• Small producers – use them, or lose them
    On Monday we were greeted very sad news that Fenris Games were closing down at the end of February. If you read the full story (which can be found here) it tells a tale that is becoming familiar – of a small company that has been facing increasing financial pressures with dwindling sales, to [...]

  • Miniature Painting, w/e 12th January 2020
    This week I started to get ‘back in the saddle’ of painting a little each day. The aim is to paint for around 15-30 minutes – basically to try and make some progress on a model – even if it’s just applying one colour, or maybe a wash. Sunday 5th / Monday 6th January. [...]

  • 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 [...]

  • Sarissa Precision release Sengoku Period castle in MDF
    Sarissa Precision have added to their range of 28mm MDF terrain for Feudal Japan with a new castle. The Japanese Castle is a sizable kit, representing the traditional fortress of the period which was constructed from a mix of wood and stone. The model measures approx. 14″ x 17″ , and is [...]

  • A look at Mortal Realms, Issue 1
    I had no idea that this product – Mortal Realms – existed until I read a post from The Renaissance Troll himself, Joe McCullough. The kicker on that particular post was that he wasn’t going to buy this product, despite the price, as it didn’t fit in with his new miniatures [...]

  • Meeples & Miniatures voted ‘Best Podcast or YouTube Channel’
    Well, it’s taken 12 years, but we can finally say that Meeples & Miniatures is an award-winning podcast! Patrons of Battlegames recently voted for a number of awards, and Meeples & Miniatures was voted the Best Podcast or YouTube Channel. Thank you very much to Henry and all the [...]

  • Why I am giving the new Conan Kickstarter the boot
    Next week (13th January 2020) will see the launch of the latest Kickstarter from Monolith Designs – Conan: Beyond the Monolith. The main aim of the Kickstarter is to launch a new way of playing skirmish games using the miniatures previously released for the Conan Board Game. However, they are [...]

  • Monday Night Gaming – Return to Arkham Horror: The Card Game
    Last night saw myself and The Halfling Hickman return to play a game of Arkham Horror: The Card Game – the first time since August 2018! After a slight delay as we a) Re-familiarised ourselves with the rules and b) Tried to find all the cards we needed for the scenario in Mr Hickman’s [...]

  • Miniatures Painting, w/e 5th January 2020
    The last couple of days has finally seen me lay paint onto miniatures for the first time in 2020. It may be cheating, but I started by working on some miniatures that were already on my painting table at the end of 2019. The first job was to add some filler to the slotta bases on the figures. Once [...]

  • The non-glamourous side of a website
    You may have noticed a few changes around the website in the past couple of days. The main different is a big reduction in the amount of different columns of the website. I’ve reduced this as the website switches purpose to be more about my personal hobby rather than a new blog. As part of [...]

  • Operation Lüttich with Memoir ’44
    The latest battle between myself and The Halfing Hickman saw us say face-to-face across the Memoir ’44 board, with Dave’s plucky Americans facing the might of several Panzer Divisions. Counter-attack on Mortain – August 07, 1944 – August 11, 1944 ‘Operation [...]

  • 2020 – New Year, New Plans?
    We have rung in the new year. 2019 is but a memory, shooed away by fireworks and streamers. In its place 2020 arrives, with new-born eyes wide with wonder and expectation. It is a time for making resolutions, a chance of a new start…which last about 3 weeks, if we are lucky, as a general [...]

  • 2019 – Model painting review
    2019 was both a good and a bad year for painting… I’ve probably painted more miniatures this year than I have in a very long time. That said, the last three or four months have seen very little done, so it’s a year that I can look back and think of what I might have achieved, if [...]

  • My gaming in 2019
    For me, the most notable thing about the games I played in 2019 was just how few ‘traditional’ wargames I actually played – only two in fact: Dux Britaniarum and Red Sand, Blue Sky – both of which I played twice. By far the most numerous type of game I played in 2019 were what I have [...]

Painting & Modelling

  • 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 [...]
  • No Picture

    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: 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: 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: 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: 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 – 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 [...]

  • 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 [...]
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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: Polemos S.P.Q.R.
    Rating:  2011 has definitely been the year of the Ancients rules, with several different sets being released. S.P.Q.R. follows these, it’s publication having suffered a couple of delays (not the least being a rather large roof leak that left the area of the Baccus studio where pictures are [...]

  • Review: AW Miniatures 28mm Samurai
    Rating: I have recently been putting together a couple of forces for Seven Swords (The Samurai version of Dux Britanniarum from Too Fat Lardies). To this end I have been using lots of models from my collection (rather than simply buying new models). I had bought several different packs of Sengoku [...]

  • Review: Broken Legions
    Rating: Thus begins Broken Legions – another in the series of Wargames Rules from Osprey Publishing, written by Mark Latham. As you can already deduce, this is a fantasy skirmish wargame set in the time of the Roman Empire. Broken Legions is a ‘warband’ style of skirmish game, so [...]

  • 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: 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: 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: 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: 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 [...]

  • 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: 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 [...]

  • 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 [...]

  • 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: 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 – 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: 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 [...]

  • 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: 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 [...]

  • 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: 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 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: 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: 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: 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 [...]

  • 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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    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, [...]

  • 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 [...]

Thoughts of @TheBrummieDwarf

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Small producers – use them, or lose them

by Neil Shuck in Editorial

On Monday we were greeted very sad news that Fenris Games were closing down at the end of February. If you read the full story (which can be found here) it tells a tale that [...]

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