Sometimes you get what you want, sometimes you don't...

So a couple of things happened this week in gaming. Well a lot of things happened, but I'm going to focus on a couple that have particular interest to me.

It was announced this weekend that the game Robotech Battles that was in the works and I talked about in this post has not got the green light from Palladium and Harmony Gold. John Paulson of Paulson games was told that he would not be used for the project. On the robotech battles facebook page, it was announced that apparently the numbers do not add up, and that while the project may be viable in the future, they would not be using his company. I think this is a great shame considering the amount of work he put into this game, both with starting the rules, and with some of the great prototype figures he produced. I can only feel that Palladium or Harmony Gold, or both, have dropped the ball on this on, and instead seem happy to just let the licence sit there and do nothing.

You can read all about it at his blog robotech battles blog

Keep flying...

There'll always be a place in my heart for Robotech. It's what exposed me to anime and giant robots and started my love of both, and I was genuinely quite excited when I saw this game, and the miniatures it was producing. I reckon that dream will just have to wait a while longer unfortunately.

In other happier news this weekend the the website for Hawk Wargames new game Dropzone Commander went live. I would suggest you all rush over and check it out.

Hawk Wargames

It's a 10mm massed battle game, that has the premise that a lot of the time your forces are being deployed by Dropships (the name is a big clue to this). No more just lining up your forces (though I'm sure there will still be an element to that).

Frankly the pictures of these miniatures look gorgeous, and to those people that saw them in the resin at Salute can testify, they are still just as gorgeous.

I've prattled on about Dropzone Commander a couple of times now, probably cause I think it's worth. You had difficulty getting near the stand, and I think Dave has the next big thing in gaming on his hands. The prices are a bit higher than the rest of the 10mm crowd, and you're looking at £68 for a starter army (which is about the smallest game size), though I worked it out for the UCM army (as they're who I'm interested in) and it saves me £14.50 over buying the bits individually, which is good, and the rulebook is £15 which in this day and age is hardly expensive. So yes a bit pricey, but still reasonably in line with them. Frankly though, if you want nice miniatures, and these are very nice miniatures, you pay a bit more money. Same with Infinity, same with Mercs, and a whole load of other games that charge more for their figures.

Along with the miniatures, he's also releasing a line of scenery in the future, that will be modular double-sided tiles. So you can assemble them in anyway you desire. I think it's a great idea, and looking at some of the dioramas he's created with very little beyond his own figures and the scenery he's made it'll look gorgeous.

The United Colonies of Man on parade

The alien Scourge swarm through the streets of an abandoned core world city

The alien Shaltari invade in force

This and various others show what excellent work he has done, pretty much single handedly. I for one will be getting some.

I would suggest you go to the website and read up on the background that he's created for this, and if you're like me will be left wanting to know more. Speaking to him at Salute, I was very pleased when he said he whole heartedly believes in letting people know who they're fighting with, who the enemy is and why they're fighting.

And if you are still intrigued after that, the man himself will be on Facebook chat on Monday the 11th from 9am till 9pm on Hawk Wargames facebook page to answer questions regarding the rules, the game and anything else I imagine. I might pop on myself.

Mecha Ace out. 

Post Salute 2012

Well after arriving home late last night (I make a weekend of Salute, as it makes a bit less tiring when I'm travelling from Glasgow) I thought I'd put up my analysis of my Salute 2012.

I will admit, I didn't really take pictures of everything. I did however take pictures of the stuff that interests me, so prepare to have a whole load of them put up, and a list of what I bought.


I managed to pretty much buy everything I wanted from my list, comprising. I also managed to sneak a few things on there, that either I wasn't sure would be there, or just a bit of impulse purchasing.

And also I got to meet Fran and Ray from The Angry Lurker and Don't Throw a 1 respectively, Tamsin from Wargaming girl, the infamous Postie of the Postie's Rejects and a whole load of other people. Was great to put some faces to names and actually talk to people in person.

What I bought:

GZG - A whole load of UNSC troops, drones, and some New Israelis, that will have a very minor conversion into Republic Army troops from Star Wars.

Mongoose Publishing - A Maestekulos Dreadnought for Noble Armada.

Pulp Monsters - More superheroes. Finished off my Heavy metal team with the last 3 members and also picked up a giant hadron.

Micro Art Studios - A whole load of Urban and Urban War bases for my Infinity figures.

Sarissa Precision - Some of the System Infinity range of scenery, comprising 2 of the explorer pods and one settler pod.

