Dredd 3D

I want to see this during the week. I used to like Dredd as a kid but the previous film with Stallone really put me. It wasn't the plot it was Sy trying to be the big man himself.

I was impressed by Karl Urban who managed the carry off the quiet (if homicidal) dignity of Dredd. I guess it must be hard to act when you are prohibited from actually looking at anyone eyeball to eyeball but Urban manages it. It's difficult to explain it but whatever Dredd had, Urban has it too.



Olivia Thirlby was also a good choice for Judge Anderson. I haven't seen her in anything other than The Darkest Hour but she has been in a fair few chick flicks. She carried the role off and manages to be pretty cute throughout.

The images of mega city one are quite striking. Some could have come out of the comic and some remind me of the urban decay of the inner cities today. The state of urban decay is more sci-fi that post apocalypse but could give you a fairy nice world to model. Sadly you don't get to see a lot of the city but if you wanted to know what a City Block looked like then you will be able to see one now.
It feels very claustrophobic and dark which is what you would expect from a mega city with a population roughly twice that one modern day America.

Overall I was pretty impressed. Very dark and much darker than the original film. It has more of the flavour of Dredd that anything other than the comics. It'd not going to make it into my top ten all time films but may end up somewhere around eighty five.

Rebel US Modern Policemen

I spent  most of yesterday's painting time working on these. I do a lot of  modern RPG and I got these primarily for that. Now I am thinking zombies. Zombies.....Ahhhhh. I suddenly feel relaxed.

My long running game takes place in Washington D.C. and from some limited web research this looks like the uniform. This is only half the pack so I'm thinking something from Virginia or Maryland. Boston maybe. It will probably be more of the same with white shirts.

Some zombies next. Give them something for target practice.

Another Bits And Pieces Post

Well I didn't get much feedback about the colour scheme so I plodded on with it anyway. The plan was that this would end up looking like WW2 US marine camo. If I can't have what I want then I get something tenuously close to what I want. I am really not sure that I have got the colour balance right on the pictures. Hopefully it is sandy enough that it won't stick out like a sore thumb on the table top.

So these are four of the twenty not colonial marines.  I am hoping to use them for tomorrow's war and maybe some RPG game stuff. i was thinking that they could be a moderate tech post apocalyptic force.

Whilst waiting for inks to dry on the marines I have had a play about with some x29 blockhead suits from Critical Mass Games. Nice figures and look like beefier cousins ti  the jeager robot from Khurasan. Unlike the marines, I want these to stand out and be seen. there seemed to be a lot of robots in Fallout so maybe these would work for PA too.
 
Now for a taste of what is coming next. Te two police figures on either side are zombies and all four are from Rebel Minis. The next thing on my mind is the zombies. i want the uniforms of the police officers to match their dead colleagues so I thought that I would start here. Most of the RPG stuff I run in modern America I run in Washington D.C. because I have a fair bit of background stuff for it so I wa planning on using D.C. uniform colours, powder blue shirts and black trousers. I might paint some more figures in a different uniform colour. Just a thought if anyone is reading this, it would be good to be able to get some figures that look like state troopers..

Colonial Marines

I got some of the not colonial marines from Khurasan a while back. Who can resist them. I like the movies a lot so it's hardly a surprise.

I haven't got all the figures I need yet and I haven't made up my mind about a paint job. This was an attempt. I am not sure if I like it but I will see if it grows on me. What do you think. It's a similar technique to the US infantry but different colour scheme. I don't want to use the scheme from the films because it will clash with my terrain. I want something a bit sandier and I am not sure this goes far enough but then I am not sure about MRT or multicam for desert either. This is very much a work in progress and a long way from finished.

I looked at the colonial marine manual for the TOE they use in there but the Platoons are really small so I would need two of them. Additionally they have not integral support. This would be fine  if I was planning to fight only aliens.

So I had another look at the book and thought...nah. So what then? Well I'll start with the basic building block the squad which is oddly identical to the standard American squad. So I guess that it would probably be similar to the standard US with some updates for the sake of the future.  I thought that the basic platoon was a good place to start. In addition to the standard nine man squad there is a driver. There is a pilot and a co pilot but i doubt that they would see the table top. so what else to add? Well there is an officer and a android in the TOE. I guess that there would be a sergeant and a medic. There would also probably be a radio operator and a forward air controller as well. I thought that there should be an additional squad in line with current operational dogma. it follows that there would be some sort of weapons squad. So looking at what minis were there there are a couple of rocket launcher, two plasma gunners and a sniper in one pack, the other pack has a couple of smart gunners as well as medics and a casualty.

so assuming there is another nine man squad that means four two man team, two four man teams, maybe some three man teams. I thought that you could add a sniper and a spotter as one pair, two teams of three men with plasma guns and rifles plus a sergeant. but what to do with the missile launchers and extra smart gunners. Clearly you need another weapon company

I went to a fancy dress party over the weekend. Kicking and screaming as I recall. This is me getting ready to be Robert Smith from The Cure. I will have to make my mind up about posting some pics of the finished article.

