Showing posts with label Battletech. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Battletech. Show all posts

Tuesday, March 26, 2013

Dropzone Commander Free Paper Buildings

I had a chance to download the Dropzone Commander building slides last week and had Staples print a few of them and then over the weekend I built one to check the scale against my Battletech minis. I think they look pretty good. I haven't had a chance to glue it together yet, but even dry-fit they look good. Here is a link to the Buildings.

 

Saturday, March 23, 2013

Dropzone Commander

Apparently, Dropzone Commander has been out for several months, but I was just made aware of it this past week. The game is produced by Hawk Wargames. I don't really need a new miniatures game to play in a different scale than I am already gaming in, but there are some intriguing aspects to the game. The unit models are nice, but the buildings are a big draw for me. The game is scaled at 10mm which is very close to the 12mm scaling for my click base Battletech figures and these building would look fantastic on my table. They may even work well for 15mm.

 

There is a downside though, the buildings are extremely expensive and you have to assemble them yourself. The quality looks to be very high, but they will probably be out of reach for most gamers. On the other hand, Hawk Wargames has made image panels of the buildings available for free download from their website and they look very nice for card buildings. Look in their downloads section.

 

Wednesday, November 16, 2011

Battletech


I finally got to play a real game with some of the newly mounted WizKids Mechwarrior minis on the terrain I bought several years ago. The map is a standard map printed in a larger hex size using Heavy Metal Map. This game was mostly like the old days where we just pounded the plasma out of each other until it was time to quit. All mechs wound up with their center torso's completely ventilated and destroyed.



Monday, November 14, 2011

Heavy Metal Map


I mentioned Heavy Metal Pro in previous posts which is a pretty kick-butt Battletech utility set. The Same company makes a mapping program that is equally kick-butt. Heavy Metal Map is a program that lets you make your own maps in the standard Battletech map size with your choice of custom or stock graphics as well as pre-made maps from some of the released map packs of past years. The big draw for me is the custom print settings. I want maps to accommodate my 12mm Mechwarrior miniatures that I have based and this is the program to do that.

Heavy Metal Map interface
I have only had the program a short while, but I am impressed with the number of features present. This game aid gets two thumbs up from me!

Monday, November 29, 2010

12mm MechWarrior Minis for Battletech

(4) Hatchetman - Left, (1) Black Hawk - Middle, (3) Zues - Right

  It has been a while since any goals have been completed and I will be (have been) rushing to complete what I can before the end of the year. I have finally finished the "G03 - Base MechWarrior Minis" goal. I have found another set of MechWarriror minis that I want to base and include in future games, but those may have to wait until I get some of the other goals finished.
  Anyway, for those of you not familiar with the MechWarrior miniatures game from WizKids, it features mechs, infantry and vehicles in 12mm pre-painted and mounted on a click base. When I first got into purchasing this collectable set I had every intention of using the figures to play Battletech, but I didn't realize it would take me almost 10 years to get there. :-)
  I popped the figures off the click bases and mounted them on 2 inch hexagonal tiles from Home Depot. I also have a hex grass mat, hex terrain (background), trees and several buildings to throw into the mix. Goal 4 (playing with the new minis) has been planned for the middle of December, so the the after action report should be up just before Christmas.

(3) Rifleman, (2) Griffin

(2) Panther - Rear, (3) Centurion - Front

Tuesday, November 16, 2010

Downing of the Sun Sword: The Game

  Tom did a fantastic job on the playing surface. The same company that made the software for printing the mech sheets also makes a mapping program called HeavyMetal Map. He used this program to make the map. The addition of trees and hills makes for an awesome setting.
 
Our dropship landed near a patch of trees to the south west of the objective. As we were unloading we saw another dropship landing to the east of our location just over the ridge. The race was on.

The first turn saw little action as everyone's forces spread all over the map. A small fire erupted in a light woods near the objective and one of the mechs defending the Sun Sword crash site was destroyed. It didn't fight back so it was probably a decoy.
  
Our competition does not appear to be worried about the mine fields, hidden mechs and ship's weapon arrays and have run full strength to the objective. My mechs have advanced cautiously to the west of the objective while my teammates have opted for a more direct approach attempting to stop the other team from running away with the game.
 
The competition up close and personal with the downed ship's defenses. The communication beacon toward the upper left part of the picture is about ready to be destroyed.
  
One of the defensive mechs was hiding in a stand of light woods and activated just as our forces were rounding the north western part of the lake. Much to our dismay the two mechs in the foreground stumbled into a mine field and were lightly damaged and had to stop their advance giving the rival team more time we didn't have to give. 

We caught a small break when one of our mechs was able to get to the communication beacon just before it was destroyed by the other team and was able to finish it off securing 7 victory points.
One of our mechs who was watching the line of retreat of the other team was unlucky enough to receive a Gauss Rifle slug to the head and prematurely end the game for that mech. This will leave their line of retreat unhindered.

Unfortunately we ran out of time and could not completely finish the scenario, but the rival team had accumulated twice as many points as we had and also had the data core in their possession.

A great time was had by all participants and I hope we can do this again soon. Many thanks to our host. :-) 

Monday, November 15, 2010

Downing of the Sun Sword: Lance Composition

  So, we are allowed a 240 ton lance for each participant and we get victory points for taking stock mechs. It will have to be stock mechs for me because I simply don't have the time to create 4 or 5 mechs from scratch before the game. I do have a program called Heavy Metal Pro for printing out the mech sheets and it assists in selecting the right type of mech from the correct timeframe as well as other filtering selections. This program comes highly recommended from myself and they have several other programs for various aspects of gaming.
  The briefing mentions a swamp, but we have no idea what percentage of the total layout will be swampy. I think mechs with jump jets will be in order for this mission. The briefing also states the data core can only be retrieved by mechs with their hand actuators intact. So there we have it, I need 240 tons of mechs with jump jets and hand actuators. Narrowing the list down to the right tech period with jets and hand actuators proved to be the most difficult task of the whole ordeal. Here is what I came up with:


Downing of the Sun Sword: Mission Briefing

  My buddy put together a scenario for Classic Battletech and he transmitted the mission briefing to all players prior to the game. He did an awesome job on the briefing and it looks like it will be a good time. I guess I better start working on my lance composition.