Drones and Gangers? 6mm Sci Fi

One of the projects I got done this week was my drones. I have had these things and the idea knocking around my bits box and head for ages. They are clips to hang Christmas cards on striped, festive string that you put up at the end of the year. I saw them years ago and immediately thought "drone". It has just taken years to actually go for it. The rocks on the base are from Ikea and are originally pink. I chopped up paper clips for flight stands and I'm not sure I like them. Painted black.

However, I would hate to be on the receiving end of these bad boys.

I also finished my Iliada Studios gangers. I tried to give them a Fallout sort of colour scheme. Blue and Yellow, a la the bunkers. 

The windmill. Possibly my favourite terrain that I have ever bought.

Guarding their supplies. These are made from little bits of wood that came out of window and door holes in my MDF Normandy buildings. The more little bits of cargo I can litter around the better.

Scum for the Starport part 5

This weekend I finished up a handful of 6mm figures. 

Some commandos. I painted these up with Predator in mind, although that might not end up being the case. They look like they are about to have a really bad day anyway.

Here I have some GZG infantry. I can't remember which faction they are. But as it stands they will be some kind of local security force. 

Right now I am re-basing a bunch of colonists, taking them off of their pennies and placing them onto tiny washers. I damaged some paint though so it will take a little while to touch them up.

I also intend to create a bunch of individually based pirates, not uniform, not all in the same armour just different colours.

Edge of the Storm part 4: Into the Jungle

It has been a while. This must be the longest running campaign I have managed...even though it is only four sessions. 

Corde and Lief are trying to unravel the mystery of why these people are here and who they are. 

The shotgun-armed lady is Tonita Wildner - de facto leader of this small community of escapees. 

"Escapees of what though" Lief attempts to gather further information.

"Slavery. Dancers, house maids, other more nefarious things. You name it, we have escaped from it. Some of us have been on the run for years, decades even" explains Tonita.  "Every now and then attempts are made to find us, but we have managed to settle here on Deon B for a while now. We were hoping this might be a long term situation.Your presence and loud entrance probably mean we need to get packed up and move on. There are more of us in the jungle. We are just the farm community, growing these nutri-pods in order to feed the rest of the community.

They had planned for this. Everything important was packed up within the hour and the route was planned through the jungle to the central hub where the rest of the escapees were ready to ship out and search for a new home. 

 Ready to enter the jungle, it would be a three hour trek to the central community hub.

 Lief and Corde take fire from nowhere! Corde is forced into cover, pinned. Where is this coming from? Unbeknownst to our heroes, atop a rocky outcrop a mysterious figure fires down. 

 Luckily Tonita spots the muzzle flash and opens fire at the shadow, forcing it down.

 The grunts and other community members advance into the jungle.

 The shadow is gone, but fire comes from somewhere! Luckily it has little effect and Tonita and Lief continue to cautiously advance into the jungle.

 Spotted, the shadow appears again and Corde advances, firing but it all goes wide, killing some unfortunate leaves.

 Grunts advance to help deal with the shadow but fall to precision shots. This shadow knows what it is doing.

 Further advance into the jungle. The tension rises as it dawns on the team that they are being hunted.

 More shots from an unknown source. How is this sniper/shadow in so many places at once? Surely there isn't a team hidden in the jungle? I mean the plants can't be shooting at them can they?

 Grunts catch sight of the shadow again and open fire but again the shots go far and wide!

 The escapees try and avoid the fire by taking cover behind a bank of foliage.

 Unfortunately the shadow reappears, killing one of the women as she attempts to flee.

 Then killing another grunt with more precision fire.

 And the other grunts. Things are looking bleak for this journey through the jungle. Something needs to happen and it needs to happen fast or they are going to just keep getting picked off.

 "We stop here" announces Corde.
"Here we stand" agrees Lief.
"These ancient ruins are as good a place as any to die I suppose" Tonita puts forward.
"We form a perimeter and dig in. Let's make sure this shadow has to come to us. I refuse to be hunted" states Corde.

And now we wait.

This was a fairly quick game. The shadow was almost impossible to kill (GM decided) and I wanted to see who would survive. The next encounter may be just as bloody.

Modular Sci Fi Interior pt 1.

It has finally happened. The universe has come together, the planets have aligned, and I have managed to stumble across a godsend. While browsing Facebook Marketplace at unwanted Christmas gifts and former toys who have been assigned the role of "making way for new presents" I came across a listing for Hexbugs toys for £10. Hexbugs? What the hell are those? I had never heard of them. But the image got me excited. I searched for them and found more locally and cheaper. Tonight I went over and picked up a set. £10. Take a look at my initial setup:

Those are all the hexagons. I do, however, have a bunch a corridors and other little extra bits that require further investigation. But I mean seriously?! £10 for this setup? Sign me up for more. My only problem will be finding a place to store it all.

 These miniatures are based on 1 Euro cent coins. Not ideal, but you will see my smaller bases later on. Still, Xenomorphs charging down a narrow hallway. Fetch me my brown trousers.

So here we go. I am not sure about the scale of the Falcon with these 6mm figures. But with a different sized craft these sections could reasonably double up as a landing pad. I didn't even think about checking out how they look upside-down. What isn't clear is that there are hexagon shapes on the floor which will help it look sci-fi.

