1st Somerset Strikers - Aerospace Assets

 As of now I'm almost done the 1st Somerset Strikers (as far as the published scenarios go).  I still need to paint the Packrat command vehicle as well as one more mech.  That will do it for the unit itself, and then I'll be moving on to painting an additional Mauler, 4 Wolfhounds and 8 Centurions that make up 2 allied units the Strikers end up being supported by in some of the later scenarios.  So 14 more models and I'm done!

But today's project are the twin Banshee Aerospace fighters that provide the Striker's air support.  These models are 3D prints and I think they both turned out fairly well, although they do have the look of the Colonial Viper from Battlestar Gallactica about them.

I had a slight panic moment as I was prepping for my first 2 games when I realized the Banshee as an illegal design that was never really meant to make it into the game never got a card for Alpha Strike.  It turned out to be a non-issue as at least through the first 2 scenarios the Banshee is basically handled like an off-table asset and doesn't really need to be represented on the tabletop.  Having said that I had put out a call to the Battletech community on Twitter to see if anybody knew where I could find Alpha Strike rules for the Banshee.  It turned out that none existed at all but a really kind member of the community named Scott Boehmer took some time out of his day to produce a card for me.  So this is his work below, not mine.

If you're reading this, thanks again Scott!

I'll be taking a short break from Battletech this weekend to get my Lunar figures finished and then it's time to go nose to the grindstone on a fairly large fantasy scenery project.

Thanks for checking in!

-Jay

1st Somerset Strikers - upgraded with new clan technology

 Although during the Battletech animated series there was a TON of repetitive re-use of the same few mechs over an over again (I see you Centurion, Wolfhound, and Mauler) after a few successful raids and some intel gathering Major Steiner's 1st Somerset Strikers were rewarded for their efforts with some newer tech that was uniquely their own.

Ciro Ramirez had been captured by the clans and had his Wolfhound shot out from under him anyway.  Valten Ryder had lost his father's Centurion (it's okay, there's tons of those things laying around).  And even Major Steiner briefly lost his beloved Axman.  FedCom came through with some new mechs along with a two battle armour suits for their pilots to use while on the ground.  The only hold over from the original lance was Captain Hawkins who continues to perform his intel/recon functions from his 90 ton Mauler.

Major Steiner received an awesome new Awesome assault mech.  I had to re-watch a few episodes online to remind myself that the Awesome was in the patchy tan and brown camo used by FedCom forces and was not done in the colours of Steiner's previous Axman (not sure why I remembered it that way).

Valten Ryder got a Bushwacker a mech I have to confess I know next to nothing about.  I was basically getting out of Batteltech when the Bushwacker made it's first appearances back in the day so I'm really unfamiliar with it outside of the animated series.  The one thing that strikes me looking at the Bushwacker is given it's body shape and somewhat odd arm design and positioning I'm kind of curious if back in the day at the graphic design phase it was intended to be a new land-air-mech.  No idea, just speculating.

In addition to upgrading two of their mechs FedCom came up with two designs based on the Clan Elemental armour; the Sloth, and the Infiltrator.  The Sloth has always struck me as kind of a neat design.  Whereas the Infiltrator (and the Clan Elemental suits) always seemed like a fairly generic take on sci-fi power armour, the Sloth feels far more unique and distinctive and looks more like something that belongs firmly in the Battletech universe.

I've really enjoyed painting this small characterful force.  I still have four more models to finish for the Strikers themselves and then I'll be reviewing the scenarios before painting a bunch of Wolfhounds and Centurions to fill out their attached allies for some of the later scenarios.

On a personal note HUGE thanks to my friend Nick from Breaker Press Games for getting me the Sloth and the Infiltrator.  That stuff is hard to come by up here in Canada.  Nick has his own sci-fi miniature line and publishes a ton a great content for Dungeon Crawl Classics.  Please check out his work at: https://breakerpress.storenvy.com/   

And once again if you're looking for Battletech rules and models please support your friendly local game store!

Thanks for checking in.

-Jay

 

1st Somerset Strikers - original lance

 I'm getting ready to play some more Battletech, both Classic and Alpha Strike, using the sourcebook for the Battletech Animated series.  So allow me to introduce you to the original 1st Somerset Strikers.

The 1st Somerset Strikers are lead by Major Adam Steiner in his Axeman mech.  House Steiner pioneered the hatchet or ax armed battlemech.  The Axeman has a mixture of missiles, lasers, and a fearsome melee weapon.

Captain Miles Hawkins is a FedCom intelligence officer that pilots a 90 ton Mauler.  The Mauler is a cool looking mech but I've always found it a bit funny because in my head I think of FedCom Intelligence within the context of mech lance or company as being akin to a recon function and yet Hawkins drives one of the heaviest mechs in the Inner Sphere.

