Games Workshop Retail Fail (again)

 

Like many of you, I received the regular email blast from Games Workshop last Thursday announcing the "Storm of Magic" expansion for Warhammer Fantasy to be in stores on Saturday.  Although the little I've heard about it makes Storm of Magic sound pretty silly (a spinner?  really?), as a long-time WHFB enthusiast I thought I would check it out if I was in the neighbourhood of the local GW.  I wasn't planning to splash out the mega-bucks that the book is sure to cost, but thought that perhaps if there were new wizard models released, I might pick up a Finecast Grey Seer for my Skaven, and blog a review of the new resin.

So, on a sunny Sunday afternoon, I found myself in the vicinity of our local and decided to drop in for a look-see.

And the shop was closed.

A note on the door told me that it closed on 4 July and would reopen on 13 July.

As I noted last year, our local Games Workshop store has one (1) employee, "Pete".  Nice guy, enthusiastic, and a great ambassador for the brand.  I don't begrudge Pete a vacation for one minute.  He works hard and has to deal with crap that I can't even imagine.  The man needs to take a holiday.  In fact, the man needs some relief on a day to day basis.  How stressful would it be to have to close your store to go have lunch or even drop a deuce, for the love of God??

Anyway, GW didn't get any of my money on Sunday and they might have.  Or maybe they wouldn't have, depending on what they had there.  In any case, we'll never know.  It's just rather annoying that they have a retail presence that's not actually "present" much of the time.  Quaere whether this is better or worse than not having a shop here at all...

15mm Sci Fi - Finally Underway!

Well, Mike F and Dallas have been kicking my but long enough - it was time to dive into the 15mm Sci-Fi new insane project. I finally got moving this weekend, finishing off a small group of test models. The infantry are 15mm Federal troops from Khurasan. The vehicle is a 15mm "Claymore" APC from Old Crow.



When you're in a hurry, keep it simple. That was my motto on this project, so I went with the same blue-themed colour pattern I use with my Imperial Guardsmen in 40k. I used red for the face plates, to give them a touch of that plesant look/feel you get from those happy troops with the Helghast Empire.



The Khurasan 15mm Federal Army troops are really nice. The castings were a bit flash-happy, but nothing the hobby knife couldn't handle. One of the things that happens with test models is that you screw up. Like thinking the guy with the SAW is a sniper. Whoops. So that will be the only stand-alone SAW gunner. I'll straighten that out eventually.



The 15mm vehicles from Old Crow are an absolute joy to assemble. Old Crow has a great selection of vehicles, and different alternate turrets and weapons. I have four of these "Claymore" wheeled APCs - they make me think of a sci-fi version of an LAV. I have three of the vehicles with auto-cannon-type weapons like this one, and one with a small snub-nose howitzer for the weapon. I also have a "com-cent" turret that I can drop on to one of the vehicles to mark it as a command APC, or a FO/FAC vehicle.

My decal supply is a bit scattered - we are preparing to move, and a lot of stuff has been packed away, not to be seen for a couple months, but fortunately I had some spare Battlefront German decal sets which provided for tactical numerals and strange panzer division symbol that will stand in as a unit badge. I used the black tactical numbers to avoid confusion with the red ones employed by Gilles.



I still have some 15mm "Control Batallion" models from Khurasan (some of the nicest 15mm castings I have seen!) to get started with, and some other APCs and tanks. I'm way behind Dallas and Mike F, but working to get caught up! Watch for more progress in the blog...

UNE Superfortress Colossus for 15mm Sci-Fi!

Last year, on a business trip to Toronto, I went to the Hairy Tarantula's "warehouse" store in the north end for a look-see.   It's basically a huge basement filled with old gaming junk.  Lots of RPGs (I picked up a copy of Chaosium's "Superworld") and some miniatures too - mainly old OOP ranges like Warzone, Legions of Steel, etc... then I spotted this bad boy sitting amongst a bunch of other junk...

