Never being Boring

Hello people,

So, after the qualified triumph of Yavin / Expo as a bit of variety I've been dabbling elsewhere, which is allowed under my self imposed gaming restrictions as I haven't spent any money. Nor will I.....honest :)

Nigel recently picked up Warhammer Quest: Silver Tower and has played a couple of games down at the club. I jumped in for a game last week and it short was really impressed. There are plenty of reviews out there, here's Beasts of War two pence, so the main contribution that I have to make is that it FEELS right. Simple mechanics, depth to tactics plus a need for co-operative play versus the random event studded scenarios.

Production quality is as high as you would expect and the figures are gorgeous, the otherwise overpowered grim-dark fitting very nicely, though I still can't get on with the Celestians. As much as anything the game actually fits with, what I remember as, it's original ethos. It's not often that this gets said but WELL DONE GW. Ahem,....

All of this is just as well as GameZone's HeroQuest 25 version is apparently still under production as well as 18 months overdue. What seems to be lacking is any form of recognition of that issue. Gears will grind slowly I'm sure...... (grumble)

Speaking of slow grinding gears, it's almost like it's deliberate, Rich ran me through TANKS, Battlefront's new game commanding a tank platoon. It looks like a kind of Flames of War lite but it's actually a boardgame, just on a 3x3 tabletop.

Nothing wrong with that but maybe you should make that plain. Rich referred to it as WWII X-Wing which isn't too far off as you have a 100 point platoon of variously pointed tanks that you can equip with Ace abilities and various other crew, equipment and ammunition. Movement is template based, combat decided by attack an defense dice with critical damage causing extra effects. Topping everything off is a numerically rated initiative system.

So WWII X-Wing. It's good fun, once again simple mechanics allowing depth of tactics. As much as there's the room to be gamey genuine tank platoon tactics still have thier place.

Both good games in thier own rights, there's plenty of them out there. Meanwhile I'm slowly getting back to some casual flying,Dengar to the max! Elsewhere it's an entire weekend of Netrunner on the cards, ahem, with Dark Sphere's Regional Saturday and Gaurdians of Tyr Sunday. It's been a while since I've played regularly so I've got a bit of learning curve to re-climb.

Happy Days :)

Marked for Death?

Hello people,

As shocking as it might be I've actually completed a hobby project that doesn't involve X-Wing!

Behold 24 custom made pin markers for my Brit Commandos and yes I do indeed expect to get shot that much ;) As I'm sure you've noticed they're little piles of British helmets which were spare on the sprue as the vast majority of my "geezers" are instead wearing thier fabled green berets. 

The whole idea just fitted well. Six Painting Points for the lot and they should see some action tomorrow night against Damien's rank and file tommies. A "training exercise" apparently though I've never had a problem with that sort of thing. I'm sure I can be Brandenburgers if push comes to shove ;)

I've also picked up a ticket for Salute on Saturday. I wasn't going to go as there's nothing you can't order online these days and between entry, travel and refreshments it's far from a cheap day out these days. 

However, Shaun is going anyway to see several men about figures and ill catch up with a load of old gaming and GW cronies that I wouldn't see otherwise. Chuck in the chance to play a couple of games of To the Strongest with the author and I was persuaded.

Many moons ago shows were a standard monthly event but far rarer these days. Even buying my ticket has gone virtual with a VR bar-code sent direct to my phone.

I do NEED some replacement Order Dice and will definitely browse KR while I noticed the other day that Crooked Dice will be releasing some cleverly named classic cylons. Otherwise we'll see what happens though I fancy a decent squizz at the painting competition and continue to live in hope of winning the prize draw.

Now that I'm going boots on the ground I'm determined to get the best from the day. Possibly a lesson in there somewhere :p

Meanwhile some of the Pulp City has found an undercoat and the smoke markers need some consideration.

Let's see what Saturday brings!

Bonus Points

Hello people,

As a result of twisting my ankle playing football yesterday I've been forced to have today off sick. It's been horrible.........obviously!!

The bonus, other than two posts in one day, has been an unexpected glut of brush-time, ankle appropriately raised. As such I've finished off painting A, B and D Sections for my Commandos as well as the vaguely converted flamethrower.

I've obviously got a few spares knocking about but that's pretty much about 1200 pts now so plenty for a while. Besides I'm not sure I want to paint another Commando backpack for a little while.

I also specifically use the phrase painted as I still need to put the the shoulder patch transfers onto all of these and the remaining weapons teams, about 40 figures in all. A fun filled night at some point :) Better photos as well!