GCT Studios - Daisuke and Mizuchi. I was also 2 numbers away from winning the board, if only I'd delayed my purchase about 2 minutes, it might've been me. Ah well.

Simple Miniatures - Infinity stuff I needed, including a Jotum for PanO and my post-humans for Aleph, along with some more blister packs.

Critical Mass - The core rules. I'm going to read these and then work out what I need to turn the few bits I have into a usable force to purchase at Carronade.

Wayland Games - Wasn't sure if they'd bring their Heavy Gear stock, but they did thankfully so I picked myself up an Aller tank and a Kodiak Gear for the North. I would've bought more, but money was limited.

Empire: Peripheral Wars - I had intended to look at this, thinking it was a demo game, but it was more a display, with Antenociti selling the stuff. Spaceships, very much modelled after Homeworld 2, which definitely floated my boat. So myself and one of my friends halfed in on one of the big boxes to get a whole load of spaceships. Lovely. Pictures later.

Twilight - Mike Thorp does some fantastic miniatures for this, and I always take a pop by his stand every year. This year I didn't get much, as again money was limted. However I did buy some of his little creatures and a herder to go with them. This was also the start of a dangerous path, as rather than rushing off to the cash machine, Mike said that they could actually do paypal. So out came the smartphones, and a few button pushes later, money had magically left my account and into his, with no exchanging of plastic or anything. 

What I saw:

First of all I'll add in the fact that it's what I saw. I just physically didn't have time to take photos of everything, what with buying, talking to people, so just ended up taking pictures of what I saw that interested me. And there were a few things.

Empire: Peripheral Wars

The display table run by Antenociti's workshop ended up having some really nice spaceships on it. Currently they have one fleet, based on the Hiigaarans from Homeworld 2, but they are planning more. They also currently have the stats for the ships done with A Call to Arms, but there may be talks of eventually developing something.

The battleship, the big one of the fleet

some of the smaller ships

The whole fleet spread out.

I ended up purchasing one of the large boxes, which basically gave you 2 of everything, though it is getting split with one of my friends. I'm sure I'll find a use for them. Spaceships are about the only thing I break my rule of not buying miniatures I can't physically use with. I ended up talking to the guy manning the table for ages about various things, and he was a great guy to chat too so he was.

If you're interested to know more go here

Fate Amenable to Change


Wolsung

The interesting steampunk game eventually coming from Micro Art Studios. The figures look nice, and the rules look like they could be okay, so I'm keeping an eye on this one so I am. Shall see how it turns out.

There's 3 factions planned for. A gentlemans/nobles club, an inventors society and a triad style organisation. Based in a fantasy world as well, so have ogres, halflings, dwarfs etc.

For any more info go here

Wolsung SSG

Dropzone Commander

Now this for me was the find of the show. A stunning looking miniature line by a new company called Hawk Wargames. They've kept it very quiet, with nothing on the internet, and Salute was the big unveiling. And what an unveiling. Four fully fleshed out factions, ready for release, when the game launches in July. They're working on the rulebook as well, and that should also be ready for the release date, so that it'll be a fully working game on the get go.

The forces of the United Colonies of Mankind

More of them. Loving the fighters at the rear

The alien Scourge

More of them, including their large dropship

The Post Human Concordat, with dropships, fighters and walkers

More PHC walkers and some infantry and tanks

The Shaltari Tribes, with some stunning walkers and vehicles

More Shaltari vehicles, with some gorgeous grav-tanks

The game is 10mm and seems based around the idea that everything is getting brought in on dropships (hence the name). The vehicles are all sculpted in 3D, and then rapid prototyped, and will be resin, while the troops are hand sculpted and made in metal. I was much impressed when chatting with David, the designer/sculptor/painter/everything was saying that the human special forces have grenades on their backpack, and you can make out the texture on them.

Also rather a nice touch is that given that all the vehicles are meant to be brought in on these enormous dropships, they've been designed so that they do actually fit together properly. It will carry what it's supposed to as demonstrated here.

PHC dropships loaded up

Obviously this means that you can attach them with rare earth magnets if you so wish, or if you have the money, can just buy more stuff so that you can do an alternate one. However he's also doing the bases of the dropships to have tabs on them, so you can clip on little representations of what each one is carrying, and that way if you don't have the time or the money to do stuff like that then you don't have too.

The buildings that you can see in the photo are also being produced for the game. They're actually made up from tiles, which are double sided. I was shown an example with a more classical column architecture, while the other side had a more sci-fi look to it. It does mean that what you can do is basically buy a whole load of them, and can then design the buildings how you want.

