Nepharite Sighting!

 Hi!

I've had this guy on my paint table for some time having picked him up for about £3.00 a few months back. I had primed him and made a start on the paintwork a while back but finally finished him and managed to get some pics.

Once a respected scientist with the Imperial labs on Proxima, Reginald Covinn was accidentally infected with a really unpleasant and virulent xenos pathogen while examining an ancient Mimjip artefact. Fleeing the lab he stowed away on an outbound ship and vanished from Imperial space for over a decade. 

When reports came in that the Warped had raided an Imperial settlement in the Farpoint Sector Inquisitor Fisher collected the surviving vid records of the attack and spotted the revolting creature directing a horde of pox ridden scavvies. Analysis on the images identified the creature as being Reginald Covinn. Somehow he had survived the Mimjip pathogen which had grossly bloated his form and turned him into a hulking, disease ridden horror.

Interestingly, Reginald seems to be operating with some method to his raids which seem to hint that he is searching for something more than unwilling test subjects. As yet Fisher has not been able to locate Reginald's current whereabouts but Inquisitorial investigators supported by local troops are searching for him as it is imperative that he cannot be allowed to spread contagion to any further settlements.

Originally a Demnogonis Nepharite from the old Warzone range, I repurposed him to act as a villain for my Inquisitorial team to fight as part of a mini campaign. I still need to get some infected troops and zombies as well as mad scientists to act as his underlings but I'm quite pleased with how he's turned out.

Infuriatingly I managed to drop him whilst painting him and broke off his halberd but a bit of glue seems to have fixed it. I also played around with some gloss varnish on his gribbly bits and weapons to give a more wet and unpleasantly diseased look to him.

The figure itself is a bit silly looking but was fun to paint and weighs an absolute ton!

I'm currently without a gaming table as we have to keep the spare room usable for a bedroom in the coming months so I doubt I'll get to use him in a game anytime soon but I'll keep plugging away with the odd figure until he's got an equally unhealthy retinue.

In other news, I made the most of the recent Ral Partha Europe discount day to pick up some more Battletech gubbins in the form of rulebooks and map sheets so I'm hoping to delve into them in the coming week once they arrive so watch this space!

In the meantime, All the best!

Delving Into Warzone and The Mutant Chronicles

 Hi!

Over the last few days I've found myself re-reading my old Warzone 1st edition rules and the Mutant Chronicles RPG sourcebooks that I picked up many moons ago and it got me to thinking about using it as the setting for a campaign initially using Planet 28 and eventually 1st edition Warzone and then Warzone Eternal once it gets released.

But why you ask? The setting and artwork that accompanies it is utterly brilliant! Warzone and Mutant Chronicles combines loads of brilliant concepts from corporate dystopia to cosmic horror, 80's action films to dieselpunk and despite having been around for the best part of 30 years now, it still holds together remarkably well.

Venusian Marshall

Set in our own solar system in a future where nation states have been replaced by five Megacorporations who have terraformed much of the system and abandoned the Earth as an irradiated wasteland, Mutant Chronicles has so many great scenario ideas and unique gaming options. Does the action take place in the dusty deserts of Mars, the steaming jungles of Venus, the subterranean caverns of Mercury or on some blasted rock out in the asteroid belt?

Imperial vs Bauhaus

Over the years Warzone has appeared and vanished several times but my favourite is still 1st edition as it really was groundbreaking and was at heart a fantastic skirmish system that brought the setting to life with small groups of soldiers with the odd hero or evil doer leading them fighting desperate battles for their corporate overlords.

It's been compared to 40k quite a few times with the Brotherhood, the spiritual leaders of humanity being somewhat similar to the Inquisition of the Warhammer setting and the Dark Legion being seen as just a chaos rip off but having re-read the source material, I found the Warzone stuff to be very much its own unique setting which differs from 40k in several important ways. Primarily Warzone is a setting which contains hope. Hope that humanity can unite to defeat the evil of the Dark Legion, hope that no matter how grim things may get it can improve and hope that the heroes can actually save the day rather than 40k's view of everybody being essentially doomed.

Vince Diamond, Hero of Cybertronic

Coupled with the setting itself being our own solar system which makes things a bit more relatable than the galaxy spanning madness of 40k, it is believable to see characters traversing the system fighting the good (or indeed bad) fight and the technology is much more grounded too, more so the fact that the unleashing of the Dark Legion saw thinking machines run amok and high tech stopping being reliable and showcasing the sheer determination of humanity and their unique will to carry on makes for a setting that I'm keen to explore further!

