Saluting waffle...

Of Salute....
 Well, That's Salute done with for another year!

I was painting a couple of commissions (no, I dont really do those....) for the show and also painting as much World of Twilight as I could squeeze in. I didn't want to be buying loads more when I still had a heap unpainted - that would be totally against the theory of the Pledge!

The day itself was another great one, full of catching up with old friends, making soem new ones, putting faces to well known names and talking all things model and paint. Whats more, I actually rolled a lot of dice without it being "work"! Amazing result! I played a few games of World of Twilight, had a great intro of Timeline 300, and even played a demo of Flames of War V3. More on the gaming later.

 The Shock of the show for everyone was Dropzone Commander. 10mm sci-fi with great sculpting and model design, and an impressively large range which nobody saw coming! I'm very much looking forward to putting brush to resin with these figures. Lots of pictures can be found in the thread on TacComms here.

Another highlight for myself was finally meeting Chris "Curis" from Ninjabread. I've watched his blog for years, and heard many a good report on the man himself from Epic Tournament goers. I popped by his stand to pick up a copy of his new book - punishment of the Dice Gods and ended up temporarily taking over his stall frontage whilst we talked epic and looked through a few epic bits from my miniatures case. The Book is great - I highly recommend it for anyone who's not adverse to laughter!

The Obligatory Purchase List: 
A Pile of World of Twilight figures. I'm not counting them. I dont want to. :p
Two Cans of Coat D'arms Matt Varnish - I love the stuff.
 Warhammer Historicals Legends of the Old West and Showdown - they had a sale one, couldn't resist!
Peter Pig Destroyed Sherman & Jeep markers / Objectives.
 Half a Flames of War Intro Box with my Mate Ed "The Fez" Turner - I get the Shermans... you can see where this is going!
Ninjabread, Punishment of the Dice Gods (Signed, no less!)

 Overall I think the show felt nice and busy, but still had plenty of space between the stalls and the games. The display games were as impressive as ever, and those hosting demo games were doing a great job of keeping the punters entertained. Beasts of War had put on a large Hobby Lab area which looked busy every time I passed it and the trade stands were uniformly Bustling. A success for all!

Of Salute Gaming...
I've actually got a bit to report! I played Timeline 300 at Salute. Its 10mm Victorian Sci-Fi, and is being made by Troublemaker Games. What sets this apart is that there's a Construction and resources back end to the game but it IS a miniatures wargame. You start with a number of Coal mines, and a construction unit. Every turn your mines generate coal, and you may use this to construct new fighting units from your mobile construction unit and bring new forces to bear. Do you save up your points for an enormous Landship, or flood the field with infantry quick & try to overrun your foe? Love it! The game mechanics themselves are quite simple, fast flowing and fun. There's ironing to do, but it certainly has some good concepts and I'd happily play it again. Oh, and if you're playing as the Martians, DONT run your construction unit forwards - you are restricted by soem killer minimum ranges as I found out myself!

 I Played Flames of War. First time in a few years, but it hasn't changed too much. It was just 3 shermans Vs 2 Stugs, and I got killed in the end, but I didn't take too much persuading, and now I'm looking into a small American force. Yes yes, I've only recently finished selling off my huge Soviet forces, but who cares, that's Hobby!

 I also played World of Twilight. I love the game, but dont get to play much so I took my collection to salute and saw them in action as demos as well as playing myself.
Thanks to Gekilian (Chris! or hereafter, the Tactical Prof. ) for a great game. I certainly didn't deserve to come out with a draw. My Slingers are now the SS - the elite "Suicide Slingers" unit. Herder Captains are great additions if you have your head screwed on (which I clearly didn't). I also take back any bad word I ever said against Commander Brenar's usefulness in smaller games. If he's that lucky next time I use him then he's a permanent addition to my forces. Having watched my own poor commandership see to the death of most of my forces and helping me out couple of pointers, Chris then had to watch as Brenar refused to die until the last moment, taking down 2 devanu and a small sea of Grishak with him, leaving an empty board at the end of a marathon game!

