Flying Lead Starship Troopers Battle Report

I've flipped through my copy of Flying Lead, Ganesha Games excellent modern skirmish ruleset, several times but finally got around to playing and actual game.

For this outing I decided to try something a little different and broke out the Starship Troopers figs I had collecting dust on the shelf.

As the base book for Flying Lead deals strictly with modern combat, some additions had to be made to more accurately reflect Arachnid forces.  I borrowed some Special Abilities from Song of Blades and Heroes, using their listed points values as written in those rulebooks.

Mobile Infantry forces consisted of:
Sergeant- Q: 3  C: 2  SA: Leader  Equipment: TW-203-a Morita Assault Rifle, M-290 Flechette Grenade Launcher  Points: 136

Corporal- Q: 3  C: 2  SA: NCO  Equipment: TW-203-a Morita Assault Rifle, M-290 Flechette Grenade Launcher  Points: 126

Sniper- Q: 3  C: 2  SA: Sniper  Equipment: TW-201-I Morita Sniper Rifle  Points: 68

Missile Launcher- Q: 4  C: 2  SA: -  Equipment: SW-401 Longbow Missile Launcher  Points: 69

Nuke Bearer- Q: 4  C: 1  SA: -  Equipment: TW-203-a Morita Assault Rifle, M-290 Flechette Grenade Launcher, Pee Wee Nuke.  Points: 138

(x2) Veteran Rifleman- Q: 4  C: 3  SA:-  Equipment: TW-203-a Morita Assault Rifle, M-290 Flechette Grenade Launcher.  Points: 87

(x2) Rifleman- Q: 4  C: 2  SA:-  Equipment: TW-203-a Morita Assault Rifle, M-290 Flechette Grenade Launcher.  Points: 80

Arachnid forces consisted of:

Brain Bug- Q: 2  C: 0  SA: Leader, Burrowing, Big, Short Move  Equipment: -  Points: 50

Tanker- Q: 4  C: 6  SA: Vehicle, Huge, Burrowing, Fanatic, Slow  Equipment- Thick Armor (+5), Tanker Flame.  Points: 182

(x3) Hopper- Q: 4  C: 3  SA: Flying, Fanatic, Dashing  Equipment: Scything Talons.  Points: 57

(x10) Warriors- Q: 4  C: 3  SA: Burrowing, Climbing, Fanatic  Equipment: Scything Talons.  Points: 48

Weapon Stats are as so:

TW-203-a Morita Assault Rifle: Combat +2, Long Range, Select Fire, Move and Shoot  Points: 28

M-290 Flechette Grenade Launcher: Combat +2 first 2 range bands; Combat +1 third range band, Medium Range, Max Range 3 Med, Spread  Points: 15

TW-201-I Morita Sniper Rifle: Combat +2, Long Range, Sniper Scope  Points: 20

SW-401 Longbow Missile Launcher: Anti- Tank 5, Combat +2, Long Range, Priming Needed Crewed.  Points: 36

Pee Wee Nuke: Anti- Tank 8, Grenade Combat 5, High Tech Ammo, One Shot, Priming Needed, Lethal.  Points: 44

Scything Talons: Better Weapon Modifier 1, Lethal  Points: 3

Tanker Flame: Vehicle Flamethrower  Points: 45

My victim for this game was Todd, a veteran of our Song of Deeds and Glory campaign.  Already familiar with the engine, he was quickly up to speed on the rules (as well as I knew them.)

Todd chose to take control of the Arachnids, leaving me with the Mobile Infantry.

We deployed our units and Todd took the first turn.  He also started will all models burrowed that could.

The game started out quite uneventful, with both side failing a lot of activations.  We had learned our lesson from the SDG campaign, both of us playing warbands that were not entirely Q: 2 models, and rolled one or two dice often.  This still did not make models move any faster.

A few turns into the game, and the action is just starting to heat up.  No casualties for either side, yet.

My Sergeant grabbed the missile launcher team, a vet and a regular and tried to move up the flank to intercept the tanker.  The missile launcher is the only weapon on the table that can hurt the tanker bug and I wanted to make sure it was in position to pop the tanker as soon as it surfaced.  The NCO commanded the sniper and two more troopers and simply moved to the center of the board to lay down fire on anything that came into view.  They were positioned on the hill to make it as difficult as possible for the Arachnids to engage them in hand to hand while still maintaining maneuverability.

