Genetics and wargaming

I am in the first stages of my project of painting some Prehistoric miniatures, and I was thinking about how to paint the bear skins and the skin of the miniatures.

I have two sets of Bear Clan human miniatures from Splintered Light Miniatures, armed with stone axes and spears. All of them wear bear skinned cloaks and trousers, no other trinkets. So if I have 4 models with the same pose, How could I paint them to give the armies some variety?

At the first moment I thought that a go idea could be to paint their skin with a high variety of colors, some black, some, white, and some tanned, and the same with their bear skins I could get some variety of miniatures, grey, brown and black could be the colors for have a lot of miniatures, but after looking for some info throw internet, I had to withdraw this idea, let's take a look about this.

 Supposedly, these men and women lived in some point of Europe, during the late states Würm III period, after the great migrations from Africa.

Blue areas = Iced Areas

 With human settlements, in some place of Europe, arounding Mediterranean sea. They were in the Magadalenian period, with stone weapons, and some settlements, they were mainly hunters and gatherers.

 But the low population density was low, so the genetical exchanges were very low, so the mixture of races is very low, with regular cases of endogamic relations, for that the skin of the miniatures must be painted in a more similar way.

 With the bear skin we are in a similar case, the bast majority of them must be brown, with some of them black or white, but the hunter of this period hunted in determined areas, where the bears will have a similar skins color.

 For that I think that the solution to establish differences will be in using green modeling putty, adding some elements, like more fur, and to paint tattoos to the troops, with a different color for each warband.

 So, the Prehistoric miniatures must be modeled in a high variety of troops, because this period doesn't let to the miniatures painters a wide variety of color schemes for their armies, because of the low skin color varieties, and the natural origin of the clothes (mainly wool and furs) with no usual dye products to manufacture them, normally brown and stained white. To add a touch of color the painter must use tattoos ans decoration on the stands, this period allows imagine a wide variety of colored plants that can grow near the foots of our miniatures


 Let's continue painting my monochrome troops... here is a great sample by  Carmen's Fun Painty Time, of what the terrain can do.

[USEME] Labor of Gods, USEME in the Mythical Greece

What about if we play battles between heroical greeks and minotaurs, reviving the mythical Odyssey, and the Iliad?
 For that there is a very very interesting wargame called "Labor of Gods", based on SuperSystem. I made a review of it a few months ago.
 But now, I want to explain you how we can play mythical battles with USEME, and I am goin to based on the Labor of Gods wargame.


The characters, can be made as with USEME Fantasy, and to convert them inHeroes, we can give them the Hero rule, and a high ELAN rate.


The weapons will  be the same, except the Crossbow, Firelock and Trebuchet.
The armoured special rule will be only considered for troops that wear the Hoplon shield.


The groups of troops can have a Musician, that will work giving them a +1 ELAN, with a range of 6". Working like the Commissar from USEME WWII.


The special rules like Night Vision, Sniper, Insurgent, Rage, savage, Iron Willed, Eagle Eyes and Fleet Footed, can be converted into "Blessing of the Gods", in that way.


Night Vision: Blessing of Hecate
Sniper: Blessing of Zeus
Insurgent: Blessing of Athena
Rage: Blessing of Ares
Savage: Blessing of Hera
Iron Willed: Blessing of Poseidon
Eagle Eye: Blessing of Zeus
Fleet Footed: Blessing of Hermes
Cleric: Blessing of Apollo
Light Troops: (Consider forest and brushes as normal terrain) Blessing of Artemis.

All the Heroes must have a Blessing. As in all Greek tragedies, the heroes were envied by other gods and by the simple mortals, and normally dead in a tragic situation; for that, one time per battle, the Opponent player can choose to oblige an enemy Hero to reroll a roll, having to accept the new score. But after the battle the Heroes have a +1 on their After game roll.


But the normal troops can have special rules following the USEME normal system, they don't get the Bleesing, and don't get the favour of the gods for the After game roll, and neither the Greek Tragedy special rule.


Let's take a look on some samples:


Normal Troops
Cretan Archers: Infatry Elan 3 Move 6" Short Bow
Skeletons: Infantry Elan 2 Move 6" Sword
Amazon Warriors: Infantry  Elan 3 Move 6" Spear Shield
Greek Warriors: Infatry Elan 4 Move 4" Armoured Spear


Mythical Creatures
Gorgon: Creature Elan 4 Move 4" Long Bow. Change State Spell.
Medusa, the Gorgon: Creature Elan 5 Move 4" Long Bow Hero.
Cyclops: Monster Elan 3 Move 6" Monster Melee Weapon.
Minotaur: Monster Elan 4 Move 6" Monster Fist Rage.


More to come....

[USEME] Enquiry table for USEME

While I was looking the path to play the Weird Euskadi campaign, I discovered yesterday this entry in shichitenhakki blog.

