Sunday 15 November 2009

Rules Update!

Hi!

Well its been another busy week at uni leaving me with almost no time to get any painting done! Alas Ive only managed to get a single miniature painted all week!

Other than that Ive had a further perusal of the internet for some suitable rulesets to try out, including Wildfire, Savage Worlds, and Chaos in Carpathia. The rules range from hard sci-fi to pulp but with the wide array of tech levels and planets featured in the stainless steel rat books I figure they will all be of some use!

Hopefully over the course of next weekend I will be able to get either a bit of painting done or try out a couple of rulesets! I hope to start up a bit of a mini campaign and play a couple of games a week (uni work permitting!) featuring Jims mission to Freibur!

Ive already got enough painted miniatures to play a couple of different skirmish level games so hopefully there will be some reports coming in from Jim soon!

All the best!

Friday 9 October 2009

Hired Thugs!

Hi!

Ive had a quick update from the chaps over at 15mm.co.uk! Heres the message:

Want Something for Nothing?

Get yourself a FREE pack of 15mm Science Fiction miniatures from the HOF range by 15mm.co.uk.


HOF54 Rim Mercenaries (10 Miniatures) worth £3.50 for nothing except the postage.

HOF 54 Human Rim Mercenaries. This pack contains ten miniatures taken from three poses of human males armed with automatic rifles dressed in paramilitary gear. Useful for any scenario or force that needs skilled fighters who wear no official uniforms such as guerillas or levies raised for planetary defence or alien invasion.

Go to this Link and add ONE pack to your cart and then proceed to the checkout page.

You need order nothing else if you do not wish to. We will then send you your free pack of science fiction 15mm miniatures.

PLEASE NOTE: We will only honour orders which contain ONE FREE PACK ONLY. If your order contains more than one of these packs we will still supply you but with only one pack.

This Offer is Valid Until Monday 19th October 2009

As always if there are any questions please email me directly at sales@15mm.co.uk


Ive got some of the figures and they did paint up rather nicely and I have a batch more which will be acting as heavily armed re-enforcements for Angelinas thugs!

All the best!

All the best!

Wednesday 7 October 2009

Yet Another Halt To Work!

Hi!

Just a quick update!

Im really busy at uni at the mo so my painting time is almost non existent so I doubt I will have chance to get any painting done for the next week or so!

Worry not! Things will be back to normal after that as I am determined to get an evening off every week to get some miniatures painted!

In the meantime all the best!

Tuesday 6 October 2009

Police Skimmer!

Hi!

Heres another police skimmer:


Police Float Disk

The miniature is one of the Foatdisc Heavy Scouts and as its a commission piece I didnt add the new style 30mm round base. I quite like the pilots irate expression!

UPDATE!

Ive just finished a heavy weapon version of the skimmer to add some firepower to my police forces:


Police Shooters!

All the best!

Friday 2 October 2009

Stainless Steel Battle Report!

Hi!

Ive managed to get another game in using Rogue Trader as a ruleset!

I will post some pics in the morning but in the meantime heres the battle report:

The Scenario

The Special Corps has dropped Jim some top secret supplies onto Freibur cunningly concealed within a meteor. Unfortunately for Jim the meteors trajectory was slightly off and the falling rock impacted close to one of the Rdenruntian outposts and a small village. Jim has raced towards the impact site only to find a couple of thuggish troops poking around the meteor.

Its now up to Jim to sneak up on them and immobilise the troops without raising the alarm and unload the spy gear from the meteor before the remainder of the Rdenrunt patrol turns up.

Unfortunately the troopers have already called their base and a truck is heading for the crash site to recover the meteor so Jim has a very tight schedule!

Setup

Jims deployment zone is in the village while there are two Rdenruntian troops guarding the meteor. The remainder of the squad are in a building opposite the village with an armoured car parked outside with a single sentry patrolling the compound. There are also over a dozen civilians milling around the village itself.

The Game!

The game began with Jim beginning to move towards the impact crater while the sentries milled around aimlessly.

Jim was soon in position in the undergrowth overlooking the sentries but sees the truck rumbling along the roadway so springs into action by firing his needle gun at one of the guards. Unfortunately the guard slumped to the ground just as his companion turned round. The guard scanned the bush but failed to spot Jim, meanwhile the truck left the road and promptly got bogged down in the mud (i was to spend much of the game in the same position!)

The next turn saw a brisk exchange of fire between Jim and the remaining sentry which saw Jim take a wound while the unfortunate trooper was knocked out with a burst of tranquiliser darts. Unfortunately the sound of gunfire had alerted the garrison and Rdenruntian troopers began pouring out of the building towards their armoured car and the crash site.

Jim soon made his way to the meteor and quickly set about recovering the equipment concealed within. In the meantime Troopers attempted, without much luck to get their armoured car started and the remainder continued closing on Jims position.

After recovering the equipment Jim made for his skimmer but was spotted by a cleaver wielding civilian who promptly charged screaming at diGriz. Somewhat taken aback by the old lady with the cutlery Jims needle pistol fire missed her and she managed to get into combat with him forcing Jim to knock her out!

The delay caused meant that Jim couldnt make it back to his getaway vehicle before the troopers got to it and began blazing away at him. Fortunately their marksmanship was truly awful and they all missed.

Despite a storm of lead whistling past his ears a somewhat bloodied Jim managed to run for the edge of the table and escape.

I also have a second game to write up featuring the flight of Jim as he attempts to find a medical kit and transport while dodging military patrols and local hicks!

I will try and post some pics and a second battle report over the course of the next couple of days but Ive got a fair amount of work to do both with my painting commission and uni!

All the best

Tuesday 29 September 2009

Starship Crew!

