November Vor!

Hi!

Well unpacking is still going well but I must admit I've been bitten by the Vor bug!

Having re-read the rulebook and force books that were produced before FASA closed its doors, I'm struck by what an interesting and unique setting the game had and what a shame it was that it never had the opportunity to really take off before the untimely demise of FASA.

Union versus Growler

I've already enthused about the game in previous posts but the basic premise is that Earth has been sucked into a pocket dimension known as the Vor. This dimension is inhabited by all manner of races who have suffered the same fate as Humanity and they all struggle to survive in the destructive maelstrom and attempt to carve out a home for themselves while attempting to escape.

The Maelstrom

While the background is brilliant and packed with all manner of interesting forces, each with their own motives and quirks, the rules could have done with some finessing but the long promised Vor 2.0 has not yet materialised. Likewise some of the original sculpts are starting to show their age but there is some good news however.

The basic rule system for Vor was re-worked and refined into No Limits, a really excellent and freely available set of rules that ironed out the kinks in the system and has a really exceptional custom force generation system to boot!

Growlers!

Much as I'd like to collect and paint up some 28mm scale forces for the game, I suspect that its going to be easier to use proxies and the nature of Vor actively encourages the use of whatever figures you like which is going to be fun!

I plan on using some 28mm stuff for some small scale skirmishes featuring an almost RPG lite sort of game and the idea is to start with a small North American Union scout team, handily represented by these chaps:

Union Scouts

The general idea is to design a loose sort of campaign with Union forces being sent out to explore nearby planets following the Earths arrival into the Maelstrom. 

As I get chance, I will expand the forces to feature some 15mm scale stuff as I want to get some slightly bigger games in!

I figure that as Oldhammer is getting so much love at the moment, it would be unfair of me to not give some other great games some much needed attention too and there will be ample opportunities to include my Orks, Eldar and whatever else I have kicking around and incorporate it all into my games which is very much in keeping with my Budgethammer pledge too!

In other news, I will be gearing up for some 15mm skirmishing with my Boar Company in the morning so there should be a battle report added over the course of the next day or so and I've not forgotten about my Four A miniatures project either so stay tuned for some fun stuff!

All the best!

At Long Last!

Greetings!

Well after being offline for the last several weeks, I have finally got internet access in my nice new flat and unpacking continues apace!

Its been an interesting process as I have found loads of stuff I haven't seen in absolute ages including my Vor stuff which I am hoping to put to good use and even more excitingly my Leviathan 15mm scale sculpts which have languished in a box since the end of University in 2011!

The Boar Company Returns!

With a bit of time, I am hoping to add to their numbers, add a host of new characters and races and get back to enjoying sculpting and painting the little fellows as I really need to finish off some more opposition for the doughty Dwarven Boar Company to fight!

I must admit I still have a genuine soft spot for Leviathan which still has the best setting in any fantasy game I have yet found and has oodles of potential to develop but sadly the company which owns the rights for the game is content to just let it stagnate with no revamp or new releases in over a decade!

Maybe I will continue developing the setting for my own use but we shall have to see!

In more upbeat news, I am hoping to get my games room sorted out in the next couple of weeks which will provide me with the luxury of actually having somewhere to keep all my stuff, and possibly even get a game or two in!

Hopefully I should have some actual miniatures to post pictures of in the next post and an update or two on my Budgethammer pledge!

All the best!

Silent Running

Hi!

Well the bulk of my tat got moved into the new place last night (curse those two flights of stairs!) but theres still some of my miniatures and whatnot to get shifted over the next few days but I am going to be internet free for the next week or so and I suspect there won't be too much miniatures blogging going on for the next few weeks until we have got everything unpacked and sorted!

Still, during this unwelcome hiatus, I hope to have a good sort through all my miniatures and get geared up for some decent updates on my return!

I must admit I look forward to getting my Eldar Hoard into a bath of dettol so that I can get on with priming and replacing the thickly caked on black coat they currently hide under (on closer inspection, it actually looks like they were dipped in black paint!)

I am also planning on gearing up for some fantasy skirmishing in the Four Realms, the setting for Andy Colemans rather excellent Four A Miniatures!

The Four Realms

I began development of the setting some time ago now but alas, work and house hunting has rather taken over my spare time of late but I hope to continue fleshing it out over the next month or so and it will allow me to create some suitably bleak terrain features for the Slate Plains and Debatable Lands too!

 A Tributary of the Ironlode

The setting has much of the action taking place in the bleak Slate Plains, with the Dwarves having been exiled from their mountain fastnesses by an unspeakable evil, they now live a nomadic existence amongst the moors and forbidding hills and rockpiles that make up the vast plains whilst fending off coastal Goblin and Sea Demon raids, not to mention the forces of darkness that range out from the Mountains of Melancholia!

 The Mountains of Melancholia

The world itself is rather dark and is somewhat based off places like the Highlands of Scotland, Iceland and Alaska, with short summers and bitterly cold winters but even the climate is beginning to change as the Sea Demons have re-channelled the warm waters from the south so they now flow northward and along the coastline.

This allows the warmth loving Sea Demons to extend their domain north to the coastline of the Debatable Lands and is pushing the Coastal Goblins inland and into conflict with the Dwarves and assorted Human barbarian tribes that inhabit the region.

A View From the Foothills

For more info on the setting, please feel free to take a peek at the FOUR A BLOG. Its not been updated in a while but I hope to remedy that soon!

All the best!

Sculpting on the Move

Hi!

Well packing continues afoot and I've finally sorted out a new home (Huzzah!) and am just awaiting word as to when I can move in!

In the meantime, I was loath to just pack everything away so sculpted up this little fellow:

I have come for your picnic!

Standing just shy of 25mm tall he's a bit of a test piece to see what I can do with Super Sculpey in smaller scales and has turned out quite nice. I hope to get a couple more sculpted up over the course of my move before offering the little blighters up for sale!

All the best!

Delays, Delays!

Greetings!

This morning I was all set to move into my new digs on Monday but its all change once again after I received a promotion that will see me needing to relocate to St Andrews in sunny Fife!

To make things even more exciting, I need to find somewhere in the next two weeks and get moved in by then!

Surprisingly all this is putting a decided cramp on my hobby time but I have high hopes of cracking on with some much needed miniature related goodness once the stress of the move is finally over!

In the meantime, I've been pondering the possibilities of creating an affordable series of DIY games mats that will allow me to get some games sorted out in locations other than the perfect bowling green surface with a few perfectly manicured trees strewn around!

I've seen some truly amazing stuff done with not much more than a sheet of canvas and assorted paint, glue and flock and want to do something similar. I have been pondering doing something for a while as I have never understood the obsession with the green or at best sandy coloured surfaces that pass for supposedly alien worlds or fantastic locations.

What if something like this was possible:

Yes I know theres a limit to what is practical or useful for wargaming but even some simplified scenics could really make for a fantastic game and bearing in mind all of the photos above are of earth, why not let your imagination run riot when it comes to sci fi or fantasy!

The initial plan after moving will be to create a series of different coloured surfaces to get me going, Lush Green, Red Erg, Frozen Tundra and Urban Sprawl. That should give me enough to be getting on with and cover most games to begin with and with a bit of experimenting, who knows whats possible!

But first the move!

All the best!

Status Report!

Hi!

Well I've still not moved yet which means no proper updates featuring painted figures, much to my chagrin!

Still I have managed to get a 15mm scout mech sculpted up!

Its a bit rough and ready but should do for a decent proxy of a Jenner for my 15mm scale Battletech project!

In other news, I have been struggling with combining all the settings and games that I like into one, joint setting in keeping with my Budgethammer pledge so have decided to split the project into separate components!

This blog is going to cover my Rogue Trader forces, including 15mm and 6mm scale footlings in a somewhat revised Warhammer universe. It will also cover my fantasy gubbins until I get chance to do something more permanent with it.

I have set up a KRYOMEK BLOG to cover all things Kryomek and Void (being that they have a lot of setting in common!) and when I get chance, I will be setting up a 15mm scale Battletech blog and even a VOR one!

The reason I have decided to do this is that it will help compartmentalise my meandering approach to my hobby and will allow folks interested in individual games to read about it without having to filter through lots of unrelated jabberings by yours truly!

I also think its important to give each of these often unloved games a permanent place online of their own instead of having to fight for space with other projects!

Sorry if its going to cause hassle for folks but I think its for the best! Hopefully once the move is FINALLY out of the way, I will get chance to actually do something more fun like actually painting and gaming!

All the best!

Space Marines Re-Imagined Part 1

Hi!

Well I am back from my holiday and preparing for another round of interviews at work but have been thinking about the alternative Empire I have been footling around with on my blog and decided it was high time to take a peek at the Emperors finest, the mighty Space Marines!

Now for many folks my age, their first experience of the Space Marine was with MBs Space Crusade:

I fondly remember buying it along with Mission Dreadnaught one summer holiday and loving the artwork from the box and the big pile of figures that came with it. Soon I bought the mighty Rogue Trader book but at the age of 13 found it rather heavy going!

Still the artwork in the book was fantastic and as I went through High School 2nd edition was released and many a game was played but something always nagged me about the Marines. In much of the early artwork they are a lot more interesting than in the stuff that was produced later (you know the stuff with the pin heads and festooned with ribbons!)

Now coming back to the subject, I find myself heretically thinking that the old designs could do with a revamp for a more high tech and sleek design and the very Marine itself needs a bit of revision to live in my revised setting.

The original Space Marine was often from a savage society and taken off to the Space Marines fortress and indoctrinated in the Imperial cult and operated on to alter his skeletal structure, muscles and what not but he retained a sort of techno savagery that appealed. What didn't appeal was the whole warrior monk thing.

In my setting why couldn't they be a more satisfactorily higher tech type of trooper, genetically engineered for the Imperium and fanatically loyal to the Emperor, much like the Sardaukar in Dune? This approach rather appeals to me as it allows me to incorporate all manner of interesting legion specific rules and quirks that the Imperium techs and geneticists have worked into their super soldier programme to produce superior troops for any eventuality.

It also gives me an interesting idea for the Renegade Legions but more on that in a later post!

At the same time, the Marine is a hated and feared oppressor for many while the paragon of the Imperium to others and I kind of want to keep this idea going and have the rebellion especially resentful of their heavy handed approach to quelling opposition to the Emperors will.

One of the settings I really like is that of Kryomek, a teched up version of Aliens but some of the images of the elite SWAT troops from the book itself are far more evocative to me of what I want the Space Marine to be:

I am still unsure which figures I am going to use but must admit the SWAT marines are rather good and look suitably hard to fit the bill as a new sort of Space Marine. Gone is the warrior monk who spends all his free time praying to the Emperor. He is replaced with a genetically engineered professional soldier who is bred for war but at the same time has a more complex outlook on life.

Loyalty to the Emperor and his family is coded into their DNA but there is an equally strong warrior code that ties the Marine legions too. In some cases this can mean they are capable of great and terrible deeds and I like the idea of small bands to occasionally abandon the life of serving the Imperium and striking off on their own, be it as mercenaries, freebooters or even members of the Rebellion!

You will note I have discarded the Chapter concept and gone back to the Legion, the reason for this is that I can't be bothered with the 1000 marines per Chapter and instead like the idea of there being a dozen or so legions, each numbering into the thousands of Marines, each engineered to excel in combat and that somewhere there is a factory churning out more of them to replace losses and experimenting with new Gene codes and combinations.

While this is great fun to write about, there's another possibility, that instead of being the result of a genetic experiment, the Marine could simply be a human, recruited from the best of the Imperial Guard and given better gear and training. This gives them a far more human and understandable outlook, which is very tempting! They become the Imperial version of the special forces and are brought in to deal with the more difficult of situations. It also allows for far more human motivations and will result in Space Marines being a more mixed bunch who can be far more intuitive as they have learned their martial skills the hard way rather than it being programmed into them!

Needless to say the options are endless and I suspect its going to be some time before I settle on any particular approach but I have my suspicions it will probably involve some sort of combination of the two with the bulk of the Marines being purely human but veterans and an elite cadre, loyal only to the Emperor being fielded in smaller numbers but with skills that far surpass any mere mortal!

Hopefully my jabberings will inspire folks to look at their settings and forces again and see if they can't mix things up a bit or look at unpopular forces in a new light but for the most part, its just fun to write and make up my own sort of hodge podge setting that will appeal to me and allow me to employ the Budgethammer pledge and use whatever I like!

All the best!