'Plain Terrain' features: The concept

A 'Plain Terrain Feature'? A 'Terrain Feature' that is 'Plain'? Now this might seem like a 'backwards' concept, but as an American lady I've just been working with says "Here's the thing."

Look at those glossy rulebooks like 'Black Powder', the 'WAB' or 'Lord of the Rings' (or any GW stuff), the 'Rapid Fire' books or the new 'War and Conquest' rules, and, if you are the average wargamer, you have a 'drool' reflex over the pictures.

Now those pictures have lots of very nice painted figures. Which is what we all aspire to. But, they also have some thing else, and putting together this blog and photographing my own miniatures, has really brought it home to me. These publications have photos that all have lovely terrain, but it isn't just any old terrain, nearly always the figures are set out on 'Terrain boards'.

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Now carved, sculpted, flocked and 'teased' terrain boards are all very nice. They look gorgeous, all the best 'exhibition' games at shows use them, and so as I have just mentioned do the rulebook and wargames mag photos. There are, however, three major drawbacks with terrain boards, which are: SPACE, SPACE, and SPACE. Ok, so enough boards to cover a 2 foot square DBA board or even a 4 foot one, or even your basic table are not that many, but obviously you are going to want to have your 'carved out river' boards, too, and your hill boards, and our maybe mountain boards, too, and maybe your road boards... and your city boards...oh, and your desert boards, and your desert hills...and river...and maybe some marsh boards...what about your 'Mars' boards, and Martian hills...and snow boards...and "anyone for trenches?"...

Now if you belong to a club with tons of storage space fine. If you have a spare barn, fine....but I once met a guy at a show who told me he had one of the biggest set of terrain boards going...and admitted the missus had said on numerous occasions "It's me or the terrain boards!". I saw him at the same show a year later. "A new set of terrain boards, again this year" I said. "Yes", he replied. "What's the missus got to say about that?" I asked. "Actually, I got divorced six months ago" he said....

...Now some wargamers might be happy to choose the terrain boards over the missus, but to be honest, much as I love my wargaming, that doesn't include me!

The fact is terrain boards are a right pain. I know a guy at the club who says he has a full set, but says it is too much trouble to get them out the attic for a game, unless its for a show.

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So what's the alternative? Well, its the other 'system' used week in and week out at wargames clubs for your average game, ie: chuck a cloth on the table and scatter 'terrain features' on it.

But, the short-comings of this system really came home to me when I saw some pictures of a game I myself put down at my local club. The cloth was a not unpleasant or unrealistic green felt, so OK a a proper static grass 'battle-mat' might have been a bit better, but the overall look was so dull and utilitarian, it just did not 'zing'...and all that effort which had gone into painting and colour washing, and highlighting and basing my figures just paled into insignificance on this vast expanse of plain coloured background.

To make the point this is a photo of a battle at my local club using figures painted by one of our best figure painters used in a game with a plain cloth and a few terrain features.

Reece's superbly painted armies...on a very ordinary looking table cloth!!!

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Now, a while back I sat and really studied the pics in the 'Fire and Fury' rulebook. The table for these pics is actually a plain cloth or more probably blanket. But immense care has been taken to break up the plainess of the underlying cloth. Bits of cordurey for plowed fields, 'fake fur' for wheat fields, lots of those little fences made out of matchsticks beloved by ACW gamers, little stones scattered about.

So at one time, I thought that might be the way to go, building up a little collection of corrugated card, scraps of carpet and some painted cork tile - all light and easy to carry and easily 'thrown down' to represent fields and the like (ie. 'plain terrain' in wargames parlance). Here's a shot I took, as it happens also of a table set up for an ACW wargame:
Barring the odd gap showing up in river sections etc. I think the photo looks pretty good, and its looks like a 'well-dressed' battlefield. The problem is, well, it LOOKS GOOD IN THE PHOTO, but it doesn't actually look so good in real life.