Hi!

Just a quick update with a pic of my starship crew:


Starship Crew

The figures are from the 15mm.co.uk Starfighter Crew pack and are a nice batch of figures, especially the little asronavigation droid!

I plan on using them as an objective in some of my Stainless Steel Rat games as theres several instances when Slippery Jim has had to overpower or avoid starship crews while carrying out heists and daring escapes!

Sunday 27 September 2009

I'm Back!

Hi!

I'm back from my hols and am back at uni from tomorrow!

I am planning on posting a basing tutorial on the blog here as theres been quite a lot of questions as to how its been done and what materials Ive used!

The plan is to post some step by step pics and a bit of a blurb about the process. Alas Its going to be a couple of days before I get anything done for the article as Ive got some commission work still to finish and I suspect I am going to be a bit busy with my uni work too!

Till then all the best!

Friday 18 September 2009

A Commission, A Holiday And Uni! Oh My!

Hi!

Ive got a bit of a commission to paint some 15mm sci-fi miniatures so Im not going to be able to update this blog for a week or so as Ive got till Saturday to finish painting them and then head off to Skye with my friends before returning to university in a week and a bit! The first batch of painted miniatures has gone on here. here
and here!

Its all very action packed but hopefully the Stainless Steel Rat will not suffer too much and I will be painting some more stuff and indeed playing some more games soon!

In other news I seem to have been awarded a Academic Achievement Scholarship from uni which is nice, if somewhat unexpected! It comes with a cheque for £1000 which was a nice surprise! Alas Im not going to spend it on miniatures but on some much needed drawing software upgrades for my illustration work (Ok there may be a bit left over for miniatures!)

All the best!

UPDATE!

Theres some more pics on my other blog showing some more commission work along with some other bits and bobs!

All the best!

Wednesday 16 September 2009

Angelina: Interstellar Criminal

Hi!

Just spotted this pic while perusing the Harry Harrison blog:


Angelina

Its quite a nice match for my Angelina model:


15mm Scale Angelina

I may paint up another one with brown hair and pointing the pistol a bit more aggressively!

All the best!

Freibur Frontiersmen!

Hi!

Heres a pic of the latest additions to my Freibur frontier settlers:


Frontiersmen!

Ive now got more than a dozen of the fellows painted and I hope to get a game involving a posse of frontier types trying to capture and lynch our intrepid hero! I was in two minds as to which of my blogs to post them on but as they cover both Stainless Steel Rat games and general sci-fi I think they will get posted on both!

With only two of the frontier miniatures left to paint I am now turning my attention to the Stellar Guard which were undercoated last night...

UPDATE!

Heres a pic of the last two of the frontier posse, including Hanging Judge Jenkins!


Hanging Judge Jenkins & Minion!

The Judge is a Peter Pig wild west character (the pack comes with him mounted, on foot and dead allowing me to use him as part of a mounted or foot posse as well as an objective!) The figure has literally tons of character ranging from his gaunt, old guy face to a pair of rather impressive spectacles! I can see him shuffling around in a crotchety manner giving the townsfolk orders while blasting at anything that comes into his myopic field of vision with his trusty shotgun!

With the addition of a sheriff and some deputies to lead the posse it should make for an interesting game fielding a bunch of backward hicks against the galaxies finest criminal!

Theres some more pics of them over on my other blog Farpoint Salvage!

All the best!

Monday 14 September 2009

An Update From Inskipp!

Hi!

After my re-think of my blogging I have been off to see my friends in Newcastle for a bit of a break. Now Im back I have been rummaging round my box of unpainted miniatures to see what Ive got that will fit in as some of the assorted characters from the Stainless Steel Rat books. Ive got a load of bits and bobs waiting to get painted for my Farpoint Salvage blog but not much for the blog here.

This must be sorted out soon! I am going to place a small order for some new characters and have got some stellar guard to paint while Im waiting.

The Stellar Guard are mentioned in the first of Slippery Jims adventures and I figure they could make a nice, bright addition to the forces of good. I plan on giving them very bright uniforms, based on the classic pulp sci-fi films and comics as they are described as being a bit flash and showy.

I am using some of the Laserburn miniatures as the basis of them (theres a couple of armoured types with the Flash Gordon type of helmets and cloaks) The patrol is a bit under strength at present as there are only three of them but will soon be re-enforced by a further five troopers. I also have another chap whos perfect for an officer to lead them.

Hopefully I will be able to get some painting done today and post a pic of my progress tomorrow!

All the best!

Friday 11 September 2009

Police Re-enforcements!

Hi!

Just a quick update from 15mm.co.uk! Theyve got a small feature on their Metropolis Police Patrol:

Heres a quick pic of some I painted a while back:


Police!

http://www.15mm.co.uk/HOF52_Megopolis_Police_Patrol.htm

The packs been available for a while now but theyve got some nice pics of painted samples online now. Theres a small review of them earlier on in my blog too.

All the best!

Thursday 10 September 2009

A Quick Rethink!

Hi!

Ive finally given up on painting 28mm stuff after a truly miserable evening spent getting more and more frustrated after three miniatures paint jobs in a row proved to be abject failures. I suspect its because I have been painting, and more importantly enjoying painting, 15mm scale figures.

Because of this I have decided to re-work my blogs a bit as after reviewing some of the stuff I posted here I have noticed that quite a bit of the recent posting has got away from the spirit of the Stainless Steel Rat books. Essentially the project was originally more about collecting characters, individuals and some minions based on the characters in the book. Lately Ive been getting a bit too enthused with painting military vehicles and mechs which while fun, arent what Slippery Jim is about!

