Meeples & Miniatures – Episode 45

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Review of 2008 – Part II

In this, the second of my shows which look back at 2008, you are in for a bit of an aural treat as I am joined by special guest Henry Hyde, editor of Battlegames Magazine.

Together, we discuss several of the major events of the year in the miniatures gaming hobby.

I hope you enjoy the show!

Meeples & Miniatures – Episode 44

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Review of 2008 – Part I

In this new episode of the Meeples & Miniatures Podcast, I discuss my own personal favourite wargames and boardgames of 2008.

I hope that you enjoy the show!

Meeples & Miniatures – Episode 43

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Well, after some delay due to the holiday period, the next show is here, and hopefully it has been worth waiting for.

The main feature of this show are the ‘Nuts’ rules from Two Hour Wargames. Not only do I review the rules themselves, but also the brand new Campaign Book ‘Pieper at the Gates’, which was released just before Christmas.

I also discuss a few bits of news,and chat about playing Battlestar Galactica: The Board Game and Duel in the Dark:Baby Blitz

I hope you enjoy the show!

00:00 Intro

03:00 Rumblings – Battlestar Galactica & Duel In The Dark: Baby Blitz

18:00 News

25:30 In-Depth Review – Nuts, from Two Hour Wargames

75:15 Review – Pieper At The Gates – Nuts Campaign Book

96:30 Looking Ahead – The next year @ Meeples & Miniatures

102:00 Closing Comments

Plans for this year – Painting

Last year I set myself a target to paint miniatures at least 3 hours a week – and failed miserably.

I’m starting 2009 with the same plan, and it’s already looking dodgy, as I’ve not painted anything since the start of the year! Still, ever the optimist, I will press on and bypass this hiccup.

Well, my list of projects is HUGE, and I certainly won’t be able to come anywhere near close to painting all my outstanding lead this year, but I do have a lot planned:

So, my plans for this year are:

Finish the projects I did not complete last year:

40mm Stargate (lots of Go’uld to convert and paint)

28mm Aliens (finish painting my Colonial Marines and my Alien Queen)

6mm Napoleonic French Army

6mm Marian Roman Army

Battlelore – Since I started painting these last year, I really need to look at painting the lot.

1/600 Vietnam Air War – got to finish painting my US Navy force, and then apply all the decals.

28mm Vietnam – revisit my painting from a couple of years ago, and finish painting my US Marines and NVA.

And a couple of new projects for the year:

1/600 WW2 – Paint all my models for the Check Your Six! Battle of Britain campaign book

Ambush Alley – Paint up several more 40mm squads for this game.

40mm WW2 – We are playing a Market Garden campaign this year at Scimitar. It would be nice to get some of my North Star British Paras and German Waffen SS painted up for this. The Ambush Alley Force-on-Force expansion might be ideal for playing this sort of game.

Uncharted Seas – Dragon Lord and Elven fleets

There is a lot of other stuff that I’d like to do, but I think I really need to focus on actually completing some painting projects this year.

We will see how it goes…

Plans for this year – Miniatures

2008 saw me breaking into new scales and new periods as I started playing the likes of Polemos Napoleonic, Impetus (Ancients) and Uncharted Seas.

The ‘new’ scale of 2008 for me was 6mm, and that trend looks to continue into this year.

As with most people, it seems, I am looking to cut back on my purchases for this year and try and concentrate more of clearing my, somewhat considerable, lead mountain. There is certainly plenty to chose from – enough to keep me going for a couple of years without any new purchases, if I’m honest.

But, we all like new stuff don’t we…

So, my purchasing plans for this year are:

6mm – probably my major scale this year. I’d like to get several armies, but may end up settling for 2 or 3. Difficult to choose which though. I will probably get a barbarian horde as opponents for my Marian Romans, and then it’s Samurai and War of the Roses armies. I’d like to get Punic War Romans and Carthaginians as well, but will probably have to hold fire (although a Basic Impetus army or each wouldn’t hurt, would it?)

The other plan in 6mm is to get a Sci-Fi Human Army for Command Horizon and Future War Commander. This was planned for last year, but put on hold.

Uncharted Seas – I’d like to play a lot more of this game this year, so more ships are called for. The new Elven Fleet is a must, so I will get that, and then look out for new models for the Dwarfs and Dragon Lords.

40mm – especially having just bought the ‘Songs of Arthur & Merlin‘ expansion for SBH, I’d like to get more Dark Age figures in this scale – especially the excellent Romano-British from Flashing Blade.

Other 40mm plans are to get some more of the Perry’s Napoleonic figures, and some more of HLBS moderns for Ambush Alley – however, with the exception of Ambush Alley, I think 40mm gaming might be taking a back seat this year.

On the rules front, I’ve already mentioned that I’d like to get hold of a copy of Future War Commander. Other than that, the main things on my radar will be a further expansions for Ambush Alley and Impetus, plus new Polemos rulesets. Baccus are hoping to release Polemos Ancients and Polemos War of the Roses this year…and both of those are ‘must buy’ rules IMO.

I’d love to get the new Incursion game and figures, but I don’t think I can stretch to those this year…which is a great shame.

Still, much to look forward to.

Plans for this year – Boardgames

Last year was a bumper year for boardgames. I think I bought more new boardgames, especially new releases, than in any previous year.

I think this year has to see a reduction in the number of games that I buy in favour of playing the games I have more often (or even for the first time!)

