• Meeples & Minaitures – Coronavirus Special
    Download Episode – Coronavirus Special Neil Shuck & Mike Hobbs return for a special episode of the Meeples & Miniatures podcast. In this show we catch up with the highlights of what Neil & Mike have been up to for the past few weeks, and discuss how we have been coping with the [...]

  • New podcast episode – coming soon…ish
    As we find ourselves in the grip of a global pandemic, the Welsh Wizzard and I thought that we could provide a little light relief to your day by producing a podcast special – if for no other reason than to listen to the sound of Mike’s voice when he suddenly realises that he’s [...]

  • Play more, buy less…?
    This article has been bouncing around inside my head for several weeks, which means that a couple of the thoughts within it might be challenging to achieve in the global climate in which we find ouselves at this point in time. Suffice it to say that when I originally wrote this blog entry in my [...]

  • Infamy, Infamy! – starting a new project?
    If you are a fan of Too Fat Lardies rules and follow them on social media, it will have been difficult to miss the fact that they are currently working on a set of large skirmish rules for the Roman period – Infamy, Infamy! I have now had the pleasure of playing these rules twice – once [...]

  • Painting update – February 2020
    Thought I would share a very quick update on my painting progress in February. Nada. Nothing. Zero. Zip. Not a sausage. Really can’t put a finger on the reason why, but this month I have fallen off the wagon big time and simply haven’t had the enthusiasm for painting. I am part way [...]

  • Lords of Hellas – First impressions
    When I first saw it, I thought that Lords of Hellas by Awaken Realms was just another ‘dudes on a board’ area control game, albeit with an interesting theme. It was actually one of the reasons that I didn’t back it on Kickstarter – the campaign was running around the same [...]

  • Review: Painting Wargames Figures – Early Imperial Romans
    Having recently played the forthcoming ‘Infamy, Infamy!‘ rules from Too Fat Lardies, it seems an opportune moment to take a look at a book which gives a detailed painting guide for Early Imperial Romans. Written by the same author as WWII In The Desert, Painting Wargaming Figures: [...]

  • Review: Painting Wargames Figures – WWII in the Desert
    When gaming World War II, my first love has always been the European Theatre from D-Day until the end of the war. However, since the release of What A Tanker! from Too Far Lardies I have become more intrigued by the war in North Africa. There are some interesting battles to be fought in this [...]

  • First play of “Infamy, Infamy!”
      Last weekend saw myself and The Halfling Hickman travel down to the Forest of Dean for a day of gaming with Matt Slade and Ralph Plowman – we were also joined by Mark, a friend of Matt’s from the USA. The morning was spent playing a game of ‘Infamy, Infamy!’ – [...]

  • Why Gloomhaven is good, but not great
    A couple of weeks ago our Gloomhaven campaign reached one of it’s climaxes when the party encountered The Great Drake at the Scorched Summit in the Copperneck mountains. In many ways, this one photo sums up all that is good and bad about the game. Here we are, facing off against the one of [...]

  • Review – Wargames Terrain and Buildings, The Napoleonic Wars.
    Wargames Terrain and Buildings, The Napoleonic Wars is a book written in 2019 by Tony Harwood (probably more well known by his online pseudonym Dampfpanzerwagon) and published by Pen & Sword Books. Overview The Napoleonic period is one of the most popular periods to play wargames in – [...]

  • Four different ways to go on a fantasy adventure
    Last week I managed to play no less than four different fantasy adventure games – 1 RPG and three boardgames Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay (3rd Edition) I had the opportunity to get involved with an ongoing campaign that Mike “The Welsh Wizzard” was running. I was playing intrepid [...]

  • Grenzer Games running Kickstarter for 15mm plastic Imperial Romans
    Grenzer Games has launched a kickstarter project to create a box set of 15mm scale Imperial Romans as part of their new game At Lances Point. The box is intended to contain 150 figures and is priced at £40 which typically equates to somewhere around half the price of the metal equivalent. [...]

  • Confessions of a gamer – January 2020
    The intention of 2020 was to try and reduce my hobby purchases. Given that intention, the year is off to something of a poor start. Mortal Realms This new magazine was launched at the start of the year, and the offers of the first two issues seemed almost too good to miss, especially as I was [...]