Meanwhile that's 30 figures for a whopping 60 Painting Points. I still need to sort out the pin markers as well as smoke templates so not quite a completed project just yet but still a big lump of painting off workstation.

Anyway, back to work tomorrow and then the club :)

Maintaining Standards

Hello people,

A potentially oblique reference to a musing that came to me in a similarly oblique manner.

Over the weekend I've had some brush-time with the last 30 rank and file Commandos, representing every last figure that currently have built for the project. In short I've been block painting like the pedant that so many of us are to have them all basecoated and washed.

Having recently read an article, Carmen's Painty Fun Time, about the various standards of painting that we apply to such projects it occurred that if I based them all at this stage they'd look good enough to be deployed as a fully painted army while I finished off the highlight work at my relative leisure.

This also set me to thinking that the whole subject around standard of painted figures / armies is a highly subjective one.

So tracking my own thought processes;

- When starting a new project I won't wait until everything is painted before putting it on the table. I will make sure that it's built to the point of WYSIWYG but otherwise I'm all good with that. An undercoat will make me feel more comfortable though.

- On the gamer / painter balance I'd say I'm probably bang in the middle. Playing with a force that I'm currently painting motivates me to get stuck in with the brush.

- My minimum painting standard for all my figures involves based coat, wash and a couple of layers of highlight.

- I still paint figures as individuals though I'll take a bit more time and effort with a skirmish force than a horde. It does seem that most skirmish and command figures require and allow more painting of them. I still paint by batch when I need to upto a dozen or so at a time.

I suppose, as with so many aspects of the hobby, all of this is subjective to the individual. Back when I worked for GW  we'd encourage a three colour minimum to count as painted. For myself it's whatever the figure requires. I do find that it tend to make more conscious effort with historical figures for a flatter more realistic finish. I suppose that's probably a reaction to my Sci-Fi / Fantasy upbringing.

Anyway another 30 Commandos to a "tabletop standard"....just not quite MY tabletop standard, at least not just yet :)

Illuminations - prt 2

Hello people,

I don't really do un-boxing, as popular as they are amongst so many of my fellow bloggers, but this once is a little different, vaguely review-ish, and hopefully of some actual purpose / value ;)

So my portable / stowable lightbox kit turned up at the end of last week and I've finally had the chance to have a play. Not a lot of instructions but then it is all rather self explanatory. The stowed pack is only a little bigger than an average laptop bag and no thicker, it's definitely as advertised in that regard. The only fly in the ointment is that you you need two 2-pin converter plugs, one for each lamp, which I hadn't realised.

Setup is quick and easy with velcro holding everythign in place securely including the backing cloth. I did find the camera stann too tall for figures, no great surprise, so went with my trusty bendy mini version that allows me to get the camera down to figure level. With only one lamp I also used my painting daylamp, which seemed sensible.

Overall, before even taking a single shot I'm pretty pleased. This has been far less effort than my previous rather jury-rigged setups and is giving me far more confidence of a much better set of photos.  

First test-shot comparison was the recently completed M3 Halftrack, both taken with the proper camera, and it feels like I can already see the rather huge difference. So much more depth of colour and definition.

However moving on to the PIAT and Sniper teams here are the before and after shots though you should bear in mind that thsi is also phone camera vs camera and I'm sure I can do better with the lightbox focus with a bit of practice.

Yeah, not so great with the focus but once I get that sorted everything will be golden. Think I finally have this one sorted, after several efforts. All good :)

Meanwhile A and B sections are base-coated and washed. As is so often the case I've left all the rankers to last on this project but it's gettign there. After this one I will not be looking to paint too many more Commando backpacks for a while :)

Illuminations - prt 1

Hello people,

Bit of a quick one and somewhat interlinked so stay with me. I've finished off, bar the transfer shoulder patches, the last of my Commando support teams, specifically the Sniper, PIAT and 2" Light Mortar teams, for another 10 Painting Points.

The photos are taken by and uploaded from my phone i.e. quick, lazy and acceptable. I've tried to sort out a proper set-up a few times all of which have been jury rigged and fairly high maintenance. That's until I came across this on Amazon

The lightbox is a 16" cube which should be plenty for TOYs. I've already got an adjustable camera stand but will definitely give this one a go. Apparently the lights can get a bit hot but everything folds away into a carry case which seems like a big selling point for me.Once it rocks up and I manage to sort it out I'll take a few test shots of the same figures as a compare and contrast.

