15mm Tomorrow's war buildings from Gamecraft

So it's been a bit quiet round here, and frankly it's cause I've been too lazy to do any real hobbying of late. I'm trying to break out of it though, and I started with a bit of light assembly of the recently arrived 15mm Tomorrow's war buildings I purchased from GameCraft Miniatures

Landing Pad (elongated hex)

Garage/shop module

Medium Module

Small module

They arrived pretty quickly, taking around 7 days to arrive from the States. I ended up purchasing the landing pad, the garage/shop module, 2 medium modules and 2 small modules. I also purchased the 3d kits for the 3 modules, which basically without means that the raised areas you see on the outside wouldn't be there, they instead are just cut-in to the surface. Still visible, but not raised up.

The whole order cost about £48 I believe. It was originally £51 odds, but GameCraft charge a flat rate of $20 for international shipping, and then refund the difference, which for myself was $6 something. All in all, I think it's pretty good value for what they are.

The buildings themselves are pretty good. They fit together well, with the laser cut MDF having small slots for everything to go, though there were some very small gaps, though nothing a bit of filler won't take care off. No removable roofs which would've been nice, but it's survivable. They don't have a bottom either, but if they're based up then it doesn't matter. I had to place a big box of random figures on top of the landing pad, as when I glued it, the MDF on the top layer

I haven't fitted the doors to these yet either, and I'm not sure I will, or at least not on all of them. Again these just slot in to the frame, and can then be glued in.The doors themselves are a little taller than the model I've got them next too, so they may look a bit big if used for smaller scale things, like Heavy Gear. Possibly not too bad though, I'll need to test it and see.

So now the next thing is what colour to paint them. I'm looking for something a bit more than grey. Possibly a white/red combo. What are your thoughts?

Mecha Ace signing off

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. 

Empire of the Dead WIP, Wappinshaw, and competitions

Well I've been a bit quiet on the blogging front of late, but I had the day off today so managed to get a bit of progress done on my Empire of the Dead faction, all of which can be seen below.

WIP Wolfskins

Two WIP wolfskins. Forgive the lower than usual quality (which is in itself not great) photography as they were just quickly snapped on my phone camera to get a pic up.

The one on the left is finished miniature wise, I just need to do the base. The one on the right currently just has the base colours and washes applied to him, he still needs highlighted etc. I'm going for a bit of a gypsy look from the victorian period, so different colours on them, though generally using the same ones. Might not have all the colours present on them at the time.

For the bases, I think I'm going to mostly keep the gravel look on the base, with a few cobblestones and bits of grass sticking through, as if they're in the run-down areas of London were the cobbles have all come loose and been carted off by the locals for other things.

Hope you like them, any comments and criticisms welcome

Wappinshaw 2012

Wappinshaw was this weekend, on Saturday the 2nd of June at the Glasgow Royal Concert Hall, and once again my club G3 was in attendance with our Empire of the Dead demo game. There was no prizes this time, but we were certainly busy all day, with a generally good crowd round our table asking questions about the game and a good few demo games run during the day. For some pictures and talk about the event you can find some here. If you look closely on top of the Tenement with the flat roof, you can see we managed to squeeze a geeky in-joke in, with a Vorlon watching closely the events that transpire, before whisking Jack the Ripper away for their future purposes.

Wappinshaw blog

To help as well the Figures in Comfort, who are the official stockists at shows that Westwind themselves cannot attend, gave us 4 vouchers they'd received from Westwind productions, so that if we felt someone had done something especially worthy during a game, that they could receive one and take it to their stall. They would then receive a prize of a free limited edition figure. These were put to good use, on occasions such as when Sherlock Holmes actually managed to beat The Ripper in a fashion rather than just managing to hold him up for the 10 turns.

All in all a good day was had as well.

Competitions

As no doubt some of you are aware, my mate DangerousBrian aka LeadLegion is running a competition over on his blog

Lead Legion prize give away

To celebrate reaching 50 followers, he's offering up the chance to win £50 worth of painting by himself to the lucky winner. I think it's a great prize, and I've entered myself to hopefully get the lead mountain down a bit.

If you weren't aware of it, I'd heartily recommend you go over and enter. He does a great job and in a good time scale. The best of luck to anybody who enters.

Mecha Ace out.

So apparently I have no willpower or how I got into Empire of the Dead

I type this as I sit and paint models for yet another game. After demoing Empire of the Dead at Carronade and plans to demo it at further shows, I must admit I wasn't entirely sold on it. I like steampunk and was looking for a game of that ilk, and so was keeping an eye both on Empire of the Dead and Wolsung SSG by Micro art studios. However a week ago I was in my local game store, and noticed they had the full stock of Empire of the Dead they're. After toying with the box of Lycaon for a while, I eventually decided aye why no, and picked it up.

