The Vines of Garda-Vilis

Scenario 1: The Raid requires the creation of a small agricultural settlement/village. Some guidelines are given about the general nature and layout of the village but Ref's are expected to make up most of the details. For example, no information is provided about local agricultural produce I.E. what do the villagers grow?

Accordingly, I named the village "Newhope" - the name derives from the aspirations of the first settlers in response to the rich earth of the surrounding area. Thought to be most suitable for the growing of local vines from which a rather potent brew can be distilled.

  

I decided to make some of the vines (from my back story) so as to give Newhope some character on the tabletop. The inspiration for all this came to me when I was sent a parcel that used beer mats as packaging, then I remembered that a couple of years ago I'd bought some 6mm hedge pieces from Irregular Miniatures, then I remembered that somewhere in my dead lead (I.E. unpainted) collection I had a couple of 15mm scale cleaning bots. My memory on the bots is hazy they might even be official Traveller models, either way they were very small and once repurposed as Agribots looked great (edit: it appears they are based on the janitor-bot picture from Book 8, p52).

Here is a picture of the Agribots, front and back (yeah I know my camera work is bloody awful, let's just call it a quirk of the blog shall we?).

So to start with I measured the length and width of a piece of hedge. It fitted fairly neatly into a rectangle 50mm long and 5mm wide. The beer mats were 90mm by 90mm. The Agribot needed a lane 10mm wide between each row of vine in order not to crush the produce it was supposed to be harvesting. I wanted a 5mm edge to the whole thing so that it could be centrally mounted on another beer mat, which itself would be 90mm long and 75mm wide. I plotted all this out then cut away the relevant bits with a sharp modeller's scalpel. In this photo you can see I'm part way through. In addition I'm using a part hedge piece on the row the Agribot is in to give the look of harvesting in process.

 I only have two Agribots so I also made some templates for just vines.

Here is a fully constructed vine template. You can see that by double mounting I have achieved a sort of terraced effect - this is because the vines grow best in dry soil so the terracing is a cheap form of drainage. The vines were stuck down with PVA glue then painted leaf green, washed with Devlan Mud (alas no longer available) and then drybrushed grass green. I then painted the rest of the beer mat with brown basetex.

When the brown basetex was dry I carefully went round each vine with green basetex (to fill in the odd gap) and then when that was dry I dry brushed all the basetex with bubonic brown. Here is a picture of an Agribot harvesting the vines. First from the back and then from the front.

AGRIBOT DESIGN - using Book 8: Robots

(Because you just know some enterprising player will want to try and tamper with them.)

Lanzer Industries "Crop Master 5000"

TL12 Agricultural Robot

Chassis: Type VIIb cylinder/cone configuration with a 3000L capacity.

Power Plant: Type E Fuel Cell. Output 50kw. Uses 0.30L of fuel per hour.

Fuel: A 216L capacity fuel tank supports 30 days continuous use.
Locomotion: Tracks (power use 20).

Appendages: One Heavy Arm (power use 10) + agricultural attachment (power use 10, 100kg, Cr1000).

Sensors: Basic Package (power use 4).

Brain: CPU, linear (power use 1). Capacity 12.

Storage: Standard. Capacity 12.

Fundamental Logic Program: Low Data.

Fundamental Command Program: Limited Basic Command.

Application Programs: Agriculture IIII (requires CPU 8, Cr1600).

Devices: Spotlight for visual spectrum x 4 (power use 4). Radio 50km range (power use 1).

Total Volume Used: 914.4L (2085.6L produce storage capacity)

Total Weight: 1094.92kg (without fuel or produce)

Total Cost: Cr39,400

Total Power Use: 50kw

Apparent Strength: 200

Apparent Dexterity: 3

Apparent Intelligence: 0.6

Apparent Education: 1.2

Chassis Damage Points: 600 to non-functional, 1500 to destroy

Universal Robot Profile: D240B-01-CC001-V301

The Crop Master 5000 is capable of  planting and harvesting a multitude of crops that grow both above and below ground. Give it a command such as "harvest field 23" and it will carry out the order until the task is completed. Its visual sensors are capable of identifying the crop and (in conjunction with its olfactory sensor) if it is ripe or rotten. It will automatically select the correct planting/harvesting equipment from its arm mounted specialised attachment. Spotlights ensure it can continue to work in sub-optimal lighting conditions and, via its very distant range radio, it will remain in contact with its base broadcasting regular updates of its situation and progress. Storage capacity is mainly in the external hopper and can be used for produce or seeds depending upon its given function at the time.

It is common practise for a group (collective) of farmers to club together to buy one or more of these Agribots. They will then harmonise their planting/harvesting to ensure that each farm gets to use the bot(s) at the appropriate time.