Looking online, it's been really heartening to see the fact that Warzone has survived in some form or another over the last 25 plus years and Res Nova, the newest company to acquire the rights are dedicated to bringing back the game to its roots with the classic aesthetic, forces and skirmish style game I love. 

Mitch Hunter and Co

The Mutant Chronicles RPG has proved to be a really rich source of inspiration and I'm slowly putting together my ideas which will hopefully see a group of Freelancers taking on a seemingly simple contract from some shady corporate suit before getting flung into a campaign which will see them crossing the solar system and mixing it up with pretty much everyone from the Megacorps to other freelancers, the Tribes of Earth and the sinister Dark Legion.

I need to crack on with some painting and rummage out what I can find of the remainder of my Warzone collection, which at this point looks to be very little but I figure I can use some proxies until I can get my hands on some new figures once Warzone Eternal launches. I'm hoping that I can get enough figures sorted out to build my team and begin the campaign at some point this autumn which gives me plenty of time to paint figures, build some scenery and really get to grips with the setting again but I highly recommend folks pick up a copy or at least a pdf of the 1st edition Warzone and Mutant Chronicles books as they're good reading materials and who knows, they may inspire you to have a bash!

In the meantime, I hope to keep putting together articles and as as we get closer to Res Nova launching the new edition I'm keen to share what news hits the net but until then, All the best!

Lockdown 2.0 Project Log Day 112: Mishima Suicide Warhead

 Hi!

I've recently been perusing the interwebs in search of some handy additions to my 28mm collection and found some of the old Warzone Mishima Suicide Warheads for under £1 each on Ebay and managed to win the auction.

Sadly there were only three rather than the original blister pack of four but I was really pleased to pick up a bargain and got to work painting the first of them!

As per the background, Mishima is one of the five great megacorporations of the Mutant Chronicles setting with a decidedly feudal Japanese aesthetic. One of their troop types was the Suicide Warhead, a primitive AI that appeared like a traditional peasant but was nimble and packed with explosives. On the battlefield they would charge towards their target before exploding spectacularly. 

I really enjoyed working with the sculpt as the details were bold, chunky and expressive, or at least as expressive as a robot bomb cosplaying as a Japanese feudal peasant can be!

I'm not sure if I'll use him and his companions as they were originally described in Warzone but may have them as robotic assassins, couriers or even lowly servants that scurry around doing their masters bidding but am really pleased to have some Warzone figures to work on and will be adding the other two over the next few days.

I've also got the next addition to my Boar Company finished but will show him tomorrow along with the rest of his companions as well as some of the other sculpts I've been working on over the last week or so but until then, All the best!

Lockdown 2.0 Project Log Day 87: Bodging Rulesets

Hi!

I've got a load of figures midway through painting and sculpt just needing a coat of paint so I decided to have a look at some of my other rulebooks to see what I've got and what I can use to play some skirmishes.

Warzone

Warzone 1st edition is a great start for conversion into a small scale skirmish game as it has alternating activation, plenty of existing profiles which can be used and a good amount of customisation possibilities for characters to boot.

I've tried out a game using counters earlier in the year and think that I shall be using this ruleset for my first test as I'm reasonably confident of how to play it, despite only playing a single game in about 20 years! 

With the use of the Dark Legion gifts or the Art of the Brotherhood, I can easily introduce psykers, espers and all manner of interesting elements too.

While it doesn't have a custom force maker, it is a really great set of rules that allow you to play small skirmishes with shoot and scoot tactics, diving for cover and all manner of elements that lend themselves to a really dynamic game which I think could be perfect for my own small character based and scenario driven games.

Void 1.1

Void 1.1 is also a skirmish game at heart, although aimed at slightly larger scale than Warzone. It usually has a few squads backed up by a character or two and the odd small vehicle. 

It's also an alternating activation system and like Warzone, each model has a number of actions that can be carried out in whatever order they want making it a bit more dynamic than GW's games of yore. 

I plan on having a bash with a small force using Void once I have enough stuff painted as its more suited to a platoon level game than a single squad a side.

Again although it doesn't have a custom force generator, it does have a good variety of model profiles that can easily be bodged into whatever character one likes and I look forward to getting a game or two in using the rules!

