Game Report: Galactic Dawn megagame.

Last weekend I took the train up to York for another Pennine megagame. This one was Ken Hay’s  Galactic Dawn – a classic space opera with warming empires much in the style of traveller and Star Wars. I was down as control (checking my records upon my return home I found it was my 20^th game that I had controlled) for one of the factions: the Imperia.  

The team were pretty switched on about what they wanted to achieve so attacked the game with lots of enthusiasm. Each team had a premier of some description, an admiral who took charge of combat at the map as well as a number of ‘envoys’. The envoys could perform everything from espionage and guerrilla warfare to diplomacy and statecraft. I think that these players had the busiest game bouncing around from player to player negotiating, doing deals and planning devious tricks.

 Compared to some control jobs my role was very rules- lite. I didn’t have much mechanical to do rather keep a track of any issues that affected my team, and what other teams were doing to mine. This was all relayed through the main plot control umpire. As we were an experienced team Ken more or less allowed us to run the game as we saw fit, free- kriegsspiel style. Given that latitude was nice and it help to work through the endless multi-layered plots we had going on. 

The Imperia team were heavily taxed by the dominant Argathi faction, rather punitively really, although I suspect that that was just a ruse to justify a war against them. The Imperia was the only faction that could, with the assistance of others, come close to ending Argathi hegemony. The team did some good salvaging of wrecks to boost their fleet numbers as well as judicious trade deals that allowed them to gain many tech advances.  The heavy tax burden ended up being needed by the Argathi to build a giant ‘Death Star’ style armed moon, this preceded the imminent arrival of both galactic empires. At this point the plots started to really stack up as the espionage/ diplomacy part of the game centred around assassinations of the Emperors at the singing competition. Meanwhile, at the map the fleets gathered to try and take down the ‘Death Star’ like space station. At the end of the game both emperors were dead, and the death star was blown up; the different player factions had coalesced into two big groupings… hopefully the stage has been set for a sequal.

 I’d been feeling a bit burnout with megagaming so I was unsure how I’d feel after doing this one but I was pleasantly surprised to be full of enthusiasm for them again. I’ve even been having ideas for my own again. Many thanks to Ken and the rest of the control team, as well as all the players, for making this a really enjoyable day out gaming. I’ll look forward to the games being run next year too.

 Cheers, 

Pete.

From the Shed: Modern and near Future Russians.

As I’m sure that you have noticed I’ve been really getting into the Zona Alfa game recently and I had the idea of getting some of the Empress Miniatures modern Russians with gas mask heads to add to me collection. However, I wanted to practice the camo they’d be in first so I dug out these modern Russians from Elhiem to try.

The new digital flora pattern (as seen onthe little green men of Crimean infamy) took a lot of layers to get that mottled effect but was fairly quick to do in the end. Whilst I was at it I decided to paint up the Near Future Russians I had laying around in the same scheme. These are the companion/ opposition figures to the near future US figures I painted some time back.

I also , as they were lurking in the same box, got these modern Russian special forces figures finished off. Clad in a copy of multicam they are based on the operatives that have been present in Syria and again finish off stuff I have painted earlier. They add a selection of LMGs, sniper rifles and RPGs.

Elhiem has expanded the ranges of both the near future Russian anmd US forces- extra support weapons, snipers and leadera to expand upon the original assault rifles and LMGs I’ll be interested to get them as these new figures are digital sculpted, printed in resin then cast in metal as opposed to the original figures being sculpted in the traditional manner in putty. Comparing the two styles will be a pointer to the future of the industry as 3d design processes will become more and more common.

I have thought about getting a full platoon of the modern Russians in the digital flora camo but the current tension in the Ukraine makes this less appealing somehow (here is hoping it doesn’t develop into a major shooting match). I’ll have to think on….

Cheers,

Pete.

From the Shed: Some 40k odds and sods.

As I had the lightbox set up I thought I’d take a few pictures…

First up is some of the old 90s Necxromunda Orlock figures.

I also painted up a box of the objectives that came out around the launch of 9th ed.

I do like bits like this as they can act as inspirastion for a scenario… tempted to make an Imperial archeological dig for them like when the Necrons were first introduced to 40k, also back in the 90s.

Cheers,

Pete.

From the Shed: Even more Stalkers for Zona Alfa.

I wanted to paint up some Stalkers in a specific camo pattern, namely the Russian ‘Partizan’ scheme… that was all the excuse I needed to get a set from Pig Iron Productions that I had been coverting.

Here they are again in threes. I went for a sniper rifle a light machine gun and three AK style assault rifle, the dog is so I can try out some of the optional rules I got from facebook.

I also had a few more Cold War figures from Under Fire Miniatures that I converted- again using Pig Iron parts.

You may have noticed that I didn’t take these pictures outside on my backdoor step… I got a light box for xmas and this has made taking the photos much easier, especially in these wetter and darker months. I did print out a stone texture picture from google to use as a backdrop which I think works quite well.

Cheers,

Pete.

Zona Alfa: From the Shed to the table.