So what do you get for your £25

The contents of the box

As you can see you get 2 x Wolves, 4 x Wolfskins (humans who've joined up), a packmaster (the smaller of the two werewolves), and a beastlord. They're all single piece models and all pretty well cast. There was a few small mould lines on them, but they're pretty easy to take care of, though annoyingly some of the mould lines on the werewolves run through fur, which can make them a pain to remove. All fairly nice models, and should paint up well, so look forward to seeing them, at somepoint in the future knowing my painting speed.

So what about the game. The rulebook is £30 and for that you get a nice hardback book, with some generaly world background, told in the form of a diary kept by the manservant of a gentleman, background and rules for the various factions, the rules themselves and various scenarios and the campaign system.

What about the factions. Well there's four of them for now (whether they have plans to add more I don't know). There's the Vampire, who are out to spread their curse upon the world, and generally do evil vampire like things (none of your sparkly Twilight vampire romance stuff here), and they are considered an evil faction.

The Lycaon (werewolves) are rather than rampaging monsters out to eat everybody, are more into restoring the natural order of the world, and thus are enemies of the vampire (as they're undead), though will fight mankind as well as he pushes ever forward with technology and destroying the natural world as he marches forward. They're considered a neutral faction

The Brotherhood are basically the militant arm of the church. They have the usual Deacons and Brothers and what not, and are out to protect mankind from the things that prowl in the night. They are considered a good faction

Gentlemans clubs. Now they're a bit special, as you can just have a regular club, and generally they have the best access to all the weird and wonderful gadgets and they are generally considered a neutral faction. However what you can also do is affiliate them to one of the other societies. There are currently 4 in the world. The Sons of Empire are all about bettering the Empire and their fellow man. They are a good faction. The Darkfire club are all about nefarious black magic, and control through fear. They're an evil faction. The Wulfen Jaeger are monster hunters essentially, and can also hire on hunting hounds. They're considered a good faction, and lastly the Zendarian Officers club are swordmasters without peer, and are considered a neutral faction. If you affiliate, you gain slight stat changes, some extra rules and other things, though it does come at the cost of 10 shillings.

There are also various special characters, including Holmes, Watson and Jack the Ripper that can be hired, and the rules for them are available for free from Westwind.

Rules for Gentlemen & Jackanapes

The rules are pretty straight forward, nice and easy to pick up so they are. They are pretty much the same as in the demo rules, though they've been expanded for the full game, including a campaign system and a whole range of various weapons, both mundane and more weird and wonderful (steam powered exo-skeletons and pneumatic stakes to name a few).

The scenarios are nice, including the usual "having a fight" scenario (called a Fracas), rescue the prisoner, save the bystanders and what not. There are several locations as well, from residential areas, industrial areas, the countryside and the best yet being "The botanical gardens of Professor Julius Ford-Talbot", with a whole list of weird and exotic plants, all with various rules for interacting with your models.

The campaign system is a bit different, as rather than the usual experience based system that I was expecting, instead you use money to pay for advancement rolls, with every roll being 10 shillings. Means it's more of a balancing thing between buying new gear and people and advancing your existing ones. There's also rules for visiting the doctor for healing wounds, and going to the pawn shop to hock your old gear. 

Well I think I've probably rambled on enough about this, so I hope to see you all in the foggy streets of London sometime soon. And remember

"Why, Sir, you find no man, at all intellectual, who is willing to leave London. No, Sir, when a man is tired of London, he is tired of life; for there is in London all that life can afford."
— Samuel Johnson

Pictures of the Club Demo game

So it's been a little while coming, but I haven't had a great deal of time of late, so hopefully the wait shall be forgiven.

Just thought I would post up some pictures from our club demo game at Carronade 2012, which was a great deal of fun so it was.

The board at the beginning of the day.

Jack the Ripper waits in an alley, ready to pounce on the unsuspecting citizens of London.

Meanwhile on the other side, Holmes and Watson get ready to intervene.

While the people of London go about their business.

Jack claims a victim, while Holmes and Watson close in.

Holmes rushes in to try and save the citizenry (yes the dead guy has become a woman)

But too late, and while Watson tries to keep up with his injured leg, the Great Detective himself is felled.

Jack then uses his "Unusual Occurance" to disappear into the fog (effectively he can teleport 12"), and claim another two victims. Alas the game is lost.

A quick shot of the biggest murdering spree of the day, that's 4 civilians, 3 peelers and Holmes and Watson.

And lastly the team. That's Andy P on the left, then Barry Kelly, myself, Spencer Warner, and lastly John McGrory (who also took all the pictures). Holding aloft our mugs of victory.

There's a whole load more pictures, that I didn't put up due to it just being one massive long post. Instead I've hosted them here at Carronade 2012 on Flicker If you're so inclined you can go and have a look at more pictures of the board and figures that were used to play the demo game.

