Delaques and scratching that RPG itch

ooof! Due to dealing with "them" who never go to sleep i've not had much time to get any gaming or much painting done this week, although I did get round to finishing of a quick paint job on the rest of the Delaque gang:

With the rest of my time i've been able to look in to scratching that RPG itch again, a looooonnggg time ago I walked in to model shop while on holiday and used my pocket money to buy a copy of the Dungeons and Dragons Basic, the Red Box, never really quite sure of what I was getting but fascinated and curious all the same. From there I went on to the Expert box and some other RPG's such as Runequest but i never really "got" them and so just let them fade away. Since then I keep wondering and going back to see what is on the market and taking a peek but never taking the plunge, until now, knowing I wanted to get in to something again and having friends mention they were interested in trying something I went looking for a starter box for a new system and found......just how hard it is to get one!

My first try was the Pathfinder beginners box, looked like a good bet with rules/maps/cardboard figures of every character and monster, the perfect package to get it to the table quickly but no, it's unavailable from every games/book store in the UK! Paizo have mentioned on their forums that distributors should be getting stock soon but no dates.
Secondly I thought why not go back to the good old Red box, i'd seen it on the shelves of my local waterstones last year and although some strange things were being said about 4th edition I want to try it for myself, but again it's out of stock everywhere in the UK and the odd one appearing on ebay is fetching up to four times the original value!!
Finally i'm a big fan of Will Wheatons tabletop series on youtube and on one of the recent episodes they were playing Dragon Age, after some research I found it has a beginners box set as well, but alas it too is out of stock everywhere! I did find one store with a copy but after ordering they refunded my money as it was a mistake :/

It's a bit crap really for anyone wanting to get started in RPG's when publishers cannot get their product out to those wanting to buy it. Anyway, I downloaded the quick start rules for Dragon Age and they look pretty good to get a session going :) Still looking for the experience I had all those years ago I came across Labyrinth Lord, a so called retro clone based on the original red and blue basic boxes, the rules are available to download for free or to buy a printed book with illustrations. It's a good read and has all the old charm of the dungeons bashes years ago and it's compatible with all the old basic modules available on the market :) definitely excited to try a game out with a group of friends over a few drinks!

In other news something very exciting happened this week! ok, perhaps not that exciting and probably downright boresome for anyone reading this bit look, look!

Is it not just the most exciting thing to happen in wargaming this year?

:) previously I had no heating in my little hobby room but now with this beauty it's going to be used all year round. Good stuff.

Warpath - 2.0

Had one of those lucky?! days last week where I had to take a day off to recover from a minor operation, as it was planned I was rubbing my hands with glee at the thought of being able to spend a whole day at home with no wife or kids and being able to indulge in some painting and gaming :)
Unfortunately things never turn out as planned and just before my wife left for work she handed me a big list of things that needed doing round the house! but i'm ill! then sit down while your doing it then!.... anyway once all the work was finished and I had finished hobbling around I sat down to paint some of the backlog and ended up grabbing a Mantic Marauder Raptor off the shelf and slapping a quick paint job on:

Mantic Raptor alongside a GW buggy

The Mantic vehicles that are available surprised me at just how chunky and solid the parts are, although these retail for over a tenner you can pick these up for great prices elsewhere. Compared to the GW equivalents these are quite large as well but I like them and no, i'm not going to get drawn in to what they are made of! is it Resin/Plastic/Restic or PVC? who cares, does it look good, do I like it, yep.

Anyway, i've been putting off playing Warpath for a while so got the mat on the floor (i've been "removed" from the dining room table!) and put down two 900 point armies. I used the latest 2.0 rules and army lists and each side got the following:

Marauders:

• 2 x Raptors
• A Warlord
• 4 Squads of 10 Maruader grunts with an anti tank gun and ripper claw.

