• Finally painting again
    After a break of some 2 years, I’m finally back to the painting table. These models have been sat on my painting bench since Mike passed – it was about time that I finished them and moved on to other things. So, finally finished another five Goblins Wolf Riders, and a further five Giant [...]

  • A brief return to Podcasting…
    After a break of over three years, I recently found myself back in the podcasting chair alongside my good friend, podcast partner and ex-editor – Henry Hyde. The occasion? Well, Henry’s own Podcast – Battlechat – has reached the laudable milestone of 100 episodes, and, when [...]

  • 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 [...]

Painting & Modelling

Battle Reports / Gaming Sessions

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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: UFO Squad – Vehicles and Buildings
    Rating:  Crossover Miniatures has just released UFO Squad, a set of skirmish rules for fighting battles of Humans vs Aliens, inspired by the games that we saw in the old X-COM: UFO Defense computer game. Following on from the rules and the Human and Alien Troops, we also have a range of vehicles, [...]

  • 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: 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: 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 [...]

  • Review: Skirmish Outbreak
    Rating: Love them or hate them, it would seem that there is currently no getting away from Zombie games. The latest entry into this genre is Skirmish Outbreak from Radio Dish-Dash publishing – publishers of the Skirmish Sangin modern combat rules. As the name implies, this is a skirmish wargame, [...]

  • 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 [...]
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    1/48th Fallschirmjager – Enemy Lines vs North Star (Scarab)
    Paul Caspall was asking how the Enemy Lines figures that I mentioned yesterday match up with their North Star equivalents. Marco at Enemy Lines is going to send me a sample, but here are side-by-side pictures of the figure sets – North Star is first, followed by Enemy Lines. As you can see, [...]

  • 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 [...]

  • 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: 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?” [...]
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    Miniature Review – Warlord Roman Legion Box Set
    Welcome to the latest video review from Meeples & Miniatures In this episode I review the latest Roman Legionary box set from Warlord games, which includes 20 Roman Legionaries and a Scorpian Bolt Thrower. As an added bonus, I also take a look at their blister pack of Roman Slave [...]

  • 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 [...]

  • Oshiro Model Terrain – A review by Mike Hobbs
    People who know me well know that as well as being a keen wargamer I’m also a bit of a foodie, well let’s be honest working as a chef for 15 years gives a person a certain perspective into what’s good and bad about the food we eat. One of my greatest pleasures in life is getting up early on a [...]

  • 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: Quadrant 13
    Rating: What’s this? Too Fat Lardies producing a non-historical set of wargames rules? Perhaps the Mayans were right and the world has ended after all – we just haven’t noticed yet… …joking aside, Quadrant 13(Q13) is the first venture for TFL outside of their previous historical wargames, [...]

  • Review: Longships: The Wrath of the Vikings
    Rating : The Dark Ages as a gaming genre has been under something of a revival ever since Saga appeared on the scene a couple of years ago. Longships is Peter Pig’s addition to this growing catalogue. The rules concentrate, as you may well gather from the title, on the Vikings as the main [...]

  • 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: Pocket Quest…opening the box
    Rating Pocket Quest is a 6mm Dungeon Crawl game produced by Perfect 6 Miniatures and The Miniature Architect. As you first look at it, this game is a thing of beauty. It comes in an MDF box which is just over 6″ square – this doubles not only as the game box, but also as a [...]

  • Runewars Miniatures Game – Opening the box
    Thanks to bad planning, I wasn’t at home to receive my delivery of the Runewars Miniatures Game (RMG) when it was released on Thursday, and thanks to the Bank Holiday in the UK, I wasn’t actually able to pick up the parcel until Saturday, so I have been somewhat delayed in posting [...]

  • Review – Thud & Blunder
    Rating: Thud & Blunder is a set of skirmish rules for warfare set in a land of high fantasy. 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, Daisho and Blood Eagle. They are available as [...]

  • 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 – 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 – [...]

  • 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: 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: 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: Classified
    Rating: Classified is the eighth scenario supplement for the Force on Force rules for modern warfare, which were published in 2011. It is once again published by Osprey Publishing. In many ways, this supplement takes Force-on-Force back to its original Ambush Alley roots, as it covers Special [...]
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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. [...]

  • 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 – 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: 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: 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: Lion Rampant
    Rating: Lion Rampant is the eighth in the series of Osprey Wargames rules. This set allows you to fight battles from the medieval period, in either an historical or ‘Hollywood’ setting, from the Norman conquests until the Hundred Years War. Whilst there were many large set-piece battles during [...]
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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 [...]

  • Review: Lords of Waterdeep
    Rating: If you have ever played in a fantasy role-playing game you will recognise the scene: The party is in a tavern when they are approached by a stranger – the representative of some sponsor – who asks them if they are looking for work and then proposes that they be hired to escort a [...]

  • 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 [...]
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    Shogun – First impressions
    Last Wednesday night saw the first play of the boardgame ‘Shogun’ (designed by Dirk Henn and published by Queen Games) at Scimitar Wargames Club. This is a boardgame which is a re-theme of the classic 30 Years War game Wallenstein, and rather than Europe, this game puts the action into [...]

  • 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 [...]
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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 [...]

  • Review: Deus Vult!
    Rating:  Fireforge Games burst onto the scene at the start of 2012 when they released their first box set of plastic Teutonic Knights. They have since released a further two boxes of knights and their first box of infantry, with more promised in the near future. One of my favourite images in [...]

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Finally painting again

by Neil Shuck in Painting & Modelling

After a break of some 2 years, I’m finally back to the painting table. These models have been sat on my painting bench since Mike passed – it was about time that [...]

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