This partly comes across in the second photo above, which shows a less flattering view, where I the angle does not fool the eye as much. Edges curling up and so forth show up. This problem is even worse IN REAL LIFE. Because unfortunately when you are actually standing over the table, unfortunately a bit of corrugated card looks like well...a piece of corrugated card, a piece of carpet tile...like a piece of carpet tile...a bit of painted cork tile, like a bit of painted cork tile and so forth. With a crease or curl here or there it quickly looks pretty 'tatty' basically.

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Now the fact is, it is possible to make 'terrain features' which look much better than this. Wargamers do it all the time for hills, rivers, roads, marsh and so forth, using sand, sculpted foam, flock and scatters, and there are stacks of blogs out there showing off this sort of work. But they all tend to have something in common. They all concentrate on 'terrain features', ie. unusual terrain - things that hinder movement, block line of sight and have an impact on the game.

What tends to get ignored is all the rest of the table, which for a lot of games, especially ancients or Napoleonic say, is just 'plain', ie. does not affect the game in any way.

Now, hang on, you might say, if you start making this sort of terrain, aren't you back to 'Terrain boards' all over again. To which my answer is 'not necessarily'. At least not the sort of boards that cover the whole table. Why not just have a few decent sized (say two foot square, or two by three) either regular or irregular shapes cut from MDF and 'terrained', ie. crafted from sand, often painted and drybrushed, and enhanced with scatter etc. to represent fields, or areas of rough meadow or pasture, or formal garden, or sandy ground, or moorland, or bare rock (eg. for Sci-Fi) or shell-hole blasted no-mans land or snow or frozen lake...or whatever, as the sort of 'plain' terrain you are likely to encounter on your battlefield... just to 'throw down' as you do for actual 'features'?

Now this admittedly an extra piece of kit to store and carry around, but they should be much less demanding in this respect than a whole table worth of terrain boards, because you are just trying to 'breakup' the look of the plain cloth. Two or three of these 'plain-terrain' features should do it. Storing 2 or 3 of these 'features' for each terrain type you want to do, is much less than for terrain boards (where you need 24 SQUARE FOOT just to cover a 8'x6' table).

Well that's the 'concept'. I've managed to get a nice 4mm MDF board at Wicks and dried out a heap of rough sand. So as soon as I get the jig saw out I'll be sharing the results...

Star Wars Game with FUBAR Rules

 This is the set up for our first try out of FUBAR rules using Star Wars figures. We put the board together with the paper board and cardboard tiles that come with the CMG game, and a few photo copies of the same. The scenario was based on the first battle scene of (what I at least think of as) the first Star Wars film (now confusingly called Episode IV: New Hope). Princess Leia is transporting the top secret plans acquired by the Rebel Alliance for the Death Star, when her ship, Tantive IV, is attacked and boarded by Imperial Stormtroopers led by Darth Vader. The idea behind the scenario is that four squads of Imperial Stormtroopers come on board from two different directions (bottom left and right in the top photo). The Rebel troopers and passengers must hold them off long enough for Princess Leia to rush across to the Droids (or in this case droid as lacking an R2D2 model between us, we only had C3PO), plant her message, then Droids and Princess Leia had to try and escape to the escape pods (top left of top picture) before the Empire took control of the ship. We subsequently modified this rule in the course of the game to say that the Droids must escape FIRST - we made C3PO a 'green figure' ie. difficult to activate and inclined to bumble around, and Princess Leia a Veteran to make her good in combat. The original rule would have made it easy for Princess Leia to escape, and the modified one left her to try to fight a fighting withdrawal to try allow the droids to escape (as per the film). We ruled that any hits on Princess Leia and the droids had to be taken as Suppressions ie. delaying them but not killing them. We also ruled that if necessary the Imperial Player could bring on fresh squads of Stormtroopers after taking enough losses to make one up-the idea being that the Empire would eventually overwhelm the ship.

The top picture shows the battle already underway. Princess Leia has run out of her quarters on the way to activate C3PO. Meanwhile the two squads of Imperial Stormtroopers have charged in from the bottom left, one taking heavy casualties, the other suppressed and pinned down. On the right hand side of the board, however, we encountered the effect of the FUBAR activiation system. A squad of Stormtroopers and a Probe Droid got to the entrance to a corridor and refused to activate - for several rounds! Executions all around later!

