I really don't need to be looking for more miniatures to buy at this point. I have the metal and resin on-hand or incoming to build nine different skirmish/ASQL forces. If I was going to keep buying stuff, it world make more sense to focus on developing most or all of these seeded armies into armies that would be useful in Crucible or Ogre games, as well as giving larger forces or selection alternatives for other games. Nine armies should be enough, afterall.
Yet I look.
The explosion of options in the 15mm sci fi genre of late definitely has been great for the playerbase, but it does present a challenge for people like myself who can flit from project to project so easily.
What has become a larger challenge than avoiding the temptation to hoard metal, however, is drawing the line between harder sci fi and cartoonish armies.
My present assortment of figures definitely falls on the more gritty and realistic (ha!) side of near-future sci fi - even though I do have some thoroughly-improbable entries like cat people, snakes with arms, and not-Stargate figures as the primitive requisite for my CMG Protolenes for filling out alternate army lists in ASQL, there is still not much silly happening there. This is probably the most thoroughly-developed flavor of figures in the marketplace and is very easy to collect.
But, that said, the other side can be had, and they have some very, very buyable minis.
Just to pick out a handful that are testing my resolve...
There are VSF/Steampunk lines from Black Hat and Hydra which I would love to paint. A martian and an earthling VSF army would square up against one another well, and the Hydra retro pulp robots would be imposing mecha or Tripod alternates for an invading alien force or mad science minions.
Looking toward the pulp miniatures available, Khurasan only just released some adorable octo-man cultists, as well as some mushroom-men who would fit in well with some of Hydra's little sprouts as the living plant primitive portion of a cinematic alien force.
And don't forget that Zombiesmith's lovable, beautiful Quar line has ventured tentatively into 15mm.
Clearly, there is a lot of silliness out singing siren songs to me, but I fight it. Why?
I think that in the end, the stubborn aesthete who dictates so much of my gaming adventures just can't reconcile the gritty and the silly on the same table at the same time. I find the idea of putting my grav armor up against a Burroughs-esque martian army to be somehow unappealing and unwanted.
So, as much as I drool over and admire the silly standouts, it probably won't be until I have the hard-sci fi projects wrapped up and can start doing entirely new armies to fight one another in entirely separate games that I can turn my attention to them.
How I suffer for my art.
Showing posts with label 15mm SciFi. Show all posts
Showing posts with label 15mm SciFi. Show all posts
Thursday, March 10, 2011
Sunday, March 6, 2011
In which our hero has opposing forces
Huzzah! My second 100-point ASQL force is all done. After much tinkering, conversions, and color retouching, here is the playable first shot at my worm raiders.I made good on my threat to do some conversion work on the CMG Astagar. Five poses really isn't enough to base an army on, but the combination of bending tails in alternate directions and sculpting helmets, armor, and other gear onto half of these made for a nice kick in the diversity, and I liked having all of the extra armor to pick out in white and orange, it makes the figures look great.
The grav APCs got yet another update, this time in the form of a more pronounced white and orange stripe near the back. Each is still slightly different in markings, for some added personality, but the stripe ties the infantry and armor together nicely.
Next up should be some light tanks, as well as some more infantry. The Topgun armor is a bit hard to get right now, but I have no shortage of things to keep me busy until it gets here.
As far as ASQL force makeup goes, they're rolling as an Alien Imperial Strikeforce, with a breakdown that looks like this:
1 x Shocktrooper Command Squad w/ Superior Energy Weapons and Superior Shields (17 pts)
2 x Shocktrooper Squads w/ Superior Energy Weapons and Superior Shields (24pts)
1 x Support Squad w/ Superior Energy Weapons and Superior Shields (14 pts)
3 x Armored Transport w/ Superior Heavy Turreted Weapons and Superior Shields (45 pts)
It's a very small force with a low breakpoint, so I expect them to take a lot of practice to use well. They should be pretty durable and very dangerous, though, so as long as they don't get overrun by numbers in a bad position, they've got a good shot at winning. We'll see what the dice say.
Tuesday, February 22, 2011
In which our hero has an army
Probably a bit late, but I have been tweaking them a lot. I added stowage to the armor, changed the aerials to a thinner wire, and played around with some shading. Once the armor was done, I added a bit of wash to the infantry to better match the final shade of the tanks as well.
The infantry bases are Litko wooden jobs, FoW medium-size, with magnets. I painted the magnet brown and the infantry, based on steel washers, stick to them well enough. Makes it easy to mount figures for lots of games and basing alternatives, or not base them, as the case may be. Normally, ASQL has figures mounted five to a 2x2 base, but I'm doing fewer on a shallower base just to get to the table faster. I have the bases and magnets (and unpainted miniatures) to do the recommended format eventually, but I suspect I will stick to this. One nice side-effect of this mounting scheme is that I can track hits on the units by removing figures from the base. Once they run out of figures, they're done.
Here is the ASQL force breakdown:
1 x Command Regular Infantry (13 pts)
3 x Regular Infantry (24 pts)
2 x Heavy Weapon Squad (20 pts)
1 x MBT w/ Scatter Missiles (17 pts)
2 x Armored Transport w/ Heavy Turret-Mounted Weapons (26 pts)
For the trip to 150 points, I have some light grav tanks on the way. I can mix in some more infantry too if need be, we'll see what makes sense as I get a feel for the flow of the game. They'll already outnumber the Worms they'll be squaring off against, so it may be that they benefit more from speed from the light vehicles, the firepower being a wash.
Sunday, February 13, 2011
In which our hero remembers what fiction is
So, we like to joke that I am essentially illiterate. Not that I can't read, or that I don't, because I actually do read quite a lot. Rather it is The case that I partake of nothing resembling literature. For what it's worth, I simply am more compelled by non-fiction - and as a science fanboy you can be sure to find me daily with something along the lines of Pinker, Dawkins, or Diamond queued up on my Kindle.
This, however, was not always my sorry state of affairs. Long ago, when I was far less obsessed with reality, I was an equally-voracious sci-fi reader. The point of all of this biographical grandstanding being that one of the books I read as a teenager was a collection of David Drake's Hammer's Slammers short stories.
Turns out that all these years later, the Slammers are a pretty well-served gaming property, with the glossy new edition of Hammer's Slammers: The Crucible at it's heart.
To be honest, it took me a long time to finally pull the trigger on picking these rules up. Despite a very favorable review on Meeples and Miniatures, lots of positive chatter on TMP, and a website with some of the best eyecandy around, the final decision to buy was not easy.
First off, I just wasn't sure what kind of game was hiding in that book. Reviews typically lingered on how beautiful the book is, how much Slammers world background they included, but other than some vague positives, actual discussion of the game mechanics was nearly impossible to find.
This uncertainty, combined with the high price, in the neighborhood of fifty dollars, left me pretty hesitant to buy.
Eventually, though, I could resist no longer.
And so, book in hand, I can say that it's a pretty good armor-on-armor game, and the book itself is straight up tank porn.
I can see why few reviewers can get too far past the book's aesthetics. The full color pages are jammed with photos and illustrations. Pretty much every page has something to stare lustfully at. The models photographed for the book are all big 28mm pieces, most painted by Kevin Dallimore, who is far too talented, and are shot among some wonderful scenics. The eye candy in this thing stands up with any of the biggest names in the mini biz, and surpasses many. The thing can almost pass for a coffee table book.
And lest I be guilty of penning another drooling review with no mention of mechanics, it has a pretty fun game mixed in with the pretty pictures.
First off, know what you getting. Crucible is a light, tank-on-tank game, and unapologetically so. It is not a deeply technical armor sim with lots of penetration charts nor is it a game that is rooted in the lessons of contemporary conflicts. The Drake stories are rooted in cold war-era conflicts recast in iridium hovertanks, and this game has that feel. This is a game about blowers, and the MBT's are the kings of the table, swift, deadly, and stout. All of which make for a game that is flat-out fun, uncomplicated, and purposeful.
The mechanics are slim and (usually) efficient. Units are activated in detachments, of which a player will control one or more of, depending on the game size, and the order is determined each turn by a combination of base leadership added to a die roll.
Once order is sorted, players roll again to see how many command points the active detachment has for the turn. These are mainly used for movement and are modified by leader quality and casualties. I like this mechanic, as it adds some random chaos to the way battles unfold as a point-starved or poor leader, or a hot streak can have a real effect on how units scurry about the table. A good commander with a small detachment, though, will usually have little pressure to deal with, though, which is probably accurate, but can be less fun (all the more reason to avoid the superhuman fluff character optional rules).
After the tanks have rolled around a bit, it's time to blow something up. For a game that is otherwise very light and abstract, the four-step shooting process does feel a bit drawn out. Still, compared to the calculus exams buried in many armor games, it's easy fare that builds dramatically to completion rather than getting mired in figures and cross-referencing.
After everyone has wrapped-up direct fire and the blowers have left smoking piles of molten goo all around them, missiles and indirect fire are resolved, troops roll to remove suppression and so forth and then the whole process starts back up from the top, to under-describe the whole thing, but still say more than I usually find, which makes this a public service of sorts.
Generally, there's just enough flavor and detail to just barely miss the beer & pretzels label, but not so much detail to cast the game in the simulationist mold either. It's fun, flows reasonably well, and gives treadheads the kind of outcomes they probably wanted even if they didn't get to argue about points of fiddly minutia while doing so.
Ultimately, though, the game does need to thoughtfully brought to the table. While there are points, this is not an army-list, balanced force game. Not all tanks are created equally - the front three-quarters of the blowers are almost impervious to anything below their lofty station, and combat cars can spend all night rattling small arms fire off one another. Players need to be sure the scenario design and force composition are in place to produce an enjoyable game - a bring'n'battle could be ugly.