Vor The Maelstrom/No Limits

Vor is a totally customisable game and uses action points rather than the two previous games that have a number of activations per model. Its spiritual successor, No Limits is a generic ruleset that uses the same mechanics but has refined force generation and I've played it a fair few times but not for about ten years or so.

It's a bit crunchier in style than Void or Warzone but I have fond memories of the rules and it will make a really interesting small skirmish game with only a few small modifications, such as giving characters more wounds and action points and having each activating separately.

Worthy of note, the terrain rules for Vor are really fun that allow you to roll all manner of interesting terrain and unexpected events (some of which are really destructive!) and can add a random and interesting element to games without bogging things down.

We Can Be Heroes

We Can be Heroes is a pulp style game that features bands of dashing heroes, dastardly villains and sidekicks, minions and whatnot. 

I've had the rules for ages but never tried them out and am keen to have a go of using them as the basis for a skirmish or two on the frontier. 

Having glanced through the rules, they seem to be fairly straightforward and well explained and could be just the thing for a fun character driven game.

I particularly like the fact that heroes act heroically and are able to do more than the sidekicks who in turn can do more than the lowly henchmen and feel that the system could lend itself to a really entertaining mini campaign but I need to re-read the rules and try them out a time or two before posting a battle report using them to make sure I get things right.

Aertherverse

Aetherverse came out in the early 2000's if memory serves right and I picked up a copy having read a few battle reports back in the day and it's languished on my shelves ever since.

It's a generic skirmish game that is scaleable which is good and allows you to create whatever force you like and the battle reports I read of it made it look rather fun. There's also a small scale skirmish version called Aetherverse Upheaval which is specifically aimed towards small warband style games.

Sadly my knowledge of the actual mechanics are vague as I've not really done anything with it since picking it up but I aim to dust off my copy and have a bash!

Rogue Trader

Ah Rogue Trader! The original sandpit sort of game where anything is possible. 

It's a really retro system now which isn't going to result in a dynamic fast moving sort of gaming experience like some of the other rulesets I've mentioned but I don't feel I can skip it, if for no other reason than it's retro charms. 

I've used it for sci-fi and fantasy games in the past and it's always resulted in a good game and if memory serves, it's campaign system would be fun to use for seeing how my various warbands cope between games!

I doubt I'd be using the robot programming rules and random equipment rolls or some of the other esoteric stuff from the game but one of the charms of Rogue Trader is the fact that you can pretty much pick and choose or bodge stuff and it is flexible enough to work.

Fantastic Worlds

Fantastic Worlds is another Pulp themed game, this time aimed specifically at retro sci-fi and I picked it up at the same time as We Can Be Heroes. It uses an archtype system that looks interesting and I really want to have a go at playing a game or two with it, especially as it really focuses on character and story.

Interestingly, the game has hit locations that can effect how a model activates which looks like it could be fun and decidedly cinematic but the rules are a bit dense if memory serves correct so I suspect I'll need to give it a few read throughs and games before I get it correct.

I think Fantastic Worlds will be one to try once I've got into the swing of playing different game systems and ramp up the number of games I can play a week but it's definitely one I want to try!

Laserburn

Laserburn is the granddaddy of Warhammer 40k and I've got a copy lying around that I picked up some time ago, had a flick through and put down again.

It's typed layout really put me off back then and although I'm curious to see how it goes, it's a game I'm a bit cautious about trying. However it's been compared to Inquisitor so it could be an interesting game to try out if I can summon up the courage to brave the layout.

Like many of the other games I've mentioned, I suspect that once I get the hang of the mechanics and get a game or two under my belt, it may end up being rather fun (and may result in the appearance of the Red Redemption too!)

I'd love to hear of other folks experience with the rules so if you've actually played it, please feel free to drop a comment!

Rogue Planet

Rogue Planet is a game I've heard fantastic things about but when I bought the download was a little underwhelmed due to the slightly weird mechanics. Saying that, I've not actually played a game using it so I'm keen to give it a bash as it feels like it might be akin to Planet 28 which was great fun.

It's aimed at a science fantasy setting which is just my cup of tea and I'm going to see if I can find any battle reports from the interwebs to get an idea of just how it's played.

Chaos on Cronos

Chaos on Cronos is another pulp sci-fi game that uses the Herosystem which is in turn inspired by the old Trinity Battleground game by White Wolf (a ruleset that's well worth a peek in its own right!)

