Gruntz 15mm: Ghost War Campaign: Ghost Fleet troops WIP

Ghost Invasion Forces

The Synod is a huge collection of various races. Some of these races started life as artificial intelligences. These intelligences eventually grew and evolved and became new life. These early intelligences wished to be treated as any other sentient being and took the Synod to the courts.

After many years threading their way through the court system and eventually winning in a landmark decision the artificial intelligences who could pass certain tests were allowed to become full citizens of the Universal Synod of Worlds. They called their new race, the Consensus of Minds or just the Consensus. They claimed dead worlds that none of the other races wished to invest in. These worlds were often rich in metals and cilicates. Eventually the Consensus became the premier operator of mines and factories in the Synod. They churned out legions of bots and drones designed to operate for extended periods in hostile and dangerous

environments.

The Consensus spread throughout the Synod and became very influential in all areas of business and manufacturing. Entire systems had been turned into vast hives of drones and massive intelligences that controlled them. Some of these intelligences began showing signs of instability and eventually all communications were lost with some systems. Any ship that entered these ghost systems never returned. They were quarantined and embargoed. No ships were allowed to enter or leave the system. The

Ghost systems have slumbered undisturbed for centuries...

....until now

The Ghost forces rely heavily on energy weapons and vast armies of drones.Whether in space or dirtside they seek to overwhelm defending forces with swarms of smaller ships and a phalanx of energy weapons.

I really enjoy writing in this universe of the Synod an Ghost Wars against the Terrans and their allies. I look forward to using the army on the tabletop against my Terrans.

So I wanted a huge army of drones and I collect RISK games so I cannibalized one of my RISK games (Star Wars: the Clone Wars) and used the Battle droids to find new life as Ghost Fleet Combat Drones. 

I wrote a series of campaigns for Stargrunt and Dirtside II  last years while I was recovering from knee surgery (2 months of no walking and one month of walking on crutches or cane). I have been looking for troops to use as Ghost Combat drones and used various proxies over the last year while I looked for an army. Then I had to come up with a basing plan. 

I tried to base these guys on pennies but just didn't like moving all of these dudes around in large games so settled for a base of three large Drones per base with two of these bases per squad with a two drone Squad attachment and a medic or sub commander to round it out to 9 drones per squad. (this army likes units as multiples of three) 

The Scouts are based two to a base for two squads of four. They will have active camo and light them up as support units for the army.

I needed a way to get my drones from their support ships in orbit to the planet. They didn't seem like the guys to use large an easily target-able transports. What I came up with was a drop pod that doubles as a teleportation device. The Drop-Porter falls through the atmosphere and lands on the planet before activating its mysterious swirling ball of energy through which the drone legions pour through. 

Oh but wait it gets better. Not only does it transport drones to the planet but also functions as a heavy weapons emplacement once the troops are through. 

The emplacement not only fires artillery for long range support but also a full auto laser to deter ground troops. It can also fire on aircraft that stray too close and swat missiles and rockets out of the sky providing a dome of protection for the troops.

Ghost Drones emerge from swirling balls of energy to confront a Terran Marine position.

Gruntz 15mm: Coolant/Fuel Truck and Crane

Coolant truck topping off a overheating mech or it could be a fuel truck too, whatever I need it to be for that game.

The Fridge has seen some better days. It is currently supporting the Colonial Defense Force on the planet Botany Bay.

At some point I will replace the tip of the crane arm with plasticard tubing and guitar wire to make it look more realistic but I was feeling lazy and distracted by other projects like the Ghost Fleet ground troops to oppose my Terran Alliance Marines.

Sneak peak at the army in progress. 6 x Infantry Squads, 6 x Heavy Weapons bases, a Scout squad (far right) and Six commanders/medics/engineers. The weird things in the back are going to be some sort of Ghost Teleportation Technology for Beachhead / opposed landing scenarios. I plan to paint the whole lot silver with red weapons lenses / sensors and the teleportation balls will have a swirly feel to them like the alien balls from "The Day the Earth Stood Still".

The Studio

Spent a couple hours yesterday cleaning up the studio and re-arranging stuff so it is more organized and less messy. its a small room in the basement but it is packed with stuff.

The painting center. Though I spend more time painting with my portable desk than down here but I do base everything here and its good to convert stuff since I have my bitz close to hand. Through the door you can see more books (I have a metric butt ton) and the full size gaming table. There is also more terrain storage in the bigger room an a priming station. Still planning to build a spray booth but not yet.

Left Side of the Closet of Doom. armies and minis waiting for a spot in an army wait in here.

Right Side of the Closet of Doom. FoW on top in those small pull out drawers, random minis and Dragons below and too the right side. Gundam kits on the bottom waiting to be converted or assembled.

Gruntz 15mm: Terran Alliance Hover Tanks

These are some Mechwarrior clix hover tanks I painted up and I'm thinking about using them as small two man tank destroyers. They are a tad on the small side but for a vehicle designed to be dropped or transported from orbit you would expect them to be a little small. In my mind they are like those small light tanks designed for the Air Assault Divisions in the 60's and 70's. In WW2 they used to recruit short guys for manning the ball turrets in B-17s and B-24s. I figure they did the same for these machines, recruiting short guys, dwarves, women and maybe even amputees to pilot these things.

