[Thorsten Frank]

What??? Hermes is active in the UK too??? That was new to me.  They started out here VERY good back in the early nineties but now… Don´t know the situation in Britain right now but the conditions for the sub contractors here are …. catastrophic. To be kind.
Worked 30 years in the mail and parcel sector. Many guys and gals are working their asses off for, far too often, a pittance. And then get kicked by nearly anyone around.
I´m glad that I´ve decided to quit last year.

Praise be to Apis!

"In strange grammar this one writes" - Master Yoda

[Thorsten Frank]

Thorsten Frank wrote:

Angel Barracks wrote:

You can tell a lot about a business by how they act when they mess up. As a result I am no longer using the courier I have been using and will have to go back to Royal Mail. This may mean slower dispatch of orders as I am not always able to get out to the post office each day. My apologies.

That may be a wise decision – epecially if we are talking about international shipping. I can speak only for me but every single shipment I got from the UK over the years, even the ones from the companies in the “Wallachei”*, shipped via RM, were at my home in 5-6 days and that´s even for German standards really fast. Some of them even faster (and faster than the “big A”). So if you ship only once or twice a week that´s, at least for me, fast enough. Even the Mini Wargames is only delayed two days right now. *the (German slang) term Wallachei describes a region deeply in an rural area without much infrastructure. Literally the term means the Wallachia region in Romania. EDIT: PS finally got my copy of Burning Sands!
Second EDIT: May I ask which courier you used before?

"In strange grammar this one writes" - Master Yoda

[Thorsten Frank]

Angel Barracks wrote:

You can tell a lot about a business by how they act when they mess up. As a result I am no longer using the courier I have been using and will have to go back to Royal Mail. This may mean slower dispatch of orders as I am not always able to get out to the post office each day. My apologies.

That may be a wise decision – epecially if we are talking about international shipping. I can speak only for me but every single shipment I got from the UK over the years, even the ones from the companies in the “Wallachei”*, shipped via RM, were at my home in 5-6 days and that´s even for German standards really fast. Some of them even faster (and faster than the “big A”). So if you ship only once or twice a week that´s, at least for me, fast enough.
Even the Mini Wargames is only delayed two days right now.

*the (German slang) term Wallachei describes a region deeply in an rural area without much infrastructure. Literally the term means the Wallachia region in Romania.

EDIT: PS finally got my copy of Burning Sands! 🙂

"In strange grammar this one writes" - Master Yoda

[Thorsten Frank]

Guy Farrish wrote:

In vino?

Only there…. 😀

"In strange grammar this one writes" - Master Yoda

[Thorsten Frank]

That´s a thread after my preferences. I´m similarly a hard science guy and tried various paint schemes over the years. Sorry, no pictures due to internet limitations.
For vehicles I generally go after more exotic camo´s of not so well known armies – especially Asian like Indonesia or India, and Eastern Europe patterns (modern Ukraine or the multitude of Russian patterns), Austrialian or Japanese ones (both modern and WWII – they are often overlooked). The US Marine Corps used in the eighties and nineties some interesting patterns (with blue shades) and the arctic pattern is interesting too. I normally try to avoid one colour camos because I consider them rather “boring” – but sometimes they may go well, especially if units are portrayed that, like Mike said, have a more peacekeeping role. I usually avoid the standard patterns (eg. main NATO forces). But no rule without execeptions – the USAF lizard pattern as seen on the A-10´s in the eighties works for vehicles too. I even tried the WWII RAF fighter pattern once but that looked arkward.
(And before someone asks, yes there was a LOT of paint stripper involved over the years).
For company forces I reguarly go a bit more exotic – either using the respective companies prime colours as inspiration for a camouflage type or paint them entirely in that pattern. I, once painted vehicles completely painted in red with yellow McDonalds M´s as a small security detail. Looked fun – but I sadly took pictures of them. Police forces get reguarly a blue pattern – but there I experiment with the blue-silver (and even the old green-silver or white ones) from the German police.
I also tried to use “hunter” patterns, those that are being sold for game hunters, for corporation or even partisan/guerellia forces.
Another nice colour scheme is the urban camo that some of the street racing guys paint their cars in. On military vehicles it looks very exotic and “futuristic” but I tried that one not myself yet.
6mm infantry is a bit difficult – I tried a lot of the above over the years with various results. I lack the painting skills to get them really excellent like the ones Mike did and tried various techniques but mostly I was unsatisfied with the results.
For larger sizes (I change to 28mm skirmish currently) the results are often better. Spectre Miniatures has a fine multicam painting guide on their page.

