Deals, Deals, Deals...Summer Sales

So right now there is some great deals going on, and thought I'd write a quick article in case people were unaware of them.

Ground Zero Games

Ground Zero Games are having their summer sale, which sees everything in their store at 15% off. Yes that's right everything. The sale lasts till midnight on Monday the 11th of July, so you've got a bit of time, but I wouldn't leave it too long.

Ground Zero Games online store

So you can get yourself a Full Thrust fleet, some of their 15mm models, or some of their great scenery. I may be tempted to get some of the little add-on bits for buildings for my recently acquired GameCraft MDF buildings. And speaking of GameCraft Miniatures...

 GameCraft Miniatures

GameCraft miniatures are having a 4th of July weekend sale. Until the 4th of July, all their merchandise is at 20% off, as if it wasn't already good value. So why not go over their and get some great scenery to use on all that Ground Zero Games stuff you just bought.

GameCraft Miniatures shop

Or if you want to use that scenery for a different purpose why not head on over to

Critical Mass Games

Critical Mass Games are having their summer sale as well, with 20% off everything in their store until the 22nd of July, so that's a good deal of time to mull over some purchases. I've always fancied some of their scenery, and I think one of those Otilium refineries would go nicely with what I've just purchased.

And last but not least

Dream Pod 9

Dream Pod 9 have just declared the summer blitz to push Heavy Gear, their game of mecha combat.

To start with, their offering up the rules books for Heavy Gear for free. Yes that's right for free. To get them head on over to DriveThruRPG and simply download. Free, gratis, etc etc.

Locked and Loaded 1.1

Field Manual - Core Rulebook

Essentially the field manual replaces Locked and Loaded as the core rulebook, though Locked and Loaded is still required as it has all the army lists in it (unless you play one of the later armies).

And if that wasn't enough, they've listened to people about the game being a bit expensive to get into and they've launched some summer blitz packs. Now these packs are truly epic, and make for a great start. For example the Northern Starter Pack comes with

1 x Northern General Purpose Squad (DP9-9021, $43.50)
1 x Northern Strike Squad (DP9-9024, $44.50)
1 x Northern Fire Support Squad (DP9-9027, $53.75)
1 x Northern Recon Squad (DP9-9045, $43.50)
1 x Northern Infantry Platoon (DP9-9035, $23.00)
1 x Heavy Gear Blitz! - Field Manual Rulebook 60 pages black & white digest size book (DP9-9997h, $10.00)
1 x Heavy Gear Blitz! - Field Manual Rulebook Full Color ebook (DP9-9997 ebook, Free)
1 x Locked & Loaded Full Color ebook including Northern Army Lists (DP9-9996 ebook, Free)

Which costs $150 and ends up saving you $68.25, which I think is a pretty damn good deal for such fine quality merchandise. There is also a southern pack as well for those people who prefer the southern states.

Frankly, even if you're not sure about the game, I would urge you to download the rulebooks and give it a look, as frankly at the end of the day it's going to cost you nothing. Even if you pick it up later, you'll lose nothing by checking the rules out now, and hopefully you'll find yourself as enthralled by the setting as I was.

Hope these have been some use.

Mecha Ace out.  

Heavy Gear battle report

Well horribly late is better than not at all right?

Anyways, last Tuesday, the forces of North and South joined up against the evil tyrannical grasp of Earth and the Colonial Expeditionary Force (CEF). Or what this means is myself and my friend LeadLegion teamed up against another mutual friend for a game of Heavy Gear. I'll say right now this took a while, as not only is it on a club night, so there's a bit of chat with people you only see once a week, there's also the fact that neither myself or the other player (the regulars of the game technically) get many games in, so it was a bit of "how do you do that again?". Also it was LeadLegion's first game. Still he'd read the rules and that helped.

Anyways force composition comprised the following.