 Eventually I managed to get a second squad to a second the corridor on the right and they stormed in, shot up a squad of Rebel Troopers but were suppressed themselves...

 ...a second squad behind them charged forward, charged into a room and started to shoot up a squad of fighter pilots and passengers blocking their way.

 At this point the squad of Stormtroopers hesitating at the other corridor entrance finally activated and moved forward into a room, letting in the probe droid behind it...

 ...fresh squads of Stormtroopers followed behind them...

 ...further shots were exchanged...

 ....a squad on the bottom left held on despite being badly shot up and reduced to two figures...

 ....while a lone surviving Stormtrooper from the other squad on the bottom left was left sniping at a blocking squad of Rebel troopers...

 ...until also supported by a fresh Stormtrooper unit behind him...

 ....My squads on the right recovers from suppressions and move forward...

 ....but C3PO is finally making some good progress towards the escape pods covered by Princess Leia...

 ....the probe droid proves its worth inflicting three hits firing into the rear of a squad of Rebel Troopers defending the attack from bottom right...

 ...who then take more hits from my long 'stuck' squad Stormtroopers now storming through the ship...

 ...On the far right my lead squad of Stormtroopers activate to be able to charge into a squad of Rebel Troopers with another squad of Stormtroopers following on behind...

 ....C3PO and Princess Leia are just a few moves away from the escape pods (top left in this pic)...

 .....and there unfortunately the game had to end, right on a cliff hanger. The Rebel Defences crumbling all around as the Imperial Stormtroopers swept through the ship, just a handful of defenders left, but the droids and also Princess Leia herself tantalisingly close to escaping....

....unfortunately we had started late due to a bunfight between wargamers and card players over getting space to set up a table (a series of bunfights that has lead to us wargamers decamping and setting up our own club). If we hadn't started late the scenario would certainly have played out to a conclusion.

We had played this game as a play-test of the FUBAR rules, and I'd been worried that I needed 'big' squads of figures for the game to work. In fact, I shouldn't have worried. The rules worked fine not only for the size of squads that we used, but also when they had been whittled down to just a few figures, and the FUBAR activiation rules also worked fine for the 'character' figures that we deployed as individual units. We realised some markers might be useful to indicate if a unit has activated (or failed an activation test) - we just used dice instead- but otherwise the game played extremely well. We would definitely play these simple but subtle little rules again!

FUBAR Battle Report: Action on Garda Vilis

This is the set-up for playing out our FUBAR game set in the Traveller Universe 'Action on Garda-Vilis', based on the scenario set out in my last post. Figures are largely EM4 and Denizen.Vehicles came out of a couple of toy sets in the local Pound Shop.

We had previously tested FUBAR with the Star Wars Scenario set on starship, which gave us a good chance to test out the man-to-man combat rules, but I came up with this scenario to set how the vehicle combat and cover rules worked. The top picture shows the table layout from the Imperial side of the board. Most of the table was set up as jungle, with a marshy area on the right, and the little one horse town of Iluurum defended by the Imperial Troops and the Garda Vilis Police Detatchment. The Sword World Armoured Infantry entered in APCs from the other side. Various forces were deployed in the jungle - initially all units were hidden (the scraps of paper, with a number being decoy markers).

By this stage in the game, the Sword Worlders Pathfinder unit on the left opened fire on the Police Unit at the road block, followed by the Zhodani Commandos who fired from the jungle in front. The Imperials responded by withdrawing the police unit from the roadblock and opening fire on the Zho Commandos with Imperial Infantry in the blockhouse inflicting a number of casualties. The Imperial Commandos turned out to be deployed in the same piece of jungle as the Sword World Pathfinders and after a round of shooting decided to charge in and finish them with close assault. Steve decided that it wasn't such a good idea to leave his Zho Commandos so heavily exposed and pulled them back into the jungle and I sent a squad of Imperial Marines around to the right fire on them.This is the point caught on camera.

 This is a shot of the same scene from a different angle.

 And another from Steve (the Sword World) side of the table.

