[Thaddeus Blanchette]

VERY nice, Mike.

We get slapped around, but we have a good time!

[Thaddeus Blanchette]

Bish’s 3mm modern set up is currently the best in the world, in my book. He copied some techniques I first used (AFAIK), but he’s long outstripped me in execution and developed plenty of his own. Now I just drool at his stuff and figure out how I can copy it.

We get slapped around, but we have a good time!

[Thaddeus Blanchette]

“Looks good if kinda tiny…”

…said the whore to the Bishop.

We get slapped around, but we have a good time!

[Thaddeus Blanchette]

Note that I forgot to print the tags for the Infantry assets in the tank regiment (to the right). These guys are basically tank riders.

We get slapped around, but we have a good time!

[Thaddeus Blanchette]

Here’re the Krasnynorad boys. This is about half of a division…

We get slapped around, but we have a good time!

[Thaddeus Blanchette]

The Krasnynorad brigade was finished today: a regiment of tanks and one of infantry.

The old bases looked prettier on an individual level, but not as nice en masse, I think. One needs to be very careful, in 3mm scale, to not make the bases too noisy or the tanks — and especially the infantry and small vehicles — are overwhelmed.

Simple is the way to go, for me at least. I may toss some dull green static grass on these bases, though. we’ll see.

with regards to rules, what I like about Fivecore is that they are simple and fast. For more detail, I would go with Cold War Commander rather than Fistfull of TOWs. I have both, but really appreciate  CWC. It’s is a matter of taste, however, I think I’d go with Modern Spearhead before FFoTs.

Yes, Ivan, you do need to change techniques painting and basing these little guys. As much as I love PhD Leadhead’s work, for example (and I really do), I think it is a good example of what happens when you paint and base too realistically: at arm’s length, what you basically see is dark squares. Of course, he thinks my stuff sometimes looks like circus wagons, so we’re even. 🙂

But I say base simple and base against paint scheme, as radically as you dare. It might not look snazzy close up, but at arm’s length, it looks better.

We get slapped around, but we have a good time!

[Thaddeus Blanchette]

Actually, this is old painted stuff from almost 8 years ago. I just rebased the stuff to make the paint job pop against the background flocking.

The same figures in their earlier basing scheme can be seen here:

We get slapped around, but we have a good time!

[Thaddeus Blanchette]

That is how I did my panels: styrofoam backing in between the bracing.

The advantage of this system is that you can use my non-patented stick-pin method of holding terrain down on it. Flock some tacks and stick-pins as trees and bushes and use them to pin down mobile terrain pieces.

The holes the pins leave are hardly noticeable and you can always paint of flock over them ever three or four games or so if they really irritate you.

We get slapped around, but we have a good time!

[Thaddeus Blanchette]

Go for it, Ivan!

The bottom counters are basically 25mm by 5mm and are geared to be placed at the front or back of a base of troops. The little targeting reticule means a unit has taken up position for guard or reaction fire. The back indicates an entrenched unit.

We get slapped around, but we have a good time!

[Thaddeus Blanchette]

On my main machine, it looks like it is in Comic Sans. :/

Here are some counters I’ve made up to use with 5core Brigade Commander: <br />

file upload storage

We get slapped around, but we have a good time!

[Thaddeus Blanchette]

Reading it on the same device, both times: an ipad mini.

The first time, the font was all cursive and barely legible. Now it is in what looks like Comic Sans, which wouldn’t be my choice for a font, but at least it can be read!

We get slapped around, but we have a good time!

[Thaddeus Blanchette]

Much better, Jozi! Thank you!

the cards are really great. Any chance of sharing them?

We get slapped around, but we have a good time!

[Thaddeus Blanchette]

Jesus, Jozi, change te font on your blog! It’s a bloody nightmare to read, especially on a small screen!

We get slapped around, but we have a good time!

[Thaddeus Blanchette]

Here is a simple rules tweak to give you a bit of friction.

When you role the die at the beginning of your turn, if the result is two, subtract one activation and if it is five add one activation.

 

We get slapped around, but we have a good time!

[Thaddeus Blanchette]

I am browned off that, for some reason or another, the Wargames Store isn’t accepting my credit card.

I am rebasing by Big Red and Great Blue AH Blitzkrieg forces for The playtest rules, however and hope to get a game in, soon!

