Review of The Loremaster's Screen for The One Ring

Yes, I know I've promised to review Tales from Wilderland, but I'm still reading and absorbing it so it will have to wait for a bit (spoiler: yes, it's very good). However I did get the Loremaster's Screen a bit back and it makes for a quick and easy review, even though it's a meatier product than you first might expect! If you are wondering what this is all about, I'm talking about The One Ring by Cubicle 7 - a Tolkien rpg done right! You can read my review of the core books here.

What you get is a four panel screen and a 34 page sourcebook that explores Lake-town and its surroundings. The screen itself is very sturdy and easily rivals most board games when it comes to thickness, this is no mere cardboard! The front features a motif of Lake-town, more specifically the towns merchant quarter (or the market-pool as it is known). The art is by Jon Hodgson and it fits beautifully with the Tolkien theme - no fireball shooting mages or axe-wielding berserkers need apply. In the distance beyond the town lies the Lonely Mountain and if you look to the right you can see the bones of the great dragon Smaug poking out of the water, a couple of neat details I thought.

On the inside of the screen we have the ever present charts and tables. They are ordered after theme and colour coded, starting with basic rules tables (seven), combat tables (nine), encounter tables (four) and finally  tables concerning the Shadow (six). There are also some additional page references for often used rules like fellowship points and skills. It seems like most of the important stuff has been included, although some quick journey reminders would have been welcome as well. Although you might perhaps simply use the online tool by Shane Ivey for those calculations, it's great.

When it comes to GM screens I prefer the landscape variant as it creates less of a barrier between the GM and the players while still being able to keep some stuff hidden. However they've never seem to be all that popular as most of the screens you see today are of the vertical variety. Thankfully the Loremaster's screen isn't overly tall at 28cm so shouldn't pose too much of a barrier even if the GM decides to sit directly behind it (something I rarely do myself, choosing to have it beside me instead).

So that's the screen, what about the book? Well, written by Franceso Nepitello it's suprisingly well packed little book of goodies I have to say! GM screens seem to be that one thing that all roleplaying games have to have as soon as humanely possible after the core rulebook. Most of the time this leads to them being poorly thought through and the little booklet thrown in with the screen to justify the price more often than not contains some very niche information that rarely gets used during the game anyway. Not so this time!

After a brief introduction, in the form of a letter from Glóin to Bilbo, the first seven pages cover the city of Esgaroth, or Lake-town. Going after the map in the middle of the book we get to read about the different districts and their inhabitants. Peppered among the descriptions of the different locales are stats for the people who live there so they can quickly be used as NPCs. After this there are three pages about "Things to do while in Lake-town" that includes a couple of new Fellowship Phase Undertakings. For example, you can go to the market-pool to see if there is something there to aid you during coming adventures. In this section is also included a kind of translator table for those who want to use something less abstract than "Treausure" to record the wealth of their characters. This helps you translate this abstractness into... gold.

Following this are four pages dedicated to the Dragontide, a newly created festival that takes place in Lake-town on November first to third. It combines the end of harvest with the celebration of the killing of Smaug and is generally a big merry feast. On the first day there's an archery competition called the Day of the Black Arrow and through a series of different rounds and challenges a winner is found. This competition is described in some detail and with rules for how player companions might enter it, and I can see it making quite a highlight for any archers in the group!

In the middle of the book we have the aforementioned birds-eye map of Lake-town. While a traditional top down map might provide more specific detail I like how this more artistic view really pulls you in. You can almost hear the cry of the seagulls! (Sorry... I just really like Jon Hodgsons art).

The next five pages are titled Secrets of the Long Marshes and include rules for some different marsh plants you can come across and collect. They each provide some little benefit during the following adventure phase.  We are also introduced to a few new monsters who dwell in the marshes: the Hobgoblins, the Marsh-hags and the Marsh-ogres. My favourite is the Marhs-hag naturally, as I've always been fascinated and horrified by Meg Mucklebones in Ridley Scott's Legend who obviously served as the rolemodel. There is also a clarification regarding Blighted Places and how they work. Basically it is up to the Loremaster whether the companions have to roll for Corruption tests, it's not an automatic even if journeying through Dark lands.

The final eight pages detail a new heroic culture: the Men of the Lake. This section follows the layout of the ones in the Adventurer's Book and has everything you need to create a companion hailing from Lake-town. It also includes Rewards and Virtues so you can keep developing her as you continue play. Generally Men of the Lake are open to new things and like to embrace new technology. They value crafting and trade which shows through their virtues and they can get some neat trinkets through their rewards.

The book ends with a ready made companion, Frida daughter of Finnulf, and then there's actually an index! I really like that Francesco/Cubicle 7 decided to include a thorough index even though the book is only 34 pages. Good job guys!

Overall I'm very impressed with the Loremasters Screen! Granted this is a smaller product in the greater scheme of things (really looking forward to The Darkening of Mirkwood and Heart of the Wild!) but they have managed to cram in a lot of information and very little of it can be considered filler. The archery competition rules are a bit over-long but that's about it, the rest is all stuff I can see genuine and frequent use for in my games. As I have yet to actually play The One Ring I can't really comment on if there are any tables missing on the screen, but I'll let you know once we get on with it.

