Col. Inri Podder, Head Surgeon, Royal Quar M*A*S*H on Luna

So many Quar characters!

Here is another one: Head Surgeon of the Mobile Field Hospital, Colonel Inri Podder.

Podder was 63rd in his class at the Royal Phobosian Academy of Medical Sciences. Though his critics are quick to point out that this means only 17 graduated lower than he did, he counters that of those who are still alive from his graduating year he is within the top 17 now! The life of an army doctor is not without it's dangers.

Podder has made a name for himself not just as a surgeon but as a peerless administrator, a skill requiring one to inflict as much pain administratively as he seeks to lessen medically.

Military forces on Earth's moon must travel for months at a time, far from civilized outposts in pursuit of mineral resources and so must bring their medical treatment centers with them.  Luna is far from a barren world as many suppose, and offers a host of dangers as well as enemy armies and all the standard dangers of combat.

A very minor conversion: this is the Crusader Quar, Caerten Baeden Croix. 

I've removed his rifle, and given him a head from a partisan: a floppy fishing hat. Complete with his cigar he's inspired by two different rather famous fictional Army head surgeons. 

The MASH unit will be this Quar, with some tents and cots. 

I'll be looking forward to painting him but it will be a bit of a wait. 

I haven't had time to paint him yet, been working a lot and getting ready for a trip to see family- having an early Christmas: flying out to Portland tomorrow, so I'll try to get to viewing blogs a bit but probably no updates here until next week. 

Royal Phobosian Quar Mechanic on Lunar Expedition

The campaign for Earth's Moon is underway, with the Earth nations of Britain, Prussia, Belgium, Northern United States, Kingdom of Danemark and the Quar nation of the Grand Dutchy of Phobos sending major expeditions to the planetoid.  Other Earth nations are also making themselves known in various ways.

For background of the campaign and the news reports check out Armored Ink where Alfrik reveals what he's willing to about the behind the scenes.

This campaign has some new additions from the Venus campaign, including a more expanded yet muddled diplomacy... which is both realistic and gets one thinking about the campaign more often than when just sending orders.  I have to say, Earth is showing how primitive and xenophobic their race is, as it seems there is more aggression being leveled at the Quar than the human nations.  It is almost as if these humans think they have more rights to Luna simply because it orbits their planet of birth!  As the Quar of Phobos can tell you, the Barsoomians thought that about their moons and found out how wrong they could be!

This campaign also sees a lot of new character types to add to military forces.
I've built, -some converted- 10 new Quar minis for such characters.
One of them is this one, an inventive mechanic, called a 'Spark' in the setting.

I have to assume a Quar Spark is known as a Quark.

The mini is one of the Quar tankers which, in obligatory VSF fashion, I converted by sculpting some goggles for him.  For painting I went with simple & messy, since he's likely going to be dirty from his work. 

The base still needs some grass on it- I'm going the bases to match the rest of the army -not going to redo all the bases for the moon just because of the campaign!  But I may wait to add the grass until the campaign is over. 

A Rag-tag Fleet: of Quar

There are those who belief that life exists beyond the nations of Earth. That there are tribes of aliens in the inner, and perhaps outer planets. That some of these, the Quar of the moons of Mars, even now, make their way to the great moon of Earth, seeking safety, and to plunder resources for their very survival.

Gaming continues for Empire of the Dead but on the horizon is the next miniatures project: a return to a VSF campaign.This time the location switches from Venus, to nearer Earth's territory: the Moon.  Alfrik has been compiling ideas for the campaign, which will have not only army-scale fighting in 28mm but he's got plans for aeronef (airship) fleet action battles as part of the campaign.  I'm a sucker for anything with ships: spaceships, airships & navies, so this sounds good to me!  Nations of Earth, and my Quar of Phobos,will be staking out claims on the Moon, negotiating, plotting and waging battles.  When will this be?  Not sure exactly, but it's just over the horizon.