It is, of course, the UNE Superfortress Colossus from Global Games' Legions of Steel range.  All metal, it weighs in at a hefty 2.2 lbs (!).  Meant for a nominal 28mm scale, but I think that the aircraft nose glazing makes it quite plausible to imagine a crew of three or four 15mm figures in the nose.  Of course, at the time I bought it I had no inkling of doing 15mm sci-fi; I'd meant to use it with some Rogue Trader stuff, maybe as a Dreadnought or similar.  I had always thought that this was a really cool model, but it's well OOP... there's not even much info on the 'net about it.  I picked up this example for 10 bucks as it was missing a part - the left hand weapon - which I replaced with a 40K lascannon I had spare.

Here's a comparison shot of the basecoated model alongside the Rebel Minis "Merka 5" tank and a couple of their Earth Force Marines.

The painted model.  Like the other 15mm sci-fi vehicles painted by Gilles, the walker was basecoated grey and camouflaged in a Graveyard Earth and Iyanden Sun mix, washed with Badab Black.

Cockpit detail - sorry about the %$#^ stray static grass.  Decal courtesy of a spare 40K IG decal sheet.  The tactical numbers came from the decal sheet supplied with the GeeBee Racer model that supplied the base model for my Red Barun conversion.  The national symbol of the faction (just visible on the top of the starboard wing) was freehanded - it's based on the tactical symbol for the German 15. Panzerdivision.

I'm pretty pleased with how the model turned out.  I think that it fits quite nicely with the my Earth Force 15mm army - probably better than it would fit with 28mm!

We're Terminators, We Don't Do "Objectives".

Last night Greg brought over his amazingly painted Elysian Drop Troop army for a game of 40K against my Black Templars. (Further amortization of the Stalingrad terrain was an added bonus). The random scenario we dialled up involved placing four objectives on the table (the ammo canisters visible deployed in a rough square around the middle of the table: in woods at centre left; directly north of this location in a ruined building; straight east of that on a sidewalk; and due south of that on the southern lip of the crater). The player who controlled the most objectives at the end of the game wins.

Deployment was funky as well: table halves with up to two Troops and one HQ on table, the rest coming either from Reserve or directly on-board on Turn 2.

Since the Guard are organized as "platoons" that meant a lot of stuff on table for Greg; for me, not so much. Just the two Rhinos, each with a full complement of Templars and one also containing the Emperor's Champion. These I tried to deploy behind a bit of cover.

My plan was to leave the "sidewalk" objective and try to take the others. My whole army moves fast (Rhinos, Land Raider with Terminator Squad, Landspeeder with multi-melta, Assault squad and Chaplain with jump pack) so I didn't fuss with Reserves, just brought everything on in Turn 2. I counted on Greg's almost pathological hatred of the "Reserves" rule to cause him to do the same.

Just out of shot to the south-west, the first Rhino has been immobilized and the Templars have scurried into the woods containing the objective. They were quickly vaporized by the Punisher cannons on the Vulture gunship.

The Assault squad jumped into action and tried not to be too disturbed by the chunks of oolitic kidney, Larriman's Glands and tri-bladders scattered around the woods :-( Over to their right, the other Templar squad hops into the crater after destroying the Valk with a melta-shot.

The valiant Landspeeder crew zoom their vehicle up to a Valk for a multi-melta shot. Missed as usual, the next turn the Speeder crashes in flames.

Not going so great for the BTs at this point... if we could only get into close combat...

Here comes the Land Raider full of Terminator goodness...

Greg's platoon command watches as the sniper squad and Company command in the ruined building get trampled by my Assault squad. The Land Raider had immobilized the Vendetta but its Punisher cannons were still in operation... so the Assault Squad ganged up on it with a power fist, meltabombs and krak grenades... and the best result was "Immobilized". At least we rolled 5 "3"s and got rid of the weapons.

Off to the left the Terminators have disembarked onto the objective in the woods. The guys in this picture have just been shot up and fled from the crater (failed their "I'm an insane Black Templar who runs forward instead of Falling Back" test).

These guys got shot up some more and then ran forward into one of the Elysian squads near the objective, killed that squad, then got shot to pieces as usual :-(

Meanwhile, on the other flank, the Assault Squad was holding one objective and the Terminator Squad another. Despite some appalling dice rolling and getting shot to bits by Guard, it looked like a win was on the cards for my boys... that's when a horrible realization began to dawn on me.

