Map of Titania City and Station 42 Region at present.

I finally finished a region map for our Station 42 war campaign.  I haven't added the battle location markers yet but I'll be doing that in a few days.

The Christmas Massacre: A 1000 point battle report for the Station 42 War

 December 25th 3032:  Members of the Titania militia attacked the Redwing Farm late in the afternoon on Christmas day.  The farm has been operating under the management of the Smith and Wilson Agriculture Corporation for over a year now and a small garrison of Hell Knight mercenaries were stationed there to defend the facility.

 The Hell Knights had little warning of the attack but managed to respond quickly to the threat.  With no armor on site a LAGAREV transport and a single short range missile launcher provided the mercenaries with heavy support.  

The attack was led by militia leader Ivar "Bear" Belyakov and consisted of about 28 militia member and three improvised armored vehicles.

 At least three snipers were among the militia force although two were killed in the fighting.  Early in the battle it appeared that the militia members would be beaten back by the mercenary defenders.

 After the Hell Knights afv was taken out of action the tide of the battle began to turn.  The militia infantry carefully used the farm's out buildings as cover as they moved into position.

 One unit of Hell Knights did manage to destroy two of the militia improvised armored vehicles and force a unit to fall back.

 The other Hell Knight unit did not fair as well.  Facing Bear's men, a sniper, and a technical vehicle the right flank of the mercenary defense began to crumble.

 The other unit of Hell Knights left their defensive position in an attempt to reach their comrades.  They traded fire with a few militia as they advanced which slowed their progress.  

 Despite efforts to aid them the mercenaries fighting Bear's unit died to a man including a mercenary officer presumed to be their leader.

 With only six member of their squad left standing the remaining mercenaries withdrew from the field.  

The last shots of the battle were fired by the mercenary missile emplacement which killed a few militia and routed the rest of their unit which allowed their comrades to escape the field.

Notes:  We gave the militia 1200 points vs the mercenaries 1000 points in this battle because we have found in the past if one side gets any kind of defensive position from the start that it really unbalances the game.  Also this was a surprise attack that we did as much to move the story line along as anything.  It wasn't that we pitched the battle specifically for the militia to win but we did want them to have a slight advantage.  My wife really used the terrain well pinning down my units with her "technicals" and snipers while Bears assault rifle armed unit moved into place.  With a rate of fire of 2 they are usually devastating at close range although they lack the skill of my trained mercenaries and they had the high ground as well.  All in all I think it was a fun little fight and it worked out well for the story line.  The militia were able to make off with some badly needed supplies and bloody the mercenaries which will bolster their recruitment and allow them to hold out a while longer.  
The insurgency phase of the campaign is about wrapped up.  We have some interesting things in store for the next phase of our little war.    

Station 42 Phase 2: Tarmac complete!

 I finished painting the tarmac today.  I think it came out really well.  This is probably the easiest terrain project I have ever done but certainly not the cheapest.  I went through about 6 packs of cork tile and 5 cans of spray paint.

 I actually forgot one section.  I intended to make a piece to sit under the refinery behind the Venture Star offices but I can knock that out easily enough tomorrow.

 I added triangle pieces to the landing pads to make them look more interesting and I think it also helps delineate the roads.

Station 42 Phase 2

We never really have been happy with the layout of Station 42.  It always felt a bit too linear and didn't really feel like it had enough buildings.  Another issue it had was that there were really no places to land space ships except the edges of the board and a few random spaces in the middle which also served as roadways.  The roadways themselves were very open and long creating long and wide lanes of fire which didn't feel very "urban" in nature.

One of the ideas we had when we did the initial set up was that since most of the building were on stilts they could be easily moved with cranes or VTOLs and placed in other configurations.  Another idea we had was that the station could be expanded on with more buildings and other structures.

So this is the rough layout of what we are doing now in phase 2 of the project.  We now have three large landing pads made from cork tile that I am going to spray pain black dusted with grey to make an asphalt look.  Each landing pad will get a warehouse/office which are shown here using some random buildings from our other terrain sets.  We will be building custom buildings for this purpose ASAP.  We will also be adding 2-3 inch high modular walls around each of the landing pads as we have time to produce them.

