Party On The Prairie(con)

Battle is set - Colonials enter at the top and right, Rebels at the bottom and left

Prairiecon 2013 took place in the lovely city of Brandon, Manitoba last weekend.  Once again the Conscripts made a solid show of force, running and participating in games in other events over the weekend.  Dallas ran a Star Wars: Fleet Battles game Saturday morning, and I ran a game of Tomorrow's War Saturday night.  Here is a report on the Tomorrow's War game.

VIPs do some TV interviews while awaiting rescue

The scenario was set on some un-named dusty colonial world of the distant future.  Once again, the minions of everyone's favourite future company - Binary Petroleum - had been trapped in a dangerous place, shot down in an area of abandoned industrial facilities.  Colonial troops are dispatched to recover the survey team, and a group of Sludge Truther Rebels has the same idea.  Cue the firefight!

Sludge Truther Rebels under the guidance of the mysterious "Known One"

The table was 4' x 4', filled with Dallas' awesome Stalingrad ruins, with a few added modern touches, including some new sponsor logos (more about that later).  The Colonial troops were composed of the amazing Frank Hammond science fiction troopers.  The Colonials had four five-man fire teams, two with LMGs, two with rocket launchers, and a small command element featuring a medical bot and a sniper rifle.

Things heat up in the center of the table

One of Mike's fire teams sets up in cover

The Sludge Truther Rebels were represented by the excellent Pig Iron Kolony Rebels, and a couple of Pig Iron Kolony Ferals. They were organized into five-"man" "slurms", and a small command element (boasting the guidance of "The Known One"). As we frequently do in the Ambush Alley games, the two sides started very close, and in Tomorrow's War weapon ranges are not relevant, so the battle would come fast.

"Hey - they don't look like Colonial troops..."

On of my fire teams decimated by terrible reaction rolls

The victory conditions were based on the recovery (or, in the case of the Sludge Truthers, I should say "recovery") of the VIPs.  There were four of them, and they started the game right in the middle of the table.  Each fire team could only recover one VIP at a time.  If you evacuated or held a VIP at the end of the game, you got a victory point.  And, of course, accidents happen, so these, er, "incidents" would shape the number of victory points available.

Hmmm...what happened to this captive?

Mike F and I played the Colonial troops.  Dallas and Cam played the Rebels.  Early on, the Rebels made excellent progress - I blew a reaction role and lost most of one fire team in the first turn!  Meanwhile the shifty opposing slurms grabbed a couple of VIPs.

Colonial fire team

A rebel "Slurm"

But we started to turn the tide! Mike won a number of initiative rolls, and our fire started to really hurt the Rebels.  Mike got one of his fire teams into a position that could cover the Rebel exit points very well, and the rebels bogged town.  Two more of our fire teams closed in on the remaining VIPS.  Toss in an - er - "incident" depriving the Rebels of a VIP, and it was looking very, very good for the Colonial side...

This is Mike's second fire team moving in for a rescue

The Colonial troops rescue a VIP...but there was...an incident soon after...photos went missing...

And then...and then...in the space of three die rolls, it was over.  One of our VIPs was, um, "lost to a kinetic incident" in a fashion that may, or may not, have involved some of our own weapons.  Dallas then got the drop on my last fire team, meaning the Rebels broke free of their pinned position and buggered off the table with a VIP.  Since the other three VIPs had encountered "issues", that meant a win for the Sludge Truthers!

Rebel command element under fire.  The captive (at the top of the photo, with his back turned) would get hit in the crossfire

In all we played about six turns, but with the Ambush Alley system, there is a lot of interaction and the exchange of fire was very involved.  In one turn Cam's cover "Slurm" fired so much he actually ran out of dice.  Gun barrels were melting on both sides.

Colonial troops advancing near the friendly Binary Petroleum billboard

A big thank you to Dallas for lending out his excellent Stalingrad terrain for the game, and to Dallas, Mike F and Cam for joining in during the game.  It was a lot of fun, and we drew a healthy crowd of onlookers for the battle.

A fine sponsor of the future

Can't build colonies without financing...

I also want to thank Conscript Kevin H. for the ace work he did putting together the corporate logos for our game.  It is good to know that Binary Petroleum and Stellarbank will have a nice brand to add to our science fiction game settings!  Stay tuned for a report from Dallas on the Battle of Endor... 