As far as inspiration in general goes I highly recommend the Aliens Colonial Marines Technical Manual – in my opinion THE sourcebook for hard military  sci fi and I wonder why nobody did a similar book for other sci fi movies (well, except the great two, Star Wars and Star Trek for which one get´s literally thousands…)

And I found an interesting Youtube channel that does sometimes videos on this:

"In strange grammar this one writes" - Master Yoda

[Thorsten Frank]

Rhoderic wrote:

Is this “Wizard of the Mounds” some Comanche shaman? Or one of those entertainers that lug their tents from frontier town to dusty frontier town? A brand of tobaccy, perhaps?

So I’ve been looking at easy solutions for buildings, mainly ones that I can also take “forward in time” to the pulp/gangster/Lovecraft era.

Well, not exactly. It´s now believed that the famous archeologists Robert E. Howard and H.P. Lovecraft found hints and scripts in the remains of the Hopewell cultures and the ruins of Cahokia, especially Monks Mound, describing a battle between an Apache precursor, a Comanche precursor, the mentioned shaman and a “serpent king” and his whole army.

Hm, those foam and photo realistic textures buildings in the other post look really really interesting. I´m really thinking about to integrate this technique in my own model making.

"In strange grammar this one writes" - Master Yoda

[Thorsten Frank]

Hey, that sounds much like the game we did back then. Would like to participate now (impossible). Do I get that right, you want to use the ships for the boarding actions themselves and don´t use seperate models or deckplans?

There are so many things to keep in mind. How large is the crew of the ships for example. If it´s insanely high like the ones in Star Wars or WH40K BF:G, moderately on the more “realistic” side like Traveller, GZG FT or the I-War video game or very low like the Warhounds from Silent Death. For the former 6mm and smaller would be approriate, if possible at all, while the latter could be easily played in 28mm.
Which ways do the troopers get to their targets? Assault shuttles like you want to do, assault pods/capsules (think of Babylon5) or Star Trek´s transporter beams (something I avoid in all my own games!).

In case you don´t know Winchell Chung´s Atomic Rockets/Project Rho I´ll give you the link here:
http://www.projectrho.com/public_html/rocket/astromilitary.php

It´s the premium site concerning space combat and I blame Chung and GDW´s Fire, Fusion and Steel for making me be a hard science guy who  rather leave certain things out of a game than having “integrity” issues.

EDIT: speaking of rules, the Firefight 2.0 rules from Alternative Armies may be perfect for boarding actions. (I just remember that I actually own the original Firefight – and never played it. Now I know what to do this weekend. Where the hell did I hide them!)

"In strange grammar this one writes" - Master Yoda

[Thorsten Frank]

It´s really complex. I´ve read so many reviews and most of them left me more confused than before. If possible I look for internet videos and look how the game mechanics work. Well, and than happens something totally bizarre. A few weeks ago I watched a tutorial by the guys which wrote a rule set. I didn´t understand anything and it all seemed overly complicated. Buyed it anyway for the fluff (fluff is very important for me). Then tried the rules at home – and was surprised how fluently the game works for me.

"In strange grammar this one writes" - Master Yoda

[Thorsten Frank]

That and the church ruin got my intention. I´m impressed how good this looks. Did I get that right: you downloaded the textures, edited with power point, printed it out (that´s a bit unclear for me – with profesionally printed you mean you used a higher resolution, don´t you) and then glued it on foam?

"In strange grammar this one writes" - Master Yoda

[Thorsten Frank]

Inspired by this question I took a further look on some other space combat systems, primarily RPG systems I own, tonight. The mechanics of most aren´t the thing I´m looking for. I was especially disappointed how the official Elite Dangerous RPG handles this (curiously Elite Encounters – the FIRST licenced game for ED handles many space combat mechanics better). The various Traveller systems (I own the original GDW, Megatraveller, T:TNE (best version IMHO!), Gurps Traveller and the Mongoose Rulebook) are still the most logical (in playing terms) when it comes to boarding actions. I would like to know how 5150:Fringe Space handles this (—>Yes, I´ve got currently something like an congestion in my life preventing some very neccessary investments in gaming material).

There´s another point. I wonder if there´s something out there that handles low-tech boarding zero-g battles as seen in the ending of the Moonraker James Bond movie besides RPGs (which mostly and obviously couldn´t handle a mass combat as seen there).

"In strange grammar this one writes" - Master Yoda

[Thorsten Frank]

Mike wrote:

Thorsten Frank wrote:

EDIT: why were you still awake anyway? Seems your sleep is as bad as mine.

Time enough for sleep in the ground.

Spoken like the Wizard of the Mounds!