Forge Fathers:

• Huscarl leader
• 2 x Jotunn Hailstorm Cannons.
• Squad of 5 Stormrage Veterans
• 2 x Squads of Steel Warriors (one with 10 men another with 5).
• Iron Ancestor

The first game went fairly well, the rules are still light enough to pick up after a quick read or two (although the transport rules could do with all being together) and the alternate activation works well, it adds a layer of strategy when choosing which units to activate and the push your luck nature of activating units can really pay of or leave you stranded depending on how your luck goes!
The Marauder raptors were fast, very fast, on a single move they can get across the table and then some although their armour is pretty weak and falls pretty easily to the forge father fire (I liked how units transported in destroyed vehicles still have a fair chance of not being wiped out).
The Jotunn hailstorm cannons provide a HUGE amount of firepower, 12 shots each, they can effectively hold back any squads on foot and they both caused the most destroyed units in the game. The marauders on foot found it really hard to get across the board in the face of all that fire!
One of the big things that came out was just how less effective characters are, more suited to a support role, your not going to see any characters taking out whole units in close combat for example, quite the opposite.

If there was a major criticism of the rules it would have to be close combat, that the only models that can attack are those in base to base combat was a bit of a pain with some larger units being penalized by not being able to get so many troops in to base combat. I prefer the more simple nature of kings of war and so we played the house rule that if a unit enters close combat it enters close combat and all unit members can fight, simples.

Someone nicked the table!

In the first game the Marauders were almost wiped out before they got across the table so to even it up we replaced a squad of Marauder grunts with some stunt bots (GW killer kans) and took advantage of the Marauder Raptor speed, it certainly made the difference and the game was a lot closer.
It was interesting listening to the latest Mantic podcast with Ronnie hinting that Warpath may be changing direction again with multiple based troops and big games, around 20 units a side! I guess that they are still trying to find that magic formula that made Kings of War so good to play, anyway i'm certainly looking forward to whatever's coming in the future. :)

The games that never make it..

Here's a sad story, sat on my shelf is this fleet:

A few years ago a friend and I decided to build some fleets and play Battlefleet Gothic so we picked up a few models to get ready and printed out all the rulebooks, made up our templates etc and set to work painting up our fleets....at least I did, my friend fell behind and could never find time to put his fleet fully together let alone paint it so we kept putting off playing. It's also worth mentioning that when we get together for games he prefers to only play when all the models on the table are painted, no bad thing per say as when we do get games in they looks great all finished and ready to go. But it does mean that this fleet may never see the table :(

It just got me thinking that with a small mountain of unpainted minis, whats the point? Would I prefer to never play these games or just fill the table and go for it? So i'll apologize in advance, you might see some naked models on here once in a while but i'm going to get my game on!

Down in the Sump

Every now and then a part of me keeps going back to my teens when we used to play a skirmish game on our dining room table fighting across buildings and spending the evenings reading through the background of this dirty world. The game was Necromunda and I absolutely loved it, unfortunately a number of years ago I was trapped for cash and had to sell my mint boxed set along with all the models I had collected along the way!
Cut to now and after my recent run in's with army painting I wanted to try something on a much smaller scale and so looked to the Necromunda rulebook and fell in love with the game again. It wasn't the gameplay itself per se which was fairly straight forward GW fare with a few extra's thrown in but it was the campaign rules and the fact you could guide a fledgling gang from a lowly start all the way through to being top of Spire with the latest weapons and grizzled veterans. There was a lot of John Blanche's art as well throughout the books that really helped to give the impression of a corrupt underhive feeding upon one another.

So I picked up a couple of Gangs (Cawdor and Delaque) that I had always wanted years ago and a copy of the original ruleset (prefer a hard rulebook to a PDF) along with a few buildings and got to work.

Along the way I came across the fantastic blog: The Tears of Isstvan, which has sadly now appeared to of ended but it's a great source of inspiration, although focused on Inquisitor it still fits in perfectly with the Necromunda universe and the idea of every model/character having a full back story and identity before taking to the board. A lot of the work involved in creating the models they used involved kit bashes from a large number of sources so this inspired me to pick through the bits box and make up..:

The Scavenger, a veteran of the sump and a quiet genius with robotics and cybernetics, his violent past is reflected in his arms being replaced and the addition of some wicked appendages. He always travels across the waste with his two scuttling robotic gun droids that help flush out anyone that takes on the Scavenger while he rummages through the sump looking for a useful find. They were made up using parts from Mantic, GW, Khurasan and GZG, he still needs more working filling in the gaps etc but I can't wait to get him painted up and brought to the table!

Couple of 15mm bits

Things have been really quiet here on the 15mm front, i've not really been able to get stuck in to any rulesets or get any games in so the models have been sat waiting to be painted but I did manage to finish off a couple of units.

