Stump 28

 Hi!

We've returned from our hols down in Shropshire and I'm feeling rather inspired to crack on with a bit of a project related to my last post.

I've been trying to get some sketching done and have begun putting together some of the vague concepts I've got floating around in my head that I want to try and develop out a bit.

The world of Stump was once a planet spanning forest, each tree unimaginably vast but this verdant wonder is no more. At some point in the immeasurable past, the forest was felled and all that remains are stumps surrounded by scrubby vegetation, endless bramble thickets and rot.

This decaying landscape is not barren of life however. Humans and numerous other beings inhabit the wastes and somehow manage to thrive despite the bleakness of their surroundings. Nobody is quite sure how humans got there, some say they've always inhabited Stump, others believe the Fae had a hand in it as some obscure punishment to humanity for what they did to their original homeworld.

Whatever the reason, humans now call Stump home and do what humans do best, fight, squabble and try to kill each other. As such each stump settlement is a tiny fiefdom of its own with their own cultures and unique societies. 

 

While most of the populations of the stumps remain safely within its massive, decaying wooden interior, much like termites, digging down into the roots of their home to mine iron, copper and tin, each stump has more adventurous denizens who venture forth from the relative safety of their home to explore the dangerous gloom of the forest floor.

Down in the undergrowth, untold dangers stalk, scurry, creep and flit amongst the great roots and tangled ferns but for the bold, treasures can be found as the stumps need guards to patrol the narrow trackways between settlements from Wildling raids or Fae marauders and there's also the ruins of lost civilisations to be explored too.

Coupled with unnaturally large insects, rival Stump settlements, the ghosts of the past, the life of adventurers is often brutal and short but for those who survive, they gain the right to go forth and settle a new Stump.

The Stumps vary in size from tiny homesteads that are occupied by a single family or group of adventurers up to mightier towns and cities that may hold thousands of citizens. Each Stump has a unique culture but for their collective safety many will band together into loose confederations and alliances of those in the vicinity (when they're not fighting amongst themselves). 

Thus far, I've put a few initial thoughts together about the setting alongside the doodles and assorted photos to help set the scene and have sketched out a few potential forces to get me going using a variety of plastic historical and fantasy ranges.

I'd considered doing 15mm but I think I'm going to stick with the small skirmish style of Brutalquest but using cheap plastics as they're actually cheaper than the other options which is so strange but it will allow me to keep converting and kitbashing stuff and I'm planning on sculpting the odd figure here or there to add variety!

We shall see how I get on but I've really enjoyed pootling around with the setting and will be continuing fleshing it out over the coming months as its a rather interesting process and I want to keep the creativity going!

I suspect it will be a very slow burn sort of a deal because I'm always busy but the opportunity to keep plugging away at this be it a RPG or with a rpg and who knows where it will go but in the meantime, All the best!

Star Mogul Project Part 2: Background

 Hi!

As part of my Star Mogul project, I've decided to get the ball rolling with a quick look at the background to the setting so without further ado, let's take a peek at what we've got!

In 2227 the Tread Lightly Corp launched the Tachyon drive which allowed FTL travel and humanity began spreading across the stars. 

At this point, there were already working colonies on several of Jupiter's moons, Mercury, the Asteroid belt and Earth's Moon. Terraforming and settlement of Mars was already underway but the Tachyon drive's creation allowed for exploration of new worlds far from Earth. Initially it was the Earth's great powers who launched expeditions using the Tachyon drive to establish colonies on newly discovered worlds and exploit their natural resources but the blueprints for the drive were stolen and soon smaller groups were launching their own colonising efforts. These smaller expeditions sought to establish new and free societies, far from the overcrowded and tightly controlled Earth.

This time period became known as the Young Exodus as many of the colonists who enlisted were chosen for their youth and vigour. The call of the colonies lured many out into space to an uncertain future but many saw the benefits over a crowded and stifling life on Earth. 

The colonies were initiated, some over 100 light years from Earth but soon several began reporting discovering the ruins of an alien civilisation and further research and excavations revealed the ruins to be over 400,000 years old. These discoveries resulted in a fresh wave of exploration further into unexplored space as many sought to delve further into the mysteries of this lost alien society and the Great Expedition phase began with a new gold rush as prospectors rushed to the new frontiers in search of lost alien tech and the mysteries of the Mimjip civilisation.

