Gunpla: The RX-75-4 Guntank, this time in High Grade (HGUC)

I've spoken about the Guntank before, with respects to its cute version. A crude attempt to counter Zeon's Mobile Suits, and acknowledged as such in series, the Guntank was exactly what it sounds like. As a concept, it never really caught on, but designs inspired by it still turn up every so often. This HG kit is an older example, but also inexpensive, so I added it to an order on impulse. Sorry, this is gonna be a short one.

 

While not the most ancient model I've ever worked, this was number 7 in the modern HG series making it twenty odd years old and it shows. The SD version was only a year younger and purposefully simpler, but the difference between them is not as great as I might wish. I mean, yes, different art-style, but the only significant advancement here are the rubberised track pieces. Colour accuracy is on point for both, although I'm not a fan of the grey plastic here. Seamlines and cut marks are an issue generally, although the blue segments are OK. There's almost a polar opposite feel there, as the tank base is a good deal more detailed than the torso. So, I wasn't that impressed on a technical level, and as the Guntank is inherently less dynamic and cool than a mobile suit, it's not that exciting once finished. I would have thrown in a core fighter or something. Once completed, I opted for a simple panel-line and dirt job. I thought about doing camo, but decided against it as that would conflict with the 70's vibe. You can go nuts lining panels with this thing, due to the individual track links, so on went the Typhus Corrosion around the wheels, and Agrax Earthshade for the treads. I don't think it came out too bad, but I need to get over my fear of seamlines one of these days.

Is the HG Guntank worth your time? Well, if you're fond of the design, its a low cost and faithful interpretation. It does however feel a bit basic, and dramatically overshadowed by its White Base  brethren, as even the Guncannon got an update recently. I've spent more to get less, but this kit sits at that awkward point where it's not offering the benefits of its pricepoint. Maybe the Origin version is more up my street. 

 

 

 

Transformers: Titans Return Brawn Is Something That Exists

So today, we're looking at yet another Titans Return toy, one made fascinating by its mere existence. Sorry, Titans Return just generates a lot of material like that.

So, with the 1984 Transformers cast, you'll often find they fit one of two categories. Category 1 is a character so fundamental to the franchise its difficult to imagine thier absence, often because the character is so memorable or just lends itself well to different interpretations. These are the characters that drive stories and universial nostalgia. Category 2 are the supporting cast, the dudes which are merely there, the ones that despite 40 odd years and multiple toys, never seem to leave an impact. The one sentance biographies, if you will. These characters are easy to spot, thier wiki pages usually take form of "x was there when" repeated over several pragraphs and continuities. Both categories get seemingly endless new iterations though, which is a little tiresome after a while, especially if its a blank slate like Windbreaker, Sideswipe, or Boba Fett. A good example of Category 1 is Soundwave, he always makes his presence felt. His minions? Category 2, although Ravage does better if he's verbal that day. Today's subject, Brawn is definitely a Category 2. His gimmick is that he's tiny but strong, but he's almost linterchangeable with any number of autobot cars. Possibly his only claim to fame is as Megaton's first onscreen kill in the 1986 movie. Closely followed by that one comic where he went insane, so maybe he does better than some?

The 1984 Brawn toy

Anyway, advance to 2016, and it's Titans Return, and in a prolonged homage to the Headmasters line, everyone is some form of Titanmaster, or a titanmaster-adjacent toy. This was great as a play feature, as it made every toy its own playset, more or less. The heads of larger toys detached to form thier own robot, which could then drive the vehicle modes, crew weapons, or populate base modes. You could even get spare heads, via the solo Titanmaster price bracket, if you lost one. These featured small accessories for the tiny Titanmasters to interact with, and we're both quite cheap and extremely cheerful. With the exception of Nightbeat, I won't hesitate to say that they were all great. Spare tiny head dude, vehicle for it to ride, or combine with, and it's also a gun. Win. Brawn came into the line here at wave 2, and us another charming toy, with a slight side order of "pardon?".