I've got quite a few of the themed games using the system such as Chaos in Carpathia and the Supersystem rules but haven't actually tried them out. They feature individuals backed up by groups of supporting troops and I think it could make for a fun game that leans heavily on characters doing awesome stuff while the supporting troops get slaughtered like all good movie extras.

I must admit that I've not looked at the book for over a decade now so it's high time I remedied it and gave it a bash!

Star Mogul

Star Mogul is a great little game that relies not just on killing one's enemies but also recovering salvage and with a little bit of work would make for a great basis for the likes of competing Mechanicus teams or mercs on the frontier or pretty much whatever you fancy.

The rules are good and the campaign system is excellent but I'll need to paint a few more miniatures for each of my warbands to make the most of the game.

The flexibility of creating your salvage companies is really good too as you can specialise in combat, recovery or any number of other skillsets that give each of the teams a real sense of personality and it will be fun to play again after over 15 years!

Nuclear Renaissance

Nuclear Renaissance is by Curtis Fell of Ramshackle Games and is a more post apocalyptic sort of game featuring a more Gorkamorka sort of gaming experience with small warbands hurtling around in bodged vehicles and shooting each other up. It's writing style is quite fun and is aimed towards having fun rather than super serious grimdark which is a big plus for me. 

I backed the Kickstarter for the original box game but sadly sold much of the figures and vehicles during my Uni clearout but did keep the rules and the supplement. 

It's a good fun game to play and I suspect it would be a great way of representing vehicle combat in a scenario too and it also has the notorious Giggles Clan who will be making more of an appearance in my future games too as they are rather fun!

Now the list above isn't by any means all the rulesets I mean to try out this year as I've got at least a dozen others in my collection that really deserve a try out but these will be my initial objectives to play along with more games of Song of Blasters and Planet 28 (as well as Brutal Quest when it arrives!).

If anyone has any experience with any of these rulesets or can suggest a good battle report to read or watch, please feel free to drop a comment or link but in the meantime, All the best!

Lockdown 2.0 Day 39: Retro Terrain Part 5, Bauhaus Edition!

 Hi!

I've just finished painting the next of my retro terrain together and am trying to make it a bit more multi use so have given it a Bauhaus Megacorporation theme to it:

Like the rest of my buildings, I cut some shapes from mounting board and with a fair amount of glue make the buildings basic shape before decorating it with thin cardboard oddments. The roof is thin card superglued into place and covered in polyfilla which gave it a bit of thickness, texture and strength it didn't have when it was just card. 

I used a circle cutter that I picked up at university but never used and am really impressed with how much fun it was to cut the rounded edges and will be using it for some more projects in the near future.

I've enjoyed making themed terrain like this and have plans to add some more workshops, housing, bunkers, mines and oil derricks when I get the chance. The total cost for this piece was about £1.00 for materials compared to nearer £20 for buying something similar in MDF so I'm liking the savings and loving the building process!

I've got quite a bit made thus far but want to keep going as the settlement is really starting to come together and I really like that the variety of terrain one can make cheaply and easily is most satisfying!

Hopefully I'll have more stuff finished tomorrow and I'm also mid way through writing up a battle report using Warzone 1st edition that I played yesterday to try and remember the rules as I've not played a game for over 20 years now!

In the meantime, All the best!

Lockdown 2.0 Day 35: Down the Warzone Rabbit Hole and Orks!

 Hi!

Despite myself I seem to be getting increasingly hopeful for the rerelease of Warzone by Res Nova and have spent quite a bit of time re-reading my old 1st edition rulebooks.

It's possibly a bit daft as there's no website, no art, not even a tentative release date but despite all that, having watched several videos of the games designers and the folks of Res Nova I'm finding more and more elements of what they are hoping to do just what I'd hope it to be.

There is something pleasingly retro about the feel of Warzone with it's Megacorporate powers, small forces of over the top units and characters who were capable of wading through entire armies with one hand tied behind their back. 

Having re-perused the original rules, I was struck by how good a skirmish game it is, troops can fling themselves onto the ground to gain cover from incoming fire, the three action system allows for all manner of interesting tactics and each force has a noticeably different style of play. 

Coupled with a really fascinating setting that is both sci-fi, fantastic and pleasingly recognisable, being it is our solar system but largely either terraformed or at least colonised by the megacorps. Each planet has a different theme to it, be it Mars and it's arid deserts, Venus's lush jungles, Mercury's subterranean labyrinths or even Earth's irradiated wastelands, it's a setting that really lends itself to playing small, narrative scenarios, campaigns and an immersive sort of game that I've been really looking for.

