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.