Mini Gangs Review.

Hello and Welcome Back.

Recently I have been playing Mini Gangs, so I thought I would write up a quick review. 

Mini Gangs is a small scale skrimish game by Curtis Fell of Ramshackle Games. It is set in the same Post Apocalyptic setting as the Nuclear Renaissance gane and is figure agnostic. Games take less than a hour to play.

Mini Gangs came out back in 2017, I backed the Kickstarter. At the time, the rules didnt suit my gaming needs. I loved the figures released with the rules. To my shame, I still need to paint up a couple of those gangs.

Then again 25 years ago, I thought Babylons Burning was the best rule set. A few years later I couldnt be bothered with all the faff of going through all the tables. Tastes and needs change with time. It's worth keeping a open mind.

I have been seeing a lot of people playing the Mini Gangs online, so as I own the V1 rules (V2 was realised a couple of years ago) I decided to finially give them a spin and see what the fuss is about.

The original version 1 rule book is some 60 pages long (version 2 comes in at 74 pages). In addition to explaining the rules there are lots of beautiful pictures of Ramshackle figures in action, pictures and background fluff from the Nuclear Renaissance universe.

The Game comes in three flavours. Gateway, Casual and Hardcore. I will explain each flavour in turn. The rules use a D6 and the scale/measurements is in cm. Mini Gangs can be played on a small table top. Any surface with 50cm to 60cm square is more than enough. There is also a group of scenarios to play in the rule book. There are no vehicle rules in the game, but given the size of the tabletop vehicle play would be impractical. 

Gateway Mini Gangs: 

Mini Gangs is a quick, easy to learn game to introduce people new to tabletop games to the hobby. Gateway is the basis the rest of the rules is built upon. The game is built around gangs of 4 figures, each with a Awesomeness value. This is the only stat in the game, which prevents it being daunting to new players. It also helps players with Dyslexia or Dyscalculia. Each gang has a Leader, Fighter, Shooter and Medic. The game is played performing an action and rolling a D6 above or below the Awesomeness value depending on the action. Gateway gives a balanced game.

The Gateway rules are available for free from:

http://download.ramshacklegames.net/MiniGangs/MiniGangs_Gateway_web.pdf

Casual Mini Gangs:

The Casual Mini Gangs builds on the Gateway rules. It uses a card deck in addtion to the rules. The players deal 8 cards each. The cards give weapons, armour, food, skill and strategies to be used by the Gang. These give the gangs random advantages during the game. It can make a game feel unbalanced as a character could end up with power armour and a plasma blaster. But then who said life was fair? It makes for a good story if nothing else. Some of my favourite games have been challenging ones.

Another cool thing, at least to me anyway, is that one of my minis is used as the picture on one of the cards. Free autograph if you can guess which card! 

Hardcore Mini Gangs:

Hardcore Mini Gangs is more like a traditional tabletop game. It is played using the Gateway Rules, but using points values and will need the Mini Gangs rules book. The players are allowed to taylor gangs to suit according to the agreed points value for the game. You can equip them and add figures according to the points build. I would like to play 6 or 8 figures at some point just to see how the rules handle them. The points calculations are quite simple case of adding single numbers. There are mechanics for campaign games and given how long it takes to play, a campaign can be finished in a evening.

Thoughts: 

I have played a few games of Mini Gangs at each level. It is quick to learn and play. Most of my Gateway games took under a hour. It does give a good game, with only the one dice. The above and below rolls allows one stat number (Awesomeness) to function in different ways and works well. The Hardcore level allowing custom gangs can give a more traditional game. 

Mini Gangs is great for quick games and is good to scratch that dice rolling itch when you dont have a lot of time. Gateway allows you to grab a handful of figures, a D6, some terrain and play. It could allow you to game while on lunch at work, on holiday or out and about. I have seen games played in the park, beach and woods, on the ground using local materials. 

No one dies while the game is running. Injured figures can crawl about usually trying to get the medic. While the Medic is unarmed and has low Awesomeness value, do not make the mistake of ignoring this figure. Medic's keep your figures in the fight. It's worth protecting them in play.

Given the figure agnostic nature of the game, it can be played in any setting allowing gamers a huge potential for play. I just grabbed a bunch of sci fi figures and added a couple of magic users to use as medics. 

The rules allow for monsters and other nasties to be created, should you feel like going on an abandoned vault/bunker crawl, bug hunt or monster hunt.

