Extra Solar Evolution via handwavium

When gaming, I'm one of those people who likes to have a background to each game, hence my interest in campaigns. I have a fair collection of 28mm SF stuff, which I want to use in games using the Fast and Dirty Rules (a great set of free rules, available here , and yes, I am biased as the author, Ivan, was kind enough to use some of my artwork inside it). Now being a picky sort of person I'm not entirely happy to use a ready made background, but want to gradually put together one of my own. I want a 'hard SF' style background, but obviously with enough 'handwavium' to allow for things like FTL. Not a 'grimdark' dystopian future, but one with enough plus lots of scope for friction and conflict to allow for different combinations of games.

Anyway, I'll be posting various bits of background here and there, the first is intended as an excuse for my little lead and plastic soldiers to fight it out on various worlds that look suspiciously earth-like, and without having to wear vacc suits all the time! Any comments or thoughts welcome!

Contrary to what many scientists had predicted, in Man’s rush to the stars following the discovery of a cheap, reliable form of faster than light travel, we discovered that the conditions to support life as we recognise it were far from scarce. They were in fact astonishingly abundant.

To many, this was seen as proof of divinity. Mankind had reached for the heavens only to find the benevolent hand of God had travelled before, sprinkling new worlds for us to conquer. For some, space exploration and colonisation took on a hitherto unseen religious dimension, the ramifications of which we are still dealing with today.

But for much of the scientific community the discovery of so many ‘human compatible’ planets was a fascinating mystery to be solved. What mechanism could be responsible for the emergence of life in such similar forms throughout known space?

What now appears to be coming clear is just how persistent and adaptive life is. On almost every world where significant amounts of liquid water have been able to exist for any length of time, there is evidence of life. Where conditions have been stable long enough for the most basic of recognisable organisms to form, it seems that, barring catastrophic disaster, complex life is almost certain to eventually follow. In fact, it would appear that even the simplest ecosystems demonstrate self-regulatory ‘behaviour’.

This is not to suggest that there is some sort of guiding hand behind all of this. As natural selection favours organisms best suited to their environment, so it would also naturally favour those that are able to adapt their environment towards increased stability (as humanity has arguably demonstrated for millenia). Thus, over time, simple Darwinian selection can be seen to not just adapt species to their environment, but also to adapt the environment, to the benefit of those species.

Not divine providence then, but a simple extension of evolutionary theory to encompass the wider planetary ecosystem. Worlds themselves evolve as well as individual species.

“So why”, I hear you ask, “do we see so many familiar shapes?”. In answer I would ask “why shouldn't we?”.

Quite naturally humans have tended to colonise those planets that most suit our preferred conditions in terms of temperature, gravity and atmospheric pressure and makeup. Given these preconditions it is inevitable that we will see similarities with terrestrial species. The shape of any creature that travels at speed through liquid water, or stays aloft in the air, is governed by certain principles of dynamics. Thus analogues of the ‘fish’ shape and the bat or bird wing can be seen on hundreds of similar worlds.

In the same manner, an outer coating that looks and acts like fur is often found as an effective way of regulating temperature, even though the chemical composition of its constituent parts may differ widely from one world to another; four ‘legs’ commonly provide both stability and speed across a range of terrain (nature understandably having struggled to evolve the wheel and axle); whilst light sensors (‘eyes’ to most of us) naturally tend to be situated where they have the clearest outlook of terrain (and food), high up on the body.

Perhaps we should instead see this as evidence of the wondrous variety that evolution on our own homeworld has given us.

But the familiarity argument also misses the many other forms of life that have been discovered, both on earth like worlds and others, that do not bear such easy comparison to earthly species: parasitic, hydrogen filled ‘dirigibles’, that drift on air currents to find new hosts or ‘plants’ that migrate with the seasons.

In our rush to the stars we have learnt so much about the operation and evolution of complex natural systems on a planetary scale. We have gained undreamed of insights into the history and functioning of our own, beautiful homeworld, and we have reassessed its place in the galaxy. No longer a lone jewel in a dead universe, but part of an intricate web of evolutionary possibilities.

