Dropzone Commander

I've been looking at this game for awhile now.  I mentioned it in this post, in fact, as one of the games I'm hoping to check out in the next four months.  As launch gets closer I'm getting more and more excited about both the models and the rules.

The cover looks like it really captures the flavor of the game.

Dux Britanniarum Pre-orders up

The latest game from TooFatLardies is finally up for pre-order.  Dux Brit is a game covering the period following Rome's retreat from Britain and the invasion of the Saxons.  It fits nicely in the period between Hail Caesar and Saga, for me.  It also comes with a really slick sounding campaign system, which I'm hoping can be modified for other game systems.

Sci-Fi Monday - Star Drives

The Kang-Smith Jump Drive.

Extra solar system human space travel became feasible when the Kang-Smith jump drive was developed at the University of Colorado at Boulder, USA in 2237.  The KS drive allowed ships to disappear in one location and reappear up to three light years distant, instantaneously.  Later improvements to the KS drive allowed jumps of up to seven light years.

The jump drive, as it is called, is powered by a battery system, the Twitch Battery, which discharges all of its energy in one giant release.  The battery is then recharged via the ship's fusion engines.  Initial battery/engine combinations took up to three days to recharge, limiting the speed of a ship to approximately six light years a week.  Later developments allowed two battery sets to be carried, and recharged in only two days, enabling  a jump per day, or two in rapid succession.  When combined with the longer jump distances, of seven light years, this improved the speed of a jump ship from six light years per week to 49 light years per week.

Update

I haven't been posting much lately because I haven't finished a thing.  My normal posts seem to be either painted minis or battle reports.  That doesn't mean that I haven't been doing anything, just that none of it has fit into either of those categories.  So here's what has been going on.

A 15mm dropship, in the making.

Sci-Fi Monday - The Fury Reach

This is the first of Sci/Fi Monday articles.

This post is going to be a long one.  No pictures, just a wall of text.  If you don't want to read it, no worries.  It's the history of the Fury Reach, the background for my sci/fi campaign area.  Once I have this out of the way I can start working on the fun stuff.  Fun for you that is, I like this sort of thing.

The Fury Reach was colonized during the Fifth Wave of human expansion.

More after the jump.

Sci/FI Monday

Now that I'm back at work I've been having a much harder time finding both time and desire for hobby.  Working two jobs just kicks my butt.  By the time I've gotten the boys to bed it's all I can do to read everyone else's blogs.

In an effort to kick things up a notch I'm going to devote Mondays to science fiction.  Every Monday I'll have a post about Sci/Fi.  I was going to start this last week but I had food poisoning and just wasn't up to it.  I was so sick that I was throwing up things I haven't even eaten yet.

The first few posts will lay out the background for my Sci/Fi setting.  I don't know about the rest of you but I need to have a context to put my games in.  Even if I'm not playing an actual campaign I can still place the battles into a campaign like context.

I've written the first post, and it's a doozy.  I won't blame you if you can't wade through the whole thing.  I'll be posting it up on Monday morning, if I can remember before I head off to work.  That will get it up in prime time for my UK followers and it will be waiting for the lunch crowd here in the States.

On the workbench

I haven't had a lot of hobby time lately.  I had almost two months of leave when I got back from Afghanistan, which meant that I got a lot of time to work on my minis.  Now I'm back to my real job, which is not leaving me much time, while I get locked back in.  Stuff has been piling up, but I have this weekend to start nailing some of it down.

I'm actually working on all of that right now.  It totally makes sense in my mind.

Four month plan +

There's a lot I want to do this year, since I'm trying everything that catches my fancy for twelve months.  I've called it the year of rules but I'm also dabbling in scales, mediums and genres.  The only real rule I have is that all of my gaming activities have to be games.

This year I'm deliberately being a gaming magpie.

Offering of Toy Soldiers for no cost.

A quick note for two give aways going on right now.  One is guaranteed and the other is a prize draw.  The first one is from The Assault Group.  If you go to their Facebook page and like them, they will give you a free mini of your choice from the Freebies section of their website.  Just like them, put a comment on their page and they will contact you and arrange to send you your free mini.  Great stuff.


The second give away is a prize draw.  This one is from Frontline Gamer and involves the usual, become a public follower of his site, make a comment, get entered for a new model.  Good stuff.  In the interest of full disclosure, I now get to entries in the bag.  Details can be found here.  This prize is for reaching 700 followers.  He has two more in the works, at 750 and 800, so, really, this is just a win-win since his blog is worth reading on its own merits.

Edit - I changed the title of this post as it was obviously attracting scum sucking spammers.

The Games that Define Us

An interesting tide is sweeping our small section of the blogosphere.  I refuse to use the M word (meme, there I did it, but only this once).  It started with the Frontline Gamer, whose blog I've pimped out before.  Several others have done it as well.  The topic has been bubbling around in my mind for a couple of weeks now, and it's finally germinated into something.

The idea is to talk about ten games that define you as a gamer.  Some interesting things have come out of it.  More North American gamers seem to have gotten in through RPGs, whereas the UK gamers seem to have come into it through GW.

In my case, I definitely follow the trend, coming to GW late in my gaming life.  There are some on my list that I have not seen anywhere else.  Others seem to be on every list.

Monthly Retrospective 4

Another month is done.  I'm still having a hard time keeping up with how quickly this year is going.  It's time for my obsessive compulsive side to kick in and take stock of May.  Considering I was on vacation for two weeks, with no internet or hobby access, I'm pleased with how it went.

Deals and Specials

There are a lot of sales and deals going on in the brave new age of wargaming that we are living in.  The 15mm Sci/Fi manufacturers often have nice sales.  "Tuition is due for my daughter, 20% off on everything."  It's nice doing business with a small company.

