Spleen's Adventures in the New Leyland Colony

[spleenrippa]

SNAFU2 TEST GAME Turn 5

Okay, last turn in this half-baked battle report

Card 1: MI PLT CO, As the marker on the left flank was a bust, he passes both orders to squad B to get them moving toward the central marker

Card 2: Smoke!

Card 3: NLSF SQD A, one team moves up to the cache marker. The unit leader's second action is also used on the team to get them to search... It's the actual cache!



Card 4: MI SQD B, Knowing they have to deal with the approach of NLSF Squad B, decides to do something risky (and for which I had to write rules, ): move out into the open and fire down the path.
This necessitates a couple things. The first is a hesitation check (to get your mooks to move into open in LoS of the enemy), and the second is a reaction check by both opposing units to see who fires first.
The hesitation check passes, and the fireteam from squad B rushes onto the path!
Laughably, both reaction checks fail and so neither the MI, nor NLSF unit make an attack roll. Imagine bullets flying and only hitting leaves, I suppose! 


before jumping out into the path

NLSF POV of the brazen MI move

Card 5: NLSF SQD B, an unfortunate draw for the MI team standing in the open down the path!  Both fireteams open up on the hapless corpos, causing a casualty and a shock marker... The MI team flinches back into cover to negate the shock, dragging their shot -up buddy with them

Card 6: NLSF SQD C, with the cache marker being a dummy, they want to vacate the hill. They open fire at the MI (to no real effect) while half the squad retreats

Card 7: MI SQD C, seeing the NLSF grab the cache, they open up and cause an incredible three casualty checks... Which all fail to save! The NLSF troopers with the crate are gunned down like the mercenary dogs they are!



At this point, I decided to call the game... Mostly because it was nearing lunch 

A quick overview of the table's end state:


On the left flank, the NLSF have successfully suppressed the MI and are retreating back off the hill


In the centre, MI squad B has suffered a casualty after their risky and ineffective attack


The MI squad on the right flank mercilessly gunned down half of NLSF squad A and suppressed the other half, all without taking a casualty

If anyone is interested, I can detail some of the actual game mechanics and my thoughts on them. Also, more (better) pics to follow... I just need to bust out the light box!

[LouieN]

Some great shots

[mikedemana]

The game looks great! Are you happy with how the rules played? Changes planned?

Mike Demana

[Manu Miniatures]

Great pics, it look like a serious fight in the bushes/ jungles of alien planet.

[aliensurfer]

Love it, looks great! How did you make the scenery - what did the grass start out as - a blanket, a towel?

[spleenrippa]

Love it, looks great! How did you make the scenery - what did the grass start out as - a blanket, a towel?

I took a chance and picked up three of these "Outdoor moss anti-seepage simulation lawn landscaping stone false moss green plant pavement decoration turf" mat/blanket things from Temu 

The "yellow green" one has a great variation in colouring and the pile is just high enough to be sort of believeable as long grass without upsetting miniatures or causing terrain to float on top. The downside is that while the mats are 6+ ft long, they're only ~3.5 feet wide, so you need two for reasonable coverage on a 6x4 table. I've found that it's not a huge deal, once you place a few terrain items down to hide the seam. 

Here's a link to the item:
Grass mat thing

[mikedemana]

"Outdoor moss anti-seepage simulation lawn landscaping stone false moss green plant pavement decoration turf" mat/blanket things from Temu

I joke that beers whose names include too many descriptors "violate the adjective rule" (too many). I would say that mat/blanket definitely is in violation!  That said, it does look nice...

Mike Demana

[MaleGriffin]

Lovely looking game!

[Seal]

Looks fantastic! 

[brasidas19004]

Someone needs to be keeping peace and order in the galaxy! 

[brasidas19004]

Someone needs to be keeping peace and order in the galaxy! 

[spleenrippa]

As usual, I've been negligent in updating this thread with my goings-on (at least I'm consistent), but I have been working on various bits for the new Leyland project.



In the queue for the airbrush are four of the "space ferret" scout cars I designed and printed ages ago. Here's a shot of two with open hatches. The commanders are cold war Brits from the Lionheart kickstarter, I reposed their arms slightly to better fit the turrets before printing them out.



Speaking of the Lionheart kickstarter, I had backed it (and the recent Zapad one) at the all-in level, which gave me access to the source Blender files. I've always wanted to try my hand at sculpting my own line of infantry to accompany my vehicles, and studying the Lionheart minis was enough to give me the final push.

My basic infantryman is built around the Lionheart base mannequin/mesh. I've kept the Lionheart boots and heads for ease until I'm more proficient, but all the armour and weapons are modelled by me.
I'm not much of a sculptor, so posing the model and sculpting the folds in the cloth has been quite the learning experience, but I've muddled through modelling and printing a fireteam and now feel confident in producing a platoon's worth of poses.

I love my 25mm NAC models from GZG, so I stole design queues from them along with the awesome "troopers" from Copplestone. The resulting mash-up won't win any awards for originality, but at least they're mine 



Here's a fellow printed out and poorly cleaned up. This guy has been given a super quick base coat + wash. I think I'll keep the khaki and grey scheme moving forward, but I'll add a green and brown camo to the fatigues. These fellows will eventually be replacing my Imperial Army model in the role of the New Leyland Security Forces.

The physical models have pointed out to me what details need enlarging or tweaking when I sculpt figures moving forward, such as small straps and clasps, etc. Things that look disproportionately large on the computer screen don't necessarily appear so once printed. It's been educational!



Thinking ahead to future events in the New Leyland setting, I printed a platoon of the aforementioned Lionheart Brits, but gave them sci-fi heads (from Makerscult). These guys will be part of an "Interstellar Nations" peacekeeping force, complete with blue helmets and scarves.



I picked up two Rubicon Type 63 APCs, pictured above with an excess of glue and a modelled-in-five-minutes remote weapon station to sci-fi it up a bit. These will serve as part of the IN's motor pool. Of course, they'll get white paintjobs with "IN" decals.

Lots more on the workbench... I have a BT dropship printed out for use as a VTOL shuttle. There's a meter-long tramp freighter waiting for the rain to stop before I finish spraying the basecoat...

... And the written side of the project... I need 30 hour days 


 

[LouieN]

A nice catch up of the progress.  Thanks

[Scarper]

Those are your first blender figure sculpts? They came out really well - you should be incredibly proud of yourself. It's something I've wanted to look into for ages, but I'm scared of the learning curve.

[spleenrippa]

Those are your first blender figure sculpts? They came out really well - you should be incredibly proud of yourself. It's something I've wanted to look into for ages, but I'm scared of the learning curve.

They are my first, yeah. I'm passable when it comes to box modelling, but hadn't touched Blender's sculpting tools before a month ago. Luckily for me, the helmet and armour pieces take up a lot of real estate on the model, so the bulk of the sculpting work was making semi-convincing folds of cloth on the limbs. After a few hours of messing around on the first figure to determine my workflow, it wasn't overly difficult to get the follow-on guys to a printable state.

I had hesitated for the last couple years, thinking it'd be an impossible task... Then one Saturday, I said to hell with it and just did it:
1. Pose the pieces of the low-poly mannequin
2. Join them together in object mode
3. Remesh at a "medium" resolution. I found a denser mesh harder to work with, to be honest. For minis like these, you just need shapes that convey an idea like "that's a fold in the trouser." I'm not producing a 30cm statue, there's no reason for excessive detail
4. Bulk out some areas, then shape the folds in the cloth, pouches, etc. A few add-on VDM brushes for folds aren't a cure-all, but can save some time!
5. Smooth out the hands and attempt to add convincing knuckles. Fail 
6. Export, repair in 3D builder, and print