We are like an only child who suddenly discovers endless brothers and sisters, each unique and yet familiar to us, created from the same basic material according to the same laws yet in endless variety.

And yet there still remains that often asked, but to date unanswered question: “Is there anybody else out there?”. A question I shall address in my next lecture.

Extract from Professor Peter de Moyens inaugural Lecture to the Barnard’s Institute, Hope, Barnard's Star - 2119

Painting a Gamezone Warrior Monk - Complete

"We thought our end had come. The enemy seemed an unbroken wall of iron, leather and wood. Then the priest rode out between the lines. He cursed and railed against the foe with the fire of ages past, told us we could not, dare not lose. Their arrows could not touch him, though they tried. We struck their lines like the very wrath of the gods and made history that day..."

Painting a Gamezone Warrior Monk 2

The Base

I wanted a base that was a bit different from my usual 'grassy' look. In my mind I had an image of a battle across a marshy wasteland. It also meant I could sink the horse's hooves into the ground a little to make it a bit more stable.

I started by undercoating the base black and, after a few tries, marking where the horse's hooves would need to go and where I wanted marshy pools, which were covered with thin plastic to provide a smooth surface for painting.

The ground was built up using fine milliput, leaving the plasticard uncovered for pools. A textured surface was added by stippling with sandpaper. Detail was added using bits from other models (the arrows), cork chips, garden twigs and old brush heads. Finally, the model's hooves were pushed into the putty to make hoof prints.


Painting was simply a scorched brown base, drybrushed with bestial brown, snakebite leather and bleached bone. Wet areas received several coats of gloss varnish before finishing with static grass.

Painting a Gamezone Warrior Monk 1

I've been spurred on to update this blog by my mate Matt, who has berated me for not posting anything for two months (has it really been that long?).

Anyway, I thought I'd do a post on a recent bit of painting I did for the Sheffield Irregulars July Challenge (http://sheffieldirregulars.wordpress.com/2009/07/26/vote-for-the-july-painting-challenge-winner/#more-377). I'd picked up one of the Gamezone mounted Warrior Monks alongside some of their knights a while back but not painted him. But when I saw the challenge theme 'Hero', he immediately came to mind!

Normally I paint with gaming in mind, so I don't mind if the shading is a little bit unsubtle or if I take shortcuts. But on this occasion I decided to try and paint purely for display and see how I got on.

Assembly
The model came in 6 pieces: Horses head, 2 body halves, tail, rider and rider's weapon (a socking great hammer in this case!).

I assembled the model in two parts, keeping the horse and rider separate. Assembly wasn't too bad, although it did remind me that assembling metals is a bit trickier than plastics! A bit of greenstuff was needed to fill gaps, particularly around the horse's neck. I didn't pin much, partly because there's not a lot of room to do it! The hammer was pinned to the rider, which was a bit fiddly due to the fine quality of the casting.

I chose a round resin base that I'd bought form ebay, as I thought it suited the movement of the model, with the horse's head turning and its tail flicking out.

There are a couple of tricky issues with this model.

1. There is an awkward gap between the rider's hands and the reins which, unless you paint the rider glued on the horse (which I didn't want to do), means filling the gap after painting. Not a major issue but a bit of a nuisance.

2. The dynamic pose, with the horse leaning quite a way over, means that there is not a lot of depth to the hooves to pin them to a base (only two of which are in contact anyway). It's not a model that's going to take a lot of rough handling, so probably more of a presentation rather than gaming model.

I should say that neither of these issues should put you of what is a great model, provided you have a bit of experience to cope with them.

Painting
Both parts were spray undercoated with GW chaos black (all painting notes refer to GW acrylics), with any gaps filled by brush.

I started by basecoating all the main colours: boltgun metal for the armour, scab red for the robes, Tallarn Flesh for the, umm, flesh, and Scorched brown for the horse.

With the armour being one of the main features of the model, I wanted to make a good job of it. My normal armour technique is to drybrush up to silver from a black basecoat, fine for massed units but no here. Rebecca Hubbard of the Sheffield Irregulars had posted a good link to a tutorial on armour which I decided to use as inspiration (http://www.coolminiornot.com/go.php/go/articlephp/aid/649?).

