Danger on Outpost 32 - Custom Terrain Features

Once I had finished painting all the figures from the USE ME Danger on Outpost 32 box set, the time had come to take a close look at the scenarios. The first game in the campaign is a plan shoot-'em-up, with teams of Zeta Reticulans entering the Outpost's domes through airlocks. The scenario page includes this suggested setup map, designed for a 2' x 4' table:

My tables are mostly 2' x 2', and I chose my badlands-style table for this campaign. I figured the smaller size would be fine with the low figure count, as long as the terrain density increased just a bit. Finding terrain to represent the two airlocks on the Zeta Reticulan table edge were simple enough - I knocked together some IMEX Cyberclicks bits leftover from my 40K days to build two of these:

The doorway is obviously designed for 28mm figures, but works fine as part of a larger (invisible) structure. So that took care of the airlocks. I already had plenty of hills, but the water features posed a bit of a problem for me. The only decent water feature in my terrain collection is a swamp for my Red Planet board... not really useful for this scenario. So why not take the opportunity to build a quick water feature for my badlands board, and use it for the Outpost 32 campaign?

The scenario fluff describes the two water features as tourist beaches. My version of Outpost 32 feels more like a refugee colony, so I decided to make them simple lakefronts instead. Then I had the idea... if I made two lakefronts that were identical in width, they could combine to be a single small lake in other games. 

So I found a good-size scrap of MDF out in my garage and traced a basic lake shape. Then I drew a straight line right through the middle, cut out the two pieces with a jigsaw, and cleaned the rough-cut edges with a sanding sponge. Once they were clean, I borrowed one of my wife's spray paint cans... a blue pastel to give me an easy basecoat for the water.

Once the spray paint had dried, I found an appropriate-size scrap of packing styrofoam to form the "shoreline." To get the right shape, I flipped the lake pieces upside-down and clamped them to the styrofoam. Then I just used a hot-wire cutter to trace the lake piece, removed the lake piece, cut the inside,  and then shaped the ground texture. A few cheap craft paints, a bit of white glue, and the water features were ready for the tabletop. And since the foam and MDF were already in my garage, I was able to add to my terrain collection without spending a penny on extra materials.

Here's my final interpretation of the Scenario One setup map:

Up next: Scenario One AAR. 

Cheers,

Chris

15mm Sci Fi Potential at WorldWorks Games

 
If you are looking for some different Sci Fi terrain then take a look at some of WorldWorks Games more recent releases. WorldWorks produce a large range of download and print terrain for Modern, Fantasy, Horror and Sci Fi gamers. Reduced by 60% on your printer their products can easily be utilised by 15mm Sci Fi buffs.

I know some of you already utilise the Modern 'Mayhem' porducts and a few, like me own Mars Station. If you are a fan of the Xbox game Mass Effect, then take a look at the newly released Codename Titan set.

There's just something about Codename Titan that reminds me of the corridors of the less than salubrious OMEGA space station in Mass Effect 2. This grungy, utilitarian terrain can also be used to create external settings, such as the streets of a heavily industrial world or asteroid mining city. But perhaps Mass Effect's not your thing and you prefer Gears of War instead?

Then take a look at both WorldsWorks Fantasy and Horror products in addition to the Sci Fi offerings. There's plenty of terrain for recreating the action from Gears 1 & 2. Shelldrake Manor could easily proxy for Adam Fenix's home.

The Himmelveil Streets set pictured above offers not just a chance to game Cogs of War but also has a strong  flavour of New Mecca on Helion Prime from Chronicles of Riddick. Offering the gamer an old world whose architecture isn't for once Gothic.

Mars Station has been replaced on my 15mm tabletop by GZG and Critical Mass Games' products but still does stirling work for 28mm Sci Fi skirmishes. Which remind me that I must buy Antenociti's 28's. Beautiful high Sci Fi miniatures in the Mass Effect style. If only they did the GOT Troopers in 15! Some great poses too!

Mars Station comes with interiors plus control panels etc. Again, a 60% scaling reduction will bring your outpost to life and being printable it can be as large as you like.

I was never a fan of gaming tiles. I liked all my terrain to be 3-D but I've mellowed under the constant bombardment from both Masterchef and Alternative's Armies' Firefight 2.0.

All the above game come with 'tiles' grided and ungridded. The Himmelveil Streets tiles are magnificent, Masr Station allows you to build not only a 'red planet' gaming mat but the canyons you see in the photo as well!

To sum up. Plenty of opportunity and potential to produce staggering 2D or 3D scalable terrain to meet your gaming needs  for a small initial outlay and a little effort.

Cheers

Mark