From now on I will only be posting the more pulp miniatures and Stainless Steel Rat battle reports here while all the military stuff and sci-fi wargames and so on will be posted over on my Farpoint Salvage blog:

http://farpointsalvage.blogspot.com/

As already mentioned in an early post here Slippery Jim deserves his own blog and in keeping with that I think a bit of re-organisation is just whats needed!

Worry not its all going to be 15mm scale goodness but just a bit better oganised and I will be updating both blogs at regular intervals!

Next up for this blog is to get some of the named characters from the first Stainless Steel Rat book painted up!

All the best!

Wednesday 9 September 2009

Automated Defence!

Hi!

Just a quick update with a pic of my automated defence droid!


Defence Droid!

The miniature is a kit bash of a few different bits and pieces and is just the sort of thing miners may leave to keep guard of their claim or unscrupulous Megecorps would use to pacify unruly sorts!

All the best!

Tiny Robot And Giant Spider!

Hi!

Alas I didnt have much chance to get any painting done yesterday but did finish another small robot:


Robot!

Its a Mechwarrior plastic power armour miniature and because it looks a bit Japanese I decided to paint it up in a slightly manga style using purple and white. Alas the picture isnt that great but its quite a nice little model. I am going to have a rummage through my bits box to see if I can find any more!


Giant Spider and Some Meteorite!

Also a Giant Spider and another salvage/objective counter, this time a valuable lump of meteoric rock (in one of the Stainless Steel Rat books Jim uses just such an item to drop all his gear onto an unfriendly planet undetected so it could make for a good objective for Jim to get to before a patrol of troops turns up)

The spider is a plastic Warhammer Quest giant spider and the objective is a small rock I found (I continue to try and work to a budget!)

All the best!

Tuesday 8 September 2009

Frontier Militia Re-enforcements!

Hi!

Heres a quick pic of my frontier militia heavy weapons!


Guns and Stuff!

From left to right: Frontier type with shotgun, missile launcher, support laser and heavy sniper rifle. The heavy weapons are all converted (the missile launcher is a cocktail stick, the laser is a plastic piece from Battlefleet Gothic and the sniper rifle is a couple of pieces of wire!) At 15mm scale weapons are really easy to convert which is a definite plus!

I quite like how the weapons turned out and may have to have the heavy rifle armed guy leading a Sponk hunting party at some point. It reminds me of Burts punt gun from one of the Tremors movies:



Ive still got another few frontier types to paint up but they are all armed with an assortment of small arms and Ive got another small robot, a giant spider and another salvage objective marker undercoated and waiting to be painted today!

All the best!

Sunday 6 September 2009

A Fair Sized Update!

Hi!

Ive been working on a few vehicles, frontier types and even the occasional objective counter so without further ado heres the pics:


Mining Mech


Unmanned Scout Drone


More Frontier Types!


Salvage Objective Marker!

The mech is on of the old mechwarrior plastic mining mechs and is equipped with mining hammer, lasers and seismic charges. I used an article from Ramshackle Games to get the rusty look and quite like how its turned out.

The Unmanned Drone is one of the plastic starships from EM4 Miniatures and Ive had it kicking around for ages and decided that my frontier militia could do with a fairly low tech scout vehicle. I still need a controller figure for it but am sure I will find a suitable figure somewhere! It could make for quite an interesting scenario with one side controlling the drone and the other trying to either avoid being spotted or shooting it down with the possibility of a herd of militia turning up to see what happened to their drone!

The frontier types are all Peter Pig cowboys with the occasional piece of wire to convert a normal pistol into a heavy las pistol! Ive got another dozen to paint so will try and get them finished over the next day or so! I tried to go for a combination of traditional and new clothing and equipment as befitting a bunch of hardy frontier dwellers!

The salvage is a mixture of plastic gubbins I had kicking around and some metal stowage from Ground Zero Games that Ive had in my bits box for best part of a decade. Although intended to be 25mm scale I found they worked just as well in 15mm. I plan on placing a small order with GZG over the next couple of days for some more barrels and possibly a few infantry!

I am also hoping to get a game or two played at some point today but wont be posting any pictures as many of the miniatures are unpainted!

All the best!

Saturday 5 September 2009

Frontier Armour!

Hi!

Heres a quick pic of a piece of salvaged armour for my frontier types:


Old Thunder (updated picture)

The tanks body is a Peter Pig WW2 Sherman while the turret is from a plastic Mechwarrior vehicle.

The frontier militia have decided they need to beef up their starports security and have commissioned Sturn Industries to build an armoured fighting vehicle capable of driving off raiders and other lawless types. Alas as Sturn Industries is one man in his shed the armoured vehicle is made from an old bulldozer Sturn had parked next to his shed and some old League spares bought off the back of a lorry from someone named Jim.

The vehicles top speed is a mighty 15mph and compared to modern armour its pretty sub standard. Saying that the main gun (a Mk2 Masher class plasma gun) can easily cope with the light vehicles usually associated with raiders and is even capable of punching holes in most small ships. Also equipped with a bow mounted machine gun and a turret mounted quad recoilless long gun the tank, christened Old Thunder due partly to the noise its ancient engine makes and partly due to the roar of its main gun, can also churn out quite a lot of fire.

Sturn is so proud of the monstrosity he volunteered for the militia and is now the tanks engineer, in fact its only his constant tinkering which keeps the inelegant machine running.

As yet Old Thunder is yet to see combat so its unknown how it will cope with its mission!

I plan on trying out the tanks performance in a game as soon as possible but think it will need some targets to shoot up...

All the best!

Thursday 3 September 2009

Yet More Rulebook Ponderings!

Hi!

Well Ive managed to play more games using 15mm scale over the last month than I have over the previous 3 years using other scales so its looking promising!