I doubt I will suddenly redirect my mini buying to include forces specifically from the Drake universe, but there is little other than the effort of hacking some unit cards between my current collection and these rules. The sample units are fairly comprehensive and a fair template can be found for most. I do wish there was a true pointing system available, both to aid in integrating non-Slammers miniatures and for balancing pickup games, but I wouldn't be shocked to see something of the sort appear in the community at some point either.
In the end, waiting seems to have been pointless. I like gaming tanks, I like light game mechanics, and I like drool-worthy pictures. When you get all three, seems to have been worth the money afterall. This is a game I will play a lot.
This, however, was not always my sorry state of affairs. Long ago, when I was far less obsessed with reality, I was an equally-voracious sci-fi reader. The point of all of this biographical grandstanding being that one of the books I read as a teenager was a collection of David Drake's Hammer's Slammers short stories.
To be honest, it took me a long time to finally pull the trigger on picking these rules up. Despite a very favorable review on Meeples and Miniatures, lots of positive chatter on TMP, and a website with some of the best eyecandy around, the final decision to buy was not easy.
First off, I just wasn't sure what kind of game was hiding in that book. Reviews typically lingered on how beautiful the book is, how much Slammers world background they included, but other than some vague positives, actual discussion of the game mechanics was nearly impossible to find.
This uncertainty, combined with the high price, in the neighborhood of fifty dollars, left me pretty hesitant to buy.
Eventually, though, I could resist no longer.
And so, book in hand, I can say that it's a pretty good armor-on-armor game, and the book itself is straight up tank porn.
I can see why few reviewers can get too far past the book's aesthetics. The full color pages are jammed with photos and illustrations. Pretty much every page has something to stare lustfully at. The models photographed for the book are all big 28mm pieces, most painted by Kevin Dallimore, who is far too talented, and are shot among some wonderful scenics. The eye candy in this thing stands up with any of the biggest names in the mini biz, and surpasses many. The thing can almost pass for a coffee table book.
And lest I be guilty of penning another drooling review with no mention of mechanics, it has a pretty fun game mixed in with the pretty pictures.
First off, know what you getting. Crucible is a light, tank-on-tank game, and unapologetically so. It is not a deeply technical armor sim with lots of penetration charts nor is it a game that is rooted in the lessons of contemporary conflicts. The Drake stories are rooted in cold war-era conflicts recast in iridium hovertanks, and this game has that feel. This is a game about blowers, and the MBT's are the kings of the table, swift, deadly, and stout. All of which make for a game that is flat-out fun, uncomplicated, and purposeful.
The mechanics are slim and (usually) efficient. Units are activated in detachments, of which a player will control one or more of, depending on the game size, and the order is determined each turn by a combination of base leadership added to a die roll.
Once order is sorted, players roll again to see how many command points the active detachment has for the turn. These are mainly used for movement and are modified by leader quality and casualties. I like this mechanic, as it adds some random chaos to the way battles unfold as a point-starved or poor leader, or a hot streak can have a real effect on how units scurry about the table. A good commander with a small detachment, though, will usually have little pressure to deal with, though, which is probably accurate, but can be less fun (all the more reason to avoid the superhuman fluff character optional rules).
After the tanks have rolled around a bit, it's time to blow something up. For a game that is otherwise very light and abstract, the four-step shooting process does feel a bit drawn out. Still, compared to the calculus exams buried in many armor games, it's easy fare that builds dramatically to completion rather than getting mired in figures and cross-referencing.
After everyone has wrapped-up direct fire and the blowers have left smoking piles of molten goo all around them, missiles and indirect fire are resolved, troops roll to remove suppression and so forth and then the whole process starts back up from the top, to under-describe the whole thing, but still say more than I usually find, which makes this a public service of sorts.
Generally, there's just enough flavor and detail to just barely miss the beer & pretzels label, but not so much detail to cast the game in the simulationist mold either. It's fun, flows reasonably well, and gives treadheads the kind of outcomes they probably wanted even if they didn't get to argue about points of fiddly minutia while doing so.
Ultimately, though, the game does need to thoughtfully brought to the table. While there are points, this is not an army-list, balanced force game. Not all tanks are created equally - the front three-quarters of the blowers are almost impervious to anything below their lofty station, and combat cars can spend all night rattling small arms fire off one another. Players need to be sure the scenario design and force composition are in place to produce an enjoyable game - a bring'n'battle could be ugly.
I doubt I will suddenly redirect my mini buying to include forces specifically from the Drake universe, but there is little other than the effort of hacking some unit cards between my current collection and these rules. The sample units are fairly comprehensive and a fair template can be found for most. I do wish there was a true pointing system available, both to aid in integrating non-Slammers miniatures and for balancing pickup games, but I wouldn't be shocked to see something of the sort appear in the community at some point either.
In the end, waiting seems to have been pointless. I like gaming tanks, I like light game mechanics, and I like drool-worthy pictures. When you get all three, seems to have been worth the money afterall. This is a game I will play a lot.
Saturday, January 22, 2011
In which our hero receives packages from far and wide
Ok, I have had more than a few orders pop up over the last two weeks, so I am going to give some rapid-fire reviews here just to get them out. Might not be any pics, but I am not all that fond of the bare metal photos anyway to be honest, and was mulling over doing less of those anyway - it's rare my contribution is better than what's on the originators' websites after all.
Anyway...
I got in a pretty good-sized order from Khurasan with a variety of things in it. First, I got three of the big Felid transports. I am actually going to use these are assault transports for the GZG (space ork) alien mercs. The big trucks have an orky vibe anyway, and once I get them loaded doen with random stowage and a nice rusty paintjob they'll be absolutely perfect.
I got some Felids too, despite repurposing their designated vehicles. I am going to be using the Khurasan Cafaretta transports and their gun carriage cousins for the Felids. The Felid minis themselves are really nice. A bit on the bigger side, but that fits their concept very well, and they're definitely not anywhere near out of scale. I might have to snip some bases to get them on the 5/8" washers I've been using for infantry, though. The poses are what I like - they're not static, but also not frozen in some awkward pose. The armor is excellent, I like the angular armor, something you don't see all the time.
As for the Cafaretta series vehicles, these things are among my favorite scifi designs. I love the idea of a dual-mode hover transport, still able to use wheels for fuel savings and practicality, but launching into lift mode for fast attack above terrain complications. Makes for a very flexible force. The design itself is a bit derivative of the Aliens dropship, but that's not a bad thing. All in all, the abundance of rivets and a set of really nice lines makes it just look fantastic. I picked up the transports pretty early in my buying process and it took me a little while to settle on just which infantry force would get to use them, but there was never a point at which they were not going to figure into my plans. With the recent release of the Hunter gun carriage variants, I am even relieved of the uncertainty of what additional vehicles I would need to flesh out a full force. The Hunters' trio of armaments cover a variety of roles and provide a full set of options for a light vehicle force. The aspect of the new hunters I do find confusing, however, is the way that Khurasan has decided to package them. The kit includes all three payloads, but only one mounting bracket. You can, however, buy additional mounting brackets for a buck. Where this strikes me as odd is that it is a waste of metal and certainly is costing both Khurasan and the buyer more in the process. If you want the buyer to be able to build a swappable kit, include extra cradles. If you expect them to only build one, sell the vehicle with a single payload and make the payload+bracket an optional purchase. It just seems like the least efficient option.
Not done with Khurasan yet, I also went in for a Space Demon (Giger Alien) force, or the start of one anyway. I still need to sort out thee guys from a gaming standpoint - there's not a very good army list for them in ASQL, as hive mind isn't quite right and none of the others are even close - but they're just too neat and too ubiquitous in the genre to pass up for long. I really like the Prince models, with their back crests and the hammerheads are a nice addition to the xenomorph concept. I need to come up with a non-black paint scheme, though, The canonical approach is so redundant at this point. I've seen the models painted red to good effect. I am thinking of a sepia/chestnut over salmon scheme right now, sort of an extreme fleshtone.
Needing some distinctly-scifi primitives to fill out some ASQL armies, I ordered in a few dozen Micropanzer Swarm Alien packs. These are well-intentioned figures. Unmistakably alien, with a definite hat-tip to District 9's extraterrestrials among others, they're exactly what I wanted for ASQL - primitive troops that can't be mistaken for figures poached from a fantasy line. They won't harsh your scifi buzz. The figures themselves, though excellent in concept have a couple of blemishes. First, the legs are really fragile. While the spindly appearance makes the concept work, the thin joints can bend and break much to easily. While I didn't get any broken ones in my order, I did manage to break a couple while shoving some bent ones into place. It's fixable, but you are going to have to go easy on these guys. They're also kind of big. For whatever reason, I wanted them to be a bit diminutive rather than imposing. That's not Micropanzer's fault, just my aesthetic. Still, as melee troops, a bit of hulking isn't a bad thing. I figure on painting them up a bit like cockroaches and sending them to war as the cheap cannonfodder in front of the space orc mercs as an ASQL Alien Imperial army.
The third shipment (or third and fourth, actually) is a force I wasn't really planning to do until I saw some models I couldn't resist - the Heavy Gear Trooper and Recon Drones. There is just something irresistible about them. I wasn't sure when I ordered them if they would be big enough to pass as a vehicle of some sort, but was not above using them as droids if not. Envisioning an Eastern Bloc industrial aesthetic, and knowing that if they could pass as vehicles I would need some really short drivers, I chose to mate these with the Rebel Minis Sons of Thunder. Together these form the core of a machine cult or industrial combine alien force, and with some green-grey paint accented with red stripes here and there should look very nice together. Once I got the metal in-hand, I found the drones to be right at the very edge of being plausibly driven by a Son of Thunder pilot, but it is not out of the question. A moot point in the end, however, as I have more or less decided that these will be a very nice option for an ASQL Mechanical army - the squat infantry being sufficiently robotic in character and fully-augmented to be indistinguishable from an all-machine force. As an excuse to get the HG drones, this works fine. I do, however, still need to sort out some more assets for the army, or else they will be relegated to being either only usable for small games or only having light units and infantry. I think I can make something out of the Heavy Gear Naga Strider, with a sculpted nose that more closely matches the tall bubble motif of the drones, this should serve well as a heavy mecha/MBT unit, albeit an expensive one.
