Post Salute 2013 and the Salute Haul

So Salute 2013 has been and gone, and another good year it was. Vast amounts of money was spent on toy soldiers, toy buildings and books about toy soldiers and toy buildings.

First of all the Salute haul. As last year, this year I took part in the Oath that I and a small group of friends started last year, of not buying any new miniatures from the 1st of January, until Salute. So that means I'd managed to save a good bit of money, and of course, had a few things on my list to buy. Needless to say, I bought them all, and then some stuff that wasn't really on the list either.

And this is what it all looks like

Infinity stuff, a good start on a new faction for Bushido, some Japanese scenery from the nice folks at Sarissa, the gorgeous new Dropzone Commander stuff, some 15mm bits and pieces from Antenociti's workshop, counters, scenery and templates for Infinity from MAS, some random figures from Ax Faction, just because, Dreadball season 2 book, the Noble Armada expansion book with a heavy cruiser, some spaceships from White Dragon Games at British indie, the Forge World limited ed Warrior Priest, oh and the Salute figure of course.

I also managed to grab a look at some new things that are particuarly exciting.

For Bushido the game by GCT Studios they had pictures of some of the new models that are coming out in Wave 12 and in the future.

The four painted figures, are the new fisherman for Temple, the Air Kami for Temple, something for Cult, and the Earth Kami for Temple.

At the back the only two you can really make out are the Giant Bat which will be for Savage Wave, and a large wheel with a face in the middle, which will be for Cult.

I also had a flick through their art book that they always bring. I didn't take pictures, as I thought they might not want those all over the place. Needless to say, some nice things coming up for the new faction, Silver Moon, including some Sumo types that are as large as an Oni, and some excellent artwork for all the other factions.

The other exciting news is that there's already artwork being produced for another faction. The faction that looked the most fleshed out so far, with a couple of pieces was the Miyamoto Clan, who are the bear clan that live in the mountains. A shugenja type woman, and a large samurai with a rather large tetsubo. There was also symbols for pirates, the Shi-o, and the Tengu, along with a piece of art for a Tengu, which looked quite cool.

Also news is that they're only a few weeks away from print for the rulebook, which will be nice to finally have in my hands when that gets released. 

Dropzone Commander was looking great as always, and I picked up the new releases for UCM. They were also giving out samples of their new cardstock buildings, with people getting one to take away. I must admit, I'm impressed, with the cardstock being thicker than I thought it would be. While I would love a set of the resin buildings, my budget just can't afford it, so these could be a second best alternative, and £30 to cover a 6 x 4 table, is pretty good really. They also had a new bit of terrain that they were showing off.

Monorai, Monorail

When asked on price, the people behind the stand said that it would be reasonable, and it would come with approximately 2m of track, supports for the track, the train itself, and a scenario booklet to go with it, to allow it to be used. I'm pretty sure I saw Dave talking to BoW about it when I was there, and he mentioned about having troops in the train, and allowing it to move around the battlefield with guys inside. Exciting.

On to gorgeous boards. The first one was the Japanese battle, that was kitted out with Oshiro Model Terrain

  

A great looking board. I love the Oshiro terrain, and I got myself some of the scatter packs, though looking at it I feel it would be sligthly too small for Bushido, so I went with the new MDF terrain from Sarissa. Still, gorgeous stuff.

Next up, the general sci-fi board from Antenociti's workshop

The guy manning the board did say that unfortunately they hadn't managed to get everything finished, but even so it was still looking great. The new modular buildings are looking nice, and they've overcome the problem that put me off buying more when I bought some of the first run of the 15mm buildings. The laser barriers at the side may make it into the store, he was saying the problem is they can't do them with the holes, so they would require to be drilled out by hand. I also told him he needed to make some of the weird aliens that they've got on the board as well.

For a stunning 15mm board, I think the organisers of Salute, the South London Warlords really did it this year.

It was a Hammer's Slammers participation game, which I must admit, I don't know a great deal about, having never read the books, nor do I know what system they were using. Really though, who cares, cause it's a gorgeous looking board. I only wish I had the space, time, and motiviation to do something like this.

And lastly it's Twilight Miniatures

  

I love the wacky world that Mike has come up with, with it's leanings towards Jim Henson Dark Crystal muppets and all that kinda thing. The figures are superbly sculpted, and he's got such an imagination. I always make time to go and talk to Mike every year, cause I enjoy catching up. And every year, even though it's a game that I hardly ever play, he always manages to sell more figures to me, as I just really love them. One of the other guys at the club has bought stuff as well now, so we might get some more games in. 

Anyways, that was my Salute. I'm sure I missed half a million things as always, but I never find the time to see every board, every figure and all the other stuff, and get in buying stuff. Still, that's the joy of reading everyone elses experiences. 

Hope you had fun if you went, and thanks for reading. 

Noble Armada battle report

Well I had the intention of taking some photos of my Noble Armada game last night at my local games club G3. However I managed to completely forget, so instead thought I'd do a quick text description.

