Tempests in a Teapot

TRAVELLERcon Miniatures Round Up

2011-12-30T17:12:00.000-08:00

It's amazing what you'll find when you go through the pictures folder on your laptop. Here are some piccies I snapped at TravellerCon-USA this past October.

15mm Desert Dwellings

2011-12-28T08:52:00.000-08:00

Here are a couple of 15mm Desert Dwellings from "The Scene". They are pimped-out with some bits from GZG's 15mm building accessories line, though you could also use the building accessories provided by The Scene.

Comm Terrs

2011-12-28T08:37:00.000-08:00

It's been quite a delay, but here are my insurgents for the Rhodesian Brush War. Figures are from Peter Pig.

These have been finished for several months. I don't have a very good excuse, either, aside that find it a task to paint civilians - the mix of denims and t-shirts is depressing. I think one fellow is wearing chinos, just for a change ; )

Ω

The Burning Sands of Syrtis Major

2011-09-06T21:04:00.000-07:00

After about a 12 year break, I’ve found myself drawn back into 19^th century colonial wargaming. This was my first love, having watched as a youngster the exploits of the 24^th Foot in the film Zulu Dawn. Rather than shoe-horn a new era and scale (I liked 25mm back in those days) into this blog, I’m decided to launch this companion blog.

There's not much there now, but new blog will cover British Colonial as well as Victorian Science Fiction – there also won’t be much "Steampunk", as I’m not a big fan of dystopia. The notion that our own worst enemy is ourselves may well be true, but that’s not what I’m looking for in Victorian Sci-Fi.

I will continue to update this blog, as I'm not giving up Sci-Fi miniature wargames.

Masodja!

2011-07-20T05:12:00.000-07:00

Finally! I finished my British South African Police and Insurgents for Rhodesia. My initial inspiration came from Mark K. of the "Daddly's Little Men" Blog.

Going a slightly different route, I decided to start with the British South African Police - famed throughout the Crown Colony as the "Black Boots", since they eschewed the standard brown footgear that was normally issued to Her Majesty's African forces.

The Rhodesian Bush Pattern camo isn't easy to paint, but the result is well worth the effort. I painted two sections of BASP for the starter scenario "Black Boots on the Trail" from Two Fat Lardies' African expansion "B'Maso". They're mounted individually for StarGrunt II, though I'm experimenting with magnetic bases for larger-scaled games.

Also needed was some transport:

Two Unimogs and a Landrover. Just the thing for getting mired down country. No fancy Alouette III's for my blokes (since I'm having one devil of a time finding them in the right scale...)

Next, I'll post pics of the SeeTees, that's "C.T." for "Communist Terrorists"...Ω

Sarah Jane - Gone But Not Forgotten

2011-04-20T21:16:00.000-07:00

She was my favourite companion and Who Fandom's sweetheart.

http://www.contactmusic.com/news.nsf/story/elisabeth-sladen-remembered-by-doctor-who-stars_1214143

Amera 15mm Plastic Buildings

2011-03-10T11:01:00.000-08:00

The continued quest for good“sci-fi” buildings is a never-ending one. Like many 15mm sci-fi gamers, I haveboxes of clear plastic electronic packaging in interesting shapes, packed awayin boxes, awaiting conversion. This is often time consuming, so when a manufacturer offers a pre-made kit, I'm quick to investigate.

M205 Small Houses

These Amera 15mm NorthAfrican buildings (#M206 Medium Houseand M205 Small House) were purchased on a lark to see if they could beconverted to serve as a futuristic Vilani mining settlement. Mine were orderedthrough my Friendly Local Gaming Store. Dressing them up with the Ground Zero Games doors and windows from Jon’s “Building Fittings” line produced a resultwith which I am well pleased. These buildings are lighter than resin andstronger than paper. Once finished, they are heavy enough not to be blown aboutby random puffs of air.

M206 Medium House

Attaching the buildingfittings was simply done using epoxy, with some white glue to fill anygaps. I had some gaps form around thedoors, as I was simply gluing the GZG doors over the ones cast onto the model. There was less of this problem with thewindows.

I recommend filling thepolystyrene shells with fine/light household insulation foam to preventbending/bowing/warping. Priming theinterior is necessary to insure the foam doesn’t melt the polystyrene. I used Testors gray primer as a base prime,inside and out, followed by Citadel white, inside and out. The Citadel was necessary to providesomething for my water-thinned acrylic paint to grip to.

Before filling with foam, Irecommend testing the foam on some of the off-cut bits that come with thebuildings. The home insulating kit inthe hand-held can from my local Do-It-Yourself franchise worked well forme. Foam tends to expand outward as itdries, so I left the models base-up for the foam to set. In the process, some of the curing foam didrise above the lip of the base; this was removed with a hobby knife and aspoon.

Once the fittings were inplace, after priming, I spray painted the outsides of the houses with Testors Sand Yellow. Oops!…so much for using theCitadel primer. The acrylic paints had some trouble covering the Testors, thoughnothing an extra coat or two couldn’t cure.

Size Comparison

After painting various doorand window colours, the models were dry brushed with Hobbycraft LightChocolate. This gave a yummy cocoa colour result - rather a pale Martian dust -to the model; which I quite like.

The end result was aMiddle-Eastern Pre-Fabricated Futuristic look, rather like one would expectfrom a Vilani Mining franchise. Ethnic AND Utilitarian. These are the sort of dichotomies which givedepth to the scenario and which make sci-fi gaming so enjoyable. Ω

Vland in the Can

2011-03-05T09:35:00.000-08:00

This scenario is adapted from Jason W.'s excellent "Panzer Canning" scenario in Sierra Foxtrot One-Five, the fanzine dedicated to 15mm Sci-Fi Wargaming.

The scenario was tweaked to reflect a Traveller: Interstellar Warssetting. The Vilani 1^stImperium was laying siege to Mikanek, the capital city of planet Agidda. After months of bombardments and probingattacks, the Terran Confederation defensive lines were beginning to strain.

In the quiet (until the past few months) suburb of Soos, aheavy Vilani bombardment with a coordinated push by armored elements has causedthe Terran lines to buckle, and for a change, a local Vilani general has takenthe initiative and pressed the attack. The word is given all along the line – break through to Mikanek Downportand seize the Terran supply depot.

The Imperials were attacking with three GEV MBTs, plus anarmoured recon section of two hover medium utility vehicles (MUGEVs). They wereto exit three vehicles on the opposite side of the 4’ x 4’ playing area by theend of the sixth turn to win.

The Terrans were defending with a platoon of the PlanetaryDefense Regiment (three squads plus a command post section) reinforced with asquad of Terran ConFed Marines and a section of Planetary Constabulary SpecialWeapons Team. The Constables were givenhigh movement to reflect local knowledge of thearea, and a mucking big LAG anti-material weapon.

Each Terran squad was given an ID counter and two “dummy”chits to deploy on the table for “Fog of War” purposes. The idea was to slowthe Imperials down with active use of the dummy chits. For how well this worked, you will soonread.

A Drive Through the Park

To win, the Terrans simply had to keep the Imperials fromachieving their objective.

We used the StarGrunt II rules, with modifications improvingarmoured vehicles' survivability. To reflect the effects of aprolonged siege, all units tested morale under the Low Motivation column of thequality test chart. Additionally, the PD Regiment began the game with a loweredmorale level (Steady).

The Terran players (Brecht and Kenzie) were allowed to setup well forward, with only a 12” band on the Imperial entry area off limits totheir squads. The Imperials set up within this 12" band, inthe park.


A Jittery Main-gunner examines a crater

The scenario began with the Imperial MUGEVs scanning thenearest bomb craters to see if they could spot the chits that had been placedthere. After two failures, the Imperial player (DeeJay) decided he’d had enoughof Terran duplicity and began the recon by fire. I ruled that if the fire was fully effective, a dummy would berevealed, if the fire was partially effective, the chit would be “suppressed”(and therefore remain a hidden “threat”) and anineffective fire would simply be ignored. Firing two VRF gauss guns on the twochits, he rolled fully effective fire.

Two Dummies.

