Completed Star Frontiers ships

I finally got around to painting some of the Star Frontiers ships I acquired via online auction--seven Federation frigates and one Fed destroyer with broken-off engines I had to repair.

Although I already have a pair of destroyers, these frigates are the first of their kind to join my fleet.  With over a half-dozen, they'll make nice transports for games which need cargo vessels.

I drybrushed them metallic black, metallic gunmetal gray, then metallic silver to match my other Star Frontiers minis as well as my Stardate: 3000 ships.  Once I was done, I picked out port/starboard running lights in a bright red/green topped with a little duller version of the same hue.

Still on my to-do list: the Federation scouts and freighter.  I'm planning on going with a different color scheme for them.  I also have the Fed battleship, which I still need to clean (thanks to a little lead rot) and assemble.

Gallery: Asteroid outpost

Last month, I posted photos of some scratchbuilds I was working on: a spaceship and an outpost built into an asteroid.  Yesterday I primed and painted the asteroid with its emplacements.  The tube sticking out is a docking mechanism, or maybe a launch bay for starfighters.

The structure on top is an observatory, or perhaps a sensor cluster, or maybe even a biodome.  It was originally a hex nut I found laying around.

These boxy structures serve as power generators, storage, or living quarters.  They were originally extra bits that came with Citadel's old plastic beaky Space Marines boxed set.

The asteroid itself is a lava rock I found laying in my driveway.  After primering the assembly black, I drybrushed the rock with gray and brown paint.

I used metallic black, gray, and silver on the emplacements, with some metallic sapphire and pearl white for the dome.  I then picked out a couple of points in apple cider followed by true red to serve as warning lights/navigation beacons.

I'm not sure if I'm entirely happy with how it came out, but it should make a fun objective as a civilian scientific observation post, a pirate base, or an alien artifact.

OGRE returns!

It's been a long time coming.

This just in: Steve Jackson Games has announced it will release a new version of the classic sci-fi tank game OGRE later this year.  Although it doesn't include any miniatures, the sixth edition of this venerable wargame does include constructible cardstock OGREs and large (1.5-inch) hex maps.  Good news for fans who have been frustrated in trying to find copies of this long-out-of-print game. 

For tread-head reaction, see the OGRE/GEV message board on the SJG website.  For more details, and pictures of the counters, check out this sell sheet the company put together.

Hat tip: This thread at TMP.

Three-player scenario: Peacekeeper

I realize it's been awhile since I posted; I just wasn't inspired.  However, I was looking through my materials and I found the following scenario, which I had posted to the Galactic Knights mailing list some time ago. 

Another member of the list who adopted the GK rules to the Babylon 5 setting needed a scenario for a game he was running.  He gave me the basic situation, and here's what I came up with:

FORCES: The Narn player gets several small military vessels (DDs and DLs) escorting eight to ten civilian ships--one escort for every two or three civilians. For the civilians, just take a cruiser or larger stat sheet and replace everything but sensors, engines, and jump drive (and a few light particle beam batteries if you want the Narn civies to have a little protection) with cargo holds.

The Centauri player gets three cruisers.

The human player gets one battlecruiser.

SETUP: Narn ships set up on the south half of the map, heading north with a drift of 4. Centauri ships set up on the west edge of the north half of the map, heading southeast with a drift of 5. The human ship sets up on the east edge of the northern half of the map, heading southwest with a drift of 3.

SPECIAL RULES: The human player cannot enter the battle until at least one civilian ship is destroyed. After the combat phase, the human player must make a successful aggression roll to join the battle by rolling a number on a d10 equal to or less than the number of Narn civilian ships destroyed so far; this represents the captain of the human ship having enough intervening to prevent the slaughter of any more innocents. The human ship may subtract one from the total of an aggression roll in exchange for two points of damage to a randomly rolled location; subtract two from the roll in exchange for four points of damage to a randomly rolled location; or subtract three from the roll in exchange for six points of damage. This represents the captain using the human vessel to shield civilian ships from Centauri fire, and the human ship takes the damage whether or not it makes its aggression roll. Until it joins the battle by making this roll, the human ship may not attack the Centauri and they may not attack the human ship.

