"The Empire Strikes Back!" Topic

So, the lovely wife calls out from the front room that Star Wars is on one of the cable channels last night as she was channel surfing. "My, Harrison Ford looks so young!" she exclaims.

So I switch the TV on in the office where I was on the computer reading TMP. "Yea, it's Star Wars." I responded. Then the Empire Strikes Back starts and of course I have to pause to enjoy the Hoth Sequence.

All this is a long winded introduction to say -- I just bought my vintage 1980's Kenner AT-AT!

It is great. It stands about 20 inches high. I plan to use it as a key feature in the Hoth scenarios for my post christmas annual Star Wars game I run with the 60mm Hasbro unleashed battlpack figures.

This should be a fun scenario. Not too much terrain I have to make since I already have a lot of white styro pieces I can use for the snowy battlescape.

I have a snow speeder with luke and will have the pilot try to take down the AT-AT. Then scenario 2 will be an assault on the Rebel position. Of course the snow troopers will have to dismount and engage in some trench clearing!

Should be a fun time on December 27!

Here is a link to a nice review of the item:
link

Lovely. The 10 year old still inside me is insanely jealous!

For inspiration, here are some photos of the Battle of Hoth from this year's Nashcon. The Rebel Base is built entirely out of sheets of bare styrofoam. Unfortunately, none of the pictures show it, but the top of the Base lifts off (I believe there were three or four sheets) to reveal the rooms and corridors of the base itself, all carved out of bare styrofoam. Very impressive.

link

A caveat for your scenario; the game at Nashcon was for the entire battle, from the AT-AT approach to the assault on the interior with Leia & Han's escape. Unfortunately, we never got to the interior assault as the Rebel tactics (of which I was a part) delayed the Empire significantly— we didn't have time to play out the whole thing! The scenario design didn't expect significant Rebel success in the exterior fight. It probably should have been divided into two different scenarios, the AT-AT attack and the Base Assault, allowing for Rebel victory in both. An interesting fight, nevertheless!

I still have mine in the original ESB box, it still works and all the parts are there.

"It stands about 20 inches high"

Ok, now the trick is to give it a new paint job and get it involved in a 28mm SF game (and post pics of course).

Congrats.

Heh, I just found my AT-AT the other day. It's in serious need of rehabilitation.

Parzival,

Thanks for the link to the pics. Inspiring.

I only have the one AT-AT and right now only about 15 troops on both sides (Imperials have a heavy blaster cannon--rebels have 2 mg like blasters) plus I have the Rebel cannon towers (2) and radar dish looking lasers (2). This will equal some of the firepower the AT-AT has with its guns and lasers on the head. (I have the clear plastic rods and will add in some batteries to make noise and lights on the AT-AT when firing.

Also only have the one snow speeder.

However, I may do a little shopping and pick up a second or third snow speeder, a few more rebel laser and blaster batteries and some ground troops. Also might pick up a few more snowtroopers.

I am just going to focus on the AT-AT approach with the snowspeeder attempt and then the AT-AT attempt to knock out the shield generator.

I just purchased a few more hoth figs. some rebel troopers, snow troopers.
Here is how the forces will break down: (including what I already have and the new items just purchased)

Imperials:
1 small probe droid
1 large probe droid
1 AT-AT (with driver and officer)
4 Snowtrooper fireteams of 4 troopers each (16 figs)
1 Heavy blaster cannon (3 man crew)
1 Command team (General Veers, AT-AT crew chief, 2 stormtrooper engineers
1 Darth Vader figure

Rebels:
1 snow speeder (with dismounted Luke pilot fig w/lightsaber)
2 anti vehicle lasers
2 heavy blaster towers
2 Heavy anti personnel blasters (manned by 1 crew each)
4 Rebel trooper fire teams of 4 troopers each (16 figs)
1 command team of officer, 2 sergents, 1 anti personal blaster manned by 1 crew
1 luke fig w/lightsaber

I still might pick up a few more rebel troopers, snow troopers and rebel blaster/laser towers and snow speeders over the next couple of months if I can find some deals online.

I ran the game at Nashcon, and just so you and Parizal know of the 4 times that I have done the game (twice at Nashcon over the past few years and twice at Wargames back when we had more SW miniatures there), the pictured version was clearly the best performance by the Rebels ever.

There were significant errors in tactics made by the Imperials, such as a long delay in targeting the major Rebel ground based weapons in an attempt to have almost everyone try to shoot down the dodging Skywalker, and the deployment of the snowtroopers exiting the AT-ATs right in front of the intact and entrenched Rebel heavy weapons.

There are a number of Hoth games at different conventions around the country (Flatcon, GenCon, etc…) most more impressive than the one I held at Nashcon. I encourage to find a local con near you and try one out.

Does anyone make metal Star Wars miniatures? Or is all of it the pre-painted plastic stuff?