Despite coming out in the mid 90's, Warzone feels like a love letter to the action movies of the 80's with corporate greed and shenanigans dialled up to 11, shoulder pads that can take out an eye and horrors from another dimension seeking to invade our reality. 

Yes there are similarities with the Mutant Chronicles universe and 40k but having picked up the book for the first time in years I'm absolutely hooked on the struggle for supremacy between the Megacorps and the Dark Legion, the Brotherhoods enigmatic manoeuvres and the heroes and villains duking it out across the solar system. 

Is the new endeavour for Warzone going to be able to keep the essence of everything that was awesome about the original and update it for a 21st century audience, and more importantly will it be a success following the curse of Warzone? I really, really hope it is and am finding myself really rooting for it! Certainly it seems to be trying to appeal to fans of the original from what I've read thus far and I am super excited to see how things develop over the coming months.

If it gets a release this year, I will absolutely be picking up a copy, if for no other reason than to get the figures that will allow me to play the original but hopefully the new rules will be just what I'm looking for too, especially as they are supposed to feature a couple of squads a side, a 3'x3' board and can be played in about an hour. If this pans out, it would allow me to play a mini campaign in an afternoon and that is exciting! 

The only downside to all this Warzone enthusiasm is that I don't have any of the figures to paint at the moment apart from a single Wolfbane. I'm thinking I may have to proxy up a couple of units and play out a game of 1st edition to see if it's as good as I remember it being.

But enough of my Warzone enthusing! There's only a whisper of what it's going to be like yet! I've got some Orks to look at:

Ork Boyz

Some of these are from my last Lockdown Project but have been rebased onto the lipped bases I've settled on using and I've added a new Boy and a Grot to bulk out the numbers a bit. I've got a fair few more old and new Orks still awaiting a coat of paint and will keep plugging away at them (I'm not sure I can cope with painting all the mono pose Gretchen but we shall see how I get on!). 

Tomorrow should see some more scenic gubbins painted and I may have a couple more odds and ends done but we shall have to see how things go.

In the meantime, All the best!

Lockdown 2.0 Project Log Day 33: An Ode to Warzone

 Hi!

I was going to be posting up more Rogue Trader gubbins today but have discovered that there is a new team working on bringing back Warzone: Mutant Chronicles for a new wargame so thought I'd wax lyrical about one of the best games I've ever played!

Back in the mid 90's I'd drifted away from Warhammer and 40k, and had discovered Macs Models in Edinburgh which stocked all manner of interesting stuff that was non GW. On one such visit, I saw Warzone being showcased with a rack of awesome and very cheap miniatures. I picked up a squad of Imperial Blood Berets, and a squad of Woldbane Commandos, a Hedgehog Necromower as well as the rulebook. If I recall correctly, the squad pack was £4.99 for four figures, the sergeant and heavy weapons dudes were £1.25 each. The necromower was £4.99 and the rulebook was £10.

Upon my return home I took a proper look through the rules and was utterly blown away. Here was a lavishly illustrated and full colour rulebook with a fantastic background and really great, skirmish level forces. It was utterly different from the black and white paperback 2nd edition 40k rulebook I had been used to and I was hooked.

Over the ensuing years, I collected all manner of bits and bobs, initially from Macs Models and when they closed, Ral Partha Europe which is where I got all the expansion rulebooks from. Eventually 2nd edition came out and I was a bit saddened to see it went from small units duking it out in a very characterful way to more of a 40k clone with forces getting bigger and the art style changing as new illustrators were brought in but it was still a great setting and the miniatures were chunky and painted up remarkably well. 

There were some real stinkers in the range but it was slowly getting updated so the Brotherhood troops didn't have massive heads and some of the other, rather iffy sculpts got replaced. As with so many games, it promptly went pear shaped and the company ceased trading and I drifted off to other things but I still fondly recall the setting, the book, the art (especially Paul Bonners stunning stuff!) and the characterful forces.

Fantasy Flight Games had a brief stab at the license but utterly butchered it by making it something like 54mm scale and collectable and Warzone went quiet for over a decade. Then a new company called Prodos announced that they had picked up the rights and were doing a kickstarter for the game. Excitement built but misgivings sneaked in when the first sculpts were showcased. 

