15mm Sci/Fi II

My order from Critical Mass Games arrived yesterday.  Only ten days from shipping in the UK to arriving here.  Not bad.  This was a trial balloon to see how I feel about 15mm.  I've been staring at my FoW US Army models and trying to project from there, but I wanted to see these in the flesh.

So... how do I feel about them?  I'm happy.  There's good detail on these.  The vehicles are very nice.  The troops are small but look great.  The price is definitely a sweet spot, and it makes SWMBO happy.

 A little blurry but it does the job.  This is the first order I placed.

Harad Army - Completed

Here are the shots of my completed Harad army for Lord of the Rings.  I actually took these three weeks ago and just found them on my camera.  I'm very pleased with how this army came out.  There is, certainly, room for improvement and I could tweak quite a few details, but all in all I'm very happy.

The entire army, with some extra models to give me choices.

15mm Sci/Fi

I finally took the plunge, sort of, in a "one toe in the water" sort of way.  I placed an order with Critical Mass Games for some of their ARC Fleet models.  This is strictly a trial balloon, so it's a small order.  I am awaiting receipt of one pack of eight ARC Fleet Recon Troopers, one Recon Grav Bike and one Grav Scout.  The total, with shipping to the US, was about $23 dollars.  I've spent more on a few beers at the local pub, so if I hate them then I'm not out too much.

Picture from Critical Mass Games.

Picture from Critical Mass Games.

Picture from Critical Mass Games.

Battle Report - High Elves vs Isengard and Galadrim

The Thursday night league has closed but that is still Lord of the Rings night down at Collectormania.  We have not had any games in a couple of weeks and Jonathan and I were both Jonesing.  In addition, Huntsman is back in the rotation, so there are three of us who plan on being there every week.

Last Thursday was the last night back and with three of us we had to get creative.  We decided to play a three player game, (all right, so not really that creative when you have three players).  There was an objective in the center of the table, victory points for each model within six inches when the game ended.  There is random deployment with a die roll determining where each warband comes in.  A 1 means, not this turn, 2 your opponent chooses a North/South edge, 3 your opponent chooses an East/West board edge, 4 you choose N/S, 5 you choose E/W and 6 you choose any board edge.  There are also points for wounding and killing the enemy general.  For players of LotR this is the Hold Ground scenario.  The effect of this deployment, with just two players, is chaos as warbands come in all over the table and head for the center to mix it up, often fighting as they go.  With three players there was even more confusion. 

Initial deployment.  Arwen will come in behind the ruins top center.  Galadhrim top left and bottom left with Rumil's band bottom center.

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.

I have been remiss...

I usually acknowledge the new joins to my blog.  By usually I mean, of course, the one other month that I've done it.  I forgot the other day, when I was doing my monthly retrospective but now that I've remembered I want to give appropriate props.

Seven new people joined my followers this month.  This probably seems quite trivial to most readers but here's the thing; these are the first followers I have that I don't actually know in person.  I started the blog for my own edification.  It helps me stay focused and motivated and to track my changing interests.  It keeps all of my hobby stuff in one place.  I can look at my painting over time, I can see how my interests change.  All of the blogs I like to follow are in one place, allowing me to quickly see what has been updated.  The blog served a bonus purpose of giving me somewhere to put battle reports from our local club.  Prior to this month all of my followers were people I actually game with.  The fact that others have shown interest is flattering but it also increases the pressure I put on myself to actually try to put up quality content.  This is a good thing, of course.

The first person to join (actually the last day of February, but I'm running the show here and can do what I want) is Lee Hadley of Big Lee's Miniature Adventures.  I've really enjoyed Lee's blog.  He has a wry sense of humor, a variety of interests and, awesomely, lives close enough to the Bovington Tank Museum to visit it. Go visit his blog and watch the video of the Tiger tank driving around; it's pure gold.

Monthly Retrospective 2

Another month down and not as much to show for it as I would have liked.  Still, I like to take a look back to catalog the progress; it helps me to keep motivated.

I only got twelve models painted.  That's way below my, frankly tiny, goal of twenty.  Even if I add in the models from last month it doesn't average out to 40 in two months.  So, a bit of a failure there and it makes me somewhat sad.  On the other hand, I finished my Haradrim army for Lord of the Rings, so that is something to celebrate.  I'll hit them with some matte varnish this afternoon and be done with it.  This actually slowed me down because I didn't have another project queued up to work on.  I'm still doing conversion work on my Elves and I'm still assembling the Celts.  So, lesson learned.  Have projects ready to go on the paint table.  Second lesson:  paint consistently during the month.  Not exactly ground breaking, I know, but there you have it.