 Having finished off the Pathfinders, my Imperial Commando's forward observer spotted and called in a drone missile on one of the Sword World APCs. The vehicle was destroyed but most of the passengers bailed out, taking two casualties as suppressions.

Steve's other APC exchanged some long range auto cannon fire with my marines in the block house who responded with some RAM HEAP grenades which took out one cannon. Steve de-bussed his Sword World infantry into some jungle before something worse happened to their APC.

Steve finally grasped the concept of 'vertical envelopment' - he admits he finds all these modern warfare concepts very confusing and prefers the clean lines and tactics of phalanxes and tercios!- and teleported his Zhodani Commandos behind one of my squads of Imperial troopers and pretty much wiped them out with close range laser rifle fire.

...and there unfortunately the battle ended...out of time...given our 10.30pm 'out of the building' deadline in our new club. Indecisive, except for the fact that it was the Sword World task to break through the Imperial roadblock, so I guess an Imperial victory of sorts. Could certainly have done with a few more turns to finish off the game...which would have come down to whether the Zhodani commandos could have done any more damage, as the Imperial forces out-matched the Sword World Infantry that they were facing, now their transport had been knocked out/disarmed.

In their second outing the FUBAR rules were proving versatile and extremely playable. Turns could take a little while to play out but overall definitely worth continuing to test out.

FUBAR Scenario: Action on Garda-Vilis

This is a little scenario that Steve and I played out this evening at our 'new' new Club. Might be of some use to all 4 off my followers!!!

It is set in the Traveller RPG Universe.


IMPERIAL BRIEFING

Background:  The date is 136-1107. The place is Garda-Vilis in the Vilis subsector of the Spinward Marches.

All across the Imperial border reports are coming in of enemies of the Imperium pouring across the frontier. It is now 15 days since there have been confirmed reports of mass landings by Sword World troops on the border world of Garda-Vilis.

The 3272nd Imperial Infantry Regiment, a regular Imperial Infantry unit raised on Vilis, has been based on Garda-Vilis for the last 18 months, its third assignment to the world to assist local forces in a counter insurgence campaign against the anti-Imperial guerilla force the Tanoose Freedom League (TFL).

Local forces have proved to be unreliable, and the 3272th Imperial Infantry are the main force between the advancing Sword World army and the provincial capital of Karum.

Situation Report: Sword World Forces are advancing towards the city of Karum, Provincial Capital of Garda-Vilis.

Orders: Hold intermediate town of Illuurum.



Imperial Forces

3272nd (Vilis) Imperial Infantry Regiment

Element of 2nd Company ‘C’ Platoon

Capt  Hans Isidri Gauss Pistol Combat Armour Veteran

Fire-team ‘A’

Sgt Dmitri Kohl Gauss Rifle with RAM GL Combat Armour Veteran

Private x 4 Gauss Rifle with RAM GL Combat Armour Veteran

Fireteam ‘B

Sgt Gani Isshuggi Gauss Rifle with RAM GL Combat Armour Veteran

Private x 4 Gauss Rifle with RAM GL Combat Armour Veteran

Cpl Hagar Strom VRF Gauss Gun Combat Armour Veteran



374th Imperial Commandos

Capt Kelvin Jace Gauss Pistol Combat Armour Veteran

Forward Observation Officer Combat Armour Veteran

Lieut. Holman Starn Unarmed Combat Armour Veteran

Cpl. Golkar Gauss Rifle Combat Armour Veteran

L/Cpl Johanseen Gauss Rifle Combat Armour Veteran

Private Beale Gauss Rifle Combat Armour Veteran

L/Cpl Jasmon Rocket Launcher Combat Armour Veteran




Garda-Vilis Police Detachment


Lieut. Joss Harman Pistol Flak Jacket Seasoned

Squad ‘A’

Police Officer x 3 SMG Flak Jacket Green
Police Officer Shotgun Flak Jacket Green

Squad ‘B’

Police Officer x 2 SMG Flak Jacket Green
Police Officer x 2 Shotgun Flak Jacket Green



Weaponry Notes:

Gauss Rifle : As Assault rifle, but 2FP for full range.

