Super Mission Force (2nd Edition) Team: The Cabinet (Continued)

And now the remaining "two" members of my Super Mission Force superhero team: The Cabinet.

Master Astra

BIO: The vigilante known as Master Astra prowled the dark alleys of a major metropolis before joining Sara Washington's Cabinet. Slight-bodied with a voice-distorting helmet, Master Astra jealously guards every detail of their identity, especially the source of their myriad of specialized throwing stars.

SUPER MISSION FORCE PROFILE:

-Archetype: Street Level

-Basic Stats

    --Move: 6"

    --Body Damage Boxes: 5

    --Psyche Damage Boxes: 5

-Minor Powers: Gadgets, X-Factor

-Background: Blue Collar, Criminal

MINIATURE: Servant of Sutekh from Black Tree Design's Doctor Who range. Another beautiful sculpt but it's difficult to see the details with this color scheme. As mentioned in a previous post, I painted all of these Doctor Who miniatures true to their on-screen appearance. Unfortunately that meant all black for this figure, as depicted in the Pyramids of Mars episode . I did mix in some dark green in the base coat, and added grey highlights, just to try to pick out those great sculpted features like the hands and cloak folds.

NOTES: It's not apparent from the figure but Master Astra is an expert with the throwing star. Not shuriken as they were actually employed but more like the Hollywood version. Each throwing star is customized with internal gadgetry, such as grappling line stars, explosive stars, magnetic tracking stars, smoke screen stars, etc. I was originally going to use the Archer Archetype to model the hero's complement of trick stars but I wanted to try out a lower powered Street Level character. Combining X-Factor and Gadgets I should be able to model almost any effect, which is exactly how I envision Master Astra, who always has the right throwing star for the occasion.

    I realize the name is kind of dumb: it sounds like "Master Ashtray".  It's better than "Starmaster" though, which sounds too close to "Stairmaster" to me.

The Free Radical Squad

Bases are US pennies for scale reference

BIO: Sgt. Joe Sharla's squad "disappeared" in the USA's desert Southwest in 1955 while on maneuvers. That's the official story anyway: the GIs actually fell victim to a cover-up, unwitting participants in a highly secret experiment. The A-bomb detonated while Sgt. Sharla's squad motored across the Nevada desert on highly modified tanks, tanks fitted with the same gravitational displacement field generators pioneered during the Philadelphia Experiment. The scientists behind the scheme predicted the weird energies of the tanks' generators would protect the men from the atomic blast with no other effects. They were wrong. Instead, the tanks and their riders disappeared from 1955 and reappeared in 2015 at 1/10th the size! Readjusting to their new timeline and size, the squad quickly proved their worth as micro-spies, becoming the Cabinet's infiltration specialists.

SUPER MISSION FORCE PROFILE:

-Archetype: Wildcard

-Basic Stats

    --Move: 3" (Slow)

    --Body Damage Boxes: 6

    --Psyche Damage Boxes: 6

-Minor Powers: Duplication, Multiple Limbs, Shrinking (Mighty Mite option), Stun

-Background: Espionage, Military

MINIATURE: A group of 11 Argentinian Infantrymen from Pendraken's 10mm Falklands War collection. I bought these in 2019 to represent late 1950s US forces since they're wearing the correct helmets and their rifles can pass for M-14s at this scale. After painting these guys up, I'm really fighting the urge to ditch all my other projects in favor of 10mm post-war/historical. 10mm is an absolute joy to paint when the sculpts are this good. Just prime white (with brown ink mixed in), then airbrush olive drab, then hit the rest of the base colors with about two brushstrokes each. A little flesh mix for the hands and face, Beastly Brown for the guns, Black and Gunmetal mix for the barrels, magazines, and machine-guns. A quick wash all over with a floor polish, water, and (yellow and brown) ink mix brings out a lot of detail, and then two drybrush passes with lighted olive drab and then Bone White makes them pop. The bases look inconsistent because I was experimenting with different media and application techniques.

NOTES: So obviously there is more than one figure here. I plan to treat the five stands of troops (one not shown above) as a single entity, with the SMF Wildcard Archetype modeling the capabilities of an organized group of trained, miniaturized humans.

    The collection of five stands will remain in base contact at all times, treated as a single base. Although there are 11 troopers grouped together, their ability to quickly disperse still gives the collective the (permanent) effects of the Shrinking power. Multiple Limbs represents one or two men running forward to attack. Stun represents their pint-sized infantry weapons: not big enough to kill but enough to disrupt an opponent's action. Duplication represents splitting off a significant section of the squad; the stand with Sgt Sharla, the squad-leader, represents "the original" while one or two of the other stands become the duplicate. Finally, I gave the squad the "Slow" drawback, due to their tiny little legs. They do get a +1 reroll benefit from this which I think will go to melee attack.

    Oh yeah, I mentioned a tank or two above in their bio... where are those? Well, if I roll up the Guest-Star Ally special event during the campaign, guess who's showing up? Tiny Tank! 

That's it, all the forces for my upcoming SMF campaign are present and accounted for. Grad school is kicking my ass but I hope to get a little terrain-building in today and over the next few weeks in order to meet my goal of one game by the Equinox.

Super Mission Force (2nd Edition) Team: The Cabinet

Now that we've seen the super-villains for my upcoming Super Mission Force (2nd Ed.) game, let's look at the heroes.

Introducing the first two members of Gondwana Global Republic's Cabinet of Extranormal Affairs. Also known as:

<<< The Cabinet >>>

Heavy Fist, the Free Radical Squad, Madame President, and Master Astra

Madame President

BIO: Sara Washington, a plucky agent in the early 80s CIA, found herself transformed after falling into a deep Antarctic crevasse. Chasing a Soviet double-agent across the frozen wasteland near a secret polar listening post, Agent Washington nearly perished when the ice gave way, leaving her body broken hundreds of feet below the surface. Miraculously, Washington plummeted into an eons-old super scientific laboratory of the primeval world-spanning civilization of Gondwana. Sensing her presence and dire state, the automated laboratory awakened, using its fantastic equipment to regenerate the agent's body. The facility's seeming altruism masked its true purpose: reigniting the glory of the great Gondwana Global Republic. Carrying out its main programming, the subglacial lab activated a psycho-imprint ray, fusing Agent Washington's psyche with the tremendous personality of Gerus Milotak, Gondwana's greatest President and general. Now, four decades after the incident, Sara Washington uses her age-defying regenerated body and the cunning, almost limitless experiences of her fused mind to lead the Cabinet in thwarting extra-normal threats to Earth.


SUPER MISSION FORCE PROFILE:

-Archetype: Super (Mastermind)

-Basic Stats

    --Move: 6"

    --Body Damage Boxes: 6

    --Psyche Damage Boxes: 6


-Major Powers: Enhance

-Minor Powers: Gadgets, Melee Specialist, Savant

-Background: Espionage, Social Science

MINIATURE: Sara Kingdom from Black Tree Design's Doctor Who range. Beautiful sculpt with crisp details, especially the face.

NOTES: I probably could have made her just as tough and saved some cost by making her a Wildcard Archetype and taking the Enhance minor power instead of major.

Heavy Fist

BIO: An able spaceman employed by a freelance interstellar salvage ship, Halco Jun found himself abandoned in the void when his vessel involuntarily shunted to hyperspace after encountered a gravitational anomaly. Although his heavy salvage suit protected him from the harsh vacuum, the anomaly soon reappeared. Drifting towards the event horizon and his doom, Halco desperately jettisoned his left outer heavy-demolition glove, shifting his mass at just the right moment. Somehow, in typical comic book physics fashion, the sudden momentum shift and strange energies of the anomaly interacted, drawing the space salvager unharmed across the lightyears to Earth. Finding himself the unwilling "guest" of the megalomanic Phantom Sun, Halco used his suit's awesome strength and his wits to fight his way to freedom. Eventually joining the Cabinet, Halco adopted the name Heavy Fist, fighting evil while learning about his new home and hoping to find a way back to the stars.


SUPER MISSION FORCE PROFILE:

-Archetype: Brick

-Basic Stats

    --Move: 5"

    --Body Damage Boxes: 7

    --Psyche Damage Boxes: 5


-Major Powers: Resistance

-Minor Powers: Armor, Leaping, Super-Strength

-Background: Alien, Exploration


MINIATURE: One of my recently painted Rogue Trader-era plastic Space Marines.

NOTES: I used the Trade Off option on SMF page 10 to reduce his Body and Psyche in order to get an additional minor power. Although he has the Alien background, outside of his salvage suit Halco passes as a normal human.

Next up: Master Astra and the Free Radicals Squad!

Super Mission Force (2 ed.) Team: The Phantom Satellites (Continued)

Presenting the remaining two members of my Super Mission Force super-villain team, The Phantom Satellites.

Ssluzuurom The Despoiler

BIO: A champion of the alien Kluvergiz race, the Despoiler nearly perisher when its invasion fleet was destroyed by a nano-black hole, harnessed by the peaceful inhabitants of Gondwana in Earth's ancient past. Surviving via escape pod, Ssluzuurom used its psionic abilities to infiltrate the inner circle of Alerceron, the brilliant but mad scientist who captured the black hole. The alien invader then struck, disrupting the humans' attempt to neutralize their dangerous creation; as the summoned black hole threatened to consume the entire ancient Earth, Ssluzuurom thought its revenge was complete. Alerceron however succeeded in reversing the hole's growth; in a final attempt to avenge his race, Ssluzuurom attacked the scientist and both were seemingly consumed by the weird cosmic whirlpool. Protecting itself in a psionic bubble, the Despoiler emerged unscathed in the present but vastly overmatched by the transformed Phantom Sun. Allying with its old enemy, the amphibious alien sees contemporary Earth as ripe for conquest, all the while secretly plotting its ultimate revenge against the chief scientist of Gondwana.

SUPER MISSION FORCE PROFILE:

-Archetype: Mentalist

-Basic Stats

    --Move: 8"

    --Body Damage Boxes: 5

    --Psyche Damage Boxes: 8

-Major Powers: Mentalism

-Minor Powers: Amphibious, Enhanced Senses

-Background: Alien, Military

MINIATURE: A Space Slann from Citadel Miniatures, circa 1987. The Space Slann were always my favorite force in Rogue Trader and around 1998 I was lucky enough to get all 12 of the sculpts. I'm proud of this paint job not because it's great (it's not) but because it was my first proper attempt, over 20 years ago. It was painted with a combination of Citadel paints and washes over gray primer, with some old Ral Partha paints in there as well. I remember it taking me forever to do.

NOTES: The Despoiler's helmet is the source of its psionic abilities. I was going to make the character a Wildcard Archetype and choose the Magic Artifact power to model the helmet, but SMF obviously intends it to replicate the "Thor with Mjolnir" type. That's OK though, as this highlights SMF's great strength: the power list is complete enough and broad enough that one can model nearly any type of ability and simply change the window dressing. Psychic powers due to mutation? Sure, why not. Due to super-science? Yep, same rules, just call super-science the source instead.

The Upgrade

BIO: The biomechanics genius Dr. Regina Movella modeled her greatest creation, a synthetic assistant with a DNA computer brain, after herself. Dr. Movella 2.0 initially helped her creator make extraordinary breakthroughs, until the menace known as the Phantom Sun invaded the good doctor's lab, seeking the tools to create the Mindhound. Leveraging the amorality of the replicant and convincing her to murder her creator, the Phantom Sun welcomed "The Upgrade" to his team.

SUPER MISSION FORCE PROFILE:

-Archetype: Construct

-Basic Stats

    --Move: 5"

    --Body Damage Boxes: 7

    --Psyche Damage Boxes: -

-Major Powers: Power Blasts, Soulless

-Minor Powers: Hinder, Savant

-Background: Created, Medicine

MINIATURE: One of the Dalek-hating Movellan androids from Black Tree Design's Doctor Who range. A wonderfully sculpted miniature with lots of simple but effective detail. I used a zenithal prime but left the prime coat way too dark. Lesson learned: if I'm going to paint a figure primarily white, just do a plain white primer undercoat.  I should've used the airbrush to try for a glowing effect on the cone blaster as well.

Excuse me ma'am, your foot-pegs are showing

NOTES: I imagine the glowing pink cone-shaped gun on her right hand can project a tractor-beam type effect, hence the Hinder power. It'll be interesting to see the Construct Archetype in play, and if the immunity from Psyche-based attacks is really that advantageous.  I was contemplating the name, "Flesh Drill"... probably wouldn't pass the Comics Code Authority.

Super Mission Force (2 ed.) Team: The Phantom Satellites

Scott Pyle's Super Mission Force 2nd Edition has been sitting on my bookshelf for a year now, and I'm almost ready to take it for a test spin.

I've been trying to stay laser-focused on a single gaming project; fortunately (unfortunately?) a combination of work and totally unnecessary, late-in-life grad school leaves me with only enough hobby time for one endeavor. With only a few minutes of hobby time on most days (and none on others), it's taken me over a month to paint six figures to table-top standard. I finally have my two super-teams ready to duke it out however and I'm pleased with the results.

Rolling up the first scenario of the campaign I see it'll be "The Weapon" with Dangerous Ground in the form of sinkholes as the additional detail.  I'm crossing my fingers that I can play this next weekend; it's still not ready because I need to build the terrain.  More likely I'll be gluing foliage to trees and cutting out hills.  No worries though as that will pay forward to future games in a variety of genres.   

I sourced all figures, by design, from other ranges to support a wider range of future potential games. I therefore painted all the miniatures in genre-appropriate colors (as in their originally intended games). Half of the eight team members come from Black Tree Design's wonderful Doctor Who range, and I painted these as close as possible to the characters' depictions in the original Doctor Who episodes.

Now to introduce the individual characters. I'll split this up into multiple posts since I'm busy, with this first one highlighting my cosmic megalomaniac The Phantom Sun, and his team, the Phantom Satellites.

>>>  The Phantom Satellites  <<<

Ssluzuurom, The Upgrade, Mindhound, and The Phantom Sun

The Phantom Sun

BIO: Once the greatest scientist of the advanced society populating the primeval supercontinent we now call Gondwana, Alerceron was also known for his arrogance and rashness. When the alien Kluvergiz threatened to subjugate the planet, Alerceron proposed capturing and releasing a nano-black hole amongst the invaders' fleet, a plan dashed by the ruling council as reckless. Taking matters into his own hands, Alerceron destroyed the Kluvergiz fleet but at a terrible cost; his summoned black hole growing uncontrollably, threatening the entire ancient Earth. Determined that he alone could save the planet, Alerceron succeeded in reversing the hole's growth, seemingly consumed in the attempt. Instead of destroying the scientist the weird cosmic energies instead flung him far into the future, to our present, altering him beyond all recognition. The man of flesh and blood once known as Alerceron became a being of pure energy, held together only by his force of will. Wielding vast cosmic powers, the being now calling himself the Phantom Sun retains only the megalomanic genius and cruelty of his former self.

SUPER MISSION FORCE PROFILE:

-Archetype: Powerhouse (Mastermind and Controller)

-Basic Stats

    --Move: 6"

    --Body Damage Boxes: 6

    --Psyche Damage Boxes: 7


-Major Powers: Power Pool (Metamorph[Elasticity], Power Blasts 10" +1D[2], Force-field, Flight, Barrier), Enhance-Major

-Minor Powers: Servitor, Gadgets, Iron Will

-Background: Dimensional, Science

MINIATURE: Omega from Black Tree Design's Doctor Who range. The miniature started off as a joy to paint, looking gorgeous after the base coats of Vallejo game colors. Then I decided to do a wash of red Liquitex acrylic ink over the entire figure. Big mistake. I barely watered the ink down and it gave a horrible stained effect. I then tried to cover that with a black ink wash on the helmet, leading to even more staining. He's good enough for gaming but I'll eventually strip the paint and start over.


NOTES: My Dr. Doom analog, The Phantom Sun would be a tough opponent on his own but has many powers that allow him to instead stay in the background and influence his team's success.  I picture his Metamorph Elasticity power not as a stretchy Mister Fantastic ability but more of a reflection of his total control over his energy body, allowing him to split into multiple parts to attack at a distance, avoid hits, and generally hinder opponents.

The Mindhound

BIO: The Phantom Sun's genius extends beyond high-energy physics into many realms, including genetic engineering, as evidenced by his creation the Mindhound.

SUPER MISSION FORCE PROFILE:

-Archetype: N/A (Servitor of the Phantom Sun)

-Basic Stats

    --Move: 6"

    --Body Damage Boxes: 4

    --Psyche Damage Boxes: 4


-Minor Powers: Parasite

-Background: N/A


MINIATURE: Intellect Devourer from the old Grenadier Miniatures "Dwellers Below" AD&D boxed set. Very fun model to paint; the base colors went on via airbrush in about two minutes followed up by some targeted ink applications in all those great nooks and crannies.


NOTES: Taking a Powerhouse archetype for this team limited me to fewer figures... initially. The Phantom Sun's Servitor/Sidekick minor power allows another lower-power figure and this little guy is perfect. Originally I planned to paint up another Doctor Who figure but then found this old box of Grenadier minis in my closet. I'd forgot I'd purchased them!  Mindhound had the Telekinesis power at first and after playtesting I may go back to that; the Parasite power just seemed so right though.

...Next up: the remaining two members of the Phantom Satellites: the alien psionic terror known as Ssluzuurom the Despoiler and The Upgrade, an android bent on conquest.

Tracks, Turrets, & Tokamaks: Virtual Playtest and Filecards

I have not abandoned my goal to get Super Mission Force (2nd Edition) to the table.  In fact, I've made progress in that regard by completing one of the six figures needing paint.  I plan to post the full complement of six when I get them all done.

Life is getting very full recently so I've found it efficient to combine hobby time.  My bi-weekly AD&D (1st Edition) game was yesterday and since it was via Discord, I got five hours of miniature painting in, getting base coats on two more minis!  Shhhh...don't tell my DM.

Macro uses one of two templates

On to the topic of this post.  I've run a few virtual playtests of my future tank game, Tracks, Turrets, & Tokamaks (TTT) in order to find all the bugs.  Since the rules are solidified enough for a rough draft, I'm confident enough to put a some effort into actual play materials and do a full (virtual) playtest.  

During TV time with the Missus I was able to knock out a filecard maker on MS Excel using Visual Basic.  Now I can just fill in the information on the spreadsheet, tell the program how many sheets I want and for which force, press "Go" and watch it spit out entire platoons.

I've photographed one example each of my "table-legal" (i.e. painted) tank types in both planform and profile views, placing the pics on the card template.  Then using the "Selection Pane" feature of MS Office, I can simply cycle through the pics to assign the correct miniature to the filecard. 

The sheets are 5.5 inch by 4.25 inch, designed to be printed four to a sheet on standard piece of US Letter sized paper and cut twice.

I have no terrain built (and super-heroes are supposed to be the next game) but I just had to start this playtest.

The first game will be a 6v6 brawl with no special objectives other than smash the enemy force.  The blue force has two three tank platoons of the same medium tank type.  Opposing them is the red force, with two different medium tank designs, three per platoon.  

Virtual Playtest: Start of Turn 1

Support elements make up a big part of TTT; most of the 30 different available options are simple die rolls impacting the opposing force, therefore reducing the number of extra required miniatures.  

Too Fat Lardies' game Chain of Command inspired the (presumably) heavy influence of support elements in TTT.  Although I've not played CoC myself, I've watched heaps of actual play videos on the Tabletop CP YouTube channel.  I like how although CoC is an infantry game, and ultimately the game is won or lost on infantry tactics and performance, the support elements are often game changers.

So, for this first game of TTT I've drawn the support element cards (cards and dice are used in my game), indicating quite the support element advantage for the red force.  Red team has five support effects: a Full Mission Rehearsal, 2x Orbital Bombardments (!), an Artillery Strike, and Jamming Support.  Poor blue team ended up with only Heavy Jamming and Reinforcements (1-4 Light Tanks).  The red force puts one of the Orbital Bombardments On Call, while the blue force opts for On Call Heavy Jamming.  We'll see if the liberal use of support elements "over-flavors" the game.

The tank types: