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I decided that, apart from whatever else I work on this year, 2021 will be the year of the mech. I already completed the first part of a BattleTech project, managed to get some Heavy Gear starter sets together, and — in the world of larger scale projects — I am also getting my Gamma Wolves project off the ground.

I have been wanting to try Ash Barker’s latest published game, Gamma Wolves, since he first previewed it on his channel. It is minis-agnostic and, for a while after getting a copy of the rulebook, I just couldn’t find any miniatures that really inspired me. I was stuck in that weird place where the ruleset was motivating me more than the toys.

But pretty soon, I saw other folks getting into the game talking about some cheap knock-offs from China and I managed to get them bought and shipped to the United States for less than 10 USD. The set consists of two sets of six unique sculpts, plenty of minis to play around building a a few lists. And if nothing came of it, I’d only be down ten bucks.

Using the pics, I started digging into the rulebook to build some warbands. In my group, I am usually in the position of “hosting” indie games like Gamma Wolves — i.e., putting together all the armies and wrangling potential players. So it made sense to plan out three lists, two being essential and a third one just to try out more of the game.

I settled on a Bolschev list to test out the heavier mechs, or “frames” as they are called in Gamma Wolves. The Bolschev faction is biased toward Heavy Frames and against Light Frames so my Bolschev list is made up of two Heavies, a Medium, and a Light. I wanted a middle-of-the-raod faction, too, and chose The Burg, a faction of engineered transhumans, to outfit with two Heavies and two Lights. Finally, with the “scraps” so to speak, I opted for a Ronin list, the unaligned faction (oxymoron) because they can have multiple Ace pilots in a list. The problem was, the knock-off set I ordered comes with many more smaller than larger mecha. But I figured, hey why not use a couple of the smaller ones as Medium Frames and create a backstory for it later? So the Ronin list ended up with three Medium Frames and a single Light Frame.

While waiting for the Chinese mecha to wing their way across the globe, I started thinking about basing. Gamma Wolves has suggested bases sizes in two ranges: one if you plan to use 28mm-ish wargaming models and a larger one if you plan to use “toys” like Gunpla models. I estimated the smaller wargaming sizes were still too big for my Chinese knock-offs and so went with my own convention: 90mm for Heavy Frames, 60mm for Medium Frames, and 30mm for Light Frames.

Gamma Wolves uses facing and each Frame has four arcs. I used a Dremel tool to carve notches into the MDF bases I bought to make the arcs easier to see and use during play. I then went to work on the bases, using Miliput, silicone press molds, Vallejo basing paste, crumbled cork, weathering powders, and GW’s “Nurgle’s Rot” technical paint. Pretty pleased with the way they turned out, as they seem suitably post-apocalyptic and match some scenery I built a while back.



Next installment will hopefully be some links to my blog with profiles for each of the three lists and, fingers crossed, pics of finished minis!

Those are some terribly tempting toys! I can definitely see those in a lot of different settings. The bigger chicken walkers have a Machinen Kreiger look to them.

Following with interest!

Wow, 10 bucks? How can you go wrong!

I am interested to see your thoughts on the gameplay.

My book is in the mail and I've been looking at this exact "Joy Toy" set just today, but I'm leaning more towards doing Gamma Wolves in 28mm in the 40k Ash Wastes, like a desert themed blanchitsu mecha force.

This way I don't have to build a new terrain set at a unique scale.

OK - skipping the blogging step because I cannot get the site to work properly on my tablet. Here is the Bolschev list with helpful illustrations:



[Bolschev] KV-22 Heavy Frame “Simka”
Maj. Serafima Tereshkova (Trained [Ace])
WGT 30/30 MC 190
Propulsion: Bipedal
Primary L: Autocannon
Primary R: Autocannon
Secondary L: Thermal Spear
Secondary R: Thermal Spear
Technical: Fuel Reserves

[Bolschev] KV-22 Heavy Frame “Ivanko”
Cpt. Ivan Golovachev (Trained)
WGT 30/30 MC 190
Propulsion: Bipedal
Primary L: Autocannon
Primary R: Autocannon
Secondary L: Thermal Spear
Secondary R: Thermal Spear
Technical: Fuel Reserves



[Bolschev] SU-L Medium Frame “Sultan”
Lt. Dimitri Bazanov (Trained)
WGT 20/25 MC 85
Propulsion: Bipedal
Primary L: Laser
Primary R: Anti Tank Missile (2)
Secondary: n/a
Technical: Ablative Armor (Sensors), Heat Sink



[Bolschev] BT-X “Betka” Light Frame
Jr. Lt. Yelena Yegorova (Rookie)
WGT 10/15 MC 35
Propulsion: Bipedal
Primary: Rotary Cannon
Secondary: Thermal Spear
Technical: n/a

Those turned out very nicely indeed!