Rocket Assisted Missile (RAM) Grenades: Each Trooper is issued with 2 HEAP and 2 HE Grenades. RAM Grenades have the range of a Grenade Launcher. Infantry –2 on armour save vs HEAP Grenade, but vehicles have +1.

Drone Missiles:  Forward Observer with Commandos may call in up to 4 Drone Missiles. This are as Mortars +1FP, and can be directed against vehicles.


Armour

Imperial Combat Armour is rated ‘Medium’ Armour
 SWORD WORLD BRIEFING

Background: The date is 136-1107. The place is Tanoose/Garda-Vilis in the Vilis subsector of the Spinward Marches.

The Imperium captured the thousand year old Sword World colony of Tanoose and renamed it Garda-Vilis in the Second Frontier World (615-620).

The time to strike back at the arrogant Imperium has come. Aided by our Zhodani allies the united forces of the Sword World have led the strike against the Vilis subsector.

The 146th Joyeuse Mobile Infantry has been committed as a strike force to recapture the former Sword World of Tanoose, where the brave freedom fighters of the Tanoose Freedom League have been fighting back against the hated Imperial occupation.

Situation Report: Local forces are crumbling or coming over to the Sword World cause all across Tanoose.

Only a few regular units of the hated Imperial occupying force stand in your way.

Orders: Strike on  and captured provincial capital Karum!

Sword World/Zhodani Forces


146th Joyeuse Mobile Infantry

Element of  1st Company, B Platton

1st Squad

APC 2 x LMG

Sgt ACR Flak Jacket Seasoned

Corp. Rocket Launcher Flak Jacket Seasoned

L/Cpl SAW (LMG) Flak Jacket Seasoned

Pvt x 5 ACR Flak Jacket Seasoned


2nd Squad

APC 2 x LMG

Sgt ACR Flak Jacket Seasoned

Corp. RPG Flak Jacket Seasoned

L/Cpl SAW (LMG) Flak Jacket Seasoned

Pvt x 4 ACR Flak Jacket Seasoned
Pvt x 1 Combat Shotgun Flak Jacket Seasoned


46th Pathfinder

L/Cpl Sniper Rifle Flak Jacket Veteran
Pvt Sniper Rifle Flack Jacket Veteran

Tanoose Freedom Fighters

Fighter x 2 Machine Pistol (SMG) None Green
Fighter x 3 Auto-rifle None Green


116th Zhodani Consulate Army Psi-Commandos

Lieut Laser Rifle Combat Armour Elite

Sgt Laser Rifle Combat Armour Elite

Private x 5 Laser Rifle Combat Armour Elite


Weaponry Notes

Advanced Combat Rifle (ACR): are rated as Assault Rifles.
ACRs are equipped with built-in RAM Grenade Launchers. Each Trooper has 2 HE Grenades. Range as GL. Effect as Grenades.

SAW – As LMG

Sniper Rifle- As Sniper Rifle.

Machine Pistol – As SMG.

AutoRifle – As Assault Rifle.

Laser Rifle – As Sniper Rifle.


Armour

Zhodani Combat Armour is rated as ‘Light’ Armour.


SPECIAL NOTE ON ZHODANI PSI-COMMANDOS

Zhodani Psi-Commandos may teleport, but must first acquire a target either through familarisation or by clairvoyance and telepathic communication.

Only the officer is capable of Clairvoyance. One location can be designated as a familarised ‘return point’ on the Sword World/Zho side of the table.

To acquire a target clairvoyantly 6+ on 2D. –1 for each subsequent attempt.

To teleport 3+ on 2D. –4 for each subsequent attempt. Note All Commandos must test INDVIDUALLY.

Star War Forces Assembled!

So if you've been following this blog you'll know the latest 'rush of blood to the head' is to put together a force of Star Wars CMG figures to put into action to test out the FUBAR rules. The orders from two eBay shops have arrived so I took these shots for Steve to have a look at to get some feel of what the game would look like. First up the best equipped force, Imperial Stormtroopers led here by Darth Vader:

These are the other Imperial troops I figures (there's another Imperial Navy officer and a Scout somewhere) which might make up a little unit, say for a shipborne action.