Mock26 – you can pick up the old West End Games metal miniatures on EBay every now and again – they are 25mm rather than 28mm.

Custer please post a battle report when the game is over! I always enjoy reading these. The pics are always very cool. Even with minimal scenery, the sheer volume of 40mm minis you have will be very cool to see.

Thieses--

Of course I will post the battle report! The 60mm figs do make a nice impression in the pics.

I am planning to pick up about 20 or so more snow troopers and 40 or so more rebel troopers in the next month or so. Right now the forces are about even.

The Rebels will slightly outnumber the imperials if I am able to add the troops but…they will likely become cannon fodder for the imperials (but that is only if the imperial commander uses his AT AT guns wisely)

@ David: Please understand, I did enjoy the game! (And it was fun gunning down troopers as they dropped from the AT-ATs ;-).) I concur with your assessment of the Imperial tactics— though I can't blame the youngest player for his "Wanna shoot Luke" approach.

I do think that a two-part scenario with an assumption that "this is just a small part of the big battle" would be a good approach (not to fault yours). It allows for "ahistorical" results by the players, while still letting the overall events unfold according to the movie story line. But as I said, it was an entertaining battle!

I'm pretty sure the Lego AT-AT is close to 28mm scale!

picture

Parzival--

I think your summation of what I am attempting is accurate. By only focusing on a part of the battle, it allows me to not have to affect the overall outcome from the star wars canon and yet provide for flexibility in the options the players have.

In a sense, it is true skirmish level focus.

David--

Your game (the pics were great) looked like a lot of fun. If I could get 4 more AT ATs and a ton more troopers and other miscellanea, I would attmept would you did (but on a table about 6 times bigger --LOL.

I am looking forward to it.

acquisitions update:

I picked up one more AT AT on ebay. Now the imperials will have two.

I also picked up 8 more imperial snow troopers and 8 more rebels.

hunting for a few more items in the next month or so.

picked up some more HOTH reb and imperial troops --this should be pretty cool. hopefully will win some ebay items this week for yet more figs!

I lent my Kenner AT-AT out to someone years ago for a big game and never got it back… :(

OK--my acquisitons are complete.

I picked up a few more imperial invasion packs with both rebs and imperials. I have about 40+ figures for each side (almost close to 50 for each side.) This should be a great time. I have about 7 or 8 participants invited (current and former students of mine as well as some nephews and cousins and friends) They range from 8 years old to 23 years old and ages in between. It should be a fun time!

Now to make up the terrain (I have plenty of white foam type items to create different looks for for the snow.

Custer7thcav,

Any chance you are in the midwest? I've read about people playing out SW battles, using 4"-6" figures, before, and what a hoot it would be!

Anybody planning on running such a game at a con, please, PLEASE, post it here for all to see. I suspect better than 90% of all TMP'ers are SW fans who would love to have a romp in such a game… Cheers, all!

sgt slag,

If you click on the member name in the header of the messege in this thread you can see their profile.
In yours I note you are located in:
United States of America, Minnesota, Olmsted

I am in the chicago suburbs.

I put my battle reports with loads of hi res pictures in pdf format.

If you have not seen my battle reports before
You may do so here:

my Star Wars Tatooine Battle on Dec. 27, 2007
TMP link --scroll down a bit to get the corrected links for the pdf

my Clone Wars battle on Dec 27 2008
TMP link

a "parade" of my collection (I have added since then)
TMP link

a 54mm cavalry vs. plains indians battle report
TMP link

Enjoy!

I hadn't seen your Pony War's game before. Great stuff! I do several periods in 54mm.

My son played on a Hoth game locally this year. The game used the WOTC figs. It looked quite nice and was focused on the approach of the AT-At's (in this case one) towards the Rebel lines. The designer hadn't calculated that the Rebels could have a chance to win. My son literally killed EVERY Imperial item on the board. At-St's, Snow troopers, Probe droids and more. I mean everything. He had to roll 2 20's in a row to possibly knock out the AT-AT. He rolled em both. I was stunned. However, the GM was inexperienced and made a secret roll and said the At-At was unaffected. He was a nice guy but made a lousy call. He SHOULD have gone ahead and let the Rebels (my son) win. I have NEVER seen such domination and excellent die rolling in my life. It was amazing. I consoled my son letting him know that. He was a good sport about it.

Thanks,

John

Well--the time is getting near…

I have snagged a few more figures (actually found a bunch of deals on ebay).

I just acquired another snowspeeder, so I will have two. I am hoping to pick up one more AT AT -if I don't get it--the two I have is fine.

Also picked up a few more turrets and lasers for the reb defensive trenches (should have around 5 now and a second tauntaun.