"In strange grammar this one writes" - Master Yoda

[Thorsten Frank]

Ok, that was a rather short answer – to give the long one: We tried it several times with various results. First, if played such actions between two playersalways considerable slow down the flow of the game. We tried several different ways. Alternate rounds between the surrounding space battle and the boarding action often ended up in much frustration and chaotic paperwork. If we stayed to the boarding action and played that through and continued than the space battle it was much better from the chaos but it simply “felt not right”. And abstract like in SFB was nice and didn´t slow down the process but felt uneccessary in “normal” games and in scenarios (in which the boarding action was central and an objective) as something did miss.
It´s, TBH, a horrible theme. Because reagardless what we´ve done it felt wrong.
All this resulted in a two vs two scenario. Two players acted as fleet commanders while the other two acted as commanders of the marine forces including the boarding pods and the defence against them. That worked surprisingly well and was one of the most memorable and fun games I´ve ever played. The objective was to capture an internally completely build FSE experimental cruiser in which a friend of me put a lot of work. The attacking player´s objective was to capture the cruiser, that of the defender to defend or recapture it.
We stayed in this game with GZG rules. Full Thrust for space and the Dirtside II with 6mm two man fire teams.  All four players were occupied during the game and it ended as the objective left captured the playing field.

We tried a few years later a smaller scenario in some kind of a “The Scarlet Buccaneer in Space” again using Full Thrust rules and  Star Grunt II this time for the boarding action. But that didn´t go so well – as the boarding action was over the game was essentially done for two players of the four players but the action with 28mm firgures beforehand was interesting.
Interestingly, Pirates of the Carribean historic type games somehow seem to work better than Pirates of Orion type games.
The problem is a bit the nature of space combat in general. If you go for a “realistic” type it´s too fast to be conducted at all, if you go for an Honor Harrington approach it´s more or less Age of Sail with starships.

"In strange grammar this one writes" - Master Yoda

[Thorsten Frank]

Yes.

"In strange grammar this one writes" - Master Yoda

[Thorsten Frank]

Mike wrote:

Thorsten Frank wrote:

And there´s a certain barbarian in a desert town I want to play too for a while now (but don´t tell Mike, ok?) and for that I secretly began to expand his world in my games.

w00t.

Nothing dramatic. Want to show Erland and friends some part of the world – and decided to build my own fantasy world. But first my wallet must say yes. Too many ideas, not much money and even less time.

EDIT: why were you still awake anyway? Seems your sleep is as bad as mine.

"In strange grammar this one writes" - Master Yoda

[Thorsten Frank]

Hm, just thought about that again. Hell, I´ve gone through my current list and for the above mentioned scifi project and ended up with at least 200 minis. WTF? When shall I paint them? How shall I pay them? And why will I do it anyway? As you say: that way lies madness…..
And there´s a certain barbarian in a desert town I want to play too for a while now  (but don´t tell Mike, ok?) and  for that I secretly began to expand his world in my games.
Anyway, the thing with the scenery is interesting. You can cut much costs if you use paper models for the houses. Not everyone´s thing but with smaller or one off games they are more than enough and look better as one or two huts and a few fences. And there are a lot for free in the nasty world of the world wide web.  There´s even an increasing number playing with paper figures again (like the disposable heroes in the early eighties for RPG).  I used for my 6mm Horizon Wars games reguarly paper buildings.  Another thing to think about is the use of 20mm/1:72 plastic soldiers (cowboys). As a child I had a large collection of those and, today I´ve got to say sadly, they were thrown away some day in the last 40 years. And that was a full collection from trappers with muskets over Indians and Mexicans to classic cowboy types.

"In strange grammar this one writes" - Master Yoda

[Thorsten Frank]

I hate to say that but given the fact that there are lot´s of possible threats (from a lot of sides) and the limited assets of the state there´s something wrong with this. I can speak, as always, speak only from the German pov but having experienced something similar but in a drug AND Djihadist related context I´ve learned something about some of the techniques “services” do use. The police don´t come to you because of one unrelated case and if your child´s behaviour is off the rail there´s more likely a talk with the “youth office” (don´t know if there´s such a thing in the UK but I suppose it´s the same as here) in such a case.  In my case it took years of unrelated things that I landed on “the list” and as I learned later it wasn´t the first time.
I wasn´t there and I couldn´t say what happened in Imperator Vespasian´s case but for me it seems like just a large misunderstanding from all involved sides that escelated in an unpleaseant way.

