• Mike Hobbs – Funeral Webcast
    It was Mike’s funeral today. Due to COVID restrictions, attendance at the service was strictly limited, and I know so many people would have wanted to pay their respects. The service was recorded and is available to watch for the next week. Should you wish to watch please use the link and [...]

  • Mike Hobbs – A Book of Condolence
    Following the outpouring of messages from the community following the passing of Mike Hobbs, I thought it would be nice to have a permanent record of these to pass on to his wife, Mandy. I have created a Book of Condolence for Mike – you can find it at the following link: [...]

  • Mike Hobbs – The Welsh Wizzard
    As I write this, I am still reeling from the shocking news of the sudden death of Mike Hobbs, only a few days after his 55th birthday. I first met Mike on the UK show circuit as he used to help on the trade stand for Musketeer Miniatures with his long time friend Bill Thornhill. I was introduced to [...]

  • Painting Tally – March 2021
    A decent month for painting, but not on a par with last month. Some would argue that it may appear better than I think it was as cavalry count as two models… Anyway, two-thirds of the month was spent painting wolf riders – I added a further 25 to existing models, including these: These [...]

  • Burrows & Badgers – New Kickstarter running until 2nd April 2021
    Michael and Jo at Oathsworn Miniatures have launched their biggest ever Kickstarter project for Burrows & Badgers, with a whopping 30 new miniatures being added to the range. The Dark, The Devout and The Heroic brings the undead into the realm of Northymbra, and those which fight them. The [...]

  • Goblin Wolf Rider host is complete
    Almost exactly a month after starting them, the Goblin Wolf Rider host has been finished and is ready to join the rest of the army… There are ten scouts… Fourteen riders with hand weapons… Six characters… And five [...]

  • Hobby Update – 8th March 2021
    A fairly productive weekend has seen a group of Goblin Wolf Riders finished and another about 80% complete. This latest group is armed with spears and shields. 20 down, 15 to [...]

  • Evil Dvergr Dwarves on Kickstarter
    I have been a fan of Colin Patten’s Dark Age sculpting for some time – especially his twist on fantasy miniatures, right back to the days of the original Vendel Miniatures ranges. A few years ago he sculpted an new range of Dwarfs for Conqueror Models, and is now following these up with [...]

  • Painting Tally – February 2021
    February has been a hugely productive month for me – I’ve probably painted more models in a month than at any other time, even if I have slowed down a little in the past few days. I have spent the month concentrating on painting my Goblin army, finishing the infantry and starting on the [...]

  • Who let the Wolves out?
    With the Goblin Infantry finished (at least for now) the last few days have been spent building and priming Goblin Wolf Riders. I started painting them over the past weekend. I started with a unit of wolves without riders in order to figure out how to paint them. The plan was to paint them with [...]

  • Goblin Wolf Riders – An attack of Deja Vu
    The next stage in my Goblin army was to assemble a number of Wolf Riders, using miniatures from the Oathmark Goblin Wolf Riders box set Having assembled them, I looked and had a sudden attack of deja vu – the last time I had 30+ cavalry models on that tray, the happened to be Norman Knights, [...]

  • Goblin Infantry finished – Hobby Update 17th February 2021
    Well, I say finished. They are almost finished – one thing remains to be done, as you will see. The weekend saw the completion of painting my Oathmark Goblin Infantry. These have now been based and are pretty much ready for battle. First up is a group of 5 Goblins wielding dual weapons. These [...]

  • Hobby Update – 13th February 2021
    Reached the end of what has turned out to be a very productive week. The last figures of my latest Goblin unit – Goblins with Hand Weapons – were finished on Thursday, and I spent Friday and this morning finishing the basing. Our weekly ‘Paint and chat’ session has just [...]

  • What accounts for the increased painting speed?
    It has been noted that my painting output appears to have increased dramatically over the past few weeks, and I was asked on Twitter what accounted for this – was it regular painting time or using Contrast paints? The character limit of Twitter stopped me from fully expanding on this, so here [...]

  • Hobby Update – 9th February 2021
    Started the week with another ‘Paint and chat’ session. These type of get togethers on social media – whether on Google Meet, Jitsi, Discord or whatever other platform you wish – have been an invaluable way of sharing hobby time. I hope that even when we can all safely mix [...]