I am now looking at my favorite existing gangs looking to add medics, as medics are unarmed and have bags or pouches. Ramshackle games carries suitable figures. Some of my gangs might also need dedicated looking fighter figures, as they a bit too shooty. Any excuse to expand my own gangs. I will also be looking to make some game boards, which can also serve as higher ground on a bigger table. There is a couple of 2 x 2 foot blue foam boards laying unloved in my hobby stores.

I think that Mini Gangs is going to be a regular game for me in future. Nice one Curtis. I better get the Version 2 rules ordered. 

Thanks for reading, stay safe out there.

Project Scrapjacks #1

Hello and Welcome Back,

Earlier this year, I picked up the Scrap Jacks rules by Patrick Todoroff. The game is about salvage teams working for the Vaststar corporation, cutting into wrecks, abandoned space stations, and bases to run salvage missions. In typical fashion, the crew has to make its quota for the corporation or face financial penalties. The corporation doesn't care about the safety or well-being of its operators.

A crew has a limited air supply which dwindles as the mission goes on. Incidents such as injuries or suit damage also use air. This looks to be a good way to build tension into the mission. If the air runs out before exiting the unit, thats it. Your crew is dead. Game over. Don't worry, you might find air supplies in the wreck. Might.

A typical mission runs across 6 Modular Hab Units (MHU), with the crew cutting into each MHU and looking for salvage one at a time. As each MHU is 12 inches x 12 inches in size, you can play on a small table or desktop, setting up each MHU as your crew cuts in. Another attraction is that the rules can be played solo. 

I am lucky enough to already have enough terrain to populate such a small board. I built a board from double-layered corrugated cardboard. Embroidery mesh and EVA foam make up the floor. A quick and dirty paint job finished it off. I will be able to use this tile in future Starport Scum posts. 

An entry and exit door will be required. There are also some resin doors in the pile of shame, which will be painted up as entry and exit points, once I find them.

To play the game, I will need 4 to 6 EVA-suited figures for the crew, depending on your ship size. I have used different colored shoulder pads and helmets to distinguish the different crew classes.

My crew color class ideas are:

Torch (cutters, breachers, burners) - Orange pads

Rigger (mechanics, splicers, hackers) - Blue pads

Patch (medics) - White pads

Yarddog (muscle/bodyguard) - Green pads

This is the lot I have painted so far. I have so many so I can field a rival crew or raiders.

This will be my crew. The figures are from Anvil and Brigade Models. The sharp-eyed among you will note that the webbing on this team is brown.

This will be either a rival crew or raiders. The figures are from Anvil and Brigade Models. These are marked out with green webbing and pad markers. Cunning, eh?

This lot are additionals, to be added or mixed with the other crews as needed. The figures are from Ramshackle Games, Gardens of Hectate Range. I chose red webbing to ID them. 

I have another use for the EVA suited figures, the game Expendable Employees. Which is in a similar vein but planet side. 

One of the first threats a rookie crew encounters are maintenance robots. These are small bots. 

These wee robots are from the Reaper Bones line. Looking at these guys they might be also handy for 15mm scale games.

Some more small bots. The small two at the front are Stargrave objective markers. The two hovering bots are 3d prints from the DaveandDavesArmys Etsy store. 

These are the larger bots. Some of them look more like construction bots. All of these figures are from HeadBunnyGames and DaveandDavesArmys Etsy stores.

You need a boss level bot and I have this Death Marble by Reaper Bones. 

For the security bots, my rusty 40k Necrons or Mantic Asterians will fit the slot. I will need some apex bots too. 

This game has gotten me fired up to get more bots painted up. There are others in the pile of shame that will suit this game and my Wild Galaxy settimg. The robots will also be handy for other Sci Fi games such as Stargrave or 5ParsecsFromHome.

Up next time Infected Crew and Cargo Mules. 

Thanks for looking,

Stay Safe and dont let your air run out.

Big Numpty

Hello and Welcome back, 

The post-apocalyptic world has many strange mutants living in it.

This large green creature is known as "Big Numpty" due to its low intelligence, which often leads to comical behavior that the locals consider entertainment. Although potentially dangerous to wastelanders, Big Numpty can easily be fooled, confused, or baffled, which gives its victims a chance to escape.

I am not too happy with the paint on this figure. It just feels off to me. Maybe I should have tried a different skin colour.

