Acquisitions & Assault Craft!

Introduction

This post is going to be a bit of a mixed bag, seeing as it concerns gaming past, gaming present and gaming yet-to-come.  Mind you, the "past" and "yet-to-come" parts are very near term, so I think that my feeble attempt to draw an analogy with a great work of literature had better stop there.  If you don't understand what I'm talking about then don't worry!

Gaming Past

It's now well past Christmas and this is probably quite tasteless, but I still haven't gloated over my loot.  For sanity's sake, I've omitted the presents of socks and other clothing; this is just about those items which are games-related.  So:

• Lion Rampant: given to me by my brother, who believed (I think) that this was a set of rules specific to the Scottish Wars of Independence.  It's not, but the gift is still very welcome anyway.  I've read the rules through, though I have no immediate plans to put on a game (but I could, right?)
• Frostgrave figures: 4 assorted blisters.  I've started to build and paint a few of these already.
• Captain Scarlet (the entire collection): Yes!  More Gerry Anderson goodness, inspirational to gamers and model-makers alike...
• 3 dice bags, hand made by my loving wife.  This is possibly the most touching present I've had in a long while and they'll be very useful.

Gaming Present

Both of the items in the picture above arrived in the post on Monday this week.  But here's a problem: which should I read first?!

• Thaw of the Lich Lord: This is the first expansion/campaign book for Frostgrave.  I missed out on the pre-order campaign which delivered a month or two ago, but decided to buy this with some Christmas money from my in-laws.  The new spells, magic items and creatures are interesting enough, but what has really caught my attention is the large number of imaginative new scenarios.  Many of these require some exotic terrain model as a centrepiece, so it's a good excuse to build some really good pieces.  Or to plan to build them, at least...
• 7TV, 2nd Edition: Yes, I got my copy of the new 7TV boxed set - this time I was signed up to the relevant pre-order campaign.  So, now I've read the books, looked at the cards and thought for a bit - what setting shall I play first?  I'm tempted by Captain Scarlet, Doctor Who and Star Trek, for starters.  These are all areas for which I already have miniatures (not always painted, mind).  Ah, what to do?

Gaming Yet to Come

I've just finished off these models, intending to use them in a game of Full Thrust in the next week or two.  What are they?  Well, the models are (I think) Imperial bombers from the Battlefleet Gothic range.  However I plan to use them as generic assault shuttles for any fleet that needs ground attack capabilities.  I'll design an SSD (ship status display) for a commando carrier or assault landing ship - call it what you will - and these will be the small craft that ferry the troops to the ground and provide air support thereafter.  Or at least, that's the idea.  Stay tuned to hear about the game when/if it happens...

My *other* Imperial Fleet

Introduction

I've been trying to tidy up my work area recently; it's such a mess that I've not been able to do any painting for 6 weeks or more now.  Rather than just push everything loose into yet more piles, I'm attempting a "deep clean", where I reorganise quite a lot of the storage of my finished models as well as deciding how to arrange all the tools, paints, part-finished figures and materials.  Of course, this is going very slowly...

Whilst I was opening some of the tattier cardboard boxes on my shelves to discover what was in them, I came across the following spaceships.  I thought that maybe you'd like to see them too, before they go back into a more suitable box.  They are my Imperial starships, though I'm not really sure to which Empire they belong.

I have a different Full Thrust "Imperial" fleet, based loosely on the bad guys from Star Wars, but I actually had this fleet painted up first and so technically it's my first set of  such ships.  Ah, I guess that I just like huge, star-spanning civilisations with grand, hereditary heads of state!

All of these starships are from Games Workshop's Battlefleet Gothic range.  They come from the Imperial and Space Marine ranges, though I don't necessarily regard my versions as belonging to the Warhammer 40K Universe.

The superdreadnought "Honourable"

 The "Honourable" is a huge ship.  Officially, it's a Space Marine "Battle Barge" (whatever one of those might be!), but I regard it as simply a very large battleship.  She's clearly armed with multiple heavy beams on the prow and with missile launchers or possibly guns on each broadside, plus a significant, turreted array of lighter point defence weapons.

To put a bit of distance between my models and the Warhammer 40K universe, I've painted a Warzone Imperial insignia on the tail fins.  That should confuse both sets of fanboys, I think!

The light cruiser "Obedient"

 Obedient clearly shares some of the same design principles as the Honourable, but is a lot smaller.  It's not immediately obvious just what a size difference there is until you see the two models side-by-side.

This light cruiser also has a Warzone Imperial insignia on her sides, forward-facing beam weapons and broadsides of missile or gun tubes.

52nd Destroyer Flotilla

Destroyers: Bonfire, Blaze, Pyrotechnic, Arsonist, Torch, Ember

Next up are the 6 destroyers of the 52nd flotilla.  They're all Firestorm-class vessels, though there are minor variations between each.  This is partly due to being built at different yards and partly due to varying levels of refit and upgrade.

The Firestorm-class destroyers have a heavy battery of forward-facing beam weapons.  These aren't powerful enough to take on an enemy battleship, but rather their task is to screen their own capital ships from hostile light units.

114th Frigate Squadron

Frigates: Fer-de-Lance, Asp, Diamondback, Constrictor, Cottonmouth

Finally, here are the 5 frigates of the 114th squadron.  They're all Viper-class torpedo boats, whose task is to assault enemy heavy units.  Since the Vipers are lightly built and don't have much in the way of weaponry other than their torpedoes, they have short life expectancies!  Still, every frigate's captain dreams of glory: if he, she or it could just be the one to sink an enemy flagship then they'd be a hero!

The Whole Fleet

This is quite an unbalanced fleet, with plenty of small and large ships but not much in between.  I could use a few more cruisers and I might even have 1 unbuilt Space Marine cruiser lying about somewhere.

Will I ever use these models in a game?  I hope so, though at the moment I don't have any Full Thrust SSDs for them.  I suppose they could also be used in Battlefleet Gothic, or 5150: Star Navy, though, if only I had the time...