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mj12games.com/forum → Posts by smokingwreckage
It is usually OK to game the system 
I'm pretty sure similar projects have gotten the go-ahead in the past. I'd recommend proceeding to completion, but seeking permission to publish.
Oh, I checked out the Megaminis post: he bought the molds and production rights but the molds are poorly organised.
Some trivia and interpretation:
Usually each mold is two discs flat on one side, respective half-molds on the other, which put together make a wheel flat on the outside, mold halves pressed together inside. It gets spun to make lead go out into all the details. Each mold will have several miniatures, and often will consist of a bunch of totally unrelated crap to save up-front costs.... but thereafter driving up the cost per unit of the miniatures, since you cast unwanted stuff every time you cast wanted stuff. Legions of Steel was apparently very bad for that. Lauck's based his business on cheap miniatures, so he's got his eye on per-unit costs. He'll take the up-front cost of remolding to avoid recurring expenses and waste.
I was thinking about steampunk and about Space Fantasy with Orcs. So, then, I looked up some resin stuff I saw online years ago.
These are vehicles and cavalry for your Space Thugs (whether they be orcs, wookies, or whatever)
http://www.scotiagrendel.com/Products/index.php?main_page=index&cPath=47_53 little and less little green men riding savage war lizards!
<IMG src="http://www.scotiagrendel.com/Products/images/Grendel%20Monsters/20005_orc_carnosaur.jpg">
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http://www.scotiagrendel.com/Products/index.php?main_page=index&cPath=47_57 a variety of steampunk machines, and barbarian stuff made of bones: including a giant catapult for the Space Thugs list, and a giant chariot pulled by pigs that really aught to be in the Space Thugs list. Also, stacks of cannons, steam tanks, and:
<IMG src="http://www.scotiagrendel.com/Products/images/Grendel%20War%20Machines/20002_razorback_chariot.jpg">
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http://www.scotiagrendel.com/Products/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=47_57&products_id=289 GIANT STAMPY STEAMPUNK ROBOT! I picked one up on EBay. Detail is very well-sculpted even though there's not as much of it as on a lot of modern stuff. Perfect symmetry, crisp lines, a real quality sculpt IMO.
<IMG src="http://www.scotiagrendel.com/Products/images/Grendel%20War%20Machines/20043%20-%20MkII_War_Golem_Gladiator.jpg">
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http://kromlech.eu/?page_id=120 Last but not least, awesome bits for converting stuff into Orcs for sci-fi. <IMG src="http://kromlech.eu/wp-content/uploads/2010/07/BritWeapons_color-300x176.jpg">
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People are dumb. If you take out the army builder and the army lists and the fiction, the rules are small. If you leave out vehicles for your first couple of games, it's 40 pages of actual rules (I skipped the large contents section). If it went down the path of only explaining the common rules, then tacking on all alternative movement and fire options as "special rules" for the appropriate troops, it'd be even more compact. That kind of approach is what makes "Song of Blades and Heroes" work- it masquerades as simple, but really, it isn't.
Defiance tends to play out very fast for games with 20-30 figures and 1-3 vehicles per side, which is pretty big for 28mm skirmish. It's unpredictable though, games can drag out in very heavy or very open terrain, where you can't maneuver or where everyone's too chicken to stick their head out into the long, unobstructed fire-lanes.
I discussed some of this stuff with Demian a while back, and here's the low-down as I understand it.
Weapons slots and damage capacity are restricted for the sake of genre expectation and realism. There's no reason in the underlying probability game why you couldn't add as many weapon slots and fire actions as you like, nor pay for and add as many points of damage capacity as you like. This is the perfect place for you to house-rule it however you and your opponent see fit.
Combo weapons definitely go beyond 2 frames combined, I think that after 2 frames you have to pay a bonus +5 points per frame (the first two are at normal combo cost, all past two incur 5 additional points over and above their normal combo cost), this is to stop people from building multi-frame one-shot combo weapons which may be unbalancing and certainly would be a nightmare for book-keeping purposes. It's in the book, so check it there.
