Poll Results

Firstly I must admit I have closed the poll 7 hours early, so if you were hanging on til the end to cast a vote I am sorry, but it is now closed. If this upsets anyone next time vote early, this is not eBay and there are NO last minute sniping actions allowed.

For the reat of you thank you very much for voting it is appreciatted and I have taken note of all the views expressed. Of the 17 votes, 7 (or 41%) voted for either 7TV or 7ombie Tv, making it a clear winner. The next highest was 15mm Wild West with 4 votes (23%). Bringing up the rear in a tie for third place with 3 votes (17%) were 15mm Science Fiction and British Colonial. It is possible that all these projects may go ahead given enough time. Given limited resoucses in time space money and motivation I will for now concentrate on the two most popular. That does not mean the others will be forgotten, just that they probably will not get done this year.

Over all I feel the poll was a sucess and think I should run more in the future.

As regular readers will know I have Karl of Crooked Dice Coming to the Rainham wargames club in 2 weeks time. I am currently talking to him about Raimham Club running a 7TV or 7ombieTv game at a few shows next year. SO I will want to have a chat with him and see if he has any strong prefference to either set of rules or settings. Or indeed if there is anything he wants to reserve for his self.

Some of my initial ideas are given in slightly more detail below:

One Step Forward Spy Fi Games

Dicefinger!

For those of you who don't recognise it, or who didn't notice the title in the bottom left of the picture this is the setting (Fort Knox) for the final show down in the James Bond Goldfinger film. As Crooked dice have already two games in the Jame Bond Universe, (You only live Dice, and O.H.M.S.S.) This game idea might be prefect for 7TV Spi-Fi. In Fact it might be a little too similar to thir own plans.

Fandicetic Voyage!

Yes I admit this is just an excuse for wearing rubber wet suits and looking at Raquel Welch. However I think making the terrain boards would be a real buzz if I can get them to work. Additionally I have never seen any game like this at any show. The chances are some one has already done it but even so a game set inside a human body, a team of players in either wet suits or space suits trying to carry out an objective while the evil umpire pits the bodies natural defences against the players. Raquel Welch or not I still think it's a good idea. And if nothing else it has got some eye candy on my blog!

Generic Spi Fi

Another idea is to build a generic Spi Fi set which is not based around a James Bond theme. This Observatory for example would make a great place for game. This picture is only an example, nothing more. A generic Spi Fi could equally well be in an Aztec Ruin as a Lighthouse on the Scotish coast. A game not directly linked to a film has far more options, the draw back is that both players and onlookers will find it harder to describe, at least not as easy as saying did you see the James Bond Game at that show. There are pros and cons to film and non film approaches.

BRING ON THE ZOMBIES

Dead or Alive.

Under the water, under the sea catching Zombies for my tea... Dead or Alive? Of of my younger club members suggested a zombie game on board a submarine! Sheer Genius if you ask me. So I had a quick think and (after suggesting he run it) looked for real life sunken Submarines. This is U 352 sunk off the coast of America as part of an artificial reef. Anyway the game idea would be a group of divers are sent to recover something from the sunken vessel. Yep you suessed it nazi U boat crew Zombies!

Slow Boat to Diner!

There is something evokotive about harbour settings. Let's be honest they look great, messy gritty dirty and run down. The setting being a Harbour, the game being that the players have to reach the place the boat can dock and hang around long enough for the rescue to take place. All the while the dead close in on them. The advantage of this type of game is that you can balance the number of zombies (even bring more on) to the people, the ammo supply and the time the boat takes to get there just for a tense ending where they are just about to get swamped or run out of ammo or health.

60 Feet Under.

A very simple idea stolen from Left for Dead (computer game) is to set the action in an underground/tube station. It's a travel game players have to move from A to B and survive in the process. You have confined spaces twisting corridors and stirwells. Open Platforms tube trains and the undead to contend with. But at least water is not involved this time. 60 feet under would be a memorable show game if only because it would need to embrace 3 dimensions.!

This Won't Hurt a Bit.

Just for compleatness a show game set in a Hospital during an outbreak. Probably the least inventive of the Zombie ideas. Desipte that it is without a doubt a classic zombie setting. Again At a show I have not seen a good zombie setting so even something cleched like this is worth another look.

I hope you found something of interest here. Club Day tommorrow so I'll post again on Monday. All the Best Clint.

Post Script: Spell checker does not seem to be working so forgive any mistakes pleae!

