Fishponds Wargames: Matsudan

Showing posts with label Matsudan. Show all posts

Wednesday, 30 October 2024

Giant Sumo Lizards, in Spaaaaaceeeee!

Over the last few weeks I've been busy working on some Matsudan reinforcements for my Firefight/Deadzone Asterian forces. Mantic recently released a hard plastic kit containing three ranged and one melee option. This kit can be used to build up the bulk of your Matsudan forces and the rest can be fleshed out with either resin models or some Asterians.

Your average Matsudan being a giant sumo lizard is pretty tough being more in line with an elite option, they aren't the best shots but they are tough with plenty of hit points.

Firefight Squad

Deadzone Options

I wanted to paint up enough extra models to take my Matsudan Firefight army up to 1500 points, this meant painting around 30 Matsudan and an extra robot to make up the points.

Firefight List

As a result of that I ended up with more than enough options to make some lists from the new Matsudan choices in Deadzone.

Deadzone List

Fluffy Deadzone list

Here you can see a closer picture of the 4-legged Diadarabotchi war-bot in it's support configuration. I'm thinking it will be a hard boy to shift as it has plenty of armour and wounds.

Sunday, 31 October 2021

Nido de Plaga IV: Breakthrough

***Priority Transmission***

From Captain, Marauder Assault Cruiser Mandrake
To Assault Commander, Ground Forces, Nido de Plaga IV

Commander Bolts,

Whilst you have been underground the Asterians have launched a massive attack on the ground base of operations. The fragments of messages we have received indicate an attack with overwhelming forces has wiped out the forces defending the base. We can only assume that the Asterians have somehow brought reinforcements onto the planet without us spotting them.
In order to safeguard Subject F and ensure we do not lose the information gained from the lab you are to lead the forces from the lab to a nearby LZ we have identified for extraction. The Asterian forces are sweeping the area in an attempt to find you so you should avoid becoming engaged in a protracted battle and should move at your best speed to the LZ.

Captain T.

The scenario for this battle was Breakthrough 2.0 with the Marauders aiming to break through the Asterian cordon and make their way to the pickup zone. They had Subject F in tow and would gain 2 Victory Points for getting him off the opposite board edge. VP's where also awarded for getting other members of the Strike Team off the opposite board edge or killing enemy troops.

The Marauders had managed to patch themselves up from the lab fight so went in with the same roster as last time:

1 * Bolts - Commander

3 * Marauder Commando

2 * Mawbeast

1 * Marauder Commando Specialist with HMG

1 * Ripper Rainmaker

1 * Ripper Mauler

1 * Gruntbot

The Asterians took advantage of the influx of new troops onto the planet to bring in a Spectra giant robot:

1 * Marionette Prime

4 * Marionette

1 * Kalyshi

2 * Marionette with Grenade Launcher

1 * Matsudan Inashi

1 * Spectra with Micro Fission Beamer

The game started with 10 Plague victims out on the table all of whom died during the first turn as both sides moved up into cover. The Spectra drew first blood when it smoked a Mawbeast with a shot from it's Fission Beamer, it may only be a pistol but it's a damned big one.

During the second turn both sides got sucked into surprise melees. The Spectra was engaged by the second Mawbeast who took a wound but managed to tie it up and Bolts was charged by the Inashi. Once you've pushed up a bit even a charge of 2 squares can be hard to spot and stop from happening and with the Mawbeasts charge of 3 squares that is extra difficult.

Turn 3 saw the Marauders move first and the Gruntbot join the fight against the Spectra, the Spectra survived the combats but some bad rolling meant it lost it's Energy Shield. The shield is used to block incoming damage but if you roll more 1's than successes it fails and cannot be used again for the rest of the game.

The fight between Bolts and the Inashi continued with neither side gaining and advantage.

The next turn was decisive with the Marionette Prime popping up onto the purple building to kill both the Commando Specialist and a normal Commando before falling to returning fire. Bolts was also killed in the same turn along with the Spectra and a couple of Marionette's. Once the shield is stripped from the Spectra it's pretty squishy so it was fairly easy meat for the Mawbeast & Gruntbot.

The exchange of kills left the Marauders in a better position with the Asterians having lost their most powerful piece in the Spectra and now only rolling 3 command dice due to the loss of their leader.

The Asterians did however notice that Subject F was unattended so made a last-gasp effort to secure the win by seizing it.

Some good shooting and then the intervention of the Ripper Mauler saw the Asterian forces further depleted and the Marauders managed to secure the win (18 VP's) by killing the last of the Marionette's leaving only the Inashi standing.

So what was a really hard fought and bloody game came to a close with the Marauders breaking through by virtue of almost total annihilation of the opposing force.

So we just have one more mission to play out in which the Marauders will attempt to escape the planet with their prize and hopefully their lives.

Sunday, 11 April 2021

Deadzone: Catch Up

Lots of photos this week as I put out a catch up post for the Deadzone minis I've been painting over the last month and a bit.

First up with our fantasy campaign coming to an end last week I thought I would twist Mr T's arm and make him play some sci-fi, even though he says he doesn't like it.

So I put together a couple of Deadzone Strike Teams and asked him to bring some D8's. Knowing that he enjoyed the Vanguard rules which took heavy inspiration from Deadzone I knew he would like the way Deadzone plays as well.

We had a good play through with the teams with Mr T commanding the Marauders and I playing the Asterians for the first time. I'd forgotten how good the Marauder 4+ save on everything was and with Mr T's dice not letting him down for once he managed a decent win.

During the week I'd put together and quickly painted up some extra terrain, as I only had a can of blue paint to hand, that's what colour it ended up.