The Tanks eased forward.

A quick word about the personalities playing thisscenario. Kenzie is a scientist-techiesort, Brecht is a former Marine NCO, and DeeJay is a former tank JuniorOfficer. In giving out the forces, I did a bit of typecasting.

Launching Smoke

Turn 2: Contact

Beginning of Turn 2, the leading hover tank took an IAVR(Infantry Anti-Vehicle Rocket) in the top turret from an upper floor of anearby building - the Planetary Defense squad there wasn’t waiting to bediscovered by a recon by fire. I’vemodified SGII by giving armour “quality”. The Imperial tanks were 4:10 armour,meaning that four d10 (instead of 4d12) are used when testing for damage. This is to help emulate the different techlevels in the Traveller Universe.

The rocket bounced off the armor. I don’t check for a systems hit unless there is a penetration(finding the rule to contrary in SGII infantryman-written nonsense) The tankreplied and fired their Direct Fire Plasma Gun into the upper floor. Partialsuccess suppressed the PDR squad.

Someone's knocking

This was to be the pattern for the next two turns. As the tanks advanced, they would take arocket hit and the Terran would roll terribly on the result. The Terran Marines hada longer-ranged missile version with a similar result (though in retrospect, Ithink I missed a minor penetration on one of the tanks. A hull hit should haveresulted in the crew “de-bussing”).

Police Bring One Down

The Constabulary unit was having greater success dealingwith the Imperial “soft skins”. Using a20mm LAG Anti-Material Weapon, the Police surprised one of the MUGEVs and put around through the engine block (or plenum chamber, Winchester Drive, What Have You). Thefollowing turn, the coppers took out the other soft target. Two vehicles down, one to go.

(Segue to….)

What a Plasma Main Gun does...

Turn 5: Things werenot going well for those squads tasked with stopping the tanks. Many buildings
were now burning. Three PDR squads were either dead or out of action. A squad essentiallyhad to trade itself for two chances to take out one tank, and the dice weredistinctly unsympathetic to the Terran Cause (all of the Vilani House Deitieswere guiding the rolls).

The leadImperial Tank was inches from the exit point. As the Terran Marines were falling back to the questionable safety of a blast crater, they fired their last anti-tankmissile...

The tank brewed up.

OOOH-RAH! We Dunnit!

The Terrans won.

The stunned silence was deafening....which is rather an awesome result.

Post Game Thoughts:

General discussion was that this was one mother-tough scenario, forboth sides. DeeJay said it was every tanker’s dream scenario – the kind ofdream from which “you wake up screaming!” Brecht said the infantry really needed some heavier anti-tank weapons. Ithink that is the point of Jason’s scenario – it’s good to play a scenario that’sa bit unbalanced.

Around turn three, the Terran players woke up and began to“play hard”. The dummy counters beganto move around more aggressively (distracting at least one tank for a round ortwo). The Command Post began to reactivate squads with bettercoordination. I suspect that thedefenders realised the scenario wasn’t a “Tank Canning” game, but a nastysituation where “expendable infantry” meant exactly that.


Disciplined Maneuvres

The armour modifications I've made have made tanks in my SGII games much moredangerous, which, IMO, is how it should be.
There is a “prevailing wisdom” onthe internet (an undoubtable oxymoron) in which tanks in an urban fighting areaare doomed to fail. This may not besupported by every infantryman alive, just the ones I talk to. Tankers believe the opposite. I suspect the reality lies somewherebetween.

By the way, the title of this article provoked a joke: How is Vilani Armour different from Spam? They're still canned meat, just "Bilander".

Gotta love Traveller humour. Ω

End of an Era - The Brig Passes On

2011-02-24T08:48:00.000-08:00

Very sad news of the death of Nicholas Courtney - the actor who played Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart in the classic Doctor Who series.He will be greatly missed, especially as he was playing the delightful Detective Lionheart in the Cosmic Hobo audio series - the Scaryfiers.God Speed Ye, Nick!

Doctor Who: Addendum

2010-09-11T15:21:00.000-07:00

This week's Friday Pal's Night featured a Doctor Who battle which took a fatalistic turn - our boy Eljay was controlling the Earth Federation crew when he found himself surrounded, with a primed self-destruct mechanism, and being rapidly cut down by Dalek forces.

The result?

SURPRISE!

This brought the game to a surprising and rather abrupt end. Several of the other players were a bit put out, as the Loyalist Daleks were making great progress and had the Doctor and his faction fleeing before them.

Davros had just exterminated the last of the Movellans. We were looking forward to the great Dalek vs. Davros faction fight.

And then Eljay found the jolly, candy-like button and decided on "Boom Today".

I will have to add a scenario rule that the Earth crew must make a morale check before terminating the station and all onboard it.

Post-Game Thought:

In this pic alone there are 15 doors - can you find them all?

The big surprise was the effect 50+ doors have on a firefight. Players would position their figures to open a door, blast away with the rest of the faction, and use another figure to close the door at the end of their activation - cutting off the line-of-sight. We'll be adopting a rule that a doorway must remain either open or closed for an entire turn.

And we're resolved to keep Eljay away from the Scenario-Eraser button. Ω

Death to Davros!

2010-09-05T12:56:00.000-07:00

As previously mentioned, I’ve been painting up 28mm Doctor Who miniatures and having quite a bit of fun with them.

Back in July, I ran a scenario based on the 1984 Doctor Who episode “Resurrection of the Daleks”, where the Daleks rescue their creator, Davros, from an Earth Federation prison-station so that he can help them develop a defence for an anti-Dalek bio-weapon, developed by their android opponents, the Movellans.


Davros Faction

There were four players, including me (not an optimal solution, as I’m needed to referee all of the little “gotchas” that litter the scenario like so many discarded pop bottles) so I had to “NPC” the Earth Federation and the Loyalist Daleks. This was accomplished by playing both factions very straight in their actions and motivations – the Daleks want to capture Davros and the Federation wants to keep him; the rest of the factions must act around these drivers.

Dalek Loyalists

I gave the Davros Faction to "Inferno" Mark, who hadn’t watched the TV show, calculating that this faction was the easiest to game with fairly straightforward motivations (survive). I might have erred slightly in this judgment, as the other factions proceeded to dogpile him, though frankly, if you grew up glued to the TV and NEVER watched Doctor Who, you deserve whatever you get.

Movellan Faction - Stayin Aliiiive!

Two of the other players were familiar with the Doctor Who TV programme: to the evil Dr. Goldwyrm (Mike L.) I gave the Movellan Hottie Hit Squad.. These are the spoiler faction, and he used them to great effect, all events considered.

To Rich J. (of Rattrap Games) I gave the Doctor Faction, being fairly confidant that Rich would do the Doctor justice, and he did not disappoint.

We were using Graeme Dawson’s Doctor Who Miniature Rules. These are fast playing and use simple ID cards, removing the need for rosters. Most figures are eliminated if they take a wound (hi-tech Zap-O-Tronic rays) with a few of the tougher models taking two or even three hits to eliminate.


The Doctor and Companions

Another neat rule in Graeme’s set is the ability of certain models (Davros, the Doctor, scientists) to “invent” a weapon to use against their foes. This might result in a +1 to hit the enemy or a weapon proficient at wiping out an opposing side’s ordinary, jobbing warriors. This creates a sense of urgency when an opposing side is inventing, and you begin to understand just WHY the Daleks soil their trollies when the Doctor looks at them cross-eyed.

The game itself played well – Davros was immediately put on the spot when the Movellans raced toward his laboratory and the Loyalist Daleks trundled (slowly) in the same direction; attacking the station’s control room in the process.

The Doctor’s faction left the area of the TARDIS and beat the Dalek Troopers to the control room. The Doctor convinced the Earth Federation crew that he was there to help, and a stunningly high roll didn’t hurt either.

While the crew hunkered down behind the control consoles, Dalek Troopers rushed the control room. In the general firefight, a Dalek trooper and a crewman went down. The Doctor took cover, and that is when the Dalek agent, Stien, who had been traveling with the Doctor, decided to break his cover and capture the Doctor (Cue cliffhanger end theme)...

