Studio Miniatures –

A very appealing figure is being pre-viewed by Studio Miniatures at the moment;

http://theminiaturespage.com/news/?id=1110818483

Whilst the figure no doubt will satisfy the remit for ‘Medieval Mayhem’ for medieval re-enactors fighting zombies in the modern world (with a very definite nod to Monty Python) I can see these fitting into many other collections as company for Citadels original Ultimate Adventurer, or simply those who want to play the Knights of Camelot.

The Kickstarter launches in April.  I’m curious to see how much the figures go for.

New Wings of War Kickstarter

The guys behind Wings of War have started a new Kickstarter for the very large bi-plane bombers from the end of the First World War;

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1402889231/wings-of-glory-miniature-game-giants-of-the-sky

They are nice looking models but at the more pricey end so will likely appeal to the fan or the completist.  An interesting add-on are 4 large poster aerial maps which look like they would have a lot of utility across all WoW games and the price for the set didn’t look too bad.

Kings of War – revisited

I had my first game of Kings of War for probably 3 or 4 years.  Derek brought two beautifully painted armies along to the club and he reacquainted me with the rules.

We played using the Undead and Abyssal Dwarves.  I took the Undead.  My army consisted of a;

  • Vampire Lord,
  • 2 Necromancers
  • 2 Skeleton Regiments
  • 2 Skeleton Spearmen Regiments
  • 1 Regiment of Revenant Warriors
  • 1 Regiment of Revenant Knights
  • 1 Regiment of Werewolves

Undead Army 1500 points.aspx    (Easy Army pdf File)

Derek’s army consisted of

  • Abyssal Half-breed Lord
  • Abyssal Magic User (?)
  • 2 units of Abyssal Half-breeds
  • 2 units of Abyssal Golems
  • 2 Units of Slave Orcs
  • 1 unit of Slave Orc Warriors
  • 2 Regiments of Abyssal Dwarf Handgunners
  • 1 Abyssal Dwarf Elites (?)
  • 2 units of Abyssal demon flying things (?)
  • 1 Mortar

Abyssal Dwarf 1500 Points.aspx   (Easy Army pdf File)

The game is incredibly fast, and despite both of us being relative novices the game progressed very quickly without too may hiccups. (apart from the Undead being defeated.)

Our battle probably started at 8pm after all the talking and explanations about troops etc.  The game itself was over and packed away by 10pm, so two hours for introducing a new game and playing to conclusion.  I wouldn’t be surprised if the game itself could be set up and completed within 1 and a half to 2 hours with ease once our familiarity with the rules was improved.

Next game has been arranged for hopefully 3 weeks time.

A useful resource is the Easy Army site which is currently free and provides a great army construction feature for all of the current armies.

http://kow.easyarmy.com

 

For Queen and Company – First Outing

I had the first game of the revised Queen and Company rules with Andy to take them from a purely mathematical and theoretical exercise of drawing stand pieces of card to play with real figures and real dice.

We played a very small encounter, basing on the Battle of Ghaziuddinnagar which took place on May 30th 1857 (and 8th March 2015).  This battle has very few troops and limited terrain so allowed me to test the underlying mechanics without them being hidden behind the too much clutter arising from special rules and the like.

For a first outing using the D10 mechanism I think that it went fairly well.  It did start to highlight some of the assumptions which I’ve been making which do need to be called out in the rules themselves so that new players don’t need to make their own imaginative bridges to fill in the gaps…

True to history the British won by capturing the bridge and guns, but not before the Mutineers had caused an upset or two among the Rifles.

Game play was reasonably fast, though a handful of ten sided dice will be required for each player, preferably mainly in one colour and a few in an alternative colour.

Next steps have been to start to bridge the missing ‘assumptions’ along with clarifying some of the missing areas including target priority and line of sight.

The next version is ready to be pulled apart again, and this time it even has a table of contents (it’s a pity that the first two I printed didn’t actually have page numbers! – well I’ve fixed that now.)

Copies are starting to be distributed and further games arranged.  Once I have confidence that I’ve addressed the major areas the next step is to get it out to other clubs to test under real fire.  If you’re interested just drop me a line.

Flames of War – North Africa

I had my first game of Flames of War at the club for a very long time.  I played against Phil, he took Mid-War Africa Corps whilst I took Mid-War Brits.  Both of us took infantry companies.

