Blood Bowl

Comrade James's recent Bloodbowl posts have started me itching for a game - only fair I guess, I corrupt him regularly... and we are overdue to contest our own personal grudgematch: The Shamrock Cup (its a long story).  Plus, Ive come to realise that the Lad is probably about ready for BB from a rules perspective.  So whats about?

First Up- I'd forgotten the Eucaplyptus Cup, an annual event held in Sydney which is a little far away, but has some fun stuff there.
http://eucalyptus-bowl.doubleskulls.net/index.php

Ironically, I also found a new BB tourney in Canberra (the ACT BB League)  now that I've moved away too...
http://www.southernvalley.bloodbowlleague.com/default.asp?p=cp&cpid=2

And even the local Melbourne League is over an hour away.... They run a campaign league and recently a weekend tourney- "Blocktober"!
http://melbourne.bloodbowlleague.com/?p=fr

AUSBowl also provides some good stuff for Aussie players:
http://www.ausbowl.com/index.php






I also have a team of these lovely ladies in the Man Cave somewhere waiting for some attention (and paint). They are made by the Australian Company Shadowforge, who do some great female BB teams including Nuns and She-Orcs! http://www.shadowforge.com.au/

Goblin Forge does some interesting fantasy football figs:
http://www.goblinforge.com/catalogue_famille.php?Id=1

as does Heresy: Minotaurs, Cyclops & Barbarians:
http://www.heresyminiatures.com/deathball.htm

For a laugh, check out all these special minis made over the years for special events:
http://www.blood-bowl-miniatures.de/bb/bb_selfmade.html

The NAF is a worldwide BB organisation with all sorts of docs and goodies available

http://www.thenaf.net/







And there are lots of good tactics articles at the BloodBowl Playbook website:

http://bbtactics.com/

Finally, those of you wondering what all this BB stuff is about should consider:

Rugby + American Football + Violence + possibility of death + fantasy monsters/creatures/beings = Blood Bowl

Now go read the free articles at GW:
http://www.games-workshop.com/gws/content/article.jsp?catId=cat200198&categoryId=1100006&section=&aId=4800003

Got another good BB resource or link? Let me know!

Why you should never question a Drunk...

I was shopping at the local supermarket where I selected:
A Litre of low fat milk
A Dozen eggs
A 2L bottle of orange juice
A lettuce
A Container of coffee
A 500g of Rindless Bacon
 
As I was unloading my items on the conveyor belt to check out, a drunk
standing behind me watched as I placed the items in front of the cashier.
While the cashier was ringing up the purchases, the drunk calmly stated,
'You must be single.'
   
I was a bit startled by this proclamation, but I was intrigued by the derelict's
intuition, since I indeed had never found Mr. Right.

I looked at the six items on the belt and saw nothing particularly unusual
about my selections that could have tipped off the drunk to my marital status..

Curiosity getting the better of me, I said, 'Yes you are correct.  But how on earth
did you know that?'

The drunk replied, 'Cause you're ugly.'

Consimworld review of DA

A good read with a bit more detail and "how-to" than the previous reviews I've posted here.

Brother Zael, sole survivor. Witness the last seconds of his life!

http://wargamecenter.wordpress.com/2010/10/26/review-space-hulk-%E2%80%93-death-angel-the-card%C2%A0game/

Game 2....Ogres hurt....

Well, Game 2 didn't go so well....if you read my earlier post from last week you know I'm in a 5 game mini tournament for Blood Bowl, and after a 2-0 victory , my Dark Elves were pumped for a repeat performance. Except I didn't count on meeting 5 big smelly Ogres and their annoying yet nimble Snotling team mates....

I received the kick, and after a riot burnt a turn off each sides clock, was able to pass and run the ball in for a touchdown on Turn 3. 1-0 to me, all good so far...my opponent managed to sneak a snotling into 5 squares from my endzone on turn 7, then tried throwing the ball to him from another snotling on the half way line,but little snotlings aren't the best throwers (little arms, you see...) so the ball fell short.My turn and I thought I better smash the snotling about to try and score, so proceeded to throw a 3 dice block against him (that's as good as it gets) and only pushed him. Now, the thing about snotlings...they have side step. Which is an annoying little special rule that allows them to choose which adjacent square they will be pushed into...so of course, my opponent chose the square with the ball...surprise surprise Mr Snotling succeeds in picking up the ball, and then dodges out and then into the endzone for the equaliser...1-1...half time.

