3rd Squad (15mm Stargrunt)

 Here is the latest addition to my FSE 15mm Sci fi Force. These troops again wearing Kepi Blanc and equipped with the same weapons. The vehicle is a variant of the other APCs. As you can see it is armed with a missile system turret as opposed to a more traditional gun style turret. How this will play out in the rules I will wait and see. I suspect the missiles will be more use as an anti "tank" role but time will tell. I just about have a grip on the infantry rules so adding vehicles has got to be the next step. As you will know, this is my third squad of 15mm FSE troops with hover vehicles. Which means that one more squad, a command squad, with command vehicle I will then start on the opposition force. I have already decided the other "Army" will be Krav Ak, The first GZG alien race. Other races, like the "crusties" also exist, but for me Krav Ak are the force of choice.

At the club on Sunday Peter was kind enough to give me a pressie! On his travels across the country he managed to pick up "Little Nellie" or I should say a die cast model of the famous James Bond Auto gyro, "little Nellie". It is about 25mm scale and is a very welcome addition to my 7Tv props. In my head I already have a plan for it bringing the plan to fruition is always the tricky bit. I must say I am very grateful for this gift it really is just my sort of thing.

I did have some good news on the job front last night. I have now been told that my job is "Safe" til December. Additionally I have a 90% chance of retaining it after Christmas as well so that has taken the pressure off, at least until December.

I have several things on the go, but nothing else at a stage I can share today. I shall post again on Sunday and with luck I shall have something at least one of the started items finished. At least that's the plan. T

Building the zombie bridge.

 As the game featured such an easy piece of terrain I thought I would show how it was made. The first thing to be aware of is what resources you can make use of. For me it was knowing that I could use some of the club hills and half of a table tennis table as the game table. The table tennis table was great, large enough for all to get round and the right colour to look like water. So basically use what you already have.
The actual bridge took 90 minutes to make including drying time. It only used tools that we all should have lying around and not really much skill at all. Honestly nothing that the average person could not do with out having to buy anything. I think that is important to make clear.
OK so here is how it was done:

• . It is worth getting a "Stanley Knife" that you are comfortable with. The one in the picture gets used by me a lot and I got it while doing some work in a warehouse, mostly because it was different from all the other knives the other blokes had. Needless to say when using knives take care and make sure you don't bleed on what you are making.
• The three wooden blocks  were scrounged from my builder neighbour. As long as the blocks are all the same in at least one dimension they will work. If you can get then roughly the same size so much the better.
• Measure and cut the hardboard to what you think will be the right road width. As long as it looks right to you and you can get the right scale car to fit across it the bridge will work. I guessed 7 inches wide as that was a good width for me to use the hardboard I had. It would have worked as narrow as 3 inches for a single carriage way or as wide as 20 inches if you wanted a really lot of car lanes. As I wanted to block the road with a model truck I settled on 7 inches being that the truck was 8 1/2 inches long.
• Having decided that I wanted a low bridge I went for the lowest dimension on the wooden blocks. There were a number of reasons for this it would make the bridge more stable and require less hill sections at each end.
• Everything was then painted dark grey. I had some sand coloured emulsion and some black poster paint (Ready mixed) being both water based they would mix easily. I painted what I thought the centre of the lanes a lighter grey.
• Once dry I used white and yellow colouring pencils to mark on the road markings. These markings consisted of a white dashed line down the middle and two yellow lines down each side, close together so the emulated the British no parking markings.
• Once dry I used duct tape on the reverse to secure the two bridge sections together. I used nothing to attache the block bridge supports as being low to the water they were not likely to move about too much. They raised the bridge about 40mm from the river so were very stable. If I had used them in a different manner I would have needed to anchor them to either the board or the road surface.

So there you have it a quick simple effective modern road bridge. In an idea world I would have had some edging to stop the cars from falling of the edge. I was concerned that some player or other would have made negative comments about "health and safety" but they did not, t was just accepted.

That's it for today, more on Friday. Til then take care and all the best Clint.

AAR Zombie Bridge Game.

Battle Board set up.

Objective to escape off the board edge.

