Kra Vak APC

I am one of those people who struggle to finish projects. There is always something I can add, alter, re- paint or improve. Today my 15mm Kra Vak from "Ground Zero Games" force nudged along just that little bit further. On the run up to Salute I am not looking to spend any money so I am trying to get a few pieces that have been hanging around finished off.
This Kra Vak Armoured Personnel Carrier uses gavatic power as a means of propulsion (most Kra Vak vehicles on the battle field do), which explains the flying base. It also gives a reason for painting the underside blue!

This vehicle can carry a full squad of the alien race. While not massively armed it does have a small, one "Man", turret with some undetermined armament. I won't go into all the technical stats that are on the GZG web site but needless to say it's fairly well balanced and can hold its own against other human APCs.
As with the few Ground Zero vehicles I have put together there were no instructions, but there are only a limited number of configurations. Which leads to very little head scratching as all the components do fit together quite well and instinctively.  This is where some bright spark tells me I have got it wrong and such a piece is upside down or in the wrong place. If that happens to be the case, so be it and OH Dear never mind!

That's it for today. As despite not looking after my nephew I am STRUGGLING with the N.H.S. E-Learning. So far despite numerous attempts and several e mails and phone calls I have failed to log into the web address I have been given. I know I am not alone as the local NHS trust is doing a "drop in E Learning Clinic" on Tuesday because out of 3500+ employees only 200 have managed to complete the training. Utterly Ridiculous!

Anyway have a good weekend and I'll probably blog again on Sunday, Well that's the plan..... now back to banging my head against the keyboard and swearing at the E Learning protocols.

Best Wishes Clint

Full or Half Sail

As you know I have been looking after my nephew so there's not too much real progress. That said I have managed a very little. Here is a quick update on the planned BBIB game for the Broadside show in June. One of the issues with the trail game over 2 weeks ago now is being able to tell a ships speed. Obviously speed in a Napoleonic naval game is reliant on several factors including the wind. Other than the weather, ships in BBIB may set themselves one of 4 speeds. In order they are Anchored, No sails/ Drifting, 1/2 Sail or Full sail. Needless to say ships at anchor don't move at all, while drifting ships will move a certain distance in the direction of the wind. Half Sail and Full Sail, are the settings used by far the most in the game. I needed to make an easy way of identifying if the ships are fully rigged or half sailed without getting more ships and chopping sails off. Given that a ships captain would easily be able to tell what any opponents sail settings would be and thus be able to anticipate their respective speeds.

 My solution is to show this in creating wake markers for each ship. Having made 12 of each I now have sufficient for all the ships we are likely to use either now or on the day. These are 2mm MDF bases 20x40mm and 20x20mm for full sail and half sail respectively. I am first to admit that they will not win any painting competitions, but they will function as I require them too.

That's it for today. I appreciate that it's not the most exciting blog post in the world but it has moved the Broadside game on ever so slightly. Thanks for reading Next post on Friday. Take care till then, all the best folks.

Sunday Club (Star wars)

It was quite a strange day yesterday at the club. There was to be a large "Hail Ceaser" game with 6-8 of us playing, but John (Who was hosting the game) could not make it for family reasons so I had no real idea what I would be playing when I turned up. As it turned out I played "Star Wars" I have played wings of war, but this I found a far better mechanic. I was impressed by all the components and Dave had a set of boards with a trench so terrain was all sorted.

We managed to get two games in. Having not played before (the other 3 players had, although one player claimed only once but that was disputed) I went with a force that Kev selected for me. As far as I was concerned he knew best so I was happy to go with his selection..... It turned out to be quite good.

If you don't know I am quite strongly dyslexic especially when it comes from knowing my right and left. I can tell them apart don't get me wrong, I know I write with my right hand and that's how I work out right from left. Working out right from left on someone else is a step harder. Working it out on a space ship that is at an odd angle to me (which does not have arms!!) a step harder still. Working out left and right on a playing piece with a dial that is then inverted is actually pretty hard for me. If I only had one playing piece I would have a very good chance of working it out. And here's the problem..... I was controlling 4 tie fighters.