First up is a group of GZG USNC Hardsuit troops, I honestly don't remember ever ordering these! but thought i'd have a go at painting brown and yellow together, they came out ok but i'm not sure how well they will fit in with the other USNC troops.

Next is a great Resin/Metal mixed kit from Khurasan miniatures the Corporate Marine L-HAC (Legged Heavy Assault Cyborg), this unit towers above all the over 15mm miniatures and Mechs I have and even works really well as a 28mm Mech unit. I always thought the model was familiar and it does appear to have more than a passing resemblance to Robo Cain from Robocop 2...

The unit stands really well on it's own so I left it off a base, I just need to get some buildings/city to scale it up against! :) Here's a comparison pic of the L-HAc against a few other minis to show it's size off:

Zvezda 1/100 WW2 Tanks and Armoured car

I had seen the name Zvezda knocking around the model world on the Internet for some and they appear to go hand in hand with cheap plastic kits, I was put off a bit by just how low cost they were originally and so stayed away. It was only recently when I started looking in to getting some 15mm WW2 bits that I came across some pics of the Zvezda models painted up and they looked half decent, so I found a great supplier on eBay and ordered up three kits, a German Panzer III, German Armoured car and a Soviet T34, trying to order the most widely used vehicles used by both sides during the war and these seemed to fit the bill. All three kits came to only £8.66 including delivery and I was really impressed when they arrived the day after ordering them!

My first reaction when opening the box was that they were packaged in some pretty small boxes but then I kept forgetting they were 15mm so were going to be small anyway, it's weird but I've never really put together a 15mm model "kit". All three vehicles came on sprues with some assembly instructions, flags and a stat card, I gather this was to support some game that Zvezda have released.

15mm Forged in Battle figure for scale

The two tanks went together a breeze, they were low on parts and were capable of being snap fit, the Armoured car on the other hand came in a fair few very small pieces on the sprue that needed to be carefully removed and put together, it's one thing to buy a single piece metal or resin 15mm model and another to try and build one from its smallest components! Needless to say I made a pigs ear of it, there were gaps in the build and several bits needed re glueing back together before assembly....fat handed tw@t!

But even after this they were all really easy to paint up ready for the tabletop, they had just the right amount of detailing to pick out but were still really quick to finish, I think I spent 45 minutes on each one starting with a black base coat, sloppy coat of brown, dry brushed the main base coat, couple more dry brushes getting lighter then picked out the details and worked in the shading using brown and black washes, finally dry rushing some mud to the bottom of them.

Overall I'm really impressed with these kits and i will be ordering more soon, at such a low cost I can pick up a few different kits here and there and just enjoy putting them together without ok much stress...and they should fit in well with a new gaming project I've been working on....... :)

Warpath

I must admit I do have a bit of a soft spot for Mantic Games, I enjoy playing Kings of War and recently backed the DeadZone kickstarter so it followed that I was going to check out their Sci fi range Warpath.
I remember signing up to Beasts of War membership almost two years ago now to gain access to the alpha rules release and getting excited about a possible true competitor to 40k, over the years its been interesting to see the rules develop and while they've not yet reached the same level of simplicity/strategy of KOW I still keep my eyes open for any updates etc.

The bigger problem with Warpath has to do with the range of models available, the initial box sets were based on the KOW sprues and did the job (apart from that awful dwarf firing a weapon model) and over the years the ranges have been expanded but there are still large gaps in the army lists that need proxies. The DreadZone kickstarter although being based upon its own game looks like it is going to fill a few of these gaps with its own range of models, and in some places looks to hint and expand upon the army lists. Also rumored for next year is another Mantic kickstarter to fill out the Warpath range and add vehicles/finalized rulebook etc, exciting times ahead.

The Forgefathers were the first faction that drew me to Warpath, like most people it was exciting to see the return of "squats", I picked up the Fate of the Forgestar boxed set and added a few extras to build up a small force. The Huscarl in particular is a great metal miniature with nice detailing and the Iron Ancestor adds to the nice chunky feel of the army:

Moving on to the Marauders, I have a ton of plastic sprues shelved away, I think close to 60 or more models but as I already have a 40K Ork army and having learnt my lesson with trying to paint armies these have yet to be put together. The Marauder army is one that really needs to be filled out by Mantic as at the moment it just feels like a huge group of foot sloggers with the odd vehicle thrown in. Along with the boxed sets I picked up the Marauder Ripper Warlord metal model, this really is a great sculpt and was fun to paint, it really shows that when Mantic produce individual metal models they come out really well.

