Battletech Models: Jade Falcons

In last week’s post I talked about the Battletech Aces: Scouring Sands campaign box. In it, the antagonist are Clan Jade Falcon remnants and there are seven mechs in the box. While I was painting those, I was also painting the rest of the Jade Falcons I own. Here they are in in a bunch.

    Here is the paint scheme I used and all paints are TTCombat unless otherwise stated: primed with black spray paint, heavy dry-brushed with DecoArt Rainforest Green, dry-brush with Mantis Green, and lightly dry-brush with a mix of Putrid Green Pus and Opulent White. That done I used Cold Green wash over the entire mech. Then I painted various panels with Tuscan Yellow, the area near weapon muzzles or ports Black and the weapon muzzles and ports were painted with Folded Steel. Lasers painted Sports Car Red. PPCs and Jump Jets painted with Midnight Blue, Light Azure Blue, Opulent White. Cockpit windows painted Summer Orange then with light lines of Boo Yeah! Orange with a coat of Army Painter Gloss Varnish. For the base I painted it with Dollarstore black then applied Green Stuff World Texture Series Dark Earth. This was dry-brushed three times with Tivoli Brown. Green Stuff World Martian Tufts in Neo-Titan Orange were placed on the base. The sides of the base were painted with Dollarstore black, front and back of the bases painted Citadel Dry Praxeti White, and the front and back of the base was painted Opulent White. Lastly a Sharpie marker (fine tip) was used to write the name of the mechs on the front and back. If there were more than one of the same mech in my army I marked the sides with dots so I can mark the damage accurately.

    Here are the Light Mechs: 2 Fire Moth, Howler, 2 Fire Falcon, Locust IIC, Mist Lynx (Koshi), Incubus (Vixen), 2 Cougar.

    Here are the Medium Mechs: 2 Battle Cobra, Shadow Cat, Black Hawk (Nova), Conjurer (Hellhound), 3 Black Lanner, Vapour Eagle (Goshawk).

    Here are the Heavy Mechs: Rifleman C, Hellbringer (Loki), Thunderbolt IIC, Summoner (Thor), 2 Night Gyr, Timber Wolf (Mad Cat).

    Here are the Assault Mechs: Marauder IIC, Turkina, 2 Bane.

    Here are the mechs available to the Jade Falcons during particular eras. I chose the mechs in this faction to never fail out of use up to and including the IlKhan era (3151+). The Early Succession Wars (2781-2900).

    Added during the Late Lostech era (2901-3019).

    Added during the Late Renaissance era(3020-3049).

    Added during the Clan Invasion era (3050-3061).

Added during the Early Republic (3081-3100).

    So there's my Jade Falcons faction. It does not include the vehicles nor Aerospace, which I'm going to be painting in generic colours for use in all my factions. I'll do a separate post once those are done for what is used in the Jade Falcons faction and in which eras. 

Battletech Aces: Scouring Sands

Printed in November of last year, this first Battletech Aces campaign (Scouring Sands) is set in the iLClan era (the latest one added to the timeline). Since the Jade Falcons wanted to take Terra before any other clan, especially Clan Wolf, they sent all their best mechs and aerospace unit that could fit in a dropship and jumpship. That left the remnants to act as garrison units.

    An offshoot of the Jade Falcons, the Alyina Mercantile League, has hired some mercenaries to invade Appolakkia and take it for themselves. It is under this setting that the campaign takes place...but really its an excuse to play a solo or cooperative series of Battletech Alpha Strike games where you have to make decisions before and after each scenario. 

    I played two campaigns, with different friends, and it was a blast. We've also used the cards for one shot scenarios in different eras and with different factions as the antagonist/bot opponent. This also was a blast, but is limited to 450 points a side as it gats a little cumbersome with more than that.

    As seen above, you get a lot in a $90 CDN box. The river/canyon, bridge, and hill terrain has come in handy for other games, but the river/canyon terrain can be hard to slot together. The models are different variants of previously made mechs and adds two new mechs: Thunderbolt IIC and Rifleman C. There are also a pair of new tanks, the Fulcrum, although this one can be used by many factions including inner sphere ones.

