Ion Age Touch Ups

So getting going on the project I posted about yesterday, I decided to touch up the figures I already had. Here's what I had already:

A pretty basic, kind of dull paint job. And after a little while of working at it I came up with this:

I'm migrating them from the plastic bases to washers, but aside from that I've gone with blue trousers with a yellow stripe down the outside of the leg, yellow shoulder pads, and I've added a good few highlights to the reds to really bring them out.

I am a really big fan of that yellow stripe. I'll check back once they're all done and based, and while I'm working on that I'll think about how I can touch up the Knights.

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WGP

The Ion Age Firefight Project to End All Ion Age Firefight Projects

I've had a hankering to paint some Ion Age figures for a while now, and I've had my eye on some of the Legion Pioneers, which have been on my to buy list for a very long time. To go with this all a plan has been brewing to build a completely modular and three dimensional Firefight terrain set. The first step is to cover a flat and hard surface with magnetic sheeting, the second step is to mount 30mm square MDF tiles to washers, texturing the other side with sand, rubble or placing on various items of cover. The hope being that the magnetic sheeting will hold the washer tiles in place well enough for a game to be played on top. I could even make destroyed versions of certain terrain pieces to really go to town! I haven't forgotten my Retained House of Kroy and am hoping to put them into action against some Khanate scum.

So experiments will be under way in the coming weeks, but I do have to get married first and go on a honeymoon...

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WGP

Randomness and the Solo Experience

I've found that the most rewarding Solo Experience I have ever had has been using a system of rules I constructed myself. I'm not saying this to blow my own trumpet, because when it comes to rules mechanics and my ability to design new ones or choose existing ones and form those into a coherent gaming experience, it is entirely random as to whether the experience is fun or a dull drudge. This is not true for all would be designers, but as I am a full on amateur and in many ways a beginner it is more true for me. So I was simply reflecting upon a rule system I created, and my experience of gaming it, the fun I had, and then trying to work out why that system was more engaging than the plethora of other systems I have cobbled together. One thing kept coming to the surface, it was the central dice mechanic of the game, and how unpredictable that dice mechanic was.

Here's that mechanic word for word from my notes:

Pick up a number of dice equal the attackers attack value.

Pick up a number of dice equal to the defenders defence value. Include 1 die per complete 6” between the attacker and the target, and a number of dice equal to any cover.

Roll both pools of dice. Each die rolled by the defender cancels all the dice of that same number rolled by the attacker.

The number of dice left in the attackers dice pool is the number of hits.

Try to predict the outcome percentage wise, especially when larger volumes of dice are rolled. I'm fairly good at maths, but I realise this is beyond what my mathematical ability will allow.

Hit allocation then worked as follows:

Pick up a number of dice equal to the target units Agility value. And roll for each miniature in the unit in turn in any order you choose. Each roll that matches a value in the dice hit pool causes 1 hit on the miniature rolled for and removes 1 die of that value from the hit pool. Once all miniatures in the unit have been rolled for ignore any dice remaining in the hit dice pool.

Not only is it tough to predict the number of hits caused on a unit, it's then tough to predict which miniatures in a unit will take hits, and the hits they take will be randomly determined. To make sure things aren't a constant stale mate the maximum number of dice either side can roll in combat is 10.

For close combat both sides roll a pool of dice and hits are any unique values rolled between sides, for example, a 6 rolled by side A will block all 6s rolled by side B and vice versa. Hits are then allocated as with shooting. Again remembering the maximum number of dice that can be rolled is 10.

I've found myself in the past just statting up two forces putting them in base to base contact and fighting bouts of close combat to see who comes out victorious, and with close combat the way the dice work really make it feel like the two sides are going at it.

I'm hoping to expand this mechanic out to form the basis of my full solo system.

Thanks for stopping by!

WGP

A Different Dice Mechanic

Yesterday the other half and I took a nice walk through a place in North Devon known as 'The Valley of Stones' which was rather beautiful, and I thought would be a pretty amazing challenge for terrain makers. Afterwards we stopped off at a local pub for a nice lunch. Throughout the pub were book cases, packed with all kinds of strange tomes. I grabbed one simply titled 'Time Lord' and discovered to my amazement, it was a rulebook for a Doctor Who role playing game (wiki page, including a full download of the book: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Time_Lord_%28role-playing_game%29 ).

