Firestorm Planetfall - Opening the box.

Firestorm Planetfall -  Opening the box.

Also see: Firestorm Planetfall - The Models

 Arriving in the post a few days ago for my perusal was Spartan games newest offering, Firestorm - Planetfall, Battle for Proteus Prime. Upon opening it I was very impressed in the fact that the box was completely full. Inside the box you get two opposing forces comprising of an infantry unit, heavy tank, medium tank and light units. Each model is beautifully sculptured and the castings are clean. You also get a cardboard and clear perspex set of buildings, two decks of gaming cards,a set of dice, templates, a Main rule book and a campaign rule book.
Having a quick look at the miniatures I was impressed with the quality and sculpting, The down side was that the lead figures have a lot of flash. At this point I realized I have a few missing parts so need to contact Spartan.

Taking a brief look through the rules it becomes apparent that there is an element of Dystopian Legions with the different coloured dice, causing different Exploding dice results. The rules are nicely laid out with numerous pictures of the models that look great and are inspiring as usual.

Assembling the buildings was guess work and slightly dangerous. A set of instructions at this point would have helped. The buildings consists clear perspex frame covered in coloured cardboard outer. It was at this point when pressing out the perspex frames from there sprues several small pieces similar to a grain of sand flew from the sprue into my eye. SO be careful, But it did not mater what way I pressed the parts out several small pieces flew off in different directions.

I will go in to the miniatures another time when I start to assemble the forces.

Contents of box.

Bubble-wrapped miniatures.

Rule books and cards.

Buildings and bunkers.

HoTT Zulu Army

Hi
Now I am slowly waking up and having a fewer less dizzy days I am getting the DBA/HoTT Bug again.
I decided today to create my Zulu army for HoTT. After downloading some HoTE (Hordes of things Empires) rules which are a modified version of HoTT. Looking through the Army lists I took inspiration from the Zulu list and got to work basing my Old spare minifig Zulu figures.

Using up all the figures I had except 3 damaged ones I got the following army.

HoTT Zulu's

• 1 Magician General (Well they did like their Magical powers which were mainly drug induced)
• 10 Warbands            (Married Regiments)
• 6 Hordes                  (Unmarried/Young men Regiments)
• 3 Shooters               (Stolen Rifles from the British)
• 1 Lurker                  (Scouting parties/ambush)
• 1 Blade                    (Elite/Tribal leaders Regiment)
• 2 Beasts or Sneakers (represents the use of cattle to sneak up on or there use as Decoys)

The Strong hold will be a Stockaded village.

Next will be the British but I do not have many spare figures for these as all mine are part of my Principles of war army. So I may have to buy some figures. For the British Strong hold I plan to use a wagon lager.

I also have plans afoot for Boxer rebellion armies.
Jon :)

Drop Zone Commander and gaming update

Try as I may I can not get any real gaming done, other than a little test run games of DBA due to the large amount of armies I have acquired, games played have been Dead Mans hand or X-Wing.

Well I decided to speed things up a little and decided to paint my Drop Zone Commander Armies and went in search for them, to my surprise I could not find them and a nagging feeling crept over me....

I am embarrassed to say that I seemed to remember a fateful day when I was asked about some boxes in the corner, and I said bin them, Unfortunately, my friend failed to inform me that they had things in them. And I think one of the boxes contained my two armies for DZC...ARGGGGHHH!!!!!!!!!

Oh well "Hey Ho, Pip and Dandy" as they say. I decided that I had invested too much in this project to let it go that easy, so onto E(Vil)bay I went. The replacement armies would set me back £31 each and then I would have to build and paint them, I Then found two armies  pre built and pre painted and after making an offer on one, I also secured a second army for its start price.

700 point SCOURGE Army

My first purchase was this SCOURGE army with an extra Desolator unit, it also came with the army specific card set. I am a bit gutted in one sense as I found another army for a similar price but more units after I had purchased this one.  Although the army is painted I intend to enhance the painting a little further.

1000 point PHR Army

All the way from Holland I won this nice little PHR army, which comes in around 1000 points, again I got the army specific cards with this, Although they are nicely painted I will try to define some of the detail better. Not too sure about the round bases but I like the way he has done them. The seller also has a SCOURGE army that needs a little TLC, I may get that as well but it will not tie in with what I have unless I repaint one of the armies.

