Catchup on a couple of days of stuff

Been tidying the storeroom a bit (as opposed to the workshop or the store garage... I really may have too many places to keep stuff :D), as a break from actually thinking since I've done far too much of that for work this week.

Yesterday (in my lunch break) I painted (since they arrived) some Reaper Bones rats, using various shades of Contrast paints... enough to be serviceable tokens for an RPG. They're now on the 'things to grab when I need a wandering monster' shelf :D

Today, as a break from shifting boxes and counting and sorting a big Really Useful Box of Mantic Elves (over 200 on their sprues, in case you were wondering!), I assembled 20 Mantic skeletons (actually from the original Dwarf Kings Hold game). They're the original plastic ones, with odd little tabs that essentially are where you glue the ribcage and upper body onto the spine and lower body. They actually go together surprisingly well, and I will probably undercoat them and paint them sometime next week. Undecided whether to go the Contrast route, or spray with AP Skeleton Bone, or even spray black and drybrush.... We shall see.

Tomorrow is a Compendium evening :D

Kickstarter Watch - 28mm undead

Were I considering a Kings of War Undead army, which I was for a while, I'd definitely go for some of these.

It has a day to go, and thanks to some promotion by (among others) Annie the Dice Bag Lady, it's funded, but I ought also to hold it up as an example of what the good Lord intended Kickstarters to be for, namely raising funds to do stuff that couldn't be done without it. Congratulations, Rene!

General on Winged Beast for Kings of War

So, as you may be aware, I'm (ab)using some of my WAB forces for a Kingdoms of Men army, pending getting my elves painted. Tonight I switched my single horde of 20 Parthians for 40 Norman knights, and found a better rider for my winged beast...

This is a Fireforge mounted Sergeants rider (from a batch I speed painted a while back) mounted (via BluTak and with permission!) on one of Anne's collection of Mythic Dragons' pewter dragons. It needs a base, but it looks way cool!

Battle Report - 02 May 2016 - Kings of War

My first KoW game ever, and not with the still-unpainted elves either.

This was a Kingdoms of Men army with a lot of scout cavalry, a horde of Knights and a bunch of infantry and chariots. Blog regulars will probably figure out that it was a combination of my Parthian and Roman armies with some chariots from my Brigantes :D

Initial impressions?

You have to discard a few preconceived ideas from other rulesets. Specifically, three things:

• Nerve tests are the crux of things: you pile damage on a unit, which keeps adding on, but it remains in full fighting fitness until it fails a test (2d6 + hits taken >= nerve value). Some people, I know, had real difficulty with this one.
• if you charge into combat, ONLY you attack. The opponents don't get to fight back - if they pass a nerve test, you fall back 1" and they get to counter attack next turn if they want to.
• You roll all the dice in your turn for everything. This takes a bit of getting used to, but it does mean that time-limit games (chess clocks are, I gather, popular in tournaments) much fairer

With these in mind, you do have to think very carefully about movement, as you don't want to charge someone and leave a flank exposed. And you really do want to invest in movement trays! (hohum. More War-bases orders!)

Also? Magic items are well worth investing in.

That said? I beat Carl quite handily, apart from losing my general in melée near the end :D We made a couple of mistakes, but noting too hard to fix. I need more practice for the scout cavalry to be useful, but I may well trade the ballistae and a unit of foot for another heavy cavalry horde. 

Kickstarter Watch - Stagriders and Warbears

Picture © Dead Earth Games

To use that phrase that should end up in Meeples Bingo 2.0 - these are really really pretty, from the Dead Earth Games folks. I've pledged for 6 stagriders for my KoW elf army (yes, they're human figures, but you can't see the ears....)

The KS has just (as of the time of posting) passed its goal, so we're in :D

(See! Not everything I blog is historical :D)

Kings of War 2nd Ed core rules download

With perfect timing, if, say, you're looking for a new set of fantasy rules to play with your existing figures, Mantic have announced the new Kings of War core rules available for download....

I will buy nothing more from Games Workshop

At the beginning of July, Games Workshop put their prices up, by up to 60+%.

At that point, taking advantage of a no-postage deal from one of the online stores, I picked up another modular gaming hill and two packs of movement trays.

And that's it: the end.

I no longer want to buy their paints. I'm certainly not investing in their new range, or wasting my time trying to figure out what colours from their old range translate to. I can do that just as well with Army Painter's new range.

I have no further need for movement trays - GW's were pretty neat, but not at a 60% markup over what I was paying- I'm pretty sure by the time I'm done with the two new packs I'll have enough of all the sensible sizes, and I can reuse them when I need to.

Any more scenery I'll build myself or buy from someone else.

If I ever have a desire to play a scifi-themed wargame, I'll either play WarMachine or Sedition Wars. I'm certainly not about to pay £45 for the sixth edition of a set of rules that seems to get a new release every two years along with tournament rules that render half my army obsolete, and all of it illegal if I don't buy it from them at their inflated prices.

If I ever have a desire for a fantasy-based wargame, I'll play Kings of War. Also, see above re legality of armies.

If I ever can't find opponents for WAB (and, let's face it, I can't pay ForgeWorld for any more material for it, even if I wanted to), I have Hail Caesar, or I'll explore War and Conquest.

Likewise, for WW2 I have Operation Squad and I Ain't Been Shot Mum. Kampfgruppe Normandy was beyond a joke at its RRP, even before Warhammer Historical got canned.

I certainly have NO remaining desire to fill the pockets of a company who have canned the only products of theirs I cared about, and price their rules and miniatures at a level that is frankly an insult to my hobby, and a detriment to new blood with shallow pockets.

Not only that, they've removed their one path to accidental discovery of other wargames settings, since after all, even when Warhammer Historical was alive, you couldn't buy its products in their stores, or play them at their premises. Their cultish, closed-shop policy is hiding the real joys of my hobby, and the historical learning aspects, from a potentially large percentage of the next generation of wargamers.

Since they don't call their hobby wargaming, and take great pains to mark the distinction at every chance they get, then I'm going to take them at their word.

"The Games Workshop Hobby" is not wargaming.

The Games Workshop shop is not my friendly local wargames store.

I am a wargamer.

End of story.