Thursday 28 February 2013

Overlord 2013 - Abingdon



Well its that time of the year. The first show! It should have been Cavalier but unfortunately, yet again Her Majesty and her Generals had me running around like a proper soldier, defending things!

Anyhoo Overlord it is then, cant wait as its always a bit nostalgic going back to that part of the country as I served at Dalton Barracks in Abingdon for a few years (but spent most of it out in Bosnia)

So if any off you wonderful Bloggers that I have met or not, are going, I will mostly be hanging around talking to Karl at the Crooked Dice stand.

Hope to see you there.

For details of the show see this link: OVERLORD 2013

Monday 25 February 2013

Tor Gaming - Relics - Britanan Force Update

I have just completed my Britanan Force Update for February. It consists of 6 x Highlanders @ 17pts each, making this nice little unit 102pts.

Just to clarify again, back in December, Gavin from Tor Gaming issued on the forum a paint along with Gav challenge, where you would would paint a 400pt force from either Britanan (Georgian Army Puppets) Nuem (Sadistic pain loving stunted dwarves) Vaetir (Evil psycho faeries) and Orcnar (Big hulking earthborn brutes)

So this is the third monthly instalment, with my force so far consisiting of:

1 x Arcanum Guard (Spell casting commander) 50pts
3 x Grenadiers 66pts
4 x Light Dragoons 48pts
6 x Troopers 42pts
6 x Highlanders 102pts

Total: 308

March will see my last unit of six Troopers, a Company Sergant Major and an Independant Marksman for total 101pts

Making my four month Force a Total of 409pts (only nine points over, not bad going methinks)

Anyway pics!

Highlanders

Whole force so far

Thursday 14 February 2013

Knight Models - Batman Miniatures Game - English Rules

 
New English Rules for Knight Models new Batman Miniatures game have now be released on the good old Tinterweb.
You can find the relevant rules/scenarios and traits bits below. Click on the links below the pics to take you to the PDF goodies.

 
 
 
 
 
So there you have it. Some great rules and additional bits and pieces to go along with the very nice models. I am just waiting on my Joker and Penguin crews with additional minions!!
 


Monday 11 February 2013

Warmachine - Cygnar update

A very fruitful weekend, otherwise know as the weather was awful and even the dog didnt want to go out, resulted in a few more additions to my growing Warmachine Cygnar forces.

First up are two Warcasters - Nemo Prime and Captain Victoria Haley Prime (Alternate Sculpt)

Nemo
Haley
 Two Heavy Warjacks - Centurion and Defender

Centurion

Defender
 
Two Light Warjacks - Sentinel and Hunter

Sentinel

Hunter
And finally Alternate Sculpt - Eyris Prime Mercenary Solo

Eyris
I have Units of Sword Knights, Long Gunners and Arcane Tempest Gun Mages in the Process of painting now.

Friday 8 February 2013

Mongoose Publishing - Rogue Trooper Kickstarter


The new Rogue Trooper Kickstarter has begun. Rogue Trooper features a titanic clash between the Southers and the Norts, on a once paradise world, Nu-Earth. Years of war and the unrestricted use of chemical and biological weapons has resulted in the landscape being turned into a blighted ruin - but still the armies fight amidst the ruins and posioned air, each deploying more troops and secret weapons in a bid to win the strategically important planet.
You can download the first draft of the rulebook here This rulebook will always be free as a downloadable PDF, and will be constantly updated with the latest rules and models throughout the Kickstarter process and beyond.



Pledging for Rogue Trooper

In an effort to keep everything as simple as possible while allowing you to construct the armies you wish, most of the pledge levels are based around a number of 'sets.' Typically, a set will include a single squad of around 8 models, depending on their size and complexity. However, some of the really big and complex models, such as the large armoured vehicles, will count as two or more sets - this will be stated clearly for each set if they are unlocked by stretch goals and Mongoose will summarise all the sets available as they become unlocked, giving you a One-Stop Guide to the (hopefully) growing Rogue Trooper range.

Some of you may have noticed as well that the Blog Name has changed. I was going to save this until it's first anniversay but just couldnt resist doing it now.

Quick update:

Starter total achieved in under 3 hours!!!

Wednesday 6 February 2013

Bloodbowl Match Atrocity Exhibition vs Tailslammers

Well we come to the final group stage match before the Semi Finals and Atrocity (who have already qualified) were against the Multi Trophy winning Tailslammers. A Skaven team of much renown that had been around for about four seasons and to date hosted the highest level player Arcani Spark, a legendary Gutter Runner that had been the target of many teams over the years and had also the highest bounty placed upon his head.

