As I mentioned in my previous post, I have been fairly busy in the last few months and one of the reasons for this, has been a massive hobby project: painting a customised base for my 15mm minis. I have a whole platoon of infantry with a matching battlemat and the next logical step was adding a set of buildings to my collection. There are many options available on the market and it was difficult to pick one, but in the end, I decided to buy the research station set from Brigade.
Continue reading All About That BaseTag: Stargrunt II
A Favourite Reborn
My blog has been pretty quiet lately, because the last few months have been exceptionally busy on all fronts: work, life, painting and playing, but now I have much to share.
The Spider Drones of Ground Zero Games have been a long time favourite of mine: I have plenty of them waiting for me in different stages of unfinishedness. A six-legged spider-like drone with a rotary gun – yes, that’s exactly what I’m thinking about when I imagine a sci-fi battleground. When I ordered a few more of them recently, Jon was kind enough to ask if I wanted the new version. Is it possible to say no to this?
Continue reading A Favourite Reborn
OutRim Coalition Marines – Stargrunt II Data Cards
Now that I have a full platoon of OutRim Coalition infantry painted, I think it’s time to summarize how this army works and what it is capable of in a Stargrunt II game.
The Outer Rim Coalition (aka OutRim Coalition or ORC) is one of the smaller factions in the Tuffleyverse. The Full Thrust, Dirtside II and Stargrunt II rulebooks don’t give too much detail about them: basically, they are the people born and living in the outer worlds, on starships and on space stations, at the edge of the human influence zone. They are not associated directly with any of the Terran nations and they are facing all the threats lurking in the unknown depths of space. They kind of resemble the Belters from the Expanse series with this background.
Continue reading OutRim Coalition Marines – Stargrunt II Data Cards
The Heavy Weapons Have Arrived
I took my first steps in the world of 15mm wargaming a year ago, when I painted the first squads of my OutRim Coalition army. I collected and painted several assault troops and support weapons (plasma guns, missile launchers, snipers) since then, so it was time to add the heavy weapons as well.
Continue reading The Heavy Weapons Have Arrived
Goodbye 2020, Hello 2021!
Well, last year didn’t exactly go as planned, and I’m sure I’m not the only one who feels that way. 2020 wasn’t the best year for gaming: game shows were cancelled, and due to the lockdowns and the restrictions, there were only a few face-to-face games. I was also very busy at work, and I had many exams which left me with far less free time for my hobby than I expected. Sadly, I had no chance to paint with my nieces either.
Continue reading Goodbye 2020, Hello 2021!
Summer Haul Report 2020 – aka The Treasure Hunt Goes On
This quarter has been busier than expected, practically I haven’t painted anything but have luckily had very good RPG (Cepheus Light and D&D) and wargame (Stargrunt II) sessions. COVID-19 is still around, so there was no wargame show to report about and the games I played were online, not face to face. But there is something reassuring about buying hobby stuff. This time it wasn’t panic buying like it was in the spring, but a more methodical one.
Let’s start with Patrick Todoroff’s Hardwired rulebook and The Tsim Sha Tsui expansion: these are both short, fifty-page black and white booklets with a bit of background, complete rules, list of equipment and a handful of missions for cybernetically enhanced agents. Sounds familiar? There’s a good reason: Syndicate, the old PC game was one of the inspirations for this game. The subtitle “Cyberpunk espionage and mayhem” refers to a cyberpunk setting, but it’s very adaptable – you can swap the agents with a black ops team, a commando unit, a squad of mercenaries, a recon or a SWAT team and swap the opposing security forces to insurgents, alien bugs, zombies, rogue AI robots, vicious gangs, or your favourite villains.
Continue reading Summer Haul Report 2020 – aka The Treasure Hunt Goes On
Spring Haul Report 2020 – aka The Big Spring Treasure Hunt
In a previous post about the cancelled wargaming show, I suggested checking the manufacturers and traders online and spending your show budget on games and minis. Well, I did walk the walk. I have had a proper shopping spree this spring…
On one hand, it was a kind of a panic buying: having an incomplete collection is somehow deeply disturbing for me. On the other hand, I found massive discounts! Most of the things I bought were on my wishlist anyway, so sooner or later, I would have ended up buying them.
Continue reading Spring Haul Report 2020 – aka The Big Spring Treasure Hunt
The More the Merrier
After finishing the first three squads of the 15mm OutRim Coalition Infantry , there was no turning back. I had to go on.
I have painted standard troopers, medics, squad leaders and SAW gunners so far, but I decided to add more support weapons (plasma guns and two different missile launchers), snipers and two assaults squads. I used the SG15-RC09 and SG15-RC04 sets from Ground Zero Games’ OutRim Coalition range.
Continue reading The More the Merrier
My First Steps in the 15mm Universe
Though I haven’t planned starting a new army or collecting anything in 15 mm scale (all my minis are in 28mm), I knew there’s no turning back and decided to buy some minis from Ground Zero Games, after reading the Stargrunt II rules. The range is surprisingly huge, there are many factions with distinct appearances, units and equipment. After carefully considering, I chose the OutRim Coalition and ordered a starter pack and a few vehicles.
The figures are very neatly detailed, there is no real sign of mould lines and they are full of character. All the figures are in power armour (no skin to paint! 😊 ), and there are marine assault troops, command and comms squad, anti-armour and light anti-armour support squads, three different heavy weapon teams, a heavy power armour squad and grav bikes in the pack. That is almost 100 figures in total.
Continue reading My First Steps in the 15mm Universe
Winter Haul Report 2019-2020
The winter was long and busy, full of unexpected events, but if you are into the same hobby as I am, you know you can bet on one thing: you will surely end up buying new games and minis.
After my New Year’s post, where I wrote about my backlog and about not buying too much new stuff, writing a haul report might look controversial, so it’s worth mentioning that I bought most of the stuff I’m covering here before the end of 2019.
Continue reading Winter Haul Report 2019-2020