VICTORY CONDITIONS: The Narn player gets one point for every civilian ship that leaves the map edge. The human player gets one point for every civilian ship that leaves the map edge after the human ship joins the battle. The Centauri player gets two points for every Narn military ship destroyed, one point for every Narn civilian ship destroyed, and five points for destroying the human ship if it has joined the battle. The player with the most points is the victor.

Of course, this scenario is easily adoptable to the standard Galactic Knights setting (or the setting of any other spaceship combat game, for that matter)--just substitute the force of your choice for each race.

Keep on the Borderlands for Hordes of the Things

Another classic D&D module, The Keep on the Borderlands is also one of the most well-known, having been packed into every basic set since 1979 or so.  And with everything from unnamed denizens of the titular Keep to various critters living monstrous timeshares known as the Caves of Chaos, this adventure is, as author Gary Gygax points out, a microcosm of the wider world around it (the kids today would refer to it as a sandbox setting). 

So it was fun coming up with Hordes of the Things army lists for this design. (Apologies for the monospace font, but it makes all the columns line up.)

THE KEEP

Character(s)                 HotT element      points

Castellan w/Scribe & Assist. Hero General        4

Curate w/Acolytes            Cleric              3

Ballista/Catapult (2 crew)   Artillery           3

Guardsmen (cavalry)          Knights x 2         4

Guardsmen (crossbows)        Shooters x 2        4

Guardsmen (halberds)         Spears x 2          4

First-level Characters       Hordes x 2          2

Stronghold: The Keep (on the Borderlands)

THE WILDERNESS (allies available to either side thru gold/magic)

Character(s)                 HotT element      points

Mad Hermit & Puma            Sneakers            3

Bandits                      Spears              2

Lizard Men                   Warband             2

Fire Beetles/Giant Rats      Beasts              2

Stirges                      Flyers              2

Spiders                      Lurkers             1

THE CAVES OF CHAOS

Character(s)                 HotT element      points

Evil Priest w/Medusa         Magician General    4

Minotaur & Ogre              Behemoths           4

Bugbears                     Sneakers            3

Kobolds                      Lurkers             1

Orcs                         Warband x 2         4

Hobgoblins                   Blades              2

Goblins                      Spears              2

Gnolls                       Shooters            2

Skeletons                    Hordes              1

Zombies                      Hordes              1

Stronghold: Caves (of Chaos)

Here I am ...

It's a Scorpion, not the Scorpions, rockin' you like a hurricane, but still ...

 The Entomolian Scorpion-class Galactic Battlecruiser is noteworthy for its asymmetrical design--even more asymmetrical than the Hive-class Galactic Attack Carrier.

 This is one of the original designs for Starfleet Wars, with ship statistics in the first rulebook.

 In the Galactic Knights expansion Entomolian Invasion, it's just another battlecruiser.

 You can sort of see the underside of this ship, which I again painted with a reddish glowing effect.

 Not just the unbalanced design, but the pinchers at the front give this ship a very organic look.

Just four more ships to go, and all my Entos will be painted! (Of course, one of those ships is a super galactic dreadnought ...)

We don't need no Raid ...

A closer look the Roach-class battlecruiser:

The Roach, the Roach, the Roach is on the blog ...

Classified as a Galactic Battlecruiser, this model came out around the time of the Starfleet Wars Book 2 expansion.

In Galactic Knights, it's just a regular battlecruiser.  Its stats are detailed in the GK expansion, Entomolian Invasion.

For some reason (maybe because they were designed in the early stages of the starship line), there isn't as much detail on the underside of this ship.

It's hard to tell from the pictures, but the bottom and rear is painted red and a couple of shades of metallic copper for a glowing effect.