Full Thrust - Flight of the Idaho

Even though the Neo-Sov Republic maintains a base and flotilla in the Fiorino system, it remains disputed territory at the start of the 23rd century, with many stellar nations claiming rights to explore and exploit the system.  To maintain its claim, the USN periodically sends a warship to traverse the system, inevitably intercepted and shadowed by Neo-Sov vessels.  The latest ship to pick up the duty is the Heavy Cruiser, USCS Idaho.  It's crew about to find out just how far the Neo Sov Republic's patience will stretch...

(the following events were played out using the basic Full Thrust 2nd Edition, with models from Ground Zero Games and Micro Machines - the 'mat' is a £7.99 shower curtain).

- "FTL drive on cooldown, all systems Green, Captain"

- "Thank you Ensign, signal fleet we have arrived and are proceeding"

- "Sensors indicate four escort class ships on an intercept course, AI flags them as three Corvette Class and a Destroyer"

- "Our usual shadow's on it's way then.  Send the usual signal telling them to alter course and maintain distance.  If they approach with range of secondary batteries they may be fired upon."

 

- "Sir, bogies are not changing course and are accelerating towards us"

- "I want that warning on regular repeat, and raise shields.  Fire control, I want solutions on all targets just in case.  Helm turn 30 degrees starboard."

Concerned about exposing the vulnerable drive cone, the Idaho turned into the advancing Neo-Sov flotilla, risking closing the range.  Not wanting to overshoot, the Neo Sov Corvettes decelerated but maintained heading.

- "Sir, energy spike from the leading two corvettes! They're firing!"

- "Firecons are free to engage!"

The leading two Corvettes (designation X1 and X2) opened up with their 'C' batteries and the Destroyer with it's 'B', the latter taking 2 hull points off the Idaho.

Idaho's return fire was split between the lead corvette and the Neo-Sov destroyer, inflicting significant damage on the lead corvette (X1), knocking out it's point defences, but failing to damage the destroyer.

- "Helm hard starboard, fire control concentrate on that destroyer as we turn!"

 

Idaho turned into the attack, this allowed two of the corvettes to swing around into her vulnerable drive arc but put the USCN ship in a perfect position to rake the more threatening destroyer with a broadside.

Idaho's screens protected it from fire from corvette X1, but X2 caused further hull damage.  However in return, Idaho's concentrated fire, whilst causing relatively little hull damage, knocked out the Neo Sov destroyer's 'B' and one of its 'C' batteries, its fire control system, and point defences (by rolling a spectacularly unlikely series of 6's for threshold damage!).  With no Firecon, the destroyer was now effectively out of the fight. 

- "Hard starboard!  I want those corvettes targeted!"

As Idaho pulled a tight turn to try and unmask it's batteries on the pursuing corvettes, they used their superior maneuverability to keep in the cruiser's rear arc, although they were temporarily out of range with their weaker 'C' type batteries.  With it's greater range, Idaho was able to target the third corvette, causing a point of hull damage and knocking out one of its 'C' batteries.

- "Helm - full reverse thrust, fire control prepare to fire as targets present themselves"

 

Wanting to close into range of the cruiser, the two pursuing corvettes accelerated while turning, only to be caught out as Idaho shook, piling on full reverse thrust.  The corvettes had a brief window to fire...

- "Damage report!"

- "Sensors show only minor reduction in hull integrity, but FTL is offline!"

The corvettes' firing was just enough to push the cruiser to a threshold damage check, resulting in damage to its FTL drive.  Idaho would have to fight its way out rather than jump to safety.

Idaho targeted the only enemy ship it could, the destroyer, which was just in range of it's single 'A' battery, inflicting further damage to the already crippled vessel.

- "Maintain full reverse thrust!"

Corvettes X1 and X2 braked hard and turned sharply to port and starboard respectively, trying to keep safe in Idaho's drive cone, but they were too late.  X1's tight turn was just enough to confuse the cruiser's fire control, but X2 came apart under a stream of focused charged particles.

With one ship destroyed and two damaged, one to the point where it was combat ineffective, the Neo-Sovs attempted to break off.  But with its velocity right down, Idaho was able to pull  tight turn and finish off Corvette X before it could break away.

 

- "Well done all.  Helm, plot us a course away from any sensor contacts.  I want casualty and damage reports from all section heads.  Comms, get a sitrep to sector command, make it clear we have no functioning jump capability and will need support".

 

Idaho had successfully fought off the unexpected attack, but was now stranded, damaged, in a now hostile system with no FTL drive...

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Well, that was fun!  I'd forgotten how much I like Full Thrust (I haven't dusted it off for decades!).  It's such a simple set of rules in some respects, but not simple at all in terms of the results you get.  This battle really showed how vulnerable the slower, larger ships are when unescorted - the heavy cruiser was in real trouble for a moment, with the faster corvettes in its blind spot.  Things could have turned out quite differently if it hadn't been for that truly spectacular set of threshold damage rolls against the Neo Sov destroyer, and the success of the last ditch breaking maneuver - a fraction the other way and the enemey corvettes' frantic turns would have saved them.

