Stargate Project: SG-1

For years I have wanted to do a project based on the Stargate movie/tv shows, specifically Stargate SG-1 which aired from 1997-2007.  It is available to stream free on demand at PlutoTV.  Over the years I've collected miniatures for this project.  When I was considering what game to run at Historicon 2025, I decided that I was finally ready to take the plunge.  I will be using the 7TV rules, one of my favorite rulesets which is perfect for this type of large skirmish game.

I decided the first task was to paint the forces of Stargate Command, based under Cheyenne Moutain, Colorado.  I painted them during the winter of 2024-25.  I used green uniforms with black equipment as that is the most common uniform worn in the show, though they occasionally wear khaki or black.  Part of my research is rewatching the entire series.

SG1 (l-r): Teal'c, Daniel Jackson, Colonel Jack O'Neill, General Hammond, and Major Samantha Carter.  You can't do a stargate game without the stars of the show.  Hasslefree makes these and as usual with their miniatures, they did a good job depicting the actors.  I did have to paint the Apophis symbol on Teal'c's forehead freehand and I wish he was carrying his staff weapon.  All of these were one piece except for Daniel's pistol arm.

                                                    A close-up of O'Neill & Carter

Teal'c & Daniel Jackson

General Hammond in his most frequent pose, exasperated that SG-1 isn't following orders.

I wanted more teams of 4-5 miniatures each so started looking at modern 28mm manufacturers.  Then I remembered that I had 2 sprues of Warlord/Wargames Factory Modern Military.  I bought them years ago during a $1 sprue sale along with some zombies and had nearly forgotten I had them.  Warlord marketed them as part of their Project Z range which has disappeared from their website.  Each sprue has 4 miniatures so that would give me 2 more teams.  They are not the most detailed miniatures, but I already had them and there are a lot of weapon and head options on thesprue.  I painted one team with black helmets and one team with green helmets to make them visually distinct.  With the limited color palette, these painted up quickly.  I painted the badge with their team number on the upper right arm but it hard to see in the photos.  There are several websites that list the various SG teams along with known members as they appeared on the show.

SG-3, a Marine team led by Major Castleman.

SG- 6, an Air Force team led by Lt. Colonel Barnes.

I used some Crooked Dice X-Commando miniatures for a 4th team.  I have more of these that I painted in black uniforms back in 2017.  I got them out and touched them up so that I could use them as well depending on the size of the scenario: Old X-Commandos.  I haven't given them a team number, perhaps the second iteration of SG-10, whose original members were lost in a black hole.

The full SGC force.

What will be next in this project?  The villainous Goa'uld.

Historicon 2024 & New Work in Process

I made my usual road trip to Historicon again this year.  I had a great time seeing many old friends, playing in a lot of fun games, and selling some things in the flea market.  It is a great location and my kids and I are already looking forward to 2025.

Starting at the top left and moving clockwise:

(1) a pack of 8 Gripping Beast Illyrian infantry fro Saga.  These weren't on my shopping list, but my son won a gift card from Waterloo Games playing in a Napoleonic naval game and I picked these up from their booth. 

(2) Two jars of Howard Hues paint to replace colors that I am low on.

(3) Three packs of North Star wire spears bought from Brigade Games.

(4) Two of the free convention miniature, a famous spaghetti western cowboy (provided by Brigade).

(5) Two packs from Brigade, Female Armed Civilians from their WW2 range and American Agents from their Cold War era Spies and Patriots range.

(6) A 3D  car and van from Diabolical Terrain.  My friend Mike has painted a lot of their products and I can always use a few more vehicles.

Post-Historicon, I needed a change of pace after painting 7 ancient and dark age armies for Saga in the last 11 months.  I've started work on a group of 15 28mm miniatures for my 7TV and Doctor Who games.  I have had some of these for a long time and it will be good to get them painted.

I like working on a mix of themes at once, it helps to maintain my interest if I hit a roadblock on one of them.  Starting at the front left, there is a police officer in the front rank with a post-apocalypse raider behind (Crooked Dice).  Next are the 6 agents and civilians I bought at Historicon.  They are usable for a lot of things, and 2 of them are earmarked to join my Miami Vice project since I don't have any female officers.  On the right are the 1st Doctor, 7th Doctor and Ace from Black Tree and the War Doctor from Heresy Miniatures.  The back rank are all from Crooked Dice, a giant post-apocalypse mutant and 2 crab-like creatures.

Miami Vice at Historicon 2023

At Historicon 2023, I ran a game using the 7TV rules.  The scenario was based on the 1980s tv show Miami Vice and was set up for 4 players: Miami Vice, a Colombian Cartel, the Miami Mafia, and the Japanese Yakuza.  As documented in my previous posts, I created the scenario in part as motivation to paint the excellent Brigade Games miniatures that I had for Miami Vice and the Cartel.  Research consisted of watching seasons 1 & 2 of Miami Vice on DVD.  The links below will take you to the posts for the factions that I painted for the game (the Mafia were older miniatures):

Miami Vice

Cartel

Yakuza

Each faction started with 7-10 miniatures.  In 7TV terms, each was 31 points and consisted of a Star, a Co-Star, and assorted extras.  I created custom game cards using the 7TV Casting agency, which allows you to edit the profile cards used for each miniature and add your own photos.  I then printed them out at a larger size.  You never know how the lighting will be and they are easier to read.