The first thing I do whenever I pick up a new rulebook for anything is to check the basic dice rolling mechanic behind the game. More interesting was that this RPG had a mechanic I had never seen before. You have a set score you need to get from 0-5 to perform an action, and to determine if you make it, you roll 2D6 and subtract the lower value rolled from the higher. I started thinking about the applications of such a mechanic and realised that it was rather ingenious, the only downside probably being that a range of 0-5 probably isn't large enough for any serious RPG, but you could try it with say D10s or maybe, if you're fast at mental math, D20s.

Just a small thought.
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WGP

A Basic Rundown of The Mechanics for My Solo Skirmish Wargame

Each troop type has a number of tokens, these tokens are the same as the troop type’s stats. For example a unit with speed 4, shoot 4 and close combat 3 will have 4 speed tokens, 4 shoot tokens and 3 close combat tokens. The tokens for every unit are then placed in a bag or cup, and mixed together.

One player draws a token from the bag, and the token is then immediately resolved. For example Bill draws a speed token for the Orthodox Sword Sisters. Each Sword Sister still in play is then allowed to move up to 4”.

MOVEMENT

A move is always 4” unless a special rule states otherwise, this is because speed is determined by the number of tokens a troop type has, not the distance it moves each time it performs a move action. You can apply effects to movement such a rough terrain costing half movement etc.

SHOOTING

A hit is scored on a 4+. Each model has a choice between firing upon its nearest enemy model in cover or its nearest enemy model in the open, unless the nearest enemy model is in the open in which case that model must be fired upon. Models in cover will be hit on a 5+ or a 6+, but this is determined by the cover they are in. For models to be in cover they must be obscured from the firing model by half or greater. When a model is hit they lose 1 shield point.

MELEE

A melee or close combat attack is performed when two opposing models are in base to base contact and one of their close combat tokens are drawn. A model causes a hit on another when they roll a 4+. If a model moves out of base to base contact the other model is allowed an immediate free attack (meaning a token doesn’t have to be drawn) against them which hits as normal on a 4+. When a model is hit they lose 1 shield point. If a model is not in base contact with another they may perform a move action instead, but this move action must be towards the nearest enemy model.

SHIELDS

If a model is hit and is reduced to 0 shield points it is killed. When all tokens have been drawn from the bag the turn is over, all tokens are returned to the bag, all models’ shield points are fully restored and a new turn begins.

There will also be a number of special rules,but these have not yet been decided upon and potentially a magic system that works the same way as my previous solo game idea - there will be an additional stat for magic. When a magic token is drawn you put it to one side. When another magic token is drawn, or the turn has reached its end, you must declare what you want to do with your stored magic. Your opponent then declares an equivalent action. Pick up a number of dice equal to your stored tokens and roll them, on a single 6 your action is performed, on a roll of no 6s the opponents action is performed. You cannot combine the stored magic of multiple troop types, each troop type uses their magic individually.

Thanks for stopping by!

WGP

How I paint power armour

I was messing around with techniques for painting power armour and I think I've stumbled upon a winner which looks pretty good and takes little time/effort. It's not an unknown technique just one I haven't used before.
First you base the mini in whatever black you use normally. Then apply a complete drybrush of grey, and on top of that a drybrush of white. What you want is a version of your finished mini if it was in greyscale instead of colour. Then using the tamiya clear range of paints I apply colour over the top, and paint anything that would be metallic. Finally the whole thing gets a brown wash, is varnished and based. Here's the result on a space marine I had lying around:

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WGP

Why aren't there more percentile systems?

A while ago I posted a little something about how I handle mass rolling of 2D6 without resorting to coloured pairs of dice, this was mainly due to my attempts to play Laserburn Imperial Commander. It only just dawned on me today however that you can do the exact same with 2D10 rather than 2D6, and 2D10 can be read no just as a result from 2-20, but as from 1-100. You could have the large skirmish style game (usual 40k levels of figures) based on a percentile dice system. So I suppose the question is then - is results from 1-100 necessary for a game when if you want to go really high you can get your hands on a D20?

D100 can seem a little overkill, but I suppose with that extra granularity you get granularity in your stats and real room to have characters or units improve in a campaign. Just a thought I had, having realised I haven't posted in a long while.

Thanks for stopping by!
WGP