A weekend of X-Wing AAR

I spent the Sunday and Monday playing some X-wing with my brothers Brent and Shane and friend Michael. The first game we played was a 200pts aside 2v2 game Shane and myself were in command of the rebel fleet while Brent and Michael where the evil forces of the Imperial.

Brent with his light sabre reinforcing who's in charge of the empire

The setup Empire scattered right across the table with lots of tie fighters some interceptors a tie bomber and a shuttle. Shane with his falcon, x-wing and HWK-290 and me with 2 B-wings and an x-wing.

Fist turn and the empire move to swarm the falcon and x-wings giving the B-wings a wide birth. All because of their auto blasters.

The B-wings being this far from the action would take its toll on our force.

Shane has a lot of work to do to fend off this massive onslaught from Brent and Michael. As my x-wing would be downed very early in the game.

The B-wings fly straight through the asteroid field as quick as possible to help

The fight centres around the falcon piloted by Chewbacca

The B-wings down a Tie but still not in the fight

With the falcon and the 2 x-wings out of the way Brent and Michael turned their attention on my B-wings. Amazingly the HWK-290 was still alive at this point one of the most un-manoeuvrable ships on the table

By now we had downed the shuttle, Tie bomber, and one interceptor. but we had lost much early.

In the end it was a major victory to the Empire well done Brent and Michael.

I had a big part in losing it for me and Shane by deploying the 2 B-wings too far away on the flank hoping to draw their forces and split their lines. This meant when they didn't take the bait I was out of the battle for too long. All in all a lot of fun was had.

The Saga Begins

To day it finally arrived. No not the star wars trailer you see what I did there. My Saga figures finally arrived from Wayland games after a 2 and a half month wait. After a game with fellow blogger Mark Stanton I was hooked. There is quite a few different factions in Saga covering the dark ages.

- Vikings
- Anglo-Danish
- Normans
- Welsh
- Anglo-Saxons
- Bretons
- Jomsvikings (Viking sub-faction)
- Scots
- Irish 
- Norse-Gaels 
- Franks
- Strathclyde Welsh.
- Arabs (non-official faction)
- Byzantines
- Skraelings

liked the look of the Vikings so I decided on them they just look cool with their fur cloaks and all that facial hair ''hey it works for Chuck Norris why not for my Vikings''

Each force comes with a battle board with skills on it some offencive some defencive and some counter the opponents skills this is where yous saga dice come in. There is about 5 types of dice for example the Vikings, Jomsvikings and Norse-Gaels share the same dice symbols.

These Viking dice are used on you battle board

This is the battle board that you use for your orders some orders are easier to do then others.

Ragnar lothbrok my warlord.

Viking Hirdmen these are my elites.

Viking Berserker's These guys a psycho assault guys with little regard for their own lives.

Viking Bondi and Levies I got 8 sprues of these enough for my warriors and archers.

Well there is an event in Thames at the end of next month called NICON they are hoping to run a saga event if they get it up and running I will go hopefully with they guys in tow.

Natcon AAR Day 3 Games 7 & 8 + Final standings

The final day dawned I felt I was doing OK as I was bringing points away from each battle even though I wasn't winning which i felt stood me in an alright position.

Game 7 was vs Russell Briant A person I had fought at many tournaments and from past experiences I knew it would be a hard battle. We would be playing encounter on what was to be a pretty open table even for a desert.

The set up both infantry platoons with attached 45mm AT the KV-1 and the 76mm guns on table. Russell started with 3 Matilda's one infantry platoon and 25pdrs on table.

Russell had first turn but had nothing to do so it was my turn. Everything moved at the double first turn I was hoping to swamp him before the reserves arrive.

Russell's artillery hit my 76mm guns and killed 2 of them they would be pinned for most of the game.

Russell's turn 3 and he got some reserves on and as i had just moved at the double I would be in trouble.

My first reserves came on so I bought on the Katyusha's to start pinning his troops.

Luck on a few stands died from the previous turns shooting as Russell had moved his men back knowing I would assault this meant I would spend another turn in the open.

Mean while the advance on this flank was slow as i kept getting pinned by artillery but causalities were low at least for now.

Progress was slow from here on with un-pinning becoming a problem.

The Katyusha's this turn had killed one of the 25pdrs and pinned all around it. This is the moment to strike.

A failed assault on this flank really took its toll not only did my men take a battering my KV was bailed right in front of his men.

With the KV dead and Russell getting his next reserves on the bren carriers moped up some more of my men. All I could hope to do was dig in and wait for help.

On this front though an over ambitious assault with me moving too many men in meant I dragged the Matilda's in as well which was the death of my men.

