Playing catch-up

It's been a while since I last talked about what I've been doing (terrain-wise) over on my YouTube channel - so I thought now might be a good time for a quick recap!

OK then, earlier in the year I announced another 'community challenge' - i.e. just a fun little project where I put together a bunch of random textures, and then 'challenged' everyone to make something with them (you can see the blog post I made about it HERE).

Anyway, I was very pleased to have nearly thirty people take part... and you can see all of their entries in the following video:

So, I want to say thanks (again) to everyone that took part - it was really great to see how inventive/creative everyone was!

Anyway,  after the 'challenge' I've also released another three videos - the first being a sci-fi shuttle (which I'm quite proud of)...

 ...the next was a bunch of pedestals (to add to 'the dungeon')...

 ...and the most recent was a 'fun' idea for a trap...

 ...which also had a little encounter to go along with it :)

Anyway, if I go back to the 'shuttle' episode - in that video I asked if folks would like to see if I could make similar vehicles using the same chassis/fuselage/hull. And, seeing as how a lot of folks said yes, that has inspired the next video - in which, I'll be showing how to make a 6-wheeled truck.

Here's a picture of an early prototype:

And here's how it ended up looking (note the smaller one is printed at 75% - just to illustrate that you can easily change the size of most of this stuff within your pdf reader):

So, that's the video I'm working on at the moment, and with any luck I'll get that out later this week!

* * *

In other news, I seem to have been bitten by the World War II bug again... and, since I have a couple of Wargames Atlantic sprues lying around, I thought I would assemble a little (early war) British force:

And, I'm thinking that I could use the One Page Rules 'firefight' game (using the 'human defence force' list and a bit of common sense) to play a few skirmish games with them.

Obviously, that then leads me down the rabbit hole of WW2 terrain... and while I'm not fully committed to it yet... the ideas have begun:

 

(though things like 'hedgerows' and 'emplacements' will likely have a wider use than just WW2 gaming).

Anyway, I think that covers most of what I've been up to (aside from painting several more undead models to test out my new paint set)... though I have also given my hobby area a bit of a tidy/makeover - to accommodate this new(ish) Vallejo range of paint (that I recently bought - due to having problems with some of the Army Painter 'fanatic' range):

 

So yeah... that's it for this post. As I say, the next video should follow along in a day or two (or three)... so hopefully you'll tune in for that!

Gaming in the 40K universe: Game 2 – Part 1 (going rogue).

In my last couple of posts I’ve been talking about gaming in my own little home-brewed corner of the 40K universe… first I covered the setting, and then I recounted a co-op game of StarQuest with a friend from Discord.

Next I want to talk about another game I played/ran solo – this time using my 2D dungeon tiles and the ‘random dungeon cards’ I was experimenting with a while back (you can read more about those HERE).

However, before I get to that, I just want to share a picture of the little warband I’ve created for this game, and some extra terrain pieces I’ve made (which I felt were needed to add more of a sci-fi vibe to the dungeon tiles – though I obviously need to do more).

Now, all of these models were printed on my brother’s ‘Bambu A1 mini’ 3D printer – and for a cheap FDM printer (with a 0.2mm nozzle) it does a pretty good job. It really does seem that FDM printers have come a long way in the past couple of years… and if you’d like a follow up article where I discuss all the (free) model parts I’ve used for these (as most are kitbashed in some way), then let me know, and I’ll do just that.

Anyway, for the game itself I used the StarQuest rules again (by one page rules) – but this time I created a single hero (who came out being exactly 100 points), and gave him a small retinue worth the same amount of points from the ‘firefight’ army builder (I judged that these units couldn’t perform any of the specific hero actions in StarQuest – but would count as having a 6+ for any tests that relied on the extra skills a hero has).

Thus we have Jops Van Jools (bonus points if you get the reference) – a young upstart from the Van Jools Rogue Trader dynasty. Being way down the line of succession for the Warrant of Trade, Jops is usually tasked with duties of little import and/or perfunctory roles as is fitting for one of his station.

But enough of that for now… so, the idea for this game was to set up a random ‘dungeon’ of sorts – however, when I’ve done this in the past, I’ve usually generated the dungeon on the fly (i.e. placed a new tile as each room or passage came into line of sight), but this time I thought I’d use my (prototype) random dungeon cards to generate the ‘dungeon’ ahead of time… and maybe treat this as a preliminary (auspex?) scan of the area.

