The eagle-eyed among you may notice a slight change to the appeareance of this website. This is because I’ve ditched WordPress after well over a decade.
All the content is still there, but comments, categories and tags are no more. The search box still works though!
In terms of the hobby, I (as you might expect) picked up a copy of Legions Imperialis and started to build and paint a new Word Bearers army. They will play nicely with my Legion Crassus titans and House Malinax knights. Expect photos soon.
Appearances to the contrary, I have neither died, been in a coma, nor lost my interest in the hobby!
I have, however, recently become a father again for the fourth (or fifth, depending on how you measure these things) time, which although otherwise entirely wonderful, has had the effect of (a) taking away what little energy I had left after dealing with the rest of the family, (b) doing the same to my spare time and (c) depriving me of the permanent hobby space I previously enjoyed, which is now the nursery.
There is light at the end of the tunnel, however, as things are now settling down and I'm starting to get time and energy back. I also acquired a GoBag Evo from Monument Hobbies, which has drastically reduced the setup/teardown time required to get my hobby on at the kitchen table. So hopefully you'll see some more posts soon!
One further item: after previously vein active on twitter and then instagram, I'm more interested in the Fediverse nowadays, and thanks to some technical wizardry you can now follow this blog on Mastodon! Just search for @[email protected] to see this post through your Mastodon client, and follow to receive updates.
The first thing to say is that I successfully achieved my goal: during 2014, I haven't bought any new miniatures! I was given a Sternguard squad and some 40K scenery for my birthday; I spent a fair amount of money on a KR Multicase storage and transport system at Salute (a good investment in my opinion), and I also been replenished my hobby supplies: tools, glue, brushes, and of course paint. But no new models.
I also found the time to bring my wargaming terrain up to scratch, what with my local gaming store closing at the end of 2013. With the help of my great buddy Steg, I resurrected my old Ziterdes gaming boards with a new textured surface and colour scheme which matches the basing style for my Necron and Salamanders armies (and the Reaver). And I also finished a set of Cities of Death terrain to go with the refurbished boards.
I was quite happy to get a few games of 40K in during 2015, as well as the first game of Battlefleet Gothic I've played in years. I also got to try X-Wing which I loved and hope to play more of next year.
Plans for 2015
The New Year means that I am allowing myself to buy new models. I won't pretend that I haven't found myself quite excited at the prospect! But having spent a year restraining myself, I feel that I've developed a level of perspective that means that my hobby plans for the coming year are much more focused. Specifically, I plan to focus on two projects:
Upgrading my 40K necron army to be at least 3,000-3,500 points so I can play Apocalypse games with the Reaver. To that end I have ordered boxes of Immortals, Deathmarks, Lychguard, a Nightbringer and another Night/Doom Scythe. I may also pick up a Tesseract Vault/Obelisk later in the year.
Finishing my Epic Knight/Ad Mech army. I needed a few bits and pieces (mostly infantry) to flesh out this army, which I've ordered from Troublemaker Games and Exodus Wars. I'm looking forward to getting back into Epic and maybe even playing a few games in 2015.
I'd also quite like to build a small Inquisitorial detachment with a Valkyrie and some Tempestus troopers serving as Henchmen. One of my Christmas presents this year was the gorgeous Justice Sedante from Hasslefree who will be my Inquisitor (perhaps serving as a proxy for Amberley Vail).
It looks like Knights are about to return to Warhammer 40,000 in 28mm scale. Before they become the new hotness, I thought it might be fun to run through their history.
Like (I suspect) a lot of wargamers, hobbyists and collectors, I always feel a twinge of guilt when I fork out for shiny new toys. You don't have to be in this hobby for too long before you end up with a backlog of unpainted models, sitting in their boxes, getting progressively less shiny and new as time goes by*.
As I am sure you know, I recently bought myself a Reaver Titan. These are not cheap: the body alone is £425 (US$695) and the weapons are £54.00 each, so you're looking at a cost of £587 (US$959), not including painting and modelling supplies.
Splurging that amount of cash on a single (albeit fully and totally awesome) model triggered a certain degree of introspection on my part, which was further fuelled by my wife's (accepting but skeptical) response when I told her how much I'd spent. Of course we all realise that if we keep buying more than we can paint, the pile of unpainted models is only ever going to increase. This time, however, I've decided to do something about it.
I've just realised that I haven't posted in almost two months. This is due to a combination of things: a family holiday (very nice thanks) and finally, honestly, no really, actually moving house this Friday! Which means that by the end of this weekend, I will have been able to reclaim my hobby stuff from the in-laws, and start to get my hobby mojo back up to speed.
To remind myself as much as anyone else, here's what's currently on the "work in progress" list:
a pair of Reaver titans to finish off the Legio Pantera
This week, the news that Games Workshop is shutting down Specialist Games has been all over the Web, Facebook and Twitter. SG has been withering on the vine for about ten years, and its death was on the cards the moment that Finecast was launched, heralding the inevitable abandonment of metal miniatures. It's no surprise to me that GW decided to put it out of its misery.