Sunday was a club day and I had said I would run a 7ombie game. So that's what I did and here's what happened. The top picture is of the board setup with the players entering on the left and needing to exit on the right. This was to be a crowded game with 8 players and me as the ref. Each player had but a single character, selected randomly. In theory this was the follow on from the Car park game but as some players had not played that mission and other players did not want the character they had last time there was no continuity. I did not see that as a problem so we Just went for it. I took no written notes on the day (I never do, perhaps I should in future) but I would imagine it would disrupt play so maybe I won't.
The situation was that the players were all individuals attempting to get out of the city by crossing this bridge. The problem was that the bridge was blocked so they had to abandon their transport and move passed all the other abandoned cars climb over the wrecked lorry and escape on foot of the board.
I did make a couple of rules changes. Initiative was decided by pulling names out of a hat, the zombies having two names in the hat as on a previous game with just one name players quickly realised that if the zombies had already moved they could pre-plan their turn for the next move to always stay clear. The Zombies were either "Zombies" or "Tuft Zombie" (which got shortened to "Tuffy's") due to me putting a tuft of model grass on their base. One of the colour blind players commented that the tuft of grass was clearly visible because of it's three dimensions and therefor worked better than a red blood spot.


1st Turn

Another rule I changed was that the SMG's could fire single shot IF the firer made an intelligence check before firing AND Stated that it was their intent not to fire a burst.
For the zombies I changed the abilities of the single Rage Zombie. Any other zombie within 3 inches of him could make an additional move action. The single Tank zombie also had the ability to hurl cars. This was limited to 8 inches and required him to spend one action next to the vehicle to pick it up and a separate action to throw the car. 
Finally to reward the winner of the car park game. That player was given a token which allowed them to take an extra turn just once in the game at any point they chose. This is really powerful if used correctly.
The first turns saw the players move forward and support each other taking out a couple of zombies as they went. The Biker let rip with his SMG into the melee not caring who he hit or missed. As luck would have it he only hit the zombies!Melees were short and brutal and the zeds were mostly dropped to the deck but not "killed". The heavy, the cop and the crook all moved up the board while the biker, the little girl and the sleazy man loitered about 6 inches behind. I brought on a couple more zombies at the players start line (spawn point no 1) to encourage the players to move along. No players in the game decided to search cars, if they had they would have found a scavenger card assuming they passed an Int test. But no one voiced the possibility of doing so, I therefore did not mention the possibility.
As the players moved across the bridge I spawned a couple more zeds. The crook played one of his scavenger cards, a butane bottle and quickly moved forward. Two more players arrived and joined the game, I started them 1 inch from the spawn point (serves them right for turning up late)> Everyone new the crook had done something, but not exactly what. Being prudent they moved away. They mostly double moved (ran) towards their objective, the Tescos lorry and escape! Which allowed the Crook to play his "Dodgy explosive prop" event card on the vehicle they were now clustered around. The 5 inch blast radius managed to inflict one wound on the heavy, stun the cop, and destroyed the brains of 3 zombies... so not all bad then. I think this marked the end of the co-operative play.

The heavy started to use his "Blocker" skill to stop any survivor within 1 inch of him from moving. A tactic he took great joy in using as many times as he could for the rest of the game. Which stopped the Little girl from moving at all for about 3 turns in  all, each time she moved he would try to end his move close enough to her to stop her moving the following turn, Sometime about now the two new arrivals got involved. One was a little boy who ran as fast as he could along the bridge. The other player a woman with a shot gun decided to kill the clustered zombies (all in Blast radius), She rolled a ONE, Whoops, so missed completely and them decided to move. She ended her move close to the Butane bottle... remember the butane bottle the crook left... which was on a count down and exploded right on cue. Scratch one survivor! The cop played his event card, which allowed him to move three other survivors through some vents and tunnels 12 inches away. He moved them back down the road into as much trouble as he could. The second Zombie spawn point was from inside the cars half way or more along the bridge. I could only spawn one zombie a activation, so two a turn (tuffty and non tuffty). This allowed me to keep the zombies in the game and part of the threat throughout. They could not move on the turn they spawned though so players could always have a chance to react to them.
The crook (the player who one the previous game and there fore had the extra turn token. managed to play two turns in a row and run half the length of the bridge and climb onto the truck. Climbing on top of the truck requires an Agility check as did jumping off the other side. The Little girl also played her event card, which was then cancelled by someonelses! The biker also scrambled onto the truck. The cop climbed up top without much difficulty getting down in one piece used up all his remaining "luck" tokens and left him facing 5 zombies before he could leave the board.
The final few turns (and my finally number of allotted spawning zombies was down to 2. The rage zombie was collecting straggles and amassing a herd as they moved across the bridge. Including the Tank or it would not be able to keep up other wise. In retrospect I should have spawned it from a car, oh well live and learn. However the herd did start to look good with 7 zombies but with just one purpose. The cop managed to dodge round the zombies and slip away of board and was declared the winner. The Crook and the sleazy man took a few shots at one another, but no damage was caused, either by the use of bad dice or good luck tokens.