The Big Numpty figure is a reward from the Big Numpty rules Kickstarter, which is a game of large trolls, ogres and giants beating each other up. I now need a bunch of extra Big Numpties to play this whimsical ruleset.

Thanks for reading,

Take Care Out There. 

A new Beadbot for the Bangarang

Hello and Welcome back,

Time to take a look at a couple of new Beadbots. The frist one is called "Smashy" and is for the Bangarang game by Bill Making Stuff. 

As the name suggests this model is built from beads, plastic tubes and square section, a pen top, buttons and scraps of eva foam. 

Smashy is armed with a power clamp and hammer. So it has to get in close to do damage.

The Berkbot

A spin off of the Beadbot line was a Berkbot, which was intended as a personal assistant, nanny and house keeper. This Berkbot (known as Berk) was brought to Corrosion by the Mayor of Pusterom. Berk works in the basement as a servant and maintains the "mansion". He is always complaining about the weird creatures that crawl up from the depths beneath the mansion. 

Berk is inspired by the character of the same name, from the claymation series Trapdoor. 

I think I now need a 40K Necron Skull and tiny robot spider for the other two characters (Boney and Drutt) from Trapdoor. 

Thanks for looking, 

Take Care and dont open that trapdoor! 

Deathclaws

Hello and Welcome Back. 

The Wastelands are a dangerous place. One of the more terrifying mutants in the wasteland is the Deathclaws.

Any Fallout player will be familiar with terminal encounters with the fearsome Deathclaws. I usually find the best way to deal with one of these things is to run away. If you can get someplace it cant get at you, you might be able to take it down....eventually. This figure came from the Fallout Boxset.

Thanks for looking,

Stay safe and keep running.

The Truckdoza

Alreet! Welcome Back.

Need transport across the Wastelands? Come book the Truckdoza. Rough terrain is not a problem. The ram deals with obstructions and barricades with ease. As the wasteland is a risky place a twin machine gun is mounted on the cab to deal with those pesky bandits and mutants.

Many years ago, I picked up this cool pickup truck from Ramshackle Games.

Picture courtesy of Ramshackle Games.

The model is heavy and I can be clumsy. I dropped the truck from height and snapped some wheels off. It was assigned to the rework bits box.

During the Covid Lockdowns, I discovered the truck while looking for bits. I also found these cool looking tracks in there, from a cheap B&M stores toy tank. They matched the length of the truck perfectly.

The problem was fitting them. Stripping the truck down, I had to remove the truck bed component. I ran some Balsa wood batons the length of the Truckadoza. This allowed the tracks to be fitted with small wood screws. The dozer blade was fitted from the orginal model. The rear gate was made from a gift card I had been punching rivets from. Some resin junk armour was added from Ramshackle games. A Fox Box Ork Jerrycan and back pack (now availble from Ramshackle games) was also added.

The Truckdoza was parked (pun intended) until last week, when sorting bits for the Junk Raft (see my previous post).

I added googly eyes to hide the screw tops holding the tracks on. The vehicle needed foot boards. The were made from gift cards and interesting looking bits cut from plastic food trays. Another backback was added from the bits box, along with a Ork Skull which was painted in mythril silver as a nod for the film Mad Max fury road. 

Some armament was needed. Another bits box delve turned up another Ramshackle Item, which has lurked there for over a decade. A mount was made from two circles of EVA foam. Rivets were added. I am using tiny nail jewels. You can buy packets of 1000 quite cheaply. They are consistant looking and a better match to the model scale.

The model was primed black and heavily drybrushed in sheet metal. The whole thing was washed in brown. I could have left it there, in a oxidised grimey metal state. Grey was sponged over the metal panels and then colours sponged over the top to give a worn or chipped paint look.

Thanks for looking, take care out there.

The Junk Raft of Tapu

Hello and Welcome back, 

Time to visit the world of Tapu, known as the Gutterlands from the Skrim game.

The Junkraft was found on the shore of the Slosh by Morti Krilly, a Colonist of Tapu. It was clearly a Ruster vessel, and Morti proceeded to salvage it (well, steal it more like). 

After paddling it across the Slosh, Morti decided that it was too much hard work. Digging through the junk that covers the Gutterlands, Morti found some sort of wrecked air vehicle. Soon he set to work to build a air boat from the wreck and the junk raft. The engine and weapons were little more than rusted junk. A smaller working engine was found in what looked like the wreckage of a personal transport. After cleaning it up, it was installed as the prime mover the raft. 

