This week has been marked with a mix of hobby success and monumental epic failure. I’ll star with the positive and leave you in suspense for the failure, which I hope means you’ll read all the way to the end. Now I’m working really hard to separate the two as rationally I know there is no connection but deep down there is that that little voice saying you know why this happened and it’s all your own fault, you just had get the French fleet. But I’m not listening to that voice and I’m going to expand my French fleet so there.
So the success was the completion of the start of my Dystopian Wars Republique of France Naval Battle Group. I’ve really enjoyed painting these and have been really happy with how they turned out. I think that going with a metallic start and then working over this with a thinned down blue give a nice metallic feel to the whole force without going over the top. Accenting that with the red on weapons and other stand out features I feel just give an nice bit of contrast and is very in keeping with a French colour scheme.
I’ve got some new pictures of all of the Fleet so far with general shots of each of the ships and then a few close ups just to add that little bit more. First of the ships is the Saint Malo Class Heavy Battleship with it’s distinctive twin hull design and the ability to launch Moustique Class Submarine which give it quite a lot of character. Although having not played a game with it yet I have no idea how it will actually work.
Then keeping with the big guns, or large ships, we have the Couronne Class Assault Carrier. For me on this ship it’s the contrast between a wooden flight deck and the blue metallic that I really like. The heat lance on the front and complement of broadsides and rockets aren’t too shabby either.
Keeping with the big guns we have the modular might that is the Gascony Class Battleship which comes in two flavours. The MK1 packing a mix of broadside and turret gunnery along with a smattering of torpedoes. Or switch thigs about, with the aid of few magnets, and you have the MKII bristling with broadside and turret heat lances. Oh and few torpedoes for good measure.
We then leave the big guns behind and move into the world of the middleweights with the Cherbourg Class Battle Cruiser. Although it’s fair to say this is right up there up there at the top of it’s class. Just like it’s larger siblings it’s packing heat lances and broadsides.
Still sitting firmly in the middle ground and reminding me very much of beloved Russian Gun Ships we have the Dieppe Class Cruisers. Although with only gunnery turrets and torpedoes I don’t think they will be as formidable as the trusty Gun Ship. Having said that pound for pound I think the Gun Ship is the best ship available to any fleet.
We are now getting in the realms of the little guys now with the Lyon Class Frigates nothing special here just a smattering of torpedoes and broadsides that will be relying on the legendary exploding six to do any damage to anything. But having said that they arrive it makes for a fantastic feeling.
Then last up for the Frenchie’s are the utterly baffling Requin Class Corvettes. I say that as they don’t appear to have any weapons so I can’t figure out how to use them. I have some Russian escorts like this and Pete tells me they are fantastic, but then again he tells me shouldn’t use Gun Ships. But that might be for a completely different reason. I think from the last conversation he was saying you can fire them forward and use them to draw fire from other units. If your opponent doesn’t shoot them they run the risk of these things ganging up and boarding them once they’ve been softened up by some gunnery. I’m not convinced yet but will give them a go.
And that rounds out the success for this week. Not a massive progression from last week it has to be said but it does feel good get something finished. Especially with the very limited time I’ve actually had available to me to so I’ll the all the little wins I can.
Now then on tot eh bit you’ve all been waiting for, the epic fail. A few of us have decide that we are going to go back to Adepticon next year and because this is a joint venture I offered to book the hotel. So I dutifully signed up to get the e-mail notification when the rooms became available. Then on Wednesday night I get a text from Al asking which one of us was going to book the hotel. Me is say, I’m all signed up from notifications and just waiting for them to go live. Now for the last few years this has been in early August so I didn’t think any of the it. Then the next text message came through. Oh, Darren’s just been on the site and the bookings are available, but they have all gone so we can’t book a room at the venue. My response wasn’t good, not helped by the fact that I had only finished work and hour ago. I frantically checked my e-mail to see if I had missed anything but no there was no e-mail saying the rooms were now available. Not a happy camper.
Knowing I had be up early and with a mad day ahead of me I gave up and went to bed. Before I know it the alarm is going off I’m trying to thin of any excuse not to have to get up at this ungodly hour. So I turn the alarm off and low and behold I’ve received an e-mail, two minutes ago, informing me that the hotel booking have now gone live. Once again I am ashamed to say my response was not polite and apologise unreservedly to the people in the surrounding rooms.
Now whilst I have been wallowing in my failure Darren had been working away and has managed to find us a hotel that is not to far away so we are still on track for a return visit. And that just about rounds out the week and has left me sat in a hotel bar drinking overpriced and under flavoured beer and typing up this weeks Waffle. I’m hoping to break out of morass and get some more hobby in this weekend but until next week have a good weekend and I hope to catch you all again next week.
