Hello, welcome back to my blog and to another Wasteland Wondering.
It has been a busy few weeks hobby wise with one thing and another. I have expanded the background of the Matt Black City using the journal entries of the Utopia Magistrates. This has allowed me to mix some themes I like into the setting from the Stalker video games.
The posts also gave me a mechanic to bring Brittanna bunker city back into Mattblackgod's world. In case you missed it the refugees of the city formed a corporation in Utopia. They used technology stolen from Utopia to build a new city in secret. Then under the cover of the psi riots they moved to their new home.
I like Brittianna not only because I can use it to mimic some of British history and certain favourite television shows but it is a great vehicle for lampooning, satiring and spoofing certain events in the news.
Thinking of the returning bunker city gave me ideas to expand it's defence companies. Some time in the future the Queens Guard will get four new guys (1 squad) in power armour. Thanks to the oldhammer FB group & forum for inspiring me to dig out my old RT figures and relife them with fresh paint.
The convential Brittannia ground troops will be expanded from 4 man squads to 6 man squads with a new squad being formed (scored some early metal IG Cadians on Evil bay).
Each company is commanded by a Lord. Whilst some companies stick to the standard uniform others deviate such as Lord Blackdaggar. This will allow me some fun creating companies for other Lords. I have some old RT era Imperial Guard figures which I have plans for. They are currently in a pot of dettol cleaning fluid ready for stripping.
Meanwhile I have started looking at the home of the Wasteocrates faction in the MBC ruins. They are setting up in a old half demolished block. These mega city buildings
have enough room for a post apocalyptic town. Wastetopia is planned to be a rough, nearly lawless place. The lack of interference attracts stalker teams, bandits and more who come their to trade. Of course this puts the township at odds with other factions in the ruins. There will be more on Wastetopia when I have fleshed it out a bit more.
The plans for the township has caused more rethinking of my plans. So a re-edit of the maps will be needed.
The Utopia mags posts will continue. They have to at least get some reinforcements and vehicles before I think about stopping. The ruins are too vast to go everywhere on foot. The posts can take a while to write and edit so I have started the Matt Back City Data reports to speed up the posting of new figures and growing factions.
Work on various groups of figures has started, helped immensely by the fact the the two kittens I got last year are now cats. In true cat style they like to sleep a lot.
Whilst all this has been going on I picked up the Mutant Epoch RPG books. They are a good read and are inspiring the background of Wastetopia a little.
The big news from me in the last couple of weeks is that I was asked by Curtis of Ramshackle to help him set up a table for next year's BYOL show. My collection of Post Apoc terrain will be featuring on a large table along side Curtis' as we put together another Helsreach table. I am super excited and honoured to be asked. It is about time some of my collection got some game time in.
Thanks for reading. Stay safe out there.
Spotted out in the ruins...a large Verman mutant. The fact it has metal bands and shackles indicates that it may have been a pit beast (gladiatorial combat is a popular sport in a lot of settlements). The question is, did it get loose or was it freed?
Is this beast an indication of other Vermen living in the tunnels under the ruins?
The miniature is a old GW Skaven Rat Ogre, I found this figure cheap on ebay many years ago. The paint is as I bought it. As it was based on a square base with the traditional GW park green basing, I rebased it. The purpose of this figure is to act as a bullet magnet for my Verman gangs.
Meanwhile a mutie bounty hunter walks into Wastetopia town looking for work.
I wonder if he will find work?
The figure is a rebased Clix Johnny Alpha (2000AD Strontium Dogs). As usual with clix figures a wash and some touching up was needed.
Hello and welcome back to my blog.
A few weeks back I spotted a copy of Mongoose's Gangs of Mega City One on evilbay. The game is a small gang srkimish
As many hardened readers of this blog will know I am a huge fan of 2000AD's Mega City One background and Judge Dredd. It is a major inspiration for the Utopia city faction. I was tempted to buy the game, sealed as new but for £15.00 it seemed too good to be true. Especially as every out of production and classic game fetching sily prices. I have been burnt by dodgy eBay sellers in the past.
I have wanted this game since it came out in 2004 but sadly funds would not allow me to purchase it even if I had enough figures from my Combat Zone and Babylon's Burning collections to start playing right away. Throwing caution to the wind I hit the Buy button.
A couple of days later the parcel arrived. With a mixture of excitement and dredd (did you see what I did there?) I opened the parcel to find a complete game, still sealed.
With some delight I ripped the cellophane away and dug through my treasure.
So what is there?
A rules and background booklet.
Some dice & 12 unassembled plastic gang figures.
Some templates & a bunch of card terrain (buildings, cars and street furniture).
A paper play mat.
Not bad for the asking price and it is rare to get a bargain on evilbay these days.
The rules seem pretty straight forward and have a campaign section so you can grow you gang and raise their reputation. One nice rule is the Call the Judges rule which allows you to set the law on your opponent.
What is missing from the rules are rules for vehicles, cursed earth gangs, robots, Cocalids and ape gangs.
