The Walking Dead: All Out War review

As you may have noticed earlier I backed the TWD: AOW kickstarter (if you read that out aloud it sounds like when you stub your toe in the middle of the night -- "Twudd! Aowww!"). If you didn't know, you can read a slight rant about the kickstarter and look at my first painted figures here with some more figures here.

Anyway, if you haven't been living under a rock for the last ten years you can't have missed The Walking Dead -- either the TV show or the comic. There have been boardgames based on both, and there's a cooperative miniatures game in the works based on the TV show. Like the LotR and Hobbit franchise, there are licenses for both the books and the movies. Hence the long title, The Walking Dead: All Out War, to set the game apart from the other games. This game is not cooperative, instead groups of survivors clash against each other with the zombies as sort of moving hazardous terrain.

The comic. The TV show is slightly more colourful. Slightly.

I must confess that I haven't read the comic and only watched a couple of episodes of the TV show. But who doesn't love a good zombie game? Well I do, and I liked how the game looked in the kickstarter. I didn't go all in like most people, but I got the base game and quite a lot of stretch goals for the princely sum of 75 dollars. I think I got a good deal. For the purposes of this review though, I'm only going to look at the core game.

Warning, lots of rambling and pictures ahead! (Maybe also some spoilers, I don't know.)

More dipped zombies!

Hi gang!

A quickie, just want to show off more zombies and survivors from The Walking Dead. These were all sprayed white, block painted and then dipped in Army Painter Strong Tone. I will do the blood spatter and gore later on all the zombies together.

Reggie, Amy, Sandra and Carol.

Sandra is a big lady. I don't know if it's intentional or scale creep at work.

Not having read the comic I have no idea what roles they play, but I've tried to follow the painted examples in the rule book. Reggie however didn't feature so I winged it and gave him what I hope looks like a red flannel shirt. I like how the red trainers and socks on Amy came out.

Ghartastic!

As I've mentioned previously, our little gaming group has gotten into Beyond the Gates of Antares.

Or rather... we bought the rules about a year ago and have been slowly collecting figures... but never played the game. Until now! Assembling a 500 point scout force each we gathered at Mats' cat's house (Mats insists he's only the caretaker and pet slave) on Sunday to try this new malarkey.

Tectorist scouts. They use their scanners to point out targets to the other Ghar.

Ghar are bred for war, riding in giant three-legged battlesuits. Failure means you are relegated to outcast status and have to footslog it without the big suit, but still expected to do your bit and die for the Ghar Empire. As I play horde armies in 40k I didn't want another horde army for Gates of Antares, but only using battlesuits means I get few units and few activations, which limits my tactical flexibility (as if I had any tactics).

Mantic actually delivers!

Well, I suppose I owe Mantic Games an apology, as I got a package from them recently.

I got stuff, I got stuff!!!

But first a little digression.

I backed their The Walking Dead: All Out War kickstarter this spring. Right after backing I received the stuff from their Deadzone 2 kickstarter from last year and was very disappointed. My main critique against Mantic's kickstarters have always been two-fold.

October is... where the bleep did October go???

Previous years, October has been Orktober... or Tanktober... and I've seen some people this year that has treated October as Dreadtober. For me October is Gonetober.

Not as in "I'm gone" or "Where have all my hobby time gone?", but as in "Dang October is gone before I figured out what October is this year". You could say that October became Culttober since the Genestealer Cults were released at the end of September and I spent the beginning of October building hybrids...

A couple of old metal Acolytes that have borrowed arms from their DW:OK brethren.

I had aquired an extra set of Deathwatch Overkill genestealers. While gorgeous they have very repetetive poses and equipment. However I bought one of each hybrid box that were released with the codex and all the extra options in them allowed me to convert the extra set of DW:OK figures.

And the heavens will deliver our reward!

So Warhammer TV dropped another trailer...



OMG! OMG! OMG!

Something new, something old, something painted, something bald

Some of you may know that I'm a huge genestealer cult fan. I've been collecting genestealers since first edition Space Hulk 1989, and the cult since the hybrids came out right after that. The plastic hybrids released in a Space Hulk expansion where damn awful, but the original metals were really, really nice.

Ahhh... pure Jes Goodwin purestrain Goodness... (get the pun?)

However, Genestealers have been treated very unfairly. Originally a sort of "Aliens"/"Invasion of the body snatchers" type of adversary it was very fearful in it's own right, but with the introduction of the Tyranids into the 40k Universe Genestealers were relegated to some kind of vanguard/infiltrating unit, and the cult itself vanished into the mists of forgetfullness.

