We've all had games like this...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wex1Bn2Xodk&feature=player_embedded
Tuesday, 3 August 2010
Tuesday, 20 July 2010
An Age of Empires I
I know that there are many out there for whom 'GW' and 'Warhammer' represent the evil empire, anathema to all they believe gaming should be, but for me, it's still the game that first got me into wargaming (waaaay back in its second edition, when it came boxed as three books), and the cause of the majority of lead and plastic that gets in my wife's way when she's trying to find her text books in the cupboard (not to mention what the unpainted horde of lead is probably doing to the rafters in the attic!).
And I must admit that the release of it's 8th edition has got me all excited about the subject again (it may be a marketing ploy but so what? find me something in life that isn't!), and reflecting on armies past present and future and, in particular, my strange, ongoing relationship with the Empire.
The Empire wasn't even my first attempt to collect an army (it didn't even exist when I first got into the game), that was an undead army, made up mostly of miniatures from the now defunct Grenadier range. Unfortunately I soon discovered I couldn't paint skeletons and they never got finished (they're still up there, bending the ceiling as I speak, must get them down and try again someday). However, when the first army lists came out, in the original Ravening Hordes book, it was the newly created background of the Empire that caught my eye. I couldn't say with 100% certainty why I felt drawn to that particular army, but I strongly suspect it was an existing interest in history, and the excuse to have knights in armour (I blame lazy Sundays watching films like Ivanhoe and the Knights of the Round Table). Even back then, units were appearing that we still see today, Imperial Guard (although they included archers back then), big blocks of Halberdiers and the Knights Panther.
Anyway, I'm rambling... and will continue to do so... My first Empire army, for second edition, was always a bit of a mish mash of stuff (including home cast stuff using moulds from Prince August) and I never quite managed to have all of the right units or numbers. The first, proper, 'legal' army I managed was actually under the excellent (if detailed) third edition and it's 'Warhammer Armies' book of army lists (back when an army could be described in a dozen sides of A4, and all the armies could be found in one book). That was a great list, and was largely responsible for defining certain elements of the Empire army that have always stuck with me. In particular it had a really Germanic flavour, with all of the units being given characterful names, like Helblitzen (halberds), Hohensknechtes (knights) and the tongue bending hakbutschutzen (handgunners) and temple ritterbruden (templar knights). This was an army of aloof religious knights, robber barons, professional infantry and grubby town militias, and you could even bring the baggage train to the party!
I still couldn't win games with it though...
I still have most of that army, although some elements have been cannibalised for other uses, or even incorporated into my current armies. It even turned up during a recent sort through of the attic, and was brought out for a nostalgic look and photo opp. I must say my paining has improved though...
From Left to Right, and back to front:
Kriegsritter, Temple Ritterbruden, Hohensknechtes
Reiks Kanone Batterien, Helblitzen, Reiksgard, Helblitzen, Nuln Landsknechtes (mercenaries)
Lots of Armbrustschutzen!
Forstjaeger
I also had a unit of 'Ersatzsolder' (militia, basically), and mercenary Border Horsemen, some of which still feature in my armies now.
And I must admit that the release of it's 8th edition has got me all excited about the subject again (it may be a marketing ploy but so what? find me something in life that isn't!), and reflecting on armies past present and future and, in particular, my strange, ongoing relationship with the Empire.
The Empire wasn't even my first attempt to collect an army (it didn't even exist when I first got into the game), that was an undead army, made up mostly of miniatures from the now defunct Grenadier range. Unfortunately I soon discovered I couldn't paint skeletons and they never got finished (they're still up there, bending the ceiling as I speak, must get them down and try again someday). However, when the first army lists came out, in the original Ravening Hordes book, it was the newly created background of the Empire that caught my eye. I couldn't say with 100% certainty why I felt drawn to that particular army, but I strongly suspect it was an existing interest in history, and the excuse to have knights in armour (I blame lazy Sundays watching films like Ivanhoe and the Knights of the Round Table). Even back then, units were appearing that we still see today, Imperial Guard (although they included archers back then), big blocks of Halberdiers and the Knights Panther.
Anyway, I'm rambling... and will continue to do so... My first Empire army, for second edition, was always a bit of a mish mash of stuff (including home cast stuff using moulds from Prince August) and I never quite managed to have all of the right units or numbers. The first, proper, 'legal' army I managed was actually under the excellent (if detailed) third edition and it's 'Warhammer Armies' book of army lists (back when an army could be described in a dozen sides of A4, and all the armies could be found in one book). That was a great list, and was largely responsible for defining certain elements of the Empire army that have always stuck with me. In particular it had a really Germanic flavour, with all of the units being given characterful names, like Helblitzen (halberds), Hohensknechtes (knights) and the tongue bending hakbutschutzen (handgunners) and temple ritterbruden (templar knights). This was an army of aloof religious knights, robber barons, professional infantry and grubby town militias, and you could even bring the baggage train to the party!
I still couldn't win games with it though...
I still have most of that army, although some elements have been cannibalised for other uses, or even incorporated into my current armies. It even turned up during a recent sort through of the attic, and was brought out for a nostalgic look and photo opp. I must say my paining has improved though...