Painting & Modelling

Battle Reports / Gaming Sessions

  • 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 – Dux Britanniarum
    Rating:  With this title, the chaps at Too Fat Lardies bring to life the struggle that engulfed the inhabitants of Britain during the 5th and 6th centuries following the withdrawal of Rome from British shores. The remains of Roman civilisation came under attack from the Irish, Picts, and Scotti in [...]

  • Review: Sword and Spear
    Rating: Sword and Spear are a new set of wargames rules for gaming in the Ancient period, from the time of the Ancient Egyptians right through to Medieval Europe. They have been written by Mark Lewis, and the Second Edition is published by Great Escape Games. The rules are designed for armies made [...]

  • Review: Twilight Struggle- Digital Version (Android)
    Rating: Twilight Struggle is a board game designed by Ananda Gupta and Jason Matthews, and published by GMT Games in 2005. It’s a 2-player strategy game, taking place during the Cold War 1945 – 1989. One player takes the role of the USSR, whilst the other plays the USA. The game is a [...]

  • Review – VIII Corps: The Somme 1916
    Rating: VIII Corps: The Somme 1916 is the first in a series of games written by Neal Reid and published by Vexillia Limited. VIII Corps is a card game, currently available in PDF ‘print and play’ format, which is designed to give the players some appreciation of the difficulties faced [...]

  • Review: Force On Force
    Rating:    Force on Force (FoF) are the new Wargames rules from Osprey Publishing. They are actually the second edition of the rules, the first edition being published in 2009 by Ambush Alley Games. This new edition of the rules is actually an amalgamation of the Force on Force first edition [...]

  • Review: UFO Squad – The Alien Threat
    Rating:  I’ve been looking at the latest release from Crossover Miniatures: UFO Squad, in a couple of blog posts this week. Having looked at the rules (which I should say, I had a hand in editing) and the Human troops, in this blog post I’m turning may attention to the aliens. There [...]

  • Review: Forager
    Rating: Forager opens with an excerpt from the account of Lieutenant George Drummond Graeme of the 2nd Light Kings German Legion of the battle at Le Haye Sainte in 1815: “There are countless tales written by soldiers of the Napoleonic Wars, many highlighting that some of their experiences [...]

  • Osprey Boardgames – The King is Dead
    Osprey Publishing are just about to launch their very first boardgame. It’s called ‘The King is Dead’. It is set in Dark Age Britain after the death of King Arthur. I have received a review copy of the game – I only managed to open it to have a quick look inside the other [...]

  • 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 [...]

  • Unboxing Dark Souls: The Board Game
    When the Dark Souls Kickstarter project funded, having raised over £3,770K from over 31,000 backers, there were few who believed Steamforged Games when they stated that their estimated delivery date of April 2017 would not affected. However, here we are in April 2017 and Steamforged are proving [...]

  • 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 [...]
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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, [...]

  • Unboxing Test of Honour – Core Box & Faction Boxes
    As you no doubt know by know, I have been in a state of excited anticipation ever since Warlord Games announced that they were releasing Test of Honour. Well, the time has come and everything has arrived – I ordered my copy from PE2 Collectibles, which meant that I didn’t get the Geisha [...]
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    Legitimacy review @ Scimitar Wargames
    I mentioned that we’ve played several of Minion Games new releases in recent weeks. I’ve recorded my thoughts for a forthcoming podcast, but Richard Hardy, another member of Scimitar Wargames group, has shared a few thoughts on the game Legitimacy. You can find the review by following [...]

  • Review: Battlegroup Kursk
    Rating: Battlegroup Kursk is the much anticipated set of World War II rules published by the Plastic Soldier Company. They are written by Warwick Kinrade, who is perhaps most well known as the author of the Kampfgruppe Normandie rules from Warhammer Historical. The rules are written as the first of [...]

  • Review: Killer Katanas II
    Rating: Killer Katanas II is a mass battle wargame designed to recreate samurai warfare from the mid-16th – 17th century. The rules are written by Brian Bradford and were published by On Military Matters in 2011 as a 126 page, spiral bound black & white soft cover book. It’s worth [...]