We get slapped around, but we have a good time!

[Thaddeus Blanchette]

I agree with Paint Pig.

I can take rational, even-handed censorship or no-holds barred. What I cannot stand are rules that get applied to some and not to others based on personal preferences. Which is why I post at here, LAF and Frothers. Frothers for the politics and comedy and the freedom to say exactly what I want, LAF for the breadth and here for the camaraderie. Plus TWW is way more into microscales than LAF..

We get slapped around, but we have a good time!

[Thaddeus Blanchette]

Well, <i>Blade Runner </i>might have been editted up to be just another refugee story, but in its original version, which the Director’s Cut recovered, it was not that: Dekker himself was a replicant and he didn’t know.

That would be sci-fi, as the story hangs on a technology that doesn’t exist and without which it doesn’t work.

I would say that is a good guide for sci-fi. That means few games actually are. <i>Battletech, </i>maybe. Uhm…

We get slapped around, but we have a good time!

[Thaddeus Blanchette]

Wow. What scale are the Taliban playing in these days?

We get slapped around, but we have a good time!

[Thaddeus Blanchette]

WWOZ out of New Orleans, usually. Although lately I’m listening to a lot of Billy Connolly on youtube.

We get slapped around, but we have a good time!

[Thaddeus Blanchette]

Buncha size queens, if you ask me…

We get slapped around, but we have a good time!

[Thaddeus Blanchette]

Ahn, yes. Here they are:

http://leadnobleed.blogspot.com.br/2010/10/quarterly-report-v1-1.html

We get slapped around, but we have a good time!

[Thaddeus Blanchette]

IIRC, I did some Commander unit rules for the Quar up on my blog…..

We get slapped around, but we have a good time!

[Thaddeus Blanchette]

You can see what I did, here:

The village base is a piece of painted cloth whose margins are delineated by coarse-flocked hedges. It is pinned to the mat with flocked tacks and stick pins.

The buildings are based on 2 cm x 2 cm plastic bases and they are placed on the village base. When I need to put infantry in the village, I remove as many bases as needed.

In the background, you can see a farm which works on the same general principle, although its bases are 3 cm x 4 cm. You can, of course, make your building bases as small or as big as you need them. I just happened to have a lot of 2×2 plastic bases lying around so I’m using them, for the most part. I will make some bigger and smaller bases, however. The Church, in fact, is on a 4×2 base.

Why base the buildings at all? You don’t have to, but it allows you to make nifty little mini -dioramas. You can’t see it from this angle, but behind the church, there’s a little windmill on a hill. Now I only need some 3mm sheep to put on it! (Marcin…?)

If you want to get even more persnickety, you can paint the buildings on your village and farm cloths. Mine are currently just done in bare earth.

 

We get slapped around, but we have a good time!

[Thaddeus Blanchette]

Yeah, it does. But it is a Blue Moon Robot Legion 15mm figure, repurposed. 😀

Those are O8 Caesarion tanks, heavy infantry and Matabelle IFVs from their Sci-Fi line, the aforementioned Blue Moon figures, and Germy Bugger hover tanks with Ground Zero Games 6mm small turrets glued on top. One of the Germy Bugger tanks is also sporting a missile turret from a Germy Bugger Cybertank.

We get slapped around, but we have a good time!

[Thaddeus Blanchette]

Well, now that the Royalists are out, I am THAT much closer to doing up my set for skirmish gaming.

We get slapped around, but we have a good time!

[Thaddeus Blanchette]

I did up their 15mm stuff on my blog awhile back and I am sorely tempted, too.

The 15mm figs are nowhere near as nice as the 28mm stuff, but still quite good.

For rules, hell, why not go with Mike’s 6mm skirmish set?

We get slapped around, but we have a good time!

[Thaddeus Blanchette]

OK.

We get slapped around, but we have a good time!

[Thaddeus Blanchette]

Do you think those ribbed rectangular corridor pieces could double as shipping containers?

I have a friend coming down from Canada in March, but shipping to Canada is 20 USD! 🙁 However, it seems there are E-bay sellers in the UK and I will be going there in April, so maybe I can snag one then.

We get slapped around, but we have a good time!

[Thaddeus Blanchette]

Also, is that one pack or two?

 

We get slapped around, but we have a good time!

