Stargrave - Starship Troopers

Nothing beats face to face gaming and idle gaming chat, before you know it a new project is underway....

It's been quite a while since the Starship Troopers stuff has been on the table and with the launch of Stargrave a few weeks ago, an opportunity to bring them back to the table with a new set of rules and some fun encounters. We had some really good games over the years with the Atlantean's and the Ghost Archipelago rules so it should be quite easy to pick up these rules and create a number of rival ships crews. 

First up the crew of the Missile Ship - William E Barber.

Decommissioned after the first battle of Klendathu. Capt Leafy was wrongly accused of cowardice and now along with her crew is a gun for hire on the Terran Government's most wanted list. 

I was a little light on the ships crew so a swift order to Denizen and a quick paint job and the crew is up to a full compliment of 10 including Blotz the ships robot dog.

On first pass Stargrave looks to follow the style and formula of Frost Grave and Ghost Archipelago, easy to learn and rewarding if you get your tactics right...

The set up of scenario's will be familiar to those who have played the other versions, albeit with a couple of subtle changes, loot token have to be placed in the opponents half of the table, the wandering monsters are bolstered by pirate gangs who get more numerous if you don't get a move on.... 

Lot's to ponder as we prep for the first game.

In the opening encounter Capt Leafy runs up against a band of Skinnies in a trade gone bad. The Skinnies are one of the many nations or tribes which spread out into many worlds during the Age of Hegemony.

The setting a dusty mining planet inside the Arachnid Quarantine Zone, the Federation military vessels don't cross into the region which has created a haven for smugglers, Independent 'wildcat' colonies such as the Mormon extremists create a tense atmosphere of shoot first and ask questions later. 

Throw in the Bug activity which is increasing across the region and you have quite the mix.

Would you like to know more? ............

Pharaoh's gate..... Battlefield in a Box Review.

A slow week, on the painting front, I am still staring at the same 16 Hittites from 2 weeks ago.... I put it down to yet another lockdown and that lack of in person gaming. Keen to ensure I move forward gradually I figured I would give this a bit of make over, an unexpected Christmas gift and one of the latest offering from Battlefield in a Box - Forgotten City Range.

Gamers can be picky about ready made and painted terrain but having spent hours hunched over a table painting miniature warriors who then has the patience to then create the terrain as well? Hence in recent years the rise of straight to table terrain pieces... 

The forgotten city range is loosely based on Egyptian/Babylonian/Assyrian style. The gate has some clean angles which feels largely historical. The walls have a grainy and sand blasted feel to them, which feels in keeping with the period.

The gate is a good size  coming in at 145mm height by 240mm in diameter which feels right for a large scale centre piece and it won't budge once put on the table.

I can see it being used in some forthcoming scenario's for Kings of Bronze or perhaps some of the Atlantis type games should they resurface in the future.

The colouring was not at sandy as on the box cover more grey to my eye, so won't be a perfect mix with my existing terrain and I needed to dry brush the base to fit with my other basing.

I am not sure about the skulls adorning the top of the model and would have perhaps preferred warrior sculpts. Still I suppose it will fit with the Ghost Archipelago games.

On the downside it's weight with two solid resin columns is almost to have for the base, so much so that the base of mine had fractured and cracked across the width of the model, this looks like it is caused by the to columns leaning out and putting stress on the base. It was solved by cementing the roof piece in place to reinforce the base.  I would have perhaps explored hollow columns to reduce the weight?

The edge of the piece is a little fragile and elements could start to chip away over time with numerous game play. 

I disguised the fracture with the occasion tuft, good job that was a style of base I was aiming for.  

An imposing terrain piece you can see with the 25mm Warlord figures on the roof.

Coming in at £25 it's not cheap but will give you a number of gaming choices across a number of periods although you may find yourself rebasing it long term.

How back to the brushes and these flaming Hittites.

