Home Forums Sci Fi 15mm Sci-Fi Hellfire in 15mm

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  • #161539
    Avatar photoJim Webster
    Participant

    We had a big game at the club and I decided to use Hellfire with 15mm figures rather than 6mm. So here’s the scenario

     

    Hellfire and powered armour

    https://jimssfnovelsandwargamerules.wordpress.com/

    #161549
    Avatar photoRuarigh
    Participant

    Looks like a fun game. The 15mm multibasing is an idea I have being toying with as an excuse to use my big toys more. I’m glad to see it worked for you, and it was fun seeing the old Laserburn figures in use there too. I love the Laserburn figures.

    Never argue with an idiot. They'll only drag you down to their level and beat you with experience.

    https://roderickdale.co.uk/
    https://emidsvikings.ac.uk/

    #161550
    Avatar photoJim Webster
    Participant

    As I painted the old Laserburn figures I was struck how good they were considering when they were designed.
    The multibasing works for those games where the unit you’re depicting is a company or similar, rather than for a skirmish game where each figure is a man.
    I’d suggest that for the larger scale games multibasing figures has the advantage that it helps the player resist the temptation to micromanage. So if the base is in the village, it’s the village that is occupied and you don’t have to worry about putting figures in every house.

    I think it has advantages for the player who likes to put some effort into the modelling side of his units. Here is what somebody did with 28mm figures to produce a fantasy Impetus army (sorry  I cannot find any SF stuff)

    https://leadadventureforum.com/index.php?topic=31803.0

    http://derfigurenschieber.blogspot.com/search/label/Basic%20Impetus%20Fantasy

    Now you’ve seen my inspiration you can see how rubbish my stuff is 🙁

    It also has the advantage that you can get away with fewer figures, and make up units with a few spare figures. I saw one unit somebody had done where they didn’t have enough paramilitary police, so on the base the figures are clustered round two young ladies in short skirts and high heels who they are obviously questioning 🙂

    https://jimssfnovelsandwargamerules.wordpress.com/

    #161567
    Avatar photoRuarigh
    Participant

    I agree. I think the Laserburn figures still stand up to scrutiny even now.

    You’re right about the multi-basing. I did use multibased figures (3 figures on a 40mm x 30mm base) for our Tomorrow’s War games, which worked fine, but we abandoned those rules for various reasons. I’ve been looking at company level games where I could field a whole company at 1:1 together with their support because I went overboard buying figures for a couple of my armies. I’m not sure Hellfire would work within the constraints placed on my gaming, but seeing your work keeps me thinking about the options.

    I must admit I do love a lot of what Impetus players have done with their bases. Very creative and often really evokes the period being modelled.

    Figures are just colourful counters anyway! As long as you are happy with them and the games, then your stuff is not rubbish. 🙂

    I now need something resembling that vignette of paramilitary police that you just described. I wonder if I can find a 15mm cat for them to be clustered around trying to pet it.

    Never argue with an idiot. They'll only drag you down to their level and beat you with experience.

    https://roderickdale.co.uk/
    https://emidsvikings.ac.uk/

    #161575
    Avatar photoian pillay
    Participant

    I do like multi base figures, I tend to use round bases with 3 to 5 figures on for my scifi games in 15mm or below and either square or rectangular for my other periods including WWII.
    The scenario reads great btw. I am having a tidy up of all my projects and once that has been sorted. I think 15mm Hellfire is going on the new project list.

    Tally-Ho! Check out my blog at…..
    http://steelcitywargaming.wordpress.com/

    #161578
    Avatar photoJim Webster
    Participant

    I agree. I think the Laserburn figures still stand up to scrutiny even now. You’re right about the multi-basing. I did use multibased figures (3 figures on a 40mm x 30mm base) for our Tomorrow’s War games, which worked fine, but we abandoned those rules for various reasons. I’ve been looking at company level games where I could field a whole company at 1:1 together with their support because I went overboard buying figures for a couple of my armies. I’m not sure Hellfire would work within the constraints placed on my gaming, but seeing your work keeps me thinking about the options. I must admit I do love a lot of what Impetus players have done with their bases. Very creative and often really evokes the period being modelled. Figures are just colourful counters anyway! As long as you are happy with them and the games, then your stuff is not rubbish. 🙂 I now need something resembling that vignette of paramilitary police that you just described. I wonder if I can find a 15mm cat for them to be clustered around trying to pet it.

