[Mr. Average]

Oh, so tasty! You are the man, jav!

The MAN I say!

only suggestion: upsize that Land Raider… I mean, “Ground Assault Tank” to give it a little bearing over the Rhinoceros tanks. Or maybe not – looking at it now it seems right- sized, so I might be off base. But man the contours are just right – beautifully executed! I hope the be the first kid on the block with a 3mm scale Blood Angels army! Let me know if/when they’re available – I will order them instantly!

[Mr. Average]

Given that Chaos and a large portion of the Orks are covered by the human armies, I too would vote for the Elder Elves. With the caveat that I wouldn’t want to prejudice my affinity for the Imperial Guard, mind you.

[Mr. Average]

I sent a little cue to Javelin98 regarding this thread, which is starting to get very interesting and far closer to real possibility than I’d originally imagined might be the case. TB, I think you have a better inside line with Marcin than I – maybe he’d find it interesting to follow this discussion as well.

I think that the Tyranids are probably the most immediately doable 40K OPFOR at this scale, with the exception of Chaos, which can basically be primarily a Human army with suitably Chaos-y colors and appointments, maybe a few of the warped Human-Legion Hybrids from the Onslught line as chaos abominations of some kind. On that point, by the way, some of the OTC PA units, though decidedly Tau-y, might also be repurposed as Marine Dreadnoughts. Paired with a four-legged chassis from one of the Microworld Mechs, it could be a reasonable Chaos Devastator as well, with minimal conversion. The Sistrhood tanks might be meat for Baneblade/Shadowsword conversion, too, or possibly used straight, although I admit I have an urge to “save” them for a Sisters of Battle army in their own right.  And as for the Tau themselves, or the Necrons, I’m at a loss at the moment. I think they’d require custom pieces by a willing manufacturer, unfortunately.

Gamewise, I think they would scale out very favorably one to one, just being smaller and on smaller boards. Ranges could be cut by a suitable factor. Or alternately, a set of these could be dressed up on multi-unit bases and you could get TRULY titanic-looking battles going by simply keeping the stats and bumping up the command level such that a vehicle or stand becomes a platoon, a company becomes a battalion, a battalion a regiment, and so on. It’s an idea I have to say I find very appealing given the supposedly apocalyptic nature of the 40K Universe.

[Mr. Average]

National Cheese Emporium Team Bayonet or Team Katana seems like a good start.

[Mr. Average]

The Eldar idea was more joke than serious suggestion. I don’t think it could be done in any feasible way.

There ought to be some way to get reasonably Eldarish troops though. Maybe  helmeted napoleonics with a suitable paint job? Speaking of which, Rough Riders could be done that way too. And good catch on the bikes, Rhoderic!

And maybe, as TB suggests, it would pay to see if Marcin would do a Not Land Raider. But WH40K is kind of a rabbit hole he may not wish to go down, litigious as GW is.

[Mr. Average]

Another thing – who to fight them? The obvious choices are setting the games in the Heresy and fighting traitor legions. Alternately, O8 aliens make a good basis for a 3mm Tyranid force, with some out-scale Onslaught Leviathans to go with. The larger size might serve to make them more intimidating, maybe. Making some O8 infantry into Coneheads with putty might yield Eldar Guardians, albeit slowly and with a lot of work. And Microworld Foundationist Support Guns are good starts for Eldar Grav Tanks, or many the wedge tanks from the GZG line, ir the Team Katana vehicles from National Cheese Emporium…

[Mr. Average]

More good selections: M110 as a Basilisk, or cut down the barrel to make a Griffon or Bombard.  Soviet FROG as a Deathstrike, albeit one with a wheeled chassis – again, a little putty maybe.  The Ragnarok tank is basically just an old big-turret KV-2.

[Mr. Average]

Oh, and the Soviet SA-6 is an almost perfect Manticore.  Not exactly sure what to use for the Superheavies, but an out-of-scale 6mm tank should be plausible, if one or more could be found for the purpose.

[Mr. Average]

DP9 figures make excellent out-of-scale Titans.  In fact, just about anything robotic at 28mm scale or bigger would also suit as a Titan.