Dispatches from the front VI

Lock down continues however reading through the various blogs it feels like gamers are finding some great ways of entertaining themselves as days turns to weeks. 

We have a houseful here it's great to have everyone home back from university and schools but I am grateful for the refuge of the garage/office/man cave as three teenage daughters does not make for a peaceful house.
With limited external distractions no one seems to mind the added paint time I have been motoring through the various projects, selling off spares and bringing to the paint table half finished projects. 

Not sure why I have the sudden urge to re-read and game Robinson Crusoe... :-)

The down side of being in doors is the urge to purchase new it's. I have a major project looming in the summer but right now a couple of small purchases to bolster or complete the ranks, with reinforcements rushed in from Warlord, PeterPig, Midlam & Foundry.

A good job as it sounds like a number of businesses are being forced to mothball, I do hope these minor purchases help with cashflow and allow us to see them all come back in the future.

It been great to reacquaint myself with Platoon Forward! and get the WW2 stuff on the table, I was surprised at how well it played. There were enough mechanisms to create uncertainty and stop you cheating yourself and that prized unit or character you spend ages rolling up.

Osprey have been doing some great offers of late and the free PDF's are a great way of keeping people interested, the latest offer of Frostgrave and the solo campaign of Dark Alchemy might mean an outing for Ghost Archipelago in the weeks ahead.

Several of us at the club have kicked off a Diplomacy campaign using pbem.

This was on my wargames bucket list for years, it will be interesting so see how it plays out with a full compliment of 7 players... Having drawn Turkey you can expect to face the some skulduggery from the main Western Powers....
The first move has already thrown up some interesting conversations over e-mail.

After a number of extra's painted up for Fantasy March - What of April?

Keeping with my theme of a painting a different project each month, this month I am shrinking in scale and will be looking to make progress on the Red Dragon Project and some extra's for the WW2 Germans and Russians as the recent solo campaign highlighted some gaps in my forces and another batch of unpainted stuff like these below.

Welcome to small scale April....

Stay in doors all.

Antediluvian Miniatures - Kickstarter - Conquerors of Mictlan - Painted (Finally)

Time to catch up on some of the outliers. Last September I picked up the Antediluvian Miniatures - Kickstarter - Conquerors of Mictlan Range. Well a year later they finally made it off the paint table.... Shameful.

These will be perfect for the Ghost Archipelago or the Elizabethan Zombie War Projects, as always with Antediluvian some great sculpts and really rich in character.

Spanish Officer types, the chap on the left with his two handed broadsword has a full face mask, whilst the second character even comes with his own monkey.

More Spanish men-at-arms lets see how the rapier fares against the wandering dead......

Born adventurers, it must be over 20 years since I last painted a dwarf but these guys should come in handy in the campaigns ahead.

The scholars and the young prince. Already thinking about the scenario's for these characters.

I was pretty impressed with Warlords of Erehwon Warlords fantasy rules when we first gave them a run out. With plenty of scope for some of the odd ideas I had for the Elizabethan games.
I think these figures might just push me over the edge to make the purchase.

Ghost Archipelago - #7 The Gateway.

According to locals the Chappata live in a mountain city high where the only why in is through a large gate in the bottom of the mountain, all the parties have to do is push open the gate and enter the city, where a bounty of treasure awaits.

The Chappata are peaceful people and not known for their warrior skills so they should be easy to push aside.

The winner in today's outing is the first player to push open the gate.

The Gateway is defended by three warriors of the Chappata people, however a further warrior will join the defenders for every 18 rolled on the initiative table. They won't engage the parties until anyone gets within 10" of the gate or they are fired upon.

Littered along the road to the temple is various piles of treasure, the players will gain rewards for collecting them, but this is a race to the gate..... Remember guys a race.....

Turn one and it would appear blood feuds run deep, as the freebooters open fire on the Atlantians who are sandwiched on the main highway between to the two opposing forces.

Whilst the Marines look to skirt the fighting the Guardians blaze away at anyone in sight.

