The Manliest of Pastels

 

Here are some close-up shots of the Free Martian test army. I pulled an older digital camera out of storage, hoping it would focus better on small objects than my general-purpose cell phone. It does, provided I don't get it too close to the target model. (You can see the offending shots below.) 

In painting the Free Martians, I chose a color pallette away from the medium greens, blues and reds you normally see in wargames. I chose brighter colors like purples, light blues, and yellowish greens.  (Only the command group has a conventional-looking red.) 

South-west art often features such bold, bright colors.  To someone used to life in the green-grey East Coast of the US, such colors seemed garish to me.  Then I moved to Tucson for a few years, and I realized that against the red-brown landscape and blazing sky of the southwest, such strong colors looked really amazing.  They matched the landscape.  So I have tried that sort of pallette out on my Martians.

The standard ray-beam cannon.

The alternatate "anti-tank" cannon.

A hunter with a "grenade launcher."



 

A hunter with a ray beam gun, in a blurry shot.



The standard lancer. I am least happy with the green color. It was going to be orange, but orange is a pain to paint.

A shieldsman.

A shieldsman "sergeant" with a ray gun. One of the blurrier shots.

 

The command group in standard wargaming red. Boring but there are only 3 of them.

Out Sick

"I think they are out to get me."

I'm ill, so I've not had a chance to write anything new this week.

Roman the Skies

Zoom!

I intend to build vehicles for my test armies. For the Free Martians, I want a flying ship.  One of the classic Martian images consists of a skiff or skimmer or ornithopter.  Since I'm using ancient models as my Martians, a classical ship seems the most appropriate base.

For this project, I purchased two model ship kits, Academy's "Roman Warship" and Zvezda's "Niña."  I intend to use the hull from the Roman ship as my base model.  I will then use the masts and sails from "Niña" as my vehicle's wings. Each ship cost about 30$ online.

The Academy ship.

The Zvezda ship.

My first step is to make the ship compatible with a Games Workshop aircraft base.  I have several of these for my Warhammer 40K armies, and they are sturdy and attractive.  As you can see, the base has a cross-shaped section, onto which the aircraft sits.  The only odd thing is that the curve in the base bends the opposite way you'd expect. 

A GW aircraft base.

So I assemble the lower part of the ship: the keel and rower's space.  (I'm not going to assemble the oars.) I cut a hole in the keel to accommodate the flying base, and reinforce the interior with a plug of green stuff.  I wet the end of the flying base, and press it into the green stuff for the correct shape.

Here is the underside, with the base hole carved.

Here it is from above, with the green stuff blob visible.

Now I can rest the ship on the base, or remove it if I need to. I assemble the upper decks of the ship.

The ship on its base.

Now I take out the Zvezda sails from Niña.  I envision the final craft looking like a dragonfly or ornithopter.  Anti-grav holds up the keel, and the sails adds propulsion or maneuvering.  I really like the Niña's Lateen sails.  They look Middle Eastern, and add an Orientalist touch reflecting retro setting.

I mount the masts to the sides of the ship, at an angle.  One is larger than the other, so the final vessel will be asymmetrical.  I hope it will look cool and not goofy, but danged if I'm going to cannibalize two 30$ Niñas.

The ship with side masts.

The ship from another angle.

 The sails themselves are an extremely thin plastic, which is slightly flexible. I don't know whether it will hold primer without cracking or flaking.  So I intend to leave the sails off until the rest of the ship is painted.  I test them out for size but do not attach them.

The sails.

 Here is the resulting ship, on my gaming table for scale.  I will post more as I complete the project.

Zoom!

Martian Tactics

These pictures should illustrate the Free Martians' typical tactics.  They have three troop types: Lanceatores, Venatores, and Scutatores.  I've painted them green, purple and blue, respectively.  The Lanceatores have long-ranged, high RoF fire, but are not very mobile. The Venatores have medium-to-short ranged guns, and are highly mobile.  The Scutatores have stronger energy shields and melee weapons.

In the attack, the Lanceatores lay down suppressing fire from a distance.  The Venatores close to firefight distance, while the Scutatores flank for the kill. 

