I noticed that I had been remiss in labeling the last couple of posts and had forgotten to welcome the new followers to the blog. So without further ado:
Welcome to:
benglish who joined as armchairqbacks. Aren't we all?
Ogre Sage
crub90706
Christopher Sheets who writes Dispatches from the Rim your blog looks familiar and if I've welcomed you before I apologize. None the less thanks for being a follower.
Michael Matecha who has a great Zombie avatar and is really in the spirit of the impending zombie apocalypse.
Raspoutine and his blog Brain Poutine. I like the giant world works castle. Let me know if you write more on your blog.
Bill
Mathyoo of 28mm Later an interesting pulp/ horror and more blog. Yeah you have been following me for awhile I think but no worries, I'll welcome you again as well. I seem to be having memory problems.
Moe from DFW, I lived in big D for four years. Even as a Yankee I enjoyed my time there.
Herc Warrior, you may not be actually following, I'm not going to hold it against you.
Graham, I'm pretty sure you are a follower. I'm glad you are back to posting at Pairadice Saloon
Avid Wargamer of Avidwargamer's House looks like Sci Fi and Western THW and more.
And Papa Spanky of The Haunting of Portsmouth and Geek in the Basement. I'm liking those post apocalyptic cars. And don't worry about missing my blog, I miss them all the time or don't follow for some strange reason. It's all good.
I'll try to keep up the bloggery. I think I haven't really hit on a style, or am I the Bruce Lee of bloggers. My style is no style.
More Talomir is in the offing and I'll try to put together more thoughts on paint mixing and Battle Cry. Aside from all the other post thoughts I had that are fading as I type.
Another blog by a guy who came up in the 80's playing RPG's, Wargames and some miniatures.
Tuesday, October 9, 2012
Monday, October 8, 2012
Battle Cry - First impressions
So I managed to get in one game of Battle Cry over the weekend. My son, with the help of my wife, played the Confederate side while I played the Union for the 1st Bull Run scenario.
This is from the 150th anniversary edition.
It was an interesting battle in that I jumped out to an early 4 flag to 1 flag lead and then watched as my son tied it up with some hot dice rolling. I should have known from previous experience, when he needs to roll something he gets it.
Basically the battle played out like this. On the Confederate Left/ Union Right is where the early action started The Union cavalry was aggressive and blunted the Confederate attack. On the Confederate Right/ Union Left the infantry tenatively advanced and traded long range musket fire, with neither side gaining much advantage. In the center the Confederates under Jackson took the ridge and poured musket fire onto a line of Union infantry set up in line with Henry House. The union was taking the worst of the musket exchanges until they played the Fieldworks card, and then things evened out a bit. General Beauregard (my son and wife) was reluctant to reposition his artillery once he had gained the dog leg of the ridge, which did not offer a full view of the main Union force.
The union finally won the battle by holding in the center while wiping out opposition on the flanks. So it was fun and the command cards are interesting. I see where some might have a problem with troops effectively sitting the battle out because you couldn't get enough command cards to order them, but I think it is a nice mechanic to give you decisions to make on the field.
The one question that remains for me is battling a general, or more precisely killing a general since they can't really battle. In this game Stuart became isolated on the hill on the left flank and did not move from that position. After killing the unit he commanded I played it that he was killed by rolling the cavalry sybol on the dice. Was that wrong? I'm not sure.
In this 150th Anniversary you get 10 regular scenarios, three from the Jackson campaign and thirteen more for the special edition. But what if your like me and, after seeing all this, wonder why there is no scenario for the first day of Gettysburg you can look here for that and many more. Also check out wargaming miscellany for Battle Cry musings.
Wanna play solo? Of course you do. Boardgame Geek has suggestions here and here as well as a pdf here (I haven't tried it yet). Bob Cordery also had this to say about using Coomand cards for solo play. Also check out Dale Hurt's blog on solo wargaming about hand management here
I'd write more but gotta run..
