Something a bit different from me.

[Harry]

So here is a bit of a change from my normal Fantasy stuff.

We have played a couple of Rouge Trader and some other Sci fi Role playing stuff and we got to talking about a game where you were the captain of a cargo vessle knocking around in a fairly low tech arse end of space scratching a living from the odd bit of salvage, a bit of haulage work and the odd bit of crime ... all very Firefly.

The idea would be that each 'turn' a card would be turned and another job would be available which one or more captains might go after .... and chaos would ensue.

The details of the game are not important ... indeed at this stage they have not even been written.

Meanwhile I have painted up a few ships.

These are plastic space ships from EM4 Miniatures. They were originally produced for a game called Silent Death released back in 1990.

You get twelve on a sprue for a couple for pounds!!!!!
Here is what I have done with them:

 

[Harry]

Next I was going to need some asteroids:

These are plastic rocks that came with a cheap toy digger ... again cost me a couple of pounds:

 

[Harry]

Finally I needed some space ...

I joined a Kickstarter for Eggbox games to produce some star maps and for a very good price got myself a nice little game mat:

 

[Harry]

Finally I dug through the bits box to find some old Citadel spaceships .... see you knew there was some "Oldhammer" in there somewhere.

This is one of the very first Citadel Miniatures I owned.
It was one of their early range of spaceships ... I think this one was the John F. Kennedy.

It is pretty good for size ... although I suspect the scale in mind was slightly different:

and then I found some of their littte fighters ... these are great because the original spaceships are really single and double seater fighters but having a few of these makes all but the smallest of my EM4 ships into fighter bombers of small transport size ships ... much more of where we were going with this:

 

[Harry]

Finally needed something badass and huge to be a big Military vessle for that scene where the plucky rouges are about to be borded by the Imperial Navy ...

Anyway I picked up one of these OOP Bandai plastic kits that seemed fit the picture I had in my head:

Then we need a lot of floating bits of space junk and a few moons and I am all set.
So bit more painting and modelling to come.
Will post updates as they happen ... including whatever rules we come up with.

 

[Just John]

Brilliant stuff Harry. I really like the white paint job on the EM4 ships.

 

[axiom]

Very nice nice Harry! The white ships with the red markings are very simple yet striking.

 

[Harry]

Thanks fellas,
I love the white ones too.
I was going to paint them all white ... it is how I imagine space ships to be .... but decided that might be a bit boring. So got adventurous. I figured at £2.50 a set of 12 ... I can always paint some more.

 

[Harry]

I was quite heavily influenced by this amazing plog. (Who used colour really well ... he had a plan. )

This guy bought a whole bunch of these sprues and had at them with a craft knife .... Fantastic stuff.

http://www.boardgamegeek.com/thread/636657/eclipse-xeno-project-diy-spaceship-customization-d

 

[Bane]

An excellent project idea and some really lovely work on those little ships. Funnily enough I've just been introduced to Firefly through the boxed set and it to has given me some ideas for getting involved in all this rogue trader / 40k malarkey that everyone oldhammery bangs on about.

 

[Harry]

An excellent project idea and some really lovely work on those little ships. Funnily enough I've just been introduced to Firefly through the boxed set and it to has given me some ideas for getting involved in all this rogue trader / 40k malarkey that everyone oldhammery bangs on about.

Don't listen to them .... Rouge Trader was just fantasy role playing in a Sci-Fi setting.
I have enjoyed that box set many times ... sad tw@t that I am.

 

[Captain Crooks]

There's no such thing as OOP Bandai kits - they might pause production for a decade or so but they always seem to bring stuff back... i spent years painstakingly collecting Yamato/Star Blazers kits to complete my collection, some pieces dated back to the 80's and cost me a small fortune, then i went on honeymoon in Japan and saw them all on the shelf at a department store brand spanking new and cheap as chips... mega facepalm!!

As for this game, I'm really interested to see where you take it, as it's the kind of thing I'd love to play myself chop chop!

 

[zoggin-eck]

Fantastic work so far Harry!

I got a few sets of these ships (and the mechs EM4 sell) a couple of years ago but never but never painted any. These pics are pretty inspirational, perhaps I'll get around to them finally. Thanks for the BGG link, too.

Great mix of different companies ships, too. With spaceships, I think you can get away with all sorts of random models thrown together

 

[Suber]

Beautiful ships! I really like what you did there!

 

[Harry]

Thanks fells, much appreciated.
Glad you like them.
Wasn't sure this was going to be this forums sort of thing.

