Colonists

In preparation for what will hopefully be this summers campaign I have painted 4 Ground Zero Games (GZG) miniature colonists. Having found myself constantly refering to the miniatures as having a nice finish and good detail, I don't know what else to say because that's what they are. I tried to paint them in earth colours to make them look more like colonists living in farmlands rather than in a larger settlement.

The minis were painted with my standard 15mm miniature painting technique: 1) a basecoat of a foundation paint, 2) a appropriate wash to create a shadow, 3) a lighter colour drybrushed as a highlight and 4) a gloss varnish and matt varnish to protect the miniature. I usually paint with GW paints, but has recently bought some Vallejo Game colours. I rather like the bottles, which will make mixing a lot easier.

The plans for the summer is to run a narrative campaign in the Tuffleverse using the Flying Lead rules. I only have to finish my Kra'vak strikeforce. I've got a new P3 red ink to try out, I'm contemplating whether to use that instead of the red wash on the Kra'vak armour. I wonder if the colonists can hold their own against the aliens.

WW1 Austro-Hungarians and Germans

It's been a while since the last post. I havn't done much painting, but a few miniatures are finished since last. I have focused on painting up two squads of WW1 soldiers. My favourites, Austro-Hungarians, and some Germans too. The Peter Pig miniatures are really well produced with great detail and different poses. I ordered these and some Belgians a while back and I am very pleased with the miniatures. But it makes me angry to read on Peter Pig's website that their miniatures have been counterfeited. It is sad that a small industry and hobby has to put up with this. If someone made their own copies of miniatures from the large corporation that take outragous prices I couldn't care less. But in this case it is a small company that has some very good prices and that give you good value for your money. It's sad and just plain wrong.

When I read about it I decided to paint my Austro-Hungarians and Germans to show just how good their miniatures are. The Austro-Hungarians are painted with an Astronomican grey basecoat, followed by my traditional wash, this time Asurman blue, and then drybrushed with Space Wolf Grey. I like the pose of the Austro-Hungarian Officer as well as his mustasch, which I find to look very much like Emperor Franz Josephs.

I can't remember whether or not i basecoated the Germans in Adeptus Battlegrey of Astronomican grey, but I think it was Battlegrey. They were then washed with Badab black and given a Codex grey drybrush to finish them off. All the minis have been given a gloss varnish coat and waiting for their matt varnish when i photographed them.

487th Raums Stosstruppen in Power Armour

Finished painting and basing these a while ago. They have a double coat of Asurman blue wash on to the bare metal. Got the idea from Dropship Horizon and the post about HALO Spartans. The 487th are blue instead of green, and they are a part of the Neu Swabian League (NSL). The 487th is an elite planetary assualt force, often spearheading assaults. They have been given the honorary name 'Kaiser Franz Joseph', after the 19th-centry Kaiser of Austria.

I am pleased with how they turned out. Painted a whole platoon of NSL infantry to go with them, in the same colour scheme. I'll put them on the blog when I have based them. The unit will be supported by the NSL Jaegers.

I'm a Hero...apparently

Found this through Kobolds blog. It is a rather fun test. I found out that I am a Hero and a d8 :-) A fun coincidence is that I once tried to create a set of wargamingrules based on d8's, they were never finished. Can't remember where I put them.

According to Dicepool:

You are a d8: You are the true adventurer! Dragons rescued, princesses slayed, and all that business while O Fortuna plays in the background. Your social calender is crammed with heroic deeds, and you've personally saved the world from ultimate destruction at least twice. You are reliable, perhaps a bit predictable, but overall a shining example of what happens when courage meets determination.

Take the quiz at dicepool.com

Preparing for more Flying Lead

Have started to prepare for more gaming with the Flying Lead rules. Have made the squad roster using a handy little program called Comic Life. It is a program that you can create comics with. I am planning to use it to create fiction about the characters in the upcoming games. Comic Life might also be suitable to create after action reports in. The results of my trial run can be seen below, a short scene from Neu Habsburg and a roster for Survey Expedition Arctos.

Comic Life

Explorers, Space Pirates and Adventurers

Finished a bunch of mini's a while back. I am going to use them for different settings in a variety of rolls. The three minis up front can be used as explorers, space pirates and adventurers in almost any sci-fi or post-apocalyptic setting. However, I can only see the three in the back used in a post-apocalyptic setting. The six miniatures will be used as a Kasr Station Exploration Patrol for my Mutants and Death Ray Guns (MDRG) post-apocalyptic setting.

