When Hogs May Fly...

Dropzone Commander.

Yes.

Dropzone Commander.

I bet you thought I’d never get back to this, it’s been ages. Reports and painting have been as rare as the proverbial flying pigs.

And to celebrate, I’ve painted a flying pig!

It’s actually a Hellhog, and finally adds some much needed air support for my beleaguered Resistance. Also, given that I was playing Pete, it would finally give me a chance to strike at his Kodiak command unit, Ferrum Drone Carrier and Longbow artillery, that for too long have rained death from afar upon my tanks, destroying them almost the instant they touched the table.

My forces were ready for action. This would be my first 1500 point game (hence the need to paint an extra unit) and saw my entire army in action. I was finally ready to turn the tables on Pete’s UCM.

And then he turned up with a PHR army he’s been painting in secret!

What’s more, the random scenario was Bunker Assault, which is about taking and holding focal points at the end of the game, a task the sturdy, but slow, PHR are well suited to. My Resistance are better at the objective finding and stealing missions due to their flexibility and speed.

However, as this was a new army for Pete, he was limited in what he could use, and only had one AA unit, which in theory meant that once I’d destroyed those two walkers, my aircraft heavy force, and especially the Hellhog, could strike with impunity at his vulnerable ground troops.

Four turns later, the damned AA walkers were still there, and when the Hellhog did arrive, I did my attack run straight at them, and unleashed the terrifyingly named Satan Chaingun at them, hitting all eight times! Thanks to the focus rules I was able to combine these hits into two energy 12 blasts that would destroy the unit once and for all.

Pete uttered the immortal words, “just don’t roll a double one.”

The curse of the new model struck again!

The AA walkers turned around and ignominiously blasted the Hellhog out of the sky.

However, this allowed my remaining Cyclone and three Lifthawks free reign and they swooped in to finally remove the AA threat.

Meanwhile, my infantry were doing a stirling job, with the Marine Force recon, whose Raven had been shot down on turn two, holding on to the central building in the face of waves of PHR infantry. This building was fully secured by my command Alexander managing to withstand two rounds of shooting from the Hades heavy walker.

My Resistance Fighters also expelled the PHR from another building and my Free Riders weathered fire from Pete’s Valkyries to ensure I had more points in and around four of the five buildings, securing me a 12-6 victory.

The game was good fun (as always, I seem to forget how much I like this game) and there were swings of luck on both sides. I’ve still got a few more units to paint, and so I hope to play a bit more in the near future.

In other ‘rare as flying pigs news,’ I have finally, after thirty years, managed to arrange for a 6’x4’ table in my own house.

This should mean I might be able to get some more big battles played, and see the the more frequent return of some old favourites such as: Flames of War, Kings of War and WAB (although I’d probably use KoW Historical now), along with some newer games I’ve been building up to like Sharpe Practice.

Good times ahead!