I have way too much stuff all ready.
But there's never enough, is there?
I already have another core army incoming from GZG, and want to add some more primitives in the form of Khurasan Plutonians and some Hydra Minis plant people. On top of that I really want to build a pharaonic alien army based around Critical Mass Games' Protolenes, Old Crow's Alien armor, and GZG's not-Stargate aliens. And buy more of everything, and a pony. And, and, and.
I have a problem.
Anyway...
I got in a pretty good-sized order from Khurasan with a variety of things in it. First, I got three of the big Felid transports. I am actually going to use these are assault transports for the GZG (space ork) alien mercs. The big trucks have an orky vibe anyway, and once I get them loaded doen with random stowage and a nice rusty paintjob they'll be absolutely perfect.
I got some Felids too, despite repurposing their designated vehicles. I am going to be using the Khurasan Cafaretta transports and their gun carriage cousins for the Felids. The Felid minis themselves are really nice. A bit on the bigger side, but that fits their concept very well, and they're definitely not anywhere near out of scale. I might have to snip some bases to get them on the 5/8" washers I've been using for infantry, though. The poses are what I like - they're not static, but also not frozen in some awkward pose. The armor is excellent, I like the angular armor, something you don't see all the time.
As for the Cafaretta series vehicles, these things are among my favorite scifi designs. I love the idea of a dual-mode hover transport, still able to use wheels for fuel savings and practicality, but launching into lift mode for fast attack above terrain complications. Makes for a very flexible force. The design itself is a bit derivative of the Aliens dropship, but that's not a bad thing. All in all, the abundance of rivets and a set of really nice lines makes it just look fantastic. I picked up the transports pretty early in my buying process and it took me a little while to settle on just which infantry force would get to use them, but there was never a point at which they were not going to figure into my plans. With the recent release of the Hunter gun carriage variants, I am even relieved of the uncertainty of what additional vehicles I would need to flesh out a full force. The Hunters' trio of armaments cover a variety of roles and provide a full set of options for a light vehicle force. The aspect of the new hunters I do find confusing, however, is the way that Khurasan has decided to package them. The kit includes all three payloads, but only one mounting bracket. You can, however, buy additional mounting brackets for a buck. Where this strikes me as odd is that it is a waste of metal and certainly is costing both Khurasan and the buyer more in the process. If you want the buyer to be able to build a swappable kit, include extra cradles. If you expect them to only build one, sell the vehicle with a single payload and make the payload+bracket an optional purchase. It just seems like the least efficient option.
Not done with Khurasan yet, I also went in for a Space Demon (Giger Alien) force, or the start of one anyway. I still need to sort out thee guys from a gaming standpoint - there's not a very good army list for them in ASQL, as hive mind isn't quite right and none of the others are even close - but they're just too neat and too ubiquitous in the genre to pass up for long. I really like the Prince models, with their back crests and the hammerheads are a nice addition to the xenomorph concept. I need to come up with a non-black paint scheme, though, The canonical approach is so redundant at this point. I've seen the models painted red to good effect. I am thinking of a sepia/chestnut over salmon scheme right now, sort of an extreme fleshtone.
Needing some distinctly-scifi primitives to fill out some ASQL armies, I ordered in a few dozen Micropanzer Swarm Alien packs. These are well-intentioned figures. Unmistakably alien, with a definite hat-tip to District 9's extraterrestrials among others, they're exactly what I wanted for ASQL - primitive troops that can't be mistaken for figures poached from a fantasy line. They won't harsh your scifi buzz. The figures themselves, though excellent in concept have a couple of blemishes. First, the legs are really fragile. While the spindly appearance makes the concept work, the thin joints can bend and break much to easily. While I didn't get any broken ones in my order, I did manage to break a couple while shoving some bent ones into place. It's fixable, but you are going to have to go easy on these guys. They're also kind of big. For whatever reason, I wanted them to be a bit diminutive rather than imposing. That's not Micropanzer's fault, just my aesthetic. Still, as melee troops, a bit of hulking isn't a bad thing. I figure on painting them up a bit like cockroaches and sending them to war as the cheap cannonfodder in front of the space orc mercs as an ASQL Alien Imperial army.
The third shipment (or third and fourth, actually) is a force I wasn't really planning to do until I saw some models I couldn't resist - the Heavy Gear Trooper and Recon Drones. There is just something irresistible about them. I wasn't sure when I ordered them if they would be big enough to pass as a vehicle of some sort, but was not above using them as droids if not. Envisioning an Eastern Bloc industrial aesthetic, and knowing that if they could pass as vehicles I would need some really short drivers, I chose to mate these with the Rebel Minis Sons of Thunder. Together these form the core of a machine cult or industrial combine alien force, and with some green-grey paint accented with red stripes here and there should look very nice together. Once I got the metal in-hand, I found the drones to be right at the very edge of being plausibly driven by a Son of Thunder pilot, but it is not out of the question. A moot point in the end, however, as I have more or less decided that these will be a very nice option for an ASQL Mechanical army - the squat infantry being sufficiently robotic in character and fully-augmented to be indistinguishable from an all-machine force. As an excuse to get the HG drones, this works fine. I do, however, still need to sort out some more assets for the army, or else they will be relegated to being either only usable for small games or only having light units and infantry. I think I can make something out of the Heavy Gear Naga Strider, with a sculpted nose that more closely matches the tall bubble motif of the drones, this should serve well as a heavy mecha/MBT unit, albeit an expensive one.
I have way too much stuff all ready.
But there's never enough, is there?
I already have another core army incoming from GZG, and want to add some more primitives in the form of Khurasan Plutonians and some Hydra Minis plant people. On top of that I really want to build a pharaonic alien army based around Critical Mass Games' Protolenes, Old Crow's Alien armor, and GZG's not-Stargate aliens. And buy more of everything, and a pony. And, and, and.
I have a problem.
In which our hero gives a progress report
It's been pretty busy of late, but I am still squeezing in a little time here and there for the aforementioned hobbies. Mostly I have been getting to do little bits of paint here and there. It's rarely a lot of progress on any given night, but added up over weeks, it becomes something.
I am presently about two-thirds of the way through painting my first two hundred-point ASQL forces. Here is the Commonwealth Expeditionary Force (Human Imperial), with Khurasan Federal army infantry and Ground Zero grav-sled IFV's.
and here are the "Worms" (Alien Strike Force), with Critical Mass Games' Astagar mercs and Topgun grav APC's.
Each needs another vehicle and six more infantry to finish the initial build, my short-term goal being to finish the 100-point ASQL rosters for the half dozen or so armies I have already invested in models for. While I have bought entirely more miniatures than will be needed for these armies, it is still a realistic objective that'll give me playable forces and lots of variety before going off and trying to gear up for Ogre-scale forces with dozen of vehicles. These 100-point groups will also be well and over anything I would need for any skirmish-level gaming as well.
I have also taken a first stab at getting some scenery sorted, with a trio of small cover pieces.
The middle one, clearly, is finished and the other two are in need of paint. I am Trying to do most of my terrain as 2-inch squares. This will let me use them with both a 4-inch hex mat and a 2-inch skirmish setup. On the big battle mat the hexes will have a single terrain type, with a few small pieces indicating which, but still allowing for reshuffling to fit models. On a 2-inch skirmish board, they will fill the hex, so I need to keep space open for figures to sit in, etc. I can make some that are 2x4, or 2x8, but this will work in either case.
I need to make a lot more. And some trees, hills, rocks, etc. Oy.
I do seem to have some issues with the autofocus on my camera - in combination with the macro it doesn't do a good job of getting the full field in focus. I will have to figure this out. Still doing better than the iPhone camera was giving me anyway.
I am presently about two-thirds of the way through painting my first two hundred-point ASQL forces. Here is the Commonwealth Expeditionary Force (Human Imperial), with Khurasan Federal army infantry and Ground Zero grav-sled IFV's.
and here are the "Worms" (Alien Strike Force), with Critical Mass Games' Astagar mercs and Topgun grav APC's.
Each needs another vehicle and six more infantry to finish the initial build, my short-term goal being to finish the 100-point ASQL rosters for the half dozen or so armies I have already invested in models for. While I have bought entirely more miniatures than will be needed for these armies, it is still a realistic objective that'll give me playable forces and lots of variety before going off and trying to gear up for Ogre-scale forces with dozen of vehicles. These 100-point groups will also be well and over anything I would need for any skirmish-level gaming as well.
I have also taken a first stab at getting some scenery sorted, with a trio of small cover pieces.
The middle one, clearly, is finished and the other two are in need of paint. I am Trying to do most of my terrain as 2-inch squares. This will let me use them with both a 4-inch hex mat and a 2-inch skirmish setup. On the big battle mat the hexes will have a single terrain type, with a few small pieces indicating which, but still allowing for reshuffling to fit models. On a 2-inch skirmish board, they will fill the hex, so I need to keep space open for figures to sit in, etc. I can make some that are 2x4, or 2x8, but this will work in either case.
I need to make a lot more. And some trees, hills, rocks, etc. Oy.
I do seem to have some issues with the autofocus on my camera - in combination with the macro it doesn't do a good job of getting the full field in focus. I will have to figure this out. Still doing better than the iPhone camera was giving me anyway.
Monday, January 10, 2011
In which our hero receives a package from Old Crow
So, I was out of town for a few days and came home to find a few packages piled up on the doorstep. After marveling at the neighborhood kids' lack of ambition, I set to the task of cracking them open.
First up was the parcel from Old Crow.
