Solar Empires

I've finally settled on a name for the Sci-fi setting we have been playing our "Station 42 War" and "Maxed Out" games in.  I'm going with "Solar Empires".  I had previously called the setting "3031" and "Moon Miners and Terraformers".  I didn't like the first choice because it seemed silly to name a setting for a single date and I didn't like the second one because it was a mouth full and sounded dated.  I Google searched "Solar Empires" to check for conflicts and found that there was a video game named "Sins of a Solar Empire" but no game or anything titled just "Solar Empires"  Although this is merely a personal setting for my home games I would like to have an original title if possible in case I decide to develop it in the future.

I feel this name reflects the various different factions well.  Governments, corporations, and criminal enterprises can often be called "Empires" and since my setting is based on the Solar System it seemed like the best choice.  

I have some basic setting notes that we have actually been using for a couple of years now that I have not published because I was never satisfied with the setting name.  I have now created a new page for those notes on this blog here:   http://ironworkersminiatures.blogspot.com/p/solarempires-nathan-miller-2013.html
I plan to add some artwork to the page as soon as we create some.  As it stands it is just a big block of text and I want to make it more interesting to read.

Five Dollar Super Heavy Tank....

 I picked up this $5.00 toy tank today at Dollar General that I intend to use as a super heavy tank for my sci-fi setting.  As you can see it's pretty big.  The tank is 4 inches wide, 7.5 inches long, and 2.5 inches tall.  I think it scales okay next to these Wargames Factory Shock Troopers.  I intend to remove the electronics, it's a cable controlled remote control tank.

Stylistically it looks very similar to a German Leopard II tank or a Type 99 Chinese tank but it doesn't see to be an exact copy of any existing tank.  The biggest down side to the toy is that it has only one gun and no secondary armaments.  I plan to add at least a few other weapons to the finished model but I would have preferred additional weapons.

 Although it is pretty big it is no where near as large as this Games Workshop Baneblade super heavy tank or other sci-fi tanks so I'm pretty happy with it.  I'm not sure what army I am going to use it for yet but I play to buy at least a few of them and I may even use them for more than one force.

Battle of the Venture Star Depot ( A 1000 point No Limits Battle report for the Station 42 War)

 October 27, 3032 12 Kilometers south east of Station 42 on Titania.  Earlier today a small scouting force of the Hell Knights Mercenary Company raided a supply depot owned by the Venture Star Prospecting Company a known support of the Titania insurgency.  This volatile region has been quite since mid July when the Hell Knights Mercenary Company captured Station 42 from insurgents and renegade elements of the Titania Planetary Guard.

 As mercenary light armored units made a move toward the entry to the compound members of "Bear's Militia" opened fire disabling both vehicles.  Hell Knight scouts and snipers responded killing at least two of the militia members occupying a building with a communications array.  One unit of scouts kicked in the back door to a smaller building to gain access.

 The mercenary scouts and militia members continued to exchange fire.  Bear himself was shot by a Hell Knights sniper and one of his units was broken by the scouts in the building.  At least two scouts were also wounded in this exchange.  The Hell Knights Marksman Battlesuit exchanged fire with a militia auto-canon.  The mech was damaged but one of the crewmen manning the weapon was killed as well.

 One of the Hell Knights snipers killed the last member of Bear's personal unit while the other shot down a NOVA trooper.  A unit of scouts moved into the middle of the compound and killed the remaining crewman of the militia auto-canon but one of their own was killed by a member of Wolfhound Friekorps.  Three Wolfhounds were killed by grenade and laser fire from the mercenary scouts in the building while the mercenary battlesuit killed the militia sniper.  The militia field gun actually hit and damaged one of the compound buildings trying to hit the battlesuit.

 The two remaining members of Bear's militia rallied and found cover but were almost immediately gunned down by the scouts in the building.  Two more of the mercenary scouts in the middle of the compound were killed by NOVA troopers leaving only the Sargent of the unit standing.  The two remaining Wolfhounds fled from their position.  

 The Hell Knights battlesuit moved into point blank range with the NOVA security troopers but neither the mech nor the troopers could hit each other.  Another trooper was killed by one of the mercenary snipers.  The Wolfhound troopers rallied before fleeing the compound completely.  One of the Venture Star employees was shot by a mercenary sniper as his coworkers fled to one of the storage buildings.  The mercenary scouts began to pull back.

In a bloody and final exchange of fire the last two NOVA troopers were gunned down by the mercenary battlesuit.  The Hell Knights scouts continued to withdraw under the cover of their snipers.  As the mercenary forces withdrew it was unclear if the Hell Knights had achieved their objective.  They had certainly bloodied the nose of the insurgents and caused significant damage.  The remaining militia units did not attempt to pursue them.

Notes:  Well this was a pretty smooth skirmish.  It had been a long time since we had played so we didn't want to do a very large action.  Also we have decided that it would be logical for the next phase of the campaign to involve several smaller skirmishes with militia insurgents instead of pitched battles with the Planetary Guard.  We decided to hold this game to 6 turns.  The Hell Knights main objective was a scan as many of the compound buildings as they could.  I managed to scan 5 out of 6 of the buildings and inflict more casualties than I sustained so we considered it a victory for the mercs.  One of the funniest things about this battle was the poor performance of the militia field gun.  They managed to hit the Venture Star earth mover and shuttle as well as two generators and one of the buildings with scattered shots.  The only two shots they fired that hit nothing flew way over the heads of the snipers.  
Also I decided to try and take wide shots of the battle every turn and then add smaller inset details of the action which I think worked out here.  I plan to do that again for other battle reports.  I like to keep my total number of images small but this way I can also show more of what happened.