The biker followed later in the same turn. The heavy was blocking (he will claim Protecting) the little girls movement so she tried to shoot him. The pistol shot missed. So in desperation she tried to melee the heavy. In my head I could picture him just looking down and uttering. "I don't mind fighting girls, because when they hit you it doesn't amount to much!" At this stage the survivors were either off the table and for this game "Safe!" or on top of the truck just about to jump down and escape.

 In the last few moments of the game the Tank managed to pick up a car and throw it on top of the lorry. The little girl dived out of the way, the heavy dived out of the way. The crook did not. Scratch survivor umber 2. It is not often in a game that you can with reason, chuck a car at a player. I think it's a game he'll remember, causing 2 explosions and have a car fall on his head. his was the break the zombies needed as their initiative marker was pulled out of the cup. (Last the previous turn and first this turn) resulting is what appeared to be a double move. Some of the zombies managed to clamber up the overturned lorry (needing a 1-2 on  D6 A surprising number made it) . They were scattered and could not mob one character so most attacks were useless. One Zombie did get a lucky bite and claw and brought the little girl down. Scratch survivor three. That turn saw all the survivors exit the board and make it away to safety. At least for now. The little boy was the last to leave, but did make it away in the end.....Just.

Conclusion. Well done Relfie for getting away first. It is important for me to remember that whatever I plan game wise the players will interperet it in a way that suits themselves. Yes I did make a couple of mistakes. As Zombies in 7ombie TV do not have any blocker skills a survivor can just move past them this makes it hard to contain players with a rotting flesh wall and that is something I might address in further episodes. The upgraded tank and Rager worked very well, something to ponder on there would be the possibility of it becoming too powerful. The rules are very simple, at times too simple and I might have to give ALL THINGS ZOMBIE another trial.All in all though a fun game and I shall plan another episode in the future.

2nd Squad (15mm Stargrunt)

Let's face it we all knew this was coming so it's no surprise really. This is the second squad of 15mm FSE troops from GZG. Same unit composition as last time. These guys however are not in helmets but the famous "Kepi Blanc" I did think about painting the kepis a different colour for about 2 seconds so as you can see it was a very serious consideration. Having used white undercoat I managed to keep them clean enough to make the white really stand out. Other than the kepis they were painted exactly the same way.

I will have 2 more squads to finish the platoon, a 3rd Infantry squad, a power armour squad (not sure if they get transport yet so I'll leave that out for now) and a command section in a command version of the Hover vehicle. They will not be down this week as I have yet to order them. You know I'll show them when finished, but I need to paint a few other things in between. No idea what yet, you'll know when I know.

The big problem is the lack of time this week, real life was getting in the way. Not only have I looked after my nephew all week but I have also managed 15 hours overtime. James, my nephew is pretty good and does not get into trouble and can amuse himself (well sometimes) so I can manage a very little painting at some point each day, even if it is only for 10 minutes. So I can't really complain.