And here’s how it ended up looking (note that I used some common sense to modify the results to fit my small board – so if a card revealed a passage that was 2 tiles long and ended in a t-junction… but I only had space for it to be one tile long with a single right turn – I just did that instead):

 

I’ve also not used any separate tables for this one – and I removed all the blank tokens from the mix. This way, if a card said ‘draw a token’ I was almost guaranteed to get something of interest. Here’s what I went with:

S token = place some terrain to represent an area that can be Searched.

T token = that room/passage tile counts as dangerous Terrain.

M token = add a Monster ‘blip’ in the middle of the tile.

R token = ignore this Result.

Similarly, if I drew a ‘monster room’ card for a particular room – that room got a monster ‘blip’ token, and if I drew a ‘special room’ card – that room also got some terrain to function as a search token. Furthermore, if a card said to roll on the room feature table – I just added a bit of terrain (though I also added some terrain to the quest room, as I think it deserves it).

As for the monsters I’d be using – I used the same army list from the last game (i.e. one that features all the Nurgle themed models I have painted thus far).

 

And since my warband is 200 points in total (i.e. 100 points for my hero, and 100 points in ‘followers’), when playing StarQuest on ‘difficulty 1’ – that meant that the first ‘wave’ of monsters that appeared in the ‘dungeon’ would be worth a total of roughly 100 points (i.e. half the points value of my guys) – and so a random ‘wave’ of opponents was created in the app… which gave me these:

However, I still want there to be some mystery to the game (i.e. I don’t want to know exactly where all the enemies are going to be) – so I actually placed twice as many blip tokens on the board… with the idea being that if I got a result of one, two, or three when it was flipped over – that would correspond to the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd, enemy on the list… and if I got a four, five, or six – that would indicate a false reading from the scanner (i.e. no enemies would be placed).

 

As such, the blips (marked one to six) were shuffled – with one being placed (face down) in each of the ‘monster rooms’, one being placed on the tile that yielded an ‘M’ token, and the last two were placed in random dead ends (these dead ends would also function as ‘spawn points’ for additional enemies placed later in the game).

 

Speaking of which, I didn’t want to roll for additional ‘waves’ in the usual way (which involves keeping track of ‘enemy alertness’ – instead I simply rolled a d6 at the end of each turn. If that resulted in a six – I just put another monster blip at the end of a random ‘dead end passage’ (from any blips that had already been removed from play).

And the last thing I’ve introduced is something from Five Leagues/Parsecs… that being that each room has been numbered (in this case one to six) and I’ve rolled a d6 for each blip – with the result being the room that it is moving towards…

 

...as you can see in the image above (i.e. the blip in room two is going to be headed toward room five on its turn).

 

Now I know I’ve probably made all of this sound rather complicated with my bad explanation of things – but it actually worked rather well in practice :)

Anyway, rather than making this blog post any longer, I think I’ll recap the game itself in a separate article in a day or two. So, here’s hoping this has been a vaguely interesting read, and I’ll hopefully catch you again in the next one.

Gaming in the 40k universe (not necessarily using 40K rules)

 

For a while now I’ve been thinking about creating my own little (non-canon / fan-fiction) 'world' based in the 40k universe (or something vaguely 40k-ish) – just so that I can set some of my games there (be it an occasional RPG session, a skirmish game with a friend, solo-gaming, and so on).

This is mainly so that a bit of an ongoing story can be achieved (as I do like things to have some kind of narrative), and also to encourage myself to paint some of my sci-fi mini’s, and get some use out of all the sci-fi terrain that I’ve made (as I’ve only got it to the table once or twice).

Now I don’t foresee it being anything special, nor particularly original – just something to draw upon for my own personal games.

So, what better place to start than a hive city – where an old section of the (under)hive has been uncovered/rediscovered… and is infested with cultists (and/or worse). This could lead to some fun sci-fi dungeon crawling shenanigans – as various factions vie for control of the area, and/or undertake expeditions to seek out ancient archeotech or similar.

