Matakishi's Tea House
A simple little site...
Part One
by Dave Bezio
Starguard is the oldest Science fiction skirmish game out there. It’s been around since 1974, and has a full line of old school 25mm miniatures that have been being produced since then.
I’ve been eyeing up this game for many years. When first I saw it I instantly fell in love with the charming miniatures. They gave me that sort of warm fuzzy feeling. I’ve never been a “dark future” type of guy, and the Warhammer 40K (and the million style clones) have never really appealed to me.
Unfortunately, most people don’t feel the same. Every time I showed the website to other people they just wouldn’t buy into it. As anyone knows, having a mini game you want to play without another person (or 3) who is just as willing to invest of their time and money into the hobby isn’t much fun.
Not to mention that the game themselves are rather expensive for what you get ($30 for the core rules, 70 pages of loose-leaf, and another $50 for the supplements). Not only that, but the generally lack of thorough reviews and tidbits I have found lead me to believe that the rules have many little errors and holes that need to be fixed to play accurately (despite being in their 5th edition). Of course, this is typical of any old school miniature game (and when I say “old school” this is the real deal!).
So, for years I stared lovingly at Starguard and hoped for the day to come…
So, about a week ago I decided to play some Mutants and Death Ray guns. I finally found an excuse to get some Starguard miniatures (more specifically the Dreenoi, which I really love the mini figures of). I ordered the starter pack (oh, it’s worth mentioning that Starguard miniatures are dirt cheap, a little more than $1 a figure on the average). I got the miniatures and was really impressed with the way they looked, and again desperately wanted to play this game.
Yesterday I was at my old friend Steve’s house (my oldest friendship, going back 27 years to 8th grade, and very near to the beginning of my role playing hobby) to play Battlelore. I got to talking about games I was thinking about investing in. On a whim I showed him the Starguard site…and he fell in love with the miniatures as I had!! He felt the same attraction to the old school charm and liked the way the miniatures looked like the artwork we grew up with (he called them the Erol Otus of miniatures).
Finally, someone as crazy motivated as me to play Starguard with! (Not sure what force he will bring to the table yet).
Yesterday I ordered the rulebook (and the giant robot and vehicle supplements) and every stinking Dreenoi miniature they make! Just for the record, this cost me about $125 for the rules and a metric butt-load of miniatures. (While the rules are expensive, this is a fairly cheap mega-buy-in to a miniature game…considering I purchased about 10 times more miniatures than I need to start playing the game…but they are all so cool, and I really will enjoy painting them if nothing else).
So yeah, I’m pretty excited…and yes, grubman is at it again! I’ve got rules to read (when they get here) and I’ll give everyone a taste and some information when I absorb them (there isn’t a whole lot of solid information on this game on the web, and there probably should be). I’ve also got a table to build, and a bunch of miniatures to paint. Nothing makes this process more fun than sharing online (other than actually playing the game). Hopefully it’ll be interesting and fun, and informative…and if someone else gets interested in Starguard, at least they will be able to find this article to tell them something about it.
Off to start painting my Dreenoi starter set and decide what type of table I’m going to build. I’m thinking of an alien landscape for the first game.
I can't tell you much until I get the rules. I know (well, I think) Earthlings have colonized several worlds. There they met several alien races, some friendly, some not so much...then all hell broke out.
The reason I was attracted to is (other than the minis) is the fact that it's old school (you can't get much more old school than the first of its kind). It's more Space Opera, instead of the "dark" or realistic Sci Fi skirmish games that seem to be the other popular choices, and it seems like there is a lot of stuff there to tinker with...just like I like my games.
As far as the rules, from the little I've heard they are serviceable, and even fun (percentile based) but a bit disorganized and rough around the edges. This might be a turn off to some, but I'm sure any die-hard wargamer should be able to figure them out.
Well, I'm no Eavy-Metal painter, so you'll have to form your own opinion on my paint job. I like how my own stuff comes out, and that's what really matters. Speed is sort of my claim to fame. I like a lot of dry-brushing and washes.
I decided I want to go with a green color scheme for my hive. I also decided I’m going to do a purple based alien table for my first battle. I decided to go ahead and take pictures after each step. It’s kind of cool to see how the miniature progresses.
1. I decided to use US nickels for the bases. I was going to use 1” plastic ones, but they looked a bit too big for these 25mm figs. I decided that ¾ inch washers would work better, but, they turned out to be $.13 apiece. The nickels are thicker and cost, well, $.05. I’m happy with the choice, and in the long run it’s pretty cheap for bases.
2. Primed and ready to go!
3. First step, a nice base coat of a dull, dark green
4. A simple drybrush of a moderate green
5. Another drybrush of a more startling green finishes off the base of the mini.
6. A little yellow on the ribcage and antenna finish off the body. The huge bug eyes were pretty easy to paint, red with a simple yellow dot.
7. A quick wash of stain/polyurethane to give the grooves some depth and shadow. Also some sand glued on the base. These two things will take the longest to dry…supposed to be overnight, but I want to see how this comes out so I cheated and used the hairdryer.
8. There is that purple base! I can’t wait to do the terrain, it’s going to be WILD. A base coat of black on the weapon and jet pack finish off this step.
9. A drybrush of silver on the weapon and jet pack, and some drybrushing on the base
10. I debated a long time on this, but finally decided to add a little gold to the weapon and jetpack. I knew this would give the mini a slight “steampunk” Victorian look…but I decided to do it anyway, just to make the minis “unique”. A little bit of multi-colored static grass on the base finish off the fig.
The finished product! Two coats of a matte finish take the gloss out of the wash and protect the miniature for play (hopefully a lot of play!).
Well, I really like the result. I’m glad I got it right on the first try. The whole thing didn’t take long (maybe an hour, with most of that being dry-time) and painting up the figures in a mass should be fairly painless.
And the gang’s all here! Well, those are all the minis I have to paint until my mega-order comes in. That’s just as well, because it will give me time to work on the tabletop and terrain. Hopefully I’ll have a decent play surface ready to go when the rules get here, so I can read rules in the day, and paint some minis at night.
Next: Building some terrain.
Starguard is the oldest Science fiction skirmish game out there. It’s been around since 1974, and has a full line of old school 25mm miniatures that have been being produced since then.I’ve been eyeing up this game for many years. When first I saw it I instantly fell in love with the charming miniatures. They gave me that sort of warm fuzzy feeling. I’ve never been a “dark future” type of guy, and the Warhammer 40K (and the million style clones) have never really appealed to me.
Unfortunately, most people don’t feel the same. Every time I showed the website to other people they just wouldn’t buy into it. As anyone knows, having a mini game you want to play without another person (or 3) who is just as willing to invest of their time and money into the hobby isn’t much fun.
Not to mention that the game themselves are rather expensive for what you get ($30 for the core rules, 70 pages of loose-leaf, and another $50 for the supplements). Not only that, but the generally lack of thorough reviews and tidbits I have found lead me to believe that the rules have many little errors and holes that need to be fixed to play accurately (despite being in their 5th edition). Of course, this is typical of any old school miniature game (and when I say “old school” this is the real deal!).
So, for years I stared lovingly at Starguard and hoped for the day to come…
So, about a week ago I decided to play some Mutants and Death Ray guns. I finally found an excuse to get some Starguard miniatures (more specifically the Dreenoi, which I really love the mini figures of). I ordered the starter pack (oh, it’s worth mentioning that Starguard miniatures are dirt cheap, a little more than $1 a figure on the average). I got the miniatures and was really impressed with the way they looked, and again desperately wanted to play this game.
Yesterday I was at my old friend Steve’s house (my oldest friendship, going back 27 years to 8th grade, and very near to the beginning of my role playing hobby) to play Battlelore. I got to talking about games I was thinking about investing in. On a whim I showed him the Starguard site…and he fell in love with the miniatures as I had!! He felt the same attraction to the old school charm and liked the way the miniatures looked like the artwork we grew up with (he called them the Erol Otus of miniatures).
Finally, someone as crazy motivated as me to play Starguard with! (Not sure what force he will bring to the table yet).
Yesterday I ordered the rulebook (and the giant robot and vehicle supplements) and every stinking Dreenoi miniature they make! Just for the record, this cost me about $125 for the rules and a metric butt-load of miniatures. (While the rules are expensive, this is a fairly cheap mega-buy-in to a miniature game…considering I purchased about 10 times more miniatures than I need to start playing the game…but they are all so cool, and I really will enjoy painting them if nothing else).
So yeah, I’m pretty excited…and yes, grubman is at it again! I’ve got rules to read (when they get here) and I’ll give everyone a taste and some information when I absorb them (there isn’t a whole lot of solid information on this game on the web, and there probably should be). I’ve also got a table to build, and a bunch of miniatures to paint. Nothing makes this process more fun than sharing online (other than actually playing the game). Hopefully it’ll be interesting and fun, and informative…and if someone else gets interested in Starguard, at least they will be able to find this article to tell them something about it.
Off to start painting my Dreenoi starter set and decide what type of table I’m going to build. I’m thinking of an alien landscape for the first game.
I can't tell you much until I get the rules. I know (well, I think) Earthlings have colonized several worlds. There they met several alien races, some friendly, some not so much...then all hell broke out.
The reason I was attracted to is (other than the minis) is the fact that it's old school (you can't get much more old school than the first of its kind). It's more Space Opera, instead of the "dark" or realistic Sci Fi skirmish games that seem to be the other popular choices, and it seems like there is a lot of stuff there to tinker with...just like I like my games.
As far as the rules, from the little I've heard they are serviceable, and even fun (percentile based) but a bit disorganized and rough around the edges. This might be a turn off to some, but I'm sure any die-hard wargamer should be able to figure them out.
Well, I'm no Eavy-Metal painter, so you'll have to form your own opinion on my paint job. I like how my own stuff comes out, and that's what really matters. Speed is sort of my claim to fame. I like a lot of dry-brushing and washes.
I decided I want to go with a green color scheme for my hive. I also decided I’m going to do a purple based alien table for my first battle. I decided to go ahead and take pictures after each step. It’s kind of cool to see how the miniature progresses.
1. I decided to use US nickels for the bases. I was going to use 1” plastic ones, but they looked a bit too big for these 25mm figs. I decided that ¾ inch washers would work better, but, they turned out to be $.13 apiece. The nickels are thicker and cost, well, $.05. I’m happy with the choice, and in the long run it’s pretty cheap for bases.
2. Primed and ready to go!
3. First step, a nice base coat of a dull, dark green
4. A simple drybrush of a moderate green
5. Another drybrush of a more startling green finishes off the base of the mini.
6. A little yellow on the ribcage and antenna finish off the body. The huge bug eyes were pretty easy to paint, red with a simple yellow dot.
7. A quick wash of stain/polyurethane to give the grooves some depth and shadow. Also some sand glued on the base. These two things will take the longest to dry…supposed to be overnight, but I want to see how this comes out so I cheated and used the hairdryer.
8. There is that purple base! I can’t wait to do the terrain, it’s going to be WILD. A base coat of black on the weapon and jet pack finish off this step.
9. A drybrush of silver on the weapon and jet pack, and some drybrushing on the base
10. I debated a long time on this, but finally decided to add a little gold to the weapon and jetpack. I knew this would give the mini a slight “steampunk” Victorian look…but I decided to do it anyway, just to make the minis “unique”. A little bit of multi-colored static grass on the base finish off the fig.
The finished product! Two coats of a matte finish take the gloss out of the wash and protect the miniature for play (hopefully a lot of play!).
Well, I really like the result. I’m glad I got it right on the first try. The whole thing didn’t take long (maybe an hour, with most of that being dry-time) and painting up the figures in a mass should be fairly painless.
And the gang’s all here! Well, those are all the minis I have to paint until my mega-order comes in. That’s just as well, because it will give me time to work on the tabletop and terrain. Hopefully I’ll have a decent play surface ready to go when the rules get here, so I can read rules in the day, and paint some minis at night.
Next: Building some terrain.