I wanted a dull finish, with a hint of patina to show age, but not looking uncared for. Being too lazy to mix my colours I fell back on the GW washes (great product!). I gradually worked up through Devland Mud, Ogryn Flesh and Gryphonne Sepia to Badab black, using the washes like paints to work into the recesses. The edges of any metal pieces were finally highlighted with chainmail and mithril silver where they would have rubbed over time. I'm not entirely happy with how it's gone on the parts of the horse armour, the line of black is too distinct, but overall I'm happy.

The robe was washed with purple for shade and red for depth, then highlighted with Mechrite Red (foundation paints, another reason to thank GW!). The flesh had an Ogryn flesh shade and Elf Flesh Highlights, while the horse itself was shaded with badab black and highlights worked up in various mixes of brown.

Detail like the robe edging and reins were done with a mix of 0.1 drawing pen, fine brush, an much cursing and repainting!

Next - Making the base

A Higher Authority - Turn 5, Troop Insertion

The Navy transports had brought Commander Hood new hope in the form of the new fighters being prepped out on the airfield. However they also brought with them a new threat. Displeased with performance so far, Central command had dispatched a senior political officer to 'inspire' the troops. Commissar General Van Voor had a reputation as a hardliner and old school commissar, given to lengthy speeches on doctrine and harsh summary justice and, in terms of tactics, an advocate of throwing men at the enemy until they run out of ammunition.

Despite the Commander's protestations that the new fighters should be used in aggressive Combat Air Patrols combined with bombing raid against key installations, Van Voor insisted that a flight be assigned to escort him in an inspection of the front line between imperial troops and the Tau. Protests from Hood and his staff that this would put him into the firing line in skies largely controlled by Tau Barracudas were met with thinly veiled threats to the Commander's competence and future career. With much reluctance, Hood had little choice but to agree, managing only to retain a small skeleton force of fighters to defend the main airfield from attack.

The Imperial force came in high, the fighters keeping close to the Commissar's Valkyrie, the plan was simple, the Thunderbolts would try to keep the Barracuda's busy, while the lightnings flew close escort, trying to clear a path. If threatened the Valkyrie was to dive into the low cloud cover for safety. As Auspex picked up the signatures of 7 Tau Barracudas on a head-on intercept, confirmed by ground observers in the Imperial lines, the pilots switched of safeties and increased power.

Imperial fighters escort the commissar's transport

Tau fighters skim over the frontline imperial bunkers

Charlie was the first to engage, his Thunderbolt engaging a Tau Barracuda at long range. Although his shots were accurate, so were the alien pilot's, the exchange leaving both aircraft damaged but still flying. As the side rapidly closed, the Imperial pilots had plenty of firing opportunities but just couldn't capitalise on them (ie: my dice rolling was appalling!), whether this was a result of poor maintenance by the overstretched groundcrews, or Van Voor's threats being screeched over the comms net was a moot point. The Tau suffered from no such similar problems though, downing first the Thunderbolts of Flash Harry and Arrow, then Chuck's lightning. None of the Imperial Pilots made it out, perhaps it was better than whatever fate the Commissar was know doubt cooking up for them.

As the fighting intensified, the Valkyrie's un-named pilot corkscrewed through the centre of the dogfight, desperately trying to avoid being brought down. Despite at one point being completely surrounded by three Tau Barracudas, the transport was only damaged and, as it broke free, even managed to damage one of its attackers, which overshot into the fire arc of the Valkyrie's lascannon.

The surrounded lander miraculously escapes destruction

The situation at turn 5, the Valkyrie is about to show it has teeth!

As if the embarrassed at a mere transport getting a hit, the imperial fighter pilots started to hit their stride as Charlie took out one of the Barracudas. Although Sum Yung Gai took damage, both remaining Thunderbolts and the Lightning were able to break free and regroup. As they closed in on the Tau again, first one Barracuda fell to Cardinal, then another to Sum Yung Gai. But this recovery wasn't to be enough; Cardinal fell to a circling Barracuda, although he ejected safely. Reduced to less than half strength, the Imperial forces had little choice but to try and disengage.