After Half time I had to kick off as I received at game start, and the bounce put the ball into the crowd, allowing my opponent to give it to any of his players. SO what would any self respecting Ogre team coach with 5 ogres and 6 snotlings on the pitch do? He gives it to his ogre in the middle of course...what followed for 6 turns was a demonstration of what happens when a coach remembers he has hulking brutes with Mighty Blow...I lost 7 of my 13 players to the injury dug out in as many turns, including 3 out of 4 blitzers and my assassin....needless to say, the big Ogre with the ball lumbered his way to the end zone, sending Dark Elves flying in his path...2-1 Ogres...2 turns to go.... My brave 6 remaining players, including the Witch Elf Blitzer Captain, dusted themselves off, and with a characteristic sneer lined themselves up to receive the kick off as best they could.In true Bloodbowl style, they managed to position themselves with a bit of deft dodging to have the Witch elf blitz a snotling ball carrier (he got the ball after my original ball carrier was tackled) and then pass it to the only Dark Elf still on his feet and not stunned (Those Ogres wouldn't let up!) who was a mere 3 squares from the endzone and in the clear...however, even her agility couldn't compensate for the presence of two ogres looming over her (-2 tackle zones) and she fluffed the pass (needed a 6). The ball sailed over the head of the lineman and bounced frustratingly into the endzone...turnover...game over.... Loved it, I was amazed I got anywhere near looking like a draw after the pummeling we received throughout the second half, but the Bloodbowl dice gods are fickle and filled with...a sense of humour...MVP for me would have to be the two linemen with the Dauntless skill, that enables them to match up to a stronger opponent using an equal strength (after a die roll to see if they can use their skill) more than once these guys were actually able to block and even knock down an Ogre or two in the first half, which made them Ogre Enemy No.1 in the second half....the apothecary says they should recover in time for the next game....

Orcs next week, and my team are already planning how to poison their drinking water.....speaking of the orcs, after they defeated the same Dark Elf team I did last week , also 2-0, they went down 3-1 to the Skaven team last night...and yes Tas, there is a Rat Ogre in that team!

Thirsty Friar

is now brewing with bottling scheduled for next week.   This time its a Belgian styled Golden Ale.

Spearpoint 1943 Expansion announced

The first of many I'm sure:

Frontline General: Spearpoint 1943
Village and Defensive Line Map Expansion

Expand your copy of Spearpoint 1943 with the new Village and Defensive Line Map Expansion!  This expansion uses the cards in the base game of Spearpoint 1943 and adds new depth to the system, 4 new situations with fictional intros by Mark H. Walker, beautiful Marc von Martial artwork, large die-cut 1” general counters and 4” obstacle and building tiles, printed rules/situation booklet, and a gorgeous two-sided 12.5”x36.5” Village / Defensive Line map inspired by 1943 Italian terrain.

More previews of this expansion will follow, but for now, take a look at a portion of the Village side of the map by Marc von Martial (Left). Note that each square zone is 4” x 4”!. The preview to the left shows two of the eighteen overlay tiles- one is an intact building, the other is a minefield.

Features

Memoir '14

MEMOIR'14 is a non official (and free!) add-on which allow you to use the MEMOIR'44 rules to play during the Early Great War.

http://gloarmy.blogspot.com/search/label/memoir%2714

Beer by Seven Year Olds

A handful of 7 year old children were asked what they thought of beer. There were some interesting responses, but the last one is especially touching.

