Moving to a Shared Blog

So life has been busy, and to keep a better amount of posts a friend and I decided to try blogging about our miniatures together.

So onwards my endeavours in miniature gaming will be found at the Gentlemen Wargamers

Thank you to those who read this one, and I hope to see you on the new blog :)

Sedition Wars at Kickstarter

So if you haven't heard it already Sedition Wars: Battle for Alabaster is currently on Kickstarter. Battle for Alabaster will be a sci-fi boardgame with Vanguard troopers against the mutated creatures called the Strain. The game is developed and the miniatures sculpted by Mike McVey and they are very cool. Check out the video below for an intro to the game and some shots of the miniatures.

Currently the kickstarter is running for 29 more days and in the past 5 days it has already reached almost $110k which really is quite impressive. From the kickstarter you can get the game for a $100 pledge, and I think the miniatures alone are almost worth that pledge, so I'll be considering this game very seriously.

Anyways in case you're curious check out the KS link here: Kickstarter link

Contests to Join

For those who like free things, you should look up Frontline Gamer which has a lot of prize drawings at the moment, and the prizes have been nice so far. So give it a look, it's a good read over there I think.

Goodbye Warhammer Historical

It seems that Earhammer Historical is no more!

I read about this a while ago and quickly went to the website and this is the message that greets one now when pressing "home":

Warhammer Historical Has Now Closed
We can no longer accept any further orders for our products

We would like to thank our customers who have purchased our publications over the years and hope you will continue to get many more years of gaming enjoyment from them

If you have any queries regarding orders that have been placed with Warhammer Historical please
contact the Forge World Customer Service team.

I'm sorry to see something like this close down as they did produce some interesting books. The rumor that they closed down arised already last year with the 50% sale that went on for some time and now it has proven true. I find it interesting that they close down so soon after releasing their WWI airplane game but that decision was probably made long ago. In conclusion I think it's a shame that Warhammer Historical is no more but I am glad I actually managed to get a decent amount of rules during their discount period last year.

It's Time to Cast Your Vote

So all the entries are in for the Strange Aeons AAR Contest by Styx over at Strange Aeons Adventures and it's time to cast your votes. So get going and vote for your favorite entries in both the written and the media category.
The entries can be seen from here

Strange Aeons Video AAR

So for the contest I mentioned before over at Strange Aeons Adventures, I also wanted to do a media AAR. A media based AAR would be a video or slideshow or similar, and I thought I'd go for the video presentation.

The Scenario in the presentation is "The Doomsday Device" in which agents race to disable a doomsday device  and take out the bad guys before the thing detonates. All in all fun scenario to play although we had a very short game.

Anyways, here is is: The Doomsday Device...

For those that are unaware, the music is Let Your Fingers Do the Walking by Sort Sol.

My First Game of Victory at Sea

Last friday I had my first game of Victory at Sea (VaS) and an interesting one although I got wiped out without causing much damage to my opponent navy. VaS is a naval WWII game from Mongoose Publishing and we played it using 1:3000 scale ships from Navwar.

My collection of German ships

The game pitted a good selection of British warships against a few ships of the German Kriegsmarine. Although I unfortunately forgot the British vessels (perhaps due to the tragic memory of the devastating defeat I suffered) that won't stop me from listing the German ships used.

German list: (5 pt raid) 

• Scharnhorst
• Admiral Graf Spee
• Köningsberg
• Karlsruhe
• Z23
• Z25
• Z26

We had a third person set up the islands and then we placed our fleets.

Germans and British face off against each other near some small islands

This was my very first game so it took a bit of explaining to get the rules, however they do appear quite simple to grasp, however mastering them is another issue as I soon found out.

Three German destroyers navigate some rocky islands preparing to assault the British.

After playing some Dystopian Wars where the Prussian fleet is quite good at close range I quickly set all ahead flank and closed in on the British vessels. However, in VaS the Germans are best at a distance and once in close proximity I took a pounding from the British cannons that left me wishing that I had kept my distance.

The game in progress

The game ended after about an hour when I lost my last ship, the Admiral Graf Spee to a duo of British coastal ships and their cannons.

Even though I lost I will admit that I find the game interesting and I will certainly be trying more of this. Also according to Mongoose Publishing a new version of VaS may be coming out in the late summer/fall, something I'll be watching closely.

Strange Aeons AAR

Styx over at Strange Aeons Adventures is running this cool AAR contest and so I thought I'd join that. The game we played for the AAR is "The Bad Place" from Shocking Tales 1 (sadly now OOP). Anyways I decided to do the AAR as a journal-like entry with a single picture and the rest as "pencil-drawings". Yes I know it's just a MS Word feature to make it look like pencil drawings, but I thought it fitted the journal style of the AAR. So without any further delay, directly from the journal of a Treshold Agent.

An idea for a paint rack

I was playing around with Google Sketch-up and got the idea to try to model a paint-rack/station.

I think it turned out fairly well, or at least it's a good place to start. The idea is that paint goes on the shelves (it will hold both GW as well as Vallejo and similar sized paint pots) while brushes and modellinge tools etc. goes in the rack on the side. The tray at the bottom is for the various odd size stuff that seems to accumulate on my desk.


Will this work?... I think so.

Check out the Q&A

Anatoli over at Anatoli's Game Room put up a  Q&A with Uncle Mike from Strange Aeons. For those interested in Strange Aeons I recommend going through it.

Another ship ready

Well finally I got around to taking a picture of the 2nd ship I've painted for Dreadfleed. This time it's Grimnir's Thunder.

More or less a simple model to paint, or a limited palette at least since there are details aplenty to feast your brush on ;)

I've painted the hull with a base of Vallejo Gunmetal and the gold parts with a mix of shining gold and charred earth (this really enhances the ability of the gold to cover the underlying paint). The machinery was painted with GW tin bitz and the balloon on the dirigbles with wolf grey.  A quick wash with devlan mud and some highlights and drybrushing and that was it.

And the result, well judge for yourself.

A little something in the mail

Today (or rather this morning at 7:30 AM) the doorbell rang and a letter was delivered. The object of such early delivery was upon opening the letter was this:

Yes the 3rd edition of Flames of War as a handy A5 format rulebook..free of charge (except postage that is). Along with the book also came this little sticker.

It is however, a truth with a large amount of modification that I'm a FoW veteran. Yes I own the v2 rulebook and I've read it, but I've yet to try out a single game of FoW ;)

Anyways, something else has arrived too, something which I've eagerly awaited for quite a while now.

Yes it is 28 mm napoleonic miniatures for some Black Powder/Waterloo gaming. So far my force consists of 2 battalions of line infantry and some heavy cavalry. Nothing impressive but a start at least and hopefully I'll have these opened up and ready for painting soon.

The Shadewraith

Finally finished the first ship for Dreadfleet, the Shadewraith, painted as follows:

1. Basecoated with Vallejo Wolf Grey
2. A liberal wash of GW Thraka Green
3. Drybrush of Vallejo Wolf Grey
4. Seaweed painted with Vallejo Scorched Earth and a wash of GW Badab Black
5. Random spalshes of a watered down mix consisting of Thraka Green, Goblin Green, Sun Yellow. 

And here are the pics.

This was actually a nice and quite fast model to paint so for now I don't feel intimidated by taking on more of these ships, although I do realise that the level of detail is vastly increased when we get to ships like Heldenhammer etc.

Anyways, next up on the workbench is Grimnir's Thunder!

A Game for Gentlemen & Fiends...

As the title says, a game for gentlemen and fiends. This is of course the upcoming 28 mm horror skirmish game from West Wind Productions called Empire of the Dead.

Quickstart rules are now available from the West Wind forums and I'll give them a read for sure. The description of the game as given by Andy Cooper on the West Wind forum is:

Welcome to the Empire of the Dead. It is 1888 and much of the world is in turmoil. The great discovery of the age, Infernium, has brought technological advancements barely dreamed of just a few years ago. Its discovery, however, has stirred the basest instincts of man and nature alike. The lines between right and wrong or good and evil have become blurred as factions battle not only for control of the streets but the very future of mankind. 

From the forests of Eastern Europe to the rookeries of London, factions have come together in their quest to defend the natural order of life or to simply achieve their own ends. When you step into the world of Empire of the Dead you enter a place where only your wits and tactical thinking offer hope of survival. As the leader of your Faction your task is to ensure that those who serve you survive whatever fate has to throw at them. In that way lies the route to your own advancement and enhanced power and influence. Your position, though, requires you to also serve your own masters, the leaders of your clan, club or order. Only by doing that, however obscure their purpose may seem, can you hope to avoid the assassin’s knife or wellplaced bullet.

Whether your allegiances lie with the Holy Orders of the Church, the Lycaon and their dedication to the protection of the natural order, the ancient evil of the Nosferatu or the gentlemen of the Clubs; the world that you are entering conceals many dangers and challenges for the unwary. In the Empire of the Dead nothing is as it seems. Today’s allies may be tomorrow’s sworn enemies and even the local populace may turn at a moment’s notice from a placid flock to an angry mob. Fame, fortune and unbelievable power will find those with the cunning and tenacity to survive the fortunes of the fight, ignominy and death await the rest. From the polluted streets of the city’s rookeries to the calm tranquillity of the countryside, nowhere is immune from the intrigue of the Empire. So set aside all that you know, be afraid of every corner and remember that myth and legend are just a way to hide the true horrors of the world.

