First Game of Space Station Zero!

 

    The Discovery crew explore the vast interior of the derelict Space Station Zero

After all the hours of painting terrain, creating boards, and corridor walls, we finally got our first mission of Space Station Zero in on Saturday evening. Jenny and I were trying a two-player, cooperative game. I was bringing the Discovery crew from 2001: A Space Odyssey, and she was bringing Ripley and the Marines from Aliens. Humans stick together when lost in time and space, especially when marooned on a hulking, derelict space station!

    My newly-constructed terrain, walls, and boards made for a nice looking table, I thought!

Both of us had chosen four-man crews (not counting the commanders - Dr. David Bowman and the redoubtable Commander Ripley), so we had relatively elite troops. We were playing the Docking Bay scenario, which all explorers of Space Station Zero begin with. We rolled up Ancient Sentries and Poison Gas as our dangers. We also rolled for how much terrain to place on the 22"x30" board, and used every one of my completed large pieces, but only a few of the small ones. My scratch-built Droids and some 3-D printed Bots assumed the role of the dozen derelict, barely-functioning Ancient Sentries.

    The two crews deploy, with the Discovery crew moving up on the left and Ripley's marines the right

We weren't 100% sure how to do the sequence of a multi-player, cooperative game. We decided that since my Discovery crew was deployed to take on one group of six sentries and Ripley's marines were set up against the other six, we'd treat it like four separate forces. I would go first. When I lost the initiative, the sentries lined up against me would go. Then, Jenny's marines would go, and when she failed the initiative, the sentries lined up against her would take their actions. I'm not sure if we did it correctly, but it seemed to work okay. It would certainly keep us from arguing which figures we would activate amongst our crew if we had to share a player activation phase!

    Whirring and clanking through the poison mists were the robot denizens of the Docking Bay

Dr. Frank Poole, my soldier, activated first. He ran to the corner of a piece of machinery and opened fire on one of the sentries. Talk about good omens! I rolled a critical success on my first die roll in Space Station Zero. Poole's sidearm shattered the sentry into several pieces and it fell to the metallic floor with a loud clatter. We then said, "Oops - we forgot to roll for the poison gas!" Poole rolled his Life saves, looking for at least 3 successes (even numbers) out of the six dice rolled). Not so good! Poole took one damage. I also failed to roll high enough to activate my next guy, so the initiative passed to the sentries. Two of the sentries whirred and clanked forward before they failed, and passed the initiative to Jenny. 

A good omen! First shot - two 12's on 12-sided dice meant a critical success (double damage)

Ever the lead-from-the-front type, Commander Ripley darted out front and blasted away at the only sentry she could see. Her rolls were not nearly as good (or my saves for them were better -- sorry!) and she put only one damage on it. Her soldier, Corporal Lucius then pulled out his bayonet and chivalrously sprinted just beyond Ripley, so any sentries would have to go through him. As more sentries appeared around the corner, one of the marines was heard to mutter, "We're in some pretty $hi% now, man!" When my turn came up again, the Discovery crew continued to move forward. Dr. Victor Kaminsky moved a full move towards the machinery vent that was spewing poison gas, making sure to stay behind Poole, though. I continued to activate one and fail, so the initiative passed back to the sentries, again. The remaining three sentries arrayed against my crew moved up two moves.

    Two of the Ancient Sentries close in on Dr. Frank Poole - the Discovery crew's 'point man'

Jenny's medic, after taking a shot at one of the sentries, moved up close to Lucius to heal him next turn, as the soldier had taken two damage from breathing in the caustic gas. Her remaining crew move to the right towards the ruptured pipeline that was spewing gas nearest to the marines' side of the board. After the rest of the sentries moved forward, it was back to my turn. Dr. David Bowman moved forward and blasted away at another of the automatons, shattering it, too. Two of the sentries were down on our first turn of shooting! I was doing well, so far, on this "roll 12-sided dice and hope for even numbers" system...ha, ha! Dr. Charles Hunter, my medical doctor, followed up to get in position to heal up anyone who rolled badly against the poison gas. 

    The Discovery crew's shooting was on target! We took out three of the sentries on our first turn!

Turn two arrived, and Dr. Poole aimed at one of the sentries closing in on him and blasted it into a pile of mechanical junk. Behind him, the Chief Engineer, Dr. Jack Kimball, raised his side army and sighted at what looked to him the most vital bits of the machinery. His assessment proved correct, and a fourth sentry fell to the floor in a shower of broken and damaged machinery. My "M.O." in miniatures games is usually my poor dice rolling. However, Space Station Zero seemed to be proving the opposite (so far!). Four shots and four kills! The remaining two sentries moved up doggedly forward towards Poole, but had yet to engage him with their jagged mechanical arms.

