Another 15mm army in one weekend

Based on the success of my last effort (see http://basementgamingbunker.blogspot.com/2011/06/complete-15mm-army-in-one-weekend.html), I decided to have another go at a one-weekend force.  And once gain, I am very pleased with the results.

Eureka Miniatures released the Ventaurans through their 300 club last month, and I was lucky enough to be in on the pre-orders.  If you haven't seen much about these minis yet, my colleague David B. reviewed them on Dropship Horizon (link).  But once I had the minis in hand, I realized that I didn't quite know what to do with them.  They are very detailed, but I typically prefer simple color schemes.  

Then I remembered the 300-second Halo Spartan method (link).  

Just like the Sons of Thunder project, I decided to create a 100-point Alien Squad Leader force.  This time, I loosely based it on the Alien Imperial list.  These minis screamed "superior energy weapons" and "aiming devices" rather than plain infantry.  The paint job was very simple - two coats of Citadel Leviathan Purple wash, Vallejo Gold helmet lenses, Vallejo Heavy Warmgrey weapons and backpacks, Model Master Euro Gray on the bases.  I then based them two per stand (1-1/4" fender washers again), and flocked them with a new "gravel/ash" blend.

But what support options could I use with these minis?  I looked at several spare vehicles I had lying around, but none seemed to match the Ventaurans in technology level.  Then I noticed a couple packs of GZG New Israeli Jetbikes that I was going to use in another project.  I think the tech level is perfect, and the body armor is pretty compatible with the Ventaurans.  I may swap the New Israeli heads with Ventaurans someday, but even now they look fine in the same force. 

So here's what I came up with for an army.  It follows the Alien Imperial list, but doesn't hold to the required units.

• 4x Imperial Soldiers (1 as command stand)
• 2x Imperial Heavy Weapon Squads
• 4x Imperial Recon Light Vehicles (1 as command stand)

I look forward to using them against my Sons Of Thunder (Human Imperial) in the near future.  Alien Squad Leader is one of my favorite rulesets, but I haven't been able to properly use it with my single-based armies. Now I have no excuses!

Cheers,

Chris

Review - Future War Commander

Happy Saturday!

Over the last two weeks, I've had a chance to read through these two rulebooks:



Alien Squad Leader arrived with my Law Officers from 15mm.co.uk, and Future War Commander (Lulu edition) was a Christmas gift from my fiance. Both games are heavily inspired by GW's Warmaster, at least in terms of command and control. But that is pretty much where the similarities end - these appear to be two very different games.

Future War Commander, at least after its initial read, looks extremely promising as a game. It definitely shows its Blitzkreig Commander roots, but adds just enough sci-fi elements to make it stand on its own. I'll go through it section by section:

Main Rules
The first 40 pages or so explain the rules in great detail. But the game itself is NOT extraordinarily complicated - it just has a fair amount of "chrome" to the main rules. For basic company-vs-company, you really won't be using more than a handful of these pages for command, movement, shooting, and saving. The rest of the rules deal with specialist abilities and weapons such as recon units, air superiority, snipers, smart missles, orbital bombardments, and the use of gunships and dropships. The best part about the rules, at least to me, is that you should be able to play an entire game using only a two-sided quick reference sheet. The game mechanics are around simple rolls with basic modifiers. There aren't numerous pages of tables, nor will playing a game of FWC feel like a math assignment.

Fighting Battles
This section covers table setup, objectives, and provides eleven scenarios. FWC includes one mechanic that I really like - variable force sizes. This means that you and your opponent may have agreed to a 1000-point battle, but that doesn't guarantee you will each have 1000 points on the table. It looks like each army's objective can be achieved even with a lopsided battle, and I can't wait to try it out.

Army Lists
72 pages of the book are dedicated to unit stats. These cover 6mm-15mm models from Dark Realm, Exodus Wars, Ground Zero, Games Workshop, and many other companies. Even if your specific units haven't been listed, it usually isn't difficult to find an equivalent unit from another manufacturer that you could use. And if that isn't sufficient, FWC includes a very simple unit creation formula. And unlike many games I've played - this formula is what was actually used to create the forces outlined in the rulebook.

FWC Skirmish
This section explains how to use the core game mechanics to fight skirmish-scale battles. I've read through it, but I think I'll really have to play it to see how well it works. It appears to be a detail level roughly equivalent to Rogue Trader, so a platoon with a few vehicles is about all you would want to use.

I hope to play a demo game very soon using these rules. Even if I'm not able to get any 15mm forces ready, I can at least use my existing Epic armies to test the rules.

Coming soon: Alien Squad Leader initial review.