The incident at Station X

Introduction

On a barely-charted jungle planet, remote from normal shipping lanes, the Federation have permitted the establishment of a private research station.  Ostensibly this group of scientists, led by the fiercely intelligent Professor Frinkle, are there to develop new medicines and cures.

A garbled message from the base is received by the USS Matakishi - a Federation starship commanded by the inspiring Captain Bellamy.  It reads:

"...madness...overstepped...chemical...unwilling...too much...help...".

The ship's comms officer has determined that the transmission is being jammed.  By looking at a list of base personnel, it is thought to have been sent by Doctor Smith, the research centre's second-in-command.  Bellamy decides to investigate immediately and leads a small away team to the planet's surface.

However, he's not the only one to show an interest.  The Klingon vessel P'Rang has also intercepted the message and her captain Mor'tah has ordered that "Federation combat drugs" research is in violation of some treaty or other and must be seized, for the safety of the Empire.

Setup

This was a 3-player game of Pulp Alley, using my newly-completed Alien Jungle and my slightly older Salad Box Science Base.  The terrain was set up as follows:

• Most areas of vegetation would be difficult (i.e. if anyone ran through them then they would take a peril).
• 2 of the areas of vegetation (the one with the pit beast and the one with the Venusian death lilies) were dangerous.  No running was permitted and even walking would trigger a peril.
• All building interiors were also difficult.

6 minor objectives were set up in buildings and around the base:

• A microscope and samples were in the Geology building
• A computer terminal was in the Command building
• A filing cabinet was in the Admin building
• A cloning tank was in the Science building.
• A hyperwave jammer was at the eastern end of the base clearing.
• The base's power supply was at the western end of the complex.

The major objective was Doctor Smith, who was in the open at the very centre of the research base.

The Leagues

Federation Away Team

• Captain Bellamy is inspiring, quick-witted and a lucky devil.  He can shoot and brawl a bit, but his strengths are really in problem-solving.
• Science Officer Tring is extremely smart, but probably lacks some social graces (well, he is an alien, after all).
• Doctor Johnson is a hard-nosed medical officer.  He probably spends much of his life being quietly exasperated by everyone and everything else in the universe.
• Lieutenant Rashi leads the security detail.  He's impetuous and a daredevil, so it's a bit of a wonder that he has survived even his first few years in Star Fleet.
• 3 redshirts are also included in the party, to provide the inevitable "meat shield".  Their skills are, well, mediocre (as you might expect from a bunch of goons).

Professor Frinkle's Base Experiments

The mad professor is determined to preserve the autonomy of his research from outside interference of any sort.  To that end, he has the following resources:

• Professor Frinkle is your standard crazy geneticist who won't be shackled by anything so paltry as morality.  He is a deductive and an inventor.  For this game he used his inventing skill to come up with some mind-enhancing drugs for himself.  Frinkle has also set up cameras and booby traps all over the base; this is represented by his cursed presence ability.
• B-9 is the professor's sinister robot.  It is armoured and can project some form of electrical field (long burst).
• Miaou Miaou is a harmless pet - probably one of the professor's early experiments.  It looks a bit like a cross between a seal and a penguin, but is surprisingly agile.
• Eygar is a faithful lab assistant.  She is clever and crafty, though somewhat faint-of-heart.
• The professor has been using other base personnel as experimental subjects.  3 of them are present as reanimated plague zombies.

Klingon Expeditionary Force

• Captain Mor'tah is a classic, "bad guy" Klingon.  He's intimidating, savage and veteran, which together make him quite a fighter.  He's also very cunning, though not particularly subtle.
• Maal is the captain's loyal second-in-command.  He is intelligent, cold and calculating, ruthless and indomitable.
• Science officer Sira is extremely bright, but not as tough as the other members of the Klingon party.
• Vagh is a close combat specialist who believes that fighting with the bat'leth is the only true way to gain honour.
• "Targ" is a strange, pig-like beast picked up by the captain on his travels and regarded as a pet.  It's not a real, Klingon targ of course - that's just the captain's little joke.  Actually, it's quite a dangerous animal.
• Leyra is the Klingon's answer to the Federation's redshirts: a security goon with little expectation of surviving an episode.