This is bound to get interesting.

Strange Aeons & UFO Enemy Unknown

Something really neat that's going on these days are discussions of playing UFO Enemy Unknown using the Strange Aeons ruleset. The idea was sprung by MrHarold and the main discussion is happening at the Lead Adventure Forum and I strongly recommend joining the fun.

Most of you probably recall UFO Enemy Unknown as the game where you defend earth against an alien invasion released by Microprose back in 1994 and if not I'm sure this screenshot from will boost your memory.

I myself have just recently reacquired the game through Steam and currently I'm enjoying a good deal of old-school alien annihalation :)

New minis and some painting

Today is a day with several posts as several things are going on that should be mentioned.

After my initial post about the Panzer IV it's time to show off some new minis from Uncle Mike and Strange Aeons.

These little cuties came in the post recently and I'm desperately trying to find the time to do some more painting, however at the moment time is a limited resource :) Anyways, here are the minis.

from left to right these are: Maniac Santa (X-mas limited edition miniature), zombie priest, zombie, zombie bride, another zombie (reminds me of the boomers from L4D2) and in front a zombie dog. So as you can see a lot of zombie goodness.

Another thing I want to show today is some things I just painted up. At the time the pics were taken a liberal amount of devlan mud had been applied to the pieces, so when that dries up they'll recieve a final highlight of some golden nuance.

As the more observant probably have noticed the pieces are from GW's Dreadfleet. And yes, the truth cannot be hidden, at times I'm still a GW fanboy, although I try to limit that to these limited run board games such as Dreadfleet and of course Space Hulk when that was re-released a few years back.

Some more Panzer IV goodness

So after a few days suffering from a cold I'm more or less back on my feet, and I guess it is about time that I show some pictures of the PSC PzIV's that I posted about recently.

The pack contains 5 sprues as the one below

Each sprue contains enough parts for 1 tank with the possibility for 4 variations. These are the Panzer IV ausf. F1, F2, G and H (ausf. H is the variant with Schürtzen).

The tank is quite easy to assemble and a full assembly of the ausf. F2 took approx 15 mins, and here is the result.

I am quite confident that I'll be getting more of these for some WWII gaming.

Easy tank assembly

I just realised that last week I promised to bring some 15mm german tanks for a game this thursday so with the utmost haste I found my box of Panzer IV's from the Plastic Soldier Company. Now this is the first time I've tried any of their products, but I have to say I am pleased. The assembly of the Panzer IV ausf. F2/G was fun and quick.

Tomorrow when I get my camera found I'll post some pics of the tanks as well as a lot of other ongoing projects...

Something new from Strange Aeons

Something very neat coming up for those that are into Strange Aeons. If you go to the Lead Adventure forum you will see that Strange Aeons is going to start up a program of sorts which is lifetime membership of Cult of the Black Goat which will earn you a T-shirt and an annual miniature. I know I'll be waiting anxiously to join the fun and the quest for world domination ;)

For those of you that don't know Strange Aeons, then it is a very nice little skirmish game based around the Cthulhu mythos and the works of H.P. Lovecraft. It basically pits the protagonists which are a group of special Treshold agents against the evil lurkers. Lurkers which may be everything from lowly cultists to demons and things men were not meant to see or even know about. It's fast paced I would say with the option of character development for the Treshold team, allowing them to face more and more sinister creatures. More info can be found and the website and LAF (see the links section).

A Little Progress

So finally got a few weapons and shields mounted on the vikings, however the spears especially suffers from flashings and seems a little below par in the casting. Still the minis are a joy to assemble, fairly decent fits and possibility to add weapons of choice to most of the poses. Most of the bondi however seems most correct with spears, as it should be, so no complaints there.

So that didn't really kick of very well

Well all the best intentions and nothing came out of that initial attempt to get a blog going. Anyways, time for round 2 here in 2012. So far there are a few projects already competing for my attention (and this is only the miniature related projects) but I guess I'll try to spread my time a little over them.

First of all I'm eagerly awaiting some 28mm napoleonics from Perry Miniatures. Some french line infantry and som calavry, then we're going to give Black Powder and perhaps Waterloo from Warhammer Historical a spin.

Secondly I took the opportunity at Horisont III in November to stock up on Dystopian Wars so now I have two fleets lying ready for priming and painting. However, while they are in "dry-dock" they have gained the full attention of my son who finds it so very fun to play with daddy's warships...playing AND learning, for we have now discovered that ships are not just ships, but there are frigates, cruisers and battleships (or well the equivalent danish words at least), so for now I think I'll let him have his fun with the DW minis.

Finally, and this one just put all my other projects on hold. SAGA vikings, these I just have to get painted ASAP. Currently the minis are based and tonight I hope I might add weapons to the hands of the brave and fierce vikings.