  • Painting Tally – January 2020
    Despite not picking up a paint brush in the final week, January turned out to be a good month for painting models. The painting output was entirely devoted to fantasy, as I completed some models for Rangers of Shadow Deep, and the started my Undead army for Saga: Age of Magic. Models Painted: [...]

Painting & Modelling

Battle Reports / Gaming Sessions

  • Review: Went The Day Well?
    Rating:  A Very British Civil War first hit our wargaming tables around 2009, and is the brainchild of Solway Crafts and Miniatures . Since that time, there has been a steady release of new supplements detailing various units and factions within this alternative history, but up until now these [...]

  • Review: Painting Wargames Figures – WWII in the Desert
    When gaming World War II, my first love has always been the European Theatre from D-Day until the end of the war. However, since the release of What A Tanker! from Too Far Lardies I have become more intrigued by the war in North Africa. There are some interesting battles to be fought in this [...]

  • Review – War & Conquest
    Rating:  War & Conquest (WaC) is a set of rules for gaming ancient warfare authored by one of the most well known names in ancient gaming: Rob Broom. Given Rob’s long time association with Warhammer Ancients, you will not be surprised to discover that players of those rules will find much [...]

  • Review: Maalintii Rangers
    Rating: Maalintii Rangers (or Day of the Rangers) is the first Battle Book for the Skirmish Sangin rules, and as such is a supplement, and requires the original Skirmish Sangin rules in order to play. As you can imagine from the title, this book concentrates on the events surrounding Operation [...]

  • Review: Black Powder – The Last Argument of Kings
    Rating:  Almost as soon as the original ‘Black Powder’ rules were released, there were rumblings about adapting these rules for fighting the earlier Horse & Musket period, and this supplement – penned by Pete Brown – formalises these adaptations. Black Powder: The Last Argument of [...]

  • Review: Soldiers of God
    Rating:  Soldiers of God is a set of Ancients rules written by Warwick Kinrade and published by Artorus Games. The game is specifically aimed at gaming tabletop battles during the Crusades. The book is in softback A5 format and is printed in full colour on high quality, glossy paper and comes [...]

  • Review: Gothic – A Dark Companion for In Her Majesty’s Name
    Rating: Gothic is the third supplement for the Victorian Science Fiction rules In Her Majesty’s Name, written by Charles Murton and Craig Cartmell, but it is the first published directly by The Ministry of Gentlemanly Warfare, as opposed to Osprey Publishing. Whilst the original IHMN rules [...]

  • Review – Hind Commander
    Rating:  Hind Commander a set of rules from Assault Publishing, a company from Poland and Marcin Gerlowicz, creator of Sturmovik Commander, and describes itself as a ‘Modern helicopter warfare tabletop game’ – something that is probably best described as a ‘niche genre’. I was initially [...]
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    New Uncharted Seas ships
    I bought some of the new wave of Uncharted Seas release from Stafford Games on Friday – tey arrived on my desk this morning – and thought that I would put up some pictures and some immediate impressions. The Dwarf Heavy Cruisers look simply awesome! An improvement on the basic Cruiser, [...]

  • Halo Fleet Battles – what’s in the box and painted examples
    As you may already have heard, if you have listened to our Halo Fleet Battles Podcast, our very own Mike Hobbs managed to squeeze a trip to Spartan Games last week, and grabbed some pictures of most of what is going to be in the Halo Fleet Battles box. Here are a few pictures which we can now share [...]

  • Deep Madness – First Impressions
    Deep Madness is a new boardgame from Diemension Games, originally funded via a Kickstarter project in November 2016 and delivered – admittedly almost a year late – in October 2018. Overview It’s a co-operative boardgame designed to be played by 1-6 players. The plot is straight [...]

  • Review: Bad Squiddo Games Onna-bugeisha
    Rating: Bad Squiddo Games have released the first three packs of what promises to be an expanding range of Onna-bugeisha miniatures for Feudal Japan. The first pack contains three miniatures wielding katanas and is priced at £10 at time of writing. The detailing on the figures is very crisp, which [...]

  • Review: Empire of the Dead
    Rating:  Two wargame genres which always seem popular are Victorian Steampunk and Gothic Horror. West Wind Productions have taken these genres, put them in a blender and Empire of the Dead (EotD) was the result. EotD is a skirmish wargame which takes place in an alternative universe, where the [...]