There will be close to 60+ troops for both rebs and imps on the third scenario (the trench clearing)

I have a king sized white bedsheet for 15 bucks from walmart for the snow base. I am selecting some appropriate pieces of styrofoam for the trenchs and the hills and corridors.

I am stoked!!!!

I should be able to work alot on the terrain the 10 days or so before the game.

I have around 8 players attending and will take plenty of pics of each scenario and post pdf AAR for all to enjoy!!!

That sounds great! You ARE the man. Can't wait to see the AAR.

Thanks,

John

Hi John,

I just was doing some head and arm swaps on the rebels. This will create some variety for them. Because I have about 5 of the battle packs that had 11 figs in them, I have 5 Lukes with lightsaber and 5 vaders with light saber. I will likely sell off the vaders that I don't need but will convert the luke into officer figures. i have one where I swapped his arms w/lightsaber for the guy holding the binoculars and vice versa. I may make the light saber on the non-luke figs into black cable with the handle of the light saber as the connector.

I also plan to use some black wire (from science surplus or home depot) for cabling between the laser turrets and the towers and the repeating machine guns. Actually, some shoelaces might also work --the thinner rounder type.

For the trenches,I did some research and will make some slight zig zag in the set up and then have a major high ground location (a rebel rally point in scenario 3)

This should be a really fun time. I got pizza coming for lunch--everyone will bring a soda 2 liter and a bag of snack chips. we should be set!!!

This is so cool. A really great idea to do the yearly game. the sclae is also a sure eye catcher! It's sorta funny though. I am currently painting up stuff to do the Clone Wars in Micro machine scale including lots of vehicles. My son Sean and I just finished painting up about 160 Clone troopers. I'm waiting on an order of 80 Super Battledroids. It isn't the big stuff. But it still should be pretty cool.

Take care,

John

John,

In any scale Star Wars is cool!!!

I was in a meeting for a community event that I chair and one of the members of the newspapers we work with saw the star wars in concert in chicago this past weekend. He said it was awesome!!! I guess Star Wars in musical scales is cool (groan --I know bad pun alert!)

I actually sold off a bunch of the small figures about a year back. I still have some micromachine hoth, endor, and bespin terrain pieces that I picked up over a decade ago. will have to see what they may get if I put them up for sale.

Your project sounds like a lot of fun, John. I like the clone wars because of the variety of clone trooper styles. Actually picked up some 501st figs in an Ebay acquisiton. another 4 to add to Vader's personal body guard.

Anyway--This battle will be huge.

Cheers for now!

We're all waiting for the pics. I can't wait for the boys and I to see your AAR!

Thanks,

John

A bit of a funny… I read this thread's title and immediately thought "Oh Lord! What has Games Workshop done now?!?!?"

I just posted some pics. of my 60mm game I ran this afternoon. They are in the Darth Hater photo file on the star wars skirmish game group on yahoo groups. Excuse the mess in the background, and the half painted terrain. We were all caught up in the moment.

Custer, are you gonna be at Littlewars this spring?

Craig

Hey Craig,

If you mean the one in lincolnshire IL in late april --I am hoping to go to shop and check out some games Maybe on the friday --I have to check my schedule (ACT seson still in effect at that time)

I checked out your pics of the game. It looked like fun!! I have my nephew and his cousin as well as some of my former and current students coming to my game.

I noticed in your yahoo group message your were open to trading some figs. I might have some extras we can discuss.

I am looking for a few of the red emperor's royal guard and the black shadow guard. Also looking for some of the jedi that came out this past year.

email me at custer7thcav@comcast.net if you want to talk trades Craig.

just a few more acquisitions of some figures here and there.

I did an inventory:

for the rebels I have about 100 figures, and if I win a few ebay lots -- then I should have about 110 and an additional snowspeeder (that would make 3 -already have 2) and another blaster turret (that would make 6 -already have 5 and 5 laser dishes).

The Imperials have around 80 figures and if I win the ebay lot then about 95.

with the 2 large AT ATs and some probe droids and 2 heavy blasters there will be some fierce imperial firepower.

But the rebs have a lot of troops, and they have about 12 (maybe 14) MG style repeating blasters, 5 turret blasters(maybe 6) and 5 laser dishes plus they have 2 (maybe 3) snowspeeders. And remember, they are entrenched so they have some ability to return as good as they get.

Looking ahead to next year---
I am thinking for the 2010 game I will do the battle on Tanitive V blockade runner. Need to pick up a few more rebel troops with the blue shirts and white helmets. the combat would be in the corriders of the ship with the stormtrooprs having to access to the bridge to try to capture Princess leia.

the goal for next week (part of a 2 week vacation--yeah!) is to finish up the trenches and snow terrain (hills and such)

I have a lot of extra vaders from the hoth sets, so if anyone is looking to acquire one I am happy to consider trading, just pm me here or contact me at custer7thcav@comcast.net. Label the email SW trades