Wiki image here used as the toy is titchy and hard to photograph

Titans Return featured many Headmaster characters, but from the outset it was very clear that just about anyone could be Titanmaster, regardless of previous toy status, hence Brawn. I did attend a convention panel which touched on this, it seems the original idea was for the solo Titansmasters to be new characters, only for somebody to want brand recognition instead, which is immediately obvious if you look at the wave 1 moulds.  Its a shame that we didn't get any new blood, but with Brawn it's a little harder to say. He's got a 4x4ish tracked-jeep altmode, the colours work, and his individual robot mode does resemble his G1 toy a bit. On the other hand, Brawn was never associated with tracked jeeps that become hover bikes that also become big guns. He did more punching, while being a landrover. As a pocket money toy Brawn is however quite nice. All the modes work, and a fairly big deal in context, and the face is spot-on. These guys often had a weak mode somewhere, they had 5, something had to give, but Brawn does not. At worst, the head is one of those where the faceplate doesn't quite conceal the robot bits. Is he as good as Shuffler? No, but he's top 5 Titanmaster material, easily. However, as is typical of Western releases, there's not a huge amount of paint other than on the head, so the entire set looks plain. If you want more paint, you could go to Takaratomy, but, the daft beggars broke the play pattern so they could pander to the G1 Animation crowd. They didn't release solo Titanmasters, and instead reshuffled them as accessories for other toys. Thus the tracked jeep ended up being repainted blue for Brainstorm, and the little guy ended up an exclusive. Sorry, I'm not seeing that as worth the trouble.

The other Titans Return Brawn

So, assuming you could find them at retail prices, solo Titansmasters like Brawn were a great time. Titans Return generally was. However if the solo Titansmasters were usually great, the Legends, the next size up, were often uneven by comparison. Half were attempts to create ye olde cassette gimmick, presenting some unconvincing and blocky triplechangers. The other half had to carry Titanmasters in some way, often resulting in design compromises. These toys weren't big enough to do the head swap thing by themselves, so thier attempts to fit the play pattern felt a touch vestigial. Brawn materialised in the last wave of this price point, and true to form is a category 2. He's not bad by any means, but surely the design team can do carformers in thier sleep, and this one cuts some corners. Pre-empting Earthrise Cliffjumper by 4 years, the legs rely on a removable "shield" piece to complete the vehicle mode. Fortunately, some redundant sculpting means that it's not the end of the world if you loose it. The Visible Head Syndrome? Less tolerable. The robot mode is more of a success, capturing the stocky look the Cartoon model had while modernising. It benefits from extra joints in the hips and shoulders, which compensates for the fixed waist, so the guy moves well for someone apparently made of boxes. It's another good mould, possibly not the best in his pricepoint, but I can see him shortlisted with Gnaw and Rewind.The japanese version of course has nicer paintwork. But enough fluff, you know where this is going...

To answer the obvious question, Brawn can indeed interact with Brawn, and things get memetic and suggestive very quickly. Brawn can ride in Brawn's jeep mode, and need not be removed for transformation. Brawn can therefore always be inside Brawn like something horribly symbolic. Brawn can also weild Brawn's gun mode, and while Brawn is a hair too big, Brawn can just about handle it. That's what she said. You can also mount Brawn's Jeep mode on top of Brawn's Jeep mode, for Brawn on Brawn action. 

 

 

Sorry.

My point? Well, Titans Return Brawn is something that exists. Twice. I'd make the case that we may not needed one, let one two, but each was a success in thier classes. I actually grew to like both more as I wrote this, which is odd as I only started this for the joke potential. 

 

 

Plamo: The Orktober Gunwagon

Well, my current trajectory of liking 40k, but not trusting myself with the actual game, continues. Given my obsessive nature, it would be all to easy for me to fall down into that time/money sink, when I should be trying new things. However, Orktober is Orktober. And there are few greater joys than a scratchbuild build. So, I decided to mark this annual event by doing something for as little money as possible. My bitzbox, my build pile, is so out of hand that I don't actually need to buy anything.

