Sigmar's Blood (2)

Some progress on the Dire Wolves.
Truth to tell they're not the nicest kits to paint - it being tricky to tell where flesh ends and bone, sinew or fur begins.
The fur's been drybrushed and the flesh is Pallid Flesh with various washes over the top then the flesh re-highlighted. The bones are Bleached Bone (well durrr) with a very old GW Flesh Wash (ironic, huh?) before re-highlighting with Bone.
They'll do.

Three down seven to go.

Dinosaurs (1)

I saw these for 99p each in the Works.

Ideal for my Darkest African tribesmen to hunt (or be hunted by) in the jungles of Tombogo.
I've given them a good wash in soapy water then hot glued them to some spare Warbases MDF bases I had lying around and added some sand and rocks.
I'm intrigued to see what I end up with!

Sherman Tank for Bolt Action

Over Christmas I finally got around to assembling and painting the Hobby Boss Sherman tank I picked up way back at Salute. Despite my fears about the number of parts and complexity it actually went together pretty easily once I'd got over my fear of doing it "wrong" and spent a little time translating the "Chinglish" the instructions are written in.

Once put together I sprayed it with some Airfix green that I had lying around, then gave it a wash of Thrakka Green before drybrushing with Catachan Green. Job done. It's probably not the most authentic green colour and there are some criticisms that the kit itself isn't all that accurate, but it looks like a Sherman to me, is about the right size for my figures and is painted a green enough colour for me, so I'm pleased with the end result. And all for only eight quid.

Best try and actually get another game of Bolt Action in some time

Sigmar's Blood (1)

My regular Warhammer opponent and I have both recently bought Sigmar's Blood, a new supplement for WFB.

The supplement is a 64 page hardback book with the slightly eyebrow raising price tag of £20.

For Warhammer players of a certain vintage the book is probably closest in spirit to the old 5th edition campaign packs like Grudge of Drong or Idol of Gork or, if you're really long in the tooth, Terror of the Lichemaster or McDeath, albeit without the rather charming cardboard scenery that the earlier packs contained. The book consists of lots of background relating to a campaign undertaken by the Empire Arch Lector Volkmar the Grim against a resurgent Manfred con Carstein who has returned to undeath in Sylvania. This background forms the basis of a campaign of four linked scenarios that refight Volkmar's invasion. The battles start small and build as the campaign processes with each battle after the first including the forces from the preceding games. There's no attrition of the units, casualties are replaced (or bought back from the dead) for each game, but there are some rules for advancing characters and gaining benefits as games are won (or lost). There are also some brief rules for playing games as the darkness (magically summoned by Manfred) gradually covers Sylvania. As you'd expect from a GW book, its a lovely looking thing with plenty of glorious colour photography and artwork. 

Now I've always been a sucker for this type of thing (in fact I pitched unsuccessfully for  something like this during my time in the Studio) having played Orcs Drift as one of my formative Warhammer experiences and played most of the 5th edition scenario packs at one time or another. Games driven by narrative, with limited, sub-optimal, choices in forces and magic and with battles having an impact on subsequent games appeal to my gaming sensibilities, especially (as in this case) when coupled with minimal book keeping.

And so, gentle reader, my chum and I have decided we will play through the campaign using the forces exactly as proscribed in the book. Fortunately between us we have almost everything we need already painted and ready to go. I say "between us" when what that actually mean is he has fully painted Empire and Vampire armies. Me, I ain't got nothing. Despite the extensive collection already available there are a few gaps that need filling as some of the selections in the historical forces are a little esoteric as you'd expect from such a publication.

We have vowed not to start the campaign until we have everything ready to go as otherwise I fear we'll come to a sudden crashing halt from which we'll never recover.

So first up for me are a unit of ten Dire Wolves soon to be followed by 20 Empire militia. In think my chum has chosen the nice models to paint, leaving me some of the, ahem, more challenging sculpts to get on with.

I've made a start on the wolves, essentially following the GW painted examples. This one us nearly finished and I'm reasonably happy though the flesh is perhaps little pink I think.

Hoping to finish a few more of these tonight and complete the unit by the weekend. I've assembled most of the Militia and will be taking them down to Swindon with me next week to help the long, damp evenings fly by.