Captain Valten Ryder is a merc who joined the Strikers to escape some debts and obligations.  He's a hotshot maverick mech pilot but he starts the series off piloting a Centurion which in the animated series (and arguably in the game itself) is the most average mediocre mech going.  This is something that will improve later in in the series...we'll come back to the subject in a future.

Lieutenant Ciro Ramirez rounds out the original version of the Strikers in his Wolfhound.  Ramirez is a loyal FedCom warrior and a fierce believer in the old Star League but he's a bit of an uptight pain in the butt for his squad-mates.

This lance is a bit of a mix of models.  The Centurion is an old FASA plastic figure from their last CityTech box set.  The Wolfhound is a current Catalyst model available in the BattleTech Inner Sphere Striker Lance.  The Axeman and Mauler are 3D prints, those same 2 models are also available from Iron Wind Metals in metal, but personally I felt the 3D prints scaled and matched up better with the current Catalyst plastics.

Thanks for checking out the 1st Somerset Strikers, and please check out your friendly local game store for BattleTech rules and miniatures.

-Jay

The Silver Bayonet - British Warband and an assortment of monsters

 I finally got around to playing my first few games of The Silver Bayonet by Osprey Games.  For those not familiar The Silver Bayonet is a skirmish level wargame set against the backdrop of the Napoleonic Wars.

Although the mechanics of the rules are different than Frostgrave the structure of the game and it's scenarios are very similar.  To that end I'm planning on painting all the monsters needed for the 14 scenarios in the game as well as a few odds and ends from the random encounter table.  This will also be the kickoff for my plan to start building a collection of historic based/themed fantasy figures not only for The Silver Bayonet but for an assortment of other games and scenarios I'm planning on playing this year.

First up my Silver Bayonet Warband is led by Lt Archibald Tavington III.  Archie is a proper gentleman on loan from the 95th rifle regiment.

Along with their Lieutenant four rifleman have been seconded to the unit to explore and battle the unknown.  Two of the riflemen are by Warlord Games and two of them are from Perry Miniatures.

Accompanying the chosen men of the 95th is Doctor Theodore Theopolis.  The good doctor is proper soldier and in addition to his medical skills is not afraid to use his pistol to see off any hobgoblins that might be found harassing the countryside.

Lastly Angus McHaggis is a highlander from Scotland.  Angus keeps to the old ways and carries a great claymore to mete out the king's justice to the forces of the unnatural.

For my first batch of baddies I painted a bunch of Dark Wolves.  For these models I used the WizKids wolves.  The thing I like best about these wolves is that they scale properly with 28mm figures as they are the size of a large dog, and not the size of a horse that could be ridden by a man-sized figure.

Next up are the goblins.  I used the Hobbit Escape From Goblintown goblins which are some of my favourite goblin figures EVER.  I have used these for a bunch of other projects and I'm sure I'll continue finding more uses for these excellent figures.

No horror game set in this era would be complete without ghosts.  Again WizKids had the perfect ghosts.  These are great transparent figures that fit the theme of the game perfectly.  I particularly like the ghost lady carrying her severed head and floating through the headstone.

One of the figures I struggled with the most was the Hobgoblin.  The description of the Hobgoblin in The Silver Bayonet doesn't really match the design or aesthetic of any of the hobgoblin miniatures I am aware of.  I decided to ignore the names on packages and actually landed on a Reaper orc that seemed like a perfect fit for the description in the game.  I'm really happy with how this figure turned out and could see adding more of these style orcs down the road.

One of the other models I struggled with was finding an appropriately scaled Scarecrow.  Surprisingly (to me at least) most of the Scarecrow miniatures on the market are surprisingly large and over-scaled compare to man-sized figures.  Once again WizKids had a model that was both a great size and had a nice look to it.

I'm off to a pretty good start.  I have a few more packs/units of monsters to add as well as a bunch more single figure entries to be completely ready for the full campaign.  I'm hoping to get at least another dozen miniatures done this week, and then I might switch gears to scenery next week just to change things up.

And as always remember The Silver Bayonet and all the miniatures I've painted here are available from your friendly local game store.

Thanks for checking in,

-Jay

Space Truckers

 Last year I started working on some figures to play Stargrave with.  I managed to play one game before things started getting all lock-downy again.  With extra time at home I got interested in running a (then) new RPG called Those Dark Places which a rules-light industrial sci-fi game and thought these figures would be perfect, so I kept working on them.  After spending months slowly picking away at these figures the company that produced them are now releasing a game called Violent Dark that these will be folded into.

Okay.  So a lot of vague 'maybe this, maybe that' allusions to what I might want to use these figures for but why should you care about a theoretically random collection of figures?  Well.....