As you can see I'm quite happy with my purchase, doubly so as GM screens tend to be a bit sub-par. But if Cubicle 7 keep up with quality releases like this and Tales from Wilderland my expectations of the next books that should be out in the first quarter of next year will go through the roof! This is a solid purchase for any The One Ring Loremaster, highly recommended!

Read More

1 comment

Liebster Blog Award!

Yepp, it's another communal blog award/viral/chain-letter doing the rounds in our part of the sphere and I've been fortunate enough to be awarded not only once, but three times! First by Jody at Frontline Gamer, then by Joakim (a fellow Swede!) at The Miniatures Man and finally by Vladdd309 of Too Much Free Time. I guess if I would have been a little quicker writing this post I could have avoided this little pile-up. :)

Nevertheless, many thanks for the awards guys! While I'm usually not one to pay much attention to stuff like this, an excuse to promote some other awesome blogs is always welcome. The idea is to post five awards of my own (preferably to blogs with less than 200 followers) and let them know via a comment on their blog. Now, as far as I'm concerned I don't follow any bad blogs so any of them would fit among these five, but considering the restriction on 200 followers and which blogs I'd like to promote a little extra I've narrowed it down to these five. I did borrow some pictures from your respective sites guys, but let me know if you want them removed. :)

Dropship unloading.

Clear Horizon - This is the home of Mr Harold, who's quite well known in the 15mm sci-fi community. Besides being incredibly prolific and coming up with new stuff all the time the thing I like the most about this blog are the pictures. Nice miniature painting, terrain, lighting and photography skills result in pictures that never fails to inspire my own 15mm adventures!

Beautiful Minbari fleet from B5.

My Ever Growing Fleets - Although Matgc have been drawn back into 40k recently his huge collection of different spaceship fleets is the main reason for the award. While Fire Broadside started out as a spaceship painting blog these days the spaceships are few and fare between (will have to do something about that), however over at My Ever Growing Fleets they are everywhere! He even has his own rules system worked out, called Pax Stellarum.

A Nomad Zero painted by Tyler.

The General's Tent - Tyler Provick's little corner of the web might not see updates all that often, a couple of times per month usually, but when the posts turn up they are usually thoughtfull, instructive and/or full of beautifully painted miniatures! Many different style of miniatures are covered, like Heavy Gear, Infinity, Napoleonics as well as roleplaying games etc.

Delta Vector - Another blog with a fairly eclectic selection of topics by EvilleMonkeigh. Ranging from constructing your own spaceship combat rules set to talking about whether Joe Abercrombie might be better than GRR Martin Delta Vector is always an interesting read. Lately there has been quite a few review as well, and not of the same hyped games everyone else is reviewing but usually lesser known stuff like Scramble! and Empire of the Dead.

Scourge from Dropzone Commander.

Anarchy of Anton - I've only recently started following this blog but have been impressed by painting and terrain building. Lots of different games so there should be something for everyone! Some nice painting tutorials and other general good stuff to get you inspired to get cracking on your own projects. Glad I found it!





So those are my five Liebster awards! Go check them out and make sure to have a look at their backlog of posts as there are a lot of good stuff hidden away there.

Now I'm going to do some studying, cook some dinner and then hopfully have time to continue on my Dust Warfare speed painting project! More on this later...

Read More

5 comments

November Release for Infinity!

Yesterday Corvus Belli unveiled the new release for Infinity on their Facebook page. And what a lovely collection of metal! Lets have a look...

First out is the Ariadnan Briscards who are veteran re-enlisted soldiers. I quite like this model. It looks different from most other Ariadna figures, especially the helmet and the Multispectral visor L1 (first for Ariadna, right?). Having the goggles down and binoculars in hand seems a bit odd, but it's not that big of a deal. Compared to the rocket launchers of other factions I actually think this looks both more and less hi-tech. In a way it looks almost disposable - four shots and you just discard it! In game the Briscards have a slightly above average stat line, BS 12 being the most notable, and comes with MSV1 and Courage. They specialise in long range combat so we can expect to see Marksman and Sniper rifle equipped models turning up in the coming months.

This is a Nomad Moderator from Bakunin armed with a MULTI Sniper Rifle. Now this is a lovely sculpt! It's almost a shame that a "lowly" Moderator receive this kind of sculpting love, seeing he will likely only see use in Bakunin sectorials where he can be part of a link team. Still, it's a great looking model for sure. The pose, the extra equipment pouches, the way the rifle rests on the terrain and his little Saito-esque bionic eye all work together perfectly. He comes with his own mobile terrain that I know some people really hate. I don't mind it that much but sure, it can feel out of place if it doesnt fit in with your basing. Glad to see that they did some terrain with a Nomad feel this time around instead of just another rock.

