• Painting update – 4th August 2020
    Painting in the last few weeks has all been about the beastmen. Following the last update I have finished a further three units of these troops, which gives me 40 in total – not a bad output for me in five weeks. It wasn’t until I put these away in the box that I realised just how far I [...]

  • Gaming in a pandemic – Apps
    Since face-to-face gaming has been denied most of us in recent months we have had to find various alternatives. There are many available, including such platforms as VASSAL and Tabletop Simulator, with various people also coming up with inventive ways of using social media to stream live gaming. [...]

  • Painting update – 7th July 2020
    Following on from my last update I have managed to make steady, if not exactly speedy, progress on my second Saga: Age of Magic army – a Demonic warband. As I said in my last update, the main figures I am using for this are taken from the old computer-moderated tabletop wargames Ex-Illis. I [...]

  • Painting Update – w/e 19th June 2020
    My have managed to maintain my painting output in the last two or three weeks – nothing spectacular, but I have now finished my Undead army for Saga: Age of Magic by painting another 11 Zombies (it was 12, but I appear to have lost one somewhere!) so that my army can now feature a horde of 20 [...]

  • 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 & Modelling

Battle Reports / Gaming Sessions

  • 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 – 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 – 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 – 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: 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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    ‘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: 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: Tanks – Panther vs Sherman Starter Set
    Rating:   Gale Force Nine, the company behind titles such as Firefly: The Game and Spartacus: A Game of Blood and Treachery, have recently released a new game – Tanks: The World War II Tank Skirmish Game. This new game has been launched with the Panther vs Sherman Starter Set, plus a set [...]

  • 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: 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, [...]

  • Review: A Fistful of King-Fu
    Rating: Do you remember the seventies? Chopsocky was liberally splashed across our cinema and television screens, Karl Douglas topped the charts and Bruce Lee was the coolest guy on the planet (and every boy had ‘that’ poster on his bedroom wall). Everybody was Kung-Fu fighting, with not a [...]

  • 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: 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 [...]

  • 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 [...]

  • 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 [...]

  • 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: 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: 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 [...]

  • 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, [...]
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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 – Pike & Shotte
    Rating:  Pike & Shotte are a set of rules from Warlord Games looking at combat in the 16th & 17th Century. The original intention was for them to be a supplement for Black Powder, much in the same was as The Last Argument of Kings, but they grew too large to be a simple supplement and so [...]

  • Review: Empire of the Dead
    Rating:  Two wargame genres which always seem popular are Victorian Steampunk and Gothic Horror. West Wind Productions have taken these genres, put them in a blender and Empire of the Dead (EotD) was the result. EotD is a skirmish wargame which takes place in an alternative universe, where the [...]

  • 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: 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: 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 [...]

  • 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: 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 [...]
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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 – 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 [...]

  • 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: 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 – 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: 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 – 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: 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: Daisho
    Rating: Daisho is a set of skirmish rules for warfare set in mythical Japan. 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 and Blood Eagle, and were published in 2015. They are available as a 90 [...]
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    Miniatures Review – Warlord Games Marquis of Montrose
    Following of from my review of the Montrose Irish box set from Warlord Games, this episode of the Miniatures Review show from Meeples & Miniatures looks at a mounted general figure produced to lead the army of Montrose – the Marquis of Montrose [...]

  • 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: 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 [...]

  • 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 [...]

  • 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:Northern Fury
    Rating:  The Saga rules, published by Gripping Beast, have taken the wargaming world by storm over the years, and are still proving to be very popular. Northern Fury was the first of several supplements which contained additional new factions to add to the existing factions from the core rulebook, [...]

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Painting update – 4th August 2020

by Neil Shuck in Painting & Modelling

Painting in the last few weeks has all been about the beastmen. Following the last update I have finished a further three units of these troops, which gives me 40 in total [...]

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