I imagine the Comm-Net transmission went something like this:

Chaplain Cadfael: Black One Actual to Terminator Squad, come in.
Terminator Sergeant: You have Sergeant Augustus here, over.
CC: Augustus, are you on Objective Alpha? Hold that objective, over.
TS: That's a negative, Black One. No can do.
CC: Say again, Augustus, I think we've got some interference on the net. Over.
TS: Repeat, no can do. Negative. Can't hold the objective. We're going to go shoot at some Guardsmen in a building now, over.
CC: Augustus. I have a fething shart-show situation going on here. I'm with the Assault Squad, we're on an objective, the battle is almost over and I've been told that we can't hold it because we're not "Troops", whatever that means. So we have to jump away and try to kill the rest of the Guard army. So I need you to sit on that fething objective and hold it. Am I making myself clear? Acknowledge!
TS: Umm, yeah. It kinda turns out we're not Troops either. Sorry.

So with that disappointing realization (on Turn 6 no less) I had to move the Assault Squad over to near the sidewalk objective and try to contest that for the draw. The Assault Squad did great, cleaning out a squad of Elysians while losing one of their own. Then they parked on the objective and waited for Brian to roll the die to see if there would be another turn (only on a roll of 4+)... and he rolled a 6. Crap. So, pictured above is the last stand of Chaplain Cadfael. He finally fell to the lascannons of a Valkyrie... had three wounds left, took three from the Valk, saved one with the Rosarius, but "Instant Death", like Instant Karma, is a killer. The Terminators threw a last gasp rattle of gunfire at the remaining Elysian squad, hoping to frighten them off the objective for a draw, but it was not to be as only one wound was caused, not enough to force even a Morale check.

So that ended the game! Pretty exciting, had ups and downs, good fun with nice terrain and good-looking armies. And beer! Thanks Greg for bringing the boys out. And yes, you do need another Vulture with Punisher cannons. [rolleyes]

New insane project marches on.

The 15mm Kamadoos Dominion force I put together is finally finished! Good thing I ordered some more stuff in 15mm.

LVDVS GLADIATORIVS - REDVX

Last Thursday I brought out Ludus Gladiatorius (Eng. trans. "Gladiatorial School") for a second evening simulating hand to hand combat in front of ancient Roman citizenry. Conscript BrianH also brought along his magnificent Roman Colosseum model within which we staged the proceedings.



The game was re-scheduled since I was away in Las Vegas for the Throne of Skulls tournament and a long-awaited vacation with my loving wife, Conscript-widow Jen. I shall shortly post batreps of my 40K games at the ToS (really!).

Before we started playing, we had an interesting discussion about gladiatorial combat in the Colosseum (or, the Flavian Amphitheatre). Due the the high cost of training and maintaining elite gladiators, combats did not inevitably result in death. In the later period, sparing of a defeated gladiator's life was common. The construction of the Colosseum itself was also discussed. When Jen and I visited the Colosseum in Rome last year, we learned that the building was originally faced with limestone, which would have provided a gleaming appearance.

As a change from the regular mechanics of Ludus Gladiatorius, I used cards to determine initiative when there were more than two gladiators active on the arena floor. I obtained card templates from the Boardgame Geek site. I used the files named "Ludus_CARTE_iniziativa.pdf" and "Ludus_CARTE_retro.pdf". I just printed out the initiative side and one of the backing sides on the two sides of a single sheet of paper on my home printer, cut out the cards, and placed them in clear plastic card sleeves.

Also, we used fan-made character sheets from the Ludus Gladiatorius Yahoo Group page. The new sheets allow one to write what Special Action (if any) their gladiator uses every turn, and they simply illustrate all the rest of the required stats. I used the file named "Ludus_Schede.pdf".

We started with a two-on-two battle, involving (respectively), Conscripts Brian and Frederick teaming up, vs. Dallas and Indo. The game characters used were as follows:

• Brian = Marcus Attilius
  


• Frederick = Vescen


• Dallas = Thrax


• Indo = Criminal

Brian and Frederick had the best swordsmen. Dallas had a tank - Thrax is very tough and hits fairly hard. Indo ran a character from the second set, Ludus Gladiatorius 2. The Criminal is interesting; he hits very, very hard, but his basic defense is very bad (no armour!). After the initial fight, the winners and losers would square off in a pair of one-on-one fights, then the winners of the A and B side would face off to determine the event champion.