    Below are the paint schemes I used for my Jade Falcons and Fulcrums. They are also the paint schemes I used for the rest of the Falcons and generic vehicles.

    Below are the terrain pieces along with a Thunderbolt IIC for scale. Pretty cool, right!

    Before starting the campaign it is vitally important to read the rulebook, which had examples and run-throughs of how the Aces and commander cards work. The campaign book has 21 scenarios. Because of the decisions you will make after each scenario, it will often give choices as to what scenario you will play next. This will mean some scenarios will not be played, but the next time you play this campaign you can choose different paths.

Here is an example of how a scenario is laid out. On the left you have a short fiction preamble, briefing, reconnaissance, waypoint setup, and player force or how many points they can spend on units from their invading force. On the right there is the setup map (with details to the right), objectives, and special rules.

    There is a Scouring Sands flowchart from Sundered Epoch on their Fan Service page if you want to mark all the choices made so you can choose differently the next time you play.

Below are the Player Force Roster and Sortie Log. I HIGHLY recommend scanning it and printing a copy or making a photocopy. Two copies of the sortie logs are required for the campaign.

Below is the Campaign Log. I also recommend scanning then printing or photocopying.

    Here you have the Aces decks for the various roles units can have, like Sniper, Juggernaut, and Strikers to name a few. There are six of each role for randomness of which one is used each turn. Also the Jade Falcon Mechwarrior and Star Captain cards offer changing focuses of the opponent because they alter depending on the results of the turn. The two combined offer many different ways the automated opponent reacts to the player(s). These cards can be used for other factions and eras. 

    As with all Alpha Strike products there are cards available.

    There are edge cards that named pilots can purchase for use during a sortie. Each one usually requires edge points, which pilots can also spend experience to increase. The edge points can also be used to reroll a critical roll on the pilot's unit as well as increasing a die roll by one to achieve another hit. The chit markers are at the top and have two sides, one solid and one transparent, because they can sometimes be refreshed or another one added to a pilot's pool during a sortie. Below are the pilot cards which I also HIGHLY recommend are scanned and printed or photocopied so the campaign can be played again and again.

    Lastly there is a turn board and initiative/round marker, both of which are double sided. Objective and movement markers, double sided are used depending on the scenario, as well as double sided unit markers: infantry, elementals, emplacements, and transports. Finally are the markers with letters used for each scenario. The question mark is for when they are randomly deposited on areas of the map, indicated in the Sortie page.

    Even after playing this twice there is still several replays I would like to try solo and with others. I just need to paint up my Wolf's Dragoons and Patchwork Guild Mercenary factions first.

  Also, this November, there will be the Snowblind campaign box (Rasalhague Dominion civil war) and Wrath and Reprisal (Capellan Confederation attacking the Duchy of Andurien) out sometime next year. After that, there will be an earlier era campaign involving the Raven Alliance and Federated Suns. Each box will have different commander decks and role cards to use in regular Alpha Strike games solo or cooperatively. I'm looking forward to these.

    By the way, lead designer Josh Derksen first designed the magnificent solo/cooperative Heroes of Aturi Cluster campaign for X-Wing (my short blog post about it is here), Star Trek Alliance solo/cooperative, and Snap Ship Tactics among others.

The Railroad Hobby and Miniature Terrain

 If a miniature gamer ever needs help with making it look real, just talk to a railroad hobbyiest.

    They have loads of resources, techniques, and materials to build/fabricate/paint/weather a model to make it look like it should. This includes the time period and version of train or scenery they are working on. Railroad hobbyists also like to share information of how they worked out how to do things 

    My uncle has always been fantastic at this hobby and has slowly expanded what he had. It shows what patience and precision over time can achieve. He has even created ficticious buisnesses based on family's and friend's interests or ones that he has old photos of which no longer exist.

    Seeing his layout always wants me to work on more terrain. Standby to see more in the next year.