I had placed an exploratory order for some vehicles that I thought would compliment my Rebel Minis Titan Marines (the jackbooted Siedler Landwehr as they are known locally). The Old Crow Dragoon halftrack and Goanna scout both echo the Sd Kfz transports and armored cars of WWII, and evoke just the right vibe for my despicable, predictable, and derivative bad guy army.
Here's the Goanna. It's actually a little bigger than I expected, and altogether cool.
The models themselves are fantastic. Clean casts in a very nice resin, with very few bubbles or pits to deal with. Surface details are sharp and the pieces have a definite and clear artistic direction.
Here's the Dragoon as parts.
And a shot of it assembled, which took all of five minutes. The bits fit together perfectly.
I do need to figure out how I am going to arm the Goannas. They don't come with any weapons, but do have plenty of roof deck for adding some sort of turret. I am going to have to start pawing around and see if I can get any Sd Kfz machine gun turrets separate from the rest of the model, as these would be perfect. Failing that, I may just kitbash something from my growing pool of bits, but they deserve a finishing touch that's at least up to the standard of the rest of the model. I may do some sort of fixed-forward gun blister on the hood instead of a turret to keep them sleek, or skip the obvious armaments all together and keep them as-is. Experiments are in order.
Now I just need to find some more vehicle that fit the vibe. I'm yet to stumble upon any near future tanks that really scream 'Panzer III knockoff,' nor can I find any good Stug standins. Old Crow's Sabre isn't terribly far off, though it's still more Abrams than Panther. I am also tossing around the idea of incorporating some Gear Krieg walkers into the force.
First up was the parcel from Old Crow.
I had placed an exploratory order for some vehicles that I thought would compliment my Rebel Minis Titan Marines (the jackbooted Siedler Landwehr as they are known locally). The Old Crow Dragoon halftrack and Goanna scout both echo the Sd Kfz transports and armored cars of WWII, and evoke just the right vibe for my despicable, predictable, and derivative bad guy army.
Here's the Goanna. It's actually a little bigger than I expected, and altogether cool.
The models themselves are fantastic. Clean casts in a very nice resin, with very few bubbles or pits to deal with. Surface details are sharp and the pieces have a definite and clear artistic direction.
Here's the Dragoon as parts.
And a shot of it assembled, which took all of five minutes. The bits fit together perfectly.
I do need to figure out how I am going to arm the Goannas. They don't come with any weapons, but do have plenty of roof deck for adding some sort of turret. I am going to have to start pawing around and see if I can get any Sd Kfz machine gun turrets separate from the rest of the model, as these would be perfect. Failing that, I may just kitbash something from my growing pool of bits, but they deserve a finishing touch that's at least up to the standard of the rest of the model. I may do some sort of fixed-forward gun blister on the hood instead of a turret to keep them sleek, or skip the obvious armaments all together and keep them as-is. Experiments are in order.
Now I just need to find some more vehicle that fit the vibe. I'm yet to stumble upon any near future tanks that really scream 'Panzer III knockoff,' nor can I find any good Stug standins. Old Crow's Sabre isn't terribly far off, though it's still more Abrams than Panther. I am also tossing around the idea of incorporating some Gear Krieg walkers into the force.
Wednesday, December 29, 2010
In which our hero thinks aloud regarding the shrubbery
Miniatures? Check.
Rules? Check.
Terrain? Oh bugger.
I've been ignoring a pretty important part of the gaming equation so far, the tabletop and its scenics. Not to say that it hasn't been rattling around my brain, but I certainly have not been oblivious to it. Rather, I spend a lot of time thinking about the game board and the lack of action on the point is due more to paralyzation in the face of too many options than short-sightedness.
Here are a few of the conflicts I am up against...
Size.
My dining room table is 54" x 54" and it is remarkably unlikely that I will play any game anywhere else anytime soon. This puts an easy ceiling on the size of my gaming space right away, and this is certainly plenty of space for the kinds of games I want to play - in fact, for what I am working on right now I can squeeze down quite a bit.
But do I want to commit to a size at all? Deciding to use a 3x3 or 4x4 surface means losing or at least marginalizing other options. What is more, I am at cross purposes with myself - I would like to play both skirmishes and battles, and they are best served at different sizes. It is likely that if I commit to a base surface, then, that I will need to either get something that is modular, get two mats, or just play in a corner of a larger mat much as I would play in subsections of an undressed table if I skipped the base surface all together.
Material.
The options when it comes to the composition of the gaming surface are legion. Giving just the most likely choices produces the list: nothing, cloth mat, rubber mat, large tiles, and meaningful hexes. Not one of these is sufficiently superior to the others to trivialize the choice, though there is a huge difference in effort in getting the surface ready to play, more or less in the order listed. Four-inch hexes are something I am very interested in, given that they combine both a high degree of customization, but also the ability to do hex-based gaming, which with the decades of Battletech and Ogre behind me feels so right. Meanwhile, the Zuzzy rubber mats look very cool, but require painting, the Hotz felt mats are pre-finished but don't come in sizes that appeal to me, and the table is, well, just the table.
Modularity.
Some of the very first miniatures gaming I ever did at assorted conventions as an adolescent was on tables loaded down with Geo-Hex. First impressions being what they are, the notion of piecing together a board with smaller segments has been a constant desire in my gaming life. I have used wooden and foam squares of various sizes, I've got a decent GHQ Terrainmaker project for modern microarmor up in the attic. I even tried a scheme with self-adhesive floor tiles that almost worked. Despite, or perhaps due to this fondness for modular terrain I am increasingly unlikely to dive into it again. I just know from experience what kind of cost and time investments are involved, and how hard it is to be on the right side of the crap:quality outcome. I think that at this stage in life, I am willing to trade the ability to sculpt the layout of a battlefield for the ability to get it on the table quickly and easily.
Universality goes with modularity and must be considered. While I am only doing 15mm sci-fi right now, that doesn't mean I will never play another period. The ability to reuse the majority of the terrain in various guises is highly desirable. While the to-scale and to-period pieces on the table will be specific, I do expect that a base terrain which works well for sci-fi rockballs should serve well enough for other projects ranging from Back of Beyond to WWII Africa to Hellenistic ancients. It will certainly be less jarring than all those 40k games we used to play with my fantasy battle scenics.
Expense.
While my threshold of pain as far as the price tag of a scenery solution goes is not as low as it once was, I still have no desire to sacrifice too much of what could be spent on figures on scenery instead. At the same time, I want scenery which is at least as attractive as the miniatures I am putting on it. Given that my painting is just above average, that becomes my target. Getting there will cost a few bucks, but less than I have spent on miniatures for the 15mm project to date. For once, it seems, expense is the least weighty variable in a new project, which must say something about how old I am getting.
Practicality.
The wet blanket factors are many. It must store well, it must set up and tear down fast, and it can't be messy. It's hard to ever be driven by reasonable and rational choices when you are a grown man playing with toys, but it's got to be in there somewhere - how well I do so remains to be seen.
It must be said, one reason Bloodbowl is so easy to love is that you don't have to fiddle with terrain. Yet some do. Go figure.
Every clear-thinking neuron (that would be seven, for the record) says to just build some scenics and play on the bare table, but when do I ever live up to the logic and reason I aspire to?
The conflict-avoiding compromiser in me will negotiate up to a game mat, but only if it rolls up and doesn't shed, but he's a pushover after all, so we can probably get more.
The engineer that lives in my head wants something modular and comprehensive, and really likes to huff styrofoam hexes if rumors are true.
The pushy aesthete wants to go way overboard on the whole project. That guy always bites off more than he can chew and leaves a wasteland of unfinished projects in his wake.
So, where am I at right now? I really don't want to use a bare table, but I also don't want to do hexes (not as the base surface anyway). I don't want to have to cut or paint to excess either.
What I like the idea of right now is getting a 4x6 Hotz mat with hexes, but without craters which I will cut down to a square (more or less as the hexes fall), using the remainder to make hills by gluing hex cutouts to the top of Terrainmaker hexes, and perhaps even having enough for a 2x2 skirmish board as well.
I am not going to worry about comprehensive scenic details off the mark - I can get by with just some buildings, some rocky outcrops, and some roads. Trees, rivers, shrubs, and the lit can come later, if at all.
To that end, I do have a mess of Plastruct sheets, rods, and tubes and have gotten a bit of a go on some small colonial shanty buildings and ruins, all of which will be useful no matter what decisions I make about the overall terrain project.
TL:DR version - Phil spends a lot of time and money on pretendy planet but not as much as he probably could have.
Rules? Check.
Terrain? Oh bugger.
I've been ignoring a pretty important part of the gaming equation so far, the tabletop and its scenics. Not to say that it hasn't been rattling around my brain, but I certainly have not been oblivious to it. Rather, I spend a lot of time thinking about the game board and the lack of action on the point is due more to paralyzation in the face of too many options than short-sightedness.
Here are a few of the conflicts I am up against...
Size.
My dining room table is 54" x 54" and it is remarkably unlikely that I will play any game anywhere else anytime soon. This puts an easy ceiling on the size of my gaming space right away, and this is certainly plenty of space for the kinds of games I want to play - in fact, for what I am working on right now I can squeeze down quite a bit.
But do I want to commit to a size at all? Deciding to use a 3x3 or 4x4 surface means losing or at least marginalizing other options. What is more, I am at cross purposes with myself - I would like to play both skirmishes and battles, and they are best served at different sizes. It is likely that if I commit to a base surface, then, that I will need to either get something that is modular, get two mats, or just play in a corner of a larger mat much as I would play in subsections of an undressed table if I skipped the base surface all together.
Material.