The second mini from the right is 'Mike' in my Tuffleverse setting. Mike is a freelance trader and adventurer with a knack for computers and technical stuff, luckily he also knows how to use his automatic rifle. The miniature is a GZG Ravager, a very nice sculpt. Unfortuneatly, the picture doesn't do the mini justice, but I will post a better one a little bit later on. I am specially pleased with the back of his coat. The coat was painted Calthan brown and given a heavy Badab black wash. In a Traveller setting he will be used as a space pirate/free trader.

Corporate Security Team

Attached to all Krupp, Skoda and Siemens (KSS) colonial installations are corporate security. Often these corporate security teams are made up of former military personnel, but just as often these teams consists of wash-outs or former shoppingmall security officer. The more remote the colony, the higher the risk of the security teams being of low quality. The corporate security team on Neu Habsburg consists of a mix of a few ex-military types, but most are newly recruited men and women seeking fortune on a newly colonised planet.

The corporate security team have been painted in Hormagaunt purpule and given a Leviathan purple wash, followed by a Hormagaunt purpled drybrush. I had to sculpt a cap on to the head of some in the security team, to get some variety from the GZG minis I have. Painting them was pretty easy, and the detail on the GZG miniatures was good. I must admit that I like GW's washes, as they are simple to use and they look very good when finished.

The team will be expanded upon and I am thinking of giving them one or two wheeled MAWP's with an autocannon or a plasma cannon. Although they are equipt with non-military personal weaponry, I imagine them having some high grad support weapon. The KSS can after all affored some good kit, at least to be used in case of emergency. The corporate security team will also be expanded and get some more members.

AAR - Clash of Patrols

X7-P23 a newly discovered habitable planet, that currently is contested between the Neu Swabian League (NSL) and Saeed Khalifate. The planet has one large continent that is largely covered in jungles and wastes around the equator. The north and south are covered with mountain and woodland regions. Both the NSL and Khalifates have landed forces in the northern parts of the continent. They are aware of each others forces and the situation is tense. Unknown to both sides, hostillities are about to break out when two small recon patrols clash close to some uncharted colonist hut.

So, it is time for the first after action report (AAR). Me and a friend have tried the Flying Lead rules. We also decided to just keep to the basic rules. Flying Lead has a turn system that makes the game flow between the opposing players miniatures randomly, depending on the number of action and Quality roll of the miniature. One turn ends when all minis on both sides have moved.The AAR was created using a really nice program called, Battle Chronicler.

Since it was our first game we kept it simple with 5 minis each, 4 regular troopers and 1 support assualt weapon gunner aside. All minis were equipt similarly with assualt rifles and body armor. The Jaegers were deployed in the upper right corner behind the wood and the Khalifates in the lower left corner behind the wood.

The game started out with the Jaegers approaching from the north-east and the Khalifates from the south-west. During the first turn the Jaegers made some pretty bad dice rolls, forcing them to advance slowly, while splitting there forces in two. The Khalifates on the other hand made some good rolls and advanced on both sides of the wood in the lower left corner. The Khalifate SAW gunner and a regular trooper took up a firing position behind a hedge close to the woods. From there position they could overlook both the open ground in the middle of the board, the far left side of the board and also the back of the colonist hut and woods to the north-east. Meanwhile the remaining 3 Khalifates moved towards the hedge and woods in the lower left corner of the board, with the object of taking up position along the hedge in the middle in front of the colonist hut.

The Jaegers moved 2 regular troopers on each side of the upper right hand woods and the SAW gunner through the woods. As the first Jaeger on the far right moved along the hedge he came into the line of fire from the Khalifates on the middle of the board. The shots hit home and the first Jaeger fell to the ground. First blood to the Khalifates. In the meantime the Khalifates on the left fired on the Jaegers emerging from the woods in the upper part of the board. Their shots also hit and the Jaeger was Shaken.

Now it was time for the Jaegers to strike back, as their SAW gunner moved out of the woods in the middle of the board and into a position to fire on the 2 Khalifates behind the hedge in the middle of the board. A good shot hit the first Khalifate trooper and scored a Groy death, taking him out of action and also forcing the trooper next to him to take a morale test. Seeing his squad mate go down was to much for the trooper as the failed morale test sent him running one short move towards the table edge.