The Game

Unsurprisingly, given the setup, the first turn was spent with most characters heading for the inevitable "scrum in the middle".  Turn 2 started to become interesting:

1. The Klingon pig-beast charged around the corner of the Science building, straight into Eygar.  Both were knocked down, but the pig-beast just shook itself and regained its feet. The faint-of-heart lab assistant didn't bother to get up again.
2. Science officer Sira tried to switch off the base's power supply - but each time failed a peril and was knocked down.  Even though she stood back up and tried again several times more, eventually the repeated zaps knocked her out (i.e. she kept failing perils and taking damage; eventually she failed a recovery roll).  It seems that the mad professor's booby traps were working as intended!
3. Captain Mor'tah strode into the middle of the clearing, grabbed Doctor Smith and shook him into submission.  Of course, this immediately made him a prime target for every other faction - but Mor'tah embraced this position and returned all fire with glee.
4. Both Doctor Johnson and Miaou Miaou made for the filing cabinet in the Admin block.  Neither had any luck, as both of them went down to hidden hazards in the darkened building.

The pig-beast charged into the nearest thing is could see, but Professor Frinkle was a tougher customer than his lab assistant.  He swatted the creature down with ease.

Meanwhile, B-9 rumbled forwards and then unleashed a deadly electro-bolt.  The ray narrowly missed Mor'tah, but completely fried the hapless Leyra.

Over in the Admin block, Doctor Johnson and Miaou Miaou both regained their senses at about the same time.  There was a brief scuffle which resulted in the strange alien pet bolting through the door, leaving the doctor alone in front of the filing cabinet.  However, despite several attempts the increasingly-frustrated doctor just couldn't figure out how to break into the locked cabinet.

As another moment of comic relief (perhaps?), one of the plague zombies chased a redshirt across the board in slow motion.  Neither had much chance of hurting the other, though the redshirt kept dodging backwards so as to use his phaser and the zombie repeatedly stumbled forwards to close the distance.

Then the robot lurched forwards.  It suffered some form of malfunction and splattered corrosive fluids all over itself, Professor Frinkle and Mor'tah, as well as making that area perilous for the remainder of the game (this was a fortune card, though I forget exactly which one).  The robot and the professor were unharmed, but the Klingon captain caught a face full of the poisonous goo.

What with the noxious chemicals and phaser fire from Lt. Rashi & Captain Bellamy, Mor'tah sank to his knees and then collapsed, releasing his grip on Doctor Smith.

With a detour into the Science building to look at the cloning tank, the Klingon pig-beast squealed its challenge and charged at Professor Frinkle.  It may have been intent on revenge for its fallen master, but once again the hopped-up professor smacked it down into the dirt.  This time the creature didn't stand up again.

B-9 now turned its attention on Captain Bellamy and Lt. Rashi.  It shot down the lieutenant before unleashing its electro bolt on the Federation captain.  Luckily, the captain survived, as did a nearby plague zombie which happened to be in the line of fire.  Honestly, I think at this point that the player of the Mad Science league was so annoyed with the plague zombies' hopeless performance that he was even trying to kill them himself.  Ah, well - what else would you do with a failed experiment except turn them back into spare parts?

In the last turn of the game, the Federation started to retreat.  Science officer Tring had managed to solve a minor plot point (the microscope in the Geology building), though not without a considerable amount of difficulty.  I think it took him 2 or 3 turns.

He now retreated to the relative safety of the away team's shuttle, having discovered several interesting facts about the microbiology of the planet's soil and the curious organisms which coexisted below the surface.

At the same time, Doctor Johnson gave up trying to open the records cabinet ("Dammit, Captain!  I'm a doctor, not a filing clerk!"); he also moved towards safety.

Conclusion

Even though Professor Frinkel held the centre ground, he had been totally unable to solve the major plot point.  I suspect that by this time Doctor Johnson had lost all means of cooperating with any of the leagues.  Indeed, I imagine he was quite dead, having been phasered, covered in corrosive robot fluids and then zapped with an electro bolt.

Likewise, Maal had spent several turns trying to understand the computer terminal in the Command centre.  Despite his advanced abilities, he just couldn't gain anything useful from it and failed to solve the plot point.

So, the final scores were these:

• Federation away team: 1 victory point (for Tring's minor objective - the microscope).
• Klingon expeditionary force: 0 points.  Sira's early, repeated and ultimately fatal failures to switch off the power grid and Maal's incomprehension of the computer terminal were frustrating.  However, captain Mor'tah's showboating move into the middle did claim the major objective briefly before he was shot down.  I suppose that could be seen as reckless & irresponsible, or glorious & brave, depending on your point of view.
• Mad Science base defenders: 0 points.  Miaou Miaou did attempt a couple of plot points early on, but was easily chased off when someone else came close.  Professor Frinkle left it too late to claim the major plot point (though he did achieve 2 of the 3 successes he needed) and B-9 was having too much fun zapping things to bother with such trivia.

In the end, the Federation won the game, even though they only held a single, minor plot point.  This wasn't for lack of trying by all three leagues, though.  I cannot remember another game of Pulp Alley where the plot points proved so perilous and the challenges were so hard!

Man/machine/animal of the match: runners up are the pig-beast (which just kept getting back up and charging the next opponent) and Professor Frinkle (who shrugged off every hit he took from every source.  Maybe his combat drugs do work after a fashion?).  The winner, however, has to be B-9.  The large, armoured robot trundled around the centre of the table and scared the cr*p out of everything nearby.

Most useless: I think Sira was a bit of a waste of space.  This Klingon science officer failed to understand the base's power supply and indeed kept getting zapped whenever she prodded it.  Eventually this was too much and she was knocked out of action, without having contributed anything at all.

7TV2: Eternia Base and the Daleks

Introduction

To my everlasting regret, I've only played 7TV once before (here), though I've played its precursor - the Doctor Who Miniatures Game (DWMG) several times.

The one previous game of 7TV was fun, but it wasn't a total success for two reasons.  Firstly the forces were too small for the table (or if you prefer, the table was too large for the number of figures) and secondly the objectives were too easy to collect very early on (and that took away much of the point of playing the remainder of the game).

Last Thursday, I decided to revisit the game at the Helensburgh games club, but with some adjustments which would hopefully improve the experience.

The Setup

Somewhere in Federation space, on a remote and otherwise uninhabited planet is a top-secret research establishment called "Eternia Base".  There, scientists are conducting dangerous experiments to establish the nature of anti-photons.

A cross-dimensional rift caused by these tests has allowed universes to collide; Davros and a group of xenocidal Daleks have been sucked through.  They would like to take the secret knowledge of Eternia Base for themselves.

However, all is not lost.  Another dimensional traveller (who calls himself "the Doctor") and his assistant have persuaded the nearby starship USS Matakishi to intervene.  Captain Bellamy is leading an away team to try to rescue the scientists and save the base.

Special Rules

This would be a regular 7TV2 battle with 60 ratings per side.  The only alterations that we made to the standard rules were concerning objectives:

1. An objective wouldn't automatically be claimed just by spending a special action.  Rather, the objective would be successfully claimed only if the model making the attempt could pass a Mind test.  Of course, for the Doctor and for Davros (both with a Mind rating of '6') this was just a formality...
2. The central objective is the plasmatron, which splits photons or something like that.  For the heroic side, claiming this objective means that the experiment has been shut down safely; the structure of the base will be saved (even if its inhabitants are overrun by Daleks).  On the other hand, if the evil side claim this objective then they set the experiment to overload and eventually suck the base (and maybe the planet too?) into anti-space.  Either way, once this objective has been claimed the effect cannot be reversed.
3. The other 4 objectives are scientists.  Claiming one of these objectives allows the successful player to add the model to his cast (though note that the scientist's Gadget special effect will be of limited effect: it won't allow any more gadgets to be claimed as that's a pre-game effect only) as well as gaining the usual 2 plot points immediately and 1 victory point at the end of the game.
   Once in play, the opposing player can try to knock out the scientist, or can claim the model for their own cast by following the rules for taking an objective.  In theory, a scientist could change allegiances every turn, as the two sides plead, threaten and trick them!