EXTERMINATE!

Meanwhile, the Movellans had been squaring off with two of Davros’ daleks. The Davros player was suitably impressed when a Movellam shugged off a Dalek gunstick blast (not often seen, you know). The Movellan leader, Agella, lobbed a dose of Mad Dalek Disease but the Dalek resisted and moved away from the blast area. A second Dalek was dispatched to deal with the Movellans, and was able to drop both of the sexy androids.

This triggered a Movellan morale test, as they had just taken 50% casualties. Nothing beats a badly rolled die, and the two surviving Movellans, having failed the test, had to withdraw their spandex-clad bottoms to the transmat.

However, hope springs eternal in the cold, black heart of Dr. Goldwyrm, and he was able to “retreat” past the boot cupboard where Davros was hiding. Dropping the last virus grenade at the base of Davros’ wheelie-bin, they gave the traditional Movellan farewell (“Toodles!”) and fled toward the transmat.

Once again, Fate just can’t stand disco androids - Davros was able to make his saving roll and back away from the virus grenade blast radius, pinning him against the wall.

Stien Attacks!

In the Control Room, the Dalek Troopers were battling against the crew while Sgt. Stien attacked the Doctor, who was able to fend off the attack using his sonic screwdriver. Stien was naturally caught off guard that the Davison Doctor was using his Sonic Screwdriver, since it was absent from the series between The Visitation and the TV Movie. This confusion in Stien’s mind was critical in breaking the Dalek Mind Conditioning (Thank you, Rev. Nice of FROTHERS…)

As Stien fought against the confusion in his mind, the main Dalek assault force with Commander Lytton burst into the Control Room. By now, the Doctor was coordinating with the Earth Federation crew and adding Turlough and Stien to the mix, was able to mount a serious defence of the control room. A Loyalist Dalek blew up, causing a morale check on the Dalek side.


Where is Davros?

The Loyalist Daleks withdrew, allowing the Doctor and Federation factions to concentrate on recapturing Davros. The companion Tegan was sent forward to add an extra activation at the right moment - certain feminine companions may “scream” which, if successful, allows a nearby friendly figure an additional activation, even if the figure has already moved. This is a handy quality and gives the Doctor’s side an added degree of unpredictability.

So, we meet again, DOCTOR!

With the station crew supporting him, the Doctor was able to cause the Davros Dalek Troopers to fail morale, and using the Doctor’s intrinsic extra activation, was able to burst into Davros’ boot cupboard and capture the evil genius. I ruled the Doctor/Earth Federation had won, with Davros scoring a minor victory (survival, albeit still incarcerated) with a Dalek and Movellan loss. Good dramatic stuff that – the ratings bean-counters will be pleased.

Post Game Thoughts:

I really like the Graeme Dawson rules. The entire game was fought to a satisfactory conclusion in about 2 hours. I do like a game that plays quickly, and Graeme’s rules deliver.

Play can be further sped up using initiative cards, just five will cover all the factions. Excellent idea, and thank you Dr. Goldwyrm.

Each faction should have a “unique” figure/model, to mitigate the dreaded “wiped out” morale check that occurs when a faction reaches 50% casualties. This keeps everyone in the fight and promotes further dramatic action as the sole faction survivor stumbles towards the self-destruct switch.

We'll be trying this scenario again eventually. It will be interesting to see how these small tweaks affect the overall scenario. Ω

SFX TidBit: From a Recent Doctor Who Mini Game

2010-07-08T10:16:00.001-07:00

Next Time: A Dalek gets the drop on a Movellan:

Down the 28mm Rabbit Hole

2010-06-30T12:48:00.000-07:00

After slogging away at my 15mm African terrorists for Rhodesia, and working on a new mini scenario for Travellercon, I decided to paint a few 28mm Doctor Who miniatures. This began as a response to a request for articles for Ragnarok magazine and has now blossomed into a mini-spree.

I’m surprised these painted as fast as they did. After struggling with 15mm, these were the proverbial breeze. It’s handy to have a painting guide on line – the various episodes of Doctor Who are available on You Tube. The miniatures are available from Black Tree Design, and I’ve been having nothing but good service from Black Tree, USA.

Ragnarok is the magazine of the Society of Fantasy and Science Fiction Wargamers, and Doctor Who seemed to fit the beer and crisps approach that the SFSFW seem to prefer.

First off the blocks are some Dalek Troopers, led by Commander Lytton, a mercenary from Rifton IV. When the Daleks began to lose their war against the Movellans, they were required to hire human mercs.

Next is Davros, creator of the Daleks. Crippled by a dirty shell during the Kaled-Thal War.

The Daleks are actually figures I painted some years ago to torture my Traveller and Star Wars rpg players. They were from the Citadel plastics line.

Plans are to post some pictures of the Movellans, the #1 enemy of the Daleks, next. They're painted, but first I need to go back and detail their exotic eye make up.
Ω

Blame it on Clambo

2010-03-24T14:03:00.000-07:00

This past Cold Wars I had the opportunity to play in Mark K.’s (of Daddy's Little Men fame) Saturday FireForce game, using 15mm figures and a modified StarGrunt II rules system.

As a result, I am now consumed with a desire to start a new period - 15mm Africa Wars, and yes, my sympathies are firmly with the colonial powers.

Actually, it was my objection to the phrase "Colonial Power" when applied to Rhodesia during Mark’s game briefing that saw me "assigned" to the Rhodesian Light Infantry command, with Megz (and another player) getting saddled with the ZANLA forces. The short end of the stick, indeed.

There were two other players on the side of the elected government: a father/son team that for once were neither annoying nor incompetent - a violation of the HMGS charter , I’m sure, judging on past experiences.

The scenario was pretty basic - ZANLA was interloping Rhodesian territory, intent on burning a church, and the Rhodesians wanted to kill them.

Mark did a fine job of combining GZG’s StarGrunt II with Too Fat Lardies’ B’Maso!. Both sides moved about using "blinds" to represent hidden movement.

The game was fairly low-key as far as action goes, though colonial warefare tends to bring out the worst in gamer trash talking; epithets like "savage", "pimp" and "honkey" flew like 7.62mm ammo, and this continued on the drive home.

Up to that morning, I had successfully evaded spending much on wargame goodies - the two sci-fi purchases on the top of my list either didn’t come to the convention or had not brought enough stock.

This changed after the game, when I began to search On Military Matters shelves for books on modern Africa as well as buying a Rhodesian Light Infantry shirt.

The last two weeks have seen me hunting down reprints of the Osprey Africa Wars books, digging out a book read two years ago on the South African 32 Battalion, acquiring Chris Cocks’ Rhodesian memoir Fireforce and roundly cursing Mark K. (aka Clambo) for starting this little landslide in my gaming world.

Thanks buddy.

And now, if you will excuse me, I have an order of AK47 miniatures going in to Peter Pig. Ω

Work in Progress - 15mm Grav-Copters

2010-01-27T08:28:00.000-08:00

Normally I don’t like to display non-finished work; these have been sitting on my workbench since last November. If the topic hadn’t come up on The Miniatures Page, it would never occur to me to put up these pictures.

I've modified two Laserburn 15mm Scythe Jet Copters (available from 15mm UK) to take the wings of Force XXI’s Wraith VTOL Gunship. I realize that a grav frame mightn’t need to look like a ‘copter, however I wanted something that vaguely evokes the MH-6 “Little Bird” for a sci-fi version of “Black Hawk Down” scenario. That’s been under development since last October (I work slow, guys…)

The chin-mounted chaingun is from Stan Johansen’s 15mm/25mm accessories line. 4” clear plexi stands are from Litko.

I had thought to trim off the wing-mounted railguns, since the model is intended as a light support VTOL, but decided that the wings look better as Mel at Force XXI designed them.

Aesthetics are everything.Ω

Gaps in the Posts

2010-01-26T09:15:00.000-08:00

Not much new hereabouts – early in December I was in the hospital with a record-setting blood glucose level (think “Battle of Hastings”…:D) but I’m much better now and, as my eyes have gone back into focus, I hope to be adding more posts soon.Ω

Into Every Blog, a little rain...