Product Review - Kobblestone Miniatures

This is a quick product review on some Kobblestone Miniatures castings which I just ordered.  I've been working on terrain for a table to go with my Haradrim army.  The two hills, covered here, are part of this.  There will be a small village in the center of the table, with walls, houses and a market.  The village will need, of course, a water source, hence a well.  I have seen many, many traditional European/North American wells but nothing that really fit what I was looking for with this table.  Until, that is, I found this.

Picture from Kobblestone Miniatures.

I went online to place the order.  I was torn between the Spanish type well.  SWMBO suggested, rather unreasonably I thought, that I just buy both.  Why didn't I think of that?  As I was scrolling through the page she said, "What's that?  You have to buy that too".  "That" is their market set, which is totally awesome as will be shown below.

The next Project II

This one is a little bit embarrassing, since the pictures are poor.  My photo foo is low today, obviously.  I have some ideas on what is causing me problems so hopefully I can improve on that.

Here's my new list:

Warband 1
Arwen - 60 pts
High Elf warrior with Banner and spear - 35 pts
6 x High Elf Warrior with shield - 60 pts
4 x High Elf Warrior with Elf Bow and spear - 48 pts
1 x High Elf Warrior with Elf Blade - 10 pts

Warband 2
Erestor - 80 pts
6 x High Elf Warriors with shield - 60 pts
4 x High Elf Warrior with Elf Bow and spear - 48 pts
2 x High Elf Warrior with Elf Blade - 20 pts

Warband 3
Galadhrim Storm Caller - 60 pts
6 x Galadhrim Warriors with shield - 54 pts
4 x Galadhrim Warriors with Elf Bow and spear - 44 pts
2 x Galadhrim Warriors with spear and shield - 20 pts

39 Models
599 points
3 Might
7 Will

The force is short on might but with two Nature's Wrath and Erestor's special rules I think it will balance out.  Now for painting and play testing.  I had to convert all of the sword and shield elves.  I've been working on that for the last two weeks and finished yesterday.  I still have to make the spears for the High Elf archers.  I'm, quite frankly, procrastinating on that since I don't want to do it.

Pictures below, I've included one of the Galadhrim, just for the sake of completeness.

Erestor, banner and Arwen.  Archers in the rear.

Painting Status III

I've been wrapping up my Haradrim army this month.  I don't think I'm going to make my goal of twenty painted models for March, but I'm really quite pleased with how these came out.  It's another twelve models.  Six Warriors with spears and then all of the heroes and specials.  I'll get my Betrayer painted up, to use instead of the generic Nazgul model I have been using, but that should be it on this army.  It's going to be used by the Traveller, while he decides if he is going to invest in the game or not.  I lent him the Fallen Realms army book so he can start making his own lists, instead of using mine.  If he chooses models that I don't have painted then I'll be re-visiting this army.  I suspect that Suladan may get painted in the next couple of weeks, for example.

Without further ado, here's the new additions.

All twelve models.  There is a ton of light on these guys, I don't know why they come out so dark.

Nuradan - front...

and rear.

Aladhi - front...

and rear.

Banner bearer front.  He is not part of the current list, but such a beautiful model...

From the rear.

The Master - front...

and back.  Every time I look at these pictures I find something I missed.

Hornblower - front...

and back.

Mumak Chieftan - front...

and back.

Six spearmen.

I'll do an army shot later today with all of the lads in one place.  It's in the seventies today so, as long as the wind doesn't kick up, I'll be varnishing this army later in the afternoon.  I had hoped to get it done by the first part of March.  That didn't work out but I'm still pleased with my progress.  Now I just need to step up the pace so I can get these 39 Elves and 104 Romans and 43 Celts done in a timely manner. 

The next project

One warband for my new army.

Here's the first warband for my new army.  Twelve Galadrim warriors, four with bow and spear, two with spear and shield and six with sword and shield.  The warband is led by a storm caller, which brings us to an interesting story.

Games Workshop makes a Stormcaller model.  It used to be available as a single metal model in a blister.  With the new format they repackaged it into a box of Galadrim command and made it in resin instead.  This is totally awesome because it means not only is the individual model I want more expensive but I have to buy three other models, that I have no use for, in order to get it.  Of course by totally awesome I mean it sucks ass.

At this point the only models I'm buying from that company are one offs that I need to finish an existing army.  I have to add a few heroes due to the new warband creation rules.  I'm not going to rant here, I'm really not, but what the hell GW?

The Storm Caller is the chappy front and center.