This Gunwagon started life as an aborted Bonebreaka Battlewagon project, circa 8th edition. At the time, such units were popular, but this was shortly before I stopped playing and my heart wasn't in it. I forget precisely how I got it, but I was in possession of an incomplete Land raider, mainly the tracks, and such things are great for Battlewagon style builds. As the connecting plates were missing, I built up the hull with off-brand lego, to be dressed with plasticard and bits. This is still largely how I would do it today, but I'd probably make the front less boxy. Upon re-evaluation, I ditched the Dethrolla, and decided to build something I didn't technically have, the Gunwagon variant of a battlewagon. Orks don't really do battletanks, mostly they do heavy transports and super-heavies instead, but the Gunwagon is about as close as it gets. It's a concept I've wanted to explore for a while, and the rules haven't really encouraged it, but if I'm not actually playing? Competitiveness can go hang.

My build lent towards the modern interpretation, AKA non-Forge-World, and probably the most complex part of it is the turret. In my hubris, this ended up as a sequel to the Junkernaught, using largely l the same "hot glue and hot resin" technique. I did however make use of leftover gap-filler from the Space Hulk project, to, well, guess. I suppose green stuff could have worked as well, but this stuff is soft, plentiful and cheap. After building up from the top of a deodorant spray, I added two big shootas, one back, KV-1 style, and one coaxial. These were minor conversions, using tiny tokens from a poundshop connect 4 game. Another little thing I'm disproportionately proud of is the use of paperclips for cabling on the engine block. Tip: if uncertain where to drill the holes, cut the clip in a J shape, insert the long leg into the first hole, and use the other leg as a guide.

Painting followed in my usual fashion, where I used dry-brushing and every single metallic weathering method I was able. Yes, it's predictable, and I over did it in places, but it's how I like it. I should probably have used more blue, but at least I varied the technique a little there. It was drybrushed in two shades, but avoided the edges in places, so the metal showed through. I. E worn/crappy paint. I actually painted the turret separately, which worked out well until I tried to attach it the hull, where a design oversight became apparent. Following some bodging, I hot-glued it in place, but I'll know better next time. I also made a point of painting the guns, tracks and some riveting with different tones, as while it is very easy to do dirty metal, you shouldn't have just one type of metal. Especially on something this big. 

 

Paint List

Humbrol Acrylic Spray Dark Brown - Basecoat

Citadel Paint and Ink

Morefang Brown – whoops, the spray didn't get this bit

Brass Scorpion – metal base

Leadbelcher - main metal colour

Gehenna's Gold – metallic contrast colour

Calgar Blue – Deathskull blue part 1

Lothern Blue – Deathskull blue part deux

Xereus Purple- cables

Abaddon Black- viewsilts

Agrax Earthshade – Gun and track wash

Vallejo Game Color and Ink

Silver – chipping highlight

Gunmetal – guns & tracks

Orange Fire – rust highlight

Brown- thinned ink wash

Citadel Techicals

Stirland Mud - messy bits near the floor

Typhus Corrosion – too many places, mainly the orkish components

As projects go, this proved to be fairly enjoyable. Its not quite what I originally had in mind, but it all came together once painted. I just wish I could get better pictures...

Work in Progress Pictures

 

The Mecha Hack: Five Thoughts on Game Balance

“Action Economy" is a term I recently picked up from The Animated Spellbook, and basically refers to how in Dungeons & Dragons, in a fight, the side with the most actions tends to win. The Mecha Hack shares DNA with that game, so similar phenomena can be observed. The difference is that enemies and players are not subject to the same rules. Enemies have to move then attack, which is represented by the player rolling to avoid damage. Players however get a choice of two actions, in any order, but with a "stamina" mechanic. This, and abstractions like initiative and range bands, often mean that players can simply overwhelm the enemy before they can act. That may indeed be how you like the combat, but that doesn't work if you want them to have a boss fight. I've found that merely taking a higher level foe doesn't necessarily address this issue. You can get a bullet sponge that tanks the damage the party can dish out, and hit very hard, but its a purely statistical threat, not an intellectual one. This article is about how to present more of a challenge. I find that fights in The Mecha Hack should be quick, or mechanically interesting, so here's some things to consider.