Mecha Ace out.

Carronade 2012 post show and a victory

Just a quick post to talk about the Carronade 2012 show, which was yesterday, and which was the first outing for our clubs participation game Empire of the Dead. There'll be more pictures later, as one of the other guys at our club was taking pictures of the board, so once he's sorted through them I'll get some of them up to show off the board in all it's glory.

So for a quick basic picture of the board and what it looked like

The board just after set up

The brick buildings in the lower left are the ones I painted, with the roofs being done by fellow blogger and G3 member LeadLegion. The other buildings and the gas lamps were all painted by various club members, along with the miniatures which don't feature in this shot.

The show ran really well, with 5 of us there manning the table we worked with 2 people on for an hour, then they would swap for an hour with the other guys, while the fifth guy helped when he could as he isn't feeling great, and we just did this for the show. This meant we weren't at the table too long, and the shift went reasonably quickly, especially as we generally had a decent amount of interest in the game, with a demo game being ran every shift.

Everybody enjoyed themselves, the people running the game, along with the people participating in the games. The scenario was Sherlock Holmes versus Jack the Ripper, with the Ripper having to kill 4 civilians and harvest their organs within 10 turns. If he managed this, he was the victor, otherwise if he was killed, or 10 turns passed, Sherlock was the winner. I think by the end of the day we had 4 victories to the ripper, with only 1 to Sherlock.

 During my off time I wandered round the show as well. For a start I picked up my Critical Mass pre-order, which now gives me enough Arc Fleet troops etc to have a fieldable army. So they'll slowly be getting painted up in the scheme that has been shown before and properly based up, now I know what I'm doing with them. I also bought some Mercs for things like Blasters and Bulkheads and Tomorrow's War. And cause I'd pre-ordered to collect from the show, they threw in some goodies of some free figures, a couple of the small objective markers and some sticks for mounting figures on for painting. All in all more than £10 worth of stuff, which for the size of order was pretty good.

Then the final surprise. As we were running the last game of the day, we were approached by two of the guys from Falkirk District Wargames Club and were informed that we'd won best participation game of the show. Needless to say we were all pretty chuffed with ourselves, and to top it off we were all handed a prize.

No champagne to fill it with though. I'm sure tea will do.

So it just comes to me to thank the guys from the Falkirk District Wargames Club for running the show, which was really enjoyable. It's a good show, and while it's far from the biggest, it's done in a reasonable space, so you're not crammed in, and there's a decent amount of traders there.

And now it's looking onwards to Wappinshaw in July, we are going to tart the board up some more for the demo game, and we will see what we can do there.

Mecha Ace out.

Club demo game at Carronade 2012 and Dropzone Commander

Just a quick post to say my club, Glasgow Games Group (G3) is running a demo game of Empire of the Dead, the new game by Westwind productions at Carronade 2012, over in Falkirk this Saturday, the 5th of May.

Carronade 2012

If you're in the area come and say hello, would be great to see people. I'll be one of the guys wandering around with a Glasgow Games Group t-shirt on. If it's not me you find, I'm sure one of the other guys will be able to point you in my direction.

Of course the good news is, after a bit of help from LeadLegion, and a bit of last minute painting by one of the other club members, and a lot of help from Mrs Mechaace, I finally got my contribution of buildings done for the demo game. I'll grab some pictures of them on Saturday and put up some pictures, along with the rest of the board.

Course it now means I can get back to my own stuff, so hopefully there'll be some more things appearing soon, I've already got a few more Critical Mass Arc Fleet done, and I'm expanding my army on Saturday, so I can actually play with it. Also going to be getting into action and start assembling an Old Republic force with Jedi, soldiers and smugglers etc for some Blasters and Bulkheads action. Also going to take a look into doing Spectre Teams and Alliance stuff for again using Blasters and Bulkheads to do some Mass Effect gaming.

And since it wouldn't do to not have some pictures, I thought I'd post up all the previews that have been shown by Hawk Wargames for their new game, Dropzone Commander that was previewed at Salute.

 The Post-Human Republic

The Alien Scourge

Another Alien faction, The Shaltari Tribes. They use teleporting technology, so instead of dropships, get gateships.

The United Colonies of Mankind (my potential faction

 I must say as well, for 10mm figures, those infantry are chock full of detail. I also really like the way that the tanks are actually designed to fit into the dropships so everything works. I don't think I can state how excited I am about this game.

There's still not much info over at Hawk Wargames other than a pre-order date and a release date. Though my FLGS is talking of stocking them, so that would be good.

If you want more info, I'd get following them on Facebook, as they are posting daily preview shots (that's where these all came from), and any info I imagine will appear there first.

Hawk Wargames on Facebook

Mecha Ace signing out