North:
1 Fire support squad, comprising 2 Grizzlys, 2 Hunters and 1 Jaguar.
1 Strike Squad, comprising 3 Jaguars and 2 Hunters
1 Mammoth Strider

South:
1 General Purpose squad, comprising 3 Jaegars and 1 Black Mamba (they were the honour guard)
1 General Purpose squad, comprising 3 Jaegars and 1 Command Jaegar
1 Fire support squad, comprising 3 Spitting Cobras and 1 Jaegar
1 Infantry Squad

CEF:
1 GREL Platoon in HPC-64s (Hover APCs basically)
1 Light tank squadron comprising 2 LHT-71s
1 Heavy Tank squadron comprising 1 HT-68 and 2 HT-72s

Now, I had found out our opponents army list in the day (as we'd all worked them out in advance, so we started chatting during the day), and was suitably terrified of the fact he had 3 Heavy tanks. Still, we decided to sacrifice our lives dearly in service to Terra Nova, and began set up, after choosing objectives and support.

The set up.

The initial set-up, the guy on the right is the CEF player. 

The Terra Novan forces set up on the right hand side in the above picture, while the CEF were on the left. The Heavy Tanks were set up in the middle, with the HT-68 off to the left of his side (up in the top left in the picture). His light tanks were also deployed in the centre, while his HPC-64s were deployed behind the large hill in the bottom left. His GRELs were already out.

Our forces were deployed, with the Northern strike squad in the right hand side (top right of the picture), the fire support squad infiltrating into the woods (bottom of the picture) and the mammoth taking up position in the small town in the centre. And yes none of my stuff is painted. LeadLegion pretty much had all his painted just to show off. Swine

Southern forces had the two general purpose squads deployed on the right hand side (top right) while the fire support squad were just the other side of the river from the town. The infantry were deployed in the town. Then battle commenced.

Turn 1:
We got the initiative, and instantly began pouring fire into his heavy tanks as much as possible. LeadLegions fire support squad opened up on the HT-68, and managed to damage it, removing it's sturdy box (basically ablative armour). So would begin the long process of wittling the tanks down. His tanks moved up, and began opening fire, heavy particle cannons blazing trails, and managed to cause damage to the southern fire support team. Meanwhile eventually his HPC-64s started moving towards the town, round the hill. My fire support squad emerged from the woods, and began laying down rocket pod fire on them, damaging one and destroying another. My Mammoth also joined in pouring fire into the HT-68, lightly damaging it.

The most important part of this turn when both sides decided to call in a lot of support, intending to try and cause massive damage. We locked two heavy artillery bombardments onto the position of his HT-72, as they'd managed to log jam themselves between the bridge and the buildings. A medium bombardment was called in against the HPC-64s, while the CEF player called in a heavy bombardment against my Mammoth.

And it was a result. Another one of the HPC-64s went up in a ball of flame. The 2 HT-72s suffered damaged, though not enough to adversely affect them greatly, one of them losing its sturdy box, and the other suffering light damage.

My Mammoth managed to lose it's 2 sturdy boxes, and suffer light damage, so took quite a beating, but thankfully kept going.

Turn 2:

Cunningly I decided to take the photo from the other table end, so it's all reversed now.

Our opponent got the initiative, and started moving his heavy tanks again. Reaction fire from my strike squad, and LeadLegions fire support squad, managed to finally destroy the damaged HT-68, which ditched in the middle field, while his HT-72s took to the river and began doleing out punishment, reducing the southern fire support squad to 1 Jaegar.

My fire support squad, emerged further from the woods and pounded the HPC-64s with further rocket fire, destroying not only the whole squadron, but the army commander with it (this is important, as it means he no longer has access to command points for re-rolls and activating things out of sequence etc). Cheered by this victory we began the slow march forward.

His LHT-71s had advanced up the river and began scanning the bridge (one of his objectives). They then nipped behind our lines and began dishing out punishment. However, we weren't without return fire, with my Mammoth opening fire on them, while both of LeadLegions general purpose squad moved to allow his rocket pods to get shots in, which eventually destroyed one, and damaged the other.