Battle Report - Binary Outing for Binary Petroleum

Newly painted figures get ready for action earlier this week

A couple of weeks ago, in one of my many hobby distractions, I started in on some excellent 28mm near-future sci-fi models courtesy of Frank Hammond. I had finished the models this week (there are 24 of them in my initial batch) and Dallas was kind enough to get them involved as part of our regular game this week.  For fun we used the new Bolt Action rules - intended for WW2, they adapted quite easily to the science fiction setting.

These old 40k Storm Troopers bolstered the Frank Hammond troops

For a scenario we decided to pull the good, hard working folks of Binary Petroleum - last seen in our 6mm FUBAR games - into the 28mm setting.  A group of character models would represent a well-meaning Binary Petroleum survey team, set upon by some FuturKom Motor Fuzileers.

The FuturKom Legions - an awesome collection from Dallas

FuturKom motor pool - note the dreaded T-620 in the foreground...

My Frank Hammond troops were blended in with some vehicles and additional bits from my 40k collection - one of the main reasons I had applied my blue paint scheme to the infantry was so I could merge them into my large collection of Imperial Guard stuff.  In all we had three infantry squads with APCs, one marksman, one MBT and an officer.  One of the squads, represented by Imperial Guard storm troopers, was an elite veteran team. The Kommulists had a near-identical lineup - three squads in APCs, a T-340 and the dreaded T-620! The Kommulists had extra armoured power in contrast to our better infantry.  Dallas took command of FuturKom and I rolled with the PDF forces.

These 40k characters represented a Binary Petroleum survey team...I find they match up well with that role

A BP representative gives an on-site interview...

The members of the BP survey team were spread across the table as objectives, and the goal was to try and capture as many as possible.  Once the game ended, Dallas and I would roll a D6 for each survey team member recovered - whoever rolled highest would recover the valuable survey data as to which areas of the verdant colony world were ripe for transformation into tar-fuel pits.  Oh - and some of the survey team members would maybe be saved too, which was BP's "official" goal...

This BTR-700 was no match for the main gun on my tank - too bad this was the only thing my tank managed to hit...

The T-620 commands all before it - the power of Kommulist industry...

The game moved at a good clip - Dallas and I each moved to grab some team members, but Dallas was more efficient with his movement.  I had some early success punching holes in his APCs, but he was able to knock out my tank before I could get to his (I blew key rolls to help that along...) and this would put the balance of firepower toward FuturKom for the rest of the game.

PDF fire-teams open up on the Kommulists

I didn't help my cause by getting my APCs all bottled up near the middle of the table.  Sure, my infantry had cover, but they couldn't get anywhere useful.

This APC was knocked out and made for a bit of a traffic jam for me - and a good back drop for a live hit from the reporter

Motor Fuzileers under fire - note the "rescued" BP survey team member being spirited away in the background

Still, we got our licks in.  Two of the FuturKom squads were lit up, and we took out all of their APCs.  On the other hand I lost an entire squad, two APCs and a tank.  By the end of the game Dallas had recovered three survey team members, and I had "saved" only one.  It was a win for FuturKom.  I'm sure the Galactic Central Policy Committee has already reviewed the information as to which areas would make the best spots as they plot "Grozny 4"...

Burning BTR in the centre of the table - see how Dallas squeezed that APC along the table edge? Darn it!

Bolt Action showed once again to be the current "it" rules.  They adapted very well to our setting and allowed for a quick and efficient game.  They are miles beyond the current edition of 40k in terms of quality, enjoyment and representation - I recommend you give them a try!

Some More Painted 28mm Sci-Fi Troops

As Monday Night Football grinds on (and the terrible replacement officials continue to bungle calls - will be interesting to see if the Packers can pull this one out) I have finished a few more of the 28mm sci-fi troops acquired via Frank Hammond.  These models are really, really nice sculpts and are quite fun to paint.  It has not gone as fast as I expected, but that is OK. There are a lot of nice little details on the figures that are slowing down my standard mass production approach.  And it's not like I need to get these things out on the table urgently.

NCO type figure at the front, two riflemen behind

You can still see the glue drying in some of the pics...the "tufts" of grass are making the ground work on the bases a lot easier. 

Officer checks for 4G LTE wireless coverage...he should have gone with Verizon... 

One of the SAW teams

I have finished 10 of the 24 models so far.  I will do one or two vehicles (they don't really need too many vehicles as they will match the pile of tanks and APCs I have already painted for my 40k Imperial Guardsmen) and then return to my 15mm Syrians and Israelis.  

