Forum adverts like this one are shown to any user who is not logged in. Join us by filling out a tiny 3 field form and you will get your own, free, dakka user account which gives a good range of benefits to you: No adverts like this in the forums anymore. Times and dates in your local timezone. Full tracking of what you have read so you can skip to your first unread post, easily see what has changed since you last logged in, and easily see what is new at a glance. Email notifications for threads you want to watch closely. Being a part of the oldest wargaming community on the net. If you are already a member then feel free to login now.

Must....build....more.....cool tanks.

Found this bit of awsome sauce.



Nice chap, the internal sponson came with a hand written note.
He even has a video on how to do the installation.

I love that sticker! “Look out, sir! Aaargh!”

I really should break out all of my alternate tanks, and start building 'em for funsies.

Yes! Yes you should, you are a great builder! Us tread heads need the inspiration!

The Many Chimera variations of the Return to Taros


Although the Chimera chassis has been used for many purposes from field artillery to stripped down open topped scout vehicles, In this review of tactical transport vehicles we will be examining several examples of Chimera.
Most regiments of the Astra Militarum have motor pools filled with examples of the exact same variant. The 4th Battalion Armored reconnaissance is not one of them.
The Emperor helps those that help themselves and in its many champagnes the 4th has replenished their mechanized components by helping themselves to whatever was assigned or requisitionable.

The first example is the classic Chimera that I commonly call the Mk1. Seen here with extra armor to keep the crew fully functional this Chimera is armed with the standard Mutilaser and hull mounted Heavy Bolter.





Automatically Appended Next Post:
Based on the Chimera MKIi chassis ( taller turret providing more crew room and a slightly slimmer profile) this Chimera has a Heavy Bolter turret that is set further back on the hull. Although there is no tactical or support benefit to this configuration it has been popular with veteran squads. A smaller rear deck hatch limits this variant from functioning as a firing platform for Mortar teams.



Automatically Appended Next Post:
Another Chimera configured with the main get positioned central on the body, this version hails from an active Forge World in system M248




Automatically Appended Next Post:
Despite looking very different these Chimera are mechanically the same with very high parts compatibility between the variants. Surprisingly this Kangaroo transport acquired from the penal colony of Victoria also has a high percentage of parts compatibility with the Chimera. We like to call them Chimeroo




Automatically Appended Next Post:
The large turret on the Chimeroo allowed some epic conversions that included being armed with a Battlecannon.

Yes

Battle.....Canon

I'm digging the Chimera variants. Adds a lot of character and realism. Given how large the galaxy is and how many planets are out there, I would expect there are many variations.

It is really bad because IW and I are both heavy treadheads and we're encouraging each other.

Lost to Mythos, a venerable wheeled Chimera rescued from a broken house still serves. The simplicity of wheels extends the time between refitting in desert environments. Sand being exceptionally hard on tracks and bearings. The original turret having been replaced with another variant built on yet another planet is an example of how modular the basic hull design is.



Wheeled variants loose some off road capabilities but have an edge on roads or hard pack terrain. My favorite is another build from the M248 sector.

Love the Forge World Feel!


Automatically Appended Next Post:
Imperial Forward Support Base, somewhere in the Pyhrea Heights, Day 4, second Taros War, just after dawn....



The imperial Guard stands to, as the distant sounds of engines can be heard and movement is detected in the lifeless high desert.











Kroot Trackers and Knarloc riders had moved into position during the bitter Taros night.





As the defenders scan the horizon from behind improvised barricades, a familiar shape rears its head above the skyline - Krootosaur!



With a roar of engines the Kroot advance on Mules. Weaving through the imperial fire, they close in on the compound, pouring in their own rifle fire to suppress the defenders as other Kroot sweep in on foot.





Kroot! Kroot everywhere! The defenders are sent reeling.



Sgt Bastonne battles a Kroot Rider hand to hand, and both fall simultaneously!



A flame troop prepares to sell his life dearly to defend his wounded sgt.



Imperial forces are driven to their final redout inside a fortified container as the Kroot hold the walls - but Col. Helstrom arrives with the speeding cavalry! The Command Sentinel quickly destroys both Mules.






Will it be enough?








Automatically Appended Next Post:
We need dust rooster tails for vehicles.

Wow, those are some good pictures. I haven't even uploaded mine yet.

Great battle report photos. I’m loving the blue sky background. The backgrounds to my battles are always chairs, garage walls, beer cans, and other things that spoil the realism. Nice work.

I am VERY sad I missed this day. Great work with the new blue background!

--Brian

Looks great kestral, and great battle report. Interesting to read and looks fun to play

Nice photos and narrative kestrel.