The options when it comes to the composition of the gaming surface are legion. Giving just the most likely choices produces the list: nothing, cloth mat, rubber mat, large tiles, and meaningful hexes. Not one of these is sufficiently superior to the others to trivialize the choice, though there is a huge difference in effort in getting the surface ready to play, more or less in the order listed. Four-inch hexes are something I am very interested in, given that they combine both a high degree of customization, but also the ability to do hex-based gaming, which with the decades of Battletech and Ogre behind me feels so right. Meanwhile, the Zuzzy rubber mats look very cool, but require painting, the Hotz felt mats are pre-finished but don't come in sizes that appeal to me, and the table is, well, just the table.
Modularity.
Some of the very first miniatures gaming I ever did at assorted conventions as an adolescent was on tables loaded down with Geo-Hex. First impressions being what they are, the notion of piecing together a board with smaller segments has been a constant desire in my gaming life. I have used wooden and foam squares of various sizes, I've got a decent GHQ Terrainmaker project for modern microarmor up in the attic. I even tried a scheme with self-adhesive floor tiles that almost worked. Despite, or perhaps due to this fondness for modular terrain I am increasingly unlikely to dive into it again. I just know from experience what kind of cost and time investments are involved, and how hard it is to be on the right side of the crap:quality outcome. I think that at this stage in life, I am willing to trade the ability to sculpt the layout of a battlefield for the ability to get it on the table quickly and easily.
Universality goes with modularity and must be considered. While I am only doing 15mm sci-fi right now, that doesn't mean I will never play another period. The ability to reuse the majority of the terrain in various guises is highly desirable. While the to-scale and to-period pieces on the table will be specific, I do expect that a base terrain which works well for sci-fi rockballs should serve well enough for other projects ranging from Back of Beyond to WWII Africa to Hellenistic ancients. It will certainly be less jarring than all those 40k games we used to play with my fantasy battle scenics.
Expense.
While my threshold of pain as far as the price tag of a scenery solution goes is not as low as it once was, I still have no desire to sacrifice too much of what could be spent on figures on scenery instead. At the same time, I want scenery which is at least as attractive as the miniatures I am putting on it. Given that my painting is just above average, that becomes my target. Getting there will cost a few bucks, but less than I have spent on miniatures for the 15mm project to date. For once, it seems, expense is the least weighty variable in a new project, which must say something about how old I am getting.
Practicality.
The wet blanket factors are many. It must store well, it must set up and tear down fast, and it can't be messy. It's hard to ever be driven by reasonable and rational choices when you are a grown man playing with toys, but it's got to be in there somewhere - how well I do so remains to be seen.
It must be said, one reason Bloodbowl is so easy to love is that you don't have to fiddle with terrain. Yet some do. Go figure.
Every clear-thinking neuron (that would be seven, for the record) says to just build some scenics and play on the bare table, but when do I ever live up to the logic and reason I aspire to?
The conflict-avoiding compromiser in me will negotiate up to a game mat, but only if it rolls up and doesn't shed, but he's a pushover after all, so we can probably get more.
The engineer that lives in my head wants something modular and comprehensive, and really likes to huff styrofoam hexes if rumors are true.
The pushy aesthete wants to go way overboard on the whole project. That guy always bites off more than he can chew and leaves a wasteland of unfinished projects in his wake.
So, where am I at right now? I really don't want to use a bare table, but I also don't want to do hexes (not as the base surface anyway). I don't want to have to cut or paint to excess either.
What I like the idea of right now is getting a 4x6 Hotz mat with hexes, but without craters which I will cut down to a square (more or less as the hexes fall), using the remainder to make hills by gluing hex cutouts to the top of Terrainmaker hexes, and perhaps even having enough for a 2x2 skirmish board as well.
I am not going to worry about comprehensive scenic details off the mark - I can get by with just some buildings, some rocky outcrops, and some roads. Trees, rivers, shrubs, and the lit can come later, if at all.
To that end, I do have a mess of Plastruct sheets, rods, and tubes and have gotten a bit of a go on some small colonial shanty buildings and ruins, all of which will be useful no matter what decisions I make about the overall terrain project.
TL:DR version - Phil spends a lot of time and money on pretendy planet but not as much as he probably could have.
Wednesday, December 22, 2010
In which our heros shows off some Astagar
Today's transparent cry for attention is a few of the Critical Mass Games Astagar Mercs that I am presently plugging away at.
The blue is a bit vivid under the flash. Truth be told, it's a bit vivid all the time, but I wanted them to stand out a bit. They're fearless space pirates, raiding frontier systems and stripping them of anything useful, so subtlety is not really the point. Still, they could probably use another dark wash just to dim the lights a bit.
To follow up on my previous ramble about how to base them, I wound up forcing them onto a 5/8" washer. You can see a step-by-step for how to do this easy and with a fairly low breakage rate - the steps being to first cut away the area under the raised coil in the middle of the base. Next, bend the tail carefully about 90 degrees, then glue the critter to the base. Trying to cut the tail from the base where it touches the ground nearest the end didn't work out too well when I tried that approach.
I suspect I am going to wind up greenstuffing a few extra uniform details onto the remainder of these guys - at least some shoulderpads and helmets on most, mainly just because I like the way the armor details look on the pieces that have them.
All in all, I like these guys. They're definitively alien, but still fit in well with the other stuff I have going on around the table.
The blue is a bit vivid under the flash. Truth be told, it's a bit vivid all the time, but I wanted them to stand out a bit. They're fearless space pirates, raiding frontier systems and stripping them of anything useful, so subtlety is not really the point. Still, they could probably use another dark wash just to dim the lights a bit.
To follow up on my previous ramble about how to base them, I wound up forcing them onto a 5/8" washer. You can see a step-by-step for how to do this easy and with a fairly low breakage rate - the steps being to first cut away the area under the raised coil in the middle of the base. Next, bend the tail carefully about 90 degrees, then glue the critter to the base. Trying to cut the tail from the base where it touches the ground nearest the end didn't work out too well when I tried that approach.
I suspect I am going to wind up greenstuffing a few extra uniform details onto the remainder of these guys - at least some shoulderpads and helmets on most, mainly just because I like the way the armor details look on the pieces that have them.
All in all, I like these guys. They're definitively alien, but still fit in well with the other stuff I have going on around the table.
Monday, December 20, 2010
In which our hero judges books by their covers
So, now that I have minis, I need a game to play, or three.
While the generic nature of the 15mm SciFi miniatures scene has the advantage of being liberated from specific systems and restrictions, an embarrassment of freedom is the difficulty in settling on a set of rules.
But after much intertubes and skimming books, I seem to have narrowed the field down to three games that I will probably actually bother playing.
The first set of rules I splashed for was the .pdf pre-release of Tomorrow's War from Ambush Alley Games. This game gets great press and enthusiastic reviews everywhere, thanks mainly to the near-universal fondness for AAG's previous titles, Ambush Alley (rules for contemporary asymmetrical fights), and Force on Force (small, symmetrical fights anywhere in the last century or so). I had also heard the creators interviewed on the Meeples and Miniatures podcast (I am addicted to podcasts, listening to Stuff You Should Know as I type this), and I liked their vibe.
All of which is to justify spending 20 bucks on a .pdf file. Or two actually since I got the bundle with TW and FoF, as the pre-release version on TW is a bolt-on rather than a full game.
Still, I expected a great game, and a great game is worth it, and to be honest, with an iPad, a .pdf rulebook isn't bad.
So, is it a great game? Yeah, it is, but I won't play it a lot.
To explain, I typically prefer games with high levels of abstraction, very simple mechanics, and a firm tilt toward the game side of the game:simulation continuum. Not that I don't enjoy a good realistic game too, but I am for better or worse a member of the beer & pretzels crowd when I am playing with other people and looking for something without a deep tactical detail when playing solo.
TW is a fairly detailed, reality-grounded game. The mechanic are excellent and interesting, but nine times out of ten, it just isn't the game I want to play, which is entirely my fault, because it is a very good game and I look forward to enjoying it when it is the game I want to play. FoF has definitely made a return to WWII gaming more possible in the future, given how much I disliked Flames of War and how much better FoF would be for the period, and will definitely be in the mix for any game I play set in the 20th century.
As a fistfull of dice aficionado, I really like the core mechanic of TW/FoF, which boils down to the attacker and defender rolling a dice for each model in the fight and matching up results. Combined with the use of multiple types of die for different quality troops (d6, d8, etc) this basic system is both surprisingly effective and just plain fun. The tendency of firefights to degenerate into confusing webs of reaction fire is probably my one real complaint with the game - while this system is at the heart of the realistic outcome of the game, it can be a bit much on a crowded table and is not fun to negotiate in solo play in particular, where some of the 'F you' charm of reaction fire is lost.
The next candidate was 15mm.co.uk's Alien Squad Leader. A game with massed basing, claiming to mix the best of DBA and Warmaster and espousing a pulp ethic - pretty much catnip to Our Hero. And stylized abstraction is something ASL delivers on, along with a set of excellent army lists, and a good bit of unapologetic fun.
As mechanics go, the movement, spotting, and shooting systems are all pretty standard fare. The mechanical highlight for me is a command system reminiscent of Warmaster, which is still one of my favorite game mechanics ever. Driving the game with the command roll mechanic is a good way to inject random chance and tactical foresight simultaneously, and the sudden shortened turn or impossible but critical success enliven the table every time.
While the game mechanics are understated but effective, the heavy lifting of the game's design seems to be in the 14 army lists included in the book. The flavor which isn't overly-developed in the rules to differentiate forces is instead lavished on the force selection guidelines, in their variety of units available as well as their few special rules which are nowhere near as heavy-handed as the force-specific rules in, for instance, Flames of War.
An interesting aspect of these lists which makes ASL look different on the gaming table are the large number of archaic, primitive, and feral units used as auxiliaries and cannon fodder by many of the armies profiled. These options are a welcome change of pace over the ubiquitous Halo-esque troopers that make up the force lists of most games.