A tale of old and new

Of Gaming...
Monday night was another good one at the Guildford Games Club. Having watched a number of encounters, and bought my own squad, I finally played my first two games of Infinity Last Monday.

I do like the rules set. The way you have to think ahead to cover all angles and possibilities (such as enemy Paras ona first "intro" game! Grrr... ) really appeals to me. I really think it could be fun with two teams of Ariadna with basic rifles duking it out, but for the while I'll enjoy my plethora of special weapons none the less!!

First game I lost, to aforementioned Para. Though I would like it noted that that only occurred after my opponent stated where he was dropping, and wanting to learn the intricacies a little better, I asked "So Why didn't you choose to drop him here and do this?". To which my opponent replied "...ohh.. that's not a bad idea..." and proceeded to kill 4 ofmy team in a single turn.

Second game I was more ready for it and new more what my troops were capable of. I set up a good defensive position and waited for the right moment. When the time was right, and the passage of travel clear, my Rocket launcher exposed her position and took down the enemy medic. Now the game was on - my Ant-Tank trooper dashed from cover, got a good shot off on the enemy ORC suit with his Adhesive launcher and followed it up with a Demo charge to knock him out. His final action moved him back around a large pile of pipes, to a rather exposed position, but one which was well covered by fire from the rest of my squad. The enemy were walking into a hailstorm if they went for retribution.
The following turn the AT trooper worked back around the pipes and took out the enemy medic, and had a good try on the enemy lieutenant too. unfortunately his luck had run out, and he was subsequently taken out by the nefarious enemy para, who this time had to drop behind his own lines to shore them up. That didn't last long however as he in turn left himself open to a shot from my Kazak Veteran, and the game was called as he hit the floor.

Thanks James - Great Games!

Of Painting...

This week I've finished off another unit which has been on the workbench for an obsene amount of time. Literally years! So, FINALLY, 10 sad little classic empire handgunners are dust-free, fully painted and in the cabinet - photos next week!

In the mean time I have two galleries of the very old, and one of the very new for you in this update!


For starters, we have "Epic, The Early days" - a gallery of some of my earliest forrays into converting epic miniatures and some not-so-hot paintjobs to keep you entertained. (22 pictures)

Secondly, we go up to 10mm scale, with the eventual arrival of the inevitable Warmaster Miscellaneous Gallery. Most of these figures were painted as random painting fun when the models were new, but there's a fair variety in there from many different races! (29 pictures)

And last but not least, we jump further up the scale chart and to something brand new. It may only be a tiny one, but I open the 28mm Roman Gallery with my first completed regiment - Warlord Games Slingers. Soon to be followed by many more I hope :) (3 pictures)

As ever - thanks for looking!

Totals:
New Galleries - 3
New images - 54

Of the latest Gaming..

Not much ahs been being painted lately. My girlfriend's moved into my flat with me & whilst I'm very happy with her here, it has (temporarily, honest!) slowed my brushwork a little!

I have however had a few more games of Seeds of War, continuing to trial different ideas for the Buildings rules to tweak them a little more. They're currently seeming quite good, we just need to make the right decisions as to which buildings are which at the start of our games, and I'm in the process of writing up a siege list for the Pax to give their arty some clout in Urban areas, which it currently is oddly lacking.

Of Blitzkreig commander...

I've finally got myself an opponent for 6mm WWII, so the long languishing project is seeing some real advances at last!

We played our first game of BKCII ten days ago and I was reminded of just how much I like the warmaster C&C mechanics.

The Soviets are on the move, and I've spent a good deal of time researching the 3rd Guard Tank army's TO&E for July '44. Having done the 3rd Guard tank army for my Mid-war (14th July '43 - Kursk, I've gone exactly one year on!) flames of war forces years ago, its been interesting to see how the force changed and developed in just a short period.

Before you wonder, I certainly dont intend to collect the whole lot, but you can expect project updates soon!