This extreamly fast and agile Runner although being very slight and even less armoured than his other team-mates had so far alluded all efforts to kill or maim him.

The teams set up in the nice weather and you could here the loud moans from the numerous undead fans in the stadium.

The Tailslammers although being a highly skilled team, had brought along Fezglitch, a rather unpleasant rat who had spent too much time in the Underworld Creepers socialising with Goblins and had picked up a nasty habit of bringing a ball and chain with him!

The teams set up and Atrocity kicked the ball. Atrocity's coach shouts that just in case, this half they could take an extra chance (Re-Roll) The Rats retrieve the ball and start their drive, the Rat Ogre quickly calls a blitz and slams into a Mummy. Using all his frenzied might the Rat Ogre managed to CAS the Mummy!! The Mummy being an ancient undead being is not easily taken out and regenerates to the reserves.

Atrocity respond and a Zombie puts the hurt on a poor Line-Rat causing a CAS. A Ghoul leaps over the line of defending Rats and puts a blitz on the Gutter Runner holding the ball. Another CAS and the ball pops free. Atrocitys second Ghoul moves in, collects the ball and tries a throw to a safe Zombie but fumbles the pass. Tailslammers Gutter Runners make plays all over the pitch and Atrocity's slow players just cant match them, leaving Arcani Spark to run in to score TOUCHDOWN 0-1.

After the restart Atrocity has a Zombie sent off for a sneaky foul on the Fezglitch but it was worth it to KO the ball swinging maniac (not that he was doing much damage) then a Mummy puts a blitz on the Rat Ogre and KO's him. The Ghouls run the ball and quickly equalise TOUCHDOWN 1-1. The teams set up again and the Rat Ogre who recovered straight away takes out a Zombie CAS who does not regenerate. Tailslammers Thrower moves into postion ready to pump a pass to the waiting runners but gets caught in the back field by marauding Ghouls who manage to blitz him, get the ball free and leap away to score just at the death of the first half TOUCHDOWN 2-1. Fezglitch sent off!

Second Half and the teams take to the pitch. The Rats realing from Atrocitys fast lethal comeback girded themsleves for a second half onslaught. The ball is kicked and the undead fans throw a rock into the Tailslammers lines. The rock bounces of the temple of a poor Gutter Runner and its taken off the pitch Badly Hurt.

Atrocitys Mummy on the line teams up with some Zombies and puts a Multiple Block on a few Line Rats and gets a CAS. A Zombie tries to foul Arcani Spark but only stuns him but is sent of in the process. More fouls see the Rat Ogre KO'd and a Mummy blitzes a Stormvermin and causes a CAS. Arcani Spark still stunned is again ganged up by hordes of Zombies and then Atrocitys Star Wight fouls him and KILLS him MWHAHAHAHAHAH the Tailslammers Apothacary had already used up his healing herbs on a previous Gutter Runner so Atrocitys Necromancer grinned evil like and raised the unfortunate Spark into a Zombie parody of the once Legendary Rat. Murmmers around the stadium turned to glorious howls as the fans realised the importance of that foul! the ABC wizarding network sent out arcane messages around the Old World pronoucing Sparks Death.

With only 3 Tailslammer players left on the pitch, Atrocitys Ghoul strolled into the endzone to score TOUCHDOWN 3-1.

The game ended with the undead jubilant and the Rats mouring their loss. With the experience of watching so many Gutter Runners and Ghouls dancing all over the pitch one of Atrocitys Mummys managed to learn how to Dodge and a zombie toughened up enough to manage Block.

So Atrocity nearly destroyed the Rats. I was initially concerned about this game as I wondered how I would contain 4 Blodging Gutter Runners and a Skilled up Skaven Thrower. Fortunately for me he scored first really quickly allowing me time to equalise and then I managed to get a hit and a lucky break for the turnover score.

The second half was just me being evil as I had eight turns to ruin him as I did not really need to score again, just stop him managing to recover the ball.

Bring on the SEMI-FINALS!!!

Tuesday 5 February 2013

Sedition Wars - Unboxing


I recently received my copy of Studio Mcvey/Cool Mini or Not boardgame - Sedition Wars.
This post deals with the what comes in the main boxed game.  As I pledged for the Biohazard set I am still waiting on all the extras which will be fothcoming in March hopefully. The Biohazard extras will also be getting their own post.