  • Review: Ambush Valley – Vietnam 1965 – 1975
    Rating:  Ambush Valley is the third supplement for the Force on Force rules for modern warfare, which were published in 2011, and is actually the second edition of this supplement – the first being solely published by Ambush Alley games in 2009. The book is split into 8 main sections: The [...]

  • Review – Cigar Box Battle Plush Gaming Mats
    Rating: Cigar Box Battle produce a number of different styles of terrain mat (we interviewed Chris Ward and Cory Ring from the company in Episode 221 of the Podcast) One of the newest products they produce is the PLUSH fabric gaming mat. This was developed due to the rise in popularity of using [...]

  • Halo Fleet Battles – a brief rules overview
    Whilst it is true that my copy of Halo Fleet Battles was delivered this morning, due to our impending holiday, it’s staying firmly shut in the box until we get back next week. Luckily, that nice Mr Mike Hobbs has put together a rules overview, for those that might be interested… Halo [...]

  • 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 [...]

  • Review – Twilight Struggle, Digital Edition
    The lockdown due to the COVID-19 virus has caused a certain amount of disruption to tabletop gaming, and has forced many people to look online for substitutes to their usual face-to-face gaming fayre. I have always been a fan of the Twilight Struggle boardgame from GMT Games, and backed the Digital [...]

  • 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: Battlegroup Overlord
    Rating: Battlegroup Overlord (BO) is the much anticipated second campaign volume to the Battlegroup Kursk WWII rules that were released last year by Ironfist Publishing. It is perhaps the book that many were expecting to see first, as 1944 Western Europe appears to be the most popular part of World [...]

  • Review – Augustus to Aurelian
    Rating:  Whilst many wargamers are content to play with rules they have bought ‘out of the box’, there is a sizeable number of gamers who are notorious for ‘tweaking’ rules, changing them so that they correspond with their own particular view or reading of history. Sometimes, this reaches [...]

  • Review: Tabletop Wargames – A Designers’ and Writers’ Handbook
    Rating: Rick Priestly and John Lambshead are both authors of some note when it comes to wargames rules, so a title about designing tabletop wargames from these gentlemen should be something to at least sit up and take notice of. Having read it, I am left wishing for what might have been. The book [...]
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    Ex illis – First impressions
    After a couple of weeks spent gluing plastic together, last night saw the first outing for Ex illis, the new wargame from Bastion Inc, a tabletop wargaming company from Quebec, Canada. OK, grey plastic figures aren’t the most visually appealing of subjects, but given my record on painting [...]

  • 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 [...]

  • 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 [...]

  • 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: 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: 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: The Campaign for Kharkov: October 1941
    Rating: This 48 page book, available as a PDF or an e-book, is a campaign supplement written by Chris Stoesen for the Chain of Command World War II Platoon level rules from Too Fat Lardies. It is worth noting that this supplement is not a complete game in itself, and you will need both a copy of [...]

  • Thursday Night Gaming – Istanbul, The Big Box
    Thursday Night Gaming (TGN) saw The Great Guru Luff, The Halfling Hickman and myself once again reach into our gaming back catalogue and pull out Istanbul: The Big Box – a game that we haven’t played for about 10 months. Istanbul was released in 2014, and won the Kennerspiel des Jahres (Expert [...]

  • 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: Clash of Empires
    Rating:  Clash of Empires is a set of Ancients rules produced by Great Escape Games, who are previously known for producing the World War 2 rules Rules of Engagement. As with many sets of Ancients rules, these are aimed to cover a wide period: from the massed chariot battles of Ancient Egypt right [...]

  • Review: Battlegroup – Fall of the Reich
    Rating: Battlegroup Fall of the Reich (FotR) is the third volume of the Battlegroup Kursk WWII rules that were released in 2012 by Iron Fist Publishing. As you might expect, Battlegroup Fall of the Reich looks at the last months of the war, as the Allies marched into Germany on both the Eastern and [...]

Thoughts of @TheBrummieDwarf

Hobby News

‘Other Hobby Stuff’

In the spotlight

Mike Hobbs – Funeral Webcast

by Neil Shuck in Editorial

It was Mike’s funeral today. Due to COVID restrictions, attendance at the service was strictly limited, and I know so many people would have wanted to pay their [...]

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