Except for a small bunch of fans that kept the dream true, partly via such groups as the Father's Hall on facebook, to companies as Macrocosm doing their version of the cult, called the Malignancy. Personally I snapped up all the lovely plastic genestealer models that were released, even buying a metal Broodlord (everyone knows it's really a Patriarch), waiting for the glorious return of the cult of the Four-armed Emperor.

Lots of loot! Part one: The Dice Bag Lady delivers!

At the beginning of the summer Koen put in an order from the Dice Bag Lady for some of her female soviet figures, and I joined in to save postage. Because of reasons (life, the universe and everything) we didn't manage a hand-over until just recently. 

Anyway, not wanting to start a full-blown Soviet force, I bought a pack of tank riders and a sniper team. Since I have an Italeri Sherman that is the wrong version for my brits I'm thinking of painting it up as soviet and making a diorama out of it.

DiceBagLady soviet female tank riders.

Kneeling Sniper team.

Da kunnin' plan

Evening all. I'm a long time Ork player but my mojo hasn't really been in it for a while. Mainly it's because I find the recent codexes a bit bland to say the least. I really miss the different clans so I try to paint and model my units as belonging to different clans. One thing that irks me the most is that Blood Axes can't take imperial vehicles anymore (since they don't really exist now) -- and here I'm the proud owner of two lovingly converted Leman Russes I can't use.

But I have a cunning plan. I will ally in a contingent of Imperial Guard. Using Kromlech Greatcoat orks as the guard. However they are even bigger than GW orks so it will be hard to use the "counts as" rule to represent puny 'oomies. But then Kromlech released gretchin or goblins in the same style and my friend and tank afficinado compatriot Anders pointed me to the obvious solution.

During the weekend they had a 15% off promotion and I couldn't resist anymore. So when life gives you lemons, order more figures.

I ordered a squad of grots, here's the first half. The leader's Mauser has a broken barrel, but it was still in the bag.

Characterful and lovely little models. The sentry (top middle) and radio operator (right bottom) will be replaced...

...by these guys! A panzerschreck team, since an IG squad can have both a special and a heavy weapon.

An eye-level view of three of the figures. The panzerfaust counts as a grenade launcher, of course.

Battle of Britain on Kickstarter

Hi gang, just a quick one, I'm supposed to be on vacation.

PSC Games is doing a kickstarter campaign for a re-release of Richard Borg's classic Battle of Britain boardgame. With updated rules and new funky plastic planes in 1/300 scale this looks like a winner.

Box mock-up

Spitfire model render

Heinkel 111 render

The campaign is already funded and we are currently hunting a lot of stretch goals. There is also the opportunity of buying extra planes as add-ons to use in Bag the Hun or similar dogfight games.

In case you are not interested in funding the kickstarter but think it's a nice idea, please go to Boardgame Geek and become a fan of the game (by clicking on the little heart icon) -- one of the stretch goals is bound to the number of fans on Boardgame Geek, and we are ever so close now. 

Pretty please with sugar on top?

Muddy Waters -- Modelmates Weathering Wash review

Hi gang!

The Model Railroad hobby is a bit strange to be honest (and I've been a part of it so I'm not bashing somebody elses hobby BTW), but we can still learn a lot from them. The thing is that model railroaders spend a lot of time and money on building very realistic backdrops for their trains, yet most want their trains pristine and unweathered. So Model Railroad rolling stock (that's locos, wagons, etc.) are sold prepainted and in perfect shape. This goes for figures too, they are prepainted but not shaded. Again, I'm not bashing someones hobby, Model Railroaders are often collectors too (unlike Wargamers which are hoarders) and display their trains in special cabinets.

Case in point. Lovely scenery, squeeky clean locomotive and lorry.

But not all Model Railroaders are collectors, and there are lots of tips and tricks for weathering locomotives. Usually they are of the DIY kind, but there are also some special products available, like the weathering sprays from Model Mates. Since I live in Sweden I haven't been able to order one of those, but I recently discovered that they are also available in regular paint pots. Instead of trawling Model Railroad shops you can steer your web browser to Great Escape Games that stocks them.

Different cans, but the same product apparently.

Delivery was swift and secure with the jars of weathering liquids in separate ziplock bags inside the package in case of leaks (there were none). The Weathering Liquids functions like a wash, but are water soluble after they have dried. The idea is you take your spanking brand new boxcar, diesel engine or whatever you want to weather, and slather the liquid on it. When it has dried you remove as much or as little you want with a cotton bud, damp cloth or brush. If you remove too much you can always apply some more. I think it will look very nice as grime and dirt on tanks for instance. However, I plan to use it to Nurgle-ise a lot of figures for Warhammer 40k, hence my choice of Moss Green...