From Left to Right, and back to front:Kriegsritter, Temple Ritterbruden, Hohensknechtes
Reiks Kanone Batterien, Helblitzen, Reiksgard, Helblitzen, Nuln Landsknechtes (mercenaries)
Lots of Armbrustschutzen!
Forstjaeger
I also had a unit of 'Ersatzsolder' (militia, basically), and mercenary Border Horsemen, some of which still feature in my armies now.
Sunday, 27 June 2010
Come in number 6, your time is up
Anyone who reads this blog (DOES anyone read this blog? Does it matter?) will have realised by now that I just can't concentrate on any one project for any length of time. The result is I have an endless variety of half finished and barely started models all over the place. At the moment I am trying (and sometimes succeeding) to finish off some of those projects.
The most recent completion was one of the excellent Crow Landers from Old Crow models. Nice clean, hard SF look, and well cast as usual, this will get used in games of Fast and Dirty.
I'd already assembled the model (only took minutes, although I'd advise pinning the wings for security), and taken a first crack at painting it with an airbrush. However, I'd mucked up the proportions for the green camo, which ended up blotchy and horrible, so decided to start from scratch. This time I went with a base coat of Humbrol spray enamel Sea Grey, which I then masked off with blu-tac before spraying with Dark Green (although it doesn't look that dark!). This was the first time I'd used this technique, and it worked a treat!
This was followed up by a quick paint of the details. Plain black for the cockpit, and metallics for the jet pipes, landing gear and turret weapon. A quick drybrush to highlight the details, and shading the panels with black wash finished the painting, to which was added some spare decals from old aircraft kits. All in all, I'm pleased with the result for minimum time, although I might return to it and add some more weathering at some point.
The most recent completion was one of the excellent Crow Landers from Old Crow models. Nice clean, hard SF look, and well cast as usual, this will get used in games of Fast and Dirty.
I'd already assembled the model (only took minutes, although I'd advise pinning the wings for security), and taken a first crack at painting it with an airbrush. However, I'd mucked up the proportions for the green camo, which ended up blotchy and horrible, so decided to start from scratch. This time I went with a base coat of Humbrol spray enamel Sea Grey, which I then masked off with blu-tac before spraying with Dark Green (although it doesn't look that dark!). This was the first time I'd used this technique, and it worked a treat!
This was followed up by a quick paint of the details. Plain black for the cockpit, and metallics for the jet pipes, landing gear and turret weapon. A quick drybrush to highlight the details, and shading the panels with black wash finished the painting, to which was added some spare decals from old aircraft kits. All in all, I'm pleased with the result for minimum time, although I might return to it and add some more weathering at some point.
Monday, 19 April 2010
Providers Boxed
A while ago I started what was supposed to be a simple project to build some basic box cargo sections to fit on my Old Crow Provider Transports (here). The construction phase was quick a simple, but the painting...
For some reason the UK seems to be suffering a chronic shortage of olive drab spray paint (at least my part of the world is). In the end I've settled for a light olive that doesn't quite match, so I've done some very rough and ready camo stripes, hoping for a look that gives a bit of an improvised look, as if the trucks have been put together in a bit of a hurry. Hopefully it looks OK.
Of course, just as I complete them, Old Crow go and do this...
http://www.oldcrowmodels.co.uk/25mm/provider/provbwl.gif
'Sigh'...
Tuesday, 16 March 2010
It's not my fault!
This should have been a post about my plans to make the most of the models I already had and concentrating on existing projects. Ah well...
Personally, I blame Matt of the Mottblog. All I did was paint up a handful of Tau ('A fistful of Tau') and he had to go and say, I've got 1500 pts of Marines I don't use, fancy making that into an army?
Curses...
So here I am a few weeks later the proud owner (thanks to ebay) of 22 fire warriors, 4 pathfinders, 8 drones, a devilfish and a Hammerhead gunship. I've never actually played 40K in its current form, so with this as my starting point, I'm going to begin with a basic force of about 1000pts, to which I can add more as I get some experience. Here's my first attempt at playing with a list, to give me something to aim at:
So all I need now is 3 battlesuits. With most of it having come cheap from ebay, I'm tempted to splash out on one item and use one of the Forge World battlesuits for my commander (This one?).
What I really ought to do is get rid of a project as a kind of 'gaming karma', maybe those epic Orks I've never really done anything with.
Watch this space for progress...
Personally, I blame Matt of the Mottblog. All I did was paint up a handful of Tau ('A fistful of Tau') and he had to go and say, I've got 1500 pts of Marines I don't use, fancy making that into an army?
Curses...
