Tyrian Power Armor, and a new challenger appears!

Even though I've been preoccupied with all things tiny (mostly 3mm for now, but 6mm is building momentum again), I have in fact had the time to give my 15mm lead pile some love as well.

First we have the newest addition to the Tyrian freehold's arsenal, Power Armor! (the sculpts are  NSL PA, from GZG awesome toys!)

The full squad, 5 mean machines. the official designation for the suit is the Goliath Combat Suit. 

(I managed to lose the close-up of the regular grunt, I'll try to get some new ones when time permits) 

The unit leader, he carries a gyro-jet pistol, and his is the only armor equipped with the extended sensory and comms package.

Primarily used for AT duty, the missile launcher is also useful against other PA targets.

The last special weapons trooper is the plasma gunner. He carries a rapid-fire plasma rifle, designed to engage heavily armored enemy infantry, as well as enemy light vehicles. This version, just like the standard machingunner of the Goliath also comes with a shoulder-mounted rocket system.


The challenger I spoke of is a force I painted up to use with No Stars In Sight, to give the Tyrians some alternatives to fighting the same foe every time.

They are the New Imperial Japanese Army or NIJA for short.

 

A platoon, minus the armored support, since they are still in the mail.

An NIJA officer. They serve all sorts of command roles in the army, from squad leaders all the way up to the army commander.

Having a focus on high-tech weapons and gagetry, about 50% of the squads have a drone-controller deployed with them. The NIJA makes use of drones not only for scouting and intelligence, but also for offence and support.

There are 3 common support weapons at the squad level in the NIJA; The first (and least common) is the automatic grenade launcher. AGL operators carries a set of munition ranging from standard smoke and frag grenades to the more exotic mono-filament and thermobaric varieties.

The second support weapon system is the guided missile launcher. The standart AT weapon for the army, it carries a operator selected multi-mode guided warhead. While mostly used against enemy tanks, the warhead can be configured to air-burst, standard frag or Contact HE modes as well.

The last of the support weapons are arguably the most common, the LMG. A compact version of the heavier crew-served guns, the LMG has a high rate of fire, coupled with a shortened barrel for easier handling in close quarters. 

At last we come to the humble rifleman. Backbone of the NIJA, they have an advanced armor system with neural-net links, giving the access to real-time battlefield data. The standard weapon of the armed forces is the Type 12 modular assault rifle. A bullpup rifle designed to fire 2mm caseless ammo, the Type 12 can be equipped with various optics and trageting packages, as well as Micro-grenade launchers and shotgun attachments.

 

 

 

 

Next in the painting queue is some more terrain, possibly along with a few more space opera types in 15mm. I have just received the new terrain pieces from the Ion Age as well, so I imagine they will be popping up on the blog before long as well!  

 

 

Among towers of steel and concrete; A No Stars In Sight AAR

With the beta of No Stars In Sight in full swing, I of course wanted to try out some of the new toys this game would offer.

I hadn't played a urban "city-fight" style game in a while, so when the opportunity presented it self..


For this test game I started out quite basic, the Tyrians (in green) had one squad of regulars (5+leader) with integrated platoon commander replacing the squad leader. they were equipped with heavy combat armor and had both a SAW and a coil rifle for support. The Tyrian militia was slightly under-strenght with only 5 troopers and a squad leader, instead of the regular 8 man unit. They also carried a SAW, but only light body armor.

Their opponents, The USS had two squads as well. USS marines in light armor with SAW support, 6 man strong, and USS Specialists with heavy combat armor and a SAW. the specialists were 1 man short, bringing 5 soldiers to the fight.

Both the USS marines and the Tyrian militia also carried observation and hunter-killer drones, but for reasons soon revealed, they never came into play.

The battlefield. A city block on the outskirts of New Liberia, Luna.

Vending machine, might this be the real reason for all the fighting? 

This gate was the objective for the Tyrian forces, at least one squad needs to reach it. 

The USS objective was simple, stop them, and if not viable, delay them.

USS specialists on their left flank. 

USS marines guarding the gate. 

Tyrian militia, right across from the specialists. 

 And the regulars, right opposite the marines, and the gate, their objective. 

 

Most of the first phase saw both forces manuvering to get into firing positions. With several buildings for solid cover, both sides got to work.

The Tyrian regulars took the first shot across the Alley, pinning a specialist inside the building on the far right.

When trying to cross the open space between buildings, all but one regular makes it across. The poor soul left in the street takes a shot straight through his armor, the advanced suit doing little to stop the bullets. He is wounded, but not dead. USS claims the first casualty!

Moving into the building on their right the militia men proceed to pour fire onto the specialists entrenched right across from them.

A lucky shot goes through the visor of one specialist, he is obviously dead, and 2 more or their number is pinned down. Not backing down, they keep holding their position.

It doesn't take long for the specialists to unpin themselves, while their remaining number pin down one of the militiamen.

 Over on the left side things are not looking good for the Tyrian regulars.
 The wounded regular from earlier is brought back into the fight, but a good activation from the marines leaves 2 pinned troops inside the building, while the 3 at street-level can't draw a bead on the marines.

 In an desperate gamble, the platoon commander decides to try and storm the building, taking on the marines in close quarters.

 This goes horribly wrong.

 Rolling nothing but 1s and 2s for their rush move,
all 3, including the commander, is pinned down in the street. Luckily for the regulars, none
of the marines manage to take any of them down.

The next phase is fairly uneventfull, but the regulars manage to unpin the commander and a trooper. Lots of rounds are being traded, until the militia manage to pin all but one specialist on their last activation.

 Being nothing if not committed, the platoon commander now assaults the marines inside the building. Several rounds of fire are traded, but eventually both sides have lost 2 soldiers. With their commander out of action, the Tyrians are in a thight spot!

The state of battle, seen from the Tyrian side, just before the decicive moment.

 At this point the battle looked like it was going to turn into a real stalemate, the good cover both sides occupied made disloging any troops very hard.
On their first activation, 2 of the militia men managed to pin the specialists, who started to fall back, inch by inch.
But the decicive moment came after just after that; The militia rolled a 6 for activation, activating the remaining 4 troopers, including the SAW.
Soon a torrent of fire was making itself known to the USS soldiers, driving them back. (enough pin results were rolled to force them all to fall back).
Their nerve finally broken, the specialists retreated.

Being outnumbered by better than 2:1, the marines had little choice but to fall back.

A strategic victory for the USS who managed to at least delay the Tyrians, but a small tactical victory for the Tyrians, causing the enemy to fall back, and inflicting greater casualties. 

A good game, even though it got a bit static. Next time around I will have to use even more cover, and maybe make the Buildings non-accessible, to encourage more manuvering. I'm also looking forward to testing PA and mechs, and some of the alien traits for less human opposition.

I like how the game plays, I thought that the relatively low casualty rate would put me off, but it feels right. The pinning and opportunity fire makes every choice a hard one, allowing for lots of interesting tactics!


I have a few finished pieces waiting, among them the first of the Tyrian PA, and another AAR, but of a slightly more fantastical sort. So check back soon!

Hope you've enjoyed it!