Heritor Rasco is taken out of the fight by a blunderbuss blast from the nasty pirates... this brings a lull in the fighting with both sides content that a small amount of recompense had been done.

A few turns tick by and the Marines and the Pirates make it to within sight of the gateway, the native numbers had been growing slightly but they continue to observe the invaders. The Freebooters make a break for one of the piles of gold, only for the Marines to break from cover and let loose a volley.

Captain Masters let's his releases his war hound who tears into the burly pirate, his large axe is no match for gnashing teeth,

Meanwhile at the gate the native numbers continue to swell.

Having regrouped the Atlantians now led by Atmir move up the road, the Warden throwing up clouds of mist to cover their advance.

The Marines having triggered the Chappata fall back into the hinterland in the hope that they will take out the other gangs leaving the way clear for them to reach the gate.

Atmir takes the opportunity to grab a a pile of treasure before another bloody exchange between them and the Marines.

The clock ran down and all players agreed to fall back each party having lost a number of comrades, with their numbers reduced and the natives growing numbers. They would have to try another day to breach the gate,

Another fun outing but perhaps next time we all should save our powder for the natives.....

Saturday Evening Round up.

Well so much for no new projects - Thanks Karl @Crooked Dice.

Being of a certain age, who could not be tempted by the latest release from Crooked Dice, I have no idea how these not "V" figures will fit in with any of the other projects, but that's half the fun.

Having raided the understair cupboard for the original mini series box set, I also picked up a bunch of novels for under £2.00 each. I minor distraction from the current projects honest :-)

I figured with so few colours if you on the average Shock Troopers I could get them finished over the weekend. The only challenge is to go for Red or Dark Orange as both seem to be in use in the TV show.

I got them undercoated and ready for painting tomorrow, it will be a welcome break from Haitian Infantry.

Meanwhile I finally got around to painting the doors and windows on the Spanish Church. It does look far better. I have an order coming from Tablescape in the days ahead to build my Haitian Village and the doors and windows will definately need an upgrade.

Meanwhile lead mountain got a little larger with the arrival of Antediluvian Miniatures Kickstarter, I am a big fan of their sculpts and they will fit in with some of the future Ghost Archipelago games.

Right back to the brushes....

Ghost Archipelago - #6 All creatures great and small.

Yet another outing in the Ghost Archipelago.

It was an opportunity to give the new swamp mat from Deep Cut Studio a try. It looks pretty good to give that murky swampy feel, although I still have reservations when it comes to representing hills etc.

The objective was a simple one, race to the tower, avoid the dinosaurs, run up the stairs, kill king kong and escape the table.

The Pirates had clearly not forgotten the accidental shooting in the previous game and came rushing for my Atlantians. OK I may have accidently shot one of them again but I did not expect them to all coming charging after me.

They were seriously cross with my peace loving Atlantians, throwing grenades and bad language at me for the whole game.

Meanwhile the Marines unhindered by the blood feud defeated the local wild life and marched off with the treasure. Even sending their trusty warhound to run off with a bone (attached to a zombie.)

Everytime that flaming monkey beat his chest another member of the local wildlife appeared to nibble at the various crews, not helped by the Marines new addition who had acquired the ability to summon animals which he took great pleasure in showing off his party trick.

I swear everyone was trying to make me open every box in the garage looking for weird ceatures and oddities for us to fight. Witches, Dinosaurs, Wasps and Crabs graced the table.

Most of the time they appearing just as players were limping off the table or were carrying handfuls of treasure.

As the Marines watched from the side lines with their fistfuls of gold and gems, the curse of newly painted figures struck again and my Heritor was taken out by the Pirates. The Atlantians without a leader but protected by a damp mist were beaten and took their treasure and ran.

Another fun evening...
Next up the start of the Lost Colossus Campaign, Snakemen and more Dinosaurs, I best start looking in various boxes now. I know I have something like a Snakeman somewhere.