This one time...at band camp.

That should set the mood nicely.

I am in a light hearted mood this evenig. As such after replying to a thread on Aftermath gamings fb page...i got to thinking about thos funny moments in wargaming. You know...dice betrayal, panic in the ranks and just the outright chaos of war. It all has it's moment and at times it can be just hilarious for the unfortunate victim aswell as the victor.

Be it the epic moment that valiant and soon to be lunch, last marine. Heriocly thrusts his bayonet into the eye of a hive tyrant ending the menace once and for all.
Or the fatal misfire that takes out half a battle line and turns the tide of warfare.

I have been on the end of many of these moments. But the most epic and by a country mile...the most fun...well that needs a story of proportion.

My unluckiest roll was also part of the best game i ever had and greatest moral victory.
Back in 03 i was working at GW Milton Keynes. My manager 'dan luke' was a massive advocate of narrated games. So he sets a battle between my pure deathwing army and another full timers iron warriors force.
I deploy my entire force within a fortress. Terminators manning the walls, dreadnoughts at the gates. Across the board a massive hoard of iron warriors prepares to lay siege.

Just before the first turn roll off, my manager says ' Reports of a dark angel strike cruiser breaching the blockade. Iron warriors moving to intercept'. Translated this meant a dice off as the 2 titanic ships engaged in combat. The victor would provide an orbital bombardment ever turn of the game. Dice clattered and the smoking trail of a iron warriors ship streaked through the sky. Victory to the dark angels.
But what happened next was the moment of misfortune. With a wry grin my manager announced that i would have to roll for scatter from a point decided by my opponent, to see where the burning wreck impacted. Yup you guessed it smack bang on top of the fortress. Not happy with the devastation to the walls. It then slid half a board length along the walls impacting on every single terminator manning the wall.

Ah its only 35 2+ armour saves eh...easy.

21 dead terminators later and i looked on at the impending doom.

Those 2 dreadnoughts and 14 remaining terminators stood alone against the entire iron warrior hoard for the full 6 turns of the game. Falling only when the dice once again betrayed me and granted a 7th turn....what of the orbital bombardment. It blew up some trees and nesting field mice. But never even scratched the paintwork on a single iron warrior.

That game will always stick in my mind. For the choas caused by the crash, but also for the heroic stand of a few warriors against a force that outnumbered them by an easy 6-1 ratio.

So that's mine...whats yours? Come along and share the story, no matter what the game.

To infinity and beyond

Hey all and welcome back to the land of random musings.

Well i am settling into a week off work and productive it looks to be.
Last week i finished up the main painting on a Myrmidon Hacker from the Aleph Steel Phalanx box set for Infinity the game.

I am looking forward to trying the game out and will give my own thoughts on it in due course. For now it looks positive, has gorgeous models and a great online community.

So much of our hobby is about fitting the pieces together. Games we enjoy, models we like, settings we can relate into. It's also about those little things aswell. Inspirations, be they movie related or personal experiences. Alongside that is the desire to see the game come to life. Usually this is achieved through awesome tabletops, beautiful models and tied in bases.

That is what i think snapped my attention when Infinity came along. I used to love Anime/Manga. You know the stuff, Akira, ghost in the shell, venus wars, dominion tank police. Infinity fitted in there very well, it had the models to match. Scenery, well the world is your oyster for supporting companies and outside sources.


So with all that i took a bit of a punt and i am glad i did.

My scenery.
Well i am about one tenth of the way through painting 2 lots of deadzone scenery. I might not like their restic stuff, but Mantic hit the nail on the head with this stuff. Detailed, loaded onto the sprue and easy enough to arrange.
I have decided on a pale grey scheme with red accents and a dirty industrial grime thats created by thinning black enamel paint and then using cotton buds to remove a good portion of the paint.

Bases.
I ordered some 'trihex' pattern bases from the guys at Antenocitis Workshop. £5 for 12 bases isn't to be sniffed at. They arrived this weekend.
They are beautifully cast, little to no flash and no noticeable resin release agent. Took paint very well and set off my only finished model to a tee!

Models.
Infinity is like Malifaux. The models are amazing. Yes they are somewhat fiddly at times and you want to scream. But for you frustrations you get the nice weighty feel of a metal model, that is highly detailed with very little excess flash. Easy to clean and a challenge to paint up and do justice to.

Putting it all together.
As anyone who knows or follows me will attest. I am a slow painter.....very slow.
So i only have the one finished model, 1 base finished off and 5 walls done of the deadzone stuff.

But here...have a pic or 2...i am proud of her!

I hope you like the model etc.

I will share more of my thoughts on Infinity as i get into the game.

Take care one and all

Of dwarves, visions and white dwarf's

Welcome back to the sometimes frequently and sometimes infrequently updated ramblings of a flu ridden wargamer.