Unfortunately we had to call it a night at that. It had taken a long time to set up, with deciding objectives, support points etc, so I think next time we play we're going to sort it out by e-mail prior to the game to save us time. Also we weren't clued up on the rules which didn't help.

Technically the Terra Novan forces won, as we had completed more of our objectives, that of certain key gear squadrons surviving. However had we played longer the CEF player would've garnered points by having his LHT-71s leave the table with the recon data.

Still, it was a great game. There's talk of getting a game over the Easter weekend were we can take more time over it, and play it out. And next time I'll take more photos. Promise. I seem to have landed the role, as LeadLegion isn't allowed to handle his wife's camera, due to him perpetually dropping things.

Apologies for the slight sketchiness of the details. I'll maybe try and take brief notes, though it's difficult to do, and get a game in during the say 3 to 3.5 hours we get in a club night, depending on how long it takes to eat and chat.

Thanks for looking.

Black Talon Primary Insertion Team finished

Not often I get to use that phrase, only another 4 gears and about 40 little mens to go and I can have a fully painted faction. Still hopefully I shall keep going, the blog is inspiring me to do more, as are comments left by people.

So here they are.

Eagle trooper with a heavy autocannon/light grenade launcher

Another Eagle trooper with a heavy autocannon/light grenade launcher

Eagle trooper with a gatling laser cannon and chainsword

Group shot, with the previously painted Owl C3

I've taken these shots (bar the Owl) before varnishing them, as I've noticed the varnish, even though I use a coat of gloss, then a coat of matt, it's still giving a bit of shine which I don't want when photographing them.

Quite a simple paintjob really, and I think that helped keep me going with them. These are now pretty much finished, though I still need to varnish the Eagle troopers, and think I may invest in some transfers for them. I'm also thinking of adding some grass tufts to the bases to make it look a bit less just straight desert and add a bit something extra in.

Looking forward to using these guys now in a game of Heavy Gear sometime, and I also have plans to use them as large powered armour for 15mm Tomorrow's war as well.

Thanks for looking.

A review of Dream Pod 9's Heavy Gear Terrain

During the February sale at Dream Pod 9, my friend and I decided to take advantage of it and order some of the nice new Heavy Gear scenery that's being sold by them on their webstore.

We ordered it near the end of February, and got a shipping note on the 2nd of March, and then it arrived here on the 13th of February, which isn't too bad from Canada to Scotland, via the perils of two countries postal systems.

And here's what it looked like when I opened the box.

Big box of scenery goodness

My friend also agreed to let me hang onto them for a little while, so I could grab some photos of them "straight out the box" as it were. So onto a whole load of photos. I've added in my Black Talon and one of my critical mass guys for a rough idea of scale. Also these aren't assembled yet. Some of them aren't mine so I didn't want to assemble them. I'll see if my friend is willing to take some snaps of them once done and painted.

Badlands solar panel

Badlands wind turbine

Badlands outpost with a whole load of bits

Badlands homestead shed

Shipping containers

Twin water tanks

Water condensor

Stone heads (this is the four pack, I got the twin pack which only gets you the one on the far left and far right)

Badlands homestead tower

Badlands homestead housing module (the roof should be circular, the tab on the side is from the mould, again it's not mine so didn't want to cut it off)

Small stone heads trio

Quality wise they are really good. They're all solid casting, so no interiors which is a shame, but still fine. The resin they've used seems more flexible rather than brittle, and is very good stuff and has taken the details of the mould very well, as they are nice and sharp.

 Very little to no mould lines are present on them, and what is present I only needed to scrape off with a scalpel (I've started work on building mine). My only complaint would they have a large section of excess resin on the bottom (you can see it on the housing module, the shed, and some of the others). It follows the line of the actual scenery, though is recessed in by 1-2mm, and is just obviously excess resin. However a couple of minutes with a good saw should see it off, or for some hardwork and filling your house with resin dust a file would do the job (if you go this route, mind and wear a dust mask).