And since I currently live (in the real world) in the area where the old kingdom of Mercia once was – I think that’s what I’m going to call this ‘fantasy’ world – or more correctly, the gas giant about which the (habitable) moons orbit. A quick online search actually reveals that Games Workshop do mention a planet called Mercia in their fiction once – but nothing is said about it other than a Rogue Trader caught some ‘blight’ there – which works well for me… since I’ve got a bunch of Nurgle models painted up for the ‘bad’ guys :)

As such, the current plan is to go with something like this:

PLANET: Mercia (gas giant)

LARGE MOON: Mercia Magna (hive world) 

SMALL MOON: Mercia Parvum (mining penal facility) 

And most of the action will take place on Mercia Magna...

MERCIA MAGNA

Capital/Largest Hive City: Magna Prime

Planetary Governor: Lord Ulf Inneza

Station in geosynchronous orbit: Magna Caelum

Enforcers: Magna Prefects

...beginning in Magna Prime (i.e. that’ll be the site of the ‘new’ discovery)

(pictured here are a bunch of ‘Magna Prefects’ that I kit-bashed last year)

Now, I have played a couple of games already (an online co-op game in tabletop simulator using the StarQuest rules, and a solo game where I experimented with my random dungeon tiles/cards again) – but rather than tagging the results of those on to the end of this post, I’ll see if I can write them up separately, and have each game in it’s own post.

So, that’s the plan… and in the meantime, I’m also going to be working on some new sci-fi stuff for the YouTube channel – starting with this little fellow...

...so there's that to look forward to as well :) (well, at least, I'm looking forward to it!)

More Sci-fi Terrain

October has been a bit of a sci-fi month for me - both in regard to the miniatures I've been painting, and the terrain that I've been making... and in this post I'm going to focus on the terrain (I'll talk more about the mini's tomorrow).

Anyway, I've been meaning to make some 'pipes' for a while now - you know, big industrial looking pipelines that can be scattered around the table to create some line-of-sight blocking terrain - and also to make things look a bit more... well... industrial :)

 

- an early prototype -

So, as you can see in the above picture, I set to work on making these with empty toilet roll tubes (as I do try to keep my crafting materials as simple as possible)... and I had to watch a couple of 'plumbing' style videos to figure out how to get the T junctions to work :)

I'd also realised that the table tennis balls that I got for the 'dungeon box' build were the perfect size to fit into the end of those toilet roll tubes...

...so I thought that needed to be taken advantage of as well :)

And, after a lot of trial and error, here's what I came up with:

 (you can find the accompanying pdf file over on DriveThruRPG)

Anyway, despite being a 15 minute long video (I don't like making overly long tutorial videos - as I think too much information can quickly get a bit overwhelming), I still had more ideas that I wanted to try out - like these bases to rest larger pipes on top of... and the steps that go over the top:

And, as you might have guessed, that led to a second video...

 ...plus another pdf file (as usual, they are both pay-what-you-want downloads ;) ).

And, as I say in the video, if you combine both of these with some of the other sci-fi stuff that I have available, you/we should be able to make some pretty interesting layouts... something like this perhaps...

...which should work well enough for several different games and settings :)

So yeah, that's what I've been up to terrain-wise this month... and it also marks 99 video tutorials over on the channel (there's actually closer to 200 videos when you include the tips, build along projects, and so on - but only 99 'proper' episodes). And that makes me think I should maybe do something special for the 100th episode (or a follow up video after it)... so I need to get my thinking cap on I suppose :D

MINIATURES REVIEW – Bulldogs (Wargames Atlantic)

As some of you will be aware, I will usually include ‘action shots’ at the end of most of my videos – and in those final images I’ll sometimes include a few miniatures.

Now, these are usually miniatures that I’ve bought and painted myself (though I do always check with the manufacturer to make sure that they are OK with me doing this) – but in the LATEST EPISODE I’ve actually included a few ‘review’ miniatures that WargamesAtlantic have sent to me.

(everything that arrived in the mail)

Anyway, as you can see in the above pic, they’ve actually sent me three different boxes to take a look at – but in this article I’ll be concentrating on the Bulldogs from their Death Fields range (as those are the only ones I’ve got painted yet).

Now, I will say that, when I first saw previews of these, I knew that I’d probably be picking them up at some point – as I already have a few of their other miniatures (see the ‘Cannon Fodder’ miniatures at the end of THIS video), and these ‘Bulldogs’ looked like a pretty versatile set (especially when you consider the kit-bashing possibilities with some of the other Wargames Atlantic stuff). So, as you can probably guess, I was particularly pleased to receive these. 

(the box contains 4 identical sprues – each containing 6 miniatures)

 

Now, as you can see, you get a ton of head options on each sprue (as is common with the ‘Death Fields’ range), and I expect that a lot of folks will be using the pith helmets to create Praetorian-style Imperial Guard units (as the original GW models are pretty expensive to get a hold of nowadays).

(pith helmet with and without gas mask / WW1 style cap / Brodie helmet with and without gas mask)

However, I quickly noticed that if I instead used the beret wearing heads, they’d have a similar vibe to some of the early Stormtrooper models that GamesWorkshop released – and that’s a look that I rather like (as it will work quite well for the OnePageRules ‘firefight’ army that I’m putting together).

(models assembled with the beret heads)

Anyway, as far as the assembly goes, they did require a bit of mould line removal, and a tiny bit of greenstuff work on the back of the arms and around the neck (i.e. the kind of thing I’ve come to expect with most multi-part kits) – but, as you can see in the above picture, the detail on these guys is pretty good.

Then, when it came to painting, I just used my usual technique of priming in grey and then:

• Paint in all the base colours.
• Apply washes (different washes over the different colours).
• Highlight (and tidy up any ‘tidemarks’) with the same base colours.
• Add a final highlight here and there (mostly just on the face, clothes, and armour).
  

(the finished models next to some of the ‘cannon fodder’ miniatures)

And I think they’ve turned out quite nice. I mean, I’m not an award winning painter or anything like that – but I do like to put nice looking models on the table… and I do think that these are nice looking models (i.e. there’s plenty of depth in the recesses of the models for washes to do their job).

So, I suppose the only question that remains is – would I buy them?

Well, as I’ve already said, I was thinking of getting some of these anyway – and now that I’ve seen them in the flesh, that hasn’t changed. In all truth, I think they actually look a bit better in person than they do in some of the pictures that I’ve seen online.

However, the main complaint that I can see people having with these is that they don’t come with any bases. For me though, that’s a bit of a non issue – as I always use (2mm thick) mdf bases for all of my miniatures (to maintain a consistent look). But I can see how that might be annoying if you were hoping to get everything you need in one box.

Be that as it may, if you’re looking to add some ‘space Brits’ to your collection (possibly even steampunk looking guys if you use some of the other heads), then I don’t think that you can go wrong with these.

In the UK they’re priced at £25, and since there’s 24 models per box, that’s a tiny bit more than £1 a miniature – and you really can’t grumble about that!

Sci-Fi Generators (print & paste terrain)

It's been a while since I've worked on any sci-fi stuff - but since I've been checking out some of the OnePageRules skirmish games recently, I seem to have been bitten by the sci-fi bug :)

Anyway, if you've been following along via social media, you will have likely seen the development of these ...from some of the initial concepts/prototypes:

...through to the final design:

And I have to say that I'm pretty happy with how it's turned out :)

Anyway, as usual you can grab the (pay-what-you-want) pdf file HERE, and the video showing how to put it together is posted below:

Hope you like it!

Print & Paste Consoles & Terminals

If you've been following me via the various social media pages, then you'll have seen that I've been working on some more terrain for the (print & paste) sci-fi tiles.

Well, as usual, these took a lot longer to draw than I originally anticipated (due to all the little details), but I've finally got them finished ...and released the next video:

And, as you can see, in this one I've had a go at making a few consoles/terminals (basically generic technical gubbins), and I'm quite happy with how they've turned out :)

Anyway, if you want to have a go at making a few yourself, you can find the pdf HERE (it's a pay-what-you-want download - so grab it for free, or pay as much as you like), and the instructions can be found in the above video.

So, here's hoping that a few of you can put them to good use!

Sci-Fi Starter Kit (pre-printed sheets from SquareHex)

I'm very pleased to say that I've been working with Peter Regan (over at SquareHex) so that you can now purchase professionally printed versions of the sci-fi textures!

As I say in the video, each set contains 24 sheets (12 of each page), and contains all the textures to make the tiles themselves...

...as well as a few pieces of scatter terrain to act as barricades, objective markers, or whatever else you can think of ;)

So, if you've been thinking of making a few of the sci-fi tiles, but don't have a printer (or don't want the hassle of printing them yourself), then hopefully these will help :)

You can pick them up for just £4 (+P&P) from the SquareHex website HERE.

(note that you can also get some of the dungeon starter kit HERE and a whole bunch of accessory pieces HERE).

 -an example layout-

Print & Paste Stasis Chambers

This one's taken a while to get finished, as I've been pretty ill this month (and ended up having to stay in hospital for a while) - so I'm a bit behind with everything.

But enough of that nonsense - at the start of August I started making a few prototypes for some kind of stasis chamber or hypersleep/cryo pod (i.e. the kind of thing where astronauts are put into suspended animation for a long journey through space)...

-from prototype to final design-

...and I've recently released the finished pdf HERE, and uploaded the instructions video to YouTube (see below).

And, just like all of the other products in the Print & Paste range, it's a 'pay-what-you-want' download over on DriveThruRPG - so pick it up for free* or pay as much/little as you like!

Anyway, here's hoping you like them!

*though any donations, no matter how small, really do help :)

Print & Paste Sci-Fi Terrain : Barrels, Crates & Canisters

I've just released another set of 'Print & Paste' textures ...and this time it's for a few pieces of scatter terrain for the new sci-fi tiles.

As you can see, they'll be useful for creating barricades, objective markers, area terrain, and so on.

And, as always, you can find the pdf file HERE (it's a pay-what-you-want download over on DriveThruRPG), and it's accompanied by the following instructions video:

Anyway, here's hoping you'll be able to put them to use!

Print & Paste sci-fi tiles

Back when I first started the youtube channel, I previewed a couple of sci-fi prototypes that I hoped to get around to after I'd got a nice selection of 'dungeon' themed stuff completed.

However, they kept getting pushed back as I started working on more and more fantasy terrain ...but (as you can tell by the title of this post) I've finally got around to making a starter set!

That being said, I've only completed the basics at the moment - but just like the dungeon tiles, I hope to make all manner of bits and pieces to go along with them. So (as I say in the video) this is just the beginning!

Anyway, you can grab the pdf file HERE ...and if you have a go at making any yourself, I'd love to hear how you get on :)

Colony 19 : The Facility

I'm pleased to announce the release of the latest set of tiles for the Colony 19 range.

Colony 19 : The Facility ($3.99)

This tile-set introduces a new style of flooring to the range (meaning it can be used as a stand along product -OR- in conjunction with the other C19 tiles), and includes 12 pages of printable rooms, passages, and objects for use in most sci-fi/near-future games.

In addition, the (free) 'Colony 19 : Doors' booklet has also been updated, and now includes door counters that can be used with this new style of flooring.

Note that the Colony 19 product range is scaled at 1" per grid square (when printed out), and are intended for use with 28mm miniatures.

More Tiles For Colony 19

A little earlier in the year I released the (free) Room 2 expansion tile for the Colony 19 range, and also hinted at the possability of designing a new set of tiles that would be done in a similar style (so as to offer some variety to the steel floor look of the existing tiles).

Well, that possibility should be turning into a reality sometime this month, and so I thought I would share a quick mock-up picture showing how some of the tiles look when pieced together:

However, to add a bit of extra detail to the (otherwise bland) flooring, I've been adding a few C19 logos here and there - but I was wondering if folks would prefer these left off the final version of the tiles? and stick to a more obvious square grid pattern?

I'm also using the working title of 'The Facility' for this set ...though if anyone has a better idea, then let me know ...and if I use it (assuming you're OK with me using it) I'll send you a free pdf copy of all the C19 tiles to date (as a little thank you from myself).

Colony 19 : room 2 (FREE tile)

As mentioned in a previous post, I've decided to make the following map-tile available as a free expansion to the Colony 19 range.

Get it HERE for free

And if you'd like to see a whole set done in a similar style (which I'm sure will happen at some point in the future, but if you'd rather see it sooner that later) then just let me know!

New Colony 19 Freebie?

Since my main computer is dying a slow an agonising death, I've been digging around on my hard drive this past week (in-between writing some new Age of Shadow material), and been rediscovering a few little projects that I've started work on ...but not got round to finishing yet.

One such project was a new style of Colony 19 tiles ...a prototype of which can be seen below:

However, I was thinking that, since this room could quite easily be used in conjunction with the existing tiles as a basic med-lab (or similar), it might be a nice idea to make it available as a free download (i.e. similar to THIS one).

So what do you think? Would you rather I wait until I have a whole set completed in this style? (as there is a chance that the final style may end up being slightly different to this prototype), or would you just like to get your hands on this room as is stands?

(also, if a new set of Colony 19 tiles is something you'd like to see added to the top of my current 'to do' list ...then feel free to let me know, and I'll see what I can do :) ).

Zone 10: Processing Plant (10mm terrain)

Yesterday saw the release of the first expansion set for the Zone 10 line...

...and as you can see, in the end I've decided that the best option is to release additional buildings as separate products - so that each one can be released as soon as it is finished (rather than supplying them in sets of 3 or 4 different structures ...which will obviously take more time).

As such, this first expansion (which is available for just $1) features a large, vaguely pyramidal, structure that can be used on its own (to represent anything from an atmosphere purifier to a reactor housing), or used in conjunction with other building from the Zone 10 range to form part of a much larger complex.

And while I'm on the subject of other buildings in the Zone 10 range ...for the remainder of the month you can also get your hands on the Zone 10 Basic Set for half of its original price (that's just $2.50).

Zone 10 progress report (p2)

Here's a quick look at the progress on the next zone10 building:

So that's the first building pretty much done now (apart from a few minor tweaks and getting the assembly instructions sorted out).

But I was wondering if folks would prefer it if I were to release additional structures like this on their own (for something like $1), or if you'd rather have several new buildings released together in one new set?

My original plan was to release 3 or 4 new buildings as an expansion set (for something like $3) ...but now I'm leaning more towards releasing them individually.

The upside of releasing them on their own is that folks can just pick up the particular structures that they like, and also that fact that they'll be able to get their hands on them sooner (i.e. I could release a building as soon as it is completed - rather than having to wait for several new buildings to be finished, and then released all together as a new expansion set).

Anyone (who is interested in these 10mm terrain pieces) have a preference?

Zone 10 progress report (p1)

I thought I post a quick picture of today's progress on the next zone10 building...

...and as you can see, the top half of the main structure is pretty much finished (also note that the small trapezoidal shapes extending out from the bottom of the building are the same size/shape as the existing tunnels/passages).

Hopefully, I'll get a little more done tomorrow :)

Colony 19 Doors (update)

If you've seen my earlier post today, you'll have noticed that I've been working on some doorway counters for use with the Colony 19 range of sci-fi/near-future tiles.

Well, rather than creating a whole new product entry for these, I've decided to add them to the existing 'doors' download (so that all the doorway related counters and assemblies are located in the same place).

I'd also like to thank those folks who been requesting these additions, as it's something I've been meaning to do for a while now, but I guess I just needed a little push to actually sit down and get them finished.

Anyway, I hope they prove to be useful additions to the line :)

Colony 19 Doorways

When creating the Colony 19 (sci-fi/near-future) floor tiles, they were designed so that when you create an encounter map with the tiles, you then have to place a fold-up door assembly in the gaps between any of the rooms/passage that you want to connect together.

For example, if you set up a couple of the tiles to look something like this:

...you then need to place a door assembly between any connecting rooms/passages like this:

This has the benefit of having the doors being placed in an area that does not interfere with the placement of miniatures, while also allowing you to only place doorways in the specific areas that you require them (though you do have to ignore this imaginary gap between rooms/passages when determining movement and range - as the tiles are a little abstract in this way).

However, since the tiles were released, I've had a couple of comments/requests with regard to making open versions of the doors, or perhaps separate (2D) doorway tiles, etc.

So what I have come up with is a set of (2D) overlay tiles that can be used to depict closed doors, open doors*, and also glass panes, that look something like this:

All of these work in exactly the same fashion as the existing (3D) door assemblies (i.e. just place them in the gap between rooms/passages to make doorways into those rooms/passages that require them), and should be available as a free download as soon as I manage to put the pdf together.

So if we take the same example layout from above, and add a few of these overlays, it should look something like this:

Hopefully this makes all of the tile-sets a little more user friendly, and also offers an alternate way of connecting the tiles together.

(* Note that these can also be used in conjunction with the 3D doorways if you wish ...simply use one of these when the door is open, and place a 3D door assembly on top of it when it is closed.)