The Christmas War - Laurentian Defense Forces

I envision the Laurentians to be a fairly high-tech army.  Technology and automation play a pretty significant role in their background, and I wanted to reflect this on the battlefield.  One army stood apart from the others on my display shelf - Rebel Minis Droptroopers with CAT 'bots as support weapons.

I never did get around to finding vehicles for this force.  But I have plenty of infantry and CATs to portray the defenders.

Laurentian Border Outpost

The only thing missing was some elite troopers to use in the second scenario.  I thought about just painting more Drop Troopers in a different color (Spartan red or blue?), but this army needs a bit more diversity.  And I like power armor.  So I tried my "300 Second Spartan" scheme on a pack of the new-sculpt Ground Zero Games NAC Powered Armor with Hand Weapons.

Exactly what I wanted!  These sculpts works surprisingly well with the Halo-inspired Rebel Drop Troopers. And the Y-rack mini launchers are similar to the rockets found on the Rebel CATs.  The new NAC power armor are actually fairly small compared to most infantry out there - especially small compared to similar power armor from Khurasan or Kremlin.  But the Rebel Droptroopers are also a bit on the small size, so they work extremely well together.

I just need to finish a few terrain pieces for Scenarios 1 and 2 and this force is ready for The Christmas War.  And since I'm going to use FUBAR to play the first couple scenarios, here are my unit stats for the Laurentian Defense Forces:

Cheers,

Chris

Christmas War - The Invasion of Laurentia

Here's the background I've written for my personal version of The Christmas War.  All campaign participants are welcome to steal any piece of this for your own games, or use the whole thing if you like!  

Avalonia was an early Earth colony, found in 2112 AD.  Two separate colonies were establisehd on Avalonia: Cimmeria in the south and Laurentia in the north.  Cimmeria became the most populous of the two colony-states: about seven million colonists within the first few generations.  Laurentia was less than half of that size, but its settlers brought significant intellectual and technological advantages compared to the Cimmerians.  Laurentia carefully established their early settlements where they could best utilize their own resources.  Cimmeria simply tried to shelter its people as best it could, relying on Laurentia for assistance.

Tensions between the Laurentia and Cimmeria were inevitable.  Things took a turn for the worse when Cimmerian territory experienced a significant temperature increase.  Their soil had already been badly damaged by poor agricultural conservation practices, but the climate change significantly degraded their ability to grow crops and raise livestock.  Cimmeria’s food production now consisted mostly of rice products and a poor-tasting fish that seemed to be a close relative of Earth’s sardine.  It had effectively become a poverty-stricken nation, and its people were suffering greatly.

Laurentia, comparatively, had become a paradise.  They had adapted numerous grasses, vegetables, and grains to Avalonia’s red soil, and the climate was favorable for all kinds of livestock.  They also discovered enough petroleums, natural gasses, metals, and minerals to last for many future generations.  Laurentia’s communities developed rapidly, and their level of industrial and agricultural automation granted its people more than enough time for recreation and higher education.

Laurentia eventually ceased exports.  They felt they had provided Cimmeria every opportunity to adapt into a self-sufficient society, which Cimmeria squandered in favor of more “handouts.”  Laurentia relocated the majority of their military installations to the border with Cimmeria.  Cimmeria, using the only resources they had available (people and industry), had significantly increased the size of their military over the past generation.

On the eve of their hundredth Christmas, Laurentia’s administration invited Cimmeria’s leaders to a summit.  They were prepared to offer them one last chance to send their agricultural leaders into Laurentia for training.  While Laurentia’s administration was giving the Cimmerian delgation a tour of their government facilities, the Cimmerians noticed how empty the offices and hallways seemed.  A Laurentian aide made the mistake of saying that not only had most government employees taken vacation to see their families, but most of their military had done the same.  This was what the Cimmerians were waiting to hear.  One of the Cimmerians reached into his pocket and clicked his pen three times.  The microtransmitter inside the pen sent the signal to their military forces - launch the attack!

Coming soon: the Defenders of Laurentia


Cheers,
Chris

The Christmas War: A 15mm Sci-Fi Campaign

The Christmas War  

Dropship editor Eli's wrote this 'Tis The Season post over at I See Lead People, and it inspired me to write a Christmas-themed campaign.  This is a generic outline that can be played with any forces or rulesets you have available.  In terms of army sizes, Scenarios One and Two should be whatever you consider a "typical" game force.  It should be played with your battle rules of choice: Gruntz, Tomorrow's War, 5150: Star Army, FUBAR, USE ME, etc.  Scenario Three changes it up by running just a handful of models on each side - something like Blasters & Bulkheads, In The Emperor's Name, Flying Lead, etc.  Scenario Four is a no-holds-barred slugfest - again, choose any battle rules you like.