-It's continued to be a very very bad week for me, so have had low motivation to do anything for myself, just working on the finishing stages of the Genestealer Cult, but nothing ready to show on it yet, so not a lot of new stuff to share.  So seems a good time to introduce the air-navy of Phobos!

I bought these last year when BrigadeModels UK was having a sale, and I added a couple ships from Shapeways.

(click for larger)

I don't know yet what the campaign will require for number of ships or ship types, but this feels like a good fleet compliment. The majority of the fleet is from the Argentina fleet. I chose them for 2 reasons:
1. British & French fleets,while cool, seem to be pretty popular and I wanted something different.
2. I love the big round shapes incorporated into these ships.  It seems right, considering Quar have big round bellies, or 'puzik' as I tend to call it, having picked up the Russian word since it is far cuter.  but the ships also still have pointed noses,again, just like Quar! Perfect!
Speaking of Russian, the round vessel with 4 guns is a Russian 'aerial battery' which fits in nicely with the round midsections of the Argentinian fleet: just right for Quar.

I added aircraft: some large bombers and fighter squadrons.
I used this basing method once before for space ship fighters, and like it a lot. You get a lot of variety with the individual wire stands.
The carrier model is from Shapeways, and I imagine this is one of the vessels that is space-worthy.
The rest of the fleet is carried or towed by space-haulers to deposit the airfleet into a planet's (or moon's) gravitational field.

Some close-ups: (click for larger)

 I'm afraid I don't remember the name of the shapeways artist or the name of the piece.  But there are a lot of nice items on that site.

The carrier is the flagship, though the one battleship would be pretty significant.

Hopefully this fleet will be battling the verminous humans, who's gluttony is unsatisfied with the most resource-rich planet in the system:  it's time for the other peoples to push them back, contain them and harvest their fair share from the planets and moons of the sun they share in common!

For Phobos!

Inspiration for all rag-tag fleets...enjoy!

King Kong: With Kung-Fu Action Chest Thump!

Last Friday when I arrived at gaming I saw something wonderful.

A Gorilla.

A big, very big, gorilla.

I teased Mike, asking if I'd finally converted him over to Apes, only to find out it was mine!
His wife, quite a sweet person, had seen it, thought of me and my apes and asked him to bring it to me.

So Cool!

He's a great size for a 'King Kong' monstrous gorilla, and will likely make an appearance in some big game in the future as a lost world living god.

I also suggested he'd make a good Empire of the Dead faction, all by himself.. stats of 10 across the board, with inhuman resilience, sprint, leap and hammer blow.  I don't think he was buying it ;)

He has a little switch on the side, grunts and beats his chest.

Bring on the biplanes, I'm ready!

Dejah Thoris Rasheth: Mixing Skorne & Barsoom

One of the things that appealed to me about collecting Skorne for Hordes was the idea of doing them in a 'Barsoomian Desert' theme.  Skorne are clearly not human, and the baroque armor, flowing robes and cool & funky reiver guns all made me think that a lot of them would make for good material for a VSF Martian army.  Why not double-dip minis across genres when able to?

So with this in mind I was thinking Makeda would make a great 'Barsoomian' style Warlock/Warlord.  I'd probably just trim one of her two swords so that she has both the 'Martian Longsword' and the 'Martian Shortsword'. That is for the future... I had hoped to use in the final 35pt list of the tournament a couple weeks ago, the Warlock, Rasheth, who specializes in breeding warbeasts, doesn't fight himself, just reclines on a palanquin, directing his forces and lobbing spells.  The problems were:

1. I had very little time to get a mini & paint it.
2. It is a very expensive kit
3. I don't much care for it.

So what to do? Check the minis I had on-hand that'd I'd previously bought, and found something very fun.
A good candidate for a Barsoomian Princess or Queen, though less human-looking, and so would work just fine in a VSF setting someday. Simpler & quicker to paint, much cheaper ($9.50 compared to $38 no complaints there), and I like the mini better, and also fits the dual theme better too. Perfect!