The Game

At the beginning, the Federation advanced as quickly as they could.  Both the Doctor and Captain Bellamy manage to talk to a scientist and convince them that safety lay in joining the good guys.

In contrast, the Daleks were afflicted by a nasty Countdown Card which effectively restricted them to half speed for a turn.  Since they weren't exactly fast movers to start with, their progress was distinctly sluggish!

Davros took out some of his frustrations by shooting and injuring Brook Aria, the Doctor's plucky assistant.

In their second turn, the Federation advance continued.  The Doctor ran up to the plasmatron, though he didn't have an action left with which to try to defuse it.  Also, the redshirt squad advanced, firing for all they were worth and actually hit one of the Daleks.  [They were shooting at Davros, but he has a 'Sacrifice' special effect which can redirect hits to a nearby friend].  Sadly for them, each Dalek can take 3 hits before succumbing and even worse, this was one of only two times in the entire game where a redshirt hit anything!

However, this single hit did change the results of the game, as you will see...

In one of those "I did not see that coming!" moments, the Daleks then drew a Script Editing countdown card.  There was a weird continuity error as Davros was suddenly next to the plasmatron (and was immediately able to set the device to overload before scuttling back to his own lines)...

...whilst the Doctor found himself in the midst of a bunch of angry Daleks, who proceeded to zap him.  It took all the plot points they had for the Federation side to keep him alive, though injured (and then there was some luck involved as well)!

Never underestimate the Doctor!  On his next turn, he ran up to the red Dalek and did something with his sonic screwdriver, thus adding another wound to the battle machine [he used a "Pen Gun" gadget, but I imagine this was just a setting on his normal device rather than a separate piece of kit].

On the other side of the base, two grey Daleks had tried - and failed - to claim the 3rd scientist/objective.  In a moment of sheer coolness (or perhaps utter madness!), Captain Bellamy transported in and rescued the terrified scientist from under their blasters [in game terms, these Daleks were hit with a Countdown Card which prevented them from activating for a turn and then Captain Bellamy used a "jet pack" gadget to move up for free before claiming the objective and scarpering]!

The Federation wasn't the only side to have gadgets, of course.  One of the Daleks produced a noxious cloud [nerve gas canister] that sent most of the redshirts coughing and reeling; it then exterminated a couple of the hapless humanoids.

Things started to get a bit hectic at this point:

• The Doctor used a disguise kit to prevent the red Dalek from disintegrating him.
• Davros threatened the 4th scientist into submission...
• ...but just as he did this, a Federation shuttlecraft landed nearby and disgorged another squad of redcoats.  Two of them were promptly shot by the grey daleks, sadly.

The other two redcoats brawled with Davros, but had no effect whatsoever [honestly, they'd have done better to stand back and shoot him - though even that probably wouldn't have achieved much].  Fortunately for the heroic side, the Doctor was having a much better turn:

• A Countdown Card allowed him to retrieve a gadget; the Doctor re-tuned his sonic screwdriver and inflicted the 3rd & final wound needed to destroy the red Dalek [with the same "Pen Gun" gadget as he had used before].  One down, four to go.
• To cap this, the Doctor also persuaded the scientist that he didn't want to follow Davros after all...

So at this point, all four scientist objectives had been claimed by the Federation/heroic side - though the Daleks had set the plasmatron into irreversible meltdown.

Right, time to leave!  The Doctor and his new scientist ally ran from the enraged Davros, whilst the shuttle relocated to the centre of the table to pick up Captain Bellamy, his scientist and a stray redshirt.