  • Review: Asset Drop subscription box
    Rating: I recently ran a news item about a brand new subscription box service – Asset Drop. Andy from Asset Drop very kindly offered me the November box to review – here are my thoughts… First off, the presentation of the box is very good. It’s well packed to carefully [...]

  • Review: Test of Honour Samurai Warband
    Rating: The Samuari Warband box set from Warlord Games is one of several expansions for Test of Honour. The box contains the following: 1 plastic sprue of Samurai (5 models) 2 plastic sprues of Ashigaru (10 models) 1 plastic sprue of Ashigaru Missile troops (5 models) 20 small bases 5 group bases 1 [...]

  • Review: Chain of Command: At The Sharp End Campaign Handbook
    Rating: At The Sharp End (ATSE) follows the release of the Chain of Command platoon-level skirmish wargame rules from Too Fat Lardies last year. Chain of Command is designed around using text-book, full strength units with a few additional extras. However, in the heat of battle, this set-up would [...]

  • Review: Daisho
    Rating: Daisho is a set of skirmish rules for warfare set in mythical Japan. The rules are written by Charles Murton and Craig Cartmell of The Ministry of Gentlemanly Warfare, who have also authored In Her Majesty’s Name and Blood Eagle, and were published in 2015. They are available as a 90 [...]

  • Review: The Chicago Way
    Rating: “You wanna know how to get Capone? They pull a knife, you pull a gun. He sends one of yours to the hospital, you send one of his to the morgue. *That’s* the *Chicago* way! And that’s how you get Capone” Jimmy Malone, The Untouchables (1987) Back in 2013, Great Escape [...]

  • Review: Tomorrow’s War
    Rating:  Tomorrow’s War is the much-anticipated Sci-Fi skirmish rulebook from Ambush Alley Games and Osprey Publishing. You may have seen a PDF-only version of these rules appear in 2010 – these were very much the pre-cursor to this final book. The introduction to the book is written by Jon [...]

  • Review: The King is Dead
    Rating: King Arthur is dead. In the aftermath of his death, the Scots, Welsh and Romano-British fight for the newly vacant throne of England whilst in the background, the shadow of a Saxon invasion looms. This is the introduction for The King is Dead – the first boardgame from Osprey Publishing, [...]

  • Review: I Ain’t Been Shot Mum (3rd Edition)
    Rating:  The third edition of I Ain’t Been Shot Mum has arrived from Too Fat Lardies with a bang, declaring itself ‘The Other World War II Miniatures Game’ and thus immediately addressing the elephant in the room of company level WWII rules that is Flames of War. And indeed, IABSM is [...]

  • Review: Battlegroup Rulebook
    Rating: The Battlegroup Rulebook is a new, small format book published to accompany the release of Battlegroup Overlord. These rules were previously released as an integral part of the Battlegroup Kursk book, but Iron Fist and Plastic Soldier have perhaps recognised that not everyone would want to [...]

  • Review: Sabre Squadron
    Rating: Sabre Squadron is a new company-level ruleset for gaming modern, post-World War II conflicts from Australian company Bernwode Ltd. Modern warfare has become a very complex affair with huge amount of technology involved, so the problem is how to distil all this into a set of wargames rules. [...]

  • Review: Saga – The Crescent & The Cross
    Rating: Saga was originally released in 2011, and met with almost universal praise. It quickly became one of my favourite games. It was followed by three expansions which ultimately gave the Dark Age gamer something like 16 different factions to choose from. Whilst each faction has been [...]

  • Review: For King & Parliament
    Rating: Being a British wargamer, I have often thought that I should take more interest in the wars that have shaped the island on which I live – let’s face it, there are numerous ones to choose from. The English Civil War has always seemed a challenging period of warfare – [...]

  • Review – Pike & Shotte
    Rating:  Pike & Shotte are a set of rules from Warlord Games looking at combat in the 16th & 17th Century. The original intention was for them to be a supplement for Black Powder, much in the same was as The Last Argument of Kings, but they grew too large to be a simple supplement and so [...]

  • Review: Skirmish Sangin
    Rating: Skirmish Sangin (SS) is the latest release from Radio Dishdash, a New Zealand based company. The rules, as the title indicates, concentrates on small unit combat in Afghanistan. The game is designed to be played with 28mm figures on a 4’ square board, which represents an area of roughly [...]