Next up are the Rebel Troopers led by a Princess Leia figure. Numbers-wise not at all bad, similar to the Imperial Stormtroopers. There is the little question of lack of heavy weapons, especially if we equip the Stormtroopers with an AT-ST, how will the Rebel Troopers be able to bring it down....But there is another fly in the ointment. Have a close look at the figures strolling with their weapons across their chests...

...A quick close-up...

...and another, which shows the problem more clearly. The figures from the 'Imperial Entanglements' range are huge! I know these are more 'toys' than models, but what was in Wizards heads when they let this one slip passed them. They just do not scale. Now I know this is often much less of a problem on the tabletop than when placed side by side, but this is going to bug me!

Next up my little force of Rebel Commandos. Again to be honest there is a scaling issue with the much nicer (but older and very expensive) figures from the Rebel Storm range and those from later ranges, but this is no way nearly as noticeable, as the earlier figures are in a half face down couching forward pose, so true scale height is not obvious.

Thius is my Hoth troopers with officer and Luke Skywalker with blaster. Enough for a small hold-out garrison may be but only just one unit, certainly not an 'army'...

These are my Wookies (might have one more). Nice little force, scaling not an issue...they are all 'huge' in comparison to human figures, and so what if some look 7 foot and others 8 foot tall!

These are my little Jawa unit. A bit of a scaling problem..in fact more a colour match issue...but in fact with these little fellas crouching and all, nothing more to worry about...

This is a little collection of 'fringers' with the new addition the Twi'lek assassin in front. I've got four or five more not pictured here. OK as a unit. In fact, as I've got at least 4 Mon Calamari mercs, these could be deployed as a unit with the Rebel Alliance..Next up, my bargain basement (£1.99) Han Solo and four human characters. One with a rifle didn't turn up and I still need to chase it. Pleased with these as they are very versatile and can use them in other games (eg. Traveller, Serenity based) too.

I'm very pleased with this figure (I bought 3), a 'Whipid Tracker', very much my idea of a 'characterful' but 'generic' primitive alien 'aborigine' to fit into any role-playing as well SW setting...

...as could these guys, which could help 'dress' a scenario as senators, diplomats, officials, nobles, merchants or whatever...

Finally, within the collection I've got five of the main characters from the first Trilogy. Nice to add, R2D2, Obi Wan, Luke with Light Sabre and Yoda, but basically enough to crew the Millenium Falcon and chase around on missions....

So Steve any thoughts for getting these guys into action?

Sources for Star Wars figures

I placed my order yesterday with two eBay shops on eBay UK, 'Yugblad's Mountain Emporium' and 'Robinson Gaming Supplies'. Both have a good selection of Star Wars figures. There are a couple of other eBay shops specialising in SW figures, notably 'Green Angel Games' and 'Miniature Games', although Green Angel is generally more expensive for common figures, although to be fair they do have more figs from the older sets. Elsewhere on the web, UK based 'The 13th Floor', which used to be one of the biggest over here, no longer seems to have any in stock.

An article on Wikipedia I found yesterday confirmed that Wizards of the Coast decided not to renew its SW licence in 2010, so there definitely won't be any new sets or re-issues, so the time-span to pick up any more figures is likely to be limited.

Doing some more 'google' searches last night, I found this shop, based in the US:

The CCG Armoury

It can be found at

http://www.ccgarmory.com/

The 'blurb' says it ships internationally, and prices are much more reasonable than the UK, eg. 50 cents (ie. around 30p) for a recent common figure like a Hoth trooper rather than £1 a fig from the UK shops. So, say a 24 figure, force which would be £24 plus in the UK would work out at just £8, which would make the higher postage worth it.

There also appear to be LOTS of tempting goods in stock, which I couldn't find in the UK stores, including large models from the 'Universe' sets such as Tuskan raider on Bantha for around 8 dollars. Not good for the wallet to see all this stuff available, and probably not for that long!

Anyway, as I'm restraining myself for now, I thought I'd make this blog entry so I don't lose the URL.