    The ancient sentries close in on Commander Ripley's marines, too, our companions in exploration

Meanwhile, that was not the case with the marines. The closest sentry whirred towards the gallant Cpl. Lucius, who defeated the sentry in close combat, ripping off sections of the machine with his titanium bayonet. Ripley called out encouragement, then fired at the next sentry in line, putting some holes in it, but failing to stop it. The medic had a hard time patching up Lucius while the soldier was engaging the sentries, healing only one of the damage he'd suffered. With our elite crewmen rolling six dice and needing three successes, we were doing relatively well. I did flub one roll rather badly, but used my Time Masters "edge" to re-roll for a better result. Apparently, a passing through the Monolith and warping space and time to arrive at Space Station Zero, had enabled Dr. Bowman with some unique and useful abilities!

    The Discovery crew hangs back as Dr. Poole advances to make sure the sentries are truly destroyed

Meanwhile, Dr. Kaminsky darted to the machine spewing toxic gas, and began shutting off the valves. Poole rushed over to help and finished the job, closing off the leak. The Discovery crew was doing rather well on its first mission aboard the mysterious station. The marines were doing fairly well, too, although Cpl. Lucius had taken wounds from another sentry that tore rents in his spacesuit. The medic tried again to heal him, but failed on all his rolls. Dr. Bowman noticed that, though, and used his Monolith-given power to move the medic back in time to try again. This time, he was able to heal Lucius some.

    The sentries move through the poison gas preparing to engage the intruding crew of marines

At the start of turn three, the Discovery crew opened up on the remaining two sentries and took them out. Dr. Bowman then sprinted towards the furthest piece of machinery spewing gas, followed by Dr. Kimball and Dr. Hunter. The marines shut off the valves closest to them, as well. They were downing sentry after sentry until only one remained. Ripley placed her pistol next to what she determined to be its head and pulled the trigger. The robot fell to the ground in a mechanical heap. A shout of "All clear!" from the far end of the docking bay marked the success of Bowman and Kimball in shutting off the third valve. 

    Dr. Bowman and Frank Poole step over the lifeless hulks of the ancient sentries as all six are downed

With that, our first mission came to an end. The only damage the Discovery crew took was from poison gas failures. The marines were similar, except Cpl. Lucius came dangerously low in life. We collected our experience and then rolled to see our next mission, the Medical Bay. Hopefully, we'll be able to game that out next weekend. How did we like it? I felt the mission was fairly easy, but my rolls were way above average, I feel. I also think the early missions are meant to be easier. Plus, with both of us choosing the elite crew of four, our stats were high enough that we were never in much danger from the poison gas or sentries. I'm looking forward to the next game, even though I realize it will likely be more difficult. Stay tuned!

    One after another, the sentries advance through the marines' gunfire...still coming!

    Unlike with the Discovery crew, the sentries make it into contact with the marines, drawing blood

    Dr. Kaminsky and Dr. Poole team up to shut off the flow of poison gas at one of the leaks

    Hoping the marine take care of the second leak, Bowman, Kimball & Hunter sprint for the third

    Ripley places her pistol against the sentries 'head,' and pulls the trigger: "Game over!"

More Terrain for Space Station Zero

    The interior of Space Station Zero with my combination of scratch-built and purchased components

I have been working steadily on my terrain for Space Station Zero. This post shows another of the larger, 6"x4" pieces, as well as five of the smaller, roughly 2"x2" pieces. Both are a mix of store-bought components and scratch-built portions using pieces bought from the local craft store. After this batch, I have one more larger piece that is about halfway complete. Perhaps one more evening's worth of work is all that is needed on it and I should be done with terrain that I have to complete.

    Two smaller terrain pieces, mostly from the Star Wars Legion line of plastic terrain

I was at another of our local game stores, Dragons Lair Comics and Games (in the Polaris area), when I saw the Star Wars Legion "Priority Supplies" box on their shelf. The box contains four moisture evaporators, five supply crates, and three communications stations that were perfect for random terrain to affix to a base. I tossed in a wooden barrel from the craft store on one of the bases to fill up the area on the base. Just like pretty much all the other terrain that I have painted up for this project, I began with a black spray prime and 50/50 acrylic black paint and water base coat. Next came an overall covering of Metallic Battleship Gray. I applied Metallic Pewter highlights for the evaporators and communication stations. I also applied a coppery gold as highlights in various panels The crates were given various other metallic colors. Finally, a black wash was applied overall. The communication stations received a pastel colored panel with bright yellow, red, or green "buttons" or lighted switches.

    Some items from the local craft store with a panel from RRB Minis & More made for more terrain

The Priority Supplies box gave me four bases worth of Sci-Fi terrain. For the fifth base, I used a wooden spool from the craft store, with a round disc atop it. I added three computer panels which I had purchased from RRB Miniatures at Shore Wars last month. I had to take a large craft knife and shave off part of the panels so they would look like they belonged on the rounded surface of the wooden spool. I prepared the piece the same way I had the others. I decided that the cylindrical portion should be a metallic green. I would say of all the craft metallic colors I've been using, I like how the green looks the best. It is more subtle than the blue and red (looks pink) shades. I gave the panel the same combination of Metallic Gray and Gold accents like the other pieces. I figured if the pieces looked like they belonged together, thematically, that would help the overall appearance of the spaceship.

