WW2 English and Nazis, plus D-Day Gaming Board

    Heya guys, today I picked up a box of Warlord Game's Bolt Action British and German (why do wargaming companies always call them Germans, and not Nazis???). I'm currently working on some skirmish rules available as a free download! It is pretty fast to play (it actually is, I'm not just saying that), and focuses on the toss of a coin, as well as a dice roll to hit (rules available for free download soon!). I've built up six of each faction's troops, and I'm working on a D-Day gaming board! I've used a large box to raise the coast for the hill, some newspaper, cardboard, and brown paper for the  slope down to the beach. I have also made some ruined buildings and gun emplacements out of some old packaging polystyrene. Gonna paint the Brits now, and I'll maybe start on the Nazis if time abides...

Warhammer Fantasy 5,500pt Tourney BatSum

     So I had the battle, and it was a good one, although the time ran out as it was just getting tasty, between round 3 and 4. There were many ways to score points, these including:
1pt for a hill captured
1pt for standard captured
3pts for general slain
5pts for army general slain

    Our team consisted of my 2,109pts of Skaven, James, another Skaven player (he loves hordes!), plus another two guys, some Vampire Counts and Ogres. That was 5,500pts. On the opposing side there was around 4,000pts of a stoic dwarven battle line, and another 1,500pts of Tomb Kings (that guys in for a treat in a few months!).
   Here's my force (two rat ogres are James', and my abomination-creation thing isn't here):

And all the units to enter later:

And the fully deployed battlefield:

And now for a cool butcher with a  sculpted chef's hat by Ed Gimble, the ogre player:

Here, Deathmaster Sniktch and his Gutter Runners infiltrate:

A Skaven Rat looks on at the mighty chapel, seeking a sight of it coming to ruin:

My 'Men of da Match' was certainly my Gutter Runners with Sniktch - Poisoned attacks, 2 attacks each, Snikcht at WS8, always striking first, and 6 attacks with weeping blades! It completely cut down the dwarven gun-line of 3 organ guns (which were very deadly) in scarcely 2 turns!

However the true man of the match for our team had to be James' 'Helen' the Hell Pit Abomination, which killed 12 slayers, 12 long drong dwarven pirates, and 12 quarrelers!

Also at the tourney, me and my cous, Alex Evans - a.k.a. Marsiblu, ventured into the world of mini photography, and small aperture shots, more to come...

Skaven Army List - Preparing for a Tourney on Saturday

   Ready your weapons (or should I say - 'old thing's good enough to poke a hole in a 'humies' chest')! I have a large-scale Warhammer Fantasy tournament battle at my wargaming club on Saturday, so I'm gonna use my Skaven list. I will take some photos, and give you a brief rundown on what happened. I've just wrote this army list, which fully utilises my whole Skaven army, except some awesome abomination proxy, which now I find it's dwarfed by the new model (more on that later). It is not really that specialized, but I'm hoping to use the 'swarm,smash , then zzzzap' tactics in the latest white dwarf. So here's the list...

Rats of the Pusten Flay-Blade Army List:

Lords:

Warlord = 123pts

+ weeping blade – 30pts – armour piercing, multiplied to d3 wounds

+ shield – 3pts

Heroes:

Deathmaster Snikch = 270pts

Warlock Engineer = 175pts

+ lvl. 2 wizard - 85pts

+ warlock-augmented weapon – 45pts - +1 strength, +1 attack

+ doomrocket – 30pts – roll 4-10 to choose range, then place large template, strength 5, misfire on 3 or more rolls of ‘1’ (consult table), one use only

Core:

Clanrats x20 = 190pts

+ spears + shields – 20pts

+ full command – 20pts

+ warpfire thrower – 70pts – move or shoot, place flame template at end of artillery dice range, strength 5, d3 damage, save -2, can overshoot, autohits

Clanrats x20 = 110pts

+ shields – 10pts

+ full command – 20pts

Stormvermin x20 = 248pts

+ shields – 20pts

+ full command – 25pts

+ tail weapon – 8pts – strength 3 attack using user’s WS or initiative to hit

+ doomflayer – 55pts – 3+ save to self, artillery dice no. attacks, auto hit, strength 4, save -2

Giant Rats (30 rats, 3 packmasters) = 114pts

Special:

Gutter Runners x9 = 205pts

+ 9x poisoned attacks – 45pts – instant wound on a roll of ‘6’ to hit

+ death runner – 12pts

-          smoke bombs – 10pts – one use only, all pursuing units roll 1d6 less

-          weeping blade – 30pts – armour piercing, multiplied to d3 wounds

Rat Ogres (4 Rat ogres, 2 Packmasters) = 216pts

+ master bred rat ogre upgrade – 15pts

+ master moulder with shockprod – 50pts – 2h, armour piercing

Plague Monks x15 = 130pts

+ full command – 25pts

Plague Censer Bearers x5 = 93pts

+ plague chanter upgrade – 13pts

(NB: censers – flail, at start of a cc round, any models in base contact must take toughness test or suffer a wound, all Clan Pestilens units suffer a wound from this on a roll of a 6 only)

Poisoned Wind Globadiers x5 = 145pts

+ bombardier with death globe – 30pts – one use only, range 8”, scatter, small template, armour piercing, wounds on 4+, ignores to hit

+ poisoned wind mortar – 65pts – can use parent unit’s LOS, if target not in sight, scatter distance is doubled, small template, centre of template = 4+ for instant wound, other part of template = 5+ for instant  wound, armour piercing, range 6”-24”

(NB: poisoned wind globes have range of 8”, each globe that hits wounds on 4+, with no armour saves allowed, if you roll a ‘1’ to hit, then the globadier suffers a wound on a 5+)

Rare:

Warp Lightning Cannon = 90pts

(NB: it is destroyed if crew flee, range 48”, strength = artillery dice, small round template, under template or in its path suffer a hit at the strength rolled, each unsaved wound is multiplied into d6 wounds, armour piercing)

= In Total =

2,109 pts

Essex Miniatures, My Unsung Hero: A Review

    Hey hey guys (cough cough BTP), today I'm gonna tell you about the possibly known Essex Miniatures (http://www.essexminiatures.co.uk), which are, for some reason, based in Essex, UK. They do online and in-store orders, and stock a great range of paints, basing material, cool painted terrain, tons of books, resin buildings, and of course, shed loads of miniatures! So here's my story with this encounter...

