http://www.players.tacticalwargames.net/tiki-blogs_rss.php?ver=2 Sat, 11 Sep 2010 04:09:31 +0100 Tiki CMS/Groupware via FeedCreator 1.7.2.1 http://www.players.tacticalwargames.net/img/tiki/tikilogo.png http://www.players.tacticalwargames.net/tiki-index.php en-us wikiwar@tacticalwargames.net wikiwar@tacticalwargames.net http://www.players.tacticalwargames.net/tiki-view_blog_post.php?blogId=1&postId=331 Wow. Has it really been almost a year since I last posted here? I guess that I wasnt really sure that anyone would be interested in what I am up to or what I am saying. But, those people probably arent reading this anyway! So, I have decided to try to kickstart this over again, and start posting more. Its a part of my attempt at getting more routine and wargaming organisation sorted out, so we will see how it goes.

In the meantime, here is a brief rundown of where I am right now...

Painting

I need to get more painting done, and I have kind of decided that this means trying to get little bits done, more regularly. Right now, that means one thing.... Space Hulk. I picked up this game on pre-order over a year ago, but I wanted to replace the Genestealers and Terminators with regular 40K minis. So, in typical fashion, I picked up the kits, seperated out the parts for each figure, bagged them all up.... and then put them away in a box to continue with later. Now is later. I am still trying to make sure that I have all of the pieces that I need (I need a few bits for the Librarian, and the objectives). The biggest challenge right now is that I want all the figures to be standing on industrial style treadplate. I have the plastic sheets without any trouble, but it causes a problem for the Genestealers, who have posts to mount them on the bases. So, I am solving this one figure at a time. A slow process, but I am in no rush.

Alongside this, I want to get something put together for the new monthly painting challenge:
http://www.taccmd.tacticalwargames.net/viewforum.php?f=120

I know what I want to do, but I need to find the parts and build the stuff I cant find. Once (if?) this is done, I will try to get something submitted for this years EpiComp:
http://www.taccmd.tacticalwargames.net/viewforum.php?f=19

It wont be much, but I would really to enter this year if I can pull it together in time.

After this, I should get my Hostile Stars ships painted, at least a few of them, and then revisit my Epic Armageddon Genestealer Cult, but these are both further away right now.

Nutshell

A few people have noticed that I made my podcasting debut recently. I started a short segment called Nutshell, hosted on the D6 Generation podcast:
http://www.thed6generation.com/

Episode one of Nutshell features in episode 63 of D6G, and examined the game 5150 from Two Hour Wargames. You can find the Two Hour Wargame site here:
http://www.angelfire.com/az3/twohourwargames/index.html

... and the Two Hour Wargame Yahoo group here:
http://games.groups.yahoo.com/group/twohourwargames/

The plan is to release a new episode of Nutshell ever second D6G episode (so, on the odd numbers) and cover a different wargame each time. I have a plan for the next few episodes, but welcome any suggestions.

Hostile Stars

I have neglected Hostile Stars and Dark Realm for a while, and that will have to change. Right now, I am working on consolidating the Andrayada background and making it as conprehensive and detailed as I can. This will mean that it should hold together and will give us something to hang future developments from. It will also mean that players will be able to invest in the background more, and give their forces and games more context.

I will also be working on a new version of the rules shortly. These should cover provision for attack craft, which are something that I have had waiting for inclusion for a while and I have been wanting to add them in.

Web Site

There are hopefully going to be some changes to the web site. I need to make a few minor changes to the EpiComp? and GothiComp? galleries to update them, and continue to add the Fanatic Magazine downloads to the SG section. In addition, I want to concentrate on turning this place into a proper web site again, filling out the pages and working on the navigation.

This means that you may notice a few changes in the near future, including broadening the scope to include a large variety of wargames, and maybe even finding a way for the site to actually start paying for itself for the first time in almost ten years!