Soon he had a working air boat and Morti was earning a living transporting salvage teams across the Slosh. The raft is as ramshackle as it looks and Morti deliberately keeps the speed down to a few knots, for fear that any faster would have the raft fall apart. That and going any faster becomes terrifying.

Inspired by a pateron challenge to build a water vehicle on the Bill Making Stuff discord channel, I set off building a raft. After some time of thinking of a propulsion method I decided on air boat. 

It is built from plastic milk bottle tops, a bamboo skewer frame and EVA platform (holes and rips courtesy of my cat Dixie, who loves to steal and play with my EVA foam sheets). Some panels cut from food trays were added.

The aircraft bits came from a cheap 1/48 prepainted snap together kit. A lesson learnt is to wash the model before using it. Then scrub it to remove the paint. 

After the dark wash, the paint and primer just washed off some sections requiring a repaint. 

Thanks for looking,

Take Care out there.

Mytharth city characters.

Hello and Welcome Back,

We are headed to my fantasy setting, Mytharth.

It's time to take a look at some of the characters from the city of Lienad. 

Law and order is maintainted on Lienad's mean streets by the city watch. This lot are also required at times to help defend the city from invaders by becoming focal points for city milita or to chase criminals beyond the city limits. 

Trouble comes in all the usual forms that all cities suffer from. Here are a few of the more unusual types the can be found on Lienad's mean streets. 

Dorwin Springfirn is a Gome and is a usually a happy law abiding character, until he has had a drink. Then he gets violent. The Watch are often called out to deal with Dorwin's drunken rampages.

The issue with the Wizards at the Invisas Univasitas playing with magic is that the magic sometimes leaks out. As a result weird things happen in the city all the time, like this rag doll. Its taken on a pyschotic personality and attacks people with a spear. 

The Librarian is a character from Invisas Univasitas. Stories say he was turned into an Orangutan by a magical explosion. The Librarian is happy in his new form and resists attempts to be turned back to his original form by his colleagues. Although given how incompetient the other Wizards can be might be the real reason. He likes a drink and is known to get voilent if any one calls him a Monkey. 

Igor isnt really a problem to the Watch, apart from stealing freshly deceased corpses for parts. Igors are amazing surgeons, and are often forgiven for their grave robbing crimes in the big city. Igors like the city as it is a refreshing change from being chased by angry pitchfork wielding mobs. 

Its hot and half the city have gone the beach. It soon gets raucous and it doesnt take too long for things to get out of hand. The Watch step in to break up a mass brawl, which turns into a riot. 

All the figures in this post are from the Guards line by Sally 4th minatures, which are inspired by Discworld characters. As a huge Discworld fan, I had to add them to my collection. Some of the text is also inspired by the Discworld books. 

Thank you for looking, 

Take Care out there.

Starport Scum #14

Welcome Back, 

Here is yet another episode of Starport Scum...

This Dvarg is a straddler from the Big Red Mining Company (or in this case a new addition). He is on his way to join his comrades on the world of Tapu/Gutterlands in the Bill Making Stuff universe, after missing is Starport connection by being distracted by a heavy metal holo feed (which is known 'Folk Music' in the far future of the Wild Galaxy!)

The figure is a old 40K metal Squat missing it's plastic arms. Like other Squats of this era in my collection, the arm Wargames Atlantic Einhenjar fix the problem. They fit nicely and solves a problem with finds on ebay. 

Vermen are a constant problem across many of humanites worlds and colonies. It is still a mystery, just how they get there or where they come from. They are suspected to be a kind of GELF (Genetically Engineered Life Form) but there is no record of their creation or participation in the GELF wars. There are some theories that they are some sort of mutant or alien. 

This Verman is a Mantic Vyrmin figure. 

This filthy animal is Marco Lawless and is a low level roid addicted thug. He is a handy hire if you need muscle but dont make the mistake of trusting him. He will double cross if he will benefit.

The figure is a old plastic 97 Necromunda Goliath found in an old box of figures. He was missing an arm, which was fixed by using a old Gorkamorka metal arm with a big revolver. Goes to show how brawny these old Golaiths are when Ork arms look a bit weedy!

Marco Lawless faces off with a Verman Scout. 

Here we see a Dvarg prospector finding a damaged droid. The droid is a Stargrave objective. 

Thanks for reading, 

Take Care out there.