Order for Star Wars Reinforcements

Following on from the last blog entry brainstorming on using Star Wars figures with Steve for a game of FUBAR, I came to the conclusion, that the reason part of the reason I have not got my SW collection out of the cupboard to game, is that it is only barely large enough to game a small man-to-man skirmish game, such as the CMG, and not big enough to even game with a small unit action ruleset such as FUBAR.

So whether we end up loving or hating the FUBAR rules, there is a pretty low chance of this collection seeing action, unless I expand it a bit. Yesterday was my birthday, so there was an inflow of cash to the wargaming coffers (along with funds from Christmas, as yet untouched). I have been pondering for a while what to buy next, with lots of ideas but no strong feelings, so I guess the 'force was with me' on this one, and I was straight on to eBay!

My initial idea was to spend 20 quid or so to just get enough for one FUBAR game, but looking around on the internet for figures, I discovered that Wizards of the Coast, who have mucked about with this excellent figure range from day one-using the whole annoying collectible miniatures concept selling boxes 'lucky dip' of figures, indulging in this ridiculous artificial creation of 'rare' figures, discontinuing a release barely a few months after issuing it etc. etc. - have now given up ENTIRELY on this whole line. It has been frustrating enough trying to put together the collection that I have, so I really didn't want to find I postponed purchasing some figures I'd end up wanting pretty soon, only to find them unobtainable. Already some figures that I wanted and could have bought a year or so ago for a pound each, now are costing double that, so I decided to go for it and make sure I at least got all the 'essentials' on board and enough to make sure I had enough variety to get at least a three or four games out of the collection. I could console myself that they were at least painted figures, and the initial enthusiasm could translate into figures that could go onto the table straight away, rather than going into the 'paint queue' and not appearing on the table for a year (or two?!?) later.

So for Steve's benefit my new order to expand the SW Collection is as follows:

8 Imperial Stormtroopers - From Imperial Entanglements set (£1.50 each not the £2.50 plus each commanded by earlier figs).
2 Imperial Stormtroopers with Heavy Weapons (From IE and Alliance and Empire ranges)
3 Imperial Engineers (Dark Times range at 99p each)
1 Imperial Fighter Pilot (Legacy of the Force range at 99p)

This brings my own force of Stormtroopers up to 20 figs plus two Heavy Weapons. Hopefully Steve will have a few in his collection so we'll now have a respectable force. I got the Engineers because writing the scenario brainstorm section of the earlier blog entry I realised that actions on-board ship and inside Imperial 'complexes', will be fairly easy to stage, scenery-wise. The Imperial Fighter Pilot made me think that having a downed Imperial Fighter with top secret plans etc. or maybe Lord Vader on board would make a good scenario, and the figure would make a good objective marker. Just need a Tie-Fighter model kit to 'smash up' to go with him!

8 Rebel Troopers (from IE range, because they are only 99p each)
5 Rebel Troopers (from AE range, tad more expensive at £1.25 per fig)
7 Rebel Commandos (from Rebel Storm range, costing £2.50 ea. - ouch!!!)
1 Veteran Commando (IE range at £1.99)
4 Rebel Commandos (AE range at 99p)

This means I have a force of Rebel Troopers to match the Imperial Stormtrooper one, ie. 20 figs with my existing 7. Also have a 12 man Rebel Commando force, bit small, but they will be veteran/elites, and probably deployed with something else. The Rebel Storm figures unfortunately just look the part, while the IE and AE ones are pretty dull and lack capes, so on the basis that I might not get the chance to get 7 in one go again, I bit the bullet and paid up £2.50 each for them.

1 Wookie Trooper (from Knights of the Old Republic range)
2 Wookie Scoundrels (Clone Wars range at 99p each)
2 Wookie Freedom Fighters (AE range at 99p each)

Also found some Wookie's to be able to put a unit on the table. With my existing 4 figures that gives me 9 figures. Not a full force, but just about enough for a 'neutral' force or to add to other Rebel Alliance forces.