2009-10-26T16:39:00.000-07:00

Khurasan Miniatures, a relatively new miniatures company, has recently entered the 15mm SciFi market.

Khurasan offers various “niche” sci-fi models, almost all of it off-beat. Some of these models are very nice – there is a swept-back grav tank that is very nice indeed.

Sadly, Khurasan doesn’t do so well in the field of customer relations, at least where I am concerned, or at least, not in my latest transaction.

After ordering the swept-back grav tanks, I noticed that the turrets were larger than I expected. Not larger than the picture showed, just larger than I expected.

Now, I like a certain “Traveller” look to my sci fi, and as many Traveller fans know, the later tech designs tend to have smaller turrets. Fortunately, or so I thought, the Khurasan website had different turret versions, so I contacted the owner (who doesn’t sign his emails, so it’s either Mike or John, but more of this anon) and asked if I could buy three alternate turrets. The reply, in toto:

“The pieces are not available separately.”

That’s it. Not even a “sorry” to dull the sting. Just a lofty, third person declaration. It’s not hard to surmise that the writer is thinking by the tone taken: “Next time, order the right bloody model.”

Tsk. Playing the blame game lets one party shift the blame and thereby relieve one’s self of any expectation for resolution. It’s best done when you already have your customer’s payment. I wanted to BUY extra turrets I wasn't looking for a hand out.

Also, this is my third order with Khurasan Minis - do I not get a bit of sympathy? A drop? ;) (Apparantly not - so siddown!)

Finally, I keep in mind that while Khurasan is not a big company, the owner has shown little hesitance to post on The Miniatures Page, usually often and at length. I’m not sure why his emails would take a different tone, although the idea that a customer complaint might create an adversarial response does occur.

So, armed with a sense of being slightly “had” (but only slightly - I did receive everything I had ordered - I just wasn't happy with it) I emailed back, explaining my dissatisfaction and disappointment. This resulted in a longer email explaining that all model pieces are cast in a single mold. Since Khurasan doesn’t cast in house, the owner couldn’t send any extra turrets without taking them from those models, rendering them useless.

Fair enough. Especially when you’re paying someone to cast your minis for you. I was a bit more mollified.

Hopefully, after some discussion, I was hoping that the owner might conclude that a little straight talk first is better than cryptic replies. (And if you think “cryptic” is too strong a word, consider how many other ways the question could have been answered (thusly:)

Dear Sir, unfortunately, our casting process does not allow us to sell individual parts at this time. Selling you “bits” would result in severe wastage for Khurasan Miniatures. We’re a small company, as you know, and couldn’t survive that kind of loss.

We do apologize.
The Man With No Name

Certainly a better reply than the first. Although anyone in business will tell you to sign your business emails, at least initially.

However, I then received an email from Khurusan stating that even if asked on the Miniatures Page, the Khurasan Policy (no substitutions/replacements) would still hold. Hey? I had only mentioned that Khurasan should try to keep his direct business emails as conversational (and not clipped and adversarial) as his TMP posts. Clearly, whoever is writing emails at Khurasan isn’t reading them properly, at least not mine.

To my way of thinking, there’s something suggesting unseen stressors at Khurasan Miniatures, and until these are resolved, the jury remains out. Either that or we have someone who keeps a different face on The Miniatures Page than he does in direct email with unhappy customers.

As a post script, the final exchange (aka blowoff) ran thus:

From: Khurasan Miniatures
To: kmfrye
Subject: RE: Notification of payment received
Date: Oct 26, 2009 6:55 PM

Well, whatever you think is best. Happy gaming!

------------------------------------------------

This is a thinly veiled "whatever!" and was in reply to an email wherein I clarified the point about TMP:

KMFrye wrote:
> Mike or Jon(?)
> I'm not suggesting that you would not apply a policy evenly, or make an exception for TMP.
> I'm pointing out that you post on TMP often and at length in a conversational tone, but your personal emails in this issue began terse and off-putting (even adversarial). I would have been less likely to feel badly treated if you'd explained why in your first response.

> Remember, none of us *need* your product, we only *want* your product. That want can change at the speed of thought, and you can have a big impact on what we think by how you talk to us.
> It certainly has on me - I was thinking about placing another order (parasarachnids, artillery tank) but I'm now put off the idea.
> Sincerely,
> Keith F.
> P.S. It wasn't going to be a very big order anyway, and the artillery tank can be represented off-board.
> P.P.S. Not signing your emails is very unprofessional. And evasive.

So, a note to self to beware any further trade with Khurasan Miniatures. I never did have a problem with him, until I had a problem with him. And when I asked for some satisfaction, I got a shirty, adversarial, kinda arrogant (though not really enough to be certain of that last - he might just be that thick) set of replies, which left me feeling…discarded.

Not signing emails – especially business emails – is unprofessional and evasive.

I wonder what Mike or Jon or whomever really is Khurasan Miniatures is evading?…Ω

Babylon 5 Full Thrust: Earthforce Sourcebook

2009-10-22T10:06:00.000-07:00

Meanwhile, in Space, in an altogether different franchise…

Back in the Golden Days of TV Space Franchises. we would gather in a friend’s basement to play war games. But first, we would watch a series that told of the Third Age of Mankind, and a place named

BABYLON 5

(Cue dramatic music)
My circle of wargame pals have been Bab 5 enthusiasts since the mid 90’s. Me, I liked the pilot, though I must admit to initially only catching the last half. Anyway, we’ve been table-top gaming B5 for a good while.

When an invitation from my friend DJ (in gaming aka Ming the Merciless, and not because he looks like Max von Sydow) arrived to teach the Full Thrust system to his friend, Jay, I decided to teach it using the B5 Earth Force Source Book modifications.

The scenario was set during the Earth Alliance Civil War (and sometime before the episode “Severed Dreams”). An EA Loyalist patrol (commanded by Jay) of two Omega Destroyers and an Olympus gunboat encounters an EA Separatist patrol (commanded by DJ) of two Hyperion cruisers and an old Nova dreadnaught (these are the B5 side, cheer for them!). Each side’s objective was to clear the enemy from this sector (which happened to be the Euphrates Sector, but more of this anon).

BTW, Jay vs. DeeJay? Isn’t that a bit confusing? Such is the tragedy of a civil war…

Turn One: Both task forces began the game at speed 4, representing a normal cruising speed. The Loyalist taskforce enters through the jump gate, accelerates to 8, and deploys fighters. The Separatists also launch fighters. Both sides are evenly matched with fighters - this does not bode well for the fighter jocks.

Turn Two: Both sides fighters flashed forward, and immediately locked themselves into a series of furballs. The Separatists turned to starboard to attempt to keep distance, while charging up the lasers on the Nova. A single flight of starfuries slipped past the otherwise-occupied loyalist fighters to strafe one of the Omegas. The Loyalists accelerated (rather unexpected by both the Seps and the ref, who thought Jay might be more cautious, considering his first game and all…impetuous youth) and by doing so caught the Nova at medium range.

The Loyalist heavy lasers flashed, and an entire damage row disappeared from the Nova. Several lasers fell off, including those charging. Oh dear.

Turn Three: The Loyalist Olympus gunboat had zipped forward last turn, wee little railguns powering up. As the two rough battle lines passed, and pulse cannons exchanged a deadly caress, the Olympus discharged two high velocity depleted uranium sabots at the Nova. One struck, dealing two points of damage, which is really a pittance, unless it leads to a threshold check, which this did. More systems went down, fell off, or were sold off by the PTEN.

Turn Four: The Separatist commander considered that without his main laser platform (the Nova) his two cruisers were no match for the Loyalist taskforce, and accelerated for the jump gate. The Loyalists let them go, having a bigger fish to fry – a 2.5 million ton fish...a place named:

BABYLON 5…(cue dramatic tag music)…

Post-Game Thoughts

It had been about four years since I’d played the Full Thrust/B5/EFSB mod. Back in the day, we had migrated over to this from Babylon 5 Wars, a fun but somewhat slow game from the now defunct Agents of Games. Even back then, we tended to avoid using the elder races, as they were just too powerful for an enjoyable game. For FT purposes, we stick to the Narn-Centauri conflict, the EA Civil War, and some White Star – EA/Shadowtech scenarios.