The remnants of my platoon dug in but with more reserves coming on for me meant that the carriers just went for some juicy gun teams instead.

The only thing stopping Russell claiming the objective a few stands of men left behind to guard it.

My AA guns showed up but with it being random reserves they came on at the wrong end. At the other end they might of been able to kill the marauding Bren carriers.

I was lucky time was up because another turn and I would be broken. It ended in a 3-1 draw in Russell's favour. Attacking a dug in infantry army that is gone to ground is almost imposable on a table this open as you just take fire from everywhere. And I didn't travel to Auckland to just sit there and do nothing. I felt i left nothing on the Table but I don't think I could of done much differently.

Game 8 would be Vs Steven Falconer who I believe had won every game so far so a tough ask to knock him over. In this game we would be playing pincer he was running a German Grenadier army with lots of pioneers. The only wheels in his army was 2 supply waggons so no armour to deal with at least. Steven made the comment that who every won the roll to defend would most likely win the game I agreed.

I lost the roll to defend and with a line of barbed wire across the width of the table I would be going anywhere in a hurry.

I moved was quick as i could to the wire so I could begin the what would be a likely slow process of gaping it.A few stands of infantry were lost but nothing of note.

My second turn I lost a lot of men although I kept pinning him he was able to un-pin all the time. I lost quite a few man this turn as well as my AA guns 1 At guns and a few mortars.

By turn 3 my Katyusha's where down to a single truck although that still counts as 4 guns so keep firing. Steven's mortars were doing a lot of damage to me.

While the KV can game wine no prob my infantry cant so I would have to survive a turn of shooting so i could try and gap it. Hoping my KV would stay alive long enough to give them a chance.

Well my KV didn't really draw much attention away from the infantry as he still managed to kill all of them. The KV was killing a few people in assault but not enough to take the pressure off.

More infantry swarmed the KV while the rest of my army looked on pinned and helpless

With The KV dieing that took me past break point and with my CO already dead that was game.

And that was the final game over a well fought defence by Steven and a 7-1 win to him. Having to play play the 1st and 2nd placed players in the last 2 games really buggered me for a good finish but with there only being 12 other people playing the swiss chess system doesnt really work. I still had a great time played a few new people and had a few rematches as well.

And now for the points table

You might notice Issac isnt on the list as he was running the comp he was playing the bye round.

Natcon AAR Day 2 game 6

The final game of the day was vs Peter Black he was using A British tank company full of Cruiser tanks and Vicker's light tanks not a Matilda in sight. We would be playing Dust Up for the final game of the day.

My set up covering the two objectives would be 1 infantry platoon my 76mm guns the KV and AA guns these would be in an AT role.

Peter's set up with all his tanks main guns having no HE and his highest AT value at 7 my KV and infantry would be fairly safe unless i did something stupid.

First turn I moved the KV at the double towards the objective to put the pressure on early.

The vickers high tail it out of there knowing they cant hurt it.

Peter then uses his close support tanks to smoke the KV. ''This could be a problem''

My turn 3 and reserves turn up so i bring on the infantry hoping their shear size will keep them alive

Peter gets his first reserves on but wont go into town with all the AT assets there until he has to. With my KV having to move from the smoke all the time hitting anything is almost impossible.

turn 4 not much happened but turn five i have my whole force on and with all these gun teams in the open and not dug in his vickers move in for the kill.

I move my infantry to assault one one platoon and kill one forcing them back. Luckily the vickers didn't  get anyone that turn but would you please dig in.

The vickers tanks from the centre of the table move in to help with the swarm of infantry killing quite a few.

Meanwhile my KV is in a target rich environment and cant hit the broad side of a barn mainly because of the content smoke screen being put on him each turn.

My make a move to get my KV behind the forest where i can see the vickers but out of sight of the smoking guns. Although he is too late to help the infantry.

At last the KV killed something finishing off the first vickers platoon. Hold on katyusha's.

Sadly the KV is too late the Katyusha's are gone and the mortar platoon is down to a man who flees in the end.

Now that my army is at a point where another platoon would break it he moves into the city for the final kill.

A hail of machine gun fire kills one AA gun but not before they knock out 1 cruiser tank and the 45mm At gun kills a whole platoon at the other end of the road.

The vickers move in to finish off whats left of the platoon that is left this puts me an break point.

Lucky for me I pass but time is up before we can inflict anymore kills on each other.

In the end it was a 3-3 draw but i think if we had gone on much longer i would of broke before Peter did. At the start of this battle i saw all the No HE notes on his army list and lack of AT this just goes to show you should never underestimate you opponent. Well it was a decent haul of points for day 2 which would hopefully stand me in good stead for a strong finish on day 3.