Monday 31 October 2011

1:18 scale tabletop wargame

Hello Slayers!

Welcome, some of you may be here because of the good people at Slayer Design Studios. I have been talking to SlayerDave, discussing the game's potential. I am a big fan of theirs and I am honored that they have played and enjoyed the game. Please check it out (It's free to download) for yourself and give it a go. You should also check out the stuff SDS has to offer (if you haven't already). Their parts are perfect for the game as it is based around customizing figures and squads.

An advanced version of the game is in the works and this will allow for greater customization of your squads as they gain more experience and upgrades. Stay tuned....

In this site you'll also see a lot of my custom work, many of the parts come from SDS.

You can read a battle report here.

Friday 28 October 2011

Custom Females: Iron Grenadier and Crimson Guard

Attention Followers!

Before I get onto my latest posts I want to thank the people that have signed on to my blog as followers. Thank you! it gives me hope that some people are interested in the game. I am now your follower as well and have found your blogs very interesting and I have commented on a couple. I must say however, that the company Bulletin's methods, while morally bankrupt, get the the job done!


An Appeal

The reason I set up this blog was to share the game with you all, now that I have I would love to hear what you think. That's why I have the poll running, so feel free to vote. You can also contact me on g.i.jac0001@gmail.com. Feel free to send me your custom squads using the rules in the game. I would also love to read your own battle reports, send them to me with pictures and I'd be more than happy to put them up here on my blog for the others to see. Anyway hope to 'hear' from you soon!

Custom Female Crimson guard and Custom Female Iron grenadier

Both of the torsos and the head of the Iron Grenadier come from Slayer Design Studios. As per usual the sculpts are amazing! These figures are by no means original ideas as many people have tried them in the past. I hope in the future to order more of SDS's female sculpts, they've got a Viper, medic and I think a televiper


WIP
Female Crimson Guard
Torso: SDS
Head and Legs: 25th Python Patrol Crimson guard
Arms: Modded 25th Scarlett

Female Iron Grenadier
Head and Torso: SDS
Legs: ROC Scarlett
Arms: ROC Baroness
Sword and Scabbard: 25th IG

Complete
Overall I am very happy with these figures, I used Citadel Blood red for the crimsonguardswoman so she turned out more red than the other CGs in the picture. For the Iron Grenadier I used some gloss varnish for the boots and goggles, I am very happy with the result. Below you'll find some pictures.















The Iron Grenadiers
Crimson Guard

Friday 21 October 2011

Miles Mayhem, Dr X and some WIPs

Hello  below you'll find my latest customs the heads for Miles and the Dr are from SDS and so are the ladies.

I wanted a Mayhem figure as soon as I got the Matt Trakker fig, I'll also post some pics of my Trakker in his Thunderhawk. Luckily the good people at SDS had a Mayhem head so I ordered it! and below you'll see the results. I used the POC commander figure as a base, I used an x-acto knife to trim the 'scarf' but the head still pops off real easy. either way here he is along with his transforming vehicle a ROC Rhino I've decided to call the 'Outlaw's Switchblade' in honour of two of Mayhem's rides.





Here are some of Trakker and the Thunderhawk!


Here's the Doctor, I made him out of a 25th Blowtorch figure added the ROC red ninja vest and like I said before the SDS head, I love this figure he has a real Dr Mindbender vibe and I had a 12" version back in the day, the holster and gun are from the Indiana Jones line.






Finally here are the WIPs female Crimson guard and Iron Grenadier I got the inspiration for the Crimson guard here

Monday 17 October 2011

Red Ghost and Super Apes completed

Hello all I recently posted this over at Joecustoms so check it out if you haven't already. Eventually I will put up photos of the Red Ghost battling the Fantastic Four. I am also working on an articulated Oranguatan 'Peotr' I have to find a cheap Orangutan to cut up and use for the head and arms.

Below are the photos of the WIP Peotr the base body is a Spidermonkey from the ben10 line. I have scraped off the Ben 10 or whatever logo and eventually I'll sculpt over it and add extra details and an orangutan head and arms. Can anyone suggest any parts?

Friday 14 October 2011

1:18 scale Tabletop wargame Battle report

Hello all! Or all two of the people who check out the site!
 below you’ll find the first battle report for my 1:18 tabletop war-game. We had a lot of fun playing the game. Chronicling it was another story, the photos aren’t the best and I realise that there is entirely too much Grey in the game. Oh well, the descriptions are detailed so as to help answer any questions new players of the game have.
                            
