Testing out Mekatac

Even though I only finished two of my big stompy robots so far, I decided to have them fight each other to try out Mekatac as a candidate for some giant robot games.

A unnamed city somewhere on a arid rock. The Big Boy (in yellow) is defending a reactor from an interloper, Firebug (the tan/khaki robot).

With Big Boy having a significant advantage in range, Firebug rushes in behind a building. Both the handheld and top-mounted rocket launchers of his opponent comes flying on a tail of fire.
 The swarm missiles hit the building shielding Firebug, but the larger missile strikes him square on, blowing apart armor and rattling the systems of the robot.

Big Boy fires another salvo of rockets while it's target is still out of range with it's deadly plasma cannons. This time the highrise shields Firebug completely however.

Deciding that it might be easier to destroy the generator than the enemy robot, Firebug fires his first bolt, melting and superheating the ferrocrete of the generators walls. But it's not down, for now at least..

With attention shifted from him, Big Boy can move up and fire at close range, scoring several hits and damaging the legs of the intruder. 

With one set of coils still recharging, Firebug moves up close, firing the second cannon at point blank range into the gun mount on Big Boy's face, melting the weapon and detonating the ammo stores as well.

At this point both robots are severly damaged, Firebug is now suffering electrical fires that cause continous damage and Big Boy is all out of ammo to for his launchers and his rotary gun is melted.

Being faster than the defender he fights, Firebug falls back from the only weapon his opponent can use, melee strikes. As he outpaces him, he fires on the generator again, this time blowing it sky-high!

At this point I decided to call it, calling it a draw as the defender would never be able to catch the interloper, and in a round or two the electrical fire would bring Firebug down anyhow.

The system works well, but I think it will become more interesting with more big stompy robots involved, and possibly a few support units per side.
Altough weaker and less deadly, support units would add some more options to each side, and go some way towards mitigating strenghts and weaknesses of individual units.

I've got another 3 big robots on the way, along with a few other bits and bobs as I started sculpting again.

The 5th tile for my new terrain boards are in the works, I hope to share some pics soon as well.

Til next time!

New terrain boards project; no4 all finished, and the first GSRs painted

Last week I finished up the 4th of the new terrain tiles.

Now that I've got a basic technique down, I just have to finish up all the remaining ones!

The 4th tile is a downtown commercial district, home to various shops and the giant Outer Rim Traders.

 

Workshops for repairing equipment and vehicles share the space with smaller businesses and local drinking holes.

 ORT is a fairly big deal on the fringe worlds, often the biggest (and sometimes only) supplier of all necesseties for colonial life, from basic food and supplies to OKI-corp MHU and other modular structures. 

The tiles can be cleared and rebuilt in any number of ways, limited only by the amout of different structures I scrounge up/build!

Here's a shot of the buildings sans tile with my usual scale models to show off their size.

I don't have a sneak-peek of the next tile ready just yet, as I have yet to get get started. My giant robots have taken quite a bit of my time..

I also managed to finish up the paintjobs on the first two Giant Stompy Robots I showed in the last post:

The mechs, with the usual scale-crew .

I still haven't decided fully on the rules for these bad boys and their ilk, but I'm leaning towards Mekatak, as it feels crunchy enough with a good amount of weapon systems and other upgrades, but plays quickly enough.

They might still make a Cameo as Super-heavy mechs for some of my Horizon Wars armies, but I have started playing around with some BOLO-like tanks to use as super-heavies with some of my existing armies, so we'll see.

Til next time!

New terrain boards project; no3 finished! and a sideproject of sorts

Since last post I have finished up the 3rd base, as well as managed to start up a side project, but more about that a little later in this post.

The 3rd terrain board is a second residential tile:

Being envisioned as a set of apartment complexes for the slightly well-to-do, this tile comes with a green area for each of the three sites. These oases are a statement of the wealth of the inhabitants, having enough not only to afford a apartment outside the slums, but also keep greenery alive in the badlands where the city is situated.

For the sake of modularity these buildings are not permanently affixed, so the tile can be turned into a small park or something similar.

I also took a few shots of the buildings with the same minis up close:

As I got to planning tile 4, I had a brainstorming session and sketched out the rough outline for the remaining of the first 9 tiles. So now I have an idea how they should come together. 

The 4th tile with the basic line-work and BUA marked up, with ground texture in place. I have started putting some of the buildings for this one together, I'll share more as soon as I have something ready for camera!


Last, but by no means least, I have started sculpting some giant stompy robots:

I wanted to have some really chunky mechs, as I got inspired by various sources, I decided to put some together. There is a plan to get these into a game of some sort, focused on the giant robots and maybe a handfull of support units as opposed to just using them as super-heavies for Horizon Wars.

Nuclear-powered and armed with dual plasma cannons, this one is a real slugger.

Similarly powered by a nuclear reactor, this robot is somewhat different. It's main armament is a disposable missile launcher carried in its right hand, backed up by a swarm-launcher and a rotary cannon on the main body.

Quite different from the style I normaly go for, I nevertheless like these giant robots a lot. They might not be so sensible, but they have a bunch of character, and are quite charming if I do say so myself!

Til next time!

New terrain boards project; no2 finished!

The inspiration continues, spurring me ever onwards.

Thanks to that, I've now managed to finish up the second piece of my new terrain boards:

One of two or possibly three residential tiles, this one is a bit less focused than the others I have rattling around inside my head at the moment.

These structures on the left is a mix of traders and workshops, a place for the locals to get the basic necessities in both goods and services. A bigger down-town area with most of the higher-end stores as well as the local hospital is an idea that might very well be completed at a later date.

The slums. Where these is riches, there is also often rags. This jumble of worn-down structures represent one of the smaller areas occupied by the less fortunate. There is a bigger district ajoining this one, that I might very well make if I can't come up with anything more interesting for the ajacent tile..

 Finally we have the walled compound. Part armored residence, part base of operations for a local garrison or person of importance.


This setup is just the one I initially thought of and had structures painted for. None of the buildings or the set of walls are glued down, so the piece can be remodelled to fit whatever type of residential neighborhood is preferred for that particular game. I have been thinking about painting up a bunch more of my small recidences from Brigade, to be able to turn this entire tile into either a disorganized shanty-town type situation as well as a upscale location, with only a few bigger buildings replacing the south slums.

The third tile is still being planned out, but I know the basics:

Another residential tile, 3 big circular high-rises with apartments for the citizens rich enough to afford a place of their own outside the shanties and broken down buildings of the less reputable areas.
Featuring some small green areas around the buildings when finished, this area will be one of the few places in the badlands city with some actual vegetation, showing off the relative wealth of it's inhabitants.

That's all I have to share today, by my next post I hope to have a side-project to show off some progress on as well..

Til next time!

Terrain boards: No1 "The Refinery" finished, and a quick look at No2

This new terrain project has really got me inspired, as proven by the fact that I managed to finish the first piece in only a few days!

Without further ado, we have the finished first board, The Refinery:

The main structure was made from two different pieces of packaging. I cast plaster out of the indentations and glued them on top eachother. The doors are card and the windows are made from an IKEA anti-slip mat, my go-to window frames in 6mm scratch-builds. Finally the chimney stack is made from three different pieces of styrene rod glued together and painted.

The storage silos, like the building, can be removed for easier storage. They each consist of a piece of plaster cast from a cylinder, sanded to shape and mounted on a piece of plastic card. Dead simple, but quite effective I think.

Here's a last shot of the main building, without the silos obstructing the view. The fireteam is a GZG NSL unit, standing in to give a sense of scale.


So, That's one down, only 11 more to go. And I have actually started on the second one!

I just started drawing out where the road would go, and made sure my structures would fit. This tile will be a sort of mixed residential one, with a disorganized slum in the bottom, a few shops and a garage along the north road and a gated residence/compound on the top right.

  

And the base board again, with some texture and paint. I marked out the road as well, while I'm waiting for the paint to dry on the buildings.

That's as far as I've gotten for now, but I'm hoping to share some more pics of this board as it comes together.

Meanwhile, any good tips for the remaining 10 tiles? So far I've come up with a residential block for the people rich enough to stay out of the slums but not enough to own their own building in or around the city.

Til next time! 

Working on something new; Terrain boards no1; Refinery first look

It's no secret that the wargaming bloggosphere creates a constant stream of great things, which is really good when you can't really decide what to do next.

This little conundrum was solved in my particular case when I saw these beautiful pieces put together by Ali of Sayiner Micro toys : Link

Inspired and with some idea of what to do, I started sketching and pondering how to make some more nice tiles of my own. If I wanted to cover the entire table space available to me when playing I'd need to make quite a few, at least 12. Where do I get that seemingly random number from? Well, the fact is that the only suitably sized 2-3mm acrylic I could find without having to order online is 25x25 cm squares from a local hobby shop.

I wanted to be able to use the pieces individually as well, in case I decide to do less than the full 12, get distracted or can't find space for them all in my already cramped cupboards..

I also find it much more likely to continue if I actually get some use out of them before they are all finished, so with a rough sketch all done, I started on the first one:

(I appologize for the state of clutter and general quality around these pics, they were taken with my phone as I was watching some telly with the wife)

I've always wanted to make a refinery of something along those lines, and then I realized I had a ton of pipes that I got from old crow a few years back. The big building is just a plaster hulk right now, but after some bits and greeblies it will hopefully look the part of a small refinery. On the top right the bottle is a stand in for the silos that will be there when I finish them.

And here is the base board primed and the pipes mounted. I'm going to keep the building/silos and the bridge-pipe pieces removable for easier storage of the board. It might be hard to spot in this photo, but there is the beginnings of a roadway running through the board.


I'll be sharing any updates to this project as I make some, but as usual there might be a sidetrack or two along the way. I'm currently trying to decide on a rules system for my next set of games, inspired by reading alot of military sci-fi. I'm thinking fairly small scale, squad level skirmish mostly, but the occasional larger battle thrown in. The larger battles will probably use CoTF or Gruntz, but for the skirmish side of things I'm currently trying to decide between Blasters & Bulkheads and Rogue Stars.

Any opinions on these system, or any other suggestions is welcome!

Til next time!