For more info on this game you can follow them on facebook

Hawk Wargames on Facebook

Or you can go to their website. There isn't much right now, just a front page, with the release date and pre-order date.

Hawk Wargames

This is what I'm definitely most excited about right now.

GCT Studios

Along with buying some stuff from them, I had a look over their stand, and first of all I was pointed to the next release for the Precture of Ryu

A warrior monk for the Precture, who is apparently designed around fighting soulless creatures and what not. I'm sure my main opponent with his Cult of Yurei will be pleased with that knowledge.

I was also talking to them about upcoming releases. Along with seeing some artwork for the Shiho clan, who are a defeated clan and are basically now roning and wanderers, which look really good. There is also some really good information about another upcoming force called the Eto clan. They basically are a clan sacrificing people to an ancient snake god. As they do more the people doing it become more snake like, going from just having scales on their back, all the way up to having half a body of a snake, to just being a head on a serpentine body. Very exciting info.

For more info, along with the concept art for the above model go to their website

Bushido the Game

Empire of the Dead

The new game from Westwind Productions was brought out, and frankly they had a great looking board. I only hope our board, when we demo it up at the shows in Scotland looks half as good.

A very good looking board, with some great little jokes here and there scattered about.

If you want to know more about this new game, or their others give them a look

Westwind Productions

Rather than post every single picture I took, I thought I'll put up a link to my flickr account, where the pictures are all stored so people can peruse them at their leisure.

Salute 2012 photos

And that's about it. I'm considerably poorer, but considerably richer in toys, enjoyed every minute of it as I do every year I go, and I'm already looking forward to next year. Hopefully I'll get to see some more fantastic stuff, meet more fantastic people and spend more money on more toys. Until then I should probably get to painting some of the stuff I've just acquired.

Victory is mine...

So it finally happened. Three days before Salute and the lifting of "The Oath" my other friend, who had until now managed to hold off cracked. He was in GW exchanging a can of purity seal, and apparently one of the Necron characters called to him. Therefore, given that the other friend cracked by buying the limited edition space marine from the old artwork a while ago, means I am effectively the last man standing.

Obviously actually me.

So what does this mean I hear you ask. It means of course that the beers at lunchtime at Salute are on them.

I must admit, I'm actually quite proud. There's been moments of temptation, what with various 15mm figures tempting as I get more into it, and just various other things. The fact that I haven't is quite good, and I have managed to get some painting and building done. Admittedly not a massive amount, though to me it is, as I do things at a bit of glacial pace.

Anyways, in terms of Salute, here's another few things I'll be looking at.

The Salute List: Part 2

Traders

Wayland Games 

I want to go and see if Wayland games have brought any heavy gear with them. If they have I may get some, though this depends on the money at the time.

World of Twilight

The world of twilight is a great little game, and Mike Thorp has come up with a really original world, of various races in a fantasy universe of his own creation. Very much inspired by things like Dark Crystal and things of that ilk, his figures are really great. It's just a shame I don't get to play it more, so these are further down the list, but I'll probably pop by and say hello at least.

Games:

There's also a couple of games I'm interested in trying out this year, or at least looking at and taking pretty pictures of.

Antenociti's Workshop

Antenociti's Workshop are listed as running a game called "Empire: Peripheral Wars" which is listed as sci-fi and as a new range of small scale warships. This to me sounds like a spaceship game, and I do like me some spaceships. And given the stuff that Antenociti has produced in the past, I could be all over this like a fox on a binbag when it comes out.

Artemis Blacks

Artemis is listed as running demonstration games of the new miniatures rules coming out from Red Box Games. I've always loved these figures, as they combine fantasy and a dark age feel that I really like. However I'm not one to buy figures that I can't use in a game system, and I have a weird fluff OCD that means I can't just bodge something together in a generic system. Therefore when they announced that they were finally bringing out a ruleset, I was very happy. Again I may be having a look at this when it comes out, and as such may pick up a couple of figures at Salute if I like it.

Four Colour Figures

As no doubt many of you will know, due to his participation in the blogosphere, The Department, a set of sci-fi noir rules is being released at Salute. I've recently picked up Blasters and Bulkheads, by the same guy and I'm liking the look of it, and I'm thinking of getting some Old Republic gaming in. If it's good, then this could also be on the list, so I intend to have a look at it.

These of course are just the games I'm most interested in and will definitely be having a look at. I'll be taking pictures of other things though, and will no doubt do a bit of a breakdown of Salute on my return at somepoint. Given this list, and the list of potential things, I predict by this time next week I'll be a bit skint. I'll have lots of shiney new toys though, so that'll be okay.