We also added some tarmac under many of the buildings to give it a more finished look and make the roadways more apparent.  The smaller adobe buildings will be used as small shops and will get removable signs.  I'm considering making all new shops but I already have these and their construction style ties them into many of the surrounding locations.  I also like the variety they give the station.  

There are also three smaller landing pads.  One in front of Rosie's workshop.  One at the Venture Star complex and one that you can see in the upper right on the table.  We may also add one in the lower right of the table but for now that is going to be the Hell Knights occupation base.

The base will start as a camp but be expanded into something more substantial.  The Hell Knights will also be occupying Rosie's workshop as well as making use of the landing pad in the lower left corner of the table.

We may also remove the NOVA security station and replace it with civilian parking spaces or simply convert it into another business.

I think this layout is far superior to the one we have been using for the station.  It is not only more visually appealing it should provide more interesting play.  
 
In story the idea behind these changes is that Smith and Wilson Agriculture have purchased Station 42 and have made several upgrades to the facility.  The Hell Knights have also become the new security contractors for the station.  NOVA Securities has been fired by the new owners and Rosie has fled the station after she aided the rogue Planetary Guard forces that were defeated in the "Battle of Station 42".  Smith and Wilson began making these changes shortly after the battle.



 

Solar Empires

I've finally settled on a name for the Sci-fi setting we have been playing our "Station 42 War" and "Maxed Out" games in.  I'm going with "Solar Empires".  I had previously called the setting "3031" and "Moon Miners and Terraformers".  I didn't like the first choice because it seemed silly to name a setting for a single date and I didn't like the second one because it was a mouth full and sounded dated.  I Google searched "Solar Empires" to check for conflicts and found that there was a video game named "Sins of a Solar Empire" but no game or anything titled just "Solar Empires"  Although this is merely a personal setting for my home games I would like to have an original title if possible in case I decide to develop it in the future.

I feel this name reflects the various different factions well.  Governments, corporations, and criminal enterprises can often be called "Empires" and since my setting is based on the Solar System it seemed like the best choice.  

I have some basic setting notes that we have actually been using for a couple of years now that I have not published because I was never satisfied with the setting name.  I have now created a new page for those notes on this blog here:   http://ironworkersminiatures.blogspot.com/p/solarempires-nathan-miller-2013.html
I plan to add some artwork to the page as soon as we create some.  As it stands it is just a big block of text and I want to make it more interesting to read.

Battle of the Venture Star Depot ( A 1000 point No Limits Battle report for the Station 42 War)

 October 27, 3032 12 Kilometers south east of Station 42 on Titania.  Earlier today a small scouting force of the Hell Knights Mercenary Company raided a supply depot owned by the Venture Star Prospecting Company a known support of the Titania insurgency.  This volatile region has been quite since mid July when the Hell Knights Mercenary Company captured Station 42 from insurgents and renegade elements of the Titania Planetary Guard.

 As mercenary light armored units made a move toward the entry to the compound members of "Bear's Militia" opened fire disabling both vehicles.  Hell Knight scouts and snipers responded killing at least two of the militia members occupying a building with a communications array.  One unit of scouts kicked in the back door to a smaller building to gain access.

 The mercenary scouts and militia members continued to exchange fire.  Bear himself was shot by a Hell Knights sniper and one of his units was broken by the scouts in the building.  At least two scouts were also wounded in this exchange.  The Hell Knights Marksman Battlesuit exchanged fire with a militia auto-canon.  The mech was damaged but one of the crewmen manning the weapon was killed as well.

 One of the Hell Knights snipers killed the last member of Bear's personal unit while the other shot down a NOVA trooper.  A unit of scouts moved into the middle of the compound and killed the remaining crewman of the militia auto-canon but one of their own was killed by a member of Wolfhound Friekorps.  Three Wolfhounds were killed by grenade and laser fire from the mercenary scouts in the building while the mercenary battlesuit killed the militia sniper.  The militia field gun actually hit and damaged one of the compound buildings trying to hit the battlesuit.