We played a scenario which neither of us had attempted before which was Attack/Defend.  Phil had the middle of the table whilst I had the two outer short edges.  I had to capture one of two objectives which were situated within the centre.

Once Phils had deployed his troops (except for one platoon) I deployed my forces and Phil then revealed his last platoon (armoured platoon).  All troops started the game dug in and concealed, which given that most of Phils troops were veterans meant that I stood little chance of hitting anything if I was outside 16 inches.

My fist turn entailed me bringing forward all of the infantry on one table edge along with the supporting matildas.  My other flank force advanced to take position on the hill providing sight to the enemy armoured cars and artillery.  My first turn achieved little more than bailing out one armoured car.

Phil responded and pushed his armour forward against my advancing infantry whilst his armoured cars at the other end attacked my ports on the hill which had failed to retreat in my turn.  His aircraft came in an attacked my matildas.  I lost one portee and a couple of infantry stands to the armour (the infantry became pinned – a state which they were to suffer from for the majority of the remaining game).  My dug in Indians lost one section to the anti-tank fire.  The aircraft achieved very little.

IMG_20150304_204403

Turn 2

My second turn saw the armoured cars succumb to my portees which did managed to ‘tip-and-run’ back behind the hill this time.  My machine gunners advanced towards the enemy lines whilst on the other flank my infantry continued to advance with the Matildas.  We removed a couple of light guns and pinned an infantry platoon.

Phil again brought in his aircraft and this time tackled the portees., but to little effect.  His armour continued their advance on my left force, again hitting my infantry and attempting to address the matildas (to no avail).  His armoured cars made a mad dash towards my mortars but failed to achieve much against the dug-in troops.  He had now brought up his mobile artillery to help out.  His dug-in infantry opened up on my advancing infantry platoon and removed a couple of bases and pinned them.

IMG_20150304_204411

Turn 3

My Matildas and infantry unpinned and continued their advance towards the nearest dug-in enemy infantry.  My artillery and mortars offered support and a couple more bases were removed keeping the unit pinned.  My portees meanwhile sought out Phils mobile artillery and managed to double bail one of them which then failed its moral test and was destroyed.

On Phils turn he brought his artillery to bear and destroyed one of the Matildas.  His armour continued to advance around my infantry whilst targeting the other Matildas but achieved little.  His armoured cars rushed back to support his ailing infantry before I over-ran them.

Turn 4

I threw my Matildas and infantry platoon forward to assault the platoon holding the nearest objective.  My other infantry finally unpinned and attempted to assault the German armour around them, but this time failed their moral test to assault.

My machine guns, mortars, and artillery lay in fire to support keeping the enemy around the objective pinned.  My Matildas went in and removed some infantry but unfortunately they passed their moral and assaulted back and succeeded in removing a second tank.  I then failed my moral test to assault back, then again failed the moral test to keep the tank in the game.  My infantry quickly assaulted and took the position.  Now all they had to do was hold onto it for one turn….

Phil threw everything at the infantry holding the objective who valiantly tried to hold.  Most of his shots missed so he didn’t pin the unit.  Eventually he threw in the armoured cars for the assault.  The combat went back and forward with him removing a base at a time.  Unfortunately I was unable to successfully his and damage his cars and failed a moral test (even with British Bulldog and a C-In-C) and I was beaten off.  Given that I didn’t have any further troops which could effectively try and take either of the objectives Phil was the winner,

All in all a great game.  There were a lot of rules which I had forgotten, (and there are still rules which wind me up) but it was great seeing the troops back on the table after so long.  In our club there has been a real dearth of 15mm WW2 games over the last year, some do get okayed occasionally but nothing to the extent they were a few years ago.  Maybe the campaigns proposed later in the year will change this.

Cheap D10 Dice

I just received the first batch of code from a Hong Kong company selling cheap dice.

They have ten D10 dice for £1.50 (or there abouts) inclusive of postage.  There do a range of colours (all gem), including yellow, green, orange, blue, purple, green, and red.

The first dice arrived in a little under 10 days.

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/7-Color-10X-D10-Ten-Sided-Gem-Dice-for-RPG-Dungeons-Dragons-Games-D-D-Die-/261751111788?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_3&var=&hash=item3cf195006c