PBI (1)

36-28-19 points
Company Command

I am sure the title of the post gives it away. But for the moment I have been painting 15mm US infantry for Peter Pigs PBI (Poor bloody Infantry). It's all slowly comming together. It's also clear that I have concentrated on the vehicles, and not the Infantry. Under each photo is the points cost in Elite-Average-Raw quality. Given that the game is limited to 400 points and because the rules encourage it I shall only feild 1 tank section each game, probably not even a complete one at that. But at least I have some options. I also have a horde more troops to paint up.

113-80-52 points
!st Platoon

In this set up each platoon has g arand stands 3 bar stands and a command (smg) stand. It's pretty much organised in the same manner as the US Company in the rules is. That will no doubt change when I try to penny pinch the points to get something legal to field on the table. 

So we have Company comand and two infanttry platoons. For a total of 20 stands of foot sloggers. Add to that a Mortar platoon of 3 medium mortars and it's starting to look like a real force of some kind.



113-80-52 points
2nd Platoon

I have 3 tank options. Light tanks in the form of 4 M3 Stuarts. In a late war setting I don't fancy these will do to well if confronted with any real armoured opposition. I am however willing to be suprised. You just never know.

Or 4 M10 Tank destroyers. These have a decent gun but stil thin armour relying on speed to get them out of trouble supposedly! Being open topped they might not do quite so well against German infantry. Again I am willing to be suprised and if nothing else they will draw a lot of fire away from everything else on the table but possibly only for a very short tume.

69-51-39 points
Medium Mortar platoon



156-112-68 points
M5 Stuart

My final option is of course the 4 Sherman. I have only 3 of these which is not too much of a worry. If you play Ammericans in WW2 you just have to accept that German tanks can tear you a new one each and every time. These have neither the gun or the armour to go toe to toe with a German heavy tank. On the other hand the States could out produce the Germans quite considerably. I read somewhere that it was 50 Shermans to each Tiger in production terms. Personally I would like to see a game where the German player has one tiger and the American player has 50 Shermans just to watch the German Player sweat. (And worry that they might run out of ammo!)

That's it for tday. The Poll closses in a couple of days and ten I can start to get direction once more and sort out a complete game in stead of doing just bits and peices. All the best thanks for following (or at least looking at the pics) I'll Blog again on Saturday. Cheers Clint



204-148-88 Points
M10

171-99-69 points
M4

Paint it Black?

Paint it Black? Well actually NO! I know we all think of Ninja as being clad head to toe in Black, historically this was not the case. The reason we think they should be is that the traditional Japanese theatre portrays anything which the audience cannot (or should not be able to) see as black. Thus when Ninja do need to be acted out on the stage they were all dressed in black. I hope that explains it enough. Any questions should be addressed to the QI tv programme. All that goes towards explaining why this Ninja is painted very dark green (a more realistic colour from a historical perspective at least.) I am for once not going to criticise the photography it is that dark and the image has only been enlarged, not manipulated. The sculpt is an old Citadel miniature I found at the right price on eBay some months ago. It was always one of those figures I really wanted at the time, but either did not have the money for or had different priorities for. As I have no Ninja and as it is an option for 7TV cast I thought I should at least have it as an option.

The real news is that Karl from Crooked Dice has agreed to come to our club on 15th July to run a game of "You only live Dice!" Their show game from last year. The reason for this is that I have suggested that as a club we could put a 7TV game on at a few shows next year. This would be a trial run so we get to see how the rules writers get to use their rules in an actual game and not to read and interpret them from the written word cold on the page. Karl thinks he can run the game twice in our club day so we can get eight people involved in all. 4 people in each game. We  will need to start a little earlier than normal, but I don't see that as a problem, some of the club will of course find it hard to get up and to the club with family commitments and the like. So I will need to prebook the game slots this weekend. I already know that someone will turn up late or not show at all so I am thinking of dragging in a couple of non members who can be trusted to actually turn up on time.

That's today's news. Next post on Thursday til then take care and keep hold of the lucky dice!

FSE Full Thrust

 FSE Full Thrust.

FSE Starter Fleet

Must be 18months ago that I bought two starter fleets of Full Thrust ships. At the time if I remember correctly it was £25 for them both now, having checked the web site (http://shop.groundzerogames.net/) it seems that the price has risen to £18 each. Just looking at one intro fleet, this one being the FSE (Federal States Europa,). INTRO FLEET pack contains: 1 x BATTLECRUISER (BC), 1 x HEAVY CRUISER (CH), 2 x LIGHT CRUISERS (CL), 2 x DESTROYERS (DD) and 2 x FRIGATES (FF). They are nice sculpts with each faction having a distinct look which makes national identity in the game easy to fix.