BACKGROUND. They waited patiently, biding their time, observing all of their enemy's deployment patterns.  It seemed so obvious when that weakness was found.  Most of the enemy's troops take their leave and visit their families at Christmas.  This laughable ancient Earth tradition will be their undoing - it will be days before they can mount a counter-offensive.  It is time to strike!

SETTING.  Future Earth nations or early space colonies.  A distant world with several independent colony-states would be ideal - I personally game science fiction to avoid using real-world nations and armies.

FORCES.  Two distinct factions.  The defenders are badly undermanned at the start of hostilities, while the attacker is ready for a prolonged campaign.  The defender will occasionally be able to muster a dropship of special operations troops in power armor, but their primary forces won't be fully available until the late stages of the campaign.

SCENARIO ONE: Breakthrough.  The aggressors' campaign begins by punching through a border outpost.  Defenders are deployed in defensive positions, roughly halfway between table edges.  If the defenders can hold out for five rounds, they gain a Quick Response Force (elite unit with transport) which can be deployed any time during Scenario Two.  If the aggressors can get their units off the table edge opposite their deployment zone before the fifth round, they automatically gain first-turn initiative in Scenario Two.

SCENARIO TWO: Consolidation.  The aggressors must seize a key military command center, power plant, or transportation hub to maintain their assault.  The defenders are desperately holding on to every last bit of ground they can, while the High Command attempts to muster their badly fragmented army into a cohesive fighting force.  The aggressors will take no more than 25% casualties before they fall back and regroup with their man body (off-table).  The defenders, although their numbers are fewer, will hold out to 50% before surrendering such a key location.

SCENARIO THREE: Assassination.  This will be a small skirmish game instead of a large battle.  The winner of Scenario Two has one elite team of commandos.  The loser becomes the defender of a rear-echelon command center.  A key leader must be captured or taken out - his strategic genius is the only thing giving his side any advantage in this conflict.  Successful assassination will give the target's side a 25% loss of forces at the start of the next conflict.  A failed assassination will give the target's side a number of free re-rolls, to be used at any time in the next game.

SCENARIO FOUR: Breaking Point.  A big battle, representing the last major offensive of the Christmas War.  The winner of Scenario Three has the finally has the loser's side on the run - but every combat-ready unit is needed to press the advantage.  When the dust settles, one side will have no choice but to surender to the other.  This scenario's outcome will determine which side will write the history books, and which side's children will be ashamed to read them.

*     *     *     *     *

So, loyal Dropship passengers... we're challenging you to play this campaign with us in the coming weeks.  Assemble your forces, grab an opponent (a family member, a friend, yourself, that giant candy cane you find in your stocking - whatever you got!) and play out the scenarios.  If you choose to participate, just use Christmas War somewhere in the title of your posts.  Remember to include a little background about who is the aggressor, who is the defender, and why the invasion took place.  We'll be watching your blogs and TMP posts for your own interpretations of the Christmas War.  It would be great if we could get enough participants to declare one side (aggressors or defenders) the global victor!

And of course - this is just a generic framework.  Modify it to whatever suits your collections and playing styles.  Don't want to play with platoon- or company-sized armies?  Don't!  This could easily be played with nothing but skirmishes between rival gangs.  Or it could be played with insurgent forces against the army that has occupied their homeland for the last few years.  It could even be played as an alien invasion - maybe the Little Green Men had been watching our satellite TV broadcasts and determined that Christmas would be the perfect time to land their flying saucers.  Have fun with it!

Cheers,
Chris

Critical Mass Games releases Gruntz Imperator Mecha

The Gruntz Imperator Mecha, (previewed earlier this year) is now available from Critical Mass Games!

Standing over 80mm tall, this is one of the biggest and most heavily-armed mecha ever designed specifically for 15mm gaming.  These would be a great centerpiece for any existing army, escorting mechanized infantry platoons and destroying enemy super-heavy tanks.  Or you could run a platoon of these on their own - stomping around urban battlefields and slaughtering entire squadrons of Rebel Minis HAMRs or Critical Mass Protolene Walkers.  If you want to see some more pictures of this monster, check out Robin Fitton's assembly log here and a finished gallery here.

Click HERE to buy them - £20.00 each or FOUR for £60.00.