Making Warhammer Roads

For the recent Warhammer Wagon Train scenario I needed some roads.
So a quick trip to Wilkos secured me a set of stone effect tiles for under a fiver.
I simply cut them into strips 60mm wide and, hey presto - instant roads.
Obviously they could be used for quite a few other periods, from medieval up to the 19th century. Eventually I'll create some corners and the like and may even apply some flock and static grass to the edges to help them blend onto the table a little better - but for now, they're just fine.

 Some Late Romans gaze in wonder on the works of their ancestors

Boggins da Troll gazes in puzzlement on the works of da stunties.

Star Wars X-Wing on New Year's Eve

So with Mrs Tom's Toy Soldiers catching up on her Phd, the boys and I, at a loose end on NYE, set up for a game of X-Wing.
Smallest boy took a Y-Wing and and X-Wing with Luke in, while son and heir had a pair of TIEs and I took the TIE Advanced.

After much low quality maneuvering, Luke and the Y-wing blasted apart one if the TIEs, but the remaining Imperials managed to corner and eventually blow apart the slow moving warhorse.
With eldest boy running for cover I went headlong toward Mr Skywalker expecting that I'd crash and burn and maintain harmony in the household for another evening, but it didn't quite work out like that. The Force was weak with the small boy and all shots missed, whereas I managed to put the three damage I needed on the hero of the Alliance and re-write the history of the galaxy far, far away...
However, credit where its due, the youngest took his defeat in good part and all's well as night descends.
A cracking good little game is X-Wing - I must get it out with the kids more often.

 The forces of evil mass over the sands of Tatooine

 The Alliance ships scatter as the TIEs approach

 Luke flies by the TIE Advanced

 The Y-Wing approaches its nemesis

Luke fires...and misses...

Two post on one day (and two games in less than 24 hours!) brings 2013 to a close.

Happy New Year to everyone who visits here - I hope you've enjoyed my ramblings this last twelve months.

Thanks for taking the time to drop by, I hope next year is a good one for you and yours.

Expect more of the same in 2014.

Warhammer Triumph and Treachery game

Last night I got together with two chums for a game of Warhammer using the new Triumph and Treachery expansion.

We played using 2000 point armies but without any mercenaries. I took Ogres, the other two had Empire armies. We played one of the scenarios from the book, the object of which is to pick up an objective in the centre of the board with your general and hold on to it until the end of the game.

The game was great fun to play and swung back and forth throughout. I started off sandwiched between the other two and the first few turns were tough going as they both seemed to be picking on me.

However Ogre toughness saw me through (along with plentiful regeneration spells) and I clawed my way back into the game, whilst the two Empire generals began to tear each other apart in the centre of the board.

The game finished at the end of the sixth turn, by which time we'd been playing well over four hours (and were starting to run low on beer) with a clear victory to one of the Empire forces.

Foolishly I forgot to take any pictures of what was visually quite a splendid and colourful game.

I really enjoyed the game - the fact that you can only pick to target a single enemy in any given phase, coupled with the random order in which each player takes his turn mean the violence is spread out, with less likelihood of one player being picked on as has often been the case in previous three player games I've taken part in. Usually multi-player games for me tend to break down into a number of single player games that just happen to be sharing one large table, but this didn't feel like that - you had to watch the guy on your flank as closely as the one across the board from you at all times.

The dirty trick cards and the opportunity to make and break alliances led to plentiful trash talking and attempts at influencing (or intimidating) fellow players into doing your will. The cards also added an extra sdimension to the tabletop game adding just the right amount of variety to upset the best laid plans.

The downsides - well it does take longer to play then regular Warhammer, but it's clearly intended for more social, "occasion" style gaming - the once every few months blowout type game rather than regular weekly sessions.

Its also not cheap, but it is a lovely product with some very nice tokens and cards and you really only need a single copy between a gaming group.

This is not an expansion aimed at the "tournament" or more competitive gamer and it requires some suspension of disbelief around game mechanics to work, but if you're the type of gamer who likes to play bigger games with a bunch of like minded souls then I think its well worth the investment.

We were all pleased with the game, and a quick look further through the book revealed we might well have all the models needed to re-fight one of the "historical" scenarios from the book involving Dwarfs, Skaven and Orcs and Goblins