Both trailing smoke, Sum Yung Gai and Charlie try and disengage

In one final twist, Commissar Van Voor finally made it to the front lines, plummeting to the ground in the burning Valkyrie which had, despite the valiant and unsung efforts of its pilot, finally succumbed to the circling barracudas.

3 points to the Tau made it, at 7 points to 2, an overall campaign victory for Matt's Tau.

EPILOGUE

With only three fighters remaining, and two of those damaged, it was clear that the game was finally up for the Imperial forces on Curwen. Facing no realistic threat, tau aircraft hammered the thin imperial defence lines. Railgun equipped Tigersharks split open bunkers like ration packs, while Barracudas strafed trenches and fire warriors and drones dropped amongst the bewildered defenders.

Of the pilots assigned to Curwen only Cardinal would survive. Picked up wounded by the last evacuation transport with a group of guardsmen, with whom he'd fought a desperate struggle to break out from the encircling Tau.

His career in tatters and future bleak, Commander Hood made the only honourable choice remaining. Taking the remaining undamaged Thunderbolt, he was last seen leading the heroic, desperate, but ultimately futile defence of the evacuation fields.

Curwen Campaign - More, more, more...

And so Matt and I found ourselves back at Warhammer World in Nottingham for more aerial combat goodness and the next stage of our campaign. After a brief wait for a table things got underway. Both of us chose to go on the offensive, one d6 later the result was in: 'Troop Insertion'. Would I get my revenge for the last game by blasting Matt's Orca out of the air? Would I 'eck! The random roll left me having to escort my single Valkyrie across hostile skies. The weather was interesting, with thick, low cloud at level 1, but clear sky above.

It's fair to say I had a sense of foreboding; I've found that this is a tricky mission for the imperials, as the slow speed and relative vulnerability of their transports (max speed 3, hits 2, compared to the orca: speed 5, hits 4, and more capacity, meaning more Victory points), mean that you have a long time to protect something easily destroyed, that can't easily get out of the way!

Oh well, nothing for it but to do my best. As a medium campaign the game should have been 200 points, however with my available roster and models I could only field 155pts. Luckily Matt independently took the decision to only field 152 points of his own forces, keeping a reserve in case of further missions.

Imperials: 4 Thunderbolts (call signs Charlie, Flash Harry, Cardinal (ace), Arrow); 2 Lightnings (Sum Yung Gai (ace), Chuck) and the brand new unnamed Valkyrie (informal designation 'cannon fodder')

Tau: 7 Barracudas, one a night fighter with Blacksun filters.

At this stage the campaign points stood 4-2 in Matt's favour. With a massacre (3 points) he could gain enough to win the campaign in one game...

Decision time

Been a bit slow with posts recently, but hopefully that will change shortly! Matt and I will be picking up our ongoing AI campaign tomorrow at Warhammer World at Lenton. Just to recap, I'm currently on the back foot, having taken heavy losses but (thanks to a lucky die roll) with reinforcements on the way.

With 100 points to spend on reinforcements I've decided to concentrate on rebuilding my shattered fighter forces (choices partly based on what models I have available, or I'd have been tempted to have more lightnings), and replacing at least some of my lost transport capacity:

- 3 x Thunderbolt Fighters with additional weapons loads @ 24 points (72 points)
- 1 x Lightning Fighter with additional weapons load (20 points)
- 1 x Vulture troop transport (8 points)
TOTAL 100 points.

The last transport leaves the landing field

So as the Imperial Transports thunder back to their waiting motherships on bright pillars of flame in the dark night, bonded tech-servitors and ground crew scurry around the newly arrived aircraft, testing systems and loading munitions. Around the scattered shelters the remaining aircrews smoke, play cards or try fitfully to sleep. Each one knows that the battle for Curwen is nearly over. With both sides near exhaustion, the final push to control the skies is about to start...

Ground crew load munitions