Cheers,
Chris

15mm Sci Fi Conversions

I recently discovered I was one figure short of my preferred TO&E for Ground Zero Games NAC army, so rather than buying a new pack of figures, I decided to try and convert some figures I had lying around to create what I wanted. I've read that it's harder to convert 15mm figures than 28mm figures and, having collected and converted both I can assure you this is not true. 15mm figures can be challenging to convert because they are smaller but, because they are smaller, it can be a lot easier to get good results.

If you are going to try converting 15mm miniatures, and do so without maiming yourself and losing the odd finger, I recommend you get yourself some of the tools such as those pictured above. The tools generally required are:

• A cutting mat
• A (sharp) craft knife
• A small pin vice (with a drill bit slightly larger than the wire used for pinning)
• A files
• Modelling files
• A set of wire cutters (or similar)
• Superglue
• Green stuff
• A sculpting tool for green stuff (not pictured)
• A small saw blade for your knife (not pictured)
• Paperclips of some reasonably thick wire

I started off by identifying two unused figures. These were from GZG's SG15- A17 NAC Standing Gunners and SG15-A18 NAC Seated Troopers. With an idea of what I wanted to achieve, I started with brutal act of man-on-miniature violence, by cutting them each in half with the wire cutters (you can just as easily use a small saw blade suitable for cutting soft metal). You can see from the picture below that this act was carefully premeditated so as to preserve as much of the half of each miniature I wanted to keep as possible.

The remains the dismembered miniatures where then carefully filed down so as to facilitate the joining of the two halves. A knife was also used to remove some larger chunks and reduce the time spent filing (sorry, I forgot to take a picture at this point). Once I was happy with the fit, I then used the pin vice to drill a hole in each figure half. To do this I carefully selected a drill bit slightly larger than the thickness of the paper clip to give space for glue. I then cut a length of paperclip to use as a pin (the safest way to do this is to cut it under a sheet of newspaper as it tends to be 'pinged' across the room). I always make sure it's the right length before gluing. I then glued the pin in to one half and then the other half of the pin and both halves together. The red line below illustrates where the pin is connecting the two halves.

Anyone who's put together a large metal miniature will know that 'pinning' provides a far stronger join than simply gluing. I also drilled holes in the feet of the figure to insert pins to help give my wee guy a stable platform to stand on as superglue and his little feet would not be enough to keep him attached to a base.

I secured the miniature to his base with the aid of a small rectangular section of white plastic through which the pins were inserted. This helps make him the same hight as my other NAC as they come on bases. I then used green stuff and a sculpting tool to create a new left arm for the figure and fill some of the roughness of the joint. My skills with green stuff are by no means expert, but the only way to learn and get better at it is to keep doing it! Now all he needs is some material to texture his base and and undercoat and he's ready for painting. Now who said 15mm conversion was difficult? This took just 2 hours, excluding drying time.

We'll have more posts looking at converting 15mm sci fi figures and vehicles in the coming months!

Khurasan Miniatures: Neptune TacMech

Where orbital fire support can't reach, heavy fire support for the highly mobile, elite Federal Navy SPAR special-ops teams comes in the guise of the Neptune Tactical (Tac)Mech. Dropship Horizon can exclusively lift the cover on this exciting new Mecha that will be smashing it's way into 2012.

Khurasan Miniatures 15mm Sci Fi

Federal Navy Nepture TacMech

The Neptune is heavily armed, mounting shoulder weapons-pods in addition to carrying the plasma rifle.  The pods can be easily swapped depending upon mission requirements. Pod options include anti-personnel rockets, tank-killing anti-material torpedos, or a general purpose energy cannon.

But the key to its success, is its ability to pick its way through difficult terrain and manipulate large objects, moving obstacles out of the way, smashing down barricades or through internal bulkheads and pressure seals to allow the SPAR team to gain it's objective.

The Navy deploys the TacMech from the Poseidon Stealth Lander and can retrieve it the same way.  Whilst the TacMech was designed for special ops, its considerable battlefield power makes it heavily in demand in conventional fights as well. The Neptune occasionally assists Corporate Marine recon operations, as the Federal Marines are accustomed to fighting in close co-operation with the Navy.

Notice the ladder and access hatch 

on the back of right-hand image

The Neptune TacMech from Khurasan Miniatures will be available in early 2012. The model comes with two leg choices and available with either free hands or plasma rifle, and will have three shoulder mount options as indicated above. Fully assembled the Mech will stand approximately 55mm tall.

This is a mean tin hombre to support some equally mean dudes in the Federal Navy SPAR Teams. Hooyah!

Cheers
Mark