This is from the 150th anniversary edition.
 |
| From http://pawnderings.blogspot.com/2010/12/comparitive-replay-session-of-battle.html |
 |
| Also from http://pawnderings.blogspot.com/2010/12/comparitive-replay-session-of-battle.html |
It was an interesting battle in that I jumped out to an early 4 flag to 1 flag lead and then watched as my son tied it up with some hot dice rolling. I should have known from previous experience, when he needs to roll something he gets it.
Basically the battle played out like this. On the Confederate Left/ Union Right is where the early action started The Union cavalry was aggressive and blunted the Confederate attack. On the Confederate Right/ Union Left the infantry tenatively advanced and traded long range musket fire, with neither side gaining much advantage. In the center the Confederates under Jackson took the ridge and poured musket fire onto a line of Union infantry set up in line with Henry House. The union was taking the worst of the musket exchanges until they played the Fieldworks card, and then things evened out a bit. General Beauregard (my son and wife) was reluctant to reposition his artillery once he had gained the dog leg of the ridge, which did not offer a full view of the main Union force.
The union finally won the battle by holding in the center while wiping out opposition on the flanks. So it was fun and the command cards are interesting. I see where some might have a problem with troops effectively sitting the battle out because you couldn't get enough command cards to order them, but I think it is a nice mechanic to give you decisions to make on the field.
The one question that remains for me is battling a general, or more precisely killing a general since they can't really battle. In this game Stuart became isolated on the hill on the left flank and did not move from that position. After killing the unit he commanded I played it that he was killed by rolling the cavalry sybol on the dice. Was that wrong? I'm not sure.
In this 150th Anniversary you get 10 regular scenarios, three from the Jackson campaign and thirteen more for the special edition. But what if your like me and, after seeing all this, wonder why there is no scenario for the first day of Gettysburg you can look here for that and many more. Also check out wargaming miscellany for Battle Cry musings.
Wanna play solo? Of course you do. Boardgame Geek has suggestions here and here as well as a pdf here (I haven't tried it yet). Bob Cordery also had this to say about using Coomand cards for solo play. Also check out Dale Hurt's blog on solo wargaming about hand management here
I'd write more but gotta run..
Friday, October 5, 2012
10,000 hits prize draw
Woohoo! The blog passed 10K views.
You know the drill.
1. Be a follower of the blog.
2. Leave a comment indicating you want to put your name in the hat.
3. By next Friday I'll pick a winner and you shall receive the prize.
If I get enough entries, say double digits, I may give a second place prize of a map to your specifications.
Good luck.
You know the drill.
1. Be a follower of the blog.
2. Leave a comment indicating you want to put your name in the hat.
3. By next Friday I'll pick a winner and you shall receive the prize.
If I get enough entries, say double digits, I may give a second place prize of a map to your specifications.
Good luck.
Anticipation...
or a watched hit counter never reaches 10,000.
Some of you may remember when Heinz ketchup used the Carly Simon song in an add.
So since I can't wait by not posting anything I'll tell you what will be happening once I reach 10K. To celebrate this milestone, and in honor of what some are calling Zomtober, I will be giving away a copy of Two Hour Wargames latest release: All Things Zombie - Final Fade Out (ATZ - FFO).
This is an update of their top selling Zombie skirmish game with all the newest rule mechanics etc. You may have read about on Vampifan's blog here, or Colgar6's here.
I am very excited about this title myself, and the only reason I have not bought it already is the massive shame and guilt I feel at still not having played all the other titles I own. And realistically I don't have any models made up.
Oh and if you do a search for Zomtober you may find something silly like this:
Silliness! So while I twiddle my thumbs waiting for the interwebs to take notice of my littleslice o' the net and wait for Battle Cry to come in the mail I wish you all happy gaming.
Some of you may remember when Heinz ketchup used the Carly Simon song in an add.
So since I can't wait by not posting anything I'll tell you what will be happening once I reach 10K. To celebrate this milestone, and in honor of what some are calling Zomtober, I will be giving away a copy of Two Hour Wargames latest release: All Things Zombie - Final Fade Out (ATZ - FFO).
I am very excited about this title myself, and the only reason I have not bought it already is the massive shame and guilt I feel at still not having played all the other titles I own. And realistically I don't have any models made up.