The figures were created digitally and a lot of the character of the originals went out the window. Following a lot of feedback, and not a little huffing, the designs got reworked into something closer to what folks remembered and the game was released with some excitement but again the curse of Warzone struck and Prodos seemed to at first all but abandon the range and then implode spectacularly thanks to licensing issues. If I recall, I actually posted up a big ragefest here when the kickstarter happened and deleted it after re-reading it and thinking it was out of order...

I never picked up the figures for this latest version of Warzone as I was at uni at the time and hadn't warmed to the figures or Prodos and it seemed that any chance of reliving the glory days of 1st edition was gone for ever as the original range was either unavailable or expensive to get hold of. They are still available from Prince August in Ireland but I remember placing a large order for Chronopia from them and being put off by getting the figures utterly ruined by leadrot. (Apparently this was an issue that many of the Chronopia figures suffered from and not Prince Augusts fault but it still irked me!)

Now we have Res Nova, a small company I must admit I've never heard from before aiming to succeed where ell else have failed in 2021. After a bit of research, it appears they've got a team of folks who were fanatical fans of the original game and more importantly keen to keep to the original design aesthetic of Paul Bonners work with somewhat over the top shoulderpads, big guns and who seem very keen to go with that, something that seems to warm the hearts of lots of old Warzone fans.

Thus far, there's only been very scarce information on when we can expect the game, or indeed what it's going to be like but there is an early draft of a Blood Beret sculpt floating around:

I'm not 100% on it but he does have the exaggerated, heroic proportions of the more traditionally sculpted figures but obviously digitally sculpted. Having listened to a few Youtube videos from the designers of the rules, it's sounding quite promising and aimed to be played on a 3'x3' board with lots of cover. If they can combine the retro joy of original Warzone and make a go of it, I will be picking up a force, if for no other reason, to play 1st edition again!

According to the designers, the aim is to release the five megacorporations and Algeroth in the initial kickstarter with the Cartel, Brotherhood and other Dark Legion forces in subsequent launches. There is supposed to be two troop choices and I'm guessing a character or two for each of these planned which would be enough to get folks going. 

What I really liked from the videos I've watched is that there is a love of the original game but a desire to keep the forces true to the game without bloated armylists (ie the dozen or so Blood Beret unit variations you could choose back in the day!) and to make every unit or individual worth having in your force. 

Sadly to date, there's not much more information wise but I really, really hope Res Nova do a good job on it and I will be able to get some retro gaming in. If not, I think I'll test the waters with Prince August and see if I can't get my original Imperial force back at the very least!

Only time will tell but I'm quite excited about the prospect of Warzone making a reappearance.

In the meantime, I will need to rummage out my old and battered copy of 1st edition and see about posting up a bit of a rulebook review!

All the best!

Lockdown Day 62

Hi!

I had intended to post up either the next installment of my Battletech Alphastrike campaign or show some pics of my latest sculpts but have been somewhat distracted by pondering on the possibilities of playing more games using the papercraft approach.

Whilst it's certainly not ideal as there's something really pleasing about having proper painted figures in whatever scale trundling around the table as it gives a visual hit that paper cannot, my recent success with playing five Battletech Alphastrike games in short order with twenty mechs all told at the cost of an hour or two of drawing cannot be sniffed at.

Over the years I have fallen foul of the Ooh Shiny Syndrome where I see a range or game that I like the look of and spend amounts of money on them only to not get them painted. Whilst the Lockdown has seen me paint my way through some of this, there are games that I'm really keen to explore but the cost of figures or indeed the difficulty of getting ahold of them is a decided issue.

Whilst out for our daily allotted socially distanced walk I had mentioned this to my wife and she suggested that I should make more of the cardboard standees for short term use and if I liked the game, I could then slowly replace them with my own sculpts.

This struck me as a rather good idea and I have decided to roll with it and see what games I have that I'd love to play but on a super tiny budget during the Lockdown. A little bit of rummaging later, I have settled on trying out this approach on a handful different games. The plan is to draw up a small force for some of the factions available and use the process to get a feel for the rules and possibly even play out a small campaign with them as I have done with my Battletech stuff.

This approach will hopefully see me playing a bunch of games, some of which I played back in the day and others which I have the rules for but never had chance to game.

While this may not be everyone's cup of tea, and to be honest, I would prefer to have lots of miniatures to paint but beggars can't be choosers. On the plus side, I hope to use the process to work out how I'm going to sculpt my own bits and bobs.