Anyway, the boys. As always it's a grim run of rank and file left to do!

Wagon ROLL!!

Afternoon all,

As threatened the Bank Holiday has allowed some bonus brush-time whcih I've put to decent use finishing off an M3 Halftrack that I got for my birthday some weeks ago. Built and painted to go with my Commandos I've head-swapped the driver and applied the relevant stowage.

Another enjoyable paint and build it's certainly a sturdy and well thought out kit with plenty of options. Almost a bit of a shame to spoil my Brit only list but it comes in cheaper than a pair of Bren Carriers with capacity for an extra two chaps, which allows for D Section (Assault) to pick up another 2 troopers. Bit of a no brainer really.

Anyway, another 4 Painting Points and I really need to get down to the Infantry squads!

Nut and BOLTs

Evening All,

This week I have mainly been playing Bolt Action, thinking about Bolt Action variants and playing what we thought was a Bolt Action variant.....but isn't!!

Tuesday night down at Enfield Gamers myself and Ian got in a game of BA with my Commandos taking on his French at the Top Secret scenario. Taking on a more numerous opponent with a pair of artillery pieces, armoured car and light tank was something a bit new so I concentrated on going after the objective.
 Keeping back the carriers for a couple of turns I was forced to make a flanking run with them by Turn 3 but did pretty well with them. Even though they got tonked eventually they let Ponsonby-Smyth almost make off with the objective only to get sniped at which point Spatchcock grabbed it and ran. Rolling for the 7th turn he didn't quite get the chance to make it away but very close.

To represent the objective we used a Cthulu dice and quickly decided that it was the Necronomicon! This set me to thinking about how easy it would be to twist BA to Wierd War II. Flicking the net the other day I stumbled across a blog detailing a BA version of the Red Skull so pretty easily would be the answer.......interesting!! Possibly a refocus for St Peytersburg??

Moving on, myself and Rich have been trying out the Alpha ruleset for Gates of Anatares. It's taken a few games to start getting a grip on how the game is and more importantly what it isn't. Despite various rumours it's not a return to early versions of 40K and more pertinently it's REALLY not BA re-skinned!

Other than sharing the Order Dice and Pin system a lot of the core mechanics are substantially different.
As an example being in area cover doesn't make it harder to hit the target but makes them more difficult to kill, i.e gives a cover save bolted on top of "toughness" and armour (resilience+armour+cover).
The effect is that you can still hit, and crucially pin, with less chance of a kill aka suppression of the target.

It took me a while to catch on to this whilst also dealing with a D10 system, drones and exotic equipment all within an Alpha ruleset. For a while I was thinking that it was a simple mechanic made fiddly but that was to misunderstand.
The other thing to GoA shares with BA is the necessity to use proper tactics and make co-ordinated use of your force!

Same again Tuesday night!

Wherever I May Roam!!

Heard that one on the radio yesterday and it's still rattling around :)

Brace yourself people, it's a post with newly painted figures!! Yes, I know it's been a while but I finally got a full afternoon in with the brush and finished off the armoured support for my Commandos.

I've enjoyed these and making the effort to do a bit of conversion work and add plenty of detail. I've chucked on a reasonable amount of "liberated" stowage and made the investment in a number of Warlord's decal sheets to mark them up as belonging to the 10th Black Bull Division. It's also been nice to work through the stages of paint, decal, shade, highlight and weather. It's been a while since I've put in this sort of effort, which WWII lends itself to so well.

So an AEC Armoured Car, two Bren Carriers and the Wasp. Working out the Painting Points I reckon an average of four a piece is fair for a total of 16.

While I was playing with the decals I put the shoulder patches on Ponsonby-Smyth and Spatchcock and re-shot them and Polyp as I've finally found the camera charger.

Kind of on a roll.....

 

 

Big-ish Day Out

Hello people,

As previously mentioned I headed down to Tabletop Nation on Sunday to take part in their ST:AW Tholian Web event. Armed with my previous experience I took almost exactly the same fleet and trusted to that most fickle of mistresses; Luck!!

First off and most importantly I had three good games against three good opponents so results were less relevant to the enjoyment of my day.

First game was against pure Cardassians whose lack of manoeuvrability hurt them almost as badly as Barrage of Fire. Her Ladyship also smiled on me at every critical juncture. A whitewash followed and a place on the top table (an unusual event!)

Klingons on the starboard bow!

