Laserburn: Command & Control and ‘Bots

23/11/2012

Some more GZG items that In have unearthed in the Playroom, or bought at Colours:

I envisage this as the Command & Control vehicle for an Imperial Police unit controlling some drones and robots.

Foundry Arctic Grey, with white highlight. Windows GW foundation blue, and the lighter blue Fundry Deep Blue. Yellow for lights.

They come armed with different weapons on the underside – though both of these are the same, and I have a heavier drone stacked up ready for assembly:

Here are some small wheeled ‘bots which I imagine would be the eyes and ears of the Imperial Police, going forward and spotting the ne’er do wells:

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Laserburn: Scratchbuild (Updated)

08/11/2012

To fend off Equine painting OCD, and to prevent the buuld up of yet another project’s materials that won’t get done for a long time, I’ve used the corner packing pieces of the netbook bought last week to make the first scratchbuild for laserburn.

The pieces are actually quite solid compacted card. But I sprayed the first piece with GW Roughcoat (now OOP but basically a grey textured spray) to help seal in the surface, so that after undercoating I could use washes and not worry about any warping of the card. I added some hatches and vents from GZG. Then undercoated it grass green: I didn’t want another dull grey building; nor a pale grey; and thought with a green it’d stand out more look military for a scenario my fevered brain cell has started cooking up.

(NB: It was less bright green than in the photo !)
Washes, and weathering made the add ons stand out and break up the monochrome colour a bit more.

(NB: This photo might get replaced tomorrow in natural light ! It’s not lime green honest !!)

Not bad, now to plan for my Raid on Ragnarok scenario…having rummaged through a box of GZG pieces I’d found some simple air drones and wheeled scout drones…

NB: No Cats were harmed in the production of this building, though they did oversee its construction:

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Laserburn: Grunts & Grenades

07/10/2012 3 Comments

Yesterday, Byakhees Anthony & Rich came round for a game of Laserburn. Due to various mishaps, mis-adventures and other cunning plans, we didn’t really get started until 1pm, but we played a long game in to the night (well 10pm actually !) with a hiatus for a curry takeout.

We planned for a game of 5,000 points each. So this would be a big game for us. We set the table up, finally using many of my scenery pieces of been painting.

I was quote pleased with the way the table turned out, it does seem to be integrated, and the use of bright colours offsets the dark granite brown (no its not black) base colour.

We had a scenario pitting the three of us against each other, with Imperial Droids (these are not the droids you’re looking for) turning up to deal with our heavily armed gangs. The rules for the Imperial Droids dictated they move towards the people firing weapons.
Anthony & Rich’s gangs clashed first:

Anthony in particular, had tooled up his cannon fodder with grenades which are particularly potent in Laserburn. Rich had at the last moment picked up on this and added in some grenades. Guess what…I’ll do the same next time !

Which lead to a rapid escalation of fighting between them.

A lucky shot from Anthony’s grenade launcher also managed to seriously wound my gang’s leader.
Then, the Imperial Droids turned up…right behind my gang, so I had to be very quiet lest they start shooting me !

Anthony’s gang also advanced toward me from behind the hill.

And so we mixed it up, with Imperial Droids acting as cover between us, well I used them as cover !

Meanwhile, Rich’s forces moved through the buildings to get at Anthony’s gang.

They finally blew each other top pieces, and with my gang mostly intact, both of them withdrew from the battle !

We had a good time, and found that:

  • Laserburn needs-rewriting to C21 standards
  • The mechanics are sound
  • Duckback is a REAL pain !
  • We need some marker tokens – Rich provided some temporary bits of paper, but in future we hope to do better!
  • It’s a fun system.

More photos here.

All the figures were mine, mostly original Laserburn (now 15mm.co.uk), Citadel Traveller (now RAFM), and GZG. Scenery by GZG, Critical Mass Games, GW and Ainsty.

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Laserburn – New Pages

02/10/2012

Well, seeing as Laserburn is a game from c1983, many viewers won’t know much about it. So along with all the other amendments to the menu bar (that’s the bit at the top under the title) I’ve added one for Laserburn to explain what on Earth (or Mars) I am wibbling on about. Laserburn is WH40K’s great granddaddy in terms of its setting, and ideas for h/ware.

In anticipationof playing more games, and explaining why I have a very dichotomous set of colours when painting my Laserburn stuff, I also added the bones of what I have in mind for a Laserburn Campaign.
I supposed I really should do this as Byakhees Gavin H , Rich & I did contribute heavily to:

In particular the Chapter on Campaigns !

More detail will be added to these pages.
Still its a good excuse to watch Firefly, Serenity, BSG, Star Wars and many other sci fi films.

And in the back of my mind, there is also the CoC/Traveller/Laserburn cross over, which was actually done in White Dwarf decades ago that could do with some more exploration. 😉

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Laserburn: Terrain Objectives

30/09/2012

Another purchase from Colours – it really is worth going to gaming shows as you pick up all sorts of weird stuff you’d not buy on line…
…from Critical Mass Games are the two Kaammados Dominion power convertors.