The crew of the Nostromo

Dallas and Kane

Brett and Parker

Ash and Lambert

Ripley and Jonesy

(I finally have a space cat in my collection!)

I would say if you're a fan of sci-fi horror (or just sci-fi....or just horror) you should definitely check out Black Site Studios collections.  They are very much a 21st century miniatures company as you have the option to either buy physical models from them, or STL files for those of you with 3D printers.

There is definitely a lot more Black Site Studios figures in my near future.  Keep watching this space, where incidentally; no one can hear you scream.

-Jay

Battle In Balin's Tomb - Team Evil

One of the interesting ideas that Games Workshop has been exploring in the past few years is producing hybrid board/miniature games using pre-existing models in smaller packaging at a lower price point.  To be honest most of those hybrid games haven't really appealed to me because I'm not their target audience (they're really designed to introduce non-gamers to hobby gaming) and if I was excited about the miniatures those games contain I would already own them.  The break in that trend and the game that finally drew me in was Battle In Balin's Tomb.  Lord Of The Rings was one of Games Workshop's biggest sellers during my time in the company and to be honest in the early 2000's it was my favourite GW rules system.  It's one of the few GW games I've kept up with consistently since leaving the company, and I still semi-regularly play Legends Of The Old West which uses the Lord Of The Rings core mechanics.  But I digress...

Battle In Balin's Tomb is the third box game to use the Moria Goblin plastics (one of the first Lord Of The Rings releases in 2000), and the second box game to use the highly underrated Fellowship Of The Rings plastic models.  The game itself is extremely basic, using a Heroquest-esque combat dice mechanic to play a 12 turn skirmish on a board largely devoid of features.  If you're new to hobby games or a big Lord Of The Rings fan and you want a simple introductory game with a fantastic selection of models this game is a great choice, if you're looking for an engaging strategy game that's honestly not what this is here for.

I'm looking forward to playing some games of Battle In Balin's Tomb with my daughter and possibly my niece over the Christmas season.  They are both squarely in the wheelhouse of the target audience for the game, both big fantasy movie fans, both like miniatures, and neither are interested in a complex game system.  I decided to start off by painting team Evil;  12 Moria Goblins, and the amazing and underrated Cave Troll model.

Moria Goblins with shields

Moria Goblins with spears

Moria Goblins with bows

Cave Troll

Team Evil!

That's basically half the box painted, I'm hoping to paint the Fellowship by Wednesday.

I'll show some more new/old models later this week and hopefully have a game to tell you about next week!

Battle In Balin's Tomb should be available now from your FLGS

-Jay

Review - The Stennard Courier Vol. 1

 Today I'm looking at the newest release from Nick Baran at Breaker Press Games; The Stennard Courier Vol. 1.

The Stennard Courier is a 'zine that continues to flesh out Breaker Press' grim and grimy fantasy setting for Dungeon Crawl Classics.  The 'zine describes the town of Stennard one of the principal early locations of a current ongoing series of adventures and campaign materials in what feels like a very old-school fantasy setting.  For adventurers playing in Breaker Press' game world Stennard is likely to be their first base of operations, and a likely starting location with all the features a low-level party will need between adventures.

The Stennard Courier itself is a 40 page 'zine that is absolutely PACKED with; NPCs, rumours, adventure hooks, world building, and commerce.  It's the exact kind of campaign starting point that every RPG box set or GM guide should include to give players and game masters the kind of world that feels full and lived-in to establish the tone of the game.  Within it's 40 pages the Stennard Courier gives 11 detailed locations (with additional allusions to other areas), 11 detailed NPCs (again with more from other Breaker Press products alluded to), as well as 12 separate lists of rumours (enough for an entire campaign), and price lists for 3 local businesses.  As I mentioned before this is the exact kind of supplement that a GM needs to make their game world feel more 'real' and less like a series of disconnected quests or missions.  The overall quality of the writing is outstanding with rich full descriptions of NPCs and their locations laid out in a clear easy to understand format that will make the material extremely easy for a GM to integrate into their own campaign.  The artwork has an old-school aesthetic to it that immediately puts me in the mind of the original Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay.

Overall the Stennard Courier is a must-have for anyone looking for a starting/home location for a low-level fantasy RPG, as well as being an excellent reference for anyone looking to create their own small town in terms of what both completeness and utility should look like.

The Stennard Courier Vol. 1 is currently available directly from Breaker Press Games at: https://breakerpress.storenvy.com/products/34299427-the-stennard-courier-vol-1-pdf

As well as via DriveThruRPG at: https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/378456/The-Stennard-Courier-Vol-1--BPGDCZ004?term=stennard

For a small indie business that already has a track record of outstanding releases this might just be their best and most useful yet!

-Jay