"In strange grammar this one writes" - Master Yoda

[Thorsten Frank]

Same here. I´m thinking about such a “side” project since I´ve seen the rules in Henry Hyde´s Wargaming Compendium. Since much of the scenery is identical to my “spacepunkcyberwestern” project that would go well . But, as always, I want to go over the top and do it right – that would mean lot´s of stuff for small town and various types of opponents which would make this more than just “side”. And then there´s my inner adult, the one that would like to do it as realistic as possible, against my inner child, that would like to go full spaghetti – those two are the main reason I´ve done nothing yet.
I participated a long time ago in a game that was modeled after the movies Rio Bravo/El Dorado which was really fun (If I recall it right it was based on an article in a mag, MW or WGI)
Same is true for the two other settings you mentioned. For the pirate theme I´ve even taken a closer look at several rule books – but here, again, go fully realistic (and the 17th/early 18th century Carribean is one of the few settings I could because of it´s diversity) or a low fantasy approach.

"In strange grammar this one writes" - Master Yoda

[Thorsten Frank]

I want to to a VDV battalion now….

"In strange grammar this one writes" - Master Yoda

[Thorsten Frank]

Thumps up!

"In strange grammar this one writes" - Master Yoda

[Thorsten Frank]

Viewed from the side of the looser you are all wrong! 😉
No, one of the things I learned through wargaming is to take a step back and view it from the outside. I grew up in an environment were I got told (through movies!) that German soldiers in WWII were complete morons, techhically inferior and they always seemed to be numerically superior. In school I got told they were the all evil. Then I learned that they actually got the opposing sides something to bother, they weren´t numerically superior and even had the technoligical edge in some areas. You know what that makes out of a young soul. Gladly my father, who was most of his life* and especially at this time a staunch nationalist, brought me down to earth (he was a Panzeraufklärer in WWII). Then I went to the military myself and got my own experiences – and was introduced to board games back then (it was there were I first encountered WH40k, Harpoon and some strategic board games).
But it was with this experiences that I started to view wars from a neutral point, even if Germany (or it´s predecessors) was part of it, and I started to respect the ivolved forces. Just as an example two decades ago I was playing a game in a neighbouring city which had an US garrison. We played an 1941 Eastern Front game** and the G.I. I should play with was disappointed because “they didn´t want to play the Soviets and I surley wanted to play the Wehrmacht” – that made me laugh.  I absolutely hadn´t any problems with playing the Red Army. Not at all! (and I gave this guy something to think about). Another good teacher were the FYI articles in the Strategy and Tactics magazine and James F. Dunnigans texts in general.
It´s mostly this why I mostly play Sci-Fi games – it´s history not yet written. Even opposing players have generally lesser problems if they play a side that´s not affiliated with a historic entity.***
My two cents to this topic.

*He radically changed to a rather left wing anarchism (after I “forgot accidentally” some “books” at home) in his last 15 years of life and accepted, at least most, of the dark points of our history.
** can´t remember the scenario and which rule set.
*** My current problem with WH40K (fandom): there are currently A LOT of players which only play The Empire, treat it like a role model for reality  and start crying if those pesky green skins blast their Ultramarines from the table – I had to see this in RL again on a small con in a neighbouring city… that was a very sad sight.

"In strange grammar this one writes" - Master Yoda

[Thorsten Frank]

Thaddeus Blanchette wrote:

The war started because the two wore the same gown to the coronation of the HRE.

Great! 😀
I love that.

"In strange grammar this one writes" - Master Yoda

[Thorsten Frank]

What´s really interesting is that both mentioned ImagiNations are ruled by women (well, not so unrealistic at the given times!)

"In strange grammar this one writes" - Master Yoda

[Thorsten Frank]

Oh, I loved the design of the Centurion vehicles since I´ve read “Damned if we do” but never got my hands on them or played the game.
Nice work!

"In strange grammar this one writes" - Master Yoda

[Thorsten Frank]

I am Martin. I´m a mercenary and fought in seven battles.
Next!

"In strange grammar this one writes" - Master Yoda

[Thorsten Frank]

@Rhoderic (and anyone else interested) if you need any explanations or further explanations on my links just ask.
Actually I´m looking for such things too but in a sci-fi environment for my Scavenger/Koronis setting and I always look for lost places pictures etc. Same goes for Harry Faversham´s picture/example, always interested in such things.

"In strange grammar this one writes" - Master Yoda

[Thorsten Frank]

Mike wrote:

28mm 28mm, or 32mm 28mm?

The Old Golden Hen searched it´s way through the nose reading this…..

"In strange grammar this one writes" - Master Yoda

[Thorsten Frank]

Interesting! Following!

"In strange grammar this one writes" - Master Yoda

[Thorsten Frank]

Yep, looks like a trench club. Is that an original or a replica?

"In strange grammar this one writes" - Master Yoda

[Thorsten Frank]

John D Salt wrote:

Poor feller might never even have heard of Wendy James and Transvision Vamp. All the best, John

[/quote]

That includes me too – I wasn´t aware this is so rich in lore (and a nice crazyness). That was a wild weekend!

"In strange grammar this one writes" - Master Yoda

[Thorsten Frank]

For me nothing too.

"In strange grammar this one writes" - Master Yoda

[Thorsten Frank]

Primarily sci fi because of flexibility in scenarios (ImagiNations and low/s&s fantasy as an alternative).
But DBA was my original love. So all sorts over the years but never WWI and only two short periods WWII.

"In strange grammar this one writes" - Master Yoda

[Thorsten Frank]

jeffers wrote:

I thought the £ sign would give it away… It probably depends where you are in the UK. According to one of the staff, they don’t order in they are just sent stuff so once it goes it goes.

Completely missed that one…. well, I´m much closer to the source but that doesn´t make it any better.

"In strange grammar this one writes" - Master Yoda

[Thorsten Frank]

Don´t see anything either.

"In strange grammar this one writes" - Master Yoda

[Thorsten Frank]

Ahm, Lidl Ger, UK or US??? Hell, I´m twice a week, at least, in a Lidl market and never tried that. :-O

"In strange grammar this one writes" - Master Yoda

[Thorsten Frank]

John D Salt wrote:

I reckon 2000AD has produced some superb series, and the album editions of them are one of the few products of British comics culture that are comparable to the enormus richness of Franco-Belgian bandes dessinées. Pretty much everyone must have heard of Judge Dredd and Johnny Alpha, but I would also strongly recommend, for those who have not yet met them, investing in the albums for Halo Jones, Skizz, DR & Quinch, and perhaps Nemesis the Warlock. How to make games out of them is not so obvious. All the best, John.

You would be surprised! Until today I never heard of Strontium Dog before – and only because of this brilliant fan video:

Heard of Nemesis the Warlock and Rogue Trooper through video games (I think Martech had the license back in the eighties). Same for Slaine, but the whole rest (except Dredd) is completely new for me.

"In strange grammar this one writes" - Master Yoda

[Thorsten Frank]

Mike Headden wrote:

Warlord Games have the licence for Strontium Dog (and presumably other 2000AD characters?) but their stuff is pricey (to one who buys mainly 3mm – 10mm stuff these days) but well sculpted. IIRC £225 gets you the full Strontium Dog experience – rules, figures and miscellaneous widgets.

Oh my, one get´s easily whole 6mm division-equivalents for this money….. :-O

"In strange grammar this one writes" - Master Yoda

[Thorsten Frank]

I already wrote this on FB but don´t get too much burden on yourself and your family. As much as I like to see that (or as mentioned by somebody else a Fant-Blast-Tactic … and as much as I aren´t able to attend it at this time – you and some other guys are working currently very hard that I´ve got to immigrate to the UK) and as much as I like rather “very small” events don´t do that alone. *
I would say try to get some people together that have an interest in that and try to build some kind of “organising group” first. I´ve got some feeling that there may be an interest in such a thing.

*remind to myself: make shorter, easier to read sentences without brackets.

"In strange grammar this one writes" - Master Yoda

[Thorsten Frank]

I love this!

"In strange grammar this one writes" - Master Yoda

[Thorsten Frank]

Maybe the most realistic game dealing with a post-apocalyptic themes. A devastated Germany would´ve been more realistic but Poland as setting had some benefits.
But our group quickly shifted to the Merc2000 setting. We were all great fans of those Wildgeese/Leopard/Commander/or whatever exploitation movies starring Lewis Collins. EDIT: or Fifty/Fifty from 1992

EDIT: The demise of GDW back then was terrible for me. I was a great fan of the Traveller:TNE line and I really loved the star viking/Reformation Coalition background.

"In strange grammar this one writes" - Master Yoda

[Thorsten Frank]

And finally some remains of a Roman Limes guard towers:
https://d2exd72xrrp1s7.cloudfront.net/www/000/1k3/7b/7btb3ln4au0g16ypwt8ggg1yx2to6331p-uhi4623991/0?width=768&height=576&crop=true

https://d2exd72xrrp1s7.cloudfront.net/www/000/1k3/5l/5lgca02hwzpk1sa8kj0fw3jdo2to6ahw5-uhi4624020/0?width=768&height=576&crop=true

"In strange grammar this one writes" - Master Yoda

[Author]

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