But here's the thing. Despite GW officially abandoning Epic: Armageddon, Battlefleet Gothic, and the other SG names, they're not really dead. They will never be dead if the community of gamers and hobbyists continues to play games, develop rules, build and paint miniatures, and share their hobby online.
Now is the time for the various communities that have developed around these games to take ownership of them and carry them forward. This has already happened with Epic: Armageddon: the playtesting groups that helped Jervis Johnson develop the game never went away, and now after over a decade, those people are still developing new and improved rules and army lists for the game, following the same path as the original NetEpic team did. They took what GW abandoned, and are giving it new life. This should absolutely be happening with the other SG games.
Rules are only part of the picture. Obviously there are models as well. Apart from eBay, which will probably provide plentiful supplies of second-hand miniatures for all the Specialist games for decades to come, players of the 28mm based games (Necromunda and Mordheim) can make use of miniatures from Warhammer 40,000 and Warhammer: it's a great opportunity to customise and convert. There is already a thriving Inq28 community of gamers who play Inquisitor using 28mm miniatures: some of the conversion work I've seen is amazing!
For Epic, BFG and Warmaster, the solution is to look for proxies: miniatures from other games and manufacturers that look similar to the "official" models. And for those who like taking risks, you can expect there to be a thriving black market in 6mm scale versions of 40K models, and re-worked variants of the old BFG ship range: if you know where to look, you can get what you need (note: I do not condone such activity, as it is clearly illegal, but I won't deny that it doesn't happen).
So you see: although Specialist Games (the GW division) may now be dead, the Specialist Games themselves can, should, and very likely will, live on.
Last week I boxed up all my hobby stuff: all my miniatures, rulebooks, paints, brushes and boxes of bitz and drove them to my in-laws, where they will stay in stasis until we've moved house. This could be anything from a few weeks to a couple of months (and it's already been about three months) so who knows when I will next get my hobby on, or when I'll next get a chance to post something interesting?
Thankfully I have a healthy supply of Gaunt's Ghosts and Horus Heresy novels to keep me entertained while I wait to buy the most expensive thing I will ever buy (apart from my next Forgeworld order!).
I will also be attending Salute next week and have a bunch of meets lined up, so expect to see some photos from that.
Last weekend, No Mans Land had a grand re-opening in its new location in a swanky shopping arcade, and Dan came along to sign books, answer questions from the gathered throng, and throw some dice and push some models around a table.
Dan played two games of Epic - one versus me, and then another (which I GMd) against Darren (also known as The Burning Beard), another store regular, using the NetEpic rules, slightly modified to suit small Adeptus Titanicus games.
In the first game, we took one Warlord, Reaver and Warhound each and squared up against each other. I was able to knock out his Reaver in the first turn. My Warhound survived a strafe from his Warlord and ended up in close combat with the Dan's Warhound. Meanwhile, our Warlords went toe-to-toe with almost identical loadouts: my titan had twin Gatling Blasters, A Quake Cannon and a Volcano Cannon, Dan's had twin Gatling Blasters and twin Volcano Cannon. Dan's only mistake was moving his titan when could have stood still; that meant that I could open up on him in First Fire before he could hit me (he'd won initiative). My Gatlings and Quake Cannon stripped his remaining shields, and the Volcano Cannon dealt the final blow.
For his second game, Dan wanted to do something a bit different, and decided that he wanted to take out my Imperator, Machinator Formidabilis ("Fearsome Engine" in Low Gothic), against a pack of four Warlords, commanded by Darren.
The game began, and the Imperator stood and watched (and saved up plasma in its reactor) as the Warlords approached.
But calamity! In a well co-ordinated (and unexpected) surprise attack, all four Warlords pounced at once, stripping the Imperator's shields and starting to do damage! First a gun tower was knocked out, then a sensorium. Just when it seemed that the Machinator was going to survive the turn without any serious damage, a deflected shot took out the coupling on the left arm, and the mighty Plasma Annihilator came crashing to the ground!
With Machinator's most deadly weapon wrecked, and surrounded on all sides, there was little that Dan could do as the Warlords moved in for the kill. One of the Warlords was reduced to slag by the defence laser, but in the same turn, a shot from the rear penetrated the plasma reactor, and KABOOM! For the first time in twenty years of combat, my beloved Machinator Formidabilis was destroyed in a mighty conflagration.
Despite the ignominious defeat of an ancient and noble God-engine, great fun was had by all, and No Mans Land had a fitting and enjoyable (if rather chilly) re-opening.
Most wargamers have probably at least taken a look at space combat games like Full Thrust, Firestorm Armada, Battlefleet Gothic and the various versions of A Call To Arms. Some may even have bought some miniatures, and tried out the rules. Some may even be enthusiasts for these games.