Reading previous reviews from back in the day many herald the GMC1 rules as Mongoose's attempt at a Necromunda style skirmish game. That is true in some respects but the background is much, much richer. It is generally unknown but 2000AD's Mega City One was a large inspiration for Confrontation (Necromunda' s forefunner) and early 40K.
In the last 40 years Mega City One has seen much wackiness and gaming the mean streets would give a lot of fun. There is the undercity (sorry Nercomunda Fans, MC1 had one before 40K was born), the cursed earth, crazy gangs, ape gangs, crazies (called futsies), death judges from another dimension, wars with other mega cities, block wars and features many cross overs. The Aliens and Predator vs Judge Dread are examples of such cross overs. MC1 was also used to parody many current events and celebrity stories if the time. Then there is the Burger Wars andDinosaurs out in the cursed earth.
Shame the game and the later edtiton (The Judge Dredd game) fell by the wayside. With the background offering so much scope to feed the imagination these games could keep a club gaming for years.
Now for me I have to find the expansion book "Death on the streets" next. Anyone have a reasonably priced one for sale?
Thanks for reading. Take care out there!
Immortan Ork:
30 miles south of the ruins in the wastelands of the hell zone lies a settlement built around what appears to be a old world aquifer. The leader of this settlement is a old mutated Trog known as Immortan Ork. The Trog has survived here for a long time. He was here even when the Hellzone was too toxic for anything else to live.
He and his Warboys terrorise the wastelands to the south of the ruins in souped up vehicles.
Immortan Ork would contest the Matt Black Trog's position in the city ruins but his Warboys are deeply superstitious of the ruins and cannot be coaxed or bullied to go more than a mile into the old mega city.
The chances are that it would be suicide to contest the Matt Black Trog as his Trogs outnumber the Warboys.
Immortan Ork is a based on a current 40K Ork Nob with a heavy amount of customisation. The mask was made to look more Orky than the Mad Max Fury Road character. The Warboys are GW Gorkamorka Digganobs painted in a Warboy style.
Headshot Armaments:
Hailing from the Liberty City Ruins, Headshot Armaments started making pipe rifles which they traded with locals. They moved into repairing weapons and moved into weapon building. The company also specialises in munitions manufacture.
The company hires Stalker bands or organises missions to find old pre end weapons and equipment. They then refurbish them and trade them on. As a result the company found itself attracting raiders after free weapons. This has lead them to equip and arm their employees.
Heeding the call Headshot Armaments moved to the ruins of Matt Black City. Looking around the company decided that the township of Wastetopia would be a good place to set up. Added security provided by the Warlord and his Wasteocrates is an attraction. Plus the Warlord demands reasonable tribute of one decent weapon or armour a month and a weekly tribute of ammunition.
The Warlord likes the Headshot being set up in Wastetopia as it will attract traders and a weapons manufacturer would be handy in an assault on the town.
The minis are a mix of old 40K RT Squat, Plastic Space Marine conversion and Space Lords figures. This faction will be growing with time.
Squat Bikers.
These Squats are not from the usual settlement of Govin but are freelance gang of engineers.
They roam from settlement to settlement trading their skills for supplies. This gang is well armed and can take on anything that decides to mess with them. There settlement in the ruins is called Hammer town.
The figures are old 40K Rogue Trader Squat bikers/Engineers guild.
These are some of the data items sent to Utopia High Command by the Expedition team currently setting up in the ruins of Matt Black City.
Halfpintskis:
These stable mutations have been spotted out in the ruins. They appear to be tribal versions of those guarded by Brittannia's Black Daggers company. It is thought that they may be decendants of the people who lived in this city before the end.
They live in the rubble zones of the city and raid for food. However they can be easily won over by gifting or tradeing for food.
The Halfpintskis live in rubble caverns beneath the ruins in a settlement they call "Halfpintington". These mutants are known to help those lost or in trouble near their settlement. However do not cross them as they are well armed and can be aggressive.
I bought these minis as a impulse buy many years ago (because you have to have tribal machine gun toting hobbits! ) and now I can't recall the manufacturer.
Journal of Senior Mag Stevo.
Date 06070117
Day 16- Questions
We had some good news from Utopia today. It appears that the PSI signal from the Tomb is weakening. The city is hardly effected now. If current predictions of the signal decay are correct it will only effect the ruins of Matt Black City within 18 months. It makes us think that this is some sort of gathering or summoning call. But why?
As we predicted the Utopia High Command is interested by the anomolous activity and ordered a drone fly past to collect more data. To our surprise the anomalies had moved a few hundred meters towards the centre of the ruins. After collecting more data we conducted a sweep of the ruins and discovered yet more anomolies further towards the centre of the city. Some are singular and others grouped together. The anomolie placement and pattern seems to get more concentrated further towards the centre of the city. Curiously these anomlies do not appear in or around Trog City.
One fear I had was that this was some sort of Trog weapon or possibly a side effect of a Trog experiment. Their Meks are famous for trying to make new weapons and teleporters. Often they tinker with things they do not understand. The Meks are also famous for accidentally making a weapon when the original design was something more functional like a tin opener or plumbing. It is possible a Trog Psyker could be behind this using a PSI amplifier of some kind.
As a precaution I asked Magistrate Monk if she could pick up anything from the anomalies. What she "read" was disturbing. The anomalies are generated by a powerful Psyker or possibly some sort of Entity and they are used as defence mechanisms by it. The random outer single anomolies we have observed are uncontrolled side effects.
Pushing Monk further to find who or what the Psyker is, she confirmed that this is not a Trog but is unsure if it is a human. More disturbing is that the Psyker is also located in the Tomb or tomb complex.
Monk was too tired to continue as her gift often leaves her exhausted. It does leave us with more questions than answers. Is the PSI signal that brought us here linked to the Psyker? To my mind if it is powerful enough to generate anomolies in the laws of physics then they could easily generate the PSI signal.
How is the Matt Black Trog and the Trog's linked to this? Are they summoned as some sort of guards? Why has "it" summoned everyone to the ruins of the capitol? Or was that a side effect of calling the Trogs? Did the Trogs terraform the captiol for themselves or for everyone? Who and what is the Psyker? Is it human or some unknown entity?
There has been some wild speculation between us that this could possibly be the Matt Black God. But he died long ago and as far as history recalls our planet's founder had no psychic abilites. Can the machines that kept him alive still be working?
Legend has it a cleaner accidentally unplugged his life support to run a vacuum cleaner. Did the Trogs revive a long dead corpse? If so, how?
So many questions. The longer we are here the more questions this place generates. I guess we cannot know more until Monk recovers.
If the anomolie fields are a defence mechansim (from who and what? Another question!) then if we can by pass them we may find a way to the Tomb and possibly the rogue Psyker.
Journal of Senior Mag Stevo.
Date 05070117
Day 15- Troubling news
We have news from Utopia about some of the radio signals we have intercepted. Decoding them points to two corporations from Utopia being present here.
It appears that the Krom Corporation has sent a detachment to the ruins. Probably to find a way to turn the PSI signal and tomb into some sort of profit. The corporation's troops are well equipped and aggressive. We are beyond Utopia's jurisdiction and our laws will mean nothing, making us fair game. We shall have to treat them with care.
The Brittainna corporation is the other Utopia force here. Again they are well equipped and have access to power armour.
More concerning news is that when the Magistrates called upon the Brittanna Corporate block it was empty. Cleared out. The corporation had used the chaos of the riots to leave Utopia.
50 years ago Utopia took in survivors of the destruction of Brittainna bunker city. They formed a corporation, employing people in the block and thrived. They traded with Brittainna' s remaining wasteland colonies and produced arms which they traded across the wastes. Many weapons also turned up illegally in the hands of Utopia criminals but no evdience was discovered incriminating the Corporation. Brittannia became rich very fast.
For the last 10 years they have taken Utopia's technologies and secretly built a new city of their own. This city lies somwhere near their "New Shires" colony which is overseen by Lord Blackdaggar.
Speaking of Blackdaggar, we have received call signs of his company in the ruins too. Unlike their Brittainna brethren these troops habe gained experience defending the colony from wastelander hordes. We must be wary.
Lord Blackdagger
Blackdagger's company
Blackdagger's company
At least the empty block will be of use in helping ease the overcrowding Utopia suffers. No doubt more news of Brittainna and their will filter through to us as Utopia gathers intelligence and attempts diplomacy. Or finds useful spies.
Scanning the radio waves we keep hearing of a settlement called "Wastetopia". Apparently they kicked K2I out of their township. There seems to have been a battle and K2I had sent in a platoon of 40. Just how large is the Corporation? Most wasteland cities struggle to raise this kind of manpower. Some reports speak of a Warbot being feilded against the Corporation. Magistrate Black seemed to find that news amusing bit then he has no love for K2I. We will have to find out more about Wastetopia.
Journal of Senior Mag Stevo.
Date 04070117
Day 14 - Strange events
Last night we noticed on a drone feed what appeared to be a small campfire few miles out from our location. When taking a closer look the fire vanished. The drone could not pick up activity or movement in the area other than a small heat patch where the fire was seen. A mutated beast was moving towards where the fire had been spotted. As it walked across the heat patch a flame suddenly erupted out of thin air incinerating the beast. It lasted only a couple of seconds and left only ashes.
Shocked by this we swung the drone further out we noticed some distance way a blue light. Thinking that a camp or vehicle was there we moved the drone towards it, promising to revisit the sight of the fire later. As the drone approached the light we noticed faint blue sparks dancing around a spot. Nothing indicates a power source near there. They seem to be generated in thin air.
What is odd is the drone picked up all manner of strange readings from both these sites. Gravitational, increased background static and more. Radiation seemed to peak a little too. Magistrate Warren thinks that these are some sort of anmoloies in the laws of physics. The how and why we cannot determine at this time. As we do not want to risk losing another drone with a closer swoop we will map them and send the data home. When we get a chance we will send a team to investigate them further. No doubt the science teams will have questions. These ruins get stranger and more hazardous by the day.
The only other thing worthy of note is that again we are seeing some fluidity in the camps out in the ruins. One day they are there, the next gone. Where are they migrating too? Surely not Trog Town??