The evil side wasn't going to take this lying down.  Only one grey Dalek was in range of the shuttle, but it hit the craft squarely and inflicted heavy damage [i.e. 2 of the shuttle's 3 damage points were gone].  However, if that was the worst they could do then it looked as if the heroes might escape after all...

...but the Daleks chose this moment to Steal the Scene and take a double turn.  All the Daleks that were at all close converged on the shuttle; it was rocked as bolt after bolt hit it.  The Federation side was all out of plot points and so there was nothing they could do except hold on and hope for the best.

Amazingly, the shuttle's armour [shields?] held.  It made every single saving throw needed and then flew off into the sunset with its precious cargo!

There goes my armed astronaut!

 The Daleks' fury was intense!  They spent the last turn or two shooting down anything that moved.

I spent my last four plot points trying to save this scientist!  Didn't work, though...

Another redshirt bites the dust.

I had spent all my remaining plot points trying to save the last fleeing scientist, forgetting that the Doctor was also threatened.  A single hit would knock him out easily, but this time the rolls went against the Daleks and the Doctor survived & escaped.

At this point, the Countdown Cards ran out and the game ended.  Whew!

Victory

At the end of the game, after the Daleks' last minute shooting spree, the Federation cast was axed.  The Doctor, Brook Aria and one scientist had escaped on foot, Captain Bellamy, a redshirt and a second scientist had escaped in the shuttle and another two redshirts were still on the table - but all the rest were dead.  +1VP to the Daleks for axing the opposition.

Against this, the Federation had possession of 2 objectives/scientists.  +2VP to the Federation.

Hmm, Davros set the plasmatron objective to overload: +1VP to the Daleks.

So far, that's a tie at 2VP each.  However, we need to add in the points for cast members killed.  Nothing for extras (for which the Federation were extremely grateful), but +3VP to the Federation for destroying an enemy co-star (the red Dalek).

The final tally:

• Evil side (Davros and the Daleks): 2VP
• Heroic side (the Doctor/Federation): 5VP

So, who'd have thought it?  The Federation won; even though virtually all their shots had no effect at all, the destruction of the red dalek was the key!

Conclusion

Well, that was a thrilling game and no mistake!  There were so many moments where it could have turned - Davros swapping places with the Doctor was a masterstroke, the Doctor seemed like a goner in the midst of his enemies but somehow survived, the Daleks were all but invincible, the shuttle's escape under fire was very cinematic...and so on.

Both players enjoyed the game tremendously.  A number of other attendees at the games club wandered by during the evening to try to figure out what was going (there were mutterings such as "there are Daleks - but that looks like Star Trek?!", though nobody actually asked).  From this, I anticipate that there's plenty of latent interest in 7TV - even if many of the club members don't yet realise it 😃.

We'll be back...

USS Matakishi: Away Team

Introduction

Many of my recent posts have been about "classic" Pulp miniatures: 1930s aircraft, archaeologists, Nazi agents and the like.  However, I've always had a hankering to do some space opera as well.  In this genre, Star Trek is probably my favoured setting (although Flash Gordon, Retro Raygun or similar has considerable appeal as well).

For quite some time, I've been quietly collecting miniatures that are suitable to represent a ship's crew or an away team.  My Klingons come from Space Vixens from Mars; it's not a huge range, but still very useful.  Other aliens are harder to come by, but I'll keep trying...

Of course, for a human-centric story, it is necessary to have Federation figures as well.  I'm aware of just a few current sources of these (excluding legacy stuff from FASA and the not-yet-released Star Trek Adventures game from Modiphius):

• Victory Force Miniatures has a large range of "Spacefarers".  I have a number of these still in their original packaging.  One day, I'll get round to painting them...
• Matakishi's Tea House has a small collection of what are essentially 25mm crew figures, but with a more recent 28mm Captain/Admiral sculpt.
• There are small numbers of pre-painted, "Heroclix" crewmen available.  Board games such as Star Trek Expeditions include these, though I understand they can be obtained separately as well.

I just finished painting up my Matakishi models, so here they are.