I am a huge fan of space-based science fiction. Before my current profession of Internet Tinkerer I was a (admittedly mediocre) physicist, and my enthusiasm for physics was born from my childhood and teenage obsession with Star Trek, Battlestar Galatica and Star Wars.
When Battlefleet Gothic came out, as a 40K fan (and previously a player of Space Fleet) I fell in love with the miniatures and immediately began collecting an Imperial Navy fleet. I now also have a Necron fleet. I bought a roll-up space mat so I could play BFG on the limited space afforded by my kitchen table.
But there was just one thing. Despite its beautiful miniatures and well-thought out rules, BFG, like most other space combat games, is basically just naval battles for goths. Any system that's limited to two dimensions is going to end up like a historical or modern naval warfare game. Starships shouldn't have broadsides: the scale difference between the ships and the distances between them make such concepts meaningless.
Naval battles for goths.
Space is quite different to sea. It's a good deal larger for a start. But also, things move differently. Spaceships are not boats - if you turn off their engines, they don't stop. They can't turn corners in the same way that ships or fighter aircraft do, because there's nothing there to push against to make them turn.
Of course, I am not the only person to notice this. It has been remarked upon many times in the past. There have been attempts to try and rectify this problem, but none have been particularly satisfying.
For the last few months, I've been following a blog being written by someone who might have finally hit on a solution. An antipodean gent by the name of evilleMonkeigh has brought together the threads of a number of different gaming systems and is creating something which feels completely original. His game's name, Delta Vector, is a sly nod to Δ𝓋, the mathematical expression for a change in velocity, and the truth of Newtonian mechanics which most space combat games ignore.
In the past year evilleMonkeigh has posted about thirty articles outlining the basic operating principles of the game. For me, the most interesting thing is the system of inertia which governs the movement of ships. In evilleMonkeigh's words:
I'm going to explain it with a series of pictures. You will need 3 counters per ship. One counter is under the ship base at all times. I'm using EM4 tiddlywinks as they are cheap and fit perfectly under a 'standard' hex base (available GZG or EM4).
Once the movement process is completed only 1 counter is visible so you aren't overly cluttering up the game table. Obviously you could put a name or code on each ship's set of counters so you don't confuse them.
Ok, here we go:
#1. The counter shows the ship velocity and drift direction - where it will end up at the end of its next move if no thrust is applied. You don't need to measure anything - this is how ships will look when you are not moving them (i.e. most of the time).
#2. But it is our ship's turn to move and we choose to move him 3" to the left. The ship applies 3" thrust and a new counter is put down, showing the new destination now thrust has been applied. You may need your tape to measure the thrust distance.
#3. Now we move the ship to its new location. You will note there was a counter under the ship's base before - ships move from counter to counter. The old pre-thrust drift marker no longer has any relevance, unless you are using the "Facings" optional rule (to be posted separately).#4. You definitely need to get your tape out now. Leaving the markers where they are, we measure the new velocity (the distance travelled between the ships old location and its new location). In this example it is 8".
#5. Using the tape, we make a straight line between the old and new ship locations, and go beyond it to put down a new marker 8" in front of the ship.
#6. Simply remove the rear counter to tidy things up and we are back were we started at step 1, with the counter in front of the ship showing the direction and velocity of its drift.
When you combine this with an activation based, initiative-driven game sequence, in which enemy ships can react to your actions; resource management; electronic warfare; and an attempt to give escorts a more significant role in the game, it seems to me that Delta Vector has the potential to redefine space-based combat games. I'm looking forward to when the rules are published. If you are too, then subscribe to the Delta Vector blog!
Posted on Tuesday, December 4, 2012
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A recent discussion on Twitter got me thinking, as I occasionally do, about Ian Watson and his literary contribution to Warhammer 40,000.
Back in the old days, when GW was cheap, 40K was still relatively new, and the Black Library was still a decade away, GW published 40K "tie-in" novels by hiring established genre writers. Some used pseudonyms, but others didn't. Most notable amongst them are (in my opinion) Charlie Stross, who contributed a short story to the Deathwing anthology, and Ian Watson, who wrote a total of four novels in the 40K universe.
I don't think it's possible to underestimate how important these novels are for me, and also to 40K, for reasons I will now explain.
First, the fact that an author with the reputation and status that Ian Watson had (and still has), must have done a lot for 40K's credibility in the publishing scene. That Watson didn't use a nom de plume says an awful lot. That must have been quite helpful when the Black Library was being established.
Secondly, these novels went a long way towards establishing the mood, and general approach, that 40K was to take for the next two decades. They are a bridge between the frivolous and silly Rogue Trader era universe, and the full-on grimdark of contemporary 40K: with feet on both sides of the divide, the books somehow manage to be silly and serious at the same time, simultaneously light-hearted and sharply melancholy.