As much as this bit of color excites me, there really is a paucity of SciFi-specific primitives and beasts on the market. Historical ranges can yield up lots of colorful troops, as with fantasy ranges obviously, but they will always look like a stand of fantasy elves or zouaves even if you paint their skin blue. Khurassan notably does make a number of pulp and SciFi creatures to fill these roles, and kudos to them for doing so.
The third system I picked up, almost as an impulse buy when ordering ASL, was USEME from 15mm.co.uk. While the handful of reviews of this system (whose name is an acronym for Ultra Simple Engine for Miniatures Engagements) were positive, I was skeptical that a game which was designed to be completely generic and very brief simply wouldn't convey much army character or mechanical novelty. Ultra-basic generic systems are an old standard in gaming, and few are wildly popular, though a handful, like DBA are. Given that the game was about six bucks, I figured it was worth a try anyway.
USEME is pretty much what I expected it to be, and for that reason, or perhaps despite that, it is the game I more likely to use for skirmish games over TW. The mechanics are thin but effective, stylized but not unbalanced, and yield a well-worthwhile game. There is very little to differentiate forces but what is available, chiefly the elan score and varied move rates chosen in initial force construction can yield two forces with core troops that play very differently and can model a number of concepts very well. While a player could simply construct a force that will min-max these option for tactical effect, players with a more purposeful objective can produce a surprisingly specific theme for their force through subtle profile sculpting.
As a long-time evangelist for simple games, USEME is a game I would point to as a success. It produces a fun and fair fight and rewards purposeful force design. Certainly it is not going to be a detailed, gritty, game which integrates many minutia taken as a requisite by many games, but if you want to play a quick, casual game with small-to-medium forces, it is an excellent choice.
While the generic nature of the 15mm SciFi miniatures scene has the advantage of being liberated from specific systems and restrictions, an embarrassment of freedom is the difficulty in settling on a set of rules.
But after much intertubes and skimming books, I seem to have narrowed the field down to three games that I will probably actually bother playing.
All of which is to justify spending 20 bucks on a .pdf file. Or two actually since I got the bundle with TW and FoF, as the pre-release version on TW is a bolt-on rather than a full game.
Still, I expected a great game, and a great game is worth it, and to be honest, with an iPad, a .pdf rulebook isn't bad.
So, is it a great game? Yeah, it is, but I won't play it a lot.
To explain, I typically prefer games with high levels of abstraction, very simple mechanics, and a firm tilt toward the game side of the game:simulation continuum. Not that I don't enjoy a good realistic game too, but I am for better or worse a member of the beer & pretzels crowd when I am playing with other people and looking for something without a deep tactical detail when playing solo.
TW is a fairly detailed, reality-grounded game. The mechanic are excellent and interesting, but nine times out of ten, it just isn't the game I want to play, which is entirely my fault, because it is a very good game and I look forward to enjoying it when it is the game I want to play. FoF has definitely made a return to WWII gaming more possible in the future, given how much I disliked Flames of War and how much better FoF would be for the period, and will definitely be in the mix for any game I play set in the 20th century.
As a fistfull of dice aficionado, I really like the core mechanic of TW/FoF, which boils down to the attacker and defender rolling a dice for each model in the fight and matching up results. Combined with the use of multiple types of die for different quality troops (d6, d8, etc) this basic system is both surprisingly effective and just plain fun. The tendency of firefights to degenerate into confusing webs of reaction fire is probably my one real complaint with the game - while this system is at the heart of the realistic outcome of the game, it can be a bit much on a crowded table and is not fun to negotiate in solo play in particular, where some of the 'F you' charm of reaction fire is lost.
As mechanics go, the movement, spotting, and shooting systems are all pretty standard fare. The mechanical highlight for me is a command system reminiscent of Warmaster, which is still one of my favorite game mechanics ever. Driving the game with the command roll mechanic is a good way to inject random chance and tactical foresight simultaneously, and the sudden shortened turn or impossible but critical success enliven the table every time.
While the game mechanics are understated but effective, the heavy lifting of the game's design seems to be in the 14 army lists included in the book. The flavor which isn't overly-developed in the rules to differentiate forces is instead lavished on the force selection guidelines, in their variety of units available as well as their few special rules which are nowhere near as heavy-handed as the force-specific rules in, for instance, Flames of War.
An interesting aspect of these lists which makes ASL look different on the gaming table are the large number of archaic, primitive, and feral units used as auxiliaries and cannon fodder by many of the armies profiled. These options are a welcome change of pace over the ubiquitous Halo-esque troopers that make up the force lists of most games.
As much as this bit of color excites me, there really is a paucity of SciFi-specific primitives and beasts on the market. Historical ranges can yield up lots of colorful troops, as with fantasy ranges obviously, but they will always look like a stand of fantasy elves or zouaves even if you paint their skin blue. Khurassan notably does make a number of pulp and SciFi creatures to fill these roles, and kudos to them for doing so.
USEME is pretty much what I expected it to be, and for that reason, or perhaps despite that, it is the game I more likely to use for skirmish games over TW. The mechanics are thin but effective, stylized but not unbalanced, and yield a well-worthwhile game. There is very little to differentiate forces but what is available, chiefly the elan score and varied move rates chosen in initial force construction can yield two forces with core troops that play very differently and can model a number of concepts very well. While a player could simply construct a force that will min-max these option for tactical effect, players with a more purposeful objective can produce a surprisingly specific theme for their force through subtle profile sculpting.
As a long-time evangelist for simple games, USEME is a game I would point to as a success. It produces a fun and fair fight and rewards purposeful force design. Certainly it is not going to be a detailed, gritty, game which integrates many minutia taken as a requisite by many games, but if you want to play a quick, casual game with small-to-medium forces, it is an excellent choice.
Sunday, December 12, 2010
In which our hero shows off some Titan Marines
And after much fiddling with colors, I seem to have settled on this...
They look pretty good, definitely look like bad guys, but I will admit that it can be a bit hard to pick details out on from table height. In the end, though, I just wasn't happy with anything lighter or higher in contrast, especially the face masks, which seem to have to be black despite my wishes to the contrary.
(And yes, the bases still need to be landscaped, I just didn't feel like doing it. You get what you pay for around here.)
I generally want to do figures this small in lighter shades and lots of contrast, but going too light with bad guys is a tricky venture - you can go with an all-white Imperial Stormtrooper look, I considered doing them in red, but the one was too derivative and the other too impractical, which of course are criticisms that are completely interchangeable.
Given that the underlying theme for this faction's aesthetic, what with the halftracks and coalscuttle helmets is to conjure up images of jackbooted thugs I really didn't want to wander too far from grey and brown, and in the end, I pretty much stuck to grey and brown.
The miniatures are good enough to do whatever your skill can do with them, though The surface detail doesn't get lost, takes washes well, and has innate separations to guide you around the project. It's a lot of work for 15mm miniatures, given that an internalized reason for doing this scale in the first place is supposed to be speed, but that said, all five took about what I would have spent on the same figure in 28mm scale getting to the same effective level of detail. Good thing I'm not in a hurry.
Thursday, December 9, 2010
In which our hero asks a simple question
That question being, where are the jump infantry?
I am nearly certain that I have, by now, found pretty much every 15mm SciFi line of note on the interwebs, and what I have come to realize is that in all of these lines there is nary a hint of a jetpack-equipped infantry. Sure, some of the power armor types have big honking things on their backs that might be jetpacks, but they aren't presented specifically as such, and no where have I found, to my memory anyway, a regular infantry so equipped.
Yes, this is somewhat surprising to me. Twenty years ago jump infantry was very much the norm. There was jumping in games from Ogre (Battlesuit, to be precise) to Battletech and even early 40K had on on the back of every Space Marine. At that time, it was a genre staple. Yet, here we are without a line of jumpers in any range at this scale created in the last few years?
Why is this so?
Could it be that the inability of engineers in our real lives to deliver a viable jetpack has rendered the notion too farsical even for speculative fiction games? Not likely since they stick to the notion of flying cars and tanks.
Could it be that the tactical utility and viability of such troops has come to be seen as lacking? Doubtful, as infantry able to move quickly over rough terrain and uneven elevation is a general's dream.
Could it be that the current crop of in-fashion rules sets simply overlooked these types and the figure lines being sculpted, mainly to be useful in the current systems have similarly ignored them? Entirely possible.
Whatever the reason, I want my jumpers. I suppose that I will just find some relatively good models to use as a base and break out the greenstuff and convert up my own, but it sure would be nice for all of us if the bouncers would just come back from obscurity and play a part in the genre's battles again.
I am nearly certain that I have, by now, found pretty much every 15mm SciFi line of note on the interwebs, and what I have come to realize is that in all of these lines there is nary a hint of a jetpack-equipped infantry. Sure, some of the power armor types have big honking things on their backs that might be jetpacks, but they aren't presented specifically as such, and no where have I found, to my memory anyway, a regular infantry so equipped.
Yes, this is somewhat surprising to me. Twenty years ago jump infantry was very much the norm. There was jumping in games from Ogre (Battlesuit, to be precise) to Battletech and even early 40K had on on the back of every Space Marine. At that time, it was a genre staple. Yet, here we are without a line of jumpers in any range at this scale created in the last few years?
Why is this so?
Could it be that the inability of engineers in our real lives to deliver a viable jetpack has rendered the notion too farsical even for speculative fiction games? Not likely since they stick to the notion of flying cars and tanks.
Could it be that the tactical utility and viability of such troops has come to be seen as lacking? Doubtful, as infantry able to move quickly over rough terrain and uneven elevation is a general's dream.
Could it be that the current crop of in-fashion rules sets simply overlooked these types and the figure lines being sculpted, mainly to be useful in the current systems have similarly ignored them? Entirely possible.
Whatever the reason, I want my jumpers. I suppose that I will just find some relatively good models to use as a base and break out the greenstuff and convert up my own, but it sure would be nice for all of us if the bouncers would just come back from obscurity and play a part in the genre's battles again.