They have weird bug-eyed alternative heads. As for the OP, I thought this was a different thread <.< >.>
http://wargamesfactory.com/wargames-factory-store/shock-troops-sci-fi-greatcoat-troopers
HOLYCRAPAWESOME!
These come with enough weapons options for 2 or more squad types with a full compliment of Primary and Support weapons, with head types to visually delineate either leaders and heroes OR an additional 2 or more squad types. Better yet there are heavy weapons coming soon! This means that apart from lacking Powered Infantry there's more than enough variety, available economically, for an EXCELLENT Defiance force, with a nice unified "in uniform" look on the table.
I am trying to remember how the game played through in detail but I just can't! I need to take notes or maybe pictures.
Edit:
Impressions from the entire weekend:
Anime Mecha are agile as hell. They can snipe, take cover.... and dodge ram attacks 
The Assault Tank from the Star Marine list needs more tank-killing ability as an option.
Elites can really lay some hurt if managed well and smiled upon by luck.
A low-kill-number weapon, even without V modifier, can eventually burn holes in most vehicles, given a little luck and a lot of fire.
Annihilation-type battles can pass the point of no return a long time before they end, even using ADR rules; Carby's army was wiped out to the last Space Thug and still passed ADR- with no living thing still on the table- on the last turn.
Finally, an observation: nobody makes after-market heavy weapons, CQB weapons, or jump/ rocket-packs for scifi miniatures. Why?
The vehicle being so large made it kinda easy to shoot. The figures really aren't too big on the table with what would be called 32mm figures if everyone weren't so nervous of scaring retailers who think it's a new scale incompatible with "heroic 28mm".
The clone troopers were relegated to "star marine" status due to a technical difficulty, and faced off against my UNE (Legions of Steel main human faction). IF didn't play a decisive role, since figures tended to be either in the open or completely hidden (less advantages to just blastin' them out), the Clones didn't bring any IF, and the little IF the UNE had was medium ranged at best, mounted on Anime Mecha who were too busy sniping the tank.
Finally got around to another gaming weekend! Thugs, STAR Marines, and the UNE all took to the field, with varying degrees of success. By which I mean my UNE forces were so successful I need to re-run the numbers to make sure I wasn't cheating. Bwah ha ha haaarrrr! More details later.
Vote for firearms versus assorted monsters and supernatural whatevers.
Since we seem to be playing with the idea of a Chinese empire in the far future, Cybroids just doesn't seem appropriate- very Western Pop Culture. Of course now I want to have a little isolated successor state whose troops get names like Huscarls....
The TMPers have trouble dealing with the fact that they're either playing constrained probability games or spatial puzzle games. Actually, I can see points being inappropriate for fairly deterministic spatial puzzle games. Once you even look sideways at a handful of dice you're firmly in "the points are real, no matter how hard you imagine them away" realm.
History this, realism that, Napoleon didn't whatever. Basically we're playing a complex version of craps.
I like it, but how does it move?
Immortals instead of cybroids. Has a nice Persian feel to it, doncha think?
There is always a relative value, therefor there is always a points system. People just get upset at attempts to make it transparent to newbies.
It's a game.
It's not a war. If it were, you'd be morally obligated to stab your opponent, thus saving all those soldiers from needless death.
I'll try to get a chat going with the others. Due to having CFS, just keeping up with the game as it goes is pretty much me running at cognitive capacity, keeping notes would be beyond me! I think next time I'll take a snapshot at the start, and then at the end of each turn or something! This is roughly how my first fight went:
AAR1: Rob and Sam versus James and Carby. 2000 pts per side on the Badlands table (this time I got the terrain pretty balanced). UNE mechanised infantry face off against a massive Machine horde.
The (highly experimental) UNE force consists of a full section of Assault Troopers in an APC mounting twin auto-RAM lasers, and a full Recce Commando section in an identical APC. The Machines have fielded a squad of G1 Nightmares with Deadbolts, and another squad with Scatterguns, backed up by an ad-hoc unit of 4 Sniperbots (Wasp missiles) with 4 Predators (Ice Rifles), and a vehicular contingent consisting of a Dreadbot (mecha,Dirge Artillery Missile plus Twin Hornet Pods) and 2 Mk3 Assault Fiends (AnimeMecha with Deadbolt/Thumper GL combo and Hellfire Cannon).