In the photo below, Brian and Dallas can be seen contemplating their tactics.



Initially, the fight devolved into a pair of single combats.



The teams regrouped for mutual support.



Then, Thrax and the Criminal ganged up on Vescen.



After Vescen fell, it was only a matter of time until Marcus was defeated, too.

The single combat portion of the evening started, resulting eventually in a win for Thrax, who defeated Marcus in the finals.



The evening was still young, so we decided to play a Battle Royale - five gladiators in the arena, no allies. For this last game I ran the Amazon - lots of tricks up her sleeve (e.g. she can Feint and Dodge in the same turn), but low on hit points and raw combat power.

We started the models more than 5 hexes apart. Below, Indo places the Criminal's figure on the sands.



Dallas' Thrax had a reputation for toughness - if memory serves that character cleaned up the previous time we played. Below, Dallas rolls the dice for his man.



Thrax' reputation was well-deserved. Eventually, it took three of the gladiators teaming up together to knock Thrax out of the fight.



Putting down Thrax had left the Amazon with only one hit point. However, she spied the Criminal leaving himself open as he performed a Savage Attack upon Marcus. She sneakily stepped up to the momentarily defenseless Criminal, and cold cocked him.



As a gesture of thanks for the assist, Marcus then dueled the Amazon. Her luck held out for longer than I would have thought, but she finally succumbed to a combination of Marcus' dazzling swordplay and the heat of action.



This left Vescen and Marcus to vie for the coveted Rudis (a special wooden sword given as an achievement). Vescen had wisely stayed aloof from the scrum around Thrax, and remained relatively fresh, whereas Marcus was already badly wounded. Dicing each turn for initiative, the two gladiators engaged in a long passage of arms. Finally, Marcus' wounds and fatigue told and Vescen forced him to submit.

Below, Frederick looks down upon his victorious gladiator.



A fun evening was had by all. Everyone agreed that the cards worked well; better than the chits provided in the original game.

Now that Brian has taken up 40K (yay for the Dark Kin), we also discussed using Brian's Colosseum model in a Dark Eldar themed Warhammer 40K scenario.

Thanks to everyone who came out, and, as always, thanks to Pam and Dallas for hosting.

Feeling Hungary...

Summer seems to finally be here, and I was able to get away for a week of vacation to visit family in the Soo. I brought my paints with me, and was able to get some painting done, finishing another battalion for my 25/28mm Austrian Napoleonic force.




I like to pride myself on rapid completion of projects, but this particular formation contains over 10 years of painting. Some of the figures are the very first 25mm Napoleonic miniatures I ever painted, back when I was thinking that I would base these for Shako (meaning a 24-man unit). I finished the 24-man contingent in 2009. Not exactly top speed.



Then Curt proposed the new-level of challenge for "grand manner" gaming, with 40-man Austrian units. We mounted the Napoleonic Challenge, and I'm now fully locked in for grand manner lunacy, because it looks awesome and is really a lot of fun. With my baseline formations in place, I looked around for some ways to expand it quickly. Re-basing the 24-man Shako unit seemed logical, so I finished off another 16 more infantrymen (the last four of them this week) and now have a new unit for the force.




These fellows are Hungarian fusiliers from Foundry. I love the blue Hungarian pants, a nice addition to the colour palette of the Austrian Imperial Army. The mix of poses in this unit is different, reflecting my preferences from 10 years ago (a front rank advancing, the rear rank in 'march attack'). I think the variety will be good for the look on the table, and the two different poses are not that incompatible.



I now have four full 40-man infantry battalions for my Austrians. Painting time will be sporadic for now as we prepare to move houses, and I will likely divert into the 15mm sci-fi mayhem. But in terms of what is next for the ongoing Napoleonic project, I need to paint three more Hussars (THAT is a long story), and finish off two more guns and crews to round out my artillery battery. I hope to get to that finished before the NFL season starts (or is supposed to start).