For any miniature game, you generally need the following: miniatures, terrain and rules. In this post I’ll do a bit of an inventory of what of each of those three elements I have available for Triton-4.
Miniatures
It should come as no surprise that as far as miniatures are concerned, I’m pretty well covered. As a result of both my own collecting and my Aliens, Predator and Colonial Marine miniature reviews I’m nicely stocked. I also have a few other nasties in store, which I’ll save until later. Just in case my players happen to read this.
I just received the scientists and utility crew that I ordered from Victory Force Miniatures. Joining them is be the not-Bishop from Woodbine Designs. I’ve also been thinking of ordering more inspectors from Heresy. Inspector Knuckles is already doing his rounds as a combat synthetic, and I think that with matching paint jobs the more peaceful-looking others would make for nice additions to the crew. I will need the civilian types to add some variety to the games, as they can be for example objectives (“Find the missing synths”), targets for rescue or protection (“Escort the scientists to the crashed ship”) or simply random encounters (“A feverish colonist staggers out of the jungle”).
I’ve also been thinking of investing in an APC for the CMs, probably this from Old Crow.
Shown in the pictures below is the current cast for the campaign, starting with the Marines.
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I think the photo very nicely demonstrates the benefits of a unified colour scheme. The fifteen Marines above look like a unit. Look a little closer, and you’ll see there are big variations in body proportions, style and gear. The models in the picture above come from no less than seven different manufacturers (em4, Copplestone, Prince August, 1st Corps, Denizen, Hasslefree and GW), and yet the simple paint scheme and unified basing tie the models together nicely. There are a lot more CMs waiting to be painted, but these guys and gals are a good start.
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Here are my Predators, sans the wonderful Hürn from Heresy, who sits almost finished on my painting desk. Being bigger than the others, he’ll make for a nice pack leader.
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And here are as many Xenomorphs that I could cram into one picture. They’re missing their mommy, since the queen was far too big to fit in and is not yet finished.
Terrain
I’ve been working more than usual on my terrain. I currently have 16 CDs covered with jungle terrain. When I placed the first bunch on the table, I noticed that they looked a bit too sparse. This is due to the fact that I wanted to be able to position models on the pieces, as well as simply skimping on my terrain building materials. The newer ones that I’ve built are much more dense, and will be scattered around to create the illusion of a thicker jungle. I’m also intending to build small vignettes of some jungle pieces. Maybe a few skinned corpses? Chestburst animals? A cluster of eggs?
I’ve also been wanting to use a large outdoor fountain element ever since I bought it (see this post from a year back). Thus far it has seen no action whatsoever, but will surely be utilised here.
I also received a bunch of scenic elements from Ainsty – crates, barrels and the like – which I’m using to make something to represent a military camp. I’ve also just ordered some barbed wire pieces from Products for Wargamers, more supplies from Old Crow and sandbag walls from Fantascene. The should make a nice, Vietnam war -style jungle camp. For the time being I will settle on a temporary looking camp, and as the campaign progresses, I’ll maybe add something to it, such as landing pads etc.
Here is most of my current terrain setup on my gaming boards in a few different configurations.
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Here’s the table in its entirety. I placed a Marine communications setup in the middle as well as some CMs to show the size of the table.
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Here’s a close-up of the comm setup. The dish is from a plastic toy, the pole a piece of an old GW building and the pegs around it from an IKEA bookshelf. The beacon in the middle is from Ainsty, and the barricade from a plastic army men set. The plants are aquarium plants. I’ve used different flocks to differentiate the camp terrain from the jungle. However, I’m also trying to convey the feeling that the jungle quickly creeps in around whatever the humans build.
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Here’s the monstrous fountain element. It’s so big that I’ll probably need to add a third table (I have four sheets) to accommodate it. See the lone Marine for scale. I think I’ll have entire scenarios centered on this piece of terrain, since its build is very good for that. Just imagine the Marines defending the mouth of that gully, and you’ll see what I’m getting at. Or just take at this little diorama from way back when I bought it.
Rules
This section is the easiest and most complete. Flying Lead from Ganesha Games suits my needs nicely. It’s a fast-flowing system, which leaves plenty of room for narration and improvisation while also presenting players with tactical dilemmas and the like. As GG’s games use similar mechanics, I should be able to easily port extra rules from Fear and Faith, GG’s horror game.
We had our first playtest last week, and really enjoyed it. The system worked fine for what we’re going after, so I’m really pleased. We also worked that playtest already into the campaign – naturally it was the final bootcamp simulation before the actual mission.
So there, my plans so far for the campaign. Now I turn to you, dear readers. Tens of heads are usually better than one, so feel free to provide me with ideas, tips and even requests. Are there minis you think I could use? Got an idea for a terrain piece or vignette? Send them in, I’ll be eternally grateful and hopefully use them.
I’ve also been thinking of making a small tutorial on how I made the jungle pieces. Is there a call for an article like that?
Dawn of the Lead 