Ive found some more rulesets I plan on trying including VOR, Void and two editions of Warzone. Although several of these systems have specific settings I dont see why I cant do a bit of conversion work to allow existing stats to be used for characters, vehicles and units in Stainless Steel Rat gaming.

In fact Void and Warzone have some really interesting units and forces which could fit in really nicely with the universe of Slippery Jim (admittedly not the mutated monsters and aliens of the dark legion or koralon but Bauhaus, Imperial, Cybertronic, Capitol, Syntha, Viridia and the Junkers could easily be converted to act as planetary defence forces, league troops and assorted villains!) Meanwhile VOR has a custom force generator and the Growlers are just begging to be converted to 15mm scale (Imagine a giant angry ape/lizard, then imagine a pack of them hurtling toward you!)

Heres a pic of some I painted a while back:


Growlers

Admittedly they are 28mm scale but the pups (the little guys) are just about perfect for 15mm scale while the big guys can easily be seen as a sort of bio-tank! Imagine Jim being sent by the Corps to find out what happened to a newly built colony which has lost contact only to find its been over run by a pack of angry growlers defending their territory. I can imagine Jim calling in some big guns to help deal with the situation which could make for a really interesting game!

Im hoping to get another few games in over the course of the next week or so using an assortment of systems but I think the beauty of 15mm is that I can collect forces for each game, paint them and tailor them to the Stainless Steel Rat universe at a fraction of the cost, or indeed painting time of attempting the same in 28mm scale.

Alas I am back at university next month so my hobby time will be seriously curtailed but I plan on setting aside an evening a week to get some games in or paint up some more stuff!

All the best!

UPDATE!

Hi!

Ive just found my copy of Battleground Trinitry and will have a go at that too. It features quite an interesting setting which could be ported into the Stainless Steel Rat universe with little effort!

An Unusual Addition!

Greetings!

I spotted this in Toys R Us for the princely sum of 99p and thought it would make a nice addition to my Stainless Steel Rat games:


Airship!

Its an airship for the Golden Compass movie but could make a nice small blimp for Count Cassitor or even a nice scout ship for any other force!

The miniature measures in at just over 20cm long and is just about perfect for 15mm scale. Its also just the thing for Aeronef players and anyone into Victorian sci-fi!

Im not sure if I will repaint it as I quite like the colour as is and it fits in quite nicely with Count Cassitors minions!

All the best!

Wednesday 2 September 2009

Frontier Cargo Vehicle

Hi!

Heres a quick pic of another vehicle, this time a light cargo vehicle for use on some of the more backward planets of the League:


Cargo!

The vehicle is another mechwarrior plastic miniature with all its missile launchers chopped off. Its just about perfect for a light cargo hauler for frontier worlds without a proper road system. Its still equipped with a defensive weapon as you can never be sure that some lawless types arent going to try and try and steal your cargo.

I reckon it will also do for games of star mogul as Ive been looking for a decent salvage vehicle in 15mm scale!

I also have a few more hover tanks to paint up for my League peacekeepers but think my next objective will be to paint up some more infantry and characters (these will include some more frontier types, a squad of elite league troops and a few more of Angelinas armed minions!)

All the best

Tuesday 1 September 2009

League Peacekeeper Armoured Car!

Hi!

Heres a pic of the first of my Galactic League peacekeeping vehicles:


League Armoured Car

The vehicle is quite a bit more high tech than previous vehicles Ive painted but it looks the part for a member of the Leagues peacekeepers. Although the Mechwarrior miniatures are 10mm scale the vehicles fit in quite well with 15mm stuff!

A Salvage Droid!

Hi!

Heres a quick pic of a salvage droid Ive painted up:


A Grubby Salvage Droid

Although hes a 28mm scale miniature, he works perfectly for a heavy salvage droid in 15mm scale and his hammer could probably squash an unfortunate hero flat!

I went a bit overboard with weathering but it turned out quite nicely. Ive also found some plastic Mechwarrior vehicles which are just abut the right size for 15mm gaming so now have some more high tech armour for Slippery Jim to avoid. I plan on painting them up as a League peackeeper unit which will allow me to play some larger games following the Special Corps attempts to deal with Count Cassitor and Angelina!

All the best!

Thursday 27 August 2009

Off On Holiday!

MEMORANDUM FROM INSKIPP

I am off on holiday for the next month so doubt I will have time to update the blog for a bit but worry not I will get back to work on painting and posting battle reports upon my return!

MESSAGE ENDS...

Wednesday 26 August 2009

No Limits Battle Report

Hi!

Heres the latest in a series of battle reports using different rulesets that I have played over the course of the week. This time I have been using No Limits, a freely downloadable ruleset available from Wargames Unlimited.

So without further ado heres the latest of Slippery Jim diGriz's heroic exploits!

The Scenario

After his unsuccessful raid on the warehouse to steal an artefact for Count Cassitor Jim decides to get some pay back on his employer for saddling him with a bunch of thugs who had promptly botched the heist and in the resulting fire fight several security guards had died and Jim had barely escaped.

Hearing that the count has a small science station operating on developing some highly secret project Jim has decided to break in and steal whatever it is that the scientists are working on.

The Objective

The science station is guarded by a squad of police troopers and Jims objective is to break into the bio dome where the top secret scientific data is being stored while either avoiding detection or silencing the guards.

The guards, once alerted will sound the alarm summoning all sorts of police re-enforcements so its important for Jim to be quick and quiet!

The Game!