On my own personal hobby front there has been little progress, a week of work and 2 days searching woodland for a missing dog have not allowed much brush time...and now..the flu. Sod off papa nurgle.

So I am sure we have all seen the new dwarf models and the new incarnations of our loved and loathed hobby magazine. But here are my thoughts.

The new dwarves.
I actually like them, i always view dwarves in times of war as stoic, grim warriors. Burdened with the legacy of grudges, empowered by revenge.
To this end i like the new look units and feel they give that feeling a bit more than previous models.
I also love the slayers, i love the idea of psychopathic killing machines, hell bent on revenge and dying the most heroic death they can find, i love the contrast of bright orange hair and the 'come get me if ya think ya ard enuff' attitude, set against the stoic, grim back drop of the ordinary dwarf warrior.

Warhammer Visions.
I already see from twitter, that this will truly be a love or loathe magazine. But i think it depends on what you expect. Smaller and thicker is ok, the price is a shock, but in line with most other glossy mags.
Content takes a step back to assess. It is not supposed to be white dwarf, i think it needs stating.
The pics are fantastic, there's a sizable chunk of paint splatter and some nice looks at other works. The kitbash section is another added bonus.
I am undecided in truth. As a hobby 'supplement' it falls a tad short for the money. As a magazine for inspiration it is packed full of lovely pics of beautiful models and succeeds brilliantly.
I had hoped to see more diversity in the featured armies and that has disappointed me a bit. It's packed full of tyranids, the new shiny army. Which has detracted a bit from the feel of it being a all genres all army affair.
But i will reserve final judgement until it has had a few issues to bed in fully.
For now....mixed feelings, but i am on subscription so have time to see.

White Dwarf Weekly.
This is the chance for gw to go somewhere different.
Adverts...yes but it's kept to the new releases. A little paint splatter on the new releases as well....all good so far. The usual columns from the usual protagonists..still good, but not Jeremy vetok(sp) sad face as i liked his articles and could relate.
Supplementary rules for models...also a real bonus.
Pics are good quality and readers questions/models are a nice touch.
I can see weekly being very much dependant on what army is featured and it's 'no subscription pick up from a store' style is a benefit in allowing this.

Overall.
On issue 1 basis, i prefer wd weekly to visions. But both have there place. I was disappointed with a lack of 'proper' or even close to proper battle report.
I will give each mag a few issues to bed in and truly see what i feel, but i am not gonna rage quit my subscription just yet.

As a dawi player reborn...i of course love the currently weekly a bit more than i probably should !

Of games and gnomes.

Hi to all once again.

An odd few days.

On one hand..i have finished the UCM armour and dropships for Dropzone Commander.
On the other hand, I had a long hard think about my views on GW and came to the conclusion, they are not nearly as bad as net rage makes you think.

I am guilty of being swept up in the mob mentality and raging at GW. But i asked myself why. They got me into wargaming for which i will be forever gratefull. Their prices are in reality in line with most other 'luxury' goods and in most cases offer a lot more for the money.
I freaked out when White Dwarf was announced as changing. But, if the magazine as a whole improves through the weekly/monthly idea, then i will not be sorry. I realised that mostly what got my back up was actually...the fear of the change. White Dwarf had been a feature of hobbying for as long as i could remember.
I joined in the mob march against GW. But you know...it was stupid. After a reality check i looked at it and thought.

GW. Best quality plastics anywhere on the market, most developed background of any game system in existance, For me- easy access stores where i can go to buy my stuff and chat hobby with other like minded people.
Yes it comes at a price, but not as bad as you think when compared to the other providers like PP, Wyrd, Infinity and Avatars of war.

So why do we hate on GW so much....i think much like in the service industry, it's all down to their visability. They are the big dog, with the stores, the web presence and the long long history. They are easy to hate on because they do make mistakes. Yes some of their actions regarding online stores could be questioned, but they are a business protecting themselves. Yes their hammering of anyone crossing into their IP is harsh, but they have a world to protect and in reality would you want every tom dick and harry robbing your stuff?.

So with all that in mind I would like to say, i for one do actually support GW, i may not always approve of their moves. But i am not going to jump on the forum/twitter bandwagon of GW hate anymore.



Now with that all said...lets show off some goodies!

Dropzone Commander UCM

Family Portrait

Condor dropship with bear apc's

Condor Dropship with Sabre MBT's

Condor dropship with Rapier AA

So that leaves the infantry to do. In the meantime in an effort to push a WFB army, i am going back to my days of a GW employee and starting a new Dwarf army.

Yup the short, angry, drunken, bearded ones are once again marching from their holds and onto the fields of glory.

a time of patience for the impatient gamer

Hey all and welcome once again to this place of most random musings.

Over the last few days I have been on an ever decreasing spiral into craziness. Falling like a stone from the sky heading deeper and deeper into the 'dropzone'. My once fragile and this sanity word and now shredded to tatters as I fail to 'command' my own mind.