By 2340 humanity appeared to be forging an empire amongst the stars. Earth had begun to regulate its population and biosphere thanks to the resources that poured in from its offworld colonies and recovered alien tech.

Things weren't all rosey though as many colonists began to resent the amount of resources and money they were being required to send back to Earth, despite a lack of political freedom or representation they had been promised. 

Soon several established colonies declared their independence from Earth but this wasn't too much of a concern to the Earth government as trade continued to flow and the sheer distances involved meant a military response wasn't feasible.

Then the discovery of the ‘Forge’ at Alpha Centauri occurred and relations broke down rapidly. The ‘Alpha Forge’, as it became known, was an orbiting starship construction platform the Mimjipani race had left behind. Its technology relied upon the gathering of rare elements from the local asteroid belt which were then shaped and tempered slowly into a near indestructible starship hull deep in the fires of Alpha Centauri itself. 

It was the outer colonists that discovered the forge and worked out its operating procedure, but the obvious military implications of the new starship hulls became apparent quickly to Earth and the governing bodies of the home system. Using heavyweight diplomatic and economic muscle, the council of Earth attempted to obtain possession of the forge for itself. 

The whole situation deteriorated badly not long thereafter when earth’s council declared all members of the newly formed ‘Federal Union’ on the Outer Rim in violation of their legal obligations and sent in a cohort of storm troopers to obtain the Forge by force. The assault was repelled, just barely, by the efforts of a lieutenant engineer Thomas Redcloud (awarded the ‘Gold Aurora’), who fixed the entire docking area to self destruct, catching the storm trooper reinforcement party off guard and allowing the defenders to consolidate their defences in time.

After this, the Frontier Union organised the Alpha Forge with heavy artillery in case Earth tried to take this valuable artefact by storm again. There was no declaration of war – the Frontier Union had no army. So they had no choice but to organise one in response to the actions of Earth, and also, the growing number of slave raids by the Hydrissian ‘devourer’ cult on the fringes of known space that began in 2442.  The Federal Defence Force (FDF) was organised and ties with the home system became much more restricted as the colonies strove for self sufficiency.

Around this time, shortly after the century turned to the 2400’s, a new threat loomed on the horizon.
The discovery of the ‘Mimjip Pathogen’ reared its ugly head, though too late for many on the frontier. Somewhere among the exploration and exploitation of the ancient Mimjip ruins a deadly virus had been released. 

The virus had lain dormant for many thousands of years, and was probably thought of as an innocuous infection by the ancient Mimjipani race. The accidental release of this virus had devastating consequences on humanity as it lay semi-dormant for several decades before it was discovered and made itself felt. By this time it had spread throughout the colonies and throughout the home systems. The resulting pandemic killed many millions, and has brought mankind’s fledgling empire among the stars to its knees.

Entire space colonies have now lain deserted for decades and much that was built has now been laid to waste. Finally, in more recent years, the Mimjip pathogen seems to have played itself out, and cases are becoming much rarer. Perhaps only those who are naturally able to fight the virus have survived. Nevertheless, the road is now open for those who are brave enough, or perhaps foolish enough, to begin the process of rebuilding what was lost.

This is where the game takes place with small groups of salvage experts exploring lost colonies for tech and fighting over the ruins of a once great empire. It is a lawless place but fortune favours the bold and money is to be made amongst the stars.

I'm hoping to take a look at what is required to play in the next instalment but I'm still humming and hahing about what miniatures to use. Do I go 28mm, 15mm or sculpt my own? Each option has it's pluses and negatives so I'll need to get my thinking hat on and figure out just what I want to do before I get the that point but I have plenty of other stuff that I can be getting on with, including putting together a bit of a campaign map showcasing the region that the action will be happing so watch this space!

In the meantime, All the best!

40k 15mm Style: Orks Part 1

Hi!

I thought I'd spend a little bit of time pondering on playing games set in my re-imagined Imperium in 15mm scale and thought I'd get the ball rolling with the Orks!