Science

To represent the science division, we have Lieutenant Gupta and Doctor Forester.  The former is using a tricorder to look up something, whilst the latter is talking urgently into his communicator whilst wielding a phaser.  Evidently his Hippocratic Oath doesn't prevent him from at least threatening to use force on someone or something!

Command

In the second picture are Captain Hunter and his faithful assistant, Yeoman Brookings.  The captain clearly has his arms open in the universal gesture of welcome.  He hasn't put down either his communicator or his weapon, though - so he's not completely trusting ("We come in peace.  Shoot to kill"?).

Unusually, Hunter is an older gentleman with a grey beard and a bit of a protruding belly.  It's not obvious whether he is wearing a visor for medial reasons or whether he just has some funky sunglasses as a style thing...

The relatively-small yeoman is dressed in the traditional mini-skirt & thigh-length boots and has an appropriate regulation beehive hairdo.

Security

Not much point in giving these guys names, really.  Life expectancy for a security guard on an away mission is negligible...

Conclusion

The Matakishi miniatures are good figures, but somewhat dated and not really up to the standards of today's best sculptors.  But hey - all my models are just playing pieces, right?  They're perfectly acceptable as that, especially given the rarity of "not Star Trek" figures.

This is a small (but significant) start to my Star Trek collection.  In due course, I'll build and paint the Victory Force miniatures I own; that will give me the opportunity to add some alien crew members.  Not all Federation members are human, after all, so I can play with lumps and bumps on the heads as well as different skin & hair colours.

But there's still the problem of where to find suitable enemies...

Jedi Starfighter: Revell easykit

Introduction

Let me tell you about an impulse purchase that I made this week.  I found a trader on eBay that was disposing of large numbers of the same old kit.  I can speculate that these may have come from a distributor that has gone bust or a shop that is selling off excess stock.  However, that's just a guess; I don't really know how these models came on to the market.

Anyway, I bought a couple of the Jedi Starfighter kits at £3.75 each (including postage!).  Now the problem I have is what to do with them!

Options

Actually, I have seen this kit before and therefore I know that it makes a very nice, small sci-fi flyer which is pretty much perfectly scaled for 28mm gaming figures.  I know this because my younger son went through an intense Star Wars phase some years ago and built pretty much all of the relevant "easykit pocket" kits from Revell.  They're not to a constant scale (nothing like!), but all of the models in the range are about the same finished size, somewhere around 10-15cm long.

So, I've borrowed my son's rather dilapidated Jedi Starfighter and posed various figures alongside it to try to inspire a colour scheme and back story.

Spectrum "Angel Interceptor"

My first idea is that I could paint the 2 new starfighters white and give them Spectrum (Captain Scarlet) markings.  They would then make good alternatives for the iconic Angel Interceptor craft and I could use them in games of 7TV or the like.

I'd prefer a "real" Angel Interceptor, but I'm pretty sure that nobody makes a model that is even close to 28mm (though there is a paper model available somewhere on the Internet, I think).  Mind you, even if such a model could be found, it would probably be quite large for a games table!

If any purists gag at the idea of calling this an Angel Interceptor then I could call it something else.  After all, Spectrum had quite a range of aircraft in their fleet; this could easily be some previously-unseen jet.  Perhaps it's an "Angel Scout" or something like that?

Viridian Flitter

Alternatively, I could give the models a green/gray splinter camouflage to blend in with my sci-fi Viridian army (or paint them cream/black for my Syntha faction instead).  If I did that then they would be some type of reconnaissance or light ground-attack craft.  Sadly, I cannot see that they'd ever be used in a game since I don't really use any of my VOID armies and cannot see this changing in the future.  Still, they'd be nice to collect.

Star Trek mini-Shuttle

My final idea is that the starfighters could be painted up pale grey (for Federation) or dark grey, green or blue (for Klingons) and used as single-crew shuttles or fighters.  This doesn't completely fit in with the Star Trek universe; such tiny craft don't appear very much in the canonical version(s).  However, there are enough occurrences in spin-off works to justify pretty much anything.  In any case, it's my universe and I can do what I like, so there!