    Another larger piece of Sci-Fi terrain, most of which comes from a Mantic Games terrain box

The larger piece is mostly from the Mantic Games "Industrial Accessories" box I mentioned in previous posts. It contains a big diameter section of piping coming out of and going back into the floor. It also contains one of the large pieces of machinery that the plastic terrain box. You can see in the photo some scratch-built pieces to fill out the area, too. The upright piece is a collection of wooden pieces from the craft store with various MDF gears that I had also picked up at the same spot. Around them are conical beads topped with a large sequin. Since this is an alien space station, I feel it is within keeping with the them to have unexplained terminals and other bits on the pieces.

    The other two small pieces created from the Star Wars Legion Priority Supplice pack

I really like how the terrain is coming out, though I may rethink my bases. I applied Metallic Gray to them and pretty much left it at that. In the pictures at least, they look a little dark next to my texture paper space station floor. After playing a game and seeing how it looks, I may go back and use a lighter color that matches the silvery color for the floors I created. We'll see.

    My most recent batch of Space Station Zero terrain on my gaming boards

What's next? Like I said, one more piece of large terrain needs to be finished. And also coming soon should be a game report! Woo-hoo!! My girlfriend Jenny and I may play our first cooperative game of Space Station Zero as early as this evening...!

The Discovery Crew for Space Station Zero

    Discovery crew from 2001: A Space Odyssey are transported by the Monolith to Space Station Zero

When I decided to play Space Station Zero, I went back and forth over which of my miniatures I should use for my lost and stranded crew. I thought about using my Planet of the Apes figures. I have too many nice figs for them to be sitting in the box unused for years on end. I also thought about using my Night Stalkers gang from my post-apocalyptic gang. They looked suitably Sci-Fi (and like the apes, were already painted). In that vein, I even thought about painting up the Eureka Miniatures Sci-Fi Gibbons. However, I kept pulling a pack from the old Sgt. Major Miniatures line (which I'd purchased a couple years ago from Battle Valor Games) called "Full Chem Suit" miniatures.

Closeup of Dr. David Bowman and two of his crewmates as they begin to explore the space station

The more I looked at these guys, the more I felt that their outfits could easily be painted up as spacesuits. As an added bonus, there really wasn't a lot of detail on their suits. So, they should paint up very quickly. Then I began thinking about what to base them off of to fit with the Space Station Zero storyline. According to the rules, it is a derelict space station lost in time and space when ships traveling by hyperlight speeds have a malfunction and end up drawn there. Wait...warped time?? That reminded me immediately of the ending of the classic Sci-Fi movie, 2001: A Space Odyssey. I pulled the minis out again and thought, "Why not?" I've always loved that creepily friendly voice of HAL 9000. "I'm afraid I can't do that, Dave..."

    I made Dr. Frank Poole, in yellow, my "Soldier" for my Exploration ship under the rules

I did a little research into what color to paint the costumes and how many people were in the Discovery crew. Much to my excitement, I found a fan blog that had an extensive entry on each crew member (including the three that never make it out of suspended animation and are killed by HAL). What's more, with those three and Dr. Dave Bowman and Dr. Frank Poole, they had five crew. Space Station Zero allows you to have a commander plus a crew of 4, 6, or 8. The fewer figures you have, the better their stats are in the game. Perfect! I had my five man crew and names to go with each fig!

    Zooming in a bit on Commander Bowman and his highly-trained, four-man crew of exploration

I was also excited to see that the Discovery featured colorful suits -- not just boring white, retro American-style space suits. I was ready to roll at that point, and pulled out the chem suit guys for the final time and began cleaning them up. I have to admit, I was very disappointed with the castings. There are huge mold lines, including one that goes diagonally across the front of the figure which I felt there was no way to get rid of. I would simply have to paint it up as part of the suit design. The figures didn't exactly match the Discovery spacesuits, but I felt that I could paint them up to give the right effect.

    The ship that brought them there - The Discovery, from the classic Sci-Fi movie

I decided to go with the red-orange suit that 2001's main star, Dave Bowman, wears. He would be the crew commander. Frank Poole is featured in the yellow suit, so I made him the "soldier" in my crew and painted him up in that suit. I decided to do the other three in green, blue, and white. Mainly, I wanted to be able to tell the miniatures apart and easily remember who's who on the tabletop. Also, the colored suits were featured in the movie, so why not? I painted each suit a base color then did a lighter dry brush. For the trim and accents of the space suit, I used black to give nice contrast with the primary colors. The face plate on the space suit I painted Metallic Gray with Pewter and Aluminum highlights. I researched the patches the Discovery spacesuits had and did my best to mimic them in 28mm. I went a little crazy on yellow, green, and red lighted buttons on their backpacks and radios. But I am happy with how they came out (other than the mold lines).

With my crew done, and most of the terrain I need for my first mission ready, I am very close to playing my first game of Space Station Zero!