Battle Cruiser, Heavy Crusier and Frigate.

I must admit I did struggle with painting these. Not the actual painting but the colours. My first thoughts were to paint them a wine red but is just did not look right. Maybe on another fleet it would work well, but for these it looked dull and uninspiring. Once cream, I prefer "champagne", they were still lacking something so a quick Flesh wash brought out the detail and then a blue stripe really did lift them and unite them. Overall I am happy with the colours now but I always find it hard to paint things which don,t have a face.

Frigates, Destroyers and light Cruisers.

The Frigates do look small when next to the larger ships but when clustered with the other small ships seem to fit in quite nicely. The only assembly was one join on the Battle Cruiser which is held in place with both green stuff and superglue. So no complaints about assembly at all. Having got this far I have enjoyed them. It has made a pleasant change in my painting and I would be willing to get more space ships. Graham at the club also has a couple of small fleets (NAC and ESU I think) so a game might be in order soon.
As a club we do like Stargrunt Sci-Fi rules so I hope this might also be something we could get into as it has a shared background. Not that there is a huge amount of background material, but there is enough to hang some games on. With Stargrunt several players have factions and seem happy not to encroach on anyone elses. This is great in one way, as it adds variety, the down side is that it can be fragmented, as we all like to use our own forces.

That's today's post. Thanks for reading I'll blog again on Tuesday. All the best Clint 



Berserkers (1)

My computer has picked up a virus over the last few days. Which is the first one I have ever had that's nasty enough to make me think about smacking it with a baseball bat. I will no doubt overcome this minor setback but in the meantime it really stinks! However for the moment if I send you an email with "NO SUBJECT" in the title, just delete it don't even bother opening it, it's a watse of time from some waste of skin.

Back on the painting table I have done a couple more Vikings for SAGA. I will use them as Berserkers. One is a very old (1980's) Citadel Viking Ulfhednir. The other is a Gripping Beast plastic. Having done just the tinniest piece of Internet research it does indeed suggest that Berserkers should be bear chested. SO this is something I will change at a later date, but for now these 4 figures will suffice to fill the roll.

I'll try to post again on Sunday, and with luck the virus will be a distant memory. All the Best Clint

Scary Angel

This is one of the Crooked Dice Scary Angels. They have been doing a promotion for this sculpt and for the rest of June, are selling it for £2. I picked this one up at BROADSIDE. Usually they are shown painted as statues as featured on a well know BBC TV series about a time traveller in a phone box. I decided however that it would make a passable VAMPIRE, so have tried to paint it as such. Most images of vampires have more bat like wings, but I think this still works. It was great fun to paint and I wanted a change from Vikings for a few days hence this figure. At this stage I have no idea what I shall use it for, but it is one of those stock models you buy and will work out what it's for later on.

That's today's post. I'll post again on Friday. I am content with the poll feedback, I'll keep it open for the time being, of course but at this stage there is a clear winner. That could change if more people vote of course but with 7TV having more than twice the votes of any other category my mind will wander that way most likely. All the best talk soon Clint

Getting Shirty

I did not get as much done as I had anticipated over the weekend. No new figures to show you today.  I did however get the design for the club shirts finalised. They guys wanted black as they thought it was more slimming. It costs more but what can you do. Originally I wanted the logo on the back of the tee shirts but that would have doubled the price, so instead I settled on just over the left breast. As you can see it is my typical dice rolling level on the graphic, unless I need to roll low in which case "Box-cars" is far more likely.

The game I played at the club yesterday was not really visual, 1200th scale ancient galleys. I had never in my life tried ancient naval games, so it was a pleasant change of pace, if not change of result as I graham managed to ram my ships about 4 times as often as I did his. Needless to say as a fleet admiral of this period I have the command ability of Captain Mannering from Dads army. Overall I did enjoy it and would play it again.

That's it for today. Hope to post again on Wednesday, All the best Clint.

