dragons!

AT-43 Terrain Project: the first step in freshly fallen snow

2008-06-29T06:13:00.000-07:00

Hey everyone,

I finally have some progress on my Frostbite boards! Yay!!! I have only managed to finish one of them but the rest of them have the basic shape cut out and I should be able to get them finished off relatively quickly. I do have one of them finished though which is enough for us to start taking a look at how I am doing this.

The first step for this project was deciding how exactly I wanted to lay it out. For my Damocles boards, I was duplicating the poster map so it was simply a case of measure on the map and mark it out on my board. For the Frostbite board the only information that we have so far is about the game effects of the terrain and some small pictures of what the individual features will look like. Going with this information, I decided to make my boards modular and reversible so that I could get the most out of them, plus it would make it very easy to expand the size of the table later on. I made a quick sketch of how I would lay out the various terrain features on the boards and then I hit the hardware store to get some Styrofoam.

Living in Las Vegas makes it a little tricky to find the good Styrofoam. If you are looking for the white flaky stuff then you are all set but for good quality boards it can be a little trickier. Luckily the Lowe's near my house does carry the blue board in 8' x 2' sheets so I was able to get some without too much difficulty. Here is the board cut into pieces so that I can fit it in my car.

This board only comes in one thickness out here (at least that I have found...) but since thankfully it is 1" which I find it easy to work with. It is much easier to stack the stuff to make it thicker than to try and slice it in half.

Next I needed to start cutting out some of my basic shapes. I decided to make several 1'x1' squares and a 1'x2' rectangle out of this one piece of board with the pieces double stacked so that I can cut into through one layer to create the ice flows and crevasses. Here are my first couple of squares to show you what I mean.

The downside of double stacking the pieces is that I was only able to make enough pieces for a 2'x3' board, but with the whole thing being modular that is much less of a concern since I can just make some more boards later.

Here is a picture of the pieces all cut out; a total of four squares and one rectangle plus an extra chunk that I might use to make some small hills.

I decided that for the first piece I would build a square with a crevasse on it. According to the rules, units can jump up to half of their move to get over these so using that as a guide I cut a 9" long crevasse into one of the boards, making the opening 3" across at the widest point. This is wide enough for most of the units to be able to get across it easily but still adds something visual to the game.

Having cut the crevasse out of one of the boards, I then glued it onto another full square board so that I could make the reverse side a open snow field. Once this was dry, I started painting the board but then I ran into a problem. When I laid out the measurements of the crevasse, I had marked the board with a light blue Sharpie which the white paint was not covering up even with multiple coats.

I hit the internet to find something that might help and did find a very interesting article about using a mixture of baking powder and glue to create snow on miniature bases. I thought about using this technique but since I want to make the boards reversible I decided against it since that would require a pretty consistent thickness on all of the boards to make sure that they lay properly next to each other. In the end I decided to glue white fabric onto the board and finally settled on fleece since my local Wally World didn't carry any white felt by the yard. Here is how the finished piece looks with some of my Therians to give some scale.

This easily hides the lines on the board and I am also hoping that the texture of the fabric will help the individual boards blend in together better. One piece down and four more to go!

That is all for now but there will be more on this project soon plus maybe another battle report as well. Until next time, may all of your dice come up Dragons!

AT-43 Upcoming Releases: the Therian bomb-bot

2008-06-22T02:15:00.000-07:00

Hey everyone,

I was just pointed to this picture of the upcoming Storm Arachn unit. From what I have heard (and judging by the picture as well...) this is supposed to be some kind of a bomb bot.

There is still no official word whether they will be type I or type II infantry but either way they sound like a blast. Sorry, couldn't resist. There is also speculation about whether there might be other variations on this frame just as there are on the Golem and Goliath frames but there is no official word yet. Still it seems like it would be an interesting addition to have a bunch of these little guys running around with nanoblasters on their backs.

As for my Frostbite terrain project, I have been making progress with it and I should have some pictures up within the next couple of days. I am not going to be able to make as much terrain as I had originally hoped but I think that this will give me a really good head start. Plus the whole thing will be modular so adding more will be easy to do but more on this later. Until then, may all of your dice come up Dragons!

AT-43 Preview: A Closer Look at the Frostbite Excerpt

2008-06-19T15:51:00.000-07:00

Hey everyone,

I had a chance to look at the Frostbite PDF, and it looks really good in my opinion. Lots of new things that will definitely add some new twists to the game. Like what you wonder? Well, lets take a look at each of them along with my own thoughts on each.

Civil Engineers
Mobile secondary objectives that you can attach to a unit. Definitely an interesting twist to things, but make sure that you don't kill them! One impact and they are dead with no damage test. The weird thing is that it says that they "benefit from the same movement capacity and abilities as their unit". This sounds like Therians can use Dash on them, and Wing Troopers and Anakongas can use their Rocket Pack on them as well. At first this sounds odd, but I guess that you could explain it as the troops physically carrying the engineer.

Mine Fields
This is a nice looking ability if I do say so. In fact this is one of the few that had me thinking "Man, why can't I have combat engineers?" but what can you do? That's what I get for playing Therians. Still it is a nice little twist, especially when you take some of the new terrain effects into account. Watch your whole unit slide across the ice right into the minefield and BOOM! Admittedly the anti-personnel mines are a little weak but I still think that its gonna leave a mark.

Crystals and Nanogenerators
This is another nice little twist for the Karmans and the Therians. In addition to being scenic elements, it turns out that the crystals of Elysee can be used by the Karmans to focus their minds letting them see slightly into the future. What does this mean in the game? A cover save out in the open. Makes you thing there might be something to this "Karma" thing they talk about...

As for the Therians, the nanogenerators can now be used to reduce the cost of routines used by the unit controlling the generator. Definitely a nice little bonus, especially if you get the company commander sitting on top of one of them and this is even more potent with the Web Striders as this will reduce the cost of some of the routines to zero, zip, nadda. Hmmm... This might be a good time for me to give them a try...

Support Units
The mobile support units sound pretty nice (finally a use for all those extra special weapons!) but I still wonder about the bunker units. Since they can't actually leave the bunker, you realistically don't need any miniatures for them and they don't detail what the new special abilities will be like so I'll have to hold out judgement on these until we find out more.

Troops Transports
In a word, sweet! This will definitely add a new dimension to the game as troops come flying across board to disembark even closer to the objectives. Might be time to start using bigger tables... One thing that caught my eye is that the open troop transports have the troops placed on top of them. Makes you wonder just how big these things will be!

Special Terrain
A new world means new terrain and this stuff looks pretty interesting. Ice flows, water, crevasses, and frozen lakes dot the landscape of this new world, making for some very precarious footing at times. Plus it gives lots of terrain building ideas, some of which I plan to start working on this weekend. Pics once I get some work done on it.

New Combat Drills
Three new drills are being introduced to the game. The first of these, appropriately called Eject!, let's you spend an LP to place your heroic pilot anywhere on the battlefield when their walker is destroyed. The plus is that you might be able to get your heroes out of the line of sight of the giant infantry unit in front of you. The downside is that the pilot deviates and if it hits an object... well, the word Splat! comes to mind.

The second is Fire at Will! This drill lets an infantry hero increase the re-roll score of the unit that he is attached to by 1 as long as they don't move. Definitely not a bad little bonus there but at least you are forced to make some sacrifices to use it.

The final drill is Shield Formation! which lets infantry take cover behind armored vehicles. Definitely makes sense in my mind. If you have a giant armored unit in front of you, wouldn't you try to get some protection from it?

Bunkers
Last but not least the bunker rules are finally fleshed out more. In addition to the rules that we have already seen released earlier, they are now adding structure points to the bunkers to that you can actually destroy them. Of course no mention is made as to just how many SPs they will have but I would think that it would be pretty substantial considering that they are big, reinforced structure. Only time will tell though.

So that is my own take on the latest information about Frostbite but what do you guys think? Do you agree, disagree? I would love to hear your comments either way.

That is all for now but as I mentioned earlier, I am really excited about the prospect of the new terrain types and I am hoping to get a head start on some terrain this weekend. So no battle report but there should be pictures of shiny new terrain pieces. Until next time, may all of your dice come up Dragons!

AT-43 Preview: more rules for Operation: Frostbite

2008-06-18T21:08:00.000-07:00

Hey everyone,

For anyone who doesn't know about this yet, a new preview of the rules for Operation: Frostbite has been released! Want to check out the PDF? Then click here to check it out!

I have not had a chance to give these any more than a quick glance, but it looks to be interesting. Civil engineers, support units, troop transports, new terrain rules, and bunkers! That is a whole lot of AT-43 goodness wrapped up in that PDF, so if you haven't seen it yet click on the link and check it out!

That is all for now but until next time, may all of your dice come up Dragons!

A quick look at what is to come and a special message...

2008-06-13T00:05:00.000-07:00

Hey everyone,

No battle report this week but I do have a few pictures I want to share with everybody so without further ado, lets get on with the show!

First up is the Legion of Snowman! Mwah-ha-ha-ha-ha!!! I recently got to thinking about how many minis I have for AT-43 and though I didn't think that I had that many yet, I actually have around 3500 points so far, plus another Wraith Golgoth that is on order. I know that it still does not compare to some of the massive armies other people out there have but I thought it was pretty cool and felt the need to share.

Next is a much better picture of the new and improved hyperlink antenna that I recently built.

I am really happy with how it turned out, especially considering how quick and easy it was to make. I'll be posted a step by step of how I made it soon, probably next week actually.

Next up is the first piece of Frostbite terrain that I have made.

Another very quick and easy project, I am going to be posting a tutorial on this soon as well. I am also have a few more terrain projects that are still in their early stages, but more on those later.

And last but certainly not least, Urash and "the boys" want to wish everyone a Happy Father's Day!

That's all for now but until next time, may all of your dice come up Dragons!

AT-43 Upcoming Releases: Anuman, Jindo-Un and MedTec

2008-06-11T13:55:00.000-07:00

Hey everyone,

Rackham has just released what I am guessing will be the final pics for the Saint Anuman/Jindo-Un boxed set and the MedTec boxed set. First up is Anuman in all his Jammer n' ZZ cannon glory...

And here is the blurb about him.

""Let those who seek peace prepare for war."– Anuman

Saint Anuman is an officer and a hero of the Karman army. He comes on foot and aboard his armored fighting vehicle Jindo-Un. As a soldier, Saint Anuman can be played leading any type 1 unit (KARE). Aboard his flying vehicle, he is a unit of his own. Saint Anuman is the best officer of the Karman army and a fearsome armored fighting vehicle hunter. This heroic pilot can override the controls of enemy vehicles with his nova jammers!"

Personally, I am not looking forward to facing him. The thought having my Golgoths turn around and open fire on my troops... Nope, doesn't work for me. Might be time to consider the all-infantry Therian army.

The next is the MedTec, which you can see here...

What is interesting about this is the blurb...

"A new protagonist in the war stepped into the light when Operation: Elysée began: MedTec is originally a U.N. interstellar company and a subsidiary of ONI Technologies.

This company sells its cutting edge medical services to all sides involved. Everything that can preserve the existence of a fighter is available: Therian nanotechnology, experimental Red Blok cloning treatment, Karman relaxation techniques, etc. All it takes is payment, with money for those who know of the concept, more often in resources of all sorts.MedTec is not a neutral power and no one will hesitate to shoot at a medical container being used by the enemy. The nurses and doctors working for this company are greatly rewarded for the risks they take.

General staffs on every side can only speculate when they discuss the deals they suspect MedTec has sealed with their enemies. The U.N.A. and the Karmans have an immediate interest: ONI Tech has access to collectivist cloning techniques and to some extent Therian technologies. Neither the Red Blok nor the Therians had any reason to accept a neutrality deal at first. It wouldn´t have been particularly favourable to them since it made their advantages available to their enemies."

Now wait a minute. They sell their services to all sides involved? Sounds like the Therians might be getting access to Medics from this but that just seems really wierd. I have always thought that the Golems and Goliaths are more mechanical than organic. How is a doctor supposed to "heal" a robot? Hmmm... It will be interesting to get some more information about this one.

Well, that's all for now but until next time, may all of your dice come up Dragons!

AT-43 Battle Report 08062008: Therians vs. Karmans...again

2008-06-09T00:15:00.000-07:00

Who would have thunk it?!? Two battle reports in two days? It is madness, I tell you. Madness!!!

Seriously though, I was able to get in another game for our local Damocles campaign. Continuing on from last week, we played the third scenario, Holding the Production Line, except I played against a new opponent this time. Soon to be yet another Red Blok player (but with infantry this time instead of walkers! Yay!), James took the field with John's monkeys to give them a push around and it gave me a chance to try out the new v2.0 nucleus cannon rules.

In this scenario, both players are trying to take control of a factory on the surface of Damocles. Half of the board is outside of the factory while the rest is supposed to represent a few rooms inside, including one of the consoles that controls the factory. Here you can see the field of battle in its semi-3d glory (I never made a board for the interior side of the map).

On James side of the board, he was fielding a Nova platoon composed of a unit of two Easy Trikes (these were kept in as reinforcements), a full unit of Anakongas with flamers, a full unit of Wendigos with grenade launchers, and a King Buggy.

For my army, I was again fielding a Cypher platoon (my old stand-by) with Nimit-Urash and an Incubus Golgoth (both of which were upgraded to v2.0 cannons), a full unit of Grims led by Atis, and a full unit of Storm Golems (which was kept as my reinforcement).

Rolling for Authority, I managed to win and I brought on my Incubus and positioned it right outside one of the entrances to the factory on Overwatch. This really gave me a strong position on the board as anything trying to get into the factory would pass through my line of fire.

For his turn, James brought his Wendigos onto the board first though he wisely kept them toward the far right corner, putting them onto Overwatch but keeping the stacked containers between his troops and my walker.

Next on my side was good old Nimit-Urash along with my new model for the hyperlink antenna. He took up position just to the right of the Incubus and also went onto overwatch, creating a nice little crossfire the Karmans would have to cross to make it into the factory. He also created a Hekat right in front of him like a little rabid dog just waiting to get off its leash.

James brought his King Buggy into play next, but again he positioned it so that it stayed out of the line of sight with the Incubus. As with the Wendigos, the Buggy also went onto Overwatch.

My last unit to come onto the board was the Grim Golems led by Atis. Using dash, they quickly moved up the wall of the factory and headed into the closest entrance. This put them into line of sight with the King Buggy but with their optic camo they were safe.

James brought then brought on his last unit, the Anakongas, and then the bloodbath began. Moving along the far wall of the factory, they tried to run into the safety of the entrance.

Unfortunately for them, they did not quite make it. The Incubus and Nimit-Urash both opened fire on them, tearing the unit apart and leaving only the mechanic and the Guru unscathed. Man, these new nucleus cannons are nasty!

The first turn ended with neither side gaining any VPs or RPs but I did realise that I had made a pretty silly mistake. Since the only units that I had near the hyperlink antenna were walkers, all it could do was sit there and look pretty because I couldn't turn it on. D'oh! It also turned out that James didn't realize that he could have canceled some of the routines that I had performed in the first turn. I had been wondering about but I thought he must have had something tricky in mind. It looked like things might be a little trickier on this next turn.

For the next turn, James won the Authority check and moved his King Buggy into position to attack. Turning to show the boardside of the buggy, he opened fire on Nimit-Urash and the Hekat, destorying the legs on Nimit and putting a point of damage on frame of each walker. The really scary thing (at least in my book anyway) was that the Hekat had been damaged by a flamer!

First up on my side was Atis and the Grims (sounds like a rock band...). Moving quickly into the factory, they were able to move deep enough into the building to capture my first objective, one of the containers.

The Wendigos went next, moving up behind the King Buggy to stay out of LoS with the Incubus and avoid the fate of their Anakonga brothers.

The Hekat went next but thanks to some careful positioning by James it was not able to get past the Buggy to get to the troops. Foiled again! Nothing left to do but attack the Buggy, damaging the engines and the frame in the process.

What was left of the Anakonga unit bravely moved forward to try and reach the Buggy so that they could repair it but they were just short!

The Incubus went next and opened fire on the Buggy, destroying its engines and damaging the frame again, while Nimit followed it up with a failed snipe as shot failed to penetrate the armor. I held off on firing the sonic cannon since I knew that James would now keep me from creating another one or repairing any damage until I killed his unit leaders and reduced his Leadership Pool.

This brought the second turn to a close with no one having any VPs yet but I did manage to gain 100 RPs for capturing the container. Only 400+ to go...

James won the Authority test again but this time he moved his Anakongas first. Running up to the damaged Buggy, the mechanic fixed a point of damage on the frame. It was still immobilized but he was hoping to buy a little more time by fixing it.

Atis was first on my side and I moved her between the container and one of the nanogenerators. With the unit spread out they were in position to control both of these objectives at the end of the turn.

The Wendigos went next and James again tried to position them behind the Buggy while covering as much ground as possible. He was feeling the pinch and really wanted to get those troops inside the factory!

My Hekat then lept into action, attacking the Buggy again but it was only able to damage the frame again. I had been hoping for a weapon, but at this point anything was good!

Nimit then tried to snipe the Buggy but again he failed to penetrate the armor. The Incubus was far more successful, easily sniping the Saint who was leading the Wendigos. This left only the Guru in the Anakonga unit which meant that I could start using my routines again and while James would still be able to drain away some of my LPs, he wouldn't be able to get rid of the all.

Turn four and I was able to win Authority again. The Incubus was up first and opened fire on the Buggy with both cannons, finally destroying it. This left the path open for my Hekat to finally get to few remaining infantry.

The Wendigos went next and ran for the factory. Making it inside the tunnel, they were finally out of LoS with the Golgoths but they still had the Grims and Atis inside to deal with.

Nimit finally managed to repair his legs and move forward, blasting apart the two remaining Anakongas.

The Hekat dashed forward and plowed through the Wendigo unit, killing both of the heavy weapon troops along with another troop. At this point, we decided to call the game since it was pretty clear that between the Hekat and the Grims the game was over.

Overall, an interesting game. I had really been expecting to be facing more vehicles which is why I brought the two Golgoths, but the only other two James had never managed to make it onto the board. If James had also been using Nova's advantage right from the start, I am sure that things would have been different but then again I just noticed that their disadvantage is that I get to choose who goes first each turn. Ah well, you live and learn.

As for the v2.0 nucleus cannons being too strong as some have argued, at this point I have to disagree. I was able to mince the Anakonga as they came on the board but most of the Karman vehicles could have done the same thing if the roles were reversed. It definitely changes the game though as it finally gives the Golgoths access to the kind of punch they should have.

Well, that is all for now but I will be posting a quick tutorial on my new hyperlink antenna soon, plus I am looking at making some terrain for Frostbite. Until then, may all of your dice come up Dragons!

AT-43 Battle Report 01072008: Therians vs. Karmans

2008-06-06T15:06:00.000-07:00

Having completed the first scenario in Phase 1, it was now time for the second scenario, Fire in the Hole! Once again I would be fighting Karmans, but this time I was able to play against Ron who is one of the newer players at the store. For his army, he was fielding a full unit of Kaptars with ZZ-cannons, a full unit of Wendigos with grenade launchers, a unit of K-Warriors, two Easy Trikes, and Venerable Cornelius. (Just a quick note: We decided that heros can be played either with a unit or solo unless the army book says that he must be attached. For example, Urash must be attached to a Storm Golem unit while Cornelius may be attached to a Wendigo unit.)

On my side of the table were Nimit-Urash, an Incubus Golgoth, a unit of Bane Goliaths, a unit of Storm golems and a full unit of Assault Golems. Ron was not fielding any of his experienced units while I had all of my experience on Nimit-Urash who had both the Aimbot and Penetrationbot combat routines (For those who don't know, this means that Nimit has an additional re-roll on his weapons to hit and a re-roll to damage; quite a nasty combination!). So with our battle plans laid out in our minds and the board prepared for the upcoming conflict, we got underway.

I managed to win the Authority check on the first turn and moved my Banes onto the right side of the board, taking cover behind a couple of low walls and securing one of the minor access points.

For his opening move Ron moved his Kaptars onto the center of his side, putting himself in a good position to control one of the nanogenerators.

Next I moved on the Incubus Golgoth on the left side of the board. Having been placed on Overwatch, the Kaptars opened fire on the walker and were able to damage its legs.

In response, the Incubus opened fire with both of its nucleus cannons but I did not shot at the Kaptars. Instead, I made sure to destroy the nanogenerator to deny him the RPs that he would have earned.

Ron brought the Wendigos in next on the right side of the board and my Banes opened fire on them. Unfortunately they had taken cover and while most of the shots bounced harmlessly off of the low walls, one stray blast managed to catch a Karman as he ckeck to see if it was safe.

Nimit-Urash came onto the board next right beside the Banes. He opened fire on the Wendigos with the Sonic Cannon but even with the Aimbot routine he was only able to take out one more Karman! Next, I fired the Nucleus Cannon at the nanogenerator that was near the Wendigos and was able to easily destroy it.

Once I had finished firing, I used the Reconfigure routine to remove one of the low walls that was in front of the Wendigos (I need to remember to do this first next time...) and then I created a Hekat.

Next, Ron brought on his Easy Trike squad and opened fire on Nimit-Urash. As the electrical bolts shot from the two Trikes the scene quickly went from this...

...to this.

For his last move, Ron brought on Venerable Cornelius and placed him next to the Wendigos.

This wrapped up the first turn with the Karmans earning 5 VPs for controlling one of the major access points while the Therians earned a mere 2 VPs for controlling one of the minor access points (since the Incubus cannot control the access point because it is a vehicle). As for reinforcements, both of us remained at our starting values of 300 RPs for the Karmans and 69 RPs for the Therians.

As with the other turns in the game, second began with the roll for Cosmic Hazards, but this time something actually happened! A meteor came screaming down out of the sky headed right for one of the Kaptar heavy weapon troops!

The piece of rock hurtled from the sky, bounced harmlessly off of his head, and landed at his feet. So much for a cosmic assist on this one...

Ron won the Authority check this time and opened fire on the Hekat with his Wendigos. He managed to score several hits but when he went to roll for damage we realized that the ZZ-rifles of the Wendigos are too weak to penetrate the armor of the Hekat! Oops...

First up for me this turn was Urash (big surprise there...). Without his Golgoth he was way too vulnerable so I had him use Reconfiguration to create a low wall next to the Banes and high- tailed it to some cover!

Ron moved his Kaptars next, moving them closer to the Incubus. Openning fire with the ZZ-cannons, he was able to disable its legs and damage the frame but the weapons remained unscathed.

The Hekat then rushed forward and attacked the lead Easy Trike. At this point, they were the only things on this side of the board that could damage the Hekat and I was eager to removed that threat. There was a flurry of grim scythes as it attacked but I was only able to do one point of damage! Rolling for damage, I was lucky enough to hit one of the jammers but this still left them as a formidible threat.

Moving next, the Trikes flew over toward the center of the board and opened fire on the Hekat. I expected the worst but in a stroke of sheer luck they only managed to score two points of damage, one to the legs and the other to the frame!

The Incubus was next. First I repaired a point of damage that it had take to the frame and then used the nucleus cannons to snipe the two heavy weapon troops in the Kaptar unit.

Since Ron My Banes were next and they let loose a storm of nanomuntions at the two Trikes. The shots ripped into the Trikes, destroying the rest of their weapons and damaging the engines one of them.

This ended the second turn with the Karmans now at 10 VPs and I only had 4 VPs. Needless to say I was getting a little concerned at this point but at least I was able to keep his reinforcements off the board.

Ron won the Authority check for turn three and started things out by moving his Wendigos forward to deal with the Bane Goliaths and Urash. Opening fire with the grenade launchers, he was easily able to ground both units but luckily (for me at least) no one was hurt. Then the rest of the unit opened fire on Urash.

This is how many cover saves that I would have to make for Urash to survive...

You can imagine how well that turned out.

My Bane Goliaths stood up next. Yay. (I really don't like indirect weapons...)

The Easy Trikes went next and they quickly moved to the other side of the table behind the unit of Kaptars in the hopes that the one and only mechanic could repair at least one of the weapons.

After this Ron moved Cornelius up to take control of the nanogenerator located in the middle of the board.

The Hekat went next and I have to say that this was one of two really silly mistakes that I made during the game. Instead of simply having the Hekat walk over the whole unit, definitely killing both heavy weapon troops and probably killing some more to boot before I even attack in close combat, I walked around the unit so that I could get to the medic and one of the heavies. What was I thinking?!?!? Grrr...

After all of this, I only managed to kill the medic and made a drastic mistake that would come back to haunt me.

Ron charged his remaining Kaptars forward to engage the Incubus in close combat. For most troops this would be a futile attack, but with their power grips there was a chance that they could do some damage to the Golgoth. Luckily for me only two of the unit could engage me and they both failed to damage my walker.

To end the turn, my Incubus charged forward through the Kaptar unit, killing two troops, and then opened fire on the nanogenerator that Cornelius was trying to secure, easily destroying it and denying Ron those RPs.

This brought turn three to a close and had the Karmans at 15 VPs while the Therians only had 6 VPs. At this point my only hope was to eliminate his remaining infantry to keep him from getting those last five points.

Ron won the Authority check for turn four easily and activated his Wendigos first, which is when my mistake from before came back to haunt me. Opening fire on the Bane Goliaths with the grenade launchers, Ron was able to roll four hits, meaning that each Bane would have to make two damage tests. Considering the low power of the grenades and the fairly heavy armor on the Banes, we were all surprised when he killed not one but two of the Banes!

After that, the Wendigos moved forward and the rest of the unit opened fire on the last remaining Bane, easily destroying it. If only I had just moved the Hekat through them instead of going around them... Ah well, you live and learn.

The Banes were next in my activation sequence, but with my LPs being at a premium now I decided to simply skip my turn rather then spend them needlessly.

Cornelius moved next, getting behind one of the containers and out of the line of sight with the Incubus, which was activated next.

Opening fire on the last remaining nanogenerator, I easily destroyed it and then moved through the Kaptar unit again to try to kill as many as I could. This part of the plan did not work very well as I only managed to take out one of the Kaptars. This was the second major mistake that I made. I should have just focused on destroying the Kaptars instead of shooting at the nanogenerator, though with the dice falling as they did I still would have left one Kaptar on the board which would have been enough to control the access.

After I did this, the Kaptars charged the Incubus again but were still not able to do any major damage.

On the opposite side of the board, I charged the Hekat through the Wendigos killing both of the grenade launchers and another troop and then I killed a fourth one in close combat. Even so, it was not enough to keep the Karmans from winning the day.

All and all, it was a great game! There were several times when we were playing that it really looked like things could go either way, though in the end there were simply too many targets for my Golgoths to handle and no where near enough infantry on my side to hold the objectives.

That is all for today, but be sure to come back soon as we have another game tomorrow! This time it will be the third scenario, Holding the Production Line, and I am hoping to use the upgrade rules for nucleus cannons. Mwah-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha!!! Plus you will be able to see my new and improved scratch built hyperlink antenna. So until next time, may all of your dice come up Dragons!

At-43 Upcoming Releases: Operation Frostbite, Cobra M8 and Nina Zero

2008-06-04T15:59:00.000-07:00

Hey everyone,

Rackham just released some new information about Operation: Frostbite in their latest newsletter.

"Élysée… an orb of ice swept by raging winds and covered in slow crawling glaciers. Its temperate zone is a tundra where even survival is an accomplishment. A few sheltered valleys, kept warm by hot springs or some other climatic quirk, have harbored the Karman settlers who came to study an indigenous species apparently related to theirs.

However, here where life seems barely possible, Red Blok mining excavations have spread like a plague, leaving the ice scarred and blackened with slag. Collectivist industry is in urgent need of elysium, an ore that can only be found on this planet, and the mines clawing at the crystal seams survive the best they can since the beginning of the war.

The planet´s ice fields lie in the shadow of the Therian doomsday devices, shut inside their gigantic fortresses and abandoned by their masters. To those turning their gaze to the poles, these buildings are a blank tombstone on which the stone carver has yet to chisel the name of the deceased. Yet everybody knows the name it will bear: Élysée."

In addition, they also released a PDF excerpt from the campaign book that you can find here. Really good information there, including a history of the planet explaining why the four races are fighting over this big chuck of ice and some info about new units for each factions. Can you say new vehicles and troop transports?

In addition to this, Rackham also released pictures of the Cobra M8 for the UNA and Nina Zero with her Golgoth, Babylon Zero. Here are the pictures with the respective blurbs.

"The Cobra M8 is the latest version of the Defender Snake, designed to improve on the versatility of this assault strider. Equipped with an advanced tracking system capable of following several targets at once, this strider mounts a medium laser cannon and a medium missile launcher.

This makes it the ideal support machine for infantry units and recon striders alike. The targets it does not destroy the first time become easy pickings for the troops accompanying it. Its missile launcher is perfect for destroying armored fighting vehicles, while its laser cannon is a nightmare for enemy battlesuits."

"Nina Zero is an officer and a hero for the Therian army. She comes on foot and aboard her combat strider Babylon Zero. As a soldier, Nina Zero can become the officer of any bane goliath unit. Aboard her armored fighting vehicle, she is a unit of her own. Overseer Nina Zero has her own routine, "Zero Fire", which allows her to benefit from sniper rule even when she moves. Her armored fighting vehicle is equipped with a pair of medium nucleus cannons 2.0, an tweaked version with increased rate of fire! On top of that, this exceptional overseer can recruit a Red Blok unit into her company. The special rules of Nina Zero are detailed in AT–43 Campaign: Frostbite."

Well, that is all for now but be sure to check back soon for the Fire In The Hole! battle report and more. Until then, may all your dice come up Dragons!

AT-43 Battle Report coming soon!

2008-06-02T15:16:00.000-07:00

Hey everyone,

I know that I said that I would be posting a battle report and it is still coming, just slightly delayed. Between thinking that I lost half of the pictures, finding the pictures, thinking that my computer had might be jacked up and the couple of hours that it took to get it working smoothly again... Well, let's just say that I have been a little busy.

But have no fear! I will have the report on the Fire In The Hole! scenario posted within the next few days, featuring Venerable Cornelius vs. Sigma Urash. Who will win this intense battle? You'll have to come back to find out but until then, may all of your dice come up Dragons!

AT-43 Upcoming Releases: the Red Blok missile lock

2008-05-29T14:57:00.000-07:00

Hey everyone,

Rackham has just released a picture of the Hussar for the Red Blok. Here it is in all its Frostbite glory.

Equipped with a rocket launcher and the only missile launcher that the Red Blok fields, this vehicle has the ability to pack some punch. Sure the Kossak with its dual rocket launchers can potentially inflict more damage in one turn, but with the missile launcher the Hussar has the potential to reach out and touch someone from a much greater distance.

As for the paint scheme I am sure that there will be people who complain about this not being in the "traditional" red (in fact people already are). I can understand what they are saying but personally I still think that this is a very nice looking miniature.

So when will it be available? Rumor has it that the Hussar with come out in August but unfortunately this is not official. Don't worry though, as soon as I hear something concrete I'll be sure to pass it on!

That's all for now but there should be at least one battle report coming very soon! Yay!!! So until next time, may all of your dice come up Dragons!

AT-43 Upcoming Releases: the Red Blok hot foot!

2008-05-21T15:55:00.000-07:00

Hey everyone,

Rackham just released pictures of the upcoming Molot type I combat strider for AT-43. For anyone who doesn't know, this walker is armed with two flamers so even those units that are hiding in their bunkers won't be safe anymore. The other interesting thing about it is the paint scheme...

This will be the first of the army book units that will be released in the new camo pattern. Personally I think that the paint job still looks great and I like the irony of it (see the big metal thing that is painted like a snow ball and spews fire? what's not to love!) but I imagine that some people are going to have issues with it. At this time, Rackham has not said anything about making it available in the original pattern but from what I have heard all of the armies will be switching over to the new paint scheme once Frostbite rolls around. Not that this bothers me too much though as the Therian idea of winter camo is red.

Now the big question is when does it come out! Well, Rackham has not put any official release dates on their upcoming minis (rather smart in my opinion as posting release dates only seems cause trouble) but it is listed as being in the same wave as Operation: Frostbite which Rackham has said will be released in time for GenCon which is in August (yes, I admit that I actually had to look that up...).

That's all for now but until next time, may all of you dice come up Dragons!

DUST News: digging a little deeper with the DUST Sourcebook

2008-05-19T02:25:00.000-07:00

Hey everyone,

I finally received my copy of the DUST Sourcebook! Yay!!! So what does this fine tome contain? Well, it gives you some background for each of the factions and also includes some information about the walkers (called Tactical Armors in the book) and infantry units that you find in the world of DUST.

Overall, it is an interesting read but the information is pretty limited unfortunately. Still, I was able to identify the minis that were at GAMA with a little more detail. So, without further ado, lets get into some DUST shall we?

First up is what appears to be the M45 walker, aka Mickey the Frog. This appears to be the standard version of the walker, though the main barrel is different from the picture (it is a much shorter barrel there). From the fluff, this is the main workhorse of the Allied warmachines.

This appears to be a the amphibious version of the M45 (note the barrels mounted on either side of the chassis), but the main weapon is different. The sourcebook descibes it as mounting the same 75mm howitzer as the standard unit but it looks more like a machine gun to me.

The final version of the M45 described in the sourcebook is the "Barking Dog" assault model. This version is supposed to mount six external recoiless guns on an external turret mount. This miniature has different equipment though (looks kind of like they are rockets) so it might actually be a different version of the M45.

As for the Axis walker, it appears to be the Luther, though again the weapons are slightly different. In the sourcebook it is described as having a 3.7cm autocannon but that is all. The other hand is a giant pincher, while the miniature appears to have some kind of rocket launcher instead.

Digging around the DUST game website, I found a rendered image of this mini which is labeled as the Luther C2 while the sourcebook appears to list the one pictured as the B version. Either way, it looks great!

There is some more information in the sourcebook (character histories and troop types) but I'll save that for another day. I have also heard a rumor that Paolo himself might be in town in a few months so I am definitely going to try to corner him and ask him a few questions about the game and the minis.

That's all for now but until next time, may all of your dice come up Dragons!

AT-43 Upcoming releases: more information about Operation Frostbite and the Cogs

2008-05-14T14:23:00.000-07:00

Hey everyone,

Rackham has released more information about what exactly Operation: Frostbite will contain. You may remember in an earlier post that Rackham had said that there would be a "crystal base" and a "large crystal base". Turns out they were being quite literal in the description!

This is the crystal base...

And the large crystal base...

There will also be Civil engineers included in the set. Early speculation about these minis was that they might be characters from the upcoming novel set in the AT-43 universe, but it turns out that they will just be your average Avan trying to make a living on a freezing, ice ball of a planet. Not bad miniatures and they will be an interesting addition to the line, though as a Therian player they don't really do much for me in the game. Could be a interesting scenario though, "Save the Scientists" kind of thing. There is no word as to how many will come in the set, but here are the three that they have released pictures for.

Not quite sure what is up with the third one as he looks kind of like he has a hair dryer with a portable power source. Seems kind of odd to me, but that's Avans for you.

In addition to the miniatures, Operation: Frostbite will also include another story based campaign composed of 37 missions (now that's a lot of missions!), new neutral units (those pictured above plus the MedTec units), new combat drills, troop transport rules (sounds like we can expect some new vehicles in the future), support units rules (finally! yay!), and new units for all four factions. All in all, it sounds like it will be a great addition to the game. Oh, and there will some reversible. outdoor terrain tiles included as well, though I have heard a rumor that the terrain rules are still going to be very limited.

Rackham also released some WIP pictures of the new Cog minis, but unfortunately they really are WIP pictures. Here is one to give you an idea what I mean.

They do look cool, at least from what you can see of the details, but we will have to wait a few more weeks until we get some really good pictures of them.

Well, that's all for now but there will be more soon! After playing on the small boards for AT-43, I decided to make one for Warmachine. Pretty basic overall, but I really like how it is turning out. More on that soon. Until then, may all your dice come up Dragons!

Convention news: Gaming at Xanadu Las Vegas?

2008-05-11T23:40:00.000-07:00

Hey Mom, I'm famous!

Not really, though I was filmed for a commercial today. Our LFGS (the Little Shop of Magic) was having some footage shot for a new Con that will be held next year, Xanadu Las Vegas. Not sure off all the details, but it was an excuse to go get in a really quick game of AT-43 and Warmachine. Here is a picture of John, the store owner, contemplating his impending doom at the hands of my mighty Therians. Mwah-ha-ha-ha-ha!

Seriously though, it was a lot of fun to just throw the minis down and blow each other up for a bit. And a special thanks goes to my wife for suggesting that I go down to the Shop on Mother's Day so that I could help out. Thank you Mrs. Snowman! : ) And as far as the Con goes, I will post more information as soon as I have it.

While I was down there, I saw this and knew that I had to get a picture of it. An ordinary bathroom it seems to be, correct? Well, except that it is one of the cleanest public restrooms that I have ever seen, never mind that it is in a gaming store! The interesting thing is the two cans on the sink.

Here is a closer look at the two cans...

Yes, that's right. John even provides men's and women's deodorant for any gamer who might need to freshen up after a hard fought game of Magic. And yes, they are both labeled "For customer use".

That is all for now, but I am sure there will be more soon (such as the information about the DUST minis once I actually receive the sourcebook that I am still waiting on...). Until then, may all of your dice come up Dragons!

AT-43 Battle Report 27042008: the Therians vs the Karmans

2008-05-04T03:12:00.000-07:00

This battle was the very first in our local Operation: Damocles campaign. Unfortunately there were some scheduling and communication problems for a number of the players (such as "The campaign already started?" D'oh!) but it seems we have the bugs ironed out now and the rest of the campaign will be smooth sailing. Still it was nice as this was the first time that John (the owner of Little Shop of Magic) and I had really been able to sit down and play a one-on-one game.

As with one of the earlier battle reports, this time we played the first scenario again but this time we actually used the full map. Here you can see it in its full 3D glory!

We each would be fielding a 2000 point army for this battle. Here you can see my Cypher platoon, led by Urash himself. In my army, I had a maxed out Assault Golem unit, a minimum Storm Golem unit, a Bane Golem unit, an Incubus Golgoth (proxied in this game with the Poltergeist), and Nimit-Urash. My sole Hekat was created during the game and not part of the original force.

On John's side of the board, he was fielding two maxed Kaptar units (one with snipers and the other with ZZ-cannons), a unit of two Easy Trikes, and a unit of K-warriors. His commander was a Saint leading the Kaptar unit containing the snipers.

John won the roll to pick sides and in this case decided to be the defender. Not a big surprise to me as we had discussed that the scenario seemed to put the defender in a pretty strong position right from the start. Admittedly he does begin with fewer units in the beginning but being able to rack up VPs right from turn one seemed to make up for this drawback in our last game.

As defender, John deployed his two Kaptars on the board (ZZ cannons on the left, snipers on the right) while the other two units remained as reinforcements.

Rolling for Authority, John won the roll easily and decided to let me activate first. First up was Nimit-Urash himself walking onto the left side of the board. I let loose with the sonic cannon and nucleus cannon on the sniper Kaptars in the hopes that I could score some easy kills right off the bat but no such luck. The sonic cannon failed to even hit a target while the nucleus cannon easily took out one of the Kaptars. At least I had first blood but I had really been hoping to do at least a little more damage.

I ended Urash's activation by creating my Hekat right in the between the Kaptars and his Golgoth. As an aside, I have to say that it is kind of ironic that the Hekat, one of my least favorite miniatures for the entire AT-43 line, is now an integral part of my army every single game.

John activated his Kaptar ZZ-cannon unit next. Splitting his fire, the ZZ-cannons were able to damage Nimit's sonic cannon and the frame while the rest of the unit destroyed one of the nanogenerators on my side of the board.

My bane goliaths activated next and I dashed them up to gain control of a container and a nanogenerator on the left side of the board. I had hoped to be able to get close enough to the second container to capture that as well but I just barely fell short.

Next, John activated the Kaptar sniper unit (no big surprise there since he only had two units on the board). Using the sniper rifles, John was able to destroy the sonic cannon and damage the nucleus cannon while fire from the rest of the unit bounced harmlessly off of the Hekat. Things were starting to look a little rough for Urash and this was only the first turn!

The final activation for the turn came from my side of the board as my unit of Assault Golems moved onto the board and took up position behind a container on the right side of the board.

With the whole unit opening fire, they were able to destroy one of the containers right next to the sniper Kaptars. This denied John a few RPs which I needed to do to keep those Trikes and K-fighters off the board. To end their activation, the Overseer used the Reconfiguration routine to remove one of the low walls located right next to the Kaptars.

This brought the first turn to an end with the Karmans having 4 VPs and 200 RPs while the Therians had 0 VPs and 100 RPs.

The second turn, John again won the Authority test (not being able to wager Leadership Points with my Cypher platoon can definitely be a pain...). First up were his Kaptars with the ZZ-cannons. The regular troopers opened fire first, easily destroying the container that my Bane Goliaths were hiding behind. Now out in the open, John let loose with the ZZ-cannons against the Banes but luckily he was only able to destroy one of them.

For my first activation of the turn, the Hekat dashed forward and slammed into the other Kaptar unit. With its grim scythes whirring, it quickly killed four of the seven Kaptars including the Karmans commander.

Moving to get themselves back into coherency, the remaining Kaptars openned fire on the Hekat but were not able to pierce its armor.

The next unit in my sequence was the damage Nimit-Urash. I quickly used the Repair routine to get his nucleus cannon operational again and opened fire on one of the two containers located between John's Kaptars. At this point I was only focusing on denying him RPs for as long as I could because if his reinforcements were able to get onto the board the game could have easily shifted in his favor. After inflicting a damage point on the container, I used the Reconstruction routine on the Bane Goliaths to bring them back to full strength and then used the Reconfiguration routine to bring the low wall back into play and give my Banes some much needed cover.

As John had no units left on the board to activate, the rest of the turn went to me. First, my Banes opened fire on the already damaged container, destroying it and killing one of the Kaptars that was caught in the cross fire.

To end the second turn, I moved my Assault Golems into the open and fired on the remnants of the sniper Kaptar unit. The hail of fire from the nucleus rifles and cannons was too much and quickly cut down the four survivors.

The second turn ended with the Karmans moving up to 6 VPs while their RPs increased to 350. On the other hand, the Therians still had yet to get any VPs but I had moved up to 300 RPs. This was just enough to bring the first of my reinforcements onto the board as I added the Storm Golems to my sequence.

With his commander killed, John's Authority had dropped enough that I was finally able to win the test, and the first unit to activate was the Hekat. Running around the far side of the container, it stomped through the Kaptar unit, killing both of the heavy weapon troopers before taking down another three in close combat.

John made his morale check and moved the stalwart Kaptars to the other side of the container to take cover behind the nanogenerator. With no more units to move, all they could do at that point was sit there as I destroyed the container, generator, and finally both of the survivors.

The Karmans had fought bravely but in the end the Therians were victorious. The game ended with 6 VPs for the Karmans and 20 VPs for the Therians as they took the control of the now uncontested landing field.

All and all, it was a really good game and I had a lot of fun. I think that the easiest tactic for this mission (especially if you are the attacker) is to simply destroy as many of the secondary objectives as quickly as you can. This opens up the fire lane and more importantly denies the defender much needed Reinforcement Points. If John had been able to hold out for one more turn and hold the nanogenerator, he would have been able to bring in his K-warriors which would have changed things quite a bit I think. I have never fought against K-warriors but I know how annoying Red Blok artillery can be since even if it doesn't kill an infantry unit there is a good chance that they will be grounded and effectively rendered useless the next turn. The K-warriors can do this and will probably cause some casualties at the same time which I think would have seriously taken its toll.

Well, that is all for today but be sure to come back again for the next mission in the campaign! Until then, may all of your dice come up Dragons!

Miniature News: more pictures of the DUST Tactics miniatures

2008-05-01T13:20:00.001-07:00

As promised, here are some more pictures of the DUST minis that were at GAMA 08. Unfortunately these are only pretty pictures to look at as information as to what each of these are called is hard to find but fear not! I have a copy of the DUST sourcebook winging its way to me in the mail and as soon as it gets here I will see what else I can dig up about these mechanical menaces. Til then, I hope you enjoy the pictures!

First up are a couple of US walkers.

Next we have what looks to be a picture of some of the product packaging.

I am not sure who or what Mickey is but here is a picture of Joe, Team Commander of a US Special Forces Ranger Squad.

Next are a couple of German walkers. From looking at the pictures, these both seem to be the same walker with a different camoflage pattern on them.

Here is another picture of what seems to be packaging...

...and here is a picture of the Sigrid, Major in charge of secret operations and experimental research. There is also another version of this miniature at the Little Shop of Magic that is in a red outfit but the few pieces of art that I have found her pictured in always have her in black.

Last but not least here is a closer look at Koshka, Special Forces Officer for the Sino Soviet Union.

This is all I have for now if I am able to get more information from the Sourcebook, I will be sure to update the information. Til then, may all of your dice come up Dragons!

Upcoming Releases: Operation Damocles Campaign book and a sneak peak!

2008-04-30T14:19:00.001-07:00

Hey everyone,

It is now official! Rackham will be releasing a seperate compilation of the Operation: Damocles missions from Cry Havoc magazine soon. Here is a picture of the cover...

This book will be 64 pages of full color goodness and it will also include 6 exclusive cards. There are no details about what these cards might be but I am guessing they are probably the cards for things like "Propoganda" and "UNSS Battleaxe" along with the other cards released in the Cry Havocs to represent various game effects. There are also supposed to be rules for playing the Karmans in the campaign as well as the new errata!

Overall, I think that this will be a great addition to the AT-43 line up. Not everyone was able to get the Cry Havocs that cover the game and this will finally let anyone who is interested pick it up and give it a try. It also doesn't sound like there will be a bunch of material that people need to play the game (a good example is the Errata which is already available for free online) so that people who aren't interested don't have to get this book. Already have the rules for the campaign? No problem! You can pass on this one and save up for Frostbite, though I am planning on getting it just because I like the idea of having all of the rules gathered in one spot. Less to forget at the Shop then as well. : )

As an added plus, here is the latest concept picture for the COGS! This is the original image just to give you an idea of how the three compare to each other for scale.

Here is a closer look at the first picture (which I am guessing will be a type I infantry)...

and the second picture (thinking type II for this one)...

and finally the third picture (which I think is the type III. funny how that works, isn't it?).

No details have been released yet, but going by the pictures they seem to have no problem with close combat (note the swords that the two on the left are carrying). It should be very interesting to see where they go with this race and as soon as more information becomes available I will get it posted.

That is all for now, but come back soon for the latest Battle Report (Therians vs. Karmans in the first of our Operation: Damocles battles!) and also for more pics from GTS of the DUST miniatures. Until then, may all your dice come up Dragons!

Related Gaming News: DUST miniature game coming soon!

2008-04-28T20:44:00.000-07:00

Hey everyone,

Just a quick post about a new gaming coming later this year. DUST, created by Pablo Parente, will be released as a pre-painted miniature game and from what I have heard they will be using the AT-43 game system for the game mechanics. Should be very interesting indeed!

Here is a picture that I took at the Little Shop of Magic of a few of the concept minis that they had on display.

I know that John Coviello (the owner of the Shop) also took some pictures of the walkers that will be part of the game, but I need to get copies of these to post here. More on this soon!

Unit Review: the Easy Trike

2008-04-10T05:59:00.000-07:00

Yep, that's right. I am finally doing the Easy Trike unit review. Come on now, it only took me how many weeks to get this done? Seriously though, lets take a look at this piece of hardware for the Karmans.

The Easy Trike is one of the many anti-grav vehicles that the Karmans can field. This feature alone is a nice plus since the Trike can just fly over any terrain that might get in its way unlike all of the other vehicles in the game. See all those low walls that your striders have to walk around? Not this puppy. It also mounts some pretty decent armor as well, sporting a armor value of 12.

Even so, all of this is not the most unique feature of the Easy Trike. That would have to be the twin jammers mounted on the front of this nimble little vehicle. The first time that I had one shoot at my Golgoth, I was expecting to get hit and take a couple of points of damage. An annoyance, to be sure, but not enough to seriously damage my walker unless I was really unlucky. Then I found out that each of the jammers rolls two dice for damage. In one turn, I watched my Golgoth suddenly get crippled by a shot from one of the two Easy Trikes that were on the board! And I thought that Urod had been annoying to deal with...

The irony is that as effective as the Easy Trike is against vehicles, it is virtually useless against anything else. Jammers are completely ineffective against all types of infantry (even the heavy power armor such as the Kolossus and TacArms) so if your opponent surprises you by going completely with troopers it means that you are out 250 points for each of the Trikes. Sure, they can still run over troops easy enough (though in the case of the Karmans I think it would be more a case of roasting the troops with their jet exhausts) but compared to what some of the other Trikes can do that is a very poor substitute.

This leads to the ultimate question, are they worth it? Well, that depends entirely on your situation. If you know that your opponent will be fielding either a vehicle heavy force (such as Frontline for the Red Blok) or even just a couple really nasty vehicles (Urod comes to mind) then I don't think that one or even two Easy Trikes would be a bad investment. If you are looking for an all-purpose vehicle you might want to consider something like the Jungle Trike instead. With its twin ZZ-guns, the Jungle Trike is more versatile since it can deal with both infantry and vehicles quite effectively. The armor is a little lighter on the Jungle Trike, but with their lower cost and more versatile weapons I think that overall they will probably be more effective against a infantry or mixed force.

I hope that you have enjoyed the review and remember that your comments and questions are always welcome. Until next time, may all of your dice come up Dragons!

Battle Report 30032008: the Therians vs. the Red Blok...again

2008-04-03T05:36:00.001-07:00

For this gaming session, we decided to do something a little different. Being a new and growing group, we are still in the process of ironing out some of the rules for the game. We have all of the basic rules down (for the most part at least) but we have never played using reinforcement points. Most of the games we have played have also been these giant battles with two players running 4000 points to a side.

This time we decided to play the first mission for Operation: Damocles so that everyone could get a feel for all of the ins-and-outs of the game. Unfortunatly we were suffering from a lack of containers and maps (I didn't realize that the first mission needed seven containers and we had three sets of players; twenty one containers?!?) so we decided to only use half of the map and we also set the point limit at 1000 points.

We rolled to see who we would be paired off against and as fate would have it I wound up facing Tony and his Red Blok...again. And sure enough, there was Urod...again. *sigh* Ah, well...

We laid out our terrain and then Tony and I were ready to get underway. We rolled to determine who would choose to be the attacker and who would be the defender. Winning this roll, I decided to be the attacker. Since this was only a 1000 point game, this meant that Tony had to keep at least 500 points of his force as reinforcements, getting Urod off the table right from the start. This left Tony with a reinforced unit of Krasyne Soldaty and a single Sierp to face off against a full unit of Assault Golems and a base unit of Storm Golems. Here is a view of the board after Tony deployed his units.

Rolling for Authority, Tony won and choose to activate his units first so that he could give his Krasny unit the "Take Cover" and "Overwatch" combat drills. I followed this up by moving my Assault Golem unit onto the board, keeping most of them behind the cover of the container. The two exceptions were the Golems equipped with nucleus guns.

The Krasny opened fire on these two but the range was too great for any of the shots to hit home. Hoping to remove some of his cover, I opened fire on the two low walls that his troops were hiding behind. Both shots were solid hits but they failed to actually destroy the sturdy concrete barriers.

Tony responded by having his Sierp lob its mortar rounds at the one Golem that he could see and he was actually able to take out two of them in the resulting blast! No where near enough to ground the unit, but it was enough to be annoying.

To wrap up the first turn, I dashed my Storm Golem unit forward and I was able to capture control of the nanogenerator. This left the unit right out in the open, but considering the poor range of the RB weapons I decided that it was worth taking the chance. At the end of turn one, the Red Blok had 2 VPs and 250 RPs while the Therians had 0 VPs and 75 RPs.

Tony won the Authority check for the second turn and opened fire on the unit of Storm Golems with the Sierp, only to have both rounds sail wide of their intended targets.

My Assault Golems went next. Instead of simply controlling the objectives, I decided to change gears a little and deny Tony one of his. My three heavy weapon golems opened fire on the first container and blew it apart. This took away some the RPs that he could earn and it also killed a couple of his soldiers in the process.

To get them into a better position (meaning not on top of a container that I could easily destroy), Tony next moved his Krasny behind the first set of low walls (which were now on the ground) and opened fire on the Storm Golems that were right out in the open. Thankfully my plan paid off and even with the massive salvo that he was able to fire, I only lost one Golem.

To wrap up the second turn, I advanced my Storm Golems again on the left side of the board but this time I was able to get myself into a good position to shoot at the Krasny unit.

The two medics were able to save a couple of the soldiers, but in the end both the sergeant and the heavy weapon trooper were killed. The turn ended with the Red Blok advancing to 4 VPs and 450 RPs while the Therians still had 0 VPs and 225 RPs.

The next turn began with Tony winning the Authority check (again) and the Sierp openning fire on the Storm Golem unit advancing on its side of the table. Here you have a cockpit view of the action right before it fires both of its mortars and misses with both of them. Safe another turn...

Next, the same Storm Golem unit advanced to get right behind the container in the hopes of getting some safety from the Sierp and to gain control of the container and nanogenerator. As an added plus, they were also able to open fire on the Soldaty unit on the other side of the board. After a flurry of nano muntions flying toward them, the Soldaty unit emerged with only two more casualties thanks once again to the steely resolve of the Red Blok medics.

The Soldaty activated next and Tony moved them forward to try to get a better shot against the Storm Golem unit. Assault rifles chattering away, the Soldaty were able to hit the Golems but the simply could not penetrate their armor.

Next the Assault Golems advanced while firing on the Sierp in the hopes of damaging it. Even with the heavy firepower of the nucleus guns I was only able to inflict one point of damage on the frame of the Sierp. Even so, I was able to gain control of the last container on the right side of the board with their superior numbers, giving me precious RPs and more importantly denying Tony the last few that he needed to bring Urod into the game. The turn ended with the Red Blok at 6 VPs and 450 RPs while the Therians were at 0 VPs and 325 RPs.

Having finally surpassed the 266 points that I needed to bring in my remaining Storm Golem unit, I hastily added them to the activation sequence. Tony still could not bring in Urod so there was still a chance that I could win the game. The third turn began with Tony moving the Sierp around the container that it had been behind so that it could get a good shot at the Storm Golem unit. At such short range it was nearly impossible for him to miss but thankfully he was not able to wipe on the unit.

When the smoke finally cleared, one final Golem remained to contest the control of the container and the nanogenerator.

Next Tony moved his Soldaty back toward the container in the hopes that he could inflict enough casualties to regain control of it. Even at such short range, the poor peneration of the assault rifles was too much to overcome as only a single golem fell. In response, the Assault Golems charged forward and as they clambered on top of the low wall two of them were even able to engage the Soldaty.

Both of the golems managed to hit their targets but unbelievabily they failed to pierce the thin armor of the Red Blok troopers! (must tell my golems in the future to attack with the edge of the blade, not the flat...).

As his golems moved to engage the Soldaty, the Assault Golem overseer (who was also the platoon commander) took advatage of the confusion to reconstruct one of the fallen Storm Golems again denying the other two objectives from the Red Blok.

The turn ended with my second Storm Golem unit dashing onto the board and taking up position behind the Assault Golems. Now the Red Blok were at 8 VPs while I was still at 0 VPs but I had again managed to deny Tony the objectives so he was still only at 450 RPs, close to what he needed but not quite enough.

The fourth turn started with Tony winning the Authority check again (need to work on my die rolling in the future...) and the Sierp taking the first action. The mortars managed to hit the Storm Golems but neither of them was destroyed. In a fit of rage, the Sergeant on board the Sierp then charged forward to crush the morphos beneath his giant metal feet. Unfortunately morphos are quite nimble even when they are lying on the ground and he managed to miss both of them.

The Assault Golems moved next, advancing toward the Sierp and ignoring the Soldaty completely. Their only goal was to hit the walker with everything they had in the hopes of destroying it but it proved to be in vain as none of the shots managed to pierce its armor.

Tony then moved his Soldaty forward to try to slow down the newly arrived Storm Golem unit but in the end they were not able to move far enough forward to keep the golems away from the container.

The Storm Golems dashed forward to engage the troopers but again the medics proved their worth saving their fallen comrades. With this turn drawing to a close, we realized that though the Sierp had failed to destroy the Storm Golems when it tried to trample them, it did force them far enough away from the nanogenerator that they could not contest it anymore. The Red Blok was now at 550 RPs, a mere 20 points away from bringing on Urod and effectively ending the game.

The fifth turn, I was finally able to win the Authority test (after investing a hunk of my LPs to do so) and I moved my Assault Golems closer to the Sierp while I transfered one of the regular golems into a heavy weapon golem. Even with three nucleus guns I failed to damage the Sierp and with time running out I decided to concede the game. There was simply no way for me to keep Tony from getting the last few points that he needed to bring in Urod and once that monster was on the board there was no way to keep it from wiping out what was left of my force.

All in all, it was a great game. There was a lot of tension there as I struggled to keep Urod off the table but in the end I just could not keep it from happening. Perhaps next time I will just blow up all of the objectives on the other side of the table... Until next time, may all of your dice come up Dragons!

Gaming in Lost Wages: Operation Damocles comes to the Little Shop of Magic!

2008-03-30T00:19:00.000-07:00

In April, my local gaming group will be kicking off Phase 1 of Operation Damocles. My LFGS, Little Shop of Magic (you can find them on the web here ) is hosting the campaign and we will be playing games every Sunday from 1pm to 6pm for four weeks. At the end of this time, the points will be totaled and the winner will receive a set of shiny, new Operation Damocles custom dice! Here is a picture of the sample die created for us by Chessex.

The final dice will be in different colors but this gives a good idea what they will look like. Everyone participating in the event will receive some participation dice while the winner will also receive a full set of twelve golden dice (well, gold colored anyway...).

I plan on tracking the campaign results on the Little Shop of Magic forums (which you can find here) as well as here on the blog. I am also in the process of making another three dimensional version of the poster map for us to use though this one is going to be a little different from the original. Just minor changes but hopefully enough to make it a little more visually interesting then two of the posters placed side by side. Right now I am still working on it but I will be posting pictures very soon.

I will be gaming tomorrow down at the Shop and I will be bringing the camera so by tomorrow night there should be a full battle report with pictures. Until then, may all of your dice come up Dragons!

Upcoming Releases: the Baal, Avans and more

2008-03-21T12:45:00.000-07:00

Well, a number of things have popped up for AT-43 lately, a great sign that the game is starting to pick up momentum. First off is the preview picture of the Baal Golgoth. This is another type 3 vehicle (like the King Mammoth for the Karmans) and man does it look nasty! And the best things about this are that 1) this is the actual miniature not just a computer mock up and 2) it is slated for release in August! Rackham had announced a short while ago that it coming out later in the year but it seems like they are trying to push up their release schedule some.

There has also been some movement on the release schedule. Rackham recently removed the months that had been listed on the schedule and replaced them with wave numbers instead. A wise move as this keeps people from going crazy saying "Where are the July releases?!?!?" but it still give you an idea of when to expect things to come out.

In the current schedule, Operation: Frostbite has been moved back a wave while the MedTec unit box has been moved up a wave. This basically means that the first of the new units will be hitting the shelves a month or so before the Operation: Frostbite comes out giving us a chance to try them out before they throw the next campaign at us.

In addition, they have added some things to the wave that Frostbite is now part of (officially listed as Wave 6).

The Karmans get more K-Fighter love with the release of the K-Shooters. Packing a massive ZZ-cannon on its back, the K-Shooters are great for blasting vehicles and infantry into tiny, little pieces.

Also listed for the Karmans is Guru Lucius. Who is he? What vehicle does he come with? Well, unfortunately both of these questions must go unanswered for now. As for the vehicle, it appears to mount twin drum guns in the front and twin ZZ guns in the rear, plus it has the enclosed cockpit. I think that this is the Jungle Buggy but since my Karman army book is currently hiding from me, I might be wrong on this. Then there is Guru Lucius. He is a hero for either the Anakongas or the Kaptars (or maybe both?) and he is packing two drum guns. And you thought the single drum pistol of the Anakongas was bad...

Next is the new Kolossus unit for the Red Blok, equipped with the same weapons as the Lieutenant that they seem to be named after. Coincidence? I think not... Still no word as to what exactly they are armed with but I think that the earlier guess of a Mgauss and a rocket launcher are still a pretty solid bet.

And last but not least is Lt. Epstone. Kitted out with the much sought after open TacArm, it appears that she is actually a Death Dealer hero. Already a potent anti-infantry unit, the addition of a hero will mean that the Death Dealer unit will be able to use the "Fire At Will" combat drill, giving them a re-roll with the machine guns and making them that much deadlier.

Rackham has also announced that it will be releasing an Operation: Damocles Campaign book and an AT-43 Tactics book as well. No other information on this except that the special cards that were included in the Cry Havoc magazines are going to be included in the Campaign book as well.

The final bit of upcoming release info is only shown in this picture. In the background you can see the MedTech container and there is one of the nurses on the left, but there is no information yet as to who the people are in the orange and red jackets.

There is some specualtion that the female is actually Joan Casey, a journalist for the Daily Ava though other have thrown out that maybe these are the engineers that have been mentioned before. Either way it will be interesting to find out how they fit into the game.

That is all for today, but stay tuned for the Unit Review of the Easy Trike. I am really going to do it this time, promise. Until then, may all your dice come up Dragons!

Some pics from our Sunday game and a little some I found on the forums...

2008-03-19T13:55:00.000-07:00

Well, I had planned on posting a full battle report for our game this past Sunday but things did not quite go as I had expected. But I did learn something! Teaching the game + lots of figures (over 3500 points on each side) = a very slow game. D'oh! You would think that I would have remembered that from my demo days.

Everyone still had fun with the game though we did agree that we are going to do some smaller games next time, probably 1000 points each instead of 2000 points, which should work much better. Still, here are a couple of shots that I took of the game.

Here are two different views of the table that we were playing on. Again we were playing the "Bridgehead" variant with the objective being the bright orange container in the middle of the board.

This is what the table looked like at the end of turn one. All of the units were on the board at this point so it was a very nice visual in my opinion. Lots of AFVs as you can see in the middle of the board, though the worst of the bunch was the Easy Trikes. Those things gave my Golgoths quite the pounding!

And this one is for Tony, the latest addition to our ranks at the Shop. At the beginning of turn two, he opened fire on one of my Incubus Golgoths with Urod. This is what it looked like before the Incubus exploded....

Unfortunately most of the other pics that I took are a little blurry. Need to grab a tripod next time...

This final picture has absolutely nothing to do with the game on Sunday but it looks kind of cool. As most people know, in the UNA army book there is a picture of a Cog. While digging through the forums, I managed to find a link to the picture below. These are Cog concept drawings done by Edouard Guiton for Rackham. Since these are concepts, the final images might look very different but even so it is interesting to see what they are considering.

That's all for today, but coming up next I will have a unit review of the Easy Trike. Wait! Don't I play Therians? Yes, but that doesn't mean that I can't give my own theorecically unbias opinions on units from other factions. It is my blog after all... Mwah-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha!!!

Until then, may all of your dice come up Dragons!

Unit Review: Therian Bane Goliaths

2008-03-08T22:19:00.000-08:00

Last month some of you might remember that I did a quick write up on the Assault Goliaths. Not a bad unit, but they do seem to be a kind of a jack of all trades. Their mixed armament could be very useful against a balanced or even an infantry heavy force but against AFVs they were a little lacking in the punch department. Well, this month we have their brothers the Banes and if there is one thing that they are not lacking it is punch!

Earlier this month, I was able to get a rematch of the Red Blok game that I had played last month. The forces were different this time as we both had more minis to choose from but my latest addition was a unit of banes.

Now I must admit that I was not as excited about the banes as the assault goliaths, at least not as far as miniatures go. Don't get me wrong; they are not a bad mini, they just never really struck my fancy. They also have developed a reputation on the forum as being the unit with the drunk goliath as one of them always seems to be bent like he is about to fall over and my box was no different. Still, I had a plan that I wanted to try against the Blok and for the plan to succeed the banes were essential.

Right from the get go, the banes were hit with mortar fire which grounded them. Frustrating, but with their armor of 10 they were able to handily weather the storm. Then I was actually able to get their weapons to bear and then I quickly fell in love with these mechanical monstrosities. I had a clear shot at a unit of Kolossus RPGs on the other side of the table and in a single salvo that unit was gone. Period. And this was from the other side of the table!

Later in the same game, I was able to get a clear shot at a Sierp and I was able to quickly blast holes in him, taking him out of the game as well. Mind you, they did die after that but they had more than made up for their loss by taking out two powerful pieces of my opponents force.

So has my experience from this one game changed my opinion of this unit? You better believe it! In fact, I think that from now on I am going to be making sure that I have a unit of these in my list. At least until I try a Web Strider list. Then I'll field two units instead.

Battle report 02032008: the Mighty Therians vs the Red Blok...again!

2008-03-03T00:05:00.000-08:00

/send_hello.overseer.***
Hello, overseers! Welcome to the EMI grid!
/end_hello.overseer.***

/sending_report.02032008
/Force_composition.Therian
/Storm golem unit
/company leader: Dyssnowman.Omega
/Storm golem unit
/Bane goliath unit
/Incubus golgoth
/Wraith golgoth

/Force_composition.Red.Blok
/Hetman: Urod
/company leader: Odin 0-1 and Manon 0-2
/Dragonov Kommandos
/Sierp unit
/RPG.Kolossus unit
/Strielitz.Kolossus unit

/Objective_secure cargo container

/synopsis_report.02032008
/As with the previous conflict, both factions began by moving their units onto the field of battle. Though the conditions would have allowed some units to be held in reserve I concluded that the best course of action would be to take advantage of my superior numbers. Again in this battle cover was plentiful so most units were able to quickly move into defensive positions though it proved to be of limited value against the Red.Blok indirect fire.
/The battle proved to be long and difficult but ultimately we were able to hold the objective long enough to achieve victory. Several units proved to be vital in achieving this goal.

/Incubus golgoth
/The sniper ability of this unit proved to be quite deadly on several occasions as this overseer was able to quickly and effectively neutralize even enemy troops that had taken advantage of cover on the battlefield. The praise of the concensus and an increase in bandwidth is highly recommended for the efforts of this overseer.

/Bane goliaths
/Though they were destroyed before the end of the encounter, the bane.goliaths proved to be of immense value against the armored unit of the faction Red.Blok. Their exceptional range and armor piercing ability along with their own ability to withstand damage should not be overlooked by any overseer.

/Hekat golgoth
/At several times in the battle I created a Hekat golgoth. Though a couple of these were destroyed outright their sacrifice did provide a valuable distraction as my other forces advanced. Though I had originally been skeptical of how useful they would be at first, I am very pleased with their performance today and I shall endeavor to expand my resources to include more of them in the future.
/end_synopsis_report.17022008

/analysis_report.17022008…
/DONE

/send_goodbye
Have a nice day and thank you for your information!
/end_message

And this time I remembered to bring a camera! Not too many pictures though as I found myself thoroughly engrossed in the game most of the time but I did manage to get a few.

For this game, we played a variation on the "Bridgehead" scenario. We followed the basic scenario for the most part but we did use a container as the primary objective instead of a hill. We also add two neutral access zones to each side of the board so that we had the option of keeping some of our forces in reserve. Not that either of us did that (we both throw our entire armies into the fray right from the start) but it's the thought that counts, right?

This shot shows you the middle of turn one. Steven has just moved on his unit of Strielitz Kolossus and was checking to see if he had line of sight to my unit of Bane Goliaths located on the other side of the board. Though he shots went wide this turn, in the next turn he was able to hit them and ground the unit. He had not realized that their armor was a strong as it was so he was not able to do any damage but he did manage to slow them down for a turn and keep me from getting them into position.

This next shot is one of my most memorible from the game. My Hekat had dashed forward to engaged Urod, triggering a nearby unit of RPG Kolossus that were on overwatch. Their rockets managed to damage the Hekat, destroying one weapon and damaged the legs, but it was still intact! Unfortunately it also was about 3cm away from Urod, leaving me too far away to be able to attack it but well within the range of its weapons.

Needless to say the Hekat quickly disappeared as Urod blew it to pieces, giving Steven first blood for the game and my first casualty. Even though it was destroyed without being able to inflict a single point of damage, the Hekat had tied up Urod for a turn which is all that I was really hoping for.

Shortly after my Hekat turned into a pile of scrap, we caught sight of these two massive, multi-faceted objects. What could they be?!?!? Actually these were two giant d20's that we used to keep track of our victory points.

I know what you're thinking; what does this have to do with the game? Nothing, I just liked the picture. : )

These next two shots are from the middle of the game but they really capture the turning point of the game in my opinion. In the first shot you can see my forces on the table. My Incubus and my unit of Bane Goliaths are located just to the right of the cylindar in the center of the picture. Up to this point I had been keeping my Banes inside a nearby building, taking pot shots when I could. Right before this picture, Steven had moved his Sierps out from behind a building on his side of the table so I rushed my Banes out into the open to take adantage of this. Between them and the Incubus I was able to destroy one of the Sierps and damage the other one. This move ultimately cost me the unit of Banes as Urod opened fire on them, but the damage that I was able to inflict was worth it in my opinion.

After this turn, I dashed my Storm Golems forward giving me control of the container for a turn. From that point on, he fighting became much more intense as Steven and I started vying for control of the container. By the last turn, Steven only had Urod left on his side while I had my Wraith, a Hekat, and half a squad of Storm Golems. Since he was playing Frontline, he could control the container with just Urod while I needed to keep my Golems alive a little bit longer.

One salvo from Urod later and I only had the one Golem left, leaving us tied for control until I reconstructed another Golem. This was just enough to give me control and win the game, but just barely!

All and all, this game was a long one but it was an absolute blast! There was a lot of jockeying for position before we both scrambled for the container and then the real blood bath began, and I think that we both had a great time which is the most important thing. I also was able to learn from my previous mistakes, which is always a good thing too.

1) The routines are the key to victory. And this game just proves that point for me. Starting with turn one and going right up to the end of the game I was spending leadership points like gangbusters on my routines. Be it dashing my units forward, creating Hekats, or reconstructing my fallen troops, the routines really made the difference for me.

2) The faction is crucial. Yet another point from the last game that proved to be oh so true. This time I ran a Cypher army and man are they versatile! Choosing them cost me the ability to wager LPs for my authority check but considering that I was facing the twins I really wasn’t too worried about it. I would much rather have the ability to mix my routines over being able to wager for the authority check any day.

3) Striders, striders, striders! Do not ignore the striders! And this I did not do, not this time. I picked up a Hekat and a unit of Bane Goliaths and it makes a world of difference. The Banes can rip apart most things they shoot at (in fact I managed to take down the entire RPG Kolossus unit with one shot!) and their armor makes them pretty hard to kill as well. They did get banged around by the Sierps a couple of times but all that happened was they were knocked down. This slowed them down a couple of times but given a choice between slowed down and dead, I’ll take slowed down thank you very much.

Overall, I think that this was one of my most enjoyable games of AT-43 yet. The battle was hard fought and I just barely managed to squeak out the victory, but I had a blast the whole time and I am really looking forward to the next game day down at the Shop.

Terrain Project: A-Tis phone home! AKA completing the hyperlink antenna

2008-03-01T22:15:00.000-08:00

In the last installment, I had most of the pieces laid out for the hyperlink antenna but I had not started to assemble them yet. Before gluing anything, I did a dry run of the parts to make sure that they went together well.

As you can see, I also included a Storm Golem and a Hekat to give a sense of scale. Anyone familiar with the Cry Havoc article will notice that my hyperlink antenna is definitely larger than the one included in the magazine (it is printed on a standard sized card just like the unit cards) but I am okay with that. This thing is supposed to be transmitting to a distant planet, of course it is going to be kind of big!

The next step was to place the light into the base. I had originally planned on attaching the base and then stopped and thought about it. What about when the batteries run out? I would have to break the thing apart to change them and that just would not work. Instead I cut a circle of foamcore small enough so that it fits inside of the base without being too tight. This means that not only can I change the batteries easily, I can also simply remove the top of the piece to turn the light on and off.

To better focus the light, I lined the base with aluminum foil, as you can see above. This really helped as before I did this the base actually glowed when I turned on the light. This reflects the light back and cuts down of the glow factor.

Once the piece was assembled, it was time to get it ready to paint. I had originally thought about painting the whole thing by hand but instead I decided to use masking tape to cover up the parts that I wanted to remain transparent, which I think was one of the most time consuming parts of the whole project. Even so it really was not that bad and it did make it much easier to paint, but more on that later.

I had originally planned on just painting it up at this point but instead I decided to add a few details to enhance the piece. I had some small rubber tubing which worked perfectly for creating some hoses and I used some green stuff to sculpt the connections for the hoses and to add a few glowing domes that you commonly see on some of the Therian pieces. It would have been easy enough to do the hoses with some guitar strings instead of the rubber tubing but since I don't have any I decided to use what I had on hand.

The next step was to prime it and then paint it, which my daughter was kind enough to help me with. She loves to paint! Once this was done I was really glad that I had taken the time to thrown the little detailing bit on it. Seeing it all in black let me really look at the overall structure more rather than seeing the pieces assembled and it definitely looked much better with these small finishing touches.

And finally, here is the finished piece. I added a little weathering to it so that it is not all shiny and new looking, plus I painted orange onto the small domes that I had added. Overall I am really happy with how it turned out, though if I were to do it again there are some things that I would do differently.

1) Paint the inside to! In my enthusiasm to complete the project, I overlooked the fact that I am dealing with a clear dome. That's right; I didn't paint the foamcore inside the clear dome black. D'oh! It is not that noticeable now that it is done, but if I were building this again it is something that I would make sure that I remember to do.

2) Is bigger better? I do like the fact that this is a sizeable terrain piece and I do think that it should be that way; how would a tiny antenna transmit to a distant planet? Still this does seem more fitting for an emplaced piece of equipment while adding it to your army list makes it seem like it should be a bit more mobile. I really am happy with how it turned out regardless, especially since this is my first attempt at building a lighted piece of terrain.

And that, my friends, is how you build a homemade Therian hyperlink antenna. Going out, buying Cry Havoc #14 and just using the card might be faster, but I think that having an model to represent it is much better.

Upcoming releases: another look at the King Mammoth

2008-02-27T10:10:00.000-08:00

And man is that thing big! Yowza!

I don't own any of the Karmans myself so I can't really hazard any guesses at what the dimensions are, but I have seen those minis first hand so I know that thing will be massive! As Aftermath from the forums said, "I think I need a bigger box."

The only downside will be that it will be that much harder for a unit that big to navigate the battlefield which is not a bad thing considering how much damage that beastie can do.

Terrain Project: how to make your own Hyperlink Antenna!

2008-02-25T23:15:00.000-08:00

Edit: Just a quick note. When I first posted this I put it as an "On the Cheap" feature. Why? Was there mysterious motive behind my actions? Or was it simply gross negilgence on my part? I claim the former but suspect the later. In any case, it is now a "Terrain Project" as it should have been all along. And now back to your regularly scheduled blog...

In Cry Havoc #14 Rackham introduces the Therian Hyperlink Antenna, a special device that can be added to any Therian army and produces an extra 3 Leadership points when it is turned on. Included in the issue is a card to represent the antenna, both when it is turned on and off. This is all fine and dandy except that I don't have that issue of Cry Havoc and more importantly (at least to me anyway...) this is a terrain feature. It should be something real, something three dimensional! With this thought burning in my mind, I set out to to build my own version of the hyperlink antenna.

The first step was to start collecting the items that I would use for the antenna, the most important which you can see below.

Starting from the top left is a lid from a container of Floam. "Floam?", you say? Yes, Floam. You can find this in most major large department style stores in the kids arts and craft section, or even at Michael's. Next to this is a transpartent orange ice cream cup that I picked up at our local Walgreens. By a total fluke, they only charged me 8 cents for it instead of the 33 cents it should have cost. Needless to say, I rushed back to get some more... : ) Below this the lid to a pink lemonade mix from the grocery store, easy to find and the whole container has a sci-fi kind of look to it. Lastly is the to go lid from a Ritter's Custard sundae. It is a little hard to see right now (it is transparent after all) but the shape is perfect.

The first step in contructing the antenna was to trim down the edge of the orange dish. It had one of those wavy edges on it and it was about 1/2" too tall, so out came the Dremel and off came the edge. A word of warning though; cutting thick plastic with a Dremel creates quite the stink and can gum up the bit in melted plastic. Still, once I recovered from the fumes it looked quite nice.

Below is a picture showing all of these pieces assembled in a "dry run" so that you can get an idea of what the antenna will look like when it is completed.

The only thing that was lacking at this point was some way to show whether it was on or off. Another quick trip to Walgreens turned up the solution; Stick N Click lights! As seen on TV being sold be that really annoying guy, but the perfect solution for my problem.

The only way to get the light to fit was to actually mount it in the bottom section of the antenna, meaning that I had to cut a hole in the lemonade lid for the light to shine through. Some quick work with an hobby knife and I was well on my way.

Next I needed something to fill in the space on the lid from the Floam container, which was easily done by tracing it onto a piece of foamcore and cutting it to fit. Once this was in place, I traced the orange dish onto the foamcore in the lid and cut the openning for it.

This gave me a good start toward making my antenna, though I obviously still was not yet finished. More on that soon. : )

Be sure to come back for the next installment: A-Tis Phone Home!

Upcoming releases: finally the part that the rest of us have been waiting for!

2008-02-25T00:25:00.000-08:00

Well, I had planned on posting the last of the upcoming releases a few days ago, but thanks to a nasty little bug I have been sicker than a dog that is really, really sick. Colds suck. But with that aside, let's take a look at the brand new campaign for AT-43 due out in June; Operation: Frostbite.

Not too much is known about this set at this time, but I have found the following snipet in the forums that make it sound even more interesting (like that's possible!)...

"AT-43 Campaign: Frostbite This book introduces new campaign scenarios, with new rules and additional rules covering attachment boxes and bunkers.This also contains gaming tiles, crystal base, large crystal base, miniatures engineers, and gaming cards. $59.99"

What does it all mean? Well, I am guessing that the rules for attachment boxes means that Rackham will finally be releasing the rules for support units. These are mentioned in the Rule Book (see the insert at the top left of page 80 for all the details) but nothing official has ever been done with them. As for the bunkers, I am thinking that the rules will follow along the lines of the information that they have already released. Still it will be good to have the official rules laid out for them.

The next bits are the really interesting parts. "...gaming tiles, crystal base, large crystal base, miniatures engineers, and gaming cards." The first is pretty easy. They are probably going to release the map for this campaign as the 30cm by 30cm boards like you can currently buy for Damocles. Makes sense really as they should be more sturdy than the paper map plus they will be very adaptable since they are seperate tiles. The crystal base and large crystal base are somewhat more of a mystery. People are suggesting that maybe these will be 3d terrain elements like the pieces included in the new Confrontation. Then there are the "miniatures engineers". If you dig past the bad translation, I am guessing that these will be some kind of specialists though I have no idea which faction they will be for. Probably Red Blok and Karmans since those are shown on the cover, but that is pure speculation on my part.

Personally, I really like the sound of the last bit as well. "$59.99" If it comes with all of this stuff it will definitely be worth it, though to be honest I'll be buying it regardless. : )

Next up are the first new releases for the Therians in a while and man is it a dozzy! This is a hero pack containing Nina-Zero and Babylon-Zero. I am not positive about which is which, but I am guessing that Nina-Zero is the Bane Goliath and Babylon-Zero is the Incubus Golgoth. Either way I expect that this will be a pretty potent addition to the Therian army. The regular Incubus Golgoth is nasty enough, but to throw a hero inside it?!?! Can't wait to field that one! Plus, the Bane Goliath is a nasty addition as well; much tougher than a regular Golem (such as Urash), a Bane Goliath as packs a very mean punch with it two nucleus guns. Being a hero also means that it should have at least the same abilities as a regular Overseer which means attach this puppy to a unit of Banes and use the dash routine to get them into position ASAP.

Next up is Lieutenant Dragomira O-3 for the Red Blok. This is an officer in the new type of Kollosus armor. What is it equipped with? Not really sure to be honest, speculation is leaning toward a rocket launcher and a light gauss machine gun. Pretty good combination in my opinion. The rocket launcher is powerful enough to damage light vehicles while the machine gun can make mincemeat out of infantry. There is also a unit featuring this new type of armor (complete with winter camo scheme) that will be released as well.

Last but not least will be another hero/vehicle package like we saw for the Therians, but this time it is for the Karmans. Saint Anuman will final enter the fray and I think that he has some nasty potential. As an individual he is pretty weak but if you put him inside his vehicle Jindo-Un, well then it's a different story! Pictured below, you can see it mounts twin light ZZ-cannons on the front and the back making it a potent anti-armor unit. In addition, Saint Anuman also grants his company the ability to take control of an enemy vehicle as long as the last shot that would have eliminated it was done by a weapon with the jammer ability. A nasty little touch, it also gives the Karman player a reason to field Easy Trikes and K-Fighters. They may be nearly useless against infantry units but being able to take control of an enemy vehicle seems like it could be a worthwhile trade-off.

As an added plus Jindo-Un is also a regular Jungle Buggy. It has a standard paint scheme for the Karmans so if you want to field it as a normal vehicle you should be able to with no problem.

This wraps up the new releases that have been added to their schedule, but there is one more that is listed as being a July release.

This is listed as the MedTec but there is no other information out there right now, not even which of the human factions it is for. Personally I am thinking that maybe it will be a generic unit, but that is just my own guess. Either way it will be a really nice addition to the line, bringing supporting units right into the game instead of just as a card that you can add to your activation sequence.

That's all for now, though speaking of making a supporting element into a really mini, I really should get some more work done on the Therian hyperlink antenna that I started months ago. And yes, you can even turn it on and off. More on that soon.

Upcoming releases: see? that didn't take too long...

2008-02-21T01:41:00.000-08:00

Well, the monkey goodness starts in April and continues into May with three more releases for the Karmans. This time it is only one new unit but there are also two new attachments as well.

First up are the Yetis. Similar in many ways to the Anakongas, the Yetis are equipped with a more accurate weapon plus heavier armor giving you a pretty good all around unit. The jump pack makes them maneuverable (nothing like being able to completely ignore terrain as you go sailing over it...) and they are the only other Karman unit that can field medics. Better armor and medics? What more could you want?

For starters, probably this; the rocket launcher. Not the most accurate of weapons but when you combine it with the jet pack... Esh. Need I say more? Good penetration and damage against vehicles make this one unit that I am going to be sure to shoot at first. : )

Last but not least is the second attachment box for the Wendigos. With this box you have the option to add the firepower of the drum gun to your squads. It does not have very much potential against most vehicles (that penetration is just too low...) but against infantry it is another story. You wanna talk about some swiss cheese?