The hints are all there if your willing to see them.

If not let me explain.

96 Hours ago.

I bumped into a wargame i had seen, liked but never really ventured much of a look into. A couple of random twitter postings got my 'hackles' up and sent the curious wargamer in me searching.

72 Hours ago.

Curiousness let to the birthing of a demonic screeching within my wargamer heart. It lead to my previous blog post and a spate of twitter/fb outbursts.

48 Hours ago.

Armed with too much information, a lot of bad intentions and a healthy dent in my bank balance...an order was placed.

Over the last 48 hours.

The keening demonic shrill has grown in volume, shredding my sanity, the resistance within my wargamer heart. All hope has been lost in a tirade of frothing madness. Hours spent drooling over pictures, reading forum posts. More hours lost in youtube videos. Blogs, reviews, battle reports all digested with so much gusto that you would think fat-bastard had stumbled into an all-you-can-eat buffet at 'baby back ribs r us'.

Other games were pushed aside, the tribulations of this once sporadic hobby butterfly were quashed and scattered to the 4 winds. A game had stood up from amongst the masses and grabbed my attention in much the same way a stubbed toe stops you in your tracks.

A small twist of fate before work a few days ago took me down a path that ultimately bought me here. Waiting for the dispatch of my parcel, waiting to get my mucky ink stained, paint flecked hands on 'Dropzone Commander'.

I don't truly know why this game has captivated me so....but it has. It has taken my attention, my painter side, my gamer side, my fluff loving crazy side and my imagination, and it has wrapped them all in a sci-fi game that i just want to throw myself into.

With any luck the great guys at Firestorm Games will receive their resupply of command cards tomorrow and dispatch my 2 player set, city board, scurge/ucm command decks. This will get me started for sure!

A short piece of fluff ahead of our first game (when it arrives).


The city of Galrath was quiet, too quiet. The occasional crackle of flames from a burnt out building was the only indication that life had ever existed here.

The twin suns had long since set over the city and the streets were enveloped in a darkness so complete that vision was reduced to scant feet. Every now and then a flicker of flame would throw up shadows against the vacant city walls, a maddening dance of light and shadow that went unnoticed by the sightless empty windows of the streets around.

Galrath was a dead place. It had been that way since the scourge had invaded. Here and there elsewhere across the planet, small pockets of human resistance still fought on...but not in Galrath.

Or so the casual surveyor would think.

In the darkness things moved, alien things. They skittered across the streets searching the empty buildings and desolate alleyways. Driven by an iron will, they carried out their task. 


Scant hours earlier, the scourge had discovered the meaning of invasion for themselves. 
It had started with blistering contrails from the sky, where they impacted, the surface erupted in billowing clouds of debris and flame. It was followed by slower moving objects, lazy, lumbering dropships that disgorged vehicles and men in their thousands. 
For the men and women of the resistance, it was as if a new nightmare had been borne upon them by the scourge, a new wave of death and destruction that reached out with uncaring hands to crush lives.
To the scourge it was a familiar sight, it was a sight being repeated across many of the taken worlds. It was the sight of United Colonies of Men liberation armies. A sight that heralded war anew.

However in the city of Galrath, the streets had remained empty. The fighting had not reached the city yet, but the scourge were searching for something.


In the darkness something else moved too. Silent and stealthy, small teams of Legionnaires moved across the eastern side of the city. They moved with purpose and direction. Like the scourge they were searching, Unlike the scourge, they knew what for.
 

As dusk had settled over Galrath a flight of Condor dropships had sped across the sky with a heavy escort of Archangel interceptors. 
For the briefest moment Galrath had know life and war as the sky was criss-crossed with anti-aircraft fire. 
Then they were gone, all that is, except for a lone condor. A burst of fire had shredded the fuselage and sent it crashing down somewhere in the eastern sector of the city.

Nothing should have survived the crash, but as is the way of these things something..or someone had. 

Amongst the twisted wreckage of the condor dropship, Marshall Feldpattick, commander of the 669th Legionnaire division cautiously flicked the switch on his emergency beacon. Pinned in place by the weight of a Wolverine across his shattered legs, he knew it could mean rescue or death, he knew his beacon would be picked up by the ships in orbit, but he knew the scourge would sense it too.

High in orbit, aboard the UCM Flagship Saratoga, the emergency beacon was picked up, decisions were made and forces were tasked.

The men moving silently across Galrath's eastern side, were some of the best in the 669th division. Recon and stealth specialists, they had been given a high priority mission. 

To extract the Marshall and recover the 2 intel packs he was transporting. 
To UCM high command, the Marshall was considered expendable, to the men of the 669th, he was not. 

War was coming to Galrath, as surely as the sun would rise in the morning, so was the war.