3 points

Although not very clear there are 8 figures in this unit. (I Promise).Which in the SAGA rules means these are warrior level troops. Not Militia or elites, but more your standard fighting men. As mentioned previously I could find no historical precedence for giving them all the same shield colours, I have gone so purely for game convenience so that I know which unit is which. These clearly are the blue and whites. as opposed to red and whites and yellow and whites shown previously. The second photograph is my unit of berserkers. I am not totally happy with them and will swap out the Dane axes (2 handed axes) this coming week for a couple of guys with two weapons. It's little things like that which tend to bug the hell out of me. Which is why I have called today's post 3 points, and not 4. I have previously shown the other two points, and will take great delight adding the berserkers when I feel I am happy with them. The last picture is them all jumbled together.In retrospect I should have taken the snap from a higher angle. Therefore that will be the plan for the final shot. I only need a couple of figures to get there, two more berserkers and a warlord. One of the club was looking for a dog to have on their warlord stand. I shall blatantly steal that idea, unless I can find a female captive of course. They are Vikings arfter all.

That's it for now. Thanks for looking I should post again on Monday. All the best Clint.

Today's SAGA

As you can see I am slowly expanding my SAGA warband. Only 5 more here, but a few more on the painting table that should be finished by Tuesday next week I suspect. That however depends of if I get sidetracked. As I have a single box of Gripping Beast Hirdmen, I shall attempt to build everything from that one box. So far so good. Yes it might seem tight fisted of me, but I am not in a position to through money at every project that comes along. Having said that I have 3 or four figures from many years ago which I can add to this warband, but seriously only 3 or 4 and I will have to be very selective which ones I use. One for example is wearing "Russ" trousers so I won't use him this time, only 0ne has a bow, so he won't get used either. Two others are in padded gambisons and so they don't look right with all the rest. And so the list goes on. Realistically I am expecting to re-use two of them.

For those that have voted on my poll thank you very much. If you haven't there's still two weeks to go so for the sake of a button click what have you got to loose.

That's it for today. I'll post again Saturday. Thanks for looking all the best Clint.

POLL

You may have already noticed a Poll in the top Right hand corner of the blog. It will be running for a little over two weeks. Please vote on what you think I should start as my next project. All views will be considered, and may well sway me away from one thing and on to another. I should be clear though I will retain the final decision.

That said I can see merit in each of the above ideas.

I shall finish the Saga Force (vikings) I have started probably by the weekend. And have a number of other things to concentrate on as well all at the same time.

The historical options are much more focused at this stage with regard to look and feel, at least in my mind. If I was to say War of the Roses as an option (Not on the list of options) then the project has a clear look and feel. There would still be a lot to decide on, rules, scale, number of figure, any special terrain requirements etc. However we all know roughly what it would look like. I cannot say the same about Sci fi or Spy-fi. Here the opposite is true, I know the rules and scales but not the look I would be after. Which at least to me creates an interesting dichotomy.

The ideas in detail:

1. Wild West. As mentioned yesterday I bought some 15mm Apache figure (both foot and mounted) and I can see a game set in the Hollywood wild west genre. The rules I think would work best would be Peter Pigs "Patrols in the Sudan" obviously I would have to tweak them to make them more specific to the setting. For terrain I would need to build not boards but free standing pieces.
2. 7TV/7ombie Tv. This option really is wide open to a vast interpretation of ideas. In this option only the rules are really set. I should make it clear that I will not be building a city if this is selected, so don't just see the word Zombie and think "Oh Great another Zombie infested city". Loads and loads of unfocused ideas on this one, but at least I know the rules and scale.
3. British Colonial. While at Broadside I chatted with Guy Bowers (editor of WSS) and we both agreed that you tend to see very little variety in British Colonial games they tend to typically be either Sudan or Zulus. At Broadside there was a Maori Wars game, which is what prompted this discussion by the way. So it would be one of the lesser played British colonial games.
4. Sci Fi. Another really wide open idea. Several people at the Rainham club have mentioned 15mm Sci Fi in the last 6 months. So forget the 40k high fantasy science fiction, and think more Traveller 2300. Rules yet to be determined, possibly Stargrunt possibly Gruntz. Setting also to be determined. I see enough Desert worlds and Ice worlds at shows, and they look good. But I am sure there are more options.

So those are the options, have a think, make a choice, and have some fun.

All the best Clint.

Loot and Scoot

Broadside is over for this year, and planning has started in preparation for next year. I'll talk about some of that at a later date. As a show I really dd not realise how much money I had actually spent, in my frenzied trolley dash of good-ness. Despite the expenditure I think I am most happy with the free items I was given. The first was from Fran (http://theangrylurker.blogspot.co.uk/) who on the day was far from Angry, Lurking yes but as angry as a raging Caterpillar. A genuinely nice guy as are the other "rejects" I met. he gave me this VW camper van for the Afghan game, I'll need to weather it a bit but I'm very pleased with it and it will get a good home. So many thanks Mate really appreciated.