Space Station Zero - Creating a Framework of Corridor Walls

    My newly-created foamboard walls for games of Space Station Zero

As you may remember from my previous posts, a new project for me is trying out Space Station Zero from Snarling Badger Studios. We'd enjoyed their Reign in Hell rules, so I picked them up from Wargame Vault (nice deal on print and PDF). Reading the rules, I was intrigued, so began building terrain to create my own dilapidated space station somewhere lost in the depths of space. An earlier post showed you the six 10"x11" battle boards I created to piece together for the 30"x22" board.

    Another look at the walls, with images that I had downloaded off the internet glued onto their sides

The more I began to think about it, though, I felt I would need walls to give the real look of a space station. I looked around for something commercially available, but didn't find anything in a reasonable price range. So, like with my boards, I figured that I could create my own. Wandering the aisles of the craft stores is usually where I get my inspiration. I came upon a black, foamboard trifold that I have often seen my students use for project displays. That made me think, "Hmmm..." The trifold would already have the fold in it for each of the 90 degree angles needed. That would work! 

    As you can see, I used about a quarter of the trifold, foamboard display

I stuck a tape measure next to some miniatures and chose to do my walls 4" tall. Since the playing area is 30"x22", I figured four corner sections placed together would work. One arm could be 15" for the long side and the other arm extending out from the corner could be 11" for the shorter side. Placing them all together in a rectangle would create the 30"x22" frame. It was an easy matter to cut the foamboard with a sharp X-acto knife. 

    An exploded view of the four sections, each with a long 15" and short 11" arm

Now, I could have left them like that, but felt that gluing on images of space station corridors could really make the walls pop. I went online and Googled various images of space station corridors, downloading a number of images. I resized these in Photoshop to 4" tall. I then duplicated the image and flipped it vertically so that it could wrap around the top edge of the foamboard and extend down to the bottom, enclosing the foamcore in an upside down "U-shape." I took these images to the local office supply store and printed them out on their color laser printer.

    I used doors/portals glued to cardstock to clamp the four sections together with magnets & steel bases

 The trick was accurately pasting them onto the foamboard. I used Gorilla Glue spray adhesive, spraying both the back of the image and the foamboard. This kept the foamboard from warping, like it may have if I slathered the whole thing in white glue. I was fairly happy with how this process (which took several hours) went. I did screw up, though. One of the four pieces had its image glued on upside down. Much to my surprise, it did matter for everything to line up and have the "raw" foamboard edge facing down onto the tabletop. 

    Bonus pic of a recently-painted Dr. Zaius from Planet of the Apes investigating Space Station Zero

While trying to get to sleep the night before, I thought about how to clamp the four sections together so that it didn't get knocked over during play. I hit upon the idea of using the image of a door or portal glued on a piece of cardstock and placed over where each section joined the neighboring one (at the center of each long and short side). But how to clamp them? I decided to glue steel bases near the bottom corners of each side of the cardstock door. I placed magnets on the steel bases, peeled off their backing, and then pressed the door into position. Squeezing the door attached the adhesive backing to the wall section in the exact correct position. I was delighted to see the doors peel off and reattach easily with the steel and magnet connection. Success! I love it when a concept like this actually works out...ha, ha!

So, here are some pictures of my space station walls with the boards in between. I was very happy with how these all turned out. I think the walls make it look much better than simply using the boards would have looked.

Post-Apoc 'Bad Guys' - the Barbarozas!

    My final (I swear!) Post-Apoc gang, the Barbarozas -- the classic movie bad guys

A staple of every Post-Apocalyptic movie are the period equivalent of the biker gang. These are the badly-dressed savages who murder and pillage their way through the film until the hero of the movie gives them their comeuppance. That's what I painted this gang up to be. Their bits of improvised armor, raggedy clothes, fur, and flowing hair made them look the part for me. Even their name in the Battle Valor Games catalog, "Space Cannibals" implies that savagery.

    Three of my biker gang-like Barbarozas - the one with the machete/sword and gun may be the leader

These miniatures were part of the line that Battle Valor Games purchased from Sgt. Major Miniatures. My friends and I put together a huge order back in 2021 and these were from that order (see how quickly I paint?). They looked cool on the website and in the ziploc packs when I received them. However, once I began to paint them, I became less enthused with them. The casting was a little rough in some places and it was actually hard to tell where the shirts ended, for example, and the pants began. I repainted portions of about half of these once it became clear what I thought was the pants was actually fringes of a tattered shirt hanging down. I actually gave up on painting these for awhile after I had done the flesh tones. They looked a mess and I was struggling to find the motivation to paint them up.

    I love the improvised bits of armor these 'Space Cannibals' (Battle Valor Games) were sculpted with

Once I finished a few other batches of figures or terrain that apparently I wanted to paint more, I sat down one day and wrote the colors for the shirts and pants on each cardboard base. I painted the base colors for these, then did a dry brush over each. That was when I discovered, as the dry brushing revealed faint details, that I had to go back and fix some of the figures. Still, by this time, working on them had created a momentum of its own. I chose faded clothes of various colors, including jeans, black paints, etc., figuring these disorganized thugs wouldn't have any noticeable uniform.

