Advanced Space Crusade

Bit of a blast from the past I found at the back of the shed!

To my total surprise its all there (including the counters!) apart from 1 squad of Scouts which is not a problem.

Many moons ago when I was a lot younger I never had Space Crusade or Heroquest, this was my first step into wargaming! It's an amazing feeling finding it in such good condition. I'm gonna have a read through the rules and see how much I remember. Now to be honest I remember not liking the actual combat rules, but the exploration of the Hiveship was amazing, traps, artifacts and strangers. So I can see this turning into a bit of project updating some of the models (love some of new Tyranid  models, but could never do a whole army), maybe the board and playing using the exploration rules and Kill Team rules for the fighting.

Although one of the Scout teams was missing it did have some extras.

 All of these models are really old and no longer available. From what I can tell the Hybrids are really hard to come by theses days. I also have another 6 Genestealers.


So all in all really happy with this find and really looking forward to going back to where it all started for me.

A bit short I know, but just wanted to share this.

Thanks for stopping by an hope to see you again soon.        

Warhammer Fantasy Goblin 1st battle report

My first battle report.

So its Friday night and that can mean only one thing, Miniature Empire gaming night. I was meant to be playing Raven with his Skaven, but it was getting on a bit and ShaoGore stepped up with his Skaven.
This is my first game of fantasy in years and my first ever 6th edition game, so I was fully expecting to win!

It was only a 650 point battle and I was not using my 'tale of one gamer' army from a previous blog, so I had:
Night Goblin Warboss
Level 2 Night Goblin Shaman
Level 1 Night Goblin Shaman
40 Night Goblins with full command group and 2x Fanatics
20 Night Goblins with bows a boss and 1x Fanatic
5 Spider Riders with bows
1 Troll
1 Mangler Squig

ShaoGore
Level 2 Engineer
2 units of 20 Clan rats with full command groups both with rattling guns
and 2 units of 5 Gutterrunners.

So we rolled for sides set up and rolled for spells. I got Sneaky Stabbin and Curse of da Bad Moon for my level 2 and Gift of the Spider-god for my level one. ShaoGore got Scorch and Cracks Call.

My first ever set up 

I had the block of goblins with spears almost center with the archers and Mangler Squig of to the left, to the right my level 1  Shaman and Spider Riders. Just behind the archers was my level 2 Shaman and the Troll, I was advised against this as the Troll was stupid and if I failed the leadership test not only would they only be able to move forward 3" the Shaman would not be able to cast spells. But I love the idea of a Shaman with Troll bodyguard. I than used vanguard to move my Spider Riders into the forest.


ShaoGore set up his 2 units directly in front of my large unit and archers, and 1 unit of Gutterrunners went to forest to my left and the other just off to the side of my Mangler Squig!!! Well I guess they are sneaky after all.

Model eye view of the field.

Turn 1 of my first game. ShaoGore moved one of the Clan Rats up a bit, the Gutterrunners in the forest stayed where they were and the others over to the left moved forward a bit into range. The Magic Phase saw Cracks Call dispelled and Scorch kill 1 Spider Rider. The Shooting Phase saw me swear a lot and really think about giving up and putting my army on E Bay! The Gutterrunners killed the Mangler Squig and some really stupid magic item, some type of rocket of doom, doom rocket whatever thing that killed 33 Goblins from my spear unit!!!

What was left!

 But the spear unit did't run (no-one was more surprised than me).  

My first turn started like the ShaoGore's Shooting Phase ended, badly! Animosity saw the Archers kill 2 more spearmen, speargoblins? The Troll failed its stupidity test (had to happen really). So i didn't really have much to do, but the spearmen/goblins moved forward. In the Magic Phase I managed to cast Gift of da Spider-god on the Archers (only to realize that it would do nothing as it does not remain in play). 

My magnificent Shooting Phase saw the Spider Riders killed 1 Clan Rat.  And that was about it. 

Turn 2 ShaoGore didn't move anything, in the Magic Phase Scorch killed 1 spearman/goblin and that was about it. In the Shooting Phase the Gutterrunners wounded the Level 2 Shaman and the ratling gun killed 3 Spider Riders, and the sole survivor didn't run!!! With no close combat it was my turn. 

My second turn had no animosity and the Troll passed it's stupidity test. The archers turned to face the Gutterrunners the spearmen/goblins moved forward releasing the Fanatics followed by the Shaman. The fanatics killed 2 Gutterrunners. The remaining Spider Rider charged the cloest Clan Rats. In the Magic phase I cast the Curse of da Bad Moon that killed more 1 Gutterrunner and they ran. In the Shooting Phase I killed 2 Gutterrunners. The Spider killed one Rat and I save the only wounding hit in return, even with all the rank pushing against him the Spider Rider held. 