The games I plan on trying out are as follows:

Now I know that Kryomek and Void 1.1 are available but I want to try playing a game or two with my papertech stuff as the sculpts just don't appeal to me. Warzone is a brilliant game but getting the figures is pretty difficult these days so a papertech approach seems to be a good way to get some games in and speaking of an out of production game that the figures are hard to find, Chronopia is up there as one of my favourite games that I've not played in about 20 years now and getting figures for it that aren't covered in leadrot is really difficult.

I plan on spending an hour or two tomorrow morning putting together an initial clash with two small forces as well as finishing my Battletech Alphastrike game and working on some more sculpts so watch this space!

Don't panic though! I will be regularly posting pics of actual painted miniatures as well as I see this approach as a gateway into playing and enjoying games whilst sculpting all manner of interesting things for my own enjoyment.

I suspect that 2020 will see the end of my buying figures and me really sinking my teeth into sculpting my own stuff as it is just so much more enjoyable than working on other folks stuff.

In the meantime, All the best!

Re-Exploring Old Rulesets

Hi!

I can't believe it's almost the end of June and I've not posted anything here for almost a month!

Saying that, I've been rather busy both with my lovely wife's birthday, two weeks holidays and organising our spare room/man cave/library. This has given me the chance to finally have a bit of a sort through my old ruleset collection which has given me the urge to have a good rummage through the books and have a peruse!

I'm often struck by what a shame it is when great games vanish or are left in a zombie state where they are still available but never get any support, be that new releases or indeed anybody playing them. It's doubly so when some of these games have a fascinating setting with some great ideas that really lend themselves to brilliant fun gaming possibilities.

Take a look at Kryomek for example. It's never been out of production, the rules are freely available to download and the miniatures are still being made but it gets very little attention these days. I must admit that I'm just as guilty as any as I originally picked up the books back in the 90's from the long lamented Mac's Models in Edinburgh as well as a handful of miniatures but never seriously tried to play a game.

Similarly, Void 1.1 is still readily available, the rules are also free downloads and the figures are still available. I even had a VASA force fully painted back in the day but sold it off when I went off to uni and never really got back into it which is a real shame as the rules are really good and the setting is rather enjoyable!

For fantasy gaming, how about Crucible by FASA? While the company is long gone, the core rule book is still available from Ral Partha Europe and the forces are generic enough to allow proxy games without too much issue. The rules themselves are actually really good and the setting is brilliant but nobody plays it.

I think part of the issue with these games is that they are aimed at the GW sort of large scale gamers with multiple units, large gaming surfaces and infinite time to paint stuff for them whereas my interests have moved onto smaller scale skirmishing with at most a couple of dozen figures a side. But should this stop me from incorporating the settings, forces and ideas into the sort of games I play now?

No! Having re-read quite a few of my old books, I'm sorely tempted to put together some small skirmish bands and explore the settings. Imagine a UNION marine squad from Vor: The Maelstrom being dispatched to scout a new world and encountering some unfriendly Growlers or Nexus Marines being tasked with searching a hulk and discovering a Kryomek infestation. How about Principality adventurers exploring ancient ruins for artifacts of power in Crucible or grim survivors fighting over precious supplies in the endless wastes of Leviathan's Aeroth.

The list is infinite and the possibilities for some really fascinating games are out there and it's well worth having a peek at some of the old, forgotten and unappreciated rulesets that are sat in many folks collections.

These possibilities are even greater when using 15mm scale figures as it's possible to create a decent sized skirmish force for under a tenner. For example, Star Mogul only requires about a dozen figures and a vehicle a side while Nuclear Renaissance only needs a handful plus suitably converted vehicles.

With this in mind, I hope to use the opportunity to put together some small forces by rummaging my leadpile of 15mm gubbins to see what I can put together. I will be using the month of July to see what themed forces I can clobber together and see how feasible such a scheme would be.

A good example of this is my Bauhaus Jaeger squad that I put together a while back:

Bauhaus Jaegers

They are Ground Zero Games miniatures with added shoulder pads which gives them the suitably 90's Warzone vibe and with a few additions, I have a Warzone 1st edition force ready to rock!

It's going to be an interesting process and we shall have to see what I come up with but hopefully I will resume regular posting here and I even have a couple of batches of 15mm stuff that I've finished off over the last couple of weeks that needs posting up so watch this space!