Thursday, May 30, 2013

Traveller's Imperial Army

Okay we all know that Ground Zero Games http://shop.groundzerogames.net/index.php  has great figures for Traveller's Imperial Marines


 
 
But what about the Imperial Army in Traveller? There are stats for generating a character with an Army background, so what miniatures would you have for an Imperial Army in Traveller, myself I'm going to go with these guys the New Israeli also from Ground Zero Games
 
 
They have lots of different poses and weapon systems


Of course it's all in one's taste as to what figures one would want to use as for their Imperial Army. Yes the Imperial Marines are great for doing ship to ship fighting and the initial ground assault or to quickly crush a revolt of some miners on some forgotten asteroid but for your longer ground campaigns or for an outpost in the middle of nowhere your going to need an Army.

Now go out and have your players look for work in a bar half full of Imperial Marines and the other half with Imperial Army with nothing but time on their hands and their brains half polluted, toss in some locals and remember everyone is carrying a loaded weapon! Oh yes it's going to be a good time at "O-Mally's" tonight! Then in time someone is going to call the local police.

 

Wednesday, May 29, 2013

Dropship Build


Well I have printed off a few sets of templates and the instructions for this dropship project I have the foamboard as well. My plan is to first make the basic dropship, but I want to modify it a little, to a larger Cargo ship for my Traveller Crew, so in order to do this like I had said I need to construct the basic one first. I want to make it longer, taller and wider, the lower cargo area I feel can be deck out and I'm hoping that I can make the top lift off to reveal an upper deck layout as well.

The original model is said to be 2 feet long! that fairly big for 15mm

Of course the first ship built will not go to waste it will be a combat dropship for My Imperial Marines, plus I'm thinking of building a third one as a crashed site table piece.

Wednesday, May 22, 2013

"Mail Call"

Guess what came in the mail today!


That's right my Mega Minis "Small War-bots" from Mega Minis http://freeboardgamesnow.com/ they look great (some assembly required) and my plans are slowly moving forward, I believe I will use these as heavy combat robots for 15mm "Heavy Combat Support Battle Buddy" they will carry the bigger weapons systems the real "Door Knockers" so to speak. Now I have to come up with a paint scheme and a means of adding weapons too them.

Monday, May 20, 2013

Terrain Boards

Saw this terrain board set up for Battletech on Terragenesis http://www.terragenesis.co.uk/forum/viewtopic.php?t=5871 and knew I had to have one for myself!



After reading on, I found out it is modular and can be set up in a number of different ways, he did his up in hexes for movement reasons, for which he hid very well as for blending them into the terrain you can see them but not in away that distracts from the boards overall, which is just fine by me, he made all the hills on the board's edge very much the same at the edges so you can line them up very well in any different order, you can learn more of this by reading on at the link above, there are lots and lots of pictures and detailed notes on every step of construction.

I believe I wouldn't have glue the trees in place and would use some other means for them. I would have to give myself a little bigger open area with less water and streams for a small town, buildings or outpost in general, other then that it is a really great piece of work and well worth the time to read, as for myself this is a project that I will have to take up further down the road for right now. I do find myself going back to this again and again I just can't get over how well it's made and the planning that went into it, I hope this would help someone to do the same and build their own terrain boards I can see many hours of gaming fun and never getting bored with this set up. It could very well be the last set of terrain boards you would ever want to build.

(Update 7 July 14)
Seems the host web site to the link above purges projects posted on their site after 300 days to save server space the auther claims that he will make a wiki link with his step by step of his work as soon as he can and I will adjust as soon as he does his postings.

Sunday, May 19, 2013

Companion Robots

Starting a new character that I haven't tried before for Traveller, Companion Robots the idea came to me from Eerie Magazine
Eerie 72 - War - Strong - Robbot - Man - Knife

Eerie 73

picture

I remember reading the Hunter and Hunter II series back when I was younger, and how they would just make it out of almost any situation by the skin of their teeth.



Going to make the character using help from Travellers black book "Robots" now the robots to use will be from Mega Minis "Small War-bots" http://freeboardgamesnow.com/smallwar-bots20mmtall.aspx  they say there 20mm tall and that should work for my project. I have just ordered two sets before they close shop June 1st. and they should be here any day now.


 plus I want to use Khurasan Miniatures http://khurasanminiatures.tripod.com/  police/security robots part number TTC-3005 they just have that  look to me that would work well.

 
I feel this project will work well for campaign games for when a player loses a character they still stay in the game as their companion robot that was with that character, plus if it really looks bad send the robot in first!
 
Each robot will be able to select the weapon they will need by the appropriate tech level weapon laws just like the regular characters, and have their own attitudes, just like a regular character and act as a regular crew member, plus they save on crew pay and additional supplies and can be pack mules for when these guys are not around to do such
 
GMM-34


These are from GZG http://shop.groundzerogames.net/  under 2mm Germy's micro minis. I have seen them on another site where they are used as pack mules and mobile power units, they would be great for your planet safari adventures.

I will work it up and play test it a few times and post my results.

Update 5/24/2013 here's the link for Germy's AT-ATs as mobile power units http://gwargamesp.fr.yuku.com/topic/7183#.UWxheLWHx8E





Saturday, May 18, 2013

Dice Towers

I don't know about you but I rather use towers, for a few reasons. I have young nephews, who like to throw dice across the table if we don't use one, but not with a tower,  no arguments about how you rolled your dice and then the screams of "YOU CHEATED!" No dice fall from the table rolling to parts unknown for which you don't find till the next spring cleaning. Also I have a few little dogs as well and in general if it hits the floor they feel they have to grab it and run around the house with what ever it is, wagging their tails all the way with thoughts of "What a Prize I have!"  Then more screaming, Stop! Come back here, give me that back you lil #$%&!    No don't chew on that!   Stop!

Here is a site to give you ideas of one you may like to make or own, to save your dice from such horrors http://www.lord-of-the-dice.de/tower/tower.html myself I went with this one
 
http://www.instructables.com/id/Making-a-Formboard-Dice-Tower/ which is on the same page as the others. Just download the PDF file print and get started.

It was easy to make and works well, the foamboard cost $1.60 (USD) and the rest of the stuff I already had, dressed the outside up as an outer space ship hull, would show pictures but now is a fine time for my camera to take a dump, Just when I'm starting a blog and need to take pictures "Murphy's Law" is in full effect.

So there you have it a snip of my world

Thursday, May 16, 2013

Dropship Anyone?

Dropship Anyone?

You too can build a ship for your crew or for war gaming needs like the one below



This is the "Hercules" Dropship from a C.A.V. fan at  http://www.mil-net.net/hercules.cfm you can read his full article there. PDF downloads for the templates and instructions needed to make your own Dropship are FREE! I downloaded my set, and will be posting my results when I can.

All you need then is foam core board, card stock, odds and ends and your imagination.

Deploy your mechs, troops  or heavy equipment


Photo above is a rough draft of first ship he made.

As you can tell from the size of the Mechs from the photo, this would be great for your 15mm crew for your Traveller adventures or dropping your Imperial Marines in, or just which ever RPG game you're playing

It has room for improvement here is the basic finish model below


Now by adding odds and ends you can improve it to this kind of scale







Now get out there and explore your world from the comfort of your own ship.



UPDATE: as of 1/26/15 the link above is dead for the site for this project is down and no one knows if the site will come back up.

Wednesday, May 15, 2013

I have a thought and No my head doesn't hurt!

This inspired by the comic line of "Gone with the Blastwave" http://www.blastwave-comic.com/index.php Dark and humorist, I'm hoping to make a fun game of it, to keep it simple I thought one can use "Fubar" rules http://thegamesshed.wordpress.com/2010/06/17/fubar-one-page-sfmodern-rules/ and the figures from 15mm.co.uk http://www.15mm.co.uk/index.html

hof75_ws.jpg
Wasteland uber goons, they look very much like the comic

All the figures will be painted the same except for the markings like the comic yellow, blue and red.

This will allow for three players, the terrain board would be Post Apocalyptic city, with a clear city square in the middle and a objective marker located there "Map of the way OUT" first player there wins,

Sounds easy! Mm NO! Now comes the random "Mishap Table" players at the beginning of their turn roll a die or dices to see which of their figures is effected, each figure will need a number marker for dice rolls, then roll on the Mishap Table and apply the roll

D20 Mishap Table;

1. Shot Dead from stray bullet blocks away in another battle.
2. Hungry, sees rabbit spends all movement chasing rabbit to the nearest broad edge.
3. Daydreaming no action or movement this turn.
4. Shot in the Foot, by fellow team member, half movement for the rest of game.
5. I see a way out! spends all movement moving to the player's right.
6. Coffee break! spends movement moving to nearest building.
7. Defective grenade falls from individual and kills individual.
8. He's Cracked, spends rest of game moving off the board to the nearest edge.
9. Do you hear that! hears a radio and spends all movement moving to player's left.
10. Falling Rock, debris falls from building killing individual.
11. Board with nails hit individual in leg reduce movement to half for remainder of game.
12. Magazine falls out no firing this turn.
13. Gas mask failure movement reduce to half for this turn.
14. Steps on mine individual is killed.
15. New orders, spends all movement moving to closest team member to confirm orders.
16. Can we all just get along, Spends all movement moving to closest enemy unit.
17. Stuck in rubble no movement this turn.
18. Falls in to a hole full of rebar and is impaled to death.
19. Wait for reinforcements, no movement during remainder of game.
20. I'll find my own way out, spends all movement moving to the opposite board edge.

Not so easy now, you might be lucky to have anyone left to get the map, but sounds like loads of fun and mishaps, of course one can use the miniatures they already have.

I know this sounds goofy or dumb but what the heck what is gaming if you can't have fun with it.