Nice clean resin castings.
Though nominally for an alien culture, they’d fit in well with pretty much any table set up.

A quick paint up and they’re ready to go. Again mounted on one of my free CD terrain bases. I added a container by GZG, and a stone to expand and liven up the terrain piece.

As 15mm scenery, especially stuff like boxes, barrels and crates are so small, I’ll be mounting most of it on bases to avoid problems when setting up the tables.

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Laserburn: Zebu light patrol vehicle

27/09/2012 1 Comment

Another purchase at Colours, was from Antenocitis Workshop – the Zebu light patrol vehicle (15mm).

I got two for £6 (a saving of £2, I’m a real cheapskate me).

Nice resin casting with white metal add ons.

The first one I built was with the roof hatches shut. I chose a colour scheme similar to the one they used on the 28mm version. A dull industrial grey, but with bright yellow panels.

Ideal run around close to the colony I have been planning for my background to gaming.
Excellent value for money, and I’ll be going back for more.

(Figures from GZG and the old Citadel Traveller now RAFM ranges)

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Laserburn: Robots

18/09/2012

When I was at Colours, I bought some robots/mecha from GZG.

Now the Byakhees & I are planning a Laserburn game next month so I thought I’d paint these up so we can use them.

First thing weas to build them:

Couldn’t find them on the GZG website, so I asked via e-mail. Less than 10 minutes later Jon from GZG provided the answer:

If they were the ones in the display with the big 15mm Mecha, then they are the GMM41 and GMM42 from the “Germy’s 2mm” range – but we sell a load of them as 15mm robotic combat units!
You’ll find them halfway down this page:

http://shop.groundzerogames.net/index.php?_a=viewCat&catId=10&page=1

Spot on. Jon’s time warp reputation remains intact !

I decided to paint them white with coloured markings. I also based them on some small MDF bases I’d got from Foundry (wrong size order so my fault). After priming htem black, I used Foundry Arctic grey, followed by GW Skull White, and then changed the weapons to gun metal using GW Chain mail with a black wash. I used red to make them stand out more

I think they look appropriate as some sort of sinister Imperial droid sent to hunt down and wipe out problems in the colonies !

Sadly the Laserburn supplement doesn’t really cover them, as it is mainly geared round the models from c1983/194…which these GZG ones are definitely not, so I’ll have to bash some rules together. They have some good ideas and the Advanced Laserburn rule book also has some ideas…

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Colours 2012 – my experience

08/09/2012 2 Comments

Well the last post was the basic what it was like to go to the wargames show. This is more about my actual experience, and what the benefits are.

Newbury is a “toidy step” and takes some time to get there so it really is an annual pilgrimage for Anthony & I. So why do we do it ?

See New Products and New Companies in the metal/plastic/resin/paper

I have an aversion to buying new products sight unseen. I wouldn’t buy a new house without seeing it. Clever paint jobs and blurred photos (or absent photos) on the internet are no replacement for seeing new stuff for real, especially when its from a new company.

Antenocitis Workshop was one such trader where I picked up a load of new product – they’ve been a good supplier for scenery material but have now branched out into sci-fi stuff, so i got some of their new 15mm hab units and other gubbins. I also had a chat with them about some things which was illuminating.

Reduce P&P costs, and get Show specials

Yup you can pick a lot of show specials, and I did. GZG even had a free take your pick box of their 15mm figures, which required no purchases – just literally help yourself.. I didn’t, I know their figures are really worth it.

As Scenery Boy, I usually buy a lot of scenery at shows, ‘cos P&P is very high on large scenery pieces I like to buy. So Critical Mass Games got visited for more alien 15mm scenery. They were a bit p!ssed because being next to the front door, they’d been screened for a while by a wall of stewards for the first hour or so.

To be Sociable

Anthony & I have been mates for nearly 30 years and whislt we meet regularly for wargames sessions we don’t have time to talk often about other topics, so as my mobile phone seems to be heading for Silicon Heaven and we had a good chat about the benefits if iPhones, Android Phones, iPads and so on as we are both techies to different degrees and on different subjects.

Attending Colours also allows me to meet up with various online acquaintances as well. So the AVBCW demo game got a vist and I met up with Tym, Tom, Ook, and for the first time Mick A.

A face to face chat is always better than anonymous e-mails and forum postings, especially when we are trying to re-arrange BG-5.
AVBCW from another angle:

Anthony & I also met up with another former work colleague, and it seems we might be able to arrange some games with him now we have his contact details.

Oh, and the best thing about the wargames show is getting the shiney stuff. I always limit myself by taking cash only – usually the traders only accept cash anyway due to lack of access to card readers. But it does mean I have a strict budget. Otherwise, there is a tendency to go completely mad, it’s like the dream we all have of finding a model shop that has everything we ever dreamed of and more ! Sadly that dream usually ends in a rush to the cash point and then racing back to be unable to find this mythical shop.

Here’s today’s haul. Not going to go through it item by item, but you’ll see a lot of this stuff as new projects in the near future. 🙂

best of all I came home to a new CD of music….more of which later…

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