The mighty Ajax the Great for ALEPH has arrived! A lot of people are excited about him, but I'm of two minds. It is a beutifully sculpted model, and the painting is (as always) impeccable, but his over-the-top-ness makes him feel out of place to me. The armour and giant mallet looks like something from Warmachine, rather than from the Infinity setting. Then again, this is ALEPH and they can kind of get away with this kind of stuff. Kind of. Still the model is very dynamic and I think someone is about to get a bad headache. Hehe! I do like it but at the same time, I was attracted to Infinity (partly) because the absence of models like this. Now, this guy is built as a tank and has the profile to match. He's basically a mini-TAG with 5 ARM, 2 W and No Wound Incapacitation. Of course he's also a beast in close combat with 18 CC, 16 PH with Berserk and Natural Born Warrior. Couple this with an explosive close combat weapon and I suggest staying far away from him (although he's also toting two Combi Rifles and a Nanopulser).

The Yu Jing Hac Tao armed with a Heavy Machine Gun is certainly a welcome addition to the game! He's what you get when you are just a few points shy of a proper TAG. This new Hac Tao seems to be a little less smooth than his MULTI Rifle carrying brother, and looks... larger as well (or perhaps that's only because of the re-sized HMG). the pose is none too exciting, but works ok I suppose. This guy has me excited from a gaming perspective more than a modellers perspective though - great stats, great weaponry and TO camo makes the Hac Tao a solid choice for any Yu Jing army. Expensive though. I've had the other two Hac Tao models for a while now, but I haven't started painting them. As I saw this new guy I could almost hear the MULTI Rifle version scream "Dang it! Now I'm never getting painted!". Hehe!

The Hatails Spec Ops for the Tohaa looks all kinds of badass! I think he might have climbed to the top of the pile as best looking Spec Ops model for me. Just like all the Tohaa his armour is fairly greebly with lots of little details, but on top of that this guy is sporting his own personal (I imagine) sports jacket and big shooty right arm extension! The helmet looks great as well (although that might be because it reminds me of the lovely Druze) and it works both bare and with the hood up. He's striking quite a pose but it works well and the combination of big gun in his right hand and smaller gun in his left makes him look quite menacing. We've got an interesting range of Viral weaponry in the pack as well; a Viral Combi Rifle, Viral Sniper Rifle and Viral Close Combat Weapon. Of all the Tohaa models we've seen so far this is the one that has made me consider getting a Tohaa force of my own.

Alright, we'll end with something that is last but certainly not least, the Mercenaries Scarface & Cordelia. These guys were available for a little while as a special promotion with Battlefoam, but are now free for all to get. Weee! If the Haitals is my favourite Spec Ops, Scarface is my favourite TAG. It's similar to the Japanese O-Yoroi but with better proportions (and no beer belly). Just like that TAG the pilot's arms are visible which is something I've always thought looks cool. I'm not sure about going with the Panzerfaust and Machete as weapons do brandish about but I'm sure we'll se plenty of conversions where those two Mk12's will come into play (although, they are very big and I wonder if that might look odd as well). Besides the big, hulking, awesome looking TAG we get Cordelia as well and she's a pretty great model too! Utalitarian with a punk streak (fitting for a merc) and striking a cocky pose is right up my alley.

In game Scarface is a lighter TAG with stats a bit lower than we've come to expect from these things. He also has Frenzy meaning he'll become Impetuous after causing his first casualty. This could be great or it could be a disaster, depending on the circumstance, but as long as you take it into account it should at least be manageable. Cordelia has standard light infantry stats and come with a Combi Rifle, Chain Colt (woo!) and D-Charges and, more importantly, she's an Engineer! This means you get a TAG and an accompanying Engineer for only 69 points. That's damn cheap if you ask me! Sure, it's a lighter version and might go crazy on the board, but still... 69 points! I might have to start a Qapu Khalqi force!


All in all a pretty great month of releases! Scarface & Cordelia is my personal choice of the weak but both the Bakunin sniper and the Hatails come close. The Hac Tao is of course what I'm most excited to actually get my hands on and put in my force. Corvus Belli just keeps putting out spectacular looking stuff! I'm about half way through the Paradiso campaign book and it's great for both introducing scenarios but also for advancing the storyline and generally providing inspiration. More on this later...

Read More

2 comments

Dust Warfare: Helicopter and Drop-Walker Tactics

Dun-du'dun-duuuuuu'dun! Dun-du'dun-duuuuu'dun! 

Dun-du'dun-duuuu'dun! Dun-du'dun-duuuuuuuun!

This article started as a post over at the Dust-War forums but it kept growing and growing until I thought "hell, this deserves its own blog entry!". It had gone from a simple "what's your opinion on the different helicopters?" to a fairly extensive tactics article. Actually I think this is the first time I've written something on the blog mainly concerning tactics and strategy. Sorry for all you non-Dust Warfare players reading. I'll be back to regular scheduling soon enough. :)

While the Mil-Mi45 Transport helicopter has been available for SSU players since early summer it's not until now that we can get our hands on the Mil-Mi46 Walker Transport and Mil-Mi47 Attack Helicopter! Being an industrious SSU commander myself I've been thinking about how to best utilise these new tools in my forces. Let's have a look at the attack helicopter(s) first.


The Mil-Mi47 Attack Helicopter

This is not the most flattering picture of the Mi47. But I couldn't find many better ones. :(

This comes in four versions: Striker with autocannons for 55pts, Burner with Napalm bombs and rocket pods for 50pts, Airblaster with 250kg bombs and rocket pods for 50pts and Death Rain with Napalm and 250kg bombs for 45pts. They all come with quad machineguns in a pintel mount as well.