Other Stuff

My Transformers collection continues to grow, but at a much reduced pace. I need to be more focussed about what I pick up, especially between the Revenge of the Fallen film and the third movie. That said, I did manage to find a Generation Drift last weekend, which is a really cool little figure. I also opened up a Beast Machines Blackarachnia, which is a surprisingly fantastic figure.

Right now, I am working my way through reading the Grey Knights omnibus, from Ben Counter. And, this weekend, I am off to Colours. This is a wargame convention held in Newbury (near Reading) which I used to visit regularly when I lived in Reading, but dont get along to as much these days. And, for the first time in as long as I can remember, I dont actually have a shopping list to take with me, so I should be able to wander around without the pressure of looking for specific stuff.

So, thats about it for this time. As I mentioned above, I will try to post here a bit more regularly. That way, I can add this as my signature in various forums, and have everything in the same place.

]]> Thu, 09 Sep 2010 17:14:16 +0100 http://www.players.tacticalwargames.net/tiki-view_blog_post.php?blogId=10&postId=330
Issue 28 of Warp Rift has gone online, this issue features the following articles:

• Ship Destruction (Encyclopedia Gothica)
• Blow the Drives (Encyclopedia Gothica)
• Campaign Encouragement (Encyclopedia Gothica)
• GothiComp? 2010 (Showcase)
• Sacrifice (Showcase)
• Edify (Officers Mess)
• Drifting Hulks (Dry Dock)
• The Spreading War; Part I (Officers Mess)
• Chaos Hades Class Cruiser (End Cap)

Action packed without a lot of destroyed or going to be destroyed spaceships!

Enjoy!

You can download issue 28 from here:

http://www.tacticalwargames.net/archive/bfgmag/index.html

Happy Hunting,
Horizon
]]> Fri, 04 Jun 2010 07:08:38 +0100 http://www.players.tacticalwargames.net/tiki-view_blog_post.php?blogId=10&postId=329
Keep your articles coming!

Warp Rift 28 will be online soon!

(25,26,27 have been published hehe)
]]> Tue, 25 May 2010 10:56:54 +0100 http://www.players.tacticalwargames.net/tiki-view_blog_post.php?blogId=14&postId=328
I gave them 4 of the old Chaos Hounds I had and we had some great hour of wolf painting time.

The wargs are now all graveyard earth basecoat. The 'wolfs' are now really bright and colourfull. Creativity of kids is such a splendid gift!
]]> Mon, 22 Mar 2010 12:15:26 +0100 http://www.players.tacticalwargames.net/tiki-view_blog_post.php?blogId=14&postId=327 Ranger of the North, Elf, Eowyn & Barrow Wight. Earlier I finished Sharkey.

And to add the fun I have added myself to two friends on their monday evening painting group. They're doing 28mm WW I miniatures. These evenings are a good excuse for me to finally start working on the regular troops in LotR. I made good progress on Goblins and Gondor. But I also use this to do some 'easy' painting on some models (eg black washing deep recesses on founded models etc). After I done the Gondor/Goblins I am gonna do the Hobbits.

The latest arrivals have been wargs (+riders) for my birthday and a cave troll 2nd hand. I also looked for alternative ruffian models as I think the GW ones are pretty poor. I found these which I'll probably gonna buy in the year 2015:
http://www.oldgloryminiatures.com/products.asp?cat=169

Woody Elf & Ranger of the North
http://lh6.ggpht.com/_-lraUxY-Hx4/S51K71TZP1I/AAAAAAAAAYI/C1YhYqZ1raQ/s512/tm%2014%20maart%2020101.jpg

Farmer Maggot
http://lh4.ggpht.com/_-lraUxY-Hx4/S51LH_av8dI/AAAAAAAAAYM/JANfvuif3KQ/s800/IMG_2672.JPG