'I think beer must be good. My dad says the more beer he drinks the prettier my mum gets.'
--Tim, 7 years old

'Beer makes my dad sleepy and we get to watch what we want on television when he is asleep, so beer is nice.'
--Melanie, 7 years old

'My Mum and Dad both like beer. My Mum gets funny when she drinks it and takes her top off at parties, but Dad doesn't think this is very funny.'
--Grady, 7 years old

''My Mum and Dad talk funny when they drink beer and the more they drink the more they give kisses to each other, which is a good thing.'
--Toby, 7 years old

'My Dad gets funny on beer. He is funny. He also wets his pants sometimes, so he shouldn't have too much.
--Sarah, 7 years old

'My Dad loves beer. The more he drinks, the better he dances. One time he danced right into the pool.'
--Lily, 7 years old

'I don't like beer very much. Every time Dad drinks it, he burns the sausages on the barbecue and they taste disgusting.'
--Ethan, 7 years old

'I give Dad's beer to the dog and he goes to sleep.'
--Shirley, 7 years old

AND THE BEST RESPONSE

'My Mum drinks beer and she says silly things and picks on my father. Whenever she drinks beer she yells at Dad and tells him to go bury his bone down the street again, but that doesn't make any sense.'
--Jack, 7 years

Dark Age shield patterns

Look Mum - no decals! Good examples of Dark Age patterns on small shields - all painted freehand 

http://www.lloydianaspects.co.uk/models/shieldpat.html

With some more here:
http://battlegroundhobbies.blogspot.com.au/2012/08/viking-shield-design-for-our-saga.html

Game 1:Painted Figures Play Better.....

After 15 years from the day they were painted by a friend of mine and Tas's (Matt), my Dark Elf BloodBowl team finally had their first 'proper' game. Each year my games club, Group North Historical Wargaming Society, holds an internal Bloodbowl tournament. The tournament is run over as many nights as needed for each player to play each other, and this year I was hoping to do better than my win-less last placing last year......

So on Wednesday night, the Coromandel Nightmares faced off against a rival Dark Elf team, the SOmething Something Revenge.... I lost the toss and kicked off, but through some bloodbowl luck was able to get the ball from my opponent and run it in for a touchdown. For the uninitiated, Bloodbowl Luck is when everything is going spiffingly then you fail a sure roll and your opponent (me) is able to snatch an interception... The remainder of the half was simply dark elves beating up each other for no score, which again was very Bloodbowl-like.... I received the kick off in the second half, and was able to create a corridor with no opponents in it to try and intercept my linemans pass to my blitzer who was in the opponents half. She (I was using a Witch Elf as the blitzer) raced at full pelt for the endzone, and managed two 'Go for its' to run it in for Touchdown no.2... I nearly handed my opponent a chance to make a come back after tackling and getting the ball, attempting to pass it clear of my half only to have it intercepted by his fastest player, who stumbled on his second 'Go for it' literally one square short of the end zone...another of my players grabbed it up and we kept it for the remainder of the game to run out the clock.

So Game one and I'm already doing better than last year...next week I'm up against a mystery team and will report as soon after I can..

Runestones and Menhirs

A quick tutorial about basing and painting a runestone/way-marker/menhir from Gareths' blog here:

http://awargamersprogress.blogspot.com/2010/01/hello-and-welcome-to-wargamers-progress.html

Step 1

Okay, I didn’t take a picture of the pre-basing stage, but it’s hardly rocket science, right?  First you’ve got to find yourself a suitable monolithic column, this can be a stone from your garden or a commercially available piece cast (usually) in resin.  Because I wanted something a bit special I opted for ‘viking runestone 4’ from those lovely people over at Fenris Games.  The piece duly arrived and I was very impressed by its detail and size (just over 3” tall and about 1.1/2” across at the base).  The stone is based on the impressive memorial picture stone from Stora Hammars, Sweden, and is rendered in exquisite and accurate detail.  Unfortunately this is to be used for fantasy gaming so historical accuracy ain’t remotely important, but, still, kudos where kudos is due.  

Before commencing with the technical side of things give your monolithic column (MC, from now on) a good scrubbing (that goes for stone and resin, though obviously don’t be too rough if the latter).  Initially I based mine on an 8cm mini disc (ebay, obviously), with the column sat on a small rectangle of corrugated fiberboard to raise it slightly, but then decided something grander was needed and glued the lot onto a standard CD which further gave the impression the stone is sat on a small raised mound.  Hooray!