    The final two gang members with their dirty clothes and long, flowing locks of 'metal band' hair

Next up, I did the various bits of armor they had festooned all over them. Inevitable, I missed a few pieces here and there and had to step back in this stage, too. I did the armor with a metallic gray craft paint, with highlights in pewter and silver. Then I did the various leather bits in a two tone rust color and ruddy leather. I picked out the various pieces of wood next (mainly on the melee weapons), and then finally their flowing hair. By this time, I had come up with the name for the gang, the Barbarozas. I chose this for the sub-conscious sight clue of the word root "barbarian" in there, and for the reference to the medieval German king, Frederick Barbarosa. I mention this because I know the his name technically means Red Hair (Rosa = red, and Barbar = Hair, "Barber Shop"). I thought about painting them all with flowing red or auburn hair, but figured that worked against the disorganized, non-uniform ethos of this gang. So, I used a variety of hair colors, all dry brushed a highlighting color.

The guns were next, and I used Iron Wind Metals Steel as my base coat with Silver or Pewter for highlights. A dirty black wash over all of them made them look like the unwashed savages that their inspiration in the movies would have. In the end, I was happy with how the Barbarozas came out. I know that I said that I was done with painting Post-Apocalyptic gangs earlier this year, but technically I did need one more as we had an additional player over what I'd originally planned. So, NOW I am done painting Post-Apocalyptic gangs...right?? Oh wait...and my friend Jason just emailed to say Battle Valor has another 50% off sale! Uh-oh...

Year in Review: My Lead Legionaries "Bests" of 2022

Best of 2022 was returning to gaming in person! Here is me (maroon) with the Sunday Night Crew

Looking back at this year, it certainly had some gaming high points. From winning my first Saga tournament in January to us returning to in-person gaming on Sunday evenings, 2022 had some winners. This post is a look back at some of my favorite games, miniatures painted, conventions, and more of the year.

My 28mm Mongol army for Saga, using Curteys Miniatures (which are a bit on the small side)

Favorite Miniatures Painted: 28mm Saga Mongol army

The first painting of this army was begun in July of 2021, but they then they sat untouched for almost six months. It wasn't until January of 2022 year that the second batch was finished. So, I am counting it as a 2022 accomplishment! Much like with my Moorish Saga army, I did unique robes and patterns on many of the figures in this 28mm Curteys Miniatures army. As I began cataloging each unit finished over the course of the year, I talked about the great variety of poses in the now (I believe?) discontinued line. I really liked the faces on the figures, too. I decided at the outset to just paint the eyes as black, and not put in the usual black socket, white slit and color dot that I do for most 28mm minis. Budokan's horde (my name for the army - a nod at the classic album by Cheap Trick) has done well so far on the tabletop, going 2-1, I believe.

    Little did we know when we fought over Swingle's Saloon, we'd be using these rules a lot!

Favorite New Set of Miniatures Rules: Fistful of Lead

On the last Sunday of February, we finally returned to in-person gaming with a bang. We were back at "Wallace's Brewpub" (the basement of my home brewing friend Mike W) after a very long time meeting Sundays online on Boardgame Arena. For the occasion, Andy S ran Fistful of Lead miniatures rules. These are a line of rules that use the same basic "engine," but tweak it for a huge variety of periods. In due course over 2022, we would also play FFOL for periods as far afield as Star Wars spaceship combat to my own Post-Apocalyptic miniatures game. The thing I like most about them is the choices a player is forced to make. They usually receive one playing card for each figure (or starfighter or whatever) under their command. These not only sometimes provide tactical bonuses, but also dictate when it will act. Thus, players must choose which card to use to activate which figure - who's going first, who has the best shot and is the best fit for that card's bonus, and so on. As I said, I liked it so much I chose FFOL for my own Post-Apocalyptic games over a number of other possibilities.

 

    This trailer from Sarissa Precision (HEAVILY modified) is my favorite piece of terrain I built in 2022

Favorite Piece of Terrain I've Built: Post-Apoc (or Abandoned) Trailer

Although it has yet to be used in a game this year, this trailer was my favorite piece of terrain I built in 2022. It took a lot of time as almost all of the surfaces were modified. I used corrugated paper for the main facing of the home, as well as corrugated styrene plastic of various sizes for "patches" and affixed to the roof. I used "Granny Grate" from craft stores as the bars over the windows. The interior is painted, as well (see the link above), though I did scale back my original plans. No shag carpeting or posters on these walls. I think I was suffering from fatigue over the length of time it was taking to build. In fact, there IS a second set that I purchased. After how much work this one was, that second one still sits unbuilt. Oh, I plan to one day (a project for 2023?). It will be a much simpler version, though. Maybe I'll build it as the manufacturer intended (minus the cardboard awnings which are not doable, in my opinion). Look for that in the upcoming year!

    The First Command Wargames crew ran four of our rules sets at Historicon 2022 to great success!