Have you actually thrown some dice yet, or are these all virgins?

Some of the larger Joy Toy mecha action figures have exactly the look I imagined for Gamma Wolves when I first became aware of the game. But 1/20 scale?? Hm!

These are definitely not 1/20 scale. More like 1/56 or 1/48. They are essentially knock-offs of Warhammer 40k, AT-43, and Dust 1947 models.

Haven’t played Gamma Wolves yet, these mechs have never fired a shot in anger.

Oh, I know the models you have here aren't 1/20th; I meant these guys from Joy Toy:

Moving on to my Ronin list, the Reclamation Venture. The idea behind this one is, the team is made up of survivors of a battle between the Bolschev and North-Star factions. (That explains why two of the mechs also appear in my Bolschev list.) Disillusioned by the callousness of their superiors in the state arcology militaries, these Frame pilots deserted and struck out for their own fortune and glory. Two of the Medium Frames, the ones I’m calling the North-Star “F70 Halifax”, are arguably Light Frames. My idea here was, the Halifax was designed with field customization in mind and the Ronin pilots have pushed that so far that their Frames are now up-armored and up-gunned to Mediums.

Well, here is the list with helpful illustrations:



[Custom] SU-L Medium Frame “Jade”
Han Hongyu (Trained)
WGT 20/25 MC 85
Propulsion: Bipedal
Primary L: Laser
Primary R: Anti Tank Missile (2)
Secondary: n/a
Technical: Ablative Armor (Sensors), Decoy Beacon, Heat Sink



[Custom] F-70 Halifax Medium Frame “Pineapple”
Ray Nieuport (Trained [Ace])
WGT 25/25 MC 160
Propulsion: Jet
Primary L: Rifle
Primary R: Autocannon
Secondary: Rocket Pack
Technical: Ablative Armor (Primary L+R), Decoy Beacon

[Custom] F-70 Halifax Medium Frame “Ricky”
Erica Blessed (Rookie [Ace])
WGT 25/25 MC 160
Propulsion: Jet
Primary L: Rifle
Primary R: Autocannon
Secondary: Rocket Pack
Technical: Ablative Armor (Primary L+R), Decoy Beacon



[Custom] BT-X “Betka” Light Frame “Banner”
Liang Shizhong (Rookie)
WGT 15/15 MC 75
Propulsion: Bipedal
Primary: Laser
Secondary: Rotary Cannon
Technical: Ablative Armor (Sensors, Primary), Heat Sink

I am excited to see a battle report. I am interested how the mechanics around the Power core allocation will work in actual play.

I saw how Ash did it, but I am interested how a player a bit further away from the rules writing process will handle it.

Finally, we have a list for The Burg, a transhumanist faction. I wanted my Burg Frames to look very different from the other two lists, with no sculpt overlap to bring home the (relative) unique quality of Burg tech. I also gave them a stark, more fantastical paint job.



[Burg] Renoster-class Heavy Frame
Wikus (Trained)
WGT 22/30 MC 175
Propulsion: Bipedal
Primary L: Laser
Primary R: Rapid Fire Energy Weapon
Secondary L: Autocannon
Secondary R: n/a
Technical: Heat Sink

[Burg] Renoster-class Heavy Frame
Rudi (Trained)
WGT 22/30 MC 175
Propulsion: Bipedal
Primary L: Laser
Primary R: Rapid Fire Energy Weapon
Secondary L: Autocannon
Secondary R: n/a
Technical: Heat Sink



[Burg] Impisi-class Light Frame
Anika (Trained)
WGT 10/15 MC 75
Propulsion: Jet
Primary: Rapid Fire Energy Weapon
Secondary: Energy Melee Weapon
Technical: Energy Shielding

[Burg] Impisi-class Light Frame
Behati (Trained)
WGT 10/15 MC 75
Propulsion: Jet
Primary: Rapid Fire Energy Weapon
Secondary: Energy Melee Weapon
Technical: Energy Shielding

Good work Manchu.

Is the right arm of the Renostar (as you call it) suppse to have something on it in the kit, or does it end like that normally? Looks a bit "naked".

Not sure what you mean by “something on it” — that is the full assembly. Maybe your mind is playing a bit of a trick on you, substituting a proper Dreadnought for the knock-off “Renoster.” They do look a bit, er, pantless? without the Dreadnought shin armor. And the Joy Toy model only has an empty socket (or cannon) where one would find a CC weapon on a proper Dreadnought. For the Renoster, that is a Heavy Laser.

That answers my question.

I figured you were using the empty socket as the heavy laser, but was not sure if that was something you did OR original to the model.

Yeah haha, the Joy Toy figs are rather humble.