Ever inspired and influenced by Frazetta, in my mind was his Dejah Thoris:

Not Rasheth:

Who reminds me more of Baron Harkonen:

No thanks. I'll stick with a Dejah Thoris feel...

So here's the mini I selected:

Reaper's Empress Messalina of the Andromedans.

This was a speed-paint, and I'll want to go back to give attention to her eyes and some highlights for the hair, maybe some brighter highlights on the metal, but for a fast job I'm pretty happy with this.  

She is a lot like the Rasheth mini in the ways that matter: no apparent combat ability, a floating throne is similar to the palanquin: no knock-down for game-terms, and works on the right size base.  

She can be 'Domina Rasheth' instead of Dominar. Rasheth is a collector and trainer of other species, so perhaps he's married a woman of an unknown species, and so she has the same authority and abilities.

And for a VSF Martian setting I think she'll work nicely. 

The Deadliest Game: A Film of Proper Grande Adventure in VSF

This is too fun not to share.

Do you know Dr. Grordbort's? Purveyor of fine esoteric weaponry? The crafter who makes me wish I made a lot more money than I do? If not, run and check out his site.  Then watch the movie: there, on vimeo or here of a grand hunt on a far flung planet by the finest in His Majesty's service.

Tally-Ho, Off You Go. There's a Good Lad.



And, he mentions Phobos! I really do want to get back to my Quar project... 

Big Game Hunters' Safari on Venus: Battle Report

If you didn't see the game rules and hunting party construction guide, you might want to read that post first.

Motivated by the potential publicity, and the prize purse, offered by the Zoological Institute of Progressive International Taxonomists, four notable Big Game Hunters set out to claim the prize.



A Cytherian Parrotman hunter and his faithful companion, accompanied by a menagerie of fighting men from various tribes and races. These two have names unpronounceable, due to the fact they have a kinetic language, so to learn their language you'd have better luck signing up for a modern dance class than a language class. 

Allan Quartermaine and his followers, bolstered by a semi-submergable clank.  
To not scare off any camera shy natives, his camera was cleverly hidden in a tusk. 

The Swedish Hunter, two assistants, homeguard troops and offworld warriors. 
Svanhilla won several awards for photography in Oslo, and is determined to give viewers back home 
'a woman's perspective' of Venus. 

A companion of Kneemo's expedition, it wasn't surprising to see a clank among this hunting party. 

Venus awaits, but will not yield her secrets willingly. 
The entire table is considered dense vegetation, with visibility no greater than 20" unless looking down the river or if a clearing is discovered. 

The safaris begin as the parties head toward Thunder Valley.

Quartermaine is one of the first to spot some natives, partially obscured in the jungle: the fierce Draniki. 
His clank takes point, thrashing through the foliage, flailing his arms...wildly.

The Draniki take aim and fire, but to little effect. 

More Draniki on the move. 

Meanwhile the swedes are alerted by a piercing shriek, but the steely-nerved hunter brings the beast down. 

Quartermaine spots the strangest creature they have seen yet, looking like a big brain and tentacles. Not taking any chances, they fire. He finds his vision unaccountably blurred, but the creature's mind tricks are no match for his skill and a mess now decorates the underbrush.  A photo is taken, titled 'Linguine & Leaves' but it is not to be well received.  
   
Kneemo's men find trouble as well. Investigating an eerie blue glow, they find it's source. And open fire.

The Parrotman's expedition makes its way inland, following the river.

Approaching the remains of the brain, Quartermaine's men are attacked by walking trees!
A prolonged combat ensues with the treacherous trees.

The Cytherian company's rear-guard is attacked by a fair sized predator.  Soon after a larger one of the species comes to its aid, and when it is gunned down, this young one fights all the more fiercely, bringing down several of the diminutive warriors.

Meanwhile, their native primate allies move up to investigate a sinister looking cave.

Who's that knocking at my door?