   So here's me, living in Canvey Island, Essex. At my wargaming club I see a cool bit of terrain, so I pick it up, and examine it. Upon it's underside, I found a sticker, with the address of the store on it. It struck me that this piece of terrain, from Essex Miniatures (I'd heard of it before), was located in the industrial estate around only a 5 minute drive from my house (though hopefully not too near!). I set out to find it, with a print out from google maps, but came home not at all victorious - I suspected the store had closed down long ago, or had moved, but checking out the website, it listed the same address, and was regularly updating itself! Setting out again, I found it's entrance (a generic wooden door, withe the industrial estate's generic small sign on it) - if Essex Miniatures are reading, then you need to make it bigger, and more interesting! Going inside, I turn on the light switch to the 'show-room/store front'. I am overwhelmed by hordes of miniatures, all in display cabinets, some painted, some not, some 25mm, some 15mm, some resin buildings, some books, some Wargames Illustrated, and even some free catalogs. I think 'to hell with that 25mm roman leader on horse', and turn my eyes to the more intricate and cheap/fun-2-paint 15mm models. They look awesome, and I think "Forget that 25mm 100 Yrs. War English Army, bring on the 15mm". They looked so much more fun and 'bitesized' to paint, and, it's only £2.29 for 8! That's not even that 'spare fiver' gone! I purchased 8 spearmen, 8 handgunners, and 8 foot knights, along with pvc cut bases, which were really fun to buy as well suprisingly. I find myelf in a hobby addiction, going back 3 times in 2 weeks - the 2nd time the day after the 1st! They even sold printed sticker banners! And so, my first 15mm army began, on 100 Yrs. war English! Now, down to the models...

Quality (material/casting wise) - 9/10:

      So far, I've not seen a single bit of flashing or vent on these models, and the models come with little or no grease! The metal quality and type is not at all different from that of Games Workshop themselves, perhaps even better, due to no flashing!

Convertibility/Gluing Ease - 8/10:

     These will be glued together/to their bases with no difficulty at all, and take all super glues. The metal is bendable, allowing pose changes, and they can be cut and converted with the relative ease of any metal model, allowing me to create full command sets. the spear tips (pointed poles) can be easily turned into a leaf shape by flattening with pliers. Priming is a piece of cake.

Quality and Detail of Sculpts - 6.5/10:

     Here's probably the only downfall, and it's only visible on the older models (whatever scale). Some areas may appear a little rounded, or a little cartoony/heroic scale.

Painting Ease/Fun - 9.5/10:

     This is why I love 15mm. 8 models can be painted in an evening, and are much more fun to paint than other minis. They come out very pleasing, I only use 2 layers per 'part', which goes great with the 15mm scale, and looks very crisp afterwards.

Affordability/Range - 10/10:

      Like I say, 8 15mm models for only £2.29 - awesome! There is almost any historical mini you can think of here, plus some fantasy  although I think those look a little '80's', and cartoony. Like i say, any hobby/gaming item - they'll have it, they even do painting commissions of any mini!

    So, spread the word, buy one set! Try something different, for the better! Great 2 paint, start an army in a day, for the surplus of a days wages! I love 'em. More coverage on historical wargaming will be living on this blog, but for next time, it's the Deathmaster Snikcht...

The Power of the Wash!

     You've seen 'em, those gritty, pro looking minis. Even when the guy tells you he only slappped on a wash to a  'splodged-blodge' of a mini did it look great, you still aren't so convinced. But it was, here I've splodged on one coat of each colour, maybe two layers on some of the areas, but those don't really show up. Then I simply took the Citadel washes, and splashed them on my model as if it was water, give it go! it takes no experience or skill, just, not all my minis are painted this way (I can still paint, it's just hordes of skaven which I want to get done quickly).

Before

 After

Stormvermin Freehand Banner

    My Stormvermin are in progress, and here I have my free hand banner, but the other side is not complete. Undercoated with Dheneb Stone, highlight with Tamiya White - don't get it, too runny!

Golden Demon Bronze Skaven Clanrat

      So I claim to have a Golden Demon Bronze trophy, well, the first feature of my blog will be that very miniature. Here it is...

And here is the GW link:

http://www.games-workshop.com/gws/content/article.jsp?pageMode=multi&categoryId=&pIndex=2&aId=13000009a&start=3

So check it out.

It was basically painted with 'many-layered' layering. It may appear to have blends, but these are just where there are so many layers that it appears to be blended. The metal was painted by a metallic orange-purple layered, with two washes, and then a 'rust scrape' of mithril silver. It suprisingly to a considerably short time to paint, around 6 hours, unlike my previous failed GD entry (more on that to come), which took around 10 hours, partially due to painstaking trial and error blending, which I clearly never continued in my next run!

If you want any tips, or have any questions, then the floor is open...

Hello World

   Hi guys, it's me, with my shiny new blog, over the next week I'll be showing up my latest projects, especially the progress I make through my 2500 pts Skaven army. Pictures will of course follow!