Second game was against Mr C's pure Romulan cloaked mine fleet which dominated the game from Turn 1 (the mines that is). Despite redeploying via Echo Shift I eventually had to turn into the mines to take on his big boys. Her Ladyship smiled again and I managed to do considerable damage before dieing a good death, several turns later than is predicted.

The Thoian Web closes!

Third game was against a pair of Borg spheres captained by the Borg Queen and Picard. They flew in such tight formation I thought they were holding hands! ;) Again I manoeuvred by Echo Shift but eventually had to turn in. Martok and his glass gun (Ch'Tang with Barrage)

died an inglorious death without firing and it was all downhill from there. I've worked out that you need to engage Borg at range but the scenario didn't allow. 

Star-crossed Lovers??

All in all a good showing as the scenario and Her Ladyship favoured me initially only to grow weary of my efforts and cast me aside ;) I did however manage to take Most Sporting with maximum points which is an event win all of itself, with Tholian OP prize attached.

The other bonus was that playing without Resources meant getting back to the core game which was particularly refreshing :)

To round out the day myself and Rich got in a game of Bolt Action playing envelopment, Commandos defending Estonian SS. Playing Envelopment the game became all about transports as I ran out my Bren carriers for the first time. With the updated rules I can run a pair as effectively one transport. Once we'd worked out the finer points in got a seven strong D Section, Lt Ponsonby-Smyth and the Flame thrower :)

In short I deployed badly (again) allowing Rich too many holes to run his jackboots at. First turn saw my Action Dice out of the bag first which allowed the SS to make their Hanomag charge up the centre, much to my chagrin.

Thankfully Her Ladyship returned at this point as the mortar team once again scored a direct hit and brewed it up, much to my relief! This did have the result of effectively catapulting a squad of Panzer-Grens up the table who duly scampered through. After that steady application of a mobile D Section mopped up ably assisted by the AEC, with their first PzIII kill, and that mortar again. 

As the vehicle thing is new to me I made some mistakes with manoeuvre but learnt hugely from them. A solid win, plenty learnt and damn good fun :) 

Really must decorate the mortar team, or at least finish painting them! :)

Hanomag-Gumball 1945

Mortar strikes.......again!

Herr Flamm strikes back.......again!

Shoot, Scoot and Shoot again :)

Little Donkey

Hello people,

Been a bit quiet on here I know mainly as I had last week on holiday down in Newquay which was gorgeous. Brace yourself for any number of catch up posts and possibly the odd landscape shot :)

Tuesday night was back to business down at Enfield Gamers as the third round of the Bolt Action league saw us hit 1000 points with a fan written scenario. 

Taking on Rich J's Estonian SS I knew I was in for one of our typically bloody affairs. I was also less than happy with my list as a good few games and browsing of Warlord's forums had produced a few themes. Many small units seems to be the meta as the ability to dish out pins is highly prized.

It's not a meta I want to join at sacrificing any semblance of historical accuracy but I've become aware of the better choices within the lists. I hadn't really taken too many!

Rich's force was small, elite and infantry light maxing out manoeuvre and concentrated firepower at the expense of numbers. He applied it well while I, unfortunately, played like bit of a donkey...a donkey that the dice turned against!

A lot of things went right for the SS as he crept up and then went all out his truck-borne assault force of flamethrower, captain and assault rifles. From the comfort of my farmhouse I shot the truck to pieces only to loose the whole of A Section to the flamethrower. Meanwhile B Section's flank assault has stalled under an air-strike while I let D Section get caught in no mans land and pinned to buggery.

The important phrases there is that "I let"! Throughout the game I made a number of poor tactical decisions. Several times I made a good tactical choice to then not implement it. It's said that you make you're own luck and I made mine somewhat shoddily!

Lessons of the game;

- I SHOULD have landed smoke on the Stug rather than allow it free reign to dominate.

- I SHOULD have had the sniper on Ambush to target the flamethrower.

- I SHOULD have moved the PIAT up to support B section.

- I SHOULD have ignored the truck and then shot the snot out of the flamethrower from Ambush as he debussed.

I did however do SOME things decently but my game didn't have too much edge to it. BA is a good game with simple mechanics but does demand decent tactics over buckets of dice to bully the odds into submission.

Already knowing that the list was likely to change we had the usual post game chat at which point advancing under smoke was discussed along with the importance of transports. Air Observers also came up!

Most of all, despite it being one of THOSE games, I still enjoyed playing the game. I've also taken delivery of an Engineer Section :)