Sci Fi Reading 1

Last week I took some time out to re-read Future History by Jerry Pournelle, a combined volume of two stories The Mercenary and West of Honor, linked through the same protagonist, John Christian Falkenberg. Both stories revolve around mercenaries in a future where colonised worlds are policed by the Co-Dominion, in many ways similar to the Alliance and "Earth that was" from the Firefly 'Verse.

It's always easy to slip into Future History's pages, as it reads like sipping brandy and swapping late night tales with an old friend. Every time I read it, my minds eye projects the ex-Citadel Traveller Miniatures Mid-Tech troopers (now RAFM's Infantry Pack No.2) into the role of Falkenberg's Legionnaires.

I'm determined at some stage this year to replay the action at Fort Beersheba as a solo mini-campaign. In fact as a campaign setting, one of the great things about the book is that it includes two maps! There's a world map that's pure Traveller! All it needs are the polygons overlaid. Then we are given a more detailed sketch map of the Arrarat region where the majority of the action takes place. This makes the whole thing intensely 'do-able' as a small but fun wargame side-project.

This weekend I've started Ghosts of Onyx, a HALO universe novel by Eric Nylund. Well, I couldn't resist the cover! This is apparently the fourth novel in the series, but I've just dropped in here and don't think I've missed anything by not reading the previous volumes.

The the story begins in the year 2545 with a company of SPARTAN-IIIs being dropped from orbit in an assault on a Covenant fleet refueling depot. Like it so far...

I must admit that I cringed inwardly but then actually thought it was a cool homage that the Spartan 'Company' is 300 strong - '300 Spartans' geddit! Though given the prowess of a single Spartan on the XBOX, I think a company of even just 6 might be a tad excessive!

The Master Chef created a small HALO inspired Spartan force for FWC and they wiped the opposition from the table in double-quick time. More on this in a later blog entry.

If you want SPARTANS in 15mm, look no further than GZG's New Israeli Armoured Infantry in Hardsuits, SG15-Z1. The New Israelis pictured below are an excellent example taken from Chez Ebbles' blog which includes some great painting tips, if you want to recreate this look yourself. Incidentally, I must take a serious look at Chez's 'Guncrawl' space corridor rampage game.

Chez Ebbles SPARTANS.
Great paint job!

I'm currently repainting my own HALO dedicated force of '30 SPARTANS' (there's a credit crunch after all!) to look closer to what Chez has achieved with his figures. I wouldn't mind at all if Jon at GZG expanded this line with more combat, support and command types. Certainly one of the best and most versatile sets of miniatures in his 15mm Stargrunt range.

Cheers
Mark