Lastly is this oddity from Mantic, Mortis the Zombie Apocalypse hero. This metal miniature is basically just a head swap of the Verr-myn Night Spawn and i'm not sure where is really fits in to the Warpath universe/range, there are no rules for it and Mantic have hinted that it does not fit in with the new Plague army lists, maybe its going to fit in with the Warpath kickstarter next year or maybe its just meant to be a proxy for a certain 40K Chaos Lord (it was released shortly after the Chaos codex). Either way its an okish model and came with a box of other kit from ebay so didn't really cost anything:

Mantic Kings of War armies

I've finally completed a project!!!! ish...

A couple of years ago I picked up the kings of war 2 player starter set and vowed to build and paint all the miniatures in the box in two weeks, the project was almost the end of my enjoyment of the wargaming hobby and I learnt a big lesson, never put too much pressure on yourself to complete a project.
It took a few days to put everything together and I managed to paint a group or two but I wasn't happy with the results, rushing myself to get them finished I got sloppy and ended up putting everything back in the box and shelving it for a while.

Fast forward to this year, earlier in the year I decided to stop buying any more wargaming rulebooks, the huge number on the market and my shelf felt like they were watering down my concentration and enjoyment of the hobby, but then I saw the kings of war hardback book going cheap.....and what a breath of fresh air it was!! The rules are light and easy to read yet you can see the strategy within and the full set of army lists at the back give a huge choice of forces to get gaming with, I was surprised to find within the elves list a number of units to match a wood elves army, I might finally manage to bring them to the table (picked up warhammer 8th and the wood elf army book but just got frustrated with the disparity and complexity between the books so it never made it to the table).

Not quite as big as the undead horde but with a few elven allies...

I pulled the box off the shelf and got a game in and really enjoyed it so it spurred me on to finish the miniatures, I grabbed a can of army painter bone spray, picked a four colour scheme and an army painter wash and got to work. I took it a lot easier this time and aimed for a table ready finish and just picked them up here and there, along the way I bought a Dwarf king and some more undead units and finally finished the lot. The only part missing at this point are the bases, everything is currently based on cardboard but it gets the job done. It's a good feeling, finishing these off for gaming and I like the idea of being able to casually pick up a new unit, paint it up and get it on the table, would I do it again? not sure on that one, it takes a determined mindset to get stuck into army painting and at the moment its been nice to step back and paint a few individual models.

Champions, wraiths, zombies, ghouls, skeletons...the gangs all here!

I can really recommend Kings of War and the fantasy miniatures they produce, Mantic themselves have been under fire regarding the quality of what they produce and to be honest some of the sculpts in the range are stinkers but with the internet i'm pretty sure everyone is able to find photos of the models and decide what they want regarding detail and price, all of of the models in the photos above and the hardback rulebook all together cost me less than £50 so i'm more than happy with what I got and the fun it brings to the table.

In which I have a go..

Ever since I picked up my first 15mm miniatures and checked through the sculptors blogs i've wondered "could I do that?", so I had a go.
On a budget I grabbed the following kit, a strip of green stuff, some florists wire, a set of sculpting tools, a cork and a box to hold it all.

All of the kit above cost me less than a tenner so no harm done. Next up I needed somewhere to start with sculpting, I used the guide here on the Hour of Wolves blog to create an armature and was surprised at just how easy it was! Next up was the hard part, sitting down and getting to make something. Originally I was going to create some designs and work from them but I was itching to get going and so just got stuck in! and ended up with what looks like a mutant wanting to ballroom dance:

To be honest, the pics are blown up here and it does look a lot better in person, hopefully I will get it painted up soon and it will look a little better.

Overall this took me a few hours on and off to get finished and it gave me a real appreciation for the miniature sculptors out there. Looking at sculpts now it's so impressive how the straight lines of armour and how the minute facial details are created. One things for sure it has certainly driven me on to practise more and to see what else I can create!