The Arachnids seemed to have a simple plan; advance underground and spring up at the last minute.  Their advance was generally straight forward, with the hoppers starting to cross to the opposite side of the table from which they started.

The Sergeant and his men watch for signs of the approaching tanker bug.

The hoppers and brain bug continued to plod up the field.  One hopper directed it's attention to the missile launcher team, trying to eliminate the biggest threat.  The other two began maneuvering to flank the NCO and her men. 

A hopper is knocked down by heavy Morita fire.

Hoppers maneuver to the flank.

The Mobile Infantry NCO and her men held their dune, laying down overwatch and firing on anything that reared it's head.  The Sniper really showed it's value early on, dropping all three hoppers, but not before a hopper claimed the life of one of the Sergeant's rifleman. 

The sniper aims up on a hopper bug.

With the aerial threat eliminated, the NCO held her ground in the center of the board, while the Sergeant slowly pulled back as the tanker advanced.  Tired of the plodding pace of his Warriors, Todd began to surface them and move across the surface. The brain bug remained under the surface, and simply stopped about a long move distance from the NCO.  What was he up to?

The continued advance...

A wide shot of the battle so far.

Eventually the Sergeant and his men took shelter in the bunker near their deployment zone as the tanker drew ever closer.  The NCO's unit continued to whittle away at the approaching bugs, the sniper racking up many more kills with his Lethal ability.

And then the Mobile Infantry's worst nightmare arrived...

The tanker bug attempted and activation on three dice and passed all three!  It moved forward, surfaced, and let loose a stream of hellfire on the Sergeant's men in the fortification.

A devastating flame attack from the tanker bug...

And the expected result.

The missile launcher and the nuke bearer were eliminated by the gout of flame.  The leader actually survived and recoiled over the wall of the bunker.

Things were looking grim for the Mobile Infantry.  With the only weapon able to kill the tanker bug in the clutches of a dead man, some desperate measures had to be taken.  The Sergeant jumped back into the bunker and made a dive for the Longbow missile launcher.  Following the Sergeant's lead, the other trooper went for the Pee Wee Nuke.  Weapons in hand, they needed another turn before they could actually fire the weapon.  If they got another turn...

The NCO and her men continued to hold off the center, with the Warrior growing ever closer, and ever bolder.

On the Arachnid turn the Warriors continued to maneuver around the Mobile Infantry.  Again the tanker threw 3 dice for activation... and failed them all!  This gave the Sergeant the opportunity to load the nuke into the launcher and let loose, vaporizing the tanker bug!

Even giant bugs curl up on their back when they die!

With the threat of the tanker eliminated the sergeant turned his attention to helping the NCO in the center of the board.  It was too late, and Warrior erupted from the ground and eliminated her.  The remaining MI began to retreat to the Sergeant's bunker, with Warriors picking them apart as they fled.

MI attempt to fall back to cover, but are cut off.

The final showdown began, with only 4 MI defending the bunker against two Warriors and the still burrowing Brain bug.  Some poor activations allowed the Arachnids to close with the Mobile Infantry in the bunker.  The Brain bug finally surfaced to lend the Quality bonus to the remaining Warriors.

Chaos in the bunker!

The sniper was able to break away from the melee and pop the Brain bug with a well placed shot.  The Sergeant was eliminated by a Warrior in hand to hand.  Some morale checks eliminated a few models, and eventually the Mobile Infantry watched the last Arachnid Warrior flee from the battlefield!

This was great fun, and a lot was learned about the rules by both of us. 

Caught up in the heat of the game, we did forget a few special abilities here and there, which would have helped both sides at times.  Another read through of the rules, and more familiarity with the rosters will help for next time.

There was some discussion regarding the stats of the models, most notably adding communicators to the MI, Arachnids, or both.  This would certainly make the Arachnids more devastating, allowing them to move quickly underground and to keep their leader completely safe from the MI while the other bugs do their worst. 