Cheers for looking, and hope to see some of you there.

Less than two weeks till Salute 2012

So Salute 2012 is less than 2 weeks from now. Hurrah I say, for with it comes the end of "The Oath" (which I've actually managed to keep too). So just thought I would post a quick review of what I'll be buying, and from whom, to put an end to the oath.

Definites:

1) Critical Mass rulebook from Critical Mass Games

Very interested in these rules, as I'm looking more and more to 15mm for gaming, especially when it comes to platoon level and larger games. As one of my friends described it, I'm put off by the way 40k now looks during a game, as to stay competitive you need tanks, and due to the amount some armies take like Imperial Guard, it looks like a parking lot for tanks.

They're also doing a deal at Salute of if you buy one of their new army boxes, you can get the rules at half price, or if you play a participation game you can get the rules for free with the purchase of an army box. 

2)  A couple of figures for the Prefecture of Ryu for Bushido from GCT Studios

Due to the oath I've missed out on a couple of releases for my faction for Bushido, so I'll be picking those up. Namely

Mizuchi, a rather nice looking dragon

Daisuke, a healer who could prove very useful

I think they're both great looking models, and will be keen to get them. And as GCT Studios are running a giveaway on the day, in that if you buy something from them, you get entered into a draw to win a board. The more things you buy, the more chances. Info below

GCT Studios Salute board giveaway

3) Some 15mm troops from Ground Zero Games

Looking at getting some of the 15mm UNSC troops for use in Tomorrow's war. I've worked out for £24 I can get 55 figures. 55 figures!!!, that's a whole lot of stuff for not a lot of money. They'll also double as troops in RPG games and what not. I'm also looking at getting some New Israelis to paint up as Republic Army troops for a Star Wars RPG I'm going to run at somepoint.

4) Bases and possibly some figures from Micro Art Studios

I need more bases for my Infinity figures, both the Urban set they do and the Urban War set they do (not the game, just the urban set that looks like it's been shot up). They're always difficult to come by from Maelstrom etc, so I'll grab as many as I can while down there.

Also I'm interested in their game that's coming out at somepoint Wolsung SSG, which appears to be steampunk in a fantasy world. A steampunk Shadowrun you could probably say. Looks interesting anyways, and if they have the rules I may grab a copy.

5) Spaceships from Mongoose Publishing

I play Noble Armada by Mongoose Publishing and have a Hawkwood fleet (in fact it was painted by Lead Legion, and can be seen in my first post). Still, we've been getting more games, and I feel the need to expand it a bit, so definitely a Maestekulos dreadnought and possibly some other stuff. Probably the expansion if they have it as well.

Ready to bring the thunder with that enormous meson cannon

6) More superheroes for Pulp City

I need to finish off my Heavy Metal team, and to do that there isn't a lot. I need the last three heroes, Captain Hadron (a size changer) who comes with a regular 28mm version and a small version (think it's around 10-15mm), and Lady Cyburn (a ranged attack cyborg). I also need to buy C.O.R.E., the illustrious leader of the team. I also want to buy a Giant Hadron (a large resin figure they do to represent Captain Hadron in his giant mode). As Giant Hadron is very limited stock (they simply can't afford to have it sitting around, so it's just about cast to order) and C.O.R.E. comes normally in a box with a hero I already have, I've e-mailed my order in already, and they've said they'll have it sitting aside for me on the day. What helpful people.

Giant Hadron Smash. Hope to drum up some interest in the game with models like this.

7) Some scenery from Sarissa Precision

What with the new wave in laser cut MDF scenery that's coming out, it's a good time to be a gamer, as this makes it much cheaper. I really fancy some of their system infinity scenery, for well Infinity for a start, and other sci-fi games. I think a few habitation pods etc, will make a nice little start up colony in the jungle somewhere.

8) Infinity stuff from Simple Miniature games

Probably. Simple miniatures normally do decent deals on the day for Infinity. Last year it was buy 4 blisters get a 5th free, or buy 2 boxes and get a 3rd free etc, so I'll probably get what Infinity stuff I need from them. I'm going to have a look around though.

Well this post has gone on a lot longer than I thought, so I'll post up other possible purchases that I may make, depending on money and how gullible I'm feeling on the day, along with games I'm going to be looking at/participating in.

What about you? Are you going this year? What purchases will you be making? Are there any you feel I've missed off my list I should look at? Would be great to hear your opinions.

As always thanks for looking.