Now in my version of the Imperium, Humanity has moved from a scientific dark age into something a bit more like a renaissance where the Imperium once more ventures out into the stars and human life is no longer short brutish and bloody with pretty much everyone being doomed.

My current Ork warband is pretty small and I will be using the next few updates to post some details on my plans for them...

The Orks are still a rather brutal and warlike culture but the long arm of the Imperial Code has encouraged several clans to settle relatively peacefully in Imperial space. Saying that, the Orks are by nature a warlike culture and the Imperium has sought to channel their more violent tendencies into something practical, namely unleashing them on their enemies.

The most integrated of the Ork clans are unsurprisingly the Blood Axes who settled en-mass in the Imperial frontier sectors and regularly supply enthusiastic regiments of warriors to the Imperial warmachine as it gives them the chance to have a good ruck with some dead snazzy dakka! (forgive the Orkish!) and the Imperials tend to send them to the bloodiest of warzones for some reason resulting in the survivors being dead hard and bedecked in medals (not to mention scars, bionic replacements and many, many war stories to tell yoofs!)

Others such as the Deathskulls and Badmoons will join Imperial forces if the money's good but are also prone to raiding their sometime allies when bored or in search of loot. The more traditionally minded Goffs and Snakebites tend to be more antagonistic to the Humies as they feel they are watering down Ork Kulture. The Evil Sunz agree to some extent but the temptation of laying grubby hands on Imperial tech is often their deciding factor.

In the Farpoint sector, the largest Orkish Klan is the Badmoons under the command of Orko Fatbelly, a scoundrel of an Ork who has risen to power due to his low cunning and vast wealth. He's thus far managed to keep the Imperium from unleashing a full scale attack on his holdings by bribing the previous Governor and supplying troops when paid to ward off attacks from rebel forces. 

As his name suggests, Orko is a massively fat Ork, something he is inordinately proud of and he tends to spend most of his time lounging around eating vast meals with his equally chubby Nob retinue but when angered can be a terrifying opponent. 

His warband is armed with the best gunz and equipment his Mekboyz can provide and also has quite a decent amount of looted tech to give him an edge in combat and the new Governor General is becoming rather alarmed at his sway in Imperial space, a matter not helped by the Governors own lander being recently shot up by some of Orko's boyz.

I had hoped to put together a quick guide to my reworked Song of Blades but have currently got a games table covered in books as we got a couple of new and larger bookshelves to store our terrifying book mountain so I'll be using the downtime to put together some of my thoughts on the reimagined Imperium instead.

Hopefully I'll have a couple of updates in the next few days covering all manner of Orkyness as well as looking at what miniatures are on the market at the moment for the 40k gamer in a smaller scale!

In the meantime, All the best!

A Return to the Farpoint Sector

Hi!

Well it's been quite some time since I've had chance to do much of anything hobby related, mostly because of real life tedium like work which has sadly intruded more than I'd like to admit over the last three months.

Still, I figured I'd best get back to work on some hobby related gubbins soon to try and get my mojo back and with that in mind, I thought I'd crack on and see if I can summon up a bit of enthusiasm for my alternative Imperium setting.

Looking at my previous ramblings, I possibly went a bit scattergun in my approach to Farpoint, trying to paint up stuff in 6mm, 15mm and 28mm scale and giving myself almost endless factions to try and flesh out and paint.

I've got the vague idea of putting together a rather cramped and jumbled frontier city teeming with lowlifes and ne'er do wells and random xenos races. Farpoint is a melting pot as dozens of races and cultures from both sides of the border coming to trade, strike dodgy deals and all manner of shady goings on.

Whilst Farpoint is the administrative centre of the sector, it's previous Governor was renowned for his corruption and it's up to his replacement to bring back law and order to the wild frontier!

With that in mind, I want to take the time to actually build a few small skirmish forces and starting with the Governor General's personal retinue. The man himself will need representing along with his security team and assorted hangers on. I've already got some bits and pieces put aside and will be doing a little bit of converting before getting bits and bobs painted up.

I also want to put together some suitably grotty buildings to represent some of the mean streets for my forces to battle over so I will be rummaging out some boxy shapes to work on. Hopefully my burst of creativity will keep me entertained into the new year so watch this space!

All the best!