The Bio Dome Objective

Jim begins by moving quietly behind one of the science station buildings, watching as the doughty forces of law and order plod around in a vaguely confused manner (in their eyes its a highly effective patrol rotation)

Jim prepares to make his move, one of the plods is standing isolated from his brethren so Jim clambers over a boundary hedge, picking up a few thorns in tender places as he does so, and aims his needle pistol at the beefy trooper. The silent weapons tranquilliser darts find their target and the guard crumples to the ground snoring faintly.


Jim Sneaks Forward

As the trooper snores his fellow officers continue their routine patrol but unfortunately for Jim the police sergeant chooses this moment to make a surprise inspection of the security detail and stumbles over the happily slumbering form of the darted trooper. Slowly the brutish instincts of the sergeant tell him somethings wrong. The alarm is raised!


The Tranquilised Trooper Is Found!

Cursing the sergeant Jim opens up with his pistol again hoping to silence the bellowing with a few well placed darts. Unfortunate dice rolling means that although the sergeant is hit and effected by the darts he still thrashes around woozily.

Hearing the cries of distress from their sergeant the remaining police start moving towards Jims location. As Jim prepares to move the sergeant spots him and lets rip with his riot gun. Despite Jims lightning reactions he is still wounded by the cloud of pellets.

Uttering a savage oath Jim returns fire and grimly smiles as his tormentor finally succumbs to the tranquilliser drug, possibly helped by the fact that he now resembles a pin cushion. Knowing that the rest of the police are closing in Jim makes a dash for the cover of a pile of cargo only to find a burly policeman waiting for him.


Seeing Stars!

The troopers club connects with Jims head causing another wound and it takes another full turn for jim to subdue his attacker. Another trooper rushes into view and spots Jim but runs out of actions allowing Jim to open fire and knocking him out.

There is only a single police trooper left and he wisely moves back to protect the bio dome and its precious contents. Finally re-enforcemets arrive in the distance as a police skimmer appears on the roadway.

Knowing that his time is limited Jim moves toward the bio dome but is charged by the remaining trooper (obviously emboldened by the sight of the flashing blue lights in the distance. During the melee the trooper manages to hit Jim twice but fails to wound him and jim finally manages to beat the stubborn trooper senseless and moves up to the bio dome.


Trouble Ahead!

Seeing Jim enter the bio dome the skimmer pilot powers down the road towards the buildings in hopes of catching Jim red handed. A police squad also arrives on board and begin to hurry down the road towards the action.

Emerging from the dome with a pile of secret documents Jim sees the skimmer bearing down on him and risks a burst with his needle pistol but the metal frame of the skimmer deflects the darts. Seeing that his weapon isn't going to stop the skimmer Jim takes to his heels and heads for the main buildings where he spotted some vehicles.


Jim With Swag

The skimmer fired repeatedly at the retreating form but failed to hit. Jim turned and fired, hoping to keep the skimmer off his back as he tried to hot-wire a yellow hover truck, unfortunately he again failed to damage the skimmer whose pilot, enraged by the flagrant law breaking opened fire again this time chipping paint off the truck Jim lurked in.


Hotwire Under Pressure!

The police squad continued its slog towards the action and a rumbling engine heralded the arrival of a police armoured car.

Jim managed to start the truck and rumbled forward as the skimmer took up a position blocking him from his getaway route. Seeing this Jim turned the vehicle and headed back towards the buildings. The skimmer moved again trying to block his route of escape but Jim out foxed it by performing an impressive hand break turn and speeding towards the open fields and freedom.

The police armoured car entered the building complex and seeing the yellow truck speeding past them the gunner opened fire with his machine gun but the burst went wide. Jim floored the accelerator and thundered off board.


Getaway!

Again it was the first time Ive played the game in ages so had to keep referring to the rules but it was quite an enjoyable game and really got into the spirit of the Stainless Steel Rat books with Jim dodging police and bullets to commit a heist and then making a heroic dash for freedom!

Although No Limits is aimed towards battles rather than small scale rpg lite type games it played surprisingly well as the activation system allow you to move, shoot and perform actions in any order allowing for quite a bit of sniping. Other items of note are the abilities you can give your troops and characters. For example Jim had the Evade ability allowing him to dodge bullets and blows that would kill a lesser man. It was just as well he did as he put the ability to good use during the game!

I am off on holiday tomorrow so there wont be any more battle reports for a bit but rest assured I will get back to it on my return as well as painting up a load more stuff!

All the best!

Tuesday 25 August 2009

Star Mogul Battle Report Part 2!

The Game!


The game started with Angelinas thugs moving towards the salvage crew by leaving the village Meanwhile Slikk revved his vehicles engine and surged towards the opposing dropship zone.


Angelias Thugs Deploy

Seeing the opposition boiling out of the village Alexandr hurried his group towards the nearest salvage on the hillside next to the settlements ruined generator. The yellow pig swept forward slowly with its crew nervously fingering their sidearms and cursing Alexandrs decision not to mount a weapon on the ramshackle vehicle. His miserlyness would come back to haunt them...


Farpoint Salvage Are Go!


The Raiders Are Spotted!

Angelinas thugs continued to close with their opponents and were met with a smattering of gunfire. Although several shots hit none managed to cause any damage. The return of fire was somewhat more effective causing Ripp to fall from a vicious burst of fire from RED K1LLR.

The salvage crew, obviously enraged by the loss of their veteran crewmate (possibly partly due to his owing them money, and now with his biting the bullet how would they get their money back!) sent a wall of lead towards the opposition and cheered as the large red robot was blasted to smithereens, despite its primitive self repair systems the damage caused was too serious and RED K1LLR collapsed into a pile of scrap.

Alas this was the high point of the Farpoint team as Angelina, obviously annoyed that her hulking bodyguard had been dispatched took a pot shot at Alexandr and grinned as he was blasted off his feet. Tonk soon followed his boss as fire from Hogg took him out of action.

