• Lockdown painting update – May 2020
    It’s been a while since I shared anything hobby related. Many of us have taken advantage of some of the extra time we have found on our hands during this period of lockdown to make some progress on hobby projects. I have been no different, though my painting productivity has been through many [...]

  • 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 [...]

  • Barons’ War 2 launches on Kickstarter
    Following on from the first Barons’ War Kickstarter, which ran in September 2019, Andy Hobday and Paul Hicks are back with a second project, which fills in many of the ‘gaps’ in the range of miniatures. The initial new planned packs include Crossbowmen, Levy and Foot Knights with [...]

  • Easter painting challenge 2020
    Several of us decided to set each other a painting challenge for the Easter weekend. We each chose 4 figures, and then votes were cast to decide which figures each of us would paint. I was challenged to try an Oathsworn miniature from their Burrows & Badgers range as one of my selections, so it [...]

  • Group hobby activity in a time of social distancing
    The current Coronavirus epidemic has obviously impacted our ability to meet up and play games, but on the flip side, we now have lots of time to make an impact on painting our lead pile. However, it’s still good to get social contact with your gaming friends, so we decided to combine the two [...]

  • 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!’ – [...]

Painting & Modelling

Battle Reports / Gaming Sessions

  • Review – Hail Caesar: Army Lists: Biblical & Classical
    Rating:  As soon as Hail Caesar hit the wargaming public back at Salute (was it only 7 months ago?) an outcry was seen on many different forums… Where were the army lists? Where were the points values? How could gamers possibly be expected to play this game without them? I must admit, I found [...]

  • 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 [...]

  • 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: 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 [...]

  • UFO Squad is now available
    Rating:  You may remember back in episode 146 of the podcast, I interviewed Rusti Gregory or Crossover Miniatures about his Kickstarter for a new game: UFO Squad. Well, I’m very pleased to say that these rules, and the associated figures, are now available to buy from the Crossover [...]

  • 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: Enduring Freedom
    Rating:  Enduring Freedom is the second supplement for the Force on Force rules for modern warfare, which were published earlier this year. This supplement covers the campaign in Afghanistan from 2001 – 2010, and gives all the information required for players to recreate battles in a region of [...]

  • 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 [...]
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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 [...]

  • Review – Cold War Gone Hot
    Rating:  Cold War Gone Hot is the fourth supplement for the Force on Force rules for modern warfare, which were published earlier this year. ‘What If…’ Cold War scenarios have been the staple of modern period wargamers for some years, and this volume from Osprey capitalises on that fact by [...]

  • 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: 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: 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: 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: 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. [...]
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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: 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: 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 – 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 – 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: 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: 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 [...]

  • 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 [...]

  • 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 [...]

  • Dark Souls – thoughts after first play through
    I had the chance to play the new Dark Souls boardgame from Steamforged Games the other night, and I thought that I would share my intial thoughts on the game. I have never played the video game on which this boardgame is based, but I am told by various people that it is a faithful adaption of that [...]

  • 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 [...]

  • 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: 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, [...]
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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: 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: 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 [...]
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    Miniature Reviews – Can’t wait for the video
    I’ve been stating for a while that I’m very keen to exploit video as a new means of reviewing miniatures. However, I’m having some technical issues in getting this all together as an actual  video, so I’m planning on producing a ‘half-way-house’ show. I’ll [...]

  • 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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    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 [...]
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    Saga Accessories
    Rating:  As you are aware, I’ve been playing several games of Saga recently. One of the things I like about the game is the use of good, old fashioned movement sticks (much like the Song of Blades series of rules). Whilst I was originally planning to make some myself, I have recently come [...]

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Lockdown painting update – May 2020

by Neil Shuck in Painting & Modelling

It’s been a while since I shared anything hobby related. Many of us have taken advantage of some of the extra time we have found on our hands during this period of [...]

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