As it again became the Khalifates turn to act, the trooper who was running away turned around and made a move back towards and fired against the Jaeger who previously hade fired on him. The shots hit but only forced the Jaeger SAW gunner to retreat into the woods, thereby hiding him from any more fire. So instead of being able to fire at the Jaeger SAW gunner, the Khalifates SAW gunner on the left fired against the second Jaeger trooper emerging from behind the woods close to the northern table edge. The fire hit and that Jaeger was also Shaken. On the far right the last Khalifate trooper fired on the advancing Jaeger and took him out of action. The Jaegers were now down to 3 troopers. One more casualty and the Jaegers would have to start taking morale tests.

In the next turn the Jaeger SAW gunner again moved out of the woods in the middle of the board and returned fire on the Khalifate trooper in front of him. The fire took him out of action and the Khalifates were also down to 3 troopers. For a short while the game seemed even, but now it was time for the Khalifates to act. The Khalifate trooper on the right moved in towards the centre and took a shot at the Jaeger SAW gunner but missed.

On the left the Khalifate SAW gunner turned towards the Jaeger SAW gunner and let loose with his weapon. The resulting fire was devestating and the Jaeger SAW gunner was out of the fight. The following morale test forced one of the Shaken Jaegers to stand and run off the northern table edge. The other Shaken Jaeger stood and made a single move towards the table edge. With only one trooper left, the Jaegers concided and the victory went to the Saeed Khalifates.

As the game came to a close we had a chat about the rules. It took about 40 minutes to explain the rules before the game, and about 30 minutes into the game to understand them. In my opinion they are a good set of rules. For my opponent this was his second time ever to play a miniature game, and he very quickly got a hang of the rules. Even though the rules are pretty simple, there is an elegant degree of complexity that probalby will make the game hard to master. Thereby I hope the games will keep on being challanging and fun as we introduce more rules and special abillites. It was fun to play a game of Flying Lead modified for the Tuffleyverse. I also have to recommend Battle Chronicler, as it is a very good tool to make AAR's with.

New Paintstation

Bought a GW paintstation last weekend. I most say that it is a very useful piece of kit for painting. The upper shelf is specially made for brushes, 2 water pots and there is a lot room for painting pots. The best part is that all miniatures currently being painted can be placed there together with all relevant colors and washes. Before I had to pack and unpack both miniatures, paints and brushes when I was going to paint. Now I save a lot of time by just having everything placed on the paintstation. I only have to put away my paintstation and can easily take it out when I am going to paint. The paintstation has made painting possible even if I have less than an hours hobby time.

Ps. Check out the minis in the right lower corner and the greenish creatures on the shelf, more about them both later on.

NSL Jagers

Started painting these Neu Swabian League (NSL) Jagers this morning, while watching Stargate SG-1. Took all day to finish them, but I am pretty pleased with them. Gave them a Gretchin green basecoat, Thraka green wash followed by Orkhide shade camoflauge pattern. I then gave the uniform a light drybrush of Gretchin green. The Jagers have been given a black hat, which is the traditional hat of the NSL Jagers. I like their hats, which gives them a unique and very germanic look. All in all they are some nice miniatures, I like the design.

The 5 Jagers are to be used in my first game of Flying Lead. I'll pit them against a small squad of Saeed Khalifate mercenaries. I painted the mercenaries a while back, but havn't got any pictures of them yet. I'll post a few pictures during the week. I have used GZG Islamic Federation (IF) infantry as the Saeed Khalifate mercenaries supported by Eurasian Solar Union (ESU) produced power armor. Hade to use IF and ESU as Saeed Khalifate, since GZG doesn't do Khalifates in 15mm.

If all goes according to plan the battle will be fought next weekend. I am looking forward to trying out Flying Lead. Although the game is designed for a modern setting, it's also applicable to near future gaming. The Weapons bulider and Squad builder on the Ganesha website, www.ganeshagames.net, is simple to use, and makes it possible to design weapons of the future.

Since all Ganesha games use the same core mechanic most of the special rules from other settings will be usefull in a Sci-fi setting. But for my first game, I'll just stick to the basic rules and similar forces, to learn the game. For later games I'll paint up an entire platoon as a recon unit for the the 487th Raums Stosstruppen. I just have to make some decision on whether or not the Jagers will have vehicles.