Looking at this lineup I'm a little bit puzzled about the Striker being the most expensive variant. Sure it tears through infantry and can at least damage light and medium walkers but.... it feels like anti-personel firepower is the least of an SSU force's worries. For five points less you get rocket pods and bombs, both of whom are a lot more effective against armour! Yes, the bombs are one use weapons and the rocked pods have the Reloat trait, but when you rarely face more than two walkers at once anyway this isn't such a big drawback. And I think the compulsory movement can be used to get around the Reload issue if you plan your moves ahead of time.

So to me Burner or Airblaster seems like better options. So, which bombs should you go for - Napalm or 250kg? They actually seem fairly equal to my eyes. The Napalm might be a better a medium infantry killer and it's also better against heavy+ walkers (although only rolling two dice against them makes the bombs unreliable). The 250kg bomb seems to work well against light and medium walkers at least and they are decent against infantry (although that seems like a waste) but against heavy+ walkers Napalm is probably a better choice.

Speaking of bombs, what about Death Rain? I actually think it could be a pretty good, slightly cheaper, antitank option. Dropping one of each bomb on a medium-ish walker should be enough to kill it outright (if you drop them in its rear arc of course) and there are rarely more than two medium+ walkers on the board in our games. It should have a decent chance to knock out a superheavy walker as well if you drop all four bombs on it at once. In fact, it might even be a better option in smaller games with fewer targets. The rocket pods aren't that great against infantry anyway so they could end up being dead weight if there's no time to reload them.

So while the Striker is no doubt the most spectacular looking, striking even, I don't see many reasons to get it instead of Burner or Airblaster in SSU's current state (things might change when the Matrioshka and Lavrentiy Beria hit the street!). Death Rain might very well be a valid budget option for when you just need to take out on or two walkers. And I think Napalm is probably the safer option against an unknown opponent.


The Mil-Mi46 and Aero-walkers

That's the Nina with the RPG-47s.

As for the walker transport... as awesome as the concept is, and as cool looking as it is the walker can actually hang under it (going to magnetize the feet of my Aero-walkers and their base) I have a hard time seeing myself investing in the whole set. The helicopter itself has the quad machineguns, which are good for anti-personel use, but is otherwise unremarkable. Of course, this is more about the aero-walkers than the transport, so here's the lineup: Nastasia with double quad machineguns for 40pts, Nina with two RPG-47 rocket launchers for 40pts and Nikita with 120mm mortars for 45pts.

For the same points as a Nastasia I can get a regular Natasha walker and get comparable, or even better anti-personel ability. Sure, the Nastasia might roll a couple more dice but I'd say the cover negating ability of the Howitzers is much more valuable most of the time (infantry out of cover is quite rare). Not to mention an automatic suppression token, 8" longer range and wider fields of fire. Assault is a nice ability to have, for sure, but with the longer range of Natasha it's not really needed and the all in one can really help in a sticky situation! Nastasia has one potential saving grace: anti-air artillery. Still... with a range of measly 16" it will only be good for passive protection against enemy aircraft rather than actually hunting them down. Probably my least favourite SSU walker, from a rules perspective (the model is awesome!).

The Nina brings some pretty fearsome antitank abilities with its two RPG-47s! This should be enough to get the attention of any SSU commander considering how rare this is in the current army list. It is very fickle however as you only actually roll two dice - meaning there's a good chance you won't hit at all; if you do however, there will be glorious destruction! Of the three Aero-walkers this is the one that I think actually has some air-drop potential. I would also consider putting Red Yana behind the levers as her Fighting Spirit ability could make sure that you really hit that one critical target! 80 points (or 102 with Yana!) for a 4 hit point medium walker hanging under a fairly fragile chopper might be hard to stomach though. Unfortunately the Air Lift ability doesn't provide protection from transport destruction (like Air Cav does) so if your enemy manages to nail that chopper the walker is gone as well. I contacted FFG regarding this to see if this was a rules oversight and Zach got back to me promptly. The Air Lift rule should read: A Vehicle suffers no damage if its transport is destroyed. Place the Vehicle on the battlefield in the location previously occupied by the destroyed transport. The Vehicle gains one Reaction marker. Also, being able to disembark from high altitude is amazing! In the end this is a combo I could imagine using, although it would be a bit of a gamble. Two attack helicopters could probably do the job better. Not as fun though!

Finally the Nikita brings some artillery to the SSU forces. First off, both the Air Lift and Assault abilities feel completely wasted on this model. The only reason I can imagine why it's an Aero-walker in the first place was for production reasons and how the parts are laid out on the sprue. In fact, game/fluff wise it would have made much more sense to have the artillery walker as a regular KV-47 and then have the chainsaw wielding Natalya being the air droppable one! Oh well... one can dream. Anyway, the mortar is a little bit less powerful than the Lothar's, but then again it's a Grenade weapon meaning it cancels cover. So in the end I'd say they are about even. However unlike its Axis and Allied counterparts the the 120mm mortar doesn't have the Reload trait, meaning it could potentially fire indirectly every turn. This could be pretty huge, depending how you construct your army. Then again the mortar iself might not be powerful enough to base a strategy around. This is probably the Aero walker that would see the most frequent use in my armies. While not a game-changer on its own (like I imagine the upcoming Vladimin Lenin artillery tank will be) artillery can be a very handy tool. However it being an Aero-walker doesn't make any sense at all and since you will likely never use those abilities the Nikita might in effect be overcosted.