In the first game I had all four ties destroyed pretty quickly as much by my own ineptitude and the fact that I was somehow magnetic to the asteroids as enemy shooting. I would have been alright with just the asteroids, but with a X Wing and the Millennium Falcon to contend with as well, let's just say goodnight Vienna pretty quickly. Which left Kev with his 4 ties to face pretty much a whole rebel squadron as well as the Falcon. I think he lasted 3 or 4 more turns before the weight of incoming fire utterly destroyed him. I have to admit it was my fault he was facing more and bigger ships but without weight of numbers. I felt bad for him but Kev is the kind of bloke that plays for fun and not for victory.

The second game was a different story. We had an objective. We had to pick up some damaged satellite pieces. I was more aware of asteroids and I had worked out a lot of the rules. Kev and I very quickly decided that we would ignore the victory conditions and shoot the shit out of Han Solo and the Millennium Falcon, and that would be enough for us. (We're like that!)  Dave (A fairly new club member) was controlling the Falcon, he also had an X wing for support. . Ian two X wings and a single Y wing. I screwed up on the first turn and steered a Tie the wrong way and it ended up directly in the way of all my other plotted moves. When the dust settled and my little game of bumper cars had sorted itself out Kev had managed to strip most of the screens from the Falcon. Ian had picked up one Satellite and Dave's X wing had nabbed another. But I was back in the fight and could keep bearing 2 of my Ties onto the big ship.

My tie advanced (Kev kindly gave me Vader to control, more out of kindness than the belief I could do anything useful with him) was well out of the action steering well clear of asteroids (well sometimes). Anyway there was a rush to pick up the last two pieces. Dave grabbed one with the extra large base of the massive ship and both me and Kev had a Tie closing in on the last one as did Ian with his Y wind. I overshot it and had to spend two turns turning round. Kev undershot it and Ian killed his Tie with the Y wing.

Meanwhile, More by luck than judgement my two Ties took the last of the Falcons hull points and it was out of the game and dropped the satellite token. Dave's X wing was headed of table to secure the victory point for the rebels so Dave was out of the game. One of my Ties managed to pick up the token and started to head off the board with an X wing chasing me. I set the move dial to right instead of left. Left would have set me up for getting of the table the following turn and it was the only sensible option. Right was towards an asteroid and the no go section of the board edge which we had already been informed was instant death. Left was the only Option. In my mind I was going left and knew that Ian's X wing would have a free blast at me. I worked it all out and set the dial for a hard left, confident I had a tighter turning circle. And then I turned the move dial over only to see the hard right manoeuvre revealed.  Remember my dyslexia? Well sometimes it works in my favour. I was out of shooting arch and still had JUST enough room to avoid the wrong board edge and the asteroid.

Darth Vader meanwhile had been out of the game pretty much since the start playing dodge the asteroids but somehow Ian's Y wing with the satellite came into range and arch of fire. So I shot him down. Yeah Ok it took me two turns but I did it!) Vader then managed to pick up the bit of space junk and with nothing rebel close headed for the board edge.

My last Tie was also "stressed" but moving super fast (speed 5) in a straight line and coming to join my other tie behind Ian's last x wing. Cutting to the chase I managed to turn the Tie carrying the Satellite so close to Ian's ship he had to move beyond my tie and that allowed my other two Ties to get the killing blow.

 It wasn't pretty, it was lucky and I really enjoyed the game.  Sometime Dyslexia is a joy. Kev got chewed up pretty badly but I think he stole one Satellite part. The game finished with me having 2 of the satellite pieces and a full compliment of ships (some very beaten up though). Somehow I won the game. Mostly I think from a combination of luck, ignoring the victory conditions, shooting down the falcon and Kev doing all the hard work!

Conclusion: Having played Star Wars I would be tempted to buy it myself. However as Dave has a everything (Apart from A wings and a couple of other ships) and Kev also has a copy (basic set). My purchase of it would be redundant. And that is the only reason I have not  been checking the internet for the best price today. Over all a great fun game and worth playing again.

That's it for today. Sorry it's so wordy and with so few pictures but I was more interested in playing then taking pictures and I think that is the real testament to the games quality.

Wednesday is the next post so with luck see you then. All the best Clint.