I think I need to have another game soon, as the cavalry attempts to reach the stranded Idaho before Neo Sov reinforcements can arrive.

Orctober wrap up

Orctober is over - what did I do with it?  Well, I didn’t take it too seriously, but did use it as motivation to get the bulk of my Orc and Goblin army tabletop ready.

Alongside the Wolf riders, bolt throwers and warlord, that mostly meant a lot of basing. Many of the models are still in old paint jobs, either my own from many moons ago, or as they were purchased secondhand, but they look coherent enough now.

Still about 20 goblins to do, plus I still have some more EM4 orca, and I need to sort some black orcs of some kind, but there is a table ‘legal’ army there now for both WFB and Fantasy Warriors.

Two bolt throwers, including a Notlob original

20 orc boys 

One of my giants (orc for scale)

The Wolf riders - will count as boars for WFB purposes

14 orc archers

Warlord and two shamans

20 more orc boys

A somewhat grisly standard

The three trolls

Another giant

What next?

 Orctober is coming to a close, so what shall I do next?

I have an idea, and these two helmets could be a clue.  It will be a heroic project involving some excellent models from the 1980s.

Warlord!

 My Orctober efforts continue with this rather marvellous Nick Lund sculpted Orc Warlord (formerly from Grenadier Models, now available from Forlorn Hope in the UK).

My attempt at the classic Citadel ‘angry orange face’ shield.

Sometimes sculpts get criticised for being too static, I’ve done it myself.  But this one shows that this needn’t be an issue.  Perhaps a better way of putting it might be that some lack ‘intent’.  This guy may not be moving, but only because he has decided to plant himself right there and not move.

The Wolves are Running

And with that quote from The Box of Delights, the Orc Wolf Riders are complete.

As I mentioned in my previous post, these Nick Lund sculpted wolves aren’t the most realistic looking models.  These aren’t the wolves that David Attenborough gets you to empathise with, these are caricatures from Europe’s collective nightmares, with a fondness for construction minded pigs, Grannies and girls in red cloaks for their dinner.  That said, a realistic style paint job worked far better on them than I thought it would.

The white and black wolves were the request of the Little Miniature, I think the black is the more successful of the two.

The orc sculpts are of variable quality - the musician in particular is pretty weak, but I think the spear armed orcs look great.

 .

Wolf Riders

 First of the Nick Lund sculpted Orc Wolf riders complete from head to toe.  They’ve turned out OK considering the age of the sculpts.

A couple of bolt thrower crew got bases too.

Orctober, Wolves and Kittens

A bit of a Work in Progress post.  I don't usually bother with Orctober, but this time it got me thinking.  I seem to have sort of by accident collected the core of a very 'Oldhammer' Orc and Goblin army, but it needs some work.  In particular I have some wolf riders really need some attention, and it seemed a good excuse to give myself some motivation to tackle them.

The trouble is that, although I love Nick Lund's dwarves, orcs and goblins, I don't think he bothered with any reference material when sculpting wolves!  They are very much a caricature of a wolf.  With my obesession with realism (see my previous post on the griffin), I've really not known how to tackle them, so a bit of googling was in order.  The most useful I found was by Artis Opus, but I really didn't know how this technique would work out on these very stylised models.

 

OK, pretty well so far.  Onwards and Upwards!

Once I can get the new Evil Overlord (sometimes know as 'Waffle') off the painting desk that is...

Psychostyrene Dwarves

 I want to take you back in time, to 1985; the year of Live Aid, the Brixton riots, the first CDs and, most importantly of all, Citadel Miniature’s first ever multi-part 28mm miniatures.

Along with their mortal enemies, the Drastic Plastic Orcs, the Psychostyrene Dwarves were the shape of things to come!

And now, after many years sitting unloved in the ‘lead’ pile, they’ve been brought blinking into the sun.

Coming in at 75p a blister pack (!), they came with one body, a choice of three heads, two weapons, and a separate knife and sword in scabbard.

I painted two of them a long, long time ago (with the blue and green tunics) and, for old times sake, they’ve just had a bit of tidying up and a wash for shade.  Some repairs and replacement parts were also necessary for some of them.

The originals came with some lovely shield transfers, but only two remain, sadly (the far right is obviously my shaky freehand).

By modern standards they’re a bit rough.  Detail on the heads in particular is quite soft.  But they scrub up ok.

Off for a night on the town 1985 style!

Conquistadors

While looking for something else I found these Foundry Conquistadors.  Really nice models - the paint job’s not quite up to what I would do now (these were from probably over 15 years ago), but still pretty good. I think I was going to use the swordsmen as duellists in my Dogs of War army.