Conclusion

Have you ever bought something without having a need for it, either immediately or in the future?  Just because you liked it and thought that it might come in handy some time?  I'm pretty sure that most people do this at least occasionally!

I don't really know what to do with these kits.  I could even paint them up as non-airworthy sci-fi objectives, perhaps  being maintained and with inspection panels open.  Alternatively there must be many other ways that I could integrate them with one of my existing collections of figures.  I suppose that I could even start collecting 28mm Star Wars figures to go with the starfighters - but that'll not happen; it's a crazy idea!  Ah, what shall I do?

"Not Star Trek" Tholian Fleet

Introduction

Tholians are a strange race in Star Trek.  For one think, they aren't represented as humans with a few extra ridges or bumps, but are instead have an extremely alien, crystalline appearance!  As a very minor race, they were limited to just a single episode of the original series of Star Trek.  I believe that a little more official source material is available in the other Star Trek series Deep Space 9 and Enterprise.

Militarily, the Tholians are known for 2 things:

1. They are extremely territorial and xenophobic; Tholians will show great hostility towards anyone who intrudes into any area to which they lay claim.
2. Tholian vessels can spin an "energy web" which is completely impassable to other spaceships.  However it takes them a long time to do this, suggesting that it is primarily a defensive weapon [it's difficult to persuade an enemy ship to stay still for long enough to be encased in web!].

My "not-Tholian" fleet: 1 battleship, 2 large cruisers and 4 small patrol craft

The Tholian Web in Full Thrust

For the most part, Tholian ships aren't very difficult to design.  I've drawn a lot of my inspiration from Star Fleet Battles (SFB), where they have good shielding, high-quality phasers and not a lot of anti-fighter or missile defences.  Most of their ships are rather small patrol craft, though they do have a few bigger craft.  Oh, they also have web generators...

For most of my other "not Star Trek" conversions, the appropriate weapons or other ship systems already existed in the original Full Thrust rules.  Sometimes someone else had already proposed suitable rules for a non-standard weapon, such as the Disruptor.  However, I've never come across a Full Thrust conversion for the Tholian Web.  So, here goes, then...

1. Web Generator System: Mass: 1, Cost: 3.  This is fairly cheap, but since it has such a specialised use I don't think that's too unfair.
2. Construction of webs: You can't!
   I'm not going to propose any rules on how the web may be built during a game.  Judging by the relevant sections of the enormous Star Fleet Battles rulebook, this is far more complex than all other aspects of the Tholian web put together.  Unless in exceptional circumstances, I don't think many scenarios will see a web being built, so I'm just going to duck the issue completely.  In all of my games, any webs will already be in place.
3. Shape of Web: For scenario purposes, I imagine that web will either be laid in a circle of no more than about 8" in diameter, or else in straight segments of 12" or less between anchor points.  An anchor point may be a Tholian ship or an asteroid or small moon, but not a planet (any atmosphere, however tenuous, interferes with the energy web).
4. Maintenance of webs: The web vanishes at the start of any turn when there isn't a Tholian ship with an active web generator system within 1" of it.
   In SFB, much of the complexity of the Tholian web revolves around the strength of the web, as judged by the number of energy points assigned to it from adjacent ships versus the "natural" rate of loss.  I don't want such book-keeping in my games of Full Thrust, so I'm only going to have 2 states for my Tholian Web: either it's at full strength or it has lost so much power that it has no effect any more (i.e. it dissipates).
5. Movement through web: A non-Tholian ship, fighter or other craft which enters a web will halt in place immediately.  From then on (as long as the web persists), the ship is caught and may not use thrust to change speed, though it may use it to change heading.  Tholian ships are exempt from this; they may move through web as if it wasn't there.
   I did consider either assigning damage to a ship with a lot of speed when it hit the web (the "brick wall" effect) and/or allowing a sufficiently-powerful ship to break through a web.  In both cases, I found it difficult to frame any rules that modelled a decent effect.  It's simpler just to assume that the web "sucks the momentum" from any moving object.
6. Combat: All beam weapons that fire through a web are penalised by counting the target as having 1 extra level of screens for every 2" (or part thereof) of web through which the line of fire passes.  Beyond Level-2 screens (the highest in the Full Thrust rulebook), extra "levels" reduce the chance of damage by 50% each, so Level-3 would need a '6' for 1 point of damage, Level-4 would require a '6' followed by '4', '5' or '6' and so on.
   Non-beam weapons, including missiles and bolts of all types, may not be fired through web.  The effect of area effect weapons doesn't pass through web.
   Note that the Tholian weapons are no more effective at shooting through the web than anyone else's.  However, their ships are designed with a high proportion of beam weapons, so little of their fire power will be blocked.