1: Damage Die are Static

Now, probably the most important thing to keep in mind when designing an encounter is that the maximum damage is set at character creation, they only get more accurate by themselves. If a D6 damage die character wants to hit harder, they need to get better weapons, or modules that do a lot of damage. For example, two popular modules in my campaign were Missile Barrage and Energy Modulator. The latter is a straightforward upgrade to a damage die, but Missile Barrage is a more nuanced solution in that it can handle multiple targets, and also reliably put 10 damage on something. As a result, merely giving a foe more HP is not the same as making it more threatening, it makes them more time-consuming. If the foe you are presenting is meant to be a juggernaut, this is fine but perhaps not for the hyper-agile dude in the high mobility custom? This does however present a good way to mess with your players, instead of merely having a big number, have some damage reduction, ideally a randomised one. This will encourage players to try less conventional attacks, which usually require a reactor roll or similar cost.

2: Do the Math

Perhaps falling into the “kinda obvious” category of advice, its a good idea to keep track of what your players can do, either through back-ups of their character sheet, or just keeping track of what their HP is. If you are an obsessive nerdling like myself, its possible to mine this data for use in a boss encounter. A metric I've used is to calculate what the average damage is from a single basic attack, I.e. what a player can do without incurring an additional cost. If you're concerned that a party just might wipe-out their foes on the first turn, simply figure out that number for each player, total it up, then pick a foe that can take that number. Also be aware that a foe of a higher level applies a penalty to both a players attack and defence.

3: Find the Weakness

Part of what makes the Brawler and Hybrid chassis so effective as fighters is because they favour Power and Mobility, AKA “punchy stat” and “dodgy stat”. If you want to challenge such players, and maybe make the support characters feel a bit better, throw in attacks that test other stats. Many enemies have a Recharge attack that does this, but pushing Presence or System for a main attack can take a hitty player off-guard.

4: Changing the Action Economy

OK, so, the players act more often than enemies, but this need not be the case. There are enemies whose attacks can effect more than one player, although Aces tend to be more flexible. I've often found myself using whole teams of Aces, as a catch-all representation for elite units. In any case, having an enemy that affects multiple players at once is a good way to keep them engaged.

5: A Word on Swarms

Its very tempting to view swarms as a time saver, especially if you want hordes of disposable mooks in play. And, they are. There is however a degree of subtle implications that arise from how HP is now treated. For example, if a foe has significantly more HP than a player attack, a swarm die actually makes it more fragile. I made this mistake when attempting to save on headspace in a complicated battle. Say you've got an enemy mecha with 16HP, and under normal circumstances, you might expect them to withstand 3-4 attacks before they get taken down. A 1d4 swarm die however would mean that every non-critical attack has a 50% chance of wiping out such an enemy, while a 1d8 would be 25%. While it is possibly for a lucky player to do 16 damage in one attack for the same effect, its a less than 1% chance. The net effect of all this is that Swarms are less predictable in a fight than regular foes, because its always a dice roll, and you need to account for that.

Wrapping Things Up

Most of the above probably comes under the heading of “duh” for experienced games-masters, but I hope you found something useful in my ramblings. TL:DR – Don't just use bigger numbers unless you are in a hurry.

Creative Writing: Tales of the Danger Magnets

Here's the thing. I've been running a mecha campaign lately, and if I'm timing this post right, its coming to a climax about now. It was however a “season 2”. What started as a series of loosely connected one-shots became its own universe and baggage. And then I got two new people playing. So, I wrote some stuff, and now you get to read it. Isn't that fun?

New Player Introduction

Hello, new player, welcome to season 2 of my Mecha Hack campaign. Before we talk about how your character will be created and join the game, I felt some small preamble was needed to set the tone. You know not what you are getting into. 