I will be running a ZOMBIE game at the club tomorrow. So expect an AAR on Monday. Another short post today for all the reasons listed above. For now though there is an ice cream with my name on it calling for me. So Thanks for reading and Zombie AAR on Monday, (I hope... that's my cue to forget my camera of course). All the Best Clint

1st Squad (15mm Stargrunt)

Not a huge amount to show today. It has been one of those weeks were I just can't get too much done. Enough excuses. Here is my first squad of 15mm FSE Stargrunt infantry. 8 figures in all. 6 armed with a standard FA-75 Standard Gaus assault rifle. It has less fire power than many of the firearms but a better impact so is generally on a level with other small arms. There is also a Squad automatic weapon (FA 77) and a Mistral portable guided missile launcher. I realise that if you do not play a lot of stargrunt most of this will sound meaningless. This is the standard FSE squad in the rules and is the pack composition from GZG.

FSE troops come with a choice of head gear, these as you can see are helmeted, the other choice being Kepi. I have a squad of these as well and they should get finished today. No promises, but that is the plan. The transport hovercraft was included in the pic just for completeness, as it will be assigned to each squad.

Elsewhere in my games life I have collected some of the wooden off cuts from a neighbour, and hope to get to work on Sunday's proposed zombie game later today, but currently waiting a phone call from work, so can't leave the house to work up the shed.

Lastly I want to say a big thanks to all my followers and casual glances for breaking the 10 000 page view score. I was thrilled yesterday when it did so. I know for many people 10 000 is not a large number but for me I do feel it was a significant milestone. So once again THANK YOU.

Short and sweet for now more on Saturday. All the Best Clint



AGCI-5Bs

The standard infantry carrier for the Federal States Europa is the Aero-Glisseur Combat d'Infantrie 5B. A medium sized hover vehicle capable of carrying 8 infantry into many battle field situations. The 2 crew, driver and gunner stay with the vehicle when the infantry dismount. The Stargrunt universe has these vehicles build under licence by several factions so realistically (for a sci fi game) they could be the most commonly encountered troop vehicle. As you can see they both have a small turreted weapon as well as a pintle mount. The pintle mount could have gone on the back where I have fashioned an aerial, or the top of the turret.

As metal kits they went together easily with a little flash to trim but otherwise clear of mold lines.not a massive amount of pieces and fairly self explanatory with regard to assembly. I do like the face that the skirts are slightly raised which aids they eye in seeing them as hovering It was not something I really noticed until I put them on bases.

So my 15mm stargrunt force is slowly growing. Very slowly I grant you but it's all going in the right direction. Just a quick post today, more on Thursday. Until then take care and speak to you soon. Clint

Post script: Just picked up some off cuts of wood from my neighbour so I should be able to start making stuff in the next couple of days.... (Fingers crossed).

15mm Sci Fi Truck.

This 15mm Science Fiction truck is by Ground Zero Games (http://shop.groundzerogames.net/ ) . I purchased it at SELWG last year, and it ha been staring  at me across the painting table ever since. I admit it, I was feeling guilty and that I was neglecting it. Following last weekends game of Stargrunt 2 I felt inspired to tackle it. It came with no instructions and in several pieces which made it quite tricky at times having to make educated guesses where things went. Most of the castings were good and went together well some mold lines and flash, but nothing that would stop me getting more. (In fact I have sent for a few bits and pieces). I must admit that I do have a Stargrunt force in 25mm but in the four years I have owned it only part of it ever got on the table once. This might be why I have decided to get rid of it and move to 15mm instead. It also might have a lot to do with the fact that John Tuffney has sold the vehicle molds on to another firm and only a limited variety is now available.

 
 Given that I have talked about making a 15mm Apache Indian game it made sense to me to paint this vehicle in desert camouflage. Originally I shied away from it as I have seen quite a lot of Sci Fi games on desert, temperate or ice worlds and I thought it might be nice to do something different. Having taken a "Common sense pill" I put that idea behind me and determined that I could use desert terrain for both games. I fought against it but finally conceded!

While only a single vehicle at this time I shall grow the force probably to a reinforced platoon size. At least one other club member has 15mm Stargrunt so an opponent is not unfeasible. having said that I would like to create 2 opposing forces so that I can instill a unified painting and basing feel to the troops. It is possible that I am over thinking it, but generally games do look better is everything looks like it belongs together which is hard to do if several players all want to buy and paint their own. To me at this stage it is worth the expense to get the game to look how I would like it. By that I mean no disrespect to other club members. The base is simply mount board that I have spare and the "rocks" are small pieces of cork crumbled into random sizes and shapes.