Finally, they are important to me personally, because they cemented my love for both 40K and for Ian Watson. I read Inquisitor. Then I read Space Marine. Then I read everything else he wrote that was still in print. When I got an internet connection in 1995, I started picking up out-of-print paperbacks.
About ten years ago, Ian did an interview with some Hungarian 40K fans about his books, and what drew him to the 40K setting. It remains one of the most cogent and concise explanations of how the 40K universe works. Here it is:
Of all the great contemporary British SF writers, the only person I admire as much as Ian Watson is Adam Roberts. So imagine my delight at seeing this detailed review of Inquisitor. 40K as seen from a "serious" literary perspective!
In my last post I mentioned that my wife and I had put our house on the market, so I wasn't allowed to make any mess. Well, it's now been about three months since we started having viewings, and we've not made any progress. The place that we fell in love with has been lost to another buyer, so we're at the point of not really caring any more about the whole moving-house thing, and will probably taking the place off the market soon.
This is a bit disappointing, but it does mean that I've been able to break out the toy soldiers again!
While my wife took the kids to visit her sister, I've had a few days entirely to myself, and I've been making good use of them. Apart from making inroads into the 3rd edition of In the Emperor's Name (for which I'm the editor), I've also been working on some more knights.
Here's the first finished squadron of Castellans:
And here's some Errants, which just need a decal on the right shoulder and they're done:
Finally, here's a Reaver titan, the first I've painted since the mid-ninities:
Apologies for the lack of posts recently. We are currently in the process of selling our house, which means I'm not allowed to get any of my hobby stuff out and make any sort of mess, in the off chance that we get a short-notice viewing.
So while I've been quiet on the hobby front, I haven't been entirely inactive. I've been working on a new website for No Man's Land, my local indie gaming store. As well as a static website (and a planned online store) I also set up a forum which, in the short time that it's been online, has become quite active, which is very pleasing.
I've also set up a Facebook page for In The Emperor's Name, and will be working on sharing ITEN related content on it, so if you play ITEN (or are just interested), go over to Facebook and like it.
Once we've accepted an offer on our house, I'll be able to decompress my hobby stuff and will probably be posting a bit more. See you then!
Like many wargamers, I enjoy the “fluff” of the imaginary worlds that I play games in, as well as the “crunch” of the rules and models. I’ve even taken to writing my own background material, to help bring my armies to life.
Tonight's Forge World News Flash contained a link to a YouTube video which confirms that they will be doing a Horus Heresy expansion for Warhammer 40,000. Here's the video:
I've set up a Facebook page for this blog, mainly as an experiment and to provide a way for people to stay up-to-date without requiring an RSS reader. All you have to do is "like" the Facebook page using the widget on the right-hand sidebar, or click on this link: Jodrell Plays Games. Enjoy!
Like most hobbyists I tend to have a lot of different projects on the go at once. Here is a list of my unfinished projects as of writing:
Firedrakes 40K Army
Khador Warmachine Army
Epic Knight Army
Inquisition retinue for In The Emperor's Name
Epic Tyranid Army
Praesentia Army for Critical Mass (15mm SF)
Blue Moon Shivan Sisterhood Army (also 15mm SF)
Khurasan Mekanoid Army (ditto)
Terrain projects for all of the above
In addition, I also have some repairs on my Warmonger to do: as predicted, the fragile resin Hydra turrets have been damaged, so I need to replace them with spares from the bits box.
So what have I been doing today? Starting something new of course! Some more titans:
I have another Reaver waiting to be assembled, and want to get another one to form a Battle Group. This will leave my Titan Legion army with 2 Warlord BGs and 2 Reaver BGs which, along with the aforementioned Warmonger and its Imperator counterpart is quite enough I think (although I do need more Warhounds...)
I've also been sorting out some mechanised firepower to support the Knights and Robots. I've just finished stripping, reassembling and basing these:
The Ordinatus Golgotha has a fearsome reputation as an anti-Ork unit: any Ork unit that's even targeted by one of the six missiles has to take a morale check (which is 5+ for Orks) making it highly effective at breaking large Ork companies.
I am planning to scratch-build at least one other Ordinatus using miniatures from Brigade Model's Neo-Soviet range.
Stormblades are Titan and Super-heavy hunters. They mount a Plasma Blastgun which is normally carried by titans, as well as a number of specialist and one-shot weapons. I have a couple more coming from eBay to form a Stormblade Company.
These are also basically tank-mounted titan weapons. You can pick any of the one-shot titan missiles to mount on each model.
The mainstay of any Imperial army!
This is the first time I've based vehicles and I am starting to think it's a good idea!
Via the Epic Addiction blog I discovered that Viz ran a cartoon series starring an amusingly stereotypical Games Workshop employee. Here's the strip, click to see it full-size:
For a few months I've been working on-and-off on a program called mkplanet. It's a reasonably simple script that glues together two different programs to create realistic-looking imaginary worlds.