Monday, December 6, 2010
In which our hero receives a package from Critical Mass Games
Arriving today we finally get some Critical Mass Games Astagar mercenaries to play with.
First of all, they're big. These are guys I would not want to have to fight in some crumbling future city. They aren't out-of-scale big, but just imposing figure big.
While that extra size makes them perfect for my planned fearsome alien raider force, and promises some nice minis to paint and admire, what is also does is make basing a fiddly thing.
The commander and the close-combat brawler are going to mount on my 5/8" washers just fine, the latter will need some slight base trimming to do so, but the three long-based figures have bases that measure pretty much right at 5/8".
They will mount on the bases, but will look a bit awkward.
So, do I get bigger bases or do I adjust the figures?
If I was doing strictly single-figure-per-base gaming, a 20mm or 25mm base would be no big deal. However, I want to be able to have some multi-figure options available for different rules sets or just to speed up unit moving in others. The two base types I am trying are bases with a magnet and drilled templates.
The magnetic bases are just a wooden base with a magnetic sheet on top, painted similar to the miniatures' basing color. This approach is easy and flexible and would accomodate the 25mm bases well enough.
The drilled template bases look better though, as they can be given the full scenic treatment and look more purposeful.
My head says magnets, my heart says holes.
While that nonsense sorts itself out, though, one thing is certain, if I put the Astagar on a 5/8" base somehow, they will be fine either way. I think I will give one squad a try and see what kind of repositioning the tails are capable of. Watch this space for results.
After all of that, I still havn't said much about the minis, and they should be given a chance to be complimented for certain.
These are nice, well-executed sculpts and are faithfully and cleanly cast in good metal. There is almost no clean-up needed on these at all. The figure mix, with the gauntletted close combat mini and the carbine-armed troops definitely points to these being well-suited to an assault role, and the heavy weapon could be classified as anything from a rocket launcher to a light machinegun or pulse laser. They seem a pretty usable mux, which is good as I am trying to build an army force around a pack of five miniatures.
Given the paucity of variants I am tempted to get out the greenstuff and enhance them a bit, but truth be told, I doubt I need to. While the odd specialist or high commander might be called for, the rank and file should have sufficient variety in poses and utility in represented gear to do the job.
Another highly-admired delivery I am going to enjoy painting soon.
First of all, they're big. These are guys I would not want to have to fight in some crumbling future city. They aren't out-of-scale big, but just imposing figure big.
While that extra size makes them perfect for my planned fearsome alien raider force, and promises some nice minis to paint and admire, what is also does is make basing a fiddly thing.
The commander and the close-combat brawler are going to mount on my 5/8" washers just fine, the latter will need some slight base trimming to do so, but the three long-based figures have bases that measure pretty much right at 5/8".
They will mount on the bases, but will look a bit awkward.
So, do I get bigger bases or do I adjust the figures?
If I was doing strictly single-figure-per-base gaming, a 20mm or 25mm base would be no big deal. However, I want to be able to have some multi-figure options available for different rules sets or just to speed up unit moving in others. The two base types I am trying are bases with a magnet and drilled templates.
The magnetic bases are just a wooden base with a magnetic sheet on top, painted similar to the miniatures' basing color. This approach is easy and flexible and would accomodate the 25mm bases well enough.
The drilled template bases look better though, as they can be given the full scenic treatment and look more purposeful.
My head says magnets, my heart says holes.
While that nonsense sorts itself out, though, one thing is certain, if I put the Astagar on a 5/8" base somehow, they will be fine either way. I think I will give one squad a try and see what kind of repositioning the tails are capable of. Watch this space for results.
After all of that, I still havn't said much about the minis, and they should be given a chance to be complimented for certain.
These are nice, well-executed sculpts and are faithfully and cleanly cast in good metal. There is almost no clean-up needed on these at all. The figure mix, with the gauntletted close combat mini and the carbine-armed troops definitely points to these being well-suited to an assault role, and the heavy weapon could be classified as anything from a rocket launcher to a light machinegun or pulse laser. They seem a pretty usable mux, which is good as I am trying to build an army force around a pack of five miniatures.
Given the paucity of variants I am tempted to get out the greenstuff and enhance them a bit, but truth be told, I doubt I need to. While the odd specialist or high commander might be called for, the rank and file should have sufficient variety in poses and utility in represented gear to do the job.
Another highly-admired delivery I am going to enjoy painting soon.
Wednesday, December 1, 2010
In which our hero receives a package from Rebel Minis and is very impressed
Another delivery today, this time a few packs of Rebel Minis' Titan Marines and Titan Marines Heavy Weapons.
Wow.
I loved these figures at the Rebel Minis website. They looked great, but I honestly expected those remarkable pics to have been the result of deceptively good paintwork or pre-production casts. Not a cynical expectation, simply a realistic one given how these things work - manufacturers want the best painting they can get and the first figures we have to get painted before going live with a release are the master proofs.
But no, these minis are just that good.
They're a good deal, the regular grunts are 21 figures in five poses for $10.95 and the heavy weapon teams are $3.49 for 6 figures, which is two rocket launchers, two snipers, and two heat weapon troops. My only gripe with this allotment, and probably my only gripe with the figures at all, which goes to show you a) how little is wrong with these guys and b) how I can find the down-side of anything is that there isn't an obvious command figure and the mix doesn't part out to squads or fireteams logically without extras or deficits.
The quality of these figures rivals some of the larger mini-makers out there in crispness and character. Excellent sculpts well-cast. These instantly became my favorite figures in this scale. Now, if only I could figure out how I am going to paint them.
The plan is to use these, as I am sure most people do, as "bad guys" in my space colony conflicts. Together with some Old Crow near-future halftracks they'll make some good stormtrooper types in the pulp neo-fascist vein. That rather unimaginative approach to using them definitely calls out for some grey armor, but grey armor is going to be featureless at a distance. I could go with an Afrika Korps tan, imitating the samples on the Rebel Minis website which I admire so much. I can also try to combine these two, with a brown jumpsuit under grey plates. I think I might try this and see what I think. It's not so terribly derivative of the stereotypical bag guy look that I won't feel like I've differentiated my efforts, but hat-tips the underlying reference well enough to make my gesture clear.
I'll let you know how it turns out.
Friday, November 26, 2010
In which our hero shows off some painted Khurasan Federals
A little more eye candy by way of a squad of infantry for my Commonwealth faction, determined, professional forces drawn from throughout from the human colonies.
The Khurasan Federals definitely painted up well. The slight casting irregularities blended out with purposeful brushwork and the great poses, excellent proportions, and overall design really pops once the paint gets on.
They were a reasonably quick unit to finish. I basecoated the figures with a light green, then added tan to the armor plates and a medium brown on the boots, backpacks, and ammo pouches. Next I did a thin sepia brown wash over everything. Once it dried I touched up the raised areas of the green jumpsuits with the original base color. The armor plates were blended up from the base to almost white highlights, and the bags and pouches were fine as they were.
The weapons wound up being shaded up to silver, which is pretty unrealistic, but when they were flat charcoal or dark metallic they just didn't have any detail or definition at range, they really only took on any detail when picked out in bright silver. This is a pretty normal concession to make at 15mm, though, trading a bit of gritty realism for high contrast aestheticism.
Basing was about as simple as possible, I puttied them early on, then painted them brown and glued some brown sand to the base. I'm not even going to bother painting the ground cover on these, the lightly mottled sand works just fine as is. I may add a few small tufts of green flock here and there, but the results are fine and you can't argue with the effort required.
I am pretty pleased with the outcome. They're nice minis with pretty effective table-view paint schemes. Now I just need to paint another couple of dozen and I'll be ready to go.
Tuesday, November 23, 2010
In which our hero shows off a Grav APC
And this time we get a look at what I made of the Topgun grav APC.
I followed my plan for a geometric pattern, and I like the results. While the intention was to offer contrast for the organic, reptilian curves of the model, the zig-zag pattern wound up having a crocodilian quality all it's own, which unifies the model and paint pretty nicely. I find that the combination of a vivid green and a straightforward desert tan, along with the garish lines underscores the role of these as mercenary/raider transports in my game world nicely.
The technique is pretty much all blending at this point, with some wash shading around the edges of the scale armor, doors, and such. Sometimes I wonder if I should spring for an airbrush, especially if I am going to get into 15mm vehicle periods more aggressively, but in the end, I'm just not unhappy with the effects I can get with brushes and patience.
The underside is fairly nondescript, a flat charcoal grey which passes well as heat shielding for orbital drops, and is never really seen in play anyway. I glued a magnetic figure base to the center of the bottom as well to give it some elevation. The base is small enough that it is rarely seen, and offers an excellent levitation illusion. The magnet keeps it more or less safe in my figure boxes to boot.
I still might add some communications arials somewhere, it just seems like a little something is missing. Might need a little more weathering, perhaps some carbon scoring. I like it as it is, but I think I can get a little more out of them.
Monday, November 22, 2010
In which our hero shows off a Grav Sled IFV
So, this is what I made of that GZG grav sled ICV.
I figure most planets in my setting are either hot rockballs or cold rockballs, so a desert scheme should serve well. Besides, I am saving green for my Neo-Sovs.
Technique-wise, it's pretty basic stuff. Over a light tan basecoat I ran a thinned line of several different complimentary darker shades along the edges of detail pieces, randomly Using each different color on different Seams, joints, and crevasses so that the shading was irregular. Then I reapplied the base color to large surfaces, and after that blended lighter highlights on the more prominent parts.
The irregular deep shading gives a nice wear pattern, a little rust, a little mud, a little shadow. Very simple and uncomplicated. I don't want every faction in my collection to have a patterned camouflage on their vehicles, so even though it might look pretty good with a light green secondary color, and I can even see doing some vehicles in this faction that way, I am happy with this simple beginning.