PAW 2013 Aftermath

Well my first Wargames show was great fun! PAW 2013 in Plymouth was a great day out, three of us went up on the train on a surprisingly bright and sunny day and got there about half an hour after the doors opened but the halls were pretty busy already.

Unfortunately in all the excitement this was the only photo I took, I was too preoccupied taking in the atmosphere! Reading comments from people who had been before I took a quick look around and then made a beeline for the bring and buy stand which already had piles of games and models for sale. I was really surprised by just how much 6mm miniatures had been put up for sale, bit of an Epic Armageddon fans wet dream... A few bargains were spotted and we picked up a few bits but to be honest we held back on the spending throughout the show, even though we thought we'd need to take more money it just got to the point where we picked bits up but thought "hey, this is interesting but do I really NEED it".

I grabbed a selection of 6mm models from Angel Barracks, been looking at these for a while and I'm also looking forward to the challenge of painting these up. Some plaster terrain from Smithee? Was going cheap and would fit in with 15mm, also found a copy of Test of Fire at Bull Run In the bring and buy, it's a simple quick to play game by Martin Wallace Based on the first major battle of the ACW. Plus it was fairly small and would fit in my backpack easily enough.

Games wise there was plenty of variety, bit disappointed I missed the Gruntz game (was on the Sunday) but it was good to take a look at Dreadball up close, surprised at just how small the players were! We didn't have the chance to stay and play all day but will definitely go back longer next year.
There were a few disappointments, a few of the traders were not there on the Saturday so very little 15mm scifi on offer, I was also a little surprised at just how few show "offers" we're available, although we were able to haggle over a few items.

Biggest pull of the day for my friends was Les's bit box, I kind of wrote this of before I got there but was surprised at just how much he had for sale, it was all GW kit but it was good to see all the Necromunda gangs again and even a few squads of Imperial Guard Pretorians at good prices. I held back but seeing these minis after all these years inspired me to pick up the Necromunda rule book again and have a good old nostalgic read through.

Overall it was a great day and we are definitely going back next year, it would be great to go to one of the big shows like Salute but because of our location it would cost us over £100 each just to get up there let alone how much we'd end up spending at the show! But then it's all in the journey and the experience. :)

15mm Characters and Forgefathers

Hey, I was able to get a few 15mm mini's painted and others this week, I still have a full shelf space of unpainted mini's but my attitude to painting them has changed, it feels good to be able just grab a few and paint them when i've got the time rather than trying to go full steam trying to paint full armies.

First up I grabbed this 15mm.co.uk Draccian, I picked it up as single the December before last but it had sat on the shelf for a while, I wanted to keep it old school green.

Next up I finished off a few more Mantic Forge Fathers, i've put together the entire boxed set but just can't see myself painting tens of tens of orx again....

Flipping back to 15mm I pulled a Senior Imperial officer off the shelf from 15mm.co.uk and the Laserburn range, there's a lot of character to these mini's that really hides the age they were sculpted and surpasses many later ranges. Good fun to paint, I tried some lighter tones but I feel I don't have the skill/patience yet to really make these colors pop, also I copped out on painting the eyes again, no biggy but when you get close they lose a little character.

I was going to set the tale up for a few games when I discovered I have very little terrain, either 15mm or 28mm, so I pulled out a sheet of foam card and cracked out a few ruins in an hour, still have three more sheets so I should be able to get a table full soon. Although I have been looking at the battlefield in a box pre painted range as I have no woods/trees and they look pretty good but then there's always the post new year fake xmas tree sell off....

The last 15mm mini I painted was this Laserburn Merchant/hero, it's tricky to see what character he is on the site but when got to painting him I realized just what a bloody amazing sculpt this is, considering the size this just felt like the perfect match between scale and detail.

PAW 2013

On February 2nd and 3rd the Plymouth Association of Wargamers host their annual wargames show, PAW and this year I am finally going! This also happens to be my first ever wargames show so I am very excited!

Booked the train tickets ready to get up there with a couple of friends and I have been going over the traders and games lists to see what might interest me, traders wise it's an interesting mix but there are a few I would quite like to take a look at in person, also a fair few games to take a look at:

MJ Figures: The original creator of the infamous 15mm "space marines", they still have the 15mm spice range that might be worth a look and their 20mm Sand Wars range looks pretty good, might even be able to pick up one of the sand worms for some 15mm scenarios!