Mounted Ringwraiths & walking Witch King
http://lh3.ggpht.com/_-lraUxY-Hx4/S51LoEJ5auI/AAAAAAAAAYQ/Mh1MB6iVwjc/s512/tm%2014%20maart%2020102.jpg

Sharkey did not wipe of the grass
http://lh5.ggpht.com/_-lraUxY-Hx4/S51MhbQKuvI/AAAAAAAAAYU/xq0uYto1fZY/s512/tm%2014%20maart%2020103.jpg
]]> Tue, 16 Mar 2010 08:19:39 +0100 http://www.players.tacticalwargames.net/tiki-view_blog_post.php?blogId=13&postId=326 Of a slightly late Monthly report...

I am pleased to say that January was another pretty good month for painting.

I've added a couple more formations to the 15mm Human army, and painted the first half of my long-awaited 6mm WWII soviets. The original plan to use them for flames of war has gone by the wayside however, and they are now based for use in Blitzkreig commander.

This has reulted in my having an army about 5 times larger than I really need for that game, so I have no doubt a large portion of it will be up for sale soon!

I've started work on five 28mm US Delta Force from Tag. I painted their counterpart squad a few years ago, but am only just getting on to the second set. Doing these in Desert camo, but not very happy with the balance of realism Vs eye-candy effect at the moment, so work has stalled.

Finally, I'm preparring for my First game of Warhammer, scheduled for the first Monday or March so my Savage Orcs are having numerous lists written for them then torn up before I set forth with the brushes to finish off whatever I decide is needed for the game :)

Of the plans for February...

February will hopefully see yet more under the brush and, girlfirend allowing the plan currently stands as:-
-completion of the infantry Horde & support artillery for my 6mm WW2 Soviets.
- Paint & base whatever is needed for my Savage Orc 1500pt game
- Finish the Delta Force
- Start work on what little armour I have for 6mm Soviet Force.

Time shall tell....
__===
Photos to follow!===__
]]> Fri, 12 Feb 2010 01:31:27 +0100 http://www.players.tacticalwargames.net/tiki-view_blog_post.php?blogId=16&postId=325
Example of play
Player A has 500 pts. He places 300 in 1st fleet and places the remaining 200 points in his 1st Army Group. He assigns the 1st AG to 1st fleet. He then moves 1st fleet from the Regulus system to the Polaris system (The Polaris system contains 3 SP. 1 Planet 200 pts, 2 Asteroid 100pts, 3 Moon 100 points). Player B has His 1st fleet (150 pts) and 1st AG (100) stationed at the planet. SP 2 and 3 are undefended. Player A declares that he will attack SP1, a Hostile Stars game ensues. Player A chooses a force up to 300 pts and Player B chooses a fleet up to 150 pts. Player A wins the HS battle and is allowed to land up to 200 pts of his 1st AG. Player B as defender of the planet can use some or all of the planets points in the first battle. In this case Player B could choose up to 300 points of SOW forces. While Player A only gets his 200 pts landing force. Player A wins the SOW battle. So player A and B both control 1 point of the planet. Player A turn is over so Player B declares an attack on player A on the planet. Player A may add half the planets points to his defending force and player b may add half to his attacking force. If player A wins the planet is still contested as he was defending his landing zone. If Player B wins then He has ousted player A. Lets say that Player A wins yet again. On his next turn he may attack player B’s strong hold on the planet and if he wins then player B has been kicked off the planet. If he loses then the battle for the planet will take longer.












I don't know when I'll get to post any more. I have been laid off for the next 3 or 4 months. I will try to get access as I can. Anyways I would really like ErikMs? ideas on this and CS as well or even Doug's. Well I am going to post this over at tact com too. So heres seeing ya around.

]]> Sun, 31 Jan 2010 21:07:07 +0100 http://www.players.tacticalwargames.net/tiki-view_blog_post.php?blogId=16&postId=324

3rd HS Battle Report
Table 3x2 Total game time was about 50 mins.