Favorite Convention Roadtrip of the Year: First Command Waragmes Trip to Historicon 2022

It had been awhile since we'd done this, but the First Command Wargames crew packed up our games and headed to Historicon 2022 in downtown Lancaster, PA. I was running two sessions of my gang warfare rules, Mean Streets. I helped Jenny run two sessions of Wars of Insurgency, Mike and Jason S combined and ran Song of Drums and Tomahawks, and Steve V ran the War of Austrian Succession supplement to his Seven Years war big battle rules. We had great turnout for our games. I know that all sessions of Mean Streets and Wars of Insurgency were completely full. For our second game of "To Kill A President" -- the modern skirmish scenario set in a fictional, 20th century African country -- we even showed up on Little Wars TV. One of the hosts was playing the president's faction and enjoyed himself quite a bit. That seemed to be the theme of the weekend. Not only did our players enjoy themselves, all of us loved the venue. The wealth of restaurants and watering holes within walking distance of the convention center made it a great trip. We will definitely be back!

    I attempted to run a Saga campaign for our regular, twice-monthly Saga Ohio gaming group...but no

Biggest Flop of the Year: 'Strongholds' Saga Campaign

I love a campaign! I love running campaigns!! So, it stands to reason that everyone else will love the idea of playing in a campaign that I am running? Ahh, what is they say about hubris and the gods? This was definitely my biggest flop of the year. I misjudged the mood of our local group that gets together at the Guardtower East once a month to play Saga. I figured that since we'd been meeting regularly for more than a year that people would be getting tired of random, one-off matchups. However, I think part of the appeal of Saga is that there are so many different factions or armies to choose from. People like building and trying them out. Most Saga players are always in that, "What's my next army?" pondering, if not actively painting it up. And once it's done, well, they ARE going to want to play it, right? So, a Saga campaign that locks them into the same army for an indeterminate length of time is likely to go over like a lead balloon. Which it did, proving that hindsight is 20/20, and hubris dramatically near-sighted. The campaign lasted all of one turn and died a quiet, unheralded death.

    After being snake-bit in recent tournaments, it all came together in January for my Picts' victory!

Biggest Success on the Tabletop: Tournament Victory at Game Table Adventures Saga Tournament

Not to brag, but I have a better than average win rate at our Saga games on our monthly game days. However, to this point, when I entered a tournament, I fared poorly. If I remember right, I was 1-1-1 and 1-2 in my previous tournies. So, I was feeling a little snake-bit going into Game Table Adventures' Saga Tournament to start off the year in January. I had decided to play the Picts from the relatively new Age of Invasions book. I'd been playing them the last few months and was having a good time with them. They're an aggressive army that requires a fair amount of terrain on the board, so that concerned me. I was kind of waiting till I showed up at the store that day to see what the boards looked like before I decided for sure. I checked with the tourney organizer on how one of the mercenary units that allows you to alter terrain would work out in his tournament. When I arrived, though, I looked around, and felt there was a reasonable amount of terrain on the boards. So, I went with my plan of playing the Picts. Check out the link above to read my account of my three games. Suffice to say, I went 3-0 and scored my first and only Saga tourney victory to this point. So that was definitely a high point of the year (never mind that it occurred in January...ha, ha!).

    We had 24 players show up to our ATC 2022 Saga tournament - great turnout, great time!

Best Tournament (that I ran): Advance the Colors 2022 Saga Tournament

A good bit of my hobby time this year was spent preparing for this fall's Advance the Colors Saga Tournament. Last year in our inaugural tourney, we had 16 players. My goal for this year was to hit 24, which weirdly was exactly the number of players I had. At one point, it was in the 30's, but a Covid outbreak amongst the active Fort Wayne, IN, community meant a good handful of guys couldn't come. Still, ATC is a great venue for a Saga tournament. There is a ton of space in the Clark County Fairgrounds venue. We could have fit many, many more players (which means there's room for this to grow...?). Players had a lot of elbow room and could spread out, which was nice. It was a VERY easy tournament to run, too. I had a bare minimum of rules or scenario questions. All of my players were friendly and said they had a great time. There was awesome prize support from Gripping Beast, Father and Son Gaming, Jarls Workshop, Game Table Adventures and Saga Ohio, itself (um...that would be me, painting up six warlord stands to give away!). We ended up having a tie with D.J. Andrews and Daniel Broaddus both going 3-0 to tie for the victory. Great time, and I look forward to next year's tourney, as well. Dare I hope for 30 players this time...?

So, there it is - my bests of 2022. Hope you had a great year of gaming, too!

Assembling Space Station Zero Terrain

Combinations of industrial elements from various sources were used to create my space station terrain

One of the things I like to do is scratch-build terrain on the cheap. I usually assemble it using various items I've found at craft stores, so creating terrain for Space Station Zero was definitely going to involve a scouting visit there. My usual choice is of the various shapes of wooden pieces you can find there, much like my peg and drawer pull droids from last post. In addition, on my last visit to Dragons Guildhall, I'd picked up the Mantic Games "Industrial Accessories" from their Terrain Crate line.