Black Scorpion Miniatures: Great looking range of 28mm resin pirates, fantasy football teams and western mini's. Nicely priced too. They also have a rulebook called Cutlass that's co penned by Gav Thorpe, be nice to take a look.

Angel Barracks: I have been following the development of the sci fi 6mm range from here for quite a while and when I saw they are going to be at PAW I just had to go.  I quite fancy creating a few quick forces to play out using the Fubar 6mm variant and with figures, vehicles and scenery now in the range  it would be rude not to pick some up!

There is also the Ministry of Boardgames to see what's in stock and a hopefully huge bring and buy, still going to check out all the other traders as there may well be some surprises :)

Games wise I am hoping to check out the following tables:

Infinity
Kings of war
8mm sci fi
Battle Cars
Dystopian Wars
Victorian sci fi
GruntZ

and maybe a few others! Plenty there to keep us all occupied for the day.

Taking my camera with me so I should have plenty of pics in a few weeks time.

A Year in Boardgames

Inspired by Martins post over on FireBroadside I thought I would go through my boardgaming over the past year, this includes all the card games and miniature based games I found via boardgamegeek.

When i'm not head down in wargames rulebooks or paint I am usually spending the odd evening relaxing with a boardgame, over the years i've picked up a modest collection and every few months I just need to scratch that itch and pick up a few new releases. So here is my overview of my board gaming last year, keep in mind that due to difficulties in finding a gaming group the majority of these games I play solo.

X-Wing:

OK, while not strictly a boardgame per say, this was one of the biggest releases of last year and I was really excited to get my hands on it (even got a black felt table cover to play over). Unfortunately due to some supply issues I ended up getting my hands on it a couple of months after release which diminished its impact for a me a bit, that and the delay of the second wave releases till late February this year kind of reduced the momentum a little. Saying all that though, it is a great game to play and there is definitely room for strategy and tactics in the mix of cards and gameplay, looking forward to the second wave and getting some bigger games in.

Lord of the rings the card game:

Big glossy FFG box for this card game that can be played solo and it plays really well. You are essentially challenged by the enemy and scenario deck across the middle of the table and need to use your hand and heroes resources to overcome them. It plays a little like MTG (tapping your heroes etc) but every game I played was tense running up to the last few cards. Deck building comes into this as you can mix and match the different focus areas for the heroes and other cards and to be honest there was enough of a game in the starter box to keep me going, i've not needed to pick up any of the expansions yet.


Mage Knight:

The big solo boardgame, considered by many on boardgamegeek to be the ultimate boardgame for solo adventuring I just had to pick this up, it was a reward for finishing my course last year but it's yet to hit the table! Noted for being complex I have to say it does not look too bad, more procedural, if you do this then do that but if you have this do this instead type of play, the rulebooks are big but they look to cover everything and provide enough meat to get into the game, as initially opening the box there does not appear to be a lot of content considering the price. Going to have to devote a week of evenings to this soon and get stuck in but first I really want to try my hand at repainting all the pieces that come with it.


Arkham Horror Expansion:

The original Arkham Horror is hand down my favorite game of all time and i've yet to play it with anyone! I love this game out and spend the evening running a few characters around Arkham, it ticks all the boxes for me and the combination of theme along with all the possible avenues and things you can do in Arkham make it for me, very interactive. I have been a huge fan of Lovecrafts work since an early teenager (I once very foolishly contacted our local library services requesting they track down a copy of the Necronomicon for me!) and this game really does it for me, although after over twenty plays it started to go a little stale so I got my first expansion that tops the enjoyment up for me. I just wish I could ever get the chance to play Mansions of Madness but I can't justify getting hold of a copy to never see it hit the table :(


Dungeon!:

A christmas present from my wife and a complete nostalgia trip for me, I used to own the original Dungeon and Legend of heroes so this was a trip back in time, plus it's one of those games that's so easy to play that i'm hoping I might be able to get my daughter to get a few games in with! (although at 3 I might be pushing it)...