Things were not looking good for the salvage team at this point but a valiant fight back from EDDY and BUNGLE managed to blast Hoff (they hassled the Hoff!) and Angelina, possibly still gloating about putting Alexandr out of action, took a bullet and fell limply to the gound.

While the fire fight was blazing away, the Yellow Pig had quietly crept forward and Frank and Gubbs hopped out and loaded the cargo into the rear of the vehicle!

Even as this was happening BUNGLE, the Farpoints blue robot collapsed with a shot to his electronic cortex. Slikk finally managed to manouver out of the village and opened fire on EDDY but the bulky green robot shrugged off the fire from the LMG. Instead he turned and blased several shots into the raiders vehicle cuasing a loss of most of its frontal armour.


Things Are Looking Grim For The Farpoint Crew


Slikk Rumbles Into Battle (and the Farpoint drop zone!)

Despite his heroic last stand EDDY finally went down from an unrelenting stream of fire from the vehicle mounted LMG. Despite a heroic effort from EDDY’s nanite swarm he didnt regain his feet but started smouldering as fires started by the bullets which had pierced his armour burned out his electronics.

Hearing the sudden slackening of fire the crew of the Yellow Pig lept back into their vehicle and began making their way back to the drop zone. Unfortunately they were spotted by the remaining thugs and bullets were soon flying thick and fast at the battered yellow truck. The fire was worryingly accurate as its superstructure took a point of damage and it suffered a severe power core leak. As the truck ground to a halt the remaining Farpoint crew bailed out and surrendered to the raiders.

I Rolled for the casualties afterwards and the Raiders lost one droid and Hogg (surprisingly Angelina survived!), the Farpoint Salvage team were not as lucky as both their droids were damaged beyond repair while Tonk and Tate also died. Alexandr survived despite his wounds and now holds a grudge against Angelina for the death of his crew and more importantly, she had stolen his precious dropship. League military found the remaining crew living off frozen Macswiney burgers a month after the battle. Angelina and the dropship the Daisy Mae are yet to be found.

As it was my first game using Star Mogul I am sure I made quite a few mistakes with the rules but it was quite a lot of fun! The fog of war rule which can mean your opponent can activate during your own turn made for a very entertaining game!

I have become quite attatched to the Farpoint Salvage team and can see them making a comeback despite their mauling at the hands of a bunch of thieves!

Star Mogul Battle Report Part 1

Hi!

Heres the first part of a battle report using the Star Mogul ruleset!

The Scenario:

Open salvage has been broadcast across the Outer Rim by the Frontier Union on either a crashed star freighter, an abandoned space colony, an old battle field or maybe an alien archaeological site. Two or more players have raced to the remote site where the discovery has been made, and deployed upon the surface to recover the salvage present and, hopefully, claim the salvage rights. The site may not have a breathable atmosphere, in which case the players may choose to only use crew members equipped with battle armour or other similar hermetically sealed suits. This is entirely up to the agreement between the two players. Vehicles should be used.

If a player can gain the salvage rights, then the Interstellar Frontier Union Government will pay big money for what they recover. In order to gain the salvage rights, however, a salvage company will have to recover OVER 50% of the salvage present to prove their claim – which means getting it back to their drop zone and having it airlifted out
via their drop ship while under heavy fire, no doubt, from the competition, who will not be too happy at the prospect of losing the salvage rights, and hence making very little or no money at all from the mission.

The Forces

Both players start with 30000 Credits to set up and equip their salvage company but as you need to pay your crew (not to mention keep a reasonable amount of cash back as a contingency fund incase things go wrong!)


Farpoint Salvage

Alexandr (company boss) armed with small arms (small arms skill 8, hand to hand skill 6, bargaining skill 5, salvaging appraisal skill 2)
Ripp (experienced crew) armed with arclight blaster (small arms skill 8, hand to hand combat 8, salvage hound skill 5)
Frank (regular crew) armed with small arms (small arms skill 3, driving vehicle skill 5)
Gubbs (regular crew) armed with small arms, salvage tools (small arms skill 6, hand to hand skill 5)
Tonk (regular crew) armed with small arms (small arms skill 5, hand to hand skill 6)
Elwood (regular crew) armed with small arms (small arms skill 4, engineer skill 4)
Tate (regular crew) armed with small arms (small arms skill 5, hand to hand skill 6)
EDDY (experienced mekk) armed with small arms (small arms skill 5, damage control nanobots 5, technician skill 3)
BUNGLE (regular mekk) armed with small arms (small arms skill 5, hand to hand skill 6)
Salvage Dog (the Yellow Pig!) Driven by Frank


Angelinas Raiders

Angelina (company boss) armed with small arms and grenades (small arms skill 9, hand to hand skill 9, grenade throwing skill 7)
Kurt (veteran crew) armed with small arms (small arms skill 8, hand to hand skill 8, hard as nails skill 3)
Slikk (average crew) armed with small arms (small arms skill 2, driving vehicle skill 6)
Cutter (average crew) armed with small arms (small arms skill 8)
Kipp (average crew) armed with small arms (small arms skill 4, engineer skill 4)
Hogg (average crew) armed with small arms (small arms skill 5, hand to hand skill 4, technician skill 2)
Dent (average crew) armed with small arms (small arms skill 4, hand to hand skill 7)
Hoff (average crew) armed with small arms (small arms skill 5, hand to hand skill 6)
RED K1LLR (veteran mekk) armed with small arms (small arms skill 8, hand to hand skill 10, damage control nanobots skill 1)
Salvage dog with LMG (Slikks Wheels) Surprisingly driven by Slikk!