The enormous quadrupedal hunter comes out for a meal, but while distracted, is hit by several well aimed shots.

 
Another brain creature emerges from the murky swamp. The primate warriors are on their own for now.

They manage to finish the beast off!  
Enjoy it while you can lads, because your employer is sure to take the credit for himself.

After dispatching the tree-people, the noise has attracted a hunting pack of Grishak: small, fast & hardy. 

Not content like Quartermaine to fuss with small prey, Kneemo's man spots a gigantic beast.  
Could this finally be the mythical Thunder Lord?

The Swedes run into an even larger brain creature, which is soon joined by two more small ones! 
Wounding the big one, it responded by inserting a tentacle into a man, draining him of life and the rest of the men watched in horror as the creature's wounds began to heal. Poor Svanhilla would not survive this day.

A thunderous roar erupted, accompanied by the ground shaking.  The true Thunder Lord entered his valley to meet his unwelcome guests. 

Few were not terrified at the sight and sound of this nightmare.

Brave or foolish, the little Grool, those who had defeated the cave-dweller charged forward in blind courage.

Grateful for the larger carnivore being distracted, the smaller, but nevertheless formidable Alice charged the shiny creature before her as the men opened fire. In an amazing display of skill (6 goals out of 7, with a couple 6's in there which count double) she ripped the clank's head from it's body with her jaws as her slashing toe claws ripped the metal of it's chest, to settle her weight on the clank, crushing it.  
Two myths were dispelled this day: Dinosaurs are not extinct, and there is no such thing as canned food. 
She will finish off the soldiers, who die in defense of their employers. She is mightily wounded, yet the hunters are close to her jaws. Their story remains unfinished, perhaps someday their tale will emerge from the jungle. 

Quite proud of his trophy of tree-creature, much to the amusement of his men, with their muffled remarks of the 'Brave Bushwhacker', Quartermaine sees the great Thunder Lord itself, and readies his rifle for a kill shot. 

His clank will be no help in this fight with the mighty dinosaur, for it has been ambushed by a Draniki hunting party. 

With his inadequate eyesight, the mighty lord peers into the jungle to spot his foes.  He can not see them, but their scent is strong: smells like chicken.
The great beast is wounded by several shots and spear-thrusts from the foolhardy Grool.  
Quartermaine is readying his rifle to steal the kill shot, but the notable Parrotman hunter, 'hippy-hippy-shake' (or something to that effect) was just a moment faster and brought the great beast down.

A victory celebration ensued for the native expedition. Many photos were taken.  
The photos will be studied by earth scientists, though reports in newspapers in every country seem to have omitted this last part. 
But the parrotmen know the real story and for them, it is enough. 


Afterword


Each player got 1 point per vitality loss it inflicted, and for beasts of 3 vitality or more, they got the full vitality points for the killing blow, since for hunters who gets the actual kill is where much of the bragging rights are. 
Players also got 1 point for a photo, and 2 points for photos of formidable creatures.
For physical specimens, players got 1 point per porter carrying 1 vitality creatures, 3 for each carrying parts from 3 vitality creatures and 4 points for each porter carrying parts from vitality 4+ creatures.  So it taking 2 porters to carry the rex skull, would be worth 8 additional points.  It didn't take precise math to see the parrotmen had the lion's share of the points. 


If there was one thing I'd change about this, it would be to make the initial encounters stronger. I imagined this like designing an RPG dungeon crawl: it's a balance of attrition: you want to weaken a party as it goes along, but not so much they have no chance against the final encounter.  There wasn't enough attrition, but still the big beasts were tough nuts to crack. Also, the rules we used have close combat only allowing 1target in a henchman group to die from one attack. Some of these beasts should be able to kill more than one so for the biggest I modified those rules on the fly to allow them to kill up to 2. Only taking down 1 henchman in a group at a time put the medium threats: devanu hunters, brains, will-o-wisps, etc at a real disadvantage compared to the parties' numbers,which limited the attrition they took. Still, it was a fun game, the players seemed to enjoy it and I know I did. 