Space hulk - Death Angel the card game:

The original Space Hulk was the first GW game I ever owned, on the first day of a local FLGS opening I went in with my father and was told to pick any game I wanted off the shelf, after a long talk with the shop owner he described this as a good gateway GW game so off I went. Then never won a game, ever. I just found the whole experience so frustrating and my Terminators would die again and again and again, over the years I tried the various computer games but still the same experience, never got past level 1..so I read all the reviews about Death Angel and picked up a copy and it's...ok. I've completed a few missions with it and pull it out now and then for a game but it never really inspires me to keep playing, it's a good game for such a small box and I won't let it go just in case my past experiences are clouding my judgement on this.

King of Tokyo:

Giant monsters battling each other in a game by Richard Garfield? I'm in! Managed to get this one on the table with a few friends and it played out alright, the power up cards never came into any of our games so i'm not sure we were playing it quite right as it seemed to reduce down to a game of attrition but it would be good to get this one back on the table for a few laughs.





Dungeons and Dragons - the boardgame:

A really basic D&D boardgame with a load of minis, I picked this up really cheap on ebay back in the beginning of last year and popped the box a couple of times for some solo plays to get a feel for it. It's generic, simple and just does the job but again it would be good to get this on the table with some friends for some turn your brain off fun.



ASL:

The beast! My own personal Moby Dick. I got hold of the third Starter Kit this year and began playing through the vehicle rules but I can't keep up the kind of commitment ASL demands, I did reread the main ASL books infantry rules and setup a couple of scenarios but then life got in the way and it's hard to dive straight back in. I'm never going to get rid of the ASL kit I have managed to collect over the years, not just because it's so hard to get hold of! but when I can find the time to really get stuck in to the scenarios it really is the most intense, brain burning and rewarding wargame/game I have ever played. Hopefully this year I can invest a few weeks to pick up on the rules again and really get going, be great to at least play through all of the Beyond Valor scenarios!


Gears of war:

Coming in a big Fantasy Flight Games box with a pile of (really nicely detailed) mini's it's a boardgame interpretation of the Gears of War videogame, incidentally GOW was one of the last video games I ever played through before kids arrived! Someone once described Gears of War not as a third person shooter but more of a platform game played in the horizontal third person and the board game pulls that together perfectly. With mechanics such as the cards in your hand also being your life and the stop/start motion of the videogame being recreated it works really well, along with the way that the AI can be changed for each scenario by changing the deck. Plus the minis are begging to be painted! In fact writing about the game makes me want to get it out and go for a spin.


Elder sign:

Being a big fan of the original Arkham Horror I was really excited when Elder Sign was announced and was put forward as an Arkham Horror Lite. Playing the game on the other hand is not quite the same experience, part of Arkham's experience for me is the story that unfolds as you move between locations yet when playing Elder Sign a lot of that is lost on the small card texts and rolling dice. The original manual was a bit vague in some areas but Fantasy Flight have put up a much needed revised one on their website. One thing I keep holding out for though is that this might start seeing some expansions to add more to it.

Phew! Well, there about sums up my year in board gaming and hopefully this year will bring some new gems and surprises! :)

Gunning for the new year

Hey everyone, hope you had a good new years and are geared up to conquer your lead mountains this year!

Really very happy that the last four months of last year are over, had to get a new qualification for work and the study and course/exam time took up all of my spare time, very stressful but so far...this year looks clear! A whole year of wargaming woohooo!!

So... where to start? I managed to finish off my Khador starter box ready to hit the table, kept it simple, base/wash/highlight - just a few more models and I should have a 35 point army ready for some play:

For Christmas I got a copy of Warlord games Black Powder rules, great book and a great set of rules, the ethos and humor in the book makes for a great read and it really inspired me to get moving and put some models down.

 I've started with my first pack of Pendrakens new range of 10mm ACW Union soldiers and got them based ready to play, it was pretty tricky painting these as I was not ready for just how bloody small they were! but after a bit of squinting I got good setup going and managed to knock through these, so much so that i've ordered a few more packs to be getting on with.

Regarding the basing, this seems like a mind field depending on who you ask as everyone has a different viewpoint, so I went for ..... with 6 infantry to a base, it looks ok but might make it more dense with 8/10 to a base. It's not a huge issue for me as i'll be painting up and basing both armies so they should match each other well.

The ACW mini's I have ordered have been the first i've bought in months as I am still on a self imposed  quarantine to try and reduce the backlog of figures I have knocking around but the good news is I have  a good number of blog posts already started for some of the other games I have been playing and working on. So hopefully see you soon!