Here we have the main complex that is on two levels. This is the section that made me think of the Planetside 2 Biolab, and there is a multiplayer map in Mass Effect 3 that it reminded me of also. Those small holes can be filled with those little black pegs. Those black pegs can be attached to those orange looking walls. So I feel that there could be room for this to be semi-modular in itself. The walls could also be doors. 

 The upper deck. Those orange parts open up. Functioning doors. Win.

Waiting for his quarry. The small bases look much better. Time to order another packet of teeny tiny washers.

I think this scales better, the single seater fighter craft. However, I don't know if I want the concept of single seater fighter in my universe.

A Nubian. Too small. 

My questions are, am I even going to bother painting it all up? Where am I going to keep it? Will I ever even play a game on it? Should I buy up a whole bunch more?

Edge of the Storm part 3: 983 Deon b.

Picking up this campaign again. Some time has passed. Sara is not on this mission while Ulrich and Corde have picked up a few other bodies just in case. To make it more solo friendly I have generated a simple AI, inspired by an AAR of Blood in Space over on ...

Here are the stats for the three heroes: 

Ulrich Nolan – Hero

Traits

C Tracker: +1D6 against target after the first time targeted by this character.

C Sharpshooter: +1D6 over 18”.

S Explorer: Discover hidden items with 4+.

Gear

Lenherr Rifle: -1D6 defense against this attack.

Survival Gear: +1D6 to pass environmental tests.

Corde Tane – Hero

Traits

C Veteran: +1D6 on combat.

L Inspiring: +1D6 on morale test.

S Tinkerer: Succeeds on a 4+ on repair rolls.

Gear

HySys 2212 Shotgun: +1D6 within 12”. No shot over 12”.

Lief Weyer – Hero

Traits

C Brawler: +1D6 on melee combat.

S Can be bribed: Roll 1D6 when in contact with an enemy leader. On a 6 he switches sides.

S Looter: +1D6 fistfuls of credits after encounter.

Gear

Nordarms Assault Rifle: +1D6 on ranged attacks

As the team approach within 8 inches of one of the event markers, it is flipped and something appears.

On the left, the goons, cannon fodder, hired guns. On the right, Lief Weyer, Corde Tane, Ulrich Nolan.

 Exploring habitable planets pre-colonization was a good gig. Identifying suitable settlement areas, rich mineral deposits, arable land, or dangerous zones is an invaluable service and many corporations and governments will willingly outsource this job to nameless, faceless, expendable nobodys. Ulrich Nolan and Corde Tane are such nobodys. Scans from orbit had shown activity in this area, and as such it needed to be investigated. It could have been anything from local fauna, other exploration teams, pirates lying low or even an illicit colonization attempt.

 As Lief Weyer approaches the ridge he stumbles across a friendly face.
"What are you doing out ahead here?" he asks.
"Just scouting ahead," comes the reply. Happy for an extra body Weyer calls over to Nolan to let him know what is happening.

 Ulrich Nolan crests the ridge and sees fields and buildings in the distance. This shouldn't be here. Deon b is an uninhabited planet and this place looks like it is more than just a pirate hideout.

 Corde Tane approaches another ridge and is ambushed by a few unknown gunmen. These armour-clad strangers might prove to be dangerous. Thank goodness for always being prepared.

 A fierce firefight ensues in which one of the armoured men dives for cover, as does Corde. Bullets fly, dust is kicked up. This exploration job might prove to be one of the more difficult ones.

 Ulrich unloads a few rounds at what looks like the leader, missing him miserably.

 Weyer opens fire on one of the enemy goons, killing him. One less problem to worry about.

 Popping his head up to get a good shot, Ulrich comes under more fire, takes a few hits and goes down bleeding heavily. Luckily he is able to stem the bleeding but is unable to continue the fight.

 More fierce firefighting. Tane and Weyer doing their level best to keep the gunmen pinned down. Their fellows advance on the settlement in an attempt to find out what is going on.

 While advancing towards the village another obstacle is found. This obstacle takes the form of a large, teethy, clawy beast. Definitely not one for the faint hearted! How is this going to impact things.

 Thundering towards the grunts the beast attacks. It takes many hits, bullets finding their way through it's thick hide, but they don't seem to have much impact. Slowing this monster only slightly.

 Corde manages to finally take down the leader, tearing his armoured torso to shreds with her shotgun.

 Unfortunately three more mysterious gunmen appear. These uniformed miscreants look like they are on the payroll of a much more organised institution. Who could they be?

 Weyer managed to keep the monster pinned, damaging the hide even further.

 One of Nolan's team goes down in a hail of claws and teeth. There is little left of him to send back home. Weyer starts to think of the letter that will need to be written.

 Grunt vs grunt. The last of the original gunmen is finally killed.

 Corde and her companion pin and kill the new imposters. Keeping up this hail of bullets isn't, however, sustainable. They need to move on and find out more about this settlement.

 Backing up, the remaining grunts keep firing on the beast.

 Finally, at long last, Weyer manages to take down the beast. It shrieks, hauntingly as it collapses. There might be something here. Something worth studying...or selling.

 The last two gunmen go down in a hail of bullets. Their aim was poor, so maybe their employer had cheaped out on their gear and training, even though they looked formidable.

Corde and Lief enter the village and are met by a solitary figure.
"Who are you, and why are you here?" asks Corde.
"And what the hell was that giant creature?" adds Lief.
"Come inside" is the only response they get.

I loved the random event generator. It made me have to think less and be less worried about being biased in any way. I have missed playing Starport Scum.