The Setup

The abandoned colony of Murchisons Gulch is rumoured to have got some decent items of salvage and Farpoint Salvage had hit dirtside in search of some useful bits and pieces. Unbeknownst to them Angelina and her gang of thugs are holed up in the ruins of the colony after pulling off a particularly brutal raid on a nearby systems merchant shipping.

No sooner do the hapless scrap hounds set out to explore the area than Angelinas mob rumbles up and starts shooting.

Farpoint Salvages owner is a grizzled marine veteran named Alexandr whos not the type to back down from a fight. Assuming the hostiles are another salvage team out to steal his cargo he orders his crew forward in the hopes of driving the opposition off world.

Obective

There are three items of salvage (cryogenically frozen Macswineys burgers, bootleg booze or useful machinary) scattered around the board and the salvage teams objectie is to secure these valuables while holding off the hostiles and move it back to their deployment zone to await pick up from their dropship (The Daisy Mae)

Angelinas only objective is to kill or capture the salvage team which will allow them to grab the dropship when it arrives.

Its taken me a while to compile the force list as theres a little more book keeping required for Star Mogul. Its more of a skirmish campaign system like necromunda where the aim of the game isnt always to simply blast the opposition into their component atoms! It should make for an interesting game as Star Mogul has some really interesting mechanisms which could lead to some really random happenings!

I will try and post the actual report in the morning!

All the best!

Rogue Robots!

WARNING!

Rogue robots have been spotted on Freibur! Anyone who sees a suspicious looking robot should contact the authorities immediately!


Are These The Droids We're Looking For?

The miniatures themselves are scratch built from bits of plastic tubing, cocktail sticks, cardboard, wire and even an old ork bolter! Just the thing to represent some scrap bots for Star Mogul or to add some extra randomness to any Slippery Jim game!

All the best!

Heavy Metal!

Greetings!

Heres a pic of my latest purchase:


Heavy Combat Droid

Its a rather large plastic combat droid from the EM4 miniatures range and comes in a pack of five assorted robots for £2.50 which is quite a bargain! I decided to re-pose him slightly by swapping the legs round so they were at the original front part of the miniature and I think it looks quite a bit more agile than the original pose.

I bought two packs of the robots so have a second built with a running pose which is sitting waiting to be painted. The other droids are going to be used as heavy power armour as they look like a 15mm scale figure could fit inside them quite nicely. They come in two poses with one being larger than the other and are quite nice models without too much detail to fuss over while painting!

Heres a pic of the rest on my workbench along with a larger Mechwarrior plastic model which will be a bit of a monsterous command vehicle!


Big Stompy Robot Suits!

My plan for today is to get my junker bots painted up and hopefully get another battle report posted this evening!

Till then all the best!

Sunday 23 August 2009

Star Mogul

Hi!

While rummaging around my rulebook collection I found my PDF of Star Mogul and having a bit of a read through it I quite like the setting and think it may fit in quite well with the Stainless Steel Rat universe. Therefore I have decided to collect up a couple of salvage teams so I can have a go at the game. Whats even better is they can be used as frontier types and actual salvage and mechanic types for gaming actual Slippery Jim scenarios!

I especially like the X12 Android cult which features an assortment of rogue robots, advanced AIs and even a chuncky foundry droid which can trundle round devouring terrain and constructing more robots. I figure they would make a good new force to add to my Stainless Steel Rat project!


X12 Machine Cult!

Heres a link to their website:

http://www.alphaforgegames.com/starmogul.html

Rogue Trader Battle Report!

Hi!

Heres a quick battle report I just played using Rogue Trader as my ruleset. Apologies for the slightly blurry pics but my camera seems to be rubbish at taking battle shots!

I decided to play a game using Rogue trader first as it is the ruleset I am most familiar with. After statting up a couple of small forces I rolled on the random plot generator which resulted in the gae being a raid and capture (or rescue) of an important person or item.

Selecting the relevent table I rolled again to see what the specific scenario would be and the result was:

A planets govenor sends a force of troops to raid a museum on another world and steam an important work of art. Is the govenor an enthusiastic collector of object d’art or does he know something? Could the item contain secret plans, a treasure map or some unfathomable secret. If so, is the govenor the only interested party or will the thieves find themselves persued by other collectors?

This is a perfect scenario for Slippery Jim diGriz and could easily form a mini campaign with scenarios based around the players sneaking onto the planet, the robbery, getaway and possible final stand off.

Forces could consist of police and security types, the goveners thieves, another criminal organisation or a plethora of other groups ranging from pirates to the Special Corps itself!

I settled for the single game thus far deciding that Slippery Jim had managed to get on to the planet with some assorted muscle without attracting attention.

Setup

The game needed several items: a building to house the priceless object along with suitable scenics, figures to represent the assorted forces and a more detailed set of objectives for the players.

The building, scenics and figures were easy to arrange but the objectives needed set out as follows:

Slippery Jims team. Your objective is to break into the building, disable any guards and bypass any security features and steal the artifact. Once this has been done you must get away by moving off the table edge of your deployment zone.

Security team: Your objective is to stop anyone from pilfering from the museum. The building is alarmed and locked and if the alarm is sounded you can rely on the local law to turn up pretty quickly to help chace down the crims!

Notes:

The buildings alarm and locking mechanism need to be disabled, this can be done by either stealing a guards pass key (which they keep about their person at all times) or by breaking in. In order to do this you must spend an entire turn in base to base contact with the building and pass an intelligence check in order to figure out how to disable the alarm. Once that is done its just a case of breaking in! If you have the pass key you can simply open the door, otherwise you need to pass another inelligence check to pick the lock. The other opion is to blow the door off its hinges (it has a toughness of 6 and 3 hits) If you fail an intelligence test at any point the alarm will sound as it will if the doors are blown.