I have been trying - without success - to create an online version so that people wouldn't have to install the program, as it requires jumping through hoops that only professional IT people are likely to be able to do. Unfortunately, it's proven more complicated than my time and access to resources (specifically a dedicated virtual server) allows, so I'm just going to release the program so that those who are interested can give it a try.
I will post again when I've uploaded it, but in the meantime here are some samples of the program's output. At the moment the most well-tested mode creates Earth-like temperate planets, but With a bit of tweaking it can be made to create rocky and cratered worlds like Mars and Venus, ice worlds like Hoth, and many others. It's just a question of defining a set of colours that are used for different altitude levels.
This year was the fourth time I've travelled to the Excel in London for Salute, the world's biggest wargames show, which celebrated its fortieth birthday this year.
As always there was so much great stuff to take in, far more than I can easily recall, so here are some of the highlights for me:
The amazing 10mm SF miniatures produced by Hawk Wargames for their forthcoming DropZone Commander game. Some of the finest quality miniatures I've ever seen.
Curis's amusing "Avengers Assemble" cartoon on the Ninjabread stand
Robin's amazing Gruntz tables, whose creation I've been following on his blog. There seemed to be a lot of 15mm SF games this year, featuring GZG, Old Crow, Brigade and many others, but Robin's tables stood out for me
Finding a very cheap Warmachine battlebox and splitting it with a friend, so now I have another game to learn! Looking forward to painting my Khador battlegroup.
some really nice (and surprisingly cheap) accessories and components from Anvil Industry, which would be very handy for someone wanting to create a pre-Heresy Space Marine army
The completely batshit insane ApORKalypse game put on by the South London Wargames people
I didn't take many photos this year, but my esteemed colleague Steg took a bunch, and I've put my favourites below.
Polyversal is a forthcoming 6mm Sci-Fi game being developed by ken Whitehurst and published by Collins Epic Wargames. It's quite an innovative format in that they are going to ship a boxed set containing rules and miniatures produced by a number of different manufacturers. Those familiar with the world of 6mm will recognise names like Exodus Wars, Dark Realm Miniatures, Brigade Models, Plasmablast Games and MicroWorld Miniatures.
I love the idea of these manufacturers working together to create a product that's greater than the some of its parts. While each manufacturer creates some fantastic stuff, none of them on their own has a wide enough product range to compete with Epic, or produce an "out of the box" experience that's likely to draw new gamers to the 6mm scale. But together, they could produce something really cool. I'm very inspired by the artwork that's been announced for the cover of the boxed set:
There's a lot of enthusiasm for this product on the Tactical Command forums about Polyversal, and I'm pleased that my suggestion of including terrain from GameCraft Miniatures is being looked at. With rules, minis and scenery in a single box, this game could go a long way to bringing 6mm Wargaming to a wider audience.
Posted on Saturday, February 25, 2012
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Big day today. Quite apart from it being Warhammer 40,000's 25th birthday, it was also the first time I've played in a tournament: against strangers (sort of). Also the first time I've used my destroyers, scarab, Imotekh, Annihilation Barge and Monolith.
I don't have time to give a full report but I'm pleased to say that I came 9th out of 14, with two losses, a draw and a win, against Dark Eldar, Space Wolves, codex marines and a rival Necron dynasty. Playing against Necrons was a lot of fun!
Check out the photos below and look out for the special spectator who came along! (I'm not talking about Ty the Wonder-Dog.)
Some years ago I posted on the NetEpic mailing list about making NetEpic "open source". Primarch and other list members seems pretty keen on the idea, but I think the delays in getting NetEpic Gold released meant that it was sort of forgotten about.
I decided to scratch my own itch and do something about it! I wanted to find a way to make the NetEpic rules system available under a proper Creative Commons copyright regime, but which also enabled gamers to easily contribute back, to make the rules a living, breathing thing, always changing, and (hopefully) always improving.
I realised that a wiki was the perfect solution. Wikis should be familiar to most people, because Wikipedia is a wiki. A wiki is a web site that allows its users to edit its contents. There is a simple formatting system, and a set of tools which make it very easy for groups of people to collaborate.
After registering a domain and setting up the wiki software, I have now finished entering the NetEpic core rules into the wiki. Other than reformatting the text to use standard wiki layout (and fixing a few typos that annoyed me), nothing in the text has been changed.
So I now feel that I'm ready to go public with the site: OpenEpic.org. For the time being, although you can view the site anonymously, you have to be logged in to edit the pages, and account requests have to be manually vetted by me.
The next step is to import the army lists. This is a bit more difficult because the army lists contain lots of tables and diagrams, and MediaWiki (the software I'm using) isn't well suited to those sorts of things. But there's more work to do: fixing typos, updating with errata, and so on.
I make no claim to become some sort of benevolent dictator over this, I'm just an itch scratcher who has volunteered to do the sysadmin. I also have no idea whether anyone else will think of this as a good idea, which is why I'm writing this post: to see who else is interested.