My brave volunteer. Hey, the 80's called and wanted their paint job back!

As I didn't have any vehicles ready for weathering, I took a figure to test it on instead. I had this 80's classic Nurgle Chaos Warrior I bought on eBay. While not a bad paint job per se, it was a bit too clean for Nurgle really.

Ugh, that shield has to go...

Ready for action... love that murky greenish colour of the weathering liquid.

Weathering liquid applied and still a bit wet, hence the glossiness. It dries matt.

Most of it wiped off with a damp brush. Notice how it leaves some grime and stain on the original surface.

I tried the Rusty Red on the sword as well, but I didn't like the effect. Probably the sword is too flat and silvery to retain much of the effect. I suspect it will work much better on a tank with all those rivets and panel lines.

At £4.50 it costs about the same as the new big cans of GW washes, although it only contains 18ml. However the effect is not the same as regular washes and I find that they are well worth the price and will definitely order some of the other colours.

A first foray into Open Combat.

Hi gang.

Our small but intrepid gaming group decided to try out a summer campaign of Open Combat. All very short and sweet, five players each meeting the others twice. So everyone plays eight games and as it should be able to get two games in one session we can hopefully bring the campaign to a successful end.

Open Combat is a generic "Sword and Shield" skirmish ruleset with built in campaign rules, published by Second Thunder. It has lived a while in PDF form but was released as a hardback rulebook recently following a very successful kickstarter. When I say "Sword and Shield" it's because while it can be used for fantasy figures it doesn't have any special rules for those typical fantasy staples like short and burly dwarves, firebreathing dragons and magic wielding spellcasters. The system caters for any figures though and since you decide the stats of your figures yourself you can use fantasy figures, but to call it a fantasy system is a bit much. Simply put it's an excellent and open combat game -- hence the name.

The Rulebook. At least a picture of it from the Second Thunder webstore.

When creating your warband you simply look at your miniatures and decide their stats -- as long as you use the same number of Renown (or points) as your opponent the game will be balanced. There are five stats: Speed, Attack, Defence, Fortitude (hit points) and Mind. Each point in each stat costs one Renown. If you want some equipment like a sword or bow that costs one Renown each too. Skills like Intimidate or Shield Bash also costs a Renown. If your model has armour and you want to reflect that simply increase Defence. It's deceptively simple but tactically very clever. You can simulate spells by giving your magic user ranged weapons for magic missile type spells and relevant skills for boost or mind attack spells -- things like Leap, Raise Skeletons or Heal are missing though.

The Voluptuous Vixens from the Village of Voluptuous Vixens. Yes the name is a lure to attract easy prey.

One problem with a totally free environment is that my view of how tough or effective different figures are can differ from my opponent's which causes a slight disconnect -- I might think that an Attack value of 5 is average and give that to my support figures while my opponent thinks that 5 is very high and gives it to his main fighter figure -- the game still works and will be balanced since my opponent will have more figures than me, but seeing the club-armed peasant hold his own against a knight will feel a bit strange perhaps. With that in mind the rulebook does contain a lot of sample characteristics and sample warbands with explanations about their design philosophy.

Kickstarter loot! W00t!

The thing with kickstarters is that when they arrive you hardly remember what you ordered or even what kickstarter you backed! I do know some big campaigns have longer production times and some kickstarters get delayed, but it's starting to get to the point where every little scrap you get feels like a victory! I'm looking at you, Shadows of Brimstone with your "Wave 1.5 shipping" shenanigans.

It's almost like opening christmas presents, except you know it's not socks.

Well, a package slip arrived a couple of days a go but I didn't have time to pick up the parcel until saturday. So, what is in it?

Horizon Wars and Polyversal stuff

Inspired by pictures in the Horizon Wars rulebook I decided to try out some of the new 6mm companies out there. Well, new since I last played any 6mm S/F game at least.

First I jumped onboard an order my mates Håkan and Mats placed to Vanguard Miniatures, sampling a couple of different ranges they carry. I ordered some vehicles and walkers from the Defeat in Detail range.

Top: Novan Scout buggies: Bottom Cybershadows Warcrabs.

I ordered some acrylic explosions and an MDF landing pad as well, but I don't have any good pictures of them yet.

In Horizon Wars the crabs will be P1 Mechs and the scout buggies will be Light Cavalry and Recon.

Size comparison with an EM-4 Mech

I then also placed a small order from Brigade Models to try out their stuff. I chose units from the Pacific Federation and the South African Confederation factions, because they looked very distinct from eachother. The PacFed uses gravtanks while the SAC uses lots of wheeled vehicles. I also ordered generic powered armour infantry.