I ultimately decided against a peg-type basing arrangement, but I still wanted to imply some elevation. What I settled on was gluing a wooden figure base (a nice Litko piece, I believe it is FoW small sized) which just barely fits under the skids. This base adds height without needing to be scenic or revealing that the grav pads are not actually suspended above the play surface. Adding a magnetic sheet to the bottom also keeps it from rolling around my storage box as well. All in all, a nice compromise solution.
I am definitely a big fan of this model and the whole GSG grav sled line. It's a look I like and the weighty all-metal models really stand out when playing games with them.
Saturday, November 20, 2010
In which our hero receives a package from Topgun Marketing
Today's unpacking courtesy of Topgun Marketing's Grav APC's.
I ordered four of these sleek little buggers to cart around some sort of aliens, I've not really settled on which ones, but am thinking they might be a good fit for the Critical Mass Games Astagar which I have a thing for. Seems a good fit for some nasty mercenary snakes.
Here's a look at one of the resin hulls plus most of the little metal bits that make up a single kit.
I ordered four of these sleek little buggers to cart around some sort of aliens, I've not really settled on which ones, but am thinking they might be a good fit for the Critical Mass Games Astagar which I have a thing for. Seems a good fit for some nasty mercenary snakes.
Here's a look at one of the resin hulls plus most of the little metal bits that make up a single kit.
I'm thinking that I will do something geometric with the paint job. The vehicle is all rounded shapes, so something amorphous or similarly rounded will make surface details less distinct. Plus, I already know that angles look good on these grav tanks as it was a hexagon-camo tank squad that really sold me on the models in the first place.
You can get these vehicles with or without the clusters of circular plating on the hulls. In the designer's description these serve an anti-personnel role, but could just as easily be reactive armor or just passive surface detailing. I decided to go with them because they would give a scale-like look to the tank, which would further boost their usefulness as reptile runabouts.
I didn't build mine out exactly as intended by the designers. I didn't take to the look of the rocket tubes on the vertical boom after putting it all together. They rode pretty high, and even shortening the boom still left them perched too awkwardly for my taste (which is what it is, admittedly). I think it broke the extreme streamlining of the vehicle too much for my liking. Instead I dropped the boom and mounted the tubes directly on the turret at a jaunty angle that seemed to fit the curvy vibe.
I like these tanks for two reasons. First, I like them because they look great. They look fast, they look tough, how could you not want some? Mainly though, I like them because they are clearly a labor of love, they're something special to the guys that made them and as a guy who once had a mini line just to get stuff I wanted to play with into the world, I support anyone who managed to pull off that feat as well.
Corresponding with Robert at Topgun it's clear that he's really excited about these. He'll tell you all about the little gizmos on the outside of the textured hull version, send you game stats, pictures of renders and painted tanks. It's not just an impersonal online purchase and a package that pops up a couple of weeks later, it's sharing a hobby and caring a lot about the stuff you make, and that's pretty cool.
And, now that I have a few of these tanks, I'm pretty excited about them too.
Tuesday, November 16, 2010
In which our hero receives a package from GZG
I came home to find a remarkably heavy little box sitting on the kitchen counter.
Much about this is surprising.
First, that it is here at all. I placed this order with Ground Zero Games only a few days ago, I would have to look back at my emails, but it wad certainly only a week ago at most. They turned this thing around and tossed it over from England fast. I am impressed sirs.
Second, that it is so heavy. I didn't realize that the 15mm Stargrunt vehicles were all-metal. The website displays them in flat colors, which had led me to expect resin casts, but now I see that they were just base coated to show detail better rather than would brightly shining metal bits.
So, having ordered 8 tanks and three dozen infantry, it was a pretty dense block of tin that hit my doorstep. No wonder shipping cost was what it was. I think my lesson here is to only place smaller orders from GZG in the future to save my mailman's back.
And there will be a next time.
let's take a look at the first item I plan to put brush to, one of the Grav IFVs. Here is a look at what constitutes a single kit.
I ordered four of these in a platoon bundle, which with the vehicle kits, four all-metal flight bases, and some extra communications gubbins to stick on the tanks.
The casts are generally very good. The upper hull has some fixable mold lines and some shallow pitting, but the other parts are very crisp. Being a metal kit, and knowing what to expect from spincasting something this big, I was ready for some extra effort in getting everything to fit together, and there was some effort required to get the pegs that position the hull halves to work right, but nothing heroic and I did't feel like there were any gaps or pits that needed to be filled once it was all together, so the production quality is very good (the infantry figures I got, which I will profile later, were very good casts as well).
After assembly, here's an IFV sled (left) and MBT sled (right) as an added bonus.
I really like the assembled tank. It's a shade small to be hauling around six or seven scale-creeped 18mm troops, but not by enough to be incongruous at table height (and no more so than it looks to be the case with most troop carriers, judging from photos I have seen). Still, the design is very cool. I like the grav wings a lot, they seem to be a very well-played interpretation of what early efforts at such a tech would look like, and make the vehicles in this family from GZG very distinctive. It's a nice tech level bridge piece between something like a skirted hovercraft and a far future/alien smooth hull design, giving it a nice niche in a game world. Above the wings, it's a perfectly reasonable fighting vehicle design. Put wheels or treads on it and I would believe there were hundreds of these rolling around some failed state or another today. All in all, an excellent near-future design.
My only worry with this model is what to do with the basing. If I use the included base plate and post, I will definitely cut the post down a lot. Sticking it at full height as GZG does in their catalog would be trouble. The heavy tank would have an impractical center of gravity up there and would fall over constantly. Even mounted on a shortened post to appear to fly just a couple of scale feet off the ground, I fear there may not be a glue strong enough to hold the post in its mountings under the stresses of table use with the substantial weight of the tank itself. I may skip basing altogether and just let it sit on the grav fins. Experiments are in order.
Much about this is surprising.
First, that it is here at all. I placed this order with Ground Zero Games only a few days ago, I would have to look back at my emails, but it wad certainly only a week ago at most. They turned this thing around and tossed it over from England fast. I am impressed sirs.
Second, that it is so heavy. I didn't realize that the 15mm Stargrunt vehicles were all-metal. The website displays them in flat colors, which had led me to expect resin casts, but now I see that they were just base coated to show detail better rather than would brightly shining metal bits.
So, having ordered 8 tanks and three dozen infantry, it was a pretty dense block of tin that hit my doorstep. No wonder shipping cost was what it was. I think my lesson here is to only place smaller orders from GZG in the future to save my mailman's back.
And there will be a next time.
let's take a look at the first item I plan to put brush to, one of the Grav IFVs. Here is a look at what constitutes a single kit.
I ordered four of these in a platoon bundle, which with the vehicle kits, four all-metal flight bases, and some extra communications gubbins to stick on the tanks.
The casts are generally very good. The upper hull has some fixable mold lines and some shallow pitting, but the other parts are very crisp. Being a metal kit, and knowing what to expect from spincasting something this big, I was ready for some extra effort in getting everything to fit together, and there was some effort required to get the pegs that position the hull halves to work right, but nothing heroic and I did't feel like there were any gaps or pits that needed to be filled once it was all together, so the production quality is very good (the infantry figures I got, which I will profile later, were very good casts as well).
After assembly, here's an IFV sled (left) and MBT sled (right) as an added bonus.
I really like the assembled tank. It's a shade small to be hauling around six or seven scale-creeped 18mm troops, but not by enough to be incongruous at table height (and no more so than it looks to be the case with most troop carriers, judging from photos I have seen). Still, the design is very cool. I like the grav wings a lot, they seem to be a very well-played interpretation of what early efforts at such a tech would look like, and make the vehicles in this family from GZG very distinctive. It's a nice tech level bridge piece between something like a skirted hovercraft and a far future/alien smooth hull design, giving it a nice niche in a game world. Above the wings, it's a perfectly reasonable fighting vehicle design. Put wheels or treads on it and I would believe there were hundreds of these rolling around some failed state or another today. All in all, an excellent near-future design.
My only worry with this model is what to do with the basing. If I use the included base plate and post, I will definitely cut the post down a lot. Sticking it at full height as GZG does in their catalog would be trouble. The heavy tank would have an impractical center of gravity up there and would fall over constantly. Even mounted on a shortened post to appear to fly just a couple of scale feet off the ground, I fear there may not be a glue strong enough to hold the post in its mountings under the stresses of table use with the substantial weight of the tank itself. I may skip basing altogether and just let it sit on the grav fins. Experiments are in order.
Sunday, November 14, 2010
In which our hero receives a package from Khurasan
The first of my 15mm purchases arrived today - including three of the the Federal Army squads from Khurasan Miniatures.
These guys are a brand new release, and I like them a lot. For $5.99 you get a dozen unique minis, thoughtfully composed to form a typical squad - one fire team with a leader, SAW gunner, grenadier, and two riflemen, a second fire team with a leader, an ATG launcher, loader/spotter, grenadier, and a rifleman plus a squad leader and a medic. This assortment can be used to concoct all sorts of organization combinations, though I'd like to have a second SAW gunner in there (that said, there will be a pretty cheap add-on release soon with normally-armored, as opposed to bikini-clad female troopers which will include an extra gunner which I can use for that purpose).
Here's a photo of one squad set.
The poses are excellent and the sculpting probably was better than it looks in metal, but the castings are a bit rough. There are some slight mold misalignment signs and some surface details, the legs for the most part, have a bit of irregular texturing. It's nothing that painting can't obscure, and is hardly worth the effort of smoothing with a scalpel in cleanup, but I'd have been a bit frustrated with the casts had they been my minis, so I feel for the Khurasan guys on that point. Happened to me too, but hey, those were the best selling minis I ever had, so maybe it's a moot point.
Anyway, and all in all I like these figures a lot. Poses are great, assortment is really practical, price is excellent, shipping time was not unreasonable, and only some mold/casting issues keep them from being perfect. Can't wait to get some paint on them.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)