I just went through every post on the site and reuploaded any missing images.
One of the problems was caused by Wordpress: when I migrated away from Wordpress.com, only images explicitly linked to from within posts were transferred. Any images within a "gallery" tag were ignored. Fortunately I have backups and it was pretty easy to find the missing files and upload them.
It seems that some images in my media librarybgot lost when I migrated this site from Wordpress.com. In some of my early posts, I also linked to images on an old website which no longer exists.
If you come across a post with missing or broken images, please let me know by posting a comment, and I'll get them fixed. I have all the images, I just need to upload them and tag them to the article. Simple but tedious work, which is why I haven't got round to it yet!
Posted on Wednesday, January 11, 2012
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As a rule I don't like to get drawn in to the 40K gossip echo chamber. There's an old saying: Never wrestle with a pig: You both get all dirty, and the pig likes it.
Yesterday evening, I noticed a flurry of gossip in the blogo- and twitter-sphere suggesting that rules for the rumoured 6th edition of Warhammer 40,000 had been leaked, and uploaded onto a file-sharing website (the file has since been removed).
All this cafuffle prompts the following question: so what?
When I started wargaming back in the early 90s, independent wargames stores were pretty common here in the UK. Games Workshop opened their store in Maidstone in 1992 on Pudding Lane, and I'm pretty sure they chose that location because it was just around the corner from Maidstone Games, an indie store that had been there since forever, selling D&D books and BattleTech mechs and the like.
Nowadays, probably thanks to Games Workshop's aggressive growth strategy (plus the general trend towards "clone town" retail districts), it seems like indie stores are pretty rare. Maidstone Games closed in the late 90s and since then, Maidstone has only had GW, and those few shops that did stock wargames miniatures and hobby supplies tended just to install a GW retail rack and be done with it (a notable exception being Hobbycraft, who also stock Flames of War and GF9 hobby materials).
As a result, it's pretty hard to find a FLGS in the UK nowawadays, so the opening of No Man's Land, a new — and more importantly, really cool — independent store in your home town is a pretty big deal, in fact it's big enough to warrant a celebrity appearance at its opening.
Having discovered its existence, I wasted little time in dropping in and taking a look. So far, it's like a dream come true.
2012 is almost upon us! The last twelve months have been a period of diversification for me in hobby terms: I delved more deeply into 15mm SF stuff, finished my first 40k army in 15 years, and discovered In The Emperor's Name.
I thought that it might be fun to post my plans for 2012, so I can look back next year and see how I did.
I've owned jodrell.org for years but it never occurred to me to use it for my gaming blog. But now I'm self-hosting this blog and migrated over from Wordpress.com I can use my own domain.
Barely 24 hours after my last post, I got an email from Scott at S6 Engineering telling me that he's shutting the business down. Apart from being sorry for Scott who has probably been forced to do this against his wishes, I am personally very disappointed, as I had just placed an order for the last few pieces that I needed to complete my first city board, and had already started planning the second.
Now I'm forced to consider my options. Should I redesign the board so the city doesn't cover it entirely? Should I not glue the road sections down so I can create smaller urban areas a la carte? Should I use them to create a 15mm town instead?
It's a new year and so there's the inevitable "2010 in review" posts on all blogs and news sites. I hate the bloody things, but that won't stop me from doing one of my own!
2010 was a great year for me (in Real Life as well as in my Gaming Life): I feel that my painting and modelling skills have improved a great deal: in basing, in my use of washes, and in the techniques and tools I've learned to use. I have the great gaming blogosphere to thank for that: many of my favourite blogs are linked to in the links on the right.
I played a lot of Space Hulk in 2010: it's great for time-starved veterans like me and my friends. You can have a great gaming experience in a couple of hours, with none of the preparatory work required for a game like Epic.
I also managed to get my 15mm SF soldiers into battle, albeit only once, using a gaming system of my own devising. It's the first time I've ever written and used a set of gaming rules, and was a great experience. Hopefully I'll be able to get some more games in during 2011, and refine the rules, perhaps even publish them!
The thing I'm most pleased with this year has been the creation of an Epic Necron army. This is mainly thanks to the brilliant chaps on the Tactical Command forums: creative geniuses who have, purely for fun, created very impressive proxies for many of the Necron units. It's also due to the excellent miniatures produced by Steel Crown Productions for their Exodus Wars game: their Edenite miniatures are great quality and value, and are very good proxies.
The army isn't finished: I have some Wraiths to assemble and paint, some Obelisks that have been troublesome (they're resin and I didn't wash them before undercoating, so the paint's flaking off, grrh), and I need some more Monoliths, as I found out when I took the army out for a test game (the only game of Epic I managed this year). Playing against Squats, I was narrowly defeated because of the lack of fast close combat troops (ie Wraiths) and the need to keep the Monoliths in unit coherency. Having another group of them that is free to move around will give me more flexibility. I've also got another super-heavy monstrosity that still needs painting.