Well, that about wraps it up for the upcoming releases before the new operation begins. So far there are only teasers about what that will entail, but we do know that you will need your long johns for this one. It's kind of like the big battle from that famous movie, ya know? On the ice world, and stuff? Except now there are like big monkies in power armor and robots and stuff. Pretty cool, dude.

Upcoming releases: and the beat rolls on...

2008-02-20T21:26:00.000-08:00

After the last wave of minis, three initial factions all take a small vacation if you will as the Karmans roll on with more units to fill out their ranks in April with the addition of a hero, a type two infantry unit, and a type two vehicle.

First up is the main man of monkey madness, Freezer. Equipped with his custom-made super j-grips he is a terror to both infantry and vehicles, provided that he can get into close combat to make use of these deadly weapons.

Next are the Wendigos. Equipped with zz-rifles and with the abilitiy to combine their firepower into one massive indirect artillery blast, they can make any infantry unit foolish enough to get too close to them very sorry. They are also one of the few Karman units that can actually field a medic, giving them a little bit more survivability compared to some of the other units. The odd thing is that they have no close combat weapons at all, meaning that attackers don't need to worry about being crushed by a power grip. They still look like a tough nut to crack, but at least it is one less thing to worry about, right?

Adding to the Wendigos firepower is their first attachment box, which features a couple of grenade launchers. Not the most fearsome weapon in the world but since it is an indirect weapon, it does knock any survivors off their feet. After having been on the receiving end of this from a Red Blok Sierp, I almost wonder which is worse; having troops killed or simply having them unable to do anything because they are still trying to stand up...

Last but not least is the King Buggy, the first of the type two vehicles for the Karmans. Equipped with twin light ZZ-cannons in the front and twin flamers in the back, the King Buggy is very versatile piece of machinery on the battlefield, especially since it is also an anti-grav vehicle. Its one weakness is its relatively low armor compared to other type two vehicles. Don't expect standard infantry weapons to take it down but if you can get a few solid shots in with some support weapons, there is a good chance that you can cripple it.

And yes, there is still more monkey madness on the way in May as they get another infantry unit. But never fear; the other races will soon have their ranks bolstered as new heros rise to the challenge of the next major campaign in the AT-43 universe!

But more on that later... : )

Upcoming releases: and this is only the beginning!

2008-02-19T21:20:00.000-08:00

Well, Rackham has updated their release schedule through July and there are lots of really cool things on the horizon. I was going to post about each of them individually but since there are so many, I decided to put up one month at a time. So without further ado, on with the show!

The first should be coming out at the end of February, the Kaptars attachment box with the sniper rifle. Like the Karmans are not nasty enough, now they will have snipers as well! Argh...

Next up are the March releases. The UNA will get some love this month with the release of three new/updated units for their army.

The Fire Toad with winter paint scheme may seem like it is just re-releasing an old idea, but in fact it comes with a nice little bonus. This Fire Toad actually has all of the weapons and stat cards for all of the variant of the Toad. You want a Lancelot? No problem! Feel more like a Iron Rain this mission? You got it! This is a long overdue improvement in my opinion, though I wish they would do the same thing with the Golgoth...

Next up are the Shock Troopers. I must admit that I don't know much about them, but from what I recall they are basically a type of assault troop. Equipped with grav packs that let the jump over terrain, they can quick close with an enemy to engage them in close combat!

Next up is the Shock TacArms which I actually know even less about. : ) From the looks of the mini, it seems like they are equipped with a flamer in one hand and some kind of close combat weapon in the other. And is that a grav pack on its back? Eesh. That does not look like it would be fun to face off against...

Next the Karmans get some monkey love (had to be said...) with the addition of the K-warriors. Equipped with the massive K-suit and two equally massive mortars on their back, this unit will let the Karmans start raining death on their opponents with indirect fire. Stand by to be knocked down...

The last release planned for March is the Kaptar attachment box with ZZ-cannons. Can you say big gun that makes big holes in anything it hits? I knew you could...

And is this all? Not by any means. Well, actually yes, this is all that is being released in March but hold onto your hats cause there is more on the way!

Unit review: Therian assault goliaths

2008-02-18T22:24:00.001-08:00

Meet the new bad boys of physical comedy... .larry, .moe, and .curly!

Seriously though, the assault goliaths are the latest addition to the Therian army and one that I just had to buy as soon as I saw them. They just look too cool in my opinion! Then again looks are not everything (even in a miniatures game), so the real question is how do they play? I recently had a chance to find out firsthand.

The game that we played featured the Therians against an alliance of Karmans and the Red Blok. With the way that the units moved onto the board my Goliaths wound up being paired off against the strider-heavy RB faction, in particular a Sierp and Urod. Once they were able to move into a position that they could draw line-of-sight, they opened up on the Sierp but honestly they were not very effective. It's armor was too high for the sonic cannon to be effective and though the nucleus gun was able to inflict some damage, it was not enough to really make much of a difference before all of the goliaths were destroyed by a barrage of fire from Urod.

A dismal first performance for them but I think that it is largely a case of not really being on par with what they had to face. With a strider heavy force such as this, I would have been better off fielding a unit of bane goliaths. The dual nucleus guns that they are armed with would have had a much greater chance of being effective which could have helped swing the battle in my favor.

Still, the question remains: are the assault goliaths worth it? Personally I still think that they are in the right situation. With their mixed armament, they have a versatility that the banes simply don't have against a force with a more balanced mix. For example, when used against units with lighter armor such as infantry the assault goliaths can potentially eliminate 12 targets compared to the 6 that a bane goliath unit will eliminate, enough to seriously cripple even the largest RB squads. It is just against striders that they seem to have some difficulty, though since the last battle did include the near-indestrucible Urod it is perhaps still too early to say.

Overall I would say that the assault goliaths are a nice addition to any army but if you are going to be facing a large number of AFV, you might want to put the points into bane goliaths instead.

Battle report 17022008: the Mighty Therians vs the Red/Monkey Alliance

2008-02-18T01:55:00.000-08:00

/send_hello.overseer.***
Hello, overseers! Welcome to the EMI grid!
/end_hello.over

/sending_report.17022008
/Force_composition.Therian
/Assault golem unit
/Storm golem unit
/Grim golem unit
/leader: Alpha Atis
/Assault goliath unit
/Wraith golgoth: Nimit-Urash
/company leader: Sigma Urash

/Force_composition.Red.Blok/Karman.combined.arms
/Red Blok
/Hetman: Urod
/company leader: Odin 0-1 and Manon 0-2
/Dragonov Kommandos
/Sierp
/Karman
/Anakonga unit
/Kaptar unit
/Easy trike armored fighting vehicle

/synopsis_report.17022008
/Both factions began the conflict by moving their units onto the field of battle. Cover was plentiful so most units were able to quickly move into defensive positions.

/Once the enemy units were sighted, Alpha Atis activated her teleport routine and moved into melee with the Anakonga unit. Three of the Karmans were quickly dispatched for their treachery against the consensus, but in her exuberance for combat Atis put her unit and herself into an untenable position. The remaining Anakongas were able to quickly neutralize her unit and her own frame was quickly disabled as well.

/The Hetman unit designated Urod quickly moved into position and fired on the assault goliaths but to no avail. The Sierp unit proved to be much more troublesome as it began firing mortar rounds at the advancing Assault golem unit

/The Easy trike unit fired against Nimit-Urash, causing minor damage. Nimit responded by attacking the Sierp inflicting minor damage which was subsequently repaired by the clone twins designated Odin and Manon.

/As our units continued their advance the Sierp proved to be an ongoing problem. This unit has armor strong enough to resist most standard infantry weapons and the fire launched from the mortars proved to be more troublesome than anticipated. In addition, the unit designated Urod also proved to be much more difficult to damage than had been anticipated due to the mechanical abilities of the clone twins piloting this strider unit.

/Ultimately the combined arms of the two factions proved to be too much and the remaining units disengaged.
/end_synopsis_report.17022008

/analysis_report.17022008…
/DONE

/Recommendations_report.17022008
/A larger number of strider type units must be fielded to counter Red Blok striders and possibly more type 3 infantry units. All fire should be concentrated on these units to eliminate them as quickly as possible. Any remaining opposition infantry units should be easily eliminated by our own supporting infantry units.

/Better use of the combat routines is necessary. Until the battle was already joined the overseer seemed uncertain of how to use best use these costing him valuable time and forfeiting a stronger position on the battlefield.
/end_recommendations_report.17022008

/send_goodbye
Have a nice day and thank you for your information!
/end_message

Now if only I had brought the camera...

Ah well, this gives you some kind of an idea how the battle went from my perspective. Overall, the three of us had a good time and I managed to learn a few things about the Therians that I had not really had to face.

1) The routines are the key to victory. Ignore them and risk defeat! I spent the first turn or two just trying to get my head wrapped around the game again and in doing so I overlooked by combat routines. Big mistake let me tell you! The Dash routine in particular would have been perfect on the first turn to get myself into much better position, and I have also decided that I need to get a handful of type 1 striders. I might not like the Hekat that much, but I think that being able to create a couple of those would have help me tip the game back into my favor.

2) The faction is crucial. Choose wisely! I ran a list that just used the basic Therian platoon structure. Big mistake in this case. If anything I really think that Cyphers would have been the way to go as it would have given Urash a lot more versatility. Mounted in Nimit, he is limited to using strider routines which are not very useful when there is only one strider and four infantry units. If he had access to all of the routines, he would have been much more of an asset on the battlefield.

3) Striders, striders, striders! Do not ignore the striders! I have put off buying any of the type 1 striders since I wanted to wait until the Succubus is released, but really I am convinced now that I need to have some just so that I can create them during the game. I know that there was a lot of debate about the Creation routine that I will need to go through to make sure that I play it right but I really think that it would be worth it. A Hekat or two running around today probably could have taken out the Red Blok Sierp which would have made life much easier. Plus it would have made Steve and John really think more about picking their targets with more and more striders simply appearing on the board. Needless to say Hekats have moved way up on my list now; in fact I will probably pick up one or two of those next.

Even with all of my blunders with both my own force and just trying to remember all of the rules, I really enjoyed myself and I am looking forward to playing some more larger games in the not-too-distant future.

And next time, I will remember to bring the camera.

Terrain Project: More on recreating the poster map

2008-01-14T15:53:00.000-08:00

A few weeks ago I started working on a 3D version of the poster map from Operation: Damocles, specifically the outdoor portion. It has been a while but I finally was able to get some more work done on it over the past few days.

The first step was give the whole board a nice base coat of black paint. I used some FolkArt acrylic paint that I had picked up from Wal Mart to do this. An 8 oz. bottle is only a couple of dollars making it nice and inexpensive. I did two coats of this to try to get a nice even coat on the board and I was hoping it would also help to seal the board as I was thinking about using spray primer on the hatches. "Hoping" being the key word there.

I taken the board out into the garage and sprayed it in several spots when I noticed that it had started to bubble. I was convinced that I was screwed at this point but luckily it actually did not damage the surface too bad. In fact, I actually like the way that it turned out as it provided a nice texture to the surface as you can kind of see below if you look closely at the surface around the hatch.

Once the primer had dried and I was able to determine that the damage was not serious, I started to finish up the board. First I used a heavy dry brush of Apple Barrel Pewter Grey acrylic paint all over the board. Once I had finished the whole board with this, I went over it again with a lighter dry brushing of Apple Barrel Country Grey acrylic paint. By doing this right after finishing the dry brushing with the Pewter Grey I was able to get the two shades to blend together slightly, creating a nice concrete like appearance.

The various markings in the surface were actually etched in before I put on the black base coat, while the yellow "traffic lines" were painted on as a final step using Apple Barrel yellow acrylic paint (notice a trend here folks?). It is not easy to see from a distance (Grrr...need more pictures!!!) but the yellow paint that I used was not very thick which created a nice worn look even though it was freshly painted. In fact, it took two coats to give it enough of a presense on the board to really look right.

There are still some more things that I am thinking about doing to the board (sealing it with some arcylic sealer to try and make the surface a little more durable for example) but I am really happy with how it turned out. It is close enough to the Damocles map that it can easily replace it in official scenarios and it provides a much more visually interesting piece that a simple paper map.