Infinity Terrain Challenge "How low can you go?"

I posted this terrain challenge on the Infinity terrain forum just a little bit ago.
********

I was thinking about the recent thread “Terrain as a hindrance to new players?” which is about how hard it is to set up an economical table full of terrain and I was thinking that making a simple 4'x4' table full of terrain that is as economical as possible would be a good forum challenge.

If you would like to participate here are the rules:

Contest ends on the last day of November.

You must start with nothing. Not even a table surface. Pretend you are not a miniature gamer. No finished buildings or even a finished table top. No finished hills ect.

Track the cost of everything you spend putting the table together. You can use existing materials and bits if you can show the cost of those materials and bits.

Using free bits like recycled junk from packaging is perfectly acceptable and encouraged.

Use simple techniques. Please no resin casting or techniques requiring complicated tools. Exacto knives, rulers, tape, glues, paints and other easy to find and use tools are encouraged.

At the end of the challenge the table must be finished. Everything must be painted and ready to play on.

Post pics of your progress in this thread or link your progress thread or blog.

Starting Now! Good luck!

********

Here is a link to my thread if you wish to participate:

http://www.infinitythegame.com/forum/showthread.php?tid=13786

The City of Tomorrow

I don't hate Warhammer 40,000 but I do hate what it has done to 28mm science fiction gaming.  Everywhere I look on line I see the "Dark Gothic" aesthetic passed off as futuristic or sci-fi.  To me there is nothing less futuristic than a 12th century design style.  I'm planning on starting a new category on this blog where I feature actually futuristic looking 28mm gaming products and gamer projects that I plan to call "The City of Tomorrow".

Primitive Tech Buildings

 We finished up some of our primitive tech buildings this weekend.  We plan to use them for several locations around Station 42.  We have been using them in some of our Station 42 War games but they weren't done yet.  We added doors and finished the "tech" bits.  We have at least four more of the hose size buildings and a larger factory sized building for this set that still have quite a bit left to be done.  We also plan to make more tech bits to go on the outside and on top of the buildings.  The idea is that we can switch the bits up and get some good variety out of the set up.

Danzig Daily News: Colonel Müller Rescued by Hel's Huscarls

 Colonel Lars Müller commander of the Regional Defense Force units charged with defending Danzig was one of the only survivors of the initial encounter with what is looking like a large force of pirates that landed just two days ago near Avendorf.  Colonel Müller attempted to retreat from the field with his heavily damaged Atlas AS7-S assault class Battlemech.  A Lance of pirates managed to cut him off before he could reach the capitol city of Tenewald.  The Hel's Huscarls mercenaries, recently contracted by the government of Danzig, landed a rapid response Lance of Battlemechs to attempt a rescue.

 The mercenaries engaged the pirates as they closed in on the Colonel's Atlas destroying a "Locust" light mech early in the engagement.  The Colonel also fought bravely with what few weapon systems he had in tact.

 The pirate mechs had also been damaged in the previous engagement but they were still dangerous adversaries.  Of note was the hulking 75 ton Marauder MAD-3D which led the pirate force.

By the end of the fighting three of the pirate mechs including the Marauder were either destroyed or out of commission.  Surrounded and with no where to run the pilot of the pirate Centurion CN9-AL surrendered.  All four of the pirate mechwarriors survived and where arrested by local authorities.

Notes:  This is the first of what we hope turns into a simple little Classic Battletech home campaign.  The Campaign is set on the Planet Danzig in the Hanseatic League deep in the Periphery.  This first encounter was suppose to be a simple rescue operation for the Mercenaries played by my wife and daughter.  It ended up being a total victory.  The Atlas was heavily damaged and low on ammunition and the pirates all had some damage as well but nothing too serious.  Due to bad rolls on my part and a lot of concentrated damage on their part the battle ended very badly for the pirates who were about to bug out anyway.  I'm not really sure how far we are going with this campaign.  Hopefully it will be less labor intensive than our Station 42 campaign which we are still playing.  We may be switching back and forth between map based and terrain on this campaign.  Whatever works out best in the long run.  

Titania City perhaps?

I hate to keep posting pics of things I'm going to work on but here are some simple crates I picked up at the Dollar Tree store a couple of days ago.  I think we are going to use them for some of the buildings in Titania City.  They aren't big enough for sky scrapers but they might make good shops and apartment buildings.  Right now we are trying to decide how to make interiors for them to make them playable.  The packing trays on top are ideas for roofs.  These are the same things we used for roofs on Station 42 and a number of other buildings in the setting. I think it will help tie them in with the other projects.

In The Future There Will Be Robots!

I just wanted to show off some of the toys we have amassed for our Mecha project for Station 42.  I've already shown one of the mechs with the Titania Planetary Guard update.  Here are some of the others.  Many if not all of these will make and appearance in our "Station 42 War" campaign.
We will still be using "No Limits" as our rules which will make it easy to create stats for these models but we will also be adding several house rules and some new equipment which I will publish as the project progresses.  Eventually I would like to pick up some nicer models but for now we are using these to kind of test out our rule ideas.

20 Angry Questions from The Angry Lurker!

 The Angry Lurker posted these 20 angry questions on his blog.  I decided they were so angry I would have to post some shots from my photography portfolio so as not to scare people off.

1.  Favorite Wargaming period and why?
Science fiction which should be pretty obvious from my blog here.  I like Science Fiction because I like space exploration and space ships and even though it sounds cheesy space really is the final frontier.

2.  Next period, money no object?
I would love to do a Viking Saga game with good ships and minis.  Really take the time to do them nicely.

3.  Favorite 5 films?  Snatch, Lock Stock and Two Smoking Barrels, Serenity, The Lord or the Rings Trilogy, Empire Strikes Back.

4.  Favorite 5 TV series?
Firefly, Star Trek TOS, Eureka, Game of Thrones, Battlestar Galactica

 5.  Favorite Book and Author?
H. P. Lovecraft's Cthulhu Stories

6.  Greatest General?
Sir James "The Black" Douglas or more properly "Good" Sir James Douglas.

7.  Favorite Wargame Rules?
I loves me some classic Battle Tech.

8.  Favorite Sport and Team?
SCA heavy combat.  Calontir.

 9.  If you had a use once only time machine when and where would you go?
The Future.

10.  Last Meal on Death Row?
Bacon and beer.

11.  Fantasy Relationship and why?
Rachel Weisz.  Lets not be stupid here.  She's hot and I love when British chicks say "knickers" like it's the naughtiest word in the English language.

12.  If your life were a movie who would play you?
Jack Black

 13.  Favorite Comic Super Hero?
Conan.  Because Fuck You that's why.

14.  Favorite Military Quote?
"He who does more is more worthy"  Geoffroi De Charny

15.  Historical destination to visit?
Rome.

16.  Biggest Wargame regret?
I wish I could get back some of the miniatures I have sold over the years.

17.  Favorite Fantasy Job?

Editorial Fashion Photographer.

18.  Favorite Song?  Top 5?

No Quarter by Led Zeppelin, Nothing Else Matters by Metallica,  Hold the Heathen Hammer High by Tyr, Cry of the Black Birds by Amon Amarath, Float by Flogging Molly 

19.  Favorite Wargaming Moment?

The "Station 42 War" home campaign my wife and I are playing.  The best combination we have had of finished terrain and minis.  Even though it's narrative we have tried to keep it realistic.    

20.  The miserable git question.  What upsets you?

Working a crappy night job that gets in the way of gaming, photography, and family.