Replaying Stargrunt II

A few months ago I thought I'd try out Stargrunt II GZG's grand daddy of a Sci-Fi combat game. I had a few hours to spare as SWiMBO was away riding a horse. I have a copy and it has been out of print for a long time but I think I am right in saying that it is still available for download for free on GZG's web site. Given the economic climate, it seems like a good idea to do stuff for free especially when it's something I once paid twenty pounds for.

So I set up a dummy game. Quickly so there were really no time for frills. The marines were going in to check why contact had been lost with a village (any similarities between this and AVP: Requiem are purely coincidental). The marine have no vehicles because they know that the road through the village is blocked.

The Marines Arrive

The Marines arrive and take up a commanding position at the corner of town. Another team is going down the main road. A third team are going to sweep round the far side of the village. A forth team gets up on the roof of a building to get a better view of the situation. Whilst this is going on, the 2nd Lt and the Sergeant keep in an over watch position on the hill with the third team between them and the errr, action. At this point they have no idea what is going on so they are adopting a better safe than sorry approach.

The aliens have four teams of six that are going to try and get the Marines. In addition to this, they have three bio booby traps that they have placed on the village. 

Sneaky Sneaky

On the left hand side of the picture above, out of sight of the soldiers, a small swarm of aliens creep up on them ready for a flank attack.

In the picture below, the soldiers move on with their recon they trigger one of the booby traps. Thanks to some goof/bad luck two of the marines die instantly and another get injured. The screening squad move round the outside of the village in an attempt to outflank anything that might be in the heart of the village. The aliens continue sneaking around. They stop just short of revealing themselves to the marines and make ready to charge towards them an attack.

And The Battle Starts

The marines attempting the flank advance past another booby trap. This did not go so well for the aliens. It explodes and does no damage at all. I can only imagine the looks on their faces. Then they get jumped by six aliens. The aliens perhaps jumped a little early but I thought they would capitalise on the shock on the explosion. They don't get all the way there so the marines get a chance to fire killing two of the aliens and injuring another. The marines are still facing a closer assault  which would be bad for them. The aliens are almost certain to kill them if they get into hand to hand with the marines.

The lone survivor from the team in the centre of town retreats towards his last position and sees the aliens waiting to pounce.

"Poop"

Thinking better than waiting around for the aliens to charge, the marines use discretion and run away firing. They get lucky and manage to kill the injured one, injure another and kill a third. Meanwhile the aliens sneaking around start their attack. It takes them a turn to get up the wall so they have to wait around. Sadly this is bad news for the survivor of the team that got hit by the booby trap earlier and he gets munched by two of the aliens. Meanwhile the marines on the roof get an opportunity to hose the aliens below injuring one of them.

"Our Father...."

The Marines on the flank finish off the remaining alien with the help of the platoon leader and sergeant and continue their redeployment to their platoon HQ. The aliens get on the roof but but only some get into hand to hand combat. The marines fire at them knocking them off the walls. Both sides take a couple of casualties.

The Marines Say Goodbye

The aliens get shot before they get a chance to move on the marines. This is where it all ends. The marines don't have much of a chance of completing their mission until reinforcements arrive. The humans have a casualty left behind so they might want to go and retrieve him assuming the aliens don't stop for a snack first.

Even More Modern US Infantry

The main reason for the Rebel Minis order was to get some zombies and some more US infantry. I wanted these for Force on Force. I keep reading the rules but haven't had much chance to play them. When I looked at the book there should be plenty but when I look at other TOEs I think I might need some more.

US Modern Infantry Command Pack from Rebel Minis - Nice

here are not quite as many this time. I need fewer of the figures and there are a couple of extra M240 teams and some AT launchers. They need to be inked and of course based(?) and I'll show a few more pictures as they are done.

Get Your Geek On - Red Dwarf X

It's just over a month away.

I am giddy with anticipation.

Where will you be on October 4th?