Mantis tanks close in

Blight Wheel Miniatures are expecting a batch of 34 mantis tanks to go up at the store a bit later today. There's a list of local posting times here.

It seems to me there are very few unusual vehicle designs in tabletop gaming, and even insectoid walkers like the mantis aren't especially uncommon. In fact, it seems like a good time to ask - can you think of anything weirder?

I've got the urge to stat something that could use this model so here's a possible profile for Rogue Space. I've used the vehicle construction rules from December, but the mech expansion being developed at TheFairlyUnkempt might well be able to do the job better.

                                                                                                                              

Hektid ASW Mk. VII, 'The Creepy Crueller'

The Hektid Armoured Support Walker sees extensive use on the broken ground of the Eternal Fronts, often operating remotely at the whim of its Notwork cranAI. A response to the depth of current craterscapes, the Mk. VII bears a Morder on its thoratic mount.

C       0%     [0]

H     37.5%   [1]   Manipules (1 Attack)   [1]  Head + 1 Light Pulveriser   [1]  1 Big Morder

A     37.5%   [3]   C: -  H: 1, 1, 1  S: 5

S      25%    [2]   25' (ignores terrain to thorax height and abdomen width; 1D2 Attacks per 1S)

E     100%     8

                                                                                                                               

The profile for the Light Pulveriser is here. The Big Morder is a new Empyric weapon.

                                                                                                                               

Big Morder       H       Shells       as Shell       Indirect fire

                                                                                                                               

I've updated the footer with new blogs working on Rogue Space. If you don't know it yet, you can get the pocketmods free here and the book here or here; my old review is here.

Rogue Space downloads - Rogue Space news

RS@Hereticwerks - @Swords & Stitchery - @Mik's Minis - @TheFairlyUnkempt - @the Expanse

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Review - Rogue Space

With HoP focusing more on RPGs recently, and Von's new series, I thought I'd review a good starter game for sci-fi wargamers interested in setting up a roleplaying campaign.

The game is Rogue Space RPG by Fenway5. It's rules-light even by the standards of old school games, which makes it easy to pick up and keeps the focus more on the action and less on the detail of the mechanics. The basic rules and all the supplements so far are free, and each fits onto a sheet of A4 and folds into a booklet, which means you can keep everything in a miniatures case and play in the spaces around battles.

The downloads are here, found through the image at the top of the blog's right sidebar.

So how does it work? To my mind very well. The simple rules framework allows players to try pretty much anything they might want if they can imagine it, and in that sense the evocative name is a solid foundation, conjuring up all kinds of images of pulp sci-fi and space opera shenanigans, kickstarting the imagination even before the rules are read.

You'll need to know coming in that there are few limits with a system like this, but a bit of work may be needed, even if only through preparation or on-the-spot improvisation.

Review - Minority Report

What an interesting film this is. I deliberately catch up with big movies and books years after release so it was the first time I'd seen it. I think a delay helps balance the gadgets and gimmicks better with the more subtle themes, and this seems like a film to benefit.

On the whole I enjoyed it. In terms of inspiration it's got lots to take away. The concept and accumulation of detail are impressive, exactly as we'd expect, although for me it's not as profound as it seems to want us to think it is and there's plenty that doesn't work, is too loose, oddly tired or silly, and all the obvious laughs felt somehow out of place.

It does still manage to surprise though, on many levels, and there's a feeling of a natural development despite the railroading, with plenty of observations to make and layers to peel back. I'm still thinking about the construction, the relationships of the characters, the painful ambiguity, especially of the ending, and the very human, honest approach.

Appropriately, given the water theme, it's the immersion in the world that really grabbed me, though more the subjective world or worlds of the central figures than what I saw as a rather uneven near future setting. It also has one of the best shots I can remember in a blockbuster, downstairs at the hotel, 10 to 15 perfectly realised seconds of cinema.

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40K OSR? (10)

Been a while since the last full 40K OSR? post.

I don't know what's up, but it seems to me output is down. I'm assuming it's just a mix of summer, anger online at price rises and limits on sales to Australia, maybe the move from metal, plus the fact GW itself is bringing old 40K material back, possibly early edition complexity in sixth edition.

I'm still linking though. I'll do full updates like this less often, but you can see the latest mentions at any point using the 40K OSR? search label.

So then, the usual. First, what's a 40K OSR? There are some potential definitions here.

If you identify with the concept, especially if you're putting out new ideas, feel free to use Colonel Kane's logo, at the top of this post. If you do, consider crediting him and adding Tales from the Maelstrom to your roll. It's 40K magic; up now is an inquisitor's retinue.

• A little sadness to start, the sale at Mordian 7th Regiment of a converted adeptus mechanicus force, but check out the Thousand Sons jetbikes.

