Full Thrust - NSL vs ESU

Tamsin and I got Full Thrust back on the table for our yearly dose of space goodness.

Tamsin brought her ESU fleet and I had my trusty NSL.

I finally pulled my finger out and named all of my ships.  Makes life much easier.

Tamsin suggested we use the Gruntz activation cards to spice up the shooting.  Rather than being able to choose who fired first, using the Gruntz cards, you assigned each a card.  The card value would then determine who shot first.

This made life rather interesting in a few duels.

We each had 2500 points, no more than 50% of which could be in capitals.

I was soon to learn the power of the ESU class four laser.....

We each set up, I split up into two squadrons, Tamsin just a line of ESU brawlers.

The ESU advance. Some how, the Russians were faster than the NSL.

The NSL squadron based on Ferdinand  III super dreadnought moves to engage

Tamsin's brawlers move in.  Shortly afterwards I discoved that Russians do make big guns.

My Maria class battleship lost all of it's armour and two rows of damage, not to mention multiple systems just from one shot.

I hate the exploding dice mechanic when it's happening to me....

:-)

The fleets moving into knife fighting range.

My pulse torpedoes fail to hit anything!

This is going to hurt!

The end result was a narrow win to the NSL.

I managed to destroy most of the ESU capital ships but most of my fleet was only suitable for scrap metal.

Space terrain

When I was at Warfare, I had a the Spartan Games Firestorm Armanda and was impressed by their terrain.

I can see a few of these being made for Full Thrust.

Full Thrust support ships

Picked up a few support ships from GZG for my NSL fleet.  I decided to try and magnetise the flight stand so that I can pack them down into a smaller box rather than having the flight stand break off.

Lets see if this crazy idea works.

Waste recycling ship.  Such a cool model that I had to buy one

View of the magnets

Fleet Supply Tender

The waste recycler ship painted

Fleet tender, will be good as an objective for a scenario

Full Thrust Support Ships

I picked up a couple support ships for my NSL fleet.

I bought a troop carrier ship and a waste carrier ship.

I am really impressed by the new moulds that GZG have come up with.  I can see myself buying the UNSC fleet soon with a bunch of support ships.  Jon, you are an evil man.

I'm going to try something different with these models, rather than glueing the stem in, I'm going to magnetise them.

So, what I've done is glue a 4mm rare earth magnet to the ship and to the stem and so far, it seems to work.  This will allow me to pack the ships down into a smaller box without worrying about them breaking off.


The waste ship, based up and base coated

The magnets on the waste ship.  The one magnet holds it quite well

The troop carrier ship

Full Thrust!

A blast from the past.

Tamsin and I finally got Full Thrust onto the table.

We used the Full Thrust Lite rules and got a few games in one night, so, not bad.

We played with the starter armies in the books and lots of fun.

Tamsin brought her very nice space map to use. It's a bit small at 3' x 3', but good for a starter game.

I had the NSL, Tamsin had the ESU

The fleets deploy on the table

The NSL line up on a battle cruiser

"All vessels fire at the lead battle cruiser!"

Game 2, the fleets bunch up

The NSL bust thru and start to turn, finding it difficult with their engines damaged...

NSL Fleet is done!

So,

I've been sick with a cold, so, I made use of my time and finished off my NSL fleet for Full Thrust.  I do love Army Painter dip, it works so well for those like me who paint to the 3' rule.

The only thing left to do is add some mdf bases to some of the battle cruisers so that they are a bit more stable.

The Flag Ship

Battle Cruisers

Fighters

Space Station.

Now, to just get them on the table.

NSL capital ships

Couple of pics of my NSL capital ships.

The flag ship

The battleship

The space platform

Full Thrust NSL fleet

At Warfare this year, I picked up the large starter fleet for the NSL.  These are the new figures that GZG have made and they look good.

I'm going with a red colour scheme as I think it will look good on the table.  I also picked up a space station to use an objective.

Going to have to build/buy a decent transport box for them and might have to upgrade the base sizes.

The two capital ships have decent bases, but the battle cruisers don't ans I have a feeling they will fall over.

Anyhow, here are a few pictures

A capital with a few high lights

The Flag Ship

The bulk of the fleet, base coated and ready for high lights

The Space a Station

Warfare shopping

I may have bought some space ships from GZG....

I picked up a mega fleet for the NSL as well as a little space platform (always need an objective).

the platform

I've been resisting for a while, but gave in.

wonder what I'll be painting over xmas....