Ice Base Zero: GIB Medium

Generic Industrial Building (GIB) size Medium. That what I'm calling it for now until it's finished or something else comes to me. Whatever the final out come I want to get close to the following four requirements for a terrain piece of this type.

1.Blocks line of sight
2.Plenty of room for units
3.Blends in with modern/sci-fi terrain types
4.Easy to assemble

I started with a basic rectangular shape and set them up in a couple of games of 40k. This worked well with table coverage and rest of my goals for the building. But I can't just leave things alone and call them finished. Tinkering and tweaking the basic shape into a different form is a habit for me.

Instead of a concrete wall with a rooftop. I added a safety rail that goes along the top of the building for an added industrial look. This doesn't effect the amount of room on the roof top for troops and artillery. The detail element on the top leaves plenty of room for custom painting on the exterior walls with posters, graffiti, decals and/or paint mask work. This version also did well on the tabletop. It seemed quite handy in a recent Infinity tournament covering the four requirements I'm looking for.

So I think I'm at a good point to finish this building for Ice Base Zero. Just some additional tinkering with the entry ways and it will hope in the production line. It will get some additional play testing until then.

Thanks

Ice Base Zero: A base for testing the future

Developing terrain for my Ice mat is a continuing process that may never be completed. Which is good for me but maybe not my storage in the garage. Our last game gave me a chance to try out some new terrain ideas. Allot of these ideas will make it into a production kit, the shelf or maybe even the fire pit.

These five areas that i'm working on this go around:

A: Complete buildings which isn't my normal terrain focus but necessary for this table theme.

B: A larger Pump House building which will be compatible with our Pipe Works kits.

C: Ice terrain to help set the mood.

D: Pipe Works kits because there awesome!

E: Shipping Container kits with some accessories showing the beginning of the base. The complete building "A" represent the growth of the base.


I'll touch on each of these subjects from a hobby point of view in future posts. I'll also try to discuss the kits development and how they worked out during our games.

Narrative Tournament Play!?!

Dr. Todd takes a moment to reflect on the Las Vegas Open

Hello everyone!!!!!

We’d like to thank all of you who came by our both at the LVO to say hi and check with us here at Mechanical Warhorse. I think it’s safe to say that we have finally recovered and are ready to get back to work, which brings us to this week’s blog.

One thing that struck us as amazing was the huge success of the narrative campaign run by The Narrative Guys. The outcome of the battle playing into the next had many gamers excitedly chatting up a storm. While the narrative campaign was competitive, I had more players tell me it was fun than the actual tournament players there. I think it speaks highly that original content and story development makes for a much funner game than the tournaments games can. After all if you have a particularly bad game, it doesn’t ruin your chances for the upcoming game. It also helps those new or who aren’t particularly great dice rollers to play in an event where they can have fun, even if they get clobbered.

When a story is left hanging, you have a reason to show up for the next game. This maybe what Games Workshop has been trying to do with Age of Sigmar, and it appears to be generating chatter on the internet with the recent Space Wolf campaign book release. However, a tournament can offer something that GW hasn’t picked up on is that releasing a book with the outcome predetermined isn’t any fun. Who wants to fight a battle, where regardless of your performance, the next battle is already scripted? A narrative campaign with an impartial Warmaster (DM) can develop and define the aftermath of battles. At the tournaments end the results can be examined, developed and give prelude to the next tournament narrative. This, in my opinion would generate a greater newcomer turnout, and would certainly lead to some exciting battles. After all in a tournament you have to have fairly standard games, but in a narrative you can develop original mission objective. There is a reason we like our armies; it’s the fluff!!! So fluffy campaigns at tournaments; might be an area at gaming events which I hope is on the rise. I look forward to see what the future of this tournament style is.