I've been meaning to take some photos of the complete army, and I finally managed to do it today. Here they are. I hope they inspire you!
Posted on Monday, September 20, 2010
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One of the reasons I like 6mm is that there are no faces to paint: I like to think I'm not bad at painting things like titans, but frankly I'm useless at skin and eyes. Case in point is this miniature, a 40mm scale female paladin from Hasslefree:
I love this short essay by Helge about the different styles of wargames: I had never really thought too much about it, although there are obvious differences between a 6mm "epic" game and a 28mm skirmish game. The essay lays out the different types and puts them in historical context very well. Fascinating stuff.
I have lots of "works in progress" at the moment and hope to show you some more lovely minis soon!
Posted on Thursday, August 5, 2010
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Until last year I was able to take reasonably good photos of my miniatures because my painting station was right next to a south-facing window, allowing for plenty of natural daylight, which offers the best conditions for taking miniatures with my simple point-and-shoot digital camera.
But last year I moved my painting station into my newly refurbished basement, so now all I had was a 35 watt halogen bulb to take pictures by. Hence the darkness of some of my recent photos.
To rectify this, I spent some money on eBay and Amazon and bought a couple of 100 watt daylight bulbs (for about £3) and a fold-up photo tent (about a tenner). I'm pretty pleased with the results: here are some photos of my infamouswarmonger titan. These have come straight off the camera, with no post-processing at all:
A couple of friends and I went up to the Excel centre this weekend to attend Salute 2010. This is the second Salute show I've been to, and once again, I had a great time. The demonstration games were all amazing, and some of the display boards were simply incredible!
One of the stands I was most keen on visiting was that of Critical Mass Games, and I wasn't disappointed. Their gorgeous 15mm SF miniatures were on display on their stand, and on their fantastic display board, entitled "The Battle of Kyushu Bay".
There are more pictures on Dropship Horizon. Of course, I caved in and bought a bunch of ARC Fleet miniatures, the prototype of which I've already started working on:
At 40p each (plus a penny for the base!), they're excellent value for money! You can buy them online here.
I guess most hobbyists have a theoretical knowledge of how miniatures are made: someone sculpts a master or "green", from which a mould is then made, and miniatures are cast from metal, resin or plastic using the mould (sometimes spun in a centrifuge, or pressurised to get rid of bubbles). But until just now I'd never seen what a miniatures production line looks like.
Here are some pictures from Purple Pawn's visit to Iron Wind Metals, manufacturers of BattleTech miniatures (among others):
More pics here (scroll down to about 1/4 from the top of the page).
Here's twoarticles on the mind-games played by wargamers during their games. I think I've committed and observed most of these little tricks in my gaming career. Wargaming is a lot like poker in that regard, and of course Psy Ops has been part of real-world military doctrine for many years.
It's taken me more than a month to get round to posting again, but let me assure you I have not been idle! Now that the Warmonger project is finished (apart from creating some banners to hang on the thing before I submit it to Epicomp 2008), I'm working on a terrain project.
I've been slowly accumulating a collection of 36 of the old foam buildings from the original Adeptus Titanicus box, and I'm going to turn them into a city. Here's a picture of them as they are now:
I am still working out the details of this project: ideally, I'd like to make the individual pieces modular so that they can be rearranged (there's nothing more boring than playing over the same terrain over and over again), but I don't want to sacrifice the realism: I want the final product to look like it's a real city, albeit one that's one a distant planet 40,000 years into the future :) Once I've got my plans together, I'll start posting progress updates.
You can see a high-res version here. Over at Bell of Lost Souls, the speculation is that the final line of the trailer indicates that the Tyranids will be introduced in DoW 2: I think that sounds very likely. They're the only missing race in the game, so if only for the sake of completeness, I'm sure they'll be introduced sooner rather than later.
One comment on BoLS is salient:
I would gladly fork over reasonable sums of cash for a feature length 40k film of that quality. Doesn't have to be in theaters (though that would be awesomely insane on IMAX), direct to DVD is fine. A series available on DVD would be spectacular as well.
Here's hoping. GW has explored almost every other medium for their product (let's count them: music, novels, audio books, comic books, video games, artwork, even clothing), but there's never been a proper movie or TV series (apart from the never-to-be-seen Damnatus). Now that the technology is here that would do justice to 40k, it's time GW pulled their finger out!
I just watched the previously mentioned Dawn of War II trailer and noticed something about the last image from the movie: the moon and the nebula seem to form the eye socket of a skull. Take a look:
Given that the skull isn't a particular significant symbol for the tyranids, is it meant to indicate Chaos or Necrons?