The parts fit together very well, as I dry fitted what I could of the outpost together, while a lot of the others were simply one piece casting, so no work is needed beyond a bit of removing mould lines and excess resin as described above.

Obviously these are scaled for Heavy Gear, which is 12mm scale or 1/144, but I also think that these would work pretty well for 15mm games as well, certainly the ones without doors would work. The ones with doors would work as well, as long as they didn't get too close to the doors. I placed my critical mass guy up against the door and he'd be hitting the top of his head off the frame as he walked in. Still they're off a good enough size that it would still be believeable that several guys, even at 15mm size could get in.

I must admit as well, the shipping containers were a bit small, I would've liked something bigger. Even with a 12mm trooper next to them, the trooper would probably be about the height of them, so something a bit bigger would've been nice. Other than that I'd say they were pretty decent value for money.

The only other con is that currently they're a DP9 store exclusive, so you have to order from them. Now while I have received excellent customer service from them on both this order and others, I'm always nervous of packages going missing when ordering from abroad, and then of course the added joy of customs tax pushing the cost up even more. Now that DP9 finally has a distributor in the UK, I would like to see them making these available, though I don't know if that will happen.

Anyways, over the next week or so, I'm going to get my bits assembled and cleaned off to get rid of the dreaded mould release on them, and then they can join the painting queue (which is vast), but I'll try and get these on it sometime. My friend and I are going to agree a paint scheme so our various bits of terrain match on the tabletop.

I hope that's helped a bit. If you're a player of Heavy Gear and are considering purchasing these I would recommend them. They're decent value for money, and I must admit, they are a good size for what I paid for them. If anyone has any questions though please feel free to ask, and I'll try my best to answer them.

Painted Black Talon and WIP Arc Fleet

Well painting and all things modelling related has been a bit slow this week. Mostly due to due to in real life problems like work etc. I honestly can't say whether it'll speed up anymore either, as Mass Effect 3 arrived on Saturday, so I'm going to start playing my way through that pretty soon, once more immersing myself in the wonderful world BioWare have created.

Anyways, onto what has been achieved. I've finished the test gear for my Black Talons for Heavy Gear Blitz. I wanted to do one as I had a pretty solid idea of the colour scheme involved, but wanted to make sure it was okay before I just went on and painted everything in that colour. Now I am sure, I'm already starting work on the other members of the Primary Insertion Team, while the Operational Assistance Team (the heavy hitters) are being assembled to receive the same treatment.

An Owl C3 with a medium rifle, the leader of my Primary Insertion Team.

I wanted to go for a black colour scheme, to keep with the whole stealth idea, though decided to do the cloth muffling around the joints a light grey, and to throw a small amount of red at the shoulders and knees, along with some metal to give it a bit of colour and provide some contrast. The base is done to look like desert, to show the Terra Novan desert/wasteland. I may add some grass tufts to it though, to make it a bit more lively.

And just to prove they haven't been forgotten about in all this.

3 Arc Fleet, one NCO and two missile launcher troops

Some Arc Fleet troops from Critical Mass. They've received the base colours and they've been washed. They've now just awaiting the blue highlight and painting the gun and visor basically. Then another three will take their place on the pots.

Shall try and post more pics soon, if I can be pulled away from the Xbox.

Heavy Gear Blitz and more Critical Mass

Managed to get some more work done over the weekend on some projects, namely finishing up the last of the Augment suits for my slowly building Arc Fleet force from Critical Mass, and also managed to finally put together my Primary Insertion Team for the Black Talon force for Heavy Gear Blitz.

So here we go then. From Critical Mass Games, some Augment suits. I've shown the lasers before, but I jazzed them up a bit, so thought I'd post new pics.