Forces: Squadron Dagger and Beta Squadron both with 4 Ashigaru class destroyers.

Setup: Planet 30 cm from north edge. Dagger in orbit east side of planet. Starting speed of 1. Beta southeast edge of table. Starting speed of 3.

1st Turn
Beta wins Initiative.
Advances north and rotates 45 degrees north west.
Dagger advances rotates 45 degrees southeast and forward thrusts.

2nd Turn
Beta wins Initiative.
Beta1 Forward Thrust fires both batteries scoring 2 hits and 1 critical on Dagger1, sweeping fires kill one crew.
Beta2 Forward Thrusts, advances, rotates 22.5 degrees, and forward thrusts again.
Beta3 Forward Thrusts, advances, rotates 22.5 degrees, and forward thrusts again.
Beta4 Forward Thrusts, advances, rotates 22.5 degrees, and forward thrusts again.

Dagger1 Forward thrusts, advances firing both batteries scoring 3 hits and 1 critical on Beta1. Destroying Beta1’s main battery and destroying Beta1 herself.
Dagger2 Forward thrusts, advances firing both batteries Scoring 2 hits on Beta2.
Dagger3 Forward thrusts, advances firing both batteries missing Beta2 completely
Dagger4 info missing?????

3rd turn
Dagger wins Initiative.
Dagger1 Forward thrusts and fires both batteries at Beta4, scoring 1 hit.
Dagger2 Forward thrusts and fires both batteries at Beta4,
Scores 4 hits + 2 Criticals (1 from both battery) Destroys Beta 4.

Beta2 and 3 advances min move and fires both ships miss completely.

4th Turn
Dagger wins Initiative.
Dagger1 advances south east rotates 90 degrees and fires both batteries at Beta2 scoring 1 hit destroying Beta2.
Dagger2 advances south east rotates 90 degrees and fires both batteries at Beta3 scoring 3 hits and 2 criticals. Destroying Beta3.
Beta Squadron completely destroyed.

All in all a great game. Cybershadow asked me if the rate of destruction was o.k. I still say it is o.k. So far all shooting has been where both ships are in the forward arcs of each other resulting in needing a 9 to hit. The Ashigaru only has the Eagle Howiters and the Quad VPCs. The eagles will hit on a roll of seven and the Quads an 8. a seven only gives you about a 30% chance to hit. It just seems like If I hit I hit with more than one hit. I had a few this game where I only hit once, but over all I am causing 2,3, or even 4 hits a turn. I have deliberately kept the games short. I am playing at work and can take an hour lunch. 2 10 min breaks and this game spilled over to take up 10 mins after work, but all games are less than 1 ½ hours in length.

I do have a comment/ question and this is for Iain to answer. What kind of bases come with the models? I ask because I have made some square counters the play with. These coupled with arrows are just not cutting it. I need to revamp my counters and have been looking at either a 12 sided shape or and 8 sided shape as the best. An 8 sided shape will give you a 45 degree turn or even a 22 ½ degree turn. A 12 sided will give you 15 degrees turns. So my comment of this, is how exact do we want the rotations? Does this make any sense to anyone or am I just rambling on?

]]> Wed, 13 Jan 2010 21:49:21 +0100 http://www.players.tacticalwargames.net/tiki-view_blog_post.php?blogId=16&postId=323
This is my attempt to have a workable set of campaign rules for Hostile Stars and Seeds of War. These rules will be superseded by anything that is produced by DRM. This work is based on ERIKM (on the DRM forums) Alfakta campaign. I have received his permission to use said rules. Please be aware that these rules are a work in progress. Please feel free to post any ideas that may help this project along or point out any gaps that I am sure I left out, and to have me to translate any of my insane gibberish.

Every system will have a number of strategic points (1 –5 per system) in the system. These will be represented by a number of dots next to the systems name. These dots will show how many games a player has won in that system. Each of the strategic points will have a number of dots that do the same thing. Hence a player may control 3 of 5 dots and the system will be contested. The dots for the strategic points will also represent the number of points that a player may spend on troops/ ships. Every dot will be worth (100) points.

