Space Cowboys and Aliens

Now that I have a great looking train (pictures soon.) I'm trying to think of other uses for it. I decided to make use of it in another project I had percolating in the back of my head. That was Cowboys and Aliens. At first I was going base that project strictly on the comic Cowboys and Aliens and the movie of the same name. But after seeing the 2 Horse Power Steam Coach project on the Lead Adventure Forum, I decide to expand my vision by including both my train and a similiar style coach in that project. With that, though, I would have a radical departure from the Cowboys and Aliens theme. It becomes a completely different project.

Thus the Space Cowboys and Aliens (see the word space before cowboys makes the project completely dissimilair:) project was born. The background of the game will be a combination of Westworld and the 80's classic Galaxy Rangers, with a little of Cowboys and Aliens tossed in. (I'm not even sure what that means.) Still, it will be pure serious gaming fun.

See, Fun!

And you were wondering why I had a picture of a cow in my previous post. All the things are connected...

Country Living

is great until the cows come home...They live up the road.

Grot Train Robbery - Possible Table Layout 1

I'm struggling with a layout that I like. I've run out of straight sections of track and I'm not quite sure where to get them locally by Saturday. All the track I have is from 25+ years ago. I know it is still available, just where? The lack of track means I need to orientate the boards side to side (long sides touching) instead of end to end. So this makes the layout about 8 x 12. Anyway, here are some pictures of layout 1.

Train Start

Here is a view from the side the train starts. As one can see,  I need texture the boards. I need to use the track cross piece as I ran out of straights. I could do more curves there instead, but I wanted the train to start in the middle. Still, that will change.

Ash Wastes Section

The table is made up of three sections. The first section is the Ash Wastes section. I'll be adding in some rough ash wastes terrain pieces and outcroppings to make this a bit more interesting. 

Junk Town Section

The middle section is the Junk Town section. One can see the Junk Town at the top of the picture. Near Junk Town the Imperial defensive wall has been breached allowing entrance into the ruined city. The bottom half of the board contains old imperial defenses and the gateway into the ruined city the Imperial train uses. There will be tank traps here as indicated by the boxes of...tank traps.

Imperial City Section

This last section is made up of a ruined imperial buildings and the wall fortification. With the board needing texture, as with all of the buildings, it looks pretty shabby right now. Most of the buildings are past the prime and 1st stage of painting. But I need to get lots of rubble. Rubble is key to ruined buildings looking 'right.' As I stated last year in my junk town articles, texture and detail are key to making terrain look good. Rubble handles both of those jobs with ruins.

Train End

Here is the end shot of the imperial city...pretty shoddy. Still lots of work to do on terrain and I have to paint the Train! Ugh. At least all the Grots are painted and 90% of the trukks are done.  And the question remains, do I look to get more straight sections of track. I've got a nifty idea of having part of the route go through a destoryed Imperial Tank factory. (In the past, the train entered the factory empty and left the factory loaded with Leman Russ tanks with the train never stopping. I pictured it with the Leman Russ tanks being built right on the train as it went through the factory. Not practical but fun.) I just love the idea of Grots swinging down on chains trying to board the train.

Imperial Train - The Rest

Here are some more pictures of the work Katz did.

Defender Car.

Caboose.

All Together!

That is it for the work Katz did on that portion of the train. There are some interesting buildings he did some work on. I also have got some unexciting cargo cars to carry Imperial loot yet to finish. I'll get them up soon, but the good stuff is all up.

Imperial Train - Engine

The Imperial Train will soon be hitting my workbench. Originally I had planned to convert the train myself, but my friend Katz insisted he be allowed to do them. He hadn't worked on a hobby project in awhile and he felt very inspired by this one. I was hesitent, as I enjoy the conversion end of things more then the painting. Still, I went ahead and that was good for two reasons. I'm running out of time getting ready for the Grot Train Robbery, and, more importantly, Katz did a spectactular job.

Here are some pictures of the Engine as a work in progress:

Before.

Half way there!

Almost Done.

Finished!

The Grot Train Robbery

I've been gaming a good deal lately (for me) with a mostly Grot force in 40k. A month or so ago, I came across this: http://ironhands.com/train.htm. I thought, that is pretty cool, I should do that. And, as it happens, I've got an old, broken down O scale train. But what would I do it with? Well, it could make an appearance in a 40k Apocalypse game. Or I could do an Old West style train robbery! And with Grots on the brain, I thought, what would be more entertaining then having Grots rob the train.

So I started working on a scenario. I wanted this to be a large scenario and I wanted a lot of players. At first I was going to have some players be Imperials and some players be Grots. I would be the judge. After working through some permutations I just couldn't come up with good force divisions. And having players working directly against each other in such a way would naturally push things towards the more serious scale of gaming. For this game, I want hijinks! So, after much deliberation, I decide to make all the players be Grots and I would run the train.

Background: The battle takes place on Armageddon after the main engagements of The Third War for Armageddon. After Ghazghkull Thraka left Armageddon for the second time and the Ork lines where pushed back, a good number of Grots were left behind Imperial lines. Those Grots, disenchanted with inept Ork leadership, formed up their own warband. This happened much in the same way as it did on Angelis. But unlike on Angelis, there is no single strong Grot to unite them.

It was decided that a contest would be held to determine which Grot should lead. Had these been Orks, they would have started beating on each other then and there. The last one standing would have been made the Warboss. Being weak, Grots prize cunning and back stabbing over strength. A different method was needed. Instead, they came up with the idea of robbing an Imperial ammunition train. As one was just rumbling by, this was rather convenient.

Picture a bunch of Grots sitting around arguing about how to choose a leader when an Imperial Train comes rumbling by. A grot named Snotnose proclaims, "The one that steals the most from that winz."

Snotnose jumps up, gathers his lackies, gets in his trukk, and drives off after the train. Quickly follow by the rest.

Objective: Steal ammunition from Imperial Train.

Forces: Each player starts with a trukk filled with band of 10 Grots. After that band of Grots dies, the player will get a new band of slightly more clever grots. A player may be a Grot at heart and be in need of a third band Grots. If all players are on their second set, they will get an even more clever band of grots. If not, something along the lines of some snotlings tied to the front of a rocket might be available.

Game End: When the Imperial Train leaves the board.

Victory Condition: The Grot with the most ammunition from the train wins.

Rules: Basic 40k rules with the following exceptions: The turn sequence has been modified to have the following phases: move, shoot, action. All players are active each phase and actions in a phase are simultaneous. In the action phase a grot can do a charge/board plus one of the following: inspect crate, toss crate, catch crate, and close combat. A ballistic skill roll is required to both throw and catch a crate. A failed throw roll means the crate is lost. Additional grots may attempt to catch a crate missed by other grots with -1 on the catch roll for each extra try. If all catch attempts fail, the crate is lost. Boarding is from any one vehicle to any other vehicle.

Each grot trukk can hold up to 10 models. A model is either a Grot or an imperial crate.

The contents of imperial crates are random. And since Grots can not read, they do not know if the crate has ammunition or something else. Roll on the following table to check:

1. Ammunition Explodes - Dead Grot. Roll D6 for all adjacent crates in contact. On a 1-3 that crate explodes. Grots in base contact with additional crates make S5 toughness save or die.
2. Imperial Rations
3. Space Marine Armor Lubricant
4. Hive Fashions Monthly
5. Ammuniton (1 pt.)
6. Ammunition (2 pts.)

Crates can either be checked in game, during the action phase. Or left unchecked until the game is over.

Other actions, not listed may performed by making a leadership check with an appropriate modifier.