The Ships

My "not Tholian" ships are from Magister Militum, from the old, small Chariot Miniatures range of spaceships.  More specifically, they're vessels from the Trios faction.  When I bought my miniatures, the web store showed 3 different classes of spaceship as available, but I can only see 2 through the link given in the previous sentence.  The "patrol craft" doesn't appear to have the "Trios" label, but can be found by searching the site for "TA1".

Note that if anyone is interested, I have placed a copy of my source file for the following SSDs ==>here<==.  It's in OpenOffice Draw (.odg) format.

Keep watching this blog for a battle report involving these ships.  In a few days, I'll be posting the results of a tussle between Orion pirates and Tholian border guards over ownership of a lost freighter!

Magister Militum Designation	Picture	Full Thrust SSD
TA1 Patrol Craft
TA2 Battleship
TA3 Dreadnought

The Workbench, January 2014

Introduction

It's that time of year again when I hope to do a lot of painting during the holiday season.  However, as usual, a combination of family duties and sickness has prevented much progress.  For comparison, this is the state of things one year ago: http://colgar6.blogspot.com/2012/12/the-workbench-december-2012.html.  One of these years I will get stuff done over the Christmas and New Year holidays!

So instead of showing you all my output for 2 weeks of effort, here's a record of my untidy workbench...

The Bench

Let's start the tour at the left hand side.  Here we have one of my Christmas presents: a box of figures destined for SAGA.  Most of them are monks, some of whom are armed.  These will form an angry mob, probably for my Scots warband (since they're angry at the Vikings, they cannot be part of that force).  There are also another bard and a mounted Scots warlord in the box.

Further back, but still on the left, is my Barbarian army for Hordes of the Things.  This was last year's Christmas present and I have actually completed 3 bases of it.  Only another 9 or so to go...

Next to that, there is a pile of boxes.  The top box contains a mixture of figures that are waiting to be sealed.  I managed to run out of varnish a day or two into the holiday season, just as all the small hobby retailers shut up shop for 2 weeks!  Still, as soon as the ordered materials arrive, it will only take a few moments to finish off these models.

The next box down in the stack contains another Christmas present.  This is a small squadron of starships that I will use as Tholians in my "not Trek" games.  Tholians were a very minor race in the Star Trek universe, most notable for their unique energy web technology.  I'll need to come up with some appropriate Full Thrust rules for the Tholian Web...

To the front of my painting station is a plank bridge.  My apologies for the quality of the photograph; this didn't come out well and I haven't the energy to re-take it.  The bridge is my first attempt at using coffee stirrers as building materials; I think it'll be quite effective when finished.

The rest of the painting station is the normal jumble of figures in various stages of construction:

• There are a few Dark Age warriors (part of my nascent Anglo Dane SAGA warband) to the front left.
• Several buff-coated cavalrymen and their horses are visible; these will add to my force of Witch Hunters.
• A couple of Dreadball teams are in the clear trays in the centre.
• Most of the other figures are assorted Old West gunslingers & civilians and modern zombies & survivors.

Finally, my West Wind bikers can be seen at the rear right, where they have languished since last year's workbench posting.  Oh, well - maybe I'll finish them this year!