[Mr. Average]

I have in mind LVTPs for Chimeras actually.  The Israeli Vayzata makes a very good Rhino and seems like it could take some minor modding to make a Whirlwind or Vindicator.  O8 does make WWI tanks, though I think they’re a  bit long relative to their width for a Land Raider – bulking them out with a bit of putty might do the trick though.  Sh’ot Blazers would be pretty reasonable Predators.

[Mr. Average]

Someone ought to see if the National Cheese Emporium would like to produce some Not-Epic 3mm scale vehicles.  The recent O8 Venators would be fine Space Marines, and the WW2 U.S. Infantry is my go-to basic 3mm scale infantry figures for most applications.  I have a handful of Char B’s on hand, and I’m going to see if they’ll take a little putty for some sponson guns – might make Leman Russ tanks at scale…

[Mr. Average]

That’s what I have in mind, as a matter of fact.  Although I’m still a fan of the 6mm scale Epic game, myself.  Especially with the Steel Crown/Toublemaker “Not-Imperial Guard” units.

[Mr. Average]

I just draw them in Adobe Illustrator.  I’ve always been good at silhouettes, somehow, and tracing units from the book gets me started.  These are some Support Cards I’m working out.

I’m going to put some gold stripes on the sleeves for the Yawdryls.  You’re right that it needs a little something to push it up.

[Mr. Average]

First unit off the line – a Yawdryl (Sergeant) of the Royal Croftyran Crymuster, serving in the Royal Croftyran Expeditionary Force.  He and his squad, in fact his entire Catrawd (Regiment), are veterans of fierce fighting along the Great Croftyran Wall, in particular the Battle of the Gates of Syl.  His Catrawd is native to the Silyrran maritime city-states of Northern Inischol (his red-brown fur is a dead giveaway) which have been loyal to the Croftyran Royal Family for centuries.  They are also the Quar from which many of the Royal Croftyran Marines were drawn before the Crusade, and as such he and his Catrawd have been chosen for a special mission…

The first model in an army is always the hardest for me – I take a lot of notes to set up a painting formula that I can replicate.  This guy might get some highlighting to give off his NCO rank among the file of Quar Rhyflers he commands – most definitely, the command officers are getting blue-white jackets to set them apart.  But the basic Croftyran blue jacket, tan pants and leather and steel appointments seem to work well here.

[Mr. Average]

Indeed.  I’m preoccupied with the Royal Croftyran Expeditionary Force and the ZPDR 743rd Motor Rifle Regiment, but NEXT, maybe… 😉

[Mr. Average]

I know it counts as rampant immodesty but this can go on your mind-grapes: my comic 6-Commando features powered armor of several sizes and varieties.

[Mr. Average]

Semi-auto, I’d think.  They’d be at home in the late-19th century.  They could probably pass as musket carbines, as well, though.

[Mr. Average]

I stand by my statement. 😉

[Mr. Average]

Beautiful!  You really can’t top the effect you get from 3mm scale for portraying a huge army on the move!

[Mr. Average]

I set and primed the Croftyrans today, and I’m beginning to think you’re right.  There are eight different poses for the Rhyflers-of-the-line, and the squad leaders carry a sword.  The machine gunners would probably not be useful to you, nor the trench raiders.  The cavalry is an open question to me – they’re a little bit larger than the foot soldiers, though I pass that off as needing to be more muscular (in Quar terms) to keep a Cadier in line.  But they’re firing their carbines or swinging swords, so it’d take a little bit of doing to get them to be lancers.  They’re more like a Quar version of the Bushveldt Carbineers.

[Mr. Average]

Oh, and 3mm scale BOLOs. And 6mm scale BOLOs.

[Mr. Average]

I’m looking at Rapid Fire, as well as Commander-system.  “Long War Commander” has a nice ring to it.  But I also want to preserve as much of the flavor of the Quar as I can.  I have in mind a few rules to convert TQW into a larger-scale game but they may be too slow to be practical… only playtesting will tell.  And I do like Unit Cards, of course.  My vestigial Epic 40K affinities.

This is a playtest card for a Croftyran Rhyfler company.  We’ll see.

[Mr. Average]

Retro-sci fi powered armor, robot and tank miniatures based on the works of Kow Yokoyama.  ANY… DAY… of the WEEK.

[Mr. Average]

Call signs are not chosen by pilots who use them, but by their fellow pilots. That said, “Weirdbeard” is what my old teammates used to call me, due to the fact that I couldn’t hold a clean shave for more than an hour.  So that’s a possibility for me.