The purchases include, 3 buggies from Ainsty Castings, I should have had a better look at his products but time was against me.Some clear acrylic bases from Fenris. 8 packs of 15mm Apache figures. When we think of colonial wargaming we always focus on the British army, usually in the Sudan or Zululand. But there are so many other options. American colonial is of course the wild west but we never use the term colonial for it.  2x28mm Bigfoot from Newline designs very versatile figure and why not have a Bigfoot hunt game, or maybe something a little more abstract. Two Vikings from Grubby tanks, again for the Afghanistan game, not a vehicle the British troops enjoy being in when faced with an enemy who use IEDs. Some crooked goodies from Crooked dice. (they have too many scary angels in one particular sculpt so that sculpt was only £2 each and I must say I am really looking forward to painting a scary angel.) They are the stone angels from Dr who in style and they do look very good when painted as statues.The tee shirt was from the BRITISH LEGION, I made a donation and was given a tee shirt which I shall wear with immense pride. I also picked up some Saga dice from Wargames Emporium, hey are a couple of nice guys as well definitely worth chatting with. I wanted some saga dice but had not settled on which force I was going to build. They sold out of Anglo Danish dice so I grabbed the Viking dice at the end of the day sometimes it's easier when the decision is made for you.

Unrelated to the stuff I bought I also had a good chat with Guy Bowers of WSS. He is looking for a club to put a specific game on for the magazine. I am not sure Rainham are the right club for the game, but it is something I shall talk to the guys about and See if they like the idea.

Have yet to focus on my next project, and am looking for some feedback from the Rainham club on Sunday when we meet next. I will get my SAGA force done in the next week or so.And I have some pro painting to get done. You know I'll show what I do. But for the next few days terrain is not  going to be my focus.

Thanks for Reading (or just looking at the pics). I shall post again on Thursday. Until then take care roll some dice and have fun. Cheers Clint

BROADSIDE Show Report

A BIG THANKS

to all the Bloggers who helped publicise the event. The good news is that the numbers through the door were just about DOUBLE last years which is testament to the power the grass roots wargamers can bring to an issue.

I thought I took more pics! The evidence tells another story so I hope some of the other bloggers will make a better job of the show report than this one.  Not making excuses, I should have taken more pics but in the excitement and turmoil of the show I just didn't simple as that as I was trying to wear three hats all at the same time. Hat 1 running a game, Hat two, helping to run the show by checking on the traders etc. Hat 3 Promoting the Rainham wargames club. (Hat 4 was getting photos buying stuff and having fun). Anyway the first 2 photos are set up in the main hall. The game being set up in the middle was a rather nice 15mm Alamo game which I really regret not getting a pic of as I have seen it before and it does look good. The second photo is Kev and Peter from the Rainham club and of course my game. Third Picture is the game in progress. But As I know you have seen this set up before I won't say anything else about it now.

Maidstone club one the prize for best game in show with their 6mm D-Day Pegasus Bridge game. It would not have been my personal choice, but it would have been in the top 5 and therefore I can no complaints as the judges would have had a lot longer to look at everything and hopefully be more open minded than me. So well done Andy and the Maidstone guys.
MHWC, the hosts of Broadside put on a Rapid fire game in 20 mm. Probably the biggest game at the show in terms of floor space, and I really liked the look of it despite the fact that you see so many WW2 games at shows. Which I guess on reflection shows their popularity.
I can  say very little about the next few pics except give scale. They are a 28mm ancients game from a club, a10mm game put on by a games company and a 28mm game from the another club with a strong association with "Tolehaven".It's a shame that some clubs still persist in show games with unpainted figures, I am sure they would rather have everything painted and ready to go, but real life probably got in the way. It happens sometimes and for the most part does not happen very much at all. *Climbs off soap box*
 Think of this report as a learning experience and the next show report will be better. The last two Pictures are of course the Posties Rejects one of the game and one of their guys. I'll leave it to you to work out who each one is. From my point of view meeting them all was one of the show highlights. I shall give my thoughts and reflections on the show later in the week once I have mulled them over.

That's it for today. I feel sure there will be a few more show reports in the next day or two so just think of this as a taster of what's to come. AS I type this I think it was a better show than last year and hope that next year will be better still.

Thanks for reading, all the best and more soon. Maybe tomorrow. Cheers Clint

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