There's no such thing as OOP Bandai kits - they might pause production for a decade or so but they always seem to bring stuff back... i spent years painstakingly collecting Yamato/Star Blazers kits to complete my collection, some pieces dated back to the 80's and cost me a small fortune, then i went on honeymoon in Japan and saw them all on the shelf at a department store brand spanking new and cheap as chips... mega facepalm!!

As for this game, I'm really interested to see where you take it, as it's the kind of thing I'd love to play myself chop chop!

Yeah I know what you mean. I was looking for another one and found a whole bunch on ebay Buy it now for £5 which six months ago were OOP £15 starting bid. Clearly someone has decided their is still a market for these kits. Which is great because they are some fun little kits.

 

[Asslessman]

Wasn't sure this was going to be this forums sort of thing.

I just found my Space Fleet box before Christmas and got my hands on some ships to go with it. Definite interest here ! The Em4 ships rool really cool and I might to copy you on that.

Where id you get the gaming mat?

 

[Harry]

Wasn't sure this was going to be this forums sort of thing.

I just found my Space Fleet box before Christmas and got my hands on some ships to go with it. Definite interest here ! The Em4 ships rool really cool and I might to copy you on that.

Where id you get the gaming mat?

I have never played any of the GW spaceship games ... are any of them any good?
Battle fleet seems quite big?

I got my gaming mat from this kickstarter:

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1716406738/starscapes

I think they have just completed all pledges so these should be available to buy.
Very happy with the quality.

 

[Asslessman]

I have never played any of the GW spaceship games ... are any of them any good?
Battle fleet seems quite big?

Thanks for the info on the mat.

Space Fleet came with very simple rules (to play with kids) but had advanced rules in the WD that still were very straightforward and easy to get. I'm going to paint my set to game with my little nephew at some point and think he will have no problem getting it.

Battlefleet gothic, I've only played this one once and it sort of plays like EPIC 40k. A bit more "heavy handed" and complex. I do prefer the Space fleet rules which can either be used for campaigns and all or for little impromptu quick games. All in all the rules fit on 2 A4 sheets (apart from the ship ref cards).

You can get the rules in those WD issues :

#139 - SPACE FLEET Rules Expansions for Our New Game of Spaceship Combat Set in the Warhammer 40,000 Universe Article length: 26 pages.

New Components/Rules: Battlefleets, Spaceship data cards, Helm computers, counters, four pages of rules, and loads of fluff.

New Ships: Emperor Capital Ship, Gothic Battleship, Ironclad Battleship, Firestorm Cruiser, Cobra Destroyer, Castellan Shield Ship; Eldar Wraithship.


#140 - SPACE FLEET Additional Background Rules, Data Cards, & Counters for Our Game of Spaceship Warfare in the Warhammer 40,000 Universe Article length: 30 pages.

New Components/Rules: Galactic Civilization, Stellar Fleets, Sub-Stellar Ships, Planetary Defense, Spaceship data cards, counters, & twelve pages of rules and loads of fluff.

New Ships: Dominator Battleship, Tyrant Battleship, Galaxy Troop Ship, Goliath Factory Ship; Eldar Shadowhunter.


#141 - SPACE FLEET Four New Spaceships, Rules for Flagships, & and a Scenario System for Our Game of Spaceship Combat in the 41st Millennium Article length: 23 pages.

New Components/Rules: Flagship data cards, Spaceship data cards, counters, & fourteen pages of rules and loads of fluff.

New Ships: Annihilator Battleship, Dicator Battleship, Thunderbolt Cruiser, & Stalwart Escort Ship.


#146 - SPACE FLEET Tyranid Hive Fleets Article length: 18 pages.

New Components/Rules: Action cards, Command cards, Spaceship data cards, counters, & nine pages of rules and loads of fluff.

New Ships: Hiveship, Dark Prowler, Drone, Wardrone, Deathburner Kraken, Doomripper Kraken, Ramsmiter Kraken, Hellblaster Kraken, Spore Mines, & Void Fiend.


#147 - SPACE FLEET Imperial Constellation Targeting Ships Article length: 2 pages.

New Components/Rules: Spaceship data card & one page of rules.

New Ship: Constellation Targeting Ship.

 

[Harry]

Thanks Assless'

That is an unbelievably helpful post.
That's my reading for the weekend sorted.


Something else that struck me ... the length of some of those articles. That really was when WD was a good read.

 

[Asslessman]

Thanks Assless'

That is an unbelievably helpful post.
That's my reading for the weekend sorted.


Something else that struck me ... the length of some of those articles. That really was when WD was a good read.

There's gold in those for sure, especially if you keep in mind Confrontation was released in WD at just the same time meaning you had 2 games provided in the magazine the same year.