Taking into account costs I think I got these quite cheaply.
RRP are
2x starter armies £31.00 each
2x Amry specific cards £5.00 each
1x PHR Zeus command Walker pack £12.00
2x PHR Athena air superiority fighters £10.00 each
1x SCOURGE Desolator £17.50
Total RRP of my replacement armies £121.50. And I paid £76.66 plus postage for the two armies and they are painted, So considering I would have purchased extra units direct from Hawk Games , I think I did quite well on the loss of my two original unpainted armies. SO it is a "Pip and Dandy" moment on the upside :)


See you on the flip side

Jon :)

Small update

Just a small update as to what is going on in my shed.

After an influx of miniatures which equates to around 20 plus new armies in various scales, For which I have been busy finding suitable storage for them all and I am still in the process of identifying a lot of the armies.
So my gaming possibilities now consist of the following:

• 15mm DBA (New addition) or FOG
• 15mm Principles of War - Colonial
• 15mm Principles of War - Napoleonic (Also Black Powder)
• 15mm WW2 - FOW/Rapid Fire/Chain of Command 
• 15mm Sci-Fi - Imperial Commander
• 15mm Principles of War - ACW (New Addition)
• 15mm AK-47
• 15mm Falklands
• Drop Zone Commander
• 1/300th Moderns - Cold War Commander
• 1/3000th WW2 Ships - General Quarters
• 1/300th Modern Air combat
• Warhammer 40k
• Hordes of Things
• Dystopian Wars
• Firestorm Armada 
• Dead Mans Hand

Quick Games consist off:

• Jugula
• X-Wing Star Wars
• Zombicide

NEWS NEWS NEWS NEWS NEWS NEWS

I have recently been gifted someones Wargames collection. It is mainly 15mm with some 1/1200 ships.
I am still in the process of storing and identifying what I have received. There is something like 16 DBA Armies, 4 boxes of Sci-Fi, numerous boxes of unbuilt sci-fi, SO my gaming plans for this year are about to change :)

I shall update you more when I work out what I have, but for now here are a sample of the stuff I have received.

And this is about a 1/4 of it if that.....

ROGUE TRADER arives

Many moons ago I came across adverts for Rouge Trader and purchased my copy not long after it came out, I loved it and I was inspired by the models within its pages and my love affair with it started.

I regularly purchased and painted the miniatures on offer, My first purchase was the boxed set of Marines and then came the Orks. I then got the Eldar Pirates and then Imperial guard,Swats, and finally Chaos marines, I loved them. A few years later came the plastic Imperial guard, and the Rhinos (3 in a box), I also got a land raider. I for some reason then sold the lot off? I can't remember why, but one thing I know is probably lack off an opponent.

Then came the new Warhammer 40k boxed rules with Plastic Marines and Plastic Orcs and Gretchins, I loved those Orcs. I had Battle Wagons, Bikes, Meks with Shoc attack guns, I had Gretchin artillery, HOP SPLATS, I had the lot.... Sigh where did it all go wrong?

Well although I have started playing the new 40k, I decided to track down a copy of the original rules, and a look on EVil Bay reveals that the rules go for a hefty price ?? Well I managed to find a copy at a good price and when it arrived it was MINT!

So now I am a proud owner of a copy of Rogue Trade ©1987 set of rules.

Having quickly read through it, It has rekindled my interest in these rules and a spark has appeared in my eye. I LOVE THIS BOOK!!!!!!!!!

You can also  see that a lot of weapon stats have not changed but the character stats have been dumbed down to make it easier for today's kids to handle.

I also managed to get another cheaper copy for a friend as an early Birthday present and we intend to raise an army using the lists and play a few games with the original rules.

Conversion Beamers, D-Cannons, Webbers...Bring it on!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Cowgirls for Dead Man's Hand

My Cow Girl Gang the `Whores of Babylon` for use with Dead Man's Hand. They need some re-touching and tidying up and the bases finishing but they are game ready.

Now just to work out the special rules.

Phalanx Show report and game pictures

Saturday I went to the recent Phalanx show held at St.Helen's - What a show this was, the Bring and Buy was packed and lots of reasonable priced items on display, the traders had awesome goods on display and were quite happy to talk to you, even if you didn't buy anything.

