• 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: Congo
    Rating: There are some of us (maybe more than are willing to admit) that remember issue #132 of Wargames Illustrated, which gave us a set of ‘Darkest Africa’ skirmish rules from the pen of Chris Peers, along with an accompanying set of figures from Wargames Foundry, and skirmish games [...]
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    Snowdonia – lots of fun to be had in North Wales
    Last night saw our first play of Snowdonia, the new game from Tony Boydell and Surprised Stare Games. Tony has previous designed games such as Fzzzzt and Totemo, both of which I own and enjoy. I’d played a final draft of this game at the UK Games Expo back in May, and liked it very much [...]
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    Conflict of Heroes: Storms of Steel
    A game that has been on my list of games to get for the past several months has been Conflict of Heroes: Storms of Steel. Ever since I bought and played the first game in this series – Awakening the Bear – I’ve been keen to get this sequel. At over £50, the price of the game is [...]
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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: Iron Cross
    Rating: Iron Cross is a new Company – Battalion level World War II game, written by Stuart McCorquodale, Darryl Morton and Mark Mainwaring and published by Great Escape Games. The first thing that struck me when I heard about this game was “why do we need another Company Level WWII Game?” [...]

  • Review: Battlegroup Torch
    Review: Battlegroup Torch is the latest supplement to the Battlegroup World War II rules, written by Warwick Kinrade and published by Iron Fist Publishing and the Plastic Soldier Company. This book is hardcover with 230 full colour pages, and is of similar format to previous books. Torch is a [...]

  • 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: Saga -Varjazi & Basileus
    Rating: Varjazi & Basileus represents the last of the current Dark Age supplements to be released by Gripping Beast at the current time. Whilst they are no doubt due to visit the Arthurian period at some time in the future, for now, these are the last factions. As such, this book not only comes [...]

  • Review: Ronin
    Rating: Ronin is a set of skirmish rules set in the Age of the Samurai, written by Craig Woodfield and published by Osprey Publishing as part of their Osprey Wargames series in 2013. Each player has a warband, known as a Buntai, of between 4 and 20 models. A game usually takes place on a [...]

  • Review: Battles in the Age of War
    Rating: Battles in the Age of War (BAW) is a set of wargames rules designed for Samurai Warfare in the Sengoku period between 1467 – 1650. They were written in 2008 and are published by Peter Pig. The rules are 136 pages long, perfect bound and are black & white with a full colour soft [...]

  • Review: Scum of the Earth
    Rating: Scum of the Earth (Black Powder gaming for the rest of us) is a set of rules developed by Ivan Sorenson & Matthew Sparkes and published by Nordic Weasel Games. The introduction to the rules goes a long way toward letting the gamer know what they are in for: “We all have extra figures [...]

  • Review: Deep Cut Studios Print-O-Mat
    Rating: Over the last couple of year, game mats have become have become a common accessory for players of all sorts of tabletop games, be it Miniatures Games, Boardgames, Card Games or Role Playing Games, with neoprene backed mats (mousepad material) seen as the premium product choice. Up until [...]

  • 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: 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 – I Ain’t Been Shot Mum: Battle for Liberation
    Rating:  Battle for Liberation is a supplement for the I Ain’t Been Shot Mum (IABSM) 3rd Edition World War II Company Level rules from Too Fat Lardies. It covers the World War 2 Western Front from 1943 – 45, from the invasion of Sicily to the final battles in the heart of Germany, and gives [...]

  • Review: Rapid Fire – Normandy Battlegames
    Rating:  Rapid Fire is a World War II set of rules that has been around for some time, but has proven to be enduringly popular, not the least because it remains well supported by the authors. This latest title follows on from the previous supplement; Normandy Battlegroups, which gave balanced [...]
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    ‘Saga’ review online
    Saga is the new, upcoming Dark Age skirmish game from Gripping Beast. Like many others, I saw this game at Salute,, and really liked what I saw. I actually got to play (and win!) a game at Partisan last Sunday. It really is an excellent game, and I will be chatting some more about this on the [...]
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    New game for the pub – Wazabi
    Well, it came too late for this week’s game night, but I’ve just picked up a very interesting looking dice game from Gigamic (the people behind the gorgeous wooden abstract games like Quarto and Pylos) called Wazabi. The idea of the game almost couldn’t be simpler – you have [...]