So, one walker that I would only ever field as an aircraft detterent and not as an offensive drop-walker, one that I'd never use as an offensive drop-walker and one that's kind of a gamble and eat up a lot of points... doesn't really make a good case for transportable walkers at all. Which is a shame since it's such a cool idea! I really hope we get to see some more Aero-walker options in the future to make the whole affair worth the investment.


I'm excited to get some new toys to play with and I think there's great potential in the attack helicopters at least. Although I think you need at least two choppers in your army for them to really shine; one is simply too easy to focus fire on and bring down. Two or even three will most likely play mayhem with your opponents cerfully laid plans, and as he is focusing on getting your air assets under control those Fakyeli squads are creeping ever closer!

I hope you enjoyed my little helicopter tactica and I'd be more than happy to hear thoughts and ideas from my dear readers. Especially if you have practical experience of playing with these units. This is all pure conjecture from my part. :)

Until next time...

Read More

9 comments

Quick n Dirty Painting plus Dust Warfare AAR

I have been putting off painting the infantry of my Sino-Soviet forces for Dust Warfare (or Tactics) because I've been unsure of how to proceed. Thinking about what level of detail I wanted to give them, how advanced a camouflage scheme (if any) and which base colours to use was all up in the air.

A warning before you continue reading. This entire article is pretty much just a big humblebrag, so be prepared. I almost decided against writing it halfway through, but I'm just so commited that I couldn't finish what I had started (see! It's starting already!).

Now, I have always considered Dust Warfare to be my dirty little side project, painting wise, for a couple of reasons; 1) It's an army scale game and considering my painting speed it would take ages to get it to the same standard as, say, my Infinity miniatures. 2) The infantry miniatures are... simpler than the other stuff I'm painting. Don't get me wrong - they look great on the tabletop, but they are perhaps not display level stuff. This is not a negative as simpler minis gives me "mental permission" to lower my painting level. 3) Since I started playing miniature games I've always had an idea to speed paint my armies, but I've never actually managed it. In the end I can't help but spend way too much time on each individual miniature. Too much time for an entire army at least.

Line 'em up and knock 'em down. Halfway done.

So yesterday I sat down and all three things kind of came together and I decided to get to work. Simple base colours followed by a wash. That's it. The plan is to go back later and add some details etc, but at first I want to paint all my infantry to this standard. I'm tired of seeing the mustard brown horde battling it out on the tabletop and even painted to a lower standard looks infinetly better! Oh, and come to think of it I might have been inspired by the "Naked Miniatures" article over at Delta Vector. Good read, check it out.

Anyway, I decided on painting mostly similar to the official FFG/Dust Models minis. Swithced around some of the camo blots, but overall similar. I wanted to make the different units easy to tell apart when playing so khaki with OD blots for the Ohotniki and inverted for the Fakyeli. I also painted Koshka, Nikolai and a Commissar as well. This force amounts to about 200 points and I've managed to finish roughly half of my infantry (basing not done though). Not too shabby for just one evening!

After Action Report
Why did I paint these specific units you ask? Well, we had scheduled a Dust Warfare meet-up for today, using 200 point armies. Simple! It was me with the SSU, Anders with Axis, Kosta with Allies and new acquaintance (for me and Kosta) Viktor with some more Axis. We thought about playing a large battle with two players per side, but in the end decided to split the table into two smaller play areas. Borderline too small, but it worked decently I think. I faced off against Viktor while Kosta would battle Anders.

Since I really like the SSU walkers (and I thought it would be a nasty surprise!) I squeezed in three walkers in my army coupled with some Fakyeli and some Ohotniki:

Dust Warfare - Force BuilderFaction: SSU ( 199 / 200 ) 

---  Defense Platoon (199)
Upgrade: Political Importance (5)
Command Section: Koshka Rudinova with Grand'ma (53, Hero)
1st Section: "Fakyeli" SSU Close Combat Squad (21)
2nd Section: "Fakyeli" SSU Close Combat Squad (21)
3rd Section: "Ohotniki" SSU Rifle Squad (20)
Commissar: "The Fonvizin" (9)
Support: KV47-B "Natasha" (40)
Support: KV47-A "Nadya" (30)

Unluckily for me Viktor had brought a force pretty much built for anti-tank. A Ludvig, some apes and every lasergun in the Third Reich! Ouch...

Dust Warfare - Force BuilderFaction: Axis ( 196 / 200 ) 

---  Blutkreuz Platoon (196)
Upgrade: Defenses (5)
Command Section: Sigrid Von Thaler (20, Hero)
1st Section: Heavy Laser Grenadiers (35)
2nd Section: Laser Grenadiers (21)
3rd Section: Axis Gorillas (24)
4th Section: Laser Grenadiers (21)
Support: MPW II-B "Ludwig" (40)
Support: MPW II-A "Luther" (30)

Deployment. Notice the neat new (old) trees that Anders have managed to dig up. 

French countryside here we come!