I'm making a conversion to get my storm caller.  Everything you see here is straight out of the box.  The staff is a spear, with some work done on the hand to make it fit.  I'll dig through the bitz box to see if I have something appropriate for the end of the staff.  Worst case I'll make something, badly, out of green stuff.

The archers have had spears added to them.  The two spears, and all but one of the sword and shield elves, are straight out of the box.  The last sword and shield dude has been re-cut to make his two handed stance into a single hand stance.  It's a little awkward now but should look fine once he has the shield attached.

The other two warbands of this army are High Elves and are requiring a huge amount of converting to get right.  I've had to make shields for the sword and shield elves.  I am also having to scratch build spears for the archers, as the only way to get High Elf shields and spears is by buying the three model metal blisters of spear elves.  I'm not going to be doing that, thank you very much.

More to follow on the Storm Caller and the other two warbands.

A question of Scale

I'm considering issues of scale.  My favorite scale is 28mm.  I love the balance between detail and size.  There are a lot of manufacturers out there for all periods/genres.  The only real drawback, from my standpoint, is cost.  Other than that, this is the sweet spot for me.

The two other scales I'm willing to consider are 20mm and 15mm.  There are a ton of minis for all historical periods as well as fantasy and sci/fi, available in both.  Honestly, I'm not even looking for fantasy in anything but 28mm.  It's when looking at historicals and sci/fi that I have to give this some thought.

The largest WWII mini game is played in 15mm.  I think, for my purposes, WWII will be 15mm and 28mm.  I'll have to decide if I'm actually going to play Flames of War before I buy any more 15mm stuff.  There are several promising sets of rules for platoon or lower combat that would be great with 28mm.

Looking at other historical periods, ancients, medieval, Napoleonic, ACW, I can see the attraction of giant armies in those periods, I'm just left cold by the models.  I have several blogs in my blog roll from players who game in those systems.  I'm trying to find the attraction for them but I just am not seeing it yet.

So, where does 20mm come in?  Modern and Sci/fi.  There a ton of nice model makers out there working in 20mm.  Nice vehicles, good infantry, nice terrain.

Here's the thing.  I don't really care about collecting different scales in and of itself.  That's not the issue.  I have every intention of collecting WWII in both 28mm and 15mm.  It's the terrain that causes me issues.  I love terrain and want my tables to look great.  That means a lot of stuff, because let's face it, people don't normally fight over empty ground.

If I buy the, really tempting, stuff in 20mm, then that is a whole different set of terrain I need to collect as well, and that is what makes me hesitate.  So, if anyone can tell me what they love about 15mm as well as reasons to take the plunge on 20mm, I'd appreciate hearing it.  I'm still early in my collecting so I have not committed myself to anything.

Look what arrived in the mail

Last week I finally received my order from Warlord games.  After picking up the Hail Caesar rulebook, and looking through it, I decided that I was going to take the plunge and pick up a Roman army.  My wife ordered this for me for Valentines day.

Games for the wee ones III

Castle Fortaan got a big thumbs down from Rhys.  He doesn't even want to try it.  He still, desperately, wants to play Lord of the Rings, but he's just not there yet, understanding wise.  I'm back to looking for a dungeon crawler.  The local Barnes & Noble has two of the Dungeons and Dragons games, Castle Ravenloft and the Wrath of Ashardalon.  I would have preferred to get the Legend of Drizit, but I needed a game right now.   I settled and plumped for Castle Ravenloft.

One of my favorite bloggers, Frontline Gamer, did a review of the product which was not super enthusiastic.  The thing is, the things he didn't like about it are less likely to be problems when I am playing with Rhys.  The real thing Rhys wants is a dungeon crawler with minis that is cooperative play.  He wants the two of us to go kill bad guys and he wants it to be done with miniatures.  This game should answer the mail.

Rhys is not reading yet, so I'll be helping him with that part, but he does understand rolling dice and he certainly recognizes a bad guy when he sees one.  The mechanics of the game look simple enough.  The minis don't look like they will take paint very well, since they are bendy plastic, but I am going to hit them with a black wash to bring out some of the detail.  I'll post pictures to show you how it came out.

Saga

Another purchase in the Year of Rules line.  The candidate for March is ...  Da, da  da!.  Saga!  Oh wait.  I gave it away in the title.  Never mind.

(The picture probably detracts from the surprise as well.)

I haven't had a read through of the rules yet.  I'll do an in depth review once I have a chance to read them and bang them around a little bit.  Really I just wanted to talk about Architects of War (link here and also on the sidebar).  Normally I'm not a fan of only having one distributor, but Architects of War were fast and easy.  I put my order in last Friday.  On Saturday I got a confirmation email and it was delivered to me yesterday (Monday).  This is great service guys.