1 Jawa Scout (Knights of Old Republic range at £1.99)
4 Jawa Scavenger (IE range at 99p each)

I umm'ed and ahh'ed about what to do about Tuskan raiders and Jawa. Originally added a force of Tuskan raiders, but not going to be that good for FUBAR, as the figures are all fighting hand-to-hand, and realistically I'd need a decent sized force to put on the table to make a credible 'raiding force' that would survive more than a couple of rounds of gunfire. The Jawas on the other hand could be a nice little force which adds a bit of variety to any scenario. Originally had more in the order, but scaled it back. I'll have a force now of 8 figures, a just a unit or two, but could be a 'third force' on the table, and the sort of force that could easily be guarding something valuable to both sides that they've scavenged, or leap out and ambush one side or the other, or be the target of an ambush themselves.

1 General Han Solo (Masters of the Force range at £1.99)
2 Human Scoungers (Legacy of the Force range at 99p)
2 Corellian Security Officers (Legacy of the Force range at 99p)
1 Antaran Ranger (Jedi Academy Range at 99p)

Added these because I thought they might be generally useful for my overall Sci-Fi figure collection. Getting a Han Solo figure for just £1.99 is a bit of a result. So far I just have Luke Skywalker with blaster and Princess Leia as personalities for my Rebel Alliance forces, which is pretty limited. It also gives me 4 of the 6 passengers and crew on the Millenium Falcon in the original 'Star Wars' movie - still need Obi Wan -but not going to pay £13 for one!-and R2D2- and Solo is good for various 'prequel' adventures re-enacting his smuggling days. The other four figures are basically 'civilian' looking characters, two with blaster pistols one with a blaster rifle, that could stand in for 'moisture farmers', merchant space crew, colonists, smugglers or whatever, in a Star Wars or other - eg. Traveller, Firefly- setting.

1 Imperial Dignitary (IE range at 99p)
1 Imperial Inquisition (Dark Times range at 99p)
3 Whipid Trackers (IE range 99p each)
1 Twi'lek Black Sun Vigo (IE range at 99p)

Finally for good measure, I added these figures to the order. Sci-Fi 'civilian' figures not waiving guns are very few and far between in any 28mm figure range, and the first two are just that. For Star Wars games, they would make good ambassadors or officials to protect for some scenario, or 'just dressing' for any town standing around talking. The Whipid Trackers just seized my attention as figures. Very nice little primitive/low tech aliens that any galatic explorers might run into on some backwater planet that they might employ as guides or exchange a few beads and trinkets with. Twi'lek was just a good figure to round out a Fringer force.

There are a few other things I would have liked to included in the order to 'round out' the collection, apart from the afore-mentioned Tuskan Raiders. I had originally put some Hoth Rebel Fighters in the order to give me two rebel forces, but for a Hoth scenario I also need Snow Troopers to fight them, which are otherwise fairly limited in their use, and I only have two figures at this point, so dropped them. I'd also have liked some more 'Fringers', so I at least had one, and preferably two decent forces (for Bounty Hunters versus Smugglers etc,), also at least a unit of mercenaries, to beef up either side and add some variety to different games, and I had thought to spend 16 quid or so getting another army altogether from .

But this will do for now and has blown enough of the Birthday and Christmas funds, certainly more than planned.

When they arrive, I should have two solid forces (Imperial Stormtroopers & Rebel Troopers) plus the Commandos, which if elite can be deployed as a smaller force. I now have my little Wookie and Jawa forces, to 'mix it up' in terms of scenarios (Commandos aided by Wookies trying to break into a rebel base? Both Imperial Stormtroopers and Rebel Commandos tasked with recovering some item recovered by Jawa scavengers?). I also have a few figures which might in themselves be a whole inspiration for a scenario - the downed Imperial Fighter pilot; the little human merchant crew being attacked by Fringers when bringing supplies to the Empire/Rebel Alliance; the Imperial dignitary being escorted by Stormtroopers who Commandos/Bounty hunters want to snatch, or the Whipid Trackers who could lead a Commando force through a hidden trail passed Imperial Stormtroopers...or be bribed to lead them into an ambush....

....all in all hopefully could be very worthwhile for future gaming...