Rear view of a pair of the troopers 

A second SAW team

I am hoping to get these guys stuck into a Tomorrow's War game sometime soon - one of the good things about that game is that you can play without too many figures!

28mm Sci-Fi Goodness - "Frank's Toybox"

Painted test models of Frank Hammond's amazing 28mm sci-fi troops

As I wait for more bases and hope for a lost shipment of Peter Pig stuff to hopefully appear (thanks for that, Canada Post and People's Pharmacy - incompetent clowns, but anyway...) I am taking another little fun side project: some new 28mm infantry from Frank Hammond.  These are near-future sci-fi troops and are the nicest 28mm sci-fi models I have seen in a long time.

The goodies arrived in no time at all...

I came across these via a TMP posting earlier this month, and loved the look of them immediately.  You can read about the genesis of these models here on Frank's Blog, (you can purchase them there too) but suffice to say it is the opposite from the plague of Kickstarter panhandling that is sweeping the hobby. He basically knew what he wanted, got them sculpted, and you can buy them too if you want. How refreshing.

Some of the troops waiting for the basing goop to dry

You can see the SAW gunner in the front row here - not my favourite style of MG, but the models are still awesome overall

Of course style preference is hugely subjective.  There are many people who do not care too much for "near-future" sci-fi, finding it too close to modern troops of today.  But if you like that "period" (and I am a huge fan), you will love these models.  They are the closest thing I have seen in 28mm to Khurasan's outstanding 15mm "Nova Respublik" troops.  The armour is cool, the weapons are cool, the poses are solid and the sculpts are outstanding.  These are what the 40k plastic Cadians should have been - lightly armoured but without the "special school" helmets and shoulder pads mixed with steroid-boosted bulk the current plastic Cadians bring with them.

AT launchers and sniper rifles

More riflemen waiting for the "goop" to dry before getting a coat of primer

As I wish the 40k Imperial Guard looked like this, I want to paint them in the blue scheme similar to that of my Rogue Trader era guardsmen.  They can serve as Imperial Guard proxies, or represent a mercenary regiment in our Spacekrieg period, playing either our home-made rules or Tomorrow's War.

Test model 1 completed, beside a similar model waiting for primer

This is not a huge collection of models - a variety of rifle-armed poses, an officer with a communicator or scanner, a trooper with an AT launcher, and a trooper with a SAW-type weapon, together with a rifle-armed trooper carrying an extra ammo load for the SAW.  There is also a trooper with a sniper rifle.  The SAW trooper is maybe the one model that I am not totally wild about with this collection - I have never been a fan of the standing MG-style rig (but I know it is popular generally).  But it still looks pretty cool...

Rear view of test model 1

To make these "40k legal" I have ordered some custom bases with sabots that will allow me to mount the SAW as a two-man "heavy weapon team", while the models themselves remain individually based for the other, more sensible rules sets (i.e. any other rules).  I will probably use the AT launcher as a proxy grenade launcher in 40k, and an actual light AT missile launcher in the better games.

In an actual 40k game this will lead to a shortage in terms of variety of troops and special weapons, but in my experience playing Guard in 40k the infantry are largely irrelevant, with success riding on what your vehicles can manage. Accouterments such as standard bearers, medics and other superfluous bits end up as diversions and wastes of points on the table.

When I first received the models, I thought they were huge - but clearly I've been doing too much 15mm recently, as you can see in this comparison photo they sit just fine on the 28mm spectrum - with more realistic proportions to boot

The first two painted test models

Frank says on the blog that he is hoping to have more figures done.  I can only keep my fingers crossed and hope that happens - but of course it takes a long time.  Perhaps someone can figure out a way to Kickstarter some more sculptors and casting companies out of the ether.

In the interim, I may attempt some conversions - the AT launcher model might be a candidate to end up with a kind of lascannon, while there may be some way to replace some of the rifles with flamer-type guns or melta-type guns.  But it's not a huge priority, or a huge worry.

The models are "light" - no big back-packs, which makes sense - you would probably leave them in the APC...

The extent to which I can manage to make these models "legal" for 40k is really secondary.  After all, 40k is a generally terrible set of rules, and we have so many other "periods"/rules where these guys will be able to play, and I look forward to getting them on the table sometime soon.  And if you like near future sic-fi, give these models a look - you will love them.