 It looks like a jumble of colours and numbers, but if you pay attention you are in front of the table that is going to convert your USEME wargame in a solo RPG game, or give it a deeper aspect, if you want it obviously! Because USEME will convert in a more complex wargame system

 Enquiry Table + USEME as USEMERPG
 Let's take a look, we have a group of orcs with ELAN 3, that wear swords, and are patrolling by a forest. A group of elves (ELAN 4, Long Bows) have decided to ambush them. In normal conditions this scenario could be very simple (even for Ultra Simple Engine for Miniature Engagements), but with this table we can control if the orcs hear the elves, and how will they react to the attacks.

 To play with that table we have to give some more stats to the troops, for example the Orcs can have Notice 3, Stealth 3 and Guts 4. The elves can have Notice 4, Stealth 4 and Climbing 4.

The elves are hiden, and the orcs want to find them, they roll for notice, two dice, first get 5 (blue column) and the other gets 2 (white column), we are in the second line, of the 5 group, line two; the orcs are have Notice 3 and the elves Stealth 4, so the orcs have -1, so is more difficult to notice the elves, so although the orcs are Notice 3, they will notice elves as 2. We  follow the line 2, till it cross with column 2 (Poor), and we get a result Yellow, that means Not buts....

 With this rsult, the orcs can NOT find the elves, BUT the elves can't move freely, on their turn, they can only use one action for moving, or they will be discovered.

 The orcs move, and the elves want to attack them with their bows, another roll in the table now comparing elves stealth vs orcs notice, no the elves have +1, because Stealth 4 - Orcs Notice 3 = 1. The rolls say Blue column 1, the white column 5, so green result, the table says NO.

 The elves can NOT shoot without being discovered, so the orcs know where are hidden the elves, the terrain element. The elves shoot, and wound orc, the orcs advance against the terrain element.

 The orcs arrive to the terrain element, so the elves are discovered, and the battle continue.

 We can use here a Moral system, using the Guts skill, for both groups 4. It can be checked when the troops arrive to 50% loses. In our example, the elves has been crushed by the orcs, the elves must check for moral, if they continue fighting or they flee. Roll two dices, 5 (blue column), 3 (white column), result blue: Yes, but... That means: YES they continue fighting, but with the next casuality, they will flee.

Enquiry Table + USEME as CEMe (Complex Engine for Miniatures Engagements)

 Mainly for battles, we can use this table for battles. If we follow the USEME rules, the troops move on the battlefield following all the leader orders perfectly, but this is no real, let's give some chaos to the system.

 The Leaders are a very important part of the battle and we must have them into account. We will buy them as normal troops, but instead of giving them a weapon, we must give them a Command stat, that can be:
Terrible, cost 2
Poor, cost 4
Fair, cost 6
Good, cost 8
Very Good, cost 10
Great, cost cost 12

 So a leader for the orcs, called Obluck, will not enter into combat, but will lead their troops, he can have this stats: Elan 3, Move 6 inch, Command Rate Fair. For the elves, we can have to Gaspar, a endogamic leader Elan 5, move 6 inch, Command Rate Poor.

 So the Elves will receive the orders before, but, probably they will understand them worse.

Lets play a round

Elves leader ELAN 5, Orcs ELAN 3, so the elves move before.

  Gaspar wants to order the Silver helmets to move near the forest, he roll on the Enquiry tale, an gets: 5 blue column, 3 white column, result "Not, But". So the troops didn't receive the order, but they can move with their own ELAN, with the troops that didn't received orders turn. Them Gaspar order to the archers to fire against the wild boars, rolls in the table and gets: 2 (blue column), 6 (white column). The archers can't shoot this Round. Turn for the Orcs, the wild boars receive the order to charge, 5 (Blue), 5 (White), result Yes But, the troops charge, but will fight with -1 to their ELAN. The fight takes place normally. And Obluck order to the back orcs unit to charge against the silver helmets, rolls 1 Blue, 2 White, very bad result!, "Not, and..." The orcs not charge and they start to fight against themselves, they will not act during this turn, and on next, the leader will have a -1 on their Command Rating to control this troops.

End of the command turn.

Starts the outcommand fase, the troops, that didn't receive orders, or that fail following the order can move, if they get a result of "Not, But" or if the enemy is in their ranged weapons, or charge zone. They can act normally. All the other troops can't do anything.

The results of the table can be summarized:
No, and...: The troops can't act this turn and the leader will have a -1 if he wants to control them in the next turn.
No: The troops can't act following the command order, but, can act in the outcommand fase, if they have enemies on their ranged weapon, charge zone, or want to adjust their formation, or move back from the enemy.
No, but...: The troops can't act following the command order, but, can act in the outcommand fase, normally.
Yes: The troops act following the command order.
Yes, and...: The troops act following the command order and get a +1 ELAN during this turn.

It is recommended that the leader will be rated between Very Good and Fair, because in other case, the troops will move uncommanded.

Just in case that you can't download the table from the original blog, here it is.

The use of this table expand the possibilities of USEME, making it a more complex

Moth Campaign Prydia Bleeds for USEME

 The guys from Alternative Armies have released the Ion Age Handbook, on their website, for only 2$

 There we can find, as they say:
 The Handbook is a great resource for the Ion Age but it is also more than that. In this purpose made e-publication you will find several sections all of which will aid you in planning and playing any Ion Age game system such as MOTH or Firefight 2.0.