I lost out on a Imperial guard Baneblade as my friend distracted me for 30 seconds to rob some cash of me and when I turned back a guy had picked it up and was getting his cash out... Oh well, a Pip and Dandy moment.

Nether the less there was lots of other things I could have purchased, but my friend robbed all my ready cash and no one was taking card payments. So I will have to mail order some stuff from The Last Valley, Bitz Box and  Great Escape Games.

I manged to scrape enough cash from what my friend left me to get some more small scenery bits for Dead Mans Hand and I bumped in to an old war gaming friend. The display games were of high quality and one in particular was just.. WoW! It featured an WW2 US invasion of a Japanese held  Island in 20mm which was around 20 foot long and flanking it was two furthur tables holding the carrier fleets with 20mm scratch build carrier at one end and a smaller scaled fleet representing the enemy at the other end for both sides.

After Sheffield I was not going to go to any more shows for a couple of months as it had made me quite ill, but I decided as this was quite close and I would chance it, I got around it okay, but only just, I started to flag a little after 2 hours and it was a good job it was close to home.

Oh well less of my drivel and on with the game pictures.

First up is Great Escape's Dead Man's Hand demonstration table which was very inspiring, I am going to have to do a table base soon for my own games.

Next is a King of War game, the house had a glowing light in it.

This participation game was called Where Eagles Dare, could not quite work out the setting but it looked interestingly good.

This medieval game caught my eye due to the beautifully painted miniatures. I do like this period for its colourful troops but not enough to actual buy and paint them as mine will never look as good as these.

The next game was I think a Civil War game set in the mid 1920's??  Initiative was card orientated, or so I guess from all the playing cards cluttering the table.

Next up was a American Civil War game, Lots and Lots of firing lines as usual.

There was this neat Napoleonic Naval game, Something wich has eluded me over the years and one day I may get a chance to play a game.

A Bomber raid over England with German bomber formations trying to get past the RAF to bomb their targets. The table cloth was painted on the back of some leatherett, to which I have a lot off in my shed.. Hmm... Naw, I don't think so, not just yet although I do have a ton of 1/300th scale WW2 aircraft to paint up.

Now on to the Iow Jima type game. this game was an eye catcher and awesome to boot.

20mm Japanese Aircraft Carrier

A view showing the scale of this game.

The Us fleet supporting the invasion.

One of the two fortified mountains and one of the US beach landings.

LVT's land near the airfield

Jap Airfield witha  bomber trying to take off.

Another pic of the LVT's

Another US landing takes place.

More LVT's attack the second fortified mountain.

Waterline LVT... Me like.

Picture of the second fortified mountain and local village

The US Carrier and in the distance a Japanese fleet.

A view down the table.

 Finally there was this medieval game with this castle.

Overall I enjoyed the show and will look forward to visiting it again next year.
Jon :)

Bank Holiday Game 2 - Jugula

On the Bank Holiday Monday, for our second game of the day, I introduced Richard to Jugula. With only 2 Gladiators per side it was going to be either a long game or a short one. It turned out to be around just right although extra gladiators would have been better.

Although the game is quite easy to play, the rules are a bugger to get your head around, once you play it a few times it seems to work although it is very hard to wound another gladiator, let alone kill it even if you have a whopping score of 14.

This was Richards first encounter with the game and my first proper full run through and he felt that the game lacked the Gladiatorial feel it should have and felt a little of a push and shove game with little if any actual fighting.

The game does seem to be more of a strategy card orientated game rather than a table top game and maybe playing the additional campaign rules may make it a better game.
Well the author does say that this is not a Gladiator fighting game... Okay I wish Icould have read this before buying the sealed rules.

Dead Mans Hand - Show Down

Towns folks face off against the Villains before deployment.

Sundays' game of Dead Mans Hand had us using a total of 18 figures,

Good Guys were, Sheriff, Marshall, 3 Deputies and 4 Towns Folks Vs the Bad guys who had a Boss, 7 dudes and a varmet. The Towns folks were out gunned with the Sheriff falling to a lucky hit only two activations into the first turn.  No matter what they did the town folks were gunned down mercilessly as 19 after 19 was rolled, I think the bad guys threw around 6 19's through out the game with very few shots missing. The last town folk took on the baddies in hand to hand fighting only for the bad guys boss leap up onto the roof and dispatched the lonely town folk with one mighty punch.