PacFed infantry, 24 models, 6 diffrerent poses.

Power Armour infantry, 24 models, four different poses.

PacFed Cougar gravtank, Tanami SPG and Kakadu Rocket Artillery

SAC Wildebeest APC's. The middle has an AA turret and will function as a HQ element.

A closer shot of the Wildebeests.

If you compare the Defeat in Detail miniatures with the Brigade Models stuff, Defeat in Detail has more detailed sculpts. Yet I'm not sure that's a good thing, since it's 6mm after all and I want the models to be quick to paint. Lots of details will take more time. On the other hand, good relief will take washes better so it's a fine line to walk. But if we look at the wheels for example, I thought the Brigade Models APC's looked a bit boring with their smooth tires, but then I realised that at this scale you shouldn't be able to pick out any thread details. The scout cars also has a finely sculpted rear door with hinges and locks and stuff, but they are attached to the sprue right on that door, making it impossible to cut them loose from the sprue without damaging the details on the door.

Size comparisons. The Tamami gravtank is on a 40mm base, while the Warcrab is on a 60mm base!

By coincidence, right after I placed these orders the new Polyversal Kickstarter came live, and one of the battlegroups featured in the Kickstarter game uses models from the PacFed faction, but not any of the ones I ordered. The powered infantry is the same though, but that's ok, I was probably going to order more someday anyway.

One of the battlegroups in the Polyversal Kickstarter. Anything look familiar?

 Furthermore, a couple of freebies exclusive to the kickstarter are small walkers not yet relased from Brigade Models, and a Spaceport terrain piece that will go along nicely with the landing pad I ordered... it's almost as if I'm psychic.

A nice big chunk of resin... excellent. Looks big enough to hide a mech behind too!

I'm glad to say the kickstarter has funded now, so I will be able to slot those models right into my existing collection when they arrive sometime next year. (And if I don't like the game I can use the miniatures for Horizon Wars.)

Go check it out if you haven't done so yet, at the time of writing it's eight days left so plenty of time to throw some money at it. What are you waiting for?

Heroines in sensible shoes size comparison

Lasgunpacker asked to see comparison shots so I grabbed some figures I had lying about. No Age of Sigmar stuff though... I've put the Heroines on suitable bases to get them to stand on the same level as the other figures, some of which have integral bases, some have slottabases and some have both.

First the Warrior heroine next to a Frostgrave cultist, then a GW drunken dwarf and the Dwarf heroine, last the Elf Heroine next to a Frostgrave soldier. 

As you can see the Oathsworn figures are of a similar size but more realistically proportioned.

I also found this Hasslefree figure and couldn't resist putting him with the Soldier's Wife from Warlord Games and the freebie Villager.

"How can I get out of this!"

Apologies for the murky pictures!

Happy Gaming!

Heroines in Sensible Shoes review

Ok, so this is the second kickstarter from Oathsworn I pledged to, and boy do they not know how to run a kickstarter.

• They included an extra figure and a resin Dragon's nest as a "Thank You" to the backers -- not a stretch goal, but just as extras. Ok, functionally it's the same as a stretch goal but they didn't have to include them since they never said "Everyone gets extra stuff when we reach so and so much money."
• Despite the extra stuff included I recieved my pledge in time. Unacceptable. The first time they were a month late, even that was ridiculous. It's simply not how Kickstarters are done.
• The figures looked exactly like the pictures we were shown during the kickstarter. No change of design, no change of material. Surprise!
• Clear communications during the casting and sending out processes so everyone knew what was going on.

I'm joking of course, but it's refreshing to see a company using Kickstarter as it was originally intended and then actually delivering what was promised and on time.

For those of you who don't know what it's all about the figures are depicting female adventurers wearing sensible and practical adventuring gear. No chainmail bikinis, no high heeled boots, no slashed dresses revealing shapely thighs... just what women would wear if they had to go explore a dungeon and fight monsters. I don't want to make this into a feminist debate, but the thing is that these figures are needed. Have you ever roleplayed with a bunch of your male friends and suddenly a girl wants to join? Yay, you think! Awesome! But the only female figures you have are a half-naked barbarian and an evil elf sorcess with high heels striking that Angelina Jolie at the Oscars 2012 pose?

Yes that pose.

Sure, I like a bit of eye-candy. But there has to be ordinary figures too. And there are, they are coming, but those cheese-cake pin-up models are still the majority of female figures out there. So the Oathsworn Heroines in Sensible Shoes kickstarter was very welcome and fills a niche that's not yet full. Which about a 1000 backers also thought, as they backed the project. Compare that to their earlier kickstarters which gathered the interests of about 300 backers at most -- 207 for the Dwarf Brewers that I backed previously.

