Holy Crap! I Actually Played a Game!

Yes sirree, I played a game this weekend with my Kra'Vak, renamed the Laju Kadal (which means fast lizard in Indonesian according to google translate). I was so excited to see my little guys on the field that tactics went right out the window, which, if I'm honest, they usually do. I am not the wisest general the table has ever seen but it was a fun game none the less.

We used the old Gruntz rules, even though we have the new rules. What we lack is the new Gruntz unit builder and I'm just too lazy to make a list up by hand anymore.

Here's some pics.

The military compound is in the upper left.  Shanty town in the center.

Some workers going about their business unaware that an attack is on the way.

More milling about.

The attack commences.

The defending commander has things well under control from behind a bunker.

These cannons packed a nasty punch.

Some power armor headed to their doom.

That tank beyond the trucks was the bane of my existence.

This walker didn't treat me well either.

Not a real AAR, just some pics. In short, I had my forces spread too thin and he just mopped the floor with me. I dealt some damage, wiping out a couple squads of gruntz, but in the end he mopped the floor with me. But the table looked good and the minis were freshly painted. A great Sunday afternoon!

Kra'Vak!

It's taken me a while but I finally got back to my Kra'Vak. I'd done maybe a quarter of my army when my buddy and I got bitten by the Weird West bug. But back in November I got stuck in with my little alien warriors and am now done (for now). The big guys could use some weathering. The little guys could use some squad markings. I have four more mini-mecha I could paint up and add in, but as of right now I need a break from white and turquoise.

The army was purchased with Gruntz in mind. I haven't had a chance to look over the new rules but I believe Robin said there would be a little more flexibility where specialist units come in. I hope that means my mini-mecha will add the oomph I'll need to combat some enemy tanks. If not, well, I guess I'll paint up those other four guys and maybe, just maybe, buy some tanks of my own.

So, without further ado...

Fearless Leader

I really like how the scales came out on his Not Dewback.

 

Squad with LAW

Same deal with reversed paint scheme.

 

Squad with SAW

Another reversed paint scheme.

Power armor squad.

Power armor squad with, can you guess?...a reversed paint scheme.

Anti-tank mini mechs and infantryman for scale.

Anti-tank mini mechs with infantryman.

I haven't played a game with these guys yet but my tentative fluff is that each infantry squad has one of the mini mechs assigned to it. Sort of a big brother, watching their backs. That might not be the best strategy-wise but I like the idea of it.

Like I said earlier, I think the big guys need some weathering, probably some paint chipping along the edges to soften up those clean lines, but that can wait for now. I want to work on some more terrain (city stuff most likely) and paint up some of the Match Box stuff I've acquired over the past few months. Mostly it's a bunch of civilian vehicles for objectives and atmosphere; dump trucks, earth movers, that sort of thing. Santa did bring me one of the Fast Freight vehicles for Christmas. It's a sort of ridiculous car/train that would look great as part of a convoy. They come with an "engine" and a single "freight car," but their are couplers so you could conceivably buy as many as you want to make a long train. At $6 a piece, though, I don't think I'll be buying a ton of them.

Anyway, hope you like my Kra'Vak and thanks for looking!

Fanfare for the Common Crew

Here's my Ground Zero Games Civilian Crew:

I am just in love with these sculpts. The level of detail is superb, even though they aren't swimming in it. Case in point, the baseball cap on the women:

Such a nice touch. And those tiny little zipper pulls aren't too bad either.

These might see service as medics and engineers in some larger scale Gruntz games, but they'll definitely take part in some smaller, story based gaming.

I feel like I'm on a roll now. It's amazing how much I can get done when I don't have to go to work.

First Post

I'll backtrack and talk about getting into the 15mm sci fi world later. For my first post I want to talk about my most recent game. My buddy Chris and I took a day off from work this week and got out our newest painted minis. Chris used some figs from Khurasan's Spaceship Crew and the Sci Fi Hero and Spirited Sidekick. (Truth be told I am extremely jealous of these minis.)

I used some figs from Ground Zero Games. A Bot, a Robot, and three figs from their Firefly range Free Trader Crew. (I threw the pack of robots in at the last minute on a whim. So glad I did. My "BoxerBot9000" kicked some major butt and looked cool doing it.)

We had already played a few larger games with our "armies" using the Gruntz rules and wanted to try something small scale. My sister, bless her heart, bought me Blasters and Bulkheads for Christmas and I had been reading it and liking what I saw. But on game day we decided to stick with Gruntz and try to pull it back from squads to characters.

Here's what we did. We settled on 100 points and made each mini a specialist. This gave each character hit points, access to two perks, and a nice selection of weapons to choose from. In retrospect we realized we should have made our leaders up as commanders, it would have added another dynamic.

We used the Seize the Courier scenario from Blasters and Bulkheads. Each team is trying to nab a courier as he makes his way across the table to his small spacecraft.

1 point for taking the courier, 1 point for getting his attache case. The game was a real nail biter. My guys grabbed the courier early on but took a beating in the process. Chris's guys would not let up and I finally had to drop the courier and make a run for it with the attache case. 1 point each and we both took two casualties.

It was a fun experiment and super easy to do with the Gruntz Excel army builder.

And finally, the obligatory apology for the crappy cell phone pics.