I also noticed the Pee Wee Nuke didn't have a Combat bonus, which made HE shots with it fairly ineffective.

A little tweaking here and there and we'll give it another whirl.  My goal is to make this a very solid demo scenario for conventions.  I think it has potential.  Everyone playing and watching had a great time!

Pegasus Hobbies Barbed Wire Review

Today we're going to examine the Pegasus Hobbies Barbed Wire kit.

This product interests me because the box advertises over 29 feet of wire, and it's only $8.99 USD.

Let's open the box and see what we get...

We get three sprues of wire and three sprues of posts.  The wire is very fine, and there is way more sprue here than there is product.  It seems so wasteful, but I suppose that is the limits of the manufacturing process.  They are soft plastic, maybe they can be recycled.

No instructions are included with the kit.  It's been so long since I looked at the box and I don't have it handy; there may be instructions printed on the edges of the box lid.

Here is a bit of the wire with the posts.  The wire is fairly flexable, and  hair dryer, heat gun or a flame would help in warming the wire and allow you to bend it to shape and have it hold.  The post come with hooks on them to attach the wire to.

Here is a close up of the wire.  It is well detailed, and the flash and mold lines are not too bad.  Which is good, because I think this would be near impossible to clean.

I have not had an opportunity to make anything from this wire yet, but to me it seems like this kit is a good deal.  I'm confident that I will be picking up more of them.

Tamiya 1:48 Jerry Can Set Review

This time we will review the Tamiya 1:48 Jerry Can Set.  This is a set that is useful for all kinds of gaming, from WWII up through near future to post apocalyptic, and even sci fi.  This kit retails for $11.00 USD.

The box art shows us getting six barrels, 16 jerry cans, some stowage and a bucket.  Let's see how much we actually get...

I got a bit carried away when I purchased this kit, and began assembling the barrels right away.  We do get two sprues of accessories and an instruction sheet.  This very well could have come with an ad for other 1:48 Tamiya kits, but if it did I have already tossed it out.

Here is a close up of one of the sprues.  Though not pictured correctly, each sprue comes with enough parts to make six barrels; three American and three German.  There are enough parts to build 16 jerry cans and 20 pieces of vehicle stowage.

The instructions are pretty straight forward, giving general info on the front and assembly instructions on the back.  Note that there is a big difference between the American and German barrel.  I didn't pay attention to what I was doing and assembled them some incorrectly.  The lids are not interchangable and do not fit on each other well.  Also, the jerry cans are 3 parts each; two halves and a handle.  The handle is thin and fiddly and the cans take care to assemble correctly.

Here is a shot of a sprue with an Amazon Miniatures 25mm/ 28mm Secrets of the Shadow Reich figure and a 1:48 Lindberg Tiger I.

And here is a close up with just the Amazon figure.

Here we see the lovely Greta posing with a collection of the barrels.  They look a bit small next to the model due to the thickness of her base.  She is based on a Litko 25mm round.

And finally a close up of the jerry cans.

Again, the Tamiya kit gives you about double what is pictured on the packaging.  It comes with tons of pieces for customizing and detailing vehicles in all kinds of genres, or anything else you'd want to use them for.  This kit really is a good value.

Tamiya 1:48 Road Sign Set Review

Here's another review of a 1:48 scale kit from Tamiya, this time the Road Sign Set.

From the picture on the front of the box it looks like an OK collection of items for the retail price of $11.00 USD.  The pictures shows us a ton of different kinds of signs, a telephone/ telegraph pole, two street lights and a fence with a wagon wheel.

Upon opening the box this is what we find:

It looks like we get two sprues of accessories, a sheet of waterslide tranfers and an instruction sheet.

I've had this kit for awhile and have already assembled two of the street lights.  Also, I believe there was a small slip with more Tamiya 1:48 models and accessories that has since been thrown out.

This is one of the sprues.  Both sprues included are identical.  There is enough materials on one sprue to do 2 lamp posts, 1 telephone/ telegraph cable, 1 billboard, a long fence (with our without a wagon wheel) and  a pile of small signs.

It appears that you effectively get double the number of pieces pictures on the box cover.  Not bad at all!