Bank Holiday Games Day - Game 1, Warhammer 40k

As I have said previously my friend who has been working in the States came back to the UK to be demobbed before heading to work in Australia. Richard is responsible for me getting back into WH40k, he is also responsible for me getting into moderns back in the 1990's, along with WAB and Warhammer. More recent years he nudged me into Flames of War, Warhammer Historical WW1, and Dead Mans hand (The latter by just giving me some figures he had painted).

Mr Friend Richard, with my other friend Scott in the back ground

He has also Kick started several off my armies including my Grey Knights, 1914 French and the dreaded  Cowboys (Grrr). We have enjoyed playing in the past playing Moderns, Twilight 2000. Flames of War and many, many ,many more games.

He's been busy on a whistle stop tour of relatives and friends and took the time out to spend some time on the bank holiday Monday with me in the games shed. So we started with a small 500 point Warhammer 40k game with the new Rules that had just come out, followed by Jugular and then a 1500 point 40k.

Our first game was the 500 point 40k and Richard used his Imperial Guard from the new Codex and I used my Grey Knights.

Imperial Guard 500points
HQ - CO with Power fist, Veteran with Banner and 3 Veterans with hotshot rifles.
Two 10 man Squads each 1 Sergent (Las Pistol and Close Combat Weapon), 1 Flamer, 1 Plasma Gun, 7 veterans with Hotshot Rifles.
1 Commisar

Grey Knights 500points
Imperial Inquisitor
Chimera

1 henchmen squad with 2 Servitors with Heavy Bolters and 4 Dudes with Bolters and Power armour
2 Grey Knight squads each 4 knights and 1 Pyscannon
2 Paladins

This worried me a little as I had quite a sizable force facing Richards 2 squads. I kept wondering what he had up his sleeves, It turned out that they were a form of poor man Marines, AP3 weapons which fired twice and 4+ saving throws.

General view of the table

 We set the table up as above and then placed the objectives. I hid my Grey knights, one squad behind a wood and another in some ruins as I knew that if Richards Guard got to shoot them they would have no saving throws due to his AP3 weapons. I chanced the Chimera in the open mounting the Inquisitor and his retinue, so that the servitors could fire their heavy bolters from the rear hatched. My Paladins were held in reserve so that they could deep strike in.  Richard set up in the corner of the board behind the hills with one squad in the ruins.

At this point we made a slight mistake in the issuing of the psychic powers, The errata came out after we played the game the way we did. Each Grey knight squad received two random powers, and I felt this went against what the narratives of the army told you about the Grey Knights.

Grey Knights looking at hiding in the woods.

 My Grey Knights above are poised to take objective number 1 which happened to be my first objective card objective. I really liked the way the game now uses random objective cards which allows you to stack up those objective points. Your oppo may well blast you back to the stone age but if you achieved your objectives you could still win.

Inquisitor Chimera

 My Chimera caused a few casualties amongst the Guard hiding in the ruins, and the return fire from the Guards Plasma gun was a 1/4 of an inch out of range, The next two turns saw the chimera take 2 hits but both failed to penetrate.

Imperial guard hiding behind the hills

 The Guard in the corner skulking decided to move out and take a few objectives, which left them open to attack from my Chimera, I couldn't decide whether to finish off the squad in teh ruins or go after the one in the open, I chose the latter.

Paladins Teleport in

 With a flash my Paladins arrived and pored bolter rounds into the command squad and nothing happened, The Guards turn to face the new threat and the Paladins shrug off most of the volley fire but take one wound.

Imperial Guard try some Hot shot death.

Above the Paladins look a bit surrounded. The command squad charges the Paladins and in the resulting melee and wiped out (I forgot to take more pictures), The Chimera deposits the Henchmen who start to whittle down the Guard squad, eventually only 2 men were left and they failed their moral test.

My squad that was hiding behind the wood, had moved through the wood to then move across the open to take another objective, the Guards in the ruins had been almost wiped out and  they too headed towards the same objective, flaming my squad they kill one knight before being mowed down by a psychic power that cause 6 wounds. The ruins was now held by the Commissar who succumbed to several Psycannon hits. And there endeth the first game. a GK victory 7 - 5.

two more game reports to come