The book came in a box, wrapped in paper and padded with more paper.  The book was then sealed in a zip lock bag.  So, no chance of water damage and the box would have had to have been destroyed to get to the book.

Now, I bought the book as part of a bundle with a set of Saga dice.  I'm not at all happy about the prices on these dice, but that is not Architect's of War's fault.  Their deal gets the dice for a little bit cheaper, so I went for it.  This is my only complaint.  There was no where on the order form for me to specify which dice set I wanted.  This isn't a huge deal because I received an email from them asking me which set they should ship.  A real email from a real person.  It was nice to interact with someone that way.  I expect to see my dice soon; I'll let you know what I think of them then.

Prompt service, lightning fast even, and careful shipping.  All you can ask for. I don't know why I always buy stuff on Fridays, it usually delays things.  (I actually do know, it's pay day, duh.)  The service on this order was just phenomenal.  This was my first experience with this company but I'm looking forward to doing business with them again in the future.

Battle Report - Harad vs Isengard Part II

Nuradan had gathered the remnants of his warband and started south, with the Betrayer urging haste every step of the way.  Following the battle for the chests all five had been brought to the Betrayer, who had searched them and secreted something within his robes.  Nuradan had no idea what the object of this expedition was but they had, apparently secured it.  Now they just had to get it back to Mordor.

The scouts informed Nuradan that the Uruk Hai were gaining from the rear, and the howls of Whargs could be heard from the front.  More worryingly, the scouts reported seeing Saruman leading his forces in pursuit.  It appeared that the white wizard had more tricks up his sleeve.  Nuradan led his force into some ruins, hoping that the ruined buildings would provide some sort of advantage against the enemy.

The initial positions of the two sides.

Battle Report - Harad vs Isengard Part I

On Monday I was able to get a couple of games in against Huntsman and his Isengard army.  Huntsman was recently blessed with the addition of a little orc in the family and has not been able to play in several months.  Our first game reflected his re-learning the rules.  Our second showed that he was definitely playing attention during the first.

Nuradan was again attached to the command of the Betrayer.  It was clear that Sauron had a plan for his men, it just wasn't at all clear what it was.  The army had force marched to the north and crossed into the lands of the horse lords.  They were supposed to meet with Saruman's Uruks.  The problem, from Nuradan's point of view was that the meeting between the Betrayer and Saruman went poorly and he found himself facing an army of angry Uruk Hai, deep in doubly hostile territory.  Some days it just didn't pay to roll out of the blankets.

The battle lines on turn four. 

The Betrayer was interested in five chests, spread through some ruins.  Saruman, apprently, did not want to give them up.  This fight would be for control of the chests, but also for the survival of Nuradan and his men.  Nuradan was able to get one of the chests, on a hill, firmly under his control.  There was a second, in some ruins at the base of the hill, that he knew he could contest at will.  The other three were on the wrong side of a bunch of angry Uruk Hai and one angry wizard.

Games for the Wee Ones II

The search for the perfect dungeon crawler/mini game for the boys continues.  My stopgap, Space Hulk tiles with LotR minis, has sufficed for four or five games.  Owyn has lost interest and Rhys is struggling but still wants to play.  There's no depth and nothing to accomplish.  Goblins come on the board, they get killed.  It has sufficed to get us through the initial stages and give Daddy enough time to do some research.

Terrain Product Review

This month I bought two pieces of terrain from Gale Force 9's Battlefield in a Box line.  They will both be part of the haradrim terrain set I am putting together, though they will work, of course, for any desert table.

Appearance:  5/5.  The hill is really nicely done.  The terrain looks great, very realistic but also playable.  The colors are fantastic.  I had one sitting on the arm of a chair, in my office; every time I walked by I stopped and stared and thought, "Damn, that looks great".  I did that for a week.  When SWMBO walked into my office she said "What's this?  It's really pretty.  What can I use this for?".  When she is trying to find a use for my terrain, it must look good.  The pictures just don't do this piece justice.

Real Life

Since this is a hobby, for most of us, the real world tends to take up an awful lot of our time.  Sometimes it gets in the way, and sometimes it mugs you and drags you kicking and screaming down a dark alley to kick your ass.  This last week was one of those times.  I won't go into details as tragedy is not what this blog is about.  Suffice it to say that real world events not only took all of my time but sucked all of the joy out of the universe for several days.

Progress is being made on that point and I finally have a day off.  I'll be meeting up later today for a couple of games and I have some fun stuff in the works, which I will show off in due time. 

So.. I haven't disappeared but I did spend some time doing important things for myself and others that were not gaming related but help keep the universe in balance.

Thanks for checking back.