 The two remaining members of Bear's militia rallied and found cover but were almost immediately gunned down by the scouts in the building.  Two more of the mercenary scouts in the middle of the compound were killed by NOVA troopers leaving only the Sargent of the unit standing.  The two remaining Wolfhounds fled from their position.  

 The Hell Knights battlesuit moved into point blank range with the NOVA security troopers but neither the mech nor the troopers could hit each other.  Another trooper was killed by one of the mercenary snipers.  The Wolfhound troopers rallied before fleeing the compound completely.  One of the Venture Star employees was shot by a mercenary sniper as his coworkers fled to one of the storage buildings.  The mercenary scouts began to pull back.

In a bloody and final exchange of fire the last two NOVA troopers were gunned down by the mercenary battlesuit.  The Hell Knights scouts continued to withdraw under the cover of their snipers.  As the mercenary forces withdrew it was unclear if the Hell Knights had achieved their objective.  They had certainly bloodied the nose of the insurgents and caused significant damage.  The remaining militia units did not attempt to pursue them.

Notes:  Well this was a pretty smooth skirmish.  It had been a long time since we had played so we didn't want to do a very large action.  Also we have decided that it would be logical for the next phase of the campaign to involve several smaller skirmishes with militia insurgents instead of pitched battles with the Planetary Guard.  We decided to hold this game to 6 turns.  The Hell Knights main objective was a scan as many of the compound buildings as they could.  I managed to scan 5 out of 6 of the buildings and inflict more casualties than I sustained so we considered it a victory for the mercs.  One of the funniest things about this battle was the poor performance of the militia field gun.  They managed to hit the Venture Star earth mover and shuttle as well as two generators and one of the buildings with scattered shots.  The only two shots they fired that hit nothing flew way over the heads of the snipers.  
Also I decided to try and take wide shots of the battle every turn and then add smaller inset details of the action which I think worked out here.  I plan to do that again for other battle reports.  I like to keep my total number of images small but this way I can also show more of what happened.        

The Battle of Station 42 (A 4000 point No Limits battle report for the Station 42 War)

Hell Knight forces on the western edge of the spaceport

 Over two months ago a company sized force of the Hell Knights mercenary company assaulted and secured Station 42 a vital space port on Titania.  During the fighting our "Flyspy" news drones were captured by agents working for the Smith and Wilson Agriculture company the Hell Knights employers.  It has taken TNN some time to recover the images taken by our drones so that we could cover the events that happened during the battle.

A Hell Knights X93 "Vampire Bat" combat drone eliminates a militia sniper

 In the weeks following the battle Smith and Wilson Agriculture conducted a media blackout while the Hell Knights instituted strict martial law on the spaceport.  All of this was done while government officials in Titania City turned a blind eye.  The renegade Planetary Guard commander "General" Drake led the Titania forces.  

Hell Knight hovercraft speed to support their left flank.

 The Hell Knights arrived early in the morning and reached the western edge of the spaceport unopposed.  Most of their troops arrived in fast moving hovercraft but a few units of scouts and snipers had infiltrated deeper into the facility.

Rosie's robotic troopers marching out of her workshop

 In addition to Drake's troops the well known local mechanic and roboticist known only as "Rosie" fielded her own personal mech and 15 robotic security bots.  This came as a bit of a surprise to the locals but if this bothered the other Titania forces they didn't show it.  

Rosie's Battlemech destroys Hell Knights infantry units

 Also on the side of the Titania forces were the local NOVA Securities officers and some snipers and light vehicles from the local militia.

Armored units from both sides exchange heavy fire

 The most intense fighting of the day happened around the local "Klancy's" convenience store.  The Hell Knights took up positions inside and around the building as Titania forces closed on them from the east and south.