Thanks to the players and you can see Mike 'shimey-shimey-shake' Parrotman's write up and excellent pictures (some of which I used here) at his site  Rot and Drivel.  Vegetation provided by Alfrik, with many tutorials on how to make them on his site Armored Ink.

Venus Skirmish Game: Big Game Hunt

The Venus campaign continues, though last week the French army hid from the Phobosian Quar army which pursues it, so we took a break and continued testing for the early Weird World War II skirmish setting (maybe too light of an approach to call it a campaign) that we'll be playing concurrent with the Venus campaign, and the next, which will be on Earth's Moon.  The early WWWII setting will be using the Goalsystem Chaos in Cairo/Carpathia that we're adapting for the purpose.  It's looking to be fun, so I decided not to switch gears, and the Venus Skirmish I'm running on Friday will be with these same rules, with some minor tweaking for the VSF setting. 

I'll be trying to take pictures of the game and do some reports, 

so to make that more clear, here is the background for the game: 

______________________________________________________________________________________

The Zoological Institute of Progressive International Taxonomists (Z.I.P.I.T.) is offering a reward for evidence and samples of the flora & fauna of Venus: the bigger and more dangerous the better, as that sort of thing drums up public interest, and therefore, donations.  The lions share of the prize is for evidence of the mythological 'Thunder Lord' of the jungle: a picture would suffice, but bringing back the skeleton would be ideal. 

Cooperation (or confrontation) between nations is up to the nations themselves. 

Players will be awarded victory points for kills, photos and samples taken. Any hunting party without a character alive at the end (Leader character or assistant) only scores half victory points, since without a character's experience of the system, some ladder-climber at ZIPIT is bound to find a way to take the credit for themselves.  

Each party has 1 camera which must be carried by a model, which encumbers that model (may not shoot ranged weapons and has -1 to all dice in physical combat). It takes one round to take a picture. 

The game system used will be the Chaos in Cairo rules we've been experimenting with for eWWWII.

Hunting Party choices:

You will select 1 Commander in Charge for free and may take 5 porters for free.  You will then have 4 points to select the rest of your party. 

Note:  Some skill and equipment entries will list "something *or* other-something" in which case you may chose which one, but your choice is final, you can't change once the game is started.  

Your party should be lead by one of your characters from your banners.  This does put them at real risk, but there is also real potential reward. If you do not have a character of one of these types that you can use from your banners, or are unwilling to risk them, then you may take 1 free assistant instead of a Commander in Charge to act as leader.

Commander in Charge character choices: Chose 1 from the list below.  The Commander in Charge may chose 3 additional skills from the list at the end (but may not chose the same one more than twice).

* Big Game Hunter*  (I kill things with great skill. Let me do my job and you do yours)

Strength 3  Agility 3  Mind 3  Resolve 3  DR Pool 4  Fate 3   Vitality 3

-Equipped with Elephant Gun DN7 & Knife DN4

Skills:

Crack Shot 3

Sharp Senses 1

Stealthy 2

Solitary (does not benefit from help in close combat)

Dead Eye Shot [ ] (1 use: May reroll a ranged attack, and take whichever result is better) 

* Explorer * (I am a decent hunter, problem solver & very good at finding hidden destinations)

Strength 3  Agility 3  Mind 3  Resolve 3  DR Pool 4  Fate 3   Vitality 3

-Equipped with Rifle DN6 & Knife DN4

Skills:

Combat Attack 1

Crack Shot 1

Sharp Senses 2

Stealthy 1

Scholar 1

Pathfinder (on successful mind check may lead party through rough terrain at no penalty, he must be in the lead, others no more than 3" away from him on the sides, or within 12" behind him)

* Officer * (I am a decent hunter and very good at leading others into battle)