Due to the nature of the conflict, EA fighters tend to charge into dogfights like English Civil War cavalry rush into melee, thereby removing themselves from the rest of the battle. Ah, this war without an enemy…

Fighters in Full Thrust are too effective as written for use in B5 games, so we usually halve their effectiveness – 1 die attack per two full starfuries. Starfuries are rated as heavy, so they take a hit on a 5 or 6, with a 6 eligible for a re-roll.

The scenario plan actually came from the FT/Traveller mod, Power Projection: Fleet. The PP:F scenario engine is useful beyond measure.

Losing his main laser platform is hardly like DJ on a normal day. Post-game discussion had us agreeing that the Nova should have been kept back, behind the Hyperions. This would have allowed the cruisers to coordinate their fire with the Nova, which could easily have knocked out an Omega Destroyer. Jay’s rapid advance caught DJ off guard – apparently Jay has learned from other games not to let DJ’s battle plans develop.

Upon seeing the miniatures, Jay commented that he remembered the Babylon 5 series from when he was a kid. Saying nothing, I could not help but notice the umbilicus trailing him as he walked about the game table.

Impertinent youth…Ω

Space Demon MADNESS...

2009-05-05T13:36:00.000-07:00

Seems that everyone and his blogger has been fascinated by Khurasan Miniatures 15mm Space Demons.

And I am not immune.

I ordered a set of the Hammerhead/Alien hybrid with an idea to play some scenarios out of the Film "Pitch Black". To that end, I painted four of the demons in a pale sand colour:

(Sadly, my camera isn't quite up to capturing the detail, so I'll have to nick Megz's when she isn't looking. Still, you an see it's a nice mini.)

The second set of four were painted a pale dolphin grey. I couldn't decide which colour scheme best captures the beasts from the film.

In either case, I'm well pleased with the figures, and not half happy with the painted result.

Now to work on some colonists/crash survivors for them to terrorise. Ω

Just Another Bug Hunt…

2009-04-13T12:26:00.000-07:00

"5150" from 2 Hour Wargames

This past Sunday, Megz and I had a quiet, post-Easter-dinner game using the 5150 rules. While I’ve read the rules through several times over, this was the first time I was actually using them - to resolve an encounter between a squad of Star Marines and a bug infestation, aboard a derelict freighter.

Using the Traveller Universe as background, the freighter I.S.S. Trope-McGuffin arrives in-system several weeks overdue. She was to deliver an important case of hamdingers to the Viceroy of the planet Torgo X. When she proves unresponsive to radio hails, a squad of marines is dispatched via cutter to investigate and if possible, recover the all-important hamdingers.

Oh, and find out what’s become of the crew. Carry on.

Using a combination of Denizen Federation Space Troops and WOTC D & D aberrations, I set up the Cargo Bay of Doom. One of six red cannisters was marked “hamdingers” and then placed randomly so that even I wasn’t sure where it was. Then, with a clang and a hiss, the airlock door opened and the marines entered.

Each marine was assigned a 5150 reputation of 4, which represents your average military, a jobbing squaddie just trying to get through a sidereal day in an uncaring universe. Reps range from 1 to 7, with 7 being roughly demi-godlike (Alice from Resident Evil 3 springs to mind - as she often does *numnumnums* - as does River from the film Serenity) while a 1 represents a particularly inept, sickly, or aged role-playing gamer type). The lieutenant leading the squad and his sergeant were rated as Rep “5”. The infesting bugs were rated as “4” as they too, were just trying to get through the day.

Turn 1 was spent with the marines advancing cautiously into the cargo bay, led by fire team 3 (aka “The Young Expendables”), while yours truly added to the atmosphere by making alien skittering noises under the table with his hand. Megz doesn’t much like bugs, so I would think my attempts at humour had a soothing effect on her nervous disposition.

Turn 2 was going smoothly – fire team 3 opened their red canister, but no joy. Fire team two entered the next floor tile and thus triggered an encounter. 5150 has a table (5150 has lots of tables, but let’s come back to this, shall we?) that has you generate numbers of xenomorphs randomly. Megz rolled a maximum encounter (and that was the last decent roll she made all night) and suddenly the marines found themselves being charged by large, spiderlike aliens from opposite directions – they were caught in the middle.

5150 has squaddies make a reaction roll as the aliens sped towards them:

“Holy f---, they’re chamax!” someone yelled into their comm unit.

The Chamax Plague, a nasty species of arthropod the size of a great dane, with a mouth like a buzz saw – an hungry buzz-saw.

Reaction dice were rolled.

And everyone froze.

Except the bugz.

Oh bugger.

Xenomorphs in 5150 move at a constant 12”, whereas a human moves at 6” to 8”. You can see the potential for troublesome interactions.

The squaddies of team 3 just stood there as three chamax rushed them from the shadows.

Turn 3 – fire team 3 ran for the stairs to the upper walkway, while team 1 took the charge from three chamax that had rushed out from under the platform. One chamax was knocked back while another took an “Obviously Dead” result. Time to check for where the blood sprays.

“Don’t tell me they have acid blood…” said Megz.

“All right, they don’t, except this one, which does.” Quipped I. Megz was not amused.

The acid blood splashed on the floor harming only the finish (I just can’t have nice things…)

Turn 4. Team 2 was getting frightfully chewed up. The chamax were rated as Rep 4 and “vicious”, which meant that in melee, they are given an extra d6 advantage. A squaddie throws two d6 to successfully roll his rep (or under), while a chamax rolls three dice (including advantage). There isn’t really any “wounded” result in 5150, either a figure is dead, alive, knocked down or out of the fight. (Out of the fight is similar to StarGrunt’s “Incapacitated” – you don’t know how bad it is until a medico looks at it…)

From atop the walkway, a hail of grenades rained down. The way she was rolling for firing, Megz decided a little area-saturation was in order.

Standard grenades in 5150 seem like they’ve been neutered by the game designers, possibly because the rules governing their availability are relaxed – if a squad has them, they have all they need (kinda like the US army – take all you need but use all you take, we’ll make more)… Grenades have an impact of 2, so you must roll a 2 or less for a grenade to be effective once you hit. One more chamax burst, spraying acid blood.

Turn 5 (and wrap) – the grenades had some effect, as did the Eltee and Leading Sergeant entering the mix. The last two chamax died messily. Five squaddies were down, and the marines had only explored two tiles.

Megz was not amused.

Then I told Megz her squad had really been whacked by a random encounter, there were more chamax waiting on other floor tiles.

“How many more of those things can there be?” asked Megz.

“Well” I said “the ship’s probably full of them. The rules say that we roll two d6. You could be outnumbered by two-to-one.” (In my mind, I had already replaced the “Bugs” table with the Xenoform table to avoid the possible outnumbered-four-to-one result…)

Megz was several-light-years-from-amused.

Post-Game Thoughts

“To Hit” in 5150 is non-intuitive. All skill checks are based on rolling Rep or under, but not so ranged combat. You must roll a 10 on a d6 to score a free-and-clear hit (you can roll a hit on an 8 or a 9 , but some cover will negate the success). You do this by adding the firing figure’s Rep. Or not, as the dice would often have it. Little square bastards.

Possibly I’m jaded by StarGrunt and the Full Metal Anorak system, but it would seem to me to be more consistent to adjudicate a hit using the same skill system that REP is based on. Pass 2d6: hit in cover, Pass 1d6: hit in open. This would require the use of a saving throw, which to me seems faster than searching for a chart.

Grenades – I’m inclined to dispense with the “Everyone’s Got the Grenade” rule. With the availability of Litko tokens, keeping track of grenades should be a simple task. In doing so, I’m inclined to give a standard grenade an impact of 3. Or possibly not.

There. Are. Too. Many. Tables…
Truly.
Or so it seems to me. Possibly we’ll get the hang of it in the next game, as the author often maintains this will happen when posting on The Miniatures Page. We’ll aye see….

