Wasteland Wondering - ideas, rules and minis.

Welcome back to another Wasteland Wondering.

Hobby wise I am still at the mercy of my demanding cats. That said I wouldn't swap them and they are slowing down.

Work has progressed on the Matt Black City fluff. I must admit I am hugely enjoying writing the reports. Soon I hope to be working though my miniature collection introducing (or in some cases re introducing) various factions. The ruins have been made large enough so factions can set up and not be too close to each other. Just as a idea of the size of the ruins the city is larger than the country of Wales. Maps of the city and area are being drawn up so expect a future post about that.

Rules wise I am looking about to see what other rules will fit the back ground other than the Gangs Of Nu Ork or my house rules for Neutronyork3000.

This week I have been reading various rulesets. I took a look at Wasteman by Thunderchild Miniatures.

It is a 87 page, full colour rule book with 8 factions to choose from including high tech, robots, critters, mutants and more. There is also specs for giant mutant monsters. The rules look fun, easy to play with a various ways to introduce Fallout style wackiness to your games. The book has some great inspirational pictures. My only regret is there is no vehicle rules. Hint hint!

The other rules I have been reading is Scrappers by Osprey. It is a 151 page rule book with 7 factions to choose from. The usual sci fi post apoc factions are present.

The rules look interesting but there is a few markers used during the game. I have a feeling that the rules will become more intuitive after a couple of plays. After each set of rules there is a summary table which is a nice touch. One thing I like is the Event system with plenty of things to make the game more perilous and dangerous. The Scrappers book is filled with gorgeous pictures of overgrown wastelands and ruins.

Image from Scrappers rulebook by Osprey.

When I got the Across The Dead Earth rules (which I still have not played) I loved the overgrown look of the world. Makes the ruins look old and long abandoned. Reading Scrappers has fuelled this idea further. So I plan on reworking a lot of my old terrain to look older and more worn. Then I will add plenty of small plants and what not to them. As the wastelands of Mattblackgod's world already has mutated plants some cheap aquarium plants will be added so it all matches.

I am a huge fan of books on the hobby especially terrain making and I picked up this:

Battlefields In Miniature by Paul Davies. It is a 287 page hardback by Pen and Sword books. The book is filled with ideas and step by step guides to building terrain. If you are a terrainaic then this book is worth a read.

Miniatures wise I have found some old metal Warhammer chaos warriors I painted up in various schemes back in the late 80's. I have dropped them into a dettol bath ready for stripping. Paint wise I am thinking of repainting them in rusty armour as additions to King Arty's Skrap Knights. Or maybe some sort of sinister cultists?

In addition to this I have gotten some Ramshackle Mutants primed. These will be additions to my Greasy Poon settlement.

Then I picked up these Warpath Enforcer jet bikes from Mantic.

The plan for these is to flesh out the Utopia forces in the Matt Black City ruins. Only a small expedition of Magistrates are in the ruins at present but there will be Enforcers, Magistrates and more arriving. Just as soon as the Megacity boffins figure out a way to get supplies to the faction. I am looking for some sort of high tech looking transport for the Utopia Mags.

Assembled jet bike.

I managed to get a Trog gang finished. Well, modified from pre made/painted Orks my friend Xander gave me. I am just working on a ride for them. Pictures will follow.

Other ideas have been pouring into my planetary Capitol city ruins idea. I am planning on a rival Trog settlement in the ruins. Xander's Ork horde will help provide the muscle. Just got to get a boss figure made up.

That's all for now. Keep a eye open for the next Matt Black City instalment. Take care out there!