This picture shows an attack by a Martian squad on some colonials.  The Lanceatores are left in place behind.  The Scutatores and Venatores are in a manuevering group within command distance of the Sergeant:

A squad attacks.

 This picture shows the same tactics employed by a platoon.  In this case, the Venatores and Scutatores are more separated, each led by their own Sergeant:

A platoon attacks.

This final picture represents a defense.  The Venatores fall back towards the main line while giving harassing fire against the attacking Colonials. The Lanceatores add their fire, while the Scuatores wait to perform a counter-assault, if necessary.

The Martians defend.

 

Now, the tricky bit will be write rules in which these tactics are both possible and effective.

Happy Easter

Happy Easter!

This bunny gives me the creeps. Slideshow here.

"Eosturmonath has a name which is now translated "Paschal month", and which was once called after a goddess of theirs named Eostre, in whose honour feasts were celebrated in that month. Now they designate that Paschal season by her name, calling the joys of the new rite by the time-honoured name of the old observance." -- Bede, De temporum ratione (Wallis, trans.)

There's your Old English religious trivia for the week.  More gaming posts soon.

Army Complete! Free Martian Cities

I've finished painting up my test models for the free Martian cities. (Here's a link to my organization articles, to my original test models.)

These models are from Warlord Games' ancient range, and are about 100$ worth of models from three boxed sets.  (You can read more about them here.)

Completed, they make 2x squads of ten for each troop type, command, and some support weapons.  That makes about two platoons worth:

2 Platoons of infantry, with some support weapons.

A close up from eye level.

More eye level.

Elevated view.

Another elevated view.

A free Martian platoon typically consists of three squads of ten, plus a command group.  Each of three squads has three manuses of three soldiers, and a decanus (sergeant).  Each squad has different weapons. The venatores (hunters) have carbines and "grenade launchers." The scutatores (shields) have close combat weapons and extra strong sheilds.  The lanceatores (lances) have long range guns, and sometimes man support weapons.

The command group.

Venatores. Every third model has a launcher.

Scutatores


Lanceatores

 

These Lanceatores have swapped their normal guns for support weapons.



 

I modeled this support weapon differently so it can represent an AT gun.

The platoon commander can intermix the individual manuses any way he desires.  Typically, this results in one of two configurations.  Each squad may be composed of a "pure" formation of like armaments.  Or, each squad may be "mixed" with one manus of each type.

Platoon in contubernia pura organization.

Platoon in contubernia mixta organization.

Woot! So one major project down.  Next up: finish my colonists so the Martians have someone to fight.

Thinking about RoF

No RoF Penalty for Moving and Firing

I am considering changing the way I handle the penalty to moving and firing.  Right now, a moving unit suffers a -1 to hit.  I think I may change the penalty to a reduced RoF instead.  Here's why.

In my last posts, I discussed the math behind shooting and saves.  I noted that under my current system, a moving unit needs 7+s to hit a superiorly-skilled target in concealment.  7+s are a pain when playing, so I'd like them to come up less often.  I considered changing the base to-hit number against a superior target to 4+, making moving and concealment a 6+.

It occurs to me that if I instead assess a penalty to RoF, it will make targets harder to kill or Suppress, without increasing the to-hit score needed.   What if I rated each weapons RoF with a slash: before the slash is moving, after the slash is stationary.  So a rifle might be RoF 1/2.

Such a change would also allow movement to affect different types of weapon systems differently.   Some heavy weapons might not be able to fire at all when moving RoF 0/X.  Others might not be affected by movement at all: RoF X/X.  I'd been wondering how to handle heavier weapons, like artillery, and this gives me an option.

Should I also replace the penalty on Suppressed weapons with an RoF penalty?  This is what FoW does, and I begin to see why.  (FoW is extremely well-designed.)  So all Supressed weapons might fire at the moving RoF.  On the other hand, I may keep the to hit penalty.  It is easy to imagine a gun that might not fire at all moving, but which once set up, could fire in a limited manner when Suppressed.