Step 2

Next up I whipped out the indispensable B&Q Ready Mixed Filler and liberally slapped the stuff on, smoothing it out as it became pliable (it can initially be pretty wet), especially round the edges.  Being a true artist I use my finger for this operation (usually my right index), though it does necessitate frequent trips to the sink to get the clinging stuff off your hands!  People who wear gloves for this are without exception ‘of the other persuasion’.  When it was looking suitably dome-esque I left it to dry overnight.   Kurwa mać!

Step 3

Next cover the base with a coat of barely watered-down PVA which seals the filler and acts as an adhesive for further texturing.  Before the PVA is dry (hurry, it won’t take long) lightly sprinkle on some fine gravel/cat litter/whatever, especially around the base of your MC, followed by a liberal dusting of fine sand all over.   

Any further details like skulls et cetera can be added at this stage, though I suggest using superglue for such larger additions.  My skulls (see finished picture, below) came from the Freebooter Miniatures pack (Shop>Accessory) - I bought mine through Allsorts Emporium UK - and were a tad pricey to say the least, and I was especially irked to find that 12 of the 20 ‘skulls’ are in fact flat-backed decals!  Argh!  I knew I should have waited for Battle Wagon Bits to restock their Vampire Counts skeleton skulls, but there’s impatience for you…  Still, the ram’s skull does look rather spiffy.

Step 4

When everything’s nice and dry spray the entire thing black.  I use Halford’s Matt Black Spray Paint because it’s cheap and does the job proper well, innit?  Okay, now wait a few hours for the undercoat to dry before proceeding further.  When dry you can begin painting in earnest.  Obviously you can employ whatever colours suit your palate and/or coordinates with pre-existing terrain pieces, but for the curious I list my method here.  Firstly give the earth areas a good coat of Scorched Brown and the MC one of Graveyard Earth.  When dry give the earthen areas a fairly solid drybrush with Graveyard then liberally wash the MC with Devlan Mud followed by an overbrush with a 50:50 Graveyard/Kommando Khaki mix.  Drybrush both the earth and MC with Kommando Khaki, then make a Khaki/White mix at about 50:50 and lighty drybrush the whole thing.  Skulls are picked out with black, then painted Khaki, washed with Devlan Mud and highlighted with the same Khaki/White finishing mix but with a touch more white added.  Viola!  

Step 5

When all’s dry add some final extra detail.  I use Gale Force 9 Dead Static Grass sparingly around the edges and a few Fredericus Rex Dry Grass Clumps (Large and XL) here-and-there.  I did think about adding some piles of broken weapons, but in the end couldn’t be bothered.  Give the thing a good spray with a decent matte varnish if you want.

Step 6

Get your piece onto the field of battle!  I actually created a SBH scenario called The Boundary Marker for the specific use of this piece, which I’ll hopefully post here in the near future after some further tweaking.

Death Angel...through Skype!

After our initial concept test last week, it was time to give it a go!

Comrade James took the Librarian and Heavy Flamer combat teams, while I took the Sgt Lorenzo and Assault Cannon teams

Setup – Toxin Pumping station via the Munitorium and Baal Crypt.

We each ran matching card layouts on a table with a computer with camera facing our boards and a skype video call running.  I was the master controller from a card perspective, with James following suit on the ones I randomly drew.  I also had a beer (Evolution Ale, by Man Cave Brewery to be precise) but in keeping with his Librarian values, James kept his mind and body pure from potentially mind altering substances... 

The game progressed well and despite a few tense moments along the way we lost only a single Marine in compartment 3 (Brother Valencia, one of mine.  The Emperor’s peace is with him).  Brother Zael’s heavy flamer was instrumental in burning out the few larger swarms that showed up, though Brother Leon’s assault cannon and the Librarian’s psychic attack did for more than a few as well and we managed to kill most stealers before they could attack or congregate in large numbers.  Good use of support orders ensured that most marines also carried a support token or two for those essential re-rolls.  Marine Victory!  The pairs of terminators selected seemed to have good synergy, with strong attacks and useful special abilities that helped out by neutralising swarms when attacking wasn't possible. 

Comment on the use of Skype

In the end the cameras weren’t a great deal of use, though it was good for watching key die rolls, showing the results and watching the cards come up. But it was the use of voice that was key.  The only game modification was the “instinct’ cards which couldn’t really be played as such and there was a bit more discussion than technically permitted.