So, my plans for boardgame purchases this year are quite small:

Memoir ‘44 – As previously mentioned, I had the core game as a Christmas present, and so I will be keeping my eyes open for expansions for this game.

Battleground Fantasy Warfare – I’d like to get the remaining factions for this game that I don’t already own, plus the Kingdoms expansion is a must. Also, the release of the Historical version of this game is on my shopping list.

Martin Wallace – I am fast becoming a big fan of Martin’s games, and there are at least a couple on my ‘got to get’ list for this year. Heading this are Brass and Waterloo, but several of the Treefrog games planned for this year look interesting.

Battlelore – Hopefuly, the Heores expansion will be released for this game this year…this will be a ‘must buy’

Tannhauser – Hopefully, FFG will release some more expansions for this game this year. Operation Novgorod should come out in the first quarter, and I hope that they release more of the single figures for this game.

Vikings – I’ve played this game online at yucata.de several times, so I think it’s time to buy a copy.

Reef Encounter – another classic game that I have played online that is now on the shopping list.

Red November – looks to be a ideal large multiplayer game for the pub

Actually, looking at the list, there is still quite a few titles there, and it doesn’t take into account events such as UK Games Expo.

Oh Dear…

…and talking of new games…

Well, like most lads of his age (10), Josh is a big fan of video games – which is a shame, as we only own an XBox (The original, not the 360). Still, it’s a major improvement over my old Sega Megadrive.

Well, we have come kicking and screaming into more modern times, as he now owns a Nintendo DS (originally my wife’s Christmas present from last year…don’t ask, it’s a long story).

The upshot being that I have an excuse for buying him games that I want to play.

Now, whilst shopping in the January sales in Dudley, I came across this game.

Never head of it before, but somehow, the fact that it was a Warhammer 40,000 game, and it was turn based squad combat, persuaded me to part with £6.

So, in the vain hope that it might be half decent, I bought  copy.

The verdict? I think I’ve been had. A sucker for a GW trademark, yet again. Well, it’s OK I suppose -but I was hoping for something a bit more like my old favourite, Chaos Gate which I used to own on PC several eons ago. Yes I know that it was pants, but I actually quite enjoyed it. Why? Well…at the time it scratched a couple of itches.

Firstly, it was W40K, and I wasn’t playing W40K on the tabletop anymore. OK, I know I’ve said a lot of bad things about GW, but I still like a lot of the W40K universe.

Secondly, it was turn based combat, and I liked turn based combat…it gave you time to think. So, at a time when the whole world was going Quake III deathmatch mad (I tried it, and after getting fragged a dozen times in a couple of minutes, I decided that it wasn’t fun) I sat on my PC playing this game.

But all this was a mere substitute for playing that classic series of turn based combat games – the X-COM series…which was started by UFO Enemy Unknown (at least, that is what it was called in the UK when it came out).

This, for me, was the best game ever – a great story, with creepy music, decent (for the time) graphics and essentially, a turn based miniature wargame for the computer.

Simple gaming heaven.

And yes, I’ve been toying with recreating this game on the tabletop for some time…possibly not with all the aliens, but I’ve got some greys, and I’ve got some alien hover tanks, plus some suitable trooper models as well. Maybe someday I will actually get around to it…

…unless I sell the UFOs on eBay first…

New Games for Christmas

Well, I don’t know about you, but Santa was quite kind to me over Christmas, and I received a couple of new games.

First up was the World War 2 variant of Richard Borg’s Commands & Colors series of boardgames – Memoir ‘44.

This game has taken Scimitar Wargames Group by storm over the last few months with many new converts to the game.

Why? Well, to be honest, I’m not sure. It’s a well produced game – the cards, boards and terrain are excellent, whilst the miniatures are simply adequate. The rules are simple, but with an underlying complexity included in the Command and Control rules which is enough to keep gamers coming back.

I asked for it as it seems to be an ideal ‘Ladz & Dadz’ game – so I’m hoping to get Josh involved with this on a regular basis.

The other game was another Boardgame with miniatures – and this too has a War setting, though this time the action is based firmly in fiction rather than fact. That game is Tannhauser.

I’ve heard a lot about this game, and to be honest the feedback from other people is somewhat mixed, but I really fancied trying it for myself.

The game looks interesting, and the production values are up to the usual standard that we now expect from Fantasy Flight Games – although the pre-painted miniatures are nothing to get too excited over.

In short, this seems to be another interesting game to get into – more complex that Memoir, but then again, it’s Weird War skirmish – a genre I have a particular soft spot for at the moment – I think I need to find that Horrorclix B.P.R.D set now to play Hellboy in this game.

Both games have several expansions – so I think if they are a success, I will have a lot to keep me busy in the coming months.

Episode 43 coming soon!

Yes, it’s true – episode #43 of the podcast is coming…

Actually, I recorded most of the show before Christmas, but I haven’t had chance to record the final review or begin editing until this weekend, so it will be a few days before the episode is available for download.

However, I’m hoping that January will be a bumper month for episodes, as I have a couple of ‘end of year’ shows planned, plus a feedback show, before the regular shows begin again at the end of the month.

Keep watching this space…

Happy New Year!

Hi All

I just wanted to take this opportunity to thank everyone for their support of the podcast and this website over the past year, and wish you all a very Happy New Year.

Neil