Cheers,

CB

Thanks folks! The backdrop slows play a bit, but and is a bit cluttery, but I really enjoy it. I particularly like the grimness of this battle - rocks, sand, cargo containers, and not much else. Very hard sci fi! Not that it always has to be that way, but it still scratched an itch, so to speak.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
I kind of want to do a guide to the vehicles of the 3rd Armored All Terrain Rangers after I finish the report next, inspired by I Walker's Chimera guide.

Also, all credit to Insurgency Walker for the design of the last group of scenarios.





The Master Shaper leads a charge against the last Imperial Holdout - only to be repelled by flamerthrowers. Checks his Ld 10... ...and fails! The unit falls back as the Kroot kill team grits their beaks and prepares to finish the job. They charge the container next, but the retreating kroot ox rider helpfully pivots his mighty kroot gun around as his steed flees... ...and fires.... ...through a firing port.... ...into a prometheum cache. The resulting giant explosion devastates multiple kroot units including the ruthless kill team....



At this juncture, the charging kroot riders manage to pull off a maximum distance charge against one car, which was in the act of nimbly dodging the lumbering Krootasour, only to look up and see a Kroot Rider leaping onto the hood, somehow wrecking it.



The final devastation:



At this juncture the kroot, though having taken at least 75% casualties, had more than the imperial vehicles could reasonably shoot off the objective (though I think they could have forced a draw), and we called it.

The secrets of the Kroot in the Pyhrea heights were safe, for the moment....

Great stuff! Loving the photos and the minis

Thanks!

Here is some initial thinking on the next scenario:

Skymarshal Vhaine had stormed her share of castles in the sky, but Taros presented some intriguing difficulties. The Tau had prepared well. The original network of ground to space missiles the Imperium had built had been maintained. Space capable flyers operated from concealed bases with good coverage. Dual purpose satellites waited to make suicide ramming attacks. While the battlecruiser that had provided most of the planet’s mobile protection would fall to the Quasimodo ruse, there remained several smaller craft. But above all there loomed Dawnwater’s Edge.
She had carried the asteroid forts of Gnarcia by escalade, dueled with the Guns of Cartos and silenced them, and starved Fallow Core into submission over the course of her long career, but this was something different. It was massive for a start, bristling with advanced technology, the pride of a Sept. Further, the Tau, recognizing that most enemies would want to capture the valuable space elevator, had left much of the station relatively lightly defended, concentrating its defenses into the massive citadel overhanging one quadrant. Awesomely shielded by drawing on the reactors of the entire station, it was also thickly armored. The heavy lance turrets were bad enough, but then there were the Railguns - twin Peacemaker class triple turrets capable of dueling a battleship and likely emerging victorious.
Vhaine had only incomplete data on the station, for Dree had few ways to gain information on the Tau’s orbital infrastructure. None the less, she could see that that Tau had been too clever by half. They had chosen an unusual layout for the peacemaker turrets that forwent the wide firing arc of Dorsal mounts for the ability to engage targets *below* the station. The Tau did not think this an issue since the entire station could rotate to bring the Peacemakers to bear on any target, effectively given them a 720 degree field of fire. But she had a weapon for just this situation, taken from a Xenos wreck drifting in the Argo Cluster - Inertial Limpet Mines. Once attached to a ship, or station, they would steadily increase in effective Mass, slowing the ship, or in this case the station’s ability to rotate. With enough loaded on the Quasimodo she could ensure the station’s railguns’ field of fire could be out maneuvered. This synergized well with her plan of using fast escorts and light cruisers in the initial attack, to take the station by storm before Tau defenses were fully online and before they could evacuate, sabotage or scuttle the station. She carefully laid out the plan for the assault and briefed her captains and allies. There was a series of targets to be captured on the station, and rather than each ship having its own target, given that there would losses and it would be hard to predict who would arrive first, ships would dispatch their boarding parties to whichever target was not yet captured in a strict order.
A plan never survives contact with the enemy intact of course. As her ships swept in she eagerly scrutinized the initial scans, and one thing struck her - and unusual structure adjacent to the Citadel on Dawnwater’s Edge, above one of the secondary hanger bays. Was it a scuttling mechanism or something else? Her instincts told her it might be important, and after hundreds of years she trusted her instincts. The battle plan could not be upset, but she voxed all ships, ordering them to dispatch what forces could be spared to Hanger 12.
As it happened, her instincts were entirely correct, though this would not become apparent until after the battle….

Rough thoughts (still very much WIP):

This will be a simultaneous BFG and 40K game, with turns matched 1 for 1, 15 turns total.