Those of you who've been following this game from developement to fruition will probably have already checked out numerous blogs and video reviews of the game and it's unboxing and will already be aware of the sad state of the packaging the game arrived in. Those of you who are not, well this photo might be a surprise.

 
Thankfully nothing was damaged apart from my expectations. Getting everything out and dusting out the polystyrene produced quiet a nice pile of goods.
The back of the box, which gives a good list of the contents is sadly not repeated elsewhere. It should making checking the box contents a bit easier than having to either empty the box out completely or lifting it over your head.
 
 
Opening up the box reveals the cardboard tiles at the top of the box. Here's the two counter sheets. Note the train car at the bottom.

 


As you can see there are rather a lot of counters, I have shown here one of each available, all punched out very cleanly, without tearing the backing. The one issue I have is that the cutting die hasn't quite lined up spot on on one sheet, leaving some of the printing a little off centre. 




Underneath these was the rulebook, 58 A4 pages of rules, a bit of background and 9 scenarios.
 
 
 


Five double sided map tiles were also included. The boards are just short of 14" a side, individual, and well very well printed although some of the delination lines are a little dark.



 
 
Now onto the rest of the box contents. A set of eight black dice, the special coloured faction dice, green nano tokens, red infection and blue shield tokens, the stat cards for every miniature and the scenic bases.
 
 
 
 
These are the Infection (Red) and Shield (Blue) markers. They clip onto the 25mm bases thanks to the two sockets on the underside of the bases, and the studs on the markers (which can be seen clearly on the blue ones). They stack as many times as you want, as illustrated in the picture, but are a bit of a pain to get apart. The base at the bottom right has an infection marker placed under it, which is quiet hard to tell from above, but should stand out well enough during game-play. 
 
These are the 30 nano tokens, with the strain logo cast on them.
 
The small bases are 25mm, the same size as most games providers 25mm bases, with straight sides. There's a selection of detailing. The 50mm bases all share the same design.
 

Each model has it's own card. These are double sided, playing card size, and include the stats, wound track, and abilities for each model.
The Vangaurd (Human good guys) get the majority of multipart miniatures. Working left to right, we have Barker Zosa (with parts for the Azriel Heavy Fusion Lance, or the under-slung Lucifer Plasma Thrower), Corpsman Morgan Vade, Hurley (the Drone), Akosha Nama, and Captain Kara Black.



Here they are in more detail. Along with the weapon sprue, which working clockwise from top right goes: Bouncer (for the Grenadier) Azriel Fusion Lance (for the Lancer/Elite Samaritan) Reaver arm and finally the Reaver itself.
Now to the Strain forces. Below are the Phase 1 Necro forms (first 3 lines) Phase 2 Stalker Exoforms (fourth line) and finally Phase 3 Quasimodo (Last line)
 
Below are two Scyth Witches, two Brimstones, and a Cthonian.
 
 
And lastly we have the Grendlr.
 

As you can see, the Grendlr has the most parts to make it whole. Unfortunately this also means you will need a small ammount of hobby knowledge to complete it. Especially as the two main body parts do not go together properly. You will need to soak one half of the body in hot water and then mould this to the second part. A full tutorial on how to achive this, is posted up on the Studio McVey site.
 
 

As you can see from this completed miniature, (picture taken from Studio Mcvey site) its well worth the effort.

My other complaint would be the amount of construction required to make the game playable. While not an issue for most, anyone without experience has a lot to tackle before playing the game. While you dont need to remove everything from the sprue, you've still got to glue models to bases, and then guns, and then the character models. This is hindered by the box not coming with full assembly instructions, an annoying omission, or a parts list, which makes it hard to know what you should have in each bag/for each model. However Studio McVey blog now has all these details on.

All in all it feels like a very high quality product, and I'm looking forward to the rest of my wave 2 models and the extra downloadable campaigns/scenarios.
I only had one issue with my set. I was missing the Limited Edition Resin Kara miniature. But apparently lots of other people have also had theirs ommited and it's now coming in the wave 2 stuff.

I'm am impressed with the Vangaurd and Strain models.The detail is very nice and crisp, the character models all have their own identities, and the quality is great, for the most part.

There are two minor complaints. The first is that although most mould lines run fairly sensibly, you occasionally come across one going down the faceplate! They're not quite easily cleaned as GW's models as they are made from the same restic (resin plastic) as Privateer Press stuff, and it has to be said that for the most part the mould lines are fairly unobtrusive.