Heavy Gear - Bombs over Bagh..er, Barrington (Basin)!

In a past post I had compared the cost of taking two Field Guns (FG) versus a Long Fang Naga, and how the difference in 10 TV was not a justification to cheap out on the strider. This is all well and good if you are a Southern player. However, this train of thought does not apply to us Northern players though. Here I've painted up two FG for my force:

Not the most exciting elements I've added to the battlefield, but they do have their uses. Here are a couple of reasons I think they should be included in a Northern Force:

1. Cheap: For a mere 35 TV, you're getting a weapon ( x22 damage) that can take out larger Gears, Striders and Light Tanks with ease! Not to mention it has an AE perk so that even if you don't damage them, you still have the ability to Stun them.
2. Spam Attacks: One of the most simple combined actions in Heavy Gear is the Standy-by for Coordinates (SBC) and Forward Observation (FO). By having your FG activate first and spend it's action of SBC, you know have the ability to attack any enemy unit FOed with impunity. Combine this with an Infantry Platoon using it's actions to play spotter, and you will force your opponent to spend actions on ECM to either block the FO, or risk suffering significant damage.

Dungeons and Dragons - Eat Sunlight, Vile Undead!

After a long hiatus, my gaming buddies and I are getting back into a D&D campaign. The difference this time being that I'm moving from behind the DM's screen into the players seat. And what better way to make this transfer than painting up my own individual mini for my PC!

My character is a paladin (side note: I started playing D&D back in the days of 2E, when such classes as the paladin and bard were virtually unatainable due to random attribute generation, so I'm taking this opportunity to play one) and I've chosen Reaper's Dark Haven miniature 03010 Silas, Male Cleric to represent him. Here he is painted up:

I like this figure a lot, because while he may seem static, I feel there is a lot of character sculpted into him: the many pouches would indicate he's well-versed in adventuring, and his hands on his hips ooze self-confidence. I'll probably give him a much more paladin-sounding throwback name, such as "Thaco the Thoughtful" and have him shout such prose as mentioned in the title of this entry, since D&D is after all heroic fantasy and paladins would be expected to shout such before charging head-first into his enemies!

Heavy Gear - Sleeping with the Enemy

After the long winter months, spring is in the air here in Ontario, and with it come a renewed vigor for painting miniatures! I've gotten through another project, and here are the pictures of my results:

So, after all these posts about building my Northern Army, why have I decided to paint a Long Fang Naga of all things? Two reasons, actually: first, I got bored of painting layer after layer of brown, and; second, I think the Naga is one of the most iconic machines in Heavy Gear, and I'm a bit jealous that the South have a strider that has some survivability!

Now, I don't play South at all, but I do have a couple of things to say about the Long Fang Naga. I find that most Southern forces, if they field a Naga, will field the vanilla variety, with their anti-gear and anti-tank missiles. The Long Fang Naga is 80 TV, but you could also get 2 field guns for 70 TV. Southern players may also be apt to save the 10 TV, but here are some points why it is better to take the Naga over the field guns:

1. Mobile Weapon Platform: Field guns have a speed of 0/1 whereas Nagas have a speed of W 4/7 or G 6/12. The efficiency of your field guns will be won and lost where they are placed before the battle even starts, whereas the Naga can react to keep its guns throughout the game.
2. Armoured: Anything stronger than a brisk breeze will destroy a field gun (it has an armour value of 8), while the Naga has an armour value of 23. Both units will be stationary when they fire, but there is a difference of on 1 between the movement modifiers for Defence. This comes much more in handy when dealing with Air Strikes or sniper units with rifles.

And now I'm off to paint my PC for my upcoming D&D campaign. More on that soon!

