First go at second Deadzone

After making some command dice and Will and me picking some I modified.forces, we tried the new rules. I went with lots of cheap rebel troopers and s teraton. Will went for a small, hard hitting force based around a walker.

The game certainly moves a lot auicker, with the system stripped down to it's core mechanics. Will enjoyed these rules far more than the first set, for the simplicity fact alone.

I like the replacement of a lot of 'fluff' mechanics with the use of command dice. They create a lot of flexibility in a round, allowing simple stacking of the odds where you most need them.

As in the first edition, me playing the Rebs seemed to lead to lots of dead troopers very quickly! We weren't playing a scenario, but just testing the mechanics out. Maybe with a little more thought and consideration of the weapon types, they might play a lot better!

 

Posted with Blogsy

Mutated hell from the bowels of the Deadzone

Had these three half finished too. I finished them off with a thick drybrush of artist's acrylics of light grey, and then painted highlight of dead white. The 'fleshy' parts were then completed with a blood red thick highlight. In game terms, they look like this:

They represent 2nd generation, alpha mutations, or 2As. Tough, but uncontrollable, these fearful predators love to mix it up close. Here's some close ups of the three malacious mutants:

 

Posted with Blogsy

Now back to the beginning...

If you have been with me from the beginning of this blog, you might remember the figures in the picture above. They came from a painting photo log from some time ago. Well, it's only now that I have just finished them! Here's a couple more piccies of the finished pieces (thanks again to some weathering powder support).

 

 

Posted with Blogsy

Deadzone Pathfinders

Well that didn't last long! Not really, these are some of the 'plastic' mountain. For some reason, unbeknown to me, Will has shown an interest in his Mantic Deadzone figure collection, and we received, free, the 2nd edition of the Deadzone rules. After trawling some forums, I was really impressed to find that if you backed the original Deadzone Kickstarter, you could receive the 2nd edition rules for free. After email contact with Mantic support, two days later, I received a link for a digital download - well done Mantic! Anyway, these are the troops from the Pandora game from some years age.i know that the figures are not exactly right, but to my mind, they fit in nicely with the pathfinder component of the Enforcer army list.

 

 

Posted with Blogsy

Plans for the next couple of months...

Trying to have some kind of organized plan can be a really difficult proposition to stick to, you only need to look at the lead mountains that we have all acquired (and is still growing). Co-ordinating efforts across three people is, well, you can guess...

And so it is with myself, Daz (@quirkyfella) and Ed (@varghulf). Being easily distracted with new colourful 'butterflies' to chase has lead to gaming evenings of varied, and slightly hap hazard sessions. Multiply this by Ed having a similar butterfly net to myself, has lead us to question (thanks Daz), what are we doing?

After a few Twitter messages we decided to go away and pick three subjects/games we would each like to play. Here are our initial choices:

Daz - Spaceships, Naval, modern/WWII air war

Ed - campaign Saga/open combat, command colors, altar of freedom

Anth zombies, acw, boardgames

Last gaming night we sat down and discussed/planned the next few months, taking into consideration holidays, Christmas etc; so here goes...

August

boardgames, as time is short and it's school holidays, children etc, we thought this a good option. Contenders to play are The Great War, Robo-rally and Formula De

1st 2 weeks September

WWII chain of command (Ed Anth) - Daz is on holiday, so it leaves a window for playing a little WWII platoon level action.

Last 2 weeks September,

Planning weeks for following games. What!??!?Planning time!!?!! In the best spirit of organizing and knowing what's ahead, we thought getting the appropriate background stuff sorted (campaign rosters, warband records etc) would leave us in a maximized gaming space.

October

Spaceship combat amongst the Stars - both myself and Daz have some spaceship fleets which have not yet left space dock, plus I purchased a space hex mat in semi-preparation (I like playing Silent Death space fighters). We are going to give it a go with the Starmada Nova rules, as they seem popular with lots of included player recommendations.

November

The Others boardgame - Well, that's if CMON manage to get the Kickstarter out to Europe by then. I'm looking forward to getting this as I pledged for some of the extras too. I can argue it into our games night as there are lots of lovely miniatures included.

December up to mid January

Open Combat Skirmish. As the nights will be getting colder (my wooden bunker isn't the best insulated) Open Combat fits the bill. Fought on 2x2 foot squares and running at about 30 minutes a game, we can easily organize a campaign.

Late January through February

zombies!!! - lots of choice here and plenty of time to decide. I'm currently designing my own rules and have All Things Zombie in miniatures and boardgame. Ed recently just acquired Project Z too.

March

Battle of Britain - micro aircraft WWII - Daz has backed the Battle of Britian' boardgame Kickstarter and he and I have some 1/300th aircraft that fits in. Could be Bag the Hun or a boardgame I have (forgotten the name). Daz has some hex mats to use too.

April

Altar of Freedom - ACW makes a return. We have played some of this already, but leaving the game till April gives Ed chance to finish painting his 6mm Confederates. Daz already has his Union troops ready to go.

May

Napoleonic Naval - right from left field! Myself and Daz purchased a couple of small fleets from Tumbling Dice, and I have the Osprey rules to use.

Well there you have it, what seems like a plan. However we all know what happens to the best laid plans...time will tell.

 

 

 

Posted with Blogsy

Tonight's game - The Great War

Just a quick one, played (and didn't finish) The Great War. It seems to be a bit of a theme at the moment; I seem to end a lot of games by chatting rather than reach an victory conditions. So here's some piccies of the game as it stood.

In essence the British trench line went over the top, got hit hard by Krupp exploding steel on the wire, and made it into the first German trench line. The scenario ended with two victory medals each; many brittle infantry bases and the few German bases in a similar manner. Slowly making our way through the scenarios, don't know when we will be tempted by the crunch of the tank tracks.

 

Posted with Blogsy

Unfinished business - an incomplete 15mm Chain of Command game

A combination of being busy, playing games, and most of all, suffering the worst hay fever in years, has sapped my energy to put finger to tablet. With a nice fan breeze and help of the right medication, now feels a good time to fill in some of the blanks. Myself and Ed played half a game of Chain of Command, with a willingness to finish it the following week (which didn't happen). Here are some snaps of the game:

The pictures tell a little of the narrative of the game. British defence evenly across their own lines. German thrust down their right flank, lead by a PzIII. Firefights in the centre and left, with casualties mounting on either side. A gun duel between a deployed 6 pounder and PzIII, which lasted a couple of rounds, with the AT gun finally wining the contest. At this point the game was halted for the following week...

Ed had bought a lovely Cigar Box mat which we used in the game. Final photo...the mat and terrain:

 

 

Posted with Blogsy

Chain of Command - 15mm British platoon finished

Well, that's a pleasant surprise, a finished wargames force completed in quick time. Here are the Brits, fresh from the paint parade ground. They saw first action on Thursday night, but we're not fully finished. A quick highlight of the details, and basing has seen them ready for full action.

These PSC figures were quick to paint up to a reasonable standard. Pleasurable moments were the character of the H.Q. figures, and the camo added to the helmets. Down moments, basing the laid down teams where sand leaked onto the figures. Next job, the anti tank section with A.T. guns.

 

Posted with Blogsy