 

OK, so imagine your generic, giant robot, space future. Its a distant binary star system called Romulus and Remus, where due to some quirk of subspace, lost spacecraft would be drawn. It was originally colonised by shipwrecked crews. Eventually, more permanent settlements were established, and the planets terraformed, but weirdness would still periodically come out of hyperspace portals to cause trouble. This prompted the foundation of the “Peacemaker” group, whom basically operated a bit like a rapid reaction force meets SCP, whom favoured black uniforms and black paint-jobs. The Peacemakers grew in power from a team of specialists into an army unto itself. For some reason this was not considered sinister. Perhaps it was the systems sizeable Neko population distracting people. I mean, people love cats, but uplifted, 3 foot tall, intelligent cats with thumbs? People probably went deaf from all the squeeing. And were then badly mauled because your average Neko hates being patronised. Where was I? Oh yes, the party. So, the party were a team of test pilots under Professor Diana Lovelace, known as the “New Texas Test Team”, after where they tested, and later the “Danger Magnets”, because reasons. They were involved with testing of new mecha prototypes, and promptly found themselves in a stock gundam plot. Then they found themselves encountering some strange eldritch monster, only to be conscripted into the Peacemakers by a dude they happened to rescue. He was First Lieutenant Austin “Thunderclash” D'Arcy, charismatic, handsome, and multi-talented. The actual star of the show. What a guy. Some adventures followed, suggesting that the Peacemakers weren't all they appeared, and the Test Team seemed to have a fan/stalker in the form of a stealth battleship which could inexplicably turn invisible. Then plot happened. 

 

The party was hired by one Madame Webb, whom is a long story, to track down an alien spacecraft that might enable her to rejoin her race of spider-aliens. As the party are protagonists as well as being roleplayers, they didn't get very far, but they did stumble on evidence that the Peacemakers were faking alien invasions as a means to secure funding. Lt Thunderclash appeared to silence the party, whom, disbelieving their situation, found themselves utterly outclassed. Then Lovelace remembered that their mecha could combine into one even bigger robot, having neglected to mention this previously. They'd all been drinking, it was a night, OK? Thunderclash quickly became an expanding cloud of debris, along with the rest of his team, and the players were now wanted criminals, but this was OK, because that battleship that been following them turned out be friendly. He was called Ironsides, and wanted them to join his roaring rampage of revenge against the Peacemakers. Which was nice.

 

Then, more stuff happened, as the players attempted to clear their names as well as violently murder any space-fascists they ran into. They also helped out some miners and went to a convention, as you do. Various plot things happened, with mounting evidence that the players were part of a time paradox, via some mysterious artefacts known as Paradox Crystals. Things got real when the players found out about the other Peacemaker side project, which involved harvesting brains for use as mecha components, the reveal of which triggered a civil war. The brain harvesting and Paradox Crystals were incidentally what allowed Ironsides to exist, the poor guy is a brain in a jar, controlling an entire battleship by himself. The players returned to the Texas Colony, rallying allies as they went, in an attempt to rescue the stolen brains, only for recurring antagonist Brave Halibut to escape with them, leaving behind new prototype mecha to fight, the Gemini. The tragedy was people used to make these mecha no-longer really existed. Their brain hemispheres had been separated in order to operate a pair of machines, networked as one. Things then escalated, as Militia forces and the party attack the Peacemaker HQ. It turned out Ironsides had a robot mode, and he made an entrance for the party. In the following battle, the full nature of the time paradox was revealed, as the party decided to destroy the Paradox Crystals they found, and disappeared in an explosion of timey-whimey bullshit...

Ok, you got all that? Good. It probably doesn't matter now as the party has found themselves in a strange new world.

 

Mecha Hack Season 2: A Prose Preview.