• Rules Manufactorum have been running reviews of Shawn Abreu's homebrew, the renegade Constantinus, Necron Stalkers and the Dark Eldar Avatar.

• If you're a craftworlder, For Holy Terra is creating Fandex: Eldar unit by unit, while for Chaos Chaotic Painter has some work on a Word Bearer fandex.

• Bix at The Veil's Edge has more for the Blood Drinkers too, on the Flaw.

• Auberon at Digital Waaagh! is back with more Ork madboyz, moroniks.

• Commissar Carrie at Inquisitork has a project status list - work for Lantz's AdMech FanDex is done, and there'll be a new blog, plus some Ork fiction. 

• Lantz himself gave us a conversion at Twin Linked Awesome, the Leman Russ Butcher, and as mentioned here, more AdMech minis completed.

• Staying with the adeptus mechanicus, fuzzbuket has a patrol droid.

• Over at A Gentleman's Ones Brian is making strong progress on the Heroes of Armageddon boards, and HoA itself only has a week left to run.

• Ghola Scale is sculpting an ambull, that classic Rogue Trader beastie.

• On the subject of building from scratch, thanks to James S at Warp Signal I found In the Grim Cheapness of the Far Future... and the 'Paperhammer'.

• And get this: The Inner Geek is building a card Emperor-class titan. There are Epic-scale reavers and warlords over at Confessions of a 40K addict.

• Unite All Action has a pair of the original Ork battlewagons converted.

• The Squat project at You Aint Seen Squat! proceeds apace, while Hungry Ghosts at his Chaos Squat blog adds to the history with the Citadel flyers.

Finally, perhaps as a wild card, Gotthammer at Collegia Titanica had a look at the development of the game, focusing on a critical juncture; first part here, second here.

If you think I've missed anything, leave a comment, and feel free to make suggestions.

Update: Big Jim has the first in a series on narrative gaming at Galaxy in Flames.

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40K OSR? (4)

Warhammer 40,000, yes, but what's an OSR?

Could be an Old School Renaissance, or Other School Renaissance, even an Optional School Renaissance, maybe something else again. Could even be a Revolution, or another 'R'.

Don't forget there's a 40K OSR logo now too, here to the right, thanks to Colonel Kane over at Tales from the Maelstrom. If you identify with the concept, and especially if you're putting out alternative content or ideas, feel free to use it.

If you do use it, I'd ask only you credit Colonel Kane and think about adding Tales from the Maelstrom to your blogroll. Why? Take a look at the APC up now, have a browse.

This week's update then, and a good mix it is.

• Miniature Wargame Conversions has an interview with Big Jim covering the past and future development of the Killzone ruleset.

• Port Maw has a battle report using the Book of the Arbitrator ruleset, and also gives us an expansion of those rules, for campaigns. Can you help?

• More great terrain at Mordian 7th Regiment, in the set-up for a battle report featuring the adeptus mechanicus, with advice on the setting-up process.

• Mordian7th also posted his robot maniple complete, with one each of the classic minis. If you want to convert some up yourself, try Lantz's latest tutorial. As complex as the old rules were, pure robot on robot skirmish games using an updated version of the program rules could be cool.

• Staying with modelling, Rictus at Recalcitrant Daze has made some resin Ork glyphs, while Unite All Action has an Ork warboss using some of the glyphs from the original battlewagon.

• Especially inspirational modelling for me was this plastic Snikrot converted up at The WarBlog, an approach that may be more necessary over time.

• Some inspirational modelling now on the horizon is CounterFett's plan to build Forgeworld's Vraks Heretics from Skaven.

• A surprise entry this week could be Stelek's suggestions for new vehicle rules. It's similar to the way Lantz does things in his AdMech FanDex.

• Mik at Mik's Minis gives us an overview of his Sons of Minos space marine chapter following the Deathwatch RPG structure.

• This week I posted a new approach to 40K, designed to simulate hives and closed spaces. It looks complex because I try to cover as much of the translation as possible, but the core mechanism is simple.

• I've also been posting very short fiction for Heroes of Armageddon, five entries so far, which could be set in the 40K universe.

• Finally, for a bit of reminiscing, try Dylan Gould's primed marines, which I can almost smell, and look more tempting than if they were painted by the greatest. Check out the whole blog in fact if you love the early days.

And that wraps up my list. If you've seen any other great posts, more alternative ways of looking at 40K, feel free to leave the links. The project's all about openness, variety and breadth. Carry it on at your own blog, do things your way, put cool new stuff out.

Remember the logo's available too if you want to promote the concept.

Update: This post at Blue Table Painting seems to fit, on a hypothetical minis game.
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