    My second piece of terrain has ruptured pipelines from one of the Mantic Games Terrain Creates

My follow up to last post's 3-D printed piece would be a combination of bits from the Industrial Accessories box mixed with things I'd grabbed from the craft store or my bins of various bits and pieces. I actually sat down a couple weeks ago and assembled five 6"x4" styrene bases using these sources. It was several nights of gluing various things together to fill up the base. I followed that up with spray painting all five, and then going over them with a 50/50 mix of acrylic black paint and water. There the five sat for about a week or so until winter break from school hit.

Despite a rough start to break (I tested positive for Covid last Friday), the Paxlovid medication had me feeling better within a couple days. I found myself tiring easily, though, so I worked on and off on the terrain for several days. Still, they took much less time to paint up than the 3-D printed power plant. My second terrain piece for this project was a section of burst open pipeline along with some various industrial fans and vents. These pretty much all came from the Mantic Games box.

    Another view of my two terrain pieces with 28mm Sci-Fi figures from my Post-Apocalyptic forces

With the black base coat, I decided to layer my metallic coloring to give the pieces a somewhat run-down look. Metallic Gray would be applied over most of the pipe sections, leaving only small joins in the base black color. I would apply a Pewter color over the top portions of the metallic gray, and then a small line of silver over that to give an effect of light reflection off the pipes. I used a copper/reddish gold as accent color as I did on the power plant. For two upright pipe pieces with fans atop, I used a Metallic green to add a new look. Finally, after it was finished and fully clear coated, I forced cotton ball material down into the burst open sections to look like steam or gas escaping the ruptures.

    A train store electrical transformer is the centerpiece to my second piece of Sci-Fi terrain

The second piece used a Walters electrical transformer made of plastic for model railroad terrain as its centerpiece. Surrounding it are wooden pieces from the craft store - different size wooden barrels with colored gem stones atop them. I followed the same painting scheme with metallic gray and pewter, but this time with a metallic brown to go with the copper accents. Each piece also receives a black wash to give it a more grimy and less pristine appearance. I was really happy with how the orange gem stones look like glowing power sources. It was the effect I was hoping they would create. I did dry brush silver to bring out the coil rings atop the transformer.

So far, I am happy with how these are turning out. They are not show-stopping pieces, but they look the part, I think. They will look passable on the tabletop and give the proper effect, I hope. Look for more of these coming soon, as another one is currently in progress on my painting desk!

Space Station Zero - a new project begins

    My first Sci-Fi terrain piece sits on my newly-constructed gaming board for Space Station Zero

I had been seeing posts on Facebook about a new miniatures rules set put out by the company that wrote the "Reign in Hell" rules we've played a number of times. This science-fiction game, by Snarling Badger Studios, is called "Space Station Zero." The idea is that there is a derelict space station lost somewhere in the depths of the universe. Starships end up stranded there when their warp drive or hyper-light travel systems fail. Players each take on the role of crew of one of those ships exploring the sprawling, dark, but still functioning, interior of the station. I liked the activation system of Reign in Hell. Its game mechanics played smoothly enough, so I figured I'd spend the less than $20 to give it a look.

    Space Station Zero is a Sci-Fi miniatures rules set by Snarling Badger Studies

The mechanics are different than in Reign in Hell, but seem like they'll work well enough. The same system is used throughout: Roll a certain number of 12-sided dice to pass tests. Even numbers pass, odd numbers fail. Yep - you read that correctly. An "11" is a failure, but a "10" is a success. Some tests toss in target numbers, so you may need to score 6+, for example. That would mean 6, 8, 10, and 12 pass, while lower even numbers and all odds fail. 

    Some of my Post-Apocalyptic forces on the Space Station Zero gaming boards I created

Players determine which type of ship they are from, which will give them a list of types of crewmen (or women or aliens!) to select their force from. The types include medical officers, soldiers, engineers, etc. Players also select how many figures they want in their crew, either 4, 6, or 8. The fewer figures, the better each individual crewman's statistics. The players similarly equip their leader (who does not count towards the 4, 6, or 10). Finally, they select an "Edge," which is a special ability or equipment type that the entire crew possess.

    Close up of the silver, textured paper from Hobby Lobby and my Sharpie grid of plates and rivets

I liked that the game can be played cooperatively or competitively. So many miniatures games we play on Sunday evenings are competitive, that I thought it might be interesting to try something cooperative, for once. However, I think before I spring it on the Sunday night crew, Jenny and I will try out a few games as a two-player cooperative game. In this case, the denizens and dangers of the space station that we will face are controlled by an Artificial Intelligence, essentially a priority list that determines how each droid or crazed alien mutant will act.