The only real threats to vehicles on either side are the Snipers and the limited ammo Hornet Pods- yeah. I think you can see the problem with my one-trick-pony APC rush, here. The idea was to mow down squads one by one and then, assuming the ADR hasn't taken care of my problems for me, to ram any enemy vehicles...
Turn One: not much action, everybody scurries for position- there's medium cover scattered down the left side, the far right side is a lovely light-cover forest from end to end, and between them is a shelled-out factory blocking LOS. The machines and UNE alike manouvre through medium cover or take cover in the fire-shadow of the factory.
Turn two: APC 2 gets an initiative flipflop (last on the previous turn, first on this turn!) and mows down all but two Sniperbots, who return fire for a total of 2 DC. No sweat! APC 1 turns and heads left with the intent of annihilating the Scattergun squad.
Turn three: The Scattergun squad take a mauling but unsurprisingly don't break. Instead they scatter as widely as possible to foil spread-fire from the lethal Dual Auto-Ram. APC1 continues in pursuit. APC2 declares stationary and disgorges Assault Troopers, who plan to use FR4 Wrist Rockets to wipe out the Deadbolt squad. Mk3 fiends jockey for position and the Dreadbot jumps out from behind the factory to punch 3 neat holes in the APC. Then it direct-fires a Dirge rocket (4"7+) into the Assault Troopers, still clustered round the smoking ruins of their fly ride- and James rolls about all 8s. The squad is virtually annihilated. The Assault Fiend that had been charging them finds itself without anything to rend or tear!
Turn 4: The poor Assault fiend closes with another trooper and finally gets to rip someone in half. He does so. Wishes really do come true! The Assault Troopers are pretty much gone by now. Rob takes APC 1 around and drops his Commandos in an attempt to salvage some glory, but the Machines are cowering in terror. Really they are. They begged for mercy! But the callous humans mercilessly sprayed the area with their own entrails, or something like that. I forget. I was too distraught, cradling my Assault Trooper miniatures in my arms and crying, to clearly comprehend Rob's valiant rearguard action.
In short, we got owned.
Fail APC would be taking 2 APCs with killer AI weapons and no anti-tank <.< >.>
It was looking good for a couple of turns there!
That's because your weather is backwards and upside down!
It's been a good winter so far, cool and wet. Love it.
For those wondering: the garage is OK. Not toasty, nor very cold, it's just not as warm as the rest of the house. Bring thick socks and/or uggies and you should be fine. Rach is quite sensitive to cold so the house is pants-and-t-shirt temperature thanks to a freakin' huge ducted gas heating system. There's no outlet in the garage however.
Shhhhh! We don't talk about the fail tree!
Hey, you won't be using lumps of styrofoam as APCs... which I intend to do.
Sav: Star Wars Clone Troopers.
Anette: Undecided? There should be enough minis for a Machines split, or there's the Black Watch. Ladies first anyway, take your pick.
Carby: Greebly aliens courtesy of Kryomek.
James: Machines.
Mark: UNE or Infranites.
Sam: UNE or Infranites.
EDIT: Space Orks, using the Thugs army list? are now in the mix. I still have nightmares about that little racy car-thing with a flamethrower taking out an entire squad.
Steave will be around for a game to test his revision of the Black Watch.
I think it's mostly book-keeping, but it's also somewhat tied to friendly-fire IIRC.
Basically the game wants fairly loose rules as to how squads move but still wants to maintain coherency in a purely game/organisational sense. (That's also why only elites and vehicles get individual actions: mostly, it's to keep the game quick and coherent, but it also reflects superior control and coordination.)
It has real in-game effects: unit perimeter can allow a lucky or cunning commander to really disrupt his opponent by pinning an advance unit, whereupon following units will have to divert around it. For example, I rushed SI ahead of my PI; the SI took a "cower" individual morale test, and my cleverly screened PI ended up taking a LONG stroll to get around the situation.
mj12games.com/forum → Posts by smokingwreckage
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