Turn 3 ShaoGore's Gutterrunners charged the Archers who stood and shot 2 of them and the rest panicked and ran off the board. The Clan Rat units stood still. In the Magic Phase the Curse of da Bad Moon killed one of the Fanatics and not much else happened. In the Shooting Phase the ratling gun killed all but the Warboss in the spearman/goblin unit and he still didn't run and the other Fanatic!  The Clan Rats killed the Spider Rider and it was my turn again. 

The Archers failed their animosity test and wounded the Troll who passed his stupidity test. The Warboss charged the Clan Rats and the Shaman advanced. Now it was my turn for some magic fun, I used 6 dice plus the compulsory mushroom to cast the Curse of da Bad Moon at the higher level! It went off and went straight through a Clan Rat unit! 

Power of the little Waaagh!

Not only did it make them run, 

Pest control goblin style

they ran straight through the template! In the Close Combat phase the Clan Rats killed the Warboss by running him down.                  

In the next turn the Clan Rats charged the Shaman and Troll who stood their ground. Nothing happened in the Magic Phase and with no shooting it was on to the Clan Rats killing the Shaman and breaking the Troll. They over ran into the archers. It was at this point I forgot about my last Fanatic which could have really changed things!

So to wrap it all up the Clan Rats beat the archers and run them down despite the archer killing 3 rats.

To sum up my first game... It was great. I made lots of mistakes, I was really unimpressed by the first turn, but in the end it was great. So thanks to ShaoGore and am really looking forward to more games.
What did I learn? Goblins don't do what you want more often than you plan for. Mangler Squigs are squishy and Magic is awesome!

So until next time, thanks for stopping by and hope to see you again soon.

The Mountain King

So this is my Mountain King.

ROARRRRRRRRR!

I loved this miniature (don't think it should be called a miniature) the first time I saw it, so I used my birthday money to get the second I could. I must admit I nearly cried when the time came to pay for it but I still think it was worth it.

I must admit that that when I opened the box was really impressed by the size, its massive! I did have some heavy blocks form the injection process, but a saw, some files and my good old hobby knife soon saw them off. After dry fitting I did see some gaps, but nothing to worry about and went together really well, really quickly. I stuck it all together apart from the loin clothes and left it off the base. It took me an awful long time to get round to painting it a was really tempted to break out the airbrush, but I didn't in the end because I'm not very good with it and I really didn't want to ruin it. 

I painted the flesh like the rest of my troll, dark blue mixing in grey and building it up with a mixture of drybrushing and block colouring. The rocks started life as brown and had bone added then white, using the same method as for the skin. 

The loin cloth is a mixture of browns and bone colours that were highlighted up and then the whole thing got several glazes of really thinned brown ink to bring it all together. 

Then it was just a small case of painting the details.

The tongue, teeth, metal and whelps.
The tongue was painted a deep red, highlighted up with lighter red and then washed with thinned down brown and black (in the dark parts over the back). It was the gloss varnished.
The teeth were done the same as the rocks with more white added to the final highlights.
The metal was painted chainmail and heavily washed twice with black. I then highlighted certain areas with a very light drybrush of chainmail, as I wanted it look dark. I then washed it with thinned brown ink and added the rusty patches with a mixture of oranges and browns.

The base is very plain and I was planning to do something with it, but in the end only put in a small puddle which was created with loads of thin coats of watered down PVA (if you do it all in one go it might not dry properly and it will be white in the middle). To be honest I just wanted it finished but nothing stopping me revisiting it later...

So how does he do in the game... ermmm, it's  a lovely miniature...

I know the general feeling is that it's crap and well over costed, and I have to agree with over costed part, but I have seen it used well in some youtube videos. I don't have the experience with it to draw my own conclusions but will be unleashing it down the club sometime and will let you know how I get on.

That's it for now, thanks for stopping by and hope to see you again soon.

A Wargamer! What will the neighbours say?

         So I had an interesting day at work today, some of my colleagues found out that I paint little toy soldiers and push them around a board using dice to see how many of my opponents little toy soldiers I have killed.

Its what most people think!

So this left a few options.

Option A

Go all shy and deny everything.

I have got very embarrassed at work before and gone all red before, but not this time.

Option B

Sit in corner and start rocking backward and forward and hope nobody says anything.

Some people there already think I have issues, no need to add fuel that fire (at this point anyway).

Option C

Sell up, move on and never have to

worry about what they think again.

