Lost Valley Time Forgot Filled With Treasure And Dinosaurs.

[Pwnerade]

That biplane is the greatest!

[White Nun]

Sounds very good to me Silverdream

Nothing like a good backstory to make a spot of steampunk wargaming credible what.

Alright, pictures of the Lost Valley board I've set up. The hexes are all Heroquest pieces and even though I've got three set's worth I only had just enough of the water hexes and I was running out of mashy sand hexes and small stony ground hexes.



Rightio, - this end of the landscape is made up of mixed swampy/marshy areas, grasslands and rocky terrain. On the far side can be seen a part of one side of the valley wall and there is a narrow pass into the valley right where those far too modern Chinese troops in bad need of a change of hats are entering the valley. The valley wall is of course a formidible barrier, but I didn't have enough hexes for that. This is the only way that people on foot or riding a horse sized animal (mule trains & etc) can enter or leave the valley. Dinosaurs and walkers cannot enter this pass making it a safe bolthole in an emergency for minifigs on foot.

At the front of the board is an area of wetlands and marsh. Walking machines enter the valley here as they are able to wade the marsh as well as follow the course of the river into the valley in the first place. Boats and small craft can enter this way too
Please note the natural outcroping of native dice beside the wetlands. Such outcroppings are rare and normally dice can only be obtained by deep rock mining techniques.
Please note: All pools in in rocky areas must be treated as being deep

Aircraft can enter from any side or corner of the landscape, but fixed wing aircraft can only land on flat grassy areas, stony areas are too uncertain and will damage the aircraft. Fixed wing aircraft may land on wetlands provided they are equipt with floats. Gyrocopters, balloons and airships may set down pretty much anywhere except in amongst stands of trees and wetlands.



This end represents the wider and more flat end of the valley. There are areas of wetland, but most of it is flat grasslands. In the far corner are the mysterious ruins of the Temple of Argh. Apparently sacrificial victims were so in awe of the god they would scream aloud his name as they died.
The wetlands at this end are more navigitable to boats and small craft, but I didn't do much water because firstly I don't have any boats yet to speak of, and secondly I didn't have anymore water hex tiles.
The ruinous building in the foreground is my attempt at building something to represent the ancient civilisation's mysterious city, but when I get more bricks and vegetation I'll have another go at it.
The crates and sandbag defenses are the site of a treasure hunter's camp. I've got some campfire pieces somewhere and I'll fold up a tent from paper as well to set the scene properly.

Don't worry about the Elves, UnDead, Orcs, Mega Bloks knight chaps & etc by the way they're just practicing glaring at each other. I can't have a battle just yet because I don't have any red Lego pieces to speak of and I'm waiting for an order to come in.

[Zahru II]

I really need to bulk buy these hex-grids.

[enders_shadow]

agreed, these look sweet. I'm loving the mountainous ones especially.

[NapalmKing]

You have convinced me to bring my hhexes out of hiding.

[Sizz-lor]

Don't worry about the Elves, UnDead, Orcs, Mega Bloks knight chaps & etc by the way they're just practicing glaring at each other. I can't have a battle just yet because I don't have any red Lego pieces to speak of and I'm waiting for an order to come in.

I'd get the 1x1 trans red round pieces. They're cheap, and most bricklink stores as well as lego pick-a-brick have a lot.

[Zupponn]

The hexes look really cool put together in large numbers

[White Nun]

Thanks for the great comments everyone


Ever since I built Dinosaur Hunter one thing she's been really good at is tipping over. If you didn't stand her just right on those big purple three toed mechanical feet of her's she'd slump gently over and tip on her nose. Well now that I've taken delivery of a bag of dead Bionicles I thought I'd experiment with Dinosaur Hunter and see how she'd look standing on four legs instead of two.



I don't mind so much if some of the Hunter's mechanical bits are different colours so long as the colours aren't blindingly garish because that adds to the general 'built and maintained from scrapyard bits' look that I want the Hunter to have. I like the look of the Bionicle bits I've chosen because they have hydralic cylinders on them which always look good on a walker. The extra articulation in the legs is really great too.

[Sizz-lor]

I think it looks a lot better with 4 legs, and an interesting way to attach them to the main body.

[White Nun]

I think it looks a lot better with 4 legs, and an interesting way to attach them to the main body.

You get better articulation that way. the 'Hunter' is built around a Bionicle torso and has the geardrive interconnection between the limb pivots still installed.

[enders_shadow]

looks alot shorter, might not be optimal for running away, but I like the four legged version. what I would suggest if you're going for the scrappy look is to mix=match the legs, not make them the same pieces

[White Nun]

Yes I know, already I've been getting complaints from Biggles McCree that the 'Hunter' isn't so quick on her feet anymore and running 4 legs makes her short of steam when you need it most.
I received another bodybag of dead Bionicles this morning, - a much larger one, - so I'll see if I can improve the Hunter's leg situation.

This is really strange though, I only purchased joblots of Bionicles for their parts so I could make steampunk walkers and now I find myself becoming quite fascinated by them. SOMEBODY SHOULD HAVE WARNED ME THAT LEGO IS SO ADDICTIVE!

[subyrally]

SOMEBODY SHOULD HAVE WARNED ME THAT LEGO IS SO ADDICTIVE!

LEGO>= crack

[White Nun]

Sometimes during a rebuild it's altogether too possible to have far too many spare parts to choose from.....



With the new arrivals there have been problems. A Bionicle was foolish enough to suggest to Aksinya that she wasn't the 'real thing'.

[enders_shadow]

I like the posing of the minifigs, they look like they're making the repairs. nice shot. hopefully they vwill come up with a nice, sturdy leg design