Monday, May 13, 2013

Renegade Legion

Let me talk about a game that I believe gets to little attention! for a gamer like me this is a great game to play on different levels.

"Renegade Legion"


With a Roman style background mixed with Sci-Fi weapons and transportation, and a break away or separate British style fraction, seems to me a great mix for gaming.

It combines Role Playing and Miniature combat, above is the cover "Legionnaire" for the role playing game part and you may use 15mm figures in play and there are addition books and box sets as well.

"Centurion" covered ground combat of armor, artillery and infantry, for which one could play in 6mm.






current box sets have plastic vehicles which are fairly nice, but if it's metal vehicles you want then you can go to CinC Miniature's http://www.pfc-cinc.com/front_page.html and get the same vehicles there. Love to see some of these come out in 15mm there are some close look alike.

5951 - Aeneas TOG Light Tank

They are nice and detailed as you can see from the picture above.

"Leviathan" is a Star ship battle game of ships on ships the box sets come with die cut ships which one can replace with metal ones as well and there are plenty out there to choose from as replacements.



Some of the Capital Ships in the came can be folded in box shapes to give you a bigger look.

"Prefect" Is a game for those who like something on a much bigger scale Systems and planetary takeover and invasion, where one controls thousands of different units.




"Interceptor" I mention last is a Star fighter game, and a little complex as far as I believe for damage to ships goes and can slow the game down, I would just fudge some of them a make your own house rules to speed it up some but all in all a good game.



Fighters are die cut markers as well as other objects, fighters are single, or double seated.

Overall this is a great total system of game play and I hear very little about and find it hard to find other players, I suggest get it and get your gaming group involved and have some fun!



Saturday, May 11, 2013

Imperial Marines

I'm a huge Traveller RPG fan, player and GM. One of my goals is to post Miniatures on here that will work very well for Traveller gaming.
First up Imperial Marines, for 15mm gaming, they came in a box set and in 25mm,

 This the box cover.

                                        And here are the figures below that come in the box.
                                             These belong to someone else.(25mm range)

Now they are Out of Production (OOP) you can find them from time to time on Auction sites.
So what to do, plus they are the wrong size for 15mm gaming.

No problem Ground Zero Games http://shop.groundzerogames.co.uk has a line of United Nations Space Command or UNSC for short.

They fit the bill and just for the record they have the same style in 25mm on their site as well for those of you who wish to play in 25mm.


                                                UNSC Hardsuit Marines in Hardsuits with Plasma Rifles.



                                      UNSC Hardsuit Marine heavy weapons teams with RAM Mortars.



                                UNSC Hardsuit Marine heavy weapons teams with plasma guns.



                            UNSC Hardsuit Marines in Micromissile Launchers and Laser Snipers.

Plus a couple of other sets of Marines.


Their on my wish list and will get a few sets of them. One set will be painted in the traditional red and the others will be painted in different colors for mercenary units.


If you wish to make a detailed Soldier, Marine  or Mercenary character for your Traveler gaming and do more infantry combat heres a book for you.



You can find it on Auction sites or just go here Mongoose Publishing http://www.mongoosepublishing.com/

I hope this helps you with your gaming and enjoyment of Traveller as I have and still do.



Salvage Crew

OK this is great just got my Salvage Crew from Mega Miniatures today and let me tell you they look
Great! It will be some time before I get around to painting them up and when I do I'll post pictiues of them.
http://freeboardgamesnow.com/ Like I have mention before they will be shutting down June 1st so get while the getting is good.

Friday, May 10, 2013



OK ordered a set of 15mm Salvage crew, From Mega Miniatures http://freeboardgamesnow.com/ they will be closing shop on June 1st, sorry to hear that in the mean time, I can't wait for my set of them to get here.

So if you would like a set I would order them soon.




My plan is to combine them with construction Mechs from Ground Zero Games http://shop.groundzerogames.co.uk to form a salvage crew for Traveller RPG game


" Hercules-C" civil/military CLEM (Construction, Logistics and Engineering Mecha), Heavy Site Clearance variant with log grab, chainsaw, cutting laser



" Hercules-B" civil/military CLEM (Construction, Logistics and Engineering Mecha), Power Loader variant with heavy loading arms.


" Hercules-A" civil/military CLEM (Construction, Logistics and Engineering Mecha), General Purpose variant with standard arms/hands.

They all look to be great models and I have hear nothing but good reviews about GZG's products and I have some myself that I am very pleased with and so I can't wait to order them when I can.
I do have plans to add additional equipment, and will update that from time to time.

The "Main Plan" is to make a terrain board of a crashed ship for them to salvage and let the fun begin

Saturday, May 4, 2013

Shipping containers

Ok first project is going to be shipping containers for 15mm games using 1x1x36 inch square wood dowel that one can get from you local hardware store and cereal boxes cut in strips.
Welcome to Silo13
    My hope and intentions are to inspire those to create table top war gaming terrain using old school modeling of wood, paper, wire and any other everyday items.
    Hopefully this will help for those who are on a limited budget