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Tuesday 24 July 2012

"Do you want to know more?"

My new 15mm Starship Troopers project is coming along fairly well, so I thought it was time I posted something...

First up, the handful of warrior bugs that I have completed so far:


They are from Khurasan's range, but I am trying to paint them black/red/yellow like the ones from the movie. The light has made them look a bit greyer than they are in real life.

For the humans I have completed two Light Armour Squads and some Power Armour figures (all GZG):



I have several more bugs to complete as well as a few more squads of humans. As I was trying out the rules again today, I thought I'd present a little walk-through of a simple turn to show how the game plays.






This example only displays the simplest parts of the game. You can have multi-hit units, air-support, tunnelling, bug holes and much more with these rules. I am impressed by the way in which they are familiar yet at the same time have a lot of differences which add up to a fresh experience. I look forward to building my collection of figures and playing more games.

Friday 13 July 2012

Getting my mojo back...

Well, it has been a tough couple of months. Not for any 'real' reason of course, I am purely referring to my hobby output! Real life is just fine, but not something I concern myself with in this blog!

What has been tough has been my painting output and my disinclination to put a brush to anything vaguely 28mm tall. It seemed to start when I was painting my Warhammer army for 3rd Edition and just couldn't muster the energy to finish even 500 points of troops. Fortunately my friend was terribly understanding about it and did not grumble. It probably helped that my ramshackle Empire force was utterly trounced by his gloriously painted High Elves.

But this fielding of an unpainted army was obviously of great concern to me and I went into a period of hobby-hibernation (as evidenced by my lack of posts). However, something slowly started to change. I became inspired to start a little 15mm project which I had been wanting to get off the ground (http://15mmhavoc.blogspot.co.uk/) and I found I really enjoyed painting the little fellows. So perhaps scale was an issue?

Thinking about the two big projects which have entirely stalled in the past, WW1 and WAB, it struck me that they were both 28mm games which required a fair number of units to be painted. The more I thought about it, the more I felt that this was the crux of the issue. As a result I have cut back on my 28mm projects to a few 'core' games which I either can't, or don't want to, game in 15mm:
  • Pirates
  • Doctor Who
  • Lord of the Rings
  • Warhammer Fantasy 3rd Ed
  • Rogue Trader
  • Gorkamorka
  • Star Wars
All except WHF are really skirmish games and Star Wars doesn't require any painting!

I have played All Things Zombie and, most recently, The Department in 15mm and it proved that even skirmish games can work in that scale (at least as far as I am concerned). As for the rest, between manufacturers such as Khurusan, Rebel Minis, GZG and Peter Pig (to name just a few) there is very little that cannot be done in 15mm. And of course there are profound benefits in terms of cost and storage.

As if to cement my decision, I leaped into a new sci-fi project with great fervour, the fruits of which are almost ready to be blogged about. I am able to paint figures without succumbing to utter tedium and the speed with which they can be painted means I feel like progress is fast and constant.

So my decision is to shift all my gaming primarily to 15mm from hence forth. Of course, none of this is to say I feel that it is objectively a 'better scale', just that I have been lucky enough to find what I think really suits me as a wargamer.

Hopefully you will see some interesting posts in the not too distant future.

Monday 2 July 2012

It's all a bit quiet!

Well, it has been a very long time since I posted anything. To be honest I have been woefully unproductive on the painting front, and almost as unproductive on the gaming front... Last Saturday night I did get a chance to play the Gears of War boardgame, which is a really fun solo/co-op game. The enemy AI is really rather effective and you feel under constant pressure as a player, two things which are essential to a solo game, in my opinion.

A hoard of Tickers prepare to be blown sky high...

My guys getting brutalised by the far superior AI!

Today I got to play my first games of Commands and Colours: Napoleonics. I was a slightly unsure as I have mixed feelings on the underlying system from my experiences with Memoir '44 and Battlelore, but this was a very different beast. Highly enjoyable. We played twon and a half games and perhaps were a little ambitious trying to re-fight Waterloo when we didn't have much time left, but the end result was that I really want to play this again as soon as possible.


Waterloo, C&C:N style
Apart from that I have a whole new 15mm project which I will be starting soon. I will be posting more on that as soon as the figures arrive, Can't wait!