That's today's post, I have lots to do this week in order to see the zombie game I have planned come to fruition in 7 days time. Most of it revolves around contacting my neighbour (the builder) to get some free resources which I can then "rough-cut-and-bash-fit" into the setting I desire.

More Again Tuesday. Thanks for reading and take care Clint.

More Thrust.....Islamic Federation

A couple of months ago I painted my FSE (Federal States Europa) Full thrust intro fleet. At the time I could not find my second intro fleet. Well as you can see it has now turned up and managed to stay still long enough for me to paint it. Some of the smaller ships were already painted, but the larger ships being multi part had simply flown away. However here they all are, all in one place and all painted. I wanted to offer a strong contrast to the other fleet which is mostly cream in colour, so I have painted these a rich regal blue as the main colour. Given that all the ships have crescent shaped wings I felt s most appropriate to paint the wings several shades of gold. Against the blue the wings really jump out. Which was the effect I wanted. Each ship also has a light yellow accent stripe about a quarter of the way from the front. This was done purely to make them look more interesting and to break the blue up along the hull. Overall I think the colours work and contrast strongly with the FSE which is something I wanted. Having enjoyed painting both intro fleets I am almost tempted to get another two or expand these two at a later date.

That's today's post. I shall finish some more painting today so the next post will be on Sunday. I do plan to run a 7ombie game at the club NEXT weekend and will need to make a little scenery for that. next week. Nothing too complicated as I am waiting for my neighbour (a builder) to drop off a bag or two of off cuts from a garage he is building locally. Which will keep costs down for that and a few other projects.

All the best folks, Thanks for reading and I'll post again on Sunday (Assuming I get what I have started finished!!!)

Nil Points!

Well I finally finished a leader for SAGA. This is supposedly a welsh warband leader. I say supposedly as it could be any faction. It is easy to think that we have to have the "correct" figure as supplied by the manufacturer. Obviously that is not the case where we are dealing with a dark age force. As mentioned in earlier posts there was no uniforms and all equipment was used by everyone. Given the "gifting" of items from battle fields (Taken from the defeated force) anyone could be wearing items of any origin. Some times things might need to be adapted, for example a side split Hauberk "gifted" to a Norman knight would need to be front split. For those not in the know it's hard to ride a horse in hauberk that is not side split.... I know I have tried. You end up sitting on a really uncomfortable fold of metal chain link. Which is unpleasant for both rider and horse. Additionally your legs are exposed to the danger of the battlefield.  Not the idea of armour! 

Anyway back to the figure. In addition to the two axes and shield he carries a sword as well. I would have given him a spear instead of the axe in his left hand if I had any spare. But I have taken a liking to the additional axe so I will not change it now. His shield carries a stylised Raven. Having repainted the shield 3 times now this will be the final solution. I am not totally happy with it feeling that is should have been "Crisper" but I can't be bothered to have another go just yet. So it will do! While all the others in the warband have two colour geometric shield designs. All his clothes have a contrasting colour stripe as well. From what I know this was fairly typical on garments which would have been decorated with embroidery or Tablet weaving.

I am not sure which manufacture makes this dog, it was an eBay find. Relfie at the wargames club also wants a dog for his leader. Relfie said it out loud before me, but when he said it the dog was already in the post. The breed of dog is also correct for the period not that they had breeds as we would think of them, but a certain well known tapestry has dogs which look similar to this at least in proportion.  The last thing that identifies this as a leader is the size of the base. All the others are on 20mm square bases, so a larger round base should give this enough impact on the table that it is clearly something different.

Given that in Saga your warband leader is free I still only have four points of Vikings ready to play with. Until the majority of other players reach that level I feel justified in taking a break and working on other projects!

That's if for today. I'll Blog again on Friday, Thanks for reading and I hope to see you all soon. All the best Clint!