At this time there are no point values for Hostile Stars. I have assigned a point value of a battleship = 100 pts, a cruiser = 50 pts, a destroyer = 25 pts.

For Seeds of War please use the appropriate points listed in the races Force Org sheet.

Seeds of War battle may use the 5 scenarios that are provided by DRM.

If a player has a fleet in orbit around a strategic point then he or she may claim only half of the points for that strategic point. This is used to represent that fact that you may own the space around the strategic point but you do not own the strategic point.


Here are my house rules for how a planet affects the movement of ships in Hostile Stars.

If a ship is in a planets gravity well (10cm?) then the ships may make a free 15 degree turn toward the planet, however if the turn is away form the planet then it costs double(?).,

Would the turn also increase/ decrease a ships speed as well?

I have yet to play test the above rule.

]]> Wed, 06 Jan 2010 13:31:35 +0100 http://www.players.tacticalwargames.net/tiki-view_blog_post.php?blogId=13&postId=322 Of the December Marathon...

December hasn't been the best of months as far as work has been concerned for me, but making the most of things, I've hit the brushes hard and have been painting vast numbers of 15mm figures to help compensate.

Thus far I've completed:
An army of dwarves.
And undead force - just needs chariots finishing
Some Minataurs
Some Ogres / Trolls
And the Majority of the infantry for a large human army.

I've also finally finished & based two more formations of DRM Kameli, my converted Kameli command formation, and two simple objectives for the army.

Not a bad month - photos of all below!

Of the Cabinets at the end of a decade...

I thought I would mark the end of the decade with a quick tour of the miniatures cabinets I currently have in my flat. I also have a cabinet filled at The Game Shop in aldershot, but I dont get there often enough to take photos for this tour :(

Also - please forgive the dodgey photography on some of these - I took them in one pass & was clearly suffering from christmas sugar shakes! :os

Cabinet 1:

C1 Shelf 1 - Display epic Tau, DRM / SoW Pax Arcadian test pieces and Warmaster Bretonnian Joust display piece


C1 shelf 2 - Miscellaneous display pieces


C1 shelf 3 - DRM Seeds of War Kraytonian Kameli Core force, Gaming standard. (front 3 regiments & objectives painted December '09)


C1 Shelf 4 - WHFB Savage Orcs, gaming standard.



Cabinet 2:


C2 Shelf 1 - Epic Display / Competition pieces & DRM pax Arcadian colour tests


C2 Shelf 2 - Misc Fantasy Display pieces.


C2 Shelf 3 - 15mm Fantasy undead, Dwarves & Beasts painted Dec '09


C2 Shelf 4 - WHFB Night (aka deep forest) Goblins and 15mm humans / medievals



Cabinet 3:


C3 Shelf 1 - DRM Seeds of War Kraytonians


C3 Shelf 2 - DRM Seeds of War Kraytonians


C3 Shelf 3 - DRM Seeds of War Kraytonians


C3 Shelf 4 - You guessed it... DRM Seeds of War Kraytonians!


Cabinet 4:


C4 Shelf 1 - Random old display models, mostly missing display bases!


C4 Shelf 2 - 15mm Fantasy human army 2


C4 Shelf 3 - 15mm converted Centaur Army


C4 Shelf 4 - 15mm Fantasy Human army 3


C4 - bonus - random odd warmaster & epic models, mostly mommentoes from commissions :)



And thats the lot! Thanks to ebay and filling Game shop's cabinets, my own painted collections are finally thinning to a point I can actually display them all in my flat. More will be going (namely 90% of the 15mm stuff) in the new year, but that just makes way for me to paint yet more toys - Happy days ! :D :D

Thanks for looking!
]]> Tue, 29 Dec 2009 09:03:01 +0100