The Imperium will have perhaps 3,000 points in 40K, vs the Tau’s 1,000, but those forces will be carried on the imperial ships, and any on ships that are destroyed will simply be lost. The others will arrive piecemeal as the ships manage to board the station using BFG rules.
To ensure that the iconic units of this battle are well represented, the Gauthi and Breaching Team will have the Sustained Assault (recycling) rule.

Imperial Order of battle will be escorts, heavy escorts (Hull 2-3), and Light Cruisers (Hull 4-7), with perhaps some space marine ships and the Toujours L’Audace. They will have an advantage over the Tau in space forces, particularly in the beginning as the Tau are surprised. Tau will have some ground based missiles and fighters, but these will be hampered by the destruction of Installation 6B.

Tau will have the Station (which will have to rotate in a fixed pattern, since the limpet mines were not wholly successful. This means that the Imperium will have to try to dodge its heavy firepower), a couple escorts, civilian ships, a EW ship, and a Kiff Hakkit class, however the Kiff will disengage early in the battle.

Kestral, I have the rules for planetary assaults, and the "Invasion" add-on.

Intriguing. I haven't done a 2 gaming table, two gaming systems event since an epic Battle/Aero Tech game in the 90's.
Looking forward to this game.

I love the idea of of the simultaneous BFG and 40k games. I also like your idea for the turn length, I always felt the 5-6 turns was so short in 40k, no real time to maneuver.

Nice to see a bunch of Chimera variants. I have one of the old Chapterhouse kits and want to gets some of the Blood and Skulls Industry ones to work with. Do you find them easy to work with?

Yes, very easy. The chapter house kits can have some odd stuff going on as the kit was designed from the Old Chimera kit and you may decide to move some of the cuts on the inside of the chapter house kit a bit which without the right tools can be a pain in the but. The kits I got from chapter house hadn't been finished and/or were prototypes and while some guide marks had been made on the inside he actually hadn't gotten around to making the cuts. The Blood and skulls kits are very easy to work with. I haven't built a lot of his stuff but everything I have gotten has been clean and well cast. Little bits of flash but nothing hard. Forgeworld is a flaming trash heap compared to Blood and skulls, and I like Forgeworld. For example the FW enclosed Basilisk kit I purchased had either gotten hot in transport or was pulled from the mold too soon and the bottom half of the compartment had folded in on itself. The blood and skulls Barmkin kit has a brace at the back to keep it square, with "remove me" or something like that legibly cast on it. Fething genius. The 8 wheeled kit and especially the variant Chimera top are very easy to work with. His variant turrets are gold! Looking forward to building the 6wheel kit this week. I have no idea what I'm doing with it yet.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
A smaller sentinel for corridors?

That is a terrific 'space corridor sweeper'!

I love the idea of a BFG/40k hybrid game. I have never played BFG but the ships would be such a crucial part of any campaign. The space battles and boarding actions are always tied together in the stories so this should be a lot of fun. Looking forward to seeing it come together.

And because I can never have too many different Chimera



I think I can give the Chimera a break now.

Having some serious paint adhesion issues with the walker, which probably means I'll have to base it, at least temporarily.

I've reconsidered the scenario somewhat, so my to do list stands as follows:

Finish the write up
Tau Light Cruiser, Frigate, ground bases, fighters. (Fighters optional)
Low orbit board (this will be my desert mat with Taro's sea covering part of it and maybe some very low mountains.
Tau Space Station Board (This is tricky, since I don't want to invest lots of effort in a one off - parts need to be either easy or reusable.)
Rules/Points for Rogue Trader forces
BFG stats for space ships
Painting (Optional really) - Finish Armsmen, Paint 3 Sentinels, Paint Walker Thingy

Seems doable.



Automatically Appended Next Post:
Armsmen are "painted enough for tabletop". I'll return to them later when the rest of the scenario is ready. Amazing figures really, deserve more. I'm enjoying piecing together the Rogue Trader forces.

I have a space mat, and planets.

--Brian

Pics don't do them justice.




Automatically Appended Next Post:

 The Riddle of Steel wrote:
I love the idea of a BFG/40k hybrid game. I have never played BFG but the ships would be such a crucial part of any campaign. The space battles and boarding actions are always tied together in the stories so this should be a lot of fun. Looking forward to seeing it come together.

I'm a little nervous about getting the pieces to fit together into a fun game. Still I expect it will work out.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

 Briancj wrote:
I have a space mat, and planets.

--Brian

Going for low orbit here (kind of inspired by Drop Fleet Compander's "battles over satellite images" thing), but other battles in the Taros or nearby systems will hopefully happen at some point. After all, those poor Tau need to escape from Umia!


Automatically Appended Next Post:
Or bomb it flat.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
Or worship it. We're kind of unclear, what with all the voices in our heads.

Normally, there's a space board with a planet, and a "low orbit" board. Do you want to start in low orbit?