A bit extreme, plus we have only just had a really good tidy up, so no.

Option D

Kill them all and

hope no-one notices...

So very tempting.....

Option E

Tell them a bit about what

it is I do and why.     

A waste of breath? maybe, maybe not.



So as viable as all the above options were I thought sod it, in for a penny. So I showed a few of them the pictures I have on my phone, my blog and tried to explain what it is I do. The total ridicule, pointing, laughing and name calling never came! A few laughs and funny looks, but when an adult is reading about a goblin warboss on a gigantic spider written by another adult its totally justified. Some took a bit of convincing that I had actually done them because they are too good for me to have done, which I didn't get offended about at all. In fact it was great, I spend of time and effort making and painting these models and every now and then its great to hear someone say something like that.

So, where am I going with all this obvious defense of my hobby? Well, the way I see it and please correct me if I'm wrong (I normally am so its not a problem, just ask the missus), is that everybody has a thing, from sports to cooking to computer games to dressing up as a badger and locking yourself in small room for a few hours, the list is endless, they are all just things that people enjoy. I for one would never ram my hobby down someone throat and bang on about it virtues to someone that is not interested, its not fair and I hate it when people do it to me. Which is why I go to my club on the Fridays I can, like minded people doing what they love because they can and they understand what is going on (well sometimes). I have met loads of people that I really like that are into the same thing as me that I would not have done if I didn't walk in one Friday evening and say hello. The club has more variety of people than you would imagine, from students, to teachers to an ambulance driver (whose good lady makes the best cakes ever!). I can honestly see what other people do when they walk past, a shop full of men pushing toy soldiers about with handfuls of dice and massive rule books. And I have to admit to myself, yes it is somewhat strange, but I would probably find there thing strange or damn right stupid, but your thing is your thing. As long as your not hurting anybody just get on with it.

Some of the things I do are geeky, I fully admit that but I would not place myself in the stereotypical geek club i.e. the picture to the left because of it. They do exist, believe me they do, walk around any wargaming convention anywhere and you will find them. From those that know every rule in a given wargame to those that know how many rivets a Tiger tank should have, I say good luck to them.

I read comics, watch superhero films, I love zombie films and pretty much anything to do with zombies really. I make up stories and backgrounds for some of my miniatures, its just what I do and it all adds to my thing for me. In the end that's what its all about, I'm enjoying myself and not hurting anybody.

If you made it this far thanks for sticking with me, a bit of rant that I never planned it to be, next time maybe some more goblins, SAGA or even Menoth!

Thanks again for stopping by, take care and hope to see you again soon. 

Warhammer Fantasy Goblins

A while back someone at my gaming club posted this and a tale of one gamer was born. The idea is to slowly build and paint (yes they all have to be painted) a fantasy army. A few of us took up this challenge and I took the chance to dust off my old goblins and started making a few 750 points lists. Now one thing I will say is that you get a lot of goblins for 750 points!

My army is very story driven with named characters that have history and hopefully in the future I’ll get it written down and posted here.

My Goblin Warboss on a gigantic spider. Warboss Poison Fang is leader of the Red Creeperz, a small but growing band of spider riders. I got this model years ago and was the only model in this army that was previously glued together.

I have 2 units of 5 spider riders with bows that will hassle the enemy flanks and vanguard to be in the way of whatever I need slowing down. No one said being in the Red Creeperz was easy! These are from the old Warhammer starter box.

I then went on to Night Goblins, I love these guys, pretty useless in most cases, but they have a few trick up there black sleeves.

Izzitz Rattlestick is my level 2 Shaman, he is the leader of the Grinning Moon tribe. I also have another level 1 shaman who is yet to be named, but I’m sure he will do fine… Izzitz is the shaman from the old Warhammer starter set and the other is a converted musician, I simply cut the gong off and added a crescent moon to the top. In the first few 750 point games these guys should give me an edge in the magic phase, I can’t see anyone else having 2 magic users…

I went for a block of 40 Night Goblins with a full command group, these guys are a delivery platform for a few surprises and to hold up enemy troops while the spiders and the Warboss get the flanks (a bit of wishful thinking there, but it’s good to be positive). These are all one piece models from the old Warhammer starter set, I was not really a fan of one piece minis, but now the more I can get the better, it really cuts the prep time down.

The surprises, as I’m sure it’s no surprise to anyone is that my Night Goblins have fanatics, these guys are great, but just as lethal to you as the enemy! You have been warned. I dont have close ups of them but they are in the last picture.