Stargrunt

Yesterday at the Rainham Wargames Club we had a game of Stargrunt. Having not read the rules for more than 2 years I was not at all familiar with what I was supposed to be doing. Ok that's my excuse and I'm sticking to it. The scenario was that a senior officer's vehicle had broken down in an insurgents area and the NI (New Israeli) forces needed to rescue him from the Islamic Federation (IF)insurgents. The officer and bodyguards decided to stay inside the vehicle rather that take cover in any close buildings.

All other troops had a random start location (both direction and distance. The long and the short story of this is that some of the IF forces started in more favourable positions than others. All  the IF insurgents moved and where able opened fire on the troops inside the hover jeep. My troops just got to a position at the end of the 2nd turn and the NI rescue force turned up.

They were veteran quality and the IF were raw/green. Which for those unfamiliar with the rules meant that I was rolling d6 and the Israelis were rolling d10.  As can be seen on the right my squad was caught in the open. They continued to suffer "Double Suppression" for the next hour and a half (real time, probably 5 minutes to them) which ment they could do nothing at all, not even dive run away until the suppression was removed. Being green troops that was not as easy as I would have hoped. SO that just stood in the open getting shot at. Eventually they paniced, went first to Shaken and finally routed of the table, having done nothing all game apart from move twice.

Elsewhere in the town other NI troops had come onto the board. Having already lost one section of troops El Kev gave me another unit to control. These at the time were completely exposed in the open and caught between the officers in the vehicles and another NI squad. I moved them as soon as I could into a walled garden. And managed to fire at the NI squad.

It did not last long, fire was returned and they were "Double Suppressed", Triple Suppressed and first "Shaken" then "Broken" to the stage they could do nothing for the rest of the game. Don't get me wrong the game was not one sided. The IF did (well I did not but Ian and Kev did) manage to put up a fight. Ian in particular managed to keep his militia alive for the whole game.

Finally the Insurgents were allowed to start rolling for reinforcements, regular quality.. Yippee! Mine arrived after everyone elses! But at least they turned up in a place where they could not be shot for a few turns! The other guys arrived straight into the action. Brilliant victory was now possible!

Well actually no it wasn't! Both lots of reinforcements were shot to pieces starting out in the open and with no real chance to become combat effective. They did get a few shots back, and did manage a few NI Casualties, but realistically to little too late. Overall they died horribly out in the open.

My reinforcements did benefit from the massacre. Not being seen as a threat the NI forces did not attempt to target them straight away. As they did achieve a couple of shots at the Officers vehicle, and did manage to wound 2 of the crew, but not the senior officer. All in all the IF were just targets in a NI shooting gallery.

It would have been over much sooner if the dice had not gone against the New Israelis. With an armour value of d4 against a NI automatic rifle firing d12 for impact/penetration it was surprising just how often the d4 beat the d12.  Still it is a good set of rules and even just being a target was OK as all the guys are nice to play against!

No Mans Land. Maidstone.

I went over to Maidstone today as I knew that Karl from Crooked Dice (7TV and 7OMBIE TV) would be running a game. He actually had two games set up. "You Only Live Dice" which we were lucky enough to play at the club two weeks ago and this one. "Fiddlers Green" is a small introductory game that takes 30mins to a hour to play. As such it's a very good stepping stone into understanding the rules. The whole game is on a 2 foot square tile. Set in a fictional English village, I assume called "Fiddlers Green" as that is the name of the scenario. A couple of good guys are sent into town to investigate the strange happenings aided and sometimes hindered by one of the locals (a little old lady with a shotgun) All the pics, apart from the first one are in play photos. The Villainous opponents are some Morris Dancers with pistols and unfriendly attitudes and some robotic scarecrows with scary attitudes.

I did not play, I probably could have Squeezed a game in but elected to take some snaps and bother Karl about a few game ideas.(More of that in a second or two). Because I did not play I am not 100% sure of the victory conditions. So all I will say about that for now is that the game did look well balanced seemed to flow nicely. One player did struggle to get the initiative dice roll and was always just slightly out of step. But as we all know you just can't beat the dice when you continue to roll low.

