Strange Bedfellows

Seems out here in space on the the far edges of humanity strange things happen and where one can make a few extra credits. Is to have a detachment of Imperial Marines as passengers on your ship. For a Four year term, you ferry them from place to place, along your trade routes and the empire pays their passage.

The great thing is you have a steady flow of credits coming in and you still go on with your daily business moving on from planet to planet and from station to station conducting your own trades. The empire pays for the housing and meals of the squad plus extra expenses. Extra hands to help out if you need them and nothing like having a detachment of Marines to cover your back as well

The first year having them aboard is a little iffy, not sure as to who they really are. Second year things loosen up a bit as both you, your crew and the detachment start to know each other, third year things roll much better and the forth year you almost can't do anything wrong in fact they help so they can make a few credits on the side.
 
Drawback is from time to time you have to delay your shipment depending on what the Marines uncovered or investigating from time to time when your on some planet on the edge of nowhere. during such moments from time to time you can make
something extra on the side on those events too and your ship starts to get a name for itself as well, making some deals on cargo a little difficult, if you know what I mean.

The pros and cons balance themselves out and the extra credits flowing in is good, and added benefit is as well is you can get moved up in line for ship repairs and parts if and when you need them and a good part of that is covered by the empire. Seems it is cheaper to do business in this way then it is to buy, build and maintain a large fleets, when you can contract out smaller ships to have a further reach out the to outer rims.

Detachment break down;
1 Senior Officer
1 Junior Officer
1 Communications Specialist
1 Tech Specialist
1 Medic
1 Senior NCO
2 Squad Leaders
4 Fire Teams of four Marines each

Oh the adventures one will have

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.

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.