It is a light tank but has a heavier chassis to mount the larger cannon. Which has been modified (Accelerator) for greater range and accuracy. It also mounts a heavy machine gun for self defense against infantry.

This is another mechwarrior tank (Condor) that has been enlisted into the service of the Terran Alliance Marines. It will serve as a one man "fighter" tank. 

It is fast, though not as fast as a grav tank, an can carry a good mix of weapons for both the anti-armor role and the anti-personnel role. It is often teamed with the STuG X as a hammer and anvil team. The STuG X forms a firing line and pounds the enemy while the Peregrine moves quickly around the flank. 

These tanks are also more mechwarrior clix vehicles and serve as small on man scout vehicles.

The Kestrel is a small, light and fast scout vehicle. It has weaker than normal armor but a larger than usual engine giving it great speed and agility. It is armed with a twin mount missile launcher to ambush targets of opportunity.

The Kestrel XP is also small light and fast but armed with twin heavy machine guns it accompanies the regular model Kestrel and protects them from infantry 

Size comparison with the CDF Hauler truck.

Size comparison with the Hauler and FAV, Front

As you can see, the vehicles are on the small and light side but could work for very light, air-mobile attack vehicles.

DIY Drop Pods

Terran Marine Drop Cans. They are the perfect size for a cheap and disposable drop pod, you know, something the military would use. 

Here is one of the Drop Pods open. As You can see 6 soldiers fit inside. I used FoW German riders to mock up the inside so you can see how these guys can fit inside the Cans. In my mind the soldiers would wear an OBA type apparatus and the inside would have inflatable air bladders that would will the inside an prevent the passengers from getting knocked around and maybe the bladders are made from kevlar or some similar substance to give some ballistic protection from spall or shrapnel.

Gatorade caps to make a Power Armor Drop Can. Here are 4 Fa-Shih battlearmor I am going to use as Terran Marine Scout Power Armor. The Can is their orbital interface transport.

Here is a much larger Can made from two Nestle Quick bottle caps. I used two wooden circles to hide the rabbit embossing on the top of the cap. I am not sure what I will use this Drop Can for but it will most likely be a supply drop objective of some sort.

Gruntz 15mm: Terran Alliance Marines WIP

Finished up my first batch of 15mm infantry. They sure are difficult to paint. I have good vision up close (myopic) and it was still hard to get the detail I want. This will do for friendly games i guess :)

Tried to give it a burnt desert sand loof for the base to match the large mecha I have already done for them.

I am also thinking about using these contraptions for cheap disposable drop pods. They are big enough (just barely) for 4 troops to sit in a circle around a central spine within the pod. They drop from space and when they get close to the ground a tethered rocket motor deploys to slow the descent of the pod and then detaches when the pod gets within one meter of the ground. the pod then pops in half with explosive bolts. this creates two armored fighting positions from which the deployed fire-team can fight if need be. I will paint up some "deployed pods" when I paint up the other squads in the platoon. The squad leader get a separate pod with enhanced ECM and deployable decoys. I refer to the as "The Cans". As in "If I die in a foreign land, the bury me in an old beer can"

Gruntz 15mm: Colonial Defense Force WIP update

Ok so I got some more painting done today on the Colonial Defense Force. I went for Futuristic Low-tech if that makes any sense. They are stuck on a backwater colony world and have to make do. When a local insurgency erupts the colonial governor scratches together a makeshift defense force from militarized industrial mechs and local vehicles to museum quality artillery pieces and homemade rocket mortars.

The HammerJack militarized industrial mech. A LumberMech that has had high caliber cannons bolted on in place of one of the manipulator arms and wired to a makeshift fire-control computer.

Another LumberMech that has been armed with a DIY vehicle grade flamethrower and lumber saw. Nicknamed the FireJack it will accompany infantry units into the mountains to burn insurgents from their below ground spider holes.

A few dune buggies have been pressed into service as Fast Attack Vehicles and mounted with heavy machine guns (seen here dismounted for cleaning). The FAVs serve as scouts and support SpecOps counter-insurgency operations.

Group shot of what I painted this morning while conversing with the Fiance and her Cousin.

Group pic with the other vehicles and some of their towed artillery.

The mechs and the matchbox vehicles scale pretty well with each other.

Now I just have to paint the large artillery pieces and their crews while I wait for the FOW infantry bases to come in the mail so I can base and paint the infantry.

I am not sure yet if I am going to strip and repaint the FOW anti-tank guns and neblewerfers. On one hand I want them to fit more in with the rest of the army and on the other I am lazy and have other projects calling... hmmm maybe one weekend if I am bored or my gamer OCD kicks in. Then I will strip them off their bases and repaint them. Until then they will just have to do

Gruntz 15mm WIP Colonial Defense Force

Just a modeling update on the generator trucks and scout trucks for the Colonial Defense Force I am putting together from cast of FOW minis and Matchbox cars.

The black paint on the last can gave the models a shiny glossy texture which I will have to try and fix with a matte finish of some sort... I also ordered more FoW bases for the pile of infantry waiting to be based and painted.