Next I went for 20 Night Goblin archer, these guys are there to frustrate the hell out of me by being unable to hit a barn door at 10 paces, but with 20 of them a few have to hit right? These are also one piece minis from the old Warhammer starter set.

Lastly we have Smash and Dashy (named by my son), this Mangler Squig is another random ball of destruction, that again is just as dangerous to you. This is the only ‘fine cast’ model I have ever built and to be honest hopefully my last, it’s not very good. The clean up took forever the mould lines were across details… but in the end it’s a very nice model and the goblins are characterful and add a real fun element.

 So there you have my first ever fully painted 750 point fantasy force. I’ll let you now how they get on as and when we start to play.

Thanks for stopping by and hope to see you again soon. 

Get the Kids Involved Part II

So another Saturday with no plans.

I only had my daughter helping me this time as my son thought it was more important to get more gold bricks in his Lego Marvel Superhero game. 

So after the success of our last little scenery project it was time to tackle something bigger, so it's time to start the 4x4 board I mentioned in my last blog. The board was already made and is a 4x4 sheet of hardboard braced with a 2x2 baton frame. I also had a large bag of polystyrene bits. So out came the glue and knife (my friend has my hot wire cutter) and off we went. A quick note at this point, cutting polystyrene with knife is messy and doesn't leave the straight lines of a wire cutter!

I left her to it (had some important washing up to do), and by the time I got back she had nearly finished the gluing! 

We used pieces of polystyrene and they had to be held down, so anything heavy we could find was used. It would have been much better to use 1 large of polystyrene but we didn't have one so we just got on with it.

It was about this time I noticed how messy it was getting, so in everyone's best interest we moved it outside. 

This is it so far.

We used good old P.V.A mixed with water and any old paper we could find, I knew all the adverts they keep posting through my door would come in handy somewhere. 

We used a big old paint brush and started sticking bits of  torn up letters, flyers and magazines all over one side, the other side still be weighed down was drying, P.V.A can take a while to set and the temperature was not helping. On some of it we used large sheet to cover the area quicker, its not normally a good idea to do it like this, but as we were going to cover the whole thing in sand so it didn't matter. 

 At some points my daughter wanted to take pictures, so I had to get my hands dirty and do some! As you can see some the polystyrene has pen marks on it, this is where the rock effect we done on the last piece of scenery will go, and the big gap down the middle is going to be a river. 

While the glue was still wet we added sand. Top tip, go to Toys R Us or some other toy shop and buy a massive bag of sand for £2.00, it will last forever! We poured the sand over the bits that were not going to be rocks and called it a day.

   

Not bad for a few hours work, and I have to say again, if you have any scenery that needs building, get the kids to help, they love it, it speeds up the whole process and they do learn really quickly. It also helps their creativity and they come up with really good ideas, the bridge is going to a draw bridge! 

  That's it for now, will get back to you soon, with a challenge I took up at my games club and hopefully some Menoth (they are coming, honest). 

Thanks for stopping by and hope to see you soon. 

Get the Kids Involved

Sorry no Menoth, but as soon as I get some good pictures I promise they are coming!

Talking of taking good pictures, if you view my profile you will see that I like photography. It's what I studied at college, I didn't do very well! But I do have a small idea what I'm doing. So I'm getting a portable studio to take some nice pictures for the blog.

The studio is 40cm cubed and comes with different coloured back drops, but I wanted a display base that would fit inside so I decided to make one. I done the board and cut the polystyrene with a hot wire cutter and started to cover it in tissue paper and PVA. My 9 year daughter wanted to help and that meant my 5 year old son also wanted to help. I said what the hell, showed them what to do and let them get on with it.

They loved it!

(Yes I know, my daughter is One Direction fan, sorry, but she is only 9)

So with a hand full of tissue paper and a brush each they got on with it. 

At one point they were doing such a good job I left them to it! 

So about 40 mins later it was almost done.

More PVA and some sand and its time to let it dry. A word of caution at this time is that this will get messy! and if you only protect the table with a carrier bag mummy will not be happy! 

So there you have it, I let it dry and painted it, added some grass and all done. Top tip, if you want scenery made let a 9 year old and 5 year old do it! As a result of this little afternoon project we are now going to do a 4x4 board. My daughter has draw it out, the base is done (has been for a while and left in the shed) and over the next few weeks we will do what we can. I will post as we go but it will take time. I can tell you it has a river, hills with both sloped and rocky sides, a cobbled area in the middle with a wall around it big enough for a few buildings. This leads me to one question? What the hell have I let myself in for?!?! I guess time will tell and I will hopefully share the experience with you.

That's it for now, thanks for dropping by and please come back soon for an update.  

Take care.