Oh and if you do a search for Zomtober you may find something silly like this:
Silliness! So while I twiddle my thumbs waiting for the interwebs to take notice of my littleslice o' the net and wait for Battle Cry to come in the mail I wish you all happy gaming.
Thursday, October 4, 2012
Battle Cry, Battle Lore and almost 10k hits.
I just pulled the trigger on Battle Cry and Battles of Westeros on Amazon. I don't know if it was specifically a sale or not, but $46.92 for Battle Cry and 29.99 for Battles of Westeros sounds like a good deal.
Progress in modelling and gaming has taken a back seat to landscaping and bicycle maintenance. It is finally getting cool enough to be outdoors more and my drip irrigation and sprinklers have kindly decided to break on me.
[RANT WARNING, NOT ABOUT GAMING]
My bicycle broke about a month ago and I am now nearing the point in money and frustration where I should have bought a new bike. I just thought that throwing away a whole bike just because the pedal broke was assinine. The crank was some how cross threaded, so no pedal was going to fit in. You can't just buy a crank arm, you have to buy a whole crank set. Then you have to match the bottom bracket. Oh yeah and then you have to order the wrong tool, then the right tool then find out that your old bottom bracket is so seized up you can't get it off. Then you take it to another bike shop, because you're still pissed at the last bike shop and they barely even try to help you before telling you you should just buy a new bike.
GRRRR! And that's the nice way of putting it.
[/RANT]
Anyway Battle Cry should get here by the weekend. Should be fun.
And before I forget, I'm almost at 10K hits and am trying to think of some kind of giveaway. I'd like to give away a copy of All Things Zombie - Final Fade Out (ATZ-FFO) but I'm not sure when the release date is. Of course I could do a map or activation/event cards. We'll see, maybe I'll figure out how to do a poll.
[RANT WARNING, NOT ABOUT GAMING]
My bicycle broke about a month ago and I am now nearing the point in money and frustration where I should have bought a new bike. I just thought that throwing away a whole bike just because the pedal broke was assinine. The crank was some how cross threaded, so no pedal was going to fit in. You can't just buy a crank arm, you have to buy a whole crank set. Then you have to match the bottom bracket. Oh yeah and then you have to order the wrong tool, then the right tool then find out that your old bottom bracket is so seized up you can't get it off. Then you take it to another bike shop, because you're still pissed at the last bike shop and they barely even try to help you before telling you you should just buy a new bike.
GRRRR! And that's the nice way of putting it.
[/RANT]
Anyway Battle Cry should get here by the weekend. Should be fun.
And before I forget, I'm almost at 10K hits and am trying to think of some kind of giveaway. I'd like to give away a copy of All Things Zombie - Final Fade Out (ATZ-FFO) but I'm not sure when the release date is. Of course I could do a map or activation/event cards. We'll see, maybe I'll figure out how to do a poll.
Tuesday, October 2, 2012
Follow up on Valiant WW2 1/72
Well I did a search for "valiant miniatures review" and a bunch of stuff came up. The three most relevant to this discussion are The Miniatures Page [TMP], Elianto e i Mondi Alterei, and Miniatures.de
The TMP posts started in 2007 and it is pretty long (3 pages). The comments start by saying they are BIG! and talk abut 23-24mm. flakmaus gives a pretty in depth comparison with 20mm ranges that I am not familiar with. He says these are all around 21-22mm. {I will note here that when I buy figs I try to stick with the sets that are reviewed to be 24mm on PSR}. christot has a link to a photobucket gallery here which I missed on the first read through and I think may be pay dirt for this discussion.
Further on towards the bottom of the first page is a reply from Julian of Valiant Miniatures that basically states that they feel 24.3mm is the scale average height of a man in modern times. I totally agree, but fat lot of good that does me if my other figures are not that height.
Mondi Alterei is basically a review of the German boxed set. A good description of the contents and picture of the sprue. The box art is different and, although good, is not as enticing as the painted figure art I saw yesterday. This also seems to be a review of an item he was given by the manufacturer, for what it's worth.
Lastly miniatures.de. This is very in depth, down to the scale of the individual weapons for the British Tommy box. Basically they state that Valiant is incompatible with ESCI, Hasegawa, Italeri and Revell. They say that the weapons range from 1/60 to 1/50 in scale and the heads are more like 1/27.