Each player also had a chance of reinforcements showing up in a random location during the game  Miami Vice frequently had guest stars on the show, so I chose miniatures that best fit the 1980s setting.  Each had a special ability that fit their character.  All were painted for this scenario except the Cartel ones.

Miami Vice's reinforcement was police officer Axel Foley from Beverly Hills Cop (Eddie Murphy), on vacation in Miami.  Next to him is ex-Taxi Driver Travis Bickle (Robert DeNiro), who has moved to South Florida and is now a UPS driver, since I have a UPS van.  If he shows up he shoots at a random target.  Both are from Studio Miniatures/Hayland Terrain who have an extensive line of film and tv inspired miniatures.

The Cartel reinforcements consisted of two local dealers.  The one on the left is a Reaper Bones mini; the one on the right is from Hasslefree.  I already had these in my collection and thought they fit the setting perfectly.

The Mafia reinforcements were some associates from out-of-town.  Years before their starring roles in Pulp Fiction, Jules and Vincent (Samuel L. Jackson and John Travolta) are visiting Miami on a business trip.  Also from Studio/Hayland., 

The Yakuza were able to call on their ship's crew, who have disembarked from the freighter and are visiting local businesses.  They are from North Star's Tong line

Now on to the games.  I ran the same scenario twice, which featured a warehouse complex with various tokens representing drugs, money, guns, etc (the yellow tokens in the pictures).  Setup areas were in each corner of the table.  Miami Vice had the complex under surveillance from a jewelry store (lower left) and moved in when they spotted the Cartel boats had docked (upper right).  Joining in the action were the Yakuza on a freighter (lower right) and the Miam Mafia at Carfagna's butcher shop (upper left).

Some highlights from the first game.  The Yakuza sumo wrestler attempted to crush Crockett and Tubbs in their convertible.  He wounded them but was thrown off the car when it moved the next turn.  The Yakuza leader is at the right holding a sword.  He met his end after being crushed between the car and a building.

Two DEA agents have confiscated some drugs.  Unfortunately there was an explosion and they are now on fire.

The tanker truck was hijacked by the Yakuza, but shot up by the police and has come to a stop.  The police surveillance van was destroyed.

The Cartel are escaping with their goods at bottom.  In the upper left, the Cartel 2nd in command (behind the row of barrels) is shooting at Crockett and Tubbs with his submachine gun.  

At the end of the game, Crockett took his third and final wound thanks to Cartel bullets with Tubbs frantically trying to revive him.  In true tv fashion, I am sure that he will have recovered next week!  The Cartel managed victory with 8 points (3 from killing Crockett), the Mafia 5, Miami Vice 4, and the Yakuza 2.  The Mafia won a shootout with the police to claim objectives, while the Yakuza fought both the police and cartel which wore them down.

The second game started with Miami vice deploying.

The Mafia approach the warehouse complex.

A view of the table.

Cartel advancing

The Yakuza advanced and had an early lead after taking control of the big warehouse to the right.

Jules and Vincent from Pulp Fiction taking shots at the police.

The Yakuza have forced the Cartel to retreat from the warehouse.  The Sumo Wrestler nearly crushed the Cartel boss (orange shirt) to death, he had one wound left and barely escaped.  The Cartel minion wasn't so fortunate.

Crockett and Tubbs have exited the car (after running down a Mafia soldier) and are exchanging shots with the Mafia.

The Yakuza were in the lead with 6 points, but the tide has turned against them.  They have moved through the warehouse, into the alley, and are now trapped in between the Mafia (top) and the Cartel (in the building at center right and the wharf at bottom.). Three of them are down and the 4th was shot while retreating.

Miami Vice have cleared the upper warehouse and left side and are moving against the Mafia.

The Cartel attempted to recover their drugs but were whittled down by the Mafia.

At the end the Cartel managed a narrow victory on points with 8 (1 from objectives and 7 from killing opposing stars and co-stars), Miami Vice 6 (and satisfied that they had confiscated a large quantity of drugs), the Mafia 1, and the Yakuza 0. 

Both games were fun to run and the players all seemed to have a good time.  7TV is a great set of rules that are adaptable to a wide range of settings.  I am already working on ideas for next year.

Historicon 2019 Report

Last week I made my annual trek to Lancaster, Pennsylvania for Historicon.  This year was the first time it was held at the Lancaster County Convention Center (LCC) in downtown Lancaster.  I stayed at the Holiday Inn a few blocks away.  It was what you would expect from a Holiday Inn, and was a short 5-6 minute walk from the LCC.  The drive from South Carolina was the best it has been for ages with light traffic and no accidents or bad weather.  I took I-95 on the way up and I-81 through the Shenandoah Valley on the way back.  My usual friends from Ohio couldn't make it this year, but I fortunately managed to find a roommate: another Columbus wargamer who I first met back in the late 1980s, hadn't seen in many years and who was a great substitute.

