Category: Games

Steam Wars – New Units For Next Game

A final draft of Steam Wars has again been created by Coronasan. So, happily, it is playtest time again.  I have a large Steam Navy force that serves me for this game but it remains unfinished at present.  As I pick up bits along the way and add units here and there the painting queue for this army seems to become quite static.

I have decided though, that as Coronasan has completed three armies for Steam Wars in the same amount of time, I shall try to get the Navy completed. If I get that done, I can then better focus on the Martian Invasion Force that I have also started for Steam Wars.

These painted Rollerbots are the product of that decision so far.  The first two were done at the start of the Navy project and I ran them as vehicles at first.  They are small figures for vehicles and had weak profiles.  They also took up a vehicle slot each in the army, which didn’t help either.

I plan to run them as a form of heavy cavalry (or bikers) in the next game.  That way they stay fast like vehicles but will use up an infantry slot (elite troops).

I have three light antitank bots and two HMG bots.  In Steam Wars, unit size is dictated by wounds (max 6 wounds to a unit). Therefore, as each will be profiled with two wounds, three bots will be the unit size.  I could do with one more of these models to give me the option to field them as a variety of different three bot unit configurations.

The figures are from The Lead Adventure Miniature range and the only one left, that I don’t have, is armed with a rocket launcher.  Maybe that’s the one to finish the set.

For our playtest session I plan to use a second new unit.  This time its some specialist heavy infantry.  They are coming along nicely at the moment.  More on those later…

New Rogue Stars/ Scrappers Crew

As the weather outside is less than perfect for undercoating, and as I haven’t been motivated to paint any of my prepped miniatures, I have been basing and cleaning up these lads.

They fit nicely together even though they come from three different manufacturers.

Steve is my favourite by far. A platypus in a space suit is always going to get noticed.

Add in a bionic eye and what’s not to like…

The Chipster is next in my order of likes.  Both have body armour and very big guns so these guys are likely to make up the central combat aspect of any crew.

Tech support and robot lackey.  Lots of options for game specific skills and abilities here.

More armour and guns.  A crew is always going to need more guns.

If they don’t get used soon for Rogue Stars then they are likely to feature as a mutant crew for Scrappers.

Scrappers was my only Salute purchase of new rules.  The latest Osprey book to be released (this time in hardback format so not one of their numbered blue ‘wargames’ rules).  It features a Post Apocalypse setting and uses between a 3 and 15 man crew in a campaign based system.  Not read as yet as I want to keep focussed on the games we are playing and not be distracted but that is unlikely to last long…

Pirates Ahoy

Lately I have been painting whatever came to mind.  Mostly steam tanks and other Victorian sci-fi stuff.  In contrast we have been playing in a very different era.

Pirates have been firmly on our radar for a month or so lately.  We identified a number of games we owned, and planned to get a number of games played to try them all out.

Cutlass (by Black Scorpion) started things off and proved to be enjoyable with some nice unique touches.  The activation system was slightly too controlling for our liking though. We found that it was dictating the actions of the whole crew each bound, which meant it could stop individuals from acting if the group action was not doing what they wanted to do.

On the seven seas (by Osprey) came next and proved to be too slow for us.  The mobility and actions in the game left us feeling like we were constantly waiting just to get there.  On the prescribed table size we fired our first shot only after about 30min of play…

Our last game was played using Legends of the high seas (by Warhammer Historical) sadly now out of print when Warhammer Historical stopped publishing, a real shame.  This rule set is the largest book but is actually the simplest of the rule sets we have tried.  Its one down side (something all the sets have in common) is its somewhat short movement distances and weapon ranges.  This slows the game slightly but this is made up for in its fast turn sequence. Combat is decisive and brutal and reminds me of the system used by Westwind’s Empire of the Dead.

We plan to get some more pirate action in when Coronasan returns from his Gin soaked holiday.  While he is away though, I will be looking into how to populate a somewhat empty harbour, so that boats can start to feature in our upcoming games.

Terminators, From Mars…

Since Xmas, the guys at Warlord Games have been putting on a lot of sales… Many have passed me by with no interest at all.  One was so good it would have been silly to refuse!

Their Terminator Genisys game was discounted for a few weeks from £70 to £20. Its still on sale (at the time of writing this) at £35 so remains good value.