After using the battle builder we ended up with Eliminate the Enemy and Close Engagement. I was fairly happy with this as it meant my short range troops could get stuck in fairly quickly... then again so would the short range Axis troops. I combined my Fakyeli using the Fonvizin Commissar (although I took him because he has Assault... that the Fakyeli alraedy have. Doh!).

Turn 1

"Hmm... trees... Burn them!! For the Motherland!"

The first turn was harsh for me as I lost my Natasha walker to fire from the Ludwig and Luther. My plan was  to use it for suppression but that kind of went out the window with that. My Nadya advanced on the right flank, scaring off the apes as well as Sigrid and her Grenadiers who hid there. Some fire from my Ohotniki proved ineffectual and we moved on to the next turn.

Turn 2

Sigrid and her Laser Grenadiers. And some very camelion-like apes!

The Ludwig fired at Gran'ma but she escaped damage. Realizing that everything in my army except the Ohotniki ignored cover Viktor advanced with his regular and heavy Laser Grenadiers and fired at my infantry to no effect. I decided to throw Gran'ma in front of the bus and she charged straight into the jaws of the Axis guns (betting I would win initiative the next turn). My riflemen fired on the Laser Grenadiers causing a casualty while my Fakyeli geared up for their attack.

Turn 3

Gran'ma chaaaaaarge!!!

I was lucky enough to win the initiative and used my order phase to open up with Gran'ma. She killed a heavy Laser Grenadier and two of the regular ones. She received fire in return but survived. In the  unip phase the Nadya from the flank came lumbering around a corner and opened up on the Ludwig with her sulfur throwers inflicting three hits and setting the walker on fire. Woo! The ohotniki advanced and managed to wipe out the heavy Laser Grenadiers. Woo! In a moment of weakness I decided to take the safe route with my Fakyeli and ran out on the flank the Nadya just came from. Good to protect them, sure, but they're an incredibly offensive unit so charging out, guns blazing, might have done more damage!

Gran'ma managed to get a few more shots off, damaging the Luther but in the end the walker was doomed as the Luther destroyed her with its Kampfzange. Fortunately Koshka managed to get out in time and took cover in the nearby ruins (denying Viktor the superiority point as long as she stayed alive!).

Turn 4

Peeking around the corner...

Things were drawing to a close and we were tied for points, 1-1. The Nadya was fired again on the Ludwig and destroyed it (2-1), but it was in a bad position, with two Laser Grenadiers and an ape nearby. The ape charged and even though I hit it twice with the flamers it survived and inflicted damage, as did one of the Laser Grenadiers. My Fakyeli kept advancing but I realized that they would probably not be able to attack anything as Viktor just kept moving away from them. My Ohotniki kept plinking away at the decimated Laser Grenadier squad but didn't manage to wipe it out. The Luther opened up on Koshka but she espaced unharmed!

Turn 5

Just about to wipe out that Ludwig!

In the final turn the final ape managed to survive another double sulfur thrower attack in my Command Phase and in the Unit Phase the decimated Grenadier squad finished off the Nadya (2-2). The ape (which was worth one point) took refuge in the ruins at my right flank... not too far from my Fakyeli. The Laser Grenadiers poured fire into Koshka and managed to inflict six hits thanks to Sigrid's Berserk ability. I was lucky though and saved twice meaning Koshka survived with two hits left. The Luther started tracking her but she managed to run out of its field of fire. The Ohotniki fired ineffectively but finally... in the last turn my Fakyeli got to fire their first shot. Only three of them and the Commissar were in range, but that provided enough dice to bring down the last ape, bringing the score to 3-2 to me.

Yay! SSU victory!

It was a fun battle that started badly for me, suddenly turned in the middle and then stayed tense until the very last turn! Just the way I like it. Gameplay wise I think I made mostly the right choices. With hindsight I should probably have been more aggressive with my Fakyeli in the mid-game - that was a 50 point unit that only got to attack once. Sure they denied points for Viktor, but they could easily have wrecked the Luther if I had gone that way. Next time!

All that anti-tank firepower was scary and my walkers fell one by one. Against a different force they would probably have been more effective, but against these Germans they mostly acted like bullet (laser) sponges. The Ohotniki who look great on paper have yet to really wow me during a game, but perhaps I'm not using them correctly. Might try some Frontoviki next time.

At the other end of the table the Allied force consisting of mostly heavy infantry were badly beaten by a zombie heavy Axis force. Grr... those darn zombies!

Look at that poor lonely Yankee, swarmed by nasty zombies.

I'm looking forward to getting the attack helicopter, as well as the aero walkers (more than the walker transport as it were). Might be fun to try some artillery themed lists. Also really looking forward to the upcoming SSU infantry - the Red Guard - as they have stuff like missile launchers and UGL's that most of the SSU units are missing. Oh... and tanks.

Read More

7 comments

Armoured Support for the EarthSec

Zzzzzrrrrroooooooowwww ..... (or whatever sounds hovertanks make)

In beginning of June last year I got a big box of stuff from GZG - a bunch of hovertanks and some UNSC infantry for use as my EarthSec troopers - that unfortunately remained pretty much untouched until February of this year when the guys over at the Gruntz forums organized a little painting competition. This motivated me to get an APC and a sniper team painted so I could enter the competition. Now it's been another nine months and... the rest is finally done! Woo! More hovertanks! :-D

The Gauntlet III hover APC is what made me decide to go hover in the first place. 