A Hell Knights "Incubus" mech outmaneuvers Rosie's heavier mech

 The Hell Knights fielding an extremely agile Incubus class light Battlemech.  This unit not only inflicted serious casualties against the Titania infantry and light vehicles but it also proved very difficult for the slower moving Titania forces to catch up with.  Using jump jets the mech was able to continually fire then flee before enemy firepower could be brought to bear.

Planetary Guard tanks burn near NOVA Securities office

 The Planetary guard tanks proved difficult to destroy but after suffering literally dozens of hits each both were finally destroyed in the vicinity of of the NOVA Securities station.

Hell Knight armored units speed past the remains of a "Guardian" class battlemech

 In addition to loosing their tanks the Planetary guard also suffered the loss of the Guardian class medium Battlemech while it was trying to root out the entrenched mercenaries in and around Klancy's.

The remnants of the Titania forces prepare to retreat from the field

After suffering the loss of most of their heavy fire power the combined Titania forces withdrew from the field.  Both side suffered heavy casualties reported as nearly 50%.  In addition to loosing their tanks and mech the Titania forces lost all of their militia light vehicles.  The Hell Knights lost two of their light transports, a light hover tank, and a heavy combat drone in addition to several casualties.

This has been Alphonso Marks for the Titania News Network.  

Additional photos from this battle can be found at this location: The Battle of Station 42 

Notes:  Unfortunately it has been so long since we fought this battle I was unable to do a play by play like I wanted.  I think we took over 70 images and I edited about 30 which you can see in the flickr gallery.  This was a massive battle with over 120 models on the table.  It took two long session and about 8 or 10 turns to play out.  We still plan on several more battle and one large final battle before we call it quits on this campaign.  We hope to wrap things up by the end of the year.  

Battle of Station 42 in progress! (The Station 42 War)

 Well we are in the middle of playing out big 4000 point No Limits game for our Station 42 War campaign.  We decided to have this battle in Station 42 itself which we set out on a 5'x12' gaming table.  That's 60' square of gaming surface.  This is the way the table was set up just prior to deployment.  

 This is the Hell Knights force.  Two Regular Rifle Squads, one Veteran Rifle Squad, one Armored Assault Squad. two Scout Squads, two Snipers, one Assassin, three LAGAREVs, one "Vampire Bat" combat drone, one "Landshark" AFV, one "Hobilar" light hover thank, one "Douglas" medium hover tank, one "Incubus" light mech, and one mechsuit piloted by my captain.  64 models in total and every model I have painted for my army except one assassin.

This is the Titania force.  Four squads of Titania Planetary Guard and one command squad, three squads of Battledroids, one squad of NOVA troopers, three Snipers, three Improvised Armored Vehicles, Three Badger MRAPs, two Medium Tanks, one "Guardian" medium mech, and Rosie's "Cyclopes" medium mech.  65 models in total.

We are currently on turn 9 of the battle and plan to play to the end of turn 12 unless one side pulls out.  Right now it's a toss up as both sides have taken almost %50 casualties.

Medium hover tank for Hell Knights and two new Mecha toys!

 So I picked up three Matchbox tank toys over a year ago with bog clunky wheels and started messing around with one of them to try and turn it into a hover tank.  Here is the original thread. Progress went pretty slow on it but I finally finished it.  This was one of those projects that got put on the back burner for no particular reason.
The original toy had a fixed turret but I managed to fix that problem.  The turret still hangs up a bit on the pilots hatch but it won't really affect it's play ability and it's still much more useful than having a fixed turret.  I had to glue a piece of plastic pipe into the top turret and then I glued a piece of heavy cardboard under the turret hole with a hole in it to make the turret turn.  Nothing on the conversion was all that technical so I'm not sure why I kept putting it off.  It's going to serve as a medium hover tank for my Hell Knights army.