The planet Losonia, in the year 20,004 of the old calender. It is a bright summer day, with the occasional picturesque white cloud. Mega-fauna flock around the numerous circular lakes. Farmers work the fields with giant machines, occasionally opening fire on a passing giga-duck. Cities bustle, formed from the ruins of earlier times. Vast hills, on closer inspection, turn out to be the ivy covered remains of spacecraft and artefacts from the early days. No spacecraft fly from Losonia any more. None have visited for generations. The locals stopped caring a while back, history has degraded into myth, and the city-states feud over the few bits of salvage-tech that remain. And also, there is a big problem people are trying to ignore. But, hey, at least the weather is nice.

Underground, there is no weather of course, but there is an atmosphere. The kind where duplicitous men consider their next fraud, while marks wait nervously. Father Maxwell and his assistant Dougal walk though the ancient catacombs, built during the earliest days of settlement. Dougal asks nervously “Will this work, Father?”, obviously struggling with something. Maxwell shrugged, “If we are worthy, God will help us. Have they all paid up?”. Dougal nodded. The faithful were a mix of people, some human, some nekos, some stupid, some in mourning, but all desperate. Dougal was dimly aware that he had joined a cult, one of many that had sprung up in last in few years, persisting well into the new millennium. He world hadn't ended, but the strange Moonites had attacked, and then attacked at the next full moon, and then nothing, only to strike at the full moon 3 months later. Nobody could stop them, nobody knew what they actually were, just that they came with the Moon, to slaughter and steal. Dougal was not quite as eloquent as that of course, but that was what he understood.

These catacombs were considered a National Heritage site, but Maxwell had put in the paperwork for today's event, closing it to the public. As they walked, they passed museum displays of various things, providing context for the big draw: The Murals. Painted at least 20 millennia previously via techniques lost, these displayed events from the first settlements and beyond. As you walked further, the further back you went. The pair hurried past encountered Apocalypse Wars 7, 6, 5, 4 was closed for restoration, 3, 2, and eventually 1. Then finally, the originals depicting events from the first settlement. Maxwell only glanced at the first one, but Dougal was more easily distracted. It portrayed a complicated battle, featuring the Warrior King Thunderclash, and his loyal ally The Liberator, in battle against the hated Peacetakers. A thought struck him, “Father, if we can summon Heroes from Legend, why not Thunderclash? He was surely the greatest of them?”. Maxwell stopped, thought for a moment, and remembered how the Loremaster answered that one. “Thunderclash died honourably to save us all, he has earned his rest. The Liberator was lost, cursed, trapped beyond time. We can help them, and then they will be honour-bound to help us.”. Dougal nodded, and hurried to catch up.

The Church of the Liberator Ascendant began to assemble in front of a mural with the descriptive title “The Liberator frees the Miners”. It was a full body shot of a vast robot aggressively wielding a drill, while lesser machines and human figures prostrated themselves around it. While Dougal greeted The Faithful and handed out the programmes, Maxwell wondered to himself how accurate the image actually was. Surely, they had scaled the mural to the size of this cavern, The Liberator could not possibly have been that big. But his was not to question, it was to “believe”. This had been a profitable scam so far. He began the service. It was fairly rote at this point, he'd done dozens of these, and it always went the same. Doctrine, doctrine, how The Faithful would be spared, a quick hymn, more doctrine, the chant, the failure of the chant as people were unworthy, the collection plate, and then, same time next Tuesday. After about 2 hours, they got to said chant: “Liberator Tumblemass, Tumblemass Liberator.”. Maxwell was very careful not to show on his face what he thought of the chant, but the Loremaster had been very definite about using it. Ten solid minutes of those four words, slowly increasing in tempo and gusto. There's a joke about modern music in there somewhere. As the chant progressed, people started missing the beat, prompting the Father to gesticulate, trying to get them back into rhythm. Then there were gasps, a cry of profanity, and a crunch from directly behind him. Maxwell, paused, and looked, as the chant stopped completely. The mural was shattering. Big slabs of it falling away, one smaller bit catching Dougal on the nose, whom didn't step away in time. A mechanical hum filled the room, and Maxwell blurted out the only thing he could think to say: “The Liberator Comes! It has come to save us all!”. 

 

What he actually thought was, "Holy shit, it actually worked!".