Augment suits armed with laser cannons

Augment suits armed with plasma cannons

These will be placed on a base of 3 figures, with one regular figure and two specialist figures per base. I decided as well that the lasers and plasma cannons needed something a bit extra, given they were special weapons, so decided to give them a bit of colour on the guns. It will also save a lot of peering at figures with black guns, trying to work out whether that's a laser cannon or a plasma cannon on the tabletop.

I must say, I'm really impressed with these figures as well. Until I saw these figs, I'd always kinda brushed 15mm aside as not having much detail etc, but these are really nice. The only one I'm not incredibly keen on is the Plasma cannon on the far right, as he has a bit of a knockity-knees pose.

Anyways, on to part two, my Black Talons for Heavy Gear Blitz, from Dream Pod 9

Black Talon Primary Insertion Team

Assembled these guys at the weekend, which took a lot longer than expected due to my superglue being more like water that eventually sets. For those interested, that's an Eagle trooper with a heavy autocannon/light grenade launcher, an Owl C3 with a medium rifle and satellite uplink, another Eagle, this time with a gatling laser cannon and chainsword (all Eagles have these, just he's got his in hand to dish out some close quarters fighting) and another Eagle with again a HAC/LGL.

The plan for these is (and this has already begun) undercoat black, drybrush with dark sea green to bring out the edges, cloth covering at articulation points a light grey and then some panels either a darker grey or a dark red, I haven't decided yet. All the optics etc will be done a green colour. Hopefully I'll get these guys up in painted glory in a while.

Giant robot games and "The Oath"

Well as mentioned there would in fact be giant robots in this blog, cause ever since I saw my first episode of Robotech many moons ago, I've had a soft spot in my heart for them. Eventually I found Battletech and enjoyed it for a time, but I found the rules too complicated, with the mechs being likened the titans they were meant to be and taking an age to fell. Also I was never entirely sold on the design aesthetic of the miniatures, being too boxy and clunky looking for my tastes.

Then one day, upon a visit to my FLGS I happened upon the Heavy Gear rulebook. I saved up my money, bought it and never looked back.

Set in the far future, on the colony world of Terra Nova, Heavy Gear pits two polar nations, The Confederated Northern City States and the Southern Republic (or North and South) against each other, along with several independant city states. To add something else into the mix the Colonial Expeditionary Force from Earth has come forth, wanting to reclaim Earth's formerly abandoned colony worlds for the resources they hold.

Produced by Dream Pod 9 I feel it's a game worth a look. While 12mm in scale, I shall admit it's more expensive than you may think, due to the price of the miniatures which are slightly higher than average, and also the fact it concentrates on Gears (the slang name for the giant robots, developed on Terra Nova initially for labour purposes), therefore you end up playing a 12mm game with effectively 28mm miniatures. Still I feel they would work well for other things, I intend to shoehorn them in as large scale powered armour suits along with some GZG troops I intend to buy for Tomorrow's war.

At the same time, DP9 have recently come out with a nice range of game specific scenery as seen below

Badlands outpost

Wind turbine

 These, along with various others in their range allow you to assemble small settlements that are typically found in the badlands, the equatorial desert no-mans land that separates the two powers. And since DP9 are currently doing offers right now I might pick some up. Again some due to having doors etc are specific to a 12mm setting, while others such as the wind turbine are probably more useful for well any setting. It could be a massive turbine in 6mm to a small rooftop turbine in 28mm. They also do a good line of stone heads in an Easter Island style.

And now on to the other part of this post. The Oath. Myself and 3 other members of my local gaming club are travelling to Salute this year, and we've all taken an oath to work our way through our backlog of miniatures and not to buy anymore figures till then. So far I've managed quite nicely. I'll have a bit of catching up to do but I'm thinking of getting some of this scenery as they're currently doing an offer. So really my opinion is that scenery doesn't count as figures. It's used to enhance the game. At least that's what I'll tell myself to quiet my conscience.