 I went out today and picked up two new Mecha models from the new Pacific Rim movie.  I know almost nothing about the movie but the toys looked like they had potential.  They both stand about 7.5 inches tall which puts them in about the right size for medium mecha in my setting.  I'm going to do some conversion on both of these models.  The extra arm on the red one will be turned into some kind of over the shoulder weapons mount and I will probably add some weapons to the blue one.  The models cost $19.95 each at Hastings which I thought was a pretty good value.
There are some down sides to these toys.  There seem to be made with quite a few vinyl parts which will make them difficult to paint without dealing with off gassing.  I think the Krylon "Fusion" paints may work the best.  They are a good selection when painting any plastic toy and they seem to have worked out fairly well when I have used them on similar projects.  Another issue is that they have very odd articulation.  It's likely I'll pick a pose and glue them into place anyway but it's still annoying.  They are also lacking in weapons so I will have to add a few to them.

I think they blue one has a striking resemblance to the Quasit Militia Mech from the Battletech setting.  I've been wanting to do some 28mm Battletech mechs so I may pick up another one or two for that purpose.

3000 point No Limits battle for the Station 42 War in progress!

Just wanted to post a preview shot of the "Station 42 War" battle we have in progress.  This is a 3000 point No Limits battle and it is so far the largest we have had in the campaign so far.  We started with over 100 models on the table including 10 armored vehicles and two mecha units.  Everything on the table is painted and we scratch built almost all of the terrain.  This has been the goal of our Station 42 sci-fi project and we are really happy we are finally able to play these types of games again.

Station 42 Conflict Update Part 2

 Late March 3031:  After a long pause in the fighting the Hell Knights discovered that Titania Militia forces had re-built and supplied the "Ghost Compound" and were using it as a base of operations.  A sizable force was dispatched intent on either retaking the compound or at least destroying as many supplies as possible.

 The fighting began around the smaller "Specter Compound" when a Hell Knights scout squad engaged mercenary and security forces there supported by a light hover tank.

 Another scout squad attacked the main compound held by "Boon's Irregulars" supported by a sniper.  Supplies were stacked in both compounds and the surrounding area.  

 After a brief skirmish between the scout and militia forces mechanized infantry and armored units from both sides entered the combat.  Hell Knight and renegade Titania Planetary Guard units engaged head on in the open ground between the compounds.

 Casualties began to mount quickly for both sides.  Specter Compound was over run by Hell Knight forces and the supplies there were destroyed.

 The assault on Ghost Compound did not fare as well.  Planetary Guard Tanks stalled the Hell Knight advance and even though a single Lagarev Hover transport managed to break through both it and the majority of the scout squad were destroyed.

At the end of the battle the Hell Knights were forced to withdraw with heavy casualties although they did manage to destroy about half of the militia supplies.

 Early May 3032 near Pleasant Valley:  After reports of increased militia activity in the town of Pleasant Valley the Hell Knights set up a checkpoint on the main road running between Pleasant Valley and Station 42.  Titania Militia units attacked the checkpoint in an attempt to make the road safer for their activities.

 As militia units advanced the Hell Knight armored units moved up to the ridge across from there checkpoint.  The militia were using light civilian vehicles for transports which were little use against the Hell Knights heavier guns.  The militia also had two field artillery pieces and a few improvised armored vehicles.

 The Hell Knights commander piloting a Battle Suit and Light Hover tank pressed into the militia ranks and did significant damage cutting down many of the lightly armored troops.

 The commander managed to also take out one of the Improvised armored vehicles but was eventually stopped by combined fire from the militia and field piece.

 The Mercenary hover tank also took out several militia troops and improvised armored vehicles until it was taken down by the militia's AC 10.

Even though they lost several armored units during the fighting the Hell Knights managed to force the militia to withdraw.  The veteran rifle squads and remaining Lagarev light transport managed to hold the checkpoint against the few militia that made it past the ridge.

Alphonso Marks for the Titania News Network.

Notes:  The 2nd battle of the Ghost Compound was one of the largest battles we have had in the campaign to date at 2500 points using the No Limits system.  We were very happy to bring a number of units onto the field for this one.  It was a lot of fun to have a large battle with combined arms.  The Battle of Checkpoint Bravo was a 1500 point skirmish.  Although we plan to have more skirmishes we plan to ramp the campaign up with much larger battles involving Mecha and air support as well as tanks and infantry.