Plans for the next 5150 game will involve two sides of opposing sentients, to provide a more traditional feel to the firefight. Probably Imperial Marines vs. Zhodani, sans warbots (since 5150 doesn’t cover bots, just yet).

Right now, the jury still deliberates on 5150. Does it simply read better than it plays? Ω

And Now, From Space...

2009-03-26T08:16:00.000-07:00

Battle of Barnard’s Star
Traveller: Power Projection

This is an interesting scenario taken from an article in JTAS by Prior, Bont & DeGraff*. It has been converted to Power Projection by me, and in so doing a small problem has cropped up, but more of that anon. (*Which, btw, sound like a great law firm. Or laser/lipo surgeons.)

This scenario is based on the Traveller future history of the Interstellar Wars (the same background that has my 15mm Terran ConFed pitted ‘gainst the 15mm Imperials, for those who are keeping track. Anyone? I thought not…)

As I was scheduled to run this at GZG-ECC last month, the various Terran polities were juggled to match up with the Tuffleyverse, but it must be said, the two universes dovetail nicely. (I had to leave the convention early, and never did have the chance to run this.)

The Scenario:
In reprisal for a convoy of Imperial merchants ruthlessly shot up by the Terrans (specifically, the Anglo-American North Atlantic Confederation) the local Imperial governor has sent a punitive expedition to put the wreck on any Terran ships in the Barnard’s Star system. Nations represented include the Russo-Chinese ESU, the French-dominated FEU, and the south-German/Austrian NSL Also representing the Earth is a United Nations Space Agency flotilla of frigates and corvettes.

The NAC, as the party responsible for the shooting spree (this is what you get when you let Brits and Yanks run around space unsupervised) had to stand ready to take whatever the Vilani unleashed, while Europe and Rest of the World happily stood clear to let the Anglo-Americans take a Kick to The Nadlies. The UN squadron, funded by Yankee cash and staffed by Brit mercs also deployed with the NAC.

Turn One: saw the Imperials (played by Megz) make a wobbly acceleration towards the NAC/UN fleet. Megz was learning how to make a vector-based move, which, her being a girl, proved slightly easier than parallel parking. Slightly. The UN/NAC edged forward and loosed their first volley of missiles from the corvettes.

Turn Two: Missiles began to strike their targets (those nifty nuclear-green disks are nukes going up). Two imperial destroyers were damaged, one heavily. A stick of 5 missiles directed at the Imperial light cruiser either missed, were shot down or were blunted by the armour. A direct missile hit on one of the NAC corvettes caused a spontaneous hull breach and the corvette split longwise like a pea pod.
“Uh-oh.” Said the NAC commander, as another corvette lost power and tumbled towards the angry Vilani.

Turn Three:
The remaining NAC/UN corvettes blew up real good. An imperial destroyer also went up. Another stick of six terran missiles converged on what was suspected to be the imperial flagship. They were mostly shot down. With four NAC/UN ships left (one or two with nicks/scrapes from the odd missile) facing an Imperial fleet with three light cruisers and three destroyers, the NAC/UN surrendered. No doubt the Imperials blew them out of space, but we were out of time.

Post-game Thoughts:
This is an odd scenario, as mentioned before, the problem is the Rest of World ships just hanging back, waiting to see what will happen between the NAC/UN and the Imperials. Somehow, I doubt that many gamers are willing to sit for two+ hours, waiting to get into a game. Since the Vilani can’t get all of their victory points by just chewing up the NAC/UN, they will eventually have to engage the Franco-Russo-Chinese-Swabians. My solution will be to break this into a two-session scenario, with the Imperials carrying over any damage/casualties, once they’ve thrashed the NAC/UN.

In the land of frigates, the light cruiser is king. Especially when armed with a royal particle accelerator bay. Any hits scored on the NAC/UN frigates were done by the CL PA’s. (At right, an Imperial light cruiser, with escorts, perfoming a Tokyo Drift. Smug bastards, aren't they?)

I was over-complicating the vector movement. This drove Megz crazy. Heh.

The NAC/UN should have accelerated away from the fight, and not surrendered. Vilani don’t often take prisoners – they foul their own berths, stink up the ship, and complain about the food. Easier to space them. As I mentioned, it was getting late on a Sunday and I was getting tired of making system checks to the sound of Megz and her victory dance. Oh, ohOHoh, OhohOH!

Another option would be to deploy the European Federal States with the NAC, as a gesture of western solidarity, and make the background state that the Euros fired on the merchants, which doesn’t seem likely, unless it was a Sarkozy government. Of course the NAC would stand with the EFS, because the NAC is stoopit, but there you have it.

The idea of the Rest of World, led by the UN, selling the Anglo-Americans out, would feel about right. Ω

The Dinom Channel: All Dinom, All the Time

2009-03-19T05:39:00.000-07:00

I think I’ve run this scenario four times, including a playtest. Each session plays differently. At Travellercon in 2008, the mercenaries barely escaped while the getting was good. At GZG-Con the mercs fairly waltzed off the board with their objective, after giving the miners a good stomping.

At Cold Wars, the miners decided to put the boot in.

There’s not much point in going through turn-sequence again: the scenario is set up to follow a certain course for the first two turns. Miners shoot Alpha Squad, Alpha shoots back, APC’s enter and then the fun begins.

At Cold Wars, the mercs entered via the vehicle locks in the south and EAST – hey? That’s different. As a result, fighting actually spilled into Standpipe Park and the nearby Facilities Complex (combined Police/Fire/Emergency Services), which had not happened previously.

With fighting raging across the dome’s full southern hemisphere, the mercs were less able to mutually support their squads, while the miners had more effective units (the technicals and mining-bee) deploying against them . The mining-bee actually engaged an APC with its mining laser. It didn’t matter, the APC destroyed the ‘bee, but it took 2 turns and scared the knickers off the APC crew.

The miners also developed a new tactic – disable the vehicle airlocks. This was enacted by happenstance, as a desperate technical executed a bootlegger turn into the vehicle lock on east Avenue X to block it. An APC fired its support laser, destroying the technical, and the lock was now quite impassible (bet you wish you heard what the vehicle commander said to the gunner when they learned that the west lock was no longer an exit option). Rather like speaking in tongues, it was.

The miners also developed another use for technicals – hunting command air/rafts. Really, the only vehicle they could go toe-to-toe with was the air/raft so a single technical was tasked with bringing the mercenary command air/raft down. Both vehicles were armed with light machine guns, and after an interesting duel the technical had the better of the air/raft.

Suppressed and cut off, the air/raft landed and the miners were treated to the sight of SMS mercenary officers surrendering. “Do NOT shoot them” said the shop steward, “just kick their ass”. Ah, unions.

Capturing the mercenary commander essentially offset the loss of the data crystal for the miners, resulting in a draw, which really is a victory for the miners.

As a postscript: mention must be made of Kinsey’s Rowdies, the denizens of Kinsey’s Drunken Clambo pub at the corner of Ave.’s X and Y (We're Open All Nite). After two or so turns of building Dutch courage, the rowdies attacked the nearest merc squad, which had deployed in the street outside the pub. The ginned-up buggers fought bravely, but were soundly thrashed by the mercs. Limping back to the pub, their leader had a random though - maybe they should have tried shooting the mercs first?

Nahhhh.
Ω

Amber Zone: Crystals from Dinom

2009-03-04T06:35:00.000-08:00

We ran the old JTAS Amber Zone “Crystals from Dinom” at Ground Zero Games East Coast Convention XII, using 15mm StarGrunt II and a combination of GZG and RAFM miniatures (vehicles by DLD and Old Crow). Unfortunately, we were in a heavily-registered time slot (or else the ECC participants are getting tired of Traveller-themed games, or else it’s me) and our only pre-reg failed to show. Happily, it was myself and Megz, and we had a grand time playing together.

The scenario begins when a squad of SMS mercs (“SMS” for “Spinward Marches Solutions, LLC"), hired by Quadric Industries, has knocked-over an office full of rebellious miners in order to discover the location of an important consignment of jump crystals, which the miners have hidden. The office has been surrounded by the Dinom Workers Defense Committee (or some-such) and they are sniping at the mercs in alpha squad.

