Meeples & Miniatures Podcast – The Other Partizan 2009

Download ‘The Other Partizan 2009 ‘Episode

This show is a bonus episode of the Meeples & Miniatures Podcast, recorded at ‘The Other Partizan’ wargames show 2009.

It includes interviews with Scarab Miniatures, Hasslefree Miniatures, Musketeer Miniatures, Gripping Beast, Empress Miniatures, West Wind Productions and Baccus Miniatures.

I hope you enjoy the show!

2009 aquisitions – the situation so far…

You may remember at the start of  the year, I posted several entries on what I was looking at purchasing this year, in an attempt to try and cut down on my gaming purchases.

Well, it’s two months into the year, so I thought it would be a good time to have my first assessment of how the purchasing plan is working out…

Boardgames

As I hinted at, January saw my birthday, and the first big purchase of the year as the occassion saw me complete my Memoir ‘44 collection with no less than 6 expansions, including all the new threatre expansions, the Air Pack, the Terrain Pack and even the Winter/Desert board.

Not only does this allow me to fight all the two player scenarios now published, but with all the desert scenery it now means that I can fight Command & Colors Ancients battles – all I need are some Carthaginian figures (as I own the rules, QRS and order cards for C&C:A, plus a Republican Roman army made up of Hat 1/72nd scale plastic figures.

Then there was the game that I wasn’t going to buy. For the last few months of 2008, there was one game that everyone was talking about – Dominion.

“No” I thought, “it’s a card game and it really can’t be as good as everyone says that it is“.

And then I played it on BretSpielWelt…and discovered that I was wrong. It is as good as they say it is.

At that point I had to get it, especially since I knew it was going to be a hit with my son – who is a big CCG fan. So it was down to my FLGS (Phoenix Games in Leicester) the following day and Dominion was became my first unplanned purchase of the year…in the middle of January. Not a good start.

Next up is the game Vikings. This has been on my ‘to get’ list since I first played it last year – and playing in the Infinity Games online tournament has only highlighted to me further just what a good game this is. Plus, having seen it come back into stock at Shire Games at a rather higher price, I just had to snap it up from IGUK. A bargain at under £20!

Then there was the highly anticipated release of Battleground: Kingdoms – the campaign rules & scenario generator for Battleground: Fantasy Warfare. This has taken some time to get to the UK…and it was a bit disappointting to discover that you really need the Monsters & Mercenaries army to make full use of it (which typically, I do not own yet!) Even so, a useful expansion.

Finally, a bit of a surprise – even though I haven’t played the base game yet, the announcement of an expansion for Okko: Era of the Ashigari for just over £10 was too good to pass up, so Okko: Yakuza Hazu Akai is the last of the current batch of boardgames tobe added to my collection.

Wargames Rules

The first set of wargames rules that I aquired this year was a bit of a surprise – especially given the fact that they were given to me (thanks Pete!) Legends of the Old West are a skirmish game ruleset for playing in the Wild West, based on GW’s LOTR rules. Given the fact that I’ve now given away my review copy of Gutshot! as a competiton prize, it’s nice to get hold of another rule set to use with my 40mm Wild West figures. I’m looking forward to playing these!

Impetus are my rules of choice when it comes to playing massed battles for Ancients and Medievals. Extra Impetus #1 offers new army lists for three different conflicts – including the Hundred Years War – so I had to add it to my collection…I also wanted to review it on the podcast!

The last set of rules that I have bought is Future War Commander. I’ve been looking at these rules ever since they were released, as I’ve heard very good things about the other rules in this series, but sci-fi big battle was the set I was aiming at – especially since I’ve been eyeing up a Command Horizon army from Baccus for the best part of a year now and FWC has army lists for both Humans and Centaurs. Again, really looking forward to playing these rules.

Miniatures

The final additions to my gaming collection so far this year are figures. Again, here I have bought more than I originally planned – but that was only down to good fortune.

My first miniature purchase was the Thaniras Elven fleet for Uncharted Seas. These were a bit of nostalgic purchase, as I really liked the Elven fleet for Man ‘o’ War – this fleet has a similar look/feel. What is more – I’ve even painted them!

The second purchase was down to simple luck – or winning the raffle at the Hammerhead show! Given a voucher for £40, a presented myself at the Baccus stand and looked for something to buy. As I said above, I’ve been looking at a Command Horizon army for a year now, and it seemed to make sense to buy one – especially since I’d just bought FWC as well!

So there you have it – 2 months into the year and already I seem to have spent a fair amount on games – including a couple of unplanned purchases. That said, I haven’t actually gone too far off track if I look at at the big picture (I will just have to make sure that I keep to my budget for the rest of the year!)

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.