I really like the rounded shape of the hull and the extended hatchway at the front. 

This is the command variant of the Gauntlet with some additional communications gear (although it has recently been overshadowed by the new FDC/Comms van). The whip antennas are made from guitar strings.

The Wittmann class medium hovertank comes with three gun options but since I want to keep the feel of my EarthSec troopers in some kind of tech middleground I chose a fairly standard barrel. I think I might do something with the missile box attached to the side of the turret to make it stand out a bit. Should I make it grey/black like the main gun?

Another hover favourite! The Rommel III hover gun-tank with its sleek, low hull and massive cannon just looks... cool. Looking forward to stating this guy out in the new Gruntz 1.1 rules. :)

For me one of the big draws of the 15mm scale was the fact that vehicles can be a larger part of the game. In larger scales you'll have to struggle to bring in more than maybe two or three. In 15mm you could easily play an armoured battle! So I'm happy to finally have sorted some armoured support for my infantry. Of course, GZG keep releasing more great looking models and I definitely need to get a couple of combat cars. These come with a NAC crew but I think I could probably get some UNSC gunners through cutting and pasting from other minis.

As for newer releases, the more heavily armed Gauntlet APC with AT missile system would make for a nice upgrade in firepower for extra risky missions. Then there's the Gauntled IIS field ambulance that could also work well as an all-purpose cargo hauler, so I might get a couple of those as well. I do need some more specialist infantry, like support weapons and drones. However, apart from that I feel that my EarthSec troops are very playable. I still have the Imperator mecha and two Seeker mechs to sort out, but that is simply icing on the cake.

So what does it all look when it comes together? Let me show you...

Actually... there is some infantry missing in this picture. No room. :)

That's all for now! Next up I think I might get some SSU infantry painted for Dust Warfare. Or perhaps my Yu Jing spec-ops. We'll see...

Read More

15 comments

A Lot of Different Things

Hello dear readers! Sorry for the lack of updates for the last couple of weeks. I've simply been busy with work and other commitments so the blogging have lagged behind a bit. To get back up to speed I thought I'd cram in a bunch of different stuff in this post and then simply go from there.

Gaming wise I've played X-Wing quite a few times (fun! but with some balance problems I think) and Dust Warfare a couple of times (where my SSU were dealt their first loss!). I managed to sneak in a game of Fiasco as well which was a lot of fun as I haven't been roleplaying in ages. In fact I'm considering taking drastic measures to get back into some roleplaying as my current group have pretty much lost interest in it (sadface). I'm really eager to play The One Ring and would love to try TechNoir as well. Hmm...


Terrain Ponderings

Yesterday we started talking about what to do for terrain in our Dust Warfare games. You've seen the table that we use and at the moment it's pretty much a hodge-podge of AT-43 stuff, some paper craft ruins and the tank traps etc that you get with the core box. While the pieces look nice enough individually they don't really have a common theme and the immersion suffers a bit. Anders have been looking at some of the pre-painted buildings that Warlord Games produce for Bolt Action. This combined with what the tabletop actually looks like has made us decide to go towards a Normandie/French countryside themed table. A few of those buildings, a couple of roads, some stone walls and bocage combined with a decorative field or two could make for a nice looking table.

While the buildings look pretty good in the pictures I expect some extra work will be needed to make them look a little less like sparkingly clean ruins. As for roads I've recently become intrigued by the many soft style terrain pieces that are available these days. That is to say roads (or rivers etc) that are made from some kind of cloth or rubber that has been painted and flocked. I really like soft terrain as it is a lot easier to store and I think actually more resistant to damage. I particularly like the stuff put out by Terrain Mat. Looking at the pictures at least the roads and rivers look better than most of the homemade stuff I've seen over the years.

While the stuff at Terrain Mat would work great for the table we had in mind, I found myself wanting to by a 120x120cm scrub lands mat and some 15mm roads to use with Heavy Gear! Argh... I need a second job! :)

Other terrain suggestions are of course welcome. At the moment the time to really make our own from scratch simply doesn't seem to be there so ready made or even pre-painted would be preferable.


15mm

MrHarold from Clear Horizon has inspired me yet again as his terrain making, painting and photography skills all combine into very immersive pictures that always gets my imagination going. This time it was his recently finished game board that did it. It's a desolate landscape, almost Moon-like in its greyness, with a few mesas and the awesome colony sheds from GZG. Simple yet brilliant looking! I've been holding off getting to grips with my Mars board, thinking I'd wait until I had enough terrain to fill it up better. But seeing as I have about the same amout of terrain as MrHarold I think I'm actually good to go!

I've got my Zuzzy mat, some of their hills/ridges and a bunch of colony huts so I really think it's about time I got to work. I will need a lof of paint though (primarily red!) and I think I might simply go to a hardware store and pick up some of their acrylic paints as they should be flexible enough not to crack when used on the Zuzzy mat, as well as order of magnitudes cheaper than proper craft paint.