Meanwhile, two more squads of SMS mercs are aboard two APCs, trundling to extract alpha squad, while navigating the airlocks and narrow streets of Medianne, the domed mining centre on the planet Dinom.

Unlike the previous time we played (at Travellercon-USA), the mercs were run by a single player (Megz) and were really able to concentrate on the task at hand: extracting alpha squad.

Turn one: the two squads of miners in the loading zone shot up alpha squad, which returned fire. The relief APCs entered the west and south vehicle locks.

Turn two: the APCs roll into Medianne. The Dinom Workers “boss” calls for a tracked vehicle with mining laser to counter. More alpha squad go down.

Turn three: SMS squad beta deploys to a house overlooking the loading zone, where the Dinom Worker’s forces have been sniping on alpha. SMS squad gamma holds tight as their APC cuts round a corner and comes at the worker’s in the loading area from an opposite angle. The workers are bracketed.

As the laser mining vehicle rounds the corner of X and Y, an APC covering the intersection with its light plasma gun blasts it. The mining vehicle is disabled.

Turn Four: One surviving worker from the mining vehicle stumbles into the pub at the corner of X and Y and riles up the collection of drinkers to defend their dome. Five stumble-bums rush next door to brawl with what’s left of alpha squad. Alpha squad stands fast and repels the attack after two tense rounds of close combat. The rowdies leave their wounded and return to the pub.

Turn Five: Squad Gamma exits their APC and collects the survivors from Squad Alpha. The workers have brought in two police “technicals”: pickup trucks with .50 caliber machine guns attached. The APCs dispatch one while the other fires ineffectively at alpha and gamma squads.

Turn Six: APC #2, carrying what’s left of alpha squad (3 or so mercs with wounded) and a detachment of gamma squad heads for the vehicle lock at the north end of Avenue Y. The remaining technical pursues and avoids a plasma shot from APC#1, which is still covering the intersection of X and Y. The technical gunner fires, hoping to knock out the drives of APC #2, but the fire is ineffective. The APC exits on the next turn.

The mercenaries are successful. The jump crystals will flow, at least for now.

Post Game Observations:

StarGrunt II plays best at the level of three or four squads per side. I’ve seen (and run) games with each player moving a platoon, and it just seems much too slow as a result. For games larger than a few squads, another system, like Striker II, moves faster (and despite its problems, is better suited). Ω

Return to Agidda - Striker II AAR

2009-01-27T07:26:00.000-08:00

This past Sunday saw us engaged in the refight for the power plant on Agidda.

Mark M., Jeff D, Howard F, Megz and K-Traks, were the antagonists, with Megz and K-Traks playing the Terran Confed troops as a change of pace.

The objectives were the same – control the last nuclear power plant on the planet Agidda.

Turn 1 is being referred to as “The False War” since the Imperials tried a repeat of last month’s tactics (they had worked before, which I suppose makes it a tradition, so the Vilani players get points for following tradition). This time the Terran ConFeds had lots of disposable, man-portable anti-tank rocket launchers, a battery of 80mm mortars in supports, also two scout tankettes (think M551 Sheridans) and by turn’s end, the battlefield was littered with burning wrecks, paid for by the Shadow Emperor.

We don’t have many pictures of this fateful turn, because it happened so quickly and we were, frankly, shocked at both the attempt and result, but picture the results of the Gulf War and you’ll have a fair idea.

So the Vilani called a ‘do-over’, which apparently they can do, since they invented it about 4000 BC, and the game was re-set. The ConFeds had one of their tankettes lifted, and the Imperials decided to call in smoke.
I had mumbled something about smokescreens to the Imperial players before the first turn of the False War, but they wanted to see the elephant, which they did, and as fuggly a big brute as can be imagined, it was. This time, they called in smoke from a battery of 144mm battalion mortars about 8km (24 real feet) to their rear.

Fortunately for the Imperials, I had just finished designing a battery of 144mm mortars for their battalion assets two days earlier. With an important assault scheduled to go in, the support REMFs were cooperative (for once) and put down a big cloud of smoke (56cm x 42cm) right atop the main ConFed postion (good calling, Howard…). We had to borrow some sheets of writing paper from someone’s WH40$K collection to simulate the smoke, as I hadn’t yet got round to cutting acetate templates.
With the ConFeds mostly blinded, the Imperial GEVAPCs again shot forward (again, I’ll credit the Vilani for being consistent). The Imps lost one APC to anti-tank rocket launchers (the 2 squads aboard had to make survival rolls and mostly passed), while the remaining two APC slipped into the fogbank.

Mortar shells were dropping around the T.52 PD/FP sled while the T.52 was hull down against the ConFed tankette. The tankette fired first (ConFeds have initiative over Imperials while the latter review their “to-do” lists) and missed both times. Now the 44mm mass-driver on the T.52 spoke, and the valiant little tank was sent spinning to oblivion (fair well, Thunderchild!)…

Meanwhile, in the fogbank, something Not Of This Earth stirred – the Vilani were advancing. One of the APCs loomed in the smoke while ConFed troops scored a ATRL shot on it. The APC brewed up while Imperial infantry made survival rolls to debark. Sheltering behind the smoking wreck, the ConFeds peppered the Imperials with heavy machinegun fire. The surviving Imps returned the favour.

The third APC pressed on, and arriving behind the power plant, proceeded to debark squads while under fire of the ConFed weapons team high atop the cooling tower. They took some hits from a SAW and a ram grenade, then both surviving squads blew the ConFed weapons team away.

Once again, the Terran ConFed was surrounded by Imperial troops, though the ConFed still retained control of the administrative buildings (and, most importantly, the billing records, which Imperial accountants desperately wanted for customer solicitation purposes).

This time, while victory went to the Vilani, it was a closer fight. I called it a marginal Imperial victory, and the players agreed.

Rules clarifications:
Stands may only fire one weapons type, unless they are firing a RAM grenade, in which case, the RoF of the RAM grenade is 1 and the ROF of any remaining weapons are halved, rounded down. (We’ve been allowing stands to throw everything and the kitchen sink at the enemy…)

While Striker II automatically has infantry stands take a hit when their APC goes boom and falls down, I like the survival roll (against their close-range asset) and I think most players will prefer it, too, as it gives them a small measure of control of their stands.

New House rules
1) Time scale reduced from five to three minutes. Movement rates are similarly reduced to 60% of original. Firepower not effected, but see below.

2) A stand declares any special weapons fire (RAM grenade, TAC missile, ATRL) before standard weapons (ACRs and SAWs): this dice comes off of the stands standard weapon RoF (ACR). Thus a stand armed with ACRs having an RoF of 3 may fire a RAM grenade and a TAC missile (both RoF 1) and have a single ACR roll left.

3) RAM grenades only affect the target stand. The burst radius and drift are unnecessary complications. Fiddly: there, I said it.

4) Small arms fire that hits stays on target. we're discarding the small arms "drift" rule as an unnecessary (and fiddly) complication.

5) Stands must target nearest enemy stand unless there is a more dangerous threat (crew served weapon, vehicle, death bot). Self-ordering stands are excepted from this restriction.

Post-game reflections:
Five players are probably too many to run through the level of detail that Striker II involves. I’m inclined to say that four players and a moderator is the working maximum, especially in our case, as we meet on a Sunday evening and most must be in the office the next day.

Striker II, being a grand tactical game, produces frustration amongst old time wargamers and newbies as well, as it flips back and forth between not enough tactical control and too much – movement and weapons is grand tac, while using RAM grenades is more straight tactical, with burst radius proving an unnecessary complication. I suspect this is a result of the second version being assembled by a different “author”, who couldn’t resist adding his own encrustations to an otherwise perfectly fine rules set.

Occasionally I think that playing Striker II is like dating a German girl – no matter how much you may be in love, you never really feel loved back. Ω

Striker II AAR

2008-12-01T06:55:00.000-08:00

What follows was a test match using four squads of Ziru Sirka
(1st Imperium, played by K-Tracts and Megz) infantry in two ACV APCs and two squads of
Terran ConFed troops (played by DW) to refresh my memory of the Striker II rules system.