I arrived at the LCC around 2:45 PM (my thoughts on the location are at the end) and spent a few hours wandering the dealer hall before my first game at 7:00, the English Civil War "Battle of Soggy Bottom" using the For King & Parliament rules.  I have been interested in starting to play the ECW again and wanted to try out these rules, which use a gridded board and playing cards instead of dice.  I ran the Parliament left center infantry command.  There were 4 commands on each side.  I kept the Royalists out of the town at the cost of most of my forces.  I enjoyed the game and rules and am considering ordering them.  Afterwards I browsed through the Thursday night flea market.

The Battle of Soggy Bottom (Parliament on the left, the King on the Right)

 My foot were defending the town for Parliament

The Royalist foot advancing towards my position as we exchange musket fire

 Action on our right flank

Friday morning following a quick, good breakfast at the Holiday Inn I headed to the early flea market and made my big purchase for the convention, two painted 15mm English Civil War armies (Royalist and Scots Covenanter).  They came with a huge amount of unpainted lead, some of which I will use to fill out the armies; the rest may be sold on at a future date.  I sold my ECW collection at least 10 years ago and I have wanted to get back into the period for a while.  It looks like I will get my wish!

The Friday game I played was a western, "Have Gun Will Travel".  It used an old 1959 boardgame as the basis for your gunfighter to travel to the area your randomly-selected outlaw was located, then you moved to the main board, which was fantastic.  It included all the western stereotypes such as a town, fort, native american encampment, graveyard, mining camp and mine.  It was lots of fun to move around on the board, locate your villain, and have a shootout.  I successfully hunted down one outlaw in the church and was killed by a second in Rosa's Bar..

 

 

 

 

Friday night I ran the first session of my game, "Battle of Montrose Platform".  It was a post-apocalyptic fight between 2 groups attempting to salvage a North Sea oil rig.  Two teams of three players moved on the table in boats, boarded the platform and a wrecked ship and fought it out.  I used the 7TV:Apocalypse rules.  I ran it again Saturday morning.  If you are interested in more details or pictures of the games, they are in a separate post here:
https://mirosgames.blogspot.com/2019/07/historicon-2019-games-i-ran.html

 

 

 

Saturday afternoon I got the chance to try out Frostgrave for the first time in the game "Island Towers of the Terror Folk".  It was a fun game with some nice terrain.  I managed to get on of my crew to the top of the tallest cliff on the last turn, only to be tossed over the side by the winged inhabitants.

 

 

  My crew

 My Heritor claiming a treasure marker

Saturday's final game was "Return to Lower Uncton", a 1st-edition SAGA game with four warbands of 4 points each fighting for possession of a village.  I brought along my Scots and fought against Welsh, Vikings and Anglo-Danes.  I haven't played SAGA for some time but it came back quickly.  I won the second-place prize for killing the most enemies, which was a set of Norman SAGA dice.

My Scots advancing

Anglo-Danes in the foreground, Scots in the background

My Scots from the front

Fighting the Viking Warlord.  It took a few tries but we eventually cut him down.

My kills

So what did I buy this year other than the ECW armies?

Two ECW scenario books from On Military Matters and two OGRE counter sheets in the flea market

(Clockwise from top left) The free WWII jungle convention miniature from Warlord; some pin vice bits and two dice from Harmony House; 12 Gripping Beast plastic archers for my Romano-British SAGA army and a GB Pict warlord in a chariot for my Pict SAGA army from Badger Games; two Reaper Bones giant rats for 7TV from Windsword Hobbies; a set of SAGA Norman dice won in a game; 3 packs of Essex 15mm ECW; and a great surprise from fellow 7TV player Wayne, a large bag of 28mm miniatures for 7TV, many of which are OOP.

Not pictured are a rocky terrain piece from the flea market, a bottle of superglue and an Xacto knife I needed to make a minor repair for one of the terrain pieces for my game.

My first Historicon was back in 1995, so I have experienced many of the venues over the years.  I was very happy with the new location.  The LCC is a great building, fully carpeted with nice chairs and icewater stations at every room.  I played or ran games in each of the different rooms on three levels, and while it was loud at times, it was not worse than Fredericksburg or the Host in my opinion.  The large number of nearby restaurants is great and the Central Market has a variety of bakeries and lunch vendors; everything I got there was delicious.  I have heard and read some complaints about parking.  My experience was:
Thursday at 2:45 PM I got one of the last spots.  I wanted to see where I would have to unload everything for my game on Friday.
Friday at 8:15 AM it was full
Friday at 2:00 PM there were open spots on the top two levels
Saturday at 8:00 AM there were open spots on the top two levels

If I hadn't been running a game with the associated unloading/loading I would have left my car at the Holiday Inn all weekend, it was a nice walk at all times from early in the morning to late evening.  I would encourage anyone who stayed home this year to attend in 2020.

 Some other games I found interesting:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 A Riverboat game with multiple levels