Playing via Skype also induced a bit of extra playing time (this game took right on two hours) because each time we travelled we spent a few minutes double checking our setups to ensure we had the same layout, and talking through each move to make sure we were aligned. Still being relatively new to the game probably didn’t help either.  

Overall, playing over Skype worked well despite the time issue - it was great fun and far better than playing solo.   The next evolution I think would be playing a three player game, incorporating the Lad, via Skype.

Spearpoint 1943 would work well over Skype too (hint hint Comrade!!!)

Death Angel Reference Cards

Thanks to Comrade for finding the very useful QR cards now up at the Universal Works here:

www.headlesshollow.com

Viking Longship

Making your own 28mm out of scrap?  This guy has done a great job!

http://www.lead-adventure.de/index.php?topic=21249.0

Or you can buy the Revell plastic kit one for 20 pounds if you are less gifted (like me!)

http://www.warlordgames.co.uk/?p=7385

Jackboots on Whitehall

Nazi Dinoriders now available from Eureka Miniatures

These are the great figs I had the pleasure using during the Jurassic Reich game at Little Wars back in May - great fun!  I already have a flight of Stukadactyls and my Weird German Army is probably big enough for now, so I'm thinking of converting these into Cossacks for a Russian force:-)
 ---------

Dateline - February 1943: the American push into North Africa is met with stiff opposition from Rommel's combat-hardened Afrika Korps. The official histories will tell of great numbers of inexperienced American troops fleeing Rommel’s panzers at Kasserine Pass, but those who were there know it took more than just a few tanks to strike such terror into the minds of so many young American soldiers. The truth was that they had to face a new horror - from another time. Squadrons of flying creatures - Pterodactyls! - armed with anti-tank weapons and bombs, had swooped down and relentlessly pursued the shocked Americans into the Atlas Mountains.





The Allied generals and their political masters were stunned. Where had these creatures come from? Stalin suspected an Anglo-American plot to deceive him created by those “degenerate capitalist tricksters in Hollywood”. Others simply refused to believe it. General Patton dismissed the Pterodactyls as the “Delusional rantings of a load of yellow bellies who need a good slapping!” - until two Pterodactyls strafed his car near Djedjelli. But in London the news struck a chord with British Intelligence who had been gradually piecing together the strange story of an ancient seven-sided archway (dubbed the 'Anubis Gate' because of the hieroglyphics that adorned it) that Napoleon's troops had uncovered in Egypt in 1801. Defying interpretation for almost a century and a half, the artefact had remained, almost forgotten, in a basement of the Louvre Museum. But within hours of the fall of Paris in 1940 a team from Himmler’s Ahnenerbe (the Nazi Occult Bureau) had arrived with a truck and they took the 'Anubis Gate' off to a secret location in Germany.





Sometime during 1941 the Nazis discovered that when ‘energised’ the artefact became a time portal to the prehistoric past. They sent through armed expeditions looking for ancestral Aryan supermen, but they returned with captured dinosaurs. Keen to explore the possibilities further, expeditions were sent to establish research and training facilities back on Cretaceous earth (and thus safe from Allied bombing). By the end of 1942 the Nazis had trained a number of units: the Kriegsclaws – Dinonicus (deinonychus) mounted SS cavalry; and the Pterowaffen – pterodactyls deployed as air defence fighters or in ground attack roles.

After their successful introduction in Africa, Hitler ordered the deployment of dinotruppen across Europe – on the Eastern Front (forcing even Stalin to acknowledge their existence), in the Balkans, along the coastline of Normandy, and in the defence of the Italian peninsula. The mountainous Balkans and the trackless wastes of the Russian steppes and forests became excellent hunting grounds for the Kriegsclaw; in fact wherever the terrain was impassable for vehicles or the distances so great that fuel supplies were an issue – these agile creatures were in their element. Principally used for screening and reconnaissance roles, the Kriegsclaw were occasionally used offensively to assault an enemy's flanks (as in the Kursk encirclement) or to cover infantry withdrawals. Nazi Germany had harnessed the greatest primeval forces the world has known - it was the dawn of Jurassic Reich …





Designed by Kosta Heristanidis and Mike Broadbent, these figures are part of our Pulpiations “pulp fiction” range and can be used alongside our “Dogface GI’s” or any number of 28mm World War Two ranges that are out there. Colour schemes are optional. We are looking forward to the heated internet forum debates over the correct camouflage colours to use, and telling us that the number of teeth we’ve given the Dinonicus is more appropriate to an Ausf C rather than an Ausf D.

http://eurekamin.com.au/news.php?newsid=EklZEuEuFATWHHLjGs

I want one!