27 plastic figures and 1 metal for £20, can’t be sniffed at, and you get the rules and other bits, like dice, as well.

For me the £20 was spent especially for 10 Terminator Endoskeletons (with very big guns) and 5 Terminator Crawlers (just need some rules writing to use them in Steam Wars now – Coronasan over to you!)

Yes, they are not very Steampunk. Yes, they are so recognisable that they couldn’t be anything else but Terminators. Yes, they are too heavily armed for Steam Wars.

I don’t care…  They will get red, cracked Martian earth, bases and be used in my Martian Forces. Somehow they will fit.

Why?  Because I like them…

 

 

Steam Wars – More Martian Tripods

One plus side of not playing large figure count games is, when you have painted the 5-6 figures you need for a game, you are quickly free to drift into another project.  And, oh my, do I drift.  With no discernible direction at all…

After getting a few things setup recently, to play a couple of games of Rogue Stars, I have found myself drifting back to an old project.  The weather again is not yet ripe for large scale undercoating so more building has been going on.

In this case building Martian Tripods…

Scout tripods in this case.  Smaller than the original Assault tripods and with a less varied selection of weapons options, but in this case, one box of scout tripods has doubled the number of proper tripods I have.

They tower over the metal tripods that I have, and the cephalopods I plan to use are smaller still.  They may need reclassifying when I actually come to profiling them up for our games of Steam Wars.  The larger Assault and Scout tripods will likely be my equivalent of vehicles, while the smaller metal tripods, may end up as units of Martian cavalry or heavy infantry.

As it is I will probably have more chances to profile them than paint them. Especially while the weather at the moment remains so cold and wet.

I guess I should expect these conditions though…  It is winter you know…

At Least I’m Doing Something – More Rogue Stars

Skirmish games appear to be the way forward. At least in my small world anyway.  Smaller figure count games are great for quick start up and often provide fast paced, effective and cinematic games.  Most of what we do these days is smaller armies games.  Even Coronasan’s Steam Wars (probably the only big army game I play at the moment) fields units of only 5-6 figures.

Rogue Stars is just like that as it offers a fast paced small force skirmish game that is also quite detailed and characterful at the same time.  I know its not everyone’s cup of tea but the detailed character building makes each and everyone of your crew into an individual.

At first read it appears a very complex game for only about 8 figures to a table.  the many smaller rules and layout of the book can make it seem overly rules heavy.  My advice is to hold off judging it until you have tried it out though

We have tried a few games now and have found the system to be more intuitive than we expected.  A good cheat sheet with a few of the more often used tables copied out on it is a must though.

We have played games where we just go out and try to kill each other, try to steal wheelie bins full of new tech from under our opponent’s nose and the usual sort of hold terrain while trying not to get killed type games.  All work well.

As we look forward to our next games I have rooted about in the back of the shed for all those Deadzone figures I collected and never got round to painting.

Smaller scavenger types good at hiding and stealing Tech…

More aggressive alien types.

These are my first choices so far, obnoxious blaster wielding alien, quiet spoken tank like bodyguard, tech savvy sniper girl.  Whoever said stereotyping was a bad idea is wrong.

Gutteral, gruff voiced brutes (only because their guns are so loud and they shout all the time…)

Fast, sneaky and likely to dodge in and out of cover given the chance.

Now, what else can I find..?

Other Unplanned Stuff Done – The Rogue Stars Distraction

As expected our gaze and gaming focus has been drawn in a new direction again.  Osprey have released Rogue Stars (some might say finally). After a long build up and some delayed publishing dates the book was released before Xmas and then promptly stolen from me by the beloved great lady so that it could be given back to me covered in glittery paper.  Xmas traditions can be great and frustrating at the same time.

This time before our first game I have managed to get some painting done to flesh out the old Sci-fi scenery in the shed.  Some freestanding MDF stairways add a little extra access to some of the industrial buildings and my older Deadzone scenery that I have.

The Deadzone stuff makes up the majority of my Sci-fi scenery but its a good mix of heights and allows easy figure placement so I can’t fault it at all. Mantic have hit on a winner here I believe.

A simple paintjob was all it got a couple of years ago but even that was enough to get it looking good.

I have now read the rules and picked out my first figures for a 4 man crew of bounty hunters.  More of the Sci-fi scenery is on the painting table so should be finished up and on show here soon too.

