Lockdown Day 71

Hi!

I've spent the day working on an assortment of odds and ends including my new super cheap gaming mat!

I've still got a fair amount of work to do with it but it's shaping up nicely but today's post is my excuse to waffle a bit about small scale sci-fi gaming!

Over the years I've spent a lot of time working on 6mm and 15mm Warhammer 40k themed forces but the Lockdown has had me thinking it might be time to look at something a bit more "hard" sci-fi.

What do I mean by this? Essentially I've been looking for something a bit less grimdark and science fantasy than what I've done before which is why I've found myself drawn to the Battletech universe as there's no gribbly aliens, just humanity in all it's grubby glory. I also like the fact that it's got a bit more of a grounding in reality as while FTL travel is possible, it is difficult and requires ships to recharge for days between jumps.

Now this gets me onto what I'm waffling about. Essentially as much as I've enjoyed the whole Warhammer universe with all manner of alien menaces, I want to explore the possibilities of a setting where humans have the place to themselves. While much of my recent stuff has been big stompy robot based (yes I know it's not realistic but big stompy robots are pretty cool!).

Now I've seen some really nice small skirmishes played in 6mm and I admit that I am really tempted by it but it's oddly difficult to get 6mm sci-fi that isn't 40k themed. The only UK companies that seem to be really doing much with it otherwise is Brigade Models and Ground Zero Games.

This leaves me with 15mm. I've got a load of stuff for it in my unpainted lead pile and I think I may try painting up some of it for use with Battletech but without so many big stompy types, instead focusing on the small skirmishes and skulduggery.

I'm still a bit conflicted about what to do about it as my own sculpts have kept me very entertained over the last couple of months but I may just use this as an excuse to sculpt some 15mm stuff of my own which I haven't done in quite some time and hopefully I'll manage to clear through a stack of unpainted stuff whilst I'm at it.

I must say that I do love the smaller scales when it comes to gaming as you can put together a small force with vehicles for less than it would cost to buy a single character for larger games and I think I need to take a bit of a break from all the sculpting I've been doing of late, at least for a few days while I rummage around to see what I've got.

Hopefully tomorrow's post will be a bit more coherent and we shall have to see what I can come up with from the stuff I have lying around!

In the meantime, All the best!