Sci-Fi & Fantasy Incoming! – Episode VII

Welcome to Episode VII of the Sci-Fi & Fantasy Edition of Incoming!
This week features new models from manufacturers such as RAFM, Olleys Armies, Khurasan Miniatures & Crocodile Games.

I hope you enjoy the show…

Incoming! – Episode 22

Welcome to Episode 22 of the Incoming! Video Podcast
This week’s show features new releases from Legio Heroica, Gorgon Studios, Aventine Miniatures and Artizan Designs, amongst others.

I hope you enjoy it…

Meeples & Miniatures – Episode 53

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Welcome to Episode 53 of the Meeples & Miniatures Podcast.

In this show, I review Battleground Historical Warfare, the new wargame from Your Move Games, and I interview Chad Ellis of YMG about the development process behind the game.

I also chat about the Blood Bowl computer game, plus the usual podcast and gaming news.

00:00   Intro

03:40   Podcast News

09:30   Gaming Report

17:20   In Depth Review – Battleground Historical Warfare

54:05   Interview – Chad Ellis, Your Move Games

93:15   Review – Blood Bowl for the Nintendo DS

105:55 Closing Comments

View from the Veranda – Episode 3

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Welcome to Episode 3 of View from the Veranda, with Neil Shuck & Henry Hyde.

In this show, we discuss our inspirations for wargaming – but with typical verbal diversions into the realms of British school history curriculum, Michael Bentine’s Potty Time and the mysterious disappearance of the Battle of Bosworth diorama.

Richard III: The War of the Roses

Wednesday night at Scimitar Wargames Group saw my first play of the much anticipated follow-up to Columbia Games Hammer of the Scots, Richard III: The War of the Roses.

There has been a lot of buzz about this game, and I was very keen to try it.

My Reaction? To be perfectly honest, somewhat mixed.

The game itself is actually very good. A simple and elegant card-based system, which gives a lot of freedom for tactical play. The combat system is quick, easy whilst still leaving you with several considerations.

And more to the point, it fun – I really enjoyed myself.

However, this is offset by the poor production quality of the game – any game that costs in excess of £40 and doesn’t even have a mounted board, let alone a ‘proper’ box, is seriously lacking, IMO.

There wil be a full review of this game in the next Meeples & Miniatures Podcast episode.

The above picture shows the ‘Battle of Coventry’ – 2 major field armies clash in turn 5 of the game. The Lancastrians (Red) are bested on the field, partly due to the treachery of Buckingham, but manage to withdraw in good order.

Arcane Legions? – Err…probably not…

So, following on from my post of a couple of days ago, I dutifully checked around the web for reviews of the game.

First up – thanks to Simon for pointing out the excellent videos that Wells Expeditions have put up on their website. They give a great set of tutorials about playing the game, and are a good laugh as well – other game publishers please take note of this!

However, having then seen the figures close up, courtesy of a review on the 1/72 Multiverse site, and subsequently on the Arcane Legions site itself, I am completely underwhelmed by the figures.

In short, they look not just average, but actually pretty poor.

So, this has made my mind up – I’ll save the proposed £50 outlay for this, and look to get Conflict of Heroes: Storms of Steel instead…

Arcane Legions – worth a look?

What do you do when driving for 20 hours (to and from Western Scotland) – catch up on your podcast downloads of the D6 Generation of course!

Well, I’ve managed several shows, which is more than any sane person would want to listen to 3 American gamers in so short a period

However, one show did intrigue me – which was when they covered the new minis game Arcane Legions.

This has now been released in the UK, and with a starter pack plus a Cavalry pack for each army weighing in at about £50, this looks interesting (and cheap) enough to at least have a look at.

However, with so much other stuff currently vying for my hard earned cash (and with Christmas just around the corner) I just want to ask – is this game worth the investment? Is it any good?

Your comments would be appreciated…

Upcoming Podcast News

Yes I know, it’s now November and I should have put a podcast out. It was really inevitable that this was going to be delayed, given that I’ve been in the Western Isles of Scotland for a week.

But, just to let you know what is happening…

I actually have 2 episodes of Meeples & Miniatures in the works at the moment.

One is going to concentrate on boardgames, and will consist of a detailed review of the new game from Columbia Games, Richard III. It will also include ‘open box’ reviews of Battlelore: Heroes, the new edition of Commands & Colors: Ancients, plus the brand new Commands & Colors Expansion Pack #4 Imperial Rome & Commands & Colors Expansion Pack #5 Epic Ancients II.

The second is concentrating of Miniatures rules, with a review of the new Extra Impetus #2 book, Colonial Adventures from Two Hour Wargames and (hopefully) Black Powder. If all goes to plan, I will be joined on this show by Rich Jones to discuss these products.

Finally, Henry Hyde and I are also planning the next episode of View from the Veranda. I think the main topic of conversation is going to revolve around using points systems in wargames. We are currently trying to schedule the recording of this episode, as Henry is somewhat busy trying to get issue 20 of Battlegames Magazine to press at the moment.

I haven’t forgotten about the promised video miniature reviews either. These are still a ‘work-in-progress’, but I’m getting there – albeit slowly.

Thank you for your patience and support – lots of new content coming soon!

Sci-Fi & Fantasy Incoming! – Episode VI

Welcome to Episode 6 of the Sci-Fi & Fantasy Edition of Incoming!
This show features new releases from Reaper Miniatures, Taban Miniatures, Dragonblood Miniatures & Darkson Designs

Incoming! – Episode 21

Welcome to Episode 21 of Incoming!
This show features new releases from Reaper Miniatures, Company B, Eureka Miniatures & JTFM Enterprises

Ghost Stories – Oh, the horror!

Last night was another meeting of Scimitar Wargames Group. Since this is the Wednesday closest to Halloween, we traditionally play games  with a ‘horror’ focus.

I got to play Ghost Stories, which is a co-operative game which was released last year to rave reviews – and after playing it I can see why.

The players are a group of Taoist monks, defending a village from an invasion of ghosts – led by the dreaded Wu-Feng, Lord of the Nine Hells, who has come to the village to reclaim his ashes, rise from the dead and plunge the world into eternal darkness – you know the sort of thing.

This game (even played a the easiest level, which we did) had all the classic elements of co-op. Everything appeared fine, we commented on how easy things seemed (although I was somewhat suspicious, given the games’ reputation)…and then we all died very quickly!

A post-mortem discussed revealed several ‘lightbulb’ moments – the classic one being that when we started the game, we didn’t ‘click’ about ghost placement…always put the weak ghosts on the corners so you get the chance to defeat two at once. And other things…like actually using the Buddha tokens early in the game, when you’re not overrun and too busy rushing from one ghost to the next to think about them.

In short, a really good game, and I can’t wait to play this again. It’s theme and gameplay appeals to me much more than something like Pandemic, and it has all the classic co-op issues – things get worse every turn, and you always have a really hard choice of what to do from several different options. The variation of player powers, plus the different manifestations of Wu-Feng lead to some great replayability, and that’s before you up-the-ante to Nightmare and Hell levels.

Another one on the shopping list!