The Terran ConFeds were dug in on a hill at the end of a valley, guarding a power plant. Stands (2 per squad) were armed with TL-10 5.5mm ACRs with shoot-through RAM grenade launchers, each squad had a TL-10 5.5mm SAW. Support stands (1 per squad) were armed with SAWs and man-portable tactical missiles. There was an HMG stand and a Tactical Command stand supporting both squads.

The Terrans were outfitted to reflect a light infantry platoon (though they were short a squad) like that of the contemporary 10th mountain or 82nd airborne - squaddies who get dropped into an area and told to "hold on" until heavier assets can link up with them. It's a helpful trope for making up a tough scenario.

The Ziru Sirka infantry stands (2 per squad) were armed with 7mm ACRs (practically the same for all purposes except giving a 10 metre range advantage to the Imps) with RAM GLs and 7mm SAWs. Support stands were armed similarly to the Terrans. The hover-APCs mounted a single VRF gauss gun and twin tac missile launcher.

Imperial objective was to seize the power plant complex.

Turn 1 began with the Imperial sections making a cautious move around the burning shells of Imperial GEV tanks (placed there by the referee as a warning against taking the Terran's anti-armour abilities lightly) to the cover of a rock formation and a blast crater.

Turn 2 began with surprise as the leading Imp APC (K-Tracs') kicked into overdrive and zipped up the left flank. Infantry ATGMs lashed out at the speeding APC while wide-eyed squaddies clung to their seat-straps and prayed to their ancestors not to punish their officers for failing to follow procedure.The two missiles missed (needing an 11 or less on a d20, reduced to 5 or less due to the vehicles speed (about 200 kph).

Turn 3. The second APC driver fastened his safety belts, muttered a
prayer of protection to the Gods of Parliamentary Procedure, and
kicked it into overdrive to avoid losing contact with #1 Section, which was dodging a second round of ATGM and RAM AP fire (Dice hated DW, the Terran player, who still needed a 5 to hit with the ATGM and a 1 to hit with a RAM AP grenade) while screeching (well, woooshing) to a halt and debarking its two squads.

Those Terrans who weren't firing were redeploying to fire. The rear of their position was rapidly turning into the front of the position - fortunately for them there was a rocky spine along the ridgeline they could use for cover.

Turn 4. The second Imp APC trundled up and debarked a squad against the Terran flank, while #1 Section occupied the building complex and began to snipe at the ConFed troops along the ridge. There was some confusion as to where fire was landing, on the stands which were visible or on the squad as a whole (I ruled the visible stand was to take any hits - there were none). The APCs raked the ConFed lines with VRF gauss gun fire (11 to hit, reduced to 5 or less for cover).

Troopers were starting to fall now. Megz had a hit on two stands, as did K-Tracts, and DW had multiple hits along the line.

Turn 5. The ConFed Line began to crumble (I mis-ruled that one of the ConFed squads had been Forced Back. It hadn't, though it's morale was tottering). At this point, I suggested we call the game as a Ziru Sirka win. The Vilani were sitting on their objectives and the ConFed troops didn't have the strength to dislodge them.

Post-Game Observations:

The biggest complaint came from the Terran ConFed player, who felt the Terrans had too little mobility. He was correct, and there should have been at least one more ConFed squad to hold the power plant buildings proper. Since we were playing a test game, I wasn't (and still ain't) too concerned about presenting an ebb-and-flow kind of scenario. The purpose was to build familiarity with the rules of Striker II, which was just as well, because reviewing the rules later on I discovered a passel of errors made:

"Forced Back" the squad or group must move a full cross-country move away from the enemy unit causing the Force Back result, EXCEPT if the unit is in cover. Then it just moves back deeper in the cover and then gets a "pinned" result. All stands take a Forced Back result when they receive the "red marker" (as the next hit will eliminate the stand).

A 1" LoS may be traced into a building area (ya'll like that 1" measurement in a centimeter-based game? We'll assume they meant "a 25mm LoS".) Concrete building areas give any stands within a +3 saving throw.

Infantry stands and vehicle turrets may fire 360*. Stands measure from the center of the firing *stand* to the center of the target *stand* for range.

The radius for distributing small arms fire is 10cm (about 4 inches). This includes any personnel stands in the same cover as the target (which I suppose could include friendlies).

The Terrans, having the higher iniative (3 to 2), should have resolved fire first in each respective fire sub-phase (effectively allowing them to inflict hits and cause morale checks on the Vilani before the latter could respond).

A single stand can be moved without the entire squad moving. This would have helped the Terran player to selectively shift some of his infantry stands toward the power-plant without moving his tac missile support stands away from the "front" (they would be considered having a "No Order" order and thus eligable for opportunity fire).

A unit must move in the same general direction as their movement chit indicates, and must end with their facing in the same general direction as the chit indicates. (During the game, I ruled correctly and then redacted it in the face of player rationalisation.) The vehicle may freely change it's facing at the end of the final fire phase. (I'm supposing the intention is to allow an opportunity fire shot up the tailpipe if one is available.)

I also discovered the section on Tac Missiles just trails off without discussing counter-measures, flares, and chaff. I'm going to cull some ideas from Striker and Command Decision, from which both systems Striker II is derived. Ω

Striker II Crunchiness

2008-11-26T06:03:00.000-08:00

Played a five turn game of Striker II last Sunday night with three other players, all of whom hadn't played SII before. The scenario was four squads of 1st Imperium infantry in two honking big APCs vs two squads of Terran Confederation

S_II doesn't lend itself as well to quick pickup as say, Stargrunt II. Also, it doesn't lend itself to quick lookups in the book. Despite the use of case point structure (something Frank C. doesn't particularly like) the rules have some gaps in them. Example - unit spacing. At no point do the rules say "Stands in a squad can be no further than x cm apart". The reader must intuit that, because order chits effect those squads within 15cm, stands in a squad may be no further that 15cm from the commander.

Further example - the section on tac missiles just stops at the end of page. Nothing on counter measures or decoys. One might suspect that the rest of the relevant section was lost in the formatting phase. (Michelle Sturgeon strikes again...)

That said, the basic rules can be transcribed onto a cheat sheet with minimal effort.

In the game we played, both sides were using Experienced troops, the Vilani with slightly higher moral (13) and slightly lower initiative (2).

Modifiers for cover yeild the equivalent of a range-band increase, so a firefight at medium range (avg of 16-18 cm) requires a 5 to hit, modified to a 2. Roll 3 dice (Rate of Fire) for 2s to hit. That's a 10% hit rate for most of the game.

In a nutshell, 2 squads of Terran Confed were dug in on a hill at the end of a valley, protecting a power plant. The Vilani Imperials entered with four squads and two ACV APCs. Rather than debark their infantry for a long, slow slog, the Imps instead ran down the flanks at speeds of between 110 and 220 kph, dodged the anti-vehicle missle fire which could have ended the game on turn one/two, deployed in the Terran rear zone on turn 3, and then pounded the Terrans on turn 4/5. The vilani were left sitting on their objective, leaving the Terrans without the strength to dislodge them.

I'll be posting some pictures and a more detailed AAR over the long weekend.

Amusing quotes
Vilani Section Leader has had his request for artillery support denied (there was a pre-game bombardment).
Section Leader: "Haven't you guys ever heard of 'Time on Target'?"
Artillery Battery Major: "Yes, and that 'time' was 0:600 hours. We apologise if you found the timetable inconvenient."

Vilani APC Section has zipped down the board flank, dodged 3 or so Anti-Vehicle missiles, and is disembarking troops in the Terran rear zone.
Vilani Section Leader: "I think I deserve a medal..."
Referee: "You might get one, if you aren't first found guilty for Gross Innovation ..."

What I'm Talkin' about, Willis

2008-11-25T08:34:00.000-08:00

Welcome to my first blog. Herein you, dear reader, may gaze into the shadowy world of miniature wargames, the obsessive lurking types that play them, and the occasional argument this hobby produces (in spates).