Future War Commander Armies - Arcadians

Here is a shot of my Pax Arcadian Army, for Future War Commander. The vehicles are Dark Realm Miniatures, but the walkers/power armour troops at the back are GZG, and the infantry are Adler Federation Marines. 

Total points is somewhere around the 5,000pt mark

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Front Row is Recce, HQ's, CO, AA, FAO's, and Arty

Second Row is Ramjack IFV's and Marines

Third Row is Support Buggies, and two Trident Heavy Tanks

Fourth Row is Bastion, Tiger and Rampart tanks

Fifth Row is the GZG Houndog figures, who I've grouped into two types, called Houndogs and Tomcats.

My background for the Arcadians is that they are a breakaway group from the Federation (who will be modelled on the Adler figures and vehicles at some point this year) who are now probing into the space taken up by the Andrayan Cyborgs (from Dark Realm Miniatures).

The colour scheme for the Arcadians was very much inspired by Piers Brands work which can be seen on the Blitzkrieg Commanders Website. Interpreted the approach as being Afrika Korps colour scheme.

This next photo is a close up of one of the HQ stands of the Arcdaians. Has the close support buggy (with a chain gun) the heavy laser buggy (the phallic one!), plus the Ramjack IFV models, all from Dark Realm. 

The two figures at the front in blue are Adler Federation Marines (in my background the Arcadians still use Federation material), the figure at the back is an Adler Midtech Regular. 

I'll be adding more of these mid techs later in the year, and am diverging from the FWC Army list for the Pax Arcadians, in the process.

Next we have a close up of the Bastions. These are both funky units in the game and a nice model. Have six of them, and want two more, but would probably not use that many in the game. Have adapted them from their FWC stats, as I allow them to attack soft targets as well as hard.

Finally, have another shot of an HQ base, this time with a hover scout on the base

Will post some more shots of the Arcadians and their opponents, the Andrayans when time permits.

The Lead Mountain and Workstation

Like Most Wargamers, I have a mountain of lead for those projects I JUST have to start, but NEVER finish. 

I keep mine in old ice cream tubs, marked up with what they contain, in a built in wardrobe in my den/home office/escape from the kids room.

The first picture is the top shelf, showing the mountain.

The next picture is the output area, showing the storage of the armies. 

I use either lever arch files, or for 10mm and 6mm, plastic Tough boxes, which take up less room and cost about £3 each. I line these with magnetic sheets, and they double for transport safe storage as well.

Finally, here's a shot of the workstation. It is pretty much permenant, in that the paints are on the table all the time, and I just have to put a cutting board and some newspaper down, and I'm ready to paint.

I'm normally disciplined enough to paint for an hour, or more, most weekday nights, starting at around 9.30pm. 

I find the painting is my way of putting the day to rest and finally unwinding from work and home life. Not an uncommon experience for most of us, I'm guessing.

 

First Game of Future War Commander

Played our first game of Future War Commander last Saturday. Have played several games of Cold War Commander, and so knew the basic rules for the game. However there have been some changes to the visibility rules (which I've taken as being the result of UAV's etc being everywhere in the future) and for the new technology.

We played the Hit and Run Scenario, where a small force of Andrayan Cyborgs (4 x Infantry, 2 x Verger, 2 x Vorace, a CO and a HQ, plus some orbital artillery) attacked an encamped Arcadian force.

The background to the conflict is that the Arcadians, now having settled into an era of uneasy peace with the Federation, after their breakaway, are moving into the space occupied by the Andrayans. This has resulted in a few skirmishes so far, with this game being one of them. In effect, the Andrayans are having a poke at the Arcadians so that they can gather information on them.

Anyway, the game lasted four turns. Basically the Arcadian commander (Chris), not knowing where the Toasters would be coming at him from, spread himself thinly around the table with a company of infantry supported by two platoons of Bastion heavy tanks, and a company of Tiger light tanks.

The Andrayans came on to the East of the space port, and hit a platoon of Arcadian infantry and a recce platoon in their first move. The infantry were wasted, but the recce unit put up a good fight, falling back in good order.

With the balloon going up, the Arcadian commander quickly summoned his reinforcements, who arrived on turn two. They were another company of infantry, plus a whole company of Bastions, and a company of support buggies for the infantry.

The toasters pushed home their attack, taking out the recce platoon and a platoon of tiger tanks lurking in the forest at the edge of the board.

Turn three saw the Bastions start trading shots with the Vorace and Verger walkers on the Toasters side, with one Vorace biting the dust. The Bastions are a strong force, carrying both a punch and the ability to take one.

On the other side of the battlefield, the Andrayan infantry were being hit by their Arcadian opposites, supported by both artillery strikes and the support buggies.

Turn four saw the Toaster commander decide to pull out and back, but not before calling in two Ortillery strikes on the advancing Bastions. The heavy Ortillery made an impact, taking out one unlucky Bastion and suppressing another. 

It was this final attack from orbit which clinched victory for the Andrayans, as they pulled back off the table, having done more damage to the Arcadians than they had taken.

The victory points were totalled up, and the Toasters achieved a major victory, which was due to the demise of the Bastion heavy tank, and their well timed withdrawal.

As is the case with the XXC stable of games, both players felt the battle could have tipped the other way at crucial points in the game. Chris felt if he'd been a little more aggressive at the start, then he could have taken victory, and I had to agree.

All in all a fun game, with the only frustrations being the need to look at the rules for clarifications more than I'd normally like to, and the bucket full of dice slowness of the system  - which is also its strength.

Aim is to play another game, with bigger forces, in the next couple of weeks.

Starting Out

So, finally decided to start up a blog. One of those things I've been meaning to do, but never got around to it. Now, having been made redundant, have some time to invest.

Why am I doing this?

Two reasons: 

1. To keep a journal of my wargaming activities. I keep a general journal for my life, and have found that to be a great insight and reminder of my life. So why not do that for my hobby, and so over time I can both track back on what I've done, and look forward to what plans I have, in one, easy to access place?

2. To understand the web more, and be part of web 2.0. Need to know more about the web from both a parent and professional side of things, so this is a small step towards that. But also, having a blog allows me to participate more in the social side of the web, by having a place to refer people to when I post on forums etc.

Not earth shattering reasons, but important ones for me.