Leaving on a VTOL Gunship...

Or, a new genre in development?

Ever since getting thrashed at Halo by Mark's boy I've had a bit of a fascination with the game.  I've never really played it, but I do like the look of some of the elements (Terrain layouts, Warthogs, Pelicans, spaceships, and some of the alien baddies - I'm cluless as to what they are called).

So, recently there have bene a rash of announcements about 1/100 Halo ground troops going to be released, Excellent!
However, there are already a bunch of not-Halo figs out there, I can think of not-spartans, not-marines and not-aliens.  Currently not-vehicles are harder to source.  The McFarlane's (sp?) halo toys are nice, but scale at or around 20mm, and lack a Pelican.  Fortunately, Dark Horse Comics have stepped up to fix that.  They recently released a painted resin Pelican, avaialble in 2 liveries, grey and green.  While they are pre-painted, they are still not cheap, unless you get a score on Ebay, which I did.

Sweet!  Its a really nice sculpt with lots of detail.  The green paint-job has been done neatly, with some contrasting panels in greay.  Underneath, there is more contrasting grey.  All symbols and letters appear to be decals, again neatly placed.  I guess it could be detailed and enhanced with realitively little more work, however, its a perfectly usable wargaming-plus level straight out of the box

But how big is is?  It measures around 6 inches long by 5 inches wide by 1 1/2 inches deep (at deepest spot).  While it may not be 15mm, it looks close for a gaming model

 Pelican dropping (part-painted) Spartans off on a mission.  The model has landing gear moulded in 'up' as its meant to be displayed on a plinth (supplied)

 Ready for take-off

But how big is it?  L to R: Galoob (Action Fleet) UD-4L, Pelican, Rebel Minis (no idea of name), 1/150 Model Power Osprey, Armys Armies VTOL, GZG AV8B.  Top LHS is the Pelican's flight-base plinth

 UD-4L and Pelican

Pelican and Rebel Minis. I do have some 1/100 modern helicopters and aircraft, I may dig them out and compare too. 

My guess is that the Pelican is at around a 1/150 scale, while its small for 15mm, it works fine for me.  A slight bonus from the smaller scale is that as it is solid resin the slightly shrunken scale will work better on raised (12") flight bases, and then the scale discepency will be less obvious.

So why the potentially new genre?  Well, I just splurged on some not-Halo aliens for Xmas and I'm going to tinker with ways to play video-game-inspired minis games.  More once I have figs painted.

I say, the RSM appears to be in a spot of Bother

Be a Good chap and go sort it out...

Ambush Alley, mission: Contracting Trouble, with a Twist!

A British cart carrying the Regimental Sergeant Major (RSM) and Colour Sergeant Major (CSM) has broken down in the center of a Pathan town.

 A Corporal has a scratch force of British Regulars and Ghurkas to rescue the RSM and CSM

 RSM is not happy...  ...the corporal better make it quick

 Sensing blood the Pathan enter the town

 "I say we go that way", "No, we stay where we are" replies the RSM

Pathans lie in ambush positions

 Ghurkas dash forwards, Khukris at the ready

A Gun!, the Pathans manhandle a gun up to a rooftop to cover the street

The Ghurkas prove to be too alert for the Pathans and open fire

The Ghurkas kill the gun crew

The British rush the lone gunman and the hotspot

"Chaaaarge!"

One bayonetted Pathan later

While that was happening others in the unit cover both Hotspots

Ghurkas and the Corporal advance along the main street

The RSM and CSM are in sight

Pathans gain a small horde of reinforcements

Pathan rifles line the main street

Pathan Leaders move to intercept the British

A group of riflemen join the leader group

The British cover one hotspot and block another

The British quickly dispatch two Pathans sneaking up on the RSM and CSM

Pathans gain initiative over the closest rifle group

Killing one and breaking their morale

Th ePathans flee to the cover of the back street

The Corporal dashes forwards to collect the RSM and CSM

They retreat to cover while the Ghurkas and British provide cover-fire

after securing the Hotspot the British advance to provide cover

In an effort to split the units, Pathans appear directly in front of the British unit

The British react quickly, killing two and breaking the morale of the remainder

Got you Matey!

The Pathans retreat into cover, leaving their wounded

Later The British move to cover the Corporal's withdrawal

They engage the furthest Pathans

On the other flank the Ghurkas charge the broken Pathans, causing them to flee into the streets

Despite getting shot up the morale of the furthest Pathans holds

The state of the field

Another Pathan gun appears

But Rats! a second reinforcement unit is lost as they appeared at the removed Hotspot

Yet more Pathans appear in front of the British unit

The Ghurkas secure a Hotspot and engage the Pathans on the rooftops

Nice shooting!

Or, perhaps not so nice for the Pathans

"Watch your heads lads!"  The Pathans gain the initiative

Two British soldiers are hit

And the unit is Pinned

The remaining British effectively return fire

Yet agin the Pathan morale wavers

While the Pathans are pinned down the Corporal's group makes a dash for safety

The board edge is in sight

More Pathans appear, but again its at a captured hotspot

Another gun!

Sooo close

The Leader-less gun crew fail their interrupt

Allowing the British to retire and treat their wounded, turns out only one is badly wounded, the other gets back into the action

The Ghurkas retire to provide cover-fire

New turn, with no immediate threats and cleared Hotspots, it looks like the British will get their men off the table

The Corporal escort the RSM and CSM to safety.  The British win.

After a fun AA game the other day, I thought I'd play another game.  This time I felt like something different, so I dug out some old Colonial figs.  The Brits are Essex and Stone Mountain, the Ghurkas are Minifigs and the Pathans are Warrior.  These were all painted 10-or more years ago.

It was fun to play AA this way, I way well do it again sometime.

So that was the end of Staycation 2015, and what a great one it was.  Now back to work and the regular schedule.