Hmm... still only terrain talk. What happened to painting?! Well, here's a WIP shot of the last four hovertanks for my EarthSec forces. They deserve to ride in style! Really great models that are fun to paint and benefit from some extra detailing like antennas and stowage (that I'll mount later). They are quick to paint too and should be finished before the weekend is over. Stay tuned...


Infinity

As most of you probably know by now Maelstrom collapsed in on themselves like a black hole and swallowed a lot of oustanding customer orders (read more about it at Frontline Gamer). Unfortunately one of those customers was me as I had pre-ordered the Paradiso campaign book from them. I had heard a lot of good stuff about Firestorm Games and after a quick email conversation with Rob there I managed to sort out the book with the special GoGo Marlene miniature as well. Neat! What was even neater was that it shipped the next day and it arrived at my door just a couple of days after that. So now I'm finally in possession of the long sought after Paradiso Campaign book (plus a Gui Feng spec-ops model). I've leafed through it and it looks to be absolutley stuffed full of goodies and reading the first few pages of background had me smiling from ear to ear!

So... baggage remotes and some more hackers will have to be invested in, and I'm seriously tempted to get some MDF terrain for Infinity. Problem is that I really don't have the space for it at the moment. There are a lot of great ranges available for Infinity players these days, but I think that Warmill is the stuff that I like the best. The PUP looks great and their upcoming futuristic shipping containers look really useful as well. I might get a couple of these cool looking containers from Burning Designs as well though. So much choice!

While my regular miniature gaming friends seem to have foregone Infinity for Dust Warfare (sacrilege!) the Infinity community in Stockholm is growing and I know there will be people with whom I can play campaign.


Movies and TV

Earlier tonight I watched the new BSG Blood & Chrome web-series and it looked... ok. Our old friend the shaky cam was back with a vengeance and it felt a bit overdone. Just as the weird bloom filter they were using. I'm sure the point of it was to blend the live action together better with the CGI stuff but it was distracting nonetheless. Story-wise so far: cocky rookie arrives at his first post where he gets dressed down by the officers and emotions flair as his assignment is a simple milk run. We've seen it a hundred times before, but that doesn't mean it can't amount to something as the show progresses. Episode 1 above.

Went and saw three movies; Looper, Die Farbe and Dredd 3D. Looper was pretty good! Nice to see some fresh science fiction that isn't burdened by superheroes or space marines. I think the script could have done with some tightening and the way time travel works in the movie is kind of muddled and doesn't really... make sense, although it does make for some great cinema! And as the dear Doctor has explained time is more like a ball of wibbly wobbly, timey wimey... stuff.

Die Farbe is a low-budget German adaptation of HP Lovecraft's The Colour Out of Space and was screened here in Stockholm during the annual Lovecraft Festival here. I quite liked it overall. Some of the design choices made were different than what I would have done myself, but I could see the reasoning behind the choices and I don't think they were bad in any way. It's black and white and the slowly evolving story has been transplanted to post-war Germany. However this all works very well and doesn't impact negatively on the story. There are very few Lovecraft movies out there that I would anything but tripe (often enjoyable tripe, but tripe nonetheless) however Die Farbe manages to claw itself out of the muck and become something more respectable. Watch it if you have the chance.

Dredd 3D was an absolute blast! I had heard a lot of good things about it so felt cautiously optimistic, but even so it was a lot better than I thought it would be. More gritty and realistic than the comic (or the first movie) but very, very Dredd. Karl Urban does an excellent job of portraying our favourite lawman and Olivia Thirlby and Lena Heady are solid as well. The story is simple; two judges alone and cut-off in a huge hab-block full of criminals hell-bent on taking them down. Yet this simplicity does not detract from the movie, rather it's almost liberating in that there doesn't have to be any huge sweeping CGI vistas -  a bit like the more down to earth feel of District 9 and Moon. These days it's really the low(ish) budget sci-fi movies that makes me pay attention. Sure, Avengers was kind of fun, but it still pales compared to the movies I just mentioned. Er... getting a bit off track but suffice to say I enjoyed Dredd immensely and I'm keeping my fingers crossed that the DVD/Blueray sales will be enough for Alex Garland to make a sequal.

Duncan Jones said it best on Twitter: "For anyone out there who claims they love R rated sci-fi, but hasn't seen Dredd or Looper, do it. This is the good stuff." And "If you don't support the good stuff, good stuff won't get made!"


Other Stuff

There are not one, but TWO new Infinity podcasts out there! Forward Observer made by some guys in Australia and Infinity O-12 made by Romeo Filip (from Battlefoam) and some other guys. Both shows are quite good and offers insightful hints and tips for beginners and veterans alike. The O-12 podcast is trying to be more slick and professional and is aiming to become the official podcast for the game, however I think Forward Observer often have better actual game info with a lot of stuff that I find useful. Well worth listening to both though!

I've also started listening to The Infinite Monkey Cage podcast with Brian Cox and Robin Ince and I can't believe I've missed out on this until now! It's a smart show about science with great panel guests that also manages to be very funny. Highly recommended!

Err.... Dead Space 2 and Mass Effect 3 multiplayer although I secretly covet XCom!

Finally... happy Carl Sagan day! I'll leave you with this...

Read More

No comments