This is what twenty random sprues look like.  Awesome.

Then you have the big players.  Not GW big, but second tier big.  Folks like Mantic.  They recently had one of their wacky sales; for twenty five pounds you got twenty random sprues and a messenger bag.  That is a heck of a deal in my book.

Prize Draws

There is something interesting that goes on from time to time in the gaming blogosphere.  Bloggers give out prizes for reaching certain goals on their blogs.  This is similar to the custom, here in the states and in the Shire, of giving gifts on your birthday.  I have two little boys and every birthday party we put on we put together gift bags for all of the invitees.  It's a nice way of saying, "Thanks for helping me celebrate my birthday".

These prize draws are the same sort of thing.  They usually go at, either, a certain number of followers or a certain number of hits.  I think it is quite nice of these people, "Thanks for coming by and reading my stuff".  They get the kick of knowing people value what they do so they give us the kick of, perhaps, winning something new and shiny.

I quite like this custom.

Right now the king of prize draws, at least on the blogs I follow, is the Frontline gamer.  I have mentioned his blog in the past, as I quite like it.  Jody writes well reasoned and thought out articles which are well written.  He does a lot of product reviews, which are quite nice.  He also has connections with some of the coolest manufacturers out there right now.

His latest draw is this:

For reaching 575 followers:  Freebooters Fate rule book.

He has several more in the offing, each awesome and all dependent on reaching a certain number of followers.  He has the full list of his goals on the above post, so go check it out and become a member.

Memorial Day

Here in the States, today is Memorial day.  For most people it is a Monday off work.  There will be lots of grilling, parties with families and friends and the opening of swimming pools across the country.

Captain John W. Maloney

The real purpose of the day is to remember the sacrifices of our service men and women in all of our wars.  As I do every Memorial day, I'm going to put up information about my good friend John Maloney.  We were Sgt's together, almost twenty years ago now.  He was a great man, and the best of us.  John is what we, in the Marine Corps, call a Mustang.  That means he was enlisted before he got commissioned as an officer.  He was a mortar man in the 5th Marines, arguably the Marine regiment with the finest fighting record, which is saying something.  When he got his commission he went back to the grunts (infantry), rising to command of his own rifle company, perhaps the most coveted position in the Marine Corps.

John left behind his wife, Michelle, and his two small children, a son and a daughter.  Please take the time to read the articles and learn more about what this day is about for those of us who have served.

http://www.militarytimes.com/valor/soldier/926995/

Year of Rules - Gruntz 15mm Sci/Fi

This is the Year of Rules, one new set checked out every month.  The Rules set for May is... Duh!  Duh!  Duh!  Gruntz!

The cover of the PDF rules v1.0.

One read through and a couple of solo practice games down and this is what I think...

Defiance Games UAMC

Look what came in the mail.  I've been waiting for this package since February.  Defiance Games has finally sorted out their production issues and gotten their production line in order.  My order of USMC, now re-named UAMC due to copyright issues, is finally here.  (Yes, you read that correctly, the United States Marine Corps has copyrighted USMC).

Look what just came in the mail.

The box, looking remarkably like what it looked like on the Defiance web site. 

This box holds twelve sprues.

Transfers

Shield Transfers.  They are a must for Romans, unless your freehand skills are much better than mine.  The Warlord Legionaries come with a sheet, and very nice looking they are too.  All you need is the decals, some water and your normal hobby tools.  What could be simpler?

 I hate them with a passion I normally reserve for living things.

Collecting to an Order of Battle

When I am thinking about collecting historical miniatures I like to pick a battle, research the order of battle present, then collect towards that.  It gives me structure and form.  Of course I'm willing to deviate from that when a unit is just too cool to leave out.

Monthly Retrospective 3

Month four of 2012 is over.  This year is going blindingly fast, to me at least.  This was a productive month in some respects and not so much in others.

I started 15mm for Sci/Fi this month.  That's a big step.  I prefer 28mm models, and I'll still game in that scale.  The reasons I finally succumbed to the dark side of gaming are probably pretty familiar to all those that have already made the leap.  There is a huge, and ever expanding range of models.  They are dirt cheap.  They paint up quickly.  The terrain is much cheaper than 28mm.  There is freedom to build whatever force you want. (Technically this exists with 40k as well, but GW would have you believe that is not the case).  There are a ton of different rule sets out there.  I bought some test models, ARC fleet from CMG.  I liked them, even the infantry.  So I ordered a bunch of Sahadeen and two Vipers from Rebel Minis.  Those arrived yesterday and look very nice as well.  I'll be doing a review on them as I assemble them.  I'll need to put in another order to CMG to flesh out the first order, but that will give me two armies to game with.

Painted CMG ARC Fleet

Prize Giveaway...

No, not mine.  I'm pointing you all in the direction of a prize giveaway on another blog.  This is a cool one for two reasons.  First is the interview with Rob Lane, of Bane Legions.  If you haven't seen these minis, holy cow, go take a look.  They are producing some awesome stuff, and I mean that in the literal sense of the word, it is inspires Awe.  It's also interesting to get a view into the inner workings of a small mini company.  It's cool, for me at least, to see how these small companies get started and do their work.  So read the interview if you are at all interested in how your minis get made.

Picture from BaneLegions

The second reason to head on over is the prize that is being given away.  Krull.  This is what a Balrog should look like.  This makes a Blood Thirster look meek.  This thing is huge and ugly and down right beautiful.  Getting entered in the draw is easy, so go for it, you have nothing to lose.  To give you an idea of the size of this thing, a 28mm mini, standing on Krull's base will come about to his knee.  Go here to see the size comparison.