Heavy Gear - I'm Not Dead and the Northern Infantry

Hi All, After a long hiatus I finally have something to share with you, my platoon of Northern Infantry. Some people paint their figures in batches; I, for the most part do not. I feel that I lose interest too quickly when painting like this, and that the model will suffer as a result. Unfortunately, I don't think their is any easy way to paint 40 men, so I bit the bullet and got them out of the way. After some mind-numbing sessions of painting and repainting Bubonic Brown on man after man, here are some pictures of my results:

And from another angle:


So where do Infantry sit in a game setting? I've got a couple of thoughts on how useful they are below:

1. Priority Level & Cost: First of all, Infantry are a Core unit, soe they will fill out your required slot regardless of PL. Second, they are dirt cheap! Infantry are a versatile unit (more versatile, I would say, than the General Purpose Squad) and can be effectively outfitted for under 150 TV.
2. They excel in places where others do not: Infantry can move through Static Models, where no other unit in the game can. Dense/Urban terrain is the GI's best friend! Combine this with the special rules of Hull Down and Hiding, infantry will not only be difficult to get Active Lock on, but will have a default Defence depending on the terrain to save them if the dice are not in your favour!
3. Spotters: With access to Target Designators, Infantry become great spotters for your units with Guided weapons (which the North has great access too). Get them stuck in with Hull Down and Hiding, while your heavy weapons opt for Stand By for Coordinates special rule, and you will be raining guided mortars and missles on your enemies much to their frustration!
4. Harrassers: I personally play with infantry equiped with Anti-Gear Rifles (AGR), compared to the optimal Light Guided Mortars (LGM) they also have access to. I don't like to have my footsloggers sit back, but instead aggresively take objectives and support the Gears. Giving them weapons such as AGRs gives them the ability to reach out and touch the enemiy's light gears. They will not autokill anything with these weapons, but "many hands make light work" and many light damage results will result in kills over the period of the game.

My next project sit awaiting more paint beside my Infantry. More to come...

Confrontation: Age of Ragnarok - Exorcist Old vs. New

Hi All! With the holiday season upon us (and my Wii currently distracting me from painting minis) my blog posts have appeared to have dried up. Fear not, for I'm still be hard at work painting minis for my various tabletop games.

Previously, I had hit on the issue of Rackham taking the plunge of going to all pre-painted plastic (PPP) and my thoughts upon it. While this move has courted controversy, Rackham has still allowed the use of their old line of metal Confrontation minis. This is great for me because: I think that some of the metal sclupts are better than their current ones, and; they're being sold at a great discount to get rid of the remainder.

Recently at my FLGS I was came across the old Executionor (now known as the Exocrist in the current verison of the game) mini for the Army of the Griffin. This is one of my favourite minis ever sculpted, regardless of game line, and it captures the Pat Bonner art on the front of the CaoR rulebook so well. Here I have painted him below:

Now I know that I'm not going to ever win a Golden Demon with my skills, but compare hime to the new sculpt of the Exorcist in the Praetorian Guard attachment box:

I'd say the former will be much better at bringing the true light to the enemies of the Igneous God, as opposed to the latter, who seems to be in the middle of story time at an Akkyannian orphanage!

Heavy Gear - My CNCS Forces, Part 2

The second unit I have completed for my CNCS forces is a Fire Support (FS) Squad. I've built it to match the armaments displayed on the box that it came in, so it has two Grizlzlies, two Hunters and a Jaguar squad leader.

Like my previous post, I've tagged the picture above so that I can say a few words on each of the Gears in my FS squad.

1. Grizzly: This model is the main modern fire support Gear of the Northern forces. It comes with a plethora of weapons to deal with any foe at any range. It's Heavy Guided Mortar (HGM) and Medium Rocket Packs (MRP) are both excellent Indirect Fire (IF) weapons, but each have different roles to play. HGM have a superior range, are Guided weapons (which mean they can benefit from the increased accuracy of FO units using a Target Designator), and an Area Effect (AE) 2, meaning all targets within 2" of the mortar target must Defend against the attack. The HGM is great for softening up targets whil your allied units close in. MRPs on Grizzlies have the ability to be linked, which in game terms means you have roll one Attack attempt and the target has to Defend against it twice. Couple this with the MRP having a Rate of Fire (ROF) 3, it can be used to either increase the damage multiplier or walk the fire over multiple targets, creating a greater area effect saturation than the HGM.