How cool is this?
Geeky yes, but cool!

New German Super Soldier

By Studio Junger:

This big guy is the latest addition to the "Über" range of Weird War super soldiers under steroids...

Six-part, high quality resin, including scenic 40mm base, 55mm top of the helmet, 45mm to the eyes.

All spare parts are fully exchangeable with other Über models.
€13.00 EUR for one of these, €20.00 EUR for two, shipping is €5.50 EUR worldwide.


I really like this guy! But at 55mm to the top of the helmet that's not just an exaggerated super soldier, he is twice as big!


http://studio-junger.fr/uber/eng/

You wont find this in the Man Cave

Yep, I'm tough when the Mrs isnt around!

Realistic flock effects

A well written and illustrated tutorial about the application of flock, and what to do afterwards to really make it pop.

http://manorhouseworkshopmindstalkers.wordpress.com/tutorial/how-to-create-real-looking-grass/

...and then make realistic looking bushes on top:

http://manorhouseworkshopmindstalkers.wordpress.com/tutorial/how-to-realize-real-looking-bushes/

Death Angel - first game

Yes it has arrived - sweet :-)

First up - love the components: great quality, nice card texture, great graphics. Very cool.
Most importantly, the Lad bent down to sniff as the box was opened for the first time, exclaiming 'ahhh....that new box smell!" The young Padawan has learned well!

I must admit that I found the rules a little confusing to start with, but then once I had a play through with the cards in hand and it all made sense pretty quickly.

First full game last night - the Lad took Scipio and Zael combat teams while I took the Librarian and Sgt L.
Wow- talk about tense!  Stealers running everywhere, not enough firing opportunities, real coordination required between squads.  We managed to pull off a win, but only just and after losing 5 of our 8 marines.

Brother Zael's heavy flamer is awesome - load him up with some support tokens for timely re-rolls, and you can really take care of those swarms with righteous and purifying flame!

And to top all that off I gave Comrade James a bit of a spin through the rules (he bought a copy too) and we confirmed a technical proof of concept to play over Skype - looks very promising and I look forward to climbing through a Hulk at your side next week buddy!

Warhammer Doubles Day

The Labour Day public holiday in SA was an ideal opportunity for the keen Warhammer players of my Club to get together for an all day session of team-play Warhammer. 7 members were divided into the Forces of Order or the Forces of Destruction, depending upon their preferred army. Seven different races were represented , Lizardmen, Empire, High Elves and Dwarfs for Order, and Skaven, Daemons and Vampire Counts for the Forces of Destruction. The aim of the day was for every player to get at least 2 games of 3000 points in a team of 2, and as a bonus, a third game either as part of a pair (Forces of Order) or as a singleton in a 2000 pt game. There were no prizes up for grabs, just an opportunity to play in a team using the Alliance rules in the Warhammer 8th edition rulebook. Each player got half the points which when combined with their ally would make either a 3000pt or 2000 pt list. Most players hadn’t played too much 8th edition Warhammer, so the day was a great crash course in learning the rules and seeing how their armies faired against at least 3 other races, let alone when supported by another.

Features of the day included the sheer amount of fantasy terrain each game seemed to roll up, which really tested out players knowledge of the terrain rules, (and the rulebook index) and had varying effects on the way each game played and the feel of the battlefield. For me personally, it was great to exploit the opportunity afforded to me from no kids or other half around for an entire day....

Larry...Man of Wisdom

Clearly the cartoonists have mind melded with Tas and I this week....