These sections are as follows:

High Resolution Image Catalogue
Images both Front and Back of more than one hundred and twenty 28mm white metal miniatures

Uniforms and Schemes
A short section on painting your troops inc. the Prydian Army, League of Canlaster and the League of Yordan with color photos and artwork.

Template Troops
Pre-Made Profiles for MOTH for your roster inc. Planetary Militia, Muster, Retained, Desteria and Nobles allowing you to get into the action faster!

Prydia Bleeds – MOTH Campaign Arc
The start of a brand new full MOTH campaign spinning out of the Prydia Burns background in the main rulebook. Including Introduction, Platoon Creation, Between Games, Unique Characters and the first two scenarios, Dolly Mixture and Duck Hunt. The rest of the Prydia Bleeds Campaign will be released for free here on Barking Irons!

 But why it is interesting for USEME players too?

 Mainly because in this handbook we can find Uniforms and Schemes for the Ion Age setting, that is very interesting, and if we want, we can play the Prydia Bleeds Campaign.

I have been thinking about what changes can be done, and I think that they are very simple, if we use the USEME SciFi in that way:

 The ELAN is halved
MOTH         USEME
ELAN           ELAN
1                       1
2                       2
3                       2
4                       3
5                       3
6                       4
7                       4
8                       5
9                       5
10                     6

 The Movement rates aren't changed.

 The Armors can be changed in that way:
Bare Flesh: No troops with this option. Or only Civilians.
Weave Vest: No special considerations, or the Elan can be downgraded by 1.
MkIII Aketon: No special considerations.
MkIV Aketon: The troop is considered "Armored"
MkV Alwite: The troop is considered "Armored" with "Energy Shield"
MkVIII Alwite: The troop is considered "Armored" with "Energy Shield"
MkII Noblesse: The troop is considered "Light Vehicle" with "Energy Shield"

 The Weapons can be changed in that way, using the Modern Warfare USEME:
Moth Type 6- Stardar Rifle
Angis 12.5 AP- Standard Rifle
Tumbler MkIII MPI- Side Arm with the special rule "Imported Insurgent"
Tumbler MkIII SMG- Sub Machinegun
Moth Type 8- Side Arm
Angis 12.5mm- Side Arm
Minstrel PP2- Side Arm
Hermit 44- Standard Rifle with "Antitank" special rule.
Charlatan IV- Superior Rifle
All other weapons are considered Heavy Weapons.

 The Special Rules work like in USEME, and all that are new must by bought at the same cost.

 With this a Muster private with this stats:
Elan 6, Aketon MKIV Armour, Moth Type 6 Rifle;
will be with USEME
Elan 4, Armored,  Standard Rifle.

 Or a Planetary Militia could be with MOTH:
Elan 3, MKIII Aketon, Tumbler SMG
will be with USEME
Elan 2, Submachine gun.

 In other way, we can use the army lists suggested by the authors for the scenario: Advance on Pelegan Prime.

 Soon, the free scenarios for playing Prydia Bleeds with USEME :)

[USE ME] Space Elves vs Goaulds

While I find the way for continue playing the "Weird Euskadi Campaign", I have taken out my 6mm miniatures to give a try the mechs that I bought during the summer.

 I played a pitched battle between a group of Eldars, and some DRM miniatures. Both armies were quite similar  with heavy vehicles and mechs.  The Goualds had better weaponry and the Space elves were more.

 Here are the stats:

Space Elves

10x Eldar troops: Infantry Elan 3, Standard Rifle Move 4

9x Exarch troops; Infantry Elan 4 Superior Rifles Move 6

4x Jetbikes: Light Vehicle Elan 4 Automatic Weapons Move 12

2x Vypers: Light Vehicle Elan 4 Cannon Move 12 Armoured

1 Mech: Super Heavy Vehicle Elan 4 Move 8 Cannon Weapons Armoured

Goaulds

11x Jaffa troops: Infantry Elan 4 Standar Rifle Move 4

6x Scout Jaffa Troops: Infantry Elan 4 Superior Rifle Snipers Light Troops

4x Light Tanks: Light Vehicle Elan 4 Move 8 Automatic Weapons

1 Heavy Tank: Heavy Vehicle Elan 4 Move 8 Cannon Weapons Armoured

1 Mech: Super Heavy Vehicle Elan 4 Move 8 Cannon Weapons Armoured

And now the photos

The troops star to advance, the bikes take advantage of their high speed 

The Mechs arrive to the battlefield (Random deployment)

The bikes destroy the light vehicles

Another Light Vehicle blowed up

With their left flank uncovered, the Goaulds are in difficults

The Goauld tank resist the mechs attacks bravely, meanwhile,
the Exarchs try to destroy the mech, bad idea!

The Scouts blow up a jetbike, will they defeat the  enemies....?

End of the last turn, the Goaulds have been defeat
the Systems Lords must flee from the Space elves colony

Some comments
Interesting battle, with a high superiority of the Eldars vehicles over the Goaulds. The dices scores were determiner.
The battle was too much slow because I forgot to write down the range of each weapon.... On next time I must use troops cards like Noel.