Enough soap-boxing, on to the miniatures.

EM4 cheap-ass mechs and spaceships

Inspired by Horizon Wars I decided to get some battlemechs to try out the rules. As I wrote in my previous post I have ordered some cheap plastic mechs from EM-4 miniatures. They are molded in a hard silvery plastic on two sprues. The plastic takes ordinary model glue fine and five 25mm round slottabases are included.

The first sprue

The second sprue. The two standing mechs are identical to the first sprue.

To summarize the parts there are two identical smaller bodies, two identical slightly larger bodies, and a large body with large hind legs. Weapon-wise we get two right arms, two left arms, a pair of double lasercannons, three autocannons and two missile pods. I thought the missile pods were a bit large, but otherwise the designs are nice.

A quick dry-fit of weapons and bodies. All arms fit all mechs, but some look better on certain bodies.

What I really fancy is some real Battletech figures since I played the boardgame a lot during the early 90-ies. The best looking mechs were those that really were copies of the Robotech anime designs; The Marauder, Warhammer, Rifleman and others I can't remember anymore. Unfortunately the metal Mechs are quite costly and -- I think -- that the classic designs are no longer available due to the blatant copyright infringement. But in the mean time five mechs for the princely sum of £2.55 will do nicely.

The cheap Spaceships/Flyers.

Twelve different sculpts, quite impressive.

Along the same vein, you can get 12 different spaceships and/or flyers for £2.55. Also included are 12 flight stands, which is insanely good value since often just flight stands cost more than that if you buy them separately. Not all designs look like airplanes, some look more like the spaceships they are sold as, but hey, at 21 pence a pop who's complaining?

EM-4 I'm told are mainly doing pieces for boardgames, and you can buy a lot of dice, counters and other accessories on their site. These models were originally designed for boardgames, but they will do nicely for Horizon Wars or Polyversal. 

To summarise I give EM-4 Mechs and Flyers 4 out of 5 heat-seeking nuklear missile salvos.

Sure they look cheap, but they are even cheaper. For the price you can afford to sacrifice the occasional odd model or iffy sculpt to the bits box. Check them out.

Some thoughts about Horizon Wars

Horizon Wars by Robey Jenkins is the new set of wargames rules from Osprey publishing. This time it's all about big stompy robots and tanks in a not all too distant future -- albeit in 6mm or 1:285 scale. The game is designed to be generic which means you can use all the 6mm S/F stuff you already have, be it Battletech or Epic40k stuff, or maybe even Hammer's Slammers or other figures. [Edit: as someone pointed out you can use 10 or 15mm troops too!] There's a setting and a background included for those of us who need a little bit of inspiration for our games. It's quite funny actually. There's a Youtube video explaining how to play via a short battle report, I'm sure you can find it if you search on Youtube.

The pre-release blurb from Osprey

Before I go into the my thoughts about the game, lets take a detour shall we.

Life... and lots of things...

Hi gang.

First I'd like to apologize for my absence, it's been a long while since I wrote anything. This is because my personal life is going through some changes, and therefore my hobby time has been quite limited. When I have had some spare time I have used it for hobbying and to a some extent gaming, not writing on the blog.  Here, have a kitten as compensation.

Anyhoo, I'm still buying stuff in hope of better times to come. Here's what I have been up to, in no particular order.

Welcome to the jungle

This year's Chain of Command game at Gothcon will be (a small part of) the battle of Dien Bien Phu in Indochina. This is a prelude to the Vietnam war of which I know next to nothing about, but my mates Thomas and Koen are well versed in both relevant history and tactics used. As such my role is relegated to terrain making. With mostly Vietnam war movies in my mind I ordered a bunch of cheap but useful items from eBay.

I can imagine the customs' dissappointment when they realised the contents were all plastic.

Massive MDF Megalomania

A post, three days in a row? Yes it's true, and with even more MDF terrain! This time it's the Sarissa Precision Medium Stanchion Building for Beyond the Gates of Antares from Warlord Games. The building comes on three A4-sized sheets of 2mm thick MDF so is quite sturdy.

Fully half of the first sheet is taken up by the baseplate.

The pieces were cut through so thoroughly that a few pieces fell out of the sheets when I opened the package. At first I was afraid I had lost some parts, but they were all off-cuts from inside windows or door frames and not necessary for the finished building.

Second Sheet. Most of it is taken up by the floor (to the left) and the roof (to the right).

Last sheet. A lot of support struts and all the actual walls.