Hagar

DIY Viking Longhouse

With a vew to the Hammer of the Gods project now underway, Ive been looking for appropriate scenery:

Viking Longhouse, step by step
http://www.lead-adventure.de/index.php?topic=21762.0

And a Longboat Paper Model
http://fitz.jsr.com/roleplay/props/other.html

Memoir 44: Winter Wars

Days of Wonder's latest offering for Memoir 44...
Just in time to make my Christmas list :-)

As would befit your ration pack if you were about to embark on one of the coldest and most bitter fights of the war, after 5 long years of weary battles, we have packed this expansion with every thing you could ever need to combat in a snow-covered environment.
But judge for yourself, soldier! Inside this pack you will find:

• 88 double-sided Winter tiles, 28 Special Unit badges, 20 round markers and 16 obstacles
• 20 Winter Combat cards, similar in concept to the Urban Combat cards introduced in Battle Map Volume 3 - Sword of Stalingrad
• 80 new Command cards, designed specifically for Breakthrough battles
• New Winter Combat rules
• New Troops, including the all new Tank Destroyer and Heavy Anti-Tank Gun units and Late War model versions of an Anti-Tank Gun, Mortar and Machine Gun

Nazi Zombies in Plastic

More options for shambling Teutonic hordes in your WWW2 games, or even to flesh out your Incursion set:

These multipart plastic miniatures are in 28mm. With two bodies, three sets of arms, 1 spare head and a German Army field cap per sprue you have over 100 different possible variations and that’s even before you use the same arms but in different positions.

These miniatures will come in a box set of 15 sprues giving you 30  different miniatures per set and will retail at £20 per box set.

Due for release soon!!!

http://www.studiominiatures.com/page2.html

Thanks to Steve B of Wessex games for the heads up through his Geheimkrieg blog:
http://geheimkrieg.blogspot.com/ 

Zombie Clowns?

So thats how they all cram into those little cars...

http://www.tengumodels.co.uk/index.htm

Tips for photographing your Models

Very useful miniature photography hints

http://schola-progenium.blogspot.com/2010/09/macro-photography-and-miniatures-basic.html

there are some more here at TGN:
http://www.tabletopgamingnews.com/category/photography

 And finally some from the Knights of Bretonnia site:
http://www.roundtable-bretonnia.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=546&Itemid=1

From the North they came...

Mea Culpa- I cant help myself sometimes!   But in fairness, take a look at the quality and cost of these great Vikings and Saxons by Wargames Factory - just the thing for a handful of figs each and a bout of skirmishing.

Hammer of the Gods- 28mm Dark Ages Vikings and Saxons in hard plastic:
http://www.wargamesfactory.com/webstore
with a review of them here: http://www.hourofwolves.org/?view=articles&which=vikingFaceOff

Shield Design transfers would work well with these chaps http://www.littlebigmenstudios.com/catalog/
and here are some thoughts on wargaming the Dark Ages to corrupt you too http://www.nhmgs.org/articles/darkages.html

And finally, the 6 stages of drinking - as told by Vikings: hillarious!!!
http://www.io.com/~beckerdo/games/articles/VikingDrinkers/index.html

So yes, I've ordered some of these (as have Ken and Pete) so a few raids by Olaf the Hairy & friends are on the cards!

The new Star Blazers

I dont care about the inevitable dubbing, this will be cool...and I know you have the original theme song in your head already!  I looked into the minis awhile back but they were rather horrendously expensive to justify another pile of unpainted lead in my Man Cave :-)

♪We're off to outer space

We're leaving Mother Earth

To save the human race

Our Star Blazers

Searching for a distant star

Heading off to Iscandar

Leaving all we love behind

Who knows what danger we'll find

We must be strong and brave

Our home we've got to save

If we don't in just one year

Mother Earth will disappear

Fighting with the Gamilons

We won't stop until we've won

Then we'll return and when we arrive

The Earth will survive

With our Star Blazers♪

http://yamato-movie.net/en/

You know you want one.....

What every Man Cave needs on the floor! Click on the title to get your very own Wampa Floor Rug :)

Geeky Gamer Girls do exist...

This parody of a Katy Perry song is absolutely hilarious (thanks to The D6 Generation for the pointer) Seth Green, Stan Lee, Katee Sackhoff, and 4 very cute and apparrently very real geeky gamer girls.......

Painting Rust Tutorial

This is a great tutorial about how to generate realistic rust effects
http://plinthcountry.com/blog/?s=tutorial4

Thanks Demi!

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