June 24, 2009
New Paint Rack
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Originally uploaded by msoong
The new 100 bottle paint rack from Hydra Miniatures as it sits on my desk (the scary part is that I almost filled it the first go!).
Painting wise just finished up some long dormant Soviet Tank riders for Flames of War. Next on the painting block is some odds and ends Soviet t-34 and the rest of the Ru Rocket troops. (on a Flames of War kick right now, enjoying the Operation Bagration releases)..
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April 29, 2009
War of the Ring
Sorry about the lack of update. There's a very good reason for that: The new War of the Ring release from GW. I have spent most of my hobby time in the last 2 months either trolling trolling through eBay looking for figures, painting them, or working on building an army.
The Rules are probably the best I've seen from GW (some called it what Warhammer Fantasy battle SHOULD be). The rules are more abstract than WHFB (you do not worry about strict movement paths and number of figures in a rank. Geometry is much less important which I feel is what make games like WHFB or DBx complicated.
While it shares the figure range with their skirmish game (Strategy Battle game, often called LOTR:SBG for short), the rules are very different, not just a mass combat "variant". Basic turn structure is still interleaved IGO-UGO (I move, you move, I shoot, you shoot, I charge, you charge, then we fight melee). The concept of MIGHT is also preserved (i.e. heros use might to do cool things). Some other major difference:
1) Organization: Figures are organized into company (a stand) of 8 inf or 2 cav, and then company is organized into "Formations" (Units) of from 1 to 9 companies, depending on troop type.
2) Mechanics: Movement is very stylized. If you have enough distance you can move a company, exact how you get there is not important so this should speed up play and cut down on argument.
3) Fighting: Instead of rolling hit/kill/saves, the system gets converted into a single throw of massive number of dice. If you get offended throwing 40 dice in one combat then this is not a system for you.
4) Magic: A new spell system for GW that let you cast varaible number of spells with variable likelyhood of success. Some does not like the uncertainty but being a gamer who believe in Chaotic school of rules I like it.
5) Heoric Actions: A major theme of the game IMO. WHile rank and file troops can perform ordinary feats of arms, the game is won through using a hero's might at critical moments to achieve that special advantage. The amount of special actions has been greatly expanded to allow more interesting combos.
My thoughrs after about 4 games:
A) Speed of play. The game moves fast. With when a charge goes off it's not surprising to see entire formation decimated. Definitely not a good set of rules to simulate attritional warfare, but makes for a good fantasy rules set with strong narrative.
B) Modern Game play: Since the arrival of magic many game systems have a "combo" type of hook (Warmachine is the first thing that comes to mind). Now WOTR bring the same kinda of mechanism to Massed army games. While some may decry this as "cheese", what happens in WOTR are not really broken IMO so it gives it that extra tactical dimension of "getting your combo out".
C) Cool Models: FOr once GW launches a new system and all 8 factions are more or less complete with figures (there are new stuff coming out of course but there's enough core troops to get started now). I've always liked the range but never really collected given that I am not a big fan of the SBG rules (I play for social reason since many in my gaming circle are fans). One additional good thing about the figs: They are relatively easy to paint given their muted palate so you can crank out an army pretty fast (I did 18 Riders of Rohan in 2 evenings, must be a record for me).
So now I have a 1000 pts Rohan army and a 1000 orc army. Next some battle reports...
Posted by msoong at 11:56 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (2)
February 03, 2009
My First 40k Game
My First 40k Game
Originally uploaded by msoong
I painted up a Space Marine battle force because "My friend's kids was getting into it and I wanted to fit in". So after about 1,000 pts of forces painted and no kids in sight (they might have lost their interest), Chris finally brought his Imperial Guards from Canada during his last trip home over the holidays. Now I have an opponent (no I was not going to play in the local flgs and play with unpainted figs).
This is a learning game, as I have not read through all the rules yet. a small (~500 pts) army on each side, trying to collect as many objectives as possible. My experience with FoW paid off, as there are many similarities. The only part I need to get used to is this new WYSIWYG LOS rules, which means most ordinances can fire across the entire table (you just get a small cover save).
It is entertaining in a B-movie action flick kinda way. So while not something I'll get carried away with, I can see occasional game to pass the time.
Posted by msoong at 05:47 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (7)
Battle of Tamai (Battles for Empire AAR)
Battle of Tamai
Originally uploaded by msoong
We had another outing of this large action colonial rules. This time using Bob's 15mm Sudan figures. Given the smaller scale we can have tons of units and that's just what we did.
We tried the Tamai scenario right out of the rulebook. From the description it looked kinda boring: 2 giant square moving down the board and the natives have to stop them. After reading the details you realize that there's a time pressure so the Brits can't just stay in square formation (which moves very slowly), but have to break formation to move faster which gives the natives a chance to do some damage.
The game went really close, and my Fuzzies barely won the game near the end of the day (I need to kill 3 british infantry units). A great scenario!
Posted by msoong at 05:36 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (7)
Crossfire AAR
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Originally uploaded by msoong
I have been hearing how "revolutionary" a ruleset Crossfire is for the better part of a decade now, and my buddy Freddy is a proponent. But due to lack of broad local support, and just that lack of "something" while reading the rules means that I didn;t really get to try it until now.
What changed is that now we are playing almost every week, and we are off to explore what other rulesets can we use with our good sized Flames of Wars army. with some help from Freddy we got a game on.
We played an intro scenario we got from a CF fan site. The situation is a small town in Normandy defended by the US Para, and being counter attacked by German infantry with 1x tank support. The rules really is revolution in that:
1) it has no turns. If you have played Blood Bowl then you have a similar situation (if you keep executing "successful" actions then you keep going, the turn immediately switches if you failed an action.
2) Simple rules (a D6 diepoll mechanism where level of success depends on how many D6 "passed")
3) Extremely exciting and stressful (in a good way)
The stress sometimes cause us players to fo into befuddled mode ("What do I do now?") To increase the stress someone suggested using a chess clock to definitely kick it up a notch.
That said there are some minus:
- It's definitely not a "general" set of rules that can be used in any situation. For one thing a good CF scenario requires a lot of cover on the table (basically LOF is across the table since there are really no measureing. So if you have clear LOS to a target, its days are numbered). By that measure any engagement in wide open terrain is not a good candidate for these rules.
- Not really designed for AFV. Come on, I want all my shiny tanks on the table!
So a set of rules for an occasional outing, especially for city/village scenarios where other rules sucks at.
Posted by msoong at 10:27 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (18)
January 04, 2009
Projects for 2009
Last entry I attempted to organize my thoughts a bit on more of the mid/longer term hobby projects to create army pairs. In conjunction with other immediately playable projects, my painting schedule should look like this:
1) Finish the Perry Sudan British & 2x Fuzzy unit that's currently sitting on the desk.
2) Finish the rest of my 40k Space Marine force so I can start my games with Chris.
3) Finish basing & flocking my ENTIRE Ankara project (Ottoman and Timurids).
4) Finish the rest of my Perry Sudan figures.
5) Finish the rest of my Xyston Ancient 15mm.
Posted by msoong at 10:36 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (14)
January 03, 2009
Army Pairs
Resolution for 2009:
- No more lead purchase until existing mountain of lead has been taken care of. By "Taken Care" that means either painted, packed off to a painting service, or sold off.
Now supplementing a unit here or there for a current "active" army is an exception to the rule above.
- Projects will be structured so that working toward playable games (and that means having a matching pair of playable armies). After carefully tallying, I am actually surprised that many of my armies are lacking so that I can't setup a playable scenario without outside help.
SO taking stock of what I have:
COMPLETE (enough to put on a decent sized game, and this means painted and flocked)
a) Colonial (Brits vs Zulus, Dervishes, Pathans, Boxers). For the Dervishes I am in the process of phasing out bunch of older figures and replacing them with Perry.
b) WW2 15mm (a pair of FoW US and Ge army, at around 1750 pts each).
c) Nappy 15mm (big Russian army, and a small French army due to selling off of some crappier older figs, due to be replaced by AB figs.
d) WHFB (a painted High Elf army and an Empire army).
That's it, which is shocking small actually. Next the near complete army pairs (con't)
Posted by msoong at 08:26 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (1)
December 05, 2008
Perry River Arabs
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Originally uploaded by msoong
I didn't paint these. Figures are from a Bartertown purchase which has then been replaced on new bases and mounted 5 to a stand. Gives a good mass look...
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Magic Dipped Perry Sudan British
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Originally uploaded by msoong
(Click through for more pix)
Here's a Perry Sudan unit painted using the magic dip method. I found that my previous 4 figs on a 50mmx50mm stand to be a little too "thin" with these new Perry figs (they work fine for the NWF Foundry figs also by the Perry brothers which at that time the figure are bulkier). So now for a more "massed" look I went to 6 figs on a 50mm x 50mm stand for formed infantry, and 5 figs for Native irregulars (because they are more spread out so takes up more space). Definitely looks better (if not more expensive since I'll need more figures now for the same number of units)...
Posted by msoong at 03:51 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (7)
Battle for Empire AAR
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Originally uploaded by msoong
A NW Frontier game at Nick's new dig. I have not touch these rules since it first came out (and I forgot why I didn't like it much back then), but had a great time this time around.
For those of you not familiar, the rules are reminiscent of Fire and Fury (Every troop type have an action chart that incorporates command control and morale. So before you can take your turn you roll on the chart, if lucky you move normally or even get some extra movement. If you roll poorly it simulates some command problem and you might move very little or stand still. If unit is already in bad shape then it could get rallied or might even run off the board).
It's definitely for larger actions more than the mass skirmish scale favored by the Sword and Flame set. It moves briskly and our action concluded in about 3~4 hours. Maneuver tends to be more restrictive (i.e. formed troops can not move and fire, facing change and formation change could be slow, etc.) so forces the player to plan ahead. It's definitely not as "chaotic" from my normal PIQUET/FIELD OF BATTLES school, and that is both a plus and a minus depending on your gaming style (or mood).
I would definitely use these rules again for larger and more "formal" colonial battles. For action that requires more "wild factors" I'll probably stick with Field of Battles.
Posted by msoong at 03:45 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (1)