As mentioned above the real reason for going was to talk to Karl about the proposed show game. I showed him the picture of the "Tigers nest Monastery" and he firmly bit into the idea. As a visual it's very strong and If I can make it to look anywhere near as good, the game will be a winner in the public eyes no mater what. (we all get seduced by nice terrain). I was concerned about using any of the Characters that already exist in the rules. I need not have been Karl is happy for me to use them, or not as I see fit. He will get a chance to play test it before I take it to any shows, so anything he really dislikes can be changed.

One of the problems with the two show games Crooked Dice have is that they take too long. I think I can remedy this by breaking my game down to 4 sub games that can, if you choose and time permits play in sequence. Or I hope you can play it as 1 large game. The 4 smaller games strike me as the best option though as at shows most people in the UK don't want to commit themselves to a long game, but could spare 30mins to an hour. The freshness of 4 smaller games might work well. I have not seen it at a show, where all the games are linked, but I hope it will give a very episodic feel.

I plan to start buying some materials on Monday and maybe to start the build. Plans are great as they always change so when Monday comes I can always change my mind. I intend to build one 2 foot square section at a time. This will allow me to try it down the club at each stage. Maybe this is a prudent, maybe it's me being a wimp! One of the first things to do though is to decide on the style of the casts. Artisan do some "Sky Pirates" which will look good as the heroes troops. I have two packs unpainted so that is a start. For the Villains though I am torn as there are so many options. I want them to look as dramatic as possible, as well as villainous evil underlings. My current thinking is to change them on different boards. The first board for example maybe some Copplestones "Back of Beyond" Figures will look correct with one Ninja. Progressing through the boards with the foes getting more and more daunting. Maybe the 4t board has an end of level boss...

AT this stage it's all just talk. Now the hard work begins.

Thanks for looking have a good weekend. Take care and roll good dice. All the best Clint.

 Post script: A pic of Rochester Castle from the train as I came home from Maidstone.

Update 0.1

A little while ago I ran a poll asking what project I should tackle next. The most popular result was 7Tv or7ombie Tv. So what have I done with that idea since I hear you ask. Well last club day I had Karl from Crooked Dice visit the club and put on a 7TV game for us. I hope the club members enjoyed it, I know I did. Karl has promised to come back later and run another game for us. Which would be great and very much appreciated. This was an important first step, as it confirmed that we mostly had got the rules, mechanics and flavour right in what the company was looking for. There were a few minor tweaks (aren't there always) grenades actions and luck that we will have to look at. But generally everything went to plan.

Following this step I started to look at possible settings for the game. I did not want to encroach on Crooked Dice show games, which tend to be based around James Bond settings. The painting to the right is of the "Tigers Nest Monastery". As a current Buddhist Monastery this will not be used in any James Bond film. That being the case I feel sure that to take inspiration from this site would be acceptable, and yet still retain the feel of the genre. Quite obviously a direct copy of the setting would be unfeasible. I can use the Tigers Nest Setting as a start point for planning a game though.

 Which is what I have started to do. As you can see I have started putting together some notes, sketches and game ideas down on paper. Don't get too excited this really might fall flat on its face. I do however feel confident enough in the idea to start to share the process now. My current thinking is that I should move away from James Bond and treat the setting as semi mystical. This is one of the reasons for painting the Yeti and the Ninja! Yes there is a method to my madness... but on the whole much more madness than method. For figures I have ruled nothing out. I do anticipate buying some more Ninja.... and painting them in RED  robes possibly some Chinese terracotta warrior figures to use as robotic guards or maybe some Chinese Zombies. Or I might purchase some modern 28mm Afghan fighters to act as site security. At this stage it really is totally wide open. I intend to talk to Karl on Saturday and ask if he wants me to use his existing heroic cast, "Pandora King" And "DR Soloman" or if he wants to retain them for his own game. The last thing I want to do is tread on the companies toes on this matter.
I must stress the "Tigers Nest Monastery" is for inspiration only do not expect to see me build the whole thing!

I will post again on Saturday afternoon. Thanks for looking. Any ideas you want to contribute will be more than welcome but as ever I will get the final say. Take care and have a good couple of days. All the best Clint.