2. Hunter: Hunters are Hunters, 'nuff said! However, the Hunter on the left has been equipped with a Medium Bazooka (MBZK). MBZKs are the anti-armour staple of Northern Gears. MBZKs have great range and their damage multiplier is high enough that Spitting Cobras and King Cobras should be very worried when taking a hit from one of these!


3. Jaguar: The Jaguar is your elite trooper Gear, and this is the first I've included in my forces so far. Compared to a Hunter, they have faster movement, a greater defence modifier in both movement modes, and better Comms and Sensors compared to the Headhunter. All of this adds up to a sweet machine that will improve an army commanders survivability considerably!

Heavy Gear - An Intro and my CNCS Forces

As a proud Canadian, Dream Pod 9 has always been a favourite of mine. For those that don't know, Dream Pod 9 is a French-Canadian gaming company out of Montreal, that has over the years created a variety of games and setting, their flagship product being the mecha combat-based game Heavy Gear. Even when I had fallen out of gaming for years, I still had kept my 2nd edition books tucked away.

Heavy Gear is my favourite game because it combines my love of mecha (the first game I ever played that involved miniatures was Battletech) with a ruleset that is simple, balanced and versatile. The game is also much more customizable than Battletech as well. In Battletech, you've got a specific 'mech and may a few alternate loadouts. In Heavy Gear on the other, even the basic trooper gears can take a variety of weapons to make them effecient against all manner of foes. The game is based on the planet Terra Nova, and is set about 4,000 years in the future. Humans have settled the semi-arid planet and wage war in vehicles called "Gears," 15-foot tall mecha that have been heavily influenced by the anime Armoured Trooper Votoms. You have a variety of leagues that have allied themselves into polar alliances, the equatorial-based city states that have a "wild west" feel, and the re-invading Earth forces, looking to take back the planet back by force that they had left to fend for themselves hundreds of years ago.

Of all the forces available to me, I have thrown my lot in with the North, or as it is more formally known, the Confederated Northern City States (CNCS). From a background perspective, those of the north are conservative people, espcially when contrasted against the hedonistic South. Game-wise, the wage a specialized form of warefare; it's units are designed for a specific task, which they perform well, but are not as versatile as the South. Here are some of the units I have assembled for my northern force so far.

The first unit I have is a General Purpose (GP) Squad. For all Northern Forces, they are a Core unit and one of the basic building blocks for an army. Thanks to the wonder of online photo editing, I've tagged the picture above so that I can say a few words on each of the gears in my squad.

1. Hunter with Medium Autocannon (MAC): Not much to say about this, except that the MAC upgrade gives it stronger anti-gear firepower in the form of both a stronger damage multiplier and a greater Rate of Fire (ROF)
2. Stripped-Down Hunter: Many say this Gear as undercosted, due to it's greater defensive modifiers at the expense of losing a sturdy box and light rocket pack (LRP), and I would agree, if you fielded a whole army of them. They make a great skirmisher, and the better defence allows it the chance to get closer to the enemy to benefit from shorter range attack modifiers.
3. Headhunter: The vanilla combat group leader (CGL). In HG, your CGLs should spend their actions coordinating attacks, which give bonus attack modifiers to the unit, as opposed to shooting with the rest of them. The sensors and communication upgrades to this Gear help in that respect.
4. Hunter with Snub Cannon (SC) and Heavy Panzerfausts (HPZF): The SC is one of the BFGs of the game in Heavy Gear, meant to be used in an anti-tank role. However, it's accuracy leaves something to be desired, and it's limited ammo means you might never hit anything before running out. I've attempted to compensate for this by also adding the HPZFs, which have a bit longer range to them. This Gear should basically be gunning it at Top Speed at the enemy, and scrambling from cover to cover if possible to take out its target.

I've got another unit just about finished as well, but I'll save that for another post!