Spent today at the UK Games Expo 2008 in Birmingham – a really good day out, marred only by the fact that I spent more time interviewing people and talking about games rather than playing them.
First impressions were that the show seemed bigger and busier than last year – there was a tremendous buzz about the main boardgame room all day.
My favourite game of the day was ‘Ice Flow’ from Ludorum Games. A nice race game with hidden depth and fantastic pieces.
Probably my biggest regrets of the day were not getting to play Tinners’ Trail (Martin Wallace) and Monastary (Ragnar Brothers) – both looked like very nice games.
I did, however, manage to speak to most (if not all) of the companies who were launching games at the show, and these interviews will be appearing on the next Meeples & Miniatures Podcast, which will be available towards the end of the week.
In the mean time, if you get chance to visit the show tomorrow (Sunday June 1st) I heartily recommend that you do so.
Today was the Partizan Show at Kelham, near Newark.
This is one of my favourite shows of the year, and is well know for the various great looking demonstration games that have been put on over the years.
This year was no exception, with several great looking games on display.
Rather than simply upload a picture gallery, I thought that I’d do something slightly different, and give you some video ‘fly-bys’ of several of the games that caught my eye. (Apologies for some of the shakey camera work!)
28mm Napoleonic Game from Bramley Barn Wargamers. Very nice ships and an even beter castle.
The next is a 15mm World War 2 demo game from Retford & District Wargames
This game depicts the Battle of the Boyne, and is presented by the League of Augsberg
The next three videos are of a 28mm Napoleonic game from Sherwood Wargames Group
The Allied lines…
And the French lines…
Then we have a couple of videos of the Perry Twins 28mm ACW game, using their new plastic figures.
A 28mm Age of Arthur game was being fought, with this village on one side of the battle
And finally, here is the latest Pennisular War diorama from Paul Darnell of Touching History
As you can see, there were some great games at this year’s show – more pictures to follow.
Episode #33 of the Meeples & Miniatures Podcast has been published.
In this show, I chat about various games I’ve been playing over the past few weeks, things that have caught my interest, plus I review two card games.
Subjects and games covered include 15mm Modern figures, Gaming on VASSAL, Sharp Practice, Impetus, Last Night On Earth: Growing Hunger, Unspeakable Words and Mausen.
You can download the show by visiting the Podcast Page, or you can subscribe via iTunes.
Well, after taking a couple of weeks off from painting after my Battlelore exploits, it’s time to get started again.
I’ve got a couple of very large projects coming up (and that’s not counting my 6mm French!) and so I thought that I would work on a relatively quick project, which is my 15mm HOTT Samurai army.
This army is pretty small, being only just over 40 figures. It includes the following units:
2 Units Samurai Blades
2 Units Ashigaru Spears
2 Units Ashigaru Shooters (Arquebuses & Bows)
2 Units Samurai Knights
1 Hero
1 Magician General
1 Ronin Lurker (Option)
1 Ninja Sneaker (Option)
I’ve also got a stonghold to paint, which will be the usual Samurai Commander’s camp screen, complete with various troops and other paraphernalia.
And then, just as a couple of fantasy options, I’ve got a Magician and a Dragon, so hopefully lots to see in the next couple of weeks.
The figures came with seperate sashimono’s, which were a bit of a pain to attach as the figures did not have a hole for the banner pole – so each had to individually drilled with a pin-vice. However, they do look a lot better when attached, and will hopefully lend extra character to the finished figures.
As you can see, I also decided to give the figures a gray undercoat instead of my usual black - just to see how I get on…
Last week we played the expansion of ‘Last Night on Earth‘ – entitled ‘Growing Hunger’ – for the first time.
The expansion offers new Heroes, new playing boards, new cards for both Hero and Zombie players, several new scenarios and a new set of Zombie figures.
We played one of the new scenarios – ‘Plague Carriers’ – in which the heroes have to kill 7 ’super zombies’ in order to win the game. These 7 zombies are in addition to the usual zombie forces, and so it’s possible that the heroes can be facing up to 21 zombies on the board at a time – not nice.
Needless to say, we all died horribly.
Whilst there is no doubt that this new expansion makes for a better game, I’m still not sure just how good a game this is in the long term. It’s a great game if you play the zombies, as you always have lots to do…but I think the hero players get a bit short-changed by comparison.
I think I’ll have to play it again before I can finally make my mind up.
My copy of ‘Impetus‘ arrived from Italy earlier this week – why is it that it’s actually cheaper to buy this from Italy and get it shipped to the UK, rather than buying it via mail order in this country?
Anyway, first impressions are very good. It’s a well produced 50 page, spiral bound book produced in full colour, with lots of photos and diagrams included with the text for explanation of various aspects of the rules.
One of the nice things is that it’s got a good index, and also a full set of quick reference sheets at the back of the rules.
So, how does this set of rules differ from the ‘Basic Impetus’ rules, which are available for free?
Well, i’m still working through the rules, but some of the immediate differences are:
Command & Control – armies are now broken into ‘commands’, each under the control of a General. Initiative is now by command and not by side, so game turns are no longer such a one-sided affair.
In conjunction with the above mechanic, units now have an extra statistic – Discipline. This is used when units are attempting to move ‘out of turn’ – another new feature of the rules – and allows units to perform such actions as counter-charges and being placed on ‘Oppurtunity’ (which allows units to react in the opponents turn). This changes the rules from i-g-y-g into much more interactive play.
Baggage Trains – Each army now has a baggage train or camp attached to the army, which can be attacked during a battle (similar to the likes of DBA/DBM/HOTT)
Missile ranges are increased, plus a new range – ‘Point Blank’ - has been added.
Armies are now allocated using points values. The rules are balanced for using armies of 500 points in size, but using armies of 300 and 400 points for smaller games is possible. The army lists have been changed accordingly.
It’s a little disappointing that the book only contains 15 army lists – luckily one of my particular interests (Marian Romans) is included, but many others from the Basic Rules have not been included.
However, new army list supplements are planned, and a beta-test list for Samurai is already available online on the Impetus Forum.
So, first impreesions are very good – I’m looking forward to getting these on the table soon.
Following on from my previous battle reports, this is another in the series of battles in Scimitar Wargames Group Punic War campaign, using Commands & Colors: Ancients rules with miniatures. I’ve already reported on the result, but I thought an in-depth battle report was in order.
In this hard-fought battle, my Republican Romans were up against the Carthaginian forces of Hannibal, under the guidance of Philip Donald. See the Slide show here. The figures are from Philip’s own collection of 15mm figures.
Posted by Earthquake 
Posted by Earthquake 
Posted by Earthquake 
Last week we played the expansion of 
My copy of ‘