  • 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. [...]

  • 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: Dead Man’s Hand
    Rating: In my experience, Wild West games tend to be very hit or miss affairs (no pun intended). They tend to be games that promote style over substance – they can look incredibly pretty, as you can produce some stunning scenery to fight over, but (if you’re not careful) they can be dull as [...]

  • 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 [...]

  • 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: 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: 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 [...]

  • Review – Saga
    Rating:  Saga is the long-awaited and much-anticipated Dark Age skirmish wargaming rules from Studio Tomahawk & Gripping Beast. The rules are aimed at being played in 28mm scale, on a 4’ x 3’ table (designed so that it could be played on the author’s kitchen table!) with warbands [...]

  • 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 [...]

  • Review – God of Battles
    Rating: God of Battles is a fantasy mass battle game from author Jake Thornton and published as a 290 page hardback, full colour rulebook by Foundry Publications. It is set in world of Aren, which is, in many ways, a fairly ‘standard’ fantasy worlds with Elves, Dwarfs, Orcs and Undead, but also [...]

  • Review: Chain of Command
    Rating: Chain of Command (CoC) is a platoon-level skirmish wargame from Too Fat Lardies. There are many platoon-level WWII rulesets on the market, each with its own particular take on how combat at this level should be represented. Some concentrate on the weapons being used, others on the men who [...]

  • Review: Lord of the Rings – The Card Game revisited
    Rating: The Lord of the Rings: The Card Game was originally released by Fantasy Flight Games in 2011, and upon release very quickly became one of my favourite games. I and my son Josh are big Lord of the Rings fans, and so we played this game a lot over the next couple of years. Then with one thing [...]

  • 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: Muskets & Tomahawks
    Rating: Muskets & Tomahawks is the second set of wargames rules to be published in English by Studio Tomahawk, following the success of their previous rules: Saga. These rules, however, have been available in French for a while. The setting for these rules is somewhat unusual. I don’t think [...]
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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, [...]
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    Richard III: The War of the Roses
    Wednesday night at Scimitar Wargames Group saw my first play of the much anticipated follow-up to Columbia Games Hammer of the Scots, Richard III: The War of the Roses. There has been a lot of buzz about this game, and I was very keen to try it. My Reaction? To be perfectly honest, somewhat mixed. [...]

  • Review: UFO Squad – Defenders of the Earth
    Rating: UFO Squad is the new sci-fi skirmish game from Crossover Miniatures, where squads of human troops defend the earth from the threat of alien invasion. As well as the rules, Crossover has produced a range of figures for the game. In this blog, I’m taking a look at the human troops. [...]

  • 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 [...]

  • 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: 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: 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 – Tremble Ye Tyrants
    Rating:  Tremble Ye Tyrants is the new fast-play Napoloenic Wargaming rules written by Chris Peers and distributed by North Star Military Figures. The rules are designed around the using 28mm figures, although they do use elements rather than individual figures. An infantry unit is defined as 4 [...]

  • Review: Horizon Wars
    Rating: Horizon Wars is a set of sci-fi battle rules, written by Robey Jenkins and published by Osprey Publishing. Whilst the game does have its own ‘history’, this universe is not woven into the rules, and so the rules are essentially a set of generic rules which can be used with any figure [...]

  • Review: Banzai
    Rating: Banzai: Age of the Country at War is a set of wargaming rules written by Robert Fellows and published by 2D6 Wargaming in 2016. This game is written to be used with 6mm miniatures using 60mm x 30mm basing, though it should work for any scale miniatures as long as the basing has a 2:1 ratio [...]

  • Review: Fistful of Lead – Reloaded
    Rating: Fistful of Lead: Reloaded is a set of wargaming rules for ‘Gunfights in the Wild West’, published by Wiley Games. It was funded by a kickstarter project which was launched in November 2015, which had 132 backers and raised just over $8,000. Fistful of Lead (FoL) is a skirmish [...]

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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