So here I am a few weeks later the proud owner (thanks to ebay) of 22 fire warriors, 4 pathfinders, 8 drones, a devilfish and a Hammerhead gunship. I've never actually played 40K in its current form, so with this as my starting point, I'm going to begin with a basic force of about 1000pts, to which I can add more as I get some experience. Here's my first attempt at playing with a list, to give me something to aim at:
HQ
Commander - Shas’el, Cyclic ion blaster, Shield generator, Command and control node, Hard wired drone controller and marker drone - 125pts
2x Bodyguard - Fusion blaster, flamer, targeting array, hard-wired multi-tracker, hard wired target lock - 142 pts
Troops3 teams of 7x Fire Warriors and 2x Gun Drones - Shas’ui with markerlight and drone controller, Photon Grenades - 351pts
Fast Attack
Pathfinder Squad, 4x pathfinders (1 with Rail Rifle 3 pulse carbines), 2x Gun Drones - Photon Grenades, EMP grenades, Shas’ui, Bonding knife, Drone Controller - 99pts
Devilfish Transport - Smart missile system, Disruption Pod - 105pts
Heavy Support
1x Hammerhead - Targeting array, Railgun, smart missile system, disruption pod, target lock - 150pts
972 total
What I really ought to do is get rid of a project as a kind of 'gaming karma', maybe those epic Orks I've never really done anything with.
Watch this space for progress...
Sunday, 21 February 2010
A quick respray and you'll never notice
Today I managed to complete my repaint of my Rogue Trader renegades (see here) (for now at least, I may do more later). Overall I'm pretty pleased with the results, given that I was aiming for as quick a paintjob as I could, maximising the use of washes for shading and simple base colours.
Dimitri and the lads
I know the two on urban bases look a bit out of place, but I fancied trying the GW resin basing kit and these two just looked right on them. I've christened the guy with the chainsaw as 'Dimitri "The General"' and his right hand henchman (with the heavy stubber) 'Yuri'. Don't know why, they just looked like them.
Along with also completing the basing on my long awaited Empire General (the rider is nearly 20 years old), and spraying the boxcars for my Old Crow Providers, I've pretty much cleared the decks for my next project, what shall it be?
only 19 years to get him sorted...
Dimitri and the ladsI know the two on urban bases look a bit out of place, but I fancied trying the GW resin basing kit and these two just looked right on them. I've christened the guy with the chainsaw as 'Dimitri "The General"' and his right hand henchman (with the heavy stubber) 'Yuri'. Don't know why, they just looked like them.
Along with also completing the basing on my long awaited Empire General (the rider is nearly 20 years old), and spraying the boxcars for my Old Crow Providers, I've pretty much cleared the decks for my next project, what shall it be?
only 19 years to get him sorted...
Friday, 19 February 2010
A sky full of Starlings
In a bit of a departure I'm not posting about gaming this time, but one of my other hobbies, birdwatching. The reason is simply that earlier this week I was lucky enough to witness one of the most incredible natural history spectacles to be seen in the UK.
My wife, Melissa, and I had decided to take short break in Cumrbia/Lancashire, so that we could visit the RSPB reserve at Leighton Moss. We'd heard that they sometimes get large numbers of starlings roosting in the evening so decided to stay around for a bit to see if they would come in. Now, the starling is a bird most of us are probably familiar with as a somewhat noisy, and sometimes argumentative garden visitor, but they have another side.
As dusk set in, starlings started to gather from all directions, first a few hundred, then more. Flock after flock came in until there were, quite literally, hundreds of thousands of starlings swirling about in a stunning display of synchronised arobatics, right over our heads. It wasn't just us who had turned up to witness the spectacle either, as peregrines and sparrowhawks also dived in to the writhing mass in hope of a meal. Each time a predator flew in the starlings would change formation to confuse it, at one point even drawing in, and then closing up around the poor, confused bird!
The first starlings turn up,
That's a sparrowhawk circling just beneath them
A tiny portion of the final flock, this just doesn't do it justice!
My wife, Melissa, and I had decided to take short break in Cumrbia/Lancashire, so that we could visit the RSPB reserve at Leighton Moss. We'd heard that they sometimes get large numbers of starlings roosting in the evening so decided to stay around for a bit to see if they would come in. Now, the starling is a bird most of us are probably familiar with as a somewhat noisy, and sometimes argumentative garden visitor, but they have another side.
As dusk set in, starlings started to gather from all directions, first a few hundred, then more. Flock after flock came in until there were, quite literally, hundreds of thousands of starlings swirling about in a stunning display of synchronised arobatics, right over our heads. It wasn't just us who had turned up to witness the spectacle either, as peregrines and sparrowhawks also dived in to the writhing mass in hope of a meal. Each time a predator flew in the starlings would change formation to confuse it, at one point even drawing in, and then closing up around the poor, confused bird!
The first starlings turn up,
That's a sparrowhawk circling just beneath them
A tiny portion of the final flock, this just doesn't do it justice!This all carried on for about ten, maybe fifteen minutes, with more and more flocks merging until, at some unheard signal, the entire flock descended into the reedbeds, as if they were being poured down a funnel.
So, next the next time you see some bedraggled, squawky bird squabbling for space on the bird table, look again, and maybe, if you get the chance, go and see what he can do when accompanied by a few thousand friends...
So, next the next time you see some bedraggled, squawky bird squabbling for space on the bird table, look again, and maybe, if you get the chance, go and see what he can do when accompanied by a few thousand friends...
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