So here is my take on it. If you are getting into Rapid Fire and don't have any figures it looks like it would be a good solution to get some nicely detailed and inexpensive figures that are in preset amounts you need for the game. If you already have any other 1/72 figures it looks like the Valiant figures will dwarf them. You can do basing tricks to match the height but I think the girth issues bother me more. Unless you don't mind having a significant portion of your forces look like Jaws from the Bond movies (Richard Kiel).
So a shame really because I think that they are quite nice looking, but the incompatibility issue has me holding off for the moment. I have some IMEX Billy V US and Germans. Does anyone know anything about the Plastic Soldier Company 1/72 figures?
[EDIT]
Der!? Found the plastic Soldier Review listing for Valiant here, most sets get high marks but are listed at 25mm and up for size. Not sure why I didn't see it the other day. Plastic soldier company here get high marks as well but are sized at 23.5mm. So fit in with ESCI, Revell etc.
The TMP posts started in 2007 and it is pretty long (3 pages). The comments start by saying they are BIG! and talk abut 23-24mm. flakmaus gives a pretty in depth comparison with 20mm ranges that I am not familiar with. He says these are all around 21-22mm. {I will note here that when I buy figs I try to stick with the sets that are reviewed to be 24mm on PSR}. christot has a link to a photobucket gallery here which I missed on the first read through and I think may be pay dirt for this discussion.
 |
| Fantassin - Valiant - Elheim w/ slotta, from christot |
Mondi Alterei is basically a review of the German boxed set. A good description of the contents and picture of the sprue. The box art is different and, although good, is not as enticing as the painted figure art I saw yesterday. This also seems to be a review of an item he was given by the manufacturer, for what it's worth.
Lastly miniatures.de. This is very in depth, down to the scale of the individual weapons for the British Tommy box. Basically they state that Valiant is incompatible with ESCI, Hasegawa, Italeri and Revell. They say that the weapons range from 1/60 to 1/50 in scale and the heads are more like 1/27.
 |
| ESCI - Valiant - Revell from miniatures.de |
So a shame really because I think that they are quite nice looking, but the incompatibility issue has me holding off for the moment. I have some IMEX Billy V US and Germans. Does anyone know anything about the Plastic Soldier Company 1/72 figures?
[EDIT]
Der!? Found the plastic Soldier Review listing for Valiant here, most sets get high marks but are listed at 25mm and up for size. Not sure why I didn't see it the other day. Plastic soldier company here get high marks as well but are sized at 23.5mm. So fit in with ESCI, Revell etc.
Monday, October 1, 2012
New (to me) WWII in 1/72
As I was eating breakfast this morning and trying to avoid real life by, what else, surfing for 1/72 plastic figures. I came across a manufacturer I had never heard of before, Valiant Miniatures. They seemed to be made for Rapid Fire, a rule set that I've stumbled across previously but don't really know much about.
Anyhow the sculpts look really nice but what really got me was the box art. It's of painted figures! Who'd of thunk it? Very close to impulse buying from one of my suppliers, Mega Hobby here.
(Whoa! Major freak out as a bug was crawling on my neck while I typed. Blood pressure back to normal.)
So I'll check over at Benno's and see if anyone has the 411 on these. There is nothing at PSR.
Just wish they had Soviets.
[Edit]
A search on Benno's here didn't turn up a whole lot of information. The posts start around 2010 and the main comments I can see are that they are "large" and of "cartoon" proportions. I'll have to delve further.
Anyhow the sculpts look really nice but what really got me was the box art. It's of painted figures! Who'd of thunk it? Very close to impulse buying from one of my suppliers, Mega Hobby here.
(Whoa! Major freak out as a bug was crawling on my neck while I typed. Blood pressure back to normal.)
So I'll check over at Benno's and see if anyone has the 411 on these. There is nothing at PSR.
 |
| From http://www.valiantminiatures.com/ |
[Edit]
A search on Benno's here didn't turn up a whole lot of information. The posts start around 2010 and the main comments I can see are that they are "large" and of "cartoon" proportions. I'll have to delve further.
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