Scatter terrain for Zombieville

I picked up some scatter terrain for my brother's All Things Zombie work-in-progress. These are all from Reaper Minis' Bones line. Here you see them with some Heroscape minatures for scale.

The shipping containers and dumpsters are all made from hard plastic. I just gave them a coat of spaypainted color, and they look pretty good next to Agent Smith (or is that Agent Coulson?). The only problem is that the dumpsters are a lot bigger than they are in real life--almost as high as the shipping containers.

This weapons locker is also made from hard plastic and just took a coat of spraypaint. It looks even better now that I painted some black details onto it.

These wooden crates were made of the softer Bones material. I painted them a tan color with a brush, then drybrushed a lighter shade of tan, followed by an ivory white. The Bones terrain offerings are pretty cool, and I recommend them for your modern and sci-fi gaming.

Portable OGRE

OGRE Designer's Edition is a pain to transport because of its size. OGRE Pocket Edition is a pain to manipulate because of its size. My solution: The deluxe-sized classic cardboard counters from SJG, played on my old Deluxe Ogre and Deluxe GEV maps, with the rules from those editions for reference.

A plastic Plano model 3750 storage box has enough room for all of the components, although I couldn't give every counter type its own compartment--you can see the Ogres and buildings all jumbled up in their respective spaces. But it makes it easy to quickly set up your forces when you want to play a game.

These counters are substantial enough not to get blown around by a sneeze and big enough to pick up and move without much effort, unlike with the microgame. However, I also came up with a system to make it easier to set up and break down the counters for the Pocket Edition.

Instead of sorting through a jumble of chits in a plastic bag, I put each type of counter into a separate compartment in a pill container from Walgreen's. Note that I have two of them, one for the black counters and one for the white (I have counters from two copies of Pocket Ogre, in case I want to play a large battle on a tiny map). The pill containers fit with the map and rulebook inside a plastic videocassette box that an Ogre miniatures set was sold in.

Simple to transport, and simple to put away. Although I enjoy playing the big boardgame--or even larger games using Ogre miniatures--I like having ultra-portable versions to take on vacation. Anyone else make their own Travel Ogre set?

Super Galactic Dreadnoughts

It's been far too long since we've seen any Super Galactic Dreadnoughts for which this blog is named, so here are some photos of four of these vessels on maneuver near the Pleiades.

The red starship in the foreground is a Terran Transsolar Federation Victory-class SGDN.

That green colossus is a Gryphon-class warship from the Avarian United Worlds.

The iridescent craft is a Swarm-class Super Galactic Dreadnought of the Entomalian Empire.

And the yellow vehicle ready to pounce is a Polecat-class ship from the Carnivoran Republic.

I'm still missing one class of Super Galactic Dreadnought from the Five Powers: the Aquarian Alliance's Typhoon. The manufacture doesn't make these huge castings in metal any more--just resin. So if anyone knows where I can get myself a metal version of the Typhoon, please let me know.

Lizardman hero for Oldhammer

I've decided to build an Oldhammer army. OK, several armies. One of them is Lizardmen, since I got a whole bunch of them really cheap one time. And while I have plenty of rank-and-file, I needed a suitable hero figure. I didn't want to pay premium prices for a Games Workshop model, and browsing my local game store I came across this guy:

He's a Lizardman Warrior from the Reaper Bones line of minis, and I think he fits in nicely with the GW plastics. Here he is posing with a Skink and a Saurus:

Suitably imposing, as a hero figure should be, and he fits in style-wise to me. Once they are all painted, they should look good as a cohesive force on the tabletop.

Still transmitting

Much like this ancient colony slowboat (note the rotating rings to provide centripetal force--the starship predates artificial gravity), the Dreadnaught is chugging along. I'm still getting organized after a move, but I hope to have more miniatures projects (spaceships, Ogre, and Oldhammer) and more gaming (same) to talk about soon.

Meanwhile, what do you think is the backstory for this interstellar vessel?

800 posts?

I was hoping to have something substantive to say for this 800th post on Super Galactic Dreadnought--preferably, something spaceship-related to reflect this blog's original focus. Alas, I don't.

The entire month has gone by, and I haven't blogged a bit. Not much gaming for me, or working on miniatures, or much of anything else. I've been busy with real-life stuff, but I hope to have more free time soon for gaming and for blogging.

I want to play some more starship combat. I want to play Ogre. I want to play D&D.

What do you want to play that you haven't had a chance to lately?

Naval vessel rules for OGRE

I'm taking my Ogre games to sea. Eventually. Here are some naval units for some amphibious action. The have rules that are a little more complicated than conventional land armor, but like the superheavy tank, the vehicles listed below are affected normally by results of D or X on the Combat Resolution Table.

UNIT           WEAPON  ATTACK RANGE  DEFENSE MOVE                
Armored Boat                                   
               Cannon    4      2       2       3
               Missiles  3      4   
             NOTES: Two separate attacks vs. surface targets
                    Single A3 depth charge vs. subs

LC-GEV                              
               APx2      1      1       2      3/2
             NOTES: Carries vehicles/infantry
                    Moves on water only
                    No road/water bonus when loaded

Submarine                              
               Missiles  6      5      6/3      2   
               Torpedoes 3      1 
              NOTES: D6 vs. surface attacks/D3 vs. underwater


Armored Boat: The Armored Boat is a human-crewed watercraft designed for use on rivers and costal waters. It gets two attacks per turn (one equivalent to that of a heavy tank, and one equal to that of a missile tank) that can be combined if desired. It can also launch a depth charge attack at strength 3 against a submerged target in the same hex once per turn.

LC-GEV: Each Landing Craft-GEV can transport up to two companies (24 squads) of infantry or two armor units (for example, two heavy tanks, four light tanks, a missile tank and two light tanks, etc.). Alternatively, it can carry whatever models fit into its bay. LC-GEVs can only enter a land hex to embark or disembark cargo. Loaded LC-GEVs do not get a bonus for water movement.

Submarine: While submerged, a submarine can launch a single Ogre-type missile attack against a surface target or another sub. It can also shoot a torpedo salvo against a nearby submarine or boat. Submarines have a defense of 6 against surface attacks from Ogre-type missiles and howitzers, and all such attacks are at half strength. Subs have a defense of 3 versus depth charges, torpedoes, and marine infantry. No other unit can attack submarines.

If you use any of these in a game, please let me know how it does.