So I had been planning to post to my nerdy gaming blog more regularly, since it's all new and shiny, but real life got in the way and stopped me. So once I'm finally able to post a new article I get the new Forgeworld newsletter which stops me in my tracks, primarily due to the mind-blowing nerdgasm I experienced due to this:
More pictures here and here and here and here (usual reminder about how slow the Forgeworld site is, blah blah blah).
I just noticed that there is now an official website for Warhammer 40,000: Dawn Of War II, the follow-up to the stonking original. Check out the video teaser (warning: be prepared to pee a little). But I was struck by the title of the press release announcing the game (excerpt follows):
THQ AND RELIC ENTERTAINMENT SET TO WAGE WAR OF EPIC SCALE IN WARHAMMER ® 40,000™: DAWN OF WAR ® II
AGOURA HILLS, Calif. April 3, 2008 -- THQ Inc. (NASDAQ: THQI) today announced that Warhammer® 40,000®: Dawn of War® II, the highly anticipated sequel from one of the industry's premiere Real-Time Strategy (RTS) developers, Relic Entertainment, is scheduled to bring the 41st Millennium's savage warfare to life like never before in spring 2009. Powered by an enhanced version of Relic's proprietary Essence Engine 2.0®, Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War II will take players to the brutal frontlines of war where they'll experience intense action and visceral combat through a non-linear single player experience and a fully co-operative multiplayer campaign. Set in Games Workshop's (LSE: GAW) highly popular Warhammer 40,000 science fiction universe, Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War II is being developed exclusively for Windows PC.
Epic scale? Epic scale? We saw a downed Titan in the Winter Assault expansion, but I'd now give you very good odds on a fully functioning Warhound or Reaver in DoW2. And check out those screenshots! I can't wait.
My first love. For those who've never heard of it, it's a 6mm (or 1:300 scale) game set in Games Workshop's incredible Warhammer 40,000 universe.
I was first introduced to the original Adeptus Titanicus by my old friend Keith, this would have been around 1990 or 1991, I think (I would have been 12 or 13). I persuaded him to let me have a couple of the plastic Warlord titans (long since disappeared), borrowed the rulebook from him, and started learning how to paint them (something I still haven't quite picked up :).
However, I also have a distinct memory of going round Nick's and playing Adeptus Titanicus with him at around the same time. So which came first, I don't know. But wargaming was definitely a major social activity during my school days - I can recall a number of enjoyable saturday afternoons spent listening to hard rock (mostly Iron Maiden - now you know where my taste in music comes from!) and pushing very poorly painted minis around an old snooker table.
I carried on playing Epic right through my university days: Nick and I went to the same university together and shared a house during our second year. This is where the association between wargaming and alcohol formed: nothing like getting back from lectures at 3 or 4 in the afternoon, drinking your way through a crate of lager, and blasting away at your enemy with a plasma annihilator!
Nowadays, I have disposable income, and my own house with a spare room, which means I still get a chance to play games despite living thelifestyleofaninternationaljetsetter. Which means that I am not far off completing a full Space Marine chapter (weighing in at around 13,000 points), and have a pretty mean modular gaming table system (which I will be reviewing soon). Having said that, I doubt I've played more than four times in the last year :)
I've played all the different variants of the Epic game: the original Adeptus Titanicus, the first and second editions of Space Marine, Epic 40,000 (didn't like it much), Epic: Armageddon (much better, but can't persuade my opponents to play it!) and now NetEpic.
I have never set down and written a proper "batrep" (battle report), although I might have a try next time. But we've been taking pictures of our games for a while. Here's a few photo galleries:
For the last year or so, I've been getting back into miniature wargaming in a big way. My non-professional interests tend to wax and wane: for the last five years, my main "hobby" was writing code. But now that I've scratched most of the itches that I had, and also now my professional life is fulfilling that aspect of my interest, miniature games — which I've been playing for nearly 20 years now — have started to reassert themselves.
So I've decided to document more of that part of my life. If you've seen any of photos you might have spotted some stuff related to gaming; I will be expanding on those images and adding more in the future.
I will also be posting links to things I find on the internet that are interesting (to me, at least). Stay tuned!
At the beginning of this year I made the decision to try to go for an entire year without buying any new miniatures. As today is the last day of the year, I thought I'd look back on the last year to see how I've done.
Like (I suspect) a lot of wargamers, hobbyists and collectors, I always feel a twinge of guilt when I fork out for shiny new toys. You don't have to be in this hobby for too long before you end up with a backlog of unpainted models, sitting in their boxes, getting progressively less shiny and new as time goes by*.
#4. You definitely need to get your tape out now. Leaving the markers where they are, we measure the new velocity (the distance travelled between the ships old location and its new location). In this example it is 8".
A recent discussion on Twitter got me thinking, as I occasionally do, about Ian Watson and his literary contribution to Warhammer 40,000.
Tonight's Forge World News Flash contained a link to a YouTube video which confirms that they will be doing a Horus Heresy expansion for Warhammer 40,000. Here's the video:
Announcing OpenEpic:
