Stargrave Reinforcements.

In a break from the Ancients a quick dip into a new squad for Stargrave - These are great castings from Denizen Miniatures, one of the few 25mm Sci-fi Miniatures on the market. Stargrave has generated some fun games of late even if I do seem to lose everyone of them.... Perhaps these chaps will do a little better.

I went for a Stormtrooper type feel, but they will do for any generic type landing party, with breathing apparatus and carbines. 

They might get a run out in the weeks ahead when we look to get a club night up an running. Membership is a little light at the moment, lets hope as more people get doubled jabbed we will see club members return.

Next up the first of the Plains Wars finally clear the paint table.

Stargrave - Starship Troopers

Nothing beats face to face gaming and idle gaming chat, before you know it a new project is underway....

It's been quite a while since the Starship Troopers stuff has been on the table and with the launch of Stargrave a few weeks ago, an opportunity to bring them back to the table with a new set of rules and some fun encounters. We had some really good games over the years with the Atlantean's and the Ghost Archipelago rules so it should be quite easy to pick up these rules and create a number of rival ships crews. 

First up the crew of the Missile Ship - William E Barber.

Decommissioned after the first battle of Klendathu. Capt Leafy was wrongly accused of cowardice and now along with her crew is a gun for hire on the Terran Government's most wanted list. 

I was a little light on the ships crew so a swift order to Denizen and a quick paint job and the crew is up to a full compliment of 10 including Blotz the ships robot dog.

On first pass Stargrave looks to follow the style and formula of Frost Grave and Ghost Archipelago, easy to learn and rewarding if you get your tactics right...

The set up of scenario's will be familiar to those who have played the other versions, albeit with a couple of subtle changes, loot token have to be placed in the opponents half of the table, the wandering monsters are bolstered by pirate gangs who get more numerous if you don't get a move on.... 

Lot's to ponder as we prep for the first game.

In the opening encounter Capt Leafy runs up against a band of Skinnies in a trade gone bad. The Skinnies are one of the many nations or tribes which spread out into many worlds during the Age of Hegemony.

The setting a dusty mining planet inside the Arachnid Quarantine Zone, the Federation military vessels don't cross into the region which has created a haven for smugglers, Independent 'wildcat' colonies such as the Mormon extremists create a tense atmosphere of shoot first and ask questions later. 

Throw in the Bug activity which is increasing across the region and you have quite the mix.

Would you like to know more? ............

Starship Troopers - Desert Patrol.- "At close quarters"....

A little behind on posts over recent weeks, real life keeps getting in the way of game time.....

After several outings of the Martian Empire games, recent conversations have turned to more modern gaming several months ago we gave Chris Peers rules "At close quarters"... a run out they had a good feel to them, keeping figures on the table rather than seeing those freshly painted mini's back in the case after 5 mins, when they have taken 4 hours to paint.

We wanted to see if a well motivated insurgent force can take on a well armed regulars with armour support.

Time to dust off the Mobile Infantry for a stroll in the desert of some unnamed frontier planet....

Back in August last year I painted up some Denizen Miniatures K'hiff as wanted to create a new Race for the MI to take on rather than nasty bugs --- enter the Limmikin which I took from the Native American name for men who shifted into wolves, very apt given the K'hiff wolf like appearance.

The sceanario was a simple one, the MI have lost communication with the Oxygen Production Plant and a patrol of MI are sent to investigate, two 10 man squads and APC's.

 

The rules are based on troops being classified into 6 classes.

Elite, Professional, Fanatic, Regular, Militia, Rabble Each troop classifiaction has a rough organisation structure with the better quality units having less troops within each unit. e.g. Elite might be 4 SAS troopers, whilst a militia unit might be 25 figures.

In this encounter we classed the Limmikin as Professional in 4 man teams plus a single unit as a sniper, whilst the MI were Regulars, fearing an ambush the MI debus fearing a trap.

Players take it in turns moving one unit at a time, then shooting is resolved for all. But the professional class always shoot before the regulars. The nice thing about the rules is that you can place the figures on the table but they can't be seen if you are stationary or moving in sneak mode - very handy if you are the ambusher.... 

I opened up looking to pin the column in the gorge, pinning a number of the MI including the squad leader, who was unable to motivate his section to use aimed fire, in hindsight the insurgents should have had more RPG's.....

Firing is then either aimed or unaimed. Only aimed fire can inflict casualties, unaimed fire will supress an enemy forcing it to pass several dice before it can move forwards or fire.

Most weapons fire in two different modes Single shot or Auto this dectates the range and number of dice rolled. Firing is carried out using a D20 dice with modifers for your class, militia for example suffer a minus penalty.

A modified score of 18+ means the target is killed. A roll of 15-17 means the target is pinned.

Unfortunately the heavy cannon's in the APC's don't have to worry about aiming and several rounds into the sniper position silenced him.

 

Everytime your unit suffers a kill you have to pass a morale test, 2 fails and your whole unit is pinned, causing you to seek deeper cover whilst you try to recover each fighter.

Bad luck on the insurgents side, having missed with the RPG, but they did killed several of the MI foolish to be caught in the open before they were forced back as the APC's were brought to bear....

The rules had the right feel the initial ambush left the heavily armed regulars pretty worried for several turns.

Starship Troopers alternative races

The problem with the demise of the Starship Troopers Miniatures Game and RPG Variant was that the universe never expanded, plans were made for a couple of additional races beyond that of the skinnies, but none made it to production, you can find a scattering of articles on the web if you look hard enough.

As part of the drive to rid myself of lead mountain, Denizen's K'hiff made it to the paint table, I purchased these to make the postage up on an order several months back, well thats what I tell myself :-)

Denizen are one of the few companies still manufacturing true 25mm sci-fi figures, the K'hiff were badged up as religious fanatics engaged in a holy war or Jihad to conquer or convert the galaxy, they  looked like robed greyhounds/wolves/crocodiles  and who were armed with advanced weaponry.

My plan was to make them out to be an indigenous race living in the mountain regions of several planets within the Arachnid quarantine zone, avoiding the bugs who are unable to burrow in the rock formations, however with the arrival of the federation they now face an enemy on two fronts and are forced into the light to protect their species.

I went for a style akin to the Tusken raiders in Star Wars

I decided to rebrand the K'hiff in SST games as Limmikin which I took from the Native American name for men who shifted into wolves, very apt given the K'hiff wolf like appearance.

Not sure how much game time they will have, but I see them as useful in raiding parties on the early colonies or scouts for the Mobile Infantry. Worst case they are simply more food for the bugs....

Denizen Miniatures 25mm Sci-fi

The hunt for suitable mini's for Starship Troopers goes on, having opted for 1st Corp proxies for the mobile Infantry only then did I realise how few true 25mm Sci-fi figures are on the market.
I picked these up from Denizen Miniatures They are one of the few companies still making true 25mm figures considering how long they have been around they are great figures nicely proportioned and well detailed.

I figured they will be suitable for off duty Mobile Infantry, the centre two are intended to be pilots from the fleet and the final figures are from the outer world colonies.

L-R 2 Mobile Infantry in Fatigues, 2 Fleet Pilots, 2 Outer World Colonists

 

A useful comparison between 1st Corp (28mm) vs Denizen (25mm) once based you can hardly tell the difference.