We agreed to play 750pts, as we hadn't played for quite some time, and wanted to break back into it, only having played limited times before that.

My fleet, representing the noble House Hawkwood comprised:

2 x Griffin Destroyers
1 x Darius Galliot
2 x Hornet Frigates
1 x Wayfarer Explorers

While my opponent, fielding the decadent and depraved House Decados selected a fleet comprising:

2 x Tupok'Ta Destroyers
1 x Lucrezia Galliot
2 x Mantis Frigates
1 x Reaper Raiders

So pretty similar fleets, in fact apart from a few traits and different weapon load outs exactly the same in terms of actual choices. The fleets of the Noble Houses are very similar points wise admittedly.

The board comprised of a 6' x 4' board, with a large asteroid field dominating the right hand side, with a large planet and associated moon on the left. 

To begin with we rolled for set-up, having just decided to do an engagement (or, having a fight in space). I lost. A trend that was soon to become apparent, and so having set up my fleet spread apart, allowed my opponent to set up. He went for something a bit different and split his fleet into two, with the 2 destroyers and the raider on my right, and the galliot and 2 frigates on my left.

Turn 1

We rolled for initiative, and even though the Decados fleet has a +1 modifier (for being generally sneaky), this was counterbalanced by my explorer, which has scout, which if you have more of these ships than your opponent you also get +1, so it was even. It didn't matter, I lost. See told you a trend was developing.

I advanced towards the centre of the board, while his destroyers moved towards me, while his other forces circled the planet. His raider braved the asteroid field and managed not to get smashed to bits.

Some punitive fire was exchanged, knocking down shields and scoring a few points of damage, but not much.

Turn 2

I lost initiative, again, so once again he got the drop on me. His destroyers advanced further, effectively beginning to cross the T (as most of the weapons are on the port/starboard sides, an important idea), while I began to turn my ships to bring my port side batteries to bear.

I began to focus fire on one of his destroyers, hoping to damage it heavily. Due to some not great dice rolls, some damage was caused, which while not as much as I had hoped was still a start. He in turn also began raking my lead destroyer with EM guns and slug guns. For every hit these get, they generate 3, so needless to say his return fire was more effective.

Turn 3

I lost intiative again. We closed ranges and battle was fully joined. Unfortunately I'd made a bit of a blunder, some of my ships hadn't turned far enough, leaving his destroyers sitting outside the arcs of their full broadside guns. I focused what fire I had, but it wasn't enough to cause significant damage on his ships. His return fire however crippled one of my destroyers, reducing it to half speed and allowed to fire one weapon system a turn, and a rake of criticals on it as well, with fluctuating shields, a now slightly shot up reactor and wonky targeting on the weapons.

Turn 4

The gods of initiative weren't with me, as I lost yet again.

Last turn his ships had begun to emerge from the side of the planet, and now they had fully emerged to add their weapons to the battle. During movement both of us declared a boarding action. His frigate moved to grapple my non-crippled destroyer while my galliot moved to board one of his destroyers. Both were successful in this move. However until you are moved into contact in the boarding phase you can still be fired at. Oh Dear!!

I once again tried to even the odds, focusing fire on the damaged destroyer, but again failed to do much, while his slug guns, with the addition of the maximum firepower special order crippled my remaining destroyer.

In the end neither of us got to board either as I managed to destroyer his frigate with my destroyer (before it was crippled) and he destroyer my galliot with more of his deadly slug guns. At this point my fleet being heavily outmatched due to having two severly reduced cruisers and missing a galliot decided to try and retreat in good order, and left this sector of space to the Decados.

We both agreed that we enjoyed the game, and we're looking at trying to get some more games in. There are a few other players at the club, so hopefully they'll also join in with some games.

Next time I'll try and take pictures, and may make this a bit of a feature of the weekly battle report. That way everybody can learn from my losses, and my occasional victories.

It all has to start somewhere

So I'm trying to think of something to write. Do I write a "Hello everyone" post, or a "Here's everything you ever wanted to know about me" post or what?

In the end I couldn't be bothered with that, the people who follow this initially probably already know me, and I probably over estimate how exciting my life is so I'm not going to put it up for all the internet to see.

So lets start with some gaming then. I play a good few games, though the current ones doing the rounds are Bushido by GCT Studios (Link), Infinity by Corvus Belli (Link) and recently I've been starting work on a force of Arc Fleet from Critical Mass Games (Link), which do some very nice 15mm stuff.

Along with that I've just had my Noble Armada fleet returned to me by my friend who runs Lead Legion Painting Services. And as you can see from the pictures below, he's done a cracking job.

 Hawkwood cruiser and two Hawkwood galliots

A Hawkwood cruiser and two Hawkwood destroyers

I'm very pleased with how they've turned out, and have arranged a game with them at my local gaming club Glasgow Games Group (G3) soon so that I can test them out. Hopefully now that they're painted they will perform better.