Strength 3  Agility 3  Mind 3  Resolve 4  DR Pool 4  Fate 3   Vitality 3

-Equipped with Rifle DN6 & Knife DN4  *or* Equipped with Pistol DN4 & Sword DN5

Skills:

Combat Attack 1

Combat Evade 1

Crack Shot 1

Dodge 1

Leader 2

Inspiration [ ] (one use: all models within 5" get 1 extra die on their attack & defense)

Tough 
Boss

* Spark * (My intelligence and inventions are a match for anything I may encounter)

Strength 2  Agility 3  Mind 5  Resolve 3  DR Pool 4  Fate 3   Vitality 3

-Equipped with Rifle DN6 & Sword DN5  **special: apply 2 dice however you wish to increase a weapon's dice rolled to hit or damage. example: very accurate rifle: +2 dice to hit, or a very damaging sword: +2 DN.. then give it a suitably quirky name. 

Skills:

Sharp Senses 1

Iron Will 1

Leader 1

Solitary

Hunch [ ] (one use: reroll a failed Mind roll)

* Glorified Assistant * (Golly! Thanks for this opportunity! I, I won't let you down!)

- Assistant as below, but may select 3 skills just as the other commanding officers.

Commander in Charge Skill Selections: Chose 3 (may not chose the same one more than twice, or Tough more than once)

Combat Attack, Combat Defense,  Crack Shot,  Dodge,  Healer,  Leader,  Scholar, Sharp Senses,  Tough.

Hunting Party: Your party has 4 points to spend on selections below.  
Note: Every party has 1 group of Porters for free. Additional porters cost 1 pt per group. 

Henchmen groups function as a unit, you may not create a unit of 10 by spending 2 points (spending 2 points on soldiers would create 2 units of 5 henchmen).

Assistant: 1 point

Strength 3   Agility 3  Mind 2  Resolve 3  DR Pool 4  Fate 2   Vitality 3

-Equipped with Rifle DN6 & Knife DN4  *or* Pistol DN5 & Sword DN5

Skills:

Crack Shot 1

Combat Evade 1

May select 2 different skills from the Commander in Charge Skill Selection List.

Clank: 2 points

Strength 5  Agility 2  Mind 2  Resolve 5  DR Pool 5(2)  Fate 1   Vitality 3

-Equipped with Rifle DN6 & Heavy Fists DN5

Skills:

Tough 2

Combat Attack 2  *or* Crack Shot 2

Crushing Blow [ ] (one use: add +1 to the close combat DN)

Soldiers: 1 point

Strength 3  Agility 3  Mind 2  Resolve 3  DR Pool 3  Fate 2   Vitality: 5 Henchmen

-Equipped with rifle DN6 & Bayonet DN3 (+1 DR when charged)

Skills:

Combat Evade 1

Crack Shot 1

Askari Warriors: 1 point

Strength 3  Agility 3  Mind 2  Resolve 3  DR Pool 3  Fate 2   Vitality: 5 Henchmen

-Equipped with Shield (Increase DR +1) & Spear* DN 4 (+1 DR when charged)    *or*      Knife DN4 & Bow DN3 effective range 10"

 **Spear: may be thrown once, for DN5, effective range 8". After thrown the unit uses knives DN4.

Skills:

Combat Attack 2

Combat Evade 1

Porters: 1 point (Note: your hunting party begins with 1 free group of porters as described here, but additional groups must be bought if you want them). 

Strength 3  Agility 3  Mind 2  Resolve 2  DR Pool 4  Fate 2   Vitality: 5 Henchmen

-Equipped with improvised weapons DN3. 

Skills:

Pack Mule (carry 3 times their strength instead of 2)

Combat Evade 1

Dodge 3

Not in the Face: Will not enter into combat, but will defend themselves if attacked. 

What awaits them in the jungle?  Will they find the Thunder Lord?  Does it exist at all?  

Will there be even worse dangers?

Whatever dangers await, remember the wise words of one of the most famous of earth's hunters:

"If it bleeds, we can kill it."

Stay tuned...