[Mr. Average]

So, I think I’m crystallizing my thoughts on how to proceed with basing these little guys, and the probable rule set to be used is going to play a role in it.  I’ve had Epic 40K on the brain recently, and though I haven’t played it in years (decades, actually) I always felt that it presented a very succinct and colorful game experience that felt immersive. I also liked the idea of buying forces at the company/detachment level, because it felt like you were building a more real force with various elements that made it go, instead of trying to find one super-unit you could duplicate forever to game the system. Although I know that’s not only possible, but frequently done, it was at least the intent.

I’ve been reading the This Quar’s War rules and actually I think they’re pretty elegant, and could possibly be adapted to mass battles. My thought is to gather troops into five-man fireteams on a base, with two bases to the squad, two squads to the section, two sections to the company, hence eight bases to the company, plus a command base. Each infantry company would be allowed up to two support units, whether tanks, artillery, etc.  On the latter point I’ve decided to add some big guns from GHQ to the Croftyrans as an RCO battery. The one figure I find fault with in the Quar line, the Croftyran field gun, on a single tread and no larger than a rifle, has not been cast yet, so it gives me the chance to fill in my own, more substantial field pieces.

My thought is that each fireteam would have a firepower rating based on small arms, which would be reduced by casualties, that could be marked with a casualty counter. So you’d have fire dice that would be the normal firepower minus casualties… I’m sorry if I’m talking mechanics that not everyone recognizes, here, but the rules are free from Zombiesmith if you’re interested in going along for the ride as I develop this. Either way, I think fireteam-style basing will work, suffice it to say. Hopefully, some paint tests this weekend, if I get a few free moments!

I think the Royalists, who I have a soft spot for in case you couldn’t tell, will be the vanguard of an expeditionary force fighting its way out of Croftyr and into Maer Braech, as the spearhead of an attempted anti-Crusader counter-offensive.  The Crusaders will be crack elements detailed to halt the offensive and push it back before local sympathy builds into a general insurrection against the Crusader Republics.

[Mr. Average]

Do I still play SFB? You bet I do, choppa!

I continue to like it better than Federation Commander, though I do like both games. SFB has the flavor of a starship game as naval warfare. It’s not just interchangeably a naval game in space, it’s inseparably starship-oriented. Many games of the kind have gotten too generic over the years, the criticism being that a complex game like SFB is too complicated. Personally, I value that granularity and it brings me back to SFB time after time.

[Mr. Average]

I did – even they look a bit modern.  FPW/Boer War, I’d say.

[Mr. Average]

I think, having now seen the actual figures, that they’re a little too modern for something that early – it could be my innate bias on them but they look rather more industrial than what you suggest, more like Franco-Prussian War at the earliest.  Both series seem to have a late-19th century to Great War styling, with maybe the Boer War being a good baseline, at least for the Crusaders.  They also are more dynamic than a rank-and-file black powder setup might imply.  Some conversion could be possible, though: plumes on the hats, for example, would be tedious but possible.

[Mr. Average]

Yay!  My Quar armies (Quarmies?) have arrived!  They’re very good casts – better than the photos on the Zombiesmith website might lead you to believe.  I like the Royalist tanks in particular – very atmospheric and true to the larger scale Quar.

Unfortunately, I haven’t been doing my homework, and so now I can’t think how best to base these little fellas.  I will probably go with FoW recessed bases, mainly because I’m not really huge on putty or builds for any of these, which I’ve found endlessly tedious..  Unfortunately that will mean not putting base labels on them, though.  Might not be the worst thing though.  Hmm… have to think this one through.

[Mr. Average]

You could always head east: they say that Voivode Imalviz Pstov is usually raring for a fight, even without Easter on mention. And the expansionist states of Itzkoldthïr and Naatgrōzindizland are frequently looking for signs of weakness in wealthy principalities on the fringes of the West.

[Mr. Average]

A preliminary map of the campaign theater:

Pink is Mitteleuropa, Gold is the Eastern Coalition, Light Blue is the Southern European Union, Dark Blue (Kaliningrad) is occupied by ENSPUN, and Big Red there is the Russian Confederation.  It still needs some tweaking, naturally, but the idea is there.

Oh, and the two little units in Eastern Ukraine are the Earthlight Division (in Crimea) and the Krakow Winged Hussars (in Donestk).  They’re both mercenary units (they prefer the term “Dispute Resolution Organization”) on retainer with the Ukrainian Federal Army.  There are plenty of other such units in the works, including units from China, Japan, Switzerland, France, Italy and the Netherlands.

[Mr. Average]

SimpleGreen is the best product I’ve used for paint stripping, and it’s nontoxic. Not sure if it’s universally available though, so your country, if not the USA, may have a local brand equivalent.

As for speed painting, spraying a base coat in a basic flat color is the best start. Then wash for shadows, dry brush for highlights, and add details. It really depends how far you, personally want to go with it.

[Mr. Average]

Thanks for the interest!  I’m writing up scenario cards with full game background for the benefit of my opponent, and for my own modest edification, and will probably post them tomorrow.

The early kit is basically hyper-modern Russian material, T-90s with upgrades and the T228, which is a vehicle from O8’s sci fi line.  Basic infantry and modern/near-future IFVs make the bulk of the forces.  Both sides (UF and ZPDR) use American and Russian tube artillery and SPGs, though more advanced nations like Russia and ENSPUN have higher technology, like Walkers (Russia) hovercraft and advanced airpower (UK, Canada, Mitteleuropa) and orbital support weapons (ASA, the successor to the USA).

ENSPUN, by the way, is a portmanteau of English-Speaking Union and encompasses the Associated States of America, the UK, Ireland, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, and Nigeria – the latter of which is an African continental sub-superpower by the time of the setting).  It has little to do with English, though, I just cribbed it from an Anthony Burgess novel and thought it sounded military.  There are also other regional alliances in Europe that will get involved in various ways: USWE, the United States of Western Europe, which is France, Spain, Portugal, Benelux), the SEU (Southern European Union, mainly Italy, Greece, the Balkans and Turkey), the Eastern Coalition (Poland, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Slovenia, Romania, Hungary and the Baltic States) and Mitteleuropa (Germany, Austria, Denmark and Scandinavia).  The Russian Confederation is an abridged version of modern Russia, in a loose regional alliance with its immediate neighbors, and a sometime relationship with China, though that’s been strained, since China stayed neutral in the last war, effectively hobbling the Russian war effort.

I’m trying to work out a scale of escalation for what I hope will be an ongoing campaign, to ratchet up intervention by various groups on various sides as time goes on and different battles are fought.

[Mr. Average]

Ice Planet definitely tops my list, with Cityscape as a close second. I really couldn’t say why, really. I just find the two very interesting.

[Mr. Average]

Wow.  You’re really a Debbie Downer on the question, aren’t you, Connard?  You’re even bumming ME out, Deb.

I do anxiously await more photos on their site, though.  The expanded ancients line is particularly arresting, I have to say.

[Mr. Average]

Oh, man, I second the operational-level sci fi, especially if there’s some module that would allow individual battles to play out at tabletop scale.  NO idea how to make that work, but it’d be very cool.

[Mr. Average]

Yes I said yes I will yes.

[Mr. Average]

Yeah, I definitely like the hills much more than I thought I would, the escarpments especially. I still like the natural slopes you can get with TerrainMaker, but the Hexon hills are a very good mix of playability, visual appeal and realism.

[Mr. Average]

Progress.  I’ve discovered that, once the main base boards are done, the heavy lifting is basically over.  You can do a few bits and pieces fifteen minutes at a time, which is nice for fitting in around the edges of “real life.”  This is a small segment of the board, with some units from the Zaporoskiye People’s Democratic Republic for scale.

The forest templates are just clump foliage, which gives a good “mass” effect at the scale.  I’m working now on rivers, roads and fields, and some light forest to break up the edges of some of the denser bits.  However, I’m complete enough that I can begin thinking through some introductory games on the board.  I have to say that although the breakout investment for Hexon-II was high, the quality and ease of use is outstanding.  And the techniques I developed for TerrainMaker hexes apply absolutely one-to-one with Hexon-II, making the whole thing a very easy transition.  Exciting times!

[Mr. Average]

The uppermost in Stroezie’s post are my favorites, personally, and are the bulk of my Earthlight Division infantry forces for Dirtside II. I vouch for them unreservedly.

[Author]

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