The police will turn up on a roll of 5+ the turn after the alarm is raised, 4+ the turn after that and 2+ the turn after that.

Slippery Jim has been hired to perform the heist but has been lumbered with some of Cassitors thuggish minions. He will happily knock out and leave these villainous types as he believes the dastadly Count has instructed them to kill hime once he gets the artifact.

The Forces:


The Thieves

Slippery Jim diGriz, armed with needle pistol, bolt pistol, crack, smoke, blind and knock out grenades and flak armour, respirator and eye protecting contacts
79.5 points

Kurt, an officer, armed with needle pistol, stub pistol, crack grenades, hand weapon and flak armour
27.5 points

6 Thuggish minions of Count Cassitor, armed with needle pistols, hand weapons and flak armour
39 points

Total: 146 points


Security Forces

1 Guard Sergeant armed with mesh armour, shotgun, hand weapon and shield
4 Security guards armed with mesh armour, stub pistol, hand weapon and shield

46.5 points

Police re-enforcements

1 Police Sergeant armed with mesh armour, bolt pistol, hand weapon and shield
2 Police Troopers arned with mesh armour, bolt pistols, hand weapons and shields
2 Police Troopers armed with mesh armour, shotguns, hand weapons and shields

54 points

1 Law Enforcement Droid armed with bolt pistol with targeter, webber and 6 doses of web solvent

35 points

1 Police skimmer armed with webgun

66.5 points

Total: 202 points

The Game!


The Table!

I had quite a few bits of scenery lying about and the game itself was played on a 4x3 foot board.


The Objective!

The game started with Slippery Jim leading one group of thuggish types while Kurt lead the others. The guards were on a pre-determined patrol pattern and would only spot the thieves on a roll of 6+ at over 24 inches, 5+ at 12-24 inches and 4+ under that.


Slippery Jim Sneaking Towards The Target Building!

Jim lead his group along the back of the shanty buildings in an attempt to keep them out of sight of the security guards while Kurts group moved towards the target building behind the patches of trees to the right of the area.

Things seemed to be going smoothly until one of Jims group ended his movement out of cover and the security guard manning the gate spotted him. Calling to one of his friends the security guard raiised the alarm. It was now only a matter of time until police re-enforcements arrived!


Kurts Thugs Lurking In The Undergrowth

Seeing that Jims group had been spotted Kurt and his men broke cover and moved towards the main gate and sprayed the security guard with needle pistols but his heavy armour stopped their tranquiliser darts. Jims group hurried towards the guard as well and fired their pistols while jim attempted to hurl a knock out grenade at them. Unfortunately Jims aim was off and the gas exploded harmlessly in the roadway while the needle pistols of the thugs also failed to penetrate the armoured hide of the guard.

At this point all the guards rushed to the main gate and opened fire at the two groups of thieves but due to some truely bad dice rolling they didnt hit anyone. The roll was made for police re-enforcements but none turned up.

Kurt lost patience with his puny needle pistol and drew his stub pistol and fired sending one guard sprawling to lie motionless on the ground at the gateway. All the remaining thugs fired needle pistols but only one managed to knock out a guard with a lucky shot. Jim seeing the guard fall began to have his doubts about the possibiliy of completing the heist and swore that Kurt wouldnt get away with the slaying.

Worse was to follow as the guards opened fire with everything they had but failing to hit anything (possibly due to their portly nature and perviously cushy job or in the panic of seeing thier freinds fall) Again the call went out for re-enforcements but nothing turned up. Seizing the inititative Kurt and his thugs hurled themselves at the remaining guard at the gate while Jims thugs joined the action by scrambling over the hedge into melee with the guards lurking behind it.


A Nasty Brawl

Jim launched himself over the hedge but not before Kurt shot the guard sergeant and the thugs knocked out one of the two remaining guards. The last securiy guard decided that discretion was the better part of valor and legged it with Jims group of thugs in hot pursuit. They promptly chased the unfortunate guard off the table and were lost from play too.


The Law Arrives!

At this point Jim headed to the building entrance and started setting up an explosive charge to blow the door off its hinges. Unfortunately the police chose that very moment to arrive. A squad of them along with a law enforcement droid turned up on the road next to the compound and were soon exchanging fire with Kurts group. In the exchange Kurt dropped the police sergeant with his stub pistol only to be ensnared by the droids web gun. His remaining thugs were either gunned down or tried to run away.

Seeing the police making mincemeat of his compatriots and hearing the sound of a police hover disk approaching from behind Jim set off a smoke grenade to cover his escape cursing Count Cassitor for lumbering him with a group of bloodthirsty thugs. On the plus side Kurt had been captured and during the melee he had thoughtfully pocketed one of the guards security ID maybe he would make another attempt on the artifact but now it was more important to find somewhere to hole up until the police search had passed.

Conclusion!

The game itself proved to be quite a lot of fun although Jim could have done with some more luck. It played well and was simple too which is a definite plus. I think the characters in the game could have done with some re-rolls as the whole point is that Slippery Jim is a hero and can perform all sorts of heroic actions. As it turned out he got sidelined as Kurt and the thugs just blasted away at the security types (he couldnt even hit anyone with his grenades or needle gun!)

The early raising of the alarm was unfortunate but I had been a bit careless with the thugs having thought the security types wouldnt manage to spot him. It just goes to show what happens when Jim isnt left to get on with things himself!

Still it was a fun game and could easily lead to a mini campaign. Does Jim make another attempt at the artifact while dodging police patrols. Does Count Cassitor send some assassins to silence our hero (or to stop Kurt from blabbing!)

All very exciting and hopefully I will be able to play out a few more scenarios!