Update – To Do List…

Unsurprisingly I am behind with these posts again (should that read – already…)

Last time I listed the things that I would be attempting to do to get back on track with my projects in the shed.  So, how have I done?

If I am honest, badly.  One reason for the list was a planned ‘Big Game’ that I hoped to get a few new units ready for.  With over 2 weeks to prepare over Xmas I managed to get nothing new done so fielded a Steam Wars force that was just about the same (if a little larger) than my normal army.

The game went ahead as planned and 3 forces converged on a small town controlled by a fourth smaller NPC mechanical force.

The British arrived in style on an aeronef with plenty of jump troopers and machine gunners on board.

The Germans struck hard and toppled my US marine walker before it could do too much damage.

Then went on to attack the aeronef with their own jump troopers (Please remember my own jump troopers were still lying unloved on the painting table)

The US marines reinforcements did come on to force their way towards the town in the end but too late to capture enough to bring them victory.  The Germans were Victorious and the British looked Glorious in their skyship.  The Marines only managed to save face and come in second this time around.

I however still have nothing ticked of my to do list…  Must do better!

The To Do List. Quick Wins And Finishing Up Some Old Projects. 

WARNING BORING POST!

So that leaves me with the real ‘To Do’ list.  This should be a list of projects that are achievable and that can be finished before February. (Some to be completed before January).

THE TO DO LIST! (in no particular order)

  • STEAM WARS
    • US Marines – Gyrocopters x2
    • US Marines – Jet Pack Troopers x10
    • US Marines – Wheelie Bots x3
    • US Marines – Steam Tanks x2
    • US Marines – Mortar Gun Carriage
  • DRAGON RAMPANT
    • Evil Snails x5
    • Giant Evil Snails x3
  • TERRAIN
    • Harbour Terrain Boards x4
    • Harbour Wooden Fronts x6

So there it is.  Not huge but certainly not impossible.  Some need to be done before I get my next few games in. Others through the start of the new year.

Oh, and that’s not including those things that may turn up as Xmas presents:-)

The Not To Do List. What’s Not On My Priority List. 

Boring Post Warning!

Well now that I know where I stand with some of the projects in the shed I guess I need to make that ‘To Do’ list.  In a very negative style I will first identify all the projects that are ‘ongoing’ (read that as unfinished or just stuck or just too large and have never got started/ finished) then rule out a number of these projects that I know will still not get finished soon even if I restart them with good intentions…

They will get done in time, its just I don’t have the time at this point.  Coronasan’s loft full of lead appears to be full of these types of projects so I don’t feel alone in this phenomenon.  I wonder how many years some of his projects have waited?  There tend to be some projects that need time (and sometimes lots of other parts) before they come to fruition.

The issue in the shed, unlike some other spaces, is that it is where I ‘work’ and therefore the unfinished list sometimes feels to be looming over my shoulder when I begin something else… (Maybe that’s just my guilt looming).

So, here we have it, the ‘Not To Do’ list.

  • STEAM WARS
    • Martians – All of them
    • US Marines – Submersible
    • US Marines – Steamboat No.2
    • US Marines – Flying base for steamboat No.1
    • US Marines – Diving suit troopers
    • US Marines – Steam truck
    • US Marines – Troopers, Specialists, Artillery and Crew
    • US Marines – HMLS Gladstone
    • US Marines – Small Gun Drones
  • DRAGON RAMPANT
    • Giant worms
    • Cthon – Small worms
  • KONFLIKT 47
    • German heavy infantry
    • Night Terrors
  • MDF BUILDINGS
    • Stables
    • Cricket Pavilion
    • Sci fi walkways
  • DUST TACTICS
    • Bunker and lasers
    • German Army – All remaining units
  • OTHERS
    • Playmobil Cargo ship
    • Railway Set Tracks
    • Railway Set Trains
    • Gothic Ruins and Walls – Graveyard set
    • Modern powerboat
    • Tunnel Boards set (Huge Project)
    • Update Large Medieval/ Fantasy Army
    • Celtic warband for ‘of gods and mortals’
    • Oriental warband for Ronin
    • Modern Special Ops warband for Black Ops

As expected this list is long and painful to look at.  But if I take these out of the equation then my list of projects that I might get finished in the next month (or two) looks more achievable.  There are likely to be more unfinishable projects than this but they haven’t been looming lately…