Like i said, Dropzone Commander seems to have captured every side of the hobbyist within me. I hope you enjoyed the short 'story'. It's been a long time since i even attempted to write something like that...so it must be a sign of something eh...even if it's my continued spiral down into madness.

The golden age.

Good morning to you all on this chilly British morning.

Following on from my last post, I find myself looking over all the games we have at our finger tips.
We truly have as wargamers, entered a golden age of gaming. A time when there are so many games, so many different varieties, that it can be as much of a hinderance as a boon.

I indeed suffer from 'ADOSS' (Attention Deficit Oh Shiny Syndrome) as i think many of the #warmongers and wargaming world do.
It's the one thing that makes our hobby so great and yet so frustrating.

I remember a time when it was pretty much Games Workshop, DnD or board games. Then a few other companies came along. Some stayed and some went.

But then the internet exploded on us. Facebook, Twitter, forums and Kickstarter all came in to being.
Not only did this enable the wargaming community to expand and share it's trials and tribulations, it also gave a news stand to the suppliers of our 'plasticrack' a place to show their wares.
No longer was it word of mouth, a chance discovery in a rare monthly multi game mag, nor was it down to finding that musty smelling, dark door into another world (gaming store).

Indeed i find myself many a time, looking on twitter and fb and seeing models from new games and thinking... wow i need to get me into that.
But that is the curse of our modern time and golden age. Focus is lost, games clamor for our attention and bank managers cry into the coffee.

I for one do not have the answer or the cure to the constant demand of new games, nor do i have the willpower to resist them all. Do you?

For now i must leave and battle the newly born wargaming demon within, for Dropzone Commander is screaming for attention in a way only a wargamer understands.

But it is not all bad news :)

So far this year i have painted and i have enjoyed going with a  'what i feel like' approach. It's in direct opposition to my intended focus approach. But since Sunday night i have achieved this

 
It's progress Jim!

All systems reset..

I could rage on the days events or just quit.
I could as my brain keeps screaming 'just bin the lot'.

But it wont happen. Not today.

With that thought to keep you bemused, let me say welcome back to the occasionally updated, sometimes amusing and always demented ramblings of one demented wargamer.

I hope life has been treating you all well and Christmas (if you celebrate it) was kind to you all.

Today started like any other, school run, dog walk, few cups of tea. Raging frothing post about more changes by GW. #ragequit seems to be the in thing and i came so close to doing that to wargaming in general.
A damned good rant later and it got me thinking...somewhere between the raging and tears talking about my old dog chip...a thought skittered across the cosmos and lodge in my head.

Over recent years i have flittered about from game to game, army to army. Never ceasing, never settling and never really happy. It's not a slur against any of the games or companies, in fact getting my attention isn't as easy as it used to be. So getting me to see your game is pretty good going.
I think the problem at the heart is just a jaded view of gaming as i have not actually been 'gaming'.

It took a bit of thought, ranting and chatting to really see that point. I don't want to paint simply because i am not gaming.
Over the course of last year i worked too much, slacked of too much and gamed too little. This has come full circle to my jaded wargamer blues.

But how do you battle back. Well phase 1 is going to be focusing on a single game or at least only a couple.
I have a couple of nice pick up and play games. X-wing and Zombicide. Now these are great games but they feel like more of a 'board game' than wargame.
So aside from those i needed to find some direction. Easy for lots of people, they may only have 1 or 2 games....but not me.
Don't believe me....here's the list of currently owned and unpainted games.

Warhammer 40k
Warhammer Fantasy Battle
Kings of war
Dreadball
Deadzone
Dystopian Wars
Malifaux
Dreadfleet
Hordes

Its a heck of a list and explains the somewhat directionless mind i have had.
So how do you really get back.

Well step 1 is devising more time for myself. That means less overtime at work.
step 2 was sitting down having a chat with my wargamer in crime and picking 1 or 2 games that we could both enjoy and focusing on them.
step 3 set aside a day to play the games, this in turn will help with painting.

Stage 1 is complete.
Stage 2 is almost complete in that, Myself and Carol think Dystopian Wars and a return to Wyrd's Malifaux would be the best focus. We loved Malifaux in V1 and v1.5. Yet to try V2 but the basic game has always been awesome. Dystopian Wars has enough difference to be a challenge and the few fumbled games we have managed have been enjoyable.

Stage 3 is to be sorted. Being a non driver makes getting out for games so much more difficult especially when i don't live in a city, but instead live in a #large' (hahaha yeah right) town in north Norfolk. Said town has limited transport and a very small 40k only community.
But 1 part of the approach needs to be setting aside gaming time at home. At the moment i think every other Sunday (as it's 1 of only 2 days i get off with carol).

Well it's a start on a plan and a step up from being ready to quit. To my High elf, British airborne and various other armies, i have to apologise. But hopefully their time will come in the future.