The main thing was that he conceded that he had in fact enjoyed some sci-fi so hopefully the seeds are sown for a some future games after SAGA.

I've also painted up a second Spectra for the Asterions, this time with the sword. In order to mix things up a little I reversed the paint scheme from the gun version.

This model had a few casting imperfections that had not been present in the first one but the holes aren't in places which are obvious so I opted to get it painted rather than wait for replacement parts from Mantic.

The minimum points size for a double Spectra team is around 175 (as you need 6 troops to unlock them both), but it would be more balanced at 200 points.

I've also painted up a box of Plague victims for use in game as an NPC force. It struck me that the Deadzones are created by the outbreak of the Plague on a planet but you don't see the victims of this calamity.

Now I have the models all painted up I just need to work out a AI routine for them, they need to be a nuisance rather than the focus of the game, unless you make a mistake of course, and not slow the game down too much. So some working out to do on that front.

Next week we should be traveling back to the mists of time and playing some SAGA, it's a ruleset we both enjoy so it will be good to be playing it again.

Sunday, 14 February 2021

Deadzone: Double Spectra

Just a quick post this week as I've only got WIP's on the figure front and we've not been able to get a game in.

Whilst putting a post up on the Deadzone Facebook group I did wonder what a double Spectra list would look like. The model is so nice and painted up real easy so doing a second would not be a chore by any means.

In order to field two Vehicle type models you need to unlock them with three Troop type models each, so that would mean six Marionettes. With that many Marionettes to fit in in makes sense to use the Marionette Prime, not only is it the cheapest leader the Asterians can field it also has a decent splat to use with all those Marionette's.

I headed over to the best Deadzone builder currently available and put in the minimum requirements for the Strike Team. It quickly became apparent that it would need a 175/200 point team in order to fit double Spectra's as it just could not be done at 150 points.

Looking at 200 points you get one of each type of Spectra which is ideal as the sword variant also looks good and it means the models can add some variety to the team. With your six Marionette's and the Prime you have 30 points left over to play with.

Prime With New Gold Identification Mark

I went with a Marionette Specialist with Grenade Launcher and the Matsudan Ozeki with Ion Barrage to add some field control. Both of these are able to Pin opposing models which means they are knocked down meaning they need to stand up (wasting an action) before they can act and also making them more vulnerable to the melee attacks of the Sword Spectra.

On the modelling front this is all pretty straightforward as I have all the models apart from trhe second Spectra. I did update the Marionette Prime a little to help it stand out from the others by adding a Gold identification mark on it's head. As for the second Spectra, well fortunately one of the expansions for Star Saga came back into stock this week, so it gave the reason to place an order. I have Retake the Blackstar on order along with the Spectra and a few other bits from the lovely Matt @The Pit Gaming who pointed out that it was available again. This also means I have the makings of yet another faction as the box contains the Volt Chaser Veer-myn.

Wednesday, 3 February 2021

Deadzone: Asterians / Matsudan Complete

Over the last few weeks I have been working away on some more Deadzone models for the Asterian / Matsudan faction. Having completed the test models a little while back I had a decent idea of what I wanted to do.

First up are the leader (Matsudan Toshiyori), melee specialist (Matsudan Inashi) and a mercenary from Star Saga (Ota Sora). The Toshiyori's special ability allows him to boost the firepower of Marionettes, so he goes well with the models I'd already painted. The Inashi is a tough melee fighter who wields twin blades, this not only makes him look rather cool but also allows him to reroll one miss each combat. Ota Sora brings a good range 6 AP(2) weapon to the team, he also has an armour of two so is pretty tough as well.

The next three models are also Matsudan with the electric mace wielding Sekiwake being flanked by the Yokozuna who has the same Ion Cannon as Ota Sora (but one less armour) and the Ozeki who carries the Ion Barrage, a range 5 AP(1) weapon with suppression built in.

The Matsudan all have a knockback ability which can be used to Pin an opponent (as does the Ion Barrage). Models which attack a Pin's opponent get a bonus to their melee dice. This is where So Hin comes in, he is also a Star Saga mercenary. The Matsudan all have the Honourable special ability which stops them from attacking Pin'd opponent, So Hin has no such scruples. He's fast, has a built in buddy (the bird) so always gets the +1 dice to melee for having a friend and has a AP(1) glaive with the ability to reroll one miss (hitting on a 4+ on a D8), so you don't want to be lying down with him in the area.

The Marionette box also came with some drones and weapon platforms in, I doubt I'd be using this in a game but they got painted up anyway.

With the extra parts that came in the kit for the various configurations I knocked up some objectives / cover for the table.

I also had some Cypher models in the box, these are more expensive and better shots than the Marionette's so with the Matsudan be higher costed they also probably won't be fielded, sorry guys!

Last but not least is the Spectra, this is the large robot model for the Asterians which was released pretty recently. It's hard to knock the quality of the resin models from Mantic (the Matsudan are also resin) and these are another high quality resin offering.

The large robots of the other factions tend to be large plodding affairs, like the walker I painted up before. The Spectra is fast (moves 2-3) and has flight as well as never needing to be in cover to negate the clear shot modifier. It should be able to dash around the battlefield and take out what ever target is in range of it's range 6 AP(3) Micro Fission Beamer.

There is a variant with a sword so I may need to get a second, this one was fun to paint and the scheme came together really easily so it wouldn't be much work to get another painted up.

So that's the Asterian / Matsudan force all done for now, I cannot wait to get some Deadzone back in again once we can start playing in public again.

I should also mention that the unit entry is from a list builder built by Neal Jones, it allows you to upload pictures of your models into the unit entries, very nifty!