So Greed is often associated with wealth, but also can be for power. Probably my favorite book I have read ( without pictures) is the History of Florence by Nicco Machiavelli. He with his unique insight and wit identified the new wealth( business owners) the nobles, and the papal forces of the Vatican as the the main three forces causes strife in the known world and Italy. Machiavelli also wrote in that tome "there is always two parties. The party who has the power and the party that desires the power, neither is working for the good of the state." That is certainly a bit of greed on those parties and those same ones still pull the strings ,although fear of Bourbon kings has receded, the push and pull of power remains.
In the Battletech lore, House Steiner is an Inner Sphere power. They are the remnants of European power and nobility with many of House Steiner tracing their ancestral lines to Knightly lords and Napoleonic generals. They have kept power and in books by Michael Stackpole and others that I read in the 80's and 90's, they can be altruistic heroes or power brokers and power junkies. All forces in Battletech can be similar in their greed for power and it is quite easy to find a plot devise to make an entertaining wargame,
My greed is a touch different. I am a wargaming packrat. Up first are these wonderful trucks that I ordered from the Wargamers Vault. I found some very inexpensive files of 28mm scifi trucks and since the were modular and interchangeable, I paid less for those files than a space marine tank kit. These trucks were the first files run through my 3D printer in October. They are brilliant, really nice kits easy to put together.....and look entirely too small for Necromundia and other games workshop games.
Still, I love these trucks in their detail and simpilcity, and being perfectly fine trucks there was never a doubt of making more...but larger.
I painted them for two reasons... I do hate painting vicks. I would much rather paint a bunch of infantry as that is a noticeable squad, regiment, or army with noticeable progress.a truck or two is just a truck or two. Vicks are a part of wargaming especially in the genres I like most.
I paired these trucks with a House Steiner platoon that has been laying around for a very long time.
A platoon commander with his platoon sgt, aid(driver, scribe, runner) and two heavy laser teams
These are old Ral Partha sculpts and are more 25mm than 28mm, but look fine with the trucks.
The platoon has three squads of troops with smaller "man portable" heavy lasers and the rest with laser rifles and carbines. With eight man squads, perhaps the heavy laser is kinda portable....from experience I can honestly remind you that man-portable is not synonymous with easy or fun. At least this platoon has access to two trucks from which the troops can place the man-portable weapons in.
They are very fine sculpts and had very little flash and cleanup needed. Poses are often repeated and the weapon crew guns made me glue my fingers together many times
The platoon Sgt has a pack on his back which could be a radio for the commander or his bag of useful items to disperse to the squads.
And finally, the whole platoon together. I have a few more trucks and Kurita troops to paint, but now I can use 5150 Star Army or any other rule set for platoon vs platoon skirmish and they wont look like lilliputians. I even have a few pieces of terrain that match them, so the battles will look proper and be more immersive. Perhaps a 25mm mech or two in a future game...
I bought these after I first left active duty in the late 80's and when some college friends wanted to play Battletech when Rogue Trader and warhammer 40k were still new. My mistake was I liked soldiers and painting them even then and my friend who was supposed to help me find some stuff for our games thought they soldiers were cool and did not show me the mechs or even a lance worth of recommended battle mechs to use in the game...and it was RPG and not a wargame, so miniatures were not needed.
From 1989 they have been unpainted and now they are ready for the table, after Kurita is completed. So 40 years later they have a use besides collecting dust! I should have purged them from the collection of the mountain of neglect years ago.
two 28 mm trucks at 20 points each for 40points
27 troops at 5 points each...135points
5 big guns at 10 points...50 points
225 points plus 20 for the greed of a gaming hoarder
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Great to see these classic BT Battletroops get some love Dave!
Your project is really coming together well
- Paul