This is the real bummer.  You get one sheet of water slide transfers.  There are enough transfers here to do one sprue- worth of signs.  You would have to make your own waterslides for the seond sprue, or paint them by hand or other creative solution. 

The instruction sheet has some info on the usage of signs throughout Eurpoe during WWII and tool and equipment information.  The back side shows which countries each of the waterslide signs would be found.

Here is a shot of a full sprue with an Amazon Miniatures Tales of the Shadow Reich 25/ 28mm figure and an AT-43 walker.

And a closeup of the sprue with the figure.

And one last shot with the figure next to an assembled lamp post.

All in all I think this is a decent value for the price.  You do get a lot of components, but a second sheet of water slide transfers would have wonderful.  The pieces are well done and are a good variety.  I would like to have more of the lamps and telephone poles, but I couldn't justify buying a second, third or more boxes for just those pieces, though even then it's not a bad value.

Space Terrain- Planets and Moons

This planet was created by coating a styrofoam ball used in floral arrangements in a PVA/water mix about 3 times. This part takes a long time because you have to wait for the glue to dry. I then attempted to spray the ball a deep orange color, but the ball was still too porous and the paint couldn't hit most of the openings. I ended up brushing it orange instead. In my opinion, it is NEVER worth the time and effort to seal in PVA in order to prime somthing. Just brush prime anything that can be damaged by aerosol and then spray prime. You'll save time and headaches.

I then drybrushed red and light orange bands on the planet. I also drybrushed some clouds onto it. The drybrushing has to be done carefully to get a good blended look and to make sure the coverage is complete as well. I then assembled a large flight stand, painted it black and jammed it into the bottom of the planet. I then pulled the base out, filled the hole with PVA and put the base back in. Finally I sprayed the piece with a sealant.

The moons were made by drilling a hole in a ping pong ball large enough to put a flight stand in. Then just superglue the ball to the stand and prime the whole thing black. Touch the flight stand up if you want to.

The difficult part was trying to get the moons to look like moons without having to paint individual craters on them and such. I blotched various shades of greys and white on the ping pong balls.

I was commissioned by a person years ago on Bartertown to create four more planets a game called "StarBlazers."

Earth and Saturn

These two planets were probably the most challenging due to the fact that the real bodies have a very distinct look to them. These two planets are based on styrofoam floral balls. Earth was basecoated blue, and the continents were painted in with brown. Green was dabbed onto the land masses as well. Ice caps and Antarctica were painted in white, and white was drybrushed over the entire ball to simulate cloud cover.

Saturn was done in a similar fashion, being basecoated yellow and bands of various shades of brown and yellow being drybrushed onto the planet.

Saturn's Rings

This was by far the most challenging part of the project. I wanted to make the rings out of something thin, yet sturdy. I also wanted to minimize cutting on the rings as to keep them as round as possible. I started off with clear plastic, but it did not hold up well and coloring it was quite difficult. A friend of mine suggested using an old record and drybrushing the ridges.

I purchased a couple from Goodwill and tried to drybrush one, but the ridges were too fine. They were also hard to cut and I ended up shattering the first record.

Finally I used a dremel to cut the center out of the record and used the bands on the record to hand paint the rings on. It was very plain, so I mixed a new batch of paint with very fine sand and painted the rings again. I then drybrushed the rings a tan color. It's still not quite what I was looking for, but I think they look good.

Mercury and the Lava Planet

These two planets were based on balls as well, but they were coated in wall filler. Mercury was based on an old cat toy I had lying around. I taped all of the holes in it shut and gave the ball three coates of wall filler, applying each new coat after the last had dried. The ball was sanded fairly smooth once dry and a dremel was used to carve the craters into the surface.

The lava planet is based on a foam floral ball. Wall filler was applied with a brush and some sticks to give the planet a rough, young and seizmically active appearance. Deep cuts were also made into the filler for deep lava flows.

Both planets were base coated black. The lava planet's cuts were then painted red and drybrushed orange, then yellow. Both planets were drybrushed from a dark grey to light grey to white.

Modular Board- More Pictures

I have a ton of pictures of this board, and I will make you look at them all!!  I mean share them!