  • Review – PMC 2460
    Rating: PMC 2460 is a set of hard sci-fi wargames rules from author Marcin Gerkowicz of Assault Publishing. PMC is an acronym for Private Military Companies – the rules are set in the27th century, where most wars are fought by hired mercenary armies; somewhat similar to the Hammer’s Slammer’s [...]

  • Review: Ice Cool
    Rating: Ice Cool is the new dexterity board game from designer Brian Gomez and published by Brain Games.  In a nutshell, it’s a flicking game with penguins. The Components The game board is actually made up of several box inners …plus a set of 16 wooden fish token, 4 plastic penguin [...]

  • Review: Open Combat Sword Masters
    Rating: Open Combat is a set of warband skirmish rules designed to be played with any set of miniatures that the gamer has to hand, and is published by Second Thunder. The setting is pre-gunpowder, but can be historical or fantasy in nature – it’s completely up to the players what and [...]

  • Review: Painting Wargames Figures – Early Imperial Romans
    Having recently played the forthcoming ‘Infamy, Infamy!‘ rules from Too Fat Lardies, it seems an opportune moment to take a look at a book which gives a detailed painting guide for Early Imperial Romans. Written by the same author as WWII In The Desert, Painting Wargaming Figures: [...]
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    Game Review – Zombie Dice
    Zombie Dice is the latest release from Steve Jackson games, and is one of those ‘classic’ push-your-luck style dice rolling games. Players take the roll of zombies, who are all out to eat the brains of their hapless victims. The victims are represented by dice, and are of 3 different [...]

  • Review: Bullets & Brains Zombie Skirmish Game
    Rating:  Bullets and Brains is a zombie skirmish game from East Street Games. It’s set in the near future after some terrorist bio-weapon has turned most of the population into zombies – not exactly an original plot, but to be honest, with the number of zombie games around these days we’ve [...]

  • Review: Sarissa Precision 28mm Japan MDF terrain
    Rating: Sarissa Precision Ltd are a company that produce high quality MDF terrain in various scales at a mid-range price. This review is looking at their Japan range of buildings, which are useful for playing games in the Sengoku period – especially rules such as Test of Honour I have a [...]

  • Review: Black Ops
    Rating: Black Ops (written by Guy Bowers and published by Osprey Publishing) is a game about covert military operations, inspired by films such as The Wild Geese and Zero Dark Thirty, and computer games such as Metal Gear Solid and Splinter Cell. Although there are rules for a stand-up fight, the [...]

  • Review: Tanks – Panther vs Sherman Starter Set
    Rating:   Gale Force Nine, the company behind titles such as Firefly: The Game and Spartacus: A Game of Blood and Treachery, have recently released a new game – Tanks: The World War II Tank Skirmish Game. This new game has been launched with the Panther vs Sherman Starter Set, plus a set [...]

  • Review: Pandemic – Reign of Cthulhu
    Rating: One of the (few) saving graces from attending Strategy Game Con last weekend was the fact that I got to play a couple of games of the new Pandemic game: Reign of Cthulhu. Reign of Cthulhu is a co-operative game for between two and four players. Players take the role of one of seven [...]

  • Review: Bushi No Yume
    Rating: Bushi No Yume (BNY) is a set of skirmish rules for fighting in ancient Japan, using either a historical of fantasy setting. They were written in 2010 by our friend Rich Jones. BNY uses the same basic rules engine as Rich’s other set of rules, ‘Flying Lead’, so if you are [...]

  • Review: Cigar Box Battle Mats
    Rating:  In recent years, there has been a quantum leap in commercially available terrain for wargaming. One of the biggest areas of growth has been in terrain mats. It doesn’t seem that long ago that, unless you made a table yourself, your choice of terrain mat was limited to a single [...]

  • Review: Test of Honour Ronin
    Rating:  The Ronin box set for Test of Honour was one of the wave one expansions for the game. The box set allows players to field a force comprising fully of masterless Samurai, led by a special character – Tadashi ‘The Dishonoured’. The box contains the aforementioned metal [...]

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Meeples & Minaitures – Coronavirus Special

by Neil Shuck in Meeples & Miniatures

Download Episode – Coronavirus Special Neil Shuck & Mike Hobbs return for a special episode of the Meeples & Miniatures podcast. In this show we catch up with [...]

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