The Players
As I have mentioned earlier Mr E is a good mate of mine since High School and while he doesn’t collect action figures or customize them himself he loves the game. I have customized a squadron for him, a squad he creatively calls the ‘Police Squad’. I will be using my Johnny’s rebel’s squad to try to defeat him. We will be using the basic Fireteam rules. With a couple of exceptions, there are a couple of new or simplified rules in here as you read on so feel free to use them in your own games. 



Set up

We set up the battlefield, well I set the table up MR E just sat there and watched TV, set up didn’t take too long, maybe half an hour. I went for an Industrial ‘battleground’ that’s what we call the board. The one you see in the photos is simply a 1 metre by 1 metre board. One side is painted green the other is grey. The scenery is basically made up of some building I made using Fatdragon products; some parts from the ‘G-force’ action figure line and some odds and ends. Some of the stuff you’ll recognise from marauder gun runners.


We filled in our Fireteam attribute sheets you can find mine in the rulebook. I’ll post Mr E’s at the same place where you can download the game.

Once we had done that we looked at the battleground, we made sure that there were 6” by 6” squares at each corner. I know that Mr E’s squadron needed cover as he prefers to sit back and fire rather than engage in close quarter fighting. Whereas I like to get up close and personal.
We each rolled a dice and I rolled a 5, Mr E rolled a 1! That’s great! I chose to set up on the corner with the most cover meaning he had to set up on the opposite end which was bare. He wasn’t happy!



Since I rolled the highest score I also got to go first. Below you’ll find a photo of my set up. You’ll notice dice at the figures’ feet. We used these to outline the 6” by 6” ‘set up’ square.  We rolled the dice to see how many cycles the game would last and we rolled a 4 which meant the game would last for 7 cycles.


 First Cycle

Johnny’s Rebels turn 1
For my first turn I moved Trooper 2 to some cover behind some barrels, I did this so that he would be able to support my other troops as I wanted to get in close. I spend 2 AP on movement and 1 AP on getting him to kneel so he would provide a +2M penalty to all Attackers trying to shoot him.


Police Turn 1
It was then Mr E’s turn, he moved Shotty (Shotty is Australian slang for shotgun’ towards the large building in front of my men; I had to be careful that guy has the potential to be deadly!

Johnny’s Rebels turn 2
I then spend all of Trooper1’s  3AP navigating past the table and moving towards the large ruined building to cut Shotty off.

Police Turn 2
Mr E responded by moving Sarge, his team leader, forward 3” spending 1AP he then took a shot at Trooper 2 at just under 30” Trooper 2 was well within range. However, because he was hiding behind a barrel and kneeling Sarge’s M would be affected with a +2 penalty to his M.  Either way Mr E had declared he’d shoot so there was no going back. Sarge’s M is 4 which mean he would normally hit on a 5 or more on a d6. However because of the +2 penalty he was unable to hit Trooper 2. His M became higher than 6 (Sarge’s  4M with the addition of the +2M penalty turns his M into M6)  so he couldn’t hit at all. He then spent his remaining 2AP trying to get out of range of my guns and joining Shotty


Johnny’s Rebels turn 2
For this turn I spent all my AP to move Bull forward to support Trooper 1 in the inevitable encounter with Shotty and Sarge.

Police turn 3
For this turn Mr E sought higher ground and used all his AP to move The Shadow as close as possible to the ladder on the side of the red brick building.  He wanted to take advantage of the ‘Higher ground’ rule (which is not in the Basic Rulebook but will be added later on so feel free to use it)  and would allow him to choose any target he wished and gives him a -1 Bonus to his M. (It feels weird to write -1 and Bonus in the same sentence) G.I.JAC Note: I reminded Mr E that this rule was part of the ‘Advanced’ Rules and not included in the basic version of the game but he made threats so I let it go, just this once. At least you get a closer look at the potential this game has.



Johnny’s Rebels turn 4
I moved Johhny Reb forward; I want to make him sneak around the large building along with SGT Pain and really get up close and personal with Mr E’s Squad. So far we’ve both spent time just moving around but I have to say that I’m glad he didn’t set up near cover ‘cause during past games I would have lost at least one trooper by now.



Police turn 4
As If reading my mind MR E moved his Rookie, his sub-machine gun toting Rookie, around to protect The Shadow as he climbs the building.




Johnny’s Rebels turn 5
All that was left was to move SGT Pain into position behind Johnny so they could begin their charge towards the enemy.
 Police turn 5
In his final turn he moved Whiskers forward to support Rookie.



This was the end of the first cycle, with only a single shot fired! The next cycle should get a little more interesting 1 cycle down 6 more to go.



Second Cycle

Since all the figures had a turn it was now time for the second cycle to begin and once again I would go first.

Johnny’s Rebels turn 1
Moved Trooper 1 3” forward at the cost of 1AP now he had cover and could see The Shadow and The Rookie, since they were both at equal distance I decided to spend the last 2AP shooting at The Shadow. Rolled a 6 with the first shot and although it looks like The Shadow is wearing a bullet proof vest he wasn’t in game terms so he lost 1 Health. Mr E isn’t big on WYSIWYG. My second shot missed as I only rolled a 2 Dang it!



Police turn 1
Seeing as Trooper 1 was behind cover Mr E moved Whiskers closer to try to get a shot and to protect the Rookie and The Shadow who had yet to take a step up the ladder!  He spent all 3 of Whiskers’ AP on movement.



Johnny’s Rebels Turn 2
With Trooper 2 still Kneeling behind the barrels and with a clear shot of the Rookie, I guess I had no choice. I measured the distance, from the tip of his rifle of course, and decided to spend all of his AP on firing at the Rookie since he had no cover at all I had no penalties to worry about.  Lucky me I rolled a 1 on a D6 on the first shot which meant his gun had malfunctioned! This means I have to spend two AP to ‘fix’ my weapon. Unfortunately I only had 1 AP left meaning I wouldn’t be able to fix it until next turn (I put down a red marker to indicate this and to remind me) However that’s not all I had to roll the dice again to make sure that the weapon wasn’t completely destroyed! See p.11 of the rulebook. Luckily I rolled a five. 



Police turn 2
Using all 3 of Shotty’s AP Mr E moved the figure through the door of the abandoned building making me feel very bad for Trooper1!



Johnny’s Rebels Turn 3
Using all of Johnny’s AP I moved him within striking distance



Police turn 3
Using 2AP Sarge moved towards Trooper1 and through a gap between the crate and the wall fired two shots, to make matters worse Trooper1 had no cover as 50% of his body was not covered by the crates! Sarge’s first shot hit home, then the second. Mr E rolled a 5 and then a 6 on a d6. And so Trooper1 fell mortally wounded..

.

Johnny’s Rebels turn 4


Using 2AP I moved Bull forward behind the protection of a crumbling wall. I then used his remaining AP to take a shot at Shotty. Again I rolled a 1! How unlucky can I be! I rolled the dice again and guess what another 1 Bull’s shotgun is out of action. To indicate this I place it in his arms like a club, I do this for two reasons: the first to remind me that the weapon is now useless except in close quarter fighting and the second reason is that since I didn’t equip Bull with any additional weapons he has no other option. Things are really looking up for me...




Police turn 4
Mr E used all of Rookie’s AP to move closer to Johnny Reb



Johnny’s Rebels Turn 5
For this turn I decide to stick to the plan and move SGT Pain next to Johhny Reb. Hopefully I’ll have better luck in the next cycle.



Police Turn 5
Mr E utilises all of The Shadow’s AP to climb up the ladder on the side of the Red building and makes it to the top. This officially ends the second Cycle.






Third Cycle

Johnny’s Rebels Turn 1
Although I was forced to spend 2AP fixing Trooper 2’s weapon I had a clear shot at Rookie. I took the shot and successfully hit him and since he wasn’t wearing any armour he lost 1 health point that meant that although Mr E hadn’t lost any men at least two of them, Rookie and The Shadow, were reduced to 1 Health. I try to stay positive!

Police Turn 1
It was Shotty’s  turn to retaliate aiming his shotgun he took a shot at Bull. Bull has 50% of his body under cover so Shotty receives a +1M penalty. However, Mr E wisely invested in lowering Shotty’s M rating to 3 meaning that he could still hit Bull on a 5 or a 6 on a d6. The first shot was a miss however the second hit Bull directly. Since a single shotgun shot causes 2 damage I lost another rebel. With 1 AP left Shotty moved 3” forward*. 
*GIJAC: You'll notice that both of us forgot we were meant to 'pump' our shotguns at the cost of 1AP between shots! Oh well next time we'll remember and I  think the game may have gone differently then...





Johnny’s Rebels Turn2
It was now or never, I couldn’t go down without at least getting into close quarter combat I used 1AP to move Johnny Reb 3” forward and took a single shot at Rookie Rolling a 5 I finished the Rookie off without him ever firing his submachine gun, a gun that in game terms is deadly but expensive. I then used another AP to get closer to Whiskers; this meant that neither The Shadow nor Sarge could take a shot at me. With Johnny’s final AP I attacked Whiskers with my sabre I rolled a 5 and added Johnny’s MS which gave a total of 7 Mr E then rolled a single dice and rolled a 6, the fact that Johnny was equipped with a sword means that this result was lowered to a 5* (see page 7 of the rulebook for more details) The fact that I rolled higher than Mr E meant that Whiskers’ health was now reduced to 1.

*Please note that the rule on page12 of the rulebook is wrong, under sword it should read ‘(one hand use) causes -1 to MS dice roll result’





Police Turn 2
Mr E’s Choices were limited as he could not shoot at Johnny or join in combat against him. He decided instead to take a shot at trooper 2. Able to choose any target he could see and Receiving a
 -1M bonus this lowered his M to 3 which meant he could hit Trooper 2 on the roll of a 4 or more however, Trooper 2 was still had 50% of his body covered and was kneeling, this gave The Shadow a +2M penalty, in the end he could only hit Trooper 2 if he rolled a 6. He took the shot anyway and missed; he fired again and missed again. With his last AP he took a final shot and missed once again!


 
Johnny’s rebels Turn 3
I moved SGT Pain 3” so he was facing Shotty and then using his last 2AP I fired at him with his pistol  the first shot hit and Shotty failed his armour save! I took my second shot and Shotty was let down by his armour roll once again. It was at this point that MR E realised that Shotty actually had 4AP throughout the whole game and he’d only been using 3 each turn! Let’s just say he wasn’t very happy! I on the other hand was quite pleased*...
*G.I.JAC: It wasn't the only thing we'd forgotten this battle!




Police Turn 3
The only figure left to activate for MR E was Sarge. Using 2AP he moved Sarge towards SGT Pain it looked like it was Sargent versus Sargent. Having 2AP left he took two shots. Unfortunately it was ‘curtains’ for SGT Pain who received two shots to the chest.




Due to the high level of casualties this cycle only lasted 3 turns



Fourth Cycle

Johnny’s Rebels turn 1
I figured I’d start off by having Johnny finish off Whiskers. My first strike was successful and after dispatching the mustachio'd police officer I went for Sarge. Using Johnny’s 3 remaining AP I charged Sarge and although I couldn’t attack at least I couldn’t get shot.




Police turn 1
Mr E chose to strike at Johnny with his rifle unfortunately for him my roll was higher so I wounded him.  He struck again and clearly Johnny’s skills were better and once again I wounded him. Having no other option he attacked me one final time and once again Johnny parried the blow and inflicted one final wound killing Sarge . Mr E decided that my leader killing his was a good way of ending the game. Even though he acted like he was happy with finishing the game I knew he was mad!



Debrief

Mr E

This is the second time I’ve played the basic version and I have to say that it’s great but I’m also enjoying the extra opportunities presented by the Advanced rules. I have to say that I thought I was going to win when things started going my way during the second cycle, little did I know that things would change so dramatically. I wish I had gotten The Shadow up the building earlier on in the game, I also wish I’d gotten to set up where G.I.JAC did. I would have had a lot of cover and JAC is known for rushing straight at defended positions. Finally I really wish that the Rookie could have shot Johnnie with the sub-machine gun. Oh well I will get him next time and his little dog too!

G.I.JAC

What can I say Victory is sweet! I guess there’s a reason I named Trooper1... well ‘ Trooper1’ everyone is expendable except for Johnny. Bull was a real disappointment though didn’t even end up using his shotgun. The real star of the Rebels was Trooper2 I need to come up with a name for him, the name ‘Lucky’ comes to mind but I may reconsider it. Definitely loved Johnny’s work with the blade he literally ‘cut a swathe’ though the Mr E’s squadron and I think I may stick to this attribute list for future battles.

I really enjoyed this battle and I hope you were entertained by this report. I hope it answers any questions you guys might have. Anyway, hope you guys reading this may feel ‘inspired’ to give the game a shot.Thanks for reading.

Any questions feel free to contact me at G.I.JAC0001@gmail.com

One final note if you're wondering about the yellow counters we used them to remind us of when a figure had already had a turn