    Extreme closeup of applying rivets and grid lines - a functional (if not spectacular) playing surface

Everything seemed to be moving along on this new project, but there WAS a major barrier. I own only a handful of miniatures that could be used in a Sci-Fi game like this, and I own pretty much zero terrain. Well, painted up, that is. And I don't have a playing mat or board that looks like the deck of a space station. Perhaps curiously, that is where I decided to start. I had seen a patterned silver paper at Hobby Lobby when looking for something else awhile back. I went back, checked it out, and felt it would do. The playing area is a weird one (though Snarling Badger says its common??) - 22"x30". Doing the math, that meant if I could produce six tiles of 11"x10" they would cover that area in a 2x3 arrangement. 

    The creases I put in the paper kind of disappeared once I glued the paper to the acrylic tiles

Each piece of silver paper was a foot square, so I cut them to size with scissors easily enough. Then, I decided to crease them to hopefully give the board slight, 3-D look of depth. I reinforced by lining the creases with black Sharpie. I ended up gluing them with spray glue to a smoky, acrylic material which I scored and snapped to the same size. Once attached, I added in a pattern of rivets at each intersection to give the effect of a space station floor made up of rectangular plates. The board is by no means perfect, nor is it the most beautiful playing surface anyone has ever designed. It is functional, and was quick and relatively inexpensive to produce.

    The rear of the power generator - an excellent 3-D printed terrain piece from Jarls Workshop

But what about terrain to put on the boards? "I thought you said you had none?", I hear you ask. Wellll, I did buy one incredibly cool piece of Sci-Fi terrain from Jarl's Workshop owner Rusty Parker at Drums at the Rapids 2022. It would be my first piece to be set down upon my newly-constructed space station floor. As cool as the piece is (Power Generator?), it was an absolute BEAR to paint! I spent more time painting this piece of terrain than nearly every piece of terrain I have ever done. There are just so many recessed grooves, cool lines, and supports, etc., that I think I spent four of five nights on it, several hours each evening! I like how it came out, though. I used metallic craft paints for most of it. I am happy with how the light blue metallic contrasts with the dark gray metallic (and especially the copper accents that make it pop). 

    Side view of this large, 6"x4" terrain piece - it took me LOTS of time to paint all the details

When it was finally done, I was happy with the result. I'm a bit leery of going to such lengths, again, though! Future pieces of terrain are definitely going to have to paint up quicker, or this project will never see its first game. To set up a game, players roll randomly to see how many 5"x5" or 2"x2" pieces are placed on each quarter of the table. So, each board will have a minimum of four pieces and a maximum of 20 (!!!). Now, this power generator WAS one of the big pieces. The smaller ones -- and hopefully subsequent big ones -- will likely take a lot less time to paint up. So, no worries...right??

    Wooden pegs, drawer pulls, brass wire, and beads are the genesis of a force of space station droids

The skeptical second-guessers among you are probably smirking, now. You're just waiting to say, "But what about figures?" Well, I likely have enough figures in my Post-Apocalyptic forces to represent the player crews. So, I'll be set for Jenny and I to test it out. I know, I know...I see your grin! "Enemies?", you ask. Yes, yes, yes, I know. So, I went through the dozens of scenarios in the rulebook and catalogued the enemy creatures or mechanical forces that the players have to defeat. I'm happy to report they break down into essentially two categories: mechanical "drone sentries" (Laser-armed, Medical, Guard, Repair, Worker, etc.) and "mutants" (Starving, Deranged, Experimental, Drunken, etc.). 

    "Intruder Alert!" the space station's droids whir towards a crew investigating the power plant

So, that led me to my first scratch-build - generic drones for Space Station Zero! I modeled them on the only vaguely humanoid worker ones from Star Wars. I used two pieces of craft wood as the body -- the upper body is a wooden peg and the lower is a "drawer pull." Think BB3 with arms. For said arms, I drilled through the upper body with my pin vice and ran brass wire through. I slid beads onto the wire, bent the arms at various angles, then glued aluminum tube over the brass to be a gun barrel or holder for a melee weapon. Parts of this were more fiddly than I expected (particularly using pliers to re-open the crimp caused by cutting a length of aluminum tube). I also used styrene tube as an outer barrel for the gun weapon. It came out better on some of the droids than on others. Same with the weapons. I kind of like how the lengths of dangling chain look for a melee weapon. I'm less happy with the hammers. Oh well. This IS to test out the game and see if I like before I go out and buy commercial models, right?

    Although not originally designed as armed sentries, the droids have repurposed tools for defense

Once the bodies and arms were completed, it was time to paint them. I decided to go with a pearly white body (once again, ala Star Wars) with metallic gray arms and weapons. I also made the lower part of the peg's head a bright steel to give the suggestion of a head and sensors. I painted stripes in bright colors, making each different for ease of identification during game play. Finally, I added tiny gemstones along the centeral torso to represent glowing panels. How do they look? Passable, I say. Hopefully, they look better once they are battling it out with investigating crews amidst the background of laboriously-painted Sci-Fi terrain! Ha, ha!

    Hopefully, these 8 scratch-built droids can cover me for a couple missions of Space Station Zero!

Anyway, more Space Station Zero stuff is on the way, so stay tuned!

    I bought these smaller Sci-Fit terrain pieces from RRB Miniatures at Shore Wars 2022