[Thaddeus Blanchette]

Can you give us a link where you got that base, Mathieu? I can’t seem to find it on the Spartan Games site.

We get slapped around, but we have a good time!

[Thaddeus Blanchette]

Arrrrrgh! Must have!

We get slapped around, but we have a good time!

[Thaddeus Blanchette]

Javelin says he is sendingg me some of his new metal proofs tompaint up, so we might be getting stuff in metal soon. Still, supporting him now is a good idea.

The Falchion stuff loks pretty good and everytime I have painted up Javelin’s stuff it has come out much nicer than I would have thought. The white strong and flexible material painted up fine, but I’d still go for the detailed material on these.

We get slapped around, but we have a good time!

[Thaddeus Blanchette]

A Revolutionary Army of Salvation column rolls across the high outback on Smade’s World, striking towards Organ Pipe Pass and the lowlands.

 

We get slapped around, but we have a good time!

[Thaddeus Blanchette]

Thanks for the compliments, folks. Actually, Mathieu, I started thinking about my fictional planet of Smade’s World after seeing Restepro, so techno-Khorengal isn’t far off the mark.

And Mike, you’re correct: terrain has to catch the eye in 3mm, but without completely drowning out the figures. I’m still working on getting the best balance here.

The best thing about 3mm is that it is a “bonus” scale: you can get into it without distracting too much time, energy and money from other projects. 100 dollars will get you two immense armies or four smaller ones. You can store them all in a couple of cigar boxes with a couple others for terrain and stuff the whole kit in a backpack.

I wouldn´t be able to play miniature games if I had to use other scales (although skirmishing in 6mm is increasingly a possibilty). Other people get this scale essentially for free, however.

It thus allows you to do projects you wouldn´t do normally. Have you always wanted to do sci-fi, but couldn´t stand the thought of spending the cash on something you´ll only play now and again? 3mm is the answer. I’m finally getting into Napoleonic in the same way. I always wanted to play Napoleonics, but I couldn´t stomach the idea of spending boatloads of cash and years of my life painting only to have some numpty criticize the colors of the buttons on my figs. 3mm allows me to avoid all of that.

We get slapped around, but we have a good time!

[Thaddeus Blanchette]

That’s the beauty of 3mm! O8’s stuff is just gorgeous: much more detailed than 2mm and almost as detailed as 6mm. And a 3×2 playing space will do you fine.

Here’s a link to a new topic I just started, showing some of my CWC and FWC games in 3mm, played on a variety of 3×2 and 2×2 spaces. I’ve started a new topic, because other people might be interested:

http://www.thewargameswebsite.com/forums/topic/playing-future-war-blitzkrieg-cold-war-commander-in-3mm/

We get slapped around, but we have a good time!

[Thaddeus Blanchette]

Here´s a Future War Commander AAR I did several years ago…

http://leadnobleed.blogspot.com.br/2009/11/hellzapoppin-valley-future-war.html

We get slapped around, but we have a good time!

[Thaddeus Blanchette]

In fact, if you don’t like the series’ buckets of dice mechanism for combat, you can fairly easily switch in any combat resolution procedure you like. I have even used Ogre/GEVs combat mechanisc with the Commander series’ everything else.

We get slapped around, but we have a good time!

[Thaddeus Blanchette]

Yep. Know one ruleset and you have a handle on them all.

For FWC, I do away with HQs entirely for high tech forces. They get as many activations as they want, presuming a great communications net.

We get slapped around, but we have a good time!

[Thaddeus Blanchette]

I tend to play with half company stands and I find that works very well in the “suspension of disbelief” department when it comes to accumulating hits.

Again, if you want to add more color, here’s a third option: give units morale ranging up to 10 for elite units. Throw a die at the end of the turn, and subtract the difference between the dr and morale in hits.

It is a very easy system to tweak.

We get slapped around, but we have a good time!

[Thaddeus Blanchette]

Well, one can certainly make a case that a large swarm of Stuarts would unnerve a Tiger platoon. The cumulative hits thing is no show stopper.

In game terms, however, what it does is push units to concentrate fire in hopes of eliminating an enemy unit before it “resets”.

An easy way around that is to force units to fire on the closest, most appropriate target.

We get slapped around, but we have a good time!

[Author]

Posts