I tend to work better to a deadline so was more than happy to run a game of Zona Alfa for friends with a week’s notice, even though I still had nearly 30 models to paint in that time. Firstly I needed to finish off the various zone hostiles that I had collected, these are the various monster/ fauna that inhabit the zone and make life difficult for the players. I had a mix of zombies from Mantic, Copplestone and Pig Iron. All were painted in a similar muted palette and complement each other. The Mantic and Copplestone ones go well together as they look like the reanimated corpses of previous expiditions to the zone….

The horde of zombies.

Pig Iron Production zombies

Mantic zombies

Copplestone zombie troopers.

I also had a small selection of Reaper Bones models to represent the mutants, both large and standard size, that can also appear in the game. Nicola very kindly painted these three for me.

Reaper Bones used as mutants.

I also wanted to round out my collection of military types witha few more figures. I got some of the Under Fire Miniatures cold war camo suited Soviets and added Pig Iron Productions gas mask heads and backpacks to give them more of a STALKER vibe. Whilst the hardness of the metal that both companies used made drilling them tough on the fingers I’m really pleased with how they turned out.

The converted Under Fire miniatures Soviets.

For the game at the club I wrote a brief intro to the game (which I can post if people want) and made up four forces for the players to use: two military, one scientist and one bandit. After a quick run through of the rules they teams set off to revover the protyped weapon left cached by a previous expedition into the zone. I purposely ignored the Allies and Enemies rules for this game, mainly as it was a one off zero sum mission it would added more combat to get the players better used to the rules.

My Zona Alfa collection in it storage box.

Set in a level one zone I placed the two hot spots so that the players would be able to interact with at least one lot of zone hostiles each.

The game table, the objective was in the cached ammo crate, the skulls are hotspots. Most of the terrain was from my 3D printer.

In the end the Scientist and the Military player ended up trading shots and finding out how bloody the combat syestem can be whilst the Bandits crept forward clearining a hotspot and then cunningly used electric juice to speed forward to snatch the mission objective, after the Military team had dispatched the rats it had spawned the previous turn. The scientist cleared the hotspot closesst to them, again hiding a rat swarm before finding an anomily there and getting a rare artifact. At the point the Bandits were attracting a lot of attention so began to take a lot of fire as the other two teams attempted to snatch the weapon for themselves… at the expense of most of their team they did manage to get it off the table. However, I did point out to the players that in a campaign game they’d need to watch their casualties more and that finding a rare artifact could mean that whilst you don’t win the game the money it earns your team may be more beneficial in the long run.

The Bandits emerge from the edge of the woods.

The Military team pinned down behind the ruins.

The game went down really well and there are a couple more players who wish to try it so hopefully there will be enough interest to get a campaign going. I’m sure I did some of the rules wrong but it has been a long time since I ran the game, pre COVID19 infact. As always I enjoy running the game and seeing how the players interact as much as I do playing.

Cheers,

Pete.

From the Shed: Blackstone Fortress’ Ur Ghuls.

I picked up a further four of these monopose plastic models from ebay. Given that the game that they are from is out of production they are getting a little bit more expensive and rarer so I decided to get them sooner rather than later.

I painted then to match the previous pair that I did- I used a mixture of GW’s Nihlak Oxide and some homemade glazes so they were a really quick job.

I plan to mostly use them as mutant for my Zona Alfa games but they’ve already been on the gaming table in Nicola’s Drukhari force.

Cheers,

Pete.

From the Shed: War Dogs – 40k Chaos Knights.

I got these for xmas last year and have finally got them finished… wanted them for long range support for my Death Guard army – I’ll use them in a second detachment.

Really enjoyed painting these. I was nice to work on a larger piece and one with relatively bright colours too. I tried a bit of heat discolouration on the exhausts and melta gun muzzle too- it looks better in real like than in these photos. I’m also pleased that my usual chopped up sprue for basing works OK on a larger base too.

Cheers,

Pete.

From the Shed: 40k Inquisitor models.

I ortiginally bought these for an Inquisimunda campaign that was running at Cellar Dwellers that I started to get involved in… although now I am unsure what the state of that campaign is. Either way they are nice example from the early and mid 1990s 40k universe. I’m sure I’ll be able to work them into some games in the future.

From left to right we have a Missionary, an Inquisitor in Terminator armour and, a Preacher.

Cheers,

Pete.

From the Shed: Salamanders Kill Team.

Using the GW quick build figures of Intercessor and Reiver Primaris space marines I’ve put together this little Kill Team. Coming in at just under 100 points they are pretty bijou but quite tough. Still the one time I tried them out I lost badly to Drukhari… hopefully they’ll do better for me now they are painted.

It will be interesting to see how they fare when the next addition of the game drops in a few months.

They really could do with some transfers for the shoulder pads as I’m not up to freehanding that kind of thing.

Cheers,

Pete.

From the Shed: Nurgle Daemon Engines… take two.

I don’t know what is happening to my posts. Things aren’t saving in drafts properly. I create a post then when it gets published there is nothing there. Will be a user error I’m sure… no matter.

I’ve painted up a Mythitic Blight Hauler (r) and a Fetid Bloat Drone (l) for my Death Guard 40k army. THey are the easy build models so were quick to build and fun to paint. Should be good to use in the game as they are surprisingly fast for my force yet still pack quite a punch.

Cheers,

Pete.