    That sort of level, a company at 1:1 isn’t really where Hellfire was at. But stopping to think about it, you’d just move the ‘unit’ down a level, so that the unit was now the ‘squad’ and the individual man/ figure was the base.
    But the firing system etc might not be individual enough for you as it would be squads firing at squads, not men at men. I’d be tempted to do a simple firing system, roll one dice per figure with pluses and minuses that are easy to remember. Because you could have 200 figures on the table and don’t want to get bogged down.

    cannot help you with the cat I’m afraid, I looked on the Irregular site but he doesn’t do one 🙁

     

     

    https://jimssfnovelsandwargamerules.wordpress.com/

    #161579
    Avatar photoJim Webster
    Participant

    I do like multi base figures, I tend to use round bases with 3 to 5 figures on for my scifi games in 15mm or below and either square or rectangular for my other periods including WWII. The scenario reads great btw. I am having a tidy up of all my projects and once that has been sorted. I think 15mm Hellfire is going on the new project list.

    It does work perfectly well. If you’re already multibased you can just decide that each base equals four ‘bases’ or whatever.

    Certainly if you’ve already got the figures in 15mm I’d try the rules with them rather than buy 6mm for them. The advantage of 6mm is for when you get carried away and decide to do a campaign and need to do both sides 🙂
    But even then I suspect you’ll be able to use some of your 15mm with aircraft or spaceships as assault landers for the airmobile. It’ll then look realistic if a full battalion deploys out of one 😉

    https://jimssfnovelsandwargamerules.wordpress.com/

    #161580
    Avatar photoTony S
    Participant

    How inspiring!  And especially personally serendipitous since

    1.  I’ve played a few games of Hellfire now, and quite like the rules.

    2.  Although I bought the Hellfire campaign PDF, my book arrived literally an hour ago in my mailbox.

    3.  I’ve got far too many Laserburn unpainted figures.

    4.  My friends and I decided to do Stargrave in 15mm.  Now, those figures are individually based, but the terrain we’ve been doing obviously would work well for any 15mm SF.

    5.  I love the idea of keeping the strength of your units hidden from your enemy.   Usually I don’t like rosters in wargames, but essentially that’s what you have in Hellfire.  (I am willing to forgive Jim for the sneaky roster end run, as the reaction codes more than make up for it.   Anything that increases fog of war in games usually gets my vote.

    6.   Vehicles aren’t the main focus is the game, so there shouldn’t be too much armour on the table.  (And it seems they’ll let anyone into the “Vehicle mounted tube artillery” these days.  Admittedly, it does have wheels…)

    Sooooo, given all that, I’m thinking 15mm Hellfire might be just the way to go!

    By the way, that seems like a fantastic scenario, and judging from the fun everyone had, it certainly was inspired Jim!

    And lastly…are the Republika Novo troops Irregular RJW Japanese?

    #161581
    Avatar photoTony S
    Participant

    Oh, and 15mm cats?  Pendraken do some.

    https://www.pendraken.co.uk/n15-nml6-ncats-5216-p.asp

    #161587
    Avatar photoJim Webster
    Participant

    How inspiring! And especially personally serendipitous since 1. I’ve played a few games of Hellfire now, and quite like the rules. 2. Although I bought the Hellfire campaign PDF, my book arrived literally an hour ago in my mailbox. 3. I’ve got far too many Laserburn unpainted figures. 4. My friends and I decided to do Stargrave in 15mm. Now, those figures are individually based, but the terrain we’ve been doing obviously would work well for any 15mm SF. 5. I love the idea of keeping the strength of your units hidden from your enemy. Usually I don’t like rosters in wargames, but essentially that’s what you have in Hellfire. (I am willing to forgive Jim for the sneaky roster end run, as the reaction codes more than make up for it. Anything that increases fog of war in games usually gets my vote. 6. Vehicles aren’t the main focus is the game, so there shouldn’t be too much armour on the table. (And it seems they’ll let anyone into the “Vehicle mounted tube artillery” these days. Admittedly, it does have wheels…) Sooooo, given all that, I’m thinking 15mm Hellfire might be just the way to go! By the way, that seems like a fantastic scenario, and judging from the fun everyone had, it certainly was inspired Jim! And lastly…are the Republika Novo troops Irregular RJW Japanese?

     

    They Republika troops are indeed Irregular RJW Japanese. We did some 15mm colonial-pre WW1 so pretty much everybody had magazine rifles and wore khaki. The Japanese never got painted before we moved on to something else so I pulled them out of the lead mountain when I did this project and hurled them many centuries into the future 🙂

    The ‘vehicle mounted tube artillery’ was something from the bits box, plus something else from the bits box, plus some wheels from the Irregular Really Useful Guns range.
    For those wondering how towed artillery becomes ‘vehicle mounted’ it’s because when it comes to handing out damage, there are three sizes, man portable, vehicle mounted, and static mounted. So it’s obviously not man portable 🙂

    https://jimssfnovelsandwargamerules.wordpress.com/

    #161589
    Avatar photoRuarigh
    Participant

    Oh, and 15mm cats? Pendraken do some. https://www.pendraken.co.uk/n15-nml6-ncats-5216-p.asp

    Thank you. Going to need to design a cats with laser eyes army now too. 🙂

    Never argue with an idiot. They'll only drag you down to their level and beat you with experience.

    https://roderickdale.co.uk/
    https://emidsvikings.ac.uk/

    #161590
    Avatar photoRuarigh
    Participant

    That sort of level, a company at 1:1 isn’t really where Hellfire was at. But stopping to think about it, you’d just move the ‘unit’ down a level, so that the unit was now the ‘squad’ and the individual man/ figure was the base. But the firing system etc might not be individual enough for you as it would be squads firing at squads, not men at men. I’d be tempted to do a simple firing system, roll one dice per figure with pluses and minuses that are easy to remember. Because you could have 200 figures on the table and don’t want to get bogged down. cannot help you with the cat I’m afraid, I looked on the Irregular site but he doesn’t do one 🙁

    I’m not fussed about individual firing. It’s more about maximising the number of toys on the table so I can use my full armoured infantry company. As you suggest, making each squad a group and each figure the base would work very well.

    Never argue with an idiot. They'll only drag you down to their level and beat you with experience.

    https://roderickdale.co.uk/
    https://emidsvikings.ac.uk/

    #161606
    Avatar photoJim Webster
    Participant

    Getting as many toys on the table as possible is a noble aim and to be greatly commented

    To many people try and do that and also want to get a lot of detail, so at one extreme, you’re trying to record ammunition details for 100 figures! (A set of home brew rules I once played with many years ago. It wasn’t too bad because not everybody is firing all the time, but remembering to get people to change magazines so they didn’t run out half way through a three round burst got a bit wearing )

    I think Hellfire should work for you, certainly once you get used to them. I’ll be intrigued to know how you get on. If you play solo, whilst they’re not a solo rule set, there are some suggestions for solo play as a blog post.
    Hellfire Solo
    I thought I’d put them up as a pdf and have obviously forgotten.

    Basically because the reaction system means you start losing control anyway, playing solo merely means you’re losing control of both sides 😉

    https://jimssfnovelsandwargamerules.wordpress.com/

    #161611
    Avatar photoJim Webster
    Participant

    Oh, and 15mm cats? Pendraken do some. https://www.pendraken.co.uk/n15-nml6-ncats-5216-p.asp

    Thank you. Going to need to design a cats with laser eyes army now too. 🙂

    Not quite cats but before lockdown I picked up a couple of packs of B&M Animal Packs, safari.
    Amazon sometimes seem to stock them, B&M aren’t mentioning them on their website, they’re probably stuck in a container somewhere

    I’ve found them a useful source of very cheap figures (£2.50 for 48 when I bought them) and they’ve produced pack mules for my 40mms, and I’m pondering some hippo mounted cavalry for one of my SF forces 🙂

     

     

    https://jimssfnovelsandwargamerules.wordpress.com/

    #161637
    Avatar photoRuarigh
    Participant

    I like those solo rules, Jim. I look forward to trying them out. I reckon they would be useful for more than just Hellfire, so that is a bonus.

    I’m pondering some hippo mounted cavalry for one of my SF forces 🙂

    Have you read American Hippo by Sarah Gailey? It has a very interesting premise based on a historical plan to introduce hippos into the Mississippi to deal with weed infestation while simultaneously supplying meat which was increasingly scarce at that point (https://www.wired.com/2013/12/hippopotamus-ranching/). Anyway, it has hippo-riding cowpokes, and I am all for that, so I love your idea of hippo cavalry for your SF forces.

    Never argue with an idiot. They'll only drag you down to their level and beat you with experience.

    https://roderickdale.co.uk/
    https://emidsvikings.ac.uk/

    #161640
    Avatar photoJim Webster
    Participant

    Well it can be done 🙂

    But you’ve got to be careful, somebody was apparently killed by his pet hippo.
    I’m just wondering what figures to use, I’m looking a ‘big 15mm’ two piece cavalry with separate riders

    Love the Hippo ranching

     

    https://jimssfnovelsandwargamerules.wordpress.com/

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