Spectrum Is Green - 7TV

Or in this case, Spectrum is Red, Yellow, Green and Blue.

The advent of the excellent Mk II version of 7TV has made me paint up some of the Crooked Dice models that Ihad part finished.

And who can resist Captain Scarlet?

Review 7TV - Version II

Last night I played 7TV version II with Mik H. Neither of us had played before so we chose a simple introductory scenario.

The first think I noticed that in comparison to version I, it was so much quicker and easier to create a force from scratch. Boss Hoggs boys, headed by co-star leather-clad sadist Travis, took all of five minutes to create from the preprogrammed convenient cards - that incidentally have all relevant information written on.

Mik fielded Prof. Tweedy's vigilantes.

The game has been rewritten and cleaned out from the bottom up. All those fiddley counters that made 7TV such a pain to play are gone. Now you have but one action marker set that act as the resource control for everything. Another change (from what I remember of the old game) is that you feed these markers in as you decide to use them during the turn.

The new game most closely resembles Batman, in that it is a resource-controlled skirmish game. However, Batman involves setting up resource counters onto a control board at the start of each turn rather like a Star Trek battle - "more power to the shields Scotty". 7TV II just feeds them in as they are used and no control board is necessary.

This makes t7TV more fluid, faster, and more in keeping with a TV show.

The end of the game. Boss Hogg and Travis expended their cheap minions freely and took out all Tweedy's people.


I always loved the idea of 7TV but disliked the execution. Version II is better in every way. It's more like a new game than a reboot.

Loved it: Highly recommended.

My thanks to Mik for teaching me the rules.

Ernst Stavro Blofeld - Portrait of a Modern Corporate Manager

James Bond villain Blofeld, played here by the great Donald Pleasance, was in many ways simply ahead of his time. Nowadays his company, SPECTRE, would be regarded as the very model of a modern supra-national corporation what with their Swiss base, tax exemption, bonus structure, bribes and threats to politicians, funding terrorism, disciplinary system and tropical fish tanks.

Oh and their support for less government regulation by interfering busy bodies like James Bond.

I decided to paint my model in a pale blue suit as the flesh colour was a bit insipid on something 28mm high.

The base is from Gladius Game Arts. I can't remember where I got the model (Copplestone? 7TV? Anyone know?).

IHMN: Gypsy Caravan

Gypsy Caravan Song

Cold, soft, dusting skies,
Sweep away the gentle night.
Rich violet brings promises of the dawn-
Glittering stars grow quiet-then are gone.

The lulling whisper of the sand
Silences itself, once again.
Lays dormant and muted at your feet,
Voices submitting to enveloping sleep.

Soon the sun will scream it's rise,
And blaze relentless across empty skies,
Beat down upon empty land;
Beat down upon empty man.

And I'll wait patient-I'll wait for dark ,
Wait for the noise of day to depart-
And in its wake the cocooning reprieve,
Of the endless, satin star-lit sea.

Model by Sarissa, painting by me, poem by CS Ladon.

Ernie!

Old Past Times diecast model suitable for 7TV or IHMN stuff. Can be got off eBay for a song.


"You could hear the hoof beats pound
As they raced across the ground
And the clatter of the wheels
As they spun round and round
And he galloped into Market Street
His badge upon his chest
His name was Ernie
And he drove the fastest milkcart in the west."

Benny Hill, 1971 

Blake's 7 is here!

Crooked Dice have Blakes's Seven releases for Salute.

Of course, they don't call them that. Look up Future Freedom Fighters, wink, wink, nudge, nudge.

Blofeld's House For sale

Blofeld has put his country house in Hampshire up for sale. I guess the recession is even biting at SPECTRE.

Note the car park on the roof and the getaway cruiser at the end of the pier. The duck pond to the right slides back to reveal the VTOL jet launcher.

7TV Enforcers

 A collection of enforcers with machine pistols for the 7TV game. Above are SPECTRE, or similar, goons.

 An MI5 goon with sten gun, probably an SOE silenced model.

 

A SMERSH goon. Note that a hump is not actually a job requirement for the KGB but it is a decided advantage, rather like having a limp if you want to join the Gestapo.

7T - James Bond Villains

Every hero needs an evil mastermind to fight against so I give you Ernst Stavro Blofeld and Dr No of the private enterprise SPECTRE, the Special Executive for Counter-Intelligence, Terrorism, Revenge and Extortion. Fleming was hugely ahead of his time with SPECTRE, which has now become the business model for most of our large corporations, with the obvious exception that SPECTRE did not tolerate failure in its leadership while global corporations reward it.

Never trust a SPECTRE man.

The Avengers

All together now: Dum da Daa, Daaa, Duuum!

From left to right, Mother, Mrs Peel, Mrs Gale, Steed.

Salute 2012 - SF Games

Just back from Salute 2012, more reflections on the show later. These are a few of the SF games that caught my eye. The one above was the Treadaway & Dalimore game for the show.  Col White is escorting the President of the World from a meeting in Central London down the M4 to Heathrow Airport. But the Mysterons have sworn to kill him.

A fascinating game